Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

6 Mfe STWM 1 Hi 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.