ftramair Ijtwlijtam
THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 1865.
Our London Correspondent.—An
other letter from our London Corres
pondent is on file, and will appear in
our next. The writer being about to
make a journey to this country, our
readers, in all probability, will be de
prived of the pleasure of reading his
lively and crowded budget for some
weeks to come. We hope, however, the
interruption will prove but temporary.
Papers for East Tennessee. —We
are now sending about 450 papers every
week to the churches in East Tennessee,
for which six months payment has been
contributed in advance by a number of
our liberal men in this city and Harris
burg. Besides this, we are sending a
goodly number of copies to individuals
in that section who have subscribed for
the paper themselves. Parties unable
to pay the entire subscription price, and
who may not be reached by this gratuit
ous distribution, will receive the paper
on sending one half of the subscription.
A wealthy and liberal gentleman of this
city has pledged himself to make up the
balance in all such cases.
NATIONAL TEMPERANCE CONVEN
TION.
NOTE FROM DR. MARSH.
Mr. Mears :—Will you permit me to
express my surprise and astonishment
that your Saratoga correspondent should
have allowed himself to say that an
“ anti-church sentiment, marked with a
spirit of undisguised bitterness and con
tempt for the Christian Church ruled
the Convention.” Ido not believe that
such a discovery was made by any other
individual. I was present the whole
time, and attentive to all that was said
and done, and am sure there was no
foundation for such a remark. The
paper of Dr. Chickering on the connex
ion between, temperance and religion,
and the aid the temperance cause had
received from the ministers and churches
was very satisfactory. If the paper
drew out any details of remissness in
some pulpits and some churches it was
in no spirit of infidel radicalism. I pre
sume four-fifths of the members were
members of evangelical Christian chur
ches. The presiding officer, Gov. Buck
ingham, is himself a deacon of a Christian
Church, and an eminently pious man,
and would in a moment have rebuked
any improper remark. Once or twice
he did check Mr. Gerrit Smith in some
of his extreme views, which had no
favor with the majority. Not the least
abandonment was there in a single reso
lution of the Gospel rule and principle
of temperance, and no charge made of
the use of alchoholic drinks for medical
or sacramental purposes as sinful. Total
abstinence was not substituted for tem
perance, because in the opinion of the
entire convention it is temperance. The
charges made by your correspondent
against the fundamental principles and
course of the Convention, I cannot
but view as altogether false and slander
ous and calculated to do great injury in
families where your excellent paper is
read. Yours respectfully,
John Marsh.
Sec. A. T. Union.
Note. —Our first correspondent at the
Saratoga Convention appears to have
taken a somewhat peculiar view of the
proceedings and spirit of the body, which,
much as we respect his judgment, we
are inclined to regard as erroneous,
though sincere. At the time his letter
came to hand, we had no other source
of information, and received his state
ment with a deep and painful sense of
disappointment at a result which augured
so ill for the cause. We are glad to
nublish the above lines from our honored
friend and brother, Dr. Marsh, as evi
dence that the Convention as a whole
was a real movement in the right direc
tion, and well calculated to arouse and
rally the friends of reform for another
and more vigorous effort than ever. We
stand prepared to join in such a move
ment with all our heart, and are at it
already. Another view of the Conven
tion will be found on our first page.
TREATMENT OF THE FREEDMEN.
DEPI.ORARLE ACCOUNT.
The morning papers of Tuesday give
the following paragraphs, which purport
to have been taken from different South
ern papers and telegraphed to New
York. Where the Southern Christian
Intelligencer is published, or what de
gree of credence is to be attached to
these statements, we do not know; we
fear they are too true. The Cincinnati
Gazette contains an account of the trial,
by a military commission, at Salisbury'
N. C., August Ith, of Miss Temperance
Neely, of Davie County, for shooting
and murdering a slave woman, who in
terfered to prevent the whipping of her
daughter in the regular old-fashioned
pro-slavery style. The qase was clearly
made out against this sprig of North
Carolina aristocracy. But to the ex
tracts :
New York, August 21, 1865.
The Southern Christian Intelligencer of
August sth says, if one-tenth part of the re
ports are true which are coming from all parts
of the South, thicker and faster, a most
shocking state of affairs exists. From locali
ties where there are National troops come re
ports that the unfortunate creatures, the
negroes, are being hunted down like dogs,
and despatched without ceremony. The
newspapers in the South are filled with ac
counts of the* brutal murders which foot up
to an aggregate o 1 several hundred per day,
which is doubtless only a small portion of the
number noticed.
An Alabama paper says this business has
become so extensive and common that some
planters even boast that they could manure
their land with the dead carcases of the ne
groes. If negroes can be shot down daily in
garrisoned towns where the authorities are
unable to stop this state of things, it is very
reasonable to suppose that this brutal work
is carried on more extensively where the
blacks have no protection. This wholesale
murdering of human beings is, we fear, the
practical working of the conspiracy to exter
minate the colored race, which is revolting to
the Christian age.
The Raleigh (N. C.) Frogress , of the 16th,
learns from Colonel Lawrence, commandant
of the post at Goldsboro, that six negroes
were killed at or near Warsaw two weeks ago.
Their former owner left on the approach of
the Union army. The negroes remaining,
they went to work and made a crop. The
former owner returned recently, and ordered
them to leave. The negroes refused, and the
proprietor of the place getting some neigh
bors together with arms, ordered them off
again, and on their refusal attacked them,
killing six. Accompany of soldiers was sent
up from Wilmington to investigate the affair.
MORALS OF WALL STREET.
The speculating or gambling mania
which has been rampant in Wall Btreet
during the last years of the war, and
which continues to the present moment,
which has trodden under foot the Na
tional credit and brought about enor
mous additions -to the public debt, is
now bearing legitimate fruit in fruds,
forgeries, and defalcations to an unpar
alleled amount. The first of these, al
ready mentioned, was perpetrated by a
teller and a clerk upon the Phoenix
Bank, and had extended over two years
before discovery, reaching nearly three
hundred thousand dollars. The excite
ment over this discovery attended by
the .suicide of one of the delinquents and
sad revelations of dissipation and vice,
had not died away, before a second case
transpired, this time that of a gold bro
ker, named Peter R. Mumford, who on’
Saturday, August 13, obtained large
amounts of gold from various brokers,
which are estimated as high as $lOO,-
000, giving therefor his checks on the
Mechanics’ Bank. On presenting the
checks at the counter of that institu
tion, it was ascertained that there was
no deposit to Mumford’s credit to meet
his obligations. Mumford was arrested
for trial on the 16th, having apparently
made no attempt to escape.
But these were mere preliminaries to
vaster transactions which came to light
on Tuesday afternoon, the 15th instant.
“Among the wealthiest and boldest
houses down town,” says the N. Y.
Times, “ was that of Morris Ketchum
& Son. Its operations during the last
four years have been enormous, its gold
bullings embarrassing to the Govern
ment, and its credit, so far as mere cash
was concerned, almost unlimited. The
junior member of the firm, not content
with the legitimate line of busines in
which his father had made a fortune and
a name, dealt largely in stocks, operated
heavily in gold, lost, made, lost, made
again, lost more, hypothecated the secu
rities of the house, continued to lose,
forged gold checks with which to supply
a margin, took up some of them with the
proceeds of the stolen securities, contin
ued his speculations, lost, continued his
forgeries, lost, kept on forging and losing,
until his doomsday came, the discovery
was made public, and while his father’s
house fell crashing about his head Mr.
Edward Ketchum took up his bag and
ran.”
Young Ketchum employed a respect
able brokerage house, Graham & Co.,
through whom to do this business and
carried it on at an enormous rate, at
first quite successfully. With Messrs.
Graham he left $285,000 in forged gold
checks, which being intended only as se
curity to be drawn only in case he failed
to make good his engagements with the
firm, were laid aside without being care
fully examined, as no suspicion of foul
play existed. Such an examination
would instantly have revealed their
worthless character, as the forgeries
were executed in the most unskilful and
clumsy manner. The names were not
spelled correctly, nor was there the least
attempt to counterfeit the handwriting
of the parties on whom the fraud was
committed. The Fourth National Bank
had also received similar miserably exe
cuted checks, as securities, to the amount
of $255,000. The Ketchum firm itself
is, however, represented to be by far the
heaviest loser, the son having abstracted
and lost in his transactions between two
and three millions of securities belong
ing to the firm. Young Ketchum was
last seen on Monday afternoon, August
14, on Broadway, where he purchased
a toilet bag, and placed in it packages of
greenbacks believed to amount to sixty
thousand dollars. The houses of Ketcb
um and Graham'have suspended pay
ment. The panic on Wall strret was
violent but brief. Prices fell from two to
eight per cent., but the withdrawal of
such a large house and the more general
distribution of stocks lately held by them
are regarded in a favorable light by
those who remain. So the wild dance
of speculation is to begin again. Join
hands (or feet) bulls and bears, gold
operators, oil and mining speculators,
foes of government credit and friends of
our own pockets; enter the ring fast
clerks and bank tellers, and let the dance
fio fast and furious until the next grand
explosion!
Definition of “During the War.”—ln
fnwT e °<? m Plaints Of soldiers who
-"A mand at mustered out be
thp tar® ar e “ hßt n d for , three years or during
rtf Tl 41 ’ Terry, commanding
the Department of Virginia, defines the term
during the war” to mean “as long as any
military necessity exists in the late insurrec
tionary States.
THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN THURSDAY. AUGUST 24, 1865.
.FROM OUR CORRESPONDING EDITOR,
S. S. MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
They have an interesting organization
of this name, in connection with the
Presbyterian Church in CTinton. It was
formed in January, 1836, and has, con
sequently, been almost thirty years in
existence. The objects of the associa
tion, as stated in its constitution are
threefold—
1. To obtain and diffuse information
in regard to the moral condition of the
world, and of the efforts being made for
its renovation.
2. To cultivate habits of benevolence
in its members ; and
3. To aid by its contributions in the
spread of the gospel.
At a recent monthly meeting of this
society, Rev. A. D. Gridley, of Clinton,
gave an exceedingly interesting account
of its operations from the beginning;
which shows that the organization has
been well sustained, and has been doing
good work. Rev. Wayne Gridley, a
graduate of Hamilton College, a young
man of great promise, and for a short
time a pastor of the church in Clinton,
was the first President. His early death
put an end to that bright career of use
fulness which every one anticipated for
him.
Among its members and officers of
other days we noticed the names of Rev.
J. A. Priest, now of Gloversville; Rev.
A. K. Strong, of Galena, Illinois; Rev.
Dr. Kendall, of New York; Revs. Jo
seph Sutphen and Homer B. Morgan,
Missionaries of the A. B. C. F. M.; and
among those who have read essays on
Missionary themes in its meetings, we
found the names of Professors North and
Upson, of Hamilton College; Rev. A.
K. Strong, above mentioned, and Prof.
Theodore W- Dwight; of New York.
We noticed, also, that in the past
years it was not the men alone who pre
pared essays for these monthly meetings,
but young ladies thus contributed to the
interest and profit of these occasions.
Mention is made by Mr. Gridley, in his
admirable historical sketch, of-the names
and themes of some who afterwards be
came wives of ministers and mission
aries, and thus contributed to carry out
the designs of the organization, to do
something toward spreading the gospel
to the ends of the earth. Mr. Gridley
very earnestly and very properly rec
ommends a return to this early usage.
We trust the ladies of Clinton will give
heed to Mr. Gridley’s recommendation,
for he is competent to speak with wisdom
in the case.
DIOCESAN CONVENTION,
A very respectable body of clergymen
and laymen of the Episcopal Church of
Western New York, has been in session
in our city the past week, under the
above designation. It represents ICY
churches, and 13,000 communicants ; a
goodly number for a beginning. We
have on the same ground, 363 New
School Presbyterian churches, and over
40,000 church members; to say nothing
of the Congregational, Baptist, and
Methodist denominations, which would
number together nearly three times as
many more. The Episcopal church is
the smallest of the tribes in this region,
as in other parts of the land.
And yet this is the church; and they
have a bishop —we have over 400 ,of
them. Their bishop preached a sermon,
and delivered addresses, which were very
respectable in character. He i§ evi
dently a man of good abilities and excel
lent spirit; but we have several bishops,
one in Lockport, two or three in Buffalo,,
one in Syracuse, and others in other
places, who can preach quite as good
sermons, and deliver as eloquent and
able addresses. And we used to hear a
bishop in Brooklyn, the father of this
diocesan, who could stir and thrill and
delight an audience by his magic elo
quence, as the son can not. Samuel
Hanson Cox was a power in the land.
He has instructed and helped thousands
on their way to heaven. • We only hope
his worthy son, “ the bishop,” may do as
much good; but it cannot aid' him in
doing it, first to unchurch his own hon
ored father, and say he is “noifiinister,”or
to pretend that his little flock is the only
cburch in Western New York. We
have no quarrel with the Episcopal
church, except with its arrogance. It is
only one of the tribes. We love the
Presbyterian church also, arid the Meth
odist, and'the Baptist, and the Congre
gationalist. Each is doing a good work;
each reaching a class of its own sort, not
so well-reached by any other, and so the
whole field is more perfectly cultivated.
We are brethren—let there be no strife
between us, no arrogance, no unchurch
ing one of another.
AN OLD SABBATH-SCHOOL.
They have a pleasant way of estimat
ing the age of their Sabbath-school, in
the Presbyterian Church in Fredonia,
by which they make it out to be some
four thousand- years old! Most people
have doubtless supposed the Sabbath
school a more modern invention, and
will tell us how Robert Raikes started
the idea less than a century since, when
Fredonia was in the woods, to say the
least.
But let us understand the way of-it.
The enterprising and inspiring superin
tendent, Col. Redington, proposed to the
school that each scholar should contrib
ute to the mission school enterprise of
the American Board, one penny for each
year of his or her age. The teachers
were allowed and invited to do the same,
if they would. None were desired to
take part in the project except “ cheerful
givers.” The result was a contribution
of forty-one dollars and seventy-two
cents; and as each cent represents a
year, they speak of four thousand one
hundred and seventy-two years as the
age of their school. But though so old,
we had the best of evidence that it is
not dead. Having obtained so much,
the teachers chose to make the sum a
round hundred, and make one of their
own number, a faithful female teacher,
whose eminent devotion and usefulness
are acknowledged by all, an honorary
member of the A. B. C. F. M.
This was from the Sabbath-school
alone. The collection from the congre
gation on the same Sabbath was over
$100; from monthly concerts, about $7O;
aggregate, $286 90. In January last,
the Sabbath-school of the same church
sent us $2OO, making $486 90 for the
year, from this village church, to the
cause of missions—an example of liber
ality which we should be glad to com
mend to some churches much larger and
stronger, that give much less. “There
is that withholdeth more than is meet,
but it tendeth to poverty.”
PERSONAL.
Rev. F. W. Flint, of Cohoes, formerly
of Silver Creek, we are sorry to say, is
somewhat out of health. We met him
this week on his way to Minnesota, to
see what that bracing climate will do
toward building him up again. He has
leave of absence from his people for four
or six months. We trust that those
northern regions will soon restore him
to his wonted vigor, and to his accuse
tomed usefulness. His people have re
cently provided him with a parsonage,
and are 1 * planning to repair and beautify
their church edifice, at an expense of
twenty-five hundred or three thousand
dollars, showing that they appreciate
the labors of their faithful pastor, and
are trying, like an enterprising society,
to live and grow.
Rev. W. L. Hyde, formerly of Dun
kirk, and more recently a Chaplain in
our army, has received and accepted an
invitation to labor as pastor of the
Church in Ripley. C. P. B.
Rochester, August 19, 1865.
LETTER FROM EAST TENNESSEE.
Knoxville, E. Tenn., Aug. 10, 1865.
Mr. Editor :—The work of recon
struction is making progress in Church
and State, all over Tennessee. The
franchise bill, passed recently by our
Legislature, (of which I will send you a
synopsis hereafter), awakened no little
opposition, especially in the middle and
western districts of the State. Many
persons unfriendly to the Government
labored hard to create an odium against
it, and at one time matters looked threat
ening and ominous of trouble. The
telling proclamation of Governor Brown
low, however, the supporting telegrams
from President Johnson, and the mili
tary orders of Major-General Thomas,
soon quieted the turbulent, and we had
a very peaceable election. The result is
not so satisfactory west of us, but in
East Tennessee where the loyal element
is so overwhelming, friends of the Ad
ministration are chosen by large ma
jorities. Nathaniel G. Taylor, Horace
Maynard, and Mr. Stokes are sent up to
Congress, and they will all be working
men, and men of more than average
ability. Mr. Taylor is a graduate of
Princeton College, New Jersey, and was
formerly a minister of the Methodist
Episcopal church. During the war he
has been an eloquent pleader in behalf
of the refugees driven from their homes
by the persecuting champions of the re
bellion. Hon. Horace Maynard is a
' ruling elder of our church at Knoxville,
and has been in Congress before. One
of his opponents in a circular charged
against him, that while he was in Con
gress during the first two years of the
war, he voted to condemn President
Lincoln for calling out troops to suppress*
the rebellion, and that he voted to condemn
Major Anderson for defending Fort Sum
ter. As the character of the rebellion
revealed itself more fully Mr. Maynard
confronted it manfully, and in the judg
ment of his supporters he will be faith
ful to the Union and the cause of Lib
erty.
STATE TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION.
A few days since, in pursuance of
public notice to that effect, quite a num
ber of teachers and friends of education
met in Convention at Knoxville, and or
ganized a State Teachers’ Association.
Rev. Mr. Humes was chosen Chairman,
and Chaplain Spence, Secretary. A
constitution was presented and adopted.
One article provides that any teacher or
active friend of education loyal to the
Government of the United States, may
become a member upon the payment of
one dollar. The article brought out
considerable discussion, but it was
adopted by a vote almost unanimous.
The following preamble and resolu
tions were offered:—
Whereas, in the good Providence of
God more than three millions of people,
three years ago held in bondage in our
country are now free; and whereas, the
safety of our country, as well as the
voice of philanthropy demands that these
people be made as intelligent, industri
ous, and refined as possible, therefore
. Resolved, That we deprecate any
policy on the part of the State Govern
ment or of its citizens that would ob
struct the free exercise of those powers
or privileges calculated to develope their
manhood and to make them self-support
ing.
Resolved, That we hail with.pleasure
the establishment of schools among the
freed people, as the safest and shortest
way not only to enable them to take
care of themselves, but to fit them for
the exercise of the functions of citizens.
Resolved, That we will do all in our
power as teachers, and friends of true
progress, to make education free to every
child of the State, believing that the pro
perty of the State should educate the
people of the State.
Resolved, That we urge upon the
Legislature of the State at as early a day
as practicable, the establishment of Tea
chers’ Seminaries or Normal Schools,
for the more thorough training of profes
sional teachers.
Resolved, That teaching should be
made a profession, studied as other pro
fessions, and that no one should be al
lowed by law to teach, that had not
made some previous professional prepa
ration.
The preamble was unanimously adopt
ed. The first resolution, after a discus
sion of between two and three hours,
was voted down by a close vote. The
other resolutions were adopted without
a negative. Teachers of colored schools
were present and took part in the pro
ceedings. It was stated that there were
800,000 whites in Tennessee, and 800,-
000 blacks, and that our system of Com
mon Schools as a matter of safety and
justice, should provide in some way for
all.
Chancellor Lindsey presented the fol
lowing resolution which was carried:—
Resolved, That this Convention view
with profound gratification, the action
and spirit manifested by the present Ex
ecutive and Legislative authorities of
Tennessee in behalf of popular education,
and earnestly hope that their efforts will
result in a system of public schools wor
thy of the State.
The Legislature propose to raise
$BOO,OOO at once for a liberal common
school system, and it was thought that
the half million of dollars recovered
from the rebel Governor, Isham G. Har
ris, would be appropriated to this object,
which would give us a school fund of
nearly a million and a half.
THE “ CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.”
It is well that the American Pres
byterian is finding its way through so
many of our churches. At the sugges
tion of a loyal Old School brother, means
were contributed at Pittsburgh, Penn
sylvania, a few days ago, to send three
hundred copies of the Presbyterian Ban
ner for twelve months to East/Tennessee.
These eight hundred copies,, of two reli
gious papers, coming weekly into our
houses with their many lessons of Chris
tian patriotism and earnest piety, will be
of incalculable advantage to us. But
for this the Christian Observer might
do us great harm, with its apologies for
treason and its defence of sectional or
ganization. As it is, quite a number to
whom Dr. Converse sends his paper,
refuse to take it from the office, and they
are sending the old man word that the
Christian Observer has done so much
mischief during the rebellion they do not
wish to see it any more.
I clip the following from the Green
ville New Era: —
Mr. Editor :—lt is a* notorious fact that
Rev. Dr. Converse and his traitorous paper,
the Christian Observer, were pushed out of
the North for disloyalty, and it is farther
known that the paper was issued at Rich
mond in the interest of a sectional church,
and for the defence of a Southern Confede
racy. Dr. Converse is responsible for much
of the desolation that has come upon the
churches of the South, and yet, reeking as he
is with treason and other crimes, he has re
sumed the publication of the Christian Ob
server, and, judging from the numbers we
have seen, he hopes to use it as an for
sectional and treasonable ends. . He has sent
many copies of his paper to Bristol, Jones
boro’, Greenville, Timber Ridge, and other
places, to his old subscribers.
There can be but one honest opinion about
this matter. The minister or elder, or pri
vate member of the church who would take
the Christian Observer, and read and circu
late it, no matter how often he takes the
oath, or how much he professes regret for his
treason, proclaims himself a rebel and a trai
tor still, and unworthy the confidence of pa
triots and Christian men.
The opinion thus expressed is endorsed
by nearly all of our church. Dr. Con
verse is evidently aiming to form a
Southern sectional church. His edito
rials are shaped with reference to this
and his influence, as far as my observa
tion goes, tends directly to this result.
Will he succeed ? your readers ask. To
some extent I fear he will. In South
western Yirginia, and in some other
parts of the exploded Confederacy, he
may rally a few Presbyteries who may
still be in doubt whether General Lee
has surrendered, but he has a very slim
prospect in East Tennessee. Though he
had one of your elders for his Sancho
Panza, everything is against him and he
cannot succeed. Even in this life the
aged cannot always *be insolent, surper
cilious, and untrue without retribution.
Yours very truly,
Samuel Sawyer.
Decease op Mh. Jesper Harding.—
Among the deaths announced August 21st,
was that of an old and widely-known pub
lisher and business man ot this city, Mr.
Jesper Harding. Mr. H. was born in the old
District of Southwark, Philadelphia, in 1799.
He learned the printing business in the office
of the United States Gazette. About the
time when he reached his majority, he went
into business on his own account, and in 1829
he commenced the publication of the Penn
sylvania Inquirer, of which he continued to
be the publisher until 1860. In 1835, he be
gan the publication of family and pulpit
Bibles in this city—a business which subse
quently became quite extensive in his hands
He was at one time largely engaged in the
manufacturing of paper at Trenton, New
Jersey. In these various connections, he
spent an active business life, extendibg over
nearly half a century, and made a wide circle
or mends, many of whom remain to mourn
his loss as a kind-hearted and amiable gentle
man. Smce 1862, and until the time of his
death, he was a Collector of the Internal
Kevenue for the First District of Pcnnsylva
ma.—Pkila. Ledger.
gfta af nira fifrajfEJ.
Progress in Minnesota. —A corres
pondent of the Evangelist speaks of the
organization of a new church at Pres
ton, Minn., but gives no date. “ Rev.
D. L. Kiehle, a recent graduate of Union
Theological Seminary, sent out by the
Home Missionary Committee, was lo
cated there. Only six weeks have
elapsed since his arrival on the ground.
The fine new hall at the Court House
has been secured, and every Sabbath it
is well filled by an attentive audience.
An interesting Sabbath-school has been
organized, with a new library. An ele
gant large melodeon has been purchased,
and a good choir of singers are being
trained. Last Sabbath fifteen persons,
all heads of families, united in the or
ganization. Others would have united
had their letters arrived in time. It
was pleasant, on this occasion, to re
ceive a Communion service as a gift
from the First Presbyterian Church
of St. Paul. Also, three elders were
elected.”
The Home Missionary Church at
Chatfield, in the same State, has suffered
a great bereavement in the death of the
Missionary, Rev. E. D. Holt. The
Evangelist says:—“ Before his final ill
ness, he had labored with unceasing
efforts for the souls of his congregation,
especially for the young And very
soon after some of the lambs of his
flock had learned to sing the new song
of their Saviour’s love, were they called
to sing their pastor’s requiem around
his open grave. He rests from bis
labors and his works do follow him.
Assembled around the Supper of the
Lord, we welcomed the young disciples
Only yesterday, at the preparatory
meeting, little Arthur Grant, the infant
son, was brought by the widowed mother
and dedicated in baptism, with the
hopes of many hearts that his father’s
God may be his God, and he also grow
up to preach the Gospel. Now came
the eldest daughter, among the ten who
were to profess their faith in Christ.
Twelve in all—two by letter, the re
mainder by profession—united with the
people of God. Two of the Church,
suitable and efficient young men, were
also ordained as elders.”
Progress in Michigan. Installa
tions.—Rev. T. Dwight Hunt was in
stalled pastor over the First Presbyte
rian Church in Niles, Mich., on Wed
nesday evening, August 9th. Sermon,
by Rev. L. Willard, of Marshall; in
stalling prayer, by Rev. O. P, Hoyt, of
Kalamazoo; charge to the pastor, by
Rev. John Sailer, of Allegan; charge to
the people, by Rev. William Fuller, of
Buchanan. The congregation have re
cently purchased a parsonage, to which
the pastor will move in a few days.
Rev. John Sailer was installed pastor
over the First Presbyterian Church in
Allegan, Mich., on Tuesday evening,
June 20th. Sermon, by Rev. J. Pier
son, of Kalamazoo; installing prayer,
by Rev. A. H. Gaston, of Prairieville;
charge to the pastor, by Milton Bradley,
of Richland; charge to the people, by
Rev. O. B. Sherwood, of Cassopolis.
The congregation have recently pur
chased a fine parsonage, costing $2600,
for their new pastor.
Change of Relation and Installation.
—The Presbytery of - Detroit held a
special meeting in Pontiac, on he after
noon of the 29th ult , to receive the
Presbyterian Church of that place under
their care. This church had been, ever
since its organization, connected with
the Old School. In the evening, Rev.
W. H. McGiffert, formerly of North
Adams, Mass., was installed pastor.
' Dedication. —On Sabbath, the 6th
inst., a neat and commodious chapel
was dedicated to the worship of God at
Hart’s Corners, in the town of White
Plains, Westchester County, N. Y. It
was erected and furnished by Charles
Butler, Esq., on his own grounds, in a
neighborhood that promises great useful
ness. An interesting Sabbath-school is
in progress. The benevolent enterprise
which such an individual effort evinces
might be imitated in many places where
no church furnishes the means of grace,
and the good to be accomplished is in
calculable.—Evangelist.
Examination op Statistics.—“ E,
D. M.” gives the Christian Herald the
following as the result of a little inspec
tion of the Minutes for 1865, just pub
lished :
1. The Membership and Increase of
the Church. —The aggregate results of
the membership in the last year, are as
follows:
Total No. of Communicants, 143,645
Added on Examination, 6,685
Added on Certificate, 5,325
Baptisms, 5,488
There are a number of communicants
put under the head of “unknown,” of
whom, as we know nothing about them,
nothing is to be said. But how are
we to know the increase of the Church,
when we know nothing of the deaths ?
The excommunicated are very few in
our Church, and the dismissals are more
than balanced by those received on cer
tificate. The common ratio of deaths to
births in this country is 2to 3. Sup
posing the baptisms represent, as they
really do, very nearly the births in
Christian families, then the deaths in
the same families will be 4460. But,
as half of all the deaths are children
under ten years of age, we suppose that
2230 will represent the full number of
members of the Church that died in a
year. This taken from 6685, the num
ber received on examination, gives 4455
as the true number of the increase of