Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

recognises numerous landmarks; eternity, but two,-those, namely, which stand, firm and sure, between the righteous and the wicked.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

PRAYER FOR THE SOLDIER AND THE SAILOR.

Ir is neither wise nor Christianly to demand morosely, as some demand, intercessory prayers to be offered for any one class of persons in whom we may have reason to feel peculiarly interested. While we sincerely pray for "all men," we must not be pressed too sternly for an express mention of each and every sort and condition of men. Heart must not be chilled under mere stress of accumulation.

This being most freely granted, it will yet, doubtless, be allowed, that if we observe that any important class of persons is seldom or never mentioned in public prayer, some attention should be drawn to the omission. Certainly, the army is an important class; and so is the navy. The total peace establishment of the former, at home and abroad, includes about three hundred and seventy-five thousand men, with no small multitude of wives and children; and it would be unseemly to suppose that any Englishman could be insensible of the service these thousands of men, in the flower of youth,

*James Shirley. These stanzas, which close the "Contention of Ajax and Ulysses," were highly esteemed in the seventeenth century.

and the full vigour of manhood, render to the British empire; or that any Christian could fail to perceive the need they have of Divine blessing and guidance, amidst the deadly perils and ruinous temptations which every→ where beset them.

The writer of these lines has often felt surprised that so many admirable intercessory prayers, offered up on occasions of high solemnity, should not contain the slightest mention of the defenders of the country. But his surprise passes into serious and settled regret, when he looks more closely into the subject, and finds that it is a silence of ages. He does not pretend to have examined all the ancient liturgies which are extant, in whole or in part; but he has examined several, and he finds them almost all silent in regard to the soldier; and that, even when remembered, he is rather mentioned as a fighting animal than an immortal man. Further researches may be more successful, but as yet he has found but a single sentence of the kind. This occurs in one of the Greek liturgies,-8 supplication for "the Imperial Guard." If the Guard had not been "Imperial," it would most probably have been forgotten in the devotions of Byzantium. Even in our incomparably excellent English Litany-which, by the way, being largely made up out of more ancient compositions, is not to be regarded as the peculiar language of any one church-there is no mention of the soldiery, or of the soldier. We are invited to pray for victory over the Queen's enemies, but receive not the faintest hint that our brethren who have to fight for that victory, and of whom thousands upon thousands must perish in any one campaign, have the least claim, on their own account, upon the remembrance of those who present the incense of prayer before the throne of grace, and plead there for the salvation of souls.

In no period of English history were there so many forms of public prayer put forth as in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and in those prayers we must acknowledge that armies and fleets were favoured with full and most emphatic mention. Yet, for nearly all that the Right Reverend composers of them said, the soldier might have had no soul within him. Just one fair example may be taken to show that the troops in those troublous times were prayed for as "forces" to be employed in battle, and delivered from slaughter, but not as fellow-men to be rescued from "the death that never dies." Observe the language :—

"Be merciful, therefore, O Lord, to our present forces; and, passing over both their transgressions and ours, prosper them both by sea and land. Give our leaders and companies the strength of unicorns, the hearts of lions, arms of steel, hands of iron, and feet of flint, to beat and tread down all Thine enemies and ours."

Nothing precedes, or follows, to redeem those Elizabethan prayers from the defect of utter carelessness as to the fact that "leaders and companies" were all of them sinners born, and that the work they were to do would hurry them with dreadful speed into the presence of their Judge. The same strain is often and again repeated.

Happily, we have risen above this cold materialism when we speak of

such persons, and much more when we pray for them. We are not utterly absorbed in admiration of martial array, or wholly committed to trust in armour-plates for the fleet, or in rifled ordnance for the army. We do care for the souls of those who fight for our defence. And, certainly, Wesleyan Methodists are pledged to pray for them. Camps and garrisons are now marked by our occupation, side by side with Circuits. The names of our ministers appointed by the Conferences to military stations are transmitted by the chief officer of Her Majesty's forces to the generals commanding at the stations noted in the "Minutes," and these generals are directed to issue the instruction necessary for their recognition. But we shall seem to trust in princes, rather than in God, if we avail ourselves of their official protection and aid, and do not urge our way to the footstool of the King of kings, and implore Him to bless our work in the camps and garrisons. One thing is certain, namely, that Wesleyan Methodists will never take much trouble to promote actively a cause for which they do not pray. And again be it repeated, that, if we fail to pray, we dare not expect God to bless. Therefore, while we are praying for the sick, the afflicted, the poor, the orphans and widows, the strangers, the ministers, and so on, with the Queen, the Royal Family, and the Parliament, it would be well to give a place to the army and the navy in our solemn intercessions.

VIGIL

GLANCE AT PUBLIC OCCURRENCES.

ACTUAL war, and rumours of peace, make up the state of things in America. The long arrest put upon the progress of the main Federal army under Grant, and the adoption of a peace "platform" by the Chicago Convention, have naturally excited the hope that the great struggle be tween North and South is drawing to a close. This prospect, however, has been to some extent overcast since the nomination of General M'Clellan for the presidency, in consequence of the important successes of the Northern arms at Mobile and Atlanta. However great may be the evils of war, and however desirable the blessings of peace, there is too much reason to fear that the end is not yet. No doubt, the Democratic party in the States desire peace, not only for its own sake, but as the means for restoring themselves to office and power. But as "fidelity to the Union" is also included in

[ocr errors]

their "platform," the cessation of
the strife becomes, in consequence,
altogether uncertain. In proposing,
as they do, to restore the Union by
pacific means, they must be pre-
pared to offer no ordinary induce-
ments to the South to return. To
achieve independence, the Confede-
rate States have made the costliest
sacrifices in blood and treasure.
After fighting against fearful odds,
for nearly four years, with a despe-
ration and a valour that have helped
to redeem (in the eyes of many) the
infamy of the real object of the strife,
what advantages can the Northern
Democrats offer them as an induce-
ment to lay down their arms and
return to the Union? To propose
the status quo ante bellum, is, of
course, not thought of. But even
these terms would involve the re-
enactment of the Fugitive-slave Law,
(which has been repealed by the
Federal Congress,) the revocation of

all the anti-slavery proclamations, and the abandonment of the whole anti-slavery policy adopted by the Washington Government since the secession of the Southern States. But the offer of these terms, if we may judge from the spirit and conduct of the Confederates, would be spurned by them with indignation. The North must be prepared to pay a costlier price than this, if it would purchase the pacific return of the revolted States. No guarantee, it is very certain, would satisfy them, that does not secure to them in perpetuity, and beyond the possibility of damage, the execrable "institution" for which they have fought so long, with so much inglorious valour. Are the people of the North prepared to hand back to bondage the million or more of slaves who have been emancipated, or have escaped? Are they ready to rewrite upon the statute-book the enactments which were first written there in shame, and have since been erased in penitence? Are they willing to embody, in the boasted Constitution of the United States, the institution of slavery, not by the gentle periphrasis of "involuntary servitude," but, shamelessly and glaringly, by its honest title, guaranteeing to it inviolability, development, and permanence? It is hard to believe that such is the case, notwithstanding their sufferings through the war. And it is quite as hard to believe that Providence, whose designs of retribution and deliverance have been so apparent to many Christian observers of the struggle, would permit so deplorable an issue.

The prospects of peace, whether well founded or not, have unsettled the cotton-market, and during the last two weeks have interfered seriously with the trade of Lancashire. The pauperism of the cotton-manufacturing district, which was diminished during the eighty-six weeks

ending with August, 1864, by 193,570 persons, received an augmentation of 1,490 during the first and second weeks of September. This increase has been caused, mainly, by the stoppage of mills through rumours of an American peace. It is not now the high price of raw cotton, or the amount of the material imported, which injuriously affects the trade. The fluctuation in prices is, at present, the disturbing element. Plainly, the sufferings of Lancashire are not yet at an end. Although there may be a sufficient supply of cotton from the various countries that are sending it to our shores, yet, so long as there is a prospect of the re-admission of the American staple, the markets will be unsettled. When the time arrives for the actual importation, the current artificial prices must come down, very greatly indeed, below the present amount. Hence every rumour of peace that is wafted across the Atlantic produces a panic in Liverpool and Manchester; and thus, for some time to come, it must continue to be.

The Danish question is not yet fully and finally settled. One thing appears desirable, that English diplomacy should leave Germany and Denmark to settle between them the points at issue. Our prior negotiations having failed, and the country having sanctioned the conduct of the Government in not interposing with the sword, our influence as a nation might be lowered, if, by well-meant but offensive dispatches from the Foreign Office, we intermeddled again. The visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to the court of King Christian has plainly re-awakened the feelings of mortification so keenly felt by the unfortunate Danes. Since, then, we are not likely by renewed interference to give them any effectual aid against their conquerors, it would be most undesir

able to call forth afresh expectations which might again end in woful disappointment. Indeed, in the present temper of the British nation, if the Premier's "contingency" were fact, and Copenhagen were actually besieged, and Christian IX. a prisoner, it is very doubtful whether the Channel fleet would be sent into the Baltic, or material aid of any kind rendered.

[ocr errors]

At home, religious questions, even with the general public, have almost superseded political topics. Mr. Spurgeon's attack upon the evangelical clergy; the capacity in which the Pope is regarded when his health is drunk at Roman Catholic banquets; Dr. Pusey's vigorous onslaught on the recent legal judgment touching "Essays and Reviews; the Bishop of Peterborough's inhibition, forbidding Bishop Colenso to preach at Claybrook church; the doings of "Brother Ignatius;" the providing, from the county-rates, of a crucifix, &c., &c., for the Preston

[ocr errors]

House of Correction ;—these are the matters, to the exclusion of angry politics, which, of late, have occupied the attention of the secular press.

One of these subjects is especially calculated to arouse indignation; and yet it is but the complement of the Prison-Ministers' Act. This is the grant of £40 by the Lancashire magistrates toward the purchase of articles alleged to be necessary for the celebration of mass in the Preston jail. It has now come to this, that the money of English rate-payers is voted, in accordance with an Act of Parliament, for the purchase and setting up of idolatrous symbols for idolatrous purposes. Surely it is high time that the Protestantism of the country should arouse itself, and demand, with a purpose to take no denial, that this most objectionable Act of Parliament shall be repealed. If not, we are surrendering by piecemeal that for which our fathers fought in 1688.

September 17th, 1864.

THE HOSPITAL CONVENTION.

THE International Congress, which recently sat at Geneva with a view to regulate the position of hospitals and the wounded in time of war, has terminated its labours.

Ten resolutions have been adopted and signed, under reserve of ratification, by the representatives of Belgium, Baden, Denmark, Spain, France, Hesse, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Prussia, Switzerland, and Würtemberg. The resolutions are as follows:

"Art. 1. Ambulances and military hospitals are regarded as neutral, and, as such, protected and respected by the belligerents (as long as they contain sick or wounded). The neutrality would cease should such hospitals have a military guard.

"Art. 2. All employés of the hos

pital, including the almoners, carriers of the wounded, &c., will enjoy the benefits of this neutrality as long as there are wounded to be attended to.

"Art. 3. The persons designated in the above article may, even after occupation by the enemy, continge to perform their duties in the hos pital or ambulance to which they may be attached, or withdraw to join the division to which they belong.

"Under these circumstances, when their functions shall have ceased, they will be escorted to the enemy's outposts by the army in occupation.

"Art. 4. As the matériel of mili tary hospitals comes under martial law, the persons attached to those hospitals may not, on leaving, take

« AnteriorContinuar »