Newspaper Page Text
The Christian Index’
VOL. 55—NO. 44.
Table of Content*.
Finer Pao*.—Alabama Department; Record of
State Events ; Spirit of the Religious Press ;
Alabama Baptist Association ; Baptist News
and Notes; The Missionary Field; The Praver
of Faith; General Denominational News; In
dian Arrows.
Bsooro Page,— Our Correspondents : Wholesale
Condemnation of Games —Tertius; Letter
from Athens, Georgia; Ordination —J. M.
Muse; Benefits of Sorrow —W. E. Howell;
Macon Letter—S. Boykin. General Meetings:
Ministers and Deacons 1 Meeting Tallapoosa
Association; General Meeting of the Third
District of the Friendship Association; Meeting
of the First District North Georgia Associa
tion; Ord-nation; Elder A. P. Ashurst; etc.
Thib Page.— Our Pulpit : Introductory Ser
mon, preached before the North Georgia As
sociation, at Spring Place, Murray county,
Friday before the Third Sunday in September
—Published by request.
Foubth Paoe.— Editorial: The World vs. Evan
gelical Piety —No. ll—Rev. S. G. Hillyer, D.D.
Rev- Robert Fuller on Dr. Fuller—Rev. W. T.
Brantly, D.D. Opium Habit; Georgia Baptist
News: Query; Week of Prayer—Rev. D. E.
Butler. Heplizibah Association —Dr. J. S.
Lawton. Editorial Paragraphs.
Fifth Page. —Secular Department: Literary
Gossip; Sunday-School Institute; Gems Reset;
Cotton; The Sabbath—Poetry; To Our Corres
pondents; Georgia News; American Journal
ism; News of the Week —Foreign and Domes
tic; etc.
Sixth Page.— The Sunday-Sohool: Dorcas Re
stored to Life—Lesson for Sunday, Novemt er
19, 1876; Over Doing in Sunday-School Work;
Kind Words. Children’s Corner : A Legend
of Okefinokee—Laura C. Richards.
Eighth Page Publishers’ Department : The
Ihdhx and Baptist; Renew ! Renew 1 Renew !
Our Correspondents: Appeal to the Baptists
of Georgia—Rev. 0. M. Irwin; To the Mem
bers of the Churches of the Stone Mountain
Association—Rev. A. T. Spalding; Fowl Town
(Colored) Baptist Association—Wm. H. Coop
er; Oi dination. Marriages. Obituaries. Ad
vertisements.
Seventh Page. —Agricultural : Notes and Hints;
Buying Supplies on Credit; etc.
INDEX AND BAPTIST.
ALABAMA DEPARTMENT.
The Legislature is in session.
Wheat and winter oats are sown extensively.
The hog cholera is very destructive in
North Alabama.
-
Columbiana Is lo have anew Presbyterian
church.
During a revival in Scottsboro eighty per
sons professed religion.
The Presbyterians of Columbiana are taking
steps toward the building of a church.
The'fecottaboro Cfftserrcr has suspended pub
lication.
The shops of the Memphis and Charleston
road are not to be removed from Huntsville.
Rev. W. C- Cleveland, D. D., has resigned
the pastorate of Central Ridge church.
The Alabama Conference of the Methodist
Protestant Church convened at Robison
Springs on Thursday, the 16th inst.
Rev. R. A. J. C'umbee, of Fredonia, Cham
here county, was thrown from his buggy and
badly hurt.
The churches of the Cooaa River Associa
tion, report 130 baptisms during the year, aud
a total membership of 2,371.
Twenty-three persons were added to the
Goose Creek church, Wilcox county, by bap
tism, and one by letter during a recent stirring
revival.
The citizens of Clanton have given notice
that they intend to make application to the
next General Assembly to repeal the aet incor
porating the town of Clanton.
Rev. T. W. Hooper, D. D., pastor of the
Second Presbyterion church of Lynchburg,
Virginia, has been tendered and accepted a call
to a Presbyterian church at Salem, Alabama.
Rev. Jos. Shackelford has retired from the
editorial corps of the Alabama Baptist. He
goes to Forest City, Arkansas, to take charge
of the church there, and of a denominational
school.
A bear recently appeared in the streets of
Helena, Shelby county, and seized and earned
off a little granddaughter ofT. I. Winfield. It
was pursued and overtaken and killed ; but a
shot fired at it, killed the child.
- ♦
Mr. W. H. Stephens, of Oak Bluff in this
•ounty, has returned from Texas, whither he
removed with his family a year ago. He says
h“ prefers Pike county to what he saw of Texas,
and will spend the rest of his life here. Yet
people will persist in sacrificing what they
have, and moving to the West with the vain
hope of bettering their condition.
The Montgomery Advertiser of the 7th inst.,
says: “The First Baptist church was filled
to overflowing on Sunday evening last ; quite
a number being obliged to leave before the ser
vices commenced for want of room. The dig
aourse by the Rev. Dr. Hawthorne, was upon
the Christian’s duty in the present presidential
eonteat, based upon the text, ‘Righteousness ex
alteth a nation,’ and eloquently delivered.
Those who attended expecting to listen to a
partisan speech, must have been disappointed,
for he confined himself to the religious duties
of our people in exercising the right of political
franchise, and moat bare convinced all present
that none but good and just men should svsr
he exalted to political power by the suffrages
ef the citizens of our country."
THailll! SOT7TH-WESTBBET BAXIPTIST,
of Alabama.
Spirit of the Religious Press,
—The Examiner and Chronicle closes as
follows an articlejon Coveting Mission Funds,
in answer to some who complain that money
is spent oa missions which might better be
spent in aiding wants nearer home, or of an
other class:
Ye who think too much money is ex
pended in giving the gospel to the destitute
and perishing, and who are, of course, not
guilty of assisting in such waste, you, are the
ones who should put your hands in your
pockets—not into the mission treasury—and
give according to the largeness of your sym
pathy and the judicial discrimination with
which j ou compare the claims of different ob
jects of benevolence. Giving to “ distant hea
then ” is esteemed by some people a cheap
style of charity. But there is one still
cheaper—assuming to dispose with superior
wisdom of money given by others.
—On the much agitated subject of wo
man’s part in church work, the Christian Ad
vocate remarks:
All we now do is to affirm that the church
can and should control the special talents of
its women in religious work. Wesley be
lieved so ; he did not ordain Mary Fletcher,
or Hester Ann Rogers, but he recognized and
used thei: gracious and graceful gifts. He
gave them a written recognition, without
calling it a “ license,” and these and other
godly women did inestimable good through
much of the United Kingdom. Were we
kindly to regulate and encourage shch use
fulness. w-e might find ourselves less per
plexed by its eccentricities. Godly and tal
ented women might move among the
churches, instructing, comforting and ad
vancing their own sex, and be a means oi
t he sanctification of our households.
—Says the Christian Register: The report
ing of sermons preached on Sunday lms
come to be quite an important feature of the
Monday newspaper. That it is an attractive
feature it is reasonable to suppose, tor other
wise it would not flourish so persistently.
Whether unybody is made better or happier
by these reports it would lie difficult to dis
cover; but it is very certain that a great
many persons are made worse and less happy
by reading them ; namely, the ministers
whose sermons they profess to givo a wider
hearing than they have had in the church.
The onlyconsolation for the minister,who has
the temerity to read the reports of his own
sermons, is in the conviction that he does not
appear a greater fool than the majority of
his fellow ministers. If the report of his
sermon reads like the ravings of a lunatic,
equally so do the reports of theirs.
—The New York Witness, in an article
concerning “Christ an Statesmen,” has the
following :
Wiiistian men, lit you are called to high
positions don’t leave your religion at home.
You will need it all the more in your new
relations. Do not let the mistakes and fail
ures of others deter you from letting your
light shine. Seek to vindicate the title
“ Christian ” statesman, and show that it be
longs honorably to you. The time is spee
dily coming when such men will be eagerly
sought for to fill places of honerand trust in
the councils of the nation. Never was there a
time when they were more needed than at
present.
—The Herald and Presbyter says:
Pastors who have large congregations, aB in
the case of Henry Ward Beecher, Dr. Tal
mage, and Dr. William M. Taylor, cannot
reasonably find much time for thorough
editorial work. Mr. Beecher’s name, at
the head of the Christian Union, has been
little more than a figure head. The Christian
at Work, in announcing the retirement of Dr.
Talmage, says that Mr. Bright, its managing
editor, “has largely written its editorials, and
indeed had the entire make up of the paper,”
Dr. Talmage, with the largest congregation in
Brooklyn or New York, will probably do no
more on the Advance than he did on the Chris
tian ai Work. Dr. Taylor’s name will of course
look well under the editorial head of the lat
ter paper, but |without neglecting one of the
largest pastoral charges in New York, he can
not do more work for that paper than his pre
decessor did. Stool pigeons are not anew in
stitution ; nor are they useless ; they are very
serviceable, sometimes essential in attracting
the flock ; but it is a nice question in casuistry,
whether, in such matters as that now men
tioned, the use of the institution may not be a
little over strained.
—Upon which the Interior comments as fol
lows :
In all such cases the so-called “managing
editor” must of necessity be the real editor.
Mr. Merriam wrote the editorials and was for
years the editor of the Christian Union, Mr.
Beecher knowing no more of the contents ol a
forthcoming number than any subscriber, and
yet Mr. Merriam was wholly unknown to the
public. The nominal editor received credit
for his brains and toil. Major Bright’s name
did not appear in the Christian at Work, and
some twenty-five of his articles have been re
printed in book form in England among the
works of Dr. Talmage. If there is a “nice
question of casusitry” it is because custom has
justified a wrong. The question is simply
this: Has a man the right to appropriate to
himself a professional reputation which belongs
to another? If it is replied, “Yes, if it be a
matter of mutual agreement”—it must not be
forgotten tliat no one could make such an
agreement except under moral or |>ecuniary
constrain', amounting to force; nor does it jus
tify the favored party in standing before the
world for what he is not. The “custom of the
country” in this needs regeneration.
—Discoursing on “Old Age” Aim’s Herald
aiys:
Of all the sad things in human life there is
hardly one more painful than a soured and
embittered old age. Under the frosts of Au
tumn, the sweet juices of life are turned to
vinegar, and the flower of early promise is
smitten and withered. The man born for hope
and immortality stands a blasted thing—a
spectacle to men and angels. We never have
a poorer opinion of human nature than in the
presence of such illustration. It affords an
ocular demonstration of the depth and mean
ness of human depravity.
This sad defection of human nature is at
tributable to various causes. Au unhappy men
tal and moral constitution may lie a cause, j
FRANKLIN PRINTING HOUSE, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, NOVEMBER 16, 1876.
More frequently it is due to disappointment in
some of the plans and ambitions of life; or to
an unwillingness to accept the lesson of our
decay; the view of which, however patent to
others, is often mercilully concealed from the
parties most deeply concerned. Providence
would remove us from the field, without re
vealing to us the cause. The malcontent does
not stop to consider that, in his opposition, he
is fighting against God and nature, and that
for this reason he must be inevitably beaten.
That he must go down to the divine decree;
but it is sad that like a stricken wild beast he
should go down growling.
The aciditv, the churlishness, the critical
propensity of old age assume many phases,
though always the same in spirit. At some
times they take the form of excessive appre
ciation of the past. Like the carnal Jews they
build and garnish the tombs of the fathers,
“The former times were better than these.”
Their millennium like that of the heathen, lies
far back I In their youth this Btyle of people
saw giants, and were the witnesses of stupend
ous miracles.
With this undue appreciation of the past,
we usually find a corresponding depreciation
of the present. Looking at the reverse of
their glass they are able to see to-day, only
pigmies. The divine halo that once encircled
them has vanished, leaving only a dull and
commonplace world.
It was, perhaps, the greatest mark of virtue
in John the Baptist to be willing lo decrease
while Christ should increase. The greatness
of Moses, one has well said, was not in taking
the miraculous rod, but in laying it down. Our
burdens are easily assumed; but we don’t
know how gracefully to lay them off.
—The labors of Moody and Sankey are
greatly aided by the service of song. In this
respect it is more than the solo of Mr. Sankey
that is effective. The Standard, of Chicago,
where the meetings are now in progress, says :
The advocates of congregational singing find
a powerful ally in the Tabernacle meetings.
There is no feature of the services more im
pressive, none other that rises to the grand.
When the thousands stand up and join to
raise the mighty volumes of praise to God—
join with whole heart and voice, as they do—it
becomes easy to see why Luther had his “bat
tle hymn,” and why an experienced general
would choose a singing army. Even against
the solos of Mr. Sankey, pathetic as some of
them are, the mnsic of the masses holds its own,
and thrills the soul where perhapß the prayer
or sermon fails to touch. A church with such
congregational singing could never be a dead
church.
—Under the startling head : “Shall we al
low rascgli to vote ?” the Watchman (Boston)
makes the following hard bit at our present
political condition:
We believe our country bas a serious les
son to learn In reference to the proper qualifi
cations for suffrage. The chief danger to any
gnye.Mpment is not that the yeter shall 1>
poor man, and hence careless about the rights
of property. The chief danger is not that he
shall be unable to read, andhencetoo ignorant
to know good men from evil, and just meas
ures from unjust. The chief danger is that he
shall be a bad man, rejoicing in wrong for its
own sake, or allying himself with it forsome
fancied advantage to himself, or selling him
self easily to vote for either side, careless of
all except the paltry dollar which he earnß by
hia treachery and the brief sensual pleasure it
will enable him to purchase. We are not ob
jecting to the qualifications established any
where, because we are not discussing them. We
only advocate the establishment of a moral
qualification as of the very Aral importance.
Alabama Baptist Association. —At the
fifty-seventh annual sessian of the Alabama
Baptist Association, which met with Hopewell
church, Lowndes county, October 6th, the fol
lowing was the report of the Committee on
Stale of Religion:
Our religion for the last ten years has been
passing through a fiery trial, wanv are made to
bless Qod amidst these afflicting providences
and from experience adopt the sentiment,“All
things work together lor good to them that
love God,” while on the other hand some few
have turned back aud follow the Master no
more. There has been some decrease in our
beloved host, in members, during the last few
years, someone or two of onr churches have
only a name to live in the body. The church
es teatify of themselves thus : some, “we are
languid and cold;” others, “we have nothing
cheering to communicate again;” some say “we
are very cold, our religion is at a low ebb;”
says one, “we are in a deplorable condition,
brethren pray for us;” We are made to bless
Qod that most of the churches pend more
cheering words confessing they are on rising
ground, in a good condition, and encouraged
by gracioue revivals at some time during the
year. When we take into consideration the
fact that none of the churches have been en
tirely without preaching and all but two have
been supplied by pastors, and that more church
es than usual report flourishing Babbath
schools, the conviction is forced upon us that
there is a growth in grace and a knoweidge of
peace among us.
The Association comprises thirty-five
churches, with a total membership of 2165.
r- - —•
Manual for Advertisers. —We
have received a copy of the second
edition of Ayer & Sons’ “Manual for
Advertisers.” It is an elegant, useful
and very complete work, and contains
much valuable information for those
who desire to comprehend the adver
tising resources of the country.
Messrs. Ayer & Sons, of Puiladelphia,
are in the foremost rank of American
Advertising Agents, and deserve the
success they have achieved.
—The Georgia Enterprise is the name
of anew publication, devoted to pomol
ogy, horticulture, husbandry and other
home interests, J. H. Seals, proprietor,
8. T. Jenkins, editor, Atlanta. We
wish the Enleipriee abundant success.
BAPTIST NEWS AND NOTES.
Rev. J. M. Phillips, of Lebanon, Tennes
see, has resigned his position as pastor of the
church and president of Female Seminary, and
accepted a call to the pastorate of the First
Baptist charch, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and
will remove to that field December 1.
—The Secretary of the Massachusetts Bap
tist Convention reported in Boston recently,
that there had been 2800 baptisms in the State
during the year, and that the net gain had been
1968. He also stated that the dependent
churches had more than doubled in the last
ten years. The Baptists of this State employ
a missionary to give his whole time to evan
gelistic and watchftil labor among the church
es, and the results are favorable.
—Rev. J. A. Davis, of Liberty, Virginia,
baptized twenty persons at Pleasant View, all
of whom had been coverted during the revival
recently closed at that place.
—From the Lynchburg (Virginia) Star, of
the sth inst., we take the following :
The religious revival, which has now been
in progress four consecutive weeks at the Bap
tist church, is unabated in interest, and will be
continued during the present week. Since the
commencement of these meetings upwards of
fifty persona have professed conversion, anil a
large number have been baptized, and yester
day morniM received communion and the
right liand jbTfellowship.
Dr. Montgomery's sermons are listened to
with deep attention dally by large congrega
tions.
—Of the twenty-seven Baptist churches in
New York city, twenty-three have mortgage
debts irom $15,000 up to $75,000. One church
was recently bought under a foreclosure sale
for $50,000, the mortgage, with interest
amounting to $75,000.
—Elder J. G. Lemon, of Lebanon, Missou
ri, has started anew local Baptist paper called
the Baptist Herald.
—Rev. Winfield Scott retires from the edito
rial chair of the Evangel, and Rev. I. S. Kal
loch succeeds him. Bro. Kalloch continues in
the pastoral charge of Metropolitan Baptist
church of San Francisco.
—At the recent meeting of the Miami Bap
tist Association, Mrs. S. K. Leavitt reported
that the Baptist women of the United States
had raised $46,000 during the past year by
contributions of two cents per week. She
ioped to have $50,000 raised by the same
leans during the coming year.
• The BupMbflkityicr 3f Illinois, lias *<ub
nended.
. —The Missouri Baptists held their State
Amdvarsaries this year at Hannibal. The
introductory sermon was preached by Rev. W.
P. Yeaman, ol St. Louis.
—The London Baptist Association will hold
weekly evangelistic meetings in different parts
of London through the fall and winter. The
lis! of preachers engaged includes C. H. Spur
geon.
—The Centennial year will be remembered
in Michigan as a year of remarkable blessing.
Eleven new churches have been organized,
and twelve houses of worship dedicaied, and
thirteen more are in process of completion.
The Missionary Field.
—The Rev. Dr. Babb, oi San Fiancisco, se
verely criticises a recent article by Mr. J. J.
Vivian, in Scribner’s Monthly, concerning the
Chinese in California, and says, respecting the
mission work among the people: “The mission
work among the Chinese on this coast ’is nei
ther a failure nor a fraud. It is such work for
Christ as is being done wherever missionaries
go. It is slow, hard, self denying. It requires
great patience and great faith; but its results
sre seen already in the conversion of hundreds,
and the converts give as good evidence of pie
ty as the average of Anglo-Saxon church mem
bers, Some of them are quiet, intelligent, and
are earnest laborers for Christ. None of
them gain any worldly advantages by being
Christians. On the contrary, they are perse
cuted by their fellow-countrymen.”
—Missionary progrees in the South Seas,
especially on the Gilbert Islands, has bean
quite remarkable during the past year. On
one island where a year ago thirty were re
ported to have professed Christianity, there
are now three hundred and twenty who have
thrown off heathenism. On another island, in
stead of fourteen candidates, as reported last
year, there are upwards of four hundred this
year, and of these, over one hundred have been
admitted to Church membership.
—A mother’s prayer meeting has been or
ganized in connection with the mission church
at Santander, Spain. Of the sixteen women
who attend it some have suffered severely for
their attachment to the Gospel
—The English Wesleyan missionaries on
the Gold Coast, Africa, have resolved to reopen
missions in the Ring of Dahomey’s domin
ions.
—Mrs. Nott, widow of one of the first mis
sionaries of the American Board, is now living
in Hartford, Connecticut, at a very advanced
age, and in the full possession <bf her faculties.
—ln India and Ceylon the work among
women meets with encouraging result*. Fif.
teen girla from the high school of Abaacdnog
ger have joined the church on profession of
faith, and one hundred native Chrietian wo
men in the Madura mission are said to be as
TRUE CHRISTIAN HERALD
of Tennessee.
pable of holding religious meetings with profit
among their own sex. Additions are reported
to twenty of the twenty-three churches in the
Mahratta mission, where there has been a net
gain of 40 per cent in the membership in the
last five years. In the Madura district there
are 1,880 members, who contribute $2,600 lor
benevolent purposes ; and 3,000 scholars, who
pay $1,200 a year for tuition. The missions
in China are making steady progress. Addi
tions have been made to most of the churches,
and important stations have been opened in
the interior. Two young men have been or
dained as pastors over native churches.
—At the late Methodist Conference held at {
Chicago, Rev. Dr. Tiffany stated most tersely
the true secret oi effective giving for mission
work. After slating that thirty-eight cents
per capita for missions represent the average
giving record of the M. E. church membership,
Dr. Tiffany says: “Rich men are the ruin of
benevolent enterprises. These men are looked
to for thousands which they do not give. It is
a mistake —the greatest scheme on earth was
Wesley’s penny a day. Let us rather look for
a few dollars each tr m the thousands than
thousands from each of the few.” In proof of
this the CatL lie church was cited. With the
poorest membership of auy denomination in
the world they spend more money than any
other for the propagation of their faith. What
all our own churches need is to be educated to
give not collectively put individually; and not
only to all give but give always, not largely,
but regularly.
—The Rev. A. R. R. Crawley, for twenty
two years a missionary in Burmah, died in
England, October 9. He left Rangoon with
his family in August, and had reached Liver •
pool on his homeward journey, when he was
summoned from his work to his reward.
Fr the Index nd Baptist,)
THE PRAYER OF FAITH.
This is as a lever when pressed at
the throne of Grace, it moves the hand
of God, while in the act of operating
the very means which will, in time, it
may be, or in eternity, show to him who
makes the prayer, that God does an
swer even his prayer. Let me illus
trate this thought: There lives in the
church rneihbership of B. a good sister,
whom and call sister C., consecrated to
the sep/ice oi jffsus so fully, toat she
is perffintted to believe that her Master
has accepted' of her se'rvice, hence fol
lows poiver with God and with man.
Sister C. has a son, as yet, out of the
Church. She prays for this son —she
believes God hears, God s3ys let this
prayer be answered, it is so reoorded.
Now, shall she walk by sight in this
stage, and because she does not see ai
once the answer, say “I knew it would
be so }"
Oh ! no ; she still walks by faith, she
has placed her request and with it her
burden on the Christian's altar, and
now she waits in peaceful expectation
the result, her soul resting from its ef
fort is now as calm as yonder beautiful
lake, while undisturbed by the slight
est breath of air, it quietly reflects
the beautiful scenery which nature's
God has placed around it. S') she
waits our Father’s pleasure lo use the
means necessary to accomplish his
glory, and at the same time to bring
this son to think, to act, to believe.
But you will say, with him the ordinary
means have failed. Preaching heard
carefully from his early years seems
not yet to have blossomed and put on
its fruit. The word of God to him,
as familiar as he sweet prattling of
his first born, has not as yet impressed
on his soul “thiu at t the man.” The
living example of that consecrated
mother so far, has not shown its re
sults —those prayers at the throne of
grace, urged under the most fervent
and devoted manner of appeal for par
don, have apparently been waded
through as a man wades the freshly
flowed fields in search of game, and
still no visible change—no outward
movement of that soul, deeply wrought
upon by the power of the Holy Spirit.
But is it true ? has all failed ? must the
prayer of faith be lost ? Never : but on
the tressel board of the divine architect,
there is marked out another work not
yet put into operation; on that there is
trated another means to be used the
better to accomplish the purpose of
God. That mother must die! hear
her dying prayer for the unbelieving
son. Lord save Lord Ldo believe !
Thou dost save ! Save now! He is
saved! And now as we linger at the
new made grave—our tears flow fast,
but the dying prayer of his mother
has riveted itself deeply into his soul.
“He is saved,” yes as I seem to read
his very soul. This thought is, there
she prayed for me. She meant me—
her faith grasped the promise ! Am I
saved ? ’Tis true He bore “our sins in
his own body o.< the tree.” He died for
me. He now offers salvation to me,
even me. I accept the offered mercy,
1, too, am saved.
“Hallelujah ’tis don*
I believe on the Sou,
I am saved by the blood
Of the crucified one.'’ ! '
Nemo.
Bavashae, Ga., November let, 1876.
WHOLE NO. 2244-
General Denominational News.
—Of the celebrated Cardinal Antonelli,
who died in Rome a few days ago, a German
diplomatist said a few years ago: Antonelli.
with a profound knowledge of character, and
a master of the art of pulling things, soon learn
ed how to twist and turn the prejudices and
peculiar bent of the Papal ra'nd ; and once the
controller of that mind, the repeated plots to
uudermine him in the Pope’s estimation and
to drive him from the offices which have ac
cumulated in his hands, have one and all igno
minicusly failed. He is really master of the
people, and King of Rome. Born in 1806, he
was educated to holy orders and held several
offices under Gregory XVI. He was made
Cardinal-Deacon by Pope Pius IX in 1847.
For the past twenty-years lie has been Premier
of the Papal Court. Ilis palace on the Quiri
nal was one of the most splendid of Rome,
and there lie held a court not inferior to that
of any nobleman of Europe. The cardinal
was an able financier, and one of the most ac
complished of diplomatists.
—Conversions in large numbers are resulting
from the Moody and Sankey meetings at Chi
cago. Of one hundred people at one inquiry
meeting every one professed a change of heart.
—There are 18,000 Israelites in San Fran*
cisco, five synagogues in the State and three ia
the city.
—Rev. Dr. S. D. Burchard, one of the
oldest Presbyterian ministers in New York
city, accepts a call to Metuchen, N. J., with
the intention of spending the rest ofliis life in
a country pastorate.
—The Jewish Messenger states that for the
first time there were religious services in the
Sing-Sing Prison on the opening of the He
brew New Year. The Jewish prisoners, to the
number of 40, were addressed by the Rev. Mr.
Rabbinowita.
—Rev. John P. Durbin, D.D., an eminent
and widely known Methodist div’ne, formerly
President of Dickinson College, and later
General Secretary of Methodist Missions, died
at his home in New York, October 19th.
—Owing to a recent decision of the Court
of Appeals of New York, that religious and
charitable institutions cinnot lie assessed for
local improvements, about fifty suits have been
instituted to vacate such assessment* in New
York city.
—Experts in life insurance set down the
average life of a clergyman in this country at
sixty-four years.
—From the reports of the Tract Societies and
Mission presses, it appears that the total is
sues of Christian literature in India in the
year 1875 amounted to 1,282,271 copies, a gain
of 38,779 over the previous year.
—According to Dr. Reid, Secretary of the
Methodist Missionary Society, there is great
danger that the debt in November will amount
to $250,000, unless the collections and dona
tions shall in the meantime be largely increas
ed over the present rates.
—lt is a compliment to the Christian peo
ple of the United States that the funds raised
by “Turkish Mission Aid Society” oi England
for the sick and wounded in Bulgaria, are
sent to the American missionaries in Turkev
for distribution.
—The vast interior of South Africa, from
the Vaal river to the Central African lakes, is
open to robsionary effort. North Central Af
rica can be reached by the Gambia river under
British protection.
—Statistics show that the contributions of
the Women's Missionary Societies in (be differ
ent denominations in the United States from
1860 to 1876, make an aggregate of more than
a million and a half ofdoilars. Two hundred
and eighty seven missionaries are sustained by
these women’s boards.
For the Index and Baptist.!
WHO ARROWS.
INDIAN MISSIONS INCREASE IN IMPOR
TANCE.
The Seminoles —the -farthest west
ern of the civilized tribes,have applied
for, and obtained, the services of a
teacher and preacher. This opens up
anew field beyond. The wild tribes
are asking for the Bread of Life. The
chief of the Sicks nd Fox Indians be
came converted, and it is said that he
walked to Kansas to be baptized.
Certain it is that he went and returned
to proclaim the glad tidings of salva
tion to his tribe. Twenty were con
verted and applied to the civilized
tribes for the mi-sionaries to come and
baptize for them. Say ye that it is
yet four months until harvest ? The
Kioways, Commanches and all the In
dians of the plains,are just beyond and
not one missionary to them all! “The
harvest truly is plenteous, but the la
borers are few." If the present policy
of the government prevails, the Sioux
will soon be removed to this Territory,
which will still more greatly increase
our responsibility. A. J. Holt.
Wenoka, Seminole Nation, Indian Terri ton-.
w* are not to expect the joys of
heaven while here on earth. Let ua be
content that there is a highway to its
blessedness for us to walk in, and a
Leader to conduct us in that way.