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4 HENRY H. TUCKER, Kditor THE SAND-FORT. It was one of the discoveries of the war tietween the States, that the stron gest of all forte, is the sand fort. It was formerly the practice, to build forte with enormously thick walls of eolid masonry; all the appliances of modern engineering being brought to bear, to lift the huge granite blocks of which these walls were built, into posi tion. Forte so constructed can certainly endurea severe siege,and can withstand • for a time the shocks of the heaviest ord nance. But their fall is only a ques tion of time. Every shot that strikes the wall destroys a part of it, and the loss of the part so destroyed is irrepa rable. All that is necessary, is to per sist in the infliction of these losses and the work of destruction is com plete. One six-hundred-pound shot or shell striking the wall might knock off half a ton or half a dozen tons of the solid rock, and if this process is continued long enough, the entire structure must be leveled to the ground. Moreover, to build such forts requires a vast expenditure of money and labor and time, and when destroy ed they are destroyed completely, and can never be rebuilt. The building of a sand fort requires no skill, and no great outlay of any kind, and such a fort, when built, is indestructible. The shot plunges into the sand and buries itself, and the channel which it forced for itself is instantly filled up by the sliding sand, and the fort is in exactly the same condition as it was in before the short was fired. A furious cannon ade makes no difference; every breach that is made, heals itself, and that too without human aid or oversight. The laws of nature come promptly to the rescue and never fail. A shell may explode in the very centre of the wall of sand : but all the harm it can do, if any, is momentary ;it may throw a few tons of sand up into the air, but as quickly as gravitation can do the work, the sand falls back, and the fort is again in thorough repair. At first thought, any one would suppose that the heav ier and more compact, and more solid the material of a fort, the stronger it would be; and that so light and loose a mateiial as sand would afford no protection at all. A second thought might lead to a different conclusion, and our experience has settled the ques tion that a sand fort is impregnable. In the granite wall, the strong ad hesion of the particles, is the fourceof its weaknrss: the grip of these i ar icles on each other is such, that the a all be comes a unit, and whatever injures a part of it, injures the whole. In the sand wall,there is no adhesion; it is composed of millions of units: these units are so small that they cannot be injured, and if a few thousands of them were even destroyed or blown away, their loss would not be felt, or if it were, they could easily be replaced with others; and no part of the wall is in the least affected by a missile strik ing another part. In the one case the weakness lies in the strength; in the other case the strength lies in the weakness. Baptist churches taken singly, or taken all together, are a sand fort. They are separate and independent bodies having no necessary connection with each other. If one be injured the others are unhurt; if one be des troyed the others are intact. The on ly way to rid the world of them is to destroy them every one. Even this would be of no avail, for if the church es were disbanded aud broken up, the scattered members would soon come together again, and re-form themselves into the same organizations as before. If this process were repeated a thous and times, the result would always be the same as at first. The only way to extinguish them would be to put all the members to death. Even this would be a fruitless task, for so long as people continue to read the New Tes tament, some of them will become Bap tists, and little Baptist churches will spring up in spots all over the world. If these again were destroyed others would in like manner spring up to take their places, and thus history would repeat itself. Their weakness is their strength. If they were consolidated into,'one com pact organization, granite walled and iron-ribbed, they would doubtless pre sent a very formidable appearance, and men would applaud the massive structure, but some day the gates of hell might make a breach which could •not be repaired, and speedily then, all would be ruined. The ecclesiastical sand fort, ridiculed and despised by men, is the only one which it is impos sible to destroy. Any other, no mat ter how absolutely planned by human ingenuity, or how strongly built by human hands to resist attack, may be overthrown; for whatever man can build up, man can. pull down. But when man encounters nature, he meets more than his match. Nature stands by the sand fort with ever vigi lant eye, and ever ready hands, quick as lightning to repair damage; and by a similar law churches dissociated from each other, and bound together by no essential tie, can never be overthrown. The object of the enemy is to break the adhesion, but here there is no adhesion THE CHRISTIAN INDEX AND SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST: THURSDAY, MARCH 3, ISSI. to break. There may be here and there a little scattering, but the love of Christ, like the law of gravitation, will soon bring the members together again, and all will be as it was before. Our churches are not only not bound to each other now, but they are not bound to any of the churches that pre ceded them, nor to the apostolic churches. If succeeding churches were bound to preceding ones so that the whole would constitute a unit, a breach might at some time be made, which would be fatal; and indeed we couid never know but that such a breach had been made, and we should live in a state of perpetual doubt; and we should spend much of our time, like some of our neighbors, in trying to convince ourselves and others by ar gument that such a disaster had never occurred ; and even if satisfied on this point, we should still be uneasy for the future. What if such a thing should happen! But we Baptists are calm and happy; for where there is noth ing to break there is no danger of any thing being broken. We are en trenched behind the sand fort, over which the gospel banner will forever wave, and Satan’s artillery turned loose, excites nothing but our derision. The Romish church is the most powerful organization ever known in this world from the beginning of it until this day. As a production of human genius it surpasses anything the sun has ever shone upon. To say nothing of its grandeur and its magni ficence, nothing on earth of human origin can compare with it in strength. Who would think of so absurd a thing as to compare with it in resistive power and in endurance, a little Baptist church, or ten thousand Baptist churches! Yet these little churches are indestructible, and the great hier archy is not. Its strength is its weak ness ; it is built on the principle of ad hesion ; let this be broken and all is broken. This may not be easy to break, indeed it is not; but it is fran gible. But our much-sneered-at Bap tist churches are founded on no such principle. So long as our opinions are held, those who hold them can form end re-form themselves into churches, as quickly as a sand fort can heal its own wounds. Is it said that the overthrow of the Romish church is improbable? Let that be an unset tled question; it is at least conceiva able. But so long as the New Testa ment is read, and so long as people think, there will be some who hold to Baptist views, and that any power can, always and everywhere, prevent these from forming churches in accordance with these views, is inconceivable. The unthinking among us when they regard the apparent strength of other organizations, and at the appa : rent weakness of our own, may feel dissatisfied; and some may be so un ■ wise as to attempt fortification after the manner of some of the others, and to show that we too are "apostolic” in the sense of what we may call me chanical unity; but success in this en terprise would be a misfortune, even if it were possible. We are stronger as we are. For the present our want of compact organization may seem to impair our efficiency; but taking all time into account, it may be the great est source of our efficiency; for if we had been a solid body we might have been destroyed centuries ago. We owe our life to our weakness, and our weak ness is our immortality. Let us thank God and be satisfied. Death of Two Old Friends.— We have just heard with great pain of the deata of our old and much loved friend William Daniel Esq. He died at the advanced age of 84 years, on the very spot we may say, when he was born, having never lived anywhere else. His residence was in Greene county, Ga., about 5 miles from Union Point. He never made a public pro fession from religion, but was neverthe less universally regarded as a religious man. He was a regular attendant on the ministry of the editor of The In dex for 14 years while the latter was pastor of the old Bethesda church, a church of no little historic renown. He was an attentive listener, and an ear nest supporter of the church and of its pastor. He was a devont reader of religious works, a man of great purity and integrity of character and was look ed up to, and loved almost us as a father by the whole community where he lived. He breathed his last on the morning of the 24th inst. Many times, perhaps hundreds of times, have we sat at his hospitable board ; we hope to sit with him again at the marriage sup per of the Lamb. But recently we heard of the death of another dear friend in the same neighborhood. The widow of our well known brother Rev. V. R. Thornton of blessed memory, and who was one of our predecessors in the pastoral office at Bethesda was promoted to a higher sphere on the 17th inst. Often have we been sheltered by her kindly roof, and always during our pastorate we enjoyed her cordial support. Two of her sons were baptized by our hands, and one of them has gone to the church above. We thank God that we were permitted to do that much to comfort her heart before she left us. Will there not be a happy meeting between us and our old Bethesda friends when we come together on the shining shore! There shall we see the yield of fourteen years of our best life-work. The name of the Lord be praised! OUR MORALS The opinions of people in regard to the morals of this city, or of that, or of the other, are apt to be founded on mere rumor, if indeed mere rumor is worthy to be called a foundation for anything. It is common to hear one say of such-and-such a place, that it is a “very wicked place,” but if the speaker were asked to say what he knows of the wickedness of that place, he would often stand mute. Often times, if the speaker were asked if he knew of any one who did know in what the special wickedness of the place consisted, he would still be mute. Possibly he might have something to say about the number of grog shops in the place named. But has he com pared the number in this place in pro portion to population with other places, whether with other cities, or with small towns or with the country itself? Not he. So then he knows nothing about it, yet he denounces the place as preeminently wicked. He may refer to gambling saloons, and to other vices which need not be named. Has he compared the place with other places, ten, or twenty, or fifty, or a hundred miles away? He has done nothing of the kind; nevertheless he comes in constantly with the refrain, “Oh, it is a very wicked place.” Is this right? Is there not sin in speaking evil of a place of which you know no evil? Is there no sin in taking up and spread ing an evil report? But he may say, “Ob, I have seen thus and so with my own eyes.” Ah! well if that is the case, you were in some place where you had no business to be. You contributed your share to the general make-up of the guilt of the place, and are now trying to wipe out your own sin by denouncing that of others. “Oh yes, but what I saw was public, and while I was engaged in legitimate business.” Well, have you carefully compared the place in question with other places of the same size? If not, how do you know that this place is pe culiarly wicked? “Well, at any rate, there is more wickedness there than there is in smaller places?” Are you sure of that, taking the proportion of population into the account? Os course in a large place there is more sin than in a small one, because there are more people; there is also more righteousness for the same reason; there is more of everything. “But I am sure there must be a great deal of licentiousness in such a place.” Os course there is, but is there any more in the place spoken of than any other? Have you compared the facts as found here, with the facts as they exist else where? Do you know the secret hab its of the people in every city and town? Do you know them even in your own city, or in your own village, or in your own neighborhood in th® country? You know nothing about it. Evil deeds are apt to be done in the dark, and a man who deports him self as he ought is not likely to be well-informed about such matters. In what we have said we have had reference to no place in particular; we spoke of any place which it is the fash ion to decry. We now speak of our own city of Atlanta. So far as we know there is no more evil spoken of this place than of any other, nor, we presume, is there any less. We have lived in a good many places, and have traveled a good deal, and have had pretty good opportunity to judge of such things, and our observation is, that all places are evil spoken of by their neighbors. So naturally does slander delight the human heart! The morals of Atlanta, so far as we can judge, are about like those of other places, neither better nor worse. It affords us pleasure, however to state the following facts. 1. During our residence here of two years and a half, we have never seen more than two or three drunken men on the street, making an average of about one a year. 2. If licentiousness ever exhibits it self on our streets, we have never seen it. We walk these streets at all hours of the day, and often at night until late bed-time, but we have never yet witnessed the least impropriety of behavior. 3. We have never seen a fight nor a brawl, and have never heard high words passed between parties in any public place. 4. The census shows our population to be nearly 39,000; the area of our city is comprised within a circle whose radius is a mile and a half, giving a diameter of three miles, and a circum ference of nine miles; yet scattered over this large surface there are only twelve policemen on duty at a time. If there is any unusual disorder, such as would distinguish the place from any other, whether great or small, we never see it; we do not not know any one who has seen it; we never hear of it; the übiquitous and ever-vigilant reporters for the daily press never dis cover it, and the police records do not show it. 5. Finally, we state the fact which has suggested all that we have said. A few days ago, a troupe of traveling players or singers gave an entertain ment in oiir opera house. In the course of the performance it was dis covered to be grossly immodest; where upon the police promptly ordered the curtain to fall, and the exhibition was suddenly brought to a close in medias res, and the audience was dismissed. The performers were arrested on the spot and marched to the guard-house, where they spent the night, and the next morning they were brought before His Honor Recorder Milledge, who fined the proprietress of the exhibition one hundred dollars. The troupe will not be likely to visit us again, yet these same performers make their living in the United States by the very exhibi tion which was so promptly arrested in Atlanta. On this point we have set a good example to sister cities. It is not amiss to say that our good Recorder is a Baptist. After the foregoing article was writ ten our eye lighted on the following statement in the Watch Tower which journal seems to have taken it from the N. Y. Tribune: “Several clergymen of Reading, Penn., in their sermons last Sunday, rebuked with good reason and it is to be hoped with good effect, a public exhibition recently given by the Harmonic Maen nerchor of that place, on the occasion of its annual masked ball and carnival. Before the dancing began, a represent ation of the tortures of hell was given on the stage. Springing from a grotto a number of demons in black and red seized condemned sinners and thrust them into a pit on the stage, from which flames, smoke and the groans of the damned ascended. To the dis credit of the assemblage this feature of the carnival provoked long laughter and applause.” D. D. LL. D. A highly esteemed brother approves of what we said last week about prefix ing the title Saint to the names of the apostles and evangelists; but suggests that the same objections forbid the use of the title Doctor as applied to preach ers. On this point we differ with him. In our opinion all preachers of the gos pel, publicly recognized as such, ought to be called Doctor. What is the meaning of the word doctor? It means teacher; it means exactly this; noth ing more, nothing less. A preacher is a teacher. A teacher of what ? A teacher of revealed truth ; and divinity is the word which describes that truth. So, then, every preacher is a Doctor of Divinity, whether he is called so or not. We see no harm, but on the con trary, a propriety in calling such per sons by a name which describes their profession. Whether old or young, black or white, learned or unlearned, all preachers have an inherent right to the title D. D. Some of them may be very poor doctors, and unworthy of the po sition they occupy, but the title has no reference to their merits, it merely des ignates their office. As to the title LL. D. it is not con ferred by a church nor by any other religious body, and has no ecclesiasti cal reference nor bearings whatever. Churches and religious people as such have no more to do with it than they have with the title M. D. This last title is conferred by scientific Institu tions on persons skilled in medicine, and we have never heard any one ob ject to it. Why may not literary In stitutions confer the title LL. D. on those skilled in law or in letters? Or Ph. D. on those skilled in philosophy? The D. D. we claim as the proper title of all preachers; as for the other titles spoken of, they are no more to us than Esquire, Judge, Honorable, or Colonel, and indeed no more than Madam, Mrs. or Miss. The leading theme of our Alabama colleague in this issue is so similar in its spirit to that of our own leading ar ticle as to suggest the idea that we two have put our heads together and agreed to open a cross-fire on a certain heresy. The fact is that neither of the writers knew what was in the mind of the other. Our own article was written before we had read the article of our colleague, and he has not seen ours yet. Perhaps this discussion of the same subject in the same paper by men far apart and who have had no correspon dence with each other is not so much of an accident as it seems to be. Is there not a Providence? A writer in the Standard speaking of some strange and discordant views enunciated by a Baptist pastor in New Hampshire, accounts for the fact on the ground that the pastor was educat ed at the South. Ha! ha! Is it so well known all over the world that “the South” is the hot-bed and the home of the isms ? When Fort Moultrie first reared its unpretentious head it was laughed at, and regarded as a mere baby-house. But it defended Charleston harbor suc cessfully through the Beige, and al though ten thousand shells were dis charged into it, yet when the war ended, it was as good as new. Sandersville Mercury: On Sunday morning last the Rev. T. J. Adams preached a beautiful and eloquent ser mon to an intelligent and attentive congregation. One feature noticeable during the services was that the con gregation kept on increasing, from the commencement of the exercises to the completion of the sermon. A new church has been recently completed near Warthen by the color ed Baptists. They have been liberally aided in their enterprise by the whites. I lll—* The membership of the First African Baptist church, Savannah, is twenty five hundred and fifty-four. PASTORAL WORK—ITS RELA TIVE IMPORTANCE. One of our brethren was somewhat surprised at a statement recently made by one of our correspondents, that a certain pastor had “left his field for one of greater usefulness,” and raises the point that it is impossible that any thing can be more important than pas toral work. As to ttie relative impor tance of different duties, we are per haps not competent to decide. Cer tainly nothing should ever tempt us to underrate the importance of pastoral work. But there is other work to be done; whether more or less important is immaterial; it must be done, and of course somebody must do it. Whether a pastor should leave his field to do this work, is a question for himself alone to decide. It may be that his health is such that he cando more and better work for the Master in some other way than in this way, and if so, it is his duty to change his labor. There are innumerable circumstances affecting such cases, of which no man can judge for another. We shall not venture to make com parisons, but will only say that there are some works of very great importance which must be done, and which can be done by none so well as by those who have been, or who might be, pastors. For example: our young men entering the ministry must he instructed in the way of the Lord. Who so competent to do this as older ministers? Those who give instruction in the schools of the prophets, are not pastors in the ordinary sense, yet they have a flock committed to their care.- Moreover, each one of their pupils is destined to be a pastor, and the influence of his teachers will be felt among his people, and thus these teachers are pastors to these various peoples by proxy, if not in person. It is not easy to see how any position can be more important than this. Again, such a school must be sustain ed, and for this purpose somebody must represent its claims before the people, and on his success the whole enterprise must depend. It is hard to overrate the importance of such an office. It may be very impor tant for somebody to descend into a well; it is quite as important for some body else to hold the rope. Again ; our children and youth must be educated. It is important that such telling work as thfs should be done by men of God. It may be that a man’s qualities, mental, or moral, or physical, or all three fit him better for this work than for that of a pastor. If so, he is called—called of God to this work. Whatever may be the relative impor tance of this work with some other, there can be no doubt in his case as to what is duty. Again; the editor of a religious journal is a preacher if not a pastor. He preaches to a congregation, larger perhaps than any fifty congregations such as usually assemble in our churches. Surely in this day no one would think of dispensing with the stupendous power of the press. Who so proper to preach in this way to a congregation of fifteen or twenty thou sand, as an experienced minister of the gospel ? True, this may take him from the pastoral work, but is anything lost to the cause of Christ thereby? Nay, much is gained. In his case, suppos ing him to be a man exactly suited to his position, this work is more im portant than pastoral work. The gen eral question of the relative impor tance of duties may be left unsettled; but in the case of this particular man, there need be no difficulty in decid ing what is right. Our brother Paul preached a great deal with his pen. Would he have done any less, if he had had the power of the press to help him? Not a very great proportion of this apostle’s time was spent as a pastor, yet none excell ed him in usefulness. In a sense he had the care of all the churches, and in a different sense, but still in a very important one, the editors, and the teachers, and the men whose energy in the open field sustains them in their places, have the care of all the churches. There must always be some proph ets, some teachers, some evangelists, and some for each particular part and parcel of the work. The body is not one member but many. If the foot say, because I am not the hand I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? The eye cannot say to the hand I have no need of thee; nor again the hand to the feet, I have no need of you. Even those members of the body which are “feeble” are never theless "necessary,” 1 Cor. 12:22, and those who fill the humblest offices may glorify God as really, and perhaps as much, as those who are called to high er spheres of labor. A half-witted boy who rings the church bell may take delight in calling the people to wor ship ; he does what he can; and his work may be as acceptable to God, and and as necessary to man, as that of Apollos in the pulpit. It is not needful for us to classify duties as to their relative importance. The only question for each man to de cide is this: Lord, what wilt thou have me to do; and having found the an swer to this, guided by an enlightened conscience, and by the indications of Providence, let him do his work faith fully, and leave it to the Judge of all the earth.to bestow the blessing accord ing to his own good pleasure. The first Union meeting of Midway Association was held with Live Oak church, Friday, January 28th. The introductory sermon was preached by Rev. D. L. Kendrick. Rev. G. M. T. Wilson was elected Moderator; M. B. Holly, Clerk. Delegates were present from Live Oak, Pleasant Grove, New Hope, Green Pond and Damascus churches. The following queries were discussed anq answered : “Does regeneration take place before or after baptism?” An swer : After baptism. “Did Adam die when he sinned? If so what kind of death?” Answer: He died a spiritual death only. “Shall the redeemed spir its know each other in heaven, person ally?” Answer: No. The meeting adjourned to meet with New Hope church on Friday before the fifth Sabbath in May next. —Hebron church, five and a half miles east of Lawrenceville, Gwinnett county, notwithstanding its weakness, has a new building in progress, and means on hand to finish it, which will be done this spring. The building will be a credit to our denomination. The Appalachee church, ten miles east of Lawrenceville is now entirely out of debt, with a better outlook than it has ever had, because of the heavy debt which has heretofore been hang ing over it and retarding its progress. Brother C. D. Campbell will preach a dedication sermon at Hebron as soon as the church is finished. The breth ren at Hebron feel greatly under obli gations for the co-operation and con tributions of brethren of other church es and denominations, who have shared their hospitality liberally. Rev. H. N. Rainy, a zealous and ex cellent minister, is the esteemed pastor of both the above mentioned flourish ing churches. —Rev. J. H. Corley’s recent sermon delivered in Fort Gaines, was errone ously reported to have been on the sub ject of “The Early Advent of Christ”— it should have been correctly stated— “ The Advent of Christ.” Brother Cor ley writes: “I never try to teach others things which I do not understand myelf, and if the advent of Christ is near at hand Ido not know it.” Speaking of this sermon, the Fort Gaines Tribune says: “One of the largest congregations we have seen in Fort Gaines, in a long time, assem bled at the Baptist church to hear the sermon of this able divine upon the ‘Advent of Christ.’ And we hesitate not to say that all present were well entertained. It was one of the most profound, logical and eloquent dis courses that we ever listened to, and showed that the minister had thorough ly digested his subject. We have heard many comments upon the excel lence of the sermon, but not one word of criticism.” —We are indebted to a highly es teemed correspondent in Madison for the following denominational news: Rev. J. W. Butts was severely injured a few days ago by a refractory mule. Brother Butts will not be able to serve his church for some weeks to come. Rev. John T. Prior, late of Califor nia, has removed to Georgia. He is a Mercer man. Any church desiring a pastor will do well to communicate with him at Madison. He preached a fine sermon recently in the Madison church. Rev. E. W. Sammons, a young or dained Baptist minister, and who spent some time at. the Southern Theological Seminary, will locate in the upper part of Morgan county for the purpose of teaching school. SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVEN TION CO J. UM BUS, MISS, MAY 6TB, 1881. All who expect to attend the con vention are earnestly requested to for ward their names and post-office address to the Committee at once. The citizens of Columbus will open their hearts and homes to our guests on that occasion, but it will be impos sible to avoid confusion and consequent discomfort unless all comply with these requests. Do not embarrass the Committee by sending word to your friends here that you are coming to their homes; write us that you desire to be assigned to such friends and we will comply with your wishes if possible. Those who wish to stop at hotels and prefer to pay at a reduced rate, will be accommodated on conferring with the Committee; no reduction can be had except through this channel. Cards of assignment and replies to applica tions will be sent out about April 15th. Application has been made for Ex cursion Rates by rail etc. to Columbus. Full particulars will be given through the press as soon as possible. Address: H. W. Battle, Box 51, Columbus, Miss. Religious Papers please copy. GEORGIA BAPTIST CONVENTION. Delegates and visitors, who will at tend the Convention to be held in Athens, commencing the 21st of April next, are respectfully requested to noti fy the Committee of Arrangements, or Rev. C. D. Campbell, at an early day, and give their post-office address. J. S. Hamilton; Asa M. Jackson; J. M. Herrington; W. B. Jackson; S. C. Dobbs; Williams Rutherford, Com mittee.