Obt..:4_\',gtrrii4i: New Series, Vol. IV, No. 49. $3 00 By Mail. ffis 50 By Carrier. I 50cts Additional after three Months. I 3otttiran trtollyttrian. TIIURSDAY, DECEMBER'6, 1867 HEAVEN WARR, tIIOATEWAILD.. TT Biessed are they itNtitLiere liotiAetek,lfor'-ihey : hall come at last to the Father's House." —H. Still- We too, are parted from our native shore, And in our heart's a sorrow- evertriore,i - - A mourning for that far and boUndiess sea, Which chanteth to our spirits ceaselessly ; - And this is why wew,ill,notere be blest, our distant home eitlth'ici itd-dbef4r.itit. The great test of error on religions subfacts ; of Atheism, Materialism, dilletante trifling with philosophic . dOttbt; and ' of the essential faatures of the,'ScriptUre syS teal, is death. Any or'all-of,them.may car.- ry a man with some degree of ease, or pride even, through life, but at death they, one and all leave man to take mere, ",leap-in the dark." They 'Void th e terra incognita, with guesses ,at the best; they cannot pacify one twinge of the .con-, science, whioh in that hour is ,so leave the spiritual nature pf,.man, with its vast yearnings all aroused, a blatikvacuity.. They rob man of immortality i• in that honr, when heart-strings break, and every ear )ply tie dissolves, they shut out es'Pery ray of porr( tort, and add their own hOrrOts tp, the seen*. Black should be ,the pall,andsombre the hearse plumes, that wave over the cold form once throbbing with all the irrepressi ble aspirations of a man, but now goitt,t to the burial of a brute.' • The Christian is taught to regard Oath' as the translation to HO r abOde SO much happier, and more blessed than'..thep,raseTit,: that he waits for' it With joyful The choicest word among those which are . peculiar to the English .language, is appliCd so it, and it. is called " going yoxiio,"! . ..Au the indescribably rich and tender associationacon fleeted with that word home, are brought to brighten the dying hour. As if even the hallowed experiences of domestic life on earth, were but the passing entertainments cf the pilgrim, now, indeed, going to his true horno. That magnetism, whiCh to the minds of all English-speaking people, is pos sessed by homo, belongs also to the eternal world in the feeling of the Christian. A secret tie of relationship, a secret sense of longing, as if for a once familiar and delight -1111 spot, a sense •of belonging there, rather than to the most intimate earthly locality, c.mtinually draw the true Christian heaven ward, Death is almost like a return of the exile from foreign uncongenial scenes, to the dear home anitcountry in which he had been horn and reared, and with which are all his strongest and tenderest ties. This sense of greater familiarity, of truer and doer belonging, of nativity in the heaven ly world, is truly , marvellous. his the wit ness in itself of the soul's spiritual and im mortal nature. For indeed, the regenerate 'mil is " born from above.". It is a native of the heavenly world, more truly than of the earthly. There . .is our Father, there our Brother in the fullest sense of the words. There is company the most congenial to the soul's nature, free from all taint of sin, and burning with zeal for the glory of God. There dwells the greatest of all benefactors, the most self-denying of all friends, the most marvellous embodiment of all love. Whatever can hallow, beautify and sweet en home below, is but asymbol of the glory, and the joy, and the unspeakable attrac tions of the home above. It is the Father's house in which there are many mansions, and a place prepared ,for . every one of his Poirple. 'no outward. adorning and the sumptuousness, the c.o inforts and, attractions which we would throw around our earthly !wiles; the tender ties, the life, the love with which we would fill them; the sweet of music which should float through Falls and chambers; that electric chain of sympathy which binds all together, and that subtle, all-pervading atmosphere which really makes it HOME,—all, all burdened here by imperfection, find their ideal in the heaven of the4Thristian. And as time passes, and one after another of the dear home circle below is translated to the better home above ;as the one bellow grows pooror, and the one obcm, richer, it dully becomes easier and more natural for the believer to transfer the.strength of his home, feeling to another world. There the Lemo circle which at best was a moot un- J own viV eit I eartain,dhangefal'thincr on'earth is reassem bling._, There the loved and mourned and longed-for securely dwell. Yes ! They are, gathering, the true hoine , circle there, around the heavenly Pntber's door, and we—when shalt be witkihem too ? raise our dimin4d, eyes i to 'heav' en , and try to Pierce the veil that shuts us out. We,are,honae n , sick..., ',Our souls-break .for 4onging, that'bfthe for the dear•• fairiillar of 'ftii father!' Or the'lcing` , • ager approaching ilia .natlve shore agffust ij waiting, for tha:Oirilling cry of Laudl, ready with impassioned ardor - to ly to the arms of the friends from, whorn has beep so long '• separated. ' ,' Alas for the poor desolate homeless wa i n- derers who. pais into eternity and 4 have no father's,houeo,to go;to therel„, Wha orphan and disinherit thernscives-forever. by unbe lief( . • JAI' LUMEN IN THE FIELD. We netice, aocennti; qf the " Chris tian Convention," held an New Ypik'l4o; month„ that .muoll is . Said, et' the ,ete'el-, lenee and power of the. speecheS :of several . lay members, and the high tone of 'feeling , Wrought up, by them. notice, L. - C., 'in the Evangelist,) says_ " The most stri- king featare pf,the,Pon,vention to . , me, was the admirable speaking "'power of the lay members. Thermade thelbest•epeeehes of the meeting. This feet Is but Another evi dente of the great, part yfr,kkich laymen are to perform ,in: - 1 proclaiming' there gosj3eVi Further on, ,after' 'referring to the.: With:4 drawal . Of pastors' from ordinary preaching' work at;inOrtant points, to other derViee' edr.tike Phul.'o.o2e 'adds: "In the - MeantiMe the laity are coming forward to stand in the; gap: Judge SMith and Mr.‘Darant are: preachin . g in MasSachusetts. .Mr. Moody— ones. .I*, phpfL 4eo6y—preaches to a, hlge crowd every-jb-aiopub'lr=e-t-en'ing--iir . :-. Hall, Chicago." Similar cases have come under our own notice quite recently. An Elder—to be sure, an ordained man—who had been a member of the late Union Con vention in this city, gave to the. Church in which he rules well, an admirable written address designed to promote the object of the Convention, in place of the regular Sab bath evening services.' Another Elder, not now acting as such, plead the cause of Min isterial Relief very appropriately and ef fectively in place of the pastor in one of the country charges of our Synod, a few Sob:. baths ago. T. L. C. asks: " What is the L moral of all this?" Well; there is a moral to it, and one which we opine is not hard tube read. There is a class of men who have not been trained to the ministry as a profession, or consecrated to it as a sole life - work, under the usual ec clesiastical forms, upon whom God has nev theless laid the responsibility of preaching the gospel as occasions offer, and whom he wilt have to do it. The slowness of ecclesi astical bodies to follow the loadings of his providence and Spirit in this matter, has for some time been to us surprising; and, so far as our own Church, is concerned, this surprise is fast becoming an alarm, lest the favorable moment for action be lost. While we are hesitating about giving place and system to lay preaching, and making it a feature of our polity, lest it should lower the public respect for the ministerial office, the thing itself is breaking forth on the right hand and, the left, and is becoming deeply felt as a power in the Church, owned as such by God. While we are putting forth our doubts whether the right men can be found to accept our call to the work, the call from the perishing is bringing forth the men, and in many cases those who seem to be just the men for the work. We talk of the dangers of disorder from opening the pul pit to so many men of irresponsible minis terial standing, and whose methods are of just the kind which naturally tend toward excessive demonstrations. We admit this danger to be real, but it is one which, as is now becoming evident, the Church mast meet; and, this being so, we rather aggra vate than avoid it by withholding an eccle siastical status from lay preachers of any and every sort. The natural remedy for an irresponsible lay preaching, is to give to those approved for it an official responsibil ity. The rational course fur preventing the disorders to be feared from the rushing in of incompetent and unsafe men, is to place the whole matter under ecclesiastical super- PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1867. vision. lii this way the reflecting portion of the 'public' would soon fearn,whoin to, en courage and .of whom tb,heWare.. Just now tho world is , full of .events , v,ith a moral • and not the leas:Vet' these morals. is that, until Mind and tastesiamk modes of , -aecessi flirdT/a tie4eli track, it is usoluss tempt to` confine of , .nv r auggliaation,:,gtvidance avrll T oy. 9, undAtrhy.Slioald-ntot w4z4. 1 L• n.--; - • ..tßead:but Proce.edirwilL. ;GETTER FROlit Dl=l* THE' CMON - : • :.s tohl y - ; Taß.GzAiNfix„ElialluFg4„2B4,lo,c!,..lP67,l MY VERY DEAR FRlNEfl)::—Aftei an ab sence of three month's itkithe'Spattcr'hiie just returned,-to:tdinl346; anfi..`ainOng;a pile of letters and . deetinontsll'ound yours of the 7th. For. sCrao.ti,me ;CORLE weary: monient, will be'filllY'Oettpied, and I indeed] may say occupied'bey dliA 'lily 'strength is[ ray'state of health retnatas.m.ach as it was . Onithis aq'connp I api gficycd . to, thiak that. I!:citntiot prohablywiteAocyou , such a letter as:l'wenld on ihe.subjeetiof your NatiOnal Convention of 'the T'regleteritin Chitral on , trICP` Blibiee,i; (it I do ,rejo . leA that ,sitel l 4 .: '!ikeeting is to be held,' if. at be.. only. Apr; ipgayer—prayer for the effusion of the Holy Spirit.. whatYrwhatl'krioivorhilhian nature with its liereAitarypiejadfeed,.l. have long been satisfied that it is . not 45.argurnents:howev `er clear, 'or, ..litan'an:.,oloquence` however 'electrical' 'the time; that real Christian Union will sprinxt Whekber among -intlivida aAOr.tcharches. - Beal i tiknion.raust,springTrom souls under the mighty inffuence of divine grace; just is'natdrally as water flows from a perennial fountain. IbOk at the result of the Pente- Costal effusion: ! So keg as the', aiscipleS tbougir,conskieg , of mitt frcta, distant and prejudices clingingto them, continued ander the full influence of that out-pouring, they continued of one heart and one mind—and for a time even of one purse. But I cannot dwell on the subject farther than to say, Look for union, not so much to the force of logic as to the power of prayer, with its resulting influences, of grace. If men be full of faith and of the Holy Ghost they can no longer keep asunder from each other, but will be drawn instinctively and resistlessly towards each other as surely as particles of matter are drawn together by the attraction of affinity, or suns and plan ets by the attraction of gravitation. • I re gret extremely that I cannot go into the subject at all at present. Though not with you in person, I shall be with you in spirit and in prayer. Do, if possible, by God's bless ing, set an example which may raise the churches in this land to follow it. Yours very affectionately, (Signed) ALEXANDERDUFF. To Geo. H. Stuart, Phila. OUR LQNDON . LETTER.. LoNn9N, Nov. I,6th, 1867 Since I last wrote, the Italian drama has pass ed through 'some quick, short, exciting scenes. We were all expecting war, and wonder now, as we look back, how it was avoided. The Divine hand is as clearly ;AL this tangled skein as it ever was on any warp and woof of human alfairs—to fashion and restrain as He will The time has not yet come. Napoleon seems to be moved against his will by an irresistible power. Italy, whose temper was thought to be .unalterable, turned round as a feather before a storm, and Rome sits trembling, but still unmoved—a per manent, dogmatic, non possumus. You will ob serve that no public writer ventures to anticipate the coming events—we cannot do so; we look out upon a dismal duskiness, and through a glass, darkly. Every one feels that the best thing for the Emperor would be to abolish the September Convention—already practically abolished—and enter into a new one with Italy, which shall give her all she desires. But the Eldest son of the Church cannot break down the non possumus. He must be prepared to face the Ultramontaoes at home, and the Church everywhere, before he permits vile hands to be laid upon her tempora lities. Is he likely to do so'—with a powerful party to work against him in the Empire—and the anathemas of the Pope shaking in his face ? Many think not—and those ,_who .hope, do it against hope. - In England, for'a short time„ we are taking breath on eCclesiastical ni'ajters, after the excess- ive dosing of the Pan Anglican Synod, and the Wolverhampton Congress. A great meeting has been held at Hillsborough, near Belfast, in,the North of Ireland, under the auspices of the Mar quis 'of 'Downshire and ,. other great; Tory and Oiiite 'noblemen And "geniry," at which, I' am` ForrY to say; Da CoOKE, who has been a great .man in his day,.declared himself for an alliance of Presbyterians with the Established Church peo trying to save itand the'Regium Donum.• O the arguments. df thePspeakeis . went to!4:m4ll4lfthe, ph aTeh wars. to uChe d , ,Rcitnap iCutbslicism,rwoulii triumpb and.win ,t,flopastery. I tknow7of .no .greater 'error.. Englishmen only aiikeLOoiicesSionaltb Catholics bebattse they think it just to do so, but supremacy, the biter can ney,o; pt.,. Nothing could be More proper, sure , Iy-, than.that,,aslin America, the ROM= Catho lics shOuld =have all 'griei•ances removed; and then' let Cathblic falithand Protestant faith, fight their' , battte` fairly. 'Who can, doubt the issue after 'the great , Reformation struggle, And believe God to. ,he on the side of •truth, dnd, especially so, whenever her 'partisans are sincere, and• , fair ? Very little, attention is given in this HilliborOuol dembastration whiCh' shook Ulster t 9 its very centre, , indeed we are getting to look upon' the diseptablishment of the .Irish Church as a foregone comiltiti4E; and to regard With little interest the protests - Often reiterated "of its indignant defenders. The injustice is too pal . . pable to be glossed over by words—to be hidden in .clouds of rhetoric. Years `ago, in letters to your paper, I foreiaw the approaching doom, ar.d eieitday only don& us the aCcurat'y of the fore - The:Roman question has naturally aroused a good deal of Protestant feeling, some of which has expressed itself, as, for instance; in lFaeter-in riots. Another tended to those riots, and to others at Oxford and elsewhere, namely : the high price of bread. This di;aster which presses most heavily on the working-man, and which he can least of all enduie.- His objections take:a 4 /40idal''atll - rerdcioni tarn, and' he sniff& Vie' natural t aitnatiOnec:;• nib* 'to Hab . - bes-1. e., a state of war. I think in my last let ter I indicated the probabilities of trouble of this kind. You will I)e . sorry to hear that there is still but little hope of Dr. Hamilton's recovery. I learn that be is gradually growing more weak. None who have ever come into communication with that large and kindly na•ure, that heart so ten der, appreciative, and sympathizing, that mind filled with grand, if sometimes quaint, curious, and ingenious thoughts, that ready intelligence and overflowing hum that soul so bright with heavenly irradincy, will easily hear of his ap proaching end, To lose so mach from the world at once, seems weir than sad--'tis almost un bearable. Turrti,ng to secularities,, public opinion, in spite of the Conservatives, has ea ceeded in abolishing the middle age monstrosities of the Lord Mayor's day._The' old civic vessel on wheels, the men in armor, the waterman, all disappeared on the Ninth, forever; and we, bad a moderate proces sion in modern state carriages —still somewhat ridiculous—instead. We are hoping ; also, to get rid of the stupid old' organization of the Mayor, Aldermen and Council of the City of London as well,,and to do away With vast civic feasts., and silly shows, at immense expense. That will take longer. " Vested interests" stop the way; but, eventually, even vested interests yield before sense- and public conviction. The barriers of antiquity, however strongly constructed, gener a ally have. some: rotten.. place, which, once dis covered:, gives a free opening to reformative de struction. Many such, now existing in Eneland, shall soon fall before young, strong, hands, and sturdy principles: FROM OUR CHICAGO CORRESPONDENT. DEAR AMERICAN :—A grateful change has come over the weather, and we are to-day enjoy ing our first fall of snow this season. Up to the present week we have had but very few days that could be called even cool, and none of the signs of winter'usually apparent at an earlier period. But for the extreme dryness and sultriness of the month, November would deserve to be placed this year among its very pleasantest months. But there has been wide-spread loss and suffering from the want of rain. Btreams and marshes usually full at this season, are dry, beyond mid summer drouth, entailing much misery upoU the animal creation; while in Southern Illinois, in Missouri and Kansas, especially, the autumnal burnings of the prairies have swept away in their resistless course a very large amount, in the ag gregate, of Wealth. Never have I seen these vast seas of flame so awfully 'beautiful and impres.ive, as when sometimes this autumn witnessing them Genesee 'Evangelist. No. 1124. f Ministers $2.50 H. l Miss. $2.00. Address t-1.834 Chestnut Street. by night from the windows of the rail ears, at a distance, or even rushing .through their very midst at a speed'-hardly excelling their own. But copious showers have afforded some relief, though by no means meeting the measure of our wants. Can scarcely be said to have been rekliousiyobserv ed by any very larae pcirtion of our citizens. But few of.the churc i Qf our. own denomination were opened, and those few, ,se, far as my information goes, were Slenderly attended{ although the day was . bland and pleasant , atial . every thing • Ow- . spired to invite the whole population tuthe plBa4- ing ,dnty,of publid Traise and thanliigivi4o, Almighty. God for his. manifold goodness Illf - e!event of the .day which attracted.most:atteio ,, tion' . arid drew toether erthydS-Orpeeple'slifficient to have filled to oveilltiariii eVerY Clititch 411 SC -1 )' • city,was the arrivajA from' Portland f in 'twenty-slimwalking , days, and minctually on tiiire:' l TI A-1163. bf the hOur.march ed down -Wabash Avenue at about the time of morning service, surrounded by a cordon of ~pol ice and attended by &dense crowd of people on foot, on 2 horseback, and'-'-in'vehicles of every de scription, and gazed at and , apPlauded by the thonsands who had taken pOsseasion of, every available point,of observation,- The ,pedestrian exhibited no traces of_ ;exhaustion from his un paralleled feat, as he trod'iwith elastic .step the last mile of his marvellous walk, his small lint lithe and sinewy figure, handsomely but soine , what foppishly dressed, and his face exhibiting his satisfadtion at the ovation he was receiving, and as we may suppose, his natural• satisfaction with, the successful issue of his' great undertaking. Still, the occasion for all this enthusiasm is, of course, ridiculously small, and only shows how ready the populace is to manufacture for itself a hero out of the scantiest material. Weston prom ises to walk his one hundred miles in twenty four hours over the' 'city race course; for the benefit of the widows and orphans 'of soldiers. No one doubts that he can accomplish it and it is'a com mon belief here that-he "sold " the race as to -that feature of it . ' Your readers will learn with regret and sym pathy of the severe domestic affliction of your late Chicago correspondent, " Wabash," (Rev. Dr. Humphrey), in the recent death of his youngest child, a sweet little daughter of seven summers. All three of his children were stricken down at once Ivith diphtheria, and for a time it was feared that the afflicted parents were to be bereaved of all their household treasures. But they were mercifully spared so terrible a blow. Rev. Dr. Patterson has been recently heard from at Beyrout, Syria. He was in good health, and was exp. sting to return home by February next. Several new Mission Schools have been recent ly organized in our city, with excellent prospects of success. Most of them will probably prove the nucl. i f future churches. The Y. M. C. A. are holdinr , nightly meetings in their new building, of a miscellaneous charac ter, designed to draW in and, improve especially the young men of the city, . A course of free lectures of a high order on scientific subjects has been commenced. Mr. Moody preaches on each Sabbath evening to good audiences, made up from the streets and saloons in large a degree. The recent Fair for the benefit of soldiers' or phans and widows, Yielded about $25,000, nett. A mass meeting of Presbyterians bf all branch es, has been called for next Wednesday evening, to ratify the- doings of the recent Convention at Philadelphia. Nine tons of tracts have been sent by Henry Buley, Esq., of London, to the Y. M. C. A. It is said• that this gift. is the result of a vow made by Mr. Buley when the 'success of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable—of which he is a large stock holder—seemed doubtful; that he would devote all his dividends from. it to' religious uses. Mr. Braley is a man, of great wealth and great Chris tian benevolence, and holds not only this, but the rest of his-income,. to be used as the Master shall direct.. These tracts are in process of dis tribution, and a. great demand for them has al ready arisen. .&DELPHOS Rev. Wm. Campbell, of Adel, has been ap pointed, District Secretary. of Home Missions, for the Synod. of lowa, with the exception of the Presbytery of Dubuque ; which still remains in connection with the Synod of. Peoria. No better appointment could have been made Rev. H. H. Kellogg, of Marshalltown, resigns the pulpit of the Presbyterian church in that place, thus vacating oneof our most important and attractive churches in the State. A church of six members ; of our order, was organized at La Purte City, Blackhawk county, on Sabbath last, and at the same time a house of worship was dedicated to the , use of the infant church in the service; of God., , It is not often that the procuring of the edifice goes before the formation of the church. It is due to the devo ted and efficient pastor, Rev. C. S. Marvin, to say that to his great personal sacrifices this in domitable resolution and purpose, struggling onward, when his brethren of the Presbytery agreed that he should abandon the enterprise as impracticable is this most hopeful undertaking to be credited. NORT 14rEF3T. Chicago, Nov. 29, 1861. TiIANKSdIVING 'DAY THE ~ClitEIT wt.wroN,
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