The Christian index. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1892-current, December 08, 1892, Image 1

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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% ©lie Ovtetian Published Every Thursday at 57% 8 Broad Street. Atlanta. Ga. j. c. mcmichael, prorbiktob. Organ of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia. Subscription Pbicb; One copy, one year $ 2.00 Ono copy.six months 1-00 One copy, three months 50 Obituaries.—One hundred words free of charge. For each extra word, one cent per Word, cash with copy. To CORBKSIONBUNTS.-DO not use abrevia tions; be extra careful in writing proper 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 the new address. Die date of label indicates the time yottr 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. Whcu you order it stopped pay up to date. Rbmittancks by check preferred; or regts tered letter, money order, postal note. Rev. W. C. Golden, pastor of the Third Baptist church, Nashville, Tenn., is reported critcally ill. The Library of the Seminary at Louisville, Ky., has 20,000 volumes on the first floor of the fire proof building.—Baptist and Reflector. Forty new houses of worship are to be built in Berlin by the State church this year and next. Who pays for the building? Rev. W. H. Hubbard, Seminary student from Baltimore, has been chosen temporary pastor of Twenty second and Walnut church, Louis ville, Ky. Rev. J. B. Borders, formerly pas tor of the Colored Baptist church, Forsyth, Ga„ was installed pastor of Mount Olive Baptist church, Macon, Ga., Nov. 10th. 1892. The Pope, it is said, designs to have a golden throne worth $200,000. Where will the money come from? How many subjects do homage to him that will sit upon the throne ? Rev. C. S. Gardner, pastor Edge field Baptist church, Tenn., is rejoic ;ng in a fine revival meeting. There have lately been thirty-four additions to bis church. Edgefield is, practi cally, apart of Nashville. Brooklyn, with its nearly one mil lion population, has three hundred and thirty-eight churches exclusive of chapels and missions. Six of these churches are at present without pastors, three in the Baptist denomi nation, two in Congregational, and one in the Presbyterian. The Alabama Penny Saving Bank a Negro undertaking and a Negro success, was organized two years ago with Dr. W. R. Pettiford as Presi dent. Dr. Pettiford with his wonted skill and ability went hard to work to make it a success. With Mr. B. 11. Hudson associated with him as cashier he has succeded nobly. A meeting of the stockholders held recently showed that there have been deposited $137,993.14; checked out $125,158.71; Ballance in favor of depositors 12,834.43; working capital $14,764.69; gross earnings $6,547.63. The shareholders have made ninety per cent on the investment. This shows Negro Possibilities and what business tact there is in Dr. Petti ford:—Baptist Leader. The Imdex points with sorrow to the jealousies and hard sayings that have lately shown themselves among some of the prominent Editors of Southern Baptist papers. It looks ugly. The readers of those papers, we are quite sure, take no pleasure in seeing such things among breth ren whose pens ought to write of peace and love. If you are mad with each other, confess your faults one to another, and be reconciled. If you will not follow this Scripture rule, hide your jealousies and hard sayings in your waste baskets, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how to answer every man.” Let dogs delight to bark and bite, For God has made them so, I*t bears and lions scratch and light, For ’tie their nature too. But, children, let not your angry passions rise, Your little hands were never made to tear each other's eyes. F. D. Power writes an interest ing letter from London to the Chris tian Standard, Nov. 5. Speaking of the old burying ground of Bunhill Field ho says, though small, 124,0p0 people lie there. Among them Watts, the hymn writer, Lardner, the au thor, John Bunyan, the immortal ffjrfetian - Tr RsvTßWest— dreamer, scvcui members ot Crom well’s family, Susannah Wesley, mother of John and Charles Wesley, and Daniel Defoe, author of Robin son Crusoe, with a monument over him erected by 1,700 boys and girls of England. The White Tower, or Norman Keep, London, was built by William the Conqueror. The walls are 90 feet high, and very strong and massive. F. I). Power, in Christian Standard tells of one of its divisions in which the royal jew els, or regalia are kept. “They have been kept here since 1253. They are very rich. (The Queen’s crown, used at her corna tion ’3B, has in it 2,783 diamonds* 277 pearls, besides rubies, sapphires and emeralds.) The Queen’s orb, held in the right hand at the corona tion, and afterward in the left, is of gold and diamonds, and the scepter, three feet, seven inches in length, is banded with the same jewels. There are several other crowns and scep ters and gold spurs which are al ways placed on the altar at the cor nation, and the ampulla of gold which holds the anointing oil, and the anointing spoon which is of sol id gold, and any number of salt cel lars of gold and jewels, which at state banquets on the tables serve to mark the guests as “above or below the salt;” there is a rich communion service, a baptismal font for royal children, swords of state, etc. All this wealth is valued ot $15,000,000, is guarded by day, and at night the floor of the whole room goes do wn to the story below and is covered with an iron cage. What a care after all and a burden! ” And what a sad, humiliating com. ment is the last mentioned fact up on the vanity, cupidity, and deprav ity of poor human nature 1 CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD. This is another new thing under the sun. The founder of this new order has been an organist in differ ent churches and discovered the great necessity of-. 11 denominations laying aside their little petty differ ences and forming a union. Such propositions catch some people. It looks like the spirit of brotherly love and then the economic side is attrac tive. There is, these days, such a cry against creeds and such an ardent desire to have denominational union! One is sometimes lead to hope that the time may be approaching when such union will be possible. But I am frank to say it will have to be ap proached with an entirely different philosophy from that proposed by the Christian Brotherhood advocate, if he means what I think he docs in his published propositions. The creed of the new Order how ever, is nothing new at all. It is exactly what Baptists have believed and done through all these years. The Baptists will not need to make a single change. All that remains is for all these denominations that have been believing and practicing non- Scriptural creeds to lay aside their non-essentials and come to the New Testament Church without making new sects or Guilds of any kind whatever. Here is the Brotherhood creed and pledge : I hereby agree to accept the creed promulgated by the founder of Christianity, love to God and love to man as the rule of my life. I al so agree to recognize as fellow Christians and members of the Brotherhood of Christian Unity, all who accept this creed and Jesus Christ as their leader. I join thi s brotherhood with the hope that such a voluntary association and fellow ship with Christians of every faith will deepen my spiritual life and bring me into more helpful relations with my fellow-men. Promising to accept Jesus Christ as my leader, means that I intend to study His character with a desire to be imbued with His Spirit, to imitate His example and to be guided by His precepts. While the Baptist Churches have no set creed to which each one of them must conform, this with a very few unimportant verbal changes is the very thing we have stood out against the world for, through these years. I see no use now at this late day for Mr. Seward working up a now Order out of the un-Scriptural de nominations and claiming the honor of founding a new sect. Let Jesus, ATLANTA, GA., THURSDAY. DECEMBER 8, 1892. the proposed leader still have the honor of founding His Church and lot these whose creeds and lives are to be redeemed by the new Order come along and join the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ’s own found ing. Why should Baptists be asked to give up that which the now Or der proposes to return to them. If Mr. Seward means to take Jesus for an example sure enough, then ho should do it in all that Jesus left on record, that is all the Baptists ask. I suspect that I might speak for the Baptists of the whole country and promise to throw away our name, if that is the objectionable. lam sure that is all that this new creed points out ■wrong in us, except one little statement. His new creed says that he hopes to increase his spirituality by taking into his embrace all faiths, while we think the best way to in crease spirituality is to associate with and fellowship spiritual, Christ ly peoplb. I expect that if the eyes of Mr. Bo ward should fall on this he would think that it grossly misrepresented facts. From the utterances of his that I have read, he thinks that he is, to say the least, one of the very first that is willing to lay aside prej udice and do the most he can fo r Christ. But I may inform him that the starter of all these new orders has thought exactly the same. It seems that they suddenly discover the un-Scriptural alliances in which they live and break out, all at once, to reform the world. If such warm hearted, ardent men, all of them would join the Baptists and give their strength to the accomplishment of the ends of the Savior’s command ments they would not now have so many denominations to harmonize- This new design proceeds on the idea that all denominational differ ences are non-essential. It is quite probable that of the many denomi nations with which he has immediate acquaintance the differences are non eeßentials. Butt that is kiot true of all. There are denominations whose teachings are altogether different and upon such radical points as to affect the most sacred of Bible truths. The notion that all denom inational differences are about non essentials grows out of another great mistake the new order has fallen in to, viz: That belief is nothing, liv ing everything. The life of the Christian is, to be sure, very impor tant but the life of the Christian grows out of his faith. I will in form my zealous friend that he un dertakes an impossibility when he expects to maintain piety without doctrine. It is the trnth that makes us free. Men do as they believe. Please pardon me if I seem cruel- It is not meant to be so. The de crease of spirituality calls for more organization and the new movement while it seems to be a bursting forth of zeal is really but another evidence of a want of spirituality. Earnest men look around them and within them and become impressed that somethiug must be done aud they set about at once to organize some body. Let me advise, that when any of you feel called to organize you to go back and see if Jesus Christ did not organize the only religious institu tion that he wanted in this world. See if the elements of that organiza tion are not all that any people or times need. And if you will, see if the Baptists are not tracking that New Testament Church about as nearly as you could wish it done. While I have so heartily acceded to the creed of the Christian Broth erhood I do so with my own con struction upon it. And while I promise for the Baptists that they will give up their name for the sake of union, I do not promise that they will fellowship all who claim to love God and their follow* mon and regard Christ their leader. We teach love to God and love to men aud we make Christ our leader and wo make him more than our leader. Ho is our adorable Redeemer who panic into the world and suffered death for us that by His atonement Ho might bring us to God. We will fel lowship all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal Savior and then follow him, making Him indeed their Leader. By Mr. Spurgeon’s request a plain marble slab was put over his grave, with this inscription, ‘‘ C. 11. Spur geon—waiting.’ ’ —Baptist. TRUE WORSHIPERS. The word worship, has wide lati tude of application, in the Bible. It describes the ceremonies per formed before the altars of idols, as “they -worship the work of their own hands.” They worship other gods. “They worshipped the golden image.’’ “They made a calf and worshipped it.” Then there is a false -worship. There is also an inaejequate, vain worship of the true God. “In vain do they worship me Reaching for doctrine the commandments of men.” But our Lord who gave a new and spiritual meaning to so many of the terms used in the Old Testament defines the true worship under the gospel dispensation. The old was passing away, the time for the intro duction of the purely spiritual ser vice had come.” The hour cometh and now is when the true worship ers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.” Henceforth neither Jerusalem nor Gerisim (ex clusively) is the appointed place for worship. The time cometh and now is, it has come, when the Father seeketh such to worship as worship in spirit and in truth. Every place is now acceptable to God. In solitude or in the Assem bly, in the closet or in the crowded streets, in the sick chamber or in so ciety, in the prison or the hospital, on the death couch or emerging from the grave, the heart may construct its own altar and look into the face of God. No longer need we travel painful journeys to consecrated places ; every spot upon which you stand or kneel is now a consecrated sanctuary where your own yearning faith may kindle the lambent flame of Shechinah, the symbol and the assurance of a present Jehovah. Only and this is the sole limitation and this too the sole essential ele ments that make the petition true worship, you must re • $r *ho ser vice "in jpirit'and in truth.” ‘ It may be that forms and rites were once called worship and ac cepted for “the times of this igno rance God winked at” but now un der Christ’s new law’ worship takes its character and becomes accepta ble only from the state of mind and heart in which it is offered. There must be inner purpose, truthful in tention to worship God, or the forms you observe are mere bodily exer cises which profit nothing.” In spirit and in trnth”—spiritually and truthfully.—Lacking this the words you mutter or intone are meaning less as the sighing breeze. Worship then is not performance,it is a state of heart. Prayer is not utterance of words. It is the subtle essence that is within the words and that may exist without any words, “the soul’s sincere desire un uttered or expressed.” There must be in it conscious purpose and in tention to worship God. Praise to God is not in the writ ren hymn nor in the chanted tune only as these convey the conscious gratitude and adoration of the inner soul. True worship of God is grat itude, submission, dependence, peni tence, faith, adoration and love and from these into the outer life obe dience, charity and beneficence. Look over a congregation assembled in a Christian Sanctuary on the Lord’s day and tell me how many true worshipers, according to Christ’s definition, there are. Just as many as enter with concentrated thought and devout spiritual participation into the service, and no more. The bodily presence in the Sanctuary the respectful attitude, even the absorbed attention if it is only that of an auditor or spectator, is not worship. More than this is needed. The inner spirit must participate, apply, exercise, penitence in the confession, appropriatin gfaith in the read scripture, the melody of the heart in the song, conscious grati tude in the thanksgiving. I have seen, beautifully arranged, in an elegant vase, in a parlor win dow, a bouquet of lovely looking flowers. Their brilliant tints, skill fully harmonized, made it a charm ing thing to the eye. On approach ing it to admire more closely, I could discern no fragrance exhaling from it. On touching the leaves and petals I found them dry and crisp. I then discovered it was an artificial cluster, maufactured by the deft fingers vs some skilled maiden. But the mysterious impalpable fluid that emanates from God made flow ers was lacking. It could not be what it purported to be, a real truthful bouquet. So in our assum ed worship of the Lord,if the spirit ual essence, the aroma which the truthful spirit inhales into it and ex hales from it is but artificial worship, without the odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable and well pleas ing to God. Now take a sprig of mignionetm or a bloom of violet and field. Insert in your artificial cluster and a grateful odor will be wafted from it. But all the fragrance will come from those living blooms. There wili be in the manufactured boquet no more than before. So in our congregations there may be sacri fices of a sweet savor ascending to the Lord but they rise only from hearts through which flow the vital izing sap of spirituality. There are as many true worshippers as worship in spirit and in truth. There can be no more. Ask yourself, then, do you wor ship God in the assemblies of his saints? Do you enter the house of God, merely to receive, and to give nothing, to hear rather than to par ticipate? When the Minister, in solemn words gives direction to the petitions, confessions, thanksgivings, does your spirit go into the line of words he utters and make each sen tence your own heart’s offering? Just so far as you do this, you are a true worshipper. If you do it not at all, you are no worshipper at all. When the hymn is sung does your spirit lay hold of each line, aud to your own consciousness make it truthful praise? the praise is not in the words not in the melody or harmony of the music; it is down in the thought, the purpose, the heart. If this teaching of Jesus be true then the minister may spread his hands over the desk and say “let us pray” and yet it is quite possible that neither HE nor they may speak or think one word of true prayer. A hymn may be sung all through by choir and congregation without one emotion of praise. The Father may call morning or evening for family devotions and among them all, there not be a single sentiment of worship to divide, The Christian man from bis wearying care, the maiden from her evening social companionship, may hurriedly kneel by the bed-side and observe the wonted forms and all may be as destitute of the real spirit of worship as the twittering of a sparrow or the bleating of a lamb. May we not discover just here the reason why our type of piety is so low, why our growth in grace is so slow, our increase in the knowledge of God, so unsatisfactory? Our worship degenerates so sadly into formalities, it rises so seldom into real communion of spirit with the Father of spirits; it comes so far short of uniform sympathy with the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it fails to inform, stimulate or con trol our lives. The vital connec tion with the head is so often inter rupted the members are partially and temporarily paralyzed. There is a scission at the intersection with the vine, and the branches wither and are fruitless. The communion of our spirits is not clear or close enough with the Father of our spir its ; and so we deprive our souls of the nutriment which is essential to spiritual health and enjoyment and usefulness. J. L. B. Augusta, Ga. WRONG AND DANGEROUS, I fear that Baptists are drifting away from the true idea of the se paration of church and state. I was at an association a few days ago when a resolution was passed to memorialize the Legislature now in session to defeat the effort to give incorporated cities and towns con trol of the liquor question in their bounds, independent of the counties in which they are situated. Now, a Baptist may regard this but the exercise of a legitimate function by a religious body in behalf of a moral question. But there are at least two considerations not taken into recount by those who would thus defend this practice in religious or ganizations. Ist. Neither a church nor an association is a part of the state or of the state government. Citizens, as such, have a right to assemble and petition the Legislature, or individ uals may singly do so, for the reason that the state is made up of the peo ple who inhabit it. A town council, a grand jury or a political conven tion may invoke the state to enao, certain measures. But a church I repeat, is no part of the govern ment, is not amenable to that gov ernment nor the government to it. A church is not entitled to a vote nor to any representaton. If I was a Bcpresentative and such a petition as the above came to me I would return it or consign it to the flames just as quickly as I would deny my support to any measure regulating the internal affairs of a church. If a church is not to be re gulated by the law of the land then the state is not to be dictated to by a religious body. It is true that the same individ uals compose in a measure both or ganizations ; but it is equally true that men are not acting in the ca pacity of citizens in a church con ference or in an association. This practice of churches is a bad one and tends to undoing the great work which the Baptists have always done in behalf of religious liberty and the entire separation of church and State. 2nd. It is no part of the work of a church to regulate the condnct of those outside its pale. It will do well to rule well its own household A matter may be right but if it be political it should not be once con sidered by a Christian in connec tion with ministerial duties or re ceive the expressed sanction of a re ligious meeting. For instance, pro hibition is right and it ought to be supported by every Christian citizen but a minister who advocates pro hibitory legislation in connection with the gospel ministry degrades his calling and lends his influence to the propagation of an erroneous theory viz: that there is a union or identity in the office ami xin ties of the two citizenships. I recently saw a good ministerial brother obtain the floor of an asso ciation and make a stump speech in favor of the National prohibition party. If the brother wished to throw away his ballot on that party or thought it his duty to vote for its principles as an expression of his sentiments it was all right. I may do the same thing some day, but I hope never to transform an associational meeting of Baptists into a partisan mass-meeting or try to commit the Baptist church, as such, to affiliation with any party. We have an illus tration of how this affiliation would would work in the last campaign. The Farmer’s Alliance was a credi table organization and was able to control elections and dictate legisla tion, but it began to affiliate with a party and in a large measure to make its lines identical with the par ty lines. The result is virtually the destruction of both the Alliance and its party. Now I do not contend that there was anything wrong in all those proceedings; I express no opinion whatever, but if the church should adopt the same course it would bring about the same result to it self. Just as it is no part of a church’s work to regulate outsiders, just so it is not the province of a church to regulate the action of its members in matters other than that of church membership. Christians may carry their religious sentiments into other relations, they ought to carry them into all other; but a church has no other relation than that of Christ’s executive in the evangelization and Christianization of the world. In the utmost good will, but with equal sincerity these thoughts are submitted for the faithful considera tion of my brethren. Unless the policy of Baptists has always boon wrong I must believe this argument is right and corrective of a danger ous tendency. M. J. Webb. Parrott, Ga., November 22, 1892. TEARS OF JESUS. The true humanity of Jesus comes out nowhere more clearly than on the two notable occasions, when He is said to have wept. The one at the tomb of Lazarus, when He ming led his tears with the weeping sis ters and sympathizing friends, the other when, standing on the summit of Mount Olive, He wept over sin ful and dqoiued Jerusalem. Noth- Brother Minister, Working Layman, Zealous Sister We are striving to make Tlio Index the best of its kind. Help us by securing a new subscriber. VOL. 69—NO. 48. ing is so human as tears. The an gels may smile the devil may grin, but the former are too happy to weep, and the latter have passed in to a despair too hopeless for tears. Man stands between the two, some times smiling with the angels, often er despairing with devils, but thanks to the “good hope through grace,” not beyond tears—tears of gladness tears of sadness, as he sins on, re pents on, suffers on, in this mortal state, till his hour of final deliver ance, “when God shall wipe all tears from his eyes.” Into this peculiar estate of humanity Christ came, in a nearer sense, by his tears. The sight of Jesus on the mount of transfiguration was full of glor ious promise for humanity, as his shining face spake of the possibility of its glorification through the pow er of indwelling divinity. Not won derful Peter wanted to Tabernacle there always- Through the rift beams the glory of the throne illu minated this one favored spot of the sin darkened earth, and Peter would fain dwell the {remainder of his days amidst its flashing splendors. But the very glory of the Master was to some extent, a necessary sever ance from his yet unglorified disci ples. The man was eclipsed in the God, and the repellant power of awful majesty and holiness drove sinful humanity from Jesus, rather than attracted it to Him. But the tear-stained face of Jesus had no such repelling power. Every tear was a priceless jewel to suffering man, as it flowed from a full-hearted sympathy for his woes, aud prophe sied of coming deliverance. If the power of a tear of of human sym pathy can never be measured, what shall we say of the power of com fort, and fullness of glorious hope for a suffering race, when tears for its sorrows fall from the eyes of the God man. While the raising of Lazarus from the dead proclaimed Jesus, divinfl, His tears proclaimed Him human. The one inspires our faith, the other touches our hearts and wo feel that, though He has passed unto the “inner sanctuary,” He is there a “High Priest that can be touched with a feeling of our in firmities,” and that we may ap proach boldly to a throne of grace and find strength to help in time of need.” It may be added that the occasion on which Jesus is said to have wept, are full of consolation to us. At the tomb of Lazarus his heart was so tender, and so keenly alive to hu man woe that He wept over wounds which he proposed immediately to heal. On the mount of Olives He shows that the most godless sinners, the most abandoned the most God dishonoring and Christ rejecting, even after they have passed the pos sibility of change and are doomed are still within the sympathy of his great heart. How full of consola tion to the sorrowing the tears at the tomb! How full of hope to the vilest that they who would turn to God will not be rejected, are tho tears on the mount! Oh ! precious tears of Jesus! Heart-drops of sympathy falling as healing balm, on the bleeding hearts of men, in spiring courage and hope and lifting despairing eyes to a coming deliver ance, and a home where “there shall be no more sighing, nor crying,” and when they will no longer need the consolation of the tear-stained face of Jesus, because thrilling with the joy of his presence forever. W. A. Montgomery. John Gibson Institute, Nov. 27, 1892. The Broadway Tabernacle, New York City, have reluctantly accepted tho resignation of Dr. Wm. Taylor, who has served them for twenty years. At the beginning of Dr. Tay* lor’s pastorate the church took out a $35,000 twenty year endowment policy on his life. Tho policy baa matured and Dr. Taylor leaves the pastorate with this comfortable en dowment. Possibly churches may find a suggestion hero which if acted upon would cement tho union of pastor and people. Evidently that church meant to stand by Dr. Taylor when they called him.—Baptist Courier. It is said that the first building for the purposes of the Christian religion in Tokio, Japan, was erected just twenty-flve years ago, and now there are ninety-two homes in that city being used as places of Christian worship. Surely tho light is breaks ing in the east. Recorder. ■* • . - *< * A