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ST THE LOWERS COUEltlUN 0 Vol. II.--Xo.M. PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY A COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS FOR THE NORTH CAROLINA CON TERENCE, M, E. CHURCH, SOUTH. RUFUS T. IIEFLIN, Editor. U 50 a Year, in idtrcc. clrrtinn From the Central Presbyterian. Prof. L. Sillimar. Ives, L. L. D. It must b admitted that the Papal Church excels all others in the adapta tion of places to her men, and ot men to her places working up and keeping in employment her whole material, so that not a fragment of it shall be lost. ccorumgly when Dr. Ives abandoned o - . . the Protestant Episcopal Church of which he was one of her honored Bish ops, it was needful that he should visit Rome and tarry there awhile not only for the confirmation of his own faith, but to give proof that his conversion was genuine ; and to submit to those tests of capacity and availability which none know how better to apply than the hiirh ecclesiastics around the throne of the Pone. There he has been graduated and found fit for rofesorship m a Catholic beminary of no great repute, in the vicinity of his native place. But as it is not expedient tHt hia light should be confined to so narrow a sphere, and as Protestant Christian Associations have their pop ular lectures, he also must evince his zeal for the faith which he has long cherished, but which he has only re cently avowed, by pursuing the same course. isiting our city on this errand, , wnetner on tne invitation oi -cne xoung Catholic Friend's Society,' or at his own suggestion, we know not, he at tracted a large audience at the Metro politan Hall on Thursday night of last week. His subject as announced in the papers, was 'Catholicity in its rela tion to Society.' In the treatment of j it, however, it was chiefly made up of j common place dicta such as, God j reigns His will is the rule of action all nations admit his supremacy. The types and shadows of the earlier revelation teach the same great truth. The first society is that of the family. The sanctions of religion are spiritual. They require obedience to God. All men are bound to yield this obedience every man should b a Christian. But there was nothing in the whole discourse to show the peculiar adapta tion of Catholicity (Romanism) to the wants of society. His reference to Daniel to the Apostles and to the early martyrs had no other than a gen eral bearing upon the subject. The ground which he occupied was all com mon, belonging to Protestants no les3 ! than Catholics, save where he intima ted that the conscience needed object ive and infallible truth to enlighten and to guide it. But herein is the difference. The Protestant has his objective truth in the word of God the only infalli ble rule of faith and practice. But the Catholic takes as h'13 guide the fallible exhibition or perversion of the word by fallible men. The Protestant receives light, through the medium of his infal lible word, and is aided in the right apprehension of it by the Spirit ac companying the word. The Catholic turns away from the word of God to the lips of the priest, and unless it can be shown that the priest is infal lible, he is exposed to the peril of being led by the blind. In pressing man's necessity for an infallible guide, Dr. Ives seems to for get that God ha3 thus favored him bv plainly that he who runs may read it. And that it is vain to search for it any where else i3 evident from the fact that j the only Church which claims to be in- fallible has never yet uecmeu wiieie. rb.s infallibility resides, whether in the Pope alone as the head of the Church, or in a general Council or in both com bined but refers the inquirer to the universal consent of the fathers a ref erence altogether impracticable, be cause none in a whole lifetime can as. certain all that the fathers have taught. And much less can they find that the sentiments of the fathers are consenta neous, on scarcely any question of im portance. In our judgment Dr. Ives touched very lightly if at all, the subject of his lecture. We heard scarcely anything of the Catholic' 3 relation to Society. It would have been pertinent if he had shown that as a system of religion it was preferable to all others in securing , obedience to uoa, ana in promoting me best interest of man. 'By their fruits ye shall know them,' was the test of discipleship which Christ himself insti tuted. In the family relation are Catholics better parents and better children than Protestants ? Are they better in their social relations ? better as neighbors and as friends better as rulersand subjects better as masters and servants better a3 citizens and patriots more peaceable and honest more faithful and conscientious more trustworthy, intelligent and virtuou3 ? Compare not merely individuals in these several relations with one another, but communities and nations ; and in what respect has the Catholic the superiority nvr thft Protestant? In seme such way as this let it be shown what more Catholics do than others to commend their religion to the world. As to the individual freedom cf which the learned Doctor spoke, is that also more fully enjoyed by the Catholic han the Protestant ? If history can be relied on, Protestants have pftea fared 3 roughly when under Catholic rule ; nor have Catholics themselves always found their yoke an easy one, especially when they have been suspected of heretical j biases. But to talk of individual free dom when there are sumptuary regu lations requiring what a man shall eat and drink and wear when he is de barred under heavy spiritual if no other penalties, from reading God's own holy word when he is required to i, r.: ...u 1 i 4.1. i. i , . . , , ' and submit, to t.hp npnnncM which lift may prescribe and when he subjects his will, his reason, his conscience to the control of his ghostly adviser all this strikes us as not within the range of that 'Liberty wherewith Christ maketh his people free and all this unfits him for rendering his individual account to God. If in the transition of Dr. Ives from the Protestant Episcopal to the j Papal Church he had really exchanged a talse for a true foundation on which , t , , , commend his new born faith with so little feeling and emphasis. But to his own Master he standeth or falleth. He is not our judge, nor we his. Still we have no hesitancy in expressing the opinion, that he was doing far more for Roman ism while he was a Protestant Bishop Romanisra as a pa iat sbould he H tQ the of Methu3abh. tnan he will ever be able to do tor lve On Friday night, the Dr. lectured on 'Sources of Protestant prejudices against Catholicity.' The title of the lecture was curious. According to the j common meaning of words, 'prejudices j is a judgment without rational grounds, j and 'catholicity' is something that is ; universal. It was rather modest, and a curious specimen ot courtesy tor a Lecturer to come into the midst of a Trnt t!iTif pfimmnnitTj nrwl in tliA vprv ,.: rv:. u ! their objections to Popery were mere irrational notions, without foundation, and that the only religion on earth that fastens itself indissolubly to a single citv, and thus stamps itself as intensely local, is yet the only one that is uni versal. But these are only matters of taste, which we will not discuss. The first source of prejudice was a reliance on wrong authority. Here the Doctor gravely informed the audience that the so-styled Reformers, got into a quarrel with the Romish Church, and had to be consistent and keep it up ; and that they robbed the Church of her funds and then became Protestants to justify this robbery ; and this was the source of that mighty uprising of half the Christian world in the 16th century! Germany, Sweden, Holland, parts of France, Switzerland, Scotland and England, all rose up and overturn ed the system of Popery, to maintain a personal quarrel of the Reformers, and enable them to pocket stolen funds! Surely the good Dr. calculated largely on the ignorance of his audience in such a theory of the widest and deepest movement in modern history. Why did he not tell us that Luther's pipe had produced the eruption f Mount Vesuvius, and the earthquake at Lis bon ? The explanation would have been just a3 satisfactory and philoso phical. He gravely informed us, that the whole world had been mistaken about point of fact, those centuries 'wne'fi reading and writing were deemed dis graceful, and fighting and robbing the mogt favorite pastimes, were rather illumina.tei periods. The mistake of worl(1 on thl3 SUDect had been dis- covered by Mr. Maitland. He found that every body had copied Robertson, and he, Mosheim, and Mosheim had garbled an extract from some saint in the middle ages, and the dozen lines thus stolen from the saint had hood winked the whole literary world for three centuries into believing that these bright ages of the Goth, Vandal, and Hun, were dark ! Did ever a dozen lines do such work before ? Surely this Protestant miracle is ahead of any thing in the Acta Sanctorum. He did not explain how it was that Mosheim, who has only been dead a century, managed to breath an estimate of the dark ages that was in existence at least two cen turies before he was born. That would nave Deen rather puzzling, and was therefore omitted. He informed us that the story of Luther's finding the Bible in the con vent library, was borrowed by D'Au bigne from Milner, and by him from some anonymous scribbler, and in face of the fact that D'Aubigne gives two references to the best authorities, one of whom (Melchoir Adam) was a cen tury before Milner. These were his proofs that Protestants relied on false authorities. The next source of prejudice was English literature, which he very justly named as such, for it must be confessed that such books as those of Barrow, J Chillingwqrth, M lton, &c, do rather sway one's mind against Popery. And than nnf reads of such things as the j Inquisition, the Sicilian vespers, the Bartholmew massacre, tve, wuiuu aie imprudently bkbbed out by English writers, and ten4 to excite some preju dice. And then worst of all, there is an English book, called the Bible, that does desperately prejudice the mind in that direction, when it is freely read, as it unfortunately is, in Protestant coun tries. The Dr. complained bitterly that Roman Catholic books and papers could not be found on Protestant cen tre tables and in reading rooms, but forgot to tell us how many Protestant books and papers were found in Papal families and countries. He gravely informed us that four-fifths of the intel lect and learning of the world was Ro man Catholic, but forgot to tell us how this four-fifths had been unable to counteract the power of the one-fifth in hoodwinking the world on all points of literature and history. Surely this one fifth must have had a most mirac ulous potency to create modern litera ture and history so that the world think that the middle ages were rather dark, and the Bartholomew and kindred scenes rather red. This is another Pro testant miracle hard to be understood. Anothftr source was superficial obser vation. He assured us that the common notion that the Italians were not a re markably moral or religieus people, was all a mistake, the beggars, brigands, &c, to the contrary notwithstanding. Here the good Dr. gave us some gos sipping stories about exploits that ho had performed in Rome, making some impartial gentlemen believe that pray ing to the Virgin Mary was not idolatry as it seemed to be, but only a peculiar way of exhibiting the Incarnation. We thought it very peculiar indeed, and were it not rather irreverent to say so, we would pronounce these narratives about as precious a piece of twaddle, as we have heard for many a day. But that might be called prejudice, and hence, we will only think so. The last source was intentional mis representation. It is true the good Dr. in the kindness of his heart, admitted that we were not all so naughty, as to fib it knowingly, but he grieved to be compelled to say that it was done. For instance, after Mr. Maitland had denied the story about Luther and the Bible, D'Aubigne published another edition in which he still retained the aforesaid story. 1 le on you ! D Aubigne ? how can can you be so obstinate ? You are like the man who did not know when he was whipped, but fought on, until his antagonist retired in disgust from a man so ignorant as not to know when to cry 'enough.' Such was the good Dr's. lecture, as it struck our prjudiced Protestant ears, and we must be pardoned if we have spoken of it in a tone less serious than the Dr's. in uttering it, for it really struck us so that we could not help thinking just as we have spoken. We have no reason to doubt the sincerity of his conversion to Popery, but really if he cannot furnish stronger stuff to explain that conversion than he gave in these lectures, we must say that he was sat isfied with milk for babes, and that rather thin and watery. From the Texas Christian Advocate. Baptism of Christ. Mr. Editor: If you please, I will give you the substance of a conversa tion that I heard in Texas, between a Methodist and a Baptist preacher, on the baptism of Christ, which commen ced thus : M. Who baptized Christ ? B. John the Baptist. tize'hinT? ""nn,!1 did he bap- B. For an example for us to fol low. M. Give us the proof of that, if you please. B. I do not know that I can give you any thing from the Bible that is positive, M. I thought not. Speaking rev erently, it would have been a very bad example, for many men are dead and damned before they are thirty years of age ; and Christ was about thirty years of age before he was baptized. Have you no other reason to assign why he wa3 baptized ? B. I think he was baptized with the Christian baptism. M. Give me proof of that, if you can. B. I have no positive proof from the Bible, but I have always under stood that to be the object of his bap tism. M. I have a few objections to that. B. Give them to us, if you please. M. It was too early by three years or more. The Christian baptism was not instituted till after the resurrection of Christ, and his baptism took place before he began to preach (Mat. 28, 19). My second objection is, to be baptized unto the Christian baptism, he must have been baptized in his own name, as a believer upon and a follow er of himself, all of which would have been absurd. (See Mat. 28, 18). More over, John had no such authority. B. Tell us then what you think, as you seem to be dissatisfied with any reason I can give you. M. Cheerfully. I think he was baptized to enter upon his priestly of fice, and 1 will give you my reasons. (Matt, iii, 13,17.) Here Christ is rep resented as coming to John to be bap tized of him, but John, supposing he wished to be baptized like other people, 'unto repentance,' and knowing he had nothing to repent of, forbade him, say ing. 'I have need to be baDtized of thee.' Christ here explained the case I so that John fully understood it. Then he baptized him or give hba his priestly washing. The prints were chosen from thirty years of ag3 up to fifty. Christ's was a speedy work, and he hastened to perform it as soon as the law would permit- B. I have an objection. The law limited the priest's office to the tribe of Levi. Christ was not of that tribe. M. You should recollect that tfce tribe of Levi was taken instead of the first born, (see Num. iii, 12, 13, 8, 14, 19), and when the darker dispensation was about to yield to the light of the Gospel, it was perfectly reasonable that God should change the priesthood, or cause it to revert back to its original channel, and also the law regulating that office. To prove that this wa3 done, the Apostle to the Gentiles says, 'for the priesthood being changed,there was made, of necessity, a change of the law. for he of whom these t'.ung3 are spoken, pertaineth to another t. lue, of which no man gave attendant at the altar ; for it is evident that o r Lord sprang out of Judah, of vC-. -"7 Moses spake nothing "concerning priesthood.' (Heb. vii, 13, 14.) Paul perfectly ex plains the difficulty, and to avoid collis ion with the Jewish authorities, God provided a special agent, invested with every legal requirement, to administer the ceremony to his Son, Jesus Christ, who is our great High Priest. B. That looks reasonable. M. If this be so, it follows then, that Christ was baptized by sprinkling. See the method of consecrating of the priests : 'Thou shalt vvash them with water and anoint them with oil.' Ho ly oil representing the Holy Ghost. The method of washing is, thou shalt sprinkle water of purifying upon them see Num. 8 and 7, and then tarn to the 19th chapter of the same book, and commence at the first verso, and read to the twelfth, and you will have the recipe for making the water of Puri fying ; and though Christ was baptized in or at Joraan, he was baptized witn I the water of Purifying. After John j had given Christ lm priestly washing, and before he had time to anoint him with oil, the Holy Ghost descended and abode upon him, and a voice was heard saying, 'This is my beloved Son, hear ye him.' Paul, speaking of this in Heb. i, 8 and 9, says, 'Thy throne, 0 God, is forever and ever; because thou hast loved righteousness, and hatest iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.' What is plain er ? B. That is new to me. I never saw it in that light before. M. lie certainly meant his fellows in the priestly office. B. It looks so, indeed. M. There i3 still a little proof to the same point. Christ never preach ed, or took charge of the temple, till after he was baptized, and after his temptation, then he came to the temple and found it polluted, and said, 'My house shall be called the house of pray er, but ye have made it a den of thieves.' and he made a whip of small cords and drove them out of the temple. After it was over, they came to him and ask ed him by what authority he did those things ? Jesus, in reply, said, I also will ask you one question, and if you T7v1,..tll mo. then will I. also, tell vou Now mark you, they sked for his earthly authority. Jesus said, the bap tism of John was it from Heaven or of men ? They took this, and looked at it, and said to each other, if we shall say from Heaven, he will say why do you not believe him ? and if we say of men, the people will stone us, for they all believe John to be a prophet. lhey were driven to one ot three points: acknowledge his authority, endanger themselves, or tell a lie. They chose the latter, and returned it, saying, we cannot tell. Jesus said, Neither tell I you, by what authority I do these things. Then they left him, and he at tended to his duty as before. At ano ther time he came to the temple and stood up to read, and there was deliv ered to him a book, and when he had opened it, he found the place where it was written, 'lhe bpint 01 the Liord God is upon me, because he hath anoin ted me to preach good tidings to the meek,' &c He then closed the book, and gave it to the minister, and sat down, and the eyes of all the people were fastened on him, and he began to speak, and to say, 'This day is this Scripture tulhiled in yours ears, sc. The above seems to make it plain that Christ was baptized to enter upon his priestly office, and had nothing to do with Christian baptism, proper, as that had no existence then, and John had no authority to administer it. E. Knox. What Diotbephes bAYS. A new church building is to be located. Brethren have entten into their heads the fanantical notion, that in any such matter the majori ty should rule. But Diotrepb.es means to make clean work with all that. With an "T-turn-the-crank-of-the-universe" air, h points his index finger, announcing, "There! If vour house don't stand on that. lot. Ton won't set a dollar from' me !" . , uongregaiioncui-i. Pass on Before the Ark of the Lord. So said Joshua to the 'armed' men of Israel before the walls of Jericho. 'Pass on, compass the city ; and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the Lord.' The ark was the symbol of the covenant, and of the presence and power cf God among his people. It is now moving amid the hosts of this land; the 'armed' men of Israel must not wait to follow it, they must 'pass on before;' they must lead the way of its trium phant march. Never were they more loudiy summoned to put on 'the whole armor of God,' fall into their places, and prepare to ascend the falling walls of the enemy. The visitation of the Holy Spirit seems to be simultaneous throughout the land ; and all religious laborers should go forth, leading on the gracious movement. 1. Let us preach for it. All indirect pulpit subjects, however appropriate at other times, should temporarily give place to the present gracious interest. The pulpit should proclaim to the peo ple the 'day of visitation.' If your talent, brother preacher, is but as a ram's 1orn, still scun1. the triumphant word to the hosts ; it was at the blast of the ram s horns that the walls of Jeri cho fell, and Israel entered the city with shoutings. Preach, then, revival sermons; such, just now, are the true preaching for the times. Lead the people to expect a great victory ; bid them prepare for it ; call upon them to fall into the mighty procession and move forward. There is no dead Church that ought not easily to be roused into life during this remarkable outpouring of the Spirit. 2. Keep up good 'order of battle as far as possible. Many 'phenomena' attend times of revival. Wesley used to be puzzled by them sometimes, not knowing whether they were Divine ef fects, human weakness, or even demon iacal perversions. He resolved, at last, not to perplex himself about them, but to move on in the orderly way of the Gospel. When the walls of Jericho fell, the people shouted and rushed up over the prostrate ruins. You cannot entirely prevent the extraordinary inci dents of religious excitements. You can, however, regulate them, and espe cially preserve yourself and the people from too much concern for them. Preach for deep and sober convictions of the truth; inculcate increased private prayer ; it is from the closet that comes forth the best directing power and wis dom for revivals ; keep before the peo ple clear definitions of true personal pi ety, in its distinction from incidental excitements and temporary impulses. And then, having done all that is pru dent in these respects, be not over anx ious for what temporary human infirmi ties may occur in all great public excite ments; they must be expected in relig ious movements like the present, how ever cautiously guarded. 3. Push the battle right and left, front and rear. Do not be content with a single battery your ordinary pulpit. Go out into neighboring places, and proclaim to the morally sick, and maimed, and blind, that Jesu3 of Naz areth is passing by. Prayer-meetings and preaching-meetings ought to be opened in neglected suburbs of the city, or 'out-of-the-way places' of the country. The command is to get out into the highways and hedges, and com pel them to come in. This course will 4. To set au chk i.t v.i your brethren to tvorJc. In such relig ious seasons as the present, 'the people have a mind to work ;' but the preach er must plan for them. Prayer-meetings then should be multiplied ; exhor ters and local preachers should be kept active. To work thoroughly is one of the best means of promoting their own profit by the revival. If you would render its results secure, put it into thorough working train. 5. G-ather tocllthe trophies. Get the new converts into classes; visit them from house to house, and set all the lea ders to the same good pastoral work ; this was originally a part of their office, and should be restored evervwhere. In times ef revival, especially, the preach er ha3 too much labor to admit of the necessary pastoral visitation. The lea ders should be his substitutes to a large extent. 6. While the battle prevails keep sounding the alarm, and leading the assaults, but, a it subsides, thepreach ing should again be adapted to the times. Topics of Christian experience and conduct should be discussed. The enemy, defeated in the open field, will now work slyly ; the first difficulties of the Christian life will begin to depress or discourage the new converts. They should be made acquainted with the machinations of the foe; they should be taught the difference between religious emotion and religious principle ; be tween frames of mere feeling and states of the soul. They should, especially, be led into the 'deep things' of God ; to tranquil, steady, and entire conse cration unto him, And now, for a sea son, even more than before, is pastoral visiting necessary, or many may fall away. St. Paul found it necessary to 'warn' hi3 new converts 'from house to house, with tears.' 7. While our great aim is to make good Christians of our converts, we should try also to make them good Methodists ; not bigots of the denomi nation, but intelligent co laborers in our system. A good Christian need not be a good Methodist, but a good Metho dist will always be a good Christian. We should initiate, then, our new mem bers into all the essential peculiarities of our system; explain it often to them, and put goc.d 3Iethodist books in their hands. The latter is especially impor tant. No Church has better books of Christian experience than Methodism. If you would have sound and thorough souled Methodists, ccatter among the people the old Methodist biographies. Especially should our journals be put into the hands of new members. L'ok around your charge, brother preacher, and ask who take the best interest in all the affairs of the Church ; who are most devout and most, liberal. You will frnd, as a general thing, that they are the renders of your Church journals. Scatter, then, the pa pers. Do not suppose we are pleading now for ourselves. Our personal inter ests, as affected by the patronngo of this paper, are all secure without another addi tion to its subscription list; but wo soberly believe that immense losses are annually sustained by the Church for want of a bet ter circulation of its papers among our new irenibera; that thousands who fall away, or turn to other communions, would be sa ved to us were they kept interested iu our affairs by being kept informed of them. Take, then, men of Gol, these few words of cxhoitation. We are in the midst of a mighty bittlo; the victory is be ing shouted all over the land; let us still push forward the ombat; and plan well, that, its results shall be secured. Chrit. Ad. and Journal. From the X. 0. Christian Advocate. Scene in Trinity Church Richmond, Va Congregation seated, not very large, but respectable, and good looking enough. The pastor beinc absent, the Rev. Dr. 1 n occupied the pulpit. In the gallery, fronting the altar, two or three ladies and perhaps as many gentlemen were seated, who constituted the choir. The hymn being given out, this choir took possession of it from be ginning to end, in which all seemed to acquiesce. Indeed, it was doubtless so previously arranged, and perhaps it was a thing of long standing. A few down among the pew3 seemed to have books, but scarcely, as far as I could observe, did they open their mouths, lest they might disturb that amateur company up stairs. Not a word did they speak, not a sound did they utter. A profound silence, for the most part, pervaded the pews ; all seeming to be inspired with a solemn awe, by the ar tistic performance which was going on up there in mid air. The preacher did venture to give out, after the primitive way, the first two lines of the o-.entng hymn, but the second, he completely " caved in ;" could no longer face the music. Said he, " the choir will please sing a hymn of their own selection," and down he sat. The supposition is, that they had a sort of instinctive, or intuitive, know ledge of the tenor of the discourse which was about to be delivered, or else that the parties, before the curtain was lift ed, had met, and arranged the pro gramme among themselves. Anyhow, the choir understood the matter, selec ted the hymn, and sung it through, with skill we may grant, without being tho least disturbed by any one above, or below ; for not another being in all the world, besides themselves, knew even the, page of the hymn they were sing 1iiring tnis penurumuce, AUi. tor, if you had been there, y0u !?i',y have been filled brim-full with unmin- gled disgust. The congregation, with some exceptions of course, front and rear, righted about, and stood gazing up into their faces until the show was over. Whether this was a part of the pro gramme or not, I am not aware; any how they did it, which seemed to be taken by the performers as a very flat tering notice ; for this time, they cer tainly looked and did their best. Per haps some one up there, fancied herself a Parodi or a Sontag, bringing down the house in thunders of applause. At all events, thu3 to be gazed at with si lent wonder and seeming admiration, was a nice crum for vanity to feed on, and wa3 doubtless promptly consumed, and vigorously digested. Alas for Old Trinity ! Out with this damnifying mockery, accursed be thi3 ostentation, this fearful proclivity, to a rapid, high sounding churchliness, which is creep in into our Methodism. Come down from that ye stilted singers, and let the people sing the praises of their God. Is your praise my praise, your sacrifice my sacrifice, your worship my worship? No. I must praise God for myself, and no one else can do it for me ; and that pastor or choir, who so arranges and conducts services, as to prevent me, ought to be arranged out. I move that the Church send up strong petitions to the God of grace, beseeching him to cut off, with the sword of the Spirit, this foul branch which Rome, and " the Church," her half sister, are seeking to graft upon our cherished vine, Wesley an Methodism. B. Matrimony bv the Wholesale. The Louisville (ly.) Journal says : In the Cath olic Church at Layfayette, Ind., on East her Sunday, ten couples were married, and each of the brides were named 'Hannah.' A cock ney would call this a Hannah-mated scene. The New Birth. Rev. Dr Ting, in a recent permon in Philadelphia, illustrated lhe subject of the new birth by the- following anecdo'c : Shortly alter the celebrated SummerfieM came to this country, the young and beju tiful preacher on some public occasion met a distinguished doctor of Theology, who said to him, 'Mr. Summerfield, where were you born, sir 9' ' I was born said he, 'in Dublin and in Liverpool.' ' Ah ! how can that be! inquired tbo doctor. The boy preacher paused a moment, and answered, ' Art thou a master in Israel an 1 under standest not these things?' ar tjjt Cjjilitrrn. For the N. C. Christian Advocate. Little Lucy. We had a lovely little daughter. Her name was Lucy. She died at tho age of two years and two months. She was indeed a lovely child. She died almost suddenly, having been sick only a day. The evening before fiho died, 6he was well and quite playful; that night she was attacked by disea??, which in less than twenty-four hours, put an end to her earthly existence. Her little sister, who a few years older than herself, was going to school near home, was sent for to come and wit ness the last moments of her suffering ami dying little sister. She came strick en with grief, for it was unexpected to her, to have to part villi cne the loved so suddenly. She had a few spasms a short time before she died, but I thank God that she seemed easy and composed when the time came for the spirit to leave the body. A short tirao before she died, she opened her eyes wide, and locking in a certain direction, she seemed to smile, and I thought perhaps she saw lovely spirit.3 around her. 1 held one of her little hands in mine at the time that the spirit left the body, and said to those who stood around, that she was dead. Her mother sob bed with grief. Said I, her suffering 13 over; sue cannot come to us, but wo can go to her. She has been dead over a year, but her little sister and brothers older than herself, love to speak of the sayings and doings of little Lucy. IlEit Fatiil'!:. Love Your Parents. Children should never delay obeying their parents, because they are busily doing something which they desire to finish, llow very naugnty to Bay, ' Wait, mother; I will come directly ;' or, ' I will do it pretty soon."' This is self-will, which is entirely contrary to tho teachings of the Bible. You must honor your father and moth er, if you would livo long and be happy. Many children have been cut down and laid in an untimely grave, merely from a single act of disobedience. Wo very often see accounts of boys being drowned, particularly on the Sabbath, from going skating or fishing, contrary to the commands of their parents. Little jirls are often burned to death, or injured in some other way from the same cause. Is it not a beautiful sight to behold a well-trained family of children, all Yi'A!incr an(l anxious to render that obe itence wnicti UorBhuly book requires, n$r!nMf&mvM is parents, thev will find it much more easy to submit to the teachings of God's Holy Spirit. You may think lightly of grieving your kind parents while you have them with you ; but in all human probabili ty though the young, too, may die you may bo left an orphan. Then, when all is dark before you, a father's earnest voice, a mother's tear ful eye, seem ever present. 0 disobe dient child ! wherever you may be, re flect upon the possibility of your parents being taken away from you ! How could you bear the terrible accusation of conscience ! ' Remorse remorse would bo unavailing. Those fond be ings, who loved you more tenderly than any thing else on earth, are gone ; and, so far as we know, cannot hear the repentant tones, cr see the falling tear, of their heart-broken child. Love your parents, dear children. Rest assured you will never look back with regret upon one single sacrifice made for mother's or father's sake. S.S. Visitor. " I will be Good to day." " I will be good, dear mother," I heard a sweet child ay ; "I will be good nov watch me 1 will be good all day." She lifted up her bright young eyos, With a soft and pleasing snide ; Then a mother's kiss was on her lips, So frre and pure from guile. And when the night came, that little one, In kneelin.dowa to pray, Said, in a soft and whispering tone, Have I been good to-day V 0 many, many bittor tears 'IVould cave us. did we say, Like that dear child with earnest hearts, " i will be god to-day."
North Carolina Christian Advocate (Greensboro, N.C.)
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May 7, 1857, edition 1
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