Newspaper Page Text
SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST, Z THE CHRISTIAN HERALD,
of Alabama. . • of Tennessee.
ESTABLISHED I 811.
Table of Contents.
First Page—Alabama Department: Yielding
to the Passions; A Test of Patriotism ;
Blessings worth Seeking; The Religious
Press.
Second Page—Correspondence: Monthly
Olive Branch ; From the Indian Territory ;
Inter-Communion Among Baptist- ; Rem
iniscences of Mercer; Missionary Depart
ment.
Third Page—Children’s Corner: Bible Ex*
ploratioi s; Enigmas; Correspondence.
The Sunday-school: The Tabernacle-
Lesson for October 9ih.
Fourth Psge—Editorials: Wasted; A Bap
tist Hero; The New President; The Au
topsy ; Glimpses and Hints; Georgia Bp*
tist News.
Fifth Page—Secular Editorials: The South
in Literature; President Arthur; Notes;
Literary Notes and Comments; Georgia
News.
Sixth Page—The Household : Poetry ; Clean
Money; Vicissitude; Things to be Re
membered ; Obituaries.
Seventh Page—The Farmer’s Index : A Se
rious Question ; The Exposition ; Some
Curiosities in Southwest Georgia.
Eighth Page—Florida Department: Facts
and Fancies ;An Imposter; Correspond
ence ; Ministers’ and Deacons’ Meetings;
Beautiful Illustration.
Alabama Department.
HTr SAMUEL HENDERSON.
YIELDING TO THE PASSIONS.
Passionate and hasty actions as well
as words often entail upon persons
consequences the most direful. Every
body, perhaps, has heard of the maxim
of Mr. Jefferson : “If you are angry,
count ten before you speak ; if very
angry, count a hundred.” And a wiser
statesman than Jefferson has said,
“Keep thy heart with all diligence, for
out of it are the issues of life.” So
long as the unguarded word is unspok
en, 11. is yours; so long as the hasty act
is undone, you are master of it; but
when the word is spoken, or the act
done, they each pass beyond your
guardianship to do their mischief.
They go forth to swell that current of
evil that poisons the life blood of soci
ety, and to provoke that recoil upon
the party which may cast a shadow
upon the whole of his after life. How
often do men, under the excitement of
a moment, say and do things which
they would give the whole world if they
could recall in a few moments—things
which either remand them to a life of
repentance, or harden and send them
forth upon a career of crime I
Words are hurled as well as arrows,
and often wound more deeply ; and a
dagger or bullet is the response from the
party in whose bosom the missile from
the tongue rankles. So that the first
transgressor pays the penalty with his
life, and the second transgressor car
ries upon his conscience the blood of
his murdered victim. “He did not
think,” is the universal excuse we make
for each other when anger rules the
hour, and dictates our conduct! How
many illustrations can we each recall
of the mournful truth of what we have
written? Happiness destroyed, exist
ence embittered, character wrecked,
prospects blighted, and the future sur
charged with “fiery indignation and
wrath.” And all this might have been
averted by five minutes of sober reflec
tion!
How thoughtless and criminal to
place in jeopardy, and perhaps, take
human life for a consideration not
greater than a guinea! And this on
the pretext of defending our rights!
We know it requires some patience to
bear the slanders of an envenomed
tongue. We know it is not a little an
noying to be depredated on by petty
thieving. But what are the slanders
of the envious—what the value of a
hog or a sack of corn—weighed
against human life? Had we not bet
ter a thousand times endure the vitu
peration of the slanderer, or the loss of
the most valuable piece of our proper
ty, than to send a wretched sinner un
prepared into the presence of his God?
Had we not infinitely better live down
a slander, or make back the little
loss of a thief, than to carry the blood
of the sjul and body of a fellow man
upon our conscience the balance of
our lives? We can restore our own
losses of whatever kind ; but if we stain
our hands in the blood of the most
abandonedly wicked,we take that which
we never can restore, and which God
only can give.
A circumstance occurred some
forty or fifty years ago, in what State
we shall not indicate, illustrative
of these views, of which we have
often thought. A worthy minister of
the gospel, one who stood as fair as
any man in the country, had a ven
fine horse stolen. He followed the
thief, and came up with him and or
dered him to stop. The guitly man
put spurs to the horse and galloped
off as fast as he could. The pursuer
followed, drew his gun and fired at the
man—the ball tdok fatal effect, and
the poor wretch fell dead. Everybody
commended the deed but himself. He
never recovered from the shock it gave
his conscience, for he resigned all his
churches, and never thereafter attempt
ed topreach, at least as a pastor. In
his old age he would occasionally con
duct public services in the absence of
any other minister. While he retain
ed the confidence of all who knew him
to his dying day, he never was the
same man after the unfortunate occur
rence.
Perhaps the laws of God, and cer
tainly the laws of the country, justify
a man in taking the life of another
when his own life is imperilled as the
last resort of self-defence. But cer
tainly nothing short of this can be de
fended upon any principle of jurispru
dence or morality—human or divine.
Our passions are very good servants,
but the most terrible masters to which
we can be enslaved. He who subdues
them, and keeps them under wise con
trol, as Solomon expresses it, “is great
er than he that taketh a city,” because
he has subjugated the worst enemy he
has in the universe—hwisel/.
A TEST OF PATRIOTISM.
Perhaps nothing could have occur
red in these days that could so effect
ually have called out the patriotism of
all sections of the United States as the
attempted assassination of our chief
executive, President Garfield. It
proves what is not a little flattering to
the character of our whole people,that,
underlying all our politfcal and sec
tional animosities, there is a current of
affection for our Union sufficient to
override and hold in abeyance every
consideration that threatens its integ
rity, or impairs its efficiency. Most
especially has it furnished the oppor
tunity ~to the Southern people to ex
press what they have long felt, and
what many of the Northern people
have been slow to accord to them, an
honest, deep, abiding attachment to
the Union of our fathers. The mo
ment General Garfield was declared
elected to the chief office of the govern
ment, he became the President of the
whole Union, as much so as if he had
received every vote cast at the elec
tion. And when the news of his at
tempted murder reached us, the whole
Southern people felt the indignity just
as keenly as if it had been the man
whom they preferred by their votes,
General Hancock, instead of General
Garfield. For one, we can say this has
been and is our feeling, nor have we
conversed with a man since the ter
rible occurrence but who expresses the
like feeling. He is our President, as
much so as if he had been placed
where he is by every Southern vote,
He embodies for the time being the
conceptions of our whole people, North
and South, East and West, of what a
republican government ought to be.
We forget the man in the office he fills,
the private citizen in the public offi
cial. When he took the oath of office,
he stepped into a position on which
was concentrated the patriotic sympa
thies and good-will of every loyal
American citizen; so that any indig
nity offered to him is an indignity
offered to our whole people. Perhaps
there is not a worshipping assembly in
all the Southern States in which earn
est and persistent prayers have not
been offered up to the “Preserver of
men” for his recovery. And should
God spare his life, from no section of
this Union will there go up a more
general and grateful thankoffering
than from these Southern States, all
suspicions of oun<;Bincerity to the con
trary notwithstanding. We may be
the “little Benjamin” among the tribes,
but we will be “there” to join in the
general orisions to the God of our
fathers for his mercy to us as a people.
Just enough of the inner and domes
tic life of the President has transpired
to impart a generous warmth to the
affectionate sympathies his condition
has awakened. An aged mother that
dotes on him with all the tenderness of
her last born—a wife, who, while she
betrays nothing more of kindly atten
tion to him than is common on such
occasion, has borne herself with a
dignity suitable to her position, thus
combining affectionate concern with
ALANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1881.
true heroism —children who han a
around him with filial love—all con
tribute to arouse a deeper popular
sympathy than ever stirred the na
tional heart. It is true there are
thousands of families in our country
no less distinguished in all these res
pects, but then to see all these domes
tic and social virtues so beautifully
illustrated in the household of what
we are accustomed to call “the first
citizen of the United States,” is not
only a matter of pride to our people,
but it endears his family to every in
genuous heart. It brings him and his
stricken ones within that Christian
circle, (for he has a Christian family,)
where we can all “weep with those
that weep” as well as “rejoice with
them that do rejoice.”
[This article has been unexpectedly
delayed, but we give it for the thought’s
sake.]
BLESSINGS WORTH SEEKING.
Blessed is the man that has no
“axes to grind,” for he will never be
called on to turn the grindstone for
others.
Blessed is the man that never over
crops himself, for he will always have ;
something to sell or give to the poor.
Blessed is the man that never has
any crochets, for he will always con
sider when he is inclined to try his
head against a stump whether the
stump may not be harder than his
head.
Blessed is the man that never had “a
bee in his bonnet,” for he will escape
many a sting.
Blessed is the man that can say “yes”
and “no” at the right time, and stick to
them, for he will always have a clear
track
the man whose religious
thoughts never advance beyond tlte
limits ot God's ikottghte, foi ‘he wU! '
never make shipwreck of his faith.
Blessed is the man that attends to
his own business, for he will seldom be
perplexed with the cares of his neigh
bors, nor be crushed under the weight
of the government.
Blessed is the man that has no hob
bies, for he will never grieve over the
stupidity of a world that he cannot
convert to his views.
Blessed is the man that has a mind
of his own, for he will never squander
his time in asking everybody he meets
when and where to go to mill.
Blessed is the man that never goes
in debt, for he will never have his coat
pulled into shreds by the tugs oi his
creditors.
Blessed is the man that knows how
to hold his tongue, for he will never
have to run himself out of breath to
overtake unguarded words.
Blessed is the man that stays at
home, for he will always be a welcome
visitor at the house of his neighbors.
(Excuse the Irish bull, and take the
hint.)
Blessed is the man that always has
his plate up when it is going to rain,
for he catches the benefit of every
shower.
Blessed is the man that always fills
his seat at church, for he will never
starve his soul by an attempt to cheat
his Maker.
Blessed is the man that subscribes
and pays for the Index, for he will
sleep sweetly, and share the affections
of an intelligent and happy household.
Would it not be well, in the light of
some facts that have recently trans
pired, for the State Mission Board of
Alabama to be at least as discreet as
our Foreign Mission Board, both in ,
appointing missionaries and introdu- I
cing ministers into the State, as to
their sentiments upon so vital a point .
as the inspiration of God’s word? We
would not ostracise any man for his
mere opinions upon indifferent mat
ters. But can any man affirm that it
is a matter of indifference whether a
minister of the gospel believes the
Bible to be half human and hafl divine, 1
or as to the matter of that, one-tenth
human and nine-tenths divine, or
whether it all stands upon the basis of
inspiration? Surely it is important
for us to know whether those who
minister to our churches believe the
first article of our faith; “We believe
the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments to be the word of God, and '
the only rule of faith and practice.”
Surely it is not persecution to demand
that a man shall believe what he is '
called to defend and declare. “If
the foundations be removed, what can ■
the righteous do?”
The Religious Press.
We do not assert that there "is any con*
nection between the parsimony of
professed Christians in supporting
the gospel and the failure of the crops; but
we do say, with solemn emphasis, that no
people ever did. or ever will, make money
by withholding from the Lord's treasury.—
Christian Advocate.
Yes, a Christian who economises on
the Lord, may find that the Lord will
economise on him.
A devoted life is the most brilliant suc
cess- Not the number of biptisms; not the
numerical or financial strength of a Chris
tian church, but the hearty loyalty which
knows no danger in duty, will render
famotfs minister and church in heaven.
Just so, good brother of the Alabama
Baptist, but then there are many who
seem not to agree with you. If they
can only get up an extraordinary gush
of piety once in a year or two, it does
not matter how “dead and alive” they
may be the rest of the time. But you
are right. A steady walk with God is
the only real success; but this is an
unpopular thing to say.
The Examiner and Chronicle says
I with a good deal of pith :
There are some questions that have no
■ claim to a free discussion in the columns of
a religious journal. If an atheist sent to this
; office an article whose object was to prove
that there is no God, could he justly claim
that a refusal to publish it was an attempt
to stifle free discussion ? To consider the
arguments for and against the existence of
God forms properly a lection of theological
treatisesand apologetics, but it has no place
in a newspaper. There is a class of ques*
tions on which debate in the columns of a
journal like the Examiner is wholly out of
order. The being of God and the Deity of
Christ everybody would recognize as coming
under that head ; but it is perfectly clear to
our mind that the plenary inspiration of the
Scriptures belongs there also.
Such is also our opinion. If any
ont\ wishes to attack the inspiration of
the Scriptures, or admitting the doc
tr-ne to interpret it away to notbing
he can do so—but not through
the Index. So long as we stand guard
over it, it shall not be used as the
organ of infidelity, either incipient or
full grown. Some seem to imagine
that the “freedom of the press” means
that anybody has the right to use any
body else’s press for any purpose that
the fiist anybody pleases. This re
minds us of a little anecdote. Soon
after “freedom broke loose” a Negro
was in the habit of walking through
our garden as a “near cut” to his place
of business. The elect lady who rules
our househeld ordered him to discon
tinue these invasions. “Why” replied
he, “ain’t I free - ain’t I got a right to
go where I please?”
A Unitarian church in a pjpcecalled
Greeley, in Colorado, contains the
following elements:
Free Thinkers, Unitarians, Universal
ists, all shades of sceptics, Jews, infidel-,
and atheists. Two Jews are officers in
the church. A man, who has recently
in p 1 irate and public addresses used tie
most outrageous language in regard to
Christ, is a teacher in the Sunday-school,
using Arnold’s Light of Asia for a text
book instead of the Bible.”
Admitting that the Bible is not in
spired it is still the best of books, but
if not inspired its authoritativeness is
not greater than that of Arnold’s Light
of Asia. Those who are swinging
loose from the old land-marks of inspi
ration may see what they are coming
to, in the character of the Unitarian
church above described. The result is
a natural one and just what might
have been expected. If the book of
Daniel is a work of fiction, as is now
declared, why would it not be as proper
to take one’s text horn JEsop’s Fables
as from that book ? Is it an unthink
able thing that a so-called Baptist
church should some day hold in its
communion Free Thinkers, Unitarians,
Universalists, J'ews, infidels and
atheists? Not at all—if some doc
trines now broached are carried to their
results.
The Baptist Courier, speaking of the
way in which “cheap preachers” are
haggled for, gives us the following
account:
“The affair is managed somewhat on
this fashion : A Shylock of a deacon
puts himself into communication with
the ministers who are ‘waiting fora call.’
‘What will you preach for?” he asks.
‘A hundred dollars,’ is the reply. Too
high, and he goes to another. ‘We can
get Bro So-and-so for a hundred dollars,
what will you preach for— how little t’
‘Well, I’ll serve you for seventy-five dol
lars. Off the Shy lock goes to the third.
‘We can get Bro. So and so fora hun
dred dollars, and Bro. What’s-name for
seventy fi»e dollars; what say yous
•Well, if I am the choice of the church,
I’ll preach for you and you can fix the
salary yourselves.’ Ttiat last man gets
more votes on election day than both the
others put together, all three beingnomi
nated. At the end of the vear he gets
for his work about 62| cents a day, f<>r
the days employed and is turned off—thn
a cheaper man may be hired. The pie
lure is not too highly colored, for some
preachers and churches in the United
States. The inevitable result of this
thing is that the church dies of the ‘dry
rot,’ and the preacher, starved out, goes
to plowing or peddling sewing machines
for a living.”
Do such deacons, preachers and
churches render any valuable service
to the cause of Christ?
The Bishop of Manchester (Eng.)
speaking of the effect of ritualism in
England has recently said that:
“It engendered strife and bitterness,
and wasted energies which might be far
better employed in downright earnest
preaching and teaching about righteous
ness. While they were fighting and
disputing about vestments, and orna
ments, and chalices, and incense, the
infidels and atheists at their doors were
trying to destroy their people’s faith in
everything that spoke of God, of judg
ment, and the life beyond the grave.”
There is a strong natural tendency
to ritualism in some men’s minds, and
it is a mistake to suppose that ritual
ists are found only in those churches
known as ritualistic. They are found
everywhere. We Baptists have our
share of them. Men who think, talk,
preach and write about our “denomi
national peculiarities” and have but
little heart for anything else belong to
this order. What splendid “church
men” they wonld have made if they
had been brought up under the influ
ence of the English “Establishment!”
Yet these men pride themselves on be
ing “ thorough-going Baptists.” That
is just what they are not. A really
thorough-going Baptist lays much
more stress on the great doctrines of
grace which we hold in common with
many others than he does on our
denominational peculiarities. The
influence of ritualism is always for
evil, whether in Baptist churches or
elsewhere. It always substitutes the
husks for the corn.
The Lutheran Church has but one
organization in the South among the
colored people, with thirteen communi
cants.
Well; the Millennium will hardly
come to “the colored people” by the
Lutheran route. Are Baptists doing
all they might do, and ought to do, to
bring it in?
The Watchman says, in very nervous
but by no means extravagant style :
When a man undermines, or tries to
undermine, the confidence of the people
in the full inspiration of the Scriptures
he is doing a harm which Is so great
that to palliate it by admiration of his
learning is as foolish as to excuse a mur
derer because he has a handsome face.
No man can do the best work that is
in him without a certain amount of
kindly sympathy.
These words of the Examiner and
Chronicle ought to sink into the heart
of those church members, who cripple
their pastor by want of consideration
and co-working, and then decry him
because his efficiency is not as great
as they think it ought to be.
Rev. E. Paxton Hood, an English
Congregational minister, is quoted by
the Southern Churchman as saying, in
a recent address:
“Where could a man stand so well as
in the Church of England pulpit and say
that which he dared to think and feel
without the necessity of being challeng
ed, as soon as he got into the vestry, by some
arrogant and ignorant deacon."
Ah; those Congregationalist dea
cons! We Baptists have deacons of a
better type, have we not?
A selected article in the Hartford
Religious Herald, by Rev. Dwight
Spencer, on “Christian Hand-Shak
ing,” gives this timely and forcible
rebuke to what we are constrained to
regard as a growing evil in the churches
—even Southern and Baptist churches.
I am disgusted with the coldness and
stiflness witnessed in the house of God.
A fitting sign over many a church door
would be: “Statuary Exhibited Here.”
“Oh,” you say, “I never speak to per
sons till they have been properly intro
duced.” Why, how proper you are!
Introduced ! Isn’t the fact that they are
in your Father’s house with you, that
you have common needs and are seeking
common favors, all the introduction
you need ? When the Apostle wrote,
“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers ”
he must have forgotten to add. “who
have been properly introduced.”
How often a line or two in tho reli
gious newspaper brings back the story
of a life, the might of atn example
fraught with faith, zeal and sacrifice,
VOL. 59.— NO. 38.
to widen the horizon of the soul, and
to displace the trivial common-places
of the hour by the grand realities o f
the kingdom of Christ! So we felt
on reading in “Letters from Heathen
Lands” by Rev. S. F. Smith, D. D., in
the Watchman, a fact learned during
his visit to the Baptist college at
Serampore, India:
Among the curiosities in the library are
Carey’s crutches whichjhe used when, in
old age, he broke his leg and required
such helps. The crutches indicate that
he was a man of humble stature, or at
any rate, that the part of him which
towered aloft was the part above his
armpits.
The New York Journal of Education,
a secular paper, says some things
which, whether they contain the exact
truth or not, are worthy of serious con
sideration. The young may be too
thoughtless to ponder them, and too
inexperienced to decide rightly with
regard to them ; but parents are older
and should be wiser, and we ask their
attention to the matter.
Alcohol is the spirit of beverages. So
sex is the spirit of the dance; take it
away and let the sexes dance separately
and dancing would go out of fashion
very soon. Parlor dancing is dangerous.
Tippling leads to drunkenness, and
parlor dancing leads to ungodly balls.
Tippling and parlor dancing sow to the
wind, and both reap the whirlwind. Put
dancing in the crucible, apply the acids,
weigh it, and the verdict of reason, mor
ality and religion is, '‘Weighed in the
balince and found wanting.
The Richmond Christian Advocate
frankly confesses that his denomina
tion has heretofore gotten too far away
from the doctrine of the final perse
verance—or, to use a better phrase, the
final preservation—of the saints :
The Methodists, in the sharp contest
against Antinomianism, in the earlier
years, threw up ramparts beyond the
line of the true doctrine. We have been
too silent on those great and gracious
promises that aseure Christians that the
devil cannot pluck them out of the hand
of their Saviour. We fail to stress the
security vouchsafed to the “elect” by the
vigilance and power of God.
The Advocate states what approach
he thinks may be made to this doctrine
—evincing healthy progress in the
right direction, and justifying the hope
that he may yet come into the full
truth on this subject:
A man once soundly converted, and
who prays against avarice and envy, the
sins of this generation, will rarely miss
heaven.
The Arkansas Evangel “makes a
point” against infidelity, out of it® fail’-
ll re to open the purses of its adherents
for the prosecution of its work and the
perpetuity of its influence:
It required fifty years of “incessant
toil and struggle” to erect the Paine
Memorial Hall in Boston; and it is an
ordinary building, and is the work of all
the infidel sympathizers in the United
States. What a small affair is this I In
that length of time the Christians of this
country have sent their missionaries
around the world and erected thousands
of temples dedicated to the honor and
service of God. But the Paine Mem
orial Hall could not pay its taxes, and
some three years ago was sold under the
hammer for debt.
We could wish that every Baptist
was in a condition to make consistent
uie of just such an argument. But
how can this be done by anyone whose
zeal for God and love for souls have
not opened h’s purse to regular giving
for the maintenance of the gospel and
the evangelization of the world? Is
not Christianity in his case as power
less as infidelity, when tried by this
test? Is it quite certain that hit
Christianity is the genuine article?
Rev. 0. Cr Pope, D. D. of Texas has
just secured four thousand dollars from
the Baptist Home Mission Society of
New York for the prosecution of mis
sion work on the border of Mexico.
This motley will be disimbursed untl r~-
the direction of the Baptist Missi it
Board of Texas. Dr. Pope, in his ap
plication was endorsed by the Texas
Baptist Convention. e
Rev. Edward Judson, son of the re
nowned missionary Judson, is spending
the summer vacation writing a biogra
phy of his father. It will contain sev
eral letters hitherto unpublished, and
other matter helpful in the study of
the life of that great and good man.
—The Minutes of the Alabama Baptist
Convention contain no list of onr minister*
in the State, with their post-offices This i*
about a generation btlind the tin ee. Some
body on the other side of the Chattahoochee
must be "sleeping out loud ’’
