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Ne Wr Series, Vol. VI, No. 45.
Strictly in Advance $2.60, Otherwise $3.
Postage 20cts, to be paid where delivered.
—The General Assemblies hold their ad
journeti meetings is Pittsburg this week.
—Father Hyacinthe declines the invitation of
the Boston Evangelical Clergy, to a public recep
tion, in a note closing with the following noble
sentiment :—" The future is dark and uncertain,
but I shall obey my conscience to the end."
—The contest in regard to the Bible in the
public schools of Cincinnati is still in progress.
An injunction against the action of the Board,
in so excluding the Bible, has been asked from
the courts, and is under consideration.
—The Fifth E. P. church of this city—Rev.
Dr. McAuley's—had an accession of thirty three
members at their . .kutumn Communion, last
•
bath. Seven.peitt of these were on profession.
They have grtly enlarged and improved their
house of worship on York St., near Amber, and
have finished the basement for their immediate
use. Since, Dr. Wylie's church lost so many by
the secession of those who proscribe hymn singers,
MeAuley's has become the largest It. P.
church in the city, if not in the whole denomina
tion. They and their beloved pastor deserve
great praise for the Zerubbabel spirit in which
they have built a house for the Lord in times of
trouble and perplexity.
•
We neglected to say that several of the mem
bers received at Dr. Wylie's last communion were
of the number who withdrew from his church-at
the order of the Commission of General Synod
in June, 1868. They now return to their old
home. Notice of the suit for the church proper
ty has been served, and it is to come before our
District Supreme Court in January, 1870. The
small minority who have left, the Second It. P.
church (Rev. Dr. Sterrett's) have also given no
tice of a lawsuit for the property, and have
opened a " Mission" in Milton Hall, on Coates
Street.
PLANS OF CHURCH BENEFICENCE.
Let us admit at the outset, that no plans can
take the place of, or do a .partiktle .more ;than-fur
nish a channel for, the spirit of consecration in
the Church. All planning, of necessity, takes this
spirit for granted, as all building of machinery
takes for granted thp existence of power. But
what a clumsy thing is mere power, without
,ar
rangements for bringing it to bear upon some
useful object ! HoW much power in nature goes
unused for want of storage and proper mechani
cal contrivance ! How the spring and autumn
floods upon our Schuylkill rush by us, carrying
wreck and devastation in their path, and leaving
us to pine in summer drought, just because we
have no reservoir to store the small portion of
the surplus that would suffice for our wants !
What avail the countless waterfalls of the rivers
of Maine, bid away in her wilderness forests, un
trodden by the foot of man ? With all its re
maining and abounding covetousness; we may be
sure there are fountains of true, consecrated
affection in the Church, which need only the
application of a right method to produce the
most wonderful and blessed results; there are
seemingly hopeless deserts, which need only the
skilful opening Up of subterranean streams to
change the barren waste into a fruitful field and
a garden of the Lord.
On the other hand, it is one of the clearest
proofs of the want of a spirit of consecration in a
church, or a family, or au individual, that they
have no plan of giving. Certainly, the want of
plan has been as wide spread an evil as the
want of a disposition to give. Plans have not
gone much in advance of the 'disposition. When
we complain of a want of a system in giving, we
get pretty oboe to the heart of the matter. It
is understood, in a general way, that we are aim
ing to stir up the spirit, as well as regulate the
channels, of giving. At all events, it is high
time that every church, without a plan for bring
ing out the benevolence of its members, should
understand that it is just as derelict in duty as if
it failed to provide religious instruction for the
young, or ceased to discipline its members for
downright dishonesty or drunkenness. To • let
the whole matter of beneficence go at loose ends
from year to year; to confine it to an occasional
collecion made up of such contributions as
thoughtless, untrained church-goers happen at
the moment to find convenient; to deliberately
put aside all and every effort for the recognized
causes of the whole' church, on plea of poverty,
or of some local necessity; to put a violent but
temporary pressure upon the giving disposition,
and then suffer it to react into a state of ex
haustion if hot of disgust; to give over the whole
field of the Church's benevolence to the cropping
of chance-corers,—all these are scandalous ne
glects, which we believe are, or until recently
John&Weir
have not unfrequently been found, in connection
with true piety and efficiency, in other respects,
in pastor and people.
It may be unpopular, but it is the clear duty
of the pastor, in the face of opposition and cove
tous grutnblings, to labor for the promotion of
the grace of giving among his people. There is .
a right and a wrong way of doing this, as of
everything else; but in some way it must be done.
At what an early date in the history of the . Mo
saic economy, do we hear of liberal and systema
tic giving—tithing in fact. And how soon in
the history of the Christian church is the same
thing prominent. The apostles and early work
ers did not think prudence required them to
wait until their cofiverts had attained ; ma
turity, before enlisting them in schemes of bene
ficence. Paul's missionary journeys •
,were also
collecting tours for the. poor saints • at. Jerusalem.,
How largely, how lovingly, and with what ad-.
mirable, politic address, does he handle the sub
ject in the second letter to the Corinthians. His
alarming difficulties with that chUrch did not
make it inopportune, but l only brought into play ,
his versatility, caution and.astuteness in treating
it. Paul knew that giving was itself a grace and
a means of Christian growth, that could not be
commended. too early to the churches.
But commending the duty in a, general way,
from the pulpit is not, enough. Nor is present
ing even a specific plan, the whole of the duty of,
the church officers. The matter must be earnest:
ly and steadfastly prosecuted, in a thorough,
business way. The springs of giving must
,not
only be found, they must be developed.„ .They
must be cleared of rubbish and enlarged. The
waste water ; must be, caught, ,the flow must be:
made steady. • Every member Of the congrega
tion should •be reached. It is pare of the redeem-,
ing power, of the gospel which, every soul has a
right to have applied to him—the training of:
his benevolence and self-denial. As much as any
other part of the Gospel, it should be brought
home to him personally. He is in danger of
perishing in covetousness and selfishness if passed
by. Do not only preach to him, therefore, but
go in person, or by some member of the church.
Even childreu.and-the:lowliest pprsons can and'
should, for their own sakes, do something. • Ro
man Catholics have taught us how servants' pit
tances can be made to rear cathedrals, and prop
the sinking papal throne. And this is by the
working of another principle of giving—regulari
ty. Paul preached that, too, to the Corinthians.
Let all give. Let all be personally reached. Let
all give, or reckon what they can give, at regular
brief intervals. Preach and put in practice these,
three'rules of giving. Set in motion some "live"
men, with some kind of machinery. Put out of
countenance, as a deadly sin, the pride that gives
nothing because it can give but little, and you
will, with the blessing of God, witness such re
sults as will amaze you.
THE RATIONALIST RABBIS.
Thirteen Jewish Rabbis, from the cities of
New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Cincinnati, St.
Louis, Detroit, Selma, and Philadelphia, met in
this city last week, and formally declared, in a
series of resolutions, what Christian interpreters
have long held, that modern Judaism is some
thing distinct from, and antagonistic to, the Ju
daism of the Old Testament. The historic life
of genUine Old Testament Judaism, remains
with Christianity. These Rabbis eschew the
Messianic hopes of their Scriptures. They will
not see them fulfilled in Jesus Christ; what
wonder that they evaporate ,them into mere
humanitariati generalities and vague hopes,
which only God's 4nointed One, the desire of
all nations can fulfill ? Thus„ they resolve,
" That the Messianic aim of Israel is not
the restoration of the old Jewish state under a
son of David, the renewed segregation from the
nations, but the union of all men as children of
God on the confession of the one and only God,
of the unity of all rational beings and their vo
cation for moral purity."
Equally contradictory to the express teachings
of their Scriptures is another of their proposi
tions, to the effect, that the destruction of the
Jewish state is not a punishment for the sins of
Israel, bUt results from the divine purpose to
make the Jews the high priestly leaders of all
nations to the true knowledge and worship of
God. Unless these Rabbis mean to include the
Christian development of Judaism as part of Ju
daism itself, the world is still waiting for the ac
complishment of the divine purpose in the des
traction of the Jewish state, as they understand
it. Jesus Christ, Paul and the Apostles, with
their Jewish converts, are the only Jews the
world knows of, who have really exercised the
grand high-priestly function of the nation, which
these rationalist Rabbis can talk of so glibly,
I TITLADELPHIA, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1869.
but no more. But if they'hear not Moses and
the prophets, threatening the overthrow of their
nation as a punishment for their sins, much less
will they recognize the claiMs of Christ and the
Apostles . as fulfilling its high-priestly character.
How these Rabbis can claini that this is fulfilled
in any missionary activity;' past or . present,
of their people, since or before the destruction
of Jerusalem, it passes ouP powers to explain.
Indeed, their fifth resolutl i on intimates some
mild sense of possible defieeney in the . matter,
and shows us' what an Utter' abstraction and airy
nothing the sense of this high-priestly function
is, in the hearts of the religious leaders of the
people. Read it. .t
Fifth—The selection of
,Israel as a religious
people, as bearer'of the highest idea of humani
ty, must now, as ever, be emphatically expressed,
and on o that very account' I shall the world-em
bracing mission of Israel an i sl the equal love of
God towards all His children be just as distinctly
eiCuriCiated. 4‘;'
"Enunciated "1
Not many foreign inissioisary societies will
grow out of that
These Rabbis also resolve,ln the sixth place,
that " the belief in . a bodily tesurrection has no
religious foundation, and only the continued
spiritual existence is to be expressed." In other
words, they deny the histotioil verity of the Old
Testament miracles of Elijah'and Elisha, and its
intimations of a bodily resurrection found in the
Psalms, in Isaiah, Ezekiel, &c., as well as the truth
the resurrection of Jesus Ohrist. They' have
landed, if land it may ;be Called, in the dreirY
regions of advanced rationalism. Of course
they represent but one type—what may 'be
called the Sadducean—of their people. There
remains a kernel of rigid' orthodoxy among them,
a party of veritable Parisees, strongly adhering
to pretty much the same system from which Paul
was 'converted. We presume the latter class
will have some counter-demonstration to mike
but how much longer can a strenuous zeal for the
Old TestaMent, as an inspired book, be `main
tained by those who reject the New ?
PEN PICTERES-IV.
THE yAIEWEATJUMOURAREW
When it is very pleasant, Mr. Easy-Christian
always goes to church on Sabbath. He regards
Was respectable, and feels proud as well as de
votional as he tykes his seat in the sanctuary.
His wife and children are beside him, all nicely
dressed, looking as gay as butterflies. In all the
exercises he is greatly interested, and wonders
Why all well-to-do people do not imitate him in
this particular—attending-church.
But how when it storms ? Where then is our
friend ? His pew is vacant. Not a soul in it,
unless it may be some stranger who pities its
emptiness
" Another rainy Sunday ! Well, really the
rain all comes now-a-days on the Sabbath," ex
claims Mr. Easy-Christian-as he swings open his
window-shutter after a long night's repose. For
two Sabbaths he has not left his house on ac
count of the rain, and he begins to think it
would be good again to enter the sanctuary. But
it rains. He would, surely go to his business on
a wet day, no matter how violently it stormed,
and he knows-his wife and daughter would not
suffer him to stay away from a concert or a
Poneyville lecture, or one of Herman's Prestidi
gitateur performances, especially if he had
tickets, even if the rain came in torrents.
"But church you know, my dear sir, is a dif
ferent thing," argues this not very astute rea
soner. " Why church—well, yes, it is impoi
tant, very, but it is open you know every Sunday,
and then . you pay by the quarter. We don't
hive tickets for every service. Then, too, there
is this difference,—We attend Madam Parepa
Rosa's performanoes, because we are' dyivg to
hear the popular singer; but we take a,pew be
cause it is expected, because it would be es
teemed mean if we did not, in a word because we
regard it as our duty. But the minister don't
expect to' see us on rainy Sundays. • Of course
Elder Goodman Deacon Earnest will bettre
sent, and the aged widow of our former pastor,
and our present minister's family—no doubt
they and some others will go. But as for me,
the people would 'be greatly astonished if they
should see me in a thin audience on a rainy Pun
day. And yet I have half a mind to go too. I
am tired of staying home."
Thus Mr. Easy-Christian soliloquizes, and by
and by his inward thoughts find- outward ex
pression.
" Wife, what shall we do to day ? Shan't; we
go to church this morning? It does not rain
very hard!"
" Why, Mr. Easy• Christian, how you talk!
Do you think I am going to ruin my new hat,
and catch my death cold in the bargain ? You
surely don't imagine I am going to church•'in a
storm ?"
"Well, how about the children ? Shall they
go to Sunday-schtiol ?"
" Why no, my dear," replies the spouse, be
coming more affectionate as she reflects her new
hat is not to be endangered,—" they would- not
look well in their week day clothes, and I am
afraid Maggie would spoil her new gaiters if she
wore them in the rain."
This' decides the matter. The husband and
father is a good natured man. His conscience
tells him he ought to go to church, but he. does
not want to go alone—this would make him too
conspicuous, cause people to think he was making
a show of his religion. He concludes, therefore,
to stay at home, and is quite satisfied to let,his,
family enjoy the same privilege. In other words,
Mr. Easy. Christian is a fair-weather hearer.
So he and his wife and children eat, and
dritik;and sleep, and smoke, and crimp their hair
and play and tease each other, and scold, by
turns, each one as he feelsinelined. The' day
proves tg all very tiresome. They are an un
happy family. And, when night Comes, with a
hasty. and .slovenly prayer, they seek for rest from
themselves - in. their beds.
Who ..dOes not feel very sorry for Mr. Easy-
Christian, - the fair-weather hearer? His picture
is anything but handsome. Oftentimes on these
rainy Sabbaths he looks the very personification
of desPair. The fact is if there should be one
or two more such Sabbaths coming in close proxi
mity to those past, he is likely to grow desperate,
and may rush out of doors unprePared, and thus
risk his health.
We 'venture to make a few'suggestions to him
and his household which may help their pictures in
the future. That we may be short and pointed,
we will number them.
1. God sends the rain.. It is a most marvellous
blessing., Every drop is full of mercy, and it
comes always just at the right time and, place.
This no doubt you will admit is sound Theology.
2. Going, to church is both a duty and a
privilege If your heart is, right, you will de
riVe more pleasure, is well as pro& from it, than
from any worldly amusement, or from the dis
charge of any merely secillar .4tity, no. matOr
what that amusement" of d'nly in 4 ai bei - and until
ydur heart is right you ought to go just as you
would to business. The fact is, you cannot afford
to stay away. For
3. The minister is very apt to preach his best
sermons on 'rainy -days. Somehow the good
man is more practical. His heart is moistened,
and he speaks as if by a special inspiration. Every
one who goes feeJs he is doubly paid.
4. Sensible people always conform to circum
stances. They have water-proof cloaks, and over
coats, and shawls and over-shoes and bath which
are not affected by the weather. They take good
care of themselves, and then they go, and they
do not get injured any more by the rain of Sun
day than by -the rain of Monday. This is just
as true of the children, as of their parents.
0, My dear Mr. Easy Christian, you want a
little of the rain of grace in your heart, and so do
your wife and children. Pray God for it, and
when it comes, and you feel spiritually quickened,
it will be no hardship for you to go to church in
a storm. And when you get there the wrinkles
will leave your face. Your picture will look a
hundred per cent better, and so with your family
group. They will all be enlivened and beauti
fled. And your radiant laces will carry sun
shine with them on the cloudy day, to the joy of
your pastor and all the faithful' ones who gather
around him in the sanctuary. P. S.
GEORGE PEABODY.
The death of this distinguished American,
whose residence, citizenship and business, were
in England, took place on last Thursday, in the
75th year of his age. He was among the most
illustrious examples of wise and large beneficence,
in the us,e of wealth, known to history. Especially
as preferring to be, himself, the living founder of
his charities, instead of exposing them to the un
certainties of a last will and testament, is his ex
ample important. Thus his benefactions, up to
the time of his death, including a million and a
half given to his relatives, approached the sum of
ten millions, of dollars. The largest part of this
sum was given for educational purposes in the
United States, two, and a half millions going to
the Southern States. To provide dwellings for
the London poor, a million and three, quarters
were donated, and two thousand persons are now'
accommodated in, the model lodging houses erect
ed with these funds. , Mr. Peabody's name .and
gifts will long remain as a witness to the fact
that the commercial classes of our day are not
entirely i governed by sordid motives; and his in
ternational position will make his name a power
ful bond of union between the two nations which
equally 'revere his memory.
Genesee Evangelist, No. 1'225
Home & Foreign Miss. $2OO.
1. Address:-1334 Mesta'. Street
The fact that our present personally worthy
Chief Magistrate, Mayor Fox, was elected by the
party avowedly opposed to Temperance and Sab
bath reform, has naturally kept away from him
that class of counsellors, whom he would find in
sympathy with his own religious views and moral
principles, and ready to stimulate and second him
in any earnest efforts for the improvement of the
public morals. For a time, too, it wA quite un
certain whether he would be allowed by the courts
to ittain his office. But now, since his position
hafcbeen guaranteed, it has seemed worth while
to EIO me of our leading temperance men, to put
themselves in communication with him. Last
week, a . Committee of the old City Temperance
Society, Mr. John Wanamaker, Chairman, hav
ing previously secured an appointment. for the
purpose, paid him a visit, to urge upon him the
better enforcement Of the existing laws restricting
the sale of liquor in reference to minors, and upon
the Sabbath. The Mayor received the Committee
with( the utmost cordiality; lie intimated plainly
thae they were of the - sort of citizens whom he
preferred to see, whose counsel he would prefer
to have, and whose support he felt to be needful
in the right discharge of his duty. He promised
to take immediate measures for carrying out the
suggestions of the Committee, and we believe the
last Sabbath showed considerable 'improvement
over •its predecessors in the less open and glaring
violation of the laws.
We trust this is but the beginning. If the
chief municipal officer of a great American city,
with perhaps, 800,000 inhabitants, as large as
half-a-dozen German principalities, nearly twice
as populous ir as the whole State'of California, or
Connecticut, exceeding 'in population each of
twenty-three of the States of our TJuion, could
but.iehliie'the'grandeur of his position, ana use
to the' full measure his powers and opportuni
ties for doing good ; if he could but cast aside
the crutches and shackles of party, and act in the
strength of Christian manhood, what a bene
factor he'might be; what a breath of moral vitality
he might send through every department of our
life ;--what multitudes df- our youth he might
rescue from temporal and eternal death ; what
wholesome terror he might send to the inmost
recesses of every haunt of crime; what lustre
pour upon our city, and with what enviable, im
perishable honors crown his own head ! Assured
now of his seat, and of the hearty and practical
sympathy of all good citizens, we wait for a de
monstration of whatever heroic Christian quali
ties Mayor Fox has at command.
THE WESTERN COLLEGE SOCIETY.
The Western College Society holds its annual
meeting at Newton, Mass., this week. The ap
pearance of the notice calls to mind a good in
tention formed six months ago, on reading the
report of the quarter-century anniversary of the
society. The good intention was to tell the
readers of THE PRESBYTERIAN 110 W good a
thing it would be for every minister, every
moneyed man, and every friend of education in
the United States, to get that report, study it
carefully, and lay it by for reference in future
years.' It is a nbble record of devotion to the
sacred interests of intellectual and moral culture
in this land, and every true American of every
denominktion of Christians, and every §hade of
political affinity; will be instructed and gratified
by seeing what the. society has done in twenty
five years. According to its name and charter,
the West has been the special field of its bene
factions, but the happy results of its work have
been national and world-wide. The name of the
Secretary, who has,been the principal organ of
the society, should be cherished with grateful
remembrance by the American people, as one
who has deserved well of the Republic. The
report of last year is 'a' document of nearly two
hundred pages, and it contains a vast amount of
informatien in regard to the whole subject of
collegiate and theological education in this land.
It shows in a very affecting and instructive man
ner, what struggles . and trials have been endured,
what sacrifices have been made, what talents and
resources employed, what benefactions have been
offered, what faith and hope have been cher
ished by' the generous, the cultivated, and the
good, that sound learning and pure morals and
evangelical - truth might be the safeguard and in
heritanee of the American people. At this late
hour, I beg to commend the last year's report of
the society 'to the especial attention of all edu
cated and moneyed men, as a most interesting
and instructive document, showing how intel
lectual culture and pecuniary resources may be
employed for the highest and most enduring
welfare 'of the nation and the world. D. M.
The Methodists have laid the corner stone of
a new church at Fifth and Erie Avenue.
MAYOR FOX VISITED.