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4 (jHxrietian Jntlcx Published Every Thursday st If'.i S. Broad Street. Atlanta, Ga. THE LOGIC OF CONCESSION. When the adherents of an eccle siastical system refuse to follow any of its principles to their fair anti just results, to their logical consequences, they are only preparing the way for further concessions. It is the office of one surrender of the tight or the true to draw another, and another, and yet another after it. The way to stand firm, is to stand firm at the first and front the fi’st. Not to begin yielding is the way never to yield, aud.the only wav so far as we know. This is for cibly illustrated by the course of events among English Baptists. It is made cleat and incontestable bv various lines of argument that, ■ according to the Scriptures, the re ception of baptism properly goes be fore admission to the Lord’s Supper This is the proper order both of time , and of relation. No one has ever i contested it. Even Robert Hall and | his associates acknowledged it and ' urged it. But they w ould not follow out the principle and fix the practice bv it. They would not suffer the principle to enforce itself. Out of charity, as men persuaded them selves, believers were welcomed to I the Lord’s supper who never felt the obligation of the baptism of be lievers, that only baptism of the New' Testament, ams had never submitted to it. Thus entered unbaptized com munion, which calls itself “open,’’ or “free,” but stamps itself “loose” or “disorderly.” It was destined to work wider breaches still in the old order. The right of admission to the Lord’s Supper ranks among the most prominent ami the highest privi leges of membership in the church. But if in the judgment of charity the want of baptism does not cut the believer off from the chosen and chief function of church member ship, why should it cut him off from the membership itself ? Naturally, to ask this question was to answer it according to the precedent of their own laxity ; having conceded un baptized communion, they conceded unbaptized membership also. Many admitted those who had never re ceived believers’ baptism into their membership ; some who had been baptized in infancy and w ere satis fied with that, some who had been in no way' baptized and were not at all in quest of the rite, and some who like the Quakers were out-and-out rejecters of the ordinance. From this concession of unbap tized membership grew' a third. The membership granted to the unbap tized was regarded at the outset as in some sort imperfect and as matter of bare toleration. But this sense of limitation and defect fell away from it. It came to be regarded as allow ing of completion through office holding, as having wrapped in it germs of profit to the brotherhood ; and the church rolls were more and more marked with the names of un baptized elders, and deacons unbap tized. This was the direction in which the current set : if commu nion without baptism was a legiti mate channel for the stream of usage, then it is but the* extension of the same channel and equally legitimate which meets us in membership with out baptism and in office-bearing without baptism. But shall the channel be arrested with this three-fold concession, and usage stream no further through it ? The logic of concession forbids us to arrest it. This logic, in fact, once dug out the channel that differences of belief and of practice in the mat ter of baptism should work no differ ences in other points of ecclesiasti cal usage, until it reached the strange issue, a baptized church with an un baptized pastor, or, else, a church j unbaptized with a pastor baptized I j How Baptists and I’edo-baptists were once brought together for a season into the same churches, dur ing certain stages of the seventeenth century in England, we need not ; pause to tell; let it suffice to say ' that the unbaptized pastor is as loci- ' cally folded within the principle of ' concession as the unbaptized office bearer, or the unbaptized member, or the unbaptized communicant. To be consistent, we must reject or accept all the four. Which shall wc do ? That is precisely the practical ques tion submitted to certain of our En glish Baptist brethren to-day. Mr. Spurgeon arranged that Dr. Arthur T. Pierson should occupy the pulpit of the Metropolitan Taberna cle during his last illness, with a view to succeeding him as pastor if the trial service found acceptance ( with the church. When this ar rangement was proposed, Mr. Spur geon did not know that Dr. Pierson was a Presbyterian, but believed that he was a Baptist. One would think that the simple discovery of the truth here would have sufficed j w ith all parties to have made an end iof the matter. But, no. The logic ' of concession comes into play : it is I a force and makes itself felt: and i through its working, the question ; looks as though it were yet unde ’ cided, whether the (baptized) Bap < tist Church at the Tabernacle shall or shall not have an (unbaptized) i Presbyterian pastor ! We hope that i the church will at least ponder what a writer in the London “Baptist” says : “With all my admiration for the late beloved pastor of the Metro politan Tabernacle, I cannot help ; feeling that there is an ironical con i trast between the noble stand he made (on the “Dow n Grade” doctri nal discussion) and the strange fact that he got his pulpit supplied by one who is not, at least in practice, , true to the command of the Savior. ! I consider infant sprinkling the very ’ root of corruption in Christian teach ! ing, and here again we see how easy it is for the best of men to slide , down from the steps of a so-called “open” church to a still lower level. ! . . . These is now but one alter ! native to all Baptist churches— I either to go back to the apostolic I example of baptized-believer-comrau i nion, or to drift on toward Rome. Which shall it be ?” But we have even a more striking evidence of the power lurking in the i logic of concession. There is aCon | gregational church at London, the i former “.Surrey Chapel” of Rowland ‘ Hill and Newman Hall, but now the “Christ Church” of Westminster Bridge Road, with an edifice costing $300,000, a membership of nine hun dred persons, and Sunday-schools embracing six thousand children, i This church, falling vacant, has call led as its pastor, Rev. F. B. Meyer, I pastor of the Regent’s Park Baptist Church, who has duly resigned the ’ one position ami accepted the ether, j And so we have here, not as a mere proposition, but as an - accomplished fact: an (unbaptized) Congregation al Church and a (baptized) Baptist pastor ! “The Journal and Messen ! ger,” in a few words suggests the 1 absurd and impossible position such an official must rather occupy than fill: “Mr. Meyerhas said that his con victions as to the truth of believers’ baptism were never stronger than now ; and yet ho goes to a Church which has never practiced it, and which, on the other hand, has always practiced the sprinkling of infants. In an interview with a newspaper man, Mr. Meyer is reported to have said, what is in harmony with his letter es resignation, that he will per sonally receive all applicants for the l ite of pedobaptism, and when he is “persuaded that the requirement is based on conscientious convictions and not on a superstitious notion of the validity of a more rite, he will arrange that children shall be chris tened by his assistant, who will prob ably be a member of the Countess of Huntington’s Connection.” That persuasion that the application for infant baptism is based “on consci entious conviction, and not a super stitious notion of the validity of a mere rite,” is good. We arc to sup pose that the pastor will enter into a careful inquiry, and will learn to dis criminate between cases, so that he will turn away some parents with their unbaptized infants, while he will receive others and turn them over to his assistant, who will give them what he himself will not give them, even when he approves of their getting it. Mr. Meyer is a warm friend and confidant of Air. Moody. He has just been over at tending the Northfield meetings. It may be a question flow far his asso ciation with Mr. Moody has affected his reason and his ability to discrimi nate between things that differ.” We have no space for argument. One question will admit of being asked that each reader may answer it for himself : Have American Bap tists any reason to feel dissatisfied with the fact that they have never yet begun to intermeddle with the logic of concession ? Shall they be gin now ? SALVATION A PRESENT BLESSING. We are apt to lose sight of this precious truth and to regard salva tion, or eternal life, as prospective, something to be given us in the fu ture, and as beginning after our de parture from this life by the death of the body. This is an error. It is a present blessing, has its beginning in this world, and is continued and perfect ed in the world to come. 1. Here follow a few direct scrip ture proofs. He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life. John. 3: 36. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my words, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condem- THE CHRISTIAN INDEX: THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 1. 1892. nation, but is passed from death un to life. John. 5: 24. He that hath the Son, hath life. John. 5: 12. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life. John. 5: 13. Beloved, now are we the Sons of God. John. 3: 2. Let the reader carefully note that the verbs declaring this truth, in all these texts, are in the present tense. Not one of them speaks of the mat ter as future. “Hath everlasting life,” “hath life,” “is passed from death unto life,” “now are we the Sons of God.” Scrip ture proofs of the same truth might be multiplied almost indefinitely, giv ing words from the lips of Jesus him self, repeated, expounded, empha sized, especially by the apostles Paul and John. That salvation is a present blessing, and not one merely to be anticipated, rests upon the plain, unqualified dec larations of the word of God. 2. It is a direct, and immediate con sequence of repentance, faith, and re generation. Repentance unto life is a hearty hatred of sin, and a turning away from it because it is hateful to God. Pardon immediately follows such godly sorrow for sin. Pardon re moves the penalty of the violated, law. That penalty is death. Pardon sets the sinner free from that penal ty at once. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Rom. 8: 2. Faith unites the believer to Christ, and so identifies him with Christ, as to enable him to appropriate all the blessings Christ, by his vicarious suf ferings, has procured for him. Especially is this true of justifies, tion. Justification cleanses from guilt: frees from condemnation, and makes peace with God. Therefore, being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Rom. 5: 1. There is therefore, now no condem nation to them which are in Christ. Jesus. Rom. 8: 1. Faith grafts the believer into the living, life-giving stock, and as the branch recieves life from the vine so he receives life from Christ. As the living Father sent me, and I live through the Father; so he who eats nie, (believes on me) even he, shall live through me. John. 6: 57. Christ lives through God; the be liever lives through Christ, therefore the believer has the life of God in his soul. That life begins the mo ment the believer is united to Christ. Regeneration, the work of the Holy Spirit, implanting the “incor ruptable seed, the word of God which liveth and abideth forever,” gives the new heart, makes the “new crea ture,” the “ now man,” imparts the divine nature, and makes true sons of God by spiritual birth. As the natural child becomes the son of his natural father as soon as he is born, so the believer is the son of God, his spiritual Father, as soon as he is “born again.” All the scriptures that speak of the effects of repentance, faith, and regeneration, tell us that they are immediate, take place in the present, not in the future 3. It is a secure possession. Because it rests on the word of Christ. “Verily, verily,” Indeed, I assure you, I to whom all power in heaven and earth is given; I, who have con quered Satan; I, who have abolished death; “I say unto you, he that believ eth on me hath everlasting life.” John. 6: 47. Because it rests on the eternal, un cbangablo love of God. The Lord hath appeared of old un to me, saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Jer. 31: 3. Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. John. 13: 1. See also, Rom. 8: 29-39. Because it rests on the combined power of the God-head. For your life is hid with Christ in God. Col. 3: 3. Remarks. 1. If a man is not saved in this world he is not saved stall. Now, is the day of grace. “Now, is the accepted time.” “Now, is the day of salvation. 2. While true that salvation is a present blessing, and a secure pos session, it is no reason for careless ness indifference, and sin. Watch, pray, take heed, work out your salvation with fear and trem bling, these are the warnings and ex hortations to the saved. While we give thanks and praise, we are to keep on the whole armour of salva- tion, and fight the good fight of faith. 3. 1 be condition of unbelievers. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. John. 3: 36. He that believeth not is condemned already. John. 3: 18. LAZAEUS THE SILENT. There is one strange fact connec ted with the history of Lazarus, the friend of Jesus. 1. There is no record of a single word he ever uttered. His home, at Bethany, was a place of frequent resort for Jesus. The complaints of Martha against her sister Mary for not helping her in the duties of the household, and their pathetic lamen tations over the death of Lazarus are recorded, but not one word from him. Notwithstanding his silence, there must have been something peculiarly attractive about his character, for his sisters were devoted to him, and it is stated that Jesus loved him and was his friend. There is no report even of anything said by him on his dying bed. His sickness seems to have been borne in silence. Even wnen raised from the dead and the command given by Jesus to •his disciples to loose him from his grave-clothes and let him go, there was no expression of surprise at find ing himself standing in a sepulcher, , no shout of triumph over death, not even an expression of thanks to Him who had restored him to life. In silence he stepped out of the tomb, returned to his home, and went about his business as if nothing unusual had occurred. Not long after his resurrection, Jesus visited Bethany again, and made His home with the two sisters and their brother. They made a sup per for Him, during which Martha served, and Alary anointed His feet with costly ointment, while Lazarus reclined at the table with Him. Though a social repast there is no record of a single word uttered by Lazarus. Was he dumb? Whether so or not, one thing is sure, as far as we know', he was a man of silence. 2. The life of Lazarus, though marked by few, if any words, was not without its powerful influence. He was a living, though a silent wit ness to the world, of the power and divinity of Jesus. Many, who saw him walk out of the open sepulcher, who knew that he had been dead four days, believed on Jesus. So that influence at the time, that the chief priests, in order to destroy it, consulted together how they might put Lazarus to death. The day after the feast at Beth any, when the Savior was welcomed to Jerusalem of hosanna, the multitude that was with Him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb, went out to meet Him, and bore testimony also to His mighty power. So great was its influence that the Pharisees said among them selves, “ye are effecting nothing: lo! the world is gone after Hirn.” The influence of this recorded fact about the silent man, has been going ! on for nearly nineteen hundred years, | and many, through all these ages, have felt it, and have believed. Behold the influence of one silent friend of Jesus! 3. Fellow-Christian, you were once dead in trespasses and in sins. The same power that raised Lazarus has quickened your soul and raised you to newness of life. In token of this spiritual death and resurrection you have been buried with Christ through the immersion into His death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so you also might walk in newness of life. Are you a living witness of the power and divinity of Jesus? Does even the silence of a consistent Christ-like life speak in language which tells the world around you that Jesus has power on earth to-day to forgive sins? Arc you a fearless w itness for Him in the presence of his enimies ? Has one soul, under the influence of that silent life, been won to Christ? Oh! that such an influence as that which went out from the life of Laz arus, even though it be silent, may go forth from the life of every true follower of Christ! A man on whom the power of Christ rests though he be dumb, yet ho may boa living witness for Him, bearing such testimony as the argu ments of the wisest philosophers can not invalidate, nor the violence of the mightiest foes destroy. AVe give on our Georgia News page, this issue, an article signed “Inquirer.” We trust the informa tion asked will be given, by Presi dent N unnally or some one connected with Mercer University. MISSIONS AND EDUCATION. Education is an evolution of pow er. Power may be a blessing or a curse, according the uses to w'hich it is put. That it may subserve the highest ends and be the means of the greatest good, it must. be permeated with and controlled by the spirit and the substance of the Gospel. The state can properly educate a man on ly for the uses she has for him as a contributor to the commonwealth and a member of the body politic. But as an immortal being, whose fu ture life furnishes the ground of all moral and righteous obligation, there can be no proper education for him which does not aim to bring all his developed powers under control for service of our Lord Jesus Christ- What we ought to seek, therefore, in all mission work is such a devel opment of the spiritual nature as shall make the developed intellectual faculties thoroughly loyal to our divine Lord, in all their purposes and aspira tions. It follows that the Gospel must go foremust in our mission work. Ignorance is not the mother of devotion. God has abundantly shown in the history of His people that this service is an intellectual service. He has blessed to the sal vation of men and the progress of this kingdom the intellectual culture of His people. There can be no well-constructed theory of Christian propogandism which does not contem plate the development of the think ing faculty. Still the spelling-book is not a text-book in morals, and “the three Rs” do not make men and women honorable and virtuous. Much less are these things aids to devotion. We have probably over-estimated the imfluence of education in our mis sion work. Schools follow the Gos pel, but they cannot properly pre cede it7 unless, indeed, they be schools for instruction in the facts and principles of the Gospel. The case is otherwise, where there are converted children, or children under the influence of Christian homes. Ample provision should be made for the best intellectual train ing of converts from the heathen, but the conversions should come first. GOD’S JUDGMENT'S AGAINST SIN. Where man puts the tokens of his pride, there God puts the foretokens of His judgments. Flattering in scriptions on the walls of Babylonian palaces, told the king of his greatness —of his titles, of his dominions, of his exploits, and therefore the in scription of divine wrath was written on the wall, that where Belshazzar had feasted the eyes of his vanity, there, just there, should the sight of his eyes smite his soul with ter ror. We make frank confession of an unconquerable antipathy to all relig ious actions founded on the narra tives of scripture; all, we say, from “The Prince of the House of David” to “Ben Hur,” —all alike, whatever charm of style or grace of sentiment may mark them. They profane the sanctity of the word of God and this evil is certain and grievous, while any good that can come of them is too slight and problematical to make amend for it. On this subject, the “Boston Journal” says: “The process of making Biblical characters into heroes of romance, both familiarizes and estranges them. Brought into common-place relations and made to enter into ordinary con versation, they become familiar, while enveloped in the tissues of fic titious incidents they lose their hold on human confidence and be lief.” Tobacco.—ln the “Quarterly Journal of Inebriety,” for July, Dr. L. Bremer says that “tobacco When habitually used by the young, leads to a species of imbecility;” that “the juvenile smoker, will lie, cheat and steal,” that “in quite a number of patients at the St. Vincent’s Institu tion in whom he had observed this kind of insanity,” “the sense of pro priety, the faculty of distinguishing between right and wrong, was lost,” though all the while “there was not one among them who was able to comprehend that tobacco was injur ing him.” Now, the Dr. frankly ad mits that this “may look like over- ! stating and exagerating things ;” but no prudent parents or guardians I watching the formation of "habits on their sons or wards, and none of these wards or sons wisely awake to the importance of the habits they form, will deem it safe on this ac count to disregard the warning voice. There can be no risk to the young in fighting away the use of tobacco, the path of danger runs not, nor can run that way. This ought to decide the question, and make the tobacco-habit an impossibility for the young. LETTERED BAPSISTS. Our church letter system has some serious defects. At any rate the abuse of the system is very hurtful- We give a letter of dismission to an unruly member and send him away to impose upon some other church on our credit. We receive an applicant for membership on the recommendation of a letter from some sister church sometimes when we would prefer not to receive the bearer of the letter. We are afraid we will offend our sister church. But the worst abuse of the system is the wide spread dispositien to obtain let ters for the purpose of severing con nection with the church. There are a great many people who do not know that they remain members of the churches from which they are lettered until they use those letters m uniting with other churches. The churches have taught their mem bers to regard the connection sev ered by letter, because they have rarely, if ever dealt with those hold ing letters. There are scores of Baptists all over the country and especially in towns and cities that hold letters and have no vital connection with any church. This is a great evil. Sure ly the dear children of God among them do not realize how much harm there is in such a course. It may be true that they do things different ly from the way to which you have been accustomed but that should not keep you from placing yourself in position to help. Has the pastor neglected you ? He may not know you, you ought to put your member ship in the church so that the pastor may have a chance to know you. Are the members cold and neglect ful? This is largely imaginary. They are strangers, you have not given them a chance to become acquainted with you. They will be as cordial as those you left behind when you are as well acquainted with them as you were with those. Some one has called these letter holders “Trunk Baptists,” the Savior would call them “Under a Bushel Baptists” and if we should name them from the Revelation idea we would call them “Grave-yard Bap tists.” They have a name to live, but practically they are dead. I have often tried to imagine the spell or whatever it is, that comes over a child of God that destroys his enthusiasm and enables him to en dure such indifference to the salva tion of the w orld. Our Savior expects from us daily service. He has provided the church as an organization suited exactly to our needs as servants. Shall w e ig nore the divine arrangement and set up our way in preference to the way the Master has pointed out. No, the facts show that these “Letter Baptists” have no way. They soon become “wayless,” they go no way and do nothing. But alas! their at titude amounts to opposition. They become dead-weights. They burden Zion. How glorious and mighty the church must be that it can carry such loads and still succeed so well. There is in some degree at least a remedy for the abuse of the lettering system. Let each letter be written from the church dismissing to the church receiving as was no doubt at first contemplated. Os course we hard ly hope to see this suggestion adopt ed but it is the right way neverthe less. NOT NEW, BUT OLD. In a recent exchange of views be tween a group of Baptist ministers, one of their number stated, “as his present conviction, that he was re generated six years before he had any knowledge of the fact, or was led to repent of his sins or believe on his Saviour.” This sounds somewhat novel at first, —this gift of a life which for so long a time lay lifeless in the soul 1 I and left the soul itself lifeless. And ' one is ready to say that if only there j were any Athenians now-a-days to spend their time in nothing else but either to tell or hear some new thing, they would certainly fill their mouths many times with this. But a mo ments thought removes the impres sion. It is an old thing we have here, a very old thing; with a chang ed dress, indeed, but itself unchang ed. The brother whose statement we quote has simply made a fray be yond the Baptist borders into the lands of Rome and ritualism; bring ing back with him certain pieces of glass which rank there as theologi cal diamonds of the first water, and for which he provides a different setting that the old owners may fail to recognize and prove their property and recover it out of his hands. For, this regeneration without the functions and fruits of regeneration —what is it but the old “sacramental grace,” no longer tied to the sacra ments? what but “the germ of spirit ual life” once implanted in the souls of sprinkled infants for long seasons of dormancy, but now claimed for implantation in adult souls without the sprinkling, its power of quiescent powerlessness no whit impaired? To our mind all this is plain enough and we are willing that these bits of glass should go back to their old owners. Scarcely anything w’e have read of for a great while is more nearly “unthinkable” to us than this regen eration without the functions or the fruits of regenerate life for a term of years. There are possibilities of danger in it, too. Why should these years of dormancy come at the first, and only then? Why may not the regeneration, after a period of energy and action, relapse into the early quiescence again? Why might not another six years come to the broth er whose statement is before us, when the regeneration, as at the be ginning, shall no longer avail to se cure repentance for sin or belief on the Saviour? And if such years should come to him, what safeguard i has he, on the view he holds against j a blind “assurance” of his own child hood to God and salvation in Christ, running through all their disobe dience, unbelief and guilt? We would not willingly retain these bits , of glass at the risk of giving Satan space to set a snare for souls like this. Unsound Doctrine.—Rev. A. McHan, a Baptist minister, well known in some portions of this State but now a citizen of Tennessee, pub lishes a somewhat remarkable arti cle in the “Chattanooga News” for Sunday, Aug. 14th. He argues that “the religious sects (churches, so call ed,”) while “never so powerful as at the present time,” are “rapidly los ing the regards and esteem of the people.” One cause for this decline of their influence, as he alleges, is “error of doctrine incorporated into the man-made creeds of these sects.” And this is the style in which he pro ceeds to set forth what he accounts an instance of such error: “The dog ma of eternal torment, rolled under the tongue of so many as a sweet morsel, is a tradition and is not found anywhere in the Scriptures new or old. It was first incorporated into the creed of the Roman Catholic Church, for what purpose it 'would be difficult to tell unless it was a trick to scare people into the church with, and when in, to scare money out of their pockets with. At any rate, reckless and godless as the Catholics have been during some periods of their past hiatory, they are entitled to credit for plastering over this horror of horrors with a purgatory which answered their fi nancial purposes, I suppose, just as well.” We cannot believe that Mr- McHan is the real father of such lan. guage : it is too ill-bred and too scornful to come from a Christian man conscientiously expressing his dissent from the conscientious con victions of other Christian men. He must have borrowed it, in the glow and haste of composition, from some infidel or semi-infidel writer, and the printers must have lost their proper marks of quotation. But let its ori gin be what it may, do the Baptists of Tennessee regard it as falling within the limits of the allowable and lawful diversities of individual be lief among ministers and therefore entitled to pass without challenge ? We cannot believe that they do. The difference between the preach er of the Gospel and every other public teaclier or leader is that he is divinely appointed to “persuade men” in regard to their duty to God. Ho cannot properly become the cham pion of social reform, nor take up the grievance of one class against another. It is bis business to keep constantly before men the divins claims upon them, and to show how these are the root of every human duty. A preacher has not dispos sessed himself of any of the rights of citizenship by becoming an am bassador for Christ, but he has limit ed his field of duty. It is clearly his right to make political speeches," but, just as clearly not his duty to do so. INDIAN SPRING, GA. THE BRYANS HOUSE Tn now open for the accommodation of truest* Price of board reduced to meet the stringen. cy of the times. Table supplied with the best. For terras, etc. address MISS EDITH BRYANS, 21,mly"m Proprietress, ’ nil Whisker Habits"* Ww ILK X K ■ IQjH'nr.'.l at lion.e witb- Hr iUiW° l X‘ n ; ■1 I' rtima 11. M. wot ILLEY, M. Ik W Atlant*. t,u. Office MMK Whitehall 3U