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SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST, Z X THE CHRISTIAN HERALD,
of Alabama. of Tennessee.
ESTABLISHED I 811.
THE CHRISTIAN INDEX.
BY JAS. P. HARRISON & CO.
Subscription, per year. $2.60
Table of Contents.
First Page—Alabama Department: Atlanta
and Rome; New Orleans Missions; True
Piety Invulnerable; The Religious Press
Second Page—Correspondence: Pen Drop
pings; A Grammatical Question ; What
Can We Do? Jottings By The Way ; Dead
In The Street—poetry ; Letter From Mis
sissippi ; Rev. J. L. Underwood. Mission
ary Department.
Third Page—The Children's Corner: Bible
Explorations; Enigmas. The Sunday-
School : Balaam Lesson for December
4th, 1881.
Fourth Page—Editorials: The Present Em
ployments of Christ; The Life of the Na
lion ; Analysis of Faith ; Glimpses and
Hints; Georgia Baptist News.
Fifth Page—Secular Editorials : The Press ;
Justice; A Plea for the Gray—poetry—
Paul Hamilton Hayne ; Georgia News.
Sixth Page—The Household: A Child’s
Death poetry ; Home Atmosphere ;
What s the Harm ? Miscellaneous. Obitua
ries.
Seventh Page—The Farmers' Index: The
Exposition ; Corn and Meat Next Year;
Better Stock ; Fish Ponds ; Good Resolu
tions, etc.
Eighth Page—Florida Department: Notes
and New.-.; More About the Convention ;
In Memoriam —Sallie Weller Spalding.
Alabama Department.
BY BAIVIUICK HENDERSON.
ATLANTA AND ROME.
The last week in October, we made a
business visit to these two cities, spend
ing about ten days in them. Os course
we visited the “Cotton Exposition” at
Atlanta, and saw what other people see,
about as grand an exhibition of agricul
tural, mechanical and manufacturing
machinery and products asone can hope
to see in a lifetime. To express all in
a single sentence, it is the industrial
world in miniature. Any man of com
mon intelligence can spend a week
there in seeing sights, and never grow
weary. We believe every State and
Territory in the Union, or nearly so, is
represented there in its productive in
dustries,and Mexico besides; and every
thing is arranged with the utmost skill
and taste.
While in the city, we asked a few
friends to aid us in the construction of
a modest little chapel near our resi
dence in “Cedar Creek Valley,” to be
known as “Beech Grove Chapel,” the
same that we have already referred to
in a short appeal we have made to our
friends, both in The Index and Ala
bama Baptist. We feel profoundly
obliged to those friends for a contribu
tion of seventy-five or eighty dollars,
and assure them that it is appreciated
by grateful hearts.
We enjoyed many hours of pleasant
and profitable intercouse with the pro
prietors and editors of The Index,
spending most of our time in the hos
pitable homes of brother Jas. P. Harri
son and the “Adair Brothers,” a firm
as extensively known as any in Atlanta.
They were raised in Talladega county,
and we had known them from their
childhood, and their honored parents
before them. They have, literally,
carved their own fortunes since the
war, and by their capacity, integrity,
and attention to business, have each
amassed a good fortune. And what
is still better, they are both Christian
men, and princely in their benevolence.
Wealth in such hands becomes a bless
ing to the world.
But, then, those genial hours we
spent in the company of Drs. Tucker,
Shaver and Lawton, and with the hos
pitable family of brother Harrison!
Behold, are they not written in the
book of memory, there to abide among
the recollections of the past, to cheer
and encourage us in our labors for days
to come?
On our return home, we stopped off
at Rome to pay our respects to our
dear old friend and his wife, Capt. A.
W. Ledbetter, of the firm of “Simpson
& Ledbetter.” We shared his hospi
tality two nights, visiting “Shorter
College,” and some special friends in
the city during the intervening day.
The pastor of the Baptist church,
brother Nunnally, did us the honor of
showing us areund, and, on the even
ing of the day, we turned in to his
prayer meeting, and found a good at
tendance, to whom we gave a short
“floor talk.” Here, also, we received
about twenty dollars for our little chap
el ; so that we returned home with about
one hundred dollars to be applied to
that purpose. Others we saw promised
us a little help at no distant day. So
the chapel will be built in a little while.
But, then, what is health to mind
and heart is sometimes wearisome to the
flesh. We returned home not a little
exhausted in the outer man. A few
days put us all right, and here we are
at opr desk, performing the most pleas
ant task of these our latter years.
NE IP 'ORLEANB~MISSION.
No grander work could be under
taken by our Home Board and proposed
to Southern Baptists than that a heavy
per cent, of its receipts should be ex
pended in New Orleans. We have
long been urging this in these columns ;
and it is gratifying to know that our
Association, the Tuskegee, has led off
in this good work, by proposing to raise
a large sum for this specific object—
say $30,000. This could easily be
done by union and concert. It is the
most lamentable fact that can flush
our cheeks with shame as Southern
Christians, that the largest city in the
South, over two hundred thousand
souls,has fewer Baptists in it, relatively,
than any other city in the Union, while
in the Southern States there are rela
tively more Baptists than in any part of
this country, or the world. We do hope
that something worthy of the name of
zeal may be attempted and done for
that great city. How humiliating the
reflection that the very metropolis of
the country in which the Baptists are
most numerous is given up to Roman
Catholicism—that right in the heart
of this country the “Man of Sin” holds
undisputed control. Dear brethren,real
ize it, that you are not engaged in the
extirpation pf any iniquity, in heathen
or Christian lands, more fatal to the
souls of men than confronts you in that
city. The Sabbath desecrated by every
form of vice that a bastard Christianity
has legalized—enormous crimes com
mitted that can originate nowhere else
than in that “mystery of iniquity”—de
lusions the most fatal that ever cheated
men out of their souls—and a prosti
tuted priesthood presiding over all this
to give it the sanctions of religion—
this, this is the picture arrayed before
us. Shall we not give to this move
ment an impulse that, with the bless
ing of God, will accomplish something
worthy of the cause we love? If ever
there was a work in which the oft
quoted passage is applicable, it is this:
“Curse ye, curse ye Meroz; curse ye
bitterly the inhabitants thereof, because
they came not up to the help of the
Lord, to the help of the Lord against
the mighty.” An admitted duty of this
magnitude neglected, must entail dire
ful consequences upon the delinquents.
Christianity and patriotism combined
can present to us no motives more im
perative than those which this great
city supplies. They bid us be up and
doing, until the “Crescent City” shall
be added to the trophies of Immanuel.
Truly are we glad to know that this
work has been so sharply defined by
our Board, and presented to the de
nomination.
TRUE PIEI Y INVULNERABLE.
Never did any pen, inspired or un
inspired, write a more impressive sen
tence than this: “We can do nothing
against the truth, but for the truth.”
And whether we look at truth in the
abstract, or whether we view it as em
bodied in human character, it is equally
indestructible. For the time, it may
be borne down by the tide of opposi
tion, as the swelling current of a river
may bury out of sight the solid rocks
on its banks and in its bed; but when
that tide has spent its fury, like these
rocks, it stands unharmed by the
“floods of ungodly men.” Righteous
ness possesses a kind of inherent quali
ty, which makes it impossible for the
filth and mire of slander to stick, how
ever much it may be bedaubed. All
the victim of this vituperation has to
do is, to be still—time will do the rest.
The late Lord Macaulay says: “I have
never been able to discover that a man
is at all worse for being attacked. One
foolish line of his own does him more
harm than the ablest pamphlets writ
ten against him by other people.” And
is not this in accordance with the ob
servation of all men? We remember
a case in point that occurred in our
boyhood. Rev. Humphrey Posey,
known to some of our older brethren
in North Carolina and Georgia, once
encountered the somewhat notorious
Mr. WG. B. The whole story is too
long to be written out here, and we
only refer to it for the sake of a single
ALANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1881.
fact. The final result of the matter
was, that the said Mr. B. issued one of
the most scurrilous pamphlets against
Mr. Posey he ever wrote, and this is
saying a great deal, for he could excel
any man we ever knew in “throwing
mud.” Mr. Posey paid no more atten
tion to it than he would to the buzzing
of a fly. He calmly and quietly pur
sued his vocation as a minister of the
gospel, and the pamphlet fell still-born.
Some read it just to see how much an
adept in scandal could express in a
given space, and the whole thing at
once sunk into that oblivion to which
such scurrility is always consigned, and
Mr. Posey lived and died in as good
odor as any man in his generation.
It is an old saying that it is the
water that gets into a vessel that sinks
it, not the water outside. It is the de
pravity in a man that destroys him, not
the depravity of other men. So long
as a man preserves a conscience void
of offence before God and men, he is
impregnable. The triple alliance of
the world, the flesh, and the devil, can
not harm him.
After a pastorate of many years, some
fifteen or twenty, Rev. E. T. Smyth,
of Oxford, Alabama, has resigned that
church. Brother Smyth retires to thw
country to an excellent farm he has
bought, to enjoy aq riet old age, and
preach to such country churches as
may desire liis services. He has richly
earned the reputation of a “good min
ister of Jesus Christ,” having enjoyed
a more than common measure of suc
cess among his churches ; and, should
God spare his life, there are many years
of good service in him yet. We have
not learned who succeeds him at Ox
ford.
K .
The Rev. W. Wilkes succeeds Dr.
Teague as pastor of the Fort Williams
Baptist church, Fayetteville, Alabama.
Brother Wilkes had been its pastor
many years anterior to Dr. Teague’s
five years term of service ; so that he
is only back in his old home. We
trust the connection may prove a happy
and prosperous one to all parties.
There are “floaters” among our
church-going population—persons who
seem to be driven about by almost
every wind of impulse and caprice
from sanctuary to sanctuary, neither
bringing nor receiving benefit. The
Canada Presbyterian says that they
have been styled “ Rounders,” and
gives this partial classification of them :
Rounders may be divided into several
classes. There is the High-toned Rounder,
who patronizes the churches and sits down
in the best pew with an air which seems
to say, “ You are all highly honored
in having me here to-day.” There is the
Critical Rounder, who finds fault with some
thing in every church and cannot locate
himself, he says, because he cannot get
things exactly to his taste. There is the
Gushing Rounder, whose soul is too large to
worship in any one place. He says they are
all “ dear brethren,” and he loves them ?o
much he must go around among them.
There is the Hypocritical Rounder, whocin
not find any church pious enough for him
to worship in. There is the Musical Rounder,
who follows the loudest organ or the best
choir. There is the Quarrelsome Rounder,
who has been pushed out of half a dozen
churches in succession and who gets the
cold shoulder from all respectable congrega
tions. There is also the Hobby-horse
Rounder in search of some “ brother ” will
ing to trot out his hobby every Sabbath.
We knew a young man who exhibited
superior powers of debate for one so
young. He astonished those who heard
him. He was flattered and obtained the
idea that he was a genius, and that all
he had to do was to wait and he would
surprise the world with hie eloquence.
He went to college, and instead of put
ting himself to hard study and making a
scholar as he might have done,he trusted
to his supposed genius, thinking that if
he gave his attention to general reading,
as he had heard that Daniel Websterdid,
like him he should one day distinguish
himself on the platform and in the Sen
ate. The consequence that he was flatten
ed away so that he could not actually
speak with so much power after he
graduated as he could before he entered
college. His life proved abortive.—
Morning Star.
And we have knawn a good many
young men, some of whom are now
old men, whose course in life is pretty
well represented by the case above
stated. After some years of observa
tion, we have about reached the con
clusion, that natural fluency of speech,
and a readiness to make a pretty good
showing with a small stock of thought,
is apt to be a disadvantage to a Chris
tian minister, young or old. It has
doomed many a man to mediocrity
who, if he had been obliged to study
and think before he could speak,
would have risen far above it.
All I have God gave me : so all I have is
etill his, and I want to use it to his glory.—
Member of the M. E. Church, Shanghai.
The Religious Press.
Prof. Huxley would like to have en
tirely secular education, but at the same
time he wishes to retain “ the religious
feeling which is the essential basis of
human conduct,” but he does not see
how this is to be done without, the Bible.
He says in the Contemporary Review I
have always been strongly in favor of
secular education in the sense of educa
tion without theology ; but I must con
fess I have been no less seriously per
plexed to know by what practical tneas
ures the religious feeling, which is the
essential basts of conduct, was to be
kept up, in the present utterly chaotic
state of opinion on these matters, with
out the use of the Bible.” Whenever
the Bible is abandoned “ religious feel
ing,” even in relation to “human con
duct," will soon become an impossibility.
Presbyterian Banner.
This is Huxley; and yet there are
Christian ministers whose teachings
practically amount to this : “ Read the
Bible—take what you like—and dis
card the rest.” The gentlemen who
affix L. A. T. to their names should
dispense with the prefix, Rev.
The dying send the message, “ I for
give." Let the living send that message.
It will bless the sender at least.— Chris
tian Advocate.
Yes, forgive, and let the person for
given know that he is foigiven. But
the mere sending of a message is not
enough; show him by your conduct,
by your habitual conduct that your for
giveness is sincere, genuine, and full.
A gentleman, who was once a Presby
terian but who has lost his faith, was in
this office last week.
In the course of conversation he made
two admissions, which are a new proof
of an old verity that atheists are not
eati-fled with their negations and do not
llesire their own to share their darkness.
“ I do not believe," he said, “ because
I can’t. If any one could convince me
of the existence of God, I would gladly
fall on my knees and worship Him.”
He emphasized the word “gladly” as
if he spoke from an eager heart. Then
he went on:
“ I send my children to Sabbath
scho 1 regularly, and every night before
they kiss me going to bed, they kneel at
my knee and say their prayers. 1 do
this because I want them to be good, I
want them to grow up moral and honest
and virtuous.’’ — Catholic Mirror.
“Their rock is not as our Rock even
our enemies themselves being judges.”
Deut. 32. 31.
Dr. Phillips Brooks says : “ Prayer is
not conquering God’s reluctance, but
taking hold of God’s willingness.’’
Well put.
The students of the University of In
diana, at Bloomington, elected Bob In
gersoll commencement-orator, but the
faculty declares Bob shall not speak at
the University,and thestudents threaten
to hire a hall. Moral : Stand by your
own Christian schools.
Well said, brother Advocate. It is
not amiss just now to say that the
President of the University of Indiana
is Rev. Lemuel Moss, D. D., formerly
editor of the National Baptist, and one
the ablest ministers in our denomina
tion. His position just now is a trying
one; he has our sympathies.
The plea of insanity for criminals who
are not challenged for unsoundnes of
mind until their evil passions have led
them to shed innocent blood is in the
most cases an insult to common sense.—
Christian Advocate.
Yes, and an outrage on common
justice. Yet juries can almost always
be found who are willing, at the ex
pense of their oaths, to perpetrate
this great wickedness. Not long ago,
a lawyer examined about a hundred
cases, where persons accused of crime
had been acquitted on the ground of
insanity; and he discovered that in
nine cases out of ten, these persons
were discharged from the asylums to
which they were sent, discharged as
cured, in a few months after their ac
quittal. What language can describe
the guilt of the jurors who turn these
murderers loose on the community!
P. S. What we said about the law
yer was written from memory. Since
the above was written, our eye has
lighted again on the statement which
we attempted to reproduce. It will be
seen that we understated the facts.
The following is the correct account
from the Evangelist, a journal of high
character published in Chicago.
A lawyer of this city states that he has
examined ninety-eight cases of acquittal
on the ground of insanity, and that in
nearly every ona of these, the guilty
pariies Were released as cured in about
a year.
Mark the words, “In nearly every
one of these cases." Twelve times nine
ty-eight are eleven hundred and seven
ty-six. This is the number of jurors
concerned. Most of them have a fear
ful crime to anwser for.
A collier went to hear Mr. Bradlaugh,
the infidel, and at the close of the lec
ture an opportunity was given to state
any objections to the sentiments offered,
if any one had such to present, where
upon an uncultured, plain-looking man
arose in the audience, and said : “Mais
ter Bradlangh, me and my mate Jim
were both Met hodys till one of these in
fidel chaps cam’this way; Jim turned
infidel, and used to badger me about at
tending prayer-meetings; but one day in
the pit a big cob of coal cam’ down upon
Jim’s head. Jim thought he was killed,
and ah, mon I but he did holler and cry
to God.” Then turning to Mr. Brad
laugh, with a knowing look, he said,
“ Young man, there’s now’t like cobs of
coal for knocking infidelity out of a
man!’’— JFesf. rn Christian Advocate.
It is well to entertain and cherish
the same faith while living and in good
health, that one would like to have
when he comes to die.
One of our contemporaries calls atten
tion to a well known fact—that when the
circus comes to town, or when the thea
tres are opened, neither have bell to
call audience together; yet they come,
and no one comes too late 1 Right curi
ous, is it not ? And another matter:
the great singer Patti is coming to New
York, and the price cf seats has been
fixed at from $5 to $lO in order to listen
to her. Difficult as it is to get money
for charitable purposes, there will be
no trouble in getting money for this pur
pose. Another curious matter: that the
person who give this five or ten dollars
to hear Patti will do it pleas intly and
think nothing about it; but the person
whogivesa like amount to charitable pur
poses will think about it for a week and
conclude what a remarkable person
he is.
A week did you say, brother South
ern Churchman? Why ten dollars
given to charitable purposes would last
many a man’s conscience for ten years!
“Ah I but these are not Christian men,”
you will say. Well, they claim to be
such.
“May God help you regular Baptists
to stand firm !” Such words come from
a candid Piesbyterian divine. The
sentiment was called forth in an ex
amination of Baptist restricted commu
nion, and when the full meaning of the
struggle burst upon him he exclaimed:
“ You regular Baptists are figciting the
battle for us all,” and then added the
words quoted above. It was Rev. John
Hall, D. D., who once said: “If Ibe
lieved with the Baptists that none are
bap ized hut those whoare immersed on
profession of faith, then I should with
them refuse to commune with any
others.’’ And it was another Pedo
baptist clergyman who once declared
that an open-communion Baptist was
the most inconsistent sectary on the face
of the earth. The sentimentalism of
open comtnunionism, pure and simple,
is somthing which no right minded
church-man of any denomination desires
to see carry the day. The regular Bap
tist is the true friend of general Christian
progress, "even our enemies themselves
being judges."— Standard.
We agree with our Pedobaptist
brethren that none should commune
except those who have been baptized
Our conviction is unalterable that
none have been baptized except those
who have been immersed. Entertain
ing these views, if we should allow
ourselves to be persuaded by our Pedo
baptist brethren to practice what is
known as open communion, then as
thinking men we should lose their res
pect, and as Christian men we should
lose their confidence. It is best for
their own interest and for the cause of
Christ that they should not persuade
us; but if they will err in in this way,
it is due to our self respect, to say
nothing of our consciences, that we
stand firm.
Two Sundays ago three little girls—
the oldest not over twelve years of age
left their homes,and putting their money
together, bought rum of a saloon-keeper
and drank it in his kitchen, and leaving
there bought more in another house,
and as a result, they were found on the
commons, utterly insensible, and were
with the greatest difficulty saved from
death by the best medical aid.
This statement is so horrible as to be
almost incredible, but we find it on the
editorial page of The Presbyterian, a
journal which is cautious and truthful.
Would not murder be a light crime by
comparison with that which the saloon
keeper committed ? The law provides
no adequate punishment for such vil
lainy as this; and we must suppose
that this is because the law-makers
never supposed that such a crime
would be possible.
Somebody asks who will suggest any
practical plan for fighting down polyga
my? A practical plan has been pro
posed in our columns and advocated by
us. It is organized and sustained emi
gration to Utah and Idaho. It is sub
stantially the plan that kept Kansas and
VOL. 59.-NO. 46.
Nebraska free States. So far as we can
see, it is the only plan workable under
our free institutions with their self-gov
ernment for Territories and States. We
confess to some surprise that the plan
has not received the attention it deserves
from our amiable religious contempora
ries. The Methodist.
We are not sure that it is practica
ble to get as many emigrants to Utah
and Idaho as would be necessary to
accomplish the object in view; yet we
have no better plan to suggest.
If the Exposition shall result in a>
wider distribution of Northern capital
through the Southern States, and. a
fuller understanding of Northern meth
ods and business resouices on the part
of the Southern people, it will do a work
which will make it memorable in our
history.
This may be true, but the Christian
Union puts it in away that is patron
izing and supercilious and therefore
not very acceptable. Eschewing the
uncourteous spirit, we kindly suggest,
that if the Northern people knew
more about the South, and about its
resources, and its people, much advan
tage would enure to all. We are glad
to have our Northern neighbors form
their opinions of us from personal ob
servation and not from newspaper
stories. We hope that many of them
will visit our Cotton Exposition ; and
we think that those who do so will feel
themselves repaid for their time,
troublo and expense.
Are Baptists Ritualists ?—Because
we can*nly accept of immersion as bap
tism, we are sometimes charged with
being “ ritualistic.” But it is the use of
pouring and sprinkling for baptism
which shows the spirit of ritualism. The
ritualist, exalting the importance of bap
tism, and holding it to be a terrible cal
amity if one is left to die unbaptized,
must make such rules regarding baptism,
that the ceremony need never be omit
ted. Therefore, he holds that where
immersion is impracticable sprinkling:
may be used; that where an ordained,
minister cannot be called in, the ordi
nance may be administered by one of
the laity, even by a woman. The rit
ualist demands a “baptism made easy,”
and thus he accepts lay baptism, and
infant baptism or affusion. But our ad
herence to the immersion of believers—
and the consequent necessity of letting
many persons die unbaptized, is the
plainest manifestation that Baptists hold
that baptism is not necessary to salva
tion, and that we are not therefore
“ritualistic.” — Watch lower.
It is well known that we never bap
tize any one unless we think that he is
already saved; and this being the fact
it really appears like a willful misrep
resentation when one says that we
consider baptism essential to salva
tion.
What God Says of My Sins, if I
Trust in Jesus.—Blotted out. Isaiah
xliii. 25.
Borne by another. 1 Peter ii. 24.
Cast behind God’s back. Isa. xxxviii.
17.
Cast into the depths of the sea. Mi
cah vii. 19.
Covered. Romans iv. 17.
Finished. Daniel ix. 24.
Forgiven. Colossians ii. 13.
Made an end of. Daniel ix. 24.
Not beheld. Numbers xxiii. 21.
Not imputed. Romans iv. 8.
Not remembered. Heb. viii. 12.
Pardoned. Micah vii. 18.
Passed away. Zech. iii. 4.
Purged. Hebrews i. 3.
Putaway. Hebrews ix. 26.
Remitted. Acts x. 43.
Removed. Psalm ciii. 12.
Subdued. Micah vii. 19.
Sought for and not found. Jer. i. 20;
Taken away. Isaiah vi. 7.
Washed away with blood. 1 John i:7.
The Seventh Comet of the Yeab.—Direc
tor Swift, of the Warner Astronomical Ob
servatory, Rochester, N. Y., at 11 o’clock p,
in of tbe 16th inst. discovered a faint, round,
tailless comet in thecoustellation Cassiopeia,
which has a Right Ascension of 1 hour 50
minutes and a Declination north of 71 de
grees with a motion slowly westward. This*
is tbe seventh comet which has been discov
ered since the first of May last, four of which
meeting the conditions of the fund, have
received the Warner Prize of S2OO, Professor
Swift procuring the first and last award.
Inasmuch as the comet of 1812 is expected
in the quarter in which this one appeared.
Prof. Swift is not sure at present that the
stranger may not be the familiar comet
which was discovered by Pons. In 187%
Director Swift, at Denver, claimed to have
discovered an intra Mercurial planet. In
May, 1882, he will visit Egypt, under the
munificent provision of Mr. H. H. Warner,
to observe the Total Eclipse, at which time
he hopes to verify his intra Mercurial planet
discovery. Mr. H. H. Warner’s generous
patronage of science has given astronomical
study a wonderful impulse during the past
twelve months, and tbe country is to be
congratulated on having so broad minded a
man so “ substantially ” devoted to the up,
building of her intellectual as well as physi
cal interests.
The English Presbyterians have a new
departure in the matter of the acquisition of
the Chinese by new missionaries to China.
They send them to Prof. Legge at Oxford,
feeling convinced that three months at
Oxford is equal to a whole year’s study in-
China.