TOE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN AND GENESEE EVANGELIST. Reliffioasand Family Newspaper, IK THE INTBBEBT OF THR Constitutional Presbyterian Churob. PUBLISHED EVERT THURSDAY, AT THE PRESBYTERIAN HOUSE, 1334 Chesttmt Street, (2d story.) Philadelphia. Bev. John W. Mears, Editor and Publisher. Stuwitaa ||wstgtmau. THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 1866, FAITH THE MASTER, CRITICISM THE SERVANT. The strong, the useful, and the happy character, is that in which faith in super natural verities is alive and vigorous. The disposition to take nothing whatever for granted, to allow that nothing is established in the range of human thought, to deny that God is, that he has ever miraculously interfered in the creation or history of the world, or that he has ever spoken authori tatively and intelligibly to man in his Word, however it may be honored as “ phi losophy,” “ free thought,” “ progress,” or the like; however young students in the ology may find some conflict with it una voidable, and however it may loom up in the theological controversies of England and the Continent, is yet a morbid devel opment, a.mental weakness, a fever of the brain and nerves, a struggle of the dark and corrupt side of human nature against the “ God whom they like not to retain in their knowledge.” The rationalist or negatively critical spirit does good service, as we have already taught, in demolishing error, in crushing and dissipating superstition, in clearing the truth of traditional encumbrances. Saddu cees may be necessary to hold Pharisees in check. Stanleys and Colensos and West minster Reviews may be necessary evils, in the country of Pusey and Newman and Father Ignatius. Comte may have a part to perform in overthrowing the Mariolatry of France. And the rising unbelief of the educated Hindu youth, melancholy as it is, may the more speedily secure the over throw of the giant and hoary systems ot superstition, whioh curse the hundred and fifty millions of their countrymen. But the chill that follows a fever, or the exhaustion that follows unnatural excite ment, is no sign of health. Skepticism, that destroys superstition, is as great, per haps a greater, foe of the truth, than the superstitionitself. The 3a<l<lu.<iaaa furnished no known convert to Christ’s ministry; the « strictest sect” of the Pharisees furnished the greatest example, teacher and defender of the faith, in the annals of Christianity. The ardor and efficiency of Paul arose from the completeness of the surrender of his mind and heart to the saving truths of the Gospel. He believed, therefore he spoke. (2 Cor. iv. 13.) It is the Pauls, the Au gustines, the Anselms, the Calvins, the Edwardses, that we would hold up for ex amples of Christian character and intellect, and not the Pelagiuses, the Abelards and the whole modern tribe of prying, analy zing, anatomizing critics, wbo, for the most part, can get no better subject of investiga tion than the caput mortuum —the dead system of Christianity, and have no ade quate idea of the life-principle whioh alone gives it reality and value. . The oharacter of Anselm is one which, for inward beauty and harmony, may well be held up as a model to the young student of thejlogy, and to doubting souls in the walks of science, so numerous in this age of oritioism. In him, the critical and the be lieving faculties were united in due pro portion . and subordination. He was a thinker,' the first to open the great processes of Christian speculation in the eleventh century ; but in him was exemplified that union of the scientific and the believing modes of thought, which, after seven centuries, our own age seems incapable of realizing. Rooted and grounded as he was in love, he felt no painful necessity to appeal to reason for proofs of his faith lie was not seeking, says Meander, by dint of thought, to find his way out from an inward schism to regain the lost cer tainty and repose of faith. The object matter of faith was to him immediately certain; .his Christian consciousness was raised above all doubt. The experience of the heart was to him the surest evidence of reality. Bt>t since he united to this sincere and undoubting faith a mind profoundly inquisitive and speculative, he felt con strained to account to himself, by a rational knowledge, for that whioh, in itself, was to him the most certain of all things. In Anselm, to quote another, faith condescend ed to knowledge, not because faith was vin sufficient, but because knowledge was, in the contemplative mind, a necessary fruit of faith. He could not understand unless he first believed. In wliat marked contrast with the un quiet, endleßs rationalizing of our age, is this enviable condition of Anselm 1 We push our speculative efforts from a dire necessity to vindicate to ourselves, or, in deed, to save our faith. Our age, our Christian age, looks with a lenient eye upon New Series, "Vol. 111, No.'4. speculation exalting itself at the expense of faith. Multitudes of Christian thinkers consider it a great point gained, if they can barely save their faith amid the clamorous demands of modern speculation. Robert son, of Brighton, saved as by fire; DeWette, dying with the faintly expressed hope that he had not lost his faith, on his lips; Bushnell, walking on the border lines of doubt, and speculating away to a vanishing point, the vital elements of the atonement, | to satisfy the demands of the mere natural understanding—are types of a too prevalent class of mind, who must find in Abelard, the great dialectician and opponent of Anselm, rather than in Anselm himself, their prototype. Consciously or not, like Abelard, they make, or feel it to be a first necessity to satisfy the demands of the speculative reason. Faith cannot be com fortably exercised until that, to a greater or less extent, is done. Theological semina- ries have not been wanting in evangelica denominations, where the whole teaching has been influenced by the dictum that nothing can he believed which cannot he understood-.* Anselm could not understand unless he first believed. He gave thanks to God for his faith, and declared that his I studies had showed him that, if he refused to believe God, he could not know him. “Every Christian,” says he, “mustever hold fast the same faith without doubting ; and while he loves it, and dives according to it, seek humbly to discover, so far as he may be able, the reasons why it is so. If he is able to disoover them, let him give God thanks. If he is not able, let him bow his head in reverence; for self-confident human reason will sooner break its own horn than succeed in overturning this rock.” The errors of mere speculators he ascribes to the fact that they put the intellectus (knowledge) before the fid.es (faith.) When such persons would dispute on mat ters of which they had had no experience, Anselm said, it was as if a bat, or an owl, should contend respecting the beams of the sun at noonday, with eagles which gaze directly at the sun itself. “He who believes not, will not an d-be wh.oJh.ag nofcuKjujrieneed will not Under stand, for as high as actual experience is above the mere hearing of a thing, so high is his knowledge, who has the experience of faith, above his, who barely knows by report. Not only can no one rise to a higher stage of knowledge without faith, and keeping the Divine commandments, hut sometimes the very understanding bestowed is withdrawn, and faith itself destroyed be cause a good conscience has been neglected’’ These last lines are a melancholy and a true picture of the disasters which have resulted from a self-surrender to the spirit ot mere criticism. We should be warned against the disposition unduly to exalt this tendenoy; which is a very good servant but a very bad master. We should prop erly estimate the supreme importance of a believing spirit; we should guard and cherish it as the prime ornament and neces sity of the Christian character. We should aspire to believe, as an achievement worthy I of the loftiest ambition. Spirit of life and true light! breathe into our hearts, and raise the Church once more out of the pet tinesses of rationalism, into the heroism, the grandeur, the robust and manly vigor of faith. * This is equivalent to Abelard’s saying: non credendum nisi prius intellectnm. IS SUFFRAGE A REWARD OF MERIT! In one view; the proposal to bestow suf frage on the colored race now before Con gress, is one of the most solemn that could I be entertained by a legislative body. The Senators and Representatives of the people are deliberating, whether they will bestow one of the most precious of rights and gravest of responsibilities, upon millions of men, who have never before enjoyed or felt them. Will they admit to a share in the government of this greatest of Republics — this most prosperous, most enterprising and most promising of nationalities —these so lately denied the commonest rights of hu manity ? Shall the viotims of centuries of oppression, reckoned as but a few removes above the brute by their haughty masters, now be allowed to march side by side with these masters to the ballot-box, and deposit a vote of equal political importance with their own? It is a measure as serious, one would think, as that of setting them suddenly and simultaneously free. It is politically a new creation; it would he the emerging, out of nothingness, of a new element of political power. It would be an historic act, that will mark the Thirty-ninth Congress, as the Constitutional Amendment abolishing slavery distinguished the Thirty-eighth. On the other hand, what, with all its seeming anomalies, is this measure, but the PHILADELPHIA, THUESDAY, JANUAEY 25, 1866. substantial repetition of a process going on under existing laws, day after day, without exciting comment or remonstrance ? The State authorities are, all the while, enfran chising multitudes upon multitudes of men, who had been denied all political rights up to that time. There is a process continually going on, by which political elements are being created on the largest side. It would be wonderful, nay, even startling, but that it has become commonplace with us. It is part of our policy; it is thorougly and ne cessarily American. The great gift of elective franchise is actually thrust upon the immigrant; he takes it in with the breath of American air. Is apy question asked as to the degree of ignorance and, debasement which marked his former com dition ?Is heathenism,or Mohammedanism, or Popery, or Mormonism made the slight- est barrier to the attainment of the right to share in the government of this Protestant country ? Do. not duellists, drunkards, gamblers, libertines, prize-fighters, political assassins, red republicans, socialists infidels, atheists, blasphemers, defaulters, secession ists, adventurers, worthless fellows, block- heads, possess j ust as much right and wield as much power at the ballot-box, as the most intelligent, virtuous, pious, and sub- stantial citizens ? In this view of the case, it seems a mere waste of time for Senators and Representa tives to deliberate gravely and for weeks upon the question of extending this right; to pause as if they were asked to do some thing anomalous and foreign to the spirit of our institutions and our policy; to begin to , weigh the value of a franchise which has all along been “ dirt cheap” in America. It seems to us too late now to raise the question of qualification for the exercise of this right, unless, indeed, we intend to apply it with entire' impartiality in the fu ture, which would be a great gain to the country. But if we do raise the question now, candid men everywhere will admit that the colored race in America, native born, lovers of liberty, loyal to the heart’s core, [.Christian and fired witlfan unparalleled ardor for learn ing and for advancement, possess qualifica tions fully equal, and, in some respects, far superior, to those, of the foreign population, so largely Popish or infidel, stolidly igno rant and servile or restless and licentious, Lthat are thrown upon our shores, and speedily and indiscriminately made into voters. The Government hastened, immediately upon the dissolution of the rebel armies, not so much to restore, as to recognize ,as intact, the right of the entire rebel popula tion to exercise its voting power. It ad mitted those who had scarcely laid away their military trappings, to share in the Government which they had been laboring with all their might to overthrow. The blaokest, hatefullest treason that the world ever saw, is, in the judgment of the Exec utive, no disqualification for the right of suffrage. Herein, indeed, we believe that even the large and loose American spirit was exceeded, not to say affronted. It is truly American to bestow suffrage, unques tioned, upon those who have fled from op pression and who have come to find freedom and happiness on our shores; but those who have spurned these privileges, and have striven madly in open and desperate war fare, for four years, to lay the fabric of our nationality in ruins—we believe the Ame rican heart demands that such should be regarded as more remote from us than aliens. We believe the instinct of public safety and the sentiment of public justice demand, that the active rebels of the South should be debarred from the privileges of citizenship, for twenty-one years. They do not deserve it at all; their conduct has shown that they are not fit to be trusted with suoh power. But if they have regained this unde served, this forfeited privilege; if even they are not disqualified, where, in the name of candor and common sense, shall we com mence to discriminate? What loyal man, what sufferer for the salvation of his coun try, what soldier, or what true and tried friend of the soldier, what peaceable citi zen, whose antecedents and whose whole behaviour assure us of his undying at tachment to the essential principles of our Government, however humble his position or sorrowful his past history, can or dare be denied a similar privilege ? What! are Legislators and Senators and a whole intel ligent people about to abandon all other conditions of citizenship, and gravely to adhere to that of the color of a mans skin alone ? Is this to be the grand and final test of citizenship in the great Republic . Are mental and moral distinctions to be coolly ignored, and the degree of coloring matter hi the cells of the epidermis, instead, to be gravely enacted into the sole condi tion of suffrage ? Shall a black and trai torous heart, under a white skin, be solemnly protected in the exercise of this right, by constitutional provisions, which deny it to a true and noble nature under a dark skin ? of political pharisaism ! 0, vain washing of the outside of the cup and platter, while the inward part is full of ravening and wickedness ! ©, mere strain ing at a gnat and swallowing a camel! Let us abandon it, before the sevenfold woe of the Redeemer and Friend of all men over take and crush us. THE REFORMER AND HIS HELPERS. *We have said that the religious commu nity thoroughly comprehended the charac ter and aims of the author of the recent crusade against the sanctity of the Sabbath. They estimate at their proper value all his assumptions of regard for the interests of the city and the welfare of the working man. The professions of philanthropy whieh he makes, while attempting to justify Sunday newspapers, and the running of j Sunday cars, are of too flimsy a texture to to deceive persons, who, for any time, have been acquainted with our public men. , Andyet, it seems,there are some, claiming to be regarded as Christian people among us, some professed ministers of Christ, who are willing to rally under the banner of this pseudo-reformer, and who somewhat ostentatiously offer what influence they have, to commend him and his schemes to the people, and to break down the entire influence and work of the-evangelical cler gy and Church. They are willing, nay, would prefer, to put their flocks and the moral interests of the city at the mercy of a dissipated politician', rather than leave them .under the influence of intelligent and truly pious evangelical teaching. They come to the defence of this ungodly schemer against the evangelical clergy, and put on an air of injured innocence in his behalf, which must make him laugh in his sleeve. Can any thing be more refreshing than the naivete of the following defence, volunteered by a Swedenborgian preacher, in, an anti-Sab bath sermon some week or two ago ? “ I would not recommend the leaguing to gether of men, whose duty and profession it is to teach and exemplify the G-ospel of Christ, to injure an upright, orderly, and good citizen in his business or reputation, because such citizen does not accept their view of a controverted question.” With what a deep sense of gratitude must “ the citizen” have received for pub lication, this emphatic vindication of his character! And how small must the evan gelical clergy of the city feel under the re buke of the distinguished Swedenborgian 1 Hear what he thinks of the Sabbath: — “ It is not committing sin, then, to work, or dance, or play, on the first day of the week —the Christian Sabbath; to travel on foot, in a private carriage, or in the street car; to row a boat, stroll through the woods and fields, ride into the country, or visit your friends; to converse pleasantly upon common topics; to read a newspaper or print and.publish one; or to do any other thing that is innocent in itself, whereby the mind and body are refreshed and strength ened.” Still another helper has our Sabbath hating reformer secured, in the somewhat dusty and dormant ranks of the Unitarians. Little as this denomination is known, or cares to be known, among us, in the work of supporting or extending Christian insti tutions, it fails not to come out of its hy bernation, and to seize an opportunity like the present, to show where it stands, when those institutions are in dagger. It is plainly enough heard now, joining in ridi cule, and lending a hand when the vile, the infidel, the covetous seek to sweep those institutions out of their path. In a recent discourse on the Sabbath, Dr. Furness throws open the day to secular uses in the broadest Btyle. He says:— “ The day is to be held subordinate and subsidiary to human uses, and nothing which is not wrong in itself) wrong on any .day, is to be forbidden on any certain day merely for the sake of the day.” One of the strongest arguments for the divinity and perpetual obligation of the day is got over, more suo, by a flat rejection of authority of the Soripture account of crea tion : “ The reason given in the Law of Moses for consecrating the seventh day to rest, is a reason which cannot possibly stand in the light of present knowledge, namely, that Hod rested on that day. It is utterly out of the power of any tolerably well-informed man to think of God so, as a being liable to fatigue and taking rest. Such a con ception of God could only have been enter tained in that early age.” To such a shallow infidel device is this “ Christian” opponent of the 'Sabbath driven! As if it could in no'proper sense be said, that God rested from the work of creation! Is be *ot dore creating this world ye t ? And ean there be anything so Genesee Evangelist, !NTo. 1027. infinitely tender on the part of God to his creatures, as thus to give them, in the cycles of his own being, a glorious example for their lesser lives ? We have also from the lips of this “ elo quent divine," the somewhat hackneyed plea of recreation for the masses, urged to a point where its’advocates invariably get into a serious dilemma. Dr. Furness walks straight into it, and, as the reader will see, sticks fast there, without much show of dis content : . “No restriction should be put upon peo ple’s moving to and fro, from one part of the city to another, or from town to coun- try, and from country to town. Every facility of locomotion enjoyed on other days should be at hand on the first day. But this, it will be objected, will deprive a con siderable class, those who labor on railways and in passenger cars, of the day of rest. Every thing should be done and much may be done to obviate this consequence and to secure as perfectly as possible to all classes their due share of rest.” “ Much may be donethat is the ■which this advocate of Sunday recreation by carriage, rail, steamboat, or pleasure boat, can offer for the relief of overtasked beasts and men, whom his philanthropy con demns to seven days labor in the week. We will put Theodore Parker, the flower of Boston Unitarianism, against “ that elo quent Unitarian divine/’ of Philadelphia, on the matter of Sabbath observance. The odore Parker, on the verge of the grave in Italy, shrank back from the festive, secu lar, unhallowed Sabbath of that land, and declared his preference for thff Sabbath of New England. • The Press makes quite a parade of these new allies. Perhaps it really congratulates itself, that in the great Christian commu nity of Philadelphia, with its splendid array of ministerial talent and character and reputation, he has secured the support of a solitary disciple of the fanciful Sweden borg, and the solitary head of a feeble flock of aesthetic freethinkers. Perhaps, after all, it fully comprehends the situation, and needs no hint of ours as to the value of its followers. No one need be mistaken as to where the heart of the Christian public on this question really is. The great Union Prayer-meetings of the past fortnight, which almost spontaneously extended themselves beyond the week of prayer, and which have filled to repletion, day after day, the largest churches of our city, have responded to no subject so quickly and so cordially as this of the sanctification of the Sabbath. It has been the popular theme of remark and of and as much, perhaps, as all fither causes put together, has rallied these thou sands of worshippers to the place of prayer. It has led to the formation of a new and powerful organization—the Sabbath Union or Philadelphia, with a citizen of Na tional reputation —Jay Cooke —at its head. We believe that, under God, the Reformer and his allies will find themselves utterly mistaken as to the character of our people, will be disappointed, disgraced, and over hrown. A BOLD DECLARATION. Our Methodist brethren are this year celebrating their centenary, and as servants of Christ, zealous and true, have a right to be, they are very cheery about it.. They expect to make “ a good thing of it,” in the way of collections for educational and missionary operations. But it seems to us their godly mirth sometimes runs into a reckless and grotesque capering. . Witness the following assertion from an able article in the N. Y. Christian Advocate on,Ration alism : “ Only the incoming of Methodism saved New England from the fate of Ger many.” We have heard much of the ser vices of Methodism as a pioneer church, and as adapted to the neglected masses. We have now to learn, in this hundredth year of its existence, that it has come to the rescue of the cultivated, reflective mind of New England, and has saved it from a terrible crisis in its speculative theology, or has saved the masses of old Puritan New England from sinking into the rationalism of the schools. We do not believe it. The orthodoxy or New England, has, under God, been able to take care of itself. It has had its bat tles to fight, like every other form of truth; and it has fought, and is fighting them now. We do not think a critical examination ot the history of these conflicts will show, that Arminianism has , ever sent it any consid erable reinforcements. We do not believe it has ever proved itself incapable of main taining, among the people of New England, generally, a sincere regard for the great verities of revealed truth. A strange boast truly, that Methodism has saved New England from being thoroughly revo lutionized in the sphere of speculative theology, when Yale, and Dartmouth,- and Amherst, and Williams, and Bowdoin, and ,I’EBMSi n .. A.v^ er annum, in advance: By Mail, By Carrie**, *£»i -^O Fifty cents aJM*U>nal, after three months. —'.Ten or feore papers, sent to one adiires >*■*»* -S in au+envce and in one remittance iiy Mail, 52 50 per annum, fiy Carriers, $3 per annum: ittinisten and Mln^^rg , Widows, $2 50 in advance. Some Missionaries, $2 00'in advance. Fifty cents additional after thretf months. Remittances by. mail are at on? risk. Postage.—Five cents quarterly, fa 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) 00 t ] two months.. „ 5 50 „ three ** 750 „ six “ 12 GO , one year 18 00 • i* 1 ® discount on long advertisements, in serted for three months and upwards, is allowed:— Over 20 lines. 10 per cent off; over 50 lines, 20 per cent.; over 100 lines. 33J4 per cent. off. Middlebury and Vermont Colleges, have been the seats of sound learning, pure theology and precious revivals for genera tions and for centuries; when Andover and Yale, and Bangor, and East Windsor Semi naries have taught and defended, with con summate ability, the Eame general system of orthodox and scriptural theology, while Methodism has had its one College and 200 students, at Middletown, for less than thirty-five years, and its one Biblical Insti tute in New Hampshire for less than twenty years For our part, we have regarded the Arminian theology, witlf its denial of the doctrines of grace and its exaltation oi free will, as having far more affinity with ration alism than Calvinism has. It is certain that the Arminianism whieh has stuck to the Church of England, is more to blame for the present rationalist movement in the body, than is the Calvinism of the thirty nine articles. And whatever present fears we have for New England, are mostly in connection with the Arminian tendencies appearing among her clergy, and those who profess to represent them. A LOYAL VISITOR FROM CHARLES TON. We had the pleasure of welcoming to our office a truly loyal Charlestonian, a native and now a resident of that city. Welcome for his own sake, he was none the less so, for reporting the formation of a church of our branch among the loyal citizens of the place. It was formed soon after the fall of the rebel armies, and now numbers about twenty members, with a congregation of three hundred, and a Sabbath-school of one hundred and thirty scholars. The only seri ous drawback to their success is the want of a building, which our friend, the pastor, hopes to secure with the aid of the friends of the extension of loyal churches and of .our denomination in the South. It will not diminish the interest of our people to know that this enterprise is in progress among that class of the population whieh furnished the heroic Captain Robfert Small, and that the pastor is Rev. E. J. Adams, formerly of the Lombard Street Central Church of this city. DANCING AND SLAVERY. The Presbyterian Standard well hits off the inconsistency of Southern reformers who word!! cleanse the outside of the cup and platter, when the inward part is full of ravening and wiokedness; “ these things ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone.” Referring to the account of the meeting of the late Southern Assem bly at Macon, and to Dr. -Ross’ movements there it says : It seems, from the same paper from which the Doctor’s speech has been extracted, that he introduced in the Assembly, at Macon, “ an able and original paper on the subject of dancing and social recreations, which he accompanied with remarks that commanded the attention of the house, and which, after a spirited little running de bate, was referred to the oommitte on bills and overtures, and made a special order of the day.” We are glad the Doctor has taken hold of this matter, and hope that appropriate action was taken on his paper. Dancing, &c., are bad enough. The only wonder we have, is, that one who could see no evil in buying and selling human beings, is so strenuous about the censurable prac tices he condemns in his paper, and that such practices, just now, should need any special treatment in that region. THE REVIVAL IN OUR CITY. Again the Spirit of Prayer is poured out in our city. The masses of our Christian population are thronging every day to our largest churches in a way to remind us of the solemn time of 1858. All denomina tions cordially unite in the services and a delightful, earnest, practical spirit pervades the meetings auguring the best results. A third week of prayer has, almost by spon taneous agreement, been entered upon, and the prospects are that we shall have a month of prayer, instead of a week, as origi nally intended. We trust the hoped-for blessing is already descending upon God’* people. „ - Evangelical Churches advertising' in Saturday’s Press :— Ist Congregational, Frankford Hoad. 2d Congregational, 11th and Wood. Central Congregational, 18th and Mount Vernon. French Evangelical, 7th and Spruce. 15th Presbyterian, loth and Lombard. Ist Ref. Dutch, 7th and Spring Garden. 3d Reformed Dutch, 10th and Filbert. Church of the Intercessor, Spring Garden Street. Spirit rappers, Swedenborgians, IJniver salists, and Second Adventists, are in the list, but no N. 8., United, or Reformed Pres byterians, no Methodists and no Baptists,
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers