EDITORIAL SEED-THOUGHTS. "GATHER UP THE FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN, THAT NOTHING MAY BE LOST." THE EDITOR ABROAD. Some of our readers have no doubt it kindles up the peaks and glows along the sides of the mountains, as you roll around the bluffs and over the raised valleys of those interesting mountain regions. In going on a journey, the great thing, witnessed this sublime sight; but there and the first in order, is to start-the are, no doubt some who have not. It is rest generally goes on of itself. As worth a railroad trip to see it. It is with most of persons getting up in the especially beautiful in the mountains. morning is the hardest part of the day's We have seen it on the prairies, and at work, so generally the most difficult the Falls of Niagara, and sometimes at part of a journey is to start. "We home, but nowhere does it equal in lovecan't get off"— -so we are apt to think. liness the dawn and sun-rise along the But there is really a great deal of decep- head-waters of the blue Juniata. How tion in regard to this supposed difficulty. Let any one but just make the proper effort and actually get off, and when he returns, after one, two, or three weeks, he will be surprised to find how well the world went on around home without him. We are never of so much account as we think we are. The question, "Do they miss me at home?" is touchingly answered in the song, but if disposed of in sober prose, it would simply be, "Not much?" It might be a more serious matter if it were to be an absence of a year or of years, but a few weeks amount to nothing more than a pleasant relief of monotony, and a little spice of variety. Subdue then at once, the vanity of thinking that you cannot be spared, and-off at once. It is a good and a pleasant thing to travel. Good for soul and body; especially so for such as are at home much confined to indoor labor, or a monotonous round of labor. How interesting and refreshing to such, are the everchanging scenes that pass them like a panorama in the wide, wide world. Moreover, of all the pleasant months in the year for this enjoyment, there is none like May and June. For our little excursion, we cut off the last of the first, and the first of the last-taking from May 29th till June 9th, for our trip. We would recommend another thing. If you wish to go West, take the first train after 12 o'clock at night. This will bring you into the mountains by day light. But what is still better, it will enable you, wherever you may be traveling, to see one of the most beautiful sights to be seen, and one which is seldom seen by city people. This, namely, the dawn of the morning in the "dappled East," and the rising of the sun! The ride and the scenery is the more pleasant on account of the pleasantness of the road. Though it passes through a region where, not a half a century ago, it was thought that not even a turnpike could be made, this Pennsylvania Central is decidedly the smoothest and most agreeable road in the land. Though not in the same sense, yet literally, in the language of prophesy, the valleys are raised and the mountains made low. As if ascending a Bable-tower, the iron horse, with his long train, winds up the slopes of the Allegheny with such a gradual ascent that you scarcely know that you are rising. At length, as if tired of winding and climbing, he rushes into the mountain like a dragon of the age of fable into his hole, and in a few minutes brings you out into day-light West of the Alleghenies! All right!-and on you go. The whole road is ballasted with stone between the cross-ties, which not only prevents the rising of dust, but also gives to the cars that peculiar-what shall I say?-soft sounding, corky, turnpiky roll, (excuse the new words,) which we have found on no other road. The Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Road, has also, of late, been brought under the presidency of Mr. Thompson, the prince of railroad Presidents, and is now undergoing a similar renovation. This part completed, after the same comfortable fashion, this will be, throughout, as it is already for 370 miles, away into the heart of the far West, the most delightful road in the whole country. Though his friends will miss T. A. Scott, Esq., former Superin- He bringeth low and raiseth up. He tendent of the Western Division of the raiseth the poor out of the dust, and Penn'a Central, in the place he so well lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill filled for years, they will be glad to find to set them among princes. He will that his superior qualifications as a rail- keep the feet of his saints, and the wickroad manager, have brought to him the ed shall be silent in darkness; for by invitation to 66 come up higher," and strength shall no man prevail." that he is now associated with Mr. Our trip was not solely a pleasure trip; Thompson as Vice President, in the room we were also charged with the duties of of Mr. Foster, deceased. While spend a Delegate from the Eastern to the Westing a few days in somewhat leisurely ern Synod of the German Reformed travel through parts of Ohio, we were Church, which met at Akron, Summit struck with the changes which have been county, Ohio. Thus we were led to wrought by railroads in twenty-three spend nearly a week in that pleasant years, when we first became acquainted town of four to five thousand inhabitants. with the locations which we now re-visit- This town is celebrated, firstly, for its ed. The whole net-work of business lovely, rural aspect, and the beauty and and trade has been changed. In most taste of its private residences; and, secof cases, what were prominent business ondly, as the former home of the noted centres then, are so no more. The net-John Brown, of Ossawattomie," who work of railroads spread over the State, had the singular fortune and misfortune have created other centres of trade. of gaining a rather undesirable immorThus the business life has been absorbed tality for himself and Governor Wise. from many towns and villages; and its He is well remembered in Akron as a property in many cases, at least for a rather quiet man who resided some miles time, has sorely depreciated. As a con- in the country, devoted to the patriarchal sequence of all this, we found that many calling of keeping sheep-this being a of the pioneer capitalists have "gone wool-growing county. It is also rememby the board," as the saying goes, hav-bered that once on a time, after he had ing sunk their capital, in what is now stock left adrift on dry sand-banks, because the stream of business and trade has been drawn into other channels. It was to us a sad sight in several cases to observe, on forsaken warehouses and factories, in large letters, the names of men who, twenty-three years ago, represented the wealth and enterprise of the towns in which they did good pioneer service for whole communities; and to pass by their beautiful private residences, now in other hands, and presenting but feebly the signs of their former pride and glory. To our question as to where the former owners were, it was generally answered, "broken up--lost all-and have gone West!" SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI-so passes the glory of this world! Of one thing our ramble among former familiar scenes fully convinced us, that while the West is a good place to make fortunes, it has also been to many a good place to lose them. "I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to all." There is a Providence in this, as in all other things. "The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich: received a letter from his sons in Kansas, stating that "arms were more needed there than bread," he came into town with a truck wagon, drawn by a tame and patient old horse, on a mission, and after the mode, as followeth. His horse kept the middle of the street, stopping of his own accord whenever his master entered a house, awaiting the result and farther intimation to move. Meanwhile Brown went in and out, begging old guns, pistols, and such like-strange means for border civilization, Having canvassed the town in this way, street by street, he was ready to return with a "pretty good stock of shooting stuff." These unchurchly implements were duly boxed and sent on to "bleeding Kansas," as if it were necessary to make it bleed a little more. Not having read the old man's life, we do not know whether or not this incident is contained in it. If not, the readers of The Guardian are indebted to our late visit to this place for this farther information, which the rest of the world as yet knoweth not of! But what interested us more than all this, was the singular little lake which is located near Akron. The county, of which Akron is the seat of justice, is called Summit county, because it is the highest part of Ohio, being located on It is not strange that they should have been imposed upon, by some one who desired to be original rather than true, as it is not to be expected that they should be posted in church antiquities; but that the religious press should take it up, as it has lately done, and echo the foolish story, is a little surprising. Every sentence contains a fib! The Augustin the ridge which divides the waters between the lakes in the North, and the Ohio river in the South. Here, on this ridge, is a small lake which has two outlets the one on the North forming a stream which pours its waters through the Cuyahoga River, into the lakes, and thence through the St. Lawrence into the Atlantic Ocean; the other on the South, passing through the Tuscarawas, Mus-ian monks always did wear black, and kingum, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, into the Gulf of Mexico. Now we picture to ourselves how a very small circumstance may direct a drop of water, or a little fish, to take one direction or the other. And then how far apart ultimately their destination! From this we would invite the young readers of The Guardian to draw for themselves an impressive and solemn lesson. Youth may be regarded as a beautiful, clear, unsullied lake, on such a dividing ridge. There are for it, in like manner, two outlets; and both ways may the stream of life take its course. A small circumstance may determine whether it shall turn so as to pour its treasures at last into the peaceful haven of heavenly joy, or roll down into the dark gulf of eternal death! How solmenly true are the lines, Great God, on what a slender thread In conclusion we must not forget to express our thanks to the many kind friends who handed us their names as subscribers to The Guardian. We hope the monthly communication thus instituted between us may be mutually as pleasant as were our interviews, face to face. ORIGIN OF BLACK COATS IN THE CLERGY. "In the year 1524 Luther laid aside the monk's costume, and thenceforth dressed according to the fashion of the world. He chose black clothes-and consequently the color has become the fashion of the clergy. His reason for choosing this color was: The Elector of Saxony took an interest in him, and now and then sent him a piece of black cloth, being at that time the court fashion, and because Luther preferred it; and so his scholars thought it became them to wear the same color as their master. From that time black has been the color most worn by the clergy." This precious little morsel of historical nonsense has for some time been going the rounds of the secular press. this was the color of Luther's clothes when he was yet a monk. The clergy wore black long before that time, and that color did not, therefore, at that time "become the fashion of the clergy." The Elector of Saxony sent him black cloth as a present, not because it "was at that time the court fashion," but because it was the clerical fashion at that time and long before. In the first ages of Christianity, the prevailing ecclesiastical dress was white; but the monks, both of the Orient and Occident, preferred to wear black, as the symbol of that "godly sorrow which is not to be repented of." Hence, not only the Nuns and Monks in the Greek church, who all belong to the order of holy Basilius, are clothed in black to the present day; but in Constantinople, as early as the time of St. Chrysostom, who died A. D. 407, all the orthodox clergy were clothed in black, while only the separatistic Novitians wore white habits. Thus church history records that when once the Novitian bishop Sisinnius came on a visit to the Catholic bishop Arsacius, a friend of the first asked him why he appeared in such an improper dress, and where it was written that a bishop must wear white clothes? Whereupon Sisinnius where it is written that a bishop must very promptly answered: "Tell me first be dressed in black!" When now, in later times, the blackdressed Basilian order of monks in the East, and the similarly dressed Dominican monks in the West, became more and more masters of the pulpit, the people became more and more accustomed to see the minister in the pulpit in a black dress, and it could not seem strange to any one to see Luther, who, as an Augustinian monk, had always been in the habit of wearing a black dress, and in like manner the other Protestant ministers, appear officially in the black robe or gown. From all this, it is seen how untrue the above story is. It is not only untrue but foolish. History is not, never has been, AN EXPLANATION. quite so waxy as to have its pliable nose turned in such an immediate and A number of new subscribers have wholesale way, by the mere putting off lately been added to our list who desire and putting on of the coat of even a Lu- to have the BACK numbers from January. ther! Nor Christ, nor Paul, ever reuni- We are sorry to say that it is not in our formed the people and set them march-power to furnish them, owing to the fact ing after a new fashion with quite so much despatch. "Coming events," especially if they come to stay awhile and to do some work, generally "cast their shadows before." Such jerkings in history as that indicated in the story we are reviewing, would require all men to be puppets a compliment we do not claim for either the people or the clergy. If we should draw a moral from this story, it would be: That some things did commence with Luther, and some things did not! THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO. that the May Number is exhausted. We therefore make their subscriptions begin with the July Number-the middle of the year. If any of our subscribers, who do not file their Nos., will send us back the May No., we shall be thankful for the favor. CLIMBING. Theodore Parker, a man of great talents and extensive acquirements, though very wild in his religious views, lately died in a foreign land. His library, which he has given to the Public Library of Boston, contains about 17,000 vols. Mr. Parker worked his way up from In the present number of the Guar-humble circumstances. The first volume dian, our readers will find the closing which he ever owned, he bought when a article on this celebrated and bloody boy, having earned the money by pickbattle, from the pen of an eye-witness. ing whortle berries at three cents a The series has proved very interesting quart. This volume, which was Ainsand instructive, giving us a more parti- worth's Latin Dictionary, he always cular account than we could find in his- kept lying near his writing desk, in tory, and a view of the battle as taken honor of its early ervice, and no doubt by a soldier. We heartily concur with in remembrance of the way in which he the venerable writer, Rev. Mr. Willers, became its owner. In this position it in hoping that no such bloody battle was still found after his death. He was may ever stain our soil. We are especi-a ready reader of twenty different lanally thankful to him for holding up before our minds these scenes of war, as a warning against a too great fondness for the military spirit. May he long live to preach that blessed Gospel which proclaims "peace on earth and good will to men.' guages, and could pilot his way through five more. Prof. Mitchell, of the astronomical Observatory in Cincinnati, who now enjoys a world wide reputation as an astronomer, lived as a poor boy in Lebanon, Ohio. Boys, do you hear that? NOTES ON NEW BOOKS. THE PRESBYTERIAN PARLOR MAGAZINE, | contributors is given, whose talents, must make this monthly worthy of all acceptation, as a magazine for Presbyterian families. It covers 52 pages, and the present number is illustrated by two fine engravings in the beginning. Terms This is a new candidate for popular favor in the Magazine World. It breathes an earnest religious spirit, and we welcome it to our sanctum. A fine list of$2 per year. IN a former article, we gave our readers some account of the nature of the Church Year, with its holy times and seasons. We showed on what divine facts it rests; how it grows out of the revelation of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost; how it celebrates the great divine facts of our redemption, and keeps them fresh in our minds and hearts; how it thus brings near to our earthly life all the elements of grace, that we may be influenced by them in our daily life; how the sacred year runs parallel with the natural year, but is higher than it, and thus both illustrates and sanctifies it. We wish now yet to illustrate the way in which a devout following of the order of the sacred year benefits us in the cultivation of practical piety. It is easy to see how, in the life of nature, vegetable or animal, it is necessary that it be unfolded uniformly and symmetrically. All parts of a plant, all parts of a human body, must grow and be cared for. They must, therefore, be acted upon by those elements and influences which are adapted to unfold them. These helps they must have in proper proportion, and in due time. It must not always rain, nor always shine -not always be day, or always night-not always be spring or autumn, summer or winter. All these are proper, and needed in their time. God has made all things beautiful in their season; and through all the alternations and changes of the year must the plant pass, in order to receive aid from all the elements and influences in the midst of which it is successively made to live. It is just so with the Christian life. It is a life; in its growth it observes all the order and the laws of life; and, as all life, it must be unfolded in wholeness and symmetry, and needs therefore all outward surroundings and helps; and needs them in proper proportion, and at the proper time. It must pass through all the experiences of joy and |