76rAw tnirrir u 'rrsliill I "t 1 iii New Series, Vol. V J„,,,Aweir Strictly in Advance $2.50, Otherwise $3. Postage 20ots, to be paid where delivered. j antftitan Drcsllgttria,n, THURSDAY; 'JUNE 17, 1869 —The numerical results of the revival in Indianapolis, the last scene of Mr. Hammond's labors, are put down by the H.W. Presbyterian at 1500 conversion's. At Lockport, a place not more than one• third the size, it, is hoped that one thousand conversions took place. —Quite extensive arrangements for street preaching are being' carried out in onr city. As many as half a dozen positions were advertised, on prominent thoroughfares, last Sabbath, but we 'fear, too little provision was made for gather ing up such fruits as might have been produced. Inquirers should invariably be invited for con ference, to some neighboring hall or church. A MERITED COMPLIMENT.- The Presbyterian of last week says : "The speech of the Rev. Dr. William Adams, delegate to our Assembly from the New School Church, was so admirable in thought and style, that we publish it entire. The Editor of The Evangelist says that it was submitted to Dr. Adams for correction, and those who will read it, will readily understand why it was received with so much acceptance' in' our Assembly." —The U. P. Assembly's . action on Reunion, it now appears, was incorrectly stated by one of their own newspaper-organs, from which we drew our information. The report which was' adopted, proposes a continuance of the negotia tions, but, expressed dissatisfaction with the re sults thus far. Many of the - brightest. young and old ministers in this body are leaving it, to unite with other Presbyterian bodies, and the. membership has' ditniniihed five thousand in a year. The stiffer forms of Scotch Presbyterian ism represented by this body and the Reformed Presbyterian Synods meet , with no encourage ment, so far as outward prosperity is concerned. The Press, vith the usual keen scentorour dailies for things " lovely and 'of good report," could find nothing in the recent Class Day ex ercises of the University so worthy of republica tion as the " Claw History," by a student who confessed that he had been the most frequent and persistent violator of the rules of the institution, and whose " History", was from beginning to end, a tissue of coarse and spiteful ab'ase•of the institution, its Trustees and its Faculty. The farrago—four columns long—was prefaced with a laudatory mention of the Institution, which re minds us of Joab's'"ls it well with thee, my brother?" as he smote:Abner. —The Assembly of the Free Church, of Scot land adjourned Tuesday morning ; June Ist. The report of the Committee on Reunion was pre sented by Dr. Buchanan. Tt, stated that the negotiations were practically concluded, but pro posed that there should be a year of delay for prayerful deliberation and fraternal conference preliminary to final action. After keen opposi tion by Drs. 11. Boner, Begg, Gibson and others, and a debate of thirteen hours, the report was adopted by a vote of 429 to 89. The opposition has therefore fallen off about 25 votes during the year. —There are in our country a total of six mil lion two hundred thousand members of so-called Evangelical churches, including one hundred thousand Quakers. It is an interesting question, what number of our population may be reckoned as grouped around this actual personal member. ship in the Christian Church. We think quite enough to justify the application of the terms Christian, Protestant and Evangelical even, to our whole country. If we reckon three persons to each church member, according to the rate of previous reckoning in these columns, we have about nineteen millions of our population indi rectly connected with the Evangelical Churches. We are inclined to regard this as too small an estimate. The Roman Catholic population is reckoned at five j millions. These two elements make only twenty-four millions, out of an estim ated total of thirty-four and a half millions of people. Thus, ten and a half millions of our people would be outside of both Romish and Protestant Evangelical influences. Now, as Universalists, Unitarians, Shakers, Commun ists, Mormons, and Jews altogether number but about half a million of the population ; and as the heathens, Indians, Chinese, and „9 -reek Chris tians of Alaska do not count, a million more, we would have a population absolutely outside of all direct religious influences of every sort, of nine millions. Is not this much too large ? 15july 69 MAN'S SCIENTIFIC ESTIMATE OF HIM- SELF. There was a time, not very long ago either, when the chief speculative hitiderance to the Gos pel was in the form of philosophic pride. The pulpit kept up a steady warfare against exalted notions of human dignity and self-sufficiency. John Foster, in his EaSay on the Averaion r of men of Taste to•Eyangelical Religion, speaks of his opponents as believing that" Man is still e very dignified anditoble being . .-holding a proud erninence•in the ranks of 'existence, and -(if such a being is adverted , to) high:'•irt . the favor -of'hid Creator." To these. men, .the chief atumbling• block of the gospel- was its humiliating view of man's nature. " The , corruption of human na ture," says Chalmers;t" is perhaps the most of fensive doctrine of Christianity to the tasteful admirers of fine sentiment and beautiful morali- . ty." Whether men are more reconciledto the doctrine of total depravity now, than formerly, we may regard as extremely .doubtful, but it is certain the scientific ••opponents of Christianity are devoting their 'highest powers, and their latest Scientific. acquirements- in, elaborating theo ries of man's origin most derogatory-to-his dig nity. The last development of intellect is ,the negation of intellect,' and the crown of man's achievements is do level- him with the brute. • To our minds, thereis nothing in all the an-, mils of philosophic inquiry •sarlder; or indeed more appalling,' than the :latest results of physical science. :We do not. Remise Darwinism of theo-' retical atheism, although its practical, tendencies are atheistic, but •we do accuse it, if we May coin a word, of dehumanism. It seeks •to de stroy the' line of radical demareation.,between man- and :the beast. No‘• miracle of • creation • brought :the mature .•man, as a-wholly:unknown • creature, into , recent existence: ••By•rti infinites imal gradation, he waitlowly developed from th e : brute. .He is the legitimate descendant:of forms of existence immeasurably inferior to the oyster. He is. a brute of a very high degree of develop ment.. So is the horse, so is the elephant. Every thing distinctive is, out-growth from conditions where .no distinctions prevailed. Human. nature and brute nature are but different points in one great nnbroken• stream of existence. That stream has been flowing for such cenntless ages and eras, as are absolutely painful to try to con ceive of. Man is but one :of the little links in an interminable series,of being. Man, with his vast hopes and aspirations, with his triumphs in intellect, in art; in enterprise,'in science; with his deep philosophies and psychologies, his geni us, his inspirations, his foresight and his reflec tion, his gospels arid wOrships,•his prophets and Messiahs, his Sinais and-• Calvaries, his sublime fears in: death, 'and''his sublimer hopes of the resurrection and eternal life,—man is simply 'a passing phase of the manifold transformation of the living powers of nature."'He is hut a fragment of a vast pageant, in whielchimself and all that has preceded him, may be as nothing to the art yet undeveloped parts of the series. When Chalmers wrote his Astromatical courses to kindle and charm wherever' the Eng lish tongue is known,le had to meet a similar at tempt to dwarf humanity on the ground of the immeasurable vastness of the material universe, in which we and our earth are but a mere float ing atom. Would that a second Chalmers might arise, with similar eloquence and power, to over whelm these skilful builders of a world of life and law as vast, as bewildering, and as fatal to man's true dignity, as was the material universe of the unbelieving and undevout astronomer ! This advantagehe would have : that while the main facts of astronomy were based upon acknowledged physical laws and mathematical principles, the degrading tenets of Darwinism are theories of the most attenuated form ; mere experimental guesses of men who, indeed, mind earthly things, and who glory in their shame. , • 'View man from the point of his own moral . consciousness. Contemplate him as he is set forth in the gospel,; his existence the special, unique act of creation; made in the image of God as no other creature was : the earth and its. inhabitants given to him lo subdue; his nature, spiritual, immortal, holy, capable of knowing, loving, comimuning with and serving God; the glory and crown of this lower world. Endowed with freedom of choice, it is part of the very dignity of his nature that it should be liable to fall. He can, choose between sin and holiness ; and by that he is raised immeasurably above the brute. Heaven and -hell, an eternity,and infinity of joy or sorrow are before him. He is a sub ject of, moral law and of innate convictions of duty ; what he feels - are the vibrations within him of infinite justice—of the order of the universe. He sins. He falls. It: is a tragedy beheld with awe, by angels, principalities and powers. PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1869. Nature from her seat, Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe That all was lost And see for man's rescue, the Deity unfolds the deeps of His infinite nature. See fallen, de praved, rebellious man; se highly esteemed as to be: made,the object of a wonderful divine plan of Redemption, in which the attributes and rela tions of the triune God are employed ; in, which infinite wisdom, justice and love unite in such an, illustrious-combination, that, the heavens are filled with the glory and, angels : , desire to look into it. A God takes the form of man, and suf fers, and dies as a sacrificial victim. A church' is established, and the Holy Spirit is given, and a, Saviour stoops to plead for admission at 'the door of the sinner's heart. And nature, woun ded in every part by man's sin, gathers, up the sighs of all the creatures in her bosom, and waits for the manifestation of the sons of God, when the creature itself also shill be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious lib erty of- the.sons of God. The true guardian, of!.the honor of humanity is the blessed Gospel. The scieittifiasfoirit which habitually ignores leading: truths and vital- prin ciples of revelation, May be very. daring, very brilliant, and .may be , aceepted as the latest achievement of human culture ; but it saps the foundations of ,aIL culture, commits a real moral suicide, and says, " Let us eat and drink, for to-• morrow we die.", . . e. , VINDICATION . OF COTTON 'IIIATDER: .All goolPmen rejoice when a cloud is lifted froni 'some honored name. A large part' of the responsibilityfor the tragedyof the Salem Witch; craft,ihas long rested•upcin'the name of Cotton !Mather, and Alre , hit',lDeerr admit tor aslant unwelcome bub'an indispatable'iiiece of History:' Sd it is' written down in ttib pages of the judinious and fair-minded Blificroft. The picturesque' feature •of M'ather's f lpresenee''On' horsebaek;, 'at 'the execution Of the' unfottuitate' ministerißradford, as' if it gave eclat pages`; the Mel'- anaholy occasion, is' preserved in•thee intgei; snad nobleness gentleneas, learning, and piety; an'd a grand historical namoin the opening scenes -of our history has been' darkened, as we were all ready to admit, beyond hope of illumination. And yet it is only the present generation which felt itself .constrained, in the fullness Of its candor,•to hear and heed such a grievous' ac cusation. Only in 1831, was a reputation which had shone untarnished for a century, over-clouded by the industrious andlieemingly just assaults of Charles WfUpharn,' since e`xpanded into the' " History of the Salem 7itcheraft," and pub lished' in 1867 Mr. Barker - Off and others fol lowed Mr. Upham, so thdt there seemed no - op.' tion to the ge i neral reader but. to submit, with many a sigh over the sad' inconsistencies of the best Of then,' and over' 'the Cruelty into which Puritan austerity' could be transformed in the person of one of the most distinguished of its leaders. • • ' But Mr: Upham has found his reviewer, 'and Cotton Mather his defender, in no less an a'u thority than.the North _American Review. The April number - of this-Quarterly contains an ar ticle-devoted to a careful, and as is now believed, thorough and-satisfactory re examination of the whole question. Original documents which have-mever been properly regarded hitherto, are now brought forward, which go far not only to exonerate the distinguished Puritan divine from any real blame in the matter, but which actually credit him with using his influence to expose and counteract the delusion. Instead of getting up the case of the Goodwin children; as Mr. Upham asserts of Cotton Mather,-•the reviewer produces a document by the father, John Goodwin, which puts the responsibility ,upon other shoulders en tirely. Cotton Mather's advice was not to hang the victims of what he regarded as demoniacal possession, but by fasting, prayer and patience to exorcise the demon. The plan was successful in this case; the children whose symptoms re sembled the spiritualist phenomena of our day, all recovered, and the oldest son, Nathaniel, be came. administrator of Cotton Mather's estate. The circumstances attending the Salem Witch craft, which broke out in 1692, owe none of their revolting features to this good man. , As in the Goodwin case, in Boston, he proposed prayer and fasting as a remedy, and warned one of • the judges, who was his parishioner, against-accepting "spiritual testimony." The presence of. Mr. Mather on horseback• at the execution of the minister Burroughs, is also shown to have no sig nificance, in this connection, whatever. We do not undertake to say that the defence is-put beyond all doubt by these and other im portant testimonies; but the ordinary reader may comfortably rest in conclusions which accord so well with the analogy of Christian character, and which have commended themselves to such competent judges. We may add-, however, that the poet Longfellow, in the second of his New England' Tragedies : Giles Corey, agrees very nearly with the Reviewer's estimate of Cotton Mather% character. -In . the second scene of the first act', he.makes Mather. argue gently and yet forcibly with ludo nawthorne, for caution in re . ceiving teStimn4, and against. excets of zeal, as well as lukewarmness in the cause, insomuch that the Judge biaaks out in an. impatient strain, insin uates that he is " Parleying with the devil," calls hide" a - tualt of ' books and' meditationrwhile he, the JuOge, , is "One who aete To Mary Wol cott, who .accuses Giles Corey's 'wife of bewitch ing her,tCotton Mather is represented.as saying: Only by prayer - and - fasting can you drive Thesianclean Spirits from. you. In scene 2d, of, Act 3d, Mather and Haw thorne again discuss ihe'value- of the evidence, and the true line of-duty; and the Judge is again repreiented as clear and• determined• in an extreme policy, while Mather once more pleads for caution and mercy, and yieldi At last if he yields at ally with evident reluctance. And the closing passage of the tragedy is Mather's lament over the body Of old Giles Corey, who.has• just been crushedloleath, as an obstinate sorcerer. The scene is:the Potter's field. Mather replies to JUdge-Hawthorne's expression of satisfaction: 0 , siglit ninstiltorrible I In alland like this, ;Spangled.viithchurches Evaugelical, InsyraPPOtll4 Air palvatiolls,:Plust,we seek In mouldering statute books,of . English courts Some old forgotten law to do.such deeds Y.; Those Who lie,buried in' the Potter's fkeld rlse'again, ElB' durely ourSelvOs " That sleep inloriored graves with epitaphs; .And this poor man whom we have made' a victim 4preafter as,a Martyr. • THE WELL 'OF WATER AND THE SHALLOW BROOKS. Spontaneity,, fullness, permanence—these are the-characteristics, of the best= sort of spiritual life. It is not, dependent on outward supplies; it does,not shrink -or swell in any marked coinei, deuce <with the, degree of, spiritual life in the surrounding Church or community ; ' it is not driven only by . the hard mechanical force of duty; it does not give .out .when tests are put upon it, or when there is a special call for work or for endurance. It has secret supplies,. which are not, affected by changes without. By the se cret channels of faith ,and prayer, it'has access to the original and boundless sources of spiritual life. A living faith in a living, present, personal Jesus is its chief characteristic and the guarantee' of its independence and its, perennial flow. In the fierce climate of the East, brooks and even good-sized streams are dried up in the sum mer season;—deceitful brooks, Job called them. At the time when they were most needed, they could not be found. ANA like them are the shallow sort of professors, who are full and im petuous and noisy, when religion is popular, and so long as no stress is put ,upon their professed principles, and while no cross of any weight is to be borne; but who shrink away in shame, of the name of Jesus when wordlinese rules the day. when they are ,separated from the familiar scenes and ordinances of their Church, in fact, just when and where the throngs of their fellow men, sweeping along -heedlessly to destruction, most direfully , need the protest and warning of high-minded, courageous and devoted Christian example. How different those unfailing wells of water that dot the vales of. Palestine; grand in that stream of beneficence which they have dispensed to the thirsty and famishing from age to age! Not dependent upon the outward and varying circumstances of the seasons, they communicate with the waters under the earth,—divinely gath ered stores, that are ever ready to bubble up from their cool, fresh caverns, even in the most arid climes and regions. By the side of such a well sat Jesus when parched and weary with his noon-day walk. It was Jacob's well. The name savored of the deepest antiquity already; (although we do not know, in Genesis, of any well dug by Jacob;) and even now, nearly two thousand years since, although the excavation is partly filled with rubbish, it sometimes has several feet of water. Well might the divine Teacher take from its centuries of usefulness and refreshment the figure of the true Christian. "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life." Christian ! are you among the unfailing, up springing, life-giving wells of water, drawing your supplies from the smitten Rock—Christ? Are your gracious emotions, your consecrated purposes, your daily developments of character, the bubbling up of the river of the water of life, that proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb ? You are approaching a time when Genesee Evangelist, No. 1.204. I Home & Foreign Miss. $2.00. Address:-1334 Chestnut Street your professions are, perhaps more than at any other in the year, to be put to the test. Recrea tion too easily steps into dissipation. In your al tered circumstances, private devotion is difficult. The Bible is easily neglected. The familiar or dinances of home are far away. The Sabbath is half secularized before we know it. The gay throng is near and pressing. Now is the chance for conquests, for desirable alliances, for shining before the world. Tract, Sabbath School, Prayer meeting, Public Service, the friendly word of warning, are in danger of being forgotten. Such is the pressure which must come upon you, in your summer wanderings.' Meet the test brave ly. Be ashamed—not of Jesus—but lest Jesus shall be ashamed of the pitiful shallowness of your profession. Prove that it has reserved forces and hidden supplies, the depth and steadiness of which appear the more decidedly and beneficent ly as adverse influences the more abound. THE EFFECTS OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. Just as the just sentence of the law was to be executed on a bad man for the murder of a weak and defenceless woman in our city, The Inde pendent held -up the " barbarous" capital punish ment laws of this State as the cause of so many murder cases appearing on our criminal docket. How it proved the connection no mortal could comprehend or remember. The Morning Post of this city has long been well known as main taining in the abstract the same views as those of The Independent—but it stoutly opposed all attempts to save 'Twitchell from the sentence of the law. Now let us have the impartial Post's comment on The independent's theory. In its issue of June Bth it says : On the Bth day of April last the double exe cution of Twitchell and Eaton took place. The stern, justice, of the law was vindicated in a man ner which'was rare in Pennsylvania. The Governor, in the teeth of a pressure which can hardly be realized, held firmly in the course of duty, and the 'two murderers met their deserts. We are now at the eighth day of June, a period of just eight weeks since the day of execution, and durinc , that time there has not occurred a single mur t aerin Philadelphia, nor have we seen a single instance of assault and battery with in tent to kill. Among our nearly nine hundred thousand citizens, many of them of the worst class of society, there has been a profound peace, an entire absence of the usual deadly broils which had afflicted our city. Such a state of facts 'is unprecedented. It has never had its rival in our municipality. How wide the dif ference between the former order of things and that existinc , today is shown by a comparison. The learned and able charge of' Judge Brewster to the Grand Jury in the month of April gives data to make a comparison. From his charge we find that during the year 1868 there were one hundred and 'thirty-three murders, and in 1867 ninety-four. This would make an average number of murders at eleien per month during 1868, or twenty-two every eight weeks. To whom must the peace-loving citizens of Philadelphia return thanks for this wonderful change ? There can he no doubt but that to Governor John W. Geary must be given the credit of having, through his resolution and de cision, wrought e beneficent reform. He has proved himself, by the courage and devotion to duty he displayed in executing the two ruffians last April, the true conservator of the public peace, in fact as well as in name. The office of Governor is not only nominally the protector of quietude and the suppressor of lawless vio lence, but it is so in reality. It is to-day known to the gangs of law-breakers in Philadelphia as well as it is to the good people of our town, that there is a man presiding over the Common wealth, who will let the law take its course to the extreme_ penalty, and who can neither be persuaded nor intimidated into acting against his oath and his conscience. The Matullen-Tobin gangs will not, with the certainty of punishment before their eyes, dare to transgress the laws. The Commonwealth's writ to-day runs in every portion of the State, and to all wrong-doers will be dealt out even-handed justice. The fate of Eaton is a lesson which proves that a previously concerted murder, executed in a drunken spree, will not arrest the gallows for the guilty. Whether murders should recommence to mor row or not, the truth is the same, that for two months past our city has been free from them, and free through the rigid execution of the law by the executive of the State. From the ex perience of the past we have the best guarantee that while General Geary continues in his office, the mightiest restraint will continue to check the occurrence of crime in Philadelphia. Will The _lndependent please copy this ? —Nineteen persons united with Old Pine St. church last Sabbath. During the services the pastor, Rev. R. H. Allen, announced that the church was now entirely out of debt, with be tween two and three thousand dollars in the trea sury as the beginning of a fund to purchase a Parsonage, which at a congregational meeting last week they resolved to obtain by November next. At the same meeting they also increased the pas tor's salary, and have gone to work with a good will to raise the funds to purchase the parsonage. The pastor leaves this week to make the annual address before the Literary Societies of Hanover College, Ind., and will to absent some.six.weeks..
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers