Earlier text: Letter to the HebrewsFAMILY STANDARDS.
By Christian Union
No stream can flow higher than its source. The combined honesty of any family will not be higher than the laws governing its training. The individual who was born and trained in a family where strict integrity and truth were unknown has that much harder battle to fight in overcoming the tendencies of his nature. It is this that makes the training of young children such a tremendous responsibility. Is there a sadder sight than the puzzled expression in a child's face when the mother whom it loves with the whole strength of its being utters a social falsehood in its presence?—and yet it is not so rare a sight as it should be. Can there be a standard of truth in a family where the daily life of the family is an untruth, where the effort to appear is far greater than the effort to be? To give a child the right standards there must be harmony in his life, and there can be no harmony without truth. The small boy in an infant class struck the very foundation of life when he exclaimed to a little girl covered with shame and confusion because her cap had been knocked off, revealing a smoothly cropped head and the row of curls sewed fast to the ruches of the cap on the floor, "Ha! ye needn't be so 'shamed if ye hadn't made believe!" It is the "make believes" that cause the mortification. The man whose house is built on the rock truth has a sure foundation; he commands respect without question, and need fear no man's comment. "Electricity cannot follow a broken wire, nor success a lying life." "I teach my children to speak the truth," is but a small part of a moral education. Are they taught to live it? Is the home life, by example as well as precept, a life of truth? Within a few days the daily papers have recorded five heavy embezzlements. The principals concerned, as far as their histories have been revealed, were men who had peculiar social advantages; at least three of them were born into homes of wealth, and all were men who had had every educational advantage. The partner of one said: "I always knew he was careless, but supposed he was honest." Will a strictly honest man be careless where money matters are involved? Will a man to whom truth is more than a tongue accomplishment be careless to criminality? You may say he is weak, but "there is a weakness that is as criminal as wickedness," and it is this weakness that is a sure indication of the lack of courage inseparable from truth. Truth, like love, is universal in its meanings, and a love of it, devotion to it, is a perfect equipment for all of life's battles.—Christian Union. VISITED UPON OUR CHILDREN.
On a trip up the Hudson, the eminent divine, Dr. John Hall, saw an affecting sight, a tipsy man at whom the crowds were laughing. A decent, middle-aged man looked on so pityingly that the doctor drew him out, and at last he told his own story, about as follows:— He was born and bred—I use almost his own language—on a farm in Ulster, Ireland. He married a wife, a nice girl, who had served her time in —, to a dressmaker, who shared his feeling, and they set up a little business. It was in the market town close by his own place. "My people," said he, "were respectable, and I got credit to start with; but I did not know the ways of the trade. My old neighbors used to drop in, and my wife and myself wished to be kindly, and we had a deal of treating, and this cost money, and we soon ran behind in rent, in our bills, in every way. "I could not bear to go down there, and we managed to sell out, pay part and promise the rest, for our creditors knew who we were, and we moved to Glasgow. Were you ever in Glasgow?" "Yes," I said, "I know Glasgow very well." "Then you know how many mills, and works, and shops it has, and how crowded the people are together. You may think what a change it was to us to go into two rooms in High Street, and have nothing but these to ourselves. But necessity has no law. I got work and we paid a little of our debt, and I was getting a raise in wages, and we had two nice children. They have in Glasgow what they call the 'fair' every July; for a week little work is done; pleasure is the only thing; and, oh! it is too often pleasure like that poor fellow's,—drinking, men and women, aye, and children. Why, I have seen men and women in the broad daylight, lying dead-drunk on Glasgow Green, and no one seeming to mind it! Somebody had to stay at the works this week, and I was glad to earn the money. At six I came home, meaning to take Bessie—that was her name—for a walk; but when I came home she was out, and the two children were by themselves and crying dreadfully. I did the best that I could, put them in bed, and went out to look for Bessie. I found her. Like that man, only worse. She did not know me—could not speak. The women with her were drunk, too. . . . And it killed her. We had a little boy, our baby; and she was found dead when I was at work, with the child—we called him Thomas for my father—sitting on the floor by her, trying to awaken her." He took longer to tell this than I have done, for he could not keep back the tears. I expressed my sympathy for him. "Thank you, sir," he replied. "That's years ago, but I can't forget it yet. Only there's one thing, I never said a hard word to Bessie; thank God I never did," said he, and I could well believe it, as I looked at the honest face. "But, oh! when I think of her going before her Maker that way!" he added, with flowing tears. "Well, I hope," I said, "that the children will be a comfort to you." There was a long pause before he spoke, and then it was with so much evident pain that I regretted my words. "One," said he, "the second, is; she is a good child. The oldest is not steady; I can do nothing with her; and my boy, the little boy I told you about, can't be kept from drink. That's my trouble now. I gave up the place I had in Jersey, and am going out to Ohio, to a town where I am told liquor is not to be had, to try to save him. It breaks my heart a second time; and I can't altogether blame him, for at the time I took some, and his mother took too much, and it looks as if it was put into his very nature, so that he couldn't help it. Oh, sir!" he said, turning to me directly, and becoming eloquent in his vehement feeling, "fathers and mothers ought to be told that when they are drinking they are putting the desire into their children that will ruin them, and they will be scourged with the whip they themselves make." We parted with some words of hope to him, some entreaty that he would not even yet lose heart. If he sees this page he will know that I am trying to act on his honest, true words. Oh, that they could be put into the ear and heart of men and women in Ireland and Scotland—where a 'Glasgow fair' is a national disgrace—in England, and in America! Who would not wish for abstinence societies, tracts and books, ministers' sermons, young people's pledges, humane laws? One almost cries out for anything that would stop this slow, cruel murder of home love, of men, of women, of little children, of hope, of peace, of eternal life.—Christian at Work. ABOUT HONEY BEES.
By G. W. Demaree
I HAVE seen a single bee clinging to a smoothly-dressed board with its front feet, and supporting a living chain of twenty-five bees, thus supporting twenty-five times her own weight, for an indefinite time. There was a time when I was puzzled to know how the bee could hold onto the smooth board and sustain such a weight. But the magnifying glass reveals a finely curved claw at the extremity of each of the front pair of legs, and these enable the bee to cling to the wood in any position, with its back down as well as otherwise.653 But how does the bee manage to run up a pane of glass or a sheet of polished metal? Her sharp claws will not serve her in this case. Well, nature has provided for that in a wonderful way. I once had a theory to account for this wonderful feat. But when I commenced to study the anatomy of the bee under the magnifying glass, my theory was found to be wide of the mark. The glass shows an infinitesimal gland in the soles of the feet, which secrete a mucilaginous substance of sufficient tenacity to enable the bee to cling to the smoothest surface that it is likely to come in contact with. The mandible (jaw) of the honey bee, when seen under the glass, is a real curiosity. They not only open and shut, like the jaws of any other animal, but they have a backward and forward movement, and each of the pair is independent of the other in its movements. The old class of naturalists believed that the honey bee, as an artist and a builder, was a "mason." But such is not the fact in the case. The honey bee is a "smith." She draws out her work, using her mandibles in the place of the smith's hammer. It would be a simple impossibility to build a wall as thin as that of the honeycomb by any other process. Beeswax is the result of digested honey, just as tallow results from the digestion of the food of the ox. But the beeswax, instead of adhering to the flesh, as in the case of fat animals, passes out of the body of the bee, through one of the six false pockets on the under side of the abdomen, in the form of thin scales or pellets, and while they are warm and pliable the bees seize them with their mandibles and weld them to the rims of the cells, and continue to draw out the combs until the proper depth of the cells is reached. The cell walls are as thin as the finest tissue paper known to the art of paper making, and would not have sufficient strength to support the tiny weight of a tiny bee were they not strengthened by an exquisitely formed rim around them, supporting their frail walls below, precisely as does the wired rim around the top of a tin vessel. That these thin walls are drawn out and not built onto, is proven by the fact that the rim around the cell is as well defined when the work is first begun as it is when the comb is finished, and is present through the whole process of construction.—G. W. Demaree. If I am weak and you are strong,
Why then, why then,
To you the braver deeds belong;
And so, again,
If you have gifts and I have none,
If I have shade and you have sun,
'Tis yours with freer hand to give,
'Tis yours with truer grace to live,
Than I who, giftless, sunless, stand,
With barren life and hand. We do not ask the little brook
To turn the wheel;
Unto the larger stream we look.
The strength of steel
We do not ask from silken bands,
Nor hearts of oak in willow wands;
We do not ask the wren to go
Up to the heights the eagles know;
Nor yet expect the lark's clear note
From out the dove's dumb throat. 'Tis wisdom's law, the perfect code
By love inspired,
Of him on whom much is bestowed
Is much required.
The tuneful throat is bid to sing,
The oak must reign the forest's king,
The rushing stream the wheel must move,
The beaten steel its strength must prove;
'Tis given unto the eagle's eyes
To face the midday skies.
—Selected PRECAUTIONS AGAINST TUBERCULOSIS.
At the Congress for the Study of Tuberculosis, held in Paris last year, a commission was appointed to report a series of simple and practical rules for prophylaxis. The commission consisted of MM. Chauveau (president), Bartel, Cornil, Grancher, Landonzy, Lannelongue, Legroux, Leblanc, Nocard, Rossignol, Verneuil, Petit, and Villemin, who presented the report. This had been reviewed, and its conclusions approved by MM. Bouchard, Brouardel, Potain, and Proust. It will thus be seen that the instructions come with the sanction of the highest authority in France. The following abstract gives the essential points contained in the report, presented to the Academy of Medicine, on July 30:— Adverting to the fact that more than one-fourth of the deaths in Paris were due to tubercular disease, not pulmonary affections alone, tuberculosis was pronounced a parasitic malady, virulent, contagious, transmissible, caused by Koch's bacillus, which enters the body by the digestive canal with the food, by the respiratory tract with the inspired air, by the skin and mucosa through various solutions of continuity. Certain maladies and constitutional states predispose the individual to tuberculosis. The parasite is to be found in the milk, the muscles, and the blood of animals which serve as food for man. The use of meat, raw or slightly cooked, and blood, which can contain the living germ of tuberculosis, should be prohibited as food. Milk should only be used after being boiled. The tuberculous mother should not nurse her child, which should be brought up by a healthy wet-nurse in the country. If milk be used as the infant's food, that of the ass or the goat is to be preferred. A rigorous inspection of animals slaughtered for food should be enforced. The only absolutely certain means of avoiding the danger of meat from tuberculous animals, is to submit it to such thorough cooking as will affect the interior of the piece as well as the surface.—Times and Register. SPEAKING of singing, Mr. Brand makes the startling statement that not one public singer in ten in America can read music fluently, while in Europe the children are educated in this direction from childhood. In Stockholm is to be heard the finest chorus in the world—that of the students in the university. A short time before Mr. Brand's visit, an American manager tried to effect an arrangement to bring over 100 of the best singers. In addition to paying their expenses, he offered the students $1.00 a week for spending money. They didn't accept. The atmosphere, undoubtedly, has something to do with the fine timber of Scandinavian voices. Then, too, the loose gowns worn by the women allow their lungs and voices full development. So well do the people read music, that large assemblages readily sing pieces which they have never seen before. One chorus of thirty voices which sings for King Oscar, and which has practiced together for fifteen years, keeps such perfect time that one who hears without seeing the singers would think that it was only a quartet.—St. Paul, Pioneer Press. THE pure, unfermented juice of the grape is an article of merit which should be found in every household. It makes a palatable and refreshing table drink, and is much preferable to, and healthier than, tea or coffee. It is the true "wine" that can be used as freely, and with as little evil effect, as water. It is also coming to the front as an article of diet in medicinal treatment of fevers and cancerous diseases. We give a formula for its preparation, which we know to be reliable:— Take any quantity of grape juice and bring to a boil, carefully skimming off any impurities which may rise to the surface. Allow to settle till cold, and carefully drain off the clear liquid by means of a siphon. Fill long-necked bottles within an inch of the top. Then pour on the top about half an inch of sweet oil. This will effectually exclude the air and keep the juice from fermenting. When desired for use, the oil can be absorbed in a little cotton. There is no danger of forming an appetite for intoxicants from the use of this wine, as there is not a particle of alcohol in it. It should not be kept long, however, after being opened, as it will ferment after being exposed to the air. It is excellent for communion purposes.—California Prohibitionist. ANTS, MOLASSES, AND PARIS GREEN.
By Maine Farmer
I took a saucer about half full of molasses, and to this added a tablespoonful of paris green, and stirred well, placed one in the cellar-way and another down cellar, and any time for a week or two, I don't remember just how long, if I went to these saucers, I would see the shelves nearly black with ants coming and going. I left them there until there were no signs of any ants around them. I never found one dead ant. It has been four years since I fed them on molasses and paris green, and yet, strange as it may seem, I never have seen one since. I will say further, that our house is an old one and has been overrun with them for years. Care should be taken to keep all eatables out of the way. The ants disappeared from all parts of the house before they did from around the saucers. This has been my experience with ants.—Maine Farmer. LIME-WATER, when one understands how to use it, is very useful in housekeeping. Prepare it for use by putting a stone of fresh lime as large as desired into a large stone jar, and pour over it slowly a tea-kettle of hot water, and stir it thoroughly, repeating this three or four times during the day, so that the water can absorb and hold the lime in solution. Let it settle, and then bottle carefully all of it that can be poured off in a clear state. It is useful for cleaning bottles or milk vessels. A cupful mixed in the sponge of bread or cakes set overnight will prevent souring. A little put into milk or cream, after a hot night, will prevent its turning when put into tea or coffee. A little put into milk that might curdle when heated, will prevent curdling, and the milk can be used for pudding or pies. Prayers Without Prudence
By Talmage
If a man has evening prayers asking for health, and then sits down to a full supper of indigestibles at eleven o'clock at night, his prayer is a mockery. A man has no right to pray for the safety of his family when he knows there is no cover on the cistern. "A SAUCERFUL of shaved ice," says the New York Medical Times, "may be preserved for twenty-four hours with the thermometer in the room at 90° Fahr., if the following precautions are observed: Put the saucer containing the ice in a soup plate and cover it with another. Place the soup plates thus arranged on a good, heavy pillow, and cover it with another pillow, pressing the pillows so that the plates are completely embedded in them. An old jack-plane set deep is a most excellent thing with which to shave ice. It should be turned bottom upward, and the ice shoved backward and forward over the cutter." —Thirteen tons of postage stamps were sold in New York last year. —Over fifty liquor saloons have been started in Johnstown, Pa., since the flood. —A national silver convention has been called to meet in St. Louis on the 26th of November. —It has recently been discovered that the treasury of Mexico has been robbed of $2,650,000 in bonds. —A cable to the Maritime Exchange announces that Hippolyte has been unanimously elected President of Hayti. —Gen. Green B. Baum, of Illinois, has been appointed Commissioner of Pensions, vice Tanner, who was asked to resign. —The Vatican is appealing to the European powers for their moral influence against the aggressions of the Italian prime minister. —English capitalists continue to make large investments in the United States—land, mines, and breweries being the favorite lines. —Paraguay, it is reported, is negotiating with parties in California for the establishment of an immense sugar-beet farm in that republic. —The king of Portugal died on the 19th inst., aged 51 years. His son, the Duke of Bragança, succeeds him under title of Carlos I. Louis I. has reigned twenty-eight years. —The senior class of Harvard has elected Clement Garrett Morgan, a colored man, class orator. The election was hotly contested, but Morgan received a substantial majority. —The sultan has ordered the imperial yachts to meet Emperor William upon his arrival at the entrance to the Straits of Dardanelles, and to escort him to Constantinople. —On the night of the 12th inst., at Encinitas, San Diego County, 7½ inches of rain fell in as many hours, completely inundating the lowlands, with considerable damage to property. —Frank Whitney, a San Francisco pioneer, for many years chief of the fire department, and the organizer of the once popular Dashaway Temperance Association, died at Piedmont on the 18th inst. —The contract has been let by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Company to construct a cogwheel railroad from Manitou to the summit of Pike's Peak. How much money is involved has not been stated. —A distinguished citizen of the State of New York, General Faulkner, has been sent to the State prison for seven years for issuing false statements concerning the condition of the bank of which he was president. —Dr. R. H. McDonald, of San Francisco, has sued Leland Stanford for twenty-five shares of Central Pacific Railroad stock, valued at $1,221,000. The plaintiff claims that the stock was stolen from him and sold to defendant for $10,000. —The future friendly relations of Chile and Peru seem to be assured, the evidence being the very cordial congratulations between the representatives of the two countries now in attendance upon the All-American Congress in the United States. —It is reported that our minister to Hayti, Fred Douglass, is commissioned by Secretary Blaine to try to convince the powers in Hayti and San Domingo, while maintaining their autonomy, to place themselves under the protectorate of the United States. —A Washington (D. C.) dispatch of the 17th inst. says: "In an address before the Boys' and Girls' National Home Association to-day, Alexander Hoagland, the president, made the startling statement that there are 60,000 boy tramps in the United States." —Mail advices from the Congo Free State contain a report made by the Governor-General to the effect that eighty chiefs have recognized the authority of the Congo State, and have promised to furnish men to assist in maintaining order and suppressing human sacrifices. —The great sugar refinery of Claus Spreckels at Philadelphia is about completed. Its capacity is 4,000,000 pounds, or 11,500 barrels, per day. This immense establishment bids fair to materially regulate the extortions of the Sugar Trust, whose stock is fast depreciating in value. —An international marine conference is now in session at Washington, with Admiral Franklin, U. S. N., as chairman. The conference was called by an act of Congress passed in 1888, and has been responded to by all nations laying any claim to be called maritime powers. —Pelee Island, the great fishing resort in Lake Erie, has been cut off from all communication with the mainland or other islands on account of smallpox. There are about 1,000 inhabitants on the island, and over one hundred cases of the disease were developed in four days. —The London Statistician says 80,000 Americans have landed in England this summer. Their expenses across, averaged more than $100 each, and upon the lowest calculation they have circulated $21,000,000 in European railways and hotels, without counting the money spent in purchases. —City of Mexico advices state that the bulk of the sugar produced in Peru in future will be consumed by Australia. A direct line of sailing vessels to Melbourne and Sydney has been established for its exporting. On returning, these vessels will bring coal for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. —A messenger from Bishop Bosse, of the Labrador Coast, has arrived at Quebec with news that the fisheries have altogether failed at Esquimaux Point and over one hundred families are starving. Only a few days ago, an Eastern paper remarked that the annual announcement of starvation in Labrador was about due. —The convicts of the Tennessee Penitentiary were leased at auction on the 14th ult., for a term of six years. The lease was secured by the Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company, which was the only bidder. The consideration was $100,000 per annum, the minimum allowed by the act authorizing the lease. —Three months ago the cholera appeared in Mesopotamia, and it has since been propagated in Persia. On August 24th the epidemic was raging at Bagdad. At that place from the 20th to the 31st of August the death rate from cholera was from 200 to 400 persons a day. European nations are becoming somewhat alarmed. —Unlimited supplies of natural gas are being brought to the surface in Stockton, Cal., and utilized for lighting and heating purposes. Wells have been sunk in different quarters of the city, with invariable success. At the present rate of supply and discovery, it is estimated that a year or two hence they will erect houses without chimneys. —A prominent winery and distillery near Orange, in this State, has been placed in charge of a government special agent, on account of illicit operations to avoid the revenue tax. Notwithstanding the general tendency to protect the liquor interest by law, it seems almost impossible, with all its enormous profits, for that "industry" to be law-abiding. —Dispatches from Samoa say a public meeting was held there for the election of a king. All the foreign representatives attended. Malietoa made an address, in which he praised Mataafa and advised the people to elect him their king. As for himself, he was content to be vice-king. This will probably create another dissatisfaction, as the Samoan conference at Berlin expressly agreed to recognize Malietoa as king. —Of the negroes in Texas, the Atlanta Constitution says: "They own 1,000,000 acres of land, pay taxes on $20,000,000 worth of property, have 2,000 churches, 2,000 Sunday-schools, 2,000 benevolent associations, 10 high schools, 2,500 common schools, 3,000 teachers, 125,000 pupils attending schools, 23 doctors, 25 lawyers, 100 merchants, 5,000 mechanics, 15 newspapers, hundreds of farmers and stock-men, and several inventors." —Complaint is made that the Johnstown relief commissioners have not a proper understanding of the design of the funds placed at their disposal. They dispense charity on the basis of losses, rather than with reference to necessities. It is said that according to the plan adopted, persons worth thousands of dollars get a much larger share of the benefaction than those who are actually in want. It was the latter class that it was designed to benefit. —The U. S. revenue cutter Rush, which captured the four British sailing vessels in Behring Sea, returned to San Francisco on the 13th. Lieutenant Tuttle reports that the ill-feeling of residents of British Columbia on account of the capture, is mostly confined to sea-faring men and those directly interested in the intercepted vessels. He says, at no time was there any real danger of trouble between the two governments. The officers of the sealers admit their mistake, and say they supposed the President's proclamation was only a bluff. —On the 16th inst. the U. S. Senate Committee on Subsidized Railroads arrived in San Francisco. The members are Frye, of Maine; Hearst, of California; Dawes, of Massachusetts; Morgan, of Alabama; Davis, of Minnesota; Platt, of Connecticut; and Turpie, of Indiana. It took five cooks, five assistant cooks, five ranges, and five larders, to supply the committee and companions with food while en route on the cars. It is reported that every three hours there was a dinner, lunch, or supper in each car, and between times refreshments were passed around. —The Order of St. James is the name of the proposed Church of England monastic order. —The Six-Principle Baptists held their 219th annual meeting at Usquepaugh, R. I., September 4 and 5 last. —At a recent M. E. State Conference at Beaver Dam, Wis., a resolution was adopted discouraging the giving of entertainments for the purpose of raising funds for the church. —A self-styled Messiah has made his appearance in Sana (Yenien). He is a Jew named Joseph Abdalah, and pretends that he has come to lead his co-religionists from Arabia to the land of their ancestors. —New Orleans, among a population of 216,000 people, has but 50 houses of worship. Oakland, Cal., has as many churches for less than 60,000 inhabitants. But then New Orleans has a Sunday law, and Oakland has not. —A further batch of Jewish families numbering four hundred and fifty, have been expelled from Kamenetz Podosk, in consequence of the enforcement of an old law forbidding Jews from living within fifty versts of the frontier. —In a certain interior California city a popular denomination is building a new church edifice, to cost probably $70,000. It is founded on an elaborate ground plan of kitchen, dining-room, and other paraphernalia for catering to the "lusts of the flesh." —The Protestant Episcopal Convention now in session at New York has passed a resolution providing for a committee to prepare a standard prayer book for 1892. It will require an unusually wise committee to forecaste in detail the needs of the whole church so far in the future. —The tenth annual convention of the American Interseminary Alliance began in Chicago on the 17th inst. The alliance is composed of theological students of every Protestant denomination except the Episcopalian, and has for its aim the union of all these denominations in home and foreign missionary work. —The way the world understands the modern church social "for the benefit of the church," may be inferred from the fact that a San Francisco daily paper sandwiches a glowing account of one amidst a lot of popular entertainments, under the heading, "In Pleasure's Paths." It was a "fan drill" of "intricate mazes," etc. —Thibet is said to be virgin soil for missions. It is the stronghold of Buddhism. Lhassa, the capital, is the Rome of the Buddhists, and the Dalai Lama is the Buddhist pope. He is supreme in both temporal and spiritual things. One monastery has about 5,000 Buddhist priests, and there are about 60,000 in the country. Thibet is tributary to China. —The Baptist Theological College, to be established in this city, is in process of incorporation. Mrs. Dr. Grey has donated a ten-room building, on a 50x100 lot, value $15,000, to the enterprise. The school can be opened as soon as the incorporation is completed. The present Baptist College at Highland Park was also set on foot by Mrs. Grey's benefaction. —In the recent Episcopal missionary meeting in New York, Rev. W. B. Gordon, who has been laboring in Mexico, said: "There are but two classes in Mexico. The higher class are infidels and the lower class are infidels. If any man wants to see the need of missions, let him come with me to Mexico. If he cannot see the need for overcoming the ignorance and superstition of its inhabitants, he is unconvincable." —The Evangelical Alliance for the United States will hold a national meeting in Tremont Temple, Boston, the 4th, 5th, and 6th of December next. A most attractive program has been prepared, including the names of many eminent clergymen and laymen. The meeting is expected to equal in interest and influence the great Washington Conference of 1887. Information concerning special rates of travel and entertainment will be given to the public in due time. —"The color line and the Southern question" seems to be uppermost in the Congregational mind as a topic for consideration at their next national council. People of the North would fain ignore this question, and treat the color line in the South as wholly imaginary; but the theory does not work practically. However much they may desire it were otherwise, those who go South find that the line is there in reality, and sufficiently marked to compel some sort of recognition. YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN FOREIGN MISSIONS.
You say you do not believe in Foreign Missions. Then there are certain things which you cannot believe:— 1. You cannot believe that God so loved the world that he sent his Son to save it; or that it is his wish that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance. You deny God's universal love. 2. You cannot believe that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. You deny its efficiency. 3. You cannot believe that he was the Son of God, or has any claim to your obedience, who said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." You deny his authority. For it is as clear as noonday that if you believe these things, then you must believe in Foreign Missions. Unless you find in the gospel something which makes it worthy of being preached to all men, you have not found in it that which makes it of any worth to you; you have missed its meaning; you do not know its power. The root of unbelief in Foreign Missions is want of faith in the gospel.—Selected. Rum Distillery Named Good Jesus
Bishop Taylor says that on the Coanza River, Africa, there is an immense rum distillery named Bom Jesus—Good Jesus. By this means rum and Jesus are associated in the minds of thousands of heathen. This gives a hint of one of the causes for inferior races succumbing before the march of civilization!! It is also one of the methods by which the fair name of Jesus is besmirched among the heathen by minions of Satan. How long, O Lord, how long? THE ELEVENTH CENSUS.
By Editor
IN order to get the fullest information in regard to the various religions and denominations in this country, a new feature has been introduced in the Eleventh Census, namely, "Church Statistics." This department is under a special head, and Dr. H. K. Carroll is eminently qualified for the work. If he can have the assistance of presidents and secretaries of the various organizations connected with the different religious denominations, the work will be a success. We trust our readers will do all in their power to make this feature complete and accurate. The following letter from the Department of the Interior, Census Office, Washington, will explain more fully what the department designs to do in this direction:— To the Editor of Signs of the Times— DEAR SIR: Having determined to include Church Statistics in the special inquiries to be made for the Eleventh Census, I wish to announce to you, and through you to your readers, my desire and purpose to obtain the fullest and most accurate results possible in this special department. I need not enlarge upon the value of such results to any who are in any-wise interested in church work and progress, and wish to know the numerical strength of the various religious denominations of the United States. The inquiry will be broad enough in scope to embrace every religious body, of whatever name or creed, however few or many its churches and members, and it will be conducted with the utmost fairness and impartiality. The information sought will be arranged under five heads: (1) Organizations or societies; (2) Church edifices; (3) Seating capacity; (4) Value of church property; (5) Communicants. This is as much, in my judgment, as it will be wise to undertake in this direction for the Eleventh Census. In order to prosecute this plan successfully and to make the results so thorough and accurate that they cannot be impeached, the government will have to count largely on the prompt and generous co-operation of those in each denomination who are in a position to furnish the information desired. This information cannot be gathered by the enumerators. They are already fully burdened; and the appropriations available for the Census will not admit of the appointment of special enumerators for this work. It is necessary, therefore, to make Church Statistics a special inquiry, and they must be gathered chiefly by schedules placed in the hands of some competent person in each of the minor ecclesiastical subdivisions of the various churches. The conduct of this special inquiry has been committed to a gentleman whose qualifications for the work will, I am sure, be instantly recognized. H. K. Carroll, LL.D., editor of the Independent, of New York, has consented to assume the duties of the position. Dr. Carroll is now engaged in preparing plans for such a division of the territory of each denomination as will make it comparatively easy for those to whom his inquiries will be addressed, to give a prompt and faithful response. I ask for him, and I am sure you will heartily second me, such cheerful and generous assistance as he may require from officers of the denomination you represent. Very respectfully,
ROBERT P. PORTER,
Superintendent of Census. A HANDSOME Bible is to be presented to the empress of Japan, by 500 women in Tokio and Yokohama. THE Bible has been translated into the languages of nine-tenths of the people of the world. In the early part of this century it could only be read by one-fifth. DURING the past year £460,000 ($2,250,000) have been given by the Church of England societies in England to foreign mission work. The Presbyterians in Scotland have given £202,800 ($184,000). THREE thousand two hundred and forty-four missionaries are working among the Indians the United States Government is responsible for, and more than half are Roman Catholic missionaries. IN a recent criminal case in Bellville, Ont., a boy of 18 years was called as a witness. On an examination as to the nature of an oath, it was ascertained that he did not even know what a Bible was. There are heathen at home. IN 1871, the only Methodist meeting-house in Utah Territory was a hay-loft over a livery stable in Salt Lake City. There are now twenty-eight churches, worth nearly $300,000. Last year is said to have been a year of revivals in the Territory. "A COLONY of Jews (now almost extinct) has been living in the interior of China for many centuries." So the Missionary Echo reports. Are they not the remains of the Tai Pings, which China tried to crush out some years ago? Sabbath-keeping Christians are often called "Jews." THE congregation of Rev. W. H. Miller, of Bryn Mawr, Pa., supports Dr. W. J. Wanless in the Kolhapur (India) Mission. He and his wife go as medical missionaries. He was formerly associate editor of the Missionary Echo, published in Toronto, Ont., one of our brightest missionary journals. ACCORDING to Dr. G. F. Verbeck, it cost the missionary boards, about twenty-five years ago, something like $150,000 for each Japanese convert; since that the cost has been decreasing till now it is about $40 per convert. Dr. Verbeck believes that by the end of the century it will be no more than $4.00 each. AT present there are in connection with the Moravian Church 336 missionaries, 28 being natives. Altogether 2,300 missionaries have been sent out by the Moravians. They have training schools in England, Germany, and America. They have missionaries in 19 different centers, from Greenland and Labrador down through the West Indies (its oldest mission) to Australia, in South and West Africa, and in Central Asia. Altogether they have 29,707 communicants, 223 day-schools, with 18,280 pupils. Armed to Preserve Peace
By Editor
It is thought that the czar's visit to Berlin has greatly improved the peace prospects of Europe. Certain it is that there is a determination on the part of some of the powers to prevent an outbreak if possible. How far they are willing to go in this direction is indicated by a statement recently made, it is said, by the Italian consul in San Francisco, Mr. Lambertenghi. This gentleman is credited with saying:— "It is considered necessary that the peace of Europe shall be preserved, and it is thought that if necessary even force of arms should be resorted to to prevent war." That, we suppose, is why every nation in Europe is "armed to the teeth;" it is that, if necessary, they may go to war to preserve peace. Religion Among the Jews Dead
The Jewish Quarterly Review confesses that religion among the Jews is a dead thing. It says: "In Austria, the Jewish teachers have openly broken with Judaism; in Australia, Judaism is an anemic invalid; in America, even more than in Germany, the boldest, the most liberal, the purest doctrines of natural religion, are preached by salaried Jewish ministers." Persecution or Enforcing the Law
By Editor
The Jewish Times and Observer says:— "Russia and Spain have in their calendar a great many holy days. Their history is also full of unholy days, mostly devoted to the persecution of the Jews." Persecuting is a hard word; our Jewish friends should get the National Reform idea of such things, and then they will know that what they now term "persecution" is only "enforcing the law."