New Series, Vol. XV, No. 6. gmmtau IJwslnitmra. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1867. THE QUAKERS AND THE RITUALISTS. Ifcev. Mr. Spurgeon has been giving fresh ev idence of the breadth of his religious sympa thies by lecturing to the Quakers of London, ion (.eoi-ge Fox. The unbroken laudatory steam m which he speaks of the founder of |ihe s a w :>uld be surprising, if one could not see i hat ho had a purpose beyond the man Juki the occasion. George Fox and the Qua -1 o t > he made auxiliaries in the great •gti Ic tv hich he, and all Evangelical Chris jftendom are waging against ritualism. He d be the rise of the Quakers as a provi dentially arranged protest against the wax ing formalism and deadness of the middle of she seventeenth century. George Fox, he ■ays, “ bequeathed to us more than if he had wjvcn us the mines of Peru; for he has left to j&c Christian Church, in the clearest and •■lost unmistakable utterances, a testimony Jpr the spirituality of true religion. It is Jlronderful,” he continues, “how"full the tes timony is. If you were to read through the lives of all the eminent saints, I believe you flvould come to the conclusion that of all jsthers, George Fox is the most distinct upon the one point, that 1 God is a Spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth.'” ... “Would,” ie exclaims, “ that the spirituality of wor ship were known throughout England! Would that it were recognized in every plan pf worship, that wo must worship God in kpirit and in truth !” 'j* Again, the lecturer says, “We want, in wlngland, just now, much of Fox’s holy zeal mgainst idolatry and lt wants ,11 Christians, but does it not specially need r ou ? If you are or wish to be at all like -eorge Fox, was there ever a period since day in which the existence of the Qua •s was more necessary than now? I think ; and this was why I wanted to have told some time ago, that I thought you stood n a special vantage-ground in the fight h Eitualism —this covert Popery which coming back amongst us. 11, then, are you not the very persons ■tantly and vehemently to speak against . . . Satan’s servants serve him , but the servants of Christ are often hearted. These men are zealous in their .-stitions, and are pushing it right and and carrying it to extremes. You have ithin a door or two of this meeting ;, and you can see it for yourselves, in ts glory, and in all its abomination, if wish. ... If Fox were here to he might not endorse all I have said; fight not go my lengths on some points, he would go much further on others ; I am persuaded he would say to you, mds, now, if ever, testify for the Spirit’s ! Testify for the spirituality of godli- Bear witness against idolatry! Cry and spare not! Lift up the standard ;t the foe whose incoming is like a 1 If Popery comes back, will you bear ,;uno of it ? But you must, my friends, must bear a large share of it, if you do 'w testify openly and loudly. If you ; help those who love spiritual religion will be highly culpable. ... It l be a great calamity for your Society ise to be until its great fundamental iple is accepted by the whole church.” is, the serious question is started, ter the refluent wave of formalism, i, in its first flow, two centuries ago, rise to this sect, may not, in our day, a reaction and revival in the ranks now inned, and put once more among the forces of Christianity, a denomination i seems to have accepted its own doom :ay. It is but conformity to a law of affairs that one form of excess should forth an opposite form. Especially if, ie bosom of the Church organizations ielves,the healthful forces and remedies ided by the times should not appear, ty well expect them to be allowed by dence to arise in outside bodies*and irregular conditions, such as it must be issed belong to the phenomenon of Qua lm. illustration of what individual Quakers he roused, by the encroachments of ism and High Churchism, to do, has oc ' in a rural parish, not far from this ■Within the hounds of the parish, PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7,1867. which, until recently, contained no place of worship hut the Episcopalian, there resides a man of wealth and character, a follower of George Fox, but a liberal and generous contributor to the support of the Episcopal church. Recently, very high ground was taken in the pulpit of that church. It was even declared to be impossible to obtain sal vation, without participation in ordinances, Episcopally administered. The spirit of George Fox, if no holier one, was stirred in the old Quaker who was a listener. He sent for the preacher and poured out his indigna tion upon him. It was unfortunate for the preacher that his own father was an honored minister of the Gospel, in another Evangeli cal denomination. “ Does thee mean to say chat thy father —a better man.than thyself cannot be saved ?” asked the Quaker. The result was that the very agreeable relations between the wealthy Quaker and the Epis copal parish were dissolved, and soon after, the sacred precincts of the parish were in vaded, and a Methodist church has recently been completed, as, perhaps, the best form in which, under the circumstances, the spirit of George Fox could protest against the rising ritualism of the time. The Quaker had given the handsome sum of $2,500 to wards its erection. THE PARALYSIS OF JUSTICE. One of the greatest, if not the supreme evil under which political institutions suf fer, is the indifference of men in power and of their influential supporters to purely moral considerations. Expediency, personal interest, party prejudice, revenge or aggran dizement, too generally dictate the line of national policy. Eulers and their support ers are too slothful, too timorous, too self ish or too thoroughly depraved, to do right for right’s sake. A very convenient phi losophy is manufactured for those who are unwilling to do justice, which diminishes the value of penalty in. human and divine governments, and proclaims "a regimen- of nearly unmixed mildness and mercy for the family, the school, the State, .and the uni verse itself. Punishment for the.mere satis faction of justice, is reprobated by this phi losophy as cruelty. If any penalty is to be exacted for crime, it must be exactly mea sured by the standard of expediency; if it appears expedient to exact none'at all, the worst of offenders is to go free, in the most powerful of governments. The hinderances thrown in the way of the punishment of the late rebels in our country —rebels still for the most part —are multi plied and extraordinary. A paralysis seems to have fallen upon the arm of justice. A dreamy impotence, a night-mare oppression has seized upon the organs of the national will. The limitation of three years within which, it is claimed, a criminal process must be commenced against these offenders, is rapidly approaching, and not a single effec tive step has been taken for the execution of the law upon any one of the several million of offenders, even the chief. Justice paralyzed did we say? Nay, in justice and wrong, and rebellion have been vitalised- and honored and rewarded to ah amazing extent. Executive favors have been taken from the loyal, from men who have actually suffered in the service of their country, and been showered upon those who threw all the weight of their influence upon the side of rebellion. The high ex ecutive officer of the nation, whose most solemn and urgent business it was to pro vide for the due punishment of the rebel lion, has not only utterly neglected this duty, has not only dispensed pardons by the thousands, but has thoroughly identified himself with the party which was substan tially the party of rebellion in the North. And we behold, through the North and the South, the monstrous spectacle of crime shielded and rewarded, and virtue frowned upon by the highest dignitary of the land. No wonder, then, that the spirit of rebel lion survives; that it speaks in defiant lan guage, or in a tone of injured innocence, proudly rejecting all terms but those of per fect equality with the victors and the loyal people. No wonder that it plays all its old tricks of passion and oppression and bloody cruelty upon white and black within its own limits. What has it to fear ? The ass may ' kick the sick lion. Justice herself is wear ing the halter; and some are even trying to put the rope in the hands of the criminals. When the cause of justice lost the sup- port of the Chief Magistrate,'the bewilder ing effect would have been much greater even than it was, but for the general ex pectation that the Judges of the Supreme Bench would vindicate the insulted honor of the nation, and maintain the dignity of the laws so murderously assailed by rebel lion. Not to this arm of the body politic, it was thought, had the'paralysis extended. Here, the righteous indignation of the peo ple, elsewhere so cramped and fettered, would find a healthful', vigorous and ready organ. At least just decisions can be sol emnly uttered and recorded,'even if an ex ecutive cannot be found to carry them into effect. Yain expectation! A. year and a half of inaction passes. Thousands of par dons are issued to rebels of every grade, in advance even of indictment. A single pris oner of war is kept in the most comfortable possible confinement in Fortress Monroe. At length the Supreme Court speaks, and it is only to show the astonished nation that the paralysis has crept over - more than half of this august tribunal, dnd that the solemn ministry of justice, demanded by the great crime of the rebellion, would be expected in vain from this quarter. . The decision of a military tribunal, punishing an avowed and dangerous conspirator in Indiana, and condemning him to ail iignoble and richly' deserved death—afterwards commuted to imprisonment, —was not .onlyse.t aside, and the enemy Of his country restored to her protection, but the extraordinary doctrine was announced that Congress has no power whatever to authorize a military trial' in a State not actually in rebellion. Treason in the South may lawfully be met by military measures, but, according to the decision, treason at home, treason in the form of a “ powerful secret association, under military organization, conspiring against the draft and plotting insurrection,'the liberation of the prisoners of war at various depots, the seizure of State and national arsenals, armed 'co-operation, with, .the ' dnd ‘wa'r , ‘ against the National Government,” such treason in time of actual war, and in the daily peril of invasion, is to enjoy immu nity from all military process, and to be in sured the deliberate form of civil trial by all the authority of the Supreme Court. While the brave and loyal men of the na tion are shedding their blood to overthrow rebellion in their front, traitors in the rear, under the protection of the forms of law, may be successfully plotting to undo all their dear-bought advantages in the bloody field. So rules the Supreme Court. Again, the Court speaks, and plainer still is the absence of a keen sense of the crimi nality and disgrace of rebellion. The mea sure which Congress wisely proposed, in order to keep the bar of that once august tribunal clear of rebel influence, and to put deserved disability on legal talent which had once been prostituted to the service of rebellion, the test oath, is declared uncon stitutional; and henceforth voices, hands, gifts that have been used for the subversion of law, constitution and country itself, may be heard and seen without hinderance in the highest law court of the land. Suitable at torneys indeed to such justices. Well may rebels plead before judges so little inclined to hold the crime of rebellion in abhor- Congress and the loyal people yet re main. The Thirty-ninth Congress has done excellent service to the cause of justice. It has successfully withstood the demoralizing influence so unscrupulously wielded by the Executive. An unwavering two-thirds in both houses has faithfully represented the conscience of the people. The Civil Eights Bill, the continuance of the Freedman’s Bu reau, the Constitutional Amendment, the District Suffrage Bill, the Territorial Suf frage Bill, and other like measures passed against the express or implied veto of the President, have, under God, saved the na tional honor, and preserved the fruits of vic tory, which otherwise would have been hopelessly sacrificed. But for the faithful ness of this body of men, every Southern State would have got back into Congress, and a delegation chosen by and from the very men who carried on the war, would have sat in the councils of the nation. We venture to assert that a worse, and bitterer, and more dangerous set of men would now have occupied those seats, than those who left them a* the outbreak of the rebellion. And yet there is a hesitancy in the move ments of Congress, looking to punishment, which we would fain attribute to wise cau tion, but which sometimes greatly resem bles symptoms of paralysis. Caution which extends over months and years, and which refers to crimes perpetrated in the sight of the world, must excite uneasiness, not to say suspicion. The Constitutional Amendment, passed by both Houses, last summer, allows every rebel the privilege of voting at any and every election, and excludes only a comparatively limited Class from holding, office. Even those prominent and perjured rebels, who are thus excluded, may be re lieved of their disqualifications by acts of Congress at any time. Mi’. Stevens’ Terri- ; torial bill, which proposed the temporary disfranchisement of the entire rebel popula tion, instead of passing the House, was re cently sent into committee. And that earn est purpose.to secure justice, which was well expressed by vote of the House, on the 21st of last:May: “That.this House will stand by and sustain the President in executing the laws of the United States upon a suffi cient number of leading rebels in such of the States' recently in insurrection against the National Government, to vindicate the majesty of law to sustain the confidence of loyal people and to warn the refractory for all time to come,” —that earnest purpose, if it still existed, we would confidently expect to see exhibited in persistent and unwearied efforts to secure its end. We do not intend to qomplain of a Con gress whose record is so glorious and. which .has so promptly responded to the demon strations of the loyal people. We think the spirit of the people is very nearly under stood by the body. It is not deceived by the cries which were heard in certain quarters for universal amnesty and universal suffrage; it was not to .be. hurried into a crude recon struction of the union, upon the supposition that the people were burning with anxiety to have it completed, or from the alleged great hindrance and damage to thejbusiness •'lnterests of the. country, arising from the’ non-representation of the rebellious dis tricts. Congress knows that the people, above all things, want the rebellion effectu ally put down; that they want their judg ment of the immense moral difference be tween treason and loyalty put broadly and ineffaceably upon the legislation and policy of the nation; that they want the deadly virus kept out of the reconstructed national life. The true anxiety of the loyal people is for all reasonable haste in accomplishing these high ends of justice. Any alleged in terest in the return ofkthe rebellious South to the councils of the nation, is a mere fig ment of a politician’s brain. The men who had to be swept back from Cincinnati and Harrisburg, and St Louis, and Washington, with the point of the bayonet, are not very earnestly expected back again by those who repelled them." A generation of retirement would befit their own position better, and would give the loyal North no special dis comfort. Two of the departments of our govern ment are paralyzed. At their hands, rebel lion is altogether unlikely to get any part of its desert. The great crime which de luged our land with blood, which imperilled our national existence, deranged our com merce, and loaded us with the second largest debt in the world, will be unknown in the records of their official acts. It is a calami ty only second to that of the rebellion itself. And if Congress is not also paralyzed, it will, in a constitutional and proper manner but with the promptness of men who act under the clearest and most solemn consider ations, remove out of its path the Executive or the judiciary that has betrayed justice, and that is using its great powers to shield instead of punishing the criminal. A PROPER REFERENCE. Our State Senators, we are glad to see, entertain very much the same opinion this year of the operations of the friends of Sunday street cars in that body, as their predecessors of last year did. The pro posal to put the •'question of Sabbath pro fanation to the vote of our citizens, in troduced into the Senate last week by Mr. Eidgway, and which that persevering ene my of the Sabbath quiet of our city wished to have referred to a committee of the Philadelphia City Senators, was, referred without a division to the Committee of "Vice and Immorality. This, of course, does not necessarily decide the fate of the bill; yet, Grenesee Evangelist, No. 1081. as the composition of that Committee is •substantially the same as in the last session, and as the Senate was doubtless aware of its opposition to Sabbath profanation, as shown in its very able Report of last year, the indications are not favorable to the pas sage, of the bill. Mr. Donovan’s bill to repeal the laws against Sunday travel, so far as to permit the street cars to run in our city, still slum bers in the House, awaiting perhaps the fate of the kindred measure of Senator Ridg way. Prayers were offered in our city churches last Sabbath for divine guidance to the Legis lature in their future action on the subject. The President began the week by hurling two vetoes at Congress, one of the Colorado bill, and the other of the Nebraska bill. The slight effect which his favorite style of mes sage has upon this body, must soon convinoe him that Congress does not hang so near “the verge of a government,” as he sup posed. He objected to the requirements of equal suffrage, and argued the advantages of a territorial form of government. If this form of government bo so advantageous, why can he not persuade himself to support Mr. SteVens’ plan of placing the Southern States in possession of these Utopian benefifkf President Johnson has now issued as many veto messages as all the presidents during the first sixty years of our government. This fact is, doubtless, the foundation of the remark that he writes a veto every morning before breakfast by way of diversion. The prospects are, that Congress will ma terially reduce the burden of extraordinary taxation which now rests so heavily on the people. They do not concur in the notion expressed by the Secretary of the Treasury, that the national debt should be paid by the generation that incurs it. This generation need not fear the charge of shirking respon aibjlity'in asking those wh'o-come -after to share in the payment of a debt incurred in saving for them'a country and a free gov ernment. The resources of the nation in crease each year. An ox for us will be but a calf for them to carry. This generation has paid the first instalment in blood. Let posterity, who will reap the rich results, have an oportunity of contributing some thing. Secretary McCulloch wishes the debt wiped out at once, so that it may not re main a»“ a reminder to the Southern peo ple of humiliation and defeat.” This is de cidedly sentimental in a matter of such practical moment. This “wiping out re minders ” is an impossible job, unless the pen be taken from the hand of history forever. Let the South help pay the debt which has been incurred on account of her rebellious conduct. If she pleads poverty now, grant her an extension until she is re constructed. The recent investigations in the Treasury Department developed no frauds of moment in the printing bureau, where they were supposed to exist, but one was unearthed in the Register’s office, quite unexpectedly. As soon as suspicion was aroused, the guilty party absconded, and his whereabouts have not yet been ascertained. One hundred thousand dollars worth of seven-thirty bonds have thus far been missing. The case of one Magruder is exciting con considerable interest in the District, and, on account of the nature of the question in - volved, is likely to attract more or less at tention throughout the country. He was formerly a resident of Washington, but, at the breaking out of the rebellion, joined the confederacy, and became a rebel colonel. He now applies for permission to practise before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. He is unable to take the test oath, but the Supreme Court of the United States having declared, by a bare majority, that oath to be unconstitutional, he seeks to take advantage of that decision. The case has been argued before a full bench, but the court reserves its decision, which is awaited with a great deal of interest. Should they declare the decision of the TJ. S. Supreme Court to be binding, rather than advisory, scores of epauletted rebels will make the same application. The wisdom of Mr. Bout well's bill, prohibiting any person guilty of treason, from practising in the United States courts, is already apparent. j@»We shall be glad to correct any errors detected by subscribers on the printed la bels giving their names and state of their accounts. WASHINGTON LETTER.
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