p. 14 | News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 13, 1888

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—In Ceylon many high-class Buddhists have joined the Salvation Army, and two stations have been formed.

—A band of Franciscan nuns have taken vows to devote their lives to missionary work among the negroes of the United States, particularly those of the South.

—Dr. John Hall said, in a recent sermon on city missions, that there are 100,000 more inhabitants, and eleven fewer churches, south of Fourteenth Street, New York City, than there were ten years ago.

—The Independent says: "The Baptists are making rapid progress in Russia. Their views respecting baptism are quite acceptable." Russian officers and people are reported as saying: "These Baptists are all right, because their baptism is not sprinkling, but immersion."

—The Baptist Mission in the Shantung Province, China, have in the single district of Tsing-chen Fu, fifty-five churches, all being self-supporting, ministered to by five native pastors and teachers, maintaining themselves entirely, and not drawing any of their support from the funds of the society.

—It is stated that the new Protestant Episcopal Cathedral, New York, is to be between 110th and 113th Streets, on the west side of the island. The grounds purchased for it, at the cost of $850,000, include 162 city lots. It embraces one of the most elevated positions on the island, and work will be speedily begun on the grounds.

—In a recent encyclical letter to the Bavarian Bishop, the Pope says: "The church has observed her pledges, while the State has neglected its pledges. It is necessary to guard the religious education of youth. The secular schools are a danger to the State itself." The letter demands the extension of the rights of priests to regulate schools.

—In an article in the Independent, Henry W. Hulbert, of Beyrut, Syria, says: "In the long future, when the 'science of missions' comes to be written, we shall find that our enemies have a thing or two to teach us. After making a wide margin for all the exaggerated account of Roman Catholic missions, we must surely be able to see that the Papacy is to-day as never before winning the millions over to its system." He says that Protestant missions in Syria are like missions in strictly Roman Catholic countries, and that "out of the 700,000 people open to missionary labor, over one-half are Roman Catholics, or at least recognize the Pope as their lord."