Newspaper Page Text
The Christian Index
VOL. 54—NO. 46.
Table of Contents.
Fibst Page. —Alabama Department: Culti
vate Integrity of Character; The Ratification
of the new State Constitution ; The Greenville
Advocate on the Selma Fair : Record of Ala
bame Events ; Spirit of the Religious Press ;
Baptist News and Notes ; General Denomina
tional News.
Second Page. Our Correspondents : Sandal
phon ; Information Wanted—J. W. Davenport;
Fireside Education: Leaves from the Forest
City—Rev. Timothy Harley; Bible Scenes -
Bunnie; Bars of a Jail and a Medley—H. F.
Oliver; Bethel Association—J. B. Cheves.
Thibd Page.— Our Correspondents continued :
Godin All Things, even Our Trials—Nemo; A
Pleasant Surprise at Bethany. Ga.; The Chat
tahoochee Association to tiie Churches she
Represents. Home Mission Hymn—“A Lady
of Virginia": etc.
Foubth Page Editorial: Indepennt Jour
nalism; Mercer University; A Seven Sentence;
Bear With Us—Rev. J. S. Baker, rhe Mode
of John's Baptism, etc—Rev. S. . Hillyer.
A Text for Some Brother; Tue Index—How
to Work for It; Georgia Baptist News; Rev. H.
Woodsmall; Our Religious and Social Life—
Rev. D. E. Butler. The Unjust Imputation—
Bey. B, G. Manard; etc.
Fifth Page. —The Human Will—Rev. A. J. Bat-'
tie, D.D.; A Good Place to Repose—The Ar
chives of the Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary -John R. Kendrick; The Baptist Re-
Hector—Rev. D. E. Butler. Secular Editorials:
Winning the Golden Key; “The Conquered
Banner;” Deserved Compliment; Young Men’s
Library Association; Literary Gossip; Bible
Scenes; Georgia News; News of the Week; etc.
■'Twaddle”—An Old Baptist: Brunswick Mis
sion-Rev. W. D. Atkinson; Home Missions—
Rev. W. N. Chandoin; Good Work; etc.
Sixth Page.— Our Pulpit: The Soul—Extract
from a Sertaou by Dr. Wm. Davidson, D.D.
Select Miscellany : Sabbath Desecration j En
couragement for Workers in Missions ; Always
—Poetry; The Power of Enthusiasm; Put Thy
Trust in the Lord; “ Till He Come”—Poetry;
One of Moodv’s Illustrative Stories; A Sharp
Retort. Children's Corner : “ I W ant It;”
Tne Two Graves—Poetry.
Seventh Page. —Something About foreign Mis
sions: etc.
Eighth Page. —To our Subscribers; Texas Items
—W. H. Parks ; Bethel Association Sunday
school Institute—J. B. Cheves. Marriages
Obituaries. Tribute of Respect. Financial
and Commercial. Advertisements.
INDEX AND BAPTIST.
ALABAMA DEPARTMENT.
The Farm and Home, at Florence, has been
suspended.
The epizootic is prevailing in Montgomery.
Rev. B. H. Crutupton has entered on the
pastorate of the Greenville Baptist church.
Four hundred negroes left Caiera the 10th
ult. for the west.
Richard Haralson is in jail at Pollard
charged with the murder of his twin children.
Rev. James Turner, of Limestone county,
was thrown from his horse, and fatally injur
ed, on the Bth.
The Masonic Grand lodge of Alabama
meets in Montgomery the first Monday in De
cember.
While Mrs.J De Yampert, of Gadsden, who
had long been ill, was being removed to her
brother's in Greensboro, she died at Stewart’s
Station, on the Alabama and Chattanooga rail
road.
James Reid, a little grand son of Air. Guth
rie, of Talladega, was accidentally shot and
killed, in that place, on the day of election for
ratification, by one of his friends, a boy about
sixteen years old, who was handling a gun.
The gun was loaded with No. 3 shot, the en
tire load, except one or two shot, entered the
person of the unfortunate boy just above the
heart, and he was almost instantly killed.
Alonroe Jachson, a desperate negro, who
was tried at the Circuit Court of Barbour coun
ty, last November, and sentenced to the Peni
tentiary for twenty years, fur numerous crimes
he hail committed in this county, recently es
caped from the Penitentiary. A reward is of
fered for his capture, and citizens ought to be
on the lookout (or him.
East Alabama furnishes her full share to the
stream of emigration westward. Last Monday
a large company left Opelika. Among the
emigrants were Colonel R. C. Holifield, a law
yer and political writer ol considerable ability;
Mr. A. J. Cooper, many years a merchant of
this place; Mr. Ed H. Alatthews, Clerk of the
Circuit Court of this county, and Alessrs.
Samuel Cook and George Cole, farmers.
From the Eufaula Times we learn that Col.
Ben Alorris, Capt. 11. F. Kolb and Mr. A. J.
Kiddle, of that city, indicted in the United
States Circuit Court, at Alontgomery, under a
charge of interfering with a United States of
ficer at the election in this city last year, went
to Montgomery last week to answer. Alessrs.
Alorris and Kolb were acquitted, but Air. Rid
dle was held for trial for a violation of the En
forcement Act, and will answer the charge
with a number of other gentlemen of that city,
who are similarly charged and arc now under
bond.
Even the New York Tribune says of the rat
ification of the new State Constitution :
While the vote its in some sense a protest
against the carpet bag system of government,
this constitution has excellent features of its
own, aside from its marked contrast to that
which it replaces. It does away with special
legislation ; it prohibits the General Assembly
from lending the money or credit of the State
to works of internal improvement, and limits
the rate ot taxation to be levied ; it reduces
the salaries of executive and judicial officers by
at least 25 per cent., and thus and otherwise ef
fects large economy. There need be little
doubt that it will lay the foundation of a re
newed prosperity for the State, and set an ex
ample to be copied throughout the South.
THUD SOUTH-WESTERNr BAPTIST,
of Alabama.
cfltivate integrity of character.
Young men should be deeply im
pressed with the vast importance of
cherishing those principles, and of cul
tivating those habits, which will secure
them the confidence and the esteem of
the wise and the good.
A young man may be unfortunate,
he may be poor and penniless, but if
he possess unbending integrity, and an
unwavering purpose to do what is
honest and just, he will have friends
and patrons, whatever may be the em
barrassments and exigencies into
which he is thrown. The young mav
thus possess a capital of which none
of the misfortunes and calamities of
life can deprive them.
We have known men who have sud
denly been reduced from affluence to
penury by some overwhelming misfor
tune, which they could neither foresee
nor prevent. To-day they were pros
perous, to-morrow, every earthly pros
pect was blighted, and everything in
their future aspect of life was dark
and dismal. Their business is gone,
their prosperity gone, and they feel
that all is gone ; but they have a rich
treasure that nothing can take away.
They have integrity of character, aud
this gives them influence, raises up
friends, furnishes them with pecuniary
aid, with which to commence life once
more, under auspicious circumstances.
We cannot too strongly impress
upon our young men, the importance
of abstaining from everything which
shocks their moral sensibilities,
wounds their conscience, and has a
tendency to weaken that nice sense of
honor and integrity, so indispensable
to a good character. “Integrity of
character!” Who ever possessed it,
that did not derive untold advantages
from it ? It is better than riches, it
is of more value than “diamonds and
all precious stones and yet every man
may possess it. The poorest may have
it, and no power on earth can wrest it
from them. Young men, prize integ
rity of character above all earthly
gifts.
Is it A Novelty ?—Brother Sum
ner, President of the Judson Female
Institute, Marion, Alabama, has in his
excellent school, five departments
which are new to us. It may be that
we are not informed, or else they would
not be so. They are : home department,
governess, matron, housekeeper and
mantua maker; every one of them are
capital departments, and we are glad
to see them in the very order he has
placed them.
If the young ladies in the Judson
receive instruction in the home de
partment, and in housekeeping, and
also in making their own clothing,
etc. —and as Lord Coke, or some ether
lawyer, said “ etc. means a great deal
not expressed”—then, and in that state
of the case, the Judson is far advanced
in the facilities it offers the school
girls in Alabama.
Many professors and teachers of
female schools and colleges in the
South, have yet precisely the same
methods and programmes observed be
fore the war. Instead of these, we in
sist that a change is needful—to suit
our new situation—and it strikes us
that the departments alluded to are
proper steps in that direction.
The Greenville Advocate has the following
trenchant remarks to make, relative to the
odious feature of horse-racing at the recent
fair, at Selma;
It appears that liorse-racing was one of the
chief points of attraction and display at the
Selma fair, This was certainly a singular
feature for a Grange fair, considering that
many of the members of the Order are minis
ters, deacons and private members of the
church. It must have been inspiring to Ihe
moral and religious feelings of the young, and
of sinners in general, to see deacons and elders
and Sabbath-school superintendents and teach
ers, as Alasters and Overseers, and Pomonas
and Ceres, and members generally, of the
Granges, giving their countenance and support
to horse racing and its invariable accompani
ments of gambling and swearing. The fair is
said to have been a success as to the number
and quality of the articles exhibited ; but it
was certainly not a success for morality and
religion.
Gambling was the rock that split the State
Fair Association at Alontgomery, and the
Grangers’ Fair will go the same way, if they
keep it up.
If people insist upon horse-racing, let them
select a time exclusively for that purpose, and
not thrust it upon those who attend fairs for
some other purpose.
Anew post route has been established be
tween Tuscumhia and Falkville.
FRANKLIN PRINTING HOUSE, ATLANTA. GEORGIA, 11ECEMBER 2, 1875.
Spirit of tiie Religious Press.
Someone sought to stimulate a congregation
to liberality in liquidating a church debt, by
mentioning the ease of a poor working girl
who, out of her wages ol $3 a week, gave $2
to the support of her aged father and mother,
and yet from the remaining dollar saved S2O
to give towards the new building. The In
terior very justly remarks:
This was praised as a remarkable self-sacri
fice. No doubt it was an act of sincere devo
tion. Put what are we to think of a wealthy
congregation which would accept such a sacri
fice? There are members of that church
worth from $50,000 to a cool quarter of a mil
lion. That poor girl should have had her
faith in God cheered by the addition of five or
six twenty dollar bills to her contribution, and
the whole returned to her with the thanks
of the congregation, and the suggestion that
she employ it in taking a little rest lor herself,
or in adding something to the scant comforts
of the beloved old father and mother. That
congregation missed an opportunity to round
out an offering to the Lord in a way that would
appear beautiful even to the pure eyes of the ar.-
gels.
—The Standard, reviewing anew work in
tended for the song-service of churches says :
To derive benefit from music we must like
the music. If in church and we are singing, we
must heartily enjoy the tune if it is to increase
our affection'for the words and their meaning.
We may derive enjoyment from singing sim
pler music than we prefer out ol accommoda
tion and good will to others, but then our en
joyment is more Irom the good will than from
the music. Alusic to be useful to us, must be
adapted to our states —to those who cultivate
it a higher kind, to those, who do not cultivate
it, the familiar tunes. As an axiom it may be
stated that musical enjoyment must be the
guage of musical benefit.
In every religious society there are two
grades musically, those who cultivate music
and those who do not. It might be a good
thing if choirs and their admirers would give
up the music best adapted to their tastes, and
sing only that which all understand, and in
which all can join. Some of our foremost
church music reformers have said that this was
the only right thing to do, but choirs will not
do it. They not only desire to sing music
suited to their more cultivated tastes, but they
like to exercise their best powers in the ser
vice of the church.
It must be admitted in a majority of cases,
where this is done, the choir and congregation
become “performers and an audience” —the
performers singing to entertain, and the audi
ence listening passively, to be entertained.
Sometimes, it is I rue, the people listen indiffer
ently beh&fise they rn> not understand’or bee
the significance of words and music, and some
times unwilling because they do not consider
such performances devotional. Still this goes
on, and in very few cases is the music of our
churches satisfactory when viewed from a reli
gious standpoint. Ought this tube? Cannot
muß’c be so adapted in a worshipping assem
bly that the people shall listen to the choir
witli pleasure and benefit, and the choirs join
with hearty interest in the familiar tunes ?
The Standard, therefore, advocates a plan
wherein tiie choir shall sing the preparatory
words, and all the people join in the familiar
hymn, thus making one co-operative act of
choir and congregational singing, of the nature
of “solo and chorus” the choir being the solo,
and “ail the people” the chorus.
—Commenting upon Air. Pentecost’s avowed
open-communionism, the Watchman and
Reflector says :
“We speak advisedly when we affirm the
belief that our churches generally in Massa
chusetts and New England, stand just where
they have ever stood on this question. There
is really great unity and uniformity for sub
stance in apprehending it. Minor differences
and divergencies have always existed upon
this question, and always will exist. No peo
ple can so well tolerate all these as they usu
ally manifest themselves, as Baptists, especial
ly New England Baptists, educated in the Ro
ger Williams school. At the same time, as a
body, our churches are loyal, and ever mean
to be, to the old flag and ancient faith of the
fathers.”
—Speaking ol the results and prospects of
the Centennial throughout the country, the
Standard (Chicago) says:
it would appear that more direct exertion
in the way of improving the great opportunity
is employed in portions of the South than any
where else. So far, the Southern Baptist Sem
inary at Louisville, Ky., seems likely to reap
most abundantly ol all our institutions imme
diate results.”
—The Christian Union, commenting on the
influence of Aloody’s peculiar preaching on the
minds of the masses of our people, says:
We take the truth to be that the great mass of
the community are far less deeply affected by the
theological speculations of our time than schol
larly and intellectual men are apt to suppose.
We believe that the effect of purely intellectu
al forces upon the bulk of society —at least its
immediate effect—is often vastly overrated.
The man of intellectual habits—to whom ab
stractions are more real than the things he
sees and handles; whose conflicts and triumphs
and joys and sorrows are largely in the unseen
creations of the mind—can scarcely realize how
remote these things are from the great majori
ty of men and women. To most people, the
practical and emotional elements make up al
most the whole of life, and the purely intel
lectual is an unknown or rarely visited region.
It is the failure to recognize this difference
that constitutes the greatest weakness of the
educated ministry. The same failure perpet
ually misleads men of active —and therefore
progressive—minds.
The strenuous tide of religious thought,
which seems to those who are swimming in
the stream to cover the whole world,
hardly makes a ripple in the lives of nine
tenths of the community. But when a man
comes to them, as Mr. Aloody comes,
full of helpfulness, full of courage, full
above all, of. a contagious and irresisti
ble confidence in Divine Love calling men
to itself, the common people hear him gladly.
The form of this theology makes little differ
ence to them. It is love, it is faith, it is hope,
that men hunger and thirst for—and getting
that divine wine, the shape of the cup that
holds it is of small account.
—On the question of getting up a revival
the New York Observer says:
Therefore.ro men are to be waited for, but in
all cases where Christians pray, aud ministers
preach the truth, there the' Spirit of God
should be expected with reviving and con
verting power. It is the day when men are
in a remarkably fitted condition to be im
pressed with divine truth. It is also a day
of abounding wicnednEss. Jn this city, and
jn other cities, and through our country
largely, is a spirit of intense worldliness, a
greed for wealth, attended with such a de
cay of principle, and honest uprightness, that
faith in man is failing. Society is losing con
fidence in itself. Who is to be trusted when
those whom all men Irusted prove to be default
ers and thieves, and forgerers and perjurers?
Crime has become bold, impudent and secure.
The revelations of fraud and corruption in
public office are frightfal, and almost incredi
ble. The community may well stand aghast
before the mass of moral disease disclosed by
every committee of investigation, and even
more when the Indifference of the public to
the awfnl revelations is considered.
—The National Baptist has this paragraph ;
“All is over; the blow is struck ; ‘the awful
crisis that was to have arriven, have arove.’ To
the intense delight of the Interior the Observer,
the Congregationalist, and other advocates of—
we really know not what—the Baptist denomi
nation is severed in twain. On the one side
stands brother Pentecost’s ilock, the Warren
Avenue church ; on the other a feeble and shat
tered remnant —the 22,50(1 churches, put down
in last year’s Year Book. How long the latter
will maintain the unequal and desperate strug
gle, we ere not prepared to say.”
—Under the head of “Romanism and Vice,”
the Herald and Presbyter has the following
critical commentary on some recent assertions
made by Cardinal Manning, as to the relative
morality of Romanists and so-called “ here
tics.’’ That journal says:
It is a remarkably cool assertion for any one
to make, who is conversant with the facts, that
“ the prevalence of vice is in proportion to the
prevalence of Protestantism.” It is especially
so when coming from one who is supposed to
be as well inturmed as Cardinal Manning.
And yet the great Cardinal proclaimed it in
the British metropolis. Such a declaration
could not, of course, be permitted to pass un
challenged. A Liverpool correspondent of the
London Times gives to that journal some ugly
statistics concerning the former city, which
make rather a bad (or good) commentary upon
the Cardinal’s assertion. Liverpool, he states,
contains a population of nearly seven hundred
thousand. Of this number, five hundred and
forty thousand are Protestants, and one hun
■ilred and fifty thousand are Roman Catholics.
All the following facts come from a Roman
source. Cardinal Manning ought to
i*ef)h thm trustworthy. Thwchaplain of the
Liverpool jail, who is a Roman Catholic, states
in his report for a single year, that of thirteen
thousand prisoners who passed through the
jail, nine thousand were Catholics and four
thousand were Protestants. These figures
show, when compared with the entire popula
tion of Liverpool, that the ratio of criminals
to the total population stands as follows: one
to sixteen of Roman Catholics, and one to one
hundred and thirty-five of Protestants.
These figures are very significant, hut prob
ably nothing remarkable, as the same exhibi
tion, substantially, could be made regarding
any other city on either side of the Atlantic.
So far as they illustrate the point, they show
that the very reverse of the Cardinal’s assertion
is true. And then it must be borne in mind
that Romanists class all as Protestants, who
are not of their faith, whereas, they class as
Catholics those only who adhere to their
church. If, in the number of criminals in the
Liverpool jail, those only are held to be Prot
estants who belong, realiy or nominally, to the
Protestant churches, then the disproportion is
much greater. Subtracting Jews, Pagans, de
ists, atheists and other classes —any of whom
are no more Protestants than Romanists, but
who are haters of all forms of Christianity, and
are found among criminals —and the remain
der would leave Catholics, as compared with
Protestants, almost sole masters of the field.
The Cardinal’s assertion needs revising.
—One of our exchanges has the following
interesting paragraph :
Among the marvels of the decade, which is
to be so brightly distinguished by the Centen
nial celebration of American Independence, is
the rapid progress which printing has made in
Japan since 1870. The advances achieved by
typography in the densely populated, and for
many years benighted Asiatic empire, in the
short period of five years, can only fittingly be
be described by one word—wonderful, In tin
Oriental country, intensely prejudic and against
Western civilization, where neither type, news
papers, nor books existed ten years ago, there
are now published thirty-four newspapers;
eight of them are issued daily, and the major
ity have been established since 1809. There
has also been established a type foundry, which
is in active operation. Many printing presses
have been imported, and more are needed, and
will, no doubt, be sent for. A number of
Americans and Europeans are in Japan, busi
ly engaged in preparing for the press, diction
aries, vocabularies, phrase books, and gram
mars in the English, French, German and
Italian languages. Learned Japanese are
translating, with a view of immediate publica
tion, works of medicine, law, political econo
my, astronomy and other subjects. The old
time opposition to printing has vanished, and
clicking of types and clattering of presses will
do more in five years to civilize and Chris
tsanize Japan than would have been accom
plished in the same direction by fifty years’
bombardment from the combined fleets of Eu
rope and America.
Excellent Arrangement.
We have perfected arrangements by which we
are enabled to furnish subscribers, for IS7C
The Christian Index and Vemoresl's Monthly
Magazine, both for $5. The regular subscrip
tion price for these standard publications would
be per annum. This offer includes the
choice of either of the following chromos, which
will be sent free to the subscriber as a premi
um :
Home, Sweet "Home ;
Old Oaken Bucket;
After the Storm ;
The Captive Child.
This is a rare opportunity to secure, for the
coming year, the choicest and most interesting
family literature, as well as a handsome orna
ment for the parlor.
the CHRISTIAIT
of Tennessee.
BAPTIST SEWS AM) NOTES.
—The first number of the Baptist Reflector.
the new denominational paper, published at
Morristown, East Tennessee, has been received,
It is full ol promise of good things yet to come,
and gives evidence of being managed with
much business and editorial skill. We tender
to the new aspirant for journalistic honors and
usefulness our fraternal good wishes. Rev.
O. C. Pope is editor, with the following as cor
responding editors: Rev. I. B. Kimbrough, D.
D., Riceville, Tenn.; Rev. J. F. B. Mays, D.
D., Knoxville, Tenn.; Rev. J. L. AI. Burnett,
D.D., Big Creek, Tenn. ; Rev. J. T. Kincan
on, D.D., Bristol, Tenn.
We quote the following sturdy words from
’the salutatory ;
We are not ignorant of the fact that many
religious journals have gone down beneath the
financial pressure that is on the country. That
the times are hard cannot be denied, so we will
illustrate our idea by an anecdote. There was
a Baptist deacon in Georgia, who owned a
very poor farm adjoining the one on which he
lived, and it was his custom, when one of his
children married, to settle him on this poor
farm for a year or two, and if he could make a
living there he might be turned loose in the
world. We spent a year on that farm, and
learned how to live on little. It is a good time
to start a paper, for if it can live in such times
as these, there need be no fear of failure.
We will run the paper for a year, hit or
miss, and intend never to pull down our col
ors while there is a dollar to be raised.
The paper must be a success, and with the
help of the brethren, and the blessing of God,
it shall be.
—Dr. Kincanon has not resigned the pasto
rate of the Bristol (Tenn.) church, as stated.
He has received a six months furlough, to
raise funds for Bristol Female College.
—The Baptist Reflector says that Elder G.
A. Lofton, of Alemphis, has challenged presi
ding Elder Boring, of Morristown, Tenn., to
discuss the denominational differences between
the Baptists and the Methodists, and that if
Elder Boring accepts, the discussion will take
place at Alossy Creek, Tenn.
—As the Hanson Place church, Brooklyn, de
clined, by a vote of 192 to 164, to accept the
resignation of Dr. Fulton, he withdrew it, in
tending to continue his pastorial relations to
the church.
Dr. N. W. Wilson, of Richmond, Va.,
has accepted the pastorate of Colliseum Bap
tist church, New Orleans.
—The Religious Herald says that a good way
for the Baptists of the South to celebrate the
Centennial is to double the circulation of their
denominational weeklies; which could be
easily done by each subscriber securing just
one more.
—Rev. J. 11. Butler has resigned the pasto
ral care of our church at Gallatin, Tenn., to
take effect the first of January.
—The Metropolitan Baptist church in San
Francisco numbers three hundred and fifteen
members.
—Rev. W. G. Inman, late of the Central
Baptist church, in Nashville, Tennessee, of
which he was pastor for six years, has accepted
a call to the pastorate of the Baptist church at
Decatur, Illinois. He enters upon the duties
of his new field at an early day.
—The American Baptist Publication Socie
ty has just issued a Question Book on Interna
tional Bible Lessons, for 1876. The work is
by Rev. Granville S. Abbott.
—Fifty years ago the Ohio Baptist State
Convention was formed at Zanesville. It is
said that all the delegates sat down at one
family table. Now there are in Ohio 565
Baptist churches, with an aggregate of 43,000
members.
—The Rev. W. R. Williams, D.D., long
the pastor of one of the most eminent Baptist
churches in New York, has a library of more
than nine thousand volumes. It contains
more material for writing a history of the
Baptist Church than probably any other libra
ry in the United States.
—Mr. Spurgeon’s “Lectures to my Stu
dents” promises to be the most popular of his
many popular works. At first the seers of
“the trade” looked with unfavorable eyes on
the book, thinking it would only circulate
among professional men. Already, however,
nearly 15,000 copies have been sold, and the
demand shows no symptoms of decline.
—The Baptists of Connecticut are making
strenuous exertions to have their Centennial
endowment fund for their Institution at Suf
field reach SIOO,OOO. They have adopted a
plan for dollar subscriptions, and hope to se
sure, thereby, $1 from every member of every
Baptist family in the State.
—The American Baptist Year Book for the
present year that contains a list of the ordain
ed Baptist ministers throughout the country,
gives the name of 160 by name of Smith.
They are found in thirty different States and
one Territory. New York has 21; Missouri
J 15; Kentucky 11 ; Alabama 10; eight other
j States have five or more. Connecticut has only
two.
—Some of the colored Baptist students at
Raleigh, X. 0., are anxious to preach Christ
in Africa.
—Prof. Alexander Meyrowilz, Professor of
Hebrew in the New York University, has
abandoned Judaism and united with the Cal
vary Baptist church.
—Elder J. T. Zealy, D.D., has left Hous
ton, Texas, for his new pastorate in Jackson,
Miss.
—The Centennial endowment work in Texas
is progressing finely.
—The Texas JJaptist Herald says Elder W.
O. Bailey, late of Humboldt, Tenn., is giving
WHOLE NO. 2797.
very great satisfaction in his new pastorate at
Jefferson Texas. He is young, strong and
vigorous, and a valuable accesion to our min
istry in Texas.
The Graves and Ditzler debate is to be
reported in several Baptist papers, but the on
ly full report will likely be issued by the
Southern Baptist Publication Society, Mem
phis, Tenn.
—A fine new Baptist church edifice has just
been completed in San Francisco.
Brother Link, of the Texas Baptist Herald,
jokingly says;
The inquiry goes out whether, in view of
the fact that many of the brethren who attend
the Southern Baptist Convention at Richmond,
Va., will wish to go to the Centennial at Phil
adelphia, the time of meeting at Richmond
should not be changed? It is possible that
the Convention at Richmond could not get on
so well without our presence there, and our
great annual Centennial commission meeting,
at Bremond, Texas, occurs the 4th of July,
and we do not intend that it shall get along
without our presence; so the Boards had as
well take this in the account in fixing a
change of lime, if any is made.
—The Lynchburg Star, of November 23d,
says ; The interest at the revival meeting at
the Baptist church, which has now entered up
on its third week, continuous unabated. The
exercises Sabbath morning and evening were
deeply interesting, and those of last night re
markably so. Dr. Alontgomery preached from
the text, “What wilt thou say when God shall
punish thee ?” This sermon was one of the
most powerful efforts of the kind to which we
ever listened. His reasoning on the necessity
of God punishing sin, and the certainty of this
being done, was of sucii power as to astound
the audience. His arraignment of the sinner
before the bar of the Eternal Judge and ur
ging as to what he would have to say for him
selt in excuse for not being prepared
to meet his God in peace, was one of the mas
terly efforts of pulpit oratory. The effect on
the audience was everywhere perceptible.
While there were not so many forward for
prayer as usual, numbers bowed in the audi
ence, thus evidencing their interest. We no
tice that the attendance on these exercises con
tinues to be large. We understand that the
prayer-meetings are well attended—Dr. Mont
gomery so stated last evening.
Several persons connected themselves with
the church Sabbath morning, an evidence of
the result of the meetings. W e learn the meet
ing will continue during this week.
General denominational Hews,
—Dr. Storrs has accepted the pas*
torate of “The Old Brick Church,” Fift _
Avenue, New York. This is the church- in
which Dr. - Gardiner Spring officiated for fully
half a century. It seems rather odd that a
strict Presbyterian church should invite a Con
gregational minister to its pulpit, but so it is in
the present case. The salary ofiered is $12,-
000 per year.
—The Cures of the Roman Catholic church
es of Montreal, last week, announced the re
ception of a pastoral letter relative to the in
terment of the remains of Joseph Gtiibord in
consecrated ground. The pastoral says: “For
we have truly declared, in virtue of the divine
power that we exercise in the name of the pas
tor of pastors, that the place where this rebel
lious son of the church has been deposited, is
separated from the rest of the consecrated cem
etery, to be no longer more than a profane
place—an ordinary piece of ground.”
—The North Georgia Conference of the M.
E. Church, (South) numbers 175 pastors and.
51,453 white members.
—Moody - and Sankey are holding revival
meetings in Philadelphia. Immense crowds at
tend.
The last census of the United States shows
that there is one church for every 532 persons;
that while from 1850 to 1870 the population
increased 06 per cent., (we lost a million lives
by the war) the churches increased nearly 90
per cent.
—An Edingburgh paper says the Fast Day in
Scotland is likely to be abolished. It was al
ways made an occasion for hard drinking, and
hard drinking in Scotland is worse than hard
drinking in England, for it means the con
sumption, not of beer, but of a fabulous
amount of strong whisky. In olden times,
however, the drinking was prefaced by atten
dance at the kirk ; now-a-days no prayers are
said before the process of intoxication commen
ces, and the Fast Day has become a revelry.”
—A considerable interest has been awaken*
ed among English Congregationalists and
Episcopalians at least, over the question of
the presence of the clergymen of the latter de
nomination in the pulpits of the former. Some
time since Rev. W, H. Freemantle, rector of
St. Mary’s, London, was requested to preach
in an Independent place of worship. This he
consented to do, but, regarding discretion the
better part of valor, first asked permission of
the Bishop of London to do so. The Bishop
vetoed the rector’s plan, and the rector acquies
ced in the Bishop’s veto, failing to appear as
promised. Not being satisfied with this result
Mr. Freemantle requested that the question at
issue between himself and his superior might
be submitted to eminent lawyers. Bishop and
rector chose each his lawyer, and the lawyers
decided that it is unlawful for any Church of
England minister to preach in a Nonconform
ist pulpit, or, indeed, to have any part in Non
conformist services, and in this decision they
were quite unanimously sustained by numer
ous counsel. This decision seems to set some
of the Independent ministers on their dignity,
and they protest against all invitations to
State Churchmen to come into Nonconformist,
pulpits except on exchange.