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• The entrance of Thy Word glveth light’
A> Ot DAYTON > -"Editor.
JAS. N. ELLS, Secular Editor?
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7,1863.
Our; Platform.
1. None but those who make a credible pro
fession of faith in Christ should be baptized.
2. None are really baptized except those who
are immersed upon a profession of their faith in
Christ.
3. None can properly be members of the
church of Christ, except they have been bap
tized.
4. None can properly be ministers of Christ
who are not members of the church of Christ.
5. Non-afflliation with those who refuse to
obey Christ in these things—with those who re
fuse to walkjaccording to the Divine rule.
6. We shall insist upon Baptiste praotwng
what they hold'and teach.
♦* The Banner” for the Soldiers.
The avidity with which the soldiers seize
on all sorts of religious reading, is well
known. Other denominations have availed
themselves of this circumstance to secure
the perusal of a large amount of denomina
tional literature. We do not blame them.
If they believe they are right in their faith
and practice, they ought to endeavor to in
duce others to belive it. We know we are
right, and hence we are under the greatest
obligation to teach our faith and practice
to all the world. To other denominations
it is a matter of comparatively little impor
tance ; for, while they think they are right,
they profess to believe that we are right
too; we are all right, or at least, not very
wrong— all nearly enough right to be true
churches of Christ and have ampng us the
ordinances of the Lord. We can not think
sd. We feel that there can be but one right
way. We know that Christ organised but
one kind of Churches. There was only
“one Lord, one faith, and one baptism."—
Hence, there cannot be a dozen kinds of
Churches, and three or more kinds of bap
tism, and all be right. If we are right,
others are wrong; if they are right, we are
wrong. But we have gone to the Bible,
and found there the pattern upon which our
Church is formed : hence, we can feel sure
we are right; and, being right, we must go
on to show it to the world. It is no matter
of indifference to us whether our denomina
tional peculiarities are regarded by others
or not. These peculiarities are matters of
great moment. They affect the very exis
tence of the Church. The affect the validity
ot the ordinances. They affect the Di
vineauthority of the ministry. They are not
non-essentials. Men may, indeed, go to
heaven without them; but they cannot be
in a true Church of Christ on earth without
them. And if this so, is it not important
that it should be known ? Is it more im
portant that any should know it than the
young men who are now in the army, but
who are soon to be the working and con
trolling members in our home communi
ties? Are there, in all the world, any peo
ple whom it is of more importance to in
doctrinate in our faith and practice than the
young men in our aamies? Will there
ever be a better or so good an opportunity
to reach them at little cost as now' ? A
single copy of Tub Banner, sent to the
camps, may be read by fifty or a hundred
men. Its contents will be discussed and
thought over in their hours of leisure. They
will be remembered and considered in the
days to come. It is a great matter, there
fore, to send our denominational literature
to the soldiers, and what can we send bet
ter than our Baptist Banner ■ Will not
Baptists help us to make our soldiers not
only Christians, but Baptist Christians ?
a. c. D.
Is It Right t
A church of Christ is bound to do what is
right, in regard to money matters, as well
as in regard to baptism ar.d the Lord’s Sup
per. It is bound to provide for the tempo
ral wants of those who minister to it in
spiritual things. “Even so hath the Lord
ordained that they who preach the gospel shall
live of the gospel. Now, when the price of
all he has to buy has increased from four to
twenty fold, is it right to leave his salary
just where it was before the war ? or even
to reduce it somewhat, on the plea that
some of the members have gone into the
army •, You used to give him a hundred
dollars a year for one week in the month.
ff H E BAPTIST BA.WN ER .
very well. With that he could buy
hundred pounds of meat at ten cents per
pound, and a thousand pounds of flour at
two dollars per hundred. This would go
far to feed his family. They must eat
now, as they did then. They must still-be
fed and-clothed. But what will a hundred
dollars do toward feeding and clothing them
now? Is it more than twenty was? What,
then, is the minister to do ? Must he
starve ? Or must he abandon the work,
and turn to the world for the means of sub
sistence ! Are not the churches bound to
increase the sum they contribute for his
support until it will support him?
may say, perhaps, that times are hard, and
ether taxes are heavy ; but, if times are hard
for you, they are hard for the preacher. If
you have to pay other obligations, this is
no reason why you should repudiate this.
The Lord did not ordain that those who
preach the gospel should live by the gospel
only in good times, and be left to starve or
turn to the world for support when times
are hard. You don’t refuse to increase
your fees to the doctor, or the school-mas
ter, or the overseer, because times are hard.
They must live, if times are ever so hard.
Ministers had ' none too much when
money was worth four times as much as it
is now. Then, is it not right to increase
their salary at least four times what it was ?
Would this be more than they need ?
A. C. D.
Fasting.
The ancients fasted as an expression of
sorrow. This was natural. Intense grief
takes away the desire for food. Those who
were suffering real sorrow of the saddest
sort could not eat. Hence, those who would
give expression to even a lighter grief
would abstain from food in imitation of
those whose hearts {were broken by the
overwhelming power of their misery. As
those who suffer most cannot eat, so those
who would give some external intimation
of their desire to feel sorrow for sin, are en
couraged to act as if the sorrow were indeed
, upon their heart, and to think of those things
which will be likely to lead to heart-felt re
pentance. Mere abstinence from food is
not religious fasting, any more than mere
immersion in water is Christian baptism.
The fasting must be an outward sign of the
inward sorrow for sin, felt, or at least de
sired and prayed for. The fast is a sym
bolical profession of repentance toward God.
And hence it is but an unmeaning obser
vance, or worse than that, a hypocritical
sjiow of sincerity, unless it is attended by
: heart sorrow.
God looks at the heart. He will have
the heart feel rightly first, and then the out
ward expression to which that right feeling
naturally leads. If the heart is right there
’ will be reformation of life. Hence, by the
prophet, God reproved the Jews for their
fasts—“ Is this the fast that I have chosen,
, to smitt with the fist of wickedness?” It
was no true fasting, in a religious sense, un
less ihere had been sorrow' for sin; and
r there was no true sorrow’ for sin, unless
there was turning away from sin. So long
ast the people and their rulers persisted in
their wicked rebellion against the law of
God, their fasting was a mockery and an
abomination in His sight. It declared to
God that they were grieved for sin, while,
in fact, |they w’ere still rejoieing in their
iniquity.
Here and there, indeed, there might be
some sincere and lowly one who felt the
sorrow which the fast professed ; and, for
the sake of such, the all-merciful God might
pity and save the South. This has been our
hope in the public fastings appointed by our
President.
The na/tOM, as a whole, is in rebellion
against God. Its Legislative head has enact
ed laws in open defiance of the authority
of Heaven. God has sent affliction and sor
row. The Executive pleads with the peo
pie to fast and to call upon God. But he
! never suggests to Congress the necessity to
repeal the law’s that are so dishonoring to
God. It never recommends the observance
by all in high places of the requirements of
the fourth commandment. The Govern
ment not merely permits, but requires its
officers needlessly to violate the plain letter
of God’s law, and then calls on the people
to fast, that the punishment which God has
threatened for such sin may not be inflicted!
Is this the fast that God hath chosen 1
a. c. d.
Speaks tor Itself*.
1 The following,received by express,speaks
for itself:
RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 80, 18«3.
i J. N. Ells, Esq.:
!| Dear Sir— Enclosed please find two hun
rdred dollars, as per centage on sale of my *
f : books, to be applied to fund fur establishing
I in Atlanta, a School for Soldiers’ Orphans* I
’ i Hope to see you in the course of three j
weeks. Yours, <Scc.,
H. W. R. JACKSON.
The resident editor of The Banner is the
treasurer of this fund, and hopes our citi-i
zens will not allow Mr. Jackson to establish
thia School by himself.
A Right 'bnejnent.
The illegal and tyrannical exercise of the
power to seize and ’appropriate private
property for the Govt rnment without com
pensation, or only such as the real or
pretended officer chose to give, has grown
to a great and crying evil. It has done the
'cause of our country, in some instances,
more harm than the robberies of our ene
mies. The people have been ignorant of
the precise limit of their rights, and have
feared to assert them lest they might vio
late some law—and hence have been the
easy prey to the insolent officials or pre
tended officials of the Government. We
are glad that their outrages have at last
reached the ear of the Governor, and that
he has the will to defend the citizens of
Georgia from the continuance of that sys
tem of spoliation and rebbery which has
been so long carried on in open day, and
under the pretended sanction of the laws.
We give below the Governor’s procla
mation. We advise all our readers who
have anything to be taken, to cut it out and
file it away for reference when the impress
ing agent shall pay them a visit, so that
they may know, and let him know, just
what rights they have, and what sort of au
thority he must be able to show before he
can be recognized as one having the legal
right to take the property of any kind which
belongs to the citizens of this State :
A PROCLAMATION.
To the Civil and Military Officers of Georgia:
It becomes my duty to notice the complaints
. which frequently reach me from different parts of
the State, of the outrages and abuses which are be
ing committed by those who profess to have power
under the Act of Congress to make impressments
of private property for public use; and to afford to
the citizens of this State all the protection in my
* power, against the robberies which are being com-
• mitted by unprincipled persons under pretence of
legal authority.
I am informed subaltern officers of the army,
without authority from the General in command of
the Department, not unfrequently make impress
ments of private property and giv.; certificates
which will not bind the Government to compen
sate the owner for his property, as they are not au
thorized by the Government. Stragglers, desert
ers and refugees are daily impressing horses, eatt’e.
provisions or other property under pretence of au
thority to do so for the public service.
Those professing to be agents of the quartermas
ter’s and commissary departments are also mak
ing impressments. In some instances, the
persons above designated, without legal author
ity, sense of propriety, or feelings of humanity,
have taken the last yoke of oxen or cew in posses
sion of the aged and infirm, and have deprived
soldiers’ families of the seanty means of support
for which they have labored, and without which
they mnst sutler.
Such practices of persons professing to be Gov
ernment agents are alienating our people from the
Goverriment, at a time when it is very important
for the public safety that it have the confidence and
support of all good citizens. I am quite sure the
President approves of no such injustice and out
rage.
While I entertain no doubt of the constitutional
power of the Government to make impressments
of private property for public use, upon the pay
ment of just compensation, I am satisfied that this
power should never be exercised by subal
terns without written instructions from the Gov
ernment, in which the powers they are to exercise
should be well defined. Nor should any citizen be
deprived of his necessary support. And while I
consider it the duty of every good citizen to fur
nish to the Government, at reasonable prices, all
the supplies of provisions for the army which he
can possibly spare and support his family, I consid
er it the duty of the State authorities to protect
such, as far as possible, against unauthorized seiz
ures and open robberies.
To this end I hereby inform the citizens of this
State that it is their right and duty to resist all im
pressments of their property by persons who can
not show legal authority to make the impressment,
and to use all the force, in such cases, which is
necessary to the protection of their persons and
property. And I hereby direct all civil and military
officers in this State to assist all persons who are
defending their property against illegal seizures;
and they, in connection with the home guard
companies of this State, or any of them separately,
are hereby directed to arrest and lodge in the near
est secure jail al| persons making impressments
without authority, until warrants can be sued out
against them for robbery, and they can i e bound
ovor to attend court and answer for their offence us
the law directs. All persons should be arrested
who attempt to deprive the citizens of this
State of their property by impressment,
unless they can |t-how written authority to do so
from the President of the Confederate Slates, the
head of one of tie departments at Richmond, the
general in comnand of a departmant, or the Chief
Confederate quirtcrmaster or commissary of this
State. I u the later case the written authority mus t
show upon its bee that the chief quartermaster or
. commissary, ha» instructions from the head of his
department to txercise this power and to delegate
it to others. all cases the person who is to make
the impressmeit must be named in the written au
thority, and tht property to be seized must be de
scribed, or the kind and quantity of property to be
impressed by aich person, must be distinctly spec
ified. The peeon making the Impressment will,
in all cases, be required to produce and show his
i authority, as aiove stated, or he will be arrested.
The order h not intended to embarrass Govern
ment agents in the just and equitable execution of
the impressmint act of Congress, but only to pro
tect the peopb of the State against the outrages of
thieves, robbes and other bad men, who are not
agents of the Government, bnt represent them
selves to be sich to enable them to plunder and rob
with impunit*.
Given under my hand and the seal of the Execu
tive Department, this, 23d day of September, 1863.
JOSEPH E. BROWN.
I e*« and Xaj s Wanted.
e hope the Clerk of the City Council
'A ill favor as with the names of those mem
bers who signed the document calling upon
Mayor Calhoun to permit the re-opening of
the Theatre in this city. There are voters
among us who would like to be posted.
The Theatre. I
s The friends of good morals, not to say 1
Christian decorum, were greatly gratified,
• a few days ago, that our worthy Mayor had
closed the Theatre. But our gratification
i was very short lived. It appears that a
s member of the City Council, who ,was re
, ceiving twenty-five dollars per night from
• the Theatrical company, procured the sig-
F natures of a majority of his colleagues to a
? paper calling upon Mr. Calhoun to grant a
- license for the reopening of the Theatre.—
J The Mayor did not feel himself authorized
• to act in opposition to the Council, and the
J Theatre is again in full blast.
t Whilst acceding to their request, the
b Mayor took occasion to publish an admira
f ble article assigning his reasons for his re-
• fusal of the license. We believe that every
5 Christian man in the community heartily
I endorses the action of the Mayor; and not
. only Christians, but the friends of propriety
■ and decorum, would rejoice in the suppres
-1 sion of an establishment which is nightly
I receiving large sums from the people with-
- out making any returns but those which are
b pernicious to the recipients. We are sorry
b to notice that the Atlanta Intelligencer is a
• warm eulogist of the theatre. We speak,
J alas ! experimentally, when we say that its
1 influence is fearfully pernicious.
1 Wc beg leave to commend to those gen
tlemen of the Press and of the Council
who have been so dilligent in procuring the
reversal of Mr. Calhoun’s action, the fol
lowing from a celebrated poet:
‘ The Theatre was from the very first
• The favorite haunt of sin ; though honest men,
s Some very honest, wise, and worthy men,
) Maintained it might be turned to good account,
r And so perhaps it might, but never was.
From first to last, it was an evil place.’
f
Seizure and High Prices.
f The Lynchburg Republican hits the nail
■ on the head in suggesting the only practi
-1 cal way in which the pressing wants of the
non-producing Masses of our towns aud
cities can be supplied during the winter. —
It is as simple as it will be effectual. The
difficulty of procuring provisions in our
cities, says that paper, is owing almost ex
clusively to the system of Confederate im
! pressrnents. Uuder that system nothing
that a man brings to market is safe from
impressment at prices notoriously below
the cost of production. Neither millers ,
nor merchants will pay more than schedule
prices for anything, for fear of having it
seized by lazy and officious Government
commissaries; nor will farmers sell at the
schedule prices, except to the Government,
because they are charged ten or twelve
prices for everything.
These obvious facts readily suggest a
remedy. Let the Government enforce an
equitable system of impressment upon
all the farmers sufficient for the purpose of
the army, and then let a guarantee be given
producers that all their surplus products
are free to be sold at the prevailing market
prices. Our millers and merchants will
then buy and sell freely, our farmers will
rush their produce to market without the
fear of being robbed on the road by com
missaries, and in a short time our market
will be full of provisions at reduced prices.
Odioua maximum laws will then be with
out sensible advocates, and contemptible
in the eyes of even their present champi
ons and apologists. But so long as the
existing state of things continues, and the
property of the people is liable at any mo
ment to be approprieted by the Grvernment
at one half the market price, so long will
scarcity in our towns and cities continue,
and during the coming winter great scarcity
will prevail.
Nay, more, this indiscriminate system
of impressments discourages and diminishes
production, because people don’t care to
produce largely if the fruits of their labor
are to be snatched from them at any mo
ment at less than the cost of production.
This obvious truth is illustrated not only
by what we all know of human nature
itself, but by a state of things now existing
in this city. Not long since aJI the carri
age horses of our citizens were impressed
for the use of the army. It was right
and proper that they should have been, as
the necessities of the army required it.—
But we find that their places have not been
supplied by new horses, for the obvious
reason that our people do not know at what
moment they may be impressed again.—
Are the farmers of the country less human
or less sagacious than other people ?
Are they going to fill their granaries with
wheat and corn just to have it seized from
them at arbitrary prices fixed by the spec
ulators and money changers of cities 1—
They are willing to supply our armies at
a sacrifice, but are they going to feed the
hungry mouths of a hundred thousand or
two of non-producers, who are demanding
their own price for their labor and their
property, and who are not seeing their
country iu any way ? They will do no such
thing, and would be great simpletons if thev
did.
[Annual. Report of the Quarter*
maater-General of Georgia.
We have before us the “ Annual Report
of Ira R. Foster. Quartermaster-General of
Georgia, for Fiscal Year ending October
15,1863.” Til is document is one possess
ing great interest to the people of this
State at th'is time. The operations of Gen.
Foster for the year, as here detailed, shows
that the duties of his office are arduous;
but we are confident that no one could be
selected who would perform those duties
with greater zeal, fidelity and energy than
the present incumbent. A brief resume of
the subject matter of the report we find
in the Augusta Chronicle :
The duties of Gen. Foster call for oper
ations of three kinds—the regular duties
connected with the troops of the State, under
command of Governor Brown ; the pay
ment of troops, and the settlement of claims
due for services rendered in the late State
army; the manufacturing and issuing of
clothing to the destitute troops from Geor
gia in the Confederate service; and the
purchasing and issuing of yarns to the des
titute families of Georgia troops.
Gen. Foster says: “On the 13th of De
cember, 1862, an. act was passed, calling
two regiments of infantry into the
of the State, which devolved
partment to furnish them
master’s stores.” The totaJ^^Quar ter• .
of this department ■
purchase of property, sJWyear are: fowp
itures, $66,14853;
masters, $280,895 25. Quarts
During the year Gen. ■dis
bursed in his office for payment', ha3 Jrops,
$18,558 59. ■ W '
The sum of $1,889 13 was disbursed for
hospital stores.
By direction of Governor Brown, the
Quartermaster-Generat made a requisition
on the Military Fund—agreeable to the
Legislative appropriation of $1,500,000
“to procure and furnish clothing, shoes,
caps or hats, and blankets for the soldiers
of Georgia”—for $200,000, and proceeded
at once to make such contracts for the
purchase of material as was possible. He
was, as might be expected, seriously embar
rassed by the great scarcity of material;
and he acknowledges he cannot now see
where, in the Confederate States, goods of
certain kinds can be optained. “Cotton
goods can be obtained,” he' remarks,
“ though with difficulty,but woolens cannot
be had.” He has purchased during the
year, 37,941 pounds of wool, which has
been woven into cloth, at an average cost
per pound of $1 90. Os hides, he has
bought during the year 125,000 pounds,
which, when tanned, will turn out about
90,000 pounds of leather, sufficient to man
ufacture about 30,000 pairs of shoes. The
average price paid for the hide# was about
$1 50 per pound, for tanning 40 cents per
pound.
During the year he established a Cloth
ing Bureau in Augusta, under command of
Gen. G. W. Evans, and says: “Through
his faithful discharge of duty, a
large amount of clothing has been manufac
a J 11
tured.
A shop for making shoes was established
at Marietta, under the control of Capt.
E. M. Field, who has turned out 28,814
pairs of shoes. In addition, 7,056 pairs
made of leather at reasonable prices, have
been purchased from tanners, which are
being kept for the wet and cold season.
We are very sorry to learn from the
report that Gen. Foster has not been able
to purehase a single blanket—blankets
cannot be bought in Georgia, not in the
South, unless in very small quantities and
at enormous prices.
In response to Gen. Foster’s appeal to
the women of Georgia, 11,818 pairs of
socks have been received; and of these
7,345 pairs have been issued, leaving on
hand 4,473 pairs, which will be issued so
soon as the cold weather arrives. He has
made arrangements for a sufficiency of yarn
to manufacture about 50,000 pairs hf socks
this fall.
A tabular statement shows that he has
issued during the year hats, clothing, and
shoes to 21 regiments, 7 battalions, "and 2
companies, as follows: 4,719 hats, 7,291
jackets, 8,828 pants, 9,185 shirts, 8,036
drawers, 12,294 shoes, 7,517 socks. He
has now on hand—s,B3B hats, 44,728 jack
ets, 46,235 pants, 32,191 shirts, 30,068
drawers, 23,576 shoes, 4,473 socks, 135 yds.
woolen goods, 31,841 yards osnaburgs, 80,-
000 yaids shirting, 14,541 yards dnek, 35,-
100 lbs. of sole leather, 8,000 lbs of upper
leather.
Owing to the great scarcity of procuring
the necessary material with which to man
ufacture clothing and shoes, Gen. Foster
suggests the propriety of running the block
ade by exporting cotton, and raising funds
in Europe by means of cotton warrants,
issned upou cotton purchased by the State,
the cotton to be delivered at some of the
ports of the Confederacy.
Os the cotton yarn appropriation au
thorized by resolution of the last Legisla
ture, 65 counties have been thus far sup
plied with yarns for the destitute families
of soldiers from the State. The number of
bunches is 16,480 ; value of yarn, $98,880.
Three clerks are employed in the Quar
termaster-General’s office, whose labors are
quite arduous—each having their particular
duties assigned them.
For the Soldiers.
Received of brother Wm. Thames, of
Rough and Ready, ten dollars to send The
Banner to soldiers.
Who next, brethren?
The soldiers love to read The Baptist
Banner. Who will aid, (by sending $10)
in supplying them with it?
The human heart is made for love, as the
household hearth for fire; and for truth, as
the household lamp is for light-