TO AMERICAS PRESBYTERIAN A2 n> GENESEE EVANGELIST. 4 *® l l*ton«and Famllyl®* eiWipaper, IM IB IVTXBBST OF Sp Constitutional Presbyterfiif Ohurch, PUBLISHED EVERT THURSDAY, AT THE PRESBYTERIAN HOUSE, 1334 Chestnut Street, (2d story,) Philadelphia. John W. Hears, Kdltor and Publisher. B* Hotchhin, Editor of Mews and Family Departments. Rev* C, P. Bush, Corresponding Editor, Rochester, M. T. Smmtatt JjraligMait. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1865. CONTENTS OF INSIDE PAGES. Second Page—The Family Cibole* The Oaken Cradle-SiiU,'Help Tour Worn™. WUI Y “ U «•“ Third Page Religious Intelligence; Presbyterian-Congregational-Methodist-Epiaeo farian-Sli B seena~ Sixth Page—Correspondence : Si a and a ? d Quaker Keith-Theologi ™S- l T^*^ tloa r.! Perl . odl< A? ls of Germany— PrMblrtarfan. Thlng6 “ circular Letter of Holston Seventh, Page— Scientific : aI r ty * n Eofland—The Frozen Well—Mannfae- Lerel Jf B ii£ n n en .f a <? d Modern Engineera-The Tre^s, 1^6 ® oe3—Tko THE REVIVAL WE NEED. The war which has at length been brought to a happy conclusion, produced no such disastrous effects upon the churches of the North, as many gloomily-disposed persons predicted it would, and asserted it actually was doing. Our own ohurch comes out of the conflict some thousands stronger than it went in, the last year of the war, es pecially, being ‘one of prosperity, external and internal, scarcely ever surpassed in her history. Revivals are reported from over one hundred qhurohes, some of them on the most extensive scale, and of the most solemn oharaoter. Missionary enterprises in the outskirts of the States, in the new territo ries, and among the needy populations of our older seotions, have been zealously pushed forward and liberally sustained. Our contributions to foreign missions have inoreased; our colleges and seminaries have received most liberal endowments ; multi tudes of churches have been relieved of debt, and new ones rapidly put up; the circulation of our newspapers has increased,, and life and energy have pervaded the whole spiritual body, whidh war was ex pected utterly to paralyze. All branches of„the„_ohurch in the,. loyal_ _p.arc o* OuT oountry have shared more or less in this advance. Oar readers need not be reminded that this is no surprise to us, or that it has fallen out precisely as we expected and foretold. The church of the North espoused the Sacred cause of rightful authority, andtaught the duty of sustaining" it at every needful sacrifice of treasure and of life. It espoused with fervour the cause of the oppressed, and it grew stronger in the truth, and apter for every other duty, as it sent forth its heroes and. received back its martyrs, or their mangled remains, from the fields of bloody strife for liberty and law. It had no unwonted difficulty to maintain its spirituality, even amid the excitements of critical battles; but rather sought to deepen its humiliation, at such seasons, and to draw nearer to Him with whom alone rested the decision. While the army itself became the scene of the most extensive Home Mis sionary efforts, in which the whole Evan gelical Church heartily participated, and which produced the most' abundant and satisfactory fruit in the conversion and re formation of the soldiers. The churches of the South, deeply apostatized, fierce in rebellion, insanely cleaving to slavery as an institution whioh it was their mission to conserve, come out of the war with little more thdn a name to live, shattered, dis graced; their wioked prayers for the success of a pro-slavery rebellion falling back un answered, with a weight almost enough to crush them into eternal silence and stupor. A religion, one of whose cardinal doctrines is that American slavery is right, and one of whose chief practical tendencies is to confirm a community in adherence to it, to deaden their consciences to its enormity, and to enconrage them in bloody rebellion to sustain it, must go down, as surely as one that justifies theft, murder, licentious ness, polygamy, or the worship of any other object than the' true God. Many thoughtful and judicious Christians have 'looked with deep, and prayerful, and hopeful interest to the close of the war, as a period when we might'expect more signal displays of divine mercy than have been enjoyed for many years past. We rejoice that such a hope has been cherished all through these years of war. It is itself an omen of good—a light of dawn, which must,, sooner or later, be followed by the full day. The war is over; its deep necessities, its great excitements, press upon us no longer. We need the revival for .which we have been longing* The Southern churches greatly need it. Not one of them acknow ledges itself guilty for its open espousal of treason and rebellion. Their crushing disasters have not awakened their conscien ces. They nurse a wrathful sense of recti tude in their wicked course. They haugh __ / Series, Vol. 11, ISTo. 36. tily repudiate the idea of a return to the Northern churches on the condition of re pentance. They are checking any tenden cy to sincere repentance among the South ern people. Of all the ecclesiastical lead ers of the South, but one has been reported as taking the attitude of repentance and confession. A mere newspaper report has travelled from New Orleans to Boston, ac cording .to which the notorious, nay, in famous Dr. B. M. Palmer, on the 16th of July last, in the pulpit of his church, from which, nearly five years ago, he pronounced his well known treasonable thanksgiving discourse, did, explicitly and frankly, ac knowledge that he and his Southern friends were verily guilty for their rebellion, that the Lord had rebuked them for their sin, and that they must now turn from their evil ways, and submit to the rightful authority of the land. This story has been current for weeks among the newspapers, unaccompanied with confirmation or denial. Most earnestly do we hope it may prove true. For ourselves, whatever the civil government might still feel it necessary to do in such a case, as officers in the church, we should be prepared to take down every barrier, and pronounce every condition of church recognition and forgiveness, satisfied by such a confession. Most earnestly do we hope it is true, for we should see in it the beginning of a revival of pure and un defiled religion in the South. Revival, so called, among churches still swamped in an apostacy of rebellion and pro-slavery unrepented of, is not impossible, nor may it be devoid of some signs of genuineness, but it will prove its spuriousness, as a whole, by gendering to more rebelliousness of spirit, and by keeping up cruel and un christian distinctions against the African race. The North and the whole nation needs revival in this hour of re-construotion, so full 04 high possibilities, so full, too, of peril. A strong, practical, efficient, re ligious influence was never more urgently neededan-forgning tile mt'Uimaf polmeg-than' now. Prejudice against the colored race' in the minds'of conquered rebels and tlfeir sympathizers was, perhaps, never so strong, as at this "moment of their emancipation. And many loyal people who rejoice in eman cipation as a result of the war, are in danger of sharing in the prejudices, and of falling in yith the counsels of the enemy, when any step further in redressing the wrongs of this oppressed people is proposed. We want a revival that shall sweep away, with its breath of true Christian philanthropy, every vestige of this prejudice, so hateful to God, who made of one blood all the nations of men, and so contrary to the teachings and example of Jesus of Naza reth. We need a revival which shall be followed by the broad recognition of humanity, on.such a scale that the con temptible advocates of caste founded on color, shall at length see a Christian country to be no suitable place for' teaching the superstitious and oppressive tenets of Bud hism, or the huge tyranny of the priests of Isis. We meed a revival that shall reach with cleansing influences, the whole arena of local, state and national politios, until personal integrity, sincere patriotism, so briety, and fitness for the duties of office be reckoned indispensable requisites for a public position. We need a revival which shall enthrone honor, truth and righteous ness in’ the emporiums of trade and centres of finance; which shall create a sound and healthful public sentiment against the crimes of the bold swindler, as well as against the midnight burglar, against the enormous frauds of the millionaire, as well as against the small depredations of the pickpocket and the dishonest huckster. The consciences of a large class of our financiers are almost hopelessly debauched by the close approach to gambling of much of their business. A reiniorcement of our failing moral sense is most urgently needed, lest our business centres become plague spots ; lest the great corporations controll ing our lines of internal improvement heap up intolerable responsibilities to the Author of the Fourth and Sixth Commandments. Our church members, engaged in various de partments of business need feel the influx of this new tide of moral ptrehgth, and to hold firmly the positions of honor and truth amid the convulsive heavings of unprinci pled and rapacious worldliness. Lamartine, after the failure of the French Revolution of 1848, declared that the*fatal defect of French character.,which made a permanent French republic impossible, was lack of conscience. Want of conscience is a defect so vital that it may not only prevent the formation, but may frustrate all efforts at the reconstruction of a republic already formed. And such renewal of National conscience as we need, can only be the fruit PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1865. FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, HARRISBURG, PA. of genuine, wide-spread revival. It is vir the that springs from evangelizing faith. It is the gift of the Spirit. Many more features might be added to this imperfect draught of the Revival which the Church and the Nation peed. Other dangers and necessities might be portrayed; as the rampant atheism of one part of our foreign population, and the abject supersti tion of another; the call upon our pious laymen for increased devotion and readiness to aid in supplying the demand for gospel labor, especially among the freedmen and Tn the BOOTH, irnicn so largely exceeds-the supply of ministers; the need of some effi eient prudent system of evangelical -effort among the neglected, irreligious, Sabbath breaking masses of our large cities, and the general comprehensive need of a stirring up to specific Revival efforts of some sort in every part of the Church. These are connected topics well worthy of considera tion. Pray for a great national outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Pray that it may perma nently raise the moral sentiment of the peo ple,- and may bring forth fruit in the righteous, humane, and noble policy of the nation towards every class of its citizens, in the honor and integrity of its business men, and in the tempering of avarice and of luxu rious habits to a moderation consistent with the name and the safety of a Christian Re public. Pray that it may deepen-the piety and consecration of the Church, and that it may both fully rouse her to the greatness of her present responsibilities and qualify her manfully to meet and to discharge them. FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, HARRISBURG, FA. This Church was organized in the year 1794, under the pastorate of Reverend Nathanael R. Snowden, which continued till 1805. Rev. James Buchanan occupied the pulpit from 1808 till 1.815. Rev. William R. Dewitt, D.D., was called in 1818, and continues till the present time, Rev. Thomas H. Robinson having been co pastor since 1854. Their former church edifice having been destroyed by fire, its members, though weakened by an “ old school” secession, immediately entered upon the erection of their present large, beautiful, and complete house of worship. The edifice is built of brick, in the Norman style, and is located on Market Square. It was dedicated March 18, 1860. The building is one hundred and thirty six by seventy-two feet, including the lecture-room. The audience-chamber is seventy-six by fifty-eight feet, exclusive of the choir gallery and the pulpit recess, and contains one hundred and thirty-eight pews, holding about seven hundred per sons. There are no side galleries. The light for the evening service, from the argand burners in the ceiling is thrown through ground glass. The pulpit -recess is lighted by day by means of a skylight behind the arches, and at night by gas light in the same manner. At no point in the audience room is any burner visible. The effect is very happy. The pulpit re cess is deemed by all who have seen it, to be a model of architectural taste and beauty. Above the desk itself, which pro jects from the face of the building some three feet, rise three arches, the central one much the larger. These arches are supported by two pillars, and two half pillars at the point of union with the main wall of the building, and with the light from behind the arches streaming down by day (from the gas-light by night), they are thrown out into beautiful relief and clear ness. I believe it is a principle among architects that the science of acoustics de mands that an audience-room should, in length, breadth and height, be constructed on multiples of thirteen. Whether our architect intended it or not, the room very olfsaely.meets the demand, being in height two by_thfrtgen, breadth four by thirteen, length six by thirteen, or very nearly. At all events, after nearly five years’ experi ence in the, use of the room, I can testify that, both for speaking and hearing, it is a model. The voice of a moderate speaker is heard clearly, (if he speaks clearly?) The room cannot be improved in this re spect. We are all gromingly delighted with our church, though we thought it almost unsurpassed when, with glad hearts, we entered and dedicated it. In addition to the main tower, some two hundred and six feet high, and of the choicest proportions, there are, as you ob serve by the picture, two smaller ones, mere turrets, in front, while the side of the building'is ver/'tastefully ornamented with minarets. The building is mainly of brick. There is, however, a large amount of brown stone in its, structure, the base course, the win dow sills, the projection on the tower and turrets, while' the window and cappings, the cornices, etc., are galvanized iron in stone imitation. The plastering of the "audience chamber is pure white, and the stained glass of the windows is but slightly stained, in modest colors. J• 0. Hoxie, of your city, was tie archi tect. Y ours, very truly, NORTHERN MISSIONS IN THE SOUTH. - F<jr many years the South has been sealed agains all Northern ministers who had not Southern principles. And all agencies for evangelizing the South have had to be emasculated before they could be put into operation there. Not simply legalized forms of prosecution, but mob violence of the most malignant sort, laid wait for the humblest teacher of a creed inconsistent with American slavery. We looked, and had a right to look, for an entire revolution in this respect as the result of the war. It has been a war of ideas; and the failure of the military demonstration of the South, is, or if real, ought to be, a failure and a con sequent disappearance of the South as such, of Southern ideas, a Southern policy, Sou thern leaders, organizations for keeping alive the Southern spirit, and of course a Southern church. •' The grievously blind and mistaken policy of the Government which encourages“the hopes of rebels and revives the idea of a sectional South in their minds, threatens also to re-establish the old blockade of Northern, or rather National, principles, and to keep out of the South the represen tatives of the loyal and freedom-loving churches of the North. Southern churches are reviving; Southern religious newspa pers are coming into' circulation; Southern bishops are writing arrogant epißtles to the G-enesee Evangelist, Noj 1007 North,and arraigningtheNorthern churches for demanding of them acknowledgment of wrong and repentance of the sin of rebel lion. Every thing betokens a fixed pur pose to maintain a strictly sectional organi zation, to draw closely the old lines of di vision, and to use the church as a powerful educator of such a new South as can be gathered out of the wasted fragments of the old. - - This is without doubt a great disappoint ment to the loyal Christian people of the North. They could not have foreseen that the half-dead serpent of sectionalism would be thus warmed into life again by the beams of a misplaced executive clemency. They had long looked with, pity upon the moral destitutions of the poor whites and the slaves of the South. The destitutions were great, but-as long as the slave-power con-, tinued in the ascendant, they were almost entirely shut out from them. With the downfall of that power, they expected the obstacles to the proclamation of the unmu tilated Gospel of Christ would be-over thrown. In the secret heart of the loyal Christian people of the North, the war was felt to be one of the Missionary providences, so to speak, of which modern history has furnished so many striking examples. It was forcing off fetters from body and mind, from white and black. When Lee surren dered, it was almost like the overthrow of a Chinese wall of exclusiveness. A vast semi-heathen population, say six millions in number, lay open, as we thought, to our efforts. Vast demands we thought would be made upon our supplies of money and men, and the only difficulty we now antici-' pated, was a lack of means and of spirit to meet this sudden expansion of our field. T. H. Robinson. But shall the North, indeed, be thus ex cluded for perhaps another quarter of a cen tury from a held so wide, so needy, so im portant, so near P Shall victory open the South to commerce but not to freedom oi ideas ? to the National tax-gatherer but not to the Northern preacher and colporteur ? We do not believe the Northern churches will so easily abandon their precious hope of thoroughly evangelizing those six millions of poor whites and freed blacks whom the triumphant bayonets of our brave soldiers have just made accessible to a higher civil ization. But the case is a serious one. It is deserving of deliberation, prayer, and consultation among the evangelical denomi nations of the North, who are preparing, in a loyal and .anti-slavery spirit to enter the missionary field of the South. Proper rep resentations should be made to the Govern ment, as to the peril of allowing churches to reorganize on the identical basis of the rebellion, and for the sole purpose of keep ing alive what is left of the spirit of the South. Due vigilance should be used to wards the reconstructing States, lest laws be left unrepealed on the statute books in imical to the safety of Northern preachers teachers, and agents; and plans should be concerted by which the various loyal socie ties might share in each other’s experience and support each other in cases of difficulty. We oannot but feel that the situation is sufficiently grave and embarrassing to call for an unusual amount of wisdom and ot Of course, it will be impossible for poli ticians and ecclesiastics of the South to re store the old barriers, in their original strength. They went down with the ram parts of Donelson and Vicksburgh, of At lanta, Fort Fisher, and Richmond. They went down with slavery. But for years and years, these leaders, restored.to power by a thoughtless exercise of clemency, may keep alive prejudices, suspicions, and animosities, and may nurse a hostile public sentiment, as effectual in excluding the religious and educational influences of the 1 North, as those laws which they once enforced by the authority of the Supreme Court of the United States. If these churches of the defunct Confederacy once reorganize on their former rebel basis, solely as Southern churches; if their pulpits resound with de nunciations of Northern radicalism ; if Northern societies, Northern newspapers, and Northern teachers, are preached, voted, and planned against, as dangerous to the in terests of the South ; if all the energies of these leaders and their churches are to be applied in resuscitating and in working the publishing, mission, and education societies they started as rebels, then we prophesy that the colporteur or pioneer of Northern mission or tract societies will often abso lutely want for common hospitality among the so-called Christian people of the South; will plead, against mob violence, his Ameri can citizenship with less effect than Paul plead his Roman citizenship, and will have to be wary indeed, lest he feel, in darker and severer forms, the malignity of the vengeance whioh the assassination of Mr. Lincoln and the atrocities of Andersonville have not satiated. TERMS. Pot &nnum, in Advance: By Man, $3. By Carrier, *3 50 Fifty cents additional, after three months. Clubs*—Ten or more papers, sent to one address, payable strictly in advance and in one remittance: ByMail, $2 50 per annum. By Carriers,s3perannum. Ministers and Ministers 9 Widows, $2 in ad vance. Home Missionaries, $l5O inadvance. Fifty cents additional after three months. Remittances by mail are at our risk. Bostagre.— 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) .. : $8 00 <4 two months „ 5 50 three " 756 o six “ .12 oo > one year .18 The following discount on long advertisements, in for three months and upwards, is allowed r Uver 20 lines, 10 per cent off; over 50 lines, 20 per cent.; over 100 lines, 33% per cent. off. looking for help from above. The South must not be left to the dreadful hallucina tion which its leaders still seek to keep alive in the people; it must not be allowed morally to rot as the mere caput mortuum. of a pro-slavery society; it must not be left in all the pitiable need of Bibles, religions books, and religious papers, of sanctuary accommodations and of educational privi leges in which exhausting war and crushing defeat has left it. The South, black and white, must be evangelized, and the greater part of the work mnst be done and will be done by the loyal North. CAN THEY TAKE CARE OF TIJEM- SELVES 1 We do not know whether any oandid man is yet asking this question in regard to the freedmen of the South. To most reflecting persons, it would have seemed superfluous to ask it of a race, which, as slaves, had been taking care of their masters and them selves too for two hundred years. Or, if it really seemed necessary, in order to keep the colored laborers of the South at steady and profitable employment, that their per sons should be under the control of a more intelligent class, that delusion must have vanished from every unprejudiced mind upon learning the eminently satisfactory results of the memorable experiment made with" the escaped slaves of South Carolina, on the islands of * the coast two years ago. That colony of escaped slaves will make the Sea Islands of South Carolina more famous than the long staple cotton which they produce. They have a hero to boast of, too, who could not only take care of himself and his family, but could bring them, with the rebel vessel he had in charge, right under the guns of Fort Sum ter, and deliver vessel, guns and crew to the national blockading fleet off the harbor. Robert Small, of the steamer Planter, proved his ability to take care of the vessel, and his bravery in employing it for Gov ernment uses, to be so superior to that of the white officer who for a. time had charge of it, that the'loyal black man was made master of bis own prize, and white men served cheerfully with him in managing the vessel. Almost any number of our dailies con tains evidence that the colored people of the South are far more independent of Gov ernment aid than their poor white neigh bors. In almost every instance in which a comparison could be made, the result has been most conspicuously in favor of the colored race. A newspaper correspondent writes that at Chattanooga, Tennessee, of 947 persons receiving Government aid, only forty-three are colored, and nine§ hundred and four are white. Supposing the popu lation to be half white and half colored, this would show the negro of Chattanooga to have more than twenty times the capacity of the poor whites for taking care of him. self. Which of the two classes has the best right to share in managing the affairs of a nation of independent, self-reliant free men ? The Government, which allows the thriftless poor whites of Chattanooga the right of suffrage, while it utterly refuses the privilege to their colored neighbor, simply because of a difference in the cuticle of the latter, will fifty years from hence be regarded as under a hallucination of the most amazing and perilous sort. The report of the Ereedmen’s Bureau for Mississippi, dated Vicksburg, August 15, contains the following statement: The colonies of freedmen working the land assigned them at Davis Bend, Camp Hawley, near Vicksburg, DeSoto Point opposite, and at Washington, near Natchez, are all doing well; their crops are maturing fast; as harvest time approaches, the number of rations issued is reduced, and they are compelled to rely on their own resources. At least ten thousand bales of cotton will be raised by these people, who are raising crops on their own account. The total number of freedmen in the State is estimated at 346,000, of whom only 3,000 are receiving assistance from Government. Important Judicial Decision. The contraband liquor trade of Massachu setts is thus far foiled in its last dodge for evading the prohibitory law. A Boston paragraph of August 29th says: In the case of the Commonwealth vs. Holbrook, which was carried to the Su preme Judicial Court, on the ground that the defendant had the right to sell intoxicating drinkß under a license from the United States, the court decided that payment to the United States of a fee for a license, and a revenue duty or tax, does not exempt the defendant from responsibility for violating the criminal laws of the Commonwealth.” The Central Church, Wilmington, has a new chapel building 20 by 54 feet, in a forward state on Rodney street, one of the most imposing sections of the’ city of Wilmington. This is the second chapel belonging to the Central Church, amd the third connected with our denomi nation in that city.
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