Year: 1869




Before this can reach you these august
Assemblies will have been in session near
ly a week, and the telegraph will have
told you the tone of their course of action.
We feel now the uncertainty that we feel
before an election-strongly hopeful, some-
what doubtful. 1t is plain that the body
of the people care less for hair.spitting in
doctrines, than for unity in faith and unity
in works In these days of outside pres
sure, men, Christian men, have no time
to spare for family quarres. We should
try to remember how persecution would
drive us together, and so try to come to
gether without the persecution.


AS to doctrine, we should like to Try
the experiment with that clerical audience
and, blindioldiug them, set one man at a
tine to preach, and let them determine
whether he was Old School or New.
There would be some random shots.


You and ! may call ourselves outsiders,
but after all, these are brethren and part
of our branches Of the Church Universal,
and we pray for them when we pray for
the peace of Jerusalem. Let us pray
that they may work in the spirit of power
and of love and of sound mind; for those
who quarrel are seldom in sound mental
condition.


True we want sound doctrine, but not
hair-spiting, and Christians go home more
refreshed and strengthened by a plain
scripture statement of doctrine, with a
practical application to daily life, than by
the mos; able argument.


But | set out to tell story, and state
facts which cause me more anxiety than
any threats that II they dare TO come to-
gether, mischief will ensne. There are
such. Sanballat was very much opposed
TO union.


THE STORY.


Once upon time meeting of MINIS
ters, which was called Presbytery, was
! held by appointment in the chapel of a
church. "Sermon by the moderator" ,"
and all were invited to attend the sessions.
a godly woman, who prayed for the
peace Of Jerusalem, wished to profit her
soul by hearing Of the good work of God,
ms set forth by the brethren beloved. She
entered and found goodly assemblage OF
solemn and gray-haired men occupying
the two rows of seats, and as she glanced
up the aisle, modestly looking for bac k
seat, she saw two rows of boxes symmetri-
cally arranged along the aisle upon tho
floor tin boxes filled with sawdust and
sand. "What are thosel" she quietly
whispered to the sexton, "Those, ma am
We'll, ma'am, those are'-and his speech
ended in a whisper. The shock destroyed
her veneration, and her attendance at
meeting Of Presbytery was brief


''Be ye clean that bear the vessels Of
the Lord " "lfthine eye offend thee pluck
| it out"


am credibly informed that one solemn
act of preparation fer the meeting of the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church in the United States of America,
was the providing OF one hundred pitoons,
with the question whether the number
should not be doubled or quadrupled. |
hope, for the credit of the church, that
the committee over estimate the danger 10
their carpets, But suppose it were true 7
1t looks badly. Can men be of sound
and disposing mind who are constantly un-
der the influence of strong nervous slim
ulant' Can men be alive to the interest
of the church while under the power of a
narcotici


Preaching


And what a class of subjects are they
cut off from preaching upon. Self-denial,
purity, holiness, temperance, (''temperaie
i , all things,") good example, and so on TO
the end of the chapter.


Praying


They may say 81 am man CT unclean
lips,"-and no one will dispute their word.
Some men pray with their minds made
up. They say "Lead US not into tempta-
tion, but deliver US from evil" without
the slightest idea Of keeping out of temp
tation or resisting evil Nay, it has been,