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> Sr M Inhex VOL. 59. Table of Contents. First Page—Alabama Department: Can it be Renuditd? Profanity, Stats Missions; | Alabama News; The Religious Press. Second Page—Correspondence: Mercer Uni versity Notes; Prayer for Rulers; Jottings By the Way-J. G. M. Medlock. Monthly Olive Branch. The Sunday school—Les son For April 10—The Good Samaritan. Missionary Department.. Miscellaneous. Thiid Page—Onr Pulpit: The Harmony of the Various Departments of Missionary Work ; An addiess by Rev. J. H. Kilpat rick. Fourth Page—Editorials: Temperance; The Sword and the Plough Shate; To the Friends of the Seminary ; Just Enough Vitality for Obstruction ; Georgia Baptist News. Fifth Page—Secular Editorials : News Para graphs; Literary Notes and Comments; New Books; Georgia News. Sixth Page—The Household: Perfect Through Buffeting—Poetry. Sketches of Foreign Countries—Russia; A Dream and its Results- Obituaries. Seventh Page—The Farmer’s Index: The Wealthy vs. Farm work; Education for Farmer's Boys ; Sheep; Manufactures in the South. Eighth Page—Florida Department: Chips and Splinters; Notes from the Feld ; The End of the World, etc. Alabama Department. BY SAMUEL HENDEKSON. CAN IT BE REMEDIED? The ease with which unworthy and incompetent men find their way into our Baptist pulpits has been and is a source of no little annoyance to many of our best and most intelligent breth ren. It is a kind of tribute we have to pay to the depravity and weaknesses of human kind for our independence, our soul liberty. It is a condition that always accompanies the highest priv ileges and the most unlimited freedom. Far better be subjected to these occa sional annoyances, those evils that soon work their own cure,than “fly toothers we know not of.” Ecclesiastical de spotism, it is true, might free us of some of these petty troubles, just as a stroke of paralysis would free the hu man body of many of the pains and aches to which it would otherwise be subjected, but then none would doubt that the remedy would be worse than the disease. The good sense and piety of our churches, sooner or later, dispose of all such cases without materially impairing their standing, leaving the unworthy to themselves, and remand ing the incompetent to “the rank and file." But we recur to this subject now to enter kindly remonstrance against hasty and inconsiderate ordinations. While we have a standard of “Faith” to which every man is required to comform ere he is invested with the full exercise of the ministerial functions, we have no standard of mental culture to apply in such cases. Whether right or wrong on this subject, we pause not to discuss, further than to say that every man who aspires to teach others ought to be required, as our old English gram mars express it, to “speak the English language with propriety.” Certainly no man will contest the proposition, that truth will never suffer anything by being presented to the people in pure, good English. We cannot be too cautious in ob serving the admonition of Paul to Tim othy, “Lay hands suddenly on no man ” Ordinations do not make min isters. Unless they possess the piety, the aptness to teach, the fervid spirit, the good report, the power to rule well, the sobriety and gravity, laid down in the New Testament portraiture, before they are ordained, they are not likely to achieve them afterward. It is not every man who has it in his heart to “build a house for the Lord,” whom the Lord chooses for that service, as David found out. Every impulse to do good is not a call to the ministry. The “desire to fill the office of a bishop” must combine with the qualifications of a bishop, before it will be safe to answer to any “call to preach.” Indeed, the effective part of the call is to be found in the capacities to fill it. Some men reach their full growth at once, and are better at the beginning than they ever are afterward. Such are soon thrown into brackets by the chur ches, and become supernumerary. Others grow more gradually, so as to bear their richest fruit in old age. Such SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST, or Alabama. will never fail to find employment un til the infirmities of age or death shall lay them aside. And these are the men who “magnify their office,” who “make full proof of their ministry,” and whom the Master deems “worthy of double honor.” In exchanging those courtesies which are due from one minister to another, it is not necessary for a pastor to sac rifice an important hour’s service to the claims of such courtesies. It is not necessary for him to inflict upon his church and congregation an unprofit able service, by asking a visiting min ister to fill his pulpit whom he knows cannot instruct them. Such cases sometimes occur. When a pastor is forced to choose between an incompet ent minister and the spiritual demands of his charge, he ought not to hesitate. He had better incur even the ill will of one, than to disappoint an entire congregation. He is put where he is by his church from his supposed cap acity to instruct them, and unless something very nearly the equivalent of what he could say can be said by another, he had better fill his own ap pointment. We have heard of preach ers, so called, who are indebted to these courtesies for all the preaching they ever do. Either the churches have failed to appreciate their worth, or they have nothing in them worth appreciat ing ; they are at least without charges. Such ministers are apt to be peevish, jealous, fretful and self-confident, so that the minimum of public confidence in them is the maximum of their con fidence in themselves, somewhat as a quaint old author has expressed it, that “God has given even to frogs a ceitain pomplaisancy in -jhei" own music." While it is true, and ought to be true, that churches have the right to call whomsoever they will to ordination, it is equally true that pres byteries called to perform the service, may, from proper motives, decline that service. A little blunt candor at the right time might save the cause from some disrepute, and the aspirant for ordination from a position in which he would be subjected to perpetual mort ification. As to strangers who so often prove to be impostors, it is well to give the cause the benefit of all reasonable doubts. The presumption is as ten to one that a strange preacher, of whom we have never heard, who comes ac credited from no responsible source, with his pockets stuffed with letters of commendation, is either a drone of whom others desire to be rid, or he is an impostor who has forged his doc uments. In either case, it will do no harm to hold him at arm’s length until the truth is known. The man who voluntarily throws himself into the category of a tramp, must content himself to take the status of a tramp, until the converse appears. Modest worth is not apt to be demonstrative. It needs no other credentials than its meek, quiet, deferential bearing, all that conscious sense of rectitude that asserts itself in a hundred nameless ways. Like the loadstone in attracting the' particles of steel, it will insensibly draw around it all of like precious faith. PROfANITY. Some one has said that of all the vices to which man is addicted, pro fanity is the most gratuitous. The most abandoned do not dare to defend it. It has not the color of a pretext in any kind of compensation. The thief has his stolen goods to reward him for his crime. The Sabbath break er who shoots his wild turkey on Sun day, has it for his dinner on Monday. The pugilist has the gratification to know that he has given a blackened eye to his antagonist. He has at least left his mark. The defrauder can ex ! ult in his ill-gotten gains. Even the drunkard can delude himself for the moment with his fancied riches and stalwart arm, and can purchase the privilege of sleeping with swine. But ! the profane swearer indulges his beset ting vice without motive or reward. He not only violates all the instinc<s of his reason, judgment and conscience —he not only infracts a direct com mand of Almighty God, “Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain”—but he does it without reap ing the slightest compensation, fancied THE FRANKLIN STEAM PRINTING HOUSE. ATLANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 1881. or real.' He gets nothing in return, save only the miserable gn&ifieation of insulting God to his face, and shock ing the moral sensibilities of his fellow men. A worthy member of a baptist church, now an honored deacon, said to us some years ago, that in early life he acquired the vulgar habit, but that years before he made any pretentions to piety, he turned with honeshindig nation on himself, and from very shame resolved to quit it, and carried eut his resolution. Common decency, it would seem, to say nothing of the fear of God, would be enough to induce any man of common refinement: and self respect not to form a debas ing, so vulgar, so revolting to ail the higher instincts of our nature. Af firmations which are interlarded with blasphemy, may well be received with abatement, since a man who will in sult his Maker will most likely deceive his fellow man. A Christian parent once observed, that his moral sensibil ities were never so much shocked as when he overheard his son who had just grown up to manhood utter a blas phemous oath. hpwever, he never heard it repeated thereafter. He had reason to know that his boy permanently reformed. But did we say the prpfane swearer receives no reward? Alas! alas, he will ere long get his wages, for it is i written, “He will not hold him guilt less that taketh his name in vain.” So direct and causeless a violation of one of the most solemn enactments of God's law, will provoke a recoil which will visit upon the soul in eternity a penalty all the more intolerable be cause of all sins it is the moat L”. xett* sable. Young mi\n, stain poi^uT^u!, with so gross a habit, and if you ever indulge it, pause and think what place in all the vernacular of even civilized society can the oaths of the blasphe mer fill without polluting! What po sition in society can be safely and hon orably assigned Jiim! STATE MISSIONS. Rev. T. M. Bailey, Secretary of our State Mission Board, was with us at our last Alpine appointment, and preached a real live missionary sermon, replete with argument and bristling with telling facts. His summing up of the results of missionary work for the last hundred years was masterly. To those who are accustomed to de preciate what missions have accomplished, his array of facts was overwhelming. India, Bur ah, Germany, Italy, even France, China and Africa, the isles of the sea,'such as the Sandwich Islands, Madagascar, etc., to say nothing of the Indians of our own country, as well as our Home Missions, all speak to us trumpet-tongued that our ‘labor has not been in vain in the Lord,’ and that to make light of these results is the ut terance either of direct infidelity, ava rice, or a want of piety. The sermon, though long for Bro. Bailey, was lis tened to with unflagging interest to the close by an appreciative audience. A very fair collection was taken up at its close for our State Mission work. We have now about twenty-six mission aries in the field in this State, one of whom is a worthy colored minister who is preaching to his own race. We have also one or two colporteurs, en gaged in selling religious books and tracts, Bibles and Testaments. On the whole, the work of State Missions is progressing in a promising manner. The change in our plans of operation, made at the last Convention, seems to meet with general favor, so that the work is enlisting more of our churches and Associations than ever before. We notice also a flattering increase in our contributions to other Missions throughout the State; and we are cherishing the hope that at our next Convention, Alabama will take a few strides upward in her relative position among her sister States. —ln Greene and adjoining counties there is great excitement about mad dogs. Several cattle and persons have been bitten. Two negroes are supposed to have died of hydrophobia. —ln Greene county, a few days since, Rev. N. R. Morgan, the oldest man in Greene county, died in the ninety-second year of his age. ALABAMA NEWS. —Colbert county, recorded 856 mortgages last year, —A Clement attachment factory is started in Tuscumbia. —The opening day of the annual fair of the Mobile Agricultural, Mech anical and Horticultural Association will be the second of May. —Mrs. English, widow of the late Richard H. English, proprietor of the Selma Timet, has disposed it to Messrs. Frank P. Glass and Harvey L. Mc- Kee. —The Western Union office now has nineteen wires running into its office at Opelika. It absorbed three wires from the American Union a few days since. —The cotton factory at Anniston is in full blast and turning out an excel lent article of thread and cloth. It has a larger population by several hundred than any town in Calhoun. —The work of extending the rail road, lately known as the Savannah & Memphis, from Goodwater, the term inus, on towards Talladega, will com mence, according to report, about the first of the next month. —The joint committee, on the part of the South and North Alabama Con ference respectively, it is understood, will meet at Birmingham, to consider the establishment of a Methodist paper to be the organ of that denomination i in Alabama, and to determine the place lof publication. Although the views i of the committee are said to be diver | gent as to the location, it is thought ■ that they may report in favor of Birm , 'jvgham on acoounj. its relative, I uation with respect to the two Uonfer- I ences. The professional, social and religious complexion of the recent Legislature is thus given by Senator L. W. Grant in his last letter from Montgomery to the ; Jacksonville Republican. In the Senate there are 17 lawyers, 7 farmers, 3 mer i chants, 3 physicians, 1 editor, 1 minis- I ter, 1 teacher. In the Senate there are 10 Methodists, 9 Baptists, 5 Epis copalians, 2 Presbyterians, and 1 Cath olic, while 6 give no church; 27 are i married, 4 are single and 2 are wid . owers. In the House there are 27 I lawyers, 6 physicians, 48 farmers, 4 i teachers, 1 horticulturist, 4 merchants, i 1 druggist, 1 manufacturer, 1 black i smith. The remainder give no occup ation. Os the Representatives 84 are married, 14 are single and 1 is marked “expected.” The Religious Press. It is remarkable that the emigrants from Ireland, although belonging to the same Church with the Spaniards, have generally shunned the Spauish-settled countries on this continent, which offer as many attrac tions to energetic and industrious persons as do the more distant colonies of England. Is it not also strange that the Roman Catholic people of Ireland, who show such bitter hostility to protestanls at home, when they emigrate prefer the countries i 1 which Protestants are dominant, and Protestant ideas prevail in civil affairs ?—Church Times. Points well taken. Index. No one can doubt the importance of mis sions in advancing the civilization of the na tions of the world, especially of the barbar ous ones far distant from those most enlight ened, aud in extending the commerce and industrial operations of the countries most active in business enterprises. There are many who do not appreciate the work of those pioneers who open the way to inter course and trade with the people of "the uttermost parts of the earth;” and who doubt the utility of expending the large sums of money needed for the operations of those engaged in them ; but if they will examine the figures which show the cost of these re ligious enterprises, and compare them with the expense of military expeditions, they may see which are pecuniarily the most profitable. It is estimated that in 1880 Christian nations expended for missions $8,000,000, v bile in the same year the Af ghan war cost England about $60,000,000. Most of the missions are sustained by the liberality of the religious people of England and the United States.—Church Times. This paragraph regards the subject from the standpoint of were, dollars and cents; what shall we say when we regard the moral results of missionary effort and of war! The fact is, every man, in some way, is really dependent on his fellows. "No man liveth to himself.” All need, more or less, the friendship, sympathy and help of others. The rich must depend for some things on the poor as well as the poor on the rich. The little duties and offices of common life are reciprocal. All individuals are alike de pendent on the Savior for salvation. Before j THE CHRISTIAN HERALD, | of Tennessee. him is perfect equality here as well as at the 1 judgment All may be benefited by others’ counsel, co-operation and assistance; and no one knows how much he will need the kind offices of others before he dies. Then let us be modest and considerate in our deal- , ings with our fellow-men, and never let the spirit of boastful arrogance govern our con I dnet.—Morning Star. True, as regards individuals; true, as regards families, communities, cor porations, States, nations; true every way. Wherefore, let brotherly love continue. And this which we find in the Chris- 1 tian Union expresses our views ex actly : ThkTboe Basis ok Temperance Refobm. —We wish that Dr. Crosby, in his proposed method of temperance reform had placed greater emphasis on the truth, that there is no specific for intemperance; that the only true remedy is a reform of the whole nature. Temperance is a plant of slow growth; it cannot be forced. Intemperance is the mas tery of the animal over the intellectual and spiritual over the animal. Prohibition puts the tiger in ths cage and denies him the use of blood; the pledge is his promise to turn vegetarian; Christianity takes his blood thirsty disposition out of him. Prohibitory law and personal pledges may sometimes serve a useful temporary purpose ; but noth ing less than Christian life makes radical and permanent reform. A genuine revival of religion is the best temperance movement; a genuine Christian church is the best terns perance society; and a genuine Christian preacher, who puts temperance where Paul put it, between righteousness and judgment to come, is the best of all temperance lectu rers. God can give us no greater gift than him self. We may say, as one said to Caesar, “This is too great a gift for me to receive." “But it is not too great for me to give,” an swered Caesar. Salvation to eternal life to be spent with God and with the holy angels is • too great a gift for me to receive! Be that as it may, it is none too great for God to give. Whatovor he doec is done on a scale commensurate with his own greatness. He measures his gift by his goodness, not by your de serts. None but an Editor.—None hut an editor, none but an editor could have written the following instructive lines. They are from a sporting paper it is true, (the London Sporting Times) but no matter where they come from, they are worthy of the careful consid eration of our readers. If an editor omits anything, he is lazy. If he speaks of things as tney are, people get angry. If he glosses over or smoothes down the rough points, he is bribed. If he calls things by their proper names, he is unfit for the position of an editor. If he does not furnish readers with jokes, he is an idiot; if Ire does, he is a rattlehead, lacking stability. If he condems the wrong, he is a good fel low, but lacks discretion If he lets wrongs | and injuries go unmentioned, he is a cow ard. If he exposes a public man, he dues it to gratify spite, is the tool of a clique, or be longs to the “outs.” If he indulges in per sonalities, he is a blackguard ; if he does not, his paper is dull and insipid. The Bvptist Record speaking of the neglect of missions by the Baptists of the South has these truthful words: Not a little of the ©missionary sin of the people is rightly charged to the conduct of the Baptist press of tue country. Some papers have put missions is a corner, and constantly led the minds of the people to think about other things of far less impor tance, and sometimes of no importance. For nearly a third of a century in the south west, we have had an epidemic of contro ve.sy on all sorts oi questions. Meantime the great cause of the world’s salvation, by the preaching of the gospel, was put aside. There is little wonder that we are behind all. people in this foremost Christian duty. Un der this same head, we may appropriately refer to the immense damage done to the cause by a class of editois and writers, who have made it their business as far as possible, to destroy the confidence of the people in the Mission Boards. There must be a heavy account ' laid up against those who have used their j talents to obstruct those who have been set to act for the churches in this matter. Good old Deacon Smith was dead. At the Board of Trade that day they said, “Our former president, Solomon Smith, died last night, 1 see by the paper. Have you any idea what he was worth ? Time was, before the panic, when be could have written his check for $100,000.” At the weekly prayer meeting that night, his pastor remarked, while sobs choked his utterance, “One of the faithful ones of earth has taken his departure Who can estimate his worth to the church and this communi ty? While he had means, he gave liberally and wisely, but since deprived of the bulk of his fortune he has seemed closer to God, and closer to us all than ever. Only as weeks go on, and we miss his warm prayers and consistent example, shall we begin to rightly appreciate the worth of such a man." Ask the angels, among whom a new harp is heard in glory, “What was he worth?” They will tell you that what they are, and not what they have, constitutes “the riches of the glory of Christ’s inheritance in the saints."—Evangelical Messenger. Socialists in Cnicago desecrated the last I Ba‘>bath by hoi ling a meeting to approve NO. 13. the assassination of the Russian C zar, and to denounce our government for its dispatch expressive of sympathy. These Sociali-ts and Nihilists are the Catilinee of to- day, the abettors of murder and the enemies of man kind, answering to Peter's “natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed."— Christian Secretary. V- A* * It is a prevalent and false notion that young people get, that makes so many. hab itually neglect public worship on the plea that they attend Sunday-school. The pub lic worship is enjoined by precept and ex ample—the Sunday-school at best is only an inference and a deduction from Scripture teaching. Whenever the Sunday schools in terfere with public worship in withdraw ing teachers or pupils from it, tnen it be comes a Very questionable good.—Christian Visitor. Aye: so long as the Sunday-school is a mere helper to the church it is valuable; but it ought never to be a substitute for the church. In some quarters there is a tendency in this direction which it would be Well to guard against. That balky horse that delayed forty or fif ty cars on a city horse railway the other day was a great success as a hindrance, and yet at bis proper work of pulling be had not strength enough to draw a single car. What a good illustration of the hindering powers of a balky teacher! His power to advance the school by direct effort may be very small, but his ability to hinder the progress of others may be very great. The best thing to do with a balky worker in any department of Christian activity is to put a good substi tute in bis place,—and the sooner the better. —S. 8. Times. We have some balky Baptists in our churches, who make themselves felt as members only by giving trouble. They give nothing else. My sins were laid upon Him that I might have pardon and life. As long as we think, of others only we fail to realize the full com fort that is in the Gospel. It was for me my sins are borne away—l am redeemed It <s this individualizing of the precious titMngia thie personal a'pwroprtktinn by spul, that is meant by- the word faith. When we read our own history in that ot our Lord's sufferings; when each one sees bis sins punished in the unutteiableegonv of bis Lord, then sees bis righteousness tri umphingin the resurrection of the crucified Redeemer, so that it is all realized as taking place “for me,” he believes in the Lord Je sus Christ and has pardon and peace. How could Ibe doomed to suffer for mv sins when Christ my Lord has suffered all that righteousness demands? How could my soul be rejected, when the Savior endured everything that stood in the way of my ac ceptance? The Lords inferings were all for me, and lam saved. Bless the Lord, O my soul! —Lutheran Observer. One of our exchanges says: The new liquor law in Kansas causes con siderable (dissatisfaction. It prohibits every alcoholic preparation—such as bay rum and spirits of camphor—and even punishes by imprisonment the minister who adminis ters wine in communion. We think this must be a mistake; but we have this to say, that if such should ever be the law in Georgia, we shall deliberately violate it in the cele bration of the Lord’s supper, and take, our chances for the penitentiary - r but there is no danger of any such folly here. The largest Baptist church on the conti nent of Europe is at Memel, on the Baltic Bea, in the extreme northeastern, corner of Prussia. At the beginning of 1876 it had a membership of 2,780, but five other church es have been constituted from it. reducing the membership to 1,170 The Baptists of St. Petersburg formerly belonged to it, but they were dismissed last September to form a church iu their own city. Name or the good Samabitan—Oberlin, the well known philanthropist of Steinthal, while yet a candidate for the ministry, was traveling on one occasion from Strasbourg. It was in the winter time. The ground was deeply covered with snow, and the roads were almost impassable. He had reached the middle of his journey and was among the mountains, and by that time was so exhaus ted that he could stand up no longer. He was rapidly freezing to death. Sleep began to overcome him: all power to resist it left him. He commended himself to God; and yielded to what he felt to be the sleep of death. He knew not how long he slept, but sud denly became conscious of some one rousing him and waking him up. Before him stood a wagon driver in his blue blouse, and the wagon not far away. He gave him a lit tle wine and food, and the spirit of life re turned. He then helped him on the wagon, and brought him to the next village. The rescued man was profuse in his thanks, and offered money, which his benefactor re fused. “It is only a duty to help one another,” said the wagor.tr. “And it is thenext thing to an insult to offer a reward for such a ser vice." “Then,” replied Oberlin, “at least tell me your name, that I may have you in thank ful remembrance before God.” “I see,” said the wagoner, “that you are a minister of the gospel. Please tell me the name of the Go d Samaritan.” “That,” said Oberlin. “I cannot do, for it was not put on record.” “Then,” replied the wagoner, “until you can tell me bis name, permit me to with hold mine.” —Christian Leader.