News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Dec 15, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 48.

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—There are twenty-two Protestant churches in the city of Rome.

—The South Sea Islanders, at their last missionary meeting, raised $1,910 for a new yacht to carry the gospel to New Guinea.

—Three hundred and sixty thousand dollars, or about $1,000 per day, is needed to carry on the work of the American Missionary Association.

—A bill is in preparation to meet the difficulty of getting rid of incompetent clergy in the Church of England, and will be introduced during the next session of Parliament.

—It would seem that the Welsh are the most Protestant people in the world, for, according to the Methodist Times, of London, there is not a Welsh-speaking Roman Catholic congregation in existence.

—The Gospel Age says: “A church in a Northern city in which there gathers a congregation possessing far more than average wealth, was described by a visitor the other day as the church of retired Christians.” There are doubtless many churches to which the same title would be applicable.

—A Jewish journal thus protests against choir singing: “The psalmist said, ‘Young men and maidens, old men and children, praise the Lord.’ The modern rabbi says: ‘Young Christian men and maidens in the choir, praise the Lord, the old men can pay for it, and the children listen.’”

—The Chicago Evening Journal says: “If there is in all human thought, in all the world of sympathy and love, a kindly and gracious emotion, it is the inspiration drawn from Christ and his religion. Yet the anarchists despise his name, reject his divine mission, revile his undying truths, and deny that he was God revealed in the flesh. Jesus Christ said also, ‘Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s,’ and he held that obedience to human laws was a preparation and discipline for obedience to divine laws, and was also its matured and beneficent fruit. For this reason anarchy has espoused infidelity. Lawlessness is anarchy. All that hates and despises the law is anarchy. Anarchy is revolt against all law, human and divine. Anarchy begins in infidelity. It begins in a denial and defiance of God. It ends in such tragedies as were enacted at the Haymarket in Chicago, May 4, 1886, and in the jail of the same city November 11, 1887.”