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THE BAPTIST BANNER
' BY JAS. N. ELLS & CO.
VOL. IV.
Sta gapifei grow,
DEVOTED TO RELIGION AND LITERATURE,
Is published every Saturday, at Atlanta, Georgia, at the
subscription price of three dollars per year.
JAMaS W. ELLS & CO ,
Proprietors.
SUMER’S WELCOME.
Ever welcome! summer breeze,
Springimr gra ! s and verdant trees,
Silvery streams and bright-leaved flowers,
Changing clouds and cooling showers.
Welcome songsters of the wood.
Who sing the song of Nairne’s God;
From t very thought of sadness free,
They warble ever joyously.
Nature, in tv*r gayest dress,
Appear* the type of love ine-s:
B-iglitness greets on either hand,
Beamy smiles o’er all the land. •
O! could our hearts receive the light
3 hat < o ne from flowers so fr< sh and bright, ,
And ’he biythe songste h of the Mr,
Leave a soft murmuring echo there —
Then happiness would lig v t each eye,
And tears ne’er dim their brilliancy;
G1 idness would reign in ev ry neart.
And beauty to each face impart.
Melodia.
?< Righteousness Exalteth a Nation.’
A SERffIOW,
DELIVERED ON FAST-DAY, AT THOMASTON, GA.,
BY REV. R. A ETON HOLLAND.
Righteousness exaltetli a Nation.
[Proverbs xix; 34.
[ Concluded.]
What but the proclamation from the
pulpit of political heresies, has caused
the present lamentable war? What has
incited the millions of the North to this
h -a’hen crusade against an institution
which appertains only to those among
whom it exists? What strange infatua
tion has caused them to release from
their leash these blood-hounds of fanati
cism ; which when once on scent of
their prey never stop until glutted with .
its life. What mysterious poison has
crept into their veins, overthrown their
reason and forced them to a suicidal
attempt at the subjugation of a people
taught to reverence none but God? At
whose hands will be required the blood
of the innocent thousands that have been
immolated upon the altar of their coun
try’s freedom ? At whose guilt-branded
face will be pointed the finger of the
ghost of a murdered nation rising up
from its grave to haunt its destroyer ? 1
I answer, the Beechers, the Cheevers, ;
the Emersons, the Springs of the North
—all those maudlin disciplesof an un- 1
natural and fantastic humanitarianism—
those infamous recreants of Christianity
who violated the confidence of heaven ’
and looked without regret upon the su- ‘
pine body of the Church, as with robes 1
bespattered with infidelity she lay in
the arm of corruption. And oh, what
a fearful fate will be theirs in the hour
of eternal retribution I By the victims
of their villainy will be uttered the ter-;
riblo accusations of guilt, and in hell'
they will be left to reflect upon their in-j
fumy forever !
God save our young Republic from
such pulpit politicians, and our Church
from such treacherous conservators;;
that unseduced to the commission of
such unholy incest, they may both over
smile in the beauty of conscious inno
x ounce}
But we fear, we have already dwelt
too long upon the evils arising from
C'ufounding the two naturally separate
and independent kingdoms, of Divine
and human, and will therefore hasten to
the cen’r.il point of our disc mrse—‘‘the
exaltation of a nation by righteousness."
Governments are rendeied necessary
by the depravity of man. Were all the
thoughts of the heart holy, all the in
tentions pure, all the actions condu
cive to the weal of the community;
there would manifestly be no need of an
arbitrary system of rewards and punish
ments. * But inasmuch as man is selfish,
perverse and malicious, it is indispensa
ble that there should be some power to
regulate his conduct—to prevent harm,
toinsure good. Io these ends, then,
gove umentsaie established, viz: to se
cure life, guarantee liberty, protect pro
pertv. and throw around society aids to
a rapid, social and intellectual improve
ment.
1. Did there exist no rigid adminis
tration of justice, human existence would
be precarious—man would walk in per
petual dread of the moment when the
whizzing arrow from some unseen bow
would ti. ink his heart’s blood, and trem
ble on each return t > home, lest in place
of the sin ling faces he had ‘eft he should
find the ghast y victims of robbery and
murder. Does religion assist the State
in preventing such mi-fortunes ; in erect’
’ ing bulwaiks of security around life ?
If love be repugnant to strife ; if hu-j
A S&BMSSOTS AH» S'AMSfST MSWSff’AS'BSI.
mility be inconsistent with anger; if
piety be destructive of wickedness ; then
the arm of the righteous will never be
raised to slay or injure. And the pic
ture presented by a commonwealth whose
every citizen is an expectant of*eternal
blessedness, would be one unstained by
blood, unmarred by prison walls, barren
of scenes of cruelty or resentment.
2. Another and no less important ob
ject of government th n the preserva
tion Os life, is the security of liberty.
That government is best which, while
it promotes peace, shields the defense
less and s ttles its stability, gives to
its subjects the greatest amount of free
dom. Man hates every appearance of
restraint. His heart will rebel at tyr
anny. Born subject only to God, he
desires to submit to no mandates but
such as he deems requisite to’his indi
vidual happiness. BMtace, whatever un
necessarily fetters his freedom, ener
vates his intellect, cramps his genius,
blights his pro-pects and tends to wrap 1
him in the sleep of an indolent care
lessness.
Where Despot'sm sits enthroned on
the cru hed liberties of the people, there
happiness is only the mockery of a once
unrestrained joy; the march of science
the straggling limp of a once firm and
rapid tread ; and health the hectic flush
of a body already writhing in the clutch
of death. Above all the earthly endow
ments give me freedom ; let me feel that
I need never Vbe inawe of such a thing
as I myself; ” that I need never kneel
save to that God to be whose adorer is'
to be superior to a king.
Does, thei , righteousness exalt a na
tion in granting to its citizens greater
freedom than they could otherwise en
joy ? If by removing the evil that
caused the necessity of restraint, it ab
rogates the law that discommodes soci
ety in order to prohibit that evil, then
it certainly bestows immunity from all
the oppressions of government. Besides,
it is the Christian alone who can duly
appreciate liberty. His soul expanded
by the indwelling of the spirit of eter
nal freedom, and revolting at every
check placed upon its heaven-patented
privileges of worship, he can enter more
deeply into the indignation of the
abused, and oppose with less fear eve
ry incursion upon his rights. Hence,
tlie more universal a people are in holi
ness, the greater amount of- freedom
will they possess. Hence, wherever
there is no sin there will be no restraint
—and the beautiful myth of a perfect
republic, that illumined the dreams of
Plato, will assume the frame and ap
pearance of a still more beautiful real
ity.
3. The third end to be gained by the
establishment of governments, is the
l protection of property. Where a man’s
possessions are apt at any moment to be
I wrested from his grasp, and are insured
Ito him only by the transitory unwill
ingness of his neighbors to deprive him
jot them, all incentives to labor must be
I wanting. The accumulation of years of
Ito 1 are in constant hazard of destruc
tion, and the very h >ur that witnesses;
, the smile of oxidation play upon the |
lips, may be startled by the shriek of'
disappoin nient that tells the loss of the
I rewards of a lifetime of labor.
In such a state of society, the dark
ness of primtvval barbarism would be
unrelieved by a single ray of benevo
lence or enfight enment; m n would be
controlled only by the caprices of pas
sion or the illu-ious of interes , and
without hope, without check, unblessed
byany f<. licities of certitude, would rash
ly hurry through life in order to obtain
the anticipated repose of the grave.
lias righteousness no t ndency to im
prove this rude and disordered state of
morals? Is religion no help meet to
government in rendering the meeds of
labor pe» manent ? If true holiness con
| sists in loving God supremely, and one's
neighbor as one’s self, it certainly incul-
■ cates doctrines inimical to anarchy and
i depredation. Nor is it any more op
posed to freeboo ing than it is favorable
to a peaceable conduct of society, in
• which no apprehensions exist of fraud
I or plunder.
4. The List, but by no means least.
■ design of government, i- by concentra
ting the otherwise dissipated powe s of
the people, to wield the greatest force
to overcome all obstructions to the high
est state of temporal happiness and
perfection. Has righteousness no ten
dency to the advancement of these ends ?
•What infuses greater desire in the heart
for perfection than religion ? W hat fixes
t itseyeona loftier prize than faith ?
• ATLANTA, GA., SATURDAY, MAY 30, 1863.
HIS BANNER OVER US IS LOVE.
What quickens the faculties more than
a consciousness of being versed in the
philosophy and taught by the oracles of
God? The entire system delineated in,
the Bible is one whose chiefest aim is
the happiness of man. Finding him an
infant in the lap of knowledge, it exer
cises his dormant and unconsciously
possessed talents, develops the unbud’-
ded, unopened germ of divine instinct,
and by giving him a range of spiritual
observation surpas-ing any ever swept
by mental telescope, prepares him for
flights into the loftiest regions of Prov
idential mystery, intensifies the senses
of his soul, so that he can see the glory
of God in objects imperceptible to mean-,
er eyes, and hear the music of angels
in sounds harsh and unr.ielodious to
grosser ears.
As, then, the body politic consists
only in the aggregate of individuals of
which it is composed, its piety, and
therefore its growth in perfection, will
*bo in proportion to the holiness and dil
igence of its constituents. That govern
ment will make most rapid strides to
wards the goal of a now unexistent ex
ce lence, of whose citizens it can be said
they are illustrious for their humility
and prayerfulness.
Relig on is the seer; t spring that re
veals all the unseen beauties of nation
al purity, after which the reformists and
secularists have so earne tlv beeti strug
gling. Religion is the “open sesame”
that controls the mysterious door exclu
ding us from the accumulated wealth of
national prosperity. Religion is the Al
ladin’s lamp by whose mystic virtues can
be erected in a single night, for our res
idence, a palace of such transcendent
social brilliance, such unparagoned in
tellectual symmetry, that like the aston
ished Persians, earth would gaze at it in
adoring wonder, and heaven lean over ;
it in silent love.
Cease, then, tlrs cry of “reform!
reform I ” ceasj! ibis etGT.ul cant about
the equal diffusion of knowledge among
all classes: dream no longer of Agrari
anism or Utopian bowers of happiness
to be created by man ; but preach the
glorious Gospel; shriek the repentant
cry ■ shout the regeneration song ; and
let its notes fall upon the cars of the
millions who have never heard its music,
until, kindling with the rapture us mel
ody, they shall unite their voices in the
soul-enfolding symphony, and louder
and louder, and sweeter and sweeter, its
strains shall roll over every hill, ser
enade every heart,, and rise, freighted
with the ecstasy that prompts it, to
heaven.
In generalizing the ends of govern
ment we omitted one, which, while it
can not. be regarded as a first and essen
tial cause, is at least a provision not to
be disregarded. It is, that in accoin
plishing the other benefits for which it
was constituted, the government should
not forget to secure its own stability.
For, otherwise, it would be but an
exemplification of the very evils it
sought to correct. And just here let
me ask vou to consider the common
place, but none the less important, truth
that no pre-arrangem< ms of human wis
j dom can prevent the downfall ol nations.
If such were the case, the American
i Constitution, an embodiment of the
greatest principles of the greatest char
ters of all ages, would have been ade
quate to have endowed our former re-;
public with immortality. Glorious rules :
engraven on parchment read very inspi
| ringly ; but unless preserved bx Lands
who feel the sanctity of their office,
will become tiine-t immed, and raoth
eirti n, and torn-a-under.
God in his all-wi-e dispensation pun
ishes the sins of individuals bv the fire.*
ot eternity; but as nations have no exis
tence save in time, he ordains by the
outworking of second causes, that their
wickedness shall bring its own retribu
tion. V. henever a people become so re
gardless of the instructions of God as
to appoint rulers whose consciences are
seared by ambition, then the very vil
lainy of those rulers will be their chas
tisement. Whenever they loose sight
i ot their depend nee up n heaven and be
come united with arr gance and vanitv.
, (lien these very passions, bv < ngendvr-
■ ing feu Is and divisions, will plunge
: them into civil or international war, and
• thereby teach them that the sovereign
■ they acknowledge is one whose com-
I mauds are not to be despised. Such
■ has been the fate of our own Lind. In
' censed at the sight of so much folly
and sin, God has only left us to our-
. selves ; and we are fa*t hastening to de
struction. A cloud is resting upon his
brow and in the voice of universal lam
entation, he says “ America is joined to
her idols, let her alone ! ”
i Had we, instead of plunging blindly
into this worse than Babylonish idola
try, given our hearts to that God, who,
’neath the shadow of his wings, shel
ters his children from every storm, we
would not to-day be crouching beneath
this dark, death-pregnant cloud that
rumbles and blasts with equal terror ;
the Confederacy would not, like Rachel,
be weeping for her children because they
are not; iror would the sun that lin
gered so gorgeously o’er the Eastern
hills, throwing in his rising a mellow ra
diance of hope over every heart, have i
been eclipsed by the intervening shade— I <
impenetrable, awful, of national woe!<
and misery. |i
May we to-day feel deeply, knowim-ji
provingly that righteousness and right- h
eousness aZone exaltetli a nation. |i
In view of all these things, we do not <
hesitate to ascribe that superiority in i
intellectual refinement and social hap- s
piness posessed by Christian nations i
over heathen, to the prevalence of true i
religion. We do not hesitate to affirm 1
that to the veneration of the revealed 1
will of God is to be attributed the in- i
conceivable celerity with which chris- <
tian nations have leaped forward in the ■
race of civilization—out?trinping all;
pagan or atheistical communities, who p
are either creeping on at a snail pace
or rubbing th ir eyes scarcely yet open- I
ed from the sleep of ignorance. Very ,
strange it is, on any other principle than <
.hat of godliness, ihat the nations most
renowned for erudition and wealth, b
shou'd be those where Christianity woosh
the scholar with words of encourage ;
inent and supports tiie trembling wings
. of the philosopher in his dizziest flights 1
of inquiry. A ery strange, if the Bible
be not of Heaven, that only where it lies
ion the family table are the sweetest
pictures of domestic happiness exhibited
—that only where it is the Pharos that
throws far and wide over the turbid sea
its illumining rays, nations are able to
steer safely of the breakers of misrule
and avoid the shipwreck of freedom.
But in order to appreciate the true
value of religion to both individual and
nation, let us imagine a state of society
in which its celestial doctrines are un-1
known, its hope-freighted promises unut-j
tered, its heaven-bom beauties unseen;;
let us picture a world without a Bible,;
without any standard of perfection, any
rule of moral action—where wrapt up ;
in the cloak of self, man never learn
the lessons of social sacrifice or opens 1
those buds of affection that expand with
such rapidity and throw around them
odors of such deli ious fragrance in the
warmth of a Divine light. Would it not
be a sunless universe, a perpetual plague
of darkness in which
“The stars
Would wander darkling ihrough the eternal space.
Rayless and pathless, and the icy earth
Swing blind and blackening in the moonless air?”
In order to a fuller admiration of the
more than Elysian blessings of religion,
let us again imagine a state of society!
in which every heart is robed in love,'
in which every mansion is a temple, eve
ry fireside an altar, every father a priest
—where the first straggling beams of
morning look down upon a people kneel
ing in earnest prayer, and the last fare
well glance of evening shall gli.-ten with
: jov at sight of the same beautiful spec
tacle ; let us imagine a nation which,
when the labors of the week are ended,
and the sweet Sabbath bells chant their
matin welcome to church—typical, I
have often thought, of the seraphic;
.chime that will ring the summons of;
ihe sacramental host to the God-light
temple when the Sabbath morn
of eternity shall dawn, let us imagine (
such a nation all gathering to the house
of prayer, lifting their songs of praise (
f>r l le>sings received, and commending
themselves and tin ir government to the
care of their superintending ■father.—
ould not the existence of that people
be an everlasting inillenium, whose still
air could never b? di-turbed by shrieks of
war. and whose halcyon summer would
be as xincloudcd as unending.
True, we may not hope for such a
scene, until Cluist sh >ll revi.-it his long
ubaud med earth ; but still, is there even
an infidel, that can doubt that such an
off ct would follow universal piety, and
i th it could not weeji with joy at the bless
ed consummation r
Impressed, then, with the truth of na
tional ex illation by righteousness, and
■ national degradation by wickedness,
>.the young Republic whooe destinies we
TERMS — Three Dollars a-year.
have launched upon the sea of revolu
tion, claims a full share of our hopes
and prayers. Let us commend her, as
we would an undiciplined child, to the
guidance of God; and baptizing her
with a baptism of heavenly blessings,
let us dedicate her to the promotion of
liberty and happiness.
I confess that second only to the
Church is my devotion to my country.
Around her cling my fondest hopes, my
sincerest prayers. Commencing her ca
reer in the midst of wonderful agita
tions, she has proven by her conduct
that she is worthy of the most ardent
loyalty of her citizens. Holding in
check a more powerful foe by the force
of stern and relentless courage, she has
established her claims upon the admi
ration of the world. Never, I may say,
in the records of human heroism, have
there been xvritten deeds of nobler dar
ing, more unconquerable endurance and
dreadful suffering, than per
formed by the sons of the South in this
struggle for freedom. Driven from their
ruined homes by the invader, they have
met him on the field of strife, and the
best panegyrics of their prowess have
been his routed, flying columns. Future
ages will love to dwell upon these deeds
of lofty patriotism. When the winter
wind shrieks mournfully around his hum
blecottage, the old veteran will be seen
telling to his little ones the story of his
long and shoeless marches, and his per
ilous and terrible battles. In the. lays
of our coming literature will be embalm
ed the midnight prayers of our Chris
tian Generals, and the astonishing feats
of our cavalier chieftains. When mu
sing over such scenes, history will put
wrangling and envy aside, while in still
ness she lets fall the tear of ancestral
pi ide. Poetry will wreathe around the
graves of our martyr soldiers amaran
thine garlands of memory, and the
richest heritage a father can leave to
his children will be the testimony that
he participated in the sacrifice for lib
erty. Fain would I linger here and
dream rapturously of our country’s fu
ture. Fain would I see her pre-eminent
among the nations of the earth—ever
free, happy and united—sending forth
from her ports gospel freighted vessels
to heathen lands, and lifting in her gi oves
loud notes of praise to God. And as
long as these rivers roll on to the sea,
or ihese mountains lift their heads to
heaven, so long may our tongues re
main the trumpets of resistance to tyr
anny and vice, and our hearts the sacred
temples in which is enshrined the glory
<>f our departed warriors—so long may
the sun in its course vi-it no land moio
free, or the angels in their mini-tering
flights hover over no land moi e right
eous than our own beloved South.
But if the fate of other empires must
befall our own, and “perishability” bo
stamped upon her proudest achieve
ments, God grant that when she falls
her fall may not be in darkness and in
blood; but like the setting of a sum
mer’s sun, cairn, God like and sublime,
leaving a purple glow of blessing on
cloud and sky long after its disk has
: vanished forever. .
Permit mo in conclusion to make a
sFght allusion to myself. Viewing, as I
have done, the greater part of this con
test in a State whose devotion to prin
ciple I regret I can not commend ;
watching with emotions of honest prido
the resistance to oppression of a people
with whom I am allied by birth, and
parentage, and sympathy—l can say
that from the firing of the first gun at
Sumter there has not been a prayer of
mv lips that was not for the success of
the South —not a throb of my heart that
beat n>t in unison with hers. Leaving
home and kindred, severing every tio *
of affection or interest, I have said to
this Confederacy what Ruth said to Na
omi, “Whither thou goest I will go;
where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy
people shall be my people, and thy God
my God. *
A Blessed Intimacy.—A friend
once asked Professor Franke how he
maintained so consistent a peace of mind.
•• By stirring tyi my mind a hundred
time- 1 a day,” replied Franke. “Wher
ever I affi, whatever 1 am, whatever I
do, ‘ Blessed Jesus,’ I say, ‘ haw I a
share in Thy redemption ? Are my sins
forgiven ? Am I guided by Thy Spirit ?
Renew me, strengthen me.’ By this
constant intercourse with Jesus, I enjoy
serenity of mind, and settled peace of
soul.”
d Content is the mother of good digestion.
NO. 28.