Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1880-06-12
RELIGIOUS TOPICS.

The 1900 churches Of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church owe in the aggregate s., 900 900, an
average OF 81, 900 to each church.
"A call comes from one of the Methodist
missions In India for $500 Methodist preachers
hlled with the Holy Ghost and fearing nothing
but SIM"
Last year 200 new members were added to
the Baptist churches In Sweden. Not yet are
Bapust preachers IN Sweden allowed by law to
solemnize the rites Of matnmony.
- The last religious census In France shows
that there are IS, ss7, 7os Roman Catholics,
1881 Calv1n1stS, 81, III Lutherans and So 11S
OF other Protestant denominations. The Jews
number about $4,000. and 10000 are attached to
no church.
The new Methodist Bishops Will have OIL.
cial residences as follows: Bishop Warren goes
10 Atlanta, Ga; Bishop FoSs to ST. Paul, Mimi:
Bishop Hurst to Des Moines, Iowa; and Bishop
Haven to San Francisco. Bishop Andrews re
moves from st. Paul to Washington.
- Bishop Simpson will start upon his journey
10 China and Japan some time In July. He will
De gone i've or six months hcl1tng conference
nrst IN fokohama, and then proceeding to Foo
Chow and Picking. He is In excellent health.
ruddy and br1ght-eyed.
"A tract distributor has been convicted in
Dublin and fined fl for Offering a tract to a
catholic priest which contained an Invitation to
the man used offensive language but the court
held that the Offering of the tract was in itself
an onense, and the higher court affirmed the de-
During the ten years that the Rev. r. S.
Macarthur has been pastor of Calvary church
IN New York, $50 persons have been received by
baptism, 422 by letter. and 80 by experience and
feSIolatlon. making 9ll In all. Fifty members
have died, and 157 have been dismissed by letter
Ten years ago the membership was 239: now it
| is 900. report further says that during these
zen Ten years the regular expenses OF $4,000 annu-
any, and the foatlng DEBT of ten years ago.
have been paid from the regular income from
peW.rents and collections, no collections having
Deen ever taken to make up deficits. The total
| amount or money raised Is little over $500 600
OF which 100000 came from pew-rents and was
expended for current expenses. The balance of
Sloo.OoG mas been devoted to UNCONVENTIONAL
OeneVolence an average of $4,000 year.
| Concerning the talk about the opening of
the Metropolitan Museum OF Art on Sunday the
| ChTtst!an at Work says: 1.-The plea on behalf
OF workingmen is idle How many of these-if
the museum contains? # higher class is 10.
| tended how many OF these ART unable to get an
occasional half holiday? 1t is the working
| stand by the Sabbath. Let the barrier of sacred
ness be broken down, and they will soon find
that they have no rest day. The working week
Will contain seven days. and for these no more
money will be paid than for six. The museum
excellent as 1t is in many respects is tn no sense
religious concern, and the visitor to its stores Is
engaged In secular occupation. Now we In.
S1St tnat no man, no set of men, have a right to
invite their fellows to violate sacred time The
plea that many of these might do the same
|
| not do evil that good may come. We NAV moi
ask men to do lesser wrong in order to keep
tneM from doing greater wrong. We say then
day."
- The children whom Robert Raikes took into
ms sunday schools were required to have s'clean
races, clean hands, and hair combed" but tat
| tered garments and shoeless feet were no dis
quan1lcat1on. The duty OF the teacher was to
teach them their letters. practice them in spell
ing and hear them read. In private letter to
fc
three years since we began, and wish you were
here to see the effect" 1.-The going among
them" he in the same letter. ':doing them
and, ingratiating myself with them, have given
me an ascendancy greater than ever could have
imagined, Tor am told by their mistresses that
In ano,h her interesting passage Raikes says sYou
VIII understand that these children are from six
years 0ta 70 fourteen Boys and girls above this
generally too refractory for this government.
A reformation In society seems to me to be only
practicable by establishing notions of duty and
early age"
The Methodist has kind word Of encour.
agement for the heather: "The notion that
heath s can, by any possibility, be damned for
me lack OF faith In Christ of whom he
plainly contradicted by the spirit and
teaching Of the Gospel to deserve serious
attention e Bur what must he do to be saved?
Detter than ne Is doing. In his irresponsible
ignorance and darkness the things he does to
De saved may be essentially wrong. II he
throws his child into the Ganges or hinsel
under Juggernaut, or wOrShlpS an idol mad
with his own hands, his acts are intrnsically
wrong; but If done In obedience to his con
science they are right actions to him and evncg
purpose OF righteousness which would gladly
respond to the claims of the Gospel when pre-
scented to him. The fact that he does anything
10 De saved Is peter ground of hope for him
than multitudes In Chrlstendom can have. for
they are doing nothing. And the fact that he
does these things consclentiously is as good a
the mercy Of God In Jesus Christ as any Chris
t1an can have that he will be saved for anything
h ne can 90 Dr.: Whedon says: he is saved
has as does the Christian who is saved, to the
light he has,"
During the last century Sunday school lit
erature has come into existence. and with it a
class OF circulating libraries that at least in this
country, reach much larger number of readers
than all other libraries combined; in many cases
their influence Is by no means confined to the
children OF the household, but they furnish the
adults with almost their sole reading. Sunday
school music has also been born and 1t is max
ing the coming generation singing generation
united study of the Bible on common plan
has done more to break down the denomina.
tional walls than all other influences combined
and will make the children much poorer sectari-
ans than their fathers were before them. But
Sunday school literature is quite too much CON
fined to fiction; good books Of biography, history
and science are deSideratum. and In SO far as
they are supplied are read by the pupils. Sing
Ing WOrn-out dfttieS and half-converted negro
melodies Is better than not singing at all: but it
ought not to take the whole of the next century
to supply better class of music or rather to get
the schools to use 1t when it Is supplied
Christian Union.
The Presbyterian, speaking editorlally of a
proposed change In the form of worship in the
Presby terrain church, says: "But how shall such
changes as are proposed be made and how can
they hope to receive the sanction of the
church, This is the point OF practical difficulty
1t must be remembered that any form OF public
service, such as may properly be called liturgy
Is not asked for except by members of churches
In the cities and larger towns, where forms have
more power, and where Bsthetical pretenSiOnS
abound. The staid old churches In the coun-
try do not desire any such SERVICE and would
not use 1t even II the general Assem-.
bly, would authorize 1t. The present
Directory Of Worship gives them all they want.
And as their representatives In the general as
sembly exceed the number of the representa-
tives of the city churches, their Indifference
would be fatal to the whole scheme. We do
not believe that any extended form OF public
service will be issued by the authority of the
general assembly in the near future, and we
are quite sure that II In some hour of unusual
| llturgical 1ervor the assembly should set forth
! such form 1t would not be adopted by any
considerable number OF the churches. The ex-
perieDce OF the church in regard to the PreSby-
| terrain Hymnal Is quite Instructive on this
OOiDt. Even the i'm l)yiynnff,. n tho ocsanohIv