REV. DAVID M'KINNEY, Editor' anti Proprietor. nr:v. I. N. M'KINNEY, ASSOCIATE EDITOR. TENNIS IN ADVANCE ' . BY Mall $1.50 ..LIVEP.ED IN EITHER OP THE CITIES 2.00 For Two DOLLAES, we will send by mail seventy number rut tor Qem Innt,mt, thirty-three onmhers. asters sending um TWENTY subscribers and upwards, wil 1 ba Viereby entitled to a paper without charge. Renewals should be prompt, a little betbro the year expire Send payments by safe hands, or by mail. Direct all atters to REV. DAVID M'KINNEY, Pittsburgh, Ps. [Selected.] The Errors of the True Christian. Blame not the spirit, blame the shrine I The frail, the human heart of sin, Where oft religion's light Divine Is sullied by the gloom within. Then ere thou blame the faithful few, For speech unwise, or zeal undue, Bid the quenched dew-drops of the morn Glitter as when they gemmed the thorn, The trampled snow upon the earth Be pure as at its heavenly birth ; Expect thy roses in the storm, Fadeless in hue, and fair of form, And bid the limpid streamlet swell, Bright through the city, as the dell. 'T were vain ; yet ev'n the sullied snow, Dimm'd flowers, fall'n dew, and darken'd rill, Despite, the earthly taint they show, Beauty and blessing scatter still. lidnight Hymn. BY HANNAH MORE Whereser I am, whate'er I see, Eternal Lord, is full of thee ; I feel thee in the gloom of night, I view thee in the morning light. When care distracts my anxious soul, Thy grace can every thought control; Thy word can still the troubled heart, And peace and confidence impart. If pain invade my.broken rest, Or if corroding griefs molest, Soon as the Comforter appears, My sighs are hushed, and dried my tears. Thy Wisdom guides, thy Will directs, Thy Arm upholds, thy Power protects; With thee when I at dawn converse, The shadows sink, the clouds disperse ; Then, as the sun illumes the skies, o Sun of Righteousness, arise ! Dispel the•fogs of ntentitl night, Being of beings, Light of light Doubtless many readers of a Christian newspaper will be at a loss to know the meaning of the word which stands at the head of this article. What are wakes ? Addison, in the Spectator, has the follow ing passage " Had you stayed there a few days longer, you would have seen a coun try wake, which, you know, in most parts of England is the eve-feast of the dedica tion of our churches!' Dr. Kennet, in his Parochial Antiquities, published in 1695, says : " These wakes were in imitation of the ancient love-feasts ; and were first 3tablished in England by Pope Gregory ;he Great, who, in an epistle to Melitus the Abbot, gave orders that they should be _apt in sheds or arbories made up of branches or boughs of trees around the Church." " This laudable custom of wakes," he adds, " prevailed for many ages, until the nice Puritans began to ex claim against it as a remnant of Popery," The remark, made by Braude, in his Acyclopaidia, that these feasts were not uncommonly followed by revelling and .unkenness, is a strange commentary on Kennet's " laudable practice," and ids us to think the Puritans were not so ice " as he would have us, believe, in king against them. This custom is kept up, however, in many places in own country by people of' Irish descent in the Papal communion. I have seen enthusiastic Irishman ride up, post te, to a neighbor's door, to borrow the ley with which he might buy whisky the "revel" connected with the dedi ion of their chutth. The word " wake,' among us, is now °sally applied to another custom. Later defines the word, " the sitting up 'rsous with a dead body, usually at :1:1. with drinking." I am told this au is very common among Irish popu is in country places. And just here, j be observed, is it not curious bow depravity of man has prostituted the sacred seasons to the basest uses I ',mas, Hallow-e'en, the dedication of les, and the vigils kept over the sa .emains of the departed, all have been ,crated to revelry and drunkenness ! would it be believed that this ous with slight variations, is still observed 'rotestant communities who have bad Gospel preached among them for three four generations ? The writer has instances, not five hours' ride , from own city, in the heart of a dense ,estant population which has had the Lel preached for forty years, in which old Irish custom of wakes has been :rued. And these wakes were not Lgils," but emphatically " revels." For sacred be the custom of two or four len friends keeping devout watch over remains of the dear departed. But ver execrated be the heathenish prac ot filling a house with thoughtless ;re and merry-makers, destroying all solemnity of the occasion, and harrow lip the feelings of the mourners, while remains of a friend or neighbor lie and neglected in an adjoining chain- And let no Christian fear "giving so" by refusing' to allow such orgies held in his house. Let who will take from such a refusal, the sacred still licit hangs around the dust of our id friends must not be broken by the of heathen riots. writer of this has been astonished, wiry, to find how general, in some titles, the observauce of this cu ll is; and has given this hearty on ion of it iu the hope thatit may Id influence some of those commu- Yet he is aware that people who in, or allow, such heathenish prac ) not often read the religious news or anything else religious. 'era, if there are "wakes" in your 'hood, do not rest until you have to every good man of your ac le about them, and they have been forever. Too long has this Rome rested on our fair Prot aitage. H. For the Presbyterian Banner From the Sonth•western Army. . EDITORS :—The camp is not favorable place for writing, espe w, the field officers and staff of a ,ry regiment has been ordered to three wall tents—about ten feet campa i gn i ng .',W e are now re `,hat; and consequently the chap :s a most inconveniently small privacy, furniture,; or any thing food. We cannot hold prayer- Per the Presbyterian Banner Wakes. , . , •, . , ~ cli filaTtAkAL - n - "tr ~,,..,./• if. \.„........„ VOL. XI., NO. 14. meetings in this weather out of doors Here, in Moscow, Tenn., we have found a church, which we occupy every evening. How long we shall remain here, the most sagacious of us cannot conjecture; but we appoint a meeting for " to-morrow evening, if God will ;" and if my regiment, or any other, shall move to-morrow, perhaps the meeting may still be held. At present, we make them prayer-meetings—let soldiers and officers occupy most of the time as they may please. The chaplains lead and ex hort. The church is crowded; and proba bly would be so, were it twice as large. A whole division is encamped here—most of it crowded as closely together as conve nience will allow. This makes it conve nient for the devout of many regiments to come together. There are more truly re-' ligious mea among them than we antici pated. When one walks through a camp, and hears the sound of cursing on every side, he is very apt to form the idea that the fear of God is entirely banished from the place; but he bears, after a time, that there are pure voices less vociferous. We find many who are willing to speak for Christ, and to lead in prayer. The general spirit of the Christians among us is ex cellent. It was well remarked by an officer in one of our, meetings, that if all our army were like the body there assembled, we should be absolutely invincible. But this thought reminds us of that which causes many hearts sadness—the wickedness of the army. Some Northern papers have given an exaggerated account of the ravages committed by the troops since we marched from Corinth; but there has been wrong-doing • enough to make one fearful that God may withhold his blessing from us. It is not true that the army burned all the buildings along the road; but it is true that empty houses were generally fired —the men saying that their being empty showed that the men were in the Southern army; and that, therefore, their houses ought to be burnt. It is not true' that all property was appropriated by the soldiers as we passed; but a great deal was. Sweet potatoes were all taken, unless unu sually well concealed. Many houses lost much by pilfering soldiers and servants. Chickens and pigs, calves and sheep, were almost all taken. A scene of disorder, and almost of insubordination, both painful and ludicrous, culminated, when we reached our encampment at Davis' Mills, in Missis sippi, a few miles froth' this place. Briga diers were trying to hinder men from carrying off chickens and pigs before their faces; and tried in vain : the men broke away from them, carried off their booty, and escaped in - the .multitude. But this was the highest point of the disorder. Proper commands and arrangements were immediately, made ; the Quartermasters were set to work to supply the men with what was necessary; and-the vile fever in the army's blood subsided. This outbreak seemed to follow all the laws of an epidemic: it commenced at the same time in both of our marching col umns—from Bolivar, and from Corinth; it raged with the same symptoms in both; in both, at first it met with only the feeble resistance that could be offered by paral yzed or Fizzled field officers . ; and the un holy excitement simultaneously subsided in both parts of the army, and is now uni versally condemned. This devastation, , after all, is but a type of the mischiefs of war. All indus try, all family arrangements, are brok en up. The churches and schools suf , fox or are destroyed. Within the sphere of our marches in this region, we have seen Ripley, Migs., in which two flourishing High Schools have been ruined; at- Cor inth, one; at Lagrange, Tenn., two. Our brethren, Waddel and Gray, are still there, and something- of their congregations re main; but their college is' gone—the young men into the Southern army; their book-shelves hold medicines; their building has been hospital, then prison, and now hospital again. The Methodist Female College, at the same place, •has the same history. All America ought to learn, from that which is passing now, that to cause a war, except in the direst necessity, s insanity. J. W. EUROPEAN 'OORRESPONDENCE The :British Anti-SlaVery Society—lts Defence of the North—The Times and Press—Anti-Slavery Reaction—A Rornish Archbishop and Faction Fight:in Ireland—A Late and Bad Harvest in Ire land—The New Protestant Prelates—Sketch -of Dr. Thompson's Career—York and New-Xork-- The York Minister Tisited—The Cathedra Ser vice Minus Preaching—Chanting versus Metrical Psalmody—" Intoning" Criticised Cathedral Cost and Learned Leisure" Cut up a Bishop into Fifty Pieces"—Mr. Spurgeon—The Pope a Rail way Obstrisctor--Cruel Treatment of the Jews— Lotteries at Rome—The " Loan" Trick—Father Passaglia and his 10,000 Rome's Coming Doom. LONDON, November 19, 1862 THE BRITISH . ANTISLAVERY SOCIETY, whose fundamental principle is that "slay holding'is a sin and a crime before God," , and therefore " that unconditional emanci pagan wherever slavery is; maintained, is alone consistent with Divine law and, with the requirements of justice and humanity," has issued an address intended to counter act " the efforts made to infuse into the minds of the people of this country, sen timents friendly to slavery." The Society deprecates all war, but holds that the South " was not only the aggressor, but design edly provoked an armed contest with the United States Government, with the ex press sole object of founding a Confedera cy to perpetuate slavery." That is cer tainly true, and very happily stated. The North, on the other hand, gets full credit for all that it has done, enforcing the stet-. ntes against the slave trade which other ad ministrations had allowed to become inop erative, prosecuting slave traders to con viction and punishment, promoting the speedy settlement of the territories by a non-slaveholding population, and prohibit ing slavery forever in those territories. " it has also abolished slavery from the District of Columbia; it has virtually re pealed the Fugitive Slave Act, by prohib iting the rendition of slaves escaping from the rebel States into the lines of the Uni ted States army; it has recognised and en tered into diplomatic relations with the negro Republics of Liberia and Hayti. Further, by the Confiscation Bill—consid erately made non-retrospective—it in of-- feet proclaimed emancipation to the slaves in the rebel States within a specified peri od, a majority in Congress lam ratified the plan of compensated emancipation for such Slave States as :may take advantage of it." And lastly the President's Froolamation quoted with, approbationEL,s;,tp.,conilitional_ emancipation on the Ist of January, 1863. PITTSBURGH, SATURDAY, DEC EMBER 20, 1862„ The Times gives the full text of this address, which protests against "the tone and spirit of certain artices in a certain portion of the public press, and perver sion of facts." Perhaps it is somewhat penitent. It admitted a very' able article a few days ago, signed, "Ristoricus," from a lawyer in the Temple, London, in the course of which the writer, defending Lord Palmerston and the Cabinet against the Tory outcry and the French press as to " mediation," asserted that the great heart of the English nation was anti-slavery to the core, and that there was no reason why we should befriend the South, but that we simply should observe the strictest neu trality. The Morning Star remarks on the reac tion in English opinion and feeling which was dazzled with Southern successes. The Daily News warmly supports the ministe rial policy, and writes very able and tem perate articles on behalf of the North. At the same time as a matter of opinion', most people think that a separation must ultimately take place, while others look to great results from the fleet of the United States in river warfare. DR. LEARi, a Roman Catholic Prelate, has issued a Pastoral Address to the Ro man Catholic peasantry of Tipperary and adjoining districts, in which hemakes ex traordinary revelations. It reminds one of the olden times of Fiction Fights so graphically recorded by William Carlton, " the Irish Walter Scott," in his " Tales and Stories of the Irish. Peasantry." Most people thought that these bloody feuds were at an end, and that, as in the Hyde Park, Berkerhead, and Belfast Riots, Rorn ish hate had expended itself in assaults on Garibaldian " enemies of the Pope, or on Protestant yeomen. But we find that it is otherwise in the South of Ireland. The Dublin Morning Journal (Romish organ) thus explains the origin of these feuds, which have wrought such havoc : " The cause of the feud which 'has led to such deplorable results, was so trivial and ludicrous that it would be almost in credible if given on 'a less authority than this pastoral. A spark struck in a dis pute between two men about an insignifi cant fact, has blazed out in a flame of fac tion and has now become a wide-spread conflagration. The cause was too ludicrous to be more than alluded to by. the Arch bishop. It was all about a bull! The Morning. News gives the history of the ori gin of the feud as follows In former times there was a bull located near the town of Tipperary, about whose age some persons disputed. One party asserted that he was three years old, and another swore as lustily he was four. It was at a time when a lesser matter would suffice for riot, or fury, or bloodthirstiness, and blows en sued. One party, of course, was defeated; and hatred sprung ups against the- victors; husbanded for -a day of greater strength. Then there came another trial by battle, and defeat one side or other added' fuel -to make the flame of discord grow. Thus it went on. Its existence has been marked by the ruin of many a home, the widow hood of many a wife, and the orphanage and misery of many an innocent child. From time immemorial they have 'fought their battles. Fair or market, wedding or funeral, race meeting or hurling , match, have seen them find some opportunity for the deadly strife.."' The pugnacious qualities of the Celtic race have always been conepicuous; on the battle field, in political and fanatieo-relig ions collisions, the fury of the race' has shown itself. Here, in. London, under the influence of drink, they fight with one an other on Saturday nights,.in the Seven Dials, or Field Lane, or in other localities where they " most do congregate." A' " shindy" they like for its own sake; and when to this is added hereditary hate, the results have been oftimes terrible both in Highland glens and in Irish Fairs. In the North• of Scotland this fierce spirit is largely subjected by religion ; and in truth the lineal descendants of the hostile clans of the 17th and 18th centuries, are knit in holy love beneath the shadow of the Cross. Popery in such a pastoral as that of Dr. Leahy, virtually confesses its fail- ure. It is impossible that any peasantry possessing the Bible, and permitted to read it from childhood's days, as well as to hear the Gospel of the Great Forgiver, could furnish the records of such mutual and murderous hate as this. Dr. Leahy de serves credit for . his honest denunciation of such wickedness, but thereby, I repeat, confesses the weakness of a Church which, witholds that Living Word, which even, when it does not spiritually change and' convert, always educates' conscience and elevates the standard ,of public morals. Even when kneeling at Mass,,it is a shame to have it to tell, but the truth it is, that men calling themselves Chriatians and. Catholics on the Lord's own day, in the house of God, kneeling at his altar, then and there thirst for one another's blood, and scarcely' put foot outside the sacred threshold, when they, fall upon _ones. nother with the fury of demons. TEE HARVEST in Ireland has ,been late and scanty to a powerful degree. Indeed, with the exception of the lamentable fail ure of the crops, or rather their destrne tion by the> excessive rains of the Autumn of 1816, followed by the scourge of typhus fever, there has been no : parallel to the present scanty crop for sixty years. The mountain districts were still'unreaped in the - first week of the present month, and at other places even in the North' of Ireland, the shocks Of grain,were still in the fields. The great drawbacktof Ireland is its damp, moist climate, as a rule. Hence it seems as if the people will' gradually taint it into a great pasture eciiintry — for . cattle and sheep, depending little on the oat crop and on the potato. From the uncertainties of drought on the one hand, (following heavy rains and stiffening the clay 'soil into lime-like hardness,) or a "41-l'opping sea son " from April 'to November, on the other, as well as from the growth, of manu factures; the drafts on the peasantry. to England and Scotland, as railway, dock, and bricklayers' laborers, as well as their emigration to the Colonies, .Canada, and the United States; it ; would seem as if a, better state of things were to be inaugura ted as to the use to be made of the verdure peculiar to the Emerald Isle. When lately in the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire, I fonnd that but a short :time had elapsed singe the wheat had been gathered in, and that it had been saved,so, b.astily, as to make the grain very soft 'and inferior. Englandt, large wheat crop; but as to bread-making, foreign wheat, the product of Summer climes, is largely needed for mixing, in order to the production of first-class flour. Here in the South of England, the climate is very superior to that of the Midland or Northern counties, or of Scotland. Our free trade system brings us abundant corn from every country which has a surplus. America has already sent us large supplies, and Prussia is contributing to an unexam pled extent to our stores. The corn mar kets, therefore, rule low, both in England and Scotland, and famine prices are not aggravating the really awful distress in Lancashire, as was the case in the fearful famine visitation in Ireland in 1846-47. THE NEw ARCHBISHOPS are Dr. Long ley and Dr. Thompson ; the former re moved from the Northern to the. Southern Archdiocese; the latter created Bishop of Gloucester a few months ago, and to the astonishinent and envy (?) of the other Bishops, (many of them his seniors, as he is only forty-two years of age,) r .he succeeds Dr. Longley at York. The Times gives a synopsis of Dr. Thompson's antecedents, which are highly honorable to Ids abilities, to his liberality and hreedth of view as to University (Oxford) reforms;alcdqui , tohis orthodoxy as a defender of the jloctrine of the true, and proper Atortemeitiid ,Sacri fice of Christ, in reply to the aßsaults made upon that 'cardinal dogma in 'Essays and Reviews." He is not openly identified with the Evangelical School,:but there is reason to think that he ;is virtually Evan gelical in his views and sympathies. The Bishop of London, Dr. Tait, was offered the dignity of an, Arelibighop in the North, but to his credit he preferred hard work and administrative influence and usefulness in his old diocese,. in London. In truth the Archbishop of, York has a, comparatively easy post. I spent a few days lately, in the city of York. You have your New York, which doubtless 're— ceived its second name from! the old Yorki of the ,mother country. What a difference between the New and the Old: the one "going ahead" with such rapidity, and already the metropolis of the United States ; and the other with itallforty thou sand inhabitants, its ancient streets, its quiet river.Ouse—with a few *barges, trading en its bosom, or an occasional small steamer taking a few Passengers to Goole and York Hall ; with its ancient narrow streets, quaint Elizabethan houses; its double Mu scum, filled with rare specimens of the reptiles of. the Saurian ante-mundane pe riod, on the one hand, and with rich and rare excavations and memeriali of the Re-. man Occupation of the region round about, on the other ! The " Minster," or Cathe dral, of-York is its glory, and has•been• so for ages. Even to one who is not an T001e..._ Biologist, or Antiquarian, this magnificent structure is very imposing in its external architecture, in its pealing bells, in its deep, rieh, and solemn utterances at noon or midnight of •the fleeing houra,,and above all, in its noble interior. lilere renovation and restoration have been recently at work, as in most of the Cathedral,,,ehurches, and other ancient ecelesiestieeMlifiels of Eng land. The• barbarous taste of the last century, whitewashed the noble marble or granite pillars, daubed and disguised the roof, filled the naves or choir with high backed pews, and 'set up pulpits more hid eous than even could be found in any con venticle. Now all these outrages are being redressed. . Thus it is at Beverly Minster, in Yorkshire, which I have also lately vis ited, and where I'• saw for the first time the Friedseat; a stone chair, which, the mo ment that a' fugitive, murderer or other criminal , reached and sat down:in it, secured to, 'him' the right of " sanctuary," and im munity from the vengeance of the law. I was present at a , Sabbath afternoon service in York Cathedral. The choir was quite filled. Instead; of the chilling cold which salutes you on entering St. Paul's Cathedral, the place was cemfortably, heat ed, and as the shadows of evening fell,. jets of gas poured forth their radiance over the congregation. The Dean occupied his proper seat—as " Diaeonus," he superin tends, overlooks, and directs the public worship, and sees that all things are, done in order. The present , Dean is the Hon ora.ble and Reverend Augustus Duncombe., He was promoted to the Deanery by the Derby Ministry, when last in power, he being the brother of Lprd torrester, one of the Conservatiie Peers. But Dr. Dun combe is a good man, :not a .bigot,- and al ways presides over the York Auxiliary. Anniversary of the British and Foreign. Bible Society. The whole of the service, (including the prayers, and excepting the Scripture Lessons,) was intoned. The choir, men and boys, with a clergyman as their: precentor and leader,.numbered near-, ly thirty persons. The chanting of the psalms for the day, together with the "Te Deum" and other sacred songs, and the' Anthem, are defensible. Indeed it is, I think, far liker the Hebrew and original mode to sing or chant the Psalms,in prose, than in modernized rhyme, or metrical paraphrase. David himself has suffered , from the Procustee bed into which he has been forced by Tate and Brady, and (let us be just, even, with all my own earliest, associations, drawing the other way,) above,., all, from the Puritan version of Rouse, as ordered and endorsed by a Presbyterian Parliament. , But, virtually, to sing Confessions of Sin, (not as in Scripture Psalms, such as the 51st,) Collects,, and Supplications—as is done in Cathedrals by intoning—seems grotesque and unwarrantable, and I fear if; ministers' ' formalism and to self-decep tion. In 'the Cathedral at York there is: daily service, morning and afternoon, and. except • a few tourist strangers and some ladies, the choristers and the clergy alone are present. In the morning of the Lord's day; heaides the full Liturgical service; there is always a sermon, but none in; the: afternoon or evening. The short " Even-.ing Prayer " service—short when read-- under the intoning system, and conpled with elaborate anthem-singing, lasts an hour. My heart was sad "to see 'about seven hundred persons, rich and poor, gathered together and allowed to go : away, that Lord's day afternoon without hearing from the lips of an ambassador of Christ, the' Proclamation of Ainnesty and ReeOn ciliation. The Cathedral system is pleaded for as giving centrality and solidity to the Church., But if it effect this, it is at the expense of spirit, life, and real usefulness. True it is; that in some Cathedrals the cbla . 6 Gospel of , Hooper's days is' × , heard'—arc at Carlisle, from, Dean Close, and elsewhere:, This, I trust, will increase, as well aa . Spe, cial Services for the masses, such as have been held in St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey, for successive Winters and Springs. The expense of Cathedral establishments is enormous. True, the Canonries and Dean eries afford repose and learned leisure to real students ; and Bishops themselves— like Newton, Butler and Horne—have thus been enabled to burn the midnight lamp, and produce many works which the Church Cath olic will "not willingly let tile." Presbyteri anism wants some Refugiuni et Hospitiunz pituum system for its real scholars and stu dents, its true Doctors and Teachers. But it would not be necessary to set up a hier archy—to give a'Bench of Bishops,. '° pal aces"and Cathedrals, with revenues vary ing from £lO 000 to £25,000 per annum, in , order to promote and advance sacred lit 'erature. Cathalial 'towns generally owe far more of life'spiritual which, is in them, to Nonconformists thin