p. 734 | News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 3, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 46.

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News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—The Advance calls the Sunday journal "a banner of the enemy."

—More than one hundred Jews have been ordained as ministers of the Church of England.

—Rev. George Müller acknowledges the receipt, during the past year, of over $200,000 for his orphan houses in England.

—There were two hundred baptisms among the Indian Baptists of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Associations the past year.

—Mr. Spurgeon has declared in favor of disestablishment, because he considers the union of Church and State unscriptural, fraught with countless evils, and an injustice toward dissenters.

—The Church of England has organized a church army, modeled somewhat after the Salvation Army. The design is to employ the lay-members in evangelistic work. Over five thousand members are already enrolled.

—Mr. Spurgeon's church carries on a very effective system of colportage. Last year it employed seventy-eight men, who visited fifteen hundred towns and villages. The sales of Bibles and other religious publications amounted to nearly $45,000.

—Thirty-five years ago, the Bible was, in Italy, on the list of revolutionary and forbidden books. Its possession went to make up the crime of high treason, and subjected a man to prison, to the galleys, and even to death. Now, Bible depots are established in every Italian city, and itinerant venders circulate the book freely.

—It is stated on the authority of a Japanese paper that in the recent census of that empire more than eighty thousand Japanese avowed themselves Christians, of whom thirty thousand are Romanists, ten thousand Russo-Greeks, and the rest connected with British and American missions. The Russian Greek Church is said to be the most popular, the Mikado himself being inclined to it; and its head, Bishop Nicholas, is the most popular missionary in the empire.

—The districts of Spain which were devastated by earthquakes last year are now quite accessible to Protestant missionaries. During the year, the number of congregations and schools in Spain has increased, and there is also an increased demand for Christian literature. But religious liberty is by no means established in that country. The Minister of Public Instruction has issued a decree in which he affirms the right of the civil and university authorities to watch the religious instruction given in the schools. Innumerable hindrances are put in the way of private educational institutions, while the convents and ecclesiastical institutions are declared free from these burdens. The Independent pronounces the decree "really the formal reintroduction of the Inquisition."

—Since 1866, one week each year has been set apart to be observed as a week of prayer for young men and Young Men's Christian Associations. This year the week of prayer commenced November 8. There are now 2,900 of these associations in the world, distributed as follows: North America, 934; Great Britain, 503; France, 72; Germany, 549; Holland, 36; Switzerland, 268; Denmark, 43; Belgium, 24; and a few in each of the following countries: Spain, Italy, Turkey, Russia, Austria, Japan, Syria, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Madagascar, and India. The American Associations are the strongest and best organized of any. They own 82 buildings, valued at $3,533,000, and have a total net property of $4,333,000; 415 men are devoting their whole time to the work as secretaries, librarians, etc.