THE ORGAN, OF THE NORTH CAROLINA BAPTISTS-DEVOTED TO BIBLE RELIGION, EDUCATION, LITERATURE AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.
Volume 66.
RALEIGH, N. C., WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY, 27, 1901.
k
Ntimbsr 34,
THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING ; LET THE
' PEOPLE BRINd IT IN. .
Hoped for, payed for, suffered for,
voted for; heralded in clarion tones by
oaf Governor and proclaimed as he en
tered bis office ; -the era of good feeling,
overdue five months and more, is not yet
to eight. This editorial is written here
in hope that something may he done to
hasten its arrival. a
The entire State seems to have been
innoculattd with' the virus of the spirit
which was endured as necessary in cam
paigns of the past, ee pecially of recent
years; but which we hoped to be immune
of after last August. Even the Supreme
Court has been the scene of slings and
Blurt, which have only too well leflected
the general state; and in very recent
weeks the pent up feeling of the Justices
have found utterance in public. We have
uo reference whatever to the impeach
ment proceedings, which are now in a
stage where no one may wisely speak.
Without going into the details, we may
point out that with such a state of affairs
in the highest region of the life of the
Commonwealth, nothing very noble may
reasonably be hoped for in the lower
plane of ordinary politics. For Justices
to fling at one another in decisions and
public speeches is as unworthy as can be;
and we make the statement without re
gard to parties, since slur and innuendo
from one side has been answered by slur
and inueado from the other, while courts
of other States have looked on with
amazement. If it were simply a matter
of denouncing a newspaper in pardon
able defense of the Court, it would not
be significant. That was merely an inci
dent of the situation. Well informed
citizans understand that the condition we
refer to is far more grave, being the in
tensification of relations that have ex
isted between the Justices fjr months,
relations utterly, unworthy of"a high
court, -relations that may not include
every one of the Justices, but in which,
it is no secret, the two leading political
parties are respectively represented. One
hesitates to fancy what an Ashe or a
Ruffin might do could he return to the
cene of those labors thatrwere so high
above politics and personalities, and see
one Justice make a thrust at ano'her in
manner just a little more restrained than
ordinary partisans use in joint debate.
Partisan rancor has indeed to a degree
moderated in the body politic; but we
can not say that the atmosphere is freer
from denunciation and abuse of the most
personal character. It is only too well
known how defenceless our citizens have
become against wanton insinuations and
even open abuse and foul charges.
We will not say more. In deprecating
so unhappy a state of affairs this paper
must beware lest it add fuel to the
flames. Our conviction ia that thiseoit
of work will injure our State sadly. Such
abuse can not be heaped up and such
hatred can not be engendered without
serious in jury not only to its authors and
the objects of their venom, but to our
good old State. It is not simply a matter
or individual safety, but of health in our
Commonwealth. Her self respect can
not survive everything. Her dignity and
her fair name may not be carelessly han
died. Rancor like this breeds the dis
tempers which dwarf States and render
their glory inglorious; dishonors citizen
BnlP, destroys brotherhood, paralyses
churches, and makes the ministry of no
avail. "
We had hoped that the little local feuds
&at have divided churches and harassed
ligious work in recent years would be
wsipatad in the light of nobler actions
the principals to the larger warfares.
Bat so far there . is no such encouragement.-
To ho sure, the abuse is not
trictly partisan, but it is none the lesa
Wtter and venomous; and the era of good
feeling, for which many a minister has
waited in fond hopes that it would rey
store peace to his congregation, scema
knoet hopelessly postponed. Bat it is
ot hopeless ' 7 .'.I.
Those -who have waited may wait no
longer.' By this ti me they ought to be able
to identify the sources of this bitterness,
and perceive with what design it is kept
up. It is no longer a political matter; it
is far from a party matter. If it were
simply this we would not fpeak. It has
come to be an affair In waich those who
love peace and dignity must say to those
who would live by hate 'and, abuse that
they must cease f 1 om their ways, or re
ceive the disapproval of men who really
love peace. Waiting may give place now
to a more active attitude. We have a
right to demand, in God's name and for
the peace of His; churches and the pro
gress of His cause, decency and the res
toration of better feel.ng and more re
spect for our State and its people. The
Era of Good Feeling will not come, we
must now realizs, until the authors of
ill-feeling are taught the error of their
way. We tbink it will be agreed that
great forbearan e has been exercised. If
the sowers of serpent' teeth will not
stop, those who respect themselves and
love their. State and her people and seek
after peace must look about them for
means to put an end to this hateful busi
ness. On one hand is buHding now a senti
ment which would make it hazardous for
a citizen to protest against bitterness and
hatred and passion, and the sad abuse of
the glorious freedom of speech and of the
press. On the other, then, must be built
a sentiment that will suffocate in its
strength and fulness the spirit of hate
and the method ol abuse, and foster self
respect, respect for one's State, and broad
and brotherly fellowship of citizens one
with another. Let us bring the Era of
Good Feeling in.
Obligation.
BY JOHN J DOUGLASS.
"I am debtor both to the Greeks and
the baibarmns; both to the wise and the
unwise." Romans 1. 14.
Saul of Tarsus had been called marvel
ously and unexpectedly into the heart of
an important ministry. His conversion
had not come of his own set king and
through the slow process of reasoning.
It had come suddenly, at midday, on the
road to Damascus. It revealed to him.
the startling truth that he was a servant,
instead f a master. This fact clesrly
outlined his future position and policy.
In the most real sense it was to be one of
servitude to the Master and to the worli-at-large.
It is eminently true, therefore,, that the
senee of obligation is the sign of spiritual
life
Ho who does not feel burning within
his heart the freneeof obligation to his
fellow man, may well question bis own
conversion. Tee unconverted man never
feels that it is his duty to minister to the
spiritual wants of others; it would be
unnatural tor him to be otherwise. Saul
of Tarsus, holding the garment of them
who stoned Stephen to his death, is a
type of man unconscious of obligation.
The Apostle Paul, willing to preach the
unsearchable riches of the gospel to Greek
and barbarian, wise and foolish, is the
hrghest type of Cnristian mmhood, be
cause we see him fully conscious of obli
gation. And then, again, obligation is not con
fined to class distinctions.
In the estimation of the apostle, Chris
tianity placed him under obligation to
the uncouth and uncultured barbarian, as
well as to the cuUured and refined Greek.
His natural leaning to the best society
was lost in the ardeat longing of his
great heart for the conversion of univer
sal humanity. If Christ could offer to
suffer and die for the barbarian and the
foolish in human life, he could afford to
live and labor for it. He who strive to
set up an aristocracy of obligation In the
kingdom of the Master, ha grossly mis
interpreted the spirit of Christianity and
the 'language of its Founder, when He
said" "Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature."
Wilson, NrC. ' t
Baptist Polity Suited to Survive. ,
Let it be remembered that our Baptist
polity Is exactly suited to survive the
fiercett . persecution. A Baptist church
is such a simple affair, that four or five
people meeting in a cellar can fulfill all
the required conditions. A pfreecution
that would destroy all great ecclesiastical
organizations, would simply tend the
Baptists into hiding places, where they
could still maintain the polity and fellow
ship. Selected.
' What Constitutes a Baptist.
BY P. 8. HENSON, D.D.
Seeing that thereare denominations,
there must needs be names' to distinguish
them, but these names, like those that
ae given to individuals, are often any
thing but descriptive of character.- Let
us hope that there is something more of
the Episcopal Church than the episcopos,
or bishop, and something more of : the
Presbyterian Church than a tpresbytery,
and something more of Methodism than
a method, and something mere of Bap
tists than a baptistery. There are a great
many things that w,e rejoicingly hold in
common with all evangelical believers.'
Gratefully do we! recognize the fact
that as the years go by, we are coming to
see more clearly eye , to eye. Many of
the things that were formerly distinctly
Baptistic have ceased to be so, because,
thanks to the persistent propagandiem of
our Baptist fathers, the principles for
which they 6tood so courageously, almost
single-handed and alone, have now been,
almost univerrally adopted by air the
churches of Christendom.
INFLUENCE OB" OUR PRINCIPLES,
Take, for instance,1 the matter of soul
liberty, the right of private judgment,
and the absolute divorcement of church
and State, Baptist have always tood
for that, aid all Protestant Christians,
at least in America, now stand for that;
but they did not always do it, as witness
the pains and penalties visited upon our
Baptist fathers by the Pilgrim fathers in
New England; and -by the Episcopalians
in Virginia. The like is true of the mat
ter of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, as
a condition precedent to church member
ship. It is indisputably true tbat in
countries where pedobaptism has univer
sally prevailed, whole communities and
nationalities have been included in the
church, and that without any pretense of
a change of heart, orjany urgent insist
ence upon its necessity. In lands where
Baptist principles hre been actively
propagated it has come-to pass that pedo
baptist churches, almost without excep
tion, have come to coincide with us in the
position that a change of heart must be
experienced before one is properly quali
fied for citizenship ia God's Kingdom on
earth or in heaven.
It is in no spirit of vainglorious boast
ing that we seem to claim the credit for
the changed front of Christendom with
respect to an if sue so fraught with far
reaching consequences. In all ages we
have held the ground which we now
hold. Sometimes we have held it against
great odds bu tnow we-might ily re j ice
that Cristians of almost all denomina
tions have come to stand beside us on it.
As to the Word of God, a long time our
position was peculiar. We contended
that it was the only and all-sufficient rule
of faith and practice. We denied the
legitimacy of the authority of popes and
priests and ecclesiastical councils, or the
bin l.ng force of the traditions of "the
fathers" properly called the fathers a3
being the progenitors of the most pesti
lent breed of heresies that ever cursed the
world.
Other denominations do for the most
part join in with w in echoing the re
formation cry: "Tite Bible, the Bible
only, the religion of Protestants," and
yet we are constrained to say that they
do not consistently and persistently ad
here to thii sound principle. ;
Their ablest and most scholarly men
have been frank enough to concede the
fact that the baptism of the early church
was nothing other than immersion, and
that there is not a trace in the New Tes
tament of the baptism of any others than
believers. And so they are obliged to
fall back upon church authority and
ecclesiastical tradition to furnish justifi-
cation for the change of an rdinance of
Christ's appointment. - -
A CLEAR DISTINCTION. . svl !
When the papal church mutilates and
perverts the ordinance of the Lord's Sup
per, giving only a wafer to. the laity and
reserving the cup for the priesthood, we,
in common with all Protestants, do sol
emnly charge that this mutilated thing
is not the Lord's Supper at all; and
when, on the other hand, our Protestant
brothers substitute sprinkling or pouring
for the beautifully symbolic ' and pro
foundly significant baptismal burial
which our Lord appointed, we cannot
but deplore this departure from f New
Testament order, and we should be lack
ing in fidelity to our Lord and in love to
our brethren if we did not lift our voice
continually against it. If there be any
one thing unequivocally clear from the
Scriptures, it is that 'the baptism which
Christ appointed is believer's baptism,
and our contention is that if infant bap
tism were universally practiced, and it
ought to be if it be right at all, then be
liever's baptism would be banished from
the earth, and therefore we protest.
Nay, more. We are assured that there
are three that bear witness on earth
the Spirit, the water, and the Blood; and
these three agree in One. The witness
or the Spirit is in the Word; of .the
water, in baptism ; of the Blood, in the
Supper. , Each of these, if rightly ust d,
contains the whole gospel. "The , Word
contains it expressly,: while the ordi
nances silently declare it in symbolic
language. In the Supper we enow the
Lord's death His body. His blood, and
our reception of Christ by faith, that He
is incorporated into tur very being. In
baptism we visibly represent His death
and r burial and resurrection, and our
death to sint and our resurrection to
walk in newness of life. These are God's
witnesses, and we have no more right to
mutilate one than another. For the in
tegrity of the Scriptures and the Inte grity
of the ordinances we Baptists have al
ways tried - to stand.-'" ;a:Tr::f40tl
As to the terms of communion, we are
not aware : that we hold aay views that
are anywise different from those which
prevail in most pedobaptist eimrches.
We simply maintain that the regular,
natural, scriptural order is, first, faith;
secondly, a profession of that faith in
baptism, and the presentation of one's
self at the table of the Lord. ?
THE RELATION OF THE ORDINANCES ! .
Baptism- is a symbolic representation
of the beginning of the new life, and is
therefore properly administered but once.'
The Supper is a symbolic representation
of the sustenance of the new life after it
has been begun, and Is therefore fre
quently repeated. It Is palpably appa
rent that the ordinance that symbolizes
the birth" should, have precedence of the
ordinance that symbolizes sustenance,
and this was the order in the New Testa
ment church. In this view we are quite"
at one with the great' majority of pedo
baptist churches. Both they and we are
thoroughly agreed , that baptism 6hould
precede communion. The difference be
tween us lies in this; That they believe
that almost any application of water may
be accounted baptism, while we maintain
that baptism i a burhvl.only, and that
sprinkliDg is not a burial . at all. , There
is not the slightest differ nee between us
and others a to the qualifications for
com munion, but simply as to what - is
Scriptural baptism, and yet jost because
we can not honestly concede that bap
tism is anything other than a burial, with
singular unfairness and unbrotnerliness
we are perpetually charged with being
"close communionists." Let us cease to,
bandy epithets and betake ourselves to
the study of the Scriptures. We deeply
deplore the existence of denominational
divisions, and we do not believe that the
crowningtriumphfrChrBtianity
be won until our Saviour's prayer is an
swered, "That thoy all may be one; as
Thou Father art in Me, and I in Theo,
that they also may bo one in us; that the
world may believe that Thou hast sent
Me." . : r'-f-:. rz-rns..hU-y
But wo shall not come to see eye to eye
by shutting our eyes and blinking at the
truth. Not by the cowardly surrender
of honert conviction shall we ever attain
to tbe unity of the faith, and the knowl
edge of the Son of God, bu by the sur
render of prejudice and the abandonment
of reliance upon human leadership, and
a fearless and faitbfnl study of the Word
of God. The Rams Horn; Chicago, III.
Let Baptists Olve no Ground In the Fight
for the Free Schools.
I want to thank you for your editorial
in behalf of the public schools. Continue
to stand by the school. The politicians
talk and make - promises for them, but
when the Solons at Raleigh go to make
appropriations, they rather give money
to some other institution which gives
the"m a stronger pull among their fellows.
The Baptists must give no ground in this
fight, for our people are mostly affected
by the schools. t 1
There are too many appropriations by
the Legislature; too many objects or
calls for the State's money, unless there
waa more wealth in the State. Every in
stitution must, It seems, be kept on its
feet by the State's money, and they con
tinue to make . ntw objects fcr State
bounty. " . , . "t -l '
The private pension bills are takirgthe
money that ought to .go to the schools.
Many of them are doubtless without
merit. My idea of education is to edu
cate all the people as far as we are able,
and then let thote who can and have the
inclination take all the extras they; can
afford. Technical education is all right,
but it fits a man to earn money, and it is
safe for him to spend money for it. The
reform school would not be needed if the
Eublio schools were what they ought to
e. ; , E. B. MILLSAPS.
' ry" r;';"'i:;"'t':'?:'':'''
The pleasantest things in the wrld are
feasant thoughts, and the greatest art
n life is to have as many of them as pos
sible. Ex. :
On the Duty of Christian Giving.
' BY ELDER HENRY SHEETS. ' " ;
Christian giving is a subject which is
very much misunderstood. By some it
is regarded as a burden and disagreeable
Eart of Christian duty, These people
ave yet to learn that it is a blessed
privilege bestowed upon us by our Bav-.
iour, who said: - "It is more blessed to
give than to receive.'' . . ,
The Lord imposes no burdens upon His '
faithful followers, for His 'yoke is easy."
All that is required of us is, ae a means
of grace, v He could, had His wisdom so
directed, have given the gospel to the
world, through other agencies than call
ing his people to goto heathen lands and
preach Christ to tha people; but no, He
would have saved men and women go to
them, while the people at home give them
needed support. Why this? Because we
need the spiritual uplift that comes from
such sacrifice,' if 'indeed we dare call it
sacrifice. -, , ,
v God's cause can- and will go forward
without mine or without our gifts, if we
will not contribute; for His purposes can
not fail ; but can we get on and have
heaven's approbation without doing our
duty!
That the rich and well to do ought to
too often people get an idea that poor
people, and especially those who are very
poor, ought to be excused from the duty
of supporting the church and all phases
of mission work. And often there Is a
feeling . manifested : that a great favor
has been granted to those members so
excused." Who has a right to excuse
members from this duty? Where is the
Scripture exonerating any one from
Christian beneficence! Paul, speaking by
inspiration, said (I Cor. 16: 1, 2): "Now,
concerning th? collection for the saints,
as I have given order to the churches of
Galatia, even so do we. Upon tbe first
day of the week let every one of you lay
by him in store.'! In tho above he had
"given older" that every one should con
tribute.. None eeem to bo excust d.
Dr. Gill, an eminent commentator,
saysi "The persons who are to contrib
ute are every one, of every ecx, age, state
and condition, male and female, jtuig
and old; servants; andl; masters, the
meaner as well as the richerort.",
When Jesus wa 8 watching; the gifts
tha were being cast into the treasury,
He said nothing of the large amounts
given by the rich-He seemed to regard
what they, had ? done as a matter of
course; hut when the poor widow cast in
her two mites, probably all that she had
to live unon that dav. Jesus at once
mis act oz worsmp, ana commenaea ana
emphasized it by saying tbat she had
done more than all the others who cast in
large sums. If the very poorest and
she seemed to be of tbat number were
ever to be excused, this, it seems, would
have; been the time. But instead, He
showis that He was well pleased with the
greatest self-denial on the part of the
poorest of His follower?; and as if to
teach tho?e who would, through mistaken
kindness, rob the poor of the bleesednees
of Christian giving, the Holy Spirit has
recorded His approbation of ths act of
hers. We fear that many Christians and
churches are suffering spiritual dearth
because of the neglect of tbis duty. :
We can not hope for the largest meas
ures of God's blessing while making lit
tle or no sacrifice to Him. Then let all
our churches endeavor during : this first
year of the new century to secure a con
tribution from every member for our
mtaatnn vrnrb Aft Wftll fla ronpral fhiirch
exrenee, -
Lexingon, l$Q.ffi3S?ffr37:l
Put It In Your Bible.
Here is a handy table furnished by the
Christian World, which it would be well
to cutout and copy for reference in your
Bible studies: . -
- A dayjs journey was about itwenty
three and one fifth miles
A Sabbath day's journey was about an
English mile.
, A cubit was nearly 22 Inches.
A hand's breadth is equal toZ inches.
A finger's breadth is equal to about one
inch. - "
A shekel of silver was about 50 cents.
A shekel of gold was $9.
, A talent of silver was 153.30.
A talent of gold was $13,809.
A farthing was 3 cents.
A piece of silver, or a penny, was 13
cents.- '
Amite was less than a quarter cf a
cent. ,
An ephah, or bath, contained enn
gallons and five pints.
The Baptist Courier marks t
characteristic of huraan ratui .
ality with other people's r :
promptness to confess other 1
are two virtues which "r, . ,
of the human race. ' '
rr
11 r