p. 382 | News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 19, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 24.

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—Three Mormon missionaries left Salt Lake for the East Indies on the 11th inst.

—There is a rumor in England that the Salvation Army is about to organize a hallelujah bicycle and tricycle corps.

—The Baptist Sunday-schools are now reported at 15,930, a gain of 801 over last year, with 1,252,524 officers, teachers and scholars, which is a gain of 56,733 for the year.

—Bishop Henry C. Potter proposes that every clergyman whose salary is $3,000 or over, shall contribute an annual percentage to increase the income of clergymen who receive less than $1,000.

—The old fashion of assessing property holders for the expenses of the Congregational Church at Lee, Mass., still prevails. A manufacturing company in that town were compelled to pay $900.

—A correspondent of the Banner of Light, writing from Santa Rosa, Cal., closes a report of the thirty-sixth anniversary of modern spiritualism with "soul-felt thanks to the spirit-world for this beautiful religion."

—"Some idea of the extent to which the Bible circulates," says the Sunday School Times, "is to be seen in the fact that the English Oxford Press alone uses each year, in printing Bibles, enough paper to form a band eight and two-thirds inches wide around the earth."

—It is stated that "Gen. Booth of the English Salvation Army has issued an order that every day at 12:30 sharp the soldiers of the army shall make the sign of the letter S, to signify that they are saved." Who can blame him for wanting some sign by which others as well as themselves may know that they have religion?

—Rev. Father Thomas J. Ducey, pastor of St. Leo's Catholic Church, New York, recently turned up in a new calling—that of covering the escape of the defaulting bank president, Eno, who was a member of Ducey's church. The two went to Canada in disguise, and were arrested in Quebec, on a steamer that was just leaving for Europe.

—The General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, recently in session at Pittsburg, adopted the report of the Committee on Discipline that condemned liquor traffic licensed by the Government and provided for the excommunication of such members as dealt in spirituous liquors or who rented property to tavern-keepers. The last clause met with strong opposition, but after a heated discussion, was adopted.

—At the Methodist General Conference it was voted to insert the following in the Discipline: "That no divorce shall be recognized as lawful by the church except for adultery, and no minister shall solemnize marriage in any case where there is a divorced wife or husband living; that this rule shall not apply to the innocent party in a divorce for the cause of adultery, or to parties divorced seeking to be re-married."

—The Christian at Work says that "over fifty millions of the fifty-two millions of people in the United States are Christians." Can it be that this furnishes the answer to the question why the churches are so slimly attended in our large cities on Sundays? Is it because the people are so nearly Christianized that they don't need to go to church? When these fifty millions convert the other two millions, then the millennium will be here, won't it?

—The Boston Herald is authority for the statement that Rev. Mr. Gordon, a young clergyman, has been installed as pastor of a leading evangelical church in that city, who, upon his examination, said: "I do not know enough about the world to come to decide whether those who are impenitent at death remain so forever, or ultimately, through the discipline of worship, become partakers of Christ's life." It is safe to surmise that the impenitent in that congregation will not be seriously disturbed by the pastor's sermons.

—Mr. Sankey is again very ill. At a recent revival meeting in London, Mr. Moody announced that Mr. Sankey's complete restoration to health was deemed absolutely improbable, and that his voice, which had so often led thousands of assembled worshipers in the songs of Zion, would probably never be heard again in their services. He stated that Mr. Sankey's present prostration was so complete that he had been compelled to retire from the work, and was about to sail for his home in the United States. Mr. Moody pronounced a touching eulogy upon the services and devotion of the great singer. There are thousands in both hemispheres who will learn of his illness with regret.

—In his recent address at Edinburgh University, Professor Virchow expressed his belief that no relics of any predecessor of man had yet been discovered. He said: "In my judgment no skull hitherto discovered can be regarded as that of a predecessor of man. In the course of the last fifteen years we have had opportunities of examining skulls of all the various races of mankind—even of the most savage tribes—and among them all no group has been observed differing in its essential character from the general human type." There is no man whose attainments in science are superior to those of Professor Virchow, yet we shall probably never cease to hear it stated that science has proved the Bible account of the creation of man to be erroneous.