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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 Ya S. Broad jr Street. Atlanta. Ga. j. c. McMichael, proprietor. Organ of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia. Subscription Price : One copy, one year $ 2.00 One copy, six months 100 One copy, throe mouths so 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 othccs distinctly. In ordering a change give the old as well as the new address. Iho 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 discontinued. When you order it stopped pay up to date. Remittances by check preferred; orregis tered letter, money order, postal note. The man whom good men sus pect is apt to be bad, but the man whom bad men never suspect to be good. It is stated in the press dispatches that one of the subjects discussed at ▼the catholic conference in New York was the “advisibility of placing at Washington a duly accredited rep reserifiFivo of the Vatican.” What a figure such a “representative” would Sio sure! with the public school ques -1 the antagonisms between I and Irish adherents,' the is in this country are having a time of it. It is a great point I gained where these and kindred mat ters are discussed openly. If foreign prelates imagine they can muzzle the American press they will learn some thing when they it. It is stated the expensed of a stu dent in the new Chicago University are $34.00 a week. It is further Baid that the color line is ignored. es of the professors will go just the same, but we cannot help thinking that the money spent there migh| given practically free to a dozen or more of our belt ’denominational colleges. To emphasize the respect of our nation for the gentler sex, “it lias been said that to travel with the greatest comfort in the United States one must be either a railway king or an unprotected t woman.” That is only dealing with the queen by the same rule as with the king; and doesn’t Her Majesty conspicuously deserve it? The murder of Rev. J. R. Moffo t, a Baptist pastor in Danville, Va., by a saloon-keeper in that city adds another honourable name to the long list of martyrs to the temperance cause. He was an excellent man, but the assassin had no respect for the his character. It was a sad fate to be shot down in the darkness by a rum-seller for dar ing to oppose his nefarious business! but every great victory has been won by sacrifices. Let us hope the day is at hand when this great curse of drink shall be blotted out. Bro. Moffet leaves a wife and two children who have the sympathy of every good man and woman who hears the story of their sorrow. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay saith the Lord.” George Parsons Lathrop, with his wife, Hawthorne’s daughter, has become a Romanist. According to the Catholic Mirror, he travelled to the Church byway of Agnosticism, seeking escape from “the religious unrest which prevails in New En gland,” the Mirror tells us, “because Puritan Protestantism is barren and unsatisfactory.” Os course, as an Agnostic he was noteven a believer ; but he has gotten bravely over that infirmity of faith and is now a proph et lie 'predicts that within the next century “we shall see millions of New England converts to the Ro man Catholic Church.” His faith, it seems, has exchanged the infirmity which not all the evidences of truth could persuade to believe, for the in firmity which believes where there are absolutely no evidences of truth to persuade it. He is still in the Slough of False Doctrine, having simply struggled across the stepping stones of revealed teaching from the miry places of unbelief to the miry places of superstition. The chronic restlessness of the ministry is not confined to the Bap tists, if we may judge from the fol- Kristian 1 B lowing, from an editorial letter in the New York Observer: “Almost every mail brings me the tale of one who is dissatisfied with his place or who wishes change simply for its own sake. * * Such change and seeking after change are not losing to gain nor dying to live; they have nothing in common with self-sacrifice or consecration, and are only the selfish movements which result from and reveal unstable souls.” That is pretty severe. And yet is it not borne out by the facts ? The condi tions do not seem to vary greatly in the short pastorate from what they are in the long. The preacher who stays is no more devout, no better preacher, no more beloved than he who goes. Permanence in the pas torate is even of more importance to the church than to the pastor, and churches ought not to suppose that a change of pastors is a panacea for the evils that afflict our church life- The “Homiletic Review” for No vember contains an article by Rev. Camden M. Cobern, Ph. D., of Ann Harbor, Mich., on “How to see some thing of Europe, Egypt and Pales tine on Two Dollars a Day.” The writer thinks that there are many young students and ministers who would not fail to take a year for foreign travel if they knew how cheaply it could be done. And this article is written to let them know. He seems to be a man of what Dr. Wayland called “our native inborn gumption.” But send for the Re view and read and judge the article for yourself, asking withal the judg ment of brethren who like Dr. Broadus have the benefit of person al experience in the promises. The travel may be of great service to you, and you ought to take it if you may, unless special obstructions in pose. Formalism carries in its hand no remedy for sin. Outward rites can not reach and rectify inward evils. It is an idle drcam that Ceremonies can cleanse the soul. Less absurd was the act of Sir Walter Raleigh’s servant who, when her master was introducing the use of tobacco in the garden at Myrtle Grove, his home in Ireland, saw smoke issuing from his mouth, supposed that he was inter nally on fire, and emptied a pail of of water over him, as if the stream applied to the skin without could ex tinguish a flame burning only deep within ! And quite as absurd was the idea of Ben Jonson, the poet, when, because he wanted to be in perfect readiness for the resurrec. tion, he caused himself to be buried standing upright, as if the posture of the body could fit us for the day that determines the eternal destiny of the spirit! Ah, sin is a thing of’ the heart, and so its remedy must be a thing of the heart: it is Love whose other name is God working in the heart, and winning tlio heart to Himself, and making the heart like himself. The two great questions for us are, how does the Gospel affect our heart ? and how does the heart thus affected affect our life ? THE THREE HEBREWS IN THE FIERY FURNAOE. The far away ancient servants of God put to shame our meagre little faitii. They clearly illustrate what simple faith is. They stood before a man whom they knew to be able to destroy them. They trusted in God whom they believed to be able to de liver them. But so far as we know there had been no intimation given them of the deliverance God intend ed for them. They trusted him in the purest and simplest manner pos rfible. They intended the conse quences should ail be left with Him, This is faith and this alone is faitii. It was a matter of no concern to them whether they were delivered at all or not. They concerned themselves with being faithful to God in the hour of sorest trial. How sadly we need to learn that it is ours to bo faithful and his to work wonders. Muy Ibo pardoned us a fault finder, “There is so much of the religion of our day that has en tirely reversed the ancient order. The religionists now require God to be faithful and they propose to work the wonders. So seldom do people ask themselves if they faithfully represent God. They seem only to enquire wheth er it will succeed. ATLANTA, GA., THURSDAY. DECEMBER 1, 1892. We undertake to raise money for the Lord’s cause. Wo do not ask is this God’s way. We only ask will this get the money. I venture to say that in a large number of instances where money lias been raised for Christian pur poses the cause of Christ has been injured more than it has been ad vancad. Every trick and device in my judgment that excites giving without the right motive is injurious chapel cards, bricks, etcetera includ ed. We enter on a campaign of soul saving like some army-general begins a seige. Wo are determined to get them. If one sot of manipulations will not bring them another is insti tuted, we are determined to do it some way, anyway. Now I know that missiles will fly around my unhallowed head. You are willing to sit back on your dig nity and let the world bo lost. No you only call me that. I am not that at all. lam simply willing to do God’s work in God’s way. Ho says that the money necessary for his work should be given by his people straight out without coaxing and feeding and bleeding. You would not get half enough! O yes you would. Lets go bact to original ideas. We read how they sold their possessions and brought the money and laid it at the apostle’s feet. But we fail to get it that way after we have filled the papers with appeals and ransacked the earth from land to sea. Let’s have a revival and turn out all the members of the churches who do not love the Lord’s cause then reor ganize our missions on a solid money basis and run them like all the Lord’s work ought to be done on a ready cash system. t And when we undertake a pro tracted meeting suppose we preach the Gospel and allow the Lord some hand in the conversions. How hollow much of our work be comes! Hero wo are straining, in the eyes of the world, at the unpar-' alleled effort to raise two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and poli ticians are expending ten times that amount on the elections. I heard one Baptist say that he would freely give a thousand dollars to secure the election of a certain United States legislator. About that time his church held its centennial meeting and that same Baptist gave five dollars to make Jesus the king of the whole earth. We need remod eling. If the furnace that yawned before the faithful Hebrews were possible now adays I fear greatly there would be a sparse family walk ing without the smell of fire on their garments. These faithful men of God stood before a nation of Idola ters, and so far as they could see when they were consumed in the flames the true knowledge of God would bo blotted out of that nation still they simply trusted and stood firm. Better that all th© nation should remain * Idolaters than that they should be faithless. But God’s way was the successful way. Their faith was worth more than all the works they could have performed. They exercised faitii, God worked the wonders. As long as our inter ests both at home and abroad are tackled upon human inventions and untrustful plans, wo shall halt and limp and scotcli and vamp and puff and blow. Counting numbers to our shame and running to and fro to make a proselyte, that shall be a poor little deformed hunchback like ourselves, advising the Lord how be ought to have written scripture and how he ought now to make converts to the religion of Jesus. • Omega. THE MAJORITY ARGUMENT, Many people are strongly impress ed and influenced by the fact that the majority of the people of a cer tain place or section of the country are in favor of a certain thing. It matters but little what the tiling fa vored is, if there bo many more to adopt it than there are against it, it is argued that it must be right. But it should be remembered a multitude in favor of a certain thing, or plan or system docs not make it right nor true. God told Noah that he would bring a flood upon tho world, but tho overwhelming majority of the people took issue witli tlio statement and did not bcliovo it. Tlio fact that they did so, did not mako their position a safe ono. The sequel proved that the majority were deci dedly on the wrong side of tho ques tion. Numbers did not constitute a valid argument. At tlio time of the Reformation, the great majority of the people were against Luther and against the truth. They prided themselves on their numbers, but the multitude were on tho side of falsehood, darkness, death and ruin. When Christ entered upon his earth ly mission, with a mere handful of disciples, the scribes and Pharisees doubtless thought they had the bet ter position. The majority argu ment was in their favor; but they were wrong and Christ and the mi nority were right. And to-day among denominations, the majority argument carries much weight with many. A certain denomination out numbers, by magy thousands, some other denominations, and many in the larger ono conclude that they must be more nearly right than the others, because they seem to be more highly favored of God. They look to their millions of adheruots and say, “Seo how God has prospered us! He favors the majority.” But a mere increase of numbers does not signify God’s approval. If tho Catholics should outnumber all other denominations in this country, it would not denote that God favored them in preference to others, nor prove that theirs was tho true relig ion. The prophets of Baal outnum bered those of Israel at one time, but this did not truly argue that tho former were right and the latter wrong. Majorities, in themselves, do not constitute righteousness. Let us not be misled by majorities, nor deceived by numbers. C. H. W ITIIERBE. Written for the Christian Index. Leesburg, Fla.—Now that our Associations have about closed their work, I will say to tlio readers of tho Index, who may feel an in terest in our work in Florida a few words. The tidings frAi ■'».*.««« in u-tings disclose a wide spread financial de pression throughout the State. Such a condition as the present lias not been experienced since my first com ing here, twelve years ago. Yet, 1 am glad to say our mission work has not partaken of this depression. That is to say, the financial condi tion of our State Board of Missions is as good, (if not better,) than it was at the same time last year. Our people have not begun curtailing at the Lord’s end. This is very en couraging. The attendance at these annual gatherings have not been as large as usual, and perhaps, the col lections at them have been corres pondingly small, yet the collections in the churches have been larger. Considering the fact tliaf a large por tion of our territory is mission ground, we think we arc doing fair ly well. As a reading people we will com pare favorably with any other por tion of our favored land. Not less than one tenth of our membership are regular subscribers to the Flori da Baptist Witness, besides quite a number of other papers are taken in in the State. Among these I am glad to number the Index. It is a welcome visitor to a number of homes of ex-Georgians, who dwell in our Sunny “Land of Flowers” and semi-tropical fruits. In Leesburg, where I now reside, Kentucky is largely represented. We have a number of these in our membership, and they are workers for the Master that need not be ashamed of them selves or their labors. But this J can also say of those who are from other States. Wo are at Methodist headquarters as their Conference College is locat ed here, and the Coinference paper is published here. We, however, do not propose to be overshadowed by them. We will hold our banner aloft and waive it for the Truth and for God. Tho elections arc over and tlio people are settling down to their peaceful pursuits, and quiet reigns throughout the State. Not a single vote was east in this State for Mr. Harrison. His was so hopeless a case, the Republicans had no electo ral ticket out and lienee those who would have voted for him could not. Tho Third Party made a short fhin K and, I suppose, exhausted itself so completely that it expired on the Sth in st. At least I saw tlio other day what purported to be its grave. It was at Rochelle, near Gainesville, Fla., on the F. S. Rail-road. Near the depot, beside the track there was a little mound of earth at the cuds of which were head and foot boards. On tho foot-board were the words, “Born in 1890.” On the head-board, “The Third Party, Born 1890, Died Nov. 8, 1892, Without hope !” I did not see any mourners around. I suppose they had retired to enjoy their grief alone. It was a very small grave. It had of course so to be. It was a two years’ in fant ! I have just finished tho third book of a series, written by C. A. L. Totten, of LT. S. A. and Professor in Yale University, and entitled “Our Race.” The object of the author is to prove the Anglo-Saxon race to be tho last Ten Tribes of Israel. He brings to bear astronomy, mathemat ics, history and tlio Bible to prove the identity. Os course I am not competent to decide as to the cor rectness of his positions. He seems to mako out the case pretty clearly. His position is that Queen Victoria is a lineal descendant of King Da vid, as tho throne of David was transferred from Jerusalem on the deposition of Zedekiah by Nebuchad nezzar, through Zedekiah’s youngest daughter, Tea Tophi, to the British Isles, whore the ten tribes had set tled after their deportation by the Assyrians. The books are worthy of the study of our learned profes sors as well as all of our ministers. If his positions are true, they w ill revolutionize the interpretations of prophecy heretofore given to the public. I only hope they are true. More anon. N. A. Bailey. THE DECADENOUOF THE COUNTRY AND COUNTRY CHURCHES. The ambition to build up country communities and establish country homes and make society, has just about disappeared in our southern country. We shall soon, at present rates, have no use for tlio word “home,” as understood by our fathers and grand-fathers. They settled down often to stay for life, in the country; built a church and a school-house, and procured a post oflice ; and the people never thought of lowering their crest to town or city. Now, everything is for sale; everybody is trying to get to town, to find society, or to make some sort of a change. Consequently lit tle interest is felt in anything where they do not expect to stay. The old idea of being still and building up competency, if by slow degrees, is scouted. The prospect is too dis tant. They who seek fortune, wish the “golden stream to be quick and powerful ;” tlie rest despair of any thing but protracting a miserable existence they do not know how. At best, they fall into tile old epi curean philosophy carpe diem : pro pose to snatch a little education for the children- book education, as the means of making money solely ; cul ture and intellectual independence arc loft out of the calculation. The result of this, is a decaying country | population ; dilapidated school-houses and church-houses, or shanties built for a time and not for permanence ; annual calls of pas tors ; efforts at religious booms, and denunciations of the government be cause it don’t print money enough to supply everybody. Pastors are call ed on a whim very often ; when one is needed there is little prayerful lookout for a man of proven charac ter and solid merits. Docs he en tertain ? Does his manners please? Is he a nice fellow ? Are the many questions. Now all this must be changed. Stable men will have to be chosen; permanent neighbor hoods established ; society made > the pastor settled down and pro vided witli farm products instead of money largely ; the school secured and sustained, or the country pres ently will be a waste, howling wil derness. Agriculture must not, cannot be, an abandoned occupation. It lies at the bottom of every other. The character of our country must be produced in the country, not in the town. Varied crops, in a country so well adapted; homes, permanent homes; relations fixed enough for the indoctrination of the churches and the instruction of the young, is tho remedy. T. B. Teague. Written for the Chkhtain Index, FROM MISSOURI. Missouri Baptists arc a progressive people. At the mooting of tho Gen- eral Association in Lexington, reso lutions concerning our Colleges of the most revolutionary sort were in troduced, laid over until tho meeting in Carrolton which if adopted will cause our educational interests to bo founded on a different basis altogeth er as concerning tlio General Asso ciation and consequently to com mence anew. Speaking of tho educational inter ests they were never - brighter than at present. Wm. Jewell takes on additional life under tlio superinten dency of President Green. Now to those who are able to road tho signs of the times it is believed that no effort should be abated in regard to Wil liam Jewell College. That if we meet the demand of tlio times there must be at least one million of dol lars given to the institution in tlie near future. That we occupy tlio location and God has blessed us with a beginning of which we are not ashamed, and now manifest ly duty bids us go on unto perfec tion. Is it true we have the loca tion ? Let us cast our eyes over the map of the United States and we will see we occupy a position which stated in the language of another, “The west is to govern the East and and Missouri is to govern the West,” and if we are equal to these changes that are rapidly adjusting themselves to this end should not Missouri Bap tists at least be have pre pared an institution adequate to this state of affairs- Now after years of endeavor in which there has been toil of body and soul the tides begin to flow toward us, let nothing be done to retard, but.everything to ad vance the interests of William Jewell. We boast of our schools and well we may for surely no state furnishes better, if as good and I am sure as a denomination we stand first in this state on this subject. Yours, etc., T. M. S. Kenny. Booneville, Mo. . STONEWALL JACKSON. REMINISCENCES OF HIS LIFE AS A PROFESSOR. Stonewall Jackson as a Lieutenant during the Mexican war, and as a “Bellona’s Bride groom” in Confed erate timesis reasonably well known to tlie reading world. Tlie “Life’ by Dr. Dabney is in many respects worthy of the illustrious subject, and of tlie able and accomplished author Bet this “life,” and all the other ‘lives,’’are mainly devoted to tlie task of depicting the Christian ■warrior; and as this is tiie character in which he was most fully himself, it was natural and proper that the biogra phers should concern themselves es pecially with this manifestation of tlie man. Still, as a matter of fact, it is known that Jachson spent a con siderable portoin of his life in the position of professor of natural philosophy and artillery in the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, and it must be manifest to the observant reader that this por tion his life-has received scant meas ure at tlie hands of the biographers. This, however is not duo to any neglect on the part of these writers; for they well understood that all in telligent readers would desire to know how Professor Jackson lived; how and what he taught his classes; what he said and did in tho lecture room: indeed, anything which would throw any light upon the character and conduct of tlie man who said so little and did so much. But tlie truth is that there was precious little to tell about this per iod of General Jackson’s life. A bi ography of a great literary man is lie apt to little more than a review of his works; tlie biography of a thinker finust often be simply an account of his thinking and its resnlt and tlio biography of a teacher, even though ho be a prince in his profes sion, will not often present much that is very new, or very striking to tlie non-professional reader - But Jackson’s life as a teacher was singularly and exceptionally monot onous. Ho seldom open his mouth, except from absolute necessity. As Dick Taylor said, “If silence is gold en, Jackson was a bononza.” Ho had his text-books, and prescribed tho lessons,and at the appointed time lie heard them; and this was about all of it. Discussions in the class-room Brother Minister, Working Layman, Zealous Sister We are striving to make Tlie Index tho best of its kind. Help us by securing a new subscriber. VOL. 69—NO. 48. were unknown, and oven explana tions were very infrequent, and when they did occur they usually left the matter where they found it. The text was the one great thing which ho came to hear, and we came to say—if we could; and most of us commonly couldn’t when tlie said text was Bartlett’s Course of Natural Philospby. Poor Allen! He was my room-mate during my first year (1854.5) and with Williams, Patton, Slaughter made up room No. 13. Where are they now? Williams, Patton, and Allen were all of the same class; all occupied tho same room; all gradua ted the same day; were all young lawyers; all colonels of Virginia reg ments, and all all fell at Gettysburg: and Slaughter had been disabled for life before the sad day on which oui room-mates fell. When I was in tho third class, I used to see Allen tugging over “Old Jack,s” terrible lessons in Bartlett’s Optics; and one day I opened the book, and found on the fly leaf tho following stanza, which I suspect was Allen’s own: “’Tis said that Optics treats of light, Eut oh! beliove it uot, my lark; I’ve studied it with all might, Aud still it’s loft mo in the dark.” Major Jackson was perfectly at home in the long and intricate equa tions and other mathematical formu lae w’hich make up so large a part of Bartlett’s “Mechanics,” “Optics and Acoustics,” and “Spherical Astrono my,” and many of his pupils often expressed the belief that thero was not in the three volumes an equa tion or a formula which “Old Jack” could not repeat by heart. And yet, with all his accurate and minute knowledge of tho course, there was very little teaching done in that departmeet, unless teaching be made to mean the prescribing and hearing of lessons. Teaching, in the modern sense of tho term, was not Jackson’s forte. His silence was phenomenal; had no turn for expla nation; no talent for putliii”' thintrs • .. A? ” in various points of vi< ■>/ adapt them to the various ment.:’ conditions of his pupils. During the war, he was greatly praised for keeping his plans to himself; but I doubt if he could have explained his plans, if he had done his best. Though I drilled under him for three years, and recited to him daily for a year and a half; I never saw him laugh outright. A very q&iet, sub dued sort of smile was tlio nearest tiling to laughter that I ever saw him indulge in; and these smiles were very infrequent, and commoly occured only when outrageously lu dicrous things took place in his im mediate presence. If Fulkerson put on a collar made to order out of some three quarters of a yard of linen, and then convulsed tile class with laughter at tho grave but irresistibly ludicrous way in which ho would wear that collar in the class-room, Major Jackson would smile, knowing as he did, that tho collar was tlie single visible article of a cadet’s wearing apparel of which tho regulations did not rigidly prescribe the form aud sub stance. If Davidson Penn—a portent of mischief—put on an uncommonly se rious face, and asked, apparently in good faith, “Major, can a cannon bo so bent as to mako it shoot around a corner?” tlio professor of artillery would show not tho slightest sign of merriment or of impatience, but would, after a moment of apparently sober reflection, reply,, “Mr. Penn, I reckon hardly.” M o could never decide whether his gravity on such an occasion was real or assumed. f ' I have often wondered if Jackson managed to preserve his gravity when wo read a certain excuse hand cd in by Hambrick. We had been at artillery drill, and 1 lambrick along with tlie rest - of us third-class men and “Plebes,” had to perform the rather troublesome duty of pull ing tlie cannon. Jackson had given command, :i favorite one witli him, “Limber caissons, pass your pieces; trot, inarch;” Hambrick had failed to trot at command, and was report ed by Jackson. TJic next morn ing the following excuse was handed in: “Report Cadot 1 lam brick, not trotting at nfcCHlery drill Excuse—l mu a natural pacer." If Major Jackson did laugh when ho read this, none of us over found it out, as tlie document was probaly road privately. J, 0. Hiden.