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The Christian Index! VOL. 55—NO. 31. Table or Content*. Fibst Page.— Alabama Department: Record of State Events: Our Faith iu Carping—Bev. J. 8. Baker; Spirit of the Religious Tress; Bap tist News and Notes; Genera! Denominational News. Second Page.— Our Correspondents: "Restrict ed Communion”—Seuex; Mixed Communion— G. W. Cheves; Words to Women—J. L. Lovd; Letter from Virginia; A Fine Revival—The Lord's Work Prospering—B. F. Camp; State Agents—B. Boykin; Ministers’ Relief Fund—B. Bovkin: Similitude between life and a Day: I Letter from Florida. Third Page. —Our Pulpit : Conditions of Sal vation—A Sermon, bv Rrv. J. B. Chevis, of Cuthbert, Ga. Fourth Page.— Editorial : The Practice of Prim itive Christians: Dr. Iliden’s Article—Rev. J. 8. Baker. Georgia Baptist News: Gems Reset; A Life Experience—Bev. D. Ik Butler, Fifth — Secular Department: Drudgery: RomlSh Priestcraft; Live for Something; The Georgia State Agricultural Society: First and Second Baptist Churches of Atlanta; Georgia News; Domestic and Foreign Notes; etc. Sixth Page . —General Meetings : Third Dis trict Flint River Association—G. J. Barksdale, Clerk; Second District Appalachee Association , —H. C. Fears, Secretary. The Sunday-school- Lesson for Sunday, August 20, 1876, * Mission Department: Good News from Our Mission aries—H A. Tupper, Secretary. Associatioual ( Meetings; etc. Seventh Page.— Agriculture : Georgia State Ag ricultural Convention; Georgia Farm Notes; The Birds; Farm Products of Western States. Eighth Page.— Publishers’ Department; Hollins Institute; Bells; Architecture; Iteply to "Some body;” Abandoned; Itev. I. W. Butts; Rich mond Female Institute; Atlantaßell Foundry; Washington and Lee Universitv; Dr. Hol brook’s Military School; Select School, Deca tur. Ga.; ‘‘Blood will Tell;’’ Orphan’s Home Report for Quarter outliug August Ist. Mar riages. Obituraries. INDEX AM) BAPTIST. ALABAMA DEPARTMENT. Anew grange has been oiganized at Lodi, Barbour county. Prof. S. L. Robertson has been elected prin cipal of the Birmingham public school. Iu parts of Lowndes, the worms have great ly injured cotton. Crops in North Alabama are generally re ported good. The crop reports from Butler county are ex ceedingly favorable. Since August Ist, the thermometer In Sel ma has ranged from 76 to 84 degrees. A protracted Methodist meeting has been held in Dadeville. The Calhoun county fair will be held at Jacksonville, October 13th and 14th. A Baptist Sunday-school Convention met in Tuscaloosa the 28th ult. There has’t been a symptom of yellow fever in Mobile yet. Mr. Alfred Battle has baen very ill at his residence near Carthage. The corn crop of Choctaw county will be very short. Cotton worms have appeared on river places in Choctaw and Clarke counties. Charles Lowell, of Baldwin county, was drowned off Choctaw Point the 3d. During a recent revival at Belmont, about 40 persons joined the Methodist church. The Southern JEgis says there will be cool weather about the 20th-24th. Rev. Dr. Stillwell and Rev. T. W. White, will begin a protracted meeting at Carthage, the 18:h. The salaries of teachers in the different grades of the Birmingham public school as fol lows : SBS, S4O, and S3O per month. Prof. J. T. Heard, formerly of Mulberry Academy, takes charge of Snow Hill Acade my. The Opelika Reformer has been removed to Goodwater, where it is published as the Coosa Hews. Prof. Hogg, of Montgomery, has been elect ed to the chair of mathematics in the Texas Agricultural College. Dr. Swasey has retired from the Montgom ery Plantation, of which he has been chief edi tor. Col. E. H. J. Mobley,who lived near Canoe Station, o.i the Mobile and Montgomery road, accidently shot and killed himself a few days ago. Rev. Dr. M. T. Summer has been appoint ed general financial agent for the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. There is very little sickness in Tuscaloosa. The Baptists of Troy have been holding a protracted meeting. Miss Bettie Clarke, daughter of Dr. Richard Clarke, of Selma, has accepted the position of presiding teacher in the Greensboro Female College. The State election passed off quietly. The democratic ticket was victorious by between thirty and forty thousand majority. There were great democratic gains in South Alabama and in the black counties. THE SOUTH-WESTERNT BAPTIST, of Alabama. Om FAITH IN CARPING. We believe that a little carping, occasionally, at the communications sent by correspondents to our religious papers, is calculated to subserve a use ful purpose, by leading them to exer cise more care as to the substance of what they communicate. We have concluded, in accordance with the in structions of an inspired apostle, to show our faith in this matter by in dulging in a little carping at the com munications of certain correspondents of the Religious Herald. The editors of that paper will, no doubt, be able to assign a satisfactory reason for our exercising our carping skill on their correspondents instead of our own. In the Herald, of the 27th ult., one says, referring to the disciples of A pol ios, “ They were not rebaptized though they were reimmersed.” If there be a difference in the import of the two words, relaptized and reimmersed, we desire to know in what it consists. In the same paper a correspondent says, “If Pike can wield a pike as well as a pen, I should not like to cross lances with him.” The same thing being predicated of him, we would not like to employ him to weed our corn for us, even should he offer to do the work gratuitously ; for we should expect him to cut up more corn than weeds, or grass, if he undertook the work. By the way, of this mighty man, Pike, we do not think it would he diffi cult to prove that he is a lineal de scendant of those who, in the days of the apostles, everywhere spoke evil of those who kept the ordinances as they had received them, preserved the order of God’s house, and separated from all who walked disorderly. CONCURRENT TESTIMONY. Iu the Herald, of the 20th ult., one of its correspondents reports the substance of an address delivered by its junior editor to tfy? students yf Green Springs Academy, Louisa county, Virginia, on a recent occasion, from which we make a few extracts, corroborating positions taken by us, in our late article in The Index, on the subject of “ Our Mis sion on Earth.” In discoursing on “ the conditions of success in life," he thus proceeds: 1. If you would succeed, find your place and stick to it. We have different taates and predi lections, which indicate what caliing in life we should follow ; and one should study pray erfully and earnestly the bent of his own na ture, in seeking to ascertain to what depart ment he shall devote his energies. It will often be found that the promptings of one’s own genius will accord with providential in dications as revealed in our circumstances and surroundings, and by observing them we may find to what calling we are best adapted. Alas, that in a matter of so much moment the great mass of young men give not a thought, but rush into different avocations as heedlessly as if they supposed that all men are equally adapted to every kind of thing. Hence th: failures that meet us in every direction, and the turning from one business to another, only to make more conspicuous the fact of failure. How sad to see how many persons are blun dering at things for which nature never de signed them, when in other walks of life they might have succeeded. Here is a man that un dertakes to preachjwithout being called, and he walks about Zion for years unable to hold the interest of his hearers ; and, finally, after num berless attempts, lie disappears, having done far more harm than good ; while, as a work er in amission Sunday-school, he might have been a glorious success. Here is another man who insists on being a poet, and he goes through life a terror to all into whose way he presses himself and his verses; and yet, as a field hand, cultivating corn and wheat and to bacco, be would be a success. Among the Indians. —Brother H. F. Buckner, of Eufaula, Indian Terri tory, writes under date of August 4th : “ I am camped with my wife and chil dren, at Wewoka, 50 miles from home. Very many Indians are here from far and near. The arbor was well filled the first night of the meeting. We hope for a good meeting. There is much sickness in camps, chiefly among the children.” Our Index Hymn Book is going rapidly. All who see it praise it. Send in your orders; 15 cents a copy by the fifty copies or less. —That peace is an evil peace that doth shut truth out of doors. If peaec and truth cannot go together, truth is to be preferred, and rather to be chosen for a companion than peace. —Common sense is only a modifica tion of talent. Genius is an exaltation of it; the difference is, therefore, in the degree, not nature. FKAk'ELIS PRINTING HOUSE, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, AUGUST 17, 1876. Spirit of lire Religious Press, —An old subscriber writes that he will pay his subscription for last year’s paper provided we will first publish certain matter, declined for good reasons. Is not that like business?— Texas Baptist. If that is “business,” we have a few business people up this way. A subscriber who owes us $7.15, and who had been dropped from our list lor non payment, writes us that if we will forgive him the $7.15 he will take the Recorder another year and pay $215 for it.—Western Recorder. . —Everybody is pinched, and thousands of pinches concentrate upon religious papers. They feel the pinch of every subscriber who delays payment or discontinues his paper. Some papers have lost thousands of subscribers, and suffer exceedingly from non-payment of dues. —Baptist Union —Here is the way to put revival meetings into the bloom of practical effect—the Cottgre galionalist says: “We have heard of a church that has lately passed through a season of revival, and that has since that time paid its debts, and has besides sent fora thank-offering a handsome sum to a sister church upon which a heavy pecuniary calamity had fallen.” —The Evangel has charity for sleepers, and utters the following consoling philosophy for the benefit of preachers afflicted by the pres ence of drowsy hearers: As to keeping all men awake, that is simply an impossibility. St. Paul could not do it. Under one of his sermons a young man went to sleep, fell out of the window, and broke his neck. The ability to put men asleep abides, but not the ability to repair the broken necks of drowsy bearers. Jurymen have slept under one of Rufus Choate's impassioned appeals. Men and women nod in Plymouth Church, while the pastor is thundering out his fervid oratory. A man gave a hundred dollars for a choice seat to hear Jinny Lind, and went fast asleep while the Sweedish nightingale was ut tering the impassioned words: “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” Some men are constitutionally dull. Some lead an active life, and repose and quiet bring on the spirit of drowsiness. Some serve God and Mammon; they keep the Sabbath, but they do double the work on Saturday that they do on any other day in the week, so that they are unfitted for spiritual improvement on the Lord’s day. In spite of all this, the seed is fruitful, and the word does not return void. It pleases God still by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. —To the pastorless churches especially here is an extract from an article in the Examiner & Cfuonicle that we commend to their attention : Churches ought to take into ! considersrioß theivuttf’that 15 ’feyasteViCss 7s to lack a very important condition of church life. When the Head of the Church ascended on High he received gifts for men, among which were “pastors and teachers.” Pulpit supplies are not mentioned in that connection. Without a pastor, a church is too often like a military company without a commander, a school without a teacher, possessed of any amount of latent energy, but putting forth lit tle effective force. Now and then it may hap pen that a church is so exceptionally well trained as to develop sufficient leadership to keep things in a state of nearly average effi ciincy. But even in these there is danger of be coming weary in well doing; while in most cases, as what ja everybody’s business is no body’s, the loss of effectiveness is inevitable and constant. A church without a pastor should not cease to pray and look for one. —The Baptist Weekly says: In former times the wrong churches d'd was in discarding a pastor after long service. Jn our modern times with frequent pastoral changes, it is only here and there that a man stays so long witli a church that lengthened service can be regarded as a claim for continu ance in office. _ So that after serving several churches, a minister in his old age can scarcely be regarded by any one of a dozen as having any special claim on them, and churches are not generally very anxious to discover any such obligations. But it will appear to Chris tion people, rightly thinking of it, that more of respect and, when necessary, more liberal help should be given to a faithful man who has spent his life in serving the churches than such generally receive. What though lie was never your pastor. He is a minister of Christ and at the last your treatment of his servants will not be adjudged within the narrow bounds of a single congregation. It will extend far beyond these arbitrary limits, and whatever your action may have been, Jesus will say, “Ye did it unto me.” Ihe Baptist Standard gives the following characteristic anecdote of Spurgeon, and draws a fine moral for it: Mr. Spurgeon once went to preach in a church little outside of London. The dav was wet and muddy, and the pants of Mr. Spurgeon were plentifully covered with dirt. A good deacon in the vestry said, “Brother Spurgeon, let me get a brush and take off some of that mud, you can’t go into the pulpit in that state.” “Don’t be foolish, Deacon 1” said Mr. Spurgeon, in his usual good-humored way, “don’t you see the mud is wet, and if you try to brush it off now, you will rub the stain into the cloth? Let it dry, and then it will come oft easy enough, and leave no mark.” There is an admirable hint here for every one. When evil spoken against, as we may be for the sake of the truth, and men throw mud at us, don’t be in a hurry about brushing it off. Too great eagerness in this respect is apt to rub the stain into the cloth. Let it dry, and then, by ard by, if need be, it can be removed by a little ef fort. If there is a little trouble in the church, don’t foster it by haste and hurry in doing something Let it alone, let it dry, and it will be more easily settled than you think now. Time has a wonderful power in such matters, and it is surprising how many things in this world would be far better arranged and how many difficulties easily got over by judiciously letting them dry. —The Journal and Messenger hits hard as follows: One #f the moral wrongs of this world is a promise to pay, which is nothing but a pro mise. We suspect that there exists in the Southern churches a tendency to inflation, the Cousequeuces of which fall with crush ing wT.-et upon such men as Dr. Buckner, than whom no missionary at home or abroad is more self-denying. The Watchman beautifully and eloquent ly speaks of a subject upon which we took occasion to express our sentiments in The Index recently: TV e are striving to enter on an age of re fonn reform much needed on this terres trial planet—can we not make it somewhat more complete by reforming our funerals ; ” bite we are far from encouraging a return to the sombre and melaucholy accompani ments of death which disfigured the obse qqt> of our ancestors, yet should there not be an abandonment of the gilded pretentious ness and trifling frippery which in our day has become so common? There is soaie thing subhmely dignified in death. The calm face, the folded arms, the aspect and attitude of repose, iudicate that he who siocps has done forever with shams and shows, with tinsel trumpery, and fading finery. Let not the theatrical intrude, let not the speculator iuvade the realm of time’s most undissembling reality. Let modesty and simplicity prepare the body for the grave ; and let it be borne there in quiet un ohtiusiveness, not with braying of trumpets or ”Cf cumstances of worldly pomp. For symbolic ornament, let nature’s fairest flow ers or her ripened wheat express in dumb, eloquent tongue the frailty of life, and at the same time, proclaim the usefulness, if useful, ol the one just closed and the fragrance which it leaves behind. This is all the most (esthetic taste should crave, aud this not carried to ludicrous extreme ; and this is all the most Christian heart will desire by which to set forth its confidence iu Him, who, caring for the humblest lily of the field, cannot forget to transplant the soul departed in the paradise above. —This soothing, lofty and eloquent medi tation is from the Advance ; “Shall we know each other in heaven ?” is -('question which Christians often ask without seeming to see that it strikes at the very foundation of our belief in the immor tality ol the soul. If immortality is bestowed upon us at all, it is bestowed upon us as individuals. It is a blessing to be granted to ourselves, not to someone else. We receive it iu our person al capacity. The one thing tangible in our conceptions of immortality is that it is to be a perpetuation of our individual conscious ness, of those traits, of that make-up of his tory and character by which our friends dis tinguish us from all others. How then can we fail to know each otaer; and if it is the region where love becomes perfect, how can wcjail to love each other iu heaven ? .'’jn immortality in which our dearest friends could not recognize us would be an immortality in which we could not recognize /i-q , It would be simply the cranio* of fev. ngs ifa different state A cxioteVice. The immortality that is not personal is no immortality at all. 3 he writer referred to says that the condi s of such a state are out of the region of experience, and are consequently unthinka ble. By this he probably means that we can form no material or sense conceptions ot a spiritual existence. But are there no con ceptions save sense conceptions with which we are familiar ? Or do they form even the greater portion of. our mental furniture? We are quite too apt to clothe our ideas of a future state in the vesture of the iinagiuation. But throwing imagination aside, and turning the eye carefully iu upon the action of our minds, in the region of abstract intelligence, examining the proofs we have of the activity of thought even before its advent upon the arena of consciousness, we find there the strongest ground for our hope in a future state that we can have outside of revelation. —On the subject of Dr. Burrow’s com munion with the Campbellites the “Religious Herald” comments: With the light we possessed, we c mid dis cern no advantage to the cause of truth or piety in proclaiming the hasty and indiscreet act of a good brother. Nor has calm con sideration changed our view ot tlie case. It is written : “Charity shall cover the multi tude of sins.” Mark the language : charity covers, not merely indiscretions, weaknesses, and impulsive acts, but “sins,” aye,“the mul titude of sins.” Now, we suppose, that in proportion as persons are under the influence of its lovely grace, they will be inclined to judge their fellows kindly; and, so far as it may be done without a breacli of faithfulness, to apologize and “cover” their faults. —On “Sunday-school Literature” the Watchman comments as follows: The Sabbath school library furnishes many of our scholars nearly all the reading matter which they have. This is true specially in small villages and in rural neighborhoods, but it is true to a great extent also among the poor of the larger towns and the cities. Whatever culture of mind and heart and imagination they receive is gathered largely from this source. If we presented to them an occasional story as a relief from the fatigue ol graver studier, no one could object; but when we give them fiction for fifty-two weeks in the year, and make this the chief food of their souls, we do them a certain in jury, though in some respects the impressions made upon them may be salutary. —ln an editorial on “Pike and the Religi ous Herald,” and discussing the position taken by the latter paper, The Baptists (Memphis) says: The position held and advocated by the Herald is, that the people called liaptists had no historical existence before the six teenth or seventeenth century , that they are only dissenters from Catholic and Protestant churches, and received their first baptisms and ordir aliens fiom those corrupt bodies; and, c< ,(quently, that founders ot Baptist churches were only rantized persons! If this is a misrepresentation of the Herald's position, we will willingly correct. It has lully endorsed Pike’s positions, in addition to Eld. Jeter’s own articles on the origin of the English Baptists. The Alabama Press Association have pre sented Col. J. W. Slops, president of the South and North railroad, a handsome gold-headed walking cane as a testimonial of their esteem for him as a gentlemen and an officer. THE CHHiXSTIAxISr HERALD of Tennessee. BAPTIST NEWS AND NOTES. —A pastor who has long been deterred from taking collections for missions, by the want of interest evinced by the leading members of his church, was finally induced to make the effort, was surprised to find that, as soon as his peo ple began to give money for missions, they be gan to ask information about them; and when they had given once, they were ready to give again. Let any pastor, no matter how indif ferent or how poor his church, give them a chance to give. —The church at Bedford, of which John Bunyan was pastor, was, and is, a “union’ church, which means that anything called baptism is recognized, and that the church is made up of Baptists and Pedohaptists. The natural result has followed. The union egg has again hatched out a Pedobaptist chick en. The church is now Pedobaptist. —The Baptist church at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has enjoyed a season of refreshing from God’s presence. The hearts of his peo ple have been strengthened for greater sacrifi cesand more arduous work in His vineyard. Fifty-five have professed conversion. Forty-two have been received for baptism, among whom are six heads of families and some young men of promise. —A Baptist brother in Buffalo offers SSOO to pay for the delivery and publication of a course of lectures on the “Best way of man aging the benevolent work of the churches.” —Columbian College has conferred the hon orary degree of D.D. on Rev. Luther Rice Gwaltney, President of the Judson Institute, Marion, Alabama. —They are building Baptist meeting-houses out on the prairies with hopefulness of the fu ture. Seven have recently been dedicated in Illinois all free from debt, and each will seat about three hundred and fifty persons. —Rev. W. F. Kone received an unanimous call to the Second Baptist church at Galveston, Texas. He entered upon the duties of his uew pastorate immediately. —At the semi-annual meeting of the South ern Baptist Publication Society, about S4OOO profit was reported for the past six months. - —L. B. Woolfolk, D. D., has resigned the care of the First Baptist church, Lexington, Kentucky, to take effect in September. —The Western Recorder says Rev. J. W. D. Creatb, of Texas, writes from Clarks ville, Tennessee : Dr. Jt-qA's dream has confused, so;n. oft) e brethren, and Ills position on dancing is calcu lated to do great harm among the young mem bers of our churches. lam delighted with J. M. P.’s review of Dr. Jeter.” —The recent Baptist State Convention of Alabama, was the most numerously attended since the war. —Alabama intends to raise thirty thousand dollars for the endowment of the Theological Seminary at Greenville, South Carolina. —ln its notice of the late meeting of the Big Hatchie (Tennesseee) Association, the Baptist (Memphis) says : Kind Words was recommended as tha Sun day-school paper of Southern Baptists. The proposed publication of 'lhc Little Baptist by the management of the Southern Baptist Pub lication Society received no favor, and the project, altogether premature, is understood as dropped. —Says the Religious Herald: The Evangel (organ of the Baptists ot (he Pacific coast) does not pay expenses, allowing nothing tor editing and managing it, and its owners have changed the subscription price to $3. strictly in advance, or $4 paid at the end of the year. The competition among our de nominational papers has been so close that the price at which most of them are furnished is below the cost of publication. The trouble is that the great mass of onr people are not fond of reading. —Alluding to the fact that an organ for the denomination is to be established in Mississip pi,and the discontinuance of the Mississippi de partment of the Baptist, (Memphis) Dr. Graves says “No one out of the State will oppose the move, though the great body of Baptists in it are opposed to it. We are not, for the de partment has cost us far more than it brought us.” —The Baptist has come out in a hand some new dress, which adds greatly to its ap pearance. It is a staunch and excellent paper, and deserves unlimited success. —Dr. Boyce has secured the services of Rev. Joseph E. Carter in the interest of the Theo logical Seminary. —The editor of the Biblical Recorder has had the same experience with the freedmen that Alabama pastors have iiad. Cuffee has not wished to hear preacing from the whites.—Al abama Baptist. To which the editor of the Western Recorder (Louisville) replies: Our experience with the colored people has been quite different. We have been accus tomed to preach to them more or lees, from the commencement of our ministry twenty-five years ago, and we find it quite as easy to get a hearing from them now, as it was before the war. Our trouble is that we have no time to comply with one in ten of the invitations we have to preach for them. Anew Baptist church was consecrated Sabbath before last in Lynchburg, Va. It is called College Hill Baptist church. An im pressive discourse was delivered by Dr. Bit ting, upon Nehemiah, chapter 10, verse 39 : “We will not forsake the house of our God.” An eloquent charge to the church was deliv ered by Rev. Dr. White of Maryland. The News says: This interest, under the able and indefatiga ble superintendence of Rev. B. G. Manard, has WHOLE NO. 2231. grown and prospered greatly and bids fair now that it has an organized existence, to ex’ tend its influence for good, and we predict that its one hundred and forty-two members will soon be more than doubled. It is understand that Rev. Mr. Manard will be called to the pastorate. —Mr. David Forssell, a Baptist deacon in Sweden, promises to contribute from $30,000 to $40,000 of the endowment of an educational institution at Stockholm, with preparatory, col legiate and theological departments. —The Baptists have a Sunday-school in the Raleigh, North Carolina, penitentiary. Col. Heck is superintendent, and Governor Holden is one of the teachers. The indica tions for good are said to be of a most promis ing character. General Denominational News, —Rev. Mr. Ellison, an aged minister of Virginia, who has nine churches to take care of, says his salary lias averaged $l5O per an num since he entered the ministry. —The missionary contributions of the Chris tian Micronesians are paid in cocoanut oil. The “Morning Star” carries the oil to Hono lula, where it demands a good price. —More than one thousand churches in Great Britain use unfermented wine at the communion service. —From the New York Herald we learn that an Increased revival interest is progressing among the Jews of that city. Avery large number have been in attendance at the Fulton street prayer-meeting for some time past, and have borne quite a prominent and intelligent part in the service This company have been led by Dr. Rosevalley. This gentleman seems to hold a very strong grip on his nation. He was converted under the ministry of Rev. Mr. Hammond at Washington last winter. Rev. Mr. Almon, Baptist, and Mr. Harris, Methodist both converted Israelites, have rendered effi cient service to this new method of work. On the east side of the city, where the Jews abound, very interesting meetings are held, and efforts are being made to secure head quarters for spe cial labor among them. —The New York Episcopalian says a Bap tist minister is the regular assistant of Dr. Tyng. —The Congregational churches of Massa- ■ chussetts have a membership of 86,677, which contributed last year $407,000 to benevolent objects. Lp —A circulating library and public reading room have been added to the agencies employ ed by the Presbyterian Mission in the ancient city of Damascus. —The Southern Methodist Episcopal church has appropriated SIOO,OOO to foreign missions for the current year, and laid aside $1,500 for one of its bishops to visit China and other Asiatic fields. —Two missionaries of the London Mission ary Society at Hankow, China, have been se verely injured by a mob, while visiting some Christian converts in the suburbs. The mob stone! them, and drove them back, yelling, “Go back to Hankow and preach your Jesus; we don’t want you or Jesus here.” —The American Bible Society published last year 850,470 copies of the Bible, which makes the total number issued by the society since its establishment 33,125,766. —The Bible has been largely distributed throughout the regions of the River Platte. Every city in the Argentine and Uraguay Re pulics have beed visited and some of them re peatedly. Over 5,000 copies of (lie Scriptures have been circulated in this field by the Amer ican Bible Society alone. At first the Bible was prohibited, denounced from the pulpit and frequently burnt. Public opinion Is more lib eral, and Romanism has lost its hold. —Mr. Moody’s addresses have been printed in the Malagasy language, the vernacular of the people of Madagascar. —lt is said that the Christian Chinamen in San Francisco “are doing more Christian work and paying more money for Christian pur poses, in proportion to their numbers and abilities, than any other class of Christians. —According to a San Francisco paper the Methodists in that city maintain a Chinese church of forty members, a Sunday-school, and a night school, also, a refuge and home for Chinese women. The Presbyterians have a Chinese mission church of sixty members, a home for women, and an evening school of 110 pupils. The Baptists have an evening school attended by 70 scholars, and a Sunday congre gation of forty Chinamen. There are thirteen other schools sustained by the churches for the benefit of the Chinese population. Graceful. —Yesterday, before the assem bling of the Democratic Gubernational Con vention, messengers from (he enterprising and model printing house of Jas. P. Harrison & Cos., placed hundreds of appropriately headed and elegantly printed letter heads, with envel opes to match, on all desks and stands in the hall of the House of Representatives, for the use of the delegates. It was a graceful and highly appreciated act on the part of our much esteemed friends, and is chronicled by the Constitution with a real pleasure. We clip the above notice from the Constitution, and gladly give place to it in our columns, as it chronicles an act of thoughtfulness and public-spirited courtesy that would only suggest itself to the enterprising and gentle manly firm above mentioned. — Com monwealth.