Newspapers / The Biblical Recorder (Raleigh, … / Sept. 28, 1892, edition 1 / Page 1
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THB 0MAN ms 'NORTff CAROLINA BAPTIBTB-BEYOTED TO BIBLE MEZI&lOff, EpUCATIOff,LtTEMTURB'AWD QENERAL XEfTELLlQEJSfCE, 4 Volume ,8 ;Vx?l. -raleigh; n.: a, Wednesday, September, 28,11892, ::V-A Number u. THeBiBlical -Recorder" PUBLISHED , EVERY WEDNESDAY. T. t " OFFICE! ' US (up stairs) Fayetteville Btreet, Raleigh, N. C. TXRMS 08tTB8CMPTI0irr r '! Oji isopyi oni year.. '. -. .' . . . . '. .1 8.00 One copy, six months 1.00 Clubs of ten (copy extra to sender) v . 80.00 - Anonymous communications will always find their way to the waste basket. No exceptions. - f n lAndinar letters of business, it la absolutely ftec- ssary that you giro your postofllee address In full I The date on we woe oi your paper indicates when your subscription expires, and also serres as a receipt for your money. ;-;-: ?w r:.7X;-m ft. n '- Obituaries, sixty words Ion?, are inserted free of charge. - When , they , exceed this length one .cent for each word must be paid in advance. ,s f When writing to have your paper changed, please gtate the postofllee at which you receive the paper, at well as the one to which you wish it changed. . i' Remittances must be sent by Registered Letter, fjrtofllee Order, Postal Note, Express or Draft, payable to the order of the Publisher. . Do not send itampi. ' ! 1 - . f 1 Talks About Law. No. 8. BY JUDGE R. W. WINSTON. DIVORCE LAWS. I With one consent, historians agree that Alfred was the wisest, bst and greatest of English kings. His title to this distinction rests in a large measure apon a "most great and necessary work" which he executed in s masterly manner. "He rednced the whole kingdom under one regular and - gradual subordination of government" That mas terpiece of judicial polity, the subdivision, of England into tithings and hundreds, if not into counties, had its birth In his brain. ' He recognized the fact, which CharacUr ized the patriarchal days, that the family is. a unit of which the father is the head that the sum total of these units is the State; and finally, that the, purity and goodness of the State exactly equals the purity- and good; ness of its component parts. ; 1 v .These principles ate simple, but they are basal. Alas I how much wiser we have grown than were our parents I 'iw;'tbc -- A bird's-eye view" of our American laws on the subject of divorce will disclose the fact that the family fireside, in many State of the Union, possesses not the charm ai d beauty and purity that once jsanctified it v.. Before proceeding, it is proper to state that good old North Carolina, conservative in all things, is also slow and conservative in wrong doin g. She practically holds to the New Testament rule and will not grant a divorce, unless the marriage vow is broken. In South Carolina when a man and Woman are joined together, they cannot he torn asunder. . .' - We all know that' a statute of' a State is simply the enactment of the will of a ma jority of the people of that State into law. So that a statute ia what the people think and wish. What must he the ttate of soci ety of Dakota, where a husbandmay get a divorce if his wife slanders Mm, or is cruel to him t Or In Pennsylvania eveU, where desertion and cruelty entitle one to :: a di vorce ? Or specially in Utah, where the frail marriage tie is unloosed, 44 whenever it is made to appear that the parties cannot live in peace and union." " . .. , ' We in North Carolina are made to feel the evil of these immoral laws. : For ;ufuU faith and credit" must be given to the Judgments of 'courts of other States.,. ; . f - ? Sometimes it will hannen that a man. di vorced by the laws of. Utah or Dakota, wi5l marry again, rerbaps he was a resident oi New York before going to Utah, and per haps he did not serve an actual notice of his suit upon his New York wife. Such a di vorce would not be good in New York, and perhaps in some other States,??:'"'.: . If he and his new. wife set out on a bridal ! tour, in some States, as Dakotah and Utah, . they would be married, but in other. States, as New York of South Carolina, they would not be married 1 , , , 1 ' ! Henoe an effort has been made to hava the Congress pass a uniform law regulating di vorce. I But this cannot be. because the .views of the South generally differ so much irom line views of the wortn ana yvest. The tendency. of divorce legislation is to wards evil, : rather than better things as witness the "advanced" thought bought at great price and elaborately 'spread on the pages of the The Arena, The Foiwrti and other magazines. ; There we learn that it is cruel and barbarous to com pel husband and wife to live together when love is dead, r : ' There a dozen short-haired women,, in Bloomer costumes, will cackle to their own satisfaction, and the editor will gravely de nominate their mental output 'a sympo siam'M . Col. Ingersoll, the arch-infidel, by merit 'aiaed to that bad eminence," is a leader of thought along this line, as well. To purify their thoughts and chasten their 1 style, we commend the opinion of Lord Stowel), de livered in a celebrated divorce case ; "To Tindicate the policy of the law is no neces sa ry part of the office of a j udge but if it ere, it would not be difficult to show that the Jaw, in this respect, has acted with its nsnal wisdom and humanity, with that true Wisdom,; and that real! humanity that re gards the general interests of mankind, For though in. particular cases the repugnance of the law to dissolve the obligations of mat rimonial cohabitation - may operate with great aeverity upon individuals, yet it must be carefully remembered that the, general happiness of the married life is secured by its indissolubility.: Wben ' people under stand that1 they must live together, except for very few reasons' known to the law, they learn to soften by mutual accommoda tion that yoke which they know that they cannot shako off they become good hus bands and good wives from" the necessity of remaining husbands and Wives' for necessity is a powerful master in' teaching the duties which, it Imposes. A' If it were once under stood that upon mutual disgust lnarried per sons might bo legally separated, many cou pies who how pass through the world with mutual comfort,- with attention to their common offspring and to the moral order of civil society, might . have been at this mo ment living in a state of mutual unklndness, in a state of estrangement from their com mon offspring, and in a state of the most licentious and unreserved JimmOrality, ; In tbis case, as in many Others, thef happiness of some individuals must be sacrificed to the greater and more general good." & i s Indeedgte have often wished that all men and women, who are " advanced thinkers," might come together in one place. They think that man Is a machine, that can of it self attain perfection, and that if you will put away all temptation he will attain unto it. Of course, they woulij abolish God the first thing ; then women would vote ; then when love died between man and wife, a pair of couples would swap around; whiskey and opium would be dumped into the sea (a good thing perhaps); then everybody should e educated ; and then why then, man is perfect 1 1 :, ; " ' ' .' ' " There are more things in heaven and earth, Ho- "(J ratio,- 'a'. k '(.:. tt e?4jli, .!(' : ; Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.'' A dwarf on a giant's shoulder sees far ther of the two,". was not said of morals. Honest, conservative, God-fearing North Carolina, and States sister to her in simplic ity; the dy ' may not be remote when you shall be called upon to stay the tide of infi delity,: licentiousness and lawlessness that are corrupting the life of some of your rich, self-sufficient and godless sisters. ' -. .. Truth-Given Treedom. '.' SaMOM:BTrviivvJ.-',M.! whtw wiSoN7Nrcl7 - . gtnxMBER 18; 1892. '- ' Tex W Ye shall know the truth, and the truth thall make you ftee." . - r . . , When ' pride and conscious guilt 6hake hands they seal their friendship with a lie Here on this occasion in the temple, under the burning words ' of Christ, con- . - : 1 . I 4. 1 1 1 t .1. . scious gum uas smiiivu iuw uenria ui iuo Jews, and. they have summoned . pride to AflSA tbflm. Th rpsnlt ia a flaring, imnu- dent lie, thrown right into the teeth of vuxisr. ' Vurist una iuii unciuu iuo wuxus of the text. 44 Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."; They an- ST i swereanim, "vveoe Anranams seea, ana Were never in bondage to any man." This wnn nlfllnlv a lio. ana thv vera bound to know that Christ knew it. ; But they stoop to H just ice same m.oraer to interrupt mm And turn the cnrrent of his nreachinir into a channeVmore comfortable, to themselves.' A mean low, "dishonest subterfuge. Will any one suppose that thev had forgotten the long years of Egypt and Pharaoh f Or the time of the Judges when they were in fre quent bondage to the neighboring nations, nr th MVAntv vrarii in Babvlon. or their present bondage to the hateful rule of the KomansT And yet to confuse ana abstract Christ they have the colossal impudence to say; We were never in bondage.'' ; ' i I have read here to you these very words which Christ uttered to 5 the ; Jews, Ye shall) know the truth, and the truth shall ninkn von rpfl " words throbbincr with the same power that filled them on that day, nearly nineteen nunureu vwars agu., Atw tiiT nnn nrflsent who haa heard them as I read been dishonest enough with himself to take refuge in tne trumpea-up renecuon, am not in bondage to anybody; I ftm as free a T want in hft 'T If therA is. I charge such an " one to consider carefullv what he is, what his 'character is, what his habits are, xeha.t thft tondAneiea of his nature are. and if after a conscientious scrutiny of himself ne can nonesuy pronounce nimswi Irte 1U every respect that a man oughtto be, I am ready to acquit him of any intentional sub terfuge. ; . . ) ; . This is an important utterance: " xe snaii know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.' We are not to understand it a a declarative sentence, it , is an impnea condition. ; The force of the in the pre oAdinc verse ia conveved bv attraction to that which follow. Christ hover meant to force the truth of a VnWlflilcrA of tbfl trnth on anvman.' It is said somewhat in the same sense employed by the pnysician as ne nanas a douio ' oi medicine to a patient with the injunction, You shall take this now and it will cure you." the condition is impnea, xne pa- tient does not,unaersiana mai vno uotiur is Coming to pour it down his throat. 's-' Just so with this text, t Christ has looked npOn you, has seen the shackles of habit, the manacles Of sin on you, beholds you a slave to wicked inflncnrAo end viclona associations, and has said. rM Ye -sball know the truth, and the (ruth snail mate you iree." no mania w think that Christ fs going to force the truth into his brain and understanding, but that a knowledge of it c in come only through a desire to know it, and the application of one'Sself to its acquirement. .' . . : 1 . The word "know " is the pivotal word of the text. It is not the word that we use so lightly and frequently in our" cemmoi par lance.: 44 To know the trtith" iis to go a great ways beyond an introduction toit. We use the word very loosely.: We say we. know a man, and if asked to tell something about him, his character,' &c. we can hard ly get through a dozen' sentences. It is not knowledge. 5 The truth is that the know!-, edge which is required in this text is of a much deeper nature than that required by any of the ordinary relations of life. It em braces not merely the offices of Hbe fine1 senses, but the whole heart and nature. - It. means not only the apprehension of the truth, but an appropriation of it. It means that the whole nature is to be infused With' the truth, filled with it till there is no room for other masters.- The freedom then comes naturally. .'i ';'.:-, 'v-vV., v; Reference here is plainly not'to truth as an all embracing term, nor to a truth as an isolated fact, but to the rtA-the truth As it ; is in ChrisL f : Unmistakably the Saviour meant the true understanding of the 'pur pose of his kingdom, the complete compre hension of his mission, and the full accep tance of his gospel It was the truth towards which in concentric circles all human life must tend, as swallows circling around a chimney; It was the door of salvation-Trthe city of refuge for the escaped slave.-,- 1 ' Although all truth of .whatever nature was related to it, ia that, both came from God, yet this was the selected truth that led not only to God's presence, but to the inner fold of his heart. 4: Ye shall know the truth.". It is to be observed also that while, very properly much stress is to be laid on 'the word knowr the repetition of the word truth as the subject of the last, predicate prevents misconception of the true meaning. ; It is not the knowledge "that makes free, but the truth; not the knowledge of it, but' the thing i itself. Christ evidently, meant that there should be no mistake" here, - The exact relation which our knowledge and un derstanding of the truth, and even our ap propriation of It, bears to the result, is very plain. It la the relation' that the taking of the medicine bears to the, physiological con ditions that follow. The power of he ,efT; feci is traceable net to the taking, but to the - nature of the idrug.t-Knawledge lis power of a certain kind, but pot Ithe power of salvationf No' jnere knowledge 'of the Bible can make a man free.: The devil can quote Scripture, and it is understood that his friend Col. Ingersoll has a very accurate textual knowlege of the Bible, but who will claim that either are free f , ,' - "... . .. ' " Him the almighty power - '' 1 Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, t With hideous ruin and combustion, down , To bottomlew perdition; there to dwell h In adamantine chains and penal fire.1? .., . . ; , , And his follower who with impious arm dares to mail his blasphemous utterance with the thunder of God's word ami : truth, walks the streets of New York nq freer than his, master the slave "of a 'slave bound, manacled, shackled, and held with chains more invincible than those which held his fit prototype Prometheus to the cold rocks of Mount Caucasus, 44 The vulture at his vital . . And the links of the lame Lemuian festering in his flech." - t - - - . Few men in this land of enlightenment but have a more or less accurate knowledge of the Bible. But it cannot be urged too strongly that the truth requires a warmer resting place than cold intellectuality before it makes free. Theologians are not always, disciples. Disciples they are of a system, but not of Christ. To Christ" as one of the actors in the play they may pay a certain kind of devotion, but it is the play they worship after all To him as an abstract moral force they do some reverence; but the living Christ, the personal vital center ?of spiritual life, they do not see. . i v ; ' x The marked characteristic of Christianity is that it is not a method but it ta Christ his personality his character, v Mohammed danism is method the Koran ia the center of the system. The character of . Mahomet has but little to do with Mohammedanism, and this distinguishing feature of Christian ity is its strength.- vrv,?.;-:; .Not to knowledge,; then , are you to look, my friend, but to the truth, it is a. warmer light than the cold tdfch of intellectual be lief that reveals a saving Christ. 'It is a burning, ' yearning eye that finds the rich E earls of liberty in God's word. It is 4 eart surcharged with want and need that wears the diamonds of his truth. Study the Book of Truth not for its beauty, though beautiful it is, but for its JChrist. He is there throbbing in every word, but discern him, and hot the glass through which he is to be seen. The Bible is the mirror. See the reflection, not the mirror In that is. light In that is liberty.-A" u,4And the truth shall make you free. The truth does this : work as all . other mightily, The slavery is great, the dun geon strong, the watch alert, the freedom therefore is high woughit., It is not aesthetic, but at the same time it Is of a nature as much higher than mere manual freedom as soul is superior to hand of flesh. It is the exulta tion of all that is good in a man, the lifting up of his better nature. It is the emancipa tion of aoul. Everyman is conscious of the superiority of these higher qualities in him. j To impute to him viheir absence is to offerj the grossest possible insult such an insult as jio man ..has' the right to effer . ,1 have heard a man say very recently that .4 4 a ne gro didn't have ahy soul. J I felt like placing; my fingerto' my lips1 and saying solemnly, 4? Hush ion are invading the realm Of God with unhallowed feetNoiman has the right, to say that.-. In whatever there is hu man wind there' is human soul. No man can define it, and yet you do not doubt its existflnceilt is 'Something felt, not seen Have1 you a soul ? f; Da j. iinsult you -by ask ingf t Yet,, man, do you dare to treat God's holiest gift to yoU so impiously as to let this fif I of gifts remain in chains and slavery.' have looked at the beautiful mocking bird drooped and silent in its cagey and thought, 44 Poor bird, within that tiny breast is lock ed the richest stores of music and song," needing "only the billowy fields, the swing ing cradle of the tree top, and the expand ing' liberty; of ;i the summer air tot call it forth,? ;,Thus in your soul, brooding iu its prison bouse. of sin, there is melody divine, melody that would stir every pulse of life? If the truth' but free M. It is not necessary for you to spend any time trying to trace soul's captivity ta its commencement It is enough for you to know that it is being sunk to deeper dungeons every day of your life. ' Its slavery is progressive downwards.; I have-not said that this is the natural con dition of mani souUvj Jost the opposite The true condition of man is liberty.. The geologist sometimes find imprisoned in stone a live toad. How the toad got there is a great mystery, but it is no greater mystery than how man becomes incarcerated in sin. The geologist breaks the rock and the toad leaps out and away' i It is very plain that that was hot its true home. .X Its home is by the bubbling brookaide, ia ther waving grass OJp on the grten earth ' It is so w'th; your soul Its home is not in this dark prisoa house1 of sin.. ' Its pTace is the liberty spoken of in the text." ' '-' ' ' $' ' ' -; ' - ' JlBK FEEEDOM OF GOD'3 MOBAL. CKIVERSK. There axe yet in every man's nature some voices thaTspesk a celestial language, some Terses of a ;songi'fting by divine humanity long again the palmy days of its freedom, some emotions that, tell of & diviner nature. Dr, Parker has in his, Ecce :Dew well ex pressed this truth : "Man was cut out of the very heart of God.4 illis erectness, faculty of speech, dominion Over inferior :life, and power of reasoning upon the: future, have a atrapgeIight ok divinity lingering upon them even now. ' Man is as a fallen god upon ther. earth.tn" his Wildest talk there are accents "and snatches of expression which. must have come: from heaven. :! Bis magistracy is a blurred reprint of an ancient charter; his thinking is the dim light which struggles through an' eclipsed genius. . lie does not know himself as a fallen member of , the heavenly, hierarchy ; he gropes and flounders as though he had , lost something ; and now and again there come through his daily life gushes of tenderness and glitter ings of mind which have a deep meaning i & meaning which makes the heart sore and sad as .it vainly, tries to piece itself into wholeness and render the cipbeis into in telligible language.'?-;3v -'-'"P i;: kil Yet, whatever may have been the true state of man, we see him as he is to day im mured iu the veriest slavery of thought, nature and habit r, . s". , fn It wculdseem as he feel, as every man does,' the pulsing of a nature intended to, be free, and the longing of- a soul tawhich at least some: conception, ; of i its .possibilities now and then must come,, that when free dom was Offered he would, gladly accept it But Bin has taught him a strange perversity. As the flesh pots 'of Egypt blinded many Israelites to, the fact .that they were slaves, the pleasures of sin, have, blinded men to the real tyranny of their condition. And this unconscious slavery, this satisfied serfdom of the humau heart :1s the darkest problem with which Christianity has ' to deal. Oh, if men ;woulil. only, see, only feel their chains. , See 1 0ee f IThe it is a wide, deep dent in your character an open gash almost. The chain of habit, a lie told, a fellow wronged, a vice seeking acJtIon-rit is tearing your souL The links; are pressing deep slowly, slowly, tut surely, surely, ihey are approaching the vital part, tight ening its hold and fold like a python killing its prey. It presses on till every drop of life-blood is squeezed; out and : then the devil, his work accomplished,; drags; what his chains hold down with him to its hell of temorse-alive, but helpless forever. Men, men, be men, not slaves. Realize what is before ' you. In your reason,' you do not doubt it. In your calm thinking moments, you see it.' Is evidence of any worth! Is testimony to be heard t Hear the voices of thousands telling that a sin-Infested life is an enslaved life, and that in the freedom which the truth brings, every want is satis : fled. Hear even the voices of those who have lost hope ringing out from the dark ness of despair, crying, 44 Back ! back I Come not here 1"- ' ' ' ,v ' : 4.' And the truths shall make you free." How does the truth do this t Well, how does : the Keeley Institute at Greensboro mak6 a man free from slavery to the whis key disease! Well, you answer, 44 Tbey in ject into his system a preparation called bi chloride of gold which destroys the taste or love for - whiskey,'. In the same way the injection of the truth, destroys the love for sin. ' The love for it destroyed, its power is gone, and therefore .we are no longer slaves to it, It does it ndt only for singia sins; but all the whole realm of sin is fenced off, and labeled by our quickened consciences sin. It does even ' more than' that. ' It fol lows the natural law that twd thiegs'cannot occupy, the same space at the same time and as soon as the power of sin is driven out a new standard is set up in its place the standard of lovtf tot Christ and men. It is not a new nature iri the most accurate sense of the term, V It , is the old nature transformed the forces of the old nature turned in another direction.' ? The love that , before was given tct the devil is now given to Christ. :it is recreation outof old ma terial. , r, : ' . !' - . 1 No new slaves were made to fit the new conditions after the emancipation proclama-, tion. Old. slaves became new free ; men. And the man whom the truth makes free ought to throw into the Cnrrent.of the new life's direction all thd energy and force and bounding" buoyancy of spirit that character ized ; the old life. True religion is not lestheticism. ' True Christianity is not dys pepsia. If you were an athletic devil man,; be an athletic Christ man. ; And kep up, the training.. The truth when it commences its work of making free begins at the right place. ' It begins from the center and w rks outward. The heart as the seat of motive is the point of attack- . Systems of morality adopt a different plan of campaign. They strive for the out posts. Instead of cutting off the base of supplies they capture, or at tempt to, the pickets. ' And in this lies the cause of their failure. A captured picket line, as every old soldier knows, is very far from meaning a captured army. The truth) takes possession of that which supplies the motive. It captures the hearty possesses it for Christ, and hands and tongue and feet responding naturally to the hearts sugges tion, are, found employed in christian work. It gives a new law love. There is no such thing as liberty without law. The freest people are those with whom law is most sacredly "Observed. Our; statute books are the very .bulwarks of our civil liberty., Out side of Jaw are torches and, mobs and an archy. Law is' no restraint to the honest,, virtuous citizen- t Only rogues ; feel its re straint i The law of love enacted in the heait of man gives every freedom that the heart wants, yt supplies every condition of Uberty that ' it . can demand. '" When the heart breaks over this law of love it haa en tered not the realm of liberty, but the realm, of license. : A man who loves God bupreme lyr and his neighbor as4!rimself, may do ex actly what he pleases all thathis Uove moves him to do..' The troth in establish ing tvhis law of perfect love drives oat fear. The life, thus ' entered Walks its highway with dauntless" tread.-; The sun ihines bw fjre it, lighting up all its hedgesand forms that used to fashion, themselves into ghosts,, and robbers take angels wings as we ap proach. - Two boys seeas they walk along the road a large misshapen .object in the fence corner. One goea up to the cause of . their terror, puts his hand on it, and finds that it is only a black stump. He knows the truth, and the truth has made him free, and he pursues his course without fear. The other boy,; affrighted when he sees it, takes off hi bat and burns the wind a slave to terror, a slave to fear. - , - , , y My friend; the truth will free your life of all these hideous phantoms! of dread and , terror. ,It will teach you to Jinow them and understand them. . The freedom it brings is the freedom of peace. It-will give you rest Freedom from care is cot what you want. Care is the chastener ofiife. But the truth will pour a flood of lignt, -star Ifght, heaven lights divine light, upon your cares; duties are seen to be lovej and the responsibilities' that How weigh like millstones will become but the steadying ballast of a love .lit life. Care is a. blessing if we but see it It is worry that galls us. The truth casts out worry, kicks it down the back steps head long. : Phillips Brooks, with much truth, has, said, 44 Care is the gentle ' sunshine, waking you to the.beautiful, real world, iu the morning. Worry is the mosquito, that bites you during the night." : The world needs this liberty such liber ty as never arm of conqueror established or pen of; liberator- proclaimed. Let but the freeness of this truth-wrought liberty touch your life and the band of the love it brings stray among the route strings of its harp, and the awakened slumberer joy within you. shall rise unbidden at the music's irresisti ble strains,, shouting, 44 I'm free, I'm free." 44 Love rules his kingdom without a sword.'? It is into this kingdom that the truth calls you.; More love more love. ( Hate is hell. Love is heaven, " More love to tlice, bli CbriHt, .;...' More love to thee, .' . Hear thou the prayer I make .'fM4 On bended k"'H," : ' . j ) , ... . This is my Uuilcst plea, -' , , i ' More love to thoo, , . -. More love to thoe.n. . . "' Earth recedes and heaven spproacl The skies bend down and gather ua s .1 1 its. Vaulted bosom up to the freest tur i .. ; ever breathed. It is into such liberty cs' this that we invite you. It is for tH c-:-i-ing of thi freedom to all the eart'i V 1 j pray. ; Come this liberty. - We i . i with all our ardor. Let a s'c : : feel thy healing touch. Let receive thy freedomv thy ki ' kingdom, Christ's kihgdom t n t in heaven. -" the least impurity wur : cious stone, t! 3 rico c by the U-ast i! v.v.
The Biblical Recorder (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 28, 1892, edition 1
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