discipline twice a week." Twice a week-that | ticipation in the benefits of the public-school system is, they lacerate their backs with an iron-pointed scourge. "The cold in winter is intense, and they are not allowed any fires." In the convent of St. Theresa, at Seville, an equally rigorous system is kept up by the nuns. "They keep up a perpetual fast, living chiefly on the dried cabala, or stockfish, and only on festivals allowing themselves eggs and milk. They have no beds, only a hard matress; this, with an iron lamp, a pitcher of water, a crucifix, and a discipline, constitute the only furniture in each cell. They are allowed no linen except in sickness, They are rarely allowed to go out in the corridor, in the sun, to warm themselves. Their house is like a cellar, cold and damp, and they have no fires. Even at recreation they are not allowed to sit, except on the floor. They have only five hours' sleep. They see absolutely no one, receiving the Holy Communion through a slit in the wall. The English lady was the first person they had seen face to face, or with lifted veils, for twelve years." At chapel they are not allowed to see the altar. Lady Herbert, nevertheless, asks, "Why is it that convents of this nature are so repugnant to English taste?" -Evening Bulletin. HEART RELIGION.-Religion is, in an eminent degree, the science of the heart, and he who does not receive it in his heart, studies it to very little purpose. Every Christian ought, therefore, to study with the heart as well as with the head; letting light and heat increase with an equal progression, and mutually assist each other.-Schimmellpenninck. ITEMS. It appears from the records of the Smithsonian Institute that the entire fall of rain by the late storm was nearly six inches. of that State, fourteen schools have been established through the aid of various associations, supported in part by the contributions of the parents of the pupils. The average number enrolled is about 730, and, during the coming autumn and winter months, this will probably be increased from 1,000 to 1,200. The same eagerness to learn which has been exhibited throughout the South, has been displayed in Delaware, accompanied in some districts with even greater opposition from a portion of the white population. Statistics of the colored schools in Virginia show that nearly 17,000 scholars are enrolled, the annual expense of whose teaching will be about $100,000. In Richmond 3,000 colored pupils receive instruction from 43 teachers, some of the latter being also colored. The scholars are regular in attendance, eager to learn, faithful to the requirements of the schools, and give good promise of becoming intelligent and worthy citizens. The Washington Union reports the discovery, below the Great Falls of the Potomac, within fifteen miles of Washington, by Prof. T. C. Raffinson, of Copenhagen, of a Runic inscription, which records the death of an Iceland woman named Suasa, who died in the year 1057, of the Christian era. Fragments of teeth, bronze trinkets, coins, and other curious things, have been exhumed from the grave. The discovery appears to prove conclusively that the Northmen were long in advance of Columbus in A scientific their explorations upon this continent. report, in reference to this discovery, will be looked for with great interest. An Omaha correspondent of the Chicago Republi can writes concerning the recent attack on a train the Union Pacific Railway, as follows: "The way the thing looks now, it does not appear that the redskins did this business, but the whi skins did. The scalping was certainly not done y Indians-so men who understand the business say. A redskin would not be apt to leave the scalp behind -he would rather lose his own-that of itself is & little evidence; but what makes it almost sure is the fact that the scalp of the man who is still living, and in a fair way to recovery, by the way-is not taken in the Indian style. An Indian is never known to take the whole top of the head for his scalp, but merely a couple of inches from the crown of the The successful completion of the cable connecting Florida and Cuba affords great cause for congratu-head; and, besides, they generally take it off neatly, lation. It places the United States in close commuwhile this was done in a very bungling manner. nication with a country with which it has most intimate and important business relations. Messages Some persons (and I must say I am one of the numare said to be successfully passing through this ber) think there were no Indians concerned; but Omaha and all these Western towns are bound to cable. The broken end was recovered on August have an Indian war if possible, and their constant 18th, after several days of unsuccessful grappling, cry is extermination. Now, this late attack serves and the cable was immediately spliced and the confirst rate to bring Eastern people to their side of the nection made perfect. It will be opened to the pub-question, provided they keep under a few of the facts. lic in a short time. By a new Anglo-American treaty, the postage between England and the United States will speedily be reduced one-half. It is now twenty-four cents upon a half-ounce letter, and this is to be cut down to twelve cents. It was partly promised (by the Duke of Montrose, Postmaster General of England, when placing the postal treaty before the House of Lords,) that, whenever circumstances permitted, a still further reduction would be agreed to by the British Government. This means in the event of the revenue not suffering by the change. As for that, we suspect that the increased number of letters will more than make up all deficiencies. There is hope, too, of a daily mail from Europe. Several trains on Eastern and Southern railways The colored people of Delaware being denied par- the correction." 1 FRIENDS' INTELLIGENCER. "TAKE FAST HOLD OF INSTRUCTION; LET HER NOT GO; KEEP HER; FOR SHE IS THY LIFE." TERMS:-PAYABLE IN ADVANCE The Paper is issued every Seventh-day, at Three Dollars per Agents for Clubs will be expected to pay for the entire Club. Henry Haydock, Brooklyn, N. Y. Benj. Stratton, Richmond, Ind. William H. Churchman, Indianapolis, Ind. The Value of Good Men........ John Quincy Adams' Mother.. REVIEW OF THE LIFE AND DISCOURSES OF Diabolic, Noble and Base, I believe sophistry F. W. ROBERTSON. BY S. M. JANNEY. (Continued from page 305.) cannot puzzle so long as the life is right. "I should say, therefore: "1. Remember how much is certain. Is there any doubt about the Sermon on the Mount? In reading the Life and Correspondence of Whether, for instance, the Beatitudes are true. Robertson, we are impressed with his earnest to fact? Whether the pure in heart shall see ness of purpose, the originality of some of his God? Any doubt, whether to have the mind views, and the tone of Christian charity that of Christ be salvation and rest? Well, if so, pervades the whole. Taking into consideration you may be content to leave much, if God will, his education and position in the established to unfold itself slowly; if not, you can quietly church, we can make allowance for some opin-wait for Eternity to settle it." ions not coincident with our own, and read with In relation to the limitations of science, he satisfaction the illustrations of Heavenly truth presented in his choice and glowing words. In answer to a friend who sought his advice in relation to religious investigation, he wrote as follows: "The condition of arriving at truth is not severe habits of investigation, but innocence of life and humbleness of heart. Truth is felt, not reasoned, out; and if there be any truths which are only appreciable by the acute understanding, we may be sure at once that these do not constitute the soul's life, nor error in these the soul's death. For instance, the metaphysics of God's Being, the plan,' as they call it, of salvation,' the exact distinction between the divine and human in Christ's Person. On all these subjects you may read and read till the brain is dizzy and the heart's action is stopped; so that of course the mind is bewildered. But on subjects of Right and Wrong, Divine and said, in a letter to a friend: "Some time ago I know that Faraday said he considered that they were just in sight of the discovery of the prin ciple of life, the distant discovery was already felt trembling along the line.' It is enough to make one's brain reel, indeed, to think on these things. "It appears to me, however, that great mistakes are made in the expectations entertained with respect to what science can do. The scientific mode of viewing things is simply human: it is not God's way. Creation is one thing,dissection is another. Dissection separates into organic parts, shows the flesh laid on the skeleton, &c.; but God did not make first a skeleton and then flesh. Life organized to itself its own body. And so, too, according to Science, the final cause of the sensibility of the skin, and the insensibility of the parts below the skin, is the protection of the parts most exposed from injury. The extremities of the fingers are most sensitive; the heart and bones have few nerves. Had this been reversed, had the skin been apathetic and the interior parts sensitive, great pain would have been the result, to no purpose, and the parts exposed might have been destroyed, burnt, or broken without giving warning of danger; whereas, as it is, the most delicate parts, like the eyelid, are protected by an acute sensibility, which defends them at the most distant approach of injury. "Well, the anatomist says the final cause of this arrangement, that is, the end which was the cause of its being so arranged, was the protection of the structure. Of course the anatomist can go no further; but there are ends, which the anatomist's science does not even touch, subserved by these sensibilities,-the education, for instance, of the character and heart through pain; a much higher end, properly speaking, more truly the final cause of pain, than the preservation of the organic framework from harm. In all such departments Science must forever be at fault. She has not the organ nor the intuitive sense whereby their truths are discovered." The following letter was, apparently, addressed to a young woman seeking for spiritual guidance: "My Dear- -Your mamma showed me your questions to her, and I offered to answer them as well as I can, though it would be easier to do so de vive voix than on paper. That respecting the personality of the Devil I have already answered in a letter to your sister, though I am not sure that it was sufficiently detailed to be quite satisfactory or intelligible. Remember, however, that the main thing is to believe in God, which is the chief article of all the creeds. Our salvation does not depend upon our having right notions about the devil, but right feelings about God. And if you hate evil, you are on God's side, whether there be a personal evil principle or not. I myself be lieve there is, but not so unquestioningly as to be able to say, I think it a matter of clear revelation. The Bible does reveal God, and except with a belief in God there will and can be no goodness. But I can conceive intense hatred of wrong with great uncertainty whether there be a Devil or not. Indeed many persons who believe in a Devil are worse instead of better for their belief, since they throw the responsibility of their acts off themselves on him. Do not torment yourself with such questions. The simpler ones are the deepest. "Next, as to St. James's assertion that faith without works profiteth nothing;' which appears to contradict St. Paul's, who says that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.' "Suppose I say, 'A tree cannot be struck without thunder,' that is true, for there is never destructive lightning without thunder. But, again, if I say, 'The tree was struck by lightning without thunder,' that is true, too, if I mean that the lightning alone struck it, without the thunder striking it. Yet read the two assertions together, and they seem contradictory. So, in the same way, St. Paul says, 'Faith justifies without works,'-that is, faith only is that which justifies us, not works. But St. James says, Not a faith which is without works.' There will be works with faith, as there is thunder with lightning; but just as it is not the thunder, but the lightning, the lightning without the thunder, that strikes the tree, so it is not the works which justify. Put it in one sentence,-Faith alone justifies: but not the Faith which is alone. Lightning alone strikes, but not the lightning which is alone without thunder; for that is only summer lightning, and harmless. You will see that there is an ambiguity in the words without and alone,' and the two apostles use them in different senses, just as I have used them in the above simile about the lightning. "All this will be more plain if you consider what faith is. It is that strong buoyant confidence in God and in His love which gives energy and spirit to do right without doubt or despondency. Where God sees that, He sees the spring and fountain out of which all good springs: He sees, in short, the very life of Christ begun, and he reckons that to be righteousness, just as a small perennial fountain in Gloucestershire is the Thames, though it is not as yet scarcely large enough to float a schoolboy's boat; and just as you call a small seedling not bigger than a little almond peeping above the ground, an oak: for the word 'justify' means not to be made righteous, but to reckon or account righteous. "Now observe, just as you count the seven springs to be the Thames without a flood of waters, and without the navy that rides on the Thames, and just as you call the sapling an oak, without the acorns, so God reckons the trust in Him as righteousness, because it is the fountain and the root of righteousness, being indeed, the life divine in the soul. He reckons it as such (that is, He justifies the soul that has it) without works, that is, before works are done, and not because of the works. But then that faith will not be without works; for the fountain must flow on, and the tree must grow, and the life of God in the soul, sanguine trust in God, the loving and good One, must spring up with acts; for to say that it does not would be to say that it is dead, or that it is like summer lightning, or like the gutter, which is running past my house now, after a shower of rain, and which is no perennial spring. St. Paul says, Works-mere acts-are not enough to justify us; because they are limited and im A SINGULAR SERMON, Delivered at Frankford, Pa., by JAMES SIMPSON, & beloved Minister of the Society of Friends, a few months before his decease. perfect. Ten thousand-a million-cannot, I work in us, it must be by, our behavior, gentle, because even a million is a limited number. humble, submissive, yet cordial and gay. Nothing can justify but faith, for faith is infinite, and immeasurable like a fountain. True, replies St. James. But then do not think that St. Paul means to say that a living fount of faith will be barren, without works. The faith which saves, is not that kind which has no piety, but that kind which is ever prolific,- a well of water springing up into everlasting life."" In another letter he wrote as follows: "I think the great main doctrine of Christ is that Truth is Light, and they who love the light come to it; that wisdom is justified by her children; that the Jews did not hear Him because they were not his sheep; and, therefore, that the Gospel was truth appealing to the heart much more than demonstrable to the senses. Hence, 'If they heard not Moses and the Prophets, neither would they we persuaded' by the most marvellous miracle. "But this did not include a secondary kind of proof for a lower kind of mind; see, especially, John xiv. 11, where the two kinds of proofs are given, and one subordinated to the other. It is quite consistent with God's wisdom to reveal Himself to the senses as well as the soul; and if the Gospel were utterly deficient in this latter kind of proof, one great evidence that it is from God would be wanting,-an evidence which we are justified in expecting from the analogies of nature. God has written His glory, for instance, in the heart; at the same time, He has so constructed the visible universe that the heavens declare the glory of God.' And when the Eternal Word is manifested into the world, we naturally expect that divine power shall be shown as well as divine beneficence. Miracles, therefore, are exactly what we should expect, and I acknowledge, a great corroboration and verification of His claims to Sonship. Besides they startled and aroused many to His claims who otherwise would not have attended to them. Still the great truth remains untouched, that they, appealing only to the natural man, cannot convey the spiritual certainty of truth which the spiritual man alone apprehends. However, as the natural and spiritual in us are both from God, why should not God have spoken both to the natural and spiritual part of us; and why should not Christ appeal to the natural works, subordinato always to the spiritual self-evidence of Truth itself." (To be continued.) IT is not in speaking of God that we can express what we feel concerning God, for this is injurious to us. Trust me, in order to speak of God, you must rest silent concerning Him a long time. God wishes a silence over all that He works in us; and if we would manifest his "What I am now going to relate is but a simple story, and it is probable one of you may have heard me tell it before; but it has taken such possession of my mind, that I thought I would just drop it for your consideration. When I was a young man, there lived in our neighborhood a Presbyterian, who was universally reported to be a very liberal man, and uncommonly upright in his dealings. When he had any of the produce of his farm to dispose of, he made it an invariable rule to give good measure, over good, rather more than could be required of him. One of his friends observing him frequently doing so, questioned him why he did it-told him he gave too much, and said it could not be to his own advantage. Now my friends, mark the answer of this Presbyterian. God Almighty has permitted me but one journey through the world, and when gone I cannot return to rectify mistakes. Think of this friendsbut one journey through the world; the hours that are past are gone forever, and the actions in those hours can never be recalled. I do not throw it out as a charge, nor mean to imply that any of you are dishonest, but the words of this Presbyterian have often impressed my mind, and I think in an instructive manner. But one journey-we are allowed but one journey through the world; therefore, let none of us say, "My tongue is my own, I'll talk what I please. My time is my own, I'll go where I please; I can go to meetings, or, if the world calls me, I'll stay at home-it's all my own." Now this won't do, friends. It is as impossible for us to live as we list, and then come here to worship, as it is for a lamp to burn without oil. It is utterly impossible. And I was thinking He is a comwhat a droll composition man is. pound of bank notes, dollars, cents, and newspapers, and bringing as it were the world on his back, he comes here to perform worship, or at least would have it appear so. Now, friends, I just drop it before we part for your consideration, let each one try himself, and see how it is with his own soul." It is a day of unusual excitement and inquiry in every region of religious thought. In quietness and confidence, in humility and watchfulness, will be our safety and our strength. And while it is our duty to uphold unflinchingly the doctrines and testimonies given us as a church to bear, may we strive to possess our souls in patience, that whether our controversy with what we believe to be error be oral or espistolary, we may conduct it towards those of our brethren from whom we are compelled to differ, in a spirit of Christian love and forbearance, to the furtherance of the great interests of truth and righteousness, remembering that if we are in possession of the truth, the best evidence we can give of our faith in its omnipotent power is a calm confidence in the assertion of it.—British Friend. Liberty has been obtained from the author to publish the following address, which we commend to the careful perusal of our young Friends. It contains many useful "hints" and much valuable information. EDs. An Address delivered at the request of the facts to aid in taking straight and firm steps in the pathway of education and the duties of life; and I ardently crave that the time we are now together may not be entirely lost, but that each one of my precious young friends present may gain at least one new idea by the discourse you hear, or have one of value, which was before possessed, more permanently fixed. I am informed that the present session of your school will, for the summer, close this pleasant exercise, so as to allow you a remission from school duties till fall, when, it is not doubted, you will return to them with renewed interest and vigor. These periods of cessation from any particular engagement have their use in the mental economy, and may be compared to the moulting in insects, and a similar condition in trees. The silk-worm, for instance, eats and grows for some time, then both processes cease, and a state of quiet ensues, during which it is acquiring force to throw off the impediment to its further development; and this being ef fected, it commences with renewed vigor to eat and grow again. My Young Friends:-I have been invited by the board of Teachers of Friends' First-day School in Baltimore, to deliver an address to the interesting company of young persons under Also, the trees, after the summer's growth their charge, and I have accepted the invitation; and development, shed their leaves, and rest not on the supposition that I possess any through the winter. But this is not a useless greater qualification of being useful to you condition; they are laborating, during this pethan they; or that I am likely to impart any riod of repose, materials which will enable ideas or truths that you have not already re-themceived from them, although I may clothe them in a somewhat different dress, so as to appear as something new; but I come to afford a little variety in your exercises, in harmony with the Poet's assertion that "Variety is the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor," and with the still higher authority, that "in the mouths of two or three witnesses every word shall be established." I am not about to endeavor to entertain, but to instruct you. My remarks to you on the present occasion will, designedly, not be wholly adapted to your present capacities, but they may be likened to an inclined plane, of which the lower part is slid under your feet, while I invite and encourage you to strive to go up higher and higher; or to a cord, of which I give you hold of one end, while the other end is attached to immutable Truth, and I encourage you to climb up yourselves. - "To put their graceful foliage on again, So, I have no doubt, it will be with you, my young friends. Your remission through the summer will afford opportunity to digest and arrange the intellectual acquirements already attained, and enable you to resume your exercises in the fall, with renewed energy and efficiency. Your present period of life is that devoted to the acquisition of information, both of a literary and a business kind, to qualify you for future usefulness. To secure this great object -a qualification for future usefulness-the two essential requirements are to develope, strengthen and discipline the mind and heart; and to preserve the physical constitution in a healthy, vigorous tone; and I propose to give you some of the most practical views I possess from observation and experience, upon both these points. First-in respect to the mind-it is a very common remark, especially by girls, in relation to Now that I am with you, what shall I talk studying arithmetic, or something which reto you about? Most of you are entire strangers quires close thought, that "there is no use in to me; I am not at all acquainted with your my learning this, for I never expect to have attainments, your tastes, your expectations on any occasion to use it." My young friends, the present occasion, or any exterior thing that this is not the point. The primary object in will enable me to adapt my discourse to the par-school study is to strengthen and discipline ticular circumstances that exist among you; the mind, to develope the intellectual faculties; but the bright, intelligent and inquiring coun- and such studies, especially if they are difficult tenances before me, speak a desire for practical to you, are eminently calculated to do this—and This effort in the use of your own minds, is what will benefit you. |
