Georgia Historic Newspapers

    6
Kalex m& jiaftist
j. J. TOON, • - - * Proprietor.
Rev. P. SHAVER, D.D., Editor.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1868.
Unsound Doctrine and Scepticism.
In that charming work, How to Stu*y the
New Testament, Dean Alford remind? us
that the first three Gospels.furnish no aenror
it/ whatever for their appropriation to the
writers by whose names they are known; and
that, while we may ‘ gather almost with cer
tainty from the fourth Gospel who it was that
wrote it, his name is nowhere told us.’ “We
are to value them for what .they are,” infers
the Dean, “ not for what they say they are.”
Much less can what others say they are,
rightly become the rule of judgment .to us !
And this principle, if not, applies
to the whole Scriptuies, which Burke de
scribes as “ a most venerable, but most mul
tifarious, collection of the records of the di
vine economy —a collection of an infinite
variety of cosmography, theology, history,
prophecy, psalmody, morality, apologue, al
legory, legislation, an and ethics, carried through
different books, by different authors, in differ
ent ages, for different ends and purposes.”
These all shine by their own light —a light
sufficient to flash convi6*i on OX i every nvind
i which does not persist in ‘l&oking at them, as
■rat the sun in an eclipse, through blackened
glasses.’
As we have never been a Traditionist with
regard to the doctrines of Christianity, just
as little have we been one in relation to its evi
dences. We hold that, in the last resort,
Scripture must not only interpret , but prove
itself. The Protestant Church of France put
this question substantially on the right foot
ing, we conceive, when she professed to accept
the Canonical Writings, “as the most certain
rule of our faith, not so much because of the
common consent of the church, but because
of the testimony and persuasion of the Holy
Ghost, by which we are taught to distinguish
between them and other ecclesiastical books.”
This (with the explanation of the next para
graph) is the true ground—not rejecting the
external evidences, but assigning the first
place and the greatest weight to the internal—
esteeming the former, indeed, an outpost,
which we may not cravenly relinquish, and
from which the artillery of truth may “do
fatal execution ” upon its assailants, but ac
counting the latter only the citadel, which, so
long as it is held, holds the cause harmless.
We do not disown Paley ; we prefer Paul
before him—prefer Paul as an apologist.
He who brings his intellectual and spiritual
nature into proper comnyinion with the Epis
tles of the great Apostle to the Gentiles, will
have no need for “A View of the Evidences
of Christianity”—none, to dispel lingering
clouds of doubt from the horizon o' his own
mind—none, in the effort to guide whose
starting-point is an honest desire to know
and an earnest purpose to obey the truth, to
the goal of Assured Belief.
We do not understand “ the testimony and
persuasion of the Holy Ghost” as excluding
what may be styled the rational proofs of
their origin which the divine records supply—
whether philosophical, historical, or herme
neutical.-, It assumes these—breathes through
them—builds on them. It passes forward to
the moral —the embodiment of truth, and
right, and love, in the teaching, and, still more
gloriously, in the person of Jesus, the “ De
us-Homo ” —and to the spiritual —the personal
experience of the power of Christianity, for
illumination, renewal, and progress in holi
ness. It is but another name for the three
modes of proof, in their harmon : ous blending,
and a recognition of the supernatural agency,
which alone clears the vision to perceive them
and stamps their transforming impress on the
soul.
(This recognition—we remark in passing—
breaks up the hollow semblance of agreement
between Orthodox and Liberal theologians,
which the Christian Register fashions when it
represents both as holding that “ the only
test and criterion of truth, however revealed,
is the spiritual sense of man.” Liberalism
exalts reason, dwells on “ the dignity of hu
man nature,” finds in the soul a “ living
germ” of goodness which only needs com
pleteness. With it, therefore, ‘ the spiritual
sense of man.’ when sitting in judgment on
revelation, acts without aid (because none is
held to be requisite,) acts under the (unac
knowledged) bias of the fall. So, Scripture
stands for trial at the bar of our depravity !
Orthodoxy, on the contrary, teaches that the
apostacy of our nature warped as well the
faculties of understanding as the faculties of
affection, and that the inward process of re
covery, while it demands renewal for the lat
ter, demands, no less, illumination for the for
mer. ‘The spiritual sense of man,’ with it,
therefore, becomes competent .to judge of
revelation only when, under the power of the
Holy Ghost, this mingling obscuration of the
tructi carnal enmity toward it is so far
‘realized,’ and so far broken, that “the truth
commends itself to the conscience (as it were)
in spite/of ourselves.” Here, and here alone,
our depravity is arraigned for trial at the bar
of Scripture 1 What systems, then, can ;be
more diverse and irreconcilable than Ortho
doxy and Liberalism at this point ?* But the
present paragraph is a digression, and we re
turn from it.)
If the views which we have been urging
are sound—if the Scriptures are their oion
demonstration —if their teachings constitute
their clearest and most convincing proofs,
(when “confirmed, brought
home to the whole being of man, head, heart,
and spirit” by the Holy Ghost,) —one con
clusion follows irresistibly. “The moment
the peculiar doctrines of revelation are denied
or obscured,” a part, and that “ the best part,
of the internal evidences of Christianity, is
* Only the former can say with Coleridge, in his ad
vocacy of “prevenient aDd auxiliary grace”—“ls not
a true efficient conviction of a moral truth, is not the
creating of anew heart, which collects the energies of
a man’s whole being in the focus of the conscience, the
one essential miracle, the same and of the same evi
dence to the ignorant and the learned, which no supe
rior skill can counterfeit, human or demoniacal? Is it
not emphatically that leading of the Father, without
which no man can come to Christ? Is it not that im
plication of doctrine in the miracle and of miracle in
the doctrine, which is the bridge of communication be
tween the senses and the soul; —that predisposing
warmth which renders the understanding susceptible
of the specific impression from the historic, and from
all other outward seals of testimony ? Is not this the
one infallible criterion of miracles, by which a man can
know whether they be of God ? ”
THE CHRISTIAN INDEX AND SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST: ATLANTA, GA„ TH URSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1868.
destroyed;” and, since it is precisely in the
department of these evidences that she wears
# visible and decisive insignia of her
origin, scepticism is especially apt
e the sway, in proportion to this ob
-3r denying of doctrine. This point
is obvious on simple statement ; and
We pass on, by way of legitimate deduc
tion, to say, with Lorimer, that “ Calvinistic
views of theology have a closer connection
with the Evidences of the divine truth of the
Gospel than many imagine;” for, in these
views the peculiar doctrines of Christianity
have their most explicit, comprehensive and
lOminous unfolding. The Eighteenth, for ex
ample, was the least Calvinistic century of
English religious life; and who that is famil
iar with its literature has not felt how, when
the works on the Evidences produced by it
leave the external argument and that portion
of the internal which is simply rational, they
take low ground and wage feeble warfare,
notwithstanding the talent and learning of the
authors? When, at the opening of that cen
tury, the infidel writings of Matthew Tindal
were unsettling the faith of many, not a few
of the bishops and clergy of the Established
church, (Wodrow tells us, on the authority of
Stewart,) shewed a disposition to return to
the Calvinistic sense of the Thirty-Nine Ar
ticles, frankly confessing, in conversation, that,
otherwise, “ it would be very hard to defend
Christianity feists.”
- Not only “ hard,”
forth as religious belief is a matter of logic,
impossible. The peculiar doctrines of Chris
tianity are the keystone to the arch of its de
fences; and where that is thrown out —where
its true and full proportions are cut away—
the inevitable result is, that block after block
falls from its place, until the whole structure
lies a heap of untenable ruins. As has been
said by another: “Consistent Arminianism
leads to Pelagianism (though many are hap
pily better than their principles, and stop
short in the course,) and Pelagianism leads to
Arianisin, and Arianism leads to Socinianistn,
and Socinianism leads to Infidelity.” Unbe
lief enters through the door of a belief false
in part.
We have a notable confirmation of this
truth in history. The marvellous early pro
gress of the Protestant Reformation is due to
the fact th?it it brought out afresh the full in
ternal evidence of Christianity—its peculiar
doctrines, as a power over the heart and the
life—its Calvinism in creed and in experience.
Whence came the no less wonderful arrest
that fell on its march? Whence its lapse, in
due season, into a cold, irreverent, dreary
Rationalism ? That other causes wrought to
ward the production of these results, we hatfe
no disposition and no need to deny ; but fore
most among the agencies for evil, we are sure,
was the infection of theological schools, the
pulpits, and the churches, with Arminianism.
Unsound doctrine . smoothed the way to Scepti
cism.
We say these things to quicken the walch
fulness and confirm the fidelity of the breth
ren in “ holding fast the form of sound words,
in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.”
While we say them, we are not unmindful
that Calvinism in experience may, by happy
inconsistency, exist, more or less perfectly,
without Calvinism in creed, and, for a season,
retard the inroads of grosser doctrinal error.
But it is the tendency of creed and experience
to seek the same level; and when they settle
down together on the plane of Arminianism,
it proves a quagmire, and They sink, by sure
degrees, into the underlying slough of Infidel
ity. How necessary, then, that we should
all “ earnestly contend for the faith once de
livered to the saints ” —contend for every
“jot and tittle ” of it!
The Office-Bearers of the Churches.
• Does not the blame for the low estate of
Zion cleave largely to those who are her
‘office-bearers? So thought the Synod of
South Carolina, when, several months since,
it asked the Presbyterian General Assembly
“to appoint a day of fasting and prayer for
ministers and other church officers, in which
they should repent of their own coldness, and
beseech God for a baptism of the Holy Spirit
upon themselves.” So, too, thought the
Evangelical Ministerial Association of Cin
cinnati, when, quite recently, “ in view of the
need of increased spirituality in the churches
and the consequent necessity of a revival of
religion,” it appointed a committee “ to make
arrangements for a prayer meeting of the
ministers and official members of the churches ,”
which should continue, without intermission,
from 9 in the morning to 9 at night.
We speak on this subject, as one belonging
to the class thus singled out for special self
searching and supplication ; and speak, there
fore, the more freely because what we say is
taken home to ourselves. Is there not cause—
we ask our brethren who serve the church,
who serve Christ, in the ministry—is there
not cause to fear that we have not been duly
alive to our official responsibility and duly
laborious in performance of our official
work ? Have those words, “It is required in
otowarde, that a man be lound faithful,” rung
in our ears as they should ? Have we suffi
ciently ‘watched for souls as those who must
give account, that we might do it with joy,’ both
on their behalf, and on our own ? Have we
lived among men with meet remembrance of
our calling, “to open their eyes, and to turn
them from darkness to light, and from the
power of Satan to God?” Have we rightly
‘ stirred up the gift of God that is in us,’ “ for
the perfecting of the saints, for the edifying
of the body of Christ?” Have we striven
to “ be an example of the believers, in word,
in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith,
in purity?” And if we have failed in these
things, may it not be that the Lord is chas
tening us, —is keeping back the fullness of
his blessing from our labors, that we may be
brought to recognize, bemoan and forsake our
short-comings? Oh, in this season of transi
tion from the old year to the new, let us
ponder the paths of our feet,” and seek
sti'ih aii increase of zeal, fidelity and heavenly
riindedness, that the words of the poet may
fiVd their fulfillment in us:
“Th«y in the current of destruction stand,
And warn the sinner of his woe; lead on
laoa«euers armies in the evil day;
And--with the everlasting arms embraced
Themselves around—stand in the dreadful front
Os battle high, and war victoriously
'Vith death and hell.”
■
May we not venture, too, to enquire of j
deacons, whether they have sought with due I
diligence, to ‘use their office well,’ that they
might thus ‘purchase to themselves a good
degree, and great boldness in the faith which
is in Christ Jesus?’ Have they, “served
tables”—the table of the Lord, the table of
the pastor, and the table of the poor,—as
those “ not greedy of filthy lucre,” but inci
ting others, by their own liberality, to the
cultivation of a liberal spirit? Have they
given to “the temporalities” of the church,
the unceasing watchfulness, and prompt action,
and persevering, systematic labor, demanded
by the influence which these things exert over
its “spiritualities?” We beg brethren to
weigh these questions prayerfully, as questions
which it becomes them to ask themselves,
and as questions which they must answer, by
and by, when God asks them. Oh that great
grace may rest on them—may live in them,
repiaring all negligence of the past, and fill
ing the future with all holy activities! May
the year on which they now enter prove,
through their quickened industry and reviving
ardor, a ‘year of the right hand of the Most
High,’ in every one of our churches !
Our Southern Zion—in Our Exchanges
Georgia.
Several have been received by letter and seven
by experience, into the Second Baptist church,
Augusta; H. A. Williams, pastor—We gather the
foregoing information from the Baptist Banner.
The publication of that papeftas been resumed at
Augusta; Jas. N. Ells, edito™ terms, $3 a year
in advance. It launches on a stormy sea, but we
hope it may have a prosperous voyage.
> Florida.
Rev. W. Johnson has become pastor of the
Olustee church, near Providence.—A writer in the
Religious Herald says: “Elder Todd, who resides
in the vicinity of Tampa, is a convert from Pres
byterianism. This ecclesiastical change, which
occurred after he had entered the ministry, was the
result of an attempt to collect from the Scriptures
and from standard Pedobaptist works material for
a discourse to be delivered in vindication of infant
baptism. Having reluctantly undertaken the task
at the earnest solicitation of many of his brethren,
he addressed himself to his preparatory studies
with a sincere desire to reach, in his investigation,
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth. Before the time arrived for the delivery
of his anxiously expected sermon, he had become
a confirmed Baptist. The exercises were of course
postponed sine die."
Maryland.
Rev. 0. F. Flippo, editor of the Baptist Visitor,
has resigned, after a connection of seven years,
the pastoral care of the Newtown, Rehoboth, Pitts
Creek and Chincoteague churches.—The Execu
tive Board of the Maryland Baptist Union Associ
ation has adopted a resolution “ earnestly request
ing all Mission churches to take, as soon as possi
ble, the necessary steps to procure a parsonage
for each church, and, when in the country, to
provide a few acres of land adjoining.”—Forty
persons, within a few months, have been added to
Franklin Square church, Baltimore; Rev. W. E.
Hatcher pastor —A correspondent of the Lousiana
Baptist says: “ Dr. Fuller’s church has grown
plethoric, and meditates a division into two bands,
one to remain in possession of the old “seventh,”
and the other under the leadership of their pastor,
to remove out on Madison Avenue and build a
new church. Dr. Williams’ church is also large
enough for division, and with a few more years of
prosperity will probably colonize.”-Since the close
of the war, Dr. Fuller’s cfiUr.’h, apart from numer
ous donatins by individuals, has contributed $24,-
000 to benevolent purposes.
Louisiana.
John Barron was ordained to the ministry, Dec.
Ist., atßamah church, hitoohoe Parish. Ser
mon by Rev. G. W. Hartsfield.
South Carolina.
Rev. W. D. Thomas has forwarded to the Green
ville church, his resignation of the office of pastor,
“from the conviction that, in ‘the present dis
tress,’ the church may be usefully served by some
contiguous preacher, and the gifts of their late
pastor be employed in some other field.”
Texas.
Mrs. Margaret Houston, relict of Gen. Sam.
Houston, died at Independence, Dec. 3rd., of yel
low fever.—Benj. Phipps has been ordained to the
ministry, at Mt. Olive church, Kaufman county.
Rev. F. M. Law changes his field of labor, owing
to the expense of living at Houston, and the ina
bility of the Marion Board to aid him. —The Board
of the Texas Baptist Convention ‘ requests the
Boards at Marion and Richmond, or the President
of the Southern Baptist Convention, to take meas
ures to have the next meeting of the Convention
postponed until May, 1869.’ It asks also an ex
pression of opinion on this point, from the Boards
of State Conventions and General Associations
South.—Farmington church, Grayson county, has
had 23 accessions recently.
Tennessee.
A meeting of nine days at Dixon Creek church,
Smith county, resulted in twenty-five accessions
—The Baptist, Memphis, resumes publication
with the new year. The number for January 4th,
has reached us.
Virginia.
Rev. A. Routh reports twenty-four baptisms at
Castle’s Woods,Russell county. The church was
constituted in July with twenty-four members .
Rev. E. Kiser pastor. —Rev. J. R. Bagby resigns
charge of Mt. Tabor church, Amelia, and excepts
charge of Muddy Creek.
West Virginia.
A writer in the Religous Herald says, “ that
during twenty-five years’ residence in Taylor
County, West Virginia, he has never known a
Baptist church closed in consequence of the in
clemency of the weather.”
(Stimpea of the <®iim
BAPTIST.
Denominationalism. —The Examiner <&
Chronicle says: “There are at the present
time many signs of a re awakened denomina
tional life in our churches, signs of a higher
regard among us for those views of church
order which make us a distinct and peculiar
people. There is occasion for congratulation
in this.”
Ministerial Education. —A church is
mentioned in one of our exchanges as acting
on the rule “ that each church, able to do so,
should educate its future pastor .” The con
ception is an admirable one.
Union. —The zeal for union seems to have
reached even open communion Baptists. The
Morning Star, the Free Will organ, says:
“ There are various bodies of Baptists, larger
or smaller, scattered throughout the Southern
States, or over the British Provinces, whose
general views of Christian doctrine and prac
tice are so nearly alike, and have at the same
time so much in common with our own, that
measures shoul I at once be taken to bring
about a mutual acquaintance, and so promote
a closer and more intelligent mutual sympa
thy.” The only “ body” of the kind in the
Southern States that we recall just now, is
the “ Union Baptist Church,” as it styles it
self: a small sect in Virginia, of but two or
three churches, the founder of which, “ Rev.”
Janies W. Hunnicutt, isLfcetter known in the
political world as of the New Na
tion, the ultra-RadieaiQfcran at Richmond.
German German Baptists
in America number 4^175; added last year
by baptism 354, by lAfer 257. In Germa
ny, Denmark, Switzerland, they
number 15,299; additions since 1864
amounting to 6,956. J
American Preachis(j. —A minister, one
of Spurgeon’s students |prmerly, now preach
ing in New York, wrifjps to the Sword and
Trowel: “In thq pulpier of all denominations
the mass of the are on geology, bot
any, or some other branch of learning, and
Jesus is given a lower place.”
Novels. —ln a notice of the gradual devel
opment of Dr. Wayland’s mind, when young,
the American Baptist says : “ He now became
a thinking instead of a reading being. Nov
els became particularly offensive to him, as
they do to every true ffinker. The present
generation of Americans are becoming a race
of novel-readers instead of scholars, and we
fear that very few of tiiem will ever awake,
as Dr. Way land did, to the consciousness that
man was designed to bt» 4 a thinking being.’ ”
PEE SB Y * BRIAN.
Church Music. —A‘ correspondent of the
Presbyterian Banner jVrites : “ I was in a
church a Sabbath or tma ago, where about six
persons did the prai*t>r&of Cod for some two
hundred. Can o*e psiSse God for another ?”
Giving.— ln referfsSfe to “ sustentation ”
funds, the Cental Pwm&rian says : “ How
much did our to this great in
terest last' year? over $18,000!
That is onlym&al one half cent a
week for each This is a resulwhat
should fill us all and humiliation
before God, the churc!| and Ehe world. Is it
to be repeated? If sy| is not TEKEL writ
ten upon us?”
LUTHERAN.
Lecture Delivery! —The correspondent
of the Methodist thus describes the manner of
Hengstenberg, from whom he heard recently
a lecture in the Berlin 'University : “ Though
he would call his posture sitting, he yet turns
in his chair; stands up; sits down again;
wheels around on one side ; rests his elbow
on the back of his chair; looks out of the
window at the falling leaves ; then springs up
again; pulls his chair into position, or out of
position, as the case may be; drops down in
to it again ; wheels around; tugs at his coat;
buttons and unbuttons it repeatedly ; and all
the while reads a manuscript which it is a
wonder, amid all his odd twitchings, is not
torn into fragments and scattered all around
him. Thus his lecture goes on until the
clock-stroke stops his gyrations, and sends
the galvanic man out of* the room. His
voice is as convulsive as his bddy. He may
say one-half of a word in a whisper inaudi
ble to many of his students, while the other
is roared out with a lion-like violence.”
CON GREGATION ALIST.
“ Exclusive.” —ln an article on the wants
of the American and Foreign Bible Society,
the Independent says : “It is a great pity that
the body of Baptists are driven from coope
ration with the general Bible Society by the
exclusive resolutions of 1836 denying aid for
the Burman Bible.” *
Slander. — The Congregationalist dc Re
corder quotes from the private letter of a fe
male friend, “a teacher to the freedmen in the
far South,” the following monstrous tradud
tion of our people: “jkyvould like to convey
to you a true picture of the character of the
Whites here. 1 had no conception of such
abandoned, God forsaken people.
They hate us, theyijAfcthe freedmen, they
hate the hate knowledge,
and they hate God—and* He seems to have de
serted them. In almost every other man,
upon a knowledge of their character, we learn
there lives the spirit of Mrs. Stowe’s ‘ Le
gree.’ And horrors so dreadful have been
perpetrated in nearly every home here that
we shrink and quiver at their recital.”
The Doctorate. —The English Independ
ent says : “ The truth is, that Yankee degrees
are a pest, and we devoutly wish the Ameri
cans would keep them at home, and not let
them loose upon us. They make the wear
ers ridiculous, destroy the value of distinc
tions fairly won, and bring learning itself in
to contempt.”
EPISCOPAL.
Romanizing. —Rev. Drs. Newton, Smith,
Stone,Tyng, Butler, and others, have published
a declaration with regard to the open and secret
tendencies in the Protestant Episcopal Church
to conformity with the Church of Rome, in
which they say : “The essential principle of
these tendencies is an.entire subversion of the
Protestant and Evangelical character of our
Reformed Church. It transforms the minis
try of the Gospel into a Priesthood ; Baptism
into a magical rite; the Lord’s Supper into
the Sacrifice of the Mass; evangelical reli
gion into bondage to manifold observances and
ceremonies ; and the One Church of Christ,
‘the blessed company of faithful people,’ into
the body of those who recognize and conform
to a mere sacerdotal system. These tenden
cies, already far advanced in England and
this country, are materially aided by a sub
tler and less clearly pronounced sacerdotal
ism, which finds expression among us in an
exclusive view of the Episcopal Church ; in
unscriptural conceptions of the sacraments;
in superstitious ideas of the power of the
ministry; and in a legal rather than evangel
ical view of the Christian life. The influence
of these tendencies we believe to be eminent
ly injurious to our Church, by the reasonable
prejudice which they excite; fatal to the per
formance of the great mission of our Church
in this land, by their contrariety to true lib
erty and the true progress of the age; dan
gerous to souls by their hiding of the free
grace of the Gospel; and dishonorable to
Christ by their substitution of human media
torship, in the place of the ‘One Mediator,
Christ Jesus.’ ”
Discipline. —To illustrate the want of dis
cipline in the English Established Church,
one of the most influential papers in that
country states that a bishop spent £B,OOO in
attempting to displace an immoral incumbent,
and failed.
Alas ! Alas !—The London Record quotes
a late Ritualistic sermon which said that
“Protestantism has inquiries as to Jehoia
kim’s great grandfather and the number of
knives brought back from Babylon,” but has
“no mass,” “ no bottle for eucharistic wine
for future use.”
METHODIST.
Contributions. —Eighty-one “charges” re
ported to the South Georgia Conference, the
collection of $79,057.02 —an average for each
charge, of $976.01, and for each member, of
$2,95.
Wesleyan Thanksgiving. — The South
Carolina Methodist Conference adopted a re
solution, “in order to keep the membership
of the church properly informed and interest
ed in the origin, history, progress, peculiari
ties and success of Methodism, that the 24th
day of May—the date of the conversion of
John Wesley—be set apart by this Confer
ence for Annual Public Services, to be cele
brated by sermons, addresses, Sunday school
festivals, or otherwise, in all our charges, to
this end.”
Pulpit Reading. —The Western Christian
Advocate says : “We have observed with in
terest the strong movement by other denomi
nations in the direction of extemporizing, and
not without concern have we seen a tendency
among ourselves toward reading. The first
is an unquestionable advance, and the second
as undoubtedly a decline. Once we were a
race of extemporizers, with scarcely an ex
ception, mighty in logic and appeal. To-day
we hear from our pulpits too many essays,
smooth but powerless. We hope the day is
distant when the Methodist ministry, will
bind itself with paper withs, and sacrifice its
pulpit power and prestige to frigid accuracy.”
Tobacco. —A Lay Delegate to the Arkansas
Methodist Conference gives his experience in
that body, from whieh we clip this passage :
“ He proposes that if the preachers will stop
the use of tobacco, and estimate what the en
tire amount of tobacco consumed by them
costs, he will pay ten per cent, annually
on that amount to the Home Missionary
cause. But ‘Layman’ felt small enough be
fore thepreachersturned him(oose. Sornesmil
ed, some looked indignant, and some defiant.
One Presiding Elder jumped up, and looking
fiercely at ‘ Layman,’ demanded the proof that
Jesus Christ did not smoke tobacco. Some
objected to the nauseous subject being intro
duced upon the Conference floor. Some want
ed 4 Layman’ to extend his proposition to the
ladies, and pay ten per cent, on all the snuff
consumed. Some had been recommended to
use the poisonous weed by eminent physicians.
Some wanted to put a ‘big price’ on tobacco
so as to scare off ‘Layman.’ Some excused
themselves upon the ground that their tobacco
was given to them. No one accepted the
proposition, and no one came to the relief of
Layman,’ while he silently faded away into
insignificance. This was his last effort to be
conspicuous, or to do good among the preach
ers.”
REFORMED.
Gibraltar. —The Christian Intelligencer
styles the (Dutch)Reformed church “the Gi
braltar of Protestantism.”
Preaching (?) — A letter from Boston, in
the Christian Intelligencer , says : “ A friend
recently heard a young man preach from ‘Be
hold the Lamb of God,’ and instead of giving
it a reasonable treatment, he stated his subject
to be : ‘The Mental and Moral States recept
ive of reflex influences, as most perfectly illus
trated in the soul’s looking upon Christ as a
model of all that is good, self-denying,’ etc.
“ One Church in a City.” —The (Dutch)
Reformed churches in New York, “are not in
dependent of each other, but are all under the
control of one corporation, and the pastors,
five in all, have no eclusive relationship to any
one of the five churches, but each pastor is a
sort of circuit minister, in turn, to each one
of the churches.”
ROMANIST.
Protestant Schools. —The Universe, the
Romish Philadelphia organ says : “ The Cath
olic father who sends his children to a Pro
testant school, is far, far worse in unnatural
crime than the mother who exposes her in
fants on the path of the wolf. Children are
given as blessings. To send them where their
faith is certain to be poisoned, is ingratitude
to our Saviour, of parallel heinousness to the,
pride of the fallen angels against the Almighty.
Those angels are now devils in heli for their
sin; the Catholics who send their children to
Protestant schools -have, inevitably before
them, eternal companionship with those fiends.
And what of the children themselves? As
sure as their grace of faith perishes, and in
almost all eases it perishes, their souls are
lost.” *
UNITARIAN.
“Liberal” Estimate of Greatness. —Says
the Watchman and Reflector: “ Some little
time ago we stepped into a shop where ‘liber
al publications’ were sold, and there listened
to an earnest conversation between a young
man and an old New Englander, called forth
by ‘Ecce Homo,’ and recent issues of ‘ The
Life of Jesus.’ The youthful inquirer was
somewhat astonished to learn that the old
gentleman could see nothing especially Divine
in the character of the Founder of, Christian
ity, and exclaimed, ‘Pray, sir, tell me what
you think of Him 1 ? ‘I think,’ replied the
liberal progessive, ‘ that Jesus of Nazareth
was a very good man, but not, by any means,
a great man !’ ”
UNIVERSALIST.
Hatred of Orthodoxy. —A writer in the
New Covenant , expresses the opinion that if
children can’t attend Universalist Sabbath
schools they had better go nowhere; that
they had better be taught nothing than taught
orthodoxy.
DISCIPLE (“CAMPBELLITE.”)
Baptismal Remission. —Rev. B. F. Ma
nire in the American Christian Review, clear
ly sets forth the doctrine of justification in
immersion, as held among adherents of the
(Bethany) Reformation : “The death of Christ
is the only meritorious, the sole procuring
cause of salvation. Baptism is only and sim
ply one of the conditions of the enjoyment
of pardon in this life. It is connected not
with a change of heart, or of life, for it pro
ceeds from these, but with a change of state
or relation. It is the act by which the truly
penitent believer passes out of a state of con
demnation into a state of justification—the
act by which he is ‘ translated out of the
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of
God’s Son.’ Unless preceded by sincere faith
and genuine repentance r .it is a vain and use
less ceremony. And even in the case of the
penitent believer, it has no power, efficacy, or
virtue, in and of itself. Asa condition of the
enjoyment of pardon, it derives all its impor
tance, all its significancy, all its power, from
its divine appointment. It is God who be
stows the blessing, and this He does of His
own favor in and not for the deed. Baptism,
then, is not the only thing to be done in be
coming a Christian ; it is not the first , nor is
it the most important; but it is the last, the
consummating act.”
SPIRITUALIST.
“The Reason Why.” —“An Important Dis
covery,” a tract addressed to the editors of
America, professes to give an explanation,
from the spiritualistic stand-point, “of the
fact that such an immense proportion of the
so called ‘communications’ from the‘spirits’
are full of blunders, made up of sonorous
nonsense, lend their sanction to such infidel
sentiments, and induce ‘so mu< h loose, im
moral, and licentious conduct among the de
votees of this system.’” The explanation is,
that “ no spirit can directly control a spirit or
a mortal belonging to a sphere more than one
discreet degree below himself;” that “not
one per cent, of the communications to mor
tals have come from spirits above the second
sphere;” and that “all spirits of the second
sphere are low, gross, undeveloped, many of
them being extremely selfish, dishonest, licen
tious, tricky,” etc., etc.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Our Women. —In the Herald of Health,
Eliza Archard (we do not know whether she
is maid or matron) says: “ The women of
America are physically the weakest women
in the world, and seem pleased to be told of
it.”
Hollow Profession. —A writer in the
Church Union says, in reference to many cur
rent professions of liberality : “Christians are
impatient with their Baptist brethren for stick
ing so pertinaciously to close communion ; but
the Pedobaptist father, who has a decided ob
jection to his children being immersed, is no
less illiberal. And the Pedobaptist minister
who preaches diversity of form in the pulpit,
but shows a decided preference (or unity of
form when called on to immerse a believer,
is not only illiberal, but open to the stric
tures in Matt. 7: 3. It is hard, I know, to
walk ourselves in the same straight path
which we mark out for others: but we have
no more right to shrink from it than we have
to profess what we dare not practice. Sprink
ling or pouring, we have a right to imagine,
is proper baptism, and that immersion is un
necessary trouble; but if we really believe
this, Christian priticip'e teaches us to openly
profess it, and be as close as our neighbors.”
Ultra Reform. —The Plymouth Brethren
in Italy, in their revulsion against the hier
archy, will not use the title “Pastor,” but
substitute for it “Conductor.”
The Negro. — The New York Observer
recalls the fact, that when “one of our most
eminent, accomplished and gentlemanly cler.
gymen, entered the house of Rev. John An
gel James, his wife said: ‘We should have
been happier to see you if you were a ne
gro.’”
(fyorresjondenq.
Miscellaneous Matters.
It may be that some of your readers, for
old acquaintance sake, if for nothing else,
might be interested in a short communication
from the undersigned. A few of them have
a right to know what I am doing as State
Evangelist. My health has been much better
this year than it was last; and I have preached
almost every Sabbath, and frequently on week
days, to churches and congregations which
would otherwise have been destitute. Our
people seem literally to hunger and thirst
for the Word of life, and the gratitude and
joy with Which they receive it is deeply affect
ing. Protracted meetings (of which I highly
approve,) might have been conducted at some
points, with every prospect of accomplishing
good. But the business engagements of the
people and the want of ministerial aid, ren
dered such efforts inexpedient. I preached a
few times in the coast counties, and deeply
regret my inability to have done so more fre
quently. In a recent communication to the
Missouri Baptist Journal , brother Landrum,
says, “As to the religious aspect of this
part of the country, it is sufficiently
gloomy. There is not a pastor wholly em
ployed in the ministry, except myself, for
hundreds of miles—from Brunswick, Ga., to
Charleston, S. C.” A Presbyterian gentle
man, residing near Brunswick, in a letter re
ceived this day, says, “We will be very glad
to have you to come and see us when you can.
We often talk about you, and wonder when
you will come to see us. We don’t hear
preaching very often. No Baptist nor Pres
byterian minister this year, and I am afraid
we never shall have them again.” He adds,
that the only religious service enjoyed by the
Waynesville people, is the reading of a ser
mon once a month by one of their Elders,
with prayers, etc.
I preached to the poor saints in that region
last year, (the first Baptist preaching they
had had in two years,) and baptized a few of
the elect. Lack of means bas prevented my
doing so again this year, though my heart
still yearns after them in the gospel. Not
only are the whites suffering for want of the
means of grace ; the blacks are rapidly relaps
ing into barbarism from the same cause.
It was my privilege to attend several Asso
ciations in the interior of the State during the
past fall, all of which gave unmistakable signs
of growth in divine knowledge and grace, and
increased zeal in the Master’s cause. The
churches, in their “ deep poverty,” are making
great sacrifices to sustain the various causes
of benevolence, especially Domestic Missions
and Sabbath schools.
For my services as an Evangelist this year
I have received up to this time $279,50.
I have been deeply interested in Dr. Manly’s
reminiscences of “ Forty-five years ago.” It
was in the fall of that same year, 1822, in
which my venerable brother was engaged in
that wonderful revival in South Carolina, that
1 obtained hope in Christ, and was baptized
by Rev. C. O. Scriven, into the church in
Sunbury, then in my sixteenth year. In a
few months thereafter, I commenced exhort
ing publicly and preaching in a small way ;
and, having put my hand to the plough, I have
not looked back, nor have I “ come down”
from the “ Great Work” to engage in secular
employment. In my experience, the ques
tion has been fairly tested, whether they that
preach the gospel in Georgia, can “live of the
gospel.” True, my living has been, and is
still, scanty enough. But I rejoice in God,
that He has given me grace to hold on my
course, through poverty and many privations,
to this present time. “ Forty-five years ago!”
It seems but as yesterday. Well hath it been
said, “For what is your life 1 It is even a va
por, that appeareth for a little time, and then
vanisheth away.” Os those, with whom I was
first associated in the ministry, all have passed
away, and “I, even I only am left.” I have
more friends in Heaven than on earth, and I
trust more treasure also. Much of my pub
lic life has been spent in revivals of religion.
God has added many seals to my poor minis
try, (among whom are several ministers of
the gospel,) and it has been my happiness to
baptize thousands into His church. These
things are recorded, not in a spirit of boast
ing, but to the glory of His distinguishing
grace
As some of our prominent brethren have
seen proper to invite correspondence from our
Northern brethren, with the Southern Baptist
Convention, and as one or more of your cor
respondents have declared themselves favor
able to reunion, it may not be amiss to ex
press my views on the subject. Soon after
the elbse of the war, I sent for the New York
Examiner and Chronicle, and read it carefully
for twelve months. Its tone was bitter to
wards the people of the South, and if it con
tained one expression of kindness towards
Southern Baptists, it escaped my notice. In
the last number of the Index and Baptist,
brother Editor, you have an article
of the South,” in which the American Bap
tist takes the ground, that it never can recogn
ize us as true members of the Christian
church and worthy partakers of her commun
ion, until a change of feeling and conduct
shows our hostility to the principles of freedom
and justice is heartily renounced. There is
every reason to believe, that this is the real
attitude of the masses of Northern Baptists
towards us. Assuming this to be true,
it is beyond my comprehension how the Bap
tists of the South can maintain their self-re
spect, not to say their fidelity to Christ, and
enter into pretended fraternal correspondence
with them. The effect of such correspondence
woul be to give currency to their hiinister 8
among us, and to expose our churches to the
heresies which prevail among them, while no
good, that I can think of, would likeiy come
of it. Ido not speak “as one having author
ity but, as one who must soon “ give an ac
count,” I desire to warn my brethren of im
pending evil.
The new edition my History of Georgia
Baptists, is about completed. But not having
obtained a sufficient number of subscribers,
its publication must be deferred until times
improve. I trust it will see the light some
day, even though it may not be till the author
shall have “ceased from his labors.”
J. H. Campbell.
ThomatviUe, Dec. 30th, 1867.
News from Kentucky.
I have glorious news to give you from Ken
tucky. There is the greatest revival influence
manifest in this State, that I ever witnessed
in my life anywhere. It is computed by one
of our missionary brethren, that there is an
average accession to the churches throughout
the State, of 400 per week. But his only
data are the newspaper reports, which perhaps
do not edver half the real average. I doubt
not that it reaches at least 1,000 per week.
Within a small compass around where I now
am, I have the following report to make from
churches: Hopewell church has received 25
members—Elder Goodman and brother Jew
ell doing the preaching and exnortation;
Hanging Fork church, 91 accessions—Elder
W. W. Durham in attendance; Peter’s Creek
church, Elders Durham and Gillock in attend
ance; Salem church, 25 accessions, Elders N.
G. Terry and John Jones in attendance; New
Salem, about 40 accessions, Elder Wm.
Semonds present; Antioch, 50 accessions;
Cave City, 19 accessions, Elders Robt. Gil
lock, Bibb, and Terry present; Trammel’s
Fork, 20 accessions, Elder Ham in attend
ance; Middle Fork, about 10 accessions, El
ders M. F. Ham and G. Witherspoon,
attendance; Dripping Springs, 18 accessions,
Elders Terry and Brown present; Gilead
church —number of accessions not known, but
it was very large—Elder W. Semands pres
ent; Bethlehem —the meeting is now pro
gressing. stany have already united with
the church, and a great interest is still exhib
ited. These churches are all near together.
The interest in other parts of the State, is
equally as encouraging as in this region, if all
the reports I hear are correct. Truly God is
doing great things for us, whereof we are
glad. The work still goes on. To the great
God be everlastingly all the praise.
Our colleges and schools are doing well in
Kentucky. Georgetown College, you know,
is presided over by Elder N. M. Crawford,
D.D., formerly of Georgia. He is one of
the ablest men in America. His learning is
extensive, his eloquence sublime; his abi'ity
as a college President, unexcelled. George
town College is doing nobly indeed, under his
control. I would heartily recommend this
institution to any and all parties everywhere.
May Dr. Crawford be long spared to preside
over it. I will return to Gallatin, Tenn., in
a few days. T. E. Richey.
Scottsville, Ky., Dec. 29 th, ’6B.
Grafefiil Recognition of Kindness.
Lumpkin, Ga., Dec. 26, 1867.
Index & Baptist: Please allow me to ac
knowledge the reception of sweet contribu
tions (sweet, because including sweet literal
and spiritual food,) made by kind hands on
one of the fortunate days of this year, now
almost at its close. One of these contributions
was a nice quantity of clear honey, just such
as a family needs in any climate. This, to
gether with other things, was from sister John
Dowd. Thanks to her, for her remembrance
of the preacher’s family. The other sweet
contribution consisted in—Ist, Bickersteth s
Works, containing more than six hundred
pages of just such reading as I needed; 2nd,
Jones’ Church History, in two volumes, a
work that I had desired, but did not possess;
3d, Three volumes of Samuel Davies’ Ser
mons, with which I am well pleased in many
respects; 4th, Dwight’s Theology, in four
volumes; sth, Shuckford’s Connections, in
four volumes—fourteen volumes in all.
These books were accompanied with the fol
lowing note: “ Dear Bro. Goss : I send you
some books, thinking they may be useful to
you. Please accept them. Respectfully,
M. A. Holliman.” Thanks to this sister,
also. She could not have shown her liberal
ity in a more acceptable manner to me. I
desired more books added to my library, but
was feeling too much straitened since the rav
ages of the late war to spend money for that
purpose. Thanks, then, to these female con
tributors to the cause of God in this once hap
py and prosperous land, but now anything else
but that. The first-mentioned sister has been
a long-standing member of Richland church,
in this county of Stewart. May God bless
her and her husband, and ail her family. Sis
ter Holliman has long been a very pious
member of the Lumpkin Baptist Church.
May God answer her many prayers offered
on the part of His cause here, as well as
sanctify this late contribution to the advance
ment om s cause generally. May He full
fil his promises to this widow and her chil
dren.
Execuse me for mentioning these evidences
of the fact that, amid all the lack religiously
which abounds in our land, there are some
female hearts still concerned for the cause
of our Divine Redeemer. For, if Jefferson
Davis honors Southern ladies for patriotism,
because they so readily sent their sons to de
fend the South, and so readily sent their car
pets to the soldiers for blankets, and denied
themselves of so many former comforts with
out complaining, and labored in the house
and every way for the promotion of the com
mon cause, why may not the man of God re
cognize even publicly suoh female works as