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fifth- „ / .. SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST, ' THE CHRISTIAN HERALD, of Alabama. - ' ~ of Tennessee. ESTABLISHED I 811. Table of Contents. First Page—Alabama Department: Can it be So? “Individual Sovereignty;” An Incident; Good Meeting; The Religious Press. Second Page—Correspondence: From Near Wonder-Land; A Summer Campaign ; Inter-Communioa Among Baptists; Clarkesville Association; Two Revivals,' From Arlington ; Reminiscences of Mer cer; Gospel Order; Logic. Missionary Department. Third Page—Children’s Corner: Bible Ex plorations; Correspondence. The Sunday school : Lesson for October 2d—Free Giving. Fourth Page—Editorials: Death of the President; Dictatorial Prayer ; A Wonder ful Discovery; More From Tyndale; Glimpses and Hints; Georgia Baptist News. Fifth Page—Secular Elitorials : The Expo sition and the South; Books and Maga zines; Notes; Georgia News. Sixth Page-The Household: Watch and Pray—poetry ; Parables on Prayer: Obitua ries. Seventh Page—Farmer's Index : Sensible Talk; Weevils —Grain-Moths. Eighth Page—Florida Department: Meet ings of Florida Associations ; Q tery ; Cor respondence. Alabama Department. BY SAMUEL HENDERSON. CAN IT BE SO ? In the Religious Herald. Richmond Va., of the 11th of August last, there appears a communication from our young brother, Rev. E. J. Forrester, of Snow Hill, Ala., in which, after giv ing quite a pleasant and interesting ac count of our last Conventional meet ing in Alabama, he takes occasion to speak of the action of the Foreign Mission Board in withdrawing the appointment, of our brethren Stout and Bell to a foreign field, and says : “It really seems unfortunate that the Board should have made a practical issue of a theory. This is the feeling of some of the most influential breth ren of my acquaintance down here — brethren in the ministry and out of it. I weigh my words I say the most in fluential—not those of most towering intellect, perhaps, but the most influen tial.” And then after discussing at some length the questions, “What is Scripture,” and “What is inspiration,” in which we do not care now to follow him, being only concerned as to a question or fact. He closes by saying: —“The Board shouldered a fearful re sponsibility, when upon a theory, they rejected two missionaries elect. It seems to me, too, that the necessity is upon them now to put forth what they regard as the theory held by the ma jority of the denomination. They have said that Stout and Bell do not hold it. A goodly number of strong young men are waiting to learn what will be required of them upon this subject to fit them to preach to the heathen the gospel they are now preach ing successfully at home. Will the Board put forth the ipsissima verba theory defended by its late lamented President ? Ido not know an intelli gent layman who believes that theory, and only here and there a preacher." (The last Italics ours.) Commenting on the above, the Cen tral Baptist, St. Louis, Mo., asks-“ Does he (bro Forrester) fairly represent the younger ministry of Alabama ? Per haps the Alabama Baptist could tell.” Leaving the Alabama Baptist to re spond as it chooses, we fell it our duty as connected with the “Alabama De partment” of this paper, not to allow so extraordinary a statement to pass without notice. Up to this time, we have referred to this embarrassing com plication we mean, the withdrawal of • the appointment of brethren Stout and Bell to the foreign field with great del icacy. But such statements put forth as the foregoing in one of the most ex tensively circulated papers of the de nomination in the South leave us no alternative. The time has come for those of us who regard the word of God as inspired in whole and in every part, to speak in a serious tone. If the statement of our brother Forrester is true, we ought to know it—if, in the warmth of his zeal for the late ap pointees of the Foreign Board, he has allowed himself to overstate the facts, he owes it to candor, he owes it to his brethren, to modify his averment. The impression made by his commu nication is, that the great body of our people are tinctured with Dr. Toy’s sentiments upon inspiration, that the Bible is “partly human and partly di vine.” Nay, that he “does not know an intelligent layman who believes that theory,” (the entire inspiration of the Scriptures,) “and only here and there a preacher.” On reading this, we paused, and asked instinctively, Is it possible that within the last two years a total revolution has passed over the Baptists of Alabama in ' regard to the very first article of their faith as it appears perhaps on ninety-nine hun dredths of their church books, ‘We be lieve the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the word of God, and the only rule of faith and practice.” Now, we undertake to state a fact or two: in the bounds of our acquaintance extending over a pretty broad surface of counties in north-east Alabama, we do not know a single layman, “intelli gent” or unintelligent, nor a single minister, educated or uneducated, who is at all tinctured with this semi-infidel theory. And we will go further and say, that up to two or three years ago, we did not know a minister in Alabama save perhaps one, who cherished any Sentiments that savored of the “partly human and partly divine” theory. “The most influential brethren of my (his) acquaintance” to whom he refers, must, as we suppose, be confined to those young brethren who have recent ly come to Alabama. It is due the ministry of the State for brother For rester to name those “influential breth ren,” since he declares that in the bounds of his acquaintance there is only “here and there” a minister but sym pathises with this German rationalis tic theory (at least this is the impres sion conveyed,) a theory by the way that has run its course in Germany, and is now giving way to a refluent tide that is depopulating the Schools that taught it. and filling the hall s of those in which the integrity of divine truth is tatight and accepted, f At least this is the information we see see reported from respectable sources. We have no reason to believe that since Dr. Toy left the Seminary, any such views as he cherishes on the sub ject have been taught or tolerated; but we do say, and we say it with all the emphasis we can command—we say it as one of its Trustees —as one who was present at the meeting at which it was founded —as one who was on tho com rnittee that located it at Louisville —as one who has watched its progress from the beginning till now, with all the solicitude we are capable of cherishing for any “school of the prophets”—that if it had an endowment of a million of dollars to day, and should propose to indoctrinate its students with this theo ry of inspiration, better a thousand to one sink it m>d ocean at once, than to risk the consequeeces that would inevi tably flow from such instruction. Dr. Toy has already, in “going on to per fection,” reached the conclusion that the Book of Daniel is nothing but a pious fraud—a mere religious fiction, written after the events occurred of whieh it purports to be a prophecy. His adherents are following in his wake, and no one need to doubt where this current of “advanced thought” will drift a young man who surrenders himself to it. Like the divergence of a railroad track from the main trink, it seoms for miles to run parallel with the old track, but the distance begins to widen until ere long the two trains are running at full speed in well nigh opposite directions. When a man “switches off’ from the “old paths,” he knows no more where he will land, if we may change the figure, than a ship at sea without chart, compass, or rud der. If one half of the Bible, say, is hu man, and the other half divine, in the estimation of those brethren, if this is not semi-infidelity we know not what to call it. And further, if the line of distinction between what is human and what is divine be so nice as to require the closest critical acu men to discriminate it, what is to pro tect the common reader from con founding the one with the other 1 How is he to know when his faith is based upon a “thus saith the Lord,” or on the mere utterances of men as fallible as himself 1 We have spoken as temperately as we could, for we greatly respect those brethren; but such sweeping declara tions as we have been reviewing cal culated to convey impres sion, left us no other alternative. —Zion’s Herald, Boston, says that one of the speakers at the funeral of the late bishop Haven at Salem, Oregon, was bishop Dog gett of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. “The age of miracles is” not “past,” then; for the death of bishop Doggett pre ceded that of bishop Haven by a year or more ALANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1881. “INDIVIDUAL SOVEREIGNTY." Politicians prate much of the “sov ereign people” in this free country— all kings and all subjects. All this is designed to tickle the fancy of the oi polloi, the common people. It is the poetry of republicanism. But then, there is a sense in which every man under every government is a sovereign, a sense as high above the plane of our average politicians as virtue is above vice, as spirit is above matter. Mr. Carlyle, the English essayist, lately deceased, speaking of Louis XVI, of France, who lost his head in the French revolution, says: “And yet let no meanest man lay flattering unc tion to his soul. Louis was a ruler, but art thou not one also? His wide France, look at it from the fixed stars, is no wider than a brick field, where thou, too, didst faithfully or unfaith fully rule. Man, ‘symbol of eternity, imprisoned into time,’ it is not thy works, which are all mortal, infinitely little, and the greatest no greater than the least, but only the spirit thou workest in that can have worth or con tinuance.” Rather rugged in expres sion, but the thought is good. It is sovereignty that deliberates upon and decides the hightest ques tions. Can any question of State compare with that which appeals to every man from the very throne of Omnipotence—“ What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Or this—“ Why will ye die? ” The answer to these questions will decide a mightier issue than was ever submitted to a “Con gress of nations,” or the cabinets of kings. Whatever an immortal soul can suffer or enjoy through eternal ages hangs upon their decision. And yet every man is to .decide them for himself. God himself has chosen to remand us to the hazards of eternal perdition, to secure the glory of a vol untary service. The gospel of the grace of God shuts up every man to his own individuality. We are to re pent, believe, obey, live, die, be judged, and saved or damned for ourselves. Every day we are deciding all these questions. Nay, our very indecision will decide them. How tremendous that moral position which God has assigned to every rational soul! ~AN INCIDENT. A certain minister we wot of, in great need of his dues, asked one of his churches for the portion of his sal ary that had not been paid. He did it in so business like a manner that one of his brethren made the remark that “he asked for his money with as much assurance as if he were a Ten nessee horse-drover.” And why should he not do so? Is it not his due? Has he not earned it? Has not the church promised it? Is it not “wages”, as much so as if he had split rails for it? Is it not as much of a debt as if he had sold a horse or a mule, and were to present the purchaser with his note at its maturity? Nay, is there any debt which can be contracted so binding as that which a church of Jesus Christ engages to pay to maintain the cause of the Redeemer in their midst? By how much Christianity towers above all other interests committed to human agency, by so much are the obligations to sustain it above all other obliga tions. And yet how many professing Christians pay every other obligation first, and then if they have anything left that they think they can spare, they pay it to the pastor. Alas, that it should be so. GOOD MEETINGS. Dr. Renfroe has recently held a meet ing at his church in Talladega at which there were some twelve or fif teen accessions, most of them by bap tism. He was assisted a portion of the time by Rev. B. H. Crumpton, of Greenville, Ala., and our young broth er McGaha, a member of his charge, who recently graduated at the How ard. He is a young man of decided piety and great promise. We also held a meeting of a week at Alpine, embracing the fourth Lord’s day in August, assisted by our young brethren Giles, now a student of the Howard, and McGaha, and a day or two by Dr. Renfroe. The influence of the meeting npon the church was more general, more profound than we have known for many years. Four have already united with the church —others, we hope, will follow. The little church, Shelving Rock, near us, has lately had an accession of six. Brother Nelson, of Coosa county, is its pastor. The Religious Press. The South generally did not rank Booth with common assassins.— H’afc/i- Tower. Oh yes, the South did, and our opinion is, that the man who uses the press,’apd particularly the religious press, with the deliberate intention to assassinate the reputation of a dozen millions of his fellow citizens, is not so much better than Booth and Guiteau as he imagines himself to be. If our re mark seems severe, we have to say, that it was suggested by, and is justifi ed by the concluding paragraph of the very article from which the above in considerate echo of an atrocious slan der is taken. Here it is: But for the fierceness of political fac tion, our noble President would not have been shot. Conkling has forcibly said : “There is an assassination of the press, as well as of the pistol.” If parties con tinue to denounce each other without charity, their representatives will con tinue to enforce their judgments by acts of violence! The Watch-Tower, to some degree, identifies the whole South with the act of Booth. On the same principle that journal should, to the same extent iden tify all the political opponents of Pres ident Garfield North and South, includ ing the Stalwart Republicans, with the act of Guiteau. Such frightful denun ciation, and so groundless, and so wholesale, may be called what “Conk ling has forcibly said,” is the “assassi nation of the press.” Our apology for our esteemed brother of the Watch- Tower :s, that he did not see the effect and force of his statement, and was doubtless misled as to its truth, by the ex-part' evidence of false witnesses. Such as this, though carelessly mad ®?£d u. Vcvive a spirit which oughtto be extinguished finally and forever. The distribution of tracts in Italy is producing so much effect that the priests and Catholics have founded a society, with a fund of 60,000 francs to start with, called the “Anti-Tract Society.” This so far as it goes, will be a very good advertisement for the tracts; a dozen or twenty more such societies would give the tracts a fine circulation. It is definitely understood that the churches or individuals that pay the pas tors’ salaries most promptly and liberally, and that give most for Christian benev olence, and are most interested in Chris tian work, are the churches or persons that take and read our religious week lies.— Journal and Messenger. Which is the cause and which is the effect? Are they better people be cause they take the religious papers, or do they take the papers because they are better people? Both. Each fact is a cause and each is an effect. It takes a very wise man and a very honest man to use figures so as not to abuse them, by deceiving others or being deceived himself. — National Baptist. Yes, and the same is the case with facts. In New England,the practice of infant baptism, along with the union of church and state, lowered the tone of piety in the churches; the dykes were thrown down ; the world swept unrebuked into the church ; devotion died ; morality sank to a low ebb; an uni egenerated church-membership prepared the way for an unregenerated ministry. All this led; then followed the Unitarian defec tion, the denial of the Atonement, the denial of the Deity of Christ, the de thronement of the Bible, the obliteration of the Holy Spirit. But the character went first; the doctrine followed. — Rational Baptist. When did foeticide, and divorce come in, and how? Romanism grafted on the Celtic race makes but a poor stock.— National Bap tist. True; what kind of stock does it make grafted on any race? If a church is not awake with the mis sion spirit, it is the pastor’s fault. So says a correspondent of the Wes tern Recorder. If what he says is true, a good many of our Baptist pastors in Georgia have a good deal to answer for. A Presbyterian, or Baptist, or Metho dist, has no right to take a pulpit or a paper that belongs to his church to make war upon the doctrine or institutions of that church. — Christian Advocate. We agree with the opinion expres sed by our Methodist brother. In this country the press is free, as indeed it ought to be everywhere, but this does not mean that every press is free to everybody; it simply means that a man may print what he pleases on a press of his own, or on one that he hires, if he cannot get anybody else to print it for him. It does not mean that he can control the press of anoth er, for this instead of sustaining the freedom of the press, destroys it. Cer tainly the organ of a religious denomi nation ought not to be used to combat the interests or opinions of that de nomination. Who is to judge whether articles sent to a public journal are or are not calculated to promote the cause to which that journal is devoted ? We can think of no one more suitable than the editor. Heroes are not found, in the struggle of arms alone. They are found in the conflicts of opinion and the battle of prin ciple for ascendency over the wrong. These heroes are the men to whom, under God, the world is indebted for its progress. The pathway df reformation is dark, thorny, wet with the tears and stained with the blood of martyrs. They have travailed and freedom has been born, or human rights and happiness have been put on better foundation. The minority men are the men who ad vance the world and do the work of God. They are God’s true servants. They are the men who would rather do right than be popular, rather be alone on the side of God than to dwell in the tents of sin. It is through [the few who dare to be right without regard to popular opinion that God works out the steps of human prog ress. Truth, every word of it, and well said by the Evangelist, but like all other true things it is subject to abuse. There are those who like to be in the minority, who are never satisfied any where else, who advocate unpopular things because they are unpopular, and who pride themselves on the very cheap martyrdom purchased at this very low price. There are apt to be some such men in every community. We have seen them in the church. t Wb copy from an exchange, which copies it from somewhere else, the fol lowing paragraph which to persons in the decline of life is one of the most comforting things we ever saw. Nothing is more common than to hear old people utter querulous complaints about, their deafness ; but those who do so are not perhaps aware that this infir mity is the result of an express and wise arrangement of providence in construc ting the human body. The gradual loss of hearing is effected for the best pur pose, it being intended to give ease and quietude to the decline of life, when any noise or sound from without but discom poses the enfeebled mind, and prevents peaceful meditation. Indeed, the grad ual withdrawal of all the senses and the decay of the frame in old age have been wisely ordained in order to wean the human mind from the concerns and pleasures of the world, and to induce a longing for a perfect state of existence. The brother who in describing you gives first an inventory of what you do not posses, does not like you. It does not take much skill to use this negative sort of disparagement and yet keep with in the limits of the letter of truthfulness. No man is universally endowed. It is no disparagement to a blooded racer to say he is not as heavy as a draft horse, or vice versa.—Christian Advocate. We have seen preachers who in speaking of another would always con trive to mention some good quality which the person spoken of did not possess. This is mean and cowardly; envy is at the bottom of it. A correspondent of the Canadian Baptist quotes the following paragraph from “the Bampton Lectures publish ed this year under the auspices of the Church of England.” The lecturer is explaining bow there crept into the ancient church, a double standard of morality—a higher for the “clergy” and a lower for the “laity,” and he says: The first of these causes was the wide extension of the limits of church mem bership which was caused by the preva lence of infant baptism. In the earliest times the rules of morality which were binding on church officers, were bind ing also on ordinary members, but when infant baptism became general, and men grew up to be Christians as they grew up to be citizens the maintenance of the earlier standards became impossible in the church at large. Professing Chris tians adopted the current morality; they were content to be no more than their neighbors. But the officers of all com munities tend to be conservative, and conservatism was expected of them; that whieh had been the ideal standard of qualifications for baptism became the ideal standard of qualifications for ordi nation; and there grew up a distinc tion between clerical morality and lay morality which has never passed away. Historically, then, infant baptism operated to corrupt the purity of the church —to debase its morality to the level of worldly practice in society at large. And we think that philosophi cally this result was inevitable : in the VOL. 59.-NO. 37. very nature of things it could work out no other issue. A Kentucky 7 correspondent of the Western Recorder mentions two facts illustrating “the progress of Baptist principles” outside of the denomina tion : Not long since a Methodist brother of great zeal, held a protracted meeting near our town in which he had good suc cess. At the close, before baptizing,(?) he preached very learnedly on the sub ject of baptism ; and argued profoundly to prove to his hearers that sprinkling is rigid and immersion wrong. At the conclusion eleven of the converts, about half, demanded that he should take them eight miles to the river and immerse them. Their conviction of truth was stronger than his logic. Another : in a neighboring town the Methodists had enjoyed quite a revival. In closing, their good pastor requested all those who had been baptized to sit on the right, and those not baptized on the left. While obeying orders the pastor’s son seated himself on the left, when the father called to him saying, “Elmore, you have been baptized.” “No,” responded the son, “I have just been sprinkled.” Akin to these facts is the following furnished by Dr. Hillsman to the Bap tist Reflector: A Pedobaptist preacher took it into his head to stir up the parents of his flock to have theirchildren sprinkled,and preached a sermon to convince them of their duty, concluding by appointing the next day for the sprnkling,ordering or re requesting that all the unbaptized child ren bejbrought up. This excited numer ous Baptists to go and witness the scene. The day came and the preacher was in his place with a pitcher of water on hand for the operation. The babies in due . time were called for, when 10, not a baby came I Os course the Baptists smiled. A Methodist brother has said in one of the “Advocates,” that “If all the Baptists have ever written were lost to-day, nobody, exeej c a few Baptists, would hardly know it.” We suppose he meant to say “all that the Baptists have ever written,” etc. The rest of the sentence “nobody . . . . would hardly know it,” makes it manifest that the writer of the same does not know much that anybody has written. We are not sur prised that some silly and illiterate man should have written thus, but we are surprised that any of the Advo cates should publish it. We copy the following at second hand from the Florida Sun-glass, a, pa per that we have never seen: No Christian who values his own hope in Christ, and sincerely loves his Bible, can be indifferent to the religious wants of the world. What the gospel has done for him, he desires it shall do for all oth ers. No church which refuses, or neg lects to aid in spreading the gospel abroad, can expect to be prosp. red with spiritual blessings itself. The rapidity with which Christianity is spreading among the nations, winning tens of thousands of converts to Christ, is a cheering evidence of its power, and should inspire all hearts with confidence in the gospel’s saving power, giving as surance to all who work and pray for its triumphs that their labor is not in vain in the Lord. How much “real church” is there in a church that does nothing for the spread of the gospel? And how many “churches” have we that are a not churches? Among ths hopeful signs in Germany, noted by Rev. Joseph Cook, is the de cline in the number of theological stu dents attending the lectures of rational istic professors. There are only twenty four theological students at rationalistic Heidelberg, “while evangelical Berlin has 230, evangelical Halle 304, and hy per-evangelical Leipzig, 437.”' The German theological pendulum ewings first one way and then the oth er. Recently, the tendencies were de cidedly Pagan; now, they are Evan gelistic. Persons in this country (lead ers of advanced thought) who pride themselves on being a little “off,” and who plume themselves on following the Germans, are behind the times. It is true that they are following, but it is at a distance. We hope they will soon “catch up,” as their masters are now on the right line. —Twice over, since the publication of the Revised New Testament, we have gone through it in our daily reading of the Scrip tures. This reading, of eourse, was not de igned for critical or exegetical purposes; but it prepares the way for these by relieving t he amended version of theair of strangeness ind novelty. May not some have erred in attempting exegesis and criticism without this relief? Senoia Farm and A. VanHoose baptized two members into the Greenville Baptist church on last Sabbath. He reports the chuich in a progressive state.