News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 3, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 14.

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—An effort is being made to have the Carson, Nev., Guard stop shooting on Sundays.

—Dr. Justin D. Fulton has determined to devote himself to the work of laboring for the conversion of Romanists in America.

—It is expected that three new bishops will be elected by the Methodist General Conference to convene in Philadelphia May 1.

—Rev. Julius Kobner, the most prominent Baptist minister in Germany, and pastor of a Berlin church, died recently. He was a converted Jew, and a native of Denmark.

—One hundred and thirty-nine new members were received into Dr. Talmage's Brooklyn Tabernacle at the recent communion, making the present membership 3,107.

—The M. E. Church South is about establishing an American college in Shanghai. A corps of five male and nine female teachers will depart soon to engage in the work.

—A mission for the Jews has been started in New York City, with preaching at 3 P. M. on Saturdays, and with a reading-room which is kept open during the evenings of the week.

—The Southern Methodist Mission in Brazil has been increasing its membership. A revival at Rio de Janeiro has greatly strengthened the church. The church proposes this year to raise $50,000 to establish a college for girls at Rio de Janeiro.

—The sectarian divisions of native Protestants and Protestant missionaries in Italy, it is said, have heretofore been a serious hindrance to the success of the gospel. An assembly is to be held this spring to take steps for promoting union and co-operation.

—Fenton Williams, a young convert at a revival in New Haven, Ind., became so much excited by the praying and speaking that he suddenly jumped upon his chair, and drawing a pistol from his pocket, held his left hand aloft and put four bullets through it before he could be disarmed. He afterward said that he had no idea where he was or what he was doing at the time.

—The pope, in his late allocution to the Cardinals, denounced the Italian violation of the rights of the church, and demanded his restoration to temporal power. He uttered a strong protest against the judgment of the Italian courts, and said that he foresaw that fresh attacks upon the papacy were imminent, but he declared he would firmly uphold the rights of the Holy See.

—More than the usual run of murders, robberies, mobbings, and suicides, have been reported throughout the country during the past week. There seems to be an increasing disposition on the part of the public to mete out full justice to criminals, yet there is some other influence that urges the commission of crime in spite of this tendency. The evil one seems to realize that his time is short, and urges on "evil men and seducers" regardless of consequences.

—A San Jose, Cal., dispatch of the 29th ult., says: "Shortly after 12 o'clock last night the Holiness Band, an organization similar to the Salvation Army, while marching along First Street after services at the Baptist Tabernacle, were attacked by a crowd of hoodlums. Several made a rush for the women of the party, and in endeavoring to protect them, Isaac Hattabough, a member of the Band, came into collision with Constable Healey, whom he mistook for a hoodlum. Healey was struck three times, and then retaliated with his club, and, with others, conveyed Hattabough to the city prison. This morning matters were explained, and no prosecution will follow. After Hattabough was taken away the Band started on its return to the Tabernacle, followed by roughs, who threw missiles at them."

—The Christian Union is, if possible, outdoing Beecher in the effort to establish a church without a Bible. In the issue of March 20, a correspondent asks: "Why make these ordinances (baptism and the communion), compulsory? Why not let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind? It seems to me time the Congregational Church should make all Christians welcome." To this the editor replies: "We should be glad to see the Christian church so broad in the administration of its discipline as to admit to its membership friends who do not believe in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. But there are other faults so much greater than the exclusion from full membership of the comparatively few who are excluded by this almost universal law of Protestant Christendom that we do not think it worth while to attempt to arouse any agitation on the subject." The attention of all seekers after a church whose liberality will exclude all the ordinances is, called to an institution described in Rev. 18:2. Thither all liberality not warranted by the Bible is surely drifting.