News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 23, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 28.

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News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—An international camp-ground is being formed at Niagara Falls.

—A Baptist church of seven members was organized in Constantinople, on the 26th of April.

—The Oxford University has conferred the degree of D. D. upon the revisers of the Old Testament.

—The Shah of Persia has given $800 towards the erection of a Presbyterian Mission church at Hamadan.

—Andover Theological Seminary is now fully committed to the "new theology," which teaches a probation after death, and the limited punishment of the wicked, i. e., final, universal salvation.

—Vienna has a new Sunday law, by the enactment of which 50,000 people are released from Sunday labor. The Independent says that the beer gardens, railways, and omnibuses are reaping an abundant harvest.

—The Catholic bishops of Austria have asked the Government to legislate with a view of protecting the Catholic Church from adverse influences. The Christian Statesman would call this a "National Reform" movement.

—Rev. Edward Judson, pastor of the Berean Baptist Church, New York City, son of Rev. Adoniram Judson, pioneer missionary to Burma, India, has decided to go with Stanley for several months on missionary exploration in Africa.

—The Jewish Messenger says: "The disinclination for the Jewish ministry is due to the simple fact that this is a commercial age, and that it does not pay, in the common meaning of the word, to become a minister." A frank confession.

—During the past fourteen years about 700 Protestant churches have been built in Madagascar, and all free of debt. There are 1,200 churches and 80,000 Protestant communicants. These churches are self-supporting, and last year gave $20,000 for missions.

—The National Council of Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church represents 400,000 communicants, 2,500 traveling preachers, 200,000 Sunday-school children, 4,000 Sunday-schools, 10 colleges, 25 parochial schools, $8,000,000 or $10,000,000 worth of property.

—The Churchman says that there is "a growing conviction in the church that a revision of the Prayer Book ought not to be finally adopted before the year 1889." What's going to happen then, that the prayers which will be good until that time will be no longer serviceable?

—The church authorities in Prussia are becoming alarmed at the growth of the dissenting spirit of the National Church. The Upper Consistory of Berlin has recently issued a declaration on the matter, directing the pastors and the people of the State Church what position to take over against the inroads of sect and schism.

—On the recent class day at the Dunkard Normal School in Huntingdon, Pa., the graduates, instead of having a "class supper," as is so common, met in the chapel and held a religious meeting, in which each one gave an account of his religious experience during the four years spent in the institution. We venture the assertion that the innovation will not be extensively adopted.

—The late Wesleyan Methodist Conference in South Africa, showed the following statistics: Three hundred and thirty-six chapels and 901 preaching places; 100 European and 80 native preachers; 408 day-school teachers and 1,670 Sunday-school teachers; 1,336 local preachers and 1,632 class leaders; 3,942 English and 18,874 native members; 272 Sunday-schools, with 18,180 scholars, with an average attendance at church of 106,141 persons.

—The Christian at Work, in a recent book notice, says: "During more than a century, John Wesley has been growing in the esteem of mankind, until now, among all Christians—Episcopalism, Dissenters, and Protestants of all names, he is regarded as one of the most remarkable reformers in modern times." There are certain good, old-fashioned truths, however, which are not esteemed so highly by modern religionists, although they were the chief agents in the Wesleyan reformations. Among these is the immutability and perfection of the law of God. Would that admiration for Wesley might lead to admiration for the truths which he preached.