r
7:.rr4 big,
N ew Series, Vol. VI, No. 42.
Strictly i n Advaabe $2.50, Otherwise $3. 1_
Postage Nets, to be paid where delivered.
—Rev. Cares Lawson, hitherto know Joh
Father Hyaciitl4, has reached New York. The
evangelical mitiiiters of Boston have appointed
a dclegatioti to him welcome. G. P. Put
nam, & Son announce a volume of his " Sermons
and Speeches" translated by Rev. L. W. Bacon.
—A Prominent," divine, in our body, high in the
esteem of both itkftehes of the Church, writes
as follows: ' • -
"' I am very glum of that article in your last
No. on the B. b: and Reunion' I
believe that its su,ggeationS deserve to be seriously
pondered.. The policy of the A. B F: C.' M. in
leaving its mission churChes in full ecclesiastical
liberty, has my hearty assent and approval—more
and more, the more I observe ita workings, and
the more I study the Unhappy tendency to over
rigid eoleciasticism from which we have suffered
so much, and which we must, still watch against
with 'eternal vigilance."
—The largest and 'most enthusiastic meeting
of the Irish Presbyterian laity ever held, has
been in session at Belfast. Resolutions were
adopted urging the ministry to "commute," and
thereby secure a permanent endowment for the
churches, while the laity pledge themselves to
raise a sustentation fund of £3O 000, per annum
and bring all salaries up to £l5O per year. The
ministry have their flocks at their mercy now,
as by refusing to commute, they can secure all
their old Regiunt Doraiin incomes for life, while
at their death the Ctatreh gets nothing more
This fact seems to 'hare brightened the ideas of
the laity wonderfully.
—Readers of Charles Dickens' " Nicholas
Nickelby," will remember the gushing portrait
given of the benevolent Cheeryble brothers.
Like many of his characterizatio?s, the pictuie
was drawn from life, two Scotchtnen named
Grant, engaged in Manufactures in Lancashire,
being the originals. / One of them built a Pres
byterian church for a congregation in Ramsbot
tom, as a memorial of his gratitude'to God for
his success in business, and the edifice has been
thus used for thirty-five years. His nephew and
heir, however, ha% bitoothe'a RitutaNticl Ellitto'-
palian,.and taking advantage of the absence of
any formal investiture of the property, has forci
bly excluded the ,congregation from the church.
Their venerable pastor, Rev. Dr. McLean, is
very ill and much harassed in mind by this act,
as lie is Mr. Grant's relative by marriage. The
congregation intend to site fo; the property.
—Rev. Jos. T. Coopdr celebrated the 30th
anniversary of his ordination a few Sabbaths ago.
Dr. Cooper has had . an eventful pastorate; one
item being a prosecution for heresy, and the
division of his presbytery ukon acquittal. He
has also seen the, union of his own denomination
—the Associate—effected with another—the As
sociate Reformed. For - many years he has been
Stated Clerk of the U. P) Assembly. lie may
live to see another divison and_ another union.
As the leader of the moderate party in the
Church, he might have a great future if he wise
ly discerned the signs of the times.
—Twenty-five German prelates have met in
Confereeee, and after enumerating the fears en
tertained by liberal Catholics in regard to the
doings of the CSoumenic.l Council,—as to the
proclamation of doctrines adverse to civil liberty,
the State, and the local independence of,
the bishops,—they go on to' say, that they
have pledges from Rome, that none of these
things will be attempted, and also confidence
in the apostolic see itself. Their manifesto is
constructed rather to warn the Pope than to re
assure good Catholics. It is also, however, a
valuable assurance that the Ultramontane and
Jesuit party will 'not have everything their own
way in the Council. A leading article in the
recent .Augsburger Allgemeine' Zeitung congratu
lates its readers on the stand made by the Ger
man prelates against the new dogmas. "Al
though," observes the writer, " the German
bishops are' too foW in number to exercise a pre
ponderating influence in the Council (there be
ing but twenty-five in an assemblage of from 400
to 500), still, should these twenty five prelates
remain firm in their resolution, the fact that they
are the religious representatives of a great nation,
with a population comprising nearly 18,000,000
of Catholics, is a sufficient guarantee that none
of the obnoxious dogmas will be carried tri
umphantly through the Council, the more espe
oiallY as it is confidently believed that a consid
erable number of both of the French and
Austrian episcopacy present at the Council, will
unite with their German brethren in resisting to
the utmost, the introduction of any new doctrines
into the Roman Catholic relitlim."
ijan7o PENNSYLVANIA.
n&Weir
The collegiate institutions of our common
wealth are numerous enough to meet all the de
mands made upon their facilities. Almost every
principal town' of our State contains a college in
connection with some Protestant denomination.
'reshyltbrians have Easton in the East and
Washington in the West, although they 'have
long itVandoned Carlisle to'the Methodists. The
lafter, besides Carlisle, have a Western hold, at
Meadville. Meadville is Iccupied by the Uni
tarianiCalito. The High Church Lutherans'have
begun it college at Allentown, breaking off from
the Lott Church, who retain Gettysburg. The
Baptiatetjhave a University (so-called) at Lewis
burg. `lle Episcopalians, by Asa Packer's well
meant put ill-directed benevolence, have a tech
nologicatinstitute at Bethlehem, which 'also is a
"Univaity" by name: The German Reformed
have colleges at Lancaster, Mereersburg, and!
somewhere.in Westmoreland county, while
Low Otiireh wing of the same Church have
started trainee College near our own city. The
Romanitis have several training schools called
colleges nit 'various parts of the State, but as
Romanist institutions labor not to evoke intel
lectual) iffe, but, only to instil correct opinions,
from - thev own point of view, they have no place
among institutions devoted to liberal education.
Some are inclined to regret the great number
of these various
,colleges, as far in excess of the
demand. They say our Pennsylvania failing has
always been to try to " bore auger holes with
gimlets!! All these little institutions are incom•
petent to i do the work of one great central Uni
versity, fully endowed with funds, equipped with
apparatu*, and fuinished with able teachers. To
this it trtioit be answered, that the question of
supply depends on demand, and that these varied
institutions help to create a demand for their own
services. They largely incite people to give their
children a liberal training. Their very presence,
is a_training power in the community. College
is, not,a thin' , far away and little thought of. It
is,. at 'their. own doors, familiar to sight• and
thought._ They appeal also to men's self-love.
Oar colleie t the college in our , place, the college
of clot, ChOott has an especial claim. As to : the
mat* of apparatus and professors, it is a great
mistake to suppose that the former must be elabo
rate, the latter men of genius. It is the Vooks and
the course of study upon which the ablest minds
of many ages have been employed, that furnish
the true incitements to mental growth. The
best college professors are men of no very marked
ability, but they have tact and sympathy; they
have mastered , their subject and know how to
make their students think about it. Every col
lege chair does not need a genius to fill it well,
as Ithaca will discover. Plato and Whewell,
Butler and Carey, Hamilton and tegeadre will
teaeh, 'if the professor knows his work. Our
country colleges may be_ very effective without
these attractive adjuncts, if they will but avoid
•
novelties and sensations.
While these denominational institutions are
scattered so freely over the interior of the State,
it is notable that no Protestant body has a
college in either of the cities which form its East
ern and Western centres—Philadelphia and Pitts
burgh. Providentially—we think—all churches
have been led to leave these most promising fields
clear for institutions of unsectarian character,
which can offer only the most Catholic culture,
and can appeal to the public by urging unsecta
rian motives: These are dedicated purely to
fostering a love of liberal learning in the people,
and imparting that learning to their graduates.
Not that in either the great truths, upon which
Reformed Christendom agrees, are ignored. The
truths and the evidences of Christianity, as re
lated to practical life, social science and ethics are
discussed ail enforced as part of the curriculum,
while the opinionkhich divide Christian men
are kept in the background.
While our commonwealth, is - quite competent
to support all these local and general colleges,
it is not able to do much more. If our Penn
sylvania patronage, is carried away to other states,
our home institutions must languish. In a coin ,
mercial point of view, it is poor policy to buy
abroad what we can get at home. At least, our
Pennsylvania doctrine has always been to that
effect. We have judged it not best—nor even
cheapest, to buy in the cheapest. market, when
that is a foreign one. Even in a monetary
point of view, it is a loss to our state to support
our young men in New England and other cities,
while the loss is a double loss, in that the same
money* is not expended at home and on home in
stitutions. What wonder if our colleges lan
guish while the yearly catalogues of Yale and
Harvard are swelled with the names of Phila
delphians; and how illogical to plead in excuse
that these colleges are ahead of our own; when
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1869.
There is another view of this 'matter, which
our; readers . can take for what it worth, and
which we believe:-originated wittti Dr. John W.
Nevin, of Lancaster. Our commonwealth is
t
composite in origin,, and unites ] three. types of
civilization and:social life, inhe r ited from . Eu
de pe. Take English in the East;;the German in
I& Lid and the centre . ; the Scotch-Irish some
what in the East , and-still more ih,the West. All
three are being moulded by influnces and forces
common to all parts' of the nation nto a new type
(nationally one, locally various in its forms), as
yet not fully developed—the A erican. But
their progress in,this direction mu
. t be a:growth
from within, and not a mere mechanical change
brought about by influences from without. The
importation of the culture and modes of thought
locally favored in other parts f the nation,
will not help,'but hinder, the gra al uplifting of
,;.
all classes to a new and higher life o, freedom and
power, such as should . belong to, the Republic.
The mass of the people will alwas be suspicious
of a foreign influence and " outi r andish" modes
of thought. Hence • the development of unfor
tunate suspicions and antagonismand the open
ing of breaches between the ed,_i
cated and un
educated classes. It is claimed that., these bad
effects hate already begun to be felt, and that in
no city is the distrust of the eaucated classes
greater among the common •people than in our
own. ,
it is by this very practice they are kept ahead.
Such complaints are as unjust as the demand of
Pharaoh that the Israelites should make the
usual tale of bricks when the necessary straw
was not furbished, and did not grog on the pas
ture lands of Goshen. And . our state colleges
lose far more indirectly than directly. They d o
not command the support of all cur cultivated
classes, since so many have their' egkßic fixed
elsewhere. 'When' they are re y T give to
such objects, their gifts again go\ tiof the com-
I
monwealth;, when they are, read] o speak they
have nothing to say for our. homdinstitutions.
"A GREAT DUTY ACCOMAIISHED."
Bravely said, Pere Hyacinthe !A " What you
qualify as a great fault point:nide nall&gre.at
duty abeaniplistied:" - Decided , di erence this,
thrusting wide and irrecoverably apart, the pro
testing Carmelite and the expostulating Bishop.
Between the two, what a great gulf it fixes.
Thanks for that manly word, 0
. Protestant of
the Nineteenth Century ! It is done. It is sealed.
It is down in the catalogue-of things to which thy
heroic soul has made unalterible coprnmitment.
The sandals of the cloister are off forever., •It
was no passionate protest, to be followed by as
passionate a penitence. It was no sudden swoop
of feeling that carried away the royally tenanted
nature, chafed and fretted by nettling provoca
tion. ." You have suffered, I know," confesses
the Bishop. But " I have prayed, and waited,
and reflected as well," says the Priest.
And there has been'time for reflection since.
There has been opportunity for recoil and recall.
It is a solid week since this Friar's burning words
fell on the air. He has seen the great grief they
caused all the friends of the Church, his mother.
He has been amidst the surges of it. He has
heard the jubilant shout of all her enemies. He
has been conjured by his Bishop to pause on the
declivity on which he now stands, and return,
and throw himself at the feet of the Holy Fa
ther, and give the Capolic world a great conso
lation hnd a striking example. But he answers,
" I cannot accept either your reproaches or your
counsels. What you qualify as a great fault
committed, I call a great duty accomplished."
When the prison-doors of that spirit swung on
their hinges, they were nailed open. It is Lu
ther back again—", Here I take my stand, I Can
do no otherwise, so help me God."
The " Holy Father" wrote nearer the truth
than he knew, when be prepared his call for the
Ecumenical Council. He said then, "A horrible
tempest agitates the Church." What does he
think of the tumult of the waters now ? He
said then, " The supreme authority of the Apos
tolic See is opposed and set at naught." What
does he think of this last arraignment ? Little
dreamed he, that out of the very bosom of the
Church would come such throbs of indignant
rebuke. He is charged with the sacrilegious
perversion of the Word of the Son of God. HI
is charged with an attack upon human nature
in its holiest and most indestructible aspirations.
The most eloquent son of the Church flings
aside his clerical robes, steps forth from Notre
Dame and- thus arraigns the Holy Father. This
is the Apostle's iro),4 iraMesta—nzuch out-spo
kenness, or " great plainness of speech." What
next ?
The Encyclical and,Syllabus of '64, endorsed
by the coming Ecumenical Couloir!" what then?
What is the Syllabus ? It is an epitome of that
which Pope Pius IXth calls, "the detestable,
pestilential, and dreadfully and lamentably mis
chievous heresies of our time," among which are
liberty of conscience, and of worship, &free Bible
and free schools, and separation of Church and
State. It is a sweeping condemnation of the
nineteenth century. It is war without truce, and
without armistice, between the Papacy and mod
ern civilization; No wonder such a spirit as Pere
Hyacinthe's broke silence, and in reverence to
conscience and to God, dared avow the right and
the duty of disobedience to monastic rule,' rather
than be a party to putting all that into the realm
of infallible dogma! Who shall tell through
how many other restive and imprisoned Priests'
hearts, the blood has gone leaping with electric
thrill and throb, at these words I Who shall tell
how many other hitherto silent and loyal sons of
the " Holy Catholic Church" will flame out their
protest; too, if, for the royal liberty of Christ's
Gosp9l, they shall be proffered these chains of
the,middle ages We must wait and see.
Meanwhile, what an inspiriting word for
America—for Protestantism—for the Higher
Law.- It shall nerve the brave heralds of the
truth to a braver deliverance. It shall stay all
heroes of heavenly commission, holding the law
of conscience to be higher than the law of the
Monastery Cu. the Church. It shall be most help.
ful to men of Godoiariiig to speak the truth for
the hour, under,,corivictiondof their duty to the
times, and . "thetslreiety.:of . the nineteenth cen
tury?' And how it must mantle the cheeks of
the pulpit trimmers, who, through all our war,
said never a word for their country; who through
all these years, have had for the slave no gener
ous thought that they possessed courage to put
in public, speech who nom,. in punctilious care
fulness, mutilate by silence the Gospel of Tem
perance and Chastity and Ronesty and Brother :
hood, and lay on men's hearts only the lines of
law that shall put them in love with their
smooth tongued prophecies. Welcome the day,
God speed it, when no pulpit in all Christendom,
"shall speak a language, or preserve a silence,
not the entire and loyal expression of the con
science" behind it. H. J.
UNIVERSALIST HISTORY AND LOGIC,
The preachers of the doctrine of the final sal
vation of all men have varied their teaching a
great deal in the course of a century. The
doctrine was held in the Primitive Church by
the eccentric Origen of Alexandria, and by one
or two theologians during the Middle Ages. In
modern times it was revived by some of the
numerous sectaries in the days of the Reforma
tion. They seem to have imported it into
England, as one of the old " xliii Articles of the
Church of England" expressly condemns the
opinion. During the excited theological times
of the Commonwealth it was again revived; one
of Cromwell's chaplains,—Jeremiah White—
bolding this view. The mystical sect of the
Behmenists, and their Philadelphia Societies
established in London, proclaimed it 'with great
earnestness, and a book called "The Proclama
tion of the ! serlasting Gospel," by a Behmenist
named Jane Leade, was translated into German,
won many adherents, and led to a controversy
on the subject which extended over many years.
Other'Behmenists--Freher, &c. ,—rejected the
opinion, while yet others—Law, Walton, &c.,—
pronounce the problem insoluble.
In America a Universalist book by Paul Sieg
volck was translated from the German and pub
lished by Christopher Saur, probably for Rev.
Jacob Duette., an Episcopalian clergyman of mys
tical and — Universalist tendencies, who at first
•acted as ,chaplain to the Continental Congress,
but after the Declaration of Independence turned
Tory. A club of Behmenists existed in Brston
in 1775, bat we know nothing of them except
their existence.
John Murray, who founded the Universalist
body in America, came from England in 1770.
He had been one of Whitefield's Calvinistic
Methodist preachers, and had come into contact
with another named James Relly, who had left
the Methodists and was preaching in a Univer
salist} chapel in London. The Unirersalists have
but three or four congregations now in the whole
British Islands, but number a good many in the
other denominations. Mr. Murray preached in
New Jersey, in our own city, in the. neighboring
States, and especially in New England, and has
left a curious autobiography. He was very gene
rally admitted to the pulpits of orthodox churches,
until the opposition to his views grew strong
enough to exclude him. Among the principal
men who embraced his view were Charles
Chauncy and Elkhanah Winchester. These were
all High Calvinists, uniting with their views on
this subject, 'the most' rigid orthodoxy on others,
and teaching future but not endless punishment.
Genesee Evangelist, No. 122.
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Moses Ballou changed all that. In his view, all
evil ends at death, and " the souls of [men] at
their death, being made perfect in holiness, do
immediately pass into glory•" For a long time
this was the only type of Universalist doctrine,
until the Restorationist party, who now embrace
most Universalists, revived Murray's view of fu
ture punishuient. • They did not revive Murray's
orthodoxy on other points, in which Ballou had
departed from his teachings. They are Uni
tarians, and some few of them Rationalists also.
They stoutly resist all attempts to unite them
with Unitarians as "Liberal Christians!'
In Philadelphia, Universalism began early and
has done little. Their two or three feeble
churches are all of ancient date, and although
they periodically announce their purpose to rise
up and possess the gland, the orthodox air of our
city seems too strong for them. They attract
little attention, and make but little effort to dis
seminate their views. Universalism seems to
have a miasmatic influence on its adherents, im
buing them with lassitude. They have a large
share of the wealth of the nation, but. they do
little missionary work. "Indeed why should
they if it is all right? Why take the trouble.?
Even if the heathen are to be beaten with
few stripes,' their suffering will be but trifling
and all will come right in the end."
Exactly what the Universalists do hold in re
gard to the future world, is not as generally
known as it ought to be, by those who are called
upon to combat them. It is very commonly sup
posed -that they all hold With Ballou that sin
and misery end at death. They, in fact, believe
that there will be punishment for the wicked in
the future world, but that it will always—sooner
or later—end with the repentance of the sinner.
What relation that repentance holds to the work
of Christ they do not agree in saying.
That repentance will come to every depraved
and evil will, -they inter on purely a priori
grounds. God (they argue) is a being of bound
less love and of boundless power. He at once
utterly desires the good of all men, and is fully
able to secure it. Therefore it will be secured.
Had we had no experience , of this present
world; the reasoning would seem much stronger.
But we happen to know that sin and misery do
actually exist in this world, and God's boundless
love aid power must be just as much concerned
to prevent sin before it exists, as to abolish it af-
er it has come to exist. The Universalist asks,
"Does Cod not love men enough to save them
all, or is He not powerful enough to save them
all ?" We reply by a 'counter-question : " Did
God k not love men enough to save them from sin
ning, or was He not powerful enough to do so ?
Read ,me my riddle, and the answer will do for
both."
The existence of evil is as irreconcileable with
our abstract conceptions of God's infinite love
and power, as is the endless punishment of the
wicked.
If an answer is insisted on—and the Univer
salist has no right to insist on any—then the
most probable and most Scriptural answer seems
to be, that God's power is so circumscribed and
directed in, this matter by His own moral per
fections, that the prevention of evil and of the
endless punishment of endless sinners are moral
ly impossible to Him. " But then how is His
power infinite if a human will can thwart it?".
God's infinite being does not preclude nor render
impossible your existence; neither does his soy
reignt3r and will preclude your will and freedom.
Our abstract conception of God's infinitude would
take us straight to pantheism, and merge all things
in God's existence. Our abstract conception of
God's power and sovereignty would in like manner
land us in a denial of human freedom to choose
between good and evil, light and darkness. We
know that other things besides God exi?t, although
His being is infinite. We know that other wills
than His exist, and are free, although His is
sovereign
If limitation there be—though probably only
our imperfection of conception leads us to sup
pose it—then it is self-imposed limitation. Had
it seemed best to the infinite wisdom, the Only
Wise would have continued forever the sole ex
istence,—and the, Sodereign Will the only will.
It has seemed best to call other beings and wills
into existence, and while all these are embraced
in the divine foresight and included in the di
vine order, yet sin is resistance of the Will of
God. Only he who know's his own heart can
ever guess how long and bitterly that resist
ance may . t e protracted.
God grant us the wisdom to be wise in time,
and to choose with all the power that He has
given, that better part which shall not be taken
away from us.
R G. Wilder left India for Amerit a,
Sept. 14th. - He hopes to return to Kolupour.