The Lutheran visitor. (Columbia, S.C.) 1869-1904, March 10, 1871, Image 1

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ONE LORD, ONE PAITH, ONE BAPTI81T—EPHE8IAN8 IV: fc COLUMBIA, 8. C.. FRIDAY, MARCH IB, 1871 OLD SERIES, VOL. V.--NO. 131 ^oowett be a aarefhl reader of th * Bible, without being Impressed with the proretaeure given to its to the domestic sod and si dfcctfens. Clastfe literature to stri kingly find redly defective in its dettMtiosa of the ftunily sod the fireside. But the Bfbte does great honor to the frmiiy relation. “In the whole range of eastern story, there to nothing richer thso the seoooDt of Iassc'a courtship. The witching pages of flcdoo have never yet aurpnaoed the story of Joseph snd hto brethren. And the sweetest refinement which modern taste has thrown around the pan, to iafcrior to the simple |>stboa of the aged Jaoob, ns, to hto dying momenta, he ■sid, ‘Bury me with my fkthen in the cave that to in the arid of Epbmo the Hlttito. There they bailed Abraham aud Harsh hto wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebeka 8 0 V*fe*f*vfcu| 05 I 'V*** **.” ?Pju I 10p£ m H. MORE ** Superintendent v reports, are nothing ton than appal ling. I am sware that many, on rending these statements, win torn atones to their thoughts to the East, and vaguely hope that deliverance to to arise from that quarter. It to true that New England and the Middle States have furnished many laborers for this Western field. The time has bees when to was only reneenahto that they should be expected to do so. Whether the Interior and West should continue to depend upon the seaboord Stolen for the gospel, I will not just now stop to argue; bat of one foci it to well that we should be apprised. through his heart at that weU knpwu chime, had snapped Us strings l* And so, sometimes, to after life, when the feet of some wayward man hare strayed (hr away from the home of hto yonth, and hto heart has wan derad far from his father’s God, some memory of the past, like the sweet, sad melody of the evening chime, may wake long-slumbering echoes and stir long-sealed fountains; and a father's counsels, snd a mother’s prayers will come up again from the •acred burial place of the past with wondrous power to melt and win the wayward heart. Tea, a family ought to be a little church of Jesus Christ The father should be its pastor, conducting its daily worship and leading the dear circle in the way of truth and duty. Christ should be acknowledged as the Haviocr, the Friend, the Ruler of the entire group Every affection should be consecrated by faith to Jesus and love to Ilia. Every tie which binds one loving heart tfe an other, should be made stronger and more tender by the influence of a common tie to Jems Tbecr circum stances may be humble and their tot may be lowly, but if they have Christ to the family, there will al- totally hto salary as truly as the day laborer his wages, and that people have no moms right to criticise hto flunily than they have to subject the families of the doctor, lawyer or merchant, to their inspection. % '1 have thought as I reviewed the Various torn Hire of ministers 1 have known, that God takes eepi nisi cave of their children, Immmuah as minis understand it except through expe- To uight 1 shall talk to yoa about the death of children. All ace directly or indirectly interested in each a theme. There to a great difference ia Christian parents to meeting sack trials and troubles. I hare found a tow who fete ahto to meet them with calmness, mrauity, aad trust to thu Saviour ; they have beta lifted above the trial. But I think U to a gift, and those who do not find to themselves this ejiperieaee need not grieve at it. , Many say: “I never thought the child ooold die, and it’s gone.” The flood gates ure down { they can not be comforted, and they ought not to be ; let grief hive its way. 1 remember the slaters of Laaarus Bat the history snd lito of Jesus wn more strikingly and beautiftilly tog a surplus of ministers have, daring the pari thirty years, aeeu the proportion of ministers to the population, within their own borders, steadily and rapidly declining The percentage of graduates of the New England colleges who became mtoto isters to fast clecrnwng. The right colleges, Amherst, Bowdotn, Dart mouth, Harvard, Middlei/ury, Uni versity of Vermont, Williams, and Tale have furnished, from their six teen thousand graduates, four thou sand minister*—twenty-five per cent. Notice, however, the proportion of ministers to the course- of several decades. From 1H30 to 1840, thirty- five per cent, of the graduates be came ministers. From 1840 to 1850, twenty-seven per cent From 1850 to 1800, twenty per cent. From 1800 to 1870, eighteen per cent. This exhibits a vary great decline during the last half of the period. Am herst, during these thirty years, has Wedui Mpfrcf their own children to attend to other people’s; “the Lord takes structum which they receive, causing to to bring forth abundant fruit. 1 asked a young man the other day, how to was that he became pious f knowing that hto father’s ministerial duties prevented him from fi™** hto family much attention. Hahl he, “My father’s life and example preached to am more forcibly than any words could have done. His labors for eth ers, neglecting himself often, were bettor to me than hours of tostroc lion.” The laborious, self-denying, and often thankless duties of the minister—not self-imposed, but laid upon him by a Higher Tower—claim the sympathy, not the censures of those for whom be is wearing out his life. I have often thought it stowage, that a minister aad hto tom ily should be considered as scape goats, upon whom every family in his charge may lay the faults of their own children. They suppose thst they shield their qwn tamHy from blame, by hunting for similar faults to their pastor’s family. When 1 compare the morals aad prosperity of a community deprived of pastoral labors for k time, with one ei^oying the regular mtototratioua of a pastor, the contrast impresses me with the immense benefits of God’s living min istry. This consideration should in fluence os all to an exercise of that charity and respect which the position of the minister demands. B. d Tickrt C., Doc. Morth. A."'# 00SB) L.- ......,.ll 45ani a • •« * 1 5Tp |Q [#*« * vJ.j....*. 6 30 p m potions with Trim Id at all points North brother had not died." He answered thorn not a word; he was silent; bat he weat with them, step by step, to the grave. Grief has its right, a certain right of its own. Others there arc oho reproach themselves, aad think themselves points to lontgomsry, dred Presbyterian churches without more. They have gone through so much, there to a reaction. Feeling can not run on forever. After much anxiety mod watching, nothing to more natural than sa inability to M. Sensibility to at its limit} al most Ufo itself to goos. With another, it may be a first moved by death; ooe hundred nee churches annually formed; all heath thirty-five. Do not these facts show that if the Went to to have an educated minis try for her churches, it to high than she set about the work of consecra ting her own anas to this calling, stimulating them to K by all Chris tian and appropriate means, aad educating them here at home f I venture to suggest that it to not aeosmury, neither is it the part of Christian wisdom and independence for the Interior and the West to remain any longer dependent upon the East for the Gospel. Why should not Ilinoto raise up her own educated is passed hv the vers, and I heard ( What a dreadful making P “Yes,* iV is our minister’s that accounts for principal points. >y this route Rotof of fire (5) different UKNfGHT, Snp't. Saeral Freight and £ RAILROAD- Blue Ridge Railroad ^ys excepted: prevented it “That cold water, when so heated ,** “That ride on a sultry day; the child was merer veil from that hour ? or, “Tb* child complained, but I thought tt was nothing; if I had only thought ia time |* or, “I've said to my kasha ml. I'd never cull that doctor Oh! if 1 had only seat for the other doctor P exception, are the graduates of our Tbeatogiral Seminaries; and from these not more than seventy-five can pomiMy be given annually to this part of the flekL Ia the six The ological Seminaries in the United States, connected with our church, there are at present about four hun dred and fifty students. One third of these graduate yearly, ooe hundred aad fifty. The majority of them are Advertisements. BY SUCCESS!!! sional life ! And especially is it not kept, for reasons which must suggest themselves to every observing mind, that she, and all her sister oemrouni ties of this great Interior, should ed ucate her own sons, here at home, for the work which is here to be done! She is able to do it She is rich now in comparison to New England at that day when the foun dations of her great institutions were laid. Were she to give to-day for these objects of eduektum as those men gave who established the Col lege of New Jersey in 1746, or the Princeton Theological Seminary iu 1812, it is not too much to say that “she could surround her cities with a cordon of colleges.” / It is most earnestly to be hoped that there will be found at the West the liberality upon the part of the rich, the personal devotion upon the part of the young, which will secure for her the ministry drawn for her own sous and educated bene; for nothing is more certain than that her chances of receiving any adequate supply from the East are growing tom every year—Interior. There is s great difference between the views even of natural men on the sutyect of divine truth—a difference which is strikingly exemplified by the ; different language of the three Roman governors, Festus, Agnppa and Fe lix, in reference to the preaching of SauL Festus spoke out in bold lan guage of the natural man, to whom “Paudos worn. Nothwo.*—A few days since, when visiting an old man who seemed anxious about salvation, I found great difficulty in making him understand that pardon to the free gift of God, through the pre cious blood of Christ. At last I said to him, “Now, sup pose I were to go to a shop, and buy something for you, and pay for it, and tell you to go and fetch it, need you take any money with you T" “No,” said the old man, brighten ing up; ip would be paid for.” “Need yon make any promise to pay at some frture time!” I then ohIp fruits of I bars Wt tended, and the larger part of these aauual graduates will be secured by the churches of the East But if we rsoeive our full half, drawing largely every year from the young men of wglier stations of society, are filled bF 1 these same ministers’ children! ^ tay life, I hive noticed timfc msntcn’ children are nearly always ■ms u tod. Borne early in life adorn frfcfreflMiikm,ai d are active lay- rembess of toe c torch, others near tb* close of the r days; but the af their parents are most y«|n answered, it is true, some Njj* * ministers d ;> “sow wild oats,” **• there not nore wild youths parents a © not ministers, frequent the >ar, and gambling than those thus stigmatized ! Pwould ask, Wbe ice does this false ypression arise! '* m - • .... -1 fa. mis . A* . A fi> MED.A'-8 tverabeij I860, and IUMS aad Medas November, 1870, LIED TO Isjraaii?®* ifesT pianos, # York, PhilatWphi* jlamrfuetrtrers. typrerooms, No. » BatHmone, 3f'L | PIANOS TPBBfcgSS[ Mif hi* own bivem** 0 other nfstrtn»«s*£ finish of these m**; celled by any nU4Dfl •ab alu-flrR Oil ly but seventy-five. This is our en tire supply. Seventy-five men a year to meet all the demands which have powerful in after years, as the mem ones of the household altar. I can travel back over the path of forty years snd recall the vary tones of my father’s voice, as he reverently read the Bible, sad devoutly prayed, ia the midst of bis family. I can remember how he prayed for his children; bow faithfully be taught them the toeaoas of Christian truth and duty ia these thoughtless days There to a great difference between people in regard to tenacity of feel ing. Heme carry their grief forever } the woood, if only healed on the surface, ia always sore to the teock. There to a difference ia the vibrating Our anxiety in view of this appall ing state of thiaga would not be so great as it is il^ upon a further study af the facto, ws could discover nay prospect of au improvement at aa early day. Though so few young men are now in our Theological Sem- giveneas of sins; the Lolrf Jeans has paid the fall price for it. He has had the groans, the sighs, the tears, the wrath, the pain, the pun i8hment; yea, all that sin deserved. He bore it all. He paid the whole. Yes, bought forgiven©** with Hto precious blood, and now He gives tt sa a gift to all whs bring their stoa to Him.” “Tea,” said the old man, aa hto eye* filled with tears, “1 see it sow; it to pardon for nothing T Christ has bought ft, and He will give H me P Dear reader, may you also learn that Christ atone can sate; that net inaries, it would be encouraging if we could find that anywhere, in our an adequate number of youth who were looking forward to the ministry, though their professional studies had not begun. What are the (acta upou this point! The habit of the Presbyteries to re port to the General Assembly the youth in their membership who are things which are behind, and reach ing forth ante there things which are In-fore, tot m press toward the calling of God ia Christ Jtaas.” ; No frailly has ever toil a ehBd but that the tore to paid back in the other children- J A child ws love so much is superlatively loved. There to ao lore like that, whan wa took at ear children to the Ught af Gad, when our tore ia burnt to by death. Death gives a wonderful sweetness to the liii that's gone. Death ia libs frost that ripens fruit before acerb sad dry. It always to the sweetest child that goes The oHfM * Atol was fit* ©MM most precious. Tell me, did yoa not tar* with latqarer fteitog, sash **** mm was in our p * «nee r and H< ’ fiie house c ^ what was th &at the boys rood he join* hit s boy wfa *mt then 16 to the door i ®0W ball, ai kT BA' bton* a c. matter.. He told [«© ptoyihg saow- also, and his from your sins, and make you fit to dwell with him ^bove. . • moved, for, “as Paul reasoned of ngiwNHHH) wraperanoe »u\i jv«g toewt to come, Felix trembled.” The natural man. then, may know some thing of divine truth—-he may even he impressed aud affected by it, with out acquiring that saving knowledge which our Lord himself declares to saw him throw site caUed oftt, i» gp hwje, mov- they are l •u are a bad hoy, secret sin,