Newspaper Page Text
The Christian Index.
BY J'AS. P. HAMISON & CO.
PERFECTLY RESIGNED."
[A few hours prior to the death of Rev. E. T.
Paan&l, his wife, who was quite sick at the time,
laying her hand on his forehead, and feeling the
death sweat, asked : “ Husband are you resign
ed?” That spiritual expression which his face
had worn for weeks seemed to deepen as he re
plied with remarkable strength and force, ‘‘Per
fectly resigned," Upon those glorious words of
assurance are based these lineß by his devoted
daughter, Emma.]
“Perfectly resigned,” and the heavenly eyes
Looked up to God above :
And in their glittering depths was bom
Anew and trustful love.
Resigned with trembling feet to tread
The shaded valley’s way.
And through its portals find the light
That leads to perfect day.
“Perfectly resigned” the pallid lips
Moved soft in whispered prayer,
And bending angels smiling bore
The joyful news up there,—
Up there to God; who pillowed soft,
Upon our dear Christ’s breast,
The silvered head, in anguish tossed—
Giving it holy rest.
Resigned to close at evening tide
His life, with no dead leaves
Bound up among the garnered grain—
Its bright lionrß—golden sheaves.
“Perfectly resigned,” the gates ajar
Moved back apace for him,
And, crowned with joy triumphantly,
The ransomed entered in.
And loud with sweet accordant song
Tbe blessed around God’s throne,
Angel and Beraph clothed in white,
Welcomed the spirit home.
“Perfectly resigned!” O, God, may wo
Be, too, when life is o’er,
And we go to meet our darling one
Who callt from Heaven’s shore.
O, give me strength, dear Christ, till then,
To bow beneath thy rod;
And see behind death's cold, dark cloud
The cheering smile of God.
For the Index and Baptist. I
Centennial Sabbath-Breaking—A Remonstrance
from the West.
“During last year, Sunday excur
sion trains were run to the Centennial
exhibition grounds.” A few weeks ago
a petition was in circulation in New
Jersey asking the Legislature to stop
those trains. If they refuse to do it,
and the Sunday trains run again this
year, other roads will probably do the
same, and Sabbath-breakers from Bal
timore, Washington, and a multitude
of smaller towns will pour into Phila
delphia until the Quaker city will be
inundated.
We protest. Even Quakers have
some rights which other men ought to
respect; and though we are in far off
Oregon, we have a right to complain,
for bad examples are contagious, and
we are parties concerned. The most
obscure family getting water from a
hydrant, would have a right to cry out
if some bad men should build a tannery
or a slaughter-house at the head of the
reservoir from which they must drink ;
wealth perhaps, to the perpetrators, but
death to the victims.
Philadelphia is an influential city.
Her religious books and missionaries
go everywhere. Corrupt that fountain
and we all suffer. How much would
the gamblers and Sabbath-breakers of
the West be influenced hereafter by a
colporteur from a city which had her
self cast off the Sabbath and repudi
ated the decalogue ? Would they not
tell them to go home and work in Phil j
adelphia ?
But worse than that. Other bad men
seeing money in the plan, and utterly
blind to the ruir it brings, would also
run their Sunday trains all over the
country, and compel their employes t*
manage them. Who knows but they
would start them again in Oregon ?
We should greatly fear they would.
Now it is not strange that when
young men have been obliged to break
the fourth commandment, they soon
learn to break the eighth also, and
steal. Indeed, it would be strange if
it were not so. Break down a young
man’s conscience at the outset, and
compel him to set at defiance his
mother’s Bible and his mother’s God,
and how long will he remain either tem
perate or honest ? We western men
have seen enough of this, and do not
want our sons ruined.
We hope every editor and preacher
will cry out; that every citizen will vote
against it, and that all good people
everywhere, will pray that such wick
edness be not done in our Centennial
city. It might bring a curse, and the
last end of that city and of this proud
nation, “ be worse than the first.”
It is by no means certain that a
second Centennial (in 1976) will ever
be celebrated ; at any rate, an army of
wicked men are doing all they can to
prevent it.
Of course, it is easy to sneer at these
things, but let Christians read the
twentv-s'xth chapter of Leviticus and
beware ; let the city fathers read the
thirteenth of Nehemiah and do like
him; and let John Welsh do his ut
most to keep the buildings and grounds
•hut. Addison JoNxa.
Salem, Oregon.
Wi have received a copy of the
Electrotype Journal, a quarterly maga
•ine of the Graphic Arts, published by
A. Zeese & Cos., Chicago. It is an ele
gant and valuable publication, and a
beautiful specimen of typographic art.
For the Index and Baptist. |
A KD3IKDY FOR AY EVIL.
Some of the most valuable results
that ought to be obtained from revial
meetings are often lost by the necessity
of the pastor employing the aid of vis
iting ministers so largely. Such meet
ings ought to have the effect to
strengthen the influence of a pastor
among his people, that his individual
labors may afterwards be more fruitful.
This cannot be the case if, when the
minds and hearts of his stated hearers
are in the most impressible condition
he retires from the pulpit and allows
another to become the instrument
through whom the blessing is conveyed
to them. When the harvest is over
and the visiting minister departs, the
people, Christians and unbelievers,
naturally associate his name with the
s ason of refreshing, and all its de
lightful experiences, while they couple
the name and labors of the pastor with
the long and uneventful months or
years that preceded the revival. Con
sequently they think of the latter as a
good and faithful man perhaps, but
one whose preaching essentially lacks
the elements for producing actual visi
ble results, and of the former as one
whose preaching reaches the heart and
moves the hearers to immediate action.
Nor will any amount .of . reasoning
about the “seed time” and the “harvest
time” restrain the popular mind from
this judgment. Misled by this convic
tion, they do not expect nor seek any
fruits from the pastor’s ministry, but
gradually lapse into the persuasion that
he is not the man for the place, and
speedily look about for another to
succeed him.
The foregoing statement of what is
so frequently occurring is designed
simply to preface a suggestion by which
pastors may be saved the necessity of
relying chiefly upon the aid of minis
terial brethren. The preacher breaks
down in a revival not so much from the
labor of delivering his sermons as from
the strain (in addition to other de
mands upon him) of having to prepare
one or two discourses every day, orelse
from his not being able to prepare them
as fast as they are needed. But why
should he wait for the day of battle to
burnish his armor and replenish his
cartridge-box ? It is not enough that
he has an abundant supply of powder
and lead stored away. He should have
the lead moulded into bullets and the
bullets and powder made into cart
ridges ready for instantaneous use.
To drop the figure, why may not •
preacher spend a part of the time du
ring fall, winter, spring and summer, s
preparing a large number of skeletons
on such texts as would be appropriate
for revival seasons, and lay them up to
keep until they are needed? In tie
course of ten or twelve months any
pastor might equip himself for preach
ing a hundred days in succession with
out exhausting his stock of sermons.
Tuere are numerous other benefits to be
derived from this practice, such as a
facility in analyzing texts, the fixed
habit of studying every verse and para
graph attentively and analytically, the
habit of being continually on the alert
for material of which to coustruct ser
mons, etc., etc.; but the ability to car
ry on a protracted meeting without the
necessity of calling in aid from abroad
is of itself an ample compensation for
the trouble involved.
Very truly, Gideon.
PBOWNCUTIOS.
The Nation (which is quite high authority
in matters purely literary, and where there is
no chance to snarl or sneer) says :
Pronunciation, provided one avoids that of
the confessedly illiterate, is an aSai- of only
subordinate importance. Perpetually under
going mutation, and its fashions not being so
readily transmissible as the changes in written
language, no one living at a distance trom the
centre where it is determined should be severe
ly censured if ignorant of its present standard.
Viewed rationally, it is the most ephemeral of
modes; and under any but an historical aspect,
a< between the decisions of veracious profes
sors of it, those which were given last year
may be of no more value, in comparison with
those given this yearthan a superannuated al
manac. Bxcessive anxiety, or a habit of fini
cal and superpunctillious exactingness, as with
reference to dress, so with reference to pronun
ciation, is moreover, an unfailing index of
frivolity and little-mindedneßs. For the mt,
nowhere on earth, we suppose, is correct pro
nunciation necessarily a concomitant of good
breeding, except in so far as good breeding is
assumed to include good education. A. differ
ent opinion has of late been industriously pro
mulgated ; but we submit that it stands on
much the same footing with the transcendental
notion that the essence of gentlemanhood is
wholly irrespective of both knowledge and
morality. Pronounce as a man may, at any rate
let his attitude toward pronunciation be that of
common Bense, and free from an inflated ego
tism. Whether we exert ourselves or not, to
follow the English in their utterance of the lan
guage which we share with them, we shall
most assure Uy do well in deferring to their ex
ample of good natured tolerance of those
whose elocution is not exactly to their own
liking, and of checking a disposition, if it
should arise, to draw censorious deductions
from peculiarities whioh may perhaps be more
than compensated by merits we can ourselves
make no pretension to.
Our Clerk friends will please let us
know how to supply them with bound
copies of the Minutes.
Literature Secular Editorials Current Notes and News.
INDEX AND BAPTIST.
Publication Rooms—2l and 29 South-Broad Street
jSecular. Editorials.
OCR PCBLIC SCHOOLS.
Prof. Mallon, the efficient Superin
tendent of the Public Schools of this
city, has kindly furnished us the fol
lowing facts in regard to their present
status, which will, no doubt, prove
gratifying to the friends and patrons
of this excellent educational system :
There are now in operation eight
grammar schools, so located as to ac
commodate, conveniently, the entire
population of the city.
The number of pupils in attendance
at these schools this year will aggre
gate in the neighborhood of four thou
sand.
Three of the grammar schools are
devoted, exclusively, to the education
of colored children.
The teachers in these grammar
schools number fifty. Of these four
are males, and forty-six females.
Salaries of teachers range from S4OO
to S7OO, and are paid monthly.
There are two High Schools —male
and female.
The system is giving general satis
faction, and is a noble monument to
the wisdom, liberality and enterprising
spirit of the people, affording opportun
ity for education to every child in At
lanta, whether rich or poor, white or
colored.
During the four years that have
elapsed since the inauguration of our
educational plan, incalculable good has
been accomplished in the preparation
of at least 5,000 children for lives of
usefulness —many of whom would,
otherwise, have heen deprived of in
struction even in the rudimental
branches. It is impossible to contem
plate these benefits —particularly to
the poor—without a feeling of pride
and gratification, having in view not
only the blessings secured to the im
mediate beneficiaries, but the resulting
good to society at large.
Rev. D. W. Gwin, D.D. —The
Montgomery Advertiser and Mail, ot
last Sunday, says:
It is known that Dr. Gwin has received a
call to the First Baptist church, Atlanta,
Georgia, but whether he has accepted or de
clined, we are not infoimed. His people
and the community with whom he has been
connected for seve’n years, and by whom he
is so loved and respected, can hardly spare
such a useful and devoted pastor and fear
less minister. Besides, to sever his connec
tion with the different enterprises of his de
nomination in this State, which he so much
cherishes, and has at heart, and in the form
ation of which he Iras been greatly instru
mental, would indeed be a loss. It is hoped
that Providence may direct his steps, and
lead him to remain" in our community, so
that, his true piety and large and growing
usefulness may be had for tbe future history
of Montgomery.
It is understood that Dr. Gwin has
resigned the pastorate of the church in
Montgomery, and will come to At
lanta.
A BIG METHODIM QUARREL.
The New York correspondent of the
Philadelphia Ledger writes :
The Methodißt brethren in their East Cen
ference (over in Hanson Place, Brooklyn,)
worked themselves up into a stage of unusual
excitement, this morning, over the report of
the Committee on the Book Concern and Reli
gious Publications. Rev. Mr. Buckley, chair
man of that committee, criticised, with some
severity, the management of the Christian Ad
vocate and Journal , by Rev. Dr. Curry. The
treatment of men and measures by the latter, it
was alleged, had a tendency to diminish the
usefulness of llie paper. Dr. Curry, with some
agitation, denied that fie had attacked anybody
or anything, and thought that if the committee
were going to reflect upon him in this way they
ought to have notified him.
Rev. Mr. Buckley reiterated his accusation,
and declared that it was absurd for Dr. Curry
to deny that he had not attacked men right
and left. He particularly instanced the case of
Dr. Lanham, whom he (Dr. C.) had intimated
was insane; also attacking him in such a man
ner as to cause his poor old mother to think it
would ruin him forever. If he (Buckley) were
in the editor’s place he would sink dead in his
chair before he would get up there and cry for
quarter, after all he had said. [Cries of ‘Shame’
and hisses.] Mr. Buckley continued, amid
considerable confusion: “If I were in hie
place, and thought I was not able to stand it, I
would go and take a dose of quinine and nerve
myself up to it. [Hisses, and cries of
‘Shame!’] I would die in my seat.” [Great
confusion.]
A delegate rose to a point of order, but
Bishop Harris, who presides, said he had better
sit down again, as Mr. Buckley had a right to
reply to Dr. Curry. Tbe controversy was kep t
up until the adjournment, but it will be resumed
as the regular order to-morrow morniDg.
If there be a heavenly nature, there
must be a heavenly work.
ATLANTA, GA., APRIL 27, 1876.
UTEBm GOSSIP.
Henry W. Longfellow, Oliver Wen
dell Holmes, R. W. Emerson, and six
hundred other literary and scientific
gentlemen have petitioned Congress for
the admission, duty free, of all books
printed in other languages than the
English, Latin and Greek.
The Oxford University Press, which
lately published the “Smallest Bible,”
is now issuing the smallest Prayer Book
ever printed. It measures three and a
half inches in length, two and an
eighth in breadth, and a quarter of an
inch in thickness, and weighs barely an
ounce. It is printed on India paper,
and is a companion volume to the Bi
ble.
Some passages of Mr. Lanier’s Cen
tennial cantata read to the Nation “like
a communication from the spirit of Nat
Lee, rendered through a Bedlamite me
dium.” It is suggested that the suita
bleness of the work for the occasion
lies in its being a practical assertion of
emancipation from the ordinary laws of
sense and sound, melody and prosody.
In Scribner's, for May, we notice an
article, in verse, by Sidney and Cliffoid
Lanier, of Georgia, entitled “Uncle
Jim’s Baptist Revival Hymn.” We
presume the intention of the copart
ners in the authorship was, to write a
humorous poem in the negro dialect.
They have certainly failed. The piece
is simply “doggerel,” and an irreverent
mockery of a subject that should not
be tossed about in the musty chaff of
slang phraseology. We regret to see a
writer of Mr. Sidney Lanier's ac
knowledged high merit condescending
to lower the dignity of his muse, by in
dulging in slang sensational writing—
it is not his forte.
SHALL RELIGIOUS PROPERTY BE TAXED 7
[Frum the Atlanta Daily Commonwealth.]
This question is now brought pronii
nently forward in the form of discus
sion, and will, we think, find its solu
tion, for the present, in a general levy of
tax on all such property. Of course the
controversy will excite much feeling,
and, as usual in all cases of a similar
interest and kind, much bitterness.
This is very natural, and we must con
tent ourselves to see what is very nat
ural, while man himself has so much of
human nature in him. We see the Gen
eral, ex-Senator, ex-Secretary, ex-Gov
ernor, John A. Dix, has entered the
lists as one of the disputants in the de
bate, and he argues against the leviers
of this tribute to Caesar, very much in
the “ shoot him down on the spot ”
style. With much vehemence our war
like ex-General says : “ The subject of
taxing church property is not one that
should be included in the category of
those to be handled by human logic,
but is to be disposed of by the lights
of human instinct,of inborn reverence.”
It might sound somewhat ungenerous
to intimate that the brother of the
Rector of Trinity Church, New York,
representing the wealthiest religious
corporation in the United States, has
been influenced by any fellow feeling
or sectarian interests, in the part he
takes in this controversy. It is likely
enough that Gen. Dix, from deep re
ligious sensibility, expresses himself as
he feels, and with an earnestness that
is more vigorous than courtly, delivers
his views. We should not quarrel with
this either, but respect the sincerity
and lofty purpose which impels a man
to utter rough truth. For our part,we
think that this time Gen. Dix is right.
We believe, from motives of State in
terest and policy, if from no higher
motive, the property of the church
should be exempt from taxation. To
say the least, only those churches
should be made to bear the burden of
taxation, which are unquestionably
able to do so, out of surplus and un
employed capital. In this class of prop
erty we never should include church
edifices, let them be as costly as they
might be made. When the tax gatherer
is sent with compulsory process to levy
a tax for the State on the little which
a poor and struggling church may own,
we confess to a feeling of repugnance,
which struggles for expression in no
meek phrase. Rather than dispirit or
suppress one such church in this land,
we would, foi all time, let go free the
wealthiest and most bloated roll of pew
holders in the country. It is hard
enough to sustain the denominational
churches with all the appliances and
incentives which men can evoke. But,
if we add to the troubles which have
always oppressed the voluntary system
of church sustenation the burden of
taxation, we shall see ‘many an humble
chapel closed, or confiscated to the
State. When the government shall be
gin to be the proprietor of church
property, as it must do when it begins
to tax it, we should be treated to a
most summary union of Church and
State, and in a way we little expected.
GEORGIA NEWS.
—The Covington Library Associa
tion is now fu’.iy organized.
—Mr. Henry Gardner, of McDuffie
county, was tatally wounded with a
hoe, in the hands of a man named Da
vis.
—A Grange meeting will be held in
Rome on the 3d Saturday in May, for
the purpose of forming a County Coun
cil.
—The wheat crop in Etowah county
is very promising.
—Business in Savannah is very dull.
—A number of horse thieves are op
erating in Jackson county.
—There are forty persons provided
for in the Rome Alms House.
—There is now two night trains on
the Southwestern railroad.
—The Rome Grange will give a
basket picnic on the 3d Saturday in
May, at the fair grounds.
—Rev. Jefferson Milner, pastor of
the colored Baptist church in Rome>
baptized three sisteis, Sunday morn
ing, at the Fat Rock. He is said to be
a very faithful pastor, and much be
loved by his people.
—Rev. John Jones, of Atlansa, has
been called to the Presbyterian church
in Madison.
—Horse thieves are operating on a
large scale in Oglethorpe county.
—The lodges of Good Templars in
Ban<s are in a healthy, prosperous
condition.
—The Darien Gazette says :
There has heen another change made in
the schedule of the Macon & Brunswick R.
R , and parties coming to and going fro’m
this city, will have to remain at No. 1 all
night.
—The North Eastern railroad will
be in running order to Harmony Grove
next month.
—Col. Thos, Hardeman, of Macon
will deliver the annual address at the
commencement exercises of West
Point Female College, July sth.
—During the month ending on the
second Monday in April, there was not
a single misdemeanor ‘ committed in
Troup county.
—The lodges of Good Templars in
Bands are in a healthy, prosperous
condition. They have organized a
County Lodge.
—The wheat and (fall) oat crops
throughout this section are promising
in an extraordinary degree, says the
Forest (Johnson county) News.
—The shad fisheries on Tugalo and
Savannah rivers near Hartwell, have
been a failure this season, owing, it is
said, to high water and snow water.
—ln the Elberton Gazette's Hart
well department we find the following
suggestive item:
Twenty-one years ago, Rev. Henry Tyler
preached here in the old wooden courthouse.
Most of the men present had no no coats on,
and wore wool hats; the ladies wore calico
and sun bonnets. One old man, who seemed
very much affected, and had no handker
chief, walked nearly up to the pulpit, picked
up a piece of greasy newspaper, and wiped
his “weeping eyes.” To-day he preached
here in as large and comfortable a church
as there is in Northeast Georgia, and to as
elegantly dressed and well behaved congre
gation as can be found in the State.
—The dwelling of Mrs. McGehee,
widow of the late Rev. E. T. McGehee,
was burned near Henderson, Houston
county.
—A Young Men’s Prayer Meeting
Association has been organized in An
tioch.
—The Athens Watchman says :
We were informed in Carnesville last week
that a colored woman died in Franklin coun -
ty, in the month of March, 125 years old.
She left children over one hundred years
old.
—Mrs. Sukey Mingard, who died in
Franklin county recently, leaving a
numerous progeny, was born on the
4th of July, 1776, in Surrey county, N.
C., moved to East Tennessee, and af
terwards to Georgia. The old lady
lacked only four months of being, one
hundred years old.
Messrs. A. G. P. Dodge, Wm. Pitt
Eastman, Norman W. Dodge, W. W.
Ashburn, James Bishop, I. H. Russsell
and* Henry Neiman have made appli
cation to be incorporated as an asso
ciation under the name of the “East
man Hotel Company," with a capital
of $25,000, and the privilege of in
creasing the capital stock to $50,000.
—The Eatonton Messenger, of the
15th inst., contains the following:
Mr. Henry Hunnicut died on Monday
S3 A YEAR IN ADVANCE.
evening last at the poor House near Eaton
ton.
Mr. 11. was in his one hundredth year, and
was for many years an active citizen of Put
nam. His old ago came upon him, so that,
for several years, he was unable to care lor
himself, the reason the people of Putnam
cared for him. He was a zealous member
of the Baptist church for sixty years. His
remains were carried for interment to the
burial ground near the old factory site.
The editor of the Early County
News says:
From what we learn in conversation with
farmers, the supply of corn in Miller is tetter
than in Early, though not by any means a
full one. The oat crop at this time gives
promise of an abundant yield. Forward
oats are already heading out, and should no
disaster come upon this crop, the yield will
be an immense one, and the cry for corn, so
far as it may be needed for slock feed, will
cease within the next forty days. To provide
against another season of short supplies,
farmers, generally, in all this section are
planting, this spring, more corn and less cot
ton. This is sensible, and why they did not
adopt this plan years ago is a mystery,
knowing, as every observing man does know,
that the farmer who makes his supplies at
home is the one who prospers—the one who
pays his debts and always has something
over.
—Dahlonega is prospering.
—The Dahlonega Signal, of the 14th,
says:
The Rev. Joseph Porter, after preaching a
very able sirmon, at Macedonia church, in
this county, on Sunday last, came down out
of the pulpit, entreating his congregation to
flee from the wrath to come, by coming to
the altar, when he was suddenly stricken
down with palsy, from which he died on
Monday morning.
Mr. Porter is an old citizen of our county,
and lor many years has been a zealous pro
claimer of the blessed truth which blessed
hisjatter labors.
—The General Assembly of the
Southern Presbyterian church, will
meet in Savannah on the 18th of May.
The opening sermon will be preached at
the First Presbyterian church by the
Moderator, Rev. M. D. Hoge, D.D., of
Richmond, Virginia.
—Miss Rebecca Stephens, daughter
of the late Hon. Linton Stephens, was
married on the 18th inst., to R. H. Sal
ter, of Boston, at the Catholic church
in Sparta.
—The population of Sparta, is in-,
creasing rapidly.
—A little,son of Dr. J. T. Andrews,
of Powellton, was killed by the running
away of a pair of mules.
Music.—Probably very few of our readers
are aware of the fact that, although we bav
four music houses in this city, and many oth
ers in the State, there is only one exclusive
piano and organ dealer in the South, and that
he is located inthtscity. Being a practical musi
cian, and a business man of over twenty years
experience, he has learned to gtiage profits by
expenses.
Having moved to the spacious up stairs
store at No. 52 Whitehall street, and having
no partners, he has reduced his rent and ex
penses seventy-five per cent, which percen
tage be can now give to his customers. He
buys for cash. He adduces as proof of the state
ment that he can sell lower than any other
house, North or South; his proposition in
another column of this issue to sell elegant
new pianos for one hundred and ninety-seven
dollars, and the “Weber’' at
wholesale prices. We advise our patrons and
readers to call on, or write to, Mr. Guilford.
The Treasurer of the United States
has on hand nearly $20,000,000 in sil
ver coin
issued in redemption of fractional cur
rency, and not more than $30,000,000
will be redeem the existing
outstanding fractional currency, one
third of the *545,000,000 being un
doubtedly lost and destroyed.
The TreasuryjDepartmenl has pur
chased two months” supply of silver
bullion at the low rates which prevailed
a few weeks .ago, the average price
paid having been about three cents
per ounce less than the present market
rate. This stock, with the bullion
fund, will, it is believed, be sufficient
for the coinage untiljthe annual state
ment at the mints, waich will be made
in June.
Treasurer New wiil’|issue a circular
immediately, warning the country "that
the substitution of silver for fractional
currency will undoubtedly lead coun
terfeiters to put out spurious notes o f
the denomination of fifty and twenty
five cents. Asa number of these coun
terfeit plates are still in possession of
operators in the stuff, the public should
be warned that all the old issue extant
of the first four series will come to
light, and as but few of the genuine
notes are to be found in any one|locali
ty, the counterfeiters will the better be
able to successfully put out their stuff
and flood the countryjwith it.