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New Series, Vol. IV, No. 20.
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THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1867
EFFECTS OF OVER-CIVILIZATION ON THE
OLOGY AND MORALS.
4 , There is a shape which Theology is extensively
assuming in this age, originating in the feeling of
kindness, compassion, charity. . . . In some respects
it grows out of progress in civilization and refinement
and cannot be rebuked without the suspicion of a de -
sire to go back into the days of barbarism."—Albert
Barnes. , .
Many indications are abroad, in theology,
in politics, in social morals of the debilitating
effects of a civilization pushed too far, at least
in some departments of human activity. The
refinements of modern culture, if not un
friendly to the manly and robust traits of
character, yet seem to cast into the back
ground that deep foundation of order, the
sentiment of justice. Men are so engaged
with the external and lighter aspects of
things, that they forget the rock-ribbed
frame of the world beneath their feet, or
(lease to feel an interest in its nature and
existence.
In departing' from the barbarity of the
Middle Ages, with its Inquisition and its
Auto da fes, we are rushing to an extreme
of charity exhibited in the greatest possible
amelioration of the sufferings and discom
forts of criminals. As far as practicable,
the very idea of justice is abstracted from
punishment; the mere protection of the
community from loss or damage, or at most,
the reforniation of .the offender is proposed
as the chief, and, in fact, only end of pun
ishment. It becomes altogether a mere
matter of expediency how much the crimi
nal is punished, or, indeed, whether he be
punished at all. No high and awful duty is
owed by the government to a Divine prin
ciple. It is a mere matter of calculation;
and if no clear ends - of utility are gained,
punishment for a principle—to " satisfy jus
tien," is vlAwed
,a,s,doWrirtgittAAT-trzsity,-.
Many times have We had occasion to.re
mark the extraordinary obstacles experi
enced in the attempt—we will not say to
punish rebellion, but suitably to indicate, in
the policy of the nation, the moral difference
between loyalty and rebellion, between pa
triotism and treason. The most persistent
opposition is made, even on the part of many
truly loyal persons, to any measures of re
construction involving the least punitive
element. This was clearly illustrated in
the transactions out of which grew the Re
construction Bill of the Thirty-ninth Con
gress, too familiar to our readers to need ex
tended rehearsal. The two Houses agreed
on all the main features of the plan, except
the penal provision of rebel disfranchise
ment which formed part of the bill, as ori
ginally introduced into the lower House.
Leading Republican Senators resisted this
feature of the enactment, and framed a plan
which would have given almost every rebel
in the South the right to take equal part
with the loyal people, in restoring civil goy;
ornment in their section. When the Senate
amendments came back to the House, it was
doubtful whether there were enoughstrenu
ous Republicans in that body to carry its
own measure of rebel' disfranchisement. It
was not merely Raymond, but such Men as
Dodge, Thayer, Bingham, t.nd a score of
others like them, who joined the Democrats
in a vain effort to defeat Mr. Shellabarger's
amendment, which saved the penalcharacter
, of the Bill; and when the amendment came
before the Senate again, even Henry Wilson
objected to the disfranchising clause and
gave his vote for the amended bill " with
regret." •
Passing now to the domain of Theology,
we see the working of what seems to us the
same spirit, in the attempts made to elimi
nate all penal elements from the philosophy
of the Atonement, and to limit the effects of
that transaction solely to the moral nature
of man. The death of Christ, according to
such men as Bushnell and Dr. John Young,
is not a Sacrifice, a Ransom, a Propitiation
Especially, in these theories; it is argued
that the death of Christ on the cross is quite
unnecessary to the perfection of his work.
Dr. Bushnell says, the moral. tragedy of th e
tit
garden is supplemented by that of the cross;
as if the cross were a secondary matter, in
stead of the central figure of Christianity.
Dr. Young, in his book on the same subject,
The Life and Light of Men," gives greater
prominence to the cross as producing an ef
fect upon the minds of men to subdue and
grtsbictfriait.
to attract theM, but denies to it any expia
tory power. Such 'expiation is,in the view
of these men, unnecessary. There is no de
mand for it, in the nature of things, or in
God'S moral governmpnt. The grand idea
of justice, which blazeslike a star;iipon the
very forehead of
.all the orthodoX views of
the Atonement, is hidden, nay, blotted
out in these theories. Their resemblance to
those theories of human punishment which
are aimed solely at the reformation of the
offender; is too plain to need pointing out.
Before Christ comes, there is no obstacle in
the . way of the forgiveness of the sinner, but
such as exists in the sinner's own heart and
character. The very idea of moral govern-
ment, in any true sense of the term, is ab
sent from the" mind Of such speculator's. It
is distasteful to them. "There is, then, no
such' thing in God," says. Dr. Bushnell, '" or
in any other being, as a kind of justice which
goes by the law of desert, and ceases to 'be
justice when not exactly matched by suffer
ing " "It is another misconception, "he
says again, "that we assUme . the essential
priority' of law and justice asrelated to Mer
cy." Says Dr. Young: "Always God is more
and better than merely just, and acts on the
ground of pure mercy. . . . There is no such
attribute [as rectilineal justice] with God."
The appearance ofsuch treatises as these of
Drs. Bushnell and Young, with similar phe
nomena in many other theological and
moral treatises, must be regarded as a symp
tom of the dithinished power of the senti
ment of justice in the minds of this class of
thinkers. They reluctate• from an exhibi
tion of the character of God, at least in his
relations to the atonement, in which a su
preme place:is given to justice. Mr. Barnes,
in his " Thoughts on Theology," published
thirteen years ago, anticipated this class of
speculations, in the remark which we have
put at the head of this article. " There is a
shape 'which: , Theology is extensively as
suming irthis - affe, originating in the feel
ing of of niphision, kindness, and charity.
. . In some - respects it grows out of progress .
in eivilizaticin and refinement, and cannot
be rebuked without the suspicion of a desire:
to go back into the days of barbarism."--i
-(Essays and Reviews, 1., 331.)
" Whatever else God may be," says'an-,
other recent essayist, "he must be jnst:. rt
is not optional with him to exercise this at
tribute or not to exercise it. . . . We can
say, God may be merciful or not, as . he
pleases,' but we cannot say, God .maybe
just or not, as he pleases:" We do not won
der that Dr. Young is not altogether satis
fied with , the essay of Dr. Shedd, from which
this extract. is taken. [See Life and Light
of Men; p. 116. note.]
Finally, we may class with these pheno
mena, the infrequency with which the doc
trine of Eternal Punishment..is preached
and the subdued manner in which it is
treated, as 'compared with the representa
tions of earlier times. In art, as well as in
preaching, the difference .is marked. No.
great painter now thinks of taking " The
Last Judgment" as a subject for his pencil,
and no decorator of a Christian temple
would be likely to order it. And as to the
holding and maintaining of the doctrine of
eternal .punishment, while there is no evi
dence to show that its avowed opponents
are gaining numerically upon those who
hold orthodox views, or that the doctrine is
losing its hold on the p.opular conscience, we
think it is much less frequently made a set
topic of preaching, and is put in the back
ground as a matter of allusion and inference,
when referred to all Such a sermon as that
of Jonathan Edwards, on "The Sinner in the
Hands of an angry God," is as much out of
the ordinary vein, and we may add capacity,
of modern sermonizing, as Michael Angelo's
"Last Judgment" is beyond the taste and
capacity of modern painters. There seems
to be no spontaneous impulse towards the
subject, as there is towards the thousand
and one social, moral and political subjects,
with which Christianity has become associ
ated in modern times. There is, in fact, a
tenderness or delicacy of feeling, which
makes men shrink from treating with un
due frequency, or in an uncompromising
way, a doctrine which nevertheless they
cannot but entertain, as a most evident part
of Divine Revelation.
On the whole, we arc inclined to class
all these and similar phenomena, as results
of that refinement of the sensibilities which
Christian civilization itself must bring with
it, but to which there is liability of excess
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, MAY ,16,.1867.
or of perversion: . ' 'Refinement and delicacy
of feelingi are Among the Most - 61dable' dis
tinctions of a Civilized state; VA; few Calanii
ties can be'So terrible as to hhve strength
and princlple and '
conscience refined and
t
polished quite away from ' e's life and
character. No policy can 13 '' more truly
cruel, than that which is 'toll' tender and
merciful adequately to philfsh 'criminals.
Nothing is more akin to crim.4., Or more cer
tain to breed crime, thhn a whiit of a quick
appreciation of crime in its enormity and ill
desert. ' ' ' '
And we! to the' preacher o ''the 'Gospel
'
who allows his creed to be enf bled ; arid'hiS
message to be deprived of str gth and rn
e
ct
phasis and autherity, by conSc dus or iineori
scions conformity to' the stun ot idis 'of what
we may :term' the' over-civilized 'age in which
he lives.' 'lie; may :byno inencts ignore the
real advances of the.age in evizry kindly ele
ment. •It would be unpardonable in him to
go, back to the rude and coarie, exhibitions
of an era which kneW less of the refining in
fluences of true Christianity than this. The
arrows of truth which he shbots may, in
deed, be more polished and shakly, but only',
a' false. and cruel tenderness' will shrink'
from planting them sharp in the . heart of
the Kinc o e's enemies.
The release cif 'Jefferson Dittis. on bail,
since.the alioire was in type, iit' a commen
tary and corroboration of the Ibading points
of this article. . . '
Wo take pleasure in laying before our
readers a cut representing the Brick Church,
Rochester, in which the sessions of the
General Assembly, commencing this day,
are held. It was built in 1860 ; and is of
ample proportions, being one of the most
commodious and well-devised edifices for
Christian worship in the land. It is seventy
six by one hundred and fifty-eight feet, part
of th% great length being, in fact, the front
of the building arranged for lecture room,
Sunday-school room, and other apartments,
and - communicating directly with the main
building.
The audience room is seventy-three by
eighty-eight feet, with galleriee, and will
comfortably seat 1250. Two thousand: can
We reprint our two question's to the Pres
byterian of this city, as yet unanswered, for
two reasons;
_first, lest our cotemporary
should by accident have overlooked them in
our issue of . April 25;•and secondly, because
if the failure. is an intentional one, we think
it should be known what sort of questions
they are, which it refuses to answer. • And
we fear the failure is intentional, from the
fact that the last number of The Presbyterian
bears evidence of pretty close attention to
other recent articles of ours on the same
general subject. Here are the questions:
I. Does The Presbyterian subscribe to the
language of the answer to the 16th Question
of the Shorter Catechism: "Sinned in hiM
and fell with him," taken in its literal im
port ?
11. Does The Presbyterian believe that sub
scription to the doctrine of a limited atone
ment is necessary to good standing in the
Presbyterian Church; or, in other words,
does it regard the• belief that Christ died for
all, one of the. New School peculiarities
which must be ruled out of the reunited
Church?
Rev. John Hall, D. D , of the Irish Depu
tation, •arrived at New York, on Monday,
May 13.
BRICK Cline
THE PRESBYTERIAN.
'CEDAR (SotriTO'ST.=The Pa3tor, under date
of Map 7 th. says : "Last week I had; the pleasure
of receiving into the-communion of our church
thirty-five (35) p'erSons. Men and; women of
ripe years stood -beside children and youth to con
fesS Christ. From two families a tirother and
sister =stood together, and from another tatiliatera
were-glad to ftnd they sympathized in their new
found joys and hopes. 'Another family Sent•the
only one of their number, tvho, till then, had , re
fused 'Christ, and the *hole fam'ily were thus per
mitted tOsit tcog . ethei at the Lord's Table. Two
families, Who before were all of the world, were
divided;•by two from 'each standing up for Jesus,
and we hope the divisinn 'will :b'e healed by their
leading the test • to the • cross. The parents of
two that we welcomed, when Y asked their cow
sent'to theii becoming members of church, told
me they had • noe been in. a 'place of worship for
fifteen yeara;hut ever since, they have been con ,
stant attendants upon our * Sabbath and week
night , services, and are new seeking the truth."'
TABOR CHURCH.-At the communion season
last Sabbath, twenty-six persons were received,
all but three on profession. The work of
a, build-
ing _
parsonage, on the lot adjoining the church,
is rapidly proceeding, the people having formed
themselves alniOst en mane, into a mite society,
for the purpose of equalizing the burden and
meeting the expense, if possible, entirely among
themselves. The membership is now over four
hundred; Rev. George Van Deurs Pastor.
ROCHESTER,
be accommodated and often have been when
aisles and areas are filled. The chapel or
end building, is forty-four by one hundred
feet; eight hundred scholars can be accom
modated in the school room, and the lecture
room, forty-four by fifty-six feet, will hold
four hundred. The present structure is in
place of one erected in 1826, fifty by seven
ty-two feet. The name "Brick Church" ap
pears to have been used first in 1834. Rev.
Dr. Shaw, who is the fourth pastor, was in
stalled Sanuary Ist, 1841. This church has
had a most prosperous history, and has
steadily grown from its organization in 1825,
with tweuty-fiVe members, to number nearly
1100, being one of the four largest Presby
terian churches in the country.
THE REUNION COMMITTEES.
The Joint Committee on Union resumed
its sittings in New York city, week before
last. The members, feeling the profetind im
portance of their mission, resolved to lay
aside at once all thoughts of haste, and they .
devoted nearly a week to the deliberate
consideration of the subject before them.
Every, aspect of the subject was thoroughly
and frankly discussed, both in the suarate
- committees, in joint meeting, throne/a sub
committee, and •in joint committee again.
They finally agreed upon a report, covering
the entire ground of possible differences be
tween the two bodies, as they presented
themselves to the Committee. The report
will be laid before both Assemblies ; and in
the near approach of the meeting, it is re
garded inexpedient to make it:public. It is,
however, proper to • say that hohtisty action
is counselled; it is proposed that a year be
given for full discussion before any formal
action is initiated, and the COmmittee re
commend that the . vote of three-fourths of
the Presbyteries in bothbodies be made ne
cessary for ratification, whenever the sense
of the Church is taken.
The members of the Committee express
themselves mutually gratified by the truly
Genesee Evangelist, No. 1095.
Christian , spirit of frankness, brotherly re
gard and humble and prayerful dependence
on God, which marked the entire proceed
ings, and declare themselves rewarded for all
their pains-, if nothing beyond the establish
ment of finch happy relations -between indi
vidual members of the Committee, is the re
sult._
INTEMPERANCE-ENCOURAGING• FACTS.
Our• excellent Union League in this city
prohibits the sale:of spirituouS liquors in its
refectory, but it follows an evil custom in
providing'them in abundance at the public
banquets• given in its splendid hall. One
would think the exlimple of General Grant,
who at one of these banquets rebuked the
custom by refusingto touch a drop, and the
example of the sturdy teetotal Governor
Geary would prompt them to a reforin in
this particular; not to speak of the Con , .
gressional• Temperance Society, and of the
remarkable accumulation of grave instances
of excess on the Democratic side in high po
litical circles in Washington. And we have
now to add another recent example of ab
stinence tit; the4e over bountiful tables in
the person.of Speaker Colfax, at the supper
given him on Tuesday night of last week.
The steady nerves, the clear head and the
unfeigned geniality of that remarkable man
were not on that occasion put at the mercy
of the intoxicating cup, and never are. •
Judge Brewster, in his elegant address to
the Scotch and Irish Presbyterian delegation
at the residence of Matthew Newkirk, Esq.,
said that we would not, like Acestes, send
our guests away with refilled casks of wine.
That was literally true for that .evening.
There was not a drop of wine visible in the
truly sumptuous entertainment which fol
lowed the speech-making. This, it is true,
was not ,unexpected, hut the example was
none the less important in the present revi
val• of the' Temperance cause. Let wine dis
appeart.Yrom the Union League banquets,
and from festivities in high places, and it
will be comparatively easy to deal with
whiskey in the low.
11•11111111
KO,LAPOOR MISSION, INDIA, is an indepen
dent enterprise, surported at an expense of
between two and three thousand dollars per
annum, which is contributed by indiViduals
.and Sunday-schools among Congregational
ists, and New and Old School Presbyterians
in this country, and by individuals princi
pally in Her Majesty's civil and military ser
vice in India. In the report for 1865,. con
tributions are also acknowledged from the
Female Normal School and Instructjon So
ciety, London, and from a Christian lady in
England, who bore the expenses of the
preachi❑g tour through the villages. The
India contributions for 1866, were about
$650 in gold, considerably more than in the
year previous; there is ,also
.also acknow
ledged a legacy of 81000 from Mrs. Ham
mond in this country, realized last year.
A stone Chapel, 36 by 65 feet, has been
built, and a congregation of two hundred
hearers gathered, with a church, which, fif
teen months ago, numbered eleven commu
nicants. It is a solitary witness for Jesus
in a city containing two hundred and fifty-two
idol temples. The missionaries are Rev. R.
G. Wilder and wife, with a female Bible
Reader; there are four schools embracing,
at the last report, two hundred and thirty
four pupils. 2949 volumes, 293,007 pages of
religious literature were distributed, most
ly by gift, in 1865. Extensive preaching
tours are made . during the cool season
through the numerous villages of the dense
ly crowded province, where there is not an
other missionary to be found.
Some single wealthy church or cluster of
churches should take charge of this hope
ful and much needed enterprise, and place
it on a permanent basis:
THE N. Y. CHRISTIAN INTELLIHENCER (Re
formed Dutch) quotes our description of the
Old School character, as deduced from his
tory, and admits the justness of the portrai
ture
,as regards individual cases, but finds
fault with us for applying it to an entire
denomination. This we did not do. The
careful reader will notice that the subject of
all our propositions in that article,
was "the
thorough-going Old School man." We by no
means believe that the other branch contains
only such men, although we find such almost
exclusively represented in the newspaper
organs of the body. Our views and lan
guage naturally take shape from the class
with whom we, in our editorial capacity, are
brought in contact.