Runaway inflation, coupled with the lack of hard cash, has made life extremely hard for most common folk in the Confederacy. Food stuffs and other staples of life, items that are now cost-prohibitive for many home front citizens, are so expensive as to often be out of reach in terms of acquiring an adequate supply for one’s family. Many Southern wives are forced to use ingenuity to merely survive.
The problem of hoarding by persons of means is a fairly common topic of discussion within church walls. Today’s North Carolina Baptist Biblical Recorder reports on the recent Bertie Union Meeting (a joint gathering of church leaders for the purpose of discussing and debating theology and ecclesiology as pertains to local congregational life) held at the Bethlehem Baptist Church of Hartford County, North Carolina. During this gathering, the delegates–all white males–had formally debated the problem of “accumulation” by posing the question:
“Is it right for men, during the continuance of the war, to increase their estates by accumulation?”
Following a period of discussion in which biblical arguments both for and against were presented, those present voted and the question “was decided in the negative.”
In another scriptural vein, a second article in today’s Biblical Recorder contends that Baptists have a superior view of the Bible, as evidenced in army revival successes.
It is the testimony of all observers that in the recent revivals of religion in the army of Northern Virginia a very large proportion of the converts have become Baptists. Some have stated that one half, others that one third have joined Baptist churches: it is certain, that more have connected themselves with the denomination than any other.–Now what is the reason of this remarkable partiality? It is not because the Baptists have more chaplains and Missionaries laboring in the army, for I regret to say that while a much larger denomination, they have not more than the Presbyterians; they have but a few more than the Episcopalians; while be it said to their lasting honor, the Methodists have twice as many as we. It is not because our colporters have been more numerous and more indefatigable in circulating our denominational literature than those of other churches, for while they have been numerous and have labored with zeal and fidelity, they have, in no case, circulated a single tract or book of controversy. By general consent, controversy is prohibited in the army, and this very fact if I mistake not explains the whole matter. By this concurrent prohibition of sectarian preaching and literature, we have the Pedobaptists just where we wan them–confined to the word of God.
It was long ago conceded that our polemical theology was very able–certainly on the subject of baptism, it is inferior to no other denomination, and we fear not to enter the lists of controversy with any of them at any time, yet we will enter into a solemn covenant with them to burn every book of controversy we have, even “Carson on Baptism” if they will do the same. The world, the churches, and the truth as Christ taught it, and left it to be taught would lose nothing by such a bona fide and very candid enquirer would soon learn how baptism should be administered and to whom.
T. H. P.
Sources: “Proceedings of the Bertie Union Meeting,” Biblical Recorder, December 16, 1863 (link); T. H. P., “The Bible the Best Polemic for Baptists,” Biblical Recorder, December 16, 1863 (link)
