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I 9 pjj I P ""'MT"" i--->i J&r Br^ Jk-_ 1 k y Jr j fc. J tL. **..... —^-fflb.—-A. * . B ■ ~ ® ''OL I.—NO. 35. Not People, But Persons. “I confess that I hare very little interest in people,” said a clear thinking young man to his friend re cently; “but I have a very great in terest in persons.” That was a sign of growth and insight which some persons never come tv That, indeed, was getting n arer to C >d, who has the intenscst interest in us as persons, and never needs to mass us as people. It is told of an eminent senator of'the United States that he once responded to an invitation to meet a mhn who had suffered from some great injus tice; “I am so much taken up with plans for the benefit of the race that I have no time for individuals.” Juba Wanl llow* the recipient of the re ply, pa. 'd it ir o her album, with the caustic comment; “When last heard from, our Maker had not reached this altitude.” It is well for all of us that He has not and th at it would be no altitude for him. God never generalizes. He takes nobody as one of a mass of men, but he man ages to give each of us all the thought and interest anil care we are capable of individually. As somebody says: “God is so omnipresent that he is all in each place; and, in the space you fill, ho has nothing else to do" but to take care of von.” Here, as elsewhere, Christ is tin adequ: tc disclosure, to us of the di vine method. He was interested iii persons,—that was his great interest. Every soul that came into Lis pres enco seemed to awaken his loving consideration in him. This he*t cjiite. out in the third GospeW-the (' ; 1 of the divine humanity. Thoi - we have the story of our Lord’s life as told us not by one of the aposths, or any associate of any eye witness -of the wonderful life, but by one who had gone among the people Christ bad taught and blessed, to hear from each of them what he had to sav. It is thus a great colection of little gos pels, taken from the lips of many witnesses. It gives us each part of the story from the point of view, not of a disciple attending our Lord, but of the recipients of his healing, h ; teaching, lbs warnings. And each thus bears witness to our Lord's meth od, —to the closeness and kindness o the touch which singled oat each from the crowd in which he seemed to be lost, and laid the loving pres sure of a divine hand on him. Mary ami Martha, Zaccheus, the young man who had great riches, the woman who came behind him in the press, blind Bartimeus ami the rest, named and unnamed, stand out before us with the vividness of personal por traits. Each of them, in a supreme moment, had touched on the life whice made men more alive. Our Lord’s high value for personal individuality comes out also in bis defense of the natural and the spon taneous in human coudu t. He lays down on rules in his teaching. He insists on principles only, and leaves each of his disciples free to work out the application for himself—or espec ially for herself. Mrs. Grundy was a great power even in that simpler con dition of society. She had bound up life in the conventional proprieties of the time, and her dominion bore hard er on women than on men. Men are m ,re able to stand apart from society :and its conventions than women are. Christ vindicates their right to act out the promptings of their own hearts. Not a woman conies near him, but some champion of conven, tion discovers a breach of the pro prieties. All his relations with them were a recognition of a spiritual equality of the sexes, which that age denied. “Let her alone; why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work,” are the substance of a rebuke he must have uttered more than once. It is wiser to follow the heart that is in touch with Christ, than to be one of a crowd and follow it. Our Lord’s dealing w ith Paul is perhaps tL i clearest illustration of his method. lie had been earning the persecutor on bis heart through all those terrible months which followed the death of Stephen, And now on the Damascus highway, face to foet‘ as a man meets his friend, he meets hint, and speaks those worvjs'of giving insight and infinite authority which mastered the man. Aud the Apostle was wakened in that hour, to a more intensely individual existence than fee ever Imd known. Contact with the vivifying Christ made him a fjfee, vigorous, effective personality. He might have lived on as Rabbi Saul, one of the crav'd of uiieetSss tiihmnlic doctors, difining and refining .to the end. Paul, called to apostle by Jesus Christ, is one of the most con crete personalities of history. Every word he speaks and every line he writes has the stamp of a strong character, - strong not in self-reliance, but in reliance upon Christ. That is the divine method still. It deals with persons, not masses. It never generalizes. Wnatever we tuay think of the doctrine of * election, we all must recognize this truth in it. that it emphasizes this side of the divine relation t.o men. God tlpmght of me, known me, has his purposes foi me. never loses sight of mo ih any massing of mankind inbtgroupl. The circumstances of my life were dbosfin !>y him. My needs were foreseen of him. The whole order ot his*provi dential administration ha . been de vised with reference to*n:y spiritual Career. There is no accident any. where, and no sacrifice of ruC t the requirements of pkms for the. general benefit. All things work b-giSher for good to me. What comes to me is meant for me. I could got no more or tenderer care fro.a Go 1 if • there were no other being with whom | that care was to be divided. And all real usefulness in God’s service will be affected in the lines of this personal influence. Edwin- For rest ascribed bis success as an; actor largely to the way in which he dealt with bin audience:".. On cumin ou the stage, be ignored the grclT mass' of people, and selected a single per son in the center of the house, lie tried to realize that person’s existence to himself, and he proceeded to act the play to him and for his bene lit. If once he forgot him, and thought’ of the great mass, whose personality he could not re liz", he lost his hold, Ti;c same* principle holds goo I in the work of the teacher and the preacher, although the application may be different. The pastor preaches well who preaches directly to the known wants of individuals : nioug his people. Dr. Buch&el, of Berlin, tells us that this was the way he ac quired his power to reach and edify his congregation. He reached not only the person he had in mind, but others similarly situated or exercised, of whom he knew nothing. Hence the close relation of pastoral wo±k to pulpit work in the best men. Each mind is a little world of itself. While there are great common ele ments in the spiritual condition of all minds, yet each has its autonomies and its peculiarities, which require recognition. Our Lord had broad messages of repentance and forgive ness for all men. Ho had specific messages also for each man. To one only of the rich men who came within his reach did he say, “.Sell all thou hast, and give to the poor.” One be bids follow him when healed. An other be sends back to friends and home. Everywhere L recognizes the individual element, the personal need. Equally true is this of the wor k of the teacher. Some teachers care only for their subjects, and they often have a briliant but ephemeral success. The deepest influence is that of the teacher who himself has a strong in dividuality, and seeks to evoke the personality of his pupils by the infec tion of his own. He honors their in dividuality,Jand rejoices in every sign of its vigorous growth. Ilis aim in his work is toward the personal, not the abstract. He is not content to find his views reproduced in the utter ances of his pupils any more liar, a shepherd would be. to find grass growing on the sheep’s backs in place of wool. He wishes to evoke life, even although it may come in thej shape of question gud antagonism, j HOMER, BANKS COUNTY, GEORGIA, WEDNESDAY. JANUARY 7,1891. To get men alive is his first aim. “Tunning water,” says Barrow, “will *un itself clear. Stagnant pools never do so.” All this applies with tenfold force To t .c teaching of the Sunday school. It is the personal relation of pupU to teacher which will bridge over the interval from Sunday to Sunday, and make the work .effective by making it continuous. Pitiful must be the teaching which recognizes no link between teacher and class but that of the lesson, however admirably that may be taught. At best, that could amount to a little more than a series of jerks in the right direction, but no continuous drawing toward a divine life. Ii is not a class the true teacher faces, hut a group of young friends, each of infinite worth, and each stand ing for an infinite opportunity of good. To waken each in torn into that wonderful life of tho spirit in which personality is recognized as rooted in God, is the teacher's problem. The work is done only when each is alive unto God through Jesus Christ. The indispensihlt; preparation for that is to he thoroughly so alive for one’s .self. Nothing is so infectious as life, and notliing can help you so well to unfit-!stand the first stirrings of life in dlier spirit. Nothing ’ else can save yon from crushing such begin ning' of life under empty phrases and formulas, which may be true enough in themselves, hut are not tho chan nels.of any spiritual help to those who nee<l your help. Be real above all things, that those who hang on your words may get through you the power of God. When v e look over the broader field of society, whose problems press on us more urgently than ever before, we find tho same principle illustrated everywhere. There are operations even in manufacture too delicate for anything but 'he human hand. The imivt dei'CMlr Ainctiinory id Unequal to them. Sock 1 problems are all of that character. There is no touch that avails but that of the human hand and the human heart. A vast amount of philanthropic force has been wasted in -the effort to solve swell problems let yjmiesalo, by gen eral rules, by th very of mere organization. Iv!, bus come of it. It has le.fl%!*s ’minion of the dependent < lasses . very much as it found them. It often has impaired their self-reliance and weakened their courage. If. was Chalmer’s glory to have opened anew era in dealing with such problems by substituting treatment of persona.for dealing with people. lie gave up wholesale char ity, with all its machinery. He di vided those lie had to care for into small groups, and found for each a care-takes personally interested in their welfare. He thus laid the foundation of that new charity whose maxim is, “Not aims, but a friend. H -rd experience shows that unloving and uninterested giving has done nothing but harden those who receiv ed them. We can escape hurt from gifts only when they come to us in love: “Gifts of one who loved me, ’Twas high time they came; When he ceased to hive me, Time they stopped folm?hame.” So in the development of charity, we have come to the discovery that, it is hard indeed to give rightly, and that we never, do give rightly, until wo give ourselves, our inte-est, or human regards. Not people, but persons, is what we must finely id the poor and the help!esq if wo are to do them any permanent 'good. And along this line of service must come the healing of all social sores.—Bun day School Times. An eminent evangelist said to Dr. CujTer that he bad rarely preached on repentance, because he believed that he could convert more souls by preaching on the love of Christ. Dr. Cuyler replied: “The loving Savior made repentance the key-note of his first ministry.” This statement pro sent* the fundamental error of mod ern evangelism- Repentance is not| in their preaching, and cannot be in their results. Paul’s whole ministry had two items—first, repentance to ward Godj second, faith in Christ. They are indivisible;* to ignore the one is to destroy the other. This ig noring of repentance, or its absence, is the solution of the superficial and short-lived results that follo.w tiieir labors. Second Adventists. Atlanta is to have a church of the Second Adventists. A preacher who teaches that doctrine arrived in the city some days ago and will make Atlanta his home. He is the Rev. John A. Cargile, and lie com os from Steveraoir, Alabama. Bev. Mr. Cargile is a traveling evangelist for the church of the Sec ond Adventists. He preaches the second coming of Christ in any city or town to which he ia called. His home has been in Alabama, but he has six children whom he desires to educate and that is why lie decided to live in Atlanta. “I looked around every where,” said he, “and found that Atlanta had the finest public school system in tho south.” Mr. Cargile is the father of ten children, but four of them are mar ried and will not accompany him to Atlanta. There are several Second Advent ists in /■ tlauta, but no church of that sect ha- ever beer, organized. Of course, if there is to ho a Second Adventist preacher living in the city, Atlanta will have a Second Anventist church. Mr. Cargile states that he has with him a gospel tent which he would erect in Atlanta as soon as the weath er is mild enough. If n large enough membership can be secured a church will lie organized. Mr. Cargile leu\ os for Boston this week,*.chore ho-will preach for two weeks. Ho receives no salary, but lives on wbat is paid him at the meet ings he holds. Tho Second,Adventists are a body of Christians found chiefly in the United States whose distinctive char acteristic is a belief in the speedy advent or second coining of (he Lord Jesus Christ. At present they do not pretend to fix the period of the second advent, but live in expectation of that event. They generally prac tice adult immersion, believe in the necessity of a change of heart and a Godly life, in the ultimate annihila tion of the wicked and of the sleep of the dead until the final judgment,—, Atlanta Journal, It is so little we can really do for one another in tlm march of life. We arc all under marching order:;, and have burdens to carry. There is no ha'll lor noonday dreams nor twi light rest. It is stop, step, step — light onward tiirough dust and com monplace, without music, or banners, or present glory, and yet to each sol dier has been given a canteen tul! of never failing water, a cup of which we may proffer with no fear of a diminished store, all the way through to the end of the long march to the sea. Is our comrade discharged? Do his feet fail and his hands grow heavy? A cheering word, a loving service, a friendly suggestion, born of the desire to help and encourage, will revive him like sparkling water in the desert heat. Such things cost nothing, but not all the gold and diamonds yon could pack into your bundle would match them for solace on the long and dusty march that stretches f.-.r each one ©f us between the cradle and tbe grave,—Amber. Panic and Hoarding. Jay Gould attributes the money tightness to two causes—“hoarding by some from fright, by others for the [>ower of its use, depressing the values of the products of the country.” The situation could hardly, in our judgment, lave been more truly ex pressed in as few words It is unfor tunately the ease that a very few men have it in their power to raise or [depress values for their own auvan- tage. Their speculations involve the whole community, though the great mass of the people have no direct share or interest in them. It is not in the power of the gov ernments, state and national, to de prive these great speculators and millionaires of the means by which they thuspiey upou the people. But governments can change the condi tions that afford them facilities for so doing. They can so increase the curreney as to make the hoarding or withdrawal of a sufficiency of it to greatly affect values or produce a panic a more difficult matter. They can give the country a currency of sufficient elasticity to afford money to buy the crops, independent of the operations of cornererS and hoarders. It is chiefly to prevent this curtail ment of their power that speculators and brokers are united in their oppo sition to any increase oLthe currency, either by coinage or paper issues. The truths expressed by Jay Gould are the utterances of one who “knows.”—Atlanta Journal. Paul was faithful in work. He did not ask whether work was bard or easy. He simply wanted to know it was work that Christ wanted him to do. That settled tho question with him. It is our test, too. To be faithful in our work means to do it, whether men applaud or question. So it comes to pass that in work, fi delity is the measure of our happiness. One cannot always he successful. There arc intervals between seed sowing and harvest. One can always find work, if one cannot always find success. And if one can always find work to do, one can always be faith ful. It is the great universal duty. Faithfulness is the particular charac teristic that is announced as tho stan dard of welcome to heaven.—S. W. Adrianco. The choir ought simply to lead tho worship of the congregation, and aid them in the lofty and edifying ser vice of praise. No other object should he tolerated in the chief sin geis. To do this, their musical talent and skill should be directed to the using of the simplest tunes and the most familiar hymns. The old ones should he often used, and the new ones used till they become old. The choir, as the leader of the congrega tion, and as the repository of a few of the grand old tunes and hymns, to be joined in by the whole congregation, is an institution of much benefit; otherwise considered, it is a travesty on worship and an impertinence and an offense to the occasion. “The End” Predicted. A convention of Sanctionists, Faith Believers, Christian Scientists, and Second Adventists, at Blufftou, Ohio, has been discussing the question of “the second coming of Christ.” All the speeches and talk were to the effect that the end of worldly things was at hand, and probably during the new year Christ would come to set up his personal kingdom on the earth. In the opinion of the delegates, all the signs foretold in the scriptures indica ted the speedy coming of the Savior. The convention is largely attended and the proceedings intensely inter esting. It will remain in session until the dawn of the new year.—Atlanta Journal. Our neighbor is entitled to at least as much charitable consideration as we give to ourselves. One who uncharitably condemn his neighbor for differing with him, cannot rightly have charity for himself for differing with his neighbor. Many persons seem to feel a meritoriousness for condemning without charity theiro wn bygone follies. But their tone is altogether changed with respect to their present position. In a spirit of fuirmindedness wt sometimes concede that wc may he wiong, but we have no hard words to condemn ourselves for the possibility. Our present con viction, even il it ultimately prove to he an error, always secirv: io us ex cusable. Now, if it he excusable m SINGLE COPY THREE CENTS. us, is not our neighbor’s present posi tion likewise excusable on his part and has he not precisely the same claim upon our charity that ws have upon our own? Are we an allopathist, a protectionist, an antiritualist? it is inexplicable to ns how another cau be a homoeopathigt, a free-trader, a ritualist. And yet there are few of us who have not turned summersaults in thes or similar realms of conviction. Our antagonist may yet stand just where we do, and we may' stand just where he does. The charity with which we shall judge ourselves then, is the charity with which we should judge him now.—Sunday School Times. Every day and every hour there appears in the lives of most of us mysteries which we cannot fathom, problems which we cannot solve. Let us trust where wo do not under stand; let us not look backward too much to our losses, and question why we were so bereft; nor earthward to our crosses, aud ask why we are so tried; but rather onward to the future, which is in God’s hands; onward and upward to the blessed time when those that are faithful arid endure unto the end shall be saved from all per plexity and death forevermore; shall see no longer through a glass darkly, but in tho sunshine of God’s presence shall see face to face, shall know' as they are known. One reason why it is so difficult to be rich and to be religious is because tlio pursuit and increase of money ia so engaging, and demands so much of energy, vigilance and effort that it engrosses the whole time, thought and labor. To be successful in relig ion makes tire same exacting demands on time, energy, and effort; and no man has the double force to expend. He is torn and distracted by two masters. He cannot serve both; ser vice for the one impoverishes effort and strength and interest for the other. God’s work is quint. Man’s work is* noisy. Growth is silent. Tito mighty trees of the forest advance, season after season, in quietness, but when a few acres of timber are felled t 'ere is much of excitement and noise. The temple was built with out the sound of implements of toil. In the spiritual house that is really prospering there is not much of out ward demonstration. It “groweth,” quietly and surely, “uuto a holy tem ple in the Lord.”—Christian Inquir er. It is our own paßt whioh has made us what we are. IVe are the chil dren of our own deeds. Conduct has created character; acts have grown into habits; each year lias pressed into us a deeper moral print; the lives we have led have left us such as we are to-day.—l)r. Dykes. I pray you with all earnestness, to prove and know within your hearts that all things lovely and righteous arc possible for those who believe in their possibility, and who determine that, for their part, they will make everyday’s work contribute to them. —Ruskin. The gospel can only bo moved by the mightic -t divine lorcejj; hut half hearted, feeble human forces cannot, secure the divine forces. God doea not kindle the divino tire on ice, neither is the divine energy vouch safed to listless hands. The Holy Ghost is not given as the ally of our laziness, nor to override our indiffer ence. He comes to inflame our fire, to re-enforce our energy; as our con federate and partner he- does his mighty work. Kate Field tells tin's about a finish ed p;oduct of a young ladies’ semina ry: biie looked long mu' kviierestedly through the big telescope at the bright planet which the professor had told r.er was Venus, and theu she said: “O isn't it perfectly lovelyf \ plcaao show uu> Adonis.”