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Casting all on Jesus.
1 left it all with Jesus
' Long ago;
All my sin I brought Him,
And my woe.
When by faith I saw Him
On the tree,
Heard His small still whisper,
’ Tis for thee,”
From my heart the burden
Boiled away.
Happy day !
I leave it all with Jesus,
For He knows
How to steal the bitter
From liie’s woes;
How to gild the tear-drop
With His smile,
Make the desert garden
Bloom awhile;
When my weakness leaneth
On His might.
All seems light.
I leave it all with Jesus
Day by day ;
Faith can firmly trust Him,
Come what may.
Hope has dropped the anchor,
Found her rest
In the calm, sure haven
Os his breast;
Love esteems it beavei^
To abide
At His side.
Oh, leave it all with Jesus,
Drooping soul;
Tell not half thy story.
But the whole.
Worlds on worlds are hanging
On His hand,
Life and earth are waiting
His command;
Vet His tender bosom
Makes thee room.
Oh, come home!
The Atonement.
The atonement is the fountain and the gos
pel is the stream. Though the word, atone
ment, but once occurs in the New Testament,
yet is that New Testament full of the doc
trine. When Paul speaks of Christ crucified,
when he glories in nothing but the cross,
when iie states that the blood of Jesus cleanses
from all sin, and tells U3 that the Saviour
died for the ungodly, he refers to the atone
ment of Christ. < >ur object, in this article, is
not to define the doctrine, or to offer an ex
planation, so much as to clear the way for
that purpose. Before examining the Scrip
tures on this subject, we will make two re
marks ;
Ist. That the idea of an atonement is by no
means peculiar to the Christian religion , but
is common to nearly all systems of religious
belief.
In every age of the world’s history, and in
every country upon the surface of the globe,
man has been found entertaining the belief
that he was a sinner; that as a sinner, he
was deserving of punishment; that that pun
ishment could be averted by penitence, cere
mony, personal suffering, or substitutionary
sacrifice.
The methods by which men chietly hoped,
for ages, to deliver themselves from evil,
were very varied, and are so still. In many
cases a mere attitude of body, an ejaculatory
prayer, etc., was supposed to atone for sin in
any form, and that apart from any personal
penitence or reformation. We are here
speaking of those methods of reconciliation
to God which were invented by unenlightened
man.
Orestes, who assassinated his mother, ex
piated the black crime by stealing a statue of
Diana. Achillas was purified by ablution
after the murder of the king of Teleges.
Hippolytus was cleansed by washing his ear;
and Pilate thought he might free himself
from his sin by washing his hands. Other
methods of reconciliation were adopted, in
volving far more expense and trouble, re
quiring greater self denial on the part of man,
and proving the existence of notions of the
character of God which were more degrading.
Birds, sheep and cattle have been slain by
millions; and on rare occasions, human be
ings have been offered on the altars of cruel
gods. Aristomenes commanded 300 captives
to be sacrificed, among whom was Theopom
pus, king of Sparta. Several Persian men
were sacrificed by Thernbtocles. Twelve
Trojans were offered at the funeral of Patroc
lus. Polyxena was sacrificed to the spirit of
Achilles, and the Lacedemonians frequently
scourged their children to gratify Diana. On
some occasions the sons and daughters of
kings, princes and nobles, were offered to
quench the rage of angry deities. These
were sacrifices offered by the enlightened
Greek in the zenith of Grecian civilization.
Many more were offered by the Druids in
Britain, and on the Continent. In India it
has been customary for ages to sacrifice the
sick and the aged to the Ganges, widows to
the spirits of their husbands, and innocent
children to the god of the soil, as means of
securing an abundant harvest. And who has
not read of children being offered to Moloch,
and of pilgrims being crushed to death be
neath the wheels of Juggernaut'?
Pagan idolatry assumes a similar form in
every age and country. The difference be
tween Thena and Wodin, Moloch and Calee,
is immaterial. The slaughter, for religious
purpose, of 200 at Carthage, 400 in Rome,
2,000 in Drfhomey, or 20,000 in Mexico, is
the same thing in principle. The difference
is only numerical. Now, at the root of all
these customs we find man’s consciousness
of sin, a belief in the possibility of deliver
ance, and also that the sacrifice was to effect
a change in God, and not in man ; to cause
God to lay aside his anger, and not man to lay
aside his sin. Here is the fundamental error
of all pagan worship. Sin is not supposed
to have injured man’s being, but simply to
have aroused God’s passion; and therefore
God is not supposed to be reconciled to man
by seeing man weeping for his own personal
wrong-doing, but by having an opportunity
to wreak his vengeance on the sacrificial vic
tim.
YVe need scarcely say that many of the
old divines entertained notions of God far
more in harmony with these heathen ideas
than with the teaching of the Scriptures.
One of them (a poet) represents the Saviour’s
death as an infliction of God, and not as John
puts it, the result of his own voluntary re
signation. John gives the words of Jesus
thus: “ No one taketh it from me, but I lay
it down of self.” Ttie poet, on the con
trary, has—
“Ar.d did at once his vengeance pour
Upon the Shepherd’s head.”
Again, he speaks ot the Saviour,'not a3
revealing the love ot God, as does John, but
as having
•' Quenched His Father’s darning sword
In His own vital blood.’’
Some writers on the atonement, influenced
by the heathen views of God to which we
have referred, have spoken of the Deity as
being appeased by the death ot Christ, as if
lie had been enraged before, and was only
quieted by a sight of pain and suffering!
This idea underlies the theories to which we
refer, and is a libel on the character of that
God “ who is good to all,” and who “ maketb
the sun to rise on the evil and on the good,
{sß 00 A YEAR. f FRANKLIN PRINTING HOUSE, ATLANTA,-GA., THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1870. Ss3 00AVEAR.S
and sendeth rain on the just and on the un
just.”
The death of Christ acted upon the sinner
and not on God. The Saviour’s death as a
demonstration of the love of God, so affects
the wicked, that he repents of his sins and
ceases to be wicked, and thus becomes an
object of God’s delight, and not of his anger.
In this sense God is appeased, and in no other.
The idea that the Atonement affected God,
and not man, or God as well as man,—ap
peased God by satisfying something in Him
self, has been transferred from heathenism,
where it originated, to Christianity. Has not
God always been merciful, apart from any
atonement?
2nd. That the word “propitiation ” has a
secondary meaning, and that the secondary
meaning alone is adopted by the sacred wri
ters when they refer to the atonement of Christ.
The word originally referred to the process of
propitiating an enraged’ deity, according to
heathen usage and notions. All heathen rites,
ceremonies and sacrifices, were invented to
act upon God and not upon man." Their ob
ject, in every case, was deliverance from pain
and punishment, and not from sin. The
heathen by whom the word was first used,
never seem to have thought that pain was
ik4 so much a positive infliction ot evil, as a
punishment of sin—as a property of it as
heat is of fire. Hence we find that their acts
of worship were intended to affect God, and
not man. Man was never thought to need a
change of heart, mind and disposition, and
hence the word propitiation, in the heathen
mind referred to a method of reconciling God
to man, rather than man to God.
The Bible speaks a contrary language:
“Be ye reconciled to God never to God,
Be thou reconciled to man.” God is recon
oiling the world unto Himself; the world is
not reconciling God unto it. The word pro
pitiation, though originally signifying the
method of reconciling God to man, came, in
process of time, to signify conciliation simply,
without implying that it was effected by re
conciling God to man, or man to God.
The only question for us to settle in this
connection, is, Do the sacred writers ever
use words in the secondary sense alone —
words whose primary meaning they must
have thought, erroneous? Thtfte who have
studied the Scriptures with care, will find no
difficulty in pointing out words which the
Apostles unquestionably used in a secondary
sense, without committing themselves to the
acceptance of the etymological or t riginal
meaning, which heathen authors could net
ceparate from them. The word “ flesh ”
Gap; —is a case in point. This wordoiigin
ally meant literal flesh—the material part of
man or animal. Paul, however, uses the
word to signify a quality which is inherent,
not in the material, but in the spiritual nature
of man, viz: human sinfulness.
In a similar mariner, it is quite possible
that John, and other sacred writers, may
have used the word propitiation ,” and its
cognates, to signify simply reconciliation,
without implying, as the heathen did, that
God needed to be pacified, as if He had had
any feelings of ill-will or hostility in refer
ence to man.
Having shown that the propitiatory, or ap
peasing element of the atonement, existed in
heathen minds before it was thought of by
Christian thinkers ; that it is possible, at least,
that the idea may have been transferred orig
inally, from heathen theologies to Christiani
ty ; that the sacred writers did sometimes, as
a matter of fact, use Greek words in their
secondary meaning, when they could not ap
prove of the primary sense; und that, there
fore, it is not right to deduce the idea of ap
peasing God by the death of Christ from the
use of such words as “ propitiation,” we are
in a position to make another suggestion, or
two, from the teaching of 1 John iv: 10,11.
He does not give us any explanation, or
definition, of the doctrine of the atonement,
but teaches us many things of importance in
connection with it, the study of which will
show that, whether we can arrive at a correct
definition or not, all definitions involving the
idea of appeasing God, except in the way
already indicated, must be erroneous.
The lesson of the text referred to, regarded
in a negative sense, is very important, for it
satisfactorily sh >ws that the atonement of
Christ did not appease God in the heathen
sense, or in the sense Puritanism has preached,
nor in any sense, but by effecting a change in
the moral state of man. God is unehangea
ble, but man may be changed. God’s frown
of “ anger ” is nothing more than man’s cloud
of sin, which comes between them. Light
paints the landscape on the sensitive film, and
the pure in heart sees the smiles of Deity.
It is no fault of the sun that December is
more gloomy than June; it is our earth that
makes the change. The love of God, revealed
in the death of Jesus, may make man pure,
and thus secure to him the smiles of God.
The atonement “ appeases ” God by chang
ing man, and not by “ satisfying ” God.
I. The Propitiation spoken of by John, is
of God's own providing: “And sent His
Son,” etc. God is here represented as an
active, and not as a passive party in the work.
He “sends.” Here He is giving, and not
receiving. The atonement propitiation is
represented as being made by Him, and not
for Him. God is a giver, and uot a receiver.
This is the way in which His part in the work
is always represented in the New Testament.
Our Saviour speaks of Ilis dying for others,
as being what God does for others, and not
as what others do for Him. “ God gave His
only begotten Son.” Paul, too, represents
the matter in the same way, in that remarka
ble passage w hich has been regarded as the
very basis of the heathen idea of appeasing.
Rom. iii; 25: “ Whom God hath set forth
to be a propitiation.” Here God “ sets
forth ” — places before the world —provides, a
propitiation ; but to speak of any being pro
pitiating or appeasing himself, or taking any
part in the work of self appea-ing, would be
absurd. Thus John proves that the propitia
tion of which he speaks was not an appeasing
of God by another, but something which God
did to reconcile the world to Himself.
11. The propitiation spoken of by John is
a proof of God's love, and not its cause or jus
lijication. “ Herein is love," etc. These words
are very clear and definite. Great stress is
laid on the love of God as distinguished from
the love of man, and the love of God is said
to be shown in the fact that He sent His Son
to be the propitiation, in the part which He
took in providing the atonement. But if the
atonement was made for God, to satisfy or
appease Him, it could not show His love,
whatever else it showed. It might prove His
strictness and justice in demanding, but sure
ly not His love in giving. If a man wrongs
me in any act, and 1 demand satisfaction for
the wrong, that can never be said to be a
proof of iny love for the offender, whatever
else it may be a proof of. John regards the
atonement as proving God’s love, and not as
satisfying God’s justice. “Herein is lote!”
John’s notion of the propitiation did not,
therefore, involve the idea of appeasing God
according to the heathen and puritanic defini
tion.
Thus we find that John’s idea of the atone
ment had nothing in it corresponding to the
heathen idea of satisfaction or appeasement.
Its object wa9 to destroy enmity in
not in God. The idea of God’s indulging
such a passion is shocking. GocPs“ love is
disinterested. Love does all the work, con
quers all, and wins, and melts, and subdues
the hardest heart.
“ Oh ! unexampled love!
Oh ! all-redeeming grace !
How swiftly didst thou move
To save a fallen race !
What shall I do to make it known
What Thou for all mankind hast done?”
Galileo.
We dissent from the view, imported by
Coleridge from Germany, which our correspon
dent adopts; and may say something on the sub
ject, when he is through. —Ed.
The Inner Life.
Christian, cultivate the inner life. It is
your only real life. All outside of it
is fleeting, decaying, and will soon pass
away. “1 live,” said Paul, “by the faith
of the Son of God.” Exercise daily faith
in Him. Trust Him implicitly. Believe
in an ever present Saviour, to guide, di
rect and support you. Earthly friends may
fail, but He will never fail. ' “ In Him,” says
Neander, “the ideal and the actual meet
truly. He is all that He means, all that He
claims to be.” This cannot really be said of
any earthly friend. If in daily fellowship
with Him, the troubles and annoyances of
the world will sit lightly upon you ; and the
interior power will triumph. Herein is the
hiding of your strength. In your every
day conflict you will be serene and hap
py. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he
trusteth in Thee.” In all your perplexities
as to the path of duty, you will be most as
suredly directed by infinite wisdom, and in
view of the last great change, which may not
be far distant, you will be enabled to exclaim
joyously, “ I know in whom I have believed,
and am persuaded that He is able to keep
that which I have committeed to Him, against
that day.” Gkebi.
Baltimore.
Doing Good on the Sabbath.
The remarks in the Index of August 18th,
under the caption, “Tract Distribution on
the Cars on the Sabbath,” are timely. Many
questionable things are done on the Sabbath,
under the plea of doing good.
Our object in the present communication
is not to discuss the propriety or impropriety
of these things, but simply to ask the read
ei’s attention to an incident in connection
with the burial of our blessed Siviour, bear
ing upon this subject. The record of this
incident is in Luke xxiii; 54—56: “And
that day (of the Saviour’s burial) was the
preparation, anji the Sabbath drew on. And
the women also which came with him from
Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepul
chre, and how his body was laid. And they
returned and prepared spices and ointments ;
and rested the Sabbath day, according to the
commandment .”
Particular attentian is desired to the clos
ing sentence, which we have italicised. These
devout women were preparing to manifest
their regard for their dear Lord and Master.
And as this was an act of devotion, and, un
der the circumstances, an act of Christian
heroism, it might seem an extreme scrupu
lousness on their part, to allow even the sa
cred hours of the Sabbath to prevent its
consummation. But they had not so learned
Christ; for w j*h all their devotion to Him,
they did not consider that he had come to
destroy the law, but rather, as He had taught
them, to fulfill all its precepts.
The Sabbath, so carefully observed by these
devout women, was the seventh day of the
week, which God had appointed as a day of
rest from secular toil afid labor. And the
strictness with which it was in this instance
observed, arose from a conscientious regard
for the commandment of Jehovah, in which
they had respect, not only to the letter, but
also to the spirit of the law.
• Under the Christian dispensation, the
“ Lord’s day ” is the Sabbath. And as the
law requiring one day in seven to be kept
holy unto the Lord, is still in force, can we
be too careful in abstaining fiom doing, or
encouraging others in doing, anything not
Consistent with remembering the Sabbath to
keep it hoi) ? A Bible Baptist.
Patriotism—No. 11. .
We tu in to Greece, “the land on which
learning and genius shed a lustre that has
grown brighter amid the gloom of ages;
whose achievements in arts and literature and
arms, adorn incomparably the most brilliant
page in the annais of unchristianized man.”
Here we see a Solon, showing his patriotism
in time of peace, by suggesting many saluta
ry laws; a Lycurgus becoming an exile, and
eventually suffering death, that the laws of
Sparta might be perpetually observed; a
Thrasybulus expelling the tyrants of Athens,
and a Leonidas, with his chosen band, pre
pared for victory or death.
Many interesting stories are told of the
patriotism of the Spartan mothers. It is re
ported of one, that in time of a battle she
stationed herself at the gate of a city in which
she lived, and asked the news of a messenger
who had come from the battle-ground, and
when he told her that all her sons were slain,
she said, “ Vile slave, i asked you not how it
fares with my sons, but how it fares with my
country .” Now, though in this there seemed
to be a forgetfulness of the feelings which a
mother should exercise towards a child, yet
we cannot but admire her willingness to make
a sacrifice for the good of her country.
In modern Greece, we see a Bozarris, who,
with his latest breath, encourages his com
rades on the field of battle—
“ Strike—till the last armed toe expires,
Strike—for your altars and vour fires,
Strike—for the green graves of your sires,
God and your native land.”
In Poland, we see Koskiusko and Pulaski,
whose names are dear to every American
heart. Justly might we have expected that
their oion land would share largely in their
affection, since, with such untiring zeal, they
labored for the good of suffering strangers.
In Switzerland, we see a Tell, who will not
yield to the demands of the German bailiff.
Providence smiles on his efforts in behalf of
his country; the Austrian Governors are ex
pelled, and Switzerland is free.
Among the patriots in France, we see a
Lafayette, whom America can almost claim
as her own. In all the perils by which he
was surrounded in the cause of liberty in his
native land, America felt for him the solic
itude of the parent for the child. A grateful
nation records his worth and distant genera
tions will dwell with rapture on his name.
In Ireland we see an Emmet. How soul
thrilling his language; though memorized
by many a school boy in our land, it has lost
none of its interest by its frequent repetition,
and the son of Erin and every lover of his
country will always read it with delight. “1
have,” he says, “ but one request to ask at
my departure from this world, it is the char
ity of its silence. Let no man write my epi
taph ; for as no man who knows my motives
dares now vindicate them, let not prejudice
or ignorance asperse them. Let them and
myself remain uninscribed until other times
and other men can do justice to my charac
ter; when my country takes her place among
the nations of the earth, then, and not till
then, let my epitaph be written.”
In Scotland we see a Bruce, a Doug lots, a
Randolph We see a Wallace who refuses
to acknowledge the usurper Edward, and lay
down his arms. And when at last he is ta
ken, ’tis not in fair and open combat, but by
treachery. Accused of having been a traitor
to the English Crown, wuh calm resolution
he answered, “ I could rUt be a traitor to
Edward, for I was never J>is subject.” Ac
cused of having killed rn;eV men, he replied,
“Jt is true I killed many Englishmen who
came to subdue my native country, Scotland.”
But, “ tell it not in Gain, nor let the sound
reach Ashkelon,” he is dragged on a sledge
to the place of execution, and then beheaded.
O, England ! among the p*ges in thy history,
which thou shouldst desire erased, that page
deserves a place that recor ts a deed like this !
We turn to America. Many are the in
stances of patriotism which adorn our histo
ry, in Revolutionary days. On the 30th
October, 1782, four thousand English fell
upon New London wits fire and sword.
Seven hundred Americandefended the fort
for a whole day, but in tL evening the com
mander of the besieged surrendered. His
companions and himself -sere put to the
sword. A line of powdery as then laid from
the magazine of tl.e fori to the sea-shore,
there to be lighted that Ae fort might be
blown to atoms. A pnv»>)* soldier, William
Hotman, who lay not fatmistant behind it,
with three strokes of the Ks Vonet in his tody,
said to one of his wounded friends, “we will
endeavor to crawl to lhi?'’ne, and will com
pletely wet the powder wi h blood ; thus will
we, with the life that still emains to us, save
the fort and the magazine ind perhaps a few
of our comrades who ay* only wounded.”
He alone had strength en ugh to accomplish
this noble design. He did upon the powder
which he overflowed with ?iis blood.
Many are the instance; of patriotism in
the history of the South, in the recent war;
and though we have not\seen the efforts of
our soldiers erowned with he success that we
anticipated, yet the futur historian will find
here an ample fund from {which to draw, to
give to the world, (as far vs patriotism is con
cerned) some
“ Immrmal name’
Thai were not Lorn •) die.”
If our government is n * now what it once
was, let us see to it that ( "\>d rules our hearts.
If many spots dear to us, in the sunny South,
have been desolated, let v's see to it that our
thoughts and affections a turned to a coun
try abo\e —a country w iere wars and ru
mors of wars shall never molest, and where
revolutions and dissensions can never come.
“Fair, distant land! coitd mortal eyes
But half its charmsVxplore,
How would our spirit- long to rise,
And dwell on earth no more.”
ft. W. Whilden.
The Patience «’ Hope.
Thou may’st not limit to i day
The prayers that from ftiy bosom swell;
Trust to tby U<>d the time and way,
Assured He doeth well.
But when His purpose is/nrmde kuown,
And when the door wifle open stands,
With heart sure stayed oil Him alone,
Rouse to the action Ho demands.
Not idly sitting in the siM
Brings promised blessug.- from above;
But patient, daily duty
Ait iu Ilia strength 3 V'lhve.
. For Jacob’s ladder, round by round,
Rises from earth to meet the skj';
There angels, as of old, are found,
And we must climb who cannot fly.
0 faithful workers! all is well;—
Lift your worn fates to the light;
Though in the valley yet you dwell,
The morning breaks upon tbe height!
“Broad Guage”—The Baptist Teacher.
Can you tell me what the Baptist Teacher,
on page 68 of the September number, means
by the saying, “ We need broad guage men
and women in the Sunday school V’ I ask
because I knew, some few years ago, a deacon
of a Baptist church who prided himself that
he >vasa“ broad-guage tnan,” and if any other
poor pastor was ever so a nd: stressed by a “ thorn
in the flesh, a messenger of Satan sent to bus
set him,” I know how to pity Jiim and sym
pathize with him. This “ broad guage man”
was a great supporter and advocate of union
Sunday schools, an open comm unionist, and
a particular friend of the Sunday school Union
literature, deeming it “ narrow-gu ige” for a
Baptist to advocate Baptist Sunday school lite
rature. In a word, he could not tolerate a
Baptist of the Rev. Dr. Thos. Armitage
school. (See his sermon on that subject.) 1
know him well, and, in my mind’s eye, “ Ho
ratio,” 1 see him now chuckling over the line
in the Teacher, “ We need broad-guage men
and women in the Sunday school.” Is not
Rev. Dickinson, editor cf the Richmond
Herald, the editor of the Teacher ? Will he
not tell us what “ broad-guage men” are in
Baptist Sunday schools ? J. D.
Protracted Meetings—‘ ‘ Cometarians. ’ ’
A series of religious meetings are now in
progress in many parts of the South. One
only of thertt has fallen tinder the observation
of the writer. The church which still con
tinues this meeting is one which has been ac
customed to an annua) .effort, probably ever
since its original organisation, and which had,
with the surroundinifflcommunity, become
hardened by their innfence, in alliance with
other causes equally «*Uent. The members
were disaffected, scatj-red; many holding
letters; some in disorder; discord,dissension
and non-fellowship prevailing. They were
without a pastor and without meetings of any
kind during the present year. Two worthy
ministering brethren recently visited the
church, and proposed to preach for several
days. It remained to, Joe seen what course
they would pursue, greeted by the Spirit
of God, they proceeded so organize the church,
to heal dissension, to out off such as refused
to harmonize, and to prepare each and every
member for the work that each had to per
form, at present and in the, future. This
being the Scriptural course, it was of course
successful. A considerable number have been
received by.letter and restoration, and a few
young converts baptized. A pastor, to de
vote his entire time to the interest of the
church, has been chosen and is now in the full
discharge of his pastoral duties. The Sunday
school is reorganized, a weekly prayer meet
ing instituted, and a weekly meeting of Sab
bath school teachers. Bach member is called
to his or her respective duty, and every
agency of the churclvfjt is proposed to bring
into efficient and active exercise. Do any
say thi9 will all soon-die out? Perhaps it
may. Churches, in all ages, have backsliden.
Perhaps not many churches of the present
day keep their lamps trimmed and burning.
But whether these ministers fail or succeed,
who will assertlhata system demanding every
member daily to be a true “ soldier of the
cross,” is not the Scriptural system ?
One member was asked by an outsider,
“ Has your meeting closed ?” “ No, it has
just begun,” was the reply. “ When do you
expect to close ?” “ At the millennium ; then
to commence anew as God may direct.” A
meeting that begins on the first day of Jan
uary, and continues with Sabbath and daily
duties performed, by the pastor, by the other
officers of the church. and by every member,
down to the youngest and least efficient, and
j closing on the 31st of December, to be re
sumed on the day following, with no change
in the order, with every member disciplined
to duty to his family, to his pastor, to his
brethren, to his unconverted neighbors and
acquaintances, to his church, —such a meeting
is worthy of being called a protracted meet
ing.
But, says one, this is impracticable in coun
try churches that are restricted, from neces
sity, to a sermon once per month from the
pastor. The writer has, in times past, been
a member of country churches for a series of
years. He has known these and scores of
other churches thus situated, to have their
Sunday schools and their every Sabbath prayer
meeting, and one (in some instances) during
the week, a trained membership perform
ing their Christian as well as their wordly
duties, during the week. Ido not mean that
iu these churches there was a perfection of
organization, and that every member daily
performed his or her duty to perfection. I
am not drawing a fancy sketch. There are
delinquents in the best of armies. But this
was the system, and for half a century many
have been striving to live up to it. 1 can
name such men as brother Jesse H. Camp
bell, Dr. C. D. Mallary, Dr. J. E. Dawson
and numbers of others, who for many years
were pastors of country churches. The fires
never t-cared to burn upon their altars.
The writer met a lady, a few months since,
a companion of early days, whom he had qpt
seen tor thirty years. When told that her
mother (a bright and shining light, an active
Christian through a long life) was still living,
4. nquested her to say to that aged mother,
that one conversation of hers with me in my
boyhood led me—on that very day—to go
to my closet and there erect an altar which
I have never since forsaken, and upon which,
by Divine aid, I hope to lay my heart’s sacri
fice to my latest breath.
I remember once, in early life, to have re
solved to leave the church and turn back to
the world, feeling unworthy of such a con
nection. I went to my pastor (for he always
made my way to his confidence smooth and
easy.) lie readily showed my misinterpre
tations of Scripture, by which I was misled ;
unfolded such facts and views of my condition
as led me there to resolve that, in darkness
or in sunshine, in joy or sorrow, in hope or in
despair, among the people of God to live and
to work, as my only hope. To this resolution
l have clung, without wavering, to this hour.
“ There were giants in those days”—there are
some now. It may not be improper to state
that our worthy brother, Dr. S. G. ITillyer,
of Georgia, was that pastor. Instances of
like chaiacter could be multiplied indefinitely
in the experience of every Christian who has
been connected with an active, zealous, con
scientious church.
I now invite the attention of the reader to
the contrast. In previous articles, I have por
trayed the inactive, periodical system at
length. Theirs are the periodical meetings.
They are not worthy of the title of protracted
meetings, although I am not particularly par
tial to the latter appellation. They have their
periodical meeting-, their periodical efforts,
periodical revivals and periodical piety, and
very short periods, at best. Assembling to
gtther for a few days in the fall, and a sermon
preached once a month, constituting the Chris
tian work performed by tens of thousands of
church members, and by 'Hundreds of churches
and pastor*! And yet, these pastors corn
plain of the meagreness of ministerial sup
port !
Visit a church of this class. Inquire of the
pastor the number of members in any one of
his churches. “We had,” he will reply,
“about one hundred and fifty members in
such a church. We hid a great revival here
last year. 1 baptized fifty young converts.”
Attend his regular meeting on Sabbath. It
is the communion season. Look over the
seats occupied by the communicants. You
will see thirty or forty participating. Look
through the windows, and among the loung
ing, laughing, gossipping throng that linger
around, will be found a considerable propor
tion of the young converts of the last revival,
while a very 'considerable number of old as
well as young members can be reckoned
among the voluntarily absent ; the neglect of
this holy ordinance being a sure index of an
utter indifference to all other Christian duties.
There is no one who will openly and spe
cifically defend this system of periodicity.
They will plead “not guilty.” And yet; of
the four thousand ministers of the Southern
States, h«>w large a proportion of them teach
this system —not in so many words, but in
practice. He who doubts this has but a lim
ited range of observation, or does not candidly
weigh the facts before him.
The “S »nos Righteousness” is a familiar
Scriptural emblem. Among the celestial
luminaries, the comet, in its illiptical orbit,
disappears from the world during the greater
part of its revolution, but returns, with i£
phosphorescent display,at certain well defined
periods. It is seen or felt, (if at all) only at
or near its perihelion. If this periodical sys
tem among our churches had been known to
the inspired writers, the comet would cer
tainly have been chosen as its appropriate
emblem. I would rspeetfully suggest to our
cometarian ministers—the advocates of pe
riodicity—to prepare a sermon, derived from
the narrative of Nehemiah ; and I venture to
predict that, before they close their exegesis,
they will conclude that this interesting and
instructive narrative does not typify a come
tarian church. It is to be hoped that there
are, at this time, many churches who are re
turning to the “ old paths,” with their
banner unfurled, bearing for its design no
eccentric comet, with its fiery tail, but the
“Sun of Righteousness,” with healing in its
beams, and for its motto, “ Esto Perpetua."
A Lavman.
Hopeful.
We clip the following, with regard to the
rev ision of the Liturgy, from the Episcopalian,
a good evangelical paper, published in New
York and Philadelphia. We hail with joy
such proof of Bible loving Christianity in the
Church which has been so invaded by Rit
ualism. The spirit that prevails also in the
Irish Episcopal Church, and is evidently
awaking in the Church of England, indicates
the near approach of a better day for the pure
and simple gospel truth. The Episcopalian
thus designates
THINGS TO BE CORRECTED
“My sponsors in baptism, wherein I was made
a member of Christ . the child of God , and an
inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven?'—Cate
chism.
But the Scripture saith :
“ Ye are all the children of God by faith
in Christ Jesus." —Galatians iii: 20.
“ Sanctify this water to the mystical wash
ing away of sin, and grant that this child now
to be baptized therein may receive the fulness of
Thy grace?' Baptismal Service.
“ Seeing now that this child is regenerated ,
and grafted into the body of Christ’s Church.”
—Baptismal Service.
“We yield Thee hearty thanks, most mer
ciful Father, that it hath pleased Thee to regene
rate this infant with Thy Holy Spirit."—Bap
tismal Service.
But the Scripture saith :
“ Being born again by the Word of God ,
who liveth and abideth forever.” —I Peter
1 : 23.
“ Os His own will begat He us with the Word
of Truth." —James 1 : 18.
“ Reverend Father in God, 1 present unto
you these persons, to be admitted deacons.”
Ordination Service.
But Jesus said :
“ Call no man your father upon the earth, for
one is your Father,who is in heaveu.”—Matt,
xxii: 9.
“ Declaration of absolution to be made by
the priest alone, standing ; the people still
kneeling.”— Morning and Evening Service.
“Almighty God hath gi/en power and
commandment to His ministers to declare and
pronounce to His people, being penitent, the
Absolution and Remission of their sins.”
“Almighty God have mercy upon you, par
don and deliver you from all your sins."
But Scripture saith :
“ Him (Christ) hath God exalted, to give
forgiveness of sins.” —Acts v : 31.
“To the Lord, our God, belong mercies
and forgiveness of sins.—Dan. ix : 9.
“I will pardon their iniquities.”—Jeremiah
xxxiii: 8.
“ Receive the Holy Gho-t for the work and
office of a Priest in the Church of God—whose
sins Thou dost forgive, they are forgiven—
whose sins Thou dost retain, they are re
tained.”— Ordination Service.
But the Scripture saith :
“ We are witnesses of these things, and so
also is the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given
to them that obey Him.”—Acts v: 32; xv:
8 ; Thes. iv :, 8.
“ Consider the apostle and High Priest of
our profession, Jesus Christ.”—Heb. iii : 1.
“ We have a great High Priest, who has
passed into heaven." —Heb. iv : 14.
“This man (Christ Jesus) hath an un
changeable priesthood .” —Heb. vii : 24.
Views of Alexander Campbell.
His strong religious character and power
of leadership kept together the heterogeneous
elements gathered into the churches of the
Disciples. But it is improbable that the unity
can long continue. The important errors in
corporated into his system must in time un
dermine it.
One of these errors was the importance as
signed to baptism. He regarded it as essen
tial to salvation, or at least to an assurance
of salvation. By it came the forgiveness of
sins, and without il was no evidence of for
giveness. When hard pressed by Baptist
questioners, he sought to evade the natural
inference from his teachings, that regeneration
and forgiveness" are the results cf baptism.
But as he taught definitely that the Holy
Spirit never renews the heart by a direct act,
but only mediately through the Word and
the water, it was not easy to distinguish his
system from ritualism, and it is quite certain
that a large part of his followers are thorough
ritualists.
A kindred error, out of which, perhaps, the
other sprang, was his idea of faith. He did
not regard it as an act of the renewed soul, but
as a simple exercise of the mind by its natural
powers. Hence he refused to require any
evidence of Christian character before conver
sion. If one claimed to believe in Christ,
though the faith were merely historical, he
had no hesitation in baptizing him, and as
suring him that tl.e work of regeneration was
completed by the ordinance. Regeneration
could not, indeed, by his theory, be wrought
before baptism; and therefore it would be
f.»lly to require any of its fruits as prerequi
site to ihi ordinance.
These errors, as we have said, are fatal to
the permanence of Campbellism as an evan
gelical system. The influence of its founder
being withdrawn, tokens of dissolution are al
ready manifest. Many of its present leaders
are avowed ritualists. They teach baptismal
regeneration as positively as the High Church
men of England and Germany. They recog
nize no other new birth than that wrought in
the ordinance. Os necessity their churches
are composed largely of unregenerate persons,
who know nothing of the inward workings of
Divine grace. Their sympathy with evan
gelical doctrine is feeble, and they must di
verge farther and farther from the spiritual
religion of the New Testament.
Many others in the body of Disciples, both
leaders and followers, are simple hearted and
earnest Christians. They begin to feel that
they are unequally yoked with unbelivers ;
that the living and the dead cannot cohere.
They begin to suspect that some errors in
doctrine must underlie their system, to pro
duce such strange fruits, and they are groping
towards the truth, and yearning after union
with other bodies with whom they have
spiritual affinities. Some of them have made
overtures towards a union with Baptists in
the Western States, and we have little doubt
that sooner or later they will enter this fold.
Watch, and Ref.
Woman’s Rights Profanity. —ln the Wo
man’s Journal, Rev. Jesse H. Jones, of
Natick, Mass, says : “In fact, it is no more
than the truth to say that Jesus Christ lived
on the earth, and died on the cross to give
woman the ballot. So giving to woman the
ballot, by constitutional amendment in this
country, will complete the formal organization
of the kingdom of heaven. That day on
which it is officially announced that the ballot
has been given to women in this country by
constitutional amendment, will be the first
day of the rnillenium. Yea more ; the giving
of the ballot to women by constitutional
amendment, in this country, is an essential
step, and the greatest single human effort
which can be made to bring down the New
Jerusalem on earth.”
Jesus has Lighted Up the Grave. —It is
said that the Romans had a practice of light
ing up their tombs. In Essex a tomb was
once opened, when a lamp was found in the
corner, and a chair near it, indicating the rank
of the tomb-tenet; and it is recorded that
fifteen hundred years after the death of Tul
lia, Cicero’s daughter, her tomb, which was
accidentally opened, was found illuminated
with a lamp. It was but a glimmering light,
the rays of which were confined to the cata
comb walls. But the light Christ sheds upon
the grave falls on the vista of eternity. You
can now stoop, look in, and see iipmortality
beyond.— Blacket's Young Men's Class.
Answered. — A sceptical writer in the
North British Review argues that “ astronomy
sets the existence of the world more than
twenty thousand years ago, beyond doubt, by
showing that there are stars now visible to
us whose light takes at least fifty thousand
years to cross the space that separates us
from them.” The pour Bible hater, says the
Advance , did not stop to think that that
proves that our world is fifty thousand years
old in the same way it proves that we who
see the stars are of the same venerable an
tiquity.
Revision. —Dr. Miller related to a class of
students in Princeton, of whom I was one,
an instance of a zealous advocate for a change
in our version, who took great exceptions to
the word passover. “And pray, sir,” said a
friend, what would you put in its place 1”
“ 1 would translate it slcipover P* wa9 the re
pty* .*•
WHOLE NO. 2504.
Christ inlthe Home.
Welcome, welcome, gracious Saviour,
Welcome to our dwelling place!
Here, if we have found Tby favor,
Let the smilings of Thy face
Rest upon us,
Asa cloud of glorious grace.
Come, as when to Martha’s dwelling
Thou didst seek a calm retreat,
As when Mary, softly stealing,
Sat in meekness at Thy feet;
So, in mercy,
Bless us as we sit at meat.
9
And when round our altar bending,
Mom and eve Thy praise shall rise;
Young and old their homage blending,
Wafting incense to the skies;
Let Thy pleading
Mingle with their sacrifice.
And whene’er in life’s employments
Busy cares demand our thought,
Then, as when in full enjoyments,
Let our toil with Thee be fraught;
Let Thy blessing
Ever rest upon our lot.
And when friendly feet or stranger
Seek awhile a place of rest,
Here, refreshed and free from danger,
May their tarrying, Lord, be blest
With Thy presence,
As our fixed, abiding guest.
Conversion of Children. —At a meeting
of Quaker Sunday school teachers, Philadel
phia, a delegate remarked, that he was once
present at a meeting where the subject was
discussed, “At what age might a child be
converted ?” . He arose and put this simple
question, which settles the whole matter:
•“ My dear friends does any one suppose that
He who so loved the world that He gave liis
only begotten Son that the world, through
Him, might be saved, would leave a child for
one moment after it is old enough to be re
sponsible for an evil thought, without the
capacity to be converted and saved ?” And
another declared : “ 1 believe that very few
converted children—converted when they are
children—become backsliders. There are
fewer such cases among children than among
older people.” Let us have a strong faith in
the possibility and reality of such conversions.
Blasphemy of Spiritualists.—“ No man,”
say they, “ should rely upon any Saviour
outside of himself. Each and every man is
a Saviour, a God. Christ is no more the Son
of God than was John Howard or George
Washington.” In the Age of Freedom, pub
lished at Berlin Heights, Ohio, we find the
following : “ What a horrible phantom, what
a soul-crushing superstition, is this idea of an
over ruling, omnipresent, all-powerful God !
Belief in a God is degrading, whatever the
character ascribed to him. Where is your
God? I can stand up, and look at him in
the face, and affirm that 1 have a right to
‘life, liberty and happiness,’ whether it is his
pleasure that I shall enjoy them or not.”
Ignorance of Bible Things. —“ The reli
gious man, the believer in these precious
truths of the Bible, who, with the means at
command of informing himself upon all the
points in connection with the history of that
Bible, with the land of the Bible, and the
people of the Bible, still allows himself to
remain ignorant of them, is criminally ignor
ant.” A sweeping declaration, but as true as
it is sweeping! Wilful ignorance of any
thing which the Spirit of God has embalmed
in the Book of Revelation, is, on the part of
those who have the opportunity and the means
of instruction, criminal ignorance.
Hedgehog Readers. —The way in which
many teachers read their Bibles is just like
the way that the old monks thought hedgehogs
ate grapes. They rolled themselves over and
over, where the grapes lay on the ground.
What fruit stuck to their spines they carried
off and ate. So your hedgehog readers roll
themselves ovei* and over their Bibles, and
declare that whatever sticks to their own
spines is Scripture, and that nothing else is.
But you can only get the skins of the text
that way. If you want their juices, you must
press them in cluster.— Ruskin.
“Jesus Heard.” —Recently, an aged and
efficient believer of 87 years’ pilgrimage, died
at Philadelphia. A short illness of but two
days preceded, during which time he lay un
conscious. Reviving a few moments before
his departure, he glanced upon the dear ones
gathered around his bed, and feebly, though
intelligibly, said : “Iknocked and Jesus heard;
He took me in” In this brief expression was
revived the experience of more than half a
century—proving Christ’s own words: “I
am known of mine, and I give unto them
eternal life.”
“ Thou God Seest Me.” —lt is a noble
profession which Milton makes after his trav
els in early manhood,though Italy and France:
“ I again take God to witness, that in all these
places where so many things are considered
lawful, 1 lived sound and untouched from all
profligacy and vice, having this thought per
petually with me, that, though I might es-<
cape the eyes of men, I certainly could not
the eyes of God.”
Kindred Opinions. —ln Crabbe Robinson’s
Diary, he mentions two clergymen of the
Church of England, of his own circle, one of
whom seriously maintained that the Slate
was under obligation to punish even with
death those who rejected the doctrines of the
Church ; and the other, that all unbaptized
children would certainly and forever go to
hell. He was speaking particularly of the
heathen children in the British East Indian
Empire.
Wiiat Constitutes a Gentleman. —The
late Bishop Doane, in defining the word gen
tleman in a Baccalaureate address at the third
annual commencement of Burlington College,
New Jersey, said : “ He is a man who bears
himself with gentleness. The truest gentle
man will be the most a woman in serenity,
in gentleness, in tenderness, in lovingness.
No violence; no roughness; no severity; so
ready to forgive; so willing to forbear; so
able to endure.”
Christ. —A spiritualist paper in Chicago,
the Religio-Philosophic Jour ml, remarks that
“ in view of all the evil which has arisen out
of the Christian religion, it has become a very
grave question with many whether it would
not have been better for the world if Christ
had never been born.” Alas! remarks the
Secretary, there is sad reason to fear that, so
far as such writers are concerned, it were bet
ter that Christ had not been born, or that they
bad not been born.
Jewish Scrupulosity. —Dr. Hildesheimer,
the new and popular Orthodox rabbi of Ber
lin, requires the children in his school to have
two copies of the Pentateuch, so as not to
break the law by carrying one to and from
their school on the Sabbath. Neither must
they carry umbrellas on that day.
Just So. —ln a heated controversy between
a Presbyterian and a Methodist, the former
quoted largely from the epistle to the Ro
mans. “Ah !” said the other, “ Paul says so,
I know; but then I always thought that he
leaned too much towaid Calvinism.”
Unwomanly Pretension. —“No man ever
worshipped God truly, that did not first wor
ship some woman,” says Elizabeth Cady
Stanton.