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JjSamttr snb
“Holy Bible,-Book Divine,
Precious treasure, thou art mine.”
H. C. HOMADY, l Editors
JESSE M. WOOD, (" *
J. S. BIKER. I Assistant Editors
D. P. EVERETT. $ Assistant -unitors.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA:
Saturday, June 14, 1863.
The Inner Life.
Being accustomed to judge of human life
by its phenomena, there are many of its
richest portions which are partially, if not
entirely, lost to us. The face, it is true,
may afford some general index to what is
passing within the secret chambers of the
heart; but however astute may be the per
ceptive faculties of the mind, many of the
finer emotions entirely elude research, and
baffle all our powers. There is such a
thing as control exercised over the passions
and feelings, and frequently the keenest
sensibility is concealed by the semblance of
calm and unruffled stoicism.
But it is to religious life that we would
direct the thoughts of the reader in these
lines. That is a subject with which, in a
preeminent sense, the soul is most intimate
ly concerned. Does the Holy Spirit effect
the regeneration of man ?—The soul is the
mysterious temple in which its Divine work
iaaccomplished. Is man led to forsake alife
of vanity and sin, and turn himself heaven
ward?—That change is wrought upon his
inner nature, and whatever is seen of the
transformation is but the external develop
ment of the mighty force which asserts its
supremacy in the bosom. Heavenly agen
cies are, for the most part, invisible ; and it
would be as easy to trace the wind back to
its source or forward to its goal, as to discern
how the Holy Spirit carries on its sanctify
ing work in the soul. That is the ‘ holiest
of holies’ in which God communes with
His creature man, while conscience alone
appears as'the Heaven appointed witness
of the operations of Spirit upon spirit.—
While the Word of God is the instrument
by which the energies of the soul are excited
and aroused, the Agent who wields it, in
the work of sanctification, is the Divine
Spirit sent by the Saviour ‘ to convince the
world of sin, of righteousness and of judg
ment to come.’ And though the individual
may move about in the great bustling
world and seem to differ in external ap
pearance very little from the rest of man
kind, he is, nevertheless, ‘ not of this world.’
His body is here, but his desires and af
fections are fixed upon things above; and
hence he is, in relation to this world, a
pilgrim and a stranger. He has had a
foretaste of the joys of the upper sanctuary,
and so pleasing are the impressions left
upon his spirit, that the pleasures of this
world appear to him tame and insipid.—
To him there is no society so sweet as that
of his heavenly visitors—no music so en
rapturing as that which comes floating down
to him from the immortal harpers in the
presence-chamber of his beloved Saviour.
He disregards alike the brazen notes of war
or the gushing music of the festive hall, for
the rich harp-strings of his own spiritual
nature will vibrate responsive only when
the keys are touched l>y the fingers of an
invisible Artist. Love springs in his soul
a pure gushing fountain, but its stream me
anders towards the heavenly world, and
seeks to lose itself in the great ocean of
Divine Benevolence. Ilis ‘ life is hid with
Christ in God,’ and Hope with rosy finger
ever points to that inner and upper world
of which the present is but the imperfect:
shadow.
This is eternal life, life in Christ—exist
ence which defies death, grasps and wears
the amaranthine crown. Does the reader
enjoy this inner life ? Does his heart feel
its mighty pulsations'? Is his soul fanned
by the gentle zephyrs of the Holy Spirit’s
wing as He comes, a welcome guest, into
its most secret chambers? Often when in
solitude, di>es he hear a voice saying * Open
to me and I will come in and sup with thee’ ?
In plainer words, reader, art thou a child of
God ?—an heir of glory ? Happy then,
thrice happy, art thou; for soon thy mor
tal, suffering life shall give piaee.to one of
immortal felicity.
BANNER AND BAPTIST.
Worldly Glory.
There is a charm in the face of earthly
glory which has a most wonderful effect up
on the children of men. The poet, ‘ his
eyes in a fine phrenzy rolling,’ seeks it in
his flowing numbers, or in the grandeur and
sublimity of his imagery. His ideal di
vinity sits enthroned upon the azure summit
of Parnassus, * her locks wet with Castalian
dews,’ and ever beckons him on to a nobler,
loftier flight. With eager eyes he gazes
upon the lofty turrets of fame’s proud tem
ple, and, charmed with the glorious pros
pect, he strikes his sounding lyre with a
nervous hand, that listening multitudes may
catch the matchless harmony of his tuneful
verse, and shout in accents of delight their
plaudits to his fame. The eloquent orator,
with an eye of fire and tongue of silver,
evokes the wildest passions of his race, and
seeks to ascend, upon the inoense of their
praises, to that spot w here glory sheds its
gorgeous light. The fiery warrior, under
the burning patronage of Mars, rushes to
the field of strife, and grasps after the
world-phantom where garments are rolled
in blood, and fondly imagines that
‘Each purlins: stream, each rolling river
Runs, mingling with his fame forever.’
But what, after all, is worldly glory?—
Is it to be
‘One of the few, the immortal names
That were not born to die ’ ?
Fond delusion ! ‘The path of glory leads
but to the grave.’ Human glory is, indeed,
but the merest shadow of true immortality,
‘Which leads to bewilder,
And dazzles to blind.’
There is no glory save that which encir
cles the brow of a victorious soldier of the
Cross. In the Celestial Sanctuary alone is
found Fame’s imperishable scroll, upon
which are inscribed the names of the sons
of fadeless immortality. And were the
self-sacrifice, the zeal and energy of men
turned in the pursuit of heavenly glory,
instead of being worse than wasted in ago
nizing efforts to grasp the miserable coun
terfeit, many a name which will perish
with those of the Caisars might live beside
that of Paul in the luminous pages of the
Book of Life.
[Editor'.al Correspondence.]
An Apology. Old Friends.—Gov.
Brown. National Sins. Discus
sion Invited.
Dear Banner :
It has been some weeks since I have writ
i ten to you. My apology is, that for eight
I or nine weeks I was going to and fro through
! the earth, like the evil one, but not like
him for an evil purpose, but for sundry"
good and lawful purposes, which it would
be needless to state. After encountering
numerous perils, by land and by water,
and seeing much of good and evil—but
rather more of the latter, I think, than the
former—-1 arrived at home in a very en
feebled state, and have suffered since from
serious bodily indisposition. The fact is,
the heat of summer prostrates all my en.
ergies, mental as well as physical. 1 shall
have for this, and other causes, to abstain
from writing for the press; 1 hope the non
appearance of articles from my pen will not
be construed by you, or your readers, as
indicative of an abatement of interest in
your prosperity, or in the good cause or
causes which it is your object to advocate.
During my recent travels I had the pleas
ure of meeting with many endeared friends,
and receiving from them renewed evidence
of their kind Christian regard. One of
these beloved brethren, since I bowed with
him around his own domestic altar, has
been called home to glory. (Dr. J. 11.
Ragan.) I feel that 1 have lost one of my
best friends, if his loss presses so heavily
(on me, what must it do on his bosom com
jpanion and his only surviving daughter !
May the God of all grace bind up the
wounds which Death’s keen shafts have
made, and pour in the balm of consolation.
1 had also the pleasure of renewing an
(acquaintance, formed some sixteen years
ago, with his Excellency, the Governor of
our State, and also of baptizing two intelli
gent domestics of his household. After
| spending a Sabbath evening with him, and
bowing with his family before the mercy
seat of the Most High, I left the executive
mansion exclaiming to myself, “ Eureka!
Eureka! —l have found it! 1 have found
it! ” —that is, the cause of the Governor’s
unpopularity with certain city editors and
city politicians, and his popularity with the
unsophisticated masses in our rural districts.
He has too much of piety and too much of
the plebeian in his manners to find favor
with the inflated aristocracy of our cities.
One remarked, speaking of the Governor’s
administration of our State affairs, “Joe
Brown has demonstrated the truth of the
old maxim : ‘ Honesty is the best policy.’ ”
MORAL CAUSES OF WAR.
I should like to write a series of articles
I !
with a view of exciting a spirit of inquiry j
into the moral causes of the war in which
%
we are engaged, but my enfeebled powers
forbid my attempting to do so. It appears
tome that all who have written about pur;
.* national sins” have pointed out only some J
of the putrid matter that has risen to the
surface. They have not probed sufficiently
deep to discover the latent cause of this
putridity. If our nation has become so
corrupt as to call down upon itself tokens
of Divine displeasure, why is it? Where
lies the secret cause of this corruption ?
.Will any tell me it lies i.i the depravity of
human nature? Ay, ay; but has not a
merciful God provided a ‘ salt to arrest
the process of corruption from this cause ?
He has. “Ye are the salt of the earth,”
says the Saviour to His disciples. But the
“ salt hath lost its savor.” Christians, in
stead of so acting as to preserve the world
from corruption, have so acted as to expose
themselves to the corrupting influence ol
the world. Instead of elevating the world
to the standard of Christianity, they have
reduced their Christianity to the standard
of the world ! Hence the corruption of
our civil government, and hence the scourge
of war!
Again, we declaim and petition against
felie desecration of the Sabbath; but no re
knonstrance is heard against the desecration
to/ the Sanctuary ! In the same chapter
fand verse in which it is commanded “Ae
'shall keep my Sabbaths,” it is added
“and REVERENCE MV SANCTUARY.” Do
we show our reverence for the Sanctuary
by entering it and dragging thence those
appointed by the God of the Sanctuary to
officiate at the altar (and who are enjoined
to give themselves “ wholly ” to the work
to which they have been appointed), and
hurrying them off to engage in works of
blood and carnage? Do we evince our
reverence for the Sanctuary by stripping it
of the bells which were given for the spe
cific purpose of summoning worshippers to
its holy courts, and applying them to a
purpose for which the donors never intend
ed them ? Human laws, if Chitty and other
law writers are to be believed, condemn
such an act as a breach of trust. ill that
God who sums up the whole of our duty in
three things: in dealing justly, loving mercy
and walking humbly , approve of a breach
of trust in sacred things ? *
My sheet is full. I have only hinted at
a few things whioh I should like to see
fully discussed. Will not brother W. 1\
Brantley open the discussion by giving us
his views on the subject? J. S. B.
* There appears to me io be a better excuse lor
the con observance of the Sabbath by civil govern
ments, than for acts interfering with the regular
administration of the word and ordinances ol the
Gospel: for Christians are divided in sentiment re-
to the particular day that should be observed
a* a Sabbath. To grant the petition of First-day
etu i liiias and reject a similar one from Jews and
Sabbatarian Christiana, would be to favor one re
ligious sect more tluio another. The same excuse
cannot be given for calling otl from their work
those who are called to labor iu the Sanctuary in
sacred things.
Forsyth.
It has been our unspeakable pleasure to
spend ten days with the dear people of
Forsyth. Night meetings were held during
the time of our stay, and we trust with good
results. If no one else was blessed, we
confess that forty times the labor bestowed
would not balance the personal enjoyments
of that meeting with our mother-church
and friends of other days. To join with
old friends in talking, singing and preaching
about Jesus, is no common privilege. —
Thanks to the Lord, and brethren of For
syth, for the very kind treatment received
while among them. The services have
probably been continued by brother W.
M. Davis, their worthy and efficient pastor.
With pleasure we also state that we vis
ited, while there, the Female College under
the management of W. C. Wilkes, and
came to the conclusion that there are but
few such schools in Georgia. Even these
times he has near a hundred pupils. We
know of no School preferable to this.
May the Lord continue to bless the peo
pie at Forsyth ! W.
Rome.
A communication from Rome, regarding
J. E. llyerson, has been received. If the
author will furnish his name, we have no
j objection to publishing the article next
I week. In matters of this kind it is but rea
sonable to ask the name of the author,
which we respectfully do W.
■•***••"
Cave Spring.
Miss E. Culbertson has sent us $5 for
Cherokee Indian Missions, which is hereby
acknowledged. Mr.
For Col portage.
A Friend, #3 A Friend, 81
Mrs. Wiley, 1 A Friend, 1
Any liberal hearted ones who may wish
to aid in this work, can do so by sendfhg
us contributions for this object, every dollar
of which shall be faithfully appropriated to
the printing and circulating of Tracts among
our soldiers. Brethren and sisters, help us
in this good work. You can send contribu
tions either by mall or by express.
.—
All Baptist ministers and others, in the
Confederate States, friendly to the paper
are requested to act as Agents.
The Measures of Government.
Dear Banner : I have seen in your col
umns—but not under the editorial head—
censures upon various acts of our Confed
erate government, which l think unwise , if
not positively unjust. I have also seen the
opinion advanced, that had our Confederate
forces, after the battle of Manassas, pushed
forward and taken the city of Washington,
it would have brought the war to a speedy
close. lam one of many who entertain a
very different opinion ; but instead of wri
ting an article on the subject, I clip from
the editorial head of the ‘ Thomasville
Weekly Times ’ (edited by our very wor
thy brother* ltev. T. J. Wombwell, brother
of the brother Wombwell about whom
your Florida editor, D. P. E., wrote so
many good things) an article the sentiments
of which I fully endorse, and which will
supersede the necessity of an original article
from me on the same subject. Please give
it a place in your columns. J. S. B.
The Mistakes of Government. —Some ed
itors, and some pulpit and stump orators,
are wont to harp much upon what they
consider the mistakes |>f our Confederate
rulers. Mistakes have no doubt been com
mitted by them, for ‘to err is human ’; but
it is by no means improbable that we shall
hereafter see the propriety of many things
which now appear to us as exceedingly im
politic. Let us, for an example, refer to
one instance in which our Government has
often been charged with having committed
a fatal error. We allude to the failure to
pursue the enemy that fled from Manassas
and attempt to take the city of Washington.
This may or may not have been a mistake.
That it was an error has never been satis
factorily demonstrated. It is by no means
certain that an army exhausted by hard
fighting, as was ours, could have taken the
city. The enemy would doubtless have
rallied after entering the city. They could
have obtained reinforcements far more
readily and in much greater numbers than
we.
But suppose it to be certain that the city
could have been taken —it doeß not follow
that the taking of it would have put an end
to the war, or rendered us more able to
carry it on successfully. It would have
taken a very large force, which we could
not well spare, to have kept possession of
it. The fall of Nashville, New Orleans,
Norfolk, &c., renders it exceedingly im
probable that we could have held it. To
have been forced to surrender it, after hav
ing taken it, would have been an event far
more humiliating and more to be deplored
than the failure to take it.
But there is another aspect in which we
should view this matter. It is a trite say
ing, that ‘a victory is often more fatal than
a defeat.’ What would have been the pro
bable effect of the capture of Washington?
Would it have quenched the lust for rapine
with which our enemies appear to be insti
gated ? Would it have allayed their envy
or their hatred ? Would it not rather have
excited them to more vigorous efforts to
succeed in their unhallowed purposes ?
And what, we may ask, would have been
the effect upon us? Might it not have
lulled us into a fatal security ? It is evi
dent that the latent energies of the South
were never thoroughly aroused (if indeed
they be yet so aroused) until after the dis
asters in Tennessee. The probability is
we should have become inflated with ideas
of our own superiority, morally and physi
cally, and thereby called down upon our
selves the righteous judgments of Heaven.
But suppose it to be certain that we could
have taken Washington, and that the taking
of that city would have brought the war to
a close, does it follow that it would have
been best for us as a nation ? That is a
matter about which we may well entortain
a doubt. The true character of our ene
mies had not then been fully developed. —
The probability is that we would have been
made the dupes of an artful and designing
foe, and instead of securing our independ
ence we might only have perpetuated our
dependence upon them, and made the
Southern Confederacy, commercially and
politically, a tributary to one of the most
unscrupulously mendacious and dishonest
governments known among the nations of
the earth. It is well for us that we eanr.ot
alway s have our own way. An overruling
Providence orders all things for the good
of those who put their trust in Him, wheth
er nations or individuals.
One thing is certain: the wall of separa
tion between the North and South is rising
higher and higher every day that the war is
continued. The Federals think to injure
us by blocking up our ports. They are
injuring themselves—for they are blocking
up, permanently, the avenues to our hearts
and to the hearts of our children’s children.
The cowards! They dismissed their stone
fleets as soon as England objected to it, and
promised that they should hereafter be re
moved ; but they can never remove the
obstructions they have thrown against the
portals of our hearts, No, never! never !!
Motto*.
The next general meeting appointed by
the Coosa Association, for the first district,
will be held with Bush-Arbor Church, on
Friday before the second Sabbath in July,
1862. Brethren appointed to write upon
selected subjects will be expected to have
their articles prepared.
All are requested to attend. Visiting
brethren will be provided for, and we hope
much good will be accomplished in our
Redeemer’s cause.
D. B. Hamilton, )
M. G. Garner, >- Commit!*:.
B. F. Hooper, )
To Hie Christian Public.
Camp at Atlanta,-*
June tf, 18®2. ;
Orders were read at our dress parade,
last evening, commanding us, by order of
Major-Gen’l Pemberton, to hold ourselvea
in readiness to be called into immediate
action. We know not where we may be
ordered.
I have one request of the Christian public
to make, ere we leave. Nearly all the
Tracts that our societies have issued have
been read by our men. The thirst now
manifested for religious reading ought to
be gratified. Our brethren of every de
nomination can do much in this way.—
There are many of our Christian friends
who have large quantities of religious pa
pers, pamphlets, etc., lying about their
houses. No matter how old they are, if
they are only good. Those good brethren
or sisters who have such, and desire that
the brave defenders of their homes, their
altars and their firesides, shall enjoy the
reading thereof, can have them distributed
amongst them by the plan herein suggested.
Those living in Atlanta or the immediate
vicinity can send the papers, pamphlets,
etc., to Messrs. Scott, Brantley,
Wilson, McDonnell, Freeman, Ilornady,
or to myself on the encampment. Those
living at a distance can send them by Ex
press, directed to me. I hope the brethren
will pay Express charges; from each one
twenty-five oents would pay all —whereas
if it all came out of my private purse, the
cost would be felt in times like these.
Shall I appeal in vain? Will not some
dear, kind sisters undertake this work, and
flood my tent with papers and pamphlets ?
God only knows the influence they may
exert. Mothers, wives, sisters, remember
the loved ones on the tented field!
Gio. C. Connor,
Chaplain x Vol . Watkins' Bey. Ga. Vol.
The Christian Index, please copy.
■tamblliig Tkotigkls.
A few rambling ideas are scattered in my
brain. The probability of collection ia
quite dubious. The fact is, my mind is
not settled —wandering amid the great de
structive pile of ruins that lie embosomed
in the past, and making excursion, with
kind of mixed joy, among the fabrication*
(false and real ) into the wide expanse of
futurity.
This war- —what sorrows lie hidden be
neath the blood-stained mantle that envel
ops us, nationally ! Many sad faces are
mirrors to the sad scenes enacted on Old
Virginia’s noble grounds. Many a warm
hearted, impulsive and patriotic Southerner
has filled a grave, that adds new honor to
his name—that of a soldier’s mound.
Some, who ne’er dreamed of aught but
pleasure in the rosy-tinted future, have been
made to pass through the fiery ordeal.—
And we all feel it, more or less. There is
a sadness, a heavy sadness weighing ou
hearts strangers to such emotions in the
swift gliding days of peace. Roll back,
roll back, ye clouds of darkness ; let bright
sunshine come again. Heal, oh heal our
hearts that are breaking; stay the storm
that madly raves.
No difficulties press on rny mind in the
form of subjugation. Victory seems perch
ed on yonder golden tinged cloud that kisses
the towering tree tops. Already, in the
ears of imagination cau we hear the cry,
Long wave our own true fag ! May na
tions learn to look on us as a people walk
ing in the paths of Godly rectitude, firm as
the rocks of mighty nature, humane aud
kind as our Omnipotent Creator, true and
undisguised candor, becoming a national
government. Let the cries that come
across the hills and dales of our own free
and lovely land b; changed to songs gleeful
and happy, with their tones of former gay
ety, only that there may be a gentle echoing
of soft melody that fills every brave and
enthusiastic Southern heart.
Fanmik Williams.
Warnervil/e, Ga.
Crumbs.
NO. VII.
“ / shan’t Jo it, now ! ” was the remark
a little boy made to his companion. It
was said with a passion unjustifiable.—
There are no circumstances which can make
this proper. If we are encouraged to do
wrong, let us mildly decline. If we are
asked to do right, let us take care not to
refuse. But our wills are so perverse, so
often blinded by prejudice, by malice, by
association! O, the wisdom of that uni
versal prayer— “ Thy will be done”!—
How hard it ia for me at times to yield !
I mourn my stubborn will. O, my Sa
viour, wilt thou help ms to “deny ” my
self and “ take up the cro9 ” ?
How sweet is that submission which with
reference to the right, exclaims, *• I will do
it”; with reference to the wrong, “ 1 can
not do it ”! Will.
Jjgf* Our terms of Subscription£s2 00
per Annum, always in advanct.
