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Vol. XXXVI.— New Series Vol. 25.
%\t C|risiian firkr. j
PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY,
GA.,
OF BRETHREN, FOR THE
Georgia baptist convention.
l \*r. .
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sertion, and Fifty Cent* for eat* subsequent insertion.
All advertisements not specified as to time, will be pub
lished until forbid and charged accordingly. A liberal
discount allowed to those who advertise by the year.-
Communications should be addressed to the Chris
tian, Index , Macon, Ga.
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vance will be charged at the regular rates.
tW The Office of the Christian Index is on Third
Street, over Thomas J. Lane’s Store, opposite the Ware
house of Messrs. Hardeman & Sparks. Persons having
business with the office will find the Editor ready to re
ceive them during the usual business hours of the city.
For the Index.
Mission of the Religious Press-No. 2.
We cannot in the limits of a Newspa-
article, bo expected po trexjt this sub
ject with that thoroughness and complete
ness which its importance demands ; hut
we hope to present ideas which will in
duce reflection, which the reader can him
self elaborate at pleasure, and which we
hope, may promote prompt and vigorous
action.
The attitude in which our first article
on this subject placed the mission of the
religious press, proves it to be one of the
very first powers of the present age, for the
world’s enlightenment and salvation. Let
ns then, give it this moral attitude among
the instrumentalities employed for this
purpose, and rally around it with our
means and influence accordingly. Let us
do this upon a plan worthy of this great
power, and with a liberality that will give
the amplest scope to its mighty energies,
and world-wide influences.
Our Colleges, Missionary bodies and all
those instruments which are conceived to
be great and grand for the diffusion of
light and truth, and the Christianization
of the world; are assigned a prominence,
labored for. with a zeal, and endowed with
a liberality, approximating to oar concep
tion of the work they are able to perform,
if furnished with adequate means, and
conducted with a corresponding efficiency.
We estimate them as great powers, and
we speak, write and act toward them ac
cordingly. We endow the one, and fill
the treasuries of the others ; give them all
efficient corps of officers to direct their
energies, and support these officers at
their posts. We do more, we enlarge
their means, and officiary from time to
time, and expect to do so. We give them
Anniversaries and rally around them the
most numerous, talented and influential
convocations we can command from the
whole length and breadth of their several
spheres of operation; and this under cir
cumstances best calculated as we conceive,
to bring their importance into notice, fra
ternize them with the people, draw them
out to their support and encourage and
stimulate their officers and supporters,
with the very highest prestige our de
nominational zeal, energy, and considera
tion, can possibly bestow.
No wonder then, if under such circum
stances they exert an amazing power. No
wonder, if they ramify their influences
from the centre to the citcumference of
. our churches and congregations at home,
and reach the very confines of our globe
with those arms of love and mercy which
they stretch out through the Gospel to
China and Ethiopia, and in which they
enfold their perishing souls, to draw them
to Christ. No, and glory be to God, that
- / . / .* 4 ‘
j K-.-.Laaiy . ■==
lit is so! How excellent dooßiL make
his name in all the earth, and now truly
does it exemplify the spirit of qr divine
Christianity. .tgk
I x-ejoice in this, and far be'lffMSm me,
to abate the tithe of a hair hpn
orable and influential position, wiff just
consideration. But on the
let us not forget the proper eJfenatiom
elevation s ind compjondin gly 1 ibjlfftfcup- i
ment ahd salvation, viz.: the Religious
Press.
Let us give to it, position, prestige, con
sideration. • Let us rally around it, our
churches and congregations, and the peo
ple throughout the land. Let us fratern
ize them with it, and bind them to it, by
every sense they possess of its value, and
every affection they cherish for the truth
which from its great womb is every day
born into the world, in new and striking
forms, and which is brought forth with so
much toil and travail, and amid so many
discouragements and trials, to the noble,
faithful and sell-sacrificing conductors of
our Religious Press.
Above all, let us support and endow it.
We think nothing of raising twenty-five,
fifty, or one hundred thousand dollars, to
endow a College, as an Institution of great
utility and importance to the church and
the world. Can we do less then, than endow
our Presses with ten or fifteen thousand
paying subscribers, making it a purpose
to keep the list up to the most sufficient
point possible.
This duty is one of sheer justice to our
acknowledged ideas of the relative impor
tance of the Religious Pi*ess, as a great
power in our Christian work; to say noth
ing of the labors of love and encourage
ment we owe to it, and have long neglect
ed to pay.
“ The children of this world are wiser
in theix* generation than the children of
ITgtit.” Have they a work to do in which
the Press, that mighty engine of influence
can be made auxiliary, they lead it into
the arena in triumph. They kindle be
neath its furnaces, the flames that symbo
lize their zeal and devotion. They feed
its iron muscles, and nerves of steel, with
the highest motive-power known to man,
and work it day and night to accomplish
their end.
They swell the list of its subscribers,
until its endowment is almost fabulous
and scatter its sheets alike through our
emporiums of Science and Art, the Ba
bies of our Commerce and the most in
considerable village and hamlet in all the
land.
The superb Mail Steamer groans under
their load, as it presses the mighty waves
of ocean, to islands and continents afar.
The Iron Horse, with smoking nostril and
breath of flame is harnessed to their load,
and pui-sues his track day and night, to
scatter these sheets upon the wings of the
wind far and near.
The Mail-Rider over our Western plains
who tracks vast solitudes and wakes the
dangers of the covert savage and prowl
ing w T ild beast, to do his office-work, bears
a measure of their freight, even beyond
the confines of civilization in their zeal
and energy, no spot is left untouched, no
mind unsought that they can reach to lead
them to success. And all this, for inter
ests that perish in the using.
But Christians in endowing and sus
taining a Religious Press, aim Heaven
high ; and press upon eternity and enter
into it, and summon its overwhelming ag
gregation of consequences to speak, and
say, how vitally important it is, that we
unshackle our Religious Press, and give
it an area of action, and a vigor of opera
tion, commensurate with the influences it
commands, and the grand results it may
attain under God for the salvation of the
world.
What then, as “ children of the light,”
ought we to do for our Religious Press?
Or, I might reverse the question, and ask,
what ough* we not to do? Can we do
our duty and be accounted faithful, if in
the grandest and most important of enter
prises, the salvation of a world, we lag so
far behind the zeal, energy and.devotion
of the impenitent and show so little ap
preciation of our position and profession ?
Let us then rally around our Religious
Editors, those faithful sentinels upon the
watch-towers of Zion, ai-onnd whom swarm
the beleaguering army of the Aliens, and
give them a hearty support. No class of
the public servants of God’s eternal truth j
MACON, WEDAO#aA.T } MAW J0M857.
have been so cruelly neglected, s<|#e
morselessly deserted and so long jjM&ied
a just sympathy and consideration bwour
ZiOD. ■ -
We believe this is the case from the
want of calling attention to this syMs<&
and. therefore we do it. We have a
of men the service of our ReligjJß
Press, of which any denomination
self-denying inltheir labors,
the blessing of God, and counting persoL]
al profit and reputation loss for Christ’s
sake, achieved the most glorious triumphs
for the truth, wreathed immortal laurels
round our denominational name, that
have justified and given us prestige in all
i the world, and the most able and
enlightened of our compeers.
And when the.authors of these successes
and of ouf just fame, shall sleep in the
dust, our children and generations un
born will reap the benefits of their labors.
Let us then, not wait for them to die to
enshrine them in our hearts, and
their memories and appredme their toils.
Let us do it now , while they live and
we livel There they stand at their posts,
faithfully watching every revolution of
their Presses; reading, culling, studying,
writing day and night; now fortifying
their positions, preparing their amunition
and ranging the batteries of truth, to rake
every defence of sin and satan; and, anon,
sounding the. rallying cry of God’s elect,
and leading the storming column to some
breach in the citadel Os the enemy, plung
ing into the thickest of the fight, bearing
aloft the glorious banner-of the cross, and
shouting a!|they go, “ Awake, awake, put
on thy strength O, Zion, put on thy beau
tiful garments. Q, Jerusalem, for hence
forth there snail no more come into thee,
the uncircumcised and the unclean.”
O ! my can you stand ancLaaa.
these leaders of ’Zfon, the
battles of the truth you profess to love,
sweltering under the heat and burden of
the conflict, begrimmed with the smoke
and dust of the battle, often fainting for
sustenance to enable them to agress upon
the enemy, and yet maintaining the con
test against all odds and at every hazard;
nobly refusing to lower one demand of
truth, or strike a single letter of the Gospel
motto, “ One Lord , One Faith, One Bap
tism,” that waves over them; and will
you refuse to appreciate their efforts, or
sustain them in their trials ?
Me thinks I hear a response! It comes
in swelling, cumulating volumes from eve
ry Baptist in the land ; “ Yes , we will sus
tain them” and “ let all the people say
amen.”
Then patrons of the “ Index,” be you in
the noble van. In behalf of your own Re
ligious Press, inaugurate and lead off this
moment. Endow your Press , and let it
be written in our Israel that no mouth
piece for the whole truth as it is in Jesus,
lacks means to sound out his name in all
the earth. B. T. F C.
For the Index.
Dear Brother Walker: —l have notic
ed with pleasure an article from our es
teemed Brother S. W. Bartley, some time
since, in reference to Elder J. G. Fry and
his mission to the blacks, in the 2d and
third districts of the Western Association.
Perhaps a more suitable man y f nn|fl
be employed in tKisT work than Brother
Fry; and I rejoice at every movement in
reference to religious instruction of our
servants, but I am satisfied the plan
adopted will fail to accomplish the amount
of good desired by the committee. The
plan will accomplish but little good from
the fact that his field is so extensive he
cannot make more than one visit to the
different churches and destitute planta
tions in the bounds in twelve months.
Our servants, more than any other class
of hearers amongst us, “ need line upon
line and precept upon precept,” inasmuch
as they are incapable of reading the word
of God. I will not say for a moment re
strict Brother Fry, I bid him God speed,
but I have a plan in my mind which no
doubt taken in connection with that of
the Committee, or alone, if carried out
by the churches, will accomplish much
good.
I much prefer the committee had car
ried out the resolution of the Association
at our last session, to employ pastoral in
stead of missionary services, but I wish
to insist on the churches in our bounds
not relying entirely on the efforts of our
missionary to accomplish the work we
..fj J
T pf n j]qv in
ii r. A I
seen servants'take more interest in meet
ings in all my life. He adopted great
plainness and simplicity in imparting his
instructions. The church, stimulated by
the zeak of her pastor, and encouraged by
the indications of good witnessed among
therservants-, employed their pastor for
one half of his time. Now one Saturday
in each month is devoted especially
to the blacks—in all their sermons are
especially to them each month
by the pastor. These labors have not
been continued a sufficient lepgtll of time
to show any very marked results. Suf
fice it to say the congregations are very
large, orderly and attentive, and from vis
ible indications, I think there is a good
work, of grace- commenced among them,
though there has been no effort to pro
duce noise and excitement.
This is something rather new in this
community, and that there should be ob
jections to the plan is not strange, as in
the eyes of some, it savors of innovation
upon old customs.
One objects that the plan does not meet
the wants of the servants on remote plan
tations from the church. In answer, let
the owner of the plantation remember
that the plantation is his, and he placed
.lu&.servstß->on it and he is morally bound
■as far as he is able, .to provide the. means
to get'them to church, or have his pastor
preach to them at home as a part of the
family. Let them do this and never bring
up a reproach against the denomination
for not having their servants preached to.
Another Brother says, my servants do
not like to attend religious meetings.—
Would that be a sufficient excuse to satis
fy you in reference to your children? Or,
would such an excuse satisfy you in refer
ence to your servants, when you com
mand them to go to the field or the shop ?
You will doubtless say nay. lam inclin
ed to the belief if masters would fur
nish their servants with decent appar
el, and endeavor to instil in their minds
feelings of self respect, and when they
live at too remote a distance from the
church, furnish them means of convey
ance to the place of worship, there would
be no need of compulsory measures to se
enre their attendance.
Another says he has but few and lives
some distance from the place of worship.
If you attend with your white family you
might also attend with your servants, and
because you have but few your responsi
bility is not at all diminished.
Another objects to all new plans in re
ligious matters. That this was not the
way our fathers did. Remember my
brother, we as Baptists do not regard tra
dition as of any binding force. We regard
Js . mAthpritative in faith or prac
word of inspiration. But the
plan is no new one, it has been practiced
almost commensurate with our denomi
nation’s existence, in the large towns and
cities in our Southern States. Many
amongst us think these are new plans
because they behind the times and are
not posted. V
Come let us wake up to our
duty, for the ysponsibility is upon us.—
we cannot throw it oft*. Let us not only
employ and sustain pastors for this work,
but let us heartily co-operate with them
in the work by our presence and encour
agement and prayers. Remembering that
in due season we shall reap if we faint
not. A.
For the Index.
Qn Paying Debts.
What a lamentable thing it is, that so
many professors of religion are such bad
hands to pay their debts ! Above all oth
er people in the world, professors of reli
gion ought to make it a fixed principle to
“owe no man anything.” In pursuing
this course they can enjoy a sweet seren
ity of mind—have a good name in the
community, and exert a good influence
upon their neighbors. But alas! how
rlfihfa tw j.i_, j • T
I, I 1 IMhiii ‘ ■ -
the conductor of the Advocate and Ex
positor. This a careful perusal of the cir
cular will show. And I shall not depart
from it. I would sooner abandon the en
terprize. For there is too much involved
in the undertaking, for my limited edu
cation and talents. I do, however, as you
affirm, feel a deep interest in the subjects
embraced. Yes, and I honestly believe
that the very highest and best interests
of the nation, political, moral, and reli
gious, depend more upon the proper edu
cation of the Southern mind, in our own
peculiar institution, than on any one sub
ject. And it is worse than futile, for us
to expect the civilized and Christian world
to listen to a defence from us, -of domestic
slavery, until we understand, and bring
ourselves under its political and religious
responsibilities. For it is either a cruel
and wicked outrage on human rights, and
its discipline a barbarous infliction of un
merited punishments, or else, it is under
the providence of God, designed as a po
litical, moral and religious school, for a
vagrant, degraded, and wicked race, who
have as long as the memory of man runs
back, enslaved their own posterity and
sent them, like sheep, into a world’s mar
ket. The Bible, as well the standard of
American politics, as it is of Christian
morals, gives modles of its ancient exis
tence, and fastens its guilt upon another,
trad servants afike, for disregard ofYhe
actual responsibilities growing out of the
peculiar relationship.
These, over three millions of human be
ings, are linked with us, in our govern
mental, social, and religiomA^istiny.—
With the South emphatically. And they
are not a doomed race, in the providence
of God, like the Indian tribes, sinking
back, before the march of civilization in
to forest graves. They are rapidly in
creasing in number, and rising fast in the
scale of civilization and true religious
knowledge. They are born in our houses.
Their children are the early companions
of ours. Yea, their mothers are our nur
ses. The blessings of their piety, and the
curses of their vices, must inevitably fall
upon us and our children; and visa versa.
We are, under God, their civil and re
ligious guardians. So, politically and re
ligiously. And woe to us in both of these
deep rooted interests, if we fail to do our
whole duty. And it is not Northern ab
olitionists, that we need to fear, as a
scourge. Our sons and daughters, at
home, and even before the altars of God,
in our religious sanctuaries, with their
moral pest, may sicken our very hearts.
But I must stop. A thousand considera
tions have turned my mind upon the im
portance of an ably conducted periodical,
with us now, the popular channel of intel
ligence, such as I have intimated. It is
at the present crisis of affairs, called for.
But I only proposed to do the drudgery
work, and leave the main editorial duties
in better qualified hands, and to abler
pens. Yours trulv,
- J. D. WILLIAMS.
The Pure Heart.
In a discourse on the words “ Blessed
are the pure in heart,” Mr. Caughey once
remarked that it was impossible to sully a
sunbeam. “ And while that sunbeam,”
said he, “may dart down into the darkest
hole of filth and illuminate it, it will soil
nothing, and yet not be soiled itself. So
i the ray of heavenly life and love, existing
in the perfect believer’s heart, goes into
and comes out into contact with the dark
dwelling places of iniquity and filth, and
cheers, and enlivens, and encourages by
its presence, but is always kept unspotted
from the stains of the world. It is God
that gives to the pure heart this great
fiflt and distinction. It is He who can
eep the heart in perfect peace. Suppose
a white-robed female were walking along
some turnpike-road, where the mud was
flying, and where the horses and wagons,
as they hurried and splashed along, at
every turn and step increased the confu
sion, hemmed up the foot path, and threw
the water and dirt. Suppose that white
robed female should find, at her journey’s
end, her white dress as spotless as wlien
she first robed —would not this be a inns
acle? Most surely it would. But amir-
u , . >'• - v “Tx “ v< ~ ‘
IT M
Boys sometimes think it fakes a great’ ,
deal of drilling to make them men. They
wish they could get out of the shackles.
Perhaps it does. But how many things
do you suppose have to be ‘done to a bit
of steel wire before it makes that simple
little tool called a needle, and puts it into
the markef ? Can you guess ? Seventy;
yes, seventy are necessary in
the manufacture of a needle. Can you
wonder, thsft, that in “ making a man of
you,” you are subjected to a great many
hard rubs? It is this drilling which
strengthens and weighs and tempers and
polishes you for manly work in the world.
V „ [Child's Paper.
HtSf” A Mi*j4er, in Glaksp Wj one g un _
day out as the morning les
son the fourtfßec^onPsalm;
and while his congregation were looking
out the “portion” in their Bibles, the doc
tor took out his box, and seizing a lusty
pinch with finger and thumb, regaled his
nose with the snuff! He then began the
lesson: “My soul cleaveth unto the dust!”
The titter that ran round the Church,
and the confusion of the poor priest, show
ed that both the congregation and he felt
the Psalmist’s “pinch.”
Grape Cuttings.
The “Ohio Farmer” asks : Have you
a choice grape cutting that you want to
grow? and replies as follows: “Then go
to the woods, dig some roots of a wild
grape vine, cut them into pieces of about
one or, at most, two buds; insert the low
er end by the common cleft-grafting
metfibd, into the piece of wild vine root V
plant iikm the earth, leaving ffhe cutting
just lew' with the top of the grouhd.-3|P
Every Jne so made, will grow, and in two
years, become bearing plants.” \
Napier after the Great Battle of
MEANEE.
“ Nineteen long letters from the Gov
ernor General. He has made me Govern
or of Scinde, with additional pay; and -he
has ordered the captured guns to be cast
into a triumphant column, with our
names. I wish he would let me go back
to my wife and girls; it would be more to
m e than pay and glory and honors. Eight
months away from them, and my wife’s
strange dream realized! This is glory is
it? Yes! Nine princes have surrender
ed their swords to me on the field of bat
tle, and their kingdoms have been con
quered by me and attached to my own
country. I have received the govern
ment of the conquered province, and all
honors are paid to me while living in my
enemy’s capital. Well, all the glory
that can be desired is mine, and I care so
little for it that the moment I can, all
shall be resigned to live quietly with my
wife and girls; no honor or riches repay
me for absence from them.”— Jour, of the
late Gen. Sir J. C. Napier.
A Scene not in the Bills.
During one night last week, while a
fine steamer was on her way up to this
port from Cincinnati, a crash was heard
in one of the state rooms of the ladies’
cabin, followed by the screams of a lady,
who, with her husband, occupied the state
room. Such a hubbub at such an hour
was alarming. The ladies, of course,
thought the might be blown up,
snagged, or otnerwise
and it was finally necessary for the hus
band of the lady whose screams had been
heard, to appear at the door, not exactly
in proper costume for receiving the calls
of ladies, to explain that he, being a very
portly and weighty gentleman, had taken
the upper berth in the state room, and
during the night, the supports of the berth
giving way, he had fallen, berth and all,
upon his unfortunate wife soundly sleep
ing below. She “was not seriously in
jured, however, and the commotion at
once subsided; the affair affording a hearty
laugh for all parties next day, of course.—•
Pitts. Dispatch.
A St. Louis University.
St. Louis has established the so-called
Washington University, just inaugurated
by an address from Edward Everett, and
which is intended to be equal to the bestin
the United States. Among the gifts for
the practical department is land worth
$60,000 by Col. John O’Fallon, and $20,-
000 in money by other friends. John
Horn, of St. Louis, also has offered $30,-
000 additional to purchase land, and Mr.
O’Fallan $27,000 towards completing the
institution. ** ‘
jt§p”Searcli the Scriptures, for in themi
ye think ye have eternal life, and
are they Avhich testify of iSiva