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THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1867.
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Salutatory.
The subscriber trusts that he has followed
the leadings of Providence, in exchanging the
Old Dominion, as' a home, for (he Empire
State of the South. He enters on this un
tried sphere, animated by the persuasion that
God, who has called him forth from the circle
of old friends, will raise up new ones to him.
He relies, with strong confidence, on the fra
ternal spirit of the ministry and churches;
and asks a share in their Christian sympa
thies, as, next to “the supply of ihe Spirit of
Jesus Christ,” his best support in the dis
charge of arduous and difficult duties.
It will be his aim to guard the purity and
unity of the denomination; opposing all
measures which look to the incorporation of
discordant elements into our membership;
and withstanding every novelty adapted to
disturb our peace, or to corrupt our faith and
practice. He will give his undivided energies
to the great work of ‘rebuilding the walls of
Zion’ and ‘beautifying her waste places,’
after a season of convulsion and disaster with
out parallel in the history of our churches on
this continent. Above all, he will not wil
lingly forget that, for his readers, as for him
self, the principal thing is, the wisdom which
‘seeks first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness;’ and, with the help of Divine
grace, he will strive, in view of the last day,
to make his labors uniformly tributary to the
cultivation of that wisdom.
lie was emboldened to accept this respon
sible position by the assurance of “ competent
aid;” and it affords him very great pleasure
to say, that much of the labor which earned
for the Index and Baptist its high character
during the past year, will still contribute to
enrich its columns. He regrets that, under
the new arrangement, the former editors re
tire from all official connection with the pa
per; but hopes that, by frequent correspond
ence, their trained and gifted pens will repeat
“the testimony of Jesus,” to strengthen and
cheer the hearts of llis followers. And he
that a not br* ; vifith the
highest effect, a centre of light and influence,
unless its readers are also writers for it;
making it a channel of mutual edification—a
repository of their ripened convictions and
fresh thoughts—a record of their labors in
the cause of Christ, and of His “ wonderful
works” of grace toward themselves.
D. Shaver.
Education—Morals and Religion.
The Westminster Review is a strenuous ad
vocate for the divorce of religion and moral*
ity, in the education of the school. We do
not see how the two admit of separation.
Relig ion without morality, and morality with
out religion, are equal impossibilities—if the
religion is to retain its purity, or the morality
its power. To sever, is to slay them. The idea
of God is the central principle of both; and
both must be taught, as evolving themselves
from that principle, or neither can be unfolded
with theoretical precision, or enforced with
practical effect.
The Review , not ingenuously, confesses that
its position derives no strength from the only
experiment ever made in harmony with it:
“Somethingof the kind was reached in the
Greece ot Demosthenes and the Rome of
Seneca; but in either place and period the
current morality was of so narrow and un
developed a type as to preclude the practice
of the most advanced pagan nations from
throwing much light upon what seems at this
day a phenomenon so extravagant.”
W e are asked, then, to sow again the seeds
which were once cast into the earth and bore
no salutary fruit; to tread anew the path
which -conducted our precursors only to a
sterile wilderness or noxious marsh ; to essay
afresh the unsuccessful voyage on the planks
of the very ship which went to pieces between
wind and wave. What can we promise our
selves but disastrous failure ?
The Revieiv , however, is buoyant with hope
of success, “ There exists in modern Europe,”
it tells us, “ a highly tempered and elabor
ated moral science, which is at the root of all
that is best in the development of national
character.” True. But how came it to pass
that the axioms and rules of this science were
elicited and established? The reason plainly
is, that the nations have inherited the reveal
ed religion on which a just, comprehensive
and vigorous morality builds—out of'which
it grows. And what process has incorporated
these rules and axioms among the influences
which pervade society and mould its character?
The answer is found in the fact, of which the
Review assures us, “that all Englishmen, and
indeed most Europeans, are taught a religious
creed,” embodying, in greater or less purity,
the grand basis-truths of revelation and of
the morality that flows from it, “simultane
ously with whatever else they may chance to
learn.” In seeking, therefore, to introduce an
order of things in which the school shall teach
morality, while religion is untaught, the Re
view woti'd turn the hand of the child against
the .life of the parent. It seals up the foun
tain, in the vain trust that the stream will
flow on; annihilates the cause, and dreams
that the effect w ill prolong itself; removes
the foundation, and reckons on the stab 1 ity of
the superstructure. The expectation is char
acterised by every feature “ which adds ab
surdity, to error.” Under such a system of
Linsiruction, the morality of the school would
THE CHRISTIAN INDEX AND SOUTH-WESTERN BIPTIST: ATLANTA, GA, THURSDAY, JANUARY 3,1867.
logically and irresistibly gravitate once more
toward its narrow and undeveloped pagan
type. Perhaps for the next generation, the
ethics of Greece and Rome would displace
Christian ethics in all institutions of learning.
But that issue, if delayed, would be none the
less certain. Come, it must.
While rejecting the general position of the
Review , we can not refrain from citing the
witness it bears to the household, as a sphere
of education in religion:
“The devouring curiosity of a child as to
the origin of all things, can best be satisfied
in the family gathering and at the mother’s
knee; and it is in the midst of the same in
comparable influences that the feelings of awe
and love can most successfully be educed ano
trained. When these influences are unhap
pily lacking in the years of, infancy, the ex
perience of later life and contact with teach
ers of every kind will tardily supply their
place.”
Tardily; and alas, how>partially—how in
effectively ! There is no adequate compensa
tion for the want of parental instruction in
the doctrines of faith and the principles of
morality. And—acting on the maxim, that
“it is greatly wise to learn wisdom from our
enemies”—we hope that Christian parents
will derive from this testimony of a skeptical
periodical, an incentive to diligence and fideli
ty in their function of teaching, as- the do
mestic priesthood of the Lord.
The Ministry.
To “ preach”—in the sense of the New
Testament—is to act the part alike of “ herald”
and “ambassador.” This import of inspired
phraseology might be employed to illustrate
(1) the dignity, (2) importance, (3) difficul
ty, and (4) responsibility of the ministerial
office. But, without attempting to follow out
these lines of thought separately, take a
simpler view of the subject.
The preacher is a “ herald.” He bears a
message from God. He brings heavenly
truth to men. How great, then, should be
his care to know the things committed to him
for others; —to qualify himself fur their most
effective proclamation ; —to see to it that he
never suffers them to sleep in slothful or apa
thetic silence; —to keep back none of them be
cause “ carnal enmity” regards them with
displeasure,or confronts them with opposition;
—to guard them against intermixture of error,
through his own personal speculation, the
spirit of the times, the traditions that mistake
age for evidence of truth, or the novelties that
claim the character of reform for mere agita
tion and change.
The preacher is an “ ambassador.” When
he speaks, it is as though God spoke through
him ! He acts “in Christ’s stead,” as though
his ministry were, Christ announcing “ con
ditions of peace,” Christ “ reconciling the
world” to His Father and Himself! With
what holy vigilance he should seek, then, to
purge his labors from the bias of motives
looking toward his own ease, emolument, or
reputation; —to remember that he has been
invested with no powers of discretion, but
sent under a “limited commission,” which he
transcends only on peril of being “ brought
into judgment” fur it; —to maintain, in heart
aim life, “such a character as shall command
mention and respect from theWery enemies”
of his Lord and his work ; —to walk in the
way of scrupulous fidelity to his high trust,
for the joy of the assurance that he shall be
“like the Sun of righteousness, with healing
in his wings and new light to break in upon
the chill and gloomy hearts of hearers, rising
out of darksome barrenness a delicious and
fragrant spring of saving knowledge and good
works;” —to recoil from official unfaithfulness,
as the last extreme of cruelty and baseness,
winning confidence only to betray it, where
betrayal means the slumber of the soul in
spiritual insensibility, nay, the ruin of the
soul in “ eternal damnation.”
“ And who is sufficient for these things?” is
the irrepressible cry of the heart, when this
view of the sacred office passes before it. “If
I should write of the heavy burden of a godly
preacher, which he must carry and endure, as
I know it by my own experience,” said Luther,
“ I should scare every man from the office of
preaching.” The most learned, and eloquent,
and wise, and holy, might well shrink
from it.
But “our sufficiency is of God” Blessed
be His name ! That welcomes the humblest
—that strengthens the feeblest. The walls of
Jericho fell before the blast of rams’ horns-
A sling and pebble slew Goliath. “The hand
of the Lord was with them, and a great num
ber believed and turned unto the Lord.”
This is the secret of success; and he, with
whom the hand of the Lord is, can not be
weak. No : let the sense of his own nothing
ness weigh on him as it may, for the work
which the Lord gives him to do, he is as
strong as that hand.
Be it, therefore, the constant prayer of ev
ery “herald* grid “ambassador,” that the
power of God may rest on him in the minis
try of the word. it. none can avert
failure; with it, all must achieve success.
A False Statement.
The facts which the following paragraph
from the National Baptist professes to recite,
bear evident marks of a large and unskillful
infusion of fiction. We have legal authority
for the statement that the reported action of
the courts so grossly contravenes the law's of
Georgia, as to place it beyond the range of
possibility. On our own authority, we say,
without hesitation, that in no portion of the
State would public sentiment lend the least
countenance to such flagrant injustice. Will
not some friend, in the section w'here these
things are represented as occurring, put the
matter in its true light through our columns?
It is by precis-ly such misrepresentations—or
inventions—thatthe breach between the North
and the South, which interest and duty re
quire us to heal, is widened and embittered.
“Georgia. —A Washington dispatch informs
the Christiigi E a that Rev. William Fincher,
a colored missionary in Pike county, with a
salary of $35 per month, paid by Northern
benevolent associations, has been condemned
to the chain-gang for one year by a Georgia
court, on the ground that he is a vagrant!
His case w‘as carried up, and the action of the j
lower court was approved ; the judge holding
that the North had no right to send money
Sovth for mch purposes, and, further, that his
support was so precarious that he was a va
grant within the meaning ot the law. He is
now serving out his sentence.”
Prophetic Ken.
Nothing more clearly lifts a man above the
level of the race than a knowledge of what the
days to come will bring forth. We find an
instance of this rare endowment in the Chris
tian Intelligencer. “There are not wanting,”
it says, “ signs of an approaching emancipa
tion of at least a portion of the Baptists in this
country from their watery prison-house.” The
only “ sign ” it gives us, however, is the fact
that Rev. H. A. Sawtelle, of the Second Bap
tist Church, San Francisco, has become a con
vert to “open communion,” published a work
on the subject which one of our confreres re
cognizes as written witli ability, and alleged
that certain distinguished divines confess the
absence of scriptural authority for our pres
ent usage. Surely, it needs a prophet to as
sure us, on the single warrant of this fact, that
our denomination has unconsciously reached
the verge of a great and vital revolution. For
one, we frankly acknowledge that we read it>
and saw nothing of the kind following after.
But we are no prophet.
If we were, we might be tempted to “ fore
cast the future” after a different fashion.
The “watery prison-house”—we might say
—is little likely to be deserted by its inmates,
while those without “walk about” it, ap
plauding its proportions and approving their
vokntary abode in it. Our exchanges furnish
an instance of this sort. “ The pastor of a
leading Methodist Episcopal Church, in Brook
lyn, located on Washington Avenue, in a ser
mon a short time since, defended the Baptists,
and praised their consistency. He denied that
mixed communion was any test of union;
and argued that Baptists, believing as they did,
could reach no other conclusion consistently,
and to ask them to give up their views on
baptism and communion was simply to ask
them to cease to be Baptists, and to become
something else.” Os what is this a “ sign ?’*
Does it give promise that times are at hand,
when Baptists shall be suffered to keep the
ordinances, after the apostolic model, without
enduring reproach, (in the style of the Intel
ligencer,) as under bondage to “ narrowing
and separating theories of mere ecclesiastical
partisanship ? ” For want of being a prophet,
we will not venture to decide.
And again: If we were a prophet, we might
incline to say that the inmates-of the “watery
prison-house” bid fair greatly to multiply
their numbers, since those without, ever and
anon, make earnest application for permission
to reside in it. An example of this character
is supplied by recent religious intelligence.
Dr. Kendrick, of the Tabernacle Church, New
York, baptized not long since, Rev. Siegfried
Khristeller, an Israelite, and a graduate of
Middletown University, who has been for sev
eral years a minister among the Methodists*
Is there no “ sign” in this] Does it bear no
testimony to the approach of the day, when,
(to use the words of the Intelligencer,) “ the
force of truth, expressing itself through the
language of love,” shall constrain all the peo
ple of Christ to follow His example.in ‘ful
filling the righteousness’ of baptism 1 ? As we
are not a prophet,.we can not say.
Really, it is a perplexing thing—this want
of “ prophetic ken.” It would be delightful so
5 know who has been gifted with it, that a decisive
ipse dixit might relieve our misgivings as to
“ the things which are coming on the earth.”
We will accept ihe Intelligencer as our guide
and leader; will believe that it rightly inter
prets the future awaiting our people; will
permit the intrusion of no doubt lest it may
have attached too much weight to the sign it
gives us and too little to the signs we give it
— on one condition. Let it show that it has
correctly apprehended the present stale of
our people; that our practice, in the matter of
communion, is such as to render a change of
it an “ emancipation ; ” that there is, in fact.,
any “ watery prison-house ” in which we lie
shorn of liberty. If it is true that * the doc
trine proves the miracle,’ must not doctrine
be as well a potent factor in determining the
validity of prophecy ? Dies God bestow the
higher gift of foresight, where He w ithholds the
humbler gift of insight? Shall those for
whom misleading darkness enwraps what is,
claim sufficient light to discern ivhat is to be?
©limpscs of Jhq Christian Mortd.
A Right Usage. —We notice, in an ex
change, a plan in successful operation in one
of the churches, which seems worthy of imi
tation in all our cities and towns. “In each
aisle an individual member of the church is
allotted ten pews to look after; and if a stran
ger occupies a seat in one of these pews, it is his
business to question him before he leaves the
house in relation to what church he attends,
and if he worships at none, to invite him to
worship there.”
“ Higher.” —A Boston correspondent of
the National Baptist, in reference to the late
convention of the Massachusetts evangelical
churches, says: “Dr. Swain, of Providence,
made a long and elaborate speech, into which
much patriotic sentiment on
equal rights and reconstructioiji
evidently intended <■'> touch
Massachusetts, and produce a warm respmP}
But the speech wearied the audience, though
able in some respects, and highly rhetorical,
just because they were in a religious mood
higher and more spiritual than the patriotic?'
O, might they but maintain that elevation !
Might all but reach it and live at it!
Grace at Meals. —A w-riter in the Texas
Baptist Herald urges the propriety of grace
at meals, among other grounds, on this:
“That it is a custom practiced by almost all
nations — heathens not excepted .”
Neglect of Public Worship.— Statistics
gathered in one hundred Connecticut towns
show that twenty-four per cent, of the people
are not found habitually in the house of God.
This neglect, though not in equal proportion
perhaps, runs through the whole of American
society. It would be well if Christians every
where would imitate the example of the evan
gelical denominations in Albany, who have
divided the city into sections and appointed
visitors, so that in the course of thirty days
from the commencement of the effort, the in
vitation to come to the house of God will be
extended to every family !
Laxity.—The National Baptist avows the
belief that “ the lack of a duly qualified ad
ministrator does not invalidate the ordinance
of baptism;” in other words, that our
churches should accept Pedobaptist immer
sions.
Rate of Contribution. —The Old and New
School Presbyterians of the North, who num
ber over 400,00|) communicants, raised for
church purposes, the last year, $5,-
000,000 —an average of sl2 50 for each com
municant.
Centenary Statistics. —A correspondent
of the German Reformed Messenger taxes
Northern Methodists with unfairness in the
preparation of their statistics for centenary
purposes, since all the divisions of Method
ism are grouped in one grand total,
while “at least six varieties of Baptists are
separately enumerated.” This is very small
work ; and done, too, to foster a hurtful spir
it of self-glorificatiop. For a Methodist min
ister, after the centenary services were held
with his congregation, remarked, (as a cor
respondent of the Christian Times and Witness
reports him,)“ If such a spirit prevails through
the year, the centenary will prove a curse, in
stead of a blessing, to the denomination.”
Presents to Ministers. —An exchange
mentions one minister who received from his
people a gift of SSO, and another who received
a gift of $222. We hope that the impover
ished ministry of the South has been liberally
rememberedyn the recent season of gifts.
Send your pastor a Christmas or New Year’s
present; he will not feel that it is “ out of
season,” time is past.
Fame in a recent pub
lic spoke of the au
thor of the as one who
“ holds a place in the hearts of the American
people seceftd only (if second) to their great
Washingto#, and among Britons will go down
through all'generations as the greatest man
that ever li*ed.”
“ Campbkllism and Atonement.” —In an
article under this heading, the Baptist Month
ly quotes a writer in the American Christian
Review, as saying : “ Salvation from guilt de
pends upon sinners receiving Christ; this
alone secures remission from sins—remission
of the guiltAif sins. When Christ is offered
according so the law he has enacted, which
offering tales place only in immersion, then
do all the benefits of the atonement accrue to
the sinner, and not before, or elsewhere.”
And again: “ The righteousness which men
enjoy in obedience is not their own personal
righteousness, but that of the victim which
they righteousness of Jesus, who
fulfilled the whole law, and was therefore de
clared righteous in the presence of the law.”
This is singularly oblivious of the scriptural
teaching that Christ “ offered himself,”
“once for ail,” and by that “one offering per
fected forever them that are sanctified.” In
no sense islf true that the sinner offers Christ;
the concep|ion involves gross error. And
the error deepens when the offering is said to
take plaof- in an outward ceremonial act like
immersion.
Romish Finances. —Though the wages of
household%ervants in New York had advanced
until larger, all things considered, than the
rate of payment to merchants’ clerks, they
recently dtjmanded/an increase of one dollar
a month ; And on inquiry, it was ascertained
that the priests had required precisely that
sum of thA servants for building the new ca
thed raT*b'if%7fttf ATfenue.
Novel Mode of Payment. —A letter from
Ireland states tjjat, in very many of the best
hotels, thej servdll Wget no other pay for their
services than th-v gratuities they receive from
travellers—for which they ask with shameless
persistency.
Clerical Resentment. —A clergyman of
Berkshire, Mass., who had prepared a labored
sermon for Thanksgiving day, which few of
his flock came to hear, doggedly remained at
home the ensuing Sabbath, though the day
was pleasant -and a large congregation had
assembled at church.
Prayer. —When will believers test, to the
uttermost, the power of united, importunate
prayer? Li reference to the beginning of a
revival in the Bond Street Baptist Church,
Toronto, the Canadian Baptist says: “Two
young brethren met by appointment to pray
for a comrade, without his knowledge. He
was speedily brought, withjhumble penitence,
to the cross, and is now rejoicing in hope of
the glory of God.” And a writer in the Na
tional Baptist gives the following as the secret
of a powerful work of grace in the New
Bethel Church, Pennsylvania: “While in
iquity abounded, and the love of many grew
cold, three sisters resolved to pray. From
month to month they retired to the meeting
house and prayed. Finally, from some cause,
but two met, and the door could not be opened.
It was raining ; one kneeled down upon the
step and prayed, while the other held the
umbrella over her. This was prayer in faith
—importunate, prevailing prayer. It went
up to the place where God holds the throne.
It moved the Holy One, and he said, I will go
down and help them. He did come, and
saints are revived, sinners are saved, our souls
an
iiceii ’''Asm
was vH|
on
gone. was laid before, the
students in hiSPastors’ College, and accepted
by a Mr. Gillet, whose passage money, at last
advices, v»s being raised by public collec
tions.
A Home for Christ. — That is a beautiful
thought which a minister, in a recent public
address, embodied as follows: “‘Where is
Jesus Christ ? ; was once asked of a child.
‘He lives in our alley now,’ was the reply ;
for the boy had learned that Christ is, where
he has friends to serve him.” Dear reader,
does love, and the labor of love, give Christ
a home under your roof, however humble, and
in your heart, however unworthy ?
Progress. —Twenty years ago the Baptists
of lowa were as one in one hundred and fifty
of the population; now they are as one in
fifty.
Baptizing the Dead. —A correspondent of
the Christian Watchman states that a Metho
dist Episcopal preacher in Linden, Miss., re
cently £ baptized a dead infant, at the request
of its mother, according to the forms of his
church, in the name of the Holy Trinity.”
The National Baptist states that “ a similar
ease occurred in North Yarmouth, Maine,
many ysars ago, when a Congregational minis
ter administered what he called baptism to a
dead child.”
A Secularized Ministry. —Says a corres
pondent of the Religious Herald: “ I doubt
whether, in the whole State of Virginia, there
are ten Baptist ministers, out of more than
four hundred, who devote their whole time
to the ministry.” The case is hardly so bad
as that, surely ; but the lack of adequate sup
port is grievously crippling the ministry of
the times, and the churches should see to it
that they impose no unnecessary disabilities
on “ those who preach the gospel,” and who,
according to the ordination of the Lord,
“ should live of the gospel.”
Laziness. —Said a speaker in a recent Con
vention : “ The question once came up in a
company of Christians, was a lazy man ever
converted ? All said No, except a Methodist
minister, who knew one case of the kind, but
he lasted only three weeks.” Os course, his
profession rested on delusion: true spiritual
life is “everlastinglife.” Weretherenot, then,
quite a multitude of unconverted persons in the
“ large church,” mentioned by another speaker
in that Convention ? “ The pastor was asked
how many members were really holdingup his
hands. He replied, about a dozen. If those
were removed, he should not know on whom
to rely.” Would it not be well to adopt the
rule of the missionary who, as stated by yet
another of the speakers,in receiving members,
did not stop with the enquiry, Are you con
verted ? but asked, What are you ready to do
for Jesus? And should we be content until
our revivals resemble that to which still an
other speaker referred ? “In one place, where
are fourteen lawyers, all but two are con
verted. They are ‘ stumping ’ the country,
and pleading for Christ.”
The Beard Question. —A writer in one
of bur exchanges has the following : “‘ I can’t
bear to see a minister at the communion table
with a moustache,’ said a friend to me the
other day. Can’t you ? Then you are more
nice than wise. You couldn’t have borne to
have looked at our Saviour when he instituted
the Lord’s Supper. You would have been
disgusted with his followers. You would have
criticised Paul. Better, far better, go to
praying, and stop advising your ministers to
shave.”
The Freedmen. —“I was grieved to find
not. only worldly statesmen, but old school
theologians,” said Dr. McCosh, in his Bath
speech, “ predicting that in a century the
negro race will disappear in America, and
looking on the prospect with complacency.”
German Schools. —On a certain day of
the year—according to “ An American Fam
ily in Germany ” —the boys are privileged to
scourge their teacher with birchen switches,
in satisfaction for old scores.
“ The Comfort of Scripture.” —ln an
account of a revival at Scyene, Texas, we find
the following incident, which we commend to
the prayerful consideration of every one who
feels that the word of God has lost its power
to support and cheer: “ One old brother who
had been driven from his home in Missouri,
and had permitted the cares of this world to
interfere with his religious duties and privi
leges, came to the church one day with a sad
countenance, and with his old Bible in his
hand. As soon as an opportunity was offer
ed, the old man arose under such a burden as
made his whole frame shake like an aspen
leaf, and raising his worn Bible with one
hand, while a flood of tears coursed their way
down his furrowed cheeks, he said, ‘ Brethren,
here is the book that used to give me com
fort.’ His voice faltered—for a time nothing
more was said ; but that sentence seemed to
open the fountains of every heart, and the
sighs and sobs which burst forth from every
part of the house, told too plainly that others
were beginning to inquire,
‘Where is the blessedness I knew,
When tirst I saw the Lord ;
Where is the soul-refresbing view
Os Jesus and his Word?’”
Epithets. —ln criticism on a recent work
by Mrs. Freer, the Westminster Review says:
“ When she tells us that ‘ Anne of Austria
was now omnipotent and mighty ,’ she reminds
us of the scenery that was reported to be not
only sublime, hut pretty'' Some writers and
speakers have an unhappy facility in multi
plying adjectives, without regard to their re
lative force. The weaker should precede the
stronger, and, for the most part, the stronger
suffices of itself.
Southern Feeling. —lt is the testimony of
Dr. McCosh, “ that the great body of the
Southern people seem to feel an interest in
the physical comfort of the blacks,” and that
“ not a few of them are alive to the demands
of the crisis,” as regards their education and
religious training.
Evangelists. —We are gratified to notice
that the pastor of the Greenwood Baptist
Church, Brooklyn, New York, has resigned
that position, for-the purpose of giving him
self entirely to the work of an -evangelist.
Clearly, to our mind, an order of evangelists
is necessary to the complete organization of
the after the apostolic model. But
, the churches should :d
--y'ipi jn , rfo>* r *’ ' \ angelistic la
■jtute, for at least, one
Be:at j A o,s fruits <i, m r
Hw Seel! from the HIT
\ E. Carter gives, in the
the Sabbath closing a
meeting of thirteen days in an old log school
house among the mountains of Kentucky :
“ A hymn that breathed of Jesus was sung
by the honest-hearted poor, who stood side by
side in their mountain homespun as their clear
voices rung out cn the autumn air. While
the sun was shedding his bright, dancing rays
upon the blue, gurgling waters, and all heaven
seemed smiling upon the scene, it would have
pnade your heart tender, if your eyes had not
filled, to see the aged father and mother, the
one leaning upon his crutch, the other sup
ported by her grown son, as his sister’s arm
rested in his, all four descending into the wa
tery grave. And as they go up from that
grave, another aged woman with her grown
son and daughter, and then three grown
brothers arm in arm, treading with the step of
their manhood’s prime, go down into the bap
tismal waters. Poor missionary ! it made him
feel humble, while it made him feel glad to
‘ bury with Christ in baptism’ on this oc
casion and with these interesting groups,
twenty-nine, ‘ both men and women.’ A Sab
bath-school was organized; the Lord’s Supper
was celebrated ; a sermon was preached after
baptism, at the dear old, spot; and in the af- 1
ternoon the missionary bade farewell to all,
amidst many tears.”
How Churchmansijip Grows. —The Ex
aminer and Chronicle states that Bishop
WhitehoHse, “the low-church rector of the
low-church St. Luke’s, Rochester, stiffening
his churchmanship as rector of St. Thomas s,
New York, passed to a churchmanship still
higher when he became Bishop” of Illinois.
Such instances, in the judgment of our contem
porary furnish “ a very strong argument
against the whole scheme of Episcopacy.
Education. —Rev. T. Baldwin, Secretary
of the Society for Promoting Collegiate and
Theological Education at the West, in his
annual report, states that during the last three
years seven and a half millions of dollars have
been given to literary institutions in the
Northern States. These figures will be large
ly increased, if, as a writer in Harper s
Monthly alleges, “ most of the contributions
for the Methodist Centenary are for education.”
This use of their funds is by no means inap
propriate, if it be true that the Methodists of
that section any where lie open to the charge
of Rev. Mr. Thurston, who, at a Unitarian
Convention in Cambridgeport, affirmed that
they are leaning toward Unitananxsm and
yearning after Unitarian preaching —on which
ground he urged that they should be invited
to unite with them !
The English Establishment. —Rev. C. A.
Beard, editor of the Theological Review, a
British Unitarian periodical, calls attention to
the fact that while the Established Church
has a liturgy, three creeds and thirty-nine ar
ticles prescribed by law, almost all the Unita
rianism of England, except that which is or
ganised under that character, is found within
its walls. It is no wonder that as Christianity
diverges from voluntariness it should gravitate
toward impurity.
The National Capital. —“ Small as it is, ’
says a New York religious journal, “ Wash
ington is by far the worst city in the Union.
Colored Churches. —The Bartholomew
Baptist Association, Ark., as reported (per
haps incorrectly,) in Northern papers, advised
the churches not to give letters of dismission
to negro members when the object was to
form independent churches, and to refuse them
the privilege of voting and being represented
in councils.
A Wrong Feeling. —A Superintendent of
the Freedmen’s Bureau writes from Arkansas
to the Christian Times, that the great revolu
tion in the emancipation of our slaves “ has
caused such a feeling, that no man who de
votes the greater part of his time to preaching
to the freedmen, can expect to have much in
fluence with the white people.” If such a feel
ing exists, we challenge the justice of it. The
wholesale and sudden liberation of the colored
people, without preparatory training, was
“ their misfortune, not their fault; ” and they
should not be held to answer for it. Every
dictate of Christian principle admonishes us
to improve to the utmost the opportunity of
imparting religious instruction to them, that
the misfortune may be alleviated as far as
possible—may perchance be converted at last
into a blessing.
Woman in Germany. —At Nuremberg, the
wood-sawyers are- all women, says J. Ross
Browne, in his new book; and the country
women and the lower classes of the sex gen
erally throughout “ Faderland,” are literally
“ hewers of wood and drawers of water.”
English Ritualism. —Lord Ebury reaches
the reluctant conclusion that little or no effort
will be made to arrest the ritualistic defection
toward Rome, because the higher and more
educated classes sympathize with it, the hum
bler and poorer are attracted by its pomp and
pageant, and the middle classes are indifferent,
treat the matter as simply ludicrous, or seek
to avoid anything like agitation or division in
the bosom of the church.
Decline. —A correspondent of the St.
Louis Christian Advocate says : “ One thing
that has taken place among Methodists more
or less every where is, that infant baptism is
not half as much attended to as it was fifty
years ago. Then very few heads of families
failed to have their children dedicated to God
by baptism. Now comparatively few attend
to it.”
The Reason Why. —The editor of the
Christian Intelligencer says: “ We asked an
Episcopal clergyman, a friend, a few days ago,
‘ Why the Methodists left the Episcopal com
munion ?’ He answered frankly and truly, as
we knew he would, that * there was not grace
enough to keep them in.’ But if not, why not?
There is but one reply, and that is, that the
assumptions of prelacy are antichristian and
demoralizing.”
JMijioua Jntclligcnty
A Token for Good. —Rev Thos. Goadby,
in a letter to the Morning Star, mentions “ a
very remarkable day for the Baptists of Lon
don. A meeting for fasting and prayer was
held at Mr. Stovel’s chapel of an unusually
interesting kind. The ministers and deacons
of some eighty or ninety churches met at
eleven in the morning, crowding the lower
part of the spacious synagogue, and continued
from that time until half past five in the ex
ercises of devotion. There was no break
whatever, unless the transition from the prayer
and praise of five hours and a half to the cel
ebration of the Lord’s supper be considered
a breaks It season of special privilege
and holy emotion. First came hearty and
spontaneous confession of sin ; ministers and
deacons uniting-4u humbling themselves be
fore God because of their short-comings.
Much brokenness of spirit was felt and mani
fested; few hearts were unsubdued with pen
itence, and but few eyes were unmoistened
with tears. At one time it was perceptible
that many were overpowered with emotion,
and the intervals of silence were only broken
by * strong cries and tears.’ Then, after
words of promise and songs of joy the tone
of feeling changed, and earnest and wrestling
prayers were offered for the outpouring of
blessings from Heaven upon the church, and
upon the ungodly world. Every believing
soul is looking out for gracious results in the
revival of our churches, as an answer to these
fervent petitions. Addresses were given by
Mr. Spurgeon, Mr. Brock, Mr. Stovel and
others, and those brethren, with Baptist Noel,
Mr. Tucker, and a large number besides, took
part in the devotions. The churches in the
provinces also set apart this day for prayer,
and every where much earnestness and ferven
cy of spirit was shown. That the Lord would
send a large blessing and great prosperity must
cow be our confident hope.”
Ministers in Secular Service. —The Texas
Baptist Herald is calling attention to a funda
mental evil, widely prevalent in that State.
It says: “Itis of vast importance to the
welfare of the churches and the spread of the
gospel in our State, that our ministers be
called'back from secular pursuits to engage in
their permanent work. About two-thirds of
the ministerial strength of the State must at
present be absorbed in secular labor and com
sequently lost to the churches of Christ. 11
this were restored, it would give every church
a pastor—to many of them it would give
preaching every Sunday, and to the remainder
at least on two Sundays in the month. But
the members of most of these churches say
they can not support a pastor. This may jo
true, but it is certainly true that m England
and in many places of the United States,
churches as poor, and a good deal poorer than
many of our churches in Texas, do sustain a
pastor and have preaching every Lord s day.
The onlv reason that the same thing is not
and can not be done in this State, is found in
the membership themselves—they do not try
rightly, nor sufficiently. One is too stingy,
another is too lazy, and a third is discouraged,
and so the matter goes by default. Exam
iner.
Our S. S. Board.— We have received a cir
cular, signed by G. J. Johnson, District Sec.
Bap. Pub. Society, calling attention to an ac
companying appeal for donations in behalf of
the “ Sunday School Union of Baptists.” The
circular calls this the “ only denominational
Sundav school society.”
This is simply untrue. That the Doctors,
whose names stand upon the appeal, know it
to be untrue, we will not assert; but if they
did not, they show a remarkable ignorance,
hardly in keeping with the spirit that plans
their ambitious “national” enterprises.
These circulars are floating about the State,
deceiving many Baptists, who, if they will
read their own periodicals, will ascertain that
we have a S. S. Board at Greenville, South
Carolina—one of the Boards of the Southern
Baptist Convention. It*officers arc men who
understand the wants of our Sunday schools,
and who are laboring with intelligent zeal to
make a literature for our youth, free from the
infidelity and fanaticism which too often dis
figure the books of “National” Societies.
Mo. Bap. Journal.
The Evacuation of Rome. —The consum
mation of the event so long talked of has
commenced. On iuesday. December 11th,
the French soldiers who have garrisoned Rome
since 1848, began to withdraw from the
Eternal City. The Pope is evidently in a
critical position. That he will bid farewell to
Rome is by no means certain, for the Italian
government is anxious to retain him as the
ecclesiastical head of the Roman Catholic
Church, and will make such concessions, as
will probably induce him to stay, especially
as he is understood to prefer to remain on
ground so associated with the whole history of
his church.
It were useless, doubtless, to attempt to
predict the future of the Papacy. That its
temporal power is gone, never more to be re
covered, is evident. Y°t the very loss of this
may give it anew lease of life as a spiritual
power. That it will be active, intriguing,
opposed to all true progress and freedom, we
have every reason to believe. If the spirit of
the present Pope may be taken as an index
of the Papacy, in centuries it has experienced
no material change. —Journal and Messenger.
Pastoral Changes. —At the recent meet
ing of the Lancashire Congregational Union,
England, Rev. James Browne drew a graphic
picture of the difficulties attending a cnange of
pastorate, which need and surely admit of
practical adjustment, as well in our denomina
tion as in his:
“ When a minister is compelled now to seek
a change of pastorates, what is the usual or
probable course taken ? That course is very
variable. If he be of any note in the denomi
nation, he has but to be quiet and make his
selection. As soon as it becomes known that
he is movable, many applications are made to
him, and he has but little more to do than to
choose out "of these applications the one that
best meets his views, and to commence nego
tiations with that congregation. In such in
stances the difficulty of deciding is not with
the people, but with the minister; the people
hope, the minister pauses, and ultimately he
decides. If he accept the invitation, the mat
ter is settled ; if he decline, he has but to open
fresh negotiations, and the man well known
and favored in the churches is sure of obtain
ing in the end what he seeks for. But hoW
different do the lines fall to such as are not
popular favorites, and who are utterly un
known beyond the limits of that congregation
from which they want to sever themselves'
Such a good brother tries to enlist the sympa
thies of another brother whose head is higher
than his own among the churches ; he asks
his help, and begs him to procure him an in
troduction to a destitute congregation. The
agency of eminent ministers is oiten thus em
ployed in helping other ministers into the pas
torate of such congregations. Others seek to
gain their object through the agency of the
secretary of some county association. The
officers of our foreign missionary societies
have large transactions of this nature; and, if
report speaks truly, they become a kind of
register office, in which many candidates are
brought into relationship with one another.
Some good men, in their anxiety for change,
and who may have none of these agencies at
command, make application in their own
names to the officers of the congregation
known to be vacant. Others reply to news
paper advertisements, and negotiate for a
supply ‘ with a view ; ’ and still others, with a
sublimity of taste, advertise themselves as
open to negotiation, and are somewhat care
ful to include in the advertisement a helpful
estimate of their intellectual, spiritual, and
pastoral endowments.”
Union. —We have it from “Burleigh,” in
the Boston Journal, that in New York there
are two Associations for promoting Christian
Union, one accepting the churches as they
now are, the others demanding that all hind
rances to a united communion be taken out of
the way. That association is about to com
mence a vigorous campaign against the Bap
tists and against the Episcopalians, demand
ing open communion and an open pulpit; de
manding that each sect shall respect the bap
tism and the ordination of all others A new'
paper is to be started to favor these views,
called the Church Union , copies of which are
to be sent to all the Episcopal and Baptist
ministers in the country to convert them.
Some leading ministers are claimed as favor
ing these views from the two sects. — Zion's
Advocate. M
Apostolic Succession. —Bishop Colenso|
is evidently having a hard time in some parts
of his diocese. At one church he recently
visited), the rector had the altar furniture re
moved?: lowing in £he rails nothing but a deal
table, a soap box, and one chair, in which he
had seated himself, having first had the en
trance w ithin the rails fastened up by a bar
of wood. The Bishop removed the bar, went
in, and sat down on the box, but a chair was
afterwards brought. The incumbent begin
ning to read an address or protest, Dr.
Blaine, resident magistrate and church-ward
en, said : “ Sir, we are here for Divine ser
vice, and this is out of order altogether.”
reverend gentleman, however, concluded his
address, but made no further opposition, re
maining in his seat and taking no part in the
service.— Ohio Pres.
Dahomey. —The King of Dahomey, accord
ing to European correspondents from Lagos,
November 10, being about waging war against
the Ashantis, another Negro nation—or rather
another Negro tribe—celebrated first a great
religious festival, on which occasion he sacri
ficed two hundred Negroes from among his
own wretched subjects, to secure for himself
the favor of the gods in the approaching war.
This is the third tragedy of this kind enacted
this year in Dahomey, by the same king.
Still English papers talk of the progress of
civilisation among the Negroes.— lsraelite.