THE ALMANAC.

NO. III.

BY PERKIOMEN.

The origin and explanation of the Names, now almost universally applied to the Days of the Week, must prove of some interest to any one accustomed to inquire after the meaning of things. There they stand. like so many sentinels, through all seasons of the year, and in all kinds of weather; and yet, how many, out of the untold masses, into whose hands the Almanac falls, can render a brief and pitby answer to the query:"What's in those Names?"

An educated and celebrated practitioner once asked a famous vender of "Patent Medicines," how it was that fortune favored him so amazingly, knowing as he did, at the same time, that his preparations were in reality no panaceas at all for the ills to which humanity falls heir. "Yet you build your palaces," said he, "and count your wealth by thousands!” The shrewd empiric shrugged his shoulder, closed one eye, linked arms with his jealous companion, and led him to the corner of a crowded thoroughfare. "Now," said he, "let us remain for ten minutes, after which you will please inform me, how many of this living mass really do any thinking for themselves?" "Oh," replied the Doctor, perhaps one of every ten." "From the unthinking nine," responded the pretender, "I gain my fortune!"

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We intend this article for the "unthinking nine."

The names of our week-days loom up out of the long buried past. The ancient, uncivilized and barbarous German nations were their inventors. If we except but a very few accidentals, our Teutonic ancestors deserve all the credit. It is a huge mistake to believe, that the "Yankees" discovered, invented and brought to light every thing that is. Our weekly nomenclature, at all events, is older than the oldest Yankee.

Let the "unthinking nine" now follow me through the details:

SUNDAY,

or, as the Germans still say, "Sonntag," sounds, by no means, Puritanic but heathenish, rather, does it not? It immediately calls around us a vast multitude of Sun- Worshippers, to which species of idolatry it owes its existence. The Jew alone clings to his " Sabbath;" but apart from the wandering Israelites, all the people seem to delight in this Pagan palaver. We are caught, again and again, asking ourselves, if no Judaism is to be tolerated after Christ, why are we so partial towards Geutilism? Christianity, the Church, and the legion of ecclesiastical calendars, have done nothing, thus far, to reform the Almanac in this respect. We do not like George Fox well enough to say "First Day," "Second Day,"

and so on to the end of the week. And as we have not entered the Old Covenant, we are not partial to the term "Sabbath." And for reasons running in the same groove, though carved on a different plane, we should like to see the heathen word "Sunday" expurgated from Christian literature. We are sorry to see it stereotyped in the Liturgy, twanged from the pulpit, oriented in the Church calendar from year to year, and admi ted into Christian society as a native. We do not consider the Day as dedicated to the Sun, as the ancients did, but to the Son, rather, as tradition tells us. What a vast difference there is between S-U-N and S-O-N-not in sound, but in sense! Therefore, do we plead for the introduction and permanent usage of the phrase, "Lord's Day" in every "Church" Almanac.

"But we mean 'The Sun of Righteousness,'" says one. Very well— but there is

MONDAY!

Ah! Yes-another Gentilism. Our path lies through Heathendom all the way. It is not likely that we can tinge this term with a Christian coloring by imagining a Moon of Righteousness! Our ancestors, with the light given them, were admirably consistent in dedicating the second day of the week to the second planet. Starting from their premises, we must proceed and wind up with them, as serious results may follow, in case we stitch new patches on old garments, or pour new wine into old bottles. We would by far rather see Saint Peter's Day follow the "Lord's Day," and thus Christianize it, than wallow from week to week in mere nature. Nor would such an order be without a precedent If the Evangelists did not hesitate to invariably place Peter at the head of the catalogue of Apostolic names, we see not why the Almanac-man should. Or, if his name should savor too much of Rome, and bring the Inquisition too vividly before us, then let it be some other saint, who shall be honored,—— any Christian name, and we are satisfied.

TUESDAY.

Tuisco, the Deity presiding over Justice, stands as God-father here. How thoroughly religious our Pagau forefathers must have been. Even their Almanacs were consecrated to their gods. They were by no means "Gottlos"—not Atheists, not Deists, not even Skeptics. Their fault-if it be a fault-was, that they were superstitious.

The German "Dienstag" is only a corruption of Tuisco, and signifies a "Court Assembly," or "Judgment Day."

It is true, others claim the Tuesday as named in honor of the goddess THUISS. No matter either a god or a goddess they will have. But does either derivation become a Christian tongue? Much better honor the mother of Jesus, or of John the Baptist, or one or the other of the Apostles, than Lord Tuisco or Lady Thuiss. We know that the new style which we suggest is not idolatrous. Of the current mode we are not quite sure.

WEDNESDAY

is an honor conferred on WODAN, the Mars, or War-god of the Germans. Why not tumble him out of his niche, which he has so unmeaningly occupied for many years, and elevate Saint Paul into it-the prince of Christian warriors?

Even the Germans of this day-the blood relations of those sires-saw the impropriety long ago. Their tongues falter, thus to chatter homage to an unknown and fictitious idol. Hence they displaced him and declared the position vacant, until a worthy recipient be found. In the meanwhile they say "Mittwoche," a rather happy idea for such an emergency.

THURSDAY

is the lingering echoing of Thor, another Teuton deity, who was also surnamed "Donder," or .6 Donner," meaning thunder. He was the German Jupiter. Whether we say "Thorsday: or Donnerstag," we are under the black cloud of idolatry. Now, if a " Boanerges" must occupy such a place, let it be JOHN or JAMES, upon whom our Lord conferred the title, "The Sons of Thunder."

FRIDAY

glories again in having its name from a Pagar goddess. FRIGA, the German VENUS, must, in this way, receive tribute from us, at least once a week. The Christian calendar furnishes far nobler heroines than Madam Friga, as much as we know of her. Lydia, Dorcas, Monica, and thousands more, must not be immortalized in this way, because this heathen mistress occupies the place.

SATURDAY

is a plume in Saturn's helmet. He was known and worshipped as the god of Time, and stands, appropriately enough, from a Pagan standpoint, at the close of the week. But then we are not Pagans, and therefore do not willingly honor idols.

The Christian Germans have more than once endeavored to cast off this Gentile yoke. In certain humble valleys of Europe, this day is styled "Sunday-Eve," (Vor-Abend); or, "Preparation Day" (VorbereitungsTag). They likewise are accustomed to call all the days or nights, next before, Festival and Fast Days: "Sacred Eves,"-Die Heilige Abende.

We want an expurgation of Pagan idols from the Church calendar. Let them by all means stand in Dr. Jayne's, in Dr. Schenck's, or in the World Almanac; they rather become them, we think. But Christian calendars should delight in sacred heroes and heroines-in patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, evangelists, confessors-whom we and our children are to keep before us as pioneers to that better country.

Let it not be said, that such an understanding is chimerical. We venture to assert, that by means of the co operation of the Churches, in one half-century, the entire nomenclature of the week-days could be revolutionized and Christianized. Let but the followers of the Cross be as earnest and consistent, as our Pagan ancestors proved devoted to their own false system of worship, and our Pagan Almanacs will drop from the wall, as the idols in Egypt fell from their pedestals, when Joseph and Mary carried the Holy Infant beyond the reach of a bloody Herod. Who, in reflecting over the titles which our Pagan German ancestors conferred on the several days of the week, is not struck with the fact, that their religion was made to stretch over the entire week? Every day savors of the Heavenly or the Divine, according to their ideas! The whole week is consecrated to the gods! The Christian thinks he is doing bravely if he

devote one day out of seven to the true God, and believes himself justified to give the remaining six to Mammon. When will Christians learn, what Pagans seem to have understood very well, that during the week-days we must work for God, and rest in Him on the Lord's Day? "Six days shalt thou work "--but for whom? Surely not for self, for the world, or for Satan! Ah! "Six days shalt thou work" for God. Then only, after being weak, weary and exhausted, shalt thou, canst thou revive, quicken, strengthen, rest thyself in God. This work the Pagan did-the Christian dare not do less. Nay, verily. Let us see for a moment how such a series of Christian names would fall on the ear:

Thus the two Orders are before us-the Pagan and the Christian. Which shall we honor-the true or the false?

Are we never to get beyond the theory of facts? Whose mind does not qualm over the hum drum changes rung on the phrases: "The Natural and Supernatural," "The Spheres of Nature and Grace," "The Divine and Human," "The Sacred and Profane," "The Liturgical and AntiLiturgical," "The Objective and Subjective," "The General and the Particular," et id genus omne? Theory enough, in all conscience, for the most theoretical mind even. But let us have facts once; let the skeletons be clothed upon with flesh and blood; let us have the practical along with it. Let the calendar speak in a Christian tongue; let the organs of the churches savor of the evangelical; let our church edifices bear upon their front-stones the names of the heroes of Christianity, or, the cardinal acts in the life of Jesus, instead of the insignificant cognomens of townships, regions, towns, cities and boroughs? Yea, let the ideas be embodied in beautiful life-pictures, which will please the eye and enrapture the soul, that the populace may exclaim: "The Kingdom of God is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."

Here endeth the third lesson from the Almanac.

ONE DROP AT A TIME.-Have you ever watched an icicle as it formed? You noticed how it froze one drop at a time until it was a foot long or more. If the water was clean, the icicle remained clear, and sparkled brightly in the sun; but if the water was but slightly muddy, the icicle looked foul, and its beauty was spoiled. Just so our characters are forming. One little thought or feeling at a time adds its influence. If each thought be pure and right, the soul will be lovely, and will sparkle with happiness; but if impure and wrong, there will be final deformity and wretchedness.

VOL. XVIII.-24

A HOME FOR THE "FATHERLESS."*

MY CHRISTIAN FRIENDS, AND FRIENDS OF THE FATHERLESS :I trust I am touching a chord, common to all good hearts, in declaring this to be no ordinary, but a very marked and highly religious occasion. The oldest and highest authority assures us: "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this—TO VISIT THE FATHERLESS AND WIDOWS IN THEIR AFFLICTION." This is the result of one of those heroic movements, in which resolution becomes an act, the idea a fact, and faith embodies itself in a work—and such a work, too, as must commend itself to God and men as a Good Work.

Like all heroism of goodness, Faith is its inception, Hope, its history, and Charity, its consummation. Crowned with these three cardinal Christian Graces then, our "Orphan Home of the Shepherd of Lambs" stands in the bosom of the Church,

"A thing of beauty and a joy forever."

No one need wonder at the interest and sympathy manifested to-day. The consecration ceremony of this charity Home has assumed the character of a festival-a jubilee to which proportions it could never have grown, with never so much eclat, or fictitious paraphernalia, did we not all feel it to be an enterprise, meritorious in itself.

Like all Homes, it is a magnet, charged with an inherent and spontaneous attraction, drawing unto and around it Pastors, Elders, Deacons, Members, Friends-and, best of all, the Poor!

We, with others, felt an irresistible drawing hitherward. And many whom Providence has prevented from mingling here to-day, send greetings, and will doubtless too, in coming days, send their prayers to God and their offerings to the "Home." The odor of this charity House has filled, in a measure, the Church. Pastors and their flocks; congregations and their consistories; Sunday-schools and their officers; parents and their children -all these know of it, think kindly over it, speak much about it, and will do well for it.

The ceremonies of this day will not soon pass out of our recollectionyea, let us say, never. To dedicate this eminently Christian asylum to God, to the fostering care of the German Reformed Church, and to the use of orphan children-this, we say, is a religious duty, a joyful privilege, and a proud memorial act in our lives. Monuments, erected to the welfare of the miserable living, are greater evidences of charity than monuments

*An Address, delivered at the dedication of "The Orphan's Home of the Shepherd of Lambs," Womelsdorf, Berks Co,. Pa. by Rev. C. Z. Weiser. Published by request of the Board of Managers.