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ESTABLISHED 1821. W Christian Index Publlihei Every Thursday By BELL &. VAIN NESS Address Christian Index, Atlanta, Ga. Organ of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia Subscription Price: One copy, one year W«00 One copy, six months ABOUT OUR ADVKRTISKKK.-\Ve propose hereafter to very carefully Investigate our advertisers. We shall exercise every care to allow only reliable parties to use our col umns. t a Obituaries.—One hundred words free of charge. For each extra word, one cent per word, cash with copy. To Correspondents—Do not use abbrevi ations; be extra careful in writing proper names; write with ink, on one side of paper. Do not write copy intended for the editor and business items on same sheet. Leave off personalities, condense. Business.—Write all names, and post offices distinctly. In ordering a change give the old as well as the new address. The date of label indicates the time your subscription expires. If you do not wish it continued, or der it stopped a week before. We consider each subscriber permanent un-tii he orders his paper discontinued. When you order it •topped pay up to date. Remittances by registered letter, money order, postal note For the Index. The Rich Man and Lazarus. Sunday- School Lesson for April 26. Luke 16:19 31. BY S. G. HILLYER. This lesson lifts the curtain that hides the life which is to come from the life that now is. That there is in man a living soul that does not cease to be when the body dies, is a belief as old as history. Its universality and its abiding continuity cannot be explained except upon some hy pothesis that assumes its truth. But the condition of that future life, and the experiences which it may involve,are questions beyond the reach of human reason. If these things are ever known,they must be revealed. And if so,then the dictate of wisdom is to accept without modification or limita tion, what is revealed, and noth ing else—no more, no less. Now the parable of “Dives’ and “Lazarus” was given to man kind by Jesus, the Christ of Cod. He was the Son of the living God. He was the life and the light of the world. He was in the begin ning with God, and he w y as God. He came into this world out of Heaven. He, therefore, knew all about the world to come. Accordingly, the design of the parable W’as to warn the itnpeni tent, who were living only for the present life, of the fearful retribution that awaits them be yond the grave. There.were many such around him. The Scribes and the Pharisees and the rulers especially, were, like Dives, liv ing in luxurious indulgence, whol ly unmindful of the world to come. In the parable, Jesus plain ly tells-them their doom. Not theirs only, but the doom of all who walk in their ways. There is'no doubt about it. It includes, in its wide sweep, all impenitent people who know not God and who obey not his gospel. No matter what may be one’s mode or form of transgression, if he dies impenitent, he shall meet the doom of the rich man. What is that doom’? To answer this question, we must interpret fairly and honestly the teaching of the parab F. I need to notice only its salient points. In the first place, we may notice that the Saviour, in this parable, teaches the reality of a future life. This truth is the logical basis of the parable, with out which it would be worthless. Again, we notice that Lazarus was escorted, after his death, to “Abraham’s bosom.” The learned tell us that this phrase, “Abra ham’s bosom,” was u?ed, in the time of our Saviour, as synony mous with “Paradise” —a word borrowed from the Persians by the Jews to denote the abode of the blessed. Such was the place to which Lazarus w’as carried. And there he found comfort and safety. Next, the rich man died and was buried, and in hades he lifted up his eyes, being in tor ment. It is not said that Laza rus was buried. Poor fellow! He possibly had no friend who would perform for him that kind service. The rich man, at whose gate he died, disgusted with his foul carcass, may have ordered his slaves to carry it out of his sight. And they may have cast it into some deep gorge to be de voured by wolves and birds of prey. But the rich man had friends by the score; he was bur ied, and, as suggested by the Sunday-School Teacher, he may have had an expensive funeral. But, while these earthly honors were gracing the burial of his si lent corpse, his spirit was in that part of hades, which the Jews called Gehenna, and which we have named “hell”—a place of anguish or of torment. Hence it is manifest, by the teaching of Jesus, that in that future world to which we are all hastening, there are two distinct and sepa- THE CHRISTIAN IXDIN rate abodes oi/'s? rthe righteous, and another for che w’icked. Lastly, we learn that these two places, Paradise and Gehenna, are separated by a great gulf which none can pass from one to the other. The separation is final and forever. In giving the foregoing inter pretations oi the salient points in this parable I have not aimed at originality; for I think I have given, though briefly, yet sub stantially, the interpretations of all orthodox divines since the times of the reformation. The doctrine of the parable may be summed up thus: (1) There is a life beyond the present one for every human oe ing. This is thedoctrine of man's immortality. (2) In that new life, the right eous shall enter into a state of perpetual and eternal rest and happiness. This is the doctrine of future salvation. (3) In that new life, the wicked shall enter into a state of pel pet ifal and endless suffering. This is the doctrine of future retribu tion. (4) In that new’ life, the right eous and the wicked shall be for ever separated There are other interesting truths suggested by the parable. We have space only to mention them. The parable clearly as sumes that the soul in the life to come shall retain its conscious ness, its memory, its reason, its emotions, its personal identity and its character— the righteous shall be righteous still, and the wicked shall be wicked still —and this diversity of character is the gulf that shall separate them forever. The point in this parable which, just now, deserves to»be espe cially emphasized, in the pulpit, in the Sabbath-school, and at the family altar, and by the religious press, is THE DOOM OF THE WICKED, which it so fearfully reveals. The Savior has here given us, with a few pen-strokes, a picture of inexpressible horror. As one gazes upon it, be shrinks back affrighted and appalled. It shocks the sensibilities of the human heart. The effect is, that many persons cannot accept the truth that the picture so fearfully represents. During the last thirty or forty years various ef forts have been made, by learned men, to sweep away the deep significance of the parable. And here and there we see members of orthodox churches dropping away from the faith of their fath ers, because they cannot endure the doctrine of endless punish ment. And out of this unrest of spirit has emerged the fatal hope of UNIVERSAL SALVATION. But to maintain that hope, the Universalist is obliged to “wrest the Scriptures.” He cannot make out his case from their teachings, if he takes their words in their plain and obvious sense. Fairly interpreted, the Scriptures are against him. Fearful as the everlasting pun ishment of the wicked may be, Jesus has so interwoven the doc trine with all his promises of eternal life to those who believe in him, that we cannot eliminate one without destroying the other. But amidst all this perplexity the true believer finds rest in the assurance that the judge of all the earth will do right. If God dooms the impenitent sinner to endless woe, you may know that it is right that he should do it. God is the sovereign of the uni verse. The exigencies of such a government as he administers are beyond the reach of human estimate. And the rnan who dares to question the rectitude of what God has revealed to be his pur pose in dealing with the wicked, is a benighted b'asphemer. The truly wise man is he,who, “know ing the terror of the Lord, per suades men to be reconciled to God.” 563 South Pryor street, Atlanta, for the Index. The Unseen World in Which we Live. BY S. C. MITCHELL. We very early begin to dis tinguish between appearance and fact. To the eye the earth ap pears to stand still and the sun to revolve around it. The moon seems self-luminous, though it is an opaque body. That rainbow yonder that spans the heavens seems a reality, and in our child ish fancy we think we can reach the bag of gold at its end, yet the arch of colors is only the re - flection of the sun’s rays upon falling drops of water. The straight stick w’hen thrust into the water appears crooked. My senses report that two bodies cannot occupy the same place at the same time, yet every gas is a vacuum to every other gas. That luminous cloud, the Milky Way, is dissolved by the tele scop into nnu enable worlds SUBSCRIPTION, PtnYt*«, -..52.00. I x> ' MINISTERS, 1.00. I I*',. separated from one another by infinite distances. Such experiences as these force upon us distrust of our senses. We become disillusioned, and the eye and the ear lose their sway over the reason; for along w’ith this rude awakening to the fact that the apparent is deceptive, there comes the fur ther realization that the appar ent is transitory, and perhaps unreal. We are often told that the great forces in nature are silent. Yes, and they are also unseen. The cable that holds the earth stead ily in its orbit as it spins through space is invisible. That wizard of the nineteenth century, elec tricity, baffles the eye. Further analysis leads us to believe that the objects of sense —trees, rocks, and stars —are merely dis ferent appearances of a force or forces that assume these varying forms. The moisture in the at mosphere condenses into water; under certain conditions this wa ter becomes snow, ice, steam, or dew. Heat passes into light, light into electricity, electiicily into chemical affinity, etc , etc. Thus the chase for the ultimate force goes on, until we rest in the conclusion of science that all matter is resolvable into force. “ Matter and motion as we know them,” says Herbert Spencer, “ are differently conditioned manifestations of force.” “Sub stance is action” was likewise the statement of Leibnitz. This ul timate force is as invisible as the air. Thus in Nature it is true that “ the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” All matter and material things are but vesture, clothing, or vis ual appearance of spirit. How often in our estimate of the facts and tendencies in so ciety do we mistake the real. Thucydides, who lived in the same city and who spent years in writing of the deeds of his own times, does not once men tion the name of Socrates. In the judgment of after centuries the worth and marvelous influ ences of this man condemned to death by his fellow citizens out weighs all else that Greece achieved. “Careless seems the Great Avenger. History's pages but record One death grapple in the darkness ’twixtall systems and His word, Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne, Yet that waffoM sways the future, and behind the dim unknown Standeth God within the shadow keep ing watch above His own.” There were many shrewd his torians writing at the time of Christ’s life, yet none of them suspected that God was not in the strong wind of Rome’s prog ress,nor in the earthquake shock of battle, nor in the fire of polit ical conflict, but in the stiil small voice that w’hispered “ Peace ” in the secluded valleys of Gal lilee. In his own time, and perhaps according to his own judgment, Shakespeare was regarded sim ply as a successful actor and manager of a theatre. We have no reason to believe that he thought much of the writings which he tossed off in odd mo ments. Carlyle has, however, stated that if England to-day had to choose between the giving up of Shakespeare’s works and the forfeiting of the crown of the Indian empire with all its mil lions and gold, it would unques tionably choose the works of the poet Milton wanted to shine as a politician, and it was only after his expulsion from of fice by the return of the Stuarts, that he devoted the fragment of his remaining life to dreaming out that immortal epic with which almost alone we as sociate his name. No wise man of that time -would have dared be lieve that the twenty lines of poetry which that blind and neg lected old man got written down each day, were of more conse quence to the world than all the transactions at court or the en grossing projects of the reign of Charles 11. In Shurtz’s Life of Henry Clay one is al most made to weep over the inordinate yearning of that great statesman for the trap pings of the presidency. What a pity that he ever let eager nesss for that symbol of honor cause him to swerve seemingly from the straightforward course of uprightness. Ever a candi date and ever having to explain away the rumor as to the bar gain with Adams for the secre taryship of State, driven to sub terfuges and to shifting of sails —such -was his unsatisfied life. What need had he in his native greatness, the idol of millions of enthusiastic hearts, for that glittering badge of office ? What a contrast to Clay’s foiled ambi tion does Jefferson’s epitaph, written by himself, present. He had been president twice, he had represented the nation abroad, he had made the vast Louisiana purchase, yet in sum- ATLANTA, GA., THURSDAY, APRIL 23,1896. miog up what in his life might justly claim to be remembered by after generations, he could think of but two things—his ef forts to secure liberty and to promote enlightenment—" The author of the Declaration of In dependence, of the statute for re ligious freedom in Virginia, and father of the University of Vir ginia.” These facts show that it is the intellectual, and particularly the moral and spiritual elements, not the material, that constitute the true worth of a nation. A thought survives empires. Our pyramids of material progress, no matter how high and massive, may prove to be as useless and as indicative of the lack of any noble purpose in our civilization as the giant piles of stone yonder on the banks of the Nile. “Right eousness tendeth to life” is a message America needs to day. Our true life is a spiritual one. The body is only an instrument given the soul: it rs-no more our real being than the clothes we wear or the spectacles that help out our vision. Physical sound ness is of course' to be striven for, because the soul works through the body, and is in turn variously influenced by it. Yet the body belongs to me, it is not me. There is a parable of a wo man, who, having twin children, loves the one, but conceives a dislike for the other. That she will nurse herself, this she puts forth. Her love grows for the child she kept, she decks it finely and feeds it choicely. At last, by sheer excess as pampering, the child surfeits and begins to die. Then she sends for the other, but the messenger finds it likewise dying. These chil dren are our body and soul. That we feed and dress, this we let languish in neglect. When finally tle body begins to fall away, we bethink us of the shriv eled soul. Sentiment likewise outweighs material things. You think that in providing bountifully, in building that fine house, in get ting a handsome carriage, you are doing your utmost to make your wife happy Oh, no; what she craves is pure affection: one tender word or gallant act,' like those ske knew when you were wooing her, would do more to bring back the light to her eye and the glow of beauty to her cheek than all ;hese gifts, how ever luxuries> they may be. Many a woman is freezing to death in our stately palaces, simply because some of us men forget that a woman’s heart lives not on bread alone, but by the constant love that flows from the noble soul of him to whom she has committed her life. The real trial in the wife’s life comes, not when an assignment is made and the beautiful .home is sold under the hammer, but when she finds that your heart, to which she trusted all, is not sound to the core. Then the iron flows into her soul. In heaping up a fortune for those growing children, do you think you are doing them a last ing good ? The fortune may vanish ere they enjoy it: should it reach them, it may serve only to tmasculate them. But in neglecting their characters, their education, their religious well being, in failing to set them at all times an ennobling ex ample of kindness and devout ness, you are robbing them of solid benefits which they can rightly claim from you. Will that great business enterprise or political career perpetuate your name and fame ? I doubt not we shall live longest in some “ —little nameless unremembered acts Os kindness and of love. ” The source of our strength is unseen. It is true of every worthy man as it was of Moses, that “he endured as seeing him who is invisible.” Richmond College, Va. DIAZ ARRESTED. On the night of Thursday, April 16, Rev. A. J. Diaz, our beloved missionary in Cuba, was arrested by the Spanish authorities in Ha vana. After his family had re tired for the night, Diaz and his brother were engaged in conver sation together. The house was entered by the authorities, Diaz and his brother arrested and without any opportunity to com municate with his family they were taken to prison. In the morning his family for the first time discovered the arrest. Nor was his wife permitted to see him even after gaining the ear of the Captain General. The charge seems to have been that of con veying information from the in surgents to parties in the United States. The news of Diaz’s arrest was promptly cabled to Dr I.- T. Tichenor, Secretary of the Home Mission Board. At once word was sent to the State Department at Washington requesting protec tion. The news spread rapidly ■ s • jL. w® I M 1 - * REV. A. J. DIAZ. over the city, State and country. The Home Board promptly met ar.d adopted the following reso lution : 1 ‘Resolved, That the Board has heard with the deepest pain of the imprisonment of Bro. A. J. Diaz by the Spanish authorities in Cuba; that we are profoundly impressed with the duty of doing all in our power to preserve the life and secure the liberty of our beloved brother; that for this purpose we invite all Baptists ev erywhere, and such other Christian brethren as may sym pathize with us,to unite in a com mon effort to influence the au thorities of our land to do every thing consistent with the honor of our country to accomplish our wishes; that public meetings be held by them and such others as may sympathize with us, and due expression of their desires be forwarded to senators, represen tatives and other public officials advising them that the entire constituency of the Southern Baptist Convention, aided by sympathizing friends from every part of the country, are unitedin one sacred effort for the deliver ance of a man of God who by his unselfish devotion and his un flinching courage has .endeared himself to all who are familiar with his history “that‘for this purpose we ask that the Baptists throughout the South will, through their respective churches and other organiz itions make con tributions to a fund providing for the expense attending efforts for his relief, but more especially as a tangible expression of their sympathy for him and for his de liverance from the dangers envi roning him.” The same meeting signed and forwarded a petition to Senators Gordon and Bacon, asking them to interest themselves in the matter and urge prompt action on the part of the government. EFFORTS TO SAVE HIM. This action was but the begin ning of spontaneous outburts everywhere. Saturday after noon the Christian Index, real izing the need of interested ac tivity in the administration itself, sent the following telegram: Hon. Hoke Smith, Departmen t of hi' terior, Washington, D.C. The host of Georgia Baptists appeal to you to assure active protection and a fair trial to Mis sionary Diaz who is widely known, loved and belifved in. The appointment of Fitzhugh Lee gives great confidence. The Christian Index. On Sunday,churches everywhere expressed themselves. At Macon, Greensboro, Columbus, and La- Grange, mass meetings were held. Cuthbert, Barnesville, Carrollton, Montezuma and other churches, passed resolutions and forwarded them to Washington. The First church of Augusta, of which Hon. J. C- C. Black is a member, sent the following tele gram: “First Baptist church and | congregation, Augusta, this ; morning resolved to urge Sen- ’ ators and Represent a'ives to take immediate steps in interest of | Alberto Diaz, securing him civil trial as an American citizen.” In Anniston, Chattanooga,Lynch- burg, and Nashville, similar ac tion was taken. Senators Gordon and Bacon have been faithfully interesting themselves, and Con gressman Black has been untir ing. Secretary Smith, who was familiar with Diaz's work and reputation, has been personally interesing himself. The follow ing telegram to theJJßazffa Jour nal gives great assurance for Diaz’s speedy release: Washington, D. C., April, 20. I have just left the Secretary of State, who informs me that Consul General Williams is in immediate communication with Rev. Dr. Diaz. The consul gen eral has arranged for the mis sionary’s present comfort, and expects his speedy release.” Hoke Smith. Dr. Tichenor has just tele graphed the State Department asking if he can communicate directly or through official sources with Diaz. He desires to ask as to his comfort, the best method of supplying his needs, whether he has an attorney of his own choice, and what he needs to have, done to protect him. It will be well to continue urging action on the government. Misrepresentation will be almost inevitable. Diaz muss be held only on reliable evidence, he must be cared for while waiting trial, and his trial must be fair and public. DIAZ’S LAST LETTER. We are glad to be able to give below, the last letter written by Diaz. As this was posted at Key West, it probably comes through Bro. O'Hallaran: Havana, Cuba., April 11, 1896. Dr. I. T. Tichenor, Dear Sir:—We have suffer as usual the persecutions of our enemies. You may read the en closed communication which I haveready foryoulast month,but I did not send it, because I did not want to create any trouble be tween our Government and this Government. We will suffer along for the cause of our blessed Master. Last Thursday evening I have a congregation of 1000, and nearly 500 was a moving congre gation that disturb us in such way that we were not able to dis tribute the “Lord’s Supper” in that usual evening. Our church still is crowded with good congregation, number from 400 to 500 people. Next Sunday I shall baptize six girls belong to our “ female school,” three of them are supported by the ladies of Baltimore, and have been over 4 years in the school. I don't preach as usual and t re suit is 1 fee.l little excite after the service because I did not say all what I ought to say. Pray for us, Brother, and over all pray that the “ Word of God” be free among us as it is with you. Nearly a year I don’t preach free. Could you ask for protection for our churches here? I shall commence to make the account for Bro. Dunson next week. Give my regards to all. Bro. O’Halloran is going to-day to Key West. Yours in Christ, Diaz. The following is a part of a letter just received from Bro. J. V. Cava, who is in Tampa, Fla.: Tampa, Fla., April 18th. “Recent news advises that he is charged of promoting correspon dence between the insurgents and the United States, but I am almost sure that it is a mere pre tence to cover the true cause of his arrest, which is no doubt priestcraft. Diaz's imprisonment proves the opportunity of my leaving Cuba a few days before, as I was certain something evil was plan ning against us. On my depart ure I advised him most earnestly to come to this country -without delay, but he said he desired above all that Bro. O'Halloran and myself, who are not Ameri can citizens, would be safe, and that he would remain some days more to leave everything settled in regrad to our work, trusting that his American condition had nothing to fear from the govern ment. He was wrong, as facts prove. J- V. Cova. A man often mistakes his “ob lique” triangle for a “right” one, because he drew it himself and can see no fault in the work that is his own. I have already anticipated my closing thought. There is no limit to the satisfactions of Heav en. That is just as true in this life, as after this life. Jesus said to the woman at the well, “He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.” That is, “In me and in the new life which I give he shall have a perennial source of in ward supply for all his heart’s desires.’’ We tire of earthly scenes. To most men it is a disappointment to go back, after many years, tq one’s early home. The many changes awaken pain. Ordinary books cease to inspire us as at first they did. We crave new scenes, friends, ideas, work. Im mortality is the natural crown of present life. But even that must be progressive. I rejoice that in Heaven that there is to be no end of supply for every true soul want. You know perhaps how it is in music. You learn a phrase of two or three notes. You dis cover how it is wrought into a prolonged melody. Then some one tells you how, by fixed laws, its cor rnspon ding parts are worked out, and thus a true har mony is produced. Step by step as your musical culture pro gresses you see a sonata, a sym phony, a mass, an oratorio, with all its variety in unity wrought out into a perfect whole. And p.erhaps at last you have mas tered the analysis of one of Bach’s great fugues. You see theme chasing theme, harmony interblending with harmony, the utmost seeming disorder fused into the utmost real order, an al most infinitely intricate mass of detail blended into a perfect and intelligible unity, and you stand amazed that-that little theme of perhaps but three notes could by an orderly and describable law of development yield that trium phant organ paean. It is to be thus, I judge, in our vision of God. We do see him here, if by his grace his Spirit is within us to cleanse, so that with the Spir it’s eye, as it were, we look out on nature and life. But how lit tle of him we behold! An old di vine said that as we ate we should thank God for the manna that came down from Heaven; as we drank we should remember the precious water of life; and as we walked we should be remind ed of the walk worthy of the gos pel. In silver and gold is the contrast to the precious blood whereby our redemption was purchased. In the mountains is God’s throne; in the skies God’s chariot; in the lightnings God’s arrows; in the thunders his voice. There is no circumstance, nor scene, nor experience which does not correspond with some work or power or attribute of God. As the heart grows purer, and vision grows clearer, how in creased on every hand are the signs of the divine presence,— until all the varied experiences through which we pass, all the countless phenomena on which we gave, are but the combina tions of two themes. “God is Love,” “God is Light,” which unite again in that single note, God is Father. Thus I have sought to show that Heaven is more than endless felicity after death. It is God in the soul here, now, and forever. What is Heaven? It is holi ness. What is Heaven? It is to see God. The vision of a Holy ' God by a holy soul, that is Heav en. He who is brought into living union with God now will have no fear for the future. He will have no concern about death. It can only take him nearer to him who even here is his life and joy. Then let our souls, on wings sublime, Rise from the vanities of time, Draw back the parting veil and see The glories of eternity. -X- * * * * * * * Shall aught beguile us on the rW, While we are traveling back to God? For strangers into life we come, And dying is but going home. * * * » » * * » To dwell with God, to feel his love, Is the full Heaven enjoyed above; And the sweet expectation now Is the young dawn of Heaven below. Heaven. —Richard Montagw. The hobby which some Re formers ride is a hobby-donkey, rather than a hobby-horse.