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- ■■■ — My Two Month’s Tour in Georgia. I have always been a great lover of home, and have pretered to read the travels of others rather than travel myself. And, in His great and most unmerited mercy, the Lord has blessed me with a delight ful home —the home of my child hood and youth and early manhood the home consecrated by the prolonged residence and godly ex ample of my devout, venerated and * beloved father and step-mother, and by tens of thousands of their humble, loving,and fervent prayers around the family alter; the home where thirty-two years ago, as I reverently hope, my gracious and Divine Saviour appeared in His dying agonies upon the cross to my /eyes, anointed with His Spirit and spoke eternal peace to my sin-bur dened soul. And, since the death of my last dear companion six years agOj and the severe bodily afflictions that came upon me five years ago, I have been still more loath to leave the comforts of home and the company of kind relatives and friends and of my four little motherless children. And it is a pain to me to part with the daily priveledge of consulting my in structive library, and of visiting the poor and afflicted members of my own church and people of my native town. Were it not, there fore, for the solemn impressions made, as I believe, by the Lord up on my mind, and the urgent invi tations of dear brethren for me ti visit them on preaching tours, I would never again turn my back for months upon all that is most dear to me by nature, and subject myself, in the frail and uncertain condition of my health, to the se vere labors, privations, exposures and hardships of many kinds, by day and by night, incident to con stant travel in all states of the weather and roads, mostly by pri vate conveyance, and to attempt to preach one# or twice everyday! As for clearing money above rail road expenses by travelling and FrimiiM Bnin Tists, I do not know oi any other business in which an educated, in dustrious man could make less money; and, as for the insinuation of covetousness, my past life ought to be sufficient to prove the injus tice of such a suspicion. On my preaching tours, I do not even so licit a subscription for the Gospel Messenger; and I dislike to hear one word said about even paying my expenses. In accordance with the requests of both ministering and private brethren, I left home Feb, Ist (Re turning April Bth) and tried to preach sixty-three times, mostly in Southern Georgia. My labors were in Bulloch, Loundes, Echols, . (Hamilton County, Fla.,) Thomas, Berrien, Colquitt, Worth, Irwin, Wilcox, Dooly, Houston, Monroe, Taylor, and Wilkinson Counties, Georgia; and I met with Elders M, F. Stubbs, A. W. Patterson, J. L. Smith, A. V. Simms, Wm Tomlinson. Lucius. Register, 0. W. Stallings, Isom. Wethering ton, David. Johns, Aaron. Par rish, R. H. Barwick, I. P. Por ter, Ansel. Tucker, W. W. Wil-, liams, P. G. McDonald, Richard Hall, D. W. Taylor, W. C. Cleveland, T. J. Head, W. W Childs, S. T. Bentley, W. E. Pittman, Isaiah. Grant, J. T. Reynolds, J. G. Murray, and Bennett. Stewart. My preaching appointments were mostly in Primitive Baptist meeting houses, and New School Baptist meeting houses. I encountered a great deal of se vere weather, storms, snow, and sleet, and had to travel over very rough roads and deep waters. I suf fered much with cold, and with nervousness, and sleeplessness; and with pains in my heart and bowels; but was blessed of the Lord to obtain relief by the occasional use of the Oxy donor, (I have used no meeicine for more than three years). Southern Georgia is a re gion of pine forests and wire grass, lumber, turpentine, cattle, and sheep. The land is very cheap, having risen in value during the last tew years io two or three dol lars an acre. The people are gen erally poor, and live mostly in log houses, and produce rice, corn syrup, sweet potatoes, and meat, (some making light brown sugar out of their syrup) and they are beginning to grow peaches, pears and long-staple cotton, [which is worth two or three times ar-much as the short-staple cotton], scarce ly any of the meeting-houses have stoves; and some have no glass win dows. One meeting-jiouse in Bul lock County has an organ, left for sale by an agent, and used in the meetings. I was received and treated with great kindness; and many deal brethren and sisters, some very poor and some very afflicted, assur me that they believed the Lord had sent me to strengthen and comfort them. A dear sistei who has been an invalid the most of her life, and has long been confined to her bed, said that, by my discourse at hei home,she felt repaid for all her suf ferings; and a dear, poor, afflicted ministering brother said that, while listening to me, he felt glad that he was poor. Such assurances from the dear tried children of God are more precious to me than all the riches, honors, and pleasures of the world. Os the eighteen thousand Prim itive Baptists said, in the United States Census of 1890, to be in Georgia [which is more than there are in any other State] I believe, from what I have seen and heard, that the great majority are sound in doctrine and orderly in practise. But, during the last thirty years departures, in doctrine, or practise, or affection, from the main body of our brethren in Georgia have been made by the Towahgians, Coonites Battleites, Youngites, Sikesites, Wilsonites, and Hallites. The par ticular causes of these fleshly sedi tions [Gal. v. 20; Ist. Cor iii. 3; James iv. I.] have been Secret So- AjefeJEwo-seelkm, ArmidanjspL political ambition, ministerial jeal ousy, and personal envy. The en tire membership of these “slab-off” as they are called, is probably less than two thousand; and I was in formed that the larger proportion of those are sound in the doc trine of salvation by grace. I found that a few of our best brethren m Georgia have an opin ion that Judas Iscariot was a child of God and is now in Heaven. This, of course, is no matter of doctrine or order, but a peculiar interpretation of certain Scriptures. The following Scriptures' prove to my mind, as they have to the minds of nearly all God’s people, that Judas, though chosen and gift as an Apostle, and probably a preacher of the truth [as was the inspired, but covetous and devilish Balaam] and a worker of miricles, was not a subject of regenerating grace, and is now in Hell:—John vi. 70, 71; Markxiv. 21; John xvii 12, Math, xxvii. 3—5; Acts 1,18, 25; 2 Cor. vii. 10; 1 Cor. xii; Math vii. 22, 23; 1 John iii. 15; Rev. xxii 15. The general language of Christ to His Apostles in Math. x. 16, 20; and in reference to His peo ple in John vi. 39, is shown not to apply to Judas, in the sense of his regeneration eternal salvation, by John vi. 70, 71; xvii. 12; Mark xiv. 21; and Acts, i 25. Another strange, and I think er ronious opinion that I found en tertained by a few of our worthiest brethren in Georgia, is that the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost the unpardonable sin, [Math, xii, 31,32;-Mark iii, 28-30; Luke xii, 10,) can be committed by none except the children of God! As I told some of these breth ren, all the other Primitive Bad tist among whom I had traveled while claiming not to know what this terible sin is, felt sure of this one thing about, it that a child of God could never commit it, sot Jesus gives repentance andforgiv ness of sins to His people, and His blood cleanses them from all sin, and they have eternal life and can lever perish [Acts v 31; 1 John i 7,9; John x 28-30.] When the child of God is under conviction he sometimes fears that he has committed the unpardon able sin, but, as proved by his sub sequent experience, this is a delu sion of.the Devil. The context in Math, xii, Mark, iii, shows that Christ’s language in reference to the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost was called forth by, and ad dressed to the Scribes and Phari sees who had ascribed His miracles to Satan, when they had the fullest and clearest natural evidence that the miracles ofChrist were wrought by the infinite power and goodne&s of the DivlneSpirit in Jesus. [Com pare Acts vii, 51-53; Math, xxiii.] In studying Primitive Baptist literature on this subject, I find that some of our wisest brethren, North andSouth,doubt whether this sin could be committed by any oth ers except those who witnessed the miracles of Christ during His min istry on earth. Certainly not His humble, trembling, penitent peo ple, but only His scoffing, malig nant, pertinatious enemies could, or can commit this sin. Heb, vi, 4-6 and x. 26-21, as proved by THESE PASSUGES THEMSELVES AND BY THE REMAINDER OF each OF THESE chapters, and by 2 Pet. ii 1 20-22, and Math, xii, 43-45, refer primari ly, not to the gracious children of God, but those who, in the apostol ic age, were partakers or witnesses of miraculous gifts, and then fully and finally deliberately, malicious ly and stubbornly apotatized from the profession of Christianity to Judaism, whose legal sacrifices were fulfilled and virtually ended in the anti-typical sacrifice of the Son of God [Dan. ix. 24, 27; Heb, x, 1-18] hnd were literally abolish ed forever by the destruction of Jerusalem a few years after the Epistle to the Hebrews was writ ten, the God of Israel and of prov idence thus tremendously emphe sizing the argument of His in spired Apostle [see Math. vii. 21]. And if Heb. vi, 4-6 and x. 26- 31 are applicable to any since thV apostolic age, they refer, as prov ed by Heb vi. 9 and x. 39, not to heart diciples, true believers, the elect, redeemed, regenerated peo ple of God, but to head diciples, stony-ground, temporary believers the merely nominal people of God, never really cleansed by God’s grace any more than a the nature of the sick dog, and the washed sow is changed, who, after mental illumination and a brief profes sions, and walk no more with Christ even in name, but become His scoffing and implicable, ad varsaries who shall, at the judg ment of the great day,be consigned co everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels (John vi. 66; Mat. xiii. 20, 21; 2 Pet. ii. 1, 20, 22; Mat. vii. 21, 23; xxv. 41-46.) God’s fatherly chastizements of his children for their spiritual good are refered to in Heb. xii. 1-13, and are nowhere called in the scriptures "a sacrifice for sin; the only real, efficacious, divinely ap pointed and accepted sacrifice for sin mentioned in all the scriptures is the atoning death of Christ. A single one of our sins, before dr after regeneration, left unatoned for by the blood of Jesus would sink us into everlasting perdition. The child of God who has sinned, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, humbly, sincerely, and penitently confesses and forsakes his sin, is, for the alone sake of Christ, freely forgiven of all man net of sin, (Mat. xii. 31; Job xxxiii. 27, 28; Psalm xxxii. 5; Prov. xxiii. 13; Acts v. 31; Eph 1.7; 1 John 1: 7,9.) I was sorry to be informed that one of the able ministers whom I met believes in the annihilation of the wicked. This doctrine is as thoroughly unscientific as it is thoroughly unscriptural. Science proves that nothing is annihilated; and the following Scriptures prove that the wicked will not be annihilated, out wm suffer forever, both In soul and body: Dan. xii. 2: John v.'2B, 29; Mat. 4, 27; xxv. 41, 48; Mark ix. 43, 58; Luke xvi. 23, 27; 2 Thess. i. 7, 10; Rev. xiv. 11; xix. 20; XX. 10,15; xxt 8, xxii. 11,15. Such has always been the belief of the people of God. i I learned that a worthy brother, chosen to be a deacon by his church, refused for several months to be ordained, because he said he could not believe the article oi faith of his church and Assocation that there are three persons in the Godhead:” but that, after havemg been long labored with in vain by several Elders, he was finally and feelingly convinced by the argu ment that the “person” of the .Father is plainly refered to in Heb. i. 3, and that the word, “image” must refer to the“person” of the Son, one that, if the Father and Son are “persons” the Holy Ghost must also be a “person.” The Green word hypostasis ren dered person in Heb. i. 3. is per haps better rendered subsistence (as in the London confession, Chap iii. Sec. 3); it does not mean an entirely separate one, or dis tinct individual, but that personal distinction, in the one individual Godhead, which arises from the peculiar mode of existence of Father, Son and Spirit, as set forth in the Scripture (no more and no less,) and which occasions a mutual love and concurrence in council, and the use of the per sonal pronouns, I Thou and He, }d a distinct order of operation, the three Divine Persons being eternal, co-substantial, and co ual, having Jhe same identical numerical essence and the same attributes, and constituting the One Only Living and True God, as revealed in the Scriptures and and by His Spirit in the hearts of His people, and as totally distin guished from all the false gods of of men’s imagination and inven tion. The Three-oneness of God is shown in of ’*'***’* ** p vry-' behever in Christ, and in the apo?- tolic benediction (Mat. iii. 16, 17; xxViii 19. 2 Cor. xiii. 14). At one of my appointments in Hamilton county Florida, a minis tering brother was silenced, and then, at his own request, excluded from the church, for preaching the absolute predestination of all things in such away as to charge the real blame of sin upon God, declaring that we can not do dif ferently from what we do, because we are predestinated to do so, and that it is perfectly useles to ex hort or admonish the children of God to do any better than they do. In regard to God’s connection with sin, he denied all the force of the word meaning to permit, used fourteen time in the Scrip tures (2 Chron. xxxii. 31; Ps. Ixxxi. 12; Mark i, 34; v. 13; Luke iv, 41; viii. 32; Acts ii. 23; vii. 42; xiii. 18; xiv. 16' Rom. i. 24, 26, 28; ix. 22,) and uttered the most diabolical blasphemy that I ever heard fall from human lips, say ing: “If I should take that little child and carry it to the river bank and leave it, and a rattle snake should come and bite, and kill it, I of course could say, I didn’t do it, I didn’t do it, but then I did do it.” Thus hemost blasphemously represented the eternally and infinately Holy God as vainly trying to excuse Him self from the blame of sin in al lowing His creatures to sin. The human being who takes the little child to the river-bank, in the above illustration, is indeed a mur derer, but the Holy Creator and Judge of man is perfectly righte ous to make man upright in His own jmmage, and put him under a hcly law, and. if he wilfully and rebelliously violates that law, to reflect upon him the just penalty of his transgression. The most Holy One that inhabiteth eternity is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all; He does not even tempt, muchless compel, his creatures to sin; he is, to sin in every form and in every being, a consuming .fire; even his sinless Son, when representing his sinful people, was forsaken of his holy and loving Father, and delivered up to suffer the horrible death of the cross(lsa. Ivii. 15; Habak. i. 13; 1 John i. 5, James i. 13, 15; Heb. xii. 29; Mat. xxvii. 46; Acts ii. 23,) I have heard of a great many weak minded and deluded Methodists and New School Baptist in Geor gia claiming to have attained sin less perfection in the flesh, some of whom disgraced and injured themselves by vainly trying to fly and to walk on the water, and of one, while professing holiness, in dulging in the grossest sin. On the same train with myself one day in Georgia, the notorious infidel, R. G. Ingersol, asked an illiterate Primitive Baptist if he had seen God, and the Baptist an swered “yes, in my experience.” Ingersol confessed that the Bap tist had the advantage of him, as he himself had never had such an experience; but he added that he did not deny that there is a God, and said that there might be three or four of them, but he had never seen them. Our brother then asked him if he believed he (In gersol) had any brains, he replied that he did, and, when asked if he had ever seen his brains, he had to answer “No.” A still more appropriate and convincing ques tion would have been, whether he had ever seen his mind. The realty of the invisible mind is as certain as the invisible, onni present Divine spirit is as certain as the reality of the visible and in visible works made and upheld by Him. The oneness of the uni verse proves the oneness of God; and in the Noted American Re view of August 1881, Ingersol ad mitted that if there is a God of Na ture, He is the same as the God of the Bible. Gfi met with the admirable little book, “My Rea sons for Leaving the New School or Missionary Baptists,” by Elder John H. Fisher, of Collinsville, Texas, who mails it for 25 cents per copy or $2.50 per dozen copies. It contains 127 pages, and is di vided into 18 chapters, nine of which treat of the unscriptual doctrines, and nine of the un scriptual practices of the New School Baptists. Eld. Fisher was the pastor of four of their churches, with a salary of SBOO per year, and a student at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, at Louisville, Ky. He had a great struggle of mind in leaving them and joining the few, poor, and des pised Primitive Baptists. He writes ably and kindly of his former brethren. I would be glad if all the subjects of grace in all the de nomination could read this little work. The ninth chapter of Elder Fisher’s book, speaks of the af filiation (of New School Baptist) with nearly all kinds of secret in stitutions of men,” while he shows it to be plainly condemned by such scripture as Mat. x. 27, 27; Eph. y. 11, 13; Lukexiv. 33; Col. ii. 20, 23 ; 2 Cor. vi. 14, 18; Judg. ii. 1,2 ; Mat. vi. 21; and Rev. xviii. 4. The Masonic, claimed to be the most ancient of these Secret Societies, is explained (in its pur poses, ceremonies, signs, degrees, and awful oaths, with an authen ticated account of the abduction and murder of tlfe author in the mouth of Niagara river, in 1826) in Captain William Morgan’s “Freemasonry Exposed” (sold by L. Fitsgerald, 18 Ann street, New York, for 25 cents ),’under specu lative Fremasonry, as critical scholars know, while having some vague anologies with the secret heathen rites of ancient Grecj and Egypt, can not be traced back, by authentic history, to Solomon, or Moses, or Adam or the first day of his creation, as some credulous Masons believe, but finds its true historical precusor in the building corporations of the mildle ages, and itself actually originated' in London, June 24th, 1717, (see the Ninth Edition of the Encyclo paedia Britannica, Vol. ix. page 729.) The Masonic traditional ad ditions to the scriptures (see Rw. xxii. 18.) are as mythical and in creditable as those of Roman Catholicism. The church of Christis the only divine Society on earth and it needs none of the additions or pretended improve ments of men. The anti-christian ity of Secret Societies is proved by their ignoring the name and sal tion of Jesus Christ. A Youngite Baptist told me that he had been a Mason thirty years, and that it had never done, and he was satis fied never would do him, 25 cents worth of good. One of the most intelegent Masons in the United States, the late Mr. E. J. Hale, of North Carolina, and then of New York, wrote a few years ago in the Raleigh (N. C.) Observer, that he had long since quit attending the Lodges, because his time could be much more profitably employed. I met on my trip with perhaps the youngest Primitive Baptist in the world, sister Ada Moran, of Ohapilco, Brooks county Ga. She is eleven years old, and was bap tized last October, after telling a satisfactory and touching ex perience reaching back two years. And the most remarkable family, in some respects, that I ever visi ted, is that of brother Wm. W. Williams, of Ty Ty, Worth cpsn ty Ga.; he and his wife are living, and have thirteen children, .bf whom ten are at home, five boys and five girls; five are Primitive Baptists, and four others have a hope, and all are excellent singers ' and performers, carrying all the different parts in music, and seem to be able to sing every hymn ■in the note books, and make commodious house seem a heaven ly place. This dear brother .is himself about to build a good meeting house near his home. I was glad to learn that one of ■HHLiost able had been faithful and bold enough to teach and train his four churches to obey the apostle Paul’s injunction, in 1 Cor.ix. to furnish their paster a temporal support, and that two others of our worthiest elders there are following in the same scriptural line. I attended a Union Meeting of the Echleconnee Association with Mount Carmel church, near Cul loden, Monroe/ county Ga., the last three days in March; and it was a union time gs blessed and wonderful peace and love and joy—-a most interesting, tender, and melting not only the speakers; but hundreds of the eager attentive hearers seeming to be blessed with an outpouring of the Divine Spirit. Elder W. C. Cleveland took me eight-teen miles in his buggy from the Union Meeting, Monday, April Ist, to Butler, Ga., where, when I hoped to meet dear brother Res pess on the first of April—my first idea of making this trip, having been suggested by him to mewhen I was last with him at his home in Feb. 1894; but the freed and puri fied spirit of the humble, self-sacri ficing, and afflicted servant of Christ had, on. February 4th, as cended I believe, to the immediate, holy, and blissful presence of God; and it was a most mournful pleas ure to me to visit and try to speak words of comfort to his lonely, bereaved family and church. Patriachs. prophets, apostles, min ister?, and members pass away; but the Divine Head of the church ever lives, and will never leave nor forsake His people, but will be with them, in His gracious and saving presence, to the end of life, the end of time, and the never ending ages of eternity. , 8. Hassell. Williamston, N. C. Reproye not a scorner, lest ho hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. Prov.ix. 8. ■