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The Unseen Battle Field.
i.
There i« an unseen battle field
In overy human breast,
Where two Opposing forces meet,
But where they seldom rest.
11.
The field is veiled from mortal sight,
’Tis only seen by One,
Who knows alone where victory lies,
When each day’s work is done.
in.
One army clusters strong and fierce,
Their chief of demon form,
His brow is like the thunder cloud,
His voice the bursting storm.
IV.
nis captains are the passions fierce,
Whose troops watch night and day,
Swift to detect the weakest points,
And thirsting for the fray.
V.
Contending with this mighty force,
Is but a little baud,
Yet there, with an unquailing front.
The warriors firmly stand.
VI.
Their leader in of God-like form,
Os countenance serene,
And glowing on his naked breast,
A simple Cross Is seen.
VII.
His captains are the Virtues fair,
Beneath that wondrous sign,
They fear no danger, for they feel
A courage all divine.
VIII.
They feel it speaks a glorious trutli.
A truth as great as sure,
That to be victors they must learn
To love—confide—endure.
IX.
And when they win that battle field,
Past toil is all forgot;
The plains where battle once had reigned
Becomes a hallowed spot,
X.
A spot w’hore flowers of joy and peace
Spring from the fertile sod,
And breathe the perfume of their praise,
On eftwy breeze, to God.
[For the Banner of the South,]
NIL DESPERANDUM.
BY SYBIL.
•‘I shall never understand this. My
mind is not deep enough to fathom the
subject. I am utterly lost amid its in
tricacies and as the fair, timid Elna
raised her face to mine a shade of hope
less expression passed over it.
“Ah! Elna, my dear young friend,
yours is not the first, nor will it be the
last, puzzled brain to grow weary striving
to grasp abstruse ideas.
“How many things in life are real and
substantial? how many false and shadowy?
—are problems which master minds of the
world have been vainly trying to solve
lor ages, and which will, doubtless, to
many, still remain a hidden mystery, till
time shall cease to be. Still, is there any
case so desperate as to be altogether
hopeless?
“Centuries roll ou, aud each, as it comes
and goes, brings or takes with it degrees
enlightenment and refinement. Much
b lost, but much is also gained.
“Science, with rapids tride, moves for
wur ), and, as if witli magic spells, is con
stantly revealing something new; yet
hie startling, mysterious wonders—Life,
beatli, Eternity—are still unfathomled.
“How much of former research lies
nidden behind the Dark Ages, we know
eot; how much of the present will sink
into oblivion we cannot divine.
Joys and sorrows, hopes aud fears,
ravings and struggles, realization and
disappointment, are the common lot.—
1 iiete, and these only, to outward mor
al ken, make up the sum of life, and it
lS mankind's part in the great drama to
ant the joys and cherish the hopes, to
hum the struggles and shrink from the
■ ears, to vSinile o’er the realization and
uuwn o’er the disappointments.
Ihe visionary shrines either his faith
a his love a Divinity, the philosopher bis
the practical man his principles,
while the miser makes Mammon his God.
-10 all these life is a feverish, fitful dream.
lae Christian is alone content and
>iltn amid the various fluctuations of the
world”.
lor e I found Elna’s blue eyes dilating,
grieved, hopeless expression giv
]ng way to one of wonder and inquiry.
‘ Je dl ’ow a long breath of relief, as I
ceased, and exclaimed :
by, mercy on me, Sybil! what are
* talking about? You have wandered
; l !uto one of your strains that I no
n ! l< ' ro comprehend than Ido and
S e,lt ly tapped the book she held in
’ vV t:d : 1 lelt myselt blushing vividly.
•Iv ideas don’t seem clear to you,
"ell ,iever mind, this moruing.
I tell you a story?”
“A story? yes, do please ; I have such
a passion for stories. Indeed, you know
they are my grand passion.” She laid
aside her book, nestled down by my side,
and laid her head confidingly on my shoul
der.
“Well, once upon a time there was a
noble youth, who wooed and won a lovely
maiden. God had given to both talent
and ambition, and also implanted in their
hearts a pure and earnest love for Him
self and for each other. They were
thoroughly united in thought, feeling, and
sentiment, and -were very, very happy.
They were, indeed, as the poet so beauti
fully expresses it, like
“Tworoses on one slender spray,”
who,
“In sweet communion grew,
Together hailed the morning ray.
Aud drank the evening dew.”
And
“While thus sweetly wreathed in mossy green
There sprang a little bud between!”
“Yes, to the loving pair was given a
strong, though little tie to bind them
more closely to each other.
“Oh! how they loved and cherished
this little bud of promise ! What plans
they laid for, and what pictures they
drew of their future, which seemed all so
bright! But, alas! there came a fell
stroke and severed the larger stem, leav
ing the weaker alone to shelter and nour
ish the little bud.
“How dark and hopeless, at first, seemed
the shadow o’er the young widow’s life !
How was now ever to be realized any of
the fond anticipations she had so cherish
ed ? What could life ever be again to
her , now that death had laid him low?
“But through the mist glimmered the
light of faith, and it grew brighter and
brighter as days passed on. He was net
lost, only transplanted to a fairer gar
den in a purer clime.
“And now she taught and cherished the
child. She instilled holy precepts into
her heart, and imbued her soul with ele
vating thoughts, her mind with noble pur
poses. ‘I will fulfil all his wishes for
her,’ she whispered to herself.
“But the iron hand of misfortune had
not yet finished its cruel crushing. The
rude blasts of adversity’s bitter wind
came sweeping along and scattered the
protecting leaves of all her wordly
wealth to the four corners of the earth,
leaving her bare to brave the icy coldness
of poverty. And did she now despair?
Ah ! no. She struggled on, toiling to
educate the child, till soon affliction fast
ened disease upon her vitals. Sorrow’s
tempest beat very pitilessly on her head,
yet she did not give up until the child
was strong enough to take her place, and
be to her what she had been to it.
“And when silver threads had cast a
thick grey veil over her once raven locks,
she laid her weary head on the child’s
bosom and peacefully breathed her last,
leaving the stricken one with confident
belief that her bud of promise would yet
be hers again in the garden of immortal
ity, where her pure spirit winged its
flight to join the companion of her youth.”
Elna was weeping on my shoulder aud
sobbed amid her tears :
“And the child?”
Is striving to keep the motto that every
act of her mother's life impressed upon
her soul— nil desperandum.
GROWTH OF THE CHURCH IN THE
UNITED STATES-
The Protestant Papers of the Country on
the Growth of the Church in the
United States Extracts from the
Leading Sectarian Journals , showing
how the Pope is feared —A Dreadful
Exhibition of Things—Romanism in
the United States.
From the Christian Advocate, New York.
A covert effort has been in progress for
some weeks past by certain politicians of
this city, working in the interest of the
Roman Catholic Priesthood, to secure
numerous special appropriations by the
New York Legislature for the Schools of
that Church. The plan has been to in
clude these special appropriations in the
general list of “appropriations for charita
ble and public purposes” in such a way
as to be passed hastily and without pro
test in the closing legislation of the ses
sion The Roman Catholics
o L this con Try are steadily pushing for
ward the work of destroying our system
of popular education. In 1863 the city
of New York donated $122,000 to vari
ous benevolent objects, so called, SBO,OOO
of which (two-thirds of the whole) went
to the support of Popery. In 1866 the
State Legislature gave away $129,025
of the public moneys, of which $124,174
went to the Roman Catholics, leaving only
$4,851 for all other denominations. In
1867 the Legislature gave sllO to each
ot the whole number of children under
tAsi charge of the “Society for the Pro
tection ot the Roman Catholic Orphan
Children,” amounting in the aggregate to
MBIII Qg Eli SOOTI.
An English paper; to demonstrate the
absurdity of the maintenance of the Irish
Church, asks, what would be the spirit
with which Protestant Englishmen would
endure the establishment of the Romish
Church in all parts of Flngland, to be
supported by the enforced taxation of all
the people ? We cannot speak for Eng
land in such a case ; tut for the people
of New York we can answer that, with
them, the experiment has been tried for
several years past, and they endure it
very patiently In New
York, Rome is triumphant. Unable to
overthrow the public schools, or to con-
vert them into Romish institutions, the
Roman Catholics of this city have estab
lished schools of their own, and call upon
the State to help to support them. It has
been the same with hospitals—both for
adults and children—and even with
churches. It is seldom, if ever, that they
have asked for anything of the city w’hicii
has been denied them. Yet every cent
they have thus received has been taken
unrighteously from the pockets of the tax
payers. Very justly did a facetious
Irishman remark, last year, that it was
foolish for the Fenians to make so much
ado about the capture of Ireland, when
they had possession of New York—a
about $50,000. The same year the Board
of Supervisors of this city appropriated
SBO,OOO more to the same institution, and
raised the amount by tax on all taxable
city property. Os 8120.000 donated that
year by the Common Council and Board
of Supervisors, $115,000 went to the
Roman Catholics. The mammoth Ro
man Catholic Cathedral, now in process
of erection on Fifth Avenue, occupies a
block now wortli a million of dollars, but
which was leased to Bishop Hughes and
his successors in the archiepiscopal office
at a cost of one dollar a year for ninety
nine years, the lease being renewable for
ever at the same rate. The Bill now be
fore the Legislature, which includes the
items given above, appropriates nearly
half a million of dollars, nine-tenths of
which is to go, if the Bill be adopted, to
sustain Roman Catholic hospitals, asy
lums and schools. In addition to the
items already named, it appropriates
SIO,OOO to St. Vincent’s Orphan Asy
lum, Albany, SIO,OOO to the Troy Cath
olic Male Asylum, etc., etc. More Papal
schools are avowedly theological and sec
tarian, Their chief object is to promote
Romanism. Their teachers are not ex
amined like those in the public schools ;
the Priests only prescribe the studies and
the qualifications of teachers, The above
appropriations are to all intents and pur
poses as much a taxing of the Protestants
of the State for the support of Popery, as
if they were avowedly for the Churches to
which those schools belong.
From the Republican, Springfield.
. . . The authorities of the Catholic
Church seek this money, not all with a
view to pickings and stealings, like too
many of their Protestant neighbors, but
because they mean to resist, with all
their power, the encroachments of the
common school system upon their faith.
. . . Wherever that class of the
population is strong enough, all the influ
ence of the Church is thrown in solid body
against the common school system. In
the great cities, it already feels able to
enter upon open hostilities. It is in no
spirit of religious bigotry that the friends
ot American liberty will unite to put
down every manifestation of this kind.
The great body of Protestants are fully
convinced that all attempts at propagand
ism are unphilosophical and practically
mischievous. Besides, it is a game at
which Rome will invariably win. The
better part of the Protestants of this
country do not in the least care whether
an individual Catholic remains a Catholic
or leaves his Church. But when it comes
to making war on our common schools, or
to withdrawing any part of the population
from their influence, a different question
arises, and a very different decision will
be made. The public school is the hope,
the glory, and the strength of the State.
Anything which cannot abide it, may
give way or go off just as soon as it
likes. There is no religious bigotry in
this. It is the demand of enlightened
patriotism. Persecuting opinion is one
thing; yielding to sectarian insolence is
quite another. The movement which has
already acquired such power in the great
centres of our country that it can com
mand the appropriation of public money
for denominational purposes, will, before
long, mauifest itself in the smaller cities,
and the battle will have soon to be fought
out among ourselves. We have done
enough for these people. We have
given them advantages they could enjoy
nowhere else on earth. We have relaxed
every restraint, and thrown every privi
lege lreelyopen to their enjoyment. But
there is one thing which the true Ameri
can will never consent to yield, and that
is the integrity and universality of the
system of public schools.
From the Methodist, New York.
much pleasanter place to live in.
From Zion’s Herald, Boston.
. . . . Where will the Papacy
look for its future resting place and seat
of temporary or permanent power ? To
suppose that it will give up the ghost of
organization without a struggle, is simply
absurd. Shorn of strength, and dead
among the nations, which, from an expe
rience of its terrors and corruptions,
have learned to fear and cast it out, it
must seek in newer and fresher fields
victims upon which to prey. There is no
country in Fmrope which will allow it a
seat and a throne, even of spiritual
supremacy, for Europe has learned the
nature of the system, and this important
fact— that the spiritual supremacy of
Romanism is entirely contingent upon
its being able to grasp or control tem
poral or State organisms. There is no
place for its throne in Asia, and Africa
is every way unfitted to become other
than a place of final sepulchre for its
remains. Neither continent nor island
ot the Old World can receive the decayed
throne and its priestly incumbent without
digging a grave for it and him. How is
it upon this side of the Atlantic ? In
South America entire, there is no field
for its actions commensurate with its am
bitions, and should it seek a lodgment in
either of its Governments* it would be
practically in exile, and the question of
its demise one of brief time only. We
have carefully examined every location
and Government in that quarter of the
world, and none have the requisites for
Papal feeding and growth. The system
has eaten like a cancer into the very
vitals of those countries already, and in
intelligence, enterprise, and all that
makes an advanced civilization and na
tional power, they are as bad, and some
of them worse, than Mexico. In the
latter country there is no room for “His
Holiness” as a temporal power. The
late experiment of Louis Napoleon to
place an Austrian upon a monarchial
throne, and sustain him by French bay
onets, is a sufficient test for monarchy
or absolutism, for this century at least.
There are but two places left, to-wit:
Canada and the United States. In the
former the jealousy of Great Britain is an
effectual barrier, for she has learned a sad
lesson, and would as soon admit all Rome,
with all her priestly assumptions, to her
home isles as she would to her provinces.
There is, then, but one open door to the
hunted and dying Papacy, ostracized as it
has been, and is, by an advancing civili
zation and intelligent Christianity from
its home in the Eastern world, and that
is the United States. To this quarter the
eyes of its Pope, Cardinals, Archbishops,
Bishops, and more intelligent supporters,
have, for some years, been turned. The
unexpected rise and character of the
popular tide in Italy ; the sudden display
of the popular sentiment in Rome itself in
favor of Garibaldi and free United Italy ;
the manifest emancipation of the Roman
and Italian conscience from the chains
which held it captive to the Papal
throne ; the suspicious character of the
professed attachment of the few Euro
pean sovereigns who acknowledge its ex
istence, and whistle in derision at its
edicts, or opinions ; its position in Flu
rope is a cipher of less moment than
“the sick man” who is the embodiment
of a dying Islamism—have hurried some
what the plans and purposes of the im
mediate supporters of the Papacy. The
preparation for a temporary exile to some
convenient island in the Mediterranean
has been deemed essential under certain
contingencies, but for a permanent seat
and a renewal of the lease of ecclesiastical
and civil life, the position of the United
States of America has been selected.
From the Presbyterian, Philadelphia.
. . , The Romish Priests profess
to expect that their adherents will, in the
third of a century, form one-third of the
population of the country, and perhaps a
majority in the controlling cities and
Statei of it. To bring this to pass, they
are operating with the most consummate
Jesuitical ability on the great strategic
points of the land, and on the classes
which will exert a controlling influence in
the future. They are not wasting their
labors on insignificant rural regions.
They do not scatter themselves abroad in
little churches, through which the present
wants of perishing souls may be met.
In cities, and towns, aud in places which
will probably become the centres of large
populations, they erect their ecclesiastical
forts, from which skirmishers are sent
out occasionally to look after their adhe
rents who live at a distance, and in the
midst of Protestant populations. This
overruling desire to secure the Govern
ment of the country explains their whole
procedure. They strive to adapt them
selves to its position, tone, and prospect
ive growth. They do not hesitate to
give their Church a different appearance
from that which it wears in other lands,
while at heart it remains the same, and
will so show* itself when it can strike as
it wills. In Spain and the Papal States,
where it has had full control for centuries,
crushing out all opposition, and ruling, by
sheer force, over men’s souls and bodies,
and thus manifesting its true spirit, it
supports no system of education.* There,
three persons in every four, have not ac
quired even the rudiments of learning.
Here, while acknowledging and sending
money to the poor old man who tramples
his European subjects in the dust, it
makes its schools very obtrusive, into
which, however, it specially seeks to draw
Protestant children, that their youn*
minds may be perverted. So in its deaf
ings with the freedmen. While they
were in slavery, and destitute of political
influence, Rome was indifferent to their
welfare. Now, however, since they have
been forced into a position where they
may help to control the Government, its
missionaries are more active among them
than those of any other organization.
From the Christian Intelligencer, New York.
It is useless to disguise the fact that the
Papal hierarchy is straining every nerve
to get the preponderance of political pow
er in this country. So far as this city
is concerned, it is a question whether it has
not already reached that point. Indeed,
some of the Popish papers make it a
matter of boasting that they control our
Legislature. The tax bill for this city, as
originally introduced into the Legislature,
contained grants of money amounting to
over seventy thousand dollars for Catholic
institutions, the largest part of which was
for schools belonging to Catholic churches
in this city. A meeting was held in this
city last week to consider what steps
should be taken to prevent this favoritism
to a Church which has proved itself the
irreconcilable enemy to civil and religious
liberty. Many of our most prominent
citizens were present, and several ad
dresses appropriate to the occasion were
made. Among the resolutions adopted
are the following:
“That these appropriations to particu
lar religious societies, for the education
of children by teachers of their own ap
pointment, in private schools of a theologic
character, are not, in any proper sense,
appropriations for charitable and public
purposes, but for private and sectarian
ends, and that they are in direct violation
of the principles and aims of the common
school system, and in disregard of the
spirit of the Constitution, which provides
for religious freedom without discrimina
tion or preference, and that any tax im
posed bv the people of the State for
these purposes would be, in our opinion,
oppressive and unjust.
“That we call upon the Legislature and
the Executive to maintain in its integrity
our common school system, and to resist
every attempt, from whatever quarter or
under whatever pretence, to introduce
the religious question into our schools
and politics, in violation of the funda
mental principle of American institutions;
and there should be a complete separa
tion of the Church and State, knowing, as
they do from history, that a disregard of
this principle, such as is exhibited in the
Bill Id question, must inevitably tend to
disturb the peaceful relations of our citi
zens of all denominations, and to create
religious feuds aud angry strife between
those whom the wise policy of our fathers
has enabled to live in harmony.”
It is the duty of the State to provide a
common school education, of which all
children alike may have the benefit.
Those who wish to be educated at the
public expense must go to our common
schools. If Roman Catholics, or any
other denomination, are not satisfied, let
them provide schools for themselves, and
not throw the burden of their support
upon others. This is reasonable. It is
just. It is in accordance with the
spirit of our Constitution. The State
educates in order to qualify the children,
when they attain to manhood, to exercise
intelligently the right of citizenship.
Beyond this the State cannot go.
A gentleman at an eating house asked
the person next to him if he would
please to pass the mustard ? “ Sir,” said
the man, “do you mistake me for a waiter?”
“ Oh, no, sir,” was the reply, “ I mistook
you for a gentleman !”
“Sir, your account has stood for two
years, and I must have it settled immedi
ately.” To which the customer replied :
“Sir, things usually do settle by stand
ing ; I regret that my account is an ex
ception. If it has been standing so long,
suppose you let it run awhile.
Without and within—Fie grinds his
organ in the street. I grind my teeth in
the house. — ranch.
He is not poor who hath little, but lie
that desireth much. He is rich enough
who wants nothing.
The biggest tea-pot ever made—Boston
harbor. We may add that it made the
worst.
The man who drew on sight was
obliged to consult the occulist next day.
5