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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.