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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.