Tgß AMEBICAN PRESBYTERIAN
AND
GENESEE EVANGELIST.
A Religions and Family Newspaper,
IN THY INTEREST OF THE
ConstituticTid Presbyterian Church.
PUBLISHED - EVERY THURSDAY,
THE PRESBYTERIAN HOUSE,
.1384 Chestnut Street, (2d story,) Philadelphia.
Rev. John W. Nears, Editor and Pnblisher.
Rev. B. B. Hotchkin, Editor of News and
Family Departments.
Rev. O. P. Buih, Correspanding Editor,
Rochester, N. Y.
gmtritan. Vuestaitstian.
THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 1865
CONTENTS 01' INSIDE PAGES.
SECOND PAGE--THE FAMILY CIRCLE:
The Pilgrim's Pillow—The Clouded Intellect—
Making_ a Difference—Christ and the Children— ,
About Tobacco.
For the Little Polite: Familiar Talks with the
Children—A Justßebuhe—A Child's Idea of Light
ning.
Rural Economy: Varnishing Furniture—Salting
Hay—To Remove the Taste of New Wood.
THIRD PAGE—RELIGIOUS WORLD ABROAD:
Great Britian — France—ltaly—Germany.
SIXTH PAGE—CORRESPONDENCE:
From our London Correspondent—Acknowledg
ment of the Gitt of a Bible by a Heathen Prince—
Jottings from a Parish= Journal—Father says so I A
Word for Returning Soldiers—The Reception of our
Returning Braves—How to be Satisfied—Good for
One Pound.
SEVENTH PAGE—RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE :
Presbyterian—Congregational—Reformed Dutch—
Methodist Baptist—Episcopal —Unitarian—The
Jews—Roman Catholic—The Friends—Miscellane
ous—ltems—The Publication Cause.
PRESBYTERIANISM AND REPUBLI
CANISM.
"He that will not honor the memory and
resbect the influence of Calvin, knows but
little of the origin of American Iiberty."—BAN
CROFT.
There are three important peculiarities of
a republican form of government such as that
of the United States, which contribute more
than anything else to recommend it to the
friends of human liberty and happiness :
1. It is a free government,—self-govern
ment, on the principle of the majority
being the controlling power.
2. It is a representative government--
net a democracy.
3. It combines by federal representation
the wisdom and the authority of all, in di
recting the affairs of the whole.
The first principle distinguishes it from
a monarchy or an empire; the second from
a democracy; and the third from an oligar
chy or an aristocracy such as 'that of Venice
or the States of Holland. •
Considering how great an influence is
exercised upon the characters, tastes, and
susceptibilities of a people by their eccle
siastical relations, it becomes a question of
leading denominations of the country is
most nearly allied in its arrangements to a
republican form of government, and which
would be likely to cultivate in the people
most effectually an, attachment to our free
institutions. The temper of the individual
members, or indeed of the great body of a
denomination, cannot always be judged by
the peculiarities of their creed or church
government; men are often better or worse
than their circumstances would lead us to
believe; but tendencies inherent in the very
nature of an institution cannot be ignored
by the observer, and he will nearly always
find that, if sufficient time transpires, those
tendencies make themselves good in his
tory.
Nothing in the world is clearer than the
antagonism between hierarchical forms of
church government and all forms of politi
cal. liberty. The Papacy is a complete
system of spiritual despotism. Obedience
and not liberty is its ever-recurring watch
word. People, nobles, kings, czars must
all alike acknowledge the absolute sover
eignty of the Pope. Subordinate to the
Pope are the various orders of the clergy,
who _manage the affairs of the church, in
utter unconcern of the mind of the laity.
The governing and the governed are as
widely distinguished almost as master and
slave. Liberty is a tabooed idea in the
Romish church. It is heresy of the most
dangerous sort, for the Catholic to have any
mind of his own distinct from that of "his
spiritual adviser." History shows us that
the most powerful ally of despotism known
in the civilized world, has been popery;
and at this day the spectacles of France,
Spain, Portugal, and Austria, where Ro
manism is by far stronger than anywhere
else, prove the inherent adaptedness of
Popery and political despotism for each
other.
In the radical form of Congregationalism
called Independency,—understood to have
been claimed as of Divine authority by 'the
preacher of the late Boston Convention,—we
find the opposite extreme of democracy and
individualism, tending to anarchy. Here,
we are struck with the almost utter absence
of authority and organization. Here, we
are greeted on every side with the ory of
liberty, until we wonder where even the
power to preserve and insure liberty is to
be found; or until, in the cry of "no creed,"
we lose sight of church and of order alto
gether. Here, the final authority is the
majority of all the members of the indi
vidual church, of which the minister him
self is one. Everything else is advisory.
There is no federation, no representation,
no interdependence, no authoritative inter
position of the whole, to correct the errors
and supplement the wisdom of the few.
We have a mere aggregate of, small inde
pendent immunities, in which no idea of
New. Series, Vol. 11, No. 26.
government is cultivated beyond that of a
majority vote in a company, at most, of a
few hundreds.
We need not say that we consider both
Hierarchy. and Independency far removed
from the ideal of a republic like our own.
Both of them are lacking in equally essen
tial, though in very different, elements. A
hierarchy withdraws power from the peo
ple and lodges it absolutely in the hands of
a spiritual head. Independency almost
equally removes power from the people,
but lodges it nowhere;. A hierarchy crushes
the church into unity and nearly kills •it;
independency explodes it- into -fragthents,
and evaporates the very .idea of the aura
into the rarity of rationalism. Neither Hi
erarchy nor Independency would suggest or
nurture the idea of a federal republic.
Neither of them can be regarded as in and
of themselves friendly to its development.
And if history be appealed to, it can be
said for our own country, that the Puritans,
who settled New England, resembled the
Dutch of New Amsterdam or the Hugue
nots of the remoter South, rather than
radical Independents of our day. In the
New England churches, ruling elders and
synods were not the objects of abhorrence
that they have lately become to those who
boast of their Puritan lineage most loudly.
Whatever the present genus of- " Ply
mouth" churches may be, the original one
of all was Presbyterian, with John Robin
son as its pastor, , and 'the famous " Elder
Brewster" as one of its session. The prin
ciple of liberty may indeed be made good
against despotism by men like the Indepen
dents, destitute of a profound sense of
order; but such are not the men to organize
it in a wise combination and balancing of
foi:oes, nor are they the men 'who give
steadiness and solidity to republican insti
tutions. And the strength which thew
England of to-day gives to the government,
does not come from- the rabid independency
and "no creed" which shelters under the
loose folds of Congregationalism, but rather
from that soberer and steadier portion of
Isar' • o a ..reciate a .of
government in Church or State
So remarkable, on the other hand, is the
likeness between the Presbyter an polity
and a Republican form of government, that
we find no difficulty in admitting some
thing more than likeness,—actual kinship,
a relationship of cause and effect.
Presbyterianism is a government by the
people; the people organize the church,
choose its ruling elders, elect their pastor,
in whose license and ordination they have
had an equal voice in the councils of the
church at large. No assembly can con
vene, no law can be passed, without their
presence as judges and legislators. This is
essential, not accidental, in Presbyterianism;
it is part of its very idea as a polity, in fact
a leading part, and the chief difference
between it and all other church polities.
In no other denomination, are the repre
sentatives of the peoPle admitted to plenary
authority in all acts of government and of
counsel. No other denomination therefore
can compare with ours in adaptation to the
tastes and wants of a self-governing com
munity.
Presbyterianism is representative not d:
mocratic. So is the whole form of our ci ;
government. Our citizens delegate every
official function, and transact every public
act by their representatives. Pure democ
racy is hardly maintained in the manage
ment even of very small towns. If this system
is superior to that of bringing every public
matter to the notice and judgment of the
people at large', as it plainly is; if it is
important that the people be trained to
value it, and prefer it to the loose, imprac
ticable methods of democracy; if indeed it
be altogether essential in the working out
of our problem of a free united govern
ment, which the opposite method would
utterly frustrate; then Presbyterianism must
be accepted as a grand school of republican
ism, constantly and effectually training its
adherents in the general duties of Ameri
can citizenship.
Again, Presbyterianism is federated, al
most precisely as are the various members
of our political system. It forms a whole,
which might with entire propriety be
termed a Federal Republic. Its ideal is
federal unity, realized by representation.
Its individual church, with its delegated
officers comprising the session, corresponds
in civil government to the municipality ; its
presbytery, made up of representatives from
a number of neighboring churches, resembles
the government of the county; the - S . ynods
embracing a number of contiguous Presby
teries and composed still of representatives
from the churches, may be compared to
the State Assemblies; while- the General
Assembly, made up of ruling elders and
ministers in equal proportions, chosen by
the whole number of the Presbyteries, is
the representative body of the entire
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 1865.
church, in which the wisdom and judicial
authority of the whole is embodied. It
therefore resembles the highest representa
tive body of the land, the Congress of the
United States. Hence we have a close
analogy, both in spirit and form, both in
elementary parts, and in outward organiza
tion, between the entire structure of the
Presbyterian polity and the whole scheme
of representative government by which the
people of the United States manage their
political affairs. No civil government in
the world is so much like the Presbyterian
polity as
,this?f the United States; no de
.nominitional polity is so closely allied to
the republicanism or America as is that of
our own church.
It is not surprising, therefore, that Chief
Justice Tilghman should have remarked
that the framers of our Constitution bor
rowed very much of the form of our Re
public from that form of church govern
ment developed in the constitution of the
Presbyterian Church of Scotland; or that
Mr. G. C. Verplanck traces the Declara
tion of Independence to the Solemn League
and Covenant as its model. Republicanism,
in fact, sprung up in connection with the
very origin of the modern Presbyterian
Church. Geneva was the early nursery of
Republicanism and Presbyterianism. Ban
croft says, that Calvin made Geneva, " for
the modern world the impregnable fortress
of modern liberty, the perfect seed. plot of
Democracy." The commonwealth of Eng
land and the modified republic of Holland,
were both the work of Presbyterians. The
republican elements in the present govern
ment of Great Britain;are largely due to
the teachings of John Knox and of Calvin.
The Presbyterian. Church in this country
was the first to protest against. British
tyranny, and the first to acknowledge the
Declaration of Independence ; in fact, it
went before Mr. Jefferson by the famous
4eclaration of Mecklenburg, N. C. And
to the Presbyterian Church of this country
is due the separation between Church and
State, a separation- which was fully consum
?.'; rmarram
dependency in. in New England felt the need
of the outside support of the civil power,
while well-organized Presbytery could
afford, to dispense with it, and oppose it as
the he of liberty' everywhere.
We have not the slightest doubt.that the
spread of the
_Presbyterian polity over our
land, is adding strength to our free institu
tions, and is training the people to an intel
ligent estimate and right use of them;
while Independency tends to breed restless
ness, and to lessen the popular regard for
order, system, and organization, in public
affairs. Hierarchical and prelatical forms
of church government, on the other hand,
accustom the minds of the people to the
idea of simple obedience to irresponsible
authority, which is equally unfriendly to re
publicanism. In a word, Independency re
presents liberty without law; Hierarchy re
presents law without liberty, while Presby
terianism and the better forms of Congrega
tionalism represent the true republican
idea of liberty-in-law.
OLICY AND DUTY OF PUNISHING
TRAITOR LEADERS. 11.
With the lapse of another week, we find
no sensible progress made by our Govern
ment in the administration of justice to the
guilty authors of our troubles. We cannot
suppress our feelings of disappointment at
the seeming haste exhibited to pardon
rather than to punish, when such enormous
crimes are concerned. We are willing in
deed that such a prerogative should be ex
ercised, but not that mercy should force
herself into the Executive Council Cham
ber while justice stands neglected and
waiting outside. Let the majesty of justice
be honored first; after that, give mercy
abundant room and range. Let rebels first
feel the weight of authority; as yet they
know nothing about it, for they have been
successfully resisting it for four years, and
the first taste they have of it is in the
restoration of their States to all the privi
leges of their former federal relations. The
oath they are required to take, may or not
be regarded as binding, by men fresh from
a monstrous act of treason and perjury;
but whether kept or not, it can hardly be
viewed in the light of a punishment.
This eager haste to reconstruct rebellious
States, and to put whole communities of
rebels back in their forfeited constitutional
position, before a single act of formal jus
tice has been done, is a sacrifice of the
dignity and honor of the nation, for which
we shall sooner or later be made to suffer.
We would like to see our Government, now
that the amnesty proclamation sufficiently
vindicates its clemency—bending all its
energies, summoning all the legal' ability at
its command, clothing itself with all the
majesty thatinsulted but victorious authority
can assume, in order to put upon record, in
the most lasting and memorable form, its
solemn condemnation of the treason which
his brought into the verge of ruin. We
need, not merely the monuments of the
nation's power to put down a vastrebellion,
which are found on a hundred battle-fields;
we need, such a monument of the' sound
moral sentiment of the nation, of just in
dignation at the criminal authors of these
bloody interruptions of our peace and
proiiperity, as can only-be found in a calm,
deliberate, and eompiehensive decision - of
the highestAtlbunal of the land, sustained
by tlie.Vznotit4penalties of the law. This
is called for first, and we suffer, North and
South by every hour of delay.
What protection are we to have against
treasonable plots in the - future, it we take
the advice So officiously Obtruded upon us
from abroad, to shed no blood, to punish no
traitors more ? Shall we treat the section
of our Constitution which defines treason
(Art. 111., Sec. 3) as a nullity? Are trea
son and resistence to treason reduced to the
naked question of who is the strongest; so
that when any party feels himself strong
enough, he may, without any more personal
risk than naturally belongs to such a strug
gle, and without any crime whatever,
launch into rebellion at his pleasure? If
he fails, is it the mere overflow of malig
nity or popular vengeance tol ; to punish
him? Do we stand, in this age of civiliza
tion, so close upon the verge of the barbar
ous condition where might makes right, as
all this would indicate ?
Let such a doctrine prevail, and again
we ask, what protection have we against the
repetition of the crime ? What great les
son will the restless spirits of this nation
haVe before their eyes for all time, to dis
courage them from similar monstrous
undertakings ? what, according to the
method of dealing with treason,-now,pro
posed, besides mere military failure? fail
ure :without; a: particle of disgkace ? What
security have we that, before this generation
,ases,,some of the very same men who are
now-rdeeifing,Eitteutive -clemency, may be
, readfoliert-tite,-. same risk of
failure without disgrace ? Certainly their
immunity will be a perpetual. temptation
to unprincipled, disappointed men, in all
coming generations, to repeat what will
henceforward be viewed as a bold military
experiment, and not as a crime.
We are deeply and painfully convinced
that President Johnson and his advisers
have begun at the wrong end in the settle
ment of our affairs, and are injuring and
offending the sense.-of justice among the
people. The country looks to Chief Jus
tice Chase for a line of conduct worthy of
his high position, and reassuring to the
friends of justice a righteous and solid
peace.
ADDRESS OF THE FREE CHURCH OF
SCOTLAND
TO THE AMERICAN CHURCHES.
Among the acts of the late General
Assembly of the Free Church of Scot
land, of special interest to ourselves, was
an address to the churches of America
on the close of the war. It is a docu
ment quite as remarkable for what it
does not say, as for what it does. There
is not a syllable congratulatory of our
successes, or expressing gatification at
the result of the salvation of a free Pro
testant nation from dismemberment and
overthrow. •We cannot learn from the
address, that it would have made any
difference to the venerable assembly
which side had succeeded, in this unpro
voked civil war, provided only slavery
had been abolished. That the cause of
the North was essentially that of free
dom, and of the South essentially that
of slavery, does not seem to have pene
trated the prejudiced minds of these
"Free" Church men. Indeed, the con
vener of the committee, Lord Dalhousie,
took particular pains in presenting the
report- to accuse the North of indiffer
ence to the questiod of slavery in the
contest; saying, most falsely and oppro
briously, so far as the long-suffering and
peaceably-disposed North was concerned,
that the war arose from the evil pas
sions of men out of the struggle of
party against party, and that it was the
hand of God alone that overruled the
vain purposes of man, and brought the
grand issue of the abolition of slavery.
We presume that Lord D. in these ex
pressions fairly represents the large ma
jority of his ecclesiastical associates, as
we cannot find that they met with any
dissent upon the floor of the Assembly.
Certainly the address, for the language
of which he is responsible, contains
nothing incompatible with the narrow
and blind sentiments uttered in his
speech.
We doubt whether our readers are
concerned to see an address of the type
of this from the Free" Church Assembly.
Perhaps we need say no more of it, than
that it speaks in complimentary terms of.
G-enesee Evangelist, No. 997.
the work of the Christian Commission,
refers with deep feeling to the assassina
tion. of Mr. Lincoln, and rejoices in the
abolition of slavery, regards all causes
of alienation between the American and
British churches on this subject as-re
moved and proposes a closer union be
tween them by interchange of delegates.
If we have space, we may, at another
time, give the address entire. At pre
sent, our readers will rather be pleased
to read what another titled member of
the yree Church,--not as we presume, of
the late General Assembly—thinks of
Lord Dalhousie's statements and of the
state of opinion and causes of the war in
our country. We refer to the Dux OF
ARGYLL, whose intelligent and earnest
sympathy for the North, we have already
had occasion to notice in these columns.
In reply to the speech of Lord Dal
housie, he has written a letter to The
Scotsman, in which he points out that
the " platform" on which Mr. Lincoln
was elected is a written document, and
that of the seventeen paragraphs, not
less than one-third were devoted to
direct and emphatic declarations of the
anti-slavery principle. The duke con
tinues:—
It is true, of course, that the abolition of
slavery within the slave States was not con
templated, and this for the very sufficient
reason that the constitutional powers of the
President and Congress did not make even
the discussion of such a measure competent.
But on every one question connected with
slavery on which the President and Congress
could act, Mr. Lincoln was pledged by . his
"platform" to measures adverse to the inte
rests of slavery. One of these questions was
the restriction of slavery within its existing
limits, its non-extension, its exclusion from
the great " territories" of the republic.
,Nor was this all, though this was the main
question in dispute. In dealing with this
question, and in laying the basis of a firmer
and more organized resistance to the aggres
sions of the slave party principles were laid
down which cut very deep indeed, down even
to the very roots of the " peculiar institu
tion." Here are some of the pledges taken
by those Northern States who, we -are now
told . , were partners with the South in an or
ganized opposition to defeat the purposes of,
Providence for the ultimate overthrow of
slavery.
The fifth paragraph of the Republican
Platform has these words :—" That the pre
sent.Demearatio aclministration-(Bu.chanates),
has far exceeded our worst apprehensions in
its measureless subserviency to the exactions
of a sectional interest, as especially evinced
in its desperate exertions to force the infa
mous Lecompton (slave ) Constitution on the
protesting people of Kansas ; in construing
the personal relation between master and
servant to involve unqualified property in
persons," i&c., &c. The seventh paragraph
is, "That the new dogma that the Constitu
tion of its own force carries slavery into any
or all of the Territories of the United States,
is a dangerous political heresy, at variance
with the explicit provisions of that instru
ment itself, * * * is revolutionary in its
tendency, and subversive of the peace and
harmony of the country." The eighth para
graph is, "That the normal condition of all
the Territories of the United States is that
of freedom ; and that as our republican fa
thers, when they had abolished slavery in all
our national territory 2 ordained that no per
son should be deprived of life liberty or
property without due process of law, it be
comes our duty, by legislation when neces
sary, to maintain this provision of the Con
stitution against all who violate it; and we
deny the authority of Congress, of a Terri
torial Legislature, or of any individuals, to
give legal existence to slavery in any Terri
tory of the United States."
Another paragraph denounced a threat
ened revival of the slave trade. In view of
these solemn declarations of principle, to
which Mr. Lincoln was pledged at his elec
tion, and in view of the consequences which
they involve, reaching far beyond the mea
sures with which they were closely connected,
I have never doubted that the slave States
had serious cause for alarm in the triumph
of the Republican party. That triumph
meant a great deal to them. For the first
time in the history of the Union, the central
Government was no longer to be under their
prevailing influence. The new Administra
tion was constituted on declarations of prin
ciple directly aimed at their opinion, at their
aspirations, at their policy upon the subject
of slavery. It is as unjust to them as it is
to the North to affirm that the slave States
ilkolved their country in a bloody civil war
for no intelligible reason, or on account of
differences of interest or opinion which were
not essential. Nor did the Southern. States
ever pretend in America that the interest
which they rose to defend was any other
than the interest of slavery. On this subject
there is another document which also I am
afraid that my noble friend, Lord Dalhousie,
has never seen. When the civil war was
upon the point of breaking out, a committee
of representatives of every State in the
Union was appointed with a view to some
compromise which might avert secession.
I suppose these men knew what was the
real subject of difference. I suppose they
knew what was the " cause" " origin" of
the calamities which were then' in sight. I
suppose at that solemn moment, when they
were already in the rapids, the efforts at the
helm must have been directed to avoid the
"rock ahead." What was it 7 Slavery,
and nothing else. The proceedings of the
committee have been published. Long and
hard did they pull, and writhe, and struggle '
•
but not a word did they speak ; not a stroke
of the oar did they give; not a caution did
they shout into each other's ear, which had
not exclusive reference to the rock of sla
very, and on that rock they split. It is in
deed, by God's mercy, visibly extended to
the United States, that now the rapids have
been passed, the vessel of that great State
has reappeared, not " bottom-up, ' a wreck
upon the waters, but sound and whole, with
the black reefs of slavery already far down
in the heroism of the past, to which in the
history of nations there is no return. So far
I agree -with my noble friend; but there is
no speeikl honor -paid to God in refusing to
recognize that agency which he honors most,
the human heart and will.
TERM 8.
Per annum, in advance:
By Mail, $3. By Carrier, 83 60.
Fifty cents additional, after three months.
Clubs.—Ten or more papers, sent to one address.
payable strictly in advance and in one remittance:
By Mail, $2 50 per annum. BS , Carriers, $3 per annum.
Ministers and /Ministers' Widows, $2 in ad
vance.
Home Missionaries, $l5O inadvance.
Fifty cents additional after three months.
Remittances by mail are at our risk.
Postage.—Five cents quarterly, in advance, paid
qy subscribers at the office of delivery.
Advertisements.—l 234 cents per line for the
first. and 10 cents for the second insertion.
One square (one month)
$3 00
two months 550
three " 750
six 12 00
one year 18 CO
The following discount on long advertisements, in
serted for three months and upwards, is allowed:—
Over 20 lines. 10 per cent off; over 50 lines, 20 per
cent.; over 100 lines. 33% per cent. off.
THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU.
We cannot doubt that there remains
in large sections of the South, a revenge
ful and implacable spirit which vents
itself upon the freedmen. Facts are
transpiring such as those named by our
Richmond correspondent, which prove
that the old spirit of the plantation not
only exists, but is intensified by the
crushing disappointment it has just re
ceived. The condition of the freedmen
would be deplorable indeed ; but fortu
nately their interests are represented by
a National Bureau, in the construction
of which the largest views have pre
vailed. The appointment of General
Howard as the head of this/Bureau, is
the best possible assurance that could be
given, that the Government has the real
interests of these people at heart; and
General Howard, by the appointment of
General Fisk to a prominent position in
the Bureau, has only fulfilled the best
expectations of the country as to the
mode in which he designs to carry out
the purposes of the Government. In his
address before the Ladies' Christian Com
missions at the Academy of Music in
this city, June 9th, General Howard de
clared that the Bureau was to be guided,
in its treatment of the freedmen, "by
the simple principles which are in ac
cordance with the religion of the blessed
Saviour." Again, he said, that " this
people were free ; and that the whole
power of the Government, if necessary,
should'be exerted to defend them in this
thing." General Fisk declared himself
in the following emphatic language :
"He had long been enlisted in the work
of elevating these people. He was in
the first movement for giving - the Bible
to the negro in a Southern State, and, he
thanked God, among the first to put.a
bayonet on his shoulder in the defence
of this glorious, undivided, indivisible
Union. He hoped and believed that
with the Bible and the ballot, with the
Christian Commission and the Freed
men's Bureau, they would be able to
raise the black man, and the next time
he should appear before them it would
be to recount the success and triumphs
of this honest effort, for the good of their
fellow man."
It is- one of the most cheering of the
signs of the times, that two men of such
noble sentiments, and such warm, tender,
and intelligent Christian sympathies
with the black man, to say nothing of
their great executive abilities, have been
placed at the head of the Bureau of
Freedmen, Refugees, and Abandoned
Lands. We should like to see the crip
pled hand of the slave power laid upon
any of the objects of the care of these
men, within the circle of their knowledge.
The experiment will be dangerous and
not often repeated.
Indeed, we think the freedmen will
be found rapidly attaining the ability , to
take care of themselves. The latest re
port of their condition comes from Gen
eral Fisk, who informs us that "in Mis
souri and Arkansas, the affairs of the
freedmen are at present in a very pros
perous condition. There is a great de
mand for laborers, and good wages are
offered. In Missouri there are only two
hundred, and thirty-six colored people de
pendent upon the Government for susten
ance; while there are forty-four hundred
and fifty-two whites supported by the
Government."
A NEW ENTERPRISE.—Under this
head, last Saturday's daily papers had
the following notice:—
" Rev. E. V. Gerhart, D.D., President of
Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster,
Pa.,
will preach to-morrow morning at the
Academy, Powelton avenue, below Thirty
fifth street, Mantua, at which place a Mission
Church is being organized under the auspices
of the German Reformed Church. All those
friendly to such an organization have been
invited to attend."
It is often the case that Scotchmen
and Scotch Irish in this country, find a
pleasant homogeneity by associating
themselves with churches which, like
the United or Reformed Presbyterian,
surround them with ancestral church
customs. So the German often turns
for church fellowship to a Lutheran or
German Reformed body. The same law
of mind forbids that Christians of purely
American modes of religious thought
and worship, will ever, in any considera
ble number, ecclesiastically denationalize
themselves. If there are about Mantua
a sufficient number of Germans by birth,
or near ancestry, to require and sustain
this " new enterprise," there is no rea,
son why it should not become a popular
one. But if it is to be gotten up by at
tempting to Germanize Americans, its
road to prosperity will be a long one.
ERRATA.—In the first column of
" Religious World Abroad," page 203,
4th paragraph, 9th line, read " This is
the greatest proportionate gain, enjoyed
- by any great" (not one) " Society." Also
add to the concluding sentence of the
paragraph which undertakes to tell the
total'of gains of the British Benevolent
Societies for the year, " £.78,891."