p. 94 | News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 5, 1885

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—There is no such thing as religious toleration in Turkey, and fresh tidings from there show that the empire is determined not to have Christianity within its borders.

—The average contributions from the Japanese Christians last year were $4.99 for each of the 2,000 or more church members. This among a people whose average earnings are fifty cents per day.

—The M. E. Church is about to establish a university somewhere in the Southwest. The local church at Topeka, Kansas, offers to furnish a site, and a rich citizen of that State is willing to donate $500,000.

—The Methodists meet with success in Australia. The M. E. Church has, in Tasmania, New Zealand, and Australia, 1,309 churches with a membership of 34,151. Other branches of the Methodist family swell the number of members to more than 300,000.

—The island of Erromanga, one of the Hebrides group containing 2,000 people, was one of the hardest to establish Christianity upon, because of the fierceness of its inhabitants. Now every part of the island is accessible to mission work. The Presbyterians have a church there numbering 196 members.

—It is reported that the Buddhist priests of Kioto, Japan, have appointed a committee to go to Europe to study Christianity. If upon investigation the committee decides it to be a better religion than Buddhism, the priests say they will adopt it. The inducement to this step is said to be because of the inroads Christianity has already made upon Buddhism in that country.

—There is but one Italian Protestant primary school in Rome. This is sustained by the Free Church of Italy. To destroy its influence, the Romish Church has formed about it a circle of seven schools, which not only furnish school books and instruction free, but meat, bread, and potatoes also, to their pupils. And yet it is said that the Protestant school flourishes. In its ardor to thrust down all others, the church of Rome may be forced to confer benefits she has never proposed to bestow. The best way to make others do good is to set about that work ourselves.

—In some parts of Ohio, circulars have been peddled among the "faithful" to the effect that all who would repeat a certain prayer (contained in the circular) once each day, or hear it read, or keep it about the person, should be exempt from sudden death either by poison or otherwise. The prayer, the circular sets forth, was found in the grave of our Lord Jesus Christ in the year 1003, and was sent from the pope to the Emperor Charles as a safeguard when going to battle. Its appeals to Mary betray its papal birth, and show the vast amount of superstition still cherished among the ignorant of the Catholic Church, and the advantage taken of that ignorance by the leaders to carry certain ends.

—Ever since the opening of the New Orleans Exposition, considerable effort has been put forth by certain ones to have it closed on Sundays. The Sunday League of Louisiana at last appealed to Secretary of State Frelinghuysen, and to President Arthur. In response Mr. Frelinghuysen said that the necessary order would be issued, requiring the Government exhibit to be closed on Sundays, and then adds that the President expressed the hope that the management would see the propriety of closing all other branches of the exposition on that day, and thus adhere to an observance established in the United States by custom and religious principle. It is wonderful how devout certain ones become on public occasions.