purport and sense. The action took place, without haste or passion, under the nost calm conviction of duty, and in full view of the critical responsibilities involved in it on all sides. In no other way, could true Christian fidelity have been shown towards the Albright Brethren themselves. We owe it to the souls of those who are led away by this delusion, to warn them plainly of their danger: The Church is bound moreover by duty to her own children, not to keep silence in regard to so great an interest. If she have no faith in herself, no power to condemn and abhor schism in any quarter, how can we expect those who are growing up in her bosom, to place any true value on their birthright, or to make any account of her authority? We are sorrowfully and solemnly persuaded, that the unfaithfulness of the Church just here, forms one of the greatest evils under which the Christian world is made to suffer at the present time. A sound church faith, on the part of the Church herself, by which she may be enabled firmly to assert her own divine prerogative over against all merely human associations or sects, is necessary to authenticate fully her commission itself, and forms at the same time, an indispensable element in the power of the Christian salvation, which is administered by her hands. No less important, as regards right church feeling, was the general ground taken by the Classis on the subject of what is called the system of the catechism, as it stood in the original practice of the Church. It is generally known, that this had been widely supplanted a few years since, by another system altogether, which for the sake of a name, may be denominated the method of the anxious bench; under the influence of which, even the excellent institution of confirmation itself, was in danger of losing altogether its meaning and credit. Happily, this tendency has received a check, and it is now common, on all sides, to honor the Catechism again, and observe at least the form of Confirmation. It would be a great mistake, however, to suppose all done here which the case requires, by a mere outward transition from the use of the anxious bench to the use of the catechism. All turns at last on distinguishing properly between the inward life and genius of the two systems, which these shibboleths are employed thus outwardly to define. It is quite possible to put away the bench, and bring in the catechism, and still remain bound altogether to the theory of religion, of which the first only, and not the second, is the natural sign and type. The great thing needed, is some true insight into the difference that exists between the two schemes of religion which underlie the different tendencies in question, and an inward return thus, with love and faith, to the "old paths" from which the practice of the Church has so widely swerved. Much was gained in this way, at the last meeting of the Mercersburg Classis, by means of resolutions and discussions brought to bear from various sides on this point. It was encouraging here also, to find, that on a fair understanding of the questions at issue, the judgment of the body, and especially the instinctive sound feeling of the elders always, went fully in favor of the old church spirit, and in opposition to the foreign way of thinking, which has been seeking to drive it from its place. It was felt that to shake off the power of that foreign system effectually, something more is necessary than to change a few outward forms, and a few watchword phrases for the lips. The result of all, we trust, has been a general clearer apprehension than before, of the true design and significance of the old Reformed practice; its dependence on the idea of the Church, as a divine organization; its relation to the conception of sacramental grace; a more solemn sense of the real membership of baptized children in Christ's kingdom; and of the duty and privilege of treating and training them accordingly; a much larger faith in the high import of educational religion, the use of the catechism, as a direct preparation for the second sacrament, and the true solemnity of Confirmation as the necessary and proper completion of the holy sacrament of baptism. All this implies, of course, a great deal more than a polite toleration simply of the church system, in the way of appendage only to its unchurchly opposite. That may be taken as the hardest fate of all for this system, when men who have no power to understand it at all, but are completely saturated with the other scheme, pretend, notwithstanding, to tack it externally to their own favorite theory, in the way of compliment merely and condescension. How far this wrong has been carried in our own church, and more still a great deal in the Lutheran, need not here be said. N. ART. XXIV. THE "BEAUTIFUL RIVER." BY ROB'T P. NEVIN. I. There breathes the force of untold eloquence, Doth speak the mysteries of dark centuries past, By old bequeathment made thy proper dower, When KINGS controlled, and native PRINCES strode thy shore! II. Oh! that, high inspiration won, 'twere mine Vain wish! The mountain rill that stirs the air Abroad upon thy mightier bosom tost, Without an image left is in oblivion lost. III. Strong River! thou of all that God has made To crown the grandeur of this scene, alone Maintain'st thy primal glory undecayed! Lake-moor-hill-forest-mountain reared of stone Where are the strength and grace they claimed their own? Eternal seeming once, thy transience bred A theme of scorn to feed their mockery's tone; But now the appointments of their pride are fled, And time and thou in changeless destiny are wed. IV. Thus to forecast the unseen end of Fate, Would Prescience, erringly yet aiming, strive! Thus pampered Power, vain in its high estate, And fixed establishment, assume to live Unchanged through change; as though the shocks that rive The world besides, were impotent to rend Its flattered rule-thence-sprung derivative!- Or Revolution, sinew-stripped, could lend No arm to wield defeat, or shape an altered end! V. The old world had its dynasties: they were; Reared monuments to fasten firm their fame ;- Thenceforth might prize the grandeur of their name?— New thrones, new empires; and the old Lost e'en the memory of their former claim, Or held it in enigmas darkly told, A mystery to wonder at, but not unfold. VI. And here upon thy shores were kingdoms sprung! Oh, Tiber Queen!-a star, its more than mate- *The Lenni Lennape, as their name purports, claim to be the "original men" of the continent. Their territory at the time of the discovery of the New World, lay between the Hudson and Susquehanna rivers, on either shore of the Delaware. They afterwards migrated to the Ohio Valley. VII. Like thee they had their mighty-known apart; The proved in speech, the tried in arm and heart, Whose worth, with honor's zeal, love's faith, to shield, And favored bards their victories too have sung, In anthems through the columned forests pealed, Alas! whose temples, arch by arch o'erflung, May ring response no more, like as of old they rung! VIII. The grand-sire with the youth, at even-tide, Intent to shape aright his pliant prime Hath decked his scalp-tuft with an eagle's plume, Plucked from his own brow, marked with the groove and rime, The seal of valor stamped in age's room, --- And left its story and its lesson with the 'loom. IX. Dark maids by moonlight in the shadowy wold, The fervor of a suitor's lips have felt In tones heroic, nor in dalliance, told. His fairest plea the trophies in his belt: His valued boast the stroke his fathers dealt. In tale historic with ancestral pride, Rehearsed how oft a vanquished foe had knelt; What arm compelled-whose fate the Braves that died,- X. Such the devoir of Gratitude to Worth. And what superior tribute, held or spent, |