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SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST, Z THE CHRISTIAN HERALD, of Alabama. . • of Tennessee. ESTABLISHED I 811. Table of Contents. First Page—Alabama Department: Yielding to the Passions; A Test of Patriotism ; Blessings worth Seeking; The Religious Press. Second Page—Correspondence: Monthly Olive Branch ; From the Indian Territory ; Inter-Communion Among Baptist- ; Rem iniscences of Mercer; Missionary Depart ment. Third Page—Children’s Corner: Bible Ex* ploratioi s; Enigmas; Correspondence. The Sunday-school: The Tabernacle- Lesson for October 9ih. Fourth Psge—Editorials: Wasted; A Bap tist Hero; The New President; The Au topsy ; Glimpses and Hints; Georgia Bp* tist News. Fifth Page—Secular Editorials: The South in Literature; President Arthur; Notes; Literary Notes and Comments; Georgia News. Sixth Page—The Household : Poetry ; Clean Money; Vicissitude; Things to be Re membered ; Obituaries. Seventh Page—The Farmer’s Index : A Se rious Question ; The Exposition ; Some Curiosities in Southwest Georgia. Eighth Page—Florida Department: Facts and Fancies ;An Imposter; Correspond ence ; Ministers’ and Deacons’ Meetings; Beautiful Illustration. Alabama Department. HTr SAMUEL HENDERSON. YIELDING TO THE PASSIONS. Passionate and hasty actions as well as words often entail upon persons consequences the most direful. Every body, perhaps, has heard of the maxim of Mr. Jefferson : “If you are angry, count ten before you speak ; if very angry, count a hundred.” And a wiser statesman than Jefferson has said, “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” So long as the unguarded word is unspok en, 11. is yours; so long as the hasty act is undone, you are master of it; but when the word is spoken, or the act done, they each pass beyond your guardianship to do their mischief. They go forth to swell that current of evil that poisons the life blood of soci ety, and to provoke that recoil upon the party which may cast a shadow upon the whole of his after life. How often do men, under the excitement of a moment, say and do things which they would give the whole world if they could recall in a few moments—things which either remand them to a life of repentance, or harden and send them forth upon a career of crime I Words are hurled as well as arrows, and often wound more deeply ; and a dagger or bullet is the response from the party in whose bosom the missile from the tongue rankles. So that the first transgressor pays the penalty with his life, and the second transgressor car ries upon his conscience the blood of his murdered victim. “He did not think,” is the universal excuse we make for each other when anger rules the hour, and dictates our conduct! How many illustrations can we each recall of the mournful truth of what we have written? Happiness destroyed, exist ence embittered, character wrecked, prospects blighted, and the future sur charged with “fiery indignation and wrath.” And all this might have been averted by five minutes of sober reflec tion! How thoughtless and criminal to place in jeopardy, and perhaps, take human life for a consideration not greater than a guinea! And this on the pretext of defending our rights! We know it requires some patience to bear the slanders of an envenomed tongue. We know it is not a little an noying to be depredated on by petty thieving. But what are the slanders of the envious—what the value of a hog or a sack of corn—weighed against human life? Had we not bet ter a thousand times endure the vitu peration of the slanderer, or the loss of the most valuable piece of our proper ty, than to send a wretched sinner un prepared into the presence of his God? Had we not infinitely better live down a slander, or make back the little loss of a thief, than to carry the blood of the sjul and body of a fellow man upon our conscience the balance of our lives? We can restore our own losses of whatever kind ; but if we stain our hands in the blood of the most abandonedly wicked,we take that which we never can restore, and which God only can give. A circumstance occurred some forty or fifty years ago, in what State we shall not indicate, illustrative of these views, of which we have often thought. A worthy minister of the gospel, one who stood as fair as any man in the country, had a ven fine horse stolen. He followed the thief, and came up with him and or dered him to stop. The guitly man put spurs to the horse and galloped off as fast as he could. The pursuer followed, drew his gun and fired at the man—the ball tdok fatal effect, and the poor wretch fell dead. Everybody commended the deed but himself. He never recovered from the shock it gave his conscience, for he resigned all his churches, and never thereafter attempt ed topreach, at least as a pastor. In his old age he would occasionally con duct public services in the absence of any other minister. While he retain ed the confidence of all who knew him to his dying day, he never was the same man after the unfortunate occur rence. Perhaps the laws of God, and cer tainly the laws of the country, justify a man in taking the life of another when his own life is imperilled as the last resort of self-defence. But cer tainly nothing short of this can be de fended upon any principle of jurispru dence or morality—human or divine. Our passions are very good servants, but the most terrible masters to which we can be enslaved. He who subdues them, and keeps them under wise con trol, as Solomon expresses it, “is great er than he that taketh a city,” because he has subjugated the worst enemy he has in the universe—hwisel/. A TEST OF PATRIOTISM. Perhaps nothing could have occur red in these days that could so effect ually have called out the patriotism of all sections of the United States as the attempted assassination of our chief executive, President Garfield. It proves what is not a little flattering to the character of our whole people,that, underlying all our politfcal and sec tional animosities, there is a current of affection for our Union sufficient to override and hold in abeyance every consideration that threatens its integ rity, or impairs its efficiency. Most especially has it furnished the oppor tunity ~to the Southern people to ex press what they have long felt, and what many of the Northern people have been slow to accord to them, an honest, deep, abiding attachment to the Union of our fathers. The mo ment General Garfield was declared elected to the chief office of the govern ment, he became the President of the whole Union, as much so as if he had received every vote cast at the elec tion. And when the news of his at tempted murder reached us, the whole Southern people felt the indignity just as keenly as if it had been the man whom they preferred by their votes, General Hancock, instead of General Garfield. For one, we can say this has been and is our feeling, nor have we conversed with a man since the ter rible occurrence but who expresses the like feeling. He is our President, as much so as if he had been placed where he is by every Southern vote, He embodies for the time being the conceptions of our whole people, North and South, East and West, of what a republican government ought to be. We forget the man in the office he fills, the private citizen in the public offi cial. When he took the oath of office, he stepped into a position on which was concentrated the patriotic sympa thies and good-will of every loyal American citizen; so that any indig nity offered to him is an indignity offered to our whole people. Perhaps there is not a worshipping assembly in all the Southern States in which earn est and persistent prayers have not been offered up to the “Preserver of men” for his recovery. And should God spare his life, from no section of this Union will there go up a more general and grateful thankoffering than from these Southern States, all suspicions of oun<;Bincerity to the con trary notwithstanding. We may be the “little Benjamin” among the tribes, but we will be “there” to join in the general orisions to the God of our fathers for his mercy to us as a people. Just enough of the inner and domes tic life of the President has transpired to impart a generous warmth to the affectionate sympathies his condition has awakened. An aged mother that dotes on him with all the tenderness of her last born—a wife, who, while she betrays nothing more of kindly atten tion to him than is common on such occasion, has borne herself with a dignity suitable to her position, thus combining affectionate concern with ALANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1881. true heroism —children who han a around him with filial love—all con tribute to arouse a deeper popular sympathy than ever stirred the na tional heart. It is true there are thousands of families in our country no less distinguished in all these res pects, but then to see all these domes tic and social virtues so beautifully illustrated in the household of what we are accustomed to call “the first citizen of the United States,” is not only a matter of pride to our people, but it endears his family to every in genuous heart. It brings him and his stricken ones within that Christian circle, (for he has a Christian family,) where we can all “weep with those that weep” as well as “rejoice with them that do rejoice.” [This article has been unexpectedly delayed, but we give it for the thought’s sake.] BLESSINGS WORTH SEEKING. Blessed is the man that has no “axes to grind,” for he will never be called on to turn the grindstone for others. Blessed is the man that never over crops himself, for he will always have ; something to sell or give to the poor. Blessed is the man that never has any crochets, for he will always con sider when he is inclined to try his head against a stump whether the stump may not be harder than his head. Blessed is the man that never had “a bee in his bonnet,” for he will escape many a sting. Blessed is the man that can say “yes” and “no” at the right time, and stick to them, for he will always have a clear track the man whose religious thoughts never advance beyond tlte limits ot God's ikottghte, foi ‘he wU! ' never make shipwreck of his faith. Blessed is the man that attends to his own business, for he will seldom be perplexed with the cares of his neigh bors, nor be crushed under the weight of the government. Blessed is the man that has no hob bies, for he will never grieve over the stupidity of a world that he cannot convert to his views. Blessed is the man that has a mind of his own, for he will never squander his time in asking everybody he meets when and where to go to mill. Blessed is the man that never goes in debt, for he will never have his coat pulled into shreds by the tugs oi his creditors. Blessed is the man that knows how to hold his tongue, for he will never have to run himself out of breath to overtake unguarded words. Blessed is the man that stays at home, for he will always be a welcome visitor at the house of his neighbors. (Excuse the Irish bull, and take the hint.) Blessed is the man that always has his plate up when it is going to rain, for he catches the benefit of every shower. Blessed is the man that always fills his seat at church, for he will never starve his soul by an attempt to cheat his Maker. Blessed is the man that subscribes and pays for the Index, for he will sleep sweetly, and share the affections of an intelligent and happy household. Would it not be well, in the light of some facts that have recently trans pired, for the State Mission Board of Alabama to be at least as discreet as our Foreign Mission Board, both in , appointing missionaries and introdu- I cing ministers into the State, as to their sentiments upon so vital a point . as the inspiration of God’s word? We would not ostracise any man for his mere opinions upon indifferent mat ters. But can any man affirm that it is a matter of indifference whether a minister of the gospel believes the Bible to be half human and hafl divine, 1 or as to the matter of that, one-tenth human and nine-tenths divine, or whether it all stands upon the basis of inspiration? Surely it is important for us to know whether those who minister to our churches believe the first article of our faith; “We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the word of God, and ' the only rule of faith and practice.” Surely it is not persecution to demand that a man shall believe what he is ' called to defend and declare. “If the foundations be removed, what can ■ the righteous do?” The Religious Press. We do not assert that there "is any con* nection between the parsimony of professed Christians in supporting the gospel and the failure of the crops; but we do say, with solemn emphasis, that no people ever did. or ever will, make money by withholding from the Lord's treasury.— Christian Advocate. Yes, a Christian who economises on the Lord, may find that the Lord will economise on him. A devoted life is the most brilliant suc cess- Not the number of biptisms; not the numerical or financial strength of a Chris tian church, but the hearty loyalty which knows no danger in duty, will render famotfs minister and church in heaven. Just so, good brother of the Alabama Baptist, but then there are many who seem not to agree with you. If they can only get up an extraordinary gush of piety once in a year or two, it does not matter how “dead and alive” they may be the rest of the time. But you are right. A steady walk with God is the only real success; but this is an unpopular thing to say. The Examiner and Chronicle says I with a good deal of pith : There are some questions that have no ■ claim to a free discussion in the columns of a religious journal. If an atheist sent to this ; office an article whose object was to prove that there is no God, could he justly claim that a refusal to publish it was an attempt to stifle free discussion ? To consider the arguments for and against the existence of God forms properly a lection of theological treatisesand apologetics, but it has no place in a newspaper. There is a class of ques* tions on which debate in the columns of a journal like the Examiner is wholly out of order. The being of God and the Deity of Christ everybody would recognize as coming under that head ; but it is perfectly clear to our mind that the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures belongs there also. Such is also our opinion. If any ont\ wishes to attack the inspiration of the Scriptures, or admitting the doc tr-ne to interpret it away to notbing he can do so—but not through the Index. So long as we stand guard over it, it shall not be used as the organ of infidelity, either incipient or full grown. Some seem to imagine that the “freedom of the press” means that anybody has the right to use any body else’s press for any purpose that the fiist anybody pleases. This re minds us of a little anecdote. Soon after “freedom broke loose” a Negro was in the habit of walking through our garden as a “near cut” to his place of business. The elect lady who rules our househeld ordered him to discon tinue these invasions. “Why” replied he, “ain’t I free - ain’t I got a right to go where I please?” A Unitarian church in a pjpcecalled Greeley, in Colorado, contains the following elements: Free Thinkers, Unitarians, Universal ists, all shades of sceptics, Jews, infidel-, and atheists. Two Jews are officers in the church. A man, who has recently in p 1 irate and public addresses used tie most outrageous language in regard to Christ, is a teacher in the Sunday-school, using Arnold’s Light of Asia for a text book instead of the Bible.” Admitting that the Bible is not in spired it is still the best of books, but if not inspired its authoritativeness is not greater than that of Arnold’s Light of Asia. Those who are swinging loose from the old land-marks of inspi ration may see what they are coming to, in the character of the Unitarian church above described. The result is a natural one and just what might have been expected. If the book of Daniel is a work of fiction, as is now declared, why would it not be as proper to take one’s text horn JEsop’s Fables as from that book ? Is it an unthink able thing that a so-called Baptist church should some day hold in its communion Free Thinkers, Unitarians, Universalists, J'ews, infidels and atheists? Not at all—if some doc trines now broached are carried to their results. The Baptist Courier, speaking of the way in which “cheap preachers” are haggled for, gives us the following account: “The affair is managed somewhat on this fashion : A Shylock of a deacon puts himself into communication with the ministers who are ‘waiting fora call.’ ‘What will you preach for?” he asks. ‘A hundred dollars,’ is the reply. Too high, and he goes to another. ‘We can get Bro So-and-so for a hundred dollars, what will you preach for— how little t’ ‘Well, I’ll serve you for seventy-five dol lars. Off the Shy lock goes to the third. ‘We can get Bro. So and so fora hun dred dollars, and Bro. What’s-name for seventy fi»e dollars; what say yous •Well, if I am the choice of the church, I’ll preach for you and you can fix the salary yourselves.’ Ttiat last man gets more votes on election day than both the others put together, all three beingnomi nated. At the end of the vear he gets for his work about 62| cents a day, f<>r the days employed and is turned off—thn a cheaper man may be hired. The pie lure is not too highly colored, for some preachers and churches in the United States. The inevitable result of this thing is that the church dies of the ‘dry rot,’ and the preacher, starved out, goes to plowing or peddling sewing machines for a living.” Do such deacons, preachers and churches render any valuable service to the cause of Christ? The Bishop of Manchester (Eng.) speaking of the effect of ritualism in England has recently said that: “It engendered strife and bitterness, and wasted energies which might be far better employed in downright earnest preaching and teaching about righteous ness. While they were fighting and disputing about vestments, and orna ments, and chalices, and incense, the infidels and atheists at their doors were trying to destroy their people’s faith in everything that spoke of God, of judg ment, and the life beyond the grave.” There is a strong natural tendency to ritualism in some men’s minds, and it is a mistake to suppose that ritual ists are found only in those churches known as ritualistic. They are found everywhere. We Baptists have our share of them. Men who think, talk, preach and write about our “denomi national peculiarities” and have but little heart for anything else belong to this order. What splendid “church men” they wonld have made if they had been brought up under the influ ence of the English “Establishment!” Yet these men pride themselves on be ing “ thorough-going Baptists.” That is just what they are not. A really thorough-going Baptist lays much more stress on the great doctrines of grace which we hold in common with many others than he does on our denominational peculiarities. The influence of ritualism is always for evil, whether in Baptist churches or elsewhere. It always substitutes the husks for the corn. The Lutheran Church has but one organization in the South among the colored people, with thirteen communi cants. Well; the Millennium will hardly come to “the colored people” by the Lutheran route. Are Baptists doing all they might do, and ought to do, to bring it in? The Watchman says, in very nervous but by no means extravagant style : When a man undermines, or tries to undermine, the confidence of the people in the full inspiration of the Scriptures he is doing a harm which Is so great that to palliate it by admiration of his learning is as foolish as to excuse a mur derer because he has a handsome face. No man can do the best work that is in him without a certain amount of kindly sympathy. These words of the Examiner and Chronicle ought to sink into the heart of those church members, who cripple their pastor by want of consideration and co-working, and then decry him because his efficiency is not as great as they think it ought to be. Rev. E. Paxton Hood, an English Congregational minister, is quoted by the Southern Churchman as saying, in a recent address: “Where could a man stand so well as in the Church of England pulpit and say that which he dared to think and feel without the necessity of being challeng ed, as soon as he got into the vestry, by some arrogant and ignorant deacon." Ah; those Congregationalist dea cons! We Baptists have deacons of a better type, have we not? A selected article in the Hartford Religious Herald, by Rev. Dwight Spencer, on “Christian Hand-Shak ing,” gives this timely and forcible rebuke to what we are constrained to regard as a growing evil in the churches —even Southern and Baptist churches. I am disgusted with the coldness and stiflness witnessed in the house of God. A fitting sign over many a church door would be: “Statuary Exhibited Here.” “Oh,” you say, “I never speak to per sons till they have been properly intro duced.” Why, how proper you are! Introduced ! Isn’t the fact that they are in your Father’s house with you, that you have common needs and are seeking common favors, all the introduction you need ? When the Apostle wrote, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers ” he must have forgotten to add. “who have been properly introduced.” How often a line or two in tho reli gious newspaper brings back the story of a life, the might of atn example fraught with faith, zeal and sacrifice, VOL. 59.— NO. 38. to widen the horizon of the soul, and to displace the trivial common-places of the hour by the grand realities o f the kingdom of Christ! So we felt on reading in “Letters from Heathen Lands” by Rev. S. F. Smith, D. D., in the Watchman, a fact learned during his visit to the Baptist college at Serampore, India: Among the curiosities in the library are Carey’s crutches whichjhe used when, in old age, he broke his leg and required such helps. The crutches indicate that he was a man of humble stature, or at any rate, that the part of him which towered aloft was the part above his armpits. The New York Journal of Education, a secular paper, says some things which, whether they contain the exact truth or not, are worthy of serious con sideration. The young may be too thoughtless to ponder them, and too inexperienced to decide rightly with regard to them ; but parents are older and should be wiser, and we ask their attention to the matter. Alcohol is the spirit of beverages. So sex is the spirit of the dance; take it away and let the sexes dance separately and dancing would go out of fashion very soon. Parlor dancing is dangerous. Tippling leads to drunkenness, and parlor dancing leads to ungodly balls. Tippling and parlor dancing sow to the wind, and both reap the whirlwind. Put dancing in the crucible, apply the acids, weigh it, and the verdict of reason, mor ality and religion is, '‘Weighed in the balince and found wanting. The Richmond Christian Advocate frankly confesses that his denomina tion has heretofore gotten too far away from the doctrine of the final perse verance—or, to use a better phrase, the final preservation—of the saints : The Methodists, in the sharp contest against Antinomianism, in the earlier years, threw up ramparts beyond the line of the true doctrine. We have been too silent on those great and gracious promises that aseure Christians that the devil cannot pluck them out of the hand of their Saviour. We fail to stress the security vouchsafed to the “elect” by the vigilance and power of God. The Advocate states what approach he thinks may be made to this doctrine —evincing healthy progress in the right direction, and justifying the hope that he may yet come into the full truth on this subject: A man once soundly converted, and who prays against avarice and envy, the sins of this generation, will rarely miss heaven. The Arkansas Evangel “makes a point” against infidelity, out of it® fail’- ll re to open the purses of its adherents for the prosecution of its work and the perpetuity of its influence: It required fifty years of “incessant toil and struggle” to erect the Paine Memorial Hall in Boston; and it is an ordinary building, and is the work of all the infidel sympathizers in the United States. What a small affair is this I In that length of time the Christians of this country have sent their missionaries around the world and erected thousands of temples dedicated to the honor and service of God. But the Paine Mem orial Hall could not pay its taxes, and some three years ago was sold under the hammer for debt. We could wish that every Baptist was in a condition to make consistent uie of just such an argument. But how can this be done by anyone whose zeal for God and love for souls have not opened h’s purse to regular giving for the maintenance of the gospel and the evangelization of the world? Is not Christianity in his case as power less as infidelity, when tried by this test? Is it quite certain that hit Christianity is the genuine article? Rev. 0. Cr Pope, D. D. of Texas has just secured four thousand dollars from the Baptist Home Mission Society of New York for the prosecution of mis sion work on the border of Mexico. This motley will be disimbursed untl r~- the direction of the Baptist Missi it Board of Texas. Dr. Pope, in his ap plication was endorsed by the Texas Baptist Convention. e Rev. Edward Judson, son of the re nowned missionary Judson, is spending the summer vacation writing a biogra phy of his father. It will contain sev eral letters hitherto unpublished, and other matter helpful in the study of the life of that great and good man. —The Minutes of the Alabama Baptist Convention contain no list of onr minister* in the State, with their post-offices This i* about a generation btlind the tin ee. Some body on the other side of the Chattahoochee must be "sleeping out loud ’’