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HENRY 11. TUCKER, Editor.
REMEMBRANCE OF GOD.
thoughts on psalm LXXVII.
From the wealth of instruetion in j
this Psalm, we single out two truths for ,
brief review. If our broken words might I
but be a charfnel of conveying to those
who read them the spirit of the sacred
writer, we should no longer lament the
imperfections which must otherwise
stand without excuse.
1. Remembrance of God causes
trouble, (verse 3).
Coming to human ears, this state
ment may carry no surprise with it;
but may we not judge that it would be
heard with amazement by holy beings,
strangers to the history of an apostate
race? Such beings,probably, would find
two wonders in it. God is never out of
their minds. They see him in all things.
The universe to them is not a veil that
hides, but a glass that mirrors its mak
er. Their view of his works is a perpet
ual vision of himself. Might they not
marvel, then, that there should be
space for remembrance of God, in the
strict sense es the word—the coming
back unto the mind of something
which had passed out of it for a season?
In plainer terms, it would perhaps
strike them with wonder that God could
be, at any time, and even in the least
degree, forgotten. And certainly this
wonder would rise unto astonishment,
when they learned that God, returning
within the sphere of thought, was met
with no glad welcome. The idea of
God is at once base and summit to the
mountain of their joy. Every new
aspect of that idea to their minds is like
the bursting forth of another sun at
noonday. Not a phase of that idea,
but there gushes from it, as it were, a
river of delight to embathe their spirits.
What a strange,monstrous thing, there
fore, must they deem it that the idea of
God should come to any of his crea
tures as a troubling influence!
But the apostacy of our race divests
this truth of all mystery. Sin naturally
and necessarily links trouble with re
nuombrance of God. It was with ro
' ference to a season of rebuke for in
iquity that the Psalmist said : “I re
. membered God and was troubled.”
Nothing else could have wrung such
language from his lips. And in an exi
gency of that kind, this language, and
the feeling lying back of it in the soul
and prompting it, were greatly wise.
Many reasons show shis.
God is the being against whose su
premacy sin revolts. Sin denies to God
the right of government over itself;
and if its power were as great as its
will is vile, sin would rob God of the
right of government over his creatures.
To be brought face to face, hi thought,
with this insulted sovereign, to recog
nize the enormity of our rebellion j
against him, under that light of con-I
viction which makes God, if not a visi-!
ble, yet a conscious presence, surely I
this may well smite the heart with ter- !
rorand with trembling.
God is the witness of sin. Wo cannot
get behind his back to work evil; it is
■wrought from first to last,before his face.
The most secret offences are set in the
light of his countenance : that is to
say, through the folds of the darkness
with which we seek to wrap ourselves,he
shines round about these offences as he
shines on his throne in glory, only our
eyes are holden, and we see it not. lie
understands, not the words and deeds
of wrong alone, but the germ-thoughts ,
from which they grow and ripen ; and |
he understands those thoughts afar;
off, before they are born into the soul, j
before the soul has fallen low enough to ,
give them birth, before the soul itself
is summoned into being. Even the I
transgressions which we have cloaked !
from our fellowmen, and those which j
we have not allowed ourselves to know, j
or have compelled ourselves to forget,a re I
naked and open to the eye of which we j
must say that what it sees once it sees I
always. Shall no alarm shake the
soul when we stand thus unmasked ;
when we feel that hearts, so thorough
ly opaque to human vision, are trans
parent in the sight of God, and that
his glance pierces them through and
through?
God is the avenger of sin also. Jus
tice and judgment are tne habitation
—the establishment of his throne. lie
is of purer eyes than to behold evil,and
■cannot look on iniquity.”
God must understand and punish sin.
Not merely because it rebels against
him, but because it strikes a fatal
blow at the happiness of his creatures
—a happiness possible through purity.
Sin unrestrained would transform the
worlds which God has made into a
universe of lost spirits! This is the
most awful conception which the hu
man mind can frame; and to prevent
conception from becoming an awful ex
perience, God judges the earth in
righteousness. When consciousness
•of guilt deepens into a prophecy of
"judgment; when the scones of that
judgment rise as a vision of terror be
fore the soul, and the awards of that
judgment sound as the knell of its
doom, not to quail, is to be less than
human in the faculty,or at least in the
exercise of reason.
The Christian Index and South-western Baptist: Thursday October 16, 1879.
What door of hope opens for man
in this extremity? Take, as an an
swer, as an embodiment of the only
scriptural answer, the second truth
which we wish to state.
2. The cure for this trouble is—re
membrance of God. (Vers. 10, 11.)
Men think differently. They do “not
like to retain Godin their knowledge ;”
they seek to drown their memories of
him, that with these they may drown
the disquietude and fear produced by
them. But the children of wisdom
have learned that if a view of God, in
his holiness as Judge, overwhelms the
sou) and slays it, a view of his mercy
as Saviour gives it life again and glad
dens it. It is precisely the trouble that
makes the comparison attractive, and
dear Calvary is most precious when we
look at it from the foot of Sinai. And
the grace of God comes to the heart
most touchingly and constrainingly
when we regard it in the light, not of
doctrine simply, but as fact; when we
gather it from what lie has said in
one age indeed, but also from what He
has done, over and over, through all
the ages. The Psalmist, therefore, in
quest of comfort, says: "I will remem
ber the years of the right hand of the
Most High : 1 will remember the works
of the Lord; surely I will remember
thy wonders of old.”
When we trace the history of divine
grace, we find that God Jias pardoned
sinners. He has shown that there is
forgiveness with him; thus making
himself the object of that fear which
is itself a form of love, and which
brings with it love’s own trust and
peace and joy. The handwriting of
condemnation has been blotted out.
Souls have been plunged into the foun
tain of a Saviour’s blood and covered
all over with it, so that the sword of
justice cannot strike them without
striking that blood—and that blood
this sword will never strike, never!
“The chief of sinners” has been “jus
tified freely ;” and hero is hope for us.
But God has done a much greater
work for men than simply to turn away
the eye of judgment from the evil in
them. With the might of his mercy,
he has taken away the evil itself. He
has wrought that miracle which shines
all others into eclipse, as the sun puts
out the stars —he has purified sinners.
He has made them, not merely heirs
of his compassion, but partakers of his
nature. In the style of the prophet,
he has put his comeliness upon them,
and within them. This likeness, mar
red now by much faultiness, shall be
made perfect, when “the high God, our
redeemer,” manifests himself; when we
see him as he is, and, in a sense, be
come what we behold. This is meas
ureless hope.
But we must break away from a
subject which only heaven can com
plete. The line of thought on this
article is not inaptly expressed by a
tradition respecting Ali, the theologian
of early Mohamedanism. He was
once asked : “If the canopy of heaven
were u bow, if the earth were the cord
thereof, if calamities were the arrows,
if mankind were the marks for these
arrows, and if the Almighty God, the
tremendous and the glorious, were the
unerring archer, to whom could the
sons of Adam Hee for protection?” To
this question he made answer: “The
sons of Adam must ilee to the Lord.”
Oh, dear, blissful refuge! Oh, hiding
place that is akin to heaven, that is
heaven! May he whose hand writes
these lines and those under whose eyes
they fall, meet together in that shelter,
now and at the last.
UNHAPPY.
There is much unhappiness in this 1
world, and much of it is self-caused.
One of the ways in which people make I
themselves miserable, is the indulgence *
of an anxiety to find fault. If one goes |
about hunting up objectionable things, [
he will find plenty of them. His fath-j
er and mother are imperfect; his |
brothers and sisters are imperfect; his
wife and children are imperfect; all
his neighbors are imperfect; and the
same may be said of the whole human
race. t Under these circumstances, it
requires no talent at all, to find things
that are justly censurable. If a man
makes a business of arraying these
things before his mind, and sharply
commenting on them as they deserve,
he will find himself unprofitably em
ployed. As a reformer, he will not be
1 a success. People never listen favora-
I bly to a constitutional fault-finder;
I they simply regard him as a nuisance,
i Thus he is doomed to perpetual disap-
I pointment., for he corrects no evils; and
'to perpetual antagonism, for every
! man’s hand is snre to be against him.
Some will oven Haunt disagreeable
things in his face, for no other purpose
i than to make sport of his rage. He
1 may paw the ground, and raise a great
dust, like an infuriated bull, and mis
chievous boys will tease him with red
handkerchiefs, amid the shouts and
derision of the multitude. The world
is not to bo reformed by fault-finding;
and the reflex influence of the spirit of
fault-finding is ruinous to a man’s own
character, no less than to his reputa
tion. It makes him sour; it makes
him bitter; it makes him a hater; it
makes him hateful. Look for the
good things in the character and con
-1 duct of others; regard their failures
J with charity: if rebuke becomes neces
sary, administer it with tenderness and
( sympathy; and try to inaugurate re
form by beginning with yourself. Thon
I you will be a useful man, and a happy
, man, and your prospects for the here
-1 after will brighten.
INFORMATION WANTED.
Ist. Has it not, from time immemorial,
been the custom of Christian denominations
to dedicate houses built for churches alone
to the service of God ?
2d. Donotallprotestanthousesof worship,
under the order of dedication, become, in the
strictest sense, God's sanctuary, and is it not
the duty of the erttire membership of any
particular church to so regard it, and let it
be consecrated alone to Divine worship?
3d. If it is really the house of God, has
any sect, or part of a sect, professing to be
worshippers of the Great I Am, any right to
use, or suffer it to be used, for any other
purpose, such as public school exhibitions,
sleight-of-hand shows, and suffer said sanc
tuary desecrated by a fiddling of reels, pat
ting of feet, profane swearing, and imbibing
of alcoholic liquors ?
4th. Are not missionaries needed, greatly
I needed, throughout this land of idolatry and
reform, and should there be any pains spared
I to have them call frequently. J. F. W.
At the request of a friend we print
the above questions, albeit the same
inquiries might have been put in a
i more attractive form. An air of
fault-finding seems to pervade them,
the effect of which is likely to be just
the opposite of what the writer desires.
Still, we probably agree, in the main,
with the views of our correspondent, as
will appear from what follows: Th-?
“dedication” of churches by formal
! ceremony, is by no means universal,
i except with Roman Catholics and
Episcopalians; but, in another sense,
every house of worship is dedicated ;
the mere building of a house for re
ligious purposes is itself a dedication. j
The word consecrate applied to such a I
place, is used by some in what seems
to us to be a superstitious sense; and
such persons appear to imagine that |
there is something really holy in or '
| about the house itself.
The writer was once visiting one of
the public buildings, which he supposed I
to be a chapel, at the University of
Oxford, in England, and was about to
! remove his hat. “Oh,” said the usher,
s “you need not remove your hat; this
l place has not been consecrated!" The
| writer remained uncovered neverthe
j less; for to him the place had been
consecrated,not by priestly mummeries,
it is true, but by the mere fact that it
was built in honor of Almighty God.
It is our opinion that, in general, a
house built for Divine service, ought
never to be used for any other purpose;
and at some future day we may give
the reasons for this opinion. Suffice
it for the present to say that, ordinarily,
any other use of the lieuae of God than
for worship is deaeration ; we
might even use a strovaer term and
say, profanation. Stillupccasion may
sometimes make a thin® proper which
would, in usual circmwfances, be im
proper. There is no reason why one
should not take shelt f* in a church
from a storm. In case of necessity, as
for instance, in the vicinity of a battle,
a church might very properly be used j
as a hospital. David ate the shew-1
bread, which ordinarily it was not law- ■
ful for him to do. Yet, our Lord held I
him blameless; and the priests pro- j
saned the Sabbath, yet our Lord sus
tains them—Mat. 12:3-4. On the
same principle, a church, under stress
of circumstances, may be used for other
purposes than for worship; but this
does not alter the general rule, that the
church should be used for sacred pur- ■
poses only. There ought to be some-I
thing in the nature of necessity in the j
circumstances; a church ought not to |
l>e made a mere convenience of, as a {
court-house, or a school-room, would j
be. We make no point ou it as a mat
ter either of faith or of practice, but
our own preference is not to use the
audience room of a church, even for a
conference, or for a Sunday-school.
As for sleight-of-hand exhibitions |
and shows of any kind, and theatrical i
entertainments, such as that recently ;
held in a Baptist church in Chicago, I
the very thought of having them in the i
house of God is not to be tolerated for |
a moment. School-exhibitions, lectures j
and the like, are by no means so ob- j
jectionable; still, even these are out of!
place in the sanctuary of God. It is >
far better to have them somewhere else. ■
A college chapel is on a different foot- ■
ing. It is built chiefly for secular pur-;
poses, and is used on occasion as a i
church, just as a theatre or a court- |
house may be used, and when used in
this way the place is sacred only for
the time. Any house is the house of
God, when the saints assemble in it to
worship him. A barn or a stable may I
become God’s holy temple. But it
does not follow from this, that the tern-1
pie may become a barn or a theatre, I
nor that it may be properly used as a ■
; place of merriment and carousal, even j
■if these be innocent; and much less if I
they are actually immoral. If our Savior i
I were personally present in any church j
j so used, or rather so abused, he would
| doubtless resort to the whip of small i
cords—Jno. 2 :16. Fairs and other
: irregular and unscriptural means of i
raising money for religious purposes,.
I arc often held in church buildings.
No doubt these movements have their j
I origin in zeal; but it is a kind of zeal '■
which our Lord, in the passage just re
ferred to, condemns.
But what shall one do, if his brethren
insist on using the house of God in any
of these objectionable ways, over his
protest? Let him remonstrate in a
kind, gentle, loving, brotherly way, and
then quietly submit. The fault is
theirs, not his; if he makes a painful ■
disturbance about it, the fault is his, I
not theirs, It is not for him to take '
j the place of the Master, and use the
i whip of cords. Nor will heated argu
, ment do any good. One tear has more
i power than a thousand fiery Philippics.
TESTIMONY OF OUTSIDERS.
Times, times and again have we
been asked whether the “testimony oi
outsiders” should be taken in cases of
church discipline ; that is, whether the
testimony of a man who is not a mem
, | ber of the church should be taken
' j when a member is on trial.
Suppose the question to be answered
in the negative. In that case a church
’ member might commit adultery, forg
. ery, perjury, burglary, arson, highway
, robbery and murder, and he might be
convicted of these crimes on evi
dence which no man could doubt; yet
[ if there were no members of the
I church among the witnesses, that
man could not be dealt with by the
church and he would be retained in fel
' lowship, with all the privileges of the
1 saints. It would surely be a burlesque
!I on church-fellowship if a man were re
j tained in communion whom every sol
’ I itary member without exception
’ and without the shadow of a doubt, be
! lieves to be worthy of nothing less
1 j than the penitentiary or the gallows.
I ■ Suppose such a one were to ask for his
I I letter. Os course it would be granted.
■ The letter, if the truth were all told,
1 would read this way: “It is the unani
| mous opinion of the members of this
i church that the bearer, A. 8., isathor-
■ oughly wicked man, and that he is
j guilty of the grossest crimes against ’
■ God and man; nevertheless he is in i
! full fellowship with us, because none
iof us were witnesses of his guilt; we
j therefore dismiss him to join any oth
! er church of the same faith and order.” i
. It is to be hoped that no other church |
I of the same “order” could be found,
i The case supposed is a strong one, it is
i true; but it illustrates a principle car
-1 ried to its results. As a matter of fact,
gross crimes are usually committed in
secret; and even if not very secret,
members of the church are, of all per
sons in the world, least likely to be
witnesses or privy to them. If outside
testimony is not to be taken, then the
i more dreadful a man’s crimes, the less
likely he is to be subjected to discipline.
In any case of ecclesiastical investi
gation, the object ought to be to ascer
tain the facts; and when those facts
are established in the minds of the
members, they ought to be acted on
as occasion may require. It matters
not where the evidence may come 1
from ; if the evidence is convincing, it
is enough. A church is never required
to retain a man in fellowship against
its own convictions, nor over its own
tacit protes|. In the case of a bishop
“good report of them that are with
out" is essential. 1 Tim. 3. 7. In
the case of deacons, “men of good re-!
port” were selected by apostolic direc
-1 iion. Acts 6. 3. It is true that in
this case reference to the outside
; world is not distinctly expressed, ex-
I cept so far as the word report expresses
j it; but of Ananias it is said that he ■
was a “devout man, having a good re- .
port of all the Jews which dwelt there." ■
Acts 22. 12. And Cornelius, too, is '
said to have been of good report a
tnong all the nation of the Jews. Acts
10. 22. Os Demetrius it is said that
|he had a good report of all men. 3
j John 12.
From these examples it is fair to in
i fer that the term “of good report,” as
i used in the Scriptures always has refer
i ence to the outside world no less than
!to the Church. Great respect is cer
tainly shown in the Scriptures to the ;
opinions of “outsiders”; and if mere
opinion is held in such esteem, it is
strange that any should suppose that ■
I direct and absolute testimony from the
I same source should be discarded. It I
1 amounts to saying that we must ac- j
I cept their opinions but reject their
i statements 1 Just the reverse of this
[ wou.d be nearer right, though indeed
1 due regard should be had to both. If
I “outside testimony” is rejected, then a
| man may l>e retained in membership
■ despite both the opinions and the
j statements of credible witnesses ; and
i not only so but despite the opinion of
j the church itself! All this is as con-
I trary to reason as it is to Scripture. A
| church that holds to such a doctrine
; puts itself in such a position that it is
forced to retain in the fellowship of
saints, a man whom not a human be- ,
ing in the world, in the church or out i
'of it, has any confidence in. Such a
church might soon become as corrupt
a bodv as can be found on earth.
ZJ
A BROTHER IN DISTRESS.
The following letter was not intended |
for publication, but we think best to
| lay it before our brethren just as it is.
I It is written by our highly esteemed ,
sister, the wife of Rev. W. D. Atkinson,
who is laboring ns a missionary of our ’
i denomination in the lower part of the
State. It is very touching, and it ought
to be telling. Sister Atkinson asks
i for the prayers of the people of God, I
but we desire to supplement her re- ‘
quest by asking that all who can, will
I make at least a small contribution in i
the way of substantial relief to our
j brother in the hour of his distress.
The laborer is worthy of his hire. We
must not allow our brother and his
family to suffer. How could we ever
answer for such shameful neglect?
■ Letters of practical sympathy nddress
i ed to Rov. W. D. Atkinsoh, Blackshear,
1 Georgia, will be put on record, and
i those who write them will not be
ashamed of them in the last day:
“Dear Brother Tucker :—With a
distressed mind, I feel it my duty to
i communicate to the , readers of our
Baptist organ, through its editor, the
fact that your missionary, Rev. W. D.
Atkinson, is now prostrated on a bed of
intense suffering from a fearful carbun
; cle on his left shoulder, and I tremble
i for the result. The physician in at
: tendance says it is the worst one he
' ever saw. Mr. Atkinson has been a
! martyr to boils ever since his sojourn in
! this hot part of and now it
has culminated in this dreadful car-
I buncle. He has kept up as long as he
i could and was in Walthourville, last
i week to be at the New Sunbury Asso- j
' ciation, but while there he was obliged
to take his bed and send for a physi- |
I cian. Feeling anxious to be with his |
■ loved ones, he summoned up all his
remaining strength and came home.
i Now our expenses of house-rent, etc.,
! etc., are still going on and nothing
' coming in from his personal labors
and mine (for I have had to suspend
my little school to nurse my sick hus
band) and Mr. A. was obliged to sup
plement the meagre salary of the !
Board by an agency for books. We |
I ask for the sympathy and prayers of ■
■ God’s people that Mr. Atkinson’s use- j
i ful ‘life may be spared, and that we I
■ may be sustained in this time of our ;
1 trouble.
Mr. A. is deeply pained that he is ■
[ unable to meet with our Association I
i (the Piedmont) which convenes in !
i Wayne couuty this week.
“Yours in Christian bonds,
L.-N. Atkinson.”
Blackshear, Ga., Oct. 10,1879.
GEORGIA BAPTIST NE JFS.
~ j
—Rev. W. C. Wilkes 'has been re
! elected pastor of the Gainesville Baptist
I church for the ensuing year.
—The Carrollton Times says that
j “Rev. Mr. Wynn, former pastor of the
Baptist church of this piece, has re
! ceived a call from the church at An-
I tioch, in Troup county.”
—The Baptist Sunday-school at i
Decatur, DeKalb county, held solemn ;
memorial exercises last Sunday, com- ,
memorative of the death of the lament
ed wife of our Sunday-school Evange- 1
list, brother T. C. Boykin.
—The Douglasville Star says : “Work i
on the Baptist church seems to pro- <
gress slowly. We thought that house
i was to be finished by August 20th.
I Let the building committee provide
■ the necessary means for its early '
. completion. not allow the work '
! to drag.”
X
—The Cartersville Express says : “It j
1 is rumored that the Baptist church of
j this place is soon to purchase an ele-
I gant pipe organ. Under the presiden
i cy of their accomplished organist, this
instrument will add much to their
service of song.”
—The Sandersville Herald remarks :
“A private note from Mr. Lawson E.
Brown informs us that Mercer Univer
j sity ‘opened finely, and still they con
i tinue to come.’ This will be gratify
! ing intelligence to the many friends of
Mercer in this section.”
—The West Point State Line Press
of the 10th inst. has this item : “Rev.
F. M. Haygood, a Baptist minister and
colporteur, preached two good sermons
Sunday —in the morning at the
Baptist, and at night in the Methodist
church. Mr. Haygood sold seventy
five dollars worth of religious books
j here.”
—The next session of Bethel Asso
ciation is to be held with the church
at Albany, to convene Thursday before
the first Sabbath in November, that is
lon October 30th. Let the brethren re-
I member this, as it was published in
these columns, by mistake, that the
Association would meet November Ist.
—The Ochlocknee church, Thomas
county, has received forty-seven acces
sions, and nearly all by experience and
baptism, and very largely from Sunday
school classes. There was no protract
ed effort, it was simply regular, earn
est church-work. Rev. J. M. Rushin
is the pastor this year.
Speaking of Rev. W. H. Davis, the
Warrenton Clipper says : “The death
of this distinguished ministerial brother
is a most painful loss to the entire
I Baptist denomination. His brethren
I and sisters of the Hephzibah Associa
tion, and more particularly his neigh
j bors in and about the village of Heph- j
i zibah.will miss him most severely. He I
■ was greatly beloved, honored and re
j spected by all who had the pleasure of
his acquaintance. Whom will God
■ raise up to take his place?”
—The Macon Telegraph and Messen- \
ger says: “The Mayor and Council I
have given notice that there are vacan-
I cies of five free scholarships in Mercer
, University to be filled by the board.
These scholarships are made vacant by i
! graduation and other causes. The j
. city is, by the agreement made with
> the University, entitled to twelve per
‘ petual free scholarships in the Univer
' sity. It is likely the competition for ■
i these places will be quite spirited, as
there are quite a number of boys pre
pared to enter college, who will readily
avail themselves of the opportunity to !
apply for these places. Applications I
can now be filed in the Clerk of the ’
Council’s office. The boon of a college ,
education is not to be slighted, and |
j this fact will lie appreciated by many |
of our school boys.” ‘ 1
—The session of the Columbus Bap
tist Association was held with the
church at Harmony, Cusseta, on the
27th and 29th of September. Elder
S. Maxwell was elected Moderator and
J. A. Clements, Clerk. Visiting min
isters present, Elder J. H. DeVotie,
D. D., Elder A. J. Battle, D. D., Presi
dent Mercer University, Macon, Elders
Wm. Lively and J. H. Howard, cor
respondents. Twelve ministers of the
body were present. The business of
the body was’ chiefly the reading and
discussing of the usual reports of
standing committees.
Drs. DeVotie and Battle very ably
represented the claims of missions, and
Mercer University, in eloquent ad
dresses. Brotherly love and esteem
were exhibited in the social circle as
well as in the business of the body.
All the messengers joined in extending
the right hand of Christian love and
affection to Elder C. C. Willis, the re
tiring Moderator, which evidenced the
tender love and strong attachment that
this Association has for this aged and
faithful veteran of the cross. This
Association is doing well in the way
of Missions. The next session will be
held with the church Macedonia,
Meriwether county, embracing the
fourth Sabbath in September, 1880.
—The Meriwether Vindicator of last
I Friday gives the following account of
. the meeting of the Primitive Western
• Baptist Association, which met at
I Ebenezer church, near the Chalybeate
, Springs. The introductory sermon
was preached by Elder Bartlett, a visit
; ing minister from Indiana. Elder H.
M. Higginbothem ■was chosen Modera
tor, and Judge Hiram Dennis, Clerk.
( Elder Field, of Macon, preached Sat
’ urday evening, followed by Elder John
■ Murray. Sunday, Elders W. M. Mitch-
I ell, of Alabama, and Burson, of Heard
j county, in the forenoon, followed by
Bartlett and Whatley in the evening.
1 Monday morning, Elders John Murray
and Adams, of the Ocmulgee, preached
at the stand. The Association, by a
very decided vote, sustained the action
of Enon church in the exclusion of
; Mr. Head, who joined at Enon nearly
twenty years ago by letter from the
Towiliga, with whom this Association
had dropped correspondence in regard
i to differences on the subject of Mason
, ry. The next Association meeting will
i be held at Lebanon church, eight miles
j south of West Point.
—A correspondent of the Hawkins
i ville Dispatch, writing from Brushy
Creek church, Irwin county, says:
“Recently we attended the annual
meeting of the Primitive Baptists at
, Brushy creek church. The assembly
j was large, representing Montgomery,
Telfair, Coffer, Pulaski, Wilcox, Dooly,
Berrien and Worth counties. The Rev.
Messrs. Sikes, Young, Vickers, McMil
lan, Paulk, and others, were present
and preached. The preaching was in
structive, impressive and breathed with
true piety, and the doctrine expounded
was such that no Christian, whatever
be his denomination, need except
thereto. If those who imagine that the
Primitive Baptists have only uneduca
ted ministers had heard the ministry
at this meeting, a change would have
come over their views, for it has sel
dom been our pleasure to listen to a
more graphic, touching, clear and true
exposition of Scripture.”
—The Senoia Farm and Home,
speaking of that venerable and beloved
veteran of the cross, Rev. John Dodd,
Moderator of the Fairburn Association,
pays him the following well-merited
tribute of praise: “This venerable man
is still in fine health, with the prospect
of doing much good work yet for his
Master. We learn that in his long
ministerial life, he has never ac
cepted the call of a church, but he had
the membership build a good house of
worship. Every church of which he
has been a pastor, when he resigned,
he left them with a good house, finish
ed, painted, and an ornament to the
community’. Furthermore, the inw’ard
workings of the church were no less
attractive. Truly has he been an ap
proved workman.”
—Brother A. S. Tatum writes from
Adairsville: I have attended six pro
tracted meetings this fall.Jand I do not
think I ever saw the churches enjoy
preaching so well, nor saw them more
revived. They have generally been
more liberal in contributing to mis
sions, and all other good causes, than
usual. Many have been awakened to
a sense of their lost condition, and
quite a number added to the churches
in this part of the country. May the
Lord strengthen his ministers to more
constant work, and may the good old
Index ever live to scatter around that
truth and knowledge which shall serve
as a help in the cause of our glorious
Redeemer!
—The Dawson Journal of last Thurs
day says: “If it hadn’t rained nearly
everybody would have gone to the
Baptist Association at Macedonia last
Sunday. A very large number of peo
ple were, there anyway, and we learn
the occasion was profitable to many,
and afforded much pleasure for others.”
—The Carrollton Association will
meet with the church at Bethesda,
eight miles southwest from Carrollton,
on Saturday, 2.5th inst. Brethren de
siring to visit the Association, and com
ing by railroad on Friday before, will
be furnished with conveyances from
Carrollton to the church and return.
—The Now Ebenezer Association
meets at Salem church, Pulaski coun
ty, beginning on Saturday before the
third Sabbath in this month.