are wedded to it. I
have known of an old gentleman working all day for fifty cents and
spending forty cents at night for tobacco for himself and wife and
nine children.

They seem to be without a standard in the land. They live so
isolated, and have measured themselves by themselves until they have
lost all idea of accurate judgment. Morality and sobriety are hardly
looked for, even among church members and ministers. "Religion may be
up to fever heat, while morality is down to zero." People "confess,"
as they call it, and join the church, and in their entire life
thereafter you could never know any difference.

They are satisfied if their names are on the church book. I don't
think they ever question their eternal salvation after they are once
inside a church. If a person dies without having joined a church his
friends frame some theory on which they rest their hope of his
salvation. A young man was shot a little while ago in a drunken
broil. As he fell mortally wounded he cried, "Oh, Lord!" His mother
is sure he is safe because he called on the Lord. They have no
conception of _living_ religion. They have no prayer or conference
meetings. Aside from our own I doubt if there is a prayer meeting
nearer than Berea, seventy miles away. There is no family prayer in
all the land. I asked my class of boys, twenty or more in number, how
many had ever heard their mothers' voice in prayer. Not one of them
could raise a hand. At another school I asked a still larger class
the same question, and only one girl raised her hand. There is no
gathering of the little home nestlings together and instructing
them--no Bible instruction given in the family. It has ceased to be a
wonder to me, to ask nearly grown boys some of the most simple Bible
questions, and hear them answer, "I don't know."

An M. E. minister in one of his pastoral visits took occasion to
dwell with some stress on the blessedness of _walking in the light_.
The mother showed how she literalized by promptly remarking, "Yes;
I've told John I wanted a hole sawed in this end of the house, but he
won't do it." During the same call he asked a young lady if she was
preparing to go to judgment. She replied, "No, I reckin I won't go.
If I do I'll have to walk, for we hain't got but two nags, and Rachel
and Becky always ride them."

The prevailing churches are the Reform or Campbellites, the
Methodists, and the Missionary and Anti-Missionary Baptists. The
latter church is s