The banner of the South. (Augusta, Ga.) 1868-1870, December 19, 1868, Page 4, Image 4

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4 REV. A. J. RYAN, Editor AUGUBTA, Qa/DKCEMBKR 10,1868 THE LOST CAUSE. The Banner of the South is now the only weekly paper published, devoted to the “Memories of the Lost Cause.” Will not the people of the South and the true people of the North extend to us that sup port which it deserves ? We believe they will, and, so believing, we will continue to labor to make it worthy of a gen erous patronage. We ask our friends everywhere to aid us in extending our circulation. Invite your neighbors to subscribe. Send us their names and vve will send them specimen copies free. Stories, sketches, and incidents of the struggle for Southern Independence are respectfully solicited. WHAT WILL THE WORLD SAY? An analytical research into the motive power which impels the actions of men, discovers the fact that not only is self-inte rest the governing motive, but that a respect for the world’s opinion is the prime motor. Wc ask not ourselves, what will God think of us ? but what will the world say? It is of but little consequence if the voice of Beligion admonishes us, or that “still small voice” within the human breast, which men call conscience, chides us, so that the world approves or applauds what wc do. We care not lor that re ward which is promised to the just: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant/’ coming from the heart of a Saviour; but cherish it and strive to win it coming from the lips of the world. If we give charity to the needy, it is not given in that spirit which would hide from the right hand what the left hand doeth, but in a spirit of ostentation and display, that the world may hear it or see it, and give the doer its reward of praise. Oh! the hollow-heartedness of such Charity ! The praise which it so foolishly seeks is the only reward which it can receive. It is not that Charity which, like bread cast upon the waters, will come back after many days to bless the giver, but a cold, unfeeling Charity intended not to bless the receiver but the giver; and so the reward follows quickly and surely the commission of the act. If we deal justly with our fellow-men, it is not from honest motives, but because we respect the world’s opinion, and de sire its praise. Even if we go to the Altar of God and practice the precepts of Religion, it is, alas! too often the case, that we care not what lie thinks of us or our acts, but that we wish the world to believe us- good. And so we go on, Pharisee-like—hypocrites in faith and act —that we may win good names and gold en opinions, and the benedictions of the world. Well, that may do for the pre sent. But, how for the future? Will it save us in the day of trial, and before the judgment seat of God ? Will the world’s approval stand there against our short-com ings here, and win in the great Hereafter rewards which our own acts have forfeited for us? Surely not. Why. then, strive so much to please a poor, helpless, wicked world ?—why desire its approval ?—why seek its applause ? There are higher and holier motives which should govern us, and direct us in all our actions. Ihe love of God, the peace of a good conscience, and the hopes of Heaven, should be the guides to take us through the world, and so scorning its praise, its follies, and its temptations, a greater reward than any the world can give will await us—a re ward no less than the joys of Heaven promised to the faithful pilgrim over Earth’s desert wastes. THE CAUSE OF THE SOUTH. The people of the South —that is the honest, consistent, principled people of the South—are blamed for striving to keep alive the principles and memories of the late struggle for Southern Independence. We are told that that war settled the principles involved in it; and that, there fore, we should not succumb to the wil of the conqueror, hut admit that those principles were wrong, and the memories connected with the war wicked and sinful thoughts! Ah! that is asking too much of us We were willing to succumb; why ? because we had not the strength to defend our principles and cause longer. We had sacrificed our best and bravest upon the altar of Justice; but Might was too strong for Right, and Justice fell be neath the sword of Power. Bat how could it change a principle ? How could force make us believe that what was Tight had become wrong, what was true had become false ? That was an impos sibility. It might crush the power that upheld the principle, but the principle can never die. It will live through all the coming ages, and the sad voice of the Lost Cause will go ringing down the corridors of Time until Time shall be no more. Men may tell us that it is a wicked and an unwise policy to uphold a dead cause, and to contend for principles which no longer exist ! If it is, it is an error and a foolishness that we are proud to own. For ourselves, we pity that man who can abandon Truth and Justice in their hour of adversity, and pronounce them wrong because Might and Tyranny have trampled them in the dust. We may not abuse such a one, or revile him, but we pity him, and sorrow for him that he should have so sacrificed that manhood and sense of right with which his Creator endowed him. We know that there is no present hope for the success of our principles; we know that they are crushed and inoperative; we know that the flag which was their symbol now lies folded away and hidden from the eyes of the world; but we be lieve that the day will come when those principles, like “Truth crushed to earth will rise again /’ and that the cause now lost and despised will be hailed with joy and gladness; and the memories of the gallant heroes who upheld it shall live in “ song and story” as well as in the hearts of the good and true everywhere. Let us not, then, dear Southern patriots, forget the principles for which we so gallantly, hut, alas ! so vainly struggled, nor cease to cherish the memories of the noble heroes, living and dead, who honored themselves in defending their principles and shed imperishable glory upon Southern honor and Southern bravery. CHRISTMAS. “ Hark! a joyful voice is thrilling And each dim and winding way Os the ancient Temple filling; Drpams depart! for it is day. “ Christ is coming! from thy bed, Earth-bound soul, awake and spring— With the sun new-risen to shed Health on human suffering. “ Lo ! to grant a pardon free, Comes a willing Lamb from Heaven; Sad and tearful, hasten we, One and all, to be forgiven. “ Once again he comes in light, Girding earth with fear and woe; Lord, be Thou our loving Might, From our guilt and ghostly foe. A “ To the Father and the Son * And the Spirit, who in Heaven Ever witness, Three and One, Praise on earth be ever given.” Rev. J. H. Newman. More than eighteen hundred years ago, in the stable of Bethlehem, a Saviour was born to the world. “He came into the world, and the world knew Him not. He came into His own and His own received Him not, 5 ’ He might have come as a powerful conqueror, clad in royal armor, and trampled the proud and the great of earth beneath His sacred feet; but lie chose rather to come “ meek and lowly’ 7 that he might confound the rich and the haughty and win the poor and the humble to His cause. He came in human form that He might better judge of human wants and human weaknesses. He came as an infant that none might fear Him. He came in poverty that the poor might trust Him. And yet, He came as Earth’s mightiest King. He came that He might triumph over Sin and Death and open to the world the shining gates of Heaven. He came to “shed health on human suf fering”—He came, “ a willing Lamb from Heaven,” “to grant a pardon free” to sinners. He came to preach and to teach Truth and Justice to the world. He came not to judge the world, but to bring Salvation to men, and to lead the way to Eternal Glory. He came, then, as as a God of Love and Kindness. He comes now as a God of Grace and For giveness. And when He comes at the last, He will come as a God of Justice and Judgment. Let us all so live, reader, that we may rejoice at His second coming as the world rejoiced at His Gist. Let us be good to the poor, kind to our neigh bor, just to all men. Let us, in short, show our gratitude -for the Love and Kindness of His Grst corning, by beediug the warnings and accepting the graces of His daily comings, that we may not fear the judgment of his second and Gnal coming in person. Let us make this re solve at the Christmas which vve shall be called upon to celebrate the next week, and, making it, carry out the good reso lution, so that, atqhe second Advent, we may all be embraced in the sweet words of joy and consolation, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, and enjoy the Kingdom which I have prepared for you.” Then, wishing our readers, one and all, a Happy Christmas here, and hoping that they may be participants in the blessed words which we have just repeat ed, wc close, as we began, with a poem appropriate to the occasion. It was writ ten during the war by Dr. John Dixon Bruns, of Charleston, S. C., and is al most as applicable to the South to-day as it was then : “ Good will and peace ! I’caee and good will!” The burden of the Advent song, What time the love-charmed waves grew- still To hearken to the shining throng; The wondering shepherds heard the strain, Who watched by night the slumbering fleece; The deep skies echoed the refrain, “ Peace and good will, good will and peace!” “ Ana wise men hailed the promised sign, And brought their birth-gifts from the East, Dear to that Mother as the wine That hallowed Cana's bridal feast; But what to these are myrrh or gold, And what Arabia’s costliest gem, Whose eyes the Child divine behold, The blessed Babe of Bethlehem? “ Peace and good will! good will and peace!” They sing, the bright ones overhead; And scarce the jubilant anthems cease Ere Judah wails her first-born dead; And Kama’s wild, despairing cry Fills with great dread the shuddering coast, And Kachel hath but one reply, “ Bring back, bring back, my loved and lost!” So down two thousand years of doom That cry is borne ®n wailing winds, But never star breaks through the gloom, No cradled Peace the watcher finds; And still the Herodian steel is driven, And healing hearts make ceaseless moan, And still the mute appeal to Heaven Man answers back with groan for groan. “ How shall we keep our Christmas ? With that dread Past—its wounds agape, Forever walking by our side, A fearful shade, an awful shape; Can any promise of the Spring Make green the faded Autumn loaf? Or, who shall say that Time will bring Fair fruit to him who sows but grief? “ Wild bells, that shake the midnight air With those dear tones that custom loves, You make no sounds of laughter here, Nor mirth in all our silent groves; Over one broad waste, by hill or flood, Os ravaged lands your music falls; And where the happy homestead stood The stars look down on roofless halls. “At every board a vacant chair Fills with quick tears some tender eye, And at our maddest sports appear Those well-loved forms that will not die. We lift the glass—our hand is stayed; We jest—a spectre rises up; And weeping, though no word is said, We kiss and pass the silent cup. “ And pledge the gallant friend who kept His Christmas-Eve on Malvern’s height, And him, our fair-haired boy, who sleeps Beneath Virginian snows to-night; While, by the fire, she, musing, broods On all that was and might have been, If Shiloh's dark and oozing woods Ilud never drunk that crimson stain. “ O, happy Yules of buried years! Could ye but come in wonted guise, Sweet aij Love’s earliest kiss appears, When looking back through wistful eyes, Would seem those chimes where voices tell His birth-night with melodious burst, When, sitting by Samana’s well, Quenched the lorn widow's lile-long thirst. “ Ah ! yet I trust that all who weep, Somewhere, at last, will surely find His rest, if through dark ways they keep The child-like faith, the prayerful mind; And some fair Christmas morn shall bring From human ills a sweet release To loving hearts, while Angels sing, “ Peace and good will! good will and peace! [For the Banner of the South.] THE ORIGIN OF THE BAPTISTS. NO. 11. In our last wc entered upon an exam ination of the Geld work of Dr. Ford, while engaged in the important task of setting up his Baptist “mile-stone on the track of time,” and we resume the ex amination with full conGdence that we will be able to show that his instruments were defective, his chain entirely too short, and his stakes not properly set up, so that his delineation is not reliable His Gfteenth mile-stone is not properly posted. Upon reference to the old plats made in the Grst century by St. Clement and St. Ignatius, two excellent chainbearers of that age, we have discovered that there were no such Baptists at that time in existence, as the Baptists of the nine teenth century. We will now now show that the Churcliof St. Clement of Rome, corresponded in every particular with the Church of St. Ignatius, at Antioch; while the Church of the Baptists of the present day is an entirely diftereut ediGce. In fact it does not belong to the same style of architecture. They do not correspond insize, shape, materials, or ornaments. St. Ignatius wrote in the Grst century of Christianity six epistles to the Church at six dift'erent places. He was of the same faith and order with St. Clement, Polycarp, St. John, St. Peter, and others. He wrote advisory letters to Ephesus, Smyrna, Magnesia, Tralles, Philadelphia, and Rome. He was in communion with the chair of Peter, and recognized the principles now regarded by many of the sects as the errors of Rome—abomina tions of the Scarlet lady. When we examine the charts of this venerable martyr, we can easily perceive why it was that Dr. Ford, while describing liis survey to his Baptist friends, took no note of more modern papers, and made his ex tracts from M. De la Roque, Venema, Cave, Baxter, and Bossuet, Mosheim, Gibbon and John Wesley. Had he examined the plats of St. Ig natius, it must have struck him with as tonishment to find him addressing “the Church which is at Ephesus, in Asia/’ “the Church which is at Magnesia, near the Maender;” toe Church which is at Smyrna, in Asia;” “the holy Church which is at Tralles;” “the Church of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, which is at Philadelphia, in Asia. ” Yet when he writes to the Chnrcli at Rome, how different is his style; “the Church which presides in the place of the region of the Romans.” His eulogy of that church is in a somewhat more ex alted strain. In his opinion, it is “most decent, most blessed, most praised, most worthy to obtain what it desires; most pure, most charitable; called by the name of Christ and the Father.” Here we can see why it was that the Doctor allowed the plats of this old worthy to remain unopened on its shelf. St. Igna tius regai ded the Church of Rome with particular veneration, while Dr. Ford does not view it in any other light than as the mother of abominations. Why does St. Ignatius designate it as the Church presiding in the region of the Romans? Simply to show that the See of St. Peter was the president see. lie acknowledged its primacy among the churches. It was so acknowledged by his confreres, or he would not have so written, lie was in Communion with all the orthodox Christians of his time taught by St. John—the friend of St. Clement—the correspondent of Polycarp —the admired and esteemed of all those who held no converse with heretics. St. Peter was even then acknowledeed to have been the chief of the Apos tjes; and the chair in which his suc cessors sat was regarded as holding su perior jurisdiction. It presided in the days of St. Ignatius, “in the place in the region of the Romans.” Jt presides there in the nineteenth century. As it was addressed in the days of St. Igna tius, so it is addressed at the present time. It was then the president church; it is now the centre ot unity and of Cath olicity St. Ignatius cautions the Smyrneans not to hold converse with heretics ; and he describes those of whom he spoke, and against whose intercouse he advises, as being persons who were accustomed to “abstain from the Eucharist, and from the public offices; because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the lather, ot His goodness, raised again from the dead.” Had Dr. Ford unrolled this ancient parchment, he would have encountered a Noli me tangere , one of the most flagrant errors of Rome in the midst of the primitive churches—the doctrine of the real presence—“the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ”—the same flesh which suf fered for our sins, and was rased again from tlie dead—transubstantiation, and nothing else. The primitive churches were Baptist Churches! If so, what made them so ? They baptized by i m . mersion, and so do the Mormons, as we understand ; therefore they wore Mor mon Churches, also. No, Doctor, they were rank Papists, every one of them Yet, but they baptised by immersion and the Baptists of the present day bap tise by immersion, therefore, they were baptist churches. Was the immersion of the ancient Church the same as the immersion of the modern ? We think not. There was considerable difference. Nowit is only one-third of what it used to be. Then the subject was thrice, now he is only once immersed, and he is deprived us one-third of the sacrament as anciently administered l)r. Ford, with seeming gratification, cites Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, in sup port of his position. The great Bossuet 'was certainly the Jupiter tonans of his day, and the extract from his writin ls which gives the Doctor so much pleasure is as follows: “The baptism of John the Baptist, which served for a preparative to that of Jesus Christ, was performed by plunging. When Jesus Christ came to John, to raise Baptism to a more Mar vellous efficacy in receiving it, the Scrip, ture says, that he went up out of the water of Jordan. (Matt, iii, 10; Mark i, 10.) In fine, we read not in the Scrip, ture that Baptism was otherwise adminis tered; and we are able to make it appear, by the acts of Councils, and by the an cient rituals, that for thirteen hundred years Baptism was thus administered throughout the whole Church, as far as was possible.” Admit that it was administered, as far as possible, by immersion, through out the entire Church, the words, “as far as possible,” show that it was. when necessary, otherwise administered. When there was danger of death, an Ia full bath was not convenient, other modes were used. No adult was allowed to die without it, because not convenient to a river or stream of sufficient depth to ad mit of plunging. N T o infant of Christian parents was allowed to die without. It was regarded by the Church then, as now, necessary. Its efficacy was viewed by the ancient Church in a different liorht from that in which it is esteemed by the Baptist Church of this age. L was ad ministered for the remission of sin, origi nal as well *as actual. Bossuet does not say it was not otherwise administered when impossible to be administered by plunging; although that mode was, as far as p >ssible, adopted It was not, however, the single plunge of the present time; and, consequently, notthe Baptism administered by the modern Baptists; o that the question is not answered in ine first century: “where did the Baptists come from ?” They had.no common or igin with the Church of St. Clement, St. Ignatius, nor with any of the Churches with whom those old Fathers were in communion In the Church at Rome, Antioch, Smyrna, Ephesus, and ether places, we find confession of sin to the Priests, the doctrine of the real present- \ the order of Bishops in the Priesth > I, the primacy of St. Peter acknowledge ! , the superiority of the See of Rome ■ ■ mitted, the efficacy of good works in<ch eated, and the nececssity of obedie:.co to the Bishop and union with him insist■* \ itfon. In what points do they agr-.e, the Church of the early Fathers an l t! Church of the modern Baptists ? Although it may be true, as Mosh dm says of the Doctor’s Church, “tlr_* r origin of this sect is hid len in the depths of antiquity, and it is, of <\ms - quenee, extremely" difficult to be a - it bv no means follows that :h (1 Church of the first century, founded ad established by the Saviour, and by min left to the government of St. Pen '. St. John, and others; succeeded by St. i.. natius, St. Clement, and Polycarp, ceeded, and to succeeded by others to the end of time, is the parent of dr present Baptist Church. It does not fol low because the origin of that immersed in obscurity, that, thereto! I .', the doubts must be resolved in iav- , its legitimacy. The fact that there doubt as to their paternity, and ;t question, where did the Baptists eo. from, casts suspicion on their <! <• which they themselves must rem - bear the stigma of a spurious h. a The publication of the volume mm consideration, shows clearly that ’ 1 feel the importance of at least atie - v - to prove their title to ran!: a -of blood. That which M found impossible is perfectly ridi< m in J)r. Ford to attempt. It is not >ur pnsing that his book should be a ai We have passed through the fiist p'-;- tury, and will descend the stream of tin;' in our own canoe, following I>r. " ( n j ' lights, however, as far as they will gar us, and, in our next, commence survey of the second century, at 1 Doctor’s fourteenth mile-stone. We w