Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

[SELECTED.] 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