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ESTABLISHED 1821.
®he (Christum Index
Published Every Thursday at 67 South Broa
Street, Atlanta. Ga.
J. c. McMichael, Proprietor.
-Organ of the Baptist Denomination in
Georgia.
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The day of reckoning will reveal this
difference between true believers and
hypocrites. The first are not conscious
of how much good they do, the second
are not conscious of how little good they
do. See Matt., 25; 31-44.
In the first stages of vice the devil
tempt mon—and does; his entice
ments are necessary to lure their feet
across the boundary line of innocence
and virtue. But if they persist in vice,
they reach a stage in which, so to speak,
they beeome their own devil; strong in
ward impulse drives them downward in
guilt, with no need of enticement from
the Evil One.
The apostle Peter says that we have
“been begotten again not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, through the
word of God’’ As divine growth must
follow the developement of the divine
birth Christians must be daily renewed
from this word. The daily newspaper,
the light romance, the secular magazine,
cannot build up the fibre and tissue of
true spiritual character.
When the tempter said to the Savior:
“If thou be the son of God command
that these stones be made bread,” the
Lord replied; “Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that pro
ceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Upon
this the Christian must feed and feast
constantly if he would reach the perfec
tion of Christian manhood. How much
has the pulpit contributed to the too
wide spread ignorance of God's word
even among Protestants, by the preach
ers leaving the pure gospel, and preach
ing on current events of a sensational
character.
Dr. B, H. Carroll in a recent sermon
to his church, First Baptist Church (Wa
a .•> Tex.) gave expression to -these .t.oug
Uwords; “I do not hesitate to say that the
most indurating, hardening, putrefying
force in this world is wealth. I say more
It is the most blinding. It not only makes
a man dim-eyed, but entirely makes him
tftone blind.” Money is a difficult thing
to manage both in the pulpit and out of
‘ it, a subject to be delicately treated by
the preacher, lest he give offense, an ob
ject to be wisely sought after, and judi
ciously handled by every Christian, lest
it bring upon him swift destruction -
If you cannot give largely, if you can
not preach, or lead the saints in public,
prayer, you can at least, if you are a
Christian, and you ought to give the
world the benefit of a good example in at
tending public worship. Let the world
see vour seat in the Sanctuary regularly
filled.
“For heaven doth with us, as we with
torches do.
Not light them for themselves, for if
our virtues
Did not go forth of us 'twere all alike
As if we had them not. Spirits are not
finely
Touched, but to finer issues.”
So long as any argument or influence,
is recognized as from without.it fails of its
full force. Prejudice, self-interest, pride
of intellect, preference for another may
and often does operate powerfully against
it. But when it acts on consciousness
• from within it is controlling. Thus does
the Holy Spirit work with the preacher
of the gospel. He takes the gospel mes
sage and so presents it within the sinner’s
consciousness, that he seems to think
out the wonderful truths for himself.
Thus conviction is wrought, and the
soul through repentance toward God,
and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is
saved. “Not by might nor by power but
by my Spirit saith the Lord.” It is ours
faithfully to preach the gospel, it is the
mission of the Holy Spirit to “Convince
of sin, of righteousness and judgement - ”
Upon him let ns depend absolutely for
all good results.
“There is no difference between Him
and the book.” According to Rev. Dr.
Griffith John, this was the encomium
pronounced on a convert from heathen
ism by his native friends. A Christian
life reaching through more than a dozen
years could have had no higher praise
than this testimony of its conformity to
Scripture. It is to be feared that even
among a religious element in our com
munities, character is often judged by a
lower standard than its accordance with
the sacred volume, and that Christians
sometimes wink at points of difference
between themselves and the Book to
their own hurt. Oh, to be like the Book,
in all things like the Book! For that is
to be like the man in the Book the di
vine Man, the Man whose life is a model,
not of right merits but with power, be
cause it is an inspiration through the
love that it is in it. Let that love live
over again in our lives the life it lived in
his.
The proposals for the revision of the
Westminster Confession, and the trial
ot the issues between Profs. Smith and
Briggs and the church at large, have
fiven rise to much discussion and de
ate among Northern Presbyterians on
Christian doctrine. It h.ia pleased the
enemies of “creeds," of “theology,” and
of "dogmas, - ’ to sneer at this state of
things. They have suggested, for exam
ple, that there is sad waste of time in it
—of time which might better be devoted
to work for the evangelization of the
heathen and the conversion of sinners.
Wo have felt all along that there could
be no waste of time in any effort to bring
out and defend exact scriptural truth,
inasmuch as this truth is the mainspring
of Christian work, and the more it comes
into prominence, believers will be im-
THE CHRISTIAN INDEX.
pelled by it to do the more/"' The facts
confirm this view. In that church, there
was an increase of $83,211 in the receipts
for Foreign Missions over the previous
year, these receipts for the first time
touching and passing the million ppiflt,
the total being $1,014,504, The foru
the Home Mission Board on the fiefr'
was never so large, and its -<4 ~
reached an aggregate of $976,454. „
church awake to doctrine is awake to
all things.
SOME THOUGHTS ON INDIA’S '
HISTORY.
BY BEV. F. M. JOHNSON.
Conscience in fallen man i s not a
steadfast and sure guide, like the
Polar star.
But this is its nature. When pas
sion, crime causing passion, is at its
maximum of heat, then the consci
ence is at the maximum of its power.
When the crime has been perpetrated
and passion is cooled, and reduced >
the minimum of heat; then conscience
awakes, and rises to its maximum of
power. As a prevention of sin, con
science is powerless in moments of
strongly roused passion or appetite.
After the deed is done, the crime
consummated, tho guilt stamped
upon the soul—then the gratified
passion, the stated appetite sleeps.
Then and not sooner, conscience
comes forth armed with scorpion
lash to scourge the vainly repentant
soul. In the moment of need, in
the hour of excited passion, reason
is dethroned and conscience silenced.
After the deed comes reflection, and
then in the fear-shaken soul is beard
the thunder of conscience, and is
felt the flame-pointed sting, and
poisoned pang of fruitless remorse.
In this case a man will likely com
mit suicide. The voice of the con
demning conscience, which is God’s
own thunder voice, is never hushed
by aught save the intercession of our
advocate on high, even Jesus Christ,
the righteous, and the fire-path of
remorse is only extinguished by the
blood of the Lamb of God..
The never-dying worm of fruitless
regrets is never slain, but by that
hand which sinners nailed to the
cross.
Conscience in a fallen man is a
tormentor, not a Saviour.
Strange are the freaks of sinner’s
conscience! One man, whom the
consciousness of murder robs of
peace, will steal without remorse.
Another, whose hot temper upon
some slightprovocation will make him
a murderer, he boasts of this mur
der, and never feels anything but a
sensation of self-complacent pride,
when he thinks of it: this same mur
derer could never forgive himself if
he stole a nickle 1 The Pharisee
would shed the blood of Jesus in the
wickedest way that blood is ever
shed, i. e., when the forms of justice
intended to shield the innocent, are
perverted to murder those innocent
ones. For doing this his conscience
reproaches him not. This same con
science made him careful to avoid
contracting a ceremonial defilement!
Judas had been a thief all his life
nor ever was hindered by a prick of
conscience from stealing a sheckel,
but when bribed to do a deed, that,
resulted in the deaXh of an innocent
man, remorse seized him and he laid
violent hands upon his own life.
2. A question arises here. Was
not Judas teaching the subject of
divinely inspired prophecy? Was it
not foreordained ? Was it notun
avoidable on his part? Was he
not then irrisponsible, and if so was
he not really guiltless and rather to be
pitied than condemned? I answer
that, so far as I know, Judas is noj
named in any prophecy I have eyer
read. But St. Peter says, in Acts
Ist. chapter and verses 16 and 20.
“This Scripture most needs have
been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost
by the mouth of David spoke before
concerning Judas, which was guide
to them that took Jesus. For it is
within the book of the Psalms, Let
his habitation be desolate and let no
man dwell therein ; and his bishop
rick let another take.” Now St.
Peter here quotes Ist the 25th
verse of Psalm 69, turn and read it.
“Let their (not his) habitation
be desolate; and let none dwell in
their tents.’’
It is evident that in this his Ist.
quotation, it is no one person in par
ticular, no single individual from
the beginning to the end of the
world, who is pointed out. A thou
sand St - Peters cannot make their
meaning the same thing,as his. Now
read the whole Psalm, and you will
see that David, or whoever may
have been its author, is not speaking
of some single individual, who was
his enemy, but of many. Verse 4
“They that hate me without a cause.”
“They that would destroy me,
being mine enemies wrongfully.”
And so all the way through. Peter
has misquoted the 25th verse of the
69 Psalm. That much is certain.
And yet ho may have been justi
fied in so doing, in this way viz:
that Judas was one of many, de
scribed as hating Jesus without a
cause, and therefore, one of whom it
is emphatically, prophesied by us
ing the imperative instead of the
future, that their habitation would
become desolate.
It is I think absolutely certain
that their wordn had no more influ
ence on Judas’ treachery, than the
last speech of Gladstone in the Par
liament of England.
ATLANTA, GA., THURSDAY. JUNE 22,1893.
I come now to Peter’s second quo
tation. It is from Psalm 109, verse
8. “Let his days be few; and let
another take bis office.” It is the
latter hemstitch he quotes. He
■« in this case with verbal cor-
But this 109th Psalm
'„>• . ■ . (the 69th is not spoken of
any single individual, as the enemy
of its author, but of a class and ‘he,
or ‘his’tho pronouns, mean each and
every one of this ciass. The Psalm
begins so: Hold not thy peace, oh
God of my praise. For the mouth of
the wjicked, and the mouth of the de
ceitful are opened against me with a
lying tongue. They compassed me
about also with words of hatred etc.
For my love they are my adversa
ries etc. And they have rewarded
me evil for good etc.
Then he adds: Set thou a wicked
man over him, and the singular is
employed down to the 20th verse, in
which this sums up his prayer in
respect to his enemies. “Let this be
the reward of mine adversaries from
the Lord, and of them that speak
evil against my soul.” Now it is
evident from the whole connection,
that no single person is meaut, but
a class of persons, and that Peter’s
words are true only upon the assump
tion that Judas was one of this class.
These words, being evidently gener
al truths, “must needs be fulfilled,”
in the case of Judas or of any one
else, who belongs to the class of evil
doers described. They could have
no more influence upon Judas than
if they never had been written at all.
Now I suppose that Judas’ sin
was foreseen and foreordained as
every sin from the beginning to the
end of time has been foreseen and
foreordained—and further, that
Judas was a free agent and a respon
sible agent, as every man from the
beginning to the end of time is a
free and responsible agent.
That man is a free and responsible
agent, is a fact of human conscious
ness. It cannot be doubted, that
God foreknows all things, in other
words, is Omniscient Sovereign, is a
deduction of reason. No man can
doubt the Omniscience and Sover
eignty of God. For these ideas of
Sovereignty and Omniscience, are
indispensable to the very notion of
deity.
How to harmonize the facts, is an
other thing. But He is foolish who
denies either. We must recognize
the fact that we do not k no ' v every
thing, and even more than this, that
there are things which we cannot
know at least in this present state of
existence.
3. John in his gospel tells us
that Jesus Christ knew from the
first that Judas would betray him.
He knew the very day when he chose
him and named him an apostle and
commissioned him, that ho would
betray him. Well, what are we to
make of this ? Did not Jesus choose
Judas for exactly what Judas did?
Why then doth he find fault? I
being but a man of small mind and
little knowledge, will not undertake
any answer of my own, but will con
tent myself with quoting a passage,
which I remember to have read some
where :
“Thou wilt say then unto me, why
doth he yet find fault ? For who
| hath resisted his will? Nay, but oh
man, who art thou that replyeth
| against God ? Shall the thing formed
I say to him that formed it, Why hast
' thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay of the
same lump to make one vessel unto
honor and another unto dishonor ? ”
Os the author last quoted, (per
haps I ought to apologize for quoting
him in this enlightened age) I have
this to say, that his teachings differ
very widely, it seems to me, from
many eminent divines of this age.
In some respects he differs from the
vast majority of Christendom, learn
ed or ignorant. And I have no
other excuse to make for his many
mistakes, except this one, he had no
teacher but Jesus the Christ, the Son
of God, who himself never gradu
ated from any of our theological
Universities, and was never dubbed
D. D.
The fourth observation I will make
is this: In the case of Judas was ill
ustrated the truth of Solomon’s say
ing : “Treasures of wickedness profit
nothing.” He cast away with loth
ing and with an agony of remorse
what be had lost his soul to get.
Ah! Judas, man, what ails thee now?
Thou flingest away silver as if it
were dirt. I have known thee to
steal it, and hoard it, and never will
ing to let it out of thy hand. But
now thou art flinging it away. What
is tho matter? Those thirty pieces
of silver cost thee more than all Je
rusalem, the holy city is worth, with
her [magnificent temple and all its
countless treasures, her stately pala
ces, and mausoleums, and ware
houses stored with wares brought
from the land of the fair-skinned
and blue-eyed Briton, far toward tho
going down of the sun, and merchan
dize that has come across trackless
deserts on camel’s backs from Indyi’s
coral strand. Ah! Judas my poor
friend, those thirty pieces of silver
have cost thee more than this round
globe is worth. It has cost thee the
Prince, Messiah—Son of God and
Saviour of sinners. Look nt it and
count it, that is the sum for which
thou did’st sell the Lamb of God
which taketh away the sin of the
world. Why then dost thou so soon
and so loathingly fling away what
cost thee so dear ? Ah ! shrieks the
tortured soul. I* is not thirty pieces
of silver, it urf money, it is not
riches. It is*t premia of fire in
extinguishable,-' cudrnal despair, end
less torment Curse the Pharisees
who tempted me. Curse the money,
or rather curse myself, that for a
handful of silver, sold his God, lost
heaven and gained eternal infamy!
There be in our day, some connected
with banks, railroads, and even gov
ernments, State and Federal, who
would do not unwisely to think well of
Solomon’s saying before they defal
cate, sell a vote, wreck a railrord,
make a corner in bacon or wheat, or
become millionaires on earth to earn
an eternity in the everlasting abode
of the unjust.
IMPUDENCE—DISPENSARY— WHIS
KEY.
BY W. L. KILPATRICK, D. D.
A few days since) my eye fell
upon a short article in a secular
paper, that disclosed what appeared
to me to be the consummation of all
impudence,—am quite sure that I
never saw it surpassed. The South
Carolina Legislature at its last ses
sion passed an Act restricting the
sale of Spirituous Liquors in the state,
to Dispensaries, established and man
aged by state authority. From the
above mentioned article it appears
that, the Liquor Dealers Association,
—that potent agent of the devil, —
had arranged to test in the courts
the validity of this Act. But before
this Association could get its case
ready for action, a couple of Italians,
not even naturalized, still, subjects
of Italy,”—l quote from the record,
—rushed into the United States
District court, asking Judge Simon
ton “For an injunction to restrain
the governor and state treasurer from
enforcing the law, on the ground
that it was against the privileges and
immunities of citizens of the United
States :—also in violation of the
state constitution, etc.”
Was there ever such impudence
since the world was made ? “Sub
jects of Italy”—not yet even natur
alized, proposing to teach the officers
of a Sovereign state, and the legisla
ture thereof, as to the rights of
United States citizens, and ilsj auto
constVtutlonafl limitations.! ’ if the
miserably creatures had stuck to their
pea-nut stands and their organ mon
keys, doubtless we, this far away,
would never have heard “-of them ;
but having picked up on the streets
pennies enough to buy a few bottles
of whiskey, they rose above their
former high calling, and were now
known as “Liquor Dealers —pre
pared to join in with the rest of this
distinguished class of “Dealers,” and
begin the work of managing the
affairs of this government, and cor
rupting the morals of the people.
And yet there is very little differ
ence between the conduct of these
two Italians in Charleston, and that
of the hosts |of other foreigners who
are found in cities much nearer
home. Those had not gone through
with the formality of being natural
ized, and these, perhaps, have. The
list of licensed liquor sellers in one
of our own Georgia towns was pub
lished a short time since, and it con
sisted almost exclusively of Irish,
and Dutch and Italians, and of those
whose names were so thoroughly
unpronuoncablo that we were unable
even to guess at their nationality.
These, of course, belong to the local
“Liquor Dealers Association- they
are in touch with all such Associa
tions throughout the land :—they are
backed by millions of money;—hence,
they are prepared to control the
municipal elections, and they do con
trol them :—they are prepared to
render abortive any measures of
reform that may be inaugurated by
the better class of native born citi
zens :—they are prepared to defeat
all the efforts to close the dram shops,
and stop the liquor traffic in the
county where this city is located. In
vain wives, with tearful eyes, plead
that temptation may bo removed
from the sight of their husbands:—
in vain mothers, with aching hearts,
pray for a chance to rear their sons
out of the sight of a liquor saloon,
this Irish-Dutch-Italian element can
always find the means to secure a
vote “For the sale.” This element
understands precisely how to induce
editors to grow frantic about “Sump
tuary Laws,” —bow to induce politi*
cians to howl over the danger which
threatens the liberties of “The dear!
people.” In truth, total depravity,!
coupled with a plenty of money, can
do a great deal.
There are some things which have
transpired in South Carolina within
the last twelve months, that I do not
admire, yet I am sure that it would
be a blessing to us if Georgia would,
with certain modifications, follow her
example as to the liquor question.
Let no one imagine for a moment
that lam an advocate of Dispensa
ries, for I am not! lam a total ab
stinence prohibitionist,—perhaps al
most fanatical. But if our Legislature
cannot rise to the height of absolute
prohibition, let it, in those counties
where prohibition does not obtain,
restrict the sale to a dispensary, yet
still leave the county with tho privi-
lege of freeing itself entirely from
the sale should it become able.
In the prohibition contest in this
part of the State, less than twelve
months ago, this miserable set of
foreign whiskey venders found them
selves strangely alligned with a num
ber of good, patriotic, Christian
citizens—l use terms liberally. I
am quite sure they were never
caught in such good company before
—I doubt if in this world they shall
ever be caught in such good com
pany again: according to the plain
intimations of Holy Writ, they are
sure not to be found in such good
company in the next world. These
good, patriotic, Christian citizens be
came alarmed, —they said so, —for
fear that trade would just pick itself
up and settle down in the dilapidated
shanties situated on a mud-flat on
the east side of the Savannah river,
if prohibition should be obtained in
our beautiful city of the west bank
In imagination-—it was all imagina
tion—they saw large saloons going
up on every corner of the mud-flat
hamlet, if the thing has any corners,
—and Georgia gold, in a continuous
stream, pouring across the river.
Already, in advance, they bewailed
the departure of these Irish, Dutch
and Italians, as, disgusted with Geor
gia “sumptuary laws,” they hied
themselves to the mud-flat, and en
joyed the liberal statutes of South
Carolina.
But often bow groundless are
human fears - The Irish, Dutch and
Italian whiskey sellers, with their
new allies standing bravely by their
sides, defeated prohibition, saved
trade, and prevented “Ilium suit,”
from being written upon the door
posts of our prosperous city. But
if Carolina had passed her Dispen
sary bill only two months earlier, so
that our Georgia city would not
have been threatened with this trans
fer of trade to the mud hamlet.what
would our good, patriotic, Christian
citizens have done for a pretext in
the prohibition campaign ? But if
the legislature will confine the sell
ing of liquors to one individual in
those counties where prohibition
does not obtain, then these Irish,
Dutch and Italians, no longer licensed
to tempt our husbands and ruin our
sons, will depart to more genial
climes, and our eyes will not be
pained by seeing our good, patriotic,
Christian men walking hand iu hand
with such a dirty set.
ARE THE BAPTISTS OTGEORGIA
DEEPLY IMBUED WITH THE
SPIRIT 0T MISSIONS?
HON. ALVIN D. FREEMAN.
My brother ,what side of this ques
tion will you choose ?.’ Can any
brother in the state safely assume
the burden of the affirmative ? Would
it not be delightful to have the nec
essary facts to do so ? But who can
give the book or pamphlet, or report
of committee, or board where these
necessary facts may be found ? We
are making a great ado about this
matter, and the charge has been
made upon us, that we talk much,
but do little, that we are eloquent in
words but not in actions. Protesta
tions of love and sympathy are good
and very necessary in their place,
but they do not suffice when a more
heroic remedy is required. We go
up and down the country and pro
claim to each other, “Go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel.”
This is required at our hands, we are
doing the preaching, but we go not
neither do we send. Each of us has
been trying to send the other, and so
far neither has succeeded. Up to
this writing wo have not satisfied the
demands of the commission. We have
been repeating the words of Jesus
over and over again to ourselves,and
to others, but who of the Baptists of
Georgia have obeyed the command ?
So is it not true that if God should
send down to us an answer to this
question it would be “Baptists of
Georgia are neither cold nor hot, ’
and would not our hearts respond to
the truth in an bumble confession.
But what good would the confession
do? We have confessed before and
promised to mend our ways, and wo
have straightway sunk back into our
former state of indifference. How
awful in the sight of God it must be
for his people to confess that they
are living in the known violation of
his last and all absorbing command,
and then go right out of his presence
to continue the same conduct. If
our’s was a sin of ignorance, that
would he a palliation. But to sin
knowingly, persistently, and contin
uously, is to trifle, yea, to trample
upon redeeming love, and the au
thority of God. Should wo not fear
and tremble, and hasten before God
and make confession, and then fly
away, each for himself, to obey his
command. As he permitted the
hand of persecution to scatter his
people from their comfortable nests
in Jerusalem, tnay ho not permit his
people in this favored land to be cast
out of their delightful homes and
scattered among other people that
they may do under constraint, what
they had refused otherwise to do.
Does some brother say this is a
severe arraiiigment of your brethren?
The writer hereof arraigns himself
with the rest and affirms that it is
severe, but true and he is sorry it is
true.
Bro, T. P. Bell at Hawkinsville in
1891 said there were only two Bap
tists from Georgia in foreign fields.
Let us just ponder this fact. Can
this statement be true ? Is it possi
ble that a people so numerous as we
could content themselves and rest so
easy and comfortable under such a
fact? We number largely over one
hundred thousand, and we have or
dained ministers among us to the
number of about eleven hundred
and one-half of them have nowhere
or room in Georgia to labor, and we
have only two in the vast and popu
lous heathen lands. What does this
mean ? What interest in this all
absorbing question on our part, does
it show ? Does it not rather con
vict us of stolid indifference to the
welfare of all outside of Christian
countries ? We have only induced
two of one thousand or more to car
ry our blessed gospel to the eight
hundred millions of people who have
never so much as heard that there
is but one God, and one Mediator
between God and man. We have en
gaged some six hundred ministers to
preach to us Sabbath after Sabbath,
and year after year. More than
that we have also in our midst, over
five hundred ministers, who claim to
have been called of God to preach,
and yet we do not send them or any
of them to preach for us to those
people upon whose ears the words,
Christ, hope and heaven have never
fallen. There are numberless millions
of people who are groping their way
through life, weary and sad, and
without a ray of hope as to the par
don of sin, and eternal life, and we
know it, and yet we keep six hun
dred ministers to preach tho gospel
to us who have been saved, and fail
to send the five hundred we cannot
employ on the home field to the
foreign. Can we convince ourselves
much less others, that we have auy
conscience worth talking of, about
salvation of the heathen, when this
state of facts looks us in the face ?
What answer can we make to God,
when he shall ask what disposition
we made of his message of salvation
committed to us to be carried to all
nations ? The condemning truth of
the matter we cannot deny. Neither
can we excuse ourselves. We will
be forced to report that for a life
time we kept eleven hundred minis
ters working and idling for a million
and a half of Georgians, and sent
only two to tell the story to the rest
of humanity. Is it possible that we
who profess to love Christ, and to be
more loyal to his whole truth than
other Christians, should so signally
fail here? We boast that we need
only [a “thus saith the Lord” and
we cheerfully obey—that through
floods and flames we will follow him,
that we will obey him though the
world hate, aud even prisons and
death await us. But alas “how hath
the mighty fallen ?” When we are
required to obey all other commands
that cost nothing but words, we
cheerfully obey ourselves, and we
require a similar obedience on the
part of those who seek to join us.
But, when we are required to leave
home and country, or spend our
money to send others out, we shame
fully fail to do either, upon first one
pretext and then another. Some of
us say we are not called to preach,
but we refuse to p ay for a substitute ?
Some of ns claim that we are wiser
than God and enlighten the world
by giving it out that the heathen are
not lost. Some claim the heathen
will not accept, and others claim the
moner is consumed in expenses.
How we trifle and try to deceive
others and ourselves! We know
that these are all flimsy excuses.
We know that we are simply try
ing to satisfy our consciences, and
preserve our standing in the church,
and at same time cling to onr homes
in a Christian country, and to our
money which we love more than the
souls of men and more than obedi
ence.
See the amount of money we
spendjannually, to have the gospel
preached over and over again, to
some people who have been saved
and to those who have heard of
Christ from early childhood. We
pay three hundred thousand dollars
each year to have the gospel preach
ed to the Baptist congregations in
Georgia and last year we paid about
seventeen thousand five hundred
dollars to have the gospel preached to
the eight hundred millions who have
never heard of Jesus. Then see the
costly houses of worship we erect.
No one objects to having the gospel
repeated every Sunday to the same
congregation,though all may be saved
and to the erection of fine houses of
worship. But if we do these things
and spend only a pittance upon the
foreign fields, then that argues self,
ishuess and great indifference. If
we cannot do both, then surely
we should divide more equally. It
is not herein charged that too much
is being spent at home. By no
moans. But if what we spend at
home and abroad represents the ex
tent of our ability, then wo are
spending too much at home. Who
dare deny it? And further if what
we spend on home and foreign fields
is all we can be induced to do,
though it is not what we ought to
do, thou tho division we have here
tofore made is grossely inequitable,
and in direct conflict with tho word
aud spirit of Christ.
VOL. 70—NO. 25.
In order that our conduct may be
fairly considered, bring to mind the
fact that, if not all, certainly three
fourths of the Baptist churches,
should disband to-day and close
their houses of worship, the people
in Georgia could hear of Christ. In
other words we are spending three
hundred thousand dollars to have
the gospel preached in a State where
other people are preaching the same
gospel and occupying the same fields.
None would perish in Georgia be
cause they had not and could not
hear of Christ should every Baptist
minister be sent to foreign fields.
Here is a small railroad town
where the Methodists have a house
of worship and, preaching. We
think the Baptists should occupy too
and so we send what we call a mis
sionary, and pay him and help build
a house of worship. We claim that
it is necessary. Why is this neces
sary? In the name of the perishing
millions over yonder without a
preacher or a church why necessary!
The people could hear of Christ
without our occupying the field. It
is done then to extend our denomi
nation and partly on account of de
nominational pride. Seeing that we
cannot occupy all the fields but only
a very few of them, why shall we
continue this course and how shall
we justify our conduct before the
Master ?
If there are fields anywhere in
the world more destitute than this!
and there are hundreds and thous
ands of them where the silence of
the centuries has never been bro
ken with the words, Christ and par
don, then surely we should give the
benefit to those fields. And would
we lose anything by this course?
What we might not gain on the
home we would more than gain on
the foreign field. By this course
the foreign field would be infinitely
blessed, and the home field not se
riously damaged. The loss sustained
by the one when compared with the
blessings conferred upon the other
would be as the glow worm to the
sun.
Is there any destitution in Geor
gia, if destitution means never to
have heard of God and his salvation?
Is there any destitution iu Georgia
in the sense of destitution in China ?
Who dare say there is ? There are
as many millions in the earth who
have never heard of God aud his
son as there are hundreds or per
haps - tens in Georgia in tho same
condition. There are thousands in
our State who are not Christians,
but few indeed from the lack of
knowledge. In the regions beyond
there is destitution and darkness,
and darkness and destitution, more
appalling than tongue can tell, or
mind conceive. There are territo
ries as large as our State and five
times more populous where the
voice of the man of God has never
been beard calling the people to
faith and repentance. And yet we
have sent only two out of a thous
and to those fields.
When Joseph interpreted the
dream of the butler and .he was car
ried out of prison, Joseph said to
him “but think on me when it shall
go well with thee, and. make mention
of mo unto Pharoah, and bring me
out of this house.” The butler for
two long years forgot his fellow
prisoner. It had gone well with
him, but in the erjoyment of his
great favors and high honors he had
forgotten his fellow sufferer. It has
gone well with us, having obtained
peace, and access to the Father
through Christ. We seem to be
self-satisfied. We are safe in the
pardon and love of our Father, and
have forgotten those without who
grope in darkness and perish in
their sins. And this too, though
there is ever sounding in our ears
these inspiring words of Christ.
“Freely ye have received, freely
give.” Look at the issues involved
and the vastness of the work, and
the feeble efforts we are making to
meet them, aud then deny, if we can,
that we, together with the rest of
christendom arc making a record of
disobedience, selfishness and indif
ference, considering our light, knowl
edge and ability, that has never been
excelled in all the generations.
Here recently what appears to bo
the waste of Gods resources in or
ganizing three or four churches in
every little town, where one could
and would do the work, while we
fail to enter the great centers of
population and commerce in the
heathen world, where no other de.
nominations have entered has been
preying upon my mind. My breth
ren, is this a waste or not? If it is
not, then please explain how it is
not. If it is a waste is there no
remedy ? Os course if the whole
world had been evangelized, it would
not matter bow many denominations
covered the same fields. In that
case we could multiply churches and
houses of worship on home fields
without injury to other fields. But
under present conditions can it be
right for all our ministers to remain
here and for us to multiply on the
same fields,seeing that there are many
countries vast in area and popula
tion, that have not even one minister
or house of worship.
What would we have thought of
Paul should he have settled down
in Jerusalem to build a second
church aud preach to the people