, VIE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN AND p 7) NESEE EVANGELIST. resbnie w n + eligiona and Family Newspaper, IN THE INTEREST OF TEM e . \. Or i n Constitutional Presbyterian Muth. e 41/ cp PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY, IT THE PRESBYTERIAN HOUSE, 1334 Chestnut Street, (2d story,) Philadelphia. . . John W. Nears, Editor and Publisher. • . B. B. Hotehltin, Editor of News and Family Departments. v. C. F. Bush, Corresponding Editor, Rochester, N. Y. mtritan ITEofryftriait. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1865 IBERAL PREMIUMS. illcox & Gibbs' Sating Machine for Twenty Subscribers. B y s pecial arrangement, we are able to o ff er , yarn the Ist of January, 1866, the WILIPBOX et GIBBS good, Noiseless, Easily-managed, Dura ble, First-class Sewing Machine, sold at fifty-five dollars, for twenty subscribers and sixty dollars, - the machinery being iden tical with that of their HIGHEST PRICED MACHINES, the difference consisting in ornament and cabinet work alone. Thie machine has rapidly taken a foremost place among the well-known machines of the day. Its mechanical superiority is attested by eminent Engineers, Machinists, and Sci entific men of our city, among which are such names as M. W. Baldwin, M. Baird, the Messrs. Sellers—John, William, and Coleman —Colonel J. Ross Snowden, J. C. Booth, (h. S. Mint) ; its other advantages by such eminent physicians as Drs. Pancoast, Meigs, Ellerslie Wallace, Goddard, Kirk bride, Cresson, Gilbert, Norris, Pepper, Wilson, also by Hon. Wm. D. Kelly, Mor ton McMichael, William M. Meredith, Eli K. Price, Richard Vaux, A. S. Allibone, Abram R. Perkins, Thomas ,H. Wood, 0. 11. Willard, H. B. Ashmead, Rev. Dr. Krauth, Rev. James Crowell, Messrs. Orne, Franklin Peale, William D. Lewis, and others. Higher priced machines can be had by sending the additional amount in cash. Price lists will be sent to any address. OUR COMMITTEE'S PUBLICATIONS AS PREMIIIMS Desirous of enlarging the circulation both of the AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN and of the publications of our Committee, we make the following extremely liberal offers, to hold good until the first of Jan uary, 1866: SOCIAL HYMN AND TUNE BOOR. For EVERY new subscriber paying full rates in advance, we will give two copies of the Hymn and Tune Book, bound in cloth, postage ten cents each. For a new club of ten paying $25 in advance, we will send fifteen copies, freight extra. We make this offer to any extent. ' SABBATH-SCHOOL BOOKS For EIGHTEEN new subscribers, paying as above, or for twenty-seven in club, we will send the entire list of the eighty-one Sabbath- School Library Books issued by the Commit tee, including the two just going through the press—Five Years in China, and Bessie Lane's Mistake. Freight extra. ATISCEI.L.A.NAMOTJS For TWELVE new subscribers paying as above, or for a club of eighteen, we will give the following valuable miscellaneous works of the Committee :—THE NEW DIGEST, GIL LETT'S HISTORY OF PRESBYTERIANISM, two vOls. ; LIFE OF JOHN BRAINERD, ZULU LAND, SOCIAL HYMN AND TUNE BOOK, Morocco ; COLEMAN'S ATLAS, MINUTES OF THE GENE RAL ASSEMBLY, Sunset Thoughts, Morning and Night Watches, The Still Hour, The Closer - %\ralk, The Closet Companion, Strong Tower, God's Way of Peace, Why Delay? Manly Piety, Life at Three Score, Ten Ame rican Presbyterian Almanacs, Confession of Faith, Barnes on Justification, Presbyterian Manual, Apostolic Church, Hall's Law of Baptism, Hall's and Boyd's Catechisms. Freight extra. FOR ONE NEW SUBSCRIBER. Zulu Land, or Coleman's Test Book and Atlas. Postage ten cents. FOR TWO NEW SUBSCRIBERS Life of John Brainerd and Zulu Land Postage 56 cents extra. TOR THREE NEW SIIESCRIBERS. The Digest and Life of Btainerd, (pos tage 60 cents extra,) or Gillett's History of Presbyterianism, two vols., and Social Hymn and Tune Book, morocco. Postage 60 cents extra. FOR FOUR NEW SICT3sORIBERS. Gillett's History, Life of Brainerd, „Hymn and Time Book, morocco. Postage $1 extra. Or The Digest and Gillett'S History. Post age $1 extra. FOR FIVE NEW SIIBSCRIBERS. Zulu Land, History of Presbyterianism, Life of Brainerd, Hymn and Tune Book, morocco. Postage $1 12 extra. Any book of equal value on the Commit , tee's list may be substituted in the above offers. A list will be sent if desired. EMS 9 AND HIS TINES 'We also renew our offer to send, postage - free, to any address for POUR new subscribers, the above standard work. aar All orders must be accompanied with [ the cash. if possible buy a draft, or a post age order, as in case of loss of money we cannot send the premiums, though we shall adhere to our rule of sending the papers. Only bona fide new subscribers will be accept ed in making up lifts foi premiums. No money is made in such a transaction; the simple object is to give wider circulatiofi to the paper and the Committee's Publications. Hence pastors and others may the more freely engage iii the work New Series, Vol. 11, No. 49. THE NATIONAL THANKSGIVING. It is well that the first National celebra tion of our specific deliverance from rebel lion, and the first recommended by National authority, should be religious. It is rdeet that our joy should take the form of thank fulness to God. The position of the crea ture demands it. The plain facts in the history of our deliverance demand it. The magnitude of the interests involved, and the importance of the principles at stake, demand it. Our future, as a nation, is the more hopeful from this general recognition of the hand of God in our first National celebration of Victory over Secession, and of the Downfall of the Slave Power. And our grounds of joy are too great for utterance through any narrower chan nels than adoration, prayer, and sacred ob servances. We must go to God's temples, we must call upon God's ordained minis ters, we must lay aside our wonted employ ments, and make a new, a National Sabbath of one of our secular days, and through anthem and sacred song we must pour out the fullness of a heart, the depth and ardor of which only the Omniscient God can know. What prayer shall be so compre hensive, so full, so profound; what Te Deum, so magnificent and heaven-aspiring; what sermon so grandly eloquent; what ser vice so impressive, so devoutly humble, as to adequately express and satisfy the meas ure of the National gratitude to-day ? A rescued nation bows before its divine Deli verer. From a tempest that shook its foun dations, from a deluge that threatened to sweep its name and institutions from the earth, it has some forth stronger, purer, more influential for good than ever. Great wrongs, which impiously strove to be greater still, have been abolished forever. Ques tions which restless men were using as levers to loosen the foundations of our Union, are settled once for all, upon the side of order and peace. A National Life, a Unity that is Sovereign, and a Freedom that is Universal, are recognized axioms of our Republicanism which only a treason able purpose can question or disturb. There seems no reason to doubt that, after such -a wonderful delivorance_ and...such-an incorporation into the very essence of our National life of these wholesome and invig orating principles, God designs for this na tion a long, a prosperous, and a glorious career, and that posterity for generations to come will have blessed reason to remem ber and to commemorate this first thanks giving for National deliverance. Reflect for a moment upon the conse quences if, in the ordering of Providence, the result of the conflict had been different ; if Gettysburg had been a rebel triumph, and Grant had been dislodged from Ticks. burg; if Chicamauga had been so disastr ous as to necessitate the abandonment of East Tennessee ; if Thomas and Sherman and Sheridan and Meade, had each been unsuccessful in the part assigned them by ? ;rthe Lt.-Ge al in the last grand campaign , I , of the we: or, perhaps worse, if a Presi dent an 4tia eunsellors less honorable, less pure,Je triotic, had been at the head of our aff' ,as the past history of the coun .., try showit might easily enough have been the case, and if yielding to the clamors of ... 1 the half-hearted, the cowardly and the cov etous, Who filled the air last. winter With 1 forebodings and demands for peace at any price, they had dropped the conflict and acceded to the demands of the arch-traitor to be " let alone,"—can we imagine what blackness of darkness would have hung over our land, on this day of such wide-spread and triumphant joy? A new, a formidable and an alien power, owing its existence to victory over our selves, would have stood complete in our natural borders, imperious, domineering, menacing our peace. The principle of political unity would have lost its charm, and the National life would have ebbed away as from an incurable wound. The bond of civil order would have been broken, and State after State would have crumbled away from the incoherent mass. A Slave holding Confederacy would have stood upon soil consecrated to freedom; and thicker darkness and deeper despair would have settled upon the hearts of its crushed and degraded victims; bitterer would have been the cry of anguish, fiercer the crack of the plantation-whip, and heavier the clank of the chain over half a continent, where victory , over the soldiers of liberty had established the Slave Power more firmly than ever. And stealing upward the dark tide of slavery would have swelled, engulphing the poor white man in its pro gress, and spreading towards the Lakes and heed -waters of the Mississippi on the Northwest, cherishing its dream, not so wild now, of calling the roll of its slaves under the shadow of Bunker Hill Monument; sure of the fastest alliance with New York • * I • 11 ECEMBER 7, 1865. City, and grasping persistently after Mary land and West Virginia, Tennessee, Ken tucky and Missouri. How the liberty hating classes and tyrant monarchs of the Old world, how the arch-oppressor of the human intellect and conscience, the Pope, would have congratulated; how public opinion and literature and religious teach ing and Biblical interpretation would have been demoralized, and how greed-loving commerce would have hastened to do hom age . to the shameless harlot of slavery, and would have driven its accursed traffic in the products of its victims ! And a last grand result of this rehabilitation of slavery by the diplomacy, the commerce, the litera ture, and the religion of the world, would necessarily have been the restoration of the slave trade. Such a throne of iniquity, framing mis chief by a law, could have had no fellow ship with Providence, and no assurance of stability. What woes, what dissensions, what further secessions, what slave insur rections, what border fights over runaway slaves, what wars with the North, what foreign intervention, would at last have covered the whole territory with discord, devastation and blood, and made it a secoind Palatinate after a thirty years' war, we will not undertake to say. The possibilities are within reach of every one's imagina tion ; the facts,—the blessed facts are in sight and enjoyment of all. Day breaks upon the hills I Slowly behind the midnight murk and trail Of the long storm, light brightens pure and pale And the horizon fills. 0 angel, sweet and grand ! White-footed from beside the throne of God, Thou movest with the palm and olive rod, And day bespreads the land ! His Day, we waited for! With faces to the East we prayed and fought; And a faint music of the dawning caught, All through the sound of war. [For the American Presbyterian.] ROMANCES* FOR THE SABBATH- I have been. somewhat annoyed, my dear Messrs. Editors, by the discovery of a misplaced confidence in the selection of books for th-o-library- of—the-Psitsl which I superintend. I had supposed that the imprint of the Massachusetts Sabbath school Society was sufficient evidence of a careful examination anda guaranty of suita bleness, and therefore took their books unex amined. But to my surprise I find that (along with many excellent books,) very trashy little novels pass muster there. What, now, is my horror, when I find the venerable, fiction-eschewing American Tract Society, (New York,) which assuredly I never suspected of such' an escapade, pro viding for . my Sabbath-school a literature delightfully' romantic. One of my young lady teachers asked me last Sabbath to nail one of that eminently orthodox Society's books, which stands as No. 99, of our libra ry. I have just completed it, and must admit that the Tract Society can no longer be accused of old fogyish strictness. The heroine of the story, from the height of wealth is reduced to poverty, her father is broken by paralysis ; a paragon of a young M.D. attends him, and loses his heart,with her; heroine does ditto with M. D. ; neither lover is aware of his or her success; papa dies, and daughter goes as a governess to the South ; she is rescued by an old school-mate, who has changed from poor to rich, and turns up in a remarka ble manner; M.D. Is cousin to old school mate, and meets heroine again at cousin's delightful home. Here the denouement "A moment of agitated silence followed the departure of Mrs. De Forest, and then Evelyn felt, for it seeemed impossible to raise her eyes, that a manly form was at her side, and a low voice murmured in her ear, " Evelyn, I can endure this suspense no longer. You are dear to me as life, and I cannot for another day conceal the emo tions which fill my heart in your presence. From the first moment I saw you in the chamber of sickness and sorrow, I have felt an interest in you no other ever awakened in my heart, and after leaving N found that I loved you with an intensity unknown to myself, until separation taught me how necessary you were to my happi ness. Even when I believed you lost to me for ever, your image was still present, dear er than any of the realities around me. I return to find you lovelier and more beloved than ever; and now must I find that I have hoped in vain ? Tell me, dear Evelyn, by a word or look, if one sentiment of your heart pleads in my behalf. " Evelyn could not answer, for the emo tion with which she listened to these words took from her the power of speech; but she suffered him to retain the hand he had taken, and tears fell like raindrops as he went over the past, and explained the reasons for his apparent forgetfulness and neglect." Now, Messrs. Editors, what next ! SUPERINTENDENT. SCHOOL. THE CHRISTIAN CONSCIENCE. Other things. being right, the friends of God are sure for conserving, defending, and advancing the whole cause of public morality, so long as their consciences re main reliable. For the holy Sabbath, the cause of temperance, and virtuous enter prises generally, there may be, under the most faithful Christian devotion, times of conflict and trial; but the hour of peril comes only with the dying out of the life of the conscience of those who were sup posed to be true, because they were sup posed to be men of God. The Sabbath may be outraged by its enemies; it cannot be wounded, .except in the house of its friends. When spOaking, last week, of the attempt to carry on a respectable Sunday paper in this city—in other words, to give character and caste to Sabbath-breaking ---we expressed our belief that if the friends of Christian morality, in this city, could command the nerve to do their plain duty in the case, this new array against the Divine institu tion would be powerless of harm. Without any public demonstration, they could soon extinguish it, or consign it to a scandalous existence. Under the enabling grace of God, the power of the Church, in such an emergency, lies in the character and living activity of the consciences of Christians. That power is reliable, when Christians study the laws of Gospel morality with consciences tender of wrong, and earnest to practice all that is right,; : with consciences quick at self-reproach.-when personal popu larity, pecuniary gain, or a dread of the sneer of men, are suffered to combat plain holy duties, and also unperverted by the often atrociously applied sentiment, that " the voice of the people is the voice of God." In the matter of the supremacy of all moral institutions, God unquestionably in tends that his Church shall be the con trolling force in the world. The times of the triumph of sin, are only when the Church strikes hands with it. That is done when, for the sake of convenience, for the lack of moral intrepidity, or for the want of seicsacrifieing and self-abnegating spirit, tatortrii7consciences iu ea lousness toward crying immoralities, or give any countenance to wrong-doers, while openly proclaiming their purpose to force their wrong upon the world. We might mention ways in which such countenance is afforded, but they are obvious to any thoughtful mind. We, therefore, repeat that the friends of God, enabled by his grace, are a sufficient wall of defence against public immoralities ; are able to keep them without the pale, of respecta bility, and send them down, in their own proper name and character, into the society of vice, so. long as the Christian. conscience remains pure, tender, and uncompromising. The real woe overtakes the cause of virtue when, in "theirestimate of men and mea sures, and in their dealings with the world, socially, in business, politically, or ecclesias tically, good men have worried their con sciences into complacency toward wicked ness. It was in this way that, some forty years ago, the opportunity was lost to give to, the mail service its Sabbath rest. The , effort began auspiciously. Not only Christian people, but friends of common morality, to a considerable extent, signed petitions for the discontinuance of mail-carrying on the Sabbath, for it was felt to be a needless wrong, and most disastrous in its effects upon the community. For a time the cause of the Sabbath gave strong signs of success. Bul vice took the alarm, and bad men caught up the oldest, and, we grieve to say, the ottenest successful tactics of sin, the undermining of the consciences of the good, by appealing to their worldly 'interests. Business would be interrupted, losses would accrue, and special emergencies would re quire expensive special journeys. Then came that stuffed scarecrow, " Church. and State." Men were threatened with politi cal death; the hosts of virtue wavered; it was declared on the floor of Congress that, with the exception of a handful of fanatics, even the Church surrendered the proposed reform, and so the celebrated Sunday mail report of Richard M. Johnson, a name now almost lost to memory, buried the hopes of the friends of the measure so deep, that no• attempt at a resurrection has since been made. That was the darkest day for the Sabbath which ever cast its gloom on this land; and the truest history of the agita tion will show that the reform was evi dently lost through the failure of a consci entious and self-sacrificing co-operation of the good. The minds of some of our readers have.. already called up a like dark page in the history of our great railroad, the Pennsyl vania Central. In the early stage of its Genesee Evangelist, No. 1020. operations, the question of a Sabbath rest for its employees, and t Sabbath quiet for the country along its line, was deeply agi tated. There was more hope that the mea sure might be carried, from the known fact that many of the heavy stockholders and influential directors were members of Chris tian churches. Indeed, it was supposed, and, for aught we know, truthfully supposed, that the controlling power in the corpora tion was in the hands of professing Chris tians. The question was finally submitted to a vote of the corporators—not a contempti ble mock election, like that which, a few months ago, pretended to express the sense of the people respecting the use of our city cars by colored people—but to a full and fair vote, under carefully prepared regula tions, stockholders being, of course, entit led to a vote on each share of the stock held by them. In that voting, there were Christian stockholders of large amount, who •deliberately gave all their votes for Sabbath work. So we were informed .at the time, and, we suppose, only too truly. Indeed, we have been told, though we have not the means of vouching for it, that the number of votes given by professing Chris tians against the proposed Sabbath ,rest, was greater than the majority of votes by which that rest was denied, and the Holy Sabbath utterly lost to almost every one of the thousands of employees of the road. This last fact, if it be indeed a fact, shows that the Sabbath was lost to the road, not alone through the weakness of nerve, on -the part of professing Christians, to wall themselves against the mammoth desecra tion, but by their positive and deliberate purpose to consummate it. Be this as it may, we suppose it is not doubted that the corporation would have been a Sabbath keeping one, had the Christian sentiment in it respecting the Sabbath been co-exten sive with the power of the Christian mem bers to shape it. It is only in view of such passages of history, that we look with alarm upon each fresh effort to destroy the moral sentiment of the community. We have no fear, so long as the conscience of the friends of God Aw_coricerninT any given case or occasion, we have no hope when the conscience of such people is lost. So far as agencies below that of heaven are concerned, our fears and our hopes both lie in the Church. These views have a wider application than their reference to any individual en terprise against Christian morality. We shall probably more particularly define their bearings• in some future number. THE PAPER AMONG ITS FRIENDS. Our various offers of premiums are al ready attracting attention. The , Life of John Brainerd, Zulu Land, Gillett's His tory, Social Hymn and Tune Book, etc., have been sent as far west as 'Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Missouri. A pastor in a village in Central New York thus acknowledges the receipt of a number of premiums " The large and beautiful package of books which you sent me came safely to hand yesterday. They are a munificent reward for a very small effort in a good cause. Gratefully yours." Pastors and others should remember that in working for these premiums, they are doing double service to the denomination : circulating one of its periodicals, and in creasing the sale of its authorized and ex cellent literature; while they are at the same time enriching their own libraries. This is the month in which to engage most successfully in the work of canvassing for new subscribers. Should a congrega tion desire to present the pastor's wife with A FIRST-CLASS SEWING MACHINE, what easier way than for twenty persons to subscribe each three dollars and send us the money, when each will receive a copy of the paper for one year and the machine beside. The machine is so simple, that a child of seven years can learn to use it. MORE LETTERS A Home Missionary in Michigan writes "Some kind friends send me three co pies of the AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN, which I read and circulate. Many families read each number. They go from house to house—just the paper needed here. Through you I wish to express many thanks to those friends for their favors." The President of a college writes : "The paper reads well, and is doing a, noble work." A minister of Central New York says "I like the AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN as well as ever. I wish all of our papers, particularly religious papers, were as tho rough and firmA and bold on the questions of civil and ecclesiastical reconstruction." APPRECIATED IN CHINA A missionary brother in China, whose dmirable letters contribute not a little to " e r JR Ai Per annum, in advance: 11 By Malt SS: By Carr ielr, 83 Sti . - -- Fifty cent, additional, after three m onths. Clnlbs.—Terr or more papers. sent to one address. payable strictly in advance and in one remittance By Mail, $ 250 per airaum. By Carriers.....l..3 per annum : Ministers fend Ministers' Widows. $9 i n ad_ vance. Home Missionaries, $l 5O inadvance. Fifty cents additional after three months. Remittances by mail are at our risk. Postage.—Five cents quarterly, in advance, paid by subecribers a the office of delivery. Advertisements.-123! cents per line for the first. andlo cents for the second insertion. One square (one month) two months 550 " • three " 7 5 six " 12 00 one y 18 The following discount ear on long advertisements, in- 00 serted for three months and upwards. is allowed:— Over 20 lines, 10 per cent off; over 50 lines. 20 per cent.; over 100 lines, 333 per cent. off. the interest and value of the paper, after mentioning an occasional failure of the paper to reach him, says : "I feel very sorry to miss from my table any of your earnest editorials and valuable news." [For the American Presbyterian.] RELIGION IN THE NATIONAL CAPITAL. BRO. MEARS :-It has been my privilege to spend two weeks recently in the National Capital, in connection with the Fourth Presbyterian Church. Some account of what I saw of the doings of God among that good people, may be of general inter est. All your readers who know anything of Washington, know the honored pastor of the Fourth Church, Rev. J. C. Smith, D.D., who, amid alkhe endless changes pi society and churches in that changeful city, has stood fast for a period of more than twenty-six years. Under his faithful and fervent ministry, has grown up a church that stands solid and strong as the centre and hope; of our denomination there. Oth ers have commenced and flourished for a while, and . : waned, but the Fourth Church has had a constant, steady, and healthy growth from its very foundation. When amidst the political storms that have so frequently swept over the Capital, other ministers and churches have bent and bro ken, this church, with its revered pastor, has stood unshaken and steadfast. When the storm of war burst upon the land, everybody knows how promptly and with exalted patriotism John C. Smith took his position. And how nobly has he done his work through the dreary and awful years 'of desolation. Honored and trusted by those in authority as no other minister of God probably has been, his in fluence and that of his church have been unbounded. Their edifice was promptly offered and accepted as a hospital, and for eight months our wounded heroes were nursed and cared for there, and Brother Smith constantly broke unto them the bread of life. For four years and three months he was in the service of the Government as chap lain, and at the same time performing all hin - thrtiesairrastor-o-vcrilie l ymple. -13-ach has been the record of the Fourth Church and its pastor, and God has remembered them and set his seal of approbation upon their confse. At their last communion season, on the first of this month, eight per sons were added on profession of faith, and on the following week, prayer-meetings were held every evening with hopeful re sults. At the invitation of Brother Smith, 1 was with him on the 13th instant, and preached every evening for two weeks. The people came in, steadily increasing in num bers, until the room would scarcely hold them. God poured out his Holy Spirit in gracious measure. Saints were strengthened and sang for joy, and sinners came in large numbers, flocking to the standard of the Cross. The truth, simple "truth as it is in Jesus," was mighty. The church was humbled and prayerful, and at times we could only "sit still and see the salvation of God." Never, scarcely, have•l witnessed such solemn, affecting, and yet delightful scenes as I there beheld. The young, the middle-aged, and the old, were brought to Jesus. Out of about sixty inquirers at one time, over fifty of them were men—many of them young men connected with the va rious departments of the Government. In some cases, whole families were brought in and rejoiced 'together in the fold of the Divine love. Many who had been in the army through the entire struggle, enlisted. as soldiers of the Cross, to fight its blood less and glorious victories. I cannot tell you how many have been hopefully brought to Christ. The gracious work still goes forward, and converts are being multiplied. To God be all the glory. It is his sovereign mercy shown to sinners. Never has this seemed clearer to my own mind. The dear people of God there prayed, and God in answer has visited them. They prayed most fer vently for the flock over which I am placed, and I returned only to find that God has heard their prayers on our 'behalf. Let Christians everywhere pray that this glo rious work may be continued, until from the Capital of the nation it shall exttud throughout all the land. Never have we been in greater need of such a revival than now, at the end of these four years' bap tism in blood and tears. G. F. W. WILMINGTON, DEL., Nov. 29, 1865. SUNDAY PAPERS IN NEW Yons. CITY. -It is announced that the ministers of the Presbyterian' churches of New York are about to take concerted action , against the Sunday newspapers of that city.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers