RALEIGH, N. C, WEDNESDAY, APRIL I. 1903.
JOSIAH WILLIAM BAILEY, Editor.
THE STRUOOLE WITH SIN.'
If the people who claim that they have reached
a point of sinlessness are correct in their claims, .
they are much to he congratulated. There is
no terror in this life like the terror of sin- There
is no depression so horrible as that that comes
of knowing that one cannot resist temptation.
There is nothing so pitiful as the conflict in the
human heart as to which of two ways it will
take, the good or the evil. Nothing could be
sweeter than to feel that one has at last broken
the bonds of sin and is free. If thij writer un- ,
derstands anything at all, it is this, that sin is
the one affliction of life, that the one burden and
sorrow of the heart is sin, that the one dominant
struggle that rends the soul is the struggle with
sin.
There are disappointments, of course. Hearts'
dearest wishes are denied. Fond plans fail, and
sweet hopes are rudely broken. But these are
nothing when weighed in the balance with sin.
There is a heaviness of spirit that falls upon the
best of us now and then. Friends seem not
friends; life is not life; there is no joy in the
open fields, no peace in the far away, no satisfac
tion in one's work. But this heaviness is as a
shadow compared with the black pit of sin per
ceived in one's own soul. And death itself robs
every heart, and the grief over the still form of
a loved one, passes all power to describe. But
yet more grievous is the lot of him who knows
that he has sinned and knows that temptation
will return yet again and find some strange and
subtle response in his soul.
Sin 13 the supreme affliction. It is not only the
Toot ot bur life's sorrows; but it "is Ihe chief est of
them. It alone is so enormous as to require the
sacrifice of the Son of God.
How unworthy of man is sin. He who stands
upright must crawl in the dust He who has the
hope of good must make company of evil. He
who knows the right must dally with wrong. In
all the annals of philosophy there is no paradox
like this. We are so fair within in our better
moments, so exalted in our inmost souls, and so
dark nnd base in a moment's time. We who love
our fellows treat them with bitterness; who so de
sire honor stoop to dishonor; who so love love woo
the spirit of hate. But the more grievous burden
of the conflict is not here not even here. It is
when a man contemplates the Source of his be
ing, when he reckons with Ilim from whose bosom
he came; when a man stands as we every one
stand this hour before the all-knowing and the
Holy Judge; and worse, yet, when one stands be
fore that Judge and understands how He has
loved, how He has suffered, how He has died for
him; it i9 at such a time that the terror of the
chasm that sin has set between him and his high
er self, that the horror of the blackness of his
heart appears in indescribable proportions.
The burden would bear any one to the earth .
but for ., the hope that he has in the Sin-bearer, in
Him who taketh away the sin of the world. Had
Christ not come the race must have long ago
despaired. We who cannot find the perfected joy
of sinlessness, can find joy nevertheless in the
peace of Him who redeems us from our sins.
' But by this very mark we will strive to be sin
less. One will not sin that grace may abound.
To such a one, grace will not abound, but con
demnation. An overwhelming assurance in the
forgiveness of God is assurance of nothing so
much as that the man so assured is deeply ignor
ant of God . and himself and is under condemna
tion We will not sin because grace doth abound. . ,
But" by theTvery" f actof "rec6giiizingTtetg
we will strive the more against sin. We have a"
Sin-bearer, but His purpose is to make us holy
as well as to redeem us from the bondage of sin.
And he will arm us for the conflict. He will
strengthen us in the struggle with the Tempter.
And He will give us victory, He is one who un
derstands the conflict in every detail. He has
been through the battle. He knows us. And He
is able to keep us. Who shall separate us, then,
from Him f Remember Paul's exulting defiance
to the powers of evil. Nothing can suffice to
separate God from us. But in a moment the
least things can separate us from God. The sun
shines for every creature, and hot the greatest
mountain or the mightest storm, neither life nor
death can separate the sun from the smallest
insect. But the insect may separate itself from
the sun with a leaf. Nothing can separate God
from His child nothing but the child, who, by
a sin, in a little matter or a great one, can
stretch a chasm wide and dark and deep beyond
plummet's sounding. He is able to keep us, if
we will that He shall. Our danger is not in prin
cipalities and powers, not in life nor death, but
in ourselves. In the struggle with sin there is
no refuge save in constant closeness to Jesus
Christ. The moment one forgets His presence,
that moment his security is gone.
THE BRIQHTENINQ DAYS.
The old, old wonder of the lengthening days
Is with us once again; the winter's sun,
Slow sinking to the west when day is done,
Each eve a little longer with us stays,
And cheers the snowy landscape with his rays.
Nor do we notice what he has begun - - -
Until a month or more of days have run,
When he exclaims, "How long the light de
lays!" So let some kindly deed, however slight,
Be daily done by us,
Till we feel the night
Is less within our souls, and broader spaced
Has grown the cheerful sunshine of the heart.
WILL STEER CLEAR OP OKEFINOKEE.
The Biblical Recorder, whose editor is becom
ing more and more of a crusty old bachelor, has
the following:
"The Dallas, Texas, women who asked Mrs.
Roosevelt for a gift to sell and then refused to
accept her gift of a handkerchief because it was
not an expensive one, may be ladies, but they
evidently do not know the rules. They disgraced
the women of the South."
There is a world of injustice in this criticism.
The handkerchief was accepted, and it brought
the largest revenue of anything in the bazar. The
Dallas women, dear Bailey, are the brightest, most
considerate and queenliest of their sex. True,
some of them criticised the fabric that came
from Washington, but the entire matter was dis-"
torted ; by prurient sensation-mongers who, by
some strange abnormality, have secured positions
vas press reporters. 'After printing the foregoing
unjust and ungallant paragraph, Editor J. W.
Bailey is warned never to come nearer to Dallas
than the Okefinokee Swamp. Texas Baptist Standard.
SHALL WE BAPTISTS DO LIKEWISE?
North Carolina sends greetings to the Synods
of Iowa and -Wisconsin. Each has resolved not
to depend upon the Home Mission Board any
longer, , but to do all its own work, and Iowa is
going to raise $18,000 a year (almost up to the
North Carolina Standard) and Wisconsin is go
ing to .raise $13,000, which the Interior says is
about a, dollar a member. We are surprised to
learn that1 there are only 13,000 Presbyterians
Lin. Wisconsin,"' but .w&'suppose that .the. State. iaJ
, still more, noted for its beer, than for its Presby-r
terianism. Presbyterian Standard. '
VOLUME 68, NUMBER 39. ;
LENT. "
Is this a fast to keep - ,.
. ... The larder lean
And clean . - .
Prom fat of veals and sheep?
Is it to quit the dish
Of flesh, yet still
To fill
The platter high with fish!
Is it to f ast an hour
Or ragg'd go,
Or show
A downcast look and sour?
Not 'tis a fast to dole
Thy sheaf of wheat
And meat . . ,
Unto the hungry soul. ; J
It is to fast from strife,
From old debate
And hate
To circumcise thy life.
To show a heart grief -rent;
To starve thy sin.
Not bin . -And
that's to keep thy Lent.
' Robert Herrick.
THE CHANGED CONDITIONS.
There is a college president in North Carolina
whose tongue never fails him. v His identity
will be disclosed by a story that has recently
been told of him. Having spoken at a certain
place in his peculiarly enthusiastic strain of the
need of industrial education, a young lawyer,
none too harassed with clients, accosted him.
"Doctor, do I' understand you 'to hold " that the
one thing, the only thing, the whole thing for
North Carolina boys now is to learn trades and
practical industries?" Yes, sir. "But, doctor,
do you know how I came to go to school and be
come a lawyer ?" No. "Well, you came to this
town a few years ago and made a speech just as
you have to-day, save with even more enthusiasm.
You told us that all that North Carolina needed
was welle-ducated men, men. prepared to teach
and preach, and practice law and medicine.
You pointed to our industrial life, our farming,
and declared that our one want was men of cul
ture to lead us. And I was induced by your
eloauence to go to school, leave the farm and be
come a lawyer Now, you see, here I am, and
according to you, Fve made a mistake. We all
ought to be farmers and mechanics."
But the doctor was not daunted. "Hold on,
my dear sir, what I said a few years ago was all
right. And what I have said to-day is all right.
There is no- inconsistency. Too many of you
fellows took my advice, and now I must move
heaven and earth to get the farmers and 'me
chanics able to support you. We shall reach a
balance in a few years."
And, heaven knows, we do need men who are
cultivated, men of the highest Culture, and men
who are skilled, men who are masters of land and
machines; and happy shall be when these
qualities shall be found in each man. For there
is no reason why a farmer or an artisan should
not have the same basis of culture as the preach
er, or the lawyer or the doctor or the teacher;
nor is there reason why teacher or preacher or
lawyer should be ignorant of practical indus
tries. That is not effective education that.ac-r
quaints a man with the glow of letters only to
blind him to the light of nature.
. By the way, our, school debaters will find this
a ; suggestive , theme 1 for discussionResolved,
that '"there is more ; need in North Carolina of
Industrial Training than Higher Education. ;