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4 HENRY H.TUCKER, Editor. MIRACLE OUTDONE. We have the testimony of our Lord, that "among them that are bom of wo men there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist,’’ Matt. 11:11; and we learn from the record in John 10 41, that “John did no miracle.” Put ting these two things together, we learn that the power to work miracles is not the greatest power of Christian life, nor the highest evidence of personal supe riority, nor the best evidence of extra ordinary grace. Some of the proph ets had wrought wonderful miracles; some of them had even raised the dead; and if they had been the contempora ries of John, who did no miracle— not the least—not even one, they would have been thought to be greater men than he. John would have been regarded only as an ordinary man, while the miracle-workers might even have been worshipped as gods. Oxen and garlands were brought before Paul and Barnabas, to be sacrificed to them, because they had healed a cripple ; but no such homage was ever offered to John. But while no one else would have thought of making any comparison be tween John and the mighty men at whose command the dead had risen, our Lord did make the comparison, and declared that the world had never produced a greater man than John. Our Lord knew all about Moses, and Enoch, and Elijah, and Elisha, and Daniel, and all the grand historic per sonages of the past, and he knew that John had done no miracle; yet in His infallible judgment the Baptist was the peer of the greatest of them. What had John done to give him such high rank? Nothing, except that he had led an abstemious life, and kept himself unspotted, and had borne zeal ous and faithful testimony to the truth. The astonishing statement is made of him that he was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb, and so far as we know, no other member of the human race has ever been blest in this way; but as to what John himself did, as the result of this indwelling Spirit’s influence, it was nothing more than is in the power of the reader, or of the writer, of these lines. If one of our Baptist preachers to day could cause the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, the blind to see, and the dead to rise, we should consider him as wonderfully blest of God, and we should all look up to him as im measurably superior to the greatest and best of us, and if any comparison were made between him and any one of the rest of us, it would excite noth ing but derision and contempt; and any sayings of ours, that did not agree with his, would be ridiculed out of hearing. In fact, even now we incline to man-worship, though our gods are but ordinary men, and some of them very ordinary. So anxious are we for heroes, that we manufacture them from the scantiest materials; we make men great, not on account of anything that they have done, but on the ground of what is expected of them! But if there were one among us who could really do the mighty works of the prophets and apostles, we should be apt to fall into actual idolatry. Yet if there were such a man, there might be many a one among us far greater than he. The same thing that made John great might make any of us equally so. True, we cannot know that any one of us has been filled with the Holy Ghost from the beginning of his life, but we might be filled with the Holy Ghost as Barnabas was, or as Peter was, and a life such as John’s might make us as great as he. He certainly did nothing, so far as we can learn, that we cannot do. But leaving this question undecided, it is certain that as much greatness may be achieved without miracles as with them. The possibilities of human nature are as great as they ever were; the potency of grace is as great as it ever was; and there is no reason that we can see, why the world should not produce men now quite equal to any that have gone before. There may be many an humble preacher among us now, perhaps not greatly esteemed by his brethren, whose record, when it comes to be read at the last day, will compare grandly with that of any of the illustrious men of the past whom God endowed with the power of mira cles. Nor need we imagine greatness to be confined to preachers, nor even to men. So far as we know, grace has no respect to sex. No miracle is said in the Bible ever to have been perform ed by a woman, but there may be wo men among us to-day whose spiritual stature and development is fully equal to that of the grandest figures in sacred history. We belittle ourselves and stunt the growth of our own graces when we imagine that the living are inferior to the dead—that the greatness of the world disappeared two thousand years ago, and that the Gospel achiev ed its greatest triumphs at the begin ning. It is much more likely to achieve them at the end. It stimulates our spiritual desires, and should prompt to heroic effort when we see that the greatest triumphs are achievable, and the greatest prizes are within reach. To a great degree we are what we | THE CHRISTIAN INDEX AND SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST: THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 1881. make ourselves, and God will make any man great who will make him self so. Humility, meekness, gentle ness, goodness, patience, forbearance, purity, truth, fidelity to obligations, faith, hope, love; the lively exercise of these, concrete with corresponding ac tions, was all that made John great; and.we may exercise them as well as he, for we have the same glorious Spirit to help us. John did no miracle, yet among them that are born of women there was none greater than John the Baptist. THE VARIATIONS. It is doubtless known to our readers that the revised New Testament is the result of the labors of two companies of scholars, one in England and the other in the United States. These two companies did their work in the first instance independently of each other, and afterwards compared results, adop ting or rejecting each others’ amend ments or suggestions, so that the new version, as we have it, is the joint pro duction of both. The two companies did not always agree. It is interesting to note the character of the points on which they did agree, and also the character of those on which they did not agree. On all points to be decided by mere scholarship, the two companies almost invariably agreed to the very letter. It may be added too, that most of the changes thus made, had been anticip ated by the modern commentators. So far therefore as relates to the actual meaning of the text, but few questions are left unsettled. On questioi s of mere taste or ex pediency the two companies differed frequently and greatly. The reason of this is easily explained. The Eng lish people are conservative; they like things as they are; their motto is “Let well enough alone”; they lean away from change of any kind, and will never make it, unless the pressure in that direction is well nigh irresist ible. The temper of the Americans is just the opposite of this; they have no special reverence for "things as they are,” and are ready to make changes wherever there is anything to be gained by it. It is easy to see that this differ ence of disposition would lead to much difference of opinion on questions to be decided not by scholarship but by pre ference. Whenever it was possible to retain the phraseology of the old version without doing actual violence to the Greek, nothing could induce the Eng lish company to make a change; the Americans on the other hand, not be ing worshippers of the established order of things, would make a change when ever they thought it would be an im provement. The Englishmen might admit the change suggested to be an improvement, yet they would not ac cept it unless compelled to do so, by the imperative demands of the Greek text. For example, the English in sisted on retaining the word which as a relative pronoun, referring to a per son, thus: “Our Father which art in heaven.” The Americans would have said : “Our Father who art in heaven.” There is no difference in the meaning of the two expressions; there was no difference of opinion between the two companies as to the present or past grammar of the English language ; the only difference was this, that the Eng lish preferred to retain the grammar of two hundred and seventy years ago, while the Americans preferred to use the grammar of to-day. Again: the English insisted on re taining the letter S.‘ the initial letter of the word Saint before the names of the Evangelists in the title to the Gespels and at the head of the page. There is no authority for this, and none was claimed, nor is it any part of the sac red text; but the English, true to their national instincts determined to adhere to the old custom; the Americans true to their instincts would have wip ed off this mould of by-gone cent uries. These examples illustrate, in a gen eral way, the character of the points on which the two companies disagreed. On almost every point of importance there seems to have been great unan imity ; on matters of detail there were many differences springing out of the differences between an American and an Englishman, and of the same charac ter. Infant Baptism.—The New Version doesn't say a word about it. It is just like the old version in this respect. The session of the Atlanta Baptist Seminary closed with a public examin ation extending through three days. The results were highly creditable to the students and in no small degree satisfactory to the visitants. The rhet orical exercises on Tuesday of last week, at Friendship Baptist church, were also successful. The declamations of the students and their original ora tions manifested respectable powers of oratory. Some of the audience who were qualified to form an opinion, re presented them as without a parallel in the history of institutions in the city for the education of colored persons. We congratulate the Seminary on these tokens of efficiency and progress, and commend it to the patronage of the class for whose benefit it was estab lished. The saloon-keepers who write bier for beer, are only a little in advance of time. SELFISH PRAYER. The spirit of selfishness and the spirit of prayer are antagonistic, and yet we sometimes seem to find them together. But we only teem to find them thus, for in fact they are never associated. What appears to be the spirit of prayer, if unaccompanied by love, is not genu ine. The man whose desires are only for himself, is not in that frame of mind to which blessing is promised; hence, he who does not pray for others, cannot pray acceptably for himself. We have often heard persons complain that their prayers appeared to be una vailing, and that they experienced no enjoyment in them. Perhaps it is be cause their minds have been too much engrossed with self. We do not say that a man should cease to pray for himself, but we do say that if he for gets to pray for others he is neglecting a duty, and is in the exercise of a wrong spirit, of an unchristian spirit, and manifests a disposition on which the blessing of God cannot be expected. Have your prayers seemed to rise no higher than your lips? Have the heavens over you been brass? Has your Father in heaven seemed to be deaf, or determined not to hear? After lengthened persistence, does all seem still to be unavailing? To many a one, we are sure, these questions are perti nently addressed. Let the unsuccessful petitioner change his course. Let him, for awhile at least, forget himself, and let his prayers be for others. The mere for mality of prayer will be as useless in this case as in any other. If the utter ance of the lips does not express the sincere and earnest desire of the heart, it is nothing more than a mockery, and God is not mocked. Pray for others as you would have them pray for you if you were in great extremity. Let your effort to save a drowning man be such as you would have that man make for you, if you and he were in changed places. Pray for various persons by name; pray for various classes of per sons : for the poor, for the sick, for the widows, for the orphans, for the pref ers and teachers—Tor all who are trying to do good, or to be good; pray for the tempted, pray for the fallen ; pray for the unconverted around you; pray for the heathen —for the millions suffering the horrors of superstition, and living and dying in ignorance of the great salvation; pray for the spread of the truth, and for the coming of the dear Redeemer’s Kingdom. Look around you ; look to the ends of the earth with its vast population of immortals; see how innumerable are the objects of prayer, and how pressing is their need of it; remember how small a portion you are of those who need the blessing of God ; let your prayer be wide enough to inclose within its embrace the whole family of man ; take the world in your arms and go to God with it; it can be done, it is done; not a moment passes that some saint is not on his knees with this burden on his breast; a feeble woman, or a broken-down old man, or a child can do it; the spirit of prayer has a power next to almightiness; put on this spirit, and the blessing that you ask for others will come outgushing upon your own head. The loving heart—the heart whose desires run out for others, —the loving heart is the heart that God loves, and whom God loves, on them he bestows his precious gifts. True, chastisement may come with blessing. God’s servant, Job, was sorely smitten ; his distress was dreadful; but now in heaven enjoying the outcome of the affliction which was so grievous, we are sure that he does not regret what he < ndured. But when was his captivity turned? Mark the era. “And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.” Job 42:10. Are you in captivity? Pray for your friends! Forget your personal griefs and remember those which others bear. Be unselfish enough to give the best energies of your heart to others’ welfare. The Christ-like spirit will draw you near to the Son, and the Son will draw you near to the Father, and in nearness to God you will find all that you want. If your prayers for your fellows are genuine, you will be incited to action ; you will be busy in their interest; you will feed the hungry and visit the sick ; you will instruct the ignorant and comfort the feeble-minded; a son of consolation you will be to the sorrow ing; a tender word you will have for those who need it; a cheering word for those who are in darkness and des pondency ; a loving word for those who seem to have none to love them; a word of counsel for the erring; a word of affectionate entreaty for the uncon verted ; and many efforts will you make to convey the blessings of the gospel to every human being on the whole earth. You will be walking in the path of duty, and on that path the light of God’s countenance shines in glorious effulgence. Think you that any thus walking ever felt that their prayers for blessing on themselves were in vain? That they were ever stunned with dread lest God should refuse to hear? That the heavens above them were ever of brass? The prayer that is narrowed down to self shows that he who makes it desires blessing on the cheapest terms; that he would enjoy the benefit without sharing the toil; that he is not in sympathy either with the saved or with the Savior, and hence, that if heaven itself were his, he would not be in condition to enjoy it. Open your heart wide enough to take in the world, and God will pour into it blessing, greater and better, than the wealth of a thousand worlds. * The church, in a large degree, has in theory denied and in practice neg lected her mission of secular benefac tion. As a natural result, she suffers in reputation; and the religion of Christ suffers with her. Witness, for example, the recent sneer of the Am erican Israelite— that ‘Disraeli is prov ed to have been really a Christian and not a Jew,’ by the fact that, “having died childless and leaving behind an estate worth millions, he had not a dime to bequeath to any charity, to any poor man or public institution.” Witness, also, the charge preferred, not long since, by Frederic Harrison, the Positivist in the Nineteenth Century, against the Bible—that “it has no an swer to the problems of our age, to the question of labor, of government, of social duty, the relation of parent and child, young and old, employer and employed.” Now, we are not about to attempt an answer to these things. Our readers do not need that we should. We wish simply to raise the enquiry: Could such things have been said, if the church had been, through all the ages, true to her mission of secular benefaction? Ordination, —At Marietta, Ga., on Thursday the second day of June, brother George F. Howard was solemn ly ordained to the work of Gospel min istry by prayer and the imposition of hands. The following was the order of exercises. Opening services by J. M. Springer, pastor of the Marietta Bap tist church; sermon by H. H. Tucker; ordaining prayer by J. A. McMurry; charge to the candidate by D.W. Gwin; hand of fellowship by J. H. Harris and the presbytery; benediction by the candidate. Previous to his ordination brother Howard was carefully exam ined by the above named presbyters, on his Christian experience, call to the ministry and views of Christian doc trine and Gospel order; and gave satis factory evidence of his being worthy of the high vocation to which he has been set apart. He is a man of ability and culture; and in his past profession as a teacher, he has achieved distinguish ed success. May he be equally suc cessful in the nobler work in which he is now about to engage. The Southern Christian Advocate (Methodist) speaking of the New Ver sion says: “We have frequently had individual translations, and a particular church, the Baptists, some years ago undertook a version of the New Testament for their doctrinal convenience.” Well, if they did it, it was because they were sure that they could afford to do it. Could your denomination af ford to do as much, brother Advocate? Would you be willing to see every word of the New Testament translated into plain English by fifty or one hund red of the best scholars in the world, all of them to be selected by yourself? You would find nothing in such case, as you are doubtless aware that would enure to your “doctrinal convenience” on the subject of baptism at least. The Pedobaptist world does dare to trust its own best scholars to translate the Bible into English. Baron Stow asked: “How would Holiness unto the Lord look, in scribed on a rum-cask?” It would look glorious, we think; and we think that to help put it there is a glorious work. For if the words are once on the cask, the rum will no more be used for drunkard-making. We mean, if they are there in the sense of the prophets, who clearly design to convey the idea that the objects bearing the inscription shall be used in harmony with the will of the Lord, and for the promotion of his glory. (Isa 23:18, Zech. 14,20, 21 •) ______ There are in our country, in one ec clesiastical organization, 82,987 close communion Presbyterians who will not commune even with other Presbyteri ans. Narrow souls! you say. Well: they gave last year to various forms of Chris tian work $853,541, an average per member of $10.85; while only 29 out of their 814 congregatiohs failed to con tribute to any of the funds. We gather these facts from thestatistics of the Uni ted Presbyterian Church ; and they show that not all large hearted ness and lib eral-handedness belong to open-com munionists. Spurgeon writes to Rev. H. F. Oliver, Tuskegee, Ala., that “there is proba bly not a Baptist minister in England whp favors the substitution of sprink ling or pouring for immersion,” and that “one or two people have written to advocate the change, but no one ap pears to be convinced by their feeble attempts at argument.” So bursts the bubble blown so vigorously by many American newspapers, and colored with all the hues supplied by the prism of fancy. The American Book Exchange, New York, mutilates its edition of the Re vised New Testament,by the ommission of all the marginal readings. This cuts away an important part of tbe work of the revisers, and does them flagrant injustice. It leaves the readers also with but partial information on many points of interest, and is therefore un just to them. We hope that the edition will be “severely let alone.” STRANGE FIRE. Speaking of the irregular ways in money is sometimes raised for religious and benevolent purposes, the Southern Presbyterian says; "These methods ap pear to us a condemnation of God’s method, as insufficient and impractible. The plea is, that the necessary means cannot be raised by God’s plan of in struction and direct appeal to the heart and conscience. To make this out, two things have to be done: first, to prove that the object sought is necessa ry, and then to exhaust the power of God’s plan to secure it. "Another consideration is, that these popular methods are generally prefer red because they are easier than the script ual one. It is a very difficult task io train a people to give from force of religious principle, It is slow work, and often a discouraging one. There is so little earnest and self-denying love to Christ, so little tender sympathy for his suffering Church, so little con science of duty, that when these are depended on, the pecuniary yield is but meagre. Hence the temptation to leave these grand motives out of sight, far in the back ground, to get up some popular entertainment to tickle the eye, the ear, or the palate, to appeal to the people’s fondness for amusement or feasting, and in this way to raise sacred funds. In such efforts you can, it is true, utilize a class of church members who are never ready for any spiritual exercise or any self-denying Christian lador, and it is some comfort to get any thing out of them; and you can get aid, very valuable aid, from the out side world, who are willing to join the people of God on this ‘enchanted ground,’ and to lend their help in the labors of this ‘Vanity Fair.’ But what a concession! “We need hardly remark at any length on the worldly tendency of such methods. The fact j ust alluded to, that they are preferred and patronised by the most worldly-minded members of the Church, and that worldly outsiders feel at home on such occasions, is enough to show how much of the dis tinctive spirituality of God’s people is thereby compromised. We have spok ed of‘the World in the Church.’ This, seems, at best, the Church going out into the world to seek its help by its own favorite devices. be sur prised if the young in the Church are hereby educated in worldliness? Who can complain if the world itself says, ‘lf it is right for the Church to come down on our platform for the purpose of getting our money, then there is no harm in our holding fast to all our worldly practices for our own gratifica tion.’ “No one will contend that a straw berry festival or a supper or a concert is sinful per se ; But there is a wide difference between such a position, and our dissent from the use of such resorts to get money for Christ’s house and cause, as a departure from God’s plan, and as dangerous to the spirituality and even liberality of his Church.” And now The Index comes to the front with the following appendix to the foregoing wise remaAs of the Presbyterian. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Salome had bought sweet spices wherewith to anoint the Lord’s body. Where did they get the money for this purpose? Partly, doubtless from their own re sources. Partly, perhaps, by con tributions from others who loved the Lord. A sad thing it was to do, but how gladly, if gladness be compatible with streaming eyes and a sore heart, would any lover of the Lord Jesus have contributed for such, a purpose. Imagine the three women above named, running about the streets of Jerusalem to get up a fair, or a concert or a straw berry festival, to raise money for the Lord’s burial! The very thought is sickening and horror-striking. To lay upon God’s holy altar the proceeds of our mirth and frivolity, or of our sen sual gratification, is less shocking only, perhaps, because we are accustomed to it. In any case where the offering comes from elsewhere than the heart, the altar is profaned. It is better not to have an altar, than to have one that is desecrated in the very act of building it, and whose very stones are cemented together with parsimony, folly, and irreverence for sacred things. Life is given to us as an unpainted canvas; and what we are, and what we do, from day to day, form the pic ture which we put upon it for exhibi tion in the gallery of the final judg ment. How will that picture look un der the eye of God, of angels and of all mankind? Let us strive to portray noth ing there, by the character we cherish, or the deeds we perform, which may sadden or shame us then. Seven persons, one female and six males, are announced as to be baptized in “the new Baptist chapel at Rome” —the first baptismal service in that building. So Romanism finds its sub stitute for Christ’s original ordinance set aside even in its ‘ holy city.” Happy they who help this good work forward! The Christian Intelligencer denounces the Novel and the Theatre as "the two craters from which the lava streams of divorce are rolling their increasing de solations over domestic life.” The American Baptist Publication Society is to bring out an edition of Semple’s History of Virginia Baptists. Tho Philadelphia Presbyterian says that, during eighteen years, not a sin gle appointment has been made from any branch of its denomination to a chaplaincy in the United States Navy ; while, within eight years, seven ap pointments have been secured by Episcopal ministers. There is one va cancy at present, and there will be an other next month ; for which the Pres byterian wishes some of its brethren to apply. But now that we have a ‘‘Campbellite” President,he may choose to fill them by men of his own faith, who have no such fear of “much wa ter” as these two denominitions affect* —for who may be more fitly assigned * to the position than those who belong already to the Ecclesiastical Navy? In the last forty years one hundred and twenty missionaries on the west coast of Africa have fallen victims to the climate; but this sacrifice of life has not been without its overpayment of reward and blessing, as appears from the fact that the converts to Christian ity on that field now number thirty thousand or more. An average of two hundred and fifty souls quickened to spiritual and eternal life for each death of the body incurred in labor in their behalf! Who would be unwilling to die for such a recompense ? And who that is unwilling can be counted wor thy to live? Augusta Evening News: The series of meetings of the Berean Baptist church, conducted by Rev. W. T. Cheney in SLLuke’s Methodist church house in Hicksville, closed last evening. The interest was unabated to the last. Many were awakened and numbers converted. Five have been added to the church, and others are expected. No doubt, quite a number will unite with St. Luke’s church. The Christians of the community were edified and made to rejoice. “There is joy in heaven over one sinner that re penteth.” • The Northern Presbyterian “Board of Relief of Disabled Ministers, and their Widows and Orphans” has a per manent fund of $268,088.53, the con tributions of the past year amounting to $30,182.90, When will Baptists pwake to the mercy and the justice of this work? Bishop Merrill, of the Northern Me thodist Episcopal church, organized in March an Italian Annual Conference of that denomination. Let this fact provoke Southern Baptists to a gener ous rivalry in the prosecution of mis sionary labor in Italy. A correspondent of the Watchman, Boston, says that out of the 900 white Baptist churches in Mississippi, with 56,000 members, only ten have preach ing every Sunday, and of these only six are self-supporting. At the South Carolina Episcopal Convention, the Bishop, in his annual address, denounced “the code of honor” in view of the fact that within the past few years five or six communicants of his church iu that State had engaged in duels as principals or as seconds. Rev. Dr. Robert, of the Atlanta Bap tist Seminary, is absent from the city, holding a series of Ministerial Institutes for colored pastors and deacons, in La- Grange, Columbus, Americus and Grif fin. The newspapers report that, for the sake of harmony, doctrinal subjects will be excluded from the approaching Methodist Ecumenical Conference. Will that body seek peace, then, at the expense of the truth? In the Delta of the Niger, one of the most recent and least hopeful of mis sionary fields, there is a village which the inhabitants call the “Land of Is rael” because there is not a single idol in it. Os the four Theological Seminaries in Chicago,the Presbyterian has twenty four students, the Congregational thirty, the Methodist seventy, and the Baptist eighty. Rev. J. B. Gambrell retires from the editorship of the Baptist Record. This is a surprise and a pain to us—a loss not to our brethren of Mississippi alone, but to all of us. North Carolina Baptists lost one of their most useful men in the death of Rev. A. McDowell, D.D., May 27th. The American Baptist Home Mission Society organizes new churches in the West, at the rate of one every week. Rev. F. M. Daniel, pastor of the Central Baptist church, left, Monday morning, on a visit of some two weeks to his kindred in Alabama. Increased congregations great ly en courage our missionary, Dr. G. B. Tay lor, in his work at Rome, Italy. The Baptists of New York have in creased three times as rapidly as the population of the State. They num bered 5,000 in 1800 and number 114,- 145 now. Rev. W. D. Powell, formerly of Ten nessee, has organized more than 300 schools in Texas, as Baptist Sunday school missionary.