the frugal raw turnip when introduced into our unsuspecting and defenseless interior. "In fact, the peptonizing power of the vegetable ferment is so much greater than that of the animal that, as we see daily, the papayotin of the pineapple, the pawpaw, and other fruits are rapidly becoming commercial rivals of the porcine product. 'Certain other plants display even more strikingly human characteristics in that they have actually become meat-eaters and meat-digesters. It has long been known that a large family of flowering plants, of which the 'Sundew' and 'Venus's Flytrap' are familiar examples, secreted upon the surfaces of their leaves a thick, sticky juice, which in the former simply entangles insects, and the latter attracts and holds them till they can be actually seized by the halves of the leaf closing upon them trapfashion. Whether these were utilized in the nutrition of the plant was, however, an open question until quite recently, when a series of analyses of this viscid secretion was made, and it was found to contain both a peptic ferment and an acid, which together rapidly dissolved all the soft tissues of the insects, leaving only the wings and hard cuticular casing of the body and limbs. And what makes the resemblance to our own gastric processes most striking is that neither the acid nor the ferment is present in any quantity in the resting condition of the leaf, but both are poured out as soon as nitrogenous matter is placed upon the surface. "Truly our pedigree is of wonderful length, and we must regard ourselves not only as 'magnificent animals,' but as superb vegetables. If our physiologic processes are so strikingly similar, what a flood of light may vegetable pathology be expected to throw upon our disease-processes!" Electrical Effects of Sprays.-"A correspondent," says Appleton's Popular Science Monthly, "writing to us concerning the effect of various atmospheric conditions on health and bodily vigor, cites his own experience in a fire-brigade as having led him to believe that deficiency of ozone and other unfavorable conditions and the effect of atmospheric impurities may be alleviated by inhalation through a spray of cold water. A method of ventilation of railroad cars which was very comfortable to passengers riding in cars so treated, but has been disused, depended upon the application of this principle. Its value is further confirmed by what Prince Krapotkin has said in one of his recent articles on current science concerning the theory of the development of electricity by spattering water. A few years ago Herr Lenard undertook a series of observations in Switzerland on the electrical effect of waterfalls. It appeared that even small cataracts, only a few feet high, send into the air considerable charges of electricity, provided they bring down a large amount of rapidly dashing water. The smallest jets of water that drip on the rock sides, and even roaring streamlets, have the same effect. He suggested that the chief cause of electrification is the tearing asunder of the drops of water as they fall on the wet surfaces at the bottom of the waterfall. The experiments on which these views are founded accord with the demonstration by Lord Kelvin and Messrs. Maclean and Goto that air, even absolutely dust-free, can be electrified by a jet of water. This source of electrification is further shown to be by no means insignificant, and the amount of electricity sent into the air in this way is immense. The importance of these facts in the economy of nature, says Prince Krapotkin, is self-evident. The supply of electricity in the air is continually renewed. The waterfalls in the valleys, the splashing of the waves on the shores of lakes and rivers, and the splash of drops of rain on the ground send masses of negative electricity into the air; even the watering of our streets and of our plants in the orchards has the same effect on a limited scale. On the other side, the waves of the sea, as they break against the rocks and fall back in millions of droplets upon the beach, supply the air with masses of positive electricity the amount of which rapidly increases after each storm. And when we stand on a sea-beach we not only inhale pure ozonified or iodized air; we are, so to say, surrounded by an electrified atmosphere, which, as already remarked by Humboldt and often confirmed since, must have a stimulating effect upon our nervous activity as well as upon the circulation of sap in plants.' The Intoxicating Principle in Alcoholic Beverages. At a recent meeting of the Academy of Medicine, according to the Paris correspondent of The British Medical Journal, M. Daremberg stated that pure alcohol at 10° is less toxic than impure alcohol, such as brandy, and above all old brandy made from wine at 10°. Brandy made from wine at 10° is less toxic than wine at 10°. Brandy is in fact wine purified. "The intoxicating element in wine is not present in the part distilled, but in the residue. Red wine is more intoxicating than white wine; the latter is produced by the fermentation of the juice of grapes, whereas the red wine is the product of the fermentation of the juice, skin, and pips of grapes. It is the bitartrate of potassium which constitutes the special intoxicating principle of red wine. French beer contains five per cent. of alcohol; fifty cubic centimeters injected into the veins of a rabbit produced no result. The different varieties of cider, on the other hand, were generally very intoxicating. M. Daremberg injected alcohol into the veins of rabbits rendered tuberculous three days previously. Alcohol chemically pure did no harm, but brandy and wine killed them rapidly. The wisdom of giving alcohol to tuberculous patients is therefore doubtful. The toxic quality of alcoholic drinks is not thoroughly evident when there is neither kidney nor liver trouble. Healthy subjects easily eliminate these toxic substances, which under certain circumstances may even be valuable as occasional stimulants." Military Kites.-"The experiments of Lieut. B. Baden Powell with military kites," says E. R. Chadbourn in The Observer, Portland, Conn., February, "have been sufficiently encouraging to give interest to the curious suggestion in aerial navigation made by him to the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He pointed out that the wind is nearly always stronger at an elevation than near the earth, often blowing at 1,000 yards with three times its velocity just above ground. He proposes to take advantage of this difference by connecting two kites by a long line and sending them up to different heights, the weight carried being attached to the line near the lower kite. The lower kite would thus supply a retarding medium to the upper, the effect being the same in principle as if the upper kite were held to the earth by a string and the lower kite were towed through the air by a boy running with a string in his hand. Both kites would be kept flying, altho not held to the earth by a string in the usual way, and it is quite possible that they might be navigated considerably out of the wind's course. " SCIENCE BREVITIES. A RECENT invention supplies a need for the better operation of trolley lines. By it the conductor of any car can put himself in communication with headquarters or with the power-station in case of a breakdown or other emergency. The device, we are told, “consists merely of an ordinary No. 10 iron wire strung along the poles over the entire system, starting from and returning to the power-house. Connected with this wire and at convenient distances apart are little water-tight switch-boxes fastened on the poles. Each car is provided with a small portable combination receiver and transmitter, connected by a short cord to a contact-plug. In the event of accident, the conductor can cut into the nearest switch-box, press the key in the handle, and communicate immediately with headquarters. The few batteries nécessary for the working of the line are located at the power-house, and the whole outfit to be carried may be put into a coat-pocket. " STRENGTHENING IRON PIPES. "The plan of winding steam-pipes over eight inches in diameter with three-sixteenths inch wire copper, thus nearly doubling the bursting pressure, is pronounced by competent judges to be an important change in engineering practise says The Railway Review. "Further, that the thickness of sheet copper forming the pipe may be reduced to the minimum, and at the same time insuring the full advantage of wire winding, an improved system of manufacturing steam-pipes has been devised, described as consisting in simply using copper of the thinnest possible gage to form the interior or core of the pipe, while the body proper is composed of steel wire wound closely around the core, the interstices being filled in solid with copper by electro-deposition. Increased strength comes from wire-winding." "IN notes presented before the Paris Academy of Sciences, on January 27 and February 3," says Science, M. Gustave Le Bon claimed that he had demonstrated by photographic effects that ordinary sunlight and lamplight are transmitted through opaque bodies, and states that the body might be a sheet of copper 0.8 millimeter [1-30 inch] in thickness. His experiments have, however, been questioned by M. Niewenglowski, who states that he has obtained the same effect in complete darkness, and attributes them to luminous energy stored up in the plates." "A GREAT nebula," says Popular Science Monthly, "has been discovered by Professor Barnard in the constellation Scorpio, including Antares and a region extending two or three degrees southward. It is described as vast and magnificent, intricate in shape, and gathered in cloudlike forms. Professor Barnard pronounces it one of the finest nebulæ in the sky, and says that, as it involves so many of the bright stars of the region, it would imply that they are essentially at the same distance from us. THE RELIGIOUS WORLD. A PEEP INTO ROMAN CATHOLICISM BY COL. THE HE clown in "Twelfth Night" tells Viola that he lives by the church, and adds, by way of explanation, that he lives at his house, and his house doth stand by the church. Rehearsing this witticism, Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, writing for The Outlook,says that he himself has a similar juxtaposition, which he finds in many ways agreeable He then gives us a glimpse of the panorama of a Roman Catholic parish-priest hood, from an overthe fence point of view. The regular church-work he could not watch, for the church lies on the other side of the priest's house, but he remembers that good Father said to him wearily that he knew confession to be a divinely THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. once ordained ordinance, for no mere man would have put upon his fellow men anything so hard. After this it did not trouble Colonel Higginson at all, but was only gratifying, when he used to hear often, on Sunday noon, the click of the billiard-balls through Father -'s open window after his wearisome two masses. Colonel Higginson says it is impossible for him to think of his neighbors except as men whom he respects with his whole heart. "And yet," says he "it sometimes comes across the mind, after a chat with one of them, that our whole mental attitude is so utterly remote, the one from the other, that it almost seems a wonder that we should meet on the same planet, to say nothing of the same street. What two beings can be further apart, one asks, than a human soul which glories in being absolutely subject to an external authority, and one which can not see either the need or the possibility of such an appeal? It is not possible to have an authority outside of one's own private judgment, for what can select or accept that authority save that private judgment? How can your mental faculties possibly set up for you a tribunal which shall override themselves? They can no more do it than a stream can rise higher than its source; no more than you can build your house downward from the chimney-top; no more than you can raise yourself from the ground by tugging at your own garments. So long as you are resting on your own faculties, you must rest on them, and to imagine that you can substitute something as an infallible church or even an infallible book does not really help you in the least, because the, same reason and conscience which put it there can at any moment take it away or disregard it. Disguise it as you please, you are trusting your own powers at last, because you have nothing else to trust to; just as, no matter how thoroughly you have put yourself into a physician's hands, nothing can take from you the right or the power to disregard his prescriptions or substitute those of some other physician.' Many of the current objections to the Roman Catholic Church seem to Colonel Higginson to be trivial or untenable. He thinks it is not easy to show that this church does not produce as good saints, or poets, or scientists, as any other body, or that it pro duces more criminals when we compare, class for class, the same social grade. He continues: "Of course poverty is responsible for a great many sins, and for a still larger proportion of convictions in court, were it only for the want of bondsmen or paid counsel. Therefore the church which has most of the poor will naturally have the most criminals. I used to think, as many do, that the Roman Catholic Church, with all its merits, produced people less truth-telling than were elsewhere found: but was rather taken aback by the remark of a young Irish girl, one of two sisters whom I had seen go through college with the greatest credit and teach Greek to their priests afterward. I had said something on the subject to her, she being a thoroughly candid and ingenuous soul. 'Do you really mean,' she said, 'that you put a little less faith in people's words for their being Catholics?' 'Yes,' I said, 'I fear I do.' 'It is very strange,' she thoughtfully replied; that is just the way my sister and I feel about Protestants.' It reminded me of De Goncourt's saying, 'After all, every political discussion comes back to this: I am better than you' (Je suis meilleur que vous). It is much the same with the comparison of religions." For himself, Colonel Higginson says that he could never be led to become a Roman Catholic, as many are led, by the dignity and beauty of the ritual, because even that appears to him tame and dull compared with the impressiveness of the Greek Church, even as one may see it in Paris, with its stately, melodious, blackbearded priests, its pewless churches, and the utter absorption of its kneeling congregations. He closes by saying: "There are, however, many points of view in which the Roman Catholic Church is very attractive. But every church claiming infallibility, whether for a pope or for a book, is hampered by this fatal logical defect-this 'vicious circle,' as the logicians say -that it has to employ reason and conscience to set up the very authority which is to override reason and conscience. We all depend upon our private judgment at last, because we have nothing else to depend upon. To claim anything else is to practise an unconscious juggling with our own minds. I invariably find that the ablest of the younger converts from the Roman Catholic Church-who are numerous, as are the converts in the other direction-give this as the essential ground of their change. And I also find that the very able Roman Catholic newspaper which I read every week, while prompt to answer-and usually with success-all the superficial arguments against the church, keeps absolutely silent as to this vital and final obstacle." Bodily Attitude in Prayer.-Recalling the tradition that the Apostle James spent so much time on his knees that the skin became calloused almost like a bone, The Christian Advocate says: "While kneeling is undoubtedly one of the best positions for devotion, whether it be a minister or St. James who stays on his knees until physical changes inimical to health are produced. he performs a work of supererogation. While few spend enough time on their knees in prayer, kneeling has no preeminence over any other attitude. When Solomon dedicated the temple he 'stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation,' spread forth his hands, and prayed. When Moses heard the call of God and made haste, he bowed his head and worshiped. When David called on the congregation, they 'bowed down their heads, and worshiped the Lord and the king. On another occasion David came and stood before the Lord and said: 'Who am I, O Lord God, and what is mine house?' But David also said: 'Come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. Also when Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, then all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord and worshiped Him. Thus a man who wishes to pray may take his choice of every possible attitude. He may stand, sit, bow, kneel, or prostrate himself at full length upon his bed, the ground, or the floor. But whichever attitude he chooses, it must be to him the best expression at the time of his actual state of feeling. If he selects one method to the destruction of his health and the diminution of the capacity to labor, it is an act 'not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh,' but a species of 'will worship' or 'voluntary humility,' and he must take the consequences." GLADSTONE ON THE FUTURE LIFE. "DESTINIES depend upon character," says Mr. Gladstone in one of the most striking parts of his chapter on “The Future Life and the Condition of Man Therein" (North American Review, March). At one place, quoting the words of John (v., 28, 29), “Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation," he remarks: "Large, in proportion to the small volume of his recorded instructions, was the eschatological teaching of our Lord, but it all went straight to the most central and the simplest truths-His mission to draw all men unto Him; the beatitude of those consenting to be drawn, in being one with the Father and the Son; for those who refuse, a state of darkness, exclusion, weeping and gnashing of teeth, a scene of misery and affliction, on which the curtain of the Gospel drops. That curtain is never lifted and all that is behind it would seem to be withheld from us and reserved for the counsels of the Most High." Further on he reasons as follows: The "The sceptical mind may frame questions as it will: Death sternly refuses to give it any satisfaction. The love of money may heap around us mountains of gold; all this is but to lower the ratio of that which a man is, to that which he possesses. fever of self-indulgence may multiply our enjoyments; but each new enjoyment is, for the common run of men, a new want, and each new want is a new link in the chain of moral servitude, a new deduction from our high prerogative of freedom. Schemes of negation may each for a while fret and fume upon the stage of human affairs. It is Death, the great auditor of accounts, that reduces them, one and all, to their natural and small dimensions. The present is louder than ever in its imperious demands; but injured nature takes it upon her to reply that the present is the life of animals, and the future is the life of man. In the development of luxury, we are immeasurably ahead of the ancient Greek, and we might have been proportionably more successful in shutting off the questionings of the soul respecting that which is to come, had not a new voice sounded forth in the world to proclaim the word Resurrection; since which it has become impossible, by any process within our resources, to stifle the longings of the human spirit to obtain the command of some instrument for measuring the future which expands before it. "I suppose it to be an acknowledged fact that for the Apostles, and for the first following teachers of Christianity, the doctrine of the Resurrection lay at the very threshold of the Gospel. It was a salient proof, of matchless force for the new scheme that, whereas the great enemy to be destroyed, according to the ancient promise, was Death, Death was at once and visibly destroyed by the Resurrection. Moreover, it was the road toward the solution of that cloud of mysterious problems which lay spread all round the idea of our own future life. It might have been imagined, then, that as the Resurrection was the first word of the Gospel, the handling of these mysteries would be the next. But no. The teaching which at once traveled so far into the darkness before us as the Resurrection, forthwith traveled back from it. It came back, in due order, from the Resurrection which lay on the farther side of the grave, to the resurrection which lies on the hither side. Under the Christian system, destinies depend upon character; and it is the character which has to be formed here which will shape the destinies that are to be undergone hereafter. It might almost be said without levity that the early Christians set about the work of character, and left destiny to take care of itself." ACCORDING to a reliable authority there are 1,403,559 negro Baptists in the Southern States: "The number of negro Methodists is 1,190,638, or about 213,000 less than the aggregate of colored Baptists. The Methodists are divided into more branches than the Baptists, those having the Episcopal system embracing the great majority of church members." THE latest memorial movement started in England is one to present the venerable Baptist patriarch of Lichilyful, Wales, with a testimonial. The Rev. Robert Jones is one of the oldest Baptist ministers of Wales. one of the "characters" of the Welsh pulpit, and his name is a household word throughout Wales. He is LABOUCHERE BEGINS AN ECCLESIASTICAL PILLORY. FOR OR several years Mr. Labouchere has maintained in his paper, Truth, week by week, a department which he calls his "Legal Pillory." In it he holds up to scorn and contempt those of the great body of unpaid English magistrates who fail in one direction or the other to make the punishment fit the crime. The New York Sun's London correspondent says that the result has been that the average justice of the peace stands in wholesome dread of Mr. Labouchere's notice. This correspondent goes on to say: "More recently Mr. Labouchere has undertaken to deal in similar fashion with those among the official representatives of the Church of England who in various outrageous ways succeed in disgracing their clerical offices and in bringing the church itself under derision and disdain. The record of meanness, bigotry, cruelty, and intolerance printed week by week is appalling and revolting. Probably Mr. Labouchere would say that his object in exposing the weaknesses and offenses of many of the clergy of the church of the state was more to cure the abuses specified than to arouse a general popular revolt against religion and the Established Church. Something in the nature of the latter effect, however, is being produced, and, as Mr. Labouchere is a strong advocate of disestablishment, he probably does not regret the general influence of his crusade. Almost any unprejudiced observer will grant that Mr. Labouchere's attack is amply justified. The clergy of the Church of England are inferior as a class to the members of any other profession in England. The men of brains among them are far fewer in number, proportionately, to the men of brains in the pulpit of the United States, or the men of brains in the non-conformist churches of this country. "Burial scandals, by the way, are very common, especially in country parishes. Thus, last week Canon Houghton, vicar of Blackley, officiated at a funeral in the parish church and also at the interment in the cemetery half a mile away. It so happened that a lady who had been unable to attend the church service joined the mourners at the grave. This, it seems, was in violation of one of the vicar's arbitrary rules, which forbids anybody being admitted to the cemetery who had not attended the whole service. Rather than suffer his precious rule to be infringed, this arrogant cleric peremptorily refused to go on with the service at the grave unless the lady withdrew. She naturally, out of respect for the feelings of the bereaved family, left the cemetery. These and many other things, week by week and almost day by day, are preparing the way for the abolition of the Church of England as the state religion." A Criticism of Missionary Work. "The unrest which the deputation of the American Board found to exist among the churches in Japan founded and nurtured by its missionaries, and known as the Kumi-ai churches," says The Journal and Messenger (Baptist, Cincinnati), "seems to be almost or quite unknown among those of the other missions-the Presbyterians and the Baptists. Rev. J. L. Dearing, one of our Baptist missionaries, writing to Rev. F. S. Dobbins, says that 'not one native preacher,' outside of the Kumi-ai churches, or in any other denomination than the Congregational, can be named as preaching the 'new theology.' Neither the Presbyterians nor the Methodists are troubled by that heresy, and 'the Baptists have no trouble with it at all.' All that the deputation of the American Board found so disappointing and distressing among the missions seems to grow out of the lack of sound and evangelical teaching on the part of the missionaries. It is the Andover semiUnitarianism that is doing the mischief. There is no occasion for surprise because of it. 'What man sows, that shall he also reap.' If the missionary goes with a half-formed, half-cherished doubt as to the final doom of the heathen, half persuaded that he who has not had a fair chance in this life' may be allowed another chance in the future life, he will fail to produce conviction of the truth strong and fast in the minds of the 'converts,' and he need not be surprised that just such things occur as are reported to have occurred in Japan. The first requisite of a missionary is that he be convinced, and be firm in the conviction, that only the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation," THE SABBATH OR SUNDAY? HE Sabbath or Sunday question has a renewed interest at present. Not a few churches declare the old Sabbath law void and the observance of the Lord's Day to be based solely upon the moral obligation to worship. A discussion of this question in The Theological Magazine (Lutheran), of Columbus, Ohio, gives a clear insight into the line of arguments adopted by those who reject the legalistic conception of Sabbath observance. The run of argument is in substance the following: 1. In case the law commanding the observance of the seventh day is still in force, then too is the law determining the manner of its observance in force; then also the penalty of death should be executed to this day as it was executed upon all violators of the Mosaic law. To make this feasible, a New-Testament theocracy must prevail similar to that of the Old Testament. 2. But the New Testament teaches plainly that the Sabbath days of the Jews belong to the shadows of the Old Testament which have passed away, with the appearance of the body, which is Christ (cf. Col. ii. 16, 17). By placing the laws concerning meat and the Sabbath side by side, the Apostle teaches us the true relations which Christians must sustain to these ordinances. We have entire freedom respecting them. We have liberty to observe the Sabbath days and liberty not to observe them; just as we have liberty to eat pork and liberty not to eat pork. We may do the one or not do the other, and in either case serve God or in either case serve the devil. If we observe the day or do not observe the day in the Lord, in faith, in the true evangelical spirit of Christian liberty, then we serve God (cf. Rom. xiv. 5, 6). 3. It is a dangerous position to maintain the permanence and inviolability of this Mosaic law; for by honoring these shadows as still in force, we thereby place ourselves again under the bondage of the law. By acknowledging the Sabbath's reign over us we ignore the body, Christ, who has come to blot out "the handwriting or ordinances" (Col. ii. 14). It is for this reason that the Apostle pleads with the Galatians not to adopt a perverted gospel (Gal. iv. 9-11). Jesus declared Himself even the Lord of the Sabbath day, and as such He had power to free us from its bondage. St. Paul teaches us that He actually exercised this power. 4. But we are free not only from the Jewish Sabbath, but also from any fixed day. There is no divine obligation placed upon us to observe religiously any fixed day. It is hard to see the force and consistency of those old theologians, venerable and learned tho they be, who argue that tho we are no longer bound to a legal observance of the seventh day, yet we are still under restraint to observe one day in seven. Where is this written? The seventh day, and the seventh day only, is of divine institution. It is abrogated in the New Testament. No other day has been divinely instituted in its place. Hence we must regard ourselves entirely free with respect to the religious observance of any fixed day (cf. Gal. iv. 10, 11). This view is perfectly consistent with the commandment of the Sabbath observance. We note the following: 1. The essence of the commandment remains, and is in force in the New-Testament era. The seventh day was merely a form; merely a shadow; the true aim and object, the moral part, the hearing and teaching and obeying God's word-this remains and is obligatory on man to the end of days. 2. Since God has declared that all things should be done decently and in order, the Christians have fixed a day and have agreed on a certain time when they will meet and hear this word and thus comply with the spirit and real purpose of God's commandment. And it is the duty of Christians to yield to this established order. Sunday is not a divine institution, but is an appointment of the church. We observe the Sunday not as under bondage but under the dispensation of Gospel liberty. We rest on Sunday, abstain from daily toil, hasten to God's house, not because it is Sunday, but because the Word of God is preached there and then. The obligatory observance of the seventh day in the Old Testament and the free-will observance of the first in the New Testament furnish us with a striking illustration of the character of two covenants. 3. Since by common consent Christians assemble in their houses of worship on the first day of the week, we are admonished by the apostle (Heb. x. 24, 25) not to forsake the assembling of ourselves as is the manner of some. Under existing circumstances, to rebel against the proper observance of the Christian Sunday with a boasting assertion of Christian liberty, would do violence to that spirit of meekness and charity which is to grace the followers of Jesus and manifests a spirit of arrogant presumption which abuses liberty for a cloak of maliciousness. ARE PROTESTANTS RACING FOR CATHOLIC SOME OME "notable expressions" by Protestant ministers of Philadelphia, which are claimed to "indicate a tendency toward those particular forms of Catholic truth which traditional Protestantism has bitterly rejected," are published by The Catholic Standard and Times of that city, such as the following: "The Rev. John B. G. Pidge, D.D., of the Fourth Baptist Church, preached a sermon last December on the topic, 'Is there a Purgatory?' and his reasoning led to the affirmative answer which he gave to the question. It is true he explained to a representative of this paper that the purgatory he believed in is not the 'Catholic purgatory,' but purgatory of some sort he felt compelled to admit. Closely related to this in subject and tendency was the sermon preached quite recently by the Rev. George D. Baker, D.D., in the First Presbyterian Church, 'Concerning them who are asleep.' Dr. Baker does not appear to believe in purga. tory, but yet he does approve of prayers for the dead, tho he, too, is inclined to draw the line' at the Catholic practises in this re-, gard, particularly at masses for the dead, tho his reasoning here is undoubtedly founded on a misapprehension of the facts. Then there was the sermon of the Rev. John Dows Hills, of St. Mary's P. E. Church, on 'Mary, the Mother of Jesus,' in which the traditional Protestant attitude almost of irreverence toward the Mother of God was declared to be altogether wrong." We quote a part of the editor's comment on these facts: “To-day these tendencies toward the harmony of Catholic truth mean much more than anything of the sort could have meant fifty years ago, and they are more common and more active. There is clearly perceptible in the reasoning world a strong reaction against the various forms of infidelity, and among those who call themselves Protestants the traditional sentiment of Protestantism is dying, or dead, or nearly so. Of course we mean Protestants of moral life and of devout aspirations. Intelligent Protestants are gradually ridding themselves of their inherited misunderstandings of what the Catholic religion is and what the Catholic Church stands for. As a body, the Protestant ministers of this country are intellectual and virtuous men, representing the sum of the religious spirit of their laity. Leaving out of account those who are mere sensationalists, more or less insincere, and that other somewhat large fraction of ignorant and fanatical preachers, the Protestant ministers of the United States who are both pious and educated are all more or less affected in the tendency toward a return to Catholic unity so much desired by the Holy Father." Infant Baptism.—“Christian teachers who do not hold to baptismal regeneration (the impossibility of salvation without baptism)," says The Morning Star (Free-Will Baptist, Boston), "have no good reason for opposing the decline of the practise of baptizing infants. This practise did not exist in the apostolic era. It grew up after the first century, in consequence of the growth of an erroneous teaching that regeneration is effected only in baptism. If, then, it was reasoned, baptism is necessary to salvation, then of course we must baptize the new-born babe in order to save his soul from perdition. And thus the Roman it, Catholic reasons to-day. So also all who still hold that an unbaptized soul can not possibly be saved. The doctrine of baptismal regeneration, however, has been seen to be an error by many who still uphold the practise that was consequent upon viz., the baptism of irresponsible infants. It may safely be affirmed that neither the doctrine of baptismal regeneration nor the practise of infant baptism existed among the apostles. It may also be affirmed, that, wherever the doctrine of baptismal regeneration has once existed but has become extinct, a decline of the practise of infant baptism will, sooner or later, show itself. When the root dies, the stalk will also die. When the conception that a soul can not be saved without formal baptism passes away, the practise of infant baptism will inevitably fall into neglect." THE LITERARY DIGEST. THE BAPTISM OF DR. PIERSON. HE Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D.D., the well-known preacher, editor, and writer, formerly pastor of the Bethany Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, has formally entered the Baptist denomination, having been baptized by the Rev. James A. Spurgeon at West Croyden Chapel, London, on Saturday evening, February 1. In explaining this step on his part Dr. Pierson says that before he came in contact with the late Mr. Spurgeon his mind had been perplexed on the sub because of any ulterior or selfish motive. His greatest friends in recent years have been men like Mr. Spurgeon and Dr. A. J. Gordon, and they have doubtless had much to do with influencing him to take this step." The Independent refers to the incident in these words: "At last Dr. Arthur T. Pierson has become a Baptist. He has been immersed in Spurgeon's Tabernacle by the younger Spurgeon. It will be remembered that he preached for some months in the Tabernacle after Mr. Spurgeon's death, and there was something of a party in the church which then wished him to be chosen pastor; but Mr. Spurgeon's son was called home from Australia to take the place." HOPE OF THE "DOWNTRODDEN JEW." ject of believers' bap- N° tism. After his connection with the Tabernacle and its famous pastor, he had so far advanced as to discontinue the practise of infant sprinkling. Seeing that some baptism was needed, he was led to accept the principle of believers' baptism, as the only Scriptural form of that rite. Dr. Pierson also says that he had from time to time to deal with what he considered uncomfortable texts referring to this question. Preaching on one occasion at the Tabernacle about eunuchs' baptism, he confesses that he felt sorely perplexed to reconcile the teaching therein shown with his practises. The baptism of Dr. Pierson is the occasion of various comments in the religious press. Thus The Christian Commonwealth (London) says: ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D. "The idea of the Doctor's surrender to the Baptist position had been abandoned, especially since the association of his name with a general mission, and later still with Westminster Chapel. Besides, it is less than a fortnight ago that in one of the Baptist weeklies a quotation was given from one of Dr. Pierson's most recent publications, showing that he still clung to his former attitude on baptism, and had not abandoned his early convictions. Notwithstanding this, we have the fact of his actual baptism. There is no absolute inconsistency in all this. For it is natural that until a man sees clearly and fully his duty, he should defend his old fortress to the last shot, and that is evidently what Dr. Pierson has done. Having been in conflict on the question for a long time, he has exhausted his resources of defense, and has honorably surrendered, not to the Baptists, but to what he believes to be the truth." The United Presbyterian (Pittsburg) remarks: "We wonder if any member of the Baptist Church will have increased confidence in the piety of Dr. A. T. Pierson, now that he has become a Baptist and has been immersed. If such changes of ecclesiastical relationship were very frequent, the effect upon the world would certainly not be good." The Journal and Messenger (Baptist, Cincinnati) quotes the statements made by Dr. Pierson explaining his action, and then says: "That seems to be clear enough, and is certainly most commendable. He tells us that since he was in the Tabernacle he has had a very marked and rich experience which he hopes is to color and characterize all his future career. In view of these things, every Baptist will give Dr. Pierson the hand of fellowship." The Outlook (Congregational) has this comment: "No one who knows Dr. Pierson will doubt that he has taken this step conscientiously, and no one can now intimate that it is O race or tribe or clan has been so much abused, wronged, and outraged as the children of Israel, says The Ameri can Israelite. Mentioning first the fact that Jews were enslaved in Egypt, and that at the dawn of freedom, when they had shaken off the bondage of Pharaoh's land, there was Amalek to cut off the faint and the weak in the rear of the camp, the writer proceeds: "The same was the case when the sons of Judah came back from the Babylonian captivity under Zerubabel, Ezra, and Nebemiah; scarcely were they organized under a shadow of independence when there came Haman, the prime minister of Ahasuerus, and planned the destruction of the whole people, as did also Antiochus Epiphanes after him, and as Vespasian, Titus, and Hadrian nearly accomplished it after them. That which came after the fall of Bethar and lasted sixteen centuries long baffles description. Every day of sunshine was followed by ten of storm, darkness, and devastation. The entire flood of human and barbarian wickedness went over the heads of the sons of Israel. The Pharaohs of Europe never became as conscientious as the Pharaoh of Egypt that exclaimed, 'Jehovah is the righteous, I and my people are the wicked.' They went on and on condemning, ostracizing, torturing, and slaying the seed of Abraham-the work of the Crusaders and the Inquisition were only a little louder episodes in the history of crime-until God slew the first-born by the revolutions of America and France, and subsequent insurrections, which crushed the serpent's head, the head of despotism in state and church, and the Pharaohs are now the mere shadows of former autocrats. This new state of affairs brought relief also to the downtrodden Jew. Liberty, as far as her domain reaches, offered him a home and the enjoyment of the inalienable rights of man. Not long, however, did Israel breathe the air of freedom when reaction set in, in the different forms of Judophobia, running into stupid and malicious anti-Semitism in one place, into sweet and smooth-faced bigotry in another, in social ostracism elsewhere; and there we are yet, right now. Still here we are as numerous and vigorous as ever; physically, morally, and intellectually unimpaired, and our optimism unalloyed. How do you account for that, philosopher of history? If you can not do it, read in Moses, Leviticus xxvi. 44, 45, or in Jeremiah xlvi. 28. These and similar passages explain the miracle and confirm the truth of prophecy. Do not forget to read those passages repeatedly, and learn from them how the will of the Lord is done?" WRITING in The Presbyterian Banner, Rev. Dr. John Hall says that "one effect of the inadequate support of the ministry is the discouragement of young men brought up in comfortable homes, when they think of the ministry as their life-work. It would be easily to establish and illustrate this statement, if necessary. It would be easy also to furnish statistics contrasting the salaries of men with little education, ordinary character, and liberty to live as they list,' with the fluctuating incomes of thousands of educated, high-toned, hard-working occupants of pulpits over our land." BISHOP VINCENT was recently asked by a Congregationalist why so many young Methodist preachers go into the Congregationalist Church? The reply was, "Why do not the other churches rear enough preachers of their own?" THE proposed Episcopal cathedral in Washington, D. C., will cost $3,000,000 when completed, and other buildings which go to make up a group included in the cathedral plans will add another million to the proposed 'outlay. A TABLET made of Nile mud, recently found in the British Museum, contains in cuneiform characters the marriage proposal of a Pharaoh for the hand of the daughter of the King of Babylon. It was written about 3,500 years ago. |