torropouituct, ARMY CHAPLAINS. BROTHER BLEARS :-I am often asked questions about the office of Chaplain in tho army, and it has occurred to me that an answer to these questions might make an acceptable article for your columns. In order to become a chaplain it is necessary (1) to get a certificate of not less than five ministers of one's own denomination that ono is a regularly ordained clergyman, with their recom mendation of him as a suitable person to fill the office, and (2) to get a certified statement of the vote of the staff officers and commandants of companies electing him to that office in a particular regi ment. With these two papers he can obtain (3) a commission from the Governor of the State. He will then join his regiment, and, with these three papers, will apply to the mustering officer of the division or corps to which the regiment belongs. This officer will muster him into the service of the United States and give him (4) a Certificate of Muster—the officer retaining papers 1 and 2. The chaplain will then show No. 4 to the adjutant of his regiment, who will enter his name on the roll of the field and staff, with the date of muster. Tho monthly pay of a chaplain, which begins from the date of his muster, is $lOO, plus $lB for rations, plus forage for one horse. In active service, his baggage must be comprised in one valise or carpet bag, and one roll of blankets—say three or four woolen blankets and ono India rubber blanket—bound together by a shawl strap with handle. These will be carried in the staff wagon. Besides these, he may carry whatever he chooses on his horse or on his own person. When lying for any length of time in one camp, or at a station, or in winter quarters, he may have a trunk and a camp bedstead, which must be stored with the post-quartermaster or expressed home when the regiment takes the field. When on a march, and at all times daring an active campaign, ho will do well to carry on his horse one woolen, and ono gum blanket, lest at night the wagons should fail to reach the troops. He should carry a haversack—not one of the showy and expensive things which officers often buy, but the simplest kind, of gum or oil cloth—to contain his most necessary toilet articles, and sufficient food if he should fail to get regular meals during the day. The regular provisions and cooking utensils, and table furniture of his mess, will be car ried in the wagons. His canteen should be filled at every good stream or spring on the road. The cheap government canteen is better than the expensive and ornamental ones. The shoulder strap of both haversack and canteen should be as broad as possible . , so as not to cut the shoulder. A small tin cup may bo attached to either canteen or haversack. A bottle of essence of Ja maica ginger should always be at hand. The chaplain's dress is a plain black frock coat, with standing collar such as are commonly worn by Episcopalian ministers—except that the ordinary clerical coat has seven buttons and the military coat has nine. A black felt hat is most convenient. The chaplain is not, however, obliged to wear any pecu liar or uniform dress. Some chaplains wear a blue sash at parades and reviews, and many wear black velvet buttons. If the commanding officer will permit, the chaplain should have prayers daily at dross parade, which occurs just before sunset. The best time for the prayer is when the officers have marched to the centre and have faced the colonel, and before they march forward to salute him. The prayer should be not more than three minutes long. A form of prayer will insure the requisite Cavity and be in keeping with the formalities of the parade. While in camp, the chaplain should visit the regimental hospital daily and spend ten minutes, (not more) in Scrip ture reading and prayer. The best time is in the morning, after the surgeon's visit and before the patients fall asleep again. At the close of this short ser vice he may distribute tracts and papers. Judicious letters from the chaplain to the friends of the sick and deceased will be very highly appreciated. On Sunday but one service can be held, and that not always. This service, including Scripture reading, singing, sermon or address, and prayer, should occupy twenty or twenty-five minutes —never over thirty. The ordinary time for the Sunday service in the army is ten or eleven o'clock, but I have found the middle of the afternoon, say three o'clock, most free from interruptions. 'fie adjutant .will have the-Church Oall mounded on dram or bugle at the request of the chaplain, but the best of all church calls is the singing of a hymn by, the chaplain in a good strong voice. The ability to sing indepmidently is a prime qualification for the chaplaincy, and one who can sing can call a congre gation together on a hundred occasions, where one who cannot sing must forego the pleasure of preaching. At the close of the Sunday service tracts and reli gious papers should be freely distributed. The Christian Commission will furnish them. On the battle-field, the chaplain should not needlessly expose himself to danger to show his bravery, least of all should he undertake to act the soldier, since he is regarded as a non-combatant, and if taken prhioner would expect the privi leges of a non-combatant. Let him assist the wounded and the surgeons, who will be, where it is possible and as much as possible, shielded from the enemy's fire. Possibly those suggestions of a nearly two years' experience in the army may be of use to some who propose entering the service. D. G. M. REPORT ON ROME MISSIONS, Presented to the Third Presbytery of Philadel phia, convened at Darby, April 12th, 1864. The cause of Home Missions should be dear to the heart of every American Christian. First and foremost in its claims upon our faith and our efforts in the time of peace and prosperity, it addresses us with increased urgency in the time of the nation's peril and sorrow. Every argument which may be fitly employed to fan the fires of patriotism in the hearts of the people, appeals with an additional force to : every Christian conscience, for the preaching of the Divine Word, and the establishment 'of Christian institutions in all the waste places of the land. The unprecedented liberality which has freely and gladly contributed millions for the relief of the hard,necessities of the soldier, has shown us in a clearer light than wo ever saw it before, how easily the nation can relieve the spiritual destitution throughout all its borders,' and only enrich itself and the world by its own . liberality. And all Christian men who love their country and pray for its continued unity and prosperity, should see to it that the re vival of patriotism among the people, shall, be attended by a corresponding revival of interest in maintaining a pure, free and vigorous Christianity wherever the advancing tido of population flows in each successive year. NoVor,' at any'preVious 'pelied of our history, has it beon more necessary to sustain the Home Missionary work with a more enlarged and self-sacrificing gen erosity. The old arguments for the I cause are as strong and urgent as ever, and they aro supported by'others of new and extraordinary force, derived from the groat national struggle through which we are now passing. The old world sends-a hundred and fifty thousand every year to learn the great lessons of law, liberty and religion under the fostering influence of American institu tions, and there is every propeet that the living tide of emigratiblr will be vastly increased when the issue; of the present contest has established the na tional government upon broader and bettor foundations. Multitudes are annually removing from the old centres of population to the green prairies, the golden mountains and the teeming val lies of the West; and they must be followed by the church, the missionary and the sabbath school, to save them from wholly severing the ties that bind them to home, to country and to God. The great revolutionary earthquake which is still shaking our social and ci vil fabric to its foundations, has upheaved a mass of inflammable and dangerous elements, and they must be watched with sleepless eyes, and guarded with unwearied hands, lest they fill the land with worse desolation, when the sword itself has ceased to devour. The eman .cipation of millions of men: from a condition of ignorance and servitude; the violent transfer or millions of prop erty, under the stern decrees of war; the reconstruction of the whole order of society; the adaptation of social customs and prevailing opinions to a free, industrious and advancing p3pulation throughout vast regions of the south; the radical change in the leading gov ernmental policy of the country ; the establishment of a strong centralized power for the maintenance of national unity without endangering the liberties of the people or the integrity of consti tutional government; the critical trans ition from a state 43f gigantic and desolating war to that of peace; the transfer of a million soldiers from the rude and terrible life of the army, to the . quiet homes and the orderly occupations which they left at the call of the country; the soothing of angry passions: the removal of prejudice and ignorance; •the restoration of unity and loyalty; the cultivation of a willingness to be instructed, and to accept a better order of things in regions subjugated by the PEDILADVILPHIA., THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1864. victorious armies of the Union ; these things all require, to such a degree as the country never required before, the healing, enlightening and reconciling influences of the Gospel of peace, truth and love. When the great battle of arms has been fought, and the final victory gained on the bloody field, and the flag of the nation waves, vindicated and glorious, on all the high ,places of the land, still the great work 6f educa tion and evangelization will remain to be done. Then our Home Missionary field will be enlarged to embrace mil lions who before were wholly beyond our reach. Then, too, we shall need more than ever before, the healing and mighty power of the gospel,to help us maintain the government and all the prevailing opinions and usages of society, according to the demands of the most enlightened equity, benevolence and truth. The time to meet this great demand is close upon 1113, and every appropriate means should be employed to im press the minds and hearts of the people with a just sense of their. obliga tions in this respect To this end, your committee think it important that in telligence on this great and sacred work should come before our churches in some more regular and reliable form than the casual paragraphs of a religious newspaper. The number, the 'labors, the trials and reverses of missionaries in the field; the increased demand for preachers; the amount contributed for the work and the mode in which it was appropriated ; the great individual, national and immortal interests staked upon meeting the claims created by the new exigencies of the time, should come before our churches frequently, regularly and in such a form as to arrest attention and supply incentives to thought, study, effort, giving and prayer. We regret to be obliged to report that only nine of the twenty-four churches connected with this Presbytery have taken collections for this most national, sacred and Christian cause within the year under review. We sincerely hope and pray that at the close of another twelve months no one of our churches will fail to have its name recorded as a liberal and willing contributor-to Home Missions. DANIEL MARCH, Committee., REPORT OF COMMITTEE 01tRAMINA= BEMIXARY, To the Board of Commissioners of AU burn Theologica l Aiminary : The taSklrf the past three days has been to your Committee one of undivided satisfaction. Perhaps they might best present their report in a single sentence, by saying that, having listened carefully to the examinations, from first to last, they have found everything, with scarce an exception, to approve, and nothing to condemn. They would congratulate the churches of central and western New York, upon the fact that they have an institution in their midst, where their young men, whom God has called into the ministry, Can be so thoroughly in structed and furnished for their great work. The examinations have been creditable alike to the able corps of in structors and to tho students themselves. If the young men do their great life work as well and as faithfully as they seem, in general, to have improved the high opportunities which they ha7e enjoyed in the Seminary, they will be useful instruments in building up Chrisi'ti kingdom, and shall in no wise los3 their reward. It is difficult for your Committee to select any particular points to which to call your attention, without omitting others equally important. A broad and safe foundation is laid for the other branches of study, in the thorough and critical instruction in the original lan guage of the Scripturees. The young men are well versed in the rudiments and principles of the Hebrew; and it is hoped that they have become so much interested in that language that they will not, as is too often the case, cease its study on leaving the seminary walls. The examination in the Greek Testament was exceedingly interesting. The rich ness of the original language, and the importance of a thorough understanding of its finer shades of thought, was brought out in a striking light, while clear and sound principles of interpreta tion were laid down for the guidance of the student in his investigation of the. Scriptures. The chief distinguishing feature of the theological instruction is its eminently Biblical character. The Bible is made the court of appeal in every question of our faith. A high, uncompromising position is taken on the inspiration and authority of the Word of God. " Thus saith the Lord," is the test of every doctrine. The philosophy held is shaped by Scripture, not Scripture interpreted by , a pre-arranged philosophy. The system of doctrine taught is broad and deep—not superficial, as with many modern. notions—and at the far thest possible rezone from any tinge of the rationalism so prevalent in our day. Great and fundamental truths are not reasoned away or emptied of their life ; but are plainly and fully stated; ex plained when it is possible; while what ever mystery exists is cordially acknow ledged, and this mind commanded to receive it on God's authority. We need hardly say—what is well known—that the doctrines of this institution are the old doctrines of our church, the faith in which our fathers lived and died, the form of sound words which they have given us in our confession and catechisms. To the study of these scriptural symbols the attention of the, students is particu larly directed. The, study. of ,Church History is so conducted, as to ftx in the minds of the students the leading , events of each age, with the connection of each new phase. of Christian life and doctrine with that preceding. The salient points are sin gled out, and other events are systema tized about them. The brief examination in this branch constituted, in itself, an epitome of the entire history of the church. All the other studies are applied and made practical, by the instruction in the preparation of sermons and in pastoral theology. Great stress is laid on Biblical preaching. The students are taught to ascertain the precise meaning of the text, and to make their sermons not mere moral essays, but the exposition and application of the divine message , the natural outgrowth of the text. The necessity is impressed upon them of the aid of God's Spirit, and of, a deep Christ ian experience as essential to .a true and earnest presentation of the truth. If we were to point out some general characteristics of the instructions given in the Seminary, we should notice, first of all, the unity of the teaching in the different departments. One foundation is laid in them all, in the Bible as the source of truth; and one system of doc trine is taught throughout, and one grand aim is set before the student. 'We should notice also the systematic character of the instruction given, as fitted not merely to make the young men thinkers, but to enable them to clas sify and arrange their thoughts; to give them a niche for every idea, a place for every truth, and teach them how to put each truth in its place. / We should note particalary the prac tical character of the instruction. The great aim seems never to be lost sight of—the fact that the ministry is a work, that the young men are not simply to be well-versed students or learned phi losophers, but preachers of the everlast ing Gospel, pastors of the flock of God: All which is respectfully submitted. Jos. N. MCGIFFERT, Chairman. ONIONS FOR TER SOLDIERS, A COUNTRY GIRL TO COUNTRY GIRLS AND Not long' since I heard a soldier say that soldiers like onions ; that ho had at one time paid twenty-five cents for an onion, Onions are good for soldiers, and many, of them crave them. You and I don't, maybe; we like them only a long way off, but the soldiers do not. Down in a corner of our garden, behind the currant bushes, in what I recognize from surroundings as a long-neglected corner, a spot unoccupied save by our dogs, who have considered it their own peculiar play-ground, and from which our boy has taken many a load of bones of their strewing, I see, in vision, the morning sun gleam brightly on rows of tiny green blades, and, as I look, the rows seem to form themselves into great characters which presently I see are 1, For the Soldiers." Henceforth, for this season at least, that bone-strewed patch has a nobler destiny. The vision shall be realized. The dogs must seek an other play-ground; this plot is to bear onions for the soldiers. Where now is stiff sod shall - indeed be mellow soil where onions may take to themselves size, and sap, and odor. In due time the green tops may flavor soup for the Home Guard; but every bulb lying con cealed in the dark mold shall be sacred to such as have seen active service. Never, since exiled Israelites landed, and sighed for the leeks and onions of Egypt, has there been so great a glorifi cation of the odorous, tear-provoking bulb as there shall be in this garden corner. This sounds well, say you, but talking breaks no bones, and' that stub born soil is not yet broken for those onion beds. You're right. When the. barrels (or shall it only be barrel ?) con taining them shall have been directed to the U. S. Sanitary Commission will - be a better time for talking of these onions of mine. But just one word to you, girls and boys. Have you a neglected corner in your garden, in your yard, or a spot hitherto given to the cultivation of flowers only ? That spot is not yours, I beg leave to inform you. The soldier has a mortgage on it. Waste soil is not to be tolerated about our homes in these times, and the tulip, though a lovely ministrant, must give place to a root which may be put to nobler uses. Dear friends, can't you, won't you work these spots for the soldiers ? Think ! for any slight weariness we shall so suffer, they have known the hard en durance, the wear of long marches. For every drop of oosing sweat while bending at our toil, the crimson life currant streams from them for country, for home, that we may have them. Let us give freely what we can to those who are giving life, some of them, for us. Glancing over a newspaper, my eye falls upon a statement that in the Army of the Cumberland there is much suffering for want of vegetables. Should each of us country girls and boys fur nish a bushel, even, of vegetables—we won't insist upon the onions from all, if some of you prefer potatoes for your peculiar patch—and put them all to gether, those from each village sending their barrels. And how the barrels would roll in ! This seems humble work to come of us, does it? No work for country is mean; no work for its de fenders is mean. Let us pledge our selves, girls hnd boys, that we will do what we can and that with the enthu siasm with which we pieced together and flung out to the breeze our first miniatures of the Dear Old Flag in , the beginning of these strange times, when it is defended from those whom it has so Long sheltered.—The Independent. iudlatuito, PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE FIELDS. BY REV. N. T. MORTON, D. D Photography has realized some of the dreams of those ardent lovers of nature, who have long been waiting and won dering, and almost despairing of accom plishing the ends they aimed at. They felt that there was a vast amount of mere conventionalism in most painting. They wondered it should be so; they waited to see if it would not be avoided; they almost despaired of any remedy. Such and such touches stood for leaves; they were not leaves either in shape or detail, but they stood for leaves, and were accepted as leaves. Certain daubs of color or strokes of brush stood for the bark on tree-trunks; other daubs and strokes stood for grass or rock-surface. But after all, these things were only suggestions, not actual representations of the objects. And how was it possible that it should be otherwise ? How could any mortal hand paint any real natural forest ? A painter might sit doivn before a reach of woods, and paint "from dawn to dewy eve," beginning in early youth and painting persistently till he and the forest grew old together, without hope of rendering all he saw. Realizing this, the task was abandoned, till the Pre-Raphaelites took up the forsaken work, and by limiting their scrutiny to a little bit of nature,,pon trived to present the world with very fair copies of tufts of grass and hand-' breadths of waysides. They painted pictures which it made one's back ache even to look at, so terrible was the .evidence which they exhibited of intense and elaborate But -these did not satisfy. Then Pliotography started up like a spirit, and came into the midst of the: toiling group, bending painfully over their work, and said, "Stand aside, gentlemen, if you please. Let me show you how to paint Nature." In a mo ment, in the twinkling of an eye as it were, she handed over her work, and lo ! there was the wood with every tree trunk perfectly copied, every leaf accu rately represented, and every stone standing overshadowed by tall ferns, or cushioned in soft moss! The group of painters put out their pipes simultane ously, and pored eagerly over the pro duction of this strange spirit ! It was a real thing and perfect. Not a bug had crawled over a tree-trunk, but this spirit had caught him, and transferred his image to the surface prepared for his reception. Not one little quiet shadow had the sun made by means of the rugged excrescence of a fragment of oak-bark, or the overhanging of a leaf, but the spirit had marked it, surprising, ere it could escape, and fixing it ere it could fade ! The admiring spectators admitted that the work was wonderful, and relighting their pipes, resolved that this spirit should help them in their after toils, and secure for them studies of nature, not otherwise attainable. But Photography has done more than this. The nimble-fingered spirit has contrived to grasp motion. The paipter had to guess at many things, particu larly at moving things. The falling wave changed while he watched it, and was never the same thing long enough to allow him to draw a single line accu rately. It tossed and trembled before him, and seemed to defy his efforts to portray it. The clouds too smiled at his endeavors to picture them. He saw the expression as it came on the majestic vapor-masses; but as he lifted his head to look again, the smile had melted away, and a frown supplied its place. And so the clouds trailed away, and twisted their long waving skirts, and left the baffled artist to admire and despair. Bat this swift spirit was too quick for the clouds, too nimble for the falling wave; it caught the combing surf in the very instant of its plunge, and treated the clouds as though they were marble things, and fixed on pe destals to wait its pleasure. How abundantly the results repay labor when the work is well done The world has ceased to be astonished, but it has not ceased to be delighted with the triumphs of the new art; and still more glorious victories, we do not doubt, are yet in store for its devoted students. We have now all the glory of grand Rembrandt's light and shade, and more than Pre-Raphaelite delicacy and exact ness of detail. We look in hope of yet seeing the exquisite tinting of Nature reproduced, and Titian and Turner excelled in color, as much as they are in accuracy of form, and minuteness of detail— , Philadelphia Photographer. WORDS are the fortresses of thought. They enable us to realize our dominion over what we have already overrun in` thought; to make every intellectual conquest the basis of operations for others still beyond.—Sir W. Hamilton'a _Logic. SERVANTS IN NEW YORK OITY. Dr. Hall in his Journatof Health says : "We know a family of five persons which keeps four servants. Another of three, keeps three servants; some fami lies, strictly private, have seven, eight, or nine helps. If this over-supply of servants ended simply with the increas ed expenditure of the particular family, the evil would not be so great, in the few cases in which the hire and the board of these retinues are not paid eventually by other and more honest and industrious people. Bat it, is no torious, that generally, such persons fail and their creditors are the real suffer ers. The really rich of New York, those who have been wealthy for a generation or more, are the only persons, as a class, who do practice a wise economy. They do it as a pleasure, arising from an honorable conviction of the justice and right and prudence of their course, and for the assurance which it gives them of a continuance of a comfortable compe tence in the long years of the future. "But this extravagant supply of ser vants has a pernicious effect on the ser vants themselves; they become inevi tably more and more idle, careless, in attentive, impertinent, and wasteful; and when these qualities have arrived at an unendurable pitch, they are sent away, and then they impose themselves on less aspiring families, to annoy them by their worthless ness; and in a few years they go down lower and lower in the scale of efficiency, are more and more un employed, their scanty earnings be come exhausted in the miserable hovels in which they board; miserable enough, as all ladies have learned who attempt to hunt them up in answer to advertise ments in the papers. Sonic of the places where cooks and chambermaids board while they are getting places, aro not fit for the habitation of horned cattle; a good farmer would not keep his horse or his cow in such rickety, unventilated, and blackened apartments, situated as they generally are, in the distant, filthiest, and most noisome streets and alleys in the whole metropo lis. And yet, when these same persons are introduced into a respectable dwell ing, they assume the airs of duchesses or queens. They can't use brown sugar in their coffee, because it gives them the headache. They won't touch .any other bread than that which is cut fresh from the loaf at the time they are wanting it; while the slices left at the family table of to-day, if not thrown intty _the a - barrel, or given to some begging cousin acquaintance, are placed' on the family table for the next meal. None but the costliest tea will " agree" with their delicate stomachs, and this is made so strong, that in order to be able to drink it, they" saturate it with loaf-eugar. Unless they are closely--snatched on washing days their own clothibg first passes• through the' laundry; is first hang out to dry, and that too in the sunniest places in the yard ' • while in the starching process of skirts, etc., their own are made as stiff as paste board, and in every respect have the preference. Such impertinences as these, the less resolute of our wives have to endure, and in consequence, are kept in a state of irritation and fretfulness and anxiety which wastes the strength, ruffles the temper, sours the disposition, and makes housekeeping a penance in stead of a happiness.' PHYSICAL TRAINING. Woe to the class or to the nation which has no manly physical training ! Look at the manners, the morals, the faces . of young men of the shop-keeping classes, if you wish to see the effects of utterly neglecting the physical devel opment of man ; of fancying that all the muscular activity he requires under the sun is to be able to stand behind a counter, or sit on a desk without tum bling of. Be sure, that ever since the days of the Persians of old, effeminacy, if not twin sister of cowardice and dishonesty, has always gone hand in hand with them. To that utter neglect of any exercises which call out forti tude, patience, self-dependence and da ring, we attribute a great deal of the low sensuality, the conceited vulgarity, the utter want of a high sense of honor, which is increasing just now among the middle classes. GENurNm ELOQUENCE.—There is no people in the world with whom eloquence is so perfect a gift as with the Irish. When Leitch Ritchie was traveling in Ireland, he passed a man who was a painful spec tacle of pallor, squalor, and raggedness. His heart smote him and he turned back. " If you are in want," said Ritchie with some degree of peevishness, "why don't you beg ?" " Sure it's a begging Ism, your honor." " You didn't say a - word. " 0 v coorse not, yer honor ; but see how the skin is speakin' though the holes of me trousers ! and the bones crying out though me skin ! Look at me sunken cheeks, and the famine that's starin' in me eyes. Man alive ! isn't it beggin.' that I am with a hundred tongues ?" Goon ADVICE.—Let our readers be assured that the purest and truest and highest patriotism of our times, is not the blatant cry of Vnionism, liberty to all, free soil, and all that, but it is indi vidual integrity and personal economy in their highest and strictest forms, car ried out in every minutia of domestic expenditure. There is another method of exhibiting a high patriotism, as a means of saving the national credit, and preventing a national and individual financial col lapse ; it is easily stated in a few-words, to swear or affirm, in plain monosyl lables : "From this good hour, I will not eat or drink or wear what does not grow in the land of my birth, the land I most love."--Ball's Jot:J=l.
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