FLINT RIVER ASSOCIATION.
Organized in 1884, is a small body of less than 1,000 members, and is the result of a secession from the Muscle Shoals Association. Rev. F. A. Chapman is its principal founder and perhaps is their strongest man.
MINISTERS.
Revs. F. A. Chapman, C. M. Davis, C. C. Matthews, Flint Station; G. W. Garth, Crowton; R. Wilhoit, Cedar Plains; B. M. Key, D. Ward, S. M. Robinson, Somerville; A. Brown, S. Gains, A. R. Eason, Huntsville; C. Davis, Whitesburg; W. T. Connor, Madison; E. Powell, Hillsboro.
The writer has greatly enjoyed their quiet spirit and earnest labors. However, he saw at their last session (1894) a rather ludicrous point or gesture in the pulpit exercises. A brother, who is known to be an upright man, as well as a very earnest and industrious man, was making some remarks on the closing sermon of the session, when, becoming very happy, he made a leap upward, which caused his brethren to fear lest there would be a bruise, either in the ceiling, or on top of the minister’s head. I would have, if I could have done so with propriety, urged the brother to remember that “bodily exercise profits little, while godliness is profitable unto all things,” and that “the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet,” and “let all things be done decently and in order.” However, I remember the day when most of the white preachers in Alabama had in their sermons what some people are disposed to call “the holy tone,” which was often accompanied by quite a lot of physical exercise. This has become a thing of the past with them in proposition, as they by culture, have been raised to see that Christianity is Christly believing and Christly living. By the same process, the same conditions will come upon us. So, we will still labor and still wait.