More ministers are needed, and promising young men, in every community,
should be encouraged to train for that sacred office. The church is
standing ready to co-operate with them, in their effort to secure a good
and thorough education, as a fitting preparation for their future work.
"Go and teach" is a divine call to a noble work, but "Go and preach," is
recognized as a divine call to a still nobler and greater work, as the
Bible and its mission are greater than that of any other book. A
greater work suggests the need of greater preparation. The extraordinary
incidents of the past were not intended to be regarded as precedents, or
as a rule for the future. The time is now at hand when all, who present
themselves to the Presbytery, before they have graduated from the
Grammar department, or 8th grade of a well accredited school, should be
enrolled and held merely as "candidates for the ministry," until they
have completed their studies to that extent, before "licensure to
preach" is accorded to them. Ordination should ordinarily be deferred,
until the licentiate has completed the theological course prescribed for
all in the standards of the church. Young men are frequently impatient
to enter upon their ministerial life work. They do not always know, that
expert or thorough training in youth, doubles their value in the
activities of life; and that this is especially true of the teacher and
preacher.

[2] Died, Eufaula, January 8, 1913, at 65.

XLII

HISTORIES OF CHURCHES

"I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the House of the
Lord."--David.

"There's a church in the valley by the wildwood
No lovelier spot in the dale;
No place is so dear to my childhood,
As the little brown church in the vale."

BEAVER DAM CHURCH

The early history of the Beaver Dam Presbyterian church at Grant carries
us back to the year 1873, when Wiley Homer, one of the enterprising
young men of the community, built an arbor in the timber, and held the
first religious meetings among the colored people of that neighborhood.

Parson C. W. Stewart, of Doaksville, the next year held occasional
services in the arbor, and in 1875 secured the erection of the first
house of worship. It was built of saplings, and at the place previously
occupied by the arbor. Wiley Homer continued to serve as leader of the
regular Sabbath meetings, when the parson was not present.

In 1881 the church was organized wit