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JOSEPH S. BAKER— Editor. VOL. XII. TERMS PER ANNUM. The Christian Index, published on Friday in each week, (except two in the year), will be furnished to each subscriber at $2 50 cents, in advance; or $3 if not paid within the year. fCP Post-Masters, where the Index is taken, are requested to forward remittances for subscribers at their respective offices, according to a decision of the Post-Master General as to their right to do so. All pa trons and,agents are requested to notice this. Every Agent (and all Baptist Ministers are particularly solicited to become agents) who procure and pay for five copies of the Index, shall be entitled to a sixth, as q com, pensation for his trouble. letters on business, or communjjjations must be addressed to tlte Editor, post paid. Advertisements may be inserted on usual terms, at the discretion of the Editor. For the Christian Index. Bro. Buhtr —Having heard what I have, concerning the clouds that Godsends forth, bearing rain to the just and unjust; I feel it to be a duty, for someone earnestly to contend for the truth. As 1 have seen no letter, as yet, on the subject, 1 will indulge my present feelings, and embark into the subject, hoping someone will steer and di rect to the port of immortal joy. Isa. sth and Cth vs. reads thus—"And I will lay it waste, it shall not be pruned nor digged : but there shall come up briars and thorns, 1 will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.” Having refeiencc to Israel, who were compared to a vineyard, which should have brought forth good grapes ; but to their disgrace they brought wild grapes : wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them ; they now shall no long er have the place of a vineyard, the form and shape of a church, and commonwealth; but shall be levelled and laid waste. This was fulfilled when Jerusalem (for their sakes) was ploughed as a field, Mic. 3 p. Therefore, shall Zion, for your sakes, be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the Mountain ol the house, as the high places of the forest.— Then shall they cry unto the Lord, hut he will not hear them, he will ever hide his face front them as they have behaved them selves ill in their doings. God in a way of righteous judgment denies his grace to those that have long received it in vain.— In the first place, the clouds signify the heavens.” “Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Ascribe ye strength unto God ; his excellency is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds. 2d. Great num ber, wherefore seeing we also are compass ed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, <fcc. 3rd. Afllictions. How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger and, 4th. Hypocrites; these are wells without water, clouds that are car ried with a tempest. sth. God often ap peared in a cloud, to make his Majesty, works, and glory unsearchable. As Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud: who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters, who makeih the clouds his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind ; be hold a bright cloud overshadowed them ; and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, tliis is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him—He rides on swift clouds when he appears coming to extricate his people, and to put an end to his enemies. Behold the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt; and the Idols of Egypt shall be moved, &c. Is. 10: 1. And he rode upon a cheiub, and did fly ; and he was seen upon the wings of the wind, and he made darkness pavilians round about him, dark waters and thick clouds of the sky, 2 Sam. 22: 11, 12. Christ was received up into heaven in a cloud, and at the last day will come, in the clouds, making them his throne, while he judges the world. It is a point given up, that God made all things; but now has no thing to do, (so argues the unbeliever.) — He finished his work in six days, setting and arranging all things, to move in their several avocations ; man to working in the garden, vegetation to growing, water run ning, animals grazing, birds singing, the wind blowing, clouds flying, thunder roar ing, lightning flashing, the sun moon and stars to move on in their tegular order.— Then He returned home far into eternity, having no more work to do, until His son is to be given a ransom tor sinners ; after this great work was accomplished, He rides home to heaven, far back into Eternity’s vail, to remain as dead, until the sounding of Gabriel’s trumpet, then He comes forth, as having been asleep for ages upon ages, century upon century, to judge the world. Unbeliever, awake and tremble, your cas THE CHRISTIAN INDEX. tie is falling, the crumbling sands beneath your feet are giving way ; awake- thou that sleepest, and call aloud for thy God, lest you die in your sins. The Devil will per suade you to believe a lie that your soul may be damned. Agreeable to the argu ment of the skeptic, God did nothing from the creation until the gift of his son, from the offering of his son nothing to do, until the morning of the resurrection- If this be Truth , who walked in the garden in the cool of the day ? With whom did Enoch walk ? Who said that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only euil continually ? Who said 1 will destrpy'man whom I have created ? Who said to'Noah, build thee an ark, for the end of all flesh is come before me ? When the ark was completed, who shut Noah and his family in the ark ? Answer, thou unbe liever. Who appeared to Abraham ? Who fought the battles of Joshua, Gideon, Da vid, &c. ? Who was ip the fiery furnace with the Hebrew children ? and who sent an Angel to shut the Lions’ mouths, but the Lord ? Who was it appeared to Moses in the burning bush, parted the red sea, gave water which flowed out of a rock ? Who gave manna bountifully forty years? Skeptic, is not God at work ? A cloud in the form of a pillar, hovered over the camp ol the Hebrews in the wilderness. In the day it appeared as mist protecting them from the scorching sun. In the night it seemed to be a pillar of fire, and gave them light. When they encamped, it hovered above them on the Tabernacle. AVhen they marched, it went before them. When they went through the red sea, it followed them. Foity years it attended the He brews, till it had led them to the promised land. Unbeliever, let not your mind run to human inventions any longer, nor hu man conclusions; but awake up, and look to the word of divine truth. I know that the Lord is great and that our God is above all Gods, Whatsoever the Lord pleaseth, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places, he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth, he maketh light nings for the ram ; He bringetli the wind out ol his treasures, Ps. 155, sing praises to God, who eoverelh the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the Moun tains. He giveth snow like wool; Ilescat tereth the hoar frost like ashes ; He tasteth forth his ice like morsels ; He causeth his wind to blow, and waters to How ; and sendeth rain on the just and unjust, and his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, Matt. Nevertheless lie left not himself without a witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful sea sons, filling our hearts with food and glad ness. Acts 14: 17. Saying occupy till I come. To the unbeliever a few more scrip tures, and 1 am done. Hew out no more broken cisterns which hold no water ; but turn at the warnings of heaven, and obey. The Saviour, of mankind says, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God, Matt. 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ, he is a now creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are be come new, Col. 3: 9, 10. Ye have put oil’ the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that cre ated him, John 3: 3, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, Ileb. 12: 14. Without holiness none shall see God; Rom. 8: 9. “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his, Gal. G: 15; For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncir cumcision but anew creature, 1 Pet. 2: 1, 2, “ Wherefore layingaside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and evil speaking, as new bom babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby,” Ps. 9: 17. “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God, Ps. 11: 4, “And the Lord lov elh the righteous, but the wicked his soul hateth No stage of mortal existence is so un guarded or so liable to instil dangerous views, ungrounded sentiments, as that of youth. Infancy is guarded from vice and immorality by kind Parents, but those pa rents may have imbibed principles not founded on truth. Those children are led to a refuge, which, when in time of danger, will not be to them a shield, a covert and a great rock in weary land. These parents in the day of accounts, will see, their children whom they have led by the}hand and influ ences, around them, and they themselves crying for Mountains and rocks (as though they could hear and sympathize over their FOR THE BAPTIST CONVENTION OF THE STATE OF GEORGIA. PENFIELD, GA„ JUNE 14, 1844. doleful and lost condition) to fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. The great day, that I have been warned of so much is now come, and I am not able to stand. Many parents and children make their way down to dispair, while the church, brethren, lathers, and mothers are all enga ged. May every soul be up and doing while it is day ; and may the Lord sancti fy those few remarks to the salvation! of some poor deluded soul. , > “W. R. STEELE 9 H For the Christian Index. Church Secrets. Bear brother Baker —l have been a read er of the Index ever since its origin, or near ly so. Through all its changes of forms and editors, I have found it to be a tried and sure friend. It has been, and still contin ues to be, a welcome guest to my humble fireside. It has been and still is a terror to evil doers, and a praise to them that do well. I have not only been a reader of its pages, but have been one of its patrons in a pecu niary way ; but have never written a line for its columns, except an obituary notice or two. Its able contributors have always afforded a supply of wholesome instruction, and I have, heretofore, been content to feast upon the fruit of other men’s labor, but now feel a desire to lay before your readers some scattering remarks in behalf of our alllicled Zion in these bounds. I feel resolved for the future, if it is your pleasute, occasion ally to place an article before your readers, And depend upon it, Brother Baker, I be lieve you to be my rightful guardian in this matter It is your prerogative and your duty to reject or publish : this is a matter discretionary with yourself. If you reject 1 shall believe you think it most conducive to the advancement of the great cause of which the Index and other religious period isals are amongst the greatest organs. If I do not come up to the fight with the right kind ol harness and properly equipped, it will not be necessary to sound a retreat to me by a blast from your editorial trump : just throw me aside with the rubbish and I think 1 will have prudence enough to with draw. This tacit rebuke will make me hold my peace. Although you know it goes Tnuch against the grain when we are not counted smart, but I will try and bear it; indeed I will have to bear if. It is my purpose, in the present commu nication, to speak something of church se crets. There is a kind of secret keeping in the church, which is doing great injury to the cause of religion, both in point of fel lowship and also in reference to its relation with the irreligious part of the community j for there is a relation, in a certain sense, between the church and the world, as it is the duty of the church to operate with and among sinners for their salvation. A. will come to me and say, have you heard that B did thus and so? I am sorry that it has come to pass; it will ruin his Christian character if it is known abroad, whether he be guilty or not, I hope it is not so ; it cannot be possible ; but I am bound to believe the statements made to me ; but it will not do to make this matter public, unless we are certain it is so. An other thing, it is of a delicate character. I got my information from a member of my family, who does not wish her name used in the matter. A tells this as a seeret to me, and again I tell it to G, and so the whole church know it, only as a secret.— The minds of the church members become, in no small degree, prejudiced and poison ed by suspicion. Although C comes and says, (secretly) from what I have heard be fore, and what a servant of mine has told me, IJ must be guilty. D comes and says, I discovered something not long since which confirms my suspicions that B is guilty.— At the same time confesses that if he had never heard any thing he would not even have suspected it. The probability is D may have seen twenty other men in the same condition and the least suspicion would not have been on his mind. All the while this is told as a secret, and poor B knows nothing of it; no one tells the secret to him. Facts of this sort have come under my ob servation ; efforts have been made to bring the matter in a tangible form, and in the in vestigation of reports of this kind I have known them traced till there was not even grounds for suspicion, much less resort to church discipline. Now is it not a sin to have such secrets in the church ? Was not A wrong to tell it unless he was willing to face B with his author, in the church, and establish the facts? Would he not have given stronger evidence that he possessed that chat ity which thinketh no evil, if he had gone to B and conferred with him on the subject ? My heart almost bleeds when I reflect upon the amount of mischief that has been done, and is still doing in the church. I think that church members have great reason to be careful lest by this course they not only neglect to clothe and feed the servants of Christ, according to the latter part of 25th chapter of Matthew, but actual endeavor to tear from them the panoply of mercy and grace bestowed upon them by the king of heaven and leave them to writhe under the pitiless powers of the world. A Columbian. May 29, 1844. We.shall ever be glad to receive commu nications from the writer of the above.— •Should it so happen that any of his com munications should be omitted, he should not be discouraged. We may know of reasons which would render the publication of a communication improper of which the writer might be entirely igno rant. The practice condemned in the proceed ingl article, we fear, prevails to a greater or less extent in all churches. It is exceed ingly baneful and much to be depriealed. Th<| proper course for one brother to pur sue, as we have stated on other occasions, when he hears an evil report of another, is to endeavour to trace it to its origin and ob tain the means either of exculpating or con victing the accused. If the report is of a se rious character and he has it not in his pow er to trace it, he should apprize the accused (but not even the wife of his bosom) of the import, and urge him to the adoption of the means necessary for the vindication of his character, if innocent. For the Christian Index. i'ir. Baker —l have remarked, with much isure, anew outlet for benevolence, in mother State, i. e. of giving the Index to |indigent and worthy ministers ; and I ha|re been made to wish those kind breth ren knew Rev. A. Shattuck, Pastor of the Baptist church at Carrolton, and that they would notice him in that way. The claims exhibited are as follows : Ist. His merits. 2nd. His many straits. 3rd. Ilis lack of substance. A few of his straits in lile 1 will mention, viz. Soon after arriving at manhood he was driven to the- horrid ne cessity of amputating his own foot at the ankle joint, with his own dull kuife. The circumstances were these : he was at hon est labor, one mile from any person, while cutting a horsing split tree it turned, col lapsing the split and caught his foot therein in a position where he could not touch ground. While there for hree dolorous hours, he promised God, if lie would devise some way for escape, so that life could be spared, he would devotedly serve him the balance of his days. Well, he did escape in the way promis ed and finally got well! But in a few years he found that the in cessant, insidious enemy of man out wind ed him. He then felt compelled to throw down pretentions ; he did so, and by de grees became a very wicked man again— even a persecuter. At length he was unex pectedly arrested by the Spirit, while a poor unpolished preacher was singing a spiritual song after his attempt at preaching. He was convicted of sins ; the most prominent was his broken promise at the tree, “his perfidious broken promise to God” and his subsequent spirit of persecution : at the ex tremity, under the power of his conviction, (as I have heard him tell with tears in his eyes,) his difficulty seemed as gieatas when he had to cut oil’ his own foot, i. e. while he stood as it were at the bar of God, a just ly condemned sinnei, and there as the last resort, threw himself into the hands of the Ssaviour for Life or Death ! 1 But he found Beauty instead of burning; and was made to rejoice in hope of the Glory of Gad.— Dear Brother, I know you will not be sur prised athearing that such an one is a preach er of free, unmeritled and sovereign Grace. Yes, brother Shattuck is a sensible pieach er. He is a good and a sweet preacher. Added to his personal disability, the death ofhis much lamented and dear companion, a lew weeks past, renders him now pecul iarly a good subject for comfort. Yours in Gospel bonds. OBADIAH ECHOLS. Brother Echols havingsent us the names and address of ten new subscribers has the right to order the paper to whom he will. We have therefore very cheerfully directed the publisher to send our paper to Rev. A. Shattuck, Carrolton, Mi., if it has not here tofore been sent. Is the P. O. right ? For the Christian Index. The following ministers and deacons, (viz.) Benjamin Thornton and P. F. Bur gess, ministers, and W. M. Almond, 11. J. Goss, R. Crump, 11. F. Chandler,R. Black, L. Aderhold, and W. Hunt, deacons, met at the Line meeting house according to re quest, Saturday the 18th of May last, for the purpose of constituting a church, and after an appropriate Sermon by P. F. Bur gess, formed a presbytery, and proceeded to business as follows : Ist. A letter of dismission was present ed from Sardis Church, containing the names of seventy-four members, and after reading the letter, they entered into covenant union as a church, to live to the glory of God and to discharge their duty as mem bers of a church. 2nd. Their declaration of faith was pre sented, which llnyiresbylery considered or thodox, and according to the bible,.aid they were then denominated the Baptist Church of Christ at the Line Meeting House. 3rd. After the Church was constituted, they presented two brethren before the pres bytery to be ordained to the deacon’s office. They being examined as usual, were or dained to the office. This flourishing and interesting church is situated near the line between Elbert and Franklin counties, a place which, but a few years since, was almost given up to vice and ignorance. The writer was informed by the minister who first began to preach in that vicinity, (who was then a domestic missionary) that there were men and wo men, and some of them with families, who would stand, and seem to be amazed, at hearing a mail tell about Jesus. But the minister continued to visit and pieach to them, until the work of grace began among them, which at first seemed to be but a par tial showei, but the word increased until there was quite an outpouring of the Spirit of God upon the people, and many sinners found the Saviour precious to their souls. The work is still going on ; saints are re joicing, and sinners are enquiring, what they must do to be saved. The writer is of the opinion that scarcely any neighborhood has undergone a greater reformation than the above, in the last six or eight years. This circumstance, with many others, should stimulate us to send out domestic missiona ries, and support them too, in order that all the destitute places may be blessed as the above. And may the God of all grace, bless and sanctify tfie efforts of our domes tic missionaries, until there shall bd a flour ishing church in every destitute neighbor hood throughout our land, that shall keep up a godly discipline, is the prayer of one who is a friend to the cause of Christ. P. F. BURGESS. From the Christian Watchman, Lomluii Anniversaries. By the kind attention of a highly esteem ed friend, we have received a copy of “the (London) “Nonconformist” of April 29th, containing very full accounts of the anni versaries of the National Baptist Societies in England, which occurred about the same time with our late anniveisaries in Phila delphia. They appear to have been nu merously attended, spirited and harmoni ous. Several of the speeches reported, are highly eloquent. We will present briefly the most important results of the past year as presented at the meetings in the older in which we find them. BAPTIST HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY. The forty-seventh anniversary of this so ciety was held at Finsbury chapel, on Mon day evening, April 22, when there was a more numerous attendance than on any pre vious occasion. C. B. Robinson, Esq., took the chair. The Chairman in addressing the Society said : “ You have seventy-two agents in differ ent parts of the kingdom, who, with the as sistance of their brethren, are in the habit of preaching in 500 villages and towns, — There have been added to the churches un der their care no less than 800 persons du ring the year that has terminated. You have, in connexion with these various places, 86 Sunday schools, employing 1000 teachers, and containing nearly 6000 schol ars. Your agents are accustomed to preach on an average to 20,000, with your breth ren every week.” Ho then called on the Secretary, Mr. S. J. Davis, to read such extracts from the report as would be inteiesting to the meet ing. The summary of results is as follows: “ In Sussex, Hampshire, Dorsetshire, Somersetshire, and Wiltshire, constituting the first section, there were twelve princi pal, and thirty-two subordinate stations.— There were several interesting communica tions from Devonshire. The stations in Wiltshire were in a healthy state. In the Quarter!)/ Register of January last a letter was inserted from Mr. Alcock, of Berwick, near Shaftesbury, containing an affecting appeal on behalf of the poor, to which sev eral fr ends had benevolently responded.— In the second section, comprising the coun ties of Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Bucking hamshire, Kent, East, Essex, Cambridge shire, Suffolk, and Norwich, the principal stations weie 30, the subordinate 66. The communications from the agents were, upon the whole, encouraging. In the midland and adjacent counties there were 22 princi pal and 39 subordinate stations. In the mining and manufacturing districts there were 15 principal and 81 subordinate sta- Publisher— BENJ. BRANTLY tions. During the pastyear, Mr. Pulsford, the evangelist, had been incessantly engag ed in his exhausting labors. At Broms grove, Worcestershire, he had been favored with the largest amount of blessing. Up wards of twenty missionary churches have adopted the class system, but so recently as not to be able to pronounce an opinion respecting its practicability and worth. For several years past, legacies had been re ceived, amounting to £4OO per annum; but this year, only £IOO had been derived by that source; £250, therefore, had been borrowed to make up the deficiencies, which, added to the balance of last year,, left a. debt of £B3l 6s. 3d.” BAPTIST-IRISH SOCIETY. The thirtieth anniversary of this institu tion was held at the Hall of Commerce, Thread-needle street, on Tuesday evening, and was so numerously attended, that it was necessary to adjourn to a larger room than the one in which the meeting was in tended to be held. By an abstract of the annual report, read by Mr. S. Green, it appeared that the so ciety was steadily pursuing its important objects, and with great success. The re ceipts during the past year had somewhat exceeded the expenditure : the legacies re ceived had been larget than usual. From the commencement of the year it had been felt that the increasing duties of the secre taryship were becoming too onerous for any London pastor, and Mr. S. Green had been invited by the committee to relinquish his pastoral engagements, and give himself exclusively to the business of this society. That invitation* however, he had declined, and Mr. Trestrail, late of Cork, had been appointed to the office. Several very animated addresses were delivered which we find it impracticable ei ther to copy or to condense. The speech , of Mr. Trestrail a genuine son of Cork,, was full of characteristic point and humor.• BIBLE TRANSLATION SOCIETY. The fourth annual meeting was held at New Bark Street Chapel, on Wednesday evening, and was very numerously attend ed. The chairman, J. L. Phillips, Esq., on opening the meeting, made a series of re marks on the importance of the object of the Society, and the unreasonableness of the opposition of the established church, inasmuch as an appeal might be made to their own prayer hook for the correctness of the translation of the word baplizo. It was no; for Baptists, lie said, to inquire in to the motives of the advocates of the otli. er system, but they might illustrate their views and position by seeing what was done on. the other side. He related the follow ing ; •‘A school fellow of his had been colo nel in a West India regiment, with 800 men under his command. There was great danger ol’ the men being converted to the Roman Catholic faith : the chaplain who was anxious to prevent that sad occurrence, consulted with the colonel as to what meas ures had best be taken. The latter remark ed, -I will make short of it; 1 will order out my regiment, and you may go down the ranks and baptize them all.’ He did so, and the colonel stood god-father to the regiment. The colonel related that fact to a clergyman in his (Mr. P.’s) neighbor hood, who said, “I do not know how you brought yonr chaplain to submit: I should have rebelled against your authority.” The Colonel replied. ‘When 1 was in the West Indies, I should have liked to have seen any chaplain that would dare to differ from what 1 commanded. Blit, after all, I mere ly did what you do at home—l baptized them liist, and taught them afterwards.’— The clergyman was puzzled to answer the Colonel, and at last he rather thought that he had done right. But this was aserious and solemn subject, lie hoped, however, that he should lie excused for stating that fact, which he had from the Colonel’s own lips. Whatever Christ commanded it was their duty to perform. They needed no other law—they wanted no other induce ment—and, if the}’ believed that Christ had commanded immersion, it was their duly to follow it, and, in so doing, they would en joy his blessing. Dr. Steane then read the report, which stated that the American and Foreign Bible Society had favored the institution, as in former years, with gratifying proofs of cor dial and zealous co-operation* When made acquainted with the desire of the Baptist missionaries in Calcutta to prepare a ver sion of the entire Scriptures in Sanscrit, they granted a sum of £SOO towards that object. They had also remitted 3000 dol lars, in furtherance of the principal existing translations. Encouraged by pecuniary assistance, Dr. Yates had undertaken the new work. The results of the controver sy which had taken place in the Patriot had placed the importance of a Sanscrit version beyond question, The report then detailed the various editions printed during the past year, which amounted to a total of 45,000. ’ The distribution had kept pace with the preparation of the sacred books, and equaled, or rather exceeded, the distri bution of any previous year. Grants had been made, to some extent, to esteemed missionaries and others belonging toother sections of the Christian church. To wards the diffusion of the word of life throughout India, the committee had had the satisfaction of making grants to the a mount of £ISOO. The reeepts of the year, in annual subscriptions, donations, and collections, had amounted to £1622 INO. 24.