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SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST, X X THE CHRISTIAN HERALD,
of Alabama. of Tennessee.
ESTABLISHED I 8 21.
Table of Contents.
First Page—Alabama Department: Coosa
River Association—A New Book—Shall
we have It? “The Joy of Harvest;” Per
ennial Fruits; The Religious Press.
Second Page —Correspondence: A Converted
Infidel; From Virginia; The Levering
School; For Young Christians; The York*
town Celebration, etc. The Mission De
partment. Letters from China.
Third Page—Children’s Corner: Bible Ex
plorations ; Enigmas; Correspondence.
The Sunday-school: The Burnt Offering
—Lesson for October 16th.
Fourth Page—Editorials: The Cloud of
Witnesses; Turning the Guns; Another
Horror ; A Declaration Which Does Not
Declare ; Glimpses and Hints; Georgia
Baptist News.
Fifth Page—Secular Editorials : The South
ern Staple; Sidney Lanier—poetry—Cbas.
W. Hubner ; Notes; Booksand Magazines;
Albert Theodore Spalding; Georgia News.
Sixth Page—Promise—poetry ; A Mother's
Influence; October—poetry (illustrated);
Selected Miscellany. Obituaries.
Seventh Page—The Farmer’s Index : Farm
Work for October; Irrigation; Small
Notes.
Eighth Page—Florida Department: Special
Items; Correspondence; Items By The
Way; Mission Receipts; Town and
Country.
Alabama Department.
SAMVEL HENDERSON.
COOSA RIVER ASSOCIATION—A
NEW BOOK-SHALL WE HAVE
IT?
This body held its last session with
the Macedonia church, St. Clair coun
ty, Ala., embracing the 3d Lord’s day
in September. All the churches, thir
ty-three in number, were represented
either by letters, or delegates, except
two or three, and one new church,
Winterboro’, was received, having been
constituted since the session before.
In the absense of the former Modera
tor, brother A. Williams, Dr. Renfroe,
was elected to that office, and the for
mer Clerk and Treasurer, brethren L
Law, and J. K. Elliott, were chosen.
A well thought out and earnestly de
livered introductoay sermon was
preached by Rev. L. Law. Several
brethren from other Associations were
present, among them Dr. Teague, from
the Shelby, and Dr. Gwaltney, from
the Catauba, whose presence gave no
little interest to the session. Dr.
Gwaltney delivered unquestionably one
of the best speeches on the subject of
education, male and female, to which
one ever listens. It bristled with facts
and its logic was unanswerable. On
Ministerial education, Dr. Teague favor
ed us with a fine speech, in which he
took occasion to deprecate in earnest
terms the policy of sending our young
ministers to Germany to finish their
Theological education. Well for us if
his warning shall be heeded.
It struck us that the reports on the
usuai topics were drawn up with more
than common ability, although the
press for time did not allow our breth
red to discuss them as we generally
do, nearly the whole business of the
body being pressed into a single day.
The business was whipped through in
hot haste speed, owing to the change
of the day of meeting from Friday to
Saturday, and Saturday being occupi
ed in organizing and appointing com
mittees, Monday only was left to “pull
the business through.” We all know
that when cotton fields are white for
the want of picking what farmers will
do at such a time- It was resolved to
meet next year on Thursday instead
of Saturday with the Munford church,
eleven miles above Talladega on the
railroad.
Rev. W. Wilkes introduced a paper
at this meeting calling for the publica
tion of Dr. Renfroe’s Lectures recently
delivered to the Theological students
at the Baptist College in Clinton, Mis
sissippi, which have been called for by
our brethren in that State so earnestly.
A committee was appointed to corres
pond with those brethren in Mississippi
to arrange for their publication. We
hope the matter can be consummated
at an early day. The lecturrs cover a
broad range of interesting topics, both
for ministers and laymen, occupied by
no other book now extant of which we
have any knowledge, and are handled
with an ability that will secure for the
volume when published a broad circu
lation. No one need to doubt that
the publication of these lectures will
accomplish a vast amount of good
both to ministers and churches. Any
other denomination would have such
a book in print in less than six months,
and why not we?
The preaching on Sabbath by Drs.
Gwaltney and Teague, was able and
edifying to a degree. It is a rare treat
to hear two such men on the same day.
We may add also, that the condition
of the churches as represented through
the letters, was in the main better than
usual, both in their multiplication and
growth. Many of them reported addi
tions by baptism, and increase in the
number and attendance of Sunday
schools, and some advance in contribu
tions to benevolent objects. The
means were raised to continue our
young brother Giles at the Howard.
He graduates the coming year, and
stands second to none in College.
Since the meeting of last year, two
of our oldest and best preachers have
passed to their reward, Rev. S. J. Jen
kins and Rev. Wm. C. Mynatt. It is
seldom that any Association loses two
such men in one year. Suitable memo
rials of their worth and services were
prepared and spread upon the minutes.
We doubt if there survive two minis
ters in East Alabama who equal them
in devotion to the ministerial work, or
in the success with which God has
crowned their labors. Their memory
will linger in many, many hearts while
life shall last.
“THE JOY OF HARVEST."
No labor on a farm is so hard,
nor yet performed with so much
cheerfulness as the labor of harvest.
The-te is something really exhilarating
in looking over the ripened waving
grain of our fields; and as it falls be
fore the mow e.’s scythe,the laborer feels
rewarded for all his anxiety and work
in sowing and watching its growth and
maturity. Poets have sung of the con
summation of the husdandman’s toils
in their sweetest numbers—prose has
gathered from it its most brilliant con
ceptions—and the word of God speaks
of “the joy of harvest,” The conscious
ness that his patient industry has been
abundantly rewarded by a benignant
providence, so that he has enough and
to spare, may -well inspire an honest
joy in his heart, which ought to find
expression in devout gratitude to the
“Giver of every good and perfect gilt.”
As far back as we can recollect, we re
member to have seen twenty, thirty
and perhaps forty reapers in large
fields of grain gathering its fruits, and
their cheerful songs taken up and re
verberated by the whole line, altogeth
er presenting one of the most exhiler
ating scenes one ever witnesses on a
farm. No “bacchanalian revel” could
excel it in boisterous mirth at times,
inspired, however by the genial, happy
spirit that animated all the laborers.
The most flagging one of the company
would catch the spirit of the occasion,
and keep the step with the regularity
of clock work. If one should happen
to fall behind, he was sure to catch the
benefit of many a good humored joke,
until, under the gentle impeachment,
he would shoot ahead of the others,
and turn the humor on the whole
crowd. Old fashioned “sickles” were
used at that day, and as the men would
reap to the end, each one would twist
his reap hook in one of his gallowses
behind, and bind his “through” back
to where he commenced. Then follow
ed a whole troup of boys bulking the
sheaves into dozens to be shocked up
at the close of the day. “Reapers”
and “mowers” are certainly great im
provements on this old plan of saving
grain, but they have taken from the
harvest season well nigh all the social
pleasures incident to these neighbor
hood gatherings. For, alas that it
should be so, the tendency of all our
“labor-saving” improvements is to make
us more selfish. They supersede the
necessity of many of the most pleasant
and enjoyable occasions of neighborly
kindness peculiar to the oid order of
things.
But ‘hen there are other kinds of
harvests whose joys are far higher and
purer than ever penetrated the heart
of earthly husbandmen when gathering
the most bountiful yield of their farms;
and this “joy of harvest” supplies an
impressive illustration of the holier joy
that thrills the hearts of the spiritual
husbandman when “thrusting in the
sickle” to reap the ripening harvests of
the earth. “He that goeth forth and
weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall
doubtless return again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him.” The
most rational joy that earth can yield
is used to shadow forth the most ex
ultant joy that Christian charity can
inspire—the joy that welcomes return
ing sinners to the fold of Christ. So
elevated, so holy is the joy that heaven
itself mingles in it, for “there is joy in
the presence of the angels of God over
one sinner that repenteth.” Viewed
from that exalted standpoint, the con-
ALANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1881.
version of a sinner from the error of his
way is the principal event that can oc
cur on earth that can add to the bliss
of heaven, since angels know far bet
ter than we can know the immeasura
ble import of perdition and salvation—
what it is to incur the wrath of God,
and what is to “behold the King in his
beauty.”
But these are but the premonitions
of the joy that shall penetrate the
whole host of heaven, angels and re
deemed spirits, when the last grand
harvest of the earth shall be reaped,
and it shall appear how much our
world shall yield to the wealth of its
Redeemer, when the general assembly
and church of the first born shall as
semble upon the glossy sea. and join
the last anthem peal, “Worthy is the
Lamb that was slain to receive power,
and riches, and wisdom, and strength,
and honor, and glory, and blessing . .
... for ever and ever.”
PERENNIA L FRUITS.
There is not a month in the year in
which a thrifty farmer may not plant
something on his farm that will contrib
ute to its produce. He can always
have something growing for man or
beast. The constant labor he puts
forth finds its compensation in the
pleasure and profit of always having
some kind of crop either maturing or
in some stage of growth. Even in
July, he can prepare and sow an acre
or two of good land in corn, and make
“roughness” enough for half a dozen
horses or mules, more indeed than
forty acres will yield him in fodder.
Always sowing and always reaping
will ever keep his barns filled with
plenty, and to spare.
The Christian heart is not unlike
such a well kept farm. The precious
seed which has found entrance into
a “good and honest heart/’ will always
present its appropriate growth from
germ to maturity. The gathered har
vest of to-day is followed by a fresh de
posit of the good seed of the kingdom,
and, if we may so speak, between the
maturity of the one and the deposit of
the otherwhere are plants in every stage
of development from the first blade to
the “full ear in the stalk.” Always
receiving and yet always bearing bi
vine fruits. Such a Christian is like
the trees of paradise which John saw
that “bore twelve manner of fruit,”
fruit for every month, fruit always
growing and always ripening. Meet
him when and where you may, you
will ever find in him something that
will stimulate your faith and zeal, and
increase your spiritual knowledge.
Receiving into his heart the engrafted
word, and keeping it with all diligence,
you need not wonder that divine grace
descends, making it soft with showers,
dropping fatness upon every plant, and
blessing the springing thereof, until it
flourishes as the “garden of God.”
How cheering the sight of such a
Christian, and what a vindication of
the reality and efficacy of divine grace
does his godly life present to the world!
Snch men, scattered here and there,
are the contributions of the fallen
world to the wealth of heaven, destined
through the endless cycles of eternity
to vindicate the wisdom, power and
goodness of God in sending his Son to
redeem them from its pollutions.
At this writing (Sep. 27th) a prom
ising meeting is going on at Fayette
ville, Ala., conducted by brethren
Teague, Wilkes and the writer. Dr.
Teague has been pastor of this church
for some five years, but has recently
resigned it. His successor will be
chosen at their next monthly meeting.
At our last meeting at Alpine, 2d
Lord’s day in September, we had the
pleasure of baptizing six candidates into
the fellowship of that church.
It is a notorious fact that the Negroes
among us feel and express but little sym
pathy for the President’s death.— Asso.
Ref. Presbyterian
We think that this can scarcely be
said of the more intelligent of our Ne
groes who do their own thinking ; but
in the main the statement is probably
correct as to the Negroes everywhere.
The reason is, that those who are in the
habit of leading them, did not tell them
to “feel and express.” If they had
done so, there would have been such
an outpouring, and such anoutgush as
was never seen. Why the leaders kept
quiet, is a question for the politicians
to solve. We know nothing about
their ways.
The Religious Press.
A writer in the Christian Observer
signing himself John, construes the
large circulation of the Revised New
Testament as an indorsement of that
version from Heaven itself, so that
God is responsible for it, and
not the men who did the work. Here
is what he says :
lii Lindon a million copies were sold
the first day, and five hundred thousand
in the United States. A million copies
sold'in London the next day and a mil
lion in the United States. Thus the
immortal and invisible God showed that
upon this version he had stamped his
sanction.
This is little short of blasphemy.
We are glad that the New Version was
made, but we stand aghast in horror
at such expressions as the above. We
can excuse the writer only on the
ground that he has lost his reason
Per contra, welearnfrom the Presby
terian that,
Rev. Mr. Large, an Episcopal minister
of Traverse City, Mich., says that
the work is characterized by five fea
tuies, to-wit“ Absence of Greek
scholarship; profound ignorance of Eng
lish; woeful want of familiarity with the
New Testament; want of critical taste
and judgment; and lack of reverence for
divine inspiration.”
Large taken ironically is a very ap
propriate name for this gentleman.
It strikes us that Rev. T. Thumb, D. D.,
would be more literally descriptive.
A Methodist preacher in Ohio is said
to have “prayed for Guiteau” substan
tially in these words:
“May curses be on the hand that did
the deed. May the wretch be eternal
LY TORMENTED.”
If this prayer were translated into
the language of the profane, how would
it read? Why did not the suppliant
but osu: pen refuses to
wrnTthe frightful words. Some minis
ters of the gospel (so-called) are more
fit for the pot-house than for the
pulpit.
Father Lambing, Catholic priest at
Pittsbuig, has formally announced to his
flock that he would refuse absolution to
all who sent their children to the public
schools. He advised them to patronize
the parish schools, but threatened no
penalty to those who did not send to
school at ali. Rome counts ignorance
bliss, where to be wise would endanger
her authority.— Evangelist.
New York has two women who believe
themselves to be Mrs. Garfield, and are
anxious to get away so as to nurse their
husband, and a physician of the city who
thinks he is Garfield’s surgeon is con
stantly giving prescriptions for the im
mediate healing of the patient. These
three cranks are all under lack and key
As a matter of news this is a little
behind the times, but it will do as
matter of history. There are a few
men who imagine themselves to be the
keepers and guardians of the Baptist
denomination, and who think that un
less their doctrines are swallowed and
their counsels followed, the whole
brotherhood will go to well we don’t
know to what—but to something dread
ful we suppose. Perhaps,it isunfortunate
that these cranks are not under lock
and key.
The Troy (N. Y.) limes tells of two
children presented to a clergyman of
that city for infant baptism. “Have you
ever been baptized before, my daughter?”
asked the minister, very solemnly. Not
understanding the difference between
baptism and vaccination, “Y«s, sir,”
replied the little girl; “and mine took,
but Charlie’s didn’t.”
The difference between infant bap
tism and vaccination is, that one some
times fails to take, and the other
always.
We seldom quote from the Christian
Union but for the entertainment of our
Pedobaptist readers, of whom we have
a considerable number, we give the
following extract from that paper, a
place in our columns :
There is no direct scriptural authority
for infant baptism. The only arguments
for the opinion tbatinfants were baptized
in the New Testament times are derived
from the somewhat doubtful statement
that infants were baptized in the pros
elyte baptism from which John is by
some supposed to have borrowed his
his rite, and from the two references to
the baptism of households in the book
of Acts.
The Macon Telegraph and Messenger
pays the following tribute to our much
loved and ever-honored University.
Opening Day of Merckr University.
—The fall term of MercerUniversity,lßßl
commences to-day under the most flatter
ing prospects. Students have been ar
riving for a number of past days,and the
list of matriculates will be very fine.
And why should this not be the case? Is
not Mercer University one of the most
admirable and honored institutions in
the Southern country ? Composed of a
faculty and offering advantages second to
none other in th* entire Sta'e. The cur
riculum is superb, and if the opportuni
ties offered young men at this grand seat
of learning are earnestly availed of, it
will redound to their mental advance
ment and moral improvement.
Under the prudent and able agency of
Rev. Dr. Sylvanus Landrum, the old
popularity of the college is being main
tained with wonderful effect. His
presentation of the claims of Mercer is
meeting with great success not only in
attracting students to its halls but en
gaging the interest and love of moneyed
men both at the North and South. Be
quests are being made it which will
establish the grand college on glorious
and lofty foundations.
As one evidence of the favor with
which Mercer University is being receiv
ed, we might mention the donation, by
a Northern gentleman, of SI,OOO, made,
a short time since, to be devoted to Pro
fessor Willet’s department of science,
chemistry, etc.
The sun of prosperity shines with re
fulgent brightness on Mercer University,
and into the grandeur of the light the
students of 1881-82 walk, full of hope and
promise.
The trouble with Baptists is, that
when they have a good thing, it fre
quently happens that they don’t know it.
The Independent, a most able and
excellent paper of its kind, somewhat
religious in its tendencies, Pedobaptist
certainly in its affiliations, but not
exactly Presbyterian or Congregational,
in short as its name implies independ
ent, in replying to a remark of the
Examiner and Chronicle says;
The Examiner and Chronicle refers to
The Independent as “a journal that de
lights in nothing so much as in flings at
Baptists.” It can find in The Independ
ent plenty of what it calls “flings” against
close communion ; bnt but never one
against Bap'ists, and never one argument
or fling directed against their great
principles of baptism by immersion and
baptism of believers only. We challenge
our neighbor to prove its assertion.
Well, we are glad to know that Bap
tist faults are reduced to one. It so
happens however that that is the one
on which the continued existence of
our denomination depends. Still, we
are glad to know that so far as the In
dependent is concerned there is only
one point to be defended.
The same paper is kind enough to
speak of Georgia as “the Empire State
of the South.” The compliment is
acknowledged with thanks.
And from the same paper we quote
at second-hand the following utterance
of General Sherman:
Should our President die, the murderer
is entitled to a speedy trial by a jury,
and I hope he will have justice done; but
it is not my office, nor yours, or any
body’s except the regular courts of this
District,which are in indisputable power.
Violence in any form will bring a re
proach upon us all,- on the country at
large and especially on us of the District
of Columbia. All the circumstances of
the shooting, of the long, heroic strug
gle for life impress me so strongly that I
would be ashamed of my countrymen if
they mingled with their feelings of grief
any thought of vengeance. ‘Vengeance
is mine, saith the L?rd,’ I trust the
public press will use its powerful in
fluence to maintain the good order and
decorum which have prevailed since toe
saddest of all days in Washington- Julv
2d, 1881.
Commenting on this the Independent
says:
The death of the Presiddent naturally
intensifies the public abhorrence of
Guiteau. He is, however, in the hands
of the civil authorities and there let him
remain. Tiiere is no doubt that he will
in due season receive the award of jus
tice, so far as it is in the power of law to
administer it. Give him all the advant
ages of a fair and impartial trial and
then punish him under the authority of
law. Tue American people can safely
tolerate no other principle in dealing
with criminals, whoever they may be or
whatever may be their crimes.
And this is just what the Index said
in its first editorial notice of Guiteau’s
crime. We have no right to murder
him because he murdered the Presi
dent. Give him a trial, a fair trial,
and deal with him according to law.
This only is becoming to the dignity
of a great people. If he should be
found guilty let him be hanged ; if he
should be found to be insane let him
be accquitted, for a lunatic is incapa
ble of committing crime.
The Examiner and Chronicle gives
the following as the language of a
minister of the gospel:
“I can’t understand it. I have been
preaching for twenty-five years that the
promises respecting the prayer of faith
meant something. And new I’m all at
sea, for if ever such prayers were offered
VOL. 59.— NO. 39.
they have been offered for the restora
tion of the President.”
The man who used these words, and
who is “all at sea” on such a question
as this, must have been “preaching for
: the last twenty-five years” to very little
j purpose. He needs a little training in
theology from some of the humblest of
our preachers. Lacking this, he would
do well to read what has recently been
said on the subject, by the religious
press of the country. Our leading
article of last week contains the doc
trine Universally received among
Christians. Articles of exactly the
same character, written and published
simultaneously by hundreds of different
men, have appeared in the religious
papers all over the United States. It
is interesting to notice the unanimity
of so many men, writing at the same
time on the same subject, each one
without the knowledge of the others.
Those who read our article on “Prayer
Apparently Wasted,” have read all the
others that were written last week, in
substance at least; for in sentiment
and doctrine they are all exactly alike;
the ring of the same metal is in them
all. We enjoy the harmony ;it is like
the chiming of the church bells.
I have been in a number of places
where I had the opportunity of seeing
what is the effect of the great national
disaster on the minds of mere politici
ans. And the fact is evident that it has
no effect at all—not the slightest
Chris’ians who pray, and sympathizing
citizens who shed tears over the news
papers or in front of the bulletins, are
not the working politicians who manage
the primaries and pack the conventions.
I have been a near witness of something
in this line, in the course of this last
month, and am compelled to say, that
the bitterness, selfishness and disregard
of public interest never were more con
spicuous than they are this moment.
The death of the President, I fear, will
not allay the rancor of faction or compel
a pause in the strife for spoils.
This statement is made by Dr.
Iraemeus S. Prime, in the New York
Observer. If it is true, it betrays the
existence, in one portion of the country
at least, of an insensibility to the les
sons taught by the death of the Presi
dent which is a greater calamity to our
people than even that death itself.
Nothing can ba plainer than that, if
we are to have schools and colleges in
which the Word of God is to rule, Christ
ians must establish and support them.
So says the Lutheran Standard and
so we think. The application of the
sentiment we leave to the good sense
of our brethren.
That a section politically opposed to
General Garfield, and the ideas which
he had spent his life in defending and
propagating, should be not a whit be
hind the citizens of his own State in their
expressions of a genuine grief and sym
pathy, is surely a wonderful thing. It
means, in the words of a Southern man,
that “for the first time in more than
twenty years the South has realized that
she is a part of the Union, and that she
too had a President.” It means such a
sweeping away of sectional animosities,
such a welding together of South and
North, as a score of years might fail to
accomplish. It will not soon be forgotten
that this is one Nation, and that the
interests of one part of it are the interests
of all. Among the blessings that have
come to the people in the train of their
affliction, this will be recognized as by
no means the least. — Examiner and
Chronicle.
Happy the prophet of good who,
when his prediction is uttered, does
nothing and says nothing to defeat it!
The Examiner and Chronicle must look
to its columns in time to come, careful
that no sectionalism creeps into them
under the guise of Nationalism : the
two things from its old point of view
have sometimes been confounded by it.
A committee from Pine Grove
church (McDuffie county) will meet
the brethren of the Georgia Associa
tion coming byway of Wrightsboro,and
assign them homes Wednesday night
before the meeting, of the Association
Thursday. We will give them homes
iu convenient distance for the morning
drive. We think it best fur all South
of Little River to come this way, as
there is no bridge below Dyer’s Mill
and that one is unsafe.
J. M. Wilson.
Thomson, Ga., Sept. 27th, 1881.
Our Indian Mission Scho.il.—The
Levering Manual Labor Mission
School opened September sth, with
100 pupils in attendance. In addition
to these 50 applied but could not be
received. This school increases our
expenditures among the Indians, and
calls for a corresponding increase in
the contributions of God’s people.
Wm. H. McLnt. sii, Cor. Sec.
Marion, Ala.
