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§ rctfesoiant (Card!
j. 8. BARNETT,
attorne y at la w ,
JOSEPH I. WOREET,
attorney at law,
ELBSHTQN, GA.
WILL PRACTICE IN' TRE NORTHERN &
Western Circuits. ocl2,tt
JOHN T. OSBORN,
ATTORNEY AND COUNSELOR AT LAW,
elbekton, ga.
WILL PRACTICE IN SUPERIOR COURTS
and Supreme Court. Prompt attention
to the collection of claims. nev 1 G
R. W. CLEVELAND,
PRACTICAL SURVEYOR
IS prepared, with new and improved instru
ments, to attend promptly to all business en
trusted to hiui ORDERS SOLICITED [nvl*,4t*
TIIOS. A. CHANDLER,
(Clerk Superior Court,)
Special attention paid to the
COLLECTION OF CLAIMS,
THE several parties I now hold claims against
will save trouble and expense by settling
immediately. nov.24,tf
(EUievton 'Busmen Cat ill
J. A. WREN,
PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTIST
Has located for a short time at
DR. EDMUNDS’ GALLERY,
ELBEKTON. GA.
WHERE he is prepared to execute every class
of work in his line to the satisfac
tion of all who bestow their patronage Confi
dent of his ability to please, he cordially iuvites
a test of his skill, with the guarantee that if he
dees uct pass a critical inspection it need not be
taken. inch 24. tf.
MAKES A SPECIALTY OF
Copying & Enlarging Old Pictures
H. K. GAIRDRIER,
ELBERT ON, GA.,
DEALER IN
MY GOODS GIOEE9ISS,
H ARD W ARE, CROCKERY,
BOOTS, SHOES, HATS
Notions, &c*.
LiaifTCAiIRIASES & BUGGIES.
J. F. yATJLD
(& km AG E R
GLBERTON, GEORGIA.
WITH GOOD WORKMEN!
LOWEST PRICES!
CLOSE PERSONAL ATTENTION TO
BUSINESS. AND AN EXPERIENCE
OF 27 YEARS,
■ • hopes by honest and fair dealing to compete
any other manufactory.
Good Buggies, warranted, - $125 to $l6O
REPAIRING ANDBLACKSMITHING.
Work don# in this line in the very best style.
The Best Harness
TERMS CASH.
My 22-1 T
J. M. BARFIELD,
THE REAL LIVE
FASHIONABLE TAILOR,
Up-Stairs, over Swift & Arnold’s Store,
ELBERTON, GEORGIA.
BCTCaII and See Him.
THE ELBEKTON
DRUG STORE
H. 0. EDMUNDS, Proprietor.
Has always on hand a full line of
Pure Drugs and Patent Medicines
Makes a specialty of
STATION RY and
PERFUMERY
Anew assortment of
WRITING PAPER & ENVELOPES
Plain and fancy just received, including a sup
ply ot LEGAL CAP.
CIGARS AND TOBACCO
of all varieties, constantly on hand.
I\ 4 I\ NOB LETT,
tumm mason,
ELBERTON, GA.
Will contract for work in STONE and BRICK
anywhere in Elbert county [jel6 6m
PIT .Ly ! Ay.ntH w.nt.d! All<-InMO
npOw*pJd\J p le> of wither gex, voting or old, make more moiayi
■work for ub in fctieir spare moments. r all the time, than at anvtMS
4s. Particulars free. Address O. Sllusou Jt Cos., Portland. Ittaina
THE GAZETTE.
New Series.
NIBB’S MISFORTUNES.
Mr. Nibbs had scarcely recovered from
the severe bruises received in attempt
ing to demolish an empty flour barrel,
than the pocr gentleman was doomed to
be tbe recipient of a far more painful
batch of contusions.
One morning, at the breakfast table,
Mrs. Nibbs informed Mr. Nibbs that the
grape vine was in a shocking state, and
sadly needed trimming. She also re
quested him to perform the operation.
He refused.
After a spirited debate, during which
the kitchen table was overturned, and
Mr. Nibbs received a well buttered pan
cake square between the eyes, he finally
consented.
Grasping one of the slats, and not
heeding Mrs. Nibbs, who advised him
to attire himself in some cast off gar
ments, he sallied out into the back
yard.
Grasping one of the slats, Mr. Nibbs,
with boy-like agility, rapidly ascended
the arbor. He bad almost reached the
top when an accident occurred.
One of the slats gave way, and he fell
gracefully downward
Mr. Nibbs, with great presence of
mind clutched frantically at the sky, but
missed bis grab, and succeeded in plant
ing his head, up to the ears, in the
grass plot. Hastily regaining his feet
he gazed searchingly about in order to
see if his downfall bad been observed by
the prying eyes of bis neighbors. Yes,
his misfortune had been witnessed by
Mary Ann Moran, the servant girl who
was employed next door.
M. A. M.’s mirth was extremely ag
gravating to the feelings of the unfortu
nate Nibbs, and lie seized a large stone.
Stepping back several paces, to give
impetuosity to the missile, he ran with
all his might and then hurled the
stone at the humorous hand-maiden
next door.
Mr. Nibbs’ vengeance would probably
have been completed but for au uuex
pec ted obstruction.
In his blind rage he failed to observe
that tbe clothes line lay stretched di
reetly across his path Consequently,
while he was at the top of his speed,
with every muscle strained to its utmost
tension, the said line caught him direct
ly under the chin. Mr. Nibbs flew vio
lently backward and struck the wood
house with a sickening crash. The stone
fell short of the mark and went wig
gling through the back basement win
dows.
Mr. Nibbs finally recovered bis breath,
and gave vent to his pent emotiors in a
series of new and original epithets.
Nibbs is a man of great resolution,
and, nothing daunted by tbe sad rebuffs
he bad experienced, be proceeded to
mount the arbor again—this time with
much less boyish agility, however.
He reached the top again, and began
work. Everything went along swim
mingly for awhile, and he thought to
himself what an easy task was that of a
gardener. His opinion was soon alter
ed, however.
In his ardor Mr. Nibbs stretched bis
body forward to its full extent. Tbe
slat creaked. Mr. fearing that
it was breaking, threw himself sudden
ly backward. In so doing, tbe point of
inertia was thrown without the base,
and consequently, according to philoso
phy, Mr. Nibbs was bound to fall.
Mr. Nibbs was swooping down to
ward the brick walk below, like some
great bird, when a large hook intercept
ed his flight. The said hook buried it
self into the bay window of bis panta
loons, but as the material was not strong
enough to bear bis weight, he continu
ed his downward course, and finally
landed.
Had Mr. Nibbs landed upon the
brick walk, we would now be writing an
obituary notice instead of a humorous
article.
Mr. Nibb’s wife with her customary
thoughtless, had failed to replace the
cover over the well-lmle, and splash into
the well sailed Mr. Nibbs.
The water was very deep, and un
pleasantly cold, and the luckless gen
tleman began treading water, and mum
bling: “Now I lay me,” etc., at a great
rate.
Mrs. Nibbs heard tbe crash of the
breaking slats, and reached the
door just in time to see Mr. Nibbs dis
appear like some great bull frog into tbe
well. Seizing a long clothes pole, sbe,
after much exertior, succeeded in rescu
ing tbe ill-starred Nibbs from a watery
grave.
The excitement was too much for him,
and for several days he lay at the point
of illness, expecting every moment to be
his next.
And now if any one wants to know
just how it feels to be struck with a
pile-driver, just let him request Mr.
Nibbs to favor him with a brief synop
sis of the adventures experienced by a
novice in endeavoring to perform tbe
labors of a gardener, especially that
branch which relates to the grafting and
pruning of trees and vines.
A Mr. Smith went into business
with a German. After being in busi
ness for about four years, they broke. A
friend meeting the German asked him
how it was ?
“You see my friend Schmidt and I go
into one business. He had five thou
sand dollars and I had experience which
I put against his money. Vel, we go
ene, two, four years, and we close
up, when I had de five thousand dol
lavs and my friend Schmidt had de ex
perience.”
ELBERTOX, GEORGIA. DfiC’R 15. 1875.
THANKSGIVING IN DANBURY.
It is just as necessary to have poultry
for a Thanksgiving dinner is it is to have
light. A Danbury couple named Brigham
were going to have poultry for tbeir din
ner. Mr. Brigham said to his wife the
day before the event:
“I saw some splendid chickens in front
of Merrill s store to-day, and I guess I’ll
get one of them this afternoon for to
morrow.”
“I am going to tend to that myself,”
said Mrs. Brigham, quickly.
“But I can get it just as well; I’m go
ing right by there.”
“1 don't want you to get it,” she as
serted. “When I eat chicken I want
something I can put my teeth in.” And
ala'd look came to her face.
He colored up at once.
“What do you mean by that ?"
“Just what I say,” she explained, set
ting her teeth together.
“Do you mean to say I don’t know
how to pick out a chicken ?” he angrily
demanded.
“I do.”
“Well, I can just tell you, Mary Ann
Bi’igham, that I know more about chick
ens in one minute than you would ever
find out in a lifetime. And, furthermore,
I am going to buy that chicken if one is
bought at all in this house.” And he
struck the table with his fist.
“And I tell you John Joyes Brigham,”
sbe cried, “that yon don’t know any more
bow to pick out a good chicken than an
unweaned mud turtle; and if yon bring
any chicken in this house it will go out
again quicker nit come in. And you can
put that in your pipe an’ smoke it as
soon as you want to.”
“Whose house is this, I want to know V
he fiercely demand.
She frankly replied at once:
“I suppose it belongs to a flat head
ed idiot with a wart on his nose, but
a woman who knows a spring chicken
from a bump back camel is running the
establishment, and as long as she does he
can t bring no patent leather hens here
to be cooked.”
“You’ll see what I'll do,” he yelled,
put his coat on and jammed his cap
on his his head witn the fore-piece over
his left ear.
“Y r o bring a chicken here if you think
best, Mister Brigham,” she replied.
“You see if I don't,” he growled as he
passed out and slammed the door behind
him.
That evening there was a nice, fine
chicken in the pantry, but he didn’t
bring it. Perhaps he forgot to get his.
Dinner came the next day. Mr. Brig
ham took his seat at the table, as usual,
but it was evident that he intended mis
chief. Mrs. Brigham filled a plate with
chicken, mashed potatoes and boiled
onions. It was a tempting dish, emit
ting a delicious aroma. She passed it
to Mr. Brigham. He did not look to
wards it.
“Biigham,” said she, “here’s your
plate.”
“I dont want any cbieken,” he said,
looking nervously around the room.
“Are you going to eat that chicken ?”
she demanded in a voice of low inten
sity.
“No, I ain’t—Woob ! ouch ! ooh !”
She had sprung to her feet in a flash,
reached over the table, caught him by
the liair and had his face burrowing in
the dish of hot onions. It was done so
quick that he had no time to save him
self, and barely time to give utterance to
the agonizing exclamation which follow
ed upon his declaration.
“Are you going to eat that chicken ?”
she hoarsely demanded.
“Lemrne up ?” he screamed
She raised his head from the dish and
jammed it on the table.
“John Joyes Brighan,” she hissed be-.,
tween her set teeth, “this is a day set
apart by tbe nation for thanksgiving and
praise. I got that chicken to celebrate
this day and I ain’t going to have my
gratitude and devotion upset by such a
runt as you are. Now, I want to know
if you are going to eat that chicken like
a Christian, or if you are going to cut
up like ratankerous heathern I Answer
at once or I’ll jam your old skull into a
jelly.”
“I—l’ll eat it,” he moaned.
Then she let him up and he took his
plate, and one Thankgiving meal, at
least, passed off hamoniously.—[Danbu
ry News.
UNCOMPROMISING HONESTY.
The other day a man with a gaunt look
halted before an eating stand at the
Central Market, and after a long survey
of the viands he said to the woman :
“I am a poor man, but I’ll be honest
if I have to be buried in Pauper’s
Field.”
“What’s the mattar now ?” asked the
woman, regarding him with suspicion.
“No one saw me pick up a twenty
dollar bill here by this stand early this
morning, but, as I said before, I’ll be
honest.”
“A twenty dollar bill—pick up!” she
whispered, bringing a bland smile to her
face.
“I suppose,” he continued, “that some
one passing along here could have drop
ped such a bill; but it seems more reason
able to think that the money was lost by
! you ‘
“Don’t talk quite so loud,” she said as
she leaned over the stand. “You are an
' honest man, and I’ll have your name put
i in the papers so that all may know it.
i I’m a hard working widow, and if you
j hadn’t brought back that money it would
I have gone hard with my poor little chil-
dren.”
“If I pick up money by a stand I al
ways give it up, ” he said as he sat down
on one of the stools.
“That’s right—that’s honest,” she
whispered. “Draw right up here and
have some breakfast.”
He needed no second invitation. The
way he went for cold ham, fried sausage,
biscuit and coffee was terrific to the
woman.
“Yes —l—um —try—to—be—yonest,”
he remarked between bites.
“That’s right. If I found any money
belonging to you I’d give it up you bet.
Have another cup of coffee ?”
“Don’t—cartf—fidoo,” he said, as he
jammed more ham into his month.
Even courtships have an ending. The
old chap finally began to breathe like a
foundered horse, and pretty soon after
that he rose from the table.
“Yon are a good man to bring my lost
money back,” said the woman as she
brushed away the crumbs.
“Ob, I’m honest,” he leplied; “when
I find any lost money I always give it
up.”
“Well, I’ll take it now, please,” she
said, as he began to button his coat.
“Take what?” he asked.
“The lost money you found.”
“Didn't find any. I’ll be honest with
you, however, if I ever do find any
around here!”
“You old liar! Didn't you say you
found a S2O bill here ?”
“No, ma’am. I said that no one saw
me pick up such a bill here !”
“Pay me for them pervishuns !” she
yelled, clutching at his throat.
“I’ll be honest with you—l haven’t a
cent!” he replied, as he held her off.
She tried to tip him over into a barrel
of charcoal, but he broke loose, and be
fore she recovered from her amazement
he was a block away and galloping along
like a stage horse.
CONTESTED SEATS.
Notices have already been served
upon the Clerk of tbe House of Repre
sentatives in fifteen cases of contested
seats. Two of these are from Alabama,
three from Illinois, one from Indiana,
one from Kentucky, three from Louisi
ana, one from Massacliustts, two from
South Carolina, one from Virginia and
one from Wisconsin. The “papers” in
the Massachusetts case are so volumin
ons that they fill a box five feet long
and weigh over half a ton. The box is
banded with iron and sealed with red
tape, and in this condiliou, under a
strict construction of the rules, must be
piesented at the Clerk’s desk in open
session. When that box full of papers
comes before tbe Committee on Elec
tions the committee will have an all
Summer's job reading them, and by the
time the last paper is read the nature of
the first will be utterly forgotten. An
unusual case of contest for a Congres
sional seat is that over the Fifth Dis
trict of Wisconsin; in fact, it is said to
be without precedent. Alexander S.
Dill was the Republican candidate and
George W. Cate the Demmocratic Cate
received the certificate, but the case was
sent to Courts on some local ques
tion. Both men agreed to abide by the
decision of the Supreme Court of the
State. The Court decided in favor of
Dill, although, as before stated, Cate
held the Governor’s certificate of elec
tion. Dill has since died. The ques
tions for the House to decide are
whether Cate is entitled to the seat, to
whom the salary belongs to tbe time of
Dill’s death, and whether anew elec
tion is necessary.
A NEW DISCOVERY.
It is stated that Mr. T. A. Edison,
the electrician of the Southern and
Pacific Telegraph Company, while
experimenting with light as a force, has
made a discovery which promises to
revolutionize telegraphy. Mr. Edison
claims that his experiments have
resulted in the discovery of anew force
of a nature similar to electricity and
possessing an efficiency without being
subject to many of the influences which
affect the latter. A remarkable feature
in the newly discovered force is that the
earth hss no effect upon it as a con
ductor whatever. Wires operated by this
new agent, can work perfectly, lying on
tbe grouud, or in any other position, so
loug as they are unbroken. Glass, how
ever, is a conductor.
Mr. Edison intends to pursue his in
vestigations, with a view of applying
the new force to telegraphic uses. It
will have numerous advantages over
the present method. The current will
not be interrupted by anything short of
a complete breakage of the wires instead
of beuig influenced by every variation of
atmosphere or change in position, as at
present. Wires can be laid along rail
road tracks, under the rails, and a large
proportion of the heavy cost of con
structing lines as low used will thus be
averted.
About two o’clock, the other morning,
a policeman found a man sitting on the
sidewalk on Franklin street. Naturally,
he asked him what was the matter.
“Well,” said the man, sadly, “my wife
thinks I’m drunk. I’ve twice tried to get in
at the front door, and she’s put me out
both timea, and my self respect won’t al
low me to try it again. So I’m waiting
till she’s quieted down a little, and then
I think I can crawl through the cellar
window.”—[Norwich Bulletin.
Do you owe for your paper ?
Vol. IV.-No. 83.
A MISSISSIPPI RIVER EDITOR’S STORY.
The river editor caine in the ether
day, with a rather trouble air, and said
he’d just been listening to a story of the
truth of which he’d no dotlbt, and which
was of a character to sethis hair on end.
The liair of a river editor—a man accus
tomed to dangers by field and flood, one
intimate with all the mysteries of the
levee, and familiar with the spirits of
the vasty deep—does n't stand on end
on every light occasion, and so his
explanation of the irystery was listened
to with interest. He said that he Avas
in his own room, sitting at his desk and
pegging away manfully at a description
of a steamboat clerk’s new diamond
breastpin, when the door was opened
suddenly and a stranger made his ap
pearance. The individual who had
come in unannounced was a tall, cad
averous looking individual, clad in a suit
of clothes that had once been better,
and wearing upon his face an expression
of the most profound and deeply seated
melancholy. He came forward in a
shambling way, took a chair, p riled out
a tattered handkerchief and mopped his
face, and then inquired, in a sepulchral
voice, if he had fi und the river editor?
He was answered in the affirmative,
when he cast a glance around as if to
note the presence of listeners, hitched
his chair up a little closer to the aston
ished river editor and began:
“I’ve come up to see yer, young man,
ar.d to tell yer somethin’ I’ve been car
ay n' on my mind for goin’ on twenty
one years, now. It won’t take long ter
get through with the story, for I’ll put
the peth of it in a few words. You re
member, don’t yer, how along in the
spring of 1854 there was a steamboat
started from here to New Orleans with
a big load of truck, but not many pas
sengers, that was never heard of again ?
They waited for her in New Orleans and
they looked for her from St. Louis, but
they never heard of her, and concluded
she must have bust her biler and scut
tled or burned, though no sign of the
wreck was ever seen, not so much as a
gang-plank. There wasn’t, as I said,
hardly any passengers, so there wasn’t
a great deal of fuss made over the loss,
and the underwriters acted very hand
some iu the matter. Well, young man,
that vessel didn’t burst her biler, nor she
didn’t burn, and what I came here for
is to tell what became of her. I’d trav
eled a good deal on that boat, back and
forth, and I’d had a good deal of trouble
on board her, too. I alters carried some
baggage, and the porter on that boat was
just as bad as the baggage men on the
railroad. I never made a trip that the
fellow didnt smash my trunk into slivers,
and I got mighty disgusted at last. I
jawed at the porter, and jawed at the
captain and mate, and everybody else,
but it didn’t seem to make any differ
ence, for my trunk got smashed every
trip. I brooded over it and brooded
over it, until I couldn't sleep. 1 got so
mad and I made up my mind finally I’d
get even with that boat or bust. It was
a long time before I hit on a plan to fix
’em, but at last I thought of it. I got |
two big trunks, and then bought a hun
dred and fifty pounds of this daroanite,
isn’t it?—what d’yer call it? —the stuff
they use in blasting, you know. I put
seventy five pounds of the stuff in each
trunk, with lots of gun cotton piled
around it inside. Then I got a nigger
to carry the trunks on board the boat
very carefully and put them with the rest
of the baggage. I bought a ticket for
that trip, but didn’t go on board the
boat when she started. I calculated
thei’e’d be some excitement on the trip
when the porter got to mashin’ my trunk
as usual. The boat left at night and I
went to bed expectin’ ter read in the
mornin’ paper about the burnin’ of a
boat down the river ; but I didn't find it
There was a big account of an earth
quake somewhere between here and Cai
ro, which shook the hull country and
threw over all the fences, but that was
all. Nhe ooat wasn't heard from, as I
said before. For two or three years af
ter that, whenever the farmers down the
river wanted a little kindlin' all they did
was to go out in the field and pick up
splinters, but no one ever knew where
them splinters came from. I knowed
though ; they was the splinters off that
beat. That’s the hull story, and I feel
better now I’ve got it off my mind.”
Then the cadaverous man got up and
shuffled slowly out, and the startled riv
er editor come in and told of what he
had heard. He hasn’t slept well since
the occurrence —the river editor hasn’t
—for he says he believes the old fellow’s
story to be true, though he doesn’t re
collect the name of the missing steamer.
9 1
Barnum told the following in his lec
ture in Chicago : In his museum, a gen
tleman and his daughter stood gazing
at the Siamese twins. The showman
said they were the most remarkable phe
nomenon in the known world, were born
in Siam, etc. “Brothers, I suppose?"
remarked the gentleman, interrogative
ly, still looking with wonder at the tied
ups “Yes, sir, brothers ; natural broth
ers, too,” said the showman. “My dear,”
said the visitor, religiously, turning to
his daughter, “think’of thegoodness of
wise Providence in linking two natural
brothers together, instead of two strang
ers.”
Miss Rachel Brown, the oldest person
probably in the northwestern part of
Pennsylvania, died in Meadville on Wed
nesday night, at the advanced age of
103 years.
THE BOOK OF NATURE AND THE BOOH
OF REVELATION
BY REV. JOHN E EDWARDS, D. D.
The God of the Bible is the God of
nature; and not only of the nature as it
presents itself to the uncultivated eyo
and the untutored mind, but the God of
nature as unveiled in all its diversified
phenomena to the inquiring mind of the
scientist pushes his investigations to tbe
utmost point at which he can elicit a
response to his interaogafcories. And if
biology, ethnology, archeology, anthro
pology, paleontology, or any other ol
ogy, shall reveal a well established and
unquestionable fact or phonoraenon in
the domain of the nature that contra
dicts our present interpretation of the Bi
ble let us pause and inquire whether it
contradicts the true intent and meaning
of the text, or only contradicts the ordi
narily-received interpretaticn of the text
in question.
In the infancy of geology it was be
lieved by a large portion of the best bib
lical critics that its alleged revelations
came in direct collision with the Mo aic
account of creation as contained in the
book of Genesis.
But long since, tbe interpretation,
without any invalidation of the sacred
record, has adjusted itself to the revela
tions of that science. And so, if we be
patient, will we find harmonious adjust
ment of all that now apj ears irreconcila
ble between revelation and other sci
ences, many of which are still in their
comparative infancy.
The two volumes are one—nature and
revelation—and their interpreters should
work in concert and harmony. The
facts of scierce, when well established,
should be remitted to the theologian and
biblical scholar, and he, in his turn, with
as much patience, and labor, and re
search as led the scientist or philosopher
to the discovery, should pursue his in
vestigations andj inquiries till ho sees
how and where the new leaf in the vol
ume of science may be bound up with
the volume of revelation without involv
ing the Great Author in any contradic
tion. If this cannot be done, then it is
idle to get in a passion and denounce
the author of the discovery in science.
The asserted fact of science must be in
validated and set aside as a fact, or, in
default of this, we must, by fair biblical
criticism, reconcile it with the written
word. If this cannot be done nt present
we must still believe it can and will be
done by able men in the future; and in
default of this must accept the issue that
infidelity makes vvith the Bible. It is
useless “to kick against the goads.”
Science has not yet demonstrated be
youd a resonable doubt that man sprang
into being by any other mode or process
than that revealed in the word of God.
Nor has science as yet demonstrably es
tablished tbe fact of a plurality and di
versity of species iu the genus homo. A
revised and corrected chronology may
yet solve all the problems in relation to
what are now called the prehistorian ra
ces—the ages of stone, and bronze,
and iron—and all the questions that re
late to the very high antiquity of our.
“He that believeth shall not mako
haste.”
There is a profound significance in
that text in this particular connection.
The ages belong to the Great Jehovah.
With him “a thousand years are as one
day,| and one day a thousand years.”
Huxley, and Tyndall, and Darwin, and
the like of them, are great men intellec
tually. They are doing a great work
for science. Preachers in the pulpits or
through the press make themselves fools
by calling those great thinkers and
great workers fools.
We should rather regard them as
mighty pioneers, blazing the way, tun
nelling the mountains, bridging the
chasms, and levelling the hilis, and thus
preparing a highway for the grand and
sublime car of the gospel to ioil down
the ages. Science is the handmaid of
religion. Let her devotees and votaries
work on without molestation. They fur
nish the facts that give the clergy some
thing to do besides dogmatizing and
dealing out stale platitudes to inert and
listless hearers.
The demand of the age is for men in
the pulpit who are fully abreast with the
stirring times in which we live. We
need “workmen who need not be aslmm
ed,” and not workmen who by their sto
lidity make their congregations ashamed.
Their is a class of good men, of fair
average intellect and of fair capabilities
of usefulness, who really damage the
cause of religion with men and women
of high culture and great breadth of
brain by their futile attempts to recon
cile the late discoveries of science with
the literal reading of the Bible. It were
better for the cause of Christianity that
such men (and there are many of them)
should confine themselves exclusively to
that class of topics in their public minis
trations that lie within the sphere of their
learning and c pabilities. God never
made them to grapple with scientific and
philosophical questions. They are beyond
their reach. Somebody has well said that
preachers should be careful how they
state any of the popular objections to
Cmistianity and the Bible in preaching
for the reason that the objections will be
remembered when the answer is forgot
ten.
So in relation to the apparent diffi
culties arising between science and
religion, or the Bible. A feeble and
unsatisfactory attempt to reconcile the
two always inures to the disadvantage
of the Bible in the estimation of intel
ligent and thinking men. A man in the
pulpit destroys his capabilities of use
fulnesss by grappling with questit ns
that lie cannot master.
But there are men in the ministry
who are every way adequate to the task.
O them this work devolves. Tin y
should keep fully up with the scienc
of the age. On them devolves the bur
den of keeping the two relations col
lated.
Seeing is not believing. There are
I many men jou can see and yet cannot
I believe.
