News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 14, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 27.

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—The will of the late ex-Vice-President Wheeler gives $25,000 to home missions, and $5,000 to foreign missions.

—Since July 9, 1862, the Bible stands in Crystal Palace have circulated over 19,959,253 copies of the Gospels, including a large number of Testaments, Scripture cards, and leaflets.

—The late General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church adopted a resolution re-affirming the action of the assembly of 1884 in recommending unfermented wine for communion purposes.

—The Christian Union thus enumerates the signs of improvement in reference to Sunday observance in Germany. "In Stuttgart 600 shop keepers have engaged to close their shops on that day. In Carlsruhe a second distribution of letters has been stopped. In Alsace-Lorraine public houses are legally closed till noon."

—Some idea of the moral condition of this country may be gained from the statement made by the New York correspondent of the Congregationalist, that "taking the country together, there is about one saloon to every church; but in New York City an assembly district can be found where there is but one church to every 12,000 souls, while a saloon exists for every eight votes."

—The total cash receipts of the American Bible Society in May were $38,008.93, of which amount $4,971.28 were given upon such terms that only the income can be used. The issues from the Bible House during the month were 96,315 copies; issues since April 1, 212,059 copies. Five societies were recognized as auxiliary—two in Kansas, two in Wisconsin, and one in West Virginia.

—The Weekly Witness says: "Since taking possession of the Cameroon country on the west coast, Germany has sent there 1,524,928 liters of rum, 37,800 bottles of gin, 1,588 old muskets, 1,000 cartridges, and 56,039 kilograms of tobacco. As an offset to the pernicious influence of these things the fatherland has also sent a few missionaries to take the place of the English Baptist missionaries, whose presence in the district was not wanted."

—An exchange says, "The great want of the times is an increase of family religion." The fact is that the great want of the times is an increase of pure and undefiled religion. If there were plenty of that it would be in the family and everywhere else that anyone happened to be who possessed it. The Christian religion is something which can be experienced only by individuals, therefore family religion and State religion are not Bible religion.

—The Christian Standard remarks that "it is reported that Bernhardt took back to Europe many times ten thousand dollars as the fruit of her short theatrical tour in America," and adds: "There are hundreds of church members who contributed more to this magnificent sum for the shameless woman than they contribute to the salaries of their earnest, faithful, poorly-paid pastors. Hundreds contributed to the salary of this assassin of chastity who never gave a dollar for the support of a Christian missionary. How can they explain this at the Judgment-seat? or, do they never expect to stand there?"

—Speaking of the evils growing out of too great display at funerals, the Catholic Mirror, of July 2, says: "These big funerals are not infrequently a cause of scandal, as everyone knows who has watched their progress to the burial-place and their return. The sight of a long string of carriages full of mourners halted before the numerous saloons that line the route to nearly every cemetery is not one that inspires much respect for the sorrow of the occupants, and yet it is one that may be seen almost any day in the vicinity of a Catholic cemetery." This must be a most humiliating confession for one of the leading organs of "the only true church" to make.

—Dr. McGlynn has at last been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church, and by the time this note reaches the reader the decree of excommunication will in all probability have been published in the church journals. McGlynn's offense is in one sense political rather than religious, but that makes no difference; the Pope has decided that his theory of land ownership cannot be tolerated by "the church," and after that decision was reached it was folly for McGlynn and his friends to imagine that he could continue to hold and teach his views and remain a Catholic. The Papal idea of what constitutes a Catholic was thus expressed some years since by Pope Pius IX.: "I alone," said he, "despite my unworthiness, am the successor of the apostles, the vicar of Jesus Christ. . . . They who are with me are with the church; they who are not with me are not with the church."