Newspaper Page Text
78
|f nki aitl baptist
J. J. TOON, - - - • Proprietor.
Rev. D. SHAVER, D.D., Editor.
THURSDAY, MAY 14, 1808.
Labor for Souls.
In all the performances of the Christian,
this end should be kept prominently before
the mind and precious to the heart—-uhe con
version of sinners—the salvation of souls.
There is no duty, of which the obligation is
more obvious.
It. is one of the great pillars which support
the divine law, that men should love their
neighbors as they love themselves. If, then,
we are not free to cast out our own salvation
from our regard, it must be the licentiousness
of those who abuse the gospel, not the liberty
of those who enjoy it, to refuse effort for the
salvation of others.
In the prayer designed as.tb,& model ac
cording to which we are to fashion out devo
tions, the Saviour instructs us to ask that the
name of God may be hallowed, that His
kingdom may come, that His will may be.
done, as in heaven, so in the earth. But is it
not a principle of universal application to
petitions which respect the moral character
of the world around us, that we are bound by
their utterance to undertake among men that
which we ask before God ? And iji not the
command that we shall not forbear to pray
fur an issue involving the salvation of others,
a command that we shall just as little forbear
to labor for their salvation?
The diffusion of the light of the knowledge
of Christ throughout all human dwellings, is
the efficient and appointed means of eternal
life to the nations. But, surely, it will not
be thought, that we may innocently set in
operation the most potent influences, while
we close our eyes upon the results which
flow from them. If not—it is the duty of
Christians, while, in emulation of apostolic
example and in obedience to divine injunction,
they impart the gospel to every creature, to
act with an intelligent and primary reference
to the salvation of those who receive it.
It is written, that ‘he who converts a sin
ner from the error of his way shall save a
soul from death.’ Again, it is written, that
‘ the wise—they who turn many to righteous
ness—shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament, and as the stars forever and ever.’
But may that be a work of super-erogation—
a work omitted from the code of divine en
actments, because holding its place by feeble
tenure in the Divine mind—which neverthe
less ensures the glories of heaven to our fel
low-men, and enhances those glories to our
selves? Impossible! And, therefore, the
conclusion cannot be resisted, that not merely
privilege permits, but obligation binds us to
labor for the salvation of others.
But what are we doing ? Are we arguing,
and arguing with Christians, that it is their
duty to deplore and to arrest the intolerable
ravages of sin—ravages intolerable at least
to them ? Are we arguing, and arguing with
Christians, that it is their duty to stand be
fore the ungodly man in his downward path
to ruin, and to offer him the hand of brother
ly affection to guide him in the way of life
and support him along its steep ascents?
Are we arguing, and arguing with CHRIS
TIANS, that it is their duty to kindle with
the ardors of that spirit which burned in the
bosom of Christ Crucified, and to seek ac
cessions to the blood washed myriads who
invest the throne and behold the countenance
of Christ Exalted ? Forgive us, brethren!
Doubtless, these things are written on your
hearts with iudellible impressions. Doubt
less, they stir your souls, a quickening pow
er. Oh, let them “ have free course.” Let
them multiply your labors for souls, and
make you persevering in the midst of dis
couragements, and animate you, in seasons of
languor, to fresh, perpetual zeal.
“ Sin.”
Not a little theology lies imbedded, often,
in the history of a word—its progress from
language to language, and its relation to other
words in these languages. This truth admits
of illustration in connection with the term
sin, which came into the English tongue, as
the name of moral and spiritual evil, from the
Anglo Saxon, synne.
BoswOrth conjectures that synne holds af
finity with the Gaelic, saine, variety, discord,
and the Erse, sainim, to vary, to alter. And
is-not sin the Great‘lntrusion Novelty of the
universe—that which was not at first, but
came in afterwards, with unlikeness and con
trariety to all that went before? Is it not the
One Grand Dissonance; the interpreter of
the pristine harmony, unbroken but by its
entrance; the sower of strife between spirit
and spirit —between spirit and 'Law—.between
spirit and Destiny? Oh, Dreadful Altera
tion !
Junius derives synne from the Greek sinein,
to hurt, to injure. Andie not sin the Chief,
nay, if not the Sole, the Parent Woe—the
unmaker, (so to speak) of the world, bring
ing evil where there was only good, and death
where there was life only? Are not tears,
and groans, and agonies—are not remorses,
disquiets, apprehensions, despairs—born of
gin, and of sin alone? Is it not tt#% r hetter
of the Sword of Holy Displeasure—the Kin
dlerof the Fire of Infinite Vengeanee? Oh,
Sorrow with all other sorrow in it?
Richardson suggests that synne may be al
lied to the Anglo Saxon, syndridn , to go
apart or asunder, to separate. And is not
this the distinctive guilt of sin—that it severs
the soul from God? Is it not as a Wilful
Wandering from our Maker—as a parting
with Him for vanities, for filthinesses—that
sin must forever stand out, a loathing to
heaven, a.lamentation to earth? Oh, Hope
less Straying and Eternal Divorce of the
Creature from the Creator!
Wachter traces synne back to the German,
suhiien, to expiate, to atone for. And does
it not belong exclusively to sin, to raise the
inexorable demand for satisfaction to the au
thority, or for destruction under the sanction,
of the law ? Is it not the Single, the Imper
ative Necessity for “Blood-Revenge” (if we
may sp express ourselves) ? Oh, Remorse
less Exaeter of Death from its Victim, or
from a Substitute for him !
Such are the points of doctrine wrapped up
THE CHRISTIAN INDEX AND SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST; ATLANTA, GA.j TH URSDAY, MAY 14, 1868.
in the 6»torieal relations of the worjs, and we
might here dismiss it. But the Encyclopedia
Brittanica ascribes still another origin to it,
which may be at least matter of passing in
terest. Scandinavian mythology tells us of
‘a demigod descended from the giants, who
was admitted among the gods, mingling free
ly with them as an associate and equal, yet
essentially opposed to them, being full of all
manner of guile, artifice and treachery.’ For
grievous offending, he was ‘bound to a sharp
subterranean rock, where two enormous ser
pents continually drop torturing venom on
his limbs.’ His wife, won by the charms of
his personal presence, and willing to share
the horrors of his prison-house, sits near him,
holding a vase to catch the venom dropped
by the serpents. ‘When she goes forth from
the cavern to empty the vessel, the poison
falls on his limbs, and his writhings cSUse
earthquakes.’ Now, as Loki, the name of this
culprit demi-god, connects with the.Oid Norse,
locka, to tempt —the name of his wife, Sigu
na, Signa, or Sinna, connect with the An
glo Saxon, synne, and the English, sin. —But
we leave this view to those who can find it
in their hearts, on so awful a subject as hu
man depravity and guilt, to weave the net
work of mere poetic analogies.
Forbidden Banns.
According to a work written twenty years
ago, “ a wag, on seeing, in an unfinished
American church, that some idler had written
over the altar, ‘1 publish the banns of mar
riage between the Protestant Episcopal
Church and the Church of Rome;’ took up
the chalk and wrote beneath, ‘1 forbid the
banns, as the parties are too near of kin.’”
This anecdote is reproduced, with varia
tions, in some of our exchanges. According
to the present version, the chalk is exchanged
for speech between “two workmen;” the
scene is transferred to “ a church occupied by
the advanced Ritualists, at Brighton, Eng
land ;” the time is brought down to “the re
cent restoration” of that church; and while
the Church of Rome is still one of the parties
to the proposed marriage, that Brighton
church itself, on account of the Ritualistic ob
servances in it, is made the other.
This is an illustration of the regular man
ner, in which the sallies of wit and humor
are constantly repeating themselves in the
course of the ages; so that many a pleasant
ry, and many a sarcasm, which meets us first
in a contemporaneous modern dress, is trace
able, it may be, to the earliest literature of
antiquity. To look only at the present in
stance: Were there really, within a few
months past, at Brighton, two workmen, who,
in unconsciousness that their facetious associ
ation of ideas had been anticipated, flashed
this gleam of mirth athwart the leaden sky
of theological controversy ? Or, did some
unscrupulous antagonist of Ritualism, con
sciously point and barb the old arrow afresh,
giving it such circumstantial surroundings as
might make it strike the deeper? There is
no very great improbability about either sup
position : and if the latter be true, may we
not well lament that even the cause of truth
should so often be warred for with weapons
of falsehood?
“ Out of Sight.”
A Presbyterian exchange speaks of a re
cent work on “ the relation of baptized chil
dren to the church,” as bringing before the
public “ a truth which, in our day, seems to be
falling out of sight.” That is news to us. We
thought that this relation had steadily refused
to come within range of the eye. We thought
that the General Assembly had been, for
some half a century, seeking, ever and anon,
to catch a glimpse of it—but without avail.
And how can anything ‘fall out of sight’ be
fore it has been seen ? Our contemporary
must labor under mistake. The relation
aforesaid is, doubtless, “out of sight;” but
has it not always been so, inasmuch as the
Scriptures acknowledge it not, and the Stand
ards and Courts of the Church have been un
able to define it ?
Southern Baptist Convention.
Baltimore, Thursday morning, May 7, ’6B.
The Southern Baptist Convention was called
to order by Dr. Mell.
After calling the lists of the delegates, the
Convention proceeded to elect officers. Dr.
Mell was chosen President; J. L. M. Curry,
J. B. Jeter, J. P. Boyce, Richard Fuller,
Vice-Presidents; A. P. Abell, and A. F.
Crane, Secretaries.
While waiting for the tellers to report the
result of the balloting, interesting remarks
were made by Drs. Jeter and Fuller, and
prayers offered by the same brethren and
Dr. Reynolds.
Special supplication was made in behalf of
Mrs. Curry, who was seriously injured by a
stone thrown into the car yesterday evening
when approaching the city.
Brother Howard, of Texas, offered a reso
lution that all Baptist ministers in attendance
on the Convention, but not members, be invi
ted to seats. It passed without discussion,
but with a considerable vote against it. Rev.
Drs. Welch, of N. J., Hogue, of Mass., and
others, were reported.
Dr. Boyce (D.r. Jeter in the Chair) offered
a resolution that Dr.- Mell’s Parliamentary
Practice be adopted as the code' of order for
this body. Unanimously adopted.
A committee was appointed to prepare a
suitable paper relating to the death of Dr.
Howell.
After sundry notices, adjourned.
Afternoon Session. —The Report of the
Sunday School Board was read by Rev. C. C.
Bitting. This report paid a handsome trib
ute to Dr. R. B. C. Howell, formerly one of
its Vice-Presidents. The Board recommend
its removal to some other location. The Re
port was referred to a committee consisting
of one from each State.
Dr. Seely offered a series of resolutions
with reference to the permanency of the South
ern Baptist Convention, the evangelization of
the colored race, and the establishment of
Christian colonies in heathen countries. Re
ferred, of Dr. Jeter, to a special
committee. •
Rev. Mr. Cuthbert offered % resolution
looking to fraternization and nearer union with
all Christians. After opposition by Dr. J.
L. Reynolds, of S. C., and others, it was
unanimously laid on the table. V> * yj' r -\
P. S.—The injury to Mrs. Curry is very j
serious, amounting to a fracture of the skull;
butx)r. Smith, the 'eminent surgeon oFthis
city, considers her better to-day. Dr. Curry
is not expected to preach the annual se rayon
to-night, in consequence of his wife’s condi
tion.
(Slintpaca of fht 2Kmea.
BAPTIST.
The Duty of Contribution. —The Standard
is asked : “ Ought a member of a church to
be disciplined for refusing to aid the church
financially, when no other charge is brought
agains#him?” It returns this answer: “If
he persists in so refusing, and has not a good
reason to render, he should. It is a violation
of covenant obligation, and indicates a lack
of the sense of Christian responsibility of
which the* church is bound to take notice. The
discipline should be applied, however, in the
spirit, and with the design of all right church
discipline; which is, not to punish but to gain
the brother.”
PRESBYTERIAN,
Psalm Singing.— =-A correspondent of the
Christian Instructor', (United Presbyterian)
mentions some members of a church session who
“insist that applicants for admission to private
membership must renounce their right to at
tend a church of any other denomination, in
which other than their version of the Psalms
is used, even were they sojournin ' where there
is no United Presbyterian church, as it is sin
ful to attend such churches, or if attending,
to join with them in their song of praise.”
Sacramental Theology. —The London
letter of the Presbyterian Banner says: “Pr.
Wylie, of Edinburg, is writing weekly papers
for the The Christian Times, under the title,
‘The Road to Rome via Oxford.’ In his latest
paper he shows that ‘The theory of saeramen
tal efficacy is a blasphemy of the Holy Ghost,
who alone can enlighten, quicken, nourish and
sanctify the soul; that it identifies Ritualism
with the Old Paganism which held there was
a preternatural power, a part of the Divinity
infused into the priests, into the images, into
the holy places, and that by contact with
these, men were purified.”’
Giving. —The church of Dr. Candlish, Ed
inburgh, has, some years, contributed SIOO,OOO
to the Susteutation Fund of the Free Church
—while drawing from it for pastoral support
only the S7OO, which all churches without
distinction draw.
METHODIST.
Looking Ahead.— A coi respondent of the
Western Christian Advocate, “ views with
fearful apprehensions” the sentiment put forth
by a Northern Methodist lay-delegation con
vention, to the effect that “we must never
rest until our church government is fully con
formed to that of the State. He says:
“When this is accomplished it will be a com
paratively easy matter to amalgamate and
unite Church and State; and as the Methodist
Episcopal Church is the most numerous body
in the Nation, we may have strong temptations
in that direction.”
The Pastorate. —Methodists claim that
the frequent changes of the “settled” ministry
render itakind of itinerancy: but the Advance
retorts : “It is known that, in many
Methodist churches, candidates are heard, and
the conditions of settlement are arranged be
fore the assembling of Conference: and noth
ing is left for the higher powers but to ratify
a foregone engagement. The circuit of the
more popular preachers is flimited by the
number of strong churches in the Conference.
It then only remains for them to return to
the old fields and fight their battles over
again, or to be transferred and conquer new
conferential worlds in the same manner.
Even in the less influential societies, the pulse
of the people is prudently felt beforehand and
a disposition of available material made ac
cordingly. The result is that the. machinery,
interposed between the people and the minis
try, is about as useful as the fifth wheel to the
coach. This would seem to us to bear the
appearance of failure.”
“Stray Baptists.” —One of our exchanges
has an excellent article on this class—those
who do not unite themselves with the church,
in a change of residence. Their number
would be greatly diminished, if our ministers
would act on the report of the following di
rections, in the Northern Methodist Discipline,
to pastors.: “He shall ascertain the probable
destination of any member removing by cer
tificate, and shall notify, by mail or otherwise,
‘the pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church’
of that place that such member has probably
removed within his bounds. When notified
of the removal of any member within his
bounds, he shall, at the earliest practicable
moment, request such member to present his
certificate. ’
The Lord’s Supper. —The Memphis Chris
them Advocate has a correspondent who pro
puses that “Christians who are so situated as
to be almost wholly deprived of the privilege
of attending the house of God, and conse
quently of receiving the holy sacrament of the
Lord’s supper,” should “retire to their closets,
or some other suitable place, and with prayer
and due solemnity, of themselves, by them
selves, partake of the emblems of the broken
body and shed blood of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ.’ The Advocate “cannot favor
such a practice.”
EPISCOPAL.
“ Blidness in part.” —The Church Convo
cation for the Province of Canterbury, at its
recent session, discussed a petition to favor
the carrying of the consecrated elements
through the streets in priestly robes, for the
sick. Os the fifteen bishops at its head some
were not unfriendly to the proposition,
strangely as it sounds, among Protestants, in
this nineteenth century of Christianity.
Profanation (?) Rebuked. —“Mr.Bullock,
an Evangeiieal clergyman at Worcester, Eng
land, has been violently abused by the Ritual
its for allowing lay persons to sit within the
rails of the communion table when his church
was overcrowded.”
Exclusiveism Alarmed.— Says the English
correspondent of the Presbyterian: “ The
University of Oxford—at least a goodly pro
portion of beads of houses, as well as gradu
ates —are quite alarmed at the proposed ad
mission of Nonconformists into the University,
and the setting up of a system which, they
say, will tend to infidelity, and destroy true
religion ! They have forwarded an address
on this matter to the Archbishop of Canter
bury, and they try, in the course of that
document, indirectly but really, to frighten
Dissenters at doing aught that would injure
‘religion.’ ’’
“Intrusion.” —The Protestant Churchman
says: “We hear of another brother who
lectured a few days since in a certain State,
at a little place, six miles distant from the
church of an Episcopal minister who has been
solemnly presented v for ‘intrusion.’ Very
stout words accompany the complaint, but the
prosecutors have missed their mark if they
suppose that any of ‘these things move’ the
man they are seeking to proscribe. It ought
to be understood that the pressure to the ex
treme of such a case before the assembling of
the next Genial will inevitably
produce a general withdrawal of bishops,
presbyters, and laity. If su4h a division is
compelled, the blame rests wyrh the prosecu
tion.”
Change: of Spirit and|j Speech. —The
Christian Register writes follows of the-
Protestant Episcopal church* America: “In
the outset it spoke very modestly and prop
erly of the other‘churches’ in America. It
has grown more grand of late years, and is
more fond of calling these churches ‘denomi
nations.’ We observe that Bishop Clark, in
his late Pastoral, cannot afford to speak of
the Baptist church—which we had supposed
founded the State in which he lives—by any
term but that of a ‘denomination.’ ”
Contemporary Christianity. —Dr. Pusey
preached, not long since, a sermon which was
“a sharp comparison between the average
Christian of to-day and the Pharisee of Bible
times, with a large balance in favor of the
latter. According to the doctor, the most
detestable character-in Scripture is a trifle
better than our loftiest type of virtue. Os
course this is putting the ease rather strongly,
but he cited many illustrations to show that
it is of this age to unite the
wickedness of the publican to the self-com
placency of the Pharisee; that we have the
shamelessness of the savage without his sim
plicity ; that ladies dress indecently while they
go to church regularly ; that there has never
been a time when absence of virtue and ab
sence of self-reproach were so thoroughly
combined as now, and the whole world sins
overtly one qomplajns.”
Development by “the Curch.” —Rev. F.
D. Huntington, the distinguished Unitarian
converted some years since to Episcopacy, “is
uridouhledly a genuine Churchman of the
BisbojuiPotter school, and some think already
he is «P?itu6list, as this word is now techni-
used.”. %
**The LaWful and National Church.”—
The Church Review, for April, gravely says :
“The Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.
S.A., is a fdfwful and living branch of Christ’s
One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
More than this, it is the lawful and National
ChurcL by Divine appointment, of the land
in whicn we dwell. No other Christian body
can successfully compete with it, in its claims
to the allegiance of American Christians.
The erroneous tenets of the Tridentine Mis
sions, ana the unsettled doubt concerning the
validity of Moravian JOrders, render those
bodies (the only ones which have rival claims,)
decidedly our inferiors in Catholicity and Or
thodoxy. It is then oaf mission, as a Nation
al Church, to secure preserve to America
the Nicene Faith. If 'that great symbol of true
orthodoxy hasbeen mislead or mis-interpreted
in Rome, or Paris, oil Lopdon. there is no
reason why it should continue to be abused
in New York or Philadelphia, or Chicago.”
UNITARIAN*:
Boastfulness of E^rtoa. —Says the Chris
tian Register: “The spirit'and doctrines of
Unitarianism have extended themselves in all
sects—their views concerning God, man, duty,
immortality, the person and work of Christ,
have been accepted in Substance by the most
influential thinkers and'winters in all the de
nominations.”
Jy
Advanced Unitarianism. —Dr. Schwalb, of
Bremen, in a sermonjggb January, said:
“ The Christ of the newftqpris not God, but
man—true, real, and imly man. He came
into the world in a human way, and did not
have merely a motlt?r, but,.also a father.
Before his birth he _ nowAiefe, neither on
earth nor in.heaven. ' 'ru=W performed a
*work that was supernatural sot out of har
mony with the laws of natilre; he did not
die as a propitiatory sacrifice, but as a mar
tyr to religious truth; his body returned to
dust; he did not ascend to heaven, for, since
the days of Copernicus, there is no heaven
adapted to such an ascension.” Twenty of
the clergy of the city protest against this infi
delity, and twelve endorse it.
FRIEND.
Strong Drink. —“ At a meeting of the
Friends in London, the other day, many com
plaints were made of the intemperance pre
vailing in their denomination. Amang cases
referred to, Mr. Jonathan Grubb mentioned
a visit he had paid to a father and mother
(one a member of the Friends’society,) who,
through intemperance, had wasted more than
£30,000, and had reduced themselves to the
condition of living in poverty in a single
room ; and worse still, had driven their chil
dren from their home, the father having actu
ally, in a fit of intoxication, chased his daugh
ter with a loaded pistol!”
SPIRITUALIST.
Delusion. —Mere intellect and culture are
no safeguard against delusion. The Boston
correspondent of the Christian Intelligencer
says, in reference to a recent Convention of
Spiritualists, in that once Puritan city: “It
cannot be denied that learning, sound moral
ity, social respectability and sincerity were
well represented. Many persons have the
idea that Spiritualists are made up exclusively
of madmen, weaklings, and the vicious. But
an acquaintance with them shows that they
embrace some of the finest minds in the coun
try, and that not a few rank first in social
life. They have won to themselves several
first-class lawyers, physicians, and some very
excellent clergymen of various denomina
tions.”
MISCELLANEOUS.
“ Assassination Day.” —The Chicago cor
respondent of the F/ee Christian Common
wealth says that “the religious Radicals”
have wedged in the country’s calendar an
“ Assassination Day,” in reference to the
murder of President Lincoln; and states that
in its observance, at Chicago, “ Rev. Dr.
Burns, an imported pastor, and an abolition
ist such as Scotchmen only can become, deliv
ered from his pulpit a discourse upon “ The
Life and Services of Abraham Lincoln.”' It
is not a little singular that, in the face of Mr.
Herndon’s candid analysis of Lincoln’s reli
gious belief, ministers, and especially Presby
terian ministers, should confidently announce
his to be a spotless Christian character. Mr.
Herndon decidedly says that Lincoln was a
Universalist, and quotes his strong condemna
tion of the orthodox and Calvinistic creed.
Yet, in the face of this, and overlooking the
place of Lincoln’s death, it seems to be the
endeavor of men like Dr. Burns to apotheo
size him. The papal tendencies of the reli
gious Radicals are becoming every day more
apparent. They create saints with a greater
rapidity.” This rapidity is not surprising, as
none'of the saints of former ages belonged to
that school. The new school, of course, must
be diligent in the work of canonization, or go
without saints of its own altogether.
Church Music. —The Episcopalians of New
England have an organization for the intro
duction of ehoral singing in their churches,
in which the Psalter, Creed-, Te Deum, and
other parts of worship, are song by a select
choir, robed and in the Chancel ; and sung to
tunes wholly unknown to the common peo
ple; and sung with a rapidity that no un
trained voices are equal to; and so sung with
the intent that the masses shall be mere lis
teners, while the Priest and hjs Chancel Choir
have the service almost to themselves.”
Archbishop Manning, the English Romanist,
strides a step farther in that direction; for
bidding choir singing in his churches after
Easter, anc! making the service in future Gre
gorian, chanted by the priests. Both parties
decide alike, that there shall be no “Common
Praise.”
Sunday School Libraries. —A speaker at
a recent Institute stated that, not long since,
“ in an examination of a Sunday school libra
ry, he found a boi>k called Australian Cruises.
Its style was flippant, sensational, profane.
There were words on many pages which lie
would not pronounce before the audience. In
another library he found Marta Edgeworth’s
Moral Tales, on many pages of which were
oaths printed in French. By one-means or
another children will obtain translations of
these French words, and when so far sufecess
ful, it will be hard to show them that it_is
more wrong to swear in English than in some
other language.”
Easter. —< >f the Easter Festival, just past,
the New York letter of the Presbyterian says:
“ Services appropriate were held in the Rom
ish and Episcopal churches on the one hand,
and in the Unitarian and Univ.ersalist on the
other; extremes meeting here as elsewhere.”
Woman. —“ Mrs. Hale, in her sketches of
three thousand eminent women, says ‘ that
no woman ever yet contributed a valuable
invention to the world.’ Mrs. Dali says ‘she
has assisted many women to procure pat
ents.’ ”
“The New Gospel.” —“Henry Edgar, an
apostle of Comte,” preaching his first dis
course, in New York, recently, set forth “the
Religion of Humanity,”—“a religion without
mystery, a worship without a God, and a sys
tem of morals and culture without the hope
of immortality.”
Immersion. —An Indiana correspondent
writes to the Standard: “A Pedobaptist
minister received a number who would not
submit to be sprinkled or be poured upon,
and were immersed. The minister insisted
that one should have his child christeued.
The father objected unless the minister would
immerse it; so, wading into the stream, he
dipped the little fellow all over in the water.”
The Religious Press. —The Round Table
characterizes the manner of the Evangelical
press as “ semi-barbarous, semi-puerile, and
wholly extravagant and offensive whenever
encountering an opinion that is not its own.”
Prayer. —lt is a severe but not always
unjust characterization on the part of the Isra
elite Indeed, when it speaks of the “ usual
prayer-meetings in our churches, where four
or five men do the work from January to
December, praying with very little variance
of phraseology, one and the same thing all
the year round.”
“Unionism” Leads to Romanism.
There is force and point in the following
strictures of a Presbyterian writer, on the
discussions in the Union Convention held, by
churches of that faith, in Dalton, Ohio, seve
ral weeks since:
During the discussions in the Convention,
the advocates of the organic union of all who
hold the essentials of Christianity, were told
that their principle might necessarily lead
them into organic union with even the Papists.
Their attention was called to the fact that
many of our soundest and most thorough
theologians maintained that that church holds
these essentials. It was also suggested that
if the questions, whether that church holds
the essentials of and, whether*
administration of baptism by’, her ministers'
is valid, were submitted to the Assemblies of
the Old School, the New School and the Uni
ted Presbyterian churches, and to the Synod
of the Reformed Presbyterian church, it is
by no means certain they would receive neg
ative answers; rather the probability is, they
would be answered in the affirmative; and if
so, then, to be consistent with their principle
about union on the essentials of Christianity,
they ought to advocate the union, not only of
all Protestantism, as was done in that Con
vention, but also of Protestantism and Pa
pism. Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, Knox, and
all that sort of men, whom we have been ac
customed to regard as reformers and a bless
ing to the church, should be regarded as hav
ing done immense mischief in the church, and
ought to be rebuked for having “caused di
visions and offenses contrary .to the doctrine
which they had learned.” Dr. Thomas under
took to meet the difficulty. He met it in a
very short and summary manner. The re
porter of the Cincinnati Gazette represents
him as having done it in this way—that he
was willing to receive the Popish Church in
to the union whenever, or as soon as “ Christ
gives his consent.” Wherein lay the force of
that reply? How did it meet and remove the
difficulty? I confess I cannot see it. If he be
lieves that church holds the essentials of Chris
tianity and that her administration of baptism
is valid, then, according to his position about
organic union with all who hold these essen
tials, be ought to have seen that already he
has Christ’s consent. On the other hand, if
he was clearly of the belief that that church
does not hold these essentials, and that her
administration of baptism is not valid, then
he ought to have said s<>, and thereby shown
that neither himself nor his principle, about
union on the essentials, favors such an un
seemly proximity to the mother of harlots.
The truth is, I think the doctor was not, just
then, prepared to answer the questions about
the Papacy, to which we have referred, either
affirmatively or negatively. His reply, that
he was willing to enter into union with that
church whenever “ Christ gives his consent,” I
would take as substantially a declaration that
he reserved those questions for further consid
erations. Now, if Dr. Thomas shall come to
the conclusion that both of the above ques
tions are to be answered in the negative, and
shall succeed in conclusively establishing.the
soundness of such answers, then I will admit
he has met and removed the difficulty, so far
as it lay in his way. But if he should be led
to the conclusion that those questions must
be answered in the affirmative, what then ?
One or other of these alternatives must fol
low. Either the doctor must avow himself
in favor of immediate organic union with the
Roman Catholic Church, or he must abandon
his principle about union with all who hold
the essentials of Christianity.— Presbyterian
Witness. , - !
Moravian Statistics^
The Moravian, the organ of the United
Brethren, presents the following statistics of
its congregations in its Northern Province, as
compiled by the Secretary of the Provincial
Board. The increase, as estimated by the
confirmations and admissions, exclusions de
ducted, is 599 (in 1866 it was 583,) or nearly
twelve per cent., which is also the same rate
as that of 1866. The number of Sunday
scholars has increased 790 (in 1866 the in
crease was 806.) The number of communi
cants in the Southern Province is 1177, so
that the whole number of communicants in
both Provinces is 6,656, or nearly 400 more
than in 1866, and the whole number of per
sons in connection with the church 11,696.
The whole number of ministers is 66; of con
gregations, 51. A comparison of the statis
tics of the. Continental, British and American
Provinces, presents the following figures:
Continental Province (1866,) communi
cants, 5,248 ; total, 7,211. British Province
(1866,) communicants, 3,252; total, 5,552.
and Southern communi- .
cants, 6,650; total, 11,696. The whole num
ber of communicants in the Unity is, there
fore, 15,156; and the total of persons in con
nection, 24,459. In the Foreign Missions,
there are 70,311 souls in connection with the
church.
A Communion Question.
A correspondent of the Standard puts this
case: “A candidate for baptism appears be
fore a regular Baptish church, and in relating
his Christian experience states that, looking
upon members of all Protestant churches as
his brethren in Christ, he deems it right to
comrhune with such at the table of the Lord :
further adding, that he wishes this fact ex
plicitly understood. A motion is made and
seconded to receive such candidate to full
membership in the church, alter baptism.
Objection is made, in reply to which the pas
tor states that we have no right to demand
from any candidate for membership by bap
tism a particular assent to doctrines and arti
cles of faith. After considerable discussion,
the motion is put and the candidate is re
ceived by the voice of the majority.”
The Standard replies 'Jmi\ person applying
for baptism in the way supposed, might take
either of these grounds; Either he might say,
or imply, that holding such views upon the
subject of communion, he would wisli it un
derstood that he should commune with ‘mem
bers of all Protestant churches as his breth
ren in Christ,’ in which case the action of the
church in receiving him would be giving vir
tual permission to do so; or, he might sim
ply say that, in the present state of his con
victions, he is unprepared to declare himself
a strict communionist —yet, knowing what
Baptist churches hold and practice on this
subject, he will, as a member of the church,
conform to its rules, and be loyal and true,
in his practice, as the member of a Baptist
church. In the former case, to receive him
would be tantamount to abandoning the whole
Baptist ground in the matter of communion.
In the latter, if received, it would be upon the
principle, correot we think, that our articles
of faith, as we have before said, are not meant
to bind consciences, but as an expression of
the doctrine and order of the churches, based
upon the Word of God, and that any indi
vidual so far accepting them as that he cheer
. fully conforms to thorn in his church relations,
ought to be admitted to membership, without
too much scrutiny as to private opinion. The
church, amongst all its functions, is a teacher,
and in its ministry and its fraternity may do
much to remove difficulties, alike in matters
of doctrine and matters of practice, and ought
not, therefore, to reject those who are ‘weak
in the faith.’ This, let it be observed, is not
saying that it is the duty of the church to
receive those who avow, or imply their in
tention, or their disposition, to ‘cause divi
sions.’ ”
Light From Figures.
The statistics of Romanism, particularly
in our country, are encouraging to those
who take despondent views of the future
through fear of its rapid growth and ultimate
triumph. Twenty years ago, the Protestants
in the world dumbered 64,000,000, and Cath
olics 167,000,000; being not quite two Pro
testants to five Catholics. Now Protestants
number 93,000,000 and Catholics 185,000.000,
not two Catholics to one Protestant. There
is a steady decline in the leading Catholic
powers, while the leading Protestant powers
are advancing. In this country, discovered
and largely settled by Catholics, millions
have left their church, and they now
only claim four millions of the popu
lation. Without immigration, it would
speedily decline here. In twenty years, the
Iloman Catliolie immigratiiiii bus been only
HO per cent, in excess of the Protestant. The
tide i$ now turning, the toiajority of the im
migrants last year being Protestant, white the
native increase is largely Protestant. In the
United States, there are 2,442 Catholic
churches to 54,000 Protestant. They have
3,100 priests; while there are 3,000 Congre
gational, 2,700 Episcopalian, 7,000 Presby
terian, 11,000 Baptist, and 30,000 Methodist
ministers. In the once Catholic Stateof Florida,
there are 18 Protestant churches to 1 Catholic;
in Lousiana, 6 to 1; in Maryland, 14 to 1.
In New York thereare 15 to 1; in New Jersey,
18 to 1; in New England, 24 to 1. Between
1840 and 1852, Romanists admit that 1,990,-
000 were lost to their church in this country.
Hr. Spurgeon’s Students.
“ Our first great aim,” he says, “ has been to
educate the men of native talent, with good speak
ing powers, who believed themselves to be called
to the work of the ministry. We persistently
refuse men who are recommended to us as persons
of character and studious habits, who, neverthe
less, have not actually tried their powers of
speech. We must have speakers ; we can give a
man education, but it would be useless to profess
to bestow oratorical powers. We expect the men
to have had two or three years’ preaching at the
least, and to have had evidences of usefulness fol
lowing their labors ; and then our object is to re
move the rudeness of ignorance and supply the
knowledge in which they are deficient. Scholar
ship we do not despise or neglect; but our main
object is to educate the practical rather than the
learned man. We want, by God’s help, in the first
place to send out good preachers, good pastors, good
evangelists ; and, secondarily good scholars—
good scholars, however only with the view of
their being efficient preachers. We think that
God uses every variety of talent, but that the
commonsense, rough-and-ready brother, when
anointed with holy zeal, be he learned or not, is
usually the successful tnan. We have always
scores of applicants wailing, and believe we always
shall have, for our Institution grows in favor with
the young men of our churches. Several gentle
men have applied to us both from the United
States, our colonies, and Germany, and we seem
to be in such good repute, that when we have
largerand better rooms we shall, in all probability,
be able to receive a class of men, in good positions
in fife, who will be able to maintain themselves,
and become, from previous education, preachers
of a superior order. For this object we are pray
ing the Lord to send us a large sum to build suit
able class-rooms, more fight and airy and healthy
than our present subterranean apartments.”
Incouipetency of Laymen.
A writer in the Zion's Herald —S. W.
Coggeshall, D.D.—affirms, from a pretty ex
tensive aquaintance with the Methodist mem
bership, that they are quite incompetent to
occupy seats in the Annual and General Con
ferences; indeed, that the only way in which
laymetMif any denomination have ever dis
tinguished themselves in Ecclesiastical legisla
tion aud management, has been “by the whip
ping and hanging of Quakers, the whipping
and imprisonment of Baptists in the colonial
period of New England history, and in fining,
imprisoning and persecuting Methodists at a
later period.”
He adds—not at all in irony—that the
church and pastors are of God’s making and
appointment; but that the preachers made the
“conferences,” and the “leaders,” and “stew
ards,” and “official boards,” and made them
as "helps" and not as rulers; and that it is a
wanton and unscriptural usurpation, fraught
with infinite mischief to the Methodist church,
for these “helps” “to seek for themselves re
presentation in the Annual and General Con
ferenees.” —Watchman dc Reflector.
Death of Missionaries. —The American
Board of Foreign Missions (Congregational,)
have, within a few weeks past, received intel
ligence of the death of three of their most
eminent missionaries. Dr. Lord, of the Ma
dura mission, on q visit to New York ; Mr.
Johnson, for twenty-one years a missionary
to the Sandwich Islands, and Mrs. Barnum, of
the Eastern Turkey mission. They were all
of them experienced and valuable laboreis in
their respective fields.
Slavery of the English ©lurch.
In the State, things are got along with by
compromises somehow, but in the church, for
hundreds of years, there has been the most
absurd work. Only imagine a parish being
the freehold of a clergyman ! Only imagine
the state of that law, that, in a parish of, say
fifty thousand people, in the Church of Eng
land, shuts out all her own clergy (save two
or three), and gives perfect and absolute free
dom to Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Bap
tists, or Methodists, as many of them, and as
much and often as they please ! The law that
admits a foreigner, a Roman Catholic priest,
upon his conforming, to benefices in the
English Establishment, and yet utterly ex
cludes her own native born subjects, if ordained
with her own colonial orders ! The law that
orders the Dean and Chapter to elect a Bishop,
and yet confiscates their goods, and imprisons
them if they elect any one but the Govern
ment nominee ! The law that establishes the
Chur< h in England, Presbyterianism in Scot
land, and would undoubtedly establish Popery
in Ireland, or CaUdnistic Methodism in Wales,
if it were pushed hard, and that certainly did
at one time establish liindooism in India!
The Edinburgh Review says, that an English
man, of the name of Place, a commissioner
in Hindoostan, once eleeted wardens and ves
trymen for Juggernaut ! And, lastly, that
precious law, which now enables Roman
Catholic, Infidel, or Jew to legislate for the
Church of England ! And that makes the
final Court of Appeal, for all causes in the
Church, to be a Committee of Privy Coun
cil, of which not one person need be, of neces
sity, a Baptized member of the English
Church ! And the reigning spirit in that Court,
in a late and most important case, was actual
ly Lord Campbell, a Scotch Presbyterian !
The want of consistency, unity, combination
and principle, in short,of all power of organ’
ization, is very manifest in all English legis
lation, but most of all,, in everything that
concerns their Church.
The English Church, from her slavery to
the State, gave her subjects, in the colonies,
no Church organization, no Bishops, no Cathe
drals, no Councils,uoChurch courts, or Church
law; nothing, in fact, by which unity might
be maintained, and progress insured. All the
sects were perfected by their own constitu
tional right of voluntary action. The estab
lishment of the Church in England crippled
us here. By it, the Church in the Colonies
was kept imperfect and unorganized. Only
in England could our clergy be ordained ! No
Bishop visited the Colonies! If a man, or
woman, or child, in New York, Boston, or
Philadelphia, wanted to be confirmed, he had
to go to London ! We were, perforce, under
Congregational organization and ideas, both
parishes and clergy. And so unused had we
become to our own principles, that., after the
Revolution, one State consented to unite with
the others in the application for the Episco
pacy, only on condition that she should have
no Bishop !”—Church Review.
New Churches —We give below a tabular
view of the new churches dedicated and or
ganized which have been noticed in our col
umns since the beginning of the year. The
list is probably far from complete, but will
give a general idea of the activity in church
extension displayed by the different denomi
nations during the past three months:
Denomination. Dedicated. Organized.
Baptist 46 30
Presbyterian 86 23
Congregational 27 25
Methodist 39
Lutheran 11 2
Episcopal 9 2
Gertnan Reformed 3
Reformed 1 1
Total ...172 83
,—Nev> York Qbstrver. m
* ?*'- IfF' m jlU'ii Winii#" J
A Paper Church. —There is paper church
actually existing near Bergen, Prussia, which
can contain nearly one thousand persons. It
is circular within, octagonal without. The
relievos outside, and the statues within, the
roof, the ceiling, the Corinthian capitals, are
all of papier-mache rendered waterproof by
saturation in vitriol, lime-water, whey, and
white of egg. When Frederick 11., of Prus
sia, set up a limited papier-mache manufac
tory at Berlin, in 1765, he little thought that
paper cathedrals might, within a century,
spring out of his snuff-boxes, by the sleight
of-hand of art. Marvels grow rapidly now
a-days. It is not very long since it would
have been as impossible to cover eighteen
acres with glass as to erect a pagoda with
soap-bubbles, yet the thing is done. Ropes
of sand should be the next attempt.
Ministerial Privation.
A correspondent of the Texas Christian
Advocate writes from Marshall in that State :
“ The peculiar trials of the year will demand
great effort, and a wonderful degree of endu
rance to hold up among many of the itinerants;
but, if they be men of a “single eye,” God
will take care of them. Some are even now
talking of abandoning their work. Oh ! for
that unyielding faith that moved our beloved
Bishop Marvin on one occassion in this place,
in a sermon. Referring to this subject, he
said : ‘So long as the good Lord gives me and
mine coarse clothes to wear and corn bread to
eat, I will preach and trust him.’ Think you,
Mr. Editor, that that man will ever lack for
any of these things ? Nay, verily !”
Reform Needed. —The Bishop of Bangor,
in Wales, has been reminded of his Episcopal
duty by a petition from fifty of the clergy of
his diocese, who are shocked at the state of
things there. It seems, from their address,
that numbers of the clergy live entirely at
their ease, do nothing, and get well paid for
it. Others, again neglect their own parishes
to serve as curates to other rectors, and thus
add to their income. Some of the best en
dowed benefices absolutely neglect the people;
while, in many eases, the services are held at
hours when nobody can attend. The estab
lishment is nearly as foreign to Wales as to
Scotland or Ireland, and these facts illustrate
the evils of an irresponsible priesthood.
American Irreverence.
The Bishop of Tennessee, (Dr. Quintard,)
•who recently lectured in London on the
American Common School system,and strong
ly decried it on the ground of its irreligious
ness, last week gave a lecture in Newcastle
on-Tyne upon “Secular Education.” The tone
and spirit of hia address may be inferred from
a single sentence of it: “A Prussian who
had visited the Urtlted States to study its con
stitution, laws and religion, said he found two
thousand religiorfs denominatiohs, but nobody
believed in a God.” —Christian Register.
An Unsafe Prayer. — A prominent mem
ber of the Legislature of Pennsylvania lately
closed a speech, in favor of a measure which
he advocated, on great moral and religious
grounds, by the following utterance: “ I be
seech Almighty God to make my participa
tion in this night’s proceedings a part of my
everlasting record, that it may stand as a
credit against my shott-comings in this wick
ed world.”
Short Sermons. —Dr. Lowell, of Boston,
held his position for forty years, over one of
the wealthiest churches of Boston, by preach
ing sermons that never exceeded twenty min
utes.
Specimen copibs of the bull A Baptist will be sent,
without charge* to all whose names may be furnished
us for that purpose. Let the motto of pastors, deacons,
aud others be, the "Indo/in tvtry family."