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“ Historical Justice.”
A writer in the Examiner and Chronicle
mentions Alton, I!!., “as the place where
Lovejoy was murdered by a mob of despera
does, enraged at his persistent, though mod
erate, opposition to slavery ; ” and then states
as “ a remarkable example of historical
justice ” —that during the war, twelve hundred
Confederate soldiers died in the military pris
on of that city ! The altar smokes, and
“ slavery’s lost defenders” perish by heca
tombs, to avenge the fall of “ slavery’s first
victim ! ” “ The cause for which they fought,”
says this writer, “ drew its inspiration from
the great evil, in opposing which, more than
a quarter of a century before, Lovejoy fell a
martyr ; ” and that is the link with which he
joins the two events together.
This sublimated casuistry manifestly ex
isted, with its author, in the state of' vapor,
impairing the transparency of the mental at
mosphere, that he might not discern the mon
strous general principle which lies enwrapt in
it. With due deference, we clear away the
fog for him, and for the Northern journals that
have deemed his “ historical justice ” not an
unmeet contribution to the Ethics of their col
umns. If his language means any thing—in
the light of the incidents he recalls, it means
that each and every adherent of slavery is
righteously obnoxious to the forfeiture of life
for all the crimes perpetrated in its interest.
No matter though the evil deeds were wrought
before their birth—wrought half way “ across
the continent” from them —wrought by men
to whom, as strangers, they had given no
countenance —wrought, perhaps, with their
earnest reprobation. None the less may
“ Retribution” smite them with the blows of
a dire, remorseless punishment, until to atone
for a single murder, twelve hundred lives,
among those who had no share in it, shall pine
in bondage, waste with disease, and expire in
agony. If this be “justice,” v?e crave allow
ance to enter an humble petition, that injus
tice may mete out our portion to us. We
can not fare worse in its hands ; we may per
chance fare better. At any rate, we will
risk it.
Since the year began, we neara uus just
yriter preach in a Southern pulpit, to the
of a Southern church. The pas
tor whom he displaced for the time, and the
great majority of the hearers who sat before
him, were (according to the views which, with
the help of the press, he sows broadcast
through the land) as guilty of the ‘ martyr
dom ’ of Lovejoy as the Confederate soldiers
that perished in the Alton prison. The death
that slew these had an equal claim on them.
“ Historical ’’—that is, providential—" jus
tice” marked all alike as its quarry. No re
pentance for the sin of supporting that “sum
of all human villainy” which Abraham prac
ticed, Moses confirmed and Paul regulated,
had absolved them from this guilt; and with,
out repentance, vengeance lives beyond our
mortal life, to prey on the life immortal.-
And yet —nor sermon, nor prayer, uttered a
note of warning. Not the faintest shadow of
this gross criminality and tremendous peril
was suffered to flit across the supplications of
the one or the instructions of the other.
Were the services, then, a mockery, like the
“ pernicious nonsense” of “ the Performance
Company ? ” Did he who took the chief
share in them, play false with his own instinct
of right 1 ? Either in what he failed to say
then, or in what he afterward wrote, he must.
The conviction, to which the death of certain
adherents of slavery stands as a righteous ob
lation to appease the manes of slaughtered
Abolitionists, and the charity, which worships
with others not less guilty, as a church of
“ the called, and chosen, and faithful,” can not
both be true and right. Their orbits clash,
and in the fierce collision, the one or the other
must go to wreck. Which shall it be ? Every
honest man ought to decide the question, and
‘square his life accordingly.’
We can not accept this writer as the morn
ing star of a reformation in the science of
morals. He is not sufficiently consequential
—in the, logical sense. The general principle
on which his language (if it is not a
“baseless fabric,”) involves the special in
stance in doubt. 4 Slavery ’ had earlier 4 vic
tims ’ than Lovejoy. Has our author forgot
ten the horrors of “ the Middle Passage?”
forgotten how 4 poor Africans,’ torn from their
country and kindred, to cross “ the high seas”
in American bottoms, died there, as if by
wholesale butchery ? If his novel ‘ retribu
tive’ theory is to win acceptance, who shall
say that the twelve hundred deaths at Alton
were not endured in recompense for these ?
‘Justice,’ we are sure, seems but the more
grandly ‘ historical ’ when it smites after the
lapse of a half-century or more, and deals, in
the heart of a continent, the blow which
avenges crimes committed far out on the
trackless waste of ocean ; thus testifying that
no lapse of time can bribe its rigor to forget
fulness, and no interval of distance elude the
flight of its shaft! We commend this view
to the critical acumen of our brother, when
he furnishes his next contribution toward the
solution of the question, “ Is there a Science
of History?” Perhaps , the twelve hundred
victims fell, for the fault of belonging to the
same nation with Northern ship-owners, and
seeking to preserve ‘ the patriarchal institu
tion ’ which they fastened on the country !
Who knows?
We refer to this subject, against the con
viction of our own judgment, when we first
saw the article in the Examiner and Chroni
cle. Northern religious editors, however, are
THE CHRISTIAN INDEX AND SOUTH-WESTERN BIPTIST: ATLANTA, GA., THURSDAY, MARCH 7,1867.
transferring it to their columns, as 44 a strik
ing instance of that retributive justice that
sometimes, in this world, overtakes individu
als and communities; ” and we notice it for
their sake. They have undertaken the benev
olent task of ‘educating the Southern mind
up to the point of embracing New England
ideas.’ If these ideas are true, we wish them
abundant and immediate success in the effort.
No captious objection of ours shall hinder a
fair experiment. We think it not impossible,
indeed, that when the 44 fitful fever ” of preju
dice breaks, (from Alton to Atlanta,) and
Northern and Southern minds travel side by
side over the questions that have estranged
them, sounder conclusions may be reached
than either could attain under the goading of
acerb antagonisms. But let that be as it may,
these editors ought to see that, from their
own point of view, they have been caught
tripping in the matter to which our strictures
allude. Have they lost sight of the truth that
44 strong meat belongeth to them that are of
full age ” —to those who have passed through
the successive stages of a wisely graduated
tuition ? Do they forget that we of the South
at present, are 44 such as have need of milk ? ”
Is it necessary to tell them that sentiments
acceptable only to extremists in their section,
are not adapted to win the ear or mould the
convictions of those whom they would secure
as pupils in ours? Does it require a prophet
to convey the assurance that such perversions
of all moral instincts, under the name of
“historical justice,” simply revolt us, and
must whelm their effort toward 4 the educa-
tion of the Southern mind * in ignominious
because merited failure ? Aeolus must fill our
sails with a gentler and more equable breeze,
if he hopes to bring us to the‘desired haven:’
and we beg his 44 blustering godship ” to put
the noisy wind-power under more reasonable
check. The painter should remember that
his 44 colors do better incorporate with oil ”
than with aquafortis.
Hereditary Traits.
Our Baptist fathers were a persecuted race.
The world was neither worthy of them, nor
willing to have them. To use the phrase of
King James, it sought to 4 harry them out’
of itself. Under these circumstances, conceal
ment was necessary to that self-preservation
which is a law as well of grace as of nature —
though not the first law of either. They were
obliged to meet for worship, in rude, out-of
the-way buildings which wore no aspect of
religious uses, or in the depths of the forest,
or on the wild mountain-side. Not to be
found —that was a prime principle of the
policy forced on their observance by necessity.
The alternative was, the dungeon and the
stake.
We honor these fathers. Not the least
ground of our pride is, the ecclesiastical ances
try to which we may look back —or (since
they have reached the realms of light) to which
we may look up. To inherit their simplicity
of order is something; to inherit their inflexi
bility of zeal would be more. We maintain
the one, and seek the other; blessing their
memory for the healthful influence it distils
on us, when their 44 short and simple annals,”
for they were 44 poor,” pass under review.
But may it not be that the policy adapted
to seasons of persecution, has survived among
a portion of their descendants, who cling to
it when the cause that occasioned its adoption
and constituted its justification has long ago
ceased. It appears to us that the old-time
usage, when it should 4 lie mouldering’ (like
4 the body of John Brown’) with “the dead
past,” still keeps up a show, here and there,
as if the old-time necessity were even now
(like ‘John Brown’s soul’) 4 marching on’
and making havoc of our people.
How successfully, for example, do Baptists
sometimes hideaway their houses of worship !
We have been, now and then, in villages,
where, enquiring for the “ church ” of our
brethren, we learned that it stood in some
lane or alley of the outskirts, as far from the
bulk of the population as human ingenuity
could place it—or, even beyond the limits in
w hich the crier was wont to lift up his voice, at
some point between the town and the country,
as though, like the culprit suspended between
heaven and earth, it was 44 worthy of neither.”
And then, how frequently they secrete their
institutions of learning ! setting them off from
the great thoroughfares of travel; shutting
them out from the vital centres of social influ
ence. A man might traverse North Carolina
a score of times, without finding Wake For
est; and Georgia quite as often, but never
light on Mercer. Even Sherman, we believe,
failed to strike them, when 44 mowing his
wide swath ” —to the delight of Christian spec
tators at the North!
Is this an instance of that transmission of
hereditary traits, which perpetuates manners
and customs after the reason for them has
passed away for generations ? We commend
the question to those who are versed in mat
ters of historical enquiry. Perhaps, with their
aid, all Baptists may be brought to see, that
(whether they build colleges or churches) it
can not harm them to be found—and found
easily.
Maimed Souls.
It is a sad sight—a sight only the more sad
for its frequent recurrence, the last few years
—this large number of men, on our streets,
who have lost a limb. We shall never grow
indifferent to it. Our heart aches as often as
it meets our view. Among the multitude of
thoughts to which it has, at times, given oc
casion, there is one that we feel disposed to
sketch just now; not because it deserves re
cord more than others —probably it is less
deserving, we rather fear it is—but simply
because
“ fancy, bred,
Or in the heart, or in the head,”
points that way. If our readers, then, grant
us gentle tolerance, we shall, this once, indulge
a liking finds its only reason in itself: —
and who is always proof against the plea for
such indulgence in his own bosom?
Perhaps, these men, whom, on the thronged
thoroughfare, passers-by most incline to pity,
might better give commiseration than receive
it. If the laws of vision, by which we see the
bodies of our fellow-mortals, while their souls
are hidden from us, were reversed—if it
should come to pass that their bodies were
hidden, and we saw their souls—what a spec
tacle would flash its unsuspected revelations
on the eye! The change would strike us
startlingly. Bodies, with all their members j
complete, faultless in proportion, and elastic
with vigor, would fade from the view ; and in
their stead would stand maimed souls —souls
with many of their nobler powers lopped
away—souls marred and mutilated by the
forfeiture of high, heavenward faculties. We
would see then what angels see daily, when
earth is made their scene of ministration.
Men are continually losing parts of their true
selves—the inner, the spiritual. The Scrip
tures speak of certain, as 44 without under
standing : ” understanding then is lost —as
respects its sublimer scope, its grasp of God
and the things of God. Os certain, too, the
Scriptures speak, as “past feeling:” feeling
then is lost—in its sensibility to love, under
the manifestations of Divine grace, and to
fear, under the foretokenings of Divine wrath.
Ah; what is the loss of an arm, or a leg, to
this maiming of 44 the hidden man of the
heart ?” this rending and tearing of the soul ?
this truncation of its religious capacities,
which are as well its divinest—without which
it can not rise from the mire of sin, and run
the race of life, and reach the goal of glory ?
No ! Ye who have been called to surrender
a limb through the mischance of War 1 much
as we grieve for you—ye, if still spirit-whole,
are not the men most worthy of our grief!
Let us rather feel that the supreme sorrow, is
the sorrow due to those, whose outward man
retains all parts and powers, while the ruth,
less mutilation of Iniquity mangles, more and
more, their inward man !
It may be that we should not press this
figure farther; but it beckons, and we follow.
Unlike the maimed body in the present life,
the soul maimed by sin may be made whole.
It may regain its lost powers; may get back
once more the faculties which have been
wrenched away. There is a resurrection
power in Christ which restores them all to the
true seeker. Awakened sinners, then, are
men in quest of a Saviour indeed, but also
men in quest of themselves. And they find
themselves only in finding the Saviour. ‘The
Son of God gives them an understanding, that
they may know Him that is true.’ He 4 puts
within them a heart of flesh ’ —a heart alive
to fear, not in the servile form, but filial—a
heart kindling with love to Him because He
first loved them. O blest experience ! more
blest than if limbs cut from these mortal bo
dies might be reknit to them, and feel afresh
the pulse of life, and take a quickened share
in the activities 44 so full of buoyant-spirit.”
But this experience, alas, men thrust from
them—men, who would sell all that they
have, cross continents and seas, and do ser
vice as Jaccb did for Rachel, to regain lost
limbs, but who submit themselves to the
maiming of the soul and even love to have it
so! Can this folly end but in the total and
eternal loss of themselves, —the loss of body
and soul, in hell forever? 44 How long, ye
simple ones, will ye love simplicity ? and the
scorners delight in their scorning? and fools
hate knowledge ? ”
Our Southern Zion—in Our Exchanges.
Alabama.—A’ correspondent of the Christian
Herald states that a meeting of the preachers of
Tuskegee Association is £o be held at Tuskegee,
March 31st.—A Baptist minister of Russell county
has given up the two churches which he served,
and moved away, for want of adequate support:
a fact in relation to which a writer in an exchange
says: 44 The prevailing tendency with us all is to
magnify our poverty at all times, especially is it
so when it comes to paying the preacher.” He
mentions also a church which could pay its pastor
only “ about SIOO, more or less,” but which pro
posed to give a school teacher a salary of SI,OOO.
Arkansas. —Rev. E. L. Compere, writes to the
Christian Herald that he expects a visit from his
father, Rev. Lee Compere, who is 44 in his seventy
seventh year and has been in the ministry more
than half a century. Few men living, have
preached more sermons —built up more churches
organized more associations —and received as
little remuneration from the churches." This ven
erable man, who has labored in South Carolina,
Georgia, Mississippi and Arkansas, and whose
body is now a complete wreck, would be glad to
hear from his old friends. His address is Fort
Smith, Ark.
District of Columbia.—The Baptists have six
white and 13 colored churches, and several sta
tions beside, in the District. Os the colored churches
seven have been organized during the last three
years, and the white churches are as well attended
and as prosperous in general ways as churehes in
Philadelphia and New York. The additions to the
Island church, Washington, during the recent
work of grace amount to 111.
Kentucky. —A new church, of 23 members,
was constituted, Feb. 17th, in a destitute portion
of Simpson county.—Twenty additions have been
made to Scoffold Cane church, the result of a
meeting of six days.—There were 50 accessions to
Shady Grove church, (near Franklin,) last year;
16 or 18 converts at a point a few miles North of
it recently; a church constituted at Middle Fork
school house, in the same section, about New
Year’s day, which received 7 candidates for bap
tism, during the meeting following its constitution.
—ln a meeting, lately, at Bethlehem church, three
miles north of Scottsville, 20 persons professed
faith in Christ. A writer in the Kentucky Bap
tist states that the pastor of this church, Rev. M.
F. Ham, is also 44 pastor of five other churches.”
He must be a Baptist “ circuit rider.”
Louisiana. —We never receive the Louisiana
Baptist , but learn from an exchange, that it is
urging the formation of a Ministers Institute in
that State. The-effort deserves success.
Maryland. —The First church, Baltimore, Rev.
Dr. Williams pastor, is holding special services,
with tokens of Divine blessing.—Two of our
churches in Baltimore are without pastors, High
Street and Lee Street.— Rev. A. G. Harley preaches
to the churches on the Eastern Shore of Maryland,
which were rendered vacant by the removal of
Rev. T. P. Warren to Baltimore.
Mississippi.—Rev. A. A. Lomax writes to the
Herald that “ many freedmen believe that Christ
and God are dead.” He rides 18 miles every
month to preach to them, and several other min
isters of his acquaintance are laboring among
them.
Missouri.—The Monthly Mirror is the name of
anew paper started at St. Louis, in the interest of
colored Baptists.—Rev. A. P. Williams, D.D., of
Cambridge, announces that he has on hand a few
copies of his work, “ Campbellisra Exposed,” for
sale at $1.50. —There have been 28 additions to
Old Wyaconda church, Lewis county; 18 at Free
dom, Morgan; 12 at Walkerville, Shelby; 35 at
Providence, Marion.—A church was constituted
at Mexico, Audrain county, Feb. 9th. —At a recent
meeting at Providence church, Morgan county,
there were 10 hopeful conversions.
North Carolina. —Rev. J. B. Marsh, last year,
travelled 4,000 miles, preached 140 sermons, de
livered 35 Sunday school addresses, organized and
aided 40 Sunday schools, and baptized at Mills
River church 42, at Boylston 25, at Enon 37.
Rev. E. N. Gwyn has removed from Elkin toOlin.
—Rev. A. Weaver has charge of Rockford Semi
nary, which has opened encouragingly.—The W il
mington church has expended above $40,000 on
its new house of worship, and its completion will
require SIO,OOO more.—The Biblical Recorder
thinks that Rev. J. B. Hardwick, of Goldsboro, is
better supported than any pastor within the circle
of its acquaintance, though his people are by no
means rich in this world’s goods.
South Carolina. —A letter writer from Barn
well C. H., indulges the hope of better times to
our cause there, first, because the pastor’s salary
has been promptly paid, and, secondly, because
the attendance at prayer meeting has increased
from a dozen to 50 or 60.
Tennessee.—Rev. Duncan H. Self, who recently
sold out his interest in the Female College, Dan
ville, Ky., has been elected to the Presidency of
Union University, Murfreesboro. He has not yet
signified his acceptance of the office.—Our church
at Murfreesboro is at present without a house of
worship or a pastor.
Texas.—Rev. J. 0. Keeny has gone to Texas,
to represent the interests of the Foreign Mission
Board.—Sixteen persons have been and 11 more
are to be baptized, in connection with Bethel
church, organized, last Fall, at Robinson Academy,
McLennan county.—Since the assumption of the
pastorate by Rev. DrC Howard, the Galveston
church has received 15 additions, expended $2,000
for church and"study wnairs, and determined to
build a parsonage, on a [dan by which from six to
seven thou sand-dollars will be secured for it.
Rev. C. J. Teas has accepted an agency to raise
$15,000, to erect the centre building at Waco
University, which hasfftnatriculated 197 students
the present session* and r added to its faculty, Rev.
W. L. Foster, «( Alabama, as professor, and Prof.
A. Boggers as adjunct professor of Mathematics
and Civil Engineering.—A letter from Jasper
county to the S. C. Baptist says : “ Our churches
are small, but active and liberal, when compared
to those of our acquaintance in the old State, and
hence wielding a telling influence in their respec-
tive localities. One member frequently pays more
for the support of the Go6pel here than a whole
church formerly did in some places.”
Virginia.—Thirteen have been baptized, and
12 others received for baptism at Modest Town,
Accomac; Rev. G. Bradford pastor.—ln this SJatc
and the Greenbrier Association of West Virginia,
the Domestic Board, Marion, has 25 missionaries
and the State Board, Richmond, 28.—The effort
to rebuild the parsonage and meeting house at
Hampton progresses slowly. Rev. G. F. Adams,
pastor, collected for this Mrpose recently in Bal
timore a little upwards 081,000.
West Virginia.—The and Messenger
notes a revival at Adamstße, with 17 conversions
and 12 baptisms; and onßt Koon’s Run church,
with 15 conversions and Wbaptistns.
(glimpses offltg ffiimes.
Ungallant ORDER.-HHenry Ward Beech
er, in his Cooper Institifyie lecture on Univer
sal Suffrage, advocated “■ the extension of suf
frage to every one, regardless of color, race,
or sex—negroes, Indiaiit Chinamen, foreign
ers and women.” It lßks discourteous to
put negroes fifst and wMien last, in such an
enumeration ; but proceeds, we sup
pose, on the rhet.orici^^^^ciple —when your
subject calls you an unseemly
eas i
tween
which leaves the impression upon
the mind; in other first the physic,
then the bonbon.
“ Forbidding to MaTrt.” —According to
the London correspondent of the Presbyterian
Banner: “ Among the djoctrines now practi
cally taught by Ritualistjs, is that of celibacy
being a more holy estaie than married life.
Dr. Pusey has been conjvicted, as a matter of
fact, of having as a confessor, given over a
lady to a life of celibacy. I myself, last sum
mer, saw a lady of rank, who had surrender
ed all her property to the notorious Tractari
an priest, Mr. Bennett, <>i Frome, in Somer
setshire, and who, as a celibate, has devoted
herself as 4 A Sister of Charity,’ to carry out
the designs of that daring conspirator against
truth and liberty.” What would the world
lose, if the whole Ritualistic party should act
on this rule, and thus cut off the succession for
the next age ?
A Frail Hope. —The Archbishop of Ren
nes builds his hope of the stability ot the
Papacy for ages, on the ground that Pius the
Ninth, by making the immaculate conception
of the Virgin Mary an article of faith, has
made her a debtor, and she will be faithful to
the obligation. Such absurdity can hardly
plead the benefit of Cicero’s remark, that 44 not
every sort of mistake should be called folly.”
Sabbath Desecration. —A writer in the
Southern Presbyterian says, with reference to
the ministers and elders of that denomination:
“ It is not an uncommon thing to see them
assemble at a church on Wednesday or Fri
day, at a meeting of Synod or Presbytery,
and go from the church to the houses of hos
pitable friends, to which they have been as
signed, until Sunday morning. On that morn
ing a goodly numoer ancfsometimes the whole
batch of these good mefi will appear at church,
with all their trappings, ‘ bag and baggage,”
and after the communion is over, they will
set out, not for the houses at which they have
been staying, nor for any others in the imme
diate vicinity of the cHWch, but for some
other houses which stand at a distance of from
eight to eighteen mileson the road home.”
Steady Growth. —There has never been a
communion season in the history of the Wal
nut street Presbyterian Church, St. Louis,
says the Missouri Presbyterian , without en
couraging additions being made to its mem
bership.
Drunkenness. —Archbishop Cullen alleges
that almost all the crimes of Ireland are trace
able to drunkenness, which can never be re
pressed until the public houses are closed on
Sabbath.
Pastoral Support.— The Episcopal bishop
of Western New York-says : “ Those who do
not offer the wages of a respectable mechanic
to their pastors, are often found to be the
most exacting. They want a man as eloquent
as Apollos, and as meek as Moses—for six
hundred a year, and that stipend—without a
parsonage!” There must be some mere
“ mouth-made vows,” where such things find
place.
Woman. —One of the Massachusetts Uni
tarian Conferences, adopted a resolution earn
estly inviting the “ sisters ” to present their
views and feelings on the various topics of
discussion. —According to Bishop Thomson, 1
the Chief Eunuch in ‘he harem of the Sultan
is said to keep order with the whip.
Hope for the Worst. —With reference to
a revival at Norwich, Conn., Rev. Dr. Graves
writes: 44 A hopelul and beautiful feature of
the work among us, is the returning of many
old and almost inveterate backsliders.” And
Rev. Theron Brown, with reference to a revi
val at Canton, Mass.: 44 Twenty seven years
have passed away since the Lord last refresh
ed His people in this wicked town, by a special
outpouring of His Spirit.” Did the Christian
poet speak over-strongly, when he said that
true
“ Hope blossoms almost on the verge of hell ” ?
Protestant Reformers. —The Church
Times, the London organ of the Ritualists,
says: As to the martyrs of the Reforma
tion, 44 you go back at most three hundred
years, to men whose characters and motives
can not stand the test of historical criticism,
to cowardly traitors like Cranmer, to coarse,
illiterate, persecuting bullies like Latimer, to
sour dullards like Hooper.” Well; Dr.
South, who ought to be good authority among
Episcopalians, long ago informed the world,
that 44 as there are mountebanks and quacks
in physic, so there are much the same also in
divinity ;” and why should not the Times, by
its example, prove that this is truth as well
for our age as for his ?
Constantinople.—Bishop Thomson, in his
recent lecture on this city, said that it has 9
lunatic asylums, 200 hospitals, numerous soup
Houses, and (claims to have) 5,000 houses of
prayer.
Persecution. —A Baptist minister, in a no
tice of a recent revival at Bethany Church,
Ohio, says: “Among the converts was a
young man, a 4 Catholic,’ who can never re
turn to his parents’ house, because he has em
braced Christ as a Protestant.” —The Free
man's Journal, N. Y., to justify the recent
expulsion of Protestant worship from Rome,
44 took the ground that the Roman Catholics
had bought a large piece of ground, the whole
of the city of Rome ; that it had been
4 blessed ’ (?) or consecrated as a great cathe
dral, and that no form of worship but the Ro
man should be allowed there.”—A dissenter
on returning from a high church recently, hav
ing expressed his astonishment that such sen
timents as he had heard should be taught
church of England, a female mem.ber avowed
her wish that “all the dissenters Wight'b£
burnt at the stake !” •*’
Short Pastorates. —A writer in one of
our exchanges forcibly remarks : 44 Instability,
in the pastoral office is unfriendly to the de
velopment of the social character of the min
istry. I once heard a Presbyterian minister,
who was giving the charge to a candidate for
the clerical office, charge him most solemnly
not to trust to the affection of his people too
fondly .”—Some ministers know, also, too
well, how much wisdom would have lain for
them in this counsel, if they had acted on it
when called to serve churches, where
“ Precedence went in truck,
And he was competent whose purse was so.”
Ministerial Authority. —The American
Christian Review assumes this extreme posi
tion : 44 In the entire code of the New Institu
tion there is not a prohibitory clause forbid
ding any Disciple to preach the gospel or
teach the law of the ft) the Extent of his
ability. By virtue of being a Disciple, any
one has authority to preach and baptize. There
are questions of propriety to be consulted—
such as relate to ability, suitableness, etc.;
but so far as relates simply to the right and
authority, all have it.” Whether this be a
“ wise saw,” or not, we make no question that
the Review can produce, among the adherents
of the 44 spick and span new ” institution to
which it devotes itself, a sufficient number of
44 modern instances,” in which men had (or at
least exercised) the right and authority, with
out the ability and suitableness.
Lay Representation. —A writer in the
North - Western Christian Advocate gives this
as the state of the question among Methodists
at the North : 44 Twenty-five years ago there
was not a periodical to advocate Lay Delega
tion in the M. E. Church. There was not a
bishop or presiding eider that favored it; not
a minister that openly advocated it; nor were
there any laymen known to fayor it. It is
now advocated by all the official organs of the
church, besides a great many which are not
official. All the bishops are understood to
favor it. If ministers now oppose it, they
constitute the exception, and not the rule.
There can be no doubt that the next General
Conference will take action on the subject, and
the measure will prevail, unless the laymen
resist it, of which there is no probability.”
Fashionable Music. —ln a recent lecture,
Freeman Clarke expressed his wonder that
“ young ladies indulged in Italian screams and
German moans, under the pretence of sing
ing, and did not sing some of the beautiful
melodies which abound in our language.”
Amusements. —Nightly, in New York, ac
cording to the World, 10,000 persons visit
the theatres and the more respectable places
of amusement, and 15,000 the concert saloons.
—Rev. Dr. Rice, in a recent sermon, called
on the ladies of New York to refuse to go to
the theatre, and thus accomplish a reform of
incalculable gain to the cause of morality.
British and Foreign Bible Society.—
This Society was formed in 1804: it has 9,-
616 Societies in connection with it. Then
there were about 50 translations of the Bible,
in whole or in part: the Society has aided
translations in 173 languages and dialects. It
has distributed 50,285,709 copies of the Scrip
tures, and other Societies, aided by grants
from it, have run up the total to more than
86,000,000. It carries on its work in lan
guages spoken by 600,000,000 of the race.
Expenditures, £5,948,601 16s. 2d.
Ear Marks. —The members of the Ritu
alistic congregations in London are as much
in the habit as Romanists of saying, “ I have
been to high mass; ” “ 1 am going to hear
low mass.” Some of them style their pas
tors, “.Father John,” “Father James,” or
whatever else their baptismal names may be.
These must be lineal descendants of Stilling
fleet’s antagonist, of whom that divine said,
“ He can creep in at a mouse hole.”
“Still humming on, their drowsy course they take.”
“ Stumbling.” —A colored preacher in Sa
vannah, not long since, in reference to his de
fective reading, invited the congregation *to
stumble with him through the third chapter
of John.’
A New Holiday. —ln New Jersey, the
birthday of Abraham Lincoln has been made
a legal holiday.
A Contrast. —In Austria, a pamphlet has
been published by a devoted 44 Catholic, de
signed to show that the connection between
Church and State is disastrous to the formei.
llow strange by the side of this appears the
recent declaration of the Roman Catholic
Bishop of St. Louis, that Romanism is neces
sarily intolerant. Yet. on second thought,
this is not very strange ; since none are so
blind as those who are blinded by the light.
Negleot of Worship. —As Rev. Dr.
Thurston, of Searsport, puts it, Maine, with
perhaps 100,000 Christians, has or six
hundred thousand men who, from indifference,
do not go to church.
The Old Drift. —Says a letter from Ire
land to a Southern Methodist journal: “ Irish
Presbyterianism rid itself of Unitarianism
may years ago, but several of its ministers
are now publicly propounding views very
nearly akin to Unitarianism.”—The London
correspondent of the Presbyterian Banner
says : 44 The one subject of paramount inter
est now is Ritualism. The very atmosphere
one breathes is ritualistic. Even the extrem
est of the dissenters feel it. It is among us
Presbyterians. Our young people are carried
away with the feeling and spirit of the times.
Every where among us discussion turns on
4 improving our modes of worship our
music-, is b/ul -, our hymnology is bad ; our
whole form is bad ; it is repulsive; we must
have it renewed —reformed —brought more
into conformity with the spirit of the times.
And hence, all over our Presbyterian Church,
the only questions that are debated with a
real hearty earnestness are questions touching
ritualism in some shape or form—hymnology,
music, chants, chorales, anthems, three or tour
shorter prayers, shorter sermons, more music,
and the like.”
Free Church Sittings. —Grace Church,
(Episcopal,) Sacramento, began the year with
the experiment of free scats for all, to make
trial of it until the close of the year.
A Fault. —A writer in the Evangelical
Lutheran says: 44 Some men who are nomi
nally Lutheran take secular papers —some as
many as two or three—but no Lutheran pa
per. This is wrong.” Os course it is. We
hope there are no Baptists who treat their
■.church papers after this illaudable fashion.
Reception- of Members. —Jhe Christian
Times and Witness, explaining the difference
vbetween receiving members 4 by baptism’and
4 by experience,’ says: 44 The latter phrase is
used to indicate those cases where member
ship in some other church has been lost,
through absence or any other cause, and so no
letter can be presented to the church where
application for membership is made. As
there can be no letter, the experience of the
person,*as related to the church, and the per
sonal acquaintance of the church itself, are ac
cepted in place of the customary testimo
nials.”
Ciiurchship. The Presbyterian Index
says : 44 The Presbyterian church, while main
tabling that, in order, as well as in doctrine,
it is preeminently the Church of Christ on
earth, and that all who differ from it by so
much as the breadth of a hair, are just so
much in error, has never put forth exclusive
Claims. It has ijever claimed to be the only
Church of Christ. Other churches are in er
ror just in proportion as they depart from the
scriptural model, which is realized as nearly
as possible in the Presbyterian church. Yet
their mistakes need not be fatal to their claims
to be the Churches of Christ.”
Sunday Funerals. —Says a Philadelphia
letter in the Episcopalian: 44 The members of
the different churches in Columbia, Pa., have
passed a resolution declaring against the pro
priety of Sunday funerals, except in cases of
real necessity, and have asked the undertakers
to discourage the practice. This is an excel
lent movement, and worthy to be followed in
our city. Many persons will keep a dead
body in the house nearly a week for the pur
pose of getting up a grand display on the
Sunday following, and we regret to say that
the occasion is frequently made rather one of
hilarity than of mourning’and sorrow for the
departed.”
Church Music. —A writer in the Provi
dence Journal alleges that 44 now-a-days the
organ is often a greater attraction than the
preacher, and churches compete with the the
atres in the price paid professional vocalists.”
Consistency. —W riters in the Nonconform
ist call on the Independents, if they would
consistently oppose ritualism, to abandon the
Geneva gown, which the Bishop of Oxford,
in a recent charge, proved to be of Romish
origin.
The Negro. —The Christian Observer ap
pends to a paragraph referring to the Ameri
can Colonization Society, the following state
ment : “ In a private interview with one of the
officers of the Society, several months since,
we endeavored to ascertain what progress the
colonists in Liberia, (now fifty years old,)
were making in civilization, and in the intel
ligence, arts, and enterprise of civilized life.
In answer to our inquires, he remarked that
they were getting on comfortably—but their
• civilisation- was negro civilization.' ”
Spurgeon. —The Nashville Christian Advo-'
cate, in its notice of “ Morning by Morning,”
says : “ It is perhaps the best of Mr. Spur
geon’s productions —which, by the way, we
do not much affect; they contain so much
twaddle —old Puritanic divinity revamped,
and patched up with something very like Ar
minianism ; making a queer theological hy
brid.”
Sunday Cars. —A convention of the dif
ferent, denominations in Mass., recently adopt
ed a resolution “ that the course of the sever
al railroad corporations in the State, which
run their cars on the Sabbath, is a violation
of God’s law, and an offence to the Christian
public.’’—The Pennsylvania legislature has,
a second time, referred the petition for a law
permitting the Philadelphia horse cars to run
on Sunday, to the Committee on Vice and
Immorality.
A Request. —Rev. J. Wm. Jones, of Lex
ington, Va., who is preparing “ The Religious
History of the Army of Northern Virginia,”
writes that ‘ the Georgia and Alabama chap
lains of that Army have not responded to his
call for materials as he could wish,’ and re*
quests us ‘to stir them up.’ Will the breth
ren suffer the work of the Lord, under their
labors, to pass without record? We owe it
to ourselves and posterity, to the cause of
truth and the Redeemer’s glory, to show how
“ His good hand ” was on us in the dark days
of War. Please write at once, and fully, to
brother Jones.
®or respondents
Our Richmond Letter.
llow wide the differences sometimes be
tween doctors of divinity ! The revised ver
sion hath 1 John v. 19, in this form : “ And
the whole world is lying in the evil one.”
Brother J. A. B. in the Religious Herald says
this is right, that “ the preceding verse has the
phrase *and the evil one touches him not
(where the original is unambiguous) and that
makes it proper to take the present verse in
the same sense.” “In the Lord’s prayer (he
continues) the same ambiguous expression is
found, and may mean, deliver us from the
evil one, or deliver us from the evil, the latter
being there more probably correct. So also
in John xvii. 15, “ that thou shouldest keep
them from the evil.”
Thus far J. A. 8., who writes as if he knew,
who ought to know, and 1 do not doubt his
sincerity in believing that he does, ith him,
in 1 John v. 19, to ponero, mean “ the evil
one;” in John xvii. 15, tou ponerou mean
“ the evil.”
What does Alford say ? Alford, perhaps,
the best critic in N. T. Greek now living, who
writes in English, the editor of the Greek
Testament, at once a monument of his indus
try and his zeal for truth. Alford was a
Bachelor of Divinity when he began his Greek
Testament. He is now the Doan of Canter
bury and a Doctor of Divinity by the bestow
ment of an English University, a man of
no mean repute. In his commentary on John
xvii. 15, he uses this language: “Not from
the evil as the English version, but from the
Evil One.” The capitals are his. He con
tinues: “See the usage of our apostle in 1
John ii. 13, v. 18, and compare iii. 12, 2
Thess. iii. 3.” Perhaps some of your readers
will be industrious enough to heed the advice
to compare these passages. It they do, they
will possibly reach the same conclusion.
Difference Number One. But Alford agrees
with himself. In his little book “ How to
study the New Testament,” (by the way a
charming little book it is,) p. 101, he says,
Johnch. xvii. ver. 15: “For the evil, substitute
the evil.one.”
Robinson , in his Greek Lexicon, word pon
eros, agrees with J. A. B. in his interpretation
of John xvii; : ls, but differs both with J. A.
B. and with Alford, in the interpretation of 1
John v. 19. He does not find (it seems) in
the unambiguous use of ho poneros in the
18th verse, a guide to the same meaning of
to ponero in the 19th. While he admits that
the passage is construed by some as J. A. B.
has construed it, his own view is different.
Difference number two.
I might cite more, but these are enough for
the present. Possibly, Alford may be pre
ferred for his eminent learning, his almost un
equalled industry, and, too, for his consisten
cy of interpretation. But is it certain that
he is right, and both J. A. B. and Robinson
wrong ? I have been in the habit of looking
to Alford as the ultimate arbiter on most
Grecian questions ; but I am staggered. I
must confess to a division of opinion ! lam
in the condition of the justice who was
” —“ Both are right, sir ;
both gentlemen are right.” But how can\;hat
be ? asked an inquisitive lawyer.
You will probably infer from all this that
the Revised New Testament is no favorite of
mine. That is a mistake. The revised ver
sion hath its uses—not the least being the de
gree of attention it has already drawn, and
will succeed hereafter in drawing, to the orig
inal scriptures. But before “ the Revised
Version” is published as a finality, let it be
thoroughly canvassed, and let its authors and
its admirers treat criticisms upon it with con
sideration and respect. Let there be (if pos
sible) an utter absence of the odium thcologi
cum. I confess to loving the Common Ver
sion with “ an exceeding great love,” and I do
not wish to part with any portion of it with
out very sufficient reasons. But when there
are paramount and controlling reasons for the
change, let us all prefer the word of God to
the word of man. lam most happy to say
that in this I am following the lead of Alford.
See his “ How to Study the New Testament,”
pp. 22, 23. The passage is worth copying,
if yOU have the space.
I intended calling attention in my last letter
to the “ Madison Avenue Lectures,” published
by the American Baptist Publication Society.
I have read three of them : “ The Bible the
only Standard of Christian Doctrine and
Duty,” by Dr. Ilovey ; “The Obligation
of the Church Respecting the Holy Scrip
tures,” by Dr. Fish ; and the “ Mission of
Baptists,” by Dr. Jeter. These are fully
equal to the best writings of their authors.
The work must do good, if widely circulated,
despite a little thing which a Southerner would
have changed if he could. It hardly strength
ens the argument of Dr. Boardman on “ Bap
tism as a Symbol,” to make reference to the
recent civil troibles and identify the symbol
of baptism with the flag of the Union,
(p. 135.)
Are you not tired of intellectual preach
ing—not of hearing it, but of hearing of it?
Our churches, with one consent, are clamor
ous for intellectualities. Nothing else will dov
What they want with them, Heaven only
knows ; for if they succeeded, every one of
them, in securing the services of a really in
tellectual man, a severe thinker, who among
them would understand what the preacher
would be at? Intellectualities are not the
need of the churches, but spiritualities ; and
we have good reason to fear that so long as
they are running post haste after the first, they
will forget, or nearly forget, the last. The
fact is, that the preaching we have in the cities,
as a general thing, goes over the heads of the
people. Our preachers have not learned to
“ fire low.” Hence, in great part, the success
of inferior men (I mean inferior men, intel
lectually,) who have learned the way of reach
ing the masses of hearers by simple and
earnest discussions of gospel truth. Intellect
ual giants (if we have them) are engaged in
such lofty work as to omit, in great part, the
true purpose of the gospel—.the salvation of
souls. Let me say somewhat of my own
experience in this regard. I think it has a
wholesome moral attached to it. I have had
but three pastors, Jeremiah B. Jeter, Edward
Kingsford, and A. B. Smith, all of them in
tellectual men, and two of them certainly
men of elegant culture, yet none of them in
tellectual preachers. Ido not remember ever