Newspaper Page Text
The OhristLyn Index
THE SOOTH-WBSTEBN |T\ THE OHEIBTIAN HESALD
OF ALABAMA. ' '
_ of Tennessee.
YOL. 55-•♦ NO. 6.
Table or Contents.
Fibst Page.— Alabama Depai-tment: Record of
State Events; Spirit of the Religions Press;
Baptist News and Notes; The Bright Forever
—Poetry; General Denominational News; etc.
Sbcond Page.— Our Correspondents: The Tree
of Lrf,-F. C. Armstrong; Minutes of the
General Meeting Fourth District Middle Asso
ciation— B. L. J. Grant; “Pass Under the
Bod”—lda Lou Murphy; Acknowledgements—
S. Boykin; A Correction—W.JL. Kilpatrick, eto.
Select Miscellany: By the Dead—Poetry;
Dr. Angus on the Revision of the New Testa
ment; A Cheering jßeport; The Christian In
dex ; Science and Education.
Third Page.—Out Pulpit: The Gospel the Only
Saving Power of God—A Sermon :bv Rev. W.
M. Bridges, Sugar Valley, Gfk. The Sunday-
School : Saul and his Sons 81ain—Lesson for
February 13; How to Raise Missionary Money
—How Many Schools will Try it This Year ?
T. C. Boykin ; Things l Would Like to Know
T. C. Boykin.
Focbth Page. —Editorial: Our Pulpit; The
Growth of Character; “The Bright Forever;”
The New Year; Early English Baptisms; The
Offer; Our Foreign Missionaries; Georgia
Baptist News—Bev. D. E. Butler. The Mod
ern Judas; Bibleophile—Rev. J. S. Baker. “A
Peculiar People;” “In Time;” etc.
Fifth Page.— Special Contributions: Roman
ism in Georgia—Rev. T. B. Cooper; The Sun
day-school Cause in Harmony with the Mis
sion of Messiah—Prof. Marion Sams; Wanted,
Il.e Deaconess. Secular Department: Geor
gia News; Domestic Notes; ex.
>AGK —The Grange : Co-Operation—The
Mississippi Valley TradingjCompany—lts True
Position as to the Patrons of Husbandry—
Circular of National Grange Executive Com
mittee ; A Bad Prospect; Georgia Farm Notes:
Corn—Value of Deep Ploughing ; Confidence;
Factory Enterprise in Mississippi; The Cot
ton Mania'; etc.
Seventh Tage.— Science and Agriculture : Ento
mological ; Avoid Debt; The Bog Law;
Grange Gosßip; etc.
Eighth Page.— Our Correspondents: Facts for
the Thoughtful and Pious—H. A. Tupper-
The Service of Song—W. T. Brantly; Missions
—Plans, etc—C. M. Irwin; A Church Consti
tuted in Emanuel County; etc. Publishers’
Department. Obituaries. Advertisements.
INDEX AND BAPTIST.
ALABAMA DEPARTMENT.
The University has one hundred cadets.
Sheep raising is attracting attention in Tus
caloosa county.
The diptheria is prevailing in Pickens
county.
VT ' '
-Negroes are leaving Macon county by the
.hundreds for the west.
is proposing to draii; Cypress
a wamp near-that city.
The veteran Commodore, Y. M. Randolph,
■lied at Blount Springs, on the 28th ult.
The gale last week did considerable damage
in some parts of the State.
Eight negro prisoners recently escaped from
Jail at Clayton.
The Jews of Selma are building a syna
gogue.
There were one hundred and twenty-eight
deaths in Selma last year.
Hon. G. H. Pendleton recently visited
.Montgomery.
Rev. J. D. Burkhead has accepted a call to
t he Presbyterian church at Huntsville.
Rev. E. L. Loveless has become principal of
the Alabama Conference female school at Tus
keegee.
A meeting of Alabama veterans of the war
with Mexico was held in Montgomery on the
ilPth inst.
Miss Cooney Howell, of Morgan county,
died, recently, from accidentally taking pois
on.
The Eufaula Times says the proposed com
pletion of the Brunswick and Albany railroad
to Eufaula, is all the talk now over in Albany.
The Mobile Register thinks that the future
coal market of Mobile will exceed in value
that of her cotton. Nor is Alabama iron
worth less in value than the coal to work it.
m The bill introduced into the legislature to
the City Court of Selma, was] amen
ded in that body so as to increase the salary of
the judge from $2250 to S3OOO, and make its
payment a tax upon the county, and passed.
Major R. A. Bacon has been appointed
treasurer a nd auditor of the Alabama and Chat
tanooga railroad, under the superintendency of
*£d. Charles P. Ball. Col. Ball has also ap
pointed Mr. Frank I-. Wadsworth, assistant
superintendent; Major M. Grant, general
freight and ticket agent; Mr. John McVev, su
perintendent of the motive power and car
shops; Mr.Thomas J. Hewlett, superinten
d ent of telegraph and train dispatcher.
Brother Bailey, Evangelist of the State Mis
sion Board reports, the following collections
for the past year:
Cash for State Board. vm rq
“ “ Poreign Board '.l 57 05
“ “ Centennial..: 7™
Fledges secured for Stats Board 27o!(X)
Rev. T. M. Bailey, the very efficient Evan
gelist of the State Mission Board has been re
elected. No brother could perform this ar
duous labcr more efficiently, and bis re-ap
poinunent * merited tribute to his excellen
oe in this department of denominational la
bor.
Spirit of tire Religious Press,
—The Examiner and Chronicle, (New York)
of the 27th ult., contains a most excellent ar
ticle on public education. In this it is laid
down as a general principle, that the State ed
ucates for its own sake and not for the sake of
the pupil, and, therefore, nothing should be
taught at public expense which does
to produce direct to the
and permanence o^^^m)vernment.
p a
sideration of those 7h
the impression that the hard earned
wealth of- one citizen can be lawfully applied
to the purpose ofgiving educational polish to
the children of others:
If, then, we examine our schools under the
light of this principle, we cannot fail to dis
cover many expenses which are unjustifiable.
And, to be definite, all the “higher” or “extra”
studies must fall under this head. For the di
rect result of such studies is not to secure the
existence of the State, but to provide a means
of earning a living for the individual. For
instance, the teaching of some of the modern
languages has become a marked feature of our
large city schools. Now, a modern language
is meant either as an accomplishment or as a
business.. If the young Miss wishes to become
accomplished in French, ought not her pa
rents to pay for it ? If a boy desires to be fit
ted for business among Germans, who ought to
pay for it? Again : when we find that schol
ars in the large public schools can be taught
drawing and designing at the people’s cost, it
seems that we have something hardly to be jus
tified. Indeed, the boy may be laying the
foundations of future profit and fame as an ar
tist or architect, but who should pav for it?
When a public school goes so far as to add in
struction in telegraphy to its many attractions
(and even this has been proposed), we may
begin to wonder and ask wbereunto this may
grow. And yet there is not the least differ
ence in principle between teaching telegraphy
or book-keeping to your son at other people’s
expense, and teaching German or algebra on
the same terms.
The New York Baptist Weekly reviews
the history of a society for the prevention of
cruelty to children, founded about one year
since, in the city of New York; its membership
constituted, in part, by many of the leading
public men of that city. After a most gratify
ing statement of the operations;and results of
this philanthropic aesooiatifA-a
tlftif should cause a blush of shame for the
monsters of cruelty who need to be restrained
from the oppression of helpless childhood.
The writer thus concludes:
The record of operations during the pat
year includes some affecting cases. Our read
ers will remember the rescue of the little sev
en-year-old “Prince Leo” from the Tivioli
Theatre in November last. Another case was
discovered about the same time, of a little girl
ten years old, who was found late at night in a
low drinking saloon in South street, in charge
of two Italian musicians, playing on castanets
and dancing. She was completely exhausted,
but was forced to continue her performance by
her unfeeling masters. Many similar and even
more distressing cases of cruel treatment have
been brought to light, and the perpetrators
punished by fines and imprisonment; and the
managers of the society may fairly claim to
have succeeded in accomplishing, to a most en
couraging extent, the purpose with which they
entered upon their humane undertaking— viz.,
“to convince those wno cruelly ill-treat and
shamefully neglect little children that the time
has passed when this can longer be done, in
this State at least, with impunity,”
—Having in preceding paragraphs present
ed the subject of prayer with the importance
it merits; the Christian Secretary closes as fol
lows, on works:
God works by means. He uses His people.
It is good to pray, and to keep on praying.
But there is something equally important—
doing ! Prayer will be of little avail if it be
not supplemented by action. It would be like
an army hoping to conquer by its drums and
fifes[and parades, without moving upon the
enemy in the use of its furnished weapons. Sup
pose all in attendance on the week of prayer
meetings were to rally to the work of the Lord
with a becoming earnestness, activity and self
sacrifice. How soon would many of the prayers
offered be answered ! What a glorious sequel to
a week of prayer 1 What a blessed and wide
spread revival of religion would be begun!
Is not this just what God requires of His people
now ? Are they not convinced that this is
their duty ? Do they not hear in their hearts
the voice of God as Moses repeated it to the
chosen at the edge of the sea : “Go forward 1”
If so, then in the words of the apostle James,
to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth
it not, to him it is sin.”
—The Central Baptist says:
The believer in Jesus Christ has eternal life
abiding in him, and he cannot come into con
demnation. This life is not an attainment,
but an impartation—it is the gift of God
through our Lord Jesus Chrißt. Eternal life
is not a mere change in the relation of the re
cipient to the divine law. It is a state of mor
al being—it is a spiritual life, the result of un
ion with Christ. He who believes in Christ
is anew creature in him. He is invested with
the Christ life. Ail of the new impulses of
the bouI; all of the new views of God and
eternity ; all the new motives to action, are the
effects of the presence of the spirit of Christ in
the mind.
This spiritual life is not an inactive, but an
active principle. He that was dead is made
alive ; and life is active. The believer abides
not in a state of passive receptivity, but the
faith of the gospel in heart manifests itself by
an active productivity. He that receives good
becomes active in goodness. They that are
dead to sin, should remain no longer therein,
but putting off the deeds of the flesh should
walk with Christ in all holy living, for in him
they are complete, and are buried with him in
baptism, wherein they are also risen with him
through the faith of the operation of God who
bath raised him from the dead. And he who
• ” b u ß s ! n “ he quickened togeth
er with him, having forgiven all Impasses.
FRANKLIN PRINTING HOUSE, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FEBRUARY 10, 1876.
—While commenting on the subject of lay
preaching, the Christian Observer, (Presbyterian)
says:
The tendency of human nature is to throw
off responsibility. It is so in every depart
ment of life. The intelligent and the wealthy
have cast the control of politics oftentimes, in
to unworthy hands. Parents commit the ed
ucation of their children to teachers and give
themselves no further concern about it. And
so in religion, the constant tendency is to cast
the care of souls whollwgtfßc the ministers.
But responsibility cannoWMUirown off. The
LLord who has given the (marge to individ
■PiS will demand of individuals an account of
it. The “wicked and slothful servant” who
tried to escape the labor of taking care of his
singte talent by burying it in a napkin, was
‘‘cast into outer darkness.” The parent can
not cast thejresponsibility of the education of
his children upon other shoulders. He whose
child is not trained in “the nuture and admo
nition of the Lord,” himself must answer for
it. And the believer cannot cast the reßonsi
bility of the salvation of souls upon the shoul
ders of any man, or any class of men.
—We clip the following paragraph from an
editorial in the Boston Watchman on the sub
ject of schools:
Notwithstanding the solitary utterance of
an inconsequential priest here and there, in
defence of the school system, and the Jesuit
ical affirmation no real injury is intended, and
the loud, out-spoken declarations of a few
Catholic laymen, that the public schools
should be maintained, we have no faith in the
clfurch of Rome. We know her to be the en
emy of public sehools, and we doubt not that
she will demolish them if site ever obtains
political pswer sufficient for the purpose. Our
only safety is in keeping power off her hands.
In vain politicians may tell us there is no
danger, that Rome has changed, that she no
longer has a proscriptive spirit. Facts prove
it lo be otherwise. As often as the real voice
of Jhe ohurch is heard, it comes with the same
old ring. We submit to every candid reader
how much mercy and forbearance we are to
expect of a church one of whose leadiug or
gana puts forth a declaration like this which
comes from the Tablet:
“ They have as Protestants no authority in
religion, and count as nothing in the church of
God. _ They have from God no right of prop
agandism, and religious liberty is in no sense
violated when the national authority, whether
Catholic or Pagan, closes their mouths and
their places of holding forth.”
—The Western Methodist thus photographs the
real Christian:
Christians are the representatives, the wit
nesses of Christ. They are the life of the
world. They are the light of the world. Thev
i_re the responsitoriee, not only or life .and
Beht, but oJUfnjny fcf p<.W ‘ TM purify
Is their power. Power with God and with
man is their endowment, their peculiarity, by
reason of their purity. Possessing spiritual
e xistence and spiritual knowledge, having
faith, hope and love, being holy even as God
is holy, they are endued with power in them
selves and power from On High. The very
essence of their being implies power. Theirs
is the personal power which develops itßeif
even from the presence of its possessor, and in
the words of his mouth and in the works of his
hands. Theirs is also the relative power,
which springs from the connection between
promise and prayer, and from the union of
the divine with the human, so that even impo
tence becomes omnipotence. Such certainly is
the true theory of the Christian’s power as set
forth in the Scriptures.
—The Presbyterian furnishes the fol
lowing paragraphs in an article reviewing the
Ministers’ Convention, which closed the ser
vices of Messrs. Moody and Sankey in Phila
delphia :
The religious feeling in the Convention was
deepened, evidently, by all the services. Mr.
Moody was the presiding genius of the whole
Heries of meetings. His earnest spirit was in
fused into all the services, and the interest
rarely flagged, and when it did, was easily
freshened. The presence of the great multi
tude was itself an inspiration, and the songs of
praise, when they were lifted by ten thousand
voices, were something wonderful to hear. No
one could come into such an assembly without
feeling a quickening influence in his own
heart, and a glow of Christian love, such as
rarely is vouchsafed to the scattered and toil
ing workers in the vineyard, to whom like
minded associates seem oftentimes to be few,
and widely separated. It ais blessed thing at
times, to have the sense of Christian fellowship
intensified, and to have the heart reassured,
by visible demonstration, that we are sur
rounded by a great company, who are striving
to serve Christ and extend His glorious king
dom on the earth.
The best result, however, which can be hoped
for from the Convention, is that it may serve
to beget earnestness, and freshen faith in many
places, and in Christian churches removect
from the scene of this great demonstration.
Kindling—a stirring in the ashes of dead fires,
or striking new lights, and sending the flame
afar, this is a j.ood, blessed Christian work. A
freshened Christian life in all the churches
would be the truest form of a revival, and
would be the assurance that many sinners
would be converted to God. If the fires which
burned so brightly last week can only be car
ried out in burning hearts to the towns, and
cities, and churches around, then there will be
fruit which will repay all trouble and labor,
and graciouß results will soon be gathered in,
which will make glad the civ of our God.
The subjoined, from the Baptist Union is
eminently practical:
Workers are scarce. The churches are full
of idlers. The chief reason is that no one sets
the work in order. Members are received,
and exhorted to do their duty, to be faithful,
and then left to themselves, without direction
or plan. If a mannfacturershould send his
employes into his shop in that style, similar
results would follow. There would be more
idleness, waste and wrangling than work. The
service of Christ is a trade, requiring skill and
instruction. Leadership and organization are
necessary to attain it. If pupils at school
need teachers, disciples in churches need guid
ance. Those pastors who know how to work,
and how to set others at work, always succeed
in gathering abundant harvests.
Some pastors have too manv plans, begin
too many schemes, and prosecute none wi'h
steadiness. Otberd do all that is possible
themselves, and allow the membership to
sleep. Others fret and scold, exhort and en
treat, but fail to lead the way to activity.
Genius for and leading is not com
mon, and lack it may well pray for
the Spirit them with might in
the inner mhn!* Pastors need to study, seek
for skill tb lead, as well as wisdom to
teach. ' Overse-iing is quite as important as
preaching. And skill to follow is as desira
ble as skill to lead.
—The Liberal Christian, the leading Unitarian
organ of theJdjiaitry, holds the following re
markable language in a recent editorial, in
which it endorses the work of the revivalists,
Moody and SaMley:
“ For we think the so-called
orthodoxy of the country, though not true
from an intellectual standpoint, is probably
abreast of the general wants and capacity of
the people; and that its dogmatic errors are
not onljr compatible with its essential, moral
and spiritual influence, but largely the condi
tions of its popular efficacy. Indeed, it serins
plain to us thaWjrthodox liberalism is rather
an intellectual than a moral and spiritual or
strictly religious influence, and that we owe no
small part of the moral declension of our
American ChrisUidom to its sway. The best
orthodox influence is that connected with a
positive dogmajjatsystem. There must needs
De trellises of doctrine and skeletons of rigid
opinions—creediet, in short—for the vines of re
ligious feeling .to run upon and ripen their
fruitß. Happy ' those who have faith enough
in their hereditary creeds to teach them bold
ly, and make them the stagings from which
they build the moral and religious life of the
people. Their firmness and fixity seem prac
tically to be of more importance than their ab
solute intellectual truth.”
The Christian Advocate has the following
touching words on the forgiving of injuries :
It is supriaing how often the dark past comes
up,'like a wretched ghost, to haunt a present
which, but for this unwelcome visitant, might
be beautiful and joyous. There are some na
tures which find it very difficult to let the un
pleasant past die. It will live, like the weed
seeds of years ago, to take root and grow in
summers where only fragrance and beauty
should bloom. But the conquest of our hearts
is no matter of personal culture. It comes of
the grace of God. We are disgusted with the
preaching of culture and good habits and at
tention to one’s self-cultivation as sufficient for
good working and pure living. Some of the
disciples once stood amazed at their inability
to cast out evil ppirits and cure diseases. They
evidently thought their contact with the Mas-'
ter would help them. But the Master rent all
their fancied nt tious to pieces when, in answer
to their questio why they could not do it, He
told them that 1 ich things could only come by
fastingjand pra er. In other words, He re
vealed to them rare secret that it was not
the forces that could
W regenera
tion and purification of the soul itself And
forgiveness is a miracle. It comes of leaning
on God for strength, and the forgiveness of
sins which He works out. We need at this
transitional time, |to go to God in trust that
He will bestow on us this power of forgiving
all the injuries of the old year, and com
mencing the new with a charity as broad and
loftly as the sky above us—yea, as the love
that has enveloped us during all our years.
—We earnestly request ever# pastor to call
the special attention of his people, at latest by
next Sabbath, to this paper, and make still
another vigorous effort to,secure for us, at once,
every additional name possible. —New York
Christian Advocate.
That is the way our Methodist brethren
work for their papers. Will not the Baptist
pastors, and many laymen also, do a little
work for the Baptist papers just now ? Cen
tral Baptist.
Yes, will they do it? Ought they not to do
it, if they earnestly desire to spread the light
and power of Gospel truth.— Eds. Index.]
—The Chronicle and Examiner publishes the
following allusion to the question of the Bible
in public schools in the recent message of Gov
ernor Bedle of New Jersey, adding the sub
joined comment:
Free schools are safeguards of the State and
nation, and should be kept completely di
vorced from sectarian control or influence. It
is a cardinal principle in our political encono
my, and fundamental in our system of govern
ment, that Church and State must be kept
perfectly separate; but mistaken notions arise
oftentimes in applying the principle. We
should never lose sight of the fact that this is a
land of Christian, or Bible character and civi
lization, and that its teachings are the founda
tion of our virtue and social elevation.
These, it is true, may and do assume different
shapes in men’s minds, in considering their
relations to God, thereby inducing Buch reli
gious sects and associations for worship as may
be deemed necessary or better for that purpose,
according to belief, but the great undisputed,
underlying doctrines of duty to God and man
and individual virtue, which make good citi
zens, are in the Bible, and to exclude it from
being read in schools is a retrogression towards
heathenism. The simple reading of the Bi
ble in schools is not the teaching of sectarian
or peculiar religious be!ief^simply.because it is
used to establish religious creeds and forms.
The school should never be Bhut against the
Bible. Our law is perfectly just. Its words
are, “that it shall not be lawful for any teach
er, trustee or trustees, to introduce into or have
performed in any school receiving its propor
tion of the public money, any religious ser
vices, •ceremony or forms whatsoever, except
reading the Bible and repeating the Lord’s
Prayer." This gives the Bible a fair chance in
its influence upon civil character and duty to
the Creator, while an exclusion of it is a terri
ble stride in making the State godless.
These are no doubt sadly old-fashioned sen
timents. They savor of the wisdom of the
past. But somehow or other they seem to “fit
in” admirably with Borne other things for
which New Jersey hasgaind an enviable repu
tation—her upright judiciary, her respect for
labor, the stability, intelligence and thrift of
her people. Can it be justly said that these
things have no necessary connection with the
respect shown for the Word of God ?
—The Congregationalist discourses on what it
calls “ Christian stealing” as follows:
Is t here any sadder thing than to see a man
have money, and plenty of it; such a plenty of
itß;at he can thoroughly afford the glorious
jtffnry of giving, and giving largely, and giv
ing olten, to make his fellow men better and
happier— to infuse his own volition as a bene
ficent force into the mingling agencies of the
coming years on away down into the far, far
future—to be a worker-together with God in
the most God-like function, so to speak, of God
himself—to have this grand glorious possibili
ty, and miss of it, and instead of expanding
into a great heart and a noble and generous
and God-like soul, to grow hard and grow
small, and grow sneaking and stingy, and con
temptible, and shrink and shrivel and weazen
into a mean and miserable thief.
For the Index and Baptist. 1
THE BRIGHT FOREVER.
0, the sweet, the bright Forever !
Let my mind upon it dwell;
Let it visit rainbow circles—
Dream the joys it cannot tell.
0, the amber tinted circlet
Bending o’er the crystal deep ;
O, light eternal beaming
On the eyes that never weep.
0, the sweet, the bright Forever !
With its music laden breeze,
Wafted thro’ the vales celestial,
Kissing all the holy trees.
0, the love light ever beaming
From those sinless, happy eyes !
And the soft angelic pinions
Bustling thro’ the radiant skies.
O, the sweet, the bright Forever!
With its rainbow circled throne,
Where the blessed Saviour reigneth
All the loving hearts his own.
When the King and Saviour speaketh,
All heaven lies hushed and still,
And the angels veil their faces
As they wait to hear His will.
0, the sweet, the bright Forever !
With its harps and crowns of gold,
With its gilded pathways stretching
Where new glories still unfold.
With angelic forms and voices,
Thro’ the gemmed and starry space,
Music, rapture, radiance, glory,
Filling all the holy place.
0, the sweet, the bright Forever !
Everywhere is written Love,
Not a thought, or wish, or footstep
From the bright domain can rove.
Onward ever to new glories,
Thingß grander and eternal,
Upward, upward, ever onward
To joy and bliss supernal.
0, the sweet, the bright Forever !
Let our minds upon it dwell.
Angel spirits we would whisper
To our earthly home, farewell.
We are striving, we are waiting,
When 'tie finished bear us o’er
To the music, radiance, glory,
Of the bright Forevermore !
Griffin, Jan. 31, 1876.
BAPTIST NEWS AND NOTES.
—The Bapriefcs of Nketn CaVolina hjfve One
hundred thousand members, white and color
ed ; seven hundred and fifty churcheß, and four
hundred and fifty ministers. Thirty-six stu
dents for the ministry are in their seminaries.
—A glorious work of grace has been in pro
gress in the Mary Sharp College, Winchester,
Tennessee. Over 50 young ladies had pro
fessed hope in Christ, and between 30 and 40
have put on Christ.
—Rose Hill Baptist church, near Island
Tank, on the Port Royal Island, was recently
burned to the ground. The fire is supposed
to have originated from the sparks of a pass
in g locomotive on the Port Royal Railroad.
Scarcely anything but the records of the
church was saved.
—The Morristown, Tennessee, Baptist Re
flector says: Brother S. A. Burnett, the clerk
of the church at Big Creek, gives us the follow
ing, as the results of the revival at his church
in Cooke county : Received by experience,
49 ;by relation, 8; by letter, 2; making in all
59 additions to the church. This is a work of
grace almost without a parallel in our section
for many years. Brother Walters, from
Knoxville, came in about the middle of the
meeting, and rendered efficient service. Brother
Gilbert did the most of the preaching during
the meeting, and has greatly endeared himself
to the brethren. Oh! that the Lord would
visit all His churches with such an outpoaring
of His Spirit!
—The Baptists of Tennessee propose to raise
$300,000 for the Baptist University at Jack
son.
—The popularity of brother T. T. Eaton,
pastor of the church in Petersburg, Virginia,
is universal in that city.
Dr. A. J. F. Behrends, of Cleveland, Ohio,
has resigned his charge of the Baptist church,
because he is not in sympathy with the denom
ination on the communion question. He is to
be installed as pastor of the Providence, R. I.
Union Congregational church.
—At a meeting of the Baptist Social Union
of Philadelphia, a resolution was passed call
ing a Convention of the different Baptist Social
Unions of the United States, to be held in the
city of Philadelphia at some time during the
month of June, 1876, for the consideration of
such subjects as may hereafter be agreed upon.
—Bev. J. Sweeney has just closed at Forest
Hill, West Virginia, a meeting of seven days,
with fifteen additions, seven of them Meth
odists, one old brother of seventy-two sum
mers, who had been a member of Methodist
Episcopal church forty-two years, and a class
leader and steward in that church. His grand
son was baptized at the sametime.
—The “ Baptist Year Book,” for 1876, is
out. It gives reports from 925 Associations in
the United States, in which there are 21,255
churches, with 13,117 ordained ministers,
(1,815,300) one million eight hundred and
fifteen thousand and three hundred members.
During the past year 84,874 were added to
onr churches by baptism. Probably the sta
tistics of a thousand churches are not included
in this exhibit, as no reports were received
from some 300 Associations. Then, too, the
anti-Mission Baptists are left out. A full
oount would give the Baptists of the United
States not leas than 2,000,000 members.
WffOLE NO. 2806.
General Denominational News,
—Among the Episcopalians a free church
association has been formed in Philadelphia,
designed: 1. To maintain, as a principle'
the freedomof all seats in churches.
2. To promote the abandonement of the
sale and rental of pews and sittings, and, in
place thereof, the adoption of the princple of
the systematic free-will offerings by all the
worshippers in our churches according to their
ability.
3. To promote the recognition of the Offer
tory as an act of Christian worship, and as a
Scriptural means for raising money for pious
and charitable uses.
The means employed to attain these objects
are: The printing and dissemination of
tracts and papers ; the holding of public meet
ings; the preaching of sermons; discussion in
the public press; and the promotion of
needful legislation.
—Dr. Wm. E. Munsey and family left
Jonesboro, Tenn., recently for’New Orleans.
Dr. M. takes charge of a church in that city.
—Something entirely new in the way of re
vivals is going on at Oxford, N. Y., and
may be called a “highway and hedge” revival,
for everybody in this vicinity, for miles around,
is pouring into the house of God—the profane,
Sabbath breaking, gambling, scoffing and
sceptical. Men who pay for pews stand in the
aisle. Every horse and vehicle at times is
taxed to roll its load to the meetings, to hear
sceptics and scoffers speak and pray. Twenty
“song meetings” a week, miles a part, are
crowded.people of with the hardest stamp; they
no Jsooner come in than they break down, and
are praying men before they leave the house.
Preaching cauld hardly do this, so there is
hardly any. It is all singing. Mr. Patter
son, a Scotchman, sings Sankey’s songs, and
solos of his own, with an effect at times mar
velous. No storm nor mud can thin the au
dience. The songs are in everybody’s mouth.
—There are in Mexico, 125 Protestant con
gregations, eleven church edifices and ninety
nine halls of worship. One hundred thousand
dollars were spent last year in carrying on
this missionary work.
total population of the earth. 1,896,842 000
bnder Christian governments 685.459’, 411
Under non-Christian governments. 711 382 589
Total area of the earth by square ’
a 52,062,470
Area of Christian governments 32,419,915
Area of non-Christian lands 19,642,555
A Parish Guild has been formed recently
in the church of the Messiah, Boston, which is
divided.into divisions for the [care of church,
Sunday-school, sewng school, employment of
poor women, mission work, singing at the fu
nerals of the poor, exploring poor districts of
the city, etc. All these have work assigned
them by the rector of the parish.
Bishop Williams, the Missionary Bishop
of the Protestant Episcopal church in Japan,
is devoting two-thirds of hifi own small income
to carry on the mission work, and he lives in a
little Japanese house, hardly better than a
hut, which is the best he could buy, and thi
insignificant dwelling is church and school
house.
—The translation of the Bible into the Man
darin is now complete. The importance of
this achievement will be understood when it is
known that this is the generally employed
language of the Chinese.
For the past five years Rev. T. W. Dosh,
D.D., has been the pastor of the oldest Luther
an church in Charleston —the church which
was so long ministered to by [Dr. Bach
man. For several reasons Di. Dosh has felt
constrained to resign this charge and has ac
cepted a call to Salisbury, N. C. He still re
mains editor of the Lutheran Visitor.
—Bishop Iluntingon (Protestant Episcopal),
of Central New York, at a recent Protestant
Episcopal convocation in Watertown, New
York, spoke of the exclusion of the Bible from
the public schools as “foredoomed by circum
stances that are to be deplored,” and said that
religious instruction in such schools could be
allowed only when there was a conformity of
creeds. He suggested that, under the circum
stances, the duty of his church was to proyide
for morejeomprehensive religious instruction in
Sunday-schools, and to devote several hours
each Sunday for that purpose.
The Standard makes the following plain
and forcible commentary on the recent official
letter of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Mont
pelier, addressed to his deacons and professors,
in which the supremacy of the Pope, in con
trolling the religious and secular education of
the world, is dogmatically asserted :
W e owe thanks to the Bishop of Montpelier,
that he speaks boldly, that he gives us to un
derstand exactly what he means, and what the
Romish hierarchy mean ; to assert the subjec
tion of the world to the Pope. He tells us to
our face that Rome possesses the “absolute
right to teach the world;” that is, to control
all education, and make it subservient to the
interests and advancement of the Romish
church.
This is the issue which is to be precipitated
upon us, in America, as well. There can be
no doubt of the result ot such a contest in this
country. It is the liberty of the people against
the tyranny and assumptions of Rome j a spir
itual despotism of the medieval ages is pitted
against the civilization ot the present; an at
tempt to turn back the hands on the dial off
time several centuries. It cannot be done.
The spirit of Protestantism everywhere, rises
instinctively in rebellion against the mere sug
gestion, and the Bishop of Montpelier, and
fthoee like him, will find their claims to eda
•cate the world disallowed.