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TherMtfll b?'•thjr'r
Thre will be more p im* .j: -y
No aching head, nor throbbing, care-worn:
breast;
The sad ones no more mourn,
And sweet will be their rest:
Thera will be no more pain.
There will be no more death;
Nojsale disease, no dying farewell spoken.
No parting hour nor agony of pain
Amidst that band unbroken :
There will be no more death.
There will be ceaseless praise:
There songs undying joyfully ascend
In one triumphant hymn,
And friend meets long-lost friend
. There will bo ceaseless praise.
There will be endless joy ;
TnCrc golden harps are tuned for evermore;
There Jesus is the sun
And light of that glad shore :
There will be endless joy.
For the Index.
Fast Day Exercises in Milledge
ville, Georgia.
SERMOXS BY BISHOP PIERCF. AND DR. B.
M. PALMER.
The Legislature adjourned from Thursday
evening to Saturday morning in deference
to the appointment of our Chief Executive.
The exercises of the occasion were arranged
by a joint Committee from the Senate and
H ouse of Representatives. The announce
ment of the popular name of Bishop Pierce
in connection with the forenoon services had
excited great expectation, and at an unusu
ally early hour, the audience began to assem
ble. The neat, but small house of worship
of the Methodist church, was soon crowded
to overflowing with the Legislative wisdom
of the State, and with the youth, beauty,
manhood and age of the Capital and surroun
ding country. At the appointed hour the
Bishop arose, a man of noble person and
bearing, read some appropriate Scriptures,
offered a solemn and suitable prayer, and en
tered upon his discourse. He made a few
striking remarks upon the fitness of the na
tion’s assembling on occasions, in solemn
supplication and fasting before the God who
“works his own will in t ie armies ofHeaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth.” r lo
encourage the faith of the audience by the
assurance that our cause was such a one,
upon which the Divine blessing might be
consistently asked and bestowed, he remark
ed, at some length, and with eloquence and
power, upon the fact that our enemies are
waging against us an unjust and cruel war.
He charged the North with corrupting the
word of Gpd by turning its precepts against
an institution so abundantly recognized in
the Bible, and boldly claimed, lor the South
the credit, not only of standing for the de
fence of our -rights, hut also for the mainten
ance of Scriptural in.sttViif ton& A.Thus -luejen
listed on our side of this great struggle the
united power of the sacred causes of home
and altars. “At the South,’; said he, “the
“Bible has been a mount of fire, upon which
none dared lay unholy hands, and from
whose smoke and flame has gone forth*
voice ofGed to tin attentive and trembling
fieople.” These remarks, he said, were made,
not to exalt our pride, but to encourage our
faith in approaching the God of our fathers
in behalf of our bleeding country. He then
maintained, with bold declaration and forci
ble argument, the necessity of conforming
our ways, as a nation, to the whole law of
God. He evidently considered national sins
to be only such violations of God’s law, as
are made by the public enactments and or
ders of our government. He insisted that
when all our laws are made to conform to
thejaw of Jehovah, the nation is righteous
before the God of providence, despite the
transgressions of individuals; and that then
and then only will we be authorized to ap
pear confidently before the throne of mercy
to ask the Divine blessing on our cause. I
think he might have been troubled to show
that the doom of Sodom and Gomorrah was
due wholly to the sins of their governments
and not in a great measure, to the wicked
ness of their inhabitants. He demanded for
God a distinckrecognition in our ■Wamen
tal law, not simply as the abstract
jjf the Deist, but as the God of Christianity,
in character as Father, Son and
- ; I. liUS I -7 *r-—=-! s* r: I —r-ja:u-.-■■■■ - ■. : —r
fix.
Holy Ghost. Descending from generalities,
he demanded of the legislature of the State
to repeal all laws in conflict with the letter
or spirit of the sacred Scriptures. As lia
’! ble to this censure, he denounced all statutes
kby which any individuals or corporations are
Authorized to violate the Sabbath. He spoke,
Tl am glad to say, with solemn warning and
i eloquent denunciation against those abomina
jble infidel enactments of the legislature by
wTiich the Christian master is forbidden, un
der pains and penalties, to teach his'* Slaves
to read the precious word of God.
gnage upon this subject I endorse
wLole heart; “if slavery. cannot bear the
fight, let the institution perish !” He might
have added, as equally and, if possible, more
| worthy of bitter denunciation, that high
handed infringement upon the rights of the
j churches, and audacious insult to the free
I and sovereign grace by which God calls
whom lie will to the sacred office of ministry,
the legislative prohibition upon churches
and all others,, against licensing any slave or
free persor?“6f color to preach, exhort, or
otherwise officiate in public. On the whole
the .Bishop’s discourse was able, eloquent
and practical. His teachings in regard to
the moral rights of the slave to read the Bi
ble provoked, I am sorry to say, no small
spirit of controversy among the members of
the Legislature.
At 3 1-2 o’clock, a large, but somewhat
smaller, audience asssembled at the same
place, to hear the distinguished B. M. Pal
mer, D. D., of the Presbyterian church, oi
New Orleans. He is a man of medium size
and rather ordinary appearance. Even in
the opening exercises he gave rich foretastes
of the intellectual feast which lie was about
to spread before us. He reads with a dis
tinct and musical voi?e, but not with the
rhetorical correctness and power of our Tuck
er. His introductory prayer was elegant in
diction, arrangement and utterance, but pain
fully long. For the merits hinted at, I have
heard nothing superior to it, and have sel
dom heard it equalled. His discourse was
founded on the 2d and 3d verses of the 4th
chapter of Revelations: “Behold a throne
was set in heavenand one sat on the throne.
And he that sat was to look upon like a Jas
per and a Sardine Stone : and there was a
rainbow round about the throne, in sight
like uiito-an .emerald.” His exposition of
the text- was highly elegant. He deduced
from it the doctrine, that while the God of
all power, perfect in justice and glorious in
holiness, sits upon the throne and sways the
universe, he nevertheless governs the world
through Jesus Christ, and according to those
principles of grace and mercy so beautifully j
symbolized by the emerald rainbow. Tlis j
application, as he termed it, constituted
the burden of his discourse. It consis
ted of various suggestions as to the neces
sity for the present state of disunion and
revolution, and as to the ground*Bf the high
confidence which he expressed - in our ulti
mate success. He identified the interests of.
the Almighty’s church and of republican in
stitutions with the welfare of the South,and
the perpetuity of slavery ; maintained that
the painful experience through which our
country is now passflypMs only a discip
linary.-agd, in no sense, penal dealing of
God with us, but ‘ indicates and ensures to
us a future of greatness and glory. He
thanked God for tho war, and eloquently ur
i ged upon the people that the only and
remedy for our present ills is endu
rance. He spoke of no national sins. He
did not intimate the necessity of humbling
ourselves before God, acknowledging our de
, pendente upon him and invoking his aid ;
! but treated our success as a matter of un
j doubted revelation, for which we must simp
|ly wait. This discourse, in my humble
judgment, as in that of several more discrim
inating and enlightened Christians, fell far
’ short of adaptation to the occasion as one of
! “fasting, humi.iation and prayer.” The
speaker enchained a large and crowded au
dience for, I suppose, at least two hours, and
; the audience, generally, was enraptured with
I the performance. For elegance of diction,
I (save the rather frequent repetition of cer
tain shining epithets,) for delivery and for
! brilliance both of manner and thought, per
haps I never heard it excelled. I do not
, think it was characterized either by logic or
j spirituality; and some of his views, I think,
I would suffer under a discriminating review,
i On the whole, Dr. Palmer is an extraordi
i NART MAN, ON A POPULAR THEME, giving
j utterance in an eloquent style to popular
| opinions, supported too often by reasoning
; not satisfactory to all minds. Thus closed
i the exercises of the 27th day of March, 1863,
j afcotir State capital. VISITOR.
’ Macon, Ga., March 30th, 1808.
■ •.*/
THE PASTOR’S AID: THE CHRISTIAN'S GUIDE: THE SINNER’S PR*END.
MACON, GEORGIA, MONDAY, APRIL 6, 1863.
—r- -■
• “For the Christian Index.
“The Light of the World.”
Naturalists tell us that the sun is the most
fertile source of light to the world. Before
his existence everything was in a state of
dark chaos. So before the coming of Christ,
everything connected with man’s future ex
istence was in comparative obscurity. Man
by wisdbm knew not God. Christ brought
life and immortality to light.” 1 Tim. 1:10.
He is the true light that lighteth every man *
that cometh into the world. John 1: 9.
Yet Christ himself addressed his disciple *
in these words—“Ye are the light of the
world.” Mat. 5 : 14. In what sense then
are Christians the light of the world ?
- Their light cannot be spontaneous, that is ]
procccdiug from themselves. For they have j
nothing in them different from other men to j
produce so great a result as Christ attributes
to them. It must proceed then from some
other source. Their light emanates from
Christ, and is reflected by them on the world,
just as the light of the moon is reflected from
the sun. ,
Now for any material to be a perfect re- j
Sector, its surface must be smoothe, transpa- ;
rent and entirely free from every blemish; j
just"as the Daguerrcan Artist will tell you J
that he cannot give you a perfect picture I
unless his plate is in the finest order. The j
slightest spot or blemish will destroy the es- j
feet of all his labor. So the Christian, hav- ‘
ing surrender'd a clean heart to Christ, is to
submit himself to Him to make whatever im
pression IJe pleases. And then he is to re
flect that image on the world.
‘lhe image which the true Christian de
sires to reflect is Christ himself. He is to
exhibit Christ in the prominent features of
his divine Master while he was in the flesh.
First, then, we notice in Christ a simplicity
of purpose, a consistent and persistent aim
at all times to and the will of his Father in
heaven. It was announced “Lo, I eomc to
do thy will ” Ps. 40: 7,8. Nothing de
terred him from this object. “My meat is j
to do the will of him that, sent me.” John’
4 : 34. Neither solitude alarmed him, nor
multitudes disturbed him. In all places and
under all circumstances he went forward in
the discharge of every duty. He endured
temptation as a tost of his obedience. He
accepted the acclamations of the multitudes
at Jerusalem, without depression or elation.
He attended the wedding at Cana in Galilee !
and provided for the wants of the guests
with as inueh composure as he delivered his
sermon on the Monnt. lie talked with the
woman of Samaria, at Jacob’s Well, with as
: much freedom as he disputed with the doc-
J tors in the Temple. He was as thougbtiul
! of his mother’s welfare, while hanging on the
Cross and bearing the sins of the world, as
though he were enjoying the smiles of hea
ven on a downy pillow. So you see, chris-!
tian, that you are not so responsible to God, j
for the position you occupy, as for the itn- j
provement you make of that station to re- i
fleet the image of Christ. Yours is a poei- ]
lion of awful responsibility ; Christ has left
the earth and has committed to you the dif
fusion of light. The world is in darkness \
in exact proportion to the degree that you !
obscure the image of Christ. That image is j
obscured, whenever you repine at God’s pro- i
vidence and pretend how much you would do •
situated in other conditions. That imiage-is/
darkened whenever you exhibit any unfaitlr
fulness to your vows to God; whenever in :
your conversation you show that you are more
interested in some worldly object than in I
the cause of true religion; whenever in your;
intercourse with your fellow-men, you show j
less regard for their feelings, interest ant
eternal welfare than you do to accomplisl
your own selfish purposes. *
Christian! examine your heart, test yous
conduct by the standard we have presented
and then ask yourself whether your eye ii :
so single that your whole body may becomi j
full of light ! Remember Christ’s com| i
mand—“Let your light so shine that other* j
seeing your good works, may glorify yout
Father which is in heaven.” Mat. 5: 16.—1
Recollect what Paul says — “ For me to live
is Christ.” Phil. 1: 21. Ask yourself dai
; ly, hourly and as often as opportunity occurs,
on bended knees—“Am I becomirg more i
conformed to the image of Christ ?” Rom. i
8: 29; and 12: 2.
Think what a flood of light would be pour
ed on the world, if every Christian perfectly
reflected the image of Christ! fit would
render the world a very uncomfortable abode
for sinners. Heaven would dawn on earth,
and we would all become meet for the in
heritance of the saints in light and glory.
M.
For the Christian Index.
3ffy Child.
Camp Mercer, Near Savannah,
12th Georgia Battalion. >-
j March 25th, 1863. )
Dear Index. —“A Husband” has writ
ten about “lsie Wife,” aud “The Wife” has
written also about “The Husband”—please
allow an humble effort in behalf of the In
fant—that gift of heaven; that pledge of
Thjfrve and th sacred bonds of matrimony ;
| that treasure of the family. Many, very
■ many lovely, interesting and charming fea
j tures cluster around ita name.
: worthy of contemplation. Behold its inno
i cence! its dependence ! its smile! See how
| the eyes of the father and mother sparkle
| with joy and delight, when first they see a
j smile begin to play upon its sweet lips! Are
angels there? It is God speaking his love.
What makes the infant smile ? Ah, what a
thought! Poets have sung its smile andyet
there is room for a complete description. —
Who can, without smiling, behold a smiling
| infant? Witness a friends and rcl
! atives caressing an infant. How natural the
• attachment. When the father has to gone
| to war and left a wife and chil&behind, how
pleasant to wander back in his dreams while
! slumbering in his tent, aud behold his lovely
companion and smiling babe. When fur
loughs fail, sometimes sweet dreams are our
passports to our dear ones at homo.
a father:
Wny Baptism before Commu
nion.
The antecedency of baptism before com
munion rests not on any formaliy instituted
• connection between them, but on the intrin
! sic character of the two rites, and their com
, mon relation to the Christian life.
Baptism is simply the initiatory rite into
, the Christian church, or rather, to speak more
! comprehensively, it is the divinely appoint
ed method of declaring'formally our allegi
! ance to Christ. It is the specific st<Jdivinc
"'Jy instituted badge of discipleship. Tt is a
i strictly transitional institution; the formal
act of enlistment under the banners of the
great Captain of salvation ; the formal trans
fer of our allegiance from the Prince of
Darkness to the Prince of Life. Baptism,
! therefore, is an act performed, a rite submit
| ted to, once for all. Once done, it is done
i forever. The magistrate who has taken the
oath of office, has henceforth only to go for
ward in the faithful discharge of his duties.
The soldiers who has once taken the milita
j-y.pSth and signed the papers, henceforth
shares the discipline and is part of the or
•puiized force. The alien who has once sub
mitted to the process of naturalization, is
thenceforward a citizen, and isLoimd to the
duties and entitled to the privileges of the
Government to which Le Ijas sworn allegi
ance. So he who has by baptism formally
and publicly put on Christ, has done it once
for all. Tie is henceforth a recognized mem
ber of “the sacramental host of God’s elect/’
he has henceforth his citizenship in the
kingdom which is not of this world. In an
expressive and solemn symbol lie has wash
ed away his sins—put oft* the filth of the
flesh, become dead to the world, and risen
to anew and spiritual life. Baptism, then,
stands at the gateway of the Christian life.
The Lord’s Supper is an institution of a
very different character. It is not a transi
tional rite, but a permanent ordinance of the
religious life. It is the banquet ot love to
which the believer is from time to time
come, to nourish his spiritual graces, to feeS
the springs of his religious life, to remind
him of the precious Saviour ‘in.whom is ail ;
his hone, to send his thoughts back to toe .
h'our when his redemption was wrought out
in humiliation and agony, and forward to the
day when it shall he consummated in glory
and triumph. “This do, as often as ye do
it, in remembrance of me,” wflffi the lan
guage of the Saviour wlicn lie instituted
this rite for those who had been for years
his disciples. It is, then, an act to he repeat
ed as often as convenience, or the exigencies
of the Christian life may demand it.
The priority of baptism to communion,
then, grows-eotout of any arbitrary law, or
any express and positive relation between the
two ordinances. It grows out of the simple
necessity of entering the banqueting hall bc
: f ore we con sit down to the feast; out of the
fact, that while the supper is strictly an in
stitution for professed believers, baptism is
simply a profession 0/ belie/, the first formal
dedication of faith, the outward act by which
the soul passes over from the legions of Sa
tan into the army of Immanuel. Those,
therefore, who hold to baptism at all, must
hold to it as in its nature anterior to commu
nion, simpTy because it is in its nature ante
rior to all acts of the ‘formal, outward, pro
fessed christian life. To come to the com
munion table without baptism is to set aside
and treat with contempt an expressed and
solemn ordinance ot Jesus Christ. To come
to it before baptism, is to confound and re
verse the order of the
to convert thg*twsdom of Ohnsfmto numtin
folly, to assume the duties and ‘prerogatives
of a spiritual citizen before submitting to the
process of spiritual naturalization.
A of baptism cannot be too clear
ly conceived, nor too frequently- and iiarei* ’
bly presented. Baptism is not regeneration.
It is not the means of regeneration. It is
not a substitute for regeneration. . But it is
the natural, the divinely enjoined step im
mediately consequent upon regeneration -
the act by which he whom God has transla
ted from the bondage of Satan into the glo
rious liberty of his kingdom, is at onco to
testify his allegiance to the Prince whose
service he enters. (Jan there be any doubt
upon this point ! “Ife that believeth and is
baptized;” “disciple all nations, baptizing
them ;” “repent and be baptized”—this uni
form language of the New Testament, inter
preted and enforced by the uniform practice
of the Apostles, leaves us not a shadow of
doubt as to the intention of our Lord sis to
the place, and the importance of the place,
which he assigned to baptism, in the organ
ization of his earthly kingdom. It is the
one solemn act by which the converted sin
ner declares his allegiance to Christ. He
•who refuses or ncgloets it, refuses to.ackr
nowlcdge himself formally as Christ’s; and
whatever be his character, can make no
claim to be recognized as a Christian, much
less to any of the privileges of that regular l
Christian organization whose primary and
fundamental condition he has disregarded.
To overleap baptism and take one’s seat at
the communion table, argues gross ignorance
or gross presumption—aiF infract ion of gos
pel order wFJuli'no” intelligent church or
minister can sanction.
We repeat, then, let no one he diverted
from the true issue, nor seduced into the at
tempt to maintain a mere arbitrary and for
mal priority of baptism to communion. Even
thus, indeed, the argument is clear enough
to the candid mind; but it may be evaded
and complicated by side issues. The sim
ple position is this —the Lord’s Supper is a
strictly Christian ordinance; Baptism, the
divinely established, universal, indispensa
ble condition and fendge of discipleship.
• Sdected.
Christmas Evans at a Welsh
Association.
It was at one of these associations that
Christmas Evans, together with other cele
brated preachers of the day, had engaged to
he present. It was an extra-association,
deemed necessary on account of the sad de
clension in religion which had taken place
in a certain locality, and the meeting was
for the express purpose of recalling black
sliders to a knowledge of their condition and
danger. About, two thousand persons had
congregated from far and near, and the day
promised to %)%very happy and successful
one.. But while the first speaker was pro-,
eecding in his address, it became evident
that he had no Hold upon the audience : an
air of listlessness and inattention was soon
observable, for the sermon created no echo
in the hearts of* The preacher
was a very talented man, but
unconvincing manner about him which chil
led his warm-hearted hearers. Instead Os
throwing himself heart and so# into the ser
vice of the day, and uttering words suitable
to the occasion, lie centented himself with
expressing a, few common-place thoughts,
k apd resumed his seat without creating any
sensible impression. The second speaker
was more tame, and his address more unsui
ted to the wants of the people than the first,
and the promoters of the meeting began to
fear that it would he a lost day. Many per
sons had already taken their departure, and
others were about to. follow their example.
What was to be done? According to the
order of service, Mr. Evans had been put
down as almost the last no one
could sum up the religious proceedings of an
association in so forcible and living a way.—
But when he saw the state of things, he at
once consented to ascend the wagon from
which the sermons were delivered. He stood’
forward, yawning and stretching as if he had
only that moment awakened from sleep. He
gave out no text, hut - commenced talking
some,shat after this fashion :
TERMS, $3.00 IN ADVANCE^
50 NOS. IN A VOL.
“My friends, I have had a vision, and it
concerns you : inethought I was in a beauti
ful valley, where there was everything to
charm and interest the eye of the beholder
(here he gave a vivid description of the love
ly vale in which they were then assembled;)
but in looking down into this valley, what
was my horror at .perceiving it to be full of
dry bones. And while musing upon this
‘spectacle of death, I heard a voice saying
(here he imitated the tones of the first speak
er), ‘Dry bones, live!’ But there was no
movement on the part of the bones. Pres
ently a second voicc'cried (here his voice re
qggjjjedfthat of the second preacher), ‘Dry
bones, live 1’ But all was dead and motion
less as before. And then inethought that
someone said to me, ‘O Christmas, Christ- .
mas! what do you say to all this V And I
lifted up my hands to heaven, and cried as
loud as my voice broken by tears would suf
fer me, ‘O, Spirit of the living God, come
and breathe upon these dry bones, and they
shall live.’ And immediately there was a
shaking, and the bones came together, bone
to his bone, and the flesh came up upou
them, and the skin covered them above, and
the breath came into them, and they lived
and stood up on their feet, an exceeding
great army.”
The effect of this introduction —uttered as
it waß with'all the dramatic power of which
the preacher was capable—upon the assem
bled congregation was electrical: there was
indeed a shaking; the heart of the multitude
was moved, and many were added to the
church that day. The people saw that they
were the “dry bones” in the valley, and their
prayer the whole day was, “Breathe on us,
that we may live!” And tho Lord answered
and heard.
Perseverance.
He who allows his application to falter, or
shirks his work on frivolous pretexts, is on
the sere road to ultimate failure. Let any
task be undertaken as a thing not possible to
be evaded, and it will soon come to be per
formed with alacrity and cheerfulness. The
habit of strenuous, continued labor will be
come comparatively easy in time, like every
other habit. Thus even men with the com
monest brains and the most slender powers
will accomplish mueh, if they will but apply
themselves wholly and indefatigably tQ one
thing at a time.
Sir Charles Napier, when in India, en
countered an army 35,000 Belooches with
2,000 meu, of whom only 400 were Euro
peans. He charged them in centre up a high
bank, and for three hours the battle was un
decided. At las 1; they turned and fled.
It is this sort of pluck, tenacity and deter
mined perseverance which wins solders’ bat
tles, and, indeed, every battle. It is the one
neck hearer that wins the race and shows the
blood ; the one pull of the oar that proves the
heefness of the fellow, as Oxford men say ;
it is the one march more that wins the cam
paign ; the five minutes more persistent cour
age that wins the fight. Though your force
be less than another’s, you equal and out
master your opponent if you continue it lon
ger and concentrate it more. The reply of
the Spartan father, who said to his son, when
complaining that his sword was too short—
“ Add a step to it,” is applicable to every
tbingin life.
Are we in Earnest ?
A little while ago a clergyman said to a
young man who never thought of his soul:
“My dear young friend, I think you are
going to lose your soul! You are putting off
the day of salvation-—neglecting all these
solemen matters; going on heedlessly, I fear,
to the day of your death !”
The young man looked up with surprise,
and said:
“I don’t think so ! And, you must real-*
ly pardon me, but I have my doubts wheth
er you really think so.”
The minister was astonished. He never
suspected the young man of skepticism.
“How so,” he asked.
“Why, my mother belongs to your church.
Don’t they all think as you do ?”
“Yes, they do.” “
“Well, then, don’t my mother love me ? f
And do you think she would never have
told me if she thought I was going straight to
perdition ?” And there’s iny sister; don’t
she believe as you do ?” *
“Yes.”
1 Now, then, I know my sister Joves m e.I
know she would come and throw her, arnS
around my neck, and tell me, ‘Don’t! don't J
don’t /’ if she thought I,was going to per^
ditkd” ‘ . A