News and Notes | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 18, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 32.

News and Notes.

RELIGIOUS.

—There are in the United States 4,532,658 Methodists of all branches.

—The Vatican authorities have received $800,000 with which to celebrate the Pope's jubilee.

—A commission of the French Assembly has formally approved of disestablishment by a large majority.

—The Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia claims to have 6,000 colored communicants, who have thirty places of worship exclusively their own.

—The Pope has decided that there is no ground for Papal interference with the Knights of Labor question. He has conveyed the decision to Cardinal Gibbons.

—There are about 130,000 Mormons in Utah. Of these 80,000 are under the age of eighteen. One-third of the remainder are in polygamy and are said to have the brains of the whole.

—Roman Catholic schools in England; so it is said, teach their pupils to argue controversially in favor of their religion, and so well that the average Protestant laymen find it difficult to answer them.

—The King of Siam has given $1,500 to the Presbyterian missionaries for a hospital at Bangkok, while the Queen has given $1,000 to the schools and Old Ladies' Home established by the missionaries.

—A recent Chronicle dispatch gives an account of a man named Weston, who was arrested in Fresno, Cal., for robbing the post-office. The dispatch closes thus: "Weston was a church member, and very pious."

—Of the 408 members of the last Congress, 72 were Methodists, 63 Baptists, 41 Episcopalians, 37 Presbyterians, 36 Catholics, 15 Unitarians, 8 Lutherans, 10 Campbellites, and 2 Quakers, making a total of 284 who are actively connected with some church organization.

—An appeal is made for funds to secure the construction of a steel boat, to be named the James Hannington, in memory of the murdered Bishop of Uganda. The boat is to be placed on the Victoria Nyanza, to be used as a means of communication between the different missionary stations.

—A centennial service to commemorate the establishment of the first Episcopate in America was given in Westminster Abbey August 12. The sermon was given by the Bishop of Iowa, who revealed himself more English than the English themselves. He fought over once again the war for American independence, terming the patriots "rebels," and Lord Howe's army "the loyal forces," a style of nomenclature which much disgusted the Americans present. This is a good sample of ministerial toadyism, and the chances are that in America the worthy bishop would just reverse his style of preaching and become once more an American.