p. 654 | RELIGIOUS

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 28, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 41.

RELIGIOUS.

—The Order of St. James is the name of the proposed Church of England monastic order.

—The Six-Principle Baptists held their 219th annual meeting at Usquepaugh, R. I., September 4 and 5 last.

—At a recent M. E. State Conference at Beaver Dam, Wis., a resolution was adopted discouraging the giving of entertainments for the purpose of raising funds for the church.

—A self-styled Messiah has made his appearance in Sana (Yenien). He is a Jew named Joseph Abdalah, and pretends that he has come to lead his co-religionists from Arabia to the land of their ancestors.

—New Orleans, among a population of 216,000 people, has but 50 houses of worship. Oakland, Cal., has as many churches for less than 60,000 inhabitants. But then New Orleans has a Sunday law, and Oakland has not.

—A further batch of Jewish families numbering four hundred and fifty, have been expelled from Kamenetz Podosk, in consequence of the enforcement of an old law forbidding Jews from living within fifty versts of the frontier.

—In a certain interior California city a popular denomination is building a new church edifice, to cost probably $70,000. It is founded on an elaborate ground plan of kitchen, dining-room, and other paraphernalia for catering to the "lusts of the flesh."

—The Protestant Episcopal Convention now in session at New York has passed a resolution providing for a committee to prepare a standard prayer book for 1892. It will require an unusually wise committee to forecaste in detail the needs of the whole church so far in the future.

—The tenth annual convention of the American Interseminary Alliance began in Chicago on the 17th inst. The alliance is composed of theological students of every Protestant denomination except the Episcopalian, and has for its aim the union of all these denominations in home and foreign missionary work.

—The way the world understands the modern church social "for the benefit of the church," may be inferred from the fact that a San Francisco daily paper sandwiches a glowing account of one amidst a lot of popular entertainments, under the heading, "In Pleasure's Paths." It was a "fan drill" of "intricate mazes," etc.

—Thibet is said to be virgin soil for missions. It is the stronghold of Buddhism. Lhassa, the capital, is the Rome of the Buddhists, and the Dalai Lama is the Buddhist pope. He is supreme in both temporal and spiritual things. One monastery has about 5,000 Buddhist priests, and there are about 60,000 in the country. Thibet is tributary to China.

—The Baptist Theological College, to be established in this city, is in process of incorporation. Mrs. Dr. Grey has donated a ten-room building, on a 50x100 lot, value $15,000, to the enterprise. The school can be opened as soon as the incorporation is completed. The present Baptist College at Highland Park was also set on foot by Mrs. Grey's benefaction.

—In the recent Episcopal missionary meeting in New York, Rev. W. B. Gordon, who has been laboring in Mexico, said: "There are but two classes in Mexico. The higher class are infidels and the lower class are infidels. If any man wants to see the need of missions, let him come with me to Mexico. If he cannot see the need for overcoming the ignorance and superstition of its inhabitants, he is unconvincable."

—The Evangelical Alliance for the United States will hold a national meeting in Tremont Temple, Boston, the 4th, 5th, and 6th of December next. A most attractive program has been prepared, including the names of many eminent clergymen and laymen. The meeting is expected to equal in interest and influence the great Washington Conference of 1887. Information concerning special rates of travel and entertainment will be given to the public in due time.

—"The color line and the Southern question" seems to be uppermost in the Congregational mind as a topic for consideration at their next national council. People of the North would fain ignore this question, and treat the color line in the South as wholly imaginary; but the theory does not work practically. However much they may desire it were otherwise, those who go South find that the line is there in reality, and sufficiently marked to compel some sort of recognition.