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The Christian Index. Vol. 57 —No 41. Table of Contents. First Page—Alabama Department: Memory; The Newspaper as an Educator; The St. Louis Embroglio; Spirit of the Religious Press. Second Page—Correspondence: Reports on Sunday-Schools—A. B Campbell; Rev W H Davis—Gß McCall; Rev A Sherwood, D. D., —J H Campbell; Friendship Asso ciation; Revivals; How to Raise Funds— C. Sunday-School— Lesson for November 9—“ The Perfect Savior.” Third Page—Children's Corner: Where is Your Boy To-night ? Poetry; Polly’s Temptation. Fourth Page—Editorials : The Music of Christian Life; The Barbarians of Melita; A Calculation; Rehoboth Association; Georgia Baptist News; Honesty in Poli tics. Fifth Page—Secular Editorials; News Para graphs; To Sweden the Crown; Literary Notes and Comments; Georgia News; etc Sixth Page Obituaries ; New Advertise ments. Seventh Page—The Farmers' Index: The Use of Commercial Fertilizers; Farm Notes; Keeping Up Flesh. Eighth Page—Florida Department: Lacon ics; A Minister's Wife Speaks; Cousin Ruby’s Letter. Marriage Notice. Alabama Department. RY SAMUEL HENDERSON. MEMORY. It is a theory based upon a vast col lection of facts, that under given cir cumstances, memory may be made to reproduce every impression made upon it through the whole period of life, even to the lightest shade of thought that ever passes through the mind. Like the palimpsest, it may be written upon, and counter-written, time and again, yet some process will bring out every syllable ever impressed upon it. Before printing was invented, those old parchments that contained the writings of hundreds of years, writings that had lost their interest to the liv ing, were subjected to a process by which those writings were so blotted out, or erased as that the parchment could be used'again ; and then, in after generations, the like process would prepare them for still another story, poem, legend, or what not. A discov ery was made by which all that had eyerbeen written, on them wii£ restored. These parchments are called palimp sests. One, of the most impressive pa pers of the late Mr. DeQuincy is on this subject. So it is with memory. One may think that impressions of thirty, forty, fifty or sixty years have been lost in the rubbish of so many decades. But some incident will oc cur that will bring to the surface events, facts, persons, words and thoughts with all the vividness of a present reality. The effect is some times startling, and we pause to muse over the astonishing powers of a fac ulty that can preserve so faithful a record of the minutest details of our lives, and even of our mental processes. A faculty so vast in the compass of its power—so faithful in fulfilling its office— that carries with it so much of hu man happiness and human woe—that preserves sacredly every trust—that stands ready to yield up the contents of every chamber in its immense store-house the moment the right key is presented—that can flush the cheek of despair itself with radiance, or strike dismay upon the face of the most ex ultant—a faculty, wc say, so marvel lous in its capacities, may be made un questionably, nay is, one of the grand est gifts God has bestowed upon the human soul. It is the repository of every thing that is to constitute our bliss or woe for time and eternity. It is the connecting link that binds the old man of four-score years bending over the tomb, with the little prattling boy as he was around his mother’s knees. Nay, it will survive the shock of death, uniting his destiny in heaven or perdition in with his moral probation on earth. “Son, remember," said Abra ham to the rich man in the gospel, “that thou in thy life-time hadst thy good things, and Lazarus his evil things ; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” 0, it is the “worm that never dies” that gnaws the conscience of the lost, and it is also the spring of the most ecstatic joy that shall thrill the hearts of the redeemed in glory. What can equal the pang that comes from the recollec tions of mercy slighted, or what can surpass the joy that shall arise as we remember the grace that “snatches us as brands from the eternal burning!” Cases of resuscitated animation, from drowning for instance, arc on record, in which the whole life of the party passed in instant review—all, all its chequered scenes compressed into a single moment. Memory needs no re cording angel to preserve her archives. Whether good or evil, she guards them with miserly care. No changes how ever sudden, no events however start ling, can obliterate these records groov ed as with a diamond pen upon a plate of adamant. One might as well un dertake to make that not to bo that has been, as to annihilate any of the hord- SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST. of Alabama. j cd treasures of this wonderful faculty. Os all biographers, it is the most faith ful and impartial. Reader, realize it! ; All its contentswill one day le unfold : ed, and confront you, telling out your doom for weal or woe. No Daniel will be needed to interpret its “hand-writ- I ing.” What chemical appliances can do in restoring the erasures upon the palimpsest, the light of “that day” will do in bringing out its records, its “every secret thing, whether it be good or evil.” We have said that no mortal process can blot out the recollections of the past beyond the power of some agency to restore. Os course we except that divine power that proposes to blot out our offenses,” and to "separate our sins from us as far as the east is from the west.” This power, and this only, can cut us loose from our sins, and “through the blood of Jesus Christ his S< n,” cleanse us, and make us as though we had never sinned. Ungodly reader, invoke that power while you may! Impose not the dreadful task upon your memory to “treasure up wrath against the day of wrath.” Pause ere the ter rible catalogue of offences shall be completed that shall convert your memory into a hell whose fires shall meet and mingle with the fires of the bottomless pil! THE NEWSPAPER AS AN EDU CA TOR. Some time since we mentioned inci dentally that a good newspaper, con ducted with ability and proper dis cretion, is worth more in a fa mily than any teacher that could be em ployed in expanding the mind, and storing it with that kind of information it most needs in all the praciieal affairs of life. We recur to the subject again because we believe it is worthy of a more extended notice. Os course it is far from our purpose to depreciate the advantages of an aca demic or collegiate education. Those advantages are invaluable. What wo mean to say is, that conceding all that can be claimed for the tuition of the schools, the tuition of the newspaper, secular, religious, scientific, agricultu ral, etc., has incomparably more to do in developing the intellectual and moral manhood of the country than our halls of learning. When the young man finishes his academic course, or receives his college diploma, what is ho, and where does he stand? He is simply fitted to begin the career of life. His capacities have been just sufficiently developed to give him a start in the particular line of business to which he proposes devoting his efforts. The real information, the practical ideas which arc to shape his character, measure his success, and de termine his destiny, are yet to be ac quired. And even in this initiative process of education he has acquired “under tutors and governors,” by' his constant contact with the current lit erature of the age as found in the news paper, he has vastly augmented his stores of knowledge. But when he strikes out for himself and begins the task of “self-development;” when he first attempts to grapple with the living questions of a living world ; when he enters the arena of life’s battle to dis pute the palm with a thousand con testants; when temptation in its innu merable insidious forms shall assail him, luring him to wreck and ruin ; it is ! then that this manifold agency comes to his relief, with its counsels, its warn- j ings, its words of cheer, its living thoughts from the wisest heads, em-1 bracing a range of topics broad and varied as the praticalities of life, To realize the truth of what we have , said, we have but to make a fancy visit to a family of half a dozen children, all within the age of school training. We have but to imagine the head of the family all alive to the importance of home education, and that he takes such newspapers,religious and secular, as are adapted to inspire the habit ami cultivate the taste for reading. The weekly supply of matter fresh from the press, and prepared by the best and wisest thinkers, is relished by that household, and is assimilated into a part of their permanent intellectual property, far more readily than the contents of their text books. It is thought that stimulates thought. It is the freshness and vigor of those thoughts, too, that captivate the young mind, and fill it with that noble am bition, which augurs future success. For unless a manly ambition can be in spired in youth, the whole after career will be a failure. Those ideas, princi ples, facts and the like, that are em braced in a live journal, find a ready lodgment in the youthful mind,because they are generally brought out in that concrete form that gives them all the attractiveness of novelty. And we hesitate not to say that those children, reared under such auspices, will be the men and women of their day. They will give tone to society, they will fill its highest and best positions, and make Atlanta, Georgia, Thursday, October 23, 1879. I both Church and State all that will be I made of them in the future. As a simple means of educating our children, we repeat, an adequate sup ply good, subs tantial newspapers, religious and secular, is far superior to the best training we can give them jin our Academies, Colleges or Uni versities. Incomparably more of prac tical wisdom is learned from them than from all the text books of our college •curriculums. THE ST. LOUIS EMBROGLIO. We have said nothing in our depart ment up to this time, in regard to the late deflections of Dr. Boyd and his (2nd) church in St. Louis, for the rea son that the chief editor of this paper has so exactly expressed our views that we felt that it would have been unnec essary. But as other papers are giv ing out such “uncertain sounds” upon the vital questions involved, we cannot well escape the obligation to say here ami now, once and forever, that any body of Christians calling itself a Bap tist church, that squares its worship to suit Jewish prejudices, by eliminating from that worship all reference to the “only name given under Heaven whereby we can bo saved,” Jesus Christ, and then deliberately invites to the Lord’s table a Unitarian minister, one who denies the divinity of Christ, denies the Lord who bought us has betrayed thq faith of God’s elect, no matter what its pub’ished creed may be. The creed may be sound, but the practice is the grossest heresy. “They say, and do not." “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hand is the hand of Esau.” We always interpret a man’s words by his acts. That is a worthless creed—it is not worth the pa per and ink employed to publish it— that does not control the conduct of those who profess to accept it. If there be one single truth in God’s Word that towers above all other truths in moral grandeur and vital importance to every hu nan being, it is that which claims for Jesus Christ the supremest fealty of the human soul. Iscari ot was as loud in his protestations of regard to Christ, doubtless, as any of the twelve, ami yet one act nullified all these protestations and consigned » “to his own place.” And while we do not place Dr. Boyd and nis church in the same category with Iscariot, we do mean to say that that act which strikes the name of Christ from our hymnology, our prayers, and our ser mons—that shares the memorials of His dying love with those who strike from His character the only element that gives virtue and power to His a tonement and intercession, His divini ty, has done that which, to say the least of it, calls for as bitter tears of peni tence as marked the restoration of Pe ter. We therefore say, and we say it with emphasis, that the St. Louis As sociation did right in cutting loose from a preacher and church that wounded our Savior in the house of His reputed friends. No excuse short of a public acknowledgement of the sin can atone lor an offense that smites the very central truth of the whole redemp tive plan. “The fact of to-day be comes the precedent of to-morrow,” and no man can tell whither such a radi cal divergence from the faith once de livered to the saints will lead, if not strongly rebuked. “If the foundations be removed, what can the righteous do?” If Jesus Christ be “the chief corner stone,” and that be taken away, where and what is our hope of salva tion? “Though we or an angel from Heaven preach any other gospel than that we have preached, let him be ac cursed.” And if it be such an act of treason to Christ to compromit His honored name to angels, is it less so to men? Thousands, nay, millions of martyrs have gone to the stake, the rack, and gibbet, rather than betray by word or deed that which some of our religious papers beg us to excuse in the pastor and Second Baptist church in St. Louis. We cannot join the cry of “Crucify Him! crucify Him!” We only regret that the Baptist denomin ation has furnished a ch urch which, while professing to hold the old faith, has in act denied it. And not until there is a recantation of that act, or those acts, which involve the very quintessence of the Gospel, can that church and its pastor ever be restored to the fellowship of a denomination, which, whatever else may be said of it, has never trailed its banner to the be hests of any earthly authority. Rev. IL A. Williams, writing from Cross Pains, Ala., October 10th says: “When I located at this place, first of January, 1878, there were only about fifteen members in our Baptist church, and no meeting house. I have been working among the Methodists and anti-Missionaries, until we now have a membership of forty-eight, and a neat house of worship. Hitherto has the Lord helped us. lam expect ing some to join to-morrow.” The Religious Press. The Cause of Church Difficulties— The Fundamental Cause. —While there are mat>y church difficulties, and many things in churches leading to them, there are not many causes. Really there is hut one fundamental cause. Sin lies at the bottom of these difficulties. All sin put away, there would be r.o elements of discord. Re move all sin from earth and hell, and all divisions and sorrows will cease. Says Bun yan : “Sin is the living worm, the lasting fire ; Hell wow'd soon lese its beat, could sin ex pire. Untold evils result from church difficul ties. And they are the legitimate outcome of the alienation of the hearts of certain member's from God. There is sin some where. And when sin gets into the heart, there often come out many evil things. Unchristian words are spoken, and unchris tian acts me performed, and the church rent. It is humiliating to think that there are to many dissensions in the churches. And that they are often perpetuated until sinful prejudices and ill-feelings become chronic. Nor are the evils here complained of con fioed to the churches. They are observed, taken up—and often magnified—by parties outside of the church. They furnish gossip for street and neighborhood mischief makers, and a feast of fat things for skeptics ; and much that the self-righteous use to “justify themselves before men” for their practical opposition to religion. Many vir tually charge' these evils to the Christian religion itself. Hence they keep aloof from the churches, and even from the Savior. I do not excuse them for such conduct. They know better; at least, they ought to. The sins of church members cannot be pleadej against Christ or his religion. Christ would say to such as be said to Peter: “What‘is that to thee? Follow thou me.” Still, man will do these things. They must plead vain excuses, if any, for they have no others to plead. So says a correspondent of the Ex aminer and Chronicle, who, in propos ing a remedy for the evil, says : Nojftr.it is evidently for the want of a and proper Christian education, I by w^yWklhristianlprinciples are understood and VS/aril, that ifre have so mucl? trouble iu , our churches. The bonds of union with Christ and the church are not strong enough | to preserve the church in peace and prosper ity. We must believe that there is a radical defect in the religion of those members who “flare up” for every slight offence, and refuse either to walk with the church, or Io follow theplain teachings of the Scriptures in order to effect reconciliation. With very rare exceptions, if any, those church members who are at the bottom of church difficulties, are men who are by no means spiritually mind ed. When unconverted men are brought into the church, they are al- I most sure, sooner or later, to give; trouble. To cure church difficulties is j no easy thing; but one of the best [ means of preventing them, is to baptize and receive into the chinch none but j converted persons. The good old Bap tist doctrine, which declares for a con verted church membership, is the true doctrine. In practice, we have de parted from it, and this is the cause of the greater part of our church troubles. When we get back to the old ways, we shall perhaps have fewer converts, so called, but we shall certainly have more peace, and in due time, a larger num- • be.r. of real converts. Fifteen Missionaries Setting Out for the Mission Field. —Services preliminary to the departure of fifteen missionaries to India, sent out by the American Baptist Missionary Union, were held Friday, Oc'o ber 10th, at the Central Baptist church in Forty second street. The exercises were conducted by the Rev. Dr. J. D. Herr, pas tor of the Central church. There were short j addresses by several of the missionaries. Two of the number, Miss E. E. Mitchell and Miss A. M. Barkley, are going to open i a hospital in the town of Maulmain. This | is a “new departure” for the Union, but it was necesary to open the way for spiritual | work, Dr. Murdoch said, by taking care of the body, and by breaking up the supersti tions connected with the science of medicine in heathen countries. The Rev. J. A. I Spurgeon said that they should always have the greatest hoj»e of winning these who of fered the greatest resistance at first. The roan who said “yes’* to everything never could ’ be reached ; but the man who swore at you showed he had heart enough to get angry. Some studies may be more valuable for the invigoration of the intellect than for the importance of the truths acquired. Lessing ’ said, and Hamilton adopted the saying, that “if any one offered him truth with one hand, I and inquiry after truth with the other, he would prefer the second.” The remark may be regarded as a confession by eminent phi losophers that what we may know by the light of nature is not to be compared in real worth with the soul that obtains the knowl- THE CHRISTIAN HERALD; of Tennessee. edge. But when such a saying is applied to moral, and especially to spirilual truth, which makes us free and brings salvation, its groundlessness is obvious. The strength ening of the intellect is a trifle compared with the possession of eternal life, and the truth, not the work of inquiring after it, brings the latter. He who would find the whole value of studying God's revelation to man in the mere mental exercise would not hold fast the truth acquired as the precious treasure which it is. “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” He that appreciates divine tru.h will never place the pursuit above the possession. “How would you answer those who contin ually place over against the belief of Chris tians concerning the conversion of the world, the vast numbers unconverted and the feebleness and fewness of the means em ployed ? Subscriber.” By a single sentence in the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in the Holy Ghost.” It is easy to calculate the numbers of the world’s inhabitants not even nominally Christians, and the long series of years which, accord ing to the present employment ot men and money, it will take all our missionary socie ties to Christianize them. Such statistics are useful, and we should thank their anthe rs if they may but excite to us greater liberality and prayer. But here is a power above statistics, as it was a power above statistics, which suddenly enlarged the infant church from a hundred and twenty to hundreds of thousands, and brought all their gold into one treasury. Let this power go forth, and it is like sunshine which lightens all lands, and melts a thousand snows at once. “This is the purpose that is proposed upon the whole earth ; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations, for the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back ?” The above question and answer are from the Illustrated Christian Weekly, and having read the latter, we feel en couraged. When we regard human agencies only, the outlook for the fu ture of the world is gloomy indeed. The thoughts suggested by our article on another page, entitled A Calculation, are rather depressing ; for it shows that on a very limited basis, the whole pop ulation, of the United States might be converted to God it(.thirty years, yefr the fact is apparent that the work is progressing at a much slower rate than that; and this again shows either that there are not now one hundred thou sand genuine Christians in the United States, or that they fall immeasurably j short of their duty. But we are glad i to be reminded that there is a power i above that of man, and that God in his ■ own time, and in his own way, will be sure to make his word and work pre vail. Some rejoice with us in this, and so contentedly sit down and do j nothing. Let them read the article which follows this. The Do-Nothing Curse.— “ Curse ye \ Meroz," said the angel of the Lord (Judges 1 5:13.) What had Merozdone? Nothing. Why, then, was Mercz to be cursed ? Be- ! cause Meroz did nothing. What ought Meroz to have done ? Come ' to the help of the Lord. Could not the Lord do without Meroz ? The Lord did do without Meroz. Did the Lord, then,sustain any loss? No; but Meroz did. Was Meroz, then, to be cursed ? Yes, and that bitterly. Is it right that a man should be cursed for doing nothing ? Yes, when he ought to be doing something.— Watchword. And we shall probably have more to answer for at the day of judgment on i account of what we have not done, than on account of what wc /mredone. j We know before hand what will be \ said in that great day. Here it is: “Depart from me ye cursed into ever- j lasting fire prepared for the devil and . his angels; for I was an hungered and | ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty | and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger and ye took me not in; nuked and ye clothed me not; sick and in i prison, and ye visited me not. Mat. 25 :42. Not the least mention is made of what they had done; but on the ' ground of what they have failed to do, [ they are ordered to depart into ever-' lasting fire prepared for the devil and | his angels. Brother! How much have you done lor the cause of Christ? What have you failed to do? Real Homes. —Il is a discouraging re flection, even to those who habitually look Sf the bright side of things that have any shine to them, to think how much less home means, in this country, than it did fifty years ago. As a people we love to do things “by wholesale," and “on contract.” Churches let out revivals to peripatetic professionals. Parents “farm out" the religious training of their children to Bunday-school teachers | whose very names, oftentimes, they do not know. Education has become a matter for schools—and schools, too, where the mind is ’ considered, and wherein that is more cram- Whole No. 2391 med than trained. Our scanty recreations and amusements are “enjoyed” en masse, and paid for at so much per head. There was a time when the home stood for all these things and for many more. Especially in character-building, which should be the chief concern in life, the home influence was paramount. Industry, frugality, independ ence, virtue and religion had their source and centre in the home. There was a sense of personal responsibility on the parents, and a need of personal effort and direction that are not now so commonly felt. As the time of the year approaches when the fire on the hearth is to be rekindled—we hope you have a hearth, or at least an open grate— and the family life in the home is to be more close again, will it not be well for parents to re consider thoughtfully the question of home making? Do your children love their home ? Do you prize it ? Is it the “dearest spot on earth,” or a mere boarding-house ? If there is a fault, whose is it ? If a lack, who is to blame? Home-making, be it remembered, is a work in which all have a part. Fathers may not shirk their duty by saying that it is “woman’s business.” Neither can it be done without forethought, direction and effort. Oftentimes it involves the sacrifice of selfish ccmforts and pleasures. The happy tumult of the youngsters’ play may disturb your after-dinner doze. A ‘ children’s hour” in the early evening, given up to games and entertainment, in which you are their com panions and leaders, may not be so agreeable as to spend the time at the play, the club, or in neighborhood gossip. But you are under bonds, morally, to give yourselves to your family as the need requires. If you do no more than to “raise” your children, you have, before God, no right to have any. Make your house a real home—cheerful, bright, beautiful in spirit, happy in all its expres sions—and you will be a good deal better fitted to begin enjoying heaven at once, when you get there. — Golden Rule. Churches let out “revivals” to peri patetic professionals! That’s it exact ly! Parents farm out the religious training of their children to Sunday school teachers whose very names oftentimes they do not know! Another centre shot! Home and the family are the great powers of this world, and nothing on earth can supercede them. Some homes that we know, are noth ing better than boardinghouses. There is no more religious influence in them than there is in a hotel! Make home pleasant; make itcharming; make it happy; make'it instructive ; above all make it holy. Then it will !>•’, a /•-<(' home; and when it is exchanged, it will be for the home in heaven. The Kentucky Methodist Conference recently adopted the following report: “In an age characterized as this is by a literature which is either wholly vicious in its character, or perverting in its tendencies, and which is finding its way into every nook and corner of our social life, the cause of truth and virtue could poorly afford to lose such an auxiliary as our publishing house. The devout Christian and the true patriot must be filled with apprehen sion for the future of our country, when he beholds the entire land flood ed as it is with millions of pages of the most debauched literature, cover ing the entire range from European rationalism and indifferentism, to American vulgarism in the form of corrupt illustrated weeklies. Even the secular journalism of the land is, with slight exceptions, emphatically on the side of these vitiating agencies. The damaging results of this literature are clearly seen upon all the enter prises of the Church.” The >St. Louis Republican in its com ments upon this report maintains that the age is not ‘characterized by a liter ature which is wholly vicious in its character or perverting in its tenden cies.’ While there is more or less of such literature—as there always has been and probably always will be—the latter half of the nineteenth century is ‘characterized’by literary work'of an entirely different sort. There never has been a period in human history when really good books were so abun dant and so cheap.” The Mobile Reg ister considering both opinions very pertinently remarks: “While the Kentucky Conference is entirely too sweeping in its assertions, while its charge against secular jour nalism is unfounded, and while the Republican is correct in its statements in regard to the increase of “good books” and tile smoothing over of the rough places on the road to learning, still there is no doubt that the land is Hooded with European rationalism and American vulgarism. The same men tal activity that, rightly directed, has produced so much that is improving and useful, has also produced, and con tinues to produce, much that is hurtful and degrading’ ! “The duty of parents and guardians I then is to keep a close watch over what those under their charge read, and to ■ see that they drink nt pure springs of 1 knowledge, improvement and amuse | ment, not at the cess-pools of iniquity | that abound in the land. And it is the duty of society also to encourage, in I every way possible, the dissemination I of pure aiid healthy literature.”