Gospel Herald, 1861-02-23

              I
Devoted to Oliristianity, Morality, the Interests of Sab1-)atli Scliools, Social Improvement, Temperance, Education, and General Ne-wrs.
"BEHOLD,   I   BEING   YOU   GOOD   TIDlilGS   OF   GKEAT   JOT  ....   ON   EAETH   PEACE,   GOOD   WILL   TOWAED   MEN."
VOL. 17.
DAYTON, 0., SATURDAY, FEB. 23,1861.
NO. 41.
ORIGINAL POETRY.
Written for the Gospel Ilerdld.
Little Sister, Fare Thee Well.
BY E.  D. BEPEW.
Little sister, fare thee well;
Thou'st gone to a happy home, With angels oyer to dwell,
And with God upon His throne.
Little sister, fare thee well;
Thou art gone homo to thy rest.. Sweet ia the sound of the bell
That is singing thou art blest.
Little sister, fare thee well;
Thou'rt gone no more to return; The tide of time can nerer tell   .
When 'twill be from death.to spurn.
Little sister, faro thee well;
Thy troubles will all be o'er When the echo of the knell
Bids thee rise forever more.
Little sister, fare thee well;
Thou art laid beneath the soil Far away in lonely dell—
Thou art gone from all thy toil.
Little sister, fare thee well;
Thou art laid iu a tiny grave, To rest for a little spell.
For Christ does say he will save.
ORIGINALITIES.
IVritlen for the Qospet Herald,
Jacob's Ladder.
BY  0.   0.   WAllD.
Somowhere in that grand division of the globo, known as Asia, a groat many years ago, there lived an aged and vonei-able man. This man had two sons, who had jast reached the age of manhood. They wero both shep¬ herds, and ought to have lived together pleasantly, but jealousy, that darkest thought which was ever harbored in tho bosom of man, had sprung up be¬ tween them. With such a feeling as this existing between them, it was not to be expected that they would live to¬ gether in peace. Accordingly, before long the eldest expressed his intention of killing his brother whenever a suit¬ able time should arrive. When the younger brother heard of this, he left the home of his childhood to become a wanderer in a strange land. With the blessing of his father, which he gave him oh parting, the pedestrian Started upon his lonely journey. We can imagine the feelings which filled the bosom of this young man in such circumstances. lie perhaps never ex¬ pected to see his parents again. His mind no doubt was filled with gloomy fears and apprehensions, as to the fu¬ ture which awaited him. It may have appeared to him as if there was not one to take any interest in him, no one to care what became of him; but the All-seeing Eye was looking down upon him with interest—with feelings such as none other could ex¬ perience, and shortly after manifested his interest toward him in an unmis¬ takable manner. He traveled onward until the sun had sunk behind the western horizon, and as night began to draw her dark curtain over the earth, he alighted upon a certain place, and taking a stone for a pillow, he lay down'to sleep, with nothingto protect him from the dampness of the earth, and no covering save the bright can¬ opy of heaven. The fatigue of the day's journey made sleep sweet, and ' the  weary traveler was soon  in  the
land of dreams. Ho dreamed that he saw a ladder, whoso top reached to heaven. The Lord stood at the top of the ladder upon which angels were as¬ cending and descending. This ladder was an emblem of Him who was to come, to redeem the world from sin.— It was also to show that there was a connecting link between earth and heaven, and he who would inherit ever¬ lasting life must first climb this lad¬ der. This is no less true in a worldly point of view than in a spiritual one. He who would rise to eminence and fame, must also go over the same rug¬ ged grounds. There is no other road by which you can go. The truth is inevitable. Our design in giving you a short biography of this man's life, was to introduce the idea of thia lad¬ der to your minds. This ladder is composed of three rounds, denominated Faith, Hope and Charity. There are the three pillars whioh underlay the great principles of Christianity, and upon the observance of which depends the origin and success of all human plans. There are, besides these, an innumerable number of aids, butthey all spring from tfteae three parent stems, and are closely allied to them. The first round, or beginning of this ladder, is Fai;h, without which we would scarcely commence an enter¬ prise, and Would be sure to fail if we should commence one. No person would undertake any project without he had fuilh that he could succeed- without he believed he would be suc¬ cessful. Had not faith been exercised, America had nover been discovered— steam never applied—no scientific ex¬ periments made. Columbus believed that another continent existed upon the globe; ho believed he could dis¬ cover it if ho h:!,d the means which would enable hini to go in search of it. It was this faith which led him to labor with an indefatigable zeal for tbe accompliahraent of his design.— It was faith in the success of his pro¬ ject Wich caused Isabella to help him, by furnishing him means to carry out his plans. So also in the case of Eob- ert Fulton, when ho applied steam.— He- had faith in the power of steam, and tried the experiment; and as the result of his investigations, we havo our splendid steamers plying up and down our beautiful rivers—our cars running over the length and breadth of our land, carrying passengers through the world at a rate which bo- fore would have been thought incredi¬ ble. It was this same principle whieh actuated Franklin when he chained the lightnings and taught them to write. So we might say of all the otlier great inventions of the past; and this is equally true, as we have before said, in a spiritual point of view. He who would become a christian must exer¬ cise this faith, first, in the existence of a God, second, *n the salvation as pur¬ chased by Christ; third, that there re¬ mains a rest for the righteous beyond the grave.
The second round of this ladder is Hope ; it is placed so high thatitcan- not be reached except from the round just below it. Every person who ever reaches it, must first climb to the round of faith. Hope is closely allied to faith; when once the latter has aroused the mind, and caused it to put forth its  exertions, Hope stimu¬
lates it and keeps it alive. Were it not for this, whon difficulties ariso, we would be discouraged, and aban¬ don our projects; but whenever diffi¬ culties, trials and discouragements arise, Hope holds out inducements to impel us forward. It shows us the benefits which we shall reap if we persevere, and under its influence, we are stimulated to greater exertions, and led to overcome di£Sculties which we before thought insurmountable.— Cares and tri;vls are scarcely thought of, and we seem scarcely to encoun¬ ter them at all; but laying them aside, we press forward to the object we have in view, and opposition flees before us and it is accomplished; but if, on the contrary, the individual has not hope and courage enough to car¬ ry out his designs,, better would it be for him had he never commenced them—all . his labor and expense is lost, and he who climbs no farther than faith upon this ladder, will find that he has had all his troublo fbr nothing. How necessary, how essen¬ tial then, that we exercise this faculty. We now eome to the third and last, round. This is by far the most im- portantround of the ladder. It is true, in some cases we can accomplish great and glorous achievements,, without tho concurrence of this principle; but these cases are limited. Man is not an isolated being. In performing the duties of life, he has his associations. He is obliged to have aid from others to enable him to accomplish his pur¬ poses, and Charity is the only thing which will procure him this aid; for if he ia not obliging and courteous—ready to perform kind actions himself, he need not expect kind actions from others; and except he has aid from others, ho can accomplish nothing of consequence. 'Tis true, a man may study out great theories alone, but he must have aid to enable him to put those theories in pi*actice, or they are of no value. Every man is a depen¬ dent being, not only upon his Crea¬ tor, but upon his fellow man. The author is dependentupon tho publisher, the lawyer upon his client, and the client upon hia lawyer; and even ono nation is dependent upon another; and in order that their mutual rela¬ tions be su.stained, they must exercise charity, which is sometimes tippropri- ately called thegreatlaw of lovo, and this is the only principle which will insure peace and safety. A sovereign who has the power may govern his kingdom,without exercising this—ho may keep them in subjection through fear—but even then ho cannot accom¬ plish what ho could otherwise do ; for should he ha\e occasion to load his subjects to War, he will find them loth to obey his commands—ho will find them ready fbr mutiny—to expel him from his throne at tho first opportuni¬ ty; but let him be kind, affable and obliging to his aubjeots, and he will find them ready to Itiy down their lives, as it were, for him, at a moments no¬ tice. But when wo come to look at tho exercibo of lovo, in a spiritual point of view, wefind that it isone of tlie es¬ sential ingredients whioh form the spirit of Christianity, No man can be a christian without it. It has boon compared to the beginning of a Cathe¬ dral tower, which at first, being sur¬ rounded by the rest of tho structure,
is inevitable; but which, in the course of time, rises above the wall, and shoots its spire into the air so high that its huge cross shines like an evening star, while the rest of the structure is en¬ veloped in darkness. So love, here is surrounded by the mighty bulwark of the other graces, but while they will be covero'l with the robe of darkness, it will shine luminous against the sky of eternity.
WfiUCTi for Ihe Gospel Herald.
Is he  right I—The  Baptism   of John Christian Baptism?
Eld. Sutton, in Herald No. 37, asks: "Was the baptism of John Christian; baptism?" Ho'answers: "Certainly,^ according to our judgment." Now I just lovo to hear men talk their senti¬ ments right out in this way. We know just what they mean. But, how¬ ever much I love Bro. S. for his frank¬ ness, 1 cannot accept his sentiment. Look at it. He says "John's baptism was unto repentance. Is Christian baptism unto repentance? "For' (to produce) remission of sins." Is tliis tho design of Christian baptism? He says "John's work was peculiar to him." That is, it did not belongto any other reign or dispensation. - Is this tho case with Christian baptism ? Then, since the "decrease'.',.pf John's work Christian baptism h;' ¦ ^een un¬ authorized ; fbr John's w«.,9v'or bap¬ tism ciosod with his life; so it being Christian baptism decreased as Christ or Ohriatianity increased.
But lot it be tried in another way. If John's is Christian baptism, call it by that name. "But when he saw many of tho Pharisees and Saducees como to Christian baptism." Matt. 3: 7. "ChriBtian baptism, whence was it, from heavon or of men?" Matt. 21 : 25. "And all tho publicans justified. God; being baptized with Christian baptism." Luke 7: 29. "Beginning ivom Christian baptism." Acts 1: 22n "And began from Galilee, after Chris¬ tian Iia-ptisra which John preached." Acts 10: 37. "When John had first preached before Jesus' coming, the Chrtstian baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel." Acts 13: 24. "Apollos spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the bitptism of John." Acts IS: 25. This certainly does interrupt tho har¬ mony of theae texts, as well as change, materially, the sense. This it should not do, if John's is Christian baptism.
Brother S. infers that John was a Christian, and that his waa Christian baptism from tho fact, that his mission was a preparatory one. If this infer¬ ence bo correct, then all the messen¬ gers, mcssagt'S, ceremonies and offer¬ ings of all time preceding John, were Christian; for certainly they were preparatory. Thoy were proclaimers of tho coming of the King, and serv¬ ants of the King; so what ever effect these duties and relations .had upon John and his baptism, they havo tho same upon all that had any relation to Christ. How is it, then? Wero the aacrifiecH, rjtes and edicis of iMosos Christiau?
Another inference is, that John preached tho kingdom of heaven, which was the theme of Messiah and the Apostles, therefore he ^as a Chris-