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604 Chronicles of the Cape Fear Rwer

ever-enlarging experience, that it will form the habit of the
angels, to glorify its Maker by the song on the lips sounding
forth the cadence in the soul, and in this conscious exaltation
go forward with joy doing the will of Him who is chiefly glori-
fied by faithful service.

The people of the Southern States throughout most of their
history have been more homogeneous than those of the North
and West, and have maintained their ancestral faiths with a
steadiness almost unknown in some parts of our country. They
have clung tenaciously to the great essentials of the Christian
system, have been quick to see the insufficiency of modern sub-
stitutes for the Gospel of God’s grace, and have turned a deaf
ear to the exponents of mushroom religions.

The churches of the South have generally maintained the
absolute authority of the Bible as the word of God, have in-
sisted upon the exclusively spiritual mission of the church, have
refrained from handling in their ecclesiastical courts political
questions, have refused to follow the protean theories of an un-
believing criticism, have declined to offer men the stone of
mere humanitarianism instead of the bread of divine grace, and
as a consequence have enjoyed a rare exemption from the
vagaries and religious fads which have mocked the spiritual
hunger of many of our people in other parts of the land. It
has been so in Wilmington. We are profoundly thankful that
no fitful religious fancy, no form of higher criticism or heresy
has invaded the counsels of our churches to disrupt them or to
mar the usefulness of their membership. Our people “know
in whom they have believed.” They have answered the ques-
tion, “Whom say ye that I am?’ and have taken hold upon
God never to be free, we trust, to consider any new doctrine that
might loosen their grasp. They follow the course of humanity
and sin like the rest of the world. Held in the rushing tide of
modern life, their energies may be diverted at times from the
main purpose; but they have laid hold upon real values and
permanent ideals and their faith maintains its integrity in the
midst of an age too largely given to doubt. May it ever be so!
Christian orthodoxy in perpetuity is a rich heritage for any
people.

Not only have our people maintained the faith of their
fathers, but a very deep spirituality has pervaded our churches,
and in the main their spiritual life and activity may be summed
up in the words of Dr. Jowett:

Peace Restored 605

“We are fighting to make known the love of the Father in
the person and work of his Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
We are fighting to disperse the darkness of ignorance, to break
the chains of evil habits, to offer a solvent for the bondage
of guilt, to make an end of cruelty, to dry the tears no other
hand can touch, to transfigure sorrow, to exalt wedlock, to
glorify the home, to hallow childhood, to beautify age, to light
up death.

“This is the grand commission of the army of the Lord. Is
it worth fighting for—to unveil the infinite love of God, to
make known the great mother bird of the race, to uncover the
riches of forgiveness, to unseal the springs of freedom, to kindle
the inspiration of eternal hope, to light up the road which leads
to home and to God ?”

Sr. Jamess’s ParIsH.

The early history of St. James’s parish, in the town of Wil-
mington, is very closely interwoven with the history of the town
itself. The settlement of the colony by English subjects estab-
lished the ecclesiastical law of England as the law of the Church
in the colony. The bishop of London was made the diocesan
of the colony, and the province of North Carolina became
thereby a part of the See of London.

Little attention seems to have been given the religious needs
of the colonists by the Church in England until the incorpora-
tion of The Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
in Foreign Parts in 1701.

It is in the records of the Venerable Society that we find the
first official notice of St. James’s parish. In 1736 the society
records note that “Mr. Marsden had a settlement. in the parish,
and being a clergyman of the Church of England, had officiated
there for several years past.” We know, however, from local
sources, that thirty years prior to this entry the whole province
had been divided into twelve parishes, and several laws had been
Passed by the colonial Legislature for the support of religion.
We also learn from the same sources that the parish of St.
James was organized in the year 1730, and that in 1729 the
Rey. John LaPierre, “a French Huguenot, who had been or-
dained by the bishop of London in 1708, and for many years
had served a congregation of his own people in South Carolina,
called St. Dennis’ parish,” came into the Cape Fear region, and