of fighting incessantly in the cause of the pilgrims and the Holy Land against the infidel. They bound themselves to live according to the rule of the canons of St. Augustine, and elected as their first master Hugh De Payens. King Baldwin II. assigned them a portion of his palace for their abode, and he and his barons contributed to their support. As the palace stood close by the church and convent of the Temple, the abbot and canons gave them a street leading from it to the palace for keeping their magazines and equipments, and hence they styled themselves the soldiery of the Temple (Militia Templi) and Templars. Thus originated the order of the Knights Templars. They attracted such immediate consideration, owing, doubtless, in a great part to the novelty of their plan, that the very year after their establishment Fulk, Count of Anjou, in one of his pilgrimages to Jerusalem, joined their society as a married brother, and on his return home annually remitted them thirty pounds of silver in furtherance of their pious objects, and his example was followed by several other princes and nobles of the West. During the first nine years which elapsed after the organization of their order, the Knights of the Temple lived in poverty, religiously devoting all the money which was sent to them from Europe to the advantage of the Holy Land and the service of the pilgrims. On the 31st of January, 1128, Hugh de Payens, the master, appeared before the Council of Troyes, consisting of the archbishops of Rheims and Sens, ten bishops, and a number of abbots, among whom was St. Bernard, who had given the order the highest commendation, and obtained the approbation thereof. At this time the order assumed a peculiar banner, formed of cloth, striped black and white, called in old French Bauseant, (signifying a piebald horse, or a horse marked with white and black,) which word became the battle cry of the Templars, and often struck terror into the hearts of the infidels. This banner bore on it the ruddy cross of the order, and the pious and humble inscription Non nobis Domine, non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam. The master would admit no knight into the order who did not terminate all his feuds and enmities and amend his life. Honor and respect awaited the Templars wherever they appeared, and persons of all ranks vied with each other in conferring upon them honors and rewards. Emperors and kings, princes and noblemen, settled upon the order large estates, and it grew mightily in wealth and power. To narrate the various exploits of this valorous order would be to write the history of the Crusades, for from the time that the order acquired strength and consistency no action with the infidels ever was fought in which the chivalry of the Temple did not bear a distinguished part. Their war cry was ever heard in the thickest of the battle, and rarely was Bauseant seen to waver or give back in the conflict. The Templars, however, as they increased in wealth and power, flushed with successive victories, became, as is usually the case, corrupt and oppressive at times, and many of their acts were marked with a cruelty entirely incompatible with the character of Christian knights. The year 1162 is conspicuous in the annals of the Templars as the date of the bull Omne Datum Optimum, the Magna Charta of the order, and the great keystone of their power. By this bull the Templars were released from all spiritual obedience except to the Holy See; they were allowed to have peculiar burial grounds at their houses, and to have chaplains of their own; they were freed from the obligation to pay tithes, and could, with the consent of the bishop, receive them. These advantages awakened the opposition of the clergy and other rival orders, and in process of time hastened the fall of the last remnant of the Christian dominion in the East. ONE OF ASBURY'S CONVERTS. N one of the cities of the West, where weeks of relaxation by way of preaching two or three times a week, he was refreshed in spirit by witnessing the conversion of a number of souls. Among them was a young lady. She had just returned from a fashionable boarding-school, having finished the course of study, and having received a diploma setting forth her attainments and accomplishments. Special attention had been bestowed upon her musical education. She had a voice of great power and melody, and her performance on the piano exhibited rare attainments in the art. Her father was a gen tleman of wealth, and took great pride in his daughter. At fashionable parties she was a star of general attraction, and her musical power, as well as prepossessing appearance and manners, made her society extremely desirable. This gifted and accomplished young lady was induced to go one evening to hear Asbury. His voice and manner rivited her attention, and ere she was aware, as the man of God presented the claims of religion upon the young, her heart was touched. She yielded to the persuasive power of the Gospel, and in penitence sought and found the blessings of religion. Her conversion was as sudden as it was unexpected by her friends, but it was, nevertheless, clear and genuine. No place to her was now so attractive as the house of God, and thither she wended her steps from evening to evening, enjoying the rapturous bliss "Of a soul in its earliest love." Of course, it was not long until the change wrought upon her by the power of the Gospel was known to her parents, who, strange to say, felt grieved and indignant at the result. They were worldly and thoughtless, not only neglecting the claims of religion themselves, but wholly careless in regard to their children. Their only object was to fit them for moving in fashionable circles, and no pains or expense were spared to effect it. To win her back to the world was now the design of the father. He was too much of a gentleman, and had too much respect for himself and the proprieties of life to resort to any coercive measures. He accordingly brought around her the thoughtless and the gay of her companions, and threw her as often as possible into their society. Naturally amiable, and loving her parents with all the devotion of an affectionate child, she yielded to her father's requests to visit different places of mirth and gayety, and though she did not put on the morose look of cloistered piety, yet she was serenely quiet and affable in her manners, preserving the true dignity of the Christian. She had a heartfelt joy to which the worldly are strangers, and while she felt sympathy for the pursuers of shadows, she allowed not her anxiety for their spiritual welfare to destroy their brief uncertain joy. She preferred holding up the light of a Christ ian example in a calm, quiet, unobtrusive manner, rather than to resort to any effort to convince them of the error of their way. All the efforts of her father were, however, of no avail to lure her from the purpose she had formed to lead a religious life. As a last resort he gave a large party, and sent out invitations to the most worldly and fashionable of the city. The evening at length arrived; the company came together; all was a scene of gayety and mirth, for the pleasure-loving throng were there. In the midst of this scene it was arranged that she should be invited to sing and play on the piano one of those fashionable airs to which they had been wont to listen with so much interest previous to her conversion. She made no objection as she was led by her father to the piano. Taking her seat, she commenced in a strain the most touching, because it came from her heart, and sang, with a full clear voice, that beautiful hymn of Charles Wesley: No room for mirth or trifling here, If now the Judge is at the door, The inexorable throne. No matter which my thoughts employ But O! when both shall end, With fiends or angels spend? That never, never dies. A mansion in the skies. She had not sung through one verse before her father, who stood by her side, was seen to drop his head. Every whisper ceased, and the most intense feeling was evidently pervading the entire company. Every word was distinctly heard, and each seemed an arrow from the Spirit's quiver going directly to the hearts of the hearers. When she ceased her father was gone. His feelings were too great to be suppressed, and he sought another room, where he gave vent to his tears. Mary had conquered, and from that hour she was free from the allurements of the world. For many years she lived to adorn her profession, and then went up to join the song of the redeemed in heaven. Editorial Notes and Gleanings. THE RELIGIOUS WORLD. AMERICAN CHAPEL IN PARIS-A correspondent of the Evangelist, writing from Paris, says, in relation to the American chapel : Architecturally it is a very handsome edifice, and will seat, perhaps, five hundred people. There is comfort and neatness, perhaps severe simplicity, in everything. The American families resident in Paris are most of them absent, and yet the chapel was well filled. It was pleasant, indeed, in this far-off land, to see such a gathering of our countrymen, and to hear the Gospel preached and hymns sung in language and in strains so familiar. Rev. Mr. Lampson, of New York, a young Episcopalian clergyman, was present and read that portion of the service which, by mutual agreement, is used in the morning service; he also delivered a well-arranged and instructive sermon. In the afternoon Rev. Mr. Kemps hull, of Rochester, N. Y., preached, and as is usual, the services were wholly congregational. It would seem difficult, if not impossible, to engraft upon one church, so that it would be satisfactory, the Episcopal and Presbyterian forms of worship, yet, with a large spirit of conciliation, and desire for Christian union, it has thus far been done, and with success. Lord Cowley, the British Minister, and family, and Hon. Mr. Mason, the American Minister, and family, were all present to-day. Every state in the Union probably was represented on Sunday, in the audience in the chapel. It is gratifying to be able to state what New Yorkers have done for the enterprise, independent of their subscriptions. Mr. Woolsey has given them an organ, which, although not complete, is in use, and Mr. Aspinwall has presented the church with a beautiful communion service. The communion table and two handsome armchairs, are the gift of Mrs. Woolsey. The previous Sabbath, Rev. Dr. Prentiss, of the Mercerstreet Church, on his way to Switzerland, with improved health, occupied the pulpit with Rev. Mr. Seeley. He was gratified with the success of the whole enterprise. Mr. William E. Dodge, of New York, who was also present last Sabbath, can make a favorable report of the encouraging prospects of the chapel, on his return, and, it is to be hoped, secure for it further contributions. I learn that Mr. Lampson has just made a formal written request of Mr. Seeley, that a portion of the Sabbath be set apart for the exclusive use of the chapel for Episcopal worship. Mr. Seeley, not feeling authorized to grant such a request, gave a decided negative answer; consequently Mr. Lampson is seeking another place, where he designs to establish a new Episcopal church for the Americans. He assures me he comes to Paris exclusively on his owu responsibility, and yet, with the written application of three American bishops, Williams, of Connecticut, Doane of New Jersey, and Potter, of New York. This movement is deeply to be regretted, as it is but the beginning of denomi national division, when thus far a union of all evangelical Christians has promised such eminent success, in connection with the American chapel. The Episcopal Church is content with nothing that does not fall down and worship all her dogmas and forms. Not satisfied with the use of the service of the Episcopal Church mutually agreed upon during the most important part of the day, Mr. Lampson, backed up by three American bishops, demands an exclusive use of the chapel for Episcopal service another portion of the day. We never saw any good come out of this amalgamation of sects. A union in worship where there is no sympathy in doctrines and forms is generally fraught with evil. If these Protestant Christians profess to be laboring in an unsectarian way for the evangelization of France we advise them to unite with the Wesleyan Methodists, who have a regularly organized church in France. We commend them to the Rev. Dr. Gallienne, the president of the French Conference, who will cheerfully extend to them the right hand of fellowship, and afford them all the facilities they may wish for preaching the gospel in Paris and elsewhere. UNITARIANISM ON THE DECLINE IN BOSTON.The Unitarians and Universalists are the most active advocates of reforms in Boston. Some of the Orthodox Congregationalists and Baptists follow them with unequal steps. But the signs of the times indicate some degree of reaction in the state of public opinion, in religion, politics, and reforms. The single Congregational Church of thirty years ago has expanded to thirteen. Unitarianism seems to be losing ground. Rev. J. I. T. Coolidge, of the Thirteenth Unitarian Church, has recently published his farewell discourse to his church and people. He alleges as a reason for his separation from his flock, that "his faith has undergone great and essential changes since he commenced his labors among them." He says of his opinions when first settled in the ministry: "I was a Unitarian by education, by social relations, and so far as my faith concerning Christ had taken form." Now he affirms that he no longer holds to the faith in which he was educated. He adds as a reason: "In my entire conception of the whole system of salvation, as I read it in the Scriptures and the necessities of the human heart, I differ from the Unitarian creed. It is too evident to be denied or longer concealed, that in the denomination called Unitarian, there are at present two very opposite and determined movements, both of which will compel the absolute abandonment of the form of faith which, in the religious world, is known by that name. The one is leading, with great force and attractiveness, to the extreme of Rationalism; the other to greater nearness to, and closer sympathy with, the broad evangelical body of the Christian Church." This is a significant statement from one who knows whereof he affirms. Dr. Lowell and his colleague are not classed with Unitarians in their calendar. Dr. Huntingdon is also overlooked by liberal divines. The theological school is separated from Harvard College, and many Unitarians look with jealousy upon the doctrines now preached in the chapel. These facts indicate the decline of the reign of "liberal Christianity," as it has been boastingly named by its advocates. A careful scrutiny shows that the dominant opinions of the past generation have been incorporated in the school books used in the city. The educators of the rising generation in Boston have adopted the policy of the Tract Society with reference to slavery. They exclude orthodoxy from their text books. The theological complexion of these school books may not have been the result of design; still they show what influences are at work. The criticisms called forth by these facts also indicate a growing opposition to such usurpation. In fact, amid all the conflict of opinions, there is a manifest tendency both to orthodoxy and conservatism. MODERN INFIDELITY.-Since the days of Gibbon, Hume, Voltaire, and others of that class, infidelity has lost its philosophical cast, having been successfully overthown by the weapons of truth. Thus driven from its strongholds it has sought refuge among low and vulgar pretenders who follow in the wake of Paine and others of that school. But few, however, who have any respect for themselves or their opinions are found openly to advocate infidelity. In the language of a writer in the Congregationalist, we should be led to infer that infidelity has assumed even the Christian garb. He says: The infidelity of the present day has become pious and goes to meeting; but its teeth are just as sharp, and its malice just as deep as when imported from France. Formerly the infidel wolf was wont to growl and snap in open daylight, but now it puts on sheep's clothing, and appears religious, uses honied words, smiles blandly, and even prays with some apparent fervor, finding this to be the best way to oppose the Orthodox. Mr. Thomas Paine was a green hand at the work. He was too out-spoken. He showed his hoofs, horns, and tail, and supposed he could accomplish his end. Poor, mistaken man! Rev. Dr. Pierpont, at the time a Unitarian if he had become a Doctor of Divinity he would have shown more tact, and had more prospect of clergyman in Boston, some years since preultimate success. Whatever may be the other pared a series of School Readers which were attributes of the devil, he certainly is not omnifor a long time used as text-books in the pub-scient, for he has learned something during the lic schools, and from which were carefully excluded all sentiments or principles which distinctively belong to any of the evangelical sects. And now more recently a Unitarian lawyer of Boston, George S. Hillard, Esq., comes out with a series of School Readers, which are published by Unitarians, and have been voted into the Boston schools by a committee on which there is a large per centage of leading Unitarians. From an examination of Mr. Hillard's First Class Reader, now in use in Boston schools, six American Unitarian clergymen, namely, Buckminster, Follen, Channing, Dewey, Greenwood, and Newell, are represented in eight pieces, containing upward of twenty pages, while only one piece by an American clergyman of any other denomination whatever is given! This piece is by President Wayland, and occupies just two pages and a quarter. last hundred years. He is not the same coarse, uncouth, homely creature he used to be. He has sawed off his horns, he wears as nice boots as anybody, covering his cloven feet, and his tail is rolled up under a neat sheep-skin, and he bows and scrapes, and smiles, and prays just like other folks. Formerly he was frightful, hideous; now he is quite attractive, winning by his smiles the young and unsuspecting. This description probably has reference to a species of infidelity lurking in the Churches; but we are assured that organized bands of infidels exist in our midst, and hold their midnight carousals. Recent disclosures in England of infidel clubs, and the following account, which we take from an English paper, will show a gratifying result of the labors of the friends of Christianity for the reclaimation of such as had been drawn into infidel meshes: A lecture, which excited peculiar interest, was delivered to the St. Mary's Workingmen's Association, in the school-room, Barker-gate, Nottingham, by the Rev. J. W. Brooks, the vicar. The subject was "The Testimony of Infidels to the Fulfillment of Prophecy ;" but an additional attraction was an announcement in the handbills that Mr. Jonathan Barber (a framework-knitter, so well known as the leader of the infidel party in Nottingham) would, at the end of the lecture, offer a few observations. Several infidels, who were associated with this party, have, from time to time, of late years seceded from its ranks; but the rumor that their leader had at length changed his opinions, drew together a large auditory. Though it was the first evening of the races, the spacious school-room was densely crowded. The company consisted chiefly of the working classes, with a small sprinkling of females, and a considerable number of infidels. After the lecture, which consisted of a variety of passages drawn from the pages of Gibbon, Volney, and other infidel writers, in which they unwittingly illustrate the truth of various prophecies regarding Jerusalem and various countries and cities of the East, and which were strikingly brought out and listened to with the deepest attention, Mr. Barber got up, and avowed clearly his renunciation of infidelity. He stated that it was about fourteen years since he, with other infidels, first met in that room, on the invitation of their much-esteemed vicar, the Rev. Mr. Brooks, for the purpose of holding discussions on infidelity; that is, he had then for the first time come forward in public as the champion of infidelity, and he thought it right to make the first public acknowledgment of his errors in the same room. That throughout these discussions, and those in which he had been publicly engaged, he had had misgivings with regard to the being of a God; but that for the last five years he had been uneasy in his mind with regard to Christianity. That this uneasiness increased when he found himself upon a sick bed, and that he had consequently been led to review his creed, and had found it worthless in the prospect of death. He now, therefore, after a considerable struggle with his pride, had determined publicly to avow his entire renunciation of his infidel sentiments, and his belief in Divine revelation. He concluded with some pungent remarks against his former opinions, and those of infidels in general. Several instances of a similar character have recently been brought to light, not only in England, but in this country. We find the following among the incidents of a prayer-meeting recently held in New York: The meeting was addressed by a member of the New York bar, a man distinguished by his legal acumen and erudition, his eminent abilities, and his infidelity. For many years he had been a skeptic on every point in religion, except the existence of a God. He was not a scoffer in the common acceptation of the word. He professed and meant to be a gentleman. But his prevailing opinion was, that Christians generally did not know enough to be infidels; that it required a man to have some brains to be able to be a thorough-going, consistent infidel, well VOL. XIII.-25 able by good arguments to maintain his position. Such he was. But how changed now! He arose and said, with great modesty of manner: "I am young in Christian experience. Not many months ago I would have scorned to have been in this place. Now it is my greatest delight. I looked upon Christ as setting an example of benevolence unexampled in the history of the race. I had no fault to find with his character. He was a good man, a man of spotless character, who gave utterance to some of the most beautiful precepts and maxims of human conduct the world has ever seen. So I regarded him once. But O how different now! I did not think of Him as the Crucified, as bearing my sins in his own body on the tree, as suffering, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, as wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace being upon him. I am here a sinner, hoping I have been pardoned through him as my Saviour. The Holy Spirit brought arguments to my heart that made me feel my need of him. And when I was almost in despair, the same Holy Spirit revealed to me his Divine and glorious nature, and his ability to save to the uttermost. O what a sinner I have been, and what a miracle of grace I am! I have no words to express my thankfulness and gratitude, no tongue to tell the preciousness of Christ to me. Ages hence I can tell it better." All this time there was not the slightest attempt at display, though he knew well how easily he could sway that audience just as he pleased. RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIES.-At a meeting of ministers of the Congregational Church in Connecticut, for the purpose of taking into consideration the tone of the controversies of the religious press, the following resolutions were passed: Resolved, 1. That we view with disapprobation and pain the character of a large portion of the religious press of this country, as exhibited in the conduct of controversy. 2. That in our judgment the amount of space devoted to controversy might, in many cases, be reduced with decided advantage; but that we except with still stronger emphasis to that asperity of spirit, that uncalled for imputation of motives, that want of strict candor and honesty in stating the position and describing the spirit and conduct of opponents, which are too often exhibited. 3. We desire to commend to the conductors of our religious papers the rule, that opponents should be treated through the press with the same candor, courtesy, and charity which are due between Christian gentlemen in personal intercourse. 4. That it is our conviction that the open and faithful advocacy of truth, instead of bocoming tame, would be rendered far more effecttive, were the evil complained of corrected. 5. That a committee of three be appointed to transmit these resolutions to the papers indicated, accompanied in each case by a private letter, more fully expressive of the views of this Association. |