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 strong all through the mountains. They are bigoted and ignorant, and boast that their knowledge comes direct from the throne, and they have nothing to do with man-made theories, as they call education. Their preaching is a sort of canting reiteration of the text and what few Scripture verses they chance to know and some hackneyed expressions. They are great on arguing, and it would be laughable if it was not so pitiful to hear the profound questions they discuss. Last season one of these preachers nearly broke up one of our mission Sunday-Schools, which we could attend only each alternate Sabbath. In the passage that reads "And anon they tell Him," he contended that A-non was an angel, and _they_ referred to the angel A-non. Each Sunday when we were not there that important question had to be discussed.