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Kxfcx and ffa^tiist
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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 186 7.
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Prurient Curiosity.
A suit for divorce has been on trial in Cin
cinnati. The disclosures were, in the last de
gree, shocking to every refined sensibility.
Pure ears must have felt that simply to hear
them was no slight measure of pollution.
Throngs of eager listeners, however, filled the
court-room, from day to day. The reporter
for the Gazette of that city “ observed one
man who had taken a seat on the floor of the
gallery, and was literally jammed up against
the iron railing, so that he could not even
change the position of his head ; but he seem
ed to enjoy his imprisonment.”
We are not surprised to learn that this
crowd, with few exceptions, was most repul
sive in appearance. “ Beastly eyes ” were
there, of course ; for if the souls looking
through them were not beastly, what could
have drawn them to witness this- opening of
the social sewer ? Persons who resort to such
a scene in quest of pleasure, roust have had a
training for it. But where ? Scenes of vice,
in which they themselves were actors, crushed
out the natural revulsion of the soul from the
hideous deformity of guilt, when unmasked
feature after feature, with every festering ulcer
bared and probed. There the training of this
audience reached its consummation.
But did it pass through its iniiial stages
there ? Was there not a process going before,
to blunt the first keen sense of aversion to
ward the hateful misshapes, in which all im
moralities stand before the unsophisticated
vision 1 There can be no question of it: not
at the outset was the work of their embrute
ment complete. In that earlier depraving,
they let themselves down, it may be, slowly ;
they scarcely knew, perhaps, that they were
sinking; and yet the lapse, if gradual, was
continuous, — it dragged them into the mire at
last, though only by inches. And how ?
Whatever made them familiar with the idea
of evil ; whatever wove it into their accus
tomed trains of thought; whatever prompted
imagination to the conception of its details ;
whatever one link" so clearly to
the eye, as to suggest with reference i
-to* the links Earlier and later in thC~ chain ;
whatever clothed it with an aspect, first en
durable, then pleasing; in short, whatever
made it matter of curiosity, tempting the
mind now to lift its veil for the pleasure
of knowing it, and now to taste its
cup for the pleasure of knowing it bet
ter; that began the training of which we
have .spoken, while they were yet free from
personal vice that carried their training
forward until this freedom went to wreck,
in some unhappy hour when the stormy im
pulse of passiou shook the breast.
There is more danger in this inception of
prurient curiosity than hasty thinkers recog
nize. It is, with the great mass of the disso
lute, the point of transition from good to evil.
When once Vice gains a foothold in the cu
riosity, the highest purity of the soul is gone,
and the movement has commenced toward its
deepest degradation. The water oozes through
unsuspected openings in the dyke, and the
eye will not see that it threatens .to sweep
down the restraining barrier, and lay all
things under the desolation of the deluge.
The car is on the descending grade ; the brakes
grow out of working order ; the hand forbears
to reverse the engine; below lies th*e curve
on the edge of the precipice ; and. what should
have been checked, cautious motion, becomes
a rush which shall leap from the track into the
yawning depth. Truer words were never
spoken by uninspired lips, than when an Ec
lectic Reviewer (was it John Foster or Rob
ert Hall ?) said : “ Innocence is not the cause
of curiosity, but has in every stage of society
been its victim. Curiosity has ruined greater
numbers than any other passion ; aud, as in
its incipient actings, it is the most dangerous
foe of innocence, so, when it becomes a passion,
it is only fed by guilt.”
An enquiry, then, iuto the agencies which
give prurient curiosity its inception, should
not be lightly dismissed, whether we would
guard ourselves or others from demoraliza
tion. We devote a paragraph, or two, to this
topic.
There is reason to fear that the secular
press sometimes does this evil work. Honor
able exceptions are not wanting, indeed ; but
many daily papers gather from all quarters
the multiplying putrescencies of society, until
their columns become a stench in the nostrils
of Virtue. Wrong doing is not only daguer
reotyped—it is dissected :we do not escape
with having its face thrust before us—we
must look on while its heart is laid open: the
most minute particulars are detailed, all the
grossnesses, and (what is worse) all the plau
sibilities. The voice of the tempter reechoes
in our ears ; the song of the Siren is sung over
for us. These things, withal, are treated in a
way rather to provoke levity than to arouse
indignation ; less to impart the shock which
should attend the first familiarity with evil,
than to quicken the morbid sensibilities which,
under the name of charity, give to evil an un
wholesome and dangerous sympathy. Thus,
that which should have been smothered—
should have been buried, where it broke forth,
as men would “stamp out” a plague or
quench a kiudling conflagration, taints the at
mosphere of a people, and unnumbered house
hold's breathe the infection; while here and
there, one victim and another, takes the virus
and perishes. Instance the trial which
occasioned these remarks —a trial reported by
at least one journal, through successive col
umns, day after day. Shame on the unscru
pulous enterprise which, for the sake of gain.
THE CHRISTIAN INDEX MI) SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST: ATLANTA, GA„ THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14.1867.
not only panders to coarse, “ beastly ” tastes,
but creates them.
But noxious as this influence must be, it
pales before the deadlier might of evil in many
modern works of fiction. There are novels
which are only adroit apologies for licentious
ness ; novels whose plots turn on intrigues,
elopements, adulteries; novels whose heroes,
in real life, would be shunned, as lepers, by
all reputable classes of society ; novels whose
heroines could not cross the threshhold of
even the most tolerant and lax among our
virtuous families, but at the cost of summary
extrusion. These are popular novels, too
published often, as serials, in widely circulat
ed monthlies, and literary weeklies. The char
acters in these novels arc invested with a halo
of sentimentalism; their shameful story (the
shame disguised) is told with artistic skill
with glowing enthusiasm; the pleas with
which they blind themselves to their own
vileness are recited, while wit, and genius,
and pathos, and pungency, sparkle, or soften,
or stir, through the recital, and strew “ the
trail of the serpent” with flowers, and beckon
with smile and song to the mouth of the pit.
The fascinations of Vice shine—and seduce,
on the pages where its retributions are not
suffered to darken—and deter. Perhaps, the
parties whom the Cincinnati trial has branded
with indellible dishonor, might trace back
their crime to its spring-head, in the influence
of licentious fictions, read, long years ago,
with no apprehension or consciousness of in
jury. But whether this be true in their case
or not, those who have fallen before the wast
ings of this pestileuce,fill, with unwept corpses,
to-day, a thousand ‘ fields of blood ’ and
shame.
We can not pursue our subject at present
into other and not less important branches.
It must suffice us to have pointed out the
forms of literature which foster prurient curi
osity. Is it needful that, in closing, we should
warn the young to be careful what they read
in these departments, or parents to watch over
household-reading with sleepless jealousy ?
Alas for them, if the subject itself is not their
effective warning!
Error Consistent With Itself.
M. N. Lord, Reformer, and N. Crary, Uni
versalist, held recently, at South Bend, Indi
ana, a public debate, in which the former took
the affirmative side of the proposition, that
“No sinner can be saved from endless pun
ishment, without becoming a member of the
distinctive church known as the ‘ Disciple’ or
‘ Christian ’ church.” But several members
of his own denomination have published a
card, alleging that ‘ this proposition does not
express the faith of their brethren generally,
or of any considerable number of them.’
The light of which the Reformation makes
its boast has not been sufficient, it seems, af
ter shining for more than the third of a een
tury, to prevent strife among its adherents on
a question fundamental to the Christian hope.
Coming after all other denominations, to ex
pose their errors and clear away their obscu- 1
irtTCyW obuoui-Tui iamr^ity"in uiaT
matter of prime consequence —the drawing of
the line which limits the possibility of salva
tion. Even at this late day, its first work
hangs unfinished on its hands. The beginning
still begins with it. At so slow a rate of pro
gress, how many generations must pass away
without knowing the certainty of those things
wherein the Reformation professes to instruct
men? We remit the question to the year of
our Lord, 1967. That, perhaps, will be pre
pared to answer it—if, indeed, the Reforma
tion shall not then have been long swallowed
up
“ In the dark backward and abysm of time.”
The mind naturally asks whether, as re
gards consistency, the advantage lies with the
affirmant of the proposition quoted above, or
with the dissentients from it. On this point
we range ourselves with Mr. Lord. His view
has always seemed to us the logical sequence
from Reformation-theology. There is no
more a middle ground for the Church of Beth
any than for the Church of Rome. To the
extent in which the coherence of a system
could justify such a position, A. Campbell had
as ample reason as Pius the Ninth, for re
stricting the title to eternal life, with inexo
rable exclusivism, among his own ecclesiasti
cal associates. The doctrine of baptismal re
mission “shuts the gates of mercy on ” all the
rest of mankind. Reformers are “ the elect.”
Only in them “ shall the Son of man, when he
cometh, find faith on the earth.”
That this representation is correct, appears
from an article which we find in a recent issue
of the American Christian Review. The wri
ter says :
“ God, in His divine wisdom, in instituting
the Church or Kingdom of Christ, has sur
rounded it with a water boundary, of a char
acter so well defined that every one who
crosses it from the kingdom of the world will
always know it Did ever recollect it. In illus
tration, a person* may cross a State line run
ning through the country, as the line between
the Slates of Illinois and Wisconsin, without
being aware of it; but he can not cross a
water boundary, as the Mississippi river, with
out knowing it, and that he has passed out of
the State of Illinois into the State of Mis
souri ; or cross the Ohio river, without know
ing that he has passed out of Illinois into the
State of Kentucky ; or cross the Wabash
river, without knowing that he has passed into
the State of Indiana. The water boundary
line around the kingdom of Christ consists of
Christian baptism —in submitting to which
the penitent believer, by being buried with
Christ in immersion, in order to be raised with
Him and walk in newness of life, passes
through this water boundary. He is then
fully conscious of it, whenever he passes this
boundary line between the kingdom of the
devil and the kingdom of Christ; as much so
as a person is when he crosses the water
boundary between two States of the Union,
as that between Illinois and Missouri, Ken
tucky, or Indiana ; and ever afterwards retains
the knowledge of it—not merely because he
has been buried in the water, but because he
has received the remission of sins ; and, as in
passing a State water boundary line he passes
out of one State into another State, so he
passes out of an unregenerate state, and one
of sin, guilt and condemnation before God,
into a converted, regenerate state, and one of
holiness, pardon, acceptance, favor, and cove
nant relation with God.”
Again: according to this writer, (the italics
are our own,) —
“ As the immersion of a penitent believer,
in the name of Jesus Christ, and into the
name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in
order to the remission of sins, representing
the burial and resurrection of Christ, is the
only true Christian baptism, nothing else will
do, or can be a substitute for it. ’
The reader will perceive, at a glance, that
such language, by every rule of fair interpre
tation, describes, if true, a process without
which “no sinner can be saved from endless
punishment,” and whether true or false, a pro
cess which makes him “ a member of the dis
tinctive church known as the ‘ Disciple ’ or
‘ Christian’ church.” The two are insepara
bly linked together. If the logic is good for
the one purpose, it is equally good for the
other. If invalid for either, it must be in
valid for both. When the holders of the logic,
therefore, refuse to follow it consistently
through, they warrant our refusal to follow it
in part. They bring it under the scope of the
principle—“ what proves too much proves
nothing.” In deciding not to enter within the
enclosure of the Reformation, we only follow
the example of repudiating the logic which
they set us, when they hesitate to say that be
yond this enclosure there is no eternal life.
They must cease from their repudiation, be
fore they can be entitled to demand that we
shall cease from ours. Until they do this,
they must pardon us for saying that, as re
spects their share in the discussion, the ques
tion is closed by themselves, against them
selves.
Slander Exposed: The Fincher Case.
We now redeem our promise to correct the
misrepresentations of the following paragraph,
which has been extensively published by
Northern newspapers:
“Georgia. —A Washington dispatch in
forms the Christian Era that Rev. Wm.
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 was carried up, and the
action of the lower court was approved ; the
judge holding that the North had no right to
send money South for such purposes, and
further, that his support was so precarious
that he was a vagrant within the meaning of
the law. He is now serving out his sen
tence.”
From the records of the case, which we
have exapiined, the facts appear to be, sub
stantially, as follows:
Wm. Fincher’s family consisted of himself,
a wife with three or four children, and another
woman with one child. He lived on ‘ a small
patch of land,’ which if put under cultivation
-would have been insufficient for their support,
and he did not cultivate that. He worked at
no trade. He had proposed to make pur
chases of several witnesses, but his proposi
tions were declined because, as he said, he
‘ did not have the money.’ He had bought
articles of property from other witnesses on
credit, but had made no payment. Supplies
had passed into his hands for distribution, but
he had returned no report. Several of the
witnesses for the defence testified that, so far
as they knew, he had ‘ no way of living,’ ‘ no
visible means of support.'
It did not appear in the trial of the case
that he was a missionary. One of the wit
nesses spoke of him as being a preacher, on
Ctv, gtfiertrJSmw Ti*—- t.— 1 SVuAi U .To 1
heard him ‘ hold forth ’ in that character.
But this was said incidentally, and there was
no intimation that his ministry brought him
a cent of income. (By the way, to travel be
yond the record, we are credibly informed
that he was once a preacher among Southern
Methodists; but several years since, during
the progress of the war, his license was re
voked and he was excommunicated on a
charge of bigamy. This action has never been
reversed by the authorities of that church.
If lie has been restored to the ministry by any
organization of freedmen, or of Northern
Christians, that fact did not come out in the
trial of the case.)
The attempt to prove that he possessed
visible means of support, rested on the fact
that he held the office of Vice President in
the Equal Rights Association for the county.
Two freedmen, claiming to be Presidents of
such Associations, one for Upson, and the
other for Pike county, testified, each, that he
had given this appointment to Fincher ; and
no reference was made to the agency of the
Association in the premises. A third freed
man, representing himself as Treasurer of the
Association for the county, stated that, while
Fincher had been promised a salary of ‘ not
more than thirty or forty dollars a month,’
no payments had been made to him, and that
the funds in the Treasury amounted to only
$1.40. Several of these witnesses alledged
that what the Association failed to pay, ‘ be
hevolent friends at the North were to make
up,’ but mentioned no organizations which had
given any assurance to this effect.
The lower court charged the jury, that if
they believed the prisoner to hold an office,
which was not proved to be disreputable, with
a salary adequate to his support, they must
• acquit him. The jury, as ‘judges of law and
fact in the case,’ found him guilty ; and in his
petition to the higher court, he held that the
verdict was contrary to this charge. With
respect to the action of the higher court, the
records contain only the decree confirming
the verdict; and we know nothing of the opin
ions, as to the rights of the North, expressed
in pronouncing the decree. Nor is this a point
of moment, since, let those opinions be what
they might, the precariousness of Fincher’s
support, of itself, afforded ample ground for
his conviction. One thing, however, is cer
tain : the court could scarcely have denied the
right of the North to send money South for
missionary purposes; for that question was
not, even remotely, involved in the case. Be
sides : it was in evidence that Fincher, in a
speech before a meeting of freedmen, had
claimed to be clothed by his office with a
power, in virtue of which he had hung up two
negroes by the thumbs, and if they resisted
his demands could hang them up by the neck !
A fact, from which it follows, either that the
office was illegal, and therefore one for the
support of which no persons, North or South,
had the right to contribute money; or that the
verdict in this case, which has been subjected
to such opprobrium, was really in the inter
est of the freedmen themselves, protecting
them from an abuser of a lawful office for
purposes of oppression—in the interest of
‘ benevolent friends at the North ’ too, who
might otherwise have given funds for the
benefit of the freedmen which would have
‘ warmed and filled ’ an oppressor of that un
fortunate race —his own.
The National Baptist will, of course, redeem
its promise to correct the misrepresentations
of this case, to which it lent its columns.
Will not others of our Northern exchanges do
this simple aet to our people ? Let
not falsehood postpone the era of reconcilia
tion between theAtwo sections, the delay of
which works such serious detriment to both.
. ft.
• *
Oar Southern^ion— in Our Exchanges.
Missouri. —A recent meeting at Utica resulted
in 19 additions to the church. A correspondent
of the Journal says: “ One year ago the church
property was deeded to brother John Stone, to
secure him in a efffim against it of about seven
hundred dollars, including interest. At the last
church meeting brr-ther Stone returned the deed
to the church, wifti his claim against the prop
erty, as a free wifl< offering to the Lord. Such
liberality oe mentioned.” —The church
organized at Greenton, Lafayette county, last Sep
tember, now numbers 42 members. Rev. T. W.
Barrett baptized persons during the month
ending Jan. 23d.—Rev. G. W. Robey, last year,
preached 227 sertnons, and received into the
churches by baptisi*i 78; by letter, 39 ; by rela
tion, 7; by restoration. 6; total, 130.—A church
was constituted at x Salisbury, Chariton county,
Jan. 19th. Rev. A- Lawler received from the
brethren at Calh4> D * Henry county, Christmas
eve, “a neat suitj^^ a J> wort h $50.”
Kentucky. C. E. W. Dobbs, (who, since
his removal from Wg'nia to Richmond, has bap
tized 20 persons, a letter to the BiUical Re '
corder, baptisms throughout the
State, the past ye 10,000.—Covington, East
Church Louisville>» ducah > Bowling Green, New
Castle, ShelbyvillajM other P laces . ai ' e without
pastors The announces that
Rev A S WorrelT assumes the presidency of
Danville Female ’ fWlege.— A chufch organized
last September in Jackson county with ] 3 mem
bers, and > n a private house, received,
as the result of a meeting, 18 accessions.—
There are 10 or men in the theological
class at Bethel 0 lle g e 5 Rev - w - W - Gardner,
Professor. Amos 1 7. Richardson was ordained to
the ministry at Pie sant Hill Church, Hart coun
ty, Jan. 5. The s; iendid new Baptist church at
Lexington was desi ‘pyed on the morning of Feb.
3d by fire. There 1 iave been 26 additions to the
church at Owensba p; 24 to Buck Creek Church,
McLean county; 6! 'conversions at Gilead, Hart;
and 20 at Bethleh*, Allen.—A church of eight
members was cor.si .tuted in Allen county, Jan.
29th.
Tennessee. —Injjeu of the Baptist Sentinel
which it was proposed to establish at Murfrees
boro, under the patronage of the General Associa
tion of Middle Tennessee, Rev. J. M. D. Cates has
become associate editor of the Christian Herald,
and a “ Tennessee -lepartment ” has been opened
in that paper. We-welcome him to the editorial
fraternity.—The SSjfem Association, at its last ses
sion, reported 26 lurches, 2,690 members, and
260 baptisms during the year; an average of 10
baptisms for each Jjfurch, and of about one bap
tism for every 10 -iembers. The Association re
quested the churcblg “ to adopt rules and regula
tions which will exclude the use of intoxicating
drink, as a beveraa from the churches.”
West Virginia. afcThe Journal and Afessenger
says : “ The villagefof Ravenswood, Jackson coun*
ty, where, but a fefe months ago, the most of the
inhabitants scarce* knew what a Baptist looked
like, now live church of thirty-seven
reported 25
V:,..! pßrui
8 baptisms for eSHthurch, and one baptism for
every 7 Valley Association re
ported 41 churcbe* 2,113 members, and 168 bap
tisms ; about 4 baptisms for each church, and one
baptism for every IB members.
Virginia. —The Kichmond Dispatch states that
Rev. W. E. HatchA has resigned charge of the
Manchester Churclito assume charge of the Frank
lin Square Church! Baltimore. —Rev. T. H. Pritch
ard writes to the Biblical Recorder, that the
house of worship of the Washington Street
Church, Petersburg, which was destroyed by fire
several years since, and has been in process of re
construction for ste’ne time, will be re-opened at
an early day.—We learn from the Religious Her
ald that the meeting at Alexandria closed with
about 20 hopeful conversions.—The Strawberry
Association reported 28 churches, 2,532 members
and 375 about 13 baptisms to each
church, and one baptism to every 7 members. —
Bethel Church, county, has had 17 acces
sions recently, ard Lebanon, (where the brethren
have “secured means to repair their house of
worship and an excellent bell for it,
without resorting ,to a religious fair,”) 4. A meet
ing of six days in dwelling houses in a neighbor
hood near Bethel Church was crowned with 30
professions of faith in Christ.
North Carolina. —Rev. R. B. Jones, as we
learn from the Biblical Recorder, has entered on
an agency to secure an endowment for Wake For
est College, the Spring session of which opened
with about 60 Students. —Rev. J. Utley has re
moved to Beaufort, and Rev. J. T. Leary expects
to settle in its ceighborhood. —Chowan Associa
tion is to be canvassed by Rev. S. S. Wallace, of
Georgia, as agent of the Foreign Mission Board of
the Southern Baptist Convention.
Alabama. —Tfte Board of the North Alabama
General Association requests the pastors within
its bounds to take up a collection for the benefit
of that body once every quarter, beginning March
Ist. —The Religious Herald reports Rev. A. C.
Barron, pastor qjt the Second Church, Montgom
ery, as in feeble health.
Mississippi, Christian Watchman an
nounces that has passed safely through the
most disheartening period our country has ever
known—a success for which it has mainly to thank
the ladies.’ —An African church was constituted
in Macon, and deacons ordained for it, Jan. 27th,
by a Presbytery of Southern whites.—The church
at Holly Springs, where the war left our Zion in
ruins, has now .a comfortable house of worship,
which it occupies twice a month. There were six
or eight additions to it the past year; among
them ‘a man of nearly seventy years, one.half of
him paralyzed, whom the pastor immersed in a
box within a few steps of his own door.’
Louisiana. —We learn from the Texas Baptist
Herald that the denominational Female College at
Mt. Lebanon has been burned.
Texas. —The Lavaca Commercial says that
“ Rev. Mr. Hillyer, of Independence, a Baptist
clergyman, has gone to the North to solicit funds
for the religious and literary instruction of the
negroes.” —Waco University has had h large in
crease of stdtlents recently.—Rev. W. Howard
speaks of a recent communion season in the Gal
veston church, as the first in about six years.
The Converted Infidel. —Thomas Cooper,
(who will be remembered by some of our
readers As once a most virulent infidel author,
but who for eight years and a half has lec
tured with marked effect in the cities and
towns of Great Britian on the overwhelming
disproofs of infidelity,) according to the Eng
lish correspondent of the Morning Star, was
a Wesleyan local preacher at Gainsborough
in his youth, but is now a member of a Gen
eral Baptist ‘church. He is worn out, at the
age of sixty-two, in destitution, and an appeal
is made for help i n U s behalf.
(Ulimpsea of tfy §4im
Woman as a Christian Worker. —A new
and beautiful parsonage, in connection with
the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, New York,
has been secured by “ a few earnest women.”
Southern Relief. —Several Sundays since,
a collection of SSOO was taken up by the Tab
ernacle Baptist Church, New York, (Rev. Dr.
Kendrick’s,) in aid of the Southern Relief
Commission recently organized in that city.
Among the names of the persons active in
this movement, we are pleased to see those of
Dr. Kendrick, Dr. Bright, of the Examiner
and Chronicle, and Smith Sheldon, Esq., of
the Publishing House of Sheldon & Cos.
St. Louis Baptists. —The entire member
ship of our churches in this city, Jan. 1, was
2,656 —a gain, for the past year, of 754,near
ly 29 per cent.
Change of Church Relations. —The Bish
op of Frederickton announces, in a letter to
his clergy : “ Rev. G. A. McNutt, late curate
of Trinity Church, St. John, has joined the
sect of Baptists, and moreover, has allowed
himself, —to the great scandal of all church
men, —to be publicly immersed at St. John,
in December last. I need not point out to
you that, by this conduct, he not only has vio
lated his solemn vows made before God at his
ordination, but has denied the validity of his
baptism and confirmation. I should, however,
be entirely unfaithful to my great Master, and
to the church over which I have been made
overseer, if I did not mark, by an act of pub
lic discipline, my disapprobation of so grave
an offense. And I hereby give you all notice
that I have revoked Mr. McNutt’s license, and
suspend him permanently from official duty
in all the churches and parishesin this diocese
under my jurisdiction. I shall, moreover, give
notice of this revocation to
the Bishops of the British Provinces of North
America.”
Thanksgiving. —The Christian Advocate,
St. Louis, proposes that the Christians of Mis
souri shall observe of February as a
day of thanksgiving for deliverance from the
Test Oath, which has been pronounced uncon
stitutional by the Supreme Court.
A New Baptism. —The Presbyterian Index,
Mobile, says that the freedmen, “in many in
stances, have broken lip their old religious or
ganizations, and have formed new ones, into
which none are admitted without being first
baptized into the Union —i. e., United States.”
It gives the following statement as having
been made by an intelligent negro who lives
on the coast: “ I was born and raised in South
Carolina, converted and educated in the Pres
byterian Church, and am seeking the right
way, and want advice; but since the war the
preachers that come into our settlement say
that there is anew law; that the old law
won’t save people any longer; that the old
doctrine, and the old preaching, and the old
baptism, are of no account any longer; and
that they can’t take men to Heaven any lon
ger; that there is anew law which has come
from the city of is the
law by which a black man can be saved ; and
that he must be baptized into the new law by
men who have been sent from the city of Wash
ington for that purpose, and pay a dollar a
month to support the cause ; and almost all
the colored people are going after this new
religion.”
Euphonious Name. —We notice in one of
the secular papers an item to the effect that a
“ Hard shell” Baptist preacher in West Ely,
Marion county, Mo., has a son named “ On
ward-Opposition-to-Presbyterianism Hen
drickson ! ”
Giving. —The 46,129 Baptists of Illinois
gave, last year, over $500,000 for objects of
benevolence, besides the support of their pas
tors, Sabbath schools and current church ex
penses at home—or more than $lO each.
Infant Baptism. —Rev. T. N. Lord, in an
address before the late Congregational Con
ference at Yarmouth, Maine, said : “We are
sometimes asked to show a single command
in the Bible for infant baptism. We have
none.”
Non-resident Members. —A writer in the
Examiner and Chronicle estimates that one
fifth of the members of Baptist churches are
living beyond their geographical limits and
ordinary supervision. .
Boston Baptists. —The Christian Era
thinks that ‘ the Baptist cause has made more
progress in Boston, the past two years, than
in the preceding ten.’ Perhaps this is due to
the fact that our brethren there have grown
more decidedly outspoken in the maintenance
of Baptist principles.
Air-Baptism. —Rev. Dr. Bartol, Unitarian,
in a recent Sunday evening lecture said:
“ When the minister dipped his hand in an
empty bowl and so baptized the child, there
would have been no sin had there been no
pretence. He should have said, ‘ The air also
is sacred.’ ” No : whatever is used without,
or against the word of Christ, is profane !
The Reformation. —A correspondent of the
biblical Recorder, at Richmond, Ky., says,
with regard to the prevalence of “ Campbell
ites” in that State: “In the central and
north-eastern portion of the State they are in
the majority. Elsewhere it is not so. In
deed, in some places they are as little known
as in Eastern Virginia and Carolina. I sup
pose they number not over 30,000 in the
whole State, while the Baptist Assocrational
minutes show a membership of 80,000.”
Debts to Pastors. —A Baptist minister
writes to the Biblical Recorder : “ A church
abundantly able to pay, has owed me several
hundred dollars for more than six years. I
know a church in N. C., that has been indebt
ed to its pastor nearly a thousand dollars, for
eight years.”
Infant Damnation. —ln reply to the charge
that Calvinists teach that there are infants lost,
a writer in the Christian Era says, as we would
say : “ We know not of a single sentence in
the writings of any Baptist author that hints
at such a conclusion.”
Inspiration. —Rev. Dr. Patterson, who re
cently seceded from the Reformed Presbyte
rian church, alleges that the multitude of its
adherents accept the Scotch metrical para
phrases of the Psalms as inspired; and that
within his recollection “ the same divine orgin
and exclusive authorization were claimed by
many devout Christians for the twelve com
mon tunes to which these hymns were gener
ally sung, and which were attributed to the
I twelve Apostles.”
The Dignity of a Bishop. —Bishop An
drew, of the Southern Methodist church, in a
recent appeal to his brethren for pastoral fidel
ity, says—with how much (or how little) good
taste we will not judge: “Some who have
joined our church have no peace in believing.
They remain for years without any enjoyment
of religion—after many years church com
munion they have not yet been able to cry,
Abba Father. Suppose such disciples assailed
by some shrewd proselyter —suppose, for in
stance, some Baptist brother should come
along, and sing to them of water; or some
Protestant Episcopal friend, layman or cler
gyman, or possibly a bishop, and talk of apos
tolic succession, and baptismal regeneration,
and, by way of application, talk of the intel
ligence of his church, and should intimate that
they are too intelligent to remain much longer
in the Methodist church, and that nearly all
the Generals have been confirmed in his
church ; and should wind up by telling the
young people that in his church there is no
check on indulgence in those amusements
which sober and devoted Christians regard as
unfriendly to deep and thorough Christianity —
in these cases —which are not rare—think you
that none of your sheep would be seduced ?”
Cost of Jewish Converts. —The Jewish
press estimates that every convert made by
the Society for the conversion of the Jews at
London, costs £5,359 ss.
The Older Ministry. —A correspondent
of the Episcopalian, in allusion to the desire
of vacant parishes(“ and the triflers of the
congregations ”) to have young men as pas
tors, says : “ I know not what ministers are
to do, if they live over forty years. If they
leave a parish after that, they might almost
as well leave the profession. It bodes no good
to the Episcopal church.”
Romish Superstition. —At the recent in
terment of Dr. Cantwell, for many years the
Romish Bishop of Meath, “ some women, who
had implicit faith in the miraculous power of
the clay thrown up in the making of the grave,
took home portions of it, boiled it, and confi
dingly drank it, as an infallible recipe for the
ailments by which they were afflicted.”
Damaoino Compliment. —ln allusion to
the denominations in Michigan, a writer in
the Liberal Christian says : “ Next to the
professedly liberal religious bodies, such as
the Universalist and Spiritualist, the Meth
odist church is most in sympathy with free
speech and free thought.” Os course, religion
grows less “ evangelical ” as it grows politi
cal.
Ritualism. —The Philadelphia Universe
says: “ The German Reformed church has
commenced to follow the Protestant Episco
pal church in the important matter of ritual
ism. On with it, day and night, without ces
sation. Ritualism accidently, not essentially,
signifies sacrifice, the real presence, and sacer
dotal power; it puts true Protestantism under
foot, and it leads to Rome.”—Some 350 of
the clergy of the diocese of London have
signed a public protest against “ the introduc
tion, under the cover of an elaborate ritual
ism, of some of the fundamental and most
" pernicious errors* the church of Rotpe into
the Protestant and Reformed church of this
realm.”—The London Freeman looks on Rit
ualism ‘ only as the last phase of Dandeyism,
a disease innate in the race, making every
man at some time a bit of a dandy, and now
and then breaking out as an epidemic.’
“ The Genuine Article.”— “ Iremeus,” in
the N. Y. Observer, in reference to the High
Church Episcopal house of v orship at Flor
ence, Italy, says: “ I never go there in Ro
man Catholic countries. When I can have
real turtle soup just as easy and cheap as mock
turtle, I prefer the genuine article.”
Protestant Relics. —The Christian Advo
cate, Nashville, has a letter from Frankfort,
Ky., in which the writer says: “ Brother At
more, in this Conference, has a watch key that
once belonged to Wesley, and somehow I feel
when I am near him like taking off my shoes.
If I had been a Roman Catholic, I should have
worshipped the bones of cannonized saints.”
New Methodist Missions. —The Southern
Methodist Board of Foreign Missions has ap
pointed Rev. Robert Alexander missionary to
Brazil, and Rev. Jno r t. Meriwether to Mexi
co ; the former to be sustained by the Texas,
and the latter by the Memphis Conference.
Healing the Breach. —During a Presby
terian revival in East Tennessee, young men
from the Confederate and Federal armies iat
together at the table of the Lord, to commem
orate his death. The blood of Christ, and
that blood alone, can make the hearts of a di
vided people one. 1
Ministerial Starvation. —The statistics of
16 Congregational and Presbyterian churches
in a county, show that 11 of them
pay the pastors less than the board of himself
and family, at $3 a week each, and the other
5 but little in excess of board bills.
A Sweeping Proposition. —A writer in the
Nashville Christian Advocate, says: “We
must go into a congregational organization ;
if the church does not accept the proposition
voluntarily, they will find the laity will adopt
it for them, for this is the desire of the mem
bership in a large portion of the South. To
prevent divisions, then, of the church, let us
consult upon the proper plan of organizing a
congregational polity and connect it with the
Episcopacy ; we can still retain the offices of
Bishop, Elder and Deacon, and hold our
Quarterly, Annual and General Conferences.”
Renewal of Covenant. —Ever since the
days of Wesley, the British Methodists have
kept up the custom of holding annually, in
all their principal churches, usually on the af
ternoon of the first Sabbath in the year, a
meeting for the renewal of their covenant with
God. The Provincial Wesleyan thinks that
this service-is, beyond almost every other
means of grace, a time when “ the tabernacle
of God is with men.” Reader, have you re
newed your covenant with God since this year
began ? If you have not, why not ? Do it at
once, with solemnity, penitence and faith.
A Good Idea. —The W easan Creek Regu
lar Baptist Association, Indiana, sends an an
nual epistle to the Rangoon (Burmese) Asso
ciation, and receives one from it.
Country Churches. —The Examiner and
Chronicle says: “We remember not long
since to have heard a country minister, in
pleading for better care for country churches,
make a strong point of the fact that the chief
sources of the ministry are the country
churches, whose welfare, he argued, could not
therefore be neglected without damage extend
ing much beyond themselves. He was right
in his fact and in his argument.”
(tyomapondenq.
A Virginia Letter.
Dear Brother Shaver: —I know a friend
who never has enough to do. He may be up
to his eyes in work ; a hundred demands there
may be upon his time and patience and
strength, but he can always find time to do
something more. I have frequently envied
him his possession of so strong a frame and
such unflagging industry, and have set myself
to calculating how much a body of Christian’s
of like zeal in matters spiritual with himself
in matters temporal, might accomplish. Alas,
we shall not find, I fear, even one his equal.
And yet the Christian has more, very much
more, to inspire and • keep-alive his labors.
The “ far more exceeding weight ” is surely
motive enough—if we needed motive to love
and to live for and to labor for, that Saviour
who lived for and died for us.
The Richmond churches are pausing after
the work of the past year. Their additions
to their membership, you know, were all quite •
large, and there will be some labor necessary
to give the young converts appropriate work.
The Sunday schools afford them something to
do. At one of the churches there is a Library
and Missionary Association, and perhaps at
others, other work is carved out for the young
people. The way to make a man anything,
is to give him, (as Dr. Jones said on last
Sabbath at the Church,) “ exercise,
employment, drilling.^*And the best an 4
most efficient method of drilling, of putting
young converts to work, is a thing we need
to know, if we would be most successful in the
Lord’s work. Bible classes will be of advan
tage when you have the men to conduct them,
who have the heart to engage in the work.
Associational effort of every kind will do
something. But outside of these, there lies a
vast field of effort, to which young Christians
should be directed, in order that they may
become useful in the church. I believe that
great as are the blessings which flow from
union of effort and from combined Christian
agencies, these need to be guarded lest they
repress, and indeed altogether destroy, indi
vidual heart-work and personal consecration
and personal labor. And are we not in dan
ger, attracted too much by the glare and glit
ter of masses of men moving to the attain
ment of a common object, of overlooking the
less pretentious, but equally important, aye,
more important, work of the individual ?
If Christianity is to prevail, the fuel must be
kindled upon the heart of each individual dis
ciple of Christ; and to the extent that we di
rect attention from that, and substitute any
new work or employment in its stead, we are
hindering the advancement of Christ’s cause.
The whole machinery of the gospel was con
trived and designed to work on the individual,
to produce results in the individual Christian,
and this ought never to be forgotten or over
looked. If our pastors, by faithful instruction,
by frequent references to the body of Chris
tian truth contained in God’s word, by faith
ful solicitation, can secure the personal efforts
of the
the churches the
more, they will have accomplished much.
Rev-. William E. Hatcher has returned
from his trip to Maryland. Whether the
monumental city shall finally decoy him from
his useful work in Manchester, is not yet as
certained. His brother, Rev. Harvey Hatcher,
is yet laboring as the assistant pastor of Dr.
Jeter in the Grace Street Baptist Church.
He, too, has been invited to a Maryland field,
and now has it under advisement. The Grace
Street Church will hardly let him go without
a word of remonstrance. 1 should rather say,
without the expression of affectionate and
earnest desire that he should remain with
them.
What of the night? in our national affairs,
you are enquiring. Dark enough. Looking
merely to the complection of our Congress,
and hearing its awful threats of vengeance, we
must look to a gloomy future for the South,
at least for a few years to come. Parcere
subjects seems to be a Roman virtue which
has not survived to. the present age. Yet is
there a struggling ray of hope ? The interests
of the whole country demand speedy recon
ciliation, and will not the Congress perceive
it, and act upon it after the passions of the
present moment have subsided ? I ardently
wish so, (I wish I could say I ardently hope so,)
and that the days of darkness may be few.
I prefer my own name to any pseudonym.
Yours truly,
Alexander 11. Sands.
Richmond, February 7, 1567.
Contributions to Foreign Missions.
Dear Brother Toon :—Since the 12th of
November, the date of my last report, the
following sums have been received by me for
ForeigiT Missions :
New Sunbury Association $ s{T3^
Quitman Church 41 75
Thomasville Church 8 95
Macon Church 100 00
Savannah Church 150 00
Douglas Branch Church 8 20
Brother Blewett 5 00
“ Bole 65
“ Willingham 300 00
“ Irwin 50 00
“ Cox 5 00
“ Walker.. 2 50
“ Ilornady 10 00
“ Barksdale 5 00
“ Callaway 10 00
“ Mell 5 00
“ Obear 5 00
Sister Ansford 1 50
“ Sims , 500
$772 88
Only a few of the brethren who gave pledg
es have yet paid ; but we hope to hear and
receive from them all the money they have
promised to the treasury of the Lord. Some
of them are perhaps in doubt as to my ad
dress; if so, they may direct any funds tome
by Express, at any time, at Ogeechee, Seriven
county, Ga., and will be sure to hear from me
in due time and in proper form.
Brethren, the time is short, and the poor
heathen are dying without the gospel; let us
help them while we may, that they, too, may
join us, in a better world, in ascribing praise to
Him who hath redeemed us with His own pre
cious blood!
Yours in Christ,
T. B. Cooper, Agent.
- OfMchet, Ga., Feb. 1, 1867.