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A Heart Broken Fatiivr.
Josie, Ala., March 31st 1895.
Dear Brother Hanks:
It is with a heart overwhelmed
In grief and sorrow that I attempt
to write to you this morning, and
while the birds are singing sweet
ly, and the buds of spring, and the
, beautiful flowers in all their glory
are putting forth, lam shut up in
gloom, darkness, grief and sorrow.
On the Sth day of this month, it
pleased God to call from time to
eternity, my darling son Alto.
And while I know that “He
doeth all things well,” yet I can
not help sorrowing and crying
and being bowed down in trouble
on account of this dispensation of
Providence. I sometimes think
that I am about reconciled, but
the first thing I know 1 am shed
ding tears and mourning and
groaning on this account.
Alto had taught a school near
Catalpa during November, Decem
ber and January. The next week
after his school closed he started
to the Normal college at Troy with
the intention to go until the close
of tne present session; then teach
awhile, and go back to that or
somp other college, and in this
way work out an education, with
the view of fitting himself for a
Civil Engineer, or a professor of
Mathematics in some college, as
his especial talent seemed to be
in Mathematics. But God ordered
it otherwise. Alto had been going
to college about five weeks, when
he took cold, which run into pneu
monia, and he lived only four
days after taking pneumonia.
He was in Troy and was not able
to tome home; su died in Troy, and
was brought to Ramah for burial.
I was very sick at the time with
la grippe, and did not get to see
him at all. Vernon and John Adam
went to him the first day he took
pneumonia. Vernon came back
and John staid with him. The
second day at night the Doctor
sent' to me to let me know that
he was dangerously sick, and next
but was delayed Dy the rain, and
did not reach him until Friday
morning at 8 oYlock, and he died
at 4 o’clock that evening. He
knew Laura and Vernon, and
asked them not to leave him until,
he could come home with them,
and talked about coming home.
A while before' he died he threw
his arms around Laura’s neck and
said, “I am going home.” She re
plied “vou are going with me aint
you?” He said “No, I am going by
myself.” She asked him just before
the breath left him how he felt
and he replied, “All right.” She
asked him that question three
times and the reply was the same,
each time.
Those that were with him say
that he‘ bore his suffering with
Christian fortitude and did not
murmer or complain, but often
had a pleasant smile on his face,
and when he died passed sweetly
and peacefully as one going to
sleep, and in death had a sweet,
peaceful and pleasant counten
ance.
He made his mark in College
from the first day, and his Pro
fessors and classmates say that
from the first, by his general na
ture, he endeared himself to all his
fellows.
All that knew him loved him
and did all they could for him, and
the lamily with whom he boarded
seemed to love him as a brother.
His landlady could not have been
more affected had he been her own
brother dead.
She was not a member of the
Church but qught to be, also her
brother-in-law, who boarded with
her. She told Laura that Alto
and her brother-in-law would read
a chapter in the Bible and sing a
hymn every night. Alto leading
in the service one night and Math
the next and that she very often
went to their room and joined
them in these devotions.
Some of our brethren and sis
ters learned of Alto’s sickness and
were very attentive! to him, espe
cially brother and sister Key, sis
ter Post and brother Brannan;
Whether any others I have not
learned. Alto was one of the best
boys that I ever knew, even from
his infancy to his death,
Ho was strictly moral, lie
never did have any inclination to
attend balls, and parties,and other
places where people ought not to
go. He did not speak evil of anv
one. Others might be talking and
saying hard things about neighbors
or friends, but he would not join
in the talk unless it was byway of
gentle remarks, such as to say:
Ah! well that is their business, not
mine.” He never had any inclina
tion to be running about oxi Sun
days, but prefered to stay at home
with me or his mother during her
life time, and it has often been,
that the other children would be
gone to meeting somewhere, or
visiting and he would remain at
home with me and his step mother;
reading, or studying his books.
But when his meeting days
come he was always ready’ to go to
them. No boy, or girl either, ever
had greater respect for their
fathers feelings than he had for
mine.
But space forbids that I should
enumerate all his good qualities.
He is gone and how sad the
thought that I will never see him
on earth again, but thank God fur
the bright evidences he left be
hind that he was, “an heir of God
and a joint- heir with the Lord
Jesus Christ,” and that his §pjrit is
now in heaven; and that iff, the
morning of the resurrection, “the
same power that raised up Jesus
from the dead will also raise ms
body and fashion it like unto the
glorious body of Jesus, and mor
tality shall put on immortality
and death be swallowed up in vic
tory.”
And I have a hope, (though it
seems so little,) through Jesus,
which by His grace enables me to
trust in Him and look farward to
.Aliipe when * shall meet my dear
never comes, aud parting is no
more.”
Dear Brother I have written
more than I expected when I be
gan. Knowing how well you liked
Alto I felt inclined to write you in
regard to his death, and after be
gining could not quit.. We are ex
pecting you to visit us at Ramah
this Spring, and if I do not write
an obituary before then, will get
you to do so, or assist me in writing
one.
Dear Brother may God breathe
into your heart a spirit of prayer
for me and my sorrow-stricken
family, that we may be. reconciled
to His dealings with us, and en
abled to say, “Thy will be done.”
And oh! may our lives be as near
right as Alto’s was. But it is so
hard to the flesh to give him up.
In Tribulation Your Brother,
W. H. Wilkes.
Remarks.
This precious family has my
deepest heartfelt sympathy- This
dear young brother wrote me his
experience a little over a year ago
and I encouraged him to be bap
tized and bad the sweet privilege
of baptizing him about one year
ago. He was indeed a model boy
and felt very dear to me. .
He is now asleep in Jesus, while
his wafted spirit is resting sweet
ly in the bosom of our precious
Redeemer, who will call his sleep
ing body forth, immortalized, and
spiritual in the sweet bye and bye.
Your loss, dear brother Wilkes,
is his eternal gain.
It is hard to give our loved ones
up, but this sinful world is not
home.
He is better off than we are. May
the Lord bless you all.—H.
Balter, Catoosa, Co., Ala.,
Marell 3rd, 1893.
Elder Lee Hanks,
Boston, Ga.
Dear Brother:—As I hope by
the grace of God, or being born
again of a heavenly parentage,
thereby having a heavenly in
heritance by the blood of Jesus.
Grace be unto you, and peace from
him which was, and is, and is to
come.
I chanced to get hold of a paper
that had your biography printed
in it, I was made to grieve at your
troubles and the hardships you
had to endure, but was made to
rejoice at the great victory you
obtained by the blood of Jesus.
You complain of being ignorant
—the “Lord has hid these things
from the wise and prudent and re
vealed them unto babes.”
You spoke of being brought up
in the backwoods; “The Lord’s
portion is his people, Jacob is the
the lot of his inheritance. He
found him in a desert land, and in
the waste howling wilderness, he
led him about, he instVucte.d . him,
he kept him as the apple of his
eyt-s.” Deut. 32: 9, 10. So the
Lord alone bore thee on the wings
of His everlasting love, out of the
kingdom of darkness, into the
kingdom of Jesus.
I am your little brother in. af
fliction, in trouble, in trials, in op
position, in persecution, in weak
ness, in grief, in poverty, : n being
bereaved of my beloved compan
ion, and in hope and victory which
I hope I obtained by the blood of
Jesus. Yes it is by the grace of
God that lam what I am. I hope
I am a little Christian and the
Lord has made me so, a new cre
ation in Christ. What wonders he
can perform. I love the things I
ones’hated, and |iate the things I
once loved. I hope my Master is
preparing mejto reign with Him
above. I sometimes long to go
and be with the from
troubles, strife, persecution and
peril among false brethren, yet I
pray the Lord to forgive them for
they know not what they do.
Some are condending that there is
Jesus aid not die for mortal man
Ido not know for whom he died.
If Jesus did not redeem poor mor
tal sinful man I am lost, for I
know lam a mortal sinful man.
We are first born into the kingdom
of God, then in the resurection we
are changed from mortal to im
mortality.
Sweet to rejoice in lively hope,
That when my change shall come;
Angels will hover around my bed,
And waft me safely home.
Dear brother, my wife has been
dead two years. I have four chil
dren. lam trying to ’keep them
together. My time is hard in this
world, but I hope I have a reward
where moth aud rust cannot cor
rupt. Farewell, and if we never
meet on-ear th, oh, may we meet
on the sunny banks of sweet de
liverence.
Yes, my hope is that we shall
all meet and shout “victory” in
that morning, not a part of us, but
the whole man will be resurrected.
Yours in hope,
• J. W. Howell.
Chipley Ga. April 7th, 1895.
Elder A. V. Simms.
Dear Brother:—The Banner for
April Ist, came to hand yesterday
and I enjoyed reading it. All the
writing seemed to be characterized
by a good spirit. I regard your
reply to brother E. D. Varnes as
being all right. He wrote it in a
good spirit and I think his piece
will do good.
God has revealed unto us in his
word that He has predestinated
his people unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ unto him
self according to the good pleas
ure of His will; that He foreknew
them,predestinated them to be con
formed to the imago of His Son,
justified them and glory fled them ‘
This we should rejoice in and
preach and teach.
As to God having predestinated all
things, evil as well as good, we do
not know so much about that. God
has not revealed that so plainly
to us to say the least of it. It is
a mystery that none of us under
stand, nor can we understand it;
'while in ihia tnno It is
enough forU>«t (Mh W
revealed a suflu Jeucy uuto us, and
that what ho has revealed unto us
belongs unto us and to our children
while secret thing?, unrevealed
tilings, belong uuto God. We may
take either side of the question as to
whether God has predestinated all
things or not, and. we will soon be
come bowilderedj and find that we
can not measure arms with God
that we can not pass the bounds
that God hath set. But this ques
tion is not troubling me. I do not
fall out with a brother that takes
either side of the question unless he
makes a hobby of it, runs on ex
tremes or tries to make it a test
of fellowship amojig our people.
God rules over all the works of His
hands, but we can not understand
how. Our God reigns. He doeth all
His pleasure. He love th us and
hath made ample provisions for us
in all things. He hath all wisdom
and power and bath all things His
way,but in a mysterious way to us.
Bull will leave this subject desiring
to caU attention, tq the fact that
we do not understand it,and should
not strive among ourselves about
it. But I notice no disposition in
the writers for theBANNER to strive
about it. And I believe that our
bretiiern generall^iMrth,south,east
and west are nearer together and
have a more charitable spirit to
wards each other on this subject
than they were a few years ago.
Well may David say “how good and
how pleasant it is for brethren
to dwell together in unity.”
I set out to write something on
Christian forbearance and will
now try to do so.
It seems to me that there has
been a great lack of forbearance
among our prople. At least, I
feel that I have not manifested
this precious fruit of the spirit of
God in my intercourse among and
towards the dear saints of God as
much,as I should. We are exhorted
and comanded in,the scriptures to
fove one and as we obey
the heavenly injunction forberance
will be manifested. It is said that
Jovb covers a multitude of faults,
things
bavo fervent charity among your- (
selves : for charity shall cover the ’
multitude 1 of sins.” Peter 4: 8. 1
Charity is love and it covers sin in 1
the sense of bearing with it in those
loved. It follows then that we can
bear with those that we love; bear 1
with them m sin even not approv
ing of the sin at all but rather re
proving it,forbearing with them in
away so as to not cast them off,
unnecessarly expose them or to hurt
them any way. “Charity suffereth
long and is kind.” The best peo
ple I have ever known were those
who have had the most Christain
forbearance
Love is declared in the scriptures
to be a fruit of the spirit of God ,
in us, and it is the first fruit men
tioned in the catalogue, and is set
forth throughout the scriptures as
being the most important If then
we have not loved it is an evidence
that we are not born of the spirit
But we are told to let brotherly
love continue.”
We can not originate this love,
but we can let it contiueor,we can
hinder it in a measure. When we are
forbearing towards our brethern wa
are letting love have its course.
We are manifesting and exercis
ing this love when we act in accor
dance with its promptings and it
is thereby promoted or I might say
increased. Jude says/‘Keep your
selves in the love of God” As the
children of God we obey this
injunction when we so act as to
not interfere with the intercourse
to love between our God as our
selves. It means that we are to
keep ourselves in the love of God
in an experimental way; walk and
commune with God.
* And as we love and walk and com
mune with God, we love and walk
and commune with His dear chil
dien and have and manifest a ten
der merciful forgiving and for
bearing spirit towards them.
We all are very imperfect, and
. are compassed about with many,
infirmities while we live in the
flesh and there is a great necessity
for forbearance among us one
towards another.
If we all could live exactly right
in every particular there would be
no necessity for forbearance. In
as much as forbearance is enjoined
it is an evidence that there will be
or is a necessity for it because of
something not exactly right. Oh
brethern that we could keep this
in constant rememberance in our
intercourse with one another. But
alas! We too often let the flesh get
the advantage of us and through
pride, envy, selfishness, anger or
some other-fleshly lust are ready
to take advantage of the faults
infirmities or blunders of our broth
ern and are ready to murder them
in a sense that we ourselves may
be promoted. Admit that our
brethern are to be blamed for this
or that we are not licensed-thereby
to do them a wrong by speaking
evil of them or becoming their
judge. James says“ Speak not evil
one of onother, brethern. He that
speaketh evil ,of his brother and
judgeth his brother, speaketh evil
of the law, and judgeth the law:
but if thou judge the law,
thou art not a doer of the
law but ft judge. There is one law
giver, who is- able to save, and to
destroy; who art thou that judgest
another 2 James 411 12. There is
a law touching transgressson or sin
of any kind in the church, and there,
are proper executors of that law,,
but let us not Constitute ourselves
executors or judges of that law.
The chur ch collectively and officia
ly is the Judge aud executor, of that
law of discipline. Any one of us
is on dangerous ground when we
undertake to discipline a brother
ourselves and have him turned out
of the church, or even have him to
look contemtible to his brethern.
James says.“So speak ye,and so do,
as they that shall bo judged by
the law of liberity. For he shall
have judgment without; mercy that
nath showed no mercy; and mercy
rejoicoth against judgment.“ James
2: 12, 13. When wb persue a
brother for his life so to speak tak
ing advantage of some mistake he
has made, because
to take'
care of’ the cause, shewing no mercy
and trying to bring him to Judge
ment, we are “forsaking our own
mercy,” and shall have judgement
without mercy meted out to
us sooner or later. How careful we
should be in our treatment of our
brethern generally, but specially oi
our poor, weak, erring , brethren.
I do not mean that we are to set
aside discipline as taught in the
scriptures, but that w r e are to avoid
all usurpations of it. Brother
Simms,l have written in a scatter
ing way, and have labored under
some disadvantages while writing,
but if I have written the truth,and
something that should be* written,
and the bretren and sisters will
take up the refrain and obey the
truth, all will be well.
Your Brother in Love,
T J Bazimore.
” Happy is the man that findeth
wisdom” The world says the rich
man is.the blest or happy man, or
the popular man, but the man that
findeth wisdom is the happy .man,
because here is hidden riches that
the fool can never find, aud the
thief can never steal. Her trade
or income is better than the
merchandise of silver, and her
grains more valuable than fine
gold. She is more precious than
rubies; and nothing else, nor all
else thou canst desire, can be com
pared to her.
In her right hand is length of
days, immortality; in' her left
hand are riches and honor. Her
ways ar pleasantness, her paths
are peace. —She is the tree of liie
to those that lay hold upon her.
That so seek her is clear proof of
the folly of mankind. We stumble
over true wealth and chase the toys
of earth.
Wilt thou set thine eyes upon
that which is not? for riches cer
tainly make themselves wings;
'they fly away as an eagle toward
heaven. Proverbs xxiii. 5. *
Cause of Barrenness.
LureviJe, Suwannee Co., Fla.,
March 4th 1895.
Elder A. V. Simms:
Very Derr Brother in Christ,
as I sometimes feel to hope; I
again attempt to write you a few
lines, though I hardly know what
I shall write upon, for ray inability
to write or do anything, that
would be any satisfaction to God’s
children seems to loom up before
me, insomuch that I am almost
made to shrink and recoil from the
effort ere I begin; but having it on
my mind and, for the reason why I
can’t tell, still 1 try in my weak
ness to write.
Brother Simms, I wanted to
write, or try to, about the cold bar
ren condition which some of the
churches seems to be in,and I will
try in my weakness to point out
some of what I think is the causes
of this coldness in the house of
God. First, it is the neglect ot the
brethren to attend their meetings.
They will perhaps let this little
thing-or that little affair which has
nothing to do with, nor is it any
excuse for the child of God to get.
out of the path of duty by neglect
ing to attend to his conference
days as he should; thus my brother
it will begin,maybe that some good
faithful brother will have a lawful
excuse for one or more confer
ences. Still even that will cause a'
cold feeling in hiejieart and he will
not have the pressing desire to go
to meeting that he did when he
first staid away; now I do not
to be faithful at al], but I
Wife these things from experience.
I can go to church feeling as good
as a hungry dog in expectations of
something.to eat, but let me arrive
there about eleven or a little be
fore and see two or three of the
brethren standing around and two
or t hree off somewhere else sitting
On a log and when I approach them
what do I hear? Brother A, (al
though he is a good brother) is re
lating some little smutty anecdote,
and brothers B, 0 and D, are ap
parently enjoying the joke; and
confirm their looks by one of them
telling one when Brother A, gets
through. Well their coversation
don’t suit my feelings and I go to
where I sec the brethren collected
at another place and w’hen I get
there I find them engaged in talk
ing political matters, or general
I
the cause of Christ is forsaken and
the dear brethren, though not
aware of the fact have thrown a
damper over me that wont ware
off before it is repeated again, and
I wish to say right here, though
notone myself I believe that such
as that and a good many Other
things are what causes so many
cold Darren churches, and the
preacher to get cold and lifeless
in his feelings; is any wonder that
the sore tried minister of God,
when he comes to his masters
flock and finds them engaged in
vain babblings, such as God has
commanded them not to indulge in.
I say is it any wonder that the
poor minister gets discouraged and
thinks often to himself, “well it is
all my fault; I am not the one to
serve" these brethren, or they
would not be found in such con
ventions; then my brethren, where
ever you may be, let me beg you
as one that loves the cause of Christ
and all his dear children, not to
neglect your meetings, go to meet
ing, and when you get there, don’t
for God’s sake, don’t let your dear
pastor find you scattered around
the grounds talking of things that
will dishonor- God’s cause, f r I
believe that we should be very
careful about such conversations
at all times and more especially at
our church meetings. But let us
meet in godly fear, and godly con
versation, and as soon as our pas
tor gets there, don’t wait for him
to go in the house and call us in,
but let us go in and take a front
seat, near the stand and engage in
singing, or giving admonition to
each other in telling how God’s
children should act to keep a clean
house for his services. If we will
only do this, God will warm up
our cold, barren churches by
giving us a live minister, and live
brethren, and the young and old
will soon be found engaged in
i the dance to the honor and glory
, of God, and the peace and com
fort of his people. If this meets
’ your approval I may write more
anon Yours in Hope,
! J. E. Sheffield.
' If thou sayest, Behold, we fuew'
it not: doth not he that pondereth
i the heart consider it? and hethat
- keepeth thy soul, doth not he
; know it? and shall not he render to
I every map according to his works?
Proverbs, xxiv. 12.