The Christian index. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1892-current, January 28, 1897, Image 1

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ESTABLISHED 1821. TheChristianlndex fublUhel Every Thursday 8y BELL &> VAN address Christian Index. Atlanta, Gs Organ of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia. Subscription Price: Oas copy, one year 12 co One copy, six months I.CO about our Advertisers.—we propose hereafter to very carefully Investigate our advertisers. We shall exercise every care to allow only reliable parties to use our col umns. Obituaries.—One hundred words free of □harge. For each extra word, one oent per word, cash with copy. To Correspondents—Do not ÜB6 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. BesiNXßß.—Write all names, and post offices distinctly. In ordering a change give 1110 old as well as the new address. The date Os label Indicates the time your subscription •xplres. If you do not wish It continued, or der it stopped a week before. We consider saoh subscriber permanent until he orders Ills paper discontinued. When you order It Hopped pay up to date. Kemittanoes by registered letter, money »rder postal note. The Worth of Experience as an Argument. It Is sometimes urged that the argument for the authenticity and inspiration of the Bible which is drawn from the experience of Christians, while it may suffice for them, is without weight to those who have not this Christion con sciousness. But is that so? Here is a vast mass of testimony. It is drawn from the consciousness of thousands whose testimony on any other subject would be enti tled to credence. This testimony is of intellectual worth to the men who have not had the expe rience themselves. Thousands have not had experience in recov ery from a given disease. They have not been cured by a given specific. But there is a vast mass of testimony as to the effect of aconite and of quinine and of nux vomica as drugs, and of the bene fit, under certain conditions, of stimulants. Medical men. on the basis of this testimony, write learned volumes on diseases and their treatment. They accept the testimony of other men’s experi ence. They ought to do so. Ex perience of others may be in some cases more valuable and trust worthy than one’s own. You may be a better observer of the course of a fever in your friend than in yourself. Testimony as to experience is everywhere re ceived and given its place as of more or less worth. Nor can all these long centuries of Christian experience be ignored by those not themselves Christians. It is nothing to the point for one to say that he has had no such ex perience. The negation of experi ence in one man counts for noth ing as against the positiveness of another man's experimental knowledge in religion. But the man who has not had the experi ence himself is bound to give cre dence to the fact to which others testify. Facts of experience are as substantial facts as we know, and a man may no more set them aside than he may dismiss the facts of gravity in his study of the physical world. It is sometimes said byway of disparagement, that this experi mental consciousness is mere feeling. It is enough reply to say that feeling is just as real a fact as the existence of a piece of granite. Feeling is one of the po tencies of life. Love, that rules the world, is a feeling. It is the grandest, surest, most substantial factor in human conduct. What a man loves is the main thing about him. Love is character, had or good. Think of a man at tempting any analysis of human history in a nation or of life in a man, with no reference to the fact that love is a power that sways men profoundly. At the last analysis states of mind, such as love and hate, joy and sorrow, hope and despair, are the most certainly known of all our hu man knowledge. And so far from a disparagement, we claim it as one of the surest of evidencesthat Christian souls, thrilled with love to God, have this experimental conviction that the Bible is an in spired volume. * * * In questions of music we give special weight to the opinion of the musician. In questions about mathematics we consult the man of mathematical genius and at tainment. We make use every where else of specialists. Why not give here in our investigation of the spiritual fact of inspiration an especial importance to the tes timony of spiritually minded men? The experimental method alone may not satisfy some investigat ors. Like the inductive method, it has its limitations .and its lia bilities to mistake, when it is em ployed exclusively. But this at least is clear, that its trend, like that of the inductive method, is unmistakable. It is a factor in the problem. Certain minds are THE CHRISTIAN INDEX. • I I SUBSCRIPTION, P«eTear.-... 51.00. J Gj. TO MINISTERS, 1.00.1 so constituted that, in regard to the inspiration of the Bible just as in regard to the existence of God, the profound inward con viction is that on which they rely most confidently. In these minds the logic of the heart is more nim ble than the logic of the head. Nor are such men necessarily the least intellectual. What mind more logical than that of Paul? When a revelation by inspiration of God was made to him on the way to Damascus, his heart yield ed at once. But he must retire for three years into Arabia to ad just his intellectual convictions to his new moral feeling. His head must now become recon ciled to his heart. The most log ical mind of the Scriptures, he is converted through the emotions, in view of a divine intervention. The revelation of Christ to him on the way to Damascus is the first of a series of inspirations for his soul; and the successive inspirations of God’s Holy Spirit are given us in his Epistles, as he speaks the words which are free ly given him of God. Multitudes of young men have been converted. Some of them have failed to adjust the head to the heart; and so have become confused about religious fact and doctrine. They have let the certainties of individual experi ence stand in the background, while they have attempted to de cide on the truth by mere logical processes. It is as if a man should resolutely close his eyes and seek to know all the things about him in the physical world by the sense of touch alone. Let him not ignore the use of his eyes because he has hands. God gives the various senses that we may correct and confirm the one by the other. It is unwise to refuse the testimony given us by any of them. It were better to secure everything we can from each as we use them all. And many, converted through spiritual processes in early youth, have gone on to verify, by subse quent intellectual processes, the great convictions of a regenerated soul. • Like. Paul, it has taken time and thought and study ami prayer and the fuller experience of riper years. They began with only these early and scanty ex periences of biblical fact and doc trine and promise. But (he Bible has ( ’'own for them. They now know the book. They have weighed the difficulties, and weighed also the immense confir mations. Evidences have become more evidential. Related studies have enlarged their knowledge and strengthened their confi dence in the divine inspiration of the Bible. The evidence accumu lates daily with their daily study and trust. They live by faith in Christ as he is so singularly dis closed in the Gospels and Epis tles. The “Spirit beareth wit ness” with their spirits. Other evidences they have that the book has on it the seal of the Holy Spirit. They do not disdain to re ceive any light which more mod ern studies bring to them. But for themselves this experimental method of investigation yields the most satisfaction. They know the spiritual contents of the book. It is greatly to he regretted that so many men, scholarly in some single lines of biblical study, have unconsciously subor dinated the spiritual to the intel lectual method of investigation on this subject of inspiration, as well as in other and related in quiries. It is easy to sneer at men of less technical learning; to make disparaging statements about the habit of “seeing every part of the Bible as of equal val ue and present-day importance.” And yet there is a certain some thing behind even the crudest ideas of inspiration, which more learned men, in the interests of a really scholarly breadth of view, would do well to consider. The specialty of any man’s learning is useful to us all. We consider his results, and compare them with other results not infrequent ly disagreeing and antagonistic; so that their main worth is not in their end but in their trend. The fruits of any line of modern scholarship we value; but schol arship is no modern thing. In ductive methods may have been newly formulated, but they have always been used since men be gan to think. Deductive methods are not exclusively ancient nor exclusively modern. And this vast mass of experimental fact, accumulating through long ages, coming to us through the devo tional study of sympathetic souls who have had a singular genius for interpreting the main ideas of the Bible, ought to have a large place in the appreciation of men of technical learning. Side by side with what they call the “crit ical results” are to be placed those which in another way are just as critical.—lnspiration as a Trend. —Faunce. ATLANTA, GA., THURSDAY. JANUARY 28. 1897. For the Index. The Sp i i Missions a Chnstlike ; .it. BY REV. BRYAN W. COLLIER As Christ looked on the world in sin he longed to save it. He had compassion on the multitude. His heart went out in tenderest sympathy to the wretched and the destitute. As the great mass of humanity, saturated with sin, groaning under affliction, part ners in a common curse and yet struggling each to overreach his fellows, passed in melancholy re view before him, divine compas sion went out to every guilty and helpless soul. Surely the highest attainment of Christian life isto belike Christ. We ring the changes on this sen timent in our mutual exhorta tions, and it is a truth that we cannot too constantly reiterate. But the spirit of Christ was em phatically a missionary spirit, and so those who have the mis sionary spirit have the spirit of Christ. The spirit of missions is chari table because it is aggressive. This is a most important quality. Many otherwise excellent people fail in life, because they lack ag gressiveness. Christ had it. He had no kinship to the people who are constantly calling upon us to let well-enough alone. He saw great room for improvement, and he went vigorously to work to bring it about. If the overthrow of a crying evil demanded a lash of small cords and some violence of action and manner, he did not hesitate to apply the lash. The consciousness of his great mission urged him into constant activity. He could not be supinely inac tive. lie said, “I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day.” He felt he had a mes sage for the world which must be delivered in all seasons and at all places. The foreign missionary has caught this aggressive tone. Every zealous advocate of foreign missions has caught it. The con stant impulse of such a man is an on'ward one. His is the spirit of Caesar, “thinking nothing done while aught remains to be done.” It is not sufficient for him that many nations have owned the sway of the cross, and bowed to the benign influence of the Son of Go<l. His eye is turned towards “I he region beyond.” It does not suffice for him that many millions are in the fold, since there comes constantly io his ears the cries of (he lost and perishing. Like his Master, he plants his feet on past achievements, and reaches out after yet richer laurels, The missionary spirit is Christ like also, in that it is broad, cath olic and universal, Christ died lor all the world, and commissioned his disciples to preach the Gospel to all mankind. Man is by nature selfish. His tendency is towards narrowness, insulation and ex clusiveness. This selfish attrib ute of the natural man, when joined to ignorance, is expressed in the cry of the cockney English man, “’Ere’s a stranger, let’s ’eave ’arf a brick at ’irn.” Christ taught his disciples a better les son than that, and instructed them to love all men and seek their salvation. In accordance with that teaching, the missionary goes with the message of salva tion to the uttermost extremities of the earth. The selfish and worldly wise, on the contrary, de clare that they have nothing in common with the yellow Mongo lians and low-browed Africans, and need feel no special concern about their fate. The missionary spirit is the spirit of Christ, moreover, be cause it is a believing spirit. The consciousness of support from above caused our Savior to be hopeful and undaunted in the face of mosjt tremendous opposi tion. When his disciples forsook him and fled, he remained unter rified and undisturbed. Amid buffetings and vexations he held on his calm and tranquil way, confident of ultimate victory and undeterred by present reverses. The missionary shares this con fidence, and must share it. Noth ing on earth but firm faith in the completeness of God’s power and the reality of God’s presence could sustain for a day the cause of foreign missions. A man is a fool for giving money for foreign missions unless he believes that the Gospel is God’s power unto salvation and that the sword of the spirit, is more than a match for all the weapons of carnal war fare. The missionary who car ries a knowledge of the Bible to foreign lands embarks on an er rand wilder and more chimerical than the fabled ones of Don Quix ote, if it be not true that God is with him. The enterprise of for eign missions is a hopeless one, but for the power of God. But God’s utmost power is pledged in behalf of every true missionary. Relying on that fact, the soldiers of the cross in litenthen lands are full of hope and buoyant with courageous de termination. That confidence which the Savior possessed is im parted unto him who believes that Christ is with him, “even unto the end of the world.” Undoubtedly the man who has partaken most largely of the mind of Christ must be an ardent advocate and friend of foreign missions. No man can claim to have entered thoroughly into the spirit of the Masi er unless a pas sion for worldwide evangelization has taken possession of his soul. Decatur, Ga. Forthe Index. Reminiscences of Georgia Baptists. BY S G. HILLYER, D D. No. 25. COL. ALFRED SHORTER AND HIS WIFE. Among the Baptists of Georgia there have been very many w orthy church members who held no official position, but who, for their works’ sake, deserve to be held in grateful remembrance by their brethren of the present, and of succeeding generations. Such persons are as truly object les sons as are the more conspicuous ones who have filled the higher places in our denomination. And such a man and woman most cer tainly were Col.' Alfred Shorter and his wife. My acquaintance with them be gan in 1836. At that time, they were living in Monticello, Jasper county. A company of Baptist preachers, from the ministers’ meeting at Forsyth, were return ing home, and it was arranged to stop for the night in Monticello. It so happened that Dr. Sherwood with several other ministers, my self included, were the guests of brother and sister Shorter. This was the first time I ever met 1 hem. A few years later, when the Cherokee Indians had been re moved to their new home in the Indian Territory and Northwest Georgia was fairly opened to the citizens of the State, Col. and Mrs. Shorter were among its earliest sei Hers. Theify fust stopping place was in Cedar Valley; but it was not long before Col. Shor ter’s keen perception discovered the better advantages of another location. He sold his place in Cedar Valley anil made large in vestments in land about the junc tion of the Etowah and Oosta naula rivers, and along the banks of the Coosa. This land became very valuable. A part of it was included within the area upon which the city > of Rome now stands. The sale of these city lots, no doubt, helped to make him rich; but his fertile and well cultivated fields must have con tributed largely to the same re sult. It was not long before he was managing a very large and complicated business Unit yielded to him an ample revenue. He was perhaps the richest man in Floyd county. This was the prosperous condi tion in which 1 found Col. and Mrs. Shorter, eighteen years after my first acquaintance with them in Monticello. In 1854 I visited Rome, by special invitation, to spend a Sabbath with the Baptist church. Part of the time I was the guest of these good people at their elegant home near the city. My wife was with me. It is need less to say that we were enter tained with generous hospitality. This was only my second inter view with them. Two years later it pleased the church at Rome to call me to be their pastor. I accepted the call and entered upon my duties on the first of January, 1856. This brought me into close relations with brother and sister Shorter, which were continued for three years and eight months. I had. therefore, the best opportunity of knowing them both. I will speak first of brother Shorter. HIS CHARACTER. I have said that he was a rich man. But of what value are riches in the hands of a man with out an upright character? They only serve to make his faults more conspicuous, and his views more hideous. The tinsel of wealth and the glamour of osten tation may draw around him a horde of sycophantic flatterers, or of greedy parasites who hope to fatten on his excesses; but he finds in his retinue few sincere, unselfish friends —the wise and the good forsake such a man. In contrast with the case just alluded to, it is refreshing to turn to a character like Col. Shorter’s. One element of his character was an unobtrusive modesty. He seemed to have not the slightest desire to be a leader. This ele ment of character, some may think might be an indication of weakness; for it often happens that one who has no ambition to lead, is at the beck and call of others —utterly devoid of all per sonal independence. But in brother Shorter's case a suspic ion of weakness would be a great mistake; for, in his character, the element in question was off-set by another of kindred nature, that marked him as a man of inflexible firmness. While he did not care to lead, it was equally true that he could not be led. I never knew a man who was more completely his own master than Alfred Shorter. Another element of his charac ter is found in the accuracy of his judgment. And here we touch what was in him a most remark able endowment. His education was limited —he knew nothing about the logic of the schools. He studiously shunned debate. I don’t think he spoke five words in any of our church conferences during all the years that I was his pastor; and yet the conclu sions which he would reach were more generally correct than those of any other mem ber. His judgments were like intuitions. The proof of all this is found in the confidence that the people who knew him had in his judgment. Withouttryingto be so, he was almost everybody's adviser. His opinions upon all matters of business were almost oracular among the people. Now, when to these elements of modesty, firmness, personal in dependence, and soundness of judgment we add his faith in God, his sincere feeling of moral obli gation and his sterling integrity, manifesting itself in his love of truth ami of fair and just dealings towards all men, we behold his character clothed with that nobil ity which commands our admira tion. But this is not all. Col. Shorter was not content with being merely just. Many a rich man can boast that lie never, intentionally, wrong ed a neighbor; and yet he may be dominated by a cold, unsympathizing selfish ness. Not so with Col. Shorter. He was generous as well as just. He was the poor man’s friend; and no doubt many now living could bear witness to his generous kindness. But his beneficence was not limited to private chari ties. lie gave liberally to every public enterprise that, in his judg ment, promised to be for the glory of God and the well-being of man. When his brethren, in 1854, wanted to build a church edifice, which was very much needed, they were then few in number and of moderate means. Nevertheless they built an eight thousand dollar house; and I have heard that brother Shorter paid six thousand dollars, equal to three-fourths of the entire cost. But the crowning work of his benevolence was the founding of the college which bears his name. He expended upon that enter prise, including a permanent en dowment of forty thousand, not far from a hundred thousand dol lars. The college was designed for the advanced education of the daughters of Georgia and its ad jacent States, not only in secular learning, but also in moral and religious truth. The building contains not only recitation and lecture rooms, where may be heard Hie deliverances of earthly knowledge, but also a chapel where may be heard the words of inspired wisdom that teach the way which leads to everlasting life. It is a monument to the memory of its founder that a prince might envy. MRS. SHORTER. I have left myself but little space to speak of Mrs. Shorter. But really, what more need be said than that she was the true counterpart of her noble hus band. This husband and wife were one. So at least it seemed to those who knew them. They were rich, lived bountifully and dispensed a generous hospitality; but they were not what are called “society people.” If the husband was the poor man’s friend, as be fore stated, the wife was an angel of mercy to all who were suffering or in sorrow. She was in full sympathy with all her husband’s schemes of public beneficence. In the case of the college, this sym pathy with him was gracefully in dicated by brother Shorter him self. He caused to he put up in the chapel a large window, beau tifully ornamented and inscribed in brilliant letters with her name as a personal memorial of his de voted wife who had passed away. Indeed, it would seem, that so far as his wishes were concerned, he would have preferred that the in stitution should have been named for her rather than himself. Let not the example of these two good people be lost on those who, like them, are blest with this world’s wealth. 563 S. Pryor St., Atlanta. For the Index. Columbian University—A Great Op portunity and a Great Duty. BY JOHN G. WILLIAMS. And what better opportunity can Baptists have to increase their power to do good than the opportunity to build a great Christian university. Such an opportunity has been given to the Baptists in the providence of God in Columbian I niversity at Wash ington,in theDistrictof Columbia, and that they have not seen their great opportunity and have not done their great duty imposed upon them by their great oppor tunity has been a great Baptist mistake. The claims of Columbian University to be made a great National Baptist University are these to which we call special at tention : hope they will not do. The claims of Columbian University to be made a great National Baptist University are these to which we call special attention: 1. Is its location at the capital of the nation. Surely this must give it a great advantage. Here better than anywhere else, in a great Baptist University we could impress our Baptist ideas of civil and religious liberty, complete separation of Church and State, and our other distinctive principles upon the country that is being rapidly filled up with people from all parts of the world, many of whom are hostile to these ideas, upon the maintenance of which depend the very existence of our free institutions. It can readily be seen what prominence and in fluence the Baptists would ac quire from their having a great university, like the great Baptist University of Chicago, in the city of Washington, which, if not a great center of trade like Chicago, is the great intellectual and political center of the nat ion. I hope nev er to see Baptists bidders and seekers for political patronage and power, but surely it is a high and laudable ambition to occupy a position wheue their power for good in the country will be the greatest. And I know of nothing that would give to the Baptists this moral power and influence for good more than a great Baptist University in the very heart of the nation. But though the Baptists were the first to start a college in Washington, they are letting other denominations outstep them in zeal to build up there a great university. It is an unde niable fact that the Baptists are less known and have less influ ence in the political and national life of the country, considering their great numbers, wealth and intelligence and good citizenship, than any other one of the great denominations. 2. A great university in the cap ital of the nation, by virtue of its location, would offer to young men advantages to be had no where else. What a university itself Congress would be, made up as it is of many of the brainest men in the nation, with its great debates on greta constitutional questions, and of the tariff and finance, and other great subjects that touch the well being and life of the nation. Clay, Calhoun, Webster and Alexander 11. Ste phens, and many others since their day—who heard these matchless orators and statesmen, and were not lifted “out of their dead selves,” and fired with ambi tion to be great and honored men ? Can there be any doubt that it was the Roman Forum, and the Athenian Senate and the pop ular assemblies that made the Greeks and the Romans the best educated and the most cultured people that the world has ever seen. See the streams of people pouring out of the villages and hamlets of Greece to hear blind old Homer recite in verse the “woes” of Troy and the bravery and patriotism of the Trojans. But where are going these rush ing crowds of men, women and children in the streets of New York, Atlanta and Charleston? To a great literary treat? No. They are going to Forepaugh and Sells’ big circus. Another advantage that stu dents have at Columbia Univer sity is the scientific lectures in the Smithsonian Institution, deliver ed by the leading scientists of our own country and the world. Also, if I’m not mistaken, they have the advantage of the Na tional library. And again, students that intend entering public life would find at the seat of government a training and opportunities for it that they could hardly find in any schools out of Washington. Here they would breathe an atmosphere of public life, as was said that the young men of Athens breathed an I atmosphere of eloquence. Very I likely the fact of his having been VOL. 77-NO. 4. educated at Columbian University had something to do with giving to the country the lion. W. L. Wilson, the present Postmaster General of the United States, the great tariff reformer, and the au thor of the Wilson bill, and I’m glad to add, a great and useful Baptist layman. I cannot but be lieve that a great Baptist Univer sity at Washington would give to the country many such as he. 3. Columbian University, locat ed in the District of Columbia, is the university of the whole coun try. It belongs to no one State, but to all the States, and there fore should have the support and patronage of all the States. Such a university is needed as a bond of union to bind the Baptists of all States together in educational work and in good fellowship. There is something grand and in spiring in the idea of such a uni versity, where young men from North, East, South and West meet together in college life. Would not the tendency of these college associations, and the personal friendships thus formed be to draw the different sections of the country closer together, for there are few ties stronger than college ties? The name “Columbian” is singularly beautiful and appro priate for the name of a univer sity for the whole country, “Col umbia” being the poetical name of America. It is not meant in advocating the claims of Columbian Univer sity to the support and patronage of Baptists of the whole country, to interfere in the least with the great work that is being done by our Baptist colleges in the differ ent States. Furman University, Mercer University—to both of which I gladly acknowledge a debt of gratitude and love that I can never pay—Richmond Col lege, and Wake Forest College, and our other Baptist colleges, would be strengthened rather than weakened, if the Baptists of the United States would make Columbian University what it ought to be, a great central litera ry orb, rich in money and learn ing. I’he most zealous friends of Wake Forest, Furman, Mercer, Howard and the others, do not believe that any one of these colleges can ever be a great central university, but who does not see that the Bap tists, in order to complete their educational scheme, ought to have in common a great university, not one in name but in fact and one with the largest of equipment of money and . scholarship. The foundation of such a university has already been laid in Colum bian University in Washington, the capital of the nation. 4. One of the most import ant things, if not the most im portant, to make a great universi ty, is a great man for its president and head, and that Columbian University already has in its young President, B. L. Whitman, who was born to be a great col lege president. It is easier to get an endowment of money for a col lege than it is to get an endow ment of a great president. Col lege presidential timber is by no means plentiful, but it is all im portant that it should be found. A great general is more important than a great army, and that is just what a great college or uni versity president must be —a gen eral. Francis Wayland at Brown University, Eliphalet Nott, at Un ion College, New York; Mark Hopkins at Williams Col lege, Massachusetts; Jonathan Maxey at South Carolina College and Basil Manly at the University of Alabama, were worth millions of dollars to these colleges—in fact were the colleges. A college is rich that has a great man for its president. Chicago University has her John I). Rockefeller; Col gate University has her James B, Colgate, but who of our rich Baptists will seize this great er opportunity and be the Rocke feller or Colgate of Columbian University? The Baptists may have but one- John D. Rockefeller, but they have got a great many rocky fel lows. Oh, ye rich Baptists who have the Lord’s money, remember that a great opportunity is a great duty. I just want to say this more about President Whit man. Christ and his cross are the center around which his great intellect, great learning and great personality revolve. He loves the Old Book and every one who heard his great address at the Baptist State Convention in Charleston a few weeks ago, could j but feel that he made the Bible his supreme study. It seemed to me as I listened to him that he was a very Paul for familiarity with and knowledge of the Scrip tures. There will be the higher education, but not the higher criticism at Columbian University so long as B L Whitman shall be 1 at its head.