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—AND—
GENESEE EVANGELIST.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20,1861
JOHN W. MEAES,
THE CASH SYSTEM.
We are very desirous of carrying out this sen
sible and satisfactory method of doing business
in the management of our paper, and we look for
the hearty co-operation of our subscribers ; oth
erwise it will prove a difficult and one-sided affair
altogether. Cash to the printers, cash for mate
rials, cash for office expenses, and editor’s salary,
requires cash promptly from our subscribers. At
this season, while money is flowing freely for a
thousand minor objects, the claims of our paper
in ADVANCE, will not be forgotton.
FAREWELL TO THE YEAR.
It is part of our duty, as journalists, to make
a note of the lapse of time and gather up its
lessons and warnings, as it flies. Ere our paper
makes another appearance, the passing year of
our Lord, eightoen hundred sixty-one, will be
gone, chronicled with the figures of the past, a
matter of remembrance, of regret, of gratitude,
of history; and another will have silently glided
into its place. A memorable year it has been.
Deeply in the pages of history will its events
hereafter be found engraven.
Our Church will look back to the Assembly of
1801 as an epoch in its existence. That Assem
bly marks the termination of a period of incer
titude in our history and of comparative ineffi
ciency in our operations. Then it was that the
development of a spirit of self-reliance was com
pleted, and the grand point was reached where
the most vital measures of Church policy were,
for the first time, resumed in full by the Church
itself. Then a self-consciousness, a spirit of
organic unity, and a sense of Church respon
sibility for our share of the work of evangelizing
this country was felt, and the throbbings of this
spirit bock and forth through Synods and Pres
byteries, in all our bounds, from the Delaware
and the Hudson to the Golden Gate, have been
unanimous and cheering in the highest degree.
The Presbyterian Home Missionary Committee
in the Presbyterian Rooms in New York, with
able and competent men, la whom the Church
confides, at the head, in New York and Phila
delphia, is a fact which most happily character
izes the passing year of our history. It is a
date from which doubtless our prosperity as a
Church and an evangelizing agency will be
chronicled; a date to which the origin of many
a new instrumentality for good will he traced; a
date, we ore persuaded, which will not be un
recognized in heaven as having led to more
zealous and effective efforts for the salvation of
lost men.
Appropriate was it, and scarcely accidental,
that at the same season when we had opportunity
thus to express our loyalty to our Church as un
changed through a quarter of a century of trial,
suspicion and obloquy, we also were called upon
by the tremendous crisis in our country’s affairs
to express our loyalty as Christian citizens, and
to offer our sympathy and our prayers to our
country as our loyal forefathers had done in the
previous century. That, too, we did with most
solemn utterance and enthusiastic unanimity. It
is our Assembly and our year of union upon the
most profound questions alike of Church and
State. The storm of dissension, then first burst
ing on the land, found no theatre in our councils.
By honorably and fairly meeting the exeiting
questions of the day when they were in the
shape of moral questions only, and when they
first came up for debate, wo had secured peace,-
unanimity, loyalty and a firm and undisputed
holding ground in onr Church for the principles
of human liberty which are identified with our
country’s cause and aro destined in the end to a
glorious triumph.
2. The year has been ono of severe trial, not
only to business men, but to the benevolent
operations of the Churches. Yet we have seen
a great rally to the support of at least, some of
these operations when imperilled. Few, if any,
years in the history of Foreign Missions give
better evidence of the ability and the inner
purpose of the Church, by God’s blessing to
carry out her ascending Lord’s command to
teach all nations, than the year just closing.
There was something sublime in the outpouring
of contributions to the support of the American
Board, during those months of the year, too,
which aTe usually least productive, and which
swept away completely the huge incubus of in
debtedness that seemed rapidly gathering to
crush it. Not only was the abundance of these
sudden accessions to the Treasury of the Lord
remarkable. They were general and wide-spread
in their sources. It was a thrill of devotedness
that visited the separate bosoms of Christ’s
] people of every degree of ability, and in every
part of his church, where his pervading Spirit
abides. Heathen lands, too, felt the surprising
. mpulse. Recent converts from the dead Nes
torian Churches, from the miserable degradation
'if South African superstition, and from the
blindness of Hindoo idolatry, suddenly and si
multaneously broke out iu this new manifestation
Christian character. In a great trial of affliction,
the abundance of their joy and their deep po
verty abounded with the riches of their libe
rality, The missionaries of these regions have
been privileged to witness spectacles such as
called forth the applause of apostles.
8. Although the cheering evidences of pro
gress in the church, which were still numerous a
year ago, have in a measure ceased, and electri
zing accounts of the great and manifest opera
tions of the Spirit can no longer be laid before
nur readers, the year will be memorable for suoh
events as—the extension of religious toleration
in the despotic kingdom of Austria, by the pa
tent of April last; the rise of a new Protestant
element of great power in the bosom of the Ro
mish Church on the subject of the Pope’s tem
poral authority; and the great meeting of the
rivangolical alliance at Geneva, in September
last, regarded by those competent to form a
judgment, as the most important and encour
aging conference which the alliance has yet
held.
4. Though we shall not now dwell upon it,
the history of our own country will contain no
year more memorable than eighteen hundred and
aixty-one. In the great struggle between con
tending passions and principles which, in this year
came to open war, the future reader of history
will be astonished alike by the vehemence with
which ar. unchristian and oppressive institution
was espoused and made the pretext for epen re
bellion on the one hand, and by the unanimity
and the majesty and the promptness of the re
sponse which it received from an outraged and
unprepared loyal people. It is a year which
opened with imbecility and concession to impe
rious and avowed traitors, which wore on with
gathering plots of assassination and of capture
directed against the chief magistrate elect and
the capital of the nation. Its first quarter had
scarce worn away when the mask was thrown off,
and the nation compelled to ehoose between dis
memberment and war. How sublimely that
choice was made we all know and saw for our
selves. And how the alternative of war with a
united North hardened the South to a bitter re
sistance and an open and blasphemous avowal
of human slavery as the corner-stone of the na
tion they expected to found we all know. And
how we have been misunderstood, and misrepre
sented, and scoffed at, and menaced, and what
aid and comfort have been given to our foes in
our deepest national trial by the people nearest
of all in the world to us, we all know. And
how, by the character of our national fast and
humiliation, as much as by any other manifesta
tion, we made the year memorable and hopeful
as ono in which the people renounced depen
dence on man, and trusted their cause to God,
we all know. And how God has preserved the
loyal States from invasion, and confined the war
to soil claimed by the rebels; how he has given
the North the lucrative business of feeding
France and England; how he has given uncom
mon wisdom in the management of our great
financial transactions, so that our moneyed insti
tutions are stronger than when the war began,
and not a cent has been borrowed abroad to
meet our vast expenditures; how his winds have
favored our naval expeditions, sparing them
even in tke height of their violence; how, in
his own marvellous Providence the centre and
nursery of the rebellion has been laid in ashes
within a year from its first open inception, and ;
the same skies that reflected the burning of Fort
Sumter were all aglow with the incandescence of
the buildings in which the attack on the fort
was plotted, we all know.
Editor.
Old year —eighteen hundred and sixty-one —
the annus mirabilis of our lives, faiewell.
A MARKED PROVIDENCE.
The course of events since the breaking out
of the rebdllion presents no clearer instance of
the Divine interposition than the recent great
fire at Charleston. It would seem that the Al
mighty himself visibly took in hand the punish
ment of this city, anticipating, by a few days or
weeks, tbe movements of our army, and wresting
from them the opportunity, when almost within
their reach, in order to show that the work was
his own and not of man. The very fact, too,
that the origin of the fire cannot be traced to in
cendiarism, and was unattended by a slave insur
rection, and that from a single point, by the
agency of the wind alone, it swept onward un
checked, until it had exhausted the material,
strengthens one’s conviction of the open judicial
character of the event. And further, if we look
at the prominent buildings destroyed in this
great conflagration, its retributive character be
comes more manifest. True, there is scarcely a
dwelling in this wicked city which is not rank
with conspiracy and treason, scarcely a pulpit
from which lawful government has not been ve
heuientlj denounced, scarcely a wall whose very
stones eould not cry out, and whose timbers could
not answer in startling confessions of criminality.
The five hundred and seventy-six buildings de
voured by the flame and the five to ten mil
lions of property laid waste, are not, as a general
thing more deserving of visitation than was the
larger portion which was spared. Yet it is not
to be overlooked, that among the public build
ings thus destroyed are the very ones which had
acquired an infamous notoriety as the hatching
places of this very conspiracy. Institute Hall,
where the Presidential Convention of the domi
nant party was held, and in which took place
the ominous and fatal split into the Douglas and
Breckenridge wings; and Hibernian Hall, occu
pied by adjournment by the State convention,
and thus made the scene of the passage of the
Secession Ordinance on the 20th of December,
1860—over these tabernacles of violence tbe
finger of God has passed, and they are a desola
tion ! If the vail of the future could have been
lifted to tlie conclave of conspirators who sat in
the latter place, and if they had been permitted
to see the wide-spread mass of ruins which, in
one short year, should oceupy tbe scene of their
wicked labors, even their madness would have
felt the rebuke, and at least have hesitated in its
fearful course.
The offices of those organs of the secession
frenzy and zealous poisoners of the public mind,
the Charleston Mercury and the Charleston
Courier; the Circular Presbyterian Church, in
which a degenerate son of Massachusetts prosti
tuted the services of the sanctuary, the Presby
terian name and the Word of God to the defence
of slavery and the support of rebellion : the two
foundries—one lately employed in the manufac
ture of cannon and the other of ammunition for
the rebel service—including a large stock of
government work then on hand; the State Cot
ton Press with three hundred thousand pounds
of sea island cotton and fifty-two hales of upland
cotton; a dozen or more handsome private resi
dences, from whose tops, doubtless, the fall of
Fort Sumter was beheld with exultation, besides
Banks, Savings Institutions, Insurance offices,
Market houses, Theatres, Hotels, and Merean-.
tile establishments, including, in fact, almost the
entire business part of the city, plainly attest the
peculiar gravity, and judicial character of the
visitation. Let the sufferers speak for them
selves, as they do in the following extracts from
the Charleston papers:
“ After the breaking out of the fire, the flames
continued to increase in violence, and with the
scarcity of water, seemed to defy all human «f
-forts to arrest them. Keeping a southwesterly
course, the roaring elements rushed through the
air like forked lightning to commence the work
of destruction. In King kfid Queen streets the
scene was truly terrible. Roof after roof fell in,
the fire rushed out of the windows and leaped
around buildings with an awfully sublime appear
ance. The flames spread right and left, destroy
ing and making clean sweep of the fine resi
dences on Logan, New, Savage, Mazyek, and the
lower end of Broad streets; nor could the work
of destruction and desolation have been staye ,
had it not been that the fire exhausted itself or
the want of material.”
The Mercury of Friday says : “ Yesterday was
a gloomy day for Charleston—business was uni
versally suspended and with one impulse our
community has united in giving sympathy an
aid to the victims of this great public calamity.
The Courier says: “The fearful conflagra
tion that, has just passed over our city, will cause
the 11th and 12th of December, 1861, hereafter
to be remembered as one of those dark, trying
periods, which for a moment seem to paralyze a
our long-cherished hopes and bright anticipa
tions of the future. We have been visited by one
of those mysterious dispensations of Providence
which we cannot attempt to solve. Our city has
received a terrible blow which it will take the
work of years to repair. Let ns nerve ourselves
then for another start, thankful that we are still
loft with the same bold spirit and strong arms to
make new and perhaps more substantial pros
perity for our beloved city.”
Were the city still an acknowledged part of
an unbroken and peaceful American Union, and
had it been the will of God to visit it even then
with such a disaster, what a strong, hearty and
universal tender of efficient sympathy would long
ere this have been made by all points of a pros
perous Union, and how cheerfully would the
North, from Maine to the Chesapeake, and from
the Atlantic to the Paeific, have united in the
effort to realize the hope of recovery so feebly
expressed in the closing sentence of the quota
tion ! Bnt alas ! for the ruined Charlestonians!
they have nought but a bogus, bankrupt and
rebellious “Confederacy" to rely on. They have
brutishly tbrust away the fostering aegis of the
mighty Union. They have provoked its just
wrath and its slowly gathering hut inevitable
vengeance. Tbe armies that shall complete its
overthrow are setting up their banners almost in
sight of the housetops that yet rise above the
ruins. The inlets of its harbor are being igno
miniously sealed. The waters on which the
banner of our country was insolently spurned
and assailed, shall be tabooed to commerce and
to travel. The consumption determined is
begun. Instead of restoration, shall come the
completion of the rain which Providence has
been beforehand in inaugurating.
A PEEP INTO OUR LETTER-BAG.
In the variety of letters we are receiving at
this office, there are not unfrequently many that
deserve to go into print, though not intended by
the authors for any such destination. We cannot
withhold from onr readers a share in the interest
and pleasure we have felt in perusing them. We
give some specimens from the correspondence of
our ministerial friends without the names of the
writers, commencing with one received some
weeks ago from a subscriber in Northwest Mis
souri. The picture which it draws of the la
mentably divided state of opinion among churches
even in the northern tier of counties, is deplor
able.
FROM a subscriber IN N. W. MISSOURI.
You are probably aware that rebellion and sus
pension of business have wrought sadly upon all
the religious interests of this State. Onr church
divided before and well nigh extinction by the
secession at Cleveland, is now suffering again
from the sides taken on the great question of the
day. Christian friendship of long standing is
broken —ehurches united and prosperous before,
cannot now worship together. These evils seem to
me to be worse here than almost anywhere else in
my knowledge; yet I still think-it no crime to
adhere to the government I have ever been
taught to love. The apostle has commanded
that we should, he subject to the powers that be.
If, therefore, I disliked some .things in the go
vernment, I would he wicked to join a rebellion
to get rid of it. But others think differently,
and act accordingly. The result, so far, is a di
vided State and divided households, with war at
hand and ruin in prospect. Yet the Lord may
he better to ns than our fears, and we have this
token, that it may he so, —or perhaps I should
only speak for myself in this. I have not been
molested so as to cause me any alarm, and yet my
nearest neighbors have been, and are, strong se
cessionists, and threats have been made of a ge
neral character, hut I have remained and felt
quiet. I think it better to still trust God, and
see what He designs to do. He is able to bring
out of this apparent evil, a good to our State for
which some, at least, in it have been praying for
these years. When God “ thunders with a great
thunder,” and strikes terror and eonfusion among
his enemies, should his children be dismayed and
shrink from the hand in which they have trust
ed ? “ The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice.”
It is a dark day for Missouri, but clouds and
darkness may be dispelled. Many fear for the
future, because they are not able to see it; but
if the Lord reigns, what rc ason have we to fear ?
Still the flesh is weak—we need faith.
I see the Christian Observer has left your city
for a more congenial latitude. I hope the editor
may see his error before he gets to heaven;
should he go there before he is able to under
stand the ten commandments as explained by the
Saviour, he might wish himself hack again, that
he might correct one, at least, of his faults. I
read his paper until he took on his ultra views
of slavery, since which I have seen the paper
only in slaveholding families, where I have no
doubt his poison has been secretly at work for
years, and now we see the fruit in the fana
ticism of secession. The fathers of our country
no doubt took the correct view of slavery, and
he is unsafe who tries to mark out a more.ortho
dox view.
The next is from a subscriber in New York
State, whose generous warmth on the great ques
tions of the day, is not less acceptable to us than
his kind estimate of our own services. Our opi
nion is that if we do not soon arrive at some
humane method of emancipation, tbe necessities
of war will compel the arming of the slaves as
allies of the Union. The interference of foreign
nations may lead us reluctantly to this result.
from a subscriber in new YORK.
I am happy to he able to say that the paper
daring the past year has pleased me more than
ever before. The editorials are well written, and
the other matter contained in the paper is good.
Especially am I glad to see you standing up so
nobly for the Union and the great cause of hu
man freedom. The day has eome when the
people in every part, of the land—except in dis
loyal communities—are demanding strong anti
slavery doctrine. As for myself, I would not
allow a paper of another sort to come into my
house. Not only are the people, but God is de
manding of ministers, editors and the govern
ment to speak out on this subject, and to speak
right,. What a day is this in which we live, nor
will it he better till something efficient is done
toward emancipating every slave in the nation.
The doctrine I hold is to emancipate every bond
man in the land, and reasonably compensate the
owners of slaves that are loyal to the govern
ment. This last I would have done, not because
I believe any man has any more right to hold a
slave as his own than I have to hold a stolen horse,
as my own, but on the principle of assisting to
bear each other’s burdens. I would thus show
the slave-holder who is loyal, that we do. not
wish to injure hut to do him good; that we are
not his enemies, but his friends.
Wishing you all success in your arduous and
good work, I wish yon to believe me,
Yours, fraternally,
A subicriber in Michigan discourses humor
ously and justly upon the true uses of money as
a circulating medium. We trust many of those
who read his letter may catch the contagion of
his views, and of his cheerful readiness in dis
bursing to us our rightful dues.
FROM A SUBSCRIBER IN MICHIGAN.
I had forgotten that my subscription run out
last May. Here are-the two dollars cheerfully
sent, though drawn! from a poor man’s pocket.
If they shall find as needy a place as that from
whence they are sent, they will still be answer
ing one of money’s best ends in'the commerce
of life. If every one would pay his honest
debts, much of money that is now stagnant and
dispeptie would go boundingly and healthfully
upon its noble mission. How must some noble
gold pieces feel, in going plump to the bottom of
some long hag of avarice, there to lie in degraded
uselessness for months and years ? Or how must
it be with those smiling faced hills which seem
so glad in imparting joy and comfort, when rolled
tightly together and tucked into some dark cor
ner, to be “prisoners of hope” they know not
how long? No doubt they would rather be iu
the gay whirl of worldly pleasure, contributing
to the enjoyments of erratic passion, than thus
to lie, making no stir at all. But neither of
these may be the end of tlieir existence. Some
of these may better pay the printer for what
will bless the heads' 'and the hearts of those who
have both these as well as bodies.
Says another in our own State:—
My Dear Brother Mears :—I wish it was
in my purse to respond to your call, but it is
not. X hope for relief in a short time, and then
will aid you with performance instead of pro
mises. I have ever regarded it as a benefit to
our country that you have uniformly and ear
nestly sustained the “powers that be.” Stick
fast to tbe “key-note" you have so happily
struck, and your voice will be gratefully listened
to in tbe glorious cadence. Let the trimmers go
to Meroz!
Another wrote when our prospects were much
darker:—
I hope the American Presbyterian will live.
If I were rich it should not die for want of
means to sustain it. It is our paper. True
hearts have sustainhd'it, and I trust in God its
V , "*' 1
friends will .be multiplied. It occupies, on all
the important questions, true and noble ground.
ANSWERS, WITH COMMENTS.
Messrs. Editors :
In a late issue you published (and endorsed)
an appeal to the Sessions of our churches from
Mr. Barnes and Judge Strong, in behalf of the
Committee of Publication. The appeal espe
cially asktd that, in each chnrch, the Session
would fix one Sabbath in the year in which the
Publication eause shall be presented and a collec
tion taken, and the contribution, no matter how
small, he forwarded to the Committee.
With no collecting agency the Committee must
(and such is their desire), look to the pastors and
elders. With no tax for agency, the feeblest
church heed not be discouraged from contribut
ing its mite. But it needs no wisdom to show,
or understand, that without a collecting agency ,
and without action by'ike Sessions, the Committee
will be in a poor way for doing the work assigned
them.
We have already had the pleasure of receiving
responses to this appeal—the precursors, we
trust, of many others. The calls made upon us
for works and tracts to be used by our own bre
thren, make ns anxious for the means of meet
ing the wants of the ehurches.
As t e have no organ of our own, permit ns to
report, through you, some of the replies to this
appeal, which have come to hand.
The pastor of a small church, in Indiana thus
responds: “I presemed the Circular of your
Publication Committee to the Session of our
church, yesterday; we agreed to place it on the.
list of benevolent causes. We will take up a
contribution for you on the fourth Sabbath of
this month.”
Here, it will be scon, we have two points set
tled—the putting of this cause on the list, and
the assigning to it pf a specific time. Knowing
this, the Committee have, so far as this church
is concerned, what they ask. The pastor will
present the claims of our Publication cause, and
the people will give what they deem proper.
The pastor of a Northern Michigan church
thus writes :—“ Enclosed, I send three dollars, in
response to the call of the Publication Commit
tee. We should be glad to do more, hut times
are very hard and; our church feeble. Please
send us Presbyterian Almanacs for 1862, to. the
value of half the amount contributed.”
The prompt response thus made to a call upon
a poor church, is worthy of much praise. The
sum is small, but it is cheerfully given. The
request for half' tlffi amount in publications is also
right. It will aid in diffusing the information
needed by the congregation. We are not', how
ever, told whether a time has , been assigned for
the annual presentation of .the cause by the
pastor.
.The treasurer of a New Jersey church says
“Please find enclosed $l3, collected in our
church, and send *us 100 almanacs, 2 paleario,
and 1 Presbyterian manual.”
We should be glad in this case also, if the wor
thy treasurer had given the time at which this
cause comes before the Church (as we believe it
does regularly) each year. This would enable
the secretary to send a report, or any useful do
cument to the pastor in advance of the collection.
In case of a change of pastor, or the overlooking
of the assigned time, to remind our friends of
their good intentions, and to suggest a conver
sion of the good intention into good action.
Unhappily, our churches are so accustomed to
act under the spur of outside pressure in their
benevolence, that, when the spur is removed they
are in some danger of forgetting to act. If, by
dispensing with a collecting agency, our com
mittee can aid in inaugurating a system of spon
taneous beneficence, it will do a good work. And
if for the present it suffers, it will not suffer in
behalf of its own cause alone.
Will not Sessions encourage this dependence
upon them alone ?
A Southern Indiana pastor writes: —“The
Publication cause was placed upon our list for
regular annual contributions two years ago. In
June last, at which time a collection should re
gularly have been made for it, we were all giving
every cent we could spare for sending off and
equipping our soldiers. I raised $l7, however,
which was expended in copies of your Soldier's
Friend , and distributed among our soldiers.
“ Here along the river (Ohio) where our trade
is almost entirely with the South, we feel the
pressure of the times more than any other
part of the North. All we can do just now is to
St nd the enclosed ten dollars, and to assure the
committee that our church feels its responsibility
in the matter , and will'give to the cause annually
as wc may be able. Please send us 70 copies of
tbe Almanac.” . ,
“ I very mucb feaT lest tbe coming year be a
severer one for our benevolent operations than
the past. .In order, so far as we are concerned,
to provide for deficiencies, and supplement our
annual collections, I have just started the sys
tem of regular monthly contributions, by each
pei-son, young and old, in tbe congregation, with
ten or twelve collectors, and one to act as super
intendent and treasurer. I expect that we shall
in this way raise, without any one feeling it,
what will astonish ourselves."
No doubt they will! Any one who systemati
cally gives, say one-tenth of his income, will as
tonish himself, and his neighbors too. Tbe ag
gregate in a congregation, will astonish them,
and equally and most agreeably astonish the
Treasurers and Secretaries of Benevolence. Try
it and see!
The aged Pastor of a country church, in New
York, writes: “We are thankful for your libe
rality in furnishing us with a few dozen of the
Church Psalmist. You will excuse our delay in
taking a collection for the Publication Cause.
We are unanimously and sincerely attached to
our branch of the visible church, and are labor
ing with some success to obtain a permanent
standing in this unpromising population.
« The enclosed item may add a few pages to
your issues, and, accompanied with our prayers
for the prosperity of this agency of our Church,
we hope it will be acceptable.”
We might add other responses which have
cheered us in our work, hut desist. We trust
that the churches will, as you say, now give Pub
lication its turn. J. W. D.
THE WAR RUMORS.
During the past week very paeific assurances
from as high an authority as Secretary Chase,
have been given to the public as to the settle
ment of our difficulty with England, but later
advices by the Arago, the America and the
Edinburg, to the 12th inst., represent the war
feeling as intense, and the military preparations
of Great Britain as formidable. The govern
ment has sent a letter, approving the course of
the mail agent, Commander Williams, of the
Trent. He protested against the removal of
Slidell and Mason from the vessel.
The Paris papers say that the British govern
ment, in answer to petitions from the manufac
turing districts, stated that the cotton ports
would be opened by February, at the latest; and
from Hamburg we learn the impression prevails
that the blockade of the Southern ports will
soon be broken by England, and that the price
of cotton is falling in consequence, At Liver
pool, however, prices were firm and unchanged.
A ship destined for New York was stopped in
the Thames, having 100 tons of lead on board,
the export of that article having been prohibited.
American shipping in England is entirely idle.
The following vessels are named as destined
for our waters: the Warrior, iron-plate frigate,
coaling; the Hero, 86 guns, sailed; the De
fence, iron-plated frigate; the transport Mel
bourne, with troops, arms and ammunition for
Canada; sailed on the 6th; transports Persia
and Andalusia, with 1100 troops, 5000 stand of
arms, 300 tons of stores and two field batteries,
were to sail on the 15th; the Blaek Prinee, the
Sutley, 51 guns; the Orpheus,'2l guns, are also
named as destined for North America. More
troops, a large corps of engineers, a large staff
of medical men and : many drill sergeants for
Canada volunteers, are preparing for an early de
parture.
Nearly as surprising as anything, in this
budget of news is the return of the venerable
General Seott by the same vessel —the Arago—
by which he went out. It is reported that he
brings offers of mediation from the French Em
peror between our government and that of Eng
land.
We venture to suggest that these preparations
on the part of the British government are quite
as mueh designed to satisfy an excited public at
home, and thus to serve the ends of the political
party now in power, (the Whigs,) as to intimi
date our own government. They are by no
means conclusive evidences of a fixed determina
tion to fall upon .us in our present condition.
The Times of the. 10th speaks hopefully of a
peaceful settlement, in view of the advices re
ceived from'this Country by the Niagara. Un
der the influence of those advices, English,
Canadian and United States securities rose.
■ At Washington it is reported that Lord Lyons
has been- satisfied by our government, and that
despatches to that effect went out on the steamer
of Saturday last. Beyond the assurance of Se
cretary Chase, that our difficulties would he
amicably arranged, we have as yet no official an
nouncement from Washington on the subject.
We have space to add but the single remark,
that while the North can in our opinion raise an
army and a navy numerically sufficient for a war
with England in addition to her present high re
sponsibilities, we have not the wealth to bear the
additional burden which such a war would im
pose. Therefore, if it can be avoided, or even
deferred, without sacrifice of: national character,
it must he done. Calmness, prayerfulness, firm
ness and Christian we trust, will be
exhibited by our people and government.
In the midst of thy sorrows look to thy God.
Peavek fok H. w. Beecher and his
Chukch.— A gentleman, in Fulton Street Meet
ing, New York, said lie belonged to the church
of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, and he wanted
to present him and his church as a subject of
prayer. He gave some reasons why he made
the request. The response was made by a prayer,
full of earnestness, by a Presbyterian minister,
that the pastor and church might exemplify the
gospel of Christ in doctrine and example, and be
made to -use their influence in saving souls. He
prayed that the pastor might preach the preach
ing to which he had been consecrated and set
apart by the laying on of hands —knowing no
thing in his doctrines and teachings but Jesus
Christ, and him crucified. The spirit of the'
prayer was one of great brotherly kindness and
charity, and yet it was lelt that there was good
reason for earnest supplication that the high po
sition and influence of this pastor and people
might, in the highest sense, subserve the cause
of truth and holiness.
Mr. Charles Desilver , of this city, has issued
the “Greek Text of the Gospel of John,” with
an interlineal translation upon the one page, and
the Greek text in its proper order, with the En
glish version and the Roman Catholic translation
of the Vulgate on the other. While we may
doubt the adapted ness of the work of itself to
acquaint the people generally in any important
degree with the original of the Scriptures, we
freely testify to its interesting and valuable
character as presenting in a combined view the
text and two important versions, and in such
large, hold type that it is a pleasure to read it.
Price, $2.50.
Mr. Desilver has also brought out Mr. Barnes’
well-known collection of Family Prayers in very
attractive styles of binding. This is mainly a
compilation of prayers from such authorities as
Jay, Jenks and Biekersteth; it is followed by a
selection of hymns suitable to family worship,
but the preliminary essay on Family Prayer,
which should be pondered and heeded by every
Christian parent, with many paragraphs inserted
in the prayers, are original with Mr. Barnes. The
book is one of the most valuable of aids and in
centives to an all-important Christian duty. It
obviates the objection raised by many to family
worship—the inability to conduct the service,
and much more j it will improve the tone and
character of the worship which is offered ex tem
pore, wherever it is read. We commend it most
cordially to general use, and trust it may aid in
turning the hearts of the fathers to the children
extensively. 12mo, pp. 360, in very handsome
cloth gilt binding.
Mr. Desilver has also just brought out a large
and profusely illustrated volume on Natural His
tory, entitled Glimpses of Animated Nature.
As it embraces all departments, the amount of
information communicated on each topic, must
be confined to a narrow space. Yet the descrip
tions are clear and satisfactory, and the style cor
rect and interesting. A vast amount of valuable
information is communicated in the compass of
the volume. The illustrations are nearly three
hundred in number, and generally very good.
The paper is very heavy and smooth, and the ty
pography and mechanical execution excellent.
Royal Bvo, pp. 423.
The Atlantic opens well with the new year.
The January number is crowded with valuable
and choice articles from the best pens in the
country. The first place is deservedly given to
Prof. Agassiz’s opening article on Methods of
Study in Natural History. This distinguished
naturalist refers to bis own work as an investi
gator for which he is famous in every civilized
country, in the following modest and remarkable
language : “It must not discourage us that the
process [of generalization] is a slow and labori
ous one, and the results of one life time, after
all, very small. ... I may at least be permitted
to speak of my own efforts, and to sum up in the
fewest words, the result of my life’s work. I
have devoted my whole life to the study of
Nature, and yet a single sentence may express
all that I have done. I have shown that there
is a correspondence between the succession of
fishes in geological times and the different stages
of their growth in the egg, this is. all." The
writer touches upon Aristotle’s narrow and de
fective classification, passes with a few words
over the great void between the Greek naturalist
and the Swede Linnaeus, and settles upon Cuvier
as the first one really to reach the very archety
pal ideas of the Creator as the foundations of a
true classification. The key to Cuvier's success
was the combination of anatomical studies , with
the observation of outward peculiarities. Yon
Baer, of Germany, by pushing anatomical re
search into the department of embryology, which
he founded, went a step beyond Cuvier, and
was competent to even a clearer discernment,
than the great Frenchman, of the structural di
versities of the animal kingdom. His paper
was published the very same year with that of
Cuvier. Yet his countrymen seemed but slightly
impressed with bis great merits, and have suffer
ed the claims of Cuvier to precedence, to remain
uncontested. Even Cuvier is not, in the judg
ment of Agassiz, thoroughly appreciated. The
question arises, whether Agassiz himself wiil be
appreciated by the readers generally of the
Atlantic j it is certainly a high compliment to
their judgment and interest in science on the
part of the Editor, to place his communications
before them. The late Adjutant Winthrdp’s
Posthumous Papers are continued, “Love and
Skates” being the singular title of the one in
the present number. Winship, the strong man’s
“Autobiographical Sketches,” Fremont’s Hun
dred Days in Missouri, and Jefferson on Slavery
will attract attention, not to mention others of,
perhaps, equal value and interest. Boston:
Ticknor & Fields.
From the press of Warren F. Draper, of An
dover, we have in an elegant volume, “ The He
brew and English Psalter," a work which sus
tains the publisher's reputation for sagacity in
discovering and bringing out the real desiderata
of the theological student’s library. In church
history, sacred hermeneutics and choice theologi
cal works of a high order, his catalogue is very
rich. The work before us contains the Hebrew
Psalms from the Text of Hahn arranged in ver
tical columns with the authorized English text.
Its tasteful exterior is enough to tempt the
clejgy, into whose hands it ought especially to
come, to a renewal of their too often neglected
Hebrew studies. For sale by Smith, English &
Co., Philadelphia, $1.25. An - admirable little
present to-one’s pastor.
The Eclectic for January gives abundant evi
dence of enterprise in Mr. Bidweli. The list of
articles comprises a great and varied store of en
tertaining and nourishing materials culled from
leading foreign reviews and magazines. The
illustrations bring before us two scenes of Very
diverse character, yet both having a comn oi
element of protest against tyranny —one the pro
test of a woman, the wife of John Bunyan
against her husband’s imprisonment—the other,
that of the improvised American army at Bun
ker Hill against the usurpations of the same tory
party thatnow is moving heaven and earth to
involve us in a new war, and if possible to com
pass our destruction. We are reminded as we
look at this picture, of a conversation between
an American of few words, and an exeited En
glishman in this country. The Englishman de
nounced as roundly as an insolent nation, and
concluded by saying : “We shall have to whip
you Americans yet!” “What! again?” was
the only, but sufficient reply. Mr. Everett fur
nishes a clear deseriptiou of tlie battle, and the
painter. Col. Trumbull’s account of the picture
is also given.
Meditations and Hymns , hy “N.” —(Second
Notice.) This unambitious, title is borne by a
volume of lyrical pieces, written by a person of
fine taste, true noetic feeling, and deep sympathy
and familiarity with the various phases of inner
Christian experience. Hymns we can scarcely
call them—the meditative, introspective tenden
cy is quite too strong, but poetry they really are,
and to thoughtful and cultivated Christians must
prove as attractive as many of the rieh devotional
pieces which, from time to time, are rendered
from the German into onr tongue. Or sometimes
again they remind ns, by the force with which a
few simple words bring out a good thought, of
the older Christian Lyrical poets in our own
tongue. The last stanza of lines on the Butter
fly illustrate this trait:—
‘ ‘But He whose power doth all those works prepare,
That clothe with glory sea and earth and sky, ’
Unto the least, of such grace gives a share,
That it proclaims His Sovereign Majesty.”
Even the short pieces show great care, vet
marks of unfinished work, and of further need
of the file are not unfrequent. We like “Dyiim
Grace,” “Dusk,” “The Butterfly,” “Teacher
Taught,” a part of the “Snow Storm.” Indeed
there are very few of them that can fail to
gratify the Christian reader.
Published by tbe Protestant Episcopal Book
Society. For sale by C. S. Luther, No. 1334
Chestnut street.
The Knicherhocher for January lays off its ex
perimental orange-color coat and resumes its
more subdued and familiar tint. We have only
space to say of this valuable and now ancient
institution, among the younger, but never-so
sprigbtly monthlies, now entering upon its fifty
ninth year, that the Publisher liberally offers to
send it gratis to any regiment on application of
tbe Colonel or Chaplain, and will receive sub
scriptions at half-price from those desirous of
sending it to soldiers in the ranks; also that the
poem, New Tear’s Call is a valuable and timely
appeal to the ladies, for which the authoress and
KnielcerLocker deserve the thanks of temper
ance men and of lovers of good habits gener
ally. New York :J. R. Gilmore.
From the American Tract Society.
Eve and Her Daughters. 18mo. Square, pp.
144. Handsome binding.
• Sketches for the Young. By Eev. Joseph
Belcher, D. D. 18mo. pp. 127.
Grandfather’s BirtJiday. 18mo. Square. 32.
pp. paper,
The first of these is an easy versification of
Bible incidents about women; the second is
composed of many brief narratives of events in
this country and in England from the writer's
own observation, with practical remarks; the
third appears originally to have been a presenta
tion book to the children of Christ’s Church
by the excellent rector, Dr. Johns. A most ex
cellent little story.
From Ticknor & Fields, we have, in blue and
gold, a handsome edition of AUingham’s Poems.
Allingham is one of the gifted song writers of
Ireland, of whom the late number of the Forth
British Review says : “His poems deserve great
er fame than they have yet won. Some half
dozen of his ballads have never been surpassed."
It is a welcome addition to a series, every sepa
rate volume of which has been well reviewed by
the public. For sale by J. B. Lippincott & Co.,
Philadelphia.
T. 0. H. P. Burnham , Boston, has issued in
very beautiful style, IMieshaf being a con
cluding series of passages in the life. of Mrs.
Margaret Maitland, of Snnnyside, written by
herself. The style is quaint and antiquated.
The author’s reputation as a skilful writer of
tales with pure and elevated aims is well known.
The work is for sale at Messrs. T. B. Peterson &
Brothers and at Messrs. J. B. Lippincott & Co.’s,
Philadelphia.
Arthur’s Home Magazine: is published by T,
S. Arthur & Co., No. 323 Walnut street, Phila
delphia, at $2 a year. Mr. Arthur, whose name
itself is a host, commences a sequel to “What is
Money,” called, “What Came Afterwards."
Godey's Lady's Book, published by L. A.
Godey, is an invaluable guide for workers in
every department of feminine industry. Price,
$3 per annum.
BOOKS FOB CHILDKEN.
The American Tract Society , H. N. This
sell, Agent, No. 929 Chestnut street, are working
earnestly and well, for the entertainment and
profit of the young people at this season. Their
volumes are models of .typographical clearness
and beauty, and the- contents are pure, elevating
and evangelical. We have before us :
Story Truths, by Bev. Joseph Banvard, D. D.
Four 18mo. volumes in a stout ease, handsomely
printed and illustrated. The author of these
graphic narratives is an experienced and suc
cessful writer for the young. .They embrace a
great variety of stories, vividly illustrating and
enforcing the most important truths. Very few
holiday presents are at once so elegant and so
cheap.
Historical Tales for Young Protestants is a
series of narratives well calculated to keep alive
in the bosoms of Protestant children, a sense of
their profound obligations to the martyrs and
confessors of the sixteenth century.
The Promised One as revealed in the Old
Testament is a sort of Ohristology for the Young-
Square, gilt.
Kitty King , by H. C. K. Very acceptable to
the quite young portion of the household.
DEC. 26,