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y jJj f' PUBLISHED WEEKLY
HITCHCOCK & WALF OWtt
FOB THE METHODIST EPISCOP/*S^.
At No. HO WhitehalUtrWlr '
teems:
TWO DOIXARS A YEAR.
TO BE PAID INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE.
ALL TRAVELING PREACHERS OF THE METHODIST EPISCO
PAL CHURCH ARE AUTHORIZED AGENTS.
SUBSCRIPTIONS MUST CLOSE DEC. 30.
RomittaDces must be made by P. O. Monev-Order,
Registered Letter, Draft, or by Express.
(ONE DOJLLAR FOR SIX MONTHS.)
Help Us Out!
May 3lst is the middle of the
financial year of the Book Concern.
We are making up a lull and care
ful exhibit of receipts and expenses,
sales, accounts, books and stock on
hand, so as to know to a dollar
where we stand and wbat our losses
have been for six months. Already
we find our receipts considerably
more and our expenses materially
less than last year, for the same
time, though the balance at this date
will probably be against us, as we
have expected. But we can see our
way safely to the close of the year,
and on the 30th of November will
have, without doubt, a small balance
in our favor under the provision of
the General Conference. The order
of the General Conference is im
perative. We must and therefore
shall come within its limit. In spite
of the dull times and the usual falling
off in business at this season of the
year, our cash sales have steadily
increased for the past lour montns.
Several of our ministers are doing
nobly, never better. We ask three
favors of the preachers and friends,
namely: *
1. For one thousand more sub
scribers on the first of July at one
dollar each for cash, or one dollar
and ten cents each at the Confer
ence. This is the price of the pa
per for half a year, from the first of
July to the first of January next.
One thousand more subscribers with
the money now, or at the Conference,
would carry us through splendidly.
Shall we have them? We expect to
hear in response, “Yes,” from every
circuit.
2. Buy and sell our books for
cash. Do not be impatient because
we talk so much about money. The
Cash System has saved us. Had we
continued in the old ruts, under the
action of the last General Confer
ence, we should have been swamped.
Work up a cash business on every
circuit, in spite of the hard times.
More and more we are making Cash
and Success our motto.
3. Begin now to make preparation
to settle in full at Conference. Close
up the old accounts with money.
Do these things and we will make
a report to the Conferences that
will be delightful for us to give and
pleasant for all friends to hear.
Help us to come through triumph
antly.
Do not fail to send the thousand
subscriber!? sbfc dollar cash, or a dol
at Conference.
The last one of tuit thousand will
make us hajspy.
That Thousand.
That thousand more subscribers
for The Methodist Advocate from
July Ist to January next, for one
dollar cash, or one dollar and ten
cents at conference, can be had
without much effort.
Holston Conference has only to
get 200; Virginia, 50; North Caro
lina, 100; South Carolina, 100;
Florida, 50; Savannah, 150; Geor
gia, 150; Alabama, 100; Central
Alabama, 100; Tennessee Confer-,
eence, 150, and the work is done,
with 150 over the thousand for good
measure. An average of two more
subscribers from each circuit will
meet the case. Many might send
five or ten more, all can send two.
Get the names and send them in at
once.
Plea for Prayer-meeting;
Or, 20 Reasons for Attending Prayer-meeting.
BY D. R. BRITTON.
[Coniinued.]
9th. Because it is your duty in every
possible way to encourage your pastor.
God has in his infinite wisdom ordai ted
and set apart some of our race as pas
tors, teachers, etc., and so constituted
us that no man liveth to himself alone.
We are all more or less dependent upon
one another in spiritual things as well
as temporal; therefore we ought to be
found in our seats in the prayer-meet
ings of the Church, encouraging the
heart of our pastor, stimulating him to
renewed effort and zeal in the cause
that lays so near and so heavy upon his
heart, holding up his hands by our
presence, by our earnest prayers and
supplications in his behalf, and also
comforting and encouraging each other
in the race for everlasting life.
10th. Because it is our duty and priv
ilege to do good, to be good, to get good,
and to impart good; to grow in grace
and in the knowledge of the truth; to
live within the use of the means that
we may so grow. Armor must be used
to be kept blight. Constant labor and
rubbing will polish and brighten the
hardest metals. Flowers to bloom in
the freshness and fullness of their
beauty must be well kept and cared for.
Grain when sown or planted must be
cultivated so produce food for the toiler.
The muscles of the arm must be used
to receive and retain strength. So with
the Christian, if he grows in the Chris
tian graces he must labor; he or she
must exercise their graces, they must
use and cultivate the ability given,
whether great or small, one talent or
ten, be constant in season and out of
season, always abounding in the work
of the Lord; always ready to go where
the Spirit bids; willing cheerfully and
earnestly to do whatever the Master
calls to do, that you may be able to grow
up into Christ your living head. There
is no such thing as a dead, do-nothing,
inactive Christian; but, thank God!
there are many living, working, acting
Christians in the world.
11th. Because the future welfare, ad
vancement, prosperity and ultimate
consummation of the object of the
Church of Christ on earth, namely, the
salvation of all men depends upon the
efforts of the Church. A man can not
save himself; but without his personal,
individual efforts he never will be saved.
What we can do, God will not do for us;
what we can not do and which is nec
cessary to be done for our salvation,
God will do for us, by the exercise of
faith in his power, willingness and abil
ity to do it. You, my brother, my sis-
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YOL. IX. NO. 25.
ter, however bumble your pretensions,
however humble your sphere in life may
be, God has a work for you to do. You
have your place in this grand, this glo
rious work —your niche in the wall that
no one else can fill. God makes no
mistakes. He has never called one yet
by his Spirit and adopted him or her
into his family without having some
thing for that one to do. Remember
that God only requires according to the
ability bestowed. He does not give all
ten talents. The one to whom is given
one talent only is required to use that
one in the service of the Giver, and will
receive therefor a full reward according
to promise; the one that receives ten
talents, likewise; and where there is
more given there is more required; but
the reward of all that properly use their
talents, will be full and complete. So
you are all required to do something, to
work somewhere in the Church. Odo
not let your seats be vacant in the
Church, at the Sabbath-school, in the
prayer-meeting and other meetings of
the Church. The Church can not pros
per wibhout the prayer-meeting; the
prayer-meeting cannot be kept alive and
spiritual and continue to grow in inter
est without the attendance of the mem
bers of the Church. A child can not
grow, can not live without necessary
food to sustain life; neither can a
Christ'an grow nor live without spirit
ual nourishment and the bread that
cometh down from heaven, and the
irayer-meeting is one of the principal
ehanrels or avenues through and by
wh'ch it comes. The obligation upon
one member to attend b equally binding
upon all, whethey they have one, two,
five or ten talents. The Lord says he
will be inquired of in his temple. The
prayer-meetiog is the true index, the
tbevmometer of the spiritual state and
condition of the Church. Your ab
sence, m,v brother, my sister, depresses
the mercury at least one degree lower.
O, come aud help raise the banner of
King Immanuel, so that it may soon
wave over all the earth!
12th. You should attend prayer-meet
ing so as not to hinder the cause of
Christ or retard the advance and on
ward movetneat of the Church. You
do not desire to do this, I know and
feel, yet many times you may do it, feel
ing that it is of little or a matter of
small importance whether you go or stay
away from prayer-meeting. God has
given you no right or privilege to think
and act thus. Where God calls do not
fail to go. Staying away from the prayer
meeting is, to a considerable extent,
hindering the cause of Christ, is re
garded by the outside* world (the very
class you desire to reach and influence,
if you are a Christian), as opposition to
it, or, at least, of very little importance,
thereby destroying your influence —con-
sequently is so much loss to the Church
and gain to the world, and so much
hinderance to the spirituality of the
Church.
13th. Because I know you do not de
sire to be a stumbliDg-block in the way
of others, a clog upon the wheels of
Zion, thereby, to some extent, retarding
the advancing hosts of God; but know
thou this, that staying away from the
prayer-meeting discourages others that,
perhaps, need your presence to encour
age them oml stimuiatu llu in tu mere
may tee'p*oTbeßnOft:m'^jSnSfrwua ß xßs^
be the means thereby of causing them
to lose their hold upon Christ, by cold
ness, carelessness and growing indiffer
ence in the cause of Christ, and to that
extent retard the advancement of the
kingdom of Christ in the world.
14th. Because you can not keep a
conscience void of offense toward God
and your fellow-men, by willfully stay
ing away and absenting yourself from
the prayer-meeting. If you desire to
have an approving conscience, be often
found in your place in the prayer-meet
ing, and often in close communion with
our blessed Savior in prayer from the
heart, on the streets, in your daily avo
cations, in the busy throng,in the silence
of the closet where no eye can see or
ear hear but God’s. In the family cir
cle around your own hearthstone'erect
an altar of prayer and offer yourselves
twice daily (morningand evening) upon
the same, as a living, not a dead sacri
fice; and in the great congregation con
tinually lift your hearts to God. Pray
always; pray every-where; pray with
out ceasing, and in every thing give
thanks to him from whom cometh every
good and perfect gift.
15th. Because the enemy of your soul
is after you, pursuing you by day and
by night, desiring to have you that he
may sift you as wheat —if you cease to
watch and pray, he will very soon over
take and destroy you. If you turn away
from Christ, as he is the light, you walk
in the dark and step in your own shadow.
Toward Christ yorr shadow is benind
you, and the full light of Christ illu
minates your pathway unobstructed. _ If
you want to be saved from backsliding
or turning away from Christ, live, work,
act in the discharge of every duty, stay
not away from the prayer-meeting of the
Church for unsatisfactory excuses. The
command comes to you now to go for
ward, tell the people to go forward, on
ward and upward, as the Ph l stine host
is pursuing in the rear, and if they get to
the front, or between us and Christ, all
is lost for time, all is lost for eternity.
Christ has promised to deliver, if we
will be delivered. 0, my brother, my
sister, you must act to live - you must
work to be vigorous and strong; you
must work to eat of the hidden manna.
All nature works, and why not you?
Standing water stagnates, becomes pol
luted and filthy. The rolling, moving,
gurgling stream, either small or great,
purifies itself by action and keeps itself
pure by motion, and why not you?
Time is moving, rolling on day by day,
hour by hour, moment by moment. All
nature is moving' on to that day for
which all other days were made. Noth
ing in the world above us, in the world
around us, and in the world beneath us,
is standing still. Hell is moving, with
all its mighty host, agents and sub
agents, to draw off the world and the
people away from Christ. Standing
still in the Christian warfare means
death to the Christian. He must move
onward to live. Stand not thou still.
Stay not thou in all the plain of sins of
commission or sins of omission, but
flee thou continually to the mount of
of God, the rock, Christ. An active,
earnest, praying, working Christian,
living in the discharge of every duty,
will never be overtaken by the enemy
and slain. Such a one was never known
and never will be known to backslide or
to disregard his duty to the Church or
his fellow-soldiers in the cause of the
Redeemer.
[TO be concluded.]
The Connecticut Catholic , an
organ of the Roman Catholics, calls
for .the formation of a distinct
Catholic political party. When it
is thus the American party will re
vive, to die no more.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
Arise, 0 God, judge the earth, for
thou shalt inherit all nations.
“IN MEMORIAH."
“Oar Honored Dead.”
Twelve beautiful times have the blos
soms breathed
Their fragrant blessings o’er heroes
dead;
Twelve sorrowful times have we sadly
wreathed
The laurel crowns for each honored bed;
For the heroes who died, friends, for
you and for me,
Asking only, “Keep sacred our mem
ory.”
►Bring flowers and garlands, benedic
tions and tear3;
They went “to the death,” friends, for
you and for me;
Remembering here all those costliest
years,
We need strength to bear the sad vic
tory.
Standing here by their graves in God’s
sunlight of gold,
With the country bequeathed us to have
and to hold,
By the memory sacred of
youth,
By the priceless endowment of patriot
age,
Let us solemnly vow, as God guides us
in truth,
To preserve for the future this great
heritage.
By each starry gem in the clear field of
blue,
By the stripes and the stars, borne aloft,
friends, by you;
Kept aloft, proudly floating, midst thick
of the fight,
Though brave men were dying for truth
and the right:
Standing here, ’neath high heaven, we
plight unto you,
Unto you, flag and country, this mar
riage vow true,
To keep burning the flame until tyran
ny’s night
Disappear from the world and the na
tions have light.
Twine the “olive” and myrtle; may the
scarlet of war
Ne’er crimson again the white lilies of
peace;
Our emblems be, “Union,” “Truth,”
“Liberty,” for
All, freedom of conscience, from bond
age release.
* *****
And now amid the dirges, the sad funeral
marching,
“Illinois” approaches with a floral trib
ute rare;
A tiny leaf of laurel, from the honored
grave of “Lincoln,”
With the fragrance of sweet charity
shedding blessings every-where.
We twine it with the myrtle from that
other grave at “Vernon,”
Thanking God that war is over—that
victory is won;
Fair Liberty receives it, into a cross she
weaves it,
Inscribed with “ Union,” “ Lincoln,”
“Freedom,” “Washington.”
— lnter-Ocean.
The above was read on Decoration Day at the Na
tional Cemetery at Marietta, 6a.
BY REV. B. L. ROBERTS.
When William Chambers, one of
the editors of Chambers’ Journal,
visited America he was completely
charmed with the educational sys
tem of the little State of Rhode
Island, but astounded when aware of
the fact that ninety thousand dol
lars were annually expended for
educational purposes, while the
cost of the whole machinery of
civil government did not exceed
fifty thousand dollars. He cheer
fully ' admitted that the difference
between American polity in refer
ence to the laboring classes and
that of Great Britain was so great
that one sentence would comprehend
the whole matter. “Charity rather
than justice.”
This idea gains expression when
ever the African is brought upon
the tapis beside his Caucasian
brother. Everything like justice is
hidden and charity brought forward,
as though the black man was unfit
for anything else; that so low had
he degenerated in the scale of civil
ization that the exercise of pity,
which generates contempt, was only
for him.
This has led to most,if not all,of the
misunderstandings between the races,
for if the black man exercise any
freedom of thought he must regard
all offers of sympathy with scorn if
not contempt. He must look upon
all attempts to place him upon any
other platform than that broad one,
MANHOOD, as an insult to his dignity
as a man. Why should he esteem
any man his superior who is only
endowed with the same faculties as
himself? Why should he yield to
any, his reason, and move by the
guidance of another, as if, in his
case, the Creator did not perfect His
work? Why should he in any case
surrender those God-given rights to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happi
ness? Why ought he not desire and
strive to obtain a national status as
well as any other tribe or race of
man? Is his sable hue a crime
against the laws of God and man?
Thoughts like these arising in the
breast of the dark-hued Ethiop is a
self-evident fact,apart from historical
gatherings of the manhood of the
African and a premonition of the
designs of the Almighty. History
is but the record of passing as well as
past events, and it is only by the
study of its pages that we arrive at
truth in the discussion of questions
such as this.
The chronicles of every nation
furnish us with the actions of indi
viduals who occupied prominent po
sitions,»and whose actions upon the
tastes and feelings of those with
whom they came in contact, formed
the national character and rendered
posterity tributary to their genius.
The heroism of Leonidas, the inde
fatigable perseverance of Demos
thenes, the sublime muse of Homer
and Hesiod, the lyre of the gay
Anacreon, the sweet Sappho, the
daring Pindar, the wild strains of
ATLANTA. GA.. WEDNESDAY. JUNE 20, 1877.
iEschylus, the pathos of Euripides,
with those of Sophocles and Men
ander will always shed a halo
around the Grecian name. The
superior training of the Roman
youth in all the ennobling faculties of
the human heart, the simplicity
of Cincinnatus and Fabricius, the
heroic spirit of Clelia and Vetruria,
exemplars of the gentle sex, the self
abnegation of Regulus, the unflinch
ing purpose of Scipio to the stern
dictates of the Roman Senate,
“Carthago deleuda est” the civic
and military prowess of Caesar, who
never tarnished his glory, and whose
loss Rome deplored, and from which
blow she never recovered, will never
fade from the minds of men while
virtue lives, and though the “Eternal
City” is but a cipher among the na
tions, her fame will endure while
time exists. Little did Tom Paine
think when writing his “Age of
Reason” that so far from overthrow
ing the aromatic and exegetic ele
ment of the world’s ruler, Chris
tianity, he was kindling a fire that
would burn throughout the nine
teenth century. Liberty! liberty!
liberty! has been the watchword
ever since, and man, creation’s mas
terpiece, whether sable or pellucid,
fires at the word and cries, Onward!
These general hints on man, irre
spective of race or color, will serve
as an index to the solution of all
problems in diversity of opinion,
relative to civilization and human
progress and we cannot wonder at
the commotions at present at work
among the nations of the earth.
The moment we grant humanity and
recognize in the sable-hued African
the germs of progression, there must
be no denial to the pulsations of his
heart. Full scope must be given
for development lest in the heated
imagination, avarice triumph, might
overcome right, and man become
the monster he shudders to think
the world he inhabits ever gave
birth to. Grant this and the Afri
can may be considered as a brother
and a co-laborer in the work of hu
man progress.
“Belie the Negro’s powers—in headlong will,
Christian, thy brother thon shalt prove him still;
Belie his virtues—since his wrongs began,
His follies and his crimes have stamped him man.
Between the parallels of twenty
five north and twenty-five south
latitude lies the continent of Africa,
watered on the north by the Medit
erranean Sea, east by the Red Sea
and Indian Ocean, and south and
west by the Atlantic, comprising
from its northernmost to its south
ernmost point thq delightful clime
of perpetual th; .3*s;
mg'lic'd.i ill
habited by a race,'? but little known,
though in contact with the other
nations of the earth for centuries,
and from being viewed in almost
every instance from a prejudiced
standpoint, never understood.
Characterized as an enigma, every
civilized nation from the days of
Grecian glory, until the present has
tried to read the mysteries presented
by her unknown interior, and shrunk
from the task. Save what some
intrepid traveler intent upon phil
anthropy, or enrolment upon the
lists of fame, has done, naught is
known save some general outlines to
enable the school-boy to connect
the rotundity of the earth’s surface.
Cut off from the rest of the world
by deserts and oceans, given up to
the occupancy of barbarous tribes,
defended by a climate more terrible
than armies, with an imperfectly
understood anathema hanging over
it, and viewed by an uncharitable
public as an anomaly in the created
intelligences, she has repelled or
destroyed, alike the covetous, the
curious and philanthropic.
The strange fatality which has
kept from us the researches of some
more unfortunate individual has
shrouded the whole subject with a
pall more horrifying than that
of the “Cities of the Plain.” Os all
the vast interior, what is known
now, more than in the days of the
Punic merchants who dealt there,
taking slaves, ivory and gold?
Carthage, the England of the Old
World’s rulers, has no Livy or
Niebuhr to explain her rise or
untangle the mysteries of her civil
ization. Consigned to arid plains,
noxious vapors and all the scorch
ing enervating influences of the
“Torrid Zone,” Africa ipust re
main, until some intervention of the
Deity, an incomprehensibility in the
annals of civilization. It is con
tended by a great many contribu
tors to Science that there is some
incongruity in the races from the
developments in the varieties, and
such a theory is not wanting in
plausibility.
One grand fact underlies all at
tempts to explain the differences in
type, in that memorable saying of
Holy Writ, “God hath made of one
blood all nations to dwell on the
earth,” and until this declaration
can be totally annihilated the mat
ter must remain in statu quo, de
spite individual opinion. A brief
glance therefore at the origin of the
diversity of the races will not be
amiss, indulging the hope of clear
ing up in a measure, or rendering
some tribute to the past, present and
future of Africa.
From what we read in sacred
history, and the generally received
and universal opinion and assent,
we jump.at once to the conclusion
that whatever connection we sus
tained to Adam was swept away in
the Deluge, and the present races
sprung from the three sons of Noah,
viz.: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
There is a tangled thread over
the transparent fact that there are
five distinct races to the five grand
divisions of the globe, when only
three sons repeopled the earth, and
these three men, the sons of one
man and one woman, and they the
offspring of the “First Pair.”
Perhaps Darwin can explain.
It is computed by archaeologists
that the countries of Persia, Assyria,
Chaldea, Lydia, Syria, Arabia, In
dia and portions of China were peo
pled by the descendants of Shem,
among whom were the Jews, and
through whom the Messiah had his
human descent. The establishment
of the true religion under the Mo
saic, and the Christian were con
fided to. them as a necessary se
quence of the blesssings pronounced
by Noah, thus, “blessed be the Lord
God of Shem.” The richest and
most fertile parts of the earth fell to
their share, and at one time the
Saracenic branch threatened to
overrun Europe and bring the world
tributary to their feet. As we live
in an age when strange things occur
we are not suprised that they are
no longer what they were, and the
universal dominion aimed at by their
monarchs from the days of Cyrus and
Darius Codomannus receded from
their grasp and the Semitic family
live only as a record of the past.
Imbecile victims of the grossest
superstition, the poet may well sing
in dolorous strains,
"Yon waste where roaming lions howl,
Yon tower where mourns the grey-byed owl.”
From the sons of Japheth de
scended the Celts or Gauls, the
Tartars, Medes, Greeks, Romans,
Goths, Turks, etc., who peopled
Europe, the northern half of Asia
and most of America They have,
according to prediction, settled
themselves in the habitations of
Shem. The Medes and Chaldeans
overturned the Assyrian empire,
and afterward the Medo-Persians
overturned and ruined the Chaldean,
then came Scythian and Medo-
Parthian. Afterward the Gallic
branch invaded Asia and partially
took up their. residencee in Mes
opotamia. The Greco-Macedonian,
Roman, Tartarian-Huns, Turks and
at present the Russian and British,
so that the enlarged posterity of
Japheth bids fair to enlarge their
proportions at the expense of their
Semitic brethren.
So much for the descendants of
Shem and Japbet. I now turn to
consider the descendants of Ham,
and beg the reader to keep in mind
the, fact that the enrse of Noah was
'•**. upon Canaan, one of the sons
vs
Canaan, a Servant Os servants sham
he bib to his brethren. Blessed be
the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan
shall be his servant, God shall en
large Japhet, and he shall dwell in
the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall
be his servant.” The repetition of
the curse in which the name of Ca
naan is mentioned three times must
convey to all that the curse was
upon Canaan and not upon the
other three sons of Ham, viz.: Cush,
Phut and Mizraim. How then the
sad condition of the other three is to
be accounted for, there being no
special curse, the student of archae
ology must determine for himself. .
Georgia Correspondence.
BY KEY. J. MITCHELL.
Notes by the Way—ln St, Louis—Advancement of
Our Church—Views of Well'lnformed Europeans as
to the Soman Question.
After thirty-nine or forty hours’
travel, I find myself in St. Louis,
and in the home of my only sister.
I have not seen Mr. Savitz and
family for over five years. I assure
you it is matter of great joy to greet
those we love. Mr. Savitz and
sons-in-law are all connected with
the Methodist Episcopal Church
either here or in Illinois; mostly
with Union Church. Some of
the young people were complaining
about the low state of our Church in
St. Louis. I asked them, “How
many churches have you connected
with the Methodist Episcopal Church
in St. Louis?” The answer given
was, “Twelve.” “Well,” said I,
“please remember that on my first
visit to your city, when I came over
here about twenty-four years ago to
aid Rev. F. C. Holliday to escape
from the cholera, we had but the
one Church, he then served Old
Ebenezer; now you have twelve
Churches, and your own Church
gave last year SI,BOO for missions
alone, and your whole Conference
is self-sustaining. Please put a
tide-mark there and note the rise of
the waters.”
I clip the following from a St.
Louis paper, published under the
head-line, “Is a General War to be
the Long-awaited Opportunity of
the Holy See?” Please reproduce
it, as many of your readers are
carefully noting the great events
now transpiring in the Old World.
It is only another illustration of the
oft-repeated remark that the Pope
and Jesuits are the great organizers
of this world-wide conflict, that will
be the last great struggle of the
scarlet woman.
St. Louis, June I, 1877.
The Paris Presse sought to startle
Europe by quoting Cardinal Man
ning, of England, as having said,
“The Eastern question will receive
the solution which Providence has
assigned to it, the independence of
the Holy See.” And the Presse
thereupon constructed a theory that
the hand of Cardinal Simeoni (An
tonelli’s successor) was in all the
murmurous agitations of Europe
and that the energies at work would
impinge upon Poland for an uprising
there, which would bring about com
plications favorable to the Holy See.
The article did not set Europe in a
blaze, nor startle it to any great ex
tent—in part, no doubt, because
Cardinal Manning was misquoted,
what he said being, “The solution of
the Roman question has been ever
since persecution ceased that the
Yicar of Jesus Christ should be in
dependent.” A reporter of the
World yesterday waited upon a
prominent clergyman of the Roman
Catholic Church, who is in this city
on an important mission from Rome,
and asked his opinion of the Presse
article. The reverend gentleman
answered:
“Oh, I don’t think there is much
in it. The one who wrote it was
evidently in fcbn ‘ring,’ as we call It
here, of the Polish agitators. The
Pope has persistently condemned
that Polish organization, and always
advised the Poles, when they pre
sented themselves for an audience,
to refrain from warlike purposes,
and to dissolve their secret organi
zations.”
“Well, has not the Pope taken
sides in the Eastern question?”
“I dare say he has. There can
be no question that this present war
will involve the whole of Europe,
and then will come a solution of all
questions wherein Rome and the
East are concerned. Pius IX must
necessarily take sides in the war, for
it will be the war of civilization.”
“ What is the prospect for the so
lution of difficulties which beset the
Papacy?”
“ God only knows. -Every earnest
Catholic must look to the future with
concern when he takes into consid
eration the plans of the Italian Gov
ernment showing themselves openly.
These prove the crisis to be ap
proaching, and that far greater evils
are hanging over the Papacy than
have heretofore threatened it.”
“What are some of the questions
at issue between Church and State
in Italy?”
* “In the famous law of May, 1871,
the first guarantee is that by which
the Italian Government renounced,
throughout the whole kingdom, the
right of naming or presenting for
the greater benefices, bishoprics, etc.
Now, unless one appointed to a see
by the Holy Father have the royal
exequatur , he is not considered a
Bishop with respect to the civil code,
but he is looked on as such with re
gard to the penal code. This state
ment is borne out in the case of tho
to Milan,
which Court decided in a civil mat
ter, that the so-called Bishop had no
standing in law because he had not
the royal exequatur. On the 16th of
October, 1875, the Court of Appeal
of Palermo made a like decision,
affirming that the Pope had a right
to name Bishops, but without the
royal exequatur they can not exer
cise their functions in external mat
ters of a civil nature, which is as
much as to say the Bishop may say
mass, preach and confirm, but not
touch a dollar of the revenues of his
see.”
“Will you please explain the royal
exequatur?'’
“It is an expression on the part
of the Government that the prelate
obtaining it is acceptable to it. The
manner of obtaining it is of course
by subscribing to an oath which is in
every sense objectionable, and it
would be suicidal for prelates to sub
scribe to it. Those prelates, there
fore, who have not received the royal
exequatur —namely, those appointed
since the new order of things—have
no means of support, as the tempo
ralities of their sees are withheld.
The Pope supports these himself,
and as he has refused to touch a
farthing of the $640,000 a year
allotted to him by the Italian Gov
ernment, the drain on him amounts
to $1,200,000 yearly. Hence the
sending of money to His Holiness
from all parts of the world.”
“Is there any further purpose in
the attitude of the State to the
Church?”
“There is a scheme having for its
object the foundation of a ‘National
Church/ following after the pattern
of Henry VIII. This idea is not
exactly new in Italy. In 1861 Count
Cavour was approached on the sub
ject and asked to lend his aid to the
project, which he decidedly refused
to give. In 1864 a bill having a
National Church in view was pre
sented to Parliament, but, though
ably defended, was lost. At the
present time the project is strongly
advocated by Government newspa
pers. The head of the late Ministry,
Marco Minghetti, advocated it in a
public speech at Bologna. A so
called National Church exists now,
and though it has not been formally
recognized by the Italian Govern
ment, it has at least received de
cided encouragement from no less a
person than the present Minister of
Public Worship, Mancini.”
“What, then, is the Pope’s exact
standing at the present time?”
“lie is in the position of one sub
jected to a power hostile to
so he defined his position in his let
ter to the bishops soon after the
Eternal City was captured by the
Italian army. It is true he is not in
prison, so to speak, but there are
many kinds of prisons, and so, pris
oners. Were he to come forth from
his palace so long as another sover
eign claimed to rule over Borne, it
would be, indeed, a deep moral deg
WHOLE NO. 442.
radation. Mark you this, were
Pius IX voluntarily to leave the
Vatican, he would be false to his
oath not to give up, or do any detri
ment to, the rights of the Roman
Church. In justice to his oath and
every dictate of conscience, he
must only give up the Vatican,
or any other possession (he holds
all in trust for the Catholic world),
when forced to. This being his po
sition, how can he move about Rome
as in former times without giving
the world to understand that he has
accepted the situation created for
him by his conquerors? Again, were
Pius IX to move about Rome the
effect would be constant trouble in
the city. On the recurrence of the
anniversary of his elevation in June,
1874, the Pope, who had been pres
ent, unseen, in the gallery above the
portico of St. Peter’s while the Te
Deum was being chanted, chanced,
on reaching his apartment, momen
tarily to look from the window at
the immense crowd in the piazza.
His white figure, well known, was
recognized at once, and immediately
arose the cry of “ Viva Pio Nono,
Pontijice e Re!” What was the re
sult? The soldiery were called
out, and only at the point of the
bayonet could the enthusiasm of
the crowd be interrupted. Many
ladies and gentlemen were arrested,
the former being discharged but the
latter being punished. Now, I ask
you, what else is the position of the
Pope than that of a prisoner in his
own house?”
“Does this restraint extend further
than the inconveniences you men
tion?”
“Decidedly. The Pope is tram
meled in matters spiritual, even
more so than in things pertaining to
his person. The Italian Government
proclaims with loud voice that the
Pope may talk as he pleases in the
Vatican; may promulgate his de
crees, encyclicals and constitutions
by putting them up as usual at the
doors of the basilicas of St. Peter
and St. John Lateran; but if any
one dares to reprint them, his paper
will be sequestrated, if in. the judg
ment of the Government the docu
ment contain objectionable matter.
Thus you see the Pope is free to
perform his functions, but the Gov
ernment reserves the right to say
what they shall be.”
Mission Rooms.
Rev. J. H. Deputie, Secretary of our
Liberia Conference, and his brother, a
minister of the Presbyterian Church,
also of reached New York,
bring most interesting in telligence from
their home-land. A number of Swedes
have recently gone to Liberia and are
leasing lands on the St. Paul river for
coffee cultivation. The price of prop
erty on that river has risen in value in
consequence of this new venture. The
Swedes after leasing the lands hire the
owners of it to cultivate coffee upon it.
The American Bible Society is the
able co-laborer of all the missionary
societies. We doubt if the Methodist
Episcopal Foreign Missions have ever
been refused in all the applications they
have made to the Bible Society. The
Secretary informs our Missionary Secre
taries of a grant recently made of S2OO
currency to Dr. Vernon and will add
something for colporteur. A condi
tional appropriation, if needed, is avail
able for our Lucknow press for com
pleting the publication of the New Tes
tament in Hindi. This is SSOO. They
have also sent to Dr. Butler a quantity
of Spanish Bibles and Testaments for
Mexico, and also aided our German
mission.
Protestantism In Italy*
Bishop Andrews writes of affairs in
Italy and in our mission in particular.
We are hearing encouraging things of
Protestant work in general in that land,
and hence are the more pleased to know
of our own part in the same. A singu
lar sort of interest, almost a poetic
interest attaches to the Waldensian
Church. The “Church of the Reforma
tion,” says Dr. Wylie in his recent his
tory, “was in the loins of the Walden
sian Church ages before the birth of
Luther: her first cradle was placed
amid those terrors and sublimities,
those ice-clad peaks and great bulwarks
of rocks.” “Its history.is written in
blood and tears,” says another. It has
now a fully equipped college at Florence
for training ministers, and has forty
congregations, and sixteen charges and
fifty places regularly visited by its evan
gelists.
One of the ablest men aiding Dr.
Vernon as a preacher is brother Gay, of
Rome, of whom Bishop Andrews says:
“He is a Waldensian by birth and
training, of good scholarship, vivacious
to a degree, a fluent and attractive
preacher.” The Bishop also says: “The
Waldensians in some cities have quite
a large resident population, by which
their congregations are made larger than
those of other Churches.”
The Wesleyans have a good work in
some thirty stations, conducted by con
verted Italians, many of them ex
priests, and not a few of them men of
mark and of former high position. In
the province of Padua, the whole popu
lation has been influenced. The Wes
leyans purchased property in Rome in
1872, two men subscribing £I,OOO each
for me purpose. A few weeks since
they dedicated their fine Gothic churCh
opposite the palace of the Vicar of
Rome, lately occupied by the Secretary
of the Inquisition. In some stations,
Mr. Punshon says they have had old
fashioned Methodist revivals in which
men and women by the scores have
realized the converting grace of God.
In one place the Government has been
so well pleased with .the Wesleyan
school that they have knighted the mis
sionary, making him a “Cavaliere.”
We, ourselves, have had a good work
among the soldiers, but the diminished
appropriations of the Missionary Society
made it necessary to reduce expenses in
some way. Dr. Vernon says:“[l.] This
military church was one of the most
expensive of all. [2.] The elements
composing it are constantly changing,
and away from Rome onoe, scarcely
added more to our Church than they
would if it were sustained by others.
[3.] With the means necessary for its
support, two stations could be sustained
in interesting towns and oities elsewhere
as permanent and stable parts of our
general cause.” It illustrates Protest-
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B. D. no LOOM B, PRINTER.
ant unity in a Romanist country when
Dr. Vernon adds as he does the follow
ing: “As the Wesleyans could provide
rooms for Cappellini, the preacher iu
charge of this work, and for his serv
ices, too, in their large palace, and so
greatly lessen the cost of the work,
they finally preferred and agreed to
take all into their own hands rather
than see it pass to others—an arrange
ment which pleased all parties. This
action was unanimously approved by
the annual meeting and met Bishojp
Andrews’ approval also. I count it
myself a most fortunate turn of affairs.
We will replace it in a few weeks by a
station in an interesting town by a man
we had already employed in a limited
way. Brescello was also ceded to the
Wesleyans, being not far from one of
their stations. We shall thus be able
to diminish expenses and yet institute,
very probably, soon, two new stations.”
Dr. Vernon also adds: “You will see
anew name in connection with Naples—
Edoordo Stasia, a young Neapolitan
lawyer, converted, well proved, and ad- •
mitted on trial into the Germany and
Switzerland conference; or, rather, rec
ommended for admission. He adds:
“The work on the other stations is sub
stantially in the same condition as when
I last wrote you.”
The Secretaries of the Missionary
Society report very favorably from their
Western rally for the cause. Dr. Reid
was heard from substantially at Evans
ville, Ind.; and Dr. Dashiell in the first
two weeks delivered eighteen addresses.
Farting.
If thou dost bid thy friend farewell,
But for one night though that farewell
may be,
Press thou his hand in thine.
How canst thou tell how far from thee
Fate or caprice may lead his steps ere
that to-morrow comes?
Men have been known to lightly turn
the corner of a street,
And days have grown to months,
And months to lagging years ere they
have looked in loving eyes again.
Parting, at best, is underlaid
With tears and pain.
Therefore, lest sudden death should
come between,
Or time, or distance, clasp with pres
sure firm the hand
Os him who goeth forth;
Unseen, Fate goeth too.
Yea, find thou always time to say some
earnest word
Between the talk, lest with thee hence
forth,
Night and day, regret should walk.
—Selected.
Get Christ Into Tour Homes.
There is a woman I have met
within twenty-four hours who has a
drunken husband and five children.
She is not a Christian, but if she
will only take Christ into that home
and just live for Christ, it won’t be
long before that husband is won to
the Savior. I heard the story of a
father who was an infidel and a
drunkard, and he had a little son
who became a convert to Christ.
But his father forbade him to prafo
this didn t stop it, and finally he
said to the boy, “If you continue
to pray you must leave the house.”
And the boy went and did up a lit
tle bundle of clothes and went to
his mother and said, “Good-bye,
mother,” and she said, “Why, where
are you going?” “I don’t know.”
“Why, what do you mean?” “Well,
father says he won’t have me in the
house if I am a Christian, and I
must pray to God.” Well, the
mother hated to part with him, but
she saw it would be no use to oppose
him; so she kissed him, and, with
tears running down her cheeks, she
said, “farewell.” And the boy
kissed his little sister and held out
his hand to his father, and said,
“Good-bye, father, I shall pray for
you.”- And, as he went down the
street, his father couldn’t stand it
he came running down after him,
and he said, “Come back; if that is
religion, I want it.” The boy
prayed with him that night, and that
drunkard and that infidel was con
verted. [This story visibly affected
many in the audience.] If there is
a mother here that has a dark home,
let her take Christ into it. If she
has a husband that hates her and
hates the Church, Christ has the
power to break that heart and then
heal it. O, may God help us to
realize this truth, that God sent
Christ into the world to heal the
heart-broken. He, can heal every
broken heart in this assembly, every
broken heart in all Boston, if you
will only bring your crushed and
wounded and bleeding hearts to
Him.— Moody , in a recent Sermon.
The Christian Weekly relates the fol
lowing: “A Japanese Commissioner to
the Austrian Exhibition, saw the Bible
stand, and wondered that any book
should be thought worth translating
into so many languages. He bought a
copy in Chinese, read it and became
convinced of the truths it taught. On
his way through Europe he made ob
servations on the Romish, Greek and
Protestant faiths, and concluded that
the latter came nearest to the teachings
of the Book itself. On his return to
Yeddo, now Tokio, he applied to the
American Missionaries for baptism.
He has since purchased a heathen
temple for purposes of Christian wor
ship, and in it the Christian mission
aries now hold religious services.”
Dula, a colored man, who was a few
weeks ago appointed postmaster at St.
Francisville, Louisiana, reports to the
Post Office Department that the former
postmaster will not surrender the office,
neither will they let him perform the
office of justice of the peace, though he
has received his commission from Gov.
Nicholls. Dula also sends a narrative
on this same subject to Gen. Butler,
also a miniature coffin with his name on
the lid and a bullet hanging to a string,
which, he says, were put on his gate.
The matter will be investigated.
* ♦ ♦- ——
The Republican Administration,
from July Ist, 1876, to June Ist,
1877, has reduced the national
debt $36,062,002.
Cotton vs. corn. — A reporter of the
“Vindicator,” (Merriwether county), in
passing through that country, estimated
83(j acres in cotton, and 144 in corn,