Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-04-30
RELIGIOUS.
SMALL TALK CONCERNING CHURCHES
AND MINISTERS.
Current News on Religious Matters from
Many Scurces-A Strange Scene
at Funeral

Madagascar has 20, l25 church members,
nearly seven.n inths as many as the Con-
erepational churches OK Massachusetts,.
The London Missionary Society has thirty
agents there, but nearly all the pastors are
natives.
The Canterbury Convocation has been
prorogued until May 18th. The upper
house passed resolution deprecating leg
islation, and declaring that the authority
10 settle matters of ritual is inherent In the
Episcopal office.
The Baltimore Episcopal Methodist is
hard On certain class of do-nothings who
infest the ministry. 1t expresses its judg-
ment by saving: A ministerial loafer is
an abomination on the earth, an ecclesi-
astical nuisance that ought to be abated."
The Christian at York AYERS that there
are pew-holders in New York city church,
who, under an old church charter pay but
$50 rental yearly for pews, go to Europe a
year or two more, relet their pews for 500
or $500 year, and pocket the difference.
The Chinese are said to believe that the
reason why those who read the Bible be-
come Christians, is due to the Supplying
power of the ink, which takes away his
reason and leaves him ready to believe false
doctrines. Warnings against the purchase
of foreign books are frequent in conse-
quence of this superstition.
The command of Leo XIII. to the
bishops of Poland and Russia to have
masses offered up throughout their respect
i've dioceses for the repose of the soul OF
the late Gar has caused profound surprise
all over the Catholic world. 1t is such
departure from precedent and established
custom that many were led TO conclude
that the news was false.
A Catholic mother once showed her child
a beautiful doll-a St. John OF an exquisite
rose color ''See, she said, he has been
very good, and heaven always rewards the
good by making them beautiful" "Oh !"
says the child, lifting its shoulders, don't
believe that, mamma. This little st. John
looks very meek because he's all glued up,
but if he could only move, you'd see y
A rich mems revival is looked for in Bos-
ton. Il have noticed says the pastor of
an aristocratic church, some awakening
in religious matters lately. People have
made great deal of money, and, in some
instances, have been led to see that they
are leading too worldly life. / anticipate
no marked intensity of religious fervor,
but it is noticeable that the churches, as a
rule, are constantly receiving accessions."
The Rev. w. P Paxon, Superintendent
of the missionary work of the American
Sunday-sch Union in the Southwest,
whose headquarters is at st. Louis, in a
recent address at Boston, stated that Oliver
Bennett, now living in Massachusetts,, for
merly of St. Louis, had given $1,000 a
year for twenty years for the support of
Sunday school missions IN the West, and
that this money had organized 1920
schools. with more than 40 900 scholars
The Whitehall Rsoie,cs states that the
list of converts received by Monsignor
Capel is probably longer and more varied
than that of Cardinal Manning. Anglican
clergymen, noblemen, undergraduates, men
about town with mystical tendencies, ;"
skeptics, actors, actresses, officers, barris
tiers, physicians, Ritualist monks, Ameri-
cans, dissenters and stockholders have
entered the portals of the Mater ct Mag
istra omnium Ecclesiarum under the
magnetic influence of the Monsignor."
President Eliot, of Harvard University,
says the degree of d. D. has ceased to mean
anything, it has been distributed SO indis-
criminately. This is bad. An eminent
religious authority remarks that $50 many
of the D. ID. g are neither talented nor
learned, nor remarkable for anything but
heaviness and stupidity, that their title is
about all there is to them" AS the title
means neither more nor less than teacher
of divinity" it can not carry much harm
with it, even if it fail to confer high dis.
tinction on those who wear it.
A mass for the dead is but mourning
mass. The celebrant clothes himself in
vesture of grief, decks the altar in drapery
OF similar hue and places the purple, sym
boil Of royal mourning, over the tabernacle
This is mere external pageant, and be-
tokens the church sympathy with public
or private grief. For similar reasons she
tolls the bell and chants the funeral dirge
AS IN times of sadness, or on occasions of
public or private joy, the church in her
vestments and ceremonies shows that she
has heart to feel with the people.
There are in England and Wales 10 diff.
ferent denominations, some of which differ
on exceedingly small particulars of faith or
practice. The variety ought to be great
enough to meet the views of almost every
body, of whatsoever stripe of religious
preference. There are among these ITO
religious bodies about As, 600 houses of
worship and upward of ii COO 600 sittings
There are Sc, 900 stated ministers, of whom
$1,000 are clergy in the Church of England.
The members number about 3, 900, 900, and
the average Sunday attendance is 10. 600.
coo.
In commenting on baptism of INNER
sion, which occurred during the past win
ter, when the ice in stream was broken
in order to perform the ceremony, the
Christian Register, of Boston, suggested
that hereafter " hearse should form part
of the procession" to the ice-hole. The
New York Examiner does not take well to
the idea, and replies that hearse might
be serviceable in the case of some Unitarian
scoffers who looked on, but not to the Bap-
lists" 1t adds THAT nothing has been