News and Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 6, 1893

News and Notes.

By Editor

FOR THE WEEK ENDING OCTOBER 30.

RELIGIOUS.

—Elder Miles Grant, a representative of the American Advent Missionary Society, sailed from New York for India, October 11.

—The former home of Stephen A. Douglas, and also of the late Justice Bradley, in Washington, has been purchased for Satolli, the papal legate.

—Twelve hundred beds at a penny a night each are offered to London's homeless poor in a new Salvation Army shelter, erected on the banks of the Thames, near Blackfriar's Bridge.

—The Lafayette Grocers' Protective Association of Indianapolis, Ind., has filed articles of incorporation. The organization was formed for mutual benefit and to promote the proper observance of Sunday.

—The pope has consented to act as godfather to the boy king of Spain at his approaching confirmation and first communion. Monsignor Cretoni, the nuncio at Madrid, will represent the pope at the ceremony.

—Another nominally Christian military organization is proposed for the boys, to be called the Epworth Guards. Protestants complain of the Catholic armed societies, and keep on instilling the same military spirit into the minds of their own boys.

—The West Pennsylvania Lutheran Synod has adopted resolutions pledging the Synod to use every means to abolish the iniquitous business of the rum traffic and calling for church discipline upon all ministers or members who in any way aid or encourage persons in securing license to sell intoxicants.

—A new Sunday move is reported in Chicago, and it is said that both employers and employes are signing petitions for a Sunday-closing ordinance. It seems too bad that men are so anxious to close their places of business on Sunday, yet cannot comply with their conscientious scruples without a law compelling them to do so.

—The M. E. Church Conference recently in session at Dixon, Ill., adopted temperance resolutions, carried without debate and with a storm of applause, declaring that "it is the supremest trifling for us to waste our ballots in support of any political party which does not intend to declare war against the entire unholy business" of the liquor traffic.

—The faculty of the theological seminary of Princeton (N. J.) College has decided against football playing by students of that department, claiming that it is beneath the dignity of divinity students. There is said to be great indignation among the embryo theologians, which, it would seem, is also beneath their dignity—if they have any.

—The Christian at Work, commenting on the act of an Episcopal minister of New York City in celebrating a nuptial mass in his church, says: "Where the titular 'Protestant' fits into such an Episcopal Church is not easily discernible to the ordinary observer." Well, it fits in just as first-day-of-the-week sabbath observance does into any other so-called Protestant church. The mass and the Sunday sabbath have the same origin.

—In the recent mad rush for land and town lots in the Cherokee Strip, there were seven Congregational ministers wrestling for church lots in as many different town sites. One of the leading papers of the denomination calls their success "one bright feature of the disgraceful invasion." But, candidly, was not this contest of the church with the world, in a pellmell race for pecuniary gain, really the most "disgraceful" part of the scene?

—Rev. Wm. R. Noyes, whose application for appointment as foreign missionary has been in the hands of the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Foreign Missions for the past four years, has just succeeded in gaining his desired credentials. Although he has actually served several years as a missionary to Japan, his indorsement by the committee has been withheld on account of his belief in at least the probability of a future probation. His recognition was finally secured by a vote of the board, 106 to 24, advising the committee to make the appointment.

—In a vision at Troas, Paul saw a man imploring him, saying, "Come over into Macedonia and help us." Had Paul been a modern "evangelist" of the popular sort, he would have first demanded that a certain sum of money, or a certain portion of the proceeds, be guaranteed before he would go. But Paul was an "ambassador for Christ," and not for mammon; so he went right along without any question as to temporal remuneration, and when his work there was about to close, he and his companion, Silas, received in part pay a public whipping and a night in jail. But their effort was successful and acceptable to God.

—General Scofield, commanding the United States Army, has issued an order condemning those chaplains and others who have written to the Voice about the corrupting influence of the army "canteens," where liquors are sold to soldiers by soldiers. He threatens court martial for any repetition of the offense. Language fails to express the absurdity of a professed Christian minister occupying a position where his acts and sentiments as a minister are subject to the arbitrary commands of a rum apologist.

—A correspondent of the New York Voice, writing from Richmond, Va., says: "Richmond is noted for its many saloons, and drinking is indulged in freely by many members of the church. The clerk of one of the largest churches in the city is a wholesale liquor dealer. Some churches exclude the dealer in liquors, but he is soon into another church provided he pays money. I am informed by leading members of the church that twenty-five out of every hundred members are confirmed sots, and fifty more are confirmed drinkers. This is the condition of affairs among the colored people in the Baptist Church."

—An ex-priest named Slattery delivered a lecture against Catholicism before a large audience in St. Louis, on the evening of the 27th inst. An excited mob gathered in front of the building, and when the lecturer came out he was greeted with a shower of stones. Windows were broken, and Mr. Slattery was somewhat injured. He and his wife, who is an ex-nun, were hurried off to the hotel under escort of the police and some personal friends, followed by the yelling mob, said to number thousands. Catholic lecturers frequently denounce Protestantism, but we never hear of their being mobbed for it in the United States.