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4 Published Every Thursday at 87*4 S. Broad Street, Atlanta, Ga. DANGER SIGNALS. 1. The civil seem to be too weak for the protection of life and property. During the late trouble at Home stead, Pa., the sheriff, when called on, was, professedly, unable to secure a posse sufficiently numerous and strong to meet the demand made upon him. He, therefore, called on Gov. Pat tison for the state militia. A force of eight or ten thousand soldiers was ordered to the scene of disturbance, and the working men were for a time overawed and forced to yield. Now, the works of the Carnegie Co., are guarded by soldiers, and Mr. Frick, the manager, is accompanied by a personal body-guard, and his place of business surrounded by armed men and watchad by Pinker ton detectives. The same state of things existed lately in Idaho. There, the civil au thorities promptly acknowledged their weakness. The governor could not furnish even a sufficient state military force and had to call on the president for United States troops. The working men were subdued, forced to submit, and the works of the owners of the factories are guarded by soldiers. In the state of New York a state military force of ten thousand men is under arms and standing guard over the property of immense rail road corporations, to protect it against the threatened incursions of striking employes. The State of Tonncsse is stirred throughout its borders because of the war the coal-miners are making against convict labor. At severs! poins convicts have been liberated by force, their prisons have been burned and the prisoners turned over to the slate authorities. The state military has been called out and armed men are gathering in large numbers at the mines. At all these places, the civil au thorities have proven too weak to meet the emergencies, and military force, state and federal, has been called into requisition to subdue the disturbing elements. Armed organizations of working men stand confronted with the or ganized military. Blood has already been drawn and lives sacrificed at all these points, and from present indications, more blood will flow and many more lives will be sacrificed before the troubles are ended. 2. The centers of a large standing army are being slowly, but surely formed, that may easily bo consoli dated and placed under the control of a common commander. The failure of the civil authorities to meet emergencies, and the fre quent calls for the military, both State and federal, will soon accustom the people to the sight of swords rifles and cannons until a loss of con fidence in the power of law, will lead them to expect the presence of sol diers upon the least disturbance and to submit without protest to military authority. Deadly conflicts, brought on by the hot words, and rash, hasty acts of citizens and the over-bearing, haughty and cruel conduct of mili tary men, wanting in prudence and common sense, resulting in blood shed and death, will intensify the bitterness and hostility of employers and employes, of citizens and sol diers and soon bring every place where large numbers of men are gathered to the condition of armed peace, if not to that of an actual bat tle-field. The growing magnitude of what are called “labor troubles’’ and the frequency of their occurrence, is making it necessary to keep a strong military force, ready and well equip ped for active duty to move at any hour. The state authorities are bringing the militia into more regular army shape, consolidating companies into regiments, regiments into brigades, establishing camps of instruction, un ifying the whole, and enforcing stric ter discipline. The old militia and volunteer company system is vanish ing and regular army methods are fast taking its place. United States army officers are being detailed to drill state troops and to bring them ns far as possible, to the standard of regular army tac tics and discipline. Here is the seemingly harmless link that if kept up, will soon bind state and United States troops into a common army and which will bold them subject to the command and control of United States army offi cers. 3. The cause of most of these trou bles and of the dangers that threaten our liberties is to be found mainly in class legislation. Laws made to foster and protect ‘industries” while they are infants, cause them to grow into mighty giants that grind and oppress those in their power, until submission is no longer tolerable. The multitudes of toilers organize and demand relief and if not granted, work ceases, vio lence follows and then the protection of an armed force is called for and furnished by the government and the worker is forced to submit under the presence of bullets and bayonets. A standing army,the menace to liberty, is in sight. THE THREE THOUSAND AND THE EUNUCH. In the Sunday-school lessons for the current quarter there are several of special interest to Baptists. The inspired history of the planting and training of the first churches as giv en in the Acts of the Apostles, must ever be the great argument for our ecclesiastical polity. Baptists bblieve our churches, in faith, form and fel lowship, are fashioned after the pat tern shown in that history. With confidence we ever appeal to the record as evidencing our right to be recognized as New Testament churches. Our Pedobaptist breth ren dislike to admit our claim. That is, the editors who prepare the ex positions for their Sunday-school pe riodicals try very’ hard to prevent the lessons from testifying in favor of Baptist doctrine and order. Before us lies the “senior quarterly” from the Methodist Publishing House at Nashville. Here is a comment on part of the lesson for July 17: “Three thousand souls. The fact that this great number of persons were baptized in one day forbids the supposition that they were immers ed. Each apostle would have been compelled to immerse two hundred and fifty, and, besides, there is no reason for supposing that there was in the vicinity a supply of water sufficient for the work. Granting that the three thousand were baptized in one day, which is not affirmed in the record; and grant ing, further, that each apostle would have been compelled to baptize two hundred and fifty, it could have been very easily done. A few years ago more than two thousand Telugu con verts were baptized in one day by six administrators, only two being engaged in the work at the same •time. We have talked with Rev. Dr. R. R. Williams one of the min isters who baptized them, and have the facts from him. As to the “sup ply of water,” we will let the Rev. Dr. Philip Schaff, the most distin guished Presbyterian scholar in America now the honored Professor of Church History iu the Union Theological Seminary, New York City tell us about that. On page 56 of his “Didache,” or the “Teaching of the Apostles,” we read: “It is often urged that the Pente costal baptism of three thousand persons by total immersion (Acts 2: 41) was highly improbable in Jerus alem, where water is scarce and the winter torrent Kidron is dry in sum mer. But immersion was certainly not impossible, since Jerusalem has sev eral large public pools—Bethesda, Hezekiah, Upper and Lower Gihon and many cisterns in private houses. The explorations of Captain Wilson (1864) and Captain Warren (1867) have shown that the water supply of the city, and especially of the temple, was very extensive and abundant. The baptism of Christ in the Jordan, and the illustrations of baptism used in the New Testament (Rom. 6: 4; Col. 2: 12: 1 Cor. 10: 2; 1 Peter 3: 20 21), are all in favor of immersion, rather than of sprinklig, as is freely admitted by the best exegaetes, Cath olic and Protestant, English and German. Nothing can be gained by unnatural exegesis. The persistency and aggressiveness of the Baptists have driven I’edobaptists to the op posite extreme.” When such a teacher as Dr. Schaff thus writes, surely tho lesser lights should be ashamed of keeping up their silly objections about “scarcity of water.” The Methodist editor (Very discreetly passes over in perfect silence tho inspired word which declares that “they who glad ly received the word were baptized.” The case was too plain. Only be lievers wore baptized. We confess to some degree of gratification that the editor was candid enough to give this comment on verse 89 of the same lessoft: “To your children. Children is hero used in the sense of descendants.” Ho saw there was no ground for infant baptism in that text, though sometimes it is shame lessly forced into tho support of that unscriptnral rite. We also con gratulate the editor on his clear work concerning verse 38: “For the remission of sins. Bap- THE CHRISTIAN INDEX: THURSDAY, AUGUST 25. 1892. tism is the external act and manifes tation of an internal and justifying faith already existing. As the out ward act and manifestation of the conditional faith, baptism is mention ed before that remission which fol lows the internal faith, although the instant, divine act of remission has actually preceded the baptism. (Whe don). Turning to the lesson for Sept. 11, which is about Philip and the Ethio pian, we find the Methodist editor far and away from candor : “They went down both into the water, etc. But this does not neces sarily imply that the eunuch was im» inersed. If it does, then it implies that Philip was immersed also. It is easy to believe that the two stood in the margin of a spring or pool, and that Philip performed the ceremony by sprinkling or affusion. Every country boy has often ridden his horse ‘down into the water’ and ‘up out of the water’ without immersing him.” Surely the editor did not deceive himself in writing so puerile a com ment. He knew that the argument for immersion in this case is only in cidentally based upon the prepositions employed by the sacred writer. He knew further that the record declares that “he (Philip) baptized him (the eunuch).” Absolutely there is no excuse for so insincere an effort to cloud this clear statement of the text. It can be oniy a wilful attempt to mislead. It seems scarcely credi ble that any country boy, or anyone else, could be deceived by so trans parent sophistry. As to the place of the baptism the editor declares that the “certain wa ter” is “placed by Eusebius and by Jerome twenty miles south of Jeru salem and two miles from Hebron.” lie adds that this is uncertain. “The two authors referred to concur in saying that it took place at Bethznr. The site has been identified, bearing still the ancient name. The water at present issues from a perennial source, a part of which runs to waste in the neighboring fields, and a part is collected into a drinking trough on one side of the road and into two small tanks on the other side. Dr> Thomson supposed that Philip set out from Samaria, and on that hypo thesis remarks; “Ho would then have met the chariot somewhere southwest of Latron. There is a fine stream of water called Marubah deep enough, in some places, even in June, to satisfy the utmost wishes of our Baptist friends.” Dr. Thompson was for forty years a Presbyterian missionary in Pales tine, and wrote the best book ever printed about that country. The above extract is from his “Land and Book.” WHAT SHALL THIS MAN DO? A strange question was this, fol lowing right on the emphatic man ner in which Jesus had told Peter what he must do. Three times, Jesus by a most sig nificant inquiry, had turned Peter’s mind back to a former occasion when ho had manifested so much boldness and self-confidence. He seemed to say to him, “you say you love me. I want the proof of it. You once said, though all others should deny thee, yet will not I deny thee. But immediately after this strong avowal of your devotion to me, you allowed a young girl to frighten you from your pledge by the charge that you were one of my disciples. When the charge was re newed a second and a third time, you strengthened your denial by swear ing that you did not even know me. Now you have affirmed that you love me as many times as you denied me. As far as the account goes in words it stands balanced. But you rever sed your protestations of fidelity by your actions. Now confirm your avowal of love by your actions. Hero are my commands. Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. Follow me. They tell you what you are to do. Let your obedience prove the genuiness of your love.” Not withstanding this tender but cutting rebuke so well calculated to humble Peter thorough ly by directing his mind to his own cowardly conduct, and to turn his thoughts to his own work, ho con cerns himself about John's work, and with strange coolness and presump tion, said to Jesus, “Lord, and what shall this man do?” That too, in the face of the fact that John “was fol lowing.” The answer was a proper and well merited rebuke for Peter’s undue in quisitiveness about John’s business. “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me.” As much as to say, “It is none of your business what John is to do. 1 have assigned him his work, and he is doing it. He is following me. Do you look after your own and do as I bid you. If John is idle all his life, it will not diminish tho work requir- ed of you. Nor would it change your obligations if he w;ere to remain on earth until my second coming, busily engaged all the time. There is your work. See that you do it.” Learn a few lessons. 1. We often concern ourselves about the business of others, so much) that we neglect, or forget, our own. We are a world of busy-bodies. Led by a prying curiosity we are seeking to find out what this or that man is to do, and thus, waste much time and attention that should be given to our own work. Whatever others may have to do is no special concern of ours. We need not stop to inquire into it. God will take care of that matter. He will see to it that no man has a good excuse for idleness. We have our own work to do, and our chief con cern is with that. The proper ques tion for each one of us to ask is, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” 2. Obedience is the test of love. Words are good if they come from a sincere heart. But they are not enough. Doing must be coupled with saying. “Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which 1 say?” “If ye love me, keep my command ments.” “Ye are my friends, if ye do what soever I command you.” Peter’s words were honest words. Trusting in himself, in an unguarded moment he was over come by fear, and was driven from his constancy in the presence of danger. The crowing of the cock reminded him of the words of Jesus,« and “he went out and wept bitterly.” In after years his actions proved his words uttered in this last person al interview. “Thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.” Now he hears from the lips of Je sus, words that reminded him of the cause of his weakness, and prophetic of the death by which he should glo rify God. “When thou wast young, thou gird est thyself, and walkedst whitherso ever thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thon shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee wither thou wouldest not.” He was imprisoned, bound with chains, whipped, and fin ally led to crucifixion, but under all his trials and sufferings his courage failed not, bechftse love was stronger than fear. He obeyed his Great Shepherd’s commands, fpd his lambs, fed his slice]), followed him in his death, and sealed his love for him, with his book!. 3. What is your work? This you can ascertain by careful ly considering tho circumstances that surround you. The key to the ques tion is found in tho remark made by the Savior about the woman who anointed His head with oil. “She has done what she could.” There is the secret of finding it; do what you can. Do what your hand’s find to do. That which is in arm's length, and hand’s reach of you. You may have seen no burning bush, no light, daz zling in brightness, above the noon day sun. You may have heard no voice, declaring in so many words what your work is to be, but the silent voice of Providence speaks to the ear of your soul, anil its utter ances are as clear as if you had seen the lips part and heard the tongue speak. The objects that pass under your sight every day, bringing opportun ities within your reach, plainly point out the work. When that ragged child meets you in the street, and casts a longing look of desire into your eye, it is a voice saying to you, “the poor you have always with you.” When that desolate widow gazes upon you with her wan look of care, you may hear the words, “pure re ligion and undefiled before God and the Father, is to visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world.” When you see that tear stealing down the cheek of sorrow, it says to you, “weep with them that weep.” When smiles light up the counte nance and songs of joy break forth from the lips of the new-born soul, theyjsay to you, “rejoice with them thatdo rejoice.” When you see your friend or your neighbor resting under the curse of sin, you may hear the words, “he that converteth a sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.” A heart warmed by love and mov ed with earnest desire, will not be slow in finding its work, nor slack in doing it. Certainly, it will not be so much concerned about another’s work, as to neglect or to forget its own. A BIT OF BAD EXEGESIS. Every new movement in the reli gious world begins with a stage of enthusiasm, which more or less af fects our interpretation of the Script ures. Even where the movement is right in itself, there is danger by reason of this enthusiasm that the interpretation shall be affected, here and there, not for the better but for the worse. The dominant lines of thought and words of feeling incline us to seek proofs or illustrations of themselves in passages which con tain no reference to them whether direct or indirect; and unawares, we accept a prayer and false mean ing of the passages, for the sake- of the imaginary illustrations or proofs that fan the inward flame of our per sonal interest and zeal. We are thus brought face to face with this general truth : Christians have need to watch qgainst the ten dency of new movements, of all new movements, to wrest that sense of Scripture, which alone is Scripture and to mould it awry after their own likeness. Is it not worth while, (if we can,) to emphasize this point of Christian wisdom by an example? Take then the modern woman’s movement in the prosecution of mis sions, a movement which, as it ol>- tains among our Southern Baptist sisterhood, we regard with cordial approbation and thorough sympathy. And take a bit of bad exegesis into which it has beguiled one of our min isterial brethren in New York. After their restoration from the captivity the Jews were to betaught that if the people lapsed again into tttd bieach of the nationaleovenant with God, there awaited them an other removol from the holy land after the pattern of the exile in Bab ylon, as it were a resumption and completion of that judgment, but destined to be long-enduring, if not perpetual. To set this lesson forth as a picture before the eye, is the design of tho seventh in the series of visions granted to tho prophet Zech ariah: (see Zech. 5:5-11) Recourse is had to the frequent custom, in the sacred writings as in general litera ture, of making woman a symbol representing or personifying a people. In accordance with this imagery, the prophet secs the Jewish people as a woman whose name is wickedness; crushed down into the midst of a box and confined there under a weight of lead. In further accord ance with it, he sees the people who should execute the divine judgment of expatriation as two other women bearing the box away out of the land ; while the certainty and thor oughness of their work is indicated by giving wings to the two like the wings of a stork, whose speed the favoring wind accelerates. Now, by every principle of the in terpretation of symbolical language, nothing can be inferred here by wav of doctrine with regard to woman as woman. For the women of the vis ion, all three, are symbols, and sym bols only’, symbols alike of wicked nations, or, (as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, passing from the con crete to the abstract proper to phrase it,) symbols of wickedness. What ever is taught, them, must be taught with regard to that which the wo men personify or represent; namely, in the concrete “wicked nations,” or “wickedness” in the abstract. A sample of *Lhe only legitimate lines of reasoning in the premises is the in ference deduced by the authors just quoted. “God makes the wick ed themselves the agent® of punish ing and removing wickedness.” But in the Homiletic Review for July’, Rev. L. D. Temple of New’ York, hammers the matter out on his exegetical anvil into this very I different shape ; a shape sufficiently telling its own story of the woman's ; movement giving a foreign and false meaning to the passage of Script ure in its quest after proof or illus tration for itself: “As agents in moral reform, wo men are destined to be pre-eminent. 1. They possess strong qualities : | ‘their wings are wings of a stork’ Decision, patience, hppe. 2. They freely yield themselves to the mov ings of God : ‘the wind was in their wings.’ ” A STRONG FIGURE.. It has not been long since we heard a minister pray: “May the di vine broadaxe be applied to us along the lines of truth, that we may be of the right size to enter in at the “strait gate !” We must confess that the portly’, overgrown person of this minister sharpened the edge of his figure to our mind’s eye. ‘■GNAWING OFF THE TAG." Sam Jones says, with respect to the ecclesiastical and political changes currently ascribed to Sam Small : “If Sam keeps on, he will be like the dog on the car, “who ‘gnaw ed off his tag, and none of us knows whose dog he is, or where’ he’s gwine.’” We quote this, not for its personal connection, but because it illustrates the danger to which aU Christians are more or less exposed in times of popular political excite ment, the danger, to wit, of “gnaw ing their tags off,” of observing their relation to things spiritual and sacred. In such times, the Christian should frequently “take his leavings,” as the sailor expresses it. He should seek to ascertain whither he has been sailing and what his present position is religiously; either by reference to the old land marks of the w’orks he has been wont to do “for Christ and His Church,” or by careful study of the chart and com pass of Holy Writ marking off the route of safety across the sea of this earthly life. Has he been right, and true, and firm, as regards the things that are supreme, the things pertain ing to the soul and to the world to come ? This is the question he must be able to answer from time to time in such way as that no man shall have occasion to suspect him of “gnawing off his tag.” And for no gain to himself personally or to the party he .supports, however great that gain may seem or may be, can he afford to cast “even the shadow of a shade of doubt” on this question. We have been expecting it for quite a while. It has seemed to us full time that the loose Theologies and Anti-theologies of the day were repainting the portrait of the earlier American sceptics in colors more in harmony with the unbelieving spirit of the day. For this is the way that religious error always works when it spreads among a generation and grows respectable whether with the masses or the classes ; it not only flaunts the robe of popular honor in the person of its living advocates, but seeks to bring up its advocates for a generation or two past from the dishonored graves to which they were assigned by a mere Christian public sentiment, and wraps about them as far as it may’ the skirts or at least the fringes of that robe. We have been expecting it; and dqw we are to have it, have one in stance of it, if no more. The Put nams, N. Y., are bringing through the press a “Life of Thomas Paine, by Mencrere D. Conway.” And we call you beforehand to bear record how the “literal culture” of the times shows its real kinship toward the old blasphemer by painting out, or paint ing over in milder colors, his profan ity and vice. In proportion as the age grows like Paine, it will be urg ed to honor him and will yield to the urging. Know ing and Teaching.—ls “the preacher was wise,” he accounted not that wisdom a treasure to be re served and restricted to himself, but he “taught the people knowledge” that they also might become sure. (Eccb 12 :9.) If it “pleased God to reveal His Son in” Paul, that revela tion was not for His own sake alone, it was that he “might preach him among the Gentiles.” (Gal. 1:15-16.) This is a universal Christian duty, the duty of every one according to his measure. All who are sure to know the things of God, must teach this knowledge to others. The Son must be proclaimed to others by all in whom he has been revealed by gracq. Here rests the obligation of the Sunday-school teacher. This is the Sunday school teacher’s call ! This is the call issued to many, that they might become Sunday-school teachers, divinely issued, but which they refuse to hear and to obey’! And this makes every one of them: as often as the Lord's day returns, a fleeing Jonah whose back is turned on the Nineveh of divine appoint ment, and whose foce looks toward some Tarshish of perverse personal choice 1 Retribution. —According to our Common Version, Isaiah says of the wicked : “The reward of his hands shall be given him.” (Ch.. 3 ill.) We prefer the rendering in the margin of the Revised Version : “The do ing of his hands shall be done to him.” Just as we prefer the margi nal rendering of Col. 8 :25 ; “He that doeth wrong shall receive again the wrong that he hath done.” The difference is as plain as to our mind it is profound and painful. That we suffer for our sins (according to the accepted reading) is startling enough: how much more startling that (ac cording to the reading preferred) we : suffer our sins themselves 1 ABIDING WORK. The work of bodies of men is not always in proportion to their numbers. What a mighty pow’er for evil the Pharisees showed them selves, inspiring the sentiments, — shaping the policy and fixing the des tiny of their nation 1 And yet, as w T e learn from Josephus, in their palmiest days, the days of Herod the Great, they mustered only six thou sand strong. A very little company; and yet they made their day’ the turn ing point in Jewish history, and sent the fortunes of the.ir people whirling along the grooves which they have kept for nearly two millenniums. There is a modern parallel to this. Recent statistics show that the Je suits count on their membership only 5,751 priests, 3,713 scholastics, and 3,508 lay brothers, a “meagre, lean and lank” total of 12,072, A small, a very small group ; and yet what other body of men is there which touches the institutions, the agencies, the interests of the age at so many parts and with such diversities of in fluence ? No : it is not in propor tion to their numbers that bodies ot men work and their work abides. It is in proportion as they have be liefs, and these beliefs are a unity and this unity becomes a dominant motive within, and this dominant motive makes the life itself a unity in spirit, in purpose, in effort. Is it not then a question worth pondering, How far are these elements of abid ing works found in the Baptists of our times, of our country, of our section of our State, of our Association, of our church? How far are they found in each of us individually ? A Southerner who argued last summer at Monteagle that ‘the old South had no literature worth men tioning because slavery narrowed and usurped the intellect of our peo ple,’ now appears in the role of au thor bringing out a volume on “The Blue Grass Region of Kentucky” in the highest style of the Harpers’ ty pographic art. Now if it only hap pens to be true that the intellect of a people is strengthened and widen ed by the absence of slavery, we shall expect this volume to outstrip easily all Southern literature before the war. And why not the classic literature of Greece and Rome as well, since this too comes down to us from an era of narrowing, usurp ing slavery? We opine, however, that aspirants to literary distinction will not find the path to it cleared before their feet in any such off-hand way. Missions.—Rev. C. S. Blackwell, of Norfolk, Va., who-came to us last year from the “Disciples,” writing in “Our Home Field” for August, finds the whole circle of missionary work within three lines of Scripture) Acts 1: 8. Christ said to the apos tles: “Ye shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem [city missions], and in all Judea [state missions], and in Samaria [home missions], and to the utmost parts of the earth [for eign missions].” Why, here is the entire scheme of the world’s evan gelization, the church’s history through the ages, the w’ork which our father’s transmitted to us and which we must transmit to our chil. dren, all compressed into a single half-verse of the sacred volume! In funeral sermons, do not preach the dead saint, preach, rather, the living Christ. If the saintly dead could hear, how’ would they grieve for every word taken from the Sa vior to be given to themselves 1 '■ 4 ■>V' 1 ' Y ltrs. iruiiam Lohr Os Freeport. 111., began to fail tepidly, lost all appetite and got into a serious condition from FT VC r"ira no I o ’’h® could not cat vogo- tables cr M( .at,»nd even toast distressed her. Had to give up house work. In a week a iter taking Hood’s Sarsaparilla felt a little better. Could keep more food on her stomach and grew stronger. bMe took 3 bottle*, ha* u good appetite, gained 22 lbs., does her work easily, b now in perfect health. HOOD’S PILLB * ro the boat Af’or-dlunof rill*. They Malat digestion and cure headache. Cancers Pmaratij Cured.' No knife. no ncid. no caustic, no pain. By throe application* ot our CANCER Cl RE. most faithfully Kunrant’M' cancr will coma out by the roots leaving permaiu nt cure. If it fails make nltblavlt properly attested and I will refund money promptly. Pric. nith full self treatment directions, $20.00. Invariably in advance. Describ'' Cancer iiunntoly when w riting. JNO. B. HARRIS. Box w. Taprty Eutaw, Ala.