News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 19, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 44.

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—The Lever, a temperance journal published in Chicago, says that the "Prohibition party seems not unlikely to take on the character of a Christian party."

—Says a religious paper: "A small church in Pennsylvania, whose pastor recently resigned to accept a call to a larger field, but who has not yet removed, has already enrolled eighty applicants for the vacant pulpit."

—The American mission at Sanda, Japan, on its tenth anniversary, received a gift of $500 and a chandelier, from a former daimio. This is believed to be the first gift from a Japanese noble for direct evangelistic work.

—According to General Booth, the Salvation Army now flies its colors in seventeen different countries. It numbers 1,050 corps of soldiers and 2,650 paid officers. Twenty papers, reaching half a million readers a week, are published under its auspices.

—A cable dispatch from Madrid states that our Government has given Spain to understand that if her sovereignty over the Caroline Islands is recognized, the American Protestant missions in those islands must be permitted to enjoy religious freedom.

—The Romanists have recently sent forty missionaries to the Congo Valley, where they already had a strong force. One feature of the work which these missionaries are expected to develop is the purchase of pagan children to be educated for the work of the church. Quite a large fund has been raised for this purpose.

—The woman-suffrage movement in Boston has taken a new turn the present year. Last year only 271 ladies registered as voters. But this year a Roman Catholic Priest advised the women of his charge to go to the polls and vote. As a consequence, about seven times as many registered this fall, the majority of whom are Romanists, under the dictation of the priests.

—It is said that the worst-paid working girls in London are those engaged in the work of sewing and binding Bibles. A London journal remarks that "for every heathen abroad who can be induced to use the sacred volume for anything else than gun wadding, a dozen of these girls are driven to perdition at home." It is to be hoped that this is very much exaggerated; yet if it is true it is not the fault of the Bible, but of the unscrupulous men who make haste to get rich.

—Says the Christian Union: "An almost incredible story of clerical intolerance comes from Little Leigh, in Cheshire, England." The resident Baptist minister reports that since coming to Leigh he has been unable to obtain a house in which to live; and on deciding to build, he found that his attempt to purchase land of Lord Leigh was met with a protest from the Established Churchmen. "The rector admits the truth of these charges, and declares that he but keeps his ordination vows, having sworn to do all in his power to prevent the spread of schism."

—In Mercer County, Pa., Judge Mehard has given a decision involving the use of the Bible in the public schools, which is important, as it is likely to be quoted extensively in future suits. He holds that citizens may be taxed to support institutions in which the Bible is used, because it is to the interest of the community to teach morality as a means to safety and stability; that the Bible is admitted to be in the front ranks of books which may be used for moral instruction; that some English version of the Bible must be used in schools where English is spoken, and the most generally accepted version may be chosen.

—The Christian Weekly, an active and vigilant supporter of the Sunday-law movement, has been investigating the subject of Sunday labor in Massachusetts in the light of facts brought out in the sixteenth annual report of the Massachusetts Bureau of the Statistics of Labor, and the conclusion it arrives at is, that Sunday labor on street-cars, railroads, and in many other places where personal service is required, is performed because the public demand it, and in many cases it is the Christian public that demand it. The Weekly says: "It is curious, and at the same time sad, to note in this connection that both the Sunday railway train and the horse-car service, in Massachusetts at least, had their origin mainly in the desire of church people to attend public worship somewhere else than in their place of residence!" And it adds: "In most of these cases, as it appears from this report, these so-called privileges were granted reluctantly by the authorities of these several roads." Hence opposition to Sunday labor can be successfully made only by educating public opinion. The people are the power behind the throne, and laws can be made and executed only as they will it. This is what the prophet saw. He heard the beast "saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live." Rev. 13:14.