The Henry County weekly. (McDonough, GA.) 18??-1934, November 15, 1907, Image 6
Georgia Culiiogs Curtailed Items of Interest Gathered at Random. To Rebuild Car Plant. At a joint meeting of the creditors and directors of fche South Atlantic Car and Manufacturing company, held in Wayeross, arrangements were per fected whereby the plant which was partly consumed by (ire recently, will be rebuilt at once. * • • Postmasters Get Leave of Absence. A Washington dispatch says: Post masters of Georgia, of the first, sec ond and third classes, have been grant ed a leave of absence, not exceeding five days, to attend a meeting of post masters of the presidential class of Georgia to be held at Macon, Novem ber 25 and 26, 1907. At that meet ing a Georgia State Association of Postmasters will be organized. -- » « * Pomeroy Succeeds Anderson Major E. E. Pomeroy, commamimg cue of the battalions of the fifth in fantry, Georgia state troops, is select ed to head that regiment as the re sult of votes polled at the armory In Atlanta. Major Pomeroy’s promo tion will serve to fill the vacancy cre ated by the promotion of Colonel Clif ford Anderson, who was recently com missioned brigadier general of the state militia. * * * Peonage Case Fails Through. The federal grand jury adjourned at Athens without taking up the charge of peonage against James M. SmPh. the big Oglethorpe county farmer. The government did not submit the case to the grand Jury. Colonel Smith was bound over a few Keeks since on this charge, and It, is believed that the failure of the gov ernment to put the case to the grand Jury for investigation means an aban donment of the prosecution. • * * No License In Locker Tax. An a letter written to Tax Collector T. P. Thompson of Chatham county, Comptroller General Wright declares that the SSOO tax Imposed upon clubs having lockers in no senso of the word is to be construed as a license to sell liquor, but simply as an occupation tax. He writes: “You will therefore re ceipt for this tax as an occupation tax. and designate the same in your returns. This in nowise lias even the •emblance of a license by the state for the conduct of the business.’’ * * * College Appropriation Held Up. The commissioners of ■ roads and veveneus of Pike county, at their No vember meeting, were served with an order signed by Judge E. J. Reagan on the petition of a number of citizens of the county restraining them from paying to the sixth district agricultural college, located in Barnesville, the $Cv 000 which the P!ko county grand jury recently recommended should be paid. The treasurer or the county was also served with a copy of tha order. Judge Reagan set a hearing for the matter at McDonough for November 18, at which time it will be fought out. The col lege is scheduled to open on January 3. • * * ‘•Dog Fall” in Land Dispute. Secretary of State Phil Cook ha 3 announced his decision in regard to the disputed county line between Johnson and Laurens counties, giving the land in dispute, some 500 acres, to Johnson county. This land was sup posed by many to belong to Laurens county, but the decision of the secre tary of the state merely sustains the survey recently made by Captain L. M. Roberts. By running the line out, however, Laurens county is given some o* ') acres, which, beforo this time, was supposed to belong to Johnson county, so the matter Is about equalized at the finish. The dispute was brought up by r<a son of a homicide, which took place on the contested territory. Iloth coun ties claimed the prisoner, anC con tended that each bad the right to try the case. • * • Memorial Shaft Broken. A granite shaft, which was being erected at Decatur, in memory of h confederate dead, was broken by a fail while workmen were engaged in hoist ing it into place. The slipping of a rope caused the shaft to topple ov and the fall broke it in Lalf. The shaft, which cost $2,500, w> - bought by the DeKalb County crate Memorial Association, and th unveiling exercises were to have taken place on November 9. A new shaft will be secured, and the date for the un veiling exercises will be postponed un til some day, probably In April. The shaft was being erected by the But ler Marble company of Marietta, and that company will make a new one free of cost. • • • Agricultural Exposition Planned. If the plan of a number of prominent agriculturalists is carried out by the tJeorgia State Agricultural Society, the agricultural'premiums for the annual Georgia state fair, which will probably be again held in Atlanta next year, will be divided among the three sec tions of the state, north, south and middle Georgia. There is the keenest rivalry between these three sections and plan would decide the competition. It would also do away with the contest among the different counties and the awarding of nine premiums among as many coun ties. If the fair is held in Atlanta next year, as in all probability It will be, avarv effort will be made to make a •till gnSter success as an agricultural exposition. The fair this season was the biggest agricultural display ever given In the state’s history. * * * Government Experts at Work. Quietly and successfully government experts, assigned to Georgia by the United States agricultural department, are mingling with the farmers of the state, giving them instructions in for estry, dairy work, seed selection, cul ture methods, crop rotation, road build ing and soil survey. There has bem so little said of (his work in the newspapers that Georgians living in the cities of the state have hardly been aware of the movement, but the farmers in many sections have already felt the good effects, for the number of experts placed in the state by the government has increased so rapidly that there are now in the neighborhood of forty men engaged in this work. • • * Plans for Cotton School Complete. No movement has been started along educational lines in Georgia duriug the past decade that has attracted more attention than the proposed cot ton school that is to be held in Athens for ten days, beginning January 6, 1908, and under the auspices of the State College of Agriculture and Me chanic Arts at Athens. The object of this school is to help all the farmers get much useful in formation at a minimum cost. There will be no entrance examina tions, and any person over sixteen years of age can enter the school. The registration fee will be SI.OO and the incidental expenses necessitated by the school work need not be more than SI.OO. The cost of taking the work will therefore be confined to railroaa fare and board and lodging, which means that the school is virtually free to every student of Georgia. The course of instruction provided in the cotton school is as follows: Ten lectures on the soil. Ten lectures on fertilizers. Five lectures on the cottcn plant. Five lectures on seed selection. Five lectures on cotton insects. Five lectures on feeding cotton by products. Five lectures on cotton machinery. Ten demonstrations on cotton grad ing. The cotton grading feature of the school will be emphasized above every other. Two hours or more each after noon will be devoted to the work. Moreover, every farmer who becomes thoroughly acquainted with the grading of cotton puts himself in a strong, de fensive position, a position which vuli not only enable him to improve the grade of cotton raised on his farm be cause of his knowledge of the subject, but to obtain a fair price for his crop as wall. FAILURES TO BE KEPT SECRET. No News Will Be Given Out Regarding the Collapse of National Banks. The treasury department has decid ed that it will no longer make public announcement of the failure oT nation al banks, nor give out any Information concerning such banks after they have failed. Neither will any announcement be made of the name of the receiver nppeintd or any other official action tliat may be taken. - ELECTION BET CAUSES TRAGEDY. Gae Participant in Duel Killed and the Other Mortally Wounded. As the result of a quarrel over an electiou bet, William Hopkins, son of Rev. Thomas Hopkins, and Frank Foley fought a bloody duel at ; Fernanda, Ky., Sunday. Hopkins was ' instantly killed, and Foley is fa..\ll. wounded. THE TV IT IT. AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY THE REV. JOEL B. SLOCUM. Subject: The Church and the Men. Brooklyn, N. Y.—“ The Church and the Men” was the subject discussed Sunday morning in the Greenwood Baptist Church by the Rev. Joel B. Slocum,whose text was Ezekiel 10:8: “And there appeared in the cherubim the form of a man's hand und»r their wings.” Mr. Slocum saia, among other things: It is significant that in the midst of the complicated celestial forces re vealed to Ezekial there was the ap pearance of a ma®’s hand under the wings of the cherubim, as though supporting their flight. There has never been a time when the multiplied machinery of Chris tianity did not disclose, somewhere, the hand of a man. Never was the presence and power of that hand, and all that goes with it, more needed than now. No reflection is intended upon the great host of faithful women and earnest men who, in all ages, have carried forward the bur dens of the church: but the need of the hour is more men. I saw, the other day, in the window of a grocery, this brief but pressing request: “Wanted—A strong boy.” And the thought flashed upon me that we need in our churches strong boys who will grow up to be strong men. Not strong boys to tarry awhile in the Sunday-school and then graduate away from it and from everything else connected with the church, but boys who will stay and put their manhood where it will continue to count for the most. We are facing a somewhat startling fact—the fact that, as a rule, men do not go to church. Vastly more serious is the fact that the church no longer enters into the serious con sideration of most men. Mine is not the mission of the alarmist and the pessimist. I do not seek to over emphasize an unpleasant truth. It is the purpose of the speaker this morning merely to look this condition squarely in the face as he passes to some other considerations. It is enough for our present purpose to recognize that the men are not with us; and, without discussing the rea sons for their absence, hasten to con cern ourselves with the all-important business of bringing them back. The church that succeeds in this great restoration will be the church whose all-absorbing objective is the kingdom of God. “But,” exclaims some hearer, “do you mean to Imply %hat any Christian church could have any other goal than the kingdom?” Most assuredly that is my implica tion. Have you not known a church whose aim was centred, not in the kingdom, but in the church, the local organization itself? There is great danger lest we miss the proper point of view. It is one thing to be so absorbed in the pros perity of the individual church of which we are members as to lose sight of anything beyond its advance ment. It is quite another thing to see, with so clear a vision, tlffe majes tic opportunities and obligations of the kingdom of God, that we shall never fall into the error of supposing for on instant that even so sacred an institution as the church itself can be than a means to that sublime end. I would not leave the impression that the Christian is to be a vision ary, and, fixing his eye on some far off glory, succeed in neglecting a nearer duty to his church. But Ido mean to suggest that the church that accomplishes the return of the men from their exile will be the church that is so moved by a spirit of devotion to the great ultimate pur pose of carrying forward the kingdom to its earthly culmination, that non church men will catch the irresistible contagion of such a motive and join ranks with the advance guard of the soldiers of the cross. There is recorded in Chronicles a touch of patriotism that has always made my blood course a little quicker when I have read it. I refer to the gathering* of a mighty host of war riors, veterans all of them, who came from near aud far. animated by a common purpose that made them one. i That purpose was to make David king. The brief and yet thrilling narrative is thus concluded: “All these men of war, that could keep rank, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel; and all the rest, also, of Is rael were of one heart to make David king.” The members of the Christian church will one day come together with a perfect heart to make Jesus king. And when they do, the cita dels of sin will topple into dust and the royal diadem of the world’s sur render will be put upon the brow of our Lord. There is yet much to be done. The forces are only gathering for the final advance. If all who can keep rank will take the field, not for self-glory and not even for the glory of the special church, but for the glory aud triumph of our king, then victory is assured. Then will we comprehend the imperishable truth, that men do not now attend our churches are needed by these same churches, not primarily to swell the membership and meet the current ex penses, but to enlarge the army of those who with singleness of spirit are moving on to make Christ king. Let us take our inspiration and our example from Him who made no at tempt to found a visible church, but who gave His very life to inaugurate a spiritual kingdom. The church is already organized; it now becomes our duty to fling it into the great cause of subduing the world to Him who is the living head of the church. This leads me to say that the church that secures the return of the nu*n will be the church that develops an intense enthusiasm for humanity. It is not merely because they are men that we want them back, biit because they are among those Tor whom Christ died. I am not filled with alarm at the prospect of a manless church. It would still be an effective organization committed to a great work. No, lam not so much afraid of what will happen to the church as I am concerned about what will happen to the men who thus ignore the sweetest privileges of their life. There are some hopeful signs of the times. Indications favor the im pression that the church is awaking to her opportunity. If you look closely at the record of the life of Jesus, you will not be long in discov ering that He was not satisfied with the conditions that everywhere pre vailed. His whole strength was reso lutely set against the tide of igno rance and worldliness that threat ened to sweep men to destruction. He succeeded, as no ODe ever since has, in giving personal illustration of what Paul means by advising that we do not allow ourselves to be con formed to this world, but transformed or transfigured by the spiritual forces within us. The mission of the church is not to be conformed to the customs and conditions of this age, but to stand in the midst of this age as an effective agency for the regeneration of so ciety. Not to be a lump of clay to be molded in the fingers of every passing trickster, but to be an artist \vith a great ideal and a trained eye and hand to execute his will on the waiting marble. The work of the church does not grow more easy, but when she comes Into her rightful heritage—the con -1 viction of her divinely ordained privi lege as the lover of men—then she will begin to realize her mission. But first, last and always, she will gain her adherents in the ratio of her enthusiasm for and devotion to hu manity. I ‘ Finally, the church that brings back the men will be the church that j takes Christ to the needy world. It sometimes seems as though there are so many other voices that the cry of the church and her Christ will be drowned in the din of materialism. But there are still some listening ears That will not be stopped. Into the midst of this wild storm of buying and selling, of loss and gain, of cry ing and laughing, of sorrow and sin, will come, once more, the humble Nazarene, and His voice will turn the tempest to calm: “Be still, and know that I am God!” Jesus left an unanswerable argument to His interest in humanity when He gave Himself to men. Anything else that He might have given would have been criticised; but when He gave Himself, that softened the hard heart of the world because they saw that only love could do that. The fellow ship by which Jesus is to unite men with Himself in His everlasting king dom is the fellowship of love. The duty and opportunity of the church is to put forward the kingdom of God, to make sure the enthrone ment of Jesus Christ in the affections of men; to cultivate a fervid enthu siasm for their souls; to take to the world’s sicknesses the matchless Physician who never lost a case in trusted to His care. When men know that the church is praying and long ing and laboring, with a divine pas sion. for their souls, they will come to the Christ and to the church. The hour of victory seems long j delayed, but every soldier must keep I his place and by and bv the warfare will be accomplished. We re member that not only was the man’s hand under the angel’s wing, but the angel’s wing was over the man’s hand. God and the church will work side by side. The human and the divine will supplement each other. It is said that Napoleon once ap pealed to his guards in the interests of a forlorn hope. He made request for only a hundred men. But they must all be brave. Every man would be exposed to the enemy’s fire, and nothing but death could be expected. “Let a hundred men step forward out of ranks! Forward, march!” At the word of command, not a hundred men, but a regiment sprang forth as a single man and were ready for duty and death. And shall Christ ask in vain for volunteers? Has His cause come to be a forlorn hope? Ah, not to die. not to die, but to live for Him, is all He asks. To the front, O church of the victorious Christ! RAIL HORRORS OF A YEAR. Ctusalties in United States 5,000 People Killed and 76,000 Injured. The interstate commerce commission bulletin on accidents on the railways of the United States during the year ended June 30, shows total casualties 81,286, or 5,000 killed and 76,000 injur ed, an increase of 10,352 casualties, or 775 in the killed and 9,577 in the in jured, as compared with the previou* year. JAPS ENTERTAIN ROOSEVELT. Champion Wrestlers Show Their Skill la Bout at White House. President Roosevelt Monday witness ed an exhibition of Japanese wrestling given by Mr. Hitachiyama, the cham pion wrestler of Japan, and his assist ant. The bout was arranged by the Jap anese ambassador, and took place at the white house, a number of the pres ident's friends having been invited tc be present. THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. INTERNATIONAL LESSON COM* MKNTS FOR NOV. 17 BY THE REV. I. W. HENDERSON 'Tiasj Subject: Gideon and His Three Hun dred, Judges 7:9-23 Golden Text, Deut. 3-22 Memory Verses, 17, 18. The lesson deals with one of the famous characters of Israelitish his tory. It exemplifies how powerful a few Spirit-filled souls may be in the face of seemingly Insuperable diffi culties. It shows how thoroughly God can help us, how thoroughly He keeps His word. It is a revelation ofj what we all might do if we so de-! sired. When the armies met Gideon was outnumbered. When the battle be-j came imminent he was in a hopeless; minority. It was a handful against a; multitude. But the 300 were Spirit! filledr divinely chosen, consecratedj They were without fear, they had; courage. And because they had cour-l age and faith in Almighty God, be-j cause they had trust in the capacity! of their God to deliver the Midianitesj into their hands they were victorions.j And they won by the simplest and easiest of means. They didn’t even have to use their weapons. Then bravery brought consternation to the hearts of the enemy and the rout be came complete. They were stout hearted and victorious because they were Indwelt of the presence of God. God had promised to deliver Mid lan into the hands of Israel. And He kept His word. Without His help the conflict might have resulted dif ferently. But when God helped the victory was assured. It didn’t make any difference whether or not the Midianites and Amalekites were like the grasshoppers for number and their camels as numerous as the sands of the seas when God gave promise and aid. In that contingen cy numbers were a secondary quanti ty and great supplies inconsequen-j tial. For their power was augmented by the personality of God. Theirj strength was in no sense dependent! upon the commissariat. Gideon earned a reputation for consummate intrepidity that night.' His 300 consecrated, divinely com missioned followers enshrined them selves for all time. Their dauntless ness has become historic. They are the epitome of daring. They are sy nonymous with surpassing fearless ness. Now what Gideon did in his way any consecrated soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ may do according to his opportunity and his power. The trou-j ble is that most of us are like the 1 20,000 and more who went back to! their tents. We are without thoj necessary courage. We are too much! consumed with fear. We don’t dare: to dare. And no man can do any thing who lacks heart, who hasn’t nerve. No man certainly can war against the principalities and powers; of the empire of unrighteousness who! has no faith in God, and who is lack-1 ing in a necessary trust in divinity. But putting our faith and trust in! Jehovah we may do anything. For! God trusts those who sincerely put! their trust in Him. He has faith in! the faithful. It could not be other wise. And with Him with us we! need fear no obstacles. Whatever may be the difficulties and oppositions that confront us He will guarantee us the victory if we will do His will.! And we shall find that His methods! are the simplest. We shall find howj utterly cowardly and inefficient are| the forces that oppose us and how lit-! tie it takes to put them altogether to rout. The lesson ought to be an inspira tion to every man who in the name, and for the glory of God and the con servation of the interests of human-’ ity wars against wickedness in any place. It ought especially to be an) inspiration to those who have banded themselves to fight the plunderers in every walk of life are laying plans to, rob the people of their birthrights, as Midian attacked Israel, or who al ready have annexed to themselves the properties and the possessions of the people. For as sure as God lives if] we do God’s will we shall confound them all. And by the most unex-j pected and simple methods. And it will need but a few valiant souls to do it. A host is no more necessary to-day than it was that famous night,’ when Gideon led the 300 against the multitude. It is necessary that we shall have faith in God. That we shall band to gether the men whom God has fitted! to do His holy work. It is necessary! that we shall take our orders froml that Spirit of truth who is the light! of the world and the salvation there-! of and do His bidding and remain) steadfast. For God is helping usJ God has promised us victory as truly as He promised victory to Gideon. Whenever we get discouraged let us look at Gideon. When we are in-: dined to doubt God’s capacity and! promise fulfilling power let us read anew what He did for Israel and for| the endless fame of Gideon. When we think we are few against the 1 hosts of sin that are oppressing us let us receive courage from the victory He insured for Israel. For He is! with us as He was with them. If we trust Him He will trust us. If we will have faith in Him He will glorify us. For the God of yesterday is the same to-day and forever. The Preacher. A preacher's worth in the world is laigely measured by his estimate of what the pulpit should be. —Rev. M. E. Harlan, Church of Christ, Brooklyn.