Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1879-11-29
RELIGIOUS NOTES.


Its proposed to invite Joseph Cook to give
a series of lectures in Exeter Hall and Mr. Spur
geon'S Tabernacle in London.
The additions this term to the membership
Of the School of Theology in the Boston Uni
versity are more numerous than for two years
past. Three are ladies. making the whole num-
Der Of young ladies in the school five.
The Methodist women of Philadelphia are
trying to raise s25, 800 for a Methodist orphan
age in that city.
The first great meeting of the autumn
Methodist anniversaries in England has been
held in Exeter Hall. London. A choir Of eight
hundred voices led the singing.
The camp-meeting is not yet a thing of the
past. Arrangements are in progress for man.
moth national Methodist camP-meeting at Old
Orchard Beach, N. H.. In July, 1880, which Is
proposed to be gathering OF all Methodists In
this country. The several bishops have been in
vited to participate.
The Church of England Is to have new
church edifice in Rome
Thirty-five years have passed since the first
in the city OF London. Since then the organiza-
tons have multiplied until to-day they exist In
all quarters Of the world, distributed as follows
United States and Canada, i,1Oe Great Britain
800; Germany, 800; Holland, 800; Switzerland
$50; Sweden, 65; France. As; other nations of Eu-
roEe. SO; Australia, Syria, Japan and China, Co.
Total, 2,4O0.
The Roman Catholic clergy of the district
to remove Bishop Fabre. on account of his rules
against smoking and other social customs.
- The Presbyterian is outSpoken in its declara-
ton that no Quaker ever had his ears cut off or
his tongue pierced with hot irons in Massachu-
sets.
A new Presbyterian Rerie,r is to be added to
the ponderous theological quarterlies. 1t is eS-
tabisbed by wealthy PreSbyterianS who can at
ford to pay the losses for a few years. They in
innate that the Princeton Rerie,c does not prop
erly represent PresbyterianiSm
Theodore Cuyler has been writing about
ministers heartaches in way to draw forth ap-
preciative responses from several of the afflicted
In continuation of the same subject, he says In
the Etungelist: One Of the Sorest sorrows which
many pastors are called to endure-especially
in the VESTS from the disloyalty of their peo-
pie. Instead of rally1ng to the aid of their pas.
tors, and sustaining them in the Masters name
and for the Masters service, they straightway
begin to find fault and pick flaws, and within
TWO or three years worry them into reSgna-
tfon. AS long as the novelty of new minister
lasts, the church makes temporary Roadway;
but presently all the solemn installation vows
OF the tickle flock are forgotten, and the am
bassador of Christ is "badgered' y into reluc-
tant retreat. prominent western pastor writes
me that with the exception of IA few min
listers lately installed, there Is not pastor in
his presbytery who is not thus cruelty harassed.
He says that within short time he has seen
ten men driven out OF their pulpitS simply be-
cause their congregations We're grown weary OF
them, and were hanker1ng after the novelty OF a
new face and new voice in their pulpits. He
farther adds that 1--WE have no peace, no Secur-
ity, no feeling of stability in our pastorates'
Nor Is this ugly epidemic confined to Presbyter-
ian churches. An eminent western Episcopal
bishop declares that 'Jhe average length Of
pastoral service in his diocese does not exceed
two years." By that time the people weary Of
their rectorS, and diSOdge them, to make room
for others who are in turn, no more satisfactory
than their predecessors. Methodsm escapes this
growing evil by its enforced itinerancy, but in
our own and most other denominations the cpl
demlc for divorcing pastors Is even more fatally
prevalent than for diyorcing wives
-Curtously enough. 1t happens that preach
er in Canandaigua is found to have preached in
June last the very sermon of the Rev. Dr. Joseph
Parker which Brother LOrimer of Chicago so
literally drew on few Sundays ago. The Can
andaigua preacher SO pleased his hearers that
Instead of telling them that it had been pub
lished before falling into his hands, he consented
the honor you confer upon it."
The Rev. Mr.. Alcott whose name has lately
been stricken from the roll of the Presbytery OF
Worcester, Mass, for holding the doctrine OF
an unllm1ted atonement, naS received call to
Cumberland Presbyterian church, which has
been formed at Fredericksburg, Ohio, and1 COM
posed of number OF the members of his former
church.
A prominent Scotch divine condemns a
tendency to return, in the arrangement and
construction of churches and furniture, to the
old popish idea" He favOrs the Grecian style
OF architecture, and would leave the Gothic to
the Catholics.
The missionaries at n-Chan, China. have
experienced some difficulty in buying native
girls to be converted the parents refusing to
part with their children except at eXtravagant
prices. The missionaries get the money back
at the marriage of the girl. The stipulations
allowed to receive half their money now and
half at the girls marriage; that the feet be IN
bound; that the bethrothal Of the girl be en-
that she may not return hone before her mar
rage; that, If the parents recall her after the
three months probation, they repay the school
for the girls board at the rate OF 50 per month.
The Guild OF st. Luke Is one of the latest
religious developments in England. 1t is com
posed OF medical men of advanced RitualiStic
views, and the Lancet says it observes the
movement with unfeigned apprehension. Medi-
cal men, In common with the rest of free citi-
ZenS, have an unqueStfOnable right to enter into
any combination for the propagation of their
views; but something is due, the medical Journal
thinks, to the instructive taste and the sense OF
which clearly point to the expediency of avoid
ing even the appearance OF evil" 1t would be
evil If medical practitioners came to regard the
influence their profession gives them in the
cleS OF their alienele as qualifications or Oppor-
tunities to be laid at the foot OF a sectarlan
fah rs one thng fat 4he on
| on, TO the organization Of medico-clerical
propaganda, because the cure Of souls Is and
ought in the interests of society and sound
progress to remain function wholly apart
| from that OF curing diseases OF the body.
The Chaa'chnlan says: 1.-THE Postmaster Gen.
| eral has issued an order that all such publica-
! lions Us the Police Gazette addressed to Canada
| shall be considered unavailable. But that which
| is immoral in Canada is immOraS in the United
| States, and why may not it be treated as such
| touching its circulation throughout our own
tOrdeTS?"
The venerable Rev. Anthony Atwood writes
''Seven-eighths Of the physical sufferings of ad
vanced life are due to the errors, vices and fOlies
| OF younger manhood, all resulting from want oil
| the fear of God. 1t is an old saying that men sc
| spend the first half Of life as to make it neceS
| sary to spend the last half In unavailing repent
ance."
Rev. DR.. Cuyler speaks in somber strain
| on the general decline of church-going. Any
| one who recalls the moral condition of New
| York city forty years ago, he says, will remem-
Der that at that time fully one-half of the pOpu-
| lat1On attended some Protestant house of wor
| ship. Now the highest claim made by the City
tract society is that 100000 are regular or occa-
| sional worsh1pers in Protestant churches and
| chapels in total population of over one mil
lion. In the rural districts of New England
| 'there is marked decline in the numbers who
| attend habitually on the preaching Of the
! Word" The latest spiritual statistics of Gin
| cinnat1, chicago, and st. Louis show even a
| more unfavorable outlook of evangelical relg.
| ion. Brooklyn Is styled ''The City OF Churches
| hntn ri Ia IN hp Tho ne