The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-06-15
GENERAL ITEMS.

=, hoe ueeh- assumed Dy some, and
others have endeavored to foster the impression
that the word hell" is not used in the revised
New Testament. This is not true In twelve
distinct passages it is retained In other mas
sages, nine we believe, it is exchanged for the
word hades, meaning thereby the place of de.
parted spirits.-Pres6yterian
1t is said that the General Assembly
OF the United Presbyterian Church has decided
to allow the use of Instrumental music. such rs
the organ. IN its churches. The truth we be.
iieve, is that 1T has resolved to submit the cues
tion by overture to vote of the Presbyteries
The Rev. Mr.. Stimson saws that cat
the present time the Congregational Society is
not employing one man more than it did in
1878. The Presbyterians have twice the num-
Der OF missionaries west of the Mississippi river
than the Congregationalists have, the latter hav-
ing only one for $4,000 square miles and every
10000 of population"
Mr.. Charles Darwin, the naturalist.
recently wrote to Admiral Sir B. ]. Sullivan
had always thought that the civilization of
Japan was the most wonderful thing in history
out'i am now convinced that what the missiona
rles have done in TERRA del Fuego in clyilzing
the natives is equally wonderful"
Strauss, the German infidel. saws of
Voltaire, the French sceptic =" LOOKING back
contemplatively upon Voltaire's life we must
concede that large part of his nature was of
the earth earthly, and that to speak with the
angels In the second part of Faust, 1t is not
clean.
Prince Allesandro Torlonia, of Rome,
keeps two doctors especially to attend poor
families who have horror of hospitals; he en-.
tlrely provides for 800 children and educates
800 more; and he has established an asylum for
old people and hospital for the blind Every
day he gives 120 dishes of soup, with bread and
meat, to the poor.
-" Did you read that poem in last
nights paper" asked Smith " Readm ex-
claimed burlington. no sir; l never read
poetry. l write it !" "Oh, l see," said Smith,
demurely. "You are to be congratulated"
Boston Transcript.
The Council of the Reformed Epis-
copal Church, lately in session in New York,
recommended "a careful and reverent examina
ton of the revised version of the New Tesla
ment, with view to its ultimate approval by
the Church.
Her Majesty Queen Victoria ha,
raised her youngest son to the peerage with
the title OF Duke of Albany. The title is a very
identified with the royal family of Stuart
ONE SIDED CoURTEsY.-T Church
man, says what no one doubts:
" 10 preach in a Presbyterian pulpit was
never an ecclesiastical offence, and there never
was canon or law, or even public sentiment
that such an act could offend Manv of the
Bishops, and more of the clergy, have been glad
to avail themselves of the courtesy of such an
opportunity, and will be again. In the Church
no breath or whisper was ever raised against
any man for such an act There is nothing in
the canons or IN the spirit of the Church to
preclude the occupation of every PRESBYTERIAN
pulpit in New York the coming Sunday if the
courtesy were offered
There is no question as to the correctness of
this statement. But what sort of " courtesy" is
it to go into gentleman's pulpit and tell him
by act If not by word " will preach in your
pulpit, but you shall not preach in mine. l am
minister of Christ you are not. I will preach
In any pulpit can get into, but l will not let
you or any of your brethren into any pulpit that
1 control. ~. Y. Observer.
The Sunday School is supposed to be
the nursery of the Church But It all depends
certainly that Sunday School is pretty poor
nursery that numbers its scholars by ffties and
hundreds, and in a year sends none from its
ranks into the Church in fact it isn't a nursery
at all. But some Sunday Schools make a bet
ter showing as witness Cumberland Presbyte.
ran Sunday School in a Tennessee town. 1t
has lo5 scholars and seventeen teachers, making
with the Superintendent BOB. Now comes the
story told the Sunday School Times: "Of these.
leaving out the infant class, which numbers
thirty SIX, all but seventeen are Christians, and
most OF the seventeen are recent additions to
the school. The greater part of the younger
members Of the school have become Christians
since they joined it." That shows a Sunday
School established to some purpose; and who
doubts if pastor, superintendent, and teachers,
aided by the mothers, did but work conscien.
tiously there would be gathering of children
into the Church, even as doves fying to their
houses? Such Sunday School as that Tennes.
see school is indeed a nursery of the Church, but
a school without conversions Is no nursery to
the Churchill is only Sunday play ground.
Christian al Work
An article in the FTeemaas Journal
The Autocrat Of the Organ Loft" gives the
following picture Of that parsonage and the ex.
tent of his sway in some of the Roman Catholic
churches
The organist really rules the ritual of the
church. What are the rubrics or the meanino
OF inspired words to him? He presides and he
is determined that nobody shall forget it. While
the kind hearted sexton is engaged in hermeti.
cally sealing the church which he does with sucb
sedulous care on every hot Sunday, the naughty
organist prepares the minds of the perspfrine
congregation for devotion by playing The Last
Rose of Summer and the finale Of Martha
Now, why should these melodies be deemed
! appropriate to the august sacrifice of the Mass
! by, the average organist There is nothing