News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 15, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 19.

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News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—Baltimore has thirty-six Catholic Churches.

—A Chinese Presbyterian Church was organized and incorporated in Los Angeles, Cal., April 29.

—Delegates of various Swiss cantons are discussing the propriety of suppressing the Salvation Army.

—Religious revivals are the order of the day in the districts in England recently shaken by an earthquake.

—The eighth General Conference of the British Evangelical Alliance will be held in Copenhagen from the 24th to the 31st of August next.

—The Methodists are to have a centennial celebration next fall. In 1784 they numbered 15,000 communicants; now they report nearly 4,000,000.

—The Baptist General Convention of California has voted in favor of locating their proposed college in Oakland, and a committee has been appointed to secure a site.

—The Santa Cruz (Cal.) Sentinel severely criticises the Congregational pastor of that city for the expression of thankfulness, in a public prayer, for the presence of so many Chinese in the community.

—A Presbyterian minister said in an address before the Sunday-school convention in Oakland, last week: "It used to be taught that there are infants in hell not a span long; but that day has passed."

—A Stockton minister asserts that a young man of that city went to Heaven a few weeks ago on the strength of impressions made upon his mind in Sunday-school twenty years ago; yet he had never made a profession of Christianity, and the only evidence of his "triumph" was a death-bed scene, when he made the sign of a cross on his fingers and said the Saviour died for him. According to this theology, a self-sacrificing Christian life goes for naught.

—The Sunday-school Times has a correspondent who finds fault with the International Lessons for 1885, because about half of them are from the Old Testament. He complains that they are "Christless lessons," those which do not point the pupil to Christ—and asks, "Is there no remedy?" To this appeal the Times gives the following very pertinent reply: "In the second half of the year there are such Old Testament lessons as the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal; Elijah at Horeb; Elisha raising to life the Shunammite woman's son; Naaman the leper hesitating to accept God's simple method of cleansing; the preaching of Jonah; the prayer of Hezekiah; and the Messianic prophecies of Isaiah. No opportunities of finding Christ in these lessons. Only think of it! 'Is there no remedy?' Indeed there is, and a very simple remedy. Let the teacher be filled with the Holy Ghost, like Peter and Stephen and Paul and Apollos, when they sought and found the Christ in the Old Testament Scriptures, and proclaimed him accordingly unto their hearers. Very many teachers who have now been at their work from five to forty years are finding the Christ in, and teaching him out of, such Old Testament lessons as these which are selected for 1885. And no teacher could ever hope to be as effective in showing the Christ out of the New Testament only, as out of the New Testament and the Old."

—There are encouraging reports for the past year, from the Methodist missions in South America, and some indications that the Catholic power is considerably weakened in some States. In the province of Buenos Ayers there was much excitement over an effort, in the Congress of the Republic by the clerical party, to secure a modification of the national educational law, so as to force Roman Catholic instruction on all pupils in the schools. The measure was promptly rejected. The President of the Republic attended the services of the mission one Sunday, provoking a loud outcry from the clericals. Says Mr. Wood, the superintendent, "Our converts are mostly from the humble classes; but men of the highest rank are among the hearers." The increase in contributions over those of two years ago was fifty per cent. In the province of Entre Rios, across the river from Santa Fe, a constitutional convention was held, at which a new constitution was adopted, and the capital was moved from the Uruguay to the Parana. The constitution also disestablishes, as far as the province is concerned, the Roman Catholic Church. This is the beginning, it is believed, of the end of official religion in the Argentine States. He says that, when the constitutional convention was "discussing the Church and State question, the ecclesiastical authorities of the diocese telegraphed to them, in peremptory terms, not to adopt any change. This was regarded as impertinence and usurpation. One member moved that the telegram be burned in the midst of the assembly. It was finally ordered to be passed out to the door-keeper."

—Religious liberty is not always and in all places enjoyed in Italy. A London paper tells how the authorities of Lodi, a town of 18,000 inhabitants, interfered with services held under the auspices of the Evangelical Continental Society. The agents of the society hired a small theater; but evening services were forbidden there on the plea of the danger of fire. Then an adjoining room on the ground-floor was taken. Small gatherings were held there in perfect quiet. But when an evangelist was stationed in Lodi, and the services were held more regularly and with greater publicity, disturbances arose. A noisy crowd gathered around the door, and a brigadier and policemen entered. The former asked a number of questions which he had no right to put, and then withdrew, but without trying to calm the tumult within and without. On complaining to the authorities, the evangelist was assured of protection for the future; but on the following Sunday the disturbance was far worse. The evangelist was so injured by a blow in the stomach as to be compelled to take to his bed, and the authorities were not to be found. On again complaining, the evangelist was told that the sub-prefect had ordered that no more meetings should be held, whether by day or by night, in the present building. Another place must be found; but the authorities knew that, after the disturbances, it was not possible to secure another place. In Pisa similar disturbances have occurred, at the instigation of atheists.—Ex.