News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 19, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 32.

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—The next Pan-Presbyterian Council is to be held in London, June 26, 1888.

—The London papers report that Archbishop Trench, who died lately, left property in England and Ireland, valued at $400,000.

—The Christian at Work says that there is no Methodism in the Sandwich Islands. There was once an organization there but it died out.

—Lieut-Governor Ames of Massachusetts has given to the Memorial church at Plymouth, in that State, a bell that was cast by Paul Revere of the famous ride.

—The Wesleyan Methodist Conference, in session in London, appointed a Committee to consider the proposition to hold an Ecumenical Conference in the United States in 1891.

—According to the Missionary Herald, only about 8 per cent. of the world's population are Protestants, while 20 per cent. are Roman and Greek Catholics, and 72 per cent. are non-Christian.

—The Christian Union says, "Sam Jones is to spend the winter in San Francisco." Unless Mr. Jones leaves behind him his slang, his irreverence, and his unchristian and ungentlemanly manner of speech, San Francisco does not need him. She has a sufficient stock of these things already.

—The Chinese have learned the "boycott." The Spirit of Missions reports that some native Christians refused to take part in some heathen ceremonies, so they are "boycotted,"—denied access to the public wells, and even the use of the public roads. The New York Post remarks that this is about as good an illustration as could be wished for "of the essential savagery of the boycott." We concur.

—The steeple of the Methodist church in Greenwich, Conn., was struck by lightning twice in the same week—July 25 and 27. Of the stroke on the 27th, the New York Observer says: "Out of a clear sky, came a flash of lightning and a peal of thunder that startled the whole village." The top of the spire was split and thrown to the ground; then the bolt ran down the steeple, entered the church near the pulpit, tore away portions of woodwork and plaster, and melted all the electric light wires. A church that is not secure from lightning in a clear day is a good place to stay away from, we should think. By the way the first stroke was on Sunday too. And just the Sunday before, July 18, the Lutheran church at Middle Village, Long Island, was struck by lightning which glanced from a flag-pole in front, "tore off about forty feet of the roof and side, broke a large number of windows, then ran to the ground and tore up a trench for forty feet, knocked down and broke about forty monuments in the cemetery, and destroyed a section of fence."