The Christian index and southern Baptist. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1881-1892, October 20, 1881, Image 1

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6 ini ■ ifet- ~ - SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST, ' ' THE CHRISTIAN HERALD, of Alabama. " 0F ESTABLISHED I 811. Table of Concents. First Page—Alabama Department: What ii> the Compensation ? Is There a Remedy ? The Religious Press. Second Page—Correspondence: College Edu cation in Georgia—Free Tuition—Reply to “A Baptist;” Good Tidings; Two Things Needful Still; Jottings By The Way ; The Death of Garfield -poetry. The Missionary Department. Third Page—Children’s Corner: Bible Ex plorations ; Enigmas: Correspondence; The Sunday-school: Nadab and Abihu— Lesson for October 30. Fourth Page—Editorials: The Right Side of the Ship; Prevention of Crime; Glimpses and Hints; Georgia Baptist News; Georgia Association. Fifth Page—Secular Editorials: German Emigrants; Literary Notes and Comments; Notes; Georgia News- Sixth Page—The Household: Gleaning— poetry; The Little Red Cushion; Have More Sunshine. Obituaries. Seventh Page—The Farmer’s Index: The Talbotton Fair; Improve Your Stock; -Luoern; Small Notes. Eighth Page—Florida Department: Where “We” Have Been; Union Meetings; Ba nana Letter—Query ; Illustration; What She Should Do. Alabama Department. BY SAMUEL HENDERSON. WHAT IS THE COMPENSATION? Looking at the Temperance question only in its material bearing upon our country, it may be a profitable inquiry to raise, What do dram sellers give back to a community for the privilege of running their vocation? What compensation do they yield to the material, social, moral, and intellectu al interests of society for the privilege of retailing this ruinous drug? We generally estimate the calling of men by their contributions to those inter ests of society which build up and sus tain their various departments of its industries. Now, what position does a drinking saloon occupy in the category of these industries? The question is pertinent and deserves to be answered. If this question were asked in regard to any of the legitimate callings of life, any one could answer it. The farmer gives to the country the great mass of its productive wealth —its cotton, grain, meat, hay, tobacco, hemp, everything in one word that grows. The manu facturer converts the raw material of cotton into avery description of fabrics, of wood into wagons, buggies, etc. The blacksmith changes the iron and steel into every article the country needs. The merchant, the lawyer, the doctor, the minister, the school-teacher, all can point with something of honest pride to their contributions to the per manent interests of society. Our pub lic officials from the President down, all fi.ll positions essential to the com mon welfare of the country. Our editors, authors, lecturers, and the like, can congratulate themselves that they are adding no little to the intellectual wealth of the country. Our miners are adding millions to our wealth every year in gold, silver, copper, coal, iron ore, etc., etc. And so we might go on through the whole catalogue of pur suits that mark the present age, and the least that can be said of any is that it is only harmless. We once knew a scientific man on a small scale Who spent his whole time in collecting specimens of bugs until he had his room lined with them transfixed with pins to the wall. But no harm was done to any body. But we repeat the question with emphasis, where does the dram seller stand in this catalogue of industrial and professional pursuits? What are his contributions to the wealth, the morals, the prosperity, the happiness of our communities? To ask these questions is to answer them. There is not a man, woman or ten-year child but knows that the dram seller is the iucubus upon every lawful pursuit in life—that for his ill gotten gains, he pays nothing back. Nay, it would be a blessing if he paid nothing back. His contributions are well nigh or quite a million of drunkards in these United States, about a hundred thous and of these victims are annually sent to the drunkar’s grave and the drunk ard’s hell. Then there are the wrecked households, the squalid poverty, nine tenths of the crimes that darken our criminal dockets, our crowded peniten tiaries and jails, with the victims it sends to the gallows and lunatic As sylums, to say nothing of the crimes that go unwhipt of justice. The fact is, if by some general moral impulse, (the thing is conceivable), the country should rise up en masse and expel the traffic from the whole land, it would be as if a millenium had dawned Upon us? But then give the kaleidescope an other turn, and see how the facts will group. There are expended in ardent spirits- in this country about three hundred millions of dollars. We have seen what the compensation to society is in the shape of common drunkards, criminals, paupers, maniacs, etc. Now consider whence come the bad debt's that are bankrupting the business men of the country ? Why the indolence, the Want of principle resulting from blunted moral sensibility, the reckless squandering of means, superinduced by this single vice, it is utterly impos sible to compute. No lawful business can thrive when intemperance pre-’ vails. It is the deadly Upas that thrives only on the ruin of every inter est of society, material, moral, social and domestic. The dram seller literal ly builds up his fortune upon the ruin of his customers. He coins his money out of the resources that ought to pay honest debts, and out of the agony and tears of impoverished women and chil dren. And when good men continue to circumscribe this monster evil with in some reasonable bounds, the hue and cry is raised by their opponents, “rally, freemen! your rights are in danger!” and opening their saloons to the slaves of the vice, they dose them with drugged stuff that they call whis ky so that they can stagger to the polls and vote for their •‘rights!” But here we lay down the pen to go to our voting place to cast a “prohibi tion” ballot, as this is the day, (Aug. 22d), in which our county, Talladega, is to decide the retail question. We cannot say that we are hopeful. Many of the dram shops of the country are pouring out whiskey like water, giving free lunches, and have a cham pion in the field to rally their forces to the polls. We have not had sufficient time Vo consolidate the moral senti ment of our people on the subject, and many good men will be carried away by the clap trap cry of “endangered rights!” The liquor men are on the alert, and will poll their full strength —while the sober men are abqut half awake. Realizing this, we have taken the liberty to say to the people in the two or three addresses we have made, that the present movement in a few counties in the State is only a little skirmishing line sent out in advance to feel the enemy and draw his fire. The army that is to fight the battle is gathering in our rear, and when that army comes to the front, as we hope and believe, they will leave very little to be delred by good citizens. We should have no dread of results if the question could have been thor oughly canvassed, and the good people of the country thoroughly aroused. Still we are not without hope. We need scarcely advise the reader in conclusion that we do not claim for these views the freshness of originality. We remember to have urged them as far back as twenty-five years ago in the temperance cause. But they are all the more potent because they have done good work in the past. Let the dram seller gainsay them if he can. Meeting at Fayetteville.—Em bracing 4th Lord’s day in September, at the request of the Fort Williams church, Fayetteville, Ala., we attended a metting of a week’s continuance, in connection with the pastor, Dr. Teague, and brother Wilkes. It was really a refreshing time. Though the season was a more than ordinarily busy one the church and community attended with unflaging interest to the close. There were ten additions to the church, seven of whom were baptized, and three are awaiting the ordinance. Among the number is our baby child, a daughter who has just entered her teens. Dr. Teague resigned the charge, of the church, and another pastor is to be chosen at their next (October) meeting. He has served them faith fully, for five years, and leaves with the universal regrets of the church and of all community. We are greatly gratified to learn that the Baptist church in Talladega is determined to retain its worthy pastor, Dr. Renfroe, if it can be done. He has been serving the church over twenty years, and yet h continues to grow in the confidence and love of the brethren every year. —During thirty years the Unitarians of New England have gained only twenty three churches and the Universalists have lost one hundred and seventy. ALANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1881. IS THERE A REMEDY? A recent commucication in the Bap tist Reflector, Nashville, Tenn., from the pen of Prof. Rust, of Bethel Col lege, Ky,, discussed with pith and power, the demoralizing tendency o's filling the newspapers of the country with every horrid crime that marks the age, detailed with disgusting par ticularity. and appeals to the moral sense of the country to frown down the policy. We have long been satis fied that evil and evil only can come of such prostitution of the press, and have more than intimated it in these columns. It is an old maxim that “familiarity breeds contempt.” It blunts our moral sensibilities, so that we read such details with indifference. Crimes that once shocked the country now produce scarcely any impression. The assassination of the President did startle the country, but it was because of the illustrious character of the vic tim. There is a heavy per cent, of human depravity which is fascinated by such crimes. There are those who seem to aspire to fill a place in the public eye for the moment, however infamous, and take their chances to go “unwhipt of justice.” The notoriety given to them by the newspapers stim ulates this thirst for the distinction of “hard earned infamy.” And thus, be tween the blunting of the public con science on the one hand by raking every crime and scandal that 'news- 6 paper correspondents can nose up, and the stimulant such horrid details sup ply to the more abandoned part of our population to earn the like dis tinction, the process goes on from bad to worse, and what the end will be, no mortal can know. Even while we write, our nerves are scarcely steady from the shock we received a day or two since of a crime in an adjoining county, that sent a worthy young friend of ours into eternity instantlaJ entailing upor? anothfcb nnu AoTti* tl® last penalty of all law, human and di vine. A reformation in this respect is demanded by every motive that can appeal to the Christian or the patriot. If onr newspapers would only cease to give prominence to bad news, and turn their attention to good news, we are persuaded they would do the country some service. It is an instinct of hu man nature to hide physical deformity and expose natural symmetry and beau ty —would that we were as ready to conceal moral deformity, and manifest moral excellence. Apologetic.—Will the reader ex cuse us when we say that for over two months we have been so engaged in protracted and associational meetings, as well as home affairs, that it has been with the utmost difficulty we have “kept up our corner.” We have had the merest snatches of time to write; and what we have written, we have well nigh been tempted to consign to the waste basket, without troubling our chief with it. In the kind providence of God, we have made a pretty good crop this year, at least in contrast with our last year’s failure, and it requires all that can be done by all the force we can command to save it. We are forced to look after it with diligence, or lose much of it. But we are now in sight of the end. Two or three more weeks, and with God’s blessing we shall be on safe ground, and be able to bestow our wonted attention to our de partment of the paper. Meanwhile we ask the readers’ indulgence for the next issue or two, when the stress will be over with us, and we shall be free to devote even more time thau usual to our work, as we are circumscribing our ministerial labors to a narrower com pass. When the moral issues now pending in these United States so come to the front that good men every where vote together, the reign of corruption in pub lic affairs will be near its end. That time is surely eoming.— Christian Advo cate. We do not think so; we do not be lieve that the time will ever come when the good men of this country will all vo.e together. But this we say: that Christian voters ought to make themselves felt at the polls as such. When a man of even doubtful morals is put in nomination for office let it be understood that those who love Christ more than they love their party will refuse to vote for him. Let a few men be defeated on this goound, and the “nominating conventions” will learn a lesson. This is the place to begin the “civil service reform.” The Religious Press. The preacher who leaves on his church register for- his successor a number ot godless members who practice shameful immoralities, cannot atone for it by a flourish of trumpets about the number of revivals he has held and the number of members he has added to the church. —Houston Methodist. To leave a cl?urch small, but in good order, is much more to a man’s credit than to leave it laa-ge aud in bad order. The larger an ill-ordered church is the 'more harm it can do. We are not given to quoting Roman Catholic papers as our readers well know ; but we take what is good where ever we find it. And now the Catholic Mirror has the floor. The dally papers have too often to record the marriage by Protestant minis ters of slips of boys and girls without the knowledge of their parents. The latest case of this kind that has come to the knowledge of the public in this vicinity concerns the family of the Governor of Maryland, whose seventeen wear old daughter Clara was clandestine ly wed by a youth named John T. Stan hope, of Hagerstown, in August last. 'He hired the Rev. Dr. Murray, of West minster, to go with him to Pentnar, and there unite him In the bonds ot wedlock to the Governor’s child. To characterize as it deserves the con duct of this minister in this affair would require the most incisive language ! All fathers and mothers who have young girls to protect from soft-lipped ‘..adventurers, must resent as a great wrong the willingness of any clergyman i to marry minors without the consent of cheir guardians. Catholic priests never do anything of the kind. They may not. They must announce the banns' at the parochial Mass on three Sundays, previous to the day appointed foi the wedding cere mony, and they will have nothing to do with runaway matches for any consider ation. The readiness of so many Protestant preachers to join together all parties who geek their*services is a great evil, They ■kng matrimony into contempt, they WWilci'pAfe id the sin of •children who disobey their parents in marrying before their time, they introduce discord into homes, and they lay themselves open to the charge of caring more for a ten dol lar bill than for right and duty. And in our opinion the rebuke is well administered. Fas est ab hoste doceri. The same paper has the following: Catholics should not consult cla’rvoy ants. They should have no dealings with mesmerists. They should not at tend spiritualistic seances. And yet the same paper has a stand ing head to one of its columns, which reads thus: “Items of news from all over the Universe." So far as we know, the clairvoyants, etc., are the only persons who claim to know what is going on “all over the Universe.” We should add however that so far as we have seen, the column contains no news except that which is purely ter restial. A correspondent of the Hartford Herald says: I am credibly informed that a promi nent minister of a large New E.igland church, a few years ago, said substanti ally in his New Year’s sermon; “Now, brethren, we must add a hundred con verts to this church the present year.” Tne feat was accomplished but in away that caused grief to the better class of members, and added nothing to the strength of the church- Whence did the spirit come, by which the preacher was animated? Was it from above or from below? We find the following where we should not expect to see it, in the Southern Churchman: Sunday-school teacher to Jemmie:— “What did your sponsors then for you?” Jimmie with readiness“Nothin’ either then nor since.” Smart boy that! When attendance at public worship or prayer-meeting is not large, we are apt to think the meeting will not amount to much, as there are so few present. Just as if God could not bless a small number as well as the multitude! We think when such feelings steal into the hearts of those assembled, that they need an especial blessing to teach them that the Lord does not depend on the size of the congregation for an opportunity to pour out his Spirit.— Religious Investigator. When the attendance is small it is apt to be all the more select. In our own experience, some of the smallest meetings we have ever attended have been the most profitable. Ordinary murders, says the Messenger, have become epidemic. Tnere are now thirty persons, awaiting trial for capital offenses in this city alone—most of them devoid of sensational characteristics. This is in Philadelphia—the city of Brotherly Love. How many of these criminals will be punished according to their deserts? Majiy of them will doubtless escape on the insanity dodge. It appears to us that insanity prevails more largely among jurors than with, any othe.r class of people. Is it not insanity to turn murderers loose upon the community ? Os 44" females graduates of the public high schools of Hartford, only 147 have married. Has culture made them fas tidious in the choice of companions? Have all the young men of their class emigrated to the West ? If such such statistics should appear in the history of lemale schools general’y, we should fear the insidious growth of lawless alliance of the sexes in this country as in some countries of Europe. This is not the case with the gradu ates of our Southern female schools. Is it because their education is not so good, or is it because it is better? or is it from outside causes with which education has nothing to do? The promblem is worth solving; and if it should be found that any system of education wages practical war on matrimony, the sooner that system is abandoned, the better. Matrimony is the foundation of all good society. Without it moral ruin, is certain. It God’s own institution. Any com munity where an abnormally large proportion of the women remain un married, is in great danger. In our part of the country, there need be no uneasiness on this subject. Dr. Philip Schaff was at the head of the American committee qn the Re vision of the New Testament, and here is what be says of it: “The Revision has been more favor ably received than the revisers had reason to expect. The old version met with much greater opposition, and had to fight its way for fifty years until it superseded its rivals. The present ver sion will be adopted much sooner. In America it will be adopted first, with all the American suggestions. England will follow. The cobsbrvaiive opposi tion was stronger there than here, but the judgment of competent scholars turns more and more in its favor. Revo lutions never go backward. Tne revis ion is not perfect and is a compromise; but it is the most correct version which can be made at the present time. Peo ple will not not go back from this to the old version, which is very good, but fall of inaccuracies and inconsistencies. Common sense prefers the better to the good. All objections made against the new version amount to this: that it de parts toe much from King James’s and follows too closely the original Greek of King Jesus and His Apostles. This is the beat recommendation of the revis ion.” We agree with Dr. Schaff; the old version was good; the new is better; the new is not perfect; but people will not go back from this, to qne that is less perfect; and we may add that they will not be satisfied until they get one that is perfect, or as nearly so as possi ble. Dr. Schaff speaks truly when he says that the new revision is a com promise, and that it is the best we can get “at the present time." The hint in; these last words is significant. The Pedobaptist world is not willing ai the present time to have every word of the Scriptures.translated into English. But there is a good time coming when they can no longer keep back any part ' of it. The people will have it; they will have it all—every word of it. God speed the day. The New Version is an approach; it is as near an ap proach as Pedobaptists can afford to make at the present time. A party of missionaries from Utah were holding a meeting at Brook’s Mills, in Georgia, and were putting forth their powers of eloquence to induce the peo ple to start for Salt Lake City when they were fired upon by the citizens and driven away. This is a miserable mode of arguing against Mormonism or any other ism. So says the New York Observer and so say we. The end does not justify the means. If we cannot be rid of Mormonism without committing mur der, then let Mormonism stand. A violation of the laws both of God and man is no remedy for it. Persecution i is moreover as inexpedient in practice i as it is wrong in principle. Let these poor misguided creatures but have the prestige of martyrdom and they will 1 flourish all the more. The wrongs and outrages perpetrated on them years ' ago in Illinois dignified them into ' respectability anh gave them an im pulse which otherwise they would never have had. Persecute Mormons, and ! the result is sure to be more Mor l mons. But the question of expediency i is by comparison a small one. It is wrong to persecute, and let that end f the matter. VOL. 59.— NO. 41. It is customary in Washington for tile pastors of the city to call on a new President soon after his inauguration to pay their respects and express their kind wishes. In accordance with this usage the pastors pf Washington re cently called in a body on- President Arthur, when Rev. Mr. Chester of the Metropolitan Presbyterian church, read the following address: Mr. president;— As pastors of churches in this city, we desire to express to vou our appreciation of the important posi tion to which', in the providence of God, you have been called ; our sympathy with you in every effort to promote the moral integrity of our institutions, and our confidence in your intention to do whatever will best subserve the interest of the wholfe country.' As a company of religious men, we re joice that your first official act was the appointment of a day of humiliation ahd prayer; since we recognize in this your own appreciation of our dependence as a people on God’s blessing, and the ne cessity of keeping his commandments. As pastors of churches in the Capital, we tender yon our prayers, our sympa thy, and, in the line of our vocation, our earnest support. In a meeting of pastors hel 1 immedi ately after your inauguration, there was earnestly invoked' God’s blessing oh yourself and your administration ; and we now unite in the prayers that you may rule over us in the fear of the Lord, and may be the honored instrument in his hands of great blessing to the whole nation. President Arthur responded as follows : I am glad to meet you, gentlemen; yet it is with deep sorrow under the circum stances which have so sadly devolved such momentous duties Upon me. In the performance of these duties as Chie f Magistiatrate of a God fearing and relig ous people, I appreciate my dependence upon their moral support and approval under Divine blessing and guidance. I thank you cordially for the assurances of your support and for your kind ex pressions of sympathy and confidence. The company present were then indi vidually presented by Rev. Mr. Butler, of the Southern Memorial church, after which the interview was concluded. Death of the Rev. Db. Stuart RobiNson.— lt is with the utmost .sadr ness that we write tbeee words : Dr. Stuart Robinson is dead. He died at hie home in Louisville on the sth inst., in the sixty-eighth year of his age. He had been ill for many months; and bis dis ease was such (cancer, in the stomach that there tyas no hope of his recovery ; hut not the less because not unexpected has the death of one so good and so great filled the heart with grief. We cannot now undertake to sketch the life of this great hearted and noble man, He was a prince amongst men. He grandly filled every station he occupied—as pastor, editor, professor, ecclesiastic, philanthropist. One of the masters in Israel has fallen ; and it be comes the church to mourn. -Southern- Presbyterian. [We sincerely sympathize with our Presbyterian brethren in the loss of one of their greatest and best men.— Ed. Index.] He who shows himself a great man at one time, will be sure to show a good deal of that which, taken by itself, would not seem greatness, at another time; not that he will let himself down, but that he wUI let himself out -in his enthu siasm. A friend of President Garfield speaking, in a purely private note, says : ‘We were on the most cordial and frank terms. In the way usual among his warm friends he frequently shook me by the shoulder, or, if we were sitting, by the knee. He was a great big boy, exulting in broad strength of mind and body. And I never knew a man of pow’er and magnetism who had not a good deal of boy in him.” Never be afraid of showing the boy side of your character—if you have that side.— S. 8. Times. Yes but then there are some who thiuk that the least exuberance o£ spirits shows lack of piety, and who seem to imagine that religion consists in longfacedness and dullness. Accord ing to their view there is no heaven for persons whose health is robust and whose temperament is sanguine and joyous. This same dullness is often mistaken for wisdom as well as for piety. It is neither the one nor the other; it is nothing but dullness. Registration of women voters closed in Boston on Saturday, There are 421 names on the li«ts, about half as many as last year —which does not intimate progress of the cause in Boston.— N. Y. Observer. We think it indicates progress —in the right direction. General Lee is said to have asked » straggler, whom he found eating green perstmons, if he did not know they were unfit for food. “I’m not eating them for food, General,” replied the man. “I’m eating them to draw up my stomach to fit my rations.’’— Ex Preachers who do not prepare them selves for the pulpit are apt (meta phorically). to feed their congregations on green persimons.