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Many good and strong things were said in be half of missions During the Seston of the Southern Baptist Convention. Subscribe to and read the Christian Index, if you would keep informed. .ESTABLISHED 1821 ®ltc Christian gttdese r ■■■ ...... Published Bvery Thursday at KH S. Broad Street. Atlanta.* J. c. McMichael, pbofuibtob. Organ of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia. Subscription Prick ; One copy, one year 8 2.00 Ono copy, six months 1.00 One copy, three months CO Obituaries.—Ono hundred words free of charge. For each extra word, one cent per word, cash with copy. To Correspondents.—Do not use abrevia tions; be extra careful 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 off personal ities; condense. Business.—Write all names, and post offices distinctly. In ordering a change give the old as well as tho 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 he orders his paper disoontinued. When you order it stopped pay up to date. Remittances by check preferred; orregis tered letter, money order, postal note. -- " ♦ Rev. 0. L. Haily has been elected Corresponding Secretary of the new Sunday School and Colportage Board of Tenn. The highest and best rewards of this life are set upon through, open faced honesty, and yet the “honesty” that shapes itself with reference to rewards is not thorough. The First Church, Jackson, Tenn., licensed C. W. Daniel, W. W. Hor ner and Fleetwood Hall, to preach. They are all Seminary students, and are said to be pious and promising young ministers. Rev. M. T. Martin fias been on a visit to Meridian, Miss. While there, he was the guest of the Edi tor Baptist Record. Thence he ■went to Brookhaven to aid Pastor Lomax in a meeting. The church at Jackson, Miss., has lately had ten accessions, five by ex perience, and five by letter. They are to vacate their old house of wor ship, January 1, next, when they hope to go into the new one. No, friend, things are not what they ought to be. Nobody pretends that they are. But we needn’t go through life grumbling. “Fret not thyself because of evil-doers.” Cul tivate a sunny temper and the habit of looking for the good that lies all about you. And for every minute you give to complaining of the wrong that others do, take an hour for mending your own wrong-doings. There is no such thing as leading a “double life,” except in the exoter ic sense. A man who maintains an outward show of piety while embez zling money entrusted to him or ' living in adultery, is really as bad at heart one day as another, and his final discovery and disgrace is no discredit to the religion he professes, since he simply proves that bis pro fession was false. General James William Barnes died at Lis home, Prairie Woods, near Anderson, Friday morning Oct., 21, 1892 being 77 yearn and 16 days. He was born near Sparta, Hancock county, Ga., Oct. 5, 1815. He married Miss Carrie A. Green of Jones county, Ga., and moved to Texas in the fall of 1840. He was a member of the Baptist Church, was baptized by Rev. J. W. Creath in 1847 into membership of the Ander son church. He leaves a wife and three daughters, Mrs. C. C. Gibbs, of San Antonio, Mrs. Eugenia Quin cey of Navasota, and Mrs. Benjamin Hill of Anderson. Rev. L. N. Brock, who has lately resigned the pastorates at Sardis and Batesville Miss., makes tho follow ing statement of his doting work. “At Sardis, two weeks ago, we or dained Rev. C. C. Howard to the full work of the ministry. Bro. Howard is a grand-son of Eld. C. B. Young, who once was so well known and loved in this part of the State. Bro. H. is a young man of promise. On last Tuesday night wo ordained Rev. Jno. L. Stricker to the gospel ministry. He goes at once to take charge of tho church at Marianna, Ark. On the same night I baptized his Presbyterian wife, together with two other ladies.” We are not dabbling in politics in any partisian sente, when we express our grave apprehension that the greatest danger to free popular gov ernment is in the wide-spread cor ruption of tho ballot-box. The “balance of power” in this country seems to be in the purchasable vote. The “corruption fund” is recognized as of greater moment in “practical politics” than the party platform. Universal suffrage is a political ©c ©ristian . 1&W RevTßWest “fad.” Such a thing never did exist “on land or sea.” And since in the nature of things tho lines must be drawn somewhere, it is easy to see how tho temptation to venality might be very greatly reduced. One of our secular exchanges gives a happy expression to a most suggestive idea, in saying that “a boy cannot go far wrong who has his mother for a chum.” Why do not father and mother more gener ally make themselves companionable to their children ? We give it up. Certainly nothing would more richly repay their efforts, and they have the noblest incentives. It is credi table in the highest degree, alike to father and son, to mother and daugh ter, to see them “chummy” with each other. The prosperity of the wicked who are openly and unblushingly wicked is, perhaps, not so great a trial to our faith in the divine providence as the success of the hypocrite, or the man whom we believe to be a hypo crite. But we have the consolation of knowing that the Judge of all the earth will do right, and that in. -he case of both the openly and the se cretly wicked “He seeth that his day is coming.” Besides, we are our selves not infallible, and it is possi ble for us wrongfully to withdraw our confidence from a weak and err ing but struggling and repantant brother. What a joy it is that “the Lord looketh on the heart!” Speakifig of infallibility, the dog ma of Pins IX excited the ridicule of sensible men throughout the world. It claimed infallibility in the official acts and judgments of the pope. There are some extraor dinary persons in our own country, and even in Georgia, who are put ting forth the far more preposterans claim of infallibility in conduct. If that is not the real meaning of tho “holiness” and “second blessing non sense about which wo have heard so much, then we can see no meaning in it whatever. The truth about this matter ij; that the seriptaraf ideal of perfect holiness is forever unat tainable in this life. It is an ideal toward which we may make delight ful and encouraging progress here, and to which we shall attain in the life to come; but for reasons wbieh are not difficult to see, it must re main an ideal this side the grave. The place of the beautiful in Chris tian worship should not bo difficult to find, and yet it seems to be very much unsettled. Our God hath made everything beautiful in its time,” and in his worship every thing ought to bo beautiful. Only let us be sure that our worship does not lack the essential quality of de votion. It is quite as fatal to genu ine homage and die spirit of real pi ety to felicitate ourselves upon the ugliness and discomfort of our places of worship, as it is to boast of their convenience and costliness. There is inherently no more religion in the uncultivated tlian in the cultivated voice, and the carefully trained qua tette may be thoroughly devout. Tho ascetic may be in his way as far wrong as the self-indulgent. It is only when fine architecture and fur nishings and rnuaic and oratory are made an end in themselves, or the basis of our appeal to tho ungodly, that they become a menace instead of an aid, and deserve the stinging epithet (recently bestowed on them) of a “chronic Christianity.” Written for the Christian Index, GIVING THE EIGHT HAND OF OHUECH FELLOWSHIP. In the New Testament we read a good deal about the imposition of hands by the apostles, after bap tism. Os course this apostolic prac tice had divine authority, as Peter and John (Acts 8 :17,) and Paul (Acts 19 :6,) were inspired. But, without doubt, the right to exercise this act, for the reception of tho Ho ly Spirit, expired with the apostles. Yet, the custom continued to exist among the churches, though not for the reception of extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit. Two hundred and fifty or three hundred years ago, it was a common custom among Baptists, but by no means universal, for the minister of a church, receiv, pg a new member by baptism, to jay his hands, accompanied by pray er, on the head of the kneeling coh ort or new member, founding tho custom in Hebrews 6 :2. In the seventeenth centucv. this nractice ATLANTA, GA., THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1892. was brought from Europe to Amer ica, and is still maintained by a few regular Baptist churches. Three Bap tist Churches in the Philadelphia As sociation of Pennsylvania, practice and admire the custom now, two of whiohare in Philadelphia, namely The Second Baptist and the Roxbor ougb. The Third is the Lower Union Church. In the Roxborough Church the candidate kneels, the pastor lays his hand on the candidate’s head and prays for the power and pres ence of the Holy Spirit to guide and help him ; and, on his rising, gives him the hand informally. The same church gives the “hand of welcome’’ or the “right hand of church fellow ship” to those “restored” or “receiv ed by letter.” It is well Known that the Philadelphia Confession of Faith,” adopted by the Baptist As sociation met at Philadelphia, Sept. 25, 1742,” includes an Article de claring, “XWe believe that the laying on of hands, with prayer, upon bap tized believers, as such, is an ordi nance of Christ, and ought to be sub mitted unto by all such persons that are admitted to the Lord’s Supper.’* (In Cath,cartß’ “Baptist Encyclope dia” pagO 1320.) But, it is stated that the object of this, “is not for the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, but for a farther reception of the Holy Spirit of promise, or for the addition of the graces of the Spirit, and the influence thereof to confirm, strengthen and comfort them in in Christ Jesus.” (Article 31.) There are a few “Six Principle” Baptist Churches, in New England, who hold to this custom. But, al most universally it has been super seded among regular Baptists, by simply giving to newly “baptized” persons, as to those “restored” and “received by letter,” the right hand of church fellowship ; and even this is not always practiced by the minis ter, though it is certainly appropri ate. It should be stated that the ob servance, or non-observance of the custom of imposition of a kind upon persons newly baptized, is not made a test of fellowship by these churches which practice it. I understand that a volume, edit ed, with Notes, by C. E. Burrows, D. D., entitled “Diary of John Com er” which will throw some light on this custom, will soon be issued by the Baptist Publication Society, of Philadelphia. It is, perhaps, needless to say, that, almost universally, the adoption of its 31st Article, in The Laying on of hands,” by the Philadelphia Bap tists, in 1742 was unwise, although the reasons for it are given. It may not be generally known that the First Baptist Church, in Providence, Rhode Island, “split,” because of this very custom, or so called “ordinauce,” of “Laying on of hands,” about the year 1652, and that the seeeders, who believed in and practiced this act, as an ordinance formed themselves into a church at that time, which church now consti, tutes the First Baptist Church of Providence. Previous to that time, a Baptist Church existed at New port, which, rightly speaking, is, therefore, the oldest Baptist Church in America. For the church, from which the present Providence Church seceded, and which did not practice tho imposition of hands, afterwards expired. It had been formed in 1639 ; and hence, the present church, formed in 1652, claims 1539 as the true date of its own organiza tion. S. Boykin. Nashville, Tenn. Written for the Christian Index. FROM NORTH CAROLINA. Perhaps the Index readers would be pleased to hear, now and then, of the doings of their Baptist brethren of the Old North State. A good example, worthy the em ulation of other city churches, has been set by the Newberno Baptist Church, Craven County. They have recently raised, in addition to their liberal contributions to Association al Missions, four hundred dollars for evangelistic work in their county. It is a matter of no surprise to those who know that the church is under the leadership of Rev. Rufus Ford, one of the best pastors in tho State» aided by such laymen as brethren J. C. Whitty and C. C. Clark. Dr. T. 11. Pritchard, to the great grief of tho brethren of tho Eastern Baptist Association, will soon close up his work as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Wilmington, pre paratory to entering upon the duties of his pastorate in Charlotte. Ilis removal will be a bereavement to the Eastern Association, that has, for several years, enjoyed his pres ence, speeches and sermons. The Colored Baptist State Con vention met in Fayetteville on the 18th of October. Report says that some of the speeches and sermons were of a high order. They claim a membership of about 150,000 in the State. Their advancement in or ganization, education and missiona ry enterprise has been rapid. Ne gro slavery in tho United States, having served the purpose of Divine Providence, has been forever abol ished from the country, and South ern people are glad that it is so- But the institution, whatever may be said against it, rendered the pres ent intellectual and moral condition of the American Negroes a possi bility. Among the one hundred or more delegates to the Fayetteville Con vention, there were six presidents and principals of schools, one editor, one foreign missionary, one ex-mis sionary, three doctors of divinity, two doctors of philosophy, four mas ters of arts, one bachelor of arts, one ex-senator and one ex-minister to Liberia, There were, doubtless, other or visitors whose jnaawa I failed to see. Rev. iv .d. Oliver, editor of the N. C. Baptist was so favorably impressed by their proceedings, and the high order of some of the ad dresses and sermons, that lie said of them, in his paper, “God bless the work of the colored Baptists in North Carolina.” The white brethren of Fayette ville invited Rev. W. W. Colley, ex minister to Africa, to deliver a lect ure for their benefit in the opera house, promising him a good collec tion for African Missions. The Convention decided to raise $5,000 for Home and Foreign Missions the ensuing year. They raised,at one of their sessions, in cash and pledges, about $1 ' 'fa oign Missions. A part of this amount was paid by the white citi. zens of Fayetteville, Rev. W. P. Fife, the popular evangelist paying SIOO of it. Unquestionably, Shaw University, at Raleigh, has been an important factor in the process and develop ment of the colored Baptists of North Carolina. Jno. T. Albritton. Mt. Olive, N. C. SOUTHERN BAPTIST TRAINING IN STITUTION. Baptists are practically agreed on the following: 1. All true ministers are divinely called into the ministry. 2. Every man so called should preach, whether his learning be much or little. 3. Every minister is in duty bound to seek the best possible preparation for his work, not only to begin with but all through his min istry. 4. It is the duty of the church es to aid ministers in preparation for their work. The conviction of the truth of this last proposition is at the bottom of all our efforts to found and carry forward our noble Semi nary at Louisville. It has had no little to do with the establishment of our numerous Colleges also. The work done by the colleges and the Seminary abundantly justifies their existence and their cost. It is above all price. But let us look at the field. With a college in every state on an aver age and a great Seminary, not one in five of our preachers is reached. In the very nature of the case the greater part of our ministry can not be reached by existing methods. The full four-fifths must go without any help except such as comes to them in a haphazard way. They are pas tors of a great majority of the church es. They cannot break off their work, leave their families and fields to go to college or seminary. But they are noble men, many of them with rare natural gifts and great zeal- Can anything be done to help them ? If so, clearly it ought to be underta ken. Tho Southern Baptist Training Institution is the first organized at tempt to reach and help three classes of people, first, the preachers above referred to: second, active Christian workers, third, the laity who desire by reading the right books to be come socially intelligent. The methods employed ale ‘such as have been tested and approved in other lines of educational work. The correspondence method.—The preachers, and workers, course will be carried on by correspondence. There will be a month’s work laid out at a time and examinations, with special instructions, will be by cor respondence. It is not a sm'all thing that a preacher undertakes to do regular work and solid work. It is no small thing that many preachers study books worth studying. It is much that this work is to have intelligent superversion. For preachers and workers—Sunday school Superin tendents, teachers etc., there will be at convenient places and times lect ure schools to hold from 10 to 30 days. The ablest men in the various states will be engaged in those short term schools. The expense will bo inconsiderable and pastors need not surrender their pastorates to attend? Anyone can take the correspondence course and tho lecture course both, or he can take either one without the other as he likes. The reading course will be made for circles and will be formed on the Bible, but will extend to such books as will make the reader strong and intelligent. The Chatauqua plan will be followed with these cir cles, and how wonderfully successful that has been all intelligent readers have some idea. More than 30,000 people have taken the course and general intelligence has been im mensely increased. Such a movement as the one un der consideration must have a center and an organ through which to speak. The Guardian, a monthly magazine of 60 large pages, publish ed at Waco, Tex., by Rev. S. L Morris has already passed its infancy, being now in its 11th year. For many reasons this monthly has been deem ed a suitable organ for the Training Institution. It is in competition with no weekly paper. It is pub lished by the Secretary of the Insti tution and it is suited to the class of communications demanded by such a moyemejit. , Tho subscription is very low, only $2,00 a year: to preachers SI.OO. This effort has met with universal favor. More than 200 have matric ulated before the opening. The work of organization is pressing hard upon us. It is reasonably certain that before the Institution is a year old it will have its lecture schools estab lished in a half dozen states and its students will be numbered by the hundreds. Unless I am mightily mistaken there is a blessing in this undertaking for our people. It conies home to the hearts and to the common sense of the masses. In forming the courses, I have the help of a wise committee. The ablest brethren among us are also lending their help to the effort. If any of your readers wish fur ther information let them address- Rev. S. L. Morris, Waco Texas. J. B. Gambrell. Meridian, Miss., Nov. 1892. THE ATTITUDE OF OUB OHUKOHEB TO THE MISSIONARY MOVE MENT. New developments, imposing upon us now relations, emphasize afresh old duties and suggest others. In the present state of the demands of missions it seems to me the at titude of our churches is aptly illus trated by the seal of the American Baptist Missionary Union, of tho ox standing midway between the plow and the altar, “ready for eithcr.”The two duties enforced upon us by the hopefulness and imperativeness of missions may bo expressed by the words, service and sacrafioe. To one or the other, or to both of these crowning Christian duties every disciple of Christ is being called. No new gospel is demanded, no now commission is needful, no complotor endowment is necessary above that which is ours for tho accepting, the anointing of God. ■'Wo mark the foes advancing ranks. Wo see their gathering powers; Tho battle may ho fierce and long, Tho victory must bo ours." Whatever view we may hold as to the plan of Jesus Christ in the worlds evangelization, whether a redeemed world is to be laid at bis feet when he comes to reign, or whether He shall gather out from among the Gentiles a people for himself and then come to assume his throne, the urgency of the effort for the redemp tion of the perishing must by either view be minimized by those who fear God and love the souls for whom the Christ died. Service is the decora tion the ascended Christ has bestow ed upon his disciples. Sacrifice is the badge of the most intimate and blessed fellowship between the Lord and his people, and the work com mitted to His church, by terms of the commission, furnishes the supreme opportunity for the service and sacri fice. He demands or all who have confessed our dicipleship. That there is a necessity for Christians to re-adjust themselves to the demands of Missions, I need not stop to en force. Enthusiasm is needful to stir us to a fresh activity, but a strong, intelligent conviction of personal obligation, enforced by the word and spirit as God are conditions in dispensible to that measure of conse cration this great work of Christ re quires of our churches. A position of inactian is the one of greatest price to the church. We may hear it said sometimes “it is gives give all the time,” or “it is something else just as soon as we get one thing done,” yes, so it should be, if the church is doing the work of the Lord. Pente cost had scarcely flung its power and blessing upon the fresh born church of the New Testament when all the members, men and women, (ex. cept the apostles) were scattered abroad preaching the word and testi fying to the fact of Jesus resurrec tion. Thus on, and on, the divine presence led the disciples as the pilar of cloud and fire led Isreal. New relations was voicing duty and suggesting fresh obligations, as day succeeded day. This is clearly Christ’s purpose respecting Ilis church and the method of the Holy Spirit’s leadership. We must come, under the Spirits guidance, to read fresh and larger meanings into these old words of service and sacrifice. For service is coming to mean the active side of joy, and sacrifice is coming to stand for the best illustration of a divinely enkindled love—“Responsibility”— that old word, that has heretofore weighed among words as lead weighs among ores—is coming to be under stood, it is ceasing to mean, in daily Christian life, impossibilities but is better understood as meaning our capacity for discharging obligation. These are terms the master employs to measure out to us the work he re quires at our hands. The difficulty comes from our mistaken notions that we can do Christ’s work apart from Christ’s help—“ Without me ye can do nothing”. As we come to place ourselves in such relations to Christ’s work, as he directs us to oc cupy, we shall find the joy of the Lord lifting the service of duty into the gladness of privilege—and the work of the Master will he no lon ger the bondage of servants but the loving homage of sons. That the demands of missions at home and abroad are multiplying in number, urgency and requirements is obvious, What then? The more work for God means the need of more power and better qualification for this work, more work means more prayer, more faith, more know ledge, more money, more men, in a word more personal consecration to God and his cause. We are again coming to see as it was so often seen in tho apostolic age—what God can do with a man wholly de voted to Christ, as Peter, Paul and Barnabus were. The hour is eloquent, with the divine call to every Christian to realize, as he or she never has done their “high calling of God in Christ Jesus”. What opportunities of ser vice and self-denial the cause of mis sions is loading upon our church es ! The providences of God arc also just as earnestly and plainly plead ing for the use of the peculiar gifts of His people for His service. Look at tho miracle of modern missionary activity and success in the work of the women of all denominations at the contributions of the Sunday schools to the work of tho world’s evangelization. On nil hands the awakening of quickened energy is res ponding in organized effort and self denial. Paul’s metaphor of the church, i. e. the body, is being better under stood because we nre seeing its lar ger meanings. The hand has been trying to do everything, to get on without tho foot, tho eye, the ear, in deed without tho head in too many cases. We are understanding the relations of tho parts of the body of, Brother Minister, Working Layman, Zealous Sister, We are striving to make □Fine the best of its kind. Help ub by securing a, new subscriber. VOL. 69—NO. 46 Christ better and the body is doing its work just that much better. We are finding a use for feet, hands, Lead eyes and ears and every other part and the result is an im mense improvement. We are wiser and have seen the folly of saying even of the least of the members of church body, “I have no need of thee.” But the whole “body fitly framed and'knit together through that which every joint supplieth, accord ing to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the in crease of the body unto the upbuild ing of itself in love.” God’s plan with us, is after all, the best for us. Our attitude as members of the church body must bo wisely adjust ed not according to our whims and feelings but according to tho mind of Christ. Every member must be alive for, either a dead member must be cut off or it will cause the mortification of the body. Vitality is essential for us. Again, the mission work is de manding of our churehes the best, the strongest the most efficient mem bers among them for the field. Wa need a readjustment of attitude as churches in this respect. “Surely inferior me tai will do for the hea then.” God says no and demands the best we have and more and more of it. What shall be our reply? Can we, daro we make any other than “Here Lord am I and mine, send as thou wilt?” Ah! It is these ques tions, that so concern the honor of Christ and his cause, that oomo so close to all that is dearest to you and me. “Who is ready to go for us? and whom shall we send?” are questions God’s Spirit will bring closer to the Chritian homes of our churches than he has been doing, the need is becoming greater, and God is faith ful. Duty as it becomes clearer, be comes more personal. Wo have been satisfied heretofore in saying “is there nothing that can be done to bring tho perishing to Christ.” Wo must change this question in two respects and honest ly ask, “Is there nothing I can do?” and the answer to this question must be sought from the Lord, “Lord, what will thou have me do?” This question the spirit of God is bring home to thousands of Christian hearts in our churches to-day. Men are more than methods. From the days of Paul down to Luther, Caa’ey and Moody men have been God’s measures. These are what have told in missionary efforts. Judson, Moffat, John Williams, Clough, men are Christ’s agencies and instru ments. But the churches need to face another attitude to Mission work. I believe that gthe origin of mission boards was no accident. They are manifest providences in God’s plan. They are needed and it is foolish to discuss their worth. Wo can’t get on without them. We would em barrass if not wreck the work on many fields home and abroad in a year if we tried to do without them. But I do think the churches are not as close to the boards nor to the missionaries and fields us they ought to be and might be. Instead of the Boards being de pendent upon the uncertainty of col lections for the support of the mis sionaries, it seems to me it would be infinitely better if back of each mis sionary or his field there stood a church strong enough to assume the expense of that mission just as thej assume the expenses of their own church. When that is not possible then let one or more churches of the cities, or towns, or the churches of one or more towns unite to support mis’ sionaries as the Boards select the fields and locate tho missionaries, and then let the Boards enlarge the work just as fast as the funds come in from other sources. Give to our Boards the larger work of supervising tho work and of direct ing the plans of the Convention and relieve them of tho unreasonable de tails of money gathering. This is the work of the churches and ought not to be tho work of the Boards, and would not be if the pastors and officers of our churches did their duty. Let us an pastors face such practical questions as these. Study tho interests involved in a wiser and a justcr adaptation of the work of our churches along such lines. There la much that fit ineffective iu <jur