Newspaper Page Text
Banks County Gazette.
VOL 1.-NO. 41.
LIFE’S CHANGES.
BY MRS. L. A. DOEOUGH.
Mutation is written upon every
thing earthly. The flowers bloom in
the bright spring time, but when win
ter’s chilling blast cornea they fade,
drop and die. The lofty oaks, though
they loDg defy the stormy blasts, at
last submit and crumble to dust. All
nature however fair and happy are
but jewels to deck the coroncl of Old
Time.
To-day we see those who are the
idol of many a fond mother’s heart,
and the pride of many a father's bos
om, those in whom are centered many
fond hopes, but a few years pass and
those forms so graceful with strength
and beauty change. The light elastic
step is exchanged for the measured
tread of age; the bright sparkling
eye looses its accustomed brightness;
the ruby lip is pale and the heart,
the most changable of all our nature,
pulsates slowly. Its hopes are all
withered, its day-star tied, and life
itself changed to bitterness and de
spair.
A bright eyed, sunny-haired maiden
stands on the threshold of life with
the future full of hope and promise.
“Love’s young dream,” “the light that
ne’er was on sea or land,” caf. ts every
object with the ros) hues of romance
and poetry. A decade passes and the
golden tresses are threaded with sil
ver. Memory sets enthrowned where
once hope reigned alone. She found
the world once so alluring—a delus
ion, and her pathway from girlhood
to womanhood is strewn with the
fragments of broken vows and be
trayed trusts. She has found the cup
of pleasure, so eagerly sought, but
worm-wood.
“Dark despair mockingly asks
Where are all thy bright hopes fled,
Hopes that on thy life’s young path
way,
Once immortal,glory shed.”
But God never changes. Amid
the wreck of human hopes the “Rock
of Ages” is still a refuge for the storm
tossed soul.
Faith points upwards. The mid
night gloom of sorrow is succeeded
l>y the cheering beams of the “Sun
of righteousness.”
“All things of earth shall pass away,
But ne’er shall pass my love,
Were words of deep but sweet import
That come from heaven above.”
How a thing is said, is only second
in importance to what is said, by' a
speaker. The same word may tell
for good or for ill, according to the
tone in whicli it is spoken. Both
character and spirit express them
selves in the voice; and he who Las
not learned how to use his voice
effectively, is as yet without one of
the most potent of human agencies
for the controlling and influencing
of mankind. In his admirable little
volume on “The Voice in Speech and
Song,” Mr. Theodore E. Scbmauk
multiplies illustrations of this iinjior
tant truth. lie quotes Professor
Mahaffy as saying that “the old
Greeks set it down as an axiom that
a loud or harsh voice betokened bad
breeding,” and that “Contrariwise
nothing attracts more at first hearing
than a soft, sweet tone of voice;”
which “is to be classed with personal
beauty, which disposes every one to
favor the speaker, and listen to him
or her with sympathy and attention.”
He notes the suggestion of Dr. Holmes
that, other things being equal, a very
sensitive man would live from two to
three years longer with a woman
who has a very agreeable voice, round,
mellow, cheery, and a charming ar
ticulation, than with one whose voice
is pitched a full tone too high, and
which, being aggressive and disturb
ing, would wear out a nervous man
without his ever knowing the reason
why. And a point of practical im
portance, which Mr. Schmauk em
phasises, is, “it is a great mistake to
think that perfect habits of speech
come naturally.” Ruskin insists
that “elocution is a moral faculty,
and that no one is fit to be the head
of a children’s school who is not both
by nature and attention a beautiful
speaker.” Every moral faculty can
be cultivated, and it ought to be.
All of us could use our voices to bet
ter advantage than we do, and it is
our duty to do so. If we were to
speak as we might and should, we
should have greater power for good
over others.—Sunday School Times.
A Story of The War.
A story which began during the
war has an interesting sequel which
has just been made known. Dr. J. A.
Mathews, one of Hartwell's most
prominent physicians, was a surgeon
in the confederate army. One day
hq chanced to see a private soldier
trudging along on a weary march with
have feet and almost destitute of cloth
ing. The sympathy of the surgeon
was at once enlisted in behalf ot the
poor fellow. The . surgeon bailed
him, and taking the best pair of hoots
that he had, he generously gave
them to the barefooted man, who
thanked him with tears in his eyes.
The war clouds finally rolled away.
The surgeon and private both sur
vived the dangers and hardships of
camp and battlefield, and returned
to their homes, distant from each
other in different sections of this
state. The incident above narrated
was soon forgotten by the surgeon;
but not so by the soldier, whose
heart never ceased to beat with love
and gratitude for the one who bad
succored him in need and distress.
The years passed on, and although
the soldier had made diligent search
for the home of the surgeon, and dur
mg the many long years ceased not
to inquire of friends who visited
northeast Georgia, if they had seen or
heard of Dr. Mathews, his wherea
bouts remained a secret to him.
But after nearly all hope had fled,
and the faithful soldier had despaired
of ever being able in this life to re
ciprocate the kiudneSs shown him,
only a few months ago lie was acci
dentally put upon a track that led to
the discovery of tho home of the old
array surgeon.
A correspondence was begun at
once between the soldier and surgeon.
Years were crowded into moments,
and the happy incident of a quarter
or a century ago was made fresh
again.
And now Dr Mathews can he
seen any day on the streets of Hart
well, his feet encased in a perfectly
lifting pair of fine French calf boots,
recently received from the soldier
w'ho had never forgotten his act of
kindness in the days that tried men's
hearts, ns well as souls.
The barefoot soldier is now one of
the wealthiest planters of southwest
Georgia.
Wluit Need We Fear.
If the Bible be truly the word of
God to man, there is no corrosive
known to scholarship strong enough
to eat away its substance. We be
lieve that out of this conflict of opin
ion and war of words now raging
around the Bible it is destined to
emerge more precious in the estimate
of honest men and thoughtful minds
than ever. Many bitter things have
been said about this book, first and
last, but there is one thing that never
has been said against it. No one, so
far as I know, ever ventured to call
the Bible a weak book. Virility pen
etrates every page of it. For any
slightest trace of feebleness we
search the Scriptures to no purpose.
But here is my argument in briefest
compass: First. The world cannot
live, at least cannot live contentedly,
without religion. Secondly. Relig
ion cannot live without records.
Thirdly. Among such records the
Christian Scriptures, even hv-the con
fession of unfriendly critics, stand
supreme. The Bible, as we have it
to day, is an accomplished fact.
Speculate •ml investigate with re
spect to its origin as much as you
please, here still it is confessedly the
most marvelous book known to man.
It stands out before your eyes like a
great tree with a contour and a sym
metry of its own, and we might as
HOMER, RANKS COUNTY, GEORGI A, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1801.
well attempt to kill the tree by criti
cism as to make aw, y with the Bible
by philosophy.*—Rev. Win. Hunting
ton, D. D.
#
Happy People.
More than ever am I convinced of
the necessity of showing to the world
that we enjoy life in being fully the
Lord's Especially do I feel this ne
cessity when I speak to scores of
young men about getting saved, and
hear them reply, saying, “No; I
shan’t have any thing to do with re
ligion; it’s only fit for old women and
sick folks. 1 am going into the
world to enjoy life. 1 have enough
to bother and trouble mv brains with
without being religious. Let me
have the theater, the ball-room, the
bar-room, or gambling saloon.” Such
impressions, methinks, are made on
hundreds of young people starting
in life, all through the people of God
failing to show by their lives that
salvation is a happy experience. We
can all praise God for the thousands
at present in the Salvation Army
whose daily experience is they never
knew what life was until they found
salvation; previous to which thev,
scores of times, wished they had
never beet born.
I have known people opposed to
our work, say, “Well, I don’t go in
with those people, but one tiling that
impresses me i-, they are a happy
lot of people.” Thank God for this
grand argument in our favor. In a
meeting I was conducting a short
time ago an unsaved person said: “It
makes me miserable to look at this
platform of happy faces.” Knowing
that the world is seeking life and hap
piness, God help us more tlmn ever
to leave the impression wherever we
go that we salvation soldiers enjoy
life.
Are you clensed from all indwell-,
ing sin? Have you made a full stir-"
render of all to Gad, realizing that
self-seeking, self-motives, sefishness,
or self, is completely crucified? If
Hot, you cannot manifest this blessed
expectance to neighbors, shop-mates,
and the world at large. How essen
tial it is that every soldier should
show that to him that lifers a reality,
and that all he says, sings, and prays
about, is real; that the burning hell
that awaits the sinner is no cunningly
devised fahle; and that the throne of
judgment is a living truth; that the
Lamb on Calvary, with all his self
sacrificing love, and the heaven he
has opened to all who will enter, is
what we feel in our inmost souls to be
a living reality. And undoubtedly
everlasting impressions will lay hold
of those we come in contact with, and
very possibly they wall be led to Christ.
May every comrade irr this warfare
ever realize he is in possession of this
well of water springing up unto ever
lasting life; and may those who are
still dead to the realities of life and
salvation rise from their graves to all
the life of God.—The War Cry.
Edward gverett Hale, in the Cos
mopolitan, says: “I once .asked the
chief of a great Temperance Home
how one could work to destroy the
craving for liquor. He looked at me
with some surprise that a man in my
profession should ask such a question,
and said at once: ‘No man ever be
comes temperate himself unless he
tries to make someone else temper
ate.’ In a fashion I had known this,
as every preacher of Christianity
must know it; it is a doctrine laid
down in the Gospels in a hundred
forms, hut I had never used it as a
working formula, nor had f recom
mended it to other people as I have
done since. Let me sav this to any
person trying to reform a relative or
friend, you must introduce this desire
to help forward somebody else or
your work will not stand long. Your
protege need not speak at temperance
meetings if he does not want to, but
do you take care that he is doing
something in the general cause of
purity—t at he is thinking of some
one beside himself. We do not at
tain parity by thinking of impurity.
We do not attain -to teinperauce by
thinking of intemperance. Give him
a high tnotive and you have so far
lifted him from the plane on which
he slipped and fell. An old wise
friend, who is still living under the
not cold shadow of fourscore and ten,
inculcating practical morals, said to
me once: ‘You are interested in tem
perance; I will you to save tnen from
drunkenness.’ And when I eagerly
asked the secret, he replied, by say
ing: ‘Make them plant trees, make
them plant trees! So soon as they
are interested in the growth of anv
thing else they will be led outside
themselves, and they will not have
time to be drunk!”
Frau Sophie Salvanius, an able
German woman of letters, has issued
an appeal to her country women to
those national modes of education
which consider girls simply as future
wives and housekeepers. Their pres
ent training, she says, leaves German
women without individuality, and
with pitifully low ideals of life.
Endeavor to always be patient of
the faults and imperfections of others,
for thou hast many faults and imper
fections of tliiue own that require a
reciprocation of forbearance. If thou
art not able to make thyself that
which thou wishest to be, how canst
thou expect to mold another in con
formity to thy will?—Thomas Kcm
pis.
Sincerity Not Enough.
Sincerity of purpose is very well, as
far as it goes; but sincerity-of ptrpose
docs not secure correctness of opin
ion with consquent rectitude of con
duct. A man may be sincere in lus
belief that communism and anarchy
are a better basis of society than any
on which an existing government is
founded; but his sincerity on these
points does not in itself make him a
godd citizen. Sincerity in the realm
; morals or of religion is no safer
guide than in the realm of politics.
To show that a man was sincere in all
his life-course is to show that he did
not intend to be wrong or to do wrong
but it does not show that he was
right in liis opinions correct in his
conduct. There is such a thing as
giving too much credit to a man sim
ply on ilie ground of his unmistak
able sincerity.— Western Christian
Advocate.
The inotto adopted by the Daugh
ters of the American Revolution, of
which organization Mrs. Harrison is
president, is “Amor Patrice”.—“love
of country”; the insignia either a tea
pot or a spinning-wheel, and the fig
ure of a maid of 1770 as the device
upon the badge. The association’s
aim is to perpetuate the record of tlie
Historical deeds of women of the
revolution.
There are moments w hen the un
seen things of eternity come more
clearly within the range of spiritual
sight and stamp their image upon our
souls, as the sunlight transfers and
traces tbo Ihies of the human face on
the prepared plate of the artist. There
are times when the deepest solitudes
of the hidden life of the spiritual
soul are invaded' by strange and un
usual feelings, as if they wore origina
ting under the magic of the presence
of some order of superior spirtual be
ings.—Rev. T. O. Boone.
Temptation is perilous, but tempta
tion yielded to is destructive. We
rnay well shrink from being brought
into temptation; but if we are in
temptation there is yet a possibility
of deliverance from its power. For
that deliverance we have a right to
cry to God.
It is true that the pernicious influ
ence of the saloon comes, in the main,
from the business in which it is en
gaged. It is a bad place because it
is a place where intoxicating drinks
are sold. But it is also true that the
saloon is an evil in itself. An influ
ence for evil is exerted which comes
not from drinking, but from the saloon
as an institution. It is an evil, not
apart or separate from, but in addi
tion to that of intoxicating drinks.
The use of intoxicants as a beverage,
bad in itself, is made worse by the
manner in which they are provided
for the public. Independently of,
and over and above all the evils which
flow from strong drink in itself, we
have ttie stupendous evil of the meth
od in which tho public demand is
supplied. For this, certainly, there
is no necessity. If the drunkenness
that prevails to so fearful an extent
cannot be suppressed, if the great
army composed of men who are rap
idly confirming themselves in the
drinking habit, and rushing to their
own ruin and to that of their families,
cannot be subject to any v, holesome
restraint, it would seem that some
remedy ought to be provided for the
incalculable evils of the method by
which our laws provide for the grati
fication of this appetite.—National
Presbyterian.
There are no moral blanks; there
are no neutral characters. We are
either the sower that sows and cor
rupts, or the light that splendidly
illuminates and the salt that silently
operates; but being dead or alive,
eyerv man speaks.—Chalmers.
Worshipers are rare, hearers and
church attendants are more plentiful.
But we will not got earth nearer
heaven till we have a royal genera
lion of worshipers. An exchange
puts it this way: “What we want is
a race of Christians who shall as natu
rally worship Christ as they delight
in the sunshine, or lift up their hearts
to heaven in the song of the lark. But
what do we find? Too often a race
of anxious seekers after truth, or
mere idolaters of forms and cere
monies, or wrangling disputants about
theological figments, or worldly, flesh
ly creatures who call themselves
Christian, but differ from lion-chris
tians simply in going to church on
Sundays.”
The tiling to do is the thing that
can be done. Many men spoil their
usefulness by forgetting this fact.
Wasting their energy in attempting
to accomplish impossible tasks, they
neglect the really practicable enter
prises to which they ought to turn
their hands. Ideals are not to be con
demned. They prevent us from grov
eling; they keeji the spirit of aspira
tion struggling within us. So far they
are good. But if they make us impa
tient of actual conditions and unwil
ling to discharge providential tasks,
their worth is seriously discounted.—
Nashville Christian Advocate.
God keeps the books. The account
will be correct, and the smallest credit
entered. Tne New York Evangelist
says: “Faithful work for our Master
is never done in vain, however much
both the work and the worker may
bo overlooked in their day. The day
of compensation, though it m\y seem
long delayed, will certainly come, arid
then the results of the work of many
an unknown but faithful laborer will
assume far greater proportions than
that of those who, if their work was
done in a corner, could not bear thut
the world should remain ignorant of
it, and thus destroyed all the real
viitue that was in it, by their irrepres
sible ostentation,”
My experience of life makes me
sure of one thing which 1 do not try
to explain—that the sweetest happi
ness we ever know comes not from
love but from sacrifice—from the
effort to make others happy .-O’Reilly.
The virtuo of a man ought to be
measured, not by extraordinary exer
tions, but by Ins every day conduct
—Pascal.
True as gospel. The Central Pres
byterian comes at the main point
squarely. It says: “The truth is, that
there seems to be a craze in certain
quarters for human machinery within
the church. There seems to l>e a
want of confidence in the efficacy of
the agencies and means winch our
Lord has instituted. It is a subtle
SINGLE COPY THREE CENTS*
form of unbelief creeping into the
churdi. What we need is not more
machinery, ‘Seek and Save’ societies,
‘Societies of Christian endeavor,’ etc.,
but more diligent use of the means
and agencies divinely appointed, and
more fervent prayer for the power of
the Holy Spirit to repder these means
and agencies effectual.”
None so little enjoy life and are
such burdens to themselves as those
who have nothing to do. The active
only have the true relish of life. He
who knows not what it is to labor,
knows not what it is to enjoy. Rec
reation is only valuable as it unbends
us. The idle know nothing of it. It
is exertion that renders rest deligh
ful and sleep sweet and undisturbed.
The happiness of life depends on the
regular prosecution of some laudable
purpose or calling, which engages,
helps, and enlivens all our powers.—
New York Ledger.
The heart-rending accounts of fam
ine in Silesia continue to horrify
everybody. Pastor Klein telegraphs
that the misery in the country about
Glatz is indescribable. The cold is
increasing, and there is no work and
no money to be had. In Pastor Klein’s
parish seventeen children have died
for want of nourishment since Christ
mas. The price of broadstuffs and
meat is twenty per cent higher in
Glatz than in the neighboring Aus
trian provinces, and whole families
of weavers—father, mother, and chil
dren—can hardly make one mark
per day.
Once in an hour of great peril an
officer showed such courage that his
wife afterward said to him, “How
could yo l help being afraid?” He
drew iiis sword, and rested the point
at her heart, ‘‘How can you smile?”
lie said., “Because,” she answered,
“he who holds the sword loves mo
better than his life.” It is the same
with me,” he said, as he returned tho
sword to its sheath. “He who holds
the winds in the hollow of his hands
loves me infiinitely.”
The winter in Europe is intensely
cold, November and December hav
ing been colder than for twenty-one
years, and January being even colder.
Three bobies of persons frozen to
death were picked up on the morn
ing of the Btli in the streets of Lon
don. The Seine is two-thirds covered
with ice, with a prospect of being en
tirely frozen over. The Rhone is
frozen over. The cold weather ex
tends into Africa, the hills of Tunis
being covered with snow. Six thou
sand men are employed in clearing
the immense amount of snow from
tho streets of Vienna. In Kentucky
the winter, so far, has been a mild
one.
Unavailing regret, cherished sor
row and remorse, are, next to sin, the
greatest hinderanoes to usefulness.
Ney, to brood continually over a silt
or sorrow until ambition is unwinged
and noble purposes shorn of their
strength is itself sin. The divine
Father’s will concerning his children
is manifestly that they shall be useful
and happy. Whatever interferes with
this purpose is wrong—a sin. The
morbidly sorrowful and remorseful
man mars his usef dness. To be hap
py, therefore, is a duty.—Cumberland
Presbyterian.
When a debate is carried on by
two honest and intelligent men, with
the sole purpose of getting at the
truth, it may yield very valuable re
sults. The great majority of debates,
however, .originate in mere partisan
zeal, and are animated by anything
but a truth-seeking spirit. The con
testant s set out to win a victory, at and
pay little heed to the demands of
Christian ethics in pursuing this end.
—Nashville Christian Advocate.
1 love that tranquillity of soul in
which we feel tho blessing of exist
ence, and which in itself is a prayer
and a thanksgiving.—Longfellow.