The Christian index. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1892-current, February 08, 1894, Image 1

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THE CHRISTIAN INDEX. ESTABLISHED 1821. The Christian Index. Published Every Thursday, Cor. Ivy St. and Edgewood Ave. J. C. McMICHAEI. Pbofbibtox. Organ of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia. SuMCßii'TioN Fnica: OniTVAßiica. One hundred words free of charge. For each extra word, oue cent per word, cash with copy. To fcoBBBSroND«NTS.—Do not use abrevla- Cions; be extracareful 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. Leal e off personal ttlßuiiNOKss'’-Write all names, and post offices distinctly. In ordering a change give the old as well as the new address, lhe date of'*** l indicates the time your subscription expires it you do not wish it continued, order it stoo ped a week before. We consider each sub scriber permanent. until he orders his paper discontinued. When you order it stopped pay by check preferred; or regis tered letter, money order, postal note Vice, too, has its honeymoons. But there is poison in that honey, and death by it. Sometimes, in our want of knowledge or our waut of holiness, we offer prayers to God the answer to which comes from the devil, while we blindly accept it, to our hurt and wounding, as if it came from God. There are no queens “de facto, ' but the women who are loved by *>' ue , good men, and no queens “de jure but such among these women as are worthy of that love because they themselves are good and true. Ministers sometimes make a boast of burning their old manuscript sermons. Beyond question, this is a wise thing to do, when, if they fell into the bands of others after one's death, they would be found spotted through and through with plagiarisms. You are an influence, for good or for evil. Remember this always. Oh, do not be an evil influence:try in all things and above all things not to be Why should you let your lives help others along the downward way and drag them to the pit? It is not love to see no fault in us: it is love to see our faults, to see them only the more clearly by reason of its inter est in us and its affection for us, and yet to love us still—perhaps to love us the more, since because of these faults we the more need it. One of the papers surprisingly says that a fly beats six hundred strokes a second with its wings. Well, if it does, they are only fly-beats after all. And Hk» these fly-beats is all the “busy idle ness” of men, who work not for the soul, nor for God, nor for eternity. There is something striking and touch ing in the queetion, by a Christian woman in a recent letter' to a bereaved kinsman: “When Jesus is preparing a mansion for us, does he let our loving friends who have gone before help him? We know not. He lets us help each other so much here! He is so thought ful of every little thing for our pleas ure. Os old, when captives in war were made slaves, it was the custom in some lands, for the cruel masters to brand the mark of bondage to themselves on the face of the “conquered chatties.” In like manner, if we consent to be over come by moral evil and to serve it in feeling and in life, soon or late, it puts on our face the mark of our ignoble servitude to itself. We come at last to look what we a:e; often, too, when we do not know it, though it be known and read by all men but ourselves. “The silent past.” How can men say it? How often the past cries out from its shadows to our heart of the love and the help that we failed to give when it was due! How often it cries out to our conscience of the good we have thought lessly neglected to do ami of the eyil we have weakly and wilfully wrought! Call it rather, the clamorous past. Ab, the pastechoes and re-echoes with thousands of vices, unless, indeed, our own nature is dumb to itself, and its higher and better past has no tongue for the lower and the worse, or the worse and the lower no ear for the better and the higher. In one of the most suggestive among recent works of fiction which have fallen into our hands for many days, occurs this sentence, “Somehow the human heart has its own orthodoxy, which in supreme momentsis stronger than the orthodoxy of the churches.” What was the particular instance of that ortho doxy of the human heart, which called forth this statement? It was the remark made with regard to a dead woman: “She is happier now than she has ever been before.” And who, pray, was she? She was a woman, who, on the last night of her life, had crept up to her own husband under cover of darkness and avenged his deception and deser tion of her by remorselessly stabbing him to the heart, and had then drowned herself in the river. It was this mur deress and suicide who had passed on into a higher happiness than earth had ever given her' Such are the unethical results, results obliterative of all dis tinction between right and wrong, re sults putting the crown of future bliss on the brow of the worst and deadliest crimes, when the revealed law of God is cast aside, and the human heart is rec ognized as endowed with the right of having orthodoxy of its own to the sub version of that devine and holy law. Such are the results which become natural, legitimate and inevitable, when the orthodoxy, not of the churches, but of Scripture, of inspired Scripture, is re jected as a mere “evolution” of man's nature and its superstition. Oh, as we value what is moral and spiritual, as the only safeguard of individuals and of society from impurity, and vice, and crime, let us sedulously purge ourselves from all leaven of modern “scientific” theology, for what men call science has its own “theology;” and it was by the path of science so called that the book in question reached this strange “theo logical” dictum—the glorification of a suicide and murderess. .. | JAMES. BY KEV. G. A. NUNNALLY, D. D. While there is not much in a name—that is, not much argument nor much meaning, yet there may be some history that is valuable, and some satisfaction and comfort that may be worth the seeking. What is the Scriptural name given to a follower of Christ? We can determine this by the frequency with which it is used in the Script ures and by the historic setting. Evidently the name “ Disciple ” is not correct, for as soon as the Church of Christ was organized, the word “disciple” dropped from the apostolic vocabulary. In none of the letters to the churches does the word “disciple” occur. It was ap plied by Christ and the evangelists to novices—to those who were seeking a knowledge of Christ. Our Sunday-school pupils and men and women who attend our minis try, but who have not yet accepted Christ, might Scriturally be called “Disciples.” They are learners,mere beginners and have not yet come to the knowledge of Christ as the Son of God and as the Savior of sinners. The title claimed so vehemently by many, “Christian” evidently is not correct. Grammatically, it is an adjective, and as a descrip tive should be applied to things or principles or usages rather than to human beings. To illustrate, in speaking of political matters we would say “Democratic principles” or “Democratic usages,” but we would hardly say “ Democratic man.” Scripturally it occurs but three times in the New Testament. First in Acts 11:26. There, it is generally believed, it was used and applied to the followers of Christ by His enemies, and was intended as a reproach, perhaps to be made the basis of a charge that would result in their disaster and suffer ing. Again in Acts 26 :28 it oc curs, and if the title had met the approval of the Aopstle, Paul had a most splendid opportunity to ac cept it and record his acceptance of it in such manner as to have largely prevented disputes about the name. The quotation is, “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Chris tian.” Now if Paul had been pleased with the name or had thought it to be the correct name, he would have replied, “I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost and altogether Christians, even Juch as 1 am, save these bonds.” But he did not so reply. By his refusal to use the title which Agrippa had given*him, he clearly shows that he did not re gard it as the correct name. Again, and the last time the word “Chris tian” occurs in the New Testament is 1 Pet. 4 : 16. Here the context shows that the apostle did not ac cept the title as correct and his enemies evidently regarded it as a reproach. The apostle only ad vised his brethren if any of them “suffered as a Christian,” being so called and accused by their ene mies, “not to be ashamed.” We conclude then, that though custom and modern interpretation may justify the use of these titles, yet the Scriptures do not authorize the followers of Christ to assume the names “Discipje” or “Chris tian.” , But laying aside all prejudice and sectarian bias, and searching the New Testament for the Script ural designations by which the fol lowers of Christ are to be known we find the following: When reference is had to the act by which a man becomes a follower of Christ he is called a “Believer.” This term, in some of- its forms, occurs nearly two hundred times in the New Testament. When reference is had to the pure and spotless chor acter which the followers of Christ should bear, they are called “saints.” This term occurs thirty-five times in the Old Testament and fifty nine times in the New Testament. When reference i§ had to the re lations they sustain to each other they are called “Brethren.” When reference is had to the relation they sustained to God and Christ they are called the “Children of God.” When reference is had to their prospects they are called “Heirs.” If any one will take a Concordance and examine these words he will discover that they are used very frequently and if frequency of use authorizes their application, certainly the Script ural name for the followers of Christ should be “ Believer,” “Saint,” or “Brethren.” So much for the individual. Now by what name should the body be called, the organization into which Christ ordered his fol lowers to be formed? It has been suggested that the body should be called the “Christian Church.” This title is not correct nor Script ural. We say “Democratic party,” meaning that the “Democrats” orig inated the party, formulated its principles and perpetuated the or ganization, but the “ Christians,” so-called, did not originate and pre serve the church. Even if the ATLANTA, GA., THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 8. 1894. proper name of each member was “Christian,” it would be a misnona to call the organization a “Chris tian Church” or a “Church of Christians.” The word of God has not left us without information on this subject. Jesus Christ and the apostles have made it plain in the New Testament by often re peating it, that the organization should be called the “Church of Christ” or the “Church of God.” That title etymologically explains the origin and the perpetuity of the organization, meaning “The Called of Christ,” The Called of God.” And by that name it has been known from the beginning of its existence. But in the process of time, corruption entered the church of Christ and its officers began to change its ordinances, both in the manner of performing them and in the purport of them. There were some of the organizations who were loyal to the Master and pre served the ordinances and doc trines as they had “been delivered to the saints once for all time,” particularly the ordinances of Bap tism, and to distinguish these from the other bodies which had gone into error, each organization was called a “ Baptized Church of Christ ” and by that name they have been known through the cen turies. The participle “Baptized” has simply with the growth of language, taken on the form of an adjective and is spelled “ Bap tist.” Evidently “ Baptized ” or “Baptist” is a Scriptural term, being used very frequently indeed in some of its forms to distinguish those who had obeyed Christ from those who had not obeyed him. Then we conclude the true, grammatical, historic and Script ural name for an organized body of the followers of Christ is “The Baptized (or Baptist) Church of Christ at ” Let our “brethren” as “Believers” “called of God” and. made “Heirs of God,” prove them selves “Saints” without blemish in this particular at least by honoring the Great Head of the body in holding to that name which by his wonderful providence has been our title in the Scriptures and in his tory “The Baptized (or Baptist) Church of Christ.” Memphis, Tenn. FROM MISSOURI. Dear Index :—ln renewing my subscription you will please allow a few personal words to many dear friends among your readers. My second year’s pastorate '’f’:re close in another month, and the futurfe is brighter'ttian ev’er. The church, numbers about 225 active members, has just passed through a gracious revival in which brother S. M. Brown of Kansas City did all the preaching. Twenty-three were added, mostly by baptism. One of these had been an infidel and hard character generally, but was converted on his wagon in the country about New Year’s day when there was no excitement. He says, “I used to say there is no God, but now I know there is one, for I have met Him and He has spoken peace to my heart.” The church seems ready for progressive work and we believe is entering upon a new era of usefulness. Many good meetings have been reported around us this fall and winter. It seems true that when prices go down religion goes up. Christianity has many obstacles here. People make money rather easily and care less for. eternal things. Infidelity has a strong hold upon the people, and every “ism” known in all the land is to be found in this region. But the cause of Christ is gaining ground and bringing to the front many strong characters. Our Normal College in Kirksville, is controlled by a fairly good Christian influence and the churches look closely after the religious interests of the stu dents. Notwithstanding the fact that we have eleven Baptist Col leges in Missouri, among the four hundred students in the Normal, there are over sixty that are Bap tists, and many more have no re ligious convictions. These crowd our Sunday-school and audience room, presenting an unusual in centive for faithful work. Winter now holds everything out doors in its icy embrace. There has been no deep snow, but many light ones, and the ground has been white for two weeks. For three nights the thermometer ranged from [thirteen degrees below to twenty-three below | zero. We kept the stoves red hot during the day, stayed in doors most of the time, and kept some fire all night so we got along without inconven ience. People are glad to have it so cold in order to fill up their ice houses for next summer, and there is no more sufferingjiere in winter than farther South. It is the sud den change that hurts and we have it everywhere. You have no doubt kept up with the general denominational news of the State. The outlook was never brighter, though there re mains much to be done to have “Missouri for Jesus.” Brother Carlton is still succeeding well at Slater. I have not seen him in over a year, but hear good reports from him. He has a good church, a good parsonage and a good salary which is cheerfully and promptly paid. The Index is always eager ly read in our household, and we wish you an ever increasing useful ness. W. S. Walker. Kirksville, Mo. THE COMMON SENSE OF IT. BY PRESIDENT J. B. GAMBRELL. I am glad to note a revival of discussion on what is called alien immersion. Dr. Hall’s argument was strong and other things ap pearing in the Index are good, and will do good. Many young pe’o pie in our churches have never been guarded against the (as they seem to me) specious pleas for the recognition of alien baptism. Let us not forget our duty to these. I have for a good while believed that a wise and good providence would let things happen all along at the proper time calculated to make vs keep the dust off our Bibles. Re cent events have started a new dis cussion of alien immersion, and I am confirmed in my faith. There is a common sense view of the question, which I desire to present. It is argued by all parties to the discussion, that baptism isa rite of divine appointment; that the command, “be baptized” is to believers; that in every baptism there are two parties, the baptizer and the baptized. It is as to the baptizer, thatthire is disagreement. But this disagreement does not ex tend to what is regular or orderly. To narrow the discussion down to the one real and only point of dis agreement, we have this: Shall we admit to our’ churches persons baptized in an .irregular or disor derly manner? Now let us lodk at it in a sen sible way. Is it even thinkable that a God of infinite wisdom would ordain a rite to be submit ted to by all believers and vet make no arrangement for the lf servance of the rite ; command 1 be lievers to be baptized and yet n.l ie it no bodies business to baptize them? Is that thinkable? C>-r --tainly not. Anjd when we look into the divine records, we find, as a fact, that he did not. In rhe very beginning of the matter, he commissioned John to baptize. And in the commission preach-ng and baptizing go together. '”he men sent to preach were pm baj?£ -f- qA - others. To this Mill the Scfipttyes ; agree. Here Scripture and com mon sense are at one. Nor is this denied. Again since baptism exists solely by and under the divine law, cre ating and regulating it, is it com mon sense to say, that what is ir regular and not according to Scripture order, should neverthe less be accepted, as if it were reg ular and Scriptural? The answer need not be written. Common sense protests such a travesty. Let us go further with the sub ject. Against what has been writ ten there is practically no reply from a Scriptural standpoint; but there is a plea for alien immersions based on what? i. The sincerity of the baptized and certain con fessedly right things connected with his case. If there is one thing that the common sense of the world has agreed upon, it is that sincerity car. be no substitute for law, human or divine. 2. The difficulties of tracing a succession back to the apostles, nay the im possibility of it. At the most this means that because I cannot trace my baptism back to the apostles in regular order ; because my baptism might have been irregular at some point, therefore, I ought to receive a baptism known to be irregular. What has common sense to say to such a proposition? I do not know that the dollar I have in my pocket is good metal clean through ; there fore I must accept a dollar ten dered me which I know is under weight. Common sense declines to accept the logic. Furthermore common sense refuses to the whole doctrine of alien immersions, built on the dictum that because some where, at some times, there have been irregularities, therefore, we ought to recognize a continuance of them, and thus perpetuate and sanction departures from the Scripture rule. Among human gov ernments where there are deficien cies in administration, subse quent legislatures pass enabling acts. But in the government of the churches no such thing can be done. The only remedy is to cor rect the evil. And that is what was done in the case of the twelve who were rebaptized because they were not fairly instructed. Lets put out all our strength to correct irregularities and none of it to evade the plain teachings of Script ure. Suppose we admit that because a believer was sincere and had the right intent as to his baptism, though irregnlarly baptized, we ought to receive his baptism, are we not then bound by our own logic? Must we not on' the same principle admit that if a person is I I sincere and has the right intent he I may commune anywhere? The I two are twins in logic and common ! sense. But with reference to corn j munion it is maintained, and rightly, that the rite not only has essence but form and connections. And all are necessary to a Scriptu ral communion. The very same is \ true with regard to baptism. My own opinion is that alien immer sions universally accepted would carry alien communion with all the certainty of logic. I know that many excellent brethren who admit the first,stoutly deny the latter. But both of twins are not born at the same time. One ’ is not much older than the other however. Mercer University, Macon, Ga. GOD’S DEALINGS WITH MEN AND MISSIONS. We have just read brother Blount’s frank confession. And very much gratified to know his willingness to confess, and hope he will not be so impulsive again. But to the subject: Over one hun dred years ago God impressed the cobbler Carey with his purpose of giving the gospel to the heathen, and so impressed him to make great efforts for God, and in turn to expect great things of God. Carey was moved to action and the fire of Divine love caught from heart to heart. And moved upon one, and then another until to-day we stand in amazement at what great things the Lord hath done in the conversion of the benighted. I South Georgia is truly a land of Bibles, preachers and churches. But alas! it is also true that vast waste places lie out before us, minus of churches, preachers, and almost of Bibles. The most visible evidence that one hundred years ago was God’s to give the 1 heathen the gospel is in the fact, God moved men to send both the Bible and preacher to the benight ed heathen. The most striking evidence that this, God’s most ap propriate plan to develop South Georgia, is in the fact, He has mov ed upon the hearts of men and wo men to make great efforts for God | in this direction, and to expect | great things of Him. Good men, thought Carey a fanatic. Good men likewisi think “The so called good, but mistaken brethren | fanatics also. But we can’t see I the end.” “God works in mysterious ways | his wonders to perform.” God has 1 T*Tasairthe’reports b’t all the Mis-. sioK Boards show) wrought up on men as never before the impor- ; tance of missions. Men make mistakes. God per- ' mits them. Is not his will of pur pose the fountain from whence all permission flows? Some things seem to be a mistake, yes prema ture. But when God controls men’s motives and conduct there is no mistake in the end. Evidences of this fact abound in the Old, as well as in the New Testament. To accuse God of making mistakesis to_dethrone his sovereignty. To accuse men whose motives are pure, and who act strictly from consecrated convictions is to accuse God of indirect mistakes. Many of us have watched the ; workings of the South Georgia Convention with a critics eye, ami with some suspicion. Being convinced of right mo tives and cautious actions, we are now ready to lend our all for the furtherance and perpetuity of the good work. What prompted W. D. Atkin son to leave Middle Georgia and locate in Blackshear, without a church and but very few Baptists ] to meet all the hardships, bear all ! the crosses and labor amid all these | discouragements? Was hisjmotives selfish? No, never. What prompt en W. 11. Scruggs to leave a good i pastorate in Florida and locate in ! Waycross, with the same surround- ‘ ings, except a growing railroad I town? Was it a selfish motive? I No. Do our frontier missionaries | go because the work is pleasant, I or pay extravagant? We know better than to say yes. Then let us deal with our breth- . ren kindly, “Judge not that ye be I not judged by the same judgment.” | God’s dealings with men and mis- I sions being a mystery has always ■ been the result of unjust criticism. Let us look at motives more and be I not hasty in judgment. It is a fact that men who know I most about the needs of South Georgia are those who are amidst the destitution, and they are the men who are pushing the work. Help them and not abuse them. M. A. Grace. Blackshear, Ga. For the Index, In your recent full, and faithful report of the proceedings of the Florida Baptist State convention, I am represented as saying, that until about ten years there was a tendency among Northern Bap tists to loose communion, but since then a decided reaction has taken place. Now, I did not suppose that I had given the impression that such tendency existed so re- I cently, but that such was the case 1 about twenty years since. Let me add, that Pedobaptists are getting light respecting our principles, so that while the exchange of pulpits with them, and union efforts in re vivals, are quite frequent, yet neither Baptists, nor Pedobaptists, regard this affiliation as in any degree compromising our prin ciples of strict communion. J. T. Seeley. De Leon Springs, Fla. Madison, Ga., Jan. 28th, 1894. Editor Christian Index: I read with pleasure an article in your issue of the 25th, by H. R. Bernard, of Athens, under the heading “How About Deacons.” His article hits at the very root of trouble, lack of working force, in a great many churches. He closes his article by saying, “I have seen a great many churches after a new pastor, but never one after new deacons, have you?” I write this to tell him and other brethren, whose thoughts have run in tnis line, that I have seen a church after new deacons. The church at Madison. It has been customary in that church since its organization, or since the adoption of its present decorum to have a treasurer elected at the monthly conference in November of each year, whose business it was to at tend to the financial matters of the church of all kinds. It was also customary to recog nize as a deacon, any one who had been a deacon in any other church of the same faith and order and who by letter came to that church. The consequence was that we had a superfluity.of deacons who did no work, and one man, the treasurer, had it all to do. Thinking over this matter, and being convinced in my own nflnd that it was not the proper way to get along in the best business way. I offered and moved the adoption of an amend ment to the decorum doing away with the treasurer and at monthly conference, November 1893, elect ing four deacons to serve from that date, two of them for two years, and two of them for four years ; and biennially thereafter, electing two deacons to serve two years. Being one of the deacons myself I was in a position to offer this amendment and to give my rea sons for doing so, to-wit : That the deacons were not at tending to work which it was their duty to do ; that they did not keep is. Ij&nd the of the church and attend to them as they should; that a church- to prosper, ought to have live, working, ener getic deacons ; that a church ought to be able to get rid of a lazy in efficient, unsatisfactory deacon as easily as they rid themselves, by the annual election plan, of a pas tor, who for any cause, real or imaginary, does not suit them ; that in my opinion the proper way, the easies and best way was to adopt a plan 1 of electing deacons every two years. If he is the proper man for the place, the church readily recog nizes the fact and is only too an xious to keep him. If he is ineffi cient they can, by ballot easily drop him and put another in his place. Upon presenting the subject to the church there sprung up con siderable opposition from unex pected sources. The idea seemed to have fastened itself in the heads of some of the brethren that if four deacons out of the seven, in the church, were chosen to do this work that the other three would be “undeaconed,” so to speak. Some others took the position that it was unscriptural to ordain a deacon for two years; that a deacon elected under this plan for two yeats might not at the end of that time be re elected ; that if he was not re-elect ed he would be “undeaconed.” The fact that a minister is often ordained on a one years call extend ed to him by some church, without any assurance to him from any source whatever that any other church will ever call him, could not be made to appear to these good brethren as a parallel case to elect ing a deacon for two years. The moderator and everybody else got hopelessly entangled in the meshes of their own eloquence; the matter was laid on the table until the next conference. At the next regular conference, the matter was taken from the table, the pa per embodying the proposed amendment was read and without one dissenting voice was passed. So you see the Madison Baptist church is one church where it is proposed to try the plan of chang ing deacons instead of pastors. It is the wish of the church to keep the man who now serves them, (brother Samuel A. Burney) until he finishes his earthly work, and is called up higher to receive the reward for a life of unselfish devotion to the Masters cause. Yours in brotherly love, P. G. Walker. The Hamilton Journal contains nearly a column report of an inter esting sermon preached to the church there, by Bro. B. W. Bussey, of Jamestown. VOL 71—NO. 6. COMMENTS ON SOME PROVERBS. Solomon says a proverb is “the interpretation of the wise.” A proverb has been defined -. “A short pithy saying in common use.” It ought to be, though it is not al ways, a universal truth ; for some proverbs are, because of their origin, true only in part or false in the main. The true proverb has the characteristics of novelty, dig nity and usefulness. Aristotle places proverbs “among the unde niable testimonies of truth.” Quin tilian, the rhetorician, commends them as “helps to the art of speak ing and writing well.” 1. “Antiquity is not always a mark of verity.” The claim cf the Papists that theirs is the oldest church were it true, does not es tablish its Scripturalness. Argu ments g.|<junded on .ecclesiastical history can easily be made to sup port error. Age of itself does not eliminate evil, but rather makes it ranker and stronger. But “an old dog cannot alter his way of bark ing,” and so every generation will be dosed with this medicine. 2. “Envy shoots at others and wounds itself.” It is a boomerang. “Saul eyed David,” his envy led to his downfall. Envy, not hate, is the true antithesis of love. It is the genesis of sin,—the meanest of serpents taken into the heart to bite it to death. A man will ac knowledge hatred of another, —but envy never. It is never satisfied, though soul-tortue is its ceaseless fruitage. “Envy never enriched any man,” for it is pure Satan who is “a thief and a robber.” Envy is malicious grudging. 3. “Examples teach more than precepts.” Examples are precepts incarnated. Christ is greater than His words or His works. Men try to find truths ouside of the Bible equal to or identical with the truths of the Bible. They t o ll, for in stance, that Confucius is the real author of the Golden rule, since, as they say, Confucius put that rule in its negative. But the framer of a negative may yet fail to see the positive. But admit it, what then ? Christ lived the rule. His life is the uanswerable argu ment for His doctrine. No life like His. 4. “Giving much to the poor doth increase a man’s store.” The Bible every where teaches the value of giving. “God loves the cheer ful giver,” and enriches him mani fold. He only lives, who gives. Giving to the poor is “lending to thr T .ord,” -ryh™ ptys back "■’ithjjij told interest. How much is wasted which would satisfy the poor. Mr. McCallough, Ex-Treasurer of the United States, said that the peo ple of I'rance annually lived on no more than what the people of the United States wasted. Living too fast, in all its senses, is the cause of our “present distress” in this country. When wealth shall be Christianized, the problems of So ciology will be solved ; when “ho liness shall be written on the bells of the horses” their owners will drive to the relief of the poor. D. W. Gwin. OUR OWNERSHIP- At a recent prayer-meeting, we were ‘all so greatly edified, so strengthened by the sound meat of the gospel, as presented to us in an impromptu talk from that Prince in Isreal, dear old Dr. Shaver, that while we ourselves continue to en jov the feast of his doctrine, we would fain have others too. The subject under discussion was as to our “Ownership”—when some one called upon our friend, I had almost said our life-long friend, and this in substance is what he said, but in such chaste, scholarly language—clear cut as a grecian column, yet glowing with warmth as the rosy dawn. He began by saying, that while the great Catechisms of the churches and their confessions of faith, taught us much of truth, yet they stated some of it this way, viz., that Jesus Christ had purchased for us, pardon and forgiveness of sins, had bought for us sanctification, justification and our admission into the barred-up gates of heaven. But, said the old man eloquent, it is not so taught in the Word. Christ purchased for us, none of these things! He bought, with His own precious blood, lost and ruined man, and He bestows upon him, who accepts it, all these favors as His royal gifts, the glorious out come of His unutterable grace and love! Man had broken away from God ; Jesus pays the full price to Justice for the redemption of this creature, and now, man, being his property and His own, He freely gives unto him who will receive it by faith, pardon, and justification ; leads him on to sanctification, and prepares for him a heavenly home, into which He will finally gather all His own ! “Ye are bought with a price!” How then, shall he not freely give us all things, for this life and that to come ! We belong to him body and soul; we are henceforth to live for Him, and not for ourselves ; unto Him who (Continued on Bth page.)