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LTHE PILGRIM’S BANNER. A. V. SIMMS, Valdosta, Ga., LEE HANKS, Boston Ga. f Ktmor3 ’ PUBLISHED SEMI-MONTHLY. SUBSCRIPTION RATES IN AD VANCE. FOR THE UNITED STATES, CANADA AN "MEXICO. Single copy one year SI.OO single copy six m0nth5.,........ 5Q single copy three months 25 Sample copies sent free on application. SPECIAL NOTICE! In writing communications for the Piiairim’s Banner, please observe the following rules: 1. Do not write on but one side of your paper. 2. Write plain and distinct, so that it can be easily read. 3. Above all things, do not write with a LEAD PENCIL. Strictly adhere to the above rules and you will confer a great favor on us and a special favor to the Printer. Entered at the Post Office at Val dosta, Ga.. as second class mail matte EDITORIAL. » “Two things have I required of thee: deny them not before I die: Remote far from me vanity and lies; give me neither poaerty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest Ibe full and deny thee, and say Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.’’, Prov. xxx. 7-9 Such was the supplication of Solomon, the servant of God,* in his day. And such has been, and will he the prayers of those, who, in every age has been, or will be taught the exceeding sinfulness of ’‘vanity and lies,’ or learned not to trust in“nncartain The religion of Jesus is today that which it has always been. Il makes its impress upon every heart it reaches. It exalts the humble, lad humbles the exalted. 4r He hath seu'u< and exalted . them of low degree. He hath filled the hun gry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.” Luke 1. 52-53. No wonder Jesus said ’’Blessed are the poor’.’ Every promiee made, and every spiritual blessing falls on the bowed heads of the poor. And such is the com passionate love of our adorable Master that the poor and desti tute may come with holy boldness to HL Throne and pour out their sorrows before Him who can see every falling ’tear and hear every unuttered groan with the full asaurance of faith that He will “Listen to their broken sighs And grant them all their needs.’ “He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despire their prayers.” Ps 102 —17. Then are you weary with the burdens and cares of life? Go to Jesus and he will remove your burdens and heal your broken heart, or give you grace to bear all with patience and resignation. Are you afflicted and bed-ridden? Then go to Jesus, and he will either restore you to health or make your bed a blessing to you. Are you mourning because of poverty in worldly things? Go to Him who himself has been poor, and who knows your every sorrow from having been brought into personal contact with them ail, and he will either give you more or give you contentment with vfhat you have. Dear saint can you say with Solomon; “Give me neither pover ty nor riches.” I think that none but God’s children have ever felt' so. None but these can see dan ger in riches. Others seem to think “gain is godliness.” but Christians know that “godliness with contentment is great gain.” ‘ ■ A ‘ < i 1 So truly did' the Apostle Paul see the danger of worldly riches that he gave in his charge to his son Timothy to “Charge them that rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in un certain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, That they do .good, that’they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, paying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come” 1, Tim. vi- 17—19. Thus the apostle would teach that “To do good, to be ready to distribute,” was laying up store againsCthe time to come &o but those ignorant of his grace—who have never loved God or known Him, “lay by in store against the time to come” by selfishly hoarding their weal th,and by wickedly and cruelly oppressing the poor. The rich Christian should heed the warnings of the apostle, as above, and let such an one know that all his possess ions is a blessing from God, and by rightly appropriating ' his wealth, as God has directed, he will’ not only honor God who gave him all, and help to bear the burdens of tue poor and destitute, but will lay by for himself a good FOUNDATION AGAINST THE TIME TO COME. Not only did the apostle see danger for the people of God in earthly riches, but those who craved or anxiously desired wealth were in danger of falling into many hurtful temptations. “But they that will be rich fall in to temtation and a snare, and in to many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the rute of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced, themselves through with many sorrows.” Thus, though they be poor, they may covet riches to the destruction of their own spirit ual peace. Solomon saw this in his day hence his prayer: “Give me neith er poverty nor riches.” Riches are a temptation ; and that Chris tian who is ignorant of this truth, and craves only earthly gain, will surely fail of the sweet spiritual riches enjoyed by the poor, but contented Christian. Our needs may be briefly comprehended in these: Trust in God, godliness and contentment. Jesus can make the beggar upon the dung-hill feel rich, and enjoy the true riches of the divine life. All we need is in Jesus. Not only has he purchased a home—an eterna l home of rest and peace for us, but he has promised to supply our ev ery earthly need, if we seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. Math. vi. 33. Mind you, he has not promised all you want, for to have your wants supplied, would be your down-fall and rum ; but you may look to have your needs supplied, if you keep his covenant, and remember his commandments to do them. How vain is earthly riches 1 How alluring, how deceptive. Think the of vast estates of the Goulds, the Vanderbuilte and Rothchilds. What do they realize from it? The tale is soon told—food and rai ment! that’s all. Christians, if God has given you riches 'it is that you should honor him’ with your substance (Prov, iii 9.) by appropriating it as he has di rected. But to desecrate and pervert it to an unholy use, is t dishonor and reproach ihatGop from whom you received it aim to pierce your self through with many sorrows. Perhaps you cant sing* pray nor preach, but you can cause some poor widow’s heaijt to leap for joy, or alleviate the suffer ings of some helples orphan, who perhaps, in after years, will de light to honor the man who bears God’s name and shown such kind ness. And more still; you will feel better yourself. A sweet re ward of peace and joy will be yours. God will cause you to f° that you have done right, and this is worth more—infinitely more to the child of God than all the gold of Ophir. For Jesus accepts such sacrifices as done to him. “Inas much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren ye have done it unto me. Math, xxx 40. Any religion void of charity, cannot be the religion of Christ. “Whoso hath this world’s goods, and aeeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwell eth the love of God in him? John, iii 17. But Solomon prayed to be deliv ered from poverty. He could see his need for temporal things. And indeed temporal things, when used lawfully, are a blessing. The outer man has his needs, as well as the inner man. But as poverty might drive him/to beggary and theft, ami as riches might cause Jum , to forget the Lord, and say “Who is the Lord” he could pray for de liverance from’both- —an unselfish, spiritual prayer, which Jone but God’s children can offer S. WILL YOU HELP We desire to ask our brethren, sisters and friends to aid us what they can in circulating the Banner among our upon a would not make this appial, out the success of the paper ind the temporal interest of our ovn fam ily seem to demand it. So far it has: been a heavy expense to us, and we have realized but little a bove the actual cost of getting out the paper. We have no time for traveling and soliciting subscrip tions, even if we felt inclined to do so. Our office work, and the con stant °are of four churches occu pies our whole time. We are there fore largely dependent upon our brethren and friends in making a success. We have now quite a large list of indigent persons—old sisters —widows and over-burdened preachers to whom we send the pa per gratis. Ofcourse this cost some thing, but we desire to continue to send it to them, but dear breth ren will you aid us what you can in this good work by sending in new subscribers, renewals etc, and speaking a good word for the pa per? We ask every brother and sister who may read this notice, and who may be interested in the paper, and the cause of truth, to act as agents for us in their respec tive localities. Dear brethren and Bisters will you do it? We will gladly ’furnish sample copies to any brother or sister who may de cide to help us. And to further encourage such a move we offer as a premium to every new cash sub scriber sent us between this date and the first of January, one copy of “Gadby’s Everlasting Task for Arminians.” Beloved reader, we are addressing YOU, will you help us? Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure and trouble therewith. Prov. xv. 1& ante you Scribes, aM hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of •mini and anise and cutmnin, and haye om t-| ted the weightier matters of the law, judgement, mercy, and faith: th< sc ought ye to have done, and not to let ve the other undone.” Matt, xx iii :23 Brother J. W. Willis desires our views on the above scriptural declaration which we will cheerf.il ly give according to our feeble un derstanding. It shall be borne n mindi that our opinion is not in fallible, and we would exhort all lovers of truth to search the Scrip tures and your experience and if our feeble views fall short.do not re ceive them. We need the charity of our good brethren, to bear with :>ur weaxness iu writing and preach ing. The “Pharisees and Scribes” were zealous worshippers under the law, and perhaps, their good moral i have never been excelled by any people on earth. They worsipped in the letter, and wore well ac quainted with all manner of ex ternal service, in fact,' all th ait worship was external. They were very tenacious for the traditions of the elders. They wanted to da everything precisely like their fa thers and grandfathers die', and thought that was service to God. They never stop ped to ask have we a thus sayeth the Lord for our service,” bit it the elders did a thing that was all the authority they wanted. These religious people were not a ware of the fact that the “Elders” or fathers were liable to be wrong and were just as imperfect as they. The fathers paid a tenth of these little herbs, in their service, such as mint, commin and anise, all of which amounted as you may say to nothing, but the Scribes and Pharisees wanted to do everything just like their fathers, and they were very strict in this respect to bring a tenth of these little pi iceless herbs in then service. They were depending on this external service to save them eternally, and would have made a great ado about otl erg fnil<-dto havc hrcrr their herbs just like the fathers. They made great complaint age mt the disciples of Jesus for eatu g with unwashed hands; thus trans gressing the traditions of the el ders (Matt. 15:2) These pec ole would strain at (out) a gnat and swallow a camel. They never re buked the disciples of Jesus for plucking the ears of corn on the sabbath day. They were holier in their own estimation than Jesus was. They stood aloof from the Gentiles and rebuked the Son of God for eating with them. Doubt less they could boast of their firmness in the faith in contend ing for the traditions of the fathers and were so loyal to their Creed that they could thank God that they were not as other men. They were a proud, selfish boastful self righteous people, yet they :iad; some noble triats and were firm on many points of doctrine, such as the resurrection and endless life bo yond the grave. But while they were so tenacious for their tradi tion and were so loyal to their relig ion, they had black hidden princi ple within them that would crucify the Son of God, and extinguish his beloved disciples from off of the earth. They were not searching after truth and cared nothing for the words of Jesus, but they were de termined to follow the traditons of the fathers, right or wrong. If Jesus and his deciples would not conform to their tradition they were ready to persecute them and put them to death, and cast their names out as evil and call Jesus a “devil” and “mad”ctc. They could stone Stephen Qecause he would not yield to their tradi tions. Just think of a man being put to death because he will not offer a tenth of the little herbs, and believed the truth. They neglect the weightier matters of jaw, judgement mercy arid truth’ They will violate the law in com mitting murder, they oxercse no sound judgment in their cruelty /..V. 1 •• Tl • " ? I to the of" God; they show them no mercy; and are oontendiag or even searching for truth, but only doing these things because the fathers did. And they would not fellowship any body that does not follow their traditions, but will put them to death. Doubtless, the Scribes and Pharisee-4 thought they were following after the “ancient land marks”. People are no better to day than they were m the days of Christ, and our flesh is just the same kind of flesh. We have thought that there might be some danger of the Lord’s children pos sessing some of those Pharisaical triats of opposing good brethren, because they did not dress like, or utter every sentence just like our fathers did. We hope that no good brethren will follow the tra ditions of men, but let God’s writ ten word, be his only rule of faith and practice. We look back upon our fathers with profound refer ence and think surely the Lord give them great faith to stand the storm of persecutions, divis ion i and strifes and can say, ’Surely they have fought a good fight,” and our prayers to God is that we may fall asleep in Jesus our life untarnished and in the sweet felloswhip of the Old Baptistas they have done. But with all this we are aware that man is a frail fallible creature and we should not follow them any further than they followed Christ. The Lord’s people should not be striving about some un scriptual notion, hobby or custom of our fathers to the neglect of tin plain teaching of Christ. Condi tional ist follow the traditions of men and are great sticklers for their men-made institutions, and think their future destiny depends upon their allegiance to the doc trine of men ; because these were originated by the fathers. They : never stop to consider whether they have Bible authority for these instiutions, but have them because the fathers did, and will persecute Old Baptist because Jhey da iu4 have these unscriptual practices and will omit the doctrine of elec tion, predestination, salvation by race and tho efficacious work of Christ in the salvation of sinnars. Chidren of God should not omit the weightier matters of love, mercy and truth as taught in the Bible to follow the traditions of men. Brethren should be loving, gentle, forbearing, full of mercy, and should have that charity that hides a multitude of sins, endures all things, suffers all things, and hunts no ghosts to destroy good brethren. Do not fall out with a brother for changing the meeting day or time of comunion and fel lowship drunkards in the church. I have known good brethren to dispute about storm-pits, lighten ing rods, insurance etc. which i the Bible does not condemn and would fellowship covetousness, railers, etc. Which the Bible does condemn. This is omitting the weightier matters. Some of the greatest troubles that arise among the Lord’s peo ple is omitting thG“weightor mat ters” of the teachings of God’s word and following the traditions of men. Where do we have authority for secret societies, Sunday Schools, Theological Schools, picnics, lad ies aid Sosieties, bed quilt raffliugs oyster supper,s festivals, auc tioneering young ladies to the high est bidder, sham postoffice, gues sing parties at so much a guess, foreign Mission enterprises iu the name of religion? All the authority we have is the “Elders” have originated these things and they are handed down by tradition O Christian, awake, and put on the whole armour of God; if you are entangled in the meshes of Babylon, come out anjd find a home among the Lord’s people. Our poor heart goes out in prayer to God for you that you may come to Zion and find a rest for your weary aouL How many precious Christians today are entangled and do not know where the church is. They have been taught that every creed of religion is a branch of the church, and hence they are follow-* ing the traditions of men. Christ never established but one church, and she has ever contended for salvation by grace and has stood aloof from all these men-made institutions. These others are not five hundred years old; none but the Catholics. Men have founded them all but the Old Bap tists. Brethren let us not be dis puting about the customs of our fathers, but let us all do our duty and not be back-biting or trying to devout each other, but come humbly to each other’s feet and lay down everything that is unwar ranted by the Bible, and our love aid ligh t will be so exemplified that the Christian, in error, will not have such a difficult matter to find the church. If condition alist follow the traditions of men to extreme, dont let us go to ano ther. Dont tell the little Chris tian that he cant obey God, and to remain in disobedience as long as he can, but encourage him to fol low Jesus and obey his impressions that are wrought in him by graoj. May the Lord help the church to come to the front and do her whole duty to God, to eachother, to the deacons, to the poor and to the ministry. It does not matter what father did let us do our whole duty in encouraging the little lambs strengthening weak hands confirming the feeble knees and welcoming them among us. Our lives are too short to waste them about words to know piofiL God’s people are poor and afflicted people and ought to strive hard for peace and fellowship than any people on earth. The world, the flesh and Jthe devil are in battle array against us, and O do not spend yonr time in back-biting or saying hard things about each other. Do not make mountains out of mole hills. Pray for us. H ADDITIONS I learned that Elder I>. W. el last 4ih Sunday. Elder Stricfc land baptized six at Bay Branch the same day. Elder A. P. Tuck er baptized five at Bethsaida last third Sunday and two at Live Oak last first Sunday. They that glad ly received the word, were bap tized. We are glad to welcome these precious ones home—H. Since the above was put in type Elder Hanks writes us from Ozark Ala., “I have had a feast this week. Nine have joined at my meetings. The Lori is blessing his people here.” Brother D. H. Goble writes from Greenfield, Indiana: “Five were baptized at our church here Sunday last.” Others are report ing same in other sections. One was added to the church at Mount Horeb, Madison Co., Fla., at oar last meeting there; oue at Bethel, Hamilton, Fla., at her lust meet ing;, three at Hebron, at our last meeting there, and four at Union at her last meeting. We hope our people may not forget the source from whence these blessings flow. —S A GOOD MEETING. We attended the Annual Meet ing at Pleasant church. Berrien Co Ga., which convened on Friday Sept. 13 and continued three days* It was in some respects tbelarg l * est and best meetings it has ever been our good fortune to attend* There were no less than 1500 peo ple in attendance, and more Bap tists present than we ever saw tu* gether at any meeting. The large house could not accomodate ono half the people. Seven weTe re ceived by experience and baptist, and one restored. AH the mem bers seemed spiritual and full of life. We could but sit and shed tears of joy to see so many of the Lord's people—young and old, to gether, manifesting the life of Je sus within them. They seemed to be of one mind and spirit, aud all of one size. A great many young people—boys and girls, rioW min gle in the feasts of the Old Bap tiste of this country. Are we dy ing out? S