Newspaper Page Text
The Christian Index.
VOL. 55—NO. 42.
Table of Contents.
First Page. —Alabama Department : Record of
State Events: Eufanla Association—\Y. N.
Chaudoin : Spirit of the Religious Press ; Bap
tist News and Notes : The Missionary 1 tela ;
General Denominational News.
Second Page —Our Correspondents: That Lit
tle Book—•‘The Catholic Christian Instructed;
Rev. J. F. Reeves— Resolutions ; Texas Bap
tist State Convention; The Young Men * Chris
tian’s Association in Greens' oro, Georgia; In
consistency Among Professed Christians; Rev.
G. A. Nunually—Resolutions: New Hope (.Col
ored) Association—A. A. Bell; An Appeal for
Gordon Church; Facts for the Faithful H.
A. Tupper; Rev. I.R. Branham-W- H. Craw
ford. Dedication of the Nashville (Colored)
Normal and Theological Institute; How to
make Children Moral; etc.
Third Page— McCosh on Huxley Evolution
Considered.
Fourth Page. —Editorial : Brass in the Church.
Georgia Baptist News —Rev. D. E. Butler. Dr.
Richard Fuller—R. W. Fuller. Editorial Para
graphs.
Fifth Page.— Secular Department: Church
Bells; “Facts for the Faithful;” Savannah and
Brunswick; Passing Away; Literary Gossip;
“Is this Safe ?” The Pauper—Poetry; Georgia
News; Foreign and Domestic Notes; etc.
Sixth Page.— The Sunday-School; The Conver
sion of Saul—Lesson for Sunday, November
5, 1876. The Subtle Sympathy between Pulpit
and Teacher -Dr Hall; Newton County (Ga,)
Sunday-school Association.
Seventh Page. —Agricultural; Inspection and
Aualyns of Fertilizers in Georgia; Beautiful
Country Homes; The Farmer; Influential Far
mers; etc.
Eighth Page. —Editorial; Relioboth Associa
tion—Dr. J. S. Lawton ; The Ebenezer Asso
ciation—Rev. D. E. Butler ; The New Ebenezer
Association—T, C. Boykin. Marriages. Obit
uaries. Advertisements.
INDEX AND BAPTIST.
ALABAMA DEPARTMENT.
Bro. E F. Baber is to take charge of Shiloh
church, Dallas county.
The Mobile city court grand jury returned
112 indictments.
The college building near Oadeville was
burned the 16tb ult.
The year ending September 30th, the peni
tentiary’s net profits for the State were $30,882.
The Tennessee river at Decatur is lower than
it has been for a number of years at that point.
The Legislature convenes on Tuesday, No
vember 14th —just one week after the Presi
dential electi' n.
Eighteen convicts were received at the peni
tentiary during the two we’ks ending October
18th.
Rev. Mr. Hall has oeen put in charge of
the pastorate of the Birmingham Episcopal
church.
Rev. B. F. Riley, of Monroe county, will as
sume the pastorate of the Baptist church at
Snow Hill the first Sunday in November.
A bill to create the new county of Cullman,
out of portions of Blount and Winston,will be
introduced into the next legislature.
A glorious revival has taken place at
Gainesville. There were twenty-two acces
sions to the church—twenty by baptism.
Bro. Thomas Parker has given to the Bap
tist church at Parkersville a house of worship
worth $2,000 and all furnished.
The State Grange Fair at Montgomery, was
a most gratifying success in the exhibition of
agricultural and mechanical products.
The 31st annual session of the Tuskeegee As
sociation, recently closed, was a very harmo
nious one. Elder Wm. 11. Carroll, modera
tor, and Elder C. W. Buck, Clerk.
The American Museum of Natural History
in New York, is endeavoring to secure the
valuable exhibit of Alabama minerals now at
the Centennial.
The crop of sorghum syrup made in Cham
bers county is estimated at ten thousand gal
lons. It will save the county many dollars, as
it sells lor fifty cents per gallon.
Rev. J. J. Cloud, of Gadsden, Alabama, has
resigned the care of the church at that place.
Some Baptist church desirous of a good pastor
would do well to give him a call.
The Selma Timex says: “The first annual
fair of the District Grange is over. It has
been a success in every respect, and has dem
onstrated the fact that the Grangers of the Dis
trict can have splendid annual fairs.
Rev. Dr. Mclntosh,corresponding Secretary
of the Home Mission Board of the Southern
Baptist Convention, attended the session of the
Texas Baptist State Convention at Indepen
dence.
Rabbi G. L. Rosenberger, formerly of Mont
gomery, is now a resident of Selma, in charge
of Congregation Mishkan Israel^
This congregation have bought the old Epis
copal church, corner of Alabama and Dona
tion Btreeta, and oonverted it into a synagogue.
A brother in writing about Bethel Associa
tion to the Baptist says : “Bro. Bailey came
this time as a dear friend. He has been in
strumental in stirring us to greater activity and
a consequent increase of that peace which
comes with the discharge of duty."
TZEHE3 SOTJTH-WESTERIT ZBJAIFTIST,
of Alabama.
For the 1 ndex and Baptist.l
KIFAILI ASSOCIATION.
This body convened with the Enon church.
Saturday, October 21st, 1876. Eider A. H.
Borders, from the Western Association, Geor
gia, originally, preached the introductory ser
mon. After an hour’s intermission, ami par
taking of a good, and bountiful repast, the let
ters were read, and the body organized by the
re-election of the former officers, deacon W.
H. Battle moderator, Elder J. S. Paullin
clerk, deacon M. Cody treasurer.
The churches were nearly all represented,
and the letters reported that most of them had
had ingatherings, and a goodly number of them
have Sunday-schools. The funds sent up, or
contributed during the year, did not, perhaps,
show much increase.
Evangelist, T. M. Bailey; Centennial, J. J.
D. Itenfroe Seminary ; M. T. Sumner ; and
Indian Mission, Chaudoin, were present as vis
itors, each with his his “axe to grind,” and
they ground them. Some of them got others
to turn for them, and they ground longer.
Brother Bailey preached a most effective,
strong, practical missionary sermon on Sun
day—so effective that a small hou-e con
tributed $30.00, and will result in an increase
of practical godliness. It is not often that your
correspondent is permitted to hear a sermon so
solid, deep and able as the sermon of Dr. Ren
froeonthe Basis ol Union,as laid down by the
Holy Spirit in Eph. 4:1, 6. I would rejoice
could I give a synopsis of the sermon that
would do ,it justice.
Financially, there was evidently a move for
ward, as was evidenced by the bonds given the
Seminary, the aid for Howard College endow
ment, the cash and pledges for young ministers
at Howard College, and for elder Joel Sims,
the senior minister of the body, and now
nearly superannuated.
The Association (including visitors) was most
grandly, bountifully and finely entertained.
The Methodist brethren equaled the Baptists,
and between the vigilant hospitality of the two,
it would have been hard for a person to have
escaped—a good dinner. This deponent found
quarters at the residence of old brother Cox,
an ex-Georgian. His house was large, but
the hearts of himsell and wife, and their sonsi
were larger. The attentions of the young
sons of brother Cox—to their special guests,
and to all on the grounds at dinner, was con
spicuous. I never saw it equaled scarcely by
young men ; yet, they did not excel young
brother Morton. God bless them all for their
kindness to me. W. N- Chaudoin.
THE FIRE OX THE HEARTH.
The Open Stove Ventilating Com
pany, No. 107 Fulton street, New York,
are the manufacturers of the justly
celebrated “Fire on the Hearth” stove.
This stove is a most interesting, valua
ble and economical combination of the
open fire and warm air furnaces. The
stove resembles the good and popular
“Old Franklin,” but is higher and en
tirely enclosed.
A perfect combination of stove and open fire
has long been a desideratum among manufac
turers ; an invention which would give all the
good features of both these means of heating
rooms, with the absence of any of toe objec
tionable features peculiar to each. This haH
been accomplished to perfection in the patent,
and science has thus contributed another im
portant and permanent adjunct to domestic
comfort and convenience, and to the enhance
ment of the public health. All the scientific
and technical journals are unanimous in the
praise of this excellent heating apparatus, and
the voice of those who have proven its merits
give to this their unqualified endorsement.
The prices for “The Fire on the Hearth”
range from sl4 to $45, according to size, inclu
ding nickle plated trimmings.
They are for sale, in this city, by
Messrs. Stewart, Wood & Fain.
Says the Alabama Baptist : “Mr. Spur
geon’s prayer that thtT Turks may be driven
out of Europe, and the native Mohammedan
power be swept from the face of the earth,
called for a tremendous “Amen” from his vast
congregation. The echoes of that Amen have
reverberated through all the Christian con
gregations of the United States.
Cahaba Baptist Association met with Provi
dence church, four miles from Orrville, in Dal
las county, the 14th. In the absence of Judge
Porter King, former moderator, brother W. C.
Ward, of Selma, was chosen moderator, and S.
C. Tramill,of Hale county, clerk. The Associ
ation was largely attended and the most harmo
nious and fraternal feeling prevailed in all its
deliberations.
Thb grace of God brings salvation.
Nothing else brings it, and grace does
not save us from the consequences of
neglecting it. Men give a vague defi
nition to grace, as though it were the
opposite and conqueror of law, whereas
it is both the ground of law and the
upholder of the throne. Grace saves
not in sin, but front sin. It creates
an obedient heart, and invests ihe law
with the honors of success.
The fever in Savannah seems to be
abating, but absentees are warned not
to return to the city.
FRANKLIN PRINTING HOUSE. ATLANTA, GEORGIA, NOVEMBER 2, 1870.
Spirit of the Religious Press,
—The New York Methodist under the head
of ‘‘Popular Preachers as Editors” sententious
lv says:
The retirement of Dr. Talmage from the
Christian at Work, his new engagement upon
The Advance, and the employment o( Dr. VV
M. Taylor as editor of the Christian at Work,
provoke a comment upon the effort to float re
ligious papers into success upon the names of
popular preachers. The obvious fact is, that
it isa failure. The less-known fact is, that it is
a sham The great popular preacher does not
edit the paper; that is done by some able
man, usually kept out of sight, and deprived
of his well-earned meed of pra se. The popu
lar ureacher writes more or less for his paper
—usually less. His sermons are printed in it,
and would be printed in other papers if they
were regarded as pre-eminently excellent.
Editorial success has always followed the law
of other success —the man must have natural
fitness for the work, and must do that work so
faithfully as to exclude him from great success
elsewhere.
—The recent work of Dr. 11. M. Dexter, on
Roger Williams, has very naturally provoked
criticisms from Baptists but they are not alone.
The Interior (Presbyterian) has this sharp
comment:
“In 1635, Roger Williams was banished
from Massachusetts. Last winter it was pro
posed to revoke the sentence of banishment.
It was rather late in the day, but it was felt
that so long as the degree of expulsion stood
upon the records of the General Court, Mas
sachusetts was disgraced. Thereupon the eru
dite, but not always discreet, Rev. l)r. H. M.
D.-xter set about justifying the banishment.
He has given the result of that labor just now
made public. He might better have given
himsell to editing the Congreijationalist. it is
useless to attempt to make any unprejudiced
and sensible man of this day believe that the
expulsion of the saintly Roger Williams for
his belief in immersion for his mode of bap
tism was any oilier than an eiSfceme case of
bigotry. So doubt those Purilffls weraaßm
scientious ; hut they were none the less jßlgots.
The spirit which drove the founder of TRhode
Island kilo the wilderness, Hagar-lrke,wss the
same aft that which sold Quaker maidens into
Barbadoes slavery. The best way to honor
the memory of the Pilgrims is to pass the re
cord of their persecutions over in silence It is
certainly very unwise to attempt to justify
them.” ■
—Here is a specimen of the Interior’s sar
casm on thaj, class ol journals who annually
“go up like a rocW and come 4t? wn like a
stick”:
And now come the days for the annual
journalistic meteor display. New newspapers ;
old newspapers purchased and started on a
“new and bright career”—the editors “burden
ed with :< sense of tfie responsibility,”and fully
ly expecting their torch-light to attract sub
scrioers by the scores of thousands. They
will spend their money, or that of their con
fiding friends, the stockholders, and subside
with a lesson of experience which they might
have had Irom common observation and com
mon sense. There is no royal road to news
paper success. The goal has never yet lieen
reached except by wise economy, self
sacrifice, protracted and unsparing labor, and
these running through a long series of years—
and it never will be reached in any other way.
All attempts to gain a high and secu<e posi
tion by dazzling the eyes of the public are as
good as, and no better than, an attempt to se
cure such a position by holding on to the stick
of a sky rocket. Scores of illustrations from
successful and unsuccessful papers could be
given as fast as we could write their names,
and there are no “exceptions to confirm the
rule.” The paper which secures a steady and
regular growth by uniform excellence, which
can only be attained by patient and persistent
labor, will succeed, and finally shine like Siri
us, with calm and benignant ray, while me
teors and bolides and comets come and go
flash and fade.
—Dr. McFerrin, the veteran Missionary
Secretary of the Melhodißt Church South, apks
the editor of the Nashville Advocate if a pro
fession of faith in Christ and connection with
the Church does not keep men and women
from dancing, card-play, attending the theatre,
the circus, the fashionable hop, the horse
race, and the dram-shop, what better is your
religion than no religion at all ? He asks Dr.
Summers to answer straight out.
—The Methodist, alluding to Mr. Spurgeon’s
position with reference to Pedobaptists and
the communion question, says :
“Mr. Spurgeon is welcome to repudiate our
baptism so long as he admits that we are
Christians. That is the main question." It
then intimates that this admission places the
great preacher in advance of the denomina
tion in this country. What a silly statement
to come from our intelligent Methodist con
temporary. It must know that Baptists do
not lay claim to a monopoly of Christianity
any more than to a monopoly of blessings
bestowed upon earnest labors in the Master’s
vineyard. —Journal and Messenger.
—The Northern Advocate publishes the
following statement of the amount of money
raised by the five principal American Woman’s
Foreign Missionary Societies, made by Mrs.
Easter, of Groton, N. Y.: “The Woman’s
Union Missionary S.cicty of the Uni
ted States, between their organization in 1860
and April, 1876, raised $393,622.12. The
Woman’s Board of the (Congregationalist)
American Board of Commissioners of Foreign
Missions, organized in 1868, raised, up to 1876,
$414,634.87. The W. F. M. Society of the
M. E Church was organized in 1869, and ul’
to February, 1876, raised $319,480. The Wo
man’s Board of the Pr shyterian Missionary
Society, organized in 1870, raised, up to Feb
ruary, 1876, $316,831.69. The women of the
Baptist Union organized their society in 1871
and up to January, 1876, had raised $119,000.
—One of the largest churches in New York,
with a present membership of over 600, is the
outgrowth of a mission school commenced by
two men in 1857. At the first session six
scholars were enrolled, three of whom were
children of these gentlemen, and the other
three coming from a single family.
BAPTIST NEWS AND NOTES.
—Rev. Lansing Burrows, son of Rev. Dr.
Burrows, of Louisville, has been “recognized”
as pastor of (he North Baptist church, New
ark, New Jersey.
—Rev. A. P. Morton, writing to the Baptist
Reflector, of East Tennessee, slates that during
eleven years of his ministry, he has baptized
one hundred and fifty Pedobaptists, two of
them being preachers, and one a Presbyterian
elder.
—Rev. J. M. C. Breaker has resigned the
pastorate of tlie first Baptist church of St. Jo
seph, Missouri, which he ha- 1 filled for the last
six years. He has not yet decided on his fu
ture field.
—Rev. M. H. Pogson has resigned the
fourth Baptist church, St. Louis, to take effect
immediately.
—W. Pope Yeaman has resigned the charge
of the third Baptist church, of St. Louis.
—There is now but one Baptist church in
upper St. Louis, with an unresigned pastor.
Dr. Toy, of Greenville, South Carolina,
has boon writing up "aur in the Western Re
corder-. He sums up in the following words :
“From our inquiry it appears that there are
no cases in which amad may not mean dip,
and some in which it must have the meaning,
that there are similar verbs in Arabic signify
ing the same thing, that the verb amad, ‘to
stand,’ ’ probably disappeared from the
Syriac language some centuries before
Christ, that it is not satisfactorily explained
how a meaning baptize could come from a
meaning stand, and that all authorities in Sy
aic concur in assigning to amad the significa
tion dip. The bearing of this conclusion on
the signification of baptizien is obvious.”
—Elder F. Kiefer has been appointed by
tne Mario.i Board at a salary of S6OO, to do
agency work for it. He will raise funds espe
cially for the Indian,German,San Antonio and
proposed Mexican missions in Texas.
—A European professor, when in conversa
tion with an American, upon immersion as
as the original mode of baptism, asked with
some surprise, if any scholar in America be
lieved <0 the contrary 1 ? Well, the number of
such scholars as believe to the contrary is
growing less and less. This is matter for re
joicing'.
';jferl|!are between sixty and seventy
thousand Baptist communicants in the State
of Texas.
—The Baptist Weekly tninks that the “old
Landmarkers are doing more to day to
damage our denomination, in some sections of
the country, in cherishing belligerent and big
oted sentiments than twice the number of abler
and better men can do good in a generation.’
What a Weakly Baptist paper I It surely has
“feeble knees and hands that hang down.’
Will editor A. S. Patton, D. D.,be kind enough
to inform us upon what principles headvocates
pulpit communion and alien baptism, and yet
holds for strict communion ? We are fully
convinced that such anti-landmark papers are
doing more against the truth than all the open
communion Baptists in the land. —Baptist Bat
tle Flag.
—Rhode Island reports 575 persons bap
tized for the year into the Baptist churches.
Over 5,000 have been added to the churches
in this State during the year.
—Th<i National Baptist says : “The same
rate of firogress (ol Baptists in the United
States) Tor another ninety years would give us,
in 1966, nearly ninety-four millions of Bap
tists.”
—At the last meeting of the Boston North
Baptist Association an investigation was or
dered into the principles and habits of the
Warren Avenue Baptist church, of which
Geo. F. Pentecost is pastor.
—The North Carolina Baptist State Con
vention will meet at Raleigh on November
15th, one week later than the usual time of
meeting.
—ln 25 years the first Baptist church,
Newark, New Jersey, his expended in Chris
tian work, at home and abroad, the handsome
sum of $350,000, being ail average of $14,000
per year. In this time it has received 1161 by
baptism, 620 by letter, making a total of 1781.
I)r. Fish has been pastor all this time.
—The work of Baptists among the Germans
in America dates from 1839. The pioneers
were the lamented Fleischman, Prof. Raus
ciienbush, and Eschman. The first conference
met in 1851. Tnere were present five minis
ters representing ten churches. The work has
grown into two conferences. The Eastern and
Western, comprising one hundred churches,
as many ministers and 8,000 members. These
two conferences form a triennial General Con
ference, which owns a printing office that is
sues a weekly paper, and a monthly Sunday
school paper. The Conference has also estab
lished a Student’s Hall at Rochester, N. Y.,
with $20,000 ; and has two chairs in Roches
ter University, one of theology, filled by Prof.
liauschenbush, the other of Languages, filled
by Prof. Schaefer, under whom twenty students
are annually studying.
At the late meeting of the Uniontown Col
ored Baptiß‘ Association, a resolution was
passed that a Ministers Institute be held, as
many times as may be convenient during the
THE OHBISTIAN ECIEZE&AUD
of Tennessee.
year; and that as many prominent white Baptist
ministers as can be secured be invited to give
lectures on Christian doctrines and duty, and
instructions on the study of the Bible. The
Association also appropriated SIOO for the
of a erection theological school.
The next session will be held at Greens
boro.
The Missionary Field,
—A fact, very significant in the illustration
it gives of the great changes on the Pacific coast
and the Sandwich Islands is, that two clergy
men, one a pastor in San Francisco and the
other in Hawaii, exchanged pulpits for some
weeks during the past summer.
—Of the 190 Congregational and Presbyte
rian churches of New Hampshire, 65 depend
on missionary.
—Christian missionaries in China are pro
jecting a magazine to be called The New Philos
ophy.
—The Hydah Indians, on Queen Charlotte’s
Island, British America, having seen the good
effects of Christian influence at the industrial
settlement, Metlakatlah, on the opposite main
land, have long been asking for Christian
teachers. TheChuich Missionary Society has
now granted their wish, ahd Mr. Collins, of
Metlakatlah, will commence a mission among
theoi.
—An Episcopal clergyman has been for
some years laboring successfully in Mexico,
and made a good beginning of a reformed
Mexican church.
—The progress of missions in the South_Sea
Islands has been remarkable the past year.
—The most impressive and memorable
scene of the recent meeting of the American
Board, was the presentation to the meeting of
the Minister of Public Instruction in Japan,
who stated explicitly that religion insist coun
is now free, “so that Japan will,by and by, be
come Christian.”
—Ttie Chinese Government is preparing se
rious trouble for itself in failing to suppress
the outrageous religious persecutions which
are not entirely suppressed in the interior prov
inces. The North China News says : “On the
18th of July, in the town of Yuen-hin-chang,
in the district of Deui-Kiang, placards hostile
to Christians and Europeans, were posted in
various places in the market. About nine
o’clock on the morning of the 20th, a line of
4,000 or 5,000 armed men drew around the
market to prevent Christians from escaping.
They manufactured a large wooden cross, and
tied on it successively all the Christians they
could catch, and then cut them to pieces.
Among the victims were two heathens, of
whom one was the father ot a convert, and the
other a young girl of fifteen, whose brother
was a Christian. Like the others, she was
stripped of her clothes and cut to pieces. The
number of persons killed was eight. The
wounded are very numerous. It is unnecessary
to add that the houses of the Christians were
pillaged and destroyed. About thirty other
persons are missing. On the 221 the brutes
went to the market of Petmow-chen, where
they murdered four more Christians, but of this
butchery we have no details. It is said that
the principle chiefs of this band of assassins ere
emmis aries from Kiang-pen, where the per
secutions first broke out, who are traversing
the province in lull sight and knowledge of
the Mandarins, to excite troubles against the
Christians and drive out Europeans.”
—The New Yoik City mission has under
its care thirty missionaries, who make 60,000
visits every year, carrying blessing to 20,000
families. Through them the gospel is preached
to 100,000 persons during the year. They
have three chapels organized on the
the basis of the Apostles’ Creed, embracing 600
members. It gathers the children into Sab
bath-schools, giving instruction to 1,500, most
ly of the very needy and destitu'e class. It
maintains s wing-schools, helping-hand asso
ciations, employmeut societies, temperance
organizations, reading-rooms, lodging-houses,
and in every way that Christian love and in
genuity can devise, seeks to carry the gospel to
tiie poor and needy who are not reached by
the churches.
—The missionaries and native evangelists in
the Turkish Empire now address on every
Sunday an ag,regate of from 18,090 to 20,000
hearers.
—The Parent Missionary Society of the Brit
ish Wesleyan Church received during the past
year about eight hundred thousand dollars in
gold, and reports the following statistics:
Central or principal stations, 651: chapels and
other preaching places, 5,990; ministers and
assistant missionaries, 797; other paid agents,
5,167; unpaid agents, as Sabbath-school teach
ers, 22,614; full and accredited church mem
bers, 136,189; on trial for church membership,
18,476; scholars in the mission schools, 146,-
418; printing establishments, 5.
—The missionaries who labor in Ningpo, in
Chin i, are much discouraged by the increas
ing love of the Chinese for intoxicating bever
ages. It is announced that active efforts are
being put forth to check the spread of drunk
eness. _
The Cahaba Valley Association will meet at
Refuge church, Bolton’s Crossroads, in Bt.
Clair county, on Friday betore the fourth Sab
bath in September, 1877.
WHOLE m 2242
General Denominational Hess,
—Some of the more evangelical Episcopa
lian Bishops are endeavoring, greatly to their
credit, to obtain such a change in the election
of ‘vestry-men” as to forbid the choice of any
who are not at least professedly pious. It haa
always appeared a wonder that mere men of
the world were ever allowed a place in the
vestry, seeing that this body has, in a manner,
spiritual oversight of the church; elects the
“rector,” “has a representation in the conven
tion,” etc.
The Presbyterian Church in Canada, ac
cording to the late repoi t, has four synods, 32
presbyteries, 1,076 congregations, 664 minis
ters, 82,186 communicants, of whom 11,247
were added during the past year. Their total
contributions for all purposes were $939,-
699 29.
—Three Unitarian churches in Boston are
now occupied by Roman Catholics, one by
Presbyterians, one by Baptists, and one Uni
versaiist church by Baptists and another by
Jews.
—The Methodist Board of Church Exten
sion has a building loan fund of $270,090
cash, and over $200,000 in good subscription#
and promises to pay, and $60,000 in real es
tate, besides over SIOO,OOO known to be on the
way to the fund in wills.
—The correspondence between Bishop Jones
of the African Zion M. E. Church, and Bishop
Miles of the Colored M. E. Church, does not
give much promise of fraternization, and less
of organic union.
—Tlie net increase of the Methodist Epis
copal on arch, South, the past year is 18,596.
—The largest Presbyterian church on the
Pacific coast is Cavalry, in San Francisco, hav
ing a membership of 718. The next largest
churches are two in Oregon, composed of con
verted Indians.
—Members and clerks of the London Stock
Exchange have organized a Christian Associa
tion from their own numbers. Its members
increases steadily. mhL
—The St. Louis Advocate, (ML E. Church
South) urges the preparation of one standard
hymn-book for all branches of Methodism.
—The churches of New Hampshire have
been greatly quickened through the wonderful
temperance revival that has spread all over
the Stale. The Congregationalists alone re
port 1,300 accessions, making them stronger,
after all reduction, by 900, than they were a
year ago. \
—At the recent session of the New Jersey
Universalist Contention, Rev. Phoebe A.
Hanaford was elected Secretary of the Conven
tion for the year, and was appointed to preach
the occasional sermon in 1877. The Conven
tion will then meet in Newark.
—New York Presbyterians have at last
reached an altitude of “High Churchism”
which overtops the most aspiring efforts of
their Episcopal fellow-Christians. That is to
say, they have placed a spire on the Fifth
Avenue Presbyterian meeting-house, the cap
stone of which is two-hundred and eighty-six
feet from the ground, and two feet higher
than that ot Trinity.
Bishop Ames of the Methodist church baa
decided that there is no Bible authority for or
daining or licensing women to preach.
—The number of members of the Society of
Friends composing the various “yearly meet
ings” in the world is, according to the latest
returns, 78,140, as follows; New England,
4,496; New York, 3,306; Canada, 1,624;
Philadelphia (estimated), 3,500; Baltimore,
650; North Carolina, 4,200 ; Ohio, 3,194; In
diana, 16,057 ; Wisconsin, 11,696; lowa, 8,-
566; Kansas, 3,420. Total on the American
continent, 42,712. London Yearly Meeting
(comprising England), 14,199; Dublin, 2,935
Australia, 254. There are also a few Friends
scattered oyer France, Germany and Norway.
—During the session of the Washington
City Presbytery, held in Dr. Wilis’ church,
October 4th, an interesting and animated dis
cussion arose in regard to a letter received by
the body from the Board of Domestic Missions
of the Presbyterian Church, stating, substanti
ally, that colored churches of their body must
: have colored pastors, and white churches white
pastors. Hon. Charles D. Drake, Chief-Jus
lice of the Court of Claims, thought this letter
very impertinent, and that if the Board of Do
mestic Missions meant to say that it was a de
gradation tor a white minister to take charge
of a colored church, the members of that board
ought to be dismissed from office by the assem
bly. Prof. Wescott, the Rev. Dr. Noble, and
some others, agreed with the Chief-Justice.
The Rev. Dr. Willis, who is a Southern man,
and understands the wants of the colored peo
ple, as well as the policy most successful in
preaching the gospel among them, defended
the action of the Board, and thought the doc
trine they advanced was right. He said there
were a great many reasons why colored preach
ers ought to be the pastors of colored church
es; that they could enter more fully into the
sympathies of their own race, and could thus
do more good among them ; and moreover, in
the providence of God, many colored men were
now being educated to instruct their own peo
ple, and to go as missionaries into Africa, to
evangelize that dark continent. He said:
“The races will accomplish the greatest re
sults by acting in their separate spheres; by
not commingling socially, and in the church
es."