Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

30 Kxfcx and ffa^tiist .J. J. TOON, ■ - • • Proprietor. Rev. D. SHAVER, D.»., Editor. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 186 7. TERMS: For one year. (50 Nos. in a volume) $4 00 For six rfionths * 2 00 For three months.... 1 00 To any Minister of the Gospel we will send the paper one year for $3. XW" Subscriptions invariably in advance. Remit tances carefully made, at the risk of the Proprietor. ADVERTISING KATES. One square (8 lines) one insertion $1 00 For a longer period than one month, a discount of 33J per cent, will be made. jgiS* In no case will advertisements be inserted with out payment in advance Persons at a distance wish ing to advertise can mark the number of squares they wish to occupy, and remit the money accordingly. To Correspondents. —All communications for the paper, and all letters on business, must be addressed to J. J. Toon, proprietor. 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.