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YOL. I. SANDERSYTLLE, GEORGIA, FEBRUARY 14, 1873. NO. 33. J. M. G. MEDLOCK. JETHRO AT.LIKE. E, L. RODGERS. B> 7Ie«Ilo’ck, Srtine & Rodgers. The Herald is published in Sanders ville, Ga every Friday morning. Subscription price TWO DOLLARS per annum. Advertisements inserted at the usual rates. No charge for publishing marriages or deaths. POETRY. “What Must I Do to be Saved”’ How simple is the gospel plan, Which makes salvation sure to man! ’Tis not by any creature deeds Tha sinner gains the grace he needs; ’Tis not through penalties and pains The souhits peace with God obtains; Nor offerings of golden stores Will ever open Heaven’s doors; Nor may we for salvation build On sacraments, and rites fulfilled. But ’tis the blood of Christ alone, Once shed, that can for sin atone Faith, which to Him in love ascends, And on His only work depends; Which pleads His merits—trusts in Him, That will from death and sin redeem. Christ says. ‘‘Poor soul, believe in Me.” Faith says, “I do believe in Theel” The Spirit thus the Lord reveals, And on the heart true pardon seals. The grace which righteousness imputes, Produces good and holy fruits; And thus the evidence is given Of what is “bron of God” for Heaven, Simple the way, hut sure to thee; “Only believe”—thou saved shall be. Correspondence. Sanders ville, Ga. , Feb. 3, 1873. jElder IP. C. Moreau—Dear Sir: The congregation to whom your able and convincing discourse on “The Doctrine of <&od” was preached on last Lord's day morn ing. in the Christian church of this city, be lieving that much good will be accomplished by its publication, have appointed the un dersigned a committee to respectfully solicit your permission to have the sermon publish ed in the Sandersnii.de Herald. Hoping that our request may meet with a favorable resjjonse, we remain, dear sir, Very respectfull, yours, C. C. Parsons, G. W. H. Whitaker, Ivy W. Duggan, E. E. Parsons, Wm. B. Adams, J. J. Sparks, James F. Tanner, S. G. Jordan, J. B. Roberts. Sandersville, Ga., Feb. 3, 1873. Mr. C'. C. Parsons and other gentlemen of the Committee— Gentlemen: I should he made of. impenetrable stuff indeed, not to be deeply touched by the flat tering request in your kind note of the pres ent date. Sharing in the hope so gracefully expressed by you, that the discourse in the larger delivery of the press will do good, it is herewith placed at your disposal. I have the honor to be, gentlemen, Very respectfully yours, W. C. Moreau. The Doctrine of God. If any man will do his tvill, he shall know the doctrine, whether it he of God or whether I -speak of myself. John vii—17. introductory. The gospel of salvation or doctrine of God is presented in a dual or two fold form. As. the sum and conclus ion of all wisdom ; as God’s highest and best truth, it stands in the broad highway Df life, and demands of man’s reason, of his intellect, full and com plete recognition. Challenging entire credence, no re-* luetant, doubting acquiesence, no shuffling, insincere acceptance, no mere halfway, evasive compromising belief will suffice it; a prompt, man ly and hearty acknowledgement of its full scope and meaning as the. veritable truth of God must be ac corded to it and nothing short of this will meet and satisfy the divine re quirement. In the gospel, the stron gest, clearest sense of man’s intel lectual nature must see and receive the son of God. In its other phase or form, the gospel comes to us in au equally strong, though not so peremptory manner. To man’s af- fectional or emotional nature it makes its wonderfully moving and loving appeal; its wooing, yearning spirit finds apt and beautiful expression in the divinely impassioned entreaty, “Son give me thy heart.” In a voice through whose melting intonation the tears of Gethseamane rain, the sublime pathos of the last cry to God on calvary breathes, and all the lov ing tenderness of Christs’ earthly ministry throbs, the sweet, dear gospel of the Saviour makes con stant plaint at the door of every hu man heart, pleading that this cruci fied, risen and glorified Lord be per mitted to enter. No matter how stained and defiled by the corrupting presence of sin, your heart may be; no matter how greatly it may be estranged from all good and pure and holy influences; no matter how great its grief or care or pain, only open its door and the Lord of glory -will enter in and make it his abode forever. Sceptisim has stoutly contested every inch of ground occupied by the gospel in its purely ethic or intel- ectual phase, it has set its most for midable engines of attack over against its strongest positions and rained dark, hurtling showers of doubt and suspicion upon them ; but from every conflict where the humanities of the gospel have entered the lists, it has fled in wild dismay and disorder. The Pharisees disputed the teaching of Christ in the temple; but silence came upon them when he ministered to the sufferings and afflictions of humanity. The doctrine of the gos pel may be called in question by the eager, critical unbeliever; but before the grand miracle of the whole earth ly life of the Saviour, so manlike in its Godliness, so Godlike in its noble unselfish, spotless manliness, he must stand abashed and dumb, the zest of carping critisism is spoiled and dis armed by a single fact, it can neither reason away nor lose sight of itself. To the man who has received the gospel of Jesus Christ in the full force of its twofold manifestation, whose heart and mind are alike im bued with its hallowed and exalting influences; who with his mouth hath confessed Christ unto all men and received him in his heart as his Sav iour and God, there has opened up a new and beautiful life. The old has become new and the new has taken on a lovelier beauty and a tender charm; nature, all glorious and bright before, now appear dressed in the rarer graces of a glorified •vision, en rapturing and enchanting all his sen ses and his full, joyous heart goes out in earnest and grateful adoration of nature’s God; the same blessed spirit of change runs through his who’ e life ; if he was a good citizen before, he will be a much better one now ; if he was a loving, affectionate considerate husband and father be fore, he will have reached new and higher degrees in all these delightful qualities and be more loving, more affectionate more considerate now; if he was a faithful, zealous friend before, he will be a more engaging and devoted friend now; and as he shall continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord the seal of every grace shall be set up on him to mark the Christian. The Directness of the Gosi>el. Avoiding all ambiguity and uncer tainty of expression, the gospel makes its eloquent appeal with singular directness of purpose immediately to the heart aud conciousness of man; the barbed arrow from the bended bow of the archer, is not more true to its aim ; the upward flight of. the eagle, soaring to the sun, is not by a straighter line; the swift plummet, cleaving the yielding waters in its de cent among the hidden mysteries of the deep, is not more unerring in its course than is the word of life in the gospel. The tangled web into which the stubborn dogmatism of the Chief Priest and Rabbis, and the numerous traditions of the Pharisees had woven the law of Moses and rfhe covenants of God was unravelled with the quickness of thought, and a great flood of glorious light and beauty thrown over all the concealed mys teries of the law by the plain and direct teaching of this doctrine of God; with rare boldness of manner and forceful beauty of expression, the Saviour declares that he is “the way and the truth and the life ; no man cometh to the Father but by me.” No longer must the earnest, penitent seeker after God thread the intricate windings of the outer and inner courts of the temple in search of an earth ly priesthood to make atonement for him with the blood of beasts and birds; but directly as the gospel has come to him, he with cheerful alacri ty and equal directness goes to the Father through Christ, the way, and life, and truth. The teaching of Christ was characterised by this direct, straightforwardness. In his answer to the young man who sought to know of him what he who had obey ed all the commandments and kept all the laws from his youth up, should do to merit salvation, there was no labored dissertation on doc trine, no profound display of learn ing and logical acumen; with terse brevity but loving emphasis the Sav iour said uoto him, “Go sell all thou hast and give to the poor.” To Nicodemus, who sought him by night that he might know from Him self what manner of doctrine He taught, the same directness and clearness is manifested ; the Saviour informed the enquiring Jew, that he must be born again, and become as a little child" before he could enter into the kingdom of heaven. To the poor, shrinking, trembling woman who had been brought to Him for judgment He addressed Himself with the directness of infinite pity; “Woman,'hath no man condemned thee ? neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more.” What a chance was here to deliver an interesting homil) ! what a subject too; the new law of love and mercy brought into dramatic contact with the old law of wrath and vengeance; on the one hand the followers of the old law sup ported in their fierce clamor for the blood of their already judged and condemned victim by the mandates of that law of God which had been given their fathers from the flowing summit of Sinai, and whose binding force no one had ever dared question; on the other, a plain, simple man, without insignia of rank or emblem of power, unsupported by armed followers, known to them from infancy as the son of Joseph the carpenter, one of themselves in his Jewish lineage, yet claiming to be the Au thor of a new covenant in virtue of which he took from them this woman, condemned to death under their law, and in the exercise of a power which could belong to God alone, relieved her from the judgement of death, pardoned her offense, and bade her go and sin no more ; so sheltered un der the protection of divine power, clothed and covered with the broad mantle of charity .and mercy, the parched and arid desert of his life made again to bud .and blossom with truth and purity by the glad streams of living waters flowing over it from the never failing fountains of Jesus’ love, tliis poor woman went forth .unharmed of the law, and no one dared hinder nor molest her. In His miracles as in His teaching, the same directness of method was maintained by the Sav iour; no tedious preliminaries nor wearisome observance of petty de tail marred the simple granduer of his work. He stood before the mouth of the. tomb while the stone was being rolled away in silence and the loud voiced, earnest command “Lazarus come forth,” falling upon the quickened ears of the dead was the first sound to reach those of the living: the long buried dead man all instinct with the vigor of a new life and manhood walked forth to bear living witness of the divinity of Christ. In the hushed death chambers of the rulers’ house he stood by the cold form of the beloved daughter; the thickened senses, numbed by the chill deaih, caught the strong, deep “Maid ariseand the fair girl cast from her eyelids the slumber of death and from her eyes the sleep of the grave and feeling in all the purple courses of her veins the rapt ectsacy of a new life went forth to gladden with her restored presence the hearts of her parents. Such great results needed no introduction and it was results alone at which the Saviour aimed ; and they were sought by no devious paths; whenever it became necessary to assert the divine power possessed by him; he addressed him self directly to the object sought, and whether it was to heal the sick, open the eyes of the blind or raise the dead he asserted his power in the simple word of command and the result always found it to be the power of God. simplicity of the gospel. While the gospel is thus direct and certain in its teaching, it is al most severe in its pure simplicity. Compared with the abstruse subtle ties of the various system of Philos ophy with their difficult and recon dite teachings, with the tortuous and perplexing theories of Greek and Roman mythology, laboring through multitudinous families of impossible divinities, the plain, simple theory of the gospel is at once restful and refreshing. It is like comparing the rugged and obscure path of the Al pine hunter among the crags and precipices and through the gloomy defiles of his native mountains, to the clear, smooth Appian way. View ed beside the extravagant fancies of the so called religions of the far ther East, the strange mingling of sensual delights and gross super stition, the gospel of Christ appears so inviting in its simple beauty, its natural and unforced appropriate ness, its perfect adaptation to the needs and aspirations of humanity, so free, from objection in the lofty purity of its whole thought, that we are filled with wonder that we could ever name any other system or the ory a religion. So to the quick skilled eye of a time artist would the chaste beauty of a Greek temple appear when compared with the barbaric splen dors of an Indian palace. The one with its perfectly plain, unomamen- ted columns, large and strong,spring ing gracefully from massive bases and reaching far up to unadorned capitols, airy and light as pillars of mist that shoot up from the still bo som of a mountain lake in the morn ing sunlight seeming to support the whole weight of the bended heavens above them, harmonious and sym- etrical in 'every part, massiveness of proportion relieved by breadth and grandeur of outline, chaste, severe simplicity, the prevailing thought in all the magnificent whole. The oth er with its wild profusion of exuber ant, fanciful architecture; slight flu ted columns tottering under enor mous pediments, fantastic in their elaborate ornamentation; its ceilings a confused wilderness of groined and fretted archings, its perfect maze of pinnacles and towers; the whole structure given up to a diffuse and lavish use of ornament at once inapt and offensive, intended to captivate and intoxicate the senses, but re pelling the eye and offending the judgement, weak and effeminate, where it should be strong and solid, and clumsy and bulky, where it should be light and graceful, rude profusion, ignorance, and gross sen suality being the predominant ideas in every part. An hour would suf fice us in the latter, while in the former, we could enjoy its calm, strong beauty forever. Thus the pure, sweet simplicity of the gospel becomes its chiefest charm; from the numberless gods of one system, the Christian turns with comprehending gratitude to his “One God,” from the lifeless, mo tionless, feelingless god of the Pan theist, the Christian turns with lov ing adoration to liis “Living God;” from the irrational and unnatural gods of all other systems the Chris tian turns with childlike trust and confidence to his “God and Father of us all,” threefold in His divine existence, yet, whether as the great God who created the heavens and the earth and all that in them is; the Holy Spirit who guides and directs our weak and erring feet into the ways of all truth; or the God mani fest in the flesh to be one with ns in care and suffering, in pain and sor row, bearing for us the burthen of our iniquities, being scourged for us that by his stripes we might be healed, enduring for us the unutter able anguish of the garden, and, at last dying for us upon the cross that we, through his death, might have everlasting life; still, our Father and our God. acceptance of the gospel. The gospel comes to us stripped and shorn of eveiy condition either precedent or subsequent save the single one of acceptance. It does not lead its followers through forty years of wilderness and gloomy,cheerless desert travel, afflict ing them with hunger and thirst, visiting them with fiery serpents and consuming fires and devouring earth quakes; ah! no, it takes them lov ingly, tenderly by the hand and leads them by the side of sweet wa ters into pleasant pastures, ushering them with pleasing haste into all the -blissful joys of the promised land. The hand of Jesus is extend ed toward us, and all that is asked of us is to go, to be led by Iiim withersoever he will; see that dear hand, how eloquent in its silent en treaty, all quivering still with the cruel torture of the piercing nail which tore its fierce way through the soft palm, crashing through shrinking flesh and writhing nerves, bleeding too, oh! sinner bow your head and let one drop of that sa cred tide fall upon it, a holy chrism, consecrating you forever to God. Look up from the hand, the gentle, loving hand, to the dearer lace of Him who would be your Saviour; that pure, calm, holy face wears up on it still the agony of Gethsemane, a quick, earnest, intense expres sion of apprehended calamity ; it is not to-morrow’s indignity and con tumely in the judgement hall of Pontius Pilot, that clothes it in that melting expression of pain to-day; it is not the cruel torture and terri ble agony of Calvary on the morrow that clouds that dear face with an guish now; not His own dreaded death, but your great peril, my dear friend, you who have so long re fused His outstretched hand, gives back to the Saviour the sorrow and pain of the Garden. Will you not accept this gospel, this beautiful, direct,’ simple gospel; will you not go confidingly to this loving Jesus and, taking his exten ded hand, walk with him in all ho liness and truth, and purity forever ? the test of the doctrine. ’ It is only by obedience to the commands of the Gospel, doing the will of God, that you aru to know the truth of the doctrine of that gospel; obedience is thus made not the test of the believers truth,but the test of the truth of the thing he is called upon to believe. The proposition here is just this : Jesus Christ here says to the world, “I place the whole theory of the gospel before you and by the simple test of obedience to its requirements on your part shall it stand or fall.” No where in all God’s holy word, is there an argument so sweeping in its terms, so powerful in its perfect simplicity, and so conclusive in all its results, in favor of the claims of Jesus Christ and the gospel taught and proclaimed by him as that con tained in this proposition made by the Saviour. The whole field of discussion is narrowed down to this one practical test; logic and rheto ric are needless and experiment may and can determine whether Christ himself and his gospel are of God or whether they are spurious and false. Try to form an adequate con ception of the awful majesty of this though^; you cannot take m all its grandeur, all its powerful signifi cance and meaning in a moment. Remember all that is snbmitted* here to final decision. It is the truth or falsity of the whole theory and plan of man’s redemption and salvation from si®, and immortality in heaven. Ah these great matters, so full of interest to every suffering man and woman in the world, are handed periment, which any one may try ; but no one can try it for another, each must make the experiment him self and its results are to him alone. To you, dear friend, it is no less a matter than your own eternal wel fare, your own salvation. As the result of this experiment, Christ is to-be to you the veritable Son of God, your blessed Redeemer and Saviour, or he is to become a cheat and his gospel a fraud. The sweet, holy image of the blessed Jesus you have carried with you all the years since yon left your mother’s knee, always expecting sometime to follow her dear counsel and give yourself to that tender Saviour, is now to be confirmed in its preeminence or re moved in dishonor and shame, you are now to know that the doctrine held by that sainted parent is of God or that it is a boundless decep tion and you are to endure the hu miliation of feeling that for years you have been the easy dupe of a wretched delusion. The whole thought and religious method of your life aro to be broken up and destroyed or they are to be strength ened and renewed. Before commen cing this test experiment in whose result such mighty interests are made to depend ; you look carefully about to discover against the hour of need some new basis of thought upon which to found a new method, but you fail to find a sure resting place and are made to feel how deep and strong is the hold the childish. faith you once had in Jesus upon the springs of your being, how it was enfibred in your very nature and how dark and drear and solitary the world will be to yon without the good Christ in it to fight and glorify it. To just this test the Saviour sub mits his doctrine and himself. He says to you, “you doubt the truth of the gospel, you deny my divinity; now I will submit my doctrine and myself with all the eternal interests • involved to a single test and its faithful determination shall be left with; you shall dp the will of God, obey His commandments and thus you shall know the truth of the gos pel I preach.” Here is none other than the power of God ; now do you begin to comprehend tho force, and strength and awful sublimity of this action of the Christ ? Abandoning analysis and turning to synthesis, the proposition made to us by the Lord Jesus Christ means to every one of us, God, Christ, Heaven, in or out of humanity and the world, as we shall determine for ourselves after we shall have done His will. Upon each one of us the great res ponsibility of deciding this question, so far reaching in its immediate re sults, is thrown; we must make tho experiment 'ourselves and for our selves alone. Not the least marvel ous feature in this test proposed by the Saviour for the truth of His doctrine is the character of the part the unbeliever is called upon to per form ; if the experiment fails he is the gainer in his own heart and con science, while should it succeed, his joys are beyond all human expres sion, he obtains not only happiness here, but eternal blessedness hereaf ter. Now that we have some limited conception of the proposition made by the Lord touching the truth of his doctrine, let us examine with some care the steps we are required to take, to make this great test of doctrine. RELIEF IN CHRIST. We are to do His will and we have no other place to go in which to learn what His will concerning us is than His holy word, in that we are told that “This is his commandment; that we should believe on the na me of his son Jesus Christ.” Whatever difficulty is to be met witb and con quered in this experiment, lies right at the threshhold of the underta king. We must believe in Christ Jesus, in his Messiahship, in uis Divinity ; must believe that he is, indeed and in truth the son of God and the Sa viour of all that will accept him. * The belief in Christ Jesus is not to be a mere mental process, an in tellectual conviction and acceptance of the physical fact of his exis tence ; we are not permitted to stop with receiving the fact that Jesus Christ lived and taught, suffered and died, as we receive the fact that Homer lived and wrote the Illiad. Why we might have lived in the days of Jesus, stood by the cool Jordan and witnessed its limpid waters close over him in crystal burial when John baptised him, heard the voice of the Father in divine attestation of his mission, journeyed with him during all the days of his ministry among men, stood awed at the wonderful works which he did, been entranced with the wondrous glory of the transfiguration, wept with him when LazArous died, sorrowed for him on Calvary,waited with eager impatience the ushering in of the third day, vis ited the empty sepulchre and wit nessed his ascent into heaven, giv ing entire and implicit confidence to believed on and received him as our Saviour. It is not sufficient that our critical judgment accepts and approves of all 'the facts connected with Christ’s ministry, that it even accepts Him, all that will still avail us nothing; there is something more than this required of us and we must do it. We must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with all our hearts ; we must embrace him with all the warm, loving impulses of our nature ; there must be a oneness of life and being with the Saviour ; we must surrender up everything and taking Christ into our hearts, into our fives; mingling with him at tlie fountain head of being, we shall in deed become partakers with bim in all the joys of the Father. This taking in of Christ is not a simple passive or receptive process in which we are only quiescent. We are called upon to prepare our hearts and open them to the Saviour, it is true, he stands at the door and knocks, but we must open tho door and bring him in, we cannot sit with folded hands and cry “come in” in response to his knock. We must get up and open the door and bid him enter. Jesus Christ never entered a human heart the door of which was not opened unto him and it is safe to say he never will; while the messengers of -life continue to pass to and fro upon the crimson high ways through its gates, he will still stand at the door of yonr heart and knock ; but all the mental processes in the vast realms of thought, all the earnest beseeching for faith in the world will never take him across the threshhold until the door is opened and he is invited in, and it is exactly this action of the heart that is required of you. Years ago, when you were a little child, your father left your home in the far interior, anxious to accumu late a competence by more rapid means than were afforded in the little town in which he lived, like many others he determined to join the throng of gold hunters who w r ere pressing to California. Many years passed on and yet no news of your absent father; you have passed through all the stages of the grief occasioned by his unexplained ab sence and by the later conviction of his death ; time and Infinite Mercy- have dealt tenderly with you, and your bitter wounds are well nigh healed. While at some distance from your home, in a large city, you be come acquainted with a gentleman whose pleasing manner and agree able conversation prove so enter taining to you that you are constant ly seeking his society. You know him to be a gentleman; with great beauty of person, elegance and dig nity of deportment he combines a rarely endowed and well stored mind. After considerable inter course with him, you find that you admire his character greatly, his pu rity and gentleness are a constant revelation and surprise^ you honor most profoundly his exalted senti ments and esteem his noble life; in a word, he calls forth from you ev ery intellectual tribute it is in your power to render, but your heart is no more interested in him than if you did not possess one, your affec tions are all unenfisted and undis turbed. One day you are talking with this pleasant, agreeable stranger whom you so highly esteem and by some chance allusion to your early home and loss, it is suddenly discovered that this man whose noble charac ter has won from you such unstinted honor and regard is your father. Why should I destroy by attemping to describe a scene so easily real ised? Now your heart goes out in great passionate throbs of loving tenderness to your father, now your know that he has his place there forever, that he is part and parcel of your life, that you live in him and he in you, that there is a perfect unity and harmony in your fives. It is just in this way yon most recieve Je sus ; He must enter into and form a part of your life and yon must merge into him your own existence. He must be to you not sim ply the accepted, accredited Christ of history; he of whom the prophets spoke aforetime; He must be to you in every thought of your .mind and impulse of your heart, the Christ of your salvation, the author and the finisher of your faith, dwelling in you and forming for you the endless hope of glory and eternal life. but out of all this sorrow for sin, this flood tide of bitter self accusation, this shame and humiliation is born the good resolve to turn from sin forever, to consecrate your life to the new and better influences and spirit to which you have surrendered it; to live for ever in Christ that you may keep him forever in you. You have now accepted Christ as your Sa viour you have trulv repented of all your sins and turned from theih forever; it now remains for you to take the last and only open public step required of you by the gospel as doin-r His will. This is 3 BAPTISM.' Baptism follows belief and repentance as a necessary sequence; it is commanded as be lief and repentance are commanded; if wo may dispense with baptism we may with equal rignt dispense with belief or renent- ance orboth. It is not more essential than belief and repentance nor is it less so; as tho new man in Christ Jesus could not be form- *kree of the positive elements of his existence being present, they are all and each and each andjall to that extent abso lutely essential. As belief and repentance are all internal in then- operations, baptism is the outward sum or seal by which the child of God makes open confession of his Saviour beforo tho world; it is God s Sign Manuel of adoption by which men and angels are to know and recognise the new child of Heaven; and ns this outward, manifestation of the new life is given by the believer, ns he thus shows to God-that he has obeyed all tho command ments, so God in fulfillment of His own promise, as the now man rises from his bap tismal burial with Christ, grants to him full remission of all sin and endows him with tho Holy Spirit and he goes his way rejoicing in new ness of life. Baptism is for the remis sion of sin, because baptism is the end of obedience and remission of sins is the fulfill ment of the promises. As baptism could not be reached without belief and repentance neither could. remission of sin be reached without baptism. Belief, repentance, bap tism are all required to secure salvation from sin and no one can plead God’s promises without first having rendered full compli ance with the divine commands. ’ THE TEST DETERMINED. At last we approach the Conclusion. You have taken Christ at his word and have sub jected the great Doctrine to the simple, prac tical tsst to which he invited you to subject it. One by one the several steps in the pro cess of His will have been taKen and now nothing remains for yon but to give your de cision, and for that we need not wait well knowing what it must be. You have believed on the name of Jesus Christ, have opened the door of your heart to him and he now dwelleth with you for evermore. All the dark places of your life are made bright and happy by the* glory of His presence; the long hushed fountains of your soul are all unsealed and their pure, crystal waters are making glad the waste pla ces of your heart; the Comforter has come to you and all yonr life is clothed with light, life and beauty; God has smiled lovingly up on yon and every sense of your being thrills to the soft touch of a new delight, yon know that you have indeed passed from death un to life. The marvellous confidence of the Saviour has been most fully met; the glorious gospel of the cross has stood the experiment and God is again vindicated in his son; the onlv result possible to the grandest argument in all the store house of God’s wisdom has been. again reached; another son has been added to the household of faith, another fadeless star in the Lamb’s crown of rejoicing, anoth er strain to the eternal harmony of the an gels in heaven, another soul prepared to join the innumerable throng of those who have washed their robes and made them all white and glorious in the blood of Christ. Through obedience to God you have lifted yourself up to the full height of this great argument; upon the sure rock of his Word revealed to yon in its fitting conclusion you will now rest secure; in vain will the enemy of souls assail yon while you are guided by the word of His counsel; no doubt will evor have power to move yon nor any fear to shake your sure faith, centered in God, filled with the Holy Spirit, sustained and upbuilded by the presence of the Saviour ever with yon, your life will flow sweetly on until the greater glory of God and heaven are revealed to your immortal vision. over to the single test of a simple ex- every thing we beheld trad yet not REPENTANCE. Having recieved Christ, believed on him whom God has sent, you are now prepared to take the next step in the way of doing the will of God; that is repentance; your recep tion of Christ being thorough and entire there is no fear but, that your repentance will be sincere. All that is lovely and pure and holy in Christ will work in you a deep and genu ine Godly sorrow for everything in your own life that is not lovely, pure and holy; the years yon have wasted in sin and folly will pass in sad retrospection beforo you and by the new light that is within you, they will ap pear thickly studded with golden opportuni ties.. now lost to yon forever;, like beautiful green islands in fair summer seas over which yon have sailed in the night time while slum ber locked yonr vision against the beauties among which you were drifting. It will not be the lightest of yonr sorrow when yon turn to the great gifte with which God has endow ed yon and see them all soiled and stained and worn in the evil uses to which yon have put them in other years, and yon will feel very sad and humble indeed when yon tnm to your Saviour and ask him to accept and use them for himself in all the years to come. Deep and hitter will be yonr sense of guilt _ as the long record of yonr sins Is brought to" your view by a sorrow quickened memory; The Horrors of Shopping.—We Lave often admired the patience, of shopmen and the politeness with which they take down and unfold piece after piece of goods to satisfy the troublesome customers. But the following scene which took place late ly in a Parisian magazine, will at once prove the superiority of French man ners. An elegantly dressed lady asked to see some materials for pa letots. The shopman mounted the steps and took down several pieces of striped velvet. “The rain would spoil it,” said the lady. “Show m'e some swanskin.” Several pieces be ing laid upon the counter. “Too thick,” said the lady, after an exam ination of ten minutes; “show me some lady’s cloth.” Several great rolls were laid before her. They were too thin. Then came velvet, silk, satin, moire, until the counter disap peared under the-piles of stuffs, be hind which stood the nearly invisi ble shopman, still patient and polite. At last “I have decided.” said the customer, “in favor of flannel—blue flannel.” Ten or twelve pieces were placed upon the heap. “That will do,” she said, after a long and min ute scrutiny. “How much J will it take to make a dog’s paletot?” “A paletot? asked the shopman, not at all dis concerted, and appearing to make a mental calculation. “Will it have pockets, madame?^’ A neat compliment was paid the other day to a lady. She had just swallowed a petite glass of wine, as a gentleman in company asked for a taste. “It’s all gone,” said she, laugh-# ingly, “unless you take some frony my lips.” “I should he most happyy he replied, “but I never take su J in mine.” * It’s a cow this time. She wae kill ed in Augusta, Ga., last Thursday, and in her stomach was found a full peck of small stones, about a dozen porcelain plates, a three hundred- pound shot, a sewing machine, and a frog calmly playing “Root Hog, or Die” on a single-keyed Ante. Best calicoes, 101 cts. per yard. M. A. EVANS*CO.