Newspaper Page Text
,T he Christian Index.
VOL. SI— NO. 2.
■ Table of Contents.
FFIMt Page.—Alabama Department: Divine
I' 1 ®™*”dence, General and Special; Alabama
1/1 ?J. , at Home and Abroad; State
r i af’aaiou Board of the Alabama Conference.
1 The Religions Press.
Becosd Pace.—Correspondence: One thing
. at a Time—G. A. N.; A New Year’s Ad
t t'TT T Boykin; Songs in the Night
fl n, ’ K-l Ete liity- Eternal—Everlasting—
I B. Coop ar. The Sunday-School: The
Builders Interrupted— Lesson for January
,1 26tb; The Reading of the Law—Lesson
ft .tor February 2d, 1879. Church Resolu
tions.
Lin Page.—The Household: What is a
Steer?— Poetry; Give us Manly Boys, not
Wish Men ; The Greatest Work; The
wonderful Gift—Poetry; Preserving Meats,
M etc
'Fourth Page —Editorial: Moral Rwump
tion ; Hard Times ; Polygamy ; A Voice
from the Past; Mercer University (Select
ed;) Why We Fight the Bible—Baptist Re
flector ; Mission to the Churches in Cali
fornia; Foreign Missions; etc.
Fifth Page.—Secular Editorial: Paragraphs;
Items of News; Literary Notes and t’om
metita; Georgia News; Georgia Baptist
News; etc.
Sixth Paoe.-Our Pulpit: The Strait Gate,
or Difficulties—Sermon by Rev. J. M. Phil
lips, Chattanooga, Tennessee. Obituaries.
New Advertisements.
(Sevehth Page.—Childrens’ Corner : Snow
[Fairies —Poetry; Crooked Tracks; About
the Ijike; What Lou Did; Playing Noah’s
Ark-a Poetry.
jfl Eighth Page.—Florida Department: Fiori-
I da News; Letter from Ocala; Florida Bap
fl tist News; Alachua Association; To Our
■> Subscribers; The Portrait Gallery ; Pay
■. Promptly, etc.
'/The Christian Index,
fc—— ~~ ' 2:
g'ALABAMA DEPARTMENT.
BYSAMUEL HENDERSON
PROVIDENCE, GENERAL
t , AND SPECIAL.
fte extremes of prosperity and ad
ity are quite apt to unsettle our
in an overruling Providence, un
j 'esg we are pretty thoroughly “rooted
and grounded in the truth.” In pros
l ferity we are apt to impute our suc
cesses to our own industry and sagac
ity. In adversity we are about as apt
3) suppose that there is no divine su
ervision over human affairs—that if
I [here be a God, he has abandoned the
jbVorld to an inexorable law that we
H ta fate. Now, we think it proper at
■ ®es to reassert a doctrine which, al
ridiculed by the mere philoso-
IjMßrriiUKltiom-l by the nominal Chris
■ Wan, and too lightly esteemed by the
pious, is nevertheless taught
I most specifically in the Word of God,
I and has ever been esteemed by the
I wise and good as one of the most
I precious truths that can animate our
filth.
In discussing this subject, it is nec
essary to classify the operations of the
j Divine hand into primary and second
ly events of providence. There is
certainly an obvious distinction be
tween those which are certain and
fixed, and those which are contingent.
r To the first classification belong the
uniform operation of natural law, such
as the succession of day and night—
the seasons of the year, and the like.
To the second belong those events
which depend upon other known agen
cies. such as prosperity and adversity
-—sickness and health, etc. In the
first aspect of Providence, His ways
■■" are so uniform and fixed that we are
not concerned about them, only to ad
just our plans to their uniformity.
But in regard to the second, those
which are contingent, we can predi
cate no settled calculations. No man
can say when he shall be sick or well,
how long he will live or when he will
die. what shall be the issue of this,
that, or the other enterprise. What
we affirm i< this, that the same God
that presides over those higher laws of
nature, that are so uniform in their
(Iterations, presides with equal author
lity over every event that we call con
tingent or accidental, so that the regu
larity of the movements in the heav
enly bodies, the uniform succession of
Lays, nights and seasons, do not more
Certainly ‘‘declare the glory of God”
than do the "all things that work togeth-
Tfir for good ft them that love him t”
that what appears to human eyes to be
nought hut conAupion and anarchy,
viewed from the llr-inal, Throne, are but
His marshalled hosts, executing his
will with the utmost exactness: in one
word, that “he worketh all things af
ter the counsel of His own will.” “The
lot is cast into the lap, but the whole
disposing of it is of the Lord.” Men’s
motives and conduct may t>e as they
may, the divine purposes will be
achieved. Nay, He nuiketh even “the
wrath of man to praise Him, and the
remainder of wrath He restrains.”
Much confusion on this subject has
originated by confounding things that
differ. Many persons have placed
special providences in the same cate
gory with miracles, and as the days
of miracles have ceased, they conclude
the same of these providences. Let
us define the terms, and then we shall
lie the better able to discriminate
■between them. By a miracle we under
stand the direct intervention of divine
THE SOUTH-WESTERN' BAPTiaT,
of Alabama.
power, superceding or suspending for
the time being the common course of
events—the doing of that thing which
surpasses all the forces and agencies of
nature. By a special providence we
understand the intervention of the
same power operating through the
physical laws and agencies of the world. '
In the one instance those physical
laws and agencies are suspended
for the . purpose of manifesting a
higher authority in the other, those
law’s and agencies themselves become
the means of executing His will and
pleasure.
But as fact is always better than ar
gument, at the risk of being a little te
dious, we will offer an illustration or
two to exemplify onr doctrine. Take
the grievous affliction denounced by
the Lord against the family .of David,
for his criminal conduct towards Uriah.
“The sword shall never depart from
their house.” " How’ was this threat ex
ecuted? By just such an adjustment
of events by the determining hand of I
God as have operated on the human
mind in the same way perhaps a thou- i
sand times. Amnon trespassess against
nature in respect to his half-sister, Ta
mar—Absalom, the full brother of Ta
mar, out of revenge, murders Amnon.
For this, Absalom is banished from the
realm, but the offense was looked upon
by the populace as justifiable; hen&e
he carried with him the sympathies of >
his people. At the intercession of the ,
“wise woman of Tekoah,” the banished i
son is recalled, but with the stern in- '
terdict that he must not appear in the ’
presence of his father for two whole .
years. This still further excited the
popular sympathy for him. He im
proves his opportunity by “stealing the
hearts of the people,” giving it out that
if he were in authority, he would ■
redress their grievances. Clandestine- j
ly appointing Hebron as the place for
his followers to meet, and under the
pretext of paying a vow, he goes down
to that city—unfurls the banner of the
rebellion that ended so disastrously to
him. Thus, as Carson expresses it,
“every part of the sentence is executed 1
against David without a miracle and
yet God’s hand is as patent in the whole
concatenation of events, as when
He smote the first-born of the Egyptians.
Or take the human agencies employed
in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ,
the grandest event recorded in divine ,
history, an event that fulfilled a line of
prophecy that ran through four thou
sand years. Every man who acted a
part in that tragedy did it in obedience
to just such motives as act upon men
in innumerable instances—avarice, en
vy, prejudice, and fear. Envy, preju
dice and malice formed the com
bination against Him—avarice sup
plied the betrayer—the like passions !
suborned the witnesses—the want of .
firmness coupled with fear evoked the [
verdict—and the wrath of the multi- 1
tude hounded on the soldiers who ex
ecuted it. The whole scene was enact
ed by parties who yielded to such influ-'
ences as have been in operation upon |
the human heart in all ages, and yet
all of this was designed to fulfill the [
grandest purpose of mercy on the part
of God ever revealed in the history of!
the universe. “Him being delivered by [
the determinate counsel and foreknowl- !
edge of God, ye have taken, and by
wicked handshave crucified and slain.” '
The purposes of God were just as effect-!
ually carried out in all their details as 1
if angels had been the actors instead of j
men.
Multitudes of similar instances could
be given, but these are sufficient to fur
nish the key by which to interpret di
vine providence upon the broadest
scale. How often have our most cher
ished plans and purposes been thwarted
by a sudden turn in our affairs for which
we could not account? How often is
the wise counsel of some Ahithophel,
(for his counsel was wise,) been set
aside by the boldest folly ever practiced
upon human credulity? And how often
has every Christian, after the humilia
tion of disappointment has passed
away, and he (mines to view things
from a higher standpoint, had infinite
cause to bless Almighty God, that he
did not have his way—that God inter
posed and saved him from a folly that
might have ended disastrously? What
n comfort to know that “like as a fath
er pityeth His children, so the Lord
pityeth them that fear Him!”—that
He busies Himself in everything that
concerns our welfare—that no event is
too small to escape His eye—that the
"very hairs of our head are numbered”
—that our “footsteps are ordered of the
Lord”—that as little a matter as the
“dashing of a foot against a stone”
comes under His inspection! Can the
human mind conceive of a scene more
sad, more dreary and gloomy, than a
universe without God?—an ever-living,
ever-present Creator and Preserver,
the impress of whose hand is seen and
felt in all human events!
—Rev. J. A. Ivey is sojourning in
Macon. Brother Ivey is a brother of
Rev. B. H. Ivey, pastor of the South
Macon Baptist church.
FRANKLIN PRINTING HOUSE, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, JANUARY 16, 1879.
ALABAMA MINISTERS, AT HOME
AND ABROAD.
State pride, exercised within proper
limits, is not only harmless but com
mendable. It seems as a kindly stim
ulant to its citizenship to preserve its
status in the sisterhood of States. And
when this pride assumes a religious or
denominational aspect, it is not the
less praiseworthy. When great and
good names shall cease to be cherished
by us with lively emotions, we shall
cease to be the worthy custodians of
one of the highest trusts that can be
committed to any people.
We greatly enjoyed the reading of
an editorial in the Religious Herald re
cently, alluding to the contributions of
Virginia to the Baptist ministry of the
country at large ; and certainly the roll
is an honorable one—one which the
Herald did nothing more than its duty
in recording. But it set us to thinking
what our own State, Alabama, had
done in this respect. We do not pre
tend to compare our State to “Old Vir
ginia” in this matter, but we do say,
that Alabama need not be ashamed of
the ministers she has sent abroad, or of
those who remain in her borders.
Recognizing those who have either
been educated, or reached their high
est point of efficiency in our State, as
properly constituting our contributions
to the cause, we feel an honest pride in
running over the worthy list. For in
stance, there are Drs. Manly and Bat
tle, Presidents of two of the most prom
inent institutions of learning in the
South—Georgetown College of Ken
tucky, and Mercer University of Geor
gia. Dr. J. L. M. Curry, of Richmond
College, and Dr. C. Manly, of Staunton,
■Virginia—Drs. DeVotie and Mays,at the
head of the State Mission Boards of
Georgia and Tennessee—Drs. Tallierd,
Chambliss and Holman of Missouri—
Howard, Law, Peebles, Stanton, and
w’e know not how’ many more, of Tex
as—to say nothing of a younger in
stallment of such men as Crumpton,
Stout, Battle, etc.—Now, is not this a
list not to be despised? If by some
common impulse, all these brethren
could be drawn together at some meet
ing of our State Convention, would not
that occasion be worth attending?
And if we had them all back and per
manently located in our State, what
an impulse would it give to our effi
ciency? But this is not among the
possibilities. They are all lalioringjust
as effectively in the Master’s Vineyard
as if they were here. We bid them
God—speed assuring them that their
names are still affectionately cherished
by their old State. It is something to
say that, notwithstanding all these
abatements—their immense drain upon
our ministerial force, the Baptist pul
pit of Alabama has never been more
able, more influential than it is to-day.
Indeed, considering all the elements of
efficiency that make the pulpit what it
ought to be, it is stronger in our State
now, than at any period in the past.
Somehow it seems to be a part of the
divine economy in this, as in other
things, that the more we give to others,
the more we have for ourselves.
STATE MISSION BOARD OF THE
ALABAMA CONVENTION.
On Tuesday, the 7th of January inst.,
we attended the first quarterly meeting
of this Board, for the new year, at Tal
ladega. Our Corresponding Secretary,
brother Baily, was present, with re
ports from our State Missionaries, eight
in number, from which we were grati
fied to learn that the most encouraging
success has attended their labors, and
that the outlook for the future was
never more auspicious. The zeal and
assiduity which they bring to the ser
vice, are all that could be demanded.
Adequate provision has been made to
meet their salaries, provided the
churches and associations redeem their
pledges, and this we cannot doubt.
Our greatest difficulty, as a Board, is
to secure the prompt and adequate
payment of the salary of our laborious
and efficient Secretary. We hope our
brethren will realize that this great
building cannot go up, unless we see
to it that we have substantial scaffold
ing. Fail to support our worthy Secre
tary, whose business it is to look after
the salaries of our missionaries, and the
whole work comes to a dead-lock.
Brethren, this must not be done! We
must come up to his support in g<sal
earnest. To pause, to hesitate, would
be a disaster, which it would take years
to retrieve. The Board is anxious to
hear from all who are pledged to pay
his salary, and that at an early day.
A NEW' FEATURE
was presented to the consideration <»f
the Board, and after it was discussed, a
resolution was passed instructing the
President of the Board, Dr. Renfroe, to
open a correspondence with the proper
authorities of the American Baptist Pub
lication Society, at Philadelphia, to as
certain on what terms they would
make deposits, in our State, of such of
their tracts and l>ooks as the Board
would order, with the view of placing
them in the hands of our missionaries,
to be of in their fields. We
could thus combine a system of colpor
tage with missionary work, and thus
meet one of the most imperative de
mnnds of our. churches at this time.
The Baptists of Alabama have had
practically no colportage work done in
the State since 1860. A more inviting
field in which to supply first a denomi
national, and then a general religious
literature, is not found in the United
States than Alabama offers to-day.
And we do most sincerely hope that the
correspondence' the President of our
Board is instructed to conduct with
that Society, will result in something
practical in this respect. With an out
fit of good tracts and books to meet the
special wants of the churches, our
missionaries would double their useful
ness ; and it would not, in any appreci
able degree, interfere with their present
laliors. Our people are literally hun
gering and thirsting for the kind of
literature we have suggested.
CHURCH DEDICA TION.
On the first Load's day of this month
(Jan. sth) at—the request of the
church, we preached the dedication
sermon for the now meeting house
erected by our colored brethren at
Childersburg, Talladega county, Ala
bama. It is a large, neat, substantial
and commodious structure—one that
is a credit to the membership of that
church. We are gratified to state
that the Church is in a flourishing
condition. There were forty-nine can
didates baptized on one Sabbath there,
a few months ago. The white people
lent a helping hand to the good work of
building the house, and gave the col
ored people, all the encouragement and
sympathy in their power. We know
not when we have preached to a peo
ple who seemed to appreciate the ser
vice so highly. It really reminded us
of other days, before an alien element
interposed to interrupt the kindly feel
ing between the races. The “refluent
tide” has set in in earnest, and our peo
ple stand ready to meet it with alac
rity, giving their aid, their counsels,
their wishes and prayers to the black
population in every good word and
work. By their special request, we
shall preach to them at an early day
upon on which
they are anxious to be instructed.
■ Ar* * ;■ ■
The Religious Press.
—“A. 8.” whose name is well known
in Georgia, has this to say in the Bap
tist Battle Elag:
“ Political distinctions not unfrequent
ly injure men and render them intoler
ant and haughty. Excellence in the
common concerns of life is laudable
and has its advantages. It excites to
study and effort: it tends to advance
the cause of science, especially excel
lence in the arts and manufactures,
and in all useful employments, is
commendable. The man so engaged
will be honored.
But efforts to be highest, great and
honorable, in the churches is a very
different thing. The Saviour con
demns it. The disciples disputed
alsait greatness in his kingdom, and
Jesus informs them that he who hum
bles himself as a little child shall be
greatest. “He that is least among
you shall be great.” Matt. 18 and
Luke (I.
Those elevated in religious institu
tions to posts of honor, frequently
become careless about piety, and in
their duties, and bring religion into
contempt by their haughty demeanor
ami anxiety for greater distinction.”
And The Index has seen, in the case
of excellent brethren, the following evil
effects from elevating them to high
position: 1. An injury to their char
acter; they became anxious for greater
distinction. 2. An injury to their
reputation ; for their high position ad
vertised their weaknesses. 3. As a
consequence of the preceding, a great
diminution of their usefulness. 4. And,
as a consequence of all the preceding,
scandal brought on the ministry, and
positive injury to the cause of Christ.
Some men must fill the high places of
course, but the dangers should be
watched.
—The Southern Presbyterian has
this to say about the “Week of prayer:’
This observance seems to have become
both general and permanent. We can
see in this fact some elements of dan
ger, which, however, need only to be
watched and guarded against. One is
that there may lie in it a tendency to
recognize the authority of irresponsible
and unauthorized parties to regulate
the devotions of the Church. Excel
lent as arc the objects of the Evangeli
cal Alliance, and the Young Men's
Christian Ass<x’iation, neither is even
a branch or a form of the Church of
God. We should be careful, therefore,
lest the excellence of their objects, the
usefulness of their labors, and the
intrinsic propriety of their projxmls
and invitations to the Christian world,
THE CETZR/TSTIATN* TZD
OF TENNESSEE.
encourage them to put forth claims
and usurp/ prerogatives peculiar to
God’s organic kingdom, and seduce us
into the admission of such claims and
prerogatives.
.The most ruinous heresies and the
most unrighteous usurpations of spirit
ual power, have sprung up amidst the
overflowings of pious zeal. The mul
tiplication of saints’ days and religious
feasts and festivals, which their impos
ing rites, originated in what seemed ex
traordinary devoutness; and it was
under this impression that the Romish
and all other Ritualistic Churches,were
enabled to force them upon the con
sciences of the people with a sanction
that claimed to be virtually divine.
We see very clearly the “elements of
danger” above pointed out, and while
We have great confidence in the value
of united prayer, we have hesitated to
join in this movement. Perhaps we
are wrong; we are not fully persuaded
in our own mind. One thing we know,
and that is, that the people of God
ought to continue instant in prayer,
not only through any particular week,
but through the year and through life.”
The same paper wisely, continues:
“Another danger arises from the ten
dency to rely’on special occasions and
special efforts, to the disparagement
and neglect of the ordinary ones. We
see already indications of a disposition
to defer all special earnest prayer, and
all vigorous effort, and all expectation
of blessing, until the arrival of this set
time—just as thousands do with refer
ence to what are generally called “pro
tracted meetings.” It would not be
strange if God were to disappoint such
exiiectations, and turn a deaf ear to
such prayers. It would be more than
strange if those who fall into this error,
whether this season of prayer be bless- 1
ed or not, should not relapse at once,
as soon as the occasion passes away,
into more than their former indiffer
ence. We are aware that all special
seasons are liable to this danger, and
we do not urge it as against this observ
ance, but only as something to be
guarded against. Far better have one 1
week of special, united, urgent prayer, ]
than fifty-two weeks of spiritual apathy.
Let us only shape our prayers to the
deepening and fixing of devout desires,
and the attainnient of permanent and
ever-growing blessings.”
—The Messe.nger, speaking of the
“helping nature ej Christ's Wffl-k,” says :
1 “T*lie first'miracle of our Lord, likd,
first parable, has been called a ‘fit inaiP
guration’ of all the rest. When He
changed the water into wine, He not
only exercised His power, but illustra
ted the general nature of His work, in
that He ‘ennobled the common, and
transmuted the mean, turning the wa
ter of earth into the wine of Heaven.’
“The first miracle of Christ contrasts
with that of Moses, who turned the
water into blood, because the law was
a ministration unto death, while the
ministration of the Son of God was one
of life. The weak and watery element
of the Jewish dispensation, wa< now
turned into the gladdening wine of a
higher faith, and that act, by which the
Redeemer of men first manifested His
glory, may be taken as a sign and sym
bol of all which He is evermore doing,
ennobling all that He touches, making
saints out of sinners, and, in the end,
heaven out of earth, a new paradise of
God out of the old wilderness of the
world.’
“Any one will find an additional in- I
terest in his Bible, when he not only
reads there, what Christ said and did, i
but studies the time and circumstances
which seemed to call forth His words ;
and acts. There was no hap-hazard in |
His perfect life, ami the order of the
record was as truly under Divine direc- I
tion, as the subject matter itself. And ■
it is encouraging to poor humanity to |
know, that the very first act of His j
power spoke of help and relief, and that
in all His ministry He never oppressed
nor afflicted men. All His miracles
were performed to heal them, and re
store them to that normal state which I
had been disturbed by sin. Surely this
great truth should inspire those who ,
have started out in the cycle of the new
Church year to preach His gospel.”
—The Alabama Baptist speaks well
on “Vigilance against Temptation •
“As once the angel sentinels stood at the '
eastward path to the Tree of Life to
prevent guilty man from entering Para
dise, with the same stern fidelity should
we guard every avenue by which sin !
can gain admission to our hearts.
“For the senses which God has given
us to connect us with the outer world, 1
and which are the sources of so much 1
pleasure, are the gates through which .
sin steals into the human heart, like a
foe into an unguarded city, to ravage .
and destroy. The eye was made to 1
enjoy the works of God ; but here licen
tiousness forces a passage. The ear
was made to listen to the harmonies of
nature, and heed the oracle of inspira
tion ; but here the flatteries and blas
phemies of tin* world find admittance;
and so every faculty which makes this
life delightful may lie abused.
WHOLE NO. 2351
"The means of safety,which Religion
proposes, are mainly the study of the
Word of God, the conviction of the real
facts of existence, and an earnest, de
vout and perpetual vigilance against
sin.”
—The Interior thus delivers himself:
“Brother Tyndall has come forth again.
In the name of,and in behalf of Science,
he wants a truce with Religion. He
always did. He only rushed to the
rescue when Theology undertook to
throttle the infant Evolution; which
he affirms, has a right to live if it
proves its right to live, and shall not be
smothered, like the infant princes, in
the bedclothes which ought to be em
ployed in fostering its growth. It has
not proved its title yet, but is in a fair
way to do so, and it shall have a fair
hearing and a verdict on the merits.
All right, Brother Tyndall, we will
shake hands with you on that. The
trouble is not of Religion’s making.
Your infant, Evolution insisted on get
ting out of its cradle and going about
the peaceful village throwing mud at
the worshipers, denouncing their an
cestors as brutes of various kinds, and
making an intolerable nuisance of him
self. That is why Religion caned him,
and sent him home to you, howling.
So long as scientific investigators con
fine themselves to the discovery and
exposition of ascertainable truth—or
truth so far established as to entitle it
to scientific recognition and classifica
tion, they will secure only honor and
esteem from true Religion. Supersti
tion only fears the truth. True Reli
gion loves it, and above all things, seeks
and prizes it.
—The Baptist Weekly may be right
in the following extract in expressing
the doubt whether want of thorough
ness is the prevailing type of modem
religion, if reference is had to modem
religion as a whole, and extending the
meaning of the word over generations.
But so far as our scope of vision ex
tends, religion appears to‘be, as a gen
eral thing much more superficial than it
has been in former days within our
recollection. Whether we are right or
wrong in this view, one thing is certain,
and that is, that much effort is needed
to improve the “prevailing type” of
religion. We know it cannot lie done
by passing resolutions; we do not be
lieve it can be done by holding pro
tracted meetings. It must be done by
<.* each msqjo make
hi,rtself mifie (fflffiiy of call
ing. But here is the Weekly •
“A recent English author expresses
the fear that much of the religion of
the present day is shallow and superfi
cial, and describes Christian influence
as effecting the surface of many lives,
but sadly failing to reach the hidden
springs of thought and action.
“Whether this representation gives a
true idea of the peculiar and prevailing
type of modern religion we have some
doubt. The same statement, we think,
would apply to the Christianity of other
days, and, indeed, to a multitude of the
professed followers of Christ in all the
centuries of the Christian era. Rec
ognizing the defective character of ma
ny of the Hebrew converts, the apos
tle was compelled to say to them:
‘When for the time ye ought to be
teachers, ye have need that one teach
you again what be the first principles
of the oracles of God ; and are become
such as have need of milk, and not
of strong meat.’ With equal proprie
ty, might these words of reproof be
addressed to almost any modern
Church, owing to the superficial at
tainments and feeble piety of many
who ‘profess and call themselves
Christians.’
“It is to this lamentable defective
ness of religious growth and strength,
that we may trace the want of stabili
ty and the lack of earnest effort after a
higher, a truer and a more consistent
Christian life. Indeed, there is too
much reason to fear that many in all
our Churches, as Wilberforce has said,
need to lay afresh the whole foundation
of their religion. Or, in the words of
the apostle, it, at least, becomes them to
examine themselves that they may
know whether they ‘be in the faith,’
and that they may not prove to lie
‘reprobates.’
“But,even incases where the founda
tion has been well and truly laid, it is
the.part of wisdom to heed the apos
tolic caution: ‘Let every man take
heed how he buildeth.’ With a suffi
cient and sure foundation, it is both
perilous and wicked to build a tem
porary and insecure structure, since
we are admonished that if we build of
‘wood, hay, stubble,’ ‘every man’s
work shall be made manifest, for the
day shall declare it, because it shall lie
revealed by fire, and the fire shall try
every man’s work of what sort it is.’
"Certainly, thoroughness, both in
Christian aim and practice, is one of
the first duties of every disciple of
Christ, and without it there can be
neither spiritual growth nor real effi
ciency in any department of the Chris
tian life.”