News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 1, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 37.

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—Two brothers of nearly the same age are settled as pastors of a church in Springfield, Mass.

—The Presbytery of San Francisco has now upon its roll two Chinese, one Japanese, one Welsh, one Spanish, and one French church.

—The Republican of Binghamton, N. Y., remarks: "Henry Ward Beecher announces that he has no intention of retiring from the pulpit. Is it necessary? Has not the pulpit and what it represents already parted from Mr. Beecher?"

—The income of the National Bible Society of Scotland for 1884 was $149,390, an increase on the previous year of about $6,000. The issues had been 557,329, of which 177,839 were Bibles, and 209,505 Testaments. The total circulation was 49,091 copies above that of 1883.

—"He takes his text from the Bible and preaches from the newspapers," was the pithy characterization of a popular preacher by one of his auditors. Quite a contrast to the man who lived before the days of newspapers, and was satisfied to preach Christ and him crucified.—Observer.

—A Presbyterian church recently dedicated at Carroll, Iowa, contains something new. It is nothing less than a "nursery." On each side of the vestibule there is a little room, each furnished with rocker and crib. Into these, mothers can go with restless little ones, and can find relief from the burden of sleeping ones. We abhor church kitchens and dining-rooms, but we vote for the church nursery.

—A religious exchange says: "A strange, but not altogether melancholy, result of the English crusade against vice is the mobbing of Mormon missionaries in the low parts of London, in consequence of rumors that they were engaged in procuring girls for immoral purposes." Well, are they not engaged in procuring girls for immoral purposes? They bring them to this country to be fourth or fifth on the list of a Mormon elder's "wives." No one would bother the Mormons if their religion were not a religion of immorality.

—Here is a case of heathenism, not in Africa, but in Springfield, Mass., and right under the shadow of a church: "A little girl happened in a neighbor's house, one morning, at the time of family prayers. She was asked to stay, and, accepting the invitation, remained an interested participant in the proceedings. When they all rose from kneeling, she startled the company with the exclamation, 'I like this game first-rate. What is the name of it?'" Of course the little girl's parents are included in this, for they were responsible for her ignorance. It is safe to say that the number of families in this "Christian country," where the children know nothing of God and his worship, is not small. If they were all in a country by themselves, how the missionaries would flock to them.