6 . ':'/1w.,.. H. ...t0rica.ii - Tirtsbnirrian
New Series, Vol. VI, No. 14.
. . .
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gtintritan ilttslllstrrialt.
THURSDAY, APRIL 1869
THE SUCCESSFUL CHRISTIAN.
' As we hear talk of the successful merchant,
the successful manufacturer, inventor, or writer,
we should, anon, hear of the successful Chris
tian; Merely to be a:Christian should no more
satisfy the professor, than merely to, be a mer
chant, manufacturer or writer satisfies these
classes. Contented plodding is no'honor to either;
it is more likely to lead to the overthrow of all.
A Christian must by all means hive an ambition
to succeed, as such. He must aim to know, and
value, and reach the great capacities of his pro
fession. He must be thoroughly ashamed of
low attainments, cold affections, scanty knowl
edge, halting progress and ineffectiveness in the
service of the Master. The powers of his soul
must be enlisted for Christ. Instead of reser
ving all his dullness, or the mere odds and ends
of his life for his'religion, while business and
secular concerns get its brightest hours and its
best energies, he mast make it really and truly
his chief end to glorify God ; with animation,
energy and enterprise, he must pursue this oh
,
ject, and businesi, and secular life; and fashion,
and amusements, and studies must be ' arranged
in subordination to this. '
The successful Christian is the one who thus
shows respect to his own heart's choice, and puts
its full significance into it. Whatever that is, he
will be a Christian, and. not only have the name
and varnish of one. He is more than the sue
cessfulmoralist who has kept the commandments
from his youth up. He has entered manfully,
into the inward Conflict of which the legalist
knows nothing.' He has fought spiritual battles
and won. He has put to flight the army of
alien doubts; his faith has grown calm, steady
and healthfully mature. He has the witness in
himself; he knows that Christ lives, for he liveS
in Him ; and you cannot, by any amount of soph
istry, shake a living conscious man's faith In his
own existence. Be is sti•Onc , in faith, like faith
ful Abraham. The promiseti with which God's
word is studded, are the lamp to his feet and the
light to his path. He believes in them; rests
upon them; lives, truks, bears up and rejoices
in them.
The successful Christian is he who has grasped
the great idea of a present personal Redeemer.
He has found out that he has Jesus as an actual,
living companion ; present indeed to faith, in the
spirit and not in the flesh, but for that very rea
son nearer, more intimate than one in the flesh
over could be ; so near that nothing can separate
between them, not death itself. He has learned
to live and walk in the blissful sense of that
presence, day by day.
. .
The successful Christian has become skilled in
the use of the weapon of all prayer. He does
not talk idly to God 'or waste the sacred seasons
set apart for prayer. His prayers tell. They are
real powers. He preails with God. He has a
meaning—a specific purpose in his approaches to
the Mercy Seat. He comes believingly, boldly,
importunately. He' , goes away hopefully, with
inward refreshment and elevation. He has met
with God. The prayerful spirit has been culti
vated until it has become more than a part,—
rather the informing principle, the mode—of his
life. As incense, without effort, his thoughts
mount up' to God, and through all his activity
there runs a reference to and a dependence . on
God, which makes it a continual act of worship.
The successful Christian has struck a well of
water springing up in his heart into everlasting
life. He no longer has to draw water painfully,
by the dead pull of duty. He has ceased to feel
the demands and denials of the Christian life to
be burdens.. He has been enabled by ~grace to
bring his will into conformity with the' Divine
will, and his whole self glows as a living sacri
fice. That God's wise and holy purposes should
be put in place of his owh narrow and unworthy
ones, seems to him the highest of privileges. With
such, springs of action at the centre, the move- .
ments of his Christian life are almost spontane
ous. As-by the power, of appetite, as by natural
impulse, he does easily now, what once he did
with pain and self-denial. The Circe of worldly
amusement sings her songs in vain for him.
Higher affections pre-occupy his soul The bur
den of the cross has grown • light. Already it
has begun to change into a crown. •
The successful Chribtian 'has learned the pow-_
er and comprehensiveness 'of' tOve. Love caught
from the cross, and flowing out toward, every
creature, becomes more and more the type of his
experience and the principle of his active
life. He has learned, under the impidse of this
love ) the business of saving the souls of his fel
JohnA.Weir
15ju1y69
low men. He is wise to win souls, and he turns
many to righteousness.
Oh ! can we not have more successful " Chris
tians, and fewer failures ; fewer bankrupts ; fewer
listless, halfhearted unenterprizing souls, through
whom has never run the 'thrilling sense of 'the
greatness of their calling 1 TO SUCCEED AS A
CHRISTIAN ! That must be the watch-word of
our busy age. There are palms for - this success
too, as well as for that of the world. Would you
gain it.? Take it to heart' as much, as , you do
worldly. success. Lay, aside every; weight, and
the sin.that doth so easily beset, you.;; and run
with patience'the race set before , you looking
to Jesus, the 'author and finisher` cifs your .faith.
A PEEP BEHIND THE VEIL
If any one has felt disposed to view ,convent
life as favorable to repose of soul, as soothing to•
the wounded and, bereaved, as answering the cra
vings of a deeply spiritual nature for special op
portunities of self-culture and growth in the di
vinelife, as elevated, pure, heavenly, and seraph-,
ic in its spirit and employments, he must, be dis
enchanted corn pletely by the recent reVelations
of the details of Romish convent life inEngland l
brought out in the case of Miss Sanrin. There
were no exposures of, immoralitY such as have
fbrmed the unpleasant material'of` most of the as
saults upon the monastic system. We think the
effect is even, greater than it would, in that case,
have been. It might have been reasonably urged
in •such a case, that the mischief's wrought sud
denly by outbreaking passion, are no , test of the
tendeneies of the system. But the daily round
of trivialities inanities petty cruelties and small
persecutions through which Miss'Saurin . had to
pass, so belittling, - so absurd, so mean, so foreign
from anything spiritual, belOng to the system and
k• • ,
must cover it with contempt.
• Miss Saurin, in inmate of the . Roman Cathalic
convent at Hull, England, brought suit early in
February against Mrs. Scott, the Superioress, and
another member of the order, for conspiracy to
compel her to - retire from the institution by un-
Speakable annoyances, by imprisonment and by
false charges of disaedienCe. The 'details brought
out in her' exarainatinii — bef6re' the court are
given as folkiws
She was told "to consider herself. the lowest
member of, the community ; and to obey the orders
, of a novice." In feet, though she was'the senior
sister next to Mrs. Starr, , She was: treated as a
junior lay, sister, by which we areas understand
that she was required to do the menial work of
the household, such as scrubbing floors, black
leading grates, cleaning elotiete,' beating carpets
and floorcloths, and, in 'short, everything that
could possibly be burdensome and degrading to
a lady of education. , Every day, she. was .required
to make acknowledgment of her faults, upon her
knees. Miss South' had a " Constitutional aver
sion" to mutton. Mutton was. the only aniniat
food she was allowed to eat. When engaged at
the schools, she, was not permitted -to speak or to
sit down; the weariness and exhaustion. thus in
flicted upon her were all but unbearable. When
information was sent to her that her father was
dangerously ill, it was suppressed. When her
brother died, she was not told of the fact , for three
or four weeks subsequently. The indignities were
increased. She said she had to sweep the corri
dors, some closets, the water-closet, sink; d'ust-box,
&o. As an eapecial indignity; Sunday was se.
lected as the day on which she was compelled to
discharge her most. laborious and humiliating
avocations, such as pasting the school-books for
the children, mending carpets (always being com
pelled to sit qn the floor), papering the crevices
in the floor;'cleaning 'the bedsteads, sweeping
the corridors, &c. The food was made as dis
pleasing as possible ; and when she left, it because
it' was really intolerable, not only was, she com
pelled to acknowledge her refusal of it as a fault,
but it was bronght to her again the next day.
This was the cam with stale meat and with Mouldy'
bread. • Her clothes were taken from her, so that.
she might not find it, possible to .appear,, and
tidy. Good garments which had been , given to
her by her mother, were taken froin her. In win
ter, whilst others were allowed to make every pre
paration against the cold, she was denied the'
privilege "for her sins." She was.not even. per
witted to mend, her stockings. When her hand's.
were chapped, she put a little tallow-grease on
them by the advice of a sister, but the Superior -' ess . made her wash it off, and acknoirledge it as
a fault.: When she put some rags on a'out finger'
she, was , prclered to take them off, and to put a
thimhle on her cut finger. She was never allowed
to mend, her cich,hes, and 'was so reduced that she
had only one pair of stockings;.' which 'were' in
holes. Her boots were: so worn put that they had
to be fastened on to her : feet with pieces of string,
and abetter pair, which she,was allowed to put
on when some one came to , see her, were taken
away front her as soon as her friends had left.
A complete system of espionage was kept up, one
member of the community acting as a , spy upon
another. In 1866 a commission was appointed
by the Bishop of the dioceie to consider her case.
The trial seems to haVe been conducted after
what we read of the Inquisition. She did not
know what were the charges' brought against her
by the defendant; no witnesses, were examined,
and she was not allowed to make any, explanation
of charges of a breach of the conventual, rules, if
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1869.
such reflected upon' the Superioress or any of the
sisterhood. She was also expected to plead guilty
to the charges made, and, unless four-fifths of the
members found her, innocent, she was declared
guilty.
The defence
,of the Superifiress, Mrs. Scott,
was an, attempt to prove Miss Saurin guilty of
violations, of the rules of convent life,; and the
evidence was trivial and tedious to such a degree
that the Chief. Justice and the jury were utterly
worn outby the three weeks' trial. In one instance
the Justice remonstrated against occupying the
time with such "idle stuff s an fl urged counsel
to get, en with,the more material parts. of the
case. ,An extract, from a letter of Miss Saurin
to the Superioress, during her convent life, will
further illustrate the character ofi her service, and
the nature of her cares in her sp is iritual retreat:
Another thing,
_i_do not kno whether lam
interfering in others'- business, bit as I have been
so long trying to sweep .outa large school with a
little help, on my knees, with an, ld hand-brush,
and one you'coald scarcely call alirush, I do not
think; new ihat we haVe'got a lit le-better binsh,
-you would allow it .(the school-br sh), to be. used
for all the stone steps, passages, p ntry, and scul
lery (which are always wet), kite en, eta. The
last brush was worn out' on thos ; then it was
left'in the school. I do 'not know j 'hether Sr. M.
,i
Agnes is aware of it or not, butt oild not make
a remark about it. except to you.
What an astounding descent istl:kis ! From
the sublime heights of devotion, to encern about
the misapplication , of a new scrubbing-brush !
The 'great commanding interest of a life supposed
to border on that of seraphs•and:beatified saints,
actually turning upon the proper iMplements for
Cleaning up sculleries, pantries, rtoue-steps and
kitchens!' What possible advantages for living
a holy life has a nun over a maid-of-all-work?
Sensible persons must everywheie give the pre-:
ference to the latter, in . contrast*ith. the miser
able pettiness, "and want of connection with' actual
practical interest; °rot:lnvent life.' - ' . -
These revelations,' coming exclusively from
sealous . Roman , Catholics and supporters of the
monastic system, must have a greiit effect in en
lightening therpublic mind in England :and ether
.countries, in'which Romanists are pressing their
schemes of proselytism. We ho3v,,t.he facts will
belpu . traot form.fox gentiiil distribution.
And we hope the trial will lead to some stringent
legislation giving better protection te' the lives
and' liberties of the inmates of" theieinstitutions.
The jury gave Miss Sa.urin a verdietof £5OO,
damages. . .
Many . year's ago, 'a little boy , while pia . yingin
the streets of Baltimore, happened to stand at
the' foot of a long ladder and look up. Reheard
the sound of voices and haminers far up on the
roof above him, and 'his childish curiosity irk
paled him to climb. He set Ids foot on the
lower round aid his hands dpon the next, and
then Went on, slowly pulling himself up, band
over head; round after roUnd, until he was' so
high'that a fall would be instant death, and yet
he had not reached the top. He grew tired, and
wished he had not begun to -alimb. He looked
down to See ho* far helad come, and the great
'height made him 'giddy.- He began to tremble
with fear,, and was fast losing his strength and
'his hold. Just then,.a man passing along the
street at the foot of the ladder, looked up, saw
his agitation, and cried out in terror, ""My 0--
that boy is going to fall I" Those startling words
were heard by the poor child, and they made
him feel much more like' falling than 'he did be
fore. He became more and . more dizzy. He
. thonght the ladder swayed to and fro like trees
bent by the storm. •He thought the house
against, which the ladder
. lea.ned, and all the
, houses in the street, were• working and reeling,
like ships on the sea.
All, at once he heard another voice, loud,
cheery and full of courage, from the roof of the
house abovehim, " Boy look up." He did look
up. Anybody would, hearing: such a hearty
voice as that. "All right ,now, come on." He
,was no longer giddy. He, began to climb again,
and soon he reached the hand of the kind and
sensible carpenter on the roof, whose cheery
word had saved him from being dashed, broken
and bleeding, upon the pavement of the street.
That boy became a man of genius and culture.
His written thoughts went all over this land and
stirred strong - emotions in thousands of hearts.
But to the day of his death, he never. ceased to
ascribe the preservation of his life and the ac
complishment of all that - he did in the world to
the timely and encouraging words of the carpen
ter on the roof—" Look up,"—" all right no*,
LOOK 'UP I
By Rev. Daniel Bakeh, D. D.
come on."
There is many a. poor boY, climbing the steep
ladder of life, high enough up already .to make
it fatal to fall, and yet far from reaching a place
of rest. He is weary, and getting discouraged.
He hears many say, "He will never make any
thing,"—" He will never succeed,"—" He will
certainly fall." And those cruel words make
him feel as if there were no use in trying ; he
might as well let go, and fall at once, if fall he
must.
And yet that poor bewildered boy only wants
to hear somebody, from among those above him,
say, with a kindly, cheery voice, " Look np."
He only wants to see somebody above him, bend
ing down 'to take him by the'Wand, and he will
climb till he reaches the heights of heaven. It
is a very easy thing to say to such a poor,
struggling child "Look up';" a very easy thing
to•etoop down and give him a hand. But those
words of hope may save a soul from death ; that
helping•liarid may lifi a weary child of earth to
the battlements of heaven.
And let no one think he has_ no influence
worth using in the' woild, no power to do even
infinite'and'everlaitiirg good, so long as he can
say to' the tried and teinpted,lo the discouraged
and. , heart-broken, "Look up." This is the
cheering word which sounds through all the reve
lations of God' to, mat,—" Look up I" "Heaven
is abcge you, the pit is beneath. It is safe to
cline; it is' destruction to stop and look back."
0, ye halting and giddy climbers upon the steep
Itnider'bf life, look up, and you will see that all
abOie yomis 'calm and steady, when the earth
i•eels'alut treMbles beneath. ' Look up, and keep
climbing, and you will soon see a divine hand
reaching over the battlements of heaven to take
your and help you in.
AMENDED EXCISE, LAW OF NEW YORK.
Notwithstanding the strong hopes r ently ex
pressed by persons belieyed to be web-informed
of the safety of tie Exeise Law, in its integrity,
we now learn that it has been altered not
a little for the worse by the NeW York legisla
ture. Instead of requiring' licensed houses to be
cloied from midnight to six in the morning, they
are allowed to keep open all, hours, save from one
to four in the morning. The prohibition of Sun
day traffic. is retained. But there is one new
section which open ; _ the floodgate& It is as
follows :
sEc. p... Nothin g herein contained, nothing in
the act herein eontained, nor in the act hereby
amended, or in , any statute of this State in relation
to' the stile' of-intoxicating liquors, shall be con
strtted, or held to include lager beer.
This section, as we understand it, gives license
to sell lager beer at all hours of the day and
night, on Sunday and every day, without re
striction, without taxation, in New York- City
and all over the State. Nothing could be better
calculated to turn the Sabbath into a European
carnival than concession to the Infidel, beer
swilling, Sunday-feasting class of our Teutonic
.population. We think it must rallY the tem
perance Men of the Empire State to take =a new
tand bolder stand. We almost wish the whole
law had been swept away; for we believe the
rally and reaction would' have been more prompt
and overwhelming.
TRAIN THE NEW CONVERTS.
Thecolumns of our religious papers have chro
nicled of late ,many accessions to the church of
Christ A large portion of these are undoubtedly
Young persons who are susceptible of a'moulding
influence from their religious teachers. As they
have been introduced into the Divine a lFingdom
by , their - favorite pastor, who is so 'o4'pable as
be of guiding them into a confirmed '`Christian
character? This matter is both a question of the
influence of the ministry, and an affair that con
cerns the fiture strength and progress of the
dhurch of the Redeemer. HoW can this new
material be made to coalesde with the old, so that
no arehitectural deformity. may be seen in the
apiritnal Temple ? - •
How may these now promisina members be
preserved from falling into darkness and sin?
For the mere introduction of the recently im
penitent into the fold is not sufficient. All Wise
hunian agencies should be employed to make
them an honor to the church and
a "'a blessinc , to
the world. 'Undoubtedly these new converts need
instruction, And by instruction is meant food
adapted to their mental and spiritual condition.
Experienced Christians often mistake as to the
knowledge of thenew comers. The period of
their own ignorance and weakness is forgotten.
Such often act as if the now comers possessed the
same amount of knowledge as themselves. But
the wise pastor should hive a 'rea a ard to these
" babes "in Christ. Sermons adapted to their
opening minds, will not be waited_ For it is not
a slight thing "to educate the Church of the
Living God "—to lay foundations which may
bless the world for half a century.
Furthermore, the necessity of a consecrated
Genesee Evangelist, No. 1194.
5 Home & Foreign Kiss. $2.00.
Address :-1334 Chestnut Street
spirit should be brought before the new converth.
The great danger with young Christians is con
formity to the world. The Puritanical spirit is
not common in this age. Indulgence in folly
and earthly-mindedness will be the most common
avenue to backsliding and religions indifference.
How essential to hold up before these the
scriptural testimony in reference to worldly con
formity ! How important to teach the impera
tive duty of being absolutely and wholly Christ's !
Moreover the pastor should secure the active
co-operation of every new member. Instruction
is to find its perfect end in work. Each one
should have a place. In the church, as well as
in the world of nature, there should be a beauti
ful order. Thoughtfulness and judicious planning
will readily accomplish this. The new comer should
be taught. that the Divine method for the pre
servation of spiritual health is unselfish labor for
the good of others, and that no one possessing
heart, brain, voice, hand or• purse can be ex
cused. M. P. J.
—Considerable efforts were made by certain
papers of the high and dry orthodox sort to cast
odium on this journal, when we declared our whole
mind upon the offensive and anti-scriptural doc
trine of Limited Atonement. At least those whom
we represented in that sentiment, were pronounced
unfit for Reunion with the immaculate, orthodox,
Princeton-Alleghany portion of the church. The
following extracts from the recently published
sermon of the most eminent Old School divine
on the Pacific Coast are submitted to the consid
eration of those who need something more than
Scripture light, on so plain a part of the Gos
pel.:
Sovereign .and immutable as He is and must
be, yet God himself everywhere declares that
there is no hinderance to any, man's salvation,
save the mans own selfish and obstinate will. . .
No true Calvinist ever thinks to break in pieces
the adamant of the divine nature, that he may
rear out of its fragments munitions of eternal
rock round about the fountain of the life ever
lasting. God says those living waters flow freely
unto all men. And the man who dares use any
divine attribute as an obstacle to any man's sal
vation, perverts God'S own truth and makes God
a'liar. •
Greater frankness in the utterance of New
School doctrine, or greater severity in denuncia
tion of its opposite has never been seen in the
columns of the. AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN, than
in these and similar passages of the• sermon.
What is to be the place of Dr. Wadsworth in
the. Reunited church?
—Our readers are aware that Dr. Norman Mac
leod, returned from his visit to India on behalf
of the Missions of the Established Church of Scot
land, warmly convinced of the superiority of the
educational system of missionary.effort for that
Country, especially for the genuine Hindoo class.
In his exceedingly valuable and eloquent address
he said : "One of the noblest and most devoted of
men, Mr. Bowen of Bombay, whom I heard thus
preach ; and who has done so for a quarter of a
.century ; informed me, in his own humble,
truthful way—and his case is not singular except
for its patience , and earnestness—that as far as
he knew- he had never made one single convert."
Blackwood's Magazine,. for January, discussed and
fully endorsed Dr. Macleod, in a very admirable
article, in which it declared : " The Christian
school master, in short, is the most accredited
type of missionary 'for India. He alone is able
to reach the Hindoo mind with any effect." For
our part, we deem it well -that both plans are in
operation- If preaching fails in Bombay, it cer
tainly succeeds in Tiiinevelly, where whole vil
lages and communities-of native Christians may
be found. A divinely-guided saga City is needed
in the application of the various instrumentali
ties to the different fields.
—With a calmness and a courtesy which are
honorable to h*Qhr'istian name and temper, Mr.
Hammond writes to The Watchman and Reflector
correcting the gross misstatement on which its
liasty and severe lecture to Mr. IL was founded:
The Watchman prints Mr. Hammond's letter,
and acknowledges its mistake in a somewhat
grandfatherly and not over-generous strain ; ad
mitting that its'only source of information in re
gard to the pretended charge that Mr. Hammond
said all Universalist ministers are Devils, was a
Universalist paper ! We trust, hereafter, our ex
cellent Boston cotemporary will be so occupied
with the more important and congenial duties of
an orthodox newspaper, that it will have no time
to defend the cbaracters of Universalist ministers,
and assail those of orthodox ministers, and faith
ful, laborious woikers, merely upon Universalist
testimony.
—We shall print next week a new version of
DIES lILE,.by - our correspondent, Rev. Samuel
W. Duffield.
CURRENT TOPICS.