St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1859-04-21

Correspondence Of the st. Charles City Integencer
Illinois Correspondence.
MoNT MEACHAM, ILL.,, Marcel

shriii out sweet ana varied notes o
the robin announce it. The gruff in
notations of the hen of the prairies de
noting the period Of her incubation
e the countless swarms of the wild
u wood-pigcon, migrating from the sum,
, southland 10 ! the aquatic fowl il
overwhelming myriads rushing will
swift wing northward, almost darken
ing the vault of heaven-the goose
the brant, the duck and princely swan
all in squaking hoarse notes, ming
ling in wild confusion-all as in one
voice proclaim that Spring has come
Old chill Winter has passed away
has fled upon his iron grey horse
leaving open wide the Spring-gates-
and old king Sol is pouring foods Of
light and heat upon this mundane ball
The green carpet is already seen
creeping in its extending process o'el
the fields and wildly lawns. A re.
newed and invigorated life is being
impaired to the vegetating powers OF
the soil A radiant cheerfulness and
gaycty seem to dance upon the coun,
tenance Of man and beast, and all or,
ganic forms of life evince the moving
energies of his mysterious and mighty
power.
In view Of the goodness of Divine
Providence so strongly marked, let
every heart respond in full accents of
out-howing praise. Praise to Him
whose unerring hand guides all things
to the wisest cnds--for effecting the
greatest practicable good to the great
est numbers" To him be all praise
The same old tune of "hard times" "
is grating on our ears. For many
long, long years Illinois has not seen
so close struggle for obtaining the
ordinary blessings of life Every
thing in the provision line is scarce
and dear, and would be still dearer.
but for the equal scarcity of the only
thing that will purchase it,-money.
The whole business community at this
time seems pcrvaded with a stupor.
Nothing new of secular character,
or of a political, appears in view.
Perhaps the most exciting topic
worthy of our notice here, at the pres
ent, is that Of
RELIGION. Hitherto, upon this sub
.ject have offered little or nothing in
my correspondence. But as we are
somewhat barren Of matters of thrill
! ing incident of a secular character,
such of your readers as might not rel.
ish, or much less crare homily on
that topic will have the goodness to
excuse us for weaving it into the It's
sue of our miscellaneous incidents
while those hearts that throb in uni
son with our own will hail any topic
of the kind, of sound and sentimental
character, with a hearty welcome In
this, as in most communities in our
land, the Methodist Z. Church is the
strongest, numerically. Next to them,
perhaps, are the Christians, so called,
elias the Complexities. Then we have
Presbyterians, Old and New School,
and the Oberlin branch. More numer-
Gus, however, than these is the army
of Baptists, divided into Missionary,
SO called here, the Free Wills, the
Hard Shells" and the Union or Bald
whites. This latter division are the
followers of Baldwin, their founder,
who is said to be renegade Mormon.
Then come the United Brethren, the
followers of the sanity Ottubein, the
same who assisted in the ordination
of that prodigy in indefatigable minis,
terial labors, the venerated Francis
Asbury, bishop of the Methodist f.
Church. They are an ardent and
practical people. The Cumberland Pres,
byterians claim our next notice. They
are an evangelical people effecting
quite a good degree of moral reform
and usefulness. The Christians, or
New-Lights, as they are often called,
the followers of the celebrated Elias
Smith, of Boston, are beginning to
figure, and make some little noise
in these parts. They have a few
churches but as | have been ac.
quainted with them for 45 years and
have never known but one or two OF
their churches to endure for more than
two or three years, predict their dis
appearance ere long. Their leading
traits of character are the repudiation
| Of the Divinity or God-head of Jesus
Christ, and marked fiuctuation and
instability of purpose. A few of the
{ order of "Two-seed" Baptists, be,
lieve, remain here yet. They are the
followers Of one David Parker. He
making the sage discovery that the
doctrines of unconditional election
could not be reconciled with the uni
versatility of the Atonement, invented
the "twoseed" theory as a substi
tute. 1t holds that all the non-elec
are literally through Satanic interfer
ence in their generation the childreI