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