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LBel | ZJ |0 > | iMp*'SiilSikc w \ THE CHRISTIAN HERALD, SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST, r 1- of Alabama. 1 " ~ xtza ESTABLISHED I 811. Table of Contents. First Page— Alabama Department : Prejad- 8 ice: Modest Pretensions—Great Achieve ments; Prophetic Burdens; The Religious Press; The Baptists in California. ( s Second Page—Correspondence: Sunday- School Convention, Rehoboth Associa- < tion; A Buddhist Prayer ;-W. L. Scraggs; f Grateful Acknowledgment—Green Harts- ( field; Mercer University Notes; Orderly . Communion —I. H. Goss; The Baptists of Atlanta—S. Landrum; Affairs in Macon; Missionary Department. Third Page -Children’s Corner: Bible Ex plorations ; Correspondence; The Sunday- School: Review—Lesson for June 19th. Fourth Page—Editorials : Miracle Outdone; The Variations; Selfish Prayer; Strange Fire. Fifth Page—Secular Editorials: News Para graphs; Georgia Land Agency; Carlyle; Georgia News. Sixth Page—The Household: Summer Reigns— Poetry. ' Summer Fashions; Flashes of Fashion. Seventh Page-The Farmers’ Index Fars mere in a Bad Fix; Quarterly Report of Department of Agriculture; Small Notes. Eighth Page—Florida Department: Scotts ville; Ten otassasa Church; A Rich Ex perience. Alabama Department. BY SAMUEL HENDERSON. PREJUDICE. What striking changes occur in lan guage. Words that once filled an honorable place in our vocabulary, have come to signify anything else than their original import. So prone is our nature to indulge its depraved passions and inclinations, that having exhaust ed all the wicked terms of our tongue to express its evil propensities, it has captured many words of praise-worthy origin, and suborned them to do its dirty work—like the Philistines who captured Samson, put out his eyes, and made him grind in their mills. Thus, for instance, maudlin., (which comes from Magdalen,) once meant sincere penitence, now it means simpering con temptible hypocrisy. Demure once meant good manners, now it means the mere sham of modesty. Trench has traced out, with great force, the gradual process by which many such words have been “dragged downward,” and made partakers more or less of our common depravity. And among these words is the one that stands at the head of this article. It meant nothing more orig- inally than its etymology involves, com- ’ posed as it is of two words, pre, before, judgment, i.e. to judge ■ anticipatively, foresight—that sagaci ty by which some men are m advance of others in their estimates of men and things. But this the real meaning of the word is now obsolete and rare. The meaning we now attach to it is “evil and only evil continually. Men are so prone to form unfavorable opin ions of each other, that this word has taken altogether a blind and downward tendency, grounding itself on neither i udgment, reason, nor evidence. Hence the adjective prejudice, instead of in dicating the quality of an opinion as based upon facts, whether good or bad, means hurtful, mischievous, injurious, Pte When, therefore, we say of any particular person that he is filled wit prejudice, we simply mean that he has neither eyes to see nor ears to hear and that to attempt to reason with him with any view of c i han^ n f hlB opinion upon his blindly chenshed con victions is as absurd as to write a poem upon water. Nay, even more—the more overwhelming your reasoning and facts, the more he is confirmed m his views. You cannot vex him more than to show him by testimony as clear as a sunbeam that he is wrong. The degree of your proofs is the degree of animosity you engender. The res urrection of Lazarus from the dead, the grandest miracle wrought by our Lord, preceded only a few days his trial and crucifixion. And what a dispicable, ignoble sen timent is this for one who P rofeß “ 8 be a sensible man to indulge! What is it but a species of voluntary insanity, a self-inflicted dementation, in which we degrade ourselves to the lowest in stincts of our depraved nature! For instance, we are introduced to a stran ger of whom we know nothing. Some Stle thing that ought not to have the ie-ghiof a feather occurs, it may be S cut of his coat, the way ne wears Ss hat, or his gait, ly trivial, and ever thereafter we look at him through the puerile prejudice this engended. Act as he may there after, we cannot rise above the caprice of that moment. The very mention of his name brings a contemptuous smile to our lips. If he comes to hon or, we pity the credulity of the con stituency that promoted him. If he does anything really great or worthy, it is thrown away on us. In a word, we have written him down as a pigmy, an upstart, a mere vapid, and no amount of argument or facta can change the verdict. Reader, did you ever witness a con- t test between two editors of partisan | newspapers,who have each written down 1 in his political creed that “nothing good i can come out of Nazareth?” Did you ever observe the dexterity with which ' they can throw mud at each other? the facility with which superlative adjec tives which mark the last gradation of de pravity flash from their pens? . They seem to put our language to its full resources to express the infinite variety of each other’s meanness. If they are to be believed, pandemonium itself does not contain a spirit more deserving of its quenchless fires than they each merit Nor less common nor less to be de plored is this unhallowed sentiment among those who profess Christianity. Out of this hatred have originated the fiercest fires of persecution that ever disgraced the Christian name. Indeed, the largest roll of martyrs that the church militant has yet joined to the church triumphant were the victims of this hatred. In those discussions and controversies, the ostensible aim of which is to elicit truth and put down error, - it is often amusing to see the adroitness with which each party assumes the cham ’ pionship of truth and right. Names , and phrases are appropriated by each , which involve the whole merits of the , question at issue. Thus in the civil i war of England in the days of Crom well , the Parliamentarians assumed the title of the ‘ Godly party,” and denounc ’ ed the royalists as the “Malignants.” ’ Os course, when the designations were , accepted, they decided the question, in . advance of any reasons or facts that could be alleged. Perhaps not one man in a hundred ever paused, after accepting these terms, to ascertain any thing beyond their import. This ex pedient is yet resorted to in most con troversies upon all classes of questions. Knowing that the great body of the outside world never stops to reason on the subject in hand, each party assumes the merits of the case in the very forms in which he states the propositions to be discussed. Thus, each seeks to com mit the multitude to his side before he offers a single argument. He knows if he can play upon the prejudices of the masses, he may defy all the logic and rhetoric of his opponent. There is not one controversy in a hundred, the parties to which are animated by any higher motive than victory. To elicit truth is most generally subordi nate to party triumph. We make no apology for relating the following incident, which we learned i from parties many years ago who were ■ raised in the neighborhood where it ! occurred, and which, so far as we know, has never been published. It may serve to show what ought to be the r spirit in which every controversy should i be conducted: The present constitu s tion of the United States, after it was adopted by tne uonvenuuu the close of the Revolutionary war, was submitted to the ratification of the several States. Many good men and true patriots were opposed to its ratifi cation, and took strong grounds against ] it; and among the number was the no table John Leland, then of Virginia. Mr. James Madison was one of the principal men in the Convention that drafted it, and therefore betrayed the greatest anxiety to have it adopted. He made an appointment to meet his fellow citizens at Orange Court House, Va., to discuss the merits of the new constitution. The opponents of the measure sent off and got Rev. John Leland to answer him. The day arriv ed, and Leland was there “cocked and . primed” as we say to answer the dis tinguished statesman. Mr. Madison spoke some hours, developing the dis- Acuities of the Convention in reconcil- • ing all conflicting interests,north, south, ■ east and west, and then appealed to the 5 people to ratify the instrument as be j ing the best that could be done. He 3 then gave way to Mr. Leland. The s worthy man arose and said in substance, - that he had been bitterly opposed to that t constitution as they all knew, but that ATLANTA. GEORGIA, THURSDAY, JUNE 9,. 1881. Mr. Madison had convinced him that he was wrong, and that he did not doubt then, that it was the best instru ment of the kind on which the con vention could agree—and that although he had come there on purpose to an swer the argument of Mr. Madison, he frankly acknowledged that he was wrong, and recommended all his fel low citizens to vote for its adoption. | This is one case of a thousand; but I these were great men, and only great men can afford to be convinced. It would be a bootless task to follow the meanderings of that neighborhood gossip with which so many communi ties are afflicted, all which originate m this same thing we call prejudice. If the reader’s olfactories can bear the experiment, he will find no difficulty in tracing out the track of such gossip by the slime and filth it leaves in its wake. MODEST PRETENSIONS—GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS. Perhaps no book that has been written in the last two hnndred years has exercised so broad and deep an in fluence over thinking men as that monument of learning, genius and ~ piety, “Butler’s Analogy,” and yet no book ever appeared with more modest j pretensions. The whole object of the book may be expressed in two senten ces : That the analogy between na ture and religion,natural and revealed, is sufficiently striking to vindicate religion from the jibes and ridicule of infidelity—and, That to profess Chris tianity does not necessarily make a man a fool. No uninspired man ever ' pretended less and did more in the same sphere than this worthy prelate. | In the sphere which his book fills in Christian literature, he followed no predecessor, and up to this time, he has left no successor. His great work stands alone, containing a mine of thought, to comprehend which is a greater achievement than to be a credit able author. We know not how often we have read it, and yet every reading pays us better than the previous one, in suggesting principles, truths and analogies of indefinite application. It has often been suggested that some one competent to the task would perform a grateful service to translate or modernize this great work. As well undertake to translate Milton’s Paradise Lost, or Shakspeare’s Ham let! When genius puts the finishing tonch to one of its creations, it is little j short of madness to undertake to im- , prove on it. No; let the book remain as it is, eternized in the sturdy diction of the grand old thinker —a diction so distended with thought, that, as an old French author once said of another book, “If you cut it, it will bleed.” The very virtue of the work is, that it makes men think. Linguists are not made by “interlinears,” nor mathema ticians by arithmetical, algebraic and geometrical “keys.” Thinkers are not devel ped by “easy methods.” That I mental training that recognizes the ( mind as a mere passive recipient is well nigh worthless. But we simply set out to say, that , to promise little and do much is a | mark of true genius, and Butler’s An alogy is an impressive illustration of the idea. Perhaps, too, what we have said may lead some of our readers to study a book which age only improves i and which will reward them with so ■ rich a harvest of seed thoughts. PROPHETIC “BURDENS." How often do the Old Testament prophets preface their messages by the portentous word “burden.” Thus we read of “the burden of Babylon,” “the burden of Moab,” “the burden of Tyre, etc. Os course something more is meant than a mere message, a simple communication from God to his crea tures It is a word of terrific import, as much as to say in the very first ac cent of the lips of inspired men, “dan ger is impending—a storm of wrath is gathering—the divine patience is ex hausted, and the day of vengeance is at hand !” It marks the transition be tween mercy and wrath, and bids us “behold the goodness and severity of God ” It is the note of alarm which a catastrophe throws in advance of its coming, bidding the doomed city, or country, “prepare to meet thy God . Alas, how sad to think that iniquity so abounds in this fallen world as that so many messages from the eternal world must bear upon their forefront the por tentious sentence, “the burden of the word of the Lord!” How otherwise can we miserable sinners feel than that any message from a just and holy God that concerns our destiny must be a “burden,” a crushing load, to him who bears it! A heavy portion of the ministrations of God’s word to our wretched human ity, that fairly expresses the mind of the Spirit, must yet be, even under the gospel dispensation, “a burden of the 1 words of the Lord.” “Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were ; written for our learning,” as well as f or I those who first received them. Much o{ New Testament teaching is bur dened with “the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all unrighteous ness.” Ministers worthy of their call ing are yet God’s burden-bearers. Though they are the heralds of “good news of great joy to all people’ who will hear and accept their messages, there is an undertone to this message which denounces “indignation and ' wrath to every soul of man that be- 1 lieveth not, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Quivering under this burden, an inspired minister ex , claims, “I have great heaviness and . continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed 1 Christ, (after the manner of > wnrist?) for my brethren, my kinsmen i according to the flesh.” All these bur -5 dens gather volume and power as they . point to “the great day of His wrath,” and bid us ask ourselves the question, “who shall be able to stand ?” How these burdens must have crushed the heart of the exile of Patmos, as in pro phetic vision, he saw vial after vial of the wrath of God poured out upon the earth, spreading desolation and woe wherever they fell! 0, how they col lect their concentrated fury upon that bottomless pit, the smoke of whose tor ments ascends up forever and ever. Reader, “Can thine heart endure, or ’ tome hand# be strong in the day that He shall deal with thee?” ■■ I The Religious Press. ! We met a Roman Catholic friend the other day, who was horrified at the publicity given to the Inspired Volume. He thought it a terrible thing that it should be paraded in the public prints and hawked about the streets as merchandise. He thought it should be confined to the guardianship of the priest, hood, and not be handled by the people as common property, or treated as a matter of private judgment and interpretation. He broke out, indeed, into the emphatic decla ration that he regarded the whole thing—the revision and the wholesale circulation of it —as “the crime of the nineteenth century!’ We remarked that we took just the opposite view. That the Word of the Lord should not be bound. It was the People’s Book, and they had a right to read and interpret it forthemselves. That the leaves of the Tree ; of Life should be scattered abroad “for the • healing of the nations " We could, of - course, very well understand why a Roman i Catholic should object to the general dis -1 tribution of the Bible. Nothing is more to t be dreaded by an apostate Church than the t diffusion of the truth. It will expose every , I form of error, and vindicate its own claims 3 ! to the universal acceptance of mankind. 8 Baltimore Episcopal Methodist. Whereupon The Index has nothing t 1 L i to say. The New York Herald says that Massa chusetts now has a law which forbids re I tailers of liquor to use shutters, screens, shades or anything else that can hide the I business of their establishments from officers I who may want to look in.’ i That is exactly the way to do it. Men in I an honest and respectable business have no use for screens. They are never ashamed of : their vocation, and are g.ad to show tiheir wares. A screen is a virtual confession of wrong—of something that will not bear the light. —Journal and Messenger. This is Index doctrine. God sometimes uses feeble instruments for the accomplishment of great things. He mav bless the work of an bumble diwiple to the’salvation of many souls. Often the poor, bed-ridden and ignorant, speak words which lead to Christ those afterwards blessed in the ministry or in other Christian work. Uwm the exhortation of a poor woman which led Charles Wesley to Christ. She was through him the means of saving multitudes.—Jour nal and Messenger. Yes, many an obscure minister has done more for the world than some who are among the most conspicuous. God often makes use of the weaklings. On the same line with our article of last week on “Decaying Christianity the Herald and Presbyter says: Christian people need not be alarmed by such predictions. Infidelity threatensigreat things, but so it has threatened from the beginning. We can wait for some demon stration. An insane man once entereo a crowded church, and grasping two pillarsi of the gallery, one on each side of theaisle, cried : “I will pull these down and destroy you as Samson did the Philistine lords’ There was a sensation. Men fumed pale and cried out, women fainted, and a panic was imminent, when the minister, quietly waving, his hand, said, “Let him try. He did try, and that was the end of the sensa tion. Infidelity lays hold of the pillars of our temple—the Sabbath, the Bible, the di vinity of Christ. Professors of probabilities say, ‘‘lt will pull them down. Let them try. Others have tried, but our temple stands. It was built by the Almighty, and from its sure corner-stone to its highest pin nacle it is secure. Our brother of the Biblical Recorder has a mortal aversion to deadhead Baptiste, and The Index is in hearty sympathy with him. Here is some of his good doctrine: Our duty as Baptists is to lead people to Christ, not into our churches, and to let church membership follow as the result of having been made new creatures m Christ. Every one introduced into our churches too hastily and unprepared by regeneration thus injures the churches in their high calling under Christ. It also injures the one thus introduced, as it puts him into a position for which be is not fitted, and enjoins duties on him that he cannot discharge, and imposes on him a service for which he has no taste nor capacity, and the neglect of which brands him as a traitor or apostate, while an attempt to meet his obligation must only harden his heart against Christ and dnve him farther from Christianity. Let us think on these things and remember that God has given us, as a people, great work to do. Yes, and there is also a great work for us to undo; and a great deal going on all the time that we had better stop ‘ doing; and there is some cut out, for , next August probably, that we had > better not begin to do. And here are two clips taken at second-hand from the Presbyterian . 1 The shabbiest church extant' has just been heard of. It was discovered by the Ad vance in the State ot Vermont. It was composed of well-to-do farmers who, seeing that their pastor gave an unusually large contribution to foreign missions that year, instead of taking the generous hint, and doubling their own, jumped backward, to the conclusisn that they were paying him too much salary, and made haste to out it down! The Index thinks that the names . of the parties ought to be published. 2. The Christian Register says that “in one of the Episcopal churches of Providence a Sunday or two ago the preacher, a strange er, defined the soul as ‘the non-atemic center of psychic force,’ and throughout the discourse, when alluding to the soul, used the phrase. Fancy the improvement on the old reading:—‘What is a man advantaged if He gain the whole world and lose his own non-atomic center 6f psychic force. This is an exaggeration on anything we have ever heard from the pulpit, but we have heard things of which it reminds us. Too much Greek, He brew, cheap scholarship, and “hifalu ten” spoil a sermon for us,and for most people. We learn from some of our exchange papers that the Unitarians are claim ing that the New Version sustains their views. We have seen no such claim in any of the Unitarian papers, but here is something that we have seen in that very able and elegant Uni tarian journal, the Christian Regis ter: Unitarians are relieved from all fear about a translation of the Bible, so far as they themselves are concerned, from the simple fact that the Bible is no longer to them an infallible book. Could they always be sure of a perfect translation, it would still be true that they were dealing with a book, and, as such, a book compounded both of truth and error. So the correction of the translation is a small matter with our Unitarian friends; indeed, it would seem to be a matter of indifference with them whether they have any Bible at all. THE BAPTISTS IN CALIFORNIA It is well known that the man Kai- f loch —to whom we apply no epithets, < but whose history will suggest to the reader such epithets as are appropriate has been the occasion of much dis trees to the Baptists of California. As the result of this a meeting was recent- i ly held at Dixon, California. The fol lowing paper, which explainsitself, was adopted: Meeting of delegates from the Baptist churches in California, held in the Presby terian church of this city for the purpose of organizing a new Convention, in pursuance of the following declaration read in the California Baptist Convention, in the Bap tist church this evening “We, the undersigned, representatives of the following churches, recognizing the fact that our convictions of what constitutes the purity and efficiency of Christian life and work, not only among our churches, but among our ministry, are so radically opposed ?o those entertained by a large element com posing this body ; and recognizing the fact that it is impossible for us to harmonize these convictionsiwe hereby call upon those who are in sympathy with us to withdraw and organize* a new and separate convention, that shall.be in harmony with the general senti ment of our denomination throughout the ■ country." This paper was signed by some sixty or seventy persons, among whom was our brother J. B. Hartwell, missionary VOL. 59.— NO. 23. of the Southern Baptist Convention to the Chinese. The meeting resolved itself by vote into “The General Baptist Convention of California." On motion, Rev. S. B. Morse was chosen President; E. R. Pope, Secretary, and B. C. Wright, Treasurer. .J .1 The following resolution was then adopted unanimously, and the President and Secre tary instructed to send copies to the various churches which they consider will be in sympathy with this Convention : Whereas, it has been deemed advisable by the following churches, viz: the First, Fifth and Chinese of San Francisco, the I irst and Trinity of Oakland, the First of Brooklyn, the First of Alameda, the Calvary of Sacra mento, the First of Stockton, the First of Vallejo, the First of Modesto and Ceres, of Wheatland, and Virginia City, in order to uphold the purity and efficiency of chinch and ministerial life, to separate themselves entirely from the body known as “The Cali fornia Baptist Convention,” and to form themselves into a body known as The General Baptist Convention of California, for the purpose of maintaining and propa gating those principles which they are con vinced are absolutely necessary for true and permanent denominational success ; there fore they extend a most cordial invitation to al’ the churches throughout the State, who can give them their hearty sympathy and co-operation, to connect themselvee imme diately with this body. A supplementary meeting was ap pointed to be held with the meeting of the Central Baptist Association at Stockton in October next, and the next regular meeting of the Convention for the second Wednesday in May, 1882, with the Fifth Baptist church in San Francisco. The following is the REPORT ON CHINESE MISSIONS. Your committee on Chinese Missions in this State beg leave to report that they find Mission effort put forth for the conversion of the Chinese in our midst as follows : The First Baptist church in Oakland has an effi cient Sunday-school of about thirty, and a night school with average attendance of about twenty, conducted by Mrs. E. R. Bradway and Miss Dearborn. The Chinese membership in the church is fifteen. There is also a Sunday-school m connection with the First Baptist church of Brooklyn, num bering twenty-five to sixty together with a 1 Sunday school of about a dozen in connec tion with the San Diego church. These are all the interests of which we have been able to learn, aside from the Mission of the Southern Baptist Convention under the di. rection of the Rev. Dr. Hartwell in San Francisco- Tbis Mission has been success fully conducted during the.year. A Chinese church was organized on February 3d,1881, which now has a membership of twelve, and is now represented in this body. The con tributions of this little band to religrcus and benevolent purposes has been $l6O. The night school of this Mission now hasi an average attendance of seventy. This Mis sion needs and deserves the cordial sympa thy and aid es the churches on this coast. Dr. Hartwell needs means to employ assis tants in the flourishing night school under his direction. Your committee recommend the adoption of the fallowing resolutions Resolved, That we urge our churches throughout the State, wherever there ye i Chinese, to make special local efforts for their instruction and conversion. Resolved, That we recommend that our churches aid the Mission at San Francisco in means to pay for assistance in the night school. . , , ’ Resolved, That a committee be now ap pointed and authorized to organize as a con - stituent of this Convention a Chinese Mission Society, with branches in the several churches, whose object shall be to promote, bv prayer, direct labor and contributions of t money, the cause of Chinese evangelization e '’’(Signed) 1 !. B. Hartwell, 8. B. Morse, G. a S. Abbott, John F. Pope, J. C. Voorhees, e a Chinaman’s appeal. Brother Wong Kwai Hong, rising to a question of privilege, presented the follow. “The representatives of the Chinese Baps tist church in San Francisco beg to make a special appeal through this Convention to the Baptists of this State in behalf of their countrymen here- Our people are going on in idolatry and ignorance of the true God, in nearly all the towns and cities of the State within reach of the Baptist churches; and in behalf of these perishingsouls we implore the followers of Christ to gather these peps pie into Sunday-schools, and in every possi ble way to labor for their conversion to Christ.” Baptist State Convention of Ala bama.-— Delegates and visitors who ex pect to attend the fifty-eighth annual session of the above named body to meet at Troy Wednesday July 13th, 1881, are respectfully and urgently re quested to forward their names and post-office address immediately to the committee of arrangements. The citizens of Troy will open their hearts and homes on this occasion; and will do all they can for the comfort and enjoyment of their guests. A hearty invitation is extended to all that will come. Address T. H. Stout, Chairm. ofCom. Box 102, Troy, Ala. Henry Ward Beecher said, not long since: “The Baptists hold that no man can reach the promised land without going over his head through the Jordan.” The Watch-Tower cor respondent of the Watchman calls this “the old lie,” —thus rendering rudeness for rudeness.