THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN AND • GENESEE EVANGELIST. A Religious and Family Newspaper, IN THE INTEREST OF TR& Constitutional Presbyterian Church. PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY, AT THE PRESBY TERIAN HOUSE, 13:34 Chestnut Street, (2d story,) Philadelphia. ger. John W. Nears. Editor and Publisher. gintritan Virtztryttriait. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1866 pLANS OF WORK FOR THE SEASON. Pastors and active church members are thinking over the methods in which they shall employ themselves for the conversion d souls and the 'building up of the king dom of Christ, during the season now open ing. Perhaps they are generally satisfied with the tried and mostly successful instru mentalities employed for their own immedi ate congregations. Here they need noth ing better than the faithful presentation of the saving truths of the gospel from the pulpit, followed up with pastoral labors, and parental and Sabbath-school instruc tion. The problem tley are revolving is: how more and more to reach the multitude outside of 'all their congregations ; how to make the Church more' aggresaive; how to maintain and increase the ratio of its num bers and influence in the midst of a wicked world; how either to make the Church more attractive to the irreligious masses and the poor, or, failing in that, how best to bring the Gospel to their doors. No one method can suffice to meet the vastness of the emergency. There must be a broad comprehension in our plans, a rea diness to adopt every honorable expedient, a pliancy, not of principles, but of men ; a virtuous and Christian being all things to all men. Suggestions from every side, where . there is good judgment or experience, should be heard. We here gather up and place before our readers such as seem to us worthy of general re gard. 1. Of open-air preaching as a means of reaching the outside masses, we have spo ker. frequently. It is simple, inexpensive and practicable everywhere. It needs good lungs, self-possession, directness and fluen cy on the part of the preacher. A band of singers and of praying men should accom pany him. There should be a suitable room at hand for an inquiry-meeting after the public service, that the fruits may not be lest. No great city, no crowded neigh borhood, where multitudes avoid the chur ches, should be without open-air preaching. We are surprised that so little of it is done in this country. Christianity was, from the first, proclaimed in the open air. 'Why should we hesitate about an example set by Christ, his apostles and the early fathers for the first century or two of its history? An example copied through -the middle at:es, kept up by the preaching friars of the Romish Church, almost universal dur ing the early stages of the Reformation, perpetuated by Whitefield and Wesley during the last century, practiced most extensively to-day in Great Britain, and hallowed to us, in this city, by the sainted names of Patterson and of Brainerd.. Open air preaching should be systematized, should be managed through an organization 'com posed of the different evangelical denomina tions; it should be vigorously pushed in a practical, business manner, as one Of the right arms of Christian evangelization among the masses. Conneeked with it might be a tent, to be used in unfavorable weather. And placards and advertisements might, with all propriety, be used to inform and gather the crowd. '2. The suggestion is worth considering, whether the churches themselves might no:, once a day, be used in the free spirit of open-air meetings; that is, without the usual formalities of a set sermon, the preacher coming down from the pulpit, several familiar addresses being put in place c,f the sermon, the pews being free, and :teaud employed to gather in the outside population, similar to those suggested in collecting an open-air meeting. Or, halls d various kinds, and buildings. like " The Wigwam," should be more extensively ap propriated to this purpose. 3. We cannot build churches in time for ;I'3 this fall, but if our lay readers are con sidering how they may best contribute of their means to the work, they may be in terested in a discussion of this slower but more substantial department of the work. The masses may be reached, measurably, by two classes of church buildings. Ist. The small and plain structure, planted close among their own squalid homes, and pre senting no unpleasant contrast with their ovary day associations. Such places they may feel at home in, and may enter without waiting for " Sunday clothes." The mul tiplication of such edifices, with arrange ments for night-schools or industrial efforts for the thriftless and the idle during thC week, would certainly accomplish great good. But a widely different plan is, in the second place, to build, instead of many ° mall, a few grand churches, where the in stinctive love of the people for a sympa- 10, trAn 461, New Series, Vol. 111, No. 3.9. thizing crowd would be gratified'; where the poor might rather. enjoy and profit by the contrast with their own narrow domi ciles; where the rich and poor might meet together, and a strong centre of religious influence be established for generations. Over such a church, a college of pastors, two or more, should be placed, and a division of labor into pastoral and homiletical might, in part, at least, be carried out, so that while excellent sermons were invariably preached, at the same time the house-to house work of the whole parish might be thoroughly done. 4. All effective effort for the masses calls for a great increase of ministerial force. On every side new reasons appear for urg ing the prayer to the Lord of the Harvest, to send forth laborers unto the harvest. Our efficient and gifted laymen must be brought into the field. They must be encouraged, like Judge Durant in Boston, like Brown low North, and Reginald Radcliffe, of Great Britain, to take hold practically, persis tently and semi-officially of the work. They may preach, if they May not ad minister the ordinances. The General Assembly which met at Brooklyn re commended the commissioning of. com petent laymen by the Presbyteries for such supplementary services. And why should not the ministry summon to its aid such laymen as George H. Stuart, Ex- Gov. Pollock, Rene G-uillou, Judge Allison, Dr. J. Marshall Paul, Thomas Potter, and many others whom we might• name, and . thus send them, with the Church's sanction and blessing, to proclaim the Gospel out of doors, in tents, and in public halls; and why not even welcome them to their sides in the pulpit, whenever their practical wis dom, their zeal and their unofficial freedom might give greater power to the regular ministrations of the word, or when inquir ers were multiplied ? But why travel beyond the official per sonages already in the Church ? Why talk of commissioning men, when we have plenty ordained for the very work already, if they did but know it ? Why not rather revive the primitive idea of the Presbytery, which has now shrunk into the church session. In early post-apostolic times, each member of the session was a presbyter, the church was a diocese and the minister was a bishop. In the presbytery, now called a session, there were elders (presbyters) who simply " raled well," while there were others who also " labored in word and doctrine." The minister, in those days, beheld himself sur rounded with a band of ordained assistants, upon whom, equally with himself; rested the admitted responsibility for the spiritual prosperity of the church. He was but primes inter pares, first among equals. And so far as the unavoidable cares of busi ness and the differences made by training and study allow, why should not precisely the same relations obtain between the so called minister and his ordained co-presby ters of the session to-day ? Why should the church-presbytery, as we may call it, dwindle to a formal body, and be concerned mainly with the admission of members, with flagrant cases of delinquency, with questions of representation and of routine ? Why should it not be a staff of missionary laborers, going two and two to evangelize the diocese in which the church is placed ? It seems to us the error of diminishing the significance of the ,church-presbytery is just as great, practically, as the opposite one of exaggerating and expanding it into a hierarchy, as the prelatical bodies have done. We have . presented these suggestions, not with the remotest idea of exhausting the subject, nor merely to amuse and inte rest, nor yet to bewilder the reader. Take hold of some plan. Address yourself, in the simplest and most extempore manner, to the work of saving souls. The warm heart, the believing, prayerful spirit, and the bold, energetic purpose are sure .of sue • cess under all circumstances. OUR SABBATH TO BE DEFENDED. We last week expressed our confidence that the Christian people •of this city would not quietly submit to the wholesale profa nation of the Sabbath, and the loss of all their chartered privileges under the laws of this Christian commonwealth, without a straggle. They, would not, in our opin ion, look quietly upon an organized rebel lion aga i n st., the most. excellent and neces sary laws upon the statute-books of the State, sheltered, though it be, by the sanc tion of a corrupt National administration. And so it has turned out. A vigorous and earnest effort is in progress to stay the evil, which, within a few weeks, has grown so portentous. The Supreme Court of the State has been appftaled to, in due form, to interpose in behalf of violated •laws, and to accomplish, by an injunction, what our PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1866. city officials should and might, long ago, have done, had they been animated by a fearless and manly regard for the ,right. The particulars of the suit will be found in another column. It will be seen that the case will come up for argument next Mon day, before Judge Strong. With the known character of Judge Strong and the majori ty of .the judges on the Supreme beneh, and with the clearness of the laws and the grossness of the violations complained of in the bill, we cannot allow ourselves to doubt that the verdict will be all that the friends of the Sabbath can wish. But in a crisis so important, when, per haps, the entire question of Sabbath or no Sabbath is to be settled for our city, Chris tian people are called to earnest prayer for the Divine guidance and interposition, and ,to the most zealous efforts in promotion ,of the present enterprise for its defence. AN ILL-PAID MINISTRY, Perplexing beyond measure are those cases, occurring in every Christian com munity, of utter neglect and obtuseness to some very plain duty, accompanied with a general fairness, or even excellence of Christian character. Sometimes a Chris tian parent will be found irreproachable in every other respect, while his household will show a most culpable neglect of family training and discipline. Frequently a Christian will be found ready to give time, talk, prayers, everything most liberally to the Gospel, save his money. But nothing .is more amazing than to see a whole con gregation of average piety, intelligence and means, loving, respecting and speaking well of a pastor, whom yet they almost leave to starve for lack of sufficient support. How strangely negligent in a seemingly affectionate and truly Christian people, to leave a pastor's salary stand at the same figures as before the war, while doubtless the members in their business transactions, do not for a moment dream of treating a day laborer or, subordinate clerk in• such a mintier. Hew passing strange for such 'a people—a truly Christian . people—to de mand of their pastor double price for the goods he gets from their stores, or the' pro duce he buys from their farm, their or chard, and their dairy, while thoughtlessly continuing to him precisely the same salary they promised before the rise of prices ! How unaccountable that such persons should contentedly accuninlate wealth for them selves, and allow their pastor to sacrifice his small savings of former years, or a wife's little income, and impoverish himself for the sake' of giving his prosperous people the Gospel ! That they should never think of the gnawing cares, the crushing burdens, the heart sinkings of their pastor whom they love and for whom they pray; that they, in their comfortable homes, and upon their fertile farms, are blind to a martyr dom which is transpiring in the parsonage, as real, as painful and harder to bear, than the sharp but speedy ordeal of the stake or the sword. There are pastors, men of intelligence and refinement, men of high character and devotion to their work, over people of sufficient—sometimes of abundant—means, who love and respect them; not in Home Missionary fields, but in our eastern Pres byteries, and over old-established congre gations, whose private necessities would rival the shadiest of the Shady Sides ever Rriuted ; whose private means, health and life are being sacrificed ; in whose house holds a sufficiency of nourishing food is not in reach of the purse; where clouds and gloom hang over the horizon, which a com paratively trifling effort on the part of the congregation might disperse. Others are compelled, in battling with want, to aban don, either in part or whole, the pastoral work, while the church assents as if it were a matter of course. Brethren, this state of things must not, cannot last. Churches whom it concerns, must ask themselves, Is it fair and honest to receive a man's services at the same salary as he was engaged for, five or six or more years ago ? Is it honorable to suffer' our minister to spend private means and grow poorin giving us the Gospel, while we lay up, from year to year, our respectable accu mulations? Shall the Church deal with Christ's ambassadors as she dare not deal with a day laborer ? If the Church is not grinding the faces of the poor, is she not grinding the faces of her ministry And though many, very many churches are doing nobly, yet many more, we fear, are guilty 3 and we believe the whole Church is to blame for the needless sufferings of a single one, of her public servants. The whole Church is bound to take some effi cient action to secure her pastors a competent worldly support, as provided in our Form of Government. Without doubt the ministry will deterio rate if something to check this evil is not done. Were the Church poor, she might with reason expect her sons in the ministry to share her providential lot and to flourish, as they have already done, under the bur den. But the days of martyrdom are past. Amid , a prosperous Church, it is something monstrous to expect the ministry to play the part of martyrs. We do not believe God wishes them to do it. On the con trary, He may be, expected most justly to withdraW from the churches the bright lights, the.piotts, able and gifted. men who have adorned thp profession; to let the stars shine dimly amid the candlesticks; to transfer the genius and the high endow ments, which He. grants to 'the human soul, to other fields of effort, while. He suf fers the minstry to sink into inefficiency, obscurity and contempt. Let not the cov etousness or apathy of the Church, thus make necessary as a punishment, one of the deepest disasters that could befal, it. DR. BRAINERD'S LAST SERMON. The last sermon preached by Dr. Brain erd was in fulfillment of his appointment by the Brainerd Missionary Society of La fayette College, Easton, on Sunday even ing, July 23d. There was a singular and beautiful propriety in the event. That he should be invited to perform the duty, was felt to be highly becoming. But that the descendant and the biographer of the Brainerds who preached upon that conse crated ground centuries ago, should, after a life of active and honorable labor for the Master, give his last public testimony to the truth upon that spot r at the gall of the youth of our day organized as the Brainerd Missionary Society, in " The Brainerd Church;" this happy coincidence -was nothing less than the seal of Providence put upon the life work of Thomas Brainerd. The Easton Daily Express, commenting upon the sermon, said : " The Text was ' Let no man despise t j hy nuth and, the venerable divine ) in ,language of rare polial, kaVe words of counsel to the young men before him that will long be remembered. He dwelt on the noble work that David Brainerd had done, and which was finished at an early age, when many ministers were just com mencing theirs. The speaker was in feeble health, and sometimes his voice could scarcely be heard by all in the crowded house, yet the respectful and eager atten tion to catch every word, showed how much he was honored, and how much the dis course itself was valued." Oil. readers will all be glad to learn that the sermon is about to be published in pamphlet form. We cannot doubt that it will have a wide circulation. “ THE PRESS.” True to its irreligious instincts, The Ppeas , ,of this city assails with virulence the parties engaged in upholding the sanctity of the Sabbath, and the ancient laws of the Commonwealth. Enjoying the bad eminence of leadership in the ranks of the enemies of the Fourth com mandment in Philadelphia, it must needs devote its columns to the support of the cause of infidelity and license. That utter recklessness should characterize its state ments when enlisted in such an openly 'immoral cause, is not at all surprising; but what shall we think of the conscience of the writer who, in the issue of Monday, dares to assert that, for every one of the sixteen complainants on the bill, "one thou sand names could be procured to testify that the Sabbath has not been disturbed, and that not one person was ever prevented `.from peaceably worshipping God, because of the running of these cars" ? No wonder this editorial, written doubtless on Sunday, quotes as authority one of those vile Sun day sheets that never air themselves in respectable circles. It is natural enough, though certainly not very shrewd, that those who scout Christianity as authority, and labor to break down its most sacred and beneficent institutions, should seek support and confirmation from agencies whose very existence is a scandal to the good morals of the community. One thing is certain.. If we are rob bed of our Sabbath in Philadelphia, the Christian community may know and will remember, that the one man of all others, to whom they will owe the irreparable mis s chief is John W. Forney.' BELon.—A subscriber in this place sent ns six dollars and a-half in a post office order, under date Sept. 20th, but did not give his name. We are much obliged for the money, and if he will send his name, will give him due credit. RELIGIOUS WORLD ABROAD.--01:11' monthly article under this head may be looked for next week. Genesee Evangelist, No. 1062. LETTER FROM REV. GEORGE DIIF FIELD, Jr. MY VERY DEAR BROTHER :—Though far out upon the prairie, within a few miles of the Mississippi, you must not suppose that I have altogether forgotten "the Pres byterian House," and dear old Philadelphia in general. Every now and then, as only last week, some warm-hearted letter from a friend and fellow-laborer in "the work of God" in 1858, or, as so frequently of late, the unexpected notice of their illness or decease, has struck a deep and answering chord in my heart,.until this morning, it seems to me as if it would be a real relief to step once more into your sanctum, 'and have a sympathizing talk- you on. paper. But that place of all others, would the most remind me of the sore bereave ment that we have recently experienced as a denomination. WALLACE is gone, with his facile pen and ready tongue, and daring courage; ever ready to find a way or -make• a way, out of danger - and difficulties; who rejoiced in the Church's joy, and sorrowed in its sorrow, as but few others could do; how much I loved and . admired that man, I need not say to you who also admired and loved him so much, and for the same rea sons. Wheii the record of the men of 1837 is fully written up, there will be no .justice in .history unless Benjamin J. Wal lace,is remembered as one of the choicest spirits of them all. „ Dr. - BRAINERD is gone, a friend from whom parted more unwillingly 'and with a greater sense of sacrifice than any other ministerial friend in Philadelphia. One of his peculiarities, you 'remember, was to cultivate the society of younger brethren in the ministry, and how much we enjoyed such intercourse in the Union Prayer-meet ings, the Monday morning meeting at Pres bytery and Synod, I need not say. Never shall I forget a day that I once spent with him, (after the meeting of Synod at Wil liamspOrt,) in a trip along the West Branch of the Susquehanna. The mountain and river scenery seemed to make him almost wild with delight, and as from time to time he sketched so vividly the leading incidents of his life, and especially the manner in which he was weaned from the law and led into the ministry, it was rare enjoyment indeed. But the place, of all others, in which he seemed to be the most at home, was in the editor's room, and. anything of importance that escaped his notice in the exchanges, was a marked exception to the general rule. The last time I saw him was on his* old horse in Chestnut street, and that little curb-stone conversation, short as it was, showed as much of the fire of 1776 as ever. His record, also, as one of the fathers of 1837, will prove a most instruc tive one, and sincerely do we hope that the falling mantle will not be lost in the wilder ness. As there are engineers in the army, and statesmen in the nation, so there are engineers and statesmen - in the .Church, and in that number Dr. Brainerd ranks prisms inter pares. And now M. W. BALDWIN is gone ; a man who not only made locomotives, but was a locomotive himself in every good word and work. When affairs in the church were discouraging, who more ready than he "to try it just this once," and take a new and heavier lift ? In times of revival, when the Spirit of God was poured out, who more ready to rejoice with the joy of harvest ? " Now," said he, when the great revival commenced in 1858, "now let you ministers go to work, and use market language as Whitefield did. The Gospel can be laid down so that a plain man can see how to pick it up. Be sure you do it, and don't fire over people's heads. You don't know how ignorant sin ners are. When I was first converted, I got into trouble about prayer, and so I went to an old Christian and asked him what I must do ? Ask for grace,' said he. Again I got into trouble about temptation. What must I now do? 'Ask for grace,' was the reply a second time. .Once more I got into trouble about duty, and the an swer being still the same as before, I got quite out of patience. Why, one would think, according to you, that Christian life was nothing else but, grace, grace, grace all the way through. 'So IT said the old man; and yet, said Mr. Baldwin, I *as too ignorant at-first-to understand it. Preach the plain truth, the simple truth the plainer the better." Dear Brother Bald• win ! how very, very few understood, to the same extent as he, the sublime art of laying up treasure in heaven. As I look up this moment at the yicture of Calvary Church, now hanging , in my study, in ad dition to the pleasure of gazing on it as a model of architecture, I associate with it the memories of Brainerd and Baldwin. How "blessings brighten as they take their 'l 4 F, lir DI IS , N Per annum, in advance: By Mail, €l2. Fifty cents additional, after th E r y ee C m a o r n r r. 34). t i Z. 83 Clubs.—Ten or more Papers cent to one address. payable strictly in advance and in oneremittance. By Mail, $2 50per annum: By Carrier. ''..,:3 per annum. Ministers and Ministers' Widows.s .51 in advance. • Home Missionacies,s 4 00 in advance. Remittances by mail are at our risk. Postage.—Five cents quarterly, in advance, paid by subscribers at the office of delivery. Advertisements.-123 cents per line for the first, and 10 cents for the second insertion. One square (ten lines) one month .:•"3 00 two months 550 ..• three months 7 50 0 six months 12 00 ~.,n one year 13 00 The following discount on long advertisements, in serted for three months and upwards, is allowed Over 20 lines, 10 per cent. off; over 50 lines, 2. cent.; over 10 01ines, 33% per cent. flight!" Only when such men are gone do we begin to appreciate how much we had in them when living'. Dr. KENNARD, my dear, kind neighbor and brother and fellow-worker in the ~ _ ood cause, during the ten years of my resi dence in Philadelphia, how much I !oved him also. And now he too is gone. A Uir ad plures ! Never azain shall we WC' in Jayne's Hall, in the great congrenatior. . but one day, nr. YONDER, when we ourselves join the innumerable company, shall our holy and happy fellowship be renewed. to be broken no more forever. And now my dear brother, as one of the orizinal founders of the AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN when the very name we gave our child was not so well understood as it is now, permit me to inqure, how the loss of two such staunch friends and supporters as Dr. Brainerd and Mr. Baldwin, is likely to affect you ? This paper is now a power in the church that cannot readily be dispens ed with, without injury to all parties con cerned. Established at the first as a ne cessity of the times, in deliberate opposi tion to the pro-slaveryism of Dr. Converse and his rebel politics in the " Christian Observer," it has faithfully maintained its loyalty to the Church and country ever since. It has given forth no Delphic utterances, but has been honest and out spoken from the beginning of the war to the end. Even at the present time, when we have the "big job" on hand of taking care of the country, and of our unfortunate Presi dent also, I rejoice to see that it is still doing as good service as ever. The fall election of 1866, like that of 1864, far transcends all State and party issues, and takes hold on the future of our country for generations yet' to come. At least so I ventured to declare in the Annual Ad dress before our Knox County Agricul tural Society, last Thursday. And if you want a further specimen of the way in which one of your quondam editors still continues to talk politics, I will give :you one or two paragraphs more. "Whenever I think of the tremendous conflict- through which we have recently passed, I always seem to see a prairie, and two converging ploughs, one called slave labor, and the other free labor. A collision is in evitable. Both cannot own and cultivate this virgin soil, and which shall give way ; the Northern farmer to the Southern planter, or the Southern planter to the Northern far mer? A battle ensues, and you well know who got the worst of it in that battle. And now, while they are tinkering up the old broken slavery plough, and endeavoring to transfer slavery from individuals to commu nities, and the rebel planter and his Northern allies demand the Tight, in virtue of the Constitution, forsooth, to take the reins out of your hand and run your plough in their own interest, to sow their own seed, and se cure their own harvest, all I want to know, is, whether, with eyes in your head and votes in your hand, you are going to let them do it ? [Cries of No ! no ! no ! all over the field.] "Not long since one of your brother farm ers here on the prairie cut in two a pretty large serpent of the rattlesnake persuasion, and after leaving him in that condition for some time, supposed him to be dead. But unfortunately for that farmer, he was but poorly posted in natural history. Poking at his defunct snakeship with a little stick, to turn him over and give him a little sunshine, the dying reptile suddenly reared itself on its remaining vertebra, and fastened its fatal fangs between the farmer's finger and thumb. The snake died, but so did the farmer ! Served him right you say, for being such an 2-gllO - If so, you see the moral for all farm ersd citizens in general. Not to take too much for granted as to the life of the rebel lion being extinct, until its sun has gone down beneath the horizon forever. This is the way we talk and this is the way we feel out here in Illinois, and you may confidently set down "the Sucker State" as good for 40,000, many say 50,000 for Congress, and against our usurpating Executive. The worst thing Of all that I have seen against Johnson's administration, is the miserably mean and underhanded way in which they have allowed the street cars of Philadelphia to run by National law when they could not do so by State law. To some of us who remember Johnson's Sun day mail report, that name is already suffi ciently odious in this connection, without being made more so. Were I a citizen of niladelphia, rather than submit to such an outrage, I would go before the country with it, and enlist every good man in the land against such iniquity. The fight that some' of us began July 17, 1859, with the watchword, " The crisis come, Sabbath or no Sabbath," ought not to be given up yet, by any means: My first year in Illinois in many respects has been the very best of my life. I have fulls recovered my health, I have seen a very powerful revival of religion, which has brought in two of my own children. My' son has been licensed and is now preaching at Chicago. Our church has just paid off its debt of $7OOO. Knox College commen ces its fall term under good auspices, and I am living in good hopes of another precious work of grace this winter. Faithfully yours, G-EO. DIIPETELD, Ja GA.LESBURG, ILL., Sept. 18, 1866
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