Rome, Ireland, and Church Union
By Editor
ROME has discovered another means by which she may bleed poor Ireland. It has been discovered that in the city of Rome there is no church building in honor of St. Patrick, and so it has been determined to build one for the Irish, out of means furnished by the Irish. The Pope, who, by the way, is reported to have expressed his "surprise" that there was no church in honor of St. Patrick in Rome, has himself, "although pressed by hard times," cast in a bait of $760. The Archbishop of Cashel sends $486, and says that "the whole Irish race will subscribe," of which we have no doubt; especially as the Pope "bestows his apostolic blessing upon all who will contribute to the completion of this work." Rome is and has ever been Ireland's worst enemy. Ireland now groans under the galling yoke of England, yet 732 years ago that yoke was laid upon her by the Pope—Hadrian IV. IN almost all the church assemblies of the past autumn, the subject of church union has had a place. And now the Catholics have taken up the cry. In a late discourse, at the consecration of a bishop of Wilmington, Delaware, Cardinal Gibbons said:— "A yearning cry has gone forth for the union of Christendom. This voice is echoed from the press, from the pulpit, and from the halls of religious conventions. God grant that this yearning may be one day gratified. For if the scattered hosts of Christians were once more re-united as they were prior to the sixteenth century, they would present a phalanx which all the power of atheism and infidelity could not resist." We doubt not that this thing will yet be seen, with Sunday as the basis of the union. Then woe to the atheism and the infidelity that refuses to keep Sunday, or to bow to the will of this union of Christendom. THE "Labor" managers have taken another turn. The national committee has issued a circular stating that the representatives of Labor renounce all other political parties, to the end that legitimate labor may be emancipated and the Government restored to the people. The plan of organization contemplates the appointing of an organizer for each State and Territory, the State organizer to appoint a district organizer for each Congressional district in his State, and the district organizer to appoint local organizers. We suppose these State organizers will be paid about $250 a month—that is what the one for California was paid last winter and spring in the labor boycott—and the district organizers will have about $150 a month, and so on down to the real laboring man who will get nothing but a bounteous supply of political soft soap. And that is all the good that the laboring man will ever get out of the organizers or the organization. WE have received word from the more distant parts of the country, that in the winter-time especially, when the mails are disarranged by storms and bad roads, the SIGNS is sometimes a little late to be of benefit with its Notes on the Lessons; and the request has been made that we put the lessons in the SIGNS further ahead. We shall do so. Therefore in this paper dated December 16, will be found the notes on the lesson for January 2, 1887. This puts the lesson notes one week ahead, and gives more than two weeks for the paper to reach its destination, which we think will be all that is requisite in any part of the country. We shall still do our best to make our notes of the best, both expository and practical, so that it may be a real help to both students and teachers of the International Lessons. By addressing H. R. Clissold, Morgan Park, Chicago, a real neat little pocket-book containing all the Scriptures for the lessons through the whole year 1887 can be had for five cents in card-board cover, or ten cents in cloth cover.