THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN
LSD
GENESEE EVANGELIST.
Religious and Family Newspaper,
Dt tise musts" 01 1110
constitutional Presbyterian Cher&
PUBLISHRD WRAY THURSDAY.
.T THE PIikErBYTEILTAN HOUSE,
ism Chestnut Street. (2d story.) Plitladeribie.
Rev. Jobe Idr.`itellonk Miter and Publisher.
astritait reoingttian.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1866.
STRONG IN FAITH.
It must be confessed that many who in
the judgment of charity are true Christians,
show very little of the power of faith.
M an y, too many, are compelled to say in
the same breath, " Lord, I believe," and
4114 thou my unbelief." Too many
have just such a contradictory experience;
eon believing, now unbelieving; and the
best evidence of belief they have is, that
they find themselves applying to, Christ for
deliverance from their unbelief: " Help
thou mine unbelief."
Only to believe, is to live; but merely as
th e feeble, wailing infant,• that must be
nursed and carried, and fed with milk, and
borne with in its thousand infirmities; but
to be strong in taith is to be grown into
vigorous manhood, to be 'a power instead of
a care in the family, the Church, and the
community; to be able to digest the strong
meat of the word. The weak believer
dwells in a kind of twilight. It is as if
the shining light which had broken the
darkness of his night, stood still before
quite reaohing the horizon, and left him
amid half-dissipated shadows, scarcely en-
aiding him to distinguish between friendly
and hostile objects; scarcely revealing to
him the way of truth and rectitude. He
that is strong in, the faith has a fully risen
sun shining upon him. He plants his foot
brmly in the well-marked path of duty.
lie grapples unhesitatingly with his he;
he recognizes and allies himself heartily
with his own friends and God's.
To be strong in faith is to take a firm
hold of the offers of mercy in the Gospel.
It is to be most heartily convinced of the
all-sufficiency of the merits of Christ and
the sincerity and freeness of his offers, and
to put implicit trust in them. It is to lay
hold on them as our only and yet'oomplete
salvation. It is to yield them our highest
confidence, to depend upon them as we do
not depend on the best earthly friend or
earthly substance. It is to feel them as an
immovable rook beneath
. our feet, as an
anchor to the soul, aura epai. etea,dfasst,.-eaa..:
tering into that within the veil. It is to
see in Christ our complete salvation. It is
to feel satisfied, safe, assured in Him, to
transfer all our fears to Him, to rest in
his arms of mercy as a place beyond peril
from all the assaults of hell, and sin, and
Satan. It is to feel that his grace is full
enough, his merits rich enough, his satis
faction broad enough, to warrant all who
accept them, in the exercise of an bumble
but positive and comforting assurance of
salvation.
To be strong in faith, is to grasp firmly
those unseen truths and facts revealed in
the Scriptures. Materialism has no Bible,
sod could never have originated the sacred
books or traditions of the most debased of
heathen tubes. A. strong faith is a nature
divinely endowed or trained, quite beyond
the meagre limits with which materialism
would fetter thought. Materialism ignores
and would crush the capacity of faith in
nun. The man of strong faith asserts his
prerogative as a spiritual being. He has
in himself the substance of things hoped
for, the Evidence of things not seen. The
existence of God, and of the other world as
a place of rewards and punishments, the
duty and value of prayer, and all the grand
facts and principles involved in the Chris
tian religion.are practical realities trohina.
He walks with God. He worships and
obeys him. He accepts of his great love in
Christ Jesus, and takes it as an unspeakable
consolation to his heart. He shortly ex
pects to meet his God in judgment, and
afterward to dwell with Him forever.
These things exert a constant lieroeptible
influence on his every.day life and conduct.
They are the rule of his life. He walks by
faith, not by sight.
The strong in faith grasps the great,
strong doctrines of the Bible with a:firm
hand. He admits them unwaveringly into
his mind, because he has already given
them a cordial admission into his heart.
Not by dint of laborious self-persuasion
does the belief in the inspiration of the
Scriptures, in the divinity of the Christian
religion, and the reality of the miracles of
the Bible, hold its uncertain tenure in his
convictions. No chill, negative criticism
can send quaking into his steadfast soul.
lie feels a deep harmony between his soul
and th e glorious doctrines of the ,Gospel.
Glowing in the calm majesty of undoubted
divine truth, they communicate their own
'lability to his mind; his faculties, his
energies, all the movements of his being
fall into beautiful order, and keep time to
their inspiring celestial music. Healthful
vigor animates his inward life; hope beams
like ast •-• •his blows
New Series, Vol. 111, No. -43.
for truth and for God have more than mor
tal energy. While skepticism knows no
thingtbeiteithan to ask questions, to raise
cold suspicions, to disoover difficulties and
Obstacles, to chill the heart, to shatter the
will a n d to mope helpless and bewildered
in the, mist she herself has raised. The high
est enterprise of the doubter is criticism of
the grounds of his 'neighbor's faith; and all
he undertakes is
" Sicklied o'er with the'pale cast of thought."
To the strong. in faith the doctrines and
facts of revealed religion, with their mys
teries, in their heaven-reaching height and
depth, and-in their a4-embracing
,breadth,
are the Very pillars of the universe. Noth
ing is so real as they; nothing is real with
out them. Their very difficUlties, instead of
being objections, are to him but the incom
prehensible majesty of their truth. He
believes titer& the more and the.better for
their difficulties.
Once more, the strong in faith grasp and
keep bold of the promises. They take God
at his word. They have believed in Christ,
and they know that in Him all the prom
ises are Yea and Amen. With Christ, the
greater gift, they know God, in his king
dom of grace, will freely give us all things.
Resting on
_the promises they pray, and
their prayers are deeds. They put God
upon his faithfulness, and he honors it and
answers them. They wrestle with him as
if they actually had a hold upon Him.
Rising up thus in a mighty energy of
prayer to God, their souls have wrought with
prayerful energy in the world, and their
great works for God have marked the his
tory of their race, and have changed its
currents. Strong in faith were Luther and
John Knox, mighty in prayer, mighty in
deeds. Strong in faith was Abraham, the
father of the faithful, who, a friendless
stranger, took possession in Jehovah's
name of the promised land, then the abode
of powerful idobitrous tribes; who dwelt in
tents with the second and third generations
of the heirs of the promise, and died in the
faith, not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off, and was per
suaded of them and.embraced them. The
childless old man, a hundred years old, re
ceived the promise. thatimabould be heir
of the world, that in his seed all the nations
of the earth should be blessed; , he believed
in the God that quickeneth the dead and
calleth those things which be not as though
they were;:against hope, he believed in
hope and staggered not at the promise, but
was strong in the faith, being fully per
suaded that what God had promised He
was able also to perform.
Of like invincible quality was the faith
of Wichern and Harms and Gossner in
Germany, and George Mueller of Bristol,
England. The - lives of these men were
scenes of constant, believing importunity
and wrestling with God. Out of poverty
and obscurity they raised up great and
beneficent institutions, and became almon
ers of vast sums from the treasury of the
Lord. No brighter proofs of the power of
faith as a working principle are to be found
in the history of the Church, than those
given in the labors of these men. They,
too, with Abraham, believed in the God
who calls those things which be not as
though they were. They faced indescrib
able difficulties, and bore mountain weights
of discouragement, and clung prayerfully
to God through all and succeeded. Men
of strong faith make their mark. They
work with more than human strength and
guidance. They are.positive powers in the
world. Their foolishness is wiser than
men, their weakness is stronger than men.
SYNOD OF PENNSYLVANIA,
This body held its annual session last'
week
week in the First Church, Carlisle.
The place itself is one of much in
terest to Presbyterians, on account of
the antiquity of the church—a century
and a quarter having elapsed since its or
ganization—and as being the scene of the
earlier labors of the distinguished and ven
erable Duffield, and the centre of some of
the most intense and exciting struggles of
the times of the division. Here was
written one of the' books which brought
*n and deepened the once fearful cry of
heresy, and which helped to draw more
clearly the lines between the parties then
UnfortunatelY dividing the church.
This place and the_ entire vicinity in the
broad and fertile valley of the Cumber-
land, were open to the advance of the
rebel army; and were held by them in un
disturbed possession for a few days in 1863.
There is scarcely a More fertile or magnifi
cent belt of country to be found in all the
agricultural regions oT the land than this
valley, bounded by lofty wooded , ridges on
either hand. One who has beheld it in
the w 'fi its warm 11
PHILADELPHIA„ THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1866.
harvests and loaded fruit-trees, can well
understand how, in the words of the poet,
it must have appeared
"Fair as a garden of the Lord,
In the eyes of the famikhed rebel horde."
The good people of Carlisle still speak
with deep disgust, of the 'four days in
which they were under the rule,. of Jeffer
son Davis, entirely cut o ff from the rest
of the world. True, the rebel soldiers
were kept for that brief period in excel
lent control ; and only - here and there a ,
slight taste of what might be expected, in
the event of the defeat of Gen. Meade,
was experienced. Fee tattle were driven
off, and serviceable horses seized without
hesitation ; and peculiar twinkle of the
eye attends the narrative of the plunder of
certain sympathizers with the rebellion;
who, during the invasion, confidently
retained their stock about the farm, but,
who were compelled to see it pass, without
remuneration, into the hands of their needy
Southern "friends."
They, indeed, very generally offered to
pay in rebel currency, and for the most
part, they treated the farmers and their
families with civility; even asking permis
sion, like school-boys, to climb the cherry
trees on the road. It is needless to say
that the permission was granted with equal
civility. A hardware merchant in Car
lisle was stripped of $l5OO of stock, but
was asked to make out a bill of items; and
after the bill had been duly examined, was
given the choice of a quartermaster's
certificate, or of rebel currency in pay
ment. He coolly answered that, as a ,
certificate would serve only to light a single
oiler, while with the currency he could
light a good many,, he had , a slight prefer
ence for the latter; and he got it.
Besides burning the Government bar
racks, which have since been substan
tially rebuilt, and destroying the Cum
berland Valley 'Railroad bridge, over
Le Tort creek, the rebels, it will be
remembered, shelled the town, before
fairly commencing their retreat to Gettys
burg. They planted their cannon on an
eminence just east of the creek, and sent
their shells into the centre of the tovhb
where our militia' were.-stationed. • 'Hair
too, is the edifice of the First Church, in
which the Synod held its sessions, the
front of which bears 'more than one mark
of these 'rebel missiles; and as no mate
rial damage was done by them, the shat
tered stones are left, as they should be,
faithfully to tell to strangers, and, as we
hope, to coming generations, the story.
By far the most important and interest
ing part of the proceedings of Synod was
the cordial and fraternal interchange of
speech and action between ourselves and
the Synod of Baltimore, which was "provi
dentially in session at the same time in the
Second Church. The movement was ini
tiated by our , brethren of the other branch,
who showed the utmost cordiality and
frankness in all their acts, and whose
speech and conduct made upon our breth
ren the happiest impression. The negotia
tions resulted in au invitation to the Synod
of Baltimore from our side, to unite with
us in the Synodical Communion on Wed
nesday evening, which was accepted. A
more remarkable and impressive service
surely was never held in that building.
At seven in, the evening, before a thronged
congregation, the members from the _other
Synod, considerably outnumbering ours,
poured into the middle aisle of the church,
and were received by our brethren stand
ing; each pew, so far as practicable, re
ceiving brethren from each Synod. The
two Moderators presided jointly. Rev. A.
B. Cross, of Baltimore, Moderator of the
other Synod, opened the services, by read
ing part of the I.7th chapter of John.
He remarked in his address, that he and
his brother Moore, the Moderator of our
Synod, had toiled together for the soldiers
in the lines before Petersburg, and he
eloquently compared our two divided
churches to the two armies of Sherman and
of Meade, separated in appearance , only,
but both under one leader; both of us
holding tenaciously to the same form of
government and doctrine.
.Mr. Moore, in his address, declared that
he did not believe the dootrinal contests
of the generation gone by had been in vain.
He hoped for the time when we might be
one in name as well as one in heart; and
though, perhaps, that time had not yet come,
he hoped it would cone at an early day.
After prayer and reading the words or
institution, the bread - was 'distributed by
Mr. Barnes, who made a full and lucid
doctrinal statement, in which he' held' up
the vicarious offering of Christ as the cen.
tial fact of Christianity, whioh this supper
was designated to celebrate. He was fol
lowed by Dr. Thomas Creigh, of Mercers
r, N, man of venerable appearance, who
alluded to Calvin's coat of arms—a heart
•
enveloped in flame and lifted up by a hand
toward heaven: Dr. Creigh referred to the
interesting fact, that. nearly forty years
before, be had made his public profession
of religion, and had first received the sacred
bread and =wine in this' Very church, from
the handir.;of Dr. Duffield, of whom he
spoke with the deepest reverence. He
said he did not care to hear the old disputes
brought up,again. They were family quar
rels, that ought to be forgotten.
The cup was dispensed by Dr. March,
whose remarks deepened the tenderness of
the wagon. He briefly recalled the story
of . Tiottes and-his grateful wife receiving
their Hies from the Roman conqueror,
Pompey. ,Dr, March could not enter per
sdnally into the ecclesiastioal "difficulties •
which divided the Synod. He saw before
him only brethren.
The closing remarks were made by Dr.
Gurley, of Washington. Dr. Gurley de
scribed to -the breathless audience the
scene at the death-bed of Mr. Lincoln, and
referred to his own prayer on that solemn
occasion, in which he expressed the desire
that the nation might, by that dreadful
event, be led to consecrate themselves anew
to the cause for whioh Mr. Lincoln had
died. That prayer, said Dr. Gurley, was
answered. And should not we, around this
memorial of our crucified Lord, reconseerate
ourselves to the cause for which he died?
.The elements were distributed by eight
elders, four from each Synod. At the con
the whole audience rose and sung
the doxology, " From all that dwell below
the skies," and the benediction was pro
'winced by Mr. Cross. Many were the
introductions and many more the mutual
greetings without any formality among the
brethren which followed. And so ended
this remarkable celebration, in the midst
of the battle-grounds of thirty years ago;
no place more thoroughly impregnated with
associations and reminiscences tending to
cherish ecolesiastical hostilities could well
have been found ; and yet here, in the pro
video ce of God, the triumph of Christian
charity and brotherly kindness at the Mas
ter's feet was celebrated; and the world
Again. had oeeasion to , say " Behold how
these Christians love one another !"
HON. HENRY WILSON.
It may not be exactly in the best taste
to parade the fact of any man's conversion
or public profession of religion.. Yet when
the heart of the country is so pained by an
exhibition of shameless profanity 'and re
oreancy to principle in the highest seat of
national authority, we feel justified in pub
liahing fact so cheering as that of the
humble and doubtless sincere profession of
the Christian faith, under Evangelical asso
ciations, by the distinguished Senator from
Massachusetts, Henry Wilson.
Many of our eminent men, like Jackson,
C,14,- Polk, and Clayton, have made similar
professions toward the close of their politi:
oil Career, or on their death-beds. Mr.
Wilson .has consecrated himself to his
Mastpr's service in the very meridian of
his usefulness, and at a time in his coun
try's history when men are needed in
public life whose devotion to the right
'rests on broader grounds than partizan
ship, political expediency, patriotism, or
even the elevated personal character which
distinguishes not a few of our non-profess.
ing public men. We need men with a
high sense o? responsibility to God; men
rooted and grounded in ; the Christian faith;.
men sustained by a Divine power, which
will enable them to make great sacrifices,
if demanded, in the line of duty.
We earnestly hope that' the Legislature
of our State, if it cannot find a true Chris
tian man 'among the candidates for the
Senatorial to be filled at the coming
session, Will at least save us from the dis
grace of being represented by a tricky
politician, or an open opponent of the insti
tutions ot the Christian religion, in the
highest council of the nation.
THE OPENING OF ANOTHER. REVIVAL
SEASON.—As such we fervently trust we
may characterize the state of feeling de
scribed in <the following paragraph from
the Chicago correspondent of the Evange
list. He writes under date of Oot. 1
" I am glad to be able to write you of very ,
decided religious interest which has followed
the late Sabbath-Sehool Conventions. In
Princeton, Peoria county ; Delevan, Taze
wellemkutly ; ,Champaign, Champaign coun
to ; :Oraniille, Putnam county; Rushville,
Schuy , lci, county; Oquawka, ' Hudson coun
ty ana especially in Pontiac, Livingston
county, very deep and earnest works of
grace ,have began: TheNchildren's meetings
are held by speakers _from, the county and
neighboring towns, and aregenerally under
the charge of some experienced Sabbath
school laborer,. who bends all ' the force of
the addresses into the great work of
souls.",
Genesee Evangelist, No. 1066.
THE ECONOMIC ASPECT.
Among the various parties and interests
to be considered in the Sunday Car Ques
tion—the churches, the people, the car
drivers and conductors, etc.—we should
not Oita overlook the interests of the
companies themselves. We know that
fully one-half of the companies of the city
took no part in the recent crusade against
the Sabbath, and we have no doubt they
were restrained, in part at least, by econo
mic reasons from so doing. In Boston,
where the act of incorporation, singularly
enough, requires them to run on Sunday,
there has been and is a very strong MO=
tion to the practice on the part of some of
the stockholders, because in their judg
ment it does not pay.
In regard to one of our city companies
which bad run for a few Sabbaths, we are
informed by an intelligent employee, that
if this company had continued to run two
Sundays longer, they would have been
compelled to renew half of their stock. of
horses; they were giving out and breaking
down so rapidly from the increased service.
This would have been the harder to-bear,
as the proceeds were only about half as
much per oar on Sunday as on week-dayi.
Moreover, the drivers were becoming dis
satisfied, and could not probably have-been
retained without a considerable advance in
pay for the Sunday work,above the rate for
the week-day.
We trust that all or nearly all of these
companies will be so persuaded of the in
expediency, in a financial point of view, of
running their cars every day in the week,
that they will refuse to join in any scheme
to break down the existing legal hinder
aims to Sunday travel.
TEST SUITS FOR IMPARTIAL SUP
FRAGE.
It will be seen by the following card, that
the reSpectable colored people of the North
are determined to test the full extent of their
right to suffrage under the existing laws of
the land. One of the cases mentioned in the
card printed below is that of an intelligent
minister of our denomination in Newark, N.
J. Members and visitors at the General
Assembly, which met 'in Brooklyn last year,
have not forgotten the exceedingly favorable
impression made by Mr. Thompson, whose
Presbytery had sent him as a Commissioner
to that body. The very decided deliverance
on the subject of impartial suffrage made by
that Assembly, was due, in no small measure,
to the convictions produced in the minds of
the. members, of the unquestionable fitness
for every right of citizenship of a man of the
culture, refinement and real power shown by
-Rev. Charles H. Thompson on that floor.
We earnestly hope Mr. Thompson and his
brethren may succeed, and to aid them in
their effort we here republish their card :
To the Friends of Impartial Suffrage:
The undersigned were appointed and rec
ognized, at several mass meetings of colored
citizens of New Jersey, to contend on behalf
of the colored citizens of New Jersey, and of
all the States, " That any State that disfryin
chises any portion of its citizens on account of
color is in that respect anti republican and in
violation, of the Constitution of the. United
States, which guarantees a republican form
of government to every State, and with full
powers to enlist the press, raise money. em
ploy counsel, and to institute legal proceed
ings in the Courts—State and National—for
the immediate recognition and enforcement
of the right of impartial suffrage, and to
carry the question up . to the Supreme Court
of the - United States in one or more‘National
test suits, for final adjudication and decision,
and to co-operate with and invite co-opera
tion from other States." Numerous meet
ings, and the Committees appointed at those
meetings, in the States of New-York, -Penn
sylvania and Delaware have, by resolutions,
requested us to act on their behalf, and other
States are moving in the same direction for
concert of action ;' so that'we feel authorized
"to call ourselves a National Council, and to
receive aid and co-operative action from all
the States.
In discharge of its duties our Council have
caused to be commenced three suits, to be
regarded as test suits, two in the Supreme
Court of New Jersey and one in the Circuit
Court of the United States, including in its
judicial circuit the State of Delaware. Two
of the parties to these suits, the Rev. Chas.
H. Thompson and Abraham Conover, are
citizens of Newark, New Jersey, and com
menced suits on account of the refusal by
the Registers to registrate them as voters on
the 16th instant. One of the parties, Peter
S. Blake, is a citizen of Wilmington, Dela
ware, whose vote was refused at the election
held in the City of Wilmington, on the 2d
October instant. One of the complainants
is a black, one a mulatto, and one an octo
roon. One is a freeman born; one is a
clergyman, and one is a citizen soldier, has
fought and bled for his country ; all are men
of education and refinement, tax-payers,
possessed of property, and have all the quell
cations of legal voters in' their respective
election precincts , unless color, merely, be
• .
a disqualification. The suits cover the whole
ground, and will settle the legal status of the
colored man umAer the Constitution and laws
of the United States in all the States. The
suits will be prosecuted with all diligence,
so that it is believed that one at least will
have reached the Supreme Court of the
United States'at the next December Term.
The Solicitors and Counsel of Record are
John 'Whitehead, Esq., and Joseph Bentley,
LL.D., of NeWark,• New Jersey. 'The Hon.
Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, has
been retained" and has consented to act as
once or 'rho ••+.
TE2iMB s
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By Nail. $3. By Carrier, • 03 lit
Airy cense additional. after three months.
Clubs.—Ten or more Papers sent to one addrev ,
payable strictly in advance and in oneremittanae.
By Mail, $2 30 per annum. By Carrier. $3 per annum
Ministers and Ministers' Widows, $2 50 ii
advance.
.
Bente Missionaries, $2 00 in advance.
Remittances by mail are at our risk.
Postafe.—Five cents quarterly. in advance. paid
by subsdrinere at the office of delivery.
Advertisements.-12% on t o per R oo f or d o
flret, and 10 cents for the second' insertion.
One square (ten li
m nes) one month se us
... two onths.. 5 s+ l
... three months. 7 fo
• sissmontliS 12 OW
_ .. .
PO
... ono rear 18
The following discount on long advertisements, in
serted for three months. and upwards, is allowed:—
Over 20 lines. 10 percent. off; over 50 lines. 20 per
cent.; over 100 lines, 3334 per cent.
Subscriptions and contributionsfor carrying
on these exceedingly interesting and im
portant suits may be sent to the Treasurer or
the Counsel, Elias S. Ray, Newark, New
Jersey, or made to-the agents duly accredited
under the autograph Eagnatures of the Pre
sident of the Council, Uhas. H. Thompson.
and the Recording Secretary, John lE. 0' -
Fake.
All papers friendly to the cause of Repnb
lean Government will please give this =ew
er an insertion.
CHARLES H. TampsoN,Wit. H. Mar.,
ABRAHAM T. COOS, ADAM RAY,
ELIAS S. RAY, JOHN LOWRY.
JOHN H. ()TAKE, MHZ= ROGERS,
PETER O'FAJECE, Joari WHTTEHEAD,
CHARLES BROWN, SEN., CALVIN PKPPES,
'ArrntoNY MANDEVILLE.
Exectitive Council.
New Jersey, Oct.' 16, - T 866.
COMPLIMENT TO PRESBYTERIANS.
The Roman Catholic (Fenian) organ of
this city, in discussing Judge Strong's de
cision, pays a high compliment to the Pres
byterians of our city and State, by making
them principally responsible for the main
tenance of our Sunday laws. It terms the
decision of the Judge "an unadulterated
piece of Presbyterianism from beginning to
end," and calls the law under which the
Judge decided the case "the ancient Pres
byterian law."
In the name of the Presbyterian body we
must modestly decline the honor, so indis
criminately not to say recklessly, heaped
upon them: We must correct the utterly
false statement of the writer, " that the
whole opposition to the running of the cars,
has been made by the Presbyterians alone;
that all the applicants for the injunction he
has granted, are leading Presbyterians."
The most careless reading of the docu
ments presented by the complainants would
have taught the writer better. At least five
different denominations, counting the three
branches of the Presbyterian church as one,
were represented in the complaint and affi
davits Presbyterian, Reformed Dad',
Baptist, Methodist and Lutheran ; and by
far the most zealous, active and efficient man
in the whole business happens to be a Bap
tist. The Presbyterians are prominent in
the matter which is a natural result of the
fact that they, taken together, constitute
probably the moat numerous, wealthy, and
influential body of Christians in the city ; and
it so happens that the churches, whose
worship is most seriously disturbed by the
running of the cars'of the Union line, are
Presbyterian, including the two oldest
churches of that denomination in the city.
If Presbyterians are, from the situation of
their churches, subjected to the greatest in
convenience, it is very natural that their
complaint should be the loudest.
The object of the Fenian CathOlic organ in
this cry of Presbyterianism is plainly to excite
odium against the Sunday law by represent
ing it as a piece of sectarian bigotry. It is
utterly false ; it is at least just as far from
true as if we should assert that the entire
opposition to the Sunday laws in our com
munity and State comes from Roman Catho
lics. The Sunday law originated with a man
as far removed from bigotry as William Penn,
and, as this reckless organ well knows, is
sustained by the great mass of evangelical
Christians and law-abiding citizens of our
State andoity. And if Presbyterians do dis
tinguish themselves in zeal for its observance,
we believe they have the gratitude of the
good people of the country for it. We see
no signs of the decline of their power and in
fluence as upholders of the institutions of re
ligion and good morals. The Fenian organ
very sagely and complacently declares that
the Presbyterian impress has commenced to
vanish from the Commonwealth. And yet
close beside this declaration, in the very next
column of the paper, is a oareful summary of
the vote at the late election in this city, from
which it appears that'the largest vote given
for any candidate by several hundreds was
for a Presbyterian elder, Judge Allison,
whose majority for the position of Presiding
Judge is there put down as 6071, 683 greater
than that of Gen. Geary. Judge Allison,
too, had taken a prominent part last winter in
resisting the proposed abrogation of the Sun
day laws by the Legislature. It is not men
tioned, but it is doubtless known in those
quarters, that one of the Associate Judges
elected at the same time and by a very com
plimentary vote, is of the, same odious and
" declining" faith. If the Fenian organ is
satisfied with this rate of decline, surely we
Presbyterians have no disposition to com
plain of it.
We are told that Archbishop Purcell, in
his sermon at the close of the Second Plenary
Council ,stated that this Council was impressed
with the necessity of reclaiming[?] to Catho
licity the . United States of America, and in
timated this to be the grand object of its
assembling. We should like to see them try
it on sturdy old Pennsylvania. As intracta
ble as the vast upturned ridges of c,onglomer
atO rock that line her coal basins, would they
find the backbone of Presbyterianism that so
largely underlies the wealth, the social influ
ences, and the old-established institutions of
the Keystone State.
WOMeN'S WORN Tri Wes.—frank
Moore, author of the Rebellion Record, has
issued a large and handsome illustrated. oc
taVo, exhibiting the share of our Christian
women on the 'field, in the hospital and at
horde, in the work of alleviating the suffer
lees of our soldiers during the war. We
^ . '7,