p. 382 | News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Jun 24, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 24.

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—The “Rescue and Evangelization Mission,” a branch of the Salvation Army, has forbidden its members to use military titles or wear uniforms.

—English Methodists are protesting against the three-year limit to the pastorate, which they say is emptying the largest chapels in city and country.

—The Missionary Record says: “A collection for missions was taken up at a meeting of 600 persons. Result—2 dollars, 1 half-dollar, 17 quarters, 27 dimes, 66 half-dimes, 11 three-cent pieces, 3 two-cent pieces, and 288 pennies. Total, $16.02; less than 3 cents each. Two hundred or more gave nothing.”

—The following from the Woburn (Mass.) Advertiser may be true: “There are lots of people who mix their religion with their business, but forget to stir it up well. The business invariably rises to the top as the result.” When that is done, it will soon be found that the religion has all leaked out, leaving nothing but business.

—The Christian at Work says that there is a religious revival in Paris. The “revival,” however, is noticeable only in “high life.” “It is becoming the practice of the young swells to go to church and take the communion as they leave a supper-table where they have caroused till the early hours of the morning.” We hope that this “revival” will be confined to Paris.

—It is stated that a Chinese boy, in the Christian mission school at Pekin, recently repeated the entire New Testament without missing a word or making a mistake. We are heartily in favor of committing Scripture to memory, and think that as a general thing there is too little of it done nowadays; but we would have it committed intelligently, and we do not believe that anybody who commits the entire Bible to memory, can have much, if any, idea of its meaning.

—The London Truth says that when Lord Redesdale succeeded his father in 1830 he was unable to take his seat in the House of Lords for several months, as the certificate of his baptism [sprinkling] could not be found, the ceremony having been performed, and legal record not having been preserved. When the National Reform Party accomplishes its purpose, the same thing will doubtless occur here. A popular man will apparently be sure of a certain office, when some political opponent will discover that there is no record of his baptism, and he will be defeated.