r E AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN
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GENESEE EVANGELIST.
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NATTERS IN KENTUCKY AND MIS
SOURI.
Our Old School brethren are not
through with their troubles from the
vile pro-slavery and secession spirit.
Indeed, things now look as if the loyal
majority wbo last spring carried through
the noble action of their Assembly, will
have the-whole battle to tight over again
under the disadvantage of a reaction
from the excitements of actual war, and
that ambition for numerical strength
which, from time immemorial, has im
perilled the spirituality of all Christian
denominations. The attitude of all that
part of the American Church which was
infected with the virus of slavery, either
by personal connection with it, or by
the affiliation of sympathy, toward the
rebellion has been a mortifying one.
They were first to nourish it, and with
them it lives in all its bitterness after it
is dead in the State. In the debates
preceding those Synodical acts directly
to be noticed, there were uttered expres
sions of hatred toward the Government
and resolves of hostility, to which no
politician of the South would now dare
to give public expression.
Our readers may perhaps remember,
that, among the acts of the 0. S. As
sembly at Pittsburg, bearing upon the
subject of rebellion, was the adoption of
a paper in reply to an overture from the
Presbytery of California, asking for the
proper course in relation to the admis
sion of ministers suspected of disloyalty.
The reply directs all the Presbyteries in
connection with the Assembly to exam
ine every minister coming from any
Presbytery or other ecclesiastical body
in the Southern States, and griping for
admission, whether he has been con
cerned in aiding or countenancing rebel
lion, or whether he holds the system of
negro slavery in the South to be a Di
vine institution ; and if any such appli
cant is found in the affirmative on either
of these points, he is not to be received
except on condition of renouncing and for
saking his wrong. This action was se
cured by a strong, though by no means an
unanimous . vote. It was, however, so
apparently decisive, that the majority re
turned from this meeting with a satisfy
ing confidence that their Church had
planted itself upon a basis of loyalty and
fidelity to ,freedom, too firm for faction to
disturb.
But disloyalty only bided its time.
The close of the war once more opened
up the South as a church field, and that
yearning for numerical importance before
mentioned, .suggested the wholesale ab
sorption of the Presbyterian element
there, taking them without repentance
or concession, " unanointed, unannealed."
The first formal declaration of war
against the 4ssembly's loyal acts, not
only those ofhe last meeting, but going
as far back as the celebrated " Spring'
resolutions of 1861," came from the
Presbytery of Louisville, a body whose
proclivities re sufficiently defined by
saying that Such men as Stuart Robin
son and S. R. Wilson are in the ascen
dancy there. That Presbytery, on the
2d of September adopted a " Declara
tion and Testimony" against certain
"heretical and erroneous doctrines and
practices" alleged to have grown up in
the Presbyterian church within the last
few years. In this manifesto the Pres
bytery condemned the action of the As
sembly in its deliverances on the State
of the Country as deciding questions of
State Policy—confessing allegiance to
Human Rulers—on the subject of Sla
very and Emancipation-4orming an al
liance with the State, so that the State
uses the Church as a political instrument
—and persecuting those who dissent
from its action. These and similar of
fences were charged upon the, Presbyte
rian Assembly, and the signers of this
declaration proposed to take no part in
the measures adopted by the Assembly,
ido withhold their contributions from all
the Boards of the Church (except that of
Foreign Missions), and to hold a con
vention to take the necessary steps to
vindicate religion "from the reproach
which has been brought upon it through
the faithlessness and apostasy of its
ministers and professors." This " De
claration and Testimony" was issued in
a pamphlet, and sent broadcast over the
country, and signatures were solicited
from all in the church who sympathized
with its spirit.
The Synod of Kentucky assembled at
Louisville, October 11. For months
this meeting had been anticipated with
much anxiety. In Kentucky the party
of 0. S. Presbyterians, who held the
action of t e Assembly in defiance, was
known to e very strong, and the ques
tion was li ely then to be determined
whether, i that State the Church as a
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1865.
whole, was to be ecclesiastically loyal or
rebellious. At an early stage of the
session, Dr. R. J. Breckinridge sought
to obtain an unequivocal demonstration
of loyalty, by offering a motion that
persons belonging to the majority of the
Presbytery of Louisville who " endorsed
and adopted said Declaration and Tes
timonY,' and all such office-bearers under
the care and jurisdiction of this Synod
as, having executed and published it, or
shall hereafter do so, did and do each
and every one, by said acts, assume
such a state of open rebellion against the
church, and open contempt and defiance
of our Scriptural, authority, and such
contempt of our faith and order and acts,
as to render each and every one of them
unqualified, unfit, and incompetent to sit
and act as a member of this or any other
court of the Presbyterian Church!'
A vote upon this motion was reached
after a stormy debate of two days. It
was ldst, the Western Presbyterian says,
" by a decisive vote," but the eAact num
ber is not stated.
On the ninth day of its session, a
more elaborate expression of the bearing
of the Synod toward the Assembly was.
made. A paper was adopted, substan
tially as folldws :---lst. The acts of the
last Assembly on overtures No. 6 and 7,
and resolution No. 4 on the reports of
the Committee of the Board of Domestic
Missions, are condemned as unwise, un
constitutional, and unscriptural, and it is,
hoped the Assembly will review and cor'.
rect them. 2d. Yet none of the acts of
Assembly during the years 1861 to
1865, inclusive, justify a :withdrawal
from that body ; and the Synod will ad
here with unbroken purpose to the Pres
byterian Church of the United States,
and will oppose every effort to produce
schism. 3d. The Synod disapproves of
the Declaration and Testimony adopted
by the Presbytery of Louisville, and en
joins upon that Presbytery to forbear
what tends to disturbance. 4th. All
under the Synod's care are urged to
study the things which make for peace.
This action was secured by a vote of 52
yeas to 48 nays. As a tranquilizing
measure, little or nothing is to be hoped
from this result. While, on the one
bandit rebukes the defiant Presbytery,
on the other, it applies to the acts of the
Assembly the terms unconstitutional and
unscriptural, and virtually inaugurates
a repeal agitation. The closeness of the
vote also invites persistency of opposi
tion.
• In the mean time, in the 0. S. bodies
of Missouri, the old venom of the rebel-,
lion is even more bitter. The Presby
tery of Missouri, covering a region of
which Jefferson City is the heart, at its
late meeting, proclaimed open defiance.
In relation to the deliverances of the
Assembly on Overtures Nos. six and
seven, (the action stated at the begin
ning of this article,) a series of resolu
tions condemnatory and disdainful was
adopted. The fourth of the series reads
as follows :
" Resolved, That it is the find conviction
of this Presbytery that the action of the Gen
eral Assembly touching Overtures Nos. 6 and
7, is without binding force , and that in re
ceiving members into this body we cannot
and will not comply with the order referred
i
to, in making the views of minister in re
gard to loyalty and freedom a tes of their
being qualified for membership."
The Synod of Missouri embraces the
entire 0. S. 'interest in the Stafe. Pre
viously to its last year's meetings, the
influence of the disloyal clergy of Mis
souri had become so absolutely perilous
to the Union, that the military au
thority felt compelled to require an
oath of fidelity as a qualification for tak
ing a seat in the Synod. Prominent
among those who were thus unseated
was Rev. R. P. Farris, a secessionist of
the deepest dye. At the opening of the
meeting of the Synod this fall, Rev. S. J.
P. Anderson, " than whom," says the
St. Louis Democrat, " there has not
been a more distinctly avowed secession
ist throughout the length and breath of
the State," moved the election of Mr.
Parris as Moderator, " as a protest against
the act of his exclusion from his seat by
the last meeting in 1864." Mr. Parris
was elected, and, on taking the chair,
congratulated' himself and the body on
.
the " success and significancy of his
election," and exhorted them to "go on
and conclude as they had began." The
next step of Mr. Anderson, who through
out the session stood by the engineer's
crank, was to propose a resolution, de
claring all the acts of the last year's
meeting null and void, on account of its
not having been a " free court of Christ:"
This resolution would sweep out import
ant records made by the loyal party then
in the majority. It was carried by the
overwhelming majority of 61 to 19.
The Kentucky " Declaration and Tes
timony" wi { s then put•upon the course,
k h
and, throngi a long and excited debate,
urged on wi a hostility to freedom not
paralleled in my speech before the ec
clesiastical erns at Richmond, or
\ N
Lynchburg. I was, however, nobly
opposed by Mr. icholls, late of Chant
bersburg in this State, and finally whitt-
Genesee Evangelist, No. 1015.
ed down to
his "most lame and impo-
potent eoneln
sion :"
" In view of
and Testimony'
ithe fact that the Declaration
is voluminous and contains
t statements which there is not
o examine with due consider
iermore, in view of the fact
has already borne its testi
ption of the Committee's re
utes of the Assembly, there-
many imports
sufficient time
ationand fur
that 4e Synod
mony in the ad
• ort on the Mi
ore, "Resolved, hat the further consideration
of the said De aration and Testimony be for
the present pa tponed."
Thus, bk. its Kentucky sister, the
Synod of i issouri dispersed after a
bootless eff. tto do something and be
something • the questions in hand, and'
paving the ay for future wrangles. The
following it: from the closing proceed-
bags of the m eting is significant
" The coma ttee on the Narrative repre
sented,:they ha nothing to report in regard
to the state of he cause.
"Rev. Mr. inley moved to discharge the
committe, con dering that as far as this Sy
nod was conce, ed, there was not enough re
ligion to mak:a narrative of.
The moti,, was agreed to."
We obser e in some papers grave ap
prehensions f disruption and ecclesias
tical secessi4. as the result of all this.
We think th purpose is worse. It looks
like the inal uration of a sytem of per
severing g ation and brow-beating of
the Assenib •,. to be followed up until
t may WI d iven from its
„position. If
here were, isthing to fear beyond these
disloyal fac 'ons in the States named,
he cause r apprehension would. be
slight. Bu if there shall come to their
aid an cede copperheadism in
in the Nort playing the same game
which its po ical namesake carried on
in the State, he case will be much more
serious. Ta e, for example, the action
of the great 'ynod of New Jersey, in its
late meeting in Princeton, trying the
technical hits' on the action of the As-.
sembly, alre :I y noticed, in reply to the
Presbytery • California. The Synod
adopted the illowing minute :---
`.` As these , cinditions seem to us to be of
the nature of ',lonstitutional rules,' prescrib-
, .
mg new terms of communion, we are of the
opinion, th' t, n order to be binding upon
either Syno 7 , resbyteries or Sessions, these
injuctions . uld have been transmitted to.
the Presby 'es and have been approved by
4
a majority f them. [Form of Government,
Chapterj Article 6.] And we fear that
the vane ligM'rements in this series of in
junctions t - I.f&i.t!g 'the'ministers and mem
f
hers of oh ohes in the Southern States, un
lesS modi d . , will necessarily aggravate and
perpetuat instead of healing- the. breaches
between and them, '
arising out of our
recent conflict. Your Committee therefore,
suggests for the consi'deration of Synod, the
following action on this subject—to wit:
" That this Synod overture the next Gene
ral Assembly to take such action in regard to
our relations to the Southern Christians as
may, without any sacrifice of truth and
righteousness, tend' to heal existing breaches,
and, if possible, to prevent schism and the
formation of a new sect among American
Presbyterians."
The Synod of Philadelphia, which
met at Lewisburg, on the 19th ultimo,
followed in this Princeton track—indeed
took up this.very minute, and after an
earnest debate, adopted it by a vote of
34: to 18.
The Synod of Baltimore, in session in
Baltimore week before last, said :
" With all due respect for the highest
judicatory of our Church, the Synod would
express its regret that the General Assembly
should have felt it necessary, at the time and
under the circumstances, to give this subject
so large a share of its attention, and more
especially to take action which we fear will
be used still further to alienate rather than
to reunite our so long distracted and divided
Church. The action referred to, however,
was taken during a time of great excitement,
and we cannot but hope that a calm and
kind review of the subject in the light of
peace and returning good-will, will tend to
more conciliatory measures in the next As
sembly."
There is but one meaning
,to all this.
The geographical and numerical magni
tude of the church is the glittering prize.
Southern Presbyterians will not repent,
and, therefore, like the Episcopalians,
must be brought back without repent
ance. And so the Northern Synods
strike hands with Kentucky to upset the
glorious platform of 1804. The loyal
ministry and men of that Church have
work and trial yet before them, but we
have faith in both their grace and their
grit. We hope they have heart for the
emergency and will stand by, and in,
their Church, until this power for dis
turbanle is finally laid.
_ _
THE! AMERICAN MISSIONARIES AND
THE OHOLERA.—The following testi
mony the fearless and self-sacrificing
human ty of our -missionaries at Con
stanti ple in the midst of a plague
which; when at its height, carried off
two th usand victims a day, is from the
well- own British journal, Evangelical
Chri dom :
Th American missionaries have labored
.
unce mgly among the poorer classes, and
have attended personally between four and
five dyed cases of cholera and cholerine,
33:e
besid s administering medicine to many
light cases. They have published a state
ment of their method of treatment, which
is too long to be reproduced here ; but it
appe s that the mortality among those
who they have attended has not exceeded
five p cent., although many of the cases
have en in the most filthy rooms of the
khans .
WAITING FOR THE REFIVAL.
We knew a case in point. It occurred some
thirty years since, in one of the towns of cen
tral New Ydrk. A gentleman a little below
the so-called middle age of life, had neglected
securing a personal interest in religion. It
would not be entirely just to say that, in all
respects, he had lived in the neglect of re
ligion, because from his childhood, he had
given outward attention to the various servi
ces of the church, and practical sympathy to
the external movements of religious enter
prise. He had been educated in Christian
principles, and was firm in the theory of
Christianity. But, according to his own con
fession—a confession which unhappily there
was no good reason for doubting—he had
never yielded his heart to Christ, and had no
personal interest in saving grace. In the
heart-sense of the term, he wab not a Chris
tian ; but he was always expecting to become
one..
So he told a friend who, at a certain time,
spoke to him respecting his prospect for the
world to come. His friend pressed him with
the questions, When? Why not now? What
hindrance, exists to-day, that will not be
stronger to-morrow? What influence which
is now sufficient to overpower your acknow
ledged sense of duty, is not doubly armed by
your procrastination? He was sobered by
these appeals, but he closed a long conversa
tion by saying that people are generally con
verted in revivals, and he thought such would
be the time for him. "Revivals," said he,
"come every now and then; there will be
one here after awhile ; and, when it does
come, you•will see me one of the first to be
come a Christian." He said this, not in
trifling mood, but with such a course seem
ingly marked out and resolved upon.
In about a month, the revival did come ;
and never before in that community, had the
power of converting grace been so distinctly
marked, or its sweep so wide. As a good
time for coming, (we use the phrase of the
man of whom we speak,) it probably more
than met his highest expectation. But how
did it affect him?
How it Might have affected him, had he
been within its influence, we need not inquire.
It is sufficient to say that the revival for which
he had waited was there, but he was not. It
came even sooner than he had expected, but
not soon enough for him. The cicids of the
valley were over him ; throngs passed by his
grave to the inquiry meeting, but there was
no revival for him.
Bnt even without this fearful hazaid of the
continuance of life until the .next zevival,
why should a sinner wait for it? Individu
ality of exercises is an indispensable feature
in all true conversions. In seasons of revival,
people may come in throngs to Christ, but
there is no mass, regeneration—no merging of
the sinner's personal identity in the lamp
around him. The work lies between him
and the Holy Spirit alone. From his own
heart all the faith and consecration and every
other exercise connected with . true conver
sion is required, all the same that it would be
if he alone were seeking salvation. The
work for him and in him is no more nor less
in one - case, than it would be in the other.
If he to-day were one of a hundred coming
out for Christ, his state of feeling would have
to be just as intensely personal, as though
there was not one sympathizing soul around.
Why wait for the revival? Is it because
it will then be easier to Come? What is to
make it easier? Less of singularity of ap
pearance, of resistance of social influences,
and of the reproach of Christ? Is a revival
looked for by the sinner as the "good time
for coming," because t e taxing of his moral
courage will then be I ss severe ; because it
will be so much easier to stand forth for
Christ, when sustained by the example and
countenance of others?
In most cases this is probably the reason
why the, sinner, who really has solemn
thoughts of his need of religion, fixes his
mind upon some coming revival as to the
best time for carrying out his purpose some
time to become a Christian. He may not
exactly mean to give such a shape to his feel
ings; but those feelings, well analyzed, amount
to a dread of the cross, and a hope to escape
a part of it while coming into the kingdom.
The willingneSs to bear and suffer for
Jesus is wanting. Men, and often the most
unworthy class of men, are more feared than
God.
We believe it'is better for us all, that our
religious exercises should be studied out, and
translated into the plainest kind of English.
Thus we shall quicker come to know our
selves, and perhaps sooner be humbled for
wrongs which must be righted within us be
fore even a revival can bear any blessing to
ourselves. If the sinner's waiting for a revi
val is really the result of moral cowardice,
let him be convicted of it as such, and seek
for grace to throw it off. It is not only a be
littling of his manliness, but is one of the
most hostile attitudes which he can assume
toward the cross of Christ. The common
phrase in which this state of feeling is spo
ken, is the most expressive which our lan
guage affords—expressive alike of its charac
ter and guilt. Ashamed of Jesus ! He can
not come to Christ alone; he must wait until
a revival gives him the company and counte
nance of others, because he is ashamed Of the
cross of Christ.
Thus, without bringing into the account
the peril which, with the man, mentioned
above, proved the fatal one, there are views
enough to characterize the wickedness of the
sinner, who suspends the most solemn duties
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of the moment, and his highest immortal in
terest, upon some future revival. If more is
wanted, let it be this: It is reasonable to sup
pose, that in the case of many sinners in the
past; it isreasonable to fear that with many
sinners in this day, who are soothing them
selves in present neglect of religion, because
they have staked their hopes for eternity
upon some coming general effusion of convert
ing grace, God may leave them to live out the
revival unblest, and farther from hope and
heaven than before its coming. Awful, but
exemplary was the sentence upon the unbe
lieving lord, in view of the plenty which an
other day was to bring to starving Samaria—
" Thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but
shalt not eat thereof."
POSITION OF MR. H. W. BEECHER.
Onr readers will perhaps remember the ex
traordinary promptness of the pastor of Ply
mouth Church, Brooklyn, in proposing, as
soon as the war was fairly over, the exercise
of executive clemency toward the chief of
the rebellion. It might have been regarded
as the mere overflowing of good humor and
a generally comfortable -state towards man
kind at large, in the first full consciousness of
national deliverance. A recent discourse of
Mr. Beecher shows that it was the expres
sion of a sentiment which has become ha
bitual with him, and which he feels it his
duty to incorporate in his public teaching.
In a word, Mr. Beecher, now that the enemy
is conquered, may be said to have gone over
to the enemy. Without waiting for any indi
cation of repentance, without caring to pro
vide for the vindication of justice, shutting
his eyes to the serious, unsettled question of
responsibility for tke awful cruelties perpe
tTated• upon our prisoners, abandoning all
attempts at• securing guarantees for future
loyalty on the part of late rebels, as well as
for the present safety and future elevation of
the freedmen, Mr. Beecher plants himself
upon the policy of conciliation, pure and
simple, as ample for all the great necessities
of the time. Perhaps some of our readers
will be satisfied with his declaration that Mr.
Johnson's every act has been "apt, fitting
and most wise ;" we do not believe there is
one but that repudiates with indignation, as
a base and scandalousi;specimen of that
very northern " doughtic,edness," which Mr.
Beecher himself was wont to denounce, the
:portion of his discourse, where he speaks of
Gen. Lee as a conscientious gentleman, and
expresses himself highly gratified at his ele
vation to the presidency ofd the college, from
which a loyal presidentiwas driven, at the
commencement of the rebellion. Gen. Lee's
life is forfeited before any military tribunal;
he was a ringleader of the rebellion, which he
himself declared to be unnecessary and un
wise ; and no small share of the guilt of the
cruel treatment of our prisoners must rest
upon his head. Mr. Beecher grossly insults
the moral sentiment of the country by playing
the part of attorney to Gen. Lee.
One of the most extraordinary sentences in
the whole sermon, as coming from his lips, is
the following "The laws and intents of the
Government and ourselves will prove of no
avail if they are hostile and unpleasant to the
WRITE people of the South." •
We quote the comments of the Indepen
dent on this 'sentence, premising that Mr.
Beecher no longer controls its editorial de
partment, which is unswerving in its adher
ence to a firm and just policy to white and to
black. It says:
How little we expected such a statement
from Mr. Beecher I Certainly the only things
which, as yet, have been of any " avail " with
the South have been things "hostile and un-
Rleasant "—for instance : muskets, proclama—
tions of emancipation, confiscation acts, en
forced oaths of allegiance, and the like. So
much for the past. Now, as for the future,
our Christian duty compels us to alter Mr..
Beecher's statement into the following.:
"The laws and intents of the Government
will prove of no avail if they are hostile and
unpleasant to the BLACK people of the
South." This is our way of looking at the
case. Are we not right? Solemnly before
God we hold up these two statements, and
confidently appeal to know which is :the
more in consonance with His divine will!
It is to this tribunal, and to this alone, that
we care to carry the controversy.
W hat a strange position of things ! The
outbreak of the rebellion witnessed some sud
den and extraordinary revolutions of senti
ment. Its close is attended with others at
least As remarkable. Here is Henry Ward
Beecher lauded by the worst rebel sheet in
the North, the New York Daily News, while
the Independent is compelled to clear itself of
suspicion of sharing in his sentiments, by
spending nearly a column in refuting them !
Did Mr. Beecher's visit to England turn
his head? Was there a sort of action and re
action in his apparent triumph over British
prejudice, so that, all unconsciously, he glided
down towards their level, as he seemed to
bring them partly up to his ?
INSTALL4TION IN PHILADELPHIA.-
The installation of Rev, J. Ford Sutton,
as pastor of the Western Presbyterian
Church, corner of Seventeenth and Fil
bert Streets, in this city, is appointed.
for next Sabbath afternoon, at half-past
three o'clock. Rev. Mr. Calkins is to
preach the sermon, and Rev. Drs.
Adams and March to deliver the
charges.
NATIONAL THANKSGIVING. - Presi
dent Johnson has, appointed the •first
Thursday in December as a day of Na
tional Thanksgiving.
$3 00
. 5 50
,750
.12 00
.18 00