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.. I. , iU ‘ ‘ ‘S’ A’
BY SAMUEL BOYKIN.
50 xN T OS. IN A VOL.
*"■ 1 r -'J
you WHAT WILL YOU ASK?
Oh, ask not for wealth :
Th# gaudy bubble giittero to deceive :
It hath a thorn to press thee when asleep: ,
It.naketh wings,,and leaveth thee to weep:
! ‘ ...Ask hot what wealth can give.
Arc not ft.- r-tote r.
“'’Tue eh if.’ :.ii ! ,V.e breaks at e * cry‘£ate:
Its taiighty shadow stalks in midnight gloom;
* It kills its hero, ikm it hnunts his tomb,
Where all its triumphs fail.
Ask not for love ;
“The fond heart’s idol” breuketh the fond heart:
Ills siuile is felt in sorrow's darkest hour;
Ask not his treacherous dart.
*** ~ * *
Ask not for life ;
“ Not even life itself makes good the name,”
How oft its victim craves the boon of death,
When gijt or sorrow yearns to yield the breath;
Ask not the fitful flame.
Ask for a beoken heart ;
A grief for all the ills thy hand hath done ;
A pang for wasted life, for useless breath ;
A hope that triumphs o’er the fear of death :
Ask, and the goal is won.
Ask for a quiet mini* ;
A heart at rest from all the jars of strife ;
A humble heart, that never so.as to fall;
A brui t to bless the Haud that gives its all,
That priceless gilt of life.
* * * * •*
Ask for a home in heaven ;
l’oor lonely wanderer on life's troubled sea,
When wealth and fame aud power are wreck
ed ami gone,
And all earth's blandishments forever flown, •
. Ask for a home in heaven, where grief cau
never be. ,
. For the Christian Index.
TWO SCENES IN A HOSPITAL.
HX MRS. MARX A MeCRIMMOV.
Let us go, this line afternoon, and see
some ot the brave defenders of eur country,
who lay wounded in yonder largo and well
lilled hospital. First we will visit the young
Tennesseean, who has a wound in his left
shottldyr. What a Gnc, athletic ‘form he
}i and noble Grecian features; but ah!
toe deu h-glazo has dimmed the light of his
fine grey eye. lie was attacked with sec
ondary hemorrhage a few days ago, and now
his life is fast ebbing away. Tread softly
so as not to disturb him. Hark! be is
t peaking, and his tones are full of agony.
What does ho say? “God be merciful to
me a sinner, a wretched, miserable sinner!
Oh, Lord, he merciful to me right now!
Jlijht now! oh, Lord, for I am sinking,
sinking, sinking! Oh, for mercy, mercy!'’
Poor lei lo w ! perhaps we can say something
to comfort him; so we will speak to him.
“ Do you fear to die, my friend ? “
“ Death would he a relief to me if I could
only reach heaven; blit ah! the way is
dark.”
“‘ I ;:m the way, and the truth, and the
life,’ ” says Jesus; ‘“Ho that cometh unto
me I will iu no wise cast out.’ ”
“ Ah ! if I ouly could believe; but I am
such a sinner.”
“‘Christ came not to call the righteous,
hut sinners, to repentance’; then why not
believe he is willing to save you. Don’t
you believe, if your father were here, he
would relieve your sufferings, if he could?”
“ Oh, yes; of course I do.”
“‘Like as a father pifcieth Jus children,
so the Lord pitictli those who fear- him.’
Cau you trust him now ? ”
“I will try; but 1 have prayed so long
to no purpose, lam almost iu despair.” 4
“God’s word can never fail, and you
must believe before lie will hear you.”
“ I will try; do pray for me, for lam
most gone.”
Promising to do as lie wished, we turn
reflecting on the folly of puttiug off
repentance tea dying hour. When the
body is weak and the nerves unstrung, the
mind is incapable ol grasping the difficulties
.of repentance.
But wc are now approaching the room of
ano her dying mau—-one of whose patience
and gentle manly courtesy all the surgeon*
and nurses speak iu praise. As we catch a
glimpse of his high intellectual forehead
and fine classic features, we are convinced
that he is a man of no ordinary mind. -His
eyes are closed, and from the gentle expres
sion of his face, we at first imagine that he
is asleep; but no, his- lips are moving.—
STread gently and sec what he says, for he is
speaking in a very low tone
r- “Precious Jesus! Blessed. Saviour!—
Keep .them in the hollow of thy hand, as
thou didst keep me that bitter night upon
the battle field. Bless the Lord oh my soul,
and all that is within me bless Ids holy
name.”
A pain seems to shake his fine frame at
this point, for his handsome lips quiver, and
drops of perspiration gather upon his noble
brow, while his hands clench and jerk con
vulsively. How much he suffers ! Let us
try to comfort him.
“ My brother, do you love the Savior ? ”
Instantly a smile of heavenly sweetness
lights up his countenance as he- replies,
“ Oh ! yes.” i
“ do not fear to die then ? ”
“ No, my trust is in God, and I know
that if the earthly house of this tabernacle
were dissolved, I have a building, a house
not made with hands eternal in the heavens.”
Another spasm of pain shivers’ over his
manly frame, and we leave him, feeling that
all is well with him. He has not been
ashamed of Jesus in his life", and now Je
sus will not be ashamed of him before His
father and the holy angels. Gentle reader,
learn a lesson from these two scenes.
OUR NORTH CAROLINA CORRES
PONDENCE.
Mysterious visitor —Prices and trade—Buffa-.
loes and their depradations—Mail communi
cations cutoff—Two Editors differ— Thoughts
on the condition of our country —Shall the
son of man find faith on the earth.
Murfreesboro, N. C., Jan. 13th, ‘65.
Dear Index: —Since I last wrote you a
strange 4 visitor made its appear .uce in the
waters of our beautiful Chowan two weeks
ago. Quite a large steamer freighted, as is
affirmed, with candies, molasses, coffee and
sugar , with a small quantity of cheese be
longing to the ship’s crew, steamed up the wide
waters of the above mentioned river escort
ed by a gunboat, entered the narrow stream
Nottaway and made her moorings in about
.three miles of the Seaboard and Roanoke
R. R. Here she discharged her cargo and
for the articles mentioned, received our cot
ton gi exchange. The mystery that this
performance produces is caused by the fact,
that no one seems to know anything about
the affair farther than “ outside ” obsunrau
tion “ except officials.” The boat is said to
have left the wharf in Philadelphia, Penn ,
with said goods owned by the yankees. She
was protected by them till she met the kind
embrace of the Confederates. Here she ex
changed commodities in” our linos. Her
captain visited Weldon, passed usual civil
ities and returned. Our people are piping
about this thing. Some thinking one thing,
some another. Each saying, “ I can’t trade
with the yankees, but the commissaries
can.”
Would you like to know what we who are
so near “in the line” have to pay for food,
Ac., and how we trade for foreign articles ?
Pork is now $5 per pound, wheat SSO per
bushel, corn SIOO per barrel, sorghum $25
per gallon, calico $22 per yard, coffee $18,75
per pound. Sometimes a friend goes into
the neutral ground from Chowaa river east
to the ocean. Before going he prepares
himself with N. C. bank money for which i
he gives “high enough,” now ‘7s for one/
ne goes to the neutralonerchant in Elizabeth
City and Edenton and there he pays iu bank
money §2,50 per pound for coffee, $1,50 for
ernment tradesman who deal very largely for
themselves “ run across cotton for which they
exchange bacon “ pound for pound.” There
-is a great deal of foul play in “ these parts,”
upon the government, communities and in
dividuals.
You have read and heard of buffaloes'.
Did you ever see the creature of this war
which is known in North Carolina parlance
as buffalo? As you may not be well acquaint
ed with the shape and character of the btast
I will simply -say that they are the native
born North or citizens of the
State, who have chosen a middle ground in
this war, who never fight but always ste4
and prey upon any property; that of the
Confederacy preferred. It is a low band of
robbers and thieves who watch their oppor
tunity to cross the river and steal whatever
they can. Sometimes making excursions
ten or twelve miles “ over the lines.” They
claim protection from the Federals, as they
are ostensibly their friends. The origin of
their name seems to have been kmong the
yankees. As they would not join the yan
kees to fight they were not “ horse,” as they
would not join the Connfederates they were
not “ cow ” so says the yankees, who gave
them their name, you are “’buffalo.”
Our mail communications have been cut
off for a day or two past. The heavy fresh
ets in Roanoke river having washed away
a portion of the rail road bridge over the
river at Weldon.
I notice quite a difference of opinion and
THE PASTOR’S AID; THE CHRISTIAN’S GUIDE: THE SINNER'S FRIEND.
MACON, GEORGIA, THUKSBAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1865.
■pirit in two of the leading papers of one of
our important Southern cities in Georgia.
The one saying “ We are on the verge of
ruin.” The other “Our prospects for in
dependence was never brighter”—or the
same in substance. I notice tlmtthe former
editor is an anti-administration man ; tri<
latter, one who labors to hold up the. hands
of him in authority. The one thinks times
terribly gloomy and seems to sink under it.
The other one views the chastening hand of
divine Providence, and bounds up above the
storm with the patriotism of a revolutionary
sire, and says “wu can, and by the help oj
God, we will be free.” Georgia ought to
be proud of that editor. I know him, not
personally, but as a man for the times, be
is in the right place.
Shall we despond at the present juncture
of affairs in our couutry’s history? Was
not Israel held by Midiali seven years and
then freed ? Was she not overrun, pillaged
and was not her people driven to dens and
caves ? and yet did not the youth from the
threshing floor deliver her? Were not many
desponding too ? Did they not say that they
could not see how or why God would dcliv
them since “ all this has befallen us ?” Was
not the army of thirty-two thousand reduc
ed to three hundred ? and did'not God de
liver his people thus that they might give
him the glory ? Are we right in this great
struggle is the question, notareweall Chris
tians and all doing right; but is that princi
ple of “ eternal right” of which Washing
ton speaks in his farewell address, with us ?
If so, God being for us theWime is coming
when he will avenge his elect. . Soon we
will see that he has taken a great name to
himself in all our troubles, and as I believe
will make us a free and happy people.
How deplorable tlig, sight now to see the
empty benches at our daily prayer meetings
all over our country! Surely the people are
blind and mad men who profess to believe
in God, in prayer, &c., now seldom ‘darken’
-rtro diumh doer sh-T -—-A
ty lucre of this world, laying up treasures
here instead of laying them up in heaven.
We have a faithful few in this place who
are as regular as the suu to set, if no prov
idential hinderance, to the prayer meeting.
Notwithstanding these promises of God
to his people, their blessings and the many
manifestations of his presence with, us as a
people, to-day those favored people live as
‘if there was no God. Surely it does now
.seem that if the Sou of Man were to come
he would not find faith on the earth, if we
judge the vast majority for the church.
May God have mercy upon us and turn
us by his mighty power, that instead of
practical infidelity we may have true relig
ion. J- E. Carter.
• *
For the Christian Index.
LETTER FROM THE LOW COUNTRY
Thomas Cos., Ga., Jan. 16th, 1865.
The papers of your city insist upon loca
ting Kilpatrick and his raiders in this county,
but as yet we have’ been spared a visit from
the miserable brigands. We have had a
few thousandyankce prisoners here in trans
itu to another locality 7 . They were detained
over here for a week or two awaiting trans
portation, and were objects of curious inter
est to many who had never before seen a
yankee prisoner. While these people were
among us rumors became rife in the commu
nity that Sherman and his •army were on
their way here to liberate them. As soon
as the report began to gain credence, and peo
ple feared that the* enemy would soon he in
their midst, it was suddenly discovered that
the prisoners were in a very pitiable condi
tion and demanded sympathy. Some few
ladies who possessed such gushing sympa
thies and overflowing benevolence that they
could not begin to find scope for their exer
cise in the few Confederate siok and wound
ed who were objects of their c.are, decided
that the sick yankees ought to have nourish
ing broths and soups, and such were furnish
ed by some parties while others gave clean
clothing to replace their garments which
weie filthy even to loathsomeness, though
this looks very much like “casting pearls be
fore swine,” for their clothing was not black
er than their persons, their faces and hands
being so begriiumed with dirt that even ne
groes who saw them inquired whether they
were black men or white. These benevolent
ladies argued, “suppose our husbands and
sons should be taken prisoners, we would like
to have them kindly cared for;” but it was
a little remarkable that those who were fore
most in th# movement had neither husbands
nor sons in danger of being made captive.
The yankees returned the kind offices shown
them by insolence apd theft as we might
naturally suppose-they would, while the few
Confederate soldiers in the place, true warm
hearted patiots, some of them smarting un
der/wounds inflicted by these very people,
atj4 more than one crippled for life by their
murderous bullets, looked on with amaze
meht and disgust at the unwonted proceed
ings. But the prisoners were removed, and
if what we hear of their whereabouts be
true, they are ere this beyond the reach even
of Sherman's raiders, and as what govern
ment property was brought here from Sa
vannah, previous to the cutting of the Gulf
railroad has been taken farther into the in
terior, and there is so littlefleft to tempt the
cupidity of the foe'we may hope to be ex
empt from their marauding expeditions, as
they would hardly travel two or three hun
dred miles through a sandy pine barren to
attack a little country town with scarcely a
thousaud people in it.
We share in the common sorrow at losing
our beautiful sea-board city; but we cannot
help feeling that it is better for the Confed
eracy that Sherman should be there than in
Atlanta, and far better for us as Georgians.
While in Atlanta he was in the heart of our
wheat lands, and threatening in four direc
tions the productive aud manufacturing in
terests of the State, on the other hand the
compartively barren lands around Savannah
“will give him little foraging ground; and
there are no manufacturing interests in that
section of the country. Meanwhile he.will
have to feed fr-oin twenty to thirty thousand
of our people, seventeen of them it is true
are traitors whom we would just as soon see
starve as any other way, but thousands of
them are women and children and very
many of them helplessly poor.
There are three agencies to which we look
for the accomplishment of our independence.
The army, the press and the church. The
army has fulfilled and is fulfilling nobly its
„* r lh q - tuxuggfak-...Hi story gives.-acuia-.
cord ■jT" any army ever ii'L petted by a purer
and loftier patriot.sm, and from the begin
iug of this war to the present time its course,
has been marked by deeds of lofty daring
and self sacrifice, suen xs could be the growth
alose of devotion t® a ,-j and holy cause.
Tht very name of soldier has become to our
people a hallowed word. The press has been
equally faithful in its sphere. The newspa
per of this Confederacy, dailies and week
lies, secular, religious and literary, have
with singular unanimity, upheld with the
string arm of their influence the cause of
human rights and the God-given liberty for
which we are contending; and with the ex
ception of some few papers edited by par
ties who are among us but not of us, neith
er by birthright noi; in sentiment-and Feel
ing, all have breathed forth to us such words
;. f cheer, such incentivea to exertion, such
iunflagging hope and confidence in the ulti
mate triumph of our cause as to demand our
bratitude, and when our independence is
‘r ebieved and we shall proudly take our stand
Imong the recognized nationalities of earth,
text to the army our success will have been
:ue to the faithful efforts of the press, more
ban to any other human agency. The next
uestion which arises is has the Church per
brmed her share of the obligation ?* Is her
record as clean and pure as that of the army
fend the press ? Alas ! for the reply. The
God we serve has taught,us in his word that
we must expect his blessings only in an
swer to prayer It is the mighty lever which
moves the arm of Jehpvah. Even our great
and Divine Exemplar while on earthy was
not unmindful of its power, nor regardless
of its obligations. He spent -whole nights
is prayer to God, and if it became Kim thus
to agonize before the mercy seat in beKalf
of a sinful suffering race, does it not much
more become us to prostrate ourselves before
Him when we desire blessings at His hand ?
We bring our individual sorrows aud bur
thens and anxieties to the foot of the cross,
are we as faithful in presenting the wants
of our bleeding land ? When smarting un
der personal bereavements God is our refuge
and strength. Do we commend to his shel
tering care the country that we love? When
God’s chastisements are resting oh our fam
ilies, how earnestly and how humbly we be
seech him for their withdrawal. Is the du
ty less binding on us to pray that the rod
of his anger may be turned away from our
people. How cold and formal are our pe
titions for peace, when uttered at all. How
often is it in the -tone of one who expects
not the blessing, rather than the anguished
cry for deliverance to Him who alone is able
to accomplish it ? There has been many a
fervent prayer offered that the Lord would
give us power to resist onr foes and he has
given us such power, that he would make
our soldiers God-fearing men and -they have
been converted by thousands and tens of
thousands; but we seem to forget in a great
measure can hfitig usp&bA It
has been my lot since the commencement of
this war to many different con
gregations, yet everywhere I have noticed
this remarkable defect in public pfaycr. We
seem to consider that we have nothing to do
with the question of peace-making, that it
rests alone with our enemies, true it does in
a certain scene; yet the hearts of men are in
the hands of the Lord, and 110 turns them
as the rivers of water are turned, and it be
comes us to implore Ilim that he will influ
ence them to cease this unnatural and fatii
cidal war against us and leave us to enjoy
the independence we have asserted and
are determined to secure. Every Christian
heart knows that Qod is the hearer and an
swerer of prayer; and if we are watchful
Christians we see it exemplified every day
of our lives. How ought we to be encour
aged by it to present our wants to Him who
has said that “ Like as a father pitieth his
children .so the Lord pitieth them that fear
him.” I was in Richmond when McClellan
with his vast army was besieging that city.
It was my privilege to attend the special prayer
meetings which were held in view of the
threatened danger, a-nd as the hour of prayer
came around from time to time, spacious
church edifices would be filled until not. a
vacant seat was left, and often many would
be standing in the broad aisles participating
in the devotions of the hour. So earnest
Were the pleadings for help to Him who
alone could aid in that hour of peril that
they seemed to take hold of the mercy-seat
and bring down the felt presence of the De
ity, and inoro than once on these occasions
my.heart felt as if standing at the very por
portals of Heaven’s gate, and even then,
not on my mind tlic shadow of a doubt, but
the city would for that time at least be spar
ed. The spirit manifested in those prayers
was the earnest of the blessing sought. I
know not if the zeal of those Christians has
cooled ; hut if it lias not, if similar petitions
are now going forth and with like believing
earnestness, not all the a* mies of earth, nay
not if combined with the powers of dark
ness can overthrow that city. The prayer
of faith -will save it. I know it for the
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. A spir
it of like believing prayer in the hearts ot
Christians and directed to peace as the ob
ject would surely bring us peace. Shall we
cultivate it, shall we not pray for it and la
bor to obtain it. Let every one who has
power with God arouse themselves to this
sacred duty, not in the sanctuary alone, not
only in the house of social prayer, but at the
fireside altar, and in the lonely closet morn
ing, noon and night. Let us cry mightily
unto God for peace and independence, then
shall our wasted homes smile again in beau
ty a3 of yore, and the desecrated altars of
our land freed from the control of -vandal
foes shall send forth anew song of praise
and thanksgiving to our Lord. Joan.
STEWARDS OF THE LORD.
It is a lamentable fact that .-many Chris
tians seem incapable of understanding that
they arc stewards of the Lord, and that
themselves, and all they have belong to him.
The selfish luxury in whidh so many who
have taken upon them the “Suviour’s name
are content to live, the absence of real effort
on the part of the rieff to help the poor, at
their very doors; the meagreness of the
contributions which many Christian congre
gations make towards the support of the
great missionary cause of the Church, all
testify to this fact. ‘Jfce-late Arthur Hugh
Clough oiioe said, in the spirit of true Chris
tian philanthropy, that “the possession of
riches is a call, not to self-indiligence, but
to self-denial.” The saying, seems in these
days, strangely paradoxical; bUTt by those.
early Christians who “ had all things com
mon,” it would have been counted truism.—
Epis. Recorder.
Expressive. —A young Irish girl, who
was rendering testimony against an individ
ual in a court of law, said, —“I am -sure he
never made his mother smile.” a
comprehensiveness and intensity of express
ion, in this simple sentence, to which wc have
scarcely, if ever, seen a parallel. Such a his
tory ot hard-heartedness and depravity., was
surely never compressed into eight words
before!
TERMS? 415.00 FOR SIX MO'S
VOL. XUVr-m ti
THE ACCURACY OF THE BIBLE.
An astonishing feature of the Word o
God is, notwithstanding the time at which
its compositions were written, -ahd the mul
titude of topics to which it alludes, there is
not one physical error, not one assertion or
allusion disapproved byttfS prog¥os'6f tired- ‘
ern science. None of those mistakes which
the science of each succeeding age discover
ed in the books of the proceeding; above
all, none of those absurdities which modern
astonomy indicates in such great numbers
in the writings of the ancients in their sa
cred codes, in their philosophy, and the fin
est pages of the fathers of the Church;
none of these errors are to be found in any
*of its books. Nothing there will ever con
tradict that which, after so many ages, the
investigations of the learned world have
been able to reveal to us on the state o’s our
globe or that of the heavens. Peruse with
care our Scriptures from one end to the oth
er to find there such spots, and whilst you
apply yourself to this examination, remem
ber, that it is a book which speaks of every
thing; which describes nature, which re
. cites its creation, which tells us of the wa
ter, of the atmosphere, of tlic mountains,
of the valleys, of the animals, and of the
plants. It is a book which teaches us of the
first revolutions of the world, and foretells
its last. It recounts them 4n the circumstan
tial language of history, it extols them ip.
the sublimest strains of poetry, and it chants
them in the charm of glowing song. It is
a book whieh is full of Oriental rapture, ele
vation, variety and boldness. . It is a book
which spreaks of the heavenly and invisible
world, whilst it also speaks of the earth and
things visible. It is a book which nearly
fifty writers of nearly every degree of civil
ization, of. every state, of every condition,
aud living through the course of fifteen hun
dred years have concurred .to make. It is
a book which was writteu in ,the center of
Asia, oh the sands of Arabia, and in the
deserts of Arnica : i • ooeri. of tha-Gm
pie df the Jews, in the music schools of the
prophets of Bethel and' 1 Jericho, in the
sumptuous palaces of Babylon, and on the
idolatrous banks of Chebar: and, finally, in
the centre of Westefrn civilization, in the
midst of polytheism and its idols, and in the
bosom of pantheism and its sad philosophy.
It is a book whose first writer hud been for
years a pupil of.the magicians oi Egypt; .
in whose opinion the sun, the stars and the
elements were endowed with intelligence.
It is a book whose first writer proceeded by
more than nine hundred years the most an
cient philosophers of ancient Greece and
Asia; the Thaleses and the Pythagorases,
Zaleucuses, the Xenophons, and the Confu
ciuses. It is a book which carries its narra
tions to the hierarchies of angels; even to
the most distant epoch of the fuAire, and •
the glorious scene ot the last day. Well,
s®ach among its'fifty authors, search among
its sixty-six books, its 1,189 chapters, and
31,713 verses; search for one of the thou
sand errors which'the ancients and moderns
committed when they spake of the heavens,
of the earth, of their revolutions, or tlieir
elements —search; you will find none. — Bi
ble Society Record.
THE BROKEN WING.
A gentleman, who saw and conversed with
Dr. Payson in Boston, when he visited that
city towards the latter part of his life, was
led by his preaching and* conversation to a
degree of serious concern for his soul. His
wife was still in a great measure indifferent
to the subject. One day, meeting her in
company,he said to her, “Madam, I think
your husband is* looking upwards; making
some efforts to rise above tlic world, towards
heaven. You must not let him try alone.
Whenever I see .the husband struggling
alone in such efforts, it makes me think of
a dove endeavoring to fly upwards while it
has one broken wing. It leaps and flutters,
and perhaps raises itself a little way, and then
it becomes wearied, and drops back again to
the ground. If both wings co-operate, then
it mounts easily.”
How many such families there are in the
world, with one broken wing! It seems as
though an irreligious husband, whpse wife
and perhaps children, are struggling to raise
the family so God, would not dare to go on,
acting as a dead weight, to bring not only -
himself, but those connected with him, again
and again to the ground.
Contention. — When the husband is fire,
and the wife is tow, the devil easily sets
them iu a flame.
*