p. 43 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 3. (1/21/1889)

A FAILURE.

By Editor

The Sunday law of Louisiana, according to the Times Democrat, of New Orleans, of December 2, seems to be an entire failure. That journal says:—

"The Sunday law is now being tried before the jury, as it ought to be. We pointed out some days ago that the constitution of Louisiana and the rulings of the highest courts made the jury the judge of the law and the evidence, the protector of the people against defective, unjust, or arbitrary laws, and that it was not only the right but the duty of jurors to declare in their verdict against acts full of discriminations, injustice, and absurdity, as is the Sunday law as it now stands. The juries have done so. The question has been presented to them from every point of view, and nearly every section of the law has been tested and passed on, and yet it has been found impossible to secure a single conviction."

That ought to be the case with all Sunday laws. They should have no place in the law of any civil Government. Sunday is a religious or church institution purely, and the State has no more right to compel its observance than it has to compel men to accept the doctrine of transubstantiation, or to adore the host. Neither do we object to Sunday's being enforced by law because it is a page-papal institution. Men have no right to legalize any Sabbath whatever, whether true or false. It is beyond the province of civil government. The observance of a Sabbath is a matter which lies wholly between man and his Creator.

"INASMUCH."

By May Crossett

It was an unusually warm day in the middle of June, when a young girl of fifteen summers entered the door of a humble cottage in the pretty village of L., and with these words she greeted an elder sister who sat sewing by an open window, before which climbed in richest profusion a wild rose: "O Ida, I'm tired and sick of school! I never want to see another school-book! I fairly hate them, that I do!"

And with this outburst she threw the pile of books upon the table, and flung herself into a chair with a sigh.

Ida looked up in surprise into the face of her beautiful sister, to whom she must be mother as well as sister now, for the dear one had left her darlings only during the past winter.

And again that mother's charge rang in her ears, "Be gentle and faithful with sister Bella." She knew she possessed a warm, loving heart; but these fitful, restless moods had caused much anxiety to both mother and daughter.

There was a loving interest in the tone of the elder sister when she spoke: "Bella, dear, you are tired, and must have had an unusually hard time at school to-day. You do need a change, dear, and I am glad that vacation will soon be here. I was just planning as you entered the door a visit to Aunt Mary's. Let me see, I believe I have never told you of the beauties of 'Norwood Hall,' and all about my visit there last autumn, and the impression it made upon me. So come, darling, draw up that low rocker by my side, where you can get the sweet breath of the roses, while I go over those days at Norwood. I so often wished while there that you could have been with me. It was all so lovely! How plainly I can see the beautiful long avenue of maples, through which I took many a promenade in the early morning! How fresh it all seems to me—the daily morning concert with which I was greeted! A perfect gush of melody poured forth from the throats of the happy songsters perched in the topmost branches of the thickly shaded trees. It was a treat I never missed during my stay there. And the broad, sloping, velvety lawns—how charming! The rustic summer-house just half way down to Willow Brook, where dear old Rover and I had many a frolic. But in the grand old house, do you know, its most delightful and comfortable place to me was its old, airy, English-built hall, with its quaint-fashioned furniture, and portraits of interesting faces looking down from the wall—faces of those that I knew had once passed up and down that same old stately corridor—had a peculiar charm to me. My afternoons were usually spent there, or a good part of them. And when the tall clock in the corner would strike the hour of four, then usually Aunt Mary's voice would be heard calling from above: 'Ida, would you like to go to the village, dear? We will start in about twenty minutes.'"

"Those visits made a lasting impression upon me. O Bella! could you have heard and seen what I did—the hearty welcomes, the brightened eyes, the happy tears, and the earnest, 'God bless you's,' that came as the result of Aunt Mary's visits, it would have done your heart good."

"One afternoon, the day before I was to return home, and as we were returning from our last visiting together, I told auntie of the pleasure and profit I had received from these visits with her, and added, how happy she must be to know she was bringing cheer and comfort to so many hearts, and, the best of all, she could feel she had the Master's smile of approval, for inasmuch as she had done it unto the least of these—"

"She then told me how the desire of her youth had been granted. It had been a longing desire of her heart to have the means to help others. Then she playfully told me how they had all declared at home that sister Mary was to be the 'old maid' of the house. That was a sure and settled thing. And as the years went by it did seem as though the home prophecy was to be fulfilled, but in the thirty-ninth summer of her life a gentleman bearing the name of Norwood came to visit his old college chum—a near neighbor of theirs. And it soon became evident to all that Mr. Norwood—after a summer's acquaintance—entertained more than a passing interest for the neighbor's daughter. And with tears in her eyes she exclaimed, 'O Ida! what joy welled up in my heart when he told me of his wealth, and how all should be mine to use as my heart prompted. He was a Christian man, and told me of his plans to help the poor of his village. Can you imagine my gratitude as I realized the long desire of this heart was to be granted? Yes, it has given me untold pleasure, dear, to be permitted to carry help to the poor and the suffering, and surely I have experienced that it is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

"But, Bella, dear, I have been thinking that you and I need not wait for the wealth that is Aunt Mary's to be helpful to others. We can at least do our part, as it has been given us. It was only this morning that I heard from one of your school-mates (who stopped on her way to school) that Aunt Amy was quite helpless now, and her sight almost gone, yet so cheerful withal. Wouldn't you like to go, dear, and carry her a basket of our delicious strawberries? And be sure to sing to her, darling, one of your sweet songs. Your voice, you know, is a gift from the Master; and I cannot help thinking of Miss Havergal's words:— "Sing at the cottage bedside; They have no music there, And the voice of praise is silent After the voice of prayer. Sing of the gentle Saviour In the simplest hymns you know, And the pain-dimmed eye will brighten As the soothing verses flow. Better than loudest plaudits The murmured thanks of such, For the King will stoop to crown them With his gracious 'Inasmuch.'""

"Anything for a change from those horrid books," thought Bella, as she rose to comply with her sister's request. Ere she had made half the distance to the cottage, she was humming a merry song, expressive of the already lightened heart. She found Aunt Amy's door upon the latch, and as she slowly pushed it open gave a gentle rap. And quickly came the response, "Come in, dearie; I thought it was one of you dear girls. It does me so much good to get sight of your fresh young faces. Thank God I can distinguish the faces of my friends yet; but my reading days are over, Bella, and you have come to be eyes for me a bit, haven't you? Ellen makes poor work at reading, but she keeps it real tidy for me, so I have no fault to find." "Yes, I will gladly read to you, auntie; but I have a request to make of you first. I want you to eat a dish of these fresh-picked strawberries that sister Ida has sent you." The young girl chatted away while auntie was enjoying the fruit, and, after relieving her of the empty dish, she asked what part of the Bible she would like best to hear read. "I should like," she replied, "to hear His greatest sermon once more." "Why, what do you mean, auntie?" "Child, don't you know? those precious words the Master spoke on the mountain-top." "Oh! you mean the sermon on the mount." "Yes, child." And Bella read, in her clear, sweet voice, all about the "blesseds." But there was a tremor in the young girl's voice as she finished, and with broken accents she said: "Aunt Amy, I would like to be of those who are called 'blessed.' Won't you pray that I may be pure in heart, and gentle in spirit?" "Yes, child, we will ask him now," and an earnest prayer was forthwith put up by that aged saint in behalf of the young girl kneeling at her side. As she arose Bella ventured to ask if she would like

her to sing something. "Oh, yes, dear, it would be such a treat." With true heart-feeling Bella sang:— "When we reach our Father's dwelling, On the strong, eternal hills, And our praise to Him is swelling Who the vast creation fills; Shall we then recall the sadness, And the clouds that hung so dim, When our hearts were turn'd from hardness, And our feet from paths of sin?"

She sang the hymn through, and as she stepped nearer to say, "Good-bye," Aunt Amy grasped her hand, while, with tears of gratitude coursing down her cheeks, she thanked her over and again for the comfort and joy her visit had brought her. And her loving eyes, with a hearty, "God bless you, child," followed her to the door.

As Bella opened the door of her home, she exclaimed: "O Ida, I am so glad I went. Aunt Mary is right. I think I understand something of the joy of which she told you."

The Home Circle.

By T. R. Williamson

TRUE LOVE BEGINS AT HOME.

A GROUP of ladies once in great old Rome, Showed each to each her wealth of jewels rare; And one there was within whose humble home No jewels were, but wealth of love was there. So when they asked where her bright treasures were, She pointed to her children at her side, And gently said, "These are my treasures fair," And smiled upon them with a mother's pride.

Home is the door whence our blest blessings flow; And they who, like that Roman dame of old, Prize home's wealth first, they best can feel and know How to reach kindly hands into the cold Of this great world, and call the wanderer back, And bear God's message far across the seas, Where Arabs cower in the simoon's track, Or billows harden in the Arctic breeze.

True love begins at home. The children dear, Whom God has sent to cheer my earthly way, Clasp tendril hands about my nature here, And link me fast to others far away.

What easy lessons God gives first to learn! Love father, mother, sister, brother, friend, And wife and children; then may we discern To love our neighbors to the great earth's end.

True love begins at home, and, reaching thence, Twines sympathetic arms round all our race, And fills our interval of time and sense With airs from Heaven, its native dwelling-place.

Love's royal banner floats above our heads; Beneath its folds majestic do we rest. Home's window-star its radiance outward sheds,— Come in, lone heart, be thou a welcome guest.

Swing back, ye cloudy curtains, from the skies, And let me see the architecture fine Of those transparent palaces that rise Where crystal streets in wondrous brilliance shine.

But little like them can I hope to build, And yet in meek resemblance I would raise A home with their transmitted luster filled, Whose walls shall echo to Immanuel's praise.

For home shall be a type of that above, Like Israel's desert temple long ago, Built of the same grand masonry of love As that bright dwelling-place to which we go. —T. R. Williamson, in Present Truth.

WHY THE LEAVES TURN.

"PROBABLY not one person in a thousand knows why leaves change their color in the fall," remarked an eminent botanist the other day. The common and old-fashioned idea is, that all this red and golden glory we see now is caused by frosts. A true and scientific explanation of the causes of coloring of leaves would necessitate a long and intricate discussion. Stated briefly and in proper language, those causes are these: The green matter in the tissue of a leaf is composed of two colors, red and blue. When the sap ceases to flow in the autumn, and the natural growth of the tree ceases, oxidation of the tissue takes place. Under certain conditions the green leaf changes to red; under different conditions it takes on a yellow or brown tint. This difference in color is due to the difference in combination of the original constituents of the green tissue, and to the varying conditions of climate, exposure, and soil. A dry, cold climate produces more brilliant foliage than one that is damp and warm. This is the reason that our American autumns are so much more gorgeous than those of England. There are several things about leaves that even science cannot explain. For instance, why one of two trees growing side by side, of the same age and having the same exposure, should take on a brilliant red in the fall, and the other should turn yellow; or why one branch of a tree should be highly colored and the rest of the tree have only a yellow tint, are questions that are as impossible to answer as why one member of a family should be perfectly healthy and another sickly. The coloring is not as good this fall as usual, but in the country there is some very gorgeous foliage. The maples and oaks generally have the brightest colors.—Selected.

Rosy Touches of Life

By George Macdonald

If I can put some rosy touches of a rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, then I feel that I have walked with God.—George Macdonald.

No Shortcuts to Success

Years spent in careful study are well spent. There are no short cuts to real success.—Our Young People.

Health and Temperance.

CONTAMINATED MILK.

IN discussing the subject of contaminated food, one of our exchanges says:—

Doubtless a vast deal of mischief is occasioned by the use of milk contaminated with disease. Typhoid fever has many times been traced to this source. It is entirely possible that typhoid fever is often produced in some other way than by the use of drinking-water contaminated with the germs of this disease. The infection may be received directly from cows. While it may not be probable that the germs of the disease escape from the body of an infected animal through the milk, the milk may nevertheless become infected through the medium of small particles of excreta, portions of the discharges of the animal, which fall into the milk from the udder during the process of milking. The remedies for this danger are obvious. Observe the same care in relation to the drinking-water of cows as that used by human beings, and see that the udder and adjacent parts are washed clean before milking.

HEALTH AS AN INHERITANCE.

By Harper's Bazaar

YES, we all value health, and yet how we waste it! There is no way in which we do not disregard the rules that compass it. We read, for example, in the dark, and in bed, and in the cars, instead of waiting for light and quiet; we sit all day at work when we should vary the day with exercise; we eat in a hurry, as if we feared each morsel was to be snatched from us, when we should eat slowly and invoke the powers of digestion; we steal from sleep the hours that belong to that benign restorer of tired nature; we delight our gustatory nerves over banquets which millstones could not grind to digestion, and we drink draughts which inflame the stomach and set the brain on fire, and bring the body to naught. And when all is done we go about, if we are still able to go about, complaining that there is no health in us, and we blame fate and the divine laws when we have ourselves to blame and our ancestors.

But the worst thing of all that we do is to so beggar our own stock and amount of health that we have none to give to our children, and we let them come into the world with impaired physical systems to begin with, and often let them run for luck in the care of those systems afterward. If we have no sense of the attention we should give our own health, if we neglect and injure our own bodies—those temples of the Spirit that deserve religious care—we have no right to take liberties with the bodies of others; but the moment that the health of the children intrusted to our care is injured, either by neglect, or by wrong indulgence, or by want of wisdom, we are culpable, for we not only rob those children of a birthright, but we rob also the whole race of which they and their descendants are a part, of that which is their portion, and which they have a right to expect, since health, in any normal state of society, should be as much the inheritance of a child as its mother's life-blood or its father's name.—Harper's Bazaar.

CLOTHING FOR THE LITTLE ONES.

By Good Health

MUCH is said in these days concerning the rights of children, but there is certainly no right to which every child is more surely entitled than that of good, sound physical health. It should be one of the first considerations of every mother to secure such conditions for her children as will insure them sound bodies and good health, not only because health will bring them the greatest range of comfort, but because it is the means through which the highest and best possibilities of life are developed and maintained. It is a well-established fact that proper clothing is one of the basic factors in the promotion of health, not only in adult life, but through all the years from childhood up; in fact, at no time in life is there greater need of care respecting the proper clothing of the body, than during its period of growth and development. Childhood is the time to establish the foundation for future health and strength; for in matters pertaining to health, as well as in those of mental growth, the principle holds true that "the farther we begin, the more momentum we gain." Many mothers are slow to recognize this fact, and while they often dress themselves so as to secure warmth and ease, their little ones are made to suffer from the injurious constraint of such clothing as will make the tiny creatures appear the most charming and dainty, regardless of health and comfort.

One of the first requirements of healthful clothing is that it allow unrestrained action of every organ of the body. This is absolutely essential for perfect development, so long as the body is undergoing the process of growth. We believe that mothers often unwillingly violate this principle in the dressing of their children, by compelling them to wear clothing which they have partially outgrown, but which is not sufficiently worn to be discarded. Tight sleeves, tight bands, tight waists, etc., which have become such from the child's increased size, are certainly quite as harmful as are those purposely so constructed; and added to this is the fact that the bones and muscles of the tender little ones are far more susceptible to the construction of tight clothing than are those of persons of older growth.

The clothing of children should always be so made that it can readily be enlarged to accommodate the growing form, and should never fit so snugly as not to allow perfect freedom of movement to every organ. Whatever garments are worn about the chest and waist should always permit of an unrestrained, full inspiration, and it would be an excellent plan if mothers would frequently test the child's breathing capacity, by placing a tape-measure around its waist when in its night-clothing, and allowing it to take a full inspiration, noting the number of inches' expansion, and then adjusting its clothing to correspond with the measure of the full inspiration, allowing one inch or two more for growth.

The foot covering of the little ones should likewise be carefully looked to in this connection. Much suffering is entailed upon children by cramping their little feet into shoes too small or too narrow for them; and cold feet are not infrequently the result of having the shoes buttoned tightly about the ankle, under the mistaken notion that the ankles are really supported by being thus tightly incased in leather.—Good Health.

SECULAR.

—Russia has placed a flotilla of war vessels on the Vistula River.

—Anthracite coal has been found on the Cow Creek Indian Reservation, in Dakota.

—Thirty-six horses were burned in a barn at Madison, Neb., on the morning of the 7th inst.

—The prefecture of police at Leghorn was partly wrecked on the 8th inst. by an explosion of dynamite.

—The colored people of the United States publish two hundred and fifty journals, with colored editors and printers.

—Many vessels were wrecked in a storm on the Black Sea on the 7th inst. It is thought that 100 lives were lost.

—A recent Berlin dispatch states that a rupture is likely to occur between the United States and Germany over the Samoan difficulty.

—It seems that the scheme for the much-talked-of ocean cable from British Columbia to Australia has fallen through for want of the necessary capital.

—News has recently been received in this country of the almost total destruction, on November 21, by an earthquake, of the town of Guanare, Venezuela.

—Since the war the negroes of Georgia have amassed $8,000,000. The estimated wealth of the colored people of the United States is more than $2,000,000,000.

—It is confidently asserted by the friends of General Boulanger that he will erelong be president of the French republic. Indications certainly point in that direction.

—January 8 a land-slide occurred at Posilippo, Italy. A mass of rock and earth, 5,000 cubic yards in extent, fell upon the houses below, killing one man and several animals.

—The House Appropriation Committee have recommended that $30,000 be appropriated to provide vaults in the San Francisco Mint to store from $75,000,000 to $100,000,000.

—A dispatch of January 8 states that an epidemic of diphtheria is raging at Nago, Hungary. Some twenty children are dying daily. The schools are closed and a panic prevails.

—The United States has 57,376 post-offices, as against 18,688 in Germany, 17,587 in Great Britain, and 7,296 in France. Excluding Germany, the United States has about as many post-offices as all the countries of Europe combined, and is adding to the number at the rate of about 2,000 per annum.

—In the gross postal revenue, the United States stands first, with $52,695,176.79, while that of Germany is $45,104,567, of Great Britain $42,362,346, and of France $28,779,301.

—It is positively stated that great destitution exists among the settlers in Walsh County, D. T. Some of the recently arrived Scandinavians are in actual danger of starvation.

—Judge Jackson, of United States Circuit Court, has decided that the Inter-State Commerce Commission can only arbitrate differences, and has no right or power to enforce its decisions.

—Mayor Hewitt has signed the ordinance passed by the Board of Aldermen granting the New York and Harlem Railroad Company permission to use electric motors in Fourth Avenue.

—The December report of the Department of Agriculture makes the product of corn 1,937,790,000 bushels, valued on the farm at 34.1 cents per bushel, against 44.4 cents for the crop of 1887.

—Recent advices from Mandalay state that a battle has been fought between the British forces and the Karens, a wild tribe of the country. The British loss was 5 killed. The Karens lost 200.

—The University of Southern California proposes to have constructed a telescope with an object glass forty inches in diameter, which is four inches larger than the great Lick glass at Mount Hamilton.

—An attempt was made on the 8th inst. to blow up the Royal Palace at Madrid. The explosive used was dynamite. No one was injured, and the only damage done was the smashing of many windows.

—On the 8th inst. five ships were posted on the Marine Exchange at New York as lost since the storm of November 25 and 26. The number of lives lost is fifty-four. The value of the ships is $1,000,000.

—The National German-American Prohibition League was organized in Chicago on the 8th inst. Its object is to create a sentiment among German-Americans in favor of total abstinence and of legal prohibition.

—Recent advices from Hayti seem to indicate that the authority of Legitime, who claims to be the duly elected President of the Haytian republic, is in danger of being overturned by Hippolyte, the rival claimant to that office.

—During the first weeks of January more coupons upon Government and other bonds fell due, more dividends are declared, more interest is paid, and more profits generally accrue to investors, than at any other season of the year.

—In a case appealed from Iowa the Supreme Court of the United States has rendered a decision that the State has the right to pass a law compelling railways to fence their lines, and, failing to do so, to pay double value for stock run over and killed.

—On the 7th inst. the Senate passed, with but three dissenting votes, a resolution expressing the serious concern and disapproval of the United States for the connection of any European Government with the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Darien.

—A severe sleet-storm in parts of Northern New England and Southern Canada, on the 7th inst., did much damage to trees and telegraph wires. Huge trees were broken down. The ice on some telegraph poles weighed four tons. The storm also extended into Northern New York.

—The Sundry Civil Appropriation Bill, as completed on the 7th inst. by the House Committee on Appropriations, carries an aggregate appropriation of $22,852,996, being $6,721,451 less than regular and special estimates, and $3,769,008 less than the appropriation for the current fiscal year.

—At five o'clock on the morning of the 7th inst., a two-story house in Gilman, W. T., was blown up by dynamite. Two men were instantly killed, a little girl died in an hour, and the owner of the house and his wife were both fatally injured. The miscreant who did the deed was lynched.

—Prince Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor, has most deservedly come to grief in the prosecution of Professor Geffeken for the publication of the diary of the late Emperor Frederick. The charge against the professor was high treason, but now the prosecution has been abandoned, on the ostensible ground that it would be impossible to prove that he was conscious of the treasonable character of his publication.

—The New York Supreme Court has sustained a decision sustaining the action of the trustees of St. Patrick's Cathedral, in declining to permit the body of John McGuire to be buried in Calvary Cemetery. McGuire died while attending one of Dr. McGlynn's anti-poverty meetings, and burial was refused him on the ground that he had not died in the faith. The Court decided that the matter is not one for judicial interference, but for appeal to the church authorities.

—A Chicago paper says that the tax levy for the State of Illinois for two years amounts to $7,830,000, while the levies for Chicago for general and water taxes and special assessments, in one year alone, amount to $10,000,000. One-fourth of all the assessed values of the entire State are in Cook County.

—In a recent interview at Pittsburg, Daniel Dougherty said: "The State of Pennsylvania is politically the most contemptible, corrupt, most diabolical, vile, and notoriously dirty piece of territory on the face of the earth." Yet that State is the hot-bed of National Reform, so called, and has the most rigid Sunday law in the Union.

—Civil war is still raging in Hayti, and altogether the affairs of the republic are in a most deplorable condition. In some quarters life and property are unsafe. Excesses of every kind are the rule. The horrible cannibalistic rites of voodooism are revived, and reports have reached Port-au-Prince of a meeting of several thousand people Christmas night near Jacmel, and the sacrifice of a young girl, and the greedy scramble for some portion of the half-cooked flesh. The dispatch says that these facts are well authenticated.

—The present rates of postage in this country are, everything considered, the lowest in the world. In the length of its mail routes the United States is far ahead of any other country, with 403,976 miles, while those of Germany aggregate only 85,885 miles, those of Great Britain 44,275 miles, and those of France 65,334 miles; and in the mileage of mail service annually performed the United States is immeasurably ahead of all other nations, the service of this country amounting to 287,251,045 miles, that of Germany to 132,011,695 miles, that of Great Britain to 52,669,584 miles, and that of France to 90,980,803 miles.

—On the night of the 10th inst. several of the Eastern States were swept by a most severe storm of wind, rain, and snow. In some parts of Pennsylvania the storm assumed the character of a tornado. Reading, in Eastern Pennsylvania, and Pittsburg, in the western part of the State, suffered the most severely. Not less than sixty persons were killed at the former place, while at the latter twelve were killed outright. The number of wounded at both places was large. The damage to property all over the storm-swept territory was immense. The roadway of one of the suspension bridges at Niagara Falls was carried away by the wind and dropped in the river. Considerable damage was done at Wheeling, W. Va., and along the New England coast. Lives were lost at several different places.

—The Export Society of Germany has decided to build the "Floating Exhibition Palace of Germany," having raised 5,000,000 marks for the purpose. It proposes to build a ship, to be called the Kaiser Wilhelm, which will be the work of German ship-yards. According to plans, the ship will be 564 feet long, 65½ feet wide, and 46 feet deep. It will have four engines, propelling as many screws. The material will be principally German steel. The cost of a two years' tour is estimated at 3,150,000 marks. The income from the rented space—1,000 to 1,200 marks for each booth—and from sales, will be, it is thought, at least 7,260,800 marks, leaving a balance of 4,110,800, or over 2,000,000 marks annually—a pretty sum on the pages of the ledger. Emperor William, it is said, has promised his aid to the enterprise, and it is hoped that the vessel will sail from Hamburg on her first voyage in the spring of 1890.—Scientific American.

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—D. L. Moody is holding revival services in San Francisco.

—Henry George recently addressed the clergymen of London from the City Temple pulpit—Dr. Joseph Parker's.

—Out of 553 converts to the English Church in Amritsar, India, since the establishment of the mission in 1852, 253 were from Islam.

—There are in the United States 1,240 Young Men's Christian Associations, with a membership of 180,000, and property worth $7,262,000.

—The Czar of Russia has in the last five years spent $300,000 in the erection of a beautiful church at Jerusalem, in memory of his mother.

—It is stated that the forces of so-called evangelical Protestantism in this country, by the most recent computation, consist of 107,200 churches, 82,723 ministers, and 11,869,000 members.

—The Kaiserwerth Deaconess Home, Germany, has 600 workers in various fields in Europe and Asia. Their hospital at Alexandria is said to be a model of skillful arrangement and Christian benevolence.

—For a long time Col. Elliott F. Shepard has been endeavoring to stop the Fifth Avenue, New York, stages running on Sunday; now his efforts are about to be crowned with success, Mr. Shepard having gained control of the Board of Directors.

—Cardinal Gibbons and the American bishops have informed the Pope that the sum of $8,000,000 has been collected for the Catholic University at Washington, and that the buildings are now in process of erection. The Cardinal and bishops request the concession of academic privileges to the university, and ask the Pope's approval of its statutes.

Obituary.

By W.

Howe.—Atta E. Howe (nee Morrison), wife of Baxter Howe, died in Oakland, Cal., January 5, 1889, aged 27 years, 4 months, and 7 days. She was born in Indiana, and with her parents began to keep the Sabbath of the Lord when she was about ten years of age, and joined the church about five years later. For the last three or four years she was a member of the Oakland Seventh-day Adventist Church, and was employed in the office for a large part of the time, where she gained many friends. About six weeks before her death, and while enjoying good health, she had a new religious experience, and gave herself to the Lord as never before. The change in her was very marked, and she literally rejoiced in the Lord at all times. During her illness, although she suffered much, she seemed to be lifted above the sense of physical pain, and songs and expressions of praise, and prayer for friends, were all that came from her lips. While her many friends keenly feel their bereavement, they have a strong and bright hope which sustains them. By her death, two little ones are left motherless. Words of comfort and exhortation were spoken from Rev. 14:13, to a large congregation of friends, January 6, when she was laid away to await the coming of the Life-giver.

(Review and Herald please copy.) W.

Publishers' Department.

By Editor

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By Editor

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CALIFORNIA CITY MISSIONS.—Maria Crawford $10, H E Chapman $10.25, Mrs E Spath $25, Mrs M J Wilkinson $10, Mrs M Cook $2.60, R S Owen $5.15, P A McCart $10.10.

RECEIVED ON ACCOUNT.—Neb Tract Society $300, Ohio Tract Society $265.70, Ark Tract Society $21.30, Texas Tract Society $100, North Pacific Tract Society $200, South Atlantic Tract Society $96.20, Wis Tract Society $300.

FOREIGN MISSIONS.—J N Loughborough $26, Jas Clausen $2.25, Isaac Rhodes 50 cents, Calistoga $1.20, Laytonville $16, Oakland $33.50, Stockton $1.65, San Francisco $8.75, a friend $2.28, L A Scott $2, El Monte $3, Wm Ings $3.25.

LONDON MISSION.—Amelia Heald $5.15, Mrs M J Wilkinson $10, R S Owen $5.15, Maggie Cook $2.60, P A McCart $10, Oakland S S $291.39, A Lillienskjold $5, Mrs Anna Goben $2, Lizzie Fisher $2, Johanna Jensen $2, Maria Crawford $10.

CALIFORNIA TRACT SOCIETY.—Dist No 1 Little River $15.60, Healdsburg $51, Laytonville $12.95, Petaluma $7.45, Dist No 2 Sacramento $28.75, Dist No 3 Oakland $22.85, Stockton $10.25, Dist No 4 San Francisco $85.65, Dist No 5 Fresno $23, San Francisco City Mission $33.75, S W Nellis $18.50, H H McKinstry $4.75, S Thurston $5, Mrs E Bryant $4.35, Secular Club Silverton Or $9.20, J Jorgensen $5.

CALIFORNIA CONFERENCE FUND.—Healdsburg $550, Mrs A J Hutchins $5, Fresno $895.90, Frank Hutchins $12.15, a friend $2, J W Bond $500, Woodland $10, S W and L A Nellis $26.50, Laytonville $93.35, A Lillienskjold $6.20, Petaluma $8.10, F S Austin $2.50, R C Smith $16.50, F R Shaffer $2.50, Sacramento $23.30, Rocklin $10, Burr Valley $132.60, Little River $75.05, San Francisco $494.85, Lemoore $13.75, Grangeville $60, Eureka $101.80, Selma $50.60, Santa Rosa $113.30, C E Peterson $9.35, L Sprague $6, Goleta $40, Mrs A M Newbegin $1, Arroyo Grande per Julia A Owen $2.55, Grass Valley $73.

VIEWS OF NATIONAL REFORM.

PACKAGE NO. 1, 184 PAGES, 20 CENTS.

THIS package contains thirteen tracts treating upon the various phases of the National Reform movement, as follows:—

NO.	PAGES.
1. Religious Legislation,	8
2. Religious Liberty,	8
3. National Reform and the Rights of Conscience,	16
4. The American Papacy,	16
5. Bold and Base Avowal,	16
6. National Reform is Church and State,	16
7. Purity of National Religion,	8
8. The Salem Witchcraft,	8
9. What Think Ye of Christ?,	8
10. National Reformed Constitution and the American Hierarchy,	24
11. The Republic of Israel,	8
12. National Reformed Presbyterianism,	32
13. The National Reform Movement an Absurdity,	16

The above package will be sent post-paid to any address for twenty cents.

Address, AMERICAN SENTINEL, Oakland, Cal.

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