jhr :kturricm .'''trrstigirri ii John AWeir 15ju1y 69 New Series,Vol. V, -„,- r •-•-• IL. Strictly in Advance $2.50, Otherwise SS. I Postage 20cts, to be paid where delivered. f smtritan Ittoixgttriatt. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1868. ENLARGEMENT OF THE EDITORIAL CORPS. Among the measures designed to increase the effi ciency and attractiveneas of our paper at this time, our readers will welcome the new arrangement by which a large and distinguished corps of writers is added to the Editorial Department. As the designation of these brethren has met the cordial approval of the Pastors' Association of this city, they will be known as THE EDITORIAL COMBHTTEE. Their contributions will be generally accompanied with the initials of the writers. Their names are as Rev.. Z. H. Humphrey, D.D., Pastor of Calvary Church. ' new: iterriek Johnson, D.D., Pastor of-the First Church. . . Rev. Danl. March. MD., Pastor of Clinton St. • Church. Rev. Peter Stryker, D.D., Pastor of ; N. Broad St. Church. nes. George F. WLswell, D.D., Pastor of Green Hill Church. Rev. E. E. Adams, D. D., Prot in Lincoln Vol. varsity. Rev. Samuel W. Dnfitetd;Speciad Cor respondent. liAr. Robert E. Thompson will continue to sot as Editor of the News Department. Correspondents in every Presbytery and Sy nod will promptly furnish us with fresh items of news from their respective fields. CHRISTIANITY THE TRUE RADICALISM. Notwithstanding the odium attaching to the word in the minds of many pious people, there is nothing so radical as true piety. It goes far be neath the surface; it quite undermines the therely social and political radicalism of the day; it reaches down to the granite foundations of the Gospel. Radicalism professes to go to the root of evils, and aims to Sear them , up and out at any cost. But what strikes half so directly at the root of all evil, or what , is so severe, and sweeping as the declaration: "Ye must be born sg tie?, All the revolutionary, and progressive soherns3 which have threatened to convulse the world, are a mere scratching on the surface com pared with this. Itegenara.tiorij the, ah.suso the individual nature from sin to holiness, from self and the world to God, from pride and in difference to humble faith in Christ, is the only true radical Reformation. The philosopher and social reformer work out their theories and use the technical terms of their science; but the truly pious man is alone engaged with the very roots of character and the foundations of things : God and the soul; sin and holiness; conscience, penitence, grace, Atonement. The reformer talks of legislation, of war, of suffrage, and it is well; but his radicalism does not reach half the depth of the Christian worker, who noiselessly toils to plant gratitude to God, consecration to Christ, and charity to man among the very springs of action, deep in the individual Indeed we have a right to say that there is no thing radical but the Bible and the systems which conform to it; there is nothing in all the world of such intense moral depth and ear nestness; Which makes holiness the prime at tribute of its God and the vital element of its heaven; which abhors all sin as intrinsically hateful, and will hear nothing of expediency or of compromise, but confronts it with a perfect law and an eternal hell; which accepts no out ward conformity to its rule of life, but requires truth in the inward part; which teaches us to pray : Search me, 0 God, And know my heart; which overwhelms us with such declarations as " Thou hest set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the litht of Thy countenance ;" or this : " The word of God is quick and powerful, 'and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Is not this radical enough ? And what one person in the universe is the true root of all progress, in whom we can feel that we have' got down to the infinite substruc ture of all things; of man, of society, of history, of the past, of the future, of life, of growth, and of well-being; who is it but CHRIST ? who came to earth to grapple with the very essence of evil in the unrepented, unforgiven sin of man; who led captivity captive ; who was anointed to preach the Gospel to the poor, who was sent to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of <sight to • the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord ;. who, by the blood of Gethsemane and of Calvary, the ascen sion gift of Olivet and the outpouring of His Holy Spirit, laid the foundations of the King dom of Heaven—the city of God on earth. A reform based upon theories and speculations and the experienced and expediences of life must be shallow compared with that whioh is baied on A LIVING DIVINE PERSON. The grand difficulty about radicalism, and the reason of its being - considered an ill omened name, is just because it is not radical enough. It is too often a billow pretentious Cheat. Radi calism, which is 'not deeply, earnestly nioral, which does not go to the core of man's being in his spiritual nature, which sees in the' adjust ment of the mere frame-work -of society, the panacea for all evils; is the merestquackery. True radicalism sees and admits that the ills of hu manity are beyond inere lumen eure. It looks for help in the fearful struggle, 'to -Him that:is' mighty to save. Dirks to prayer. The sin of man, his estrange4ntfrem Go& his rejeCtion of Chriat are a miglitthurden, which it :brings With ' groanings that cannot ioe tittered to the' throne of infinite compassio . In the ottponnng of the Holy 'Spirit upon all' flesh is its only hope. Christian . Radicalism I that is what we 'ueed , to-day. May all 'our' minietry and church'Mem - here be baptized with it :afresh, and we • shall goon hear of its blessed fruit's in multitudes-turn ing frora their sins'te.GOd. • And, Christian' 'doh' and ministers ) -cherish no, unworthy fear of the radicalism of moral referni. GraPple yourselva : in the very spirit' Of. Christ , and •pour religion With every moral evil.' Give it no quarter. Be cautious in many respects, but in none more 'so than to' cotn'proMise".such a..f)rec ions a thing as principle. And take, care always to be more radical than the noisy set who think the removal of tufo* outward eviler will bring on the Milennium.' • Yon know better, and , •imuiti work accordingly. APOST 13ENEDICTIONi • • 1, We lately heard a foung pastor at the °laie of a very interesting service, pronounce the follOVr-, ing words as the beneaiction: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and' the love of Gotrour Heavenly -Father,' and the communion and fellow ship of the Holy Spirit, be. and renuain with us,: and 'with all 4he people of God;from- this' tim'e: forth and forevermore. Amen." Shape of our departed theOlogians, what say you to 111is?' Should Clutltnifir, - , - Cannon or Miller bate heard' one of their -pupils thus conclude the worship of the sanctuary; would they not lift up their' sainted hands in holy astonishment ? That was a " benediction "—a good saying— in the same sense in which the sermon, and each prayer and each hymn of praise was a benedic tion. But was it a benediction in the true sense in which that word is applied to the concluding service of the sanctuary ? We are aware that in some Evangelical churches the benediction is pronounced as a-prayer, and that the officiating minister says "us," not " you." But is there not a distinction ? A prayer can be offered by any one, whether a layman or an ordained min ister. But the benediction proper, we think, can only be pronounced legitimately by the or dained minister. We regard it as a ministerial act. The man of God standing in the sacred desk is invested with a holy power. He is a suc cessor of the Apostles. He is the vicegerent of Jehovah.. And solemnly, in the place of God, he does not properly pray—but he pronounces in the divine name a 'blessing upon the people. Have we not Bible authority for this opinion ? Look at the . priestly blessing with which Aaron and his sons were commanded to bless the child ren of Israel—Numbers vi. 24-26; " The Lord bless thee," &e. Not " 0 Lord, bless us. See also the patriarchal blessing, Gen. xxvii. 28, 29, and Gen. xlviii. 15, 15. Notice also the salutations and benedictions of Paul and of some of the other Apostles at the beginning and close of their Epistles. There is another objection to the form used by this young pastor, and which is alas ! coo fre. quently used by older ministers. It was evidently ! intended as a quotation of 2 Corr xiii. 14. But it was not repeated correctly. The words spoken did not agree in form or substance with the benediction of Paul. They contain a' very ap -1 parent tautology. Communion and Fellowship as used in the Bible are synonomous. They both 1 translate Hoomoyea. See 1 Cor. i. 9, and 2 Cor. xiii. 14. Moreover there was a redundance in the form employed which made us think the pastor liked Paul's words pretty well, but felt they ought to be explained, and so he amplified the inspired expression, either to bring it to the comprehen sion of his fellow worshippers, or to impress the truth more vividly upon their minds. • Would it not be in good taste, more honoring to God, more pleasing to man, when we attempt to quote a benediction or any other portion of. Scripture, to do it correctly ? At a recent ecclesiastical meet ing ,the Moderator in concluding a solemn service pronouncei a benediction in a manner similar to the above; and we could not ..but agree with a good brother by our side who whispered in our ear, " That was good, but he did not make any PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1868. better by trying to improve ihe language of the Spirit." We do not wish to sit in criticism upon our brethren whom we respect and love. But so Of ten have we *Marti intelligent laymen express their 'dissatisfaction with the manner in which this dosing exercise of the sanctuary service Is, performed that we cannot but throw out these hititti to our-fellow pastors, and especially to our young brethren. No part of the service can be, more 't3cileMn thane this, and as the conclusion this *hale it deierves attention. Deliberitely,) impreiiiVely, tenderly, with all the authority anal iffekien - iif 'a pastor shbuld the bleSsing be pro• itouitceir the' flock, either in the ilastoilk own words .or theie •of the SeriPtitre: when inspired language is employed' let it be: quoted . cerreCtly.. P. DL 'MOM OiI:PHILADELPHIA. For the sake bf oar city; quite asniuch as for the sake of the 'honored arttll gifted' 'President Of Princeton! College, "We irejnine -, in the recep-, tion'iiien to Dr: MOdobh In the SeVenthchurch„ on Tuesday evening oflaitlweek: The lionizing of a literary celebrity of :the elevated 'class to which' Dr .3feCosh belengs, is by no means a, common event with us who generally give over Otir.College and High gchool Festivals' td 'misses in their teens, with hete and- there , a Doeter of. Divinity, while we consider ourselves too' busy to turn aside once'a year to glance at the fountains oflearning and, culture in our city. An occa-, 141.1:Trfot calling outtheliterarS , lnd'philosephical, interest of our people, so that ;at least two of • the learned professinns take_part in it, is something to be thankful for. The formation too, of a Philadelphia Alumni Society of one. of. our distinguished Literary Institutions, one' of. whose earliest aets,was the highly,successful.re ception, just allnded to, is a matter. rex : sincere congratulation. I No matter if tlie : practical.purposeof thenove ment was financial. It is one of, the most, ye- Markableancl i fneopraging featur,es of the ,times 4 that our moneyed men are taking such a,genc- I rows interest in: the literary institution s - of .the country;and enabling them to multiply.soireat ly the efficiency of their appliances, and to sell to their professors' chairs, with cosmopolitan spirit, the ripest and most famous : teachers of all lands. We hope the Philadelphia Alumni of Princeton College will go to work zealously, and do a hand some thing for their Alma Mater, who herself has found a sort of step-mother in.the State of New Jersey, and is, perhaps, the most scantily en dowed, by far, of all the older and more famous of our institutions. When inquired of as to .her wealth, she can only point to her many distin guished sons, and say with the Roman matron, (as Mr. Alexander reminded us,) Ilsec orna menta mea." Rich in her graduates, and rich in historic memories of revolutionary times, Princeton is poorly endowed, not only in money, but in those grander and fresher associations of loyalty to Union and to human rights, which have recon secreted all our Northern Colleges of any impor tance. None of those talismanic words could be, or dared be, uttered at the, reception of last week, which would have quickened the pulses and kindled the souls of a New England or a Western audience, on a similar occasion. Princeton, we be lieve, has erected no tablet to her martyrs in the new and broader contest for liberty; has no peen to float with undying ,sweetness through, her halls like that of Lovell at. Cambridge; and the rallying of her sons from afar to put the laurel crown upon her heroes living and dead, and to write her name with theirs high up before the world upon the new and bloodier and more glorious roll of liberty, union and justice in the nineteenth cen tury, if such there was, does not seem to have left a deep impress upon the large body of her Alumni in Philadelphia. And it is, in this aspect, an act of self-sacrifice for a man who so thoroughly under stands and so warmly sympathizes with the true American heart, to take the .position which Dr. McCosh now holds. But it is with no surrender of his deeply grounded and matured principles that he comes to Princeton. His first utterance in his inaugural address, which we regret we have not yet found time carefully to examine, closed with the utterance of a sentiment -.radical enough to startle the very timbers of the. College from their places. And the selection and emphatic reading of this sentence by Attorney General Brewster, with.the thanks which he . so warmly tendered to its authbr, and • the applause.swith which it was received by the,, assembly, gives us ground to hope that the presence of the accom plished,• ardent and genial ,Dr. McCosh in that institution maybe, in every sense, as life from the dash. ,We quote the sentence as an appropriate close: • .",BuLyou will -eipect,of one descended from the old Covenanting stock, who fought so re solutely for the rights of conscience, and whose blood dyed the heather hills of Scotland ; from one who was brought up in a district where there are martyrs' tombs in every church-yard; from one who was connected for so many years with the Irish system of national education, which allows no one to tamper with the religious con victions of pupils, that he shall take care that everyone here shall have full freedom of thought; that whatever be his religious creed or political party, be he from the North, or be he from the South, be he of a white or a dark color, he shall `fiave , free access to all benefits which this .college bestow; and , that a minority, nay, even a' ingle conscientious individual, shall be protecte4,from the tyranny ; of the majority, and encouraged to pursue his ,studies without moles tatibb, provided always.thet not being interfered with himself, he does not interfere with others." MR. MILL'S DEFEIT. The defeat ofJohn Stnart Mill for Parliament 'h England, by the Westminster Constituency, is n . significant and in seine : respects encouraging, fact. In some respects, we say, for so • far as it implies opposition to the righteous reform in suf frage, Church and . State, , ,and other political mat ters now in • prooress in , England it is to be de lored. Mr. Mill was one of the most prominent, intelligent, and able of the advocates of such re form; the one man, in fact, in all England, who , by his brilliant and successful efforts to ground these reforms,in the great principles of science, vas, in one aspect, most deserving of , a seat in the first Parliament of the Reform Movement. So far, it .innst be admitted, Mr.. Mill's defeat is a public calamity. So far , too , as it springs from sheer ig norance of - the man, and incapacity to understand his views, from want of appreciation of real merit and fitness for public position, or from a blind bigotry which has become the pliant tool of pre . judice and party, or finally, from a, state of cor ruption which, could , only be manage& by gross bribery, and counter -corruption such as Mr. Mill' has steadily refused to practice,tl3 defeat is to be dolployed by'the friends of a free and a pure bal lot box, All over the world. All t'hese causes, however, were in operation when Mr. Mill was a candidate and was elected to Ile Parliament now passing away. And it is not likely that in the advance made by the Reform movement since that time, they would have alone been sufficient to cause Mr. Mill's defeat for the new Parliament. Doubtless it was then as now, sufficiently well known that Mr: Mill was not " a religious man," stood committed to no creed, and. in no sense represented the religious sentiment of the community.. That much in a candidate, the mass of electors, including religious men, there and here, wisely or unwisely, are willing to let pass. Something far worse, more decided, espe cially in a candidate of unimpeachable moral character, is necessary to turn the masses of a nominally Christian country against him, and that something was fuilaished in the Atheistic leanings and sympathies of Mr. Mill as developed in .the contest. Mr. Mill is not a positive and partisan Atheist, and has never classed himself with Atheists, but he holds to a philosophy called, "positive," just because it will have nothing to do with theology and metaphysics, and because it confines itself to sensation and perception, and their immediate mental results, scientifically treated. There is no room in it for either of the processes, a priori, or a posteriori by which we arrive at the first , principles of natural theology. True, the author, Comte, attempted to supply a form of worship, but there was no God, and no superhuman objects in it; and though Mr. Mill repudiates it with contempt, and though he is exceedingly reticent on this whole subject, he does say : "We venture to think that a religion may exist without a God"! We will not undertake to defend the motives of the Tory opponents of Mr. Mill in Westmin ster, in addressing to him, during the recent Par liamentary canvass, questions in regard to his re ligious belief. It would require conlricierable evi dence to show that they were animated with great zeal •for the vital interests of religion in their pro ceedings; they wished to defeat Mr. Mill and carry the Tory candidate. They were politicians, and they used whatever method promised them suc cess. Bat they made us acquainted with the facts. They brought out a characteristic letter from Mr. Mill, in which he declared, not that he was an Atheist, but that whether he were or not it could make no difference, and that it was a per sonal.matter which voters had no right to know. In this position he was • quite consistent with the spirit of his philosophy to, which it is & matter of indifference whether there be a God or not. But Mr. Mill still further betrayed his lean ings towards Atheism, by writing a letter in de fense of an Atheist of the grossest and most of fensive sort, named Bradlan,gh, who we believe, like himself, was a candidate for, a place. in liar liament. This act was probably fatal to Mr. Mill's Genesee Evangelist, No. 1178. I Home & Foreign Miss. 82.00. 1 Address :-1334 Chestnut Street prospects; at all events, Mr. Mill was defeated, and the result must be an unfolding to the popu lar mind, as it could never otherwise have been done, of the Atheistic leanings of Mr. Mill's phil osophy, the branding of 11 11 as a sympathi zer with the worst forms of Atheisnkand the more extensive reprobation of the positive philosophy itself. And whatever less satisfactory featurei the case may present, we see that there is in the popular heart a horror of Atheism. The man who affects to treat it as a matter of indifference, goes in the face of the deepest human convictions. The heaven-daring impiety of denying God is a mat ter of indifference only to the most abandoned of characters or the most perverse of thinkers. An indifference to which God or no God, infinity or vacuity, a Universal Father or a Universal Abyss are all the same, is intolerable and monstrous. To try to be now-committal on such a question, is to try to be in and out of the universe at the same time. I have a right to suspect man or wo man of incapacity to discharge rightly any duty in life who denies the being of a God and so de stroys All the foundations of duty. And when the very highest and most responsible duties o life, those of-government, are to be entrusted to my representative, I should consider myself un fit to choose a representative, if I were indiffer ent to his views on such a fundamental matter in all, human relations as the being of a God. And the candidate that would persuade me that his views on thatsubject are personal matters, on which I should be indifferent, accuses me of in competence to act the part of an elector, as well as confesses his unfitness to act the part of a leg islator. Atheism in government! that nearest of all human things to God; that which has nothing but expediency, association of ideas or force to sustain it, apart from divine sanctions? That which em bodies the nation's past, and trains and moulds the whole nation for the future? Atheism in a free goirernment! which rests upon personal rec titude, self-restraint aitci mutual confidence, and which needs for its permanence, to be vital in in every part with a recognition of the being, the justice and the infinity of God? What is this but a deep and horrible delusion, or the morbid fancy of theorists who wish to experiment in the lives and well-being of millions of their fellow creatures, forgetting that religion is a fundamental principle of their being ? We believe the defeat of Mr. Mill is a sign of wholesome dread of his errors and of his indiffer entism on the holiest of questions, and an encour aging proof of the soundness of the popular feel ing. There have not been wanting indications of a similar kind in our recent municipal election, when two opposing candidates for a high office were contrasted as religious or irreligious men. Republicanism in Europe or America must set itself in undisguised antagonism to Atheism and infidelity. g We have been accustomed to regard the Editor of the Independent as a person of rare literary endowments and of enviable editorial abilities; as a writer of fine taste, and not want ing in the gift of poesy; his quiver well fur nished with shafts to pierce error, but not more keen of edge than polished of surfaee. That there was hidden from public view, a side to his nature, coarse, malignant, envemoned, which could find utterance only in words of boundless vituperation, we had scarcely dreamed. Yet such is the fact. His personal assault upon one of the Editors of the Evangelist last week, is enough to make journalists, religious and secular, hang their heads in shame. We do not believe such paragraphs would be admitted to the edi torial page of the New York Herald, or in any sheet above Brick Pomeroy's Democrat. Most unwise Independent! If you wished to pour scorn on Mr. Craighead, why make it patent to all the world that there is, at least, one Edi tor work than he ? We cannot soil our page with quotations from the article. Suffice it to say that it is in reply to an article in the Evan gelist, sustaining the complaint of Western Con gregationalists against the orthodoxy of the In dependent, and which contains no line or word to justify such a style of reply. ter We are pained beyond expression at the melancholy end which has befallen one of our well-known, highly useful, honored and able young Episcopal ministers, Rev. Robert Ravin, burned in the recent steamboat disaster on tI e- Ohio. His earnest, patriotic spirit, which was especially developed in connection with the Chri, - tion Commission, and : deeply evangelical pleas. ,for the spiritual and bodily wants of the-soldiers, and his catholic spirit, rendered him more than a favorite with every denoinination. We are in . , formed that lie had very. opportunely lamed his life for $5,000, in an Accident Company, before he started.
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