Earlier text: A Check on AdventismThe Return to the Valleys.
By S. N. Haskell
WE have now reached a period in the history of the Vaudois when the light of the Reformation had so dawned upon Europe, and the interest of other nations had been awakened in their behalf, that through these means the Lord began to bless them with freedom and liberty. They were scattered among the Reformed cantons. In every way possible they manifested gratefulness for the favors they received from their benefactors. "We are indebted to you alone for life and liberty," said these stricken people. The German princes opened their States to these exiles; but the influence of their great enemy, Louis XIV., was too powerful in these parts to permit their residence being altogether agreeable. The question of their permanent settlement was one of interest. The project of carrying them across the sea to Holland was talked of; but to this poor people their native land was more precious than every other earthly blessing. Their yearnings of heart to go back to the valleys could not be repressed. They would rather face the cold mountains, and the enemies which were then in the valleys, than remain among friends in the cantons of Switzerland. The 10th of June, 1688, was the day appointed to return, but they failed to carry out the enterprise. There were now about 800 fighting men among those who felt that they must return to the home of their fathers. God's providence raised up a distinguished man to lead them, and on the 16th of August, 1689, they succeeded in setting out for their native possessions. It is said that 800 of these people bent their knees in prayer, and then began their march through a country covered with foes. In passing the mountains of snow they seemed to be especially helped of God. Intrigues were laid to take their lives, but God favored the journey. Their courage was good, and they were determined not to be baffled, but525 to reach their native land or die in the attempt. About 100 lost their lives in crossing the mountains. It was a singular sight, says the historian, to witness their first worship in one of their own meeting-houses, that was cleared of the popish pharaphernalia. The preacher took his text from the 129th psalm. "Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say." The worship closed by the 700 warriors chanting in magnificent chorus the psalm from which their leader had preached. This was in the village of Prali, and it was a place of horrible outrages at the time of their exodus. The pastor of this church, years before, was discovered by the soldiers under a rock, praying. He was dragged forth, and tortured and mutilated, and then hanged. So here, these noble spirits began their worship in the valleys. They had entered the land, but they had not got the possession of it yet. Their leader seemed to be inspired by God with courage and faith. Victory crowned their efforts at every step. An effort was put forth to destroy this patriotic army. The privations and hardships which they endured were as great as the victories which they won in their daily skirmishes. But nothing could daunt their courage. They had neither ammunition nor provisions, save what they took from their enemies. Winter was near, but their courage faltered not. They sought a secluded spot in the mountain range where they made their stand to encamp for the winter. It was a castle of God's own erecting, and the builder of their home for that winter was the Almighty Architect himself. Their army now was reduced to 400. They dug out some four score cellars in the rock to hold provisions which they might gather in from their enemies. Three springs gushed out from the rocks that supplied them with water. After they had resorted to this place of rendezvous, the battalions of the French army arrived and enclosed the mountain on every side, but the effort of their enemies to dislodge them from their place of retreat was entirely fruitless, so they postponed the work of taking them until the spring of 1690. It seemed that the providence of God gave them success in securing fruit and sheep and oxen and grains necessary for their sustenance. The historian says, "Bread to last them all the winter through had been provided in a way so marvelous as to convince them that He who feeds the fowls of the air was caring for them." Ample magazines of grain had been hid in the mountains right around them which at first they knew not of. The snow that year fell earlier than usual, and the inhabitants who had taken possession of their fields had not had time to cut it; so from this unexpected store-house they drew as they had need. Little did their enemies think the spring before when they sowed the seed, that it was to supply 400 Waldenses the coming winter. At the foot of the mountain was a mill which had formerly been owned by M. Trou-Poulat; and three years before, when going into exile, he took the stone and cast it into the river. "For," said he, "it may yet be needed." This was discovered, and the mill set in motion that ground the corn. With the return of spring the armies of France and Piedmont reappeared, and they had a combined force of 22,000 to take the company of 400 hid in the caves and rocks. After repeated unsuccessful attacks upon the Waldenses they sought for the first time, and probably for the only time in the history of the world upon that place, to bring a cannon and baggage-wagons from the French army. On the 14th of May all was ready and the grand assault was made. The French took with them at this time 400 ropes, that when they captured these Waldenses they might hang them every one. As they were preparing to celebrate the Lord's Supper, the firing of the cannon was heard, and the fighting continued until night. At night their safe retreat was completely demolished, and to all human appearances this noble band must fall an easy prey to their foe. The French postponed fighting until morning, when it was expected the Waldenses would fall helpless into their hands. But during that night a cloud of mist gathered and rested down upon the mountain side, so that the enemy could see nothing that was transpiring. The Waldensian leader was acquainted with the mountain passes, and taking advantage of the darkness of the night, through a passage with which he alone was acquainted, led out the brave company, every one, even through the pickets of the French army, to a place of safety. "He who has not seen such paths," says the historian, "cannot conceive the danger of them, and will be inclined to consider my account of the march a mere fiction. But it is strictly true; and I must add, the place is so frightful that even some of the Vaudois themselves were terror-struck when they saw by daylight the nature of the spot they had passed in the dark." For several days they wandered from hill to hill, lay hid in the wood, suffered great privations, and encountered numerous perils. Finally they succeeded in reaching Pra del Tor, when to their amazement and joy they found the deputies from their prince awaiting them with an overture of peace. They were as men that dreamed. "How was this? A coalition, including Germany, Great Britain, Holland, and Spain, had been formed to check the ambition of France, and three days had been given to Victor Amadeus to say to which side he would join himself—the Leaguers or Louis XIV. He resolved to break with Louis and take part with the coalition." And he then committed the keys to the Alps to the trusty Vaudois. Their churches were re-opened; their brethren still in prison at Turin were liberated, and those that remained in Germany had passports to return to their homes. So closed the famous period of their history of persecution, which had existed for centuries except at brief intervals. Laytonville, Cal.
By William Ings
IN company with Bro. McElhaney, I spent two weeks at this place. The church here, fourteen in number, were brought out in the truth by Eld. Briggs, something over one year ago. Not having attended our general meeting, they had heard but little preaching since Bro. Briggs left them, and consequently they were in great need of help. During our stay we had Bible-readings with them, twenty-one sessions in all, averaging about two hours each. Five of these were for the special benefit of the children. The rest were on different Bible topics, adapted to the wants of our brethren. We also held two meetings on first-day for the benefit of the public. Some interest was manifested. The brethren showed a commendable spirit in giving their whole time to attend these meetings. The sessions increased in interest from the first, and God witnessed by his Holy Spirit to the study of his word. Hearts were made tender by the sweet, melting love of Christ. Those who had listened to evil reports were brought back to the fold. One dear brother who had been addicted to the use of tobacco resolved, by the help of the Lord, to overcome this habit. Four signed the teetotal pledge. One name was added to the covenant. Several persons desire baptism. With one exception, all the church pledged to pay tithes, and fifty dollars was willingly subscribed for foreign missions. Bible-reading has done much for this little company. They have thus become established on some points of our faith essential to salvation. I shall look back with pleasure to this good meeting, and can say, The Lord was with us. To him be all the praise. The Tithe Supports the Ministry
DR. PIERSON, of Indianapolis, in one of a series of Monday evening lectures, delivered in his church, is reported by the Indiana Baptist as follows: "He said that a tithe was not the most, but the least, that the people were to give to the Lord; but even that was enough to carry on the Lord's work. Ten men can support a pastor; for if any ten men would give each a tenth part of his income to the eleventh man—his pastor—that eleventh man would have as much as each of the ten, and his own besides. If they could live on what they had left, he could live on what they had given him; so that any church of ten members can have a pastor for all his time. If any one should say that he cannot live on nine-tenths of his income, and therefore cannot give a tenth, it needs only to be replied that any man can live on one-tenth less than he thinks he can, or even does, if he had to do it." Joy Over Discovered Sin
By Boston Transcript
THERE is more joy upon the earth over one sin found out than over ninety and nine sins forsaken. “Go Home and Make the Best of Your Sorrow.”
By Helen M. Gougar
LAST evening after tea, a gray-haired mother, accompanied by her beautiful daughter, called at my house to ask me if there was any way to save herself and her family of children from the curse of the rum traffic. For two weeks her eldest son and her husband have been on a drunken debauch. Night after night these men have returned from the saloon near by, drunk and abusive; night after night these women have been obliged to endure all this, with no redress whatever at their command. They have begged, they have pleaded, they have threatened these diseased men, but to no avail. Heart-broken, they came to see if there was no protection for them under the law. The following interview took place:— “Do you know where they get their drink?” “Yes,” replied the mother, “at John R.’s saloon.” “Have you warned him not to sell to your husband and son?” was asked. “Yes,” the mother replied. “I have gone to him and pleaded with him, telling him how he was ruining my family, and that seemed to do no good; then I took witnesses and warned him according to law, and he told me insultingly, that I ‘had better get a pair of pantaloons to wear,’ and blew a policeman’s whistle to frighten me. He gives them drink at all times; his place is open on Sunday, and poor, ragged, destitute children can be seen going in and out of his place on that day, carrying beer to their homes, and we have no rest from this curse even on the Sabbath.” What could I say to this woman? I could reply, “Madam, Mr. John R. does business under the seal of State. Back of his bar he has an official document, duly signed and paid for, that licenses him to destroy your son, your husband, and your home. He has a right, under the protection of the State, to break your heart, to silver your hair with sorrow, to make paupers of your children. You must grin and bear it as best you can.” “But my son is in jail to-day—beaten up by a drunken man, poor boy—and it seems as if my heart would break,” said the poor mother. “O, yes,” we replied, “Mr. John R. is protected by law in making men drunk, and, of course, this brings their brutal passions to the surface, and our jails and prisons must take these dangerous men out of the streets. The State makes all this strictly legal, and there is no redress for you. Mr. R. is all right—you are all wrong. You are a woman; go home and make the best of your sorrow; there are hundreds and thousands of wives and sisters who have the same trouble to bear, all over this land, whose laws are built upon the foundation principle that all law derives its just power from the consent of the governed.”—Helen M. Gougar; in Home Protection Monthly. We have long known that the licensed saloon leads to the penitentiary, but it is a sad thought that we have to use the penitentiary as a remedy for the saloon. The Paterson Journal relates a case which occurred in New Jersey:— A few days ago, Judge Woodruff, in sentencing a young man for theft, said: "It is in evidence that when you are sober you are a peaceable, law-abiding citizen; you have repeatedly tried to overcome that appetite for strong drink, which is your greatest enemy. The sentence of the court is that you be confined in the State Prison at Trenton, for two years. In fixing the term, we have been guided by the belief that, in that time, you can master your appetite and come out a reformed man." Think of the State licensing rum shops, and then having to send her ruined citizens to State Prison; that being the only place where prohibition prevails, and consequently the only place where her drunken sons may be safe. "It conduces to the public good." The Cost of Preaching and Sin
COLONEL INGERSOL having said that the preaching in this country cost the people $12,000,000 every year, answer is made by one of the religious newspapers that the lawyers cost about $70,000,000, the criminals $40,000,000, and whisky $60,000,000. High o'er the black-backed Skerries, and far
To the westward hills and the eastward sea,
I shift my light like a twinkling star,
With ever a star's sweet constancy.
They wait for me when the night comes down,
And the slow sun falls in his death divine,
Then braving the black night's gathering frown,
With ruby and diamond blaze—I shine! There is war at my feet where the slack rocks break
The thunderous snows of the rising sea!
There is peace above when the stars are awake,
Keeping their night long watch with me.
I care not a jot for the roar of the surge,
The wrath is the sea's—the victory mine!
As over its breadth to the furthest verge,
Unwavering and untired—I shine! First on my brow comes the pearly light,
Dimming my lamp in the new-born day.
One long last look to the left and right.
And I rest from my toil—for the broad seaway
Grows bright with the smile and blush of the sky
All incandescent and opaline,
I rest—but the loveliest day will die—
Again its last wan shadows—I shine! When the night is black, and the wind is loud,
And danger is hidden, and peril abroad,
The seaman leaps on the swaying shroud;
His eye is on me and his hope in God!
Alone, in the darkness, my blood-red eye
Meets his, and he hauls his groping line.
"A point to nor'ard!" I hear him cry,
He goes with a blessing; and still—I shine! While standing alone in the summer sun,
Sometimes I have visions and dreams of my own,
Of life-long voyages just begun,
And rocks unnoticed, and shoals unknown;
And I would that men and women would mark
The duty done by this lamp of mine;
For many a life is lost in the dark,
And few on earth are the lights that shine! The First Year of Married Life
By Lucy S. White
ELAINE is soon to be married. This morning she comes into Aunt Lettie's sitting-room with a troubled and perplexed look on her usually bright face. "Aunt Lettie," she says, as she tosses her hat on the table and sits down on a hassock close by her aunt, "you and Uncle Fred have the most ideal marriage that I ever knew or heard of. Your home is a paradise, and would be, I believe, if you lived in one room, on bread and water. All the husbands who come here go away enchanted with you, and the wives go away enraptured with Uncle Fred, while we neutrals are charmed with both of you." "Really, Ellie, did you come all the way over here on purpose to tell me this very astounding and rather-to-be-doubted piece of news?" asks Aunt Lettie, with an amused smile. "Our marriage is happy, dear, but it isn't a bit more 'ideal' than yours and Tom's will be, nor are we any more 'enrapturing,' or 'enchanting,' or 'charming,' than you two." "Well, see," said Elaine, "my Christian at Work came yesterday, and I've brought it over to show you this article. See the title—'?' Now I want you to answer it for me with an! that is, I want some affirmations. Are you prepared to stand in the witness-box this morning?" "If it will do you any good, dear. What's the trouble?" "Oh! I don't know. This article rather frightens me. Aunt Lettie, was your first year of married life your most unhappy one?" "No year has been the 'most unhappy,' Ellie. To be sure, each year is happier than the last, but that is only because our capacity for happiness, and our appreciation of what constitutes it is yearly increasing. 'Unhappiness,' in any degree whatsoever, is not to be mentioned in connection with our married life." "Well, then, when did you 'get acquainted,' so that you were 'able to trot along in the matrimonial harness without balk or friction?" "Elaine Stanton!" exclaimed Aunt Lettie, half laughingly, and yet very much in earnest, "I won't have you speak of Uncle Fred and me as if we were a pair of country farm horses, nor of marriage as a 'harness!' Where did you get such pitiful notions, child? Take care or you'll start me off on my favorite hobby." "Just what I want to do," cried Elaine. "You have ridden your hobby to such good purpose all these years, that was just why I came to you of all others to help me disentangle my ideas. Please answer my last question, auntie. And I've a dozen others. Is the first year such a 'crucial test?' Must my temper be made more 'pliant and malleable?' Does Tom think me an 'angel' now (I can't imagine why he should), and will he be so afraid of me by and by that he will learn to choke down his cup of coffee in silence rather than 'bandy words' with me? That is, am I a virago under the guise of an angel? Will I find Tom less dear and charming in his shirt sleeves than I do now in his best coat? Won't he give me any more gentle 'attentions' when once we are married? Won't he love me if I ever appear in crimping-pins? Must we 'put on our spectacles to scrutinize each other,' the minute we are fairly tied? Is marriage just a jogging along in 'matrimonial harness,'—a process requiring a vast amount of Christian grace?" "Ellie, what are you talking about?" exclaimed Aunt Lettie, half bewildered. "Wait, child, till I can get my breath. Now, then, one at a time, dear. Any kind of life, to be lived well, requires a vast amount of Christian grace; married life no more than any other. Indeed, most girls seem to think it requires more grace to live unmarried than married. Still, if all these questions referred to the ordinary run of marriages, as they are, I might, perhaps, answer, 'Yes, you have all these perils to dread.' But if you refer to marriage as it ought to be and may be, as I know it and as you will know it, I say you are talking nonsense, Ellie—stuff and nonsense." And gentle Aunt Lettie set her work basket down with a bang which was very pronounced, for her. "Glad of it!" said Elaine, promptly. "I hoped it was stuff and nonsense, but I didn't quite know. Now, Aunt Lettie go on, and tell me how you did it." "Achieved such a perfectly beautiful marriage." "It is no more beautiful than any marriage might be made, Ellie," answered Aunt Lettie, earnestly. "The rule for it is simple, and you and Tom are following it. We—Fred and I—knew each other and loved each other. We did not wait till the first year of marriage to get acquainted. Those who are foolish enough to become engaged in a week after introduction, and married in another week, must wait so for their acquaintance, and will suffer for their folly. Those who never see each other before marriage except in 'dainty ringlets,' or 'broadcloth and shining boots,' at the 'German, concert, or opera,' must wait for their acquaintance, and suffer for their waiting. We did not do so. In truth we began by disliking each other (that is by no means necessary, however), but the courtesies of everyday life threw us together; we could not be rude, so we became civil, then friends." "Finally, after many months, we became engaged. Circumstances were such that we could not marry very soon, and I shall never cease being grateful for that. Now we began to 'get acquainted.' We were much together. We discovered that our tastes were very similar, but our mental characteristics very different. But we grounded ourselves firmly, from the very first, on the rock of intense love, and perfect mutual confidence, and on that rock we have always stood. While we were engaged we read and discussed the same books. Fred saw me in nearly every imaginable circumstance. He saw me well and pleasant, he saw me sick and—must I confess it?—cross. He saw me in my fine feathers; he saw me in flannel bloomer suits, in calico dresses, in morning wrappers. But he never saw me untidy, Ellie, or collarless, and he never will." "As for my hair, he saw it crimped, and he saw it plain. When I crimped it, I put it up at night and took it down when I made my morning toilette. Or, if I was obliged to leave it up, I put on a pretty little cap. I never, in all my life, went around in crimping-pins, pure and simple. That wasn't for Fred's sake. I couldn't bear to think of myself as looking so hideous, Fred or no Fred." "Most trying of all, Fred saw me seasick—wretchedly, abjectly seasick—lying on the deck of a small steamer, my calico wrapper and my disheveled hair wet by the spray, a green tin by my side—picture it, Elaine, and you will not wonder that I never could doubt his love. I happened to mention this episode to an aunt of mine, and she was aghast. She exclaimed in holy horror:--" "'Letitia Watton! you didn't let that man see you seasick!"' "'Yes, I did,' I replied, 'and he held my head, too!"' "'You foolhardy girl,' she gasped,' 'I should think you would have been afraid he would break the engagement.'" "'Humph!' I said, 'I should have wanted him to break it if he couldn't stand that much.'" "And I think so now, Ellie. As for me, I knew Fred as well as he did me. I had seen him in his shirt-sleeves, and in muddy boots, many a time. Perhaps we had unusual facilities for getting acquainted. If so I'm thankful for my mercies. But engaged people don't live up to the facilities they have for getting a thoroughly premarital acquaintance. That I know." "And so we married, neither of us thinking the other an 'angel,' but knowing ourselves and each other to be faulty mortals. But our love and confidence carried us through and made the learning of the things we did not know very easy and happy work." "Go on, auntie," said Elaine, delightedly. "My punctuation marks stand in this proportion, now, '!' and I am so relieved, but I want to hear more." "Well," said Aunt Lettie, "what I have already said shows you that the first year was no 'crucial test' for us. We did not have to spend it in rubbing off corners, and learning how to jog along somewhat peacefully in 'matrimonial harness.' O Elaine, dear," she exclaimed earnestly, "Never think of marriage in that inferior way! It is not a 'harness!' It is not a voyage which will plunge you into a 'sea of trouble!' There is no need of 'marital quarrels!' I say all this, not from the stand-point of an unpractical, poetical visionary, but from blessed personal experience. Think of it always as you do now, as a union, a oneness, and your marriage will be as happy as mine." "We were married, as I said. I was only nineteen, Fred somewhat older. You, dear, have the advantage over me, in that you have a good mother who has taught you in all domestic duties, and had many loving, practical talks with you about married life. I had been on my own responsibility after the age of fourteen (my mother, as you know, has long been dead), and I had been brought up with eight or ten servants always at my beck, so to boil an egg, make toast with milk, and chocolate caramels, was literally the extent of my culinary education, and I never had cut or made the simplest garment. So I, if any one, have the right to know whether such ignorance need prove fatal to the peace of a married life. I went right to housekeeping, without a servant, in a little country parish." "Why, auntie, how did you manage?" "In the first place I had courage, and was willing to try. Then I had faith in Fred's patience and love. And I had been to college, you know, and brought to my work education and judgment, trained, at least to some degree. How much service my college course has been to me in my kitchen! More than anywhere else. Whatever disciplines the mind and trains the judgment does just so much toward making a good housekeeper, and something which nothing else can do. I armed myself, too, with a dozen or more cook-books, notably Marian Harland's. That blessed woman has been a tower of strength to me, though I always omitted the wine she so freely advises in cooking. Lastly, I used my common sense, and kept my eyes open. Of course I made my mistakes and had my failures, but of the main results Uncle Fred never complained." "I should think not, indeed," exclaimed Elaine. "I've many a time heard him say that there never was such a cook and housekeeper as you have been from the first. And I am sure all your guests tell the same story." "Thank you, dear," said Aunt Lettie, "but you must make allowance for Uncle Fred's partiality. And now I guess I've said enough to ease your mind, little girl. I have been married fifteen years, and each year has been happier than the preceding. We have had trials, cares, and sorrows, but we have borne them together, with God's help, and they have never made us unhappy. Our love was founded deep, on mutual respect, and was never dependent on 'shining boots,' and 'dainty ringlets,' nor even on a 'well-broiled beefsteak.' We have trusted each other implicitly, and lived in and for each other. Whatever interests one interests the other. I have527discussed election and free will with Fred, while he has been helping me wipe dishes. His pocket-book is mine, and open to my inspection or use, as my saucepans and larder are to his. In short, dear, we are one, in so far as two entities can be one. We have always been too busy in loving and helping each other, training our children, and serving God, to have time to 'put on our spectacles to scrutinize each other,' and to hunt for and magnify the petty foibles each may have. I never had to miss 'gentle attentions,' either, nor hear sharp words. Love God. Love each other. Love God and each other heartily, and your marriage must, and most surely will, be happy. God bless you, dear." "Auntie," said Elaine, with a suspicious shaking in her laughing voice, and a dew in her sunny eyes, "my interrogation is changed into an exclamation or affirmation." And so the "?" was changed into an "!"—Lucy S. White, in Christian at Work. —The Lutheran Church of North America comprises about 800,000 communicants. —At a Wisconsin Methodist Conference there was present a lay delegate ninety-five years old. —The collection of "Peter's Pence" for the pope, in New York, on Sunday, the 4th inst., amounted to $15,000. —The American Archbishops now in Rome recommend the appointment of a papal nuncio for the United States. —A Chinese mission is being established in Portland, Oregon, where 7,000 Mongolians reside, with Rev. A. J. Hansen as superintendent. —A church quarrel in a quiet New Jersey village, recently, ran so high that one of the parties turned into a mob and tarred and feathered the organ. —The project of consolidating the Northern and Southern Provinces of the Moravian Church of America has failed. The matter has been agitated in the church for some years. —The Advance says the contributions made in one year to benevolent objects by Plymouth Church, Minneapolis, Minn., in addition to carrying on its own work, amounted to $61,557. —A boy in a San Francisco public school was recently rebuked for reciting the 23d psalm as a declamation. Some have complained of this treatment; but the fact is not at all surprising, as that psalm abounds in cutting rebukes of the wicked, and it may have sensibly hit somebody. —A secret organization known as the "National League for the Suppression of Mormonism" is the last effort against the "religious liberty" of polygamists. It will no doubt create a sensation as a society in the East, but it will not affect the situation in Utah to a great extent. —Of 400 Mormon immigrants recently arrived from Denmark and Sweden, an Ogden dispatch says: "Not unlike the vast majority of the converts to Mormonism who have preceded them, they are a miserable, duple set, and evidently the 'ragtag and bobtail' of the overcrowded centers of Europe." —In her appeal for separation from the Rev. J. H. Boyd at Toronto, Mrs. Boyd stated that he was savage, cruel, violently tempered, and that during family prayers he would crawl across the room on his knees, keeping the prayer going all the time, and box his children's ears for supposed inattention. —The recent session of the great General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which has been the cause of much comment by the leading religious journals, spent two or three weeks in discussing amendments to the Book of Prayer. If these amendments shall be ratified by the parishes, they will be finally adopted by the next General Convention in 1886. —In less than thirty years, more than three hundred Baptist churches, comprising twenty thousand baptized believers, have been organized in Sweden. The work originated with Rev. Andreas Wiberg, a native of Sweden, educated at the University of Upsala, and for many years a Lutheran minister. Twenty thousand children have been gathered into Baptist Sunday-schools. —The report of Rev. J. F. Yates, at the State Convention of Universalists, on the state of the church in New York, showed that from an examination of the registers of the past ten years in the United States and Canada, there had been a loss to the church of fifteen parishes and 3,504 families. In ten years there had been in the United States and in Canada an increase of 10,249 church members. —In the London Record a "Church warden" makes the assertion that "it is well known that auricular confession is resorted to in some large public schools (professedly Church of England schools), and that the book used for the confessional, called "The Priest in Absolution," is of such an obscene nature that it would be punishable under Lord Campbell's Act to offer it publicly for sale, which alone ought to be sufficient to condemn the system." —"ROME, November 13.—The American Catholic Archbishops held their first meeting to-day at the College of the Propaganda. All the Cardinals of the Propaganda were present. The principal question discussed was that of addressing a demand to the United States that the relations of church and State be based upon canon law." If the Protestant Religious Amendment folks in the United States are not on the alert, they will soon have to take second place in the movement. —Monsignor Capel recently told an audience in Brooklyn, N. Y., that "the great want of the Roman Catholic Church is a higher social position." Whereupon the Christian at Work refers to the Methodist and Baptist churches as having achieved their greatest victories while social position was eschewed, and their worst difficulties have been encountered since they became rich and aristocratic. On the other hand, Unitarianism was cradled in wealth by distinguished men; yet in one hundred years it had a less number of churches in the whole country than Methodism had in one State.