The Portland daily press., 1876-05-27


but rapidly until it embraces nearly all the
students of the Seminary as we'll as many
Others Thursday evening week, after the
regular meeting in the church. seventy-iye
converts and inquirers met in the vestry for
prayer and conversation, with the brother and
pastors who are so deeply interested in the
work. Meetings are held day and evening, and
| are largely attended.
Cincinnati has arranged for a religious Cen
| tennial celebration during Whtsunday week,
| beginning on Sunday, the 4th of June. On
that day the clergy are to preach on subjects of
their own choosing. Monday evening, June
| 9Th, all the churches are to be open for prayer
and praise The next three days are to be CIV
| en- to essays, conferences. cbildren,s meetings
| and open air services. Friday is the Sunday
School festival day.
The Christian Register (Unitarian) says that
while the Western churches have multiplied
| fve-fold and the Eastern churches are not
| much more numerous than they were twenty
| years ago, Eastern churches now contribute
three tunes as much as they did when the
Western Conference began, and the Western
churches are still quite near their original
amount. Several Eastern churches have just
given more to missionary objects than all the
| seventy-three Western churches put together
| expect to give.
One of the most remarkable of our Aneri-
can Sunday Schools is that of the church of the
Disciples (thc Rev. James Freeman Clarke i y,
Boston, which numbers some eight hundred
pupils in its various classes, chief of which
ranks the pastors Bible class of about two hun
dred. There are forty eight classes. The lib
rary contains two thousand volumes The one
lesson systematic Life and Teachings of Je-
sus-has been the plan pursued by most of the
classes.
The Rev. DR.. Robinson, President of E own
University, recently supplied the pulpit of the
First Unitarian church of Providence in the alb
sence of the pastor, and his sermon was regard
ed as a remarkable one as coming from a lead
ing Baptist divine. He maintained that relie3
ion, like the physical world, had it's epochs and
revolutions, and that the present movement,
although bloodless is deeper and more ignifi-
cant than any preceding Que. He was not
afraid OF progress, but is convinced that the
Christian religion is more firmly established
than ever in the world.
congressional inquiry respecting the army
chaplains sets them in no very enviable light.
Col. Palmer of the I'd cavalry, who has served
Since 1916, calls them ''the greatest incubus on
tue army" and says: 'A more useless aud
worthless set of drones and idlers were never
fastened upon any body of men. The men
who have been appointed to these positions are
generally character less men, who are no exam
pie to either the officers or men, and they bring
the Christian religion into contempt wherever
they go. Gen. Ord, whose service dates from
1889, says that not more than one in ten is use.
full. Capt Guy N. Henry, I'd cavalry, says
their presence is demoralizing.
w. H, FL. Murray wants converts gathered
into the churches without doctrinal confessions
of any sort; because, says be "whoever has re-
pented of sin and has faith toward Christ is al
aIu oko, .xc olr
High. in good and regular standing And all
earthly and local churches must receive him or
her as SUCH" He urges this not as anything
new, but as particularly needed in New Eng
land, where "a custom has come into vogue OF
examining Christians who desire to make
public confession of their faith, in an inGuisi-
toral way and to an extent obnoxious to Scrip
ture, and also to Christian courtesy and chart
ty."
Edward Eggleston objects in the Sunday
School Times to the prevalent International
system of lessons progressive Sunday School
men" he says, ''even now chaie under des-
potic monotony." The committee which pre-.
pares the lessons Facts upon the theory that a
Sunday School is sort Of primary theological
institution; that the test of success is the guam
tity of information about Boaz or Josiah that
the scholar is able to retain" He expects
tnunderDots ON MS head tor saying 1t, but he
insists upon it that, l, the international sys-
tenn is not in any sense sacredly identified with
Christian piety it is system under which big
oted schools are sure to get their Bible lessons
carefully filtered through UNCONVENTIONAL fl
tiers. 2, That notwithstanding the publishing
interest involved, and sort of Fourth of July
sentiment about Christian union, it must soon :.
er or later give way. 3, That, beyond its use
in diffusing widely established methods, the
advantages claimed for it are of no practical
account. 1t is of no real benefit to Melbourne
in Australia. to know that Binghampton in
New York studies the same hard passage in the
book of Samuel on the same day.