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The Christian Index. Vol. 57 —No 38. Table of Contents. Fibst Pagi—Alabama Department: Beset ting Sin; A Sad Picture; Alabama News; The Religious Press. Second Page—Correspondence: From the Indian Territory—W. O. T.; From Wash ington—W. H. Robert; Re-Immersion— J. M. Robertson ; Bowman—l. H. Gosa; Tugalo Baptist Association—Visitor; How Far is it to Canaan ? H.; Dr. Adiel Sher wood—l. R. Branham; Indian Items—A. Frank Ross. Thibd Page—Sunday-school Lesson ; A Re markable Clock; Gen. Hood’s Last Charge —poetry—by Mary Hunt McCaleb. Fourth Page—Editorials: Made and Bap tized ; Goose and Gander; A Superficial View; Good Bye; Dangerous Criticisms; Snakes; The Jews in Palestine; Georgia Baptist News; Sarepta Association. Fifth Page—Secular Editorials, News Par agraphs; The Other Side; If I Stop my Paper; Georgia News. Sixth Page—Obituaries, etc. Seventh Page—Farmers’ Index: Farm <Work for October, etc. ghth Page—Florida Department; More About the Seminoles; Another Fact Over looked; Special Notices, etc. ■ L 1' . " - I" Alabama Department. BY SAMUEL HENDERSON. BESETTING SINS. “Habit is a second nature,” says an old proverb. It is more: it not un frequently overmasters the first nature. Vicious habits, long indulged, some times come upon the victim like an armed giant, and “carry him whither he would not go.” Although he knows full well the ruin impending over him—although he sees the mournful wrecks of other compan ions in guilt scattered all around him, pointing as with the finger of fate to his own wretched doom—yet, as if im , pelled by some fell spirit that possesses him, he is precipitated on in his fatal career, until he, too, is launched into the gulf of eternal despair. Once entering the current, he glides on, amused by a thousand enchantments, until he hears the roaring of the cat aract before him, and the current be comes too strong for resistance and ■ plunges him into the abyss, to swell the number of ruined souls. L It- worth While to look into A sub ‘fraught AU such bilaicuiable p evil, and ascertain the source of these “besetting sms. Os course we do not propose to go over the entire list of vicious habits incident to depravity, for they embrace the whole gamut of iniquity, transgression and sin. We only propose to classify these sources of evil, and leave the reader to supply the details. The three principal sources of bad habits are, the tongue, the passions, and the appetites. This is by no means an exhaustive analysis, but it embraces all that falls within our present purpose. As to the tongue, of what habits of vice is it the parent! Blasphemy, ob scenity, abuse, prevarication, lying, slander, exaggeration, and the like. Take the single habit of exaggeration— how easily, how insensibly this habit grows on one. It begins in the very first utterances of childhood, anil unless checked by prudent parental authority, it becomes a marked pecu liarity in all the after-career of the person. A foolish desire to awaken a little surprise or wonder in the social circle, induces the victim of this vice to overstate the common occurrences of every day life, until nobody be lieves anything he says, unless sus • tained by other proof. “The gift of gab,” as we familiarly say, is a good promoter of this wretched habit. He must talk, and in the absence of > -anything else to say, he will retail ’ striking incidents by the hour, manu factured out of whole cloth, until he is left without an auditor. Some years ago, one of these interminable ' talkers stopped in a neighborhood where he was a perfect stranger, and selecting a company of men, opened t on them and clattered away for an hour or two without intermission,when, pausing for a moment, the crowd dis persed ; an old staid farmer turned to one of his neighbors and said, “well, there,” pointing to the stranger as he walked off, “there is the biggest liar I ever saw!” “Why,” answered bis friend, “do him ?” “No,” said he, ; but there SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST. of Alabama. they will control us. What a sorrow ful sight to see an old man at the age -of three-score and ten, the slave of his ; passions, giving way to every little disappointment, boiling over with rage a at everything that crosses his purposes, until the wisdom and dignity we asso ciate with age is lost in the contempt . we feel for his whimsical freaks! Yet this sight is not uncommon. And all . this comes of his having yielded to his passions until he can no longer con trol them. Like the destiny our Lord predicted of Peter, when he said, “When thou wast young, thou gird- B edst thysell and walkedst whither thou wouldest; but when thou shalt be old, - thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and 1 another shall gird thee and carry thee ; whither thou wouldest not.” Thus it 1 often is with our passions: they “gird us and carry us whither we would not.” The battles of youth must con , quer the liberty of manhood and age. But of all the besetting sins that pertain to our fallen humanity, those which originate in our appetites are the 1 most degrading. Our appetites consti tute that part of our nature that allies ! us to the brute creation. Every time we have to refresh our animal nature, we are painfully reminded that it is of “the earth earthy.” That great and good man, Robert Leighton, had a saying, that each time he had to partake of food to nourish his body he could not help feeling a sense of humiliation, that he possessed a nature so depend ent upon the gross things of earth for 1 its very life. For this reason, those habits that find their gratification in the perversion of these appetites are of all others the most imbruting. Can our nature, fallen and depraved though it be, present a more degrading, ■ disgusting, revolting sight, than the victim of intemperance, wallowing in the mire with the swine, or maddened into fury and wreaking his vengeance upon wife and children, those objects that should be dearer to him than his own life ? A noble, rational, immortal being, that might achieve a destiny glorious as heaven itself, wrecked and ruined in the cesspools of corruption and imfamy! Young man, when the sparkling cup is offered to your lips by the hand of mistaken friendship, rebuke the insidious temptation in the stern language of the poet: •‘Take back the bowl, take back the bowl; Reserve It for polluted Ups; I would not bow a stainless soul, Beneath its foul and dark eclipse I” , ’ A BADPICTURE. Os all the wrecks that ever sadden ed the human heart that is the most mournful, where a cultivated, talented, ■ worthy human being, capable of filling ' any position in church or State with 1 honor, abandons himself to the vice of intemperance and its attendant evils. We have seen vast plantations . and palatial houses in ruins, whole forests desolated by cyclones, wealthy , families reduced to penury, whole households melt away by the “noisome pestilence,” countries laid waste by ■ “grim visaged war,” but never have we seen any sight that so penetrated , us w’ith a sense of sadness as a rational, immortal soul forgetting its heavenly birth, and plucking down upon itself ■ the most wanton, self-inflicted destruc tion for time and eternity. Over this we may well lament with a more than common lamentation. Cities may ■ be rebuilt after the most dire calami ! ties; countries may be restored after the very “abomination of desolation” has swept over them; private fortunes may be recovered by subsequent indus try, and even wasted health may be brought back by long and persistent prudence; but, alas! what shall recon struct a wretched character and a ruined soul ? Who is able to revive in that mass of ruins the innocence and manhood of other days? We have seen the sturdy oak of the forest, smitten by lightning and despoiled of its leaves and branches, a monument of ruin. Spring returned to all the surrounding forest, but it came not to that tree to invest it with its vernal dress. So the poor, helpless, abandon ed inebriate stands among men, with ! ered and blasted, “a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction." The pit of woe can only surpass it in those terrors be fore which the benevolent heart shrinks in dismay. The Birmingham Church Fund.— It will be remembered that soon after our State Convention was held at Bir mingham, last July, we submitted a proposition to our brethren in Alabanla j to raise five hundred dollars to aid our church there to finish their house of and plan a little pastor’s BBteie on the church lot. We are glad that the proposition Ims taken up to this time $.‘192 ."><» millrril dollars has Inui nil i-1 rv of In Hin -8.. ami tin- kimlß ' I'll'!' ' \\ • imp'- Atlanta, Georgia, Thursday, October 2, 1879. could a more opportune benefaction be bestowed by our brethren for the pres ent and prospective interests of the cause. Birmingham is rapidly advanc ing in every element that will make it, at no distant day, a city second in im portance to none in the State. ALABAMA NEWS. There are over 90,000 white Baptists in Alabama. Montgomery, Ala., is erecting over 100 new buildings. All the coal mines in Jefferson county are doing a paying business. The Post office at Haysville, Greene county, has been discontinued. The East Alabama Fair commences at Eufaula November 3d. Selma has organized a cotton ex change, with Levi Lawler president. A railroad bridge will probably soon be built across the Alabama river at Selma. Corn is selling in some portions of North Alabama at twenty cents per bushel. Auburn college matriculated 100 pupils on the 24th ult., and 60 more are on the ground. The general impression now is that the cotton crop in Alabama has been cut off about one-half. Dr. J. T. Warnock, of Opelika, has purchased a residence in Atlanta, and will shortly remove to this city. It is stated that the State Fair is go ing to be the greatest triumph in the exposition line that Alabama has ever known. Thos. W. Coleman, of Eutaw, has been appointed solicitor of the seventh judicial district, vice R. H. Clarke re signed. The Selma and Gulf Railroad was sold under foreclosure at Selma last week. It was bought by Mr. Charles Williams, of Atlanta, for D. T. Sullivan, President and owner of the Peninsula road. The Baptists of Lee county held an association at Hepzibah church, about eight miles east of Opelika, on the 21st ult. The attendance was larger than ever before—fully fifteen hundred people being present. Rev. J. H. Hendon has succeeded in securing the additional amount, viz: SSOO, to build a parsonage, ibr his church in Birmingham. ‘ i 1 The Talladega Baptist Sunday-school has contributed five dollars and a half to the Birmingham Baptist parsonage fund, in response to the call made by Rev. Dr. Henderson. We are glad to learn that the pros pects for a full attendance at the Ala bama Central Female College next ses sion are good. Prof. Yancey deserves to succeed. Bro. L. W. Duke, of Kempville, writes: “I have just closed a meeting of four days at Claiborne, in which we enjoyed a precious out-pouring of the Spirit. Eight were received by expe rience and one by letter.” The Colored Baptists of Alabama have, for the last year, sustained a theological and normal school at Sel ma, with five teachers ( and 252 stu dents, without incurring any debt, and have paid, also, SI,OOO on the debt on the ground and buildings. Uchee Creek Bridge.—The piers for the iron bridge to be placed over Uchee creek, Mobile and Girard rail road, are fast nearing completion. A gentleman tells us that they seem to grow like mushrooms. One has been finished, and a portion of another. The iron work is to be made in Atlanta, and the bridge will be ready for trains about November 15th. The churches composing the Pine Barren, Bethlehem and Zion Associa tions are earnestly requested to send up their pledges to the State Mission Board, to their associational meetings. The evangelist needs his salary. He has done, and is still doing, great good in his field. Mrs. James Bryant, of Lowndes county, donated last year her colossal fortune of natural black hair for the benefit of the Memphis yellow fever sufferers. It realized several hundred dollars, and has now come back to the original owner, by the kindness of a Boston merchant, who was the last purchaser, and it will now be sold for the benefit of Gen. Hood’s children. The Sunday-school convention of Lee county, which met in the Baptist church in Opelika on Thursday night last, continued its session to Saturday noon. The chief speakers of the occa sion were Rev. Drs. Rivers and An drews, and Rev. Messrs. Dill and Riley. Capt. Cross, of Selma, was received as a visitor, and did good work in the convention. An executive committee was appointed, composed of Messrs. Riley, Andrews, Star, McGehee, Me- Kemie, G. A. Taylor, Dill and T. C. Pinckard. The Religious Press. —The two following articles are from the Mississippi Baptist Record, and the article on Snakes, which ap pears on our fourth page, is from the same source. To copy three articles from one issue of one paper is an un usual thing in journalism. But so much has been said of late about the loose morals of Mississippi, that we thought it might be well to give a few samples of the religious teachings en joyed by the people of that State. The first of the two following articles is cer tainly very sweet and consoling; the second is clear and sound and Scriptu ral. The Snake article on another page is also greatly to our mind. Here is No. 1: Peace in Death. —The Rev. Dr. Fuller stood by the bed of a dying young man, who had recently become a follower of Christ. “My brother, do you realize that you are soon to die ?” said Mr. Fuller. “I do," was the reply. “Do you now feel that you love Jesus?” interrogated Dr. Fuller. “I know I love him,” was the firm reply. “And does not this love to Christ give you great com fort?” The dying saint; with emphasis, said : “It is not my love to Christ that now gives me peace, but it is his great love for me. I could not risk my love to Jesus, but since he died for me, I can risk his love for me.” This man had the true gospel conso lation. Nothing in us will do to rest on, however good it may be. Underlying all safe hope is Christ, the rock of ages. Here we have a sure refuge in the day of trouble. “He hath loved us with an everlasting love.” In this love must our hope rest, if we would not be disappointed in the time of our ut most need. O, may we feel when we come down to “Jordan’s wave,” that we still may rest in the abounding love of him who hath loved us and given himself to die for us. —And here is No. 2 : Predestination is against the natural dis position or will, but not against that gracious will which God works in the predestinated to their- salvation. The natural heart is against Christ, but when the Lord begins a work of grace in his elect, he commences by taking away the heart of stone, and creating instead a heart of flesh ; so that the renewed man wills against his natural will, and turns to that which by nature he despised. Thus God works in us to make us a willing people in the day of his power. The Almighty overcomes the difficulty of our free wills by making us willing to accept his Son. That he makes some willing and not others, elects some and not others, is to be set down to his sovereignty; for he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom Li will he hardeneth. Why he acts thus hi as not told us, and we must accept be written and ’ againstWiaF <rA‘®r|l Certainlya community that sustains and enjoys such teachings as the above, cannot be so wholly corrupt as has been represented. The “Mississippi plan,” so far as it is represented by our extracts of to-day, we think is a very good plan; infinitely better than the plan observed elsewhere, of heralding the sins of a neighbor in forgetfulness of one’s own. —A good man will not originate a slan derous report concerning any person or any people. A thoughtful, good man will not repeat or circulate any damaging report un less he knows it to be true. From now unti[ the close of the Presidential campaign bitter partisans and interested politicians will make it a business to manufacture falsehoods. Leave to them also the task of circulating them. Good men, North and South, can find better employment. With considerable regularity we copy a paragraph of the same tenor as the above from the Christian Advocate about once a week. It does not seem to do much good, but we hope the Ad vocate will keep on saying it, and we shall keep on quoting him. If some of our religious journals will persist in circulating slanderous stories, they shall be met with persistent protest and rebuke. —To speak of the Christian religion as making men too anxious for their own salva tion to care for the well being of their kind, is simply to ignore some of the plainest facts of history. But, to be sure, a skeptical scien tist in pursuit of a theory antagonistic to “theology" must not be expected to take much account of facts which militate against his theory. If the facts don’t accord with the theory —whv, so much the worse for the facts I They are not worthy to be even so much as noticed by a truly scientific mind. The above is from one of our exchanges, we don’t know which one. Certainly it is true that the Christian religion al ways makes men anxious for the salva tion of others, and the fearful self sacrifices that have been made for this end are among the sublimest facts in history. Christianity is always diffu sive, and where there is none of this spirit there is none of that religion. But we know of a good many who pro Jess Christianity, who, if they feel any anxiety for the salvation of others, never show it by anything that they do. Well, they say that they are too poor. Indeed, they must be very poor, for many of them do not expend for the cause of Christ one cent a year! May it not bo that their religion is poorer than their purse? —The Presbyterian, Philadelphia, has this note in reference to the desecration of the Sabbath : “The deserration of the Sabbath has reached another point in the downward way. By a hand bill befor* us we learn that the annual fair of the Egg Harbor City Agricultural Society was opened on Sunday, THE CHRISTIAN HERALD, of Tennessee. September 14th, and continued for two days following. Excursion trains were arranged by the Camden and Atlantic Railroad to run on the Sabbath as on the other days, and on Sunday last this deliberate violation of the law of the State and the law of God was per petrated, and the day of God openly pro faned. This, as it seems to us, is the wan tonness of wickedness. Other days in the week were not wanting, and there does not seem to be a shadow of a good reason why the fair should not have been opened on Monday rather than on the Lord’s day. It was purely an act of defiance on the part of the managers of the fair, while God's law was set at naught and the hallowed day of rest profaned.” In this connection we may add that Rev. L. W. Bacon’s opposition to Sunday desecration in Norwich, Conn., has awakened the wrath of his opponents, and they have smeared his house with mortar. Sorry are we that these “outrages” occur anywhere, but it is a comfort to think that such a thing as smearing the house of a minister of the gospel for preaching against any violation of the Decalogue has never occurred, so far as we have ever heard, in any of the Southern States. —The first missionaries'.to any heathen land, labor under the disadvantage of being strangers and foreigners both to the people and the language, and so not in full sympa thy with those whom they would instruct and lead to the Saviour. Their earnest sin cerity and love for many souls may, to a great counterbalance this disadvan tage, but still it is a disadvantage, and one which would not exist if with, all their knowledge and zeal, they were one with the people they address, born and trained up in the same land. So says the National Baptist, and so say we. On the same principle the most suitable persons to labor among the negroes of the South are the men who were “born and raised with them.” Yet only last winter the National Bap tist seemed to think that those who have the acquaintance of this peculiar people to make would be quite as good as any. Our esteemed brother seems to have made progress, on which we congratulate him—and ourselves. Our esteemed brethren, J. T. Robert and D. Shaver will be the chief teachers in the Theological School for negroes soon to be established in Atlanta. Good appointments, both, and good work in the cause of Christ will be done. —The Watchman, (Boston) in speak ing of the future development of Afri ca, says, and apparently with much complacency: The great nation of Africa is destined to be a mixture in which the blacks shall predominate, while the whites dominate. If a’e had said this it would have been heresy. In this country The' Watchman (judging by its usual course) would reverse matters. Here the whites predominate, yet, the blacks ought to dominate; and if they do not, it is said to be because of “frauds,’’“per secutions” and “outrages.” Bro. Watchman, we think you are right about Africa, and we beg to suggest that wherever the Anglo-Saxon race is found in the world it is sure to dom inate whether it predominates or not. This is one of the inevitables, and the world may as well be prepared to ac cept the situation. We don’t mean any harm by this; we mean only that whoever goes ahead of the Anglo-Sax on in the race of life will have to be a very “early riser,” more so, indeed, than the world has ever yet produced. It may be worth while to add that we and the great majority of our neigh bors, except the negroes, are Anglo- Saxons. Providence has put us in the lead, and we have no doubt intends us to stay there. We hope and pray that God will incline our hearts to use our power in such way as will promote the good of all and the glory of our com mon Father. —There is significance in the fact that well-to-do Jews in the civilized countries of the world are turning their attention to the improvement of Palestine as their ancestral home, and are using concerted measures to improve the country and the condition of their race who still remain there. If it is true as reported, that the Rothschilds have a mortgage on the country for loans to the government; and that the late Baron just before his death requested the reading of that eminently Christian hymn beginning with “Jesus, lover of my soul ; ” and that special attention is now being paid to educa tional and industrial schemes among the resident Jews, wo may certainly be encour aged to give a more literal interpretation to some prophesies than recent commentators have favored. If, in the providence of God, the Jews and the Armenians should pour the tribute of their united forces into the work of spreading a pure gospel what mighty results would soon follow. Our own disposition is always to in terpret the Scriptures literally when the sense will bear it. '• —The admission of Utah as a State into the Union is suggested in some of the politi cal pafiers as a (Krnsibility in the near future, with its abominable polygamy in uncontroll ed existence. Such an event would be both a disgrace and a calamity. A disgrace—in that a community with so foul an institu tion in the midst of it, and cherished ns one of its dearest peculiarities, indeed as a di vinely bestowed privilege, should lie admit ted into a sisterhood of Chrieiian States on equal terms of right and fellowship. A Ca lamity—in that it'would render still more difficult, if not im|>ossible, the abolition of this odious relic of barbarism. For, even if in the act of admission a condition prohib iting polygamy were inserted, the State, once Whole No. 2388 admitted, could amend its organic law by re storing the darling custom, and nothing short of another amendment to the Consti tution of the United States would then avail for its suppression. The mere mooting of such a proposition as the speedy admission of Utah is in itself a powerful argument for the prompt, energetic and unsparing enforce* ment of the existing 'aw against this crime, that it may be blotted out as rapidly as pos sible. The Index has never favored the “existing law” against polygamy be cause it is ex post facto, and moreover impracticable; but it does favor a law far more stringent than the present one and which shall be prospective in its operation. The present law will simply make martyrs of the Mormons, thus putting us in the wrong and giv ing them prestige,while it will not stop their heathenish practice. As to the desireableness of getting rid of the infamy there can be but one opinion. The Pulpit Use of Slang.—While some defense may be found for the employ ment of unwonted methods of preaching, such as familiar and colloquial and anecdo tal forms of utterance—partaking of the na ture, if not, indeed, formed upon the model of the sensational; we insist upon it that there can be no excuse offered—or none ad mitted if offered—fdr the use of slang and slovenly expressions in the house and ser vice of God. These we heir but too fre quently, and while they are occasionally the outcome of defective education and taste, they are more frequently—the more’s the pity—the affectation of young preachers who ought not to be allowed to plead ignorance in their defense. They probably would not do so, but would claim ihatjthe active force of slang phrases reaches the mind of the hearer quicker and more effectively than expres sions of a more sober and dignified tone. We grant that this may be true, but they reach (the ear of all cultured persons to of fend it and the majority of devout hearers to produce the impression of a levity at utter variance with the solemnity of religious worship. We have heard preachers only recently and in pulpits not out of telegraphic reach of Chicago, use such slang phrases as “tak ing stock,” “getting a square meal,” “going the whole animal,” “keeping his head lev el," “putting his foot in it,” “getting a cor ner on brimstone,” “and then he Peter’d," and many others, equally coarse and unfit for the pulpit—unless, indeed, the theory which some would set up, is to be admitted, that the pulpit is no more sacred than the platform. If some young preachers we wot of —and preachers who are not very young no less I —would be a great deal more careful in their utterance, the dignity of the pulpit would not be so often lowered, and possibly they might be more respected in it, and out of it alike.— Standard. Simple language in the pulpit, lan guage that can be understood by any bodyj is proper, and is generally the’ ' only ( language which really good preachers use. But vulgar lan guage and vulgar illustrations are un becoming anywhere. We have heard ministers in good repute so express themselves as to shock the sense of propriety, not to say the modesty, of a whole congregation. —We hold a higher view of prophecy than that. But even on that view, and of course much more on the one we hold, the prophet ical teaching on the position we are consid ering rings out loud and clear. It announces no truth mote sharply and frequently, than that God deals with a people for the private character and conduct of their official repre sentatives. He punishes a nation for the immoralities of its rulers; he rewards it for the uprightness and purity of the men whom it exalts to office. Bible history and proph ecy abound with this. Able but unprinci pled men may appear for awhile, in their administration of public affairs, to run a country in a career of prosperity; but they are all the while poisoning the national life and gathering together the clouds of God’s judicial visitation.— Presbyterian. And that is j ust why we have declared that we never will vote for any man for office in our State of Georgia who is a notoriously bad man, no matter to which party he belongs, nor by whom he may have been nominated. We have nothing to do with politics, but we will not cast our vote to put a man in conspicuous position whose whole influence tends to debauch the minds of our people, and disgrace the tone of public morals. If this be treason, the world may make the most of it. The National Baptist speaking in proper terms of the Chisolm case in Mississippi, says: We repeat what we have before said. We do not think that this is a case for the inter ference of the General Government. The evil must find its remedy within the State of Mississippi, or the result will be pro foundly disastrous to the State. We agree with our brother in the opinion that the evil must find its rem edy within the State of Mississippi, and that otherwise the result must be pro foundly disastrous to the State.. The best remedy that we know for all evils is the earnest preaching of the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ. The good work is going on in Mississippi as well as elsewhere; but much remains to be done elsewhere as well as in Missis sippi. —There were eight accessions to the Baptist church at Harpersville during the late meeting. —A Masonic hall and Baptist church are in the course of erection at Brew ton. —James W. Dickinson, of Grove Hill, has been ordained as minister by the Baptist church. A -J