Newspaper Page Text
The Christian Index.
TUB SOTJTH-WESTERN BAPTIST, • THE CPTPEISTILAISr PTBPEA^BID
or Alabama. . of Tennessee.
VOL 56—NO. 21.
Table of Contests.
Fibst Page.— Alabama Department: Record of
State Events; Remain at Home; Spirit of the
Religions Press; Baptist News and Notes;
The Missionary Field; General Denomination
al News.
Sxooxd Page.— Our Correspondents : Notes on
the Aot of Baptism—No. nviL—Appeal to the
New Testament —Is the meaning Immerse any
where Impossible ?—J. H. Kilpatrick; Mercer
University and its friends—R. W. Fuller; The
Bible—Poetry ; Our European Letter—J. B.
Chevis ; Reminiscences and Reflections—W.
N- Chaudoin.
Turin Page.— Our Pulpit : Missions—A Cry for
Men and Means —An Address by Rev. C. H.
Spurgeon. To the Churches and their Pas
tors in the Third General Meeting District of
the Western Missionary Baptist Association
—G. J. Goss. Select Miscellany ; The Geog
raphy of the War.
Fotnrrn Page.— Editorial: Baptized for the
Dead—Rev. 8. G. Hillyer. Needs Reform;
The Rome Mission; Sunday Desecration; A
Voice from 86uth Carolina; Disturbing Pub
lic Worship; State Missions; Georgia Baptist
News. Editorial Paragraphs.
Firrn Page — Secular Editorials : The Russian
Advance; Crop Report; The Franklin; Our
European Letter; An Old Instrument: Good
Selection; Personal; The News Editor; Gems
Beset; Georgia News; Domeetio and Foreign
News.
Sixth Page.— The Sunday-School : The Lamen
tation of Amos—Lesson for Sunday, June 3,
1877; An Acknowledgment—Jos. S. Baker;
Mission Department: Missionary Tour in
Southern Georgia—W. D. Atkinson ; News
from Tung Chow—Miss L. Moon; Will yon
Help us?—G. J. Thompson; Star of Peaoe—
Music.
Seventh Page —The Farm : Care of Harness;
Superphosphate ; The Southward Immigra
tion Fever; Reoipes.
Eighth Page. —The State Board of Health.
Baptized for the Dead—One who U not a
D.D. Obituaries. Advertisements.
INDEX AND BAPTIST.
ALABAMA DEPARTMENT.
Crop prospects are fine.
There are 100 pupils in Oxford college.
The fruit crop promises to be exceedingly
large. __ ___
Demopolis elected 1. 8. Harwell mayor.
Gen. E. W. Martin was elected mayor of
Evergreen.
Mr. Willingham, a pensioner of the war of
1812, died near Oxford.
The fruit crop is just as promising as can be
in Tallapoosa county.
The State Grange fair will beheld in Mont
gomery sometime in October.
\ —; v-
Sevcral sulphur springs have been opened
within a mile of Ashville.
The Stone Hill copper mines are shipping
weekly one car-load concentrated copper mat.
The churches at Athens, Bound Island and
Berea, Limestone county, are without pastors.
Rev. J. H. Hendon is to preach the com
mencement sermon of the Judson.
The new purchasers will soon put the Ala
bama and Chattanooga railroad in first-class
order.
The Episcopal ladiet of Eutaw gave an en
tertainment for church purposes on the 291 h
inst
The engineers of the South and North
road are surveying the route of the braDch con
nection from Elmore Station to Wetumpka.
A contract has been closed with Col. Cull
man, of Cullman, for an immense number of
cross-ties ior the Russian Government.
The medical association of Barbour county
has reorganized, and elec ed Dr. J. J. Winn
president, and Dr. W. P. Copeland secretary.
Hon. J. W. Samford, of Opelika, will de
liver the annual address before the literary so
cieties of the Howard during commencement
week.
The public examination at Howard College
begins Monday, June 4th ; baccalaureate ser
mon, Sunday, June > 10th ; commencement
day, Wednesday, June 13th.
The Governor offers a reward of $l6O for
the apprehension of James Mattison, negro,
of Randolph county, charged with the murder
of B. M. Alsebrook.
The Ministers’ and Deacons’ Meeting of the
Salem Association will hold its next session
with the church at Olustee, on Friday, before
the firet Sabbath in July.
The district meeting of the Salem Associ
ation, will be held with Bethlehem church, at
Hilliard’s Cross Roads, on Friday before the
6th Sunday in Jniy, instead of the 3d Sunday
as was published in the minutes.
The Governor offers a reward of S2OO for
the apprehension cf Wilson Harbin, negio, of
Morgan county, charged with the murder of
Henry Strauter.
An amateur concert given for the bene® of
the First Baptist church, Montgomery, was
a perfect gem, and highly appreciated by a
large and intelligent audience.
The Eureka Iron Company, of Oxmoor, Jef
ferson county, has sold the entire product of
their furnace, for the next two months, to the
Cambria Iron Works, of Johnstown, Pennsyl
vania.
REMAIN AT HOME.
A correspondent of the Columbus
Enquirer, writing from California,
says:
Nebraska,Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Neva
da and California are to-day full of men who
are suffering from inability to obtain work.
Nevada and California, 1 think, are more
overrun than the others, for here the whites
come into competition with the Chinese. From
the California line to a considerable distance
in Nebraska the country is a desert, where,
with a few exceptions, agriculture is impossi
ble, and men rely for work on the mines,
battling and chopping, and where there are
more workers than work much suffering must,
of course, and does exist.
To these, the laboring men, and to the
younc clerk, to those of no de'finite profession
or business, to all who have no cupital, I
would say, Qon’t go to that myth, the Black
Hills, to California, to the Northwest. Ib
the rich farming belt of Kansas and Nebraska,
the grasshoppers will eat you out, three years
out of four, and if you go to any other portion
of the country, you will find there a host who
are hunting the same thing you are—employ
ment.
The suffering iu California is fright
ful. The San Francisco correspond
ent of the New York Graphic writes:
‘•You have no idea of the terrible depres
sion on this c*ast. We are suffering from a
complication of disorders. The great min
ing bubble has bursted, and has ruined every
one. I mean this literally, for not only have
the rich or the middle class suffered, but the
mania for speculation has spread to the very
servants, and they are all to-day out of pocket
and in debt. Men who but three or four
months since supposed they were rich, are to
day begging for employment; and probably
three persons out of every four are now making
their first acquaintance with extreme poverty.
The whole community seems to be beggared,
and to add to our affliction we have just passed
through a great drought; our cattle are dying
by the hundreds of thousands. Their carcasses
cannot be sold for any sum, however small;
and the ruin of cattle dealers will inevitably
bring a great deal of the land now held in
masses into the market to be sold for a song.
Southern California is described as
an “ash heap,” while the Sonora, Sacra
mento and Sonora valleys are burnt to
a crißp. On one ranch alone 25,000
sheep were killed because they could
not be fed.
Leaving the South to go to these
States is simply folly. There is much
work to De done here, and a great many
men, young and old, are idle, notwith
standing.
Why leave the best agricultural,
mining anti manufacturing region of
the country to go anywhere ? In
Georgia, Alabama and other sections
of the South, health, rich lands, good
coal, pure water and agreeable society
abound.
Take warning, young men, and work
out your destiny at home.
Eev. J. J. D. Renfroe and his most
excellent wife, are called again to go
down into the deep waters of affliction.
Scarcely had their hearts somewhat
ceased to grieve over the loss of a grown
daughter, than now they are called upon
to give up their beloved son, Curry, in
the prime of manhood, at eighteen
years of age. Curry was a student of
Howard College—a most exemplary
young man. His friends are not with
out good hope of his having gone into
eternal rest. To his afflicted father
and mother we extend our fraternal
sympathy.
Sunday Schools. —“The Methodists,
in their recent unification convention
at Baltimore, adopted a resolution
making it the duty of a pastor to es
tablish a Sunday-school in his congre
gation. The neglect may be a bar to
passage of delinquent pastors' official
character at the ensuing annual Con
ference, and a sufficient cause for re
moval from the church.’’
Our Methodist brethren seem to un
derstand the value and importance of
Sunday Schools thoroughly. Every
intelligent pastor must appreciate the
good influence of such an auxiliary to
his church, and feel its powerful influ*
ence. We are glad to see such a pow
erful organization as the one represent
ed in Baltimore taking hold of the
matter with a firm hand—the effect of
such a measure can not be otherwise
than salutary upon religious progress.
The meeting of the fourth district of the
Salem Association will be held with Olustee
church, at Briar Hill, on Friday before the
first Sabbath in July.
Dr. J. B. Hawthorne will deliver the Com
mencement Sermons before the Agricultural
and Mechanical College, Auburn, and the
Alabama Central Female College at Tusca
loosa.
The fruit crop of Calhoun county is unusually
promising.
FRANKLIN PRINTING ROUSE, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, MAY 81, 1877.
Spirit of the Religious Press.
—Upon the important theme of “What to
Preach,” the National Repository levels these
well-timed and vigorous blows at the skeptical
and atheisiical tendency of the times :
Associated with such full and explicit dec
larations of the personality and the character
ol God, should he a vigorous restatement of
Hi 6 intimate connection with all that He has
made. The prevalent use of language by
omitting all references to the great First Cause,
in speaking of natural events, has induced In
the popular mind an unwholesome method of
thinking. It may not be according to the rules
of scientific statements to refer the movements
of the winds and waves to the power of tbje
Almighty, or the flight of the birds of passage
to His wisdom, or the course of the “pestilence
that walketh in darkness” to His judgments,
and yet it may be quite as correct, philosophi
cally, as the meaningless prattle that refers all
these things to “law.” The language of the
Bible leaves the scepter of universal nature
where it belongs—in the hands of the infinite
Creator and Upholder. The mechanical theory
of the universe, which, however, fails to find
for it the needed Motoh, is as false to philos
ophy as it is contradictory to the revelations ol
himself by the Most High God. These glo
rious truths so patent upon the face of the
Scriptures, should not be permitted to suffer
eclipse through the misleadings of popular or
scientific language. The pulpit mußt proclaim
it in the hearing of the people, and every
where Ch -istian people should recognise and
confess the divine presence and power in the
affairs of nature and ol man. It is somewhat
remarkable that those who, in order to favor
an extreme ecclesiasticism, would shut out the
common people from the use of the Bible, find
an ally in the scientific atheism of the day,'
because, forsooth, the language of the Bible is
not scientific in its form, and its statements of.
the relations of God to nature are not those em
ployed by our wise savants. The pulpit is
bound, by its fidelity to its own high mission,
to endeavor to correct this tendency produced
by scientific atheism, by emphatic and reiter
ated presentations of the doctrines of the
divine providence, and of God’s perpetuated
presence in all His works.
—The Churchman has this paragraph :
“There is a strong, tendency in all cities to es
tablish huge preaching places and concert
rooms to the utter neglect of everything else.
Wherever Che crowd ia reputed to go there
will always be plenty of followers. This ia
partly due to that wonderful American weak
ness under which, as the Frenchman said oi
this country, “everything must be done in a
quarter of an hour.” The business of Being
converted must be got over as soon as possible.
The greatest economy oi tins and material
most be used.
r^Nt—Con?meDting on the cause and prohaw
1 results or the Var in EunSpe, me
lucidly says :
Russia declared war against Tnrkev on the
pretext of compelling protection to Christians
in the Ottomon Empire. We say on the pre
text, and we think that those who are acquain
ted with the history of the two empires will
consent that we use the term correctly. It is
next to impossible to accord the credit of great
sincerity to Russia in making war on any such
grounds. And we must confess our surprise
and deep mortification, that already prayerß
have been offered from American pulpits in
behalf of the Russian army in Turkey, on the
ground that the former invades the latter in
the interest of down-trodden and oppressed
Christianity. If such were Russia’s retl
reasons for her war on Turkey, such prayers
would still be improper, for the weapons of
Christian warfare are not carnal. Jesus Christ
does not command the sword as a means for
propagating and defending His cause in the
earth.
We do not believe that the war on Turkev
is in any sense for the protection or promotion
of Christianity or Christians; on the other
hand, we do believe that it is the outgrowth of
ambition, avarice aud old national jealousy.
Several times, in the past history of these two
neighboring powers, have they been at wai.
There has never been anything more than a
conventional and heartless peace existing be
tween them. The present generation of Rus
sians have grown up in the atmosphere of
hatred and contempt for Turkey, and the lat
ter has cordially reciprocated the sentiment.
Russia ban ulterior designs upon Turkey,
which the future will develop. These designs
are such as national pride and avarice
suggest, and look to acquisition of domain, the
obtaining of tribute and the increase of nation
al power.
—The Central Baptist is cutting, caustic,
concise, calorical, etc., etc., in the following
facile paragraphical point :
They gay there is such a thing as jealousy
among preachers. We are quite sure some
things come to light now and then which
rather tend to prove that “They say” is, tor
once, right. Not only do some say, “we are
of Paul, and some of Apollos, and some of
Cephas,” but Paul, Apollos and Cephas
themselves get the same spirit in them that is
in the people, and then come divisions and
strifes, sure enough. This is a shame, a scan
dal, to the ministry. We have no words
strong enough to'show how V'lethat miserable
■in is, which makes a minister seek to lift
himself up by misrepresenting, speaking evil
of, and palling down his brother minister.
—Says an exchange:
When we take up this Bible let us bear in
mind that it is true. Nevertheless, hundreds
of men tftl us that it is not. Let us just bear j
in mind that the Woid of Go.l is true, and
that we can rely upon it. It has been written
by and iflerent men covering over tbe space of 1
1,600 years ; but you will find the same doc- j
trine taught in Genesis that you will in Keve- ,
lation. You will find the same spirit in J
Exodus that you will in the EpiHtle to the
Romans. It is not two different books. It is
one book written by one hand—by holy men, i
who speak as if they were moved by the Holy \
Ghost. Nature has been the same all these
ages, and sin has-been the sameal. these years.
Man by nature has been the same all tnesc
years —been corrupt by nature. Grace has
been the same; God has been the same God of
Love all these 6,000 years. So, when we take
a
up this work, although it has been written by
different classes of men ; men high and low,
for though Moses had all the education of the
Egyptians, yet Cod took him off forty years,
and put him jn the desert in Horeb. He wrote
the first five books of the Bible; yet we find that
Amos wrote also, and be was taken from a
sheepfold. We find that Peter wrote as
sweetly as any one, yet he was a simple fisher
man, and so with John, Paul and the resi of
them. There was no conflict between them
asd Moses, although hundreds of years inter
vened between the period of their writings.
There is no difference. They wrote this book.
'And when we take it up, let ns bear in mind
that is true.
BAPTIST NEWS AND NOTES.
—Rev. W. J. Alexander has resigned the
pastorate of the church at Edgefield, South
Carolina, and is now pastor of the Baptist
church in Darlington, South Carolina.
• —The report on Kind Words, read before the
Southern Baptist Convention at New Orleans,
shows that this favorite publication has a cir
culation of nearly 200,000 copies. The report
earnestly indorses the present management of
the paper, and recommends the churches of our
Convention to give it the hearty support which
it needs and deserves. Brother Boykin, the
editor, spoke in explanation of the aims of the
paper, stating, too, that he had the satisfaction
of feeling that he was by his work doing good
to the young people of the Southern country.
Dr. Hillyer made an earnest speech in sup
port of the paper. He referred to the baneful
influence of a large amount of modern publi
frations, and said of Kind Words: “Brethren,
this is a little bit of a paper, but it comes to us
enbalmed with the purity ot Heaven.” He
urged upon pastors that it is their duty
to make special exertion to introduce this pa
■ptr in our Southern churches. Dr. Landrum
also spoke in.high commendation of the paper.
—At a lecent conference of ministers in
"New York, Dr. Hiscox read a very erudite es
say on "ordination.” In thiß essay it was
maintained that ordination in the New Testa
ment generally means appointment, and in no
case a ceremonial induction to office; that the
right of ordination is in the ahurch, and that
a church is complete in itseli, and not depend
ent on the officials of any other church to sanc
tion its appointments to office.
—Arrangements have been made by the
English Baptists for the erection on the site of
Puden’s palace in Rome, Italy,' of a chapel
and ministers’ house for Big. Grassi. Puden’s
palace is the spot where tradition places the
tflt-iience of Peter.
Vi ' Rev. A. M. Newman, a colored Baptist
'j , „ *vr. in the 8 (jtthern Bsp
i list Convention, and when the report on mis
sions among the colored people waß under con
sideration he was invited to speak, liis
Bpeech was sensible and well received. Indeed,
it produced a real sensation; and when his
time expired, he was, by a united vote, request
ed to go on with his address.
—There are 220 students in the Southwes
tern Baptist University.
—The Baptist women of the North have
raised nearly as much money for Foreign Mis
sions as all the Baptists of the South during
the past year. /
—The brethren in South Carolina propose
to put Dr. D M. Breaker in the field as Sun
day-school evangelist. A writer in tne Work
ing Christian says : “I understand his services
can be secured without salary, as he finds no
difficulty in getting along upon the voluntary
contributions of the people.’’
—Kansas Baptist Stale Convention will con
vene in the city of Topeka, Friday, June Bth,
1878.
—Baptist principles are taking root in Scot
land. On the north side of the river Tweed,
the number f Baptistchurches has greatly in
creased of late.
The Cristian Index —Among our most
valued and welcome exchanges is the Chris
tian Index, It bears the impress of marked
ability and genuine religi >ue fervor in all
itseditorials. Under tbe management of
that erudite and liberal minded man, Rev.
David E. Butler, it has attained general pop
ularity not onlv among the Baptists, but with
a large list of subscribers who, apart from de
nominational interests, wish to keep up with
the current news aud best literature of the day,
and to provide for their families a weekly pa
per whose influence will be felt, and which
they can place in the hands of their children
without scanning every item to see if anything
improper has crept into its columns.
Associated with Mr. Butler is Dr. James
Stonev Lawton, in whom is combined the
brightest attributes ol the Christian, the gentle
man and the scholar—a man whose zeal in
the cause of ohrist; whose liberality of senti
ment, gentleness ‘and strength of character,
win and fasten the regard of all who come
within reach of his influence.
We would like to see the subscription list
of the Index largely extended. Surely it
shonld be a welcome friend in the family of at
least every Baptist to the remotest boundaries
of the Suite.
It is published by James P. Harrison & Cos.,
of Atlanta, whose earnest and successful en
deavors to build up and sustain an excellent
religious paper, deserves the approval and co
operation of all their brethren. — Gainesville
Eagle.
Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly.—
The June number of this favorite magazine
contains a number of highly interesting and
well-illustrated articles. Among the many,
are tbe following: “ African Explorers and
Explorations,” by Allred H. Guernsey : “A
Journey from Nuevitas to Havana,” by Piron ;
‘ Forest Industrie?,” by Professor Joy, in
which we see and learn all about the proJuc-
tion of maple sugar; “ How to keep a Hotel,’’
by which we are initiated into tbe workings
of the inner mysteries of the hotel world.
Among the many beautiful stories found at
intervals throughout the 128 pages, we find
“ Bond and Free,” by Eli Perkins; “Mark
son’s House,” by the author of “ Helen’s
Babies.” We count nearly 100 illustrations,
and numerous anecdotes, notes of travel, scien
tific paragraphs, short poems, eta., which com
plete the number. On the cover facts and
figures are given which certainly prove, that
Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly and Sunday Mag
azine are tbe cheapest monthlies puplished in
the World. The former may be had free, by
mail, for $2.50, and the Sunday Magazine for
$3 per annum, by addressing Frank Leslie’s
Publishing House, 637 Pearl Street, New
York. _
Sometimes the preacher, if warm in
his subject, is charged with enthusi
asm ; but if the fire of enthusiasm
burns anywhere, it should be in the
pulpit. Baxter says: “ Nothing is
more indecent than a dead preacher
speaking to dead sinners tbe living
truths of the living God.” Bridges
remarks of the preaching of Whitfield:
“It was the expression of hia whole
soul portrayed in his countenance, the
solemnity of address pud deep feeling
from within bursting through at every
pore, streaming in his eyes, and breath
ing in energy of love throughout the
effusions of his overflowing heart, that
convinced the listening throngs that he
was not trifling with them.”
Christians should both watch and
work. They should watch, for they
know not the hour. They should work,
for the day is far spent, and the night
is at hand. Earth has its calls to duty,
aud Heaven will chide us if we do not
heed them. Let us go to watch and
pray in the upper room—to receive
power from on high—to be Christ’s
witnesses "in earth, to work for Him,
speak for Him, and if necessary, die
for Him.
The Missionary Field,
; fifty-eighth annual report ol the Mis
siduary oi 4f,e HfiWiiffSfc.v F.;-4f*l>sl
church, for the year 1876, gives the felj/wing
statistics: Foreign missionaries and assis
tants, 207; native preachers, 240; local preach
ers, exhorters and teachers, 782 ; missionaries
and assistants in Territories, 16; missionaries
to foreign population in the United States,
2258; total missionaries, 3790. The summa
ry ot members is: In Africa, 2200 members,
244 probationers; South America, 307 mem
bers, 143 probationers; China, 1317 members,
616 probationers; Germany and Switzerland,
7960 members 2264 probationers; Denmark,
521 members 127 probationers; Norway,
2186 members, 613 probationers; Sweden,
4136 members, 1527 probationers ; India, 2460
members, 1204 probationers; Bulgaria, 50
members, 27 probationers ; Japan 43 members,
30 probationers, Meiico 126 members,
390 probationers: Italy, 774 members,
1b62 probationers ; total foreign, 22,119
members, 7346 probationers. In New Mex
ico and Arizona, 219 members, 28 probation
ers; In the Welsh, German, Scandinavian,
Chinese and American Indian Domestic Mis
sions, 60,447 members, 7372 probationers.
—Tbe following passage from a recent
book, “Prayingand Working,” by Rev. W.
F. Stevenson, is well worthy of the attention
of Christians in our own country :
“In Germany the conception of Home
Mission is wider and profounder than here.
The name Inner Mission suggests that it ia the
mission of the church within its own bounds,
and to every aspect of social life in a Chris
tian land. Such questions as are here
thrown over upon congresses for social science
and philanthropists—of any shade of belief, or
unbelief—are there considered peculiary
Christian questions, affecting the well-being
being of the church of Christ, to be handled by
Christian men rather than any other. The
social aspects of the large towns and rural dis
tricts ; the condition of the laborer and the ar
tisan ; prisons, and the bearing of crime and
punishment; reformatories; the help and re
covery df outcast women , the care and nurs
ing of the sick; the employment and sphere
of Christian woman, —these and kindred top
ics come within the province of tbe Inner Mis
sion. .. .No more important movements have
been begun ia the modern church ; none more
absolutely wanted, more carefully executed,
more healthy and wise.”
—Quoth The Methodist. “ The millennium
will not come for talking about it. ‘Lo Here I’
will not bring it. Nor is the fashionable prac
tice of inverting Scripture order, by caring
little for our neighbors, and much for distant
folks, the road to ‘heaven on earth.’ ”
To which the Watchman replies: “ What
denomination contributes a tenth part as
much for the spiritual benefit ol ‘distant folks’
as for themselves and their neighbors ? Sum
ming up the expenses of the several churches
in New York city alone, together with the
city missions, theological seminaries, etc., we
think it can hardly be doubted that religion
work lor that one city, absorbs more money
than is expended for the conversion oi four
hundred millions of Chinese.
WHOLE NO. 2271.
General Denominational Ness,
—The Southern Presbyterian Assembly in
session at New Orleans, forwarded the follow
ing telegram to the Northern Presbyterian As
sembly in session at Chicago : “The Southern
Assembly disapprove of that part of the North
ern Assembly’s greeting which omits any ref
erence to the main part of their paper sent to
Brooklyn from Savannah, and says if our
brothers of the Northern church can meet ns on
those terms which truth and righteousness
seem to us to require, then we are ready to es
tablish such relations with them during tbe
present session of the Assembly.”
—The next meeting of the Methodist Prot
estant Convention will be held in Pittsburgh.
—Mrs. Phoebe A. Hanaford has been en
gaged for five years as pastor of the Second
Universalist church, Jersey City.
—An English "Establishment” organ lachry
mosely draws the following picture of what
would ensue were disestablishment successful;
"Disestablishment in England means the dis
solution of order in the church, and a revolu
tion in the State. It means rending asun
der the noblest church polity the world has
ever seen, and setting up a reign of schism. It
means the extinction of Christianity in many
parts of this land as completely as in the Seven
Churches of Asia. It means the loss of souls
by thousands, and the poisoniug of the wells of
education, and the giving over the masses to
all uncleanness of living.
—The Rev. A. B. Woodfln, having been *
chosen chaplain of the University of Virginia ,
has resigned his charge at Colnmbia, South
Carolina.
—The Jesuit, Dr. Weninger, is about to an
swer Secretary Thompson’s book on the Pa
pacy.
—The Free Church of Scotland has now
more than one thousand ministers. It started
with under five hundred, so that in thirty-four
years it has doubled itself.
—On the 3d of April, the Rev, Dr, James
Ingram, minister of the Free Church, Unst,
reached his one hundred and third year. He
was ordained in 1803.
—The average length of the pastorates in
the Congregational Church is from four to five
years.
—The two Northern Methodist Confer
ences in Missouri report a total of 27,831—a
decrease of 274. The St. Louis Conference
has lost 792 members, and 24 probationers
during the year.
j -The Refe-Wd Dutch, report that the re
,, k&L-i' Ejp'igr '*-• ~
sions will be about $57,812.655, of which about ‘
$15,000 have come from legacies, and • $42,-
942.63 from contributions. The receipts of
the last year were $04,342.91, of which sll,-
166.05 were from legacies, and $53,176.86
from contributions. The year just closed
shows a falling off in contributions of $10,234.
For tbe Index and Baptist.j
LETTER FROM FLORIDA.
Banana, Fla., May 17, 1877.
Dear Index— The Mt. Arnon Bap
tist Chucrh of which I wrote, somtime
since, hag received in all fifty-seven
accessions since the revival began in
Mareh. Bro. Hughs, the pastor, has
been employed as a missionary in the
Alachua Association for half the time,
and he engaged recently in a meeting
with the Fort McCoy church, in which
fifteen were added to the church.
The Wacasassa Union convened
with the Pine Grove church, Levy
county, Friday before the fifth Sun
day in April. It was qnite an inter
esting meeting. Three united with
the church, among them a licensed
Methodist preacher.
The errors of Campbellism have been
inculcated in the neighborhood very
strongly, and many have been ensnared
in the false doctrine of baptismal re
generation and accompanying errors,
to the detriment of the spread of the
truth, but Rev. S. Sheffield stood al
most alone for several years, and fought
as a true soldier of the Cross this
false doctrine, and has been blessed so
much in the refutation that some
have already been reclaimed, and, al
though the Campbellite champion of
East Floiida, Dr. Mason, lives in this
vicinity, there is a fair prospect for
this false system of Christianity to fall
to the ground, and its adherents will
return to the true faith.
G. W. Hall.
Helena is prospering. At present, at the
lowest calculation, there are 400 hands em
ployed by the several companies representing
the different industries, and the prospect is
that the number of employes will be consider
ably increased. The rolling mill, the coal
mines, the coke ovens, etc., present pictures of
busy, active life.
The Selma Baptist church passed a resolu
tion thanking Mrs. M. C. Hunter, and those
who assisted her, for their services in the recent
entertainment at the Opera House for the ben
efit of the church.
The meeting of the First District of the Al
abama Association will meet with Concord
church, in Perry county, on Friday before the
fifth Sunday in July.