The New York Herald Newspaper, December 22, 1867, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD. BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. ° All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New Yore HERaLp. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned, Volume XXXII RELIGIOUS SERVICES TO-DAY. CHURCH OF THE RE Bxow, Morning and aftern MATION.—Ruv. Assorr NS.—Rev. Matrazw Hace CHURCH OF THE PL Saurn, Evening. . CAURCH OF THE STR sity, Washingtoa © evening. NGBRS, Hall of tho Univer. Morning and A Rev. Diu. Derm. CATAOLIC APOSTOLE CHURCH.—E vanoruist Paeacuine ox “Tus Come us Lowy,” Evening. CHURCH OF THE A ON, Fifth avenue —Ap puxsssé IN Buuiaty or City Evancatization. Bening, CHURCH OF THE ROL: Frookiyn —Txv, De. MUULENBERG ON Aussion."" Evening. TRINITY, Clinton street, “Tax Mipwigur CHRIST CHURCH, Fifth avenue.—Rav. Da, Rwer. An nual SeRMos oF “St. Luke's Home For AgeD Women.” Lecruna er Rev, COOPER INSTITU Young, tho Paulist Fat Aureep PODWORTH HALI istic Soorsrr. Mus Nernie ©. Marxanp, M ing FREE WILL AND OPEN COMMUNION BAPTIST CTIURCH, Sev Moraing and even street.—Ray, Cuauins BE. Biaxu. FIFTH AVENUE BAPTISC CHURCH.—Rev. Dr, Anu. tace, Morning and evening. JANE STREET MSTHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH,— Samuxt Hacsteap Puaving Bap. Morning and evening. MASONIC HALU.—Tax Morning and evening. SSOCLATION OF SriRitUALists, NO. 35 BLEECKER ST or raw Destirete Wows —Lypta Swire in Beware ST. ANN'S FREE CAURC Gautaeper any E. Bexvaqt Revs. S. F, Honwrs, Dr. orning and even ing. TABERNACLE BAPTIST CHURCH, Second arenue.— Rev. Da. Kexpuice. Evening. UPPER CHURGH OF THE ASCENSION, Thirty-fourth atreet, UNIVERSITY, Washington square.—Bisnor Sxow ow “Tux Srexpy Coming oF Curist."” Afternoon, New York, EUROPE. Tho news report by tho Atlantic cable is dated yeater- day afternoon, December 21. The English government remained on the alert against tho Fenians, The detachment of troops forwarded from London to Portsmouth was shipped to Osborne, Isle of Wight Consols wore at 925 for money in London. Five- twonties wero at 72 3-16 in London and at 76% in Frauk- fort, The Liverpool cotton market was dall, with middling aplands at 7 5-16d. Breadstuifs and provisions without, marked change. MISCELLANEOUS. Our special telegrams by the Cuba cable contain news from 8%. Domingo and Jamaica An envoy had been sent to the United States government by the Dominican authorities, probably in relation to the sale or lease of Samana, It wes reported that Port-au-Prince, the capi- tal of Hayti, had surrendered to Cabral. Tho finances of Jamaica were much depressed. A deficiency of £50,000 sterling was to be made up by additional duties. Our Panama loiter is dated Docomber 13, Mosquera had sailed for Poru. The guard which accompanied him to Panaina still remained there, much to the dis- comfort of Presidsnt Olarie. General Saigar bad pub- lished a pamphiet defending his oporations in the pur- chase of the R. R. Cuyler. Our Quito, Ecuador, correspondence is dated November 15. The approaching election for the Presidency was the main topic. Dr, Espinoza seemed to bea favorite can- Gidate, General Lersundi, the new Captain General of Cuba, arrived at Havana yestorday and was recoived with the most cordial demonstrations of welcome by tho peo- ple, with whom he is evidently a rite, Mayor Horton, of Mobilo, was yest sentenced to pay $260 fine ina Mobile court for a violation of the Civil Rights bill in bavishing a negro from the city. Shorter, the negro who recently attempted to estab. lish a de facto government of his own in Bullock county, Alabama, was sentenced to jail for six months, but soon after managed to escape and Is now at large again. Great preparations are making in Buffalo for the faperal of the victims of the Aogola disastor. Eighteen of the bodies now remain unrecognized. BE. L. Matti- son, whose supposed body was recognized by a ring, is known to be ali ve and woll. A Freodmau’s Bureau officer who was trying to col- lect @ dotlar aod a half @ piece from negroes whose con- tracts he bad approved ta Alabama, was recently tarred and varnished by the negroes whom he had attempted an, bis wife,mother amd children were re- cently murdered in Baldwin county, Alabama A young girl of seventeen has been discovered tn Johnson conoty, Indiana, who while m a trance re- cently visited heaven and hell, eaw and conversed with tho Saviour and recogaized many deceased acquaintances inpoth places, Sho returned to consciousness after a escape frou burial and told her story, confirm- tng it Dy exposing the sins of many of her living friends, and tolling other matters not known to the public. A slashing review of the constitution proposed by the Alabama Convention for the State, written by an emi- Dont jurist, is being circulated as a campaign document, throvghout Alabama, for the defeat of the constitu. tion by the people at the coming election, We publish cisewhere this morning an article on Christmas toys, and « series of articles on the ‘general Ddusiness of New York, the provision and dry goods markets, &c, Jobn Kempston, c’erk of the Saperior Court, Part 2, was run over and instantly killed at Fulton ferry yes- torday by « cart laden with hides which was coming off the boat at the time. A coroner's jury severely cen- the ferry company for not erecting to pre- passengers rushing on the boat wh other passengers and vehicles are coming of. The trial of Margaret Walsh alias Fanny Wright, for the murder of officer MeCh was continued yertor. for the prosecution was closed, Witnesses for the defence testified that the prisoner had been suffering from deliriam tromens « few hours previous to the murder, and an expert prac- Utioner In such diseases stated that ight bave been entirely under “insane delusions" during the whole progress of the difficulty which ended ia the murder. Justice Mansfeld rendered « decision te the Peterson abandonmoat case yesterday, discharging tbe defendant, Christopher Petersen, from custody. It will bo remem. bered a8 the very complicated case wherein ® women claims defendant as ber bueband, be denying the rele tionship, and both parties producing strong toot mony to show their own side of the question to be the true one - ‘The Hambarg American Packet Company's steameh Atomann, Cimbria, Germania, Hammosia, Saxonia and the other vessels composing tais line will leave Now York, after the Istof Janvary nex, on Tucsdays (instoall of Saturdays, as heretotore) for Southampioe and Hamburg. These steamers will take the Europesa mails, thus giving oof merchants four mails s week io place of three, as of inte, ‘The stock market was strong yesterday, and prices Advanced, Government securities were steady. Gold chosed at 13344. Business ia commercial circles yesterday wae again Light, the transactions in almost ail commodities being confined to the Immediate necessities of buyers, Cotton 00 -eporiogly dealt ie, and press were 14 © Ko NEW .YORK HERALD, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1867.-TRIPLE SHERx. lower, Coffee was dull and acelin os bers flour was exceedingly quiet, an’ . per bbl. flower im some casos, Wheat, though dull, was firmly held, while corn and oats were rather more active and lc, a 20 bigher. Pork remained duit and heavy, Beef and lard showed nochange, Freights were excessively dull and rates were nominal, Naval stores were higher, with a fair demand, while petroleum was neglected and nominally lower, A Starding Oficial Report—Dreadful Con- dition of the Bineks in the Cotton States. While they are debating and hesitating upon the repeal of the cotton tax in Congress, the short crops and general destitution throughout the cotton States have at length brought about a condition of things which it is not only mel- ancholy to contemplate, but positively alarm- ing. We would especially call the attention of our radical Southern reconstructionists in Congress to the official report of General” Gil- lem, of the Freedmen’s Bureau, which we pab- lish to-day, touching the distress prevailing among the blacks and the reasonable appre- hensions prevailing among the whites in the State of Mississippi, in consequence of the failure of this year’s crops. Tho absence of any fixed relations between landholders and laborers, the shiftlessness, recklessness, igno- rance, credulity and revolutionary tendencies of the destitute blacks, ina State where they exceed in numbers the white population, pre- sent those elements of social demoralization and disorder which demand the immediate consideration of Congress. The black laborers have consumed their share of the year’s crops, and they have nothing. They are adrift in shoals; and to keep soul and body together they take any- thing needed that falls in their way. Tho white planters have nothing beyond the few cattle, chickens and pigs and the corn in the crib necessary to support through the winter their own families ; and so they have nothing to give. No other alternative remains, there- fore, to the idle and destitute blacks but star- vation or spoliation. Moreover (as General Gillen states it), there is “a widespredd belief, which is daily increasing among the freed= men, that the land in this State (Mississippi) is to be distributed and divided among them. In some sections,” he says “this illusion is assuming a practical form by the freedmen Tefusing to contract for the next year or to leave the premises they have cultivated this year.” In consequence of these dangerous ideas ho “feurs collisions, the extent and re- sults of which it is difficult to surmise, In support of these statéments and opinions of General Gillen we have been shown a private letter from General Ord, commander of the Fourth Military District, embracing the States of Mississippi and Arkane sas, in which he says that the condition of affairs in the cotton States calls for the immo- diate attention of Congress ; that a famine is already upon the negroes ; that in many coitn- ties in his District the planters are removing their families trom fear; that the whites are abandoning the rich cotton sections, where the blacks are largely in the majority; that these blacks, having nothing, or next to nothing, of their own, are living on the property of others and on what they can shoot in the woods or catch in the rivers or creeks; that he is daily in receipt of petitions for protection from towns and villages; that in Mississippi it is not a question of votes, but bread ; that if Congress will employ these idle and destitute negroes and feed them for their work on the river levees, broken and destroyed during the war, or on railroads, canals, anything, a war of races may be prevented. He says, in effect, that in the cotton districts, with the failure of the staple as a compensating product, there are more negroes than can be sustained, and that something must be done for them. Nor is this state of affairs limited to Mississippi. More or less it prevails throughout the cotton States. Noarly every Southern paper is calling on the government for action, protection or food for the negro. General Ord says that “the wolf has come sure enough this time,” and that he has letters and petitions on the subject from lead- ing Union men asking prompt action. The picture is not overdrawn. With the general failure of their cotton fields, from the Carolinas to Texas, the planters concerned are im- poverished and the freedmen are destitute. Is it likely that these blacks, impelled by hunger, will pay any respect to the rights of property? Is it likely that the whites, pinched themselves for food, will allow their families to be robbed of their slender supplies without resistance? And before such collisions begin we may well consider the question, where are they to stop if a beginning be not prevented? The horrible French revolution of 1789 began with a raid upon the bakeshops, and that was a war, not of races, but of classes. Here it will be a war, if, commenced, both of races and classes; and unless our negro worshipping radicals in Congress proceed at once to some broad and comprehensive measures of relief, on the basis of bread for labor, disabusing the poor negroes at the same time of that danger? ous delusion not only of free bread and bacon, but of free farms, we may have such scenes of violence and blood and confusion in the South before the end of tho winter as will completely demolish the republican party, with its dis- astrous schemes of Southern reconstruction. General Butler Drops a Hint for His Blographer. At last the world is permitted to know exactly what General Butler's “claims” are in the matter of heroism. “I claim,” he says, “to be the hero of New York.” New York ts one of the few spots in the country not known as a battleficld of the war: It was o particularly safe place. Many drams were beaten in the- streets, it is true, and many soldiers marched up and down, coming and going. There was a great deal of the “pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war,” but marvellously little of the reality, little of the hardship, little of the soul- wearing work, but, above all, little of the danger. There were no bullets in the air, and the only flight of missiles that the illustrious soldier ever had tocomplain against was when his bronzed an@ brazen front proved harder than an addled ogg or rotten apple. He never bad the sensation of & wound save when fy ‘over the soo or, in the absence of beard, perbape his shirt collar. Io shors, the streets of New York were nothing like the glacier of Fort Fisher, and, therefore, he might easily be a hero in them who would be quite another sort of character t ine place of iges enfety. Dutlor han desired | congeption of Whe ariggr at ql Wat that it should be written on his tomb that be “saved his men at Fort Fisher.” Let it be added also that he saved himself at » Broad- way hotel, and that be was the hero of a city five hundred miles from the nearest battle- field. Religious Phases of the Times. The religious beliefs and sentiments of man- kind aro passing through on extraordinary change af the present time. This extends even beyond the Christian world; for the great | rebellion in China, which has been going on for several years and which is not yet ended, assumes in part a religious character. But it is of the changes that are taking place among Christian nations and communities in America and Europe, and particularly in the United States, to which we call attention. The most remarkable developments in the religious world, then, are seen in the tendency to infidelity under the mask of religion on one hand and in the tendency to superstition and blind credulity on the other. One extreme seems to beget the other. The repulsion of within our limited space notice all the reli- gious phases of the times, but we have called attention to the most remarkable. What will be the end no one can divine. One thing is certain, and that is that the world of mind is passing through great changes, and that we are on the eve of a new and surprising epoch in the history of mankind. Are we going back to Paganism under a modified form, or is pure Christianity to be vindicated and estab- lished on @ purer basis? Reform and Hi s Corpus in England, By telegram from London, through the At- lJantic cable, we have the very important intelligence that the Derby Cabinet intends to ask Parliament to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in England, and thus afford the executive an extraordinary power of dealing with the Fenian alarm excitement ; and a more direct and summary method of punishing Fenian offences against the law and | Crown, one set of extravagant or disturbing ideas or | theories drives people to seek refuge in others directly opposite and equally extreme, Yet, | strange to say, there is a phase of the religious movements of the age, and that widespread, which combines both the extremes of infidelity | and superstition, of unbelief and surprising credulity. We refer to modern Spiritualism, as that term is now generally understood—a mental phenomenon, if wo may call it s0, which is seed in this country, and particularly in New England, more than anywhere else, The Christian Church—and by that general term we include the numerous Churches or sects professing Christianity—has been struck with sterility. The interior plains of Africa or the deserts of Arabia are not more sterile. The earnest faith in and the vital power of the Christian religion in its early history and in the times of Luther, Knox and Cromwell, and long afterwards, have dopartod. People join the Church and go regularly to it now because that is respectable and fashionable. There is little faith in revelation or providence. Most of the professing Christians of the present day are modern Sadducees or Pharisees. They have no bigher view of the religion of Christ than that it is a good system of morals and useful to soclety. Ithasno influence over thelr souls and little over their conduct They are a3 much in the dark about the future as if Christ had never said anything about it; in fact, they either do not ,beliovo what be and his disciples taught, or explain it away by rationalism. Still these people are shocked when any one intimates that they do not believe in Christ. Tho Church of our day is like tho withered fig tree that bore fruit no more. The cold formality of Episcopalianism has done much to destroy the vitality of religion, but there have been other causes at work. The rostless, inquiring and speculative mind of the New England people has been msinly in- strumental in this country in sowing the seeds of infidelity under the guise of religion. No better illustration of this can be found than in Henry Ward Beecher. He isa good type of New England. H» represents the ideas that prevail generally throughout the land of the Puritans ; ideas, however, very different from those with regard to divine revelation, and the miracles, resurrection and godhead of Christ, which the Puritans brought with them from England. Boecher and those professing Chris- tians of the present time do not follow Calvin, Knox or the Pilgrim fathers, but Strauss and Rénan. True, they sing the old Puritan hymns, use pretty much the same phraseology in their prayers, and preach somehow in the same strain ; but they laugh in their sloeves at what they call the superstition of those old times. If a man in those early days had denied the godhead of Corist, his miracles, special provi- dence and divine revelation, which were con- sidered the very foundation of Christianity, he would have been oalled an infidel; yet the Beechers of this day who pretend to preach the Gospel, and draw ‘salaries for proach- ing, no more believe in these funda- mental dogmas of our relizion than Voltaire and Mirabeau did. They are not scof- fora, 09 these French infidels wore; for they, like Rénan, regard Jesus as the highest type of humanity—as divine even, in a poetic sense. Still, their religion, if religion it oan be calfed, is nothing but the dry husk, the mere moral form of that Christianity which has pervaded the world for eighteen centuries. Another remarkable phase of the roligious movements of the age, as'seen in this country particularly, and in New England more than in any other part, is modern Spiritualism. We say modern, because this thing is as old as his- tory, though it has appeared under various forms at different times. The vulgar of all nations have believed in ft It was seen in the Egyptian, Grecian and Roman oracles, in the pretended witchcrafts and ghosts of moro recent times, and even in the incantations and and superstitions of savago tribes. Spiritual- ism bas spread more among us than many eup- pose; for while » small number only may make an open profession of beliof in it vast numbers are tainted with it, Nearly all the Spiritual- ists, too, aro infidels, They reject the funda- mental doctrines of the Gospel, in the god- head, miracles, resurrection and atonement of Christ. Yet they believe greater miracles, if possible, in the appearance, conversations and physical power of spirits, in the ubiquity of, spirits, and in their power to read the thoughts and to tell the future. They are the most credulous and superstitious.of people ; atill they reject the Scripture record as irra- tional. This is a strange contradiction, and can only be explained by the restless desire for something new and for something that imposes less restraint upon the evil passions of men than the sublime religion of Christ. But what is the cause of this extraordinary fermentation in the minds of people with re- gard to religion? Doubtless the wonderful inventions of the age—as those of the magnetic enlightoned age to create @ disbelief in soy The very rumor of such an intention on the part of the Premier of Great Britain is ominous of the near approach of a great political crisis in that country, as the carrying of it into effect would be likely to premise changes.and conse- quences of the most startling cbaracter, both | in its social relations and the body politic. It is proper, therefore, to inquire why is the suspension of the habeas corpus to be pro- posed? Will Parliament vote it? Will the people of England endure it? Earl Derby, we are told, counsels tho ex- treme measure ostensibly as ® means of reach- ing the Fenian organization. It may be, however, that he in reality secks to touch the new combinations which tho reform league associations are consolidating for the more advantageous working of the ng fox dill in the political interests of the people, and thus “head off” by a “law and order’ system of control the preparations for that great democratic electoral campaign, in which the leaguers will use the powerful engine of the votes of about three hundred thousand newly enfranchised citizens—residing for the most part in the cities and large towns—in order to effect a peaceful revolution. - .British reform in the bands of the tories is a plain contradiction, Gnd, notwithstanding Lord Derby’s claigs to the paternity of the new measure, and Mr. Disraeli’s ingenious theory of the political birth and descent of the principle in and through the titled houses.of the land, the masaes of tho British people perceive the contradictipn and reject the illusion. As an aristocrat Earl Derby dislikes reform; as 4 party man he despises its promoters. If, thereforé, he effects the suspension of the habeas corpus, we, at this distance, infer that he will direct the new power thus afforded to the Crown in order to “regulate” the monster reform demonstrations which are eure to take place, under the plea that they are revolution- ary Irish assemblages. The present Premier of England is well skilled in the executive science of government repression ; for, as Lord Stanley, when Chief Secretary of Ireland, he spont the best portion of his official energy in combating popular agi- tations with Arms acts, the branding of arms, Party Proceasions acts and the-enforcement of the Convention act against political delega- tions and spoken treason. He now sees Fenianism used as a very potent ingredient of the English reform agitation, and it may be that he seeks to turn the tables on the reform- era by fighting them under cover of Fenianism. Will Parliament sanction the measure? This is to be doubted. People must not forget, however, that England is jus! now deeply alarmed by the effocts of the Fenian outrages. England loves order and home quiet, and ber wealthy, commercial and middle classes must have it at any cost They abhor Fenianism, and if Lord Derby should call an extra session of Parliament and submit to the House ef Commons official roporis of a very exciting character, it ia not unlikely that the great body of the members from the rural districts, unit- ing with those representing the great trading and military and naval interests, would fur- nish—irrespective of party pledgés—a moajori- ty to vote the suspension. The House of Lords would sustain them, arguing that loyal men and good citizens have nothing to fear. Should the House of Commons reject the pro- position, the Premier ,will probably resign and thus inaugurate a ministérial erisis of sufficient duration to permit #he present agita- tion to subside, the home parties to harmonizs more agreeably, and’ some foreign difcylties to be adjusted, ’ ; If the suspenston of the habeas corpus is to be carried will the people endareit? This query, involves the most serious considerations: To the English nation the suspension of the habeas corpus is repugnant in tho extrome, and the adoption of such a course just new, particu- larly at the suggestion of @ Slanley, of Derby, will be very likely to bring the rising wave of the new order of democracy in full view of the solid phatanx of the aristocracy which sur- rounds the throne, Then will be presented the most interesting issue of -modern politics : Will the wave recede, or the titled barons gtve wayt ¢ Dickens and Delby and Tholr Tlokets, Mr. Dickens goeseto “Bostown” to read on Christmas eve, and in the meantims the books are supposed to be open here for subscription to the third sertes of the rendings, to be given between Christmas and New Year's @ay. This plan of keeping opon & book ia which the public can subscribe for tickets was adopted to restore that confldenee in the bonesty of the management which was ferfelted by the unfair dealing of the first sales. Wo doubt if the plan will succeed in this, especially in view of the opinions of our people thet provall at headquartera. Mr. Dolby ls reported to have sent word te a worthy citizen, who objected to the way fn whtch be hed been done, that be was © “blarsted ass” —apparenily becaase he was not willing to accept the worst seats in the house when he was entitled t6 the Best, This Citizen’s case is but one of many, the particu- lars of which have been given to made with { ist i if , i I Le 5s it eH ft et L i ; g Hi i the Ihanagement refunded. 4o many actual cases of this kind have been stated on good authority and without contradiction that it seems more than probable that not one good seat was sold to the public at the last sale, but that every seat on the floor of the house, ex- cept those in the last row, was actually in the hands of speculators before the sale began. Now, if that organization of sharpers that deals in tickets between managers and the public has acquired such a hold on the management of any entertainment, it is in vain to hope that new proposals such as this subscription list are any more than mere covers for fresh trickery. There is but one open, straightfor- ward way in which to sell these tickets, and that is by auction. Let them be sold openly under the hammer—the best seats to the highest bidder ; and then if Mr. Dickens is sincere in that sentiment of tender pity for the poor that is so charming a trait in all he writes, he can make a noble contribution to their comfort by giving to some oity- charity that surplus from the purses of the rich that the sale will realize over the price fixed for his tickets. His letter of donation with that money will be the best of his Christmas Carola. Representative Character—A Hint to the Clergy. - Since the dawn of civilization in the West every age has had its ideal of the reprecenta- tive character, and men have been delfied, canonized or set up as models for general imitation according as in their lives and in their deaths they approached their ideal stand- ard. This standard has not tn every age been the same. It has been pagan; it has been Christian; it has been utilitarian. In ancient Greece and Rome virtue, which was supposed to be expressive of the sum of buman excel- Jence, was sadly wanting in some of those higher elemen's which 9 later and, as we be- Neve, a nobler teaching led us to consider essential to constitute genuine goodness. We do not mean to say that the ideal standard in Greece and Rome was precisely the same ; for while it was ethereally, almost divinely beau- tiful in the one case, it was coarsely and rug- gedly grand in the other; but in both cases the standard was unmistakably dofective in the element of persénal purity. Greainess in the Greek and Roman character was not in- compatible with vices which, judged by a higher etandard, we hegitate npt to pronounce degrading and imbruting in the last degree. To the Christian Church it was reserved, while retaining whatever was exdefleal ia the 61d philosophies, to add to the sum of human viritis the eloment of personal purity. This revolution in morals Was not crowned with success till after » long and vigorous strug- gle. Manicheism—which drow nice distinctions between matter and mind, declaring that as the spirit belonged to God, and as the body ‘was eternally and incurably evil, 0 no purity of conduct could mako'the body clean ‘and no bodily indulgence could shed a taint upon the spirit—was for a time in the ascendant and had to be combated and overcome. The triumph of Christianity, however, was complete, and in the fastings and scourgings which‘ sent a St. Anthony to the tombs and set a Simeon on bis pillar, we sse the means by which the victory was won. It bas becomo the fashion in modern times, and especially among Protestants, to Tidicule the “Lives of the Saints ;” and it may fairly be questioned whether those lives can ever again bo popular, even omong Catholics themselves ; but it ought not to be forgotten that the world is now and must ever remain deeply indebted ¢o those holy men whose lives were scattered Over the entire mediseval period, and who, each in his turn, fought o noble fight and left a nobse example behind him. During many centuries, centuries usually and not without reason called “a.ark,” the Church, if she was not built up by emi- nently intellectual teaching, was at least sus taimed and solidified by the exemplary lives of ominently holy men. Tho representative character during that period was, if not the highest possible, at least greatly higher than anything previously attained. The standard of human excellence was raised and made to conform to a lottier, nobler, purer ideal. In course of time, however, the world was found to have marched on to new conditions and to have come under new and more impe- rious-influences. The fato, therefore, which at a former period bef:ll tho “heroes of Greece and Rome, now befell the heroos of the Church, They wero sot aside. The my- thology of paganism had been supplanted by the haglology of Christianity, and now the hagiology of Christianity is dismissed in turn, retiring, like its predecessor, into the dim and doubttul past, and leaving its place to be filled by something more worthy of as well as better adapted to the times. Here, however, begins our difficulty. What is tho representative chaggoter now? What is the ideal standard of hi excellence? We have abandoned tho pagan heroes as base and brutal; we havo eet aside’ the Christian saints as weak and childish, What have we got in their stead? Who can tell? Human excellence, after all the-training of two thousand years, and espe- clally efler experiencing the influences of Ghristiaaity for eighteen centuries, ought at this late age to have some definite meaning. Whet does tt now mean Does ft mean more or does ft moan less than it did during the medieval period? If it means as much as it did“under the reign of Catholicism—if it means a6 much as it did even in the days ‘of pagan Greceo and Rome, it at least implies that it is not separable trom @ certain kind of goodness. The true fepreneatative character, if we have not fallen below the standard of the past, ought to be good as woll as great. But where in the Charcb, in any section of it—where out of tho Charch, where, among clergymen or laymen, do we find true nobility of soul allied to posi- tive goodness, to purity of heart and life and i is 5 st : i gy “ }- have,” to quote the words-of one of the noblest men of the present time, “cast out the Catholic devil, and the Puritan has gwept the house and garnished it; but as yet we do not see any symptoms showing of a healthy incom- ing tenant.” And still we wait. ; — Suicide. We published last Sunday two pleas for sul- cide. The authors of both exemplified the strength of their own convictions by killing themselves, the one with morphine and the other with strychnine. The plea of the former is little more than a declaration that he was @ fatalist, who had nourished for two years a presentiment that he was to dio by his own hand; “that it would come to this, and there was no use in trying to stave it off.’ He inti- mated his belief in the old pagan notion that death is an eternal sleep. He was simply a monomaniac, The more elaborate plea of the latter seems at first to be novel and somewhat ingenious. He strives to justify the Christian in voluntarily opening the gates of death as the only entrance to the kingdom of heaven. But, more closely examined, his argument rests, after all, on no other basis than that on which the philosophers of antiquity justified the pagan in voluntarily opening the gates of eternal sleep. Moreover, if valid at all, it proves too much. If it be right to kill your- self in order to reach the kingdom of heaven more speedily, it would be right to kill others from the same motive. The fact is that mur der and self-murder are essentially vio- lations of the same great commandment— “Thou shalt not kill.” The close connection of the two crimes has been painfully illustrated within the past fortnight in the cases of Mrs. Fall and her daughter, Mrs. Boone and her four children and Hattie Howard and her lover. It would appear that im each of these cases murder and self-murder walked hand in hand. Moralists have amply proved that the same reasons which forbid one to take the life of his fellow-man forbid him to take his own. Life is a sacred gift of tho Creator. Itis a treasure which man cannot bestow, and there- fore has no right to take away. “All that a man hath will he give for bis life.” For when that is ended there 1s an end of all possessions depending upon it, The murderer inflicts on his victim and the self-murderer on himself an irreparpblo injury, go far as this state of existencd is cbticefned, and breaks open the doors of a new and untried state. God, who gave life, can alone authorize its désttyction. The self-murderer usurps an authority which does not belong to him. He commits a great wrong towardd timcclt by cutting off his possib:litles of enjoyment, How does he know, even in the midst of despair, but that “something may turn up” well worth patiently waiting fort He commits a wrong towards society by severing the ties, however slight they may seem to him, that bind bim te it. If he bas dependents on his care and toil it is cowardly xs well as wrong to desert them and leave them to struggle alone against sea of troubles. Society does not relinquish its claims for service on even the most isolated individual. Moreover, life has been confided to each one as a trust for himself as well as for others. It must not be recklessly flung aside. The poet Coleridge has admirably summed up the truth of this whole matter in “The Suicide’s Argument” and in “Nature's Answer,” which we reprint to-day. Before the would-be suicide destroys bis life let him heed the questions, “Is’t return’d as ’twas sent? Is’t no worse for the weart” The recent alarming increase in the number of suicides would soon be checked if each one who is tempted to kill himself would compare what he is with what he was, and obey the poét’s injunction :— Make out the tnvent'ry; inspect, compare; Then die —If die you dare. o6 Courageous resistance against misfortune, xnd especially the charitable activity recom, mended by Rousseau as @ corrective of suici'al proclivities, will, with all sane per sons, prove effectual, If the press and the, pulpit uate in teaching that selt-murder is a) crime, in vicw of man’s duties to himself, society and td his Creator, the public mind will be freed frocn its Intent paganism on this’ point, and we shan’ read no more pleas for! suicide. \ Hymnoloy’ In all ages and in all 1icds hymns have been sung that express the spirh: of praise and, prayer,and almost every mood ov which re humaa heart is susceptible, froit penitence and depths of anxiety and dread to placid contemplation, the fervor of Weal, joyful hope and exultant faith. The ftality of these lyrics—and none can properly be called) hymns which are nut lyrical—is marvellous,’ From Moses and Miriam and David and the. hymn writers, for the most part anonymous, of tho early and the medimval Church, to! Luther, Herbert, Watts, Wesley, Heber, Mil- man, Keble; 8. F. Smith and Mublenberg, the same echoes of heavenly music have been re- peated over and over again. Even the voices. of a Byron, 8 Moore, a Lamartine and of other men of genius, whose names are usually con- nectod with less pious associations, have Joined not inbarmoniously in this choir of sacred music, showing that themes so divine awaken the highest aspirations of genius. Bits bushed tones in the catacombs during the per- secutions of the early Christigns at Rome, have floated down to our times, and may now be heard either beneath the dome of St. Potor's