THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN AND GENESEE EVANGELIST. Religions and Family Newspaper, IN THE INTEBKST 07 TEE Constitutional Presbyterian Church. i PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY, AT THE PRESBYTERIAN HOUSE, 1334 Chestnut Street, (2d story,) Philadelphia. Rev. John W. Blears, Editor and Publisher. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1866. A GLANCE AT THE PRESENT CONDI TION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. The divergencies in the views of the dif ferent parties in the Episcopal Chrfrch are constantly widening . and strengthening. The evangelical portion of the denomina tion appears to be making no progress, rela tively to the activity and determination of the rest. Arrogance and exclusiveness towards Protestant churches, coquetry with the unreformed communion s of Christendom, oombined with the indulgence of infidelity, in some of its most offensive developments, are the characteristics of this Church, made prominent in the discussions and movements of the day. In our own country, we have to alter the picture somewhat; for rationalism, finding no sympathy among the laity of the Episoopal, or any other orthodox body, and having no comfortable livings guarantied by the Government,. has no motive to obtrude itself upon the church. Ration alism has no footing, no literary organ, no voice of influence, in the Episcopal organi zation in this country. On the other hand, the people cannot divest themselves of the conviction, especially since the last Trien nial Convention, that the American Episco pal Churoh, as a whole —with many illus trious exceptions —is a disloyal body, unworthy of confidence in times of national danger. It is a conclusion to which we have come, with unspeakable reluctance and regret; but we feel quite sure that the popular judgment is highly unfavorable to the prosperity of the body., among the loyal masses of the land. Reverting to the position of the Church in England, we observe that Dr. Pusey has taken some very decided and unexpected Steps Homeward. For a time, it was hoped that, influenced by a sense of danger from the assaults of infidelity, he would make common cause with the Evangelical party, in defence of the truth. Others may have supposed that Dr. Pusey regarded his own Church as so strictly apostolic and authori tative, that Popes and councils could npt improve it. All are- disappointed by the recent movements of this distinguished ohurch-man. He has utterly turned his back upon the whole Protestant Church, and is laboring for a reconciliation of the Church of England with f tlie other Episco pal communions of the world, i. e., with the corrupt Papal and Greek churches. All churches, which have not retained She [Episcopal order, are omitted from his ; scheme of re-union. Evangelical Protestant ism is ignored. This is the leading idea of his Eirenicon, or plea tor peace, published three months ago, in England. The one fact of a common Episcopacy would, he thinks, make union between these bodies easy. The great Church which would result from such a union would be able to command universal assent to the decrees of its coun cils, as did the churoh Catholic before the j schism unto Eastern and Western. Dr. Pusey's scheme was recognized at once, as an important concession, by the Roman Catholics of England. Their lead ing paper, the 1 Yeeldy Register, gave a friendly review of the Eirenicon, which in turn drew out a characteristic letter from Dr. Pusey. In that, he manifested the utmost tenderness for the Church of Rome. He apologizes, in a manner singularly servile for an Englishman, for even the least ■ionable modes of expression in his He reiterates his conviction that is no insurmountable obstacle to the iof the three communions. In the , of union, he ventures to wish for ;y of opinion on the Immaculate Con >n, the worship of the Virgin, and vr dogmas, and thus expresses himself primacy of the Pope: We readily recognize the primacy of >ishop of Rome; the bearings of that iey upon the other local churches, we e to be matter of ecclesiastical,, not of ie law; but neither is there any supre in itself to which we should object, mly fear is that it should, through the intment of one bishop, involve the re ion of that quasi-authoritative system, h is, I believe, alike the cause and (for me) the justification in our eyes of our uiing apart.” a more recent letter to the Times , he s with what ardor he ljas seized this of Union:— lit c the English mind once grasp the that healthful re-union of the Church be possible, and the overpowering tuess of the thought of a united Christ nn dawn upon it, even from afar, as a ig to be hoped and prayed for, and our ig English practical sense and tranquil (fastness of purpose will, by God’s :y, be a great instrument in his hands talizing what it has conceived. Let it conceive of the re-union of Christen- •j’ •»* ISTew Series, "Vol. 111, No. 6. dom as a practical object, as it did of large righteous questions in our century —the admission of Roman Catholics and Dissent- ers to the full rights of citizenship, or the repeal of the corn laws—and the difficulties will be half surmounted. There are clouds enough gathering to make Rome, too, feel that union is strength.” It is melancholy to think that all this is said by a thoroughly educated Englishman; a man of eminent ability; a type in many respects of what modern civilization in its best form can achieve. Said by Dr. Pusey of two idolatrous churches, vast structures of priestly tyranny, one of them the parent of half of the modern infidelity which is but a reaction from its gross superstition. Said with his back to all the Evangelical churches of Christendom, in which the pure and living flame of personal piety, the genuine life of Christianity, is maintained; which are bravely fighting the battles of faith against false philosophy, and are cov ering the world with missions, the germs of a free Christian life, and of a pure Chris- tian civilization. No Christian heart can represt a throb of sympathy at such warm breathings after unity, but unity with that which has but the name and the form, without the power, of truth, would be mar rying the lusty giant of Protestantism to a corpse. We have not the space to speak fully of movements looking to union, specifically, with the Greek Church. A meeting with a view to establishing regular and formal communion between the two churches, was held in London, November 15. The meet ing was attended by about eighty persons, “ chiefly clergymen of High Church prin ciples.” The Bishop of Oxford presided, and there were present the Bishop of Lin coln, the Bishop Coadjutor of Edinburgh, Dr. Pusey, Dr. Williams, and Canon Words worth. The Russian Church was represent- ed by Prince Orloff, Count A. Tolstoi, and the Russian chaplain in London. Prince Orloff, and Father Popoff, the chaplain, took a prominent part in the de liberations, an account of which the former sent to the Moscow Gazette. According to the Prince, ten bishops, two arch-bishops, and a number of other persons, including Mr. Gladstone, had expressed sympathy for the movement. He represents the arch-bishop •x>£ Canterbury as eager to dispatch two bishops at once to Russia, but says that he dissuaded him from, the attempt. In fact, the Anglicans show a much greater degree of anxiety than the Russian ecclesiastics, on the subject. Perhaps no exhibition of arrogance to wards Evangelical churches has been more offensive, than the mission of the English Episcopalians to the Sandwich Islands, and nothing has transpired which is more likely to permanently estrange them from the re gards of Protestant people. In any way we can view it, this mission is a brazen as sumption of privilege against preoccupancy by any or all Evangelical denominations, on th# field of foreign missions. A gene ration of successful effort on these islands is ignored j and a small population, virtu ally christianized, is chosen as a field of effort by these arrogant High Churchmen, when the wide world lying in wickedness is 'before them, and the attention and liber ality of Episcopalians on two continents is called to their work. We do not believe there is a smaller set of mem in Christendom than this bishop and his associates, who crossed two oceans, to carry on a petty rivalry with the American Board, and to proselytize a simple race of sixty thousand men, by lighted candles, al tars, crucifixes, and other popish mummer ies. Several wards in Philadelphia contain each about the same population as these islands, and are in about as much need of a bishop and his staff. It would all be simply laughable, were it not that the “ Bishop” has condescended to the grossest misrepresentations of the condition of the Islanders, and of the effects of our Ameri can Missionaries’ training upon them. He has ventured to speak of “ the Hawaiian type” of piety as “ a species of unctuous cant and glib familiarity with sacred expres sions, having no hold on the moral being.” The Christianity introduced by the Ame ricans he declares has failed to prevent “ a deterioration in morals, as compared with their original heathen stateyea, more, that “ a change for the worse,” in respect to sins against one of the Commandments, “ has been greatly aided by Puritanism” (the capitals are his own); that under its influence “ vice is the rule, not the excep tion ;” that the readers of the Bible have not that amount of general knowledge which “ alone can render its perusal pro fitable, or even safe.” Using such language, which has long ago been refuted by the generous and spon taneous testimony of an American Episco palian, this lover of small game and of PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1866. contemptible methods, in the field of Chris-1 tian work, has been recognized by the House of Bishops of the American Church; 'has been introduced by Bishop Potter, of I New York, to the churches of his diocese, and defended by him in the New York papers, and has had opportunity to justify himself in the denominational paper, the Church Monthly. Such a course on the part of our American Episcopalians, reveals a most unfriendly attitude towards the Evangelical Churches, and must be con strued as a new and decided step towards High Churdhism of the most exclusive and radical type. There are, in fact, four pretty well de veloped currents of opinion, or parties, in the Episcopal Church: First, the Ration alists, followers of Colenso, &c., a party which shades up into the Broad Church; Second, the Popish party, headed by Dr. Pusey; Thirdly, the staunch Evangelical party, which embraces some of the noblest men and purest Christians and most effect ive workers in the world, but which, as a Lparty, is almost powerless in the Church; and finally, the old-fashioned High Church men, who despise the Church of Rome, as much as they do the Evangelicals, and have as little thought of going over to the one as to the other. The Christian Times, ' speaking of the honorable reception given to Dr. Pusey’s Eirenicon in some quarters of the American Church, gives- some ac . count of this latter party, which will inter : est our readers. It says: Yet, on the other hand, among the Ame rican radicals, there will also be developed a powerful opposition. It will come from those who would set our own Communion in the ecclesiastical attitude now presented by Rome herself. We find the germ of such an opposition in the Northwestern Church, which holds to a style of expression on the subject that even provokes a smile. In the estimation of this journal, Rome is not an institution to be deferred to, as Pusey evi dently believes, but one to be abjured and crushed out as an impudent sect. Under the head of Romanist, it classes the Pro testant denominations of this country, and concludes that they are all under the same condemnation. Speaking of the Church, it says: “She is, of course, point blank opposed to Popery, but just as much to those fragments ot it that are called Pro testantism as to the whole corrupt mass professed by the followers’of Pius Ninth.” On this whole question it claims a most prodigious exorcise of private judgment, lo an editorial it declares that the Protes tant Episcopal Church took wrong ground in the beginning, and proceeds to apologize j for its timidity; and, without waiting for the Church to change her polity, it quietly undertakes to abolish the very name of the Church, and substitute one of its own in stead—“ The American Catholic Church !” As to the future of this church, so sure- ly as it contains any considerable element of genuine piety, it must be disrupted, both in this country and in England, in fiye years. Already the whole body Evan gelical Christians look on with amazement, while loyal men consent to fellowship with unrepentant rebels against civil authority; while true and zealous Protestants continue in alliance with almost undisguised Papists; and while men of the soundest orthodoxy and most exemplary piety, delay, for a sin gle hour, their indignant withdrawal from a Church that tolerates the anti-Christ of infidelity within its bosom, and, from its highest seat of authority, proclaims its ina j bility to administer discipline in the bald est and grossest cases of error. The Broad-! Churchmen, too, have their quarrel with the ritualists and the followers of Dr. Pusey. I “ Already,” says the Morning Post , “the first warning notes of that strife are being heard. The Bishop of London, it is be • lieved, will lose no time in bringing under the notice of Parliament the present work ing of the Rubric respecting the dress of ministers and the ornaments of the Church. The first effect of any such step by the Bishop of London will be the division of the Church into two new parties, and the provocation of a contest far more alarming than we have had sinoe the Gorham case.” Strifes upon questions of such a radical nature cannot continue long without open rupture or revolution. Episcopal Church must be re-reformed or dissolve. Have we A Bible Rubric ?—We give the concluding article of this series in the inside of tins number. It may interest our readers to know, that the author of these trenchant protests against a rigid and lite ral regard to the supposed requirements of Scripture in the externals of worship, is a prominent minister in one of the more ex clusive of the smaller branches of the Pres byterian Church. His articles are an ad ditional proof, besides those noticed in the last issue of our paper, that light and feve are extending in the bounds of our Pres y terian Zion, and that the time is a P~ preaching, when our u Covenanter bret ren will be ready to nse our own as well as their modes of praise, and to abolish the barriers which have been arbitrarily set up between our communion table and theirs. PRESBYTERIAN UNION. By late advices’ from Scotland, it appears pretty well sett Ted that the Union of the three non-established Presbyterian bodies of that country—The Free, The United, and The Reformed Presbyterian Churches —will oertainly take place, as the result of the deliberations of the Committee of Con ference. The last matter of discussion before the Committee involving any serious difficulty in the way of union, was the I mode of pastoral support, in which widely different methods obtain between the Free and the other Churches. The Free Church has a great and elaborate Sustentation sys tem, and a large amount of funds in hand, the disposal of which, after a union, might be embarrassing. However, the Committee of Conference report that they have fully met this question, and can see their way to a solution of'the difficulties involved. .As this was really the last important difference to be disposed of, the people see in its removal the decision virtually reached to consolidate the three Churches into one. A result most honorable to the Presbyte rian name, find fraught with important consequences to Christendom and to the world! It is again calling attention to the question of a reunion of the Presbyterian bodies of our own land. We have been informed that movements are on foot for calling a convention of persons in these churches favorable to such reunion, before Synods and Assemblies next May. The largest Presbyterian body in the country is still so agitated with questions growing out/if the war, that it Is difficult to see how any action on the sub j ect, approaching to unanimity, could be had in its General Assembly. Still, such a con ference might strengthen the hands of the loyal majority there, and give them a clearer view of their duties in their own body. For the idea of reunion of Pres byterians here, is but an idle dream, unless fidelity to the Government and equal jus tice to all men, have a prominent place somewhere and somehow in the negotia tions. A SPECIMEN OF OCR SUNDAY LAW REFORMERS. On Wednesday of last week, the Slst ult., a spirited debate arose in the State Senate, on a resolution endorsing the policy of Congress, to give the right of suffrage to the colored citizens of. the District. Mr. Landon, of Bradford, eloquently advocated the measure, and unreservedly admitted the claims of the loyal colored men of the South, upon our Government, for protection. He was followed by Mr. Donovan, a Demo cratic politician of Philadelphia, who is represented by the reporter as saying : That he had listened tq the eloquent speech of the Senator from Bradford, and had blushed for his race and color. He had been 'taught to revere the flag which Washington and Jackson, and the soldiers | of Mexico, and of the 'Union, had carried triumphantly; but that flag Was not the one which was now carried by the dominant political party. He was in favor of dis solution of the Union, if necessary for the sake of the Union, but the dissolution he meant was from the New England States, which, with their fanaticism and hypocrisy, he would let join the British provinces, where they belong. He considered the late action of Con gress the greatest wrong and tyranny ever perpetrated, and denied that the rebel lion was crushed by black men, but by white. He would not allow a single pillar of the fabric to fall for all the negroes and freedmen in the world. Coming from the representative of an Irish Catholic constituency, these senti ments do not excite surprise, except where the speaker claims the power of blushing. But the fact we .would have our readers note, is, that this Senator Donovan was the mouth-piece of our anti-Sabbath agitators in that body. The bill to allow the run ning of Sunday cars, which for six weeks has been defended and urged by The Press of this city, was presented in the Senate by Mr. Donovan; Mr. Donovan and The Press waxed alike indignant, at its summary reference to the Committee of Yice and Immorality. In fact, there is no good reason to question that thisj Democratic politician was chosen by the editor of the Press , or his agents, to shoulder their Sab bath-breaking enterprise, and carry it through that branch of the Legislature, if he could. Now, we have no doubt there is a certain propriety iu getting a copperhead Catholic Irish,politician, to do the devil’s work, but what business can the editor of the notori ously loyal Press have with that class of politicians ■ He professed that -his aim, in seeking- the removal of restrictions from Genesee Evangelist, 3STo. 1029. Sunday travel, was beneficent, for the good of the masses. Why, then, could he not find a decent man, a member of his own party, willing to co-operate with him in such a good wort ? Was there not a single Bepublican Senator opposed to Sabbath laws, with nerve enough to avow it, and to labor for their removal ? Must men who have fought the South for four years, hunt for specimens of courage among that most abject and erawling of all species, the North ern copperhead ? And of all Democratic politicians, to pick out Mr. Donovan ! Pi late and Herod have shaken hands. Ah! Mr. Editor; when you are tempted to reiterate the gross and mendacious slander, that Dr. Brainerd, in opposing your assaults on the morals of our city and State, was endeavoring to defend -and restore the reputation of a disloyal clergyman in this city, remember that it is indisputably upon ‘record, that the mouth-piece of your anti- Sabbath clique in the State Senate, was a man,* who, in his place as Senator, but a week ago, preached disunion, and declared .that the legislation of Congress, giving suffrage to the blacks, was the greatest •wrong and tyranny ever perpetrated. At last we have had to part with the most conspicuous of the aged men of our time. Rev.' Eliphalet Nott, D.D., LL.D., President of Union College, New York, after walking, as it seemed, almost a gene ration loDg upon the verge of the grave, and attaining a sort of immortality in the eyes of his cotemporaries, finally passed away on the 20th day of January, in the 93rd year of his age. Death would not be foiled; he must have his own, though long kept waiting. A life so prolonged, so varied, so active, so gloriously useful, so fit a pattern, in almost every respect, for his survivors, may not pass without the attempt to delineate its chief features and to hold up its great lessons to universal observation. Doubtless he will have, as he deserves, his biographer, and American youth, and the ministry of the American Churches, will be privileged, in all coming time, to drawn instruction and stimulus from the story. It is a theme which may well enkindle the enthusiasm of the writer. Meanwhile, we transfer from the columns of the New York Tribune, an eloquent and instructive tribute to his mem ory by one of his students. 'The admirable style and spirit of the article, no less than its theme, must command for it a general perusal. DEATH OF DR. NOTT. . Dr. Nott was Moderator of the General Assembly, and was the sole survivor in the list of forty-two Moderators, from 1789 to 1830. THE DAILY PRAYER-MEETINGS. We are in a state of expectancy and humble waiting before God in this city. While no marked answers to prayer, in the shape of a general revival, reaching the uncon verted,masses, have been granted as yet, so great is the-interest 'in the Chris tian community and so earnest are the hopes and longings of God’s people, that the Daily Prayer-meetings are continued from week to week without any present prospect of discontinuance. The throngs in attend ance increase; so that our largest churches cannot hold them. . , - The meeting on Wednesday is in the Third Reformed Dutch Church, Tenth and Filbert Streets; on Thursday in the Baptist Church, Broad and Brown Streets; on Fri day, to be announced; on Saturday, at the Second Presbyterian Church, Seventh be low Arch. HARD TO PLEASE. Certainly the Anti Sabbath men are very hard to please in this matter of petitions. The Sabbath Union ought to have consulted them beforehand as to the mode of petition ing which would meet their judgment of what was fair and right. They pretended to represent the working men, and when a remonstrance from the male and female operatives of one of the most respectable manufacturing establishments in the city was brought in, they held up the imper fections in its chirography and punctuation to ridicule in the columns ot their organ. They claimed that the masses were in favor of the repeal of the Sabbath laws, and when we crowded up remonstrances with thou sands of signatures, they began to cry out fraud! They wanted names that were known. Finally, as if to meet their latest objections, a remonstrance signed by Judges Allison, Sharswood and Hare, and by 114 other persons, lawyers, merchants, &c., was laid before the Senate last week. But they are just as uncomfortable as ever. They now raise the pretext that judges, who may be called to adjudicate cases under the law, T fi B m « . aiinnm, in ar! ranee: .. , ~ By Carrier, 83 3<v nfty after three months. i. \ ~n P r 9° re tapers, sent to one addres ■payable strictly in arirance end in one remittance BrM al i’ ? 2 50 P er anntim. By Carrier#S3 per annum: Ministers and Ministers’ Widows, $2 50 in an vance. Home Missionaries, $2 00 in advance, rifty cents additional after three months Remittances by mail are at our risk. ~ Postage.— Five cents quarterly, in advance, paid by subscribers at the office of delivery. a" I *e/Msemen te _!2M o ems per line for the ’ nivt, and 10 cents for the second insertion. One square (one month) jg gg „ two months. 5 50 three “ 7 stT si* - t. 12 00 TW„ll„~; <m !i. rear I*o -i.-? lonowing discount on long advertisements, in n™ mr three months and npwards, is allowed:— "J?. pe J„, c ? nt over 5(7 lines, 20per cent.; over 100 lines, 33% per cent. off. have no business to remonstrate against its repeal. Doubtles it there was a movement on foot to repeal the laws against theft or murder, judges would be equally incompe tent to remonstrate. Gentlemen'! for once be honest and say what alone would please you; that we should quit petitioning altogether, and let yon have your own way undisturbed, in the work of throwing down the chief defences of public morality. Tele New Yobk Observer of last week spends a couple of columns in the effort to drive its readers to support the President, as against Congress; and uses some highly disrespectful language of Congress in the course of its remarks. - Speaking of the re fusal of that body to admit certain represen tatives from Tennessee, whom it elaims as loyal men, it most intemperately and wrong fully declares: “ That he. and such as he, are refused admission, is a defiance of the Constitution and laws; a nullification by the House ot the law of the land; a resistance of the will of the people as expressed by,the election of Mr. Johnson, and by the ratification ot the Constitution.” It is a poor compliment the Observer pays to its readers, in treating them as blind to the fact, that the will of the people was even more direetly expressed in the election of their Congressional represen tatives, than could possibly be the case in the election of a Vice. President. Not one of these Congressmen is in his place by some visitation of . Providence, utterly unlooked for by his constituents, but by express appointment of the people or the State Legislatures. They are the very men whom they chose for the place they are in, and they are doing the work they were sent to do. Most of the New York newspapers are unable to see any.popular sentiment beyond the limits of their substantially foreign and notoriously disloyal city. The highest point they reach is the “ eminently conser vative,” one of Mr. Baymond and Thurlow Weed. We are thankful for the two or three noble exceptions on their list, but the rest are melancholy examples of weakness in the knees and the spinal column. But the country did not follow their lead in the war j it did not take fheir nominee-for the Presidency at the late election; and it will not follow the perilous course of conces sion to unchanged and bitter rebels, and would-be perpetuators of slavery; which they, in their strange infatuation, continue to preach. The people will, after all, follow surer instincts and a safer guide than they find in the iY. Y. Observer, and its “ emi nently conservative” associates. List of “ Evangelical” Churches ad vertising in Saturday’s Press : - 15th Presbyterian, 15th and Lombard. Dr. Seiss’, (Lutheran), Race below 6th. French Evangelical, 7th and Spruce. 3d Reformed Dutch, 10th and Filbert. Church of the Nativity, 11th and Mt. Vernon. Church of the Intercessor, Spring Garden Street below Broad. Ist Congregational, Frankford Road. Second Congregational, 11th and Wood. Is it not time the moral support of every Evangelical Church in this city should be entirely withdrawn from this enemy of one of the chief institutions of Evangelical re ligion ? Do not the pastors and members of these churches count themselves among the friends of the sanctity of the Sabbath ? Why should they in this manner, from week to week, break the unity of the Evan gelical sentiment of our city ? We are gratified to find there are so few of them open to reproof for this matter; there ought to be none. Hours at Home for February.— This number opens with a glimpse into one of the least known countries of Europe, and least affected, until lately, with modern ideas, the Tyrol. Mr. Brace is a vigorous, manly and pictu resque writer, and is familiar, as perhaps few men living are, with the countries of Central Europe. Geoffrey the Lol lard is completed. The Science of His tory is handled in a decidedly original way in Fronde’s Lecture. Westminster Abbey, a Miracle in Court, the Re ligious Sentiment in the Union army, are worthy of general perusal. The Presbyterian Monthly fob February, handsomely and effectively follows up the January number. It has articles upon all the departments of our. denominational activity, besides a sec tion for Sabbath-schools. The" opening article is on that great and promising field of missionary effort, Missouri, with another on Systematic Benefience. The Address of Rev. Thos. Ward White, (Philip Barrett), is Lunenburg C. H., Va.
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