The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1869-03-17

The suusrintenaent of the Third Reformed Dutch
church of Philadelphia has prepared neat, ap-
propriate letter. printed in script, and sends It to
each scholar who is reported absent on the Sab,
bath He finds it the next best thing to an actual
visit Each letter is signed by him. After the
date il begins - Master John Doe II missed
you from school on last Sabbath. and, not knowing
the reason would like to see you on next Sunday
afternoon, at half past two o'clock. In your aecus-
toned place. &c Out Of Si-ty-6ve such notes
which he sent out, ftty-tce elected replies.
In Search of the Church--In prosecuting this
search, the Church Journal is apprehensive that
many Episcopalians will find it necessary to leave
the communion to which they now belong This
apprehension is expressed in the following lam
guage
eff the visible Church. one, holy aud Catholic,
is to be supplanted by one that is invisible and
therefore not open to communication through the
avenues of the senses our trust In Scripture as the
veritable word of God vanishes at once like
beautiful dream seeing that it rests primarily on
the testimony of the Church visible. The denial
of the rightful authority OF the Catholic Church,
necessarily carries with it denial Of the perpetual
presence of the Holy Spirit, to be in it the Guar
dian and Protector of all revealed truth; and
thus,-there being no longer on earth an unlm
peachable witness for the certifying Of that truth
our redemption. is thrown for final adjudication Oh
the feeble intellect, the variable inclinatOns anu
the blinded conscience Of poor mortal man. 10
meet this danger as it ought to be met no amount
Of teaching exclusive of positive belief In the real
nature and supernatural gifts of ChriSts own
Kingdom, will suffice For want of this, secret
RatiOnaiSm is already attacking our very life, and
laying siege to our faith. For want Of lift the
remedy is not soon and vigorously applied-we
shall find 10 our cost that the very crowds now en-
terng the Church and forming the staple of our
new parishes, will at last discover that they have
yet to seek home and a refuge, where they may
be free from the mseries of sectarianiSm, and en-
JOY the confidence of certain faith, in the COM
munion Of the Catholic Church. ~
Financial Aspect of the Failure of Protestant
ISM" is presented in the course of an article in
The Methodist, which we take to be from the pen
of Professor Schem, who, as is well known, is one
of our best informed religious statisticians, Com
pairing the missionary contributions Of the two
great competing parties of Christendom he reaches
the following results;
England and the United States are the most
liberal among the Protestant countries of the world
in support Of Foreign Missions But Germany
has twelve missionary societies, the Netherlands
ten, the Scandinavian countries six; aud the az
gregate income of these societies is steadily In
creasing and swelling the total missionary revenue
of the Protestant world, which, We believe, does
at present not fall short of $4,000, 900 a year.
Thus the Protestant population Of the world, which
numbers about 100 600 900, contributes annually
about six times as much for missions as the 1885,
600, 900 of Roman Catholics
Primsval Man-ProfesSor Guyot, of Princeton,
is engaged in course of lectures in New York
city upon this interesting subject. No man living
is better qualified by learning and genius to i'm
part information upon it. They are delivered I'M
der the Lecture endowed by Professor Morse in
the New Y ork Union Theological Seminary.
The Baptist denomination in this country the
last twenty FIVE years. has increased sixty nine per
cent in churches. seventy seven per cent. in min
isters and ninety-eight per cent. in members
The contributions have increased in a much larger
ratio during the same period, the amount given to
Home and Foreign Missions having increased SS5
per cent.
Fifteen thousand communicates are in the Chris
tan churches on the West coast of Africa.