while the grain is in the milk; and farmers | ing interfered with, except to supply the evaposometimes have supposed these birds are the cause of the trouble, not knowing that they are their best friends. The Warblers include nearly forty species of small birds, and exclusively insectivorous, most of which are very beautiful, and many of them sweet singers. In the spring they feed on plant lice, as found in orchards; in the fall, as they migrate to the South, they stop and feed on the late brood of Palmer worms that so infest our elm and maple trees, thus becoming exceedingly fat. The Whippoorwill is a nocturnal bird, and its beak is so formed that it takes in moths as a net takes in fish. The eyes of flies enable them to see all around them, and the muscular force of their wings is so quick that they can dodge the rain drops in a shower; yet the swallow and the house martin feed almost exclusively on winged insects, which are taken on the wing by these serial feeders. ration of the water, and the acorn will burst, and as it throws a root down into the water, a sprout or stem will be sent upward, throwing out beautiful leaves, thus giving you an oak tree, in full life and health, within your parlor ! There are many of the mosses which can be very successfully grown in the house through the winter, and with the foregoing afford an interesting and refined enjoyment for the inmates of a family, and give real pleasure to all who have a taste for the beautiful. We trust to see a greater inclination on the part of the ladies to introduce into their household arrangements this most agreeable addition to their domestic pleasures and home enjoyments. Thorough Cultivation. Professor Voelker, of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, a distinguished agricultural scientist, remarks, in summing up on this subject, as follows: Thorough cultivation involves— 1. The mechanical pulverization of the soil, giving a better seed bed, and making the parti cles more accessible to the action of the roots. 2. Better drainage, and at the same time better ability to withstand drouth, the soil being moist and mellow where it would otherwise be baked and hard. 3. The cooperation of the atmosphere in further decomposing the comminuted particles of soil, and setting free the mineral elements of 4. The absorption from the atmosphere of a greater portion of its ammonia and carbonic acid for the direct nourishment of vegetable life. 5. The increased effect of manures, from their more complete intermixture and consequently more perfect action. The foregoing are good and substantial reasons why birds should be preserved. Others will be given hereafter. Let these suffice for the present; and there can hardly be a doubt that, when all the reasons for preserving birds are weighed against the few for destroying them, they will be permitted to live, and sing to delight the lovers of Nature, as well as to destroy vermin. Winter Floral Culture Indoors. Many beau-the growing plant. tiful plant and floral experiments can be carried on indoors during the winter. How many of the readers of the Transcript are doing so? Yet, how many more are doing nothing of the kind, that might pleasantly do so. The vine of the sweet potato may be trained over the mantelpiece, by placing a potato in a tumbler or other glass vessel, filled with water, passing a pin through the tuber so as to keep the lower end from an inch to two inches from the bottom of the vessel. Keep it on the mantel-shelf in a warm room, and every day give it sun for an hour or two, and in a few days rootings will begin to appear, aiming for the bottom of the vessel, and in two or three weeks the eye will begin to shoot and rapidly grow and run upon suspended twine or any little trellis-work prepared for it. The dioscorea babatas is the prettiest for this and Elevation of the Freedmen has received since purpose, when it can be obtained. The "Morning Glory" can be propagated in parlor windows, where there is some sun, to perfection during winter; it flowers with its natural colors, and the delicate little vine can be made to run over the window. A hanging vase is the prettiest for this. Suspend an acorn by a cotton thread so as nearly to touch the water in a glass vessel (a byacinth glass is perhaps the best ;) set upon the window or mantel, and let it remain there for eight or ten weeks, more or less, without be 6. The cleansing of the land from weeds, which not only abstract the nourishment due to the growing crop, but also generate successors, continually multiplying themselves from year to year. 7. The better condition of the field for machine work; it dulls the knives of a reaper or mower, and leads to frequent breakages, to cut through the clods on a roughly-seeded field. The Treasurer of Friends' Association for the Aid last report: From City contributions....... ... $10.00 66 Rachel Haines, Fallston, Md.. 10.00 22.00 2.00 แ Sarah C. Parke, Camden, N. J............ 10.00 20.00 2.50 Donations received in aid of "The Orphan's From "Friends' Association for the Aid and ..... F. S. Wilson............... ........... James Mott Deborah F. Wharton........................................... แ H. M. Laing.. Charles Wharton...... Rachel W. Moore................................................... Jacob M. Ellis............................................................... Abraham Barker........... Friend," per W. H. Furness... Ellis Yarnall....... $250 00 10 00 25 00 4.00 1 00 500 9.00 1 00 10 00 5000 20 00 10 00 10 00 10 00 80 00 20.00 100 00 10 00 50 00 25.00 50 00 ITEMS. CONGRESS.-Little of general interest transpired in Congress during the past week. The amendments to the reconstruction bill passed both Houses, and went to the President for his signature. The House passed the bill for the relief of destitution in the South. It provides that the Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau may use the fund under his charge for the purposes indicated. In the Senate a resolution was presented declaring that the longer confinement of Jeff. Davis without a trial, or without having a time definitely fixed for his trial, is not in accordance with the demands of justice, and that the national honor and public policy require that he should be brought to trial, or released from confinement on proper recognizances. The resolution was ordered to be printed. A resolution was reported exempting from duties objects of art imported for presentation to the United States, or to a State or city; and also on agricultural implements and machinery imported for experiment, or as models. A veto message was received from the President on the supplementary reconstruction bill, and notwithstanding the objections, on being reconsidered, was passed by both Houses over the veto. In the Senate the Committee on Indian Affairs was instructed to report upon the expediency of removing the Indians in the States to the Indian territory. A resolution was adopted in the House recommending that each of the Southern States in the progress of reconstruction insert a provision in the Constitution requiring the Legislature to maintain and establish a system of free public schools, open to all the children of the State. THE Western papers report a destructive flood along the course of the Ohio River. The Evansville Journal says: From Evansville almost to Newburg the wild waste of waters has no visible boundaries. The waters are pouring across the neck of land between Evansville and Henderson, with great violence. Enterprise is totally submerged, but the people wisely provided for such a contingency by | building their houses on stilts about a foot higher than high water mark, and are in no special danger of being washed away. No intercourse, however, can be held between neighboring houses except in boats. Taylorsport, Rome, Alton and the lower portion of Cannelton were innundated and the residents were compelled to move to the second story. Hundreds of houses along the shore are partially submerged, the inhabitants having been compelled to vacale. In many cases, houses are standing on a small elevation entirely surrounded by water, the residents having no means of intercourse with the rest of mankind except in boats. There are no river banks from Louisville to Cairo. On Green river, also, an unprecedented flood prevails, inunda. ting nearly all the towns and villages. The towns of Calhoun and Rumsey are submerged. The Knoxville Commercial says that East Tennessee is literally covered with mud. The Holston river is over its banks and immense beds of flood-wood are floating by. Dr. David Livingstone, the well-known African tra velier, was born at Blantyre, near Glasgow, Scotland, in 1815. At ten years of age, being the son of a man engaged in a cotton mill, he began the labors of life, as a "piecer" in the same mill. Even at this early age he contrived to devote the little leisure allowed to a boy in such a life to mental culture, and through the medium of self-instruction and attendance at evening schools, he managed to obtain a competent knowledge of English, Latin and Greek, botany and geology, and other branches of natural science. In his nineteenth year, still being in the cotton mill, he commenced the acquirement of a knowledge of medicine and divinity, with a view of going to China as a medical missionary. A war be tween England and China frustrating bis purpose, he went to Africa in the summer of 1840, and for sixteen years was engaged in travel and in his missionary labors at various stations in South Africa. In 1855, the Royal Geographical Society of England conferred upon him its Victoria medal, and in the 8Яme year he made his great journey across Southern Africa from ocean to ocean. Visiting England in the following year, he was received with the highest distinctions. In 1857 be published his "Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa." He returned to Africa in 1858, to resume his geographical explorations, an account of which formed the subject of another work, which received the same marked popularity and approval as the first. At this time be made bis last visit home, and again returning to the scene of his life-long labors, he has at last been sacrificed by the Caffres, a tribe of the people whose condition be cherished as among the most celebrated of the was trying to ameliorate. His name will long be world's famous travellers.-Ex. Paper. THE FREEDMEN.-On the 20th inst. Gov. Geary signed the bill to allow colored persons to ride in all public conveyances. At a meeting in Savannab, Ga., on the 18th inst, about three thousand negroes assembled, and were addressed by three white and five colored speakers. The speeches were confined to universal suffrage, and the right to sit on a jury. The meeting passed off very quietly. A late citizen of Pittsburg, Charles Avoy, left $150,000 in trust to be appropriated, according to the best judgment of the executors, to the "education and elevation of the colored people in the United States and Canadas." $25,000 of this amount has been paid to Oberlin College, which is to furnish free tuition to fifty of its most needy colored students who may apply for it. FRIENDS' INTELLIGENCER. "TAKE FAST HOLD OF INSTRUCTION; LET HER NOT GO; KEEP HER; FOR SHE IS THY LIFE." Review of the Life and Discourses of F. W. Robertson........ 65 COMMUNICATIONS MUST BE ADDRESSED AND PAYMENTS Selections from the Writings of John Barclay. OBITUARY........ At Publication Office, No. 144 North Seventh Street, EDITORIAL Open from 9 A.M. until 5 P.M. Residence, 809 North Seventeenth Street. TERMS:-PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. The Paper is issued every Seventh-day, at Three Dollars per annum. $2.50 for Clubs; or, four copies for $10. Agents for Clubs will be expected to pay for the entire Club. The Postage on this paper, paid in advance at the office where It is received, in any part of the United States, is 20 cents a year. AGENTS-Joseph S. Cohn, New York. Henry Haydock, Brooklyn, N. Y. Benj. Stratton, Richmond, Ind. William H. Churchman, Indianapolis, Ind. REVIEW OF THE LIFE AND DISCOURSES OF BY SAMUEL M. JANNEY 66 09 71 72 73 73 ..... 74 75 ... 76 ........ 76 78 .... 78 The Revelations of Science more Wonderful than Fiction..... 79 ITEMS........ 60 80 it, and while we reject what we cannot approve, we should evince towards all a Christian charity. While we object most decidedly to the system which educates men expressly for the ministry in schools of theology, and gives them Books of sermons are usually accounted, by a stipendiary support in reward for their serthe reading public, peculiarly dull; yet the vices, we must admit that many of these, discourses of Robertson have, within a few through the illumination of divine grace, have years, passed through five English and ten been instruments of good to mankind. Let us American editions, being a circulation almost therefore accept what is good wherever we find unparalleled in this class of literature. They do not come under the head of sermons written before delivery, but are mostly recollections of discourses delivered extempore, or from very brief notes, and afterwards written out in substance, by the preacher, at the request of his friends. The author of them had a very brief career,he died at thirty-seven,-and great as was the impression produced by his discourses in the community where he lived and labored, still greater has been the effect of their publication on many thousands of thoughtful minds. Before we enter upon the life and labors of Robertson, it may not be inappropriate to advert briefly to the condition of the established Church of England, and the progress of religious opinion in that country. There is now a wide diversity of doctrine and practice in the Anglican Church. The parties existing in it are designated as the High Church, the Low Church, and the Broad Church. The first of these are sometimes called It may be queried by some members of our Puseyites, and are distinguished for their devoReligious Society, Can any good come out of tion to forms and ceremonies; hence their wor Nazareth? Can we be profited by reading ship is said to be a return to the ritualism of passages from the writings of one who occupied the Romanists. In many of their places the pulpit in a National Church? Those of us of worship they burn candles on their altars, who have read the writings of a'Kempis and they bow whenever the name of Jesus is proFenelon, and the sermons of Dell and Blair, nounced, their prayers and psalms are chanted which have been favorite works in Friends' fami- by boys dressed in white, and the officiating. lies, must acknowledge that from the Catholic priests are arrayed in gorgeous vestments. prelate and the Protestant divine we have de- They preach the doctrine of baptismal regenerarived instruction and enjoyment. tion, which means that the soul of a child is regenerated by sprinkling a little water in its face aud pronouncing a form of words; they main * Published by Ticknor & Fields, Boston. tain that the "Holy communion is a sacrifice"¡ made on the altar, and that the bread and wine they offer become the body and blood of Christ, being presented as a sin offering to obtain pardon for their offences. The priest says to his congregation, "You must believe that the bread and wine become the real body and blood, with the soul and Godhead of Jesus Christ, when I pronounce the words, 'This is my body, this is my blood.'" The manifest tendency of the High Church party is towards Romanism, and some of its prominent adherents have joined the Catholic Church; but ritualism is so répugnant to the spirit of the age, that we hope it will gradually decline, and ere long be regarded as an excrescence that has no proper connexion with Christian faith or worship. The Low Church, or Evangelical party, worship in a manner less inconsistent with scripture and reason, and some of them denounce ritualism as idolatry. They retain, however, the litany or form of prayer; they sing instead of chanting, and administer the sacrament as a memorial of Christ's sufferings for the sins of the world; they adhere to the doctrines of ori ginal sin, the Trinity and vicarious atonement, on which many of them insist as articles of belief essential to salvation. cannot be repressed, and the earnestness with which they are discussed may be regarded as a presage that some of the dogmas of popular theology are about to be discarded, and that ceremonial observances will be superseded by practical piety. The position of F. W. Robertson was that of an independent thinker, willing to receive light from any source, and valiant enough to declare his convictions in the face of opposition. He had no sympathy with ritualism, neither did he unite in sentiment with the Evangelicals. His position is thus defined in a letter to one of his friends: " My motto for life, my whole heart's expression is, None but Christ;' not in the (so-called) evangelical sense, which I take to be the sickliest cant that has appeared since the Pharisees bare record to the gracious words which he spake and then tried to cast him headlong from the hill of Nazareth; but in a deeper and real sense,-the mind of Christ; to feel as He felt, to judge the world and estimate the world's maxims as He judged and estimated. That is the one thing worth living for. To realize that, is to feel none but Christ.' But then in proportion as a man does that, he is stripping himself of garment after garment, till his soul becomes naked of that which once seemed part of himself; he is not only giving up prejudice after prejudice, but also renouncing sympathy after sympathy with friends whose smile and approbation was once his life, till he begins to suspect that he will be very soon alone with Christ. More awful than I can express. To believe that, and still press on. is what I mean by the sentence, 'None but Christ."" (To be continued.) earth to heaven; take one of the arches away, Truth is a bridge over which we travel from and the bridge falls; or, like steps, take any away, and the passage is dangerous and dif ficult. The great mass of Orthodox Dissenters in England coincide with the Low Church in essentials, and are embraced in the Evangelical party which represents the prevailing religious sentiment in Great Britain. They proclaim as the basis of their faith, "The Bible, and the Bible only is the religion of Protestants." "Human reason they affirm to be depraved, and consciousness wholly unworthy of reliance." The term Broad Church is applied to a class of churchmen whose prevailing sentiments may be found in a volume entitled, "Essays and Reviews," republished in Boston under the title of "Recent Inquiries in Theology." The authors of this work occupy high positions in the church and in collegiate institutions, and being men of great ability and learning, it occasioned a profound sensation in England that has been felt to some extent in this country. The chief subjects discussed in the EsCROYDON, 5th of First month, 1835. says and Reviews are Biblical researches, the Thy communication of the 6th ult. was very relation of modern science to revealed religion, welcome and refreshing to us. O! how reand the interpretation of Scripture. These and markable are the ways of omnipoteut Wisdom, kindred subjects are treated with a boldness infinite love! As Pennington somewhere says, and breadth of thought seldom equalled in theo--if its outgoings are stopped in one direction, logicial subjects. By some they are condemned it will break out with proportionate beauty and as daring innovations on popular theology, by others lauded as the evidences of religious progress. It is remarkable that a national church should tolerate among its teachers such a diversity of religious belief and expression. We live in an age when the investigation of such subjects SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF JOHN BARCLAY. (Continued from page 51.) To force in another. O! what can the enemy do to hinder the glorious arising and irresistible spread of the gospel of Truth and salvation? He may vaunt and do great things for awhile, such as may, if it were possible, delude and carry away the very elect; and all the world may wonder at the beast:-but the Lamb and his followers must and shall have the victory; and the kingdom and dominion are given to the saints, even the tribulated witnesses and partakers of that power and faith of Jesus Christ, against which the gates of hell itself shall never be able to prevail. Though it would be very pleasant to be personally near to thee, and to the numerous company whom thou and I have seen coming forth to the barren wilderness of professions into the green pastures of life, and into the quiet habitation where none can make afraid, yet it seems as if my right allotment for the present might be far otherwise; and with that and every condition I am desirous to be well content in the hope and assurance that while in this state of resignation nothing can be better for me, and all things shall turn to my good, and tend to His honor, who is all worthy forever. which stands in power, in truth, in love, in peace, and in the abasement of the creature. O! may this blessed work with you and everywhere else go forward, notwithstanding all opposition or misgivings; and may all that would let, with every weight, be laid aside, and removed out of the way, saith my soul! Whatever may be the good pleasure of Him who raised us up by the breath of his word, with regard to our undisturbed enjoyment of those sweet privileges of fellowship together, as a visibly distinct body of which we have so long and so unworthily partaken,-it is more and more clear to me that the faithful and those that humble themselves in the dust before Him will never be utterly forsaken or forgotten: that these will never be altogether disappointed of their confidence, though they have the bread of affliction and water of adversity administered for a long season and in large measure:-the Lord will still have a people peculiarly formed for Himself, who shall purely show forth his praise, and be enabled to lift up His standard to the nations. Those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in very truth, not feignedly,-and who in proof thereof are given up to follow him in the regeneration and daily cross, I trust will not be permitted to be moved by afflictions, nor carried away by delusions nor exalted by abundance of revelations, nor turned aside by the business or the pleasures, the cares or the riches of this life, or by love of other things: but these are concerned to lie low before the Lord, and to be crucified with Christ; that so they may say in truth, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth," and moveth, and reigneth "in me." To J. B. 12th of First month, 1835.-I understood It seems, indeed, as if the Lord was mustering his host for the battle,-his little remnant, whom he ever delights to hide in the hollow of his hand, while they are singly given up to serve Him in true heartedness: sometimes also he signally commands deliverances for them, though the enemy may seem to be coming in as a flood, and ready to devour all before him. But what, as thou writest, shall we say to these things? Is there not occasion for us, through all that we meet with here, in everything to rejoice and to give thanks. "The Lord liveth, and blessed be our Rock;" "because He liveth," whose mercies are so renewed to us, do we "live also" from day to day, and have at times a precious degree of hope given to us that we shall outlive all that can happen to us here, and be safely landed in the end where joy and peace abound for evermore. O! then, may we each in our allotment of labor, suffering, or rejoicing, fill up our measure; and work with a good heart while it is day,-while we see the to say that she believed, from the extenway open before us,-in full assurance of faith sive opportunities she had had of judging and love; turning neither to the right hand among all kinds of churches and professions, nor to the left, and endeavoring (for we cannot that the enemy was busily at work to scatter always succeed herein,) to keep the unity of and divide; and that, therefore, we had great the Spirit in the bond of sound and true peace. need of care, that we do not his work by giving I rejoice in every opening and appearance of way to unfounded or unnecessary surmisings, good among any people; but I cannot rejoice or misgiving, or apprehensions as to the exist in finding a falling short of that, in which Di-ence of defection in doctrine among us. So far vine grace would establish all who know its from uniting with this sentiment in an unqualiteachings. Some of us seem to be made more fied manner, it seems to me that though the use of in the way of inviting, attracting, graft-enemy is busily at work, as has been said, this ing and gathering, others in proving, confirm is not all; but that the Lord also is at work, ing, settling and furthering those, who are breaking up the false rests and old formal settlebrought into the fold or planted in the enclo ments of people; and saying to many, "Why sure. I long that none of the laborers among you more particularly may interfere in their own will and wisdom with the services of others, that our comfort in the Lord and one in another may not be marred. May we all be builded together, and seek also to build up one another in the main thing-our holy faith, seek ye the living among the dead?" and his design in all these shakings, and siftings, and overturnings is that that which cannot be shaken may be manifested and may remain; that men may see that it will not do any longer to go after the Lo! here's, or Lo! there's, in this or that system of observations; but that |