News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 21, 1886

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—The pews of Professor Swing's church in Chicago were sold this year for $10,000.

—The students of Harvard College are asking that voluntary attendance at prayers may be substituted for compulsory attendance.

—The Bishop of Peterborough, England, promises to introduce a bill into the House of Lords declaring the equal right of all parishioners to the free use of seats in parish churches.

—The church papers of Salt Lake City have published the names of the Grand Jurors recently discharged there, with their business, for future reference, that they may be boycotted by the Mormons.

—A German paper states that secret negotiations are being carried on between Germany and the Vatican, looking to the appointment of a papal nuncio to Germany, and the transfer of the residence of the Archbishop of Posen to Berlin.

—Mr. Cox, the American Minister at Constantinople, in accordance with instructions from our Government, has vigorously protested to the Turkish Government against interference with American missionaries on the part of Turkish officials.

—It is said that there are numbers of unbaptized Jews in London who believe that Jesus is the Christ. They do not openly confess him; but it is not through fear of being "put out of the synagogue," but mostly through fear of losing employment.

—According to the charter of Brown University, Providence, R. I., the trustees, who are thirty-six in number, consist of twenty-two Baptists, five Quakers, five Episcopalians, and four Congregationalists. The charter also requires that "the President must forever be of the denomination called Baptists."

—H. A. Jessup, D. D., in writing of the good influence of the Protestant schools for Syrian girls, states the fact, remarkable for that country, that of the many Moslem girls who have been taught in these schools during the past fifteen years, and have married, not one has been divorced.

—The Sagau Karens of Bassein, Burmah, fruits of the labors of Baptist missionaries, have determined to assume the entire support and management of their Normal and Industrial Institute. They will have a native head-master, educated in this country, and native teachers.

—That is an honorable record of Rev. Cephas Bennett, the veteran Baptist missionary of Burmah, who, as the resources of the mission press at Rangoon developed, added one language to another till he had printed the gospel message in five different languages, not one of which ever had a word set up in type before.

—The Independent says: "The Woman's Christian Temperance Union is magnifying itself everywhere. We now hear of Miss Narcissa White, their 'National Organizer,' as hard at work in Washington Territory, addressing the Legislature, and pressing a temperance education bill and a local option law. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union is busier than ever this year strengthening its organization in the United States, Canada, and Australia."

—At a convention of the Young Men's Christian Association of Minnesota and Dakota, held in St. Paul, December 4 and 5, three Indians were present, representing Indian associations in Dakota. Two of these delegates were pastors of Presbyterian churches. They addressed the convention through an interpreter, Rev. A. S. Riggs. Mr. Riggs believes that in evangelizing the Indians lies the real solution of the Indian question, and that the time for this work is now. There are two thousand church members among the Sioux and Dakotas.

—The Jesuits of the Province of Quebec originally owned extensive landed estates; but in the last century, while the Province was still under the French Government, these lands were confiscated, and the Jesuits were banished to other countries. In 1801 the Jesuits were permitted to return. They promptly claimed their confiscated property; but their claim has remained in abeyance until a year ago. They are now asking that the lands may be restored to them to advance the interests of university education, especially for the establishment of a branch of Laval University in Montreal, now being erected at a cost for buildings and site of $500,000. It is not certain that the local Government has power to grant their request, and the matter will probably be contested in court.