Newspaper Page Text
Banks County Gazette.
VOL I.— NO. 16.
Workers Must Be Thinkers.
In business, manufacturing, and
farming, the man of mere muscle is
not worth as much as an ox. We can
not compete with animals in their
specialities. In religious work the
hand and mouth need a brain of fine
fiber and complex convolutions. Our
busy, blustering age often mistakes
activity for usefulness. Chaucer hit
one of our characters exactly when he
said of one that he “seemed busier
than he was.” Aimless shooting is
more dangerous to our neighbors
than to the deer.
If the present wave of enthusiasm
for work produces nothing but three
line “testimonies” that cost no
thought, it will pass unfruitful and
leave disgust. Witnessing is honor
able and important, but it must be
from first-hand knowledge. The
courts do not give weight to rumors.
Happily for the future church, study
is given a front place.
Christian work means teaching Bi
ble truth. Therefore, the workers
must learn what is in the Bible. When
one is in battle it is no time to mould
bullets and oil rusty locks. Infidels
assail the Bible, and we must he able
to give a reason for our hope. There
are reasons and wj must know them.
I'ietv being assumed, knowledge is
the next source of power. Unbelief is
ignorance. The cure for darkness is
light. Our young people could well
afford to study the evidences of
Christian revelation. Most of all, let
them study the Bible itself. The best
proof of a lamp’s light-giving quality
is to show it lighted.
Christian work is to promote God's
kingdom. Therefore our young peo
ple need not know w hat the kingdom
is in its Bible orgin, historical career
and present aspects.
Christian work touches poverty as
Christ did But unthinking, ignorant
charity leads to the result of cruelty.
Indiscriminate alms-giving fills a land
with feeble paupers and poud patrons.
It is not easy to help a weak brother
without degrading him. In the fu
ture w e shall study justice to the wage
earner quite as much as charity.
The vices a Christian loaths arc
choked by earnest thought. The
idle mind is the devil’s workshop.
Where wheat is growing, weeds are
held down, but rag weeds triumph
over stubbles. It was into the swept
and garnished empty room that seven
demons came. The power to think
is the power to rule. As the meek
ai e to inherit the earth, let saints give
themselves a princely education.
Cloistered saintliness belongs not to
our times.
Grace church, in Philadelphia, is
doing a prophetic work with its col
lege. Chautauqua is a sign of hope.
Soul-saving and soul-illumination are
parts of one divine process. Mate
rialism threatens to drown our civili
zation; but it is more a product of
animalism and narrow thinking than
of natural science. To expel it, give
us more light and on higher themes.
—Rev. C. K. Henderson, in Light of
the Valley.
Where Christ brings his cross he
brings his presence; and where he is
none are desolate, and there is no
room for despair. And he knows his
own, so he knows how to comfort
them, usiDg sometimes the very grief
itself, and straining it to a sweetness
of peace unattainable by those ignor
ant of sorrow.—E. B. Browning.
Comfort in Affliction.
It was a sad affliction. Death is
nearly always sad; but in this case a
mother was robbed of her only boy.
She was eleven years a wife before
she was a mother; then the baby
came to bless her. She welcomed
him as a gift from God. Boy of her
love. Boy of her heart Boy of her
hopes. Dear boy! Dearer to her
than she could tell. But now, at
four years, he was dead. Dead ! How
much that means! Some do not
know, but she knew. Many know.
All will know.
The minister heard of her affliction,
and went to comfort her. Her lips
quivered as she said: “I don’t under
stand it. My own life and my hus
band’s were made better and happier
by the coming of our boy to ns. I
tried to teach him wbat was right,
and beautiful, and good, and now he
is taken from us. We are left all
alone. Ido not see why he should
be taken.”
So it is. We do not see—our tears
blind us. We do not know, but God
knows. Mayhap, with our friends
all here, our thoughts are too much
on earth; but if some of them are
there, our tuoughts will go toward
those we love, and the heaven which
their presence enriches and endears.
And thinking of the heaven, we shall
more surely long to go there our
selves, and more certainly make the
necessary preparation. Any way, God
knows why the sorrow and where
fore. And for all the afflicted there
is a balm, a solace, a comfort, hope,
joy even. “Weeping may endure
for a night, but joy cometh in the
morning”—joy for this mother when
she shall clasp her boy again in her
arms, and fold tq her bosom the im
mortal, whose life on earth was snort,
but whose life in heaven shall be
eternal, and comfort for all the sor
rowing sons and dauhters ot the Lord
Almighty.
“Comfort ye, comfort ye, my peo
pie!” saith your God. The Father
will have them comforted, lie re
members them in sorrow. He hears
their cries, sobs; sees their tears,
’knows their griefs, and he is God,
Father, Friend. To trust him, to love
him, to adore him, to serve him, and
to wait his own time for the vindica
tion of his providences to us,will bring
us that for which we wait, and the
heaven and friends for which we
long.—Western Advocate.
There is much truth in the follow
ing: “The end of church music is not
to attract an audience and fill the
house, but to praise God. If the
leaders of the singing remembered
this, they would, in many cases, make
a different selection of music;. if the
choir remembered this, they would
not regard their part in worship with
so much levity; if the congregation
remembered this, they would sing
‘with the spirit and understanding.”’
Kejoiee Always.
A doctor who was strolling through
the woods near Jacksonville, Fla.,
came upon a negro who was sitting
upon the fence singing.
You seem to he happy, old man,
said the doctor.
Well, sah, I ain’t got nothin’ to
’plain erbout.
Do you know that yellow fever is
raging all around you ?
Oughter know it, sar, when I dun
buried my wife yestidy.
Then, how can you sit around hero
and sing?
Dish yere’s God’s worl’ ain’t it?
I suppose so.
An’ I b’longs ter God, doan I ?
Yes.
Well, if de Lawd puts it into my
heart 10 sing, I doan see why I ough
ter keep my mouf shet.
Are you not afraid to take the fever?
What’s de use of bein’ erf raid ?
Ef de Lawd wants me ter take it, I
will; ef he doan’ I ain’t, dat’s all; an’
sides dat, I ain’ gwino ter take it no
quicker ef I sings. I lay cf vo go
round dat town now, you’ll fin mos’
o’ de folks whut’s got de feeber didn’t
sing ertall.—Evangelical Messenger.
A man who has so much to do that
he wilt work nights and Sundays, as
well as week-days, is not likely to do
as much in the long run as the man
who rests at God’s appointed times,
in order to fit himself for effective
work between these times. Many a
busy man breaks down a great deal
earlier than he needs to, because he
insists on working when rest is his
first duty. And many a man who
observes God’s law of the night and
the Sabbath, written in man’s very
nature, accomplishes far more in a
series of years than he could have
wrought with any violation of that
nOMER, HANKS COUNTY, GEORGIA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25,1891.
law. Mr. Gladstone, speaking, not
long ago, of his own experiences*in
busy life, said of the high privilege
of “Sunday rest:” “Personally, I
have always endeavored, so far as
circumstances have allowed, to avail
myself of this privilege; and now that
I have arrived near the goal of a la
borious public career of close on fifty
seven years, I attribute in great part
to this practice the prolonging of my
life, and the preservation ef my fac
ulties.” A true man can do more in
six days than he can in seven, week
by week; as he can do more in six
teen hours than in twenty-four, day
by day, for a lifetime.—Sunday
School Times.
Be, not try to be, but be Christians.
What we want to be is not to look
Christians, or to pretend Christians,
or to profess Christians. Take an
anagram: read it from the right or
Iron) the left, or from the top or from
the bottom, it reads the same thing.
Take a Christian: look at him at one
angle, or look at another angle; look
at him in any light or iu any direction,
and lie is a Christian still.—Cumming.
Only the ideal is the truly real.
The tilings that are unseen are eter
nal because they are the verities.
Mathematical science is accounted
the ideally exact science because it
deals with numerically measurable
quntities. And yet no mathematician
oversaw the absolute straight line,
or circle, or ellipse, about which he
reasons, and on which he founds so
many formulas and establishes so
many rules for practice in the life
that is seen and is temporal. The
right line and the circle are unseen
and eternal. The efforts to make
them visible to mortal eyes are abor
tive and perishable. The eternal
verities are not apprehended by the
eve of sense. We vyalk. by failh, not
by sight.—Sunday School Times.
The Christian at Work, comment
ing on the alarming prevalence of
gambling in England, says: “It is to a
precisely similar condition of things
that we are drifting in this country.
What with our Ives Pool laws, the
encouragement given to the gambling
practice by our professedly moral
newspapers in their ‘tips on the
races,’ and the recognition extended
to the same practice by many other
wise respectable men, it will not be
long before the curse will have as
strong a grip upon us as it has
has upon the English people.
It is high time that the intelligent and
Christian sentiment of the country
was stirred up with reference to this
subject.” The church helps this drift
by its gambling schemes to raise
money.
It Lasts'
The peculiarity of Christianity is
the strong personal tie of real love
and intimacy which will bind men to
the end of time to this man that died
nineteen hundred years ago. We
look back into the waste of antiquity;
the mighty names rise there that we
reverence; the great teachers from
whom we have learned, and to whom,
after a fashion, we are grateful. But
what a gulf there is between us and
tne best and the noblest of them !
But here is a dead man who to-day is
the object of passionate attachment
and love deeper than life to millions
of people, and will be to the end of
time. There is nothing in the whole
history of the world the least like
that strange bond which ties you and
me to Christ, and the paradox of the
apostle remains a unique fact in the
experience of humanity: “Jesus
Christ, whom, having not seen, ye
love.” We stretch our hands across
the waste, silent centuries, and there
amid the mist of oblivion, thickening
round all other figures in the past, we
touch the warm, throbbing heart of
our friend, who lives forever and for
ever is near us. We here, nearly two
millenniums after the words fell on
the nightly air on the road to Geth
semane, have them coming direct to
our hearts. A perpetual bond unites
men with Christ to-day; aud for us,
as truly as in.that long past paschal
night, it is true, “Ye are my friends.”
There are no limitations in that
friendship, no misconstruction in that
heart, no alienation possible, no
change to be feared. There is abso
lute rest for us there. Why should I
bo solitary if jesus Christ is my
friont]? \\ hy should any thing be
burdensome if he lays it upon me and
help me to bear it? What is there
in life that cannot bo faced and borne
—ay, and conquered—if we have him,
as we all may have lum, for the
friend and the home of our hearts.—
Dr. Maclaren.
An expedition is about to explore
the famous death valley of California.
It is thought extensive deposits of
valuable minerals may be discovered
there. Death Valley is about eight
miles broad by thirty-five long. The
thermometer never varies from 125
degrees, no clouds aro ever seen, no
dew or rain ever falls, a dead animal
uever decays but dries up, and neither
man, nor beast ever enters the valley.
Ip some places noxious gases come
from the crevices in the rocks. This
would seem to be a place to be
avoided no matter what metals may
be there.
Skipping The Hard Places.
Many persons do not look on re
ligion as an entirety. They select
the easy points and pass those that
are difficult. It does not occur to
them that the system is a unit, and
so linked togother that it cannot be
separated into items, and part ac
cepted and performed and tho other
part neglected with impunity. We
inquired of an active and thorough
going Church worker, whom we
knew hated with a bitter spirit some
members of her own Church, what
she did with that petition of the
Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive our tres
passes as we forgive t ose who tres
pass against us.” She replied with
readiness, “I skip it.” Few persons
would make such a candid acknowl
edgment of the fact. This case is
representative of a class who are in
no sense insincere, but who deem
tnat a full measure of work at other
points will atone for neglect, or the
skipping over what, in their present
spirit, is to them an impracticable
performance.
In talking with a Church member
of some prominence and of business
position in a way to call his attention
to his irregulai ities, his reply was a
virtual admission of the facts; but he
parried the attack, and excused his
course by saving, that he did so much
in the way of supporting the church,
that on account of his liberal contribu
tions, bis failures at other points
would be excused.
This is but the abominable Kotnan
Catholic doctrine of works of superer
ogation by which the gravest defects
at one point are covered by the full
or over-measure of doing at others—
a doctrine declared, not too strongly,'
by our discipline, to be arrogancy
and impiety.—Advocate.
Inconsistent legislation.
The State of Tennessee has some
very stringent Sunday laws. Under
these laws a number of Adventists,
who observe tho seventh’ day as a
period of lest, have been subjected
to indictment, trial, and penalty for
working ia their fields on tho first
day of the week. As to the abstract
propriety of such legislation we have
our own belief. The civil law cannot,
of course, constrain any man’s con
science; but it may, without lining
charged with tyranny or oppression
require small minorities of the citizens
of the commonwealth to avoid any
outward acts offensive to the feelings
and rights of the great majority.
But the thing that puzzles us is
this: Why should a few obscure far
mers. who arc conscientious in refus
ing to comply with the demands of
the general sentiment, be dealt wiih
so severely, when great corporations
are allowed the utmost liberty? Our
railroads not only run the regular
mail trains on the Lord’s day, but
they also send out the freight trains
just as on any other day of the week,
thus imposing upon the consciences
of their employees, many of whom
are Christian men, a very heavy bur
den. Why this inequality ? We are
very well aware of the fact that we
have no right to ask for civil legisla
tion in the interests of Christianity as
such. Nor are we seeking to do any
thing of the kind. We are simply
pointing out what seems to us to be a
very gross inconsistency in our stat
utes. If the rural communities of the
state arc to be protected against the
scandal of a little plowing on the
Lord’s day, why should not the whole
state be protected against Sunday
freight trains ? There is a great army
of sturdy and honest workmen, whose
dependent families force them to stick
to their tasks, but who would give no
small sura if they could get a weekly
rest. Nashville, (Tenn.) Christian
Advocate.
Many Christians die well, as peni
tent sinners, whose lives have been
greatly entangled, and which have
borne only imperfect fruit. The long
suffering and compassionate mercy of
God is exhaustless; aud even the
devil will compromise by letting us
die comfortably and with hope, if he
can break the influence and service of
our lives for God. A penitential
death may save the penitent, but it
does not recover, God’s kingdom from
the damaging stroke given it by our
unconsecrated and worldly lives.
To Girls.
Be cheerful, but not gigglers; seri
ous, but not dull; be communicative,
but not forward; be kind, but not
servile. Beware of silly, thoughtless
speeches; although you may forget
them, others will not. Remember
God's eye is in every company. Be
ware of levity awl familiarity with
young men. A modest reserve, with
out affectation, is the only safe path.
Court and encourage conversation
with those who are truly serious and
conversable; do not go into valuable
company without endeavoring to im
prove by the intercourse permitted to
you. Nothing is more unbecoming,
when one part of a company is en
gaged in profitable conversation, than
that another part should be trifling,
giggling, and talking comparative
nonsense to each other.-—Legh Rich
mond.
Law for the lawless is the divine
method, the strong arm of the law
against the theater and the saloon.
Nothing but rigid prohibitory law can
save us from these two devouring
mouths of hell. Not long since a
Now York company, which had been
announced for a Boston theater on a
Sunday night, failed to appear. The
reason was found to be that some
citizeus had presented a vigorous
remonstrance to the board of aider
men.
A negro named Rufe Hansom, from
Birmingham, Ala., was arrested at
Pulaski, Tenn., last week, w hile at the
home of his intended bride, and
while tho assembled company were
awaiting the marriage ceremony. lie
was charged with stealing, in Birming
ham, the watch and jewelry which lie
wore on the occasion.—Atlanta Jour
nal.
Little Ethel went to church with
her grandmother, and for the first
time put ten cents on the contribution
plate. Leaning over she whispered
very audibly: “That’s all right,
granma; I paid for two.”
Father: “Will you divide the mar
bles with your little brother with or
without being whipped?” Bobbie:
“I ’spect I’ve got to divide; pa, but
I’ll take tho lickiu’ first.”
Sow an act and you reap a habit;
sow a habit and you reap a character;
sow a character and you reap a dosti
ny.—Anon.
If you make yourself a sheep, tho
wolves will eat you.—Franklin.
SINGLE COPY THREE CENTS,
m Ungallant, but C our too an.
It was on a Fourth avenue car that
it happened. A snow storm had made
the traffic unusually heavy, and the
line was running only single cars. Tho
men on tho car had all risen but one,
and he sat next tho stove unmoved.
The other side of tho car had been
Oiled by ladies, most of whom had been
given scats by the prompt sacrifice of
the men, who now filled the aisle.
The ladies were loosely distributed
along the seat; one sat sideways, gaz
ing out of the window; a second al
lowed her child room enough for a
good sized man by clambering around
with Ids face to the pane; a third,
dressed in silk, sat as though afraid of
the touch of a woman next to her.
A lady entered and looked around
for a seat, and there was none. The
men all looked at the man by tho stove,
lie was a stout, hearty fellow, growing
just a little old. He sat still, apparent
ly unconscious. All the ladies across
the aisle looked at him; tho lady in
silk glared. He didn’t move. Tho
lady moved up opposite him in the car
and took hold of a strap, and still he
sat still.
“Madam,” said ho at last, courteous
ly enough, but in a voice plainly heard
all through tho car, “Madam, I do not
feel inclined to give you my seat when
so many of your own sex on the oppo
site sido of the car make no move to
make room for you.”
And maybe there wasn’t a shuffle on
the other sido of tho car. The lady in
silk Jammed up against the plainly
dressed woman, the child was hastily
deposited in its mother’s lap and the
worngn who gazed out tho window saw
siometiing to attract her attention
straight ahead of her. The lady who
was standing apd two elderly gentle
men occupied the room made.—Minne
apolis Journal.
ItaUlna Chick tel Cit.v.
“Chicken nmt hes” an* nu'aAp-reil
among tho most ; - -thehie. of Iwajg
Island's industries. 'N'Jw V<;rTr&nW
and Brooklyn consume
00,000 chickens aud lob.OOOe.
toforo hl. ,;c proportion of the '%jS
tides came from New Jersey and i'Pi
terior New York. "Pennsylvania. Del
aware, Mary It.;, and and even Virginia
send a good m-.rij, but tho possibili
ties for profit htivo Induced a great
many people to ;-?> fiitotho business, so
that tiier - probably "fraip or
five llUlld •’CI “ranches’’ ft"! ;
tween li; y Bidge find Monta.uk, on
Long all kinds bring
good prices in Now York, and a poul
try trust w<jpd.pay aifcbig dividends ns
sugar after a time. Atman can go into
tho businesi ’witti very little capital,
and if he knows anything at all about
tho culture of foils can make a fort
une in a fow years.— Now York Letter.
No ?flan Ksflonthil to tho Llfo of a Nation,
The graveyard grass of centuries lias
been fertilized with (lie dust of grout
men, who at one time or another were
considered Indispensable. There is
altogether too much hero worship in
the world, even in this utilitarian age.
It is proper to give every man credit for
his worth and for his achievements, but
no man should be accounted greater
than the cause he represents, and when
ever bo assumes to be greater it. is time
be was compelled to step aside.—Scran
ton Truth.
Bu*A'<lii,r Griegs.
The Technical Royal School : t Char
lotteuburg has been making a series of
experiments with sawdust, and has now
proved tliat it can bo used as building
material. The sawdust is mixed with
certain refuse mineral products, arid
compressed with a pressure of 1,500,0 bi)
kilogrammes to the quadramoter in the
form of bricks, and after this treatment
the sawdust forms excellent building
material, very light, impervious to wet
and utterly uninflammable. A slab of
this substance was placed for five hou s
in a coal (Ire, and came out of the test
intact.—New York Telegram.
Ho Fvun<l It.
Thera is a story about almost every
inland lake that it has no bott om. .1 ohn
Farmer, a New York man, has spent
throe months sounding tiie lakes of
that,state, and in no case lias lie found
a spot in any lake deeper than ninety
one feet. That’s water enough, how
ever, to drown all the surplus eats and
(logs.—Detroit Free Press.
Tho Bhiokbfrd Days.
Jars. 30, 31 and Feb. 1 aro famous in
the neighborhood of Brescia, Constanti
nople, Florence, Italy, and along the
Danube and the Rhine, as the “Black
bird days." A curious medieval legen 1
says that originally all species of the
grackels (blackbirds) were of a creamy
white color; that it became black be
cause during one year in tho Middle
Ages the three days above mentioned
wore so cold that all birds in cent ral
and southern Europe took refuge in the
chimneys. At Brescia, Mr. Swafn.son
says, tho three days are celebrated with
a feast called “I piorni della meriu,"'
meaning the feast of the transform,a r>u
of the bird.—St. I<ouia Republic. --