Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation.
About Southern Christian advocate. (Macon, Ga.) 18??-18?? | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 1878)
4 OFFICE OF THE CHRISTIAN CC . D i mm Jjiifi ° and > Published by WALKER EVANS & COGSWELL, for the M. E. Church South. F. M. KENNEDY. D. D. Rev. S. A. WEBER, A. M. A Family Religious Paper, that should be in every Methodist household. As an Advertising Medium, it is first class, being well and favorably known in the South Atlantic States, where it has cir culated largely for forty-one years. Terms, $2.50 for one year, in advance; Ministers of the M. E. Church South, are Agents, to whom it is put at $1.25 a year. Will give Agents’terms to all Ministers who apply. Specimen copies sent on application. Estimates for Advertising promptly given. ?out!)mi Christian 'Jbboratt. CHARLESTON,S. C., NOV. 2, 1878. The Associate Editor is in charge of the Advocate for the present. We hope every subscriber, reader and friend of the Southern Chris tian Advocate will engage heartily in the work of extending its circula tion. Let every one do something in 1 this matter. Send us the address of parties who would like to see sample copies. “ The Way of Holiness’’ Chattanoo ga, Term., is now issued semi-monthly, instead of monthlj’ as heretofore, in an eight page quarto form, giving twice the amount of reading formerly given, while the prieo is but 51.25 a year. Subscribers to this journal in South Carolina will bo interested in this notice. It is edited and publish ed by Rev. Wm. Baker. Death of Rev. Daniel DuPre. This venerable man of God died on the 15th uit., at the residence of his son, at McClellanville. He was a good and true man. He was the head of a large and very respectable family. Dr. Warren DuPre, of Martha Wash ington Female College, in Virginia, was one of his sons. Brother Gantt sends us the notice of his death, and promises that an appropriate obituary will be furnished in due time. Mrs. Caroline Stoll died in Charles ton, on last Saturday. She was the mother of Mr. H. C. Stoll of this city, and of the Rev. James C. Stoll of the South Carolina Conference. Appro priate funeral services were conducted by the pastor of the deceased, Rev. W. C. Power, at Trinity Church, on Monday, the 28th ult. She had been for many years a member of the Meth odist Church, and died in the faith of the gospel, which she adorned in her life. We desire to call special attention to the advertisement of an Industrial Exhibition, which the Agricultural Society of South Carolina has deter mined to hold at the Military Hall, in Charleston, during the second week in December. This advertisement oc curs this week for the second time in our paper. We are glad of a conven ient opportunity cf calling attention to this matter. The purpose of the Society is to give encouragement to the mechanic arts and industrial pur suits. Premiums will be awarded for every department of husbandry, man ufacturing, machinery and works of art. Ladies are expected to send con tributions of their taste and skill. Competitive industry may be a valua ble means of developing the resources of our country, and of developing our own resources of genius and skill. With an increase of opportunities of this kind, we will increase in material wealth and intelligent labor. SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. A brother, alluding to a sermon ho had lately preached, says : “1 preach ed from the text, ‘ I am the light of the world,’ but never got in the dai’k so badly in my life.” This rather surprises us. When we had heard him, he had brought us from dark ness into light, as he unfolded the mysteries of the truth, as the truth is in Jesus. We concluded perhaps the good, modest brother uuderrates his light-giving power. The fact is, like him, we were in the dark. We didn’t remain so long. His next sentence shed a flood oflight on the subject : “ I had not studied the subject, in fact my sermon was almost impromtu.” We can see through the matter now. We have no doubt of it. He was in the dark. Yes, he and his congregation. With this difference, however—his congregation was to be pitied ; he to be blamed. The Collections —lt was formerly the habit in the South Carolina Con ference to publish the minutes of our Conference sessions and defray the ex pense ot their publication by selling them to the people. This plan did not work well. It frequently, if not uniformly, left the Committee of Pub lication in debt. This debt, if dis charged at all, was discharged by col lections taken among the members of the Conference, and others at our an nual sessions. We have recently adopt ed a different plan. Thus far it has worked well. The Conference, by resolution, provided that the amount necessary for this purpose be appro priated among the Presiding Elders, and that they have immediate charge of this interest. The idea is for each charge to pay for the minutes in ad vance of publication. The Presiding Elder according to his judgment as sesses the charges, and the charges receive minutes in proportion to the amount assessed and paid. The amount called for this year is S4OO. The Rev. A. M. Chrielzberg has been for the several past years editor and publish er of the minutes. The ability and taste which he has exhibited in this arduous work has been highly appre ciated by his brethren, and his labors tend very much to the improvement of our financial interests, as well as to the correctness of our statistics. A copy of the minutes of the South Car olina Conference is a useful book and is worth much more than it costs. Bishop Wightman. The readers of the Advocate will be obliged to us for the privilege of reading this private letter of Bishop Wightman to the Associate Editor. The Bishop is followed by the sym pathy and prayers of the church in his arduous and difficult field ; You see that I have reached this city, after the long and wearisome thousand miles staging I have had to do, over mountain and plain, embra cing nine nights in the stage wagons, exposed to hostile Indians and to high waymen, here and there. lam glad to say that I have not had even a finger-ache, in the way of sickness, though in the way of hard “blows and knocks” in these stage-wagons, commend mo to Montana, and espe cially Oregon. They are so swung as to give a passenger two jolts and a blow in the back in one movement, if he happens to be the sole occupant of the back seat. This was my case several nights. But all that is with the past. lam profoundly thankful to the good providence of God, which has brought me safely to the seat of my Fourth Annual Conference, which begins its session on the lGth instant. I read out the appointments of the Columbia Conference in Oregon, on Monday night last, October 7th. There were twenty-one traveling preachers stationed, and two or three supplies. The Conference has grown in strength and influence considerably since I presided in its session eight years ago. I took the railroad from Roseburg to Portland, early Tuesday morning, and went on board the steamship City of Chester, on the ar rival of the train at Portland, in the evening. Portland Is at the head of navigation on the Willamette river, a few miles above its junction with the celebrated Columbia river. It is nearly seven hundred miles above San Francisco. We left at 5 o’clock on Wednesday morning, reached As toria at 2 P. M., were an hour or two taking in freight, and then, with a favorable tide crossed the bar and got to sea by dark. This bar is difficult and dangerous. The ship plunged and rolled as we were passing over it, as though she would actually turn over. All that night and most of the next day we had a heavy swell, as if some great storm on the Pacific ocean had sent its greetings to the iron bound coast of Oregon. The remain der of the voyage was pleasant. We reached the Golden Gate of San Fran cisco bay, before daylight on Sat urday morning, and tied up at the wharf at 6A. M. A note was handed me that had been put into the purser’s hand, from my friend McClelland, Commissioner of the Port, giving me instructions on what street to find his residence, and I am his guest during the Conference. I preached yester day morning to a full house; admin istered the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and then went into the base ment of the church and made a speech to the Sunday-school children. To day I am writing letters; among them, this, with my best wishes to you. Very faithfully, W. M. Wightman. San Francisco, Cal. Mint, Anise and Cummin. The rebuke of our Saviour of those who, neglecting the weightier mat ters of the law, tithe mint, anise and cummin, is not out of date. As long as there are Pharisees and hypocrites in eocietj T and in the church, so long will the demands of truth require their condemnation. We would cherish a godly jealousy of the word and law of the Lord— every jot and tittle of it. We would not sacrifice its letter to its spirit, nor its spirit to its letter. Wo have in our mind those who for get the Divine, orthodox order of the developement of life and character. They commence at the wrong place, and work in the w r rong direction. In stead of commencing at the centre and working towards the circumfer ence, from the purified heart to the rectified life, they reverse this natural order. They are religious egotists. They are always thinking and talking about themselves. . Their favorite pronoun is the first person singular. “ God, 1 thank thee that 1 am not as other men are. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all I possess.” How frequently are we made to de plore the grotesqueness of a one-sided religion I Just now we are thinking of one, whom we wont designate by X., Y. or Z., because these letters usually stand in mathematical formulae for unknown values. Welnow otirman. It would scarcely be just to call him by name, for he answers to several names. He lives in every neighborhood we have ever lived in. He is orthodox. Yes, indeed. Orthodoxy is his doxy, and heterodoxy is your doxy. He can point you to the book, chapter and verse that will prove evciy time that he is right and you are wrong. He knows his proof texts by heart. He has his favorite places in the Bible, and scarcely ever reads anywhere else. How about his neighbor who, through misfortune, has happened to fall into his debt, and hence into his power? No difficulty about that. You know where to find him here, just as surely as in a matter of church doctrine. Why, he just takes this unfortunate brother by the throat, and demands, “pay me what thou owest.” He is as mean as he is ortho dox. He can read his Bible, sing hymns, groan about heterodoxy and grind the faces of the poor with equal grace and equal enjoyment. But here is another. His religion is emotional—very. He weeps and shouts at every opportunity, and at the slightest provocation. A revival meeting is his special delight. For getful of worldly associations and cir cumstances, he would “ Sit and sing himself away To everlasting bliss.” Well, —what do his neighbors say about this brother? (Our neighbors will find out more or less about us.) Why, they say he won’t pay his debts. They say that they would enjoy his demonstrations of religion more, if his wife and daughters would dress less extravagantly, and he and his family would live less luxuriously, until they had paid the over-due bills of the milliner and the grocer. Then here is still another. He has many of the symptoms of tho prece ding. He is noisy, too, at protracted meetings. To see him, as he moves around among the mourners, exhort ing them and leading them to the Sa viour, you wonld think he was a model of the propriety and sweetness of religion. Only go home with him, and you’ll find that he uses his reli gion, like his Sunday clothes, to go abroad with. He is harsh, uncharita ble, unkind, where, of all other places, ho should show the power and author ity of tho Christian profession. Here is a good sister. Ahl how the young people try her righteous soul! She raises her hands in holj* horror at the latest fashionable ex travagance and folly. She is vexed almost beyond endurance at tho sins of the people, the degeneracy of the times. Let the contribution box pass around for tho relief of the poor, and for sending the gospel to the heathen, she begs to be excused. “ Charity begins at home.” Yes, in deed ; she has no charity for a neigh bor, not even charity of judgment. Familiar examples might bo mul tiplied of people neglecting great principles in their attention and at tachment to matters of less impor tance. We would not be misunder stood. We take the Saviour’s judg ment for our sufficient guide. “ These ye ought to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” It is well to study the Scriptures, and to he or thodox in our interpretation of their meaning; but the prime purposo of their study is that their spirit may pervade, and sanctify, and control out lives. It is well to enjoy religion, to sing, and weep, and shout, if wo feel like it; but such exhibitions are the merest caricature of religion, if they coexist with looseness of financial ob ligations, and with the want of the spirit of love in the family circle. It is well enough to discountenance and rebuke the spirit of the world, as shown in the extravagance of fash ionable society; but what is the worth of such simplicity of taste on tho part of one whose sympathy with the work of tho Saviour never costs a cent ? It is well enough to tithe mint, anise and cummin, but not to the neg lect of judgment, mercy and faith. Tho Romans had an expression, “ teres et rotundus.” By it they de scribed a well-rounded character. Such is the great need of our times. We need a manhood, in which the hu man and Divine elements supplement each other. Wo need character, in which faith and works are the com plements of its unity. Faith and works are both essential. Faith with out works is dead. Works without faith is a presumptuous folly— filthy rags. Exchange. We thank the Holston Methodist for the wholesome truth of the following extract. Of one thing we may well rest assured, that affliction, call it national or individual as we may, (it is a personal matter in either case), affliction will not leave us as it found us. Used, it is a blessing; abused, it is a curse. “ The hard times are doing good. They are crushing sectionalism. Un der the ruins of wrecked fortunes, animosities are being buried, seem ingly without the hope of resurrec tion. The loyalist will cease to vex the rebel ; and the rebel will cease to vex the loyalist. Surely the politi cian will have to learn anew song. The yellow fever, in itself a curse, is indirectly doing good. The liberal charities of noble souls in the North and West extended to the suffering districts have drawn all hearts closer together. They have done much to cement the bonds of fraternity be tween the different sections, and es pecially between the Christian people of the North and of the South.” In a recent issue of the New York Independent, Governor Hampton is characterized as a hypocrite and liar, as having proved faithless to his word and the pledges of his party and his administration. The most suitable and effective answer of a libel like this is gratefully to acknowledge the NOV. 2, high esteem in which the Governor stands among tho colored people, whom the ex parte statements and views of the Independent are meant to champion and defend. The follow ing is suggestive reading, in connec tion with the above. A committee of Republicans at Beaufort wrote, invi ting the Governor to address them. Ho answers : “ Y'our letter expressing regret at my absence from the recent meeting in Beaufort, and inviting me to visit the town and address the cit izens, met me on my return to this place. 1 appreciate the fact of tho Republicans of Beaufort joining with the Democrats of the County in a cor dial invitation to me to meet the people, and I shall most cheerfully accept the invitation, in the same spirit with which it is tendered. On Tuesday next I hope to bo in Beau fort, and to have then the pleasure of meeting my fellow-citizens.” Boil it Down. —This is the advice of the New York Herald, to the preach ers, in a late Sunday edition of that metropolitan sheet, and it is not to be despised because it comes from a secu lar journal. Tho people have a right to criticise the preachers and their preaching. Like all public characters, we ai-o the common property of the country. Defects in style, no less than errors in doctrine, render us ob noxious to the just censure of the con gregations we servo. A man should not go to church to find matter for criticism ; but having gone there, it is perfectly legitimate to exercise his judgment on what ho hears. This is a practical ago. Our people don’t want, in either sense of want, the in terminable sermonizing of the Puri tanic period, with its almost endless divisions and sub-divisions ; but they want the truth exactly, succinctly and forcibly proclaimed. “ Have some thing to say. Say it. Stop when you get through.” These seem to bo easy rules. They may be. They are to the man of senso, intelligence and in dustry. If boiling down spoils tho sermon, well, the fault is not in the boiling but in the sermon. The loss of irrelevant adjectives, superfluous imagery, redundant logomachy—we repeat it—such loss is no loss, but a clear gain. Wo gladly give echo to the bugle notes of the Southern Missionary Herald. China is the key note: “ From the„cJjaraoter ■*£-; lg.peop.fe-. its immense population, its compara tive progress in civilization, and the tremendously significant fact that it is the great colonizer of the world— China is, in reality—and should be so regarded— the great missionary field of the world 1 More, perhaps, is being accomplished elsewhere, especially in Japan, but none is half so important to tho conversion of the world. And our beloved Marvin also testified to this fact. The church, in nearly all her branches, is beginning to realize and appreciate its importance, and through all her boards is enlarging and extending her operations in that ancient arid mighty empire. Cannot the Southern Methodist Church, with her nearly eight hundred thousand members, be brought to something like an appreciation of this important matter, so that she may speedily en large her operations at least fifty per cent, in that part of tho great field ? Why should she not? Nothing would be easier, if she would only resolve to do it. God help her—help each one of us—to feel China pressing so heavily upon our hearts, and to hear the wail of her perishing millions so constant ly that a response may go out from us that will be worthy of our beloved and heaven favored Israel. When China, which is now the strongest fortress of superstition on the earth, shall totter to its fall, then will tho whole heathen world speedily be giv en to Christ for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession !” The New York Witness lias a good article, in one of its late numbers, on Communism in Germany. Jt suggests to us the following statements and views: There is a vast mass of dis contented people in Germany who seek for radical changes in their gov ernmentand laws, which is not strange when their present condition is con sidered. Every young man when he attains the age of twenty is claimed by the State as a soldier, and, unless physically unfit, must serve for three years in the standing army, four years in the reserve, and five years in the Landwehr. This system interferes with every man’s prospects in busi ness and plans for domestic happiness, and in fact constitutes a yoke which no one should willingly bear. Napo leon Bonaparte, when ho nearly de populated France of men fitted for the army, only drew them by lot. Some were left even in the worst of times. Not so Prussia; its army takes
