Newspaper Page Text
The Christian Index.
VOL 56—NO. 3.
Table of Content*.
First Paoe.— Alabama Department; Keeord of
State Events ; Spirit of tlio Religions Press;
Baptist News and Notes ; A Bit of a Sermon
—Poetry ; The Missionary Field; Cold Weath
er—Revivals—Observing tho Lord's Day; The
Oldest Structure in the World; General De
nominational News; etc.
Second Page. —Our Correspondents; The Pai
torV Burdens—Alpha; To the Churches of
the Central Association—S. Boykin: Joining
the Church—P. T. Henderson"; "Stop that
Old Paper”—C.; A Day of Fasting and Prayer
—W. W Turner: Ordination—T. H. Stout;
C. T. Mosley—W. L. Geiger. Mission De
partment: Missionary Corn—T. C. Boykin;
Indian Missions—J. M. Wood. Selections :
Regeneration and Baptiem—Dr. Williams;
Poetry.
Thibd Paoe. —Our Pulpit; Baptism—lts form
and Subjects—A Sermon, by Bov. 11. C. Horn
ady, Senoia, Georgia.
Fourth Page.- -Editorial: Domestic Ties vs.
Christian Obligation—Rev. 8. G. Hillyer, D.D.
Star-Vindicator ; Georgia Baptist News ; Ed
itorial Paragraphs.
Fifth Page. Secular Department ; Literary
Gossip ; Gems Reset; Georgia’s Agriculture;
Personal; Georgia News ; Domestic and For
eign Notes.
Sixth Page. —The Sunday-school; Elijah, the
Tishbite—Lesson for Sunday, January 28,
| 1877
Seventh Page. —The Farm: Horticulture ; Win
ter-Dreesing Fruit Trees.
Eighth Page —Science and Education. Mar
riages. Advert cements.
INDEX AND BAPTIST.
ALABAMA DEPARTMENT.
Scarlet fever is prevailing in Union Springs.
The Alabama Institution for the deaf and
blind is reported in an excellent condition.
1 ► ■■ ■ ■■
The Eutaw Whig says that corn is abundant
in Green at 30 and 35 cent? a bushel.
The Legislature will remain in session at
farthest no longer than the 10th of February.
The Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows meets in
Montgomery, February sth.
The Warrior river is up and planters are
glad. They are shipping cotton to Mobile at
one dollar per bale.
The negroes in Barbour county are more
contented than for years, and none of them are
emigrating to the West.
Mr. H. R. Raymond, Jr., of Marion, has
been licensed as a preacher in the Presbyterian
church.
El le' J. H. f'vrry bas resume.) oasto •
rate of Broad street church, Mobile, and was
warmly welcomed by his congregation.
The joint committee of the Legislature of
Alabama have agreed upon a revenue bill in
which the rate is (50 cents on the SIOO value ot
property, instead of 75 cents, the present rate.
A petition from citizens of Opelika has been
forwarded to the Legislature, asking a repeal
Of the city charter of that city. A counter pe
tition presents the subject in a different light.
Rev. James M. Scott, a Baptist minister, in
Shelby county, has reachad his hundred) year.
He retains his mental faculties, but is almost
deaf and blind.
► •
Prof. T. J. Carlisle, late of the Baptist High
School in Troy, hus been elected principal of
the Louisville (Harbour county) High School,
and has accepted.
The Troy J leetenger of the 18th, says: “Rev.
T. E. Langley, of Florida, preached at the
Baptist church, on Sunday last, morning and
evening. He is a preacher of fine culture and
ability, and his discourses were listened to by
large and attentive audiences.
Anew insurance law is being perfected,
looking to the protection of policy holders in
this State. One of its features require all in
surance companies, whether incorporated
by this or any other State, to make an annual
statement under oath, exhibiting the condition
of the company at the close of each year.
The Board of Trustees ol the Agricultural
and Mechanical College adopted a resolution
abolishing tuition fees. No change was made
in the faculty or officers of the college. The
number of Btudents is about eighty, and the
cost for a student, including uniform, board
and all necessary expenses, will now be $175
to S2OO per scolastic year.
Brother T. M. Bailey, the evangelist, is very
successful in his works. He finds an in
creasing liberality among the bretheren in their
contributions. From October Ist to December
31st, 1876, he collected for State Board $580.80;
for Foreign Board, $41.20; for Home Board
$13.00; for Theological Seminary, $18.00; for
Howard College, $158.08; total cash, SBII,OB.
Gov. Houston has placed funds with the
National Bank of the State of New York, with
which to pay the interest due January lst )
on the Alabama New Bonds, issued in ex
chsngefor old ones, by the Commissioners 'u
adjust the State debt. Holders presenting . ,u
--pons to the above Bank will be paid.
The Governor has also money with which
to pay, January Ist, the interest on ate ob
ligations.
No college in the United State3 pro
vides instruction in tuchitccture.
TTTIH • SOUTH-WESTERIT BAPTIST,
of Alabama.
Spirit of the, Religious Pres?.
—Says the Go'den Ru’e :
If half the time spent in telling men what
they already know —that they are sinners—
had been used in showing them the real lova
bleness ot God, and the trne conditions of hap
piness in this life and the life to come, the
world would be the better 'or it.
A German correspondent of the Evangel
ical Christendom states that many pastors are
separating from the State Church of Prussia,
on account of the new marriage ritual. The
dissenters obtain the most of their ministers
from the United States.
—The Churchman is rather severe on the
‘‘learned skeptics,” but just, it says :
When skepticism seeks to sit in judgment
upon the Revelation itself, to pronounce ac
cording to its own conjectures as to what the
Almighty may, or may not, make known to
his finite creatures, then we feel that there is,
indeetl, short space between such daring limi
tation of the Infinite One, and the still greater
recklessness of ‘‘the fool” who “hath said in
his heart, there is no God.”
—The Christian Union discourses pointedly
on religion in cvery-day life, and urges that
this true Christian life be made strong enough
to wear on other days, besides Sunday. It Fays:
It is just as much a man’s religious duty to
do things which are not ordinarily called “re
ligious, as to do things that are. A man is
acting religiously who is transacting his prop
er business with energy, equity and fidelity.
That is a part of his religious lile just as much
as it would be for him to sit in prayer-meeting
and sing sweet hyms and join in the commun
ion of prayer and in fellowship. We are not
thin, shadowy men, because we are Christians.
Christians are not nen whose blood la pretty
much all sucked out of them, and who move
around almost without touching the ground
with their feet, and who live in a serene world
where nothing disturbs them. We are not to
be emaciated, etiolated men for the sake of
being pure and good. The typical Christian,
the ideal Christian is strong, full on every
side, earnestly doing whatever it is right for
anybody to do.
Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord is the Christian’s motto.
—The Jewish Messenger "wants to see some
Mcodyism introduced in the Jewish form of
service, some enthusiasm, Borne life.”
—The Christian Union puts a golden truth
into a very quaint amt homely frame in the
following :
The Bible in the hands of the controversal
isl becomes a magazine of artillery ; la the
hands of an antiquarian, a curious museum of
odds and bits; but in the hands of an honest
seeker alter truth and righteousness,*., it is a
book tlpit, teHco's how,to live a perfect life thqt
he may be “thoroughly furnished unto ail good
works.” If a man wants to know how to be
better, il he hungers at and thirsts for knowl
edge in righteousness, he will find in it ample
instruction. If a man will put in his left-hand
vest pocket the Proverbs of Solomon, he will
know more in his pocket than most men do
in their heads through all the days of then
life about wisdom in worldly affaiis; and if
he will put the 13ih chapter of let Corinthians
in the other picket, he will carry more pro
found wisdom of love in his pocket than men
usually do in their hearts.
The Golden Ru’e holds the following
strong language on the subject of “ Proper Self
Esteem: ”
Nsthing hurts a man more that: to seem
sma:l and ignoble in his own eyes. It is the
slavish feeling that degrades a slave. A base
ambition makes the man that cherishes it base.
No one can debase you but yourself. Slander,
satire, falsehood, injustice—these can never
rob you of your manhood. Men may lie
about you, they may denounce you, they may
cherish suspicions manifold, they may make
your failings the target of their wit or cruelty:
never be alarmed ; never swerve an inch from
the line your jugment and conscience have
chalked <at for yon. They lannot by all
their cllorts take away your knowledge of
yourself, the purity of your motives, the in
tegrity of your character, and the generosity
ol your nature. While these are left, you are,
in point of fact, uuharmed. Nothing outside
yourßelf can ever make you smaller than you
are to day. If youshall dwindle; if leanness
and inability shall come to any faculty ; if you
shall lose what makes you an ornament to
that rank and order of intelligence to which
you were born—the loss will be a self inflicted
one. Self-degradation is the only degradation
man can know.
—The Interior has the following upon “ Bi
ble Preaching: ”
The best preaching will pieach the whole
Bible. Not only will it not he the formal
enunciation ol propositions or evolution of
doctrine on the line of system, but it will not
he the preaching of any one book or part of
the Bible. It will not exalt the discourses of
Christ io the forgetting of Paul’s epistles, nor
the unfolding of Paul’s epistles to the ignoring
of that divine life on which they are built.
It will not he the preaching of the New Testa
ment alone, but Old and New Testament to
gether, and as mutually complementing each
other. The “ law and the prophets,” so
largely ignored now, are worthy of special
emphasis. When the knife of criticism is
drawn down sharply between Malachi and
Matthew, we need to affirm, with urgent em
phasis, the oneness of all God’s Word. We
need to show by biblical exposition, that the
Old is the seed-thought ol the New, and that
the scheme of redemption advances as logi
cally through Jewish history as it does through
the ministry of the Apostles ; that Abraham’s
place in the sacred march is as essential as
Paul’s; and the uncertain swaying of taberna
cle curtains, or cloudy pillar, as truly part ol
the on-coming love of God, as the steady light
of Bethlehem’s star, or the tongues of (lame
on Apostles’ brows The Divine Word, ihe
foundation of the Church, as against merely
ethical theories, may best he made manifest
by preaching the whole of it in the variety of
its truths, and iu the vitality of their own re
vealed forms.
—On the very wide and important question
of the social status ot men and women, the
Western Jleeorder remarks:
“We have recently been reading a work
FRANKLIN PRINTING HOUSE, ATaiNTA, GEORGIA, JANUARY 25, 1877.
bearing somewhat upon the question ny
Woman’s Rights, and while few if any nr”
ideas have been suggested, some old ones hav C
been revived and possibly sent home with „
greater force than ever be'ore.
We are not about to enter upon a discussion
of the broad and general question of the rights
of the female sex. But there is one feature ot
this question that is wrong and wrong con
tinually, and the evil that it works in society
is beyond conception. We refer to the pre
vailing habit of intensifying the character of
sin when committed by women ; rather, per
haps, we should say, modifying when commit
ted by men. Let a woman sell her virtue—a
crime foul and heinous, surely in the sight of
God and good men—and the heel of publW
opinion is put upon her in a moment, and he ?
character is stained forever. It matters no'E
how circumspect her walk and conduct subse jf
quently, she can never rise agaih to the posi-j
tion slie formally occupied. The mark of;
Cain is upon her. But let a young man com :
mil the same acts times without number, if he j
but keep up appearances, dress well, carry his '
head high, and the door is open wide to the J
first circles of society. So in regard to all j
forms of sin. In this there are clearly two
wrongs that need to be corrected:
First, it is manifestly wrong to pursue pec
pie to the grave lor a wrong that they may
have done, after they exhibit signs of peni
tence. The hand of sympathy and help
should be cordially extended to every one,
male or female, who is struggling to rise to a
be ter life. Thus Jems did, and His example
it is always safe to follow.
In the next place, it is wrong to make a
difference between our male and female crimi
nals. If it is right to socially ostracise a
woman because she falls—-and it surely is, so
long as she persists—it is right, also, to apply
the same remedy when a man falls. Why
not? Who has made a difference? But men,
knowing that this difference is made, knowing
that they can trample virtue in the dust, and
still retain their position in society, use the ad
vantages of their position and all their powers
of persuasion for the destruction of female vir
tue, and thus fill the land with abominations.
We write plainly because the evils demand
plain talk. It is high time that men, who are
habitually guilty of acts —the single commis
sion of which would put a woman down where
she cannot rise again—should themselves go
down loaded with infamy never to rise until
they shall bring forth “works meet for repen
tance.”
— Zion’s Herald Bays tersely :
“When we begin heartily to awaken to the
spiritual necessities around us, a manuscript
becomes a burden.”
BAPTIST RAWS AM) ROTES.
—The American Seventh-Day Baptists have
sent a missionary to Scotland,
—The Southern Theological Seminary at
Greenville, South Carolina, will probeb,,^^
sreiTOTtT! to V-U: ivirle, Ft., in
1878.
—The German Baptists of San Francisco
have resolved to organize as an independent
church, and have asked letters to that end from
the Metropolitan church.
—Rev. W. E. Waller has received a
“hearty call” to the pastorate of the “Pilgrim”
Baptist church, Louisville, Ky.
—The Abbeville Baptist Association, South
Carolina, is the banner Association of that
State. It has only eight hundred and fifty
one members present for duty, and yet they
raised last year for all purposes the sum of
$6,299.72, or about $7.40 apiece.
—A contributor in Tennessee to the Home
Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Con
vention, sends “the product of missionary
hen” $1.50. Another from Nortli Carolina
sends “part of amount received for missionary
pig,” $2,00. A beloved sister in South Caroli
na sends to the Secretary of the same Board
the following: “1 gave you my pledge for
$lO, for Indian Missions, to be paid in Febru
ary. The Lord, whom I love peculiarly to
think of as ‘Jehovah Jireh,’ haß given me the
means of paying it now, with this I also send
$20.00 for Home Missions as a “Thank Offer
ing” to the great Ruler of the universe for
Hampton’s election which is the promise of
good government for our prostrate Stale.”
—Rev. A. B. Earle, evangelist, is engaged
in an extensive revival at Sherburne, Chenan
go county, New York. The whole region is
said to be moved. There has been a great
religious dearth there for years.
—Rev. Win. Ferguson, of Liberty, Missou
ri, has bought a half interest in the Central
Baptist, published at St. Louis, anil becomes
associate editor with Rev. W. Pope Yeaman,
D.D.
“—The First Baptist church, Chattanooga,
recently ca led Rev. J. M. Phillips, of Leba
non, Tennessee, to the pastorate. Bro. P. is
delighted with his new home, and is confident
of great success.
—The Central Baptist church, Nashville,
has sustained a severe loss in ihe death of its
clerk, Mr. A. B. Shankland, which sad event
took place on the Bth inst.
During the year 1876, Rev. Joseph N. Bar
bee, of Kentucky, has preached 268 sermons,
conducted 11 protracted meetings, received to
various churches 175 persons, of whom 51
were by baptism, and has traveled 2,000 miles.
—Rev. Dr. Lorimer, of Boston, declines the
call recently tendered him by the Tabernacle
Baptist church, New York.
—ln view of the fact that comparatively few
of our churches contribute to foreign missions,
the Baptist Weekly s.iys :
Practically a large number of our churches
are as thoroughly Anti-mission as any of the
decaying “old school” Baptists, and when we
complacently contemplate the extinction of
these Anti mission churches we are only antici
pating ihe probable late of many of our owj
churches who have a better “name,” but who
are as truly dead as any of those wiiose blot-
'king out so admirably reinforces our faith in
\tbe certain consequences of a do-noting policy,
o' —The nnrnber of baptisms in the Baptist
jfchurches of the United States for 1876 was
109,684. The baptisms of the previous year
were 87,874. About a quarter of the Associa
tions have not reported for ’76, so that their
baptisms are not Included. For 1875 the
baptisms in all the world were 109,422, or 252
less than in ’76 in the United States alone. The
total membership last year, was 1,815,300; this
year, 1,932,385, an increase of 117,055. In
part, this increase is due to the fact that sever
al Associations in Georgia that were dropped
asl year as being anti-mission, have laid
inside their anti-mission character and enrolled
'with their brethren. It admits of no doubt
that the next year will find our numbers ex
ceeding two millions of believers, each of
whom has been baptized on an intelligent pro
fession of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
.4 HIT OF A SERMON.
Whatso’er you find to do,
Do it, boys, with all your might 1
Never be a little true,
Or a little in the right.
Trifles even
Lead to Heaven.
Trifles make tlw life of a man ;
So in ail things—
Great .vi-.J small things
Be as tiiorou ;h as you can.
Let no speck 'i oir Hii faoe dim—
Spotless tr rJi and honor bright 1
I’d not give a tig for him
Who says any lie is white 1
He who falters
Twists or alters
Little atoms when wa speak,
May deceive me,
But believe me,
To himself he is a sneak.
Help the weak if you are strong,
Love the old if you are young ;
Own a fault if you are wrong,
If you're angry hold your tongue.
In eaoh duty
Lies a beauty,
If your eyes do not shut;
Just as surely
And securely
Asa kernel in a nut 1
Love with all your heart and soul,
Love with eye and oar and touoh;
That’s the moral of the whole,
You can never love too muoh !
‘Tis the glory '
Of the story
In our babyhood begun,
Our hearts without it,
(Never doubt it)
Are as worlds without a sun !
If you think a word would please,
Say it, if it is but true ;
Words may give delight with ease,
When no act is asked from you.
Words may often
Soothe anil soften,
Gild a iuy or heal a pain
They are treasures
Yielding pleasures
qt is wicked to retain !
Whatso’er you find to do,
Do it then with all your might;
Let your prayers be strong and true—
Travers, my lad. will keep you right.
Pray iu all things,
Great and small things,
Like a Christian gentleman;
Aud forever,
Now or never,
Be as thorough as you cau.
The Missionary Field,
—The Church Journal, Protestant Episco
copal, says : “Complaints about the the ‘cen
tra! expenses’ in both departments of our mis
sion work are chronic; arid though answered
as they frequently have been, at the meetings
af the Board and in their publications, yet from
time to time they reappear. It must be re
membered that in conducting any business, and
particularly in raising funds for any object,
there is no more false, or fatal economy than to
curtail the outlay required in advertising the
subject and keeping it before the people. There
is no more striking illustration of this than in
this very matter of raising money for mission
ary purposes.”
—American Presbyterians have the most
extensive and nourishing missions in Egypt.
For the last ten years they have organized on
an average a church every year. These church
es have an average of fol ly members each.
—The Wesleyan Methodists ol Great Brit
ain with a membership of less than 500,000,
gave last year for the support of the missiona
ry work $900,000 or nearly two dollars per
member.
—As the results of ten years’ labor among
the freedmen by the Northern Presbyterians,
there are 128 churches, nearly 10,000 commu
nicants, and 7,000 Sabbath and 4,000 day
scholars.
—The British Isles, in 1876, contributed
£1,048,408 in aid of foreign mission work.
Considerably more than one-balf of this sum
was contributed by members of the Church of
England, who entrusted about £IOO,OOO
to the joint societies of Churchmen and Non
conformists, in addition to £413,183 given
through nineteen societies of the Church ol
England.
—The American and Foreign Bible Society
are importing Ntw Testaments in the Chineeee
language from China direct, for Chinese emi
grants in California and Oregon.
—A Christian mission has been established
among the Aztecs, iu New Mexico. The work
is progressing beyond expectation, and the
natives are in a fair way to abandon the last
forms of heathen dances and devil-worship.
The church is crowded every Sabbatli with at
tentive hearers.
—Real cannibals have been discovered by
missionaries on the islands of New Britain and
New Ireland, off the northeast coast of New
THE OHRISTIA IST HEE/ABD'
of Tennessee.
Guinea. These natives are nude savages of the
Oriental negro type, who live more like beasts
than human beings. The Rev. George Brown,
a Wesleyan missionary, reports that he saw
women roasting ihe leg and thigh of a man
who had been killed in a fight. In another
hut smoke dried human flesh was hanging. In
another he countod thirty-five jaw-bones of
men and women, Cannibalism seemed to be
common throughout the islands, not as a reli
gious rite, but as an ordinary means of subsis
tence. The natives assured the missionary
that the accounts heretofore published of a race
of tailed human beings were true, and were
certain that these strange creatures were not
monkeys,
—The Home Mission Board of the Lutheran
General Synod supports forty-three missions,
to which 603 new members were added the
past year.
For the Index and Baptist.l
Cold Weather—‘Revivals —Observing the Lord’s
Day.
Dear Index —Perhaps a note from
this snow-clad Switzerland, might in
terest your Southern readers.
THE WEATHER.
December the 24th snow fell seven
inches deep, which lay till the 31st,
when another snow fell, making it
eighteen inches deep. The largest snow
that has fallen in our knowledge. At
this writing the snow has not all melted
away. During this time the mercury
has been as low as 11 degrees below
zero, on January 3d. Perhaps the
coldest weather for over twenty years.
GREAT REVIVALS.
There have been many glorious re
vivals in our section; some have
reached to tlfe development of practi
cal godliness on the part of the churches,
but we fear that many of the refresh
ings will be as the shower in a long
summer drought, soon j. arched beneath
the withering blasts of Satan’s si
moons.
Is there no remedy for this spasmod
ic religon ? The most effectual remedy,
to ray mind, is the due
OBSERVANCE OF THE LORD’S DAY
by the churches. Nor will there be a
reform till the churches assemble
weekly instead of monthly. Thirty
day Christians, with tho mighty tide
! of mammon and worldly power on the
I minds of the iJmssea, wilt chill into
I arctic stupor all our home aud foreign
efforts to evangelize the world. If we
would first strike out this monthly
system of convocation, and re-establish
the apostolic order, all our work would
prosper as the green bay tree by rivers
of water. G. H. Colthabf.
Madisonviile, Tenn., Jan. 14,1877-
TBK OLDF.ST STRUCTURE I.Y THE WORLD,
The form, dimensions, structure, and
uses of the great pyramid of Egypt
have long engaged the attention of as
tronomers and other scientific men. It
is generally known that this pyramid
has been carefully explored and meas
ured by successive Egyptologists, and
that the dimensions have lately become
capable of more accurate determination,
owing to the discovery of some of the
original casing-stones and the clearing
away of the earth from the corners of
the foundation, showing the sockets in
which the corner-stones fitted. Prof.
Piuzzi Smith devoted many months of
work, with the best instruments, in or
der to fix the dimensions and angles of
all accessible parts of the structure.
And he has carefully determined these
by a comparison of his own with all
previous measures, the best of which
agree quite closely with each other.
The results arrived at are: 1. That
the pyramid is truly square, the sides
being equal and the angles right an
gles. 2. That the four sockets on
which the first four stones of the cor
ners rested are truly on the same level.
3. That the directions of the sides are
accurately to the four cardinal points.
4. That the vertical height of the pyra
mid bears the same proportion to its
circumference at the base as the radius
of a circle does to its circumference.
Now all these measures, angles, and
levels are accurate, not as an ordinary
surveyor or builder could make them,
bnt to such a degree as requires the
very best modem instruments and all
the refinements of geodetical science to
discover any error at all. In addition
to this we have the wonderful perfec
tion of workmanship in the interior of
the pyramid, the passages and cham
bers being lined with huge blocks of
stones fitted with the utmost accuracy,
while every part of the building exhib
its tho highest structural talent. In all
these respects this largest pyramid sur
passes every other in Egypt. —National
ltepositorij for February.
Sixty-five so-called students are at
the once proud and prosperous Univer
sity of South Carolina, sixty of whom
are negroes.
There are now one hut dred and
twenty Chinese students in the col
leges of New England.
WHOLE NO. 2253.
General Denominational Hews,
—Steps are being taken to effeet a union be
twen the Protestant Methodists of Georgia and
the Lutherans.
—lt is gratifying to learn that Iheevang 1-
istic work in Paris, organized by the Rev. Mr.
McAll, is meeting with good success. He has
just opened his nineteenth plade of meeting,
there
—The Reformed Episcopal church has fifly
six settled pastors.
—A daughter of the Rev. G. D. Bernheim,
of Williamstown, North Carolina, has recently
preached some sermons which are well spoken
of. This is anew departure in the Lutheran
Church. J
—Brooklyn is often called “The city of
churches.” Its directory, recently published,
authorizes the appellation- Its exhibition of
churches is as follows : Baptist, 32; Congre
gational, 17; Jewish, 6; Lutheran, 11: Meth
odist, 52; Pre.*bylerian, 28; Protestant Epis
copal, 35; Reformed, 15; Romanist, 39; Uni
tarian, 3; Univetsalist, 4; Miscellaneous, 18;
in all, 293.
Eight Roman Catholic dioceses of Prus
sia are now vacant; the whole number of dio
ceses in the kingdom is twelve.
—A correspondent of the Churchman writing
from Moscow, IluFsia, of the Greek churches
of that city, which number about three hundred,
says : “l he wealth and splendor lavished
upon these churches is inconceivable. The
silver in them can be weighed by the ton. The
silver altar and screen in the Church of Our
Lady of Kazan is thirty feet high and twenty
feet broad, and the chancel rail is of solid sil
ver; and the single sarcophagus of St. Alexan
der Newsky, weighs thirty-two hundred and
fifty pounds of pure silver, besides the large
amount ol it on the altar above and on the
screens. The eight churches within the Krem
lin of Moscow are crowded —bursting, as Dean
Stanley expresses it—with untold wealth and
magnificence ot gems, pearls, gold and silver.”
—The Paris Temps says there is reason to
believe that the lung-threatened disruption ol
the Reformed church of France will be avert
ed.
—Music is a great tax, and in many cases a
heavy burden upon churches. Fashion here,
as in many other things, rules. Smaller con
gregations ape the style of their larger and
more wealthy neighbors. Rich churches
eometimw. pay enough for music to support
the entire expenses of several churches, pastors’
salaries, and all. St. Thomas' church, (Epis
copal,) New York, pays $9,000 a year for
music, being SI,OOO mere than the pastoi’ssal
ary. Dr. Hastings’ Presbyterian church. New
York pays $4,000 for music; Plymouth church,
Mr. Beecher’s, pays $7,000 ; Church of the
Pilgrims, Dr. Storrs’, pays $4,000; Dr. Chap
in’s Uni versalist, $5,000. These are but sam
ple cases. Most large city chinches are in this
category.
—The statistics of the Methodist Episcopal
church for 1876 show an increase in some of
the items, and a singular falling off in i there.
There is an increase of 33,000 members, but a
decrease of nearly 80,000 Sunday-school
scholars, while the aggregate of collections falls
$130,000 below that of 1875. We give some
of the items: bishops 11; annual conferences,
88 —increase, 8; traveling preachers, 15,509; —
decrease,372; lay members,l 613,560 —increase,
33,001; church edifices, 15,634 —increase, 1;
value of churches and parsonages, $78,637,015
—decrease, 2,447,874; Sunday-schools, 19,336
—increase, 79; scholars, 1,327,475 —decrease,
79,693. The various collections are as follows:
conference claimants, $134,058; for missions
$507,033; Woman’s Foreign Missionary Soci
ety, s62,236;church extension, $57,911; Tract
Society, $13,985; Sunday-school Union, $15,-
909; freedman’s aid, $35,307; education, $25-
908. Total, $852,851.
—At a meeting of the members of Walnut
Street Presbyterian church, Rev. Dr. Brooks
pastor, made a proposition to sever their con
nection with the Southern General Assembly,
and join the General Assembly of the Presby
terian church of the United States, which was
carried by a vote of 197 to 21.
Relief Without a Doctor.
Though wo would by no means be understood
as deprecating, but rather as recommending,
professional aid in disease, there are multitudes
of instances when it is neither necessary or easy
to obtain. A family provided with a compre
hensive household specific like Hostetler's
Stomach Bitters is possessed of a medicinal re
sume* adequate to most emergencies Iu which
medical advice would be otherwise needful.
That sterling tonic and corrective invariably
remedies, and is authoritatively rcoommended
for dehility, indigestion, liver disorder, an ir
regular habit of body, ni inary anti uterine
troubles, inoipient rheumstism and gout, and
many other ailments of frequent occurrence. It
eradicates and prevents intermittent and remit
tent fevers, relieves mental despondency, checks
j remature decay, and invigorates the nervous
and muscular tissues. Sleep, digestion and ap
petite are promoted by it, and it is extremely
useful in overcoming the tffcote ot exhaustion
and exposure.
The liver is more frequently the seat of dis
ease than is generally supposed, for upon its
regular aotion depends in a great measure, the
powers of the stomach, bowels, brain, and the
whole nervous system. Regulate that important
organ by taking Simmons’ Liver Regulator, and
you prevent most of the diseases that flesh is
heir to. _
Fou Throat Dibhases and Corona. Brown’s
Bronchial Troches,” like all other really good
things are frequently imitated, aid purchasers
should be careful to obtain the genuine article
prepared by Jehu I. Brown A Sons.