Newspaper Page Text
The Christian Index.
Vol. 57 —No 32.
Table of Contents.
Fibst Page—Alabama Department: The i
Church Equipped for Usefulness- How to :
Develop.its Gins; Confidence, The Religious I
Press, etc.
Second Page—Correspondence. The Bible in '
the Teachers’ Study—How to Prepare the
Lesson—Rev HDD Straton; Paul the
Wealthy—H R Bernard; Extracts from an
Address to the Ladies’ Missionary Society
of Quitman; Pen-Droppings—-H L V; J
Items from Southern Georgia—Three
Preachers and their Churches—B.
Thibd Pa«b—Every Reform and Every
Evil' has had its leader—D L Duffey;
Bethel Church; Sunday-school Lesson. I
Fovbth Page—Editorials: Wholesome Food, i
with a Spiritual Application; A Real Out- i
rage; Two Men at Dinner; Two Listners; ,
Hasty Words; Let us have p-ace; Europe- I
an Missions; Georgia Baptist News.
Fifth Page—Secular Editorials: News para
graphs; Legislative Summary; Schools and !
Colleges; Foreign Items; All Sorts; Georgia
News, etc.
Sixth Page—Obituaries, etc.
Seventh Page—Farmers’ Index : Theory
and Practice in Farming; Curious Calcula
tions; Crop Report for July.
Eighth Page—Florida Department: Weekly
News and Laconics; Central Association.
Alabama Department.
—l
UY SAMUEL HENDERSON.
THE CHURCH EQUIPPED FOR
USEFULNESS—HOW TO DE
VELOP ITS GIFTS.
Much depends upon the definition j
of terms in our investigations of truth, j
Indeed, they involve the real strength
of every argument. The old received
definition of achurch, that it is a “com
pany of believers bound together to
maintain the worship of God,” has come
to be a mere ideal, a platitude good as
far as it goes, lacking both in breadth
and in that terse, practical as
pect of the subject, which constitutes
the true New Testament idea. Per
haps it would be arrogance in any
man to assume to give an exhaustive
definition of so divine an idea as a
church of the living God. With a
modesty becoming so grave a subject,
we submit the following as approxima
ting more nearly the conception of the
term as detailed in the Living Oracles: 1
A company of believers united in the ;
fryth of the gospel, embracing All the
elements essential to its own perpetui- j
ty, officers and members, in active co
operation, carrying out the whole will
of God, so that if every other church
on earth were blotted out, Christ would
have a thoroughly organized kingdom.
This seems to us to come nearer to the
idea as suggested by such passages as
the following: Eph. 4 : 15-16. “But
speaking the truth in love, may grow
up in him in all things, who is the
head, even Christ; from whom the
whole body fitly joined together and
compacted by that which every joint
supplieth, according to the effectual
working in the measure of every part,
maketh increase of the body unto the
edifying of itself in love.” Perhaps the
New Testament does not contain a
more lucid, comprehensive definition of
a church thoroughly equipped for all
the will of God than this.
The following article we wrote sev-!
eral years ago, and it bears directly
upon the topic announced above, we
make no apology tor offering it here,
as a part of the entertainment for our
department this week ; for the subject
is one that will always interest the
thoughtful Christian:
“If we could imagine a person sud
denly converted to Christianity who
had never witnessed any of the forms
of our present religious service, and I
who had no directory as to how these |
services should be directed but the wri- I
tings of the Apostles and the habits of
the primitive churches as detailed in
the Acts of the Apostles, the question
may well be raised, What portion of
our present forms of worship would be
retained? What modifications would
such an enquirer make in our present
manner of public worship? The ob
jects of divine worship are to glorify
God, and edify, or build up, the body
of Christ. Hence the exhortation, “let
all things be done to edifying.” “Seek
that ye may excel to the edifying of
the Church.” But how can we glorify
God otherwise than as He has himself
prescribed in his word? How can we
know what will please him except by
what he has said? The moment we
leave the inspired volume in search of
the will of God in respect to our duty
to him, wo are at sea without compass
or rudder. It is impossible for us to
know what is acceptable to God only
as he has himself revealed it. And
then how can we better edify one an
other than in the manner and by the
means which the Holy Ghost teacheth?
Now let us dive-t ourselves of all prej
udices, and predilections, and look at
this matter, so far as we can, as an
original question—as if we had never
investigated it before —“Whatsaith the
Scripture? How readest thou?”
In the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians
the Apostle has given us a full descrip
tion of the elements of a prosjierous
working church. The reader will
SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST.
of Alabama.-
I please pause at this point, and read
that chapter.
Now, the bestowal of all these spirit
| ual gifts was “to profit withal”—that
! as the members of a natural body are
! all proportioned to each other and di
versified so as to minister service and
succor to one another, so should we
exercise ourselves one toward another
jsoas to make up the mystical body
of Christ. As each member of
■ the natural body has its distinct
i function to fulfill, so each member of
I the spiritual body has his mission to
fulfill. Some have wisdom, as the men
| of Issachar, “who had understanding of
j the times to know what Israel ought to
■ do.” These are to direct as to objects
i and measures. They are the eyes of
i the church. Others are endowed with
knowledge, that is, with a profound,
and intimate acquaintance with the
sacred writings. These are to instruct
others in the way of the Lord more
perfectly, as Aquilla and Priscilla did
Apollos. They are, so to speak, the
mouth of the church. Others are en
dowed with faith, and by these the
Apostle appears to mean those who
possess extraordinary courage and con
fidence in God by which they are ca
pacitated to do and to suffer with in
vincible firmness and resolution what
ever may be laid upon them. The
other gifts enumerated are miraculous
gifts, and incident to that day. The
above appear to be the permanent gifts
of the churches'—to wit: Wisdom,
know edge and faith.
In a parallel passage in Rom. 12 :8-
8, the Apostle enumerates the follow
ing gifts: Prophecy, the ministry,
teachers, and exhorters. Leaving out
prophecy as restricted to that age, we
have here three methods of edifying
the church by the permanent gifts be
stowed upon her. The terms minister
and ministry (deacon and deaconship)
are used in the New Testament both in
general and specific sense. They aie
used to indicate all classes of church
offices. In a specific sense they are
used to indicate the office of deacon, an
office to which was committed all the
temporalties of the church—especially
the care of the poor. But the Apostle
seems in this connection to apply the
term (diakonianj to thv stated minis
try Os the word-1® bfflhop's o/ pas
tor’s office—such were to be diligent in
preaching, and not discouraged or dis
heartened by dangers. The term teach
er appears to refer to the office of evan
gelist, or missionary, whose business it
was to extend his labors over a much
larger territory than could be occupied
by the settled pastor. Such were to be
diligent in imparting instruction to
the ignorant, the novitiates, those who
had but recently been converted from
heathenism, and who needed informa
tion on the first principles of the doc
trines of the gospel. Timothy was one
of these—an evangelist. These trav
eling preachers seem to have been in
tended to supply destitute churches
with ihe gospel, “confirming the souls
of the disciples,” as did the Apostles,
as well as to extend the gospel to new
places. The exhorter differed from the
teacher in this, that the teacher ad
dressed the understanding of his hear
ers, giving instruction in the doctrines
of Christianity, especially in its funda
mental principles; while the exhorter
addressed the heart, the affections, per
suading them to abstain from sin and
to practice the duties of their profess
ion, and encouraged, contorted, and
strengthened the feeble-minded and
sorrowing.
If we are correct in these views (and
we are certainly sustained in them by
many of our best critics and commen
tators) then there are some practical
reflections which arise from the sub
ject, to which we invite the serious at
tention of the churches.
1. That in every church truly plant
ed by our Lord Jesus Christ, we may
expect to find such gifts as, if properly
brought out, will thoroughly equip it
for every work to which it is called.
The organism of a church of Jesus
Christ must, in its very nature, be so
complete in itself, as to be able to car
ry out all the objects of its structure
even if it were the only church on
earth. It must be as perfect in its kind
as is the human body. And it is the
duty, the solemn duty, of every church
to develop its gifts— to look out from j
among themselves those men who, by
their piety and intelligence, possess the
qualifications to edify their brethren.
We well remember a time when almost
every church had its exhorters—men
who by their fervid zeal and acknowl
edged piety, were well nigh as useful
as were the pastors and evangelists of
the churches. Why has this gift dis
appeared from among us? Let this
question be seriously pondered.
2. Official positions or great talents
are not essential to great usefulness.
He who acts well his part, no matter
how humble his sphere, fills the post
of real honor. No man ever increased
his usefulness by going out of his
sphere. Many good exhorters have
been injured by ordination, and many
good evangelists have little or no ca-
Atlanta, Georgia, Thursday, August 21, 1879.
pacity for the pastorate. The cultiva
tion of the talent which God has given
to each is the best way to promote the
good of the whole.
3. The extremes to be guarded
against by the membership of the
churches are, the self-conceit and am
bition incident to office and the pos
session of the highest gifts, and the
discontent and envy peculiar to those
of inferior station and gifts. The one
is as offensive to God and as destruct
ive of the peace and prosperity of
churches as the other. For while the
pride of position destroys the spiritual
ity and usefulness of the one, envy
paralyzes the energies of the other.
God has bestowed all these gifts upon
the church, “That there should be no
schism in the body ; but that the mem
bers should have the same care one for
another.
4. Meetings for mutual edification
and instruction, in which each mem
ber should feel it his duty and privi
lege to participate, would greatly tend
to develop the gifts and graces of the
membership. This was unquestiona
bly a common practice among the
primitive churches; and our older mem
bers can well remember the time when
they were resorted to with great profit
by our churches. These spiritual con
ferences were common among saints
under the Jewish dispensation, for it is
said of them, that “they that feared
God spake often one to another, and a
book of remembrance was written be
fore him, even of them that thought
upon his name.” No reason can be
given why such meetings should not
now be held, unless it be the present
low standard of piety among us. We
would earnestly exhort our brethren
to revive this primitive practice, and
thereby “strengthen the things that
remain that are ready to perish.” The
absence of the pastor, or the being des
titute of a pastor, is no reason why our
churches should suspend the worship
of God. Let them meet at their re
spective places of worship, and “ad
monish one another in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs,”—let them
exhort one another to love and to good
works, —let them “not forsake the as
sembling of themselves together as the
manner of onnu Is.” The ir?
the chapter we have been considering
(12th of 1 Cor.) speaks of “helps" or
helpers, by which he evidently means
those who can speak to the edification
of the church, who by their superior
endowments, are fitted to assist the pas
tors and teachers in their works, and I
so help the faith and joy of others. In
a word, let every gift of the church be
developed so as to answer that sublime
description of an efficient, working
body, in Ephe. 4 : 15-16 : “But speak
ing the truth in love, may grow up in
to him in all things, which is the head,
even Christ; from whom the whole
body fitly joined together and compac
ted by that which every joint supplieth,
according to the effectual working in
the measure of every part, maketh in
crease of the body unto the edifying of
itself in love.” The strength of every
body is in its joints, and the strength
of every church is in its gifts ; and when
these are fully brought out and exer- [
cised, then the body grows both in the
increase of its graces and in the increase i
of its numbers. Thus equipped for
usefulness, the church is prepared to
hear the command from her Head,
"Arise, shine; for thy light is come,
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon
thee.”
CONFIDENCE.
“Confidence, my Lord, is a plant of
very slow growth,” said the elder Chat
ham in the House of Lords once, when
twitted by the opposite party. With
out pausing to bring out the historical
facts that gave rise to the expression,
we propose accepting it as one of those
happy phrases which genius occasion
ally coins with which to enrich our
language, and as embodying a pro
found truth. This thing you call con
fidence, is the result of a hundred
things, more or less, the absence of
either of which materially affects it. It
is like a vast, complicated piece of
machinery, with its wheels and springs
and shafts, etc., the breaking of any
one of which stops the whole. Or, like
the accretions of an oak in the forest,
it is the growth of many long years of
observation and intercourse. You can
no more demand it as a right, than the
invalid cun demand the health and
strength of an athlete. It must come
unbidden if it comes at all. Its high
est form is conciliated by those stern
qualities and amiabilities which are co
eval with the dawn of intellect and moral
consciousness, and which intervening
years hove only served to mature. It
is a spontaneous tribute which virture
always commands, with the same in
variable certainty with which water
flows down a declivity. There are
characters in this world whom we can
no more cease to respect, and honor,
and love, than we can cease to be
charmed by the beautiful in nature.
There is a surface expression of con
fidence, we sometimes witness, that is
gel' rally in the inverse ratio to the
terras employed to avow it. The pover
ty < f the feeling is made up by the
Historic of its utterances. But in this
case, nobody is deceived. It is nothing
more than the hollow artifice of fash
ionable parlance; for, the dupe of such
an artifice has only to ask the dealer
in ‘his bombast for, say the loan of
some money, and he will soon provoke
that distrust that lurks beneath all
thdfie honied phrases. He will soon
find the difference between words and
acts. For, however men may dissem
ble in speech, they are apt to act out
their real convictions. The truth is,
the. vernacular of ingenious confidence
is as meague as its acts are numerous,
wliile that which would dissemble its
reality is princely in its averments, but
in its acts it simply—o.
From all which, we deduce the two
fold lesson : Ist. If you desire the con
fidence of your fellow-men, deserve it.
2d. If you do not cherish this confi
dence in another, do not express it. O,
if there could be some vital connection
established between the heart and the
tongue, so that the language of the
one would express only the deeper con
victions of the other, what a reforma
tion it would effect in our social gather
ings! How it would eliminate our
speech of the shams and cants of bold
hypocricy!
The Religious Press.
—The most earnest work of the Chris
tian may well be done after he has passed
the summit of life. His time of life is a call
to greater diligence, and to more hearty and
consecrated endeavor. His zeal may well
be kindled to a brighter flame by the con
sciousness that the time is snort. He will
press with more vigor along the mark as he
neai’s the goal. These last days ought to bo
the best for zeal, for power, for unmeasured
love, for faithfulness. The sermon, then, is
from a dying man to dying men, and each
day is one of the golden opportunities of
which but few remain. “I must work the
Wirkof Him that sent me while it is day.”
last hours of the harvest day are the bus
fest ones. The belated traveler hurries over
last miles. The victory must be achiev
v'f? th# battle-field before the sun goes
... birnever sarfier life there has
been loitering and trifling the serious age
calls us to energy, activity and to vigilance,
and to dow..rigiit earnestness in the work of
God, — Christian Advocate.
■ —Three items from the New York
Observer:
The character of Lord Byron, the poet, is
not a subject of any great interest to the
world that now is, but truth always is. We
all remember the great scandal that Mrs.
Harriet Beecher Stowe set on foot by her
pretended discovery of a shocking and in
credible story, which she served up to the
disgust and horror of society in a book that
professed to give the cause for the separation
of Lord and Lady Byron. Letters have now
come to light which show that the story was
altogther false, the invention of a lunatic, or
somebody won-e. Mrs. Stowe was imposed
upon and was made the medium of poisoning
the public mind with what is now pronounc
ed, without the shadow of doubt, to be “one of
the blackest charges ever recorded by one
human being against another.”
Jesse H. Drake, a prominent citizsn of
Nash county, N. C., who died on the Bth
inst., requested that his will should be read
on the day of his death. In accordance with
this death bed request the will was opened,
and it was found that he had kft his entire
fortune, estimated at from SIO,OOO to $30,000,
to three of his former slaves, Calvin Drake,
Aaron Drake, Judah Drake, for their lives,
with reversal to their children. His will
was written on the 29th of March, 1877.
He leaves all his estate, real and personal, to
them, and says: “They have been my faith
ful slaves and remained with me since their
freedom, nursing and caring for me in my
old age, and I desire them to share my grat
itude.”
A few weeks since a Roman Catholic
priest at Chicago publicly announced that he
had left the Romish church to join the
Episcopal. Now he comes out with the fol
lowing card:
“The sympathy expressed on all sides by
my old friends is so true and heartfelt that I
find myself unable to resist. I retract what
I have said against the Church of Rome,
and I am resolved to return to the church
that opens its arms to receive an erring
child. Theophilus Vandemoortel.”
It is to be hoped that his new friends will
not express such sympathy for him that he
will feel compelled to oscillate back again to
the Episcopal church. Such conversions do
not amount to anything.
—Mr. Spurgeon has a kind of wit which
is, sometimes, as sharp as an arrow. He says
that everyone is willing to find an excuse
for staying away from a prayer-meeting.
Brother A., for instance, thought it looked
like rain and concluded to remain at home.
On Thursday evening, however, though it
was pouring, he hired a carriage and took
his whole family to the Academy to hear M.
Agassiz delivers lecture on the “Intelli
gence of the Lolmter.” It is always easy to
find a eason for not doing what you don’t
waul to do. Confess nowyou have found
it so yourself, haven’t you? — Ex.
The Central Baptist, (St. Louis),
says:
A ( hristian who can go to his ledge one
night a month and remain till mid-night,
but whose heal h never allows him to go to
the evening prayer-meeting, is indifferent
His church ought to apologize to him for
retaining him so lor g. The man who never
has money for misaii ns, or for religious work
outside of hia own church, but who can keep
himself in tobacco, pay his society dm a and
go to the circus, is indifferent. The member
THE CHRISTIAN HERALD,
of Tennessee.
who can talk in the Grange, or on business,
or on politics, but has nothing to say in re
ligious worship, is indifferent. The young
members who are at all the picnics and par
ties but seldom at the prayer-meeting, are
indifferent. The indifferent member is al
ways serving as little and sinning as much
as the church will allow, seemingly without
one serious reflection on the fearful results
of his course.
We need not money, nor intelligence, nor
orthodoxy, nor numbers half so much as com
pactness, consistency and consecration.
We should say that, the persons above
described are worse than indifferent;
and we have multitudes of them in our
churches. We shoutd do far better
without them than with them. We
have money, inteligence and numbers
enough to do ten times what we do.
We have orthodoxy enough to make us
far better Christians than we are. If
our pastors would turn their attention
more to “compactness, consistency and
consecration” rather than to mere in
crease of numbers, we should be in
vastly better condition. Our hive
seems to be pretty well stocked with
drones, and we seem to be all the time
trying to get more, instead of turning
out those we have.
—A correspondent of The Biblical
Recorder gives in the following expe
rience :
There is daily gaining ground among us a
sentiment that is most pernicious and that
W'll, unless checked, work incalculable mis
chief, It is this : Cer ain parts of Scripture
are more inspired and therefore more wor
thy of reverence and following than other
' parts. Specially is this the case as regards'
those portions which were written by the
apostle Paul. I hear remarks somewhat
like these not unfrequently ; “Paul wrote
that, give me Christ’s own words ;” and only
a few days ago I was met, as a refutati n of
an otherwise unanswerable declaration, with
this remark, “that is the teaching of Paul.
Ido not care what Paul said; give me what
Jesus says.”
Our brethren can never be too often re
minded that all scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and that ong part
of it is just as authoritative as another.
God forbid that we should ever think
or speak except with utmost reverence
of anything that our Lord Jesus
Christ has said, but we must not for
get that equal dignity attaches to any
thing that the Holy Ghost has said,
whether through Paul, or Peter, or
James, or John, u- any of the inspired
writers. The Bible is the word of
God; the whole of it is from him, and
we can make no distinction in its parts.
Thus saith the Lord is sufficient wheth
er it comes to us from the lips of our
Saviour or from those of any other di
vinely accredited messenger.
—From The Religious Herald, a pa
per published in Hartford, Conn., we
take six nuggets all at once; here they
are:
It is the glory of our earth that he who
formed it dwelt on it—of the air that he
breathed it —of the sun that it shone on him
—of the elements that they nourished him
—of the sea that he walked on it—of the wa
ters that they refreshed him—and of us men
that he assumed our nature.
Jesus Christ is the light of the world, ob
jectively and subjectively. He is both s : ght
and light. By being revealed unto and into
us he becomes the light of life.
In nature God is above us. In providence
God is beyond us. In law God is against us.
But in Christ God is with us, near us and
before us.
How gloriously full and valuable Is the
merit of Christ 1 With this merit imputed
to him, the vilest sinner that ever descend
ed from Adam becomes as guiltless before the
law as the angels.
The question at issue between the ene
mies and the friends ol Christ is whether
the Christ of the four gospels is both divine
and human. We accept the issue, and on it
rest the divinity and success of our holy re
ligion. If he was both God and man, then
Christianity cannot be false; and if he was
not, then it cannot be true.
Oh, it is a great thing in religion to have
a divine, imitable model after which to
shape our lives ! Do not rely on Christ as a
Mediator less, but copy him more closely as
a model. That you may be justified before
God without works, know nothing among
men but Jesus crucified. And that you may
illustrate and prove your faith by your
works, know nothing eave Christ exempli
fied. Knowing Christ in these two respects
is religion that honors God and saves the
soul.
—All good citizens will be glad to know
that our g vernment has taksn another de
cided step towards the suppression of the
iniquitous practice of polygamy among the
Mormans of Utah. Secretary Evarts has
addressed a circular fetter to our representa
tives abroad directing them to discourage in
every legal way the emigration of Mormons,
especially of women, to the United States
The bulk of these Mormon women come
from Englaud, Wales, and Germany, and
this government will insist upon the enforce
ment of the provisions of treaties prohibit
ing the inqiortation of criminals, and as this
class of persons is brought here for purposes
in violation of the statutes of the United
States this government considers it has the
right to protest. The district attorney of
Utah has been instructed to carry into effect
the act of congress prohibiting polygamy,
which was contest d >y Mormon influence,
but was decided constitutional by the su
preme court at its last ression. The follow
ers of this delusion will now be made to un
derstand that there is such a crime as biga
my. One party is now in prison for viola
tion of the law and others will be dealt with
likewise.
The ex post facto feature of the law
against polygamy among the Mor
mons, The Index has always protested
Whole No. 2382
against, but all legal measures which
are intended to extinguish that great
iniquity, The Index greatly favors.
Whether the action ofSecretary Evarts
will stand the test of strict legal scru
tiny, may be a question. It is to be
hoped, however, that it is strictly legal,
and that it will have the desired effect.
However great evils may be, they’ ought
not to be combatted, except on the most
rigid applications of law. Two wrongs
do not make a right. As to the prac
tibility of Secretary Evarts’ measures,
we have our doubts.
We take a few clippings at second
hand from The Methodist, (N. Y.,)
for whose taste and judgment we
waive our own:
When we find ourselves in trouble with no
apparent way out of it, do we commonly
give more time to worry over it or to pray
about it? The worry can never make our
path plainer, or our troubles the fess. Prayer
may do both. There is a great deal of time
lost in thinking over our burdens and per
plexities, instead of talking them over with
God.— Sunday-School Times.
For every redeemed sinner is an original
specimen of some new peculiarity of divine
grace God, the temple builder, is adapting
a d iscipline to every human being in his
church. He fits ana polishes each one as a
living stone for the exact place it is destined
to occupy in the spiritual palace. And when
all the stones are made ready, he will build
them together, each into its destined place,
and exhibit to men and angels a perfect
unity at last.— Methodist Recorder.
_ Our characteristics, the original trails that
.distinguish us among our fellows, aie ex
' pected to stand out after conversion. The
function of religion is thoroughly to mix
itself up with them, and command them for
its own ends. To manifest piety most grace
fully, as well as most usefully, we must man
ifest it naturally-. Home Christians are
hardly ever at ease in attending to the ser
vices of religion, just because they are not
willing to be themselves. It is one of the
gravest blunders to assume a religious style
that does not suit our temperament. — Balti
more Methodist.
“Every one of us must give account for
himself unto God;” but “none of us liveth
to himself, and no man dieth to himself.”
The responsibilities of character are utterly
personal; yet the man who undertakes to
keep his religion all to himself will sfieedily
find that he has none to keep. In one sense,
no one can share your religious life with
you; in another sense, you can have no reli
fiom life If you do not share it with others.
’or judgment we stand alone; for work, for
prayer, for consolation, for growth, we stand
related in a thousand ways to those who aie
round about us.— Sunday Afternoon.
Mr. Ira D. Sankey and his family
have returned from Europe. Last
Sabbath two weeks Mr. Sankey sat in
the congregation in Mr. Spurgeon’s
Tabernacle. He was recognized by
the great preacher, who deputed a
deacon to invite him to the platform.
Then the preacher asked the evange
list to sing for his people in the even
ing. The tabernacle was crowded, and
Mr. Sankey sang “Who is on the Lord’s
side ?” Mr. Spurgeon announced the
American evangelist’s intended depar
ture, and when afterward the latter
sang “Hold the Fort” the entire con
gregation rose to their feet spontan
eously and joined in the chorus so lus
tily that Mr. Spurgeon remarked that
the roof of his Tabernacle having
withstood that volume of sound might
be considered safe. The enthusiasm of
the audience was so great that Mr.
Spurgeon had the chorus sung over
three times. That was the evangelist’s
last song in Europe. Mr. Sankey has
no definite plans for the future.
The Queen of Madagascar has issued
an important proclamation, a portion
of which is as follows: “I thank God
very much because the gospel of Jesus
Christ has entered my land and my
kingdom, to make wise my people, and
to make them know God, that they
may obtain everlasting life in the end.
And on account of this protection
which I have got from God, which I
see is very good, then I rested my
kingdom upon God.” Among other
laws is one against making, selling or
drinking native rum. Also, laws hav
ing reference to churches and their
orderly management, forbidding work
on Sunday, and one against unjust
weights of balances. Christian rulers
would do well to imitate the queen in
these things.
Iceland, the region of intense natural
cold, is full of religious warmth. The
word of God is the text-book of the
people. Every home has it Bible, not
just as an ornament, not as a well-kept
cherished marriage gift, nor because of
some undefined superstitious feeling of
reverence, but for daily use. In Ice
land the Bible is constantly read. As
a consequence, Iceland is without a
theater or prison. There is no such
office as sheriff. They own no cannon,
and military drill is an unknown
science.
The colored Baptists of Alabama
have for the last year sustained a the
ological and normal school at Helma
with 5 teachers and 250 students, with
out incurring any debt, and have paid
also SI,OOO on the debt on the ground
and buildings.