p. 462 | News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 30, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 29.

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—Of the 181 churches in Edinburgh, 124 are Presbyterian.

—"General" Booth announces that a Salvation Navy is to be established to co-operate with the Salvation Army. A steam yacht has already been presented as the nucleus of the fleet.

—An English clergyman in London recently made the following extraordinary announcement to his congregation: "There will be an amateur concert and ballet under distinguished patronage; the ballet will be danced entirely by the children of ladies!"

—The Rev. James M. Ludlow, D. D., claims in the Christian at Work that "Immortality is not an Evolutionized Abscititious Hypothesis, but an Inherent Belief." This statement will go a long way toward clearing up the doubts which so many hold on that subject.

—The Japan Mail reports a most remarkable preaching service held in Tokio, in the largest theater of the city. The audiences are variously estimated at from 4,500 to 6,000 each day. The preaching was mostly by native Japanese pastors, and the people listened eagerly for four hours each day while the gospel was preached to them.

—Rev. Sam Jones, the revivalist who is "stirring up" things so lively in the South, has much to say in denunciation of liquor-selling church members. The Nashville American made an investigation, to see if there was any cause for such denunciation, and found that there are in that city "thirty-six licensed wholesale liquor-houses and eighty-one persons in the business, sixty-eight of whom are church members, divided as follows: Nineteen Catholics, fifteen Methodists, twelve Presbyterians, seven Episcopalians, six 'Christians' (Campbellites), six Baptists, and three Cumberland Presbyterians." A "Sunday law" in Nashville would doubtless result in increasing the attendance at the churches. How is it in other cities?

—Dr. William Warren, president of Boston University, has found time hanging so heavily on his hands that he has amused himself by writing a book entitled, "Paradise Found: The Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole; a Study of the Prehistoric World." The book is attracting much attention, though we are glad to say that we have seen no unqualified indorsement. And yet there are none who dare scoff at its preposterous claim, because they are put forth in the name of Science. The Independent says that "it is worth notice that it is a theologian who suggests the origin of man at a period much more remote than any geologist ventures to suggest." In this last sentence may be found the reason for writing the book; it is designed for an improvement on the Bible.