THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN
AND
GENESEE EVANGELIST.
Family NeWßpftper,
IV THE INTEREST OF THE
Constitutional Presbyterian Church.
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY,
AT THE PRESBYTERIAN HOUSE,
j,vj4 Chestnut Street, (2d story,) Philadelphia.
g e v. .! ohu W, USears. £Hiic>r and Publisher.
Jtmraau Jtristajfariatt.
THURSDAY, JANUARY io, 1867.
DRIFTING.
A very pleasing picture, designed, we
think, by Millais, bears the title “ Drift
ing.” It represents the occupants of a
pleasure-boat, with oars slung lazily by the
side, as giving up the direction of their
craft wholly to the current. They are
content with whatever disposition the force
of circumstances may make of them. They
are without plan of their own; they make
no effort, they offer no resistance, they are
apparently without energy. A listless,
languid feeling pervades the pioture, in
which the broad-leaved pond-lilies seem to
share. The waterds placid and the current
slow.
The picture suggests a fact of frequent,
nay, habitual, occurrence in human con
duct and experience. The great multitude
only drift with the tide. JThey have no
independent purpose. They r havenoplan of
life which they pursue with energy. They
submit passively to the sway of a corrupt
nature; they are satisfied with the beliefs
and the standards of living which prevail
around them. They feel no call within or
from circumstances without to distinguish
themselves. There is nothing of the racer
or the wrestler contending for a prize, in
their conduct. They are not to be com
pared with fleet yachts, spreading every
inch of canvass, and employing every de
vice of nautical skill, to excel in speed in
a voyage of • thousands of miles across a
stormy ocean, in midwinter. They are
rather like the listless occupants of Millais’
pleasure-boat, who, without a'shred of can
vas, or the stroke of an oar, are gliding
along as the current may please to bear
them.
It is, indeed, very pleasant to drift, upon
a summer evening, among fragrant pond
lilies, and in the society of those we love.
And when a fair share of the rowing and
the rough work of life has been done, when
we have pulled ourselves into places where
the current is safe and no remote roar of a
oataract is in our ears, it may be altogether
consistent with man’s duty and destiny to
rest upon one’s oars, and to enjoy the Sab
bath calmness and beauty which God some
times gives to peculiar periods of our lives.
Certainly there is a drift of Divine Provi
dence to which we lain must yield, and
sometimes it is very far from calm to our
view. But whatever is its seeming nature,
and however we may have struggled against
it at first, when a Divine current is mani
fest in our lives, it should give us satisfac
tion to recognize and to yield to it. Taking
care not to confound Providence with our
own sluggishness and blameable incapacity,
with subdued and submissive hearts, we
should turn our prow into the current and
say, The Will of the Lord be done. There
may be sensuous pleasure in drifting as the
artist has drawn it. But there ts great and
solemn joy, there is a rapturous awe of the
spirit, in discerning and acquiescing in a
real and clear manifestation of the Divine
will in our affairs. The joy and triumph
of success in some arduously pursued and
important scheme of life, attained in the
face, of strong opposing currents, is scarcely
so pure and so unalloyed as the deep satis
faction of finding oneself in the hands of a
God, who makes himself known even in
heavy crosses and disappointments.
But opposite to all this is the drift of the
worldling on the unresisted current of his
own sins, on the tide of passion, of pride, of
worldliness and of selfishness; the drift
of the self-deceived on the superficial tide
ot formalism and legality, while just be
neath the strong current of the unrenewed
nature sweeps him unsuspectingly toward
destruction; the drift of the impenitent
sinner who will not heed the favoring gale
of the Holy Spirit, but perhaps plies the
oar vigorously in the other direction, when
there is the least motion in the current
toward salvation. Selfishness is the one
great, steadily-moving,- all-powerful stream
in the unrenewed life, with many side
currents and eddies, yet all yielding to its
great onward sweep. Passion is a great
gale blowing in the same direction. To
these influences it is certainly easy to yield;
drifting is agreeable to the flesh, but the
movement is swift, and sure, and accelerat
ing ; until the roar of the great cataract an
nounces the end, and instead of a smooth
and steady current, the fearful rush and
rage of the rapids eatebes the unhappy ves-.
sel, and whirls it with irresistible fury over
the edge of the precipioe,into the abyss be
low. Terrible, indeed, is the fact that the
sinner needs but to let things take their
course to drift, in order to perish forever.
Al.as! for the youth who is fairly adrift
on the fatal tide of sensual indulgence
The movement, at first, is so quiet and.
Imroran Tmbnkmn.
ISTew Series, "Vol. IV, TsTo. Q,.
gradual that it rouses no fear. He glides
along, surrounded and lulled to sleep with
pleasures. He goes deeper and deeper into
indulgence. The current sweeps on, grow
ing stronger and stronger. Evil habit
binds and disables him with her chords.
His soul is drugged, his conscience is
stupified, his reason is confused, his ener
gies are crippled, his good name is defaced;
when, the charm of the tempter being
broken, he rouses up barely in time to see
his J>oat sweeping around the inner circle
of the whirlpool of vice, from which his
most frantic efforts avail not to deliver
him. Merciful God,compassionate Saviour!
though often provoked and blasphemed by
the perishing sinner, only thy almighty
grace can rescue him now 1
The oars which we must ply to escape
this fate are named self-denial and prayer.
Instead of drifting, we must breast the cur
rent in its smooth, deoeitful reaches, and
against the wind and tide of custom, habit
and nature, we must work—work out our
own salvation with fear and trembling.- We
must strive, agonize, to counteract the cur
rent which- sets so strongly to perdition.
We must cross nature. We must not be'
conformed to the world, but transformed by
the renewing of our minds. In place of
our own will, wf must put the good, ac
ceptable and perfect will of God. All
claims to righteousness, merit or. strength
in ourselves, must be given up for the
merit' and strength of Christ and his Spirit.
Against the current of despair, we must
ply the oars of humble and hearty trust in
an all-sufficient and infinitely gracious Sa
viour.
Many, far too many Christians are mere
ly drifting. They are not positive, inde
pendent, earnest in their, lives. They are
not steadily, day by day, striving to build
up a well-balanced, beautiful, noble charac
ter. They are not carrying on the inward
conflict with passion, with covetousness,
and with besetting sin, like soldiers in a
great cause. They are not striving to
make their influence felt for God in their
own sphere. They do not feel personally
responsible for the progress of Christ’s
kingdom, for the suppression of vice and
the maintenance of just and righteous laws
in the community. They do not earnestly
endeavor to shape their own and others
lives to holy uses and a heavenly destiny.
They get along with as little effort as possi
ble. They drift with the rest of the
Church. In ordinary time--, there are many
of these drifting Christians. There is no
violent opposition to face now, so that the
mere profession and outward observance of
Christianity may be maintained without
hard tugging. A revival is a time, when
many of these drifting Christians are
roused to seize the oars and work. But
even then many are satisfied to .see the rest
work, while they still drift oh the quickened
tide. •
We don’t believe in drifting as the pre
vailing mode of locomotion. It is not
suited to a probationary state, or to a sinful
world in which the drift is altogether in
the wrong direction. It is out of place,
premature, disastrous. As tree, intelligent
creatures, under divine grace, we must put
forth independent volitions, and interfere
with and counterwork the natural tenden
cies of things around and in us.
Not do we believe in a philosophy which
leaves all the world drifting on a current
called “ natural law;” which will scarcely
have patience to listen even to a question
as to the time when all things commenced
this drifting ; _but which sees in beginning,
middle and end, only a blind, material sub
mission to law. The formation of species
and the birth of man, according to this
philosophy, are mere incidents and marks
of progress in this inconceivably prolonged
drifting. We are mere waifs on an infinite,
irresistible tide, which will bear us out of
sight, as it has borne away forever, other
forms of being. In this way of viewing
things, nq place is left, scarcely at th,e un
imaginable beginning—none certainly after
wards—for an oar to be put in, for a force to
be exercised adverse to this current. No
thing betraying real freedom in God or
man is admissißß in this scheme. The
drift cannot be "arrested by miracle or by
prayer. It is remorseless, heartless law.
It is blind, incomprehensible nature, in
whose hands man, though immeasurably
superior, is powerless. It is a great, resist
less current, rushing down awful precipices
to eternal chaos and night.
The world is not; adrift. A personal God
is in it. None are adrift but false philoso
phers and enemies of God, and willing vic
tims of passion, prejudice and sin.
The English Roman Catholics have
held a great demonstration in favor of the
Temporal Power of the Pope. Speeches
were made and funds subfj^dbed; the former
more freely than the latter.
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, JANUARY 10. 1867.
AT IT AGAIN.
The enemies of the good old Sunday
laws of our Commonwealth, of the good
order of our city, and of “ the ease of
creation” generally, are again before the
Legislature with their plea for repeal.
The very first bill offered in the Senate
was the product of their zeal, and is as
follows:
Be it enacted, Ac.,. That it shall be lawful
for all passenger railway companies within
the County of Philadelphia to run their cars
upon their respective railways upon all days
of the. week, and all laws and parts of laws
inconsistent with this act are hereby re
pealed.
It was fathered by the celebrated Mr.
Donovan, the Irish Catholic member from
‘the third district in this city. Our readers'
are, we believe, well acquainted with the
character of this Democratic State Senator.
If they are not, we need only say that his
claims to political elevation at the hands of
his fellow-citizens are almost identical with
those of Mr. John Morrissey, of New
York; the only difference being that those
of Mr. Morrissey are on a grander scale,
and have, consequently, been rewarded by
a generous New York constituency with a
seat in the .National, rather than the State,
legislature.
It will be remembered, too, that Mr.
Donovan undertook the management of a
similar measure in the Senate a year ago.
It is a little singular that, with the pres
tige of utter failure in that attempt weigh
ing upon him, he should once more be
entrusted with the enterprise. Can it be,
that he is the only member from our city
who can be induced to engineer this mis
erable piece of work; that a measure on
which Mr. Forney’s heart is set must be
put into the'hands of one of his bitter
est political foes, ,snd who has already
been badly beaten in the attempt; that an
open and violent sympathizer with seces
sion must be engaged, a second time, for a
work Which a leading republican journal
advocates with such devotion? We have
been told that the defeat of our former
Senator from the first district, Mr. Nichols,
was a consequence of his vote against the
repeal of the Sunday laws last session.
Yet the gentleman who, on this supposi
tion, owes his seat in the Senate to the
anti-Sunday sentiment of this city, is passed
over in the arrangements for introducing
the bill; nor do the Republicans show the
zeal of men who wish to purge themselves
of such a bad repute as that of friends of
the Sabbath.
However, ere this article _ meets our
readers’ eyes, much may have occurred to
throw light on. the situation. We may
venture, meanwhile,;to deny any intimation
that the friends of the Sabbath have re
sorted to the device of securing Mr. Dono
van’s services, and thus introducing the
measure burdened with all the disadvan
tages which it must suffer in his hands,
before it could be introduced under more
favorable circumstances. The result may
show'that such a policy would have been
shrewd. But whatever services may be
rendered by the member from the third
district, they are no doubt voluntary, and
with quite opposite views from those of the
friends of the Sabbath.
Jiufc seriously, we ask out legislators to
spare our city such an infliction as, is con
templated in this repeal. We ask them
whether they can seriously meditate the
loosening of the ‘bonds of good order, es
pecially in a great city, where there is such
special and growing need of them: We
respectfully remind them that this very
anti-Sunday movement, in its persistence
and violence, is a novelty ; and is itself a
symptom of the demoralization which is
growing with the growth of the city. It
is not the work of the wise and good and
orderly and pious of our city. Judges
and lawyers, who know crime and its
causes, are not in the movement. It is a
demonstration of hostility to the Evangel
ical Churches of the city, many of which
will be rendered useless and their ministry
silenced, several months in the year, if it
is carried out. It is a movement whose
strength is almost exclusively in the foreign
elements, the. infidel Germans, the Irish
Catholics, tbe Jews, and the small unevan
gelical sects in the city.
No, Messrs. Legislators; the appearance
of such a movement should warn, you, that
the time has come for you to exercise
greater watchfulness than ever, over the
morals of the greatest city of your Com
monwealth. Rather should you be stirred.
up, by the renewed offer of Mr. Donovan's
bill, to instruct your Committee on Vice
and Immorality to inquire what reasonable
restraint upon vice and immorality has
been left unapplied; what laws directed
against, the prevailing sources of disorder
among us are yet to be enacted or need to
be amended; rather should it, be your
concern, as wise rulers, to put new guards
.around that institution, which, well-ob
served, is the surest defence of morals and
good order in the community, the Chris
tian Sabbath. For be assured, your own
labors and those of the co-ordinate depart
ments of authority in the State for the pro
tection of morals, will he successful in pro
portion as you maintain the fundamental
ordinances of religion. As you suffer
them to be sacrificed and trampled upon,
your work will be at once more arduous
and less effectual. If you wish to relax the
restraints of law anywhere within the State,
let it not be among the seething population
of your large cities. If you wish to plant a
second New York in your State, give us
the license of a New York Sabbath.
We believe it is a question whether a
legislature has power, under the Constitu
tion, to tamper with a fundamental law in
the manner proposed by Mr. Donovan;
whether it can rightfully abrogate such a
law for on.e section or locality, and leave it
in force in all the others. But if distinctions
are to be made between the cities and the
rural districts, at the very first glance it
must be evident that more stringent regu
lations' are required in the former than in
the latter. It is a grievous legislative
blunder that is proposed in this bill. It
leaves the sanctity of the Sabbath undis
turbed in districts where there is little
temptation or opportunity to violate it, and.
comparatively small need of its influence;
while it throws it open to an immense
traffic, and to public, gfoss, and continuous
desecration, precisely in those districts
where its purifying, restraining, conserva
tive power is most imperatively demanded.
Whatever else you do, rob not out city
of its ancient and honorable repute of being
the most orderly great city on the globe, on
the Sabbath. Make not the beautiful calm
of a Philadelphia Sabbath a thing of the
past.
TO OUR LIST.
We have to thank our friends for their
exertions to increase our list during the
past few weeks. We have received acces
sions from many different places, and it is
noticeable that the largest lists have come
frofai, ,il«s smaller places. The excellent
pastor of the Catasaqua ehuroh has sent us
twenty-eight new names, although the list
in that vicinity was already respectably
large. Other oases might be mentioned,
showing that zealous efforts undertaken by
pastors, or under their immediate direction,
can be made successful, even in limited
fields.
The efforts made to secure our premiums
without any aid from pastors, have
also brought us many new names. We do
not wish to turn our paper into a mere
business instrument of the puffing and sen
sational type, but we are quite as willing as
any other to reward liberally such as under
take to procureus new subscribers. We
“give away” sewing-machines or books
every day in return for these services. We
take especial, pleasure in circulating good
books, those of our own Committee first, and
then such others as are deserving of the
patronage of intelligent Christians.
We want an average of ten new names
each from two hundred churches, during
the present season. A very little effort in
each church would secure it. We ask our
friends in these churches to see that it be
done.
THE WEEK OF PRATER.
This season, waited for with deep and
hopeful interest by the multitudes of Chris
tian people, is now being observed by the
universal Evangelical- Church. In this
eity, the services were inaugurated in our
own church, by the observance ot the first
Monday in the year as a day of prayer tor
the Conversion of the World. A general
meeting was held in Calvary Church, in
the morning. The services, moderately
well attended, were full of interest. A
most instructive missionary address was
made by Mr.’ Barnes, who made the main
facts in the history of civilization tell power
fully in his argument for the Gospel as the
opjy sufficient instrument for the elevation
of the race. Several other addresses were
made.
Union meetings are being held from day
to day in different Evangelical Churches,
On Wednesday, in Clinton Street Church;
Thursday,in Spruce Street Baptist Church;
Friday, in the First Reformed Church,
Broad and Pine, and Saturday, in the
Epiphany, Fifteenth and Chestnut streets.
Services commence at four o’clock.
The North Broad Street Church holds
prayer-meetings every night in the week.
The African M. E. Church was organ
ized in this oity half a century ago, by six
teen colored men.
Genesee Evangelist, USTo. 1077.
The judicial leg of our “ Three-legged
stool/’ as our government has been called,
is just now attracting more than its accus
tomed share of the attention of the public and
the press. Good and statesmen are
beginning to share the opinion expressed
by De Tocqueville, a third of a century
ago, that “ the peace, the prosperity, and
the very existence of the Union are vested
in the hands of seven Federal judges.”
The recent decision of the Supreme Court
in regard to trials by military commission,
is calculated to awaken more anxiety than
any utterance of that body since the fam
ous Dred Scott case. It impugns the
constitutionality of what has been done to
maintain the Union, and furnishes many
crumbs of comfort to those who have
striven to overthrow it. '
OCR WASHINGTON LETTER,
President Lincoln, with a sagacity whioh
shines brighter and brighter as time rolls
by, said in his inaugural address:—“ The
candid citizen must confess that if the
•policy of the Government upon vital ques
tions affecting thepeople is to he irrevocably
fixed by decisions of the Supreme 'Court,
the instant, they are made in ordinary legis
lation between tparties in personal actions,
the people will have ceased to he their own
rulers, having, to that extent, practically re
signed their Government into the hands of
that eminent tribunal.” The decisions of
this “ eminent tribunal ” are not regarded
now with the reverenoe shown to a Delphic
oracle or to the sanctity of the Jewish San
hedrin, as formerly. When they are in
conflict with the settled convictions of an
enlightened public judgment, some means
will always he devised to avoid the neces
sity of carrying them out. If, in strug
gling to perfect our institutions according
to the necessities of the present day, some
grave decision of ermined judges, perti
nent enough to the case that evoked it,
stands in our way, so much the worse for
the decision.
Irrevocable laws may have operated-well
in the days of the Medes and Persians, but
they are not suited for our times. As the
army of fabled story found shelter from
the pelting storm under the enormous
.tongue of the giant Pantagruel, so a host
t»f guilty traitors'will seek protection from
deserved punishment under this utterance
of the Supreme Court.. But neither the
decisions of courts, nor the polioy of a
recreant President will prevent the Ameri
can people from sustaining the Govern
ment’s conduct of tfte war, or perfecting
the work of the soldiers who conquered
rebellion. ,
Contrary to general expectation, Con
gress had a quorum on reassembling after
the holidays, and even the New Orleans
Investigating Committee, who had traveled
twenty-seven hundred miles in twelve days,
were in their seats to answer to their names.
Both Houses proceeded to business without
delay, and seem determined to accomplish
the herculean task of clearing from the
Speaker’s desk; and the committee rooms,
the innumerable bills that encumber
them.
The President returned to the Senate
this afternoon, with his objections, the bill
to regulate the elective franchise in the
District of Columbia. He has begun the
year with a veto. It was expected by
everybody. The Senate gave but little at
tention to the reading of the message, as it
is chiefly a rehash of the objections offered
against the bill on its passage through that
body and the House of Representatives.
The majority of the Senate were in favor
of an immediate ballot. The galleries were
crowded to witqpss the scene. Mr. John
son, of Maryland, and Mr. Doolittle made
short speeches, which were delivered for
any other purpose than with the hope of
affecting the final vote. Although there
was but little doubt as to the passage of
the bill, yet great interest was manifested
by all to reach the result. At five minutes
of four the President of the Senate asked
if the bill should become a law, the ob
jections of the President to the contrary,
notwithstanding.. When the clerk called
the roll, but few Senators were in the seats,
most of them' J having collected in knots
about the chamber; and being in close con
versation with Representatives who had
come to witness the scene, which they will
doubtless re-enact on the morrow. As the
hand of the clock trembled on the hour of
four, and Vice-President Foster announced
the passage of the bill over the veto, there
was no demonstration on the part of any
one, but the great crowd in the galleries
quietly rose from their seats, and with an
air of quiet satisfaction passed down the
marble stairways to the corridors below,
willing that the “experiment” should be
tried, at the samp time confident that the
-closing-prediction of the message, that
the “all-embracing extension of popular
Terms,
__ __ - Per annum, in advance:
Hy Carrier, 83 SC..
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suffrage must end at last in its destruction”
would never be fulfilled. It was refreshing
to witness with what ease the legislative
wheels of our Government surmounted the
obstacles thrown in their way by tbe Exec
utive.
Washington has seventy-five churches,
neither of which the President attends.
They embrace almost every denomination
common in this country. Several of the
more modern built, —as the New York
Avenue Presbyterian, the Calvary Baptist,
and Foundry Methodist, —are beautiful
specimens of church architecture, and re
mind one of Madam De Stael’s definition
of it, —“frozen poetry.” A dozen more
churches are to be added to this large num
ber, at the cost of nearly a million of dollars.
Several of them will be larger than any at
present in the city. The Catholics are
milding a cathedral on “ the island” larger .
than any similar structure this side of
Philadelphia, while they have another large
one in progress on Pennsylvania avenue,
near Georgetown. The Congregationalists
and Lutherans have foundations already
laid for large structures which will be ad
ditional ornaments to the city. The great
fault of Americans in building churches is,
that we build them too small. They should
be designed for the future rather for the
immediate present. The common inscrip
tion on the front of churches in this city,
as well as in other cities is,
Erected in such a year.
Enlarged in such another.
There are other public buildings, aside
from those upon which the Government is
lavishing its money, in course of erection,
and in prespect, calculated to add much to
the beauty and attractiveness of the Nation
al Capital. Among the former, are the
Washington Orphan Asylum, on Four
teenth street, now occupied by the State
Department; and the Providence Hospital
on Capitol Hill, for which Congress, at its
,last session, appropriated thirty thousand
dollars. Among the latter, are the build
ing of the Young Men’s Christian Associa
tion, and the Masonic Hall, which is to be
erected Opposite the Patent Offioe.
January 7, 1867.
“Permission.”—Dr. Pusey, in his
defence of the practice of confession,
dwells at great length on the point that he
only claims the right to hear confession
from those who desire it. But what such
a right amounts to in the hands of such
“ moral bullies” as Pusey and his followers,
is shown by an instance given in Miss
Goodman’s “ Protestant Sisterhoods in the
Church of England !”:—
: “A young lady entered a Protestant ‘sis
terhood,’ [(’. e. nunnery] and subsequently
left it at the request of' her relatives. ‘ But
Dr. Pusey, her confessor, wrote to her to
urge upon her to return, declaring that if
she failed to do so he could no longer re
main her spiritual director—a threat which
involved his refusal to again grant her ab
solution.’ The result was, that though so
unhappy in the convent that she was ‘ per
petually weeping,’ and meditating self
destruction, the poor girl returned, and
when asked the reason, could only reply
‘ What could Ido ? I must have been lost
if Dr. Pusey had not granted me absolu
tion.’ ”
An English Roman Catholic calls atten
tion to the fact that Dr. Pusey (who con
fesses persons in every diocese in England)
claims more than even the Roman Catholic
priesthood claim, viz.: the right to absolve
without confession.
“But in choosing a.Senator, it is not wise
to select mere politicians, who to-day go this
road, and to-morrow another, like ships at
sea, who wait for wind and current. It is
this foolish temporising, this accepting of
men who talk loudly, in preference to the
sturdy and patient soldier who has stood true
to his guns for years, that destroys the in
tegrity of a party. ”
The above, from a leading secular jour
nal, in reference to the pending election of
a Senator in our State, has our hearty en
dorsement. It is the suggestion of a wis
dom in which even the children of this
world are sometimes grievously deficient.
And in choosing men for prominent posi
tions in the Church, the same advice is
appropriate. The children of light need
to be reminded of the importance and the
necessity of tried men for such positions.
Gone to Rome.—Rev. Moses A.
Stewart and wife, of the German Re
formed Church, were received into the
Roman Catholic Church at Hagerstown,
Md., a few weeks ago. The German
lie formed Messenger says, “ Rumor
had it that soch a transition bad taken
place, and to those who bad been fa
miliar with his idiosyncracies for years
past the event will not occasion surprise.”
Just what some ’sensitive Protestants
have been saying of the dominant
“ School ” in that Cbureh.
J. F. G.