Banks County gazette. (Homer, Ga.) 1890-1897, May 20, 1891, Image 1

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Banks County Gazette. VOL 2.---NO. 2. Written for The Gazette. TEMPERANCE. An Appeal to the Youth of Banks County. There is an evil that will cross your path which will decoy you in its train of destruction if you yield to its de ception. Remember that which would lead you from the paths of temperance and virtue is your inveterate enemy. And whatever may lie its pretense its ob ject is your ruin. And a youth that will be so cau tious as to reject aud abstain from temptations and de’usions of this ad versary of our peace, the treacherous arts by which it fl itters us from the paths of rectitude, and the syren song by which it lures us into its foul em brace, will one day be a noble, gener ous and honored youth, from whose heart will flow a living fount of puie and holy feeling, which will spread around ar.d fertilize the soil of friend ship, while warm and generous hearts will croud about and inclose him in a circle of pure and godlike hapincss. The eye of woman will britghon at his approach, and wealth and honor smile to woo him to their circle. And his days will spend onward in spark ling peace of joy as the summer brook sparkles, all joyous, on its gladsome way. Am! now, dear reader, you will find all around you pretended friends, —pretended I say becouse they will talk and express their sympathy and appreciation of your good course— then go and indulge in that miscalled social cup, until dishonor and shame will come upon them, and transfi nn them (who was fashioned in the ex press image of their Maker) into mere brutes. Temperance is a Masonic virtue, and let it be held in everlasting re inembran -e tli s Intemperance i> a most fatal and distructivo vice which bribes votes, corrupts elections, poisons our institutions, degrades our citizens, lowers our legislators, and dishonors our statesmen. Now, in conclusion, do not be de coyed in its path of distinction. If you want to enjoy that eternal bliss of perpetual summer, where the bright sun never retires behind a cloud; where pleasure will last for evermore, and every tear shall be wiped away. T. E. Anef.rson. A Scotchman's Plain Speech. Rev. John Robertson of Stone haven, Scotland, feels that he hay a mission to his countrymen, and he means to bring it home. This is clipped from an exchange which credits it to him: Two hereditary diseases in our veins act and react on one another as cause and effect. They are always together, always were and always will be. They are whisky and moderatism! Moderatistn! Just look at it—a wiz ened, blasted thing that can grow only on a drunk-sodden soil. Scor laud is a drunken ditch. .The gospel cannot thrive in it. For the sake of never dyingsonls, off with the drink! One primal necessity to the spiritual crop of pure gospel preaching among us is total abstinence. Fling the hell ish thing out of our hearts and homes, sweep the steps to our own kirk door ere we ring the gospel bell in the summons to the cross, or it will c ! ank, clank, a cracked and cursed farce. Before now I have sat on a gospel platform where the thick mumble m my ear and the fuming breath told of inspiration derived, not from the open Bible, but from the open bottle, and the result of that ‘toiling all night’ was of course—nothing. The gospel of Christ from a glass licking lip!—that is moderatism, and no gospel. . The great preacher and worker, Jesus Christ, would no more be a mod erate drinker in Scotland to-day than he would be a moderate cannibal. What must I do to be saved ? put to thousands, in the Free Church of Scotland would being but this one reply: ‘Drink, but don’t get drunk; make money and marry, and if thou wouldst be perfect do not work on the Sabbath.’ Mere go-to churchism is mere go-to liellism. That communicant’s card, that clinking sacrament token, may be from the minister’s hand a mere ticket for—the bottomless pit. To reach heaven by that, as soon ship to Calcutta in a cockle-shell. Ah, thou robber of the heritage of Judah’s message, thou doomed and deluded garroter of Christ’s holy covenant, thou kirk-going child of the devil, stop—as God’s word is true, as his oath, reverlxTating from end to end of his moral universe, is sure, there is no morning for thee, no dawn, no purple glow in the eastern sky. Tlie message of Judah is not for thee. The burden of Dumah is thine. “Also the night,”—night, firstly falling night; dark, dense, starless eternal; forever and ever night.”— Northwestern Christian Advocate. Be Happy To-day. In 1852 Bishop Simpson thus wrote to his wife: “Be careful of your health; be cheerful. Look aloft. The stars display their beauty to us only when we look at them; and if we look down at the eartli our hearts are never charmed. Be re solved to be happy to-day—to be joyful now—and out of every fleet ing moment draw all possible pure and lasting ple.mirC.” If ibis advice were generly followed, multitudes of people who are wretched now would he comparatively happy. The mother, who is continually look ing forward o the time when her children will be grown and .able to take care of themselves, misses the happiness she might have if she gave lieiself up to enjoying their ba“y ways, their innocent prattle, and their mischief pranks. “I suppose you think your children will be a great comfort to you when they’re grown up,” said a care-taking, trouble anticipating old lady to a young mother who was absorbed in her little ones. “O, no,” was the reply, “I don’t think about that; 1 take comfort in them now; they pay me every day they live for all I can do for them, in the delight they give me.” And ihey went on paying her in the same way all adoujg to manhood and wo manhood, and so long as they lived. The business inun looks forward to tli© day when he can retire, and then have “a good time.” But when he is able to retire, his capacity for having a good time is largely dimin ished, if not entirely gone. The in firmities of age begin to creep upon him, the taste has gone out of things, desire fails. lie might have had “a little good time” often if he had only thought so, and planned for it, and thus have cultivated his capacity for enjoyment as lie went on accumu lating. The student looks forward to the day when he shall receive his diploma as a great day; and so it is. But on that day be will be at the bottom round of a long ladder, reaching up higher and higher as life goes on. If he postpones every-day happiness, the postponement will be likely to continue as long as he lives, and ho will “die without the sight.” We may lay plans that run through all the years to come, and it is right we should do so; we may build high hopes of future achievement—the man is to be pitied who does not thus build—but, while working out i our plans, while cherishing our hopes, | we may each and every day nourish 1 souls at the fountains of pure pk-as ure springing everywhere around us. The sky above us is full of varied beauty. “Day unto day uttereth speech, night unto night showeth knowledge.” Flowers are bursting I into bloom at our feet, birds make i the air vocal with song; we can but i be happy if we let our hearts beat in time with the great heart of Nature. “Man is born unto trouble as the ' sparks fly upward,” but man is born j equally to joy; nay, be is born more |to joy than to sorrow. The sensa , tion of life is one of joy; there is I pleasure in seeing, in hearing, in lIOMER, BANKS COUNTY, GEORGIA, WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 1891. tasting, in smelling, in tlie use of those wonderful instruments, our hands, in the use of our feet, in the growth of our minds. Sickness and sorrow develop our capacities of en joyment. How keen are the sensei) of the invalid; and if we will resolve to make the best of every thing, trouble will prove but a stepping stone to higher jhy.—Christian Ad vocate. A good show in springtime does not always promise a good show in the autumn. Weeds grow faster, and often attract more attention, than plants that bear berries. So it is in the held of character. A lad who makes a display in dress and cigar ette-smooking may seem to have the advantage over a plodding youth who has something to do and does it. A few years hence will tell the story of the comparative worth of these two hoys. Even in the springtime of life it is well to consider for what harvest one is sowing.—Sunday School Times. Saying that a thing is not as it should be, seems to imply that the critic knows how that thing ought to be; yet many a man is ready to find fault with what is, without being able to say bow it can be bettered. Here is a good test for any man to apply to himself, when lie under takes to complain of an existing state of things. * If lie can only see a fault, or what he supposes to be a fault, without seeing how the thing can be improved, be knows less than half of what he needs to know in the field of bis fault-finding, in order to make his criticism tolerable. If, indeed, a man does 'not know how a thing ought to be, he is liable to be grossly in error in supposing that the thing is not already as it should be. Let a man, for example, who observes a heavy beam set as a brace against a house wall point out the fact that that beam is not in perpendicular, lie can easily prove that point, but lie cannot so easily improve the posi tion of the beam, without knowing whether a perpendicular position would bo better than an oblique one for that beam as a brace. And here is the trouble with most of the critics of legislation, of political manage ment, of church action, of methods of work in any and every field. They are ready enough to say that a thing is wrong, without knowing what is right, and therefore without knowing whether the thing in question is wrong. Nine-tenths of the criticism that is made among men, and women, lack the basis of a fair knowledge of what ought to be in the tiling crit icised.—Sunday School Times. Pruitt. What? Did you say that you heard we had stocklaw in Washington district? If you did I tell you it is a mistake, for the fence side whipped the fight on every side. If you don’t believe it just ask Mr. S. M. Strange about that stocklaw election. Mr. Bob Coker says lie don’t see how he is going to stand three good things all at once. First the good result of the stock law election. Sec ond, the cheapness of sugar, and Third, the tax off of Tobacco. He says he knows three good things will not occur ag '.in at the same time in one hundred years. Rev. R. H. Rob, of Atlanta spent Tuesday night of last week with your ! correspondent. We think he is a ! good man, and a zealous worker in I the cause of the Master. The prospecis for a cotton crop looks rather gloomy at present. Our meeting days at Damascus are the 4th Sunday in each month and i Saturday before. Best wishes for The Gazette Giving and Receiving. I once went on an errand to a poor woman who lived in a back street of an over-crowded locality, at the east end of London, and whose husband had abandoned her. She was crip pled by rheumatism, added to which the landlord of her hovel had just threatened to sell every bit of the furniture for three weeks’ overdue rent. The air was bitterly cold, and the drizzling sleet beat in my face that morning as I made my way to the wretched abode. One of her half-starved children opened the door, revealing the mother, lying upon the bed unable to move: no fire in the grate; no food in the cupboard; the whole scene misery and squalor; the poor creature in terrible anxiety, expect ing each moment to see a landlord’s agent, who was to take the bed from under her, and to thrust her and her poor babe into the street! As I en tered the room, her terror stricken countenance revealed that she looked upon me as the one coming to demand every tiling, she possessed. What then was her astonishment and un bounded relief to find that, instead of coming to ask the least, thing from her, I was the messenger from friends, and sent with money to pay her debts and buy food for herself and her children! Her whole thoughts were instantly changed, and the hap less woman was ready to sing for joy. Now man in his ruined and help less state looks upon God just as that poor creature at the first looked upon me. He thinks of God as one who came to exact the uttermost farthing from him, and so lie tries to give to God, instead of believing God’s love and receiving from hnn. The sinner believes not that God’s heart is toward him in love, that God lias, given his beloved Son to die upon the cioss in the guilty one’s stead, and that be demands nothing of the broken and contrite heart. How do you regard God, dear reader ? Arc you doing the best you can, or do you believe God’s gospel, which brings to us pardon, life, and salvation ? The father had every thing to give to the prodigal, and nothing to ask for—the robe, ring, shoes, kiss, and fatted call! The son had nothing to do but accept the tokens of his lather’s love aid for giveness— the proof that his heart had been ever toward him, waiting to lie gracious. Will you take the low place of having nothing, and of being nothing but a lost sinner? and will you ac cept God’s wondrous gift of his Son? Then shall you find, not only that your debt is paid by Jesus, and there fore that justice will never demand it from you, but you shall also find the bounty of God toward you in giving you every needed thing lor time and for eternity—you shall be for ever at his charge and under his care.—Southern Presbyterian. Silver Shoals. In company with Miss Martha Chambers, one of Silver Shoals’ sweet est girls, your correspondent h id the pleasure of Visiting Hollingsworth college some days ago. It is situated in a beautiful oak grove in the sub urbs of the town. It is a handsome building—the largest in the county. It speaks well for the community. Banks is a grand old county, and we are glad to see her corning to the front in the way of education aiid we hope Banks will some day send out a Ben llill. The recitations were good. The one by Miss Sanobia Wofford. Subject— “ Nobody’s Child,” was well rendered. We had the pleasure of meeting Professor W. H. Shelton, president of the college, and we found him ex ceedingly affable and pleasant and we think him in every way worthy of the high honor bestowed upon him. Mr. Willie Chambers carried his best girl to Homer Sunday. He likes the State of “Georgia” better than any other. O, where are those noble souls to be found, all unconcious of themselves, daily pursue their career like the sun, which rises each morning in the heavens, and scatters its gold to the left and to the right,, on the mountains and in the valleys those noble souls that, by an inward neces sity, here create and renew, there beautify and heal, and everywhere bless, like the sun, that cannot but give light? There Is but one In whom such an image of high love has ap peared to us in its entire purity; and it is only by faith in I-lim that such self-sacrificing love is produced.— Tholuck. Family worship though forming an essential part of family religion, is by no means the whole of it. Persist ant, patient training of the household in the habits, the facts, the princi ples, and precepts ot the gospel must be united to the stated seasons of worship. The examples, the interest, the influence which pervade the home life must be profoudly and consistently religious to secure the end of bringing the children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The whole atmosphere and drift of the home-life must be heav enly and heavenward.—Advocate. A Cure for Unrest. “I have not been able to sleep for some time,” said a friend to me not long since. “I have tried change of air, and all kinds of doctors and drugs, hut lam sleepless.” “Have you tried change of thought?” “No, for in my condition that is impossi ble.” I was of another opinion, and persuaded my friend to go away from the place where his thoughts were running in a groove, not on a pleas ure excursion, but to anew and en grossing occupation. For a time the medicine seemed too strong for the disease, and though lie slept, it was the sleep of exhaustion, and not ot refreshment. After a few weeks the remedy began to take effect. The work was easier, and the sleep became natural. Instead of talking of him self and his feelings, he was eager to talk of his occupation and the plan of life which grew out of it. The centre had changed from self to an external object, and the change of thought had come naturally. Much of our restlessness is only exaggerated selfishness. One who is fully occupied with plans for the good of others, forge's himself and his woes or weaknesses, and has no time or place for that nervous excitement which is often another name for in tense egotism. There is a devotion to others which only means gratifica tion of self in another form. This is the selfishness, of the master who treats his servant with consideration and kindness in order that he may be well served; of the patron who be stows favors upon his flatterers and sycophants; of the the official and politician who gives to others that he may receive as much again. Such varnished selfishness affords no satis faction, and ministers no rest to a weary and disturbed soul. It is only as we subordinate self that yve can be happy. Ambition, vanity, envy, jealousy, are all selfish sins. When each one esteems others better than himself, the rivalry is not to get, but to give, and there is no care and anxiety and restlessness in a struggle. “I came not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me,” were the words of Jesus, and he bids us “take his yoke upon us and learn of him, and yve shall find rest unto our souls.” We shrink from this yoke. We yvish our own will and way, cost what it may. It is an age of intense egotism and personal vani ty. This appears in things great and small, in the vulgar desire for notorie ty yvhicli craves mention in the news papers of the day, in the parade of acts of trifling beneficence, yvhicli, in another age, would have been matters of course anil out <>f comment; in the tedious descriptions of what people wear, and eat, and build, and plan, and imagine, and invent. It appears in the craze for pictures and portraits and illustrations,all of which are inor dinately pressed into the seivice of personal vanity and selfish egotism. IVe have neyvspapers whose entire contents are presented in the first person, with an arrogance that is ridiculous when the topics are con sidered, and an impudence which is sublime yvhen the auditory is taken into account. And this intense and exciting personality is upon the in SINGLE COPY THREE CENTS, crease. Faster than the power presses and the currents of electricity, fly the subtle forces which arc mold ing men into “lovers of their own selves,” and thus starting into perni cious activity that battery of passions which will make multitudes restless and miserable here and for ever. The only cure tor this vicious self-love is to be found in what Dr Chalmers called “the expulsive power of anew affection.” If the egotist can turn his thoughts from self to an infinitely higher being, he will find rest in the change; if he selfish devotee will ex change the altar of personal worship for the altar of universal benevolence, he will discover a multitude of opportu nities for sacrifice, and in making this discovery, he will make the other more important one, that self-worship is largely the cause of his dissatisfac faction and weariness. Christ’s teach ing, that we gain by losing, that we live by dying, lias a precious kernel of instruction. There is a death into self which is of prime necessity in order to happi ness, and few are willing to endure it. Many who talk of taking up the cross, and crucifying the flesh, and of living above the yvcrld, have not learned that what they need to do is to lay down the cross which they arc bear ing so ostentatiously,to cease inviting others to the spectacle of their flesli torture, their morti fications and austerities, their denials and represssions, as if there were a strange and fragrant virtue in self cruciflxion without reference to its object. Instead to trying to live like Simon Stvlites on his toyver in the desert, above a wondering world, let them go down into the lowly places, yea even into its cellars and alleys, and help to remove its sins and re lieve its miseries. There is no better cure for neuralgia than the foul air of a tenement if it is breathed with the full inspiration of love to God and love to men, and even seyver gas may prove to be a tonic to a morbid egotist which- shall cure him'' of a disease more deadly than the typhoid.—New York Observer. There is a difference between a busy man and a busy body. A man is a soul, a character, a force. A body is a soul’s material habitation. The busybody flits about with every moment occupied in an exteriorly conspicuous way, but exerts no real power. The busy man appears com paratively inert, with no seeming pressure upon bis time. The busy body skims many square miles of surface, and is hailed by many admir ing on-lookcrs. The busy man, ob livious to popularity, plunges straight dowu to the bottom of his real inter ests, which to the busybody scent so feyv and so obscure. The busy man has no skiff; the busybody lias no plummet. Each fills bis place, per haps: the one superficially, the other profaundly; the one ns a bodily specta cle, the other as a soul-force. The one hinders more often than he helps, while the other helps more often than lie binders.—Sunday School 'limes. A special to the Nashville Amer ican says that the young br'.de near Ducktown, Tenn., who was whipped by women White Caps, has since died after a terrible torture. Three men, who were fired on, will die of their wounds. The women who did the whipping are under arrest, but their friends say they shall never go to jail, and a fight is imminent between a mob and the officers. The outcome will be more murder, as the inhab itants of that section are a tough lot and all drunk. By fellowship with Christ the believer is changed into the same image. This is not merely a change of appearance, eonunct, or feeling, but a change of being. It is not a change of something about us or connected with us, but our very selves that are changed so as to be like Christ, like the Father in whose image man was first created. He that hath gained an entire con j quest over himself, will find no l mighty <1 faculties to subdue all other I opposition; and this is a complete I victory indeed.—Thomas Kempis.