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ESTABLISHED 1821. TheChrtstianlndex t'ubHihel Every Tbunday By BELL & VAN INEDSS Addreat Christian Index,Atlanta, Ga Organ of the Baptist Denomination In Georgia. Subscription Pbiok: One copy, one year JS.OO One copy, tlx months I.M About Oub Advertisers.—We propose hereafter to very carefally Investigate our advertisers. We shall exercise every care to allow only reliable parties to use our col nmns. Obituabibb.—One hundred words free of ebarge. 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 •xplres. If you do not wish It continued, or terlt stopped a week before. We consider •ach subscriber permanent until he orders his paper discontinued. When you order It Stopped pay up to date. Remittances by registered letter, money order, postal note Reform. Reform must provide for eter nal niH'ds. We crave eternity. This life is not enough. We ask far more than three score years and ten. In that time we but be gin. We ask not only for long life — we ask for wisdom, joy, hope, and peace. What reform will stand if it does not provide these things? Reform must somehow fit the race for its ma jestic future, far outliving Time —for years beyond years, and for cycles that shall know no end. Reform must adjust time and eternity, and build to-day on foundations that shall never fail. What shall this foundation be? In times past reform has been founded on many a shifting sand. One is so-called science. By this term has until recently been un derstood what I should call half science, or, in truth, one millionth science. The word has meant natural laws and classifications of facts already found out. But we do not yet know the whole of Nature and her relations, nor shall we know this whole, in all probability, for a thousand ages yet to come. We must make use of science at every step in reform, so far as we have discovered its facts and laws; for the universe is built on true science, the larger science, which is the intellectual and creative activity of the Maker of all things. If we do not, our walls will topple, being untrue to necessary direction and pro portion. Let science be the plumb-line, the T-square, with which we work. But the founda tion-stone of reform must be sought in that which lies behind science—a sentinel, ruling, and directing power. Even the larger science is not final. It involves a huge imagination and a will. Nature is not self-originating. She did not make life. She can not create it to-day. Nature is not perpetual. Although no force is lost, although no atom disap pears, unless there is somewhere eternal and living energy, all things in our material world may some time come to a strange, cold and awful pause. There will be neither voice, motion, nor sound. The universe will run down. Another says, We will build our work on individual insight— on great men. The true reform ers are seers. Looking over the past life of the world, they have analyzed its conditions. Look ing over the present, they under stand its aspects. Looking over the future, they see in what man ner yesterday, to-day, and for ever must be adjusted, in order Io have peace, joy, and justice in the world. Do they? Are there really such final seers among us? Do the prophets yet live? Which of us, or of our race, is altogether knowing? For answer, we have only to run back over the history of human lack of judgment, folly, and mistakes. We are somehow and some time in the colossal wrong. There are sharp limita tions to human insight. If we cannot conduct ourselves with wisdom in our own simple cir cumstances, how can w'e trust our crude powers, our inadequate institutions, our rash conclu sions, and our precipitous decis ions to lead us through the sub lime problem of redeeming a world from want, sin, care, grief and woe? Will socialism do? There are many who are crying to-day: Let us share all things! Then our goods will be common. No one will be hungry or poor, and the even conditions of the race will make possible an ideal world. That reform, again, is but a sur face thing. It does not touch the heart of life. We are hungry in other ways than for lack of bread. We are naked in other ways than to be without coat or THE CHRISTIAN INDEX. i a '•> c RIFTION ' P«bTeab.—.M.OO. | ITC. \Zn|«TKR*. 1.00.1 v boots. Socialism does not pro vide the best for man. There are good things we cannot share. For instance, a man produces $5,000. He may divide that amount with any number of others. But how can he share with them his de light in bis work, the personal growth and development he re ceived in the doing of it, or his rank in the universe as a pro uucer instead of a parasite? We must find some way which shares things that are not material, which affords a transfer system from soul to soul of the best spir itual concepts, interests, and de lights. Ah, says some one, that is al truism. We share the other’s life. We give him ours. That is the final solution.—No; it is not. We cannot give him our real life, as we shall see. lie can in part seize the surface polish of it—the clean clothes, the better house, the keener mind, the washed face and hands, the more refined amusements, the honest vote — but he cannot take the everlast ing It which will make the thing endure. We all know that the educated criminal is the worst one. He cannot be made upright working from the outside in. There is a fiery spirit working in the heart for righteousness which he can neither take nor feel, un less a grand and subtle change is wrought in the inmost fibers of his being. Can altruism work that change? It is not that I would in any way discount the work of altru ism. It is nobly unselfish, and does something. In many ways it does much. I think no loving word or work was ever yet cast into the universe and returned unto a man void. But the altru istic spirit cannot permanently remake the race. Human na ture is too much for it. It lacks the inner motive-power. The al truist is powerless to bring about those deep reverberations and ac tivities of spirit which the sim plest Christian teacher can set up. The root-question in social pa thology should be, not how to make life easy and agreeable for those who are in a crippled phys ical or moral state, not how to pamper the degenerates and fat ten them, but how to rid life of the pauper and criminal instincts, how to develop and maintain a magnificent balance of physical and moral powers, which shall take away insanity, idiocy, feel ble-mindedness, tramp-ways, and criminal passions, to a degree at least, from the earth. Will en vironment lastingly do this? Will new laws of marriage, liquor and divorce? Will airy jails and penitentiaries? Will diet-schemes or potato patches in themselves? Will even college settlements alone? ‘‘There is in man a high er” than altruism or hygiene. True reform strikes to the roots of life, and says, The first thing, <> child of man! is to put this restless, angered, weary will of thine in harmony with the di vine will. Then all on earth will be forever well. The human will asks to indulge the senses, and the vagaries of an idle and undis ciplined heart and brain. Hence arise drunkenness, disease, dirt, strife, revelings, tyranny, law lessness, moral and spiritual up roar, and all social evils. The divine will asks to free the spirit, purify the affections, and renew and strengthen the will of man. All reforms, rightly organized, must run back, as I see life, to one root-principle of organiza tion and action. It is this: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” We must seek, not our own ideas, not social good alone, not changed environment, not education, not sanitary condi tions alone, not correction, man ners, nor political insight for men; we must seek to bring the kingdom of righteousness into their hearts and lives. Then, in time, all other good things may be added by the wise and tireless methods of our day. When eternal life gets hold of a man, it will build him up in this life, as well as for that which is to come. It will make him a cen ter of farther regenerating pow er. It will cast out evil spirits, wrong-doing, oppression, greed, drunkenness, theft, squalor, and the horrors of tenements and slums. It fulfills our three con ditions: it is adequate, efficient and permanent. Processionals of gods and goddesses pass and dis appear in the twilight of time. The old theogonies fail. Nothing provides the motive-power for this spiritual change, so far as I can yet learn, except the cross of Christ. Sublime in history, tow ering above all schemes and spec ulations, the emblem of the Chris tian faith stands for a spiritual force which has proved itself su preme. —Culture and Reform— Brown. ATT.ANTA, GA., THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 19. 1896. Forthe JNDicx. Reminiscences of Georgia Baptists BY S. G. HILLYER No. 15. DEACON THOMAS COOPER. In presenting to our readers a notice of a Baptist deacon, it may be well to set forth the qualifica tions which should be found in a deacon. Paul, in 1 Tim. 3d chapter, having first given the qualifications that should be found in a bishop or pastor, pro ceeds to tell us what sort of a man a deacon should be. He says: “In like manner deacons should be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; holding the mys tery of the faith in a pure con science. * * * Let deacons be husbands of our wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. For they that have served well as deacons gain to themselves a good standing, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (R. V.) These words of Paul are simple, clear, and explicit. They teach that a deacon should be a man of unblemished moral character, and of great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. Just such a man was Deacon Thomas Cooper, of the Eatonton Baptist church. His parents came to Georgia from Virginia and set tled in Hancock county. Brother Thomas Cooper was an old man when I first became ac quainted with him, in 1829. He was then living in Eatonton. He belonged to that generation of Baptists that came down to us from the latter half of the eigh teenth century. I do not know his age; but in 1829, I suppose he must have been at least sixty years old. He was, therefore, cotemporary with the Marshalls and the Mercers, the elder Brant ly and Adiel Sherwood and with other fathers of that era. His wife was the daughter of Jami sand Sarah Harvey, of Han cock county. He was the father of Hon. Mark A. Cooper, whose name has been for half a century a household word in the homes of Georgia; for it was a name that stood for purity in patriotism, for wisdom in statesmanship, and for nobility in personal character. I think he was the only son of his father. But he bad quite a large family of his own. His eldest son. Mr. Frederick Cooper, was a sterling member of the Baptist church of Rome while I was its pastor. He was killed in the war, leaving his wife with three little boys. His brother, Mr. Thomas Cooper, also died early, leaving his wife with one son, who is now Dr. Hunter P. Cooper, of At lanta. Colonel M. A. Cooper had also several daughters, two of whom, I know, still survive him. One is Mrs. William A. Pope, of Washington, and the other is Miss Rosa Cooper, of Atlanta. They are ladies of earnest piety and active in all church work. Deacon Cooper had three daughters. One was Mrs. John Nisbet, of Athens, and some of her descendants are still living in that beautiful city. Another daughter was Mrs. Samuel Boy kin, formerly of Milledgeville. She was the mother of Rev. Sam uel Boykin and his brother, Rev. T. C. Boykin, who have been, for many years, faithful and useful laborers in all our denomination al enterprises, to the extent of their opportunity. The third daughter was the wife of Dr. Joed Branham, of Eatonton. She was the mother of Hon. Joel Branham, of Rome, Ga., and of Rev. I. R. Branham, lately de ceased, whose consecrated life won the confidence and love of all who knew him. Having presented the forego ing glimpses of his family, it is time to consider more fully the man himself. HIS RELIGION His religion was not a dress suit hidden away in some dark closet to be donneo on Sunday for a dress parade at church. No verily; his religion was a seam less vesture, clean and white, which enveloped his whole char acter through every step of his daily life. Whether at his fire side, or on the street, or in the courthouse, or in the grand jury room —always and everywhere— his religion was his daily dress. HIS EXPE RIENCE. Baptists are noted for the great stress which they give, or, at any rate, profess to give, to what we call the Christian’s experience. Bro. Cooper’s religion, as above explained, would imply that he must have had a clear and pro found experience of its reality and its power. He never told me his experience in terms, and yet in conversation I, young as I was, could notice that he did not hesi- tate to use his experience to guide him along certain lines of religious thought, or to help him to understand the Scriptures in certain cases. I remember, we were discussing a question of in terpretation, about which some people, at that time, were hold ing, ns we thought, erroneous opinions. Bro. Cooper defended the Baptist view of the case, and then clinched the argument by saying, in substance, “and this interpretation agrees with the Christian’s experience.” Whether the thought of using our experi ence as a help to understand the Scriptures had never occurred to me before, I cannot, at this late day, positively affirm. Itait one thing 1 know? The way4ie put it impressed the thought upon my inind. It has been to me as a pearl of great value. In after years I was able to expand the thought till I reached Ihe con clusion, which 1 think is held by the orthodox divines, that the Christian’s experience not only helps him to understand the Scriptures, but it is, for him, the supreme evidence that they are of God and not of men. All of this may be summed up in one brief sentence —the Christian's experi ence is the best proof of Chris tianity. Such it was to Deacon Thomas Cooper. HIS DEACONSHIP. We have already noticed Bro. Cooper's qualifications for the important office which he held. They made him the pastor’s right hand man. O! I remember, when brother Dawson was pastor, how he leaned on his aged deacon. But he was also a wise counselor in the conference, and a faithful servant of the church in all its enterprises and its charities. Brother Cooper stood as a common referee among.his brethren. What would our churches be if all their deacons were just such men as the Scrip tures require them to be, and as the example of Deacon Cooper shows they might be? My broth er, are you a deacon? Then let me say to you, for Jesus’ sake, give all diligence to fill up the measure of your duty in the sa cred office which you hold. But while I say this, I am glad to hope that many are trying to do their duty. Indeed, i am sure of this. God blessl yon, and give you “great boldThess in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.” HIS LIBERALITY. Brother Cooper, like brother B. M. Sanders, devoted, for a time, one-tenth of his income to benevolent and charitable works. As the Lord prospered him, he gradually increased his dona tions, first to 12 per cent., then to 15 per cent., and at last to 25 per cent. —equal to one fourth of his income. This he continued til] his death. I learned these facts in a recent letter from Bro. T. C. Boykin, the grandson of brother Cooper. It appears from the letter that brother Sanders and brother Cooper agreed together on the mode of contributing to the work of the Lord. Each increased his per cent, as the Lord prospered him. Was any man ever made a pauper by giving to the Lord? I don’t believe it. On the con trary, a dollar given to the Lord is one dollar which the giver can never lose. I must mention one more in stance of brother Cooper’s liber ality, as given in brother Boy kin’s letter. When our brother, Rev. J. 11. Campbell, was trying, in his early youth, to prepare himself for the ministry, brother Cooper took him into his house and gave him his board for a whole year that he might study theology under Dr. Sherwood, who was at that time living in the near neighborhood, where he was teaching a theological class. This benefit bore fruit in the use ful life of Dr. Jesse 11. Camp bell. In 1843 brother Cooper died. That year the Central Associa tion met with a church not far from Eatonton. The delegation was full, and several visitors were present. On the first day of the meeting it happened that brother Campbell was to follow the brother who was appointed to preach. When the sermon was over, he rose in the pulpit and instead of following the sermon, he took a theme of his own. In a feeling way he alluded to several recent deaths in the churches of the association. Among them was Deacon Thomas Cooper. He had been one of the organizers of the association. For years he had been one of its wisest coun selors and one of its most liberal benefactors. It was well for brother Campbell to pay a merit ed tribute to the memory of that great and good man whom all his brethren loved so well. 563 S. Pryor St., .Alania. For the Index. Preachers As Hot Bricks. J. G WILLIAMS, D.D. “What does that mean?” will ask the curious reader. Well, it means this, that we have a great many cold-feet Baptists and that many of our churches suffer and nearly die from religious conges tive chills. Now, cold feet are a bad symptom. It. shows trouble at the heart, and it is very im portant to get the feet warm just as soon as possible, which is done by keeping hot bricks to them. There are generally five or six bricks in the fire, and as soon as the brick at the feet be gins to get cold, you hear, “Bring another hot brick—this one is getting cold.” And it is remov ing cold bricks and bringing hot bricks until the patient’s feet .get warm, or he dies. Now, with us Baptists, more than any other denomination, preachers aye the hot bricks for Baptist cold feet, or rather Bap tist cold hearts. This is about the way the “hot brick cure” works, as nearly as I can de scribe it. The church complains of great coldness, which gets worse and worse as the time comes nearer to call a pastor. It seems that the churches that call annually are the ones that are more trou bled with coldness and these dreadful spiritual congestive chills. Well, October, the “call ing” month, has come; “the mel ancholy October days are here, the saddest of all the year” to the poor preachers. And there is something up among the members of Laodicea church. There is more life and activity of some sort in them than there has been the whole year. And don’t you know what’s the matter? Why next meeting day is “call day.” If calling a preacher don’t put life into a Baptist church and stir it up, then it is a strange sort of a Bap tist church. Nothing stirs up people more than an election, though it be the election of a preacher, and particularly when they want a “change,” as they call it, not a change in them selves, of their lives and conduct, but a change of preachers. Says Bro. Brown to Bro. Jones, the two bellwethers of the Laodi cea flock: “Don’t you think, Bro. Jones, that it is time for our church to make a ‘change’ and call another preacher? I’ve been a feelin’ the pulses of the breth ren and sisters, and I find that most of them think like I do. Bro. Heater, our present pastor, was powerful when he first took charge of Laodicea, but the church has got back into its cold state, and I believe worse than ever, and in my opinion if the church don’t get another preacher, and that soon, it’s going to freeze to death.” “I’ve been thinking that way myself for some time,” says Bro. Jones. And when the bellwethers put their heads to gether they are sure to carry the Hock their way. The “call day” comes and the Laodicea church goes into a call after praying for the divine guidance, by which Bro. Brown, who made the prayer, meant his and Bro. Jones’ guidance—the guidance of the two old bellwethers. And the prayer was answered just as he meant and wanted it. Well, the “call” is made and the result is that Bro. Heater, who is now Bro. Freezer, has to go and give placg to Bro. Hot brick, who is unanimously called. For a while there is nobody like Bro. Hotbrick. Laodicea has found the right man at last. The congregations are larger than they ever were before. And from the way the Laodiceans talk and brag about Rev. Hotbrick, there is not another such preacher in the big State of Georgia, nor in little South Carolina. But in less than a year brother Hotbrick begins to be brother Coldbrick. A hot brick can’t stay hot for ever, and the feet of the brethren and sisters at Laodicea are as cold as ice. They are not “luke warm” now, but “cold” sure enough. They’ve got an awful chill. The chill has been coming on some time, but the Laodiceans made so much fuss over brother Hotbrick when they first got him that they were ashamed to com plain of coldness for some time. There were several things that cooled brother Hotbrick on them. One was that Rev. Hotbrick went to Laodicea a young man and unmarried, and when he made up his mind to be the husband of one wife and because he couldn’t be the husband of every old sister’s daughter who was anxious for her daughter to be the wife of a poor Baptist preacher, that made the whole sisterhood very hot against him, but made him very cold to them, so that in their opinion a change of preachers was made necessary. And be- sides making the women because he couldn’t nun . law fully more Aie, he had got the ill will of the brethren, foi one reason and an other, and there was opposition to him, which was growing. This coming to the knowledge of the two old bellwethers of the Laodi cea tlock, who unfortunately were still living, they said: “Well, the time to call a preacher for neXJhyear will soon be here, and the sooner we get rid of brother Hotbrick the better. Religion never was as cold in Laodicea church as it is under his minis trj. He has been anything but a hot brick to Laodicea. And tih.i we can’t afford.to hive our church divided on a pastor. Di visions about preachers will kill a church quicker than anything else.” Mind you, it was the guid ance of the two old bellwethers, deacons Brown and Jones, that called brother Hotbrick to Laodi cea. Well, the anxiously looked for “call day” has come. There is the usual talk about “the cold state” of the church, and of course brother Hotbrick, now brother Coldbrick, is made re sponsible for it, and the bellweth ers say he has got to go. “Bring another hot brick; this one is cold.” One of the bellwethers of the Laodicea flock nominates for the “call,” “for the ensuing year,” one brother Scorcher, of whom he has heard wonderful accounts and thinks that he is the very preacher for Laodicea. Brother Scorcher is called. But he’s too hot a brick—he’s a scorcher, sure enough. He scorches the brethren for drink ing whisky, and for their covet ousness, and the women for danc ing and paying more attention to the outward than to the inward adornments. They don’t want that sort of warming up. And now they are going to scorch brother Scorcher. It’s a time of high political excitement and party spirit, when every man is watched very closely to find out where he stands. And from certain things that brother Scorcher said in his preaching, he gave great offense to the free silver men, who at once published him as preaching in the interest of the goldbugs. For instance, on one occasion, describing the glories of the New Jerusalem, he said that its “streets were paved with, gold,” which tile silver men in his church took as a hit a! free sil ver. But they couldn't say anything and just gritted their teeth, say ing to themselves: “Never mind, old fellow, we’ll take you out of your gold hide next ‘call’ day. It ain’t far off. And no doubt they’ll do it. And when brother Scorcher leaves Laodicea it can't be said that he left it in a very cold state for he left it in a very hot, but in a very bad state. And so this “hot brick” preach er business will go on to the “eend of the chapter,” as an old Bap tist preacher over here in South Carolina said when he was spell ing and trying to read the hard names in the first chapter of Matthew one morning at family worship at the home of a brother, and finally he shut up the Bible completely whipped out, saying, “and so they went on a begatting one another to the eend of the chapter; let us pray.” Ido wish that the Baptists could get to “the eend of the chapter” of mak ing hot bricks out of their preachers. Pastors are shep herds to watch over the flock and to feed the flock, not hot bricks to warm their cold feet and cold hearts. These “cold feet” Bap tists ought to be burnt. For the Index. Politics in the Far East. C W. PRUITT, CHEEOO, CHINA. In Europe Western Asia is known as the East, and Eastern Asia as the far East. In Turkey recently the world has beheld the places where two currents meet. Christian pow ers have been for a long time ar rayed against one another. They don’t dare take up the Armenian question lest a great war should be precipitated. Hence we have the spectacle of the massacre of tens of thousands of Christians without a hand raised to stop it. The two currents meet there and nullify each other and the “un speakable” Turk does as he pleases. Some of us here in the far East feel that we are almost in the calm where these same two cur rents meet. Russia is gradually encroaching from the north and Great Britain is just as surely re pelling her advance. It is under stood out here that there is a se cret treaty between Russia and China, which will allow Russia's great railway to terminate at Port Arthur, thus bringing that power to our very doors. Eng- VOL. 76-NO. 47 land will try to offset that by get ting a port opened to trade just south of us. Thus these two great powers go on in their all but resistless march—each in its way the admiration of the world. For many long years it has been feared that collision was pending and for just as many years has the instinct of self-protection in each put up barriers to prevent such collision. No doubt each shudders horribly at the thought of that war, and well he should. That war will be no child's play. But it may be many long years before it comes to pass. It may never come to pass. That in stinct of self preservation may ever operate. But what about the people in the places where these two cur rents meet and set up their dead ly calm? We know what the re sult has been in Armenia and in Persia. , What is to be the re sult on our mission work here in North China? I do not wish to be understood as at all playing the role of a prophet, for God so often brings the unexpected to pass. But we could easily ex pect great agitation here. It would be a calm only so far as the two powers are concerned, but with the rest of us it might be a considerable agitation. If it should be a state of tensity that would awaken our multitudes here we could welcome it. It could easily be inimical to all our mission work. There is a strong feeling that whatever territory Russia dominates she reserves for her own missionaries. In the midst of this tense calm ness it is immensely important for us to have a calmness com ing from altogether another source. “Be not, therefore, anx ious for the morrow.” God rules, and the work of missions is vast ly more precious to him than to us. Chefoo, China. For the Index Pen Droppings. BY L. L. V. The character of “Douce David Deans,” as portrayed by the great Wizard of the North, pre sents some admirable points. His strong, fervent piety, his unflinch ing devotion to principle, and his sincere fatherly affection, all command our warmest admira tion. Another trait, however, is given prominence to which we cannot give so ready an approval. Having very pronounced opinions on most subjects that had ever engaged his attention, he was not disposed to allow any assertion to pass unchallenged which was not in harmony with his peculiar views. His intercourse with those about him was very apt to assume a disputatious style, which lessened greatly the pleas ure of his society. He was al ways ready to give what was in tended to be an interchange of thought the form of a debate. As a consequence many who really appreciated his worth were dis posed to avoid colloquies in which they were likely to have their opinions set down —not always in the gentlest manner. Opinionated people are apt to contract this habit of disputa tion. The credit of having the courage of their convictions they seem to think best won in this way. They do not apprehend that they will render themselves unpleasant without establishing a reputation for correctness or honesty of thought. They are perhaps right in deciding that to lie rated agreeable should not be the highest point of ambition. But every one should wish to be agreeable. No one should, and we presume no one does, wish to be so unpleasant that his or her society will be shunned. To such an unenviable notoriety is the disputatious individual apt to at tain. There can be few, if any, of the pleasures of conversation in talk with any one when your every remark has to be followed by an argument. Much more pleasant will be found the soci ety of one who never advances an idea beyond the merest common place, and who has no ambition for the prevalence of his or her opinion. Education—an enlarged infor mation —will have the effect of lessening the insistence upon one’s own opinions. As one comes to know more of the world and of what is therein, he will begin more find more to realize that he is not of first-rate impor tance. He will become convinced that in the nature of things there is no demand for his opinions to rank in soundness and value the opinions of all others. With a wider range of observation, he will perceive that he is not an embodiment of wisdom, and this conviction will cause him to have better manners than to press his opinions.