MILITARY STRATAGEMS. HERE is preserved in THE the Imperial Library at Paris a manuscript entitled "Tractatus de re Militare et de Machinis Bellicis," written about A. D. 1630 or 1640, at the time when gunpowder was beginning to come into use. It is illustrated with pictures, and remained a long time unknown in the seraglio at Constantinople. It was sent to France in 1688 by M. de Girardin, embassador at the Porte. Among the stratagems of war which the author describes, there are two which are quite singular, one of which is a dog ringing a bell in an abandoned fortress. This stratagem was employed when one of the two sentinels who were guarding the place had died, and the other was pressed with hunger. The survivor, being obliged to abandon his post to procure food, tied a hungry dog to one end of a cord, the other end of which was connected with a bell of the tower. He then placed water and meat near him, but just beyond his reach. The efforts made by the dog to obtain the food ring the bell, and the sentinel takes the opportunity to go out and get provisions. Another cut in this curious volume represents dogs employed against cavalry. "Mastiffs or bull-dogs," says the writer, "are often trained for this purpose. They are taught to bite the enemy furiously. It is necessary that these dogs should be encased in leather, for two reasons: first, that the fire which they carry in a brazen vase may not injure themselves; and secondly, that they may be less exposed to the strokes of the soldiers when the horses have fled in their agony of pain. This brazen vase, daubed with a resinous substance, and furnished with a sponge filled with spirits of wine, produces a glowing fire. The horses, tormented by the bites of the dogs and the heat of this fire, flee in disorder." FALCO THE SHIPWRECK. ALCONER was a sailor; but he has given us the finest poem in the language on the sea and its perils. He describes a real scene, and, alas for the poor mariner poet! it was to be exemplified again in his history, for he at last perished at sea. His description of the wreck is grand and powerful. We give its best passages. The scene is Cape Colonna, on the shores of Greece. Foams the wild beach below with madd'ning rage, Where waves and rocks a dreadful combat wage. The sickly heaven, fermenting with its freight, Still vomits o'er the main the feverish weight. 0 10 The vessel, while the dread event draws nigh, In vain the cords and axes were prepared, For now the audacious seas insult the yard; High o'er the ship they throw a horrid shade, And o'er her burst in terrible cascade. Uplifted on the surge, to heaven she flies, Her shatter'd top half-buried in the skies; Then headlong plunging, thunders on the ground, Earth groans! air trembles! and the deeps resound! reels: | Her giant bulk the dread concussion feels, And, quivering with the wound, in torment So reels, convulsed with agonizing throes, The bleeding bull beneath the murd'rer's blows; Again she plunges! hark! a second shock Down on the vale of Death, with dismal cries, METHODIST CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. [For the National Magazine.] METHODIST CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. T is now eighty years since the first It stood on the present site of the "Old the last six months, and think of the two go round about her; tell the towers there- From that time to 1850-eighty-two years no less than 12,484 churches were erected by our people-an average of near three churches a week for the entire period. But most of these churches have But if we have built five churches a been built during the last thirty years. We have now hundreds of cities and vil-week, on an average, for the last thirtyare Methodist five years, what has been the average for Is it not at least lages in which there churches, where, thirty years ago, the the last five years? primitive forest was scarcely disturbed. twice as great as for the entire period? I Besides,"stations were then few and far believe it to be a safe calculation, that the M. E. Church in the United States is between; and perhaps a majority of our now building ten churches on an average preaching, take the country together, was, even as late as that period, done in pri- every week, or five hundred and twenty vate houses, and school-houses, and every year; and that the number will go up groves. Allowing, then, that two-thirds during the next twenty years from five to of our present church accommodations six, seven, and eight hundred, and from have been provided since 1820, it will that to a thousand churches a year! The give us an average of over five churches land is before us; its population will double and quadruple, and we shall build every week for the last thirty-five years. churches in proportion. Now, when we consider the vast sums of money to be expended, the durable character of many of these buildings, the objects to be secured by their erection, and the great evils that follow from having a church badly arranged or ventilated, or uncouth in appearance, or begun upon a plan that will cost twice as much to complete as the trustees expected, or the society can raise-when we consider all these points, who does not see that the subject of Church Architecture is one in which we have a deeper interest, probably, than any other denomination in this country; and yet I do not remember ever to have seen a paragraph upon the subject in any of our periodicals. Other denominations have given more attention to the subject. The General Congregational Convention, which met at Albany in 1852, adopted, among others, the following resolution : But there is yet another view to be taken. We have built churches much more rapidly for the last five years than before. The land is being divided up into small charges, each of which must have its church and its pastor. Old churches are giving place to new ones; and to an eye that could take in the whole field, it would look like one great work-shop, whose busy thousands were engaged, each upon his own ark, and all to fill the land with moral light-houses, to drive error and sin from the earth forever. What a scene would it present could we assemble all the Methodist churches now in process of erection upon some vast plain, where the eye could take them all in at a glance! Look at them. Mark the variety of form, and material, and color, and dimensions. They are seen in every stage of progress, but they are going forward, and a few months will witness their completion and dedication. And the next month will witness as many more in prog-vention, it is expedient that the Central Comress, and so on, in an increasing ratio, till the earth is subdued to Christ. I should like to show this "American "Resolved, That, in the judgment of this con mittee, constituted for the aid of Churches at the West, in erecting houses of worship, procure plans of suitable edifices, with specifications and estimates, to be shown to committees and others concerned in those enterprises, with a view to promote convenience, economy, and good taste in the design and execution of the work; and further, that before aid is granted, the State Committee be made acquainted with the plan and specifications of the buildings proposed to be erected, with liberty to insist on conformity, so far as they shall think expedient, to their direction." In accordance with this resolution the Central Committee procured plans of eighteen different churches and four parsonages, had them lithographed, and published the whole, with appropriate preface and explanations, in a magnificent folio volume of a hundred and fifty pages. These plans usually embrace a front elevation, side elevation, ground plan, and a transverse section of each church; so that, with the accompanying descriptions and explanations, it would be easy for a builder to erect an edifice after either of the models represented. This work has doubtless been of great service to boards of trustees and building committees in numerous instances already, and is well worth its cost to any society who contemplate the erection of a church; and yet its plans do not as fully provide for the wants of a Methodist society as they do for those of the Presbyterians and Congregationalists.† We have many wants in common; but Methodists have peculiarities which call for peculiar church accommodations. For instance, we need as good seats and pulpits, as good light and air, as ample accommodations and as correct taste as any other body of Christians; but we want more. We have class-meetings and lovefeasts, and prayer-meetings and revivals, and God forbid that we should ever be without them; and we must provide for ture. these peculiarities in our Church ArchitecWhat kind of a Methodist church would that be (especially in any large town or city) that had no class-rooms in it? Certainly it would but partially accommodate our religious meetings; and hence there exists a "Methodist Church Architecture." From the necessity of the case, a model that would suit another denomination Hence it is that no would not suit us. "class-rooms" are to be met with in any of the plans in the work above referred to, and but few of them provide even a lectureroom, or a suitable place to hold a prayermeeting. These we are obliged to add to, and in some way combine with, the ordinary church accommodations. Consequently, it is more difficult to plan a church properly for our own use than for others; and for the same reason we have probably committed more mistakes in the planning and erection of churches. All these considerations-the fact that we are building more churches than any other denomination-that it is more difficult to build a good Methodist Church than any other, and consequently that we are more liable to commit mistakes in arrangement all these facts indicate the importance of a comparison of views upon the subject of church building, and, if possible, a comparison of designs, and plans, and arrangements. Indeed, when we take into consideration the vast amount of money annually expended by the M. E. Church in the erection of churches, we can hardly account for the fact that some one has not long since prepared and published a good work on Methodist Church Architecture. Such a work, containing an ample variety of elevations, ground plans, and cross sections, with appropriate suggestions as to sites, style, material, arrangement, warming, ventilation, &c., would be of incalculable value to our denomination, and would enjoy a patronage at least commensurate with our future Church extension. It would save thousands of dollars now annually expended for fantastical drawings by incompetent artists, and, more important still, would prevent the erection of many an uncouth and inconvenient edifice, securing in its stead a structure at once convenient, chaste, and tasteful. Who for the Methodist Episcopal Church? will step forward and prepare such a work But our object in this article is merely to call attention to the subject, to make a few general suggestions, applicable everywhere, and to present the readers of the NATIONAL with a few specimens of Methodist churches recently erected in this country. We shall aim at practical results, and shall study utility more than ornament. TRUE IDEA OF A CHURCH EDIFICE. own showing, crucifies the Son of God afresh." * With the true idea of a Christian house of worship, its shape, and size, and general arrangement are easily determined. It cannot be a cathedral, nor so large that all cannot see and be seen, and hear and be heard in it. The walls must not be so wide asunder that the voice of the preacher is lost before it strikes them. Neither must the architectural display of column upon column and arch upon arch be allowed to baffle the efforts of the speaker, and make both seeing and hearing difficult, as through a forest. Ideas are conveyed by the gestures and countenance, as well as by the voice; hence the preacher should not only distinctly see every person to whom he preaches, but the house should be so constructed that every hearer can see him. The first consideration, therefore, in the arrangement of a house of worship, should be for the preacher to be able to see every hearer, and for every hearer to be able both to see and hear the preacher. But I must arrest my remarks upon details, and go back to a question that precedes that of style and arrangement, namely, that of location. SELECTION OF A SITE. IN former years the bad policy of our people in selecting sites for churches became almost proverbial. Some were placed upon the bleakest and most naked THE design or object for which a house of worship is erected should never be lost sight of in its construction. All its arrangements should be made with reference to the end to be attained. What is a Christian church edifice! Is it not a place for preaching and hearing the Gospel?a place for the united and intelligible worship of God by the whole assembled company?-a place for solemn, and devout, and united prayer?-a place where all may lift up the voice in holy and fervent praise to God? Add to these suitable provisions for the administration of the ordinances-baptism and the Lord's supperfor the religious instruction of the young in the Sabbath school, and the social means of grace in the prayer-meeting, and love-feast, and class-meeting, and we have the complete idea of a Christian church edifice. But the most prominent feature in a true church is the pulpit. "The pulpit, in distinction from the altar or the reading-desk, is the sign and prominent feature of a Christian church." "God's great ordinance for the reconcili-hill-tops that could be found; others stood ation of man to his Maker through Christ is the preaching of the Gospel. Thus, in all the churches which Christianity, as reformed and brought back to its spiritual simplicity, has constructed for its own use, (so working out a natural manifestation of its own ideas,) the most conspicuous thing in the temple-the central point of attraction for the assembly-is the pulpit for the living ministry of the living word; and before it, as convenience dictates, the table for the commemorative bread and wine. And on the other hand, in the temples of a corrupt and superstitious Christianity, where the grand idea of the place is not preaching and praying, but sacrifice, you see the pulpit diminished, and thrust, as it were, into a corner, while the focus of attention is the altar and the high and holy place around it, where the priest pretends to renew Christ's expiation for sin, and, according to his at the confluence of several roads, or mid-way between two villages, where neither were accommodated. And in still more instances have they been placed in the suburbs of the town or village, upon some worthless plot of ground, remote from the dwellings of most of the congregation, merely to save a few hundred dollars in the purchase of a suitable site; or because some individual who had real estate that would be enhanced in value by the erection of a church near it, has offered to donate a site in some out-of-the-way place. Thus it has happened a thousand times that the church when completed was not worth half as much to the cause of God as it would have been if put in the right place; in fact, that the saving of from * Dr. Bacon's sermon at the reopening of the Centre Church, (Congregational,) at NewHaven, Conn. |