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SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST, X ' THE CHRISTIAN HERALD,
of Alabama. 0F Tennessee.
VOL. 59.
Table of Contents.
First Page—Alabama Department: “The
Silent Sculptor;” The Great Unwritten
Law; Alabama News; The Religious
Press.
Second Page—Correspondence: Episcopal
Prayer Book ; Givingto Christ; From Se
noia ; Sketches of Foreign Countries—
Germany ; Programme S. S. Convention
Mercer Association; A Georgia Missionary
Field; Thankful Baptist Church. The
Sunday-School—Lesson for May 291 h :
Parrabies of the Pounds. The Missionary
Department.
Third Page—Children’s Corner: Our Willie
—poetry ; How Dick Went to the Picnic;
Little Goldenhair—poetry ; Where is your
Lantern, etc.
Fourth Page—Editorials: More About the
Conflict; Hereditary Politeness ; Dead
headism ; Methodist Liberality ; Conclu
sion of the Proceedings of the Southern
Baptist Convention, Columbus, Miss.
Fifth Page—Secular Editorials: News Para
graphs ; Literary Notes and Comments;
The Anti-Nihilist Campaign; Georgia
News.
Sixth Page—The Household Department:
The Weavers —poetry ; Ancient Temper
ance Pledge; Sabbath Rest. Miscellany.
Obituaries.
Seventh Page—The Farmers’ Index: A
Flying Trip ; German Millet; Bermuda
Grass.
Eighth Page—Florida Department: Florida
Facts, Fancies and Figures; Fare to Insti
tute; Ministers’lnstitute; Correspondence;
International Cotton Exposition Buildings
(illustrated).
Alabama Department.
B-y SAMUEL HENDERSON.
•THE SILENT SCULPTOR."
A very scholarly lecturer in the
South, some few years ago, delivered a
lecture in one of our cities, on the
above topic which was said to have
been well received by the cultivated
portion of the audience. We did not
hear the lecture, nor have seen it in
print, if it was printed. The topic is
all that we have heard of the lecture,
but it is sufficiently suggestive to be
made the subject of some thoughts,
and we propose devoting this article
to it.
The “North British Review” con
tained, in the year 1851, we believe, a
somewhat elaborate review of “Burns
and His School,” in which the writer
says' “four faces among the portraits
of modern men, strike us as supremely
beautiful; not merely in expression,
but in the form and proportion and
harmony of features: Shakspeare, Raf
faelle, Goethe, Burns. One would ex
pect it to be so; for the mind makes
the body, not the body the mind; and
the inward beauty seldom fails to ex
press itself in the outward, as a visible
sign of the invisible grace or disgrace
of the wearer. Not that it is always
so But in the generality of
cases, physiognomy is a sound and
faithful science, and tells us, if not,
alas! what the man might have been,
still what he has become.”
The relation between moral and
physical beauty and moral and physic
al deformity is so striking as to have
arrested the attention of our best think
ers. Nor is it at all strange that the
outward man gradually takes on the
lineaments of the inward man. “Pretty
is, that pretty does,” is an old maxim,
and like all other maxims is founded
on the general observation and experi
ence of mankind. The silent yet cer
tain action of the mind and heart up
on the countenance has not unfre
quently thrown over what was at first
the perfection of physical beauty the
very incarnation of ugliness; and vice
versa it has converted a mass of phys
ical ugliness into something charming
and attractive. Into the philosophy
of this thing we do not propose to en
ter. We shall leave that to the physio
gnomist. Perhaps those little messen
gers, those emunctories as physiologists
call them, that play between the heart
and the face, bearing on the one hand
the excrementitious effluvia engendered
by anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,
filthy communication, and the like,
from the one to the other—and on the
other hand, bringing those sweet em
anations of love, gentleness, meekness,
benevolence, etc., and gradually fixing
the impress of each upon the features,
is about all that we need to know in
regard to its philosophy. We all
know the difference between a count
enance distorted by the baser passions
of the soul, and a countenance all rad
iant with loving kindness; and we
have but to suppose each of those to
become habitual to realize the fact
that the "silent sculptor” will ere long
chisel the face into the image of the
inward man. The one will be a coun
terpart of the other with well nigh as
much exactitude as melted matter
takes the form of the mold into which
it is cast.
A sculptor must possess the finest
imagination and the rarest artistic skill
to call up the attitude, the expression,
etc., and imprison in eternal marble
the almost imperceptible “interval be
tween two breaths.” Mr. Hawthorne
says, after looking at the “Dying Glad
iator” in Rome, he experienced a sense
of weariness and annoyance “that the
man should be such a length of time
leaning upon his arm in the very act
of death.” An artist who attempts to
commit an idea to the immortal guard
ianship of marble, can only succeed as
the spiritual is evolved through mat
erial beauty. So true is it, that the
greatest masters of art, both in paint
ing and sculpture, recognize the eter
nal relation between mind and matter,
the outer expressing the inner man
with incorruptible fidelity. Now, is it
fanciful to say that a living man spirit
will far more effectively transfuse its
likeness to its own body, than that the
chisel of the sculptor can fix upon
marble his ideal of the subject he at
tempts to immortalize? Is not nature
more truthful than art?
But fact is better than theory. We
make no question that the observation
of our readers accords with our own.
We once knew a man, we will call
him deacon Acerb, who, in early life,
inherited a combination of features
well nigh faultless. One seldom met
a countenance of rarer natural beauty.
Bqt unhappily, along with that phys
ical symmetry, he possessed a crusty,
fault-finding, acrimonious spirit, that
never saw the sunny side of any sub
ject. He spent his whole life in hunt
ing up and berating human infirmities.
Like “Judith Paddock” in a novel we
read in our boyhood, “Westward Ho,”
his mission in life might be expressed
in a single sentence: • Heighho! this is
a very wicked worldI” When he arose
to speak in Conference, his brethren
would cast upon him that peculiar de
precatory look, as if he were about to
belabor them with a bamboo brier. Os
course, this temperament,habitually in
dulged, told sadly upon the counten
ance of deacon Acerb. If a painter
could transfer to canvass the distor
tions tha t would follow a draught of vin
egar mingled with cayenne pepper,
garlick, and a few old stumps of cigars,
it would fall little short of expressing
the marred features of brother A. in his
latter years. Alas! how many of the
softer sex, who inherited originally a
noble endowment of beauty, have sac
rificed it to the petty annoyances of
every day life! The blooming belle of
“sweet sixteen” becomes the repulsive
hag of sixty!
On the other hand most of us can
recall instances in which very’ill favor
ed people have by the habitual indulg
ence of a kindly, ingenious, sympath
izing, amiable spirit, supplanted almost
every repulsive aspect of their features,
and have become really attractive. The
genial spirit within has thrown over a
rough, uncouth exterior its charming
loveliness until we forget the one in
our admiration of the other. These
transformations remind one of the
“Metamorphoses of Appuleius,” whose
hero, Lucius, was transformed from a
lovely, amiable, talented young
man into a beast of burden, and doom
ed for many long years to that sad hu
miliation, until he could endure it no
longer, when, at his earnest request,
by a process of purification, he exchan
ged his asinine incarnation for the
noblest type of manhood, and became
an honored and trusted priest, officiat
ing at the altars of Isis.
Let our young readers cultivate
whatsoever things are pure, lovely,
honest, true, and of good report, and
thus, if they have beauty, they can pre
serve and make it more attractive—
and if they have not, they can at least
set the “silent sculptor” to work with
the assurance that they will never be
ashamed of the result. When physical
beauty and moral deformity contend
for the mastery, the latter will always
conquer—when moral beauty and
physical deformity contest for the prize,
the former will as certainly be Victor
ious.
—The Sunday schools in the State
are requested to send delegates to the
State Sunday-school Convention, which
meets in Gadsden the 10th of June,
and are requested to inform Dr. Nowlin,
of that city, of the number of delegates
they will send.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, MAY 19, lßßl‘
THE GREAT UNWRITTEN LAW.
It is a noteworthy fact that most of
the happiness and unhappinessof man
kind depends upon the doing or not
doing such things as do not fall within
the jurisdiction of written law. Indeed,
most of the things which are influen
tial in the formation of character, hab
its, tastes, pursuits, etc., are done out
of the view of mankind, and which are
neither prescribed nor forbidden by the
civil law. Law can never take cogni
zance of anything but acts, and even
this cognizance only extends to a few
of the more flagrant acts that entail
the most serious disasters to society.
Hence the importance of conscience
and religion, as establishing a moral
surveillance over our thoughts, words
and actions, such as no secular aq
thority can exercise. Only think of the
power of words, that ready coin, which
carries on the whole commerce of
thought through the world, as bearing
j<»y or sorrow to every heart. On the
one hand, “words fitly spoken are like
apples of gold in pictures of silver."
Can language express a higher value
to words that flow from the generosi
ties of a kindly heart ? They repre
sent a value far surpassing that of pre
cious metals that represent the substan
tial wealth of all the world. Whatarp
gold and silver compared with the
wealth of a warm and generous heart,
out of whose treasures there goes forth
“ things new and old, ” those treasures
of wisdom and knowledge, whose price
is above rubies ? What ec'stacy is often
inspired when these winged messen
gers come to the perturbed heart,
freighted with all the wealth of a con
genial spirit! With what pleasure do
we dwell upon those episodes in social
life in which “heart answered to heart”
in all the kindly amenities and mutual
complaisances of sanctified friendship!
The recollection of such occasions steals
over the soul with something like foe
enchantment of music upon the wa
ters. Could all the wealth of the Indies
compensate a good man for the loss of
these treasures, of memory ? —treasures
which live and bear their fruit with
perennial freshness ?
And then, on the other hand, what
unspeakable agony has often been in
spired by those “ bitter words ” which
David likens to “ sharp swords ! ”
What a horrid temperament is that
which can find no higher employment
than to shoot these barbed arrows into
human hearts, for the miserable satis
faction of seeing them writhe and quiv
er under the cruel infliction ! Is it
strange that of such incarnations of
depravity, the divine penmen say, “the
poison of asps is under their lips ! ”
Yes, the poison of asps, whose bite is
the most fatal of all reptiles ! What
are asps, daggers, swords, compared
with that moral virus that blasts the
good name of a worthy man ? To the
refined sensibilities of a noble soul,
death is a small calamity compared
with the loss of reputation. The in
stinct Os a carrion crow is far less des
picable than that ignoble spirit in man
that battens upon “ the blood of repu
tation. ” God forbid that we should
ever by a single word mitigate the
crime of duelling, for of all murders it
is the most criminal, because most pre
meditated ; but it no doubt orignated
in that high conception of a good name
which the honorable man scorns to
survive. We speak not of the reason
of the thing, but of the fact, since no
man can pretend that one crime can
atone for another. We allege the fact
only to show that even in the estima
tion of worldly men, crimes may be
committed, against which there is no
written law, but which can only be
atoned for by the life of the perpetra
tor.
In one of Bishop Butler’s sermons he
says, speaking of conscience : “ Had it
strength as it had right; had it power
as it had manifest authority, it would
absolutely govern the world. ” Mete
power is one thing, and authority is a
different thing. Authority is ineffect
ive without power to enforce it, and
the power that enforces the authority
of conscience must be wielded by the
man himself. The man may be oper
ated upon by moral or spiritual agen
cies, but then the impetus, the force
that follows the decisions of conscience
with corresponding actions, can be sup
plied only in the very nature of the
case by the party. He must act of and
for himself.
Did we write “ the great unwritten
law ? ” Yes, unwritten so far as hu
man jurisprudence is concerned. But
then there is a “ law written upon the
heart, ” answering to the law written
in God’s word, under the jurisdiction
of which, every word, every thought,
every act, occurs, backed up by a pow
er, held in check for a time to give us
a day of visitation, a season of repent
ance, but which, sooner or later, visits
“indignation and .wrath upon every
soul of man that doeth evil, ” and
award “ glory, honor, and immortality”
to every one that believes in and obeys
it. Authority and power unite to en
force that law in every jot and tittle.
ALABAMANEWS.
—Out of a white population of some
fifteen hundred in Greenville hardly
four hundred attend church regularly.
—A railroad meeting will be held at
Elba on the 21st inst.
—The Alabama Press Association
will meet at Blount Springs Tuesday,
May 17.
—lt is said that there are 1,500 bales
of last year’s cotton yet in Choccolocco
valley to go to Oxford.
—The colored people of Selma have
erected a handsome brick building to
be used as an academy.
•—Tommy and Cales Fearne, broth
ers, aged 12 and 9 years, were both
drowned together in Madison county.
—A stock company has been organ
ized in Tuscaloosa for the manufacture
of cotton yarn and rope. It will begin
work as soon as suitable machinery can
be purchased. The company starts
out with a paid-up capital of SIB,OOO,
and the stock is held by some of our
most reliable business men—men
whose names are a perfect guaranty of
success. The new enterprise will be
known as “The Tuscaloosa Yarn and
Rope Mills,” and the stockholders have
elected the following board of directors:
Messrs. W. W. Branch, J. Snow, H. P.
Walker, W. F. Fitts, and W. W. Her
ring. Colonel D. W. Branch has been
elected president of the company, and
Mr. W. W. Branch secretary and treas
urer.
—lt is announced that Mr. Sayre, of
the Bethlehem (Pa.) Steel Works, has
made arrangements for the investment
of $1,000,000 in new steel works at
Birmingham, Ala., and will erect the
necessary buildings this summer. A
few years ago the site where Birming
ham now stands was a cotton field ;
now the place boasts a population of
6,000, and has in successful operation
iron furnaces, acres of coking ovens,
and extensive rolling mills, whilst it is
rapidly becoming one of the most im
portant, railroad centres in the Bouth.
The Religious Press.
Fools and Pistols.—A pistol with a fool
behind it is a dangerous thing, and, unfor
tunately, the fools are almost as numerous
as the pistols. Death by the bullet has be
come one of the most common items of our
daily news. The echo of the murderous pis
tol shot is heard every day. Our communi
ties are full of silly, light-headed, cowardly
tools, who are always armed with the ever
handy weapon, and are ready to fire away
at anything. A foolish whim, a burst of
passion, a crazy impulse, is enough to evoke
the pistol, and a fresh tragedy is added to
the daily list of horrors.
Life is altogether too cheap in these days.
The best life is at the mercy of every reckless
rattle brain and silly boy who goes about
with a loaded pistol in his pocket. And
what shall men do in this state ot insecuri
ty? Shall everybody go armed? This
would only make matters worse. The law
against carrying concealed weapons must be
enforced. The punishment for the crime of
going armed amid the peaceful pursuits of
the community ought to be ten times as se -
,vere as it is. Cowards and fools and des
peradoes must learn their lessons under the
rod. —Evangelical Messenger.
Whisky, fools and pistols! What a
compound! It would do no good, but
harm, rather, to increase the severity
of the law against carrying concealed
weapons. The proper remedy is to
enforce the law we have. No man
proven to be guilty ought ever to escape
when there is a Baptist on the jury.
Ought he, then, to escape when there
is no Baptist on the jury? By no
means, but the mission of The Index
is chiefly to Baptists, hence it singles
them out.
The First Baptist church of Oakland, (Cal.)
was happy and honored by the coming of
Judge J. B. Crockett into its membership.
His witness for Christianity was all the more
notable, by its infrequency among men of
his advanced life, and prominence in the
legal profession. His baptism, with three
others, made an occasion of great impres
siveness and solemnity. To the Head of the
Church, Jesus the Christ, our Lord and Sa
viour be all the praise.
So says the Herald of Truth, a Bap
tist paper published in California.
Most emphatically do we dissent from
the use of the word “honored.” Judge
Crockett is a man of great dignity and
excellence of character, and for eleven
years has ably sustained himself on
the bench of the Supreme Court of
California, and at the age of 73 has
publicly put on Christ by baptism.
Doubtless the church was “happy” to
receive him, and it ought to have been,
but it was not honored. No man can
confer honor on a church of Jesus
Christ.
If the humblest and most obscure
little Baptist church on earth were to
receive into its membership all the
crowned heads in the world in one day,
it would not be honored, but they
would be.
In August the people of North Carolina
will vote on a prohibition amendment to
their State Constitution. The Prohibitionists
are already in the field and doing active
work. When the question came before the
Legislature, it was backed by a petition
signed by 278,000 persons, including many
of the leading men of the State. There is no
mistaking the fact that the sale of liquors in
the South is the great bane of the freedmen,
who seem, from their few moral surround
ings, to be too much the victims of bad
example.
We do not favor such a law as this
in Georgia, but we think that the Local
Option Law, which allows the people
of each city, town, county, or militia
district to do as they please on the
liquor question, would be salutary.
Petitions asking our Legislature to give
us such a law, are now in circulation.
We advise our readers, male and female,
to sign them.
What For?—How much the world is in
debted to simple principles. The mighty
revolution effected by steam —the applica
tion has been by the simplest principles of
mechanics. If men do not want to be
drunkards, the means are simple: let them
not trifle with intoxicating drink. If men
want to be honest, let them live within their
income and keep out of debt. Principles by
which great results are accomplished, are of
the simplest kind.
What is the church for ? To read the
multitude of volumes about, we would sup
pose that of all the mysteries, the church
and its great objects were the most mysteri
ous. And yet there is one only great object
which the church has, to make men like
Christ. We feel sure we shall give offence
to no one, if we say, the church which does
this best in the long run, is the most divine.
And the preaching and the services which
do this best are the most divine. Let us
keep it before our minds constantly that the
church exists for one purpose—and that is
that we and all men may become like Christ.
If the church cannot succeed in this, it
might as well shut up its building and turn
them into anything men please. If the
minister keeps this simple principle before
him in preaching he will be better able to
build his sermons after the pattern shown
in the Mount. If the man who goes to
church will keep thissimple principle before
him when he goes, he will be able to wor
ship God better.—Southern Churchman.
And from the same paper we copy,
the following:
lhe church is not going to the dogs.
Things were a thousand times worse once ;
if Justin, if Tcrtullian, if Augustine, if
Chrysostom could have seen the church as
we now see it, they would have thought the
millennium had arrived. And there never
has been a day from the times of holy apos
tles to the present, that devout men and wo
men have not been groaning and weeping
over the evils of the church and its degen
eracy.
Yes, things are bad enough, but they
might be worse ; they have been worse;
they have generally been worse. Cer
tainly there is much to lament, but one
day’s work is worth more than a whole
year’s lamentation. Instead of moping
over the evils of our day, let us be ac
tive in trying to correct them. Begin
with number one. Live nearer to
Christ, and you will benefit the whole
church and the whole world.
Zion’s Herald, speaking of the revis
ed New Testament, which will make
its appearance in less than a week from
this present writing, says :
When the new version is once accepted, it
will not be necessary for our young Biblical
critics to give us new renderings of the text,
and intimate the defective character of the
English version. After the combined schol
arsnip of England and the United States has
exhausted its learning through such an ac
complished commission, our youthful in
terpreters will hardly have the face to im
pose their free translations upon their hith
erto long-suffering audiences.
We fear that the result will be just
the opposite of what our Boston brother
predicts. Comparisons between the
new version and the old will now be
the order of the day, and we shall be
drenched with doses of criticism be
yond all precedent for magnitude and
multitude. Still we hope for better
things; we hope that our ministers
will resist the temptation to advertise
their scholarship, and confine them
selves to preaching the gospel.
The chaplain of the Illinois Legislature
prayed that God would give the members
“more wisdom and greater promptitude.”
The Maine chaplain, during the recent dead
lock, cried out: “0 Lord I have compassion
on our bewildered Representatives and Sen
ators. They have been sitting and sitting,
and have hatched nothing. 0 Lord I let
NO. 20.
i dem arise from their nest and >o home, and
ill the praise shall be thine." The Pennsyl
vania chaplain recently prayed : “Give these
iw-makers, O God, more brains—more
brains—more brainsl”
And the chaplains who disgraced
their profession by making these irrev
erent prayers, showed themselves to be
as heartless as they were brainless.
We cannot conceive of anything more
calculated to injure the cause of true
religion than impudence addressed to
Almighty God in the guise of prayer.
Boy Rklioion.—Can bovs become Chris
tians? It is not generally expected that
boys of eight or ten years old will be con
verted. It is not common to pray and labor
for their conversion as for that of young men
of sixteen or eighteen. If a boy of ten is in
clined to hope that be has been converted,
his hope is often regarded with suspicion.
The practical attitude of the church is that,
though undoubtedly there have been some
cases of conversion in boyhood, such are not
to be commonly expected, perhaps not,
when professed, to be believed in.
• • • • • • •
But Jesus was once a boy. That is a very
hard thing to understand ; but, nevertheless,
it is true. The infant Jesus has often been
pictured, and the grown man Jesus is pre
sented to our eyee; but it is bard to get an
idea of the boy Jesus of ten years old. We
ought not to think of him as a little old
man ; the doctrine of the Incarnation im
plies that every element which naturally
belongs t • healthy, genuine boyhood, he
possessed. If it is natural to the “genuine”
boy to like play, the boy Jesus must have
liked play. Whatever hilarity we properly
enjoy seeing in our own boys, that the boy
Jesus must have possessed. And yet he was
sinless. It follows, then, that sin is no es
sential part of genuine boy-nature. It is no
more necessary that a boy should do wrong
in order to be a genuine boy than that a man
should do wrong to be a genuine man. If
there was a boy Jesus, there may be boy
followers of Jesus. If Jesus was once a
genuine boy, then one may become his fol
lower without losing a single trait necessary
to make up a genuine, hearty, healthy, per
fect, ideal boyhood.
It is just as much a boy’s duty to imitate
the boy Jesus as! it is a man's duty to imitate
the man Jesus. A boy can and should re
pent of, and turn from, a boy’s sins as a man
can and should repent of, and turn from, a
man’s sins. We should, therefore, preach
to boys as we preach to men, and should
expect boys to become Christians as we
expect men to become Christians.—National
Baptist.
The Index has great confidence in
boy-religion. The best members of,
our churches are usually those who
were converted early in life. But it is
a mistake to suppose that, because a
boy is a Christian, he must, therefore,
cease to be a boy. Boys will be boys,
and they ought to be. They may be as
juvenile as their years make natural;
still they may be believers, and they
may be truly pious. We should not
expect from them the graces of man
hood, but the graces of boyhood. When
they become men they will, of their
own accord, put away childish things.
It must be remembered, however,
that boys are easily impressed. Noth
ing is easier than to persuade a boy to
be baptized and to “join the church.”
But it is a cruel wrong thus to persuade
a boy, unless he gives convincing evi
dence of a change of heart; a wrong
to him, for it puts him in false position
all the rest of his life; a wrong to the
church, for it foists on it an unworthy
member.
We have in our mind at this mo
ment a most melancholy instance of
religious ruin, accomplished by a dis
tinguished minister of our denomina
tion, by persuading a mere lad to "take
up his cross” in baptism before he had
taken it up anywhere else. There are
thousands of such cases. Cultivate the
boys, preach to them, exhort them,
pray for them, baptize them when there
is reasonable assurance that they have
been born again; but be cautious.
The bill which says that liquor sellers shall
remove all screens from their doors and
windows, thus making their business as un
concealed as any other, has become a law in
Massachusetts, but there seems to be a gen
eral understanding that it is not to be en
forced. In Boston the screens and curtains
and stained glass continue to shut off the
view of passers-by as heretofore, and the
business inside goes on as usual. It will not
be creditable to Massachusetts if she allows
her laws to be dead-letters.
The law is a good one; we should be
glad to see it enacted and enforced in
Georgia.
Christian churches may well remember
the truth which underlies the old saying:
“I fear the Greeks, even when bringing
gifts.” One of the worst misfortunes which
can befall a church is a money gift which
makes it willing to relax its own beneficen
ces, or which binds it, be it never so little, to
the will of some worldling donor who seeks
to purchase the silence of pastor and con
gregation, and to go free from troublesome
rebukes of his sins. The notion that “money
is money,” and that some little deference
may be pa’d to the world, if only it sub
scribes liberally to the works of the church,
has dragged down to lifelessness many a
church which was once the very temple of
Christian love and service.—B. 8. Times.
