1860. CHRONOLOGY OF IMPORTANT POLITICAL EVENTS. Nov. 6.-The election for President and Vice President was held in all the States, and resulted as follows: Total number of votes in Southern States, 1,310,907 3,429,075 4,739,982 1,865,840 Vote against Lincoln:-Douglas received, 1,288,043.-Breckenridge 836,801.Bell, 742,747.-Total, 2,867,591. Majority in the Union against Lincoln, 1,001,751. Dec. 20.-State Convention of South Carolina passed an ordinance of secession, to dissolve the connection of that State with the Federal Government. The ordinance was passed by the unanimous vote of 169 members. 1861. Jan. 9th.-The State Convention of Mississippi passed an ordinance for immediate secession, by a vote of 84 to 15. Jan. 11.-The ordinance of secession passed the State Convention of Alabama, by a vote of 61 ayes to 39 noes. Jan. 11th.-The Florida State Convention passed the ordinance of secession, by a vote of 62 to 7. Jan. 19.-The State Convention of Georgia adopted the secession ordinance, by yeas 208, nays 89. Jan. 26. The secession ordinance of Louisiana passed the State Convention, by a vote of 118 to 17. Feb. 1.-The Texas Convention passed the ordinance of secession, by a vote of 166 yeas to 7 nays. Feb. 9.-The Southern Congress, at Montgomery, Ala., elected Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, President, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice President of the Southern Confederacy. The Constitution of the United States, slightly altered, was adopted. Feb. 12.-The Congress of the United States counted the electoral votes for President and Vice President. The following is the result: Lincoln and Hamlin Breckenridge and Lane, Bell and Everett, Douglas and Johnson, 180 72 39 12 Feb. 27.-The following proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States passed the House of Representatives by a two thirds vote-133 against 65: and the Senate, by 24 to 12: "That no amendment shall be made to the Constitution which shall authorize or give Congress power to abolish or interfere within any State with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or servitude by the laws of said State." The official announcement of the Cabinet of President Lincoln, is as follows: Secretary of State, William H. Seward, of New York. Secretary of Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio. Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania. The Cabinet of the Southern Confederacy is as follows: Secretary of State, Robert Toombs, of Georgia. Secretary of Treasury, C. L. Memminger, of South Carolina. Attorney-General, Judah P. Benjamin, of Louisiana. CONVERSIONS TO THE CHURCH. Robert R. Morris, lately a Minister of the Methodist denomination has been received as a Candidate for Priest's Orders in the Diocese of Connecticut. The Rev. Josiah P. Cannon, lately advanced to the Priesthood by Bishop Otey, of Tennessee, was formerly a Baptist Preacher. The Rev. G. M. Everhart, recently ordained Priest by Bishop Otey, of Tennessee, was formerly a Methodist Preacher. Mr. S. T. Allen, recently admitted Candidate for Holy Orders in Illinois, was formerly a Congregational Minister. CHURCH MISSIONS AND VOLUNTARYISM. The Board of Missions at its October Meeting in New Haven, in a truly Catholic spirit, and to promote unity, harmony and efficiency in the great work of Missions, passed the following Resolution: "Resolved, That the Domestic Committee be instructed to confer with the government of the 'American Church Missionary Society,' with a view to some harmonious adjustment of their various relations." Following their instructions, the Domestic Committee under date of Oct. 30, 1860, addressed a courteous Letter to said Society, to which Letter the Society returned a reply, [Signed,] Rev. Henry Anthon, D. D.; Rev. E. H. Canfield, D. D.; Rev. Lot Jones, D. D.; Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, D. D.; Rev. Frederick S. Wiley; Rev. H. Dyer, D. D.; E. W. Dunham, Esq.; Fred. G. Foster, Esq.; Fred. T. Peet, Esq.; Horace Webster, LL. D. That Letter contains this remarkable paragraph. "We perceive but one resolution, viz: the third in your letter, that particularly concerns ourselves in an official relation, and inasmuch as, in our view, our present and actual relations are entirely harmonious, and we are unaware of any point of duty committed to us which requires adjustment in order to render it harmonious with the duty and responsibilities of the Domestic Committee, or the Board of Missions, we have nothing, as a Committee, to suggest, but the cultivation and maintenance of the same friendly feeling, which has prompted the resolutions we have received from you." The only meaning of this language is, that even although the utmost liberty should be extended to this Society in the appropriation of its funds, it utterly refuses to recognize or to have anything to do with the Church in its capacity as a Missionary Body. This position will be appreciated wherever there is in the Church any sense of Church loyalty and Church responsibility and duty. The whole correspondence is contained in the Spirit of Missions for January, 1861. NOTE. Nearly all our Summary of Domestic and Foreign Intelligence is necessarily laid over, notwithstanding our twenty-four extra pages in this Number. So much of it as is worth preserving will appear hereafter. 1. The Historical Evidences of the Truth of the Holy Scripture Records, stated anew with special reference to the doubts and Discoveries of Modern Times, in Eight Lectures, delivered in the Oxford University Pulpit, in the year 1859, on the Bampton Foundation, by GEORGE RAWLINSON, M. A., late Fellow and Tutor of Exeter College, Editor of the History of Herodotus, &c.-from the London Edition, with Notes, translated by Rev. A. N. ARNOLD. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1860. 12mo. pp. 454. 2. The History of Herodotus, A new English Version, edited with copious Notes and Appendices, illustrating the History and Geography of Herodotus, from the most recent sources of information, and embodying the chief results, Historical and Ethnological, which have been obtained in the progress of Cuneiform and Hieroglyphical discovery. By GEORGE RAWLINSON, M. A., late Fellow, &c.-assisted by COL. SIR HENRY RAWLINSON, K. C. B., and SIR J. G. WILKINSON, F. R. S. In four Volumes, with Maps and Illustra tions. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1859. 8vo. Vol. I. pp. 563. Vol. II. pp. 514. Vol. III. Vol. III. pp. 463. Vol. IV. pp. 3. A Critical and Historical Introduction to the Canonical Scriptures of the Old Testament, from the German of Wilhelm Martin Leberecht De Wette,-translated and enlarged by THEODORE PARKER, Minister of the Second Church in Roxbury. In two Volumes-third edition. Boston: Rufus Leighton, Jr. 1859. 8vo. pp. 517, and 570. 4. An Historico-Critical Introduction to the Canonical Books of the New Testament. By WILHELM MARTIN LEBERECHT DEWETTE, Doctor of Theology and regular Professor in the University of Basel. Translated from the fifth improved and enlarged edition, by FREDERICK FROTHINGHAM. Boston: Crosby, Nichols & Co. 1858. 8vo. pp. 388. ALL the objections that have been or can be urged against the credibility of the Holy Scriptures, admit of being referred to three classes. 1. Objections based on the inconsistency-real or supposed— between the teachings of the Scriptures and the ascertained facts and principles of Science. 2. Objections based upon historic inaccuracies-real or sup-· posed-found in the Holy Scriptures, when compared with other authentic and reliable sources of information concerning the same historic events as those that are spoken of in the Bible, and, 3. Objections based upon the contents of the Scriptures themselves, when compared with other parts and teachings of the same Scriptures, or with the common sense and opinions of mankind. It will readily be conceded, that objections to the credibility of any book claiming to have come from God, might exist, in either of these classes, sufficient to render its reception impossible, without an entire surrender of man's noblest faculties, and his subjecting himself to most debasing superstition and spiritual despotism. We naturally assume that whatever has come from God cannot but be true, and so, elevating to the intellect; pure, and so, beneficial to the moral nature of man. And to these first principles of truth and right, we subject all systems and documents that come to us with a claim upon our assent and submission. But the scrutiny, however indispensable, is by no means an easy one. Nor is it without its peculiar and serious perils. And accordingly we have infidels, men who reject the Scriptures on grounds belonging to each of these classes; some of them, doubtless, honest and earnest minds, entangled in doubts that they cannot remove, and others as certainly disbelievers from an evil conscience, rejecting the Scriptures, because they do not want to believe what they teach. Still, however, it is an earnest and a blessed work to vindicate the claims of the Holy Volume to all our reverence and our confidence, as the sheet-anchor of our souls, the source of all our reliable and satisfying knowledge of Him in Whom we live and move and have our being. Objections to the credibility of the Scriptures, based on the inconsistency between their teachings and the attainments of Science, must assume, of course, that what are regarded as the truths of Science are true; and so true, that they may be assumed as a test and standard by which to judge of the truth of all other books and teachings. Nay, these truths of Science must be regarded as absolutely true, and beyond possibility of error or mistake, before we can safely assume, that whatever is apparently irreconcilable with them must be rejected and cast away as false. It is a work of no slight magnitude or responsibility to say, that that Volume-which is so dear to millions of human hearts, has led so many thousands to repentance and peace, sustained such multitudes in the hours of temptation and discouragement, and is in fact so inwrought into all our modes of thought and identified with our civilization, that it cannot now be discredited without leaving all our life and hopes a mere wreck of ruins-is, after all, but an imposture, full of errors, myths, contradictions and absurdities. And he who has closely considered the history of Science, how it has progressed with but faltering and erring steps, how many of its most vaunted teachings in one age have been repudiated as errors in the next, will certainly be very cautious about re |