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BY SAMUEL BOYKIN’. 50 NOS. IN A YQL Written for the Christian Index. Our’ ‘Delta’ Correspondence from ~ —, August, 1864. It is not my habit, you know, to complain of “ the powers that, but really hgarance ceases to be a virtue. There is a screw loose, or perhaps jpany screws loose, in the Post Office Department. Making every allowance for the failure ot mails^ attributable to the raids of .the eooJUj’ ah and other adverse circutustances to their speedy nnd oertnin transmission, there can be no justifiable reason for the continued absence of the Judex from our post office, with one single exception, for the past seven weeks. The papers must be removed on the way here by dishonest or unfaithful officers Paper, we know, is quite an item now. It commands a price in any form, and whether it contains religious or secular matter, it is equally acceptable to purchasers. Is there no way of stopping this grievance ? If the fault is anywhere, let it be fereted out and exposed. lam (as it is) in “ blissful ig norance of what the Index contains, and am striking blows in the dark, not knowing which does the execution, or whether any. i was gratified to learn the other day that two copies of your paper had reached this place, and .could be aeon. Keep one of mine in your sanctum until you can find a safe and reliable hand to whom to commit it. If you find such an one I shall not object—now that I am in a sttait to see your pleasant face—l shall uot object to your confiding to him (under the strictest bonds) the name of your conespondent Delta. By the way, it may amuse you to know the thousand and one conjectures in reference to the identity of “ Semei.” One confidently asserts that “ Semei ” is a learned divine ; another, that he is not a divine at all, but altogether of different cloth. Semei, I presume, knows very well that there is much attraction in mystery, and if he could he would throw around himself an invisible cloak and wear it until it became threadbare—when in the nature of things it would be wise for him to put it off- “ Delta ” wishes a similsff security for the identical purpose which animates u Semei.” He “ wants to do good un awares.” You have noticed, I presume, the lexico graphical and the grammatical tendencies of the newspapers ot late. The Richmond Examiner has an “ Ignoramus ” correspon dent, who presumes to inquire of its editor why he iusists ou spelling public with a final k. The editor condescends to inform his igno rant frieud that he has placftd Johnson and Todd’s Dictionary in the compositors’ room, with instructions to follow copy, and the inexorable k must be put in. In like man ner he insists on restoring w to honour, favour, and the like. Why this particulari-. ty ? you inquire To avoid Yankee cor ruptions! to vindicate the claims of the English language, and to assert the intel lectual independence of the South ! A sorry affectation of independence. If these changes are improvements, let them be adopted without reference to their origin ; if they are not, reject them because they are not, and for that reason aloue. The re public ot letters ought to be and is inde pendent of national broils and national feuds. A good book, written by a bad Yankee is better than a bad book written by a good Confederate. Let us not lose I sight of this fact. We shall have but little* reason, I believe, for offending an amour propre by adopting this rule. Most of the good books, of pure English and nervous thought, produced in this country, have emauated from Southern minds: but we are not willing to proscribe the rest or to eject them from our libraries because their authors were not Southerners. The weighty, thought of Webster (with all his heresies— heresies, by the way, in which he followed slavishly the opinions of the Virginian John Marshall, clarum et venerabile nomen), the strong Saxon of Hamilton, and the ele gant beauty of Irving are among the treas ures of the English tongue, and there are Confederate soldiers (I doubt not) in the field, meu eagerly anxious to defend the honor and independence of their country, who wduld be loth to give up the pages of these sterling writers of good English. Let us be honest with our mental tastes and habitudes. Let us never condescend to a prejudice, if we can possibly avoid it. Ido not £ay this to find fault with Examiner or thography. I rather like it, because it carries us back to the best days of the Eng lish tongue; but I do objeet to this univer- ■ # - *'V sal cry of Yankeeisk, which indicates it nine cases'out of ten the utter poverty of thought as well as of expression on the part of the anathematizer. For Lincoln and bis of evil, with their foul and deadly “rposes towards our government and peo ple, for their eqiel murders of defenseless women and chijirlp, for their robbing of households and larcenies of private proper their this unnatural, cruel aud barbarons war, every Confederate citizen cherishes a common and a bitter re sentment and indignation) and we cannot be too grateful to au all-wise and overruling Providence who has thus far delivered us from the domination ot these men; but it would be unwise and impolitic, it would be foolish to reject everything in literature or science simply because it was first written or discovered by a Yankee: Bryant is a rank abolitionist and 4 deadly ioe to the South. Should he be in the army x>f Butler or of Grant threatening our capital, the law of national self-defense would justify us in praising the bullet which should find it way to his heart—-but we will admire the lhanatopsi nevertheless, and whenever it suits our purpose will quote from ‘ the Ages ” lines to point a sentence or set forth in appropriate form an useful thought. Longfellow, we presume, being in the hot bed *of Yankee notions, “sympathizes” with the unholy crusade of Lincoln against Southern rights and Southern liberties, yet in the brief intervals of time between the ( cessation of one Yankee cannonading and the beginning of another, we shall not feel we are guilty of treason in repeating and conping over the Psalm of Life, or in echoing the language and the sentiments of the “ Footsteps of the Angels.” It is told of Patrick Henry that he once gained a cause from sober justices on the bench by ridiculing the authorities cited by the op posing counsel from law books, when British cannon was sounding in their ears | , Had we been on the court, we might have , been heard into a phnihr fwttrity with our ( fellow Justices, but it would have been a fatuity, neuertheless. British legal authori ties were right, though British cannon was iniquitous. Is it right to say, “ I dined yesterday at the Brook,” “ I will dine to-morrow at the Brook/’ or, “ I dined on yesterday at the Brook,” “ I will dine on to-morrow at the Brook ” ? Dr. Reynolds, of the Confed erate Baptist, maintains the former. A ’ correspondent of the Baptist comes out in favor of the’ latter. The resolution of the riddle depends upon the question, whether “yesterday” and “to-morrow” are used as nouns or as adverbs in th sentence. If as adverbs, the “ on ” ought not to be there ; if as nouns, the “ou” is right. Dr. 11., without denying that yesterday and to morrow are sometimes nouns, insists that the words are used in such phrases adverbially by the best writers; cites Robert Hall* , Webster, Alexander Hamilton, Jefferson, . Calhoun, John Foster, &c., and adds, “were , it worth while columns of authorities might bo cited.” His citations suffice; but may ( not an equal number of the best writers be , cited on the other side ? I will not enter ] upon the task. I leave it to the correspon. , dent of the Baptist to enlighten us. These j .“ ijmm pterceuta,” as Horne took calls them, . are worth attending to just now. It they ( serve no other purpose than to divert atten- . tion even for a few moments from the sub ject of war, they are useful and ought to be , encouraged. J ‘ Woman in Sickness.— What sight is more agreeable than woman around the coueh of pain, wiping the sweat from the brow, and administering to the sick ? Like an angel of mercy, she watches unwearied, and never leaves the sufferer, while her presence can bless and her words cheer. It ‘may be a father or a.son over whom she bends, or a stranger who has left a mother or a kind sister beyond the seas. She watches every moment—hears every breath. With such care the bed of sickness loses half its pain, and hope continually swells in the bosom. Those orators who give us much noise and many words, but little argument and less wit, and who are the loudest when least lucid, should take a lesson from the great volume of nature; she often gives us the lightning without the thunder, but never the thunder without the lightning. Superstition is the spleen of the soul. THE PASTOR'S AID: THU THE SINNER’S FRIEND. MACON, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1864. Army Correspondence of the Index. Army News —Religious state of the Army — Indexes Wanted. £ Won’t oar readers help supply the Indexes to this gallant and glorioos army? Our fund for the purpose has been long exhaust ~ :l|Pr~ Camp near Petersburg,) August Mt, 1864. * ) The quiet which has so long-reigned along our lines here, was suddenly broken on day before yesteaday morning, by an at tempt on the part of the enemy to get pos session of our works during the confusion produced by the springing of one of their mines. Thorough preparation had been made for the accomplishment of their pur pose; a feint had been msuier a few days before on the north side ot the James for the purpose of drawing off our forces, acd ever} 7 precaution taken to eusure success. But the watchful eye of our great leader penetrated the designs of the “ crafty Ulysses/’ and the night before orders were sent around for our troops to be specially vigilant, as they would probably be attacked the next morning. At daybreak heavy skirmishing begun, and just before sunrise a carefully drepared mine, which the skill of our engineers bad failed successfully to “ countermine,” was sprung under a portion of ous works, occupied by Elliott’s South Carolina brigade. It- was so far successful to blow up about fifty yards of our fortifi cations, and in tlie confusion which ensued, the enemy rushed in with yells and took possession, of a considerable portion'of our breastworks. Their triumph was, however, of brief duration. Gen. A. P. Hill being called on, was'soon on the spot with Wright’s Georgia, Saunders’s Alabama and Mahonc’s Viaginia brigades, and in a brilliant charge retook the lost position, almost annihilating the Yankee command that had taken pos session. We captured at least twelve hun dred prisoners (eighty-four officers, inclu ding one Brigadier-General aud staff and three Colonels,) and eighteen stand of colors'. \V hat added peculiar interest to the contest was, that our boys met negro troops for the first time. The black raseals mounted the parapet, calling out “No quarter!” and they were accommodated, for our boys fell upon and slaughtered them terribly until our officers interfered and put au end to the carnage. The Yankee loss in killed and wounded was very heavy, far exceeding our loss, which was about six hundred. Our works which were blown up have been fully rebuilt, and our original lines restored. And thus has ended the “brilliant achieve ment” with which the Yankee papers have been intimating Grant was to astonish the nation. The Yankee troops sent to the north side of the James have returned, and things have resumed their old status —the “ grand move” only resulting in the loss of some brave fellows on our part, and a heavy repulse and slaughter of the enemy. What will Lieutenant-General Grant do next? He has tried massing his heavy columns in attempts to break onr lines; then he tried to “ steal in at the back door of Richmond” by flanking our positions; next he tried to starve us out by his cavalry raids, and now he has endeavored to. blow up our ‘ and march into Petersburg. But all these efforts have met with the same disastrous failure, and one would suppose that the Lieutenant-General had begun by this time to be somewhat non-plussed. The cam paign now presents a very different appear, ance from, what it did several weeks ago. Hunter’s vandals were routed from Lynch burg as they were about to begin their march on Richmond from the South-side, and our victorious boys carried terror to the heart of Yankeedom. Sheridan and Wil son’s raiders were so roughly handled that they have not yet recruited sufficiently to assume the offensive. Grant now lies on the banks of the Appomattox, making war upon the women and children of Peters burg, and perhaps digging a few more mines. But the tramp of Early’s victorious veterans is heard north of the Potomac, spreading terror amongst those who have been wont to “ eat the bread of quietness” in their peaceful homes, and rejoice at the ravages committed by their hirelings on the people of our fair Southern land. But you will want to know something of the present religions condition of our army. A large portion of the troops are so located that they cannot assemble tor preaching without subjecting themselves to a heafy fire lrom the enemy—but even here the ratew&tiot neglect their little pmyer meet ing And thus the good work goes on. On a large part of the line, however, we have preaching, and a good deal of inter cei/s manifested in the services. In Bryan’s Wofford’s Georgia, Kershaw’s South and several other brigades, there ait: revivals of deep interest. Indeed, we might look for a very general revival tbmaghout the army if the position of all thA 7 troops would admit of regular labor aUMflejjt them, and we had laborers to enter harvest. I have been receiv ing therV“lndex” very irregularly, but if could see the eagerness with tte soldiers seize and read the copies I mtvej,jehd their disappointment when the they would give more libdMll} to sending your most excellent papfeH the soldiers. There has been a of'reading matter here, but now that themiails are becoming more regu- hope that the supply of papers will bel#jjg|r. > our Virginia Baptist Colporteur Boast has become, I learn, a little pressed for tnoney to carry ou their extensive work. I only mention the fact, which I am sure sufficient to secure for Brother Whspfco n, as he goes among the brethren of liberal contributions, since the operations of this Board amongst the troops of every State are known and appreciated by Georgia Baptists. —W.— what"are we r Soldier, we are all great sinners. Sinners we were born, and sinners we have been all our lives. We take to sin naturally from the very first, No child needs schooling and education to teach it to do wrong. No evil or bad companion ever leads us into such wickedness as our own hearts. And the wages of sin is death. We must either be forgiven or lost eternally.. We are all guilty sinners in the sight of God. We havebroken his holy la#. We hare transgressed his preoepts. We have his will. There is not a command men in all the tsp whiqjfi does not oagdemn us. If we have not broken it indeed, we have in word; if we have not broken it in word, we have in thought and imagination, and that continually. Tried by the stan dard of the fifth chapter of Mathew, there is not one of us that yould be acquitted.— And as it is’ appointed unto men once to die, so after this comes the judgment. He must either be forgiven, or perish everlastingly. Surely we ought all to cease from proud thoughts about ourselves. We ought to lay our hands upon our mouths, and say with Absaliam, “I am dust and ashes,” and with Job, “I am vile.” and with Isaiah, “We are all as an unclean thing,” and with John, “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”— Gen. 18: 27; Job 40: 4; Isa. 64: 6; I Johfi 1: 9. Where is the man or woman in t&e whole catalogue of the book of life, that will ever be able to say more than this, “I obuined mercy ?” What is the glori ous ccmpay of the apostles, the goodly fel lowship of the prophets, the noble army of martyrs, what are-they all but pardoned sin ners ? Surely there is but one conclusion to be arrived at— We are all great sinners, and vx all need a groat forgiveness. FAST DAY IN NEW YORK. In its notice of the last “Yankee” fast day, (Aug. 4th,) the N. Y. Herald, of the sth, says, that ‘ the general closing of places of business was almost the only thing betokening that a fast day was in progress, while on the streets might be seen everything suggesting the idea of a holiday.’ “Yes MffekJy was a very fast day. The people cel ebrated it by excursions in fast'steamers, and drives behind fast horses. But there was very little fasting except among those too poor to eat, and very little praying except in the churches, where the parsons are paid so much a year for that business.” Dr. Sunder land preached in Dr.Burchard’s church, and in the coarse of his sermon said: “Asa nation, we are the most wicked, audacious/ and God-defying people on the face of the earth,” whose “three greatest iniquities have long been Momus, Mammon and Moloch; (which was rather more truth than the North hears of itself every day.) “In his denunciation of the course England has pur sued towards the North, in his strong con demnation of Wall street and kindred sub* jects, the speaker was repeatedly applaud ed!” In the evening, Lindley Spring de livered at Cooper Institute, an address on “Poaee aud Reconcilliation,” which (if the Herald may be believed,) “consisted mainly of vituperation and personal abuse of the sol diers of the North, fighting for the Union, characterizing the war as illegal, unjust and disgraceful. The South was held up as a much abused people, and as certain to secure their independence. In, his coarser and m >re unfeeling allusions to the North, he was loudly applauded.” , “ DU|IE MISSIONS.” The N. C. Presbyterian has received some copies of the True Presbyterian, edited by Dr.. Stuart Robinson, of Louis ville, Ky. . We copy the following, of some interest to the Methodists of the South, from the former .paper, which says: In speaking of the movements by Methodists and Baptists of the United States to get possession of the churches and church property of these denominations in the Confederacy, we remarked that We had seen no move of the kind on the part of Pres bytjjrians. It appears from an article in the True Presbyterian, that influential Presbyterians in that land of thieves are ready for-the same kind of work to which the Methodists and Baptists have devoted themselves. Even the Philadelphia Pres byterian urges it. Who will say that in this war we arc not fighting for religious, as well as for civil liberty ?—for the Church, as well- as for the State f But we are keeping the reader from Dr. Robinson’s article on “ Dixie Missions.” He says : The new gospel, the corner-stone of which is Servants Obey NOT Your Masters, is soon to be widely proclaimed in the Fed eral lines down South. The United Pres byterian Charch has recently .sent sixteen ‘Missionaries to Vicksburg and vicinity. The Methodist Episcopal Church, North, in its zeal, however, takes the lead. The Methodist, of New York, of a recent date, says: “ The recent appropriation of thirty-five thousand dollars for the extension of our work in the far s ontb, likely to be fol lowed by important consequences. “ Measures have already been taken to carry out the plans of our Church. Bishop Ames, at last accounts, was at St. Louis, preparing to start upon his tour down t the Mississippi. Bish#p Simpson will soon pro ceed to Tennessee. A prominent and pop ular M< thodist minister, now stationed in New York city, has been des : gnated for the city of New Orleans; and though the ap pointment demands of him not a little sac rifice, his acceptance is nevertheless hoped for. An order has been given by the Sec retary of War, permitting the occupation of deserted Churches within our military lines, and the use ’of them temporarily for religious services.” ***** “ Many facts in the condition of the Southern States, encourage the hope of the return of the vast majority of the Metho-v dists in the South to the old Church of As bury and McKendrec, from which many of them separated witn the greatest reluctance. The Methodist Episeopal Church, South, is shivered to atoms. It is douttful if its General Conference will ever meet again; or if it shall meet, it will be shorn of its former proportions. The publishing house in Nashville is in the hands of the United States authorities. The members of the Louisville Conference, at their last session, avowed their loyalty to the Government of the Union, aud by that avowal severed themselves from the rebel part of Southern Methodism.” What do Kentucky Methodists say to that—that the Methodist Church, North, is so identified with the Federal political power, that adherence to the one implies equal union to the ? Is the Metho dist a correct interpreter of the Louisville Conference ? Is that Conference already by that vote, also transferred to the Church North ? Or .can it be that the Methodist is a little too fast, and that “ the time of figs is not yet ? ” - - * The Presbyterian, of Philadelphia, pro nounces the 835,000 appropriation of the Methodist Missionary Committee “ indica tive of a wise policy by which the Metho dist Church will doubtless gradually secure a foothold in the Southern States;” and further proceeds to declare that, “ it is not a day too soon for all the Churches to con sider the most feasible re-estab lishing the institutions of > n the States which are returning to their former places in the Union.” Work of God in Gen. Lee’s Army. Dr. Rosser, missionary chaplain in Gen. Lee’s army, says in a recent letter : “ Christ is in our camps. Faith in God is the central principle of our army. It is wonderful: we are invincible. The banner of the.cross is welcomed everywhere. Last Sunday I preached to an- assembly of sol diers, among whom sat devoutly five gen erals, their staff and subordinate officers. The, word was in power, #nd the work pf God is glorious ! ” Scholarship without good breeding is but tueaome. pedantry. TERMS, SIO.OO IN ADVANCE VOI. XLIII.-NG. 33 • TIME. Mom caUeth fondly to a fair boy straying ‘Mid golden meadows, rich, with clover dew; She calls—but he still thinks of naught save playing, . And so she smiles and waves him an adieu 1 Whilst he, still merry with his flowery store. Deems not that morn, sweet taorn, returns no more. Noon cometh —but the boy to manhood grow ing, Heeds not the time—he sees but one sweet form, . One young, fair face*from bower of jasmine glowing, And all his loving heart with bliss is warm. &< Noun, unnoticed, seeks the western shore, And man forgets that noon returns no more. Night tappeth gently at a casement gleaming W ith the thin firelight flickeringfaint and low; By which a grey-haired man is sadly dream ing Os pleasures gone as all life’s pleasures go. Night calls him to her and he leaves his door, Silent and dark—and he returns no more. * God’s Word to Inquirers. IV.‘ THE OBJECT OP FAITH. 1. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. John i. . 2. Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel,and said unto them: Draw out, and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the Jintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason : and nbnc of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through’ to smite the Egyptians; and % when he seeth the blood on the lintel, and upon the two side-posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroy er to come in unto your house, to smite you. And ye shall observe this thing for an ordi nance to ihee and to thy sons forever. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you,What mean ye by thissetvice . That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt’, when he smote the Egyptiansand delivered our houses And the people buwed the head and worshipped. And the children of Israel went away and did as the Lord had comman *ded Closes and Aaron, bo did they. And it came to pass that at midnight, the Lord smote all the first-born in thqjand of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on the throne, unto ti e first-born of the cap tive that was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of the cattle. And Pharaoh rose ■Up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Ei-ypt, for there was not a house where ther was not one dead. Ex. xii. 3. Who hath believed our report and to whom is the am of the lord revealed ? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground, he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and re jected of men ; a man of sorrows, and ac quainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was Wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our in iquities : the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflict ed; yet he opened not-his tnouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and J&ho shall declare his generation ? for he was cut off out of the land es the living : for the transgressions of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death : because he had done no violence, neither was any vio lence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him : he hath pub him to grief. When thou shalt - make his soul an offering for sin, heshallsee his seed, he shall prolong his davs, and the pleasure of th'e Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many : for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I di vide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, be cause be hath poured out his soul unto death; and he was numbered with the transgress ors : and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Isa. liiL