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Many good and strong things were said in be half of MISSIONS During the Session of tho Southern Baptist Convention. Subscribe to and read the Christian Index, if you would keep In formed. ESTABLISHED 1821. Kite ffiltristian Unites Published Every Thursday at 57% 8. Broad Street, Atlanta, Ga. J. C. McMICHAEL. Proprietor. Organ of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia. Subscription Price ; §ne copy, one year $ 2.00 ne copy, six months 1.00 ne copy, throe months 50 Obituaries.—One hundred words free of charge. For each extra word, one cent per word, cash with copy. .To Correhfondents.—Do not uso abrevia tions; b\' ext ra careful in writingproper names; write with ink, on one side of paper; Do not write copy intended for tho editor and busi ness items on same sheet. Leave off personal ities; condense. Business.—Write all names, and post offices distinctly. In ordering a change give the old as well as the new address. The date of label indicates the time your subscription expires. If you do not wish it continued, order it stop ped a week before. We consider each sub scriber permanent, until ho orders his paper discontinued. When you order it stopped pay up to date. Remittances by check preferred; or regis tered letter, money order, postal note. We give this week two articles of length which we divide, giving half of each this issue and the other half to appear next week. They are both meritorious and will pay perusal. One will be found on the first page and the other on the second. It is a fatal mistake ’to at tempt to teach others until we have ourselves learned of Jesus Christ. What is needed in our times more than anything else is a return to the sustenance and the spirit of “the truth as it is in Jesus. ' The sweetest words that can fall on a preacher’s ear are those which assure him of the divine blessing on his efforts to win souls. “You led me to Christ,” coming from an earn est heart, is an assurance more precious than any worldly honors or emolument. There were two kinds of men from whom tho Apostle • Paul prayed to be delivered. They w<?re the unrea sonable and tho wicked. Now, a man may be both unreasonable and wicked, but a very good man may sometimes be very unreasonable. And when he is so, his unreasona bleness i.iay be a great. trial to the '‘patience of the saints. “With patience ye keep your souls,” said an inspired apostle. It is a most suggestive utterance. Do we not lose our grasp upon our moral re sources when we grow restless unde r the divine leading and impatient of life’s limitations ? The secret of suc cess lies hidden in heroic patience more frequent perhaps than any where else. And who has not found himself in the exercise of this virtue to grow calm and strong at the same time ? Dissatisfaction with even our best work is the penalty we must pay for having a high ideal. Without a high ideal nothing worthy can be accom plished. The higher our ideal and the clearer our view of it, the deeper our dissatisfaction. So it is with character. He who is as good as he wants to be is not good at all, and he who is most deeply affected by his short comings may be nearest his of a perfect life. No pastor should resign his charge without a very clear and satisfactory reason. Undue haste to lay down a work to which he has been divine ly guided may bring disaster into his own spiritual life and untold harm to the church. And if ever a church member feela called upon to advise his pastor to resign, he ought to be very sure that he is not laying irrev erent hands upon the ark or God. Pastors, as a rule, are the most con sciencjous of men. They are not given to holding on to their places merely for a living, and they know •when their work is useful fully as well as other people. Besides, they seek the divine guidance for them selves, and their convictions are en titled to respect. In a recently published letter Dr Broadus, alluding to the advantages of our seminary to well trained stu dents, said: “It is also extremely use ful for these scholarly men to have opportunity of making acquaintance with several hundred other young ministers who are to be their asso ciates hereafter in denominational work. Thia advantage is purely in cidental, but it can hardly be over estimated. Every experienced teach er knows how great is the influence of students upon each ether; and the bonds of sympathy and friendship formed in the seminary are a source of joy and comfort and strength through all the subsequent years* <Lljc Christian 'lB-93 « e *TßWesl- -V- • •*4 u* OUR MISSISSIPPI LETTER. THE BIGGEST THING; MUCH WATER; THE baptists; their schools; THE FIRST DIPLOMA TO A GIRL; MISSISSIPPI WOMEN IN THE LEAD; THE LATE STATE CONVENTION, ETC. BY B. B. WOMACK, D. D. Georgia must hear from Missis sissipi occasionally, and I am glad to ■ use the columns of the dear old In dex in saying a few things of Miss issippi and her people. THE BIGGEST THING. Tho mark will not be missed far, if it be said that Mississippi has the biggest thing in the United States, and that is the Mississipi River, — well, it is the longest thing, anyhow. It is true, that not all of the great river belongs to us; but 500 miles of. it belongs to us, and that is more of it than anybody else has. And there is nothing in the United States so liard to control as this same swift ly, smoothly flowing river. How to control it, is an unsolved problem. ‘‘Water its living strength first shows,! When obstacles its course oppose.” The first.attcmpt to keep its waters within its banks was in 1717, when the French governor, Do la Tour, ordered embankments for the pro tection of New Orleans. From then till now, the levee system has been worked with more or less vigor, and millions upon millions of money have been expended upon the ,ever caving. ever-changing banks of this mighty river. But the Mississippi River has away of its own, and by some means or othbr it manages to overrun its banks and spread de struction and death over wide and rich sections of country. The esti mate of the damage by water this season, goes away up into the mil lions. It is true that "Water is the mother of the vine, The nurse and fountain of fecundity, Tho adorner and refresher of the world”; but Charles Mackay, the author of those lines, never saw the Missis sippi River as it was a. few weeks ago. It actually seems that this river cannot be cuotroled. Build a, k levee on its l.tbkqf let ly -feet high; build it of solid 'masonry, forty feet wide if you like—this mighty river laughs at your folly, and in the time of “low water,” when the surface of the water strikes a certain stratum of sand, it undermines the banks, and in due time banks, levees and all go plunging down and are hur ried on to the Gulf. There are many thoughtful people at this day who think the levee system an evil; that the bed of the river builds up as the levee is raised higher, and that continued levee building, besides wasting multiplied millions of money, will finally culminate in great disas ter. But nothing deters the enter prising money-seeeker from invest ing in the bottoms.” The rule is, they soon get rich, or—poor. It is quick work. A PECULIARITY. There being no cities and few large towns in this State, Mississippi is pre-eminently an agricultural State. And, just as you might expect, the religious people are religious; they like the old time religion, they fol low in the old paths; they have no fondness for new lights; they be lieve the bible is an infallible revela tion from tho Divine Being and that every word of it is true; do not boast of any great men, nor of doing great things; they like to do right. They like one another. Clannish? Well, yes; they cultivate brotherly love. It is all right to be clannish when it is right, you know. THE BAPTISTS. The Baptists swarm in Mississippi. Swarm? Well,they abound, then. But I am not sure that it is improper to say they “swarm.” You see a family of t-wenty-two, all Baptists, and then see those boys and girls marry and move out, starting up twenty new Baptist families, and you will think about bees swarming. Our statis tics show our numbers to be some where between 80,000 and 00,000. Some ten or twelve years ago, they could not count but some 40,000. Rapid growth. During that time, they have becomo thoroughly united and strongly organized, and they are a mighty host. J. B. Gambrell and bis Baptist Record which he founded B ome fifteen years have been the mighty agents in leading these will ing hosts on to victory. Some months ago, ho retired from the Record leaving it in the careful hands of his Associate, J. A Hackett, who is one of the best wen in 4te ATLANTA, GA., THURSDAY. AUGUST 11, 1892. world and is making the paper a fine success. BAPTIST SCHOOLS. Mississippi Baptists have but one great school for their boys and young men, and that Mississippi College, located at Clinton a pleasant and de lightful suburb of Jackson, the State capitol. This school has an -envia ble history, and a long one. It was founded in 1826, 66 years ago; it ■was given to the Baptists in 1850. It has done a great work. There are various academies and high schools under the control of the Baptists in tho State. Baptist schools for girls in Mississippi are dmnerous and excellent. Our men put the highest value upon the female population of the State, and are therefore tho most gallant of men. This is proven by the fact that Mississippi was tho first State in tho union of States that passed a Jaw enabling women to hold in their own name. Another fact: The first girl graduate to receive a diploma from a literary institution in the Tnited States or in the world was a Mississippi girl who graduated from a Mississippi school. I am aware that Georgia makes the same claim; but tho facts seem to bo against Georgia and in favor of Misssissippi. And at tho present time, as com pared with the population, there are more and better schools for girls in this State than any other. Os all tho places to get pious, educated and good wives, Mississippi is the best place. Menander said: “To marry a wife, if we regard the truth, is an evil, but it is a necessary evil.” Un fortunate man! He was not acquaint ed with our Mississippi girls. THE STATE CONVENTION. Tlie Baptist State Convention met in Meridian, July 21, with the First Baptist Church, Rev. J. W. Boze man, pastor. This church lost its house by fire some weeks ago. The convention held its meetings in the City Hall. Several efforts have been made to change tho time of meeting; but th® delegates veto all suck propositions. / The convention must meet in J uly in or der that the many teachers of the schools, business men and the farmers may be able to attend. Shut off the teachers, business men and the farmers of the State and there would not be much convention left. So, right in the middle of the “dog days” is the time we are doomed to hold our meetings. Dr. Harris, of Rich mond, Frost, of Nashville, Harvey, of Louisville, Hatcher, of Atlanta, Tichenor, of Atlanta, Morris, of Austin, Texas, Kerfoot, of Louis ville, were present at this meeting. Drs. Harris, Frost and Tichenor came that long distance to make speeches to our people on the great Centennial movement and their re spective Boards. But it so turned oiit that they were limited to thirty minutes each. All were sorry for this. Dr. Harris said he was an hour man. He had long been ac customed to speaking an hour ; held his classes an hour ; an hour was his time. But he did well with hi% little half hour. Dr. Frost said he had never thought of less than an hour when be had.nothing but his Board to represent; but now he had a dou ble subject, and the question with him was, how he could get through in an hour. Dr. Tichenor labored under a similar difficulty. The routine business was gone through with, reports read and adopted with little discussion; even the report on temperance was adopt ed with but little speech-making. I have never known that report to pass without several loud and long speeches. Secretary Christian’s report of the State Mission Board showed good work'; but that Board was compelled to close the year with a small debt. This is unsual. But the crops last year, the floods this year and tho prospect before our people, are quite enough to ac. count for this failure to come out even this year. The question of all absorbing interest was the removal of Mississippi College. By a small majority it was decided to move the college from Clinton to Meridian. Meridian is a thriving town of 10,000 population on tho Eastern border of the state. Unfortunately, the con. vention was held in Meridian and a large local vote decided the fate of the college. Meridian proposes to give thirty acres of land and $50,000 cash, or pay $5,000 forfeit, if this is not done by January, 1893. Tlie college is to open up in its new quarters September 1893. The property at Clinton, valued at some $50,000, was turned over to the Central Association to be used fop tlie purposes of a good • high school. Here is a fine opening for a live man. Hillman College, an excellent school for girls, established some for ty years ago, is here, and a more healthful place cannot be. found. It is a first-class health resort. Excel lent and various mineral waters abound here. The celebrated Coop er’s Wells, Robinson Springs, Mis sissippi Springs, Harness Well, lie immediately around the town, while there mineral wells of great value immediately in the town. never die. Webb, Ex-President ofj Mississippi College, was re-elected] President of the Convention ana Vicksburg was elected as the place for the next meeting: But I close this article, though there are several other things I would like to say. CALIFORNIA REWS LETTER. There are about twelve thousand Baptists in California. These are divided into two conventions. One of them covers the territory of cen tral and northern California; the other tlie territory known as south ern California. Rev. W. 11. Latau rette, of Alameda, is the General Missionary for the former, and Rev. W. W. Tinker, of Los Angeles, for tho latter. The two conventions are doing excellent work. The increase in all departments of religious activi' ty is becoming more and more evi dent each year. The Baptists, olice torn and enfeebled, are now united and progressive. New churches are springing up all over the State. New houses of splendid arrangements are being built here and there, good and true men are being settled as pastors, and the outlook for the future was never better. A few years ago t|i-j average pas- • » ji, VIIV • terate wfts six iw»«f. , ;<v it is more than double that le^K -of time* We have two schools of high and excellent grade. California College is situated in Oakland just across the bay from San Francisco. Dr. S. B. Morse is president. He is aided by an excellent corps of teach ers. More than a hundred students ma triculated during the last term. It has been in operation at Oakland only five years. During that time grounds and buildings have been se cured that are worth more than a hundred thousand dollars. The en dowment fund has reached fifty-five thousand dollars and a strong hope ful effort is being made to increase the amount to one hundred thousand dollars. Los Angeles University is situated in the charming city of Los Angeles in Southern California. Mr. Calvin Esterly is the President. It has grounds and buildings worth fifty thousand dollars. Like most of our schools it needs an endowment, and will doubtless have one in time. Its progress was greatly impeded by the bursting of the greatboom in real es tate a fewyears ago, but its cause is onward, and it is doing excellent work for the denomination. ’ We have also in Oakland the be ginning of a Theological Seminary. It is now called The Pacific Baptist Theological Union. It is largely a Bible school. Its floors were opened in September 1890. Mrs. E. H. Gray, of Oakland, started the insti tution by donating two buildings in the heart of the city and worth to gether twenty thousand dollars. Tho same good lady has started an en dowment fund by giving in cash $14,221. Dr. Gray her husband, has given his large library, book cases, paintings, and furniture to the Union. Dr. Gray is the President. During the past two years he has given in structions to a small class in System matio Theology, Biblical Interpreta tion, Church History, etc. Pastors about the bay and others have ren dered some gratuitous assistance, but a corps of Professors cannot be em ployed till the endowment is large enough to justify it. We have also a Baptist Resort, situated at Twin Lakes, in tho sub urbs of Santa Cruz. Two years ngo it consisted of bare ground, and two lakes of water. Now there are about thirty cottages there, and an audito. rium that cost four thousand dollars. Here the convention of the northern and central portion of the state meets each year. A general camp meeting is also held in August for Bible study lectures and recreation both spiritual and physical. Tho bathing facilities are good, and ohe who loves the sea can find no better place on the coast to spend a few weeks. I must mention here tho work be ing done by Dr. J. B. Hartwell among theJChinese. He is Superin tendent of Chinese work for the Pa cific coast, and is meeting with good success from San Diego to Puget Sound, In the ten years he has been on the coast he has seen the work in crease till now he has a church of nearly a hundred in San and property worth twen ty thoußted dollars. Besides this thi’ra is Boargo church in Portland, and others at different the coast. Several of his' converts are now preaching to the" church in this country and some have gone as missionaries to China. The Baptist women of California are, in my opinion, ahead of the wo men of any state in the Union for completeness of organization ami aggressive, persistent work. Both in Home and Foreign Missions they lead the brethren, and in a largo number of cases are the very life of the church. In one town we have a Baptist church composed of sixty women and five men. One brother calls it the female church. In another instance the proportion of women is even greater than in this case. Both of these churches do their work well and in an approved style. The outlook for Baptists in Cali fornia is very hopeful. The convention of which I am writing most has twenty-four mis sionaries in the field, and the num ber is all the while increasing. We could double the number at onco, if we had the means. The Home Mis sion Society has increased its dona tion to us for tho coming year by two thousand dollars, and there is coVresponding increase on the parti of .the churches. But religious work iu California is very hard. The men who are doing the best work here are made of the same material as missionaries to for eign countries. The churches are composed of people from so many sections of the country, and from so many nationalities, with their different ideas and notions that it is hard to organize and harmonize them for aggressive work. Then there are so many isms that one be comes often bewildered. Public sentiment too is opposed to religion. The Sabbath is a day of sport and pleasure instead of worship. In the South the people go to church natu rally. The Catholics run and for eigners control everything from the Legislature down. The needs of the field are great, but difficult to bo met. There are two hundred and forty five Baptist preachers in California. Fully one hundred of these are not actively employed in the pastorate. Many of these are men broken down in health and have come for the ben fits of the climate. Some,of them are old men and retired from the ministry. Others have failed to se cure a support for themselves and families by preaching and have gone into business. Those who are succeeding best are young men. My observation has been that those who have come here beyond tho age of forty, -have, in most oases, failed. They have been too fixed in their modes of thought and work to adapt themselves to Western ways and habits, and so have gone down before them. Oth ers, much younger than forty, have failed for other reasons. Some have oome out with wrong notions of things, too much self importance, and with too great expectations. One young man of another denomi nation than ours, came to one of our cities advertised- as the “Demos thenes of tho East.” Tho city was billed with posters announcing his arrival. For several Sundays his congregations filled the house. Soon they began to drop off, and about tho fourth Sunday ho announced that «‘urgent business called him homo.” Another one, of still another denom ination, came to a smaller town “on trial” as diif the other brother. When he appeared in the pulpit his first utterance was something like this; “Thia is the smallest bouse I ever preached in in my life. If I stayhere you will have to build me a larger house than this.” His first congregation was the largest that ever greeted him, and on tho third Sunday he an nouccd that a telegram bringing nows of the sickness of his wife would compell him to leave the fol lowing day. Another one, and a Baptist, this time, came to a very important field. He came with a tremendous flourish, and began his work as happy as a lark. In a very short time he act ually went back because his mother in-law, who had always lived with him refused to come to California. Some of us thought he might have found a better excuse. W. T. J. A ROAD SYSTEM. A PERFECTED AND THE CHEAPEST SYSTEM OF ROADS.— TUB WHOLE SOUTH WILL APPROVE. ROAD-WO&KINO NO MORE.—THE WORLD’S METROPOLIS IN ALABAMA.—THE COUNTRY’S COMMERCIAL MAP UPSIDE DOWN. BY LOUIS J. DUPRE. Os recent years the Alliances that escaped “the eloquence of our favor ite candidate” and devoted them selves to practical questions, often discussed theories of road-building as of other “taxation,” State and na tional. Road-building conventions in Tennessee and Georgia and Vir ginia, over the whole sub ject and many fine theories have been expounded, but not one has beetY practically approved. Virginia is expending two millions on turn pikes, like those of Tennessee and Kentucky, and the latest Legislature of the Mississippi State revived ma ny exploded theories that were test ed and failed in North Carolina and Georgia when the world was young er and less wise than to-day. Wheth er “cheap John” “dirt road” theo rists, through these philosophical bodies, fastened any new scheme up on the people we are not advised. It signifies little since it can’t be worse than methods it supplants. FUTILITY OF THE OLD' SYSTEM. No “dirt road” system feasible! and for tlie reason that rain-storms and floods cannot bo regulated by law and rapidity and slothfulness of locomotion, time wasted by teams, vehicles and drivers, make dirt roads ruinous to communities forever re pairing them. EVERYBODY TO PAY ALIKE. Rail-ways have added an average of five hundred per cent to the value of farms. There is not a rail-way penetrated farm in Shelby or David son or many counties in Tennessee that can be bought for less thaq SIOO an acre, and yet these rail-ways are constructed and managed for termi nal cities and not for the advantage or rural populations. Freight and passenger rates are so levied that he who travels or ships furtherest, pays most, When distance traveled consti tutes no appreciable element of cost of transportation. Cars and engines must go whether full or empty, it signifies nothing to the owners of the road. All they have the right to demand, is compensation for loss of time and toil in loading and un loading, and in stopping for passen gers. No cotton hooks or derricks are used in getting passengers, other than Aldermen and M. O. off and on, and yet under existing false and dis honest systems, it costs four times as much to transport an Alderman as a cotton bale to New York. Strange to tell, tho Alderman weighs only one fourth as much, occupies less space and needs no handling unless he gets “too full for utterance” and can’t even “weigh his words.” THE COUNTRY AND THE TOWN. These preliminary facts bring us face to face with methods of build ing “country” instead of “city” rail ways—rail-ways designed for the advantage of the people and for far mers, as distinguished from roads built for great terminal cities. Ex isting rail-ways have been made to cost the greatest sums possible. The Memphis and Charleston Road ’built by superhuman efforts of Gov. James C. Jones, the Prentiss of Tennessee was built by farmers whose subscription he induced, just as good preachers persuade us‘ to build churches. It cost $21,000 a mile, but falling into tho hands of thieves it is now stocked at $50,000 or more a mile and on this sum the plundered people must pay interest and profits. Rates of freight and fare are fixed accordingly. NO PROPER ROADS IN THE SOUTH. The cheapest roads are those that in thcxusvlYoa (uuuulbr cost least, Brother Minister, Working Layman, Zealous Sister Wo are striving to make ■ *' 'Tlie Index the best of its kind. Help ns by securing * new subscriber. VOL. 69.-NO. 32’ need least repairs, last longest, are self-sustaining and conveying freight and passengers at the least cost. Dirt roads cost most time, most la bor, compel the maintenance of needless teams and wagons, add nothing to the value of farms and are a perpetual tax, in “road-work ing” days, which drive negroes to the swamps and white men to infin ite blasphemy. And yet we have no proper roads ‘ and semi-barbarism, to thia extent prevails. TRE HAZLEHURST IDEA. It is known that a “million dollar steel-making plant” is in process of construction in Birmingham, Ala bama. Two enterprising brothers, Messrs. Sloss, of that place are mak-’ ing iron at an absolute cost, as I ani told, of six dollars a ton. They have made it, by saving costs of transportation on raw materials, aft $5.10 a ton. Irqn ore, coal and lime* stone happily collocated, are borna by inertia into the furnace of Sloss Bros’. Therefore the unrivaled, cheapness of steel rails at Birming ham, where iron is converted, at seventy-eight cents a ton, into steel. Sloss’s pig-iron, converted into steel ingots, costs only $6.78 a ton in Birmingham, Alabama. The act? ual cost of light steel rails weighing twenty lbs. a yard, cannot exceed sl2 or sls a ton. But that tharo may be no doubt as to cost vfery nearly double in this tabular state. ' ment, the reasonable cost of steel rails and give them a weight of twenty-five instead of twenty pounds a yard. Their cost would be, there fore, SBBO a mile, of spikes SIOO and rail joints, chains, plates, etc, $l5O. Iron and steel for one mile, single track $ 1,13a Grubbing and cleaning 100 Ties, 17G0. at 20 cents 352 Delivering materials along the line.... 200 Laying track (light rails) kxi Bridges, trestles, &c 1,000 Engines .. 300 Total cash (per mile) 83,183 The great steel plant of Binning- • ham, this system of road-building requiring its whole out-put for sev eral yea's, could afford tq sell rails almost at prime cost, in other words, nt half the price above fixed and tho weight of the rails need' not exceed twenty pounds a yard. The cosf’ of a mile would be, therefore, SSOO less than above estimated. AN ILLUSTRATION. The cheapest rail-way ever built is that from Wrightville to Tennille, iu Georgia. It cost $4,441 a mile. In this instance iron rails weighing for ty-five pounds a yard, were used and the propelling power was a thir ty ton .locomotiue costing as much as three dummy engines to be used in the Hazlehurst system. < In prairie and “Black Belt” and alluvial districts, grading, clearing and grubbing will cost almost noth ing and these dummy lines will ena ble white people to send children to country town schools. In these “Black Belt” rural districts, white women and children do not go abroad unarmed or unguarded and there are only negro churches and schools. THE SIMPLE SYSTEM. There is no patent on the concep- ' tion. Its only peculiarity is novelty and universality of application. It is simple as Webster's speeches. Its only grandeur is in results, since it will enrich the “masses” and not the “classes.” It will quadruple the val ue of‘every arable acre in all these states and thus pay off the mortga ges. THE SCHEME is nothing more than the connection of every County Capital in the State and in the South with every othei by tho cheapest possible dummy line. Tho “per centage” of county taxation may be lessened even while paying the five, ten or twenty, yea* county bonds issued to pay for these dummy lines. The little Wright ville and Tennille road in Georgiy , paid for itself over and over again in •* augmented farm and home values and now pays dividends, on its big locomotives and heavy rails and heavy graduation and heavy clean ing of six and quarter per cent. NO SALE OR MORTGAGE. Each county should be required to retain always Its ownAnastery and ownership of its own four roads. Otherwise little Jay Goulds will spring up and unity of lines will a lead to tho centralization of com mercial forces, in behalf of one r ' in derogation of the equal rights and privileges and profits of other towns cities and counties. £l'o BS CONILMUJOD.J