Chicago Daily Tribune Newspaper, May 12, 1878, Page 9

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE: SUNDAY. MAY 12, 187S—SIXTEEN PAGHS RELIGIOTUS. The New and the Old, or Pius and Leo. . The Policy of the Last Reign, ; What Is Expected of and ! the New. ;mmés Anthony Froude on geience and The- clogy. The General Assemblies of the Pres- byterian Church—-Questions to Be Coosidered. The Reformed-Episcopal Church in England---An Indig- nant Chorister. Fotes and Personals at Home and Abroad---Church Services. THE OLD AND NEW POPES. PICS IS, AND LEO XL Attantic for May. For a generation past. iwo fizures have stood {orch before the world as the representatives of great contending principles, of whose deadly frarsle Iraly has been the battle-field. The (gt was & young and rough soldier King: the other, 3 courtly. and venerable old man nnd - Bihopof the Church of Christ. The one, ia gite of meoy and serious defects of personal aracter, was @ true and noble leader in the ace of civil and political progress: the other, ‘hile personally worthy of the highest respect, Jectfou, and esteem, stood firm, unviclding, 120 defiant to the last, the rear-yuard of insti- sutions which have ouslived theiraze, the heroic wscrter of principles which would arrest, if it sore possible, the upward march of buman his- sary. Juwasthe grave error of Italian stotes- men—an error even from a point of view exclu- gively political—that in this struzele the Pope as permitted to appear as the protector. not of those institutious alone, but also of the Chri {isn Church jtself; and it was the fatal necessi: of e tion in which Italian churchmen 1sd placed themsclves that the cause of the Kine, even as against the authoritics of the Chareh, was that of every lover of his country. 1o the unnatural antagonism, the two leaders, wide apart as the poles in everything efse,-were slike in this, that each at heart sympathized with very much in the cause which was repre- sented by the othier; in both, the conrictions of afical duty bore down the matural feclings of the men. Desth has summoncd them from their re- gpective posts within less than a single month of each other, the younger first. Pius IX. lived oaly long énough Lo send his forgiveness and his Hessing 10 the dying King. and to mingle his tesrs with those of Italy over the bier of him whose success had been his own utter discomfit- we. And then, upon the Tth of Febraary last, 1he foremost man of all those who still stood at bay alike agninst the good and against the evil of the aze caimly surrendered to God the trust, 1o s own understanding of which he bad never been unfaithful before man. That the elevation of Cardinal Mastai-Ferretti to the Papacy was wholly anexpected, and al- most, as we often say, by accident, there is, probabls, little doubt. The issues upo which the election turned in the Conclave of 1846 were 1hose of purely Jozal and secular politics ; and few ‘ad taken less partin politics of any kind, sccular or ecclesiastical, than thequiet and devout Arch- bishop of Imola. He was but 54 years old, and had buen in priestly orders less than t and twenty years. He Dad been attached toa'politico-ecelesiastical mission to Chili he ‘bad heen put in chargeof the arcat Roman hos- pital of San Micheles he was Bishop of Spoleto for tive years, gud for fourteen years had fitled the See of Imdia; and although e had been created a Cardinal by Gregory X V1. in 1840, it was in recognition of lis pastoral fidelity rath- ertban of any political services. Indecd, how little influence he possessed with thie Roman Government may be inferred from the fact tnat his glder brother was at this very time a politi- wl prisoner in the Castle Sant’ Angelo. He was chosen in the necessitv of pomptly coucentrating all moderate voies upon some one who was pers ally unobjectionable, In order to prevent tihe ¢lection of Cardinal Lambruschini, an able and resolute absolutist. ‘The leading yacts in the long and memorable poutificare upen which Pius IX. eutered on the 16th of June, 1846, are still fresh in the memo- 1es of those who sre beyond , middleJife. But the key to the strange seeming contrast between the earlier and later years,and to the still Etrancer contrast between the man bimself and bis official career, tust be found in the careful anslysisof @ character which has been rarely uuderstood save by his countrymen. Brought abruptly forward “and clothed with theoretically absolute authority in & great im- pecdinghtrugele, and at a crisis and under cir- ,cunstapees which would have afforacd an op- porunity for 2 Hildebrand, Pius I1X. was vot in ibeleast 3 man_of the world, nor a natural leader of men. Norwas he onc of those who, by theinnerent power of their own ideas or en- erzles, cleave out mew chaunels through the bariers of the ace, and then turn the udes of bistory into them. Me wusson the cootrary, Tather one of thuse characters which, like the charzed Leyden jar, effect resuits by the power of moral torces not primarily their own, but wkich are silently gencrated by other agencies + of ®hich thev are little more than reservorrs. He was both winning and commanding in ap- pearance; his voive was rich and musical, his emile benignant. He was a courtly geutleman in TADDLTS, yet withal of very simple habits, of uublemished lfe,and of fervent piety. His .L‘!‘I:esl political enemies never ventured to &peak azminst his personal character, which was worthy of his exalted oflice in the Church; and whieu, in 1855, the Oriental Bishops wished to emvhasize the Jlimax of their indictment against the Papal system, they pointed to the results it could produce evea in the hends of one of the best of Popes. mgg W85 & man of npaturally amiable ‘hm warm aflections, snd deen sym- pathi € was gmemerous and mag- imous fn his impulses, philanthropic and Patriotie. His beary was thoroughiy Malizn. 1t ¥as that Italtae heart of ns which prompted Flm, 1 the carlier years of his pontiicate, to tx;‘m{.c for the nationsl cause. e popular en- ='ulsmm which never afterwards failed it and ith that canse, n spite of all other an:agon- ms, his heart ‘was everin some kind of sup- y;f:scd sympathy. The Italian people never :o}i;gl thisfact, and it cxplains much of thelr tone suee, as well as tue universally generous mmc with which the Italian press now speak of flzs;:ta;mw_cmr warm a patriot. Pius IX: was, b lhm_q}, achurcluinan. The intense sio- o _of his nature shoue out most conspicu- ms Y 1n his relizious and ecclesiastical aims and “l:l'xcunns. Tohim the Church ot Christ was & ¥ the first, the mrand aud the most real e nggn carthy, and the headship ot that Church “Whether s a eubordinate he reverent)y looked Ept0it, or as Pope himself be stood in awe of bcr‘?‘m official character—something almost su- ne‘..nmauly exalted. That decision, that & ucEE"wmm Do merely secular interests could 'hlnmzly arouse in hirn.was at ouce developed, e the interests of the Church were at staie, 10 the siernuess of immovavle obstinacy- € was not a man of intellectual ‘vizor, and Sertainly not 2 schodarly or learncd ecclesiastic. rl:rm»d thus not only unable to mive reasons in ,mmf of any stand whic be felt it right ta - ¢ but he ‘was also unable to perceive the Jforee of any objections which might be urged :f!‘i:n“ it; _and he was, therefore, at the mercy o u\}s owrn impulses, aud the rea&y fustrument B, bose who knew Low gicillfuliy to_exeite his o Rination, to enkindle his enthusfasm, or to £ruke, In any cause, his_exalted sense of ofticial b sponsibility. ‘Phus bis imagination, wrought ubfil] by his excited feelings. forned bis con- b PUos of the Papal oftice, apd as his imazina- b:n conceived it, that he devoutly believed it to 1o 1871, the writer was_dining with a worthy parish priest of Milan, and in Qupsny with o venerable dignitars of the knmh from a neighboring aiocese, who bad own the Pope familiarly in early life; when the former asked his muest whether be sup- posed that, apart from those who obediently accepted it on authority, there was any one in the Church who really and thoroushly believed the new dogmaof Papal infallibility, “Yes,” answered the other, looking up with a, shrewd smile, ‘“yes, there is one,—the Pope himself.” **Before I was Pope,” he was accustomed to gy, **I believed in Popal infallibility; now I Jeel it.” Andto him this wes a eround for his perfect assurance from which toere was Do appeal, This official sclf-consciousness, becoming in all Church matters his first soring of action,— fed, too, haustible adulation,—made him at last excessively imvatient of all opposition; and an eminent Ltalian writer spote of him, in 1573, as one who, while not *naturally sharp or hauzhty,” and ‘“conscious of the presence of no unworthy motive,” was nevertheless — * persuasissimo di s¢ miede: simo,” aud _ theretore “prompt to visit every contradiction, c¢ven the slightest, to his purposes with a rebuke so muchthe more severe tite more undoubled his own assurance that such purposes were directly inspired by God.” To what extravarance this exalted concention of his oflice was wrought upin his later years was touchnely illustrated by au incident which is repeated hiere on the authority of the Italian pavers of the time. In one of the Pope’s last excarsions outside the walls of Rome, shortly after the vrorozation of the Vatican Council, he came upon a poor cripple, who eried out 10 Lim, “Holy fatber, have mercy upon mel” The Pope was startled by the language of the appeal, and, instantly secepting it as an intima- tion that he was about to be clothed with mira- cle-working power, he turued and with 2 con wanding gesture solemaly replied, * Arise and walk!” The criple, infected vy the Pope's own perfect wood faith and earnestness, dropped his crutches ana sprave to his feet. In an- vther instant, however, he tottered aund fell. The Pope grew pale, but repeated once more the command, “Arise and walg!” The poor man aeain tricd to obey, but in vain. The Pope, inthe revulsion of his feclings, fainted away. In fact, there was a period when the Pope lived in the constant ex- peetation of the miraculous intervention of divine power to save the Churchand to over- whelm her enewmi To him the divine proxise and assurance that *‘the gates of hell sbould pot prevail against ” what he undoubt- i Leld to be “‘the Church ” were as real aud ¥ cal as auy of the trials and afllictions which he was called to bear in its detense. In such a state of mind, then, to whose hands would he more naturally look to sce such power intrusted than to those ot “the infallible viear of Clrrist,” whom it bad even been seriously Ivruuu d to declare **the incarnation of the foly Ghost ¢ i3 Surely so good a man was mever move terribly betrayed by tbe position in whith vis placed; mor has o sincerer mu played a grandly fatal part in b was the” wan who has oce- cupied the Papal threne for the usprecedented period of nearly two aud thirty vears, in onsc of the most remarkable trausition epochs ot his- tory; ilie man, during whose Ponticate the temporal power ol the Pap: away forever, while 1ts sviricual and eccles| pretensions have been carried to apoint b yond which the most arrorant of his predeces: ors never passed. Such was the Pope w! unckanging aim aud purpo: Wwas the restoration and exaltationof the Papacy, —the power and glory of the Charch. The cit- cumstances under which e was elected gave the early yenrs of his loug Poutiticate far more to Jocal and political history than to that of the Chureb, and scemed also to leave himjior atime far more free than afterwards to take counsel of his Italian beart as to the means of sceking this end. A Medieval Guelph, fallen upon incongru- ous times, he sought the organization of a great Guelphic Jeague ol the Italian States, from the throue of which the Chureh and Papacy should re- strain society and guide the Governmentsof the whole worid. Every step in the improvement of tne admivistration of the Papal States them- selves was to nim but a step in this airection. The many and important local reforms which were .actually introduced: the concessions for lighting Rome with as and for buiiding rail- roads, which were at the time very daring grant of coustitutional Govern- the appointment of alay Pri i ter in the person of Count Mamiani; and, above all, the permission 1o the Romans to take pary in the war with Austria, were all attempts to reach the great ends ever in view, by meauns and o aceordance with principles of local policy: to which bis heart prompted bim. _Ingall this part of lis career, the liberal Pope-King of 1346-7-8 was but the churchman eurnestly cudcavoring 1o be at the same time an Jtalian. But where the Pope sought to reform, revolution and anarchy answered his summons; and be often compared himself at tiis time to a hoy who bad learned the spell to ¢ the devil, but who found, when he tried the experiment and was territicd at the result, that he knew no counter spell by which he could be laid. The patriotic dreams and cndeavors ol Pius IX. fell tinally with Couut Rossi, beneath the dagrer of the assassiu, upon the ber, 1515; and when, nine days afterward, he fled from Rome it was to return, in 1850, only & Pope. From that time bis political policy was simply passive resistance to that ot Victor Em- manuel and Cavour, while be gave himszelf up to an ecclesiastical policy upon tue whole one of the most extraordinary in the history of the Papacy. 3 - But this implied no_extraordinary shange in the man himself. All else, indeed, was new; he was the same. The end above =l ends, the motive force of his character, was ever the grandeur of the sacred oflice whica had beea intrusted to his charge, and its power in the world against the ‘intidelity and socialism of the aze. Italy, bis Dbeioved I[taly, bad refused the part in this great work which he would bave assigned to her. Iie mourned over this_disappointment to the last; but he continucd in his course,—no longer, indeed, with the co-operation of Gizzi and Roswini, of Mamiani and Rossi, but with that of Aptonelli, and Wiseman, and Manning, of Fathers Beckx and Schrader, of Bilioand De Anelis. Under the guidance of his later counsclors, in 1550, he re-established the Roman Hierarchy in Engtand; in 1854, he summoned the Bishops of the Roman Catholic world to Rome, and in their presence declarcd the dogma of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary an article of the faith: in 1362, he invoked a similar grand con- course of Bishops for the canonization of the Japanesc martyrs, an uecasion for seeretly com- municating to them sixty-one theses, as the sub- stance of & future ‘**dommatic bull” against obnoxious political doctrines of the These steps were followed up by the En- yelical and Svlabus in I andthe grand climax was reached in the mbling and_the issue of the Counwl of the Vatican ju 1870, Seven years aud more, smce tie Itallan army entered Rome in the September following, and thus put an end to the tempural power of the Papacy, the aged Pope remnained *2 prisouer of the Vatican,”—an imprizomment quite possidly a reality to one who lived so much in an ideal world. Of this long Pontificate two supreme honrs will longest be remembered,—the one by the Italian patriot, the other by the last devotee ot medieval Romanism in the Church. rhe first was in May, 1843, when the Italian tricolor w unfurled beside the Papal banner i the streets of Rome, and the Pope’s own vephews were en- rolied as volunteers in the army about to march Charles Albert upon the plains of Lom- 10 join el Who does not remewber,” says the d'Jtatia of the Sth of | February Jast, *‘the Pontil of 1348 when, from the balcony of the Quirinal, where now reside the - royal Savoyards, he touched the iumost chords of a whole people's +, and arouscd the most powerful en- *Benedite, o Sommo Iddio, ail’ " What do we not owe 1o these words, which after eveats have never ed from many be And if the necessitics of the times, of s character, and of bis office have forced him in another course, aud nave rendercd him the enemy ot that great work which, in its early days, with his own hands he had bl ., —well, for this our tears shall none the less fafl upon his tomb.” The other was that fatal hour ou the 15th of July, 1870, when the same Pontiff sat on his throne amid the assembled and subservient episcopate of the Roman Cath- olic world. and, by the lurid glare of torch that struggled st the thick darkness wihi filted St. Peter’s, read and proclaimed the de: cree that declared the personal infallibility of the Popes,—a dozma of the faith which was for all delivered unto the saibis.” ible peal of thunder whicn scemed instantly to auswer it rom heaven, and which shoox St. Peter’s tu its foundations. was 1o the Italian people an omen mn awful coutrast to the applause ot erateful hearts which came ‘back from awhole people mm response to the words which twenty-two years beforc he had spoken from the balcony of the Qurinal. ‘Thus it was given to bim who had inaugurat- cd a reyolution by which hewas himself the most august sufferer, also, with ceclesiastical pomp and pageantry before unparalleled, to exait the office which hie held to a beizht never surpassed by a Boniface or an Innovent, at a time when persisterice 1 such claims must inevitanly re- sult in toe overthrow of the Papacy. He'left no temporal possessions nor political responsi- bilities to complicate the course of his succes- sor. e pequeatbed to him simply a spir- jtual Papacy, but ong, in the form inwhich he left it. irreconciiably at war azainst the intel- lect aud the progress of the human race.” And that successor? There is an agcient chain of Latin mottoes, one for cach Pope in order, from some centuries ago to some time yet to come, which claims to -have prophetic reference to the characteristics of their respect- ive reigms. Crux de cruce was that which came to Pius IX.; Lunien de cwlo is the next motto oun the list. But who shall say as yet upon what cause this prophetic “ lizht from heaven is to shine. That the time bas come for some great change no one who is at all familiar with the politico-ccclesiastical affairs of Italy can have any doubt. “With Pius IX.,” says a Roman paper, dur- ing the Papat interregnum, * has been closed. Dot merely an epoch, but a relizious history of eighteen centuries. . . Proficiscere: this was the last word of Pius IX., which’ shoutd sound as 2 warning in every cell of the Cou- clave. The Catholic Church can maintain ber unity ouly by sbandoning false traditions and her pretended donpations; the Church can pre- serve its religious oflice in society only by co- ordinating itself with the State.” Indeed, Leo XIIL had scarcely been proclaimed, when s promivent member of the Italian Cabiner raised the ques- tion of the vurgauic character of the fa- mous laws which guarantec the Pope's inviola- bility. It is not, howevers at all probable that Italy will in any way unticipate the initiative of the Pove; the Upinivne, the orsan of the cou- servative opposition, only iusists that it would show the greatest fatuity showd the Ministry propose to modify or repeal them . . . . at a time when tbe Holy S s just been fillea by a new Pope who has not yet iad oceasion to make his intentions known, anu whose first acts are yet awaited.” " Cardinal Pecei brings to the Papacy a personal record—if the Romish correspondent of the English press can be relied on—waich leaves the world in no uncertainty about the private waorth or inteliectual abilities of” the man. is administration ot the bricand-infested delega- tion of Beneveute brilliantly illustrated his clearness of purpose, his decision of character, his self-reliance, his exccutive power, and his unconquerable firmuess. lis three years’ resi- dence n Brussels, whither he was sent at the early age of 33 as Papal Nuncio npear the Court of Leopold, showed bim un accom- plished manof the world and s diplomat of great skill, tact, and policy. s subscquent long episcopate In Perngia proved bim a labori- ous, conscicntious, and faithful pastor. ‘T'wo pastorial letters on the subject of The Church and Civillzation, addressed by him to lus dioc he unc last Lent and the other at the approach of the Lent of the present year, and just published in the Osservatore fiomano, breatlic certuinly 2 most excellent spirit, and show no famuliarity with the Syllabus of 136 t43 Archvishop Pecei was rafsed to the dipalate; aud now, at 63, he has been intrusted withh the destinies of the Papacy. Nevertheless, however “moderate ™ Cardinal Pecei may have been thought, it is vroverbially unsafe to draw conclusions from what the Car- dinal may have been to what the Pope will be; and Italian anticipations and svecuiations con- cerniog the ecclesiastical poliey of Leo XIIIL are far too uncertain and even contra- dictory to be any guide to us. Some Roman journals have'indeed indulged in san- guine dreams of the great reformation which Lo XITI. was about to ipauzurate; and even S0 able a publicist and judge of mew as ex-Min- ister Bonghi some time since declared that dimal Pecci combined the qualities most desira- ble for a Pope in the preseut crisis. But Bonght was clearly less alive to_the religious condition of the Church than to the fpolitical perplexitics under which the ftalian Government is labor- ing. It would atmost seem as if the Pope had scarcely inherited all the decision and nrmness of the Cardial, for the ftatie of so late a date as March 1 refers to a struggle, of which the Vatican is still_the scene, in what is pldinly called **theperiod of trausition which the Holy See is now traversing,” smong those who seck to influence the Papal policy fn this direction or in that; aod, while givi the contradiciory character of the statemeuts boldly made “ con- cerning the intentions of the Holy Fatner,” de- clines to pronounce a precipitate” judgment of its own, and contents itself with recommend- ing to foreign diplomats and others the old maxim, Quieta non movere. It we look for information concerning the new Pope to the circumstances of his election, we are on the one hand met by the undoubted fact that a larze majority of the Cardinale, by two-thirds of whom he was so promptly chosen, are unquestionably of the most Ultramontane type; and it scemed certain that, if really free to act, they would have chosen no one who would not continue in_priuciple the ccelesias- tical policy of Pius IX. But, ou the other hand, it_was openly stated by the press that Prince Bismarck frankly warned the Conclave of toe results of such a choice; and they doubt- less knew well enoush, without formal warning, how it wounld probably be met by the Italian Goverument. Cardinals Franchiand Schwartz- enbure, moreover, are both said to have been active leaders in sccuring the result which was so carly reached. The latter, indeed, was the friend of Doliinger and Von Schulte, and in 187L it was by imany expzcied that he would share with them the lcadership 5 of the O)d Catholic movement. But the Ulira- montane Cardinal Franchi—the telegrams and statcments of the foreign correspondents to the contrary notwithstanding—is by no means the man, cither intellectuaily or morally, whose subsequent appeintment as Cardinal Secretary ate is a hopeful augury. So far from beini the ** able, honorable, progressive, and patriotic Italian " that he bas been pronounced, he is an lesiastic of the typeof Antonelli, but in every way his inferior. But, whatever clse is beyond our present fore- cast, Leo X{II. is certainly no fanatic, uor is he ismorant of the times in which he lives. He is far less & mere churchman than a practical statesmann the Church. Whatever the ends he may propose to himself, he will not seek to meet political antagonism by orgunizing medixval erusades; nor will he attemps to Protestantism or put down infi- ny decrceing mew honors to in° paradise, or by - accumulating guias upon au-already seriously overladen If the Ultramontane spirit of the Roman still incaroate in the Pope, instead of wasting the moral strength of the Church in ¢ attacks upon the Itallan Govesnment, abusi Leo X111 is far_mare likely to adapt bis policy 10 the state of thivgs as he tinds them, and fally capable, by a skiliful use of the opporiu- nities which it affords—for instance, the voting urn—of acromplishing far more than by all the indignant allocutions about ** Christ and Beial" that. Plus IX. ever prowounced. Ile has too much common sense to keep up the farce of being a **prisoner in the Vatican,” and is too practical not to realize tiat, by a frauk reuunci- attow Lo an empty claim to a temporal dominion already irrevoeably lost to the Papacy, be has it within his puwer to sccure from politicians, to whom religious considerations o for nothiny, an indireet influcnee over public affairs, far more important to the Church than the issues which have cupied the Vatican for_some years past. Altnousgh Leo did omit to rive the King of Italy oflicial notice of s electon to the Sce of Rome, the omission s haps unavoidable, and tie statement that he gave such notice to tne ** Kine of Sar- Qmia” s apparently unwarranted. At all vents he has sivee” directed that the Italian Bishops shoutd apply for the royal exequatur, and thus piace themselves in legal reiutions with the Government of Italy, which Pius IX. distinetly prohibited. ver, the Pope is known to be laboriously nased 10 the preparation of an allocution, in whict, when he deems it opportune, he will no doubt speak for himself on the subject of bis po- litical po It Leo XIIL., on the contrary, is to be an ec- clesiastical reformer, as so manv hope, he is not the mau to make ¢fflusive announcements of his desizns to the world beforehand, nor brema- turcly to arouse the violent resistance of the Untramontane party and the Jesuits by abrupt innovations or starthing reversals of tie meas- ures of his predecessor. But the evidence on which to build sucn hopes isscant as yet. In the Lenten pastorals, to which reference has been made, there is indeed no mention of the Viegin or of the samts; the HolyScniptures arealone spoken of usthe source of divine truth, Christ alone offered as our exemplar, and the English and Pri ant Faraday is cited amony distinguished scientists who w aiso profoundly religious men. Theseare facts to be noted; but “they prove iittle by themselves. The new Pope may discourage Mariolatry, as the Protestant press have been eacer to repeat on the authority of some correspondents impatient for indications of his rel us _policy ; but if so, it is perhaps less indicat:ve oi an approaching reform iu dog- matie theology than of?the Pope’s knowledge that such extravagances have driven men of iutellect and education from the Churcl, and moared. its influence over educated and pros- perous communities and nationalities. Iu fine, with such information a5 may be gathered from the best informed Ro- man journals, including the _ Usservatore Homano itself, the orzan of the Vaticaw, as well as from private correspondence, it scems wiser to doubt the hasty conclusions of foreign corrcs{zondums, and, for the present, to he sure only that Italy has no impetuous visionary or jrreconcilable doctrinaire to deal with in'the Papacy, but rather a Fabius Cunctator, who witl know bow to take advautage of every,error of the Jtalian Government, and who will make v or no blunders of his own; with one who will quickly aud quictly disembarrass himserf of the political complications in which his pre- decessor entangled the Papacy, and who will be a reformer just 5o far as his practical knowl- edee of men and of the world prompts him to feel it necessary in order to sccure to the Church that fnfluence in society and other Gov- ernments which is still hers, or to enable her to recover the influence which she has lost. From the old Pope to the new isindeed a great transition, but we do not know as yet Wwhat this travsition is to stemify iu historv. WiLLaM CHAUNCY Laxgpox. (N sclENCE AND THEOLOGY. ARTICLE BY JAMES ANTHOXY FROUDE. - In the May-Junc pumber of the Iuternational Review, published by Messrs. A. -8, -Barnes & Co., ot New York, Mr. Janes Anthony Froude, the Eutish historian, prints the frst of a series of articles eotitled * Science and Theoloy Ancient and Modern.” The undertaking has been widely noticed, aud is regarded as one of ®ihe literary scusations of the day. We pres- ent herewith extracts from the first nember of sufficient fuliness (0 =ive an idea of AMr. Froude’s plau, and of his manuer of working it out: o . Sixty years ago speculations ou the origin of the usiverse were contiued L0 o few curious or idle people; Lthe multitude of. us believed with- out the sfightest consclous misgiving that the world was made by God.—that He made Him- self known in a revelation which had becn guaranteed by miractes, sud bhad Hiwmself de- clared the Jaw which we were required to obey, —uud that it the Bible, further, we had a nis tory ot God’s actions and {otentions towards us, every word of whiclt Was indisputabiy true, Such 4 conviction was for “all practical pur- poses universally receved throughout Engiand and Amenea, at least during the first balt of this century. Of course Wt Know that there were persons who did not believe; but we wers satisfied that in Christian countries disbelicl was caused by moral duprav. ‘rhere were in- fidels in relizion as there were mousters in crime; but infidelity, we were assured, was not a mistake, but a sin. It was the result of a cul- pable misuse of faculties which, il tarrly em- ployed, could arrive ouly at an orthodox con- ciusion. We were under the influence of the remnants of a superstition which in otber days it the fires at Smithtield, and of course it was absurd aud horrible. Yet when a creed hus been made the base on which moral convictions and worul conduct are rested, it canuot be questioned without grave consequences. We cannot build our lives on a balance of probabulitics; and, un- Jess we tuke for granted the esseniial prineiples ot duty, we can make nothing out ot an exist- ence atall. Yet times come when the calculation becomes g0 terribly Wrouy that therevision cannot be put off any longer. It is but necessury to deseribe such a condition of fee|ing to be tware how far we have been driven from it—far us the era lies of railroads and telegraphs and o iners from the era ot stuse-coaches aud Kussclis wagon: anges may be cars \ ot the same kind bas ever b earth before, and there is no expericn us. The spiritual change isnot so unexampled. Phenomena occurred most curiously analorous at the time of the rise of Christianity; and from the singularly parallel course io which at these LW pertods” the intellect developed itself, we inter geucrally what is likely to come of it. That we have been started out ol our old po- sitions, and that we can never return to positions exactly the same is too plain to be questioned. Theologiuns no longer speak with authority. They are content to suggest and 1o depreeate hasty contradiction. ‘Those Wwho doubied be- fore now openly deny. Those who beliesed on trust have pussed iuto uncertainty. ‘Thoze who upliold orthadexy canuot Agree on Whut ground tao defend it. ‘T hroughout Europe, throuzhout the world, the gravest subjects are freely discussed, and opposite sides may be taken without blame from socicty. Doctrines onee fixed as a rock are now lluid as water. - Truth is what men trow. Things are what men think. Certainly neither is nor can be more than the agreement of persons competent to form an opinion, and when competent persons cease to auree the cer- tain has vecome doubtful—doubtlul from the necessity of the case. This is a simple matter of fact. What Is gen- eralty doubted is doubtiul. 1t is a couclusion fronr which there is no eseape. The universal ent which constitutes certainty has been dissolved into the conflicting’ sentinients of in- dividual thinkers. st principles are'-necessarily assumptions. They caunot prove themselves. ~For three cen- turies all Protestant communities assumed as first principle the infullibility of the Bible. They regarded the writersof the various buoks as the automatic Instrumeats of the Holy Spirit; and pious and_simple people held in catire sistency that if the Bible was a rule of faith where cach person, learned or unlearned, could find the truth, the trapslators must be inspired also. These positions were safe so long, aud so long only, as it was held to be sinful to chal- lenge them. “Che spell of sanctity once_ broken, the Bible once approached, esamined, and studied, as otlier books, sn analozous resule has followed. The eritic hus approacbed teuderly and respect- fully, but the approach at all imsfies an a suwption of a right to question the supernat- ‘ural character of the objeet of his investigation Certainty passes into probability, and the di ference between certainty and probability is not in degree but in kind. A hun witness is stb- stituted for a divine witness, and faith is changed into opinion. The aunthority ot the translation was the first to be shaken. Then venations in the MSS. destroyed the conficence in the onginal text. If the origiual lacguage was miracalously communicated, there was a natural presumption that it would be miracu- lously preserved, and the interence of doubt ex- tended buckward on the fuspiration. "The origin of the diffcrent books was next fn- quired into, with thir authorship and antiquit t each step the uncerlainty became deepel The Gospel history itsell was founa to be a labyrinth of perpleXitics. The Divine sandtion for aceuracy and authenticity once obscured, the popular sensc which had efcared the modern world of superstition, and had driven the su- pernatural out of secular history, began to ask on what ground the Bible miracles were to be “believed if .all other miracles were to be reject- «l. Geolozy forced itself forward, and declar- ed that the history of the creation in the Book of Genesis was irrcconcilable with ascertained tacts. Along the whole line the defending forces are falling back, not koowiug where to make n stand; and materialisin all over Europe stands frankly out and is respectfully listened to when it aflirins that the war 1s over, that the claims of revelation of God and of a future state, the the origiv of maw, the nature of conscienee, and the meaving of the distinctions between good and evil, are all open questions. No serious consequences, at lesst in England snd Ameri are as yet outwardly apparent. We are a law-abidiug race; the muss ol us are little given to unpractical speculation. We are too carnest to tolerate impiety, and the tradi- tious ot relizion will retam their bold with the millions lonc after they have lost their intlu- ence over the Intellect.” Intellect we know is not owniscient. Emotion has a voice in the matter, winch is always on the side of faith, and women in such savjects are governed almost witolly by their feclgs. The entire geveration at present alive may probably pass away before the inward change shows itself markedly ternal symptoms. None the less is it quite cer- tain that the arkof relizious opinion has dritted from_jts moorings, that it Is movinz with in- creasing speed aloni 4 track which it will never retrnee, and towards issues iufinitelv momen- tuous. What are these issues to bel “‘The thin that hath been, that shall be again.” Onee before the civitized pations of Europe had a_religion on which their luws were found- cd, and by which their lives and actions were woverned. Once before it failed them, and tney were driten back upon philosophy. Alowing Jor the differcuce ot times, the iuteticetual phe- nomena were precisely the same as those which we have ourselves experienced. ‘The p! Dhic schools passed through the same stages, and the latest of them arrived at Lhe same conclu- sion,~that the universe of things could be ex- plained by natural causes; and as no symptom could be discovered of any svecally divine in- terference with the action of those causes, so there was no occasion for sunpo: that such terference had ever been or everwould be. The seientitic trjumph, as it was then: regarded, was proclaimed’ss a new message of glad tid- ings to mankind.: It was believed by politicians and philosophers, poets and historians. 1t was never believed by the mass of simple-minded people, who held on in spite of it to the tradi- tions of the old faith, till Christiamity rose out of the dvinr ashes of Paganism, restored con- science to its suprema ud made real belief in Gud once more possible. Human nature remains what it always was. I'he nature of God, and the rclation in” which man stands to God, are the same now as they were wnen man first began to be. The truth of fact is what it is, independent. bappily, of our notiousof it. We do not make truth by recog- izi t; we cannot unmake truth by denying 0 much of it as it concerns us practically to know we lcarn by experience, as we learn cvery natural lesson; and if the man is not permitted to live and prosperin this world without au acknowiedgment of his Maker, the scientific experiment Wil fail as 1t {siled be- fore. 'The existing forms of religion may dis- solve, but the truth which is the soul of re- ligion will revive more vizorous than ever. The analogy is the more impressive the more closely we compare the details of the two periods. No one knows distinctly how the pagan re- Deious bezan. Some eay they were corruptions of patriarchal traditions; some tracc them to fear and ignorance; some to consciousness of respopsibilisy; some to the involuntary awe forced upon the mind by the star-spangled sky and tbe majestic motion through it of sun, moon, and planets. All these influences probably were combined to excite each other, the last, as was most natural, giving shape and form to the emotion of piety. The number twelve and the number seven, occurring, 8s “comp! they do, in all the old mythologics, point un- mistakably to the twelve months 'mfil to the seven celestial bodies visible from the carth, which have a proper motion of their own among the stars. However the iden was gencrated, it seized on the minds of men as born with an irresistible fascination, and took dircction of their whole being. ‘Tie nabler nations assigned to God, or the guds, the moral government of mankind. The will of the gods was the found- ation of their lezisiation. Law was to be obeyed beeause it was o ordered by the Maker and Master of the world, The carly Greek or Roman directed his whole lite by the reference of every particle of it to the gods as entirely as the most devout of Catholic Christians. Meanwhile fancy and imagivation wandered in the espause of Fossilnhuus, giving these airy creations a locul habitation and a name. The law wus stern and severe. A brighter as- Dect Was given to religion, andimasic, and song, and sacrifice, and lezends, and berofe tales; and poets watched the changing phevomena of days and vights, and summer and winter, and heat aud cold, and rain and thunder, and human life, and wove tuem all into 2 mythologyy till there was not a river withont its Zod, a grrotto with- out its nymph, a woud withuut its dryad, a no- ble, heroie man without a deity for his father. All went_flowingly so long as the world was young. The vast fabric of uureality grew on without futention of fraud; but the time came when intellect began to ask questions, and the stories which were related as sacred truths were seen first to be inconsistent, and then to be incredible. The first resource for defense wasaliegory. The stories about the zods were uot true in’ themselves, but only figuratively trae. Behind the ceremonial of the temples lay ** the mysteries in which the initiated were adantied into the real secret. So interpreted, Homer and Hesiod coutinued to be tolerable. When anything might mean anything. men be- zan to usk whether anything at all was knowy abont the gods. They looked round them, and 1uto their 0wn_souls, at the phenomen of real expericnce, and asked what lessons they could discover in fucts which could not be disputed. Su began Greek philosophy. The tone at first was reverent. Order and uniformity was mani- fest throughout the universe, and Where order w s,lxt were assumed that there was an ordering twind. Some thought that the origin of things was ‘spirit,” otlicrs that it was “ matter,” same that spirit and matter. were co-eternal, others that matter had been created by spirit out ol nottine. It was asked what the nature of spirit was. Was spirit sclf-existing outside the universe, or it Infused in material substaoce as the soul of man is in his body? Was it con- scions of tself, or was not the most perfect be- g serene automaton which needed no con- sideration, and theretore uever retlected upon itsell¢ Again, was spirit intellectual merely, or was it just and good; aud if guod, whence came evilt Such auestions cut deep, but they were not necessarily irreligious. Plato taught o, pure theism, Aristotle believed matter to be eternul: he believed God to be eternal also, and the phenomena of existence to result from the efforts of matter to shape itseif after the all- perfect pattern which it saw in God. Even Cpicurus did not deny that the gods existed. e denied that there was an; terference with human fortune: Witn these and the like ingenjous specula- tious, philosophers endeavored to answer the ions which they put to themselves about own nature aud the world they live inj jon and relizious rituals ali the while being neither abandoned nor denied, but remaining 13 2 dress or a custom which each day was wearing thinner. And human life all the while was real, as it is now, brief, strugeling, painful, the plaything of accident, a fire-fly flashing out of the darkness, and again disappearing_into it coming none knew whence, and coing none knew whither; yet while it lasted, with its passions and_its aflectious, s crimes and its virtues, its bigh aspirations, its mean degrada- tions, its enthusiasms and its remorses, its wild bursts of joy and agonies of Dai, it Was an im- portent possession to the owner of it. and speculztions about plastic nature would not be likely to satisiy bim when he demanied the weanjog of it. ~ Yet demand the meaning of it man will and must. Life is too stern to be played with, and as the old creed died intoa form, philosophy proved an indifferent sub- stitute. trace of their in- PRESBYTERIANS. TAE APPROACHING GENERAL ASSEMELIES SOKTH AND SOUTH, New York iterald. Thursday, **The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America "—which is the full and legal title of the Northern Presbyterian Church—will guther in Pittsburs, Pa., when the retiring Moderator, Dr. James Eells, of California, will deliver the customary _discourse. On the same day the Southern Presbyterian Assembly—which holds - toe same legal title as the Northern, both claim- iz to be the representatives of the Iresby- terian Church in the United States—will con- vene in Kpoxvilie, Tenn., when Dr. C. A. Still- man, the rtetiring Moderator, will also deliver the usual sermon. And on Wednesday, the 15th inst., the General Synods of the Reformed Pres- byterian Chureh will meet in this city in annual gession. The former has thirty-seven Synods, including one cach in Ken- tucky, Missouri, and Maryland, and one each in India end China. Embraced in thosc Synods are 177 Presbytertes, which again 5,153 churches, 4,801 ministers, and 321 licentiates. Some of the latter have been ordained during the year, and some of the 6i2 canaidstes in the seminaries and colleges of the Church have been licensed within the same period, so that,ut this time, the number of ministers and licentiates probably equals the number of churches. That result is not neces- sary, however, for the careand supervision of the churches, fora pastor can sometimes Jook after two or three or even more small congre- gations. But in the Presbyterian Church a difficulty is experienced which, though not con- fined to this denomination, is, perhaps, more apparent. and more emphatic here than any other branch of the Church of Christ. It is the difficulty of settling pastors over churches. Of the 5,000 ordained and unordained men in the ministry only 3,235 are engaced in the proper work of that office, and ording to the last minutes. only 1,738 were in the pastorate. All others, numbering ahout two-thirds of the whale, are eitber “supplies,” or engaged in rofessional or secular life, without charge, or jouorably retired. A few are chaplains and evaugehists, and some are missionarics at home and abroad. i “This Church has advanced _very greatly since the reunion of the Old and New Scnools eight years_ago. The number of communicants re- ported to the last General Assembly was 557,- 64, which ineluded 63,770 admitted during the year 1876-'77, of whom 40,065 were reccived on profession ot faith and examination. This was a vet increase of 22,464 church members over the preceding sear, and of 89,510 over the year 1572, The Southern Church numbers about 300,000 communicants. During the century and over of our pational existence the Presbyteri- ans of the United States have grown sixty-fold. notwithstanding the alleged and supposed hindrance of Calvinism to the spread of the Gospel. The ministerial inerease hias not been in the same ratio. While 97 ministers died aod 82were dismissed to other denominations 133 were ordained and 50 received, showing a net increase of oniy 63,—not enough to replac tizose who fall orretire, and supply new churches The Sunday-sciool interests -appear to be well cared for b?‘ the Presbyterians. The members of_those schools number 531,603 as agaivst 555,- 347 the previous year, showing an iucrease of 20,259, The benevolence of the Church goes out in the following dircctions; Home missions, for- cign missions, education, publication, church erection, mimsterial relief, freedmen, sustenta- tion of poorly paid pastors, and expenses of the General Assémbly. To these also may be added misceliancous interests, which come up from time to time, such as the American Bible and Tract societics, aud others that cannot be classi- fied as Presbyterian. These received during the preceding year the sum of 765,551, All other interests. named received the avgrezate of $1,236,502, which, tozetlier with the congrega- tional’ vxpenses ($6.273,215), makes the annual cost of Presbyterisnism 1n the (Northern) United States $5,295.361. This is considerably Jess than tae cost of the same form of faith for any of the preceding six years, and gives an av-" crage of mearly §13 per member—not quite so costly as Methodism, and perhaps somic other forws of relizious faith and government. UNWIELDINESS OF THE ASSEMBLY. ‘The last General Assembly consisted of 504 Commissioners, or delegates, representing, not Synods, but Presbyteris. Those delegates, lay and clerical, are allowed milcage aud _other ex- penses, which last year averaged $43.65 per member, or $10.31 per member more than in 1371. The assesement for this fund for 1873 is five cents per capita. Seventeen foreign Pres- Dbyteries and six of frecdmen arcexempted from this assessment. Six delezates from the freed- men last year drew from this fund $456.50, and their Presbyteries contributed $78.95 to it. Six Commissioners trom foreizn Presbyteries drew $172.40, but contributed nothing. Two Presby- teries—New Orleans and South Oregon—failed to contribute to this fund or to send Commis- sioners to the General Assembly. All the other “150 Presbyteries paid their assessment in full, not, however, without much grumbling and many protests against the size and ever-increas- ing cost of the Assembly. Thereis bardly any question that can come before the Assembly so vitally important to its stability andauthoritvin the future as this. Overtures and protests have gone up year after year for half-a-dozen years, at least, vainly séeking to reduce the size and lessen the expense. The smaller Presbyterics having an equal voice with the targe, and havine much to gain but_nothins to lose, have always outvoted the Presbyteries that have to foot the bills. so that reltef in any form has been put off. The Presbytery of Brook- Iyn and others in the denomination have re- solved that if something be not done ot the en- suinz session they will 2o back to their constitu~ tional privileze and to the old time practice of "paying the cxpenses of their own dele- gates, andlet other Presbyterlos do the suguos The financial pressure in this dircction very seri~ ously embarrasses other benevolent interests of the Church. As tor iustance, out of 5,000 or more churches in the deuomination, onty 3,253 bave contributed anything toward the Educ: tion Fund for training poor voung men for the ministry. In like maoner thirty-nine Presbyte- ries did not contribute anything tuward susten- tation, freedmen, or pubiication; thirty-cignt eave nothing for ministerial reliel or church erection, and thirty-seven failed to contribute to home missions, while only seven failed in foreign missions. Some of those Presoyteries, however, are themselves largely, if_not wholly, gustained by missionary money, and are there- fore, perhaps, excusable for this apparent neg- lect. But the others are not. OVERTURES ON REPRESENTATION. Two propositions for the reduction of the size of the Assembly have been voted upon by the Presbyteries during the year, neither of which nas received the required sanction. They are generally kuown as_the Synodical and Presby- terial overtures. The former would take away ‘altogether from the Presbyteries the direct representation of the Gencral Asscmbl give it to the Synods on the basis of one mij ter and ooe clder for every fifty ministers repre- sented in Svnod, or a fraction over fifty and less than 100, and in the same proportion to every filty or fraction thereof above 100. ‘This would reduce the Assembly to about 220 mein- bers, but disfranchise sixty Presbyteries every year. This has been unanimously negatived by the Preshyteries as tendimg to destroy the democratic and popular prinziple of represen- tation at preseut in vogue. The other proposi- tion feaves the basis of representation in the bands of the P'resbyteries, but counts out zil supernumeraries aud superannuated from the unit of numbers, so that bytery consisting of more than for! than eighty ministers actually engaged in mio- isterial work shall be entitled to two ministers and two elders, and for every additional forty ministers one more clectoral ‘and one lay dele- wate, This, too, has been voted as un- fair to a large number of worthy bat unemployed ministers, whose experience in the legislative body of the Church might be much more useful and important than that of their more sctive but Younger brethren. An overture prepared by the Philadelphia Presbytery scems to reach the question more fully than any that has yet been sugzeested. But even thi in some aspects objectionable. It makes the com- municants o1 the Church the basis of represen- tation. amd the unit of that basis 3,000 for every two commissioners, iay and clerical. But for 5,000 two _representatives of each order are al- lowed, and for every 1,500 or 2,000 additional communicants one additional clerical and onc lay delegate. There are other propositions to divide -the Church by linesand take the com- missioners frum one half one year, and trom the other the mext; to meet once in two or three years, as other ecclesiastieal judicatories do. instead of every year as now; to make churches and not Presbyteries the basis, giving o Commissioners for every churches; and to sit balf the time of the present sessions—that is, from sevento ten days—instead of two or three weeks. The Assembly is the zucst of the city where it meets every year. and when all the Commissioners are present who are entitled to be, and the fraternal delegates from other bodics also, the agrrezate foots up about 530. This is a larze number to be cared for, even in our chiet cities, for two weeks. Hence the As- sembly has someiimes adjourned withoat an invitation being extended Ly any city to enter- tain the Commissioners at their ensuing annual session. REFORMED EPISCOPAL. FULMINATIONS OF AN ENGLISIL BISHOP. London Times, Aprit 25. Maoy of the parishioners of Littlehampton objecting to ritualistic observances in the parish church, they have erected another building in the town styled the St. Savior's Reformed Evpiscopal Church. The arrangement is to open the edifice for public worship to-day, and in view of the etfect which such a step is likely to produce, the Bishop of Chichester hasaddressed a letter to the members of the Church of En- gland in Littlebampton in the following terms: © v dear brethren—A notice. having been put forth that on Thursday next * St. Savior’s Re- formed Episcopal Church will be duly opened by the Ruztit-Rev. Bishop Grezg,’ it 1s my ducy to remind you that the Church ol Engiand, by Jaw established, is the Reformed Episcopal Church {o this realm, and that no other body of Christians has any night to that title. From the time that your forefathers were converted to the faith of Jesus Christ tbe Church of the South Saxons has continued within this county and Diocese to the present day. The succession of Bisnops, first of Selséy, afterwards of Chichester, has never been broken. The Church of Enaland, in which Sussex wuas comprenend- ed, reformed itselfl more than three centures azo. It then rejected the usarped authority ot the Pope of Rome, and the faise doctrines and superstitions by which Rume had overlaid the true faith. But it remained, and is still the orieinal Church of the nation. Reformed, be- cause it has cast off Rowmau error; episcopat, beeause it adberes to the Apostotic form of Church Government. The reformation of the Church was effected in a solemn and legal man- ner and ratified by the clergy m their Coo- vocation and by the laity of Parlinment. But the so-cailed Retormed Episconat Churchnow for the first time appearinr amony you is the crea- tion of certain individuals who of their own will aud motion have set it up in plain opposition to the aucient aud lawful Church of this natton. It is simply a seclf-constituted body, and if it stood on the same ground as the Nonconform- ist bodies in Englaud I should not have thought it necessary to interfere; but ther a - great difference between the Noncomformist budies and this new *Reformud Episcopal Church. The Nonconforumst bodies, with the single ex- ception of the Roman Catholics, reject the au- thority of Bishops: and. therefore, are so dis- tinctly separated from the Established Church that none can wistake the one for the other; but, inasmuch as the self-styled ‘Reformed Emiscopal Charch' professes to adhere to the government of the Church by Bishops, there 1s danger that members of the Church of En- gland may be misled. and may join this new Chureh, being ignorant that by so doing they separate themsclues from the communion of the Cnurch of England. It also announced that a Bishop of this Reformed Episcopal Cnurch wili shortly bold a confirmation in Little- hampton. I am, therefore, constrained solemn- 1y to warn you that any Bishop officiating in this dioces¢ without my sanction is an futruder. Waether really a Bistiop or not (aud there ure grave doubts whether the Bishops of this ¢ Re- formed Episcopal Chiurch’ have been lawfully conzecrated) be commits, by thus intruding, an open act of schism, in direct vlolation of the laws of God and his Church. And I do hereby further warn you that if any members of the Church of Engzland shiall, after this notice, seek contirmation at the hands of such a Bishop they will be partakers of his transgression, aud that uo blessing can be expected to follow such min- istrations. I address these words of serious caution to you because—however unworthy of so great a charme—I am, by God’s permission, the chief pastor of this diocese, and I carnestly aud affectionately commend them to your con- siderution; being now, as always, your faithful friend and Bishop, Cicesta.") THE REV. MR. MORGAN. A CHORISTER RESPONDS. G To the Editor of The Tribune. CINCINSATI, May 8.—It seems to have pleased the Rev. Mr. Morgan, in an ipterview with one of your reporters which I see copied in the En- quirer of this city, to make a “few remarks” concerning the choirof the church lately under his charge. He states that the Parish of St. Jonhn's paid about one-half in amount to the caoir that they paid for preaching the Gospel. Let one who knows all about it say to you that Mr. Morzan is mot in possession of a little batchet, clse he would not falsity. The chuir of St. John's Cliurct was paid. up to_the time of. Mr. Morgau's departure, as follows: Or- ganist, $400; soprano, $400; alto, $200; tenor, -§500; bass, R300; total, $1,600. Mr. Morgan admits to your reporter that he received asalary of $4.000 per aunum from the church here, and yet, knowing that the above figzures are true, be Etates that the muisic cost one-balf as much as the Gospel. Had the Gosoel been preached as well 23 the tusic was rendered there would Lave been nocause for complaint. The reverend gentleman has frequently complimented mem- bers of the choir, in private, on the exquisite manuer in which the *‘ornate” music was sung, and expressed his entire satisfaction therewith, but, with that sinzular incousistency which has characterized his entiré stay with the congrega- tion of St. Jobn’s, bas as olten ! up in the chaucel and vented his splcen against quartette choirs, and, to use a figure of speech whizh scems applicable to the occasion, * damned them for all that they are worth.” Mr. Morgan stated to your reporter that all he desired in the musical part of the servico was achance at the hymns and some of the chants (L just now discover that ao opvortunity for a punis lost). Well, goudness knows, he bad the nymas all bis own way, for, what with asking the choir to sinz long-metre tunesto common-uetre hymns, and viee versa, they wera always in a tecrible stew, and, between vou and me, therein consisted all the trouble between ihe choir and the Rector, The chants, of whick there are two at morning and two at evening service, were almost always divided into cnants {Gregoran) and anthems, and the Gregoriang hiad the best of it every time, exeept on special days, such as Easter, Christmas, ete., when Mr. Morgan was in the habit of givinz full swing to hc wusic. The soutlowan whis urd so plaw the cornet at, St. John’s would like to sce Brother Morean, us he claims that the bill for s outing was never paid. My object in writing this comnmunication fs only to vindicate the choir, without which ad- junct our reverend brother would have found himselt preaching to gmpty benches; but 1 can- not refrain, now that I am ting, from asking him througn your puper how he coutd, fecling thaz he Wae incobsistent in rewarming iu the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America, baptize a child with nis own surname for a Christian name in that Church on the night of lus departure from the Church. Yours, G. Onsax. IN GENERAL. T'obacco-using ministers are uot desfred by the Providence Methodist Conference. It has requested the Bishops notto send them any such persuns. The proposal to tax the larzer salaries of Methodist ministers 1 per cent for the reliet of the ministers who receive small salaries is grow= ing in favor. It was adopted at the recent ses- sion of the New England Conference. _ The Central Church West Side Sunday-school, in charge of members of Prof. Swine’s Church, mects now _at Martioe’s Hall, Ada street, near Madison. It opens ab p- m.; rezular ex- ercises at 4 o’clock. The Bible classes are well attended and iuteresting. Friends are fuvited to attend. During tweniy years the Congregational Union has sided 745 churcies. The total reccipts for the ten years cnding May 1, 1577, were $304,~ @22 The receipts for the vear ending May 1, 1877, were 382,803, This Society has closed its Boston office, and_ will trausact its business hereafter in New York. As the result of the month’s preaching at Middletown, Conn.. by the Rev. Mr. Pentecost, it is said that more than 300 hopeful conver- sions bhave oceurred, and 100 backsliders been reclaimed, avd at least 1,000 Christins ac- koowledged that they have been brought nearer to what they ought to be. ¢ The Southern Methodist Church, the second larzest Methodist bodv in the world. reports the following statistics for 1877: Traveling preach- ers, 3,430: local preachers, 56%4; white mem- bers, 759,216: colored wembers, 1,499; Indian members, 4 total membership, 774,74 Last year 35 ministers were discontinued and 61 located ; 233 were admitted on trial, and 36 were readmitted. The collections for missions were $121,111. The increase of whitc members in two years has been 43,265, The conflict between Orthodoxy and Liberal- ism in the State Church of Prussia, which was believed to have been avoided by the actiou of the Supreme. Church Council in refusing to suspend Pastor Hossbach for liberal utterance: has bezun. The Council, in passing on Hoss- buch’s case,said that if a preacher denied the cou- substantiality with God of the Savior, miracles, and the normative authority of the Bible, his position i the Protestant Church a3 one of their ministers tecame impossible. Hossbach was urged to take up this chailenze, but re- fused. A Liberal was soun found. however, » who was willing to become a martyr in the cause. Dr. KalthofT, of Nicicern, was moved to write to the Council that he was a transeressor in those very poiuts which they declared to be incousistent wizh the Protestuut ministey; thas he did not regard the Bible as a dvctrinal au- thority, but only as ‘‘the source of Christian life '3 that he only acknowledzed spiritual miracles, and that ne valued the humanity of Christ too higaly to dogmatize sbout it. The Council_showed no hiesitation in accepting the issue. 1t suspended Dr. Kaltholf immediately, and ordered an fuvestigation into his case. PERSONAL. George William Curtis, of New York, wiil preside at the Unitarian Festival to be held in the Boston Music-[all May 30. The Rey. Mr. Saltonstall, who has become Rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Dor- chester, Mass,, was formerly a Wall street broker. The consecration of the Rev. Dr. Burgess as Bishop of Quincy, IlL., will take place at his clureh, in Springfietd, Mass., May 15. Bishoo Williams, of Connecticat, will preside, and will be assisted in the ceremonics by six other Bishops. Bishop Huntinzton, of Central New York, will preach the sermon. + The fashionable little French Eglise St. Sau- veur, in Philadelphia, is much resorted to by the youns Iadies of that city who wish to per- fect themselves in the study of the French lan- guage. The advantages which result from listenivg to the utterunces of the Rector, the Rev. Mr. Micl, are said to be greater by far than those which foliow on a course of lessons frowm the most actumplished follower of Ollendorfl. Father Hyacinthe fs now in Paris, where he will remain at least for the sumumer, if not per- mauently. Visitors to the Exhibition will nave an opportunity to hear the great French orator. The hostile attitude of the Governwment, which for a long time tried to shut him out. or to kcen him silent, by putiing every restriction on his cowine and his speaking, is entirely changed since the Republicans have obtained the com- plete mastery. Be is now not only permitted to come, but the Government offers him the uso of the vast Hall of the Exhibition, wishing him to speak there, whicn he will do daring May and June. The Rev. Mr. Edwards, of Prestbury, refuses to obey the sentence of suspension pronounced against him on account of his Rituaiistic prac- tices. The gentleman who was appointed 1o conduct the services was not permitted to enter the pulpit. Mr. Edwards, in explanation of bis conduct, said from the puipit that a new juris- diction had been raised by act of Parl ent without the consent of the Church asked or given. I simply say that if this_jurisdiction is forced upon the Church of Engzland I shall cease to minister at her altar. Never would [ tuke holy orders subject ‘10 such conditions. The Church has not accepted the jurisdiction, and God forbid_she ever should, because she would then be dearaded beneath the level of the meanest sect of the land.” BREVITIES. The Professor, addressing with a triumphal air his audience at the end of the lecture, ex- claimed: “It seems to me that o demonstration like that is worth somethinz.” *‘Let’s git cout, said an economical backwoodsman to his son. ‘“They air gwine to take up a collection.”? A lady who objects to profanity because it I3 both wicked and vulgar, writes to koow what she ought to sav when a clothes-line breaks, and lets a week's washing fall in the mud. She ought to say: ** Blessed are the ‘meek, for they shall inherit the earth:” Dut probablyshe will pot thiuk of it. A young minister was preaching in Seabrool . from * I am the Hebt of the world,” an made poor work of it, stammering and stutter- Iug, sud almost stopplng, when an indignant hucklerry-picker, a sort of mascaline woman, shouted ou! If you are the light o’ the world you needs souffing.” ¥ Adam Scott had 8 boy Rob who was a creat terror to_him. He praged very earnestly for him, and once in this wise: "¢“O Lord, ha'e mercy.on him. lant,and thinks nae mair o’ committing sinthan a dog does o' licking a dish; but cut Thy nook in his nose and Thy bridle in his gab, and gar him come back to Thee wi’ a_ jerk that he’ll nas formet the longest day he bas to live.” Theinfant class ofa Sunday-school on Charch street were bewng drilled by tae ood teacher on. the early iife of the Savior. *‘Jobnuy, can you tell me where Christ was born?” gaid_she. + Easton, ma’am,” replied the youth. * Wy, no, Johnny,” sald the amazed young lady. “ Christ was born in Bethlehem.” **'Well,” said Johnay, “I knew it was some place on the Lenigh Valley Road."—Eimira ddvertiser. Not long agoa religious gentlemar, carrfed away by bis feelings, fell upon his knces and declared his love to a relizious lady of Masfair. Enter another gentleman. With ready presence of mind, he too fell upon bls knees. because he said that he thousht that some religious ob- servance was goipg on. Thus does a man of the world save others feeling themselves awk- ward, no matter how mal ¢ propos he may time his Visit. 4 The Boston Herald says: A Vermont clergy- man, wio used to live in Louisiana, tells i‘fis story of a former parishioner of his, the some- what notorfous J. Madison Wells: One day Wells said to bim, * Mr. —, .I should come and hear you preach ofteuer, but every time I come you preach a personal sermon, and 1 do Ye ken voursel he s a wild cal- -