Vol. YI, No. 15.—' Whole No. 284.
[TOR THE AMERICAN fRESBYTBRIAN. J
Hymn for the Nation.
BY DAVID BATES.
0 God ! this Nation thou hast bless’d
With peace and plenty many years,
Now sorely troubled and distress'd,
Looks up to Thee through bitter tears.
Acknowledging Thy sovereign power,
She comes to Thee to know Thy will;
And asks for light in this dark hour,
And strength thy purpose to fulfil.
A cloud is resting on her fane,
And she is humbled in the dust;
Wilt Thou not lift it off again
When she renews to Thee her trust?
It is a great and goodly land
And dedicated from its birth
To freedom, by that patriot band
Who knew what liberty was worth.
Now, some unmindful of their pledge,
Do not alone despise the gem,
But give their treachery keener edge,
And stab the breast that nurtured them.
Nerve Thou our arms to smite her foes,
And every rebel heart appal;
Be Thine the vengeance of our blows,
But not in anger let them fall.
They are our brothers: 0, how long
We’ve home the blight of their great shame,
And carried them, with all their wrong,
To power, honor, wealth and fame!
We still would take them by the hand,
And make them free, to free their slaves,
So, crush rebellion in our land,
And drive hence all the traitor knaves.
Thus, free and happy, great and good,
The oppress’d shall seek our peaceful shore,
And millions stand as Moses stood,
And see Thy goodness pass before.
The Christian's Song in Humiliation.
That does me good which humbles me,
And when I am abased most,
More have I, than if heir to all
The empty boners Earth can boast.
Tis not the pleasantest estate,
Far hidden in the vale below;
Yet thither, from the hills around,
Enriching streams make haste to flow.
And surely it doth comfort yield,
Amid dishonor, loss oij shame,
To think—Now in the very place
Where blessings most abound I am!
When bowed beneath some heavy cross
I toiling go, or while I bear
The lesser humbllngs of each hour,
This makes their frowning pWsem»-&i*.. —_
The cross.
If thou a Christian art, bound to thy lot
Shall be some Cross. It is the load all bear
Who follow Christ toward heaven. When at length,
After long bafflings, thou hast found out thine,
■ s cvk not to loose it more. Turn, and in love
Embrace it, for whatever shape it Wear,
It kin truth, thy friend. The ease it spoils,
Or the good gifts it seems to hold thee from,
Are nothing, to those blessings yet unknown, -
Ulrich in th’ mysterious orderings of thy fate
Air knit with it, and it alone, for thee.
—MEMTATIONS AND HYMNS.
[FOB THE AMERICAS FRESBYTERIAS.]
FEMALE PATRIOTISM.
Dr ring a recent visit to the central part j
Illinois, the writer, riding with a friend
-rough the wild prairie, met with an acci
■iit, —the horses ran away, upset the car
age, and threw us out, with some slight in
i'.'y. We were obliged to walk some dis
inee through the sloughs and tall grass,
fibre we reached a poor, miserable shanty,
muiling in the midst of a partially cultivated
"ft of wild land. In the house, we found a
"all girl, nursing a little infant of a few
Mils old, and on inquiry, found that the
'‘in i' and the rest of the family were in
">rn-field gathering the crop. In a few
fonts after our arrival, she came up to
il' the house with the wagon loaded with
■ii and pumpkins, followed by five small
v ' >' asked for her husband, and found that
l>ad gone to the war. “What! has he
i't vou with all these seven children, and the
nn to care for, to fight the battle of his
"imry?" “Yes,” she replied, “he went
t" town, — there enlisted, — and sent word
an' for me to take good care of the chii
-1 )i. and to gather in the crops.” “But, my
<1 madam, how could your husband do this,
“mg you, and these children to care for,
to attend to the farm besides, —did he
light?” “0, sir! husband thought ii
tight for him to fight for his country, anc
’’"ink so, too; we will get along, sir! ( we
111 gather the corn, potatoes and pumpkins;
,! i and sell the hogs; and when winter
' "ns on, we will go into the timber, and
!l ri! stay until spring.
"My husband did right,—the men must
fl "nd fight for ‘the Union,’ and we women
■‘"-i work and take their place on the farm."
i i ere was true patriotism. A delicate wo
: about thirty-five years of age, with seven
" hen poor and needy, left on the wild prai
■ hr removed from civilization, left to
• 'do for herself and them, and to take care
i "ne twenty acres of corn, etc.
11 was a beautiful sight, and a most in
'’•"etive lesson to me. A mother with a
1 "e family, willing to spare her husbant
1 'lie army, yet cheerful and pleasant, cx
"ing simple, childlike reliance on God anc
4 herself, without a misgiving for the
Ma n offered a recompense for the use of
"hi "agon and horses to convey ns to our
'l'ng place, she declined making »hy
'-' j saying, “ I can’t charge yon, stran
■' anything, when misfortune has over
you, from home; you are welcome, an
h’de girl shall go with you to bring back
„; v >giin.”
i!lis is but one specimen of thousands o:
' v,| i'Hn, all over our land; in the city, anc,
’l"‘ wild prairie of the West. Need we
! for our country, when we have such
1 hhe faith, self-reliance, and indepen
"" I" our mothers and daughters ? God
bless the women! If we gain not the viotorv
they will certainly take the field, and save
our beloved land. J. M P
Belvidere, N. J.
REV. W. ARTHUR OK THE WAR
This eloquent and devoted English
leyan minister, author of “Italy in Transi
tion,” and other popular works, is destined
to be even better known and more highly es
teemed in this country for his'clear compre
hension of our cause, and his vigorous cham
pionship of the North before the British pub
lic. The Methodist recently contained aMI
account of his late contribution to th s London
Review, (the organ of the Wesley ana of that
country,) on our existing troubles, from which
we make a number of extracts. Defending
our President from the imputation of pro
slaveryism, he says:
“ The North did not compromise. Its new
President manfully avowed his adherence to
that Constitution which he was elected to ad
minister, and sworn to support. Some Eng
lishmenreproached him thathe did not declare
for the abolition of slavery. He had no power
to do so; the Constitution gave him ’ pone.
No law, no vote, no trust placed it inhis hands!
It was elsewere; and his were other powers,
which he would faithfully use, as he had
sworn to use them. Had he at once declared
for abolition, it would have divided the North
within itself, as effectually as North- and
South were already divided.
“ But many of those-who held up the pro
fessions of Mr. Lincoln to the English people,
as proof that there was little or no difference
between him and Jefferson Davis on the ques
tion of slavery, could not possibly be so igno
rant as they pretended to be. It would, argue
as much information to say that the lord-lieu
tenant of Ireland was a papist, because' he
would administer the laws which recognise
and endow Maynooth. He has no other title
to the post th£h a willingness' to administer
the law as it is ; and,;if.he propose to depart
from it whilp it isjaw, he is false to all trust.
This was Mr. Lincoln’s position. His whole
life had been given to the anti-slavery cause;
for it he had suffered long political ostracism,
had made more sacrifices than any English
politician ever did ; and, 'just because his
mode of proceeding to his end has to he now,
as it had ever- been, by the slow steps of legal
reform, instead of by swift and riskM strokes
of power, he was to be represented to Eng
lishmen as another kind of slavemonger, and
his party as contending, not against slavery,
but for land 1 We deliberately repeat, that,
however innocent may have been the igno
rance of some on this point, it could not have
been so with all.”
NOt BIGHT TO WISH THE . UNION DIVIDED. .
He strenuously argues that it is neither
right nor politic to wish the destruction of
our Union
“ However, the idea of a peaceable sepa
ration may, in some oases, arise not from the
IMplicity ofonewho fancier ft to be possible,"
but from the feelings of one who wishes to
see the United States divided. To such we
have only to say the wish is wrong. Few
forms of malice are more Wicked than that
which wishes ill to a nation. The man who
wished to see my country rent into two, that
it might be weaker, and less capable of inter
fering with his, would entertain a feeling that
is not only bad, but full of many sources of
badness. •
( * Some, however, indeed many, politicians
suppose that the division of the United States
would be for the general good, and especially
for that of our own empire, by preventing the
growth of a dangerous power, and lowering
the overweening boastfulness and bullying
tone for which Americans have rendered them
selves notorious. Anything that would abate
these last would be a public good, and to the
Americans themselves, a marvellous improve
ment; but, nevertheless,, we always doubt the
wisdom of those politics which desire our
neighbor’s injury for our own good, and the
benevolence of those which desire it for his
good; we have more faith in the policy of
wishing people well, without one reason to
show for it, but that it is right, than in that
of wishing them ill, with all the deep reasons
of the deep men of the world for it. In fact,
our experience teaches us to attach exceed
ingly little value to the opinions of those who
calculate how their own good will come out
of their neighbor’s trouble. Their selfish
forecast is a great obstruction to that fore
sight of which it is the mean parody. We
have far too high a view of the mission and
providential place of the British empire to
feel anything like complacency, when its
greater glory*is sought by the humiliation of
any Christian country.”
THE NEW YORK HERALD AND THE LONDON
TIMES.
Very properly Mr. Arthur attributes the
bad feeling between England and America
in large measure to the press of the two coun
tries. A little information, conveyed to our
English friends about the New-York Herald,
will, we hope, be useful:—
“ On 6 of the worst things in oUr English
press is the habit of citing from those jour
nals in the North, which are in the interest
of the South, and giving their ravings as
Northern opinion- Many provincial jour
nals, and some inferior London ones, honest
ly requote these extracts in ignorance. But
who will say that the Times is so ignorant as
not to know what it is doing when it quotes
the New York Eerald as . the organ of the
North ? That paper has. always been the
violent partisan of slavery, and the rabid
hater of England. It is edited byno Amer
ican, but by a Scotch Papist infidel, whose
name is not infamous, because it is below
infamy, and shall not stain our pages. His
vile print is never to be seen m respectable
fal lfZ malignant attacks of the Times upon
us, he says : „ ~ .
“ We believe that much, if not all, ot then
ill-feeling as to the present crisis is owing to
the abuse and misrepresentation of the Times
newspaper. Had the honest representations,
and English views of; say the Daily News,
been taken by the English press generally,
the people of the North would have under
stood those of England, ahd not believed that
we hated slavery in word, and America in
Heart; that we frowned on the South, with
our brow, but patted it with our hand; that
W 6 were more willing to see a power set up
on the principle of perpetuating slavery mid
extending it, than to seethe wounds of a
great rivalry healed. These last are the
views taken of our present national feelings
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY DECEMBER 12, 1861.
l_; ' ' , t , ' 7
b y tlie people of the. North, and by those of
the Continent. This would be a moral con
cution anything hut noble or estimable; but
the Englishman who, with the leading jour
nal fpr witness, will* try to prove us to have
worthiefcmotives in a company of foreigners,
will find his"task a hard one.
“We not only do not trust professional
politicians, but think them a class habitually
unfitted, for those feelings and convictions
which are worthy.of confidence; yet, in spite
of all that has been written, we believe that,
on the slavery question, the heart of the non
religious, of the merely political, population
of England is perfectly sound; and that were
the question put to-morrow, ‘Shall we join
the Slavers to secure their cotton?’ a cry of
indignation would be raised throughout the
land, while the religious part of the commu
nity would be roused to a man. But none of
our statesmen would propose sjich a course;
and it is only to be regretted that the wri
tings of others should cause them to be sus
pected of what they would abhor.”
THE EIHAL RESULTS.
“Humanly speaking, the whole matter
turns on one question: Have the people of
the North, or have they not, that quality of
the British race which makes a few defeats
at the beginning of a war needful to bring
out the patient power of England ? If they
have lost that, they-may be thwarted by their
own impatience, but never by a fair trial of
strength. In men, in money, in arts, in
ships, in everything that constitutes national
strength, they as far excel their rivals as
France does Spain. If they fail, , they deserve
to be trodden upon.”
“ There is peed,” says the Methodist, “of
just such candid, Christian writing as Mr. Ar
thur’s to soften the exasperated feeling of the
two nations. The recent addresses of mem
bers of Parliament to their constituents show
that there is ground for the complaint of
Americans, that the English are more friendly
to reb.ellion tkan to the Union. One thing
is becoming certain,’ however, that with the
help of Providence this nation is destined to
work out its redemption,, and a recovery of
its unity. What our feeling towards England
may be at the end,of the struggle, will de
pend upon her policy.”
THE CHURCH UNFAIRLY CRITICIZED.
It seems to me that the Christian Church
suffers more from the judgments of those who
criticize unfinished work than any organized
body of men and women. Here is an organ
ization whose members do not pretend to per
fection ; whose whole theory forbids any such
idea. They are disciples—learners of the
Divine Master. They are members of a
school in which none ever arrives at fulness
of knowledge. Their prayer is that they may
grow; and they know that if they have the
true life in them they will grow while they
live. If there is one thing in the world of
which they are painfully conscious, it is that
they -aje—piacea ._o£. imfini shed~~woA. - Some
of the members are very much lower in the
scale of completeness than others. In some
there is only a confused- pile of timber and
bricks. In others only a part of the frame is
up, or the walls are hardly more than begun.
In others, perhaps, the roof is on. In com
paratively few do we see the outlines all de
fined and the rooms in a good degree of com
pleteness. In none of them is there a per
fected structure,and none see and acknowledge
their incompleteness more than those whose
characters are farthest advanced toward per
fection.
Now I put It to the. world outside of the
Christian Church to say if it has been entire
y fair, and just inits judgments of the Church.
Has it not judged Christianity by these im
perfect disciples, and has it not condemned
these imperfect disciples because they are
not what they never pretended to be ? Has
it not criticized half-finished work, and con
demned, not only the work, but Christianity
itself, because this work was not up to the
sample? It is very common to hear*men
say that such and such a Christian is no bet
ter than the average of people outside of the
Christian Church, thus condemning the gen
uineness of his character because he is not a
lerfect Christian., A house is a house, even
if it be only half-finished. At least, it is not
anything else; and as Christians cannot by
any possibility be perfected oh the instant, it
‘ollows that the large majority of Christians
must be in various stages of progress—nay,
that most of this large majority are not even
half finished. The Christian Church itself is
a piece of unfinished work, and every indivi
dual member is the same. It is not preten
ded that either is anything else. , I never
knew a Christian to set himself up as a pat
tern. So far as I know, they are very shy
of pretension, and deprecate nothing more
than the thought that anybody should take
them for finished specimens of the work of
Christianity in human life and character.—
■Timothy Titcomb.
COX. BAKER AS A PREACHER. T
The late Colonel Baker was a Baptist
preacher of the Campbelite school for a num
ber of years. A writer in the South Bend
(Ind.) Register speaks of him as a man “won
derfully versed in the Scriptures, and of re
sistless power in the pulpit. ” Of his manner
of speaking we have these lines:
“To a voice all harmony and melody, he
united gestures full of grace and dignity.
And then his fluency of ideas and language
was such, that sentence after sentence fell,
from him apparently without an effort, which
Warmed by his glowing imagination—illumi
nated by his brilliant fancy—enriched from
his extensive knowledge—sparkling at one
time with gems of wit—again overflowing
with humor—now melted with pathos—anon
soared to the grandeur of sublimity with pas
sion. His voice at times fell upon the ear in
tones gentle and soothing as the iEolian harp,-
again stirring, the soul like the trumpet blast
on the battle-field —then sinking to a mourn
ful cadence like the wail of the bereaved 'mo
ther for her lost babe. His public speeches
and addresses operated upon his hearers with
magical effect. In my opinion, Col. Baker
possessed the requisites for a great orator be
yond that of any man I ever knew. In the
possession of some single qualification he was
probably sm-passed by many, but taking him
all in all, in the universality of his gifts, I
do not believe he has had an equal in this
generation. ”
God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.
MAfIAftASfAB.
&E' situation of affaiis;in this island is - so
interesting to all who afeAesirous of the ex
tension of Christ’s kingdom in the heathen
world, that we present fbine additional ex
tracts, from Ida Pfeiffer’s “Last Travels.”
They show to what trials'* the native Chris
tians have been subjected, and with what
fortitude they met the cruel persecution -of
the wicked Queen, nowagone to:her, last aei
count. The date of these' events, is in the
year 1857 and not lpifi, :as erroneously
stated in a recent number of our paper. To
these we add the recent • encouraging -facts, in
regard ti the new sovereign, which we gather
from our exchanges. 1 ; , ' ; |
.July 11. Yesterday ah old woman
was denounced to the authorities as ai Chris
tian. . She was- seized immediately, and this
morning—my pen almpst refuses to record
the cruel torture to-|which, the unhappy
creature was subjectedtrrthpy;; dragged ;hgr
to the her, hack-bone
was sawn asunder. r - ’
But a thousand horrdrs like these will not
move the powers of Ehropo to come to the
rescue of this unhappy people. In one re
spect, civilized and uncivilized governments
ar.e strangely alike both . are swayed only
by political considerations, and humanity
does not enter into their calculations.
■ July 12. This morning, lam sorry to say,
six Christian's were Seized inia hut at a vil
lage not far. from the’eity. The soldier shad
already searched the hut, and. were ready to
depart, when one of them heard a cough. A
new search was at once begun, and in a
great hole dug in the earth, and covered over
with straw, the poor victims were discovered.
What' astonished me most in this episode was,
that the other inhabitants of the village, who
were not Christians, didf not betray the con
cealed ones, although they must have had in
telligence of the last. kabar, threatening
death to all who kept|,Qhiistiana concealed,
favored their flight, or;neglected to assist in
their, capture. I should not have thought so
much generosity eJcM&d among this people.
Unfortunately, it .with a had .regard.
The commanding officer cared nothing for
the magnanimity of* the action; he kept
strictly to his instructions, and caused not
only the six Christians, hut the whole popu
lation of the village—men, women; and chil
dren—to he bound and dragged to the
capital. ■ •
* * * * *
July 13. This woman, is said never to have
been seen in such continued ill-humor, in such
fits of rage, as she has exhibited for the last
eight or ten days. That augurs ill for iis,
but is. far more unfortunate for the poor
Christians, whom she causes to be pursued
with a move furious zeal than she has shown
since her accession. . Almost every day ka
bar s are held in the bazars of the city and
in those of the neighboring villages, in which
the people are exhorted to denounce the
Christians; and they are tpld the queen is
certain, that all thfemisfoTtnnes which have.
befallehtHe country'are soiely~ai ratable
to tMs sect, and that she shall not rest until
the last Christian has been exterminated.
What, an inestimable meroj was it for
those poor persecuted people that the regis
ter of their names fell into the hands of
Prince Rakoto, who destroyed it! had this
not been the ease, there would have been
executions without number. It is now hoped
that, in spite of the queen’s rage, and of all
her commands and exhortations, not more
than perhaps forty or fifty victims will'be
sacrificed. ■ Many of the great men of the
kingdom and many of the .royal officials are
Christians in secret, and try to assist the
escape of their brethren in every possible
way. We have been assured that, of the
two hundred Christians who were captured
some days ago, and also among the villagers
who were brought yesterday to the city in a
body, by far the greater number have
escaped.
* =K * * * v
July 18. With a .truly J heartfelt ■ joy. I
turned my back upon a place where I had
suffered so much, and in which I heard of
nothing all day long but of poisonings and
executions. This very morning, for example,
a . few hours before our departure, ten Chris
tians were put to death, with the most fright
ful tortures. During their passage from the
prison to the market-place, the soldiers con
tinually thrust at them with their spears;
and when they arrived at the place of exe
cution, they were almost stoned to death be
fore their tormentors mercifully cut off their
victims’ heads. I am told that the poor
creatures behaved with great fortitude, and
continued to sing hymns till they died.
The Paris Patrie publishes details of the
death of the Queen of Madagascar, which took
place oh the 18th of August last. The chief
Minister attempted to conceal her death, in
order to gain time to proclaim the nephew as
successor to the throne, but the Queen’s son
being-informed of the-plan, assembled his ad
herents,and and Prince Ranf
boasalam left the palace, the escort was at
tacked and the Minister and Prince killed,
and the Queen’s son was immediately pro
claimed King. His first measure was to
publish an amnesty, and to cancel the edicts
of the late Queen, forbidding foreigners to
enter the country. This change of policy is
attributed to French influence.,
Sinee.the death of the Queen and the short
struggle in which her nephew was killed, the
utmost tranquility has prevailed in the island.
The King, since he began to attend to public
business, has received numerous deputations
of Europeans, whom he addressed in the most
liberal and reassuring manner.
The. New King a Protestant.—The Pa
triot, of London, says that letters and papers
recently received from Mauritius, dispose of
the French story of the King'' having em
braced Catholicism, and bring the fol
lowing reliable intelligence respecting
him: —One of his first acts was to write let
ters to the Protestant Missionaries at the
Mauritius and-the Gape, informing them that
the land was once more, open to the preachers
of the Gcospel. He has distinctly repeated his
own adherence to Protestant Christianity. The
Rev.. Mr. Le Brun, the aged pastor of the
missionary' cause at Port Louis, has received
letters both from the King and from La Ha
niraka, his chief Secretary, who is a personal
friend of Mr. Le Brun’s, and once spent some
time in England. Both letters are in Eng
lish, which the King writes tolerably, ex
pressing: himself grammatically. He is re
solved upon immediately instituting schools
upon a large scale for the instruction of his
' From Ma'dAmepe G-aspartn’s late ttbVk,
“ The Hear arid Heavenly 1 Horizons,” re
published in this country by Messrs. Carter
& Brothers, New York, we make the follow
ing characteristic and beautiful:extract: ;
Lisette had never trifled with that deep,
need, of holiness* that thirst after truth-which
kindles sooner or later in all elect souls,
She'was incessantly occupied in contemplat
ing the mystery of death, and. of what comes
after it. '
“ Bo this, and live,” cried he to her, from
the summit of Sinai, the voice that thundered
amidst the lightnings. “ Only believe!” said
the voice which speaks from the bleeding
cross.-...
Lisette believed, hoped, loved ; but her
pale face, turned towards the desert, bore the
impress of a holy terror; her heart dared
not expand': she, sat trembling oh the. thres
hold of Eden, and sometimes saw the flaming
sword of the cherubim turned against her.
It-was-of this we were conversing.
-She showed me the awful Jehovah; I
pointed her to the God of Abraham: she
spoke to me of sin ; -I spoke to her of par
don:. she said to me, I have erred too much;
I said to her, He has suffered more.
Do not be alarmed, I am not going to treat
you to theology; riot that I despise it, but I
should be awkward at it, —Lisette,.too. For
my part I hold in reverence all who lead a
life of thought* theologians as well as others.
To eat, drink, sleep, dress well, and to-mor
row die, has never prepossessed my fapey
much, —nor Lisette’s, either. To go through
life like a great burly drone, knocking up
against flowers, burying his proboscis in their
eups, Without looking or wondering at any
thing, without even inhaling the perfume of
the blossoms he pierces, then, when evening
comes, to die congealed beneath the leaves,
-Or to he killed in a matter-of-fact way by a
bee who has done with him,—whatever may
be said for it, neither Lisette nor I find any,
sense or any poetry in a case like this. But
dreamers —I do not mean by this empty
-dreamcrar.l_.mcan the dealers with ideas,
those who go diggmg~lhfs~somerich ‘vein,
deep down in the mine, or soar on daring
wing beyond the skies,—these, however- poor
their condition or their outward man, we —
Lisette who knows none of them, and I who
know but few —hold these to be true sages,
great poets. In fact, it is just they who
take the world in tow. Not easy-going peo
ple, elastic, satisfied with themselves and
with all else, because seeing little beyond
their particular peck of oats; hut souls with
vigorous griefs and mighty joys, men of the
day-time, who want light everywhere, who
prefer suffering to a truth-haunted sleep,
who feel themselves travellers, pilgrims,
wrestlers, always under arms, on the march,,
in the battle ; often bruised, harrassed, losing
courage, but sometimes visited by such ful
ness of joy, believing so boldly what they do
believe, reigning so absolutely in the realm
of soul, sowing so richly the soil they tread,
conquering so triumphantly the adverse cir
cumstances barking at their heels, that as
we see them pass we feel that they are in
deed the masters, the living men, and all
others slaves, dead!
“I am sad,” said Lisette to me. “Lis
ten; you will laugh, but I have bad a
dream.”
oieiy^ftn
subjects of all ages; tbe Rev. J. J. Le Brun,
Jr., with two Malagassy attendants, has
taken ship for Madagascar, where, it is be
lieved* he arrived about the end of Septem
ber. He would at once proceed to Antana
rive, and there await the coming of Mr. Ellis.
Unfortunately, the King has two French
councillors, who. are using their influence in
Behalf of the Roman Church. It is said that
the King'has intimated his intention of mak
ing one of them* Lambert, his Prime Minis
ter; and that he has already made him a con
cession of land containing rich mines which
are to be worked by,an Anglo-French Com
pany. The other, M. Laborde, has made all
haste to return to the island, taking with him
a couple of Jesuit priests; but whatever,.in
trigues these people may set on foot, Mada
gascar will be open for the unmolested labors
of the Protestririt missionaries. . .
LISETTE’S DREAM.
“ Dreams are liars,” answered I, foolishly
enough.
“ Oh, dear, no! Dreams are not all true,
I know, yet Joseph dreamed; Pharaoh saw
the seven fat, then the seven lean Line come
out of the rushes of the river; it was Hod
who made him see them.”
. “ Yes, God can employ ”
“ The Lord has many messengers,” she
broke in; then she shook her head. “It has
left a gloom upon me.”
“ Come, tell it me, Lisette.”
“ You will laugh; but it’s no matter, I
am going to tell it.
“I was walking in a meadow, towards
evening; the sun was down, the plants
drooped, clouds of dust, rose from the road,
—a wide smooth road ; much quality went
along it, coaches, riders, merchants, gentle
men, men walking behind their cbws, poor
people,' too—a crowd like a fair. They all
went one way; I did not trouble myself about
where it led, did not seem much to care, it
was as though I understood without knowing
-—I am tiring you.”
“ Not at all.”
“ Old people are slow.”
“ Take your time.”
“ I had not chosen that road, yet I went
with the rest. .1 walked on the grass easily
enough, though I was in a great hurry.
“ On one side, under the thorns, I saw a
rough path; one of those mountain tracks
full of brambles and stones, felled trees that
one had to stride over, roots on a level-with
the ground in which the foot caught. There
was no crowd there; every now and then
some heavily laden traveller, some woman,
looking harrassed and sad. They sat down,
or rather all but fell; then they looked, to
the top of the hill, took eourage, rose, settled
their baggage better on their shoulders, and
bending under it, dragged on amongst the
stones. '■ ; -
“The others, those on the highway, had
not-taken any notice of me ; these gave me
sad looks, but said nothing. I was uncom
fortable ; it seemed - as though they were
mourning over my fate. As for me, badly
off as they were, I’ did not pity them, never
thought of doing so.
“ I said to myself, Suppose I go to them!
I did try. I went aside, and got upon the
path ; the stones rolled down. I felt weary,
as if I had been beaten; I hurt my foot
against a pebble, and returned to the mea
dow. Then those in the path looked at me
more sadly than before, and went on.
“ I had a weight at my heart. But even
ing was closing in; there was nothing for it
but going on, though as I went I trembled.
A fear came over me. All at once it broke
upon me that we were all going towards
death. Then I tried to get back into the
path ; but there was no longer any path,
any travellers, only the: great green meadow
stretching far as eye could reach, and I was
walking alone in the middle of it.
“ I beg your pardon!”
Lisette was in tears! Then she recovered.
“ At the .end of the great meadow, I saw
a beautiful dwelling.;, a square house, very
large, very high, not one side larger or
higher thah the other. This house was of
gold, bright as the sun at noon; the grass
went close up to the walls; the Setting sun
shone through the clear windows, and fell
upon it—
“A great rush of joy came over me! I
was happy! No one bad told me so, ; but I
well that, this dwelling was the
Pai adise. of. God. When I came close to it,
I looked for the door; there, was none on
that side; there were only the large windows,
with their 1 panes, transparent as water, the
red sunset darting through them; I went
round tire house; no door. I went round
again; none. ; There was only the grass and
the; windows. I, felt, searched about, Pear
came over, me'again. At .last I returned to
the front, and looked up. Behind one of the
windows of clear, glass, I saw an old woman
like myself, only handsomely dressed in black
silk, with white hair, and a severe, though
sweet look, sitting up and knitting. She went
on knitting, without seeing me. She looked
very happy. I cried out, or seemed to do
so. Then she turned towards me. ‘ You
have made a mistake,’ she said.; ‘you did
not take the right road. You will not get
in, my daughter.’ Then, with a calm face,
she’ took to her knitting again; and as for
me, I fell dead.”
You are inclined, perhaps, to laugh ; if
you had seen Lisette, you would not have
been so. She was pale; fear, that fear of God
which hath torment, had got hold of her.
She turned, and. re-turned her dream in her
mind. She could not treat it lightly; she
was too pious for that. She could not pray ;
the servile .dread of the slave paralysed her
heart.
“Lisette,” I said, “you have told me a
dream; I will- tell you a story, a very short
one.
“ One spring day in Judea, justas the corn
was ripening, a crowd was coming out of the
city. With much tumult and loud eries,
they were leading three men to execution.
Of these three, two had killed, stolen, pil
laged; they were thieves: the other had an
nounced God’s pardon; it was Jesus.
“ They nailed them to the cross. One of
the criminals insulted Jesus; the other, sud
denly struck, said—‘dost thou not fear God?
as for us, we are punished justly; hut this
man !’ Then turning to Jesus, —‘Lord, re
member me, !’ He got in safe, Lisette!
What road, then, had he taken ?”
Lisette kept a solemn silence; a divine
light dispelled the shadows on her brow.
“ Neither the high way, nor that terrible
mountain path, had he, Lisette ?”
Lisette looked at ine; her beautiful black
eyes shone; the sweet, pure smile played
round her month. “ He-believed,” she said.
That day we philosophised no more.
At the present time, many winters have
passed since Lisette entered the golden
house.
RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT IN THE ARMY.
The large number of church members in
the army has induced the chaplains of the
Pennsylvania Reserve Corps to organize a
religious association,. upon a basis liberal
enough to embrace Christians of all denomi
nations.
The following has been adopted by the
chaplains of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps,
at a meeting on the 25th November, as a
basis for a church organization in their re
spective regiments. The chaplains represent
different denominations of Christians :
Creed. —“ I believe in God the Father
Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; and
in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born
of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius
Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. He
descended into hell; the third day he rose from
the dead: He ascended into heaven, and sit
teth on the right hand of God the Father
Almighty, from thence he shall come to
judge the quick and the dead. I believe in
the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church,
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of
sins, the resurrection of the body, and the
life everlasting.”
I believe there is but “ one only, the liv
ing and time God;” that “ there are three
persons in the .Godhead—the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost : These three are
one God, the same in substance equal
in power and glory;” that the word of God
which is contained in the Old and New Tes
tament, is the only rule of faith and practice;
that there is a Heaven, or a state of eternal
blessedness, for those who die at peace with
God, and a Hell, or state of eternal suffer
ing for those who die in their sins; that all
men are sinners and need a Saviour, and
that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour.
I humbly acknowledge my own sinfulness
and lost condition; that I have sinned against
God and am hot worthy to be called His son.
I repent of all my sins—confess them to God
and renounce them for ever. I trust in Jesus
Christ as my only Saviour, and the Holy
Ghost as my only sanctifier. .1 am deter
mined by the grace of God, to live a holy life
and set a godly example to the world: to
seek for the good of the souls of my comrades,
striving to bring them to Christ: and to en
deavor in all things to. honor my Master, the
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
“I renounce the devil and all his works, the'
vain pomp and glory of this world, with all.
the covetous desires of the same, so that I
will not follow nor be led by them. ;I will
obediently keep God’s holy will and com
mandments all the days of my life, God being
my helper.”
I will have a care for the good name of
each of my Christian companions; will assist
and encourage my chaplain in every good
wort by my efforts and prayers. I will
kindly receive admonition and reproof (when
kindly given) for any errors I may have
committed. I will attend upon all the means
GENESEE EVUGELIST.-WMc, No- 812.
of grace that are consistent with my station.
Whbn dismissed frtfni the service, -each
member of this association shall be entitled
to a certificate as to Ms Christian character.
The officers of-the association shall be a
president, who shall he the chaplain; a vice
president, secretary and treasurer. The
president to preside at business meetings,
the secretary ;to report. The treasurer to
receive and disburse only on the re
commendation of a “Board of Managers,”
who shall consist of the president, vice-presi
dent, and secretary.
Thomas R. Hunt, of the 7th Regiment,
President of the meeting of Chaplains.
Sam’l Jessup, of the 6th Regt., Sec’y.
Some of the chaplains have already esta
blished church organizations on substantially
the same basis, and find it is of great advan
tage to Christian culture in. the army.
Promt a recent , article in the Protestant
Churchman, Rev. Dr. Tyng’s paper, on this
subject, we clip the following sentences:
“But there is a cause which we suspect (and
we say it without censoriousness of feeling
towards our clerical brethren) is quite ir"
fiuential in producing the evil in question. It
is the manner in which religious truth has
been presented too often from the pulpit.
While there is here and there a ease in which
the preacher deals too exclusively in truths,
and in modes of presenting them, which are
suited to the nature and taste of strong men,
has not the rule come to be, to revel in ideas
and imagery which, though they may amuse
or beguile men for the moment, yet lay no
strong arrest either upon the understanding
or the conscience ? * * There is a pre
valent habit, among clergymen of the present
day, of dwelling only on the lighter relations
of truth, and of shaping thought very much
after the fashion of modem works of fiction.
Artistically rounded periods, a profusion of
metaphor, something like a sentimental stra in,
a studied, artificial delivery are marks of too
many pulpits. Now, men are quick at de
tecting the unreal. They see too much of it
in the’world of business and pleasure, to like
it in the saered desk, or, at least, to he in
fluenced by it there. If the minister do not
reach their understanding or conscience, he
will probably fail of all salutary influence
over them. They will attend church, per
haps, but without any serious purpose, and
listen to the discourse as a matter of course.
Slowly they will conclude that there is no
truth in Christianity, or that their minister
is but little under its power. In either c ise,
they will turn the whole subject of serious
religion over to their wives and daughters,
and the preacher. This is, indeed, a deplor
able result. How far the prevailing indif
ference of men to the Gospel is traceable to
this cause, we cannot determine; but we, who
have, to such a fearful extent, the responsi
bility of their salvation on our shoulders,
should see to it that we are not to blame by
our preaching. Let us so'preach that men
will be forced to hear, and through the Spi
rit’s power, to heed.
Somebody at the West, not finding in the
Scriptures any statement of the qualifications
and duties of the wives of ministers, tliinks
that recourse must be had to “ the other rule
of faith and practice, public opinion; from
which,” the writer says, “we learn that a
minister’s wife must be,
“1. Like Mary, always sitting at the feet
of Jesus, in possession of the one thing need
ful, regardless of every worldly interest.
“2, Like Martha, she should do all the
serving, yet without being encumbered by it.
“3. She should be a little more prompt
than Sarah of old, and have refreshments al
ways ready for those traveling angels whose
visits at the minister’s house are not ‘ few
and far between.’
“4. Like Lorcas, she should ‘ keep con
stantly on hand a supply of ready-made
clothing to bestow upon all the poor saints
and sinners in the community where she re
sides, with a spare box for the beneficiaries
in college, and the servants who have escaped
from the blessings of the ‘patriarchal insti
tution.’
“■5., Like the prophetess Anna, she should
not ‘depart from the temple, day or night,’
for the multiplied meetings of the church and
benevolent societies require an almost con
stant attendance in the sanctuary, and it is
the duty of the minister’s wife to attend to
them all.
IRRELIGION OF MM.
A MINISTER’S WIFE.
“6. Like the widow of Sarepta, she must
have the art of using meal out of one barrel,
and oil out of one cruise, the year round,
without diminishing the quantity.
“ Lastly, she must be apt to please every
body— ‘ becoming all things to all men,’wo
men and children—grave or gay, refined or
rude,-’ intelligent of ignorant, affable or re
served, as suits the company in which she
may chance to fall.”— Examiner.
DR. PLUMER ON POETIZING.
The Rev. Dr. Plumer some years ago de
livered an address at the opening of a female
seminary at Wheeling, Virginia, in which he
made the subjoined among other sensible re
marks. It deserves the consideration of a
very considerable portion of the poetizers
Whose effusions are forwarded to newspaper
editors, especially the closing sentences.
Turning to the principal of the seminary, Dr.
Plumer said:—
“ I hope, sir, you’ll not teach poetry here
—I mean what some people call the science
of composing .poetry. If it will come from
some of these youths, let it come, but don’t
force it. 1 feel, about the writing of poetry,
something like the Methdist preacher who
was giving a charge at a class-meeting about
some regulations. While in the midst of his
charge, one old lady let slip a shout. ‘Now,
says ne, ‘brethren and sisters, since the sub
ject of shouting has come up, I’ll give you
my views on the subject. Never shout from
a sense of duty. If you feel that you can’t
hold in, why then shout, but not otherwise.
I hope, then, that no one here will ever write
poetry from a sense of duty. Poetry is de
spicable unless it is first-class. Pi or poetry
is about the meanest of all mean things.”
Regrets for the Past are not entirely use
less if out of them we get wisdom for the
Future and learn to be brave.