News and Notes | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 22, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 16.

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News and Notes.

RELIGIOUS.

—Archbishop Trench, of Ireland, noted as an author, died recently in his 79th year.

—The Church of England enjoys an income from the State of about $1,500,000 per annum.

—Following the example of the Methodists, the Baptists are now moving for the raising of $1,000,000 for missions.

—The seventh Roman Catholic Provincial Council of Quebec, will be convened on May 30 by Cardinal Tascherman.

—The Hon. T. W. Dwight, LL.D., has just delivered a course of lectures at the Andover Seminary, on the relation of the Christian church and the Christian religion to jurisprudence.

—Last week at a meeting of ministers and laymen in New York City, the following question was discussed: “Ought the State to see that provision is made for popular instruction in the fundamentals of religion?” The discussion was opened in the affirmative by President Seelye, of Amherst College.

—The Helping Hand, of Macon, Ga., says: “Right here in the suburbs of Macon, in the full blaze of this nineteenth century, there is a superintendent who sells liquor to his own Sunday-school pupils, and to their parents.” That is bad, indeed, but is it really any worse for a Sunday-school superintendent or a minister to sell whisky than it is to license somebody else to do it?

—“Professor” Chaney says: “There are thousands of Spiritualists whose gullibility is so large that anything, no matter how absurd, represented as coming from a spirit, will drop into their mental throats without the least effort on their part to swallow.” If they would but listen to the despised word of God, they might avoid all imposition, including the terrible delusion of Spiritualism itself.

—A large and enthusiastic meeting of Germans was held the other day in Cincinnati, at which a movement for the abolition of “Puritanical” and restrictive Sunday legislation was set on foot. Such movements as this, while they may have a momentary effect, will only serve to stir up the friends of the Sunday to united and energetic effort that will result in giving that institution a more firm place in the law of the land than it ever had before.

—“I believe that too little attention, by far, is devoted in our theological seminaries to Bible study. Other studies of less importance occupy the time. The Bible is the primer book of the Christian minister. It should all be familiar, should be read and studied through from beginning to end, read again and again, its history and teachings more familiar than anything else, and large portions committed to memory.”—Dr. Wm. Hayes Ward. Dr. Ward says further, that the study of the Old Testament in particular, is sadly neglected.

—“Laicus,” in the Watchman, speaks as follows of the Salvation Army: “Unfortunately, however they started out, the Salvationists have now yielded to the temptations of success, and set themselves up as a church. They have a ministry without even a pretext of Scriptural warrant for its form or essence; and for an initiatory rite have profanely contrived, as a substitute for baptism, a performance called swearing in under the blood-red flag,—a ceremony not only bearing no resemblance to any Christian rite, but involving no personal vows of amendment, and, as commonly administered, having little individual application.”

—A suggestive reference occurs in Mr. Froude’s volume, “Oceana,” in relation to the uncertainties of scientific theories. At the Victoria Observatory he asked to be shown one of the blue stars, of which modern science has written much. He was informed that all the teaching about these blue stars had arisen from an error due to imperfect achromatic lenses. Mr. Froude thereupon asks: “How many times must we outlanders learn up our science and then unlearn it? Each new generation of philosophers laughs at the conclusions of its predecessors.” It is evidently not the Christian alone who sees through a glass darkly.—New York Observer. It is to be remembered also that although the Christian sees through a glass, darkly, he knows the truth of what he sees, and has positive assurance of far more that he cannot see. And this assurance does not change from year to year; yet so-called scientists sneer at the credulity of Christians.

SECULAR.

—Ex-President Arthur is dangerously ill.

—The second reading of Gladstone’s Home Rule bill has been postponed till May 10.

—Turkey has appealed to the Powers to suppress the belligerent demonstrations of Greece.

—Barley hay of this season’s cutting is now offered for sale in Los Angeles County, Cal.

—There is a strong sentiment in the United States Senate in favor of abolishing secret sessions.

—John H. Noyes, the founder of the Oneida Community, died at Niagara Falls, Ontario, April 13.

—Nine deaths have so far resulted from the shots fired by the deputy sheriffs at the East St. Louis rioters.

—Nine persons were killed, and a number injured by the collapse of a mansion at Abaccio, Corsica, April 15.

—General Guzman Blanco, recently elected President of Venezuela, has decided that he will decline the office.

—Quiet has been restored in East St. Louis and along the line of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and traffic is being carried on as usual.

—Secretary Manning, who has for some time been seriously ill, is recovering. It is thought that Mr. Manning will not resume the duties of his office.

—It does not appear that the Utah Mormons have been in any way benefited by the removal of Governor Murray, as prosecutions for polygamy still continue.

—A Chinese student in the junior class at Yale has received the right by scholastic merit to be one of the eight speakers selected for the exhibition next month.

—Sixty-two undoubted cases of Asiatic cholera, with several deaths, are reported from Brindisi, a sea-port of considerable importance in the southeastern part of Italy.

—A notable feature of the recent Mormon Conference at Provo, U. T., was the absence of all the leading men of the denomination. They had to remain away to avoid arrest for their polygamous practices.

—The United States Treasury has prepared statements showing that the net amount of gold coin and bullion in the treasury on April 10 was $153,920,858, an increase of $27,242,263 since January 31 last.

—The Russian Ministry has ordered the authorities of all universities in the empire to at once adopt means for the immediate and permanent suppression of all forms of political education by young students.

—Advices from Zanzibar state that the Sultan has refused to cede to Portugal the territory claimed by her, and that the Portuguese Consul has on this account lowered his flag and placed the Portuguese residents under the protection of the German Consul.

—Eleven more arrests were made in New York on the 13th inst. in connection with the Broadway Surface Railroad case, and the entire Board of Aldermen, for the year 1884, with one exception, are now either under arrest or out on bail in the sum of $25,000 each, on charges of bribery and official corruption.

—A remarkable boycott has been instituted in Virginia. A convention was recently held there in which it was resolved to boycott every man who paid his taxes in coupons, issued by the State some years since, and which, according to a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, must be received in payment of State taxes.

—A diver of the Merritt Wrecking Company has made an examination of the steamer Oregon, and ascertained, beyond question, that she was sunk by a collision. The diver found a hole in the steamer’s side where the heavy iron plates were crushed in. The hole is six feet deep and three feet in breadth at the widest part. The steamer is broken in two and her upper deck parted over twelve feet on top. Most of her cargo will be saved.

—April 14, a terribly destructive cyclone swept over parts of Iowa and Minnesota, doing immense damage to property and killing probably over one hundred persons, and seriously injuring more than double that number. The towns of St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, were almost entirely destroyed. At Coon Rapids, Iowa, thirty houses, two churches, and several business houses were demolished, and a freight train was blown from the track. The loss of life in Iowa was small.

—The House Ways and Means Committee has decided to report in favor of abrogating the Hawaiian Reciprocity Treaty.

—At Clintonville, Wis., April 17, three men were killed and four others seriously injured by the explosion of eight kegs of giant powder.

—A coroner’s jury in East St. Louis has brought in a verdict condemning the action of the deputy sheriffs in firing into the crowd. The verdict holds the officers jointly responsible for the deaths occasioned.