Chapter VI: Part 6

He passed through the scenes of Gethsemane, He died on the cross of Calvary; He descended into hell or Hades that He might taste death for every man, and forty days after the resurrection, He ascended on High. He went up on the pinions of the clouds until they received Him out of their sight. Then two men stood by the disciples who were gazing into heaven and said to them, “Why stand ye gazing into heaven, as ye see Him go up ye shall see Him likewise come down again. You have heard of Zerubabel, you have met Darius and Cyrus, the Great, you have seen Jesus Christ ascending; those great men will not return, but Jesus will come again to take you with Him in the next ascension. He will not come again as the victim of pagan hostilities or Jewish persecution, but He is coming without sin unto salvation as the spoiler of the grave, the conqueror of the world, the hero who conquered hell, and will lead us to victory over Satan and his forces.”

The Gospel and the Word are preached to you because you dwell in His secret place; thus you are abiding under the shadow of the Almighty, stay with Him, fight on through the conflict, the battle may be fierce, but you shall win. You see the triumph from afar, your faith is your power. God the All-Glorious One is with you, for remember that when star will shine no more unto star, and planet cease to revolve around planet, when flowers fade to bloom no more, the Word of our God endureth forever. Heaven is His throne and earth His footstool, and we are His children.

I exhort you therefore to take Him more than ever before, as the Man of your counsel, the friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

He has gone to prepare a place for you that where He is there ye may be also.

“Unto Him who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, be glory and dominion now and evermore.”

There is death in the pot.--II Kings 4:40.

In the year 895 B. C., in Syria, a certain woman resided. She was the wife of Obadiah, a devoted companion, a good, genial spirit; she was a model wife, but misfortune overtook her, and the bright days of prosperity and enjoyment passed under the dark clouds of adversity. The pleasant fragrance from the flowers faded and her husband too had passed to the bourne from whence none returns.

She is now a widow left to contend against the hard and unsympathizing world.

“Trouble like a gloomy cloud
Gathered fast and thundered loud.”

Her husband and father was God above. Her old-time friends who knew and recognized her in her prosperity, now passed her by unnoticed. Adversity makes a great change in friendship. It renders friends, strangers, and breaks asunder the dearest ties. These friends were willing to see her suffer and her children torn from her side and sold into slavery that her debts might be paid. There was no helping hand, no money to loan, no salvation from this awful condition, no one to become her surety, but above all this darkness of night and of cloud, God was dwelling, and watching. He never forsakes His own, He may seem to do so, but never, never.

God sent His servant Elisha to her and through him relieved her of all her troubles. Elisha was a mighty man of God. He had received the mantle of Elijah and was a student under him. He was full of wisdom and understanding, going about in the spirit of Jehovah serving the people, instructing them, leading them to higher life, and making them acquainted with God and His ways.

Elisha during a famine had the people to gather herbs that their hunger might be relieved. Among those herbs which were thrown into the pot, there was some poisonous herb which some one had gathered by mistake, it too was thrown in. In the boiling of these together, the poison was spread through the pot. When they began eating the vegetable soup, the poison was discovered. Elijah was informed and destroyed its bad effect.

It is well for us to note that.

I. The world is the pot.

The world has been cursed by sin. There is in it both the good and the bad, both food and poison. God has placed us in the world that we may as Christians, do the work which Elisha did in his day. When we look about us, how many people we see who have been poisoned. There are murderers, suicides, thieves, robbers, liars, all these are acting in the way they act and live, because they have in them poison. It is well for us to understand that we need not expect in this world to find the good unmixed from the evil. Christ prayed that God would not take His own out of the world, but that He would keep them from the evil in the world, and we are taught in the prayer called the Lord’s Prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” As God’s children, we cannot mix with the children of this world. We cannot allow the amusements of this world and its allurements to lead us away from God and His Kingdom. We are in the world, but not of it. We are but pilgrims, passing through, on the way to the country of God, but all that we are and have are in this world; just as all the herbs were thrown into the pot, but there is also poison there. Is there any pleasure, without its tinge of pain? Is there any hope without the presence of a cloud? Is there any expectation without some kind of a disappointment? But Christ is our Elisha. The poison in the pot can be removed and He will remove it for us. The pleasures of the world may be rendered sweet and pure. The work of this world can be raised to the highest dignity. The power of this world may be turned to the highest good of all. We are not left helpless and hopeless.

II. The temptations of the world are the fire under the pot.

The question of temptations is a very interesting one, for the Christian. There are many who find their greatest trouble in temptations. They are not able to distinguish a temptation from a sin, and confusing them, they look upon themselves as very great sinners, because they have very great temptations. This is a false idea. A temptation is a trial. All temptations are not evil. There are also temptations that lead us to noble action. God is not tempted of evil, neither does He tempt to evil, but He does tempt us to the good, and indeed, He permits Satan to ply us with temptations, and we by overcoming these temptations may grow strong and pure.

Christ, the sinless man, was in the world, full of temptations, but He overcame them. His temptations were genuine, they were sinful, they would have proven destructive, but He overcame them and He overcame them without sin.

It matters not what the temptation may be, however dark and sinful, it is with you as to the result of that temptation in your life.

“Yield not to temptation,
For yielding is sin.”

It is the yielding that is sin. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Make friends of him and he will live with you. He will become a part of you, he will drag you down, he will work your destruction.

How often we realize that dark, sinful thoughts, pass through our minds. They are sins like a black cloud, sweeping over the beautiful landscape of the soul. Well, does this constitute sin? By no means. It is only when these thoughts remain in the mind, when we harbor them, when we become fond of them; this is what forms sin in the soul. It is your work to expel them, to drive them out, to hate them.

Paul said, When I would do good evil is present with me. How true this is with us today. Even in our holiest exercises, such as prayer, praise, worship, sin is found lurking in our aspirations after God. Selfishness enters our prayers, selfishness frequently inspires our holiest hopes, selfishness poisons our love, doubt weakens our faith, and so we find in our religion and its life, the element of sin. This is the death in the pot.

So the whole Bible deals with the problem of sin. The plan of salvation is simply the plan for removing sin from within and from without us. The mission of Christ is to save the sinner from his sins. Frequently Christians get the idea that salvation is to bring us at last to Heaven; well, that is in a manner true, but remember that is the last work of salvation, bringing us to Heaven. Salvation deals with thousands of things in our lives here, before we are ready for Heaven. And indeed we can never enter Heaven with sin in our natures. Sin must be rooted out here in some manner. So we have our Elisha, he can and does remove the death from the pot. He is the bread of life, the water of life, in which there is no poison.

I beg you, therefore, to take this text with you. Ponder over its deep meaning. Apply its truths to your own life, come to our Elisha that He may remove the death from your pot. Try and understand the deep meaning of your religion and that it is a rule of life for every-day living. That it furnishes you with the wisdom and the power to overcome all the sin within you and all the temptations without you. Therefore watch and pray. Be diligent in season and out of season and put your trust in your Elisha, and He will make all things work together for your good. This is His promise.

The Reward of the Righteous.

“For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you.”--Deut. 12:9.

A description of Paradise is always acceptable to the humble believer. He is seeking the rest, the inheritance, which God has so abundantly promised in His word. So our God has not omitted to give us glimpses of this Heavenly rest. We have gathered together our own sweet bundle of sentiments regarding it. They are ever a blooming garden of flowers by our pathway. We are to so live that we may daily prepare for this Home of the Soul. Hezekiah was ordered to set his house in order. He was reminded that he would soon be called to enter into this rest prepared for the people of God. He had something to do first, however--to set his house in order.

We sadly realize that in the study of this deep question our knowledge of that country which is our eternal home, can be but faint. Paul saw something of its glory but would not undertake to describe it. And the glowing descriptions which John gives us in his Revelation, are most difficult to understand. They are figures, they are poorly drawn pictures, outlines, photographs, of that Celestial Clime and its Holy Inhabitants. But it confirms our hopes, invigorates our strength, ennobles our efforts. Then let us study today something and somewhat of this Happy Land.

I. The Character of the Reward, the Inheritance.

The Israelites were worn and weary, with the desert journey. For forty years they had been wanderers, pilgrims, in a land of sand, rocks, barren waste and mountains. God so blessed them that their garments did not wear out, and He gave them water from the rocks and food from Heaven and flesh from the far countries. But this was not enough. They had been promised a land that flowed with milk and honey, a land of rest, an inheritance. God had promised to Abraham that He would give them the land of Canaan for a possession, and that it should be inherited by all his children forever. While this promise had been made centuries before their trials in the Wilderness, yet God had not forgotten His pledge and His people had not forgotten His promises. The great encouragement which Moses always brought forward that their strength might be renewed, was that God had made them a promise of a land of their own. With all their trials and disappointments, their mistakes and their failures, their doubts and perplexities, God was with them and the Land of Canaan was just beyond the Jordan.

It is well for us to keep in mind the journey of the Israelites, between the Red Sea and the Jordan; between the land of slavery and the land of liberty. For indeed we are making just such a journey now. We are on the march to our Heavenly Canaan. It is called a rest. It is called an inheritance. What blessed descriptions these are! We could want no better.

This wilderness of sin is a land of weariness. The way is hard, the mountains to climb are high. The rocks which cut our feet are many. The loads which we carry cause so often fainting, almost death. There is no rest here. We have temporary resting places where we may sleep and refresh ourselves. But the day comes, and its work, its weariness. Even in our religious lives and work, we experience the same fatigue, we are exhorted not to grow weary in well doing, not to faint by the way, why? Because we are in a land of weariness, of toil, of exhaustion!

“To him that overcometh, I will give a crown of life. To him that overcometh, I will make a pillar in the temple of my God and they shall go out no more.” Our abiding place there will be as permanent as the pillars of the temple. We cannot be removed. Surely we will not want to go out any more. We will be satisfied to dwell in the temple of God forever. Then it is called an inheritance. Our children inherit our possessions. There is no law to prevent them from coming into what has belonged to us. It is their own when we leave it by every right of human and Divine law.

II. Our Saviour is the faithful witness of this promised land.

Moses, you remember, sent spies into Canaan that they might bring back a report of the land which God had promised to Abraham and his descendants. These spies returned. Only two, Caleb and Joshua, brought back a good report. The majority report was very discouraging indeed, so much so, that the Israelites turned back again.

There are many in this world who have a bad report of the Promised Land which the text tells us, is to be our rest and our inheritance. Will you listen to them? If so, you will also turn back and continue wandering in the wilderness of sin. Do not forget that Satan is one of these spies. He will tell you false things regarding your religion, your brethren, your Saviour, your God and Heaven. This is his business. He is always at it. You find many Christians who do not think much about Heaven, they consider it a dream, they contend that this is their Heaven, hence they place little value on all the reports in the Bible concerning this land. But we have a true witness, our Joshua, our Jesus. He came from that country. He knows its hills and dells, its clime, its fruits, its joys, its eternal delights. He has left us His report. It is absolutely true. He has seen and heard and tasted and He speaks as a true witness. He said to His disciples on the eve of His departure, “I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there ye may be also. In my Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you.” “If ye believe in God, believe also in me.”

God liberated His people from Egypt. He raised the iron heel of oppression from the necks of His people. He led them forth. He brought them into Canaan. His omniscience guided them. His omnipresence was ever with them. He brought them to an end of the toil, labor, dust, pains, weariness of the wilderness journey. The same God is leading us to a much better country. In this country there are no enemies, as there were in Canaan. No battles will be fought, no sickness will be endured, no trials to pass through, no fading sunsets and following dark nights, no losses, no crosses, for “All the former things are passed away, behold, I make all things new.”

Jesus says, “I am the living bread of which if any man eat, he shall nevermore hunger.” He has broken down the middle wall or partition, so that we can enter into the very presence of God. Paul speaks of His work when he says, “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” Yes, the glory of God, that glory which shall be reflected from our hearts and faces when we stand complete before God. John says, “It doth not appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every one that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as He is pure.” We shall be like Him! These are not misty descriptions of our rest and inheritance! They are real photographs. We need not doubt, we need not fear. It doth not appear what we shall be, but in that beautiful habitation of the soul, we will be more beautiful than the beautiful home which God has prepared.

III. But this rest and inheritance will be the reward of the faithful.

We should not deceive ourselves for not every one will enter. There are many in this world who confidently expect to enter this Heavenly Canaan, but they have no passport. If you were to take a trip through Europe and Asia, it would be necessary for you to procure from the proper officials of this country a passport, for without this you would not be permitted to go through these countries. You would be looked upon as some kind of an enemy. The passports to Heaven are goodness and faithfulness. Not the goodness, however, which this world creates and loves and prizes. Christ said to the young nobleman who came to Him and wanted to know what good thing he could do to enter the kingdom of Heaven, “Why callest thou me good, there is none good but God.” This young man said that he had kept all the commandments from his youth up, now if he had done that and we have no reason to doubt it, for Christ looked on him and loved him, then this young man was really good as this world calls goodness; but mark you he did not enter the “Kingdom of God,” for he went away very sorrowful, for he was very rich. Oh! he was very rich!

He had his own little heaven, he had his own little bundle of goodness, he had his own passport, but these did not suffice, for the Kingdom of God. These were of no value in this Kingdom.

I was born in a slave state. When I was a little boy, my mother being very poor, sent me out on a very cold day to the river bank to gather up a bundle of wood. I gathered up the wood and tied it into a bundle and placed it on my head. I started home. It was a large bundle and grew very heavy as I walked along. It was painful to my head and I became tired. I staggered under the burden, I thought that I could not reach the house, but I kept on. At last I got home and almost fainted. But what a relief it was to me and what a comfort it became to my mother. As we sat that night by the crackling fire, I thought, well it was worth all it cost me. The pleasure it gave my mother, the family, and satisfaction it gave me to know that I had done this and all were now enjoying it, was my reward, my rest. But mark you, it was the reward of goodness and faithfulness. If I had been a disobedient boy, would I have had that reward? Would I have had that enjoyment? Would I have had the approval and the love of my mother? Never, never! So it is with us today. We must carry our burdens, and the burdens of others. We have always a double load on our shoulders, this makes it doubly heavy. Sometimes we nearly faint under it, the road seems to have no end, we are almost tempted to throw down the load, but can we? If we really desire to enter that beautiful city beyond the river of death, the load which God has given us, must be carried to the very end. We can drop that load when we come to the river, when the death angel tells us that it is enough and that our Father wants us to come home.

You are to serve your brother-man, you are to love him, to pray for him, and to love and pray for your enemies. This is the load, this is the work that is to be done! Without the cross there is no crown, without the weights there are no wings, without the prayers there will be no praises! “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” This is the welcome plaudit. Do you long to hear that plaudit? Then be faithful today and tomorrow and throughout life.

IV. This place is called rest.

After the victory there is peace. After the labor there is rest. After the pain there is pleasure. This world is not our abiding place, our peace-place. As long as man lives on the earth he has various inducements to sin. Enemies within and without are continually organizing against him. Satan is seeking to devour him with lust and sin. He too often, alas! renounces his allegiance to his God, he forgets his Saviour, he turns away from the practice of his religion. Worldly pleasures allure him, they deceive him, they intoxicate. Ten thousand are the ways of this world to lead the humble pilgrim astray. The Israelites wandered in the Wilderness forty days, but it was only a seven days march from Egypt to Canaan; Why did they wander? Because they sinned. The flesh is lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. When we would do good evil is present with us. What a mighty conflict this life of wandering is!

But blessed be God there are no haunts of innocent (?) amusement to entice you from pure holiness, in Heaven! No dens to rob men and women of their virtue, no pit-falls of saloons and gambling hells to lead astray the holy inhabitants of that land of rest, none of these things are to be found there! The ungodly rich man, the oppressor of the poor, the robber, the thief, these are all cast into the lake where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. There is the place of our Eternal Rest. It is a mountain where heavenly pastures grow and the rivers of life gently flow. It is here that we shall know as we are known. Here ignorance is forever banished and we see face to face. God help as to enter this rest and to obtain this inheritance.

Our Legacy.

Peace I leave with you.--John 14:27.

Dear Brethren, in entering upon the work of this district two years ago I found that the ship had sprung a leak, the sails were furled, many of the crew had deserted the ship and left her to the mercy of the waves. There seemed to be a heavy cloud over the church, her banners had been trailing in the dust. I look back and almost shudder and wonder what would have been the fate of the church had things drifted on as I found them. I wonder if there were any here who at that time would have believed our report and to whom the arm of the Lord would have been revealed. I ask the question now, shall the church in Trenton sink, shall her doors be closed, shall her banner be dust covered? No, never, so long as God says “Thou shalt live.” So like Paul at Athens I take courage and preach the Gospel to you that your strength may increase and your faith grow stronger.

Bro. Joseph Long was the first man I saw, to whom I delivered my message. He said go ahead, my son, sound the trumpet and we will rally to the standard though the host of hell surround us. I accepted the situation, seeing that there was a great field of usefulness before me. I saw and felt my inability to do any good or to be of any service to the church unless God was with me. So I consecrated myself anew to God and made a complete surrender. My own capabilities united with yours, we brought our forces into line and began the battle which you have fought so nobly and bravely against every obstacle. You have been faithful soldiers, and may be called veterans in the cause of Christ. The enemy has been many times defeated and main victories have been won and the cause has been greatly advanced, but the time of our separation is drawing nigh, our communions will soon cease, they have been very sweet and precious to me, very helpful, your kindness has been like the bud on the tree continually swelling, and blossoming for my own pleasure and profit. Like David, we have cried from the bottom of our hearts, How long, O Lord, How long shall the wicked reign? Save thy people, bless thine inheritance, feed and lift them up for ever. You have proven your loyalty to the church at large, your efficiency in the church here, I commend your integrity, your faithfulness. Your warm hearts have beat continually for the success of the church during this pastorate.

The old heroes have gone home to their reward. Their seats are vacant, their work is complete but we have entered into their labors and their memory is still precious among us. They are still with us in spirit, they are looking down from the battlements of glory and are witnessing our race here below. They have been described as a cloud of witnesses. Therefore we are to lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us and run with patience the race that is set before us. Their skill and bravery we should imitate, their example we should copy, their life of service we should relieve. Oh! Could many of those old warriors awake from their graves and revisit old Mt. Zion and stand on her battleground, to tell us of the contests through which they had passed and to show us the scars which they had received while fighting the battle of the Lord, how often they have witnessed the going and coming of ministers, having listened to their sad farewells, I am sure that we would take courage today and rejoice that we are a part of that grand procession, some of which are now in glory, some of which are crossing and some of which are still on this side. These old veterans of glory are not here to shake our hands; they have risen from the bloody battlefield of earth to the sun lit hills of eternity and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Some that I met two years ago are not here tonight to shake our hands, to be with us in this farewell exercise, where are they? Where is father Crusen and Sister Layten, Tolson, Phinley, Reley and Rachel Conover. Young men, I ask you tonight where is Enoch Limehouse, Jimmie Vroom and others of your companions? Parents and Sabbath School teachers, I ask you where are the Scotts, the Sees and Lily Wright and others whom I met here two years ago? They have gone down to the grave, they are mouldering in their graves. But this shattered Mt. Zion church is the same now as then, a few pillars are left. Brothers Long, Johnson, Fisher, Jones, Ward, Ayers, Charna, Sisters Long, Ward, Perine, Hall, Scroden, Hutchens, Lewis, Harriet, Charmer, and a host of others, we have stood together through these years and are one tonight in spirit and in truth. Our spirits have shared each other’s burdens, each other’s sorrows, we have mingled our tears.

Your Christian advice, tender care, loyal friendship, all these have helped me on my way to the better land. You have performed your part well, a uniform desire to contribute to the harmony of all. Your zeal for the growth of the church when it seemed to be dying, your constant watching for its highest welfare, have often caused me to say, “I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord.” Although we separate here in sorrow we will meet in a place where sorrow is unknown. Do you promise to meet me there? March on, ye Soldiers of the Cross, be not afraid, God is your helper, He will not desert you! Keep your eyes on the city whose builder and maker is God. Do not grow weary in well-doing nor faint by the way.

Christ said, My peace I leave with you. I can say my blessings I leave with you. Let us pray for each other and look forward to the time when we shall meet to part no more. Farewell!

Articles and Contributions

An Echo to the Manager’s Call.

Mr. Editor: In your issue of June 21, 1877, an article appears, emanating from the business manager, indicating trouble ahead. He says that from the very fact of the editor receiving two letters to his one, and the supporters of our publishing department placing the major portions of their communications on the wrong current, the most pernicious effect is designed to flow through the stream of intellectual knowledge gleaned from the columns of the Christian Recorder.

I have only to ask my brethren, Can we, as pillars of the porch that leads to the great temple of African Methodism, sit still on our easy chair and hear such powerful peals of thunder ringing through our ears, constantly coming from the subverting clouds now overhanging our manager’s head?

Let us burst loose the bands of oppression, open the prison door and set the captive free. Give the manager a fair start in the race, and then if he die (as he says the death warrant has been served on others who had charge of the concern), let us bury him in a recreant’s grave. As to the department being whittled away by the ministry, I would like to ask, Mr. Editor, who is responsible for that? Is there not a prescribed mode of bringing these would-be men to justice? These vipers that creep through the money till of all our departments and from their atrocious dereliction or their villainous designs to defraud the connection out of what is rightfully due it? These things are actually undermining the foundation of our Church. Put them between the upper and lower millstones and grind them as fine as powder. Do not let us all suffer from the effect of the same blow. The blow the Doctor struck has shocked the connection like a mighty earthquake. Now the question goes from every loyal fort along the line, “Who are these whittlers?” Again, the manager says there is a wolf howling about the door of his sanctum, and that unless there be sufficient food to satisfy his demands, at no distant date there will be a burst up. I again ask, Cannot this eternal howling be stopped?

Now, the manager says that our articles of commendation and sweet pats on the shoulder, telling him to go ahead with the engine without anything to propel it, does not amount to much. He wants action--noble, sublime, Godlike action--such as will place him on the road to success. Then, brethren, let us act. According to the report made at the General Conference of 1872, we have three hundred thousand members, seven thousand preachers in our connection. Let a Sabbath be set apart and let it be universally known throughout the Church, and one-fourth of a dollar be collected from each member. This would give us the nice little sum of $75,000. Say that the preachers give one dollar each, including bishops, managers, editors and all others, which would make a total of $82,000. Would not this stop the howling wolf and save the department? The echo is, Yes! Then, brethren, let us awake from our sleep. Call the forces to the front, wheel into line, fire on the enemy, and the victory is ours. I will guarantee one-fourth of a dollar from each one of my members, and not only one dollar from myself, but five, at whatever time may be mentioned as a day for this purpose in the interests of the Book Concern.

A. H. NEWTON.
Algiers, La., July, 1877.

The Race Problem Solved at Asbury Park.

For the Christian Recorder.

New Brunswick, N. J., August 2, 1890.

Mr. Editor.

Sir: As a native of the “Old North State” myself, it is but natural that I should feel some pride in every honor or mark of respect paid to her honored sons; and yet, sir, when I see metropolitan papers, whose politics are not very favorable to our race, teeming with praise of the speeches made, with some very remarkable quotations of opposition to the “Force Bill,” or apologizing for certain reasons why it should not become a law; when I see certain gentlemen denied by those in authority not especially committed to our side of public questions regarding our interest, it is but natural that some of us should become alarmed lest these honors are received and bestowed at the terrible expense of compromising the rights of our race.

We are forced to believe that President Grandison must have committed himself with all the force of his eloquence on the beach at the park to thirty thousand people in favor of the Force Bill. We are also led to believe that our popular friend Dr. Sampson was very conservative in his Fourth of July speech. But now comes out one of the leading illustrated journals with all the pictures of these orators of the Fourth at the park, and the Doctor is made to say if a colored man is discriminated against or in any way persecuted in regard to his rights, that it ought to stimulate him to greater effort to make himself more worthy, and to not only make himself the equal, but the superior of the other men. With other compromising remarks, and after several highly pleasing speeches on the beach to the multitudes from the hotels, it is said that the Doctor and founder, Bradley, repaired to the dining rooms of the different hotels and told the colored help when and where they might be allowed to bathe.

Was this arrangement made by the Doctor with Mr. Bradley for the colored people? Will these two North Carolinians answer this question? Were they paid one hundred dollars for these speeches, and were they properly quoted in the New York World? I mean President Grandison, of Bennett College, as to his views on the Force Bill delivered at the park or elsewhere, and also Dr. Sampson on the Race Problem, delivered on the grand stand on the Fourth of July at the park. I understand that my old friend did say that a Negro’s occupation should not be above that of a servant, for he must know well how to discharge the duties belonging to this sphere before he is able to meet the more responsible duties of life. I ask the Doctor if this is all true.

Yours respectfully,
A. H. NEWTON.

31 French Street, New Brunswick, N. J.

Intemperance.

By Miss Ada A. Newton.

Intemperance is a fatal evil. What are felons, murderers and thieves but men who began drinking but moderately, just for fashion or to see how it tasted? From drinking moderately they go on taking a little more each time, until finally they become confirmed drunkards. How common it is to hear a wife say, Ah! He was a good husband before he began drinking. There was nothing he thought too good for me. How we pity the drunkard’s wife and children! The little ones are made to suffer for the doings of their father, for God says that “the iniquities of the fathers are visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation, while His mercy is shown unto thousands that love Him and keep His commandments.” How careful, then, should all be to guard against this evil. The cup that has the glow of ruby at last biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder.

Let us give an illustration that all may see the course of this sin. Here is a rich man who has a son; he indulges him beyond measure; he teaches him in youth to drink wine. At first he makes a wry face and tells his father that he does not like it and cannot drink it. His father scorns and ridicules the idea, and tells him that unless he drinks some he will never become a man. So the little fellow drinks because it is his father’s desire and not his own. He soon acquires a thirst for the poisonous cup, and when he comes to manhood’s estate he drinks often and freely. At last he drinks too much and becomes intoxicated--yes, intoxicated! This is his first step to ruin; the habit has been formed. His father is now much mortified. He threatens to disinherit him if he does not stop drinking, but it is too late. The father has laid the foundation and the son has built on it, and neither of them is now able to undo what has been done and fixed into a habit. His mother begs him to never again touch the deadly drug. For her sake he promises and takes the pledge. There is great rejoicing now. His father, mother, friends, all rejoice at the reclamation; the son has reformed! Yes, he has reformed. His eyes lose their redness and become bright and lustrous. He attends diligently to his business. After a while he marries. Then the rejoicing is universal. All delight at the great reformation. But alas! how frail is human nature. Soon after his marriage he meets at the tavern his old chums. He has perfect confidence in himself. He knows he will not drink again. His pride asserts itself. His old companions are gleeful and congenial; they ask him to drink. He pays no attention to them. Then they sneer, they ridicule, they appeal to his manhood, they accuse him of being tied to his wife’s apron strings. To prove to them that he is not all that they declare, he takes one drink, then another and another, and soon he is beastly drunk. Then they kick him out. His wife watches for him, then she watches over him, and he does not return, so it seems. He is now detained on business; he has an engagement at the club, at the lodge. How little does she know how soon she is to be bowed down and broken under grief! She watches. It is midnight; she meets him at the door with a glad heart; the sight is heart-sickening. She reels and faints. He is fearfully intoxicated! When he is able to reason, she reasons with him, but in vain. Down, down he goes from one step to another, until from a large mansion he brings her to live in a cellar. Who is that grinning monster the boys are pelting in the street? And who is that emaciated creature entreating the boys to let the miserable wretch whom she calls her husband go home? The once noble husband and the once beautiful wife! What has brought them so low? What has caused her misery, her anguish? Rum, rum, rum; nothing but the demon RUM!

Oh, young man, if you only knew the harm that the social glass does you, the misery that it brings, the death that follows, you would cast away the poison and turn from it now, before it is eternally to late. “Touch not, taste not the unclean thing, for wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging.”

Algiers, La.

From Arkansas.

For the Christian Recorder.

Mr. Editor: You have not heard from us for several months, not because we have lost interest, for we have always stood among the active workers of the Church, but we have been very busy. The last time we wrote you from the South we were in the State of Tennessee.

In the month of October last year Bishop Brown ordered us to strike our tent and move to Arkansas. With the knapsack of faith and the musket of truth we came and engaged in the contest, taking charge of Little Rock.

The Little Rock Conference is composed of some of the noblest and most energetic men in the Church. They work, sing and fight against Satan like men of war, determined to conquer although they die in the battle. Elder J. T. Jenifer, so well known throughout our widespread connection as a pioneer of African Methodism, erected a new church edifice at Little Rock, a monument that can never be forgotten, and to be admired by unborn generations. Bishop Brown and J. F. A. Sisson, P. E., contributed their share towards the construction of this model of beauty. H. H. Petigrew, P. E., John A. Jones, S. A. Patten and R. A. Sinquefield are the pioneers of African Methodism in this State, and their labors have been given entirely to the Christian Church. Their affectionate and kind-hearted spirits draw every one near to them in the fullest confidence, and none can but love and cherish them.

The Conference is divided into eleven districts and is cared for by good and faithful presiding elders who are not afraid of the truth, though dark and gloomy clouds oppose them on every hand. We have several churches in course of construction in this State which will be ornaments when completed.

In Little Rock the work is in a prosperous condition. We are preparing to hold the Conference on the 9th of November, 1876. Bishop T. M. Ward is now with us on his way to the South Arkansas Conference. Our church is not yet completed, and we are about four thousand dollars in debt; but, thank the Lord, we were successful in paying off $1200 this year. We have 483 members, who say that they are determined to succeed. We have 229 scholars in the Sunday School and 25 officers and teachers. We have not done much for the Recorder, but we intend to fall into line. “Hold the fort, for we are coming!” (“Yes, but hurry up!”)

King Cotton has a powerful influence in this State, and the same is true of another king--Alcohol. There are 113 rum shops in Pine Bluff and 108 in Little Rock. Thousands of people are inquiring for the byways to hell, and, comparatively speaking, very few are inquiring the way to heaven. Over $1,000,000 are spent in this State annually for rum and tobacco.

On September 25th we visited the Conference of Tennessee, held in Pulaski, where we met many smiling faces and hearts and enjoyed a hearty shake of many hands.

A. H. NEWTON.

Little Rock, Ark., October 18, 1876.

Algiers, La.

Algiers is situated on the north bank of the Mississippi River, about one hundred miles distant from the Gulf. It is connected with New Orleans by ferry boats, which run every five or ten minutes. There is not much enterprise here, as all the business is done in the city. It is not a separate parish from the city, as one mayor controls the affairs of both places. Beelzebub has his headquarters here, and his court and his orders take the premium. The Sabbath is not respected. Mechanics labor and stevedores flock and flutter about the ships. You will find human beings as thick on the ballroom floor on Sunday as fleas on a dog’s head. And this is only a substitute for the wickedness indulged in here on the Sabbath. But our Church is progressing. We have just had a glorious revival. Our forces were drawn up in line in pitched battle with the devil and artillery of hell. After a heavy conflict for several weeks the battle subsided. When the smoke was over we picked up thirty souls happily converted to God. Bishop Ward was with us about eight weeks ago. He organized a new mission work in this city. He threw two or three bombshells against the forces of Catholicism, crippled, wounded and captured several of their troops, and moved on down the line, leaving the boys to push the battle to the gate.

A. H. NEWTON.

June 21, 1877.

Word from Algiers, La.

For the Christian Recorder.

Mr. Editor: Elder A. H. Newton has charge of the branch of African Methodism of Algiers, La. When Elder Newton arrived in Algiers he found the church in an almost hopeless condition, there being but ten members belonging to the fold, and as far as Sabbath School was concerned, they hardly knew what it meant. The majority of the people of color are Catholics. There are three Catholic churches to one Methodist church, therefore he had to labor under great disadvantages, but with King Jesus as his Captain, the Bible as his shield, he fought the battle bravely and gained the victory. Our church now is in a prosperous condition. We are doing a good work. Instead of ten members we have ten times ten, and they are coming to the fold every day. We have the finest Sabbath School in the State of Louisiana. There are one hundred and seventy-five members, and still they come. Our superintendent, Prof. J. H. Corbin, is alive to our Sabbath School. He is pious, kind and educated. The children all love him, and in no Sunday School throughout our entire connection could you find a better superintendent than he. He is also the principal of the colored school of Algiers. Our musical director, Prof. S. W. Otts, is also one of our bright stars. He makes the walls of Zion ring with melodies from the “Gospel Songs.” Miss O. B. Flowers, the assistant principal of the colored school of this city is also a noble worker in our Sabbath School. As a teacher she is interesting, and she is also the embodiment of Christian forbearance. We have a very intelligent corps of teachers, and, altogether, our school is progressing quite rapidly. When Elder Newton came to Algiers there was not a book in the Sabbath School library, not even a Testament; but with the help of God we have been enabled to get Testaments, Bibles and Catechisms, and we also have an organ. All this has been done in three months. In another three months we have hopes of as much more being accomplished. Our agent for the Christian Recorder is Mrs. Lula L. Newton. She sells as many papers as are sent her, and could sell as many more if she had them. The people take quite an interest in the paper, simply because it is edited and published by our own color.

For the last week we have had a practical effort, six souls have been added to our number and we have prospects of as many more. Algiers bids fair of becoming one of the strongholds of the connection. In the city of New Orleans, Bishop Ward (blessings on his venerable head!) has organized a new mission, which the elder in charge--Elder Cargile--with the help of the Lord and good management, is making a good charge. The people in this city are very wicked, some of them, although in a Christian land and among Christian people, are worse than heathen. They have never read the Bible. The Bishop, knowing this, organized the mission in the most wicked portion of the city, and it is progressing finely.

ADA A. NEWTON.

April 4, 1877.

Word from Algiers, La.

For the Christian Recorder.

Mr. Editor: I am glad to say that our church is gaining ground. Christians are a unit in this place in laboring for the building of Christ’s kingdom. Meetings are being held everywhere, with very marked results. Elder James Madison is carrying on a great work in St. James. He seems to be determined that every valley shall be filled and every hill made low. I think that he is the right man in the right place. The Elder visited my Sabbath School and addressed the children. He expressed himself as highly pleased with the progress of the church and school.

Elder Lazarus Gardiner, of St. Peter’s Chapel, is scattering Gospel seed and contending against the assaults of sin, at the head of noble-hearted workers for the success of African Methodism in this State. They have paid five hundred dollars on their new church and have arranged for the payment of another five hundred when due. The Elder is up and a-doing. God speed him on his journey!

Dr. George W. Bryant is sounding the Gospel trumpet from the battlements of Zion at the Union Bethel. He is master of the situation. If our Gospel be hid, it is hid unto them that are lost. The Baptist church is also doing a great work in this place. I was at a union meeting at the Rev. James Chaig’s church, a Baptist brother, and the Spirit of the Lord God filled the house. It was densely packed. The conference of glad voices giving praise to God was a heaven below. Brother Benjamin Buchannon also held a union meeting last Sabbath, which was a complete success. Fully three thousand people were present. The church and the yard were literally packed. God bless these brethren! May they live long and continue as instruments in the hands of God, enemies to ignorance and friends to holiness! J. H. Scie, P. E., is on the scout, I presume, although I have not heard from Elder Thomas. And Elder Burch I can give no account of, as I have no news from their district since Conference.

A. H. NEWTON.

June 5, 1877.

Dedication of Macedonia Church.

The Rev. A. H. Newton was ably assisted in the service of dedicating the beautiful new Macedonia Church in Camden, N. J., last Sunday. The dedicatory service was conducted and sermon preached by Bishop A. W. Wayman, D.D., at 11 A. M. In the afternoon the editor of the Christian Recorder and at night Macedonia’s ex-pastor, Rev. W. H. Yocum, B.D., preached. There were present the Rev. G. A. Mills, Rev. J. W. Cooper, T. N. Allen, S. B. Williams, G. S. Smith, T. Gould, L. J. Coppin, B. T. Tanner, D.D., J. H. Bean, J. W. Becket, D.D., W. Rice and G. M. Witten, of our church, and S. P. Smith, of the Congregational Church of Knoxville, Tenn. There may have been other ministers present. In the afternoon the audience of the main audience room overflowed, filling the basement, where they were addressed in a good sermon delivered by Rev. G. M. Witten. The collection of the day amounted to over $900. Macedonia has been partly described while in course of erection. It is of brick, the windows are of beautiful stained glass, the floor is entirely carpeted, the pulpit is furnished, the gas jets, the excellent finish of the entire building within and without command our congratulation to our Brother Newton and constituents, who with him, as well as with his predecessor, Elder Yocum, under whose pastorate the building was started, erected and enclosed, have been faithful.

October 24, 1886.

Another Account of the Dedication of the Macedonia Church.

For the Christian Recorder.

Mr. Editor: In the midst of the ranges of thought and sentiment, and while the busy world was moving on in the grand march of improvement, the Church of the Living God is unfolding and developing everywhere. The Kingdom of Christ is gaining territory in the marts of men.