Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-08-27
MINOR TOPICS.

cOuld ana run away With 1t. That
sounds like the Reverend Uriel
MINOR TOPICS.
THE Methodist bodies of the world,
twenty-five in number, aggregate 1885,
1873 members. The Methodist Episcopa
church has more than double the member
ship of any other Methodist body.
THE Atlanta Constitution says the state.
ment is borne out by the actual expert
cnce of the factories, that Southern cotton
mills can sell cloth One-half cent less per
yard than the mills of New England, and
make more money than do those mills.
Rev. ROBERT J. NEvIN, d. d., Ameri-
can chaplain in Rome, writing to the New
York independent, claims that the recent
riots in Rome on the occasion of the re.
moval of the Pope's body have been
greatly miscepresented and that the blame
for the disturbances largely rests with the
papal party who arc entitled to 10 SYM
pathy from fair minded people.
| Now that the great religious movement
in indianapolis is Subsiding, the religious
workers who took part in it have set about
counting results. 1t has been found that
there has been an accession of nearly two
thousand members to the various evangeli-
cal churches, and over five thousand peo-
pie have prOfessed to be under conviction,
as direct result IF the special evangelistic
work done in the city.
| In the Rocky Mountain district, including
Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, only
one Baptist church is served by the same
pastor as one year ago. Then the churches
to great extent, were without pastors !;
now they are nearly all supplied. Four
now churches were organized in the year,
an increase OF 20 per cent; three buildings
for worship have been erected, aud work
has been begun on two others. Two hun
dred persons have been baptized.
"WHAT is coming over society,"" a
London paper asks. ''In the old days the
Methodists were the people everywhere
spoken against, and bitterly smitten on
the right cheek and the left. Mr.. Picton
(CongregationaD most courteously con-
Quoted the conference through the noble
library and art gallery Of Liverpool. The
president and several representative minis
ters have lunckcd with the bishop and
dined with the judges. And the mayor
invited the conference to an 'at home to
meet the lord mayor of London.''
New MEXICO is now regarded as par
ticularly hopeful field for missionary effort.
Its extent of territory is equal to that of
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware and Maryland combined, being
over 12O, 600 square miles. 1t is rapidly
filling up with cntcrprising men, princi-
pally attracted by the mining interests.
Most of the natives are of the dull and
stupid order, with large tlavoring of total
depravity. Bu. the efforts of missionary
boards have thus far been put forth in such
a weak and struggling way that very little
has been accomplished. School houses
and clapels are greatly needed
AN esteemed contributor, of somewhat
advanced religious views, furnishes us
with an article from III organ of the free
thinkers, which in his opinion is complete
answer. by an infidcl, to a sermon against
intidelity preached by kev. DR.. Green
awald in Trinity Lutheran church, Oh the
7th inst. We have carefully read it, but fail
to find it of such weight or interest as to
warrant us giving the space its entire pub.
lication would require. The writer, w. f.
Bell, Of Boston, in substance says that
the Liberals are not aiming to overthrow
Christianity at all no such sudden
moral revolution is desirable as an agency
for good they want to let it stand 1t is
only maintained that the good things in
it "are not supernatural revelations, but
the natural revelations of humanity. The
precepts Of virtue, truth, justice, and the
golden rule Of good will to all men, are
older than all creeds or Bibles. Morality
was taught long before Jesus or Paul, for
they both refer to an older code of ethics
than that which they offered" Times
change and what was religion once may now
be barbarous. 1t was not incompatible
with ancient righteousness to practice
polygamy, hold slaves, drink Intoxicating
wine to excess, divorce wife at will,
burn witches, stone u man for picking up
chips on the Sabbath, or stone him for
trying to persuade his son or brother to
change his religious opinions. This was
ancient righteousness, but such things
will not PASS for righteousness in these
times. If then these old customs and
practices, which were the will of God in
olden times, are no longer endorsed by the
moral nature of man, then there is no
certain grounds for revealed morality. If
Jehovah once abandoned the code he gave
to- his children he may do so
again. Hence the religion must
have been of man, not of God.
There is no peculiar Christian morality,
any more than Christian mathematics or
chemistry. The Bible is not to be assail-
ed except that it is to DO read as any other
book, accept the good and reject the bad