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The Christian Index. Vol. 57 —No 31. Table of Contents. 1 irst Page.—Alabama Department: The Reproductive Power of Sin; Fidelity; Importance of Sound Speech; Speech makin« at Our Religious Anniversaries; Religious Press; To Prevent Crime. Second Page.—Correspondence: The True Church ; Home Mission Board; Revival Scenes and Incidents; Memorial of Jesse Mercer; Sundries; Letter from Bruns wick. Third Page —Obituaries: Tribute of Re spect. Fourth Page.—Editiorials: The Starting Point of Reform; Fraternity of Ministers ; Success of Foreign Missions; The Mode of Temptation; The Secular Press Rebuking Infidelity; The Ring of the True Metal; Noble Kentucky; Georgia Baptist News.Jj Fifth Page.—Secular Editorials: News paragraphs; Legislative Summary; Glan ces at Our Exchanges; Secular News; Georgia News. Seventh Page.—Farmers’ Index: Georgia Crops; Agricultural College, etc. Eighth Page.—Practical Housekeeping; Noonday Association; Central Association; Programme of Bethel Sunday-School Convention. Florida Department: Week ly News and Laconics. Alabama Department. BY SAMUEL HENDERSON. THE REPRODUCTIVE POWER OF SIN. There is a striking analogy between physical and moral disease. It is an accepted and established fact that con sumptions, scrofulas and the like are hereditary—that though by careful at tentions to the laws of health, they may disappear for a generation or two, yet they will reappear with }>erhaps increased verulence; so that not un frequently parents live to bury all their children who die of such diseases. It is thus, and even more so, with sin, that worst of all diseases. It is not so much breathed into the soul from some external moral malaria as it is the natural heritage of man. It is born with him. It inheres to the very constitution of his nature. It is the virus injected into his nature at its very fountain head ere his first parents were driven from Eden, and that has corrupted the whole race. So that to day we are suffering the ten thousand wars and are enduring the last dread penalty of “man’s first disobedience” nearly six thousand years ago. If, as so many seem to think, the law of sin and the law of holiness are in equi poise, i. e., if men were just so much inclined to virtue as to vice, to right eousness as to sin, then it would only require a preponderance of argument and motive on the side of virtue and righteousness to convert the world. And yet all the argument and the mo- j tive worth the name are on the side of i moral purity, and it has no more effect I upon this stubborn disease than a puff! of wind upon a stone wall. They leave us as they find us, “dead in tres pass and sin.” All such appliances are as if we were to bring food to a dead corpse in the hope of calling back the vital spark. Like the bones in the valley of vision, the “breath of the Lord” must breath into us ere any signs of spiritual life appears. We have stated the case thus strong ly, and as we believe scripturally and truly, in order to show the innate ten dency of sin to perpetuate itself. Like consumption, divine grace may arrest its final penalty, eternal death, in one generation, but the seeds are there, and | it appears in the next. Godliness is ' engrafted upon the soul, and like our exotic fruits, must be cultivated with care to mature and perpetuate it. Sin, like the noxious growth, thrives most and reproduces itself on the broadest scale when let alone. It j needs no culture to mature its bitter fruits. It is easy to see, therefore, that ex ample, precept and authority must be potential for ruin when arrayed on the ! side of iniquity, since they appeal to hearts already prone to follow in their track. An illustration or two will bet ter serve our purpose than the most elaborate argument. Let us recur to the afflicting story of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. After the ten tribes had separated from the house of David, Jeroboam was annointed their king; and the thought came into his mind that if his people continued to go up to Jerusalem to worship, it might revive their loyalty to the house of David. After counseling with his friends, he said, “let us make two calves of gold, and let the people worship them at home, instead of taking this long and expensive journey to Jerusalem.” Thus he established idolatry, Isreal fell into the snare, and this iniquity went on worse and worse for a hundred years, involving millions upon millions of that people in the most abandoned vices, resulting in the overthrow of their nation, scattering them through surrounding countries where their pos terity are unknown to this day. All this began in a thought that was SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST. of Alabama. ; matured into an act, and the author is I it is known in sacred story as “Jero : boam, the son of Nebat, that caused Is real to sin.” Wherever his name is mentioned, his crime clings to it with the tenacity of shadow. “Jeroboam, | the son of Nebat, that caused Isreal to sin!” Like the goary form of some murdered viciim, his sin clings to his very name in adamantine chains! Take another class of illustrations the corrupting influence of a licensious literature. The school of infidels of which Voltair was the head, prepared the French nation for the “reign of terror,” in which the darkest chapter was given to history ever recorded. It was a nation of infidels, and by conse quence, unbridled depravity to show to Ihe world, on a scale of unparalleled extent, what is the last enormity that abandoned human nature can commit. It stands out before the world as a per petual memorial of what the harvest will be when infidelity sows the seed. Scarcely iess corrupting is that litera ture supplied from the cesspools of our cities, from “western adventures,” from the vices of high life, indeed from all those sources where depravity is the text and money the reward. Much of this literature is furnished in our pop ular newspapers, is retailed in “yellow leaf” covers on our high ways to be guile the tedium of travel, and finds its way to too many of our centre tables. It has the like effect upon the mind of the young that spirituous liquors have upon the body. It stimulates a vicious taste that unfits the person for the real, solid, virtuous pursuits of life. It dwarfs the mind and expends the pass ions. It substitutes the ideal for the real, and sends our young men in crowds to end their days in drinking and gambling saloons, and not a few of our women to worse places. Is it putting the matter too strong to say of such books and newspapers, that they are incendiaries, their mission being to “set on fire the course of this world, and are themselves set on fire of hell?” That they tend to reproduce crime on a scale of magnitude commensurate with their circulation, is abundantly attested by the sad experiences of these latter years. A bad book reproduces its author just as many times as it has copies in circulation, as each copy in its turn becomes tl.e centre of another circle that will expand indefinitely, thus gathering upon the author an ever augmenting and frightful respon sibility. FIDELITY. All compacts are formed upon the mutual fidelity of the parties to them to one another. In entering them there is a kind of implied oath each party is supposed to be under to speak the truth. When, therefore, a party to such com pacts, be they moral, religious, political, or any other, says “the thing that is not,” he violates the compact—he does that thing, which, if all others were to do, such compacts would be impossi ble—he undermines the very founda tion principle that vitalizes all human combinations. Hence the solemn em phasis of the Apostolic admonition, “Lie not one to another.” The loss of in tegrity dissolves every bond that unites man to his fellow-man. Now, in the light of this principle, we are tempted to ask, what is to become of this per petual distrust with which the most serious asseverations of the best and wisest men in the South is received by what we are assused is the great ma jority of the Northern people? And what is a marked peculiarity of this distrust is, that it comes from the highest religious sources—those who have been entrusted with the editorial management of the religious press. It would seem that if any people on earth ought to cherisn respect for, and confi dence in, each other, it is a Christian people. And yet, if we accept the ani mus of not a few religious as well as secular papers, an imaginary line (Mason’s and Dixon’s) drawn through our country marks the exact boundary between truth, justice, and the highest moral purity on the one side, and false hood, injustice, and the most aban doned depravity on the other. Com mon humanity, common sense, com mon patriotism, to say nothing of our Christianity,ought to inspire a different line of conduct. If we were as bad as they make us, such constant recrimina tion would make us worse. Dr. Crane, in a communication to the Texas Baptist, has this to say of I the late meeting at Atlanta: “The greatest convention since the war, if not of our whole Southern history, is ' now a historical fact.” His opinion is worth something, for he has been inti mately associated with it ever since its organization, and was for many years its Secretary. Dr. Buckner, our veteran missionary among the Indians, says that since the Atlanta Convention he is “full of hope about our manual labor school” among the Creeks. Atlanta, Georgia, Thursday, August 14, 1879. IMPORTANCE OF SOUND SPEECH In his admirable little volume, on “The Study of Words,” Trench de votes a lecture to the “Morality of Words,” in which, in a very ingenious manner, he traces the etymology of sundry words from their root down ward and upward, according as they have been employed to denote vices and virtues, depravity and righteous ness. Thus, if we take the word “liber tine,” we find it was originally used to denote “a speculative free-thinker in matters of religion, and in the theory of morals,” but as acting always follows thinking, it came to possess a seconda ry meaning of loose conduct, and the primary was lost in the secondary meaning, so that now it means “a pro fligate, licentious, debauched person.” “Humility” oiiginally meant, “with rare exceptions,” meanness of spirit; but under the transforming power of Christianity, it has come to signify one of the most lovely and dignified virtues of Christian character. Thus the one word, “libertine,” has greatly degener ated, while the other, “humility,” has been correspondingly elevated. The one, so to express it, has been captured by sin, and made to express the last gradation of depravity—the other has been appropriated by religion, to indi cate the noblest gra.de of piety. Dr. South has devoted several ser mons to "the fatal imposture and force of words,” founded on Isaiah 5 : 20: “Wo unto you that call evil good, and good evil,” etc. The etymology of words, expressive of right and wrong, depends not upon the subjective con victions of men as to the moral quality of actions, but upon a real, radical, ob jective difference in these actions. Thus male volence and benevolence have a per se difference in their import, as much so as light and darkness, irre spective of all human opinions and convictions as to their moral qualities. Theft and honesty express a difference in things, not the mere conventional discriminations that depend upon legal enactments to enforce them. If there was no law but the law within us, theft would be wrong, and honesty would be right. How we are sometimes charmed as we have heard a discourse or read a production from some man whose purity of style, magical diction, and lucid discriminations have placed every idea before ns with as much distinc tiveness as if they were separate paint ings. We naturally conclude, and wisely, too, that a man who wields such English must have something to say— something worthy of such incarnations, as Wordsworth would, as his rich and varied vocabulary can give. Take that matchless allegory of Bunyan, “The Pilgrim’s Progress.” Lord Macauly says of it, no man ever said just what he meant to say, no more, no less, than good John Bunyan. It is a succession of “word paintings” so accurately delin eated, that art has taken up the scenes and produced a series of pictures on which connoisseurs have gazed with no little admiration. Thus the dreamer of Elston jail was unconsciously contrib uting no little to art, as well as to the religious literature of his country. Purity and accuracy in style are just as essential to speakers and writers as force. The same power that wields a sharp and dull implement will achieve quite different results. Paul directs Titus to use “sound speech that cannot be condemned,” etc. Our language is so so rich in its expressional power, I that no man who aims to instruct oth ers, either by his tongue or pen, can have any excuse but indolence for a slip-shod, indefinite array of words that mean anything or nothing. Noth ing will win the ears, even of uncul tivated people, so quickly as the com bination of purity, accuracy and force in one’s style. If the reader will pardon us, we will close these rather rambling thoughts With a little story told us about twenty five years ago by a worthy minister, who, we believe, heard the sermon, or ■rather harangue. A certain brother minister, who cer tainly never had been to college, was called on to preach the funeral of a child. After ransacking the Bible, he fell upon this text: “Howl, fir-tree, for the cedar is fallen.” The misfortune of the brother was, that he read his text wrong—he read "/re-tree” instead of “Jjr-tree," and built the whole of his sermon on that one idea. His exposi tion was quite luminous. The “fire- I tree” was a common growth of that country! Moses had seen one of them when it was only a “bush!” Then the grace of God was very much like “fire.” It gives light, consumes, and purifies, and the like. And then he closed by comparing Christ to his “fire-ircc," kindly assuring the bereaved parents that their little one had gone to the arms of the “blessed Fire-Tree in the heavenly kingdom!” Now, we may smile at the honest mistake of this un coqth brother, but we have heard ser mons not a whit behind this in the bold absurdity of construing the word of God—whole sermons built up on a mere conceit of the speaker. “The preacher,” says Solomon, “sought out acceptable words.” SPEECH-MAKING A'T OUR RE LIGIOUS ANNIVERSARIES. There is a growing morbid sensi bility among not a few of our people in regard to “speech-making” at our important denominational meeting. A flippant kind of criticism is often in dulged that would lead one to suppose that a set of “sophomores” had ap peared in force and captured the occa sion. Such a brother “curled” most prodigiously ; such another “exploded gas” by the hour; still another was in tolerably “dull;” brother “Stentor” spoke as if we were all mutes, and Dr. “Prolix” sent us all to the “land of Nod.” And so the thing goes on from A to Z, until one would think, if these wiseacres are to be believed, that the whole occasion was one for the display of bombast, fustian and stupidity. We heard a certain brother, who aspires to be one of the “somewhat s” of the de nomination, curtly refer to what many of our wisest and best men pronounced the best speech made at the last South ern Baptist Convention as being—well, anything else than what it should have been. Now, against all this wholesale, mor bid, jejune criticism, we enter our pro test. Whether it originates in jeal ousy, or in a vain assumption of supe rior acumen, or in a certain want of capacity that cannot discriminate be tween a “diamond” of the first water and a mere “paste,” it is simply ludi crous. ( The most eloquent speeches we have ever heard, both in thought and diction, have been made on these grand occasions. At the risk of stirring up this Whole tribe of Liliputian critics, we say deliberately that the pulpit and the platform of Christianity in these ‘United States present the grandest ar ray of intellectual power, of real, com manding eloquence, to be found on this continent. We say pulpit and plat form, for on those great anniversary occasions laymen come in to dispute the palm with our best ministers, and not (infrequently they bear it away. Take the speeches of CoJ. Bishop, of Tallaocsra, and Dr. Tichenor, at our last Alabama Convention, on our State Mission work—two of the grandest speeches one ever hears (beg those brethren’s pardon for the comparison, for they were not “spelling against” each other) —it would be difficult to decide upon their relative excellence. The same may be said of the “many sided” speech of Dr. Gwaltney on the Judson Institute, and the splendid ad dress of Brother Harris, of Livingston, on the Howard and Judson. The truth is, if we abate those occasions of the stirring speeches we generally hear, we take from them three-fourths of their interest. The attendance would dwindle down to a corporal’s guard and every interest die out. They are the speeches of live men that re deem those occasions from inanity, even as it is the living ministry that gives to Christianity its commanding power in the world. As most of these critics are minis ters—for we seldom hear a word of objection from a layman—we suggest to them either to quit depreciating their brethren or quit retailing the fine thoughts they gather from these speeches from pulpits—speeches which they pronounce as mere bombast, gas, and the like. Wo do not object to this—indeed, we commend it; but it is not in good taste to depreciate the source whence one derives some of his best thoughts. Verbum sat. Clean Papers.—Ot course the read ing public have the remedy in their own hands. If decent Christian peo ple would rigidly exclude from their families all journals that habitually fill their c< lumns with the sewage of soci ety, such papers would be compelled to reform or die. Newspapers, like a thousand other things, are made to sell, and the buyer, to a certain extent makes himself particeps criminis in this dissemination of moral poison. It is high time for parents to take more diligent heed to the kind of literature to which their children have access. Good books are abundant, and clean newspapers would be if the “baser sort” were rigidly excluded from Christian families.— Ex. You need not be afraid of giving too much. The old darkey said : “If any ob you know ob any church what died ob liberality, ’jis tell me whar it is, an I will make a pilgrimage to it, an by de soft light ob de pale moon, I will crawl up on de moss-covered roof and write 'jam de topmost shingle, 'Blessed am de dead whar die in de Lord.’” "Incomparably the best poriftession is a gracious spirit, and by far the great est kindness we can render one anoth er is assistance in overcoming faults and acquiring virtues.” THE CHRISTIAN HERALD, of Tennessee. The Religious Press. —When a man is able to do but little the temptation to leave that little undone is of ten very strong. It should be watched and resisted until overcome. The master is fa milliar with the measure of our ability, and asks only what we are able to do. Norshall he that is "faithful in the least” be without his reward United Presbyterian. —ls all parties would cease looking upon the black man merely as a political factor, and address themselves in good earnest to efforts for his religious and temporal we'l beintt, something might be done. But this is just what the politicians in and ou of the churches will not not do. — Christian Advo cate. —Southern men must guard. Because denunciation from the North is so often un just and exces-uve, the voice of fearless re buke of wrong-doing must not be hushed among us. Vice in high and low places must be exposed and denounced. No de gree of outside impertinence and pressure can exonerate us from this obligation. The approbation or disapprobation of distant communities is of far less consequence in the sight of God. Addressing ourselves honestly and earnestly to our duty as con servators of what is true and good, and in flexible opponents of all that is false and evil in our own section, we shall have not only the blessing of Him who rules in right eousness, but the good will and sympathy of the large and increasing class of Northern people who are disposed to treat us as citi zens of the same countrv, and children of the same faith should treat each other.— Christian Advocate. Earthly heavens are a sort of a failure the be-t you can make of them —that is if you expect the real article on earth. People may live blessed, joyous and peaceful lives here, but they will not be apt to so live if they look for perfection among mortals. That little Sunday-school miss was far wiser than she knew when, upon being asked, “What must people do in order to go to heaven ?” replied, “Die, I suppose.”— Morning Star. —lt is a clear indication that the heart is not brought into entire subjection to God, when any portion of our time or talent or money is claimed as our own absolute prop erty, to be used according to our own pleas ure, not in subordination to His will. If we are Christ’s, all that we have is His also, and we can have no desire to withhold any thing from him. — Lutheran Standard. Why is it ? etc. Here it is; here at at least is what the Record and Evan gelist says: The most serious drawback to the progress of the church at the present time is that there are thousands who have ‘‘joined the church” instead of Christ. These are “wells without water, clouds without rain.” Hav ing a name to live, they are dead, and the weight of the body of death hangs about the neck of the church to weigh: it down, to par alyze its efforts and to sicken it with a deadly contagion. If it could be shorn of all who have not joined Christ, though it should lose half its numbers, its strength would be multiplied. Then it would be like the dis ciplined army, composed only of true, tried and valiant soldiers, determine to conquer or to die Then the reproach would depart from Zion and cavils of the gainsayers be answered. Then Christ would be seen among men. One word in confidence with the reader before we close. Have you “joined church,” or joined Christ? It is easy for you to de termine. Is your eye single and your heart wholly his? Is your life hid with Christ in God? Has your will been laid as an offering at his feet ? Has he a throne in your heart, from whence as King he rules your whole life ? Do you pray daily, from the depths of a sincere and earnest heart: “Lord, not my will but thine be done”? And The Index asks its readers, each one for himself, to inquire what is “the most serious drawback to the progress of the church at the present time?” If the Record and Evangelist is right, what shall we do about it? Here are three suggestions: 1. Get rid of as much of the worthless mem bers as we can. 2. Take in no more of that sort. 3. Be not over anxious to increase in mere numbers. —The New York Examiner and Chronicle, speaking of tendencies in Louisiana toward repudiation, sneer ingly speaks of the whole South in these words: Southern men declare that what the South needs is an influx of Northern men and Northern capital; and yet they wonder why the Northern capitalists are so shy of South ern investments. It is queer. Is that fair, good brother? You of course know that if Northern capitalists wish to purchase Georgia Jour per cent, bonds, they can do so at par, and not a cent less, and that many of them are now actually held in your city, bought at that price. Is it bearing true wit ness in favor of your neighbor to im ply that his credit is bad, when it is known to be good? Louisiana is not the South. If we mistake not, there are some virtually bankrupt cities far north of us, but we shall not be so un fair as to insinuate that this is true of the whole Northern part of the United States. We know that our good broth er of the Examiner would not wilfully misrepresent; and so must suppose that lie is so in the habit of believing evil of "the South,” that he inadver tently speaks evil merely from tho/orce of habit. So we must occasionally re mind him that there is more good in this Nazareth of ours than he has been in the habit of supposing. *— Our good brother of Zion’s Advo cate uses still stronger language; he says: 8o the stigma of State and municipal dis honesty is attached itself to the entire South, as State after State falls into the repudiating line. Whole No. 2381 Really our Northern brethren must learn to be more careful in their state ments. Is it not time for them to in quire somewhat into the facts before they make such sweeping assertions? The Advocate congratulates itself on the fact that the monetary credit of our National Government stands at the highest in the great financial centers of the world. Will our brother take the pains to investigate and see how much better is the credit of the United States than that of the State of Georgia? If he should find that the latter can borrow money on as good terms as the former, will he be kind enough to publish the fact? Infant Baptism.—lnfant baptism is obviously declining. It cannot be otherwise. It has no foundation in Divine authority, and the sooner it perishes the better. The present age is unfriendly to human tradition as an element of religion. The public voice on this subject is growing louder and louder every successive year. There is but one way to sustain infant bap tism, and that is to make it appear useful to the infant, and show definite ly in what that usefulness consists. In fant baptism is not neglected in the Catholic church, so called, because the members of that hierarchy believe that it regenerates the infant, and orepares it for the kingdom of heaven. There is some ground for the right. But what are called evangelical denomina tions have no such ground. They would forfeit their claim to being evan gelical, to put such value upon it. Does it, in any sense, insure the salvation of the child? They deny this emphati cally. Does it even make them mem bers of any church on earth? This they will not at all own, for all Pedo baptist churches that are considered evangelical, require them to be regen erated before they become members. What, then, is its value to the child? Wbat advantage does baptism give the infant of a Presbyterian father that is not possessed by the infant of a Baptist father? If any Pedobaptist will send us a definite statement of its value to the child as held by Pedobaptists, we will most cheerfully publish it. This is a fair request, and we do seriously lack information on this point. Let its value be shown, for on this ground only can it be sustained. If it really does the child no spiritual good, and is destitute of Divine authority, why should it be advocated or practiced? The world at large is rapidly taking in the conviction that it has no spiritual authority, and no spiritual benefit. And if Pedobaptism is to live much longer, this conviction must be arrest ed, not by ridicule or abuse, but by solid argument. We believe that the days of infant baptism are numbered.— Western Recorder. TO PREVENT CRIME. The Baptist Record (Jackson, Miss.) expresses our views in regard to the en forcement of law against crime. We object somewhat to the word punish ment. It seems to convey the idea that the object of the law is vindictive, whereas its only object is to protect the innocent, and not inflict pain, or death, or sorrow on the guilty. The sufferings of the latter are necessary incidents, it is true, but only incidental, and they bring these pet alties on themselves. They are really their own executioners. If they put themselves in such position that society, in self-defence, is forced to take their lives, they, and they only, are responsible. The law ought to be, if it is not “a terror to evil-doers,” and the ruler ought not to “bear the sword in vain.” Ro. 13:8-4. The sword as used in the passage just referred to is a figure of speech which comes very near being literal. What does it mean? Does it not refer to the penalty of death? Used in con nection with the expression “terror to evil-doers” what else can it mean? But we give way to the Baptist Record: “The punishment of criminals is a dire necessity, a necessity brought about by the criminals themselves. As long as men insist on taking the lives of their fellows for the purpose of gratifying personal revenge, or for money; just so long society will be forced to protect itself by putting them out of the way. Mercy to the inno cent, and peaceable demands, that jus tice be sternly administered to the lawless. For one, we are anxious that every one should die a natural death; but criminals must set us a good ex ample in this line. They must quit killing first. And the speedy and proper punishment of every one of them is the best possible -persuasion to that class of persons to do right. A feeling, universally prevalent, that no guilty man can escape adequate and swift punishment will put an end to crime in our midst. To the creation of such a sentiment all good people ought to contribute what they can. “This can’t be beat,” as the man said when he bought the porcelain egg.