THE AMEBICAN PRESBYTERIAN GENET'S EVANGELIST. ABellgio'.noutad PamiljNewspaper, ' VPUi INTEREST ON THE Oonstituti i>.i Presbyterian Church.- PUBLI ’ j l D EVERY THURSDAY, AT THE PRESBYTERIAN HOUSE, 1334 Chestnut Street, (2d story.) Philadelphia. ■w. John W. Hears, Editor and Publisher. Bev. B. b, Hotehkln, Editor of News and Family Departments. Rev. C. P. Bash, Corresponding Editor, Rochester, N. Y. . Stmmau Jfmlnjtetm THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 1865. CONTENTS OF INSIDE PAGES. Second Page—The Family Circle : The Song of the Sienboard-The Clouded Intelleot —Throw dat Coat Away—A Good Exanmle for the Little Folks: Familiar Tallo) with tha Children-" Mossa Cobb” and “UnoleJoah™ Rural Economy: Stripping a Country of its Trees —Horses at Pasture. Third Page—Editor’s Table: Brainord’s “ Life of John Brainerd, and his Suooes o^rS 7 •°aP le , of New Jersey”— MdAmerioa^^ 10^10^ —Literary Items? Foreign filter thtu 8 a Man ? thiDK *° Lean Upon ~ la aHorse Sixth Page—Correspondence : SSw^m« a “?Tr the Jffitors-Death Gain-Away Bom Homo— ‘Upper” Pennsylvania. Miscellaneous: n It’s the Only Day I hay®”—The J;?lIl, 0 l all i W 0 Sabbath-school Superin TheCWo A h n of Ir (j&. n B De3 ° riPtion of Irel “ d ~ Seventh Page—Religious Intelligence : Presbyterian— Baptist—Society of Friends—Episoo pal-^Seamen-Methodist-The Church General— ■’Freedman —Miscellaneous —-Foreign OUR CHURCH. There has been laid on our table a copy juat issued of the “ Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America : With an Ap pendix. Vol. xiv. A- D- 1865.” It con tains the annual exhibit of the statistics of our Church and the account of the trans actions of its supreme judicatory held last May in the city of Brooklyn. It is a large and fair pamphlet of 229 pages, containing, with its usual perspicuous arrangement, the customary information, together with cer tain columns in the tables of statistics of individual churches, which now appear for the first time. There is a column for the “Unknown”— i. e. for those who are lost to the knowledge of the Session—and an other for the Sabbath-school scholars. The contributions to the Ministerial Relief Fund have also a special column; so also one each for “Congregational” and “Mis cellaneous” • purposes.' These last were needed to give any just view of the benev olence of the churches, and for the want of them, we have heretofore had very partial views of them. We have also been unjust to ourselves in not offering material for our comparative liberality as a denomination, as many other churches have uniformly and properly swelled their totals by all that is contributed for home support, and for many religious objects outside of the range of striotly church benevolence: The footing of the statistical tables i 3 as follows: — numerical. Synods, .... '-23 Presbyteries, . . 108 Ministers, . . 1694 Licentiates, . •' v . 122 Candidates, • , . .- . 187 Churohes, . - . . 1479 Added on examination, . . 6,685 Do. on certificate, ... 5,325 Whole number, . 143,645 Unknown, . . 5,152 Baptisms, adults, . . . . 2,336 • “ Infants, . . 3,360 Sabbath-school membership, . 112,781 FINANCIAL. For. General Assembly, . Ifotne Missions, Foreign Missions, . Education, Publication, . Ministerial Relief,’ . Congregational, Miscellaneous, These tables, as compared with those of last year, exhibit a gain of one Synod, (Tennessee,) three Presbyteries, fifty Min isters, twelve candidates' for the ministry, thirty-seven churches, 205 additions of communicants on examination, 971 by cer tificate, 5571 in the total of the church membership, and 243 adult baptisms.- The only points in the numerical department in which there has been a falling off, are those of licentiates, in which there is a de crease of thirteen, and infant baptisms, of whioh 332 less are reported. In the mat ter of pecuniary contributions, it is impos sible, on aooount of the new arrangefnent mentioned above, to use the tables as a basis of calculation, even in. the depart ments heretofore reported, because many gums contributed, not strictly for our church enterprises, but for cognate objects, whioh were last year reported under such heads as “Home Missions,” “Education,” &c., are now removed to that of “ Miscel laneous.” Probably the only exception to this is in the ease of Foreign Missions, where the figures of the present report are 8112,296, against $98,529 in that of last y ear a gain of $13,767-. The tables of the present year, for the first time in our history, probably show almost exactly what we have done for the benevolent enter prises of our own church t. e. so far as the churches have reported; and it is not the least gratifying of their features, that the number of non-reporting churches is New Series, V-01. 11, TSTo. 32. very much decreased. The neglect of this duty by the Sessions is a serious wrong, and one which Presbyteries should always take in hand- for correction. It is one which will seldom occur under the admin istration of an indefatigable Stated Clerk of Presbytery. Our own connection is with a Presbytery which has the non-re porting * placed against only two churohes, and those are ones which are practically extinct. Every other Session reports. Our Stated Clerk writes to them, and ;f they are dilatory, he follows them up until they do it. Of the matter of the Minutes proper— i. e. the proceedings of the Assembly, we have already furnished a pretty full account, and given expression of our satisfaction with their high-toned devotional, catholic, wholesomely denominational, evangelistic, and patriotic character. We only add here that it is refreshing to see how exclusively this eleven days’ session of our highest church court partook of this character. Questions of church polity elicited almost no discussion. Of judicial business, only a gleam shoots across the Minutes, one case, reported by the committee as n 6 case, and, as such, silently dismissed. The bulk of the time, the wisdom and the energy of the body was given to plans for the enlarge ment of religion and holiness in our coun try and world, through the institutions of our denomination, acting in oneness of pur pose with the great Christian family of which we are a part. THE COUNTRY PARISH. SOCIAL LIFE. Between the state of Bociety in the town and the purely country neighborhood, there is this important difference : In the first there is a tendency toward the excess, and in the latter, toward the stagnation of the 'social life. The town is full of excite ments : there is always something to bring people into lively intercourse—always something going on. People will never become unsocial simply for the want of oc casions to bring them together. In the country the danger of this” does exist. Public assemblies, except on the Sabbath for religions worship, are few. Lectures, festivals and entertaiments of various kinds are not brought to them, but if enjoyed at all, must be gotten up by an effort of their own. Even the ordinary visiting inter course of families is attended with effort. Friends are seldom within walking dis tance ; ladies are not always at leisure or in trim to receive company, and the trou ble of making appointments and providing means of going back and forth, is felt as an offset to the enjoyment of a social dinner or tea. Hence comes that tendency to the stagnation of the social life mentioned—ra tendency which, without some counteract ing influence, would make people worse than unsocial—would make them unsym pathizing, selfish, churlish. But this is not the normal condition'of our natures. We have social natures, and they will break out. This is particularly the case in young life, before unnatural influences have taught people to retire within them selves, and made them cold to neighborly associations. And if- in the community where they live, they have no festivities of the moral and wholesome class, upon which this social nature can expend itself, they will most assuredly accept vicious resorts as the place of fellowship. This is nature —unßanctified nature, the reader may say; . and so it is. But it is a nature whose pro clivities must be heeded, and made the basis of expedients' by those who seek the moral and spiritual welfare of the subjects of it. $7,059 94,507 112,296 36,952 46; 305 4,256 1,264,667 501,151 2,067,183 There is another consideration which leads also to the line of policy which we wish to approach. In the strictly rural parish, the influence of a church, if it is properly husbanded and wisely put forth, can be made the leading social influence in the neighborhood. There may be instances where the antagonistioal influences have obtained a supremacy which is for the pre sent invincible, but what we just said holds as a general rule. But that the church may make itself thus felt, it must be known as something more than a Sabbath assem bly and a people whose interests lie beyond the world. It must turn its sunny side toward all the better things of humanity, and, by a cordial sympathizing interest in the real needs of the natures of men, bring the community into the feeling that the church is one of the social necessities of the community. True, we are speaking of one of the lesser missions of the church in the world, but, in view of its influence upon the higher work, it is one which should not be least wisely performed. The bearing of the pastor has a mighty influence upon the power of the church, as such, over the social life in such a parish as we are now speaking of. Generally, by PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 1865. a wise adaptation of himself, he may, if he will, make himself felt as- not simply the pastor of the church, but an institution in the region occupied by the parish. The country neighborhood has often here and there an educated man, but generally they do not abound. The old adage, “ know-, ledge is power,” is as true there as any-; where, and the.; tendency of the public mind: is to look up confidingly to the man who is supposed to possess it. When to this is added the circumstance, that the pastor’s distinct vocation is to bring the world un der the influence of truth, righteousness and goodness, he needs, (the enabling of the Divine Spirit being taken for granted,) only these two conditions to make himself felt by the community at large as &- inan without whose presence among them inhere would be a great social void’. The first of these indispensable . conditions is that' he should, step by step, but with ever advanc ing degree, obtain their confidence that he answers their expectations from such a man. They must find in him knowledge, judgment, sense, geniality, kinship with humanity, faithfulness in duty, and sin-' cerity of profession. The second is, that among them he should bring himself into sympathy with all the fair interests of society, inclusive especially of that now under con sideration. There is a mean for his public life, between the extremes alike fatal to his social influence—that of an intermeddler with the public affaits, and that of profes sional exclusiveness; and the finding of this mean is all-important to his usefulness in the social world around him. The in quiry for it may often be an embarrasing one, but it oan only be good sense of his own, and, as in every other case of embarrasment, making earnest request for light from God. But when settled in the right relation to society, he can Btrike his roots deep, ; and will find himself invested with amazing power over the social pro clivities and customs around him. The drift of these'remarks is towards this point—that the rural church, led on by its pastor, is doing a good work by promoting such social gatherings and public festivities as are wholesome to good morals and the general interests of society, especially the young. Take for example the church fes tivals of one kind and . another for raising money for church purposes : the degrading excuse generally made for them, that they are the most available device for meeting some pecuniary necessity, is the lowest view of their benefit. In view of the two facts stated a while since—that the social nature, unless it has been so long cribbed that its elasticity has been lost, will some how break out, and also that, when too much suppressed, it is apt to stagnate—we would seriously prefer an occasional resort to the festival plan for raising any given amount, even if the same labor would have secured it by ordinary solicitation. We would try by these, by Sabbath-sohool pic nics, by home manufactured concerts, plain as their performances might be, by public celebrations, and gatherings of various kinds, to bring people together—to bring together those who, in the exuberance of the social nature will find each other somehow, and somewhere, in a society and scene which answers all their reasonable social wants, without injury to their minds or morals; and to bring out those who are in clining to live too much within themselves, and to loose their neighborly interest in others. We would have the religious power of the community so identify itself with these objects, that they will be restrained within its sanctions, and carried on with respeet for it§ scruples respecting the character of worldly recreations. We would, as we have said, have the influence of the church felt as giving mould to the social enjoyments of the people, and thus relieved of the prejudice of a supposed an tagonism to those enjoyments. There is also a higher sphere of social life for the country parish, which is more exclusively in the care of the church. We have not room here to speak of :we may do so hereafter. Not Improbable. —We notice the following item in some of the dailies: “ A Western paper reports a combina tion among the Eastern paper-dealers to raise the prices, by working half-time.” It would be a satisfaction if the men who control the market, in this and other articles indispensable to human progress and comfort, would tell us at once how many more wrenches they in tend to give the screw. For once, we would like to look the worst in the face, instead of being killed by slow torture. Seriously, we see in the extortions now practiced, the result of the running out of small manufactories, and the absorb ing of work in a limited number of mam moth establishments, thus rendering combination easy. A WANT OF THE TIMES. the word “times” we do not refer to the present instant; it may cover the pre sent half-century. In fact, the want of which we speak, has been gradually devel oping itself through a generation past. It is, that some provision should be engrafted, by constitutional enactment, upon our church polity, which' shall enlarge the scope of gospel ministrations, carrying them ..home to people who will not come after them, and establishing agencies for reaching them, for. whi-cL—orost "•awrymm?” be liberfcy/buf there is certainly no pro vision in our present ecclesiastical system, Jfst now we have nothing very to propose; we have not in our own mind any very clear conception in detail of what can be done. Plans are the offspring oi need, and the first step toward any improvement is a well settled conviction that the need of it is real. If it shall become the earnest sentiment of the church that something must be done, we have no fear but modes will reveal themselves. A dew general principles of Church polity are unquestionably of Divine ap pointment. These oannot be set aside or overridden by ecclesiastical ' legislation. But the modes of carrying-them out prop erly-make up the details of church consti tutions. In these an adaptation to the state of the world and the characteristics of men, is to be sought, and new develop ments of the latter may suggest to the wisdom of the church corresponding im provements in thewformer. . This, we be lieve, is the view of church polity taken by all Christian denominations. Rome itself is hardly an exception. Religious orders, for example, were once novelties which were engrafted upon the Romish system, their adaptation to the ends sought overcoming even the persistent non possu mus of the papacy. The, working parts of our system were put into constitutional form when the great anti-religious feature of our times, indiffer ence,, was rare. Among all the .people, good and bad; religion was regarded as a solemn necessity. Many were agitated by the question, To what form of Church order shall I attach myself ? but the alternative between religion and irreligion was hardly felt to be an open one. Hence we see' the leading features of our polity adapted to this state of things. Fortunately they are, we believe we may say without ex ception, adapted to any probable state of things in such a world as this, as far as they go, so that new exigencies which have arisen require no abrogation of any part of them, and no change in them. Experience has not only proved their wisdom for a given period, bat their permanent excel lence —we repeat, as far as they go. The want of which we speak, is not a want of change; but of increased facilities for the power of those means of grace already pro vided for. Our constitution provides well for a learned, judicious, and holy ministry, far the pulpit, for good pastoral care of a flock, for a bench of elders for the service of the congregation, for family worship, and for various other services for an associated reli gious community. It seenfs to be assumed that all-these spiritual advantages will be sought, and it presents our churches to the inquirer after a church, as one whioh, by the simplicity with which it carries out the Scriptural doctrines for church order and worship, by its compactness of system and its combining spiritual liberty with effici ency, is well adapted to the edification of a religious community. This last result, the state of the times suggested as the main thing sought by an ecclesiastical system. There was,little in the general condition of things, to start the inquiry, What provision • should be made for looking up the world ? Any i ne who, at this day, and well wakened up to the religious characteristics of the age, will read our constitution with refer ence to the facts stated, will be-surprised to find how bare it is of provision for that out side work, which is now felt to be the great work of our Lord’s Church in the world. Our-church is not slumbering over this work. She is as well awake to it as any Christian denomination, and her achieve ments in it do not suffer by any comparison which any part of the church general has to. offer She has her part in a society for heatjen evangelization whose missions belt the,globe. She keeps comparatively good •pace with the march of emigration in our own country. -And, what is more to the purpose of this article, she is doing no small work, by tract colportage, city mis sions, mission schools, and country sohool house preaching, to affect the vast multi tude's—the majority in many cities and townships—-who live within sound of the church-going bell, and yet live without a church, and without religion. G-enesee Evangelist, ISTo. 1003 But these efforts are simply spontaneous. They lack the church character, the sanc tion of a constitutional provision, and cer tain constitutional aids to secure their general adoption, their uniformity, and their effici ents when adopted, of which our system is now hare. It is true they, are not uncon stitutional. If wemay adopt a term which, at one signal point in our history, was used in a bad sense, they are extra-constitutional. There is nothing in them which infringes upon our constitution; so far from it, they fc'.m’WPy* What is-wanted is, not that any constitu tional barriers against them should be re moved, for there are no such barriers; but that the constitution should distinctly adopt them, extend them, and provide agencies for carrying diem on. What these agencies shall be, is a ques tion for thought. To a limited extent it has been considered, and every now and then some suggestion has been thrown out, but .as yet the great mind-of the church has not bent itself with sufficient earnest ness to the needs of the case, to have any plans well considered. One of the first questions which comes up is, Shall there be any radical change in the conditions of the ministerial office? No one point suggested by the subject will need to be approached with more prudence than this. The fact crowds itself upon our notice, that, following its work as now laid out, the ministry does not reach the masses of men. Shall there be simply an enlargement of the sphere of lay effort, or shall the minis try be enlarged by bringing forward and ordaining men who have not the usual literary and theological qualifications, with special reference, and under special pledge to a laborious, self-denying life, with poor prospect of worldly compensation, in the high-ways and by-ways of humanity ? Of course the distinction between such laborers and other ministers could only be one of employment, for no exigency • can demand a surrender of the Soriptural ordinance of official ministerial parity. Has our Lord put this honoy upon the ministry of his appointment, that the man who goes with bibles and tracts from house to house, who ministers to suffering want, who prays with the dying and with those who are mourn ing their dead, who enters the hovel or the prison to speak of Jesus, and pardon, and heaven, carries immensely greater power if he goes in the character of an official minis ter of the grace of God? Or shall we have a lay ministry—an order of unordained evangelisers to go among our neglected districts in city and country, establish worship, speak to the people, warn and exhort, distribute, as occasion arises, the help of the church to those without, and, in various ways, bring the moral power of the one to bear upon the other ? Now and then we have heard a whis pered suggestion respecting Deaconesses, or a Class of female workers who may answer to the Joannas and Susannas of the time of our Lord’s ministry, and those of whom Paul wrote as laboring with him in the gospel., The suggestion is not likely to meet with an over-ready favor. The system of a class of females consecrated especially to the service of the church, has been deeply corrupted in the hands of the papacy, and it is quite likely that our just jealousy of beginnings of evil, may produce in the minds of our people a revolt from it as the entering wedge to an isolation from the domestic relations and a convent life. Hence the inquiry is a delicate one; but, when we see the amazing power of gentle, silent, and from-house-to-house labor on the part of many of the lady members of our churches, it will come up, whether this power might not be vastly increased, by oalL ing into this field those whose works approve them, sustuin them, and giving to them an organic relation to our work." This much at least is certain: should the churoh reject every system of effort which has not, at some time and in some hands, been pushed to the point of corruption, she would to day be disarmed of her working power, and lie in the world hand-beund and useless. Decidedly True. —The New York Times prefaces an account of the recent horrible murder in Hartford (see our last page), with the remark, “Satan must be abroad.” We congratulate the Times upon having made the discovery. We have, however, heard of it before; indeed, we recollect that something of the kind was told in Job’s day. We had intended, in this to raise the question whether some provision should not be made to bring the gospel and the sympathy of the churoh into more immediate connection with the human in terests of men, and the common affairs of life? But we have said enough for once. terms. Pot annum, in advance: By Mall, $3. By Carrier, $3 SO. 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. By Carriers, $3 per annum. Ministers and Ministers’ Widows, $2 in ad vance. Home Missionaries, $l5O inadvance. Fifty cents additional after three months. Benittances by mail are at our risk. Footage.— ‘Five cents quarterly, in advance, paid by subscribers at the office of delivery. Advertisements.— l 2& cents per line for the first, and 10 cents for the second insertion. One square (one month) $3 00 .. two months .. •. 5 50 M three “ 750 „ sir " 12 00 # one year 18 The following discount on long advertisements, in serted.for three months and upwards, is allowed:— Uver 20 lines, 10 per cent off: over AO lines, 20 pot cent.; over 100 lines, 33J£ per cent. off. WHAT IS TO BE DONE WITH TRAI TORS AND REBELLIOUS STATES? Nothing, seems to be the impression of those to whom the question relates. And for ourselves, we confess to some anxiety, not to say uneasiness, to learn whether the event is to justify the arrogance with which they carry themselves toward the Govern ment and toward the principles for the sup port of which its friends have perilled and suffered so much. When we read such -accounts asw.e. this davpublish from North _ Carolma, we xnat those men so lately came sneaking out from an utter defeat in an attempt at revolt, or that their fortunes and lives are at the mercy of the Government to which they terms of re-union. They seem to take it for granted that the questions at issue are in their own hands. They talk of emancipation, or the restoration of slavery to the status which itleld before the war, as a question which is to be decided by their State Convention, and that in fact the whole matter rests with them, the un mitigated rebels who first repudiated their connection with the Government, and with a series of atrocities unparalleled in civilized warfare, fought for its # destruction until completely conquered by our crushing victories—that it rests with them to say whether they will condescend to place their State once more in union with the Repub lic, or maintain an independence of it. In Virginia things are still worse, and no bet ter in most of the Southern States, where, amnestied rebels, and rebels with halters still about their necks, evidently regard Provisional Governors as mere conveniences for getting up State Constitutions on the basis of an almost unrestricted rebel suf frage, and where, in some cases, Provisional Governors themselves ' seem to have no higher view of the object of their appoint ment. Whenever the time comes to enlighten the public, it wonld be some satisfaction to know- what the Washington Government thinks, of all this—whether these men are to he made to find out the fact that they were conquered, and are now to accept and not to dictate terms, and whether the prin ciples for whose sake so much treasure and blood have flowed, have really been carried, or whether this long war has been a mere game of slaughter, simply to see which side of the tally stick counts up the most notches. Thus far, we have not seen one act of judgment executed upon rebels as such, one punishment of treason because it is treason, or one sentence for crime against the Government as a Government carried out, or even proclaimed. Four persons of inferior importance have been hung, on the charge of offence against individuals, and another is about to be tried for starving prisoners, and will very likely share the same fate. But we yet remain in profound ignorance whether treason, as such, is to meet with any judicial retribution —whether one govermental act is to be carried through which will speak any danger to the haters of our Kepublic in repeating their attempt to destroy it, whenever they can ripen an other conspiracy. We would not have an impatient public opinion force our Government into impul sive action. We can easily conceive of reasons why the ends of public justice can be better promoted by some delay, and by silence of purpose in the meantime. We are now in month since the entire disarming of the physical power of the rebellion struck the danger of retal iation, and military strategy, out .of- the causes for hesitancy of justice. Perhaps others exist which it is not yet proper for the public to know. If so, we are willing to wait. We have kept up a resolute pur pose to preserve faith in the administration, but as yet we walk only by faith. If we begin to feel anxious for a little sight, it is not from a sentiment of vindictiveness. We simply want to know whether that life principle 'of government, national sove reignty, has been successfully established, or whether we are to have a ten years wrangle over the doctrine ot State rights, with another rebellion at the heels of it. For the sake of the future we wish to know which has whipped—the Government or the insurgents. The True Doctrine. —in a single sentence, the Scotch correspondent of the Presbyterian gives a sound comment upon the latest sensation in the criminal line on the other- side of the water. “The case,” he says, “is already re ported across the ocean, no doubt, of a most astounding crime—a medical prac titioner poisoning his mother-in-law and wife, and making light of his situation up to the very time of his conviction. Within these two days he has confessed. Pity for all such men is due; but care for the public, that needs protection against them, is not toAe lost.”
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