Missionary and Sabbath-School Notes
By Editor
THERE are about one hundred million people in the Soudan, half of whom are Mohammedan, and the rest heathen. A band of missionaries under the direction of Rev. H. Grattan Guinness is about to enter the field. SUNDAY morning, June 1, Mrs. E. G. White left Oakland via the Santa Fe route for the East, intending to spend a short time in Boulder, Col., with her son, W. C. White, and wife. Elder E. R. Jones and wife accompany her as far as Boulder. THE Religious Tract Society of London recently contributed £20 toward the cost of an edition of "The Pilgrim's Progress" for the blind in the island of Formosa. This will be the eighty-fifth translation of that wonderful allegory. We have of late been surprised, however, to find Christians of long experience who have never read the book. THE lesson pamphlet for the use of the senior division of the Sabbath-schools for the quarter beginning July 1, is ready, and should have a large sale. The lessons for that quarter cover a very interesting class of subjects, and the interest will be increased by the fact that they run parallel with a portion of the first volume of the "Great Controversy," entitled "Patriarchs and Prophets," to which constant reference is made. We hope that all who study the senior lessons will at once procure a copy of this new work. It will prove an invaluable aid in the study of the Sabbath-school lessons. A FATAL disaster occurred in our city on the 30th ultimo. And the saddest feature is that it seems to have been wholly inexcusable. The local train from the Alameda wharf came dashing up to the draw-bridge across the estuary, the engineer not noticing that the draw was open until too late to fully stop his train. The consequence was that the engine, tender, and one car jumped into the opening, while the second car passed partially over and remained suspended. The engineer and fireman jumped off and were saved. Of the passengers on the car that went down into the water, thirteen are known to have been drowned and seventeen were rescued alive. The requirements of this train necessitate a dangerous speed continually, considering the location of the track, and the customary full stop before crossing a draw-bridge is not exacted by the company, as on other roads. And the engineer seems to have been also culpable, from the fact that his run was in full side-view of the bridge for nearly a mile. SOME of the inside workings of Roman Catholic convents have within the last week been brought to the notice of the people of Oakland and San Francisco, by Edith O'Gorman Auffrey. Her descriptions are vivid and heart-sickening; but anyone who has read the history of monasticism from its earliest days, and who remembers that "Rome never changes," needs no assurance that the revelation is true. Indeed, even a slight knowledge of human nature should be sufficient to teach one that the convent system cannot but be attended with the greatest evils. It is significant of the influence that Catholicism has, that the newspapers have had very little to say about the lectures. THE Non-Partisan Woman's Christian Temperance Union is ably represented on this coast at present by the national organizer, Miss Mary F. Lathrop, who is now in Oakland presenting the claims of the new organization. We are assured by Miss Lathrop that the union is strictly non-partisan and non-sectarian; that it proposes to keep itself clear of all entangling alliances, either religious or political, upon which there is room for wide difference of opinion among members; and that it will work along the single line of Christian temperance. We are sure that this one line affords ample scope for all the energies of the good ladies who join. We believe that the new organization is one with which all ladies can consistently work, no matter what their religious convictions; and so long as it adheres to the plan that has been set before us, we wish it a hearty Godspeed. "Now the works of the flesh are manifest," says the apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians. They cannot be hidden by forms nor by profession. Even though a majority of the people were thoroughly Christian, and should pass laws enacting that Christianity should be the religion of this country, and compelling everybody to conform to the practices of the early Christian church, they could not by those laws regenerate a single soul; and so long as a man is in the flesh, the works of the flesh will manifest themselves in spite of the laws of both God and man. Since the law of God itself cannot regenerate a single soul, what folly for man to pass laws designed to bring men to a recognition of God's law, God has provided grace, through faith, as the only means of establishing his law in the hearts of sinful men; and those who would work in harmony with him must labor to bring men to the faith. THE Louisiana Lottery Company has offered that State the colossal sum, or bribe, of $1,000,000 a year for twenty-five years if the people will but renew its charter. Its present charter expires in 1893. Under this the company have been paying $40,000 a year to the State. It can only be renewed again by changing the constitution of the State, and to do this, the matter must come before the people. Legislators can be bought, many leading men and journals favor the lottery, and it seems probable that the Legislature will submit the matter to the people. There is hope, however, in Governor Nichols, who has strenuously opposed it throughout. The lottery is a great "devil-fish," which devours all it reaches, and its long arms have penetrated every State in the Union. It is, like the liquor traffic, an unmitigated curse. ONE of the most wicked abuses of science is practiced in southern France. Lines of telegraph wire are stretched along the sea beach, at a certain height above the ground, to induce the wearied swallows from over the Mediterranean to alight thereon to rest. When a sufficient number have settled on this perch, they are killed, or, what is worse, rendered insensible by an electric shock, and shipped to Paris for the purpose of decorating the heads of what is supposed to be the more humane part of the human family. It is difficult to say which is the more cruel, the men who kill the little birds or the women whose vanity demands the dead birds for ornamentation. God, however, cares for the birds. They no longer come in the vast numbers they were wont to do, but seek other lands more hospitable, while gnats and other insects which were kept down by the swallows, are increasing. We do not learn, though, that the pride of fashionable display has given place to "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit." THE spring term of Healdsburg College has just closed, with the best of feeling on the part both of pupils and teachers. Although the attendance has not been large, we believe that the year just closed has been a successful one. We had the privilege of spending three weeks at the Students' Home, in attendance upon a Biblical and Missionary Institute, and can report the interest and courage as being the very best. A large force of students will spend the vacation in active labor in the field; and we were greatly pleased with the spirit manifested by them in looking forward to the work. We believe that success will attend them. We have no fault to find with the quality of the work done at Healdsburg; but we are sorry that the quantity is not ten times as great. If the friends of the cause in California will take hold in earnest, the amount may easily be at least doubled next year. It would be a great encouragement to the teachers to have twice as many students to work with. THE New York Observer closes as follows an article on the recent general strike among working-men for eight hours' labor a day, which has been so largely successful:— "Eight hours a day for labor removes every shadow of an excuse for popular attacks on the Sabbath on the ground that labor has no other time for recreation. That labor which is confined to eight hours has more opportunity for amusement of every kind than other large divisions of humanity." Very true; and there is another thing that it removes, namely, all possibility for any argument for a Sunday law on the ground that the working-man needs rest. When a man works only eight hours a day, there is no physical necessity whatever for a Sunday rest. The Sabbath ought to be kept as a religious duty according to the commandment, even if a man works but two hours a day; and men who believe it to be a Christian duty to observe Sunday will do so, no matter how few hours they work. But such people do not need a civil enactment to enable them to do their duty; and the recent labor agitation has demonstrated that workingmen are fully able to get all the rest and recreation they need, without government interference. THE new German military rifle has a range of 3,900 yards, and will shoot through the bodies of six men standing one behind the other at a distance of seven paces. This is about two and one-fourth miles.