Earlier text: The Missionary(Lesson 16.—Sabbath, August 7.) 1. QUOTE a testimony from the Psalms concerning the perpetuity of the law of God.
"Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them forever." Ps. 119: 152. 2. Is there any exception to this fact?
"Thy word is true from the beginning; and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever." Ps. 119: 160. 3. What did Jesus say on this subject?
"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matt. 5: 18. "And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Luke 16: 17. 4. What did he say of those who should break one of them, and should teach others to do so?
"Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven." Matt. 5: 19. 5. Repeat the fourth commandment.
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Ex. 20: 8-11. 6. According to the words of Inspiration, how long must this commandment endure? See texts quoted above. 7. How much of it may be changed?—Not "one jot or one tittle." 8. Might not God or Christ change it? Compare Matt. 5: 18 with 2 Tim. 2: 13. The former text says that not one jot nor one tittle shall pass from the law. The latter text says, "He cannot deny himself." If God were to change any portion of the law, he would thereby deny himself. Therefore such a thing is impossible. 9. What reason is given in the fourth commandment for the sanctification of the Sabbath?
"For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Ex. 20: 11. 10. In how many days did the Lord create the heavens and the earth?—In six days. 11. Where do we find the record of creation?—Gen. 1. 12. What is said of each of these six days of creation?
"And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." Gen. 1: 5. "And God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day." Verse 8. "And the evening and the morning were the third day." Verse 13. "And the evening and the morning were the fourth day." Verse 19. "And the evening and the morning were the fifth day." Verse 23. "And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." Verse 31. 13. What did God make to rule over these days?
"And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also." Gen. 1: 16. 14. Then what kind of days are referred to in the first chapter of Genesis?—Days consisting of a dark and a light part, regulated by the sun. 15. What is the length of such days?—Twenty-four hours. 16. At the end of the first six days, what had been done?
"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." Gen. 2: 1. 17. What is said of the seventh day?
"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." Gen. 2: 2. 19. After God had rested on the seventh day, what action did he take concerning it?
"And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Gen. 2: 3. Stanley's "Congo" and "Dark Continent."
By Rev. F. Vinton
IN a journey of a thousand days (Aug. 15, 1874, to Aug. 9, 1877), Henry M. Stanley crossed Africa where it is two thousand miles wide, but by a track seven thousand miles long. His starting point was Zanzibar, and his terminus the mouth of the Congo. It is not meant that the transit needed to be so long; for he traced the whole shore of the Victoria Nyanza, and he circumnavigated the immense line of Tanganyika. He was lost to civilization three years together; he fought a daily and deadly fight with hunger and sickness, treachery among his men, and ferocity among natives, intolerable fatigues by land, and uncommon perils of navigation. When he looked on white faces again, his original troop of 224 Zanzibaris had dwindled to 115. Quitting Nyangwé, the ultimate western post of Arab traders, he plunged into the forest of Central Africa, marching along the banks of a river called by him the Livingstone, of which it was only known that it flowed "north, north, north." The forest was dense, dark, impenetrable, permitting a progress of only six to fourteen miles a day; towering so high as utterly to hide the sun; while "the terrible undergrowth" below, oppressed every mind with gloom and despair. An Arab chief, allured by the promise of six thousand dollars to lead seven hundred men as a convoy sixty marches forward, abandoned the road when only twenty had been accomplished. Left alone in the heart of Africa, Stanley hewed a fleet of canoes, and committed himself to the stream. Beyond the forest he encountered the hostility of man. The fierce savages, armed with bows and spears, and accustomed to cannibal feasts, thronged about him in splendid canoes, refusing all overtures for peace and the supply of food. In a series of thirty-two battles, sometimes against two thousand assailants, he compelled them to yield to European arms, and allow him to pass them to the sea. But nature herself seemed to fight for her ancient reign of paganism and night. She barred the mighty river with a hundred wild rapids and awful cataracts, compelling him to quit the stream, and drag his heavy boats over steep cliffs, and through tangled woods, till a few miles of quiet water could be found. Thirty-seven days in one region gave him only thirty-four miles of advance. By degrees, the ample stock of beads and trinkets with which he expected to buy food from the natives dwindled away; and before he could reach the frontiers of civilization, he was destitute and starving. By letters sent forward, addressed to whomsoever would take pity on the perishing, he drew supplies for the moment, and the hospitable Portuguese came forth to welcome him to their homes. Nothing in the annals of geography equals the heroism or the pathos of this tale. After generously accompanying to their home at Zanzibar, the helpless relics of his perilous expedition, Stanley was returning to Europe in January, 1878, that he might seek in rest and nutrition, balm for his half-ruined constitution. But he was met at Marseilles by messengers from Leopold, king of Belgium, soliciting his return to Africa as agent of an international association. The intolerable thought could not then be entertained. But the air of Switzerland did for him what other means could not effect; and in May, 1879, he returned to the Congo. There, his mission was to form at successive cataracts a series of stations, connected by well-made roads, each garrisoned by employés of the association. That he might have reliable allies, he drew from Zanzibar sixty-eight of his former followers, while Kroomen and natives were added as they could be found. Seven small steamers formed his flotilla of exploration, and they reached the first rapid one hundred and sixty miles from the sea. And now began the mighty work of forming a road around it, practicable for heavy wagons, bearing his fleet through the woods and over the hills. In order to pass at once several neighboring obstructions, it was necessary to make this road fifty-two miles in length; and this was accomplished, after a year's exertion, by February, 1881. Grass twelve feet high had to be torn away; thick forests of teak and mahogany to be felled; rocks to be blasted or removed; hills to be graded, bridges to be built. Of course the good-will of the natives had to be won, that they might not hinder, but co-operate in all these enterprises, and cede lands for the successive towns to be built. From Isangila, where this road ended, eighty-eight miles of navigable river succeeded, terminating at Manyanga. The like experience had to be renewed in constructing another wagon road of ninety-five miles length to Stanley Pool. But now the constitution which had endured so much yielded to the African fever. In May, 1881, Stanley was very near to death; and again in June, 1882, after an exploratory voyage to Lake Leopold II., five hundred and fifty miles from the sea, the fever returned with symptoms so menacing that he resolved to return to Europe. Again, however, before the end of the year, he returned to his post, and ascended the river to Stanley Falls, 1,400 miles from the sea. In this expedition he necessarily passed again along those parts of the river where he had experienced the inveterate hostility of the natives in 1877. But little of it now appeared; for his peaceful conquest of the good-will of those below, and his demonstration that he could improve their condition by introducing manufactures from Europe, had disarmed their ferocity; and he heard his name pronounced with glad applause as "Tanley," or "Tandelay," by the very tribes which had fought him vigorously six years before. As Stanley was thus tracing the upper course of the Congo, he came upon village after village deserted by its late inhabitants, and observed everywhere the marks of conflagration. Occasionally a few miserable old men narrated that their towns had been lately ravaged at night by murderous invaders, who shot the males as they rushed from their burning habitations, while women and children had been dragged up the river in chains. The melancholy spectacle was repeated for days, till at length he overtook the slave-hunters' camp. There he found twenty-three hundred women and children fastened together by twenties, in the extreme of misery, not one able-bodied man being seen. He computed that the wretched survivors who might finally reach the markets of the Nile would be only one per cent. of the population sacrificed at their homes or on the march. Such is the blessing which Islam pronounces on equatorial Africa. Four main results have flowed from Stanley's residence on the Congo. He has established a series of trading posts, connected, where necessary, by well-built roads, and has opened most friendly relations with the natives. He has combined their chiefs by hundreds into a confederacy, and has induced the civilized States of the world to recognize as a nation the African Association, with whom those chiefs have entered into commercial engagements. He has gathered a vast body of facts respecting the Congo region and its inhabitants. Those facts let us now examine in detail. The Congo River is one of the largest in the world. Stanley says it is equal to the Nile, the Zambesi, and the Niger combined. He calls it once and a half more than the Mississippi. Here he refers not to mere length, but to volume. In much of its course the Congo is three miles broad. In the dry season, 333 miles from the sea, he ascertained that it pours down a million and a half cubic feet of water in a second, and two millions and a half in the rainy season. In the lower part of its course, it flows through an uninviting gorge, cheerless and forbidding. But above the cataracts, he describes the soil as "wonderfully fertile." "In all the Mississippi Valley there is no soil to equal it." He speaks of "this immense waste of fat earth;" and of "bountiful and unparalleled richness of soil." The ordinary products of this soil are "grass fifteen feet high," "sugar cane of gigantic height," "teak, mahogany, guiacum, and bombax;" "cotton grows wild everywhere," and the India rubber plant, and the orchilla creeper, yielding the precious dye. The richness of the soil may also be inferred from the animal life which abounds. To say nothing of antelopes and buffaloes, leopards, lions, and elephants inhabited the forest, crocodiles and hippopotami swarmed in the river. Far enough from being savages, the people of the lower Congo were "uniformly amiable." It was easy to enter into treaties with them, binding them to friendly intercourse and trade; and in trade they were exceedingly sharp at a bargain. He speaks of "an air of worldly knowledge and travel" as characterizing them. They furnished abundance of laborers, working on Stanley's roads and transportation. "The utmost cordiality" was manifested by the natives three hundred miles above Stanley Pool, six hundred from the sea. He speaks of their "wonderful industry," and its products in the working of iron and copper. Deep in the great forest of the upper Congo, Stanley found a native smithy in which his own instruments were repaired; and in the hands of his assailants upon that river were iron spear heads six feet long, and eight inches broad. He enumerates scores of instruments of iron and of copper which he had seen them use, or had found in their houses. At the same time, their manufactures from wood and wool, in skin and in pottery, were numerous and ingenious. Stanley describes "a thick, round cap of knit wool, into which a native artist had worked red, yellow, and white twist;" "a collar of many coiled fine brass wire;" "and abundant and various manufactures of ivory." Native ferry boats are repeatedly spoken of; and at one point, near Stanley Pool, a ferry is said to convey a thousand passengers a week across the river, where it is two miles wide.445 These things, as well as the possession of great wealth by some of the native traders, show a society already beginning to be peaceful and strong. Such nationalities are prepared to perceive the advantages of a higher civilization, to welcome European commerce, and to receive with favorable feeling the wisdom and goodness of Christian missionaries. It cannot be doubted that the Congo region is far more favorable to missions than South Africa with its Bushmen and Zulus, or North Africa, full already of Islam and intolerance. It has long been thought that Western and Central Africa were barred by climate against European and American missions. The experience of Stanley and his coadjutors proves that it is not so. No great mortality ever attended his enterprise. "The heat was seldom intolerable; the highest mean was 90°; the nights were cool and sometimes cold." He elaborates at much length and reiteration his argument for the healthfulness of Africa, declaring that the fevers and mortality sometimes experienced are attributable to the want of proper food, to the use of stimulants, to imprudent exertions in the heat of the day, and to careless exposures to draughts of cold air, by night or by day. The importance of this last circumstance he shows by relating that after a healthful voyage up the Congo, far beyond the equator, no sooner did his return begin than the cool breezes up stream, unfelt while they accompanied the steamer, now doubled in force by the speed of the boat and of the current, brought on dangerous diseases in men long accustomed to the African air. Stanley's information respecting the fertility, the populousness, the productiveness of Africa, and the commercial spirit of its people, will certainly attract western enterprise into its interior, and railroads will be built to pass the cataracts. Christian missions ought to rush in where commerce is sure to pierce. For, side by side with the pleasing pictures given above, traces appear of the idolatry, the ignorance and superstition of the natives; of their cruel sports, of their proneness to warfare; of the cheapness of human life among them. When a chief died, fourteen slaves were slaughtered to accompany his spirit into the other world. Stanley's allusions to missionaries are uniformly respectful; and he celebrates the comfort, neatness, and elegance introduced by a missionary's wife, in contrast with the indolence, disarray, and negligence manifested at some stations established by his own men. His own spirit is manly, sober, and reverent. Veneration and love for Livingstone seem to have filled his mind, and perhaps have affected his character; for he pressed upon Mtesa the duty and excellence of forgiveness, and his own conduct toward the natives showed a Christian spirit.—Rev. F. Vinton, in Missionary Review. The Home Circle.
By Laura C. Nourse
Say it now! A wealth of meaning
Crowns the act by words expressed;
Let no semblance hide the beaming
Of the love-light in thy breast. Say it now! That word of comfort,
Trembling on thy palsied tongue—
Peace will write no sweet evangel
O'er the songs we leave unsung. Say it now! For roses wither,
Heaped so high on coffin-lids;
And the lilies lose their fragrance
On the hearts that death hath stilled. Say it now! In accents tender
Point the weary soul to God;
With thy faith the darkness piercing,
Gently lead where Jesus trod. Say it now! The day is waning,
And the night of death draws near;
In the grave is no complaining,
And the silence knows no fear. Say it now! While life still lingers,
Smooth the furrowed brow of care;
Let thy smiles be benedictions,
And each whisper be a prayer. Say it now! The angels listen,
Bending low to catch the strain,—
"Loving words like dew drops glisten;"
This the song and sweet refrain.
—Laura C. Nourse. A GOVERNMENT report by the British Consul-General in Germany, points out certain serious facts. The adult male German drinks annually, on the average, about seventeen gallons of spirituous liquors. In the kingdom of Prussia, the whole expenditure in 1882 on wine, beer, and spirits, amounted to nearly $227,000,000. In Sweden and Norway the consumption of spirits has been declining for some years past; but in Denmark the evil of spirit-drinking has reached a terrible pitch. In Holland, in 1878, there was a drink shop for every ninety inhabitants, including women and children; but a restrictive law, passed in 1881, has reduced the number about a quarter. The worst statistics in regard to the consumption of alcoholic liquors are those of Belgium, where, in less than half a century, the drinking of such liquors has far more than doubled for each person. In 1881 there was a public house for every dozen adult males. In France the amount of drunkenness has been reduced by the passing of a salutary law. In Switzerland, between 1870 and 1880, while the increase of population was but 6.5 per cent., the increase in the number of public houses was 22 per cent. In Austria the condition of affairs is similar. And all this drinking has its effect. There is a horrible array of figures giving the statistics of delirium tremens, suicides, lunacy, and accidental deaths, as the result of drunkenness. IN our large towns and cities the churches are dying of style. There is style in the building and furniture; style in the preaching and altar work; style in singing—or rather musical performances; style in the accoutrements of the attendants upon worship. Style is a good thing in its place; but there is danger of allowing our religion to merge into style, literally to go to seed in that form. Let us have simplicity, naturalness, humility, fervor, spirituality, liberty, power. Memoriter or read sermons are an abomination; operatic singing versus congregational singing is a curse; stiffness and preciseness in worship are moral death. These things drive the poor away; and when the poor go out at the doors, the Holy Spirit goes out at the windows. We do not ask that men be poor or ignorant, or coarse, or offensively noisy; but we do ask that they be humble, simple, natural; we ask that they sing and pray with the Spirit, and preach with power.—Holston Methodist. Health and Temperance.
By W. H. H.
IN 1769, the English Government received less than $1,500 from the American Colonies as its revenue from the tea tax. Yet the American Colonies voted that the sale of tea should be prohibited, and the people refused to drink tea rather than pay to the mother country $1,500 a year tax on tea. Two hundred thousand liquor dealers, half of them foreigners, have imposed heavy burdens upon the American people. Communities without liquor saloons have little use for policemen, jails, or poor-houses. In one district in Liverpool, of 50,000 inhabitants, without liquor saloons, there were only forty-five persons who had to receive out-door relief. In another district of about the same size, with liquor saloons, nearly 2,000 had to receive out-door relief. When a small town in Illinois excluded the liquor saloon, it reduced its pauper bill from $1,100 to $2.50 per year. In Boston, seventy-three per cent. of all the arrests made by the police are due to the presence of the drink-houses in the city. Eighty per cent. of the criminals, and seventy-five per cent. of the paupers in this country can be fairly charged to the business of the 200,000 liquor dealers, half of whom are foreigners. What benefits do these liquor dealers confer upon the nation to compensate the people for tolerating their presence? What right have they to so greatly increase the taxes of the people in order to raise the money which is necessary to take care of their victims? Has the character of the American people changed in these hundred years? Are we the worthy children of forefathers who refused to drink tea, and prohibited its sale rather than pay a $1,500 tax to the mother country, when we bow down before 200,000 liquor dealers and bear whatever burdens they may impose upon us? When the American people realize that their taxes would be reduced one-half by the blotting out of the liquor saloon, I believe the people will make short work of the modern grog-shop. As our forefathers said, "No more tea!" so the time is near at hand when the cry of our people will be, "No more rum! No more money to take care of the worn-out victims of the rum-shop! No more young people from our homes to become the slaves of the liquor dealers!"—W. H. H., in Advance. Intemperance and Crime in Europe
In Denmark 74 per cent. of the arrests were from drunkenness, or for crimes committed under the influence of drink. The inspector-general of Belgian prisons reports that four-fifths of the crime and social misery is attributable to intemperance. In Austria the hospitals, lunatic asylums, and prisons all testify to the advance of drinking habits. And continental workmen generally—even those who do not become absolute drunkards—spend a large portion of their earnings in drink. The Growing Temperance Question
The foregoing statements, be it observed, are not the froth of a temperance harangue, but the cold statistics of a Government report. They show that earthquakes and cholera are not the most terrible evils of Europe. They should be studied by those who suggest that spirit-drinking can be exterpated by introducing the free use of beer and light wines. In the very countries where the milder drinks are used, the consumption of ardent spirits is increasing at a terrible rate. The temperance question is a growing question, and it demands attention here, as in other lands.—Independent. High License Corrupts Omaha
of the workings of high license in Omaha:— “We do not think high license is a success in Omaha. It has sent the saloons more than ever into politics. It gives the saloons the ready boast, ‘We support your schools, you must support us.’ And this is said with the confident air of men who are public benefactors. The whole system of license has corrupted our police force and lower courts until it is a mockery to call them courts of justice; they are dens of thieves. The number of saloons has not increased in proportion to the population; but they are handy for every one who drinks, have a respectable air, and are yet as bad as ever. Gambling hells are opened at twenty-five dollars a month, generally in connection with the ‘tony’ saloons.” The Workings of High License in Omaha
The Omaha Bee paints the following picture of the workings of high license in Omaha:— The Liquor Traffic’s National Harm
By Henry Wilson
THERE is to-day a larger army under its (the liquor traffic's) control, than went to the war, while those mourning over the vassalage and fall of loved ones exceed in numbers, and in the bitterness of their woe, the millions who were made childless and widows by the casualties of that fierce and sanguinary strife. And the terrible disease, like a cancer, is eating into the very vitals of the nation, destroying the mental and moral, as well as the physical fiber of the people. The liquor interest controls the cities and largely influences State legislation and the local politics of the country. And all this has come to pass notwithstanding the temperance efforts of half a century, the preaching of the sanctuary, and the presence and power of the Christian church.—Henry Wilson. What Makes Drinking Unwell
By Alliance News
A BOY smoking a cigar end became very pale. Throwing the end away, he said to his playmate: "There's something in that cigar that makes me sick." "I know what it is," said the other; "it's the terbaccer." Some people don't know what it is that makes them feel unwell after drinking. They lay the blame on sundry supposed adulterations of liquor. All the while we know what it is. It is the alcohol.—Alliance News. Intemperance as a Cause of Crime
By Noah Davis
The relation of intemperance to crime is that of the inciting cause. There are other causes, such as hate, avarice, jealousy, lust, and revenge; but these are narrower in their circles of evil; more easily repressed by individuals and society; more subject to moral restraints, and are not sanctioned by law nor dealt out under statutory licenses.—Judge Noah Davis. —A rebellion has broken out in Northern Mexico. —Admiral Worden of the United States Navy died at Newport, R. I., July 11. —The business failures in the United States and Canada for the seven days ending July 16, were 183, against 179 the preceding week. —The trial of the bomb-throwers is now in progress at Chicago, and very damaging evidence is being produced against the accused. —The smallpox epidemic at Santiago, Chili, is becoming worse every day, and the disease proves fatal to 60 or 70 per cent. of the persons attacked. —Notwithstanding their defeat at the polls, the leaders of the Irish Home Rule party are not discouraged, and express themselves as feeling confident of ultimate success. —There has been no rain in Colorado for the past three months, and in consequence the rivers are drying up, and crops and stock, as well as families, are suffering for water. —A California paper complains that because hay is now worth only eleven dollars per ton in San Francisco, farmers have a profit of only one dollar per ton, or two dollars per acre. —A strike on some of the San Francisco street-car lines resulted, July 15, in a riot during which cars were overturned, windows broken, and men knocked down. Several arrests have been made. —The Riverside, Cal., Press says: "Closing the saloons has nearly ruined the business of Judge Noland's court. No drink, no drunks; no drunkenness, no fines. Where are we drifting?" —July 17 the Canada Gazette published a proclamation granting amnesty to all persons connected with the Riel rebellion, except those who committed homicide otherwise than in actual conflict. —The St. Louis Grand Jury has closed its investigation of the charges against members of the House of Delegates, and has returned indictments for bribery and drunkenness against six of them. —Belfast, Ireland, was the scene of serious rioting on the night of the 13th inst. Two civilians and one officer were killed, and quite a number of persons were severely wounded. Orangemen were the aggressors. —A recent London dispatch says: "An extradition treaty between England and the United States has been signed. In addition to the customary clauses, the treaty provides for the surrender of dynamite miscreants." —The twelfth juror in the Chicago anarchists' trial was obtained on the 15th inst., and accepted by both sides. Nearly one thousand persons were examined and twenty-two full court sessions held to achieve this result. —The cholera report in Italy for one day, July 16, is as follows: Brindisi, 75 new cases, 44 deaths; Fontana, 37 new cases, 19 deaths; Latiano, 16 new cases, 7 deaths; Codigore, 7 new cases, 2 deaths; Venice, 1 new case, 1 death. —Heavy and continued rains throughout North Carolina have caused the greatest floods since 1867. The farmers on Cape Fear River have lost all their crops, and many have been forced to leave their homes on account of the flood. —The French Government has ordered 60,000 repeating rifles to be distributed among the troops before August. This action is attributed to the conduct of Germany in arming her battalions in Alsace-Lorraine with similar weapons. —Probably the most peculiar case of drowning on record occurred a few days since near Carondelet, Mo. A young man in attempting to drown a large dog was himself thrown down a precipice into the river and drowned, while the dog escaped. —July 16, Central California was visited by a thunderstorm, something which is very unusual in this State, especially in the summer season. Some grain was burned, several cattle were killed, and a few buildings damaged by lightning. The rainfall was not great. —The canning business has become the most important industry in Maryland. Over fifty-six thousand hands are employed in canning fruits and oysters. The largest corn-packing establishment in the world is said to be in Fredericksburg, with a capacity of 75,000 cans per day. —It seems that the wreck of the steamship Ly-ee-moon, which occurred off Green Cape, Australia, May 30, was due to the most criminal negligence of the officer in charge. Out of eighty-six persons aboard of the vessel, only fifteen were saved. The captain will be tried on the charge of manslaughter. —A eucalyptus tree 106 feet high was cut down recently in Santa Rosa, Cal. It had moved a house beside which it grew, two inches from its foundation, and had raised one corner of it an inch. The eucalyptus is an Australian tree, introduced into California since its settlement by Americans. —Typhoid fever of a peculiar and virulent type has broken out in Waterford, Wisconsin. Forty persons have been stricken with the disease in its worst form, while many others are suffering from a milder form of the malady. There have been several deaths; the people are terror-stricken, and many are leaving the town. —Recent telegrams from Paris report increasing uneasiness in diplomatic circles at the movements of the French Ministry of War, which, it is feared, will stir up serious complications with Germany. The activity of the War Department is incomprehensible, unless something more important than the French expedition to the East is on foot. —A few days since while an iron dealer in St. Petersburg was unloading a wagon filled with old artillery material, which had been purchased from the Government, a nine-inch shell, supposed to have been improperly unloaded, exploded among a group of workmen and others. Sixteen persons, including four children, were killed and several others injured. —While four men were being lowered to the bottom of a one hundred and twenty foot shaft, in New York, a few days since, a gasoline lamp which they had with them exploded. This so terrified the men that they jumped out of the bucket when still eighty feet from the bottom of the shaft. All were severely burned, besides receiving serious and probably fatal injuries from the fall. —It seems that the Jesuits are not wanted in Peru. At a meeting held in the public square at Callao on the 11th inst., it was resolved to petition the Government to take immediate steps for their expulsion from the country. We suppose that if they are expelled from Peru they can find an asylum in this country, as many thousands have already done. They are about as desirable as Socialists and Anarchists. —One of the most remarkable accidents ever recorded is thus related by the Nogales, Arizona, Frontier: "Of all the chapters of the curiosities of accidents, the fatal wounding of Manuel Varra, a Mexican, near Buena Vista, last Tuesday, takes first rank. He, with a party of about twelve others, who were out hunting Indians, dismounted, and neglected to take their guns from their saddles. His horse in rubbing against a tree threw a shell in the barrel of the gun, and then, rubbing again, discharged it, the ball taking effect in the unfortunate man's abdomen." —The Postmaster-General has, in compliance with petitions signed by large numbers of business men in numerous cities, amended the postal regulations so as to permit the transmission through the mails within the United States and Territories, of liquids not liable to explosion or spontaneous combustion or ignition by shock or jar and not inflammable—soft soap, pastes, confections, ointments, salves, and articles of similar consistency—under certain conditions insuring safety to other mail matter in transmission. —It is now positively stated that "Lord Salisbury has made overtures to Lord Hartington for the formation of a coalition Ministry, whose programme shall include a local government bill for Ireland, Scotland, and England; a laborer's allotment bill, empowering rural laborers to acquire small holdings; the reform and extension of the Artisans' Dwellings Act, including dwellings for farm laborers; a measure for the cheaper transfer of land, and the appointment of a select committee to inquire into the administration of the Government of India, with a view of giving the natives increased local control." —In one year Dr. Landsell, the English missionary, has distributed no less than 56,000 Bibles among the exiles in Siberia. —The native churches of Samoa, besides supporting their own pastors, have contributed, on the average, $6,000 per year for the last twenty-five years to the funds of the London Missionary Society. Yet when the missionaries began their work, the people were dangerous savages. —The Lever says: "The day is forever past when the intelligent Christian sentiment of this country will approve the tobacco habit in a minister of the gospel." Good; we hope so. But if Christian sentiment will not tolerate tobacco-using in a minister, why should it in a layman? Who can tell? —A Mohammedan professor for twenty years at the Daoul-Islam of Mecca, a man of wide learning and a rare linguist, who accidentally came upon a chapter of a volume that treated of the Bible, left his post and went to India to inquire into the truth of Christianity. He has now for some months been zealously studying the Scriptures, and has accepted the truth of Christ. —A correspondent of the New York Journal of Commerce, who is himself a Christian, has been traveling through New Hampshire, and writes as follows: "Be the cause what it may, this is sober truth, that there is as much need of missionary work, by all the orthodox churches, in New England as in China or the Lebanon country. Orthodox Congregationalists may rest assured that the priests of the Maronites, Greeks, Greek Catholics, and other sects in the Mount Lebanon country, preach and teach as sound doctrine and pure faith as are taught and preached in a large number of so-called orthodox churches in New England. Here, rather than across the sea, is your place for mission work." OAKLAND.—House of worship, northeast corner of Clay and Thirteenth Streets. Sabbath-school every Sabbath at 9:30 A. M. Preaching at 11. Prayer and missionary meeting every Tuesday evening at 7:30. Seats free. SAN FRANCISCO.—House of worship, 914 Laguna Street, between McAllister and Tyler. Sabbath-school every Sabbath at 9:45, and preaching at 11 A. M.; also preaching every Sunday evening at 7:30. Classes in the English, German, and Scandinavian languages. Prayer and missionary meeting every Wednesday evening at 7:45. Mission Reading-rooms at the church. EAST PORTLAND (Or.)—House of worship on G Street, between Tenth and Eleventh. Sabbath-school every Sabbath (Saturday), followed by services. Preaching or Bible-reading Sunday evening. Prayer-meeting Wednesday evening. The public is cordially invited. Free public reading-room, corner of L and Fifth Streets. THE ADVENT REVIEW AND SABBATH HERALD,
By Editor
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