The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-02-09
GENERAL ITEMS.

The joint committee of bishops
clergymen, and laymen appointed by the Epis,
copal General Convention to secure tor the
Prayer Book liturgical enrichment" has held
Its hrst meeting in New York. For its guidance
resolutions were adopted declaring that no
alterations should be made touching either state
ments or standards of doctrine in the Church 4"
The work of review is committed to three sub
committees.
Little advance has been made in de-
cipherlng the Ph9nican inscription lately found
by Herr Conrad Schick in the feeder of the Pool
of Sloan. M. Clermont- Ganneau has made mt
that 1t consists of at least eight lines He has
also traced about thirty characters, all in the
Ph@nlclan style of the letters upon the Moabite
Stone.
In late paper on Recent Assyrian
and Babylonian Research" Mr. Hormuzd Ras
sam describes the most remarkable fact of the
survival OF the name Nineveh on the very
ground itself:
The site of the city of Nineveh has never
been forgotten in the country, because both fra
dition and historical records point out Kuvuniik
and Nebi Ydnis as the spots where the capital
OF the old world stood. Nebi Yuns. which
means IN Arabic the Prophet Jonah is the
mound within half mile of Kuyuniik, and con.
talns mosque dedicated to that prophet, in
which is shown the shrine of Jonah 1t was
formerly Chaldean church; but, like many
other old churches in Asatic Turkey. thew were
preferred by the indolent Mohammedan con.
4uerors to convert into mosques than to 90 to
the expense OF building new ones Though this
mound Is generally called Nebi Yanis after the
Prophet Jonah, officially it is still calle Nine
web, and this l learned when l wanted to make
some excavations there, and had to enter into an
agreement wlthithe guardians of the MOSQUE to
allow me to do so, as all the land belongs to il
They merely mentioned the word Nineweh in
the document, and, when l asked them for the
reason OF emitting the common name of Nebi
4nnls, they said that the former was the only
legal name they could use"
The Brahmo Year Book for 1890
edited by Miss S. D. Collet, contains much in
formation about the condition of the Somaies of
India, and review of the progress that has been
made during the fifty years of the existence of
the Brahmo Somal. The societies show yariou,
signs OF revival after the depression which they
suffered during the schism of 1878, and have
recently been the subject of an elaborate and
valuable article in the Revue des De1r Mondes.
Miss Collet seems to believe that the scbism of
1878 was blessing in disguise for the societies
for after 1T new period of life set in for the Ben
gal somaJes, which has already achieved more for
them than had been done for many years before,
W Whl!e IN the independent somajes of Western,
Northern, and Southern India the activity of the
Local Brahmos has decidedly increased. The
Iheistical Church of India consists now of
about one hundred and thirty small churches,
scattered over the country; which churches
however, represent very unequal realities,
both as to the number of members in each
and the quality of their Brahmoism The
number of members ranges from three or
four to three hundred. Sometimes a small
somaj is strong in influence; sometimes large
one is weak Among the metropolitan sonaies
the hrst place is given to the Sadharan Brahmo
Somaj, which originated in the schism of 1878,
which leads in propaganda and philanthropist
work The Adj Brahmo Somai is the historic
remnant of the original institution founded by
Ram Mohun Roy, in 1880, and is somewhat
conservative IN Its religious views. Beyond
Calcutta its influence consists chiefly of the per
sonal sympathy existing between its leading
members and those provincial somaies which
have advanced as far as itself beyond the cur
rent Hinduism, but are not inclined to 90
further. The next place is given to the Brahno
SomaJ OF India, of which Keshub Chunder Sen
is the leader and head Interesting facts are
also given concerning the suburban somaies and
the somaJes of East Bengal, west Bengal North
Bengal, Assam, Orissa, Northern India. and
Western India.-Independent