diately laid aside, and the man hastened to] I think my heart will break.... Some new the house of God: his soul was troubled, object of complaint comes every moment; nor could he find rest until he found it at sicknesses come thicker and thicker; friends the cross of Christ. LUKE xiii. 28, “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets. in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out." are fewer and fewer. The recollection of youth, health, and powers of activity,neither improved nor enjoyed, is a poor strain of comfort." My wife and the child of my hopes are dead. My only surviving child is consigned to a living tomb,-a lunatic asylum. My last hopes are blighted. As for fame, it is a bubble that must soon burst. Earned for others, shared with others, it was sweet; but at my age, to my own solitary experience, it Left in my chamber alone with "Save me from the horrors of a gaol," were almost the dying words of the poet A CHILD'S INFLUENCE." One day," says Burns. Campbell, who wrote "The Pleaa lady, speaking of her early years, "when I sures of Hope," speaks in this melancholy was returning home, I saw my dear mother strain: "I am alone in the world. sitting on a bank in the orchard, weeping bitterly. I thought she was weeping on account of my father's death. I went to her, and asked her why she wept so? Her answer was, ' I may well weep, to see my children taking the kingdom of heaven by violence, while I myself shall be shut out.' As well as I was able, I pointed her to the is bitter. Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of myself, is it wonderful my philosophy at the world; from that time, the work of times takes flight; that I rush into compagrace in her soul began." ny; resort to that which blunts but heals ECCLES. i. 2, “ Vanity of vanities, saith the dissatisfied with myself, shrink back into no pang; and then, sick of the world and Preacher; all is vanity." APPEAL TO SABBATH-SCHOOLS, Or what every scholar, teacher, and friend of the cause in the United States does, when VANITY OF WORLDLY GREATNESS.-The solitude?" Poor Campbell! What a change great Wolsey, after he had climbed the would have passed over him if he had exhighest round of ambition's ladder, in the changed his philosophy for Christianity,evening of life bitterly exclaimed, “Would if he had known the pleasures of Christian that I had served my God as faithfully as I hope,--if in the realized presence of the inhave served my king! He would not have visible Jesus, and His unutterable sympathy, abandoned me in my old age." The illus- he had found ❝ the balm of Gilead," to heal, trious statesman, William Pitt, the favorite not to blunt, the pangs of his wounded spirit!-Bullock. of king and people, "died," says Wilberforce, his friend, "of a broken heart." On his dying bed he is stated to have said, "I fear I have neglected prayer too much to make it available on a death-bed." Still more distressing was the closing scene of he contributes money to the Sabbath-school Sheridan's career. He who had stood on department of the American and Foreign the pinnacle of glory, and gained the most Christian Union : flattering distinctions, writes in old age to one of his friends, "I am absolutely undone and broken-hearted." Misfortunes crowded on him, and his last moments were haunted by fears of a prison. Forsaken by his gay associates, dispirited, and world-weary, he closed his eyes in gloom and sorrow. Sir Walter Scott thus gives his dirge of life.Referring to his departure from Abbotsford III. He contributes wisely to Foreign he writes: "When I think what this place missions, because emissaries educated and now is, and what it has been not long ago, sustained by the above-named countries, I. He exercises and expands his benevolent emotions by giving for an object he knows how to appreciate. II. He promotes the Biblical religious education of the youth of Mexico, Central and South America, France, Belgium, Italy and some other countries not less populous and important. tributions to the American Board, by their hostile attempts to thwart their plans and break up their missionary stations. neutralize and counteract the effect of con- VI. But although the importance of the foregoing considerations is almost infinite, there is another, which, at the present moment, transcends all, to wit.: by these contributions he helps to guarantee the preservation of our civil and religious institutions. Few will deny that these are greatly endangered by political combinations at home and abroad, and by the character and amount of imigration which is now drifting from the above-named countries into our own. If we check the fountain we may stay the flood, but the action, to be effective, should be prompt. IV. He, in the cheapest and best way, substitutes a genuine for a perverted view of Christianity, and removes superstition, which is at once a stumbling block to the heathen, and the fruitful source of infidelity throughout Christendom. V. He contributes to raise up a most faithful army of missionaries by these schools on the very ground where now are the semi naries of error. FRANCE. THE FOREIGN FIELD. PARIS, May 18, 1865. finitely the origin of these addresses, I will add here a short account of it. You are aware that in this season of the the Protestant and Evangelical Societies of France and other contiguous countries, hold their Anniversaries in this city, consequently the leading ministers, elders and committee-men, are congregated here. Besides other meetings held this year, and in session about the time of the reception of the sad news of the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, and the attack on Secretary Seward, were those of the Reformed Church of France, the Lutheran Church of France, the Free Church of France, with representations of each and some others, as the Baptists, &c. MY DEAR BROTHER:--I send you the following documents, premising that on Mon-year, the last of April and the first of May, day, the 15th inst., I was visited at my house by the Pastors, G. Monod and L. Ruesford informally, who stated that they had been deputed by the General Conference annually held in Paris, to present me with the addresses prepared on behalf of the Protestant Christains of France, Belgium, Switzerland and other countries, on the occasion of the assassination of Mr. Lincoln. They stated that they regarded me as the proper representative of American Christians in Paris, and wished me to forward the addresses to America in such manner as I deemed most likely to accomplish the object in view; which they in the most fraternal and sympathizing manner expressed to be the strengthening of Christain bonds between the friends of Christ in Europe and America, as well as a testimony of their judgment of the events, which have so recently overwhelmed our own people and awakened the deepest sensibility of the entire world. The delegates of the Reformed Church and those of the Lutheran Church, being assem bled together in the chapel of the Oratoire in the Rue de l'Oratoire du Louvre, May 26th, passed unanimously the address to the American people, and the address to Mrs. Lincoln, copies of which I send you. Afterwards in the meeting of the General Conference, held in the same church building, May 1st and 2nd, which meeting was composed of delegates from the Reformed, Lutheran, Free, Baptist, and other churches of France, Belgium, Switzerland and other continental countries, the address to the American people, and that to Mrs. Lincoln, were universally adopted, as they had before In order that you may know more de- passed in the meeting of April 26th, and To this statement of the reverend gentlemen, though taken wholly by surprise, I proposed, as well as I was able, a brief reply, which I understood them would be translated and published in all the journals of Protestantism here, and a copy of which I herewith enclose to you. these two addresses having been published in mentation the song of triumph and thanksseveral journals of France, I herewith send giving. The name of Abraham Lincoln symyou a copy of the text in French, with my bolizes in our eyes one of the fairest causes own translation. But the Grand Conference, which can ever inflame the heart, and it is in its meeting of May 1st and 2nd, also at the moment when that cause emerges at adopted, unanimously, an address to the length victorious from a cruel struggle, that American ministry and Christians, the origi- he to whom the principal honor of it reverts, nal manuscript of which, as presented to perishes, the victim of an inexplicable fanme by the adoption, I send to you as well aticism. It wanted this horror to the naas my own translation of the same. And ture of slavery, this consecration to the bearthey passed a fourth address to the French er of victory, this halo on the brow of the pastors and churches, a private copy of defender of liberty. which I send you. Madame, we do not seek to console you PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND THE FRENCH PRO- by the thought of the glory henceforth connected with the name of your husband, TESTANTS. At one of the special sessions of the con-whom future ages will rank as we do to-day ferences at the Oratoire, Count Pelet de la among the benefactors of the human race. Lozère moved an address to the Christians But directing still higher your thoughts of America, on the subject of the death of and ours, let us adore the mysterious will President Lincoln. The address was uni- of God, who has designed to make Abraham versally adopted. At the same time the Lincoln one of those powerful instruments pastor, Steeg, moved a collective letter which He employs in the accomplishment of to the widow of the President, expressing to His designs, and who has permitted that her the profound sympathy of the assembly. he should be removed from this world, afThis letter was also voted with unanimity. ter the labors and sorrows of the conflict. We show from the bottom of our heart ADDRESS TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. The pastors and elders of the two nation- our grief, which is not only a national al churches of France (the Reformed Church grief, but which fills all humanity with and the Church of the Confession of Augs- sadness. We pray God to console you as bourg) assembled in conference, on the occaHe alone can do it, and to show you by sion of the annual religious assemblies, justly faith, the man whom we deplore with you moved by the catastrophe which has de- in the kingdom of those where God gathers prived the United States of America of His children, illustrious, or obscure, in the their wise and pious President, desire to presence of Jesus Christ, who has given His express to their brethren in the United life for the salvation of the world. We exStates, their profound horror of the assass-press the hope, that the indignation excited ination committed on their glorious Presi- by this abominable act, may change nothing dent, and on his distinguished minister, of the thoughts of charity which has just Mr. Seward; and their hopes that the great crowned the work of emancipation. God citizen, who lately presided over their des- will now complete this work, and pour out tinies, has in his successor a man worthy to His blessings upon the people of the United continue his generous and Christain un- States, so cruelly tried, upon you, Madame, dertaking. and upon so many thousands of souls, who have borne the tribute of their sufferings in this violent anguish to their native land. This expression of their sympathy will be presented to his excellency, the minister of the United States, at Paris. LETTER TO MRS. LINCOLN. TO THE PASTORS AND MINISTERS OF THE PARIS, 2d May, 1865. MADAME: We have received, with a feeling of stupefaction, the tidings of the crime which has just plunged into mourning your family, and all the people of the United States, and has so suddenly changed to la- tors, minister and elders, or active members PARIS, May 15th, 1865. To Messrs. the Pastors, G. Monod and L. pects that might well have shaken a faith less firm than yours. Your sympathy is now, therefore, all the more to us, because it is not only hereditary and fruitful, but also intelligent and sincere. of the Protestant Churches, coming from all parts of France, and joined also by pastors and elders from Belgium, Switzerland, and other countries, desire to express to you CHRISTIAN BRETHREN—In accepting the their profound and earnest sympathy. Three duty you have this day, for yourselves and days ago it had been the sympathy of thanks- the great bodies you represent, so affecting. giving to God and of holy joy—to day it is ly confided to me, I wish to answer for myat the same time a sympathy of grief and self, and I think also for the Christians of almost of stupefaction. America, that profoundly moved by a sudWe were blessing God for the progress of den and grievous event at home, we are not the grand cause of the emancipation of the less won by the kindness which you spontabondmen in the United States, and were neously extend in this crisis of our individual rendering thanks to Him for the powerful and national affliction. We know that you co-operation which the American pulpit had have always understood the cause of liberty afforded in this work-precious answers to in the Western hemisphere, and that you our prayers for the churches of America have borne up that cause by your prayers and their pastors!—when we received the and by your testimony in the face of prosfrightful news of the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, the noble Emancipator of the Slaves. It seems as if God would seal with this precious blood as with that of a martyr the victory of the cause for which he has struggled and suffered. With you and with We do not mourn so much for Mr. Linthe whole world we lament this great man coln, who departs in the fullness of his days, and this great Christian. But in lamenting nor for the government which casualties do him, we recall the beautiful words he pro- not impede, nor for the Nation whose living nounced on the day of his second inaugura- sons worthily supply the places of the illus tion, and which expressed with so much trious dead, nor for the country whose instiforce and simplicity his confidence in God. tutions sorely tested grow nobler and firmer We render thanks to God for the admirable than before, nor for the church which though work which it has been given to Abraham walking amid the flames of civil war, remains Lincoln to accomplish in four years—and like the burning bush still unconsumed and we await in invoking them those consola- full of the presence of the living God. But tions which are from on high for his widow, we rather mourn that such a struggle, endfor his family, for the people who had known ing in such a deed, in such an age, could so well how to choose and put at their head have occurred among us; that humanity still such a man, and for the churches and the shows its capacity for inexpressible wickedpastors who have concurred in that choice, ness, that justice is learned so slowly, that and who have so religiously assisted him in freedom costs so fearfully while it is so hard the accomplishment of his presidential task. to comprehend, and that the best hopes of In the name of the General Conference of mankind are so often overcast by the clouds pastors, elders, and laborers of the Protest- which rise from the very altars of their marant Churches assembled in Paris: President.-Vaurigaud, Pastor in Nantes, (Reformed Church.) Vice Pres.-G. Fische, Pastor in Paris, (Free Church.) L. Vollette, Pastor in Paris, tyrdom. Yet there is indeed something in sacri fice and suffering for the right, which makes all good men throughout the world draw closer together, and deepens in every true heart a sense of unity, far beyond the formal accord assumed in the self-interest of states, and dependent on the caprice of an ever jealous diplomacy. As Christians, we There were also Baptist pastors and others. do not rely on political conventions to pre (Lutheran Church.) serve the peace of the world, or to inspire slaves will become free, and upon all the mankind with the sentiments of fraternity. American soil there will not be a single man There is but one Spirit that avails for this, bearing the name of slave, nor a single man the Spirit of Him whose impetration, sealed who does not bear that of a man and a by His own blood, sought the divine and citizen. everlasting union of His whole people, without respect of race, of age, or of country. Believing that your words of condolence, will add another link to that golden chain which binds the good together, I think myself happy to be the medium of communication between yourselves, and that body of Christian ministers and people, which in so great a part, under God, constitutes the glory of my native land. In the bonds of the Gospel, B. SUNDERLAND. PARIS, May 3d, 1865. To all the Pastors and Ministers of the Evangelical Protestants of France, or of countries where the French language is spoken. You have not all been able to be present while a delegate from the American Societies, founded for the aid of these thousands of thousands of apprentices of liberty, recounted to us the joy of this immense deliverance, and at the same time the sufferings by which it is attended, and the recital of which touched us even to tears. They are the hungry, which it is necessary to feed in devastated regions, the ragged or the naked which must be clothed, and the enfeebled which it is necessary to hasten to save, hundreds of whom have already perished. They are Christians, to whom it has been forbidden, under penalty of bloody whipping, to learn to read; whom it is necessary to teach to read the book of God, which many among them have a thirst to read. The Government expends for this holy task twelve and a half millions of francs per month. The American associations have expended in it some millions of francs. The American ladies offer themselves in crowds to direct the schools of the Freedmen, with such an urgency that they write six months or a year in advance to have a place of voluntary instruction. Our brethren in America have come to solicit their brethren in Europe to give them some assistance in this gigantic work of charity, such a work as is not likely to present itself twice in a century. They tell us: "You have justly reproached us with our slaves and their sufferings. You have prayed for their emancipation. BrethTo-day the hope which we then conceived ren, as we have broken their chains, or rather is realized. The 31st of January last, Con- as God has heard you and delivered them, gress ratifying for all the States of the Union chastising us as we have deserved, will you the decree proclaimed by Mr. Lincoln for not aid us in saving them from death, in the rebel States, declared slavery abolished fitting them for liberty and civilization and wherever the American flag shall float. to make good citizens and Christians? The Already two millions of slaves, either deliv- work will not be long protracted, as their ered by the arrival of the Northern armies own ardor to work freely and to supply or anticipating their arrival, rushing for the themselves is great, and we can say that the sake of liberty through a thousand fatigues earnest desire of a great number is to be inand a thousand perils, have entered upon structed in the way of salvation. The questhe possession of the precious benefit which tion is to aid them to pass through this terGod has accorded to them. In a few weeks, rible crisis through which God causes them in a few days perhaps, two millions more of and our whole nation to pass, to create a Dear Brethren-Two years ago seven or eight hundred pastors of France, of all denominations, signed a letter addressed to all the pastors of England, in behalf of the triumph of the sacred cause of the emancipation of the slaves in the United States. This letter received a response signed by four thousand English pastors, a splendid echo of our appeal. The two letters were borne to the United States by the Rev. Dr. Massie, Secretary of the London Society of Emancipation, and read at Washington, (in the church of the Rev. Dr. Sunderland, Chaplain in Congress,) in a large (the first popular) assembly, where they were received with the greatest enthusiasm. |