Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

ESTABLISHED 182iNz TheChrislianlndex Hubllibel Every Thursday By BELL &, VAN NEBB Address Christian Xndkx, Atlanta, Or Organ of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia. Subscription Pricb: One copy, one year .. m One copy, six months ito ADVSR TisKRB.-We propose v ,rt y «» r efull.v Investigate our ihow^niv'r H e ,®, lall «*vrclse every care to amns On ‘ y r ®Heble parties to use our col «hir^ DA |r’ Ra -—2“ e hundred words tree of sharge. For each extra word, one cent per word, cash with copy. p *»T«rJi?’k SKBPONDKNTB—Do rlot use abbrevl ?V° b ® ® xtr “ careful In writing proper v*™**?; wr l! e wlth ln >t' on one side of paper. £° n ° l write copy Intended for the editor 2SI?~ Slne . 8 .L ,tems on sam « sheet. Leave Off personalities, condense. t mL S J.u K t B ' - all na, nes, and post rfllcesdistinctly. In ordering a change give »he old as well as the new address. The date Os label Indicates the time your subscription expires. If you do not wish It continued, or der It stopped a week before. We consider tach subscriber permanent until he orders □ls paper discontinued. When you order It stopped pay up to date. Bkmittanobs by registered letter, money order, postal note. It is better to walk in the dark with God Than to run in the I gtit alone. Yea, better the thorniest path ever trod, Where the briers are thick and our feet unshod, If only we follow his voice and his rod, Than without him to inarch to a throne. It is better with him when the billows dash high On the breast of a mad Galilee— Though the Master may sleep, he will wake at our cry, Or he’ll come on the waves, saj ing, •• Peace it is I." Better this than a calm with no helper thus nigh, Or without him to sail a smooth sea. Alexander Blackburn. D 0.. in the Outlook. Christ’s Standard of Values. Christ furnishes his standard of values in the question, “Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?’’ To that question there can be but one answer. The life is more than raiment. Things are made for men, not men for things; success is to be meas ured by the development of char acter, not by the accumulations of wealth. Though this is a self-evident proposition, it is practically de nied, and has been from -the be ginning of history. The old po litical economy, if it did not open ly deny, certainly entirely ignored it; declared itself concerned sim ply with wealth, and with men simply as wealth-producers. .economy,” says John Stuart Mill, “considers mankind as occupied solely in acquiring and consuming wealth.” It is true that he denies that man is ever solely so occupied; but po litical economy, according to him, regards man only in the aspect of a producer of wealth; and yet it is supposed that it is political economy which teaches the rela tions between labor and capital. Its standard of values is wholly material: it formerly regarded that the best system which accu mulated wealth the most rapidly; it can hardly even now’ be said to have proceeded any farther to a more spiritual conception than to add that the best system will also distribute wealth the most equa bly. The effect of industrial methods on the individual man it does not consider; whether it is making him wiser and better, no bler and happier, it does not in quire—certainly did not inquire. It is only within recent years that economic reformers have affirmed that political economy, in consid ering the science of wealth, must consider it as related to the devel opment and maintenance of socie ty, must deal with man as an in tellectual and moral being — must, in a word, be ethical. The practical standard of American life is more in harmony with the old than with the new’ political economy. He who has made a fortune we regard sue cessful; he who has lost a fortune ye say has failed. The common answer to the question, What is a man worth? is given in dollars and cents. Not only commercial but intellectual undertakings are measured by the money standard. The newspaper which can affirm that it has the largest circulation, and the greatest amount of adver tising, publishes these facts as the evidence of its success. Whether it is promoting the moral and in tellectual life of its subscribers whether its advertisements are of things which aid or hinder that life, are questions scarcely con sidered. Colleges and universi ties are often popularly measured in the same way. What is the college endowment? How large are its buildings? How much money has it in its treasury? Balliol College, in England, lim its the number of its students, and takes only “honor men.” Is there any analogous col lege in America? If so, I have never heard of it. Even churches are measured by this material standard. Are its pews all rent ed? Does it pay a good price to its ministers? What does its THE CHRISTIAN INDEX. music cost? What is the wealth represented in the pews upon its centre aisle? Even ministers talk with one another of a “good place,” meaning thereby, not a place where the greatest good can be done, but where the greatest social and material advantages can be enjoyed. Statesmen and journalists measure the nation by the same method. Mr Blaine told the Americans a few years ago that the wealth of America had increased from fourteen thousand millions to forty-four thousand millions, and this statement was given as the evidence of the na tion’s prosperity. Andrew Carne gie, in "Triumphant Democracy," gives in successive chapters, as chief among the evidences of democracy’s triumph, its growth in wealth—its increase in thirty years, 1800-1890, of nearly 100 per cent, in land, fences, and build ings; of 123 per cent, in farm im plements and machinery; of 122 per cent, in live stock: its increase in the products of manufacture from a little less than two thou sand millions to a little less than nine thousand millions; of the as sets of its railroads from a little less than two thousand millions to a little over ten thousand mil lions. He tells us that the United States has produced one-third of the gold output of the whole world, and that in ten years the United States has built on an av erage sixteen thousand miles of railroad each year (enough to go two-thirds around the globe). We aretold that private capital, with out any proclamation, has built in a single year more miles of railroad than Russia is proposing to build in its famous railroad from the Siberian frontier to the Pacific coast. These facts—the amount of our corn crop and our cotton crop and our manufactured products, and our railroad-build ing, and the increase of our gen eral wealth from fourteen thou sand millions to forty-four thou sand millions—are popularly re garded as the evidence of the greatness of our nation. The tests are material tests. Christ repudiates all such tests. The true test is character. The railroads, the shipping, the banks, the gold, the corn crop, the cotton crop, are for men. The question is, What sort of men are we mak ing? But he says more than that. Political economy defends itself in-putting the material standard first, for, it is said, we must make money before we spend it. The first thing to do is to attain material prosperity. When we have once got our money, then we may build schools and churches, print newspapers and books, serve the spiritual and intellectual ends of mankind; but first get we money. Christ says, Seek first kingdom of God and his righteous ness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Character comes first. When character has been pro duced, when men of integrity, of uprightness, of a truly divine na ture, have been developed, wealth will naturally’ follow. Wealth first, man afterward, say’s politi cal economy. Man first, wealth afterwards, says Christ. Wealth the standard of value says political economy. Man the standard of value, says Christ. All things in life are to be meas ured by this standard —Life more than meat, the body more than raiment. By this we are to meas ore religion and religious institu tions. Not that community’ is the most religious which has the most splendid cathedrals, the most gorgeous ritual, the most beauti ful music, but that which has the best men. It is not in Italy, with its splendid St. Peter’s; nor in Spain and France, with their mag nificent cathedrals, centuries in building, nations in which the greatest proportion of illiteracy is found—but in Puritan New Eng land, with its plain school-houses and its plain meeting-houses, in which in the olden time every man and woman and child could read, that the greatest and the best re ligious life is found. By this we are to measure gov ernment. Not that is the best government which best gov erns to-day, but that which, by the very process of govern ment, is developing the best manhood for to-morrow. It may be that Dublin is better governed than New York, but that is not the vital question. Compare two Irish brothers, one in Ireland, one in the United States, and then after fifty years compare the grandchildren. The government that puts the vote into the hands that do not know how to use it, and teaches them how to use it in the using, is the better government of the two. For government is to be measured by the men it eventually makes, not primarily by the advantage it immediately confers. —Christian- ity and Social Problems, Abbott. ( SUBSCRIPTION, Paa Tua,.■<■•>.oo. I Ito ministers, 1.00.1 Should a Church Fail to Accomplish the Work Des gned, What is the Remedy ? by w. h. young, d d. (Bead before the Union Meet ing of Oglethorpe District, Sa repta Association, and published by request.) It seems to mo unfair to have saddled on a little fellow such an immense question; or to have ex pected so young a person to an swer what has puzzled the most experienced. We must all, alas, confess that there is no church that accom plishes its work; and that our faithful pastors are being killed, or broken down, by just this con dition. The subject embraces the whole of a pastor’s duty; it embraces every plan, method and means; it has no limits; if, indeed, it is even capable of any answer. The subject is, however, one that can be outlined in a practical way, which was doubtless all that was expected of me. “Should a church fail to accom plish the work designed.” What work? Why work at all, and by whom designed? It seems to be “against the law” for churches to work at all. They grunt and sweat under the fardels of mere attendance, listening, singing, etc., while public prayer and private benevolence are not to be endured, if ingenious ex cuses can be framed. We might well consider wheth er this question is even “in order,” whether a church is to beexpected to work in any other way than at tendance upon the fewest possible meetings. If the majority vote rules, then Baptist churches have no work at all. A man who had changed his, so called, religion several times, ex plained why’ he should always re main a Baptist. He said when he was a Methodist it was nothing but “pay, pay, pay,” all the time till he grew sick of it; then he joined the Presbyterians, who kept nagging at him to “work, work, work;” but when he joined the Baptists, it was “dip, and be done with it.” This is no joke. It is the seri ous truth in the large majority of our churches. They are very Scriptural and sensitive about the doctrine of baptism, but they are just the opposite about the weightier matters of church du ties and Christi,in loyalty. 1 There arc always a faithful few, mostly women, who act as the salt to preserve the church from a speedy decay. . But is it our doctrine that these alone are the church? Do we not claim that the “Christian church is the local body of believers bap tized as Christ commanded and banded together for work, wor ship and discipline.” Hence, what is right for a few, is neces sary for all. We might as well leave baptism to the individual whim—which is done by many Baptist churches in England—as to leave Christian life, example, testimony, work and money to the personal decision of each person to remain even a nominal member. The second and third chapters of Revelation reveal the opinions that our Lord holds about his churches. Even those that he loves be rebukes and chastens and warns them that unless they be come zealous and repent, he will spew them out of his mouth. Every one of those seven churches —that represent all classes of churches in all time —is bidden to “overcome” and to “hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” This explains why the candle sticks are so frequently removed from our churches. Why they are “miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Why there are but a few among their numbers who have not bowed their knee to Baal. To remove .this terrible condi tion would need dynamite. And yet this would not accomplish it. Our pastors and other faithful ones make a great mistake when they lose patience. The church that seems hopeless should be re buked, and made uncomfortable. It should not be abandoned. Pastors leave churches without having reproved, rebuked or ex horted with all long-suffering and patience. We would not feel jus tified to treat sinners thus. If sinners were criticized privately and not told of their sin and their danger, they would never repent. If Paul had been left to Ananias — who thought him hopeless—he would have gone on persecuting the church under the delusion that re was doing God service. But when God showed him that his deeds against the church were against God —“why persecutes! thou me,” he was ready to change at once. So, we should faithfully teach our people, over and over again, whether they bear or forbear, that those church members who ATLANTA, GA., THURSDAY. JANUARY 21. 1897. are not for Christ, are against him; that the worst punishment is pronounced against those who give offense to the church. That for us to be members of the only visible body’ of Christ, and yet do nothing for our head, is to have a kingdom divided against itself. That Jesus said it were better never to have been born than to meet the punishment of such. Our people don’t know this, because they won’t read their Bi bles. They invent all their doc trines except baptism (and other denominations invent .that), to suit their own whims, customs, and especially their unfaithful hearts. But I firmly believe that most of our members sin ignorantly, and really intend to do right. Yet ignorance is never any excuse, for God commandeth all repent, and when converted anew,like the backsliding apostle, to strength en their brethren. 1 would therefore call upon our pastors and faithful deacons and zealous members, to go to work as a soldier goes to battle. Expect hard knocks, but aim at victory. Start with the two or three who will be faithful, and by pray er and consecration begin to teach the rest of their terrible state. Criticism will not dp this, but prayer and much Scripture, back ed up by example, will certainly do it. , It seems to me that many pas tors act as though their churches had no “work” beyond the attend ance and salary. They give no study to methods of work, or sys tem of development. New mem bers are sought, and then left to cool off to the lukewarm tempera ture of the rest. Even those pastors who admit the necessity for individual effort among the members seem to lack the courage to declare the whole counsel of God. If |heir salary is paid, and of ten when it isn't, they keep mum as to the duty of bringing the tithes into the storehouse —tithes of time as well as money, of work as well as prayer. One-third of the churches in our convention give abssal'itely noth ing to anything outride of their own expenses, and of course they pay as near to noticing for their so-called pastor, jflk, in most cases. is worth what he i in- his pocket alone, he and urge the church toHwe more lib erally to outside Christian work. You never knew a church to pay a fair salary to its pastor without paying in proportion to the cause. Even the eloquent Talmage had to go without salary and pay the thousands towards the expenses of his church in Brooklyn—a church of four thousand mem bers, who gave about $700.00 a year to missions. While 1 do not feel that all the blame rests upon these deluded and really unfaithful pastors, yet, after more than twenty years in the pastorate, and having a wide observation of many churches, 1 do not hesitate to say that the remedy lies chiefly with these pas tors. If they are themselves working, and giving at least ten per cent, of their income, let them not conceal this good example, but shame their churches with it. Instead of groaning and worrying, and telling their wives alone, let them worry their churches, and openly charge them with sin as Paul did. Those pastors who have them selves been as cold, lazy, hypocrit ical, fault-finding, envious and covetous as their people, let them repent, convert, confess, and see how gladly their churches will fol low. Where the pastor will not do this, then the faithful deacons and others should begin a campaign of reform. Tell him kindly of his sin. Open the Bible and make him study it on these matters. Tell him you Shall pray for him, work with him, and stand by him until he repents and reforms. You will then find a revival of the dead bones, and the church putting on her beautiful gar ments. The Lord will pour out the blessing when the tithes come in, and the whole church will be gin to catch the new spirit, until there will be no need of a union meeting asking the question, “What should be done with a church that does not perform the work designed?” For the Index. Possibilities of Mercer University. BY REV. J. H. GAMBRELL. Those headlines furnish a field for entrancing thought. That Mercer is not what it ought, ahd could be, is freey admitted by its most ardent friends. Georgia Baptists are honest and candid enough to admit that Mer cer’s need, whatsoever they may he, is the measure of their unfaithfulness to it. No thought ful Baptist will deny the proposi tion that if Georgia Baptists had done their duty to Mercer it would have no needs, except the divine favor upon the administra tion of its affairs. But what are Mercer’s possibilities? 1. It is possible for it to have an ample endowment. Georgia Baptists could furnish this en dowment any morning before breakfast. They are going to furnish it, too, but the appetite for the task is a little long com ing. This delay is trying and costly; how costly cannot be defi nitely stated, but the cost bill is vastly more than wise people ought to compel themselves to pay. That much is certain. But Mercer is going to be endowed. That is a possibility and a cer tainty, unless Baptists lose their high estimate of Christian education, which is as improbable as “falling from grace.” Rich Baptists are going to give largely and poor Baptists are going to give largely “as the Lord pros pers,” and there will be ample en dowment. 2. Mercer is going to have am ple buildings. These will be tre mendous factors in its great work. Buildings themselves, though mute, speak loudly. I stood in front of the Capitol building at Washington, with a friend, and as his eyes swept over the immensity of the imposing structure he remarked: “This government has tremendous re sources and power. It is the greatest on earth, beyond a doubt.” Being asked what sug gested the thought, he replied: “Just look at that building, man. where our laws are made.” Ele gant, well appointed buildings are valuable, not only for what may be done in them, but what they silently’do for those who simply look upon them. Pictures of the buildings Mercer will have are going to hang upon the mills of thousands of Baptist homes, rich and jioor alike, and inspire the ambition of boys to tread Mercer’s halls in quest of equip ment for the noblest living. A gentleman described in the pres ence of a tawheaded, pale-faced boy the handsome buildings of a college, and in a few more years that boy graduated from that col lege. He relates how that de scription iltoressed his mind, im prisoned Ir» ignorance though it was, and kindled in him a desire that fruited into a fixed resolu tion to have an education at that particular college. Imposing school buildings pay handsome dividends. When Mercer has these two things, as she will, Baptists may reasonably expect to do largely the educational business of.Geor gia. With ample endowment, and buildings that will charm all beholders, what will naturally re sult? 1. Every thoughtful Baptist will feel a just pride in his Uni versity, ami will be a voluntary agent for it. It will not be need ful to advertise much in the pa pers. Baptist tongues will do the needed advertising. For the papers to announce when the ses sions will open will be enough. 2. Mercer’s buildings will be crowded with boys and young men, Baptist and others, with sharp appetites for books. Each year a large number of these will carry away diplomas from the literary department, the law de partment, the department of ped agogy, etc., with Baptists convic tions, to dominate all the possi bilities and energies of their cul tured lives. 3 High schools tributary to Mercer University, like rivulets flowing into the great river, will spring up and flourish under the direction of Mercer trained men and women all over this and other States. The institution that furnishes the best equipped teachers will not only put its impress upon the State, but will also largely control and give di rection to the educational thought and work of the State. Such an institution will be con stantly grappling with the ques tion: “How shall our patronage be cared for?” Such a condition means natural growth and ex pansion. With healthy environ ment and food the boy grows, and year by years he must have larg er clothes or he will burst out somewhere, and not be lit for company to see, Mercer must al ways be fit to receive company, both the cultured and uncultured. 4. Most of the pulpits of Geor gia will be filled by Mercer men in a few years. This will link Mercer to the great masses irre vocably. Is it too much to say, if the Baptist ministry of Georgia had been doing its duty Mercer would have been endowed long ago? Too many preachers, on matters involving money, remind one of the name of a Western In dian chief: “Big-Man-Afraid-of- the-People.” Suppose a Mercer week, among Georgia Baptists, were appointed and every preach er did his best for the endowment fund, does any one doubt that an ample amount would be realized? The people will not go much ahead of their leaders. The man on top the car applying the brakes is called a brakeman. The preacher who does not lead his people for higher Christian educa tion and Mt . cer University is called “conservative.” He and the other brakesman are in the same business, keeping things from going. An unspeakable pity it is that all the brakesmen in Georgia are not employed by the railroad companies. This closing reflection, to whom it may concern: Mercer Univer sity must have, very soon, that $1(10,000 additional endowment. Comparatively speaking, a few Baptist are going to give it. Cer tainly the Lord never has given those few such a rich opportunity. Seeing the golden glory of the op portunity, there is one man in Georgia who would not miss shar ing in it, if it took his overcoat off his back. It is too good and a great a thing to miss. That SIOO,- 000 secured, and Mercer is secur ed, because it will have the power then to equip the agencies that will largely, ’without expense, give what it needs in money, stu dents and prayers as a love offer ing. It isn’t wise to compare one enterprise of the kingdom with another for the sake of pre-emi nence, but certainly Georgia Bap tists ought to understand that un der God, Mercer University is their greatest power in the State, in the world, because it helps everything else they foster. Greensboro, Ga. For the indsx. Reminiscences of Georgia Baptists. BY S G. HILLYER, D D. No. 24. REV. J AMES O. SCREVEN AND REV CARLOS W. STEVENS. , T" j These two preachers grew up under the influences of the Sun bury church, and they complete the group with which I was per sonally acquainted I have not much to say of these brethren as preachers, for the simple reason that my association with them was chiefly before they entered the ministry. I never heard'either one of them preach; and therefore know almost noth ing of them in that sphere of their labors. Yet they hail such qual ities of character as richly de serve to be remembered. REV. JAMES O SCREVEN. He was the oldest son of Rev. Charles O. Screven, who was the founder of the Sunbury church and its first pastor. His son, James O, was born in February, 1804. be was therefore five years and a few mouths older than I. Eearly in the twenties, he was a stu dent of the State University. 1 remember hearing his name men tioned by the boys, with whom I associated, as a gay, pleasure loving and rather wild young man. I think I met him once at the post office in Athens; but he was a student far advanced in his college course, eighteen or nine teen years old, while I was in the grammar school, and nearly five and a half years younger. About eight or nine years lat er, in January, 1832, I met him in Sunbury, lie then wanted only one month of being twenty-eight years old. He was no longer a wild young man. Not long after he returned from college, he saw the error of his ways, and ear nestly sought the Savior, and was enabled to hope in his mercy. Ac cordingly he soon consecrated himself to a religious life in bap tism. His subsequent life gave full proof of the genuineness of his conversation. He was not a preacher in 1832 ,nor do I know when he was licensed, or ordain ed; but it could not have been many years later. Wluit made him a preacher? This question deserves to be considered. Brother Screven was possessed of a fine estate. He did not need the meagre emoluments of the ministry to supply his wants. Then, his high social po sition was on a level with the very best people in the commun itv around him. And then, to fill to the brim the measure of his temporal prosperity, he was bless ed with the love of an intelligent, cultured and devoted wife who had come to be his companion for life. Looking at his case from a worldly stanpoint what more could he desire to insure his so cial and domestic happiness? Under these circumstances, we ma.v well conclude that it was no worldly motive that made him a preacher. It was the love of Jesus and the love of souls. He saw around him a lowly VOL. 77--NO. 3. race, who, for the most part, knew not God, and who had no hope of heaven. Aw already stated it was among these people that he com menced his ministerial labors. It is said that he spent seven years in preaching to the negroes in Bryan county and on Ossabaw and St. Catherine’s islands. And it is not likely’ that he received any comjiensation for his services. But othpr fields were opened up for him. Nevertheless, it seemed to be his special calling to preach, for the most part, to those who, without him, would have been destitute of the Gospel. His ministry covered a period GAL 2—NUNN Three of about thirty years of earnest and faithful labor. We can never know the good he accomplished till we get to heaven. He was a useful man, and a lovely charac ter. He died in 1864, just about sixty years old. His death was a triumph. His hope was undim med by a single shadow, and he spoke with rapture of his desire to be with Jesus. Thus this good man died. His wife and three children—one son and two daugh ters—were left to mourn his loss. REV. CARLOS W. STEVENS. This dear brother was, I think, next to the youngest son of Dea con Oliver Stevens. He was, in 1832, one of my pupils in Sunbury, but belonged to the primary class, being not more than eight or nine years old. He was raised under the influences of a pious father and mother, and in the religious atmosphere of Sunbury. Under these favorable conditions he was brought into the church at an early age. After my departure from Sun bury he continued to enjoy the advantages of good academic in struction, till he was about nine teen years old. I was then, in 1843, teaching at Scottsborough, near Milledgeville, and, needing an assistant, I employed Carlos to come and help me. This he did most satisfactorily. Being anx ious, however, to prosecute his education beyond his academic range, at the close of the year, he left me and went first to the State University, but afterwards to Mercer University, at Penfield. In both these institutions he was a most diligent student, and made fine progress. About the year 1853 he married a lady of Hancock county, and fora lime was pastpr, if I remem ber rightly, of the church in Sparta, and perhaps of other neighboring churches. lie was afterwards principal of a high school. But in these positions I did not know him personally. All that I ever heard of him, how ever, bore witness to the very high esteem in which he was held by all who knew him. He was certainly doing a good work, and giving promise of a useful life. But his career was brief. In the prime of his manhood he was taken from us. What he might have achieved we know not, for he left his work unfinished. HIS CHARACTER. The lesson to which 1 allude is found in the character of this dear young man. Os his charac ter I can speak with confiedence, for I knew him. He seemed to be endowed with true and unaffect ed modesty. It was manifested, first, in his freedom from self conceit —he waited for others to find out his worth. It was man ifest, again, in his sincere aver sion to all forms of vulgarity. This he shunned as he would avoid contact with outward de filement. Another dement that gave beauty to his character was his docility. He delighted to sit at the feet of the elders and lis ten to their words of wisdom. And yet, he was by no means a mere echo-man. He could think for himself. But the benefit of his docility was most conspicuous in his child-like submission to the teachings of the Bible which re veals a third dement in his char acter; viz., his unwavering faith. He believed the Bible as a little child believes the words of its mother. He would not, as some do, question either the wisdom or the goodness of its teachings. Where he could not see, he was willing to walk by faith. When to these primary virtues we add his pure integrity, his truthfulness, his high sense of honor, his far reaching benevo lence and his ardent desire to lead others to Christ, we have be fore us a character which the an gels would love. Such a charac ter was Bro. Carlos W. Stevens. Here I take leave of the Sun bury church. I hope that my reminiscenses of the nine minis ters whom it sent forth to work for the Baptists of Georgia have not been uninteresting to my readers. May the Lord help them to emulate the virtues and the zeal of the noble and the good who have passed before us over the river. 563 S Pryor St., Atlanta.