The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-11-09
GENERAL ITEMS.

I'm the Episcopal Church Congress at
Providence, R. L. last week. DIR. ]. Gotten Smith
read paper on the Revised New Testament.
He said that revision was demanded, but that
" the results" Of the present effort "were dis
appointing" He believed the great difficulty
to be that the Greek idiom was imported into
English, but not transferred into English idi-
ON"
Mr.. Burchard uttered not only wit,
but plain Scripture truths, when in a revival
meeting scoffer in the gallery arose and asked
prayers for the devil, and he instantly said to
the audience, A man in the gallery asks
prayers for his father"
Mr.. Rassam finds complete fulfill
ment OF all the inspired of old foretold
respecting the destruction of Babylon. If any
one wants to be convinced how literally and
truthfully the different prophecies about the
utter destruction of Babylon have been ful-
filled, he has only to visit that country and see
with his own e; es the complete desolation of
what was once upon time called in Holy Writ
the glory of kingdoms Indeed, the destruc-
tion of that city was complete that one won,
ders whether the accounts given OF its greatness
and magnihcence by different Greek and other
historians were not rather exaggerated; bur the
words Of God cannot fall to the ground, as Isaiah
predicted that the beauty Of the Chaldee's
excellency shall be as when God overthrow
Sodom and Gomorrah.' ami again Babylon is
fallen, is fallen, and all the craven images of
her gods He has broken unto the ground"
1t was the original design of the
surveying party of the Palestine Exploration
Fund to begin operations In Eastern Palestine
at the extreme north hut the disturbed state of
the country has rendered this impracticable
The plans are. therefore, changed and 1t is now
proposed to begin this survey of the country
east ofthe Jordan, in the south Having rid.
den down the whole length OF the land, by way
of the coast, the party has reached Jerusalem
from which, as base of operations, it will cross
the river.
Mr.. Campbell, the wife of Alexan-
der Campbell, founder of the Christian Church
of which President Garfield was member. is
striking looking woman of eighty years. Her
youth, and her mental activity is remarkable
She reads and writes often until past midnight
and is now engaged upon a volume of remin-
iscences of her husband.
The freshman classes at the diff.
ferent colleges are. 250 at Harvard (ihe largest
class ever entered at thi. institu;ion) 81 at Am
herst, SO at Williams 30 at Yale 20 a, Brown,
"a at Tufts 40 academies and Is scieniihcs at
Dartmouth, and fret class of Sc at Smiths
College.
President Seelye, of Amherst Col
lege has proposed a new scheme for the govern
ment of the student+, which is supplementary to
that In successful use daring the past year. His
proposition Is that instead of the faculty pass
Ing Judgment on cases of discipline, as Is now the
custom, the matter be left TO- great extent in
the hands of the students themselves, who are to
elect a representative board of ten men, four
being from the senior, three from the Junior, two
from the sophomore, and one from the freshman
classes, with me lber of the faculty as presid-
ing officer. The duties of the board are to re-
in casa fr1a hoe
the laws of the college, weigh it carefully and
render decision which, of course, is liable to be
overruled by the faculty, but will stand as the
judgment of the students themselves Thus it
IS hoped to perfect scheme tor self-government
Inc College is considering this proposition and
at present some of the classes favor it, while
others are opposed to it.-I1,dependent
Lieutenant Gender regards the place
occupied by the ruined Christian Church at Tyre
as the site also of the famous ancient temple of
Melkarth, the Tyrian n-god identified by the
Greeks with Hercules. The latest cathedral.
whose relics survive to the present day, proba.
bly, replaced an older basilica, containing the
bones of the Early Church Father Origen, and
this In turn succeeded heather shrine on spot
commanding view of the great mountain of
Sun worship, Jebel esh-Sheikh. The fallen cath
edral stands on the highest ground of the larger
island, IN position marking as nearly as pos
slble the center of the ancient city, and the
ruined apses are directed toward this mountain
The fact that Christian churches were often built
on the sites of heather temples las at Rome, Con-
stantinople) is well known and in the case of
Tyre the same is indicated by various enormous
shafts of granite lying inside the Crusading build
Ing two ofthem being double, with diameters of
three feet SIX inches and length of twenty six
feet Such monoliths are entirely unlike anv
work of the Crusaders, while the rude marble
bases and capitals lying about are too small to
have been placed in connection with them The
shafts must have served as piers, from which
vault-rlbs sprung, presenting however, heavy
lnapt appearance in contrast with the small
masonry and delicate holdings of the Gothic
structure. The material of these huge shafts, as
every traveller down or up the Phenician coast
remembers, is fine red syente which must
have come from Upper Egypt and the Crusa-
de-s were little likely to obtain such stones be-
ing IN their days always on bad terms with the
Egyptian Saracens. Such monolithic columns,
however, are still found at Byblos, Jebeit, and
IN other Ph@nician towns, and it would be onlv
natural for the Ph@nicians, during their com
me-ce and intimacy with the Egyptians in early
times, to bring these shafts from the Upper Nile
to adorn their great temple at Tyre. The
orlentatlon of the Christian basiica probably
followed the axis Of the old shrine, which, doubt
less, faced the rising sun and the lofty sacred
mount, above alluded to.-Indepeadent
Sore eyes, letter. salt rheum etc., are cured
ID n II I