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I 1 : T VOL XXXI. NO 6, THE ORGAN OF THE NORTH CAROLINA CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH. establish: d 1855 Is 7j if,1 i - 1 1 , 1 The Virginia Legislature is wrestling with local option The Rich-,-oul A-h'orafcs says: "The small statesman hangs in the air between er'h and heaven like Mahomet's cof lrather between the meeting-house and the dram-shop." A RICH FARMER NEAR SOUTH BEND, Inch, hanged himself a day or two ago because, as he said, he had too much money and did not know what to do with it. The farmers in this country are not in any danger on this line. A Boston Court has ruled that a divorce obtained in Da kota is not binding in Massachusetts. This is a wise decision, as the divorces (rranted in Massachusetts are as many as any State ought to recognize. Illi nois, Iowa and Dakota are ahead of the Bay State, and they only, in the number of divorces granted. Mrs. Bayard, wife of the Secre tary of State, Washington, D. C, died Jan. 31st. Only two weeks ago his oldest daughter died, the doctors say, of heart disease. Others say that Mss Bayard ras a victim of low-neck dres- T!- n fir Vine? f ft a mo "r-- sympathy of the nation. The last Mixed Conference" has divided on th i " color line." The Northern Methodist Conference tried the policy of mixed Conferences in the South, but one by one they have di vided oa the color line until nowFlorida has followed suit, and 'their beautiful theories have all gone to pieces. It is right hard for man to join together what God designs shall not " be mix ed." The Rev. John E. Massey, the Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, says the Richmond Advocate, preached at Broad Street Methodist Church last Sabbath. That large building was rilled, floor and gallery, with a dis tinguished audience. The Governor of Virginia (Gen. Fitzhugh Lee) and many eminent persons in political life were present. The sermon was of marked ability. TVs Qt-F.EM of England went to Westmister in much state on the 21st instant, and delivered her speech to the new Parliament in person. Her Majesty's personal attendance, and the ur.usua1 pomp and magnificence of her retinue, are regarded as an evi dence, rot only of her sympathy with the onservative government, but of her sere of the importance of the crisis at which public affairs have ar rived. Relic it jus boycotting is added to Ireland s troubles. The Roman Bish op of 0ory nas declared that any of his people who, without the proper ec clesiastical dispensation, marry non Romanists, together with those who act as wi nesses to the marriage, are, ipso facto, excommunicate, and " can not be absolved by any priest in the Diocese of Ossor), unless by the Bishop or by th ,se to whom he grants special faculties." The S;;Jsiri!ieo of a Striking Ser mon. In the Opera Nous?, at Or.'an'lo. Florida, January 10th. 1886. BY BISHOP R. K. HARGROVE. "Now thanks unto God which always causeth to triumph in Christ, and mak eth the savor of His knowledge, by us, in every rIai-1 " II Cor. ii: 14. This is a note of triumph by the Apostle, in his time and in his place, n the columns of the Lord of Hosts, ar.d it has reached us. It is the de monstration of the truth that every minister of the Gospel of Christ is a success. " Thanks be to God who al ways caused us to triumph." And hy should not a minister of Jesus 'riumph ? .lesus is the prime Agent, and He has appointed all the instru ments necessary. Every man has been elected by Jesus Chiist. He qualifies men for f ; is work. And a man who 's not fitted by Jesus Christ for it is -ot fitted at all. "Who is sufficient for these things?" It is doubtful whether any man is fitted for this ?reat wor who does not feel his in ufneiencv. Kven tr.c Apostles were not prepar ed till they were endued. No man is qualified without the power of the Holy Ghost. A new power came up r them, Why did not the manifes 'ion (at Pentecost) take the form fahand ? Hecause the p ver was rr be manifested by the tongue. (The c-oven tongue indicating variety of anguage.) A prophecy and promise of missionary work. Jesus selected jke field. He selected one to go far hence unto the Gentiles. One wanted go into As ;., and God would not let mm. I like th Methodist economy. -very man comes and places himself on the altar, and says : " Hero am J, send me." And I believe when a man does that God causes a 1 things to work together for his good. God goes with us and before us. What a blessed promise : " Lo I am with you always, even to the end of the world." It is not wonderful that such a minis try should succeed. But Paul does not mean that all will believe and be saved. O, it is a sad thought, some will reject and be lost. Those who believe will be saved, and those who reject will be destroy ed. Does He mean that every m:n ister will have a good time ? The Bishop indicated that every one would not have an easy time Brethren, let us turn over and read in Acts the sixteenth. He says it is a successful ministry. Let us study it. It was the introduction of the Gospel into Europe. Troas, the ancient Troy, the stragetic point. " We came with a straight course to Samothracia," etc. Who is this wonderful man ? Paul, a man fitted for the enterprise great er than Agamemnon or Achilles. Sure ly such a man will move with grand eur. "We were there in that city certain days." Doub less he knew the number, but he does not tel!. Can you imagine yourse f in a cily of Europe, waiting to begin ? I have im?gined when it does come it will be a grand one. We " went where pray er was want to be made' We would begin in the heart of the city. Some want to begin in a great way. He began outside (of the city). Here is one secret of the success of his min istry, those fail who begin in the center. When Asbury came to New York he found chem (the preachers) in the city. He said : I will show them the way to the country. One of the best men in Nashville came there driving an ox-cart. " Where prayer was want to be made." We can't succeed without prayer. He found the women there. Who attend your prayer-meetings ? The women thrice as many as the men. What, Paul going to begin his work with a few women ? He was not competent without the Holy j Ghost. (But he needed human help) When you get n. woino., uu vinjial!y ; sret the whole family. I remember being in a love-feast. This request was made : " Brother please give us the agency through whom you were brought to God. The first, a tall local preacher, arose, and with much emo tion) said : " My mother.'' The se cond said my mother, and the third, and fourth, and fifth. The sixth said: " I am in doubt. I don't know wheth er more my mother or my father." Yet there are some who teach doctrine taking woman out T her appropiate sphere, and put her here. (Pointing to the preacher's proper plac j, on the platform.) The Christianity of Eu rope, and the possibilities of tho fut;re, were embodied in this woman, (Lydia.) I don't know whether they h A a hotel or not, but I do know that when Lydia was converted, Paul had a home. She made Paul feel that she was the oblig ed party. " And when she was baptiz ed and her household, she besought us, saying : " If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there, and she con strained us." (Acts xvi : 15.) Some ask as if they don't want vou to go with them. I have had a man to ask me to go home with him when he knew I was going away ! There is a close connection between hospitality and Christianity. We could not hold this Conference in Orlando if it were not for hospitality. Stingy men talk ed about what we have done, when the women had carried on the work over their stingy souls ! This is the begin ning. There is enough for several sermons along here. Let us look at the next stage. (Con tinuing to read and comment.) Paul went.with the women to prayer-meeting. If you would succeed, go with the women to the prayer-meeting. Paul cast the evil spirit out of the damsel. That was the beginning of trouble. " The masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone," etc. A genuine minister of the Gospel will interfere with some lines of business. There are men in this place who, if the Gospel should have its way, would be left without employment. There would not be a saloon in twenty miles of here. Let us see ; they became very patriotic, "saying, these men, being Jew, do exceedingly trouble our city," etc. They would stir up race prejudice. Became very much interested in the city. " And the mul titude rose up together against them," etc. The multitude is often wrong. It is not good to follow the maxim : " The voice of the people is the voice of God." This is not the first time that a mob was wrong. Ther.i are men in prison who ought to be out,and men out who ought to be RALEIGH, N. C, WEDNESDAY, FEB! in. Here is a picture Paul in the inner prison ! and it is midnight! He might say, I came over to convert this country, and here am I in the prison whipped. What did Paul do, broth er? He did not growl, like you. He was no growler. Listen ! What is that that breaks upon the stillness! Song! They are singing! What! Singing ! ! You growl. Why, what is your trouble ? The privation of some single blessing. When I had my leg broken, I thought to thank God for the power to walk. If I ever get to heaven, and meet the Apostle, I will ask him what song he sang (that niht). We get into great trouble, but never to a place where wexan't sing, and pray, and praise. Whin a man gets at a place where he can do nothing else, he is on the verge of an earthquake. What was the cause of the jailer's conversion ? It was not the earthquake which converted the jailer. No, Paul manifested a spirit which broke the jailer's heart. He was about to kill himself to commit suicide a great sin. Some times the insanity of sin causes sui cide. Paul cried with a loud voice : " Do thy-elf no harm !" The signs were unfavorable, but there was a re vival before morning. Brother, you can't save anybody ; I can't save any one; but my Master can save. "Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas. And brought them out, and said : Sirs, what must I do to be saved?'' And they said: " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house." (Acts xvi; 29-31.) You may save your family. It is fearful to be damned yourself, but it is worse to cause the damnation of your family. What shape did his religion take ? Hospitality. I don't wonder that the Apostle gave thanks, as he looked back. He was willing to go to prison for the good of others. " Now thanks be to God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, etc. Send us into the darkness of mid night to see the stars. You have to go to the darkness of the dungeon to the bottom. When Paul is erowned Lydia will t-c avf r o n rl Hf 4v. Are you willing to bear the hard ship? Do we wear the epaulettes only ? We should be willing for God to send us where there will be some thing difficult for us to do for Him. God give us this spirit, then when the crowning time comes we also shall be crowned. Hand and Heart Training-. BY REV. A. G. HAYGOOD, D. D. The oldest colleges in this country were started by poor and God-fearing men. The m st useful colleps, with few exceptions, have had small beginnings. Emory College had a long, hard struggle, but it did good honest woik in the days of its deepest poverty. After all, men are. more than money in building and carrying on a Christian college. A faithful, earnest, capable, God fearing teacher, who loves young people and honors his work can almost work miracles. A teacher who does not honor his work who works only for the money it brings him degrades it ; one who does not love young people may have much learning, but he can never be a good teacher who would use a college like a demagogue, merely to advance his own ambitions, is very dangerous to the institution he would use in a way so selfish and mean. Self-seeking men have been the death of colleges. Since I knew enough on the sub ject of education to be entitled to an opinion on this subject, I hav con tended that it cannot be in and of itself an evil to any creature capable of education to any degree. This also I have conte nded : that in itself book learning,not even the highest and best, is enough. Book-learning alone may be a curse ; it is always dangerous. Many reasons for this opinion might be given ; it, is a very broad subject and cannot be fitly argued in an hour. Some reasons I will give and beg of my hearers to think them out for themselves. 1. Book-learning, if it be alone, creates wants and stirs ambitions faster than it creates ability to supply them, or that balance of character which makes knowledge a safe pos session and a real blessing. Nothing is worse in what is called education than creating wants faster than it cre ates ability to reasonably and honest ly gratify them. If going to school only makes a youth want more than he did before, it makes him poorer ; if it leads him at all to despise labor, it makes a fcol of him to him the school becomes a curse. If going to school only breeds vanity and a yearning for finer clothes than he can honestly pay for, it makes a dishonest fool of him and, as a general rule, ruins him for both worlds. This sort of education makes people very miserable. The real poor are not those who have little, but those who want much. This is bad enough in all consci ence, but such education leads to what is worse the temptation, often yielded to, to supply the wants bred of vanity, by immoral methods. A youth, boy or girl, begins to think of immoral ways of supplying wants just so soon as tbey outgrow ability to provide for them by honest work done for honest pay. There is no need for me to sup ply illustrations ; you can think of them yourselves. To make book learning good for any race there must go with it two oth er sorts of education : 1. Hand-train ing;2. Heart-training., . Tnis is not a doctrine for colored people, but for all people. Every day I rejoice that Emory College has a bchoo! of Toolcraft in which white boys are learning the use of tools in woodahd iron work. If book-learning does not increase one s earning capacity,it is a business failure; if it decreases it, it is an in jury a. well as a failure ; if it both in crease wants and decrease capacity to supply them it is simply ruin ruirr of all sorts. " As sure as we live, if there is, by education, to be any general lifting up of a people, capacity to produce must out-run mere desire to spend. If a college does nothing else it is bound to teach this that the world owes no man a living till he has earned it. But head training and hand-training together are not enough; there must be heart-training as well. Heart training is of supreme importance. There must be virture as well as knowledge and industry. Men must do right as well as know things ; they must bo good men as well as business men. The education of some people only makes them more dangerous, for it increases capacity to do evil with out securing any safe-guards to resist and repel temptation to do wrong. This day I tell you with all the emphasis I can command, found this college on the Bible and run it ac cording to the gospel of the Son of God. I To make good men the Bible is worth all the books all the languages in the world, and the gospel is the only power known to the history of the human race that really makes good men. Out of the Bible have come to us all the the blessings of our Chris tian civilization. What the Bible teachers is worth more to your people, to all people, not only for the next world, but for this world also, more than all the Greek and Latin authors caa teach, more than all the scientists and philosophers can tell. The Bible has taught your people, and ail the people in this country and in every Christian country, the best things they know. The Bible is the corner stone of every institution that is going to stand the test of time and bless the human race.'. Hear me this day, men and breth ren. put religion in your college. Not the men? name of religion, but religion itself not mere orthodox belief, but rea5, warm, soul-saving religion not the sort on'y that makes people happy, but also the sort that makes them good, the sort that makes men and women good and true in the relations of this life as well as ready for the life to come. Your college, to be what it ought to be, must have true religion in it ; a college, as truly as a church, needs to be religious. I have as much faith in the usefulness of an unchris tian church as of an unchristian col lege. A. Christless college is a curse; it breeds infidels and infidels are the enemies of man as well as of God. Keep your college close lo your church and they will help each other. The church should be its nursing mother. A Christian college, to stay Christian, must have revivals of re ligion. I mean this with all my heart. In a true Christian college young peo ple will be brought to Christ. They will he awakened, they will be sound ly converted, they will be thoroughly trained to lives of usefulness. Finally, lot me point out some of the occasions of failure in a new col lege. 1. Impatience with the day of small things and over-anxiety to grow. Bet ter go slow and surely than rapidly and rashly. It is better to teach twenty well than one hundred badly. It is better to be poor twenty or fifty years and do what you do thorounhly than to be rich in a year and work for the name and show of things. Don t give way to the ambition to surpass the old established institutions in a day. You can't do it. If you could it would be no blessing in the long run. A tree that grows twenty feet in a summer is nearly all sap. If you can't go for the long run, it were better not to start. 2. Impatience with small things 10, 18M5. and ambition to make a show will lead you before you know it head over heels into debt. Debt is bad for a man ; it is generally death to a col lege always the next thing to death. 3. Soma colleges fail by not doing their own proper work by trying to do the work done by some other col lege in very different circumstances. A wise man does the best he can with the tools and timber he hs till he can get more and better. I may now say what some of you may dislike. But it is better to speak the truth and displease than to please by suppressing the truth. My advice is : Do in this college the sort of work that the people who send to it niost need, not what some body else who does not send to it needs. Let the college shape its plans by the real wants of its people, not by the supposed wants of some other people. It will take good sense and courage to do this, more than the managers of most white colleges have. The 'temptation wiiv bo o try to do just what ought not to be done ; if you resist the temptation you will deserve honor for your good sense and courage. Suppose this college should try to pattern after Yale, or Harvard, or Princeton. If wtlr fail, and ought . to fail," for it will be tryi fig to' do ' to day what may be -well enough a . hun dred years from to-day. Ydfe' and Harvard are more than one hundred years old, and their patrons have been sending sons and daughters to college for a hundred years. I have known schools try to teach boys and girls Greek and Latin that failed to teach them English that failed to teach them how to keep accounts that fail ed to teach them how to make a living and to be good people. Such a school needs teaching common sense and honesty. It is as necessary for a college to be itself as for a man to be himself. The preacher who tries to preach like somebody else makes himself ridicul ous ; the college that tries to be some other college and not itself is also rid iculous. This college-building business can't be done in a day, even if you had plenty of money. If one man, by put- ner his life into it, can build up a Christian college so tkt ; oan stand securely upon a broad and strong foundation, he will do what few men have done. For building a college generally costs the lives of several men. buppose that man among you who has borne the heat and burden of the day in the work that so far has been done should live twenty years longer and after all succeed in getting Morris-Brown college to send its tap root deep into the ground ! Could there be a nobler work for him to do could a nobler monument keep his name alive in the church? I would rather b.e the founder of a true Christian college than to have for a monnment the tallest pyramid in Egypt. Extract from an address de livered at the dedication of Morris Browu College, Atlanta, Ga. For the Advocate. Our Georgia Correspondence. The Hypocrites Confounded. REV. G. G. SMITH. The Pharisees and the Herodians stood at opposite pales. No rival sects had less in common. The Phari sees were extreme dogamtists strict moralists and intense Jews. The Herodians were emphatically broad in Church theories, in moral code and in political sympathies. They were even farther from the' Pharisees than the Sadducees, for if the Sadducees were religious antagonists, they were p o litical allies.but now are united against Jesus. He was of none of them. Jle antagonized all. The hypocrisy of the Pharisees, their slavery to tradi tion were as much objects of his de nunciation, as the laxity in morals and opinions of the others. They togeth er conspired against him. Here at last was a point of union. Hostility to the Nazarene. Something must be done. The populace must be wean ed from him or all was lost. All subordinate differences must be held in abeyance, while they joined forces against the one great foe- They took council together. Their plans were very shrewd, cunning, well devised, they could not fail to place him where he must offend one or another party, the people or the Government. So with great cunning they brought the tribute money and with it the words of confidence. He cared for none. He would give an honest opinion. They wanted to know was it right to pay tribute. The Lord saw through their designs at once, and after expos ing their wickedness, he answered their question. Caesar was the defac to ruler of the land. They submitted to him. They should pay him tribute. s63.oo i a: si a m i;m 'i Payable in dvnuc Their own laws required it, but they should render to God the things that were God's. This incident is full of teaching, and we find in modem times the same spirit manifested. As all true Christians rally around Jesus Chri.'t, and forgetful of all d ffer ence, defend his sacred name from assault, so do all the foes of religion unite in their attacks upon him. How ever they may differ, however bitter may be their hostilities, they are al ways ready to unite when there is an attack to be made on the character of Jesus. The Atheist, Panthiest, Deist. Unitarian, Sensualist, proud Jew 01 Pphilosophic Greek, are always ready to join their forces against Jesus. They pursue the same methods. They endeavor to enUi.glc him in his talk. They have studied the record of his life. The words taken by the Apostles from his lips. The inci dents as they are recorded. They have sought, out discrepancies. Thev have come with a smj'--; ;--'e'iilMg their confiJ-"-- K5 - 'nst 5 purity and goodness, but their un faith in all that was fundamental to bis ysU;in of re ligion and professing gfcMt-anxiety to know the truth,r they have pressed questions .nam to re -answered. .They liaVeIatwkys, ho vevcr, th .varted in their efforts to entan'e him. There have been 1 Laid uucj;tions put to Christianity a.;.. j..C'ii in all the past, for which Lh.ro '.v.ij r. ;iau honest answer. Jesus is ab.cast with all modern thought. Philosophers, have worn themselves out. Pythagorus. Socrates, Plato, Buddha, Confucius, sre all behind us, but to the best thought of this rge, in all branches of it, Jesus is the Master. With Divine wisdom avoiding every q.-estion of Philosphy or Science which could under go change, he stands to day where he stood eighteen hundred years ago,the Master The Lord. Theologies have sprung iiito being; they have perished, but lu: endures. They have waxed old, but ho abides. The philosophic explanation of his statements have gone, but the state ments still stand as in ace them. They have tried to en Uig?e him in his talk. They have entangled Clement, Augustine, Calvin, Wosley, but not Jesu. Hypocrisy lies at the base of much nearly all of this questioning.They do not wish to know the uuUi. They do not intend to know it. They ask with apparent honety, but all who can see the true motive of their ask ing can see that they only want some excuse for a hostility which has sprung from the depths of their hearts. When men pretend that they reject the Bible because they cannot under stand it, or because of its contradic tions, or bee -.use it does not answer the questions they put to i', they are in nearly all cases hypocrites. Tiiey reject the Bible andjesus bec.mse both of them are against them. The Christian teacher may as well . learn it early. His business is not to answer questions, but to declare great heavon revealed truth-', and he need not be suprised at the cavils of the wicked. When he has met them and answered them, they are revJy with a new assault. When he gets through with Comte, he h is Hauxley, with Voltaire, he has Renan with Ingersol, he has MatthewArno'd vith Strauss, he has Theodore Parker. They are all waiting. Pharisee, Sadducee, He rodian, what is that to thee, thou teacher of glad tidings, " Preach the gospel to every creature." It is the truth. God's Spirit goes with these glad tidings, and every plant which God has not planted shall be ro ted up. They shall pass with all their cavils, only Christ shall veign forever and ever. Modesty. One of the chief charms of young ladies of older ones, loo, for that matter is modesty. Without this there must always be a discouraging discount upon their attractions. There is a false modesty which no one re commends or admires, and there is an artificial kind provided by veils and certain forms of retirement which only travesties that which is true ; but the genuine delicacy which shows itself as part of female character is never with out beauty. It is one 0 the virtues American young women are in danger of losing. The easy mingling of the sexs, which is part of our American liberty, and the open, garish way in which girls are permitted to appear in public places and on te streets, are destructive of traits which they should be careful to cultivate. The young girl who is not able to inspire a man with a respect for her modesty, is wanting in moral power and lacking in piety. United Presbyterian. Renew your subscription to this Advocate, price $2.00 pci annum.
North Carolina Christian Advocate (Greensboro, N.C.)
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Feb. 10, 1886, edition 1
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