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BY DAYTON, ELLS & CO. VOLUME IV. gaptfet gann.tr, DEVOTED TO RELIGION AND LITERATURE, Is published every Saturday, at Atlanta, Georgia, at the subscription price of rotra dollars per year. DAYTON, ELLS & CO., Proprietors. A. C. DAYTON. JAS. N. ELLS. B. D NILES • THE MOUNTAINS OF LIFE. There’s a land far away, mid the stars, we are told, Where they know m t the sorrows of time, Where the pure waters wander through valleys , of gold, And hfe is a treasure sublime; ’Tis the land of our God, ’tis the home of the soul, Where ages of splendor eternally roll; Where the way-weary traveller reaches his goal, On the evergreen Mountains ot Life. Our gaze cannot soar to that beautiful land, But our visions have told of its bliss, And our souls by the gale from its gardens are fanned, When we faint in the desert of this; And we sometimes have longed for its holy repose, When our spirits were torn with temptation and woes, . And we have drank from the tide of the river * that flows From the evergreen Mountains of Life. O ! the stars never tread the blue heavens at night, But we think where the ransomed have trod And the day never smiles from his palace of light, But we feel the bright smile of our God. We are travelling homeward, thro’ changes and gloom, To a Kingdom where pleasures unceasingly bloom, “ And our guide is the glory tliat shines thro’ the tomb,” From the evergreen Mountains of Life. [For The BaptM Banner.} HOW TO TRY THEM. [CONTINUED.] “Now, Mr. Tonyad, tell me how you find your church in the Bible; I believe you promised to show it to me there.” “Certainly, madam. If I could not show it there, I should at once conclude it was no church of Christ at all. For His church was established by Himself and Ilis^,apos tles, and the record of their work is left us in that Book. Any church different from that described there, is the work of man— some new thing put in the place of His, which He never authorized, and which all His people are bound to disown.” “Oh, dear, you Baptists are so illiberal!” "We Baptists feel that we are under the most solemn obligations to be governed by the madam.” “tfuf, sir,, does the Bible require you to disown all Christians except your immacu late selves?” “The Bible says, ‘Now we command you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not according to the traditions (or teachings) that ye re ceived from us.’ These are the words of Paul, by the Spirit of God. Am kat lib erty to disregard them ? This would re quire us to disown ourselves if we could not find ourselves in accordance with the teach ings of Christ and the apostles.” “ Well, it does look as though it must be j so. I always thought it was just sell con ceit and bigotry that made you all so ex clusive. Excuse me for talking so ; but you know I am a plain, out-spoken some body, and will let out what comes in my mouth.” “ 1 believe that most persons, who do not know' us, have the same opinion that you had, and not a few have publicly expressed it from the pulpit and the press. But this does not trouble us ; we seek to please God not man. It is of little consequence to u» I what people say or think about us, except so far as such prejudices may prevent them from listening to <>ur Reasons, and examin-j ing our claims to be the true church ot Je sus Christ.” “Then you think there is only one true church of Christ.” "I think there are as many as the Lord Jesus and His apostles ordained. It they set up the Methodist Church, then I think that is a true church; it they set up"the Presbyterian Church, then that is also a true church ; if they established the Epis copal Church, then that is another church. I have no way of knowing what ■ THE BAPTIST BANNER. are true churches of Christ except by find ing them recognized as such in the Holy Word of God. No uninspired man can make a church of Christ. All churches be gun Ly men since the days of the apostles are surely not churches of Christ.” "Oh, yes, I know they are not exactly churches, but they are branches of His church. We are not so selfish as you Bap tists; we don’ tclaim to be the whole church, but only a branch of it; while we admit that you and all other Christian denomina tions are just as really branches of the true church as we Methodists are.” “Very well, then, we must look in the Bible for a church with branches ; and these branches holding some to one set of doc trines, and some to another set; some hav ing one kind of members, and some another kind ; some having one kind of church gov , ernment, and some a very different kind.— We must find this church and see how many branches it was divided into, and the pecu liarities of each branch, and then we can determine whether yours and my church are Scriptural branches \ or else we must find where the Lord gave authority to divide His church into as many branches as men in after days might think proper, with any sort of organization, order, and ordinances which they might choose to adopt. If we can find these things in the Bible, we are all right.” “Oh, Mr. Tonyad! you Baptists ar,e so unreasonable ! ” “Is it unreasonable, madam, to bring all these tests to the Bible ? Do not yours, and all the so-called churches of Christ pre tend to be guided by the Bible? Do not your preachers find their texts in the Bible? Have they not made their people, believe that their churches, or branches, are author ' ized by the Bible? Do they not all agreej that the Bible, and the Bible only, is the all sufficient guide for all religious faith and practice? And yet you call us unreasona ble, because we ask you to come and try yourselves by the Bible!” " No, sir, I don’t mean you are unreason able to appeal to the Bible ; we all do that. Bet it is sq hard to exclude everybody but yourselves from the pale of the church.” “But I have not done any such thing as that. I have excluded no one as yet; and the plan 1 propose is as likely to exclude the Baptists as anybody else, if they are nut in the Bible. If you Methodists are there, as a church, we will be compelled to receive the Methodist church as the true church of Christ; if you are there as a branch, we will be compelled to regard you as a branch. But if there are no branches there, yon can’t be a branch. If there "is only one church there, you must be that church or no church at all. Just so with the Presbyterian ; just so with the Episco palian ; just so with the Baptist, and every other that -liiims t » be a church of Christ.” " But it is so hard to feel that there is only one church, or only one branch, w’hatever you call it It seems so selfish and bigoted for any of them to claim to be the only church, I cannot believe it is so.” “Then you will not receive the Bible church, unless the Bible exactly suits your notions of what the church should be. You) will construct the church as pleases you, and if it pleases God that His church shall , be like yours, you will agree to regard it as right; but if He differs from you, you can’t help feeling it is very hard. 1 ' “No, no, M Tonyad, I did not mean that ; but it is so hard th think that all the churches are not in the Bible; I have been so long accustomed to think they were.” “ Well, who knows but what they are? Let us look for them.. Or, if there is but one, who knows but it is the Methodist?— ' Let us look for it. True, Christ praved that His people all be oar. True, the brethren were exhorted to note those men ) | who caused divisions, and to have no fellow-! ship with them. True, those were prais. d * ho maintained the ordinances as they were de livered by the apostles. True, they were commanded in the name of the Lord Jesus, I to withdraw from every brother that walked ' disorderly, and not according to the tradi-j tions which are received from the apostles. But yet, if the Bible ordain more churches than one, or one with an unlimited number of branches, these things are not opposed ito the unity or the purity, of the Gospel i church, and are all right.” 4 “ Well, J don’t know what to say. I sup 'A StSHLSSSOW ARB iASUM ATLANTA, GEORGIA, SATURDAY. AUGUST 1, 1863. HIS BANNER OVER US IS LOVE. pose it must be as you tell me, but it seems so strange.” "I do not tell you anything, as yet, ex cept that w r e must go to the Bible,and abide by what we find recorded there. I have not said that the Baptist was the true church, or even the branch of it. I have not said that the Methodist was not, or that any oth er was not the true church or a “"branch of it. I only say we must settle these ques , tions by the Bible. What I’have said is, that the church of Christ is only one church, the one which was formed by Him, and ex tended by the Apostles, and described in the New Testament. If /AaZhad no branch • es holding different and opposing doctrines • and having various organizations and gov ernments, then the true church of Christ ■ now can have no such branches. These things must betrue, and surely no Christian should feel that it is hard to abide by the plain teachings of the word of God.” “ Yes, I see it is so, but it is so different from what I have been accustomed to think and hear—l have been so used to hearing of the branches of the church and of the va rious denominations as all true churches of Christ, that I can’t readily bring my mind to concieve of it as otherwise. But if it is as you say” — “Oh, I don’t ask you to believe anything because I say it. Let us go to the Bible and see if these things are so The question is not what I say, or wh it you say, or what any man, may say, but what does God say? What does the BIBLE say? We must be governed by the Bible.” “ Well, let us go to the Bible then. How will you begin?” [to BE CONTINUED.] [For The Baptist Banner j AN ESTABLISHED CHURCH. _____ I In a recent number of The Banner 1 saw an article from Brother W. in which he ex pressed some apprehensions that our present . troubles might result in burthening us with an established-church religion. This is not the exact language, but I think the idea is fairly stated. Brother W. is a faithful, pru dent and honest watchman, and a note of alarm from him is well worth heeding; but it is to be hoped this is a groundless fear. In our great world of fashion and superflu ity, most persons choose their church as they would a coat at the tailor’s shop—hav- ( ing sole reference to its qualities to please and fit them. Their early training, social caste, and influence of friends, are the chief considerations to a decision. Fashion will send such persons to church, and fashion will keep them at home; and the restless, hurrying world, as it rushes by them, will make no difference in any of them. It is to the world now, as to the ancient Greek, 1 all foolishness —one form is as good as an other, and none of them good for anything in particular. So it would be all the same to a fashionable, worldly senate, whichever form might be sanctioned by law. It is no matter of theirs whether Brutus or Antony be crowned; but the strongest current must sweep the shore. Yet the blessed Jesus tells us the strongest current sets wrong.— j The great multitude will go in the broad n»ad. The cotemporaries of Noah would not believe that he was the only right man in the world ; so with Bildad, in the case of Job. It looked so egotistical and presump tuous for a few ignorant persons, like No ah’s household, to lay such high claims to preeminence—it was so self-righteous and Pharisaical in Job—no wonder the multi tude denounced them. But sometimes I hope there are. some modern Noahs and Jobs— persons who differ widely from the vain multitude of fashion around them; persons who do not choose their religion at all, but wh se religion chooses them, and with whom it becomes a vital matter —a matter of life and death, to hold out faithful, and d fend till death each peculiar feature; persons who are cut out of the moving mass, as a stone from the mountain, without hands, .and placed into the Spiritual Temple—not i knowing or believing the beauties of the (Temple till they were brought to its gates; and their eyes opened. Paul calls it “the eyes ot their understanding being opened.” Such persons have no moral power to be anything else than what they are. They I were brought by a wav they knew not; and having come, their whole soul endorses the route as the straight and narrow way.- ; Drive them out of it, and they have no where under heaven to stand. This is the way in which are the blood stained foot prints of their holy Redeemer. Out of it, all is a cheerless waste. Hence, with these persons, their religion is their all. They cannot give it up. As they had no (moral) power to choose it, so they have no power to exchange it. It is that or nothing. Now, for the sake of this class of persons, I hope brother W. may be mistaken. It is not likely they will be the favored few on whom the glitterring patronage of State will fall. They are not in the least-fitted for it. It w’ould neither affect them or the State—there is nothing in common between them ; and they dare not, nor do they wish to change, one tittle of the laws that govern them now, and. have governed them since the days of the Apostles. They have per fect laws, which cannot be reformed ; and if the 1,000,000 of these men who are now fighting for the privilege of self government, and the right to administer these perfect laws according to the dictates of conscience could be made to believe that the blows they are now dealing against political ty ranny would return upon their own heads, in the shape of spiritual or eclesiastical ty ranny—by establishing any one of the mod ern religious sects —it is possible that they would cease to fight. They would prefer political bondage to ecclesiastical tyranny. The one would affect their mortal, body for a few years only ; the other affects the in terests of their immortality. DION. THE LADIES’ COLUMN. . DOMESTIC RECIPES. Potatoes for Bread.—When potatoes bear such a price to wheat flour, tha., when cooked, they are about half the price per pound of the fluor, it is economy to add of potatoes about one-fourth the weight of the flour used fora batch of bread. so made is more pleasant to the taste, and equally nutritious. The potatoes should be boiled with the skins on, and then peel ed and mashed and stirred into a pulp, with warm water, and rubbed through a wire seive, and then mixed with the flour, and yeast added as for other bread. The bakers in large cities understand the economy of using potatoes in their bread, whenever they are sold at low prices. The small po tatoes, which are unsaleable for other pur poses, are often sold wholesale to the bakers and added to the bread. Floating Island.—A nice dish for tea may be made in the following way : Beat the whites of two eggs to a stiff foam, which pour upon a quart of milk previously set to boil; when the milk boils the foam is done and you may take it off. Beat the yolks of five and the whites of three eggs together, with sugar and salt to the taste, and stir into the boiling milk ; let it boil, and place in your sauce-dish, with the foam floating on the top. You may season with lemon or vanilla. To Clean China and Glass.—The best I material for cleaning porcelain or glass-ware, jis fullers’ earth, but it must be beaten into a fine powder and carefully cleared of all rough or hard particles, which might en danger the polish of the brilliant surface. To Fasten Knife Handles. —The Chem ical Gazette says : “When knives and forks have come off the handles from being put in hot water, or otherwise, a cement made as follows, will be useful to re fasten them : Take of gum shellac two parts, and prepared ■ chalk one part, reduce them to a powder and mix thoroughly. Fill the opening in jibe handle w ith the mixture, heat the shank lof the knife and press it in. Then keep the , handle out of hot water.” Tp Clean Silk.—l have seen a good re cipe for cleaning all kinds of silk, which I have used with good effect. Take equal quantities of alcohol, wood ashes, soft soap, and molasses. Mix them, and rub with a (cloth on the silk ; afterward rinse in ch ar water with a little salt <>r alum. Your silk : will look as good as if it had never been washed. A Washing Compound that Can t be Beat. —Take two pounds soda a*h, two of ; hard soap, and twelve quarts of water. — Cut the soap fine, add all together, put into a kettle, and bring to a boil; then take it off the fire and stir till nearly eo«l. Put your cloths to soak the evening before you . wash. In the morning wring them out, and , bojl them in water to which is added nearly a pint of the comp< und to every pailful.— w ash out in the same water, and rinse, and your washing L done. To Remove Rust from Iron Utensils Rust may be removed by first rubbing oil well into the article, and. in forty-eight hours, cover it with finely powdered lime, [rub it welland the rust will disappear. [For The BaptM Banner.] Letter from Brother Hartwell. Richmond, July 21, 1863. Dear Brother Ells: I now send as I proposed, the portion of brother Hartwell’s letter which refers to his abundant success, in preaching Christ to the heathen. He says: "In our mission work, we have had much to encouaage us. It is now about two years since I brought my family to live in Tung Chau, and commenced my work here. Os course it was a new dialect to me, and 1 could talk only in a very blundering way at first, but God has seen fit to bless the la bors of us all. Our Presbyterian brethren have an encouraging little church here, the English Baptist several members in Yentai, and we have a small but interesting church in this place. The first man I had the pleas ure of baptizing, was my personal teacher, OoTs’wun Chan, on the 27th October, 1861. On the 9th March; 1862, we visited the riv er again, and Wong T’san Yuen was buried . with his Lord in baptism. June 29th two others, Chen Shang Pe’ and Wong Ki Kiang were baptized in the sea. In S-ptember and October 1 spent several Sundays preaching in our little company of believers, on the the nature and design of the Christian church, its offices, its government, its ordi nances; and on the 5 h October, 1862, we constituted the first Baptist church in the North of China. There were in the consti tution five Chinese, (including my assistant from Shanghai,) and Mrs. Holmes, Mrs. Hartwell and myself. The Church imme diately sat down to hear the experience of applicants for baptism, whom I had consen ted to baptize, and accepted Chan Fung Yeu, Chan Fung Hwa, (two brothers,) and Chen Wun Yeuii, and in the afternoon of the same day 1 baptized them, thus making our number on the day of constitution eleven Since that time Kan Sae San, whom Bro Holmes baptized in Shanghai, and Mrs. Holmes’ cook, T’si Hio Yan, who w°s bap tized in Yentai, have joined us, and Sunday before last 1 had the pleasure of going into the sea again to baptize Kiang Lung Ki.— So now we number fourteen. I have given you thus the names of all these brethren because I want you, in some sense, to know them, and because 1 expect to have occasion from time to time to mention them in my letters. " If the terrible war which is now wag ing would only cease, and our correspond ence become regular, I would love to give you in detail the experience of some or all of them. Would that you could some times step in and worship with our little congregation of Christianized hea'hen. I know your heart would leap with joy, as mine often does, when we pray and try to sing together. “I suppose you sometimes feel some anx iety as to how we get along pecuniarily. I am happy to say, we have not yet run entirely out. Our mission has been living on the proceeds of the sale of the To Hwo Dong house and lot in Shanghai. This is now’ just about or very nearly all gone, and we shall have every man to support his own family as best he can. Fortunately, I think, brethren Yates and Crawford have made such arrangements as will not neces sitate their giving up their mission work ; and by the kindness of Dr. Burton, who, fearing you had not been able to make re mittances, has remitted to me, 1 have enough to last some time; so that, for the present year, God permitting, w© will go on with our work. By the close of the year we hope God will provide us the means of living still in Tung Chau. It is a very, ve ry hard thing for me to have to think of leaving the work here, to seek for business in Shanghai or Yentai, (for there is nothing for me to do in the way of making a liveli hood in Tung Chr-u ) " Bro. Smith, of the Episcopal Mission, whose wife died of cholera last summer, is with us. He expects to leav- in a few days for America- He is an Alabamian. Bro. Yates has written you, or will write, I sup pose, mentioning the'expected departure of Mrs. Yates and Annie from Shanghai.— Mrs. Y goes topur Annie to school. They cannot go to Bro Y’s native State, and they are not willing for Annie to be educated among the enemies of our country, so they will go to Switzerland. I fully approve the plan. Bro. Y. remains in Shanghai. I would write you more, but the chances are so st rung that you will never s?e this sheet, that I think it may be only a waste of lime.” Let the brethren and sistersof the church es still make earnest prayer to God, that he may continue to bless our missionaries, that their labor may not be in vain. It should also be a subject of unceasing sup plication, that alt hindrances may be re moved out of the way, and that the word of the Lord may have frill course and be glorified in the rnidst of the heathen. As the associations of the State of Geor gia will soon occur, I beg leave to request, that the churches send up for our work, lib eral contributions. It is a work that the Baptists of the South have undertaken, be cause they believe it accords with the will of God. Their missionaries are in the field. VVe cannot, if we would, recall them, and we would not, if we could. We must sus- TERMS —Four Dollars a-year. tain them. The Lord put it into the hearts of all His servants to respond to this claim. Individuals desiring to forward their funds can send them to us. On behalf of the Board. Fraternally yours, JAS. B. TAYLOR, Cor. Sec. LITTLE INQUISITIVE CHILDREN. If the first-born of Egypt were lively children, with a tendency to ask questions, 1 look upon Herod as a man whose acts have been misconstrued, and whose memo ry has been villified. A vast amount of nonsensical interrogatives which would have bothered the patriarchsand perhaps stopped the wheels of that parental style of govern ment, he spared the generation. I think if I were Caliph Haroun Al Ras chid, and hud a gay young bachelor enemy who had tried to steal one of my wives, I shouldn’t bow-string him, nor sack him and throw him into the Tigris. But 1 should order my Mesrour to confine him in an apartment with two particularly lively,eim* pie, gushirg and inquiring children, and leave.him there. At the end of twenty’ four hours 1 should release him, a gibber ing maniac, and my revenge be Monte Christoic and complete. The other day, in an unguarded moment, I accepted the charge and custody of a young gentleman 'who wore half gaiters and a Charles 11. hat and feather. Hi 3 sponsors in ‘baptism’ had given him one name —cir- cumstance another. His latter appellation was, " Buster.” His age, as he informed tne, was "going on seven.” When he had made up his mind that we were to be left together, he eyed me malevolently a mo ment, and immediately commenced the fol low ing system of torture: What was my name, and my brother’s name, and father’s name, and why ? Did I have any little boys? Why didn’t 1- have any little boys? What was the reason I didn’t have any little boys, I didn’t have any little girls? All this put as one question with no stops, and a gradual rising inflec tion ? . Was them buttons gold, in my sleeve, and why? How much did they cost? Did they cost one hundred and fifty five dollars? If they didn’t cost an hundred and fifty-five dollars, what would be the price of a gold house and gold furniture and gold staircase? Did 1 ever see a house with these auriferous peculiarities? No? What then would be the cost of a silver cariiage with gold harness? What then would be the cost of a leaden carriage with iron harness? And why? Did 1 know why the flies walked on the ceiling? Could I w,alk on the ceiling? Not if I had one man to hold my head and another my legs ? Why couldn’t 1? Cou'dn’t lif I was a giant? Did I ever see a giant? Was I personally acquainted with any ? —- Did I ever see them eat? What did they eat? * How far was it to Mobile? Was it a million of miles? Fifty million of miles? If he (Buster) had a balloon and should start off, would he get there to night? nor next night, nor another night, nor next.week —and why? 1 soon found that this why? was simply a form of closing all questions, like the usual note of interrogation (?). What was my business, av.d did I know any stories? and why ? This afforded a plan of relief. I instantly stprted into an animated history of my pre vious life and adventures. 1 invested all my relations and friends with supernatural attributes, and made myself a something between a Geni and a Robinson Crusoe. I made, the most astonishing voyages, and saw the most remarkable occunences. I drew liberally from the Arabian Nights and Baron Munchausen. Whenever I saw tip* open mouth "address itself as though ’tviould speak,” I brought in a Roc, aGenie or a casket ot diamonds, and took away the unhappy child’s breath ! In the midst of my animated description of my last vo/age to the Hoarhound Islands and my adventure in the damp caves, where the candies hung in long stalactites, the-parents happily re turned. I hurriedly received their thanks and left. But I have the secret satisfaction <>f knowing that all that pent-up torrent of questions fell upon the unhappy fa’her ; and that geographical inquiries regarding the localities of the . u Floating Islands,” the " Blanc Mange Archipelago,” and the "Val ley of Cream Cakes,” will I e he ce «rth his dreadful lot to .meet and ai swer. The Panoply. Soldiers of < hrisi arise! Aud put your armor on, St-ong in the strengt i which God supplies, . Through his eternal Sod. Strong in the Lord of hosts, And in His mighty power. Who in the strength of J<--us trusts I» more than a conqueier. Stand, then, in frreat might, With, all His strength tnaued ; But take to arm you for the fight, The panoply of God ; Tr at hav ng aU none, And all y our conflic 8 past. Ye nun o’ercoioe through Christ alone, And stand entire at hut. NUMBER 37