THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 1865. From Richmond.—We hare received, but only in season for our next issue, a communication from our occasional Rich mond correspondent, containing, as usual, interesting notices of things and doings in that locality. Minutes or the Old School Assem bly for 1865.—Through the courtesy of the Presbyterian Board of Publica tion, a copy of these has just been laid on our table. Before its reception, we had taken from one of the papers of that Church the summary of the statistics, which will be found under our “ Reli gious Intelligence” head. The pam phlet before us is a neat one, of the usual size and arrangement. We often wonder why the circulation of these « Minutes” of the highest judicatories is confined to the ministers. They contain a vast amount of denominational infor mation really important to the people of the denomination concerned; and if they did but understand this fact, there would be a demand which would justify the is suing of editions in book form for gene ral sale. Concerning a question raised last week, whether the Old School Church did really drop the Presbyteries and Synods which went into the C. S. A. General Assembly from its roll, we have in these Minutes confirmation of the statement which we copied from the Presbyterian, that they did not. They are all here—nine Synods and forty Presbyteries—though the columns which should contain the names of their minis ters, and their statistical reports, are blank. Federal or State Sovereignty — Which ?—There is a little fact con nected with this matter, to which we have seen no allusion made in any late discussion of it. It is that Massachu setts was the scene of the first practical conflict between National and State sov ereignty, and that it ended in the suc cumbing of the latter to the former. It grew out of so small a matter as a ques tion of official etiquette. While General Washington was President, he made a visit to New England. At Boston some three days passed without any inter change of courtesies between him and John Hancock, then Governor of the State. The President, regarding his own official position as paramount, felt that in making the first call on the Gov ernor, there would be a compromising of the superior sovereignty of the Gov ernment which he administered. The Governor bridled himself in the dignity of the State .sovereignty, and insisted that it was due to his position that, on Massachusetts soil, he should be the recipient of the first civilities. It required all the urgency of his friends to persuade him that it would never do to allow the President to depart in this way. He finally eased his surrender— for surrender he had to—by despatching a mote to the President, excusing' him self on plea of the gout, for so long ne glecting to call and pay his respects to him. And then Mahomet went to the mountain. Robert J. Breckenridge on the Punishment of Treason.— The annual oration before the Phi Beta Kappa So ciety of Union College was delivered on the 25th ult., by Rev. Dr. Breckenridge, taking for his subject the conquest of the rebellion. We extract the following paragraph, premising, in illustration of the nerve of principle in the speaker, that the traitor John C. Breckenridge is a nephew of his, and one around whom all the pride of the Breckenridge family formerly centred—a pride in which the distinguished orator who here calls for condign punishment upon all such, fully participated. It is, said Dr. Breckenridge, in the hour of triumph that the country can most effect ually provide that no such perils as we have now survived, no such crimes as has filled- us with horror, shall recur again. In doing that, We must cherish no Thought of ven geance. Vengeance belongs to God, and he will repay. But we must not trifle with our destiny; we must not forget that the result we have reached is one of pure force. We must perfectly comprehend that we are not standing on the threshold of a political mil lennium, which must necessarily emerge from the past, and which opens of itself upon our advancing footsteps; but that we are stand ing in the midst of hundreds of thousands of slam men, whose bleod is to be answered for to God—victims of the most' unprovoked ex ample of the most ferocious kind of war, waged with the most desperate purpose, and designed to produce the most terrible results. The very completeness of the conquest when it came, is a fearful proof of the relentless ferocity with which the triumph was resisted; and so is a perpetual warning, that to make the fruits of it sure and lasting, is only less important, and may be only less difficult, than to have won the triumph itself. The fruits I speak of are not peculiar to the con quering, more than to the conquered portion of the inhabitants of the United States. They are fruits which must be secured, as the grand results of the war, to the whole re stored nation. They are the principles and the objects for which we fought;. the imper ishable truths lor which we risked everything, and won —won for ourselves, for our latest posterity, for our whole country, and, in God’s good time, for the human race. We will have no more treason; satisfy us, then, that no more is to come. We will endure no more revolt; make us sure no more is medi tated. We will permit no more insurrec tion ; convince us there will be no more. As we will answer to God, we must redress these hellish conspiracies; these torturing and starving of prisoners to death; these burning of cities, and murdering travellers, and poi soning communities, and spreading mortal, infectious diseases; these horrible assassina tions; unnatural crimes, which they who overlook and pass by, when they might pun ish them, thereby assume before God the guilt of them. THE MISS HARRIS TRIAL. A Chicago correspondent, who gives us his name, desires us to make some correction of our notice of this affair in our issue of July 21, under the head of “ A Verdict and its Moral.” He fur nishes a number of statements. As we gave the account of the trial n,o very attentive reading, we are unable to state how many of them were offered and verified there. The truthful air of the letter, and the fact that his views re specting the insanity plead in defence accord so perfectly with our own im pressions, lead us to publish what he says respecting the facts in the case. “ There was,” says our correspondent, “no pretence or charge of seduction in the case. On the contrary, it was indig nantly denied by Miss Harris. Neither was it proved, or even attempted to be proved; by anything but inferential testimony, that there was even a promise of marriage. Miss Harris submitted her papers, Burroughs’ letters, etc., to two good lawyers in this city, for the purpose of bringing a suit for breach of promise. After examination, they both informed her that she could not main tain an action, because there was no evidence. When told that she could not recover damages, she replied that she ‘ did not want money, but wanted to disgrace Burroughs and humiliate his wife.’ “Moreover, there is a letter, which we have seen, in which Miss Harris directly admits, that there was no en gagement. She does not conceal her attachment to him, but says that she knows it i 3 not and cannot be recipro cated. “ The acquaintance began .when she was a child of ten, and he in the neigh borhood of thirty. Her mother-washed for Burroughs, and she, a bright; pretty child, attracted his 1 attention. He got her to go to the Baptist Sabbath-school, at which her parents, who were Irish Catholics, were very wroth. As she grew up, the acquaintace continued, and Burroughs did very wrong in writing foolish and inconsiderate letters to her. But in this consisted his offending. There was no seduction—no breach of promise even—nothing but an unjustifi able flirtation. “ As to the insanity part of the busi ness, it was all a farce. Miss Harris was no'more insane than the court that tried her. She had, according to her own acknowledgment, practiced pistol firing for some months to prepate herself de liberately to do this murder. She was seen, when she fired the second shot at Burroughs, to advance her right foot and take deliberate aim, showing evi dently that she had been taught by some practical band. She stayed in Balti more several weeks prior to the commis sion of the murder, in company with a brother of the principal lady witness, with whom she had caused a fictitious marriage notice with herself to be pub lished in the Chicago Tribune. The trial and the verdict is a disgraceful farce, tending to bring our Courts into deserved contempt.” ROMANISM AND LIBERAL GOVERN MENTS. \ The case between Victor Emmanuel and the Pope has become so complete an embodiment of the question of the rights of free civil government on the one hand and a Papal usurpation of the temporal do minion of the world on the other, that even the bigoted Catholic governments of Eu rope are one after another acknowledging the legitimacy of the Italian kingdom, in cluding the dethronement of the third rate Bourbon who, on the throne-of Na ples, was a mere viceroy of Pius IX. Public sentiment is becoming a power in every government, and the weaker monarchs, however subservient in feel ing to the Papal will, bend at last before another will which in matters of govern mental rights always runs counter to the priestly tyranny of the Vatican. The recognition of the government of Victor Emmanuel by that of Spain, which we noticed a week or two since, is a striking illustration of the growing liberal senti ment of Europe. Indeed, outside of the Papal dominions, we hardly know where in all Europe, Ireland perhaps excepted, the press could be found which would dare to place the Pope’s claim to empire so exactly upon the ground occupied in the middle ages, as it is done in the fol lowing, which we quote from The Uni verse of this city, as an example of the true Romish sentiment toward liberal and non-Papal governments. The new Spanish ministry—headed by O’Donnell—have decided to acknowledge the Kingdom of Italy. The Queen of Spain is a Bourbon: by this act she legalizes Victor Emmanuel over her royal kindred of Naples. The Queen is a pious Catholic: by this act she justifies, with all the sanction of her crown, the invasions and robberies perpetra ted on the Holy See, by the most nefarious prince that ever wore a sceptre. The Cath olic world is surprised at this proceeding. It is one of unpardonable injustice, treachery, and scandal. Nothing can whiten its black ness. It is an extreme sin against the Church; it is an extreme, unnatural sin against the people of Naples and their fixiled sovereign. The domain of the Church is sa cred. It may be said to be the only piece of ground the Great God owns on all the earth. Victor Emmanuel has spoliated it. The spoliated part he cannot take with him to the grave; his abettors —his recognizers will find their act maledicted and punished before the Eternal Seat:. and those who come after him will not find his legacy a beneficial one. The plunderers, and their abettors, of the Church, succeed.only for a day, for they live only for a day. But the_ Church lives for ever, and all its violated rights are always entirely vin dicated in the end. The enemies, the perse THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 10. 1865 - cutors, the spoilators of the Church, are al ways pursued by the_ Omnipotent hand of the Deity himself. It is useless for human lips to pray for them; it is unnecessary for hu man lips to curse them ; the divine wrath is full over their heads, and nothing can rob it of its aim. The persecutors' of the Church never yet escaped. * One of the Presbyterian organs of Richmond, which claims to be “the property of all our churches,” in its issue of July 20, has the following:— Happy Voices. —This little collection of Sabbath-school songs was favorably noticed in the last, number of the Observer. A fur ther examination of it discoveres a political song, concealed as it were among the hymns, like a snake coiled up amid flowers, which will prevent its extensive introduction into the Sabbath-schools of tbe South. Sabbath school teachers will not teach their scholars to reproach their own fathers, under the pre tense of worshipping God—nor are the house of God and songs of praise the appropriate means for re-echoing in times of peace the covert sneers in which the embittered feel ings of a sanguinary war naturally found ex pression. Other publications of the Ameri can Tract Society need revision, and in like manner will receive it, if that Sooiety would labor with success for the spiritual good of the people. The hymn referred to in the above ex tract is, we suppose, on page 235 of “ Happy Voices,” entitled, “ Land of the Free,” commencing, “ My country, my country, I cherish thee still, Though many the ills that defile thee; Those readers who have the book at hand, will, on looking over the whole hymn, probably be impressed with two conclusions—First, that for a very long time to come, Southern papers of the above type will riot be safe in commend ing, from out of the world’s range, any religious literature, until they have care fully looked out the snakes coiled up amid flowers; Second, that if such a paper is any fair representation of the religious sentiment of the Southern church,, it remains in feeling' as pro slavery and treasonable as ever. By the way, while our attention is thus called to this book of sacred juve nile songs, we may say that a maturer acquaintance with it has confirmed'’the opinion heretofore expressed, of its high worthiness for the uses contemplated in its publication. FROM OUR CORRESPONDING EDITOR. The Fourth Annual Convention of the New York State Sabbath-sehool Teachers’ Association is to be-held in the First Presbyterian Church, (Rev. Dr. Canfield’s,) in Sybacuse, to com mence on Tuesday afternoon, at three o’clock, the 22d of August, and continue through the 23d and 24th, until Thurs day evening. This has become one of the great con vocations of our State, and is really one of the most interesting gatherings we have in the year. It is the Congress of Sabbath-school teachers, and gathers together a large number of the best hearts and best heads of the land in council. Those who have attended these meetings in years past- can never forget the deep interest excited by them, and will not willingly be absent from any subsequent gatherings. The invitation is broad and generous, to “ Pastors, Officers, and Teachers of the Evangelical Sabbath-schools of the State. Let every Sabbath-school be re presented by at least one delegate.” As there are about sixty thousand officers and teachers, it will be seen that Syra cuse will be pretty full, if they all come.' Indeed, if they get “at least one dele gate” from each school (four thousand), it will be a larger Convention than most people are expecting. , Last year, at:' Buffalo, it was estimated that some six or eight hundred were in attendance, and we do not believe that the number will be less this year. But those who intend to be present, if they wish to avail themselves of the proffered hospitality of the Conupittee of Arrangements, are earnestly requested to send in their names at once, to W. E, Abbott, Esq., Secretary of the Commit tee. It is especially.desired that this may be done in all cases possible by the 12th instant, “in order.that the Com mittee may make liberal arrangements for the entertainment of delegates.” HERESY HUNTING. I’ll weep o’er thy woes, I’ll pray for thy weal, And never, no never revile thee.” STATE SABBATH-SCHOOL CONVENTION. SOME OF THE SERMONS. We are still receiving copies of ser mons that were preached and published upon the death of our late lamented President. We have one from Rev. C. P. Mussey, of Batavia, which we have read with much interest ; another from Rev. Thomas Daggett, of Niagara Palls; another from Rev. P. A. Chase, of Lyn donville—all good. It has occurred to ns that it might be a matter of very great interest to gather the multitude of sermons which have been preached and published on this national calamity, and deposit them in the archives of the Presbyterian Histori cal Society. They'might make several bound volumes of great value to some future historian of the times. We have also been deeply interested in looking over a sermon, “ God’s Hand in the War,” by Rev. G. R. H. Shum way, of Newark, in this State, in which he gives an account of the death of .the young men of that place, most of them members of his own congregation and Sabbath-school, who have fallen for their country. Pive fell in battle, four died of diseases contracted in the service, and one, who was only eighteen years of age, was starved to death at Salisbury. The average age of nine of them was only twenty years, and we may. almost say that they “ all died in faith.” The religious experience of some of them was remarkable. One writes to his mother—“ I have read my Testa ment every day since leaving you, and shall continue to do so.” And again, on the eve of battle, he writes—“ Should it be my fate to fall, you know, mother, whom to trust; I am in the hands of God.” And this T was a boy of seventeen years of age. And another Writes—“ I feel sure that the Lord will bring me back safe; and if he;does not, I shall not lose anything, for I am in his hands, and he doeth all things well.” And again he writes to his mother, “ I shall be surprised if you feel worried, and can’t leave me in God’s care; because you taught me to leave all things with him, and you can’t imagine what a blessing it is to me now.” And again, while his regiment was under marching orders, expecting to move any hour, he says—“ When I lie down at night to sleep, I have One on whom I cast all my care, and I can sleep as well as I ever could in my own quiet home.” And once more, “ This is just the place for men that trust in the Lord, for they will win the day. If you could be at our prayer-meetings, you would not be afraid to go to war, for every one that goes there knows that the Lord is with us, and who cares for the rest ?” He was nearly twenty-two years of age, and fell in the battle of Winchester, the nineteenth of September, 1864. 'Truly he was “ a good soldier, ’’ and he spoke as one taught of God. Who that has followed the history of the war closely, can doubt that, in spite of all its demoralizations, it was a means of grace to many a young man; that as he left home and friends, he drew nearer to God and ripened for heaven. But somebody is still answerable for the starving of so many of our brave boys. Shall such things go unpunished, and men still sup pose that there is any such thing as crime or law ? CHANGES. Rev. E. R. Beadle has closed his labors with the First Church of this .city, has gone for a time to Hartford, his? old home, and expects in the fall to locate somewhere further south, and in a more genial climate for his constitu tion. It is possible, perhaps probable, that Philadelphia may be his home. And- in the meantime the city of brotherly love is making further drafts upon us. Not content with getting away Mr. Boardman, of the Baptist Church, from our city, some two years ago, they have now been robbing the Episcopal Church. Rev. Dr. Claxton, much to the regret of numerous friends, not only in his own denomination, but in every other, leaves the rectorship of St. Luke’s Church, to become a professor in the Episcopal Theological Seminary of Philadelphia. ■- 'We shall greatly miss his genial face and his co-operative hand. He did not belong to the Episcopal Church alone, biit to the church universal. He was a man of catholic spirit, ready to every good word and work, and willing to re cognize the good and true around him. The best wishes and prayers of many warm friends will follow him wherever he goes. C. P. B. Rochester, August 5, 1865. NATIONAL TEMPERANCE CONVENTION. [reported for the ahericax Presbyterian.] Saratoga Springs, August 3, 1865, The National Temperance Convention which assembled in this village on Tues day at eleven o’clock, has this evening concluded its session, by a large general meeting to hear short addresses from gentlemen of long repute in the temper ance reform. Between three and four hundred delegates have been in attend ance, besides representatives from socie ties in Canada and across the ocean. Notwithstanding the great heat of these days, the Presbyterian Church, in which the Convention sat, has been well filled at each session. The Convention was organized by Chancellor Walworth taking the chair, ■\yhen J.N. Stearns was chosen tempo rary Chairman, and Dr. J. B. Mervin and Rev.. James B. Dunn, of New York, temporary Secretaries. ■ A Committee of nine was appointed by the chair on permanent officers for the Convention, who subsequently reported the follow ing President. —Governor Buckingham, of Connecticut. Vice-Presidents —Neal Dow, of Maine; Hon. P. Emory Aldrich, of Massacusetts; Dr. Sheldon, of Yermont; Ex-Governor Dutton, of Connecticut; Hon. 0. C. Bar stow, of Rhode Island; Hop. Charles Hathaway, of New York; R. M. Roust, of Pennsylvania; Rev. S. M. Lawton, of New Jersey; R. B. McDonald, of Delaware; Professor A. B. Palmer, of Michigan; Rev. W. B. Christopher, of Illinois; Timothy Parsons, of Missouri; Simson Morrill, of Canada West. Secretaries —J. B. Merwin, of New York; J. M. W. Grist, of Pennsylvania; J. M. Asher, of Massachusetts; J. B. Dunn, of New York; J. B. Mills, of Illi nois ; J. M. Lincoln, of Maine. Governor Buckingham, on taking the chair, was greeted with very hearty ap plause, after which he delivered a grace fur and eloquent address, setting forth the importance of reform the Convention was called to promote, and the nature and immediate motives of the call under which it was assembled. It emanated from a meeting of the Mends of the cause, held in the Fourteenth Street 1 Presbyterian Church, New York, on the 10th of May, to, whom it seemed that, in yiew of the lack of organization and harmony among the friends of temper ance throughout the country, in view also of the, alarming increase of intem perance everywhere through the land, and in consideration of the fact that we stood at the opening of a new era of national history, there should be a gene ral conference of all interested in the active promotion of the cause, in refer ence to measures fit to be adopted in order to secure the triumph of the prin ciples of temperance, in society and legislation, and in the churches of the land. The President, by order' of the Con vention, named the following commit tees : Business Committee —Rev. T. L. Cuy ler, J. N. Steams, Rev. Dr. John Marsh, E. Remington, of New York; Ex-Gov ernor Henry Dutton, of Connecticut; William B. Spooner, of Massachusetts; Rev. Mr. Bliss, of Tennessee; Dr. Chas. Jewett, of Connecticut; James Black, of Pennsylvania. Committee on Resolutions —Rev. Dr. J. W. Chickering, of Massachusetts; J. A. Briggs, of New York; Rev. Dr. Fowler, of TTtica; Rolla A. Law, Esq., of Dlinois; Rev. G. L. Foster, of Michi gan; S. B. Ransom, of New Jersey; Colonel Lewis Wagner, of Pennsylvania; Rev. Mr. Atkinson, of Oregon, Rev. L. Perrin, of Connecticut. 1 Without giving the order of business during the sessions, we will confine our selves to indicating the spirit of the Con vention as a whole, and the prominent points of interest in its deliberations, and measures adopted. On Tuesday afternoon, Rev. Dr Chickering, of Portland, read a paper on “Temperance and Religion,” devoted to showing that the temperance reform in this country originated with the Christian ministry, and that the interests of temperance and religion were so blended as to mutually support. one an other. He closed with a resolution calling on all Christian denominations to give their aid to the cause. This resolution, in form or substance, was the subject of a good deal of discussion at different stages of the Convention. Rev. John Pierpont, E; C. Delevan, Gerrit Smith, and others seeming to delight in arraigning the Christian Church as al most totally recreant to duty in regard to this element of morality. This charge was based on the alleged facts that the pulpit was, to a great extent, silent on the subject of total abstinence; that total abstinence was not a condi tion of membership and good standing in the Church; and that alcoholic wines were so generally used at the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. It is but trnth to say, that an anti-church sentiment, marked with a spirit of undisguised bit terness and contempt for the Christian Church, ruled the Convention. Con trary to this, however, justice was done by several speakers to the" efforts in the early steps of the temperance movement of such men as Beecher, Hewitt, Chapin, and others. Many anecdotes- were re lated, new to the public and interesting, illustrating the progress in the minds of the Christian Church and ministry of the ideas and convictions which now lie at the basis of the Christian sentiment in this country, touching the nature and obligations of the temperance reform. As a specimen: when Mr. Delevan be came convinced, by the earnest and thoroughly religious argumentation of Dr. Hewitt, of Bridgeport, that the traffic in spirituous liquors was immoral, and .so, in God’s sight, illegal; and asked what he should do with a pipe of very choice wine he had on hand, the imper turbable doctor found no moral difficulty in at once responding, “ Oh, sell it, and give the proceeds to the temperance cause.” Dr. Charles Jewett read also, on the first day of the Convention, an elaborate paper “On the Practice of Physicians in Administering Alcoholic Liquors as a Stimulant in Sickness, especially in Chronic Cases.” It declared that this custom was increased to an alarming degree; that it was unjustified in science or morality, and that it was productive of many cases of intemperance. This paper was referred to a special commit tee, having for its chairman Prof. A. B. Palmer, of Michigan University. A resolution was reported by the committee, indorsing in general the positions of Dr. Jewett, and requesting the medical pro fession to re-examing the principles, both medical and moral, on which they were proceeding in the practice in question, and requesting them to abandon it. In the discussion of Prof. Palmer’s resolu tion, most of the speakers took very ex treme ground, stating their belief that the prescription of alcoholic stimulants was unnecessary and hurtful in every case. Some even went so far as to dis parage the profession itself, and insinu ate that the prescription by physicians of brandy, whisky, and wine indicated a sympathy with the use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage. Prof. Palmer, while standing by the positions of the resolutions, and holding that there were grounds for demanding extreme reforms in this modern practice, still opposed the reckless and ignorant radicalism of the Convention, contending that cases arose in medical treatment, as he knew from his own experience as a physician, when the resort to alcoholic perscriptions was wise and indispensable. The Conven tion adopted the resolution of the com mittee. A special committee was appointed early in the sessions of the Convention, to prepare resolutions for adoption as a platform of principles expressing the views of'the body and the duties of the Mends of temperance reform in promot mg it in the future. Dr. Chickering, of Maine, as has been already noticed, was at the head of said committee. A series often or twelve resolutionswas reported, .and, after much discussion, adopted on "the last day of the Convention. These resolutions were: 1. Recognizing the hand of God in the temperance move ment, and expressing a sense of depen dence on his continued aid. 2. Setting forth the relation of the Church in the cause, and calling on all denominations to throw their influence on the side of it. 3. Urging the churches to use none but pure wines for communion puposes. 4. Recommending that the young should be educated in the principles of temper ance in the Sabbath-school. 5. Favoring the education of the people up to the point of prohibition of the sale of ardent spirits. 6- Setting forth that it was the duty of temperance men to cast their votes for only total abstinence men. 7. That all means hitherto used and found effectual should be still employed, rely ing on moral means, while prohibition was regarded as the only real ground of security. 8. Taking ground against the manufacture and use of domestic wines. 9. Advising that temperance men should not deal' with rum-sellers. 10. Favor ing the establishment of homes for ine briates in large cities and towns. These resolutions constitute the manifesto of the public advocates of temperance re form in the year of grace 1865. We leave it to our readers to decide whether they mark out a plan of warfare on this great enemy of our country, humanity, and religion, likely to open a new and brighter era in the cause of temperance among the people. For ourselves, we confess sadly to a sense of disappoint ment as to the spirit and measures of the Saratoga Convention. has fearfully increased injjre face of the measures employed by .temperance men for the last fifteen years. With all done in that lihe to secure the triumph of pro hibition, the undisguised sale of spiritu ous liquors in all forms has augmented. The policy of prohibition is not sustained by either the political, common, or moral • sense of the country. The masses of intelligent moral and Christian people have fallen away from these modem issues, and’ have no hearty sympathy - with the men who represent the temper ance reform, or with their measures. And yet, when these same men, taught by an experience of failure, or at the best but questionable successyiret to consult and plan for the future, they have no thing to do and devise but to fight their battles, which were defeats, over again, and-endeavor to give new life to mea sures which -have declined in efficiency, and which never had power enough to work any sound and lasting results. On the whole, we must declare our conviction, that the chief value of the National Temperance Convention will consist in the demonstration it affords of the hopelessness of the cause in the hands of those Who at present work it; and while it rests on existing principles and issues, thus preparing the way for the sonnd-minded and trne friends of temperance to organize and labor for the triumph of its principles in the convic tions and practice of the masses, by means and measures cordially embraced by the moral and Christian sentiment of the. age. This Convention has made two things sufficiently apparent: 1. That the organized friends of temperance have abandoned the Gospel rule and principle of temperance, and have* no faith in the means the Gospel provides for promoting temperance among men. They have substituted total abstinence for temper ance. All use of alcoholic spirits is im moral and sinful, even for medicinal purposes, or for celebrating the Lord’s supper; and prohibition is the gospel of reform. Not invigorating the moral principle of self-government in the breqfjt of the moderate drinker or the drunkard, but preventing them indulging the awa kened appetite by entire prohibition of the sale, this is the grand measure of reformation relied on. 2. That the living controlling moral and religious sentiment is no longer with these men and measures. None of the leading minds of N the country, devot ed to the Gospel ministry, to social or political regeneration and reform, have been present and participating in these deliberations. The Convention has ex cited no interest in the sectarian daily press. Nobody regards it as a matter of any consequence, or as fraught with any power for good in promoting the cause of temperance among the people. So far, however, from regarding these indications with anxiety, we hail them as signs of a true revival of temperance principles—a return to Gospel standards *and measures of temperance. Accord ingly, we believe there has not been a juncture for twenty years, when the Church and ministry should be more honest and earnest in wielding the living and never weak or failing forces depos ited with them by God for renewing so ciety to whatsoever is pure, true, honest, lovely, and of good repute. We should not forget to notice the re marks of R. S. Pardee, Esq., of New York, on the Sabbath-school education of the rising generation to temperance. They were short, direct, practical, and alive with Christian feeling. He sug gested a plan for thus educating and training the young, which had been adopted in some places, consisting of a temperance society in the Sabbath school, enrolling the children under the plea of getting the co-operation of the parents and pastor. Then let regular meetings be held once a month, or less frequently, of the Sabbath-school Tem perance Society, having singing and
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