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About Schley County news. (Ellaville, Ga.) 1889-1939 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 1900)
KEV. D*R. TALMAGE The Eminent Divine's Sunday Discourse. Subject: Spirit of Unrest — It is tlic Cuurc of Much Unhappiness—Need of the Church nnd the World is More Stability—Stop Giuldlng AIxmU. ' [Copyrmut lsoa 1 Washington, D. C.—From an unusual text Dr. Talmage in this discourse rebukes the spirit of unrest which characterizes so many people, and shows be them found the hap piness and usefulness to in sta bility; text, Jeremiah ii, 36, “Why gaddest way?” thou about so much to change thy Homely is the illustration by which this prophet of tears deplores the vacillation of the nation to whom he wrote. Now they wanted alliance with Egypt and now with Assyria and now with Babylon, and now they did not know what they wanted, and the behavior of the nation reminded ihe prophet of a man or woman who, not sat place isfied gaduing with home about, life, goes from place to as we say, never set tled anywhere or in anything, and he cries out to them, “Why gaddest thou about so much to cuange thy way?” Well, the world has now as many gada bouts as it had, in Bible times, and I think that that raoe of people is more numer ous now than it ever was—gadabouts religious among occupations, among theo ries, among churches, am mg neighbor hoods—and one of the greatest wants of the church and the world is more stead fastness and more fixedness of purpose. It wa no small question that Pharaoh put to Jaeo > and his sons when he asked, “What is your occupation?” Getting into the rPM occupation not only decides your temporal weltare, but may decide your eternal destiny. The reason so many men and women are dead failures is because instead of -sking God what they ought to be or do they, through some vain am bition or whimsicality, decide what they ought and to be. Let me say to alf young men young women in homes or in school or college, do not go gadding about among occupations and professions to find what you are fitted for, but make humble and d’rect appeal to God for direction. While seeking divine guidance in your selection of a lifetime sphere examine your own temperament. 'Ihe phrenologist will tell you your mental proclivities. The physiologist will tell you your physical temper nent. Your enemies will tell you your weaknesses. If you are, as we say, nervous, do not become a surgeon. If you are cowardly, do not become an en gineer. If you are hoping for a large and permanent income, do not seek a govern ment position. If you are naturally quick tempered, ., do not become a minister of the ^ospel, . for . while ... . ,. , any one is drndvan taged by ungovernable disposition there is hardly any one who enacts such an in congruous part as a mad minister. Can you make a fine sketch of a ship or rock or house or face? Be an artist. Do you find yourself humming cadences, and do the treble clef and the musical bars drop from your pen easily, and can you make a tune that charms those who hear it? Be a musician. Are you born with a fondness for argument.' Be an attorney. Are you naturally a good nurse and especially interested in the relief of pain? Be a physician. Are you interested in all ques tions of traffic and in bargain making, are you apt to be successful on a rmall or large scale? Be a merchant. Do you pre fer country life, and do you like the plow, and do you hear music in the hustle of a harvest field? Be a farmer. Are you fond of machinery, and are turning wheels to you absorbing a fascination, and can Lind vou follow with interest a new of thrash ing machine hour after hour? Be a me chanic. If you enjoy analyzing the natural elements nnd a laboratory could entertain you all day and all night, be a chemist. If you are inquisitive about other worlds ana interested in all instruments that would bring them nearer for inspection, be an astronomer. If the grass under your feet and the foliage over your head and the flowers which shake their incense on the summer air are to you the belles let tres of the field, be a botanist. If you have no one faculty dominant and nothing this in your make up seems to point to or that occupation, shut yourself knees up your own room, get down on your and reverently ask God what He made )ou for and tell Him that you are <lo. willing to do anything He wishes you to Before you leave that room you will find out. For the sake of your usefulness and hapriness and your temporal and eternal welfare do not join that crowd of people who go gadding about among busi nesses and occupations, now trying this and now trying that and never accom plishing There anything. are many who exhibit thie frail ty in matters of religion. They are not sure about anything that pertains to their soul or their eternal destiny. Now they are versalists, Unitarians, and now they are Uni and now they are Presbyteri ans, and now they are nothing at all. They are not quite sure that the Bibl e was in spired the or if inspired whether the words or ideas were inspired or whether only part of the book was inspired. They think at one time that the story in Genesis about the garden of Eden is a history, and the month after they think it is an allegory. At one time they think the book of Job describes what really occurred, but the next time they speak of it they call it a drama. Now they believe all the miracles, but at your next interview they try to show how these scenes had nothing in them supernatural, but can be accounted for by natural causes. Gadding about among fied. religious theories and never satis All the evidence is put before them, and why do they not render a verdict? If they cannot make up their mind with all the data put before them, they never will. There are all the archaeological confirma tions of the Bible brought to view by the “Palestine Exploration Society.” There are the bricks of Babylon, the letter "N” impressed upon them—“N” for Nebuchad nezzar, and the showing that he was not a myth— farther the shovel of the anti quarian goes down the more is revealed of that most wonderful city of all time. Professor Heilprecht, of the University of Pennsylvania, in presents us tablets found the far East ratifying and explaining Scriptural passages which were before in mystery. As the builders in Jerusalem to day dig for the foundation of new k uses they turn up with their pickaxes the ashes of the animals that were used for burned offerings in the temple ages ago, demon strating the truth of the Bible story about the sacrifices of lambs and heifers and pigeons. There is the history by Josephus describing which on uninspired page scenes the Bible depicts. On the banks of tne Dead tea there are pieces of the verv brimstone that fell in the sulphurous B~orra that destroyed Sodom and Gomor rah. Make up your miud whether the Bi- blc is a glorious revelation of (Jod or the gadding worst imposition of the centuries. Why go deists about among infidels, atheists and asking questions and surmising and guessing about the authority and value of a book which involves the infinities? It is either a good book or a bad book. If it be a bad book, you do not want it in your house nor have your children contaminat ed with its teachings. If it is a good book, your eternal happiness depends upon the adoption of its teachings. Once and for ever make urt your mind whether it is the book of God or the book of villainous pretenders. So, there alas, are those who gad about among particular churches. No pastor can depend on them for a single service. At some time when he has all prepared research, a sermon after all praye and puttintr nerve ana muscle and brain and soul into its very paragraph, these inter mittent attendants are not there to hear But, oh, how the gadabouts injure the churches! Instead of staying in their own prayer meeting or Sunday school they af flict other prayer meetings and Sunday schools, I meet them on the street going and the wrong way on Sunday morning the words evening, and I accost them in of the text, “Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy addresses way?” those who in My text also going hither and search of happiness are yonder looking for that which they find not. Their time is all taken up with “musicales” and “progressive euchres” and teas and yellow luncheons and “at homes” and dances and operas and theatres, and instead of finding happiness they get pale cheeks and insomnia and indigestion and neuralgia and exhaustion and an abbre viated lifetime. There is more splendid womanhood sac rificed in that way in our cities than in any only other way. The judgment day jangled can reveal the awful holocaust of nerves and the suicidal habits of much of our social life. The obituary of such reads well, for the story is suppressed about how they tire of got their waiting death while for the standing in at gauze carnage on a raw night on the front steps. possessed While in their lifetime they all the ability for the relief of pain and impoverishment, for yet they have no time visitation of the poor or to win the blessing of such as comes upon those who administer to those who are ready to per ish. Enough flowers in their dining halls to bewitch a prince, but not one tuft of heliotrope to perfume the room of that rheumatic on the back street, to whom the breath of one flower would be like the opening of the front door of heaven. Find me one man or one woman who in all the rounds of pleasure and selfishness has found a piece of happiness as large as that half dollar which the benevolent and Christlike soul puts into the palm of the band of that mothe- whose children are crying for bread. Queen Victoria, riding in triumph through London at her jubi lee, was not so sublime a figure as Queen Victoria in a hut near Balmoral Castle reading the New Testament to a poor dy mg man. Let ail the gadabounts for happiness know that in kindness and usefulness and self abnegation are to be found a satisfac- world tion which all the gayeties of the aggregated cannot afrord. Among the race of gadabouts are those who neglect their homes in order that they may attend to institutions that are really excellent and do not so much ask for help as demand it. I am acquainted, as you are, with •wom en who are members of so many boards of direction of benevolent institutions and have to stand at a booth in so many fairs and must collect funds for so many orphan ages and preside at so many philanthrop ic meetings and are expected to be in sa many different places at the same time that their children are left to the care of irresponsible servants, and if the little ones waited to say tneir prayers at ttieir mother’s knee they would never say their evening prayers at all. Such a woman makes her own home so unattractive that the husband spends his evening at the clubhouse or the tavern. The children of that house are as thoroughly orphan as any of the fatherless and motherless lit tle ones gathered in the orphanage for which that gadabout woman is toiling so industriously. By all means let Christian women fos ter charitable institutions and give them as much of their time as they can spare, but tue first duty of that mother is the duty she owes to her home. photograph The book of Samuel gives a of Mephibosheth lame in both feet. When we see any one lame in one foot or lame in both feet, we always wonder by what accident he was lamed. Perhaps it may have been in battle for his country, or he may have been run over by some reck less driver or some explosion did the dam age. So you wonder how Mephibosheth became lame in both feet. The Bible for a good reason gives us the particulars. It tells us that when he was a child his nurse dropped dropped him. She must have him vei v hard, for he never again got over the effect of that fall. Long af ter the accident we find him at King David’s table, but still our attention is called to the fact that his feet were crip pled, though so long before his nurse dropped him. And mark you that to-day in all departments of life there are those crippled in habits, crippled in morals, crip pled in this for all time. Their The mothers accident happened gada way: were bouts and neglected their homes, and the work of training them was given over to incompefent nurses, and the nurses let them fall into bad habits, told them de praving stories and gave them wrong no tions of life and practically ruined them. But Mephibosheth was taken by King David into the palace and seated at the royal table, so by the graej of the heav enly King these unfortunate ones may yet be seated at the King’s table in the King’s palace, though the nurses did drop them so that morally they were lame in both feet. Now, what is the practical use of the present discourse? This: Whereas so many have ruined themselves and ruined others by becoming gadabouts among oc cupations, churches, among religious theories, among resolved that among neighborhoods, therefore we will concentrate upon what is right thought and right behavior and waste no time in vacillations and in decisions and uncertainties, running about in places where we have no business to be. Life is so short we have no time to play with it the spendthrift. Find out whether the Bible is true and whether your nature is immortal and whether Christ is the divine and only Saviour, and whether you must have Him or be dis comfited and whether there will probably ever be a more auspicious moment for your make becoming His adherent, and then this 12 o’clock at noon of November 25, the most illustrious minute that you will ever have passed since the day of your birth *»ntil thr ten millionth cycle of the coming eternity, because by complete surrender of thought and will and affec tion and life to God, through Jesus Christ you became a neiv man, a new woman, a new soul, and God the Fnther and God the Son and God the Holy Ghost and all angeldom, Cherubim and Seraphim lies. and archangel became your al Found among the papers of the learned Samuel Johnson was a prayer inscribed with the words, “When my eye was re stored to its use,” and it is a great mo ment when we get over our moral blind ness and gain spiritual eyesight. That is a moment from which we may well date France everything. All the glory of Henry II. of vanished when in a tournament a lance extinguished his eye, and the worst disaster that can happen to us is to have the vision of our soul put out. If you have gone wrong so far, now go right. If the morning and noon of your life have been a moral defeat, make the evening of your life a victory. The battle of Maren go, lost at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, was gloriously won at 6, and in your life and mine it is not too late to achieve some thing worthy of an immortal. Start right and keep on. Do not spend too much time in tacking ship. David felt the impor tance of fixedness of purpose when he cried out. “My heart is fixed, 0 God, my heart is fixed!” SAMFORD TAKES OATH. Sworn In By His Son as Governor of Alabama, at His Home In Opelika. Governor-elect William J. Samford took the oath of office at his home in Opelika, Ala , Thursday at 10 o’clock, in the presence of his family and phy sician. The oath was administered by his son, a notary public. It was un expected as the general belief was that it would be done on Saturday at 12 o’clock, when Governor Johnston’s term expired. The bills passed at this session of the legislature and known as the “suc cession bills” authorized the oath to administered at the time and place, and were passed especially to meet this case. Governor Samford’s son will be his private secretary, and will be in charge of the governor’s office pending his illness. There has been much argument among the constitutional . lawyers of the state in reference to the bill passed to allow the proceedings of taking the oath, but it is now generally conceded that it comes within the spirit and proper construction of the constitu tion. The office will be administered ^ / the private secretary, assisted by president of the senate, . , until ... the governor is able to take charge. All appointments to be made will foe w j{fo the approval of Governor a * i GOVERNOR IS IMPROVING. Governor W. J. Samford was a great deal better Tffnrsday morning, and it was decided best to administer the oath of office at once. The sick governor is the first in the history of the state to take the oath of office outside of the state capital, and it seemed particularly sad that he should be taken sick just at the time of his triumph, but there was a double thanksgiving day in Alabama over the favorable turn of affairs. JOHNSTON STEPS DOWN. Representative of Governor Sam ford Takes Charge of the Of fice of Chief Executive. Without pomp and without cere money of any kind, the transfer of the office and power of governor of Ala bama was made at Montgomery Sat urday. At two minutes past 12 Governor Joseph P. Johnston came out of his private office and greeted Captain T. D. Samford, son and private secretary of Governor W. J. Samford. They were closeted for live minutes. Ex Governor Johnston stepped ont with his hat in his hand and his overcoat on his arm. The oath of office of Co lonel William J. Samford as governor of Alabama bad a few minutes before been tiled with Secretary of State Mc David. Crowded about in the ante-room were a number of Governor Johnston’s friends with friends of the Samford family, and some few aspirants for ap pointments under the new administra tion. Governor Johnston’s friends crowded about him and bade him god speed. Captain Samford spent the larger portion of the morning in the gover nor’s office perfecting himself in the details of his new duties. He was shown through the records and given every assistance by Mr. Chap pell Cory, the retiring private secre tary, and he was in consultation sev eral times with Governor Johnston. HOBSOX GOES TO HOSPITAL. Naval Hero Is Threatened With Serious Attack of Typhoid Fever. At New York, Saturday, Lieutenant Hobson, United States navy,was taken from the Army and Navy Club to the Presbyterian hospital. He ^'threatened with typhoid fever. Lieutenant Hobson was taken ill in Washington some days ago. He immediately went to New York and put up at the Army and Navy Club. It was decided to take him to the hos pital. GEORGIA NEWS ITEMS * Brief Summary of Interesting Happenings Culled at Random. C tlonel Robertson Sworn In. Colonel James W. Robertson, of Cobb, was sworn in as adjutant general of Georgia by Governor Allen D. Candler last Saturday and the new of ficial, who assumes charge of the state militia, began the performance of his duties at once. At the same time Colonel Robertson ■was sworn in as adjutant general, the governor issued a commission to Gen eral Phill G. Byrd to be assistant adju taut general. This appointment does not mean that General Byrd is to con tinue in the office of adjutaut general, and was made in order that he might remain in active service until the 1st of July, 1901, when his ten years in the commission of the stato will have expired and when he can be retired with his highest rank. In this man ner General Byrd will retire with the rank of brigadier general. General Robertson took charge of his new office with a vim. He is heartily in sympathy with Governor Candler in the latter’s effort to raise the standard of the Georgia troops. “Georgia now ranks sixth, I be lieve,” said General Robertson, “among the states of the union in point of military strength, and it shall be my purpose to give the state as high a rank, if not higher in point of military efficiency. Georgia’s troops cannot be beaten the world over. This was demonstrated in the conflict thirty-odd years ago, and what was true then, is true now.” General Robertson will be assisted for some days in an unofficial way in mastering the details of the office by General Byrd. Floyd Votes For Bonds. Floyd county has voted to issue 869,000 in bonds. The vote was close, but sufficient to validate the bonds. This issue is made to liquidate the floating indebtedness of the county. Out of 974 votes in Rome only three were against bonds. The people of the city are jubilant over the success of the move. Fifteen hundred votes were necessary to cary the question. Henry Delegal Again In Trouble. Henry Delegal, of riot notoriety, was found guilty in McIntosh superior court at Darien Saturday of misde meanor, in pointing a pistol at an other, and fined 8300 or twelve months on the chaingang. Decrease of Crime In Sumter. The decrease of crime and of litiga tion generally in Sumter county is clearly evidenced by the dockets pre sented at the term of superior court now in session. In years past it re quired from five to seven weeks to dispose of the business of one session, but now it will require less than half that time. Deming Appointed Commissioner. Governor Candler has appointed C. W. Deming, of Brunswick, to repre sem the state of Georgia at the in dustrial convention to be held in New Orleans December 4th to December 9th. Mr. Deming is one of the best newspaper men in the state and has hundreds of friends. His appoint ment will be learned with pleasure. * * * Lively Kaon For Messenger. There is at present a very hotly con tested race in progress in the state for the position of messenger to convey to Washington the result of the vote for president and vice president in Geor gia in the recent national election. This official is elected by the electoral college, which convenes in the state capitol at noon on the second Monday in January, to vote for a president and vice president, and there are already six candidates iu the field. Governor Candler has officially noti fied the thirteen democratic electors of their election on November 6tb, and they will meet together and vote for William J. Bryan and Adlai E. Steveu- 6on. In the meantime each individual elector is the center of a great deal of interest on the part of the candidates for messenger and their friends. Telephone Service Extended. The Gainesboro telephone line,com pleted at Carrollton early this fall, a long distance system, has bought the line from Carrolltou to Bowdon which was temporarily constructed by a stock company of Bowdon. They will have a new line up soon, already having gone to work to reset posts and put up new wire and modern apparatus. m m m Another Atlanta Kxpoftttlon. The movement inaugurated some days ago to hold a big exposition in Atlanta in 1902, assumed defiuite shape Saturday, when an enthusiastic meeting of prominent and influential business men was held in the office of Colonel W. A. Hemphill iu the inter est of the enterprise. When the meeting adjourned anoth er magnificent Bhow, calculated to eclipse anything ever before attempt ed in the entire south and excelled by few ever held in the United States was virtually assured. An exec _ utive committee of ten prominent Atlantiaus will be appointed at once and active steps looking to the secur ing of the great exposition will begin, • * * Byrd Given Indefinite Leave. Governor Candler has granted an indefinite leave of absence to General Byrd, who expects to leave by the first of the year for Colombia, South Amer ica, where he is to engage iu farming with his brother, Captain R. Lee Byrd. Captain Byrd, who has only in the last few weeks recovered from an attack or yellow fever, is now on his way to this oountry. General Byrd will accom pany his brother back to Colombia when he leaves the first of the year. * * * On Ground of Self-Deferse. Ware superior courtroom at Way cross was packed Saturday when War «• county’s sheriff, Thomas J. McClellan, his deputy, Jessie McClellan, aud Newton MoClellan, policeman, were arraigned on the charge of murdering Henry Robinson. The preliminary trial was conducted beforo Judge J. S. Williams, of the city court of Wayoross. Jesse McClellan shot and killed Henry Robinson iu a difljculty Thurs day, iu which his brothers, aud also the Robinson brothers, were engaged. 1 h * defense claimed the shcotiug was justifiable, and the prosecution sought to show that the contrary was true. After a hotly co tested legal battle Judge Williams rendered a decision exonerating the defendants on the ground of self-defense. Others Can Do As Much. Tom Treadaway of Floyd county, Georgia, tells the Rome Tribune of his achievmeuts in intensive farming, as follows: “From a four-acre field I took 1,100 bushels of prime Irish phtatoes. Now I have the same ground iu corn and peas, and expect to gather two hun dred bushels of good corn, besides a large quantity of peas. I used home fertilizers and attended strictly to bus iness. Altogether I have had a suc cessful year in spite of the bad season early in the spring. I made 82,500 ou four acres of strawberries, and my vegetables did well aud brought me a handsome iucome. ” Mr. Treadaway Bays that what he has accomplished ou four acres any other man could have done if he had used the labor and judgment necessary. CONVICT CAMPS BURNED. l’I:»nt of Chattahoochee Hrlck Company Almost Completely Wiped Out. The Chattahoochee convict camp,lo cated on the Chattahoochee * river, about eight miles from Atlanta, Ga., was the sceue of a disastrous confla gration Sunday which destroyed al most the entire camp and entailed a loss of about 850,000 or 860,000. This immense loss is complete, as the management carried no iusurance w hatever on the camp. This is per haps the largest convict cajnp in the south, and almost the entire operating plant is only a mass of blackened and charred debris, displaying to view here and there masses of ruined ma chinery. Only the stockade buildings, the office, and two or three kilns were kept free from the ravishes of the flames. The fire was discovered about 10:30 o’clock in the morning aud the greedy flames were not subdued until about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Chief Joy ner, of the Atlanta fire department, was called on for aid shrrtly before noon and be responded with men aud hose. About twenty or thirty convicts were at work in the yards when the fire was discovered, and all of them, with the exception of a number of trusties, were immediately locked iu the stock ade. The stockade was placed under strict guard, and, although great ex citement prevailed, no escapes oc curred. The trusties and a force of free laborers assisted the firemen and did valiant work. Captain J. W. English, of the Chat tahoochee Brick Company, states that the plant will be rebuilt at once. OFFICIAL VOTE OF TEXAS. The Certainty of Hryan's Victory In the State Caused Apathy. A special from Austin says: The secretary of state has completed the task of counting the votes cast in Texas for the presidential electors on November 6th and finds results for the three leading tickets as follows: Dem cratic—votes 267,432; Republican 121,* 173; Populists 21,160. The vote falls 110,270 short of the one cast four years ago, due to the fact that it was conce ded that the state was going for Bryan and little interest was manifested in the election. GAMBLERS HIT HARD. Mayor of Pensacola, Fla., Imposes Heavy Fines on Defendants. In Pensacola's municipal court Thursday morning Mayor Hilli« ri * fined three defendants charged with keeping places for gambling $2o0 each and four parties charged with visiting places where gambling is practiced 850 each. defend Hon. C. M. Jones, for the ants, gave notice of filing motions for arrest of judgment.
