—The American Tract Society is erecting a new building in New York City covering a ground space of 100 feet 7 inches by 94 feet 6 inches, and twenty stories in height.
—Rev. Walter Clayton Clapp, a High Church Episcopal minister, and formerly a professor in the theological seminary at Nashotah, Wis., has gone over to the Roman Catholic Church, and is studying with the Paulist fathers in New York City for the priesthood.
—Under the auspices of the American Sunday School Union, a combination car has been fitted out for service in the Northwest. It is named the Good News, is the pioneer in this special line of work, and is under the direction of Mr. E. B. Stevenson, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It cost $8,000.
—The London Chronicle's Rome correspondent says: "The pope has sent a circular letter to the Italian bishops requesting them to instruct the clergy to refrain from secular subjects in their sermons. The occasion for the letter arose from the preaching of political reforms by some priests."
—On the 30th ult. there was celebrated the 113th anniversary of the Episcopal Church at Rehoboth, Md. The old church walls are of brick, and said to be in a good state of preservation, although the woodwork is considerably dilapidated. It is one of the few remaining churches built in colonial times.
—The Catholic Review suggests that if a second operation for cataract on Mr. Gladstone's eyes should result in total blindness, "the great Father may be forcing him to inaction, meditation, and solitude before summoning him to judgment," that his "illustrious career may be crowned with conversion to the Faith." But it is not blindness of eyes that produces that kind of conversion.
—Dr. E. Winchester Donald, successor of Phillips Brooks, in Trinity Church, Boston, criticises those "small-souled Episcopalians who report large gains when they have only gathered into their folds a number of Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and members of other denominations." He says that "this is no increase of the army; it is only a shifting of the troops." This is the extreme of "Low Church" Episcopalian sentiment.
—Another pretty Chinese girl of 16 years, who had been sold by her stepparents to a San Francisco highbinder "husband," escaped from her prison "boarding house" one night recently and found a guide to the Presbyterian Chinese Mission. Her sellers and buyer sought through the court to recover their victim, but the judge, being satisfied of the sinister purpose of the transaction, placed her under the protection of the mission.
—The American Bible Society publishes the Bible and parts thereof in the following languages: English, German, French, Welsh, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, Italian, Dutch, Croatian, Hebrew, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Syriac, Arabic, Russian, Bohemian, Hungarian, Polish, Gaelic, Irish, Finnish, in various African native languages, in the languages of the natives of the South Sea islands, in Armenian, Slavonic, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, and a variety of Indian tongues.
—The New York Independent says: "For some time there has been in some of the Roman Catholic dioceses the custom of receiving priests from Irish theological schools, and it is said that at a recent ordination in Ireland clergymen were ordained for the Pittsburg, Sacramento, and St. Paul episcopates. The number of such, however, is rapidly decreasing, and before long it is believed that the United States will furnish the American Church with all the missionaries it needs."
—Even the New York Voice, notwithstanding its usual sagacity, endeavors to make the Catholic people believe that the temperance utterances of their church, through its "holy father" and "plenary councils," really mean something more than expediency. It even tries to make them believe that logically they should vote the Prohibition ticket, notwithstanding the plain declaration of an authorized spokesman that the church's use of fermented wine in the eucharist forbids the idea of prohibition. The Voice makes the mistake of attributing to Bishop Watterson, of Columbus, Ohio, the prohibition of liquor dealers from membership in Catholic societies, whereas his decree was simply that saloon keepers should not be officers in such societies. And herein is the utter inconsistency of the decree; for if a saloon keeper may be a member of the church and a member of a society recognized by the church, why not an officer in the society? Such temperance doctrine is as deceptive as the glittering religious liberty baubles which the "corrector of heretics" has been throwing out for the admiration of the American people of late. The indorsement of the bishop's position by Satolli is also held up as a commitment of the church to ultra temperance principles; but Archbishop Corrigan, of New York, speaking for his archdiocese, says the admission of a principle is one thing, and the practical application of it at all times is quite another thing. And this is Roman Catholic policy all the time and everywhere.
SECULAR.
—Governor Waite, of Colorado, has been renominated by the Populist party.
—At Union City, Ind., on the 4th inst., fire destroyed property to the value of $150,000.
—Preparations are being made for a great industrial exhibition at Stockholm, Sweden, in 1897.
—It is reported in Yokohama that fifty Japanese camphor makers in Formosa have been massacred by Chinese.
—A young lawyer of Louisville, Ky., only 24 years of age, has become violently insane, it is said, through the use of tobacco.
—The seizure of two vessels being built in British waters for use in the war between China and Japan has been ordered by the government.
—There is revolution in Venezuela, and a sanguine battle between 800 rebels and 900 government troops resulted in victory for the government.
—Several citizens of Portland, Oregon, have formed a corporation, with a capital stock of $1,000,000, for the purpose of building beet-sugar factories in that State.
—Late advices by steamer from Australia state that influenza is prevalent in many parts, and medical men think the disease will be carried to America.
—The Turkish Government has decided to rebuild Solomon's water conduits, at Jerusalem, and join them to the ancient Arab aqueducts. The cost is estimated at $400,000.
—A Berlin dispatch says that Great Britain is bartering with Turkey for the island of Cyprus, in the Mediterranean Sea. The proposition is to give the island of Crete and $12,000,000 for Cyprus.
—The commission appointed by President Cleveland to inquire into the causes of the recent strike of railway employees has adjourned, to meet at Washington City, on the 26th inst., and formulate a report.
—The grand jury of New Orleans has unearthed a mine of crookedness on the part of city officials, and indictments have been reported against eleven councilmen, including the president and the city engineer.
—The Russian Government is said to be seriously considering the project of connecting the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea by a waterway, which can be done by constructing a canal between the Dnieper and Dwina Rivers.
—A press correspondent in Battleford, N. W. T., Canada, says that region is in danger of a general Indian uprising. They had already seized all the arms, ammunition, and horses belonging to the settlers in that neighborhood.
—The officers of the steamer Peru, which arrived in San Francisco from the Orient last week, report that in entering and leaving the port of Yokohama the steamer was piloted through the torpedo gauntlet by a Japanese war vessel.
—Cuban advices report rioting at Villafranca, near Havana, owing to the opposition of the people to the sale of the common land. Attacks were made upon the property of purchasers, and troops were sent to quell the disturbance.
—Great excitement is said to prevail in the Coolgardie mines, Australia, over the finding of a $30,000 nugget of gold. Mining laborers immediately struck for higher wages, arming themselves to prevent others from taking their places.
—A law recently enacted in Louisiana provides as follows: "Marriage between white persons and persons of color is prohibited, and the celebration of such marriages is forbidden; and such celebration carries with it no effect, and is null and void."
—Dr. Walter Lindley, founder and superintendent of the Whittier State School (a reform institution) at Whittier, Cal., has resigned, and will resume the practice of medicine at Los Angeles. Mr. John E. Coffin has been appointed to the superintendency.
—Under the auspices of the W. C. T. U., the women of San Bernardino County, Cal., are to hold an experimental election on the day of the regular State and county election, November 6. Ballot boxes are to be placed at each polling place in the county, and every detail of an election carried out. The object is to demonstrate that women will vote if given an opportunity.
—General George Stoneman died at Buffalo, N. Y., on the 5th inst. Aside from a long military career, he served California as railroad commissioner and as governor. He was elected governor at a time when the repeal of the Sunday law was a live issue. One of the first acts of the Legislature elected during the campaign of 1882, which convened January 1, 1883, simultaneously with Governor Stoneman's induction into office, was to repeal the Sunday law, and the repealing act was promptly signed by the governor.
—The Supreme Court of Oklahoma has nullified a number of divorce decrees recently obtained in that Territory, thereby seriously embarrassing some prominent people who were divorced and afterward married. Some wealthy Boston victims are specially mentioned.
—A Berlin dispatch says that at Appalovates, Servia, a mob attacked a railway carriage in which King Alexander was riding, and the king and his suite narrowly escaped injury from the stones and other missiles that were thrown at them. And no arrests were made.
—A new industry has arisen in the transportation of the bitumen which constantly rises to the surface and floats about on the Dead Sea. The British consul at Jerusalem suggests that a steam launch and several lighters be placed on the sea for the purpose of furthering the industry.
—The Union Pacific Railroad Company has notified its employees that hereafter they must keep out of politics—must not even discuss political subjects. All who are not willing to forego this privilege of all nominally free men are requested to resign. That is worse than military discipline.
—It is now asserted that, after five years' suspension, work will be resumed next month on the deserted Panama inter-ocean canal. It is said that a combination of French and American capitalists will resume the gigantic enterprise. The estimated cost of completion is about $100,000,000.
—Great excitement is reported in the Yukon River region, Alaska, on account of the discovery of rich placer gold mines. More than 1,000 men are said to be engaged in mining, and have obtained large quantities of the precious metal. Late advices from Juneau report $100,000 at that place waiting shipment to San Francisco.
—It is reported that the leader of the American Railway Union at Pullman, Ill., endeavored to turn all the public charities sent there for the suffering poor into the hands of members of the order, to the exclusion of other sufferers. But as most of the relief work is in the hands of the Salvation Army, an impartial distribution is maintained.
—The Mexican Government has determined to discourage an influx of Anarchists to that country. Nine of that class who arrived in Vera Cruz from Barcelona, Spain, were promptly arrested. The Free Masons of the City of Mexico have issued a call to the fraternity to coöperate in the pursuit of Anarchists landing at Mexican ports.
—General Alger, of Detroit, Mich., says that he will not run for United States Senator, because it means the expenditure of $250,000. The salary for six years would aggregate but $30,000. Therefore, the man who seeks the office must do so merely for the honor, or as an investment in the chances of large perquisites outside of the salary.
—An indication of the direction of popular interest in these days is seen in the fact that in Melbourne, Australia, a funeral procession two and a half miles long followed a deceased horse jockey to his grave. Ordinary traffic was suspended; royalty and the most prominent men in Australia contributed wreaths, while cables of condolence were received from all over the world.
—The outside world is beginning to find out that the extent of the cholera plague in some parts of Russia has been kept in the dark. It has just come to light that at Nijni Novgorod, a business center of many provinces, the disease has been prevalent and is increasing. In Russian Poland, noted as the dirtiest part of Europe, the weekly average of cases is reported to be 5,000, half of which prove fatal.
—The Comte de Paris died on the 8th inst., at his residence in London. He served on the staff of General McClellan in the Army of the Potomac. In 1886 the count, with his son, and all direct descendants of any royal line, were exiled from France; but he never abandoned his pretense of being the rightful ruler of the French. His son, the Duke of Orleans, now in his 26th year, will carry on the pretense.
—At the International Hygienic Congress, recently held in Buda-Pesth, Dr. Harts read an elaborate paper, in which he argued that cholera is engendered and spread broadcast by the extensive religious pilgrimages to Mecca and other eastern points. He said it came largely from the valley of the Ganges, where there is utter disregard of sanitary precautions, and where the people habitually drink polluted water. The duty of watching these pilgrimages and places of ignorant and superstitious resort was urged upon the governments immediately concerned.
—It is now pretty well settled that the king of Corea is in sympathy with Japan in her contest with China over the control of the little kingdom. It seems to have been shown conclusively that Japan does not desire to acquire Corea, but to free her from Chinese control. So far that object has been successful, the king having, under Japanese support, dismissed the tyrannical Ming counselors. He has also been presented with a new national flag by the Japanese Government. It is claimed that the Chinese are sending out exaggerated reports of successes and of fictitious victories.
Satolli’s Temperance Decision
SOME of the Protestant papers are beginning to see that they gushed rather freely over the much-lauded "temperance" decision of Papal Delegate Satolli. Bishop Watterson, of the diocese of Columbus, Ohio, who is an enthusiastic temperance advocate, decreed against the election of saloon keepers as officers in Catholic societies. From this decree an appeal was taken to Satolli, who promptly sustained the bishop. This action was hailed by many Protestants and Protestant journals as a great stride toward temperance and a powerful blow at the liquor traffic on the part of the Catholic Church. Those who were not blinded by the growing Protestant infatuation with Rome could plainly see that the decision was merely the upholding of the bishop's authority in his diocese, although couched in language calculated to tickle the temperance element in this country—which it did. But, to keep the matter from going too far that way, the apostolic delegate's decision has been explained for him by Monsignor Schroeder, of the Catholic University
at Washington. Speaking for Satolli, he says that the apostolic delegate did not promulgate a fundamental declaration concerning the manufacture, sale, or use of spirituous liquors, temperance, total abstinence, or prohibition. All that these letters contained, or were designed to contain, was a refusal to pronounce null and void a regulation of the bishop of Columbus promulgated for his own diocese alone. This was the precise object of the letters. They had no application to other dioceses, and, as Professor Schroeder points out, under church law could have no such application, and any other construction would be a distortion of Monsignor Satolli's words. He was defending the bishop's authority, and this was the full scope and extent of his utterances. As before stated, some of the Protestant journals are reluctantly admitting the situation, but with the faint hope that much may yet be done for the temperance cause by the Catholic Church. It is fair to assume that she will do nothing for temperance, or for any other cause, of which Protestants will have legitimate reason to boast.
The Poor Flock.
By Editor
Here is a specimen of the religious wisdom which is doled out to its readers by a religious paper [Free Methodist, Chicago, May 23]:—
"The Bible plainly teaches that the heathen can be saved without the gospel. It as plainly teaches that the Jew may be saved without the gospel."
How is this done? Why:—
"In regard to the heathen, Paul, in Rom. 2:13-15, says, . . . 'When the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law,' such 'are a law unto themselves.'"
Of the Jew it is said that he has
"'A revelation of the law—the moral law that points out the path of duty—and a system of religious forms and ceremonies by which to make atonement for disobedience. These were divinely given and were therefore a ground for justification.'"
The word of God declares that God's gospel is in all his works. Compare Ps. 19:1-4 with Rom. 10:18. But in the created works of God is "Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God" revealed, (Rom. 1:20; Col. 1:16), for it was through Christ that all the work was wrought. He is "the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." "For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." The poor heathen who comes to any knowledge of God and receives it with all his heart, even though he may never have heard the name "Jesus," is as truly saved by the gospel of Jesus Christ as is the nineteenth-century Christian. And because of this will all the redeemed throng ascribe to the Lamb "blessing and honor and glory and power" "forever and ever." Praise God for the all-sufficient Saviour and the universal gospel. "What is the chaff to the wheat?"
Watch the Catholics—Trust Prophecy
By Editor
A BAPTIST paper in the South says, "Watch the Catholics," which is good enough advice in its way; but if we would not be deceived by Rome, we must set our eyes and hearts upon God's word as it is in Christ Jesus. He who hopes to escape from the evils which lie before, and to understand them by observing some of their principal agencies, will find himself surely deceived. God's "more sure word of prophecy" is given for this very thing.
The Selfishness of False Religion
EVERY false religion which has ever made its mark in the world, or which may in time to come, may be known by one principle, that of self, or selfishness. It manifests itself in the devising of schemes by which man becomes in some way his own Saviour. It is the development of this principle which has made the Papacy. Its working out is the mystery of iniquity. Its finished fruit is "the man of sin," "that Wicked," to be destroyed at Christ's coming. The same principle is the germ of Ancient Necromancy, Modern Spiritualism, Buddhism, and Christian Science. For instance, the definition given of "prayer" in one "Christian Science" publication is, "The religion of the soul; its search light after truth; its ceaseless longings for its own divinity." "The sacrament; self-conscious communion with the Father—our own spiritual ego." When man by himself and of himself can evolve himself from himself, eternity will have ended. Yet this is the task set it by every false religion.
DID MARTIN LUTHER HANG HIMSELF?
By Editor
The Catholic News and some other Catholic papers say that he did. It is an old falsehood, which some Catholic editors are honest enough to seem willing to admit. The following from the Independent of August 16 is to the point:—
"The Michigan Catholic gives its readers, as if it were abundantly verified, the ridiculous story of the horrible death of Martin Luther by suicide after a drunken debauch. We should think it would know better. . . . Special credit is due to the Pittsburg Catholic, which warns its readers as follows:—
"A story is going the round of the Catholic press that the arch apostate, Luther, met the fate of Judas—that in a drunken stupor he hanged himself from a bedpost. It is the revival of an old story, and is not well substantiated in history.
"The same paper says that certain Catholic papers are publishing a sketch in reference to 'the apostate priest Hyacinthe's courtship and marriage,' which 'could not be further from the exact truth if the party purposely designed it.' An editor deserves praise who will not 'take up a report against his neighbor' or his enemy."
An Encouragement
By Editor
An Encouragement.—A subscriber in the old Buckeye State sends us a remittance for a subscription for six months, reaching us a little late, so as to make a break in her year's numbers. But this dear soul, ill physically, is realizing the "hard times" in her experience. She writes, "I have stood at the washtub till 12 and 1 o'clock at night so that I could get my papers." She wishes the back numbers, as she does not wish to miss one, reading them herself and then passing them on to others. Her words of appreciation and earnest effort to obtain the truth are encouragement to us here. May God bless our subscribers and readers throughout the entire field for their self-denial for his sake, for their coöperation with us, and for their words of encouragement. The truth is the Lord's, and his the glory of its success, which he gives us the privilege of sharing.
Babel and the Papal System
It is going the rounds of the papers that "the ruins of the tower of Babel have been made to serve as a pedestal for a statue of the Blessed Virgin. The ruins form a hill, at the highest point of which a portion of the ancient wall still remains standing, having resisted up to this all the ravages of time. The Superior of the Carmelite missionaries of Bagdad, after offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, placed the statue on the highest point of the wall." It is eminently appropriate. Babel was to the ancient world a monument of man's folly in trying to save himself, an effort which resulted in confusion. The system of the Papacy is the modern monument of the same folly. It has resulted in confusion, and it will at last go down to utter wreck, confusion worse confounded. The infidelity of France, the confusion of the Protestant world to-day, are the result of the system of the Papacy. It is not the people against which we bring the charge, it is against the system of human devising, human works, and human power in the salvation of men.
Catholics and Divorce.
By Editor
We clip the following from the Independent: "The other day a Congressman's divorced wife was married at Sioux Falls, S. D., the Catholic Bishop Marty officiating. It has been generally supposed that the Catholic Church is very stringent about forbidding the remarriage of divorced people, and when the bishop was written to asking for an explanation, he replied very briefly:"
'REVEREND DEAR SIR: Mrs. Dunham was not baptized.'
That is, because she was not baptized, her first union was null and void. An unbaptized person cannot receive a sacrament like marriage. She stood in the position of a woman who had lived with a man without marriage and therefore was free to marry. If that is Catholic doctrine, it is none the less outrageous."
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By Editor
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