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TWO DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS.
per
VOLUME XXXIX.. NO. 12.
. lotto.
THE SABBATH.
BY J. J. SMITH, D. D.
Hail! ulorious day so bright
With memories of the past,
Thou saw. st Christ rise from the tomb with
might.
And gavest thy Maker rest;
Shall ma not keep
With reverence deep
The day so honored, sanctified and blest 1
Oppressed with toil and care,
Ho# sweet the calm repose.
To rest, and in the sanctuary share
The bliss that ever flows
In streams of love
From God above,
Until each soul with heavenly rapture glows.
O, blissful, blissful day!
The best of all the week!
The hallowed time for saiuts to meet and pray.
And heaven's blessing seek;
Mercy implore,
And God adore.
And meditate, till tears bedew the cheek.
The time for pensive thought
To turn on tt ings divine.
To Him. who on the cross our pardon bought,
Who died for ail mankind,
To read with awe
God’s holy law.
Where spa-ftliFg truths like gems of heaven
shine.
Blessed Sabbath 1 Kindly given
To raise our though is on high,
To lift ui up from earth to God, and heaven,
Where pleasures never die ;
O lead my mind
To seek and find
Thy antitype beyond the starry sky.
—Methodist Recorder.
Contributions.
THOUGHTS ON SAMTTFICATION.-No.o.
BY REV. L. PIERCE.
This is my special contribution, and I hope
it will be read with prayer for God’s blessing
upon it. I have already modestly intimated
my belief that those leading terms —justifica-
tion, adoption, regeneration, and sanctifica
tion —have been used so long and so indis
tinctly, as to reduce them to a sort of
religious amalgam, concerning which our
knowledge is as confused as our theology. I
am at disentangling this web of theologi
cal terms. As to justification, it never
ought to enter any further into the idea of
religion than forgiveness of sin through
faith in Christ, and that it is that act in
Sovereign grace whereby we are freed from
the condemnation of the law, and placed
upon the plane of reconciliation and peace
with God. Nothing more. Therefore, our
religious fortune, if we live, is not made—
but to be made, by acquiring the spiritual
wealth belonging to this heirship into which
we are born by being born again. It must
be forfeited and lost, unless we leave these
principles whereby we were simply initiated,
and go on to perfection.
Adoption. This is a term of both domes
tic and legal meaning; and it is so common
ized as to have lost, to a great extent, its
evangelical sense. Wherefore, I oiler the
following general remarks:
The Scriptures deal largely in words of
common use, where their divine sense is to
be gathered from the general subject, of
which they are only an incidental part, and
left in this condition, might have beea too
open to ingenious sophistry. But in all
these cases where a very exact exegesis is
material to the sure understanding of the
divine mind, we always find at least one text
—and generally only one —where the true
sense is unmistakable. This we have on the
doclrine of adoption in Euh. i;5: “ Having
predestinated us to the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Ilimself, according to the
good pleasure of His will.” By this text it
will be seen that the domestic and legal idea
of adoption, by the force of will and irre
spective of actual chiidship, is rooted out.
We are not made children by adoption ; but
are adopted because first made children by
this divine generation. There is no allusion
to this family distinction, but where we are
begotten by the- Word and Spirit of God to
it. This style and manner of predestination
God has been specially careful to secure
against all Calvinian abuses of it, by speci
fying between predestinating things to be,
and things that must be in order to secure
great issues provided for in the scheme of
general redemption. The text quoted in this
case, and the parallel one in Homans viii, is
worthy of all notice. The predestination of
those whom God foreknew —referring to the
Gentiles, who were to be the ultimate bene
ficiaries of the Abrahamic covenant —was to
be conformed to the image of His son. Very
different from election to eternal life —it be
ing only a predestination to what must be in
order to making redemption available to sal
vation. So in our text, we are predestinated
to the adoption of children, because we must
be children in order to be adopted. In Ho
mans viii, we are said to receive the spirit of
adoption,in this mighty deliverance from the
bondage of fear. In Galatians iv, we learn
that the special benediction of Christ’s un
dertaking for us is that we may receive the
adoption of sons. Not be made sons by
adoption ; but adopted because we are sons.
In both of these wonderful passages, it is
note-worthy that the witnessing of the Spirit
with our spirit is the accompaniment of
adoption. The thing testified of is that we
are children, or sons, of God, having been
translated from the kingdom of darkness
into the kingdom of God’s beloved son.
Regeneration is the opposite of genera
tion. By the latter we obtain natural life,
and by the former spiritual life. And it is
worthy of profound consideratiou that in
Scripture language both states are spoken of
as personal identities, each one having ap
petites, passions, and affections, according
to their constitutional nature. They are dis
tinguished by the appellations old and new
man —old man, because depravity is first ;
and new man, because regeneration is a sec
ond state. Neither justification nor sancti
cation comprehends regeneration—but re
generation comprehends them both. It does
so, because every element and principle in
religion that works out the old leaven and
makes the lump entirely new. is regeneration.
This is the leaven that leavens the whole
lump. Stop the work of regeneration at
any point, and you stop the whole renewing
work of grace : it being by the constant pro
gress of regeneration that we grow in grace.
It is through its constaut development that
the path of the just shineth more and more
unto the perfect day. It is only as regene
atiou opens our interior eye that we see our
increasing glories in the opening vistas of a
growing experence ; and that we are going
on from good to better; and will only fiud
best in heaven.
Without stopping to discuss all the inde
finable and undefined terms in objection
to our use of the phrases, Remains of sin
after justification, Indwelling sin, Roots of
bitterness that may spring up in believers
df at least, in such as had believed —and
draw them into sinful digressions from the
Lord —it is enough for us to know that all
justified persons we have ever known, whose
fioulhnn ' (Tlutbiiiin Adtocatf,
experience was what we call on the normal
order, have complained of these restless
relics of former lusts, passions, appetites,
and prejudices, as still showing them to be
in alarming proximity to actual sin. But if
these converts catch the right drift of spir
itual issues, they immediately fall in with
the true sanctification idea —the cleansing
efficacy of Christ’s redeeming blood, as well
as its atoning efficacy.
Dwell with me for a few moments in sol
emn thought upon God’s great wisdom in
making our being cleansed from sin a differ
ent and a subsequent act of faith in Christ’s
blood and promises, from that included in
mere forgiveness. If all of what we are to
understand by the efficacy of Christ’s aton
ing merit was exhausted on us in justifica
tion, two important items in Christian ex
perience would have been lost from it —
namely: That it is as necessary that the
nature of sin should be purged out of us, as
Shat the guilt of sin within us should be par
doned ; ami that this purgation process
could not be effected by any such thing as
mere pardon of sin. Because what is meant
Sy the uiiclooniiaua of fiio. ia very diffaraiil.
from what is meant by the guilt of sin. This
is its moral crime, and its need is pardoning
mercy ; the other is its moral taint, and its
need is renewing grace. This is brought
about by this simple sense of an unrenewed
nature, ready to rebel at any provocation.
Seeing that being cleansed from all un
righteousness is as much.a privilege, and
as much a promise as forgiveness ; and like
forgiveness, is reached by the pressure of
heart-felt trouble within —to say no more —
this soul sees and knows from God’s blessed
Word, and from the experience of sanctified
souls around him, and from the clamor of
his own'soul withiu him, that there is a high
er, holier plane of religion, than the one
he is upon; and that he must attaiu to it
or lose his present standing. For, no one
can hold on to a lower plane in religious life,
after being called to a higher, with the neces
sary facilities and promises for a successful
ascent. If it is a duty to leave our novi
tiate and go on unto perfection, and we
simply and carelessly neglect to do it,
and float on, sinning every now and then —
not so much because we love sin, as because
we don’t seek salvation from it through Jesus
Christ our Lord —it is a moral default. This
is the condition of every member of the
Church who has failed to go on to full re
demption from sin; for this is either not a
duty,or else all indifference to it is a soul de
stroying sin.
I am especially emphatic on this point.
The best the devil can do for himself, when
our moral nature, with its conscious clamor
against sin, and its call on us for a religious
life compels us to yield, is to get out of his
own way by getting in our way, as follows :
That is, let us get religion, but lay a snare
for us wherein, if we are caught, we may
abide —religious enough to keep us from feel
ing that we are actually irreligious ; or, in
other words, entice us to take up with the
idea that, if we ever get religion and keep
within the popular ideal of a religious life —-
that religion lives on itself, and will live on,
even though it is unnourished by its true
pabulum vita— which is itself —no greater
mistake can be made. There is not, in all
the illustrative language of the Bible, a sin
gle word that justifies the idea that religion
either grows or lives, without constant use
and cultivation. It is especially said, that in
the gospel the righteousness of God —that is
His method of salvation —is revealed from
faith to faith. That is, if we start right and
go on right, our faith in justification leads
right on to sanctification. We see at once
that if faith in the promise of forgiveness
was successful, so also will faith in the
promise of cleansing us from all unright
eousness be successful, if we employ it ac
cordingly. This cleansing out of all un
righteousness is what we mean by entire
sanctification. I take this position openly—
that no professor that is in any sense willing
to live below entire sanctification knows
enough of religion to save him ; and that
every one that is not earnestly seeking after
it, is willing to live below entire sanctifica
tion. Awful thought!
THE OLD ENOREE (UNION) CIRCUIT
CONFERENCE JOURNAL-NO. 7.
Conference Candidates —Coleman Carlise—
Struggle for Life —Location Absolute —
Family Expense Estimated —Difficulty in
Raising Supplies—Economical Conference
Expenditure.
The names of the preachers recommended
to the South Carolina Conference from Eno
ree Circuit from 1805 to 1820 are as follows:
December 7, 1805, Robert Porter, located
1816; April 5, 1806, John Collingsworth,
transferred to Georgia 1830 ; April 5, 1806,
Joseph Travis, located 1825; December 4,
1808, Anthony Seuter, died 1817 ; Novem
ber 7, 1809, John B. Glenn, located 1819;
November 20, 1813, Travis Owens, located
1825; December 4, 1815, Benjamin Rhodes,
ditfd 1826; November 30, 1817, Benjamin
Wofford, located 1820; November 6, 1818,
Coleman Carlisle, located 1823 ; November
26, 1819, N. H. Rhodes, transferred to Geor
gia 1830; November 26, 1819, Wiley War
wick transferred to Georgia in 1830.
Coleman Carlisle and Wiley Warwick re
commended for readmission.
Rev. Coleman Carlisle passed the greater
part of his local life within the bounds of
this circuit. The old journal gives evidence
of his zeal and usefulness. Three times he
entered the travelling ministry, and as often
was driven from it from the sheer necessity
of making provision for a helpless family.
Local or travelling, the word of the Lord
was in his bones, and he could not but labor
for the cause he loved. Returning from his
appointments, with the same horse (hard on
the creature, both man and brute) he would
plough by moonlight until near midnight, to
eke out the scanty disciplinary pittance al
lowed him, which, small as it was, was still
subject to a heavy discount in the payment.
He entered the Conference in 1792, traveled
three years and located ; entering again 1801
traveled three years and located; and the last
time 1819 traveled four years, and finally re
tired. He was popular, being sent for far and
near to preach funeral sermons,and receiving
for all his long rides and sermons nothing.
And he was not alone in this, as the long roll
of locations amply testifies. God was in the
movement, or Methodism could never have
survived such pressure. Its basal fact was
“ free grace,” and that was contounded with
a “ free gospel ;” so that the idea of cost to
any, scarcely entered into the calculation.
Human nature can endure much, but not
everything, and hundreds were forced to pro
vide for those dear to them by location. The
Church was long in waking up to the fact
that it was God s ordination, that they who
preach the gospel should live by it. And
alas 1 to-day thousands of her adherents are
oblivious to the same fact.
At the time of which I write, no provision
was made for “ family expenses,” and at a
later day, as those records prove,it was mea
PUBLISHED BY J. W. BURKE k COMPANY, FOR-THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH.
ger at best. The whole machinery for min
isterial support was out of shape, as witness
the following item, and all the succeeding
records.
“ February 26, 1820. At a meeting of
Trustees of the Methodist Parsonage, pres
ent, Spilsby Glenn, John Hill, John B.
Glenn, appropriated to brother R. L. Ed
wards, two hundred dollars for table or fam
ily expenses.”
“ February 10,1823. The committee, W.
Holland, William Holland, and Benjamin
Wofford, estimate the table expenses of
brother Tilman Sneed at one hundred dol
lars for the present year.”
“ May 2, 1824. We, the stewards, do
agree to give brother Allan Turner eighty
dollars for family expenses, and should he
request more, to give it. Benj. Wofford,
Sec.”
From 1825 to 1830 committees were ap
pointed, but no record of amounts estimated
put on record.
June 3, 1831, there is this report: “ We,
the undersigned, to whom wajL^ef
ascertain what shsl!jjuagMrffl
-iiteskflale for his aifl
as
and is ho^F
forty iSS
shall be raised agreeable tT MeuH^^HH
cipline.”
No other record on this subject until July
26, 1836 ; then this: “ The committee re
port that brother Crowell be entitled to re
ceive eighty-four dollars, and if his family
expenses should be more, the same to be
paid if it can be raised.”
“ July 1, 1838. The committee appoint
ed to estimate brother Watts'family expenses
agree that he be allowed two and a half dol
lars a week, or one hundred dollars for the
year.”
Now when it is remembered that what was
called the Quarterage allowance rarely
reached three hundred dollars, the addition
for family expenses as above, made the en
tire claim exceedingly moderate ; yet, mod
erate as it was, it was seldom met. There
are no records of collections and expendi
tures, as in most journals, or this fact could
be put beyond dispute.
Tbis raising supplies was a sore subject all
these years, as the following records show:
“April 8, 1826. This Conference in con
currence with the order of the South Caro
lina Conference, liesolved, that Enoree
Circuit be divided among the stewards
thereof, and that they attend personally at
every society with snbscription papers, for
the purpose of making collections for the
support of the gospel on the circuit; and
that they press upon the congregation, and
more particularly upon members of the So
ciety, the necessity of their subscribing;
and that the same be perpetuated from year
to year, unless those who subscribe make
known to the stewards their wish to discon
tinue their subscriptions, or until this reso
lution is repealed.”
“ December 27, 1828. Moved by B. B.
Gains —seconded by J. Jennings —that the
money which the Parsonage sold for be
placed in the hands of the stewards to make
up the deficiency of Quarterage on the Cir
cuit. The motion was carried.” Comment
is unnecessary.
“ May 1, 1829. On motion, Resolved, that
the plan of collecting Quarterage be by sub
scription, and that the names of every mem
ber of each Society be placed on a paper,
and that said paper be presented to each
individual ; and when this cannot be done
by the steward, the preacher in charge be
authorized to do the same. And be it fur
ther resolved, that all the said papers be
brought to the Third Quarterly Confer
ence.”
In this matter of ministerial support I
have made a rough estimate of Conference
expenditure for the year 1831—the first year
after the Georgia Conference was set off.
For the support of 64 preachers it amounts
to $17,100. Call it in round numbers $20,-
000, which I am satisfied largely exceeds the
actual receipts—this would give an average
of $312.50. Did ever a religious body of
the same respectability, numbers, and
wealth, get its ministerial service cheaper?
The average per white member being 97J
cents ; and including the colored member
ship, only 47 cents. A. M. Chrietzberg.
Selections.
From the New Orleans Christian Alvocate.
CITY OF MEXICO.
The Approach to Mexico—Our Church —
Preachers —And Schools.
City of Mexico, February 22, 1876.
Mr. Editor : For the first time I entered
the city of Mexico on the train by daylight.
A traveler looks in vain for the “lakes” which
he expects to see on each side of the road as
he nears the city. They are here in very wet
weather, but now are marshy flats, with occa
sional lagoon-like stretches of water —shal-
low, brackish ponds. The time of leaving
Vera Cruz by rail is half-past eleven at night.
Before the morning breaks all the beautiful
scenery about Cordova has been passed; but
on going from Mexico to Vera Cruz this part
of the route is passed in the daytime—a bet
ter arrangement than formerly. Before, one
never saw the last eighty miles of the great
plain of Mexico, excepting by the moonlight,
which so confuses the landscape, that one
imagines rather than sees what he is passing.
The snowy tops of Popocatepetl and Iztac
cihuatl were bathed in sunlight, and as if
they held audience with the fleecy-tinted
cloudsjust below them. The train
and on into the circle
tains that stand
hundred domes ■:
memories. All about the
squares of adobe walls, with some!mug - WSfl'
a house outside —dreary, cemetery-looking
adobes of the poor people, the very poor,
unrelieved by plants or grass, or comforts of
any kind.
The cultivation for miles just before reach
ing the city consists of the maguey, the cease
less fountain of pulque; and on the platforms
of the depots, hundreds of huge skin-bottles
filled with this native drink lie together like
hogs with their heads off, set on end. One
entire train is appropriated to this freight, as
the milk trains of the London railways. If a
curse, it is a fearful one in its flow, for one
half the plain is covered with rows of these
strong, radiating leaves. The plants grow
to a great size, covering, I suppose, ten feet
square. When it gets ready to throw up its
seed-stalk, which springs up quickly some
twenty feet, a large amount of sap collects.
It is at this crisis in its life that the central
leaf is cut out, and a hollow made in the plant
to catch the exuding fluid. One plant will
bleed six or seven quarts a day for several
months, and then dies. Nothing more is re
quired than to put the fluid in a bottle with
a little of the old juice, and presently the fer
mentation perfects it for use. It keeps out
MACON, GEORGIA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 1876.
whisky; and that is the best thing that can be
said for it.
Immediately on my arrival I went round
to our chapel, which the Spanish preachers
have named “Templo Evangelico.” It is
but a few minutes’ walk from the Iturbide
Hotel—the St. Charles of Mexico. The
house was beautifully lighted with a glass
chandelier, and looked all that I could have
desired it to be for our present missionary
purposes. The melodeon was on the right
of the pulpit, and an excellent performer and
choir rendered the hymns in a style that
would have been very acceptable to Caron
delet Street. Two Spauish preachers—Sos*
thenes Juarez and Jose Elias Mota —occu-
pied the pnlpit, very neatly dressed and un
affectedly proper in their bearing. I listened
to a sermon from the elder —Bro. Juarez.
He has been refined and softened in all his
nature since I last saw him—is it not of the
Holy Spirit? So, too, Mota impresses me
most favorably as a gentle Jjfld, Bgre map .
what it was when Bro. Daves left. His not
returning seems to be very generally, I may
say universally, regretted by these people.
He was just getting hold of the language and
the hearts of the Mexicans. The young men
were clustering around him, and after many
heart-straining months of preparation he had
come to the time of harvest, when he felt it
his duty to leave. To use nis own. language
we must “look upon it as another leaf of
God's providence in the Mexican work,” —
and it may be in our whole mission work.
May God order it all for good! It is indeed
his own work —calling these poor Mexicans
through much blood, and a long, rayless
night, into the full possession of his holy law,
and to the liberty of his children, working
upon them from within, and rallying us to
them from without. This gives me more
comfort than all besides: the reflection that
the Holy Spirit has taken the eternal fortunes
of this people into His own hands. We fol
low. Mota told me to-day that our Church
numbers now seventy-five.
On yesterday morning I was round to see
the boys’ and girls’ schools. Our girls’
school is a very hopeful one. The dress and
the faces of the larger girls indicate intelli
gence, and that they are of the middle class.
Some fifty attend. The boys’ school is not
so large; boys very poor, though a few of
are quite promising. There is also a night
school, which as yet I have not seen.
Now, as once I was an editor, I know that
this is a good place to stop, and so bid you
farewell for the present. Yours truly,
J. C. Keener.
THE ITALICS OF TJIE BIBLE.
BY JAMES W. AUTEN.
Did it ever occur to you whilqreading your
Bible, as all good editors do, to ask why so
large a portion of it is printed in italicst
The learned tell us that these portions were
placed there by King James’ translators to
make the meaning more complete and the
sense more apparent than it otherwise would
be; that, in translating from the Hebrew and
Greek, these interpolations became neces
sary to a correct understanding of the origi
nal text. Now, admitting all this, did it ever
occur to you to ask how those translators did
their work? Premising that the italicizing is
really necessary, and a great help to a proper
understanding of the Scriptures, and that we
could not well do without it, let us examine
a few texts to see whether the real meaning
has not, in some cases at least, been per
verted, or whether in nearly all the sense is
not better understood by the plain text as it
stands. To my mind the beauty of the text
is often marred, and the sense sometimes
destroyed, by the italics; their presence in
some instances teaching the exact reverse of
the meaning in the original.
I am uot a classical scholar nor a critical
student of the Bible, but an examination, I
think, by even “unlearned and ignorant
men” will make clear the propositions I have
advanced. Thus see the nineteenth Psalm..
Read the first six verses as they stand in our
version; then read the third verse, leaving
out the italics, and tell me if the beauty and
sublimity of the text are not destroyed, and
the obvious meaning directly reversed. Read
ing as 1 suggest, we have verses 1-5 as fol
lows: “The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the firmament showeth his handiwork.
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto
night showeth knowledge. No speech, nor
language! their voice is not heard, (but) their
Hue is gone out through all the earth, and
their words to the end of the world. In
them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
which as a bridegroom coming out of his
chamber, rejoiceth, as a stroung man, to run
a race.” The design seems to be to teach
the glory of God in his works by the silent
majesty of the heavenly bodies, which, with
out voice or speech, “in solemn silence all,”
proclaim the glory as well as the omnipo
tence of their great Creator. The text in our
version exactly reverses this idea. Again,
in Psalm xiv, 1, we read, “The fool hath
said in his heart, There is no God." Now,
we know there were very many wicked men
in the Psalmist’s day, but I doubt if one
could have been found so foolhardy and so
wicked as to proclaim, “There is
and, as the
cry, “No
Next turn to Matthew ix, 27—the case of
the two blind men—and also in another
place, Mark x, 47, that of blind Bartimeus:
both are represented as saying, “Jesus, thou
Son of David, have mercy on us.” Now,
leave out the "thou,” and hear, them cry,
“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us!”
Is it not greatly improved and rendered much
more impressive?
It does not seem probable that these af
flicted men used any superfluous words, but,
as we would, came directly to the son of
David. Now look at the history of Cornelius
and Peter, Acts, x, 25, where it is asserted
that “Cornelius met Peter, and iell down at
his feet, and worshiped him." Is not this
horrible, and the reverse of all the probabili
ties in the case? Would such a devout, God
fearing man as Cornelius fall down and wor
ship Peter? I think not, nor does the plain
text assert it, but oar italics do. Choose ye,
but I prefer the text without the interpola
tion.
Next see Hebrews vii, 19: “For the law
made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of
a better hope did." So reads war version,
>with the final italicized word, which in my
opinion is a wrong and senseless assertion.
What was it the bringing in of a better hope
did? Does not the text mean, just what the
writer says, that perfection was not obtained
by the law, but that the law was merely in
troductory to the Gospel—“our school-mas
ter to bring us to Christ” —and in this sense
only was it the bringing in of a “better
hope?” [But the original Greek does not
sustain that rendering.— Ed.] The surplu
sage in 1 John ii, 23, scarcely seems to call
for any remark.
There are numerous other mistakes of this
V*id—as I deem them —in our translation*
but most of them will be apparent to the
careful reader at a glance. I would not write
a word to lessen a reverence for the Holy
Scriptures, but have long thought that “the
italics of the Bible” would bear friendly cri
ticism.
Now, Messrs Editors, am I right? If not,
jilease enlighten me, for I love the Book, and
°n' iiinder
head .ire gray,
f And white is the desolate world;
( But 1 dream about blue, blue skies,
And the cherishing, irenerous sun,
And of dazzling butterflies,
And soft light when the day is done.
I dream of the green, green trees,
-- Of a sweet, warm forest nest.
Of the gentle and scented breeze.
And the nooks where the weary rest.
The meadows are golden bright,
And the children dance and play
Id the glorions, cloudlets light
Of the fair midsummer day.
The hedges are bright with flowers ;
Greeu corn is upon the hilis;
The birds, through the sunny hours.
Sing by the sparkling rills.
There is not a barren place
In the vales where the daisies grow,
But each spot is adorned with grace,
And the sunbeams flash and glow.
As I think of the lovely things
Of the fair, warm sun nier time,
VWlien the soul almost has wings
—a To rise to the heights sublime;
As 1 think of the mossy wood,
And the beautiful, flashing sea,
1 cry, in a longing mood,
“Sweet summer, make haste to me.”
And yet, since the summers fade,
Let me ask that the best be given :
There's a country that kQows no shade,
For no winter can come to heaven.
I will think of that land to day
Iu the midst of wind and snow ;
May the winter soon pass away—
For I shall be glad to go!
- London Christian World.
BAD LITERATURE.
Good books, bad books—good papers, bad
paplrs—they are like good and bad men ;
virtuous women and prostitute. A good
man perfumes the air in which he lives, and
is like the pure, rich oxygen, to brace and
to bis kindred. A pure woman
is a benediction, a hymn of music and beau
ty, an angel of strength iu her sphere of life.
So is a good book or newspaper of high
tcuMMznd manly spirit, that spurns all grov
elling, and would rather suspend than ex
hale a poisoned breath, give a tongue to lust,
or legs to a lie.
Naturally enough Milton’s speech “ for
the Jiberty of unlicensed printing,” occurs
to us here, from which we write down these
beautiful sentences touching good books and
has ijt
“ £ deny not but that it is of greatest con
cernment in the Church and commonwealth
to have a vigilant eye how books demean
themselves as well as men ; and thereafter
to confine, imprison, and do sharpest jus
tice on them as malefactors. For books are
not absolutely dead things, but do contain a
potency of life in them to be as active as
that soul was whose progeny they are ; nay,
they do preserve, as in a vial, the purest effi
cacy and extraction of that living intellect
that bred them. I know they are as lively
and as vigorously productive, as those labu
loug"dragons’ teeth : and being sown up and
down, may chance to spring up armed men.
And yet on the other hand, unless wariness
be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a
good book. Who kills a man, kills a reason
able creature, God’s image ; but he who de
stroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills
the image of God, as it were in the eye.
Many a man lives a burthen to the earth;
but a good book is the precious life-blood of
a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up
on purpose to a life beyond a life.”
These be serious and significant words.
Books are not impersonal. Nor are news
papers. A base book or newspaper has a
tongue that will find hearers, and help to
make them, and will make its impression for
ill wherever it gets an audience. It educates
the lower faculties, blows into bloom the
flowers of passion, stimulates into undue
and dangerous development the carnal and
animal natures, so putting them from under
the control of the higher moral powers,
whose enlargement and exercise it carefully
and ingeniously ignores. There is nothing
that-is pregnant more of peril to the moral
life of the State and the purity and peace of
the family, than tne newspaper that smirks
and wantons with licentiousness. It is the
real death messenger I
And we suspect that no ardent apologist
for the times, will say that the country is not
flooded with streams of obscene literature.
And what is still worse, it has a market.
Thousands and tens of thousands of young
men and women are in the mart, waiting
with greedy voracity to purchase and eon-
is an ominous fact. It augurs
It takes no prophet
feter^j^i.'-iiedta.-tes.
v cpL > ears hHuKui
Cuf F, Craig, formerly of Mia
Hell soon comes then,“a deep',“.Ml bog”and’
vast mire of hungry ruin.
As we have jnst said, no one can deny the
rapid increase of shallow and unclean litera
ture. It is a simple fact. It is one which
should induce intense coucern. Books mul
tiply, whose undisguised mission is to weaken
virtue in young souls, and smother all the
best and purest instincts of the innermost
spirit. And newspapers by scores foster
and pamper the basest motions of human na
ture, pander to them under cover, often, of
a smile or pretext of independence and lib
erty, gloat like vultures over garbage and
offal, huckster slander and falsehood with a
devil’s relish, hunt in the slums of cities
and in the tainted air of police courts, and
amid the sickening wrecks and charred des
olations of ruined virtue, to find food to
dish up for gross palates and vulgar appe
tites. oitis a sad sight to see the newspaper,
whose every breath should be strengthening
as mountain air, and whose every word
glitter like a jewel, engage itself on
the tide of evil, pot peril in the way of
employ itielf in the damning work of
stirring np the polluted air of a city, and
fishing through its purlieus in quest of some
poor woman’s dishonesty, or some old lech
er’s excesses, and then with grin and ckuckle
of diabolical satisfaction, work these up in
its columns for the sake of filthy lucre.
This is the ungodliest business of which we
know. ,
Our warning is to parents and guardians
to keep a vigilant eye on this monstrous
evil. Close your door against the entrance
of a book or paper that enfolds a lie, or ex
hales the malaria of lust. Close your door
against the book or paper that can wanton
with a slander, find pleasure in playing with
a rumor that imperils character, or toy with
obscene things. Close your door against the
book or paper that, under pretext of being
bold and free, strikes at the holy barriers of
virtue, and insults all the sacredest instincts
that come up into life from the ■ innocence of
childhood, and that to make the scheme
successful, gilds its bad words with the sem
blances of devotion to the public good.
debasing literature
war "
ttmUiijage is guilt.
ie—
'in#. onTniittcd to cre-
And to make our-
our children proof against its
contagion, we must tone up the moral func
tions into robust and perfect health. This
is the great remedy against all pestilences.
—Methodist Recorder.
SUNDAY SCHOOL FITS.
BY S. B. POWER.
Not of apoplexy, epilepsy, or paralysis,
but tils of abstraction, partiality, and un
punctnality. Some teachers are so prone to
fall into tits of abstraction that a disorderly,
riotous, unruly class, is the sure and certain
effect. This is often caused by the bad man
agement or arrangement of the class, the
teacher sitting in the middle with one-half
the children behind her playing with the
wreath of artificial flowers hanging down
from her bonnet, fingering the fringes of her
mantle, or talking to the opposite boy be
hind the teacher’s back. I saw a teacher in
a lit of this sort one Sunday last spring.
Happening to be visiting a Sunday-school in
the ancient city of York, (England,) I was
given a class to teach. When the time came
for the closing exercises and we all knelt
down, I noticed the teacher of the next class
to mine so absorbed in his devotions with
head bent down that he did not see all the
goings-on of his class. Now this teacher had
a beautiful head of black, shiny, glossy hair,
with a white division down the middle straight
as a garden walk; the bent head was tempt
ingly near one of the boys’ hands; he could
not resist just touching the garden-walk part
ing. No notice was taken, however, for the
teacher was in a fit of abstraction. Another
touch, and yet another, until, emboldened by
success, he ventured to scratch his teacher’s
head. This aroused him, and grasping the
boy’s hand he kept it for the remainder of
the time.
Partiality. These fits are very common,
and are generally produced by a bright
scholar; either one with a bright eye and win
ning smile, or one who manifests a great in
terest in the teaching. It often happens that
the pet scholar turns out all wrong, and then
the fit ends in mortification, which we all
know is a most dangerous symptom. The
best remedy, dear fellow-teacher, I can re
commend for this is to consider that each of
your scholars has a soul as precious in God’s
sight as the others. The dull one on whom
you can make no impression, whose face
never lights up with a smile, and has a
“don’t-care” sort of look about him, has a
soul, the value of which the whole world can
not compare with, and which cost the blood
of Jesus to redeem. Let your sympathies go
out toward such a one, and your conscience
remind you of your duty.
Unpunctuality is another species of fits to
which many are liable —either coming late or
perhaps not coming at all. Taking a class
in a strange school one day, I asked the ques
tion, “Whose boys are you?” and the an
swer “Oh! we’re anybody’s boys,” showed
that their regular, or rather irregular teach
er, was deeply afflicted with this kind of fits.
The remedy suggested for this is a large dose
of fresh interest in the work. This remedy
requires frequent repetition; repeat the dose
every week until cured, and don’t leave it off
even then.— S. S. Times.
TRIED AND PROVED.
“Jessie’s grand-father is sick ma’am,”
said one of my little scholars, as I inquired
after the absent Jessie.
“ I am very sorry,” said I; —and, to prove
that I was sorry, I started bright and early
the next morning to visit Jessie and her
grand-father. I knocked at the door of one
of their two rooms, and the grand-father's
voice said, “Come in.” I found only old Mr.
Fuller in the room ; he said he felt better,
and that Jessie had gone with her mates as
usual.
Mr. Fuller was a shoe mender, and near
his work-bench stood a little table that held
all the books he and Jessie owned between
them. I noticed that from one of them a
number of threads were hanging, and said,
“Does your Bible need binding?”
“No, Miss,” said he; “those threads all
tell me something' I will tell you,” he add
ed, as he saw my puzzled look: “when I was
a young man I wag very bad and wild, and
did not care for God or Bible; but when my
poor old mother died, she had nothing to
leave her wayward son but the Bible—her
marriage Bible. I didn’t care for it any
more than I did before. But one day I
found a tract that was headed, ‘Come nnto
jne, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
give you rest.’ I could not get
of my head, and as I went
cured in one fr ?hing seemed to say, ‘Come,
ni county.’’ Wasn’t tired and didn’t want
'rest, and therefore tried to get the words out
of my head. But God wanted me to ‘come’
and so he took His own way to bring me. A
few weeks after I had found the tract, Jes
sie’s mother died, and then her father went
off to Australia and left little Jessie for me
to take care of.
“Then I was hurt so that I couldn’t walk,
and still came the word, ‘Come.’ At last I
thought, ‘maybe God will give me rest from
my pain, if I try him.’ So I took the old
Bible and, strange to say, I opened just at
the very words; so I thought, ‘I will try God
and see.’
“But you see, Miss, I wasn’t used to the
Bible, because I bad wasted all the best
years of my life, and it took a loug time to
find the places. So one day, as I was sew
ing an old shoe, I thought, ‘l’ll just put a
thread in at my verse, so that I can find it
when I want to read it and think if God
really wants me to come to Him,’ for by
that time 1 had begun to think of my sins
and wasted life. So I put the thread in, and
after that I found many other verses, and at
each one I put a thread,
“At last I really came to God with my
sins and found that He was waiting for me.
And so I tried first and then proved that the
‘Come’ was for me; then I put a knot in the
end of the thread, to show that it was proved.
For my eyesight is poor, and I can’t read
very well, and the thread saves time and
eyes. I have found many other verses to
try, and at each I put ar thread, and, as they
become clear, and I can use them, as I call
it, I put in the knots that you see.
“And God has been very good to me and
has not thrown me off, for I have tried and
proved Him, through His Word. There are
many others just as good: ‘ Seek and ye
shall find’ has a knot too.”
Old Mr. Fuller’s way was not entirely new
tome. “Tried and proved,” I thought, as
I walked home soon after, thinking of how
he had found God’s words so kind that they
can be tried and proved.— N. Y. Observer.
DISCRIMINATIVE PREACHING.
A young minister had gone to a prosper
ous church in a certain town to preach his
first sermon. Before leaving the house the
gentleman who was entertaining him sug
gested to him uot to preach against Univer
salists. “There are,” said he “several
Universalist families who have pews in our
church, and we don’t want them offended.”
The young minister promised. At the church
vestibule one of the deacons drew him aside
and said: “Do you see these gentlemen
just passing in? They are Spiritualists, but
come here occasionally. I wish you would
be a little careful not to say anything that
might hurt their feelings." The minister
promised. As he was ascending the pulpit
steps oue of the elders buttouholed him for
a moment to whisper an additional caution:
“The leading liquor dealer has just come
into church and he gives us a lift sometimes.
I wish you would be particular not to allude
to the whisky busiuess or the temperance
question.” The young minister getting fair
ly frightened to see the moral ground thus
steadily narrowing before him, inquired:
“Pray, whom or what shall I preach against?”
The elder’s reply came with an air of tri
umph:
“Preach against the Jews; they haven’t
got a friend in town.” If preaching is the
art of not hurting anybody, that certainly
would have been an effective direction. But
if, on the other hand, it means the applies,
tion ot truth to mind and conscience, then
that is the most effective which lays the ar
row on the string for present effect, which
aims at the sins and sorrows that are straight
before it, and which determines the effect
iveness of the aim by the fluttering of the
birds.— Selected.
“NOT A NOVICE.”
At the present day not less than at other
times —perhaps at the present day more than
at other times—the following hints by Mr.
Spurgeon are worthy of being carefully pon
dered. We would not discourage any one
from Christian work; but it is worth while
for each one to consider what his Christian
work is—whether it is to teach or to learn ;
whether it is to be a soldier or an officer;
whether it is to train himself, or, himself un
trained, to train others. Mr. Spurgeon
says:
“The first thing after conversion to Christ
is confession of Christ, and the next is in
struction in Christ. I fear that too many
professed converts leap over these hedges,
and endeavor to become teachers at once.
Tht|V call themselves disciples, and repudi
at disciplines. They say they are sol
dt gallf the cross; but they can neither
maVJii in line or keep step, neither will they
submit themselves to order. They appear to
think, that the moment they are born, they
are fathers; the instant they are enlisted,
they are officers. Now, conversion is the
beginning of the spiritual life, and not the
climax of it. It makes a man a disciple,
and the main thing a disciple has to do is to
learn. After he has learned, he will be able
to teach others also; but not till then. I
have often said to you that nothing can
come out of you that is not in you ; and,
therefore, if there is not something put into
you, to begin with, you may go out to war,
but as you have neither shot nor powder in
your gun, the enemy will not be much in
jured by your valor. We must be filled be
fore we can run over. It is necessary for
the Christian man to be prepared for holy
service ; that, in fact, what he does for God
should be a harvest growing out of himself,
because of a previous seed time, during which
much precious seed was put into him.”
JOY AND SONG.
The gospel is glad tidings of great joy. It
was an outgush of song iu a sad world —a
burst of sunshine after ages of darkness. Pa
ganism to-day is not jubilant, but gloomy and
despoudent. When in a Christian land, any
class of people disregard Christ, their songs
die out because their joy has withered. Spir
itualism has no exultant songs because it has
no gladness in Jesus. It may gather in the
tented grove, under the inspiration of waving
trees, singing birds, verdant fields, glittering
stars and azure skies, but it confesses that it
cannot counterfeit the Christian psalmody,
which rolls down the ages, lifting the heart
of the believer nearer to God. Mormonism,
in her mountain-girded valley, sits songless.
The habitations of Utah are gladdened by no
melodious praise warbled from human lips.
Travelers remark this dearth of song in a land
smiling with plenty. The explanation is easy.
There is no Holy Ghost in their religion. It
sows to the flesh and not to the spirit. Free
Religion assembles in conventions, and ar
gues, denounces, and blasphemes: but when
she tries to sing, her voice is like the gibber
ing of a ghost in a sepulcher.
Jesus Christ glorified in the soul by the
Holy Ghost, is the fountain of true joy. The
kingdom of God is “righteousness, peace,
and joy in the Holy Ghost.” When the bles
sed Comforter fills the hearts of a people with
his joy-inspiring presence, they burst out into
spontaneous singing. But where formalism,
worldliness, and unbelief have crowded the
Comforter .out of their hearts, they pay thou
sands of dollars to a quartette to perform the
service which their backslidden souls refuse
to render. Hence joy is a very good test,
not only of orthodox opinions, but of the
strength of our faith in Christian truth, and
our personal devotion to Christ. —From ‘ ‘'Love
Enthroned.”
The Bible. —“Did ye ask me if I had a
Bible?” said a poor old widow in London;
“Did ye ask me if I bad a Bible? Thank God,
I have a Bible. What should I do without
my Bible? It was the guide of my youth, and
it'is the staff of my age. It wounded me,
and it healed me; it showed me I was a sin
ner, and it ted me to the Savior; it has given
me comfort through life, and I trust it will
give me hope in death.”
I may be ever so rich, ever so finely edu
cated, ever so handsome, ever so much ad
mired, and yet the day is coming when I shall
die. What then will these profit ma?
F. M. KENNEDY, D. D., j:. Editor.
J. W. BURKE, Assistant Editor.
A. G. HAYGOOD, D. D., Editorial Correspondent.
WHOLE NUMBER 1987.
MISCELLANEA.
The Mohammedan population of the world
is reckoned at 150,000,000, and haß hitherto
been untouched by any energetic or system
atic Christian effort.
Rev. Dr. Jabez Burns, the distinguished
divine and author, who died recently in Lon
don, was brought tip under Dr. Jabez Bunt
ing, and for a time belonged to the Method
ist New Connection, but became a Baptist.
He was a liberal and catholic man, and
greatly beloved.
Hon. Reveriiy Johnson, recently deceas
ed, united with the Protestant Episcopal
Church a few years ago, in which he had
been brought up from childhood. ■ The
Episcopal Methodist says he occasionally
attended the Mt. Vernon Place M. E. church,
Baltimore, and was much inspired under the
preaching of the Rev. Thomas Guard during
his pastorate in that city.
The secretary of the Northern Presbyte
riau Missionary Society reports that of the
$560,000 which was appropriated to the work
of the present year, $167,789 had been raised
in the firßt eight months, ending December
31, 1875. This leaves $382,211 to be ac
counted for in the next four months, and is
an average of $95,500 per month.
The Waldensians have now nearly as many
communicants outside of the “valleys” as
in them, it is, therefore, probable that a
general assembly will be formed for all the
Presbyterians in Italy, with two interior
synodical Ctiurch courts —one for the moun
tains and one for the plains. Thus the Waid
enses, divested of all remaining exclusive
ness, will be a national Church for all Italy.
A New York correspondent of the Boston
Journal writes : “The Rev. Dr. RichardS.
Storrs has resigned the Presidency of the
American Congregational Union and his di
rectorship in the Home Mission Society.
The cause of this action is the interpreta
tion of Congregational polity by the recent
Advisory Council. This rebellion of the
leading minister of the Congregational
Church is full of significance.”
The papers are telling a story to comfort
creditors. Some man in a certain place—
who knew how to use the bankrupt law per
haps—called his creditors together and told
them that his debts were about SIO,OOO and
his assets about SOOO, and that therefore
they need not expect even the sight of a div
idend. Oue of the unhappy creditors, know
ing that that the bankrupt had a good voice,
asked him, “Can’t you at least give us a
song?” And the bankrupt got up on a table
and sung, “Then you'll remember me.”
And they will.
On January 30 the final services were held
in connection with the only Welsh congrega
tion at Cardiff worshiping in connection with
the Established Church ; and thus the chief
town of Wales, with a population of 80,000,
is left entirely destitute of Episcopal ser
vices in the native language. Lady Llano,
ver, formerly Lady Benjamin Hall, has writ
ten a letter, in which she strongly condemns
the neglect of the Welsh people by the Es
tablishment, and points out that there are
eleven flourishing Welsh Non-conformist
chapels iu Cardiff with large congregations.
Tyndall’s Courtship. —The papers are
making all manuer ol fun of Professor Tyn
dall for his matrimonial intentions. It is
said that he proposed to the daughter of
Lord Hamiltou in a letter begumiug: “Sac
charine conglomeration of protoplasm! Ado
rable combination of matter and force 1
Rarest product of infinite ages of evolution!”
ancfcoiitiiiuiiig in the same strain. The clos
ing appeal was as follows: “ Deign, O ad
mirable creature, to respect that attraction
which draws me toward thee with a force
inversely proportional to the square of the
distance.”
English Christians have at present an
intense enthusiasm for missionary projects
which effect Eastern Interior Africa. A fund
for the establishment of the Lake Nyassa
Mission was easily raised in Scotland. In
England two individuals gave s6o,ooo, which
will enable the Church Missionary Society
to commence operations on the shores of
Lake Victoria Nyanza. And now an Eng
lish friend (the donor of the first $25,000 to
the Church Missionary Society) offers $25,*
000 to the London Society if they will open
a mission at Ujiji, the place where Stanley
met Livingstone. Other gifts are ready to
follow, and the Society has the matter under
consideratiou.
Mas. Weitbrecht, in her recent volume,
entitled “ The Women of India and Chris
tiau Work in the Zenana,” says: “The
contrast between those Zenanas where fe
male education is progressing and those who
will not have it fe very remarkable. In the
one you see the ladies sittiug iu the suu,wilh
their knees drawn up to the chin, absolutely
idle. In the other you go iu and find the
whole female part of the family with their
books and work some learning their
lessons; mothers and daughters together,
some working, others, it muy be, reading ;
those who are able to read well and easily
reading a story-book, such as ‘ Faith and
Victory,’ ‘The Dairyman’s Daughter,’ and
other little books which have been transla
ted into their language. But you seldom
find them idle.”
Moody Meetings in New York. —The
New York Evangelist says: “The daily
meetings at the Hippodrome are proceeding
under continued tokens of the divine favor.
Asa rule the great hall is crowded. Only
on rare occasions, and during the prevalence
of storms, are any vacant seats to be seen
iu that vast amphitheatre, aud large numbers
nightly respond to Mr. Moody’s invitation to
the inquiry rooms, both iu that hall and du
ring the later meeting in the one on Fourth
avenue. Many, however, are hoping aud
praying that the work may spread on every
side. Thus far, no particular class may be
said to have been more influenced than an
other, unless it be the one which only those
of the stoutest iaith expected to reach at all.
Very many who are quite beyond the reach
of Church influences, are being directed in
the straight and narrow way, so new to
them.’
One hundred and fifty members of the
Greek Church in Urgub, in Cappadocia,
Asia Minor, have sent a petition to the Arch
bishop of Cmsarea, begging him to induce
the Porte to expel the American missiona
ries. The petitioners describe the missiona
ries as wolves and children of Satan, who
dissemiuate blasphemies and lies, and partly
by promise of money and partly by force,
seduce believers from the true faith, besides
inciting subjects of the Sultan to rebellion.
A correspondent of the Allgtmeine Zeitung,
writing of this petition from Constantinople,
says: “Whatever may be thought of the
mission, the inhabitants of Urgub should
have been the last to sign such ft document,
for the missionaries have within twelve
months distributed $150,000 in that district,
but for which many would have died of fam
ine.” The Turks, it appears, have commu
nicated their fanaticism to the Greek Chris*
liana.