4111 f r irait IlrEslnjttriatt. TEICESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1868 REV. JOHN W. MEARS, D. D., Editor. No. 1334 Chestnut Street ) Philadelphia, Letter from India by Mr. Wilder. Close of the Fifth Demiurgic Day, Rev. A. M. Stewart's Letters, XXV, Hopewell Church, Tenn., Editor's Table, page 2nd; Editor's Ta ble concluded, page 3rd ; Evening Hymn, Let ter from Mr. Hammond, Beautiful Gate, Mr. Moody of Chicago, Death Bed Scene, Ole Bull's Fiddle Bow, page 6th; Religious World Abroad, Great Britain, the Continent, Span ish America, China, page 7th. Among gift booby recently issued, there is scarcely any more singularly beautiful than SCRIBNER & WELFORD'S edition of GRAY'S ELEGY. The full page illustrations, conceived in fine taste and drawn with skill, are printed in the freshest colors and closely reseMble fine spe cimens of oil painting. The text is given in handsome type, and the entire make of the vol nme is satisfactory to the critical. Price, in cloth, $6.25. . Few gifts could be more appropriate than a copy of Dr. MARCH'S NIGHT SCENES OP THE BIBLE, issued by Zeigler, McCurdy & Co., 614 Arch street. The original illustrations, princi pally from designs by T. Moran and Hamilton, well known artists of this city, were ordered from these painters expressly for this book, and they are engraved for the 'mat part with great care. The sombre effect of darkneFs, relieved by the tranquil beauty of the principal figures, is scarcely any where better exhibited than in' the picture of Paul and Silas in the Roman dungeon. Of the content's of the book we need but say that the descriptions are so,grailic and glowing as almost to supersede the necessity of illustration. Almost every line 's alive, and the effect of the whole is to give fresh interest and power to the passages and scenes of Scripture brought under review. Price, in cloth, $3:50. The Second Volume of ' MoCLINTocs. & STRONG'S great and comprehensive CYCLOPEDIA of Biblical and Theological literature has reach cd 118 from MESSRS. HARPER ,& BROS. We re serve a notice to • another occasion. Price, $5. For sale by LIPPINCOTT & CO. TELE SABBAUX AT HOME, fur January, the ex cellent monthly of the Boston American tract Society is on our table. see- Outside organizations, excellent and use ful as they are, have one excellence which 'is, per haps, greater than all others. They are a hint that the Church itself is not at work as it should and can be, in employing and developing its divine organization uponsurrounding wickedness, to the full. Do you wish to know how you may work for Christ? There may be other ways, there are other ways, but the . best way is to work through your Church. Contribute your part, to the full, in the prayer meeting, in Sabbath School, in mission work, and in beneficence, to bring it to the highest point of efficiency, and then give the surplus to outside operations. Work done outside, at the expense of the Church, is a very uncertain sort of gain to Christianity. SW We may puzzle ourselves vainly for ages with the question of the origin and presence and power of evil in God's universe. The attempts made to solve the question serve as a kind of mental gymnastics, and so are not without use. But there are some things about evil which are no mystery. It is a most powerful discipline to good. It gives it a positive character. Good would Bearcely be known as good without evil. Temptation met by resistance confers robustness, It is plain that evil is under such providential re straint that it need do no moral being real harm while it developes his character and tempers his virtues to irresistible proof by conflict. ROUND DANCES.—In one of our , popular monthlies for January we read of " the embrace which we all consider so eminently proper while the motion of the dance continues—so very shocking a few minutes later.". This is nothing less than an open confession of the gross impro priety of thai class of dances. And why then are there found respectable, pure, and even Christian people to patronize them ? An answer is given in the article on Co operative Housekeeping in the January Atlantic. The young ladies and their mothers must be the judges of its truth or falsehood: ." The real powers in society," says the writer, are the young men, and they are its despots; while the young girls (and their mo thers, too) are their cringing suppliants and flat terers, and this to such an extent that they dare not be independent in their characters, their pursuits, or even their principles. If this be. disputed, witness the round dance question alone, which the young men have so successfully carried against the disapproval of the mothers and the scruples of the daughters, simply by ne glecting the young ladies who refuse to join in such dances." —Only seven members of the Senate voted against the following resolution, repudiating the repudiation scheme of Andrew Johnson, and passed on Thursdiy last : Resolved, That the Senate, properly cherishing and upholding the good fitith and honor of the na tion, do hereby utterly disapprove or and condemn the sentiment and proposition contained in as ranch THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1868. of the late annual message of the President of the United States as reads as follows : [Here follows t' e paragraph in reference to liquidating the National debt.] —ln every point of view, the liquor traffic is a burden, an imposition, and a fraud of gigantic character upon the community. By far the greater part of our expenses for supporting the poor, for maintaining the forms and enforcing the penalties of the criminal law; for courts, police, jails, houses of correction, arise from the public use and traffic in intoxicating drinks. By far the greater part of the misery, squalor, abject poverty and degradation which character ize the lower classes and make them a burden and a peril to society, arise from the traffic in intoxicating drink. And naturally enough, this essentially immoral, destructive business defies all attempts to make it tributary to the national finances. No means of transformation have been found as yet potent enough to convert drunkard making into one of the pillars of, the credit. It is such an unfathomable mmlstrom of corruption, that .high officials of the govern ment, that detectives set to watch them, and courts, and juries, and witnesses undertaking to convict them, are swept into it. You and reader, actually pay our leavy income, stamp and other taxes to the government, just because our neighbor in the whiskey .business evades the payment of his; by a round-about but 'very sure process, he puts his hand into our pockete and takes out his share as well as our own .of the go vernment tax; and it seems that all the. wisdom of senators, the astuteness of lawyers and police men, and the stringency of statutes, cannot pre vent it. There is only one way, and that is,' PROHIBIT THE TRAFFIC; and if the savings of a couple of years are -not sufficient:to pay off the entire principal of our debt, the whole nation will be so much sounder and thriftier, that the debt will not be felt as a public burden. , THE JEWS AND SUNDAY. —The Israelite of Cincinnati (an organ of the Reform party), has a letter from a gentleman of that persuasion, re sident in New Orleans which takes the ground, that a change of the day for celebrating th'eJeW ishSubbath is lawful and expedient. "The changes of the last half century, have ren dered it impossible to observe properly the seventh day of ate week. It might be proper in Airliner times, but so were other observances which the Is-' raelitee have found it necessary to modify. The commandment to keep the Shabbat, or Sabbath, holy, the writer declares, does not instance the par ticular day of the week. Nor would it be possi ble, in all parts of the globe, with the hours of sun set and sunrise changing with every degree of lon gitude, to indicate by them any precise time which would be always the same holy period. The Chris tian wcrld, outnumbering , largely the Jews, have adopted another day, and it is very inconvenient to vary from their usage." The writer also administers a gentle reproof to his co-religionists for their former implacable bitterness and prosecution. " Jesus, was a reformer of the Jewish religion; whom they caused to be executed: and afterward they compelled his disciples to alienate themselves from the Jewish church. They were themselves to blame that Cbristiarity is now a Faith` outside of Judaism." The Jewish Messenger, the orthodox organ, strongly opposes any change, on the ground that there would be just as much reason in submitting to the will of the majority on the question or whom they should worship, as on the question of the day on which worship should be offered. It says that the attempt was actually made by a Berlin Rabbi, but his synagogue, though thronged for a while, was soon deserted. FRIENDs.---Some twenty years ago the New England and the various Western Yearly Meet ings of the Orthodox Society of Friends divided into two parties on the question of the orthodoxy of Joseph John Gurney, an English Friend who visited this country. The seceding (or exeinded) minority were called Wilburites from John Wil bur, of the N. E. Meeting who denounced J. J. Gurney's " Evangelical " sentiments as inconsis tent with "the ancient testimonies of the Society" and with " the truth." The Philadelphia Yearly Meetings, (the 12th St. meeting excepted) mostly sympathize with the Wiiburites on doctrinal or disciplinary grounds, but the moderate party, who wished no separation here, had the upper hand, and for years avoided coming to any vote as to which of the rival yearly meetings in the East and West they should correspond with. At last they decided to drop all correspondence with all other yearly meetings, thereby obviating all necessity for a decision. About a hundred of the ultra-Wilburi.es, however,. have since seceded and now hold a General Meeting at Falsington, Pa., with three or four particular meetings, one of which, comprising some score of persons, meets in a parlor on Coates St., in this city. " Is IT EIONEST to say that Rome discourages the circulation of the Bible ?" the Protestant public were recently asked, in a widely scattered Romanist tract. Hear Cardinal Wiseman in re ply. He says in his tract, " Catholic Doctrine ron the Bible," page 25, republished from vol. xxxiii. of The Dublin Review: "If, therefore, we be asked why we did not give the Bible indifferently to all, and the shutting - up (as it is called) of God's word be disdainfully thrown in our face, we Will not seek to elude the question or meet the taunt by denial, or by attempting to prove that out principles on the subject are not an tagonistic to these of Protestants. They are antag onistic, and we glory in avowing it. We answer boldly, we give not the word ot God indiscriminately to all, because God himself has not so given it. We farther say we do.not permit the indiScriminate and undirected use of the Bible, because God has not given his Church the instinct to do so. We cannot and must not adopt the Protestant course, because we have no reason to admire its fruits or expecta tions. But, though the Scriptures may be here per mitted, we do not urge them on our people; WE DO NOT ENCOURAGE THEM TO READ THEM. We do not spread them to the utmost among them, certainly not." So Pope Clement XI., in his famous Bull, Unigenitus published in 1713, said : "The proposition of [the Jansenist] Quesnel, that it is useful and necessary at all times and for all sorts of persona to study, and to know the spirit, and piety, and mysteries of the Scriptures,' is false, captious, shocking, offensive to pious ears, scan dalous, pernicious, rash, seditious, impious, and blasphemous," THE JANS,ENISTS AND THE ULTRAMONTANES. —The calling of an .Ecumenical Council , by the Pope, an experiment avoidei for four centuries by his predecessors, has opened an old wound. One hundred and fifty years ago the followers of Jansenius in South -Holland, finding their (Augus tinian or Calvinistic,) doctrines condemned by the papal Bull Unigenitus, withdrew from the com munion of the Roman Church and appealed to the next Ecumenical Council. They still survive to the number of 16,000 communicants in twen ty-five parishes, under the oversight of two bish ops and an archbishop, being most commonly known as " Old Roman Catholics" and " The Episcopal Church." As the Pope has invited the members of all orthodox Christian Churches, though not in communion with the See of Rollie, to, be present by delegation, they announce their purpose to be present, and present thefr appeal against the papal condemnation of Jansenius's 14ok "Augustinianus "- and ," the five proposi tions" extracted from it by the Jesuits. The Catholic Telegraph thinks that " their appeal to the future council' will be declared inadmissi ble as long as they hold to the absurd idea that no definite sentence can be rendered in questions of faith, morals or discipline when it is not in session." We do not know much of the law, but we think that a lawyer would regard that as a curious ground for rejecting au appeal. It will probably - result 'in r bringing the queition of the personal infallibility of the Pope before the Council, in a form that Will demand a decision. THE CRY OF FAILURE. In the hard and swaying conflict between truth and error, sin and holiness, the Kingdom of Christ and the kingdom orSatan, there have been odd times, not a few when failure might have been charged upon the former. The divine counsels themselves might seem frustrated in the hasty judgment of the observer, especially if his sympathies with them were not very lively. The Fall of man in Paradise, and his second fall in the ages before the flood; the long delay in starting the Hebrew migration from Ur of the Chaldees ; the delay of Terah in Haran ; the long waiting for Isaac; the entanglement of the twelve tribes in Egypt, and the deepening dark ness of the ceptntes from the death of Joseph till the appearance of Moses •and Aaron before Pharaoh; the Exodus, the Red Sea, the defection at the very roots of Mt. Sinai,—and a score of other like critical and apparently hopeless pe riods in the history - of the kingdom of truth, may be found, where the cry of "failure" might have been uttered, and doubtless was uttered, by the disheartened and jaundiced observer. Time and again the people of Israel declared their whole movement under Moses a failure, and there were occasions when Moses himself was disposed to agree with them. The brave, rugged, impetuous Elijah felt the iron of disappointment enter into his soul, and fled to. the desert where God had once gloriously revealed himself to his people, believing, in his burning heart, that the whole economy was a failure. And when the disciples saw their Master wrested from them by violence, borne away by the - mob to the Sanhedrin, to Pi late, to Herod, to Calvary, without any miracu lou., interposition in his behalf—when they knew that he had actually died, and when the shadow of that Friday night came down upon a Dead and a Buried Christ, they looked into one ano ther's faces, and saw the unutterable sense of failure written upon each. And so we are hot surprised occasionally to hear some earnest voice, even in our day, raising the cry of "Failure" against one and another of the forms, ins. itutions and organizations by which the conflict of truth -with error is carried on in the world, or against the Church itself as a whole. Who, for a moment, will claim that Christianity has done more than a tithe of its intended ;lo riouß work, even in Christian lands? Who does not 'often more than half feel that the work which he would see accomplished in his own heart is a failure? Does not even Paul himself charge us to forget the things that are behind; to count them as nothing, almost as, failures, in view of the vast proportion of our. work and the greater weight of glory, that lies before ? The most recent instance of this cry of " Fail ure is in certain sermons by one Dr. Ferdinand C. Ewer, Rector of Christ Church, NeW York, who puts it ia the shape of the Failure of Pro testantism; with whom we would not quarrel, if we understood the declaration to be in view of the vast ends proposed by Protestantism, and will so far from being realized. With equal truth, it might be said that Christianity is a failure. Has .it converted the world ? Has it reached, even in the most indefinite way, to every part of mankind? Has it conquered unbelief? Has it reached and elevated the masses of the great capitals either of the Protestant or the Romish nations? Is it clear of apostacies, and heresies, and gross inconsistencies in any of its branches ? Have not all the natural sciences risen up as at some infernal signal, as at the dis mal drum-beat of Diabolus before the town of Mansoul, to lay violent siege to the supernatural claims of Christianity and to sweep its evidences from the earth ? Might not very eloquent ser mons, very pithy, acute and learned, and with a great show of plausibility, their positions forti fied by abundant quotations from desponding ut terances of Christians themselves, be preached to show that Christianity, after a much longer trial than the three centuries of Protestantism, is a failure? But the preacher would simply forget that this is not the triumphant but the struggling Church—ecclesia militans ac pressa—sometimes almost crushed out of existence , by the vehement assaults of error: Dr. Ewer thinks only Protest antism is a failure, while he considers the " Catholic " elements found in the Roman, Greek and Anglican Churches as the only true grounds of success. A mere glance Over the present con dition of the Christian world will show that, whatever success the religion of Jesus has had in elevating mankind, no small *tare of it be longs to Protestantism; while the tery existence of a pure Gospel in the world is due to that great movement in which Protestantism was born. By all means, let us have something better than Protestantism, if it can be had. We are nothing loth to reform the Reformation, if it can be done. But Dr. Ewer's sentimental revamp ing of Romanism will turn out the deadest failure of all. LETTER FROM CHICAGO. DEAR AMERICAN :—The sensation'of the week with us has been the long piojected and much heralded Retinion of the armies of the West—the four great armies known as those of the Tennessee, the Cumberland, the Ohio and Georgia. The occasion was made illustrious by the presence of a greater number of men of brilliant fame than were ever gathered here, or at almost any other place in our land, before. It would require a letter of considerable length to recount simply their names. Extensive preparations had been made .for giving fit receptiOrk to so distinguished guests. The principal hotels, headquarters -of the respective armies, were elegantly-decoiated, and every attention was lavished on the nation's heroes dtiring'their 'entire stay. A reception at the private mansion of Lieut. Gov. Bross, on Monday evening, inaugurated the festivities of the occasion. Among the personages present were Gens. Grant, Sherman, Thomas, McDowell, Schofield and their suites. Of course the ebliter of attraction was - the corner Where the President. elect, in citizens' dress, received.the sa lutations of the company in his own peculiar stolid and immovable manner. Eminently modest and sensible in appearance, there was scarcely a less distinguished looking individual in the densely packed rooms. He was as voluble as usual. When the hour, for departure came he looked long and vainly for hat and overcoat, in common with many othemequally unfortunate, and finally was obliged to boirow those of his host. Being advised to' advertise them in the morning, he replied that this would be unnecessary, as several newspaper men were present. As I saw no notice of this circumstance, through some remarkablegoversight of Jenkins, I put it down here, to the chagrin, no doubt, of that individual, when he shall read for the first time in the Presbyterian so salient an incident of the evening. The comery, too, will no doubt be electrified at reading a speech from the General of such unprecedented length. Tuesday was occupied with the separate busi ness' meetings of the several military organiza tions represented, and was closed by the magni ficent gathering at the Opera House, which was the grandest feature of the entire afair. Great was the rush to procure tickets of admission to the house, and the thousands who crowded the vast theatre from floor to dome were but a small fraction of the number who would have sought admission could it have been had for "love or money" Seldom has so brilliant an assemblage of brave men and showy women been convened. The building was splendidly decorated with battle flags, with shields bearing the names of a hun dred famous fields, and with evergreens, and flooded with light. Upon the stage at five hun dred or so of men, a large pert of whom were em blazoned with the stars of General, Lieut.-Gen eral, Major and Brigadier Generals, as well as the insignia of inferior rank; and many of whom, although in private or civil life, were like the others identified with the history of cur great civil war. In the centre of the stage sat the noble, soldier-like form of the President of the evening, Gen. Geo. H. Thomas, on his right the imperturbable Grant, on his left the alert, nervous, magnetic Sherman ; and about and beyond him such men of fame as Schofield, and Logan, and Pope, and Terry, and Slocum, McDowell, Stone man, Stone and Wilson, Augur and Butterfield, Parker and Dent and Vandever, and a host of others whose names are familiar to us all in con nection with the events of the war—men whose names will go down to posterity honored and re vered as the nation's proudest possession. The exercises commenced by the Reveille, by the Drum Corps, given in fine style, and calling forth loud applause. Then followed the Welcom ing Address, by Gen. Sherman, admirable in man ner and substance, brief and pertinent, succeeded again by music and by addresses by Gen. Belk nap, of the Army of the Tennessee, Gen. Cruft, of the Army of the Cumberland, Gen. Cox of the Army of the Ohio, and Gen. Cogswell of the Army of Georgia, in which the battles and the marches, the sufferings, endurance and victories which have rendered them immortal in history were recounted once more in glowing terms, and fitting eulogy pronounced on the noble dead who saved the life of the nation by the willing sacri fice of their own. It was, all in all, a scene which will never be reproduced, and which those who witnessed will not forget. Brief responses were made by some of the others to the loud calls cf the audience, but true to his record, Gen. Grant I could neither be coaxed nor driven into any ut terance beyond the pantomimic one of a silent bow. Wednesday was again devoted to business, and the evening to a monster banquet at the Board of Trade Hall, where more than a thousand sat down to close the exercises of the occasion with feast ing and hilarity. I am sorry to say that this part of the affair was not in keeping with the ad mirable manner of all else pertaining to the Re union. A portion of the guests participated quite too freely in the liquors abundantly provided, and conducted as drunken men will, to their own dis grace and the great discredit of the whole affair. I am happy to be able to say that Gen. Grant took no wine or spirituous liquors whatever dur ing the whole evening. Thus ended this remarkable gathering. Our guests are mostly departed, and our streets have resumed their peaceful appearance But my letter is already too long, and I have no time for com ment on this or other matters of interest. NORTHWEST. Chicago, December 18th, 1868. *in d eturths. CITY CHIIRCHIA The First Church, on Washington Square, Dr. Herrick Johnson pastor, received 24 persons at the communion last Sunday, four by profession and twenty by certificate. At North Broad St. Church a meeting will be held on Christmas morning, at 9 o'clock for ap. propriate devotional services. Next Sabbath, Rev. Dr. Cuyler, of La Fayette Avenue church, will preach morning and afternoon, and President McCosh before the Philadelphia Bible Society in the evening. Mintsteriall. Rev. Chester Holcomb.—A correspondent of The Evangelist says of this young brother: " Fifty Sabbath _schoolsorganized in Georgia durinc , the previous year, seemed to us a fit pre lude of a foreign missionary, to which work he has consecrated his life." Rev. John Noble has removed from Harrison Junction, 0., to Constitution, 0. He has en gaged as stated supply :of the Warren church (post-office, Constitution) for one year. Rev. George R. Carroll' .s address is changed from Wyoming, lowa, to Council Bluffs, lowa. He is about to enter•upon the missionary work in the far West, as missionary of Oznah ► Pres bytery. Rev. Wm. R. Powers has accepted a call to the church in Danville, 111., Salary $1,500 with par sonage. The church is quite a flourishing one. and in promising circumstances. Danville is an old town, lately seized with Yankee enterprise. Its neighborhood is very rich in coal. Rev. J. P. E. Kumler (late of Oxford, 0.,) was installed, Dec. 6th, over the First church at Evansiille, vacant by Rev. W. H. McCarer's ac ceptance of the District Secretaryship of the Am. and Fr. Christian Union. Dr. Smith, of Lane Seminary, preached the sermon to a large and profoundly interested audience. President Tuttle, of Wabash College, delivered the charge to the people, and the installing prayer. This church has a history dating back to 1821; a membership of 200; a house of worship, built in 1860, valued at $75,000, and a comfortable par sonag,e, lately bought for $6,000 Evansville has a thriftpand enterprising population of 30,- 000, and larger trade than any city on the Ohio below Cincinnati. It is the residence of Gov. Conrad Baker, whose republican simplicity and wise statesmanship have endeared him to the peo ple of the Commonwealth. He is one of the most active members of the First Presbyterian church, and one of Mr. Kumler's right-hand men. 1 el. John S. Mac Connell, recently of the U. P. Church of Chicago, has received and accepted a unanimous call to the Presbyterian Church of Pontiac, 111., and commences his labors with the New Year. Churches. Fairmount, o.—To this church five persons were added on profession at the last communion. Rev. H. C. Mcßride ministers to the church half of his time. Rossville, Ill.—After an interesting meeting of twelve days' continuance nine members were ad ded, about fifty per cent. to the membership, with others hoping in Christ. Ceriron, 6.—This church kept Thanksgiving day with festival for the children, and began 'a series of' meetings on the following evening, the following Sabbath beino , their communion. Their pastor writes to The Yeridd under date of Dec. 10: "From the beginning, the Lord gave' us sweet and blessed tokens of His presence with us, and for the past twelve days it has been one constant Pentecostal season; sweet, solemn, and heavenly. Being alone ministering in preaching day and night, I am obliged to stop a day or two and rest. Up to this present writing, about fifty have been added to the church, and still they come. The meeting last night was as large and solemn as at any stage of its progress. How the people . , have come from night to night through the dark and storm, and mud, one can hardly tell. Those only can know at what sacrifice, who have been at Cedron, and over, its roads. Whole families have come to the Saviour, bringing their children with them in Baptism—a nuble band of youth—and the aged and backslidden, together bowing to Christ, and entering into covenant with him." Chester City Church (Rev. M. P. Tones paF tor) received nine persons at the recent com munion. Seven on certificate, two by profession. The services were greatly enjoyed, and the at tendance was excellent in spite of the weather. Bloomington, ill. —We find in, the Chicago Legal News the report of a decision by Judge Lawrence, of the. Supreme Court of Illinois, that is of considerable importance. A.majority of the members of the Presbyterian church in Bloom ington voted to connect themselves with the New School body. The minority brought the matter into court, with two questions to be determined : First, Whether the majority was competent to make this change in the relations ,of the church ; Second, whether the right to ; Vote,"upon such 'a question, should not be confined, to members of the' church and.denied lo those who are simply
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