Newspaper Page Text
SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST, ' THE CHRISTIAN HERAL&,
of Alabama. or Tenkbbsee.
ESTABLISHED I 811.
Table of Contents.
First Page—Alabama Department: A Per
plexing Question ; The Late Thomas Car
lyle; Apparent Contradictions; The Re
ligious Press.
Second Page—Correspondence : Noonday
Association; Ministers' and Deacons’
Meeting; Translating the Scriptures;
Resolutions Savannah Baptist Church;
Bin's to the Associations; Voice from
Macedonia. Missionary Department.
Third Page—Children’s Corner: Bible Ex-
Slorations; Correspondence, etc. The
unday-School: The Commandments—
Lesson for August 28th. School Adver
tisements.
Fourth Page—Editorials: God Forbid; Be
lieve and Shudder; Glimpses and Hints;
Georgia Baptist News.
Fifth Page—Secular Editorials : The Cloud
Eastward ; Fame—poetry—Chas. W. Hub
ner; Literary Notes and Comments; The
Magazines; Georgia News.
Sixth Page—The Household: Transplanted
—poetry; Home Sins; Miscellaneous
Paragraphs; “All Quiet Along The Poto
mac To, Night”—poetry. Obituaries.
Seventh Page-The Farmer’s Index: The
State Horticultural Society; Fish Farm
ing ; Georgia State Agricultural Society-
Meeting in Rome.
Eighth Page—Florida Department: Mrs. G.
A. Gove; Temperance Meetings, etc.; Re
ceipts Florida Mission Board; Another
Church—Another Minister; Tribute of
Respect; College Notices.
Alabama Department.
BY BAMUEL HENDERSON.
A PERPLEXING QUESTION.
We apprehend there is not a more
perplexing problem in all the range of
questions which agitate the minds of
the best Christians than that which
relates to' the final separation of the
righteous and the wicked in the last
day. In the present life, it is a natural
and an almost spiritual impossibility,
to look forward to that day, and not
transfer to its decisions the tender
4«te'q)PMhif.fi'«hicl. originate (.epedAly
gfc the ties of consanguinity. So
thoroughly are many objects of our
earthly love wrapped up in our affec
tions, that the very possibility of our
separation from them finally and for
ever causes us to recoil from it with
shivering anxiety. It is difficult for us
to realize that we shall view the de
cisions of that day with any other than
the feelings and sympathies which we
now possess. Pious parents weep, pray
for, and admonish their dear ones, and
the very idea that they are to be lost
sends a thrill of horror to their hearts;
and transferring this feeling to
the great and terrible day of his
wrath, they not unfrequently ask the
question, will not a knowledge of their
eternal destruction embitter the very
joys of heaven 1 To escape this, many
suppose that all knowledge of each
other will be blotted out in the spirit
land; but this is a supposition con
trary alike, as we think, to Scripture
and reason. We think the whole sub
ject is of sufficient importance to justi
fy us in devoting an article to its con
sideration.
In the present life, God has given
to our affections that particular attrib
ute that we express by the term sym
pathy. If there were no suffering to be
relieved, or no dangers to be averted,
doubtless, no such feeling as this could
be cherished. Or if we were put in
such relations to the sufferings and
dangers of others as that our interven
tion could not alleviate the one or
avert the other, perhaps we should be
alike unconscious of such sympathy.
For even though we might be endow
ed with the capacity of sympathy for
others in this particular respect, if no
practical purpose could be achieved by
its exercise, its office would cease, and
we should therefore cease to cherish it.
Again : Religion, pure and undefiled,
not only sanctifies, but intensifies our
sympathies by directing them to the
highest and noblest ends. Thote re
lationships in life which appeal to our
warmest affections, indicate to us a
field of usefulness, which no other be
ing in the universe can fill but our
selves. These affections give to our
prayers a fervency, and to our admoni
tions and warnings a tenderness and
efficiency, which no other heart can
feel, and no other tongue can express.
What other being on earth could have
wept over and bewailed the fate of Ab
solom as David did? Could any other
than a Christian Jewish heart have ex
pressed such unutterable concern for
his “brethren according to the flesh,”
as did Paul in Rom. 9 :1-3? But al?
this affectionate concern for others be
longs to this life. Here in this period
of moral discipline, this probationary
scene, where suffering may be alleviat-
ed and calamities prevented, it is a
most gracious endowment that we are
made capable of “weeping with them
that weep,” and tendering offices of
kindness to the needy. It is well that
we have the mind of Christ, in our
measure, to labor to save men from that
most direful of all calamities, the loss
of their souls. But to suppose that we
carry this particular phase of our af
fections into the other world, is to sup
pose that the same sphere will exist in
heaven for its exercise as on earth.
And this leads us to observe that a
great change will pass over our minds
when we shall have put on immortal
ity. This change, will appear in two
important respects: first, there will be
no suffering in the better land to alle
viate ; and, secondly, a complete ab
sorption of the human into the divine
will. When it is said of those who
shall enter that bright abode that "God
shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes,” it imports that all sources of sor
row shall disappear—that among all
the blood washed throng who shall
gather on the fiery sea, there will be
no weeping Maries, nodespairing Rach
els, no lame Mephibosheths, no hopeless
widowhood and orphanage, to appeal
to our kindly sympathies. The slow
and silent tread of funeral processions,
with their train of mourners, will never
move through the golden streets of the
New Jerusalem. Each redeemed spirit
will be too happy to cherish a single
wish ungratified. And then, as to the
fate of lost spirits, however dear they
may have been to us on earth, the very
consciousness that the “Judge of all
the earth will do right,” will only aug
ment the glory of the divine perfection
and awaken a higher rapture in every
rejoicing spirit. The grand purpose of
divine grace is to conform the will of
the creature to the will of the Creator.
The full completion of this is the be
ginning of heayen. The transitipp
from grace to glory marks the hour
when God’s thoughts are our thoughts
and God’s ways are our ways. So that,
when the decisions of the great day
shall be told out, even though they will
cut asunder the dearest ties that can
bind us to earthly objects, not one
voice will quiver among the innumer
able throng of the redeemed, as tfiey
peal forth the notes of the everlasting
song, “Great and marvellous are tby
works, Lord God Almighty, just and
true are thy ways,thou King of saints!”
The bond of union that consolidates the
sacramental host will not be an earth
born tie, but one that will unite all to
one common centre—“the Lamb which
is in the midst of the throne.” What
ever He does will meet our joyous re
sponses—His will will be the supremest
delight of our hearts. His friends will
be our friends—His foes our foes—
His ways our ways. In one word, the
very perfection of heaven will consist
in the complete absorption of the will
of the redeemed into the will of the
Redeemer, just as the triumph of the
satanic will, in the finally impenitent,
fit them for destruction.
Dear Christian reader, let us indulge
this one reflection. Now, your sym
pathies, your prayers, your efforts may
be owned of God to pluck these brands
from eternal burnings. Now, your com
passion for souls may be exercised to
ward the grandest objects to which
mortals are ever called. Now, you
may earn a name somewhat worthy of
immortality, a name that shall “shine
in the firmament of God forever.” But
then, all these objects of your present
sympathies,’ who shall die in their sins,
will have passed beyond the bounds of
divine .mercy, and therefore beyond the
bounds of your concern. The limita
tions of God’s grace are the limitations
of pious sympathy.
THE LATE THOMAS CARLYLE.
Perhaps the death of no literary
character, not even excepting that of
Macaulay,has created a more profound
impression than that of Mr. Carlyle.
Bold, original, profound, and candid,
he was just the man to perform a long
needed service in some departments of
literature from which others had re
coiled, or for which they were incom
petent. John Foster, whom Thomas
Carlyle resembled in some important
respects, had already broken up the
fallow ground of mere routine both in
theology and literature, and coined
an independent terminology at which
tread-mill critics had thrown up their
hands in holy horror, but which re
mains a perpetual monument to an
imperial genius. Mr. Carlyle has fol
lowed in his wake, and if possible, has
transcended his gifted predecessor. He
AL ANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1881.
has dared to rend assunder the veil
with which the prejudices and anim
osities of ages has enveloped names
and events which deserved a different
fate, and has well nigh or quite revers
ed the verdict of what is called history
in regard to them. Think of his at
tacking what he bluntly calls that
“Guano-Mountain," which the histori
ans of two hundred years have persist
ed in piling on the name of “My Lord
Protector,” the grand old Oliver Crom
well, and rescuing his name from the
darkness and stench to which it had
been so long consigned, and placing it
at least in a position where ingenuous
candor can comprehend such a char
acter! We confess as we read the
“Letters and Speeches” of this great
man, and his terse, luminous commen
taries on them—as we contemplate
the dexterity and power with which he
wields the sledge-hammer among the
“Dryasdust” critics and historians who
for two centuries, devoted themselves
to the pious task of slandering one of
the greatest men England ever gave to
the world, and hear the yells of the
whole tribe as the fatal blow swings
down on them—we rather enjoy the
sport. If the reader could imagine
such a cavalier as the fabled “Black
Prince,” encased in a coat of mail, turn
ed loose upon a garrison of Lillipu
tians, he might get some idea of the
havoc made by our sturdy giant among
these “guano” carriers to the grave of
Cromwell. We rather think that Carl
yle has reversed the source whence
the heaviest stench will smite the ol
factories of posterity henceforward. We
rather think that “My Lord Protector’s”
name will henceforth be rather aro
matic in contrast with his maligners.
Os course, we do not propose to
write an elaborate paper upon Carlyle,
even if we claimed the ability to do so,
as The Index is not the channel for
AUjaeaim '■
our humble sphere to express some ap
preciation of the labors of one of the
most remarkable men of the century.
A devout believer in the Christian re
ligion, though a despiser of the “cant”
of sectarianism—a worshipper of true
heroism as it dares to will and to do
whatever is noble and grand in human
character —a grand High Sheriff in the
domain of historical and biographical
literature, duly commissioned by an
authority which it is madness to ques
tion, to apprehend and bring to justice
those purveyors of slander who have
converted history into “a tissue of lies”
—he has left a monument behind him
more durable than brass. Peace to the
ashes of the grand old hero I
APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS.
“And it repented the Lord that he had made
men on the earth, and it grieved him at his
heart.” Gen. 6:6.
* God is not a man that he should lie, or the
son of man that he should repent’”—Num.
28:19.
When a man is painfully conscious
that the results of an enterprise in
which he has embarked his labor and
capital do not correspond with what
he had a right to expect, we often say
that he repents of his expenditures;
or when he expresses an ardent desire
to be able to annul the past, and to
commence anew, we say that he re
pents. In neither case may there be
any blameworthiness attached to his
purpose or plans, or even any want of
sagacity in either. Thus far, there is
a certain kind of analogy between re
pentance as ascribed to God and man.
Speaking after the manner of men, the
results of our creation did not corres
pond with what God had a right to
demand. That God foresaw and pro
vided for the fall of his creature, makes
nothing against what we have said.
We only affirm that he had a right to
demand a different result. The change
iu God is not a change of his great
original purpose, but a change in the
method by which it is to be accomp
lished. The great difference between
repentance as ascribed to God and to
us, is, that a perverse result cannot be
ascribed to, or occasioned by God, and
that he never lacks for means or power
to blot out the past and begin anew.
When, therefore, it is said that it "re
pented the Lord” that He had made
man, it appears to us to mean, that
God’s just demands on man had failed,
and that by the awful judgment of the
deluge he destroyed the race, and be
gan anew in Noah, “as the second an
cestral head es the human race,” as one
has expressed it. But in the sense in
which repentance expresses either sor
row for wrong doing, or incapacity to
repair the disasters of tbe past by an
nulling it and commencing anew, “God
is not a man that He should lie. neither
the son of man the He should repent.”
But still after saying all this, and
much more to the same effect on this
and other similar aspects of the divine
character, we shall all have affecting
cause to exclaim: "How unsearchable
are his judgments, and his ways past
finding out!”
The. Religious Press.
-
The First Baptism in Utah.-Rev.
Dwight Spencer, pastor of the Baptist
church in Ogden, Utah, sends the fol
lowing to Baptist Weekly:
The organizing of a Baptist church in
Utah isatiendei with great difficulties. In
the first place there are but few Baptists
here - then the most of these few are quite
indifferent as to having a church of their
own faith and order.
It would be well not to organize
those who are ind.fferent into a church;
for they will make the church worse
than indifferent. .The right plan is to
get the indifferent ones out of the
church, not to get them in it.
Many, through long absence from their
former homes, have lost their standing in
the denomination, and have drifted Into
pedo baptist congregations, where they have
been given some position, and where them
selves and families have formed social ties
which they are unwilling to sever.
Then let themxlrift; the sooner we
get rid'of such drift-wood the better.
We want no Baptists except those who
cannot be drifted.
Then there is a tendency all through the
West to ignore denominational lines. Per
sonsyiin churches here, not so much from
any con vicions of truth or duty as from cer
tain social advantages whiah they hope to
derive from it. It is not uncommon tp meet
with professors, who in the short space of
five or six years have been members of near
ly as many different churches. I do not
mean to say that thia is true of all. but that
the general tendency is in this direction.
An# those of whom it is true are not
worth hw.ing in any church.
and writing many
letter awTaluggish churches in the East, we
found thirteen who were qualified, and ready
to unite together to hold up the Baptist
standard in the midst df this deluded people,
In an upper room, like that first church in
Jerusalem, v e met, and after prayer pledged
ourselves to Christ and to each other. And
then to crown our joy, the teacher of our in
fant class, the daughter of one of our mem
hers, arose aud told us that since our meet
ings last winter she had been trying to live
a Christian life, and now that there was a
Baptist church, she wished to follow her
Savior in the ordinance of baptism.
The river Weber, fed by melting snows of
the Uasatch mountains, was our baptistry.
While a devout congregation, standing upon
the river’s bank sang the old hymn :
“In all my Lord’s appointed ways,
My journey I’ll pursue.”
we led down into the baptismal water, this
first candidate from the thousands of Utah,
with the prayer rising from our hearts that
her example might soon be followed by a
multitude, anxious to walk in their Savior's
footsteps.
After a strong array of figures on
which the statement is baced, the Ex
aminer and Chronicle says:
If the present tendency of things shall con
tinue unchecked for another twenty-five
years, it may be regarded as certain that tbe
practice of infant "baptism” will by that
time have practically died out among the
Congregational churches of this country.
When that has come to pass, it mar not be
too much to hope that those churches will
return, not in part only, but altogether, to tbe
primitive and Apostolic churches.
Yes, the Pedobaptist preachers ima
gine that they can find some sort of
Scriptural authority for this unscrip
tural practice, but the common people
can’t see it. It requires a very un
common man to see what is not to be
seen.
Give us judges of the exalted and heroic
type needed, and, despite the stupidity of
juries, and the delinquencies of other officials,
crime will be made to hide its ugly head in
all this land.
If we are not greatly mistaken our
brother of the Christian Advocate made
this identical remark once before, and
we replied to it then just as we do now;
that our judges generally do their,
work faithfully and ably. What we
want is honest juries. Look at the
Cash case in South Carolina, which
was tried twice before different Judges.
In each instance the Judge did his full
duty, and in each instance there were
perjured jurors, and the murderer was
turned loose!
Here is another illustration which
we copy from an exchange:
Three cases have been tried in Topeka,
Kansas, two for liquor selling, one for manu
facturing, in all of which tbe facts were
readily proven ; but in each case the jury res
turned a verdict of "not guitly.” •
The jurors simply perjured them
selves; that is all! Ah! if we only
had some way to punish a perjured
jury, (say for instance with ten years
in the penitentiary) what a reformation
it would work!
We receive many gratifying expressions of
good-will for our paper. And we have notio-
ed that in nearly every case of'disoontinu
anoe,’ wh.ch does not proceed from extreme
poverty, the dissatisfied subscriber is a bad
speller.—Central Presbyterian.
We have obeerved the same phen
omenon at The Index office.
No man looking around with reflecting
eye, but must conclude the church as it ex
ists at present, is not the church for which
Christ prayed that it might be one.
What does our brother of the South
ern Churchman mean? Does he mean
the Ftotestant Episcopal church? If
so, he has made a grave concession.
If he means more than this he admits
some of US to be in “the” church who
have been supposed to be outsiders.
* • *
Our brother of The Watchman,
(Boston,) is horrified, because at the
Southern Railroad stations separate
apartments are provided for white
people and negroes. Speaking of one
of them, he says:
It seems that in that station-house there
are three waiting-rooms, of which the third
is for negroes. Here at the North we are so
degenerate in civilization that only two are
deemed necessary. Which form of civilisa
tion is more worthy to be named Christian
it is not neces ary to inquire.
Ah! brother Watchman, we doubt
not that you are sincere in the senti
ment. you express, but if you will come
to Atlanta and stay one week, you will
be equally sincere in your belief that a
man may be a very good Christian and
still desire that the color line should
be observed at the station-houses, —
and elsewhere. The form that civiliz
ation takes must depend on circum
stances. If a million or so of our ne
groes could be persuaded to “exode” to
Massachusetts, you would quickly
change your mind. To theorize is one
thing, and to face facts is another.
’ The statistics of the Congregational chur
ches in Maine show annually since 1855 a
steady decline in the number of infants baps
tized. The ntimher during the past
year whs only 111. The haAtilms for the
last five years are about half what they were
twenty years ago.—Zion’s Advocate.
A similar decline, we think, is taking
place all over the United States in all
Pedobaptist churches except the Roman
Catholic and Episcopalian. Stir your
people up, brethren of the Pedobaptist
press, stir them up! Be sure to give
them the Scriptural authority for in
fant baptism; do not worry them with
long drawn and learned arguments
and farfetched inferences; give them
something short and plain, such as
common people can understand. Un
less you do this, you will find that the
decline in infant baptism will become
greater and greater, until at last it will
be found only in your catechisms and
creeds. If you can find one solitary
proof text, or even one solitary argu
ment, on which you all agree, you will
work wonders.
Habd on The Revision.—An old lady
from the country entered a New York book
store last week and asked for the Reversed
’Jestament.— Asso. Ref. Presbyterian.
Bhe must have wanted a Testament
with infant baptism in it.
It is reported, on very good authority,
that no Pedobaptist can come to the Lord's
table in Mr. Spurgeon's church for more
than three months, without being informed
by the pastor that it is his right and duty
to be baptized, and that he must be baptized
it he is to continue to commune with that
church. In other words, Mr. Spurgeon is
willing to permit unbaptized Christians to
sit down occasionally at tbe Lord's table,
but is not willing to permit them to sit down
habitually. This is very like “close” com
munion, after all. Tbe principle is admit
ted, only it is relaxed in certain exceptional
cases. How much better to apply the prin
ciple uniformly!
—Examiner and Chronicle-
Yes, if it is wrong for unbaptized
persons to commune habitually it is
wrong for them to do it at all. Mr.
Spurgeon’s plan looks like a com
promise with error, and no one will
say that such a compromise is proper.
The N. Y. Independent has some
thing to say about the President which
we heartily indorse:
There is a freedom and grandeur in the
position of the President which it is not too
much to say that none of bis recent predeces
sors have enjoyed. We pray to God that, as
he rises to strength and to the use of his
powers, he may see it. Whatever may have
been true before, he is now free; bis hands
are untied, no man and no party can claim
him ; and, except by his own act, he cannot
be put into shackles again. If that fate, which
may God forefend, befalls him, it will only
be because be sqanders the opportunity not
only of bis lifetime, but of tbe people be
governs, and puts himself into trammels
again.
• * * * * * *
He will rise from his bed to receive from
them, North and South, East and West, and
to a great extent without distinction of
party, a degree of confidence than which no
President has enjoyed more since Washing
ton.
He is a free man. The full powers of the
President are in bis bands. Tbe splendid
opportunity is his to be true to his convic-
VOL. 59.— NO. 32.
tions and theories of government end to
know that to do so is both the line of sound
statesmanship and in accordance with the
wish of the nation. May God raise him from
his bed. and higher than that, to be fully up
to his day and bis opportunity.
If the Independent means by these
words what we should mean if we used
them, (and we see no reason to doubt
this,) and if what is said fairly repres
ents public sentiment, and if the Presi
dent should rise to the occasion, as is
hoped, then the political millenium is
nigh. An honest and capable Presi
dent, absolutely free from the trammels
of party, aud owing no more to one
than to another, would be a blessing
indeed.
And on the same subject the Chris
tian Advocate, (Nashville,) says: *
If the weunded man should indeed recover
he will have the opportunity to remove the
last veetige of sectional antipathy. How?
By being in reality the President of the whole
nation.
What the system known as “Camp
bellism” teaches with regard to the
doctrine of baptismal remission, is clear
ly seen in what one of its organs, the
Chicago Evangelist, says, in comment
ing cn the passage of the Israelites
through the Red Sea, (Ex. 11; 19-27):
Their coming to the Red Sea to be bap
tized Into Moses, places the following things
beyond dispute.
1. That this baptism was essential to their
deliverance. The lesson for us is, that our
baptism into Christ, our leader, is just as es
sential to onr deliverance from past sin.
2 Their old enemies were buried in tßk
baptism The enemies are the types
sins.and these are buried in 'he ««., of
fulness, according to the promise <fl -
when we are buried wt. It Christ
tism. JMMMgg
3 Their faith and works, as far
I’u l gone, were not enonj-h m ilieiusß
save; not until the sea had been.. ''
were they saved from the Eirvptians.
alone will not save ns, but faith, repenWdU
and bapti-in are for the rem —of
are past. b
. . . Elder Lansing Burrows, <of I.exitH
ton. Ky., went into bit garden,.and saw thaffl;
a tender plant had been saved Ay bis coolfl
turning a slop bucket over it He
to his study and read “Dr.” Kalloob’s severe
abuse of the mission work among the
Chinese in California by Dr. Hartwell, and
he was greatly encouraged. The mission
had the slop -bucket turned over it, and he
thinks that it will now live and grow.
—Biblical Recorder.
Cheap Fame—The two most intemperate
denunciations of the Revised New Testament
we have yet seen came from the fierce Pres
byterian minister of the Brooklyn Taber
nacle, and a minister of our own denomin
ation in a sermon, preached before Colby
University. But neither of these ferocious
critics quite come up to the English critic of
1611, who said of what is now the common
ly received version, he “would rather be tom
in pieces by wild horses than impose such a
version upon the poor churches of England.”
It is just possible that 270 years from now
some journalist may quote the two ministers
above referred to in away to make their not
oriety less conspicuous than is that of the
man who talked at such a rate ia 1611.
Examiner and Chronicle.
—Barnesville Gazette: Rev. Levi
McLeod, who has been in the Theologi
cal Seminary at Louisville, Ky., for
some time preached at the Baptist
church last Wednesday evening. He
left Pike several years since an orphan
boy and went to Texas. There he
worked and economized until he has
accumulated enough money to carry
him through the Theological Semi
nary at Louisville. He has been sev
eral days in the county visiting friends
and relatives.
—LaGrange Reporter : The vener
able and revered Dr. J. H. DeVotie,
though nearly three score, still prose
cutes his great work, as Secretary of
the Baptist State Mission Board, with
wonderful success. He was present
during the session of the Convention.
Rev. T. C. Boykin, who attended
the Sunday School Convention, is one
of the most energetic and a successful
workers in the State.
—Sandersville Mercury: A protract
ed meeting has been held the past week
at Sisters church and is still continued,
a considerable feeling has been discer
nable during the meeting, several have
been added to the church. Last Sab
bath evening one of us was present;
we were made happy to observe so
much interest on the part of the young,
and rejoiced to see one of our old citi
zens join the church.
—Hamilton Journal: Rev. 8. T. Ful
ler returned home last week from
Thomaston, where in connection with
Rev. R. J. Willingham of Talbotton he
has been conducting a religious revi
val. Much good resulted from the
services and there were many acces
sions to the church. He.left Saturday
morning for Talbotton where he will
assist Mr. Willingham jp conducting a
protracted meeting.
