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4 HENHY H. TUCKER, Editor PERSONAL. Three years have elapsed since the present editor took charge of The Index. During that time, he has written by a fair estimate, about six hundred columns. Every word of all this has doubtless been read by some, and much of it has been read by thousands. Many of the articles have been reproduced by other papers and thus laid before the eyes of multitudes. What originated in the mind of the writer has been presented to other minds, we may say all over this conti nent, and has certainly gone beyond the seas, and even to the other side of the world. From a private source we learn, that one copy at least, of The Index was passed from hand to hand in Canton, China, and read and com mented on,week after week, by English speaking people there. What is written is written ; and this record so volumin- ous, the writer must account for, and for everv word of it, before the bar of God. The thousands who have read it, will be the witnesses whether it has been a ben efit or an injury to their souls. The editor sinks under a sense of his respon sibilities, and feels that he is wholly in sufficient for such things. He crave, the kind sympathies of his readers, am begs that they will help him to bea his burden, by remembering him a the throne of grace Brethren! pra; dor us. UNSPEAKABLE WORDS. Our brother Paul, the Apostle, went •to heaven alive, and came back! A most wonderful experience, truly. It may be that another Apostle, our •brother John, had the same experience, • for he describes many things which occurred in heaven ; he declares that he saw and heard them. But these things may have been, and we think were, revealed to him in visions, as if a. panorama had passed before him. As we understand him, he does not claim to have been in heaven. He says, “I, John . . • was in the isle that is called Patmos, .... I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice as ftf a trumpet;” and in all that he has written there is nothing to make it certain that he left the isle of Patmos. A display of the heavenly glories was certainly made before his eyes ; he undoubtedly saw Jesus, and received amazing disclosures from the eternal world. Yet all the time he may have been in the flesh, and on the island in the JEgean sea, whither he had been banished. The heavens may have been unveiled to him, while yet he remained on earth. The first word of his book of prophecy is the word, apokalypsis, which means an unveiling, ( though in our versions it is translated ( The revelation. But, in any case, we are not under the necessity of believing that the Apostle was personally pres ent in heaven. The experience of John ■ may have been the same as that of Stephen, who, being on earth, “looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God. and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.” Acts 7 55. But as to our brother Paul, we know that what he saw was not a mere vis ion, not a mere scenic representation of unpresent realities, not a mere sub jective, though true, apprehension of far distant facts ; we know that he, the man himself, was actually “caught up to the third heaven,” (2 Cor. 12-2) by which expression is meant the very heaven which is the heaven of God. Whether brother Paul’s body accom panied his soul, or whether his soul was snatched away from his body, leav ing it with its mere animal life behind, the Apostle himself did not know ; but his language seems to suggest the idea that while he was not sure, he yet in clined to the belief, that his soul and body were both “caught up into Para dise.” Be this as it may, it is certain that the man who wrote the Epistles to our brethren at Corinth, was alive in the actual presence of the objective realities of the heaven of God, and that he actually returned to earth and lived among us, and related the fact. So far as we know or believe, he is the only human being of whom this can be said. Enoch and Elijah went to heaven alive; the former never return ed ; the latter returned once and was seen on Mount Tabor by three men; f Mat. 17) but his stay was brief, and he spoke no word to either of the wit nesses. Some died and were restored to life. We may well suppose that they were received into heaven ; but i they were not there in the natural slate in which Paul was, whose life had not Jor a moment been suspended. He is the solitary member of the human race of whom it can be certainly affirmed that he went alive to heaven, to heav en itself, and afterwards came back to remain. We are not informed that any of those who died and return ed to life, were conscious of any thing that they witnessed in the spirit world. So far as we know, that por tion of their existence, was to them af terwards, as if it had been a mere state of syncope, of which they remembered nothing. But Paul’s living conscious ness was uninteirupted from first to the CHRISTIAN INDEX AND SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1881 ;_ last. He saw and heard, he knew, and , he remembered. He stands alone. We should naturally suppose that on his return he would have had much to say of the wonderful things that he saw and heard. But not a syllable did he utter. He declares that the words which he he heard were ‘‘unspeakable words which it is not law ful for a man to utter." Why then was he trans ported thither and back, if to commu nicate the knowledge thus acquired was both impossible and improper? What was the object of ‘ this astound ing miracle? So far as Paul was con cerned, it may have been to give him extraordinary strength for extraordi nary duty. No such burden was ever put on human shoulders as on his. He received more help than any other , man because he needed more. He had been a blasphemer, and his hands were with the blood of the saints, yet he now claimed to be an Apostle. He might well have doubted the genuine ness of his call. But after he saw what he did see, there was no longer room for doubt that his calling was sure. How thoroughly nerved he was for the conflict that was before him! But for this he might not have been fitted for the work appointed him. True, the phenomena on the occasion of his con version might have satisfied him, and doubtless did; but as responsibility and duty accumulated he needed more grace, and with this, his visit to the celestial abode, must have supplied him. Moreover, while the words which he heard were such as it is not lawful to utter, it may be that they gave him a better understanding of things which could be uttered. It was known to God that he was to be the great expound er of the doctrines of Jesus, and the author of more than half the New Tes tament. The deep things of God, which he treats of as no other of the sacred writers does, might not have been so clear to his mind, but for what he learn ed when he was caught up to Paradise. While, then, we have not the full blaze of the light which shone on him, we may have its reflection in his writings. If it does not reveal, it may yet illu minate that which is revealed; and but for this we might never have had the clear conception of Divine truth which we now have. Thus, the whole race may be blest by the experience of a solitary man, who was forbidden t< utter a “word of what he saw and heard. • t We learn from the record that there are words spoken in heaven, which can not be translated into the language of ; earth. There are truths so stupend ous and so grand that no language can convey them. We live in ignorance ; ' the known is as nothing; the unknown ' is vast as the infinite. A great sea oi knowledge wide as space lies before us; 1 our vision extends but to its border; we hear but its ripples; the thunder of its roar may shake the universe, but we are not so endowed as to hear it. Paul saw’ and heard much, and doubt less understood, but it struck him dumb ; he could communicate nothing. Oh! the glorious destiny that is in reserve for the saints! It was but a little while that Paul was in Paradise; the people of God will live and reign there forever. It was but little in com parison that he learned during his brief sojourn; God’s elect will have eternity in which to make discoveries, j doubtless far more in advance of Paul’s than his are superior to ours in our present state. These will throw back . their light on what is now revealed, so that we shall see it as it was never seen by mortal eyes, and we shall discover in the w’ord of God which we now have, f grandeur and glory now hidden from us. With the accumulation of sublime knowledge, with the apprehension of supremely glorious truth, our capaci ties must expand until we shall be so superior to our present selves, that no language can describe our state, and no figure illustrate it, and no concep tion come in sight of it. With this in tellectual growth there must come a moral development, such that if we could now see the holiness to which we shall once attain, the sight would be too much for us and we should faint and die in view of our own glory. Is not such a heaven worth dying for? And what is more, is is not worth living lor? What sacrifice is too great, if w’e but make it in obedience to His command ments? How easy to walk in the path of duty, even if it be rugged and thorny, when we see the heaven that lies at the end! How insignificant are earth ly trials in view of the recompense of the reward! If the words which Paul heard could be uttered, it would still be unlawful to utter them. There are somethings which we ought not to know. M e are under God’s tutelage; he knows what is best for us, and gives us such knowl t dge as is needful for us while we are here. He keeps his own secrets,, and it is as impious as it is vain for us to pry into them. When he says “What I do thou knowest not now,” let us be satisfied ; and when he adds “ but thou shalt know hereafter,” let us be tilled with exulting hope and trium phant faith, and burning love. God made a confidant of Paul for a mo ment; in due time he will make confidants of us forever. Let us in meekness and humility use the knowl edge we have ; and when our turn shall come to be “ caught up ’ to the Para ’ dise where Paul was taken, more will be given, and yet more; and to our bliss and glory there will be no end. Halleluiah! Amen! ASLEEP FOR SORROW. It has often occasioned surprise that the disciples should have gone to sleep when our Lord was suffering the ago nies of Gethsemane. Perhaps due at tention has not been given to the words in Luke 22 :45, where he declares that ‘‘He found them sleeping for sor row." But the question arises, how does the sorrow account for the sleep? Our knowledge of psychology is not suf ficient to enable us to account for the phenomena, but it is a well known fact though not widely known, that while deep sorrow often prevents sleep, a still deeper sorrow will sometimes su perinduce it. The fact last stated has three times, at least, come within our personal knowledge. W ithout giving a reason, we can only say, that profound grief seems sometimes to stun the soul into insensibility. It may be a merci- ful arrangement of Providence, to pre vent grief from bringing insanity or death. The sleeping disciples may have thus been sheltered from what, if they had witnessed, they conld not ; have borne. At any rate we know from the language of Luke, that they i slept, not because they were unsympa thetic or indifferent, but for the very opposite reason; they slept for very I sorrow. The “beloved physician” of eighteen hundred years ago, is the only f one of the evangelists who gives the 6 reason of this irresistible drowsiness. e His professional knowledge may have 1 suggested it. Mathew and Mark, who were men of less culture and informa tion, state the fact, but do not account for it. John makes no record of the event. It is interesting to observe, that a fact, which even at this late day is unknown to many, though well known by a few, was familiar to one of the writers of the New Testament, and that to his mind the unusual sleep was satisfactorily accounted for. . The sleep was not a natural one;. it was only the sleep of mental paralysis. Was Luke mistaken? By no means; the Holy Spirit would not have per mitted him to write what was not true. The reason given was the true reason , overwhelming grief sometimes stupefies the soul, and it falls into a state of torpor and finally into sleep. What Luke states as a fact is a fact; they slept for sorrow. We shall not say that modern obser vation corroborates the statement of the evangelist; we prefer to say that the evangelist corroborates modern ob servation. THE NEW VERSION ON BAPTISM.. According to the American Revisers i of whom there were thirteen and of whom only one was a Baptist, Mark 1, 4,7, 8, reads as follows: (the italics are ours.) . . “John came who baptized in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance unto remission' of sins. And there went out unto him all the country of Judea and all they of Jeru salem, and they were baptized of him in the river Jordan confessing their sins. . . • And he preached, saying, There cometh one after me, he that is mightier than I I baptized you in (margin “or with”) water but he shall baptize you in (margin “or with”) the Holy Spirit.” But it is not hinted that the word with can be substituted for the word in, so far as relates to the expression “in the river Jordan.” According to both English and American Revisers, Mark 1 :9 reads as follows: (italics ours.) “And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John in the Jordan; and straightway coming up out of the ■ water, he saw the heavens rent asun- lk ' In this case the margin substitutes the word into for the word in. The passage thus amended (both English and Americans agreeing) would read thus: “Jesus. . . was baptized of John into the Jordan.” The revisers were forbidden by the Canterbury rules to translate the Greek word baptizo, but they were not forbid den to translate the prepositions used in connection with it, and the way in which they have translated them shows how they would have translated baptizo had they been permitted to do so. Our Lord was baptized “in the Jor dan” according to the text, or “into the Jordan” according to the marginal reading, and afterwards, according to the text, without any marginal refer ence, he came up “out of the water.” And thus the best scholarship of the English-speaking world on both sides of the Atlantic, has settled some ques tions, which by inferior scholars have long been debated. A writer in the Western Methodist quotes Rev. 19. 13, “And he was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood, and says, "bebamenon, here translated dipped is in the Revised version ren dered sprinkled with blood, which is no doubt correct.” We have no idea that our Methodist brother stated in tentionally what is not true; but he has evidently fallen into an error. The word which the Revisers have trans lated sprinkled is not bebamenon but erantismenon; and if he had taken the trouble to look at the foot-note, he would have seen that the Revisers there say “some ancient authorities read dipped in." That is, some ancient authorities have the word bebamenon; and if this had been the text settled on [by the Revisers, they would have translated it dipped in, as King James translators did. If all the critical and exegetical remarks of our Methodist friend are as careless as this, there is no value to be attached to anything that he has said. GLIMPSES AND HINTS. —The Baptist Sun announces the opening <■ of Shorter Female College, Rome, who a e very satisfactory attendance, and with new accessions nearly every day. —A Baptist of Macon, Ga . whose wife is a Methodist, recently sent SSO. to assist a J young Methodist preacher of Oxford, Ala., j who was reported as f ? T r “°“^ v ‘S enable him to attend Vanderbilt University. We dare say that he is “a good man, in the ] old Scotch Presbyterian phrase God-ward ] and man-ward;’’ and we shall expect hear soon of some kindred act of Christian 1 “secular benefaction” wrought by him within our denominational lines. —Rev. Dr. Binney was eminently a logi cal and argumentative preacher. A lady who sat, when a little girl, under bis minis try, during his pastorate at Augusta, Ga., said, recently, that she remembered nothing of his sermons except the frequent recurrence in them of the words, “Hence we perceive. —“The present presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, is the one hundred and twentieth in the direct line of succession from the Apostle John ” Bishop Bedell, of Ohio, says it; and he says also that “the fact is easily proved by satisfactory evidence.” Baron Munchau sen may well look to his laurels! —A Primitive Methodist minister, at the Ecumenical Conference, expressed the opim ion that “Spurgeon would not have preached ’ the way of salvation so clearly, if he had not learned that way in a little meeting-room connected with the Primitive Methodise in ' Norfolk, where he was converted. Well. > was not what Methodism taught him clan* - fled by “Calvinism ? ’ t, —Did John Locke say too much for the „ Bible, when he characterized it as having J “God for its author, salvation for its end, , and TBUTH WITHOUT ANY MIXTURE OF ERROR i- for its matter?” The “new school on in- I spiration would have us believe that he did, , but we side with him. -Rev C. M. Gordon, the zealous and effi cient Baptist pastor at Okolona, Miss., who had been pastor at Natchez and Meridi an, and President of the Female College at the latter place, died, September 24th, from the effect of burns caused by the explosion of a lamp, which he attempted to extinguish by blowing down the chimney. Ob.it he had only blown across the top of the chim ney-a sure method of extinguishing a lamp without causing it to explode—his useful life would not have come to so untimely and painful an end! —More than fifty persons were baptized at Ter Apel, Holland, August 21st. Our people in that country have formed a “Union, a body answering to the Southern Baptist Convention, and evangelistic work is prose cuted with fresh vigor and wonderful sue cess. —The Strong River Baptist Association must be “strong” in its sense of generosity, gratitude and justice, as it requited a Mis sissippi College student, who labored among its churches during vacation, by sustaining him at school for the next year. —“The local preachers have made Meth' odism,” is the claim urged by one of their number in the Ecumenical Conference. And what made the local preachers ? —The Journal and Messenger, Cincinnati, gives this version of the arrangement entered into by Dr. Pope, of Houston, Texas, and Dr. Morehouse, of New York : “For every dollar paid into the treasury of the American Baptist Home Mission Society by Texas Baptists, two dollars shall be expended by the Society in the support of missionaries in that State.” We will not undertake to say how far this arrangement involves a repu diation of the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and a secession from it. Explanations, certainly, are m order. —The London Baptist, September 23d, mentions the immersion of one candidate by an Episcopal curate, and of two by an Epis copal vicar. The leaven of truth works slowly it may be, but surely. —The Mexican Baptist Mission Society was organized by some ladies of our church at Monterey in 1874, and contributes the . resent year S4OO toward the support of Rev. T M Westrup, the missionary sent to that church by the Home Mission Society, N. Y —Ko, the Chinese preacher at Petriew, Siam, baptizes by placing his hand on the candidate’s head, and gently pressing him under the water in a sitting posture. Dr_ Dean writes : “ This is here the posture of cremating the dead, and thus a suitable symbol of baptism.” Os course, the maxim that “the mode of baptism is a thing of in difference” applies here: if believers are immersed it matters not how, where there is no breach of “decency and order. ’ —Baptists are not without friends in other t denominations. An Episcopalian, for ex , ample, says, in the Church Guardian: Our Baptist neighbors rejected the baptism insti tuted by Christ, and invented one of their i own. I, for one, heartily hope and pray j they will repent.” We thank him for his pious solicitude, though what he prays for really is, our apostasy from the truth. —A writer in the Boston Zion's Herald 1 some time ago said that the demand for a revision of the denominational theology of Methodists has become quite general and imperative. Watson’s “Institutes are to be superseded by a fresh and modernized state ment of that theology; and a “Compendium of Christian Theology” by Dr. W. B. Pope, of England, has been chosen, as the successor of the Institutes,in the disciplinary course of study for candidates for the ministry, by the Northern Methodist bench of bishops Sis to this is the more recent statement r. Pope, in the Ecumenical Confer euce, spoke of it as “a sacred and blessed fact, that behind, around and beneath all catechetical instruction, there is the specific gift of the Holy Ghost to our children sealed in their baptism.” Is this “modernized Methodism? To us it has a medieval aspect. —The “Campbellites,” who are credited with 350,000 members in the United States, gave last year to foreign missions $17,938, an average of little more than five cents each. —While Romanists constitute only about one seventh of the population of the State of New York, they constitute three-fourths ot the criminals in the penitentiaries of that State This reminds us of the fact that Bishop Cheverns, the first Romish bishop of Boston, once opened his sermon, (according to Hon. Josiah Quincy,) by saying, I anr now addressing a congregation which has more thieves in it than any other assembled in this town.” Tohn Hopkins, the founder of the UnL versity at Baltimore, who left $9 his death, once said: Next to the hell of being utterly bereft of money is the purga tory of possessing a vast amount ot it. Announcbment. —Bethel Association will meet at Camilla on Tuesday, the Bth of November. Brethren expecting to attend will please notify immediately the undersigned, or W. Watson Twitty. Cordial invitation extended to our brethren. John L. Underwood. GEORGIA BAPTIST NEWS. —Augusta News : Rev. W. T. Che ney has returned from a summer at the North, where he engaged in a thorough course of study and elocu tion. He returns improved in every way, and after a unanimous re election, will resume his ministerial charge of Curtis’ Baptist church. He is welcom ed home. Rev. R. E. Murrow has been chosen as pastor of Warren Chapel, in East Macon, for the ensuing collegiate year. He is a zealous young minister. The congregation at the Forsyth Baptist church has purchased a fine new organ. A new choir has been or- ganized. —Warrenton Clipper: Rev. T. J. Pilcher has resigned Pine Grove church, and accepted a unanimous call to Union church, near Thomson. He did not accept the call to Sweetwater church also near Thomson. We are gratified to see our good friend and brother so popular with the churches wherever he goes. He is doing a good . work. Rev. T. J. Cumming has been re called to Reedy Creek. —Flint River Baptist Association, which convened at Hollonville, Meri wether county, on the 24th ult., was well attended. The introductory ser mon was preached by Dr. I. J. Wool sey. Letters were read from forty-nine churches, reporting two hundred and seventy-nine baptisms. By acclama tion, Rev. James Kimball was elected Moderator, and Dr. M. E. Hooten, Clerk. This Association supports a native Indian preacher among the Indians, and another work of the same kind within the bounds of the Associa tion. About S7OO in cash was sent up and raised by the Association. A large crowd was in attendance at the Fairburn Baptist Association. The pastor of the colored Baptist church at Union Point, baptized un last Sunday, forty-two candidates. —Cuthbert Enterprise: The meeting in the Baptist church, mentioned in our last week’s issue, still continues. Great interest is manifested on the part of the congregation. Up to this time twelve additions have been made to the membership. The ordinance of baptism was administered Monday night in the presence of an overflowing congregation. Rev. E. R. Carswell, of Augusta, has done the preaching for nearly two weeks. We feel that we but express the sentiments of all who have heard him, that his sermons have been per fect models in every particular. He combines the logical with the experi mental and emotional in the most har monious proportion possible. To the great regret of all the con gregation, he returned to Augusta last Monday. It is probable he will return next Monday and resume his work i here. In the meantime, the services ‘ will continue. —Sandersville Herald: Rev. S- Lan- i drum, D.D. of Macon returning from * Bethlehem, preached an excellent and , highly appreciated sermon in the Bap- i list church of this city on Sunday night. The lifelong devotion of this ! eminent minister to his one work, the preaching of the Gospel, the singular blamelessness of his life, together with the spirit of Christian heroism shown amid the ravages of the pestilence nt Memphis, have greatly endeared him to Christians every where. Rev. W. J. Mitchell writes from Griffin, Ga., Oct. 9th,: In the last Index, I notice the following extract from the Columbus Times: “Dr. Mitchell is well known by many in this section who would regret very much to know that he had permanently retired from the ministry." (Italics mine). I wish to say that it is not my intention to retire even for a time, not to say permanently, from the ministry. As long as I live I expect to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, the : Lord being my helper. I do not wish any of my friends to feel for a moment ■ that my interest in the ministry of the blessed God has in the very least abat- 1 ed. On the contrary, the glorious work ■ of preaching Jesus lays more deeply f hold of my heart and conscience and ’ life as I grow in years. May it thus t continue to my dying hour. Columbus Times : Last Sunday i afternoon the open air meeting was held on Mott’s Green, as usual. The congregation was good and the ser vices most interesting. Few people who do not attend these meetings know anything about the vast amount of good they are accomplishing. Every Sunday, for the past four years, when the weather would permit, these meet ings have been held and good congre gations have been accustomed to at tend them. Thinking that it would be interesting to many of our readers to know something about the history of the open air meeting, we called upon Rev. Dr. J. H. Campbell and obtained the following facts concerning not only the meeting, but also his missionary labors in this city: Coming to the place about five years ago to reside with his son, he found all the churches supplied with pastors. Casting about for something to do in the cause of religion and humanity, he was not long in finding a promising field. There is a class of people in nearly all of our cities who scarcely ever attend church —many of them not at all. To that class, Mr, Campbell de- cided to direct his attention. Hold ing prayer meetings in private houses, his congregations soon increased to such an extent as to render larger quarters necessary. This was the ori gin of the Open Air Meeting, a meet ing pecular to Columbus. It has been kept up regularly for four years, when ever the weather would allow, which of course, Jias much to do with the size of the congregations. These, however, are said to be larger than any other in the city, and, though composed of a mixed multitude, preserve as good or der as can be found in any religious assembly anywhere. What good has been accomplished cannot, of course, be decided in this world. Yet, it is safe to assume that hundreds, who greatly need the influence of the Gos pel, are brought in contact with it on Sabbath afternoons on Mott’s Green; and there is ground for hope, that,with many, it will prove to be the power of God unto salvation. But the open air meeting - is only a part, and a very small part, of Dr. Camp bell’s labors in this city. He holds many prayer meetings, (some of them where such meetings have never been held before) ; visits the poor in sick ness and want, and relieves their ne cessities; distributes among them Bi bles and tracts, and furnishes them with thousands of religious papers, second-hand clothing, etc., etc. In cold weather he does all in his power towards providing wood for the needy. Last winter, he distributed one hun dred and twenty cords among this class. Only a day or two before that memorable snow storm, he had suc ceeded in getting ten car loads, which were soon scattered throughout the city, and much suffering thereby pre vented and perhaps many lives saved. After all, Mr. Campbell is aware that he can accomplish but little in his peculiar work without the earnest co operation of our citizens. At his open air meetings and through the press, he is frequently pleading for this co-oper ation. What he most desires is to see the people generally enlisted in this cause, as many of them are already. His age and lack of means prevents his doing much that he sees neces sary. Though in his seventy-fifth year, he walks from two to four miles daily, and would do more if he were able. He frequently enquires: “Who will look after the poor and the out casts when I am gone?” —August News : Rev. J. A. Munday, who has recently accepted a call to the pastorate of Kollock street church, will deliver in this city his famous lecture on the “The Mistakes of Life as made by that Man and Woman.” —Ten thousand persons attended the session of the Cabin Creek (color ed) Association at Griffin. MERCER UNIVERSITY. Dr. Tucker, who has been the Chancellor of two Universities in Georgia, and has’, therefore, more experience in that line than any man in the State, says: “Mercer Uni versity is the best thing the Baptists of Georgia have.” It certainly has a large place in the thoughts and affections of the brethren of the Associations with which I have met this fall. There are two obstacles to a large increase of students. 1. The short crops and gloomy apprehensions in large sections of the State. 2. The mistaken policy of the Legislature in making the State University a free school, so far as tuition is concerned. Mistaken, because it degrades University education, making it too cheap and comm, n for proper appreciation; because it is wrong in principle and damaging in practice; be cause, in the opinion of legal gentlemen, who were members of the last Constitutional Convention, it is unconstitutional. This action of the Legislature is a damag ing blow at Mercer and Emory Colleges. The Methodists and Baptists of the State de serve better treatment by their legislators. Os course these institutions will live and do good in spite of the mischievous action of the Legislature; but is it right to tax the friends of these colleges to give a rival insti tution the advantage in electioneering for pupils? It is well known that our denomi national colleges have too little endowment to do more than they have been doing, viz : to give to special classes tree tuition, such as the sons of ministers. After paying the necessary taxes to make tuition free in the State schools, the Baptists - X could, by a little systematic action, make tuition free in Mercer. There are about fourteen hundred Missionary Baptist churches in the State. Now, suppose one thousand of them give ten dollars each per annum, and the work is done: or, one dol lar a member would endow the University, so that it might move on upon the present pian without an agent, or without an appeal for a dollar. The Baptists of the State can rise up and do the great work at once. There are, I think, rich men in the State who will, at no distant day, endow profes sorships, and especially one in Theology, and build a chapel, which will perpetuate their names and generosity. Let the brother who proposed to he one of a hundred to five a thousand dollars to cheapen education at Mercer, consent to be one of twenty'.five who will give a thousand dollars for a scholarship endowment. The interest of each thousand dollars would pay the tuition of one student perpetually, and the founder of the scholarship might, during his lifetime, designate the beneficiary. We must have Christian education for our sons, and ministerial education for those whom God calls to the work, and whom the churches approve. The fathers felt this and founded Mercer University. It is richly en dowed with their prayers. Let us be faith ful to the inheritance left us by the fathers of our denomination in Georgia! Mercer University is centrally and beauti fully located. The style of the students is plain and economical; many of them are ministerial students. The religious influence of Christian teachers and Christian students is most salutary. There is a daily twilight prayer-meeting, sustained by the students and open to the public. . To mention the names of the Faculty is to give assurance of the best instruction in the class-room. The graduates testify to the ability of the veterans, Drs. Sanford and Willet; the scholarly, indefatigable Dr. Brantly; the classic, cheerful Prof. Steed ; and the accomplished and urbane President, Dr. Battle. The members of the Faculty always secure increased confidence and pat ronage as they become better known per sonally. Lawdrum. October 3d, 1881.