Newspaper Page Text
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SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST. )
or Alabama. j
VOL. 59.
Table of Contents.
First Page— Alabama Department: Advan
tages ui Godliness and Uonteniment: The
Religious Tress.
Second Page—Correspondence: The Lord’s
Praytr--K.H Handle; xbeSunday bchool
—Lesson lor March 20—‘ Review. ’ To the
Baptists ol Georgia—Rev. Sylvauus Lan
drum. Missionary Department.
Third Page—Children’s Corner: Bible Ex
plorations; Questions; Correspondence;
etc.
Fourth Page—Editorials : The Hydrostatic
Press; Tue New Administration ; The
Average Minister ; Morals in Maine ;
Southern Baptist Convention; Georgia
Baptist Convention.
Fifth Page—Secular Editorials : News Para
graphs; Joseph E. Brown —illustrated;
Im Bchwarzwald poetry Charles W.
Hubuer; Books and Magazines ; Georgia
News.
Sixth Page—The Household: Thirty-fold
—poetry; Your Boy; Miscellaneous. Obit
uaiies.
Seventh Page—The Farmer's Index: The
Opening spring ; Bermuda Grass; Latent
Fertility ; Anti-Monopoly, The State Ag
ricultural Society.
Eighth Page—Florida Department: Chips
and Splinters; From the Field ; The Har
mony Church Council, etc.
Alabama Department.
BY SAMUEL HENDERSON.
ADVANTAGES OF GODLINESS
AND CONTENTMENT.
Gain and loss are the two things
that rack more brains, exact more labor,
exclude sleep from more eyelids, and
inspire more lieart-trouble, than all
other sublumary causes combined. Like
some brooding, ill-omened spirit, they
are the last that we can expel from
our mind at night to secure a little
troubled slumber, and the first to seize
us in the morning to hold us in their
giant grasp during the live long day.
No intervals of quiet seclusion are safe
from their obtrusion. Like the fabled
Prometheus they bind us hand and
foot, and place the vulture of corrod
ing care in our hearts to gnaw our vit
als. Even “nature’s sweet restorer,
balmy sleep,” cannot always exclude
the vulture from us. 111-boding images
stalk in upon our fancy, and throw
over the enchantments of dreamland
the grim and sombre portents of com
ing evil. Is there any relief from those
perpetually recurring anxieties? Is
there any power to which we can ap
peal that can release us from this worse
than Egyptian bondage? We think
there is. And will it not be a grateful
task, dear reader, to seek this relief?
Could our efforts be directed to a more
worthy object than this?
A few Sundays ago, having no en
gagement to preach, we sat down in
our study, and preached a sermon to
ourself. And truth to say, if the reader
will excuse the apparant egotism, we
felt edified and stiengthened. In the
hope that it will not be an ungrateful
service, we propose, not to be sure, to
preach the identical sernym to you,
reader, but to offer some practical re
flections connected with the subject
matter of that sermon which we think
are of general interest. But let us
announce the text.
“BUT godliness with contentment is
GREAT GAIN.”— Tim. 6 :6.
We think the text contains a never
failing remedy for all our heart-aches
—all our cares and troubles, whether
they come from the past, exist in the
present, or are borrowed from the fu
ture. To be at one with God, is to con
ciliate all 'the sources of Omnipotence
in our favor. To be panoplied in the
whole armor of God, is to defy the
fiercest onsets of the powers of darkness.
To be hid with Christ in God, is to in
spire a sense of security that nothing
can disturb. To be in harmony with
the triune Jehovah, with the angelic
hosts, with the blood-washed throng,
with every good agency and influence
in the universe, is no less a guarantee
of our future than our present peace,
even the “peace of God that passeth
all undeistanding, that will keep our
minds and hearts through Jesus Christ
our Lord." We can all aim at this
mark. We can aspire to this higher
plane, where our weary spirits may re
pose in serene tranquiHiy under the
shadow of his wings, and where we
shall find what we can find nowhere
else in this storm-tossed world, that
“Earth has no sorrow that Heaven can
not heal.”
Godliness is the most exhaustive
term used in the Bible to indicate that
sum of moral and spiritual excellence
which fits us for the life that now is,
and for that which is to come. It is, so to
express it, the genus of the whole ter
minology of spiritual attainment. It is
more than religion ; for there are as
many religions in the world as there
are objects worshiped; but there is only
one godliness. It is more than faith
more than humility,—more than piety
—more than hope—more even than
charity; for it is all these combined,
and every thing else that can make a
man “perfect in Christ Jesus.” It is
that thorough equipment of the soul
for the mission of life which fits it for
every good word and work, as well as
its badge of entrance into the “mar
riage supper of the Lamb.” O, it is
the garment to be worn through life,
and kept unspotted from the world, to
be worn in death as our pledge of vic
tory over the last enemy, worn in the
judgment day as the ground of our ac
quittal there, and worn in Heaven as
our title to its felicities. It never waxes
old, and is adjusted to the countless
ages of eternity, in whose sun-light it
will brighten forever. The very term
imports all this. “Godliness” —like God
—“partaker of the divine nature.” Not
indeed partaker of his lofty and in
communicable perfections—his eter
nity, übiquity, omniscience, etc.; but
of his moral attributes,such as goodness,
mercy, justice, and truth. These vir
tues that exist in Him to perfection,
are to be exemplified in us to our last
capacity. Like Him in the ends, aims,
and purposes of our lives. Like Him
in the vast breadth of our sympathies
and benevolence. Our “field is the
world,” the world that He so loved—
the world to which He sends us forth
to spread the savor of his Gospel to
every creature. The goodness, mercy,
justice, and truth that bled onCalvary
in the person of His matchless Son,
appeals to sis to carry the pleasing story
wherever our humanity groans under
the burdens of sin and death.
Contentment! What is it? It is
not stoical indifference. It is not blind
indolence. It is not self-complaisancy
in past achievements. It is the repose
of the soul upon the promises of our
covenant-keeping God after we have
solemnly and intelligently received
Christ as our Savior, and committed
our eternal all into his hands. It is the
persuasion that He is able to “keep
that which we have committed to
Him,” and that, under His guardian
ship, “all things work together for good
to them that love Him.” But why at
tempt to define it,when we all know what
it is? Let us rather concern ourselves
to know what will place it in the soul
as an abiding influence. As one has
said, “I had rather/eel repentance than
to know the definition thereof,” so let
us aspire rather to enjoy content
ment than to define it. What, then,
will inspire it in our hearts?
Consider the attributes, providences,
and promises of God. They are a pav
ilion into which our souls may fly and
find shelter amid the storms, the bus
tle, and the hurricane of life. How
cheering and animating the voice of
our heavenly Father, saying to us in
accents of infinite tenderness, “Come,
my people, enter into thy chambers,
and shut thy doors about thee; hide
thyself as it were for a little moment,
until the indignation be overpast.”
Isa. 26 :20. What can harm us when
we are locked up in the attributes, pro
vidence, and promises of our God?
What power can break through this
pavilion of Godhead? What were the
brazen walls, the marble palace, and
trusty legions of the Babylonian king
on that night of self-security, when the
mystic hand broke through all those
defences, and wrote his terrible doom
on the wall, compared with the shield
with which Almigbtiness invests the
least of his saints? Ought not this to
inspire contentment?
Reflect again, Christian reader, what
has been done for you. What were
you once? “An alien from the com
monwealth of Israel . . . without God
and without hope in the world.” How
utterly forlorn, destitute, helpless, and
ready to perish 1 Condemned, and un
der the wrath of God! Can imagina
tion itself conceive of a condition more
perilous, more terrific? What are you
THE FRANKLIN STEAM PRINTING HOUSE.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1881.
now? A “fellow-citizen of the saints
and of the household of God” —“an
heir of God and a joint heir of Jesus
Christ”—a “king and priest unto God
and his Father.” And “this honor have
all the saints.” God the Father, Christ
the Son, the Holy Spirit,the Comforter,
dwell in you. Angels guard you, for
“are they not all ministering spirits sent
forth to minister for them who are
heirs of salvation.” The saints of all
ages from their high abodes of bliss are
represented as looking on you, and an
imating you with their examples and
sympathy. “Wherefore, seeing we al
so are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, let us run with pa
tience the race that is set before as,’’etc.
There is not a harp-string in glory but
stands ready to peal forth its highest
notes to celebrate the victory of your
faith. There is not a saint or angel
there but is waiting to welcome you
to the "general assembly and church
of the first-born.” And will not this
content you?
Consider, once more, that these
light-afllictions disappointments, cross
providences, and the like, “are but
for a moment, and work for you a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory.” They are nothing in compar
isonwithwhat othersaints have endured,
who went up from the stake, the gib
bet, and the rack; and what are they
in comparison with what Jesus suffer
ed for you? They are the bitter before
the sweet; the cross before the crown.
What is this we hear from an angel’s
lips, as he points the exiled John to
the white-vested throng? “These are
they who have come out of great trib
ulation, and have washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of
the Lamb.” Realize it, child of Jesus,
you will soon be there! Your tribula
tions will then be history, and your
felicity will augment with the rolling
cycles of eternity. And ought not this
to inspire that contentment that would
banish the canker of care from your
troubled heart?
O ye beloved of God, called to be
saints, we would address you as Jon
adab adressed Amnon, the son of David,
“Why art thou, being a king’s son, lean
from day to day?” Why are you, be
ing the children of the King of kings
and Lord of lords, so often exclaiming,
in the depths of your souls, “my lean
ness! my leanness!” Why not “come
to his banqueting house” when he in
vites you so kindly, so pressingly, “Eat
abundantly, 0 beloved, and let your
soul delight itself in fatness?” Never
did royality spread so sumptuous a feast
as that to which the poor, the halt, and
the blind Are invited. No earthly
wardrobe ever furnished such raiment
as Immanuel supplies to the obscurest
and weakest of his loved ones.
Now, what the Apostle affirms is,
that the combination of “godliness with
contentment is great gain.” Gain in
all the permanent and solid interests
of this life, because the temperance
and the industry it inspires, and the
proper regulation of the passions it im
poses, fit us for long .and useful lives;
for “godliness is profitable unto all
things, having the promise of the life
that now is, and that which is to
come.” But especially is it gain to the
soul. It moderates our expectations
and desires by teaching us that this
world is only a means to a more noble
end. It is simply our “spendingmoney”
on our way to a better inheritance. It
satisfies us with our lot, and thespheie
of our usefulness. No jealousies, heart
burnings, and envies disturb its calm
equanimity. With an eye fixed upon
the prize ever glittering before it, earth
has no object that can allure it. En
rolled as a “king and priest unto God
our Father,” worldly distinctions are
the merest baubles of an hour. Laying
up its treasures in heaven, the coffers
of the rich excite no envy. Filled with
joy inexpressible and full of glory, the
pleasures of sin for a season can no
longer tempt him. And to sum up all
in few words, it reconciles us to every
adverse providence, by the assurance
that infinite wisdom can make no mis
takes. It prepares us for Heaven by
bringing the kingdom of Heaven into
the soul, thus producing that peace
and joy which have only to be expand
ed and perfected to constitute the bliss
of Paradise. Grace matured is glory
begun. And it invests our character
after death with an odor alike grateful
to our brethren and honorable to the
cause we - have served. Never, surely
never, sweet a sound melt upon
human etr, ns did that which John
heard in die Apocalyptic vision : “Bles
sed are the dead that die in the Lord
from henceforth; yea, saith the
Spirit, that they may rest from their
labors, and their works do follow them.”
How riqh the treasures of sacred bio
graphy f “The righteous shall be had
in everlasting rememberance.”
Thus, dear reader, we may all reach
that goal to which the great Apostle of
the Gentiles attained when he said, “I
have learned in whatsoever state I am,
therewith to be content.” May suc
cess reward all our efforts, so that if
the past has been stormy and turbu
lent, th'e future may be tranquil, pros
perous, and happy!
[communicated.]
Aloiie in life! how sad; and drearer,
darker, deeper is the sadness where is
olations the result of mistake, error
of heart and mind, or failure to win
and wear in the soul the aspiration that
had kindled its ambition and fed its
hopes. That aspiration may have been
wealth, honor or position; it may have
been friendship, esteem or love. It
may have been a modest, yet earnest
desire to stand in the front rank of the
pure, to be usher in the temple of
fame—to be the peer of him who wins
his “lady love.” But when foiled, dis
appointed and wrecked in his dearest
hopes man will sometimes turn from
the highway where the thronged world
presses, and seeking only solitude, will
the avenues to his heart from
obtrusion by his kind, in order that he
may reason with himself and commune
with his God. His mind will turn in
on itself and search the secret sources
of thought. His heart by introspection,
will look into its inner chambers, and
sit in severe judgment upon its mo
tives and sinister promptings. And
heart and mind, at fault with them
selves, will then seek counsel of God.
And this is the highest style of man,
endowing him with a moral sublimity
beyond any ever illustrated by philos
opher, statesman or hero. It is the at
itude of the martyr, not yet bound to
the stake. It is the bugle note of a
spirit, preparing to take with equal
steps and upward career in life, and un
daunted by its dangers and obstruct
ions, unallured by the roses that shade
serpents, impenetrable to the winsome
smiles of beauty, or the fickle applause
of his toils on nor pauses un
til he reaches the summit. And then,
what is his guerdon ? What is his sweet
reward for unrest of spirit, for toil, for
self-denial, for misconstruction, for the
sneer, doubt and sarcasm whispered
along his pathway? It is something that
is little esteemed by the herd of man
kind ;it is something that shrinks
from the track where the hunt for
wealth follows, that flees the marts of
business, that mingles not in the
mirth, gayety and forgetfulness of the
youthful throng that gather together
to catch fleeting moments, of so-called
pleasure, as infantile life will sometime
meet on the meadow to chase the but
terfly. As the world goes it is a worth
less guerdon ; a trophy of no esteem!
The millionaire does not value it; the
politician would not pick it up; the
business man thinks it is in his way,
and the votary of pleasure throws it
aside as a weight that hinders him in
his hurried race. And yet, had it not
been in the heart of Washington,
liberty might not have been ours.
Had not William, of Orange, felt its
influence, the inquisition might have
permanently held its carnival of
wrong, cruelty, and blood, where- now
the sweet songs of Protestant civiliza
tion attest and do honor to the highest
achievements of man. Without it in
their hearts, Edwards, Howard, Wilber
force, and many others that have illum
inated the heights of life, would have
beencommon torch-bearers among their
fellows. Without it, society would be
a fatal deception and religion a myth.
Reader! what is it? You may answer
the approval of a good conscience.
Leon.
Talledega County, Ala.
Dr. Joseph Parker, of London, says: "It
is uncertaan whether geologists contradict
Moses bnt it is positively certain beyond
all doubt that geologists contradict one an
other."
j THE CHRISTIAN HERALD,
( of Tennessee.
The Religious Press.
Chicago lias ten Baptist churches close to
gether, and ten Presbyterian churches which
are close together, and now it is proposed
that one of the Baptist and one of the Pres
byterian societies swap churches. Why 7
not ?—Christian at Work.
There is no reason in the world why
they should not.
When the attendance upon public worship
diminishes as the attendance upon the Sab
bath-school increases, it is high time to ask
what this thing really means. A Sabbath
school which for any reason has this effect,
nee sto be born agaih. “By their fruits ye
shall know them.” applies to institutions as
well as to individuals.—Hartford Religious
Herald.
Well said: and when people take
more interest in the Sunday-school
than they take in the church, it is time
to iuqnire if there is not something se
rious the matter.
From the same paper we copy the
following:
If we have come to a time when revivals
of religion need to be apologized for to a
Christian public, it is well to ask how this
state of things has come about, and to what
extent ministers and churches are responsi
ble for it.
Well said again. The best things
we have are those which we most
abuse.
One of the Universalist papers, says the
Presbyterian Banner, makes a good sugges
tion. It proposes that some rich man should
offer a premium to the minister who during
the present year shall use in his sermons the
fewest times the words agnosticism, pessim
ism, evolution, optimism, Spencer, Tyndall,
Darwin and Huxley. The public car has
grown weary of these words from the pul
pit, and is eagerly listening for the sound of
the gospel.
We are not apt to quote from Uni
versalist papers, but we must say that
that the above is a good hint as
well as a good hit. The pul
pit is the last place in the world for
pedantry. Nothing chills the devotion
of the saints more quickly than to see
their pastor make an ostentatious dis
play of his learning, particularly when
they know that he has no great learn
ing to display.
It requires as much courage to stand up
for Christ to-day as it did in the times of the
apostles. The opposing forces of Satan are
marshalled on somewhat different lines, and
with other tactics, but the powers ol dark
ness are in formidable array. It is a time
for vigilance, and fore vary follower of Christ
to be sober, and to watch unto prayer.—N.
O. Christian Advocate.
Just as much. Satan failed when
he tried persecution, fire and sword.
Now he is trying to take us with guile,
and talks learnedly about philosophy
and science. He will be foiled again.
Still these are trying times, and we
need much grace to sustain us. When
Satan gets through with “science” he
will try something else, we know not
what, but we may be sure that coming
generations will have fheir own pecu
liar conflicts just as we have ours, and
as those before us had theirs.
"I have observed this truth, even in our
confused world: that whatever of teal hu
man worth a man puts into his grand eu
terprise, just about ths same quantity of real
human victory (irrecognizable often to
blockheads, but very real for all that) does
he in the end get out of it."
We quote this at second hand from
Carlyle, the great English thinker re
cently deceased. Never was a truer
thing said. And we may reverse it,
and say that no real victory recogniza
ble by sensible men is ever to be gotten
out of any grand enterprise which has
never been put into it. A good deal
of what passes for “success’' in this
life is worthless. A man attains to
high position for which he is not qual
ified, but he manages to conceal his in
competency from all but a few, and
these say nothing about it. This is
called success! A man loses position
or fails to reach it, although everybody
whose opinion is worth anything knows
that he well deserves it. This is called
failure! Reverse both statements and
you have the opinion of The Index.
Defending the Indefensible.—We called
attention, some time ago, to the startling
declaration made by Hon. William E. Dodge,
and confirmed by the observation of others,
that Sunday-schools, as now conducted, are
likely to undermine the Church, rather than
feed it. The difficulty is ( that the Sunday
school as an institution, is neld up as being
itself the children's church. We are sorry
to find, that some persons in the discussion
of the subject, say that this objection is just
the merit of the Bunday school This idea
will give way before better judgment ere
long, but the fact that it is upheld by any
one enly shows how imminent the danger
NO. 10.
has become. According to this theory, the
regular preaching of the word of God, the
administration of the ordinances, and all the
means of grace, which the Savior instituted,
may be abandoned in the course of one or
two generations. But how will men fare in
those coming days, without the Church? To
say nothing about the objective helps ''hrist
has lodged in what he has been pleased to
call his “body,” what will men be without
Church discipline? How are the young to
be housed and nurtured and guarded, when
they become too old to goto Sunday school ?
The argument that Sunday schoolsareadap
ted to the children is a poor one. There is
such a thing as lowering God to man's devi
ces instead of making man conform to God.
Messenger,
And The Index rules that the point
is well taken. There is a disposition
with some to make the Sunday-school,
to some extent, a substitute for the
church. We do not suppose that any
of our people would advocate this on
theory, but some of them are liable un
wittingly to fall into the error in prac
tice. It must be guarded against.
We strongly favor the Sunday-school,
and that is the very reason why we
jealously watch it and try to protect it
from abuse.
Rev. Dr. Broaddus, of the Lousville Semi
nary, did not come to this city for nothing.
He leaves it with solid subscriptions on his
book amounting to f3G 000 Will not our
Southern friends accept this as another
“love-token” from their Northern brethren?
—N. Y. Examiner and Chronicle.
Certainly we accept it as such, and
we accept it gratefully. God bless the
Baptists of New York.
“How’s Business?” said one man to an
other, as we were walking down Main street.
The query was propounded by a man at a
pea nut stand, where he had as his stock of
worldly possessions, about half a bushel of
that Southampton staple, and a few dozen
very red apples piled up in pyramids. It
was addressed to another pea-nut man, a
shambling, poverty stricken, elderly man,
with a crumpled bat. The latter replied, as
he pushed on up the street, “Ch, there’s
nothing doing, nothing at all!” The whole
thing passed with all the gravity of a con
versation at the Stock Exchange.—Central
Presbyterian.
And will not all our grand enterpri
ses, and our great political movements,
and all the affairs of empires look just
about as insignificant when the light
of eternity shines back upon them?
In Good Standing —As letters of dismis
sion usually read, the church granting the
letter certifies that “brother A. is a member
of this church in good standing,” and as
such he is cordially commended to the fel
lowship of the church addressed. At first
view, this looks very much like a certificate
of good character. There can be no doubt
that that is whatit ought to be. The solemn
declaration of a Christian church that a man
has a “good standing” in it ought to mean
a great deal. It ought to mean that he has
been faithful in the discharge of his church
duties, liberal in his contributions for the
support of the gospel, consistent in his con
duct before the world. All this, we say, it
ought to mean. As a matter of fact, it means
something very far short of it. In a word,
a certificate of “good standing,” in far too
many cases, means no more than that the
name of the person mentioned in it is on the
church record, and that he has not been
openly charged with “disorderly, limlk.”—
Examiner and Chronicle.
If we should exclude from our
churches all those whose “good stand
ing” consists only in this: that they
have not been openly charged with dis
orderly walk, how many would there
be left? Ah!
Now, will it do us any good to in
crease the number of these ecclesiasti
cal dead-heads by baptizing a few
thousand more of them next August?
"I see,” said Baxter, “that good men are
not so good as I once thought they were,
and I find few men are so bad as malicious
enemies or censorious professors do imag
ine.” We ought to blame ourselves much ;
we ought to make every allowance for oth
ers. There must be growing charity for
mankind. None of us are wnat we ought
to be. We need allowances to be made for
us; we must make the same for others. —
Southern Churchman.
We have long since discovered that
the saints, the real saints of God on
earth, whether ancient or modern, are
a very imperfect set of people. If the
doctrine of justification by faith be not
true, there is, so far as we can see, no
salvation for any one of them.
It may be true that Church journals give
too little general news, but it perhaps would
be better If secular newspapers gave the p*o
ple a little less of what they want and a lit
tle more of what they ought to have.—Mes
senger.
Yes, a good deal less of what they
want. It demoralizes the public mind
to read the daily accounts of crimes
and horrors, so freely set forth by the
secular press.
A weak mind is ise a microscope. which
magnifii-H u- fling things, but cannot receive
great ones
