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VOL. XXXIII. NO. 45.
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t4 I go to Prepare a Place for \ ou.”
There’s “a place” beyond the mystic Jordan,
Beyond this “vale of tears” and sorrow here,
Where my heart is ever, ever turning
With earnest, anxious longing to be there.
In that region of glory.
In that home of the blest,
There my soul would fain repeat the story,
That brought salvation to my troubled breast.
CHORUS.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is gone
“A place” to prepare and provide me a home;
When the world goeth sadly
My heart turneth gladly
To glory, glory, my home.
There the tree of life is ever blooming,
And streams of living waters ever flow,
There the saints their harps are ever tuning
To higher notes than angels ever know.
O the happy relation
Os the saints on the shore,
Where the sav’d of ev’ry age and nation
In harmony shall meet to part no more,
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is gone, etc.
There the sons of God are ever shining
Like fiars within the kingdom of their Lord,
And their Father ever, ever crowning
Their heads with life and glory by his Word.
O, the heavenly mansion,
O, the “place” in the throne,
Where we’ll “sit” and fill the bright expansion
With songs of praises to the Three-in-One.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is gone, etc.
There no sin, nor sighs, nor any crying,
Cast gloomy shadows o’er the sunny plain;
And the pains of sickness and of dying
Are never, never felt or fear’d again.
O, my home is in glory;
Let me go to my “place,”
And forever there repeat the story
Os dying love and all-redeeming grace.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is gone, etc.
LincclnUm, -V. C. „ W. D. Lee.
Contributions.
On Revivals—No. 11.
By REV. L. PIERCE, D. I>.
It will be seen in my first article that, while
I did not say so in terms, I do not belong to
that class who seem to resolve the whole
matter of converting the world, into the
single instrumentality of preaching the gos
pel. A greater mistake in this class of mis
takes, was never made. The world is to be
saved through tlio instrumentality of the
Church, in answer to the prayer of faith—
founded upon tlio purpose of God, that this
glorious gospel of his Son should bo preached
to every nation under heaven. Now, I take
it upon myself to say, the Church would
never have been constituted, if it had not
been for that reason which, in a very espe
cial manner, makes it the body of Christ.
Therefore, in whatever way the Church was
to be instrumental in making tho plan of
salvation available in saving redeemed sin
ners, if it fail to do its part in order, it de
feats the plan of human salvation itself;- be
cause if the work assigned to this agency is
let go by default, the g»od to have been se
cured by it, lias a thousand chances to one
against it, that it will ever be secured at all.
How under the astonished heavens, can a
Church member insinuate himself into this
delicate machine—-wherein work for immor
tality is done—and derange and weaken the
structure, either by neglecting to do his
turn as one of the operatives, or by derang
ing some portion of its complicated, but sa
cred, machinery?
This work of rniu is commenced in the
neglect of parents to indoctrinate their chil
dren's minds with the true idea of all this
economy of salvation; and in the failure of
Sabbath-schools —and even of the pulpits of
the Church—to inlay the minds of the
Church with the idea—yea, with the settled
conviction—that the Church is a close and
special religious corporation—that it is not
recognized in the law of heaven, as in good
working order, except when as a divine cor
poration the members are of one heart, and
of one mind, striving together for the faith
of the gospel. Then laboring together in
the order of God, wo would have revivals of
religion all the time—because the steady,
settled, religious status of the Church w’ould
never be below the level of religious living
and laboring. And the law of faith and of
expectation as given to us, is, that whenever
the Church is in order, the presence of the
Lord is a certainty.
Revivals of religion may not be looked for
except in connection with a praying, en
treating Church, when the Church, as the
Church, meets, and by prayer and supplica
tion besieges the throne of the heavenly
grace for the descent of the Holy Ghost up
on church and congregation, in its full de
monstration and power, so unmistakably
that the faith of the Church might stand in
the power of God, might feel in its true
sense that revivals of religion do not come
of him that willetli, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that slioweth mercy.
This state of the mind and heart of the
Church is the revival of religion itself. With
a church maintaining this state of feeling—
which is the genuine, spiritual travail of the
Church —a constant revival of religion is in
sured—children are born to her all the time.
The travail idea is the true exponent in
this line. Travail in its natural sense is the
unfailing law of giving birth to another—
and in its figurative sense, must necessarily
mean, that where travail can be appropri
ately perpetual, as doubtless it can be, and
ought to be in every Church of God, these
births, that is, real conversions, will be of per
petual occurrence. Here revivals of religion
will be, as of course, because the mental cur
rent of Church interest flows into one la
boring reservoir—where, like the prayers
and alms of Cornelius, they are forever re
minding God of his exceeding great and
precious promises. Those that make men
tion of his name, and who are to give him
nc rest until he shall establish and make Je
rusalem —which is the Church —a praise in
the whole earth—these praying wrestlers
with God for his beloved Jerusalem, are
classed as his remembrancers. How fearful
ly responsible is our position as agents!
All the plans and purposes of God, as re
vealed to us, arc fixtures in his counsels; and
he will not depart from them. Therefore
as we see in this purpose, if the making of
Jerusalem—that is the Church—a praise in
the whole earth, is to be in answer to the
prayers of these remembrancers, who bottom
and bound their prayers upon the will and
the promises of God, if they fail to fulfil
their part of the work, is it not certain, that
there will be a failure in the consummation
of the work to be done? If it had been the
purpose of God to effect this work irrespec
tive of the co-operation of his Church, there
either would have been no Church, or else
the special co-operation of the Church,
would not have been called for. But as it
is, the prayers of the Church are everywhere
called for, as a part of the grand enginery to
be employed in the conversion of the world.
One of the things now being wondered
at by elderly people is, why our preaching
fmtlhettt Chtil
does not produce instantaneous awakenings
as once it did. The reason is, because Zion
doth not travail. There was a time, which
came far down into the years of my life,
when the Methodist Church was all the time
in religious travail, for liio salvation of
souls. Methodists came out of their closets
and groves of prayer to hear the word, im
ploring the blessing of God upon it —came
expecting the power of God to come down
upon the congregation in answer to prayer,
and almost always went home, blessing and
praising God for his vouchsafed goodness
and grace. And if at any time they had a
dark and unblessed meeting, they went
away full of fears, that they in some way had
offended their Lord and Saviour—and there
were great searchings of heart. They never
rested until God restored to them the joy of
his salvation. These souls, burdened for the
salvation of other souls and feeling that the
word could only have free course, when it
was pledged with the Spirit’s power—these
souls, in travail for sinners, prayed for the
gift of the Holy Spirit, to awaken and con
vert sinners, and the Holy Spirit was given,
and revivals of religion came constantly on.
Revivals of religion grow only out of and
roots only in this genuine revival tempera
ture. To talk, therefore, us “getting up a
revival of religion,” under a spiritual tempe
raturel colder than religion can live in, is
simply silly. If you want a revival of re
ligion—and I use, "of religion," emphatical
ly—your business is to go to work, every
man of you, to improve the spiritual tempe
rature of the Church, up to a warmth where
religion can revive. These delicate summer
fruits cannot be made to grow amidst those
wintry states of the Church, where love for
Christ and the souls he died to save is so
cold, that a thousand calls from the pulpit,
begging the Church to meet in earnest
prayer for the gift of the Holy Spirit in
awakening and saving power, will not bring
out one-fifth of the church membership in
obedience to the order of God—and God's
positive call on them through his minister,
their pastor, to meet in daily prayer and
supplication, for a revival of religion, while
four-fifths or more of the members living in
easy distance and at perfect liberty to attend
these occasions of prayer if they would, are
many of them sauntering about the street
with perfect indifference to the call of their
pastor made the Sabbath before. This I
have seen, in one of our cities, occur for four
successive years together since the war, un
der the core of a faithful pastor in whose
deep concern for his people every one be
lieved. And I have seen this pastor hold
these protracted prayer-meeting twice in
every year, begging and praying his people
to corno together and pray for Almighty
help; but four-fifths of his members never
entered one of these daily prayer-meetings
during the four years of his acceptable pas
torate. Tho few that attended were tho
same persons daily, proving that this four
fifths mass of drones did not even drop in,
but persistently ignored the service. This has
been the history of most of our city charges
until the impossibility of having a revival of
religion in any one of these congregations
lias grown into a mountain of dispair. Re
vivals come on readily and naturally at other
points, but in these old city congregations,
not a ripple on. the current of religious life
can be produced—a sort of evil induration
of sensibility seems to have fallen on our
people. We fear the woe pronounced by
the prophet Amos, is already a sealed doom
on these indifferent minds: “Woe to them
that are at ease in Zion.” This ease con
sists chiefly in an unconcern about the con
dition of the Church. They aro not grieved
for the affliction of Joseph; their living sym
pathies are with the ease of self-indulgings;
with the Cliuroh struggling for existence,
t hey have no laboring sympathy at all. This
state of soul—careless of the Church —is an
unmistakable state in all this four-fifths of
our church membership, who thus ignore
the duties vital to church life.
A revival of religion cannot be had in a
church membership of this kind. What
God requires to be done by a Church, cannot
1 9 done by a fraction of that Church. They
are not the Church, neither can they repre
resent the Church. Every member of the
Church is individually bound to work in his
Lord’s vineyard himself; and he cannot
have his work done by another. Common
sense, therefore, tells us that when a majori
ty of church members voluntarily refuse to
attend daily prayer-meetings for the gift of
the Holy Ghost upon the preached word and
on the people that there may be a revival of
religion in the congregation, they destroy
the Church by a voluntary absence from her
most pressing calls to duty. Iu these
churches, while this neglect of church order
and of Christian life is indulged in, the gos
pel is virtually annulled—so much so, that
no good, promised to the Church, as a
Church, can henceforth come to these con
gregations; because the Church, as God’s
medium of intercommunication with the
congregation, has, by these voluntary de
falcations iu duty, cut off its communion
with God, so as to turn away from it the
vivifying influences of the presenco of the
Holy Spirit, without which a revival of re
ligion cannot be had—and the presence of
which will never again be had in these
Churches, where so many prove, by their
obstinate refusal to meet their pastors and
this one-fifth of their members to pray for a
revival of religion, that they themselves do
not feel any need of a revival of religion.
These church members must, in the nature
of God’s justice and judgment, cut off revi
vals of religion as effects of proper causes.
I am so impressed with this subject—re
vivals of religion, instead of religious revi
vals—beginning and ending with this one
fifth of a church membership, that I must
pursue it further. I had promised the
Methodist public that I would write no
more in our weekly journals; but a beloved
brother requested me to write my idea of
revivals, and my soul is carried off on the
wave. Awakenings and conversions will
never recur in the Church again, until we
have a revival of religion in it.
The Sunday-school.
How it makes my heart rejoice to see in
the columns of the dear old Advocate, ac
counts of so many Sunday-school celebra
tions ; also, of various modes of conducting
and promoting this great and glorious cause.
Surely, there was never a more promising
time, never a richer harvest, never so many
wide-awake people, actually engaged in this
cause, than at the present time. Those who
carelessly regarded the Sunday-school as a
place fit for none other save children, and
even regarded the few who would urge upon
the attendance of their children as being
very troublesome, and reluctantly consent
ed, by way of accommodation—yes I gladly
say, these very people are now filling the va
cant seats in our Sunday-school, not as idle
lookeron, but as energetic, persevering,
wide awake workers. We can now look
around in our Sunday-schools and see the
old, the young, the rich, the poor, the halt,
the blind, and lame, who all meet together,
and feel that “the Lord is the maker of them
all.” We can but feel there is a power in
the Sunday-sehooL But while w r e axe pro
gressing so rapidly in this great cause, let
us remember there are yet hundreds ont of
the reach of its blessed instructions. So let
us rally to the work more earnestly—higher
—higher—onward—onward unto the perfect
day. Too much cannot be said on the
method of conducting Sunday-schools.
In one of my recent travels, I visited a
Sunday-school, of which I cannot refrain
from speaking. They were not very partial
to Methodists, or strangers. However I
went, carrying with me my Bible, and a cat
echism, thus indicating my desire to help
them. After entering, I found the school
had commenced its usual exercises ; I quietly
took my seat with the hope of doing some
good. My attention was first directed to a
class of little girls spelling from the old com
mon school book. I listened eagerly for
something to be said about Jesus Christ;
but alas! not a word. I then turned my at
tention to a larger class of boys, reading
from this spelling book sufficiently well to
have read in history; then they mechanically
read several chapters from the Bible. Sev
eral other large classes were reciting, in
what way I had not the opportunity of ob
serving. Oh ! how I felt like trying to bring
those children to the feet of Jesus, to tell
them of their Redeemer. I think the time
allotted to Sunday-school is too precious to
be droning over the rudiments of an educa
tion. The soul is the great object to which
our attention must be given. Let us teach
Christ first, and Christ always.
Then came the singing. It was good
enough ; but the children took no part, no
interest. Finally, I was asked to assist in
this department, and though a poor singer,
I gladly accepted. I asked if I might select
a hymn. Being answered in the affirmative,
I chose that simple one “The Sabbath
school.” All ready, the “Superintendent
says “now, boys, be quiet while we sing.”
I thought now w T as my time, I said, “oh !
no ; let us hear the children sing ; we cannot
sing well without them. Come out to the
front and help us; only try to help us” and
they did, with their little eyes sparkling like
so many diamonds. Says one, “you sing so
pretty, ma’am ; cannot you sing for us all all
the time ?” Now while such schools exist,
ought not much to be spoken on Method ?
Yes, let us hear through the columns of the
Advocate of your glorious conventions, your
celebrations, and of every thing that will
tend to promote the Sunday-school cause,
that others may go and do likewise. We do
not know, and never will know the import
ance of this cause, until wo bring our band
of littlo ones before the judgment bar, say
ing “Master, behold—here is my offering;”
and oh that glorious reward —“well done
thou good, and faithful servant, enter thou
into the joys of heaven. ” So long as we know
“our labor is not in vain in the Lord,” let us
be faithful unto the end. S. S. T.
An Appeal for Heathendom.
I address myself to those, iu whose hearts
warmly burns the love of mankind, whose
sympathies are stirred at tho sight and re
cital of physical suffering, social wretched
ness, and moral degradation, in behalf of a
movement, which, from its nature and de
sign, ought to meet with their hearty en
dorsement and liberal support. I refer to
the great enterprize of the Christian Church
to send the gospel to those of our race who
are sitting in heathenish darkness. I ap
peal to you as philanthropists for the great
reason, that nothing has half the power to
ameliorate tlieir condition, morally and so
cially, as the gospel and the institutions of
the Christian Church.
Christ says, “I am the light of the world.”
This is a truth proved by the experience of
all the many years which have elapsed since
he was born into the world. It is substan
tiated by the experience, observation, and
certain knowledge of every one who reads
this sentence. The light, breaking forth
from the Sun of Righteousness has ever
dawned upon a land before the darkness of
superstition, gross immorality, stupid idola
try, and bestial society has been dispersed.
Let those who will, deify human reason and
human genius, yet those stern, solid argu
ments, facts, show that Divine Revelation is
invariably the precursor of all that is truly
good and great, that marks true civilization,
and points to a proper destiny. It is so in
the very appointment of God. Without
being based upon principles embodied or
recognized in the Divine revelation, no in
stitution can stand, or if it stand, it is only
to exert a baneful influence. And without
Divine Revelation how are any people to
have those principles in full? Therefore,
where there is no Christianity the condition
of the people is so horrid as to beggar de
scription, and such as should excite to deep
est sympathy the philanthropy of every true
Christian. Law, such ns an uncivilized and
unchristianized people make, which is not
based upon principles of right, is the fruit
of tyranny and the tool of oppression. Men
are ruled by their animal passions. Vice in
its worst forms exists. Crime is unpunished;
while innocence bleeds at the reckless hands
of despotism. Ignorance, poverty, super
stition, idolatry, demoralization, and social
anarchy, which are all the legitimate fruits
of corrupt and disorganized moral nature,
render the condition of the people inconceiv
ably wretched. Why is this? Because the
salutary influence of the gospel is not there.
The light shines not.
Turn to a country for an instant under
the light of the gospel. Wherever the Bible
is read, and its truths practiced; wherever
the gospel is preached and its spirit im
bibed, and its moral requirements complied
with even by a few, there you will see peace,
order and harmony reign to a great extent;
good laws are enacted and maintained, lite
rary institutions flourish, the sciences are
studied, fine arts are cultivated, society is
good, the standard of morality is elevated,
the psople prosper, and the nation takes a
high rank in civilization; and woman, that
angel of peace and dispenser of blessings, is
not regarded an inferior creature and
treated as a menial slave, but is regarded as
an equal and given her destined place inhu
man society.
View the influence of the gospel in an
other light. Suppose it possible to extirpate
from the minds of the people of Georgia all
intelligent ideas of Deity, immortality, and
eternity ; and suppose, furthermore, that it
were possible to blot out the cross of Christ,
to annul the Divine law, to burn np all the
churches, to banish the preachers of right
eousness, to overturn the family altars, to
do away with the Sabbath and Sabbath
schools, in a word, to utterly destroy Chris
tianity, and what would be the condition of
its inhabitants ten months from to-day? A
social wreck would ensue, the flood-gates of
unbridled licentiousness would be lifted,
and one wide-spread demoralization would
PUBLISHED BY J. W. BURKE & CO., i
MACON, GA., FRIDAY
set in; and the State would be a pandemo
nium, a hell. From this the gospel saves
us. We owe all we are to it, that is noble
and good.
Then the gospel, viewed in these lights,
is the very thing the heathen need, to raise
them from their morally degraded state.
Y’iewed only in the light of a philanthropic
movement to ameliorate their condition, the
sending the gospel to them calls loudly, and I
may say authoritatively, for your liberal sup
port. If you have any true love for mankind,
if you have any genuine sympathy for man
kind in-distress, in misery, in wretchedness,
you will feel the obligation to send it to
them, and you will respond with material
help to the call. It is to you, who are to
day living under the healthful influence of
gospel institutions, thatT make the appeal.
There are people, through whose veins
flow's the very same blood that thrills through
your own; people, who have every natural
gift with which you have been endowed;
people, who are capable of filling the same
station you are filling, and of tailing the
very highest rank in civilization by any p<
pie attainable, who are now sitting in igno
rance, and wallowing in its slime andjnr-'
becility, and that for the want and aSsence
of those institutions which are the source of
your own prosperity and happiness, and
which you have in your power of buildipg
up among them. Then aid in this great
and glorious work. Respond to the calls of
moral and social wretchedness with a hearty
liberality.
Several years ago when the cries of physi
cal suffering from the famishing millions of
Ireland came to us over the waters, the
States, in obedience to one spontaneous
emotion of sympathy for those in distress,
sent over to them that for which their des
titution called. Let the same thing be done
now’. The cry of moral degradation and so
cial wretchedness is coming over to us from
the millions of immortal creatures who flood
tfie land of China. Let us respond to the
call. Let us send them the relief we have
in our power to send them. You may say
that you are not able. But stop; examine,
consider, before you say that. With the
present drains upon your purse, you may
not be able. But how many useless expendi
tures do you make, which a genuine philan
thropy, a true love for mankind, would re
strain iu order to mitigate suffering and re
lieve misery? Can you not deny yourself
of some of the luxuries of life in order to
benefit, a great mass of mankind? Retrench
your needless, aud to yourself injurious, ex
travagances; and let the warm, gushing,
spontaneous emotions of true philanthropyj
move you to send the gospel to your broth
ers in China, and other heathen lands.
A few words iu conclusion to the ladies.
You have been eulogized for your noble pa
triotism, your self-sacrificing devotion, your
generous philanthropy, and heaven-like sym
pathy. Many brave Confederate soldiers
bless God for the manifestations of these
traits iu your character during the late war.
With hearts gushing with sympathy for their
suffering in the hospital and camp, you
either hung like a ministering spirit over
their couches, or plied the needle to cover
their shivering limbs. Turn your sympa
thy, your zeal, your philanthropy to the
miserable thousands suffering in moral
wretchedness. There see your sisters in ab
ject servitude and seclusion, their energies
crushed, their noble spirits bound down,
their social equality impeached. Let your
hearts bo stirred to compassion at their con
dition; and assist in sending them that
which will break the fetters of their bond
age, and elevate them to their God-appoint
ed place in society. To this end, retrench
your needless extravagances. With the
money heretofore expended for gaudy and
merely ornamental apparel, help in sending
them the gospel. Open up to them those
fountains which will make the desert a river,
and the barren a fruitful place. Live to an
end, and let that end be to do good, and to
benefit your race. You are one with the
human race; you are one of a company hav
ing a joint stock in its fortunes, and to ad
vance the interests of the whole is to ad
vance your own. Philanthrope.
The Cliureli and Modern Amuse
ments.
The controversy of the world with the
Church in regard to the influence of fash
ionable diversions, is greatly emboldened by
the spirit of a revolutionary age ; and the
Church is placed at a great disadvantage in
the contest, by disloyalty in her own ranks.
The circus, the dance, the theatre, etc., are
apologized for, advocated and patronized by
members of the Church, office-bearers, and
even ministers of the gospel—to the great
detriment of morals and religion. While
such a course is pursued, even with the pica
of reaching the world by liberal compromise,
the evidence all goes to show, that it de
grades the morals of those who adopt it—
and at the same time proves treasonable to
the cause of Christ. Such “fellowship with
the unfruitful works of darkness” can work
no good to the souls of men ; but in the
very nature of the case is fraught with much
evil. When Bishop McTyeire partially com
mended the skating rink in its mildest form,
it was thought that the world would show its
sincerity in asking for liberal compromise;
but, true to its genius and spirit, it seized
the occasion as a license for the most aban
doned forms of sensualism. The same kind
of results have followed where pastors have
tolerated “parlor dancings,” etc., for the
sake of gaining the world by compromise.
And thus it will ever be while “the flesh
lusteth against the Spirit;” the “carnal
mind is not subject to the law of God, nei
ther indeed can be.” Hence no professor
of religion can give aid and comfort to these
diversions without injury to himself, and to
the cause of his divine Master.
The world claims that there is no social or
moral evil in them, and alleges that the op
position of the Church to them is without a
reason. If this were true, which -we do not
admit for a moment, there is another strong
ground upon which every good man must
abstain from them—that is, their absolute
worldliness. This is a great spiritual evil, even
where there is no overt sin against the letter
of the law; and it is therefore a ground of
condemnation in the spirit of the command
ment which is exceeding broad. The nature
and influence of this condition of things,
are thu3 set forth by the celebrated Dr.
Chalmers in his sermon on
“All the feelings, and all the fancy that
circulate there, may be in perfect unison
with the best sympathies, which go to ce
ment and sweeten the intercourse of human
society ; and yet the whole breath of this
fair society on earth, may be utterly distinct
from the society in heaven. In the very
freedom from that which would alarm and
repel a sensitive delicacy, may in truth be
found that which is the more pregnant with
danger to the unwary. It may engage you
the more to that which is beneath, and alien
ate you the more from the things that are
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Li:*.- . a pral• tic:i 1 r.• j.
Christ- .mil "if any ir-J'Sj
of ChrL-t h-,- U none of V. i
Two examples given by
fully illustrate the
principle under discussion. \ '.'.'.■'"yj
of the talents the man with the
was not guilty of any overt sin ; in th,^^H9
the rich man and Lazarus, the rich
not charged with any onerous
and yet both were condemned, the one fB
inaction, and the other for a sumptuous
worldliness which necessarily implied for
getfulness of God. And both of the elements
of evil, inactivity in spiritual things and
sumptuous worldliness in carnal enjoyments
characterise these “innocent diversions” so
called ; and out of them grow the moral re
tribution which casts out into “outer dark
ness where there is weeping and gnashing of
teeth,” and and where the soul “lifts up its
eyes being in torment.”
That such is the spirit and influence of
modern fashionable amusements, is clear
from the history of their workings and the
character of their results. Aside from a
few conscience-sore moralists and a elass of
semi-backslidden professors of religion, no
one will affect to claim more than mere
worldly gratification in them. This is their
mission. Aud all intelligent worldlings claim
the toleration of the Church upon the ground
that there is, to their minds, no evil in sen
sual gratification. They combine a part of
a truth with a whole error, and thus seek to
amalgamate the Church and tho world. They
never offer to bring the spirit of the world
the spirituality of religion iu these
things—but they always seek to level the
Church with the world at this point, never
apprehending the spiritual interests involved;
consequently such amnsemeuts are never
originated or patronized by the truly pious—
simply because there is an utter incompati
bility of natures, designs aud accomplish
ments.
The world quotes the Bible in favor of
dancing and similar amusements. But infuse
those diversions with the spirit of genuine
godliness, such as actuated the old Bible
worthies, as they danced before the Lord,
and the world would dislike them as much
as an old-fashioned class-meeting, and aban
don them as quick as rats flee a burning
barn. It is tlie spirit which animates them
that creates the attraction. And that spirit
is a perfect current of irreligion which is so
oblivious of God and eternity, as to develop
into that which is “earthly, sensual and dev
ilish.” And taking them upon the ground
of mere worldliness, these amusements are
fully condemned by such Scriptures as speak
thus : “If any man love the world, the love
of the Father is not in him.” “The friend
ship of the world is enmity with God. ’ “Who.
soever therefore will be the friend of the
world is the enemy of God.” And if any
thing further is necessary to give the Scrip
tures a direct application to the view of the
question now under consideration, it is this
Apostolic declaration—“ She that liveth in
pleasure, is dead while she liveth. ”
The testimony to the deleterious influence
of such diversions is abundant from all quar
ters of the spiritual compass—from every
branch of the Christian Church. One cir
cumstance containing several examples wil
serve to illustrate the whole question.
“On one occasion Mr. Charles Wesley was
warning the people against so-called harm
less diversions ; and declared that by them
he had been kept dead to God, asleep in the
arms of satan, and secure in a state of dam
nation for eighteen years. There were three
ministers present besides Mr. Wesley. Mr.
Meriton cried out: And I for twenty-five !
And I, exclaimed Mr. Thomson, for thirty
five ! And I, added Mr. Bennett, for about
seventy ! These cases of Christian ministers
suggest how general and how baleful is the
influence of these diversions.”— Bishop
Janes.
Thousands upon thousands are by these
spiritual moths consumed and smuggled
down to perdition annually ; and yet they
are “harmless,” and the Church is making
an unreasonable war upon them, according
to the clerical and lay advocacy of them as
the liberal grounds of compromise with the
world, which will assuredly bring it to Christ.
We must not make ‘ factitious issues” with
the world, lest we drive it from our friend
ship ; and yet the flippant irreligion of the
amusements of the age is crowding the
young heart with a worldliness and sensual
ism which most efficiently rejects Christ.
The spirit is gradually invading our Churches
and institutions of learning, in the forms of
“Scriptural tableaux,” “Churchfairs,” “Ger
man concerts,” “side-splitting exhibitions,”
etc. ; and the world take3 the nod, and cries
“push up the amusements for the million,
the Church is not far behind us.” Here,
then, is “the appearance of evil,” at least.
Now, we do not wish to be censorious or
puritanic, but we most heartily endorse the
preface to the address of the Bishops, which
holds that—“diversions that are innocent in
themselves, may become harmful in their
degree or associations ; others are so essen
tially vicious, or inevitably prone to abuse,
that, not temperance, but total abstinence,
is the only safe rule concerning them.” The
Church, therefore, can do nothing less than
warn the world against them, and labor to
keep her own members from them. Where
indulgence may become a snare, there can
be no possible harm in “abstaining from all
appearance of evil.” A. J. Dean.
Bainbridge, Qa., Oct. 21 si, 1870.
Mr. Editor: —You required from me, for
the Advocate, a “monograph” of your late
friend. You were kind enough to say,
“Take your time, and take your space.”
Hitherto I have been incapable of the task.
I am still gazing through my tears after the
ascended saint, sweetly bewildered, and
longing to follow. How can I write of her ?
A mere sketch, for the present, must suffice
—hereafter I may attempt something better.
My dear wile was the daughter of the late
Judge Christopher and Mrs. Surah A.
Chinn ; born in Harrodsburg, Kv., on the
17th day of September, 1817; educated at
Science Hill Female Academy, under the ex
cellent supervision of the widely-known
Mrs. Tevis; first married to Dr. James P.
Hardin, son of the Hon. Ben. Hardin, for
many years of the United States Senate;
soon afterward brought into the Methodist
Episcopal Church under the labors of that
remarkable man, the Rev. John Newland
Maffit; and in six or seven years more, left
a widow, with three daughters; in which
state she had continued five years, when, in
the autum of 1848, she united her fortunes
for life with those of a minister of Christ;
whose joys and sorrows, labors and solici
tudes, through sunshine and storm alike,
she shared with scarcely a murmur, render
ing him in many ways invaluable aid, till
called to her eternal rest, on the 29th morn
ing of September, 1870.
Soon after our marriage she began teach
ing, which, with the duties of a housekeeper
upon her hands, she continued at various
places, in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama,
South Carolina, Texas, and Georgia, with
much more than ordinary acceptability and
success, till within the last five years of her
life. The commencement of her literary la
bors dates from tlie same epoch. It was, for
some time, with great difficulty that she
could bo persuaded to adventure any thing
for the press ; and for three years she never
suffered an article to be published, till it had
been thoroughly revised by another hand,
and in many instances entirely re-written.
Three years passed, and she had acquired
sufficient self-confidence to walk alone; and
her frequent contributions to the religious
periodical literature of the land for the last
seventeen or eighteen years, her letters from
Europe in 1857, her four charming little
Sunday-school volumes, and, above all,
Azile, an extensive story which has been
read with delight by thousands, embodying
her valuable observations on art and artists
in the old classic lands, evince the teeming
fertility of her mind, the breadth of her cul
ture, the purity and delicacy of her taste,
tlie transparent simplicity of a fascinating
style, the radiant sparkle of a ready wit, the
constant flow of a quiet and genial humor,
an acquaintance by no means superficial
with tlie mysteries of painting and sculp
ture, and what is more than all, a heart
richly imbued with the love of virtue and all
the sweet charities of social life. After the
war I suggested the plan of a larger work,
which I find, since her decease, she had ac
tually commenced, and written some fifty
pages in her smallest hand of a large blank
book which she evidently intended to fill.
It is only a fragment; but there is a beauty
and a sprightliuess in it such as I have seen
in nothing else she ever produced; and I
doubt not, had she lived to finish the story,
it would have proved far superior to Azile.
Her reading was various and extensive,
her memory very remarkable, und her men
tal resources seldom surpassed. Few ladies
ever displayed a sounder judgment, or a
quicker insight into human character. She
seemed to form her estimate of a stranger at
a glance, and I cannot recall an instance in
which I ever found she had erred. In con
versation, for grace, for readiness, for bril
liancy, who among all her acquaintances can
point to her superior ? How often have
large companies sat around her through
more than half the night, entranced by the
sweet witchery of her tongue ; and bright
eyed little children drawn their chairs closer
to her as the clock struck eleven, and begged
their mothers to let them remain another
hour ! For young people, indeed, her dis
course always possessed a special charm.
She had illustrations for every subject; and
science, and history, and common life, and,
above all, her own experience, furnished an
inexhaustible fund. The marvelous, the
startling, the sublime, she never affected,
either in conversation or writing; but the
delicate touches of her fancy were as soft
and as varied as the beams of the setting sun
playing with the evening clouds.
But her moral qualities far outshone her
intellectual. Perfect conscientiousness, a
high sense of honor, an invincible love of
truth, warmth and tenderness of heart, fidel
ity to friends, generosity to foes, charity for
the erring, compassion for the suffering, and
devotion to the cause of Christ, were the
most conspicuous traits of her character.
Her devotional habits were remarkable.
For the last ten years she never failed to fast
on Friday. She was always in her place at
church, and availed herself of every oppor
tunity to commemorate her Saviour's dying
love. Os all the good people I have been
acquainted with, I have known no one who
spent so much time as she did in reading
the Holy Scriptures and private prayer. I
have frequently seen her, especially during
the last few years, retire to a dark closet,
where she shut herself up, and remained
three or four hours upon her knees; and
then came forth with a face suffused with
tears, or radiant as a May morning. She
had wrestled with God, and prevailed. She
had met the enemy, and vanquished him.
For ten years past she had suffered from
dyspepsia. Last autumn, as the cold weather
came on, her disease assumed a more serious
aspect; and I suggested that she should
leave Buffalo, where we were residing, and
spend the winter in the South. Not till the
eleventh of January, however, did she set
out upon her journey, and the first day’s
travel so prostrated her strength that she
was obliged to take her bed; after a few
days in Louisville and Elizabethtown, sbe
WT- ;i ii
• J'/V' WKKTi’ ! fears, and
PPBH9ffSuggles witli the on-
RflßPHrtnumphs of faith in Christ, os she
never revealed herself to any one before.
Some of these letters are touching beyond
any thing of this sort I ever read ; and were
it not for the fear of making this article too
long, I could scarcely resist the temptation
to copy them in extenso. Her last were full
of serene joy and tranquil hope. “The time
indeed seems short to me ; I feel the shore
crumbling beneath my feet.” These were
her prophetic words, when none of her
friends thought the dread event so near.
“Come and hold my hand when I am dy
ing,” she wroto soon after, “and pray God,
for Christ’s sake, to forgive iny sins and re
ceive my soul!’” Monday, 26th of Septem
ber, was her birthday, and I celebrated it
sadly in my Southern home, with the des
sert she had always furnished me on that
day at dinner. Tuesday evening camo the
fatal message. I hastened to her death-bed,
arriving Wednesday night, a quarter before
ten. Her lips were cold as I kissed them,
and the wrist was already pulseless. “Do
you know me, darling ?” I asked. “Oyes!”
she faintly answered. This, I believe, was
her last utterance. Thursday morning, the
29th, at a quarter before six, I was holding
her hand, and praying God, for Christ’s
sake, to forgive her sins and receive her
soul.
Tlie spoiler set
His seal of silence; but there beamed a smile
So calm and holy from that marble brow,
Death gazed and left it there; he dared not steal
The signet ring of Heaven!
The IJutaiiiahlc Tongue.
BY HENKY M. SCUDDEIt, D. D.
The difficulties in the way of taming the
tongue are forcibly stated by St. Janies.
1. He says the tongue is a fire. What is
truer than this, that a man often sets him
self on fire by means of his tongue ? He in
flames himself by his own speech. He talks
fast and loud, and the more he talks the an
grier ho gets. Every new sentence is a fresh
faggot of fuel. His whole nature crackles
as though he were a brush-heap and the
flames were going through. The farther he
enters into the discussion the hotter he
burns. He is like a pyrotechnic wheel, which
moves slowly when first ignited, but soon
revolves swiftly, and pours forth fire from
its entire circumference. Oh, that he would
only go out as quickly !
If men would simply consume themselves
the evil would be less, but the flame extends
to others. What conflagrations are lighted
up in the family, the neighborhood and the
community; and often when we think the
fire is about to be subdued, it flares up
again, as when in the midst of a burning
building, a wall falls in, and the flame leaps
up with new and awful vigor.
In the reckless gossip of society how fre
quently words are spoken which are like the
kindling of fire upon the reputation of other
men and women. “Oh, we did not mean it
—we spoke carelessly !” Did you ? Never
theless your words were calumnies. They
were envious, bitter, injurious. You have
no right to build fires of detraction around
your neighbor’s good name. Last fall some
people went out quail shooting across the
bay. They built a fire and roasted their
quail, heedless of further results. The wind
blew, the fire spread, and I know a family
that lost their house and everything in it,
the lady barely escaping with her life.
Your gossipy sentence may be caught up by
others and fanned into a flame which shall
damage your neighbor’s reputation beyond
all your efforts at reparation. What is the
secret stimulus to such gossip ? It is the
wish to make yourself out to be better than
others. You collect their alleged faults as
bricks, iu order to build a pedestal on which
you may place your own statue, and crown
it with the wreathe of superiority. You
might as well wind a chaplet of poison oak
around your brows, or weave Upas leaves
into a garland for your neck.
2. St. James says that the tongue is a woi Id
of iniquity. Shall we take it in this sense,
that it is a storehouse of offensive weapons ?
No arsenal upon the earth can exhibit a
greater variety. Out of man’s mouth pro
ceed sarcasms cold and glittering, and j-et
keen as a double-edged sword, and piercing
as a bayonet. Forth from it fly dark hints,
inuendoes and insinuations, like showers of
bullets from air-guns which make no report,
but distribute death. From thence, too, aro
shot words of envy and jealousy, like pois
on-tipped arrows, that can introduce the fer
ment of a fatal corruption into the blood,
even through a slight scratch. There also
may be found expressions of malice, which,
like highly tempered daggers, strike through
to the center of life. There, likewise, are
manufactured bitter taunts and cruel words,
which do their work like red hot cannon
shot and destructive bomb. The mouth is
a storehouse of arms and ammunition, and
though there really is only one weapon in it,
yet by the diabolic magic of iniquity it
transforms itself, as muy bo needed, into
bayonet or bullet, into poisoned arrow or
dagger, into plunging balls or bursting
bombs. . .
The tongue is a “world of iniquity.
What a singular similitude ! Shall we take
it thus : that the tongue swarms with classes
of words as the globe with races of plants
and animals ? But it is a world of ‘ 'iniquity, "
so that we must look for our symbols among
the evil productions of the earth—the bad
vegetables and the bad animals. There aro
malign plants which yield poisons, such,
for instance, as aconite. Tobacco gives an
oil, one drop of which dropped on a cat’s
tongue will kill it speedily. There are
honeycombs built up by bees from narcotic
flowers, which, if eaten, induce vertigo and
lead to death. Are not these types fulfilled ?
Does not many a human tongue dispense
poison? Have not honeyed lips, with the
kisses of a Judas, often betrayed the inno
cent to ruin ? If we enter the animal spheres
we shall find still apter illustrations. Are
there not men whose cunning speech makes
you think of the fox and the jackal; the lynx
and the weasel; the crafty cheetah, the
treacherous panther and the prowling hyena?
k ;
. r ’ : *
i-* wr 1 '
n
submit i
drag a mimic
of a table, and would pn
evolutions far more creditable
IgMnimn 1° the teachers who were will
speDd their time iu such a profession.
pPne most ferocious creatures, for which man
is no match in bulk, muscle or agility, have
been tamed. Lions have dragged chariots
through the streets. In India the Hindu
devotee sometimes appears with a tiger,
which follows him like a kitten. The swif;-
swimming otter, though so wild, has beei
trained to work for its owner in the waters,
to swim around fish, and to drive them into
a net, thrashing them on with its tail. Un
der the patient tuition of the Chinese, the
cormorant dives from their river rafts and
brings up fish for them in its bill. Alliga
tors and marine monsters, that make it their
business to eat men, have been subdued to
man’s will. It was said that tho Zebra was
indomitable. Rarey, however, blotted out
that disgrace, and, by his peculiar tactics,
made the Zebra as gentle as the colt that has
fed from our hands. Man can tame asp-;
thing that runs, or crawls, or flies, or swirai,
and yet, alas 1 he fails on his own tongue.—
Occident.
From tlie Christian Intelligencer.
Why Successful.
“One sinner destroyeth much good.” Eccl. ix. 18.
Sinners are very successful in destroying
good, and in preventing good; and to pre
vent good is to destroy it. Why successful?
One reason of their success is that they
work with an undivided heart. Their wholo
soulsarein their work. There is no half
heartedness about them, as there is with
some Christians who serve the Lord with
only half a heart, because there is yet so
much imperfection about them. They seem
neither cold nor hot; and even with the
best, there is yet remaining corruption, and
this hinders them in their work of doing
good. But sinners have no such hindrance
in doing evil. There is no goodness in their
hearts to hinder them in destroying good,
and in doing evil. This is one reason of
their success.
Another reason why sinnners are success
ful is because they have ready and apt ma
terials to work on, and to work with. They
find all around them those who are inclined
to evil, ready to be led astray, and willing
to be kept from the right path. They have
no opposition to encounter. Not so with
the Christinn. He finds men disinclined to
that which is good, at enmity with God,
with no wish to be saved from their sins and
made holy nml so fitted for usefulness and
for heaven. He must work with inapt ma
terials, ever ready to resist all his efforts;
while the sinner has materials that are
yielding, easily shaped to his purposes, and
even ready to help him. Hence his success.
Again, sinners are successful because they
have a wily and powerful helper. Satan is
ever ready to help them. Tney are doing
his work, and he does not leave them alone;
he goes with them; he urges them on, and,
so far as lie can, he gives them success.
Hence, they succeed, often beyond their
hopes; they destroy much good—they do
much evil.
Yet Iho Christian need hot be discour
aged. He has an almighty helper, one ever
with him—one who was manifested to de
stroy the works of the devil—and he will
succeed. He will triumph over his ene
mies, and cause his people to rejoice in the
success of his cause. One sinner may de
stroy much good, and one Christian may do
much good. Sow the seed, and you shall
reap. He that goeth forth and weepeth,
bearing precious seed, shall, doubtless,
come agum with with rejoicing, bringing
his sheaves with him. He which converted
the sinner from the error of his way shall
shall save a soul from death, and shall hide
a multitude of sins.
Family Music.
Parents, do you preoccupy, forestall the
enemy —store the minds of your little ones
with good thiugs—that Satan may find no
lodgment? Rest assured that if you do not
early occupy the ground, the devil will.
The committing of good hymns is an im
portant item in family training and means
of grace. Children are delighted with poe
try at a very early age; and what is loved in
early life will not be easily effaced.
A pious lady informs us that when a very
little girl she committed hundreds of hymns
and poetical effusions—not childish or baby
hymns, but those of a pure, elevated, gospel
character. These precious gems of virtuous
thought being rooted and grounded by
prayer and frequent repetition, are now, af
ter the lapse ot' some thirty years, fresh in
recollection. This early discipline has been
a safeguard all her life, a strong preservative
against sin and folly.
Among our German forefathers it was a
very common practice, in professedly Chris
tian families, to teach the children hymns
and spiritual songs. Great advantages re
sulted from it. The children had thus use
ful employment afforded them to fill up
time which would otherwise have been spent
in idleness, if not in something worse. Tho
repetition of them at different intervals also
contributes much to their enjoyment. In
this way likewise they were prompted to ef
forts to connect the poetry with music, and
thus gradually aoquired a taste as well as cul
tivated a talent for singing.
Sec to it, parents, that your little ones
commit to memory psalms and hymns for
songs of praise. Have them sing together;
sing with them; let their littlo harps be
tuned melodiously at suitable hours, all the
day and at eventide, making sweet melody
in the heart to the Lord.
Singing in the family adds greatly to the
interest of devotional exercises, especially
among children. It makes the family altar
a pleasant place. The moral influence of
vocal music of a sanctified character has al
ways been happy in the extreme.
Show us the family where good music is
cultivated, where the parents and children
are accustomed often to mingle their voices
together in song, and we will show you one,
in almost every instance, where peace, har
mony, and love prevail, and where the gross
er vices have no dwelling-place.
The Test. —How shall the house on the
rock be proved to be on a sure
if it was not assaulted by the same rain,
storms and floods which swept away that
which was built upon the sand?
Philosophy does not look into genealogies.