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Many good and strong things were said in be half of MISSIONS During the Session of the Southern Baptist Convention. Subscribe to and read the Christian Index, if you would keep informed. ESTABLISHED 1821. Published Every Thursday at 57% S. Broad Street. Atlanta. Ga. J. C. McMICHAEL, Proprietor. Organ of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia. Subscwftion Price: One copy, one year • 2 00 Bne copy, six months 1.00 ne copy, three months CO Obituaries.—One hundred words free of charge. For each extra word, one cent per word, cash with copy. To Correspondents.—Do not use abrovia tions; be extracareful in writingproper names; write with ink, on one side of paper; Do not write copy intended for the editor and busi ness items on same sheet. Leave on personal ities; condense. Business.—Write all names, and post omces 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 wisli 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. Infant Class, First Baptist Church, Birmingham, Ala., reports $26.90 on Children’s Day. Reports from Japan show that about four hundred people are bap tized into the Protestant churches every month. The English Baptist missions now extend one thousand miles into the Congo interior, two hundred miles farther than any other mission, Pro testant or Catholic. The Tinies-Democrat, N. 0., says that Rev. D. I. Purser has decided to accept the call to Valence Street, Baptist Church in that city. He be gins his work there November Ist. There are in the United States, Canada, England, and Scotland thirty-two woman’s missionary soci eties. They collect annually over a million dollars and support 1,397 missionaries, Rev. Duncan A. Campbell died in Rayville, La., Oct. 16th aged 88 years. He was born in Fayetteville, N. C. He had been a minister of the Presbyterian Church for 60 years. The throne of the Son of God J with all its blaze glory, lifts Him "no mgher than He wais lifted by His manger as the Son of man, with all its shadows of humiliation. The manger becomes Him no less than the throne : to rule is not more than to redeem. The editor of The Rams’ Horn, so • much quoted, is Rev. Elijah P. Brown. He was once a blatant in fidel, but was converted and ordain ed as a Methodist preacher. He rode an Indiana circuit in 1887-8. Believing journalism to be his prop er field of work he is now devoting himself to it with much zeal and suc cess.—Morning Star. The Friend, of Honolulu, says there has been a “phenomenal de mand for books” from the Gilbert Islands this past year, and the Star has, as part of her cargo, the follow ing books in the language of the Gil bert Islands: 750 arithmetics, 2GO geographies, 750 readers, 750 hymn books, 465 New Testaments and 205 Bible stories. The people are anx iously looking for copies of the Bi ble, which are not yet ready to be sent them. When Aaron ascended Mount Hor to die, he went up in the presence of all the people dressed, not in grave clothes as a man, but in his official robes as high-priest. Was this a tes timony that not he only but the high-priesthood as he held it was doomed to pass away ? Was it the foreshadowing of Another High Priest who in his office should meet death, not for his personal removal from it, but to make his accomplish ment of its purpose and his exercise of its power a perpetuity ? “Whatever we do, wo should do it unto the Lord. As Baxter says . ‘Who sweeps a room as In thy sight Makes it and the action fine.’ ” In this quotation from a recent sermon on “Fretfulncss” by Prof. Win. R. Duryea, D. D., of Rutgers’ College, New Brunswick, N. Y., there is a double error. First as to the authorship of the lines cited ; they were written, not by Baxter, but by George Herbert, who was ac counted the laureate of religious life in his day. The other error, as to the phraseology of the lines, we cor rect by printing the substance of the poem from which they are drawn. We do this because it gives striking expression to a sentiment of which the Christian should never lose sight, namely ; that as the elixir of the al- ' . ■ . . I I 4 chemi Rev e ' asmute all other metals to gold, so the whole of life may be hallowed by the con stant reference of our thoughts to God. “Teach me, my God and King, In all things thee to see, And what Ido in anything, To do it as for thee. All may of theo partake ; Nothing can be too mean, Which with this tincture for thy sake, Will not grow bright and clean, A servant with this clause Makes drudgery divine : Who sweeps a room as for thy laws Makes that and th’ action fine.” Things are to us largely what we make them by our habits of thought and feeling. Take, for instance, the statement in a newspaper lying be fore us, that every year $250,000,000 change hands as the result of wagers on the turf. If wo accept this as true, what it will do with us de pends for the most part on w hat we do with it. Wo may suffer it to drop away out of our minds, may lose all memory of it, may virtually annihate it; there may bo no race course in our world, in the world as we think of it, and life as regulated by our will, our life, may have abso lutely no connection with it. But if this vast sum changes hands, there must be those who win it, win every dollar of it; and we may permit this winning to fasten itself on our thoughts, to paint its pleasant sur prises before the eye, the burdens it lifts, the estates it secures, the luxu ries it provides, the friends it wins,— a bright vision, growing more and more attractive until we see nothing else in our private moods and mus ings ; and so the race course gets into our life, and our life is domina ted by it. On the contrary, there must be those by w’hom every dol lar of this vast sum is lost, and we may give heed to this losing alone, to the hopes it disappoints, the for tunes it shatters, the ruin it precipi tates, the disgrace it entails, the death to which it flies, until life takes shape to us as a thing with drawing from the race course and warring against it. Thus, the self same fact becomes, according to the light in which we look on it, a lure to vice or a i'eseon of virtue. And things are what we make them to ourselves. There ought to be more business sense put into the work of our churches. Men who are eminently successful in all tho lines of business life display infantile helplessness when they undertake to run a church. Six good Merchants, two good Lawyers, a good Dentist, a good Physician, a successful Manu facturer, a fine college President, a successful Broker and an irrepressi ble Drummer all meet to devise ways and means for the successful man agement of the church. Now, mark you; each one of these is really a success in his line they all make money and carry on their respective business orderly and prosperously. They have a membership of about four hundred that can be found rep resenting at least four hundred thous and dollars of wealth and yet these business men tug and struggle over the ever perplexing question of church finances. This is made aw fully rediculous when we know that the obligations of a baptist church are all voluntary except the Pastor’s salary and Sexton, lights and fuel. The amount they give to all other objects is not a matter about which the finance Committee is concerned. This Committee is racking its brain over the almost hopeless task of rais ing in most cases about twenty five hundred to three thousand dol lars. This same Committee would stock a rail road, where they knew the stock was given or boom a town with twice the amount and have no trouble. Here aro four hundred people worth from one half to a million dollarsout of whom this Committee fail to raise a revokuo of twenty five hundred dollars a year to maintain tho dcarost Institution on earth. This samo church pays to the sup port of temporal government be tween eight and twelve thousand dollars a year. They pay between twenty five hundred and five thous and dollars tuition for their children at school They really would do more for tho church than for anything in the world. Why does this Committee have such a hard time ? Simply be cause they do not put business sense into their work. They either work without a plan or they plan without work. •4! » I k ATLANTA, GA., THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 10, 1892. HUMAN EBEEDOM. BY S. G. HILLYEE. About eighteen months ago, I wrote for the Index a few articles on “free agency.” Subsequent re flection has only confirmed me in the correctness of the views therein set forth. I have concluded, therefore to offer another paper upon the same subject, but in a different form. The great problem of the ago has been, how to reconcile the sovereign ty of God with the freedom of man Volumes have been written about it, but no satisfactory solution has been found. In these modern times, I think. Theologians have generally agreed, that its solution, in the present state of our knowledge, lies beyond the reach of human reason. God’s sovereignty, and man’s freedom, are both assumed to be true; and for as much as no two truths can ever con flict with each other, we may be as sured there can be, in reality, no con flict in the case before us; and with this assurance wo are exhorted to be satisfied. And this advice is reason able in view of the fact, that there are a thousand other things, both in the realm of matter and of mind, which .we cannot explain, hut which we are obliged to accept as true. But it doos sometimes happen that things which were once deemed in explicable have been explained. This is due, sometimes to the dis covery of some small fact which was before unknown, or perhaps, to a slight change in tho definition of a term. Either of these may so re adjust the relations of the things in. volved in the question as to make them perfectly intelligible. When ever this can be dono surely it is de sirable that it should be done. Andi verily believe that nothing is necessa ry to harmonize tho freedom of man with the sovereignty of God, but to find a better definition of ‘-freedom.’’ Now I would not presume to say our learned writers do not understand tho meaning of this word; but jl do say, that, in discussing the subject now before us, they do often use it incorrectly. I offer the following illustration from ono of the very best of our Theologians, and Logicians. He says: “What is meant by the free agen cy of man? It is meant that every man can do as he pleases; that as he is master—absolute master of his own actions; that as to these, he is to himself what God is to the un everse—King.” After giving this definition, which, I think, is substantially in accord with most writers on the subject, he proceeds to consider how this free agency can be reconciled with God’s sovereignty. And after pages of able reasoning reaches tho conclu sion that with our present knowledge we cannot reconcile them; and finds comfort in the fact that because both propositions are true we know they must be harmonious, although at pres ent we cannot explain their harmony. Give the writer his definition, and his argument is .-f mass of solid Logic > and his finding satisfaction in the imbicility of our present powers is the only comfort which the case affords. But the definition is defective- The writer did not notice that he had confounded freedom with power- Mark the words of the definition: “Free agency of man means, that every man can do as he pleases.” That is all that is essential to it. What follows is only explanatory. Now the intelligent reader must see that tho use of tho word “can” makes the sentence define man’s free agency to be his power to do as he pleases. Power to act, must, of course be as sociated with freedom to act, else tho freedom would bo worthless. But the two things are very different and should be clearly distinguished in a definition. lam persuaded that this confounding “free agency,” or “free dom” with power is the error of the centuries so far as tho discussion of this subject is concerned. I propose to submit another defi nition, but before doing so, lot me remind the reader that all human ac tions are limited within the range of one's natural strength. Os this limi tation, however, it is not necessary to take notice in this argument, as it belongs in common to all classes of actions. When, therefore, I speak of the limits assigned to our freedom in action 1 wish to bo understood as referring to such limitations as are moral—to such as aro imposed upon voluntary agents, by adequate and legitimate authority. Now, I give my definition, first, as near as possi ble, in the form of the one we have just considered. By the free agency of man is meant, that, every man is free to do as ho pleases, within certain limits. I have substituted, “is free to,” which implies freedom, instead of “can” which implies power; and I have added the modifying clause, “within certain limits.” This definition in cludes all that there is of human freedom, and it excludes all that might be mistaken for it. It is there fore a complete definition. But whence comes this freedom to do as we please, within certain limits ? It is held by many that free dom is an innate element of our na ture. This notion is tacitly assum ed to be true by almost everybody. But is it true ? I think not. It is true, man has by nature an aptitude for freedom. And as soon as he is old enough, he has a desire for it. But neither the aptitude, nor the de sire is the thing itself. That comes to him from without. Man by na ture is endowed with what is called the possessory principle; and when he is old enough this principle de velops the love of riches; but riches are not a part of our nature. Neither is freedom. • This analogy may bo carried still farther. The love of freedom, and the love of riches have run parallel with each other through all the history of our race. And it has been found, that as long as these affections have been restrained within proper limitations, they have proved to be not only harmless, but useful and beneficial; but when ex ercised beyond the bounds of legiti mate restraint, they have brought upon mankind unmeasured sorrow. But let ns return to the question* Whence comes our freedom ? I answer it is God’s free gift to man. This is revealed to us ip the account which the Bible gives js of the crea tion. As soon as God iilaced Adam n the garden prepared tor him, God gave to .him dominion over the beasts, the birds, the fishes and over every creeping thing, and the garden itself that ho might dress it for his own use and pleasure. Such was the estate which was conferred upon this favorite creature. It made him rich, he became at once;a great proprietor. But God did not intend that man should be altdjgether his own master. Ho meant that his creature should hold his great estate in fealty to himself, as the author of his being and the sovereign of his will. He therefore said to the man. “Os all the trees in the Garden thou mayest freely cat; jbut of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” We find in this instructive story, as I have shown elsewhere, the first “bill of rights” ever given to man. It conferred upon Adam a wide fran chise of freedom in the use of the estate which God Lad given him. But it was not unlimited. To the extent of his franchise he was a free agent. He had a god-given right to do as he pleased, within tho pre scribed limit, but beyond that limit his freedom did not "extend. I now am prepared to offer in another form a definition of human freedom. It is a God-given right to every man, to regulate, within certain limits, his own actions according to his own will. TO BE CONTINUED. Written for tho Christian Index. SPIBITUAL ENDUBANOE. BY REV. F. a. BOSTON, D. D. We have to endure temptation. Every man is tempted. Temptation is a part of tho furniture of life that greets us on our advent and follows us to the grave. It is no respecter of persons. Evon the Holy Son of God had to enduro temptations. Much more we who are sinful mor tals. It comes along all the avonffes of life. It is found in tho most un expected places and in tho most sur prising forms. This is why Christ gave us the prayer: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” The man who gives way before seductive evil, makes no fight with the adversary, swims with the stream sails with tho wind and goes with the multitude down the broad way, does not endure temptation, he goes along with it To endure tempta tion is to stand under its fire, strug gle against its tide, and walk the narrow road. The highest example of endurance is that our Lord, tempt ed 40 days and 40 nights, standing alone, strong and true, and, with the word of God, cutting down the ad versary at every advance. Let us likewise endure temptation, for it is written, “Blessed is the man that enduroth temptation, for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life.” That the Christian life abounds in discouragements from the present and human side no one can deny, we meet with disappointments at the very beginning of our Christian career, the first blush and enthusi asm of Christian experience are fol lowed by a reaction. A young Christian once said, soon after his conversion, “I felt as if I never could do wrong again, but alas, I found it so easy to back-slide. At first my religious duties were joyous but after awhile they became dull and tiresome. At first my heart was full of burning and tender love for my Saviour, then I felt a cooling down. I had lost to some extent, my first love.” Ido not think these are exceptional experiences; they are common. We have all felt them more or less. We have suffered dis couragements in Christian life be cause of them. Now, let me say,even with such feelings emanating from our own hearts and under such dis couragements arising from our own imperfections and backsliding, we should endure, never turn back but press on. The Master foretold that the love of many would grow cold, the Ephe sian Christians soon fell away from their first letter. When young con vert enters the church one of the greatest shocks to his Christian life comes from the worldliness and in consistencies of many who call them selves Christians. Do you not sup pose the discovery of the traitorous and thievish spirit of Judas shocked the Apostles, <and the lying to the Holy Ghost by Ananias and Sap phira caused the cheeks of the other Christians to blanch and say, “How could they have acted such a part ? ” So to-day, when the devout and sin cere discover the trail and slime of the serpent in the conduct of those whom they had looked upon as the followers of the meek and holy Savior, they become discouraged and cast down in heart. They ex claim, “Who then, is true! Where is an honest follower of the Lord Jesus?” Or, when they look out over the church at large and see Christians running with the world, doing as the world does, seeking the things that the world seeks, and governed by the principles that gov ern the world, do they not say in great discouragement, “has not the dividing line been w’iped out?” Who can tell tho Christian man from the worldly man? When tho iceberg floats down into the temper ate seas it chills tho water for miles around, and tho ships passing near feel the cold air that blows to them from the mountain of ice; so those dis coveries and surprises in the church of Christ fill many sincere ones with discouragement, but shall we turn back because of their failures and imperfections in tho Christian profes sion? Shall we allow our love to wax cold because others have allow ed their love to wax cold? By no moans. Let us bo strong and en during even under such discourage ments. No one can appreciate tho antagonism and hostility of the world to the Christian life till ho un dertakes to live that life himself. He experiences what the blessed old hymn writer said: “This world is no friend of grace to help me on to God.” No, the world has no word of encouragement, no helping hand for tho man who is socking God and tries to walk in his ways. There is an awful reality in the words of scripture: “Without hope and with out God in tho world.” If I should take a little orange tree from Florida and carry it up in Canada and plant it there during the short summer and say to it: “You must grow here. I know you are far away from your native land and sunny clime, but you must do the best you can. The little orange tree sends its roots down in the soil and tries to grow and sends out buds and loaves, but after awhile it begins to feel the cold of the long winter nights, and it becomes homesick, withers and dies. It was in a hos tile clime, the sun himself seemed against it; the winds and the cold dews were against it. The ice and snow said: “We shall not let you live here with us.” So this world is to the sincere Christian life. It is against it and will not let it live on in Christ if it can help it. But shall we wither and die because the world is against us? Oh no. Let us en dure its coldness and hostility by living in an atmosphere of divine grace, the love of God, the fellow ship of the Spirit and Christian brotherhood. Now let me make some sugges tions as to how we may endure in the Christian life. By faith. It is said of Moses that he endured as seeing Him who is in visible. This passage has reference Moses conduct in giving up the pal ace and preferments of the king of Egypt, and choosing to suffer afflic tions with the children of God. The people of God were enslaved and degraded, but Moses said they are my people, their fathers are my fathers, their God is my God. He saw that God was with them, their future was great with his promises, so he endured all their afflictions. So in order for us to en dure we must have faith in God, we must see Him who is invisible, we must strive for that vision which penetrates the beyond to the ever present and eternal Savior who grants us mercy and gives us grace to help in every time of need. Hope will enable us to endure. Not hope in general, but that blessed hope of which we read in God’s word, the good hope through grace. It is good because it comes from the good God. When the fires went out on the altar of the heathen tem ple they were relighted only from the sun himself, so this good hope can only be kindled in our hearts by the grace of God. It gives us en durance because it holds out to us the dnsrti'of someth.r.g better. ishis world cannot give the good we crave, or tho rest for which we sigh. Its most favorable conditions cannot satisfy our hearts, but hope whis pers to us, “fight on, suffer and en dure in Christ’s name, there is some thing good for you in Christ here and in Christ in the world to come, honor, glory and immortality.” Then hope encourages us to expect a ter mination of these sufferings and criminations, the battle will not en dure forever. Troublous times can not always last. Pain of self-denial will give place to joy of loving ser vice. The cross to the crown will change, so hope comes to us daily and says “bo strong, oh, soul, enduro awhile longer, these light afflictions will work out for us a far more exceed ing and eternal weight of glory.” Endurance will come to us through spiritual effort. Hero lam sure the physiologist can give us some lessons for he teaches us that indulgence, ease and lack of activity take from our body the power of endurance. While the prize-fighter is a disgrace to our Christian civilization, yet he teaches us some true and wholesome lessons. The man who desires a strong muscular body, capable of power and endurance, must cultivate and develop it by temperate diet and habits and by vigorous exercise. Soft muscles and lack of staying power come from ease and inactivi ty. Are not these lessons in charao ter? Who is there that goes down before the slightest temptation • who is it that fails in right-doing and right-thinking; who is it that is weak effeminate and has no power of spiritual endurance? Aro they not those who are at ease in Zion, who do nothing for God and human ity, who are self-indulgent- No wonder such ’characters are fail ures. No wonder their bleaching bones mark the highway that leads to the city of God. If you would have spiritual endurance, do some thing for Christ; do something for your brother man; go forth in tho great and needy field of Christian endeavor, bo temperate, be master ful, be active, attempt great things and God’s word for it, endurance will come and bless your soul. The public school is not universal in the old world. There aro 10,000 parishes in England with only church schools. Brother Minister, Working Layman, Zealous Sister, We are striving to make CChe Index the best of its kind. Help us by soon ring a new subscriber. VOL. 69-NO. 45 HOW SHALL WE BEAOH THE MASSES. BY REV. CHARLES K. HENDERSON. Well, put it down that you shall not reach all of the masses in this gen eration. In the end they shall be reached so far as God designs, gradu ally, silently, successfully. Reaching the masses involves two things: 1. Subduing the masses to Christ- 2. Assimilating them to his charac ter. This is the end. The means to this is nothing less and nothing more than the spirit of Christ brought to bear upon the masses and working in them. The Savior said that the kindom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three meas ures of meal until the whole was leavened. It is implied in this that Christianity is not only conquering, e but assimilating power. Notice, the leaven is hid in meal. It is there, though not seen. It is active, though not understood. You never can convert a soul until you enter into some genuine human relations to that soul; And into some divine ones, too. The church is influential in direct ratio to her sympathy and activity with the moving millions of mankind. The church that sits on a hill and shines, but that does not go down in to the valley to comfort, may be ad mired for her light, but is surely without the salt that saves. The lea ven assimilates to Christ. Applied Christianity is the crying need of the masses. Not salt stored in warehouses, but salt rubbed on and rubbed in. But applied Christianity meansjthe reproduction of the Christ in our heart and in our life. A reproduced Christ will reach the heart and life of the masses. A Christ that is preached, but not reproduced will save nobody. All the great preachers, all the success ful preachers Hum - 3© -jihj Paul, Augusti|< Chrysostom,, Baxter Rutherford, Nettleton, Wes ley, Spurgeon and others. Each could say for me to live is Christ to live. Chalmers was a brilliant essay ist only until he found a new life in Christ. When one can say, I am crucified with Christ, yet neverthe less I live; yet not I, but Christ jlives in me, he has reproduced tho Christ. This is the true leaven, and it will work until the whole has been lea vened. In our efforts to reach the masses, notice how that we have sometimes misplaced the emphasis. The visi bility of the kingdom has been magnified into an importance greater than tho kingdom itself* Rome especially has done this. Once the Baptists followed the “Ignis fataus” of an attempt to set up a visible succession from the days of John the Baptist to the present time The “visible church” is a delusion. The kingdom is greater than a lo cal congregation. The “basileia” in cludes many “ckklesias.” The one ideal “ckklesia” of Christ makes up his “basileia.’* The kingdom of Christ is a theocratic monarchy. The local congregation, or the great de nomination, is oftentimes nothing more than a democratic institution gone to seed with its extreme asser tion of individualism and indepen dency. Give a Baptist preacher a good hearing at an association, with the prospect of a good dinner, and he can make the echoes repeat them selves as he rings the changes upon the glory of the local church and a regenerated membership, and all th« brethren will say amen. And yet so low has discipline fallen, and the fact of a regenerated membership in some of these local churches that I believe that satan himself would be excused for his crimes, only if he would come into church and take out his pocket handkerchief and wipe his eyes and blow his nose and grunt. Ho is of ten excused in his incarnation. Visibility is not always essential to tho existence of tho kindom. In Elijah’s time tho kingdom existed in the 7,000 of whom he did not know. Tho leaven was hid. The true king dom hi a thing of the inner life. The kingdom of heaven is within yotl. Sometimes a system, a creed, a theory of salvation, or of church government, receives the emphasis that belongs to the Christ, tho life, the leaven. Doctrine and church gov ernment have been tho great Bapttst