News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Aug 7, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 30.

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News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—There are sixty-two Catholic Churches in New York City.

—Isaac August Dorner, the noted German theologian, is dead.

—It is expected that Archbishop Gibbons of Baltimore will be the next cardinal appointed.

—The Old Testament revisers have completed their labors, and the publication is promised early next year.

—During the past year the Protestant churches of Philadelphia, received into church membership 5,400 children from their Sunday-schools.

—The police of Vienna have been ordered to arrest all Mormon missionaries detected in the act of endeavoring to secure converts to their faith.

—The Christian Union contains the following interesting item: "Three colored children were received into Trinity Church, Brooklyn, Conn., July 20. Just fifteen years ago this month Miss Prudence Crandall, of the adjoining town, was put into a murderer's cell because she was found guilty of teaching a class of colored girls in her own house. Trinity Church now stands on the site of the old jail."

—A United Presbyterian Church in Xenia, O., has voted to withhold contributions to the missionary Boards so long as they give aid to "congregations using instruments of music in the worship of God." We would like to know if that church repudiates and refuses to sing the 150th psalm, together with numerous others containing similar passages. It is impossible for some people to be consistent.

—Mr. Moody says of his work in England: "We received a great deal of help and sympathy from the Church of England. A number of the bishops and canons were with us frequently on the platform, and gave us their influence. There has been a great movement in that Church in the last ten years. It has become more aggressive. If John Wesley should rise it would give him a welcome now. It is reaching the hand out to any movement which will help the masses. I think that, without any exception, London is the most religious city that I was ever in."

—That the National Reform Association has for its principal object the strict enforcement of a law compelling all to keep Sunday, may be seen by the following remarks of the Christian Instructor (copied into the Statesman) concerning the Sunday session of the recent Congress: "It is becoming more and more evident that the Christian sentiment of the country is insufficient to protect us from this Sabbath-breaking in high places. The protection will be effectual only when an amendment to the Constitution shall render such desecration impossible by making it a breach of the fundamental law of the land."

—The following item, which we clip from the Statesman, no doubt reveals the true secret of the attraction which the Salvation Army possesses for so many: "A good story is told of a lady in Australia, of exemplary life and much religious conviction, who left her church and went to the Salvation Army. Her minister was perplexed at her desertion, and called upon her for an explanation. No; she got no new gain in doctrine or in practice from new religious surroundings. She had no spiritual consolations she had not previously enjoyed. How, then, was she happier by the change? The old lady burst into an ecstasy of happy recollection, as she exclaimed, 'Oh, sir, the big drum is such a comfort to me?'"

—The Fourth Congregational Church of San Francisco has just been re-dedicated after extensive improvements, including a suite of two parlors, a kitchen, and a library. The dedicatory exercises consisted of a prayer, choruses, and instrumental music, and "addresses adapted to the occasion—some serious, others humorous—on the 'Parlor,' the 'Kitchen,' the 'Library,' 'Art as applied to the Home and the Church,' etc." Two of the new improvements, the parlors and the kitchen, were then tested. The report closes with the statement that "with these new aids, Green-street Church hope[s] for renewed progress in their social and religious life." How a kitchen in a church may be made an aid to religious progress is a problem that we will not attempt to solve. If the apostle Paul should read of it, we think he would say, "What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in?" "What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not."

SECULAR.

—The decrease of the national debt during the month of July amounted to $3,993,289.

—A standard 120 feet high has been erected on Telegraph Hill, San Francisco, for an electric light.

—Apaches are said to have again left the reservation at Fort Sinton, N. M., and gone on the war-path.

—It is said there is no hope of an agreement between England and France on the Egyptian question.

—A son of the British vice-consul at Rodosto, Turkey, has been captured by brigands, who demand $35,000 ransom.

—Stanley, the African explorer, has offended certain classes in England by some remarks relating to General Gordon, and they have refused an intended ovation.

—It is said that there are 40,000 persons in New York City who make their living by gambling. This estimate does not include those who operate exclusively in Wall Street.

—A cyclone visited the vicinity of Hickory Grove, Prince William County, Va., July 28, destroying everything in its path, which was about 200 yards wide. Much property, but no human life, was lost.

—The cow-boys of western Montana are waging war on the horse-thieves. Within a few days seven of the latter were found hanging to trees, and in a week's time a hundred stolen horses were recovered.

—It is said the fish, principally perch, in Fourth Lake, near Madison, Wis., are dying by scores of tons daily, and being washed ashore. A large force of men is employed by the city authorities to bury them, but the quantity does not seem to be lessened.

—Cremation is receiving favorable consideration by the Health and Police Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. A committee has been appointed to decide upon a place for the location of a crematory, on the petition of Dr. G. Holland.

—A new telegraph combination, consisting of the Bennett-Mackay Cable, the Boston Telegraph, the Baltimore and Ohio, and the Bankers and Merchants, went into effect on the 1st inst. It embraces about 120,000 miles of land wires. The combination is now considering a press rate for newspapers of the whole country.

—A Salt Lake telegram says that an English woman, one of the latest importation of Mormon converts, became disgusted with affairs in Utah and left for home. Before the railroad days it was next to impossible for a woman to effect an escape from the Territory, however disgusted she may have been; many a man, even, lost his life in the attempt.

—About 500 head of cattle, from southwestern Kansas, were ordered killed by the Chicago Health Commissioner, July 29. They were afflicted with Texas fever. A large number were ordered quarantined for further orders, and it is reported that many were thrown from the cars while en route to the city. The disease is also reported in western Nebraska.

—August 1 was truly a "hangman's day." At New York, a negro was hanged for a double murder. At Cambridge, Md., another negro suffered a like penalty for murdering a woman. At Scotsborough, Ala., three young men, all under 25, were hanged for house-burning. These were all baptized in jail before going to the gallows. And at Trenton, S. C., a mulatto boy was executed for the murder of a peddler.

—It is now positively asserted that the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Co. have secured the ownership of the California Southern Road to San Diego, which will be completed to The Needles, the present terminus of the A. and P., where a new bridge across the Colorado River has been completed. The same company has also purchased the Mohave Division of the Southern Pacific, 240 miles, from The Needles to Mohave, with the right to run on the S. P. track to San Francisco.

—It is said that waste brings want. When we contemplate the fact that Mrs. Langtry, the English actress, secured in the United States $229,663 for a short season's play; that Sara Bernhart, the French profligate, in six months gathered up $390,000; and that Henry Irving, an English actor, received for a very short service $405,094, we are not surprised that financial crises occasionally visit such a prodigal people. And, as intimated by the Christian at Work, when we look at the drink bills and the tobacco bills, we may ask, How long can the nation stand such reckless waste without becoming bankrupt?