p. 238 | News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 15, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 15.

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News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—Mr. Cook hopes that the time will soon come when Christians will control daily newspapers of their own.

—The German Lutheran congregation of Grüneburg, Prussia, insists that the sermons shall be at least one hour long.

—Within two years, twenty Methodist missions have been planted in Chicago, and eleven new churches have been erected.

—Says Dr. Harper: "Fill a man with a knowledge of Bible events, Bible thoughts, and Bible expression, and he will be well filled." So we say.

—The fact that Sam Jones has recently quit the use of tobacco will do more to convince people of his sincerity as a Christian than will all his sermons.

—The Toronto Presbytery has decided to correspond with the Presbyterian Church in the United States, with a view to international action towards minimizing Sunday railroad work.

—Dr. Howard Crosby says: "Our pulpits are in danger of forgetting the inspired word, and putting in its place the vagaries of pulpit philosophers, and the smart allusions of voluble orators."

—The number of Jews in the world is about 8,000,000. One hundred thousand Jews have accepted Christianity since the beginning of the century, though only about 270 missionaries have been employed among them, and 300 Jews are now ministers of the gospel. The British and Foreign Bible Society has circulated among them more than 1,000,000 copies of Hebrew Scripture since its beginning.

—The decrees of the Plenary Council held in Baltimore, in 1884, have just been published in Latin. We have seen but few extracts from the book, but one strikes us very favorably. The Council directs that all worldly, irreligious, and sensual strains be excluded from divine worship. "Those productions also which mangle the words of the sacred liturgy, and which, by indefinite repetitions, render the hymns and psalms meaningless, are not to be tolerated; but the music must be of such a stamp as to elevate the soul and aid it in its efforts to unite itself with its Creator." That is a sound principle, and Protestant denominations would do well to heed it.

—"The study of Bible history is not a study concerning the Bible, but of the Bible. The Bible is full of history. The study of this history is, in the strictest sense, Bible study. Yet, in many institutions, this work is entirely omitted, it being thought wiser to occupy the time of the student in a careful and exhaustive study of all the schisms and heresies of the early church. The Old Testament is made up largely of prophecy; the New Testament is largely, indeed, the fulfillment of this prophecy. Yet not one student in twenty leaves the seminary with even a respectable knowledge of the facts of prophecy or the principles which regulate these facts; while in the mind of the ordinary minister, there is a dimness and a haziness about this subject which renders it, in their estimation, a far-away thing, and unapproachable. The same, in substance, may be said of other departments. How many students have considered those questions which a Bible interpreter must ask and must answer concerning the age, authorship, general purpose, and particular teachings of even a few of the more important books of the Bible? If the Bible is the minister's hand-book, why is he not taught to handle it?"—Old Testament Student.