1 MIL mtTfJn VOLUME III. OXFORD, N. C., WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1877. NUMBER 1. From the Church Union. THE OF SAB.ETATli>l\ ASO H2i\i\EKPAUTIE»lN TilSE EAST. BY L. S. MUR.' (Son of the Governor of B' In the East tiie circled by religion ."..eius. VVe see this in the siuipi ' meeting nf two persons, in the street. They co'ivev^in a form ot prayer— an earnest wish that the other mav ■ enjoy peace. Throughout the Bible, this ^blessing forms the staple of salutation. Salem or Shalum means peace. The Bedo uins of our time have the same idea embodied in their salutation. The Arab meets his friend witii " May God grant you a happy morning;’’ “ May God grant you Ilia favors;” “It God wills it, }'Oii are well ;” “ Mat’ your shad ow never be less.’’ The difference here is very considerable,*accatrd ing to the rank of person saluted. The most common mode is merely laying the right hand on the bosom, and a little inclining their bodies; but, when to a person of great lank, they bow almost to the ground and kiss the hem of Ids garmetif. Inferiors, out ot deference and respect, kiss tlie feet and knees, or the gar nients of their superiors. Oriental dinner comprises about thirty dishes. Soon after the first dish comes lamb, roasted on the spit, which must never be wanting at any Turkish or Arab banquet, ’rhen follow' dishes ot solid and liquid, sour and sw'eet. in the order of which a certain kind of recurring chatige is ob served, to keep tlie apitetite alive. 'I’he piliau of boiled rice is always the concluding dish. The externals to such a feast as this are these : A great rotind plate of matal with a plain edge, witii three feet in diameter, is placed on a low frame, and serves as a tatde, about which live or six people can repose on rugs. The left hand must remain invis ible ; it would bo improper to expose it while eating. The right hand is alone permitted to be active. There are no plates, or knives, or forks. 1 he table is decked with dishes, deep and slniilow, covored and uncovereil; tnese are continu.iiU' being chang ed, so that little can be eaten from each. Some remain longer —as roast meat, cold ‘milks, and gherkins, and are often recurred to. Before and after dinner they wash their iiands. An attendant lave kneels W'lth a metal basin liand and a piece of soap on a iitlle saucer in the other. Water is poured by him over the hands of the washer from a metal jug; over his arm hangs an ele gantly' embroiJred napkin for drying the hands upon. If a Turkish or Arab Slieikb, Effendi, or Emeer, invites, he always MAX't’HKW AKIVOi.l>>l!i TAtAG. I am not about to say anything of this fascinating Eiigiish writer and his theory wiiicii has not been said already, and better said than 1 can say it. Ills jiapers aie en- ypim ‘(Julture and Anarchy’liave been widely read in America. The great beauty of his pure Englisti, and the masterful way ill which he handles his subject have won liim many admirers amongst u.s. 1 don’t see how any one WHO thoughtfully reads his writing's can think of him, as many of his fellow-countrymen appear to do, as an impractical dreamer in ids theorv of reform. But much as Mr. Arnold’s works delight me, I am constantly sun slide of one vital error in the then ry of “ Culture ” which he preaches, and preaches with such beautiful power. M^’ apology for writing iUese few words must be my conviction tliat, amongst many of the most intelligent peo ple—the leaders of thouglit amongst us—this theory of his, with this one great mistake in it, IS gaining growing acceptance. And it has a plausibility almut it —this tlieorv of culture—which renders it most easy to fail to see the mistake; and, this accepted, no words can tell the mischief that may be wrought. So every word, hnwevei imperfectly spok en, woich serves to make the vital error of the theory clear, has S'tdicient apology for its being person becomes graceful aiid at- tiactive down in the little sphere of h.is daily life, not by laboring for grace and attractiveness as ends sufficient in themselves, but by setting other ends and higher befor iii.il, and laboring for them —bv trying to be kind, and helpful atid gracious of heart. So a man attains this thing tliat has such powerful winning in it for our author’s mind, and for all our mind.s, ccmoleteness and round ness of fully developed character and life—not bv thinking of that, and setting that, as it were, in the eye of all his life, but by losing sight of that as a chief aim. and aiming at pleasing God, and con forming liimsell to God’s will instead. If religions people, as Mr. Arnold alleges, do not verify tliis bv tiiuir lives, if Oiiristiaiis iu general do not exhibit, as the fruit of their religion, such growth ami eimohling of character, such ever-increasing ap|)roach towards perfectness, tlie answer is that this is tlieir fault, not the fault of tlieir faith. The only sure basis of perfect character—the only root out of whicli the “sweetness and light” our author labors foi ls acceptance of that ■’I' or in one sends a servant to call you at the This servant often proper time. repeats the very formula men-1 tioned in Luke xvi 17, ‘Tetuddulu el asha haden—Come, for the supper is ready.” The fact that this custom is mainly confined to the ^ wealthy and to the nobility is in strict anreement with tbe parable. O “ It is a great evil, not to be able to bear an evil.”—Bion. iMr. An.'fdd holds that the pri iie dut\‘ of'm'an—the “ mie thing rfbedf d” for him—is self perfect ing—an harmimious developnieiif of his nature upon all its .sides, lie concedes to religion a place ill hislory—the place ot develop ing to its perfection tlie moral side of man’s nature. But that, lie says, is not the vviiole of man ; he has other sides besides this iiioial side, whicii must get their perfecting in other ways; tiie man who is only religious is a narrow man, incomplete, one sided, is not rightly ctuiceiving the higli end for wliich his life was given him, is not doing his first duty. In a word, religion is a mean.' to an -aid, in this t'neory. Self-culture—the attain.neiit of self-perfectiies, is the end; being a child of God, a (Jhrisiian, is one of the means iielpfui to that end. Presented as Mr. Arnold pre.sents it, tiiis doctrine has a marvellous fascination about it for many minds. It sounds plausibly. It has a look of innocence, and a g.irb ol goodly attractions. But there is a place of vital weakness ill it. “ He can not serve God and Mammon ;” and Mammon is self, whatever the role in whicli that self mav array itself, or by what name it may call itself— even thougii it take so seemly a name as seif perfecting, or ‘sweet ness and ligiit,’ iu the phrase our author hives to use. ’I’lie truth would seem to be that this attrac tive thing—-a rouudetl ami perfect human character and human lite, —mav only be had, like manv another comely' and beautiful tiling that oar hearts wish for, by ceasing altogether to think of it or seek it as our chief end, and by lending our endeavors to an other end higher than that, A can come- chief aim—tliat “one thing need ful,” which religion [iroposes to man. Here, it appears very' con viiiciiigiy to me, is the weak place ill the tlieorv of Mi‘. Arnold, and of tlie followers with him of the tlieorv of culture. Because I be lieve that manv are growing to tliink of life and the phiios.iphv of living mucii as Mr. Ariioid's woi'ks teach the matter, I have ventured these few words on the subject. As lie puts it, the imilter states ilself to me only as Culture versus Ueligioii ; and God, I be lieve, lias planned the true pbil- osopliv of life for us all.—AT. • rjIE ttl riJ.AL. Oi’ I'SJK TEMPEE. that day had be to takeoff and put oti bis eight articles of ponti- flcial dress, and on each occasion behind a curtain put up for the purpose between liimandthe peo ple, be plunged into the great swimming bath or pool, whicii if he was old or infirm, was heated for him. ife the.i put on all his gilded garments—goat’s hair gilt— to penetrate into innermost saiict- uarv and sprinkle the blood, like holy water, round tbe pavement eight times, checking his move ment, like the officer who laid on stripes on an offender, by num bering them. Wlien he came up lie was thrice to utter the bene d ction, when all wore hushed in ileup stillness to catch the awful Name—which then only in eacli year of an Israelite’s life could bo iieanl—pronounced iu lhatsienee so distinctly that, in the exagger ated Rabbinical traditions, its sound was believed to reach as far as Jericho. * * * * The ceremony of the scapegoat still continued, though it had a;l the appearance of a terrified ritual in its last stage of decadence. The creature vvas conveyed from the Temple to Olivet on a laised bridge to avoid the jeers of the irreverent pilgrims of Alexandria —-who used to pluck the poor animal’s long flakes of hair with tbe rude cry of “Get along and away with you !” Then lie was liamled on from keeper to keeper bv short stages over hill and valley. At each hut where he rested an obsequious guide said to him, “Here is your food, here is your drink ” The last in this strange succession led him to a precioice above the fortress ot Hok, ami hurried him down, and the signal was sent back to Jer usalem that the deed was accom plished by the waving of hand kerchiefs all along the rocky road. — Dean Stanley’s Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church. KEEP iS rUAIUllX AtiEAD. Pay no attention to slanderers and gossip-mongers. Keen straight on in your course and let their back-biting die the death of neg lect. What is the use of Iving awake nights brooding over the remark of some false friend, that runs throiigli your brain like lightning I What is the use of getting into a worry and fret over gossip that has been set afloat to your disadvantage by some med dlesome busy' body who has more time than character! The things cannot possibly' injure yon, un less indeed you take notice of them, and in combating them give them standing and character; If what is said about you is true, set yourself right; if it is false, let it go for what it will fetch. If a bee sting y-ou, would y'on go to the hive to .destroy it ? Would not a thousand come upon y’ou I It is wisdom to say little respect ing the injuries y'ou have receiv ed. We are generallv losers ui the end it we stop to refute all the hackhitiiig and gossiping we may' hear by the way. They are aniioyiiig, it is true, hut not dan gerous, so long as we do not stop to expostulate and scold. Our characters are formed and siis- tidiied bv ourselves, by' our own actions and purposes, and tiot by others. Let us always hear in mind that “calumniators may usually be trusted to time and the slow hilt steady justice of public opinion.”—Selected. Everv nioriung hetore the break ot day the captain or chief otiicer of the remple guard opened the (liHir of the court, wliere the priest 111 residence for tlie week had slept lor the night, and the pro cession olteii passed round the court in white robes and bare feet Ml kill the iiiorniiig sacrifice. As the first rays of tiie rising sun struck upon the gcddeii lamp above the porcli, the trumpets sounded; and those ot the priests who had drawn the lot entered tiie temple for the ofl'eriiig of incense. That was the moment, ifaiiv, for any preternatural visita tion to the priest. Then they came out, and having slain the lamb Oh tiie altar, they pronounc ed tlie benediction, tlie only relic of tiie .sacerdotal office which has coiitinueJ in the Jewish Churcii to our own time. On greater days tiie soleiiiuities were increased, but the general plan vvas the same, and It was tins worship, with its sacrificial shambles and its minute meclianisiii, that furnished the chief material for the theological discussions and ecclesias'iical reg ulation ot the Jewish (Jluirch of that period. Tile High Priest was still to be kept from f.diing asleep on the eve ot toe great fast, by pinching him and by reading to him what were thought the most exciting parts of the Bible. Eive times over in the course of Not long since a graduate from one of our eastern theological schools was called to the pastoral charge of a churCh in the extreme Southwest. When about to start for his new parish he was unex- P' clediv detained by the iiicapa bilitv of his Presbytery to ordain him. In order to explain his non-arrival at the oppointed time, he sent the following telegram to the deacons of the church : ‘Presbytery' lacked a quorum to ordain.’ In the course of its jonrnev tbe message got strangely metamorphosed, and reached the a.-itonished deacons in this shape : ‘Presbytery tacked a worm on to Adam !’ The sober church officers were greatly discomposed and mystified, but alter grave consnltation concluded it was the minister’s facetious way' of an- iiomiciiig that he had got married, and accordingly proceeded to provide lodgings for two instead of-one.—Chicago Inter- Ocean. A beggar posted himself at the door of tlie Chancery court, ind kept say ing,” A penny', please, sir! Only one penny, sir, before you go in !” “And, why, my man ?” inquired an old country gentle man. “Because, sir, the chances are y'OU will not have one when you get out.” It is said—with what truth we know not—that tlie change of style which has been noticed in George Eliot’s later works is duo to certain literary jiartnership with her husband, Mr. Lewes. His thoughts are said to be dis cernible in Middlemarch, and even more than tliouglus in Daniel Deronda. H-nvever this may ho, Daniel Deronda a hook every body wants to read. Conversation between an in qiiiring stranger and a steamboat pilot: ‘That is Black Mountain V ‘Yes, sir ; highest mountain above Lake Georgo.’ ‘Any story of le gend connected with that moun tain f Lots of ’em. 'I'vvo lovers went up that mountain once and never came back again.’ ‘Indeed —why : what became of them ?’ ‘Went down on the o'ther side.’ The Rev. Mr. Emerson, of Gloucester, Mass., recently said : “ My friends, lias the age of mir acles returned I I do not know that they turn water into wine, but they do say that there are those who can turn water into milk ! How happens it, friends, that herring caught on the coast of Maine become “Labrador her ring” on touching the h-ands of some Glouce.ster dealers? How does it happen, too, that Bank codfish, worth five dollars a quintal, become transformed— changed in the twinkling of an eve—to George’s fish, worth fifty cents more ? Gan any one here tell me how these wonderful transformations take place ?” Talleyrand once complained that the English had thirty-nine religious and only one sauce, which evoked the retort from a witty Englisl man, -“And tlie French have thirty-nine sauces -and no religion. ” Jd