;ut AHE genes 11 Constitutions Presbyterian Church. PUBLISHED EVERT THURSDAY, LT THE PRESBYTERIAN HOUSE, 1334 Chestnut Street, (2d story,) Philadelphia. f ev. John W. Hears, Editor and Publisher. RICAN PRESBYTERIAN /«j§| . *- § A t s~: SitMipci! fktßSwinftEniit* IK 'ML TCKBKBT OP THH J 9 J Xt gmmau Jjmfnjltrait. THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1866, THE NEW YEAR. We have entered upon another of those leriods which mark the course of human ife and history. 1865 is past and gone orever; 1866 is the designation of the pening, unspent, unknown period just be ore us. What has been accomplished or uffered, gained or lost, in the former, we now. Some of the boldest and best marked eatures of human history belong to that ear. The crushing of the greatest of ebellions, the extinction of American Slavery, which had endured two centuries, nd the re-establishment of the American tepublic, in righteousness and in unparal eled power, will make the past year famous a all time. How more than famous, how irecious, will be its memories to all the riends of liberty and humanity.the world iver! And how four long-oppressed mil ions, with their children, in all coming generations, with a thrill of indescribable lelight and gratitude, will pronounce the lumbers of the year that brought them leliverance at last! 1865 and Emancipa ion—that is an association that cannot be iroken while time endures. We know the immediate past; it is full >f great, encouraging, inspiring results. Che plots of a generation of traitors and ippressors have been utterly frustrated; the |iopes and aims of a generation of the ft riends of liberty have been gloriously ac ;omplished. Treason, falsehood, rebellion, larbarous cruelty and apostate Christianity lave met truth, honor, patriotism and a genuine faith, in a long and often doubtful ionflict; but, thank God! his seal of com ilete approval was given to" the right, and t has prevailed. With suoh a renewal of hope and cour age" and thankfulness as is rarely, in the I !ges, vouchsafed to the friends of humanity ,nd of truth, we can enter upon the new ;ear with its new questions, new duties, .nd new conflicts. What evil may we not lope to see-done away, since the' giant evil )f the age, American Slavery, with all it's girops in Church and State, in the base hassions and interests of men, has been iverthrown ? What good work, what ■ irduous enterprise may not be achieved, when so gigantic and formidable a rebellion • ias been so completely crushed? Why Respond in the darkest hours of a good . jause, after such providential interpolations is we saw in Hampton Roads and SF Get s.ysburg? Why doubt of resources and neans for carrying out any great and need '. ul undertaking, after the seventy millions ,• jf voluntary contributions, and the loan of nearly three thousand millions, so cheerfully made by the people foNffie expenses of the war ? Why distrust the heart of the Ame .’ican people, whom all the arts of unprinci pled politicians, all the heavy burdens of war, all appeals to love of ease, of personal safety, of gain, or ofsld party feelings, i could not swerve from their heroic purpose to save this Republic, and to reconsecrate Vits soil to freedom, at every personal cost i and hazard ? Why speak any more re gretfully of past ages of ‘chivalry, of the self-sacrifice and devotion and martyrdoms of generations gone, amid the splendid proofs of a present-capacity of endurance, and of a spirit of unreserved consecration to coun try a®l to humanity never surpassed ? Why question the safe and wholesome tendencies of republican institutions under the guidance of Christianity, which, out of ; the ranks of the people, have raised up such V a ruler as Abraham Lincoln, such military , leaders as Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, | Thomas, Meade, and Farragut, and which lihavc maintained themselves unharmed; nay, ■f rather have gained new strength and lustre, ? in the most tremendous conflicts of modern .times? , (|| If God’s ways are mysterious to us, the mystery is one of joy and of hope. The Huguenots of France, with as righteous a cause, and with leaders as sincere and as able as ours, were entrapped, defeated, massaoied, apd driven into exile, and France to-day has no refuge from the godless revo lutionary mob, but in a godless despotism. Cromwell established the English Common wealth with soldiers of world-renowned piety and valor. His' death was the signal for the return of the Stuarts, and the disappear ance ot republican liberty from- England. Gustavus Adolphus was slain at the battle | ol Lutzen when but thirty-eight years old, and after, scarcely more than two years con 1, test for Protestantism. We are told that a cry of anguish.went up from all Reformed Europe at the tilings; and well there might, for after more than two hundred and thirty years, the toleration of the doc trines of the Reformation for which he 2STew Series, Yol. XIX, ISTo. 1. fought, is not lully gained, though rivers of martyr blood have flowed. How bloody and abortive were the blind upheavings of the European peoples in 1848 ! How impo tent and fatal the last Polish insurrection ! But here, tlie new year shines on a rescued, strengthened, glorified Republic, On righte ous laws vindicated, on a nationality of free men perpetuated, on tour millions of slaves emancipated at a blow. Here, a broad basis for happiness, for prosperity, for efforts to save and to-bless mankind, is laid anew, in prayers and vows, in tears snd blood. Here, stretches out a new and wide field for educational and evangelizing efforts, for the introduction of right ideas of liberty and of an unmutilated Gospel among white and black. Walls of exclusion as formida ble, laws as severe, and persecutions as cruel, as those of China and Japan, which once shut us out from almost twelve mil lions of people, are utterly broken down. Grave duties' are before us: New ene mies and new forms of opposition to the truth are to be encountered. New fields are to be won for Christ. New trials of fidelity are to be met. But we are not the same men that we were, and it is not the same world that it was, at the beginning of other years. With a fresh baptism of joy and thankfulness; with a new sense of the nearness and providential oversight of God in the world; with new patience in the de ferred triumph of the right, and stronger confidence that it will come at last; with higher courage to meet privation, danger and death for the righteous cause;, with re newed convictions of the folly of timorous compromise with wrong, and of the expe diency of frank and manly and positive avowal of principle, and advocacy of right; with wider views and richer experience, with confidence and humble hope, we advance to meet the duties, the opportuni ties, the trials and the unknown vicissitudes of the new year. “Happy days Roll onward, leading up the golden year; 1 When wealth no more shall rest in mounded heaps, But smit with freer light shall slowly melt In many streams to fatten lower lands, And light shall spread and man be iiker man Through all the season of the golden year. 1 Fly, happy, happy sails, and bear the Press ; Fly happy with the mission of the Cross ; Knit land to land, and blowing havenward, With silks, and fruits, and spices, clear of toll, Enrich the markets of the golden year.” 1 ‘ For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, Saw the vision of the world, and all the won- der that would be; Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle flags were furled In the Parliament of man, the Federation-of the world. There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe, And the kindly earth sjjall slumber, lapt in universal law. ■ , And I doubt not throughl&e ages one increas- ing purpose runs, :•* And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.” THE WORK BEFORE US. As the deep spiritual need of man, and the supply for it in thfe Gospel, remain the same from year to year, the main features of our work, in and for the kingdom of Christ, remain the same. We shall still need in the present year, as in the past, to preach and to live the Gospsl. We shall still need to hold up the cross of Christ, as the vindication cf Divine justice and the only hope of dying sinners. We shall still need to illustrate the purifying, blessed in fluence of the love of Christ, and to com mend and adorn the doctrines of the Gospel, in our daily lives. Our own denomination, in its various organized modes of working for the instruction and salvation of men, will demand our peculiar filial regard. We shall, as heretofore, most naturally give it our choicest sympathy, our support and our prayers. We shall perhaps, first off all, labor for the enlargement of its Home Missionary operations in the South, in the 'territories and mining regions, in the West and -in the destitute regions nearer home. Next, we shall think of its missionaries in foreign fields, and perhaps, feel the time to be' come in which to plan for the organic union of this branch of the work with our-' selves. Then we shall renew our prayers, our efforts, and our contributions, to secure from the Lord of the Harvest, a sufficient supply of faithful laborers for the Harvest. We shall feel it a duty and a pleasure to spread widely the admirable issues of the Publication Committee, and.to sustain and extend the circulation of our denominational organs. Nor will the needs of the disabled servants of the Church, or of their depen dent families, be forgotten. Yariqus schemes of Church erection and of Semin ary or College endowment, are perhaps in the minds of enterprising friends of our Church, and the year will bring its usual round of miscellaneous calls and opportu nities, which it is in vain to attempt to specify, or anticipate. PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1866. Some parts of our work, as a Church, are done. Our position with regard to great* and agitating questions in the public mind, . is taken. So far'as our influence extends, we are among the leaders of public sentiment in the land, where matters of justice and of principle are concerned. We are compact, homogeneous, cordially confiding in each other, fully organized; save in foreign mis sions, for our Church-work. Our Publi cation Committee is endowed. Our work in founding and endowing colleges .jandj seminaries, east of the Rocky Mountains,] ,is perhaps complete. Our various bureaus and committees may need some further de velopment, but their grand principles are correct and their working is satisfactory. What we most heed in and through at,, now, is the reviving influence of the Holy , Spirit. We trust we are so prepared that j we could better economize and utilize such communications of Divine power now, than at any former period of our history. In the future development of our denom inational and spiritual life, there is nq doubt that we should place first ot all in strumentalities, the culture of the true re vival spirit.. We should aim, so far as means to, this end are placed in our handsj by earnest prayer, by a renewal and a deep ening of self-consecration, by oherishing and inculcating large views and confident expectations, by a reliance on the simple Gospel of Christ in preaching, by evangeli cal humility, by personal effort for the: salvation of souls, to make this a year of revival through our churches. We shoijOid accept the wide-spread expectation of re vival as a ground of hope and a warrant for special efforts. The venerable Gardiner Spring, in his “ Personal Reminiscences,” says of revivals: —“ The Church of God from the beginning has been enlarged, beautified, and perpetuated by them.” We can do nothing for the advancement of our Church to compare in efficiency with the cultivation of a revival spirit. Tjiere are some fields of denominational activity which it still remains for us to enter, or more effectually occupy, and to which the attention of our readers may be. profitably directed during the present y'rtf. Thercis the matter of a SxrSTENTATiON Fund, to keep the salaries of the pastors in our churches at, or above, a certain minimum , of which such a prosperous ex ample is given by the Free Church of Scotland. We have no doubt it would work well here and would contribute vastly to the stability, usefulness, and comfort of the pastoral relation. The ranks of the ministry would not be so difficult to fill, nor to guard from depletion by the temptations of lucrative secular callings, addressed to men with dependent families, running hopelessly into debt, on the scandalously meagre sala ries they draw from their pastoral charges. It ought to be a rule with our Church, that her .ministry shall really live by the Gospel, instead of being into oil and land speculations, life-insurance agencies, book and map-peddling,-'Government clerkships, and teaching, as mgny of them are. We hope the facts, humiliating as they are, will be sufficiently developed to show what needs to be done, and then that we shall manfully attack the evil. We cannot re move it perhaps, but we should at least feel responsible for its material abatement. Wethinkitis becoming clearer every year that our Church is losing ground in Foreign Missions, for .wagt|of an . organization and field of its owh. are nsj by any means, doing our share $f thg work of evangelizing the heathen woild. Ou'r people are not giving as they can and would; our Sabbath schools and our families are not interested as they might be, and our children are not led to look seriously upon the Missionary’s calling as having claims upon themselves, jn the degree they would, if it were'more intimately associated' with the polity and the life of the Church. To say nothing of the loss to the heathen world, it is a great evil-, aod perilous to the best interests of vital piety, for a Church to be without the largest attainable measure of the reflex in fluence of Foreign Missions. '. A far more liberal policy in Church Erection is demanded of our denomination. This is indispensable, if we. would give the highest degree of efficiency to our Home Missionary enterprises, and if we would keep pace with other denominations, who are ready with a church edifice almost as one of the preliminaries of a new enter prise. Some of the most promising fields— fields most certain to become self-support ing at an early date —are those in which the means for a building should be in hand at the commencement, and where almost everything is risked by depending on the growth of the congregation for the remote accomplishment of the work. Our Church Erection policy decidedly needs expansion. The revival of sectional feeling and or- ganizations in the South, consequent npon the peculiar policy of the Executive, has .multiplied the difficulties of the work of evangelization there. But that work in its length and breadth, among white and black, including bodily and. spiritual necessities, is still before us, and must command the best wisdom, 1 energy and liberality ,of the churches during the current year. Com mon schools must be given to the entire South; perhaps the churches of the North will feel most interested in training intelli gent men of color, as preachers, for the re ligious instruction, evangelization and true j elevation of their race in this country. One thing is certain, no legislation, or re construction, or government policy toward the South, will be tolerated by the true friends of the Union in the North, which does not forever secure them from un righteous interference on the part of the late slave-drivers of the South, in all proper efforts to elevate the white and black masses, whom they have kept for generations in ignorance and degradation, and whom they will still keep there, if they can. The enemies of the Sabbath have made, in this city at least—renowned hitherto for the order and peace of its Sabbaths —a fresh attack upon the sanctity of the day. Lured on by covetousness, emboldened by the faithlessness of some of the professed followers of Christ, basely using the stand ing they have gained with good people ,by loud professions of patriotism during % e war, we see them settled m business ar rangements of the most public kind, cover ing the entire 3even days of the week. We shall be called in Philadelphia, this year, to decide whether the Sunday liquor traffic shall be pursued with impunity; whether respectability shall be yielded to a Sunday press, and whether the quiet of the day shall be broken by the incessant tumult of the passenger railway cars; in short, whether or not a long stride shall be made towards all the mischief, the demoralization, and the terrible omens of a Continental Sabbath among us. This is the year 1866—a significant year with a very large and respectable class of the .students of prophecy. In their view, “the -tirne7 times, and' the dividing of a time,” in Daniel, and “ the thousand, two hundred and threescore days” of John, commencing with the Papal usurpation and the rise of 'Mahomet, about A. D. 606, end with this year. Some signal judgment upon Anti-Christ—some grand closing up of the book of Providence and of judg ment —may, in this year, be expected. Something of the kind we have already been privileged to witness in the recent overthrow of the great rebellion and of the Anti-Christ of American Slavery. '-It may be we are on the verge of still more con spicuous and decisive revealings of the Divine purpose, and of still clearer fulfill ment of prophecy. It behoves us to have “ our loins girded about and our lamps burning, and ourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord. Blessed is that ser vant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.” THE SATANIC PRESS. In this fallen world, facilities for good become also facilities for evil. Improve ments in science an'd in art, which con tribute to the advancement of civilization, are quickly seized and appropriated by the agents of the evil one, for the more effectual corruption ■'and final damnation of men. No spectacle is sadder- to contemplate than the wide and terrible perversion of that grand engine of enlightenment, that lever of public elevation—the newspaper press. It is melancholy to think-that the paper of widest circulation aryl greatest enterprise on the continent, long ago r was, by common consent, awarded the title ofSatanic Press.” Of late, indeed, we have seldom seen or heard that term applied,* yet cer tainly not- because it is less deserved, but perhaps for other and more startling reasons. We fear that the Satanic-quality of disregard of divine laws and of-public decency, has become so diffused and inter mingled with better qualities, that it can no longer be justly restricted to a single jour nal. Other journals seem to have found it “ pay” to mingle some of these satanic ele ments with those more respectable and edifying, that formerly were alone admitted to their columns. At any rate, the publi cation qf the detailed, literally exact re ports of the foulest cases of scandal, is no longer confined, to the single notorious ex ample, which men hesitated to bring to fire-sides, but is unshrinkingly practiced by journals in New York city, claiming hitherto to be respectable, and to be con ducted with an honest regard to the good of the community. *Mr Wheeler does not give it in his “ Noted Names'of Fiction.” Genesee Evangelist, !N"o. 10 Q>4:. For weeks, the columns of the N'. 7. Times and Tribune have been burdened with the disgusting details of such a case, which to the infinite relief of their decent readers closed last week. Indeed, when the evidence was concluded, the N. 7 Times gave a careful resume of the whole, dividing it into paragraphs, with sensation headings, in regular ad captandum style, as if reluctant to dismiss, or to have its readers lose the taste of so enjoyable a mor sel. Do the conductors of these papers suppose that the heads of families, who subscribe to them for their superior respect ability, feel no concern to have these re volting details of crime thus spread before the tenderer members of their families, or are without a deep feeling of wrong done themselves by such pandering to the tastes of the vile ? The course of the N~. T. Times is truly amazing to those who once put confidence in its editor. During the war, it began to appear seven days in the week. The hour ly call for news in those anxious times ■made men oblivious to the sin of Sabbath breaking involved, but now that the plea of necessity is removed, the Times has not for a moment ceased its Sabbath-breaking course; it is a seven day paper still. We have borrowed the severe epithet of “ satanic.” If it is anywhere appropriate, it is where truth and goodness are sneered 'at, and so far as practicable, made contempti ble. We have been shocked to see evidence that the N. 7. Times is falling into this practice. When G-en. Howard declared that the love of Christ was the only thing that could secure a right treatment of the freed slaves, the Times grossly offended the religious community, and sought to destroy the popular reverence for the combination of piety and generalship so much admired, especially in that noble Christian patriot, by holding up his language to ridicule. Neither the eminent services nor the wounds of Gen. Howard shielded him from a most ungenerous, unchristian attack. In a similar scoffing spirit does it treat the purpose of a rescued and grateful nation, to commemorate its deliverance by placing upon our larger coins the highly appropriate motto : “In God we trust.” Hear how flippantly the Times Speaks of this solemn act of the people, and how it strives to put them out of humor with this their only official recognition of God : “ This new legend may be well enough; but is it quite in place, on the commonest and basest of all human manufactures—the filthy lucre that serves the meanest of our needs ? In view of our recent struggle for national life, does it not sound somewhat like a death-hed repentance.? Does it not remind one of the significant words of the Master; whose estimate of this common me dium was expressed in the words : “Whose image and superscription is this ?” With out questioning the good motives that led to the enactment of this new form of national worship, we respectfully submit that such tract-printing by the government is always improper, and, just now especially, ill-timed. It reminds one unpleasantly of the ‘ Dei gratia' of the divine-right schools of Europe. Let ps try to carry our re ligion—such as it is—in our hearts, and not in our pockets.” Hitherto in Philadelphia we have been quite clear of the. satanic element in the daily press claiming any degree of respecta bility. Our papers have not made their columns ministers to lewdness. A manifest purpose to foster sound morals, and to in struct and benefit the people has generally guided their policy. It was a proud dis tinction for our city. It made every parent feel his •family to be safer. The moral atmosphere of the city was comparatively salubrious, and strangers could not so readilybe brought into contact with vice. They must seek it out, instead of having it publicly paraded and thrust in their faces everywhere. We trust this most desirable and honor ' I able feature of our newspaper«literature will be maintained. We trust that any agency which, under'cover of past respect ability, of enterprise, or of patriotism, attempts to break it down, will be suffered to sink into the disrepute it deserves. It should be understood that no man is com petent to sweep away the land-marks of decency and good order which have been the most precious elements in the fair name of our city. We believe Philadelphians have too much regard for them to consent to their removal. Dfifirjc'aN the Ministry.—Rev. D. A. Abbey was removed by, death on the 6th ult., at the age of .52 years. The event took place at Apalachin, Tioga County, N. Y,, where he was in charge of the Presbyterian Church. His minis try was spent chiefly in Canada West' and Western New York. Atone time he was stationed in New Milford in this State. A deep impression of his good ness was made, wherever he was known. T E BM 8 . Per tftmuin, in advance: ByWaiJL»». • * By Carrier, 50 additional, after three months. Clods.—Ten or more papers. sent to one address* strictly m advance and in one remittance ByAtaii,s}2 50 per annum. By Carriers. $3 per annum: Ministers and Ministers 9 Widows, S’2 50 in advance Horne Missionaries, $2 00 in advance. • Fifty cents additional after three months. Remittances by mail are at our risk. , Restate. —Five cents quarterly,-in advance, paid &y subscribers at the office of dv Mvery. Advertisements -12^ ts per line for the orst, and 10 cents for the second-insertion. One square (one month)...- $3 05 M two months 5 50 „ three “ 750 .. Sl * “ 1.. .12 00 , n .one year .. 18 00 xne following discount on long advertisements, in serted for three months and upwards.is allowed:— Over 20 lines, 10 per eentroff; overSOlines,2oper cent.; over 100 lines, 33% per cent, qff. CHOICE EXTRACTS FROM «THE PRESS.” Speaking of the recent effort of the clergy and laity of our city to protect the sanctity of the Sabbath, the above paper allows itself to be led to the use of such extraordinary language as the following. Taken from articles spread over the issues of more than a week, it cannot be as cribed to a sudden act of indiscretion, but must necessarily indicate the deliberate judgment and settled policy of the conduc tors of that journal. “A more discreditable exhibition of in tolerance and proscription we have never been constrained to notice. Who will be lieve in the piety of religious teachers so filled with venom, and so forgetful of their own duties as the servants of a forgiving and an indulgent Creator ?” “To their attempt to destroy the busi ness of one of their own citizens they add most shameless hypocrisy.” “We have unexpectedly stirred a per fect nest of bigotries, and they are let loose upon us with a vehemence not at all proportionate to the piety they so noisily and ostentatiously assume.” “The proscriptive and intolerant Pro testant clergy of Philadelphia.” “The unprovoked proscription and un christian intolerance of some of the clergy men in this city.” “ The utter uncharitableness of the pre sent pharisaical antagonism.” “ Pious persecutors and saintly scolds.” “The unfairness of jts statements, the venom with which they were made.” “ This exhibition of frantic bigotry.” These things, reader, are said of some of the most venerable, most able, and most patriotic of the clergy of our city. But not satisfied with such unqualified and unpar alleled abuse of godly and true men, the editor assumes the office of censor and in structor of these teachers of the public. He says:— “ If the persons who begun and have in charge the exclusive and passionate mo,vem§nt for the proper observance of the first day of the week, had deliberately started out to bring discredit upon the cause of morals, and especially upon their sacred profession, they could not so thor oughly and so speedly have consummated that deplorable result as by the intolerance and proscription which have marked their words and acts.” t He puts the question “ plainly to these clergymen : Whether they are doing any good, either to Cod or man, in their pre sent crusade against The Press, and in their imperious and insolent call upon their par ishioners to stop reading a newspaper, to the general character of which they have voluntarily paid such exalted tributes?” He magisterially declares that they are “ fatally ignorant of the real meaning of the laws'of Scripture.” He even charges “specifically that they are now engaged in • deliberate violation of law;” that in this'* Sabbath-keeping movement they falsely and maliciously conspire, agree to cheat and defraud him of his property, or to do dis honest, malicious, and unlawful acts to his prejudice!! But who is this editor who thus pre sumes to play the bishop over the ablest and most eminent pastors of the city, to correct their interpretation of the Scrip ture, and to amend their cherished plans of promoting the moral and spiritual inter ests of the community ? Who is it that feels himself competent thus to deny to them the simplest and commonest attri butes of their calling ? Must he not be a man of eminent purity of character; of un blemished reputation; of chaste and devout speech; of sober habits; a diligent student of Scripture; a companion of the virtuous and the good; unselfish; too noble to be in fluenced by considerations of gain or per sonal advancement; —in short, a man uni versally recognized in the community for saintly qualities of heart and life ? It is demanded of him that he prove himself to be such, or his assumption of superiority to the clergy, as a moral teacher and guide of the people, is as ridiculous as it is wicked. NEW SUBSCRIBERS. These have been coming in with unusual rapidity, jewing Machines, scores of Hymn and Tune Books, Hours at Home and Sun day Magazine, Lives of Brainerd and Huss, etc., hav.6 been in lively demand as pre miums. From some quite limited fields we have been receiving large lists, showing what can be done, with well-directed ener gy, for a good newspaper. Pastors accom pany their letters with expressions of re joicing that they can introduce a paper so well adapted to their purposes, and can ex clude others which counteract their own influence and disaffect the people towards their own denominational interests. Our rich and varied list ofpremiums has proved such an attraction, 'that we have concluded to continue it substantially as before. We have added 'Smith's valuable Dictionary or Bible Antiquities and Lange’s Homileticae Commentary. See Fifth page, where premiums are also offered to Old Subscribers. t