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.
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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..