THINGS AT HOME AND ABROAD.

OUR NATION'S LOSS.

The departure of Gen. Grant, our military hero and President, has moved our people to sincere emotion and grief. Although he was dying daily for so long a time that the nation was prepared to give him up, still he had risen so many times from extreme prostration that the people began to have a kind of feeling that their hero could not be conquered. Cheers and encouragement went to him from the press, from political parties, and from his friends. He arose at times, and worked at his historical task; life seemed pleasant again; everybody wanted him to live, and he thought he might stay with us. So, when disease laid its hand on him again, it was hard for him to surrender, hard for the nation to give him up; and, before we could accept the fact that he was really going at last, he had left us: the anxiety was over, he was at peace. He made truly a good end. He was devout in his recognition of a higher Power and his desire to be submissive to God's decrees; he had no malice toward any; he was surrounded by his family and friends; and, with a pleased consciousness that the people were all thinking of him, he passed away. Gen. Grant was not a great man. If circumstances had not brought him into a brilliant place, he might not only never have been heard from, but never have done anything great. He had, in fact, weaknesses which might have completely overthrown him, if his conspicuous position before the eyes of the world had not nerved him to throw off the dangerous habits of his youth and middle age. In regard to his military genius, we are not competent to discuss it. It is enough to say that he took our campaign in hand when we were at the lowest ebb, and "brought us out of our distresses"; and yet he had the modesty to say, in regard to the war, that, if he had not happened to be put in command, Sherman would have carried us through, or other generals. We honor him for this modesty more than for his successes. It might or might not have proved true; but how many men of greater intellect than he, perhaps, would have been dazed with success, and smitten with an unquenchable egotism all their days! He was called to the presidential chair. We

were of those who were sorry at the time to have another military ruler, which term means, in American fashion, a man who is the people's idol, without, necessarily, any knowledge of statesmanship. And yet we might have had a much worse President. He never attempted to usurp power; he showed no petty spites; he made some mistakes, but these were not so much owing to his want of judgment as to his genial nature, that could not always resist the arguments of his friends. He inaugurated the first movement of our government toward a just treatment of the Indians; and, although his policy of sending out paid agents from every religious denomination to aid in their civilization met with only partial success, all honor be to him for this project! Moreover, we can never estimate the silent work done, which the papers did not chronicle, but which has perhaps prepared the way for the Hampton School and the tardy sympathy of our present rulers and people for the red man.

Gen. Grant's brilliant tour in Europe and Asia gratified our national pride; but we are inclined to think his relatives and friends enjoyed all this glorification more than he, and perhaps urged him on. In regard to his business misfortunes in New York, we can only say, as of other mistakes, that the worldly ambition or cupidity of his friends led his generous, yielding spirit on to disasters which disturbed his natural serenity and shook the confidence of his admirers for a time. All these fogs that distorted our vision of him have now passed away. We see him as he was, very human, but without meannesses, brave, cool, determined in war, an honest President, a patriotic citizen, an unaffected man, a generous friend, and, at the last, the simple, faithful chronicler of the great events which God called him to guide in the history of our country.

The death of Dr. Oliver Stearns has severed another link that bound us to the associations of our Church in the past. He was not a very old man, and yet old enough to be connected with two or three generations of young men coming on and going off the stage of ministerial work. In his two parishes, at Northampton and Hingham, he showed that consecration of spirit. and earnest devotion to his work that marked his career through life. When called to the presidency of the Meadville Theological School, he was even more in his element than when among his people. His ripe scholarship had a closer application

of its results among earnest young students than in the general teachings of the pulpit, and his sound theological judgments were united to a liberal progressive spirit that won the entire confidence of his classes. He lived through our national conflicts, and spoke his word for the right without flinching, and had great hope that the truth would conquer. Although very delicate in health, he accepted at length the position of Dean in the Theological School at Cambridge. Here, he enjoyed the society of his brother ministers around, and, in addition to his University duties, preached sometimes in neighboring parishes. His sermons were not brilliant, but better than that. They were pervaded with moral earnestness, and, if his voice had been stronger, would have startled one with the certainty of his convictions. As it was, he left a fine glow upon the soul of the hearer, a reflection of his own deep joy and faith, growing stronger and brighter unto the end.

The departure of Mrs. Susan R. Austin, of Cambridge, Mass., is truly a loss to young and old. She has been a Mother in Israel for many years, has "washed the feet of the saints," entertained the shepherds of the flock, loved the "sincere milk of the word," and now gone to her rest, to the "inheritance of those who are sanctified" by the love of God and man. Her long and incurable misfortune of entire deafness only quickened her faculties and capacity for friendship, so that she managed, by reading the eye and face, to discern more than ever the emotions of the heart, the communications of the intellect, in her friends; and thus, instead of being a lonely, neglected spirit, she was the giver of life and sympathy to all around. Long will her memory dwell in the household of our faith!

EUROPEAN MOVEMENTS.

The beautiful and serious response of Dr. Martineau to the students of Manchester New College has already been reported in the Register. Mr. R. H. Hutton, M.P., among others, paid a glowing tribute to his former teacher, who, he said, had first taught him the full power of Christianity. Yet Mr. Hutton, in closing, administers a rebuke to us, or rather makes reflections upon some forms of Unitarianism, when he says: "Christianity has either a great deal more in it than Unitarianism will account for, or a great deal less. Either there is something in Christian

em

ity of which I can find no explanation in Unitarianism, or it is nothing but the far-reaching influence of a great life, nourished on a great illusion." Our English friends would probably reply to Mr. Hutton, as we should, that the word “Unitarian" braces a body of people who have the widest liberty of thought and expression, but that the majority of our believers have their faith founded on the eternal verities revealed by Jesus of Nazareth to the world. Mr. Matthew Arnold has been giving one of his sermon-like essays to the London people on Equality. It is wonderful how much good doctrine certain classes of educated people will hear from a man who seems to be outside the churches. These accomplished men, like Mr. Arnold, almost feel as if they had discovered many Christian and social virtues, which the churches have always preached, and often practised, we hope. Even the existence of God these thinkers come round to after a painful process; while the pure child learns it at his mother's knee, and holds on to the great fact all his life. But there are probably just such hearers, who have been through mazes of social and religious doubt, that are all ready for the teachers who have discovered tardily the light in their own way and fashion.

The Protestanten Verein meetings at Hamburg have been an interesting event among our liberal brethren in Germany. An English correspondent to the Inquirer reports that nearly a thousand delegates and members were present at the business meeting. The evening meeting was held in the grand church of St. Nicholas. The congregation was large, and the singing of the hymn was very inspiring. The sermon by Herr Matz, of Breslau, was full of fire and zeal for the true liberty of soul which "shall lift it above creeds into the pure and vital atmosphere of Christ and the Divine Spirit of his Father." The Life of the German preacher, Dr. Adolf Sydow, recently published in Berlin and written by his daughter, is a book to command the attention of all liberal Christians. He was a man of calm, simple dignity, who spent his whole life in search for the light; and, as it dawned upon him and he revealed it, he met with coldness and opposition from the powers of the land. He was Court Preacher to Frederick William III., in 1837. The king disapproved of his sermon on the Reformers as impious in its judgments and having a tendency to overthrow Christian belief. Sydow wrote a grand letter to the king, calm, temperate, firm, showing the necessity of progress in the study of church history and the

interpretation of the Scriptures. The king was not convinced, but became cordial again, and placed him on a committee to remodel the church service after the English. Sydow went to England, learned the language, was intimate with Prince Albert and the Queen, went into Scotland, studied her institutions as well as the English. On his return, he was disinclined to copy the English liturgy, thinking it not suited to the German mind. In an assembly, he opposed creeds, declared that the Reformation had not discovered the "endless fulness of Christ"; and, when asked, "How must the purity of doctrine be maintained?" he replied, "By leaving the Christian spirit free to rule." He was active during the revolution of 1848, delivered funeral orations, and held a seat in Parliament. He loved best his quiet church work and his confirmation classes. On the one hundredth anniversary of Schiller's birthday, he was invited to deliver the oration. The extreme orthodox were offended, declared that Schiller was not a Christian; and the king at length requested Sydow to give his address without his gown. He declined to serve without wearing "his sovereign's uniform, which was his gown"; and the king again gave way. We have this noble address printed in his memoirs. In 1872, he was, however, called before the Consistory, and deposed from his office for heresy in regard to the miraculous birth of Jesus and other questions. His people and the magistrates and prominent people of Berlin were astonished at this news. Petitions went in from all parties, and threats that they would resist this tyranny. Parents uttered simple words, saying, "We have trusted our children to him, and his teaching is a treasure for all their future lives." The Consistory gave in. He remained in his pulpit until 1876, when he retired to the outskirts of Berlin, and spent his remaining days in the pursuits of literature and theology. He translated the works of Channing and Martineau. His last work was a translation of Channing's Perfect Life, which he was engaged on at the time of his departure in 1878. We need to know more of the deep religious life of our liberal brethren in Germany.

MARTHA P. Lowe.