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THE BAPTIST BANNED - BY JAS. N. ELLS & CO. 'VOL. IV. DEVOTED TO RELIGION AND LITERATURE, Is published every Saturday, at Atlanta, Georgia, at the subscription price of three dollars per year. JAMES N. ELLS & CO., Proprietors. — “REPOSE IN JESUS.” Repose in Jesus! O, how sweet To find repose at Jesus’ feet; To feel the weary conflict past, And faith’s sure refuge gained at last. Repose in Jesus! ’tie to sink, Submissively, though on ruin’s brink ; And from the shadows of the grave To cry, “ I perish —Jesus, save. ’ * Repose in Jesus! ’tis to give Our all to Him, believe and live; Then feel our weakness, hour by hour, Sustained by His almighty power. Repose in Jesus ! ’tis Ilis voice Bidding our inmost hearts rejoice, Assuring us the work is done, X And God receives us through the Son. Reposain Jesus! ’tis to know No will but His, while here below; This is life’s mission tully done, This is eternal rest begun. Oh, perfect, peaceful, calm repose, The heart th it feels it only knows What confidence, what trust, what bliss, There is in such repose as this. [A series of Sermons by Elder J. M. Wood, Pastor of the Newnan Baptist Church— published in a condensed form by special request.] Wo. I.—Regeneration. “ Marvel not that T said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”— John iii: 7. Nicodemus, though he was a ruler among the. Jews, probably for fear of the Jews, came to Jesus by night to inquire of his doctrine. The Saviour commenced with the very foundation doctrine of Salvation, for without it there is no salvation. The Greek word, translated Lorn, is ■pwiiOipat, which is from yevvaw, which means to engender, produce, beget. The word translated again, is a>wOev, and means from above. IV must be begotten from above, or ye ran not perceive nor enter into * the kingdom of God. Let us then consider : 1. The necessity of regeneration. This will appear when we consider—lst, That man has lost his estate. In his pri meval state he was holy, innocent and up right. lie enjoyed the presence, favor and coinmunii.n with the infinitely holy God. | There was given him but one restraint, one 11 law. All the balance were privileges.— Earth and its creatures were adapted to his happiness and subject to his commands.— This one /aw he violated, and lost his puri ty, and became guilty, depraved, a wander er, an alien—became a runaway, and hid j himself for shame. Ilis great sin made, him unlike God. • It was therefore needful I that he be changed back again, or he could ! not enjoy God's presence, nor inhabit Ilis kingdom. The runaway must be brought back —his nature, his heart changed to ena 4ble him to enjoy the provisions of the king dom of grace. D . I 2. Ilis whole history shows this m'cessi-j ty. The wickedness of earth, the blood shed and wars which have cursed the world, i are not the work of devils, but of fallen I men. To steal, to lie, to slander, to rob, to murder, are characteristic actions of ren 1 egades, the depraved, vagabonds. Yet 1 these things are done by Adam’s descen-1 1 dants. Laws, penalties, prisons, and impliments ’ of punishment, have not been originated for'* demons, but for our apostate race—the 1 workers of iniquity. True, all may not be? outspoken and out acting in these respects; j" but the refinement, polish and gaudiness of 1 ' our sins will not excuse us in the sight of ! God, nor relieve us ot the absolute necessi ty of a change of heart. The history of men show them desperately depraved be vond all question. The difficulties of Busi i ness transactions, unfaithfulness among neighbors, the cravings after gain, and the general want of honesty, are illustrations of it. He has studied men in vain who can not endorse the prophet’s saying, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and des peratelv wicked; and who can know it ?” ; It r quires a new heart to act above the in-: fluences of the world—to do as the Virginia farmer, who always gave heaping measure, I because he would cheat no man. The nat ural heart is too much inclined to scoop in stead of heap up —to tip the beams of the sc des the wrong way for honesty. To run a line between claimants satisfactorily is almost impossible, especially it the laird is rich, and often requires a third party to de a Bsuaiocs ®AMMa.x sawsßAßßa. jcide the correctness of the compass. Yet a new heart man needs, to bring him back to God and make the runaway feel at home in Ilis presence. 11. The nature of regeneration. It is a change of heart which includes the affections and dispositions. That were a worthless change which should leave a man just as he was before, with all his original tendencies and dispositions to sin, loving the same things and seeking the same en joyments. Indeed, this would be an absur dity. To be born from above seems to him new affections, new tempers, new dis positions. “If any man be born in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away ; behold, all things are become new.” 2. It produces a change of conduct. This could not be otherwise; so that he, who claims to. be a Christian while his conduct remains as formerly, may know he is not begotten from above. There goes the heart, claiming to have been changed to a lamb, whith his claws and tusks, roaring as loud as other lions, and is quite as ready to de vour. His old nature remains, as mani fested by his conduct. And there is the animal clothed with a sheep’s skin, exhibit ing a fair exterior; and yet he howls, eats flesh and drinks blood as a wolf. lie neith er bleats nor loves to roam in green pas tures and beside the still waters. Put an unchanged man into God’s earthly king dom, and he will show by his conduct that he is like the wolf in a cage. lie rushes from side to side in restless uneasiness.— W hat would you think of a man, once a thief, a profane swearer, a gambler, profess ing now a change of heart, and yet steals, swears and gambles as formerly ? The sin ner’s condition is not improved by giving him a new heart, if his conduct, dispositions, hopes and aspirations remain the same.— He certainly is a stranger to the proposi tions “that what he once loved he now hates, and what he hated he now loves.” There is a deep meaning in the expression, to be born again. He who can truthfully claim the grace, will manifest it by it change of conduct. The alien comes back, the vaga bond is dressed in new clothes, clean and white. He loves his once forsaken God— loves His people, loves His cause. Prop erly, God’s kingdom is not to be cursed with bad conduct, profanity, stealing, lying, adultery, dishonesty. If so there can be no real difference between it and the kingdom of Satan. 111. w this change is wrought. 1. This is done by the direct agency of 'God, the Holy Spirit. The Saviour taught i that, “ except a man be born of water and i of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the king dom of God. That which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit.” “ But as many as re ceived Him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that I believe on Ilis name; who were born not 'of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Man is pas sive in this. He can not re-create himself, nor can he h«*lj» God renew him. What would you think of a watch) whose machi nery was topsy-turvy, all to pieces, essaying to help the workman to re-arrange its inte rior, or to do it of itself? What of the leopard trying to change his spots, or the Ethiopian his skin? The reason why there are such good results from the new birth, is because God does the work, securing to him a likeness of his own image in Christ Jesus, and implanting within him princi ples inclining him to do right, though it were possible for God to be blotted from existence and no man could behold his con duct. 2. \ et the change is wrought by the use iof God's word, “ Os his own w ill begat he us with the word of truth”—James 1, 18. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever”—l Pe. il, 23. God’s word reveals the Savior, the whole plan of salvation, is sharper than a two-edged sword to the dividing asunder' lof joint and marrow, of soul and spirit, and , iis a discerner ot the thoughts and intents) of the heart. W ithout it then' is no sal-1 vat ion. The particular manner of this mys terious operation the Saviour does not ex plain, perhaps because to man it is inexpli cable. The wind blows where it pleases, and though we cannot tell w here it conies from, nor where it goes to, yet we can hear the sound: so is he who is born of the' • spirit. I ATLANTA, GEORGIA, SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 1863. HIS BANNER OVER US IS LOVE. IV. Consequences. 1. We can see, perceive, appreciate the kingdom of God and enter into it. Blind by nature, this precious work opens our eyes to see the beauties of the -blessed kingdom. Dispositions are given us in harmony with its government and with him who governs. Desires are implanted to inhabit the lovely places which God has chosen as his own. 2. The privileges and immunities of that kingdom in this world and the world to come : To be under the reign of grace, to be a child of God, to call God’s children brethren, to be one of the King’s family, to enjoy the refreshings and luxuries of his house in this woild are no common bles sings. But to enter into the heavenly king dom, with all its unspeakable joys and pos sess its ineffable pleasures, surpasses our present conceptions of glory. Those who are truly born again are not bastards, but sons, and hence heirs of all that pertains to his kingdom. \ . Bailing in this we are doomed wretches. We can neither see nor enter into God’s kingdom. We must go down to hell with all our native depravity and increased corruption, on account of practi cal transgressions. Whatever may be the condition of the thief who was upon the cross by the Saviour’s side, whatever the condition of the-.chief of sinners who perse cuted the Church of God, there is no hope for him who dies unregenerate. The child of sorrow in this world may yet find com fort; the heir of affliction, poverty and wretchedness, may go from his obscure log cabin home to the palace of God’s king dom, while he who is clothed in purple and fine linen, faring sumptuously every day, may go down to hell. For him there is no relief, no mitigation, whether he is mo rally depraved or naturally depraved, (according to the distinctions recently drawn in the columns of a religious paper,) or both ; being unchanged, he is hopelessly lost. Ye must be born again. EXTORTION,—Nt. 2. DIFFICULTIES OF THE SUBJECT. That respectable professors of religion are guilty of extortion, is a sign that there must be difficulties in the subject; not dif ficulties great enough necessarily to ex. use the crime, but great enough to conceal it, great enough to enable the extortioner, tempted by avarice, to reason plausibly in his own justification; and while they do not prevent the instincts of the people from laying hold of his crime, they do prevent them frow showing it in that clear light, ' and from pressing it ith those overwhelm ing demonstrations that would make it en tirely impossible for a good man to perse vere in the iniquity. 1. The first of these is, that extortion is enforced by the law of the land. It is hard often to convict of crime, even j when it is illegal. A shrewd lawyer may \ throw doubt on a case, even when it is theft or assassination. But an extortioner charges rates that the law will enforce. He is w ith the law all through his transaction ; and our habits are such necessarily from the re spect that is due to law, that when a thing is legal, it is difficult to impeach it of ini-i quity. 2. Second, not only is extortion often le-| gal, but it is by the free consent of the pur- : chaser. Men’s consciences are sometimes not nice enough to discover that a thing may be actually fraudulent, even though it may be invited by the strongest solicita tions of the victim. And therefore, when the public come eager to be served, and are actually bidding against each other for the commodities they need, all moral natures are not strong enough to see that this, to a greater or less extent, is true of every ex tortioner. It does not consist in forcing > men out of their means, but whether we call it speculation or forestalling, or in whatev er way parties who wish to shift the 'culpa- | bility pass the term from one act to anoth er, the element of willingness attaches to I all of them. Any extortion that is not will ing on the part of the sufferer, is robbery, . ami that, in so unfigurative sense, a— to briny it easily within the reach of another than a mere popular tribunal. 3. Another difficulty attending the iin peaehment of extortion is. that it is carried on most effectively by them who are merely j continuing their old rule of business. A baker in a besieged city, who had a monopoly of flour, might merely go on to sell at the highest bid, whatever that might be, and yet the people would soon bring it about his ears, that whavever might have been the style of his ancient practice, he would have to change it. A vast majority of our citizens have changed their practice, and are not selling for all they could get; that is to say, where the commodity is af fected by extremely artificial causes on ac count of our besieged condition; while the few who are going on to ask the very most, are either the unscrupulous or a few' strong ly tempted among the respectable, who are going on to ask the most on this plea of old rules, or established practices of business. 4. A still more serious difficulty lies in the promiscuous way in which instances of high price are confusedly thrown together.— Some high prices are necessary, and are therefore innocent. In fact the vast major ity of high prices are not only entirely ne cessary, and perfetly justifiable, and spring ing from occasions that always lead to such things, and that innoceuly and most inevi tably under like circumstances of the case, but are really some of the hardest high pri ces to beat, and have most of the appear ance of extortion, as far as concerns the grinding they occasion the people. It will be a purpose of these papers to distinguish these from the smaller number of cases, viz: those of actual crime. Meanwhile we see at a glance what a cover they make for the offender, and how, being in such large company and seeming simply to be arraign ed on the ground of distressing the people, the culprits ward off by the arguhients that belong to these others, and many a charitable reasoner is convinced by seeing that we can not condemn the whole mass of high-priced dealers in a time like this, and by failing to discriminate the large class from the small. 5. That this small class are, a few of them, good people, is a snare in this question. A good man here and there is an immense press in this crime. In the first place, the professor of reli gion is entrapped by the plausible difficul ties that he finds in the question, and then he becomes a trap to other men. A singular instance of how high morality may deceive, itself in these important mat ters, was seen in the Pharisees. They were not the culprits we think them. One would not like to say that they were as good as the best of our people. But there was this about them : They were thought ,to be the best men of their time. Their i nation was the only nation that had any j religion, and they were thought to be the best men of their nation. Paul’s* father must have been an excellent sort of citizen. He chose a religious education for his son, and sent him at the age of fourteen on a b* n S journey to the feet of Gamaliel. Ga i maliel was thought to be a son of the aged | Simeon. And Paul himself, as the fruit of , the labor of his teacher “concerning the j righteousness of the law,” said that he was i “ blameless.”’ The Pharisees must have , been a most respectable moral class. And j when Jesus begins to portray their iniqui ty, he does it with rough language it is | true, but with intimations all through the narrative that the mass of moral preten sion, and even in that Augustan age, of high well-sustained moral reputation, was with the sect of that young ruler, for exam ple in respect to whom it is declared that “Jesus beholding him, loved him.” And yet so easy is it, as we have seen, by the force of certain great natural diffi culties, to hood-wink the people in respect to crime, that no sooner had our Saviour: brought to bear upon this elevated class' the eye of an omniscient in vessigation, than He unmasks them at once, and charges i them as to the very thing that they had found it easy to conceal, with this great I crime of extortion among the people. W e know not what it is, at that ancient date, that gave facility for the crime in the state of the country. It may have been the same i thing that Paul was providing against, when I he took up collections for the “poor saints. But this one thing is evident, that when our Saviour said to men who loved “greet ings in the markets,” that they devoured •• widows’ houses,” He was not speaking of, anything very evident, but of something that a proud Pharisee might do at the very 1 time that he he was welcomed in the streets > by the smiles of approval among the citi zens. One stood in the temple and pray ed, “ Lord, I thank thee that I am not as other men are,” and as though to show how completely extortion may be hidden from itself, singling out from all others the very crime with which Christ had charged them, he adds, “ Extortioners T And another feature of the likeness is, that these men try to make up by alms giving what they extort by unreasonable rates. A favorite argument in some com munities has been, let the manufacturers relieve by charity rather than by the more indiscriminate plan of abandoning his rates. We mean to return to this subject. In other words—Let a man, altogether be neath me in generosity and spirit, humble my family, while I am in the wars, by of fering them charity (a form of relief which, if they are high-spirited people, they will not take), and let him consider’that, as an offset to what they would accept, viz : some little decent attention to the equities of their case, and to their right, while sacrifi cing for liberty, to escape the pang of such 1 enormous remuneration. Not to reason the point now, however — < how singular the ancient likeness! The : Pharisees “tithed mint, and anise and cum- i min.” And though the Bible said they were “full of extortion and excess,” yet they managed to enjoy almost an ovation < of morality, and that largely on the help of alms giving. They “ sounded a trumpet before them” when they distributed their gifts, and were able to say, (no doubt, with vast extenuations, also, of their acts) like ( the one in the temple, “ Lord, we thank thee that we are not as other men are — Extortioners;” and then bring up (with a completeness that almost makes us trem ble) over the lapse of centuries this family , picture—“ We pay tithes of all we pos sess.” it is time, however, to .advance to what ’ the public have a right to demand, viz: distinct definition. If extortion be such an outrageous evil, no doubt, in spite of all the difficulties that one can state, it must be capable of some sort of extended expo sition. And to arrive at this, it will be in quired in the next paper w//«Z extortion is not, and in the fourth what extortion is, and in the fifth it may be possible to reply to objections. People, who are the sufferers under these unjustifiable rates, are looked down upon by the authors of their trouble, and treated with a sort of philosophic pity, under the idea that they wince naturally under the pressures of the period, but that •no sane man can be long in arriving at the fact that the laws ot trade must have room for their course, and that precisely in the way of these enormous accumulations. Alamby. Recognition of Friends in Heaven. (continued.) The universality of the belief that we ! shall possess a reciprocal knowledge of each other hereafter is strong presumptive evi dence of its correctness. It is almost as wide spread as the belief in the immortality of the soul, a future state, or in an all-con trolling Creator. And this belief is not alone confined to the unlettered multitude. Some of the most illustrious and revered of the Church fathers have left on record their belief in this doctrine. We shall incur the risk of being tedious, by transcribing a few ’ extracts from the memorials which some of them have left on the subject: I Cyprian, in the third century, speaks: thus: “ Who, finding himself in a strange country, does not earnestly desire to return ■ to his fatherland ? Who, about to sail in i haste for his home ami his friends across the sea, does not long for a friendly wind, that j he mav the sooner throw his arms around I his beloved ones? We believe Paradise to be our fatherland ; our parents are pa triarchs; why should we not haste and fly • to see our home and greet our parents? A host, of beloved friends await us there ; a < ‘numerous and va ious crowd—parents, ] brethren, children, who are secure in a blessed immortality, and only concerned i for us. are looking w ith desire*for our arri- I val. To see and embrace these—what a . mutual joy will it be to us and them ! What i : bliss, without fear of death, to live eternally ; in the heavenly kingdom! How vast, and of eternal duration, is our celestial blessed ness ! There is the glorious choir of the I Apostles; there the host of joyful prophets; I ’.here the innumerable company of the mar- I ’yrs, crowned on account of their victories I in the conflict of suffering. There; in tri- I umnh, are the pure virgins. There, ’the I merciful, who have fed and blessed the i poor,and according to their Lord’s direction,! i TERMS— Three Dollars a-year. have exchanged earthly for heavenly trea sures, now receive their glorious reward. To these, dearly beloved brethren, let us hasten, with strong desire, and ardently wish soon to be with them and with Christ. In the fourth century, Chrysostom says :y “If we hear him (Paul) here, we shall cer tainly see him hereafter; if not as standing near him, yet see him we certainly shall, glistening near the throne of Ahe King?’ Where the Cherubim sing in glory, where the Seraphim are flying, there shall we see Paul, with Peter, both as a chief and leader of the choir of the saints, and shall enjoy his generous love.” Luther, the eveuing before his death, be ing asked what he thought on this point, remarked as follows: “ How did Adam do ? He had never in his life seen Eve— he lay and slept—yet, when he awoke, he didnotsay, ‘Whence came you? who are you?’ but he said, ‘This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.’ How did he know that this woman did not spring forth from a stone ? He knew it because he was full of the Holy Spirit, and in pos session of the true knowledge of God. Into this knowledge and image, we shall, in the future life, again be renewed in Christ; so that we shall know father, mother, and one another, on sight, better than did Adam and Eve.” • Zwingle, the Swiss reformer, observes : “ There you may hope to see the society, the assembly, and the dwelling together of all the holy, wise, faithful, heroic, firm, and virtuous, who have lived since the begin-’ ning of the world. There you shall see the two Adams, the Savior and the saved. There you will see Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, Phineas, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, and the mother of God of whom he has prophecied. There you will see David, Hezekiah, Josiah, John the Bap tist, Peter, Paul, &c. There you will see yours who have gone before you, and all your forefathers who have departed this life in the faith. In a no virtuous person, no holy mind, no believing soul has lived from the beginning of the world, or shall yet live, that you shall not there meet with God.” The pious Baxter thus descants on the joy of becoming “ fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God : ” “If the forethought of sitting down with Abra ham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven, tnay be our lawful joy, how much more the real sight and actual pos session ! It cannot but be comfortable to think of that day, when we shall join with Moses in his song, with David in his Psalms of praise, and with all the redeemed in the song of the Lamb forever ; when we shall sqe Enoch walking with God ; Noah enjoy ing the end of his singularity; Joseph of his integrity ; Job of his patience ; Heze kiah of his uprightness; and all the saints the end of their faith. Not only our old acquaintance, but all the saints of alt ages, whose faces in the flesh we never saw, we shall there both know and comfortably en joy. Yea, angels as well as saints will be our blessed acquaintance.” O John Eliot, usually called the “Apostle of the Indians,” several months before his death, would often say that he was shortly going to heaven, and that he would carry a deal of good news thither with him ; he said he would carry tidings to the old foun ders of New England, who were now in glory, that church-work was yet carried on among us; that the number of our churches was continually increasing; and that the churches were still kept as big-as they were, by the daily additions of those who shall be saved.” “ Shall 1 know you in heaven ? ” said an enquiring red man to John Eliot himself. The old chief Shenandoah wished to be buried beside his religious teacher, that at the resurrection he might go up with him. That Choctaw was but recently a living 1 officer of the church, who wished a minis iterial visitor to turn round that he might have a full view of his face, so as to know him again in heaven. “I want to go to heaven,” said Dr. Em mons in his obi age; “It is an inexpressi bly glorious place. The more I think of it the more delightful it appears. And I want to see who is there; I want to see brother Sandford, and brother Miles, and brother Spring, and Dr. Hopkins, and Dr. West, and a great many other ministers, with whom 1 have been associated in this world, but who have gone before me. 1 believe I shall meet them in heaven, and it seems to me, our meeting there -must be peculiarly interesting.” He- added, “I want to see too the old prophets, and the apostles. What a sooiety there will be in heaven! There we shall see such men as Moses, and Isaiah, and Elijah, and David, and Paul : I want to see Paul more thai any man I can think of.” Thus thought and wrote the good men of by-gone ages, whose souls are now, we be lieve, encircled in the bonds of Christian fellowship with those whom they so ardent ly longed to see and know. And we be lieve that, consistent with reason and reve lation, we may take up the same strain of hope and joyful anticipation and apply it not only to patriar h and prophet, apostle and bishop, but to tlfe good of every age, NO. 20.