News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 2, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 46.

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—The Japanese Government has removed the tax from Christian churches, thus placing them on the same basis of Shinto and Buddhist temples.

—A congress of churches will be held in Tremont Temple, Boston, December 11 and 12, 1889, to consider the relation of the secret lodge system to civil liberty and the Christian religion.

—Rev. John Levington, of Michigan, is preparing a new book on "The Essential Oneness of All Secret Societies." It will be issued soon by the Wesleyan Publishing House, Syaracuse, N. Y.

—Rev. Mr. Noyes, of Canton, says that $200,000,000 is spent in China annually on ancestral worship alone. He found that the ratio of gifts to income, in several families, ranged from one-fifth to one-third, and in no case was so small as one-tenth.

—The American Branch of the Salvation Army advocates the observance of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Adjutant Frank Robinson was baptized in the Tenth Avenue Baptist Church, Oakland, Cal., November 24.

—In a recent lecture before the Y. M. C. A. of San Francisco, Dr. Dille, of Oakland, is accredited with saying that religion was not good for anything unless it made men. Instead of singing, "I want to be an angel," the convert should be taught to sing, "I want to be a man."

—The Turkish authorities have at last found it to be prospectively to their interest to discourage the persecution of Christians. So Moussa Bey, of Armenia, is to have a trial for the depredations he has been encouraging, or instigating, in his province. The government is furnishing body guards for the safe conduct of witnesses to the capital to testify in the matter.

—We find this bit of information in the Calcutta Daily News: "There is plenty of religion in the colony of Victoria. The population amounts to a million, divided among 150 sects—to say nothing of Pantheists, Fatalists, Silent Admirers, £ s. d.-ists, Saved Sinners, and Humanitarians. There are plenty of Saved Sinners and Humanitarians in the mother country who might go to Australia to keep their brethren company."

—The scheme to "evangelize" the west end of London, beginning with the Prince of Wales, will probably result in a flat failure. The workers may be politely received, but their influence will not be strong or lasting, as the British aristocracy has altogether too good an opinion of itself to imagine for a moment that it needs any help in securing salvation. The average aristocrat thinks he confers distinction upon religion by patronizing it.—S. F. Chronicle.