Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

..... VOL. 59. Table of Contents. First Page—Alabama Department: The First Fruits ; State News; The Religious Press. Second Page—Correspondence: Kingdom of God and Churches of God—l. H. Goss; The Lord’s Prayer and that of Jabez—H. R. Bernard ; The State Convention ; Remi niscences or Mercer, No. II; Sketches of Foreign Countries—France. The Sunday- School—Lesson for April 24, “Covetous ness.” Missionary Department. Third Page—Children’s Corner: Bible Ex plorations ; Correspondence; A Little Boy’s Letter to Jesus—poetry ; Dreaming and Doing. Fourth Page—Editorials: The Logarithmic Promise; Queries; Facts and Figures; Georgia Baptist News. Fifth Page—Secular Editorials : News Para graphs : The Trans Atlantic Tide; Jewett G. DeVotie; Literary Notes and Com ments; The Poet—poetry—Charles W. Hubner; Georgia News. Sixth Page—The Homehold: Tiue to His Trust—poetry; Simplicity in Dress; “Don’t Take My Crown,” etc. Obituaries. Seventh Page—The Farmer’s Index: The Weather and the Fruit; The Farmer’s Policy ; English Sparrows, etc. Eighth Page—Florida Department: Fancies, Facts and Figures, ia Florida and Else ' where; Notes from the Field; Rev. Daniel TJdwards; State Board Meetings—An nouncements and Requests, etc. Alabama Department. BY SAMUEL HENDERSON. THE FIRST FRUITS. The first fruits of our increase are generally understood to be the smallest fraction of a bounty, the mere precur sors of an abundant harvest. But in God’s method of grace, this order of things is reversed. The greatest gifts precede all other gifts. “Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept.” “Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are his at his coming.” Thinking over this matter recently, we concluded there was something in it worthy of consideration. Among many others, we quote two passages which involve this thought in all its fullness. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how much more will he with him freely give us all things.” “If when we were enemies, we were recon ciled unto God by the death of his Son; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” The first passage indicates that Christ is the grandest gift Almightiness ever con ferred upon man, and that having "not spared his own Son,” no agency or influence will ever be wanting to make good that gift for all the purpos es of the Divine giver. In addition to this, the second passage shows, that the regeneration of the soul, the “being reconciled to God by the death of his Son,” implies the forth-putting of. a’l subsequent powers essential to its final salvation. In both cases, the greater includes the less, so that when the greater has been achieved, it becomes a guarantee that the less shall not be wanting. We suppose Isaiah refers remotely, if not primarily, to the mission of Christ to our world, in the well-known words, “And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold; therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me.” It is as if the great God, the Father of all, would represent himself to us as having his compassion stirred at the sight of our wretchedness, as scanning his resources in search of some remedy for us, looking over the shining ranks of angels, arch-angels, principalities, and powers, and seeing no in tercessor, none that could meet the stern demands of justice, none that could bear the mighty load of human guilt, “wondered” what else to do,when fixing his eye upon his only Son, the dearest treasure of all, and pointing Him to our world of sin and death, bade him fly to our rescue, this Son joyfully responding, “Lo, I come, in the volume of the Book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, 0 God!” 0, what matchless love, what condescend ing grace! Let us say with due rever ence and adoring wonder, Almightiness itself could have done nothing more. The Father has exhausted himself! It is the last and highest effort of which divine compassion itself is capable. To look lor any thing greater is to look SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST. of Alabama. for that which Omnipotence cannot do; for has He not said, “What more could I have done'fjr my vineyard that I have not done!” He is “God manifest in the flesh . . the full ness of the Godhead dwelft in him bodily ... in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” All the terms employed in Scripture to indicate the priceless character of this divine gift, are such as leave nothing greater behind for the infinite Jehovah to do. Now, the point of the Apostolic argument is, that since divine philanth ropy has bestowed the greatest, much more will all subsiduary gifts be forth coming to compass all the ends and aims of the Father who “so loved us.” It is the a fortiori method of reasoning, reasoning, we mean, from the greater to the less—the most conclusive form in which logic can construct an argu ment. And then, to give additional emphasis to the argument, the Apostle avers that this greatest gift, Jesus Christ, has ex hausted his powers on the problem of redemption—powers which once put forth can never be repeated. His suffering and death are passed. The fiery gulf between God and a rebellious world has been bridged—the greatest obstacle to the advent of mercy has been overcome—justice has been ap peased, and all the perfections of God head unite in the offers of mercy to every penitent believer. Sin unsheathed the sword of divine justice against us —that sword found its full indemnity in the y r ecious blood of Christ, and thus we have access to God through his Son. And now the argument re curs, will that unbounded love that con ceived the plan, and made so costly a sacrifice, stint itself in any of those willing generosities, withhold any of those powers, or influences, necessary to crown that plan with success? Will not the Father make good his covenant with his Son, “He shall see of the tra vail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.” And then, in the individual salvation of every believer, we all must know that the very first act of divine grace in our reconciliation with God is the greatest—the greatest at least that can occur in this our earthy pilgrimage. Like the bones in the valley of vision, God finds us “dead in trespasses and in sinsand it takes the same power that called a dead Lazarus back to life to speak the life-giving word to souls sepultured in sin and death. The power that can do this, can do any thing. The power that does this will never allow the final issue of a work so stupendous to be imperiled by any of the possibilities of counter agencies whether of men or devils. The Cap tain of our salvation has undertaken to lead many sons into glory, and the Father has put “all power in heaven and earth into his hands,” on purpose that “He shall not fail nor be discour aged, till he have set judgment in the earth,” till “the isles shall wait for his law,” nay, till all the purposes con templated in his Mediatorial dispensa tion shall have been answered. Now, says our Apostle, “If when we were en emies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” If a death in trespasses and sins, the most direful calamity that iniquity can visit upon the human soul short of perdition, interposed no impassable barrier to divine grace in effecting our salvation, much more,that barrier being passed, is that salvation assured. The omnipotence of grace that overcomes that obstacle, will much more abound in removing all others of less magni tude. 80 that where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. Two things result from this argu ment of the Apostle: 1. It assures suc cess to the intercession work of our Mediator. His humiliation, sufferings, and death, are all past, the travail of his soul is over, Gethesemane and Cal vary no longer darken his pathway; and now nothing remains but to plead the compensation he paid down when he “made his soul an offering for sin,” and to intercede for all saints accord ing to the will of God. If He “spared not his own Son,” in that last expiring agony, will he not hear him now that he has passed that baptism of woe? “I know,” says the adored Redeemer, “that thou always hearest me.” 2. The argument of our Apostle guarantees the salvation of every re- THE FRANKLIN STEAM PRINTING HOUSE. ATLANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1881. generated soul beyond all contingency. Regeneration overcomes the greatest obstacle—the less will more certainly yield to all conquering grace. Christ will not be twitted in that day by his great adversary, that he “began to build and was not able to finish.” A work thus begun;—began by agencies the most potent, the word and Spirit of God—a work that overcomes at the very commencement the greatest ob stacles that ever can arise—will surely be carried on till the day of Jesus Christ. To use a military phrase often occuring in Scripture, the citadel, the heart, once stormed and subdued by the forces of Immanuel, much more will all the outposts be reduced to the obedience of the faith. What comfort in the assurance, “much more shall we be saved by his life,” when once our enmity is slain by his death. Savannah and Memphis Railroad. —This road was completed some two or three years ago to Good Water, and we understand the new proprietors are arranging to put it through to Childersburg this year, as most of the grading has been long since done to that point. Work will begin on it in a week, so we hear. When this road is completed we shall be greatly bene fited. The nearest point from our home, “Beech Grove,” to any railroad at present is ten miles, the rockiest, hilliest, rootiest, gulliest road in this or any other county. And we have to pass over it on an average of three or four times every month. When the new road is built Childersburg, we shall'be in five or six miles of one of its depots, and a capital road to travel to it. So, reader, you see we are soon likely to be “fixed up.” These terrible jaunts over rough roads would try the patience of better men than we are. And moreover, the fatigue is sometimes well nigh intolerable. The “coal beds” of Alabama seem to be the objective point aimed at by the proprietors of the road, either in St. Clair or Jefferson county, or both. It will be one of the most important roads of the kind in the South, connecting our Southern seaport cities with inexhaustible coal mines, to say nothing of iron, marble, etc. Selma has one large factory in suc cessful operation. This factory has 127 looms, 4,584 spindles, and uses annually about 1,500 bales of cotton, purchased in Selma. The operatives number 120, mostly women and chil dren, taken from Selma and vicinity. The products of this factory are sheet ing, shirting and drilling, of which some 2,000,000 yards are made annu ally. The Baccalaureate Sermon of the University at Tuscaloosa, is to be preached by the Rt. Rev. Samuel Smith Harris, Bishop of Michigan. He is well known in Alabama, where he has taught school, practiced law and preached. —James Redpath, of the New York Tribune, who has been recently in Ire land, lectured in Selma, April 4th, on “Boycotting” and other kindred topics. The True Reformers, a colored or ganization of Evergreen, have purchas ed a lot, and will erect thereon a two story building for educational pur poses. The Profane Swearing Act, as amen ded, includes persons who are suffi ciently near a dwelling for the profane 1 inguage to be heard by the family. The Methodists of the State will es tablish a paper at Birmingham shortly. Rev. A. S. Andrews, of Opelika, has been appointed editor. Many farmers apprehend damage to corn planted previous to the frosts, and the cotton in process of germinating was also badly injured. —Dr. S. A. Goodwin, of Union Springs, is making an effort to raise $2,000 with which to repair the Bap tist church at that place. Mr. A. Hubbard, of Prattville, has a spelling book which has belonged to his family since before the Revolutiona ry war. —At Ozark a man was fined $75 and sent to jail, recently, for swearing in the presence of ladies. STATE NEWS. considerable sickness in Huntsville. —An ice factory is in course of erec tion in Birmingham. The Wilcox Fair will commence Thursday, November 1 st. * Cattle are dying in DeKalb county from an unknown disease. T'hem are about sixty, prisoners in the Montgomery county jail. --Fig trees were killed in Perry coun ty by the recent cold weather. —The Baptist ladies in Tuskegee raised sllO by their recent supper. The- Clement attachment in Tus cumbia is in successful operation. A cotton-seed oil mill will, before long, be established at Huntsville. The Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows will meet in Birmingham May 10th. The Press Association will meet at Blount Springs, instead of Tuscumbia. —The late Legislature has made it a misdemeanor to hunt or fish on Sun day. The road laws of the State are to be codified and published in pamphlet form. • The citizens of Guntersville are dis cussing the question of a railroad to that place. /--About three hundred mortgages have been recorded in Lauderdale county during the present year. Columbia Enterprise has qjWiged hands, having been purchased byClessrs. Williams & Gilliam. The Religious Press. There is a warning in the following which all parents should heed. In ad dition to the instance given below, we saw in the New York exchanges the statement that a little girl of ten years died of concussion of the brain, caused by excessive jumping of the rope dur ing recess at school: “Dr. Peck, of the Surgical Institute, In dianapolis, recently performed a surgical operation on the reg of a young girl sent there for treatment. The bones of both her legs will have to be partially removed, and the little sufferer will have to submit to painful operations. The cause of her affecs tion is from jumping the rope, a pastime en ■ gaged in generally by young girls, resulting in necrosis or death of the bone. The doctor stated to a reporter that similar cases were constantly occurring from the same cause, but more frequently resulting in necrosis of the spine, and that not a month passes but more or less cases of this character come to the Institute for treatment. He says that rope-jumping produces continuous concus sions on the joints, which impinge upon the bone, causing at the first stage periostitis, and finally resulting in the death of the bone. He thinks that parents and teachers should be warned of this dangerous sport, and eradicate it entirely from the play grounds of children, as it is ruinous in its effects, and is the prime cause of more crip ples among the female portion of the com • munity than probably any one cause. He also ridded that, during the practice of his profession, deaths had been occurring, com ing under his observation, which were the result of this pernicious pastime. In con clusion he said: ‘I would warn children against rope-jumping, and would advise parents and teachers to prohibit it under all circumstances.’ ” When a man known to be guilty of crime is turned loose upon society without pun ishment, a blow is struck at the very foun dation of order. We need judges now as clear-headed as John Marshall and as brave as Andrew Jackson. We think you are on the wrong line this time Bro. Christian Advocate. Our judges are clear-headed enough and honest enough, and brave enough. So far as we know or believe, our judiciary is all that could be desired. The chief trouble is with the jurors who find false verdicts in spite of the charge of the Court. Who are these jurors? They are our fellow citizens. These should be taught what the duty of a ju ror is; and above all they must be taught the sanctity of an oath. When this is done, not many criminals will escape j ustice. Another trouble is with the sheriffs who contrive to pack the juries with bad men. The sheriff is a more important officer in some respects than the judge. A very great part of the world s beet work is done by small and insignificant means and agencies. The history of benevolence could not be written without giving a very large place to the mites ana the pennies. The following, from the Missionary Herald, furnishes a subject for serious thought: It is a suggestive fact that more than one* .ourth part of the income of the Basle Mis sion, which now sustains 115 missionaries in India, Africa and China, and which has al- 1 THE CHRISTIAN HERALD, { of Tennessee. ready gathered 13,245 church-members, is derived from a system of penny collections. There are now about 120 000 persons who contribute a penny a week to this society, these gifts amounting, in 1879 to over $53,- 000. These collections were begun in 1855, and within the twenty-five years that, have since elapsed, not less than $1,156 145 have bee'', derived from this source. If giving at this .-noderate rate will secure such sums, how much could the Church of Christ ac complish towa’ds the evangelization of the world if all her members should give, not their spare pennies merely, but such larger sums as they might, in a spirit of earnest and devoted self-sacrifice. One of the great wants of our South ern country is a small coin so small that the poorest people could contrb ute. If every Baptist in Georgia were to contribute one cent every Sunday, the amount raised would be more than two thousand dollars per week, or con siderably more than one hundred thousand dollars per year. What the orthodox churches have to fear more than any thing else, is the presence within them of ministers whose specialty is secular themes, with just enough of religion introduced to admit them into the pulpit, while the great facts and doctrines of salva tion are neglected almost entirely. It was this kind of preaching that brought ruin upon the churches now classed as Unitarian, Liberal and unorthodox, and it will in time reduce any church to the same level. No good ever comes from introduc ing politics or secular matters of any kind into the pulpit. The old-fashioned way of preaching Bible doctrines and nothing else is the only way to secure the blessing. Roman Catholic Testimony.—We copy the following from the Canadian Baptist: The late Archbishop Hughes of the Ro njfjn Catholic Church in the course of a dis cussion with Dr. Breckinridge of the Presby terian Church, asked him where he got hia authority to substitute sprinkling lor im mersion. The Archbishop in doing this knew that he was attacking the weakest point in his opponent's creed. Os course the Presbyterian jninister had no proper Scrip tural answer to give. Roman Catholics do not fail to remind Pedobaptists that in adop ting sprinkling they are nut poor imitators of themselves. They do this in a somewhat cruel way in the following note on Matt. 3.9, which we find in a Douay Bible, published in New York, and containing notes by Hay dock approved of by the late Pope: “Baptized. The word baptism signifies a washing, particularly when it is done by immersion or by dipping, or plunging a thing under water, which was formerly the ordinary way of administering the sacra ment of baptism. But the church, which cannot change the least article of the Chris tian faith, is notso tied up in matters of dis cipline and ceremonies. Not only the Cath olic Church, but also the pretended Re formed Churches, have altered this primi tive custom in giving the sacrament of bap tism, and now allow of baptism by pouring or sprinkling water upon the person bap tized; nay, many of their ministers do it nowadays by filliping a wet finger and thumb over the child's head, or by shaking a wet finger or two over the child, which it is hard enough to call a baptizing in any sense.” Ah! Brethren of the Protestant Pe dobaptist churches, you are in bad company! The London Christian World states that Rev. Dr. John Cumming, once the most popular preacher in that city, though in good physical healtn, is in such a mental condition as to be practically dead to the world. This fact is at once painful and ad monitory. The present mental condi tion of the Dr. is probably due in part to that long absorption in the study of unfulfilled prophecy, which led some profane London willing to dub him “Dr. Second Coming.” There is no little danger to the mind when it aban dons itself to the riding of a hobby. It may serve to show how far the feeling of reveience for sacred things has died out among the masses of the Parisians when we say that “The Funny Bible,” with “comic illustrations,” is announced among the pub lications there. Nothing can be more repul sive than the thought of the Word of God travestied, and so made a theme of mockery by the giddy and profane.—The Presbyteri an. We all shrink, of course, from such an abuse of the inspired volume. But ig, “the Funny Bible” anything more than an extreme development of the spirit into which many church mem bers and even ministers allow them selves to be entrapped, when they point a merry conceit on a jest by quoting a passage or phrase of Scripture? “Edvcatid too much” is an expression that sounds like a contradiction. The im mediate thought is that too much intelli gence is impossible. And this is true, while it is also true that there may be too much of what we call education. There are per sons who take advantage of schools to cul tivate in themselves habits and dispositions that unfit them for such work as they can do, while it does not make them able to do what they aspire to. The schools thus be- NO. 15. come their enemies, rather than their friends.—United Presbyterian. So we think. We should be the last to depreciate the advantages of ed ucation, but when it “cultivates hab its and dispositions which unfit” peo ple for the position in life which prov idence has'assigned them, we must think that it is an injury. It is better to have less education and be good for somethin'g, than to have more educa tion, and be good for nothing, Is this heresy? Well, it is a comfort to know that we are in the good company of our excellent brother, the “gentleman from Pensylvania.” The New Presbyterian Directory con tains the following section, to which there is nothing akin in the old: “In the case of such as have been baptized in infancy, and having reached years of dis cretion, after making a credible profession of saving faith in Christ have been received into full communion by the Session, it is proper that they, as well as adult persons received by' baptism, should make a profession of their faith in the presence of the congrega tion. This public profession on the part of those baptized in infancy may be made in the same words with that made by adults at their baptism.” A correspondent of the Central Pres byterian objects: “The persons to whom the section refers are already members of the church, and may have been so for years. Why should it be proper to require them to make the same public profession that is required of those who have no such relation to the church? The unbaptized adult person is required to make a public profession in order to comply with the conditions for baptism. Until he complies with those conditions he cannot be baptized. But the baptized adult person has long since complied with those conditions in and through his parents He has been taught from infancy that he is a member of the church ; that solemn and weighty re sponsibilities are resting upon him as such; and that the church itself is under binding obligations to pray for, instruct, and tender ly watch over him. And now, in the race of all this, that he is required, before going to the Lord’s table, to stand side by side of one, who has.no such connection like himself with the church, and make word for word the same profession, would have very much the appearance, that his membership was only in name,” All this is a very good argument, we think, in favor of the section. The truth is that there is no “difference between being members” after the fash ion of unbaptized children “and being nothingand if the section shows this, so much the better. Let us have it by all means. The Baptist Courier says: "We also hear that there once lived a gentleman whose name was Adam;” and The Index asks — “When Adam delved and Eve span. Where was then the gentleman?” The revised New Testament is to appear on the 17th of May. It is to be reported to the Anglican Convocation and receive some kind of an imprimatur. Then it will go out for the inspection of the English-speaking Chris tians of the world. And when it comes we shall take it on its merits without the slightest ref erence to its imprimatur, or to the An glican Convocation. It will pass for what it is worth ; no more and no less. We shall be greatly surprised if it is not a decided improvement on our present version. Still, whatever its merits, many years must pass before it will take the place of what we now have. It is only a revision after all, and not a translation. The time will come, we hope, when the Christian world will be willing to see every word of God’s book translated into plain English. At present, that willingness does not exist. A Protestant clergyman in Philadelphia, Dr. Tiffany, has announced that during next week he wi)'. hold simple services without singing daily in the Aroh Street Methodist Episcopal cbnrch, reading portions of the Scripture descriptive of the scenes through which the Savior was passing on the day commehiorated. On Thursday he will oele brate the institution of the Lord’s Supper. It is a new departure for our Methodist Iriends to observe Holy Week, and one which they will have no cause to regret.—Catholic Mirror. Our Southern Methodists are made of different stuff; but we have heard Easter Sunday sermons from Baptists, not in Georgia, however, nor near it But three hundred years ago, a body of Romish priests made a great tire in Earl Street, London, and burned every copy of the Bible that could be found, and then con gratulated themselves that at last the Bible was destroyed. To-day, on the very spot where this fire was built, stands the great building of the British and Foreign Bible Society, where the Bible is printed in one hundred and seventy-eight different lam guages; and it may almost be said that an additional copy comes from the press at every tick of the clock.