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Many good and stronr things were said m be half of All [ON During the Session of the Southern Baptist Convention. Subscribe to and read the Christian Index, f you would keep informed. ESTABLISHED 1821. ©hristian x Published Every Thursday at 57 South Broad Street. Atlanta. Ga. J. C. McMCHAEL, Proprietor. Organ of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia. Subscription Pricb ; One copy, one year $ 2 00 One copy, six months 1-00 Obituaries,—One 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 iu writingpropernames; 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 ofhees distinctly. In ordering a change give the old as well as the new address. The dateof labor indicates the time your subscription expires. If you do not wish it continued, order it stop ped a week before. Wo consider each sub scriber permanent, until he orders liis paper discontinued. When you order it stopped pay up to date. „ , Remittances by check preferred; or regis red letter, money order, postal note. Christianity enobles the race. It is affirmed that “Christian Romo could count more heroines” in the first three centuries “than Pagan Rome could count heroes” in the seven centuries before. Sometimes a sermon is what the preach er puts into the text, and then it is a poor, cold, dead thing. Sometimes the ser mon is what the text puts into the preacher, and then it is a thing rich and glowing and alive. Fishermen have been wont to attach ieces of bright cloth to their nets, in order to allure the fish. How many worldly charms of evil, its semblanee of joy, its promises of delight, are but pieces of bright cloth on Satan’s net for souls! The Lord looks at the hand in which lies what we give him; but ho looks also at the other hand in which what wo keep [back for self lies. His judgement is ac cording to this sight of his eyes. He fjudges neither hand except in view of What ho sees in both. J How sin unnerves the soul and smites fit through and through with terror, when |God arises “to execute the vengeanfee” of this law against it! He said of the Jews [when subjected to judgement: “The hound of a driven leaf shall chase them, land they shall flee as one fleeth from the teword,” Lev. 26:36. “’Tis conscience jthat makes cowards of us all.” \ God is the lover of man that he may ,be the loved of man. He gives his love [to us, that we may give our love to him. nf God is willing to have our love, itmust jbe too great and high a thing to be given to the world and the things of the world, hf in the condescensions of his grace he xan reckon our love as worthy of him, he alone is, he alone can bo, worthy of it, < A man’s “second nature” is apt to be (the nature of those whom he loves; his Jove is an avenue along which their ex icellencies or their faults come to him, the former making him better, the latter worse. It is a serious thing for good or for evil to love character, and thus par , take of it. When we give love we are in effect saying, “We accept your likeness, -we are willing to grow into what you are.” Oh, let our love, our highest, deepest, strongest love bo given to Christ, that we may be like him, more and more like him as the years wear on. > In outward forms, God gives and takes raway acceptance at his own pleasure. YThe peace-offering, eaten on the first or (second day, was a thing well-pleasing in /his sight and his favor shone on it. But, Veaten on the third day, he branded it as tan abomination and cast out the eater for a time from the circle of his worshipers, 'Lev. 19:5-8. As God regulated the meat .then why should he not regulate the water now, and fix its use in his ordi nance to one exclusive form? He is no less a Soverign to us than to the Jews, and we trifle with him when we trifle with his enactments, and as he rebuked this in the Jews so may he rebuke it in us. “Talk about Lynch law!” says the “In terior,” of Chicago, “I tell you, men and brethren, that there are cases where Lynch law is the acme of divine justice.” We are sorry that so able and conserva tive a Presbyterian journal should en dorse,as “divino”in effect, adisorder and a lawlessness which at the best avenges murder with murder. But if the endorse ment is to hold good at all, why not give the benefit of it to Southern mobs, when to shield womanly purity from assault, they smite with pitiless, red hands the hardened perpetrators of nameless crimes? May not divine justice find its acme as well in our section as in any other? Dr. Talmage says that he does not read much of the Bible at a time, because his mind is arrested now by a single sen tence. and now by a single phrase, which thrills him with sudden, fresh, inexhaus tible interest. This is all right—in its measure. But fragmentary reading may lead to fragmentary thinking. There should be times and frequent times when one does read much, to preserve his own recognition of the general scope and logical relations of different doctrines and different portions of Scripture. Per haps. the verdict of the Christian world at large would be that this recognition is precisely the point on which Dr. Talmage is most at fault Does his method of Bible-reading in any degree account for it? Forty years ago, Herbert Spencer held that “private property rights in land as morally invalid.” and that “the aggre gate of men forming the community are the supreme owners of the land.” But he has since reversed this opinion and now holds that in practice “individual ownership subject to State suzerainty should be maintained.” Henry George, referring to this subject in a recent work, blames Spencer because, while suppress ing his early views in England he know ingly allowed them to circulate in Amer ca and received an income from their sale. It is a not unedifying spectacle, this impeachment of the moral honesty of the author of the “Data of Ethics.” a work which denies the Christian idea of obligation and subverts the Christian foundation of duty, offering in stead an infidel and atheistic philosophy of con science. Has the medicine of the physi cian failed to heal himself, and shall we trust it and try it ? 1 fen, ... GOD’S PROMISES’ The vicissitudes of every life are numerous and great. Indeed, from the cradle to the grave, man’s life is one successive change. But in no life were these more marked than in David’s, the sweet singer of Israel. He, while quietly pursuing the shepherd’s calling, was selected over his brothers, and anointed by Samuel to fill a high office, and perform heroic deeds. With this new world floating before him, by a strange providence he was invited to the Royal Palace, whose halls he was expected to fill with those melodies for which he bad be come noted, and which, it was hoped, would have the effect of dispelling the demons that occasionally seized the King. Wiuning the hand of the young Princess, and by God’s help winning signal victories on the bat tle field, causing the people to sing: “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands,” he in curred the Royal displeasure, and from that time, for years, was a wan derer. With a hand-full of men at his command, his only safety was found by hiding in the narrow pathways, dark, deep ravines, unfrequented caves of the dense mountains which lie south of Jerusalem. Though anointed with holy oil by God’s own Prophet, there seemed to be no pos sible chance of his ever emerging from the cloud which hung about him. Under the circumstances for him to hope to be great in Israel, ap peared rather to be the dream of a madman than the waking thoughts of a cool head. It not only looked to be certain that his youthful aspi rations would be blighted, but the prospect was good for him to die an exile, unattended and unsung. No wonder he said, I almost lost heart and gave up. How could ho feel otherwise? His prospects were anything else but bright. Why did he not bow his head and say: “God has forsaken me, therefore life is not worth the living,” or “into the world’s dizzy whirl of pleasure I will plunge full length. I will eat, drink and be merry: for to-morrow I may die.” This he did not do, but with pur pqpe inflexible, he put forth every effort to preserve his life, and amid it all, was true to God. He must have been upheld, how and by what? Let him answer: “I had fainted un less I had believed to see the good ness of the Lord in the land of the living.” God had promised good, concerning Israel, and David felt from certain events, that he in some way was connected with the plan which was to bring this about. So faith in God’s promise strengthened him, prevented him from turning back or falling by the wayside, and upheld him through all his misfor tunes, till glory crowned his head, and victory proudly perched upon his banners. It was faith, faith in a promise. A promise however, not simply made by Samuel, but a prom ise made by the Lord of heaven and earth, through Samuel. Eminating from God he was as sured that however unlikely the prospect, however formidable the opposition, his future was as certain and as bright as the promise of God was true and luminous with light- And it was. History has declared it. But from the time the shadows be gun to fall athwart his pathway, many years elapsed before ho stood in the noon-tide of his prosperity. During these years, much patience had to be exercised. The exact time when God would fulfill his promise was unknown. To labor and to wait was all that he could do. Remember just here, that patience, as well as perseverance, is the off spring of faith. Without murmur ing, he walked in the light which God furnished, never complaining that more was not given. Having committed himself into God’s hands, he abided God’s time. Willing al ways to go as fast as God directed, but auxious never to go faster. As we, my dear readers, journey along life’s pathway, many things occur, calculated to discourage us. From fears, at wickedness within, and fightings without, at times wo are almost overwhelmed. We grow faint, we see the wicked flourishing as the green bay tree. Upon their hearts, cares apparently rest with only a feather’s weight. From n s ATLANTA, GA., THURSDAY. APRIL 20,1893. God seems to be a great way off. Around us, his light does not shine as brightly as in other days. Out of such reveries, we awake ourselves, and like an infant in the night cry ing for the light, and with no lan guage but a cry, we, in the dark ness reach out the hand and cry to God for help. He hears. He al ways does. But how? Simply by directing our attention to his promi ses. These are to the spiritual world what the sun, moon and stars are to the physical universe. These all cluster about Jesus Christ, the center of our spiritual system. Each prom ise has a beauty and glory peculiar to itself, and is designed to meet a specific need, which our Saviour saw would arise in life’s conflict. Some as they appear to us, are small like the seven stars, while, thank the Lord, others beam upon us with the mellow light of the bright and morn ing star, while still others flood our pathway with the brighter light of the sun’s dazzling rays. Let us therefore frequently be found perusing the book which God has given us, that we may gather from its rich mines the golden prom ises which he imbeded there. Then, hang them about your neck, hide them away in the secret chambers of your heart, on memory’s page write them in letters of living light. Other things you may forget, but these, never. Other things may fade from memory’s page but let these as fadeless as the sun, shine on your pathway in life, and I assure you that when your eyes grow dim, and this world’s light from you re cedes, through the winding labarynth of the valley and the shadow of death, these will light you to glory and to God. COMMENDABLE FICTION. UY REV. E.B ENJ. ANDREWS, BROWN UNIVERSITY. Religious teachers are often un certain what attitude to take as to the propriety of reading fiction. The great majority of tne cheap novels now on sale contain little which is of value either intellectually or mor ally. Many of them are of positively evil tendency. This is so true that a minister is compeled to condemn all novels as evil, and try to dissaude every one whom we can influence from reading any prose fiiotion at all. To the writer this seems injudicious. There is fiction and fiction. “Prove all things,” even novels, and “hold fast that which is good.” Among the novels now popular are some which every one who will read them must admit to be morally ele vating and helpful, as well as most instructive mentally. Those by George Ebers are of this class. They belong to the highest order of historical novels. Their primary aim is not moral or religious, but educational. They are meant to elucidate important epochs of histo ry. But the author, aware that for nineteen centuries, Christianity has been the greatest fact pertaining to man’s life, bases most of his stories upon epochs of Christian history, thus making them torches, as it were, to throw light upon the evolving life of the church. Eber’s story entitled The Emperor [referring to Hadrian] is really the best picture extrant of the Christian life and manners pre valent in the first half of the second century. No person can read it without receiving a new impulse to his faith. It would be an eminently proper volune for a Sunday-school library, vastly more healthy and in vigorating than half the books which are written with a directly religious purpose. Another writer has become promi nent more recently than Ebers, his works being therefore not so well known, of whom I can speak even more highly. I mean the English moralist, Hall Caine. Caine’s novels are extraordinarily powerful as nov els; indeed I should rank him among the formost living weavers of fiction. Yet what has interested me in them most is not their consummate art as stories, but their intense, and even fervent religiousness. Caine seems to make no effort to impart to them this cast: it is perfectly simple and natural. The author writes like a man fully aware of being in the Nine teenth Century, amid all the revela ‘lations of history, science, and criti cism, without, however, having at all lost the sense of reverence for the unseen and the past. His “Scapegoat” involves a masterly study in compar ative religion, whorein it impressive, ly appears how superior, even now, old-fashioned Judaism is to Moham medanism, and how much better Christianity is than either. II i s ‘‘Deemster” is a wonderful portrayal of character, good and bad,exhibiting how the Christ-spirit and the world spirit often get foqthold within one and [the same family, producing a saint and a devil out of one flesh and blood; and how good may lurk in the deep places of pn unsuccessful life, baffled and overborne, but at last purifying the spirit and subdueing even the flesh. Doubtless even novels like these should not form the entire substance of a young persons reading; but, en joyed in due proportion to mental activity and diversion of other kinds, they cannot but have a most happy effect. The love of romance is at bottom nothing but our God-given interest in Life and Providence. It ought, therefore, not to be snubbed, as if it were intrinsically bad; but chastened, disciplined, and used. Providence, R. I. April 3, 1893. A WORDFROmArq. STRICKLAND. The first religious paper I ever read was my mother’s Christian Index ; that was in 185—well, no matter when. The last religious paper that I have ever read is the Christian Index, the same dear old paper. I have just finished the issue of the 6th inst.; rapid transit that, to be printed in Atlanta on the 6th inst. and bo in Madison, Fla., 400 miles away, at 11:30 a. m. the next day, but it is so nevertheless. You are a “Nancy Hanks.” Going back to my early days with the Index, I find one writer in this week’s issue, and only one, who wrote forty years ago. It is needless for me to say I refer to Dr. S. G. Hillyer, our dear, venera ble, patriarchal father; and w’ith what virile power, perspicacity and comprehension ho writes; may he live long to enrich us with his arti cles on the strong meat of God’s Word. Some things and some men grow better with age. I greatly enjoyed Bro. McCon. nell’s article, the reading of it was a comfort to a good woman up in Georgia, whom Dr. Broadus calls the pastor’s best [and wisest adviser; it has encouraged me down here, too. Thank him for us, and tell him not to allow his pen to rust. It does seem to me that the Index gets better ; is it because the writer is a little home-sick, or is it that ‘‘Distance lends enchantment to the view And clothes the mountain with the azure hue? ” or is it that the paper actually im proves. I think it is the latter—God speed ye in your upward climb—ad astram. I find myself domiciled for the present, (my family have not come yet) in the family of my senior dea con, Hon. bam B. Thomas, who for two score years has been a pillar, not a sleeper, in this church. Ho is a native of Georgia, having migrated from Thomasville with his young wife. He and she are at this mo ment taking their supper, i. e., mental pabulum, from the Index. They say they have read the paper so long and love it so well, that noth ing can ever take its place with them. Bro. T. was once a wealthy planter and merchant, now he busies him self with a heard of Jerseys and a truck-garden. This scribe is at the head of the fountain as concerns butter, milk, clabber, etc, not to men tion “gamy” lake trout, bream and pearch. I find myself, not a spiritual poly gamist, as the sainted Dr. Burrows was wont to say, but a sipritual bigamist, having two churches, Madi son and Live Oak. They are in con tiguous counties, at the court house of each county. To the former I preach on the second and fourth Sundays, to the latter on the first and third. My home will be here, as a commodious parsonage is being finished, doubtless a better one than any of the apostles or patriarchs ever lived in; it has four rooms below stairs and three above, with two hall ways and two verandahs, artesian water in the house and all hard-by the meeting-house. A prophet’s chamber will be fitted up into which the Index Editor, proprietor and field-man are invited. It is not a Paradise, but it will be “Edenio” if Ficlds-notos-man will honor it with a visit. Accepting this church I become a factor in a singular coincidence. I am the third pastor in regular succession from Georgia. . First, Bro. Paul Hornaday came and his short, sweet pastorate is tenderly remem bered : he went up higher, from cross to crown, from labor to everlasting refreshment. Following him, came Bro. J. L. D. Hillyer; he projected and built partly the parsonage, and all over it, outside and inside, may be seen his quaint, singular ideas, amounting almost to freaks in archi tecture. Verily Bro. Hillyer left his marks and those marks “came to stay! ” He had a pastorate, not all of it a bed of roses, some of it rather thorny, but I have yet to find man or woman who does not put a premium on his piety and concientious adheerence to what he deemed right. He now re joices in being the pastor at Key West, the largest city in Florida. The prayers of his brethren follow him there. And .after the church has been shut up for six months, I come to undertake to shepherd the flock: if I can find them. I said to a lady, dis cussing this Georgia trio of pastors, “The third tip is out.” “No,” she re plied, “The third time brings the charm.” So mote it be. I have not taken my bearings yet, and can say but little of the church as a church, but I see a noble, reso lute band of women at work in church and Sunday-schools, I see an old, conscervative town, beautiful for situation ; bright, sparlking lakes in, and all around it, and a cultured re fined community, reminding one at once of the good people of Middle Georgia or South Carolina. I never saw a prettier location for a town. Live Oak, near “The Old Suwan nee River,” is a RAILROAD CENTRE. and growing town, here we have a small membership, but devoted, liberal, solid. > r / When I asked them for a Centen. nial offering, on the first Sunday I preached to them, they gave me about one dollar for each member on their church-book. If all Florida Baptists will do so well, Bro. Powell will get $20,000 instead of 3,000. If all the Baptists m our Southern Baptist Convention will do that well, how much would be raised. But enough. Pardon the length of this. I hear frequent enquiries about the Index. Wm. Henry Strickland. Madison, Fla.. April 17, 1893. FROMTHEAeMINARY. Our beloved old Georgia, presents a solid front at the Seminary this year with thirteen or fourteen prom ising sons. Atlanta leads, in sending the larg. est number, of any one place in the State; having a representation of five: brethren E. P. Jones, M. A. Jones, and Howard Jones from the Ist Church, and W. T. McGarity, and the writer from the 2nd. The other sections of the state have a represen. tation of about eight or nine, making as stated a total of thirteen or four teen. While their number is quite creditable it is not as good as we might do—as wo ought to do next year, ’93 and ’94. We ought to send up twenty-five next year, and it can be done if the brethren in the minis try, in the several Associations throughout the state will encourage those brethren whom they know ought to study here to come. Dr. Broadus is beyond the shadow of a doubt, the greatest living teacher of Homiletics and New Testament History. If a brother can’t take the full course, why even a sojourn of six, or even three months would trebly pay him for the time, labor, and expense of such a trip. It is simply astound ing and altogether incalculable, to the baptists of the south and south west, is the great and lasting work which Dr. Broadus is doing for the rising ministry and for the rising generation, in tightening up doctrin al weaknesses; in breaking down subtle and hurtful views of scriptural teaching. Ho possesses probably as no other Divinity instructor of the times, the kcend, clear cut discern ment of moral characteristics, of hurt ful tendencies in the lives and work of ministers of the gospel, and in the conduct of Christians in general. And what is of greater value to the world and to baptists in particular, he possesses and exercises the power of counteracting these evils. No minister of the gospel, certainly no baptist minister, can afford to miss spending at least a few months under the teaching of such an instructor. Why it’s worth the trip to come to the Seminary and make the ac. quaintance of Drs. Broadus, Kerfoot, Sampey, Whitsitt, Dargain, and Prof. Robertson" A more able, proficient, painstaking, tender-hearted sympa thetic corps of Divinity Instructors cannot be found anywhere. They love all the Students, and all the Students love them. The Seminary has reached the point at which it is, and will continue to be a potent factor in sustaining and conserving American liberty, as well as baptist principles—the great bulwark which stands as a “Stone Wall” across the pathway of catholic slavery, and papal idolatry. Como brethren, all who can and get the benefits of the Seminary and lets show those who’ve given so gener ously of their means towards estab lishing the Seminary that we heartily appreciate what they have done for our denomination, our country, for the world, and for their Lord and our Lord Jesus Christ. Fraternally, etc., Edward H. Walker. THE DOMINION OF THE SAINTS. BY 8. G. HILLYER. Continued from April 6th. “He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers; even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the Morning star” Rev. 2:- ‘26. 27 .28. It was shown, in a previous paper, how Jesus began, at Jarusalem, to give to his'people power over man kind: and thus to set up, ih the earth the Dominion of the Saints. Under the great compassion they were commanded to go into all the world and to preach the gospel with the assurance that he would be “with them to the ends of the world’’ In this assurance lies the secret of their power. He is the real and om nipotent, though invisible leader of his people; while they are the visi ble “rod of his strength,” sent fourth ‘•out of Zion” to accomplish his pur. pose. We have already seen their grand achievments on the day of Pentecost. From that day to the present time, the influence of the Saints has been a power in the earth. To form a proper conception of this power, we must consider the opposition it had to encounter. The Gentile world was wholly given up to idolatry. The number of their Gods could be counted by thou sands. Their temples exceeded in grandeur the palaces of kings. They were adorned with the noblest achievments of art in the paintings and in sculpture. Their legends were celebrated in poetry and in song. Their religious festivals were replete with all that could excite the imagination, please the taste, and gratify the desires of the flesh. Be sides the Divinities worshiped in their temple, every family had its household God’s. Then over all presided thousands of cunning priests who played upon the superstition of the masses, that they might live and fatten upon the offerings which were brought to the shrines. Such a sys tem of idolatry, we may well sup pose, was deeply rooted in the af fections of the people. And, no doubt, they loved their religion all the more because it im posed almost no restraint upon the vile propensities of human nature. Under its sway the world was sunk to the lowest depths of immorality and vice. There were, indeed, here and there a few wise and gifted men who saw and deplored the mor al evils which surrounded them. And some of them did try to teach their countrymen better things, and some really taught nobly and wisely: and, no doubt, they accomplished some good in this direction. But their teachings were unsupported by a “thus saieth the Lord.” Hence the Philosophers failed to reach the con science, and thus to awaken a sense of moral obligation; and therefore the masses of men continued to lie in their deep degradation. Moreover, idolatry was the relig- Brother Minister, Working Layman, Zealous Sister Wearestrlvingto make The Index the best of its kind. Help us by securing a new subscriber. VOL. 70-NO. 16. ion of the Empire, and the rulers protected it in all its deversi fied forms, throughout their vast do main. So" soon, therefore, as it be came known that the Christians re nounced the religion of the State, — would in no case offer incense to an idol, not even to the Statue of Cae sar, —they were exposed to the most fearful and bloody persecutions. Such was the opposition which the Christians had to encounter when they first assailed the pagan world with the proclamation of the Gospel. Looking at the case from a human stand point, we should conclude that their undertaking was, to the last degree, wild an d desperate. They were few in number, without the learning of the schools, of humble rank, without wealth, and recognized as an off-shoot from the Jews, —a race at that time, universally despised* Yet with all their weakness, and in the face of such odds against them as above described, they went forth to the mighty work of pulling down the powers of paganism, and build ing upon their ruins the kingdom of Christ. And what was their method ? Only this: They told the people the story of Jesus, of the cross, and of the resurrection, together with all that he taught, and all that he prom, ised. In a word, they simply preached the GospeL This was all they did. And, strange to say, wher. ever the Gospel was preached, there were those who believed it. I know human nature is very credulous, and people often take up with new and |trange simply because they are new or strange. But mark, men seldom or never believe a new doc trine, without evidence, when the ac ceptance of it, is to cost them per haps a heavy sacrifice. In such a case, men demand evidence, —and better evidence than the words of a stranger from another country, and of another race. Now the Gospel made no compromise with the; incli .•nations or preferences of those whom it addressed. It told then?ptainly that if they accepted its teachings they must turn their backs upon the traditions of their fathers, they must renounce all the forms of idolatry, they must live a new and better life, and endure, if need be, ostricism from home and kindred as the effect of their faith. Nay, it required them to believe even at the cost of their own lives. Yet in the face of these solemn conditions the saints told their story and thousands believed and joyfully met all its demands, and some even unto death. It was not long after Pentecost, before groups of Christians were gathered into churches in many prov inces of Rome’s vast empire. And only a few centuries later, the gor geous mythologies of Greece and Romo and Egypt had faded away, before “the light of the knowledge of (the only true) God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Then those magnifi cent temples began to crumble into ruins. Their, priests were scattered, their shrines were forsaken, and their tripods, with their ambiguous oracles, were dumb. It was as if temples and altars, priests and priestesses had been struck with “a rod of iron’’ and “broken to shivers as a potter’s vessel.” Now, by whom was this mighty change accomplished? Every can did reader of history must admit that the Christians were the visible agents in this great work. Somehow, they did exert great power over the nations, and they did so, in the face of the most fearful opposition. Their success verifies the truth of the Sav ior’s promise, and at the same time, explains its meaning. The power of the saints has never passed away. Wherever they have wandered in their migrations over this wide earth, they have impressed their faith and their principles more or less upon those around them. They have been like leaven in the meal. The slow, but certain process of assimilation has been going on, more or less actively, through the ages. The work is not accomplished, but progress,—very great progress has been made. True, sin abounds in all its forms, but it has become disreputable. Even the splendor of courts, or the rank of princes can no longer shield unen or women from the odium of wrong-doing. Chris, tian morality is felt far beyond th< limits of the dhurchos. Its influence is recognized all along the walks