p. 510 | News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 20, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 32.

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—The Protestant Episcopal Church, at its congress in New Haven, next October, is to discuss "The Ethics of the Tariff Question."

—A recent report states that of the native Christians in the Japanese churches, now supposed to number 8,000, only one-fourth are females. This state of things is often presented in the mission churches, where restrictions have long operated against women, who are less accessible than the men.

—Missionaries in far-off countries, like Burmah, say that a great deal of infidel literature is being distributed among the natives, especially among teachers. Bundles of documents, including Ingersoll's lectures, in the native tongues, are sent into towns and villages for free circulation.

—The annual report of the Brooklyn Sunday-school Union, published recently, shows the total membership of Protestant Sunday-schools to be 102,809; the average attendance to be 62,155; $82,539.25 was contributed by the pupils. The largest number of pupils belongs to the Methodist churches.

—The ritualistic party in the Church of England is said to be on the increase. There are now reported 869 churches at which "altar lights" are used, 38 where incense is burnt, 1,476 always open for private prayer, 449 where vestments are worn, and 2,858 where "the eastward position" is taken.

—"The Doctrines and Discipline of the Salvation Army" has just issued from "head-quarters" in London. One section gives the teaching of the Army on the subject of baptism and of the Lord's Supper; of the latter ordinance it says: "When such an ordinance is helpful to the faith of our soldiers, we recommend its adoption." That is to say, they allow their "soldiers" to do just as they please about obeying the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ. That shows whose "soldiers" they are not. "His servants ye are to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey."

—The Advance thinks that if the Roman Catholic Church would put itself in thorough accord with the pastoral issued by the bishops of the Plenary Council in Baltimore, last fall, the olden times might be revived, and "Rome might yet bear a noble part in securing the final triumph of Christianity." Rev. Stephen Dekins, of New York, says truly of that pastoral letter that it "hides the ferocious claws of a hateful system of despotism." Why will not Protestants learn that "Rome never changes," and that to have the "olden times" revived would be persecution to the death, against every one who would not acknowledge the authority of the "man of sin"?

—The priests in Bulgaria seem actually to be on a strike. Some three years ago the peasantry began to refuse to pay ecclesiastical tithes, and the Government appropriated $160,000 towards the deficit. But this money is now exhausted, and as no more has been voted, the ecclesiastics are thrown upon their parishioners again for support, and it is stated that in many places they now refuse to hold church services, administer the sacraments, solemnize marriages, or bury the dead. Were not the masses of the people so closely wedded to their church, there would be ground for seeing a wide door for the propagation of a purer gospel, but a settlement of some sort is likely to be effected without a permanent variance between priests and people.—Exchange.