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pardon all offenders except those of duty, declared "they could not in guilty of murder and treason.

But it is more striking, as well as, to the present writer unexpected, to find that James Logan, the intimate friend and Secretary of Penn, wrote to him, in 1702, a letter in which he plainly implies his favorable estimate of measures of defense against hostile attacks. [Watson's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 323. From Logan MSS. Vol. 1, p. 397.1

And farther still, Proud, in his History of Pennsylvania, (I believe an unquestioned authority,) quotes a letter addressed on the 5th of 9th mo. 1695, by William Penn to several Friends, then members of the Assembly of the State, (amongst whom were Arthur Cook, Samuel Carpenter, Phineas Pemberton, David Lloyd and others,) in which he blames "the province for refusing to send money to New York, for what he calls a common defense; urging their compliance, and expressing the danger of their oversetting the government again by such refusal." A reference to the contest shows that the "common defense," here alluded to was the protection, by forts, men and arms, of the Northern and Eastern States, from invasion by the French, then at war with the British, in Canada and elsewhere. This very subject had been and continued to be long afterwards, a source of great dispute and complexity in the administration of affairs in Pennsylvania.

I cannot occupy space with repeated citations; but will note for example, the fact, (see Gordon's History of Penn., p. 158,) that, in 1708, under Governor Gookin, when a demand had been made by New York, New England, Maryland, &c., upon Pennsylvania for one hundred and fifty private soldiers and their officers, the Governor, out of respect to the religious sentiments of the Assembly, proposed that, instead of the soldiers, they should furnish £4000, to be expended under direction of a committee of their own appointment. The House, having taken time to consult their constituents, with great humility, and with their usual professions

conscience provide money to hire men to kill each other;" but offered, "as part of the revenue of the Queen, the sum of £500." In 1710, however, they voted £2000, which was evidently understood, as the historian states, as the equivalent for their quota of men. [Gordon's History, p. 162.]

TO BE CONTINUED.

For the American Friend.
FORGIVENESS.

Father in heaven, I thank Thee for this hour,
This blessed hour in which my contrite soul,
Humbled and happy, bows itself to Thee,
Pleading that all its error and its sin
May be forgiven, even as I forgive.
The cruel wrong swept o'er me like a flood,
But my hurt soul in fierce defiance rose,
And all forgetful that itself could sin,
Heaped heavy hatred on the offender's head.
There came a calmer hour in which I saw
The strong temptation that had led him thus
To barter all his better life away,
Love, honor, principle, to gain the world.
And seeing this, I learned to pity him,
Would only mock him with its faithless glare;
For well I knew the bauble he had won
And well I knew the golden fruit he grasped
Would be but dust and ashes in his hand;
And knowing this, I learned to pity him-
And as my pity grew, it turned to prayer,
That when the glitter of the gold was gone,
And the sweet fruit was bitter to his taste-
When the sad memory of the slightest Past
Came, and made deeper still his present gloom
Self-robbed and famishing, might find its way
To the green pastures and the springs of life;
That in the heart whence love and joy had fled,
Whence Hope was exiled, there might yet be
Peace.

The darkness might be lifted, and the soul,

But suddenly I queried in my heart,
What power had moved me that I should
have prayed
For him I counted as my life long foe?
Greatly I marveled what it meant that thus
I had called down such blessing upon him—
The kindliest boon of Heaven, the peace of
God.

voice,

Deep in my soul there came an answering "O child it is but this-thou hast forgiven! Then thanks, Oh Father, for this blessed hour Wherein my soul, by Thine own spirit taught,

Prays, with no mockery of words, Thy prayer: "Forgive my trespasses, as I forgive!"

L.

VISIT TO CHICAGO.
CONCLUDED.

FROM thence we went to the County Jail, where we found 180 men in the main jail. Of these about 60 were men of dissipated characters, who were confined in their cells. The remainder were loose in the corridors. We could not have them collected together, but talked to them individually and in groups, as ability was given. They listened with the utmost attention and crowded close around us as we pleaded with them to turn from their evil ways while the door of mercy was still open, and the invitation extended to them. They all without exception treated us with the greatest deference and respect, and many of them followed us around from group to group, seeming as it were to hang with breathless interest upon our words, and as we conversed with many of them individually upon the condition of their souls, some exceedingly interesting incidents came to our notice.

greatest interest, pleading with us for more. They have nothing to do, and their time is spent in card-playing, and other games, and anything is read with the greatest interest. The women's prison is above on the second floor; there are about 30 inmates. Their rooms and beds were comfortable, and had it not been for the barred doors and windows, we should have had nothing to remind us that we were in a prison. They were very depraved; they laughed and talked to each other and seemed to make all the noise they could to drown our voices, until S. S., having found every other effort without avail, bowed in prayer to Him who alone can still the tempest. One by one they dropped upon their knees. When she closed every eye was suffused with tears. They listened with marked attention to the remarks that followed, and received with apparent thankfulness, the tracts we gave them.

From thence we went into a room where was confined a young murderOne fine looking man, whose noble ess of 24 years. As I entered her brow indicated the possession of the room and beheld her beautiful form, ten talents, when I addressed him her fine noble countenance, the elewith, "my good brother, the Lord gance of her manner, as she arose to had other work for thee to have per- receive me, I could not believe my formed, than to have been an occu- own eyes. My companion having pant of this cell," he burst into been very much overcome with the a flood of tears, saying, "That voice, scenes which we had just passed that voice, Oh! that voice. How through, had preceded me, and was much like my mother's voice. It sitting in an arm chair quietly resting carries me back to my childhood. I (as she thought in the presence of the had a good mother, I had a blessed jailor's wife.) When I entered a thrill mother, I had a praying mother. She of horror ran through my veins, and taught me to pray. Oh! would to holding out my hands, I remarked, God, I had listened to her teachings. 'my dear sister, what a face in such a Would God I had listened to her place. Can it be possible that this pleadings, then would I not have been beautiful hand has ever been imbrued in this place; but I disobeyed her. I in the blood of a fellow-being? Can turned a deaf ear to her commands. it be possible that the purpose of this I brought her down in sorrow to the noble form has been so strangely pergrave, and now her prayers torment verted? That this noble form which In the stillness of the night, I was created on purpose for God's seem to hear her pleading for mercy, own glory, has been surrendered to and found none." These words were the services of Satan?' With the uttered amid convulsive sobs, and followed by a violent fit of weeping. I felt it to be a privilege to direct him to the Lamb of God whose blood cleanseth from all sin.

me.

They received our tracts with the

tears rolling rapidly down her cheeks, and with great emotion, she said, "It is so, I am a murderer. O, I am an awful sinner. I deserve nothing but punishment.' Her history, as I drew it from her, was an exceedingly touch

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In the evening we visited the Ladies' Boarding House, a house erected by the benevolent citizens of Chicago for a home for young ladies who are engaged in stores and shops, and for those who come as strangers to the city, and who have no one to whom they can look for protection. This is under the care of an excellent Christian gentleman and lady who endeavor to make it a Christian home.

ing one. Her first step down was to God, she could not resist the tempdisobedience to her parents. She fell tations, and if she got out of prison into the company of a handsome, be- she feared she could not withstand witching young man, who, at the the snares that beset her, and that she early age of 14 years, beguiled her preferred spending the remainder of from her father's home, and effected her life-whether that be short or her ruin. Having chosen the pleas- long--in prison! We left her, feelures of sin and forsaken the path of ing that even for her there was hope, virtue, her course downward was a if she could have the right kind of rapid one. They lived together in religious influence thrown around sin for 9 years. He accumulated a her, but there are so few who care for large property and kept her in great the souls of such as these. affluence, living in one of the most aristocratic establishments in Chicago. Upon my inquiry if she felt happy during those years of sin, she replied, "no, indeed, I was the most unhappy of beings, though surrounded with gaiety, and every luxury layished upon me. Many times in the midst of gay associates I have been seized with such horror that I felt that I was standing upon the brink of hell. I have resolved then and resolved again that I would turn from my evil ways, and lead a different life, but Satan's coils seemed to be bound tight around me. I was powerless, and fell back again into sin, and thus have I gone on until I have committed the fatal deed for which I have been incarcerated." Upon my reminding her that she had a dreadful guilt resting upon her soul; that she had not only gone herself down to the brink of woe, but had ruined others, she replied, "I feel it, I feel it. Oh, it is terrible. I pray to the Lord constantly for pardon; is there no hope?" I assured her that if she felt her guilt and her need for a Savior, and would cast herself at His feet as a penitent sinner, though her sins were scarlet, the blood of Jesus could cleanse her from all sin. Said she, I have nothing to offer in palliation for my sins. Oh, God, forgive my sins. S. S. engaged in a fervent touching prayer, to which she responded. When we arose to leave her, she wept long upon our necks, thanked us time after time for our visit, begged an interest in our prayers, said that she had no wish to get away from that place, that she felt that she must change her course in life, that she must give her heart

On the 28th visited the City Bridewell, containing 190 men and 70 women. These are many of them of the most degraded specimens of humanity; but even here in the meeting we held with them, we found many tender hearts, and much interest manifested to hear the preaching of the Gospel. This, with some other religious labor, closed our visit to Chicago, and we returned home full of comfort and of joy, feeling it to have been a blessed privilege to visit the prisons, to minister to the afflicted, to comfort those that mourn, and preach the Gospel to the poor. God be all the glory.

R. M. C.

For the "American Friend."
MARRIAGE.

To

WE do not find in the Scriptures any mode prescribed for marrying, whether it shall be accomplished in a public assembly, in the family at home, with or without a civil magistrate, or how this union should take place. There is, however, reason to believe that the mode was not uniform.

There being no Scriptural authority for assuming that any legal marriage is wrong, except in case of blood kin,

does it become Friends as a religious Like those too faithless disciples, Society to assert, either directly or Christians are still slow of heart to indirectly, that it is wrong? Many believe all that is written concerning changes in the various Disciplines of Christ in His coming, as well as His Friends, have taken place on the sub- past work. That He is ever present ject during the last twenty-five years, in spirit with His children, abiding nearly all of which assume that a in them, leading them from knowperson commits an error who marries ledge to knowledge into all truth, and contrary to Church regulations. But from step to step through all their wanting Scriptural authority for such pilgrimage, a present help for every an assumption, is it any marvel that need, is a vital and a precious reality, they should not continue satisfactory? not yet producing its most glorious Iowa Yearly Meeting in its late effects, because not yet, but in little revised Discipline, has made a thor- part comprehended, and acknowlough change on this subject. The edged. If I have any correct view manner of proceeding in marriage of the position occupied by the variin the Society of Friends is prescrib- ous branches of the Christian Church, ed, and then the subject is left with- no one of these has been led so fully out making it a disciplinary offence to recognize and declare the work of to marry in some other way. Monthly the Holy Spirit, in doctrine and in meetings are expected to appoint experience, as the Society of Friends. committees to visit all the members To confess and to testify of Christ's soon after marriage, for their help spiritual as well as His outward and encouragement in their religious coming, is the great central doctrine welfare; thus extending a fostering which distinguishes Quakerism, and care at a very important period of their lives. L. TATUM.

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from whence our mode of Church Government and of worship springs. Acknowledging Christ as the Head of the Church, they who most deeply realize this Gospel truth, will most appreciate the silent meeting, and feel it to be at times a becoming attitude for a spiritually waiting and worshiping congregation, reverently bowed in the presence of Him before whom the Seraphims cover their faces.

Thus opens the Book of Acts. Just before, in the closing words of the Evangelical records, we are told The silence of the gathered assemthat but a little part of all that Jesus bly is often the occasion of deep did, was, or could be written. And humiliation, and of soul-wrestling, here the sublime thought is borne to and of communion in Heavenly plaus through the inspired pen, that all ces in Christ Jesus, as well as a testithe wealth of loving ministry, and of mony to our dependence on the putdivine teaching, with which His out- ting forth in ministry, or the moving ward life was filled, was but the to prayer or praise, of our all-powerbeginning of a work, to be carried ful and ever-present Head. The more forward by His spirit, in His child- reverent the waiting, the more man ren, and in His church, through all is silent before the Lord, the more coming time. He had told His disci- perfect is the preparation to hear the ples just before He left them: "I Shepherd's voice, and to exercise the have yet many things to say unto you, gifts of Ilis bestowing, "for the perbut ye cannot bear them now. fecting of the Saints, for the work of "Howbeit, when he the spirit of the ministry, for the edifying of the Truth is come, he will guide you into

all truth. He shall glorify me; for he body of Christ."

Gathered to this

shall receive of mine and shall show living principle,-Christ dwelling in it unto you." our hearts by faith,-we shall be able

to comprehend, more and more, what is the breadth and the length, and the depth, and the height, and to know the love of God, which passeth knowledge.

assent to particular opinions or curious speculations concerning Him, or any scriptural or theological subject. They are also important in determining what was their disposition to

We cannot doubt that over the wards those awakened under their length and breadth of our Society, there is a revival of earnest inquiry, of quickened life, of fresh dedication. Clearer views of Christ as our Atonement, "delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification, have rejoiced and animated many hearts. The Lamb of God, as prefigured by the passover is more clearly apprehended.

teachings and ministry, and how little they inclined to impose burdensome conditions upon such, when wishing to profess with them. In this view, Penn's sentiments may be of service to such as are considering what ought to be the action of our Society toward the Freedmen and other awakened persons, either in our own neighborhoods or elsewhere, May Christ as the antitype also of who are desiring to profess with us, the guiding pillar, and the smitten but are not in a condition, either of rock, and the never-failing Shekinah, knowledge or character, to underbe as fully learned and as clearly stand and fully adopt our peculiar taught, leading on "unto perfection." views.

Christ's coming in spirit, like His "What of the Christian dispensacoming in the flesh sends a spiritual tion is so peculiar and important as sword. As light and life increase, to challenge of right the name of there is proving and sifting. That Creed or Faith? which can be shaken, must be shaken. Every man's work must be tried, that that which cannot be shaken, that which will stand the fire, may remain. Such is the ordeal through which, as a people, we are passing. If, when tried, we come not forth as gold, if we prove recreant to our own high calling and holy trust, others will take our crown.

If, on the other hand, we are found honoring our Lord by faithfully maintaining the position to which He has called us, and fulfilling the service of His appointing, I believe He will lead us into a larger place; and that the time when He will "favor this portion of Zion, even the set time will come."

JOEL BEAN.

WRITINGS.

"I say, then, that the belief of Jesus of Nazareth to be the promised Mesiah, the Son and Christ of Godcome and sent from God to restore and save mankind, is the first, and was then the only requisite Article of Faith, without any large confessions, or an heap of principles or opinions, resolved upon after eurious and tedious debates by Councils and Synods, and this may be proved both by examples and doctrine."

William Penn then quotes as examples, the following scriptures: Math. 16:16, 17; John 1: 49; John 11: 2426; John 9: 35-38; Mat. 8:10; John 4; Mat. 15: 23-28; Mark 2: 4–5; chap. 5: 22; Mat. 9:20, 22, 27, 28; Luke 18: 35, 42; chap. 17: 15-19; chap. 7: 45-50; chap. 23: 42, 43.

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"Nor was this only in the days of EXTRACTS FROM WILLIAM PENN'S Christ the effect of his gracious dispensation or peculiar indulgence, for after times afford us the like instanTHE following extracts from Wil- ces. This was the main bent of Peliam Penn's Address to Protestants, ter's sermon.' Acts 2: 37, 38. written in 1698, show the views of It was also the main point in the Friends, at their rise, in regard to case of Cornelius. Acts 10:24Christian fellowship, and the condi- 48; and of the eunuch. Acts 8: tion on which it should be exercised, 27-37. "I will conclude these exnamely, a living belief in Jesus Christ, amples with a passage in the Acts, of as the Savior of mankind, and not an Paul at Thessalonica. It is this:

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