STATE AND CHURCH IN ECUADOR.
By C. M. S.
A CORRESPONDENT of the Chicago Record, writing from Ecuador, South America, under date of October 2, says:— "The Congress of the Republic of Ecuador, acting on the recommendation of President Alfaro, has passed a law confiscating to the State all church property, and placing the mines, the immense coco and sugar plantations, and the valuable city holdings which this property includes, under a management of a board of trustees, to be appointed by the president. The proceeds of the sequestered property will be applied to the support of the State schools. "Indignation among sympathizers with the church is intense, and the clergy is protesting violently against the enactment. In many quarters revolution is threatened. The Franciscan, Dominican, and other monastic orders of the Roman Catholic Church, which, being very rich, are the principal sufferers, are hurriedly making conveyance of the titles to their property, for fictitious considerations, to local laymen. The government, it is declared, will refuse to recognize the validity of these transfers." Thus has the Lord opened another of the closed doors of the world for the entrance of the everlasting Gospel. The influence of the Catholic clergy has seriously hampered evangelistic work in that country, but with the education of the people, there will come a change favorable to Protestant missionary work in Ecuador. C. M. S.