Received by donation from Battle Creek Sabbath-school, $25.00
Expenses for stationery, stamps, and blank reports, 16.40
Balance in the treasury, $8.60
Elders H. W. Decker, E. R. Jones, and A. O. Burrill were chosen as a committee for nominating officers.
After consultation, they recommended as officers for the coming year: President, Elder S. N. Haskell; recording secretary, G. H. Bell; corresponding secretary, Eva Perkins; executive committee, Elder S. N. Haskell, Elder D. M. Canright, W. C. White. These persons were unanimously elected to their respective offices.
Spirited and interesting remarks were made, showing that an unusual interest in the Sabbath-school work is springing up in every part of the land.
All seemed to agree that the Instructor should be published weekly, and contain Sabbath-school lessons. The following motion made by Elder S. N. Haskell was unanimously carried:—
Moved, That it be the sense of this meeting that the Instructor be published weekly.
Elder White thought that in addition to the weekly Instructor the monthly should be issued the same as now.
Many thought that much good might be done in some places by organizing and conducting Sunday-schools. Several interesting cases were cited in which efforts in this direction have been attended with marked success.
In discussing the question of raising means, there seemed to be a difference of opinion in regard to the propriety of receiving penny contributions on the Sabbath. Sister White thought that it would be proper. She remarked that anciently the work of the temple service on Sabbath day was double what it was on other days. God does not withhold his bounties on the Sabbath day,—the sun shines, the rain descends, plants grow, fruit ripens, and all the work of nature goes on without interruption. There is no reason why a freewill offering, previously set apart for that purpose, may not be presented to God on the Sabbath day.
The following resolution from Elder J. H. Waggoner was adopted:—
Resolved, That we recommend to all our Sabbath-schools the practice of contributing a penny or more to the funds of the Sabbath-school, by both teachers and scholars, on every Sabbath day.
Adjourned to the call of the chair.
D. M. Canright, President.
G. H. Bell, Secretary.
Reports from the Field.
By Editor
(Condensed from Review and Herald.)
Vermont.
Weston and Jamaica.—Elder Sanborn reports: "Since camp-meeting we have been following up the interest arising from the tent-meeting at Weston; and we left this company of good courage in the Lord, feeling confident ourselves that the truth will win to its standard other firm friends. Five were baptized at the close of our meetings. Others were almost persuaded to obey the Lord. The quarterly meeting at Jamaica, just closed, was a profitable occasion. Twelve were added to the church; nine were baptized. There were in attendance quite a number of first-day Adventists from Manchester, who expressed much pleased with the meetings, and desired to hear more of our views."
Pennsylvania.
Cowanesque Valley.—October 14, Brother Lane reports: "For nearly four weeks, I have been holding meetings two miles from this place, in the township of Brookfield. The meetings have been well attended, and the interest is rising. Six are keeping the Sabbath. We have had some strong opposition from first-day Adventists, but the truth is fast gaining ground."
Indiana.
Frankton.—Elders Covert and Rees write, October 14: "We have been here four weeks. We have taken down our tent, and our meetings are now held in the academy. We know of fourteen adults who have decided to keep the commandments. Nine have signed the covenant. Two were baptized yesterday. Others will follow soon."
Illinois.
Belvidere.—Elder R. F. Andrews writes, October 16: "We closed our labors here Sunday evening, September 29. Thirty have signed the covenant; nine of these, however, were endeavoring to love and obey the truth before we came. Systematic benevolence was organized, amounting to $317.20 yearly. A leader was chosen to take charge of their meetings. We also organized a promising Sabbath-school of over thirty members. Obtained nineteen new subscribers for our periodicals."
Wisconsin.
Clay Bank.—Elder Olsen writes: "The Lord is still blessing his work here. A number have taken hold since our last report. Over thirty have now commenced to observe the Sabbath. My brother and his wife joined me Sept. 27. We are now holding meetings in schoolhouses, and much of our time is spent in holding prayer-meetings in which a few families come together. The Lord blesses much in these meetings, and we find them a great help for the people to take hold in prayer and practical work. Only two of those who have embraced the truth were previously making a profession of religion."
Avalanche.—Elders Johnson and Hoen write, October 10: "We held meetings here in both the Norwegian and the English language, from August 9 to October 7. We have also held a few meetings in a mill near Avalanche. Eighteen have decided to keep the Sabbath; six of these are Norwegians. Many more are deeply interested, and we hope that a number of them will embrace the truth."
Nebraska.
Syracuse.—Brother Cudney held meetings with the brethren at Palmyra Oct. 8, and at Syracuse the 9th. Ten united with the church.
THE HOME CIRCLE.
A Well-Ordered Household.
Now, to gain a practical result, let me say, to mold a family into this corrected and happy state, there must be, besides a great many other things, these four: First, there must be an atmosphere of love for the family to live in. There must be wedded love; and then begotten of this, there must be parental love, filial love, brotherly love, sisterly love. Let the wedded love die, and it will be a miracle if all the varieties of domestic love do not die with it. I would sooner expect the crocus to bloom in a frosty dungeon, than to find a warm and mutual love among the children, without the wedded love of the parents before them, as a pattern for them to imitate. On the other hand, let wedded love wax warmer, and purer, and holier, as the year counts up its months, and the life its years, and if the other forms of domestic love are not nursed into being by it, that too will be a miracle. In family relationship, and family intercourse, love makes all difficult things easy. Wherever it goes it creates sensations of pleasure. And it must go to every point in the family group. It must traverse every path of family intercommunication through the day, spinning in golden threads as it goes along, at evening weaving them into a domestic tapestry, which will adorn that paradise place—home, as all the wealth of the Indies could never do.
Secondly, there must be authority. Not tyranny with its iron rule, but authority, originating in relationship and in divine appointment, sanctioned by the knowledge, wisdom, and experience of the parent, and bearing sway with the force of love. Without this authority the family interest is at hazard as a vessel at sea without any officer in command. The doctrine in some quarters is that love is enough. But that is one of the dreamings of empirics. The Bible doctrine is older and wiser and higher. Abraham is conspicuous in history as "the friend of God." And one of the things that gives him his distinction is his domestic rule. "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him." I know, and I rejoice to know that love is a mighty element for good. But it is not enough. Alone, it is only a yearning battery of emotion at Valencia, and another at Trinity bay, with a broken cable between them. An affectionate father without authority, loving his children without governing them, would be, not exactly a well without water, but rather a well of living water, and nothing to draw with ; a candle in the night, but not lighted.
Thirdly, as there must be authority, so there must be obedience. This, too, some of the unfledged birds of the age, yet in their nests, insist is to be superseded by something better. The empiricism that would dispense with authority would dispense also with obedience. But this is a wisdom that grows in the shade. It is a potato sprout in the cellar, spreading itself along its dark way toward a chink in the wall, that just glimmers, but it is too far off ever to be reached. It is a mooted wisdom that looks for good without the legitimate agencies to produce it. The millennium of agriculture will consist not in harvests without seed and culture, but in the sure and abundant success of the culture. The millennium of the church will be found not in every man's doing what is right in his own eyes, but in the cheerful and spontaneous subjection of all to the rules and discipline of Christianity. And the millennium of the family will arise, not from putting an end to the reciprocal relations of parent and child, not in dispensing with authority and obedience, and changing domestic peace and order into the jargon of out-of-doors life; but in so sanctifying these relations, and vitalizing these duties, that love and authority on one hand, and love and obedience on the other, shall play together like the machinery of a watch, shall be like the pulsations of the heart and the heaving of the lungs. An affectionate child is a gem anywhere. But an affectionate child without obedience would be a gem in a most unseemly setting —a sunlit carbuncle, in a shapeless stone; a diamond in a fetid bone.
Fourthly, there must be prayer, and the piety which prayer enkindles. A man at the head of a family is under too heavy a responsibility to live without prayer. The family is an institution from God. Not only has he appointed it, but he has given the rules for conducting it, and the object to be arrived at. No man has a right, therefore, to set up a family, without carrying the question to God. He might as well build his house on his neighbor's lot. The whole domestic platform is God's—and we come upon it legitimately and warrantably, only when we have his consent and approval. Nowhere else does a man put his hand to anything so high, so sacred, so responsible. And when he proceeds to inaugurate a family, and conduct its high interest, all deathless as eternity, without prayer, the extravagance might well shock us. I hesitate whether it should be called recklessness or lunacy, or both. I know not where, if not here, we may repeat that wonderful prayer, "Father, forgive him, for he knows not what he does."
Be it remembered, then, and never forgotten. The family is a heaven-appointed thing. The elements to be used in perfecting it, are love, authority, obedience, and prayer. Be these duly employed, and you reach the intended end—you produce pure and happy families. And that is the way, and the only way, to produce a pure and happy world. The family is the door of entrance to the world, where alone we are trained for the responsibilities of life. And no man has a right to come into the world at any other door, or under any other training; if he does, he comes in at the hand of thieves and robbers. A pure and happy world, the grand and ultimate fruit of pure and happy families! Rob the world of the family, and its doom is written. The carotid artery of its welfare is opened. Darkness, shame, and death close the scene. Let us, then, as we pass from one year to the next, from the end of one quarter of a century to the beginning of another, gird ourselves anew for our high and holy home work. In this great manufactory, where alone the world's welfare can be elaborated, let each occupy his own post of duty; let each head of a family look well to the plot of ground under his hand; let each child look well to the little floweret that meets him in the beautiful snowball. See that its petals are all open, and white, and sweet. "The conclusion of the whole matter" is this: Let love diffuse her heavenly atmosphere over the whole household; let authority maintain its sweet and steady sway; let obedience yield its ready and smiling concurrence; let piety keep the sunshine of heaven's smile steadily upon the budding scene, and you have "paradise regained."—Sel.
Novel Reading.
It is generally conceded that some of the finest fruits of the finest minds are found in this field of literature, encumbered, it is true, with ponderous heaps of the most vile trash. One in a thousand of these volumes may, perhaps, be read with some profit, and no serious injury, while four hundred and ninety-nine of the residue are so frivolous as to render their perusal a criminal waste of time. The other five hundred will be found positively injurious in various ways.
Habitual novel reading is detrimental to health and vigor of the body. Nature will not be robbed with impunity of a requisite amount of food, air, rest, and sleep. Reprisals are always made where the hours of night are devoted to the exercise.
The nervous system, moreover, being intimately connected with the brain, becomes the predominating system during the period of youth, because this predominance is necessary to the proper development and increase of the body. Now that strong excitement of the feelings, occasioned by works of fiction, has a tendency to produce such a predominance of the nervous system as permanently to generate the most afflictive nervous diseases.
Novel reading prevents a strong symmetrical development of the mental powers. In young ladies especially, do the sensibilities and imagination need to be repressed rather than stimulated, while the understanding and judgment require the most assiduous cultivation. Hannah More says truly that youth need more ballast. The education, however, which is afforded by works of fiction, consists in crowding more sail than the craft can carry.
An eager perusal of light literature destroys all taste for solid reading. Control over the thoughts is lost, while the bewitching scenes of romance are floating through the mind. Historical, scientific, and especially religious works, become insipid and dull. The habit of receiving pleasure, without any exertion of thought, by mere excitement of curiosity and sensibility, may be justly ranked among the worst effects of habitual novel reading. It cannot but be injurious to the moral mind never to be called into action. Under circumstances of perpetual inaction, it wilts and withers like the muscles of an arm which is always unused.
Novel reading tends to inflame the passions, pollute the imagination, and corrupt the heart. Moral sense is weakened by the false sentiments they inculcate. Even the better class are wanting in true religious principle. They may not oppose, or directly denounce, religion; but they make it appear unnecessary, by exhibiting a virtue sufficiently perfect without it. They delineate the most pious characters, and represent them under the most affecting circumstances passing through the most trying scenes, till they enter joyfully the eternal state without the sustaining power of vital godliness. The sentimentalism of romance presents no motives to action so pure and exalted as the teachings of Christ. On the contrary, the viler class of novels actually teach and commend the most glaring vices. A recent author has truly said, "They paint for our imitation humane murderers, licentious saints, holy infidels, and honest robbers. Over loathsome women and unutterably vile men, is thrown the checkered light of a hot imagination, until they glow with infernal luster."
Novel reading is objectionable, because it creates an unnatural and morbid taste. It frequently becomes an inveterate habit, strong and fatal as that of the drunkard. In this state of mental intoxication, great waywardness of conduct is most sure to follow. Even where the habit is renounced, and genuine reformation takes place, the individual often suffers the cravings of former excitement.
Novel reading lays the foundation for sad ruptures in the domestic relations of life. The lady who revels in fiction, may possess the power, through fancy and feeling, to attract, to interest, to please, to charm, to win; but her reign over the affections will generally be short, because her character affords no solid basis of trust and confidence.
In conclusion, the practice of which we speak is to be deprecated because it raises extravagantly high expectations in the youthful mind, and then dooms them to utter disappointment. The novelist paints beauty in colors more charming than nature, and describes bliss more ecstatic than man ever tastes. Thus the young are taught to despise the good which God has mingled in their cup of blessings, while they sigh in vain for a beauty and a happiness which never existed in a world that is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. The world of romance differs so essentially from the real rough and stormy world of life, that few can dwell for years in the enchanting fairy elevations of the one and then cheerfully descend to the dull, dusky, and discordant scenes of the other.—Sel.
A Lesson for the Times.
By Ellen G. White
NUMBER FOUR.
MAN came from the hand of God complete in every faculty of mind and body; in perfect soundness, therefore in perfect health. It took more than two thousand years of indulgence of appetite and lustful passions to create such a state of things in the human organism as materially lessened his vital force. Through successive generations the tendency was more swiftly downward. Indulgence of appetite and passion combined, led to excess and violence; debauchery and abominations of every kind weakened the energies, and brought upon the race diseases of every type, until the vigor and glory of the first generations passed away, and, in the third generation from Adam, man began to show signs of decay. Successive generations after the flood degenerated more rapidly.
All this woe and suffering may be traced to the indulgence of appetite and passion. Luxurious living and the use of wine corrupt the blood, inflame the passions, and produce diseases of every kind. Parents leave maladies as a legacy to their children. As a rule, every intemperate man who rears children transmits his inclinations and evil tendencies to his offspring; and the evil does not end here; he gives to them disease from his own inflamed and corrupted blood. Licentiousness, disease, and imbecility are transmitted as an inheritance of woe from father to son, and from generation to generation, bringing anguish and suffering into the world, which is no less than a repetition of the fall of man.
The race is groaning under its weight of accumulated woe, because of the sins of former generations. And yet, with scarcely a thought or care, men and women of the present time indulge intemperance by surfeiting and drunkenness, and thereby leave, as a legacy for the next generation, disease, enfeebled intellects, and polluted morals.
The continual transgression of Nature's laws is a continual transgression of the law of God. The present weight of suffering and anguish which we see everywhere, the present deformity, decrepitude, disease, and imbecility now flooding the world, make it, in comparison to what it might be, and what God designed it should be, a lazar-house; and the present generation are feeble in mental, moral, and physical power. All this misery, accumulated from generation to generation, exists because fallen man persists in breaking the law of God.
The effort made to create a taste for the disgusting, filthy poison, tobacco, leads to the desire for stronger stimulants, as liquor, which is taken, on one plea or another, for some imaginary infirmity, or to prevent some possible disease. Thus an unnatural appetite for hurtful and exciting stimulants is created, which strengthens with one's years. The increase of intemperance in this generation is alarming; beverage-loving, liquor-drinking men may be seen everywhere.
Intemperance of any kind is the worst sort of selfishness. Those who truly fear God and keep his commandments look upon these things in the light of reason and religion. How can any man or women keep the law of God, and at the same time indulge intemperate appetite, which benumbs the brain, weakens the intellect, and fills the body with disease? Intemperance inflames the passions, and gives loose rein to lust. Reason and conscience are then blinded by the lower passions.
It is not an easy matter to overcome established habits of appetite for narcotics and stimulants. In the name of Christ alone can327this great victory be gained. He overcame in behalf of man in the wilderness of temptation, in the long fast of nearly six weeks. He sympathizes with the weakness of fallen man. His love for him was so great that he made an infinite sacrifice that he might reach him in his degradation, and through his divine power elevate him finally to his throne. But it rests with man whether Christ shall accomplish for him that which he has undertaken and is fully able to do.
It is a sacred duty that we owe to God to keep the spirit pure, as a temple for the Holy Ghost. If the heart and mind are devoted to the service of God; if we obey all his commandments, loving him with all the heart, might, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves, we shall be found loyal and true to the requirements of Heaven.
The apostle says, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof." He also urges his brethren to earnest diligence and steady perseverance in their efforts for purity and holiness of life, in these words: "And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we, an incorruptible."—MRS. E. G. WHITE, in Health Reformer.
In Season.
A LADY once writting a letter to a young naval officer who was almost a stranger, thought, "Shall I close this as anybody would? or shall I say a word for my Master?" and lifting up her heart for a moment, she wrote, telling him that his constant change of scene and place was an apt illustration of the words, "Here we have no continuing city," and asked if he could say, "I seek one to come." In trembling she folded it and sent it off. Back came the answer: "Thank you so much for those kind words. My parents are dead. I am an orphan, and no one has spoken like that since my mother died, long years ago." The arrow, shot at a venture, hit home, and the young man shortly after rejoiced in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of peace. Christians, how often do we close a letter "as anybody would," when we might say a word for Jesus.
Home Conversation.
CHILDREN hunger perpetually for new ideas. They will learn with pleasure from the lips of parents what they deem drudgery to study in books; and even if they have the misfortune to be deprived of many educational advantages, they will grow up intelligent if they enjoy in childhood the privilege of listening daily to the conversation of intelligent people. We sometimes see parents who are the life of every company which they enter, dull, silent, and uninteresting at home among their children. If they have not mental stores sufficiently for both, let them first use what they have for their own household. A silent house is a dull place for young people, a place from which they will escape if they can. How much useful information, on the other hand, is often given in pleasant family conversation, and what unconscious but excellent mental training, in lively social argument. Cultivate to the utmost all the graces of home conversation.
Children’s Confidence in Parents
ONE of the first steps from childhood to prison is concealment from parents. One of the most valuable points to be gained by parents is to secure the confidence of their children. No daughter was ever lost who confided wholly in her mother's heart. No young man ever went to ruin who made his mother his most intimate friend.
Our Response.
By R. F. C.
"Is this the kind return?
Are these the thanks we owe?
Thus to abuse eternal Love,
Whence all our blessings flow!"
The choicest gift of love,
God's well-beloved Son,
Descended from the throne above,
For those by sin undone.
Himself for us he gave,
Endured our grief and pain;
He died to raise us from the grave,
With him to live and reign.
And shall we spurn his grace,
Still choose our evil ways?
From love embodied turn our face,
From him withhold just praise?
Shall love like this awake
In us no heart-felt praise?
Shall he thus suffer for our sake,
And we despise his grace?
Melt, melt, this heart of stone,
Love's flame begin to burn;
Let heart and life be his alone—
Yet what a poor return!"
Dyspepsia.
CAUSES OF DYSPEPSIA.
HAVING observed some of the more important of the symptoms of dyspepsia, we are now somewhat prepared to consider understandingly the various causes which, singly or concurrently, operate adversely upon the functional integrity of the digestive organs. But in order to obtain a still clearer view of the manner in which morbific agents affect the digestive organs, it will be advantageous to consider, briefly, at least, the manner in which those organs comport themselves in health. We will take a hasty glance, then, at the principal organs of digestion, and the several processes in which they are employed.
PHYSIOLOGY OF DIGESTION.
The organs of digestion are (1) the mouth, connected with which are the teeth and salivary glands; (2) the stomach, with the gastric juice which it secretes; (3) the intestines, in which are found the pancreatic and intestinal juices, and also the bile, which is elaborated by the liver.
Now let us observe the changes through which a portion of food passes in the process of digestion. After being taken into the mouth, it is comminuted by the teeth, aided by the muscles of the lower jaws. This process is called mastication; and while it is being performed, another, known as insalivation, is taking place, which consists in the thorough admixture of the food with the salivary juice, which is the product of the three pairs of salivary glands situated about the mouth. The office of the saliva is two-fold; 1. It moistens the food, and thus assists mastication and deglutition; 2. It assists in the digestion of the farinaceous portions of the food, or those portions consisting of starch. Mastication and insalivation being properly completed, deglutition is performed, which is a somewhat complicated mechanical process, by which the prepared food is introduced into the stomach through the œsophagus, or meat-pipe.
Having reached the stomach, the food is immediately acted upon by that organ for the purpose of performing gastric digestion, or chymification. The initiatory step of the process is the absorption of whatever superabundant fluid there may have been taken with the food, by a large number of venous absorbents situated in the mucous membrane of the stomach. Then the gastric fluid is poured out, and by means of its solvent properties the food is converted into a soft, pulpy mass called chyme.
While this process is in progress, the muscular walls of the stomach are constantly contracting in such a manner as to keep the whole contents of the organ in a state of agitation, thus bringing the digestive juice in immediate contact with every particle of the food. That this may be accomplished efficiently, it is obvious that the food must first have been properly masticated and softened in the mouth, before its introduction into the stomach.
The chyme thus formed in the stomach is not a strictly homogeneous mass, except in appearance. The gastric fluid acts only upon the albuminous portions of the food, as the gluten of vegetables and the muscular fiber of animal food; hence, we have mingled together the digested albumen, the partially digested starch, the wholly undigested fat (if eaten), and some undigested gluten or albuminous matter, together with the saliva and the gastric juice.
Having reached this stage in the process of preparation for assimilation, or conversion into living tissue, the whole mass is slowly passed along through a kind of valve in the lower extremity of the stomach known as the pylorus, into the upper part of the small intestine, called the duodenum. Here it is subjected to the action of both the intestinal and the pancreatic juices, the latter being the product of the pancreatic gland. There is also present a greater or less quantity of bile, which enters the intestine in company with the pancreatic juice.
Here the work of digestion is completed, a process termed chylification. The intestinal juices finish the work begun by the gastric juice upon the albumenoid substances, while the pancreatic juice completes the digestion of the starch, which the saliva had only begun. The pancreatic juice, possibly assisted somewhat by the bile, also reduces the fatty portions of the ingesta to a state of emulsion which admits of its absorption.
The only work now remaining to be performed is that of absorption, by which means the prepared food may be introduced into the blood and so carried to all parts of the body and utilized. This process has already partially taken place in the stomach; indeed, a little portion of the food was doubtless absorbed even in the mouth.
Now let us observe the mutual dependence of all of the various processes which we have been considering. First of all was prehension, which is certainly of the greatest importance, as it is quite impossible for the most efficient digestive organs to manufacture good nourishment out of poor material.
Next is mastication, which, as already observed, is very essential to stomach digestion. It is equally important as a means to secure the thorough insalivation of the food, a process very essential to perfect digestion. Hence we see the evils which must arise from hasty eating. The food will be crowded into the stomach in so coarse and undivided a state that it cannot be properly acted upon by the gastric juice. It will also be deprived of an important digestive fluid, so that an extra task will be imposed upon the remaining juices.
If the food is improperly acted upon in the mouth, or if it is improper in kind or quantity, the work of the stomach is interfered with and delayed, so that fermentation, with its many disagreeable consequences, is quite likely to ensue. And not only the stomach suffers, not being able to properly perform its functions, but all of the remaining digestive organs also suffer from the same cause, and not a single process is efficiently performed.
RELIGIOUS NEWS AND NOTES.
By Editor
—The Episcopal Bishop of Hong Kong has ordained three Chinese clergymen.
—There are thirteen Methodist Sunday-schools in Utah, with a membership of 977.
—A monument is to be erected in Dundee, Scotland, to the memory of the late Rev. George Gilfillan.
—The Protestants of America and Great Britain contribute annually $6,000,000 to foreign missions.
—To every eight hundred persons in this country there is one minister, while in India there is not one minister to three hundred thousand.
—With the exception of a few towns on the coast of China, there are in all that empire scarcely a dozen Hebrew families. The Jews are hardly known in China and only the learned are aware of their existence.
—The fourteenth of November has been fixed for arguing before the United States Supreme Court the cases involving the validity of the laws of Congress prohibiting polygamy. The arguments and the decision will be awaited with much interest. If, as cannot be doubted, the final judgment shall be in support of the laws, it will be a fitting opportunity for Congress and the administration to provide for their enforcement.
—Christian Statesman.
—A small religious body called the Amish, recently held its Annual Conference near Eureka, Ill. It is an offshoot of the Mennonites, dating back to the seventeenth century, originating in Germany, and deriving its name from Jacob Amen. When the meetings break up, the brethren salute each other with a kiss, which they regard as an important ordinance. They take no part in civil affairs, and are sober, honest and industrious. If one of them meets with misfortune and cannot pay his debts, the church does it for him, and they advise a member to always consult with the church before embarking in any new enterprise, and if the church approves it will see him out of trouble if he fails. They number about ten thousand in the United States and Canada.
SECULAR NEWS.
-England and France have both raised money for the fever sufferers.
-There are nearly 80,000 lunatics in public and private asylums in England.
-It has been arranged to close the Paris Exhibition on the 10th of November.
-It is estimated that 1,721,000 gallons of wine will be made in the Napa valley this season.
-Thirty-seven people were recently suffocated during a panic in the Royal Coliseum Theatre, at Liverpool.
-There are more than 9,600,000 acres of cotton land in Texas, which, if cultivated would yield a larger crop than that produced in the whole United States at the present time. Texas now raises one-fifth of the whole crop, and more than any other one State in the Union.
-The consumption of coal in London is steadily augmenting, both in an arithmetical and a geometrical ratio. Thus in 1681 the consumption was within 200,000 tons; in 1851 increased to 3,500,000 tons, 1861 to 5,073,275 tons, and in 1877 to 9,000,700 tons. For manufacturing purposes alone 1,500,000 tons are used up annually in this city.
-The financial suffering in France, last year, in consequence of political agitation and stagnation in trade, is shown by the fact that the pawnshops in Paris made nearly $8,000,000 of loans on almost 2,000,000 objects—a greater amount than for years before. So much furniture and so many heavy articles were pledged that great warehouses had to be rented to store them in. An unusual number of articles were abandoned—well nigh 200,000—and when sold they brought over $200,000 more than they had been pledged for.
-The agricultural statistics of Ireland for the present year have been obtained by 3,436 members of the Irish constabulary. The various holdings, which amount to nearly 600,000, were visited by the enumerators, and from the facts so obtained it appears that the total acreage under all crops this year, was 5,203,705, against 5,265,901 acres last year, showing a decrease in the extent under crops in the present year of 62,196 acres. It appears from the summaries that, compared with 1877, the increase in the acreage under wheat is 14,714 acres, barley 17,713 acres, bere and rye 315 acres, cabbage 156 acres, and carrots, parsnips, and other green crops 411 acres; meadow and clover increased by 17,799 acres. In oats there is a decrease of 63,535 acres, beans and peas 381 acres, potatoes 26,306 acres, turnips 4,437 acres, mangel-wurzel and beet root 3,761 acres, and vetches and rape 3,312 acres; flax decreased by 11,572 acres. Of the 4,651,527 acres for the year 1878, included under the head "Bog and marsh, barren mountain land, water, roads, fences, etc.," 1,683,836 acres have been returned by the enumerators as bog and marsh, viz., 318,409 acres in the province of Leinster, 311,680 acres in Munster, 373,026 acres in Ulster, and 680,721 acres in Connaught; and 2,107,253 acres as barren mountain land, 173,539 acres being in the province of Leinster, 666,630 acres in Munster, 704,229 acres in Ulster, and 562,855 acres in Connaught. The returns of Live stock for 1878, when compared with 1877, show an increase in the number of horses and mules of 9,953, asses of 3,918, sheep of 106,721, goats of 13,324, and poultry of 143,606, and a decrease in cattle of 12,847, and in pigs of 199,372. In connection with the area under flax, the number of scutching mills enumerated in 1878 is as follows: In the province of Ulster, 1,162; Leinster, 13; Munster, 20; and Connaught, 17; making a total in Ireland of 1,212.
-The year 1878 will be long remembered for the great number and violence of its storms, the intensity of its heat and the frightful pestilence generated by it. The spring opened with a series of hurricanes in the West and destructive thunder-storms in the East, such as no previous year in the history of this country had brought. These were followed by weeks of torrid heat and months of destroying plague, reaching into the late autumn. Then the equinoctial gales, first breaking on the English and Irish coasts with extraordinary violence, and afterwards, on the 12th and 13th of October, along the coasts of New England, where a vast quantity of shipping and numbers of lives were lost, and mourning carried into hundreds of households. Now comes the last chapter (to date) in the strange, eventful history of the year, in the shape of a great cyclone, which, originating in the Gulf of Mexico or Caribbean Sea, has swept along the region between the Atlantic and the Alleghanies, carrying terror, death and wholesale ruin in its path, from Cape Hatteras to Cape Cod. Hundreds of lives have been lost from vessels foundered at sea or blown ashore, and millions of dollars will hardly cover the loss of property.