18 (168) THE RELIGIOUS WORLD. FRANCIS SCHLATTER AND THE RELIGIOUS W THE PRESS. HE fact that Francis Schlatter, the alleged miracle-worker, is about to transfer the scene of his operations from Denver to Chicago, gives renewed occasion for the discussion of this mysterious personage. The general attitude of the religious No question is raised press toward Schlatter is one of reserve. as to the man's sincerity, and it is generally admitted that he has One exception should actually performed some wonderful cures. The Western be noted in The Lutheran Observer, of Philadelphia. This paper had an investigation made by its Colorado correspondent, who reported that the whole matter was a rank delusion if not a positive fraud. But such papers as The Christian Evangelist, of St. Louis, speak kindly of Schlatter and advise their readers to suspend judgment concerning him until something further is known as to the results of his work. The last named journal says that Schlatter really has " a power of some kind, tho just what it is and whence it comes is not known.' Christian Advocate speaks of seeing scores of cripples and sick folk on their way to Denver. It says that the spectacle was “a pitiful one," but it expresses no positive opinions on the claims of the healer. The Congregationalist has devoted more space to the subject than any other religious paper, printing two long letters from a Denver correspondent who was commissioned to make a painstaking investigation. The latest,letter in The Congregationalist reviews Schlatter's career in Denver down to the time of his recent temporary disappearance. This letter concludes as follows: "Through all his public career there runs a thread of the same spirit that has animated all the world's benefactors, of tremendous faith and will, of simple unworldliness and of unselfish devotion. It is this thread of sweet reasonableness amid much unreason, that has given him his hold on the popular imagination, and that makes him and his work a worthy, tho disappointing, study. For to any who may have had larger hopes, his work is a If you disappointment-not because there have been no cures. could trust the crowd of patients and onlookers at the scene of his labors, there have been cures by the score and hundred, all, The whole however, unconfirmed, except by vehement assertion. question of cures has become, for lack of consistent investigation, an inextricable tangle of assertions and denials, of reported recoveries and relapses, of silly credulity and equally silly skepticism. Yet I have over the signature of a local physician here the statement of the radical cure of one of his patients afflicted with blindness and a paralyzed arm from brain lesion, that is, to say the least, sufficiently categorical to be amazing. And from any point of view there is no reason to doubt that there have been many cures. The implications of it all, as illustrating the control of mind over matter, the unexplored relation of the brain not only to dynamic diseases, but to certain derangements that appear structural, are of great interest. But all this for the present may be set on one side. The whole work is a disappointment, because, as it goes on, it appears that it is directed to no moral end. It is accompanied by no teaching, is attended by no moral or spiritual stimulus for its objects. Its final cause appears to be the temporary alleviation of physical pain. This is, of course, a reasonable and worthy aim, but, standing alone, it robs the work of any such moral significance as some had hoped it might possess. Such cures are a poor travesty of those wrought occasionally by faith in God, when all human aids had failed, the infallible note of which is an accompanying spiritual revival that transcends in wonder and Such cures those importance any merely physical recuperation, know who have ever had them within their circle of observation ―inevitably cause the beholder to glorify God, in forgetfulness The popular apprehenof any human medium. Not so here. sion of Schlatter's work is of a non-moral wonder-working. Such a phenomenon may be of deep interest scientifically, but it wholly lacks the divine fire that made Peter's wonder-working a consuming flame for the moral and spiritual ills of those to whom he ministered." FUNCTION OF THE MINISTRY. HAT is the function of the ministry? The Outlook says. that whoever believes that the Christian Church possesses. any unity, that it is anything else than a mere series of accidental organizations, must also believe that there is a special function to be filled by the minister in that church; and if we ask what that function is, we ought to get light upon the question from the practise and teaching of the New Testament. If we turn to the life of Christ, says the writer, we find that He was not in the priestly order and that. He never performed priestly offices; that He definitely refused to perform judicial functions when asked to do so; that He declared that His Kingship was not political in its character, that His authority was that of a teacher of truth, and that when asked to punish men for wrongdoing He declined, affirming that His mission was to save men's lives, not to destroy them. And if we pass from Christ to the Apostles, we find Paul declaring that he was not sent to baptize, nor to interest and entertain men by the graces of oratory, nor to satisfy the Greek demand for a comprehensive system of philosophy. And Peter, whose successor claims the divine right to govern the church, affirms in explicit language that he has no such authority. After denying the priestly function of the minister, the writerproceeds: When minis "He is not sent to govern, either in state or in church. Whether individuals or parties come before him, he may reply, with Christ, 'Who set me to be a judge over you?' He makes a mistake if he endeavors to carry his ministerial authority into the realm of politics. His kingdom is not of this world; it is a kingdom of truth, and he that is of the truth heareth his voice. ters have undertaken to control the political administration of the world, they have made a poor business of it-and this whether they were Roman Catholic priests in medieval Europe, or Presbyterian elders in the Barebones Parliament, or Episcopal bishops in the House of Lords, or Congregational clergy in the Puritan hierarchy of New England. It is true that the minister is also a private citizen, and as a private citizen may take his part in polit. ical discussions, but even this he would better do cautiously, if at all. He has a grander service than that of reforming society, namely, regenerating it. To inspire a higher spirit of justice, purity, and patriotism in men of all parties is a nobler service than to shape the political platform or influence the political nominations of any one party. “And as he is not appointed to govern in the state, so neither is he appointed to govern in the church. He is not a lord over God's heritage; he is not to be called master, nor is he ever to forget that he who is the greatest is the servant of all. Nor is Influence is more valuable than this any real self-abnegation. power. Pilate and Caiaphas had power, one in the state, the other in the church; and the state and church where they respectively ruled are both disintegrated. Christ had influence; it survived His death and has created new states and a new church. Power belongs to the form of organization, and perishes when the form changes; influence is vital, and is as immortal as life itself. "Neither is the minister appointed to attract congregations by eloquent orations. He may employ the skill of the rhetorician and of the elocutionist if he likes, but the success of his ministry does not depend upon either. The great orators have given to the world but a few orations each in a lifetime. Those of Demosthenes, Cicero, Pitt, or Webster may be comprised, each of them, in a single volume. Nothing could be more absurd than for a congregation to expect fifty-two orations a year from its preacher, except for the preacher to expect to satisfy such a desire. The ambition of eloquence is fatal to ministerial success preacher is the father of his people, and the interest which a group of children take in their father's familiar talk does not depend upon his oratorical abilities. The "Nor, finally, is the preacher a professor of theology. It is not his function to furnish a complete and systematic philosophy of the universe; he is not to commend spiritual truth by exhibiting it as part of a system labeled and ticketed. He is a preacher of religion, not a teacher of theology; he is not to define God, but to proclaim Him: not to define forgiveness, but to declare it; not to expound a theory of inspiration, but to furnish inspiration to a people discouraged and depressed. The world is not to be saved by theologies either new or old, but by the living God immanent in the hearts of His children.' אן MOHAMMEDANISM AND THE GREEK CHURCH. N its endeavor to crush out all form of worship except that prescribed by the Orthodox Church, the Russian Government meets with a good deal of opposition. The Protestants in the Baltic provinces offer least resistance, as they regard resistance useless. The Catholics in the West, and the Sectarians in Central and Southern Russia, passively resist for a time, but coercion in most cases does its work. The Mohammedans in the Caucasian provinces, however, not only stolidly refuse to become converted to the Greek Church, but they also show that they are willing to resist coercion by force of arms. The Holy Synod is all the more alarmed at this, as the Mohammedans proselytize among the members of the Orthodox Church. The Danziger Zeitung, Danzig, says: "The coercive means by which the conversion of the Catholics is brought about is ineffective with the Mohammedans. On the other hand, the propaganda of Islamism is steadily advancing in the Eastern provinces. Education has done much to bring this about, especially among the Tartars. Since they have learned to read, they are influenced by printed and written tracts. A secret organization serves the interests of Mohammedanism in Russia, and the clergy keep up a lively intercourse with such centers of Mohammedan learning as China, Bucharia, and Cairo. The Mecca pilgrims also exercise much influence, both over their coreligionists and such members of the Orthodox Church as reveal discontent with their faith. The Mecca pilgrims have brought to Russia the doctrine of a future Messiah, a Mahdi who will be stronger than even the Czar." What is the cause of this discontent with the church of which the Czar is the acknowledged head? A writer in the Christliche Welt, Leipsic, endeavors to give an explanation. He says: "At Odessa, some time ago, a case of assault was tried. Two peasants had quarreled about religion, and the one who claimed that God was superior to St. Nicholas was maltreated. This is a specimen of Russian religion. When the compulsory conversion of the Protestant Livonians to the Orthodox Church took place, an Orthodox prelate expressed his surprise that the Protestants objected: For had not Luther at one time been the Court preacher of Catherine of Russia? This may serve as a specimen of theological training in Russia. Once Czar Nicholas I. took part in a religious service at Warsaw in which, according to custom, the worshiper was to kiss the hand of the officiating priest. The latter in his confusion failed to offer his hand. Thereupon the Emperor cried out: 'Give me your hand, you dog, I want to kiss it.' That is characteristic of Russian Church life. "The Russian Church is a mixture of barbarian naïveté, the lifeless formality of the Byzantine age, and a wilderness of confused ideas. To the Russian, the man who refuses to give to a beggar is not a Christian. On the other hand he will hang a cloth before his saint's image, and then enter upon a carousal that would disgrace a beast. Again, the typical Russian will strike the floor of the church fifty times with his forehead, and repeat two hundred times the words ‘O Lord, have mercy on me!' And then he will go and swear a false oath for a drink of whisky. For does not God Himself accept a bribe?' By which is meant that God will accept so many wax candles and paternosters as atonement for sins. The Russian, too, is a fatalist. Everything, whether the result of one's own doing or not, is, in his opinion, 'God's will. The curse of the Russian Church is its moral sterility; it has no regenerative and productive power."Translated for THE LITERARY DIGEST. THE missionaries who fell at Ku-Cheng in August last are to be commemorated at Fu-Chau. The European merchants and others are subscribing to a fund, and the memorial will take the form of the figure of an angel with folded hands holding a bunch of lilies. A stone will be placed at the head of each grave and a bronze tablet will be erected in the foreign-community church at Fu-Chau. SPIRITUALISM RAMPANT IN PARIS. THAT HAT an excess of skepticism or unbelief always brings a reaction toward superstition is a well-known fact in the history of religions. This reaction is now being experienced in France, which has acquired a reputation for being the most irreligious of all countries. If we are to believe Jules Bois, who writes a long article on the subject of "Miracles at Paris" to Le Figaro (October 12), that country is now on the return swing of the pendulum, which is just at present bearing her through a spasmodic interest in spiritualism. Says M. Bois: "We must say this much in justice to spiritualism, it has been the first to raise the standard of revolt against the materialism in which we are wallowing. M. Zola has perhaps created the symbolist school by the excess of his naturalism. Spiritualism is a much deeper reaction against the atheism of Proudhon, the scepticism of Renan, the braggings of Büchner. I know that crazy people have been mixed up in it, but there are weak heads everywhere. In fact it has been the consolation and the pleasure of the highest minds. Mme. de Girardin passed the last years of her life in the company of Mme. de Sévigné, of Sappho, of Molière, of Sedaine, of Shakespeare. Auguste Vacquerie, in his 'Miettes de l'Histoire,' relates that at Jersey he made the tables talk on the shores of the sea. 'I believe in spirits as firmly as I do in donkeys,' he affirmed. For him, the scale of beings reached from man to the sky, as from man to the abysses of the earth. . . Victorien Sardou, thanks to the spirits, amused himself with making little palaces on paper with musical notes. Flammarion renewed the science of the heavens with these studies. M. Jules Lormina refreshed his imagination with them, and M. Gilbert Augustin-Thierry, in many romances, exalts reincarnation, that spiritualistic dogma. "In our days the movement has grown in innumerable directions. The painters, usually so material, have set to work to reproduce the miracles. M. Odilon Redon, in his lithographs, recreates the terror of the wandering ghosts. M. James Tissot puts his talent at the service of the 'materializations' of phantoms. Count Antoine de La Rochefoucauld, yet more subtile, seizes the angelic soul at the moment when it leaves the body, in the state of ecstasy. M. Vatere Bernard draws harpies; M. Phillippe-Charles Blache surprises the melancholy spirit at the threshold of the invisible; M. Henry de Malvost invokes the devil himself with his pencil. . . The celebrated musician, Mlle. Auguste Holmes, receives messages from the beyond; the poetess, Mme. Zola-Dorian, hears the voice of the invisible. What shall I say? The boulevard itself forgets to rail, or rather dares not. On the Tortoric terrace M. Aurelien Scholl relates to me the prodigies of Home, who altered the hour on a clock without touching it, and Maurice Montigut still shivers at the recollection of his juvenile experience at table-turning. ... "M. Paul Adam has suffered for more than a year from the assault of a ghost, who gives him troublesome advice. At the house of the Baroness Deslandes we see spirits writing and rapping. . . The modern chiefs of the state have, it appears, the same love of miracles as the emperors and kings of the Middle Ages, who lived in the company of astrologers, sorcerers, and alchemists. The correspondent of The Daily News having asked of President Carnot his religious belief, the latter answered that he was a disciple of Allan Kardec, but that he adhered to the Catholic religion for state reasons. And every one knows of the tears shed by Queen Victoria over the death of the medium who had given her the opportunity of talking with the Prince Consort." After filling a couple of columns with stories of Parisian ghosts, mediums, table-turnings, and rappings, all in the good old style, M. Bois closes with the following reflections: "Unfortunately the majority of the spirits are too simple; sometimes they are even ignorant and superstitious. On how many of their communications do the asses' ears of King Midas appear. One of their apostles, who is possessed of a wise and inspired intellect, M. Bouvery, confesses to me that in certain séances they go so far as to punish the spirits. Spiritualism to be born anew must undergo the ordeal of the phenix. To-day, rebaptized in America as 'the new spiritualism,' disembarrassed of its old errors, it attempts. in the hands of savants such as William Crookes, Aksakoff, Richet, De Rochas, Gibier, Baraduc, and Dariex, to furnish experimental proof of the survival of the ego. If the soul survives, what a source of resignation for the suffering, what a balm for the wounds of society! I know of no generous intellect capable of a lack of interest in so great an undertaking.”—Translated for The Literary Digest. EXCLUSION OF WOMEN FROM CHURCH COUNCILS. THE HE exclusion of women from church councils and other offices is the subject of a paper by Miss Frances E. Willard in The Independent. Miss Willard, it will be recalled, was one of the three women delegates elected to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1888, who after a stormy discussion were refused admission. Miss Willard remembers with what "whimsical sensations" she once witnessed in a New Jersey church the following spectacle: The pastor was concluding the anniversary exercises of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society, whose officers meekly sat in one of the front pews. Their auxiliary had raised more money that year than the parent board of the men-people. The pastor went to the woman president, and with a polite bow took her address from her hand, ascended to the pulpit, and read it to the congregation. He then descended to the official pew, secured the manuscript of the lady secretary, mounted to the pulpit, and read it; descended again, possessed himself of the report of the treasurer, mounted to his high place and read, while the women sat by with downcast faces. “The pastor seemed in high spirits," says Miss Willard, "and the audience perfectly unaware of the absurdity of the performance at which they were assisting." She continues: "But, after all, it was no more out of taste-it struck a note no more dissonant from the sweet, broad spirit of the Gospel than the average service, not of the Catholic Church and its shadow, the Episcopal, which have ruled women out from the service of the house of God, even banishing them from the choir, but of the dissenting congregations,' as they are called in England, and the great 'denominations' of America. "I was present in a Congregational church recently where the service was conducted by the pastor, six deacons, and a chorus, and the only woman I saw who had the slightest participation in the service (and I wondered that even so much was allowed) was the janitress who, when an infant was to be baptized, brought forward from the rear of the house a bowl of water for the purpose. It is the same in all the great synods and conferences. Women may work and weep, but they may not share the deliberations of their brethren concerning that household of faith of which they form more than one half and to which they give their uttermost devotion. But Miss Willard thinks that perhaps the most unreasoning illustration of traditional prejudice was the action of the Wesleyan Conference recently held in England. Concerning this she says: "Last year the third London district synod elected Miss Dawson, of the Redhill circuit, as a representative, and her presence in the Birmingham Conference opened the general question, never before considered, as to whether women were eligible as representatives to the National Conference. A committee was appointed to consider the question and to report this year. A carefully worded resolution in favor of the admission to the conference of women duly elected as representatives was agreed to by the committee, and the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes proposed that this finding of the committee be approved; and that thus the doors should be opened to women. He urged that women had rendered invaluable service in every branch of Methodism; it even appeared that Wesley himself authorized women to preach; they admitted women to every other court in Methodism, and why not the supreme court-the Conference itself? The venerable Dr. Jenkins declared that the proposals submitted 'amounted to a revolution in their constitution!' Other speakers followed, and in the end the Conference was prevented from expressing an opinion on the merits of the case by the carrying of the previous question; and thus a decision is postponed. This is the statement of a min ister who was present. The Conference was composed of ministers and laymen in equal numbers-480 in all; and I am glad to be able to say that the majority against taking action on the question of the admission of women was but eighteen. "The same question is pending in the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States, representing a membership of nearly three millions. There is every reason to believe that the decision will be in favor of women, and thus the greatest church of modern times will take its place at the head of the procession of justice; for I will not call it a question of progress or of tolerance; it is simply an act of plain, common justice to admit women to a share in the counsels of every branch of that church militant of God of which to-day they form the solid phalanx, the faithful militia, and the imperial 'old guard.'” R PREACHING ON SOCIAL TOPICS. ECURRING election and kindred seasons bring into prominence a large number of pulpits in which a prelude, or a part, if not all, of the sermon is devoted to the discussion of social and economic questions. Referring to this fact, the New York Observer goes on to say that in not a few pulpits in the more democratic denominations the Sabbath discourse savors largely of political declamation; that consideration of the great question of man's duty to God gives place to discussions of the best methods of social and political reform; that greater prominence is given to the means of securing for the wage-earner the maximum of wage and the maximum share of leisure than to the call to man to believe in God. The writer further says: “Denunciation of the evils of capital and the inequalities of taxation takes the place of denunciation of unrighteousness. No doubt the motive for this departure from the true uses of the pulpit is in most instances a high one. The desire of every religious leader to bring the masses under the influence of religion is, if he be true to his calling, exceedingly strong. The message of the Gospel is primarily to the poor, and love for and desire to help them is inseparable from any response to Christ's teaching. 'He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?' But the temptation common to all ministers is to gain the desired end by showing the masses that religion is their friend in the sense in which they understand friendship-the material sense-and so teaching them to regard spiritual truth largely in the light of a temporal aid. A still stronger temptation is to bring the masses to regard as their special advocates the ministers of Him whose heart was always moved by the sufferings of the poor. Both these temptations are fraught with danger to the religious life. With the growth of democracy, the masses are now the rulers and wield the influence and attract the deference pertaining to power. In this condition, it is almost impossible that the high motive animating the minister should not be modified or lost in the lower motive-the desire to lead and direct the ultimate depositories of political power. Indeed, so easily in our poor human nature does a low motive supersede a high one, that the religious leader may in his desire to make himself an advocate of the masses, in order to bring them under the influence of religion, almost unconsciously lose sight of that object in the advancement of his own fame or interest." The writer argues that in associating spiritual truth with material aid the temptation is constantly to make "undue concessions to the masses;" that while it is true that we live in a world where necessity seems supreme, and that it is the common interest of all to find out where necessity presses the hardest, and the best means of alleviating it, to encourage the masses to believe that eternal truth is inseparable from temporal aid, and that acceptance of spiritual verities will supply knowledge and foresight, is simply disastrous. To quote again: "What the poor need to learn is that moral and material law are separate; that no positiveness of religious conviction can prevent the man who spends more than he earns from coming to poverty. They know this in individual life perfectly well, and to teach them that acceptance of religion will deliver them from the invariable sequences of material laws is to deprive them of the warning of which they stand in most need. Moreover, moral truth is eternal, while material truth is temporal and applicable to only an insignificant proportion of man's whole existence. When the pulpit addresses the masses from the point of view of those to whom this life is all, it loses the chief source of its strength and becomes a mere preacher of philanthropy. The great needs of the time are the call of the pulpit to men to love God, and the call of the materialists to men to recognize the inexorable sequences of natural laws. But there is danger that the latter is being given prominence to the exclusion of the first. Nothing can be more unfortunate; for while a philanthropy which rejects all belief in God can be of aid to men in this life, the good it can render them is infinitesimal compared to that rendered by one who consistently preaches that this life is but an insignificant part of eternity, and that when it ends moral law will be supreme. In this world that law does not interfere with the sequences of material laws. For the pulpit to encourage belief that it may or does, is a confusion of messages which can only work evil." SAMPLE OF MISSIONARY LIFE IN FORMOSA. ONE NE is easily convinced by reading Rev. George Leslie Mackay's account of his twenty-three years' missionary work in the island of Formosa, that the evangelist who goes there needs as much pluck as grace. In relation to the heathenism of Formosa, Mr. Mackay says, in his book, "From Far Formosa" (Fleming H. Revell Co.), that the original element of the island was Confucianism; centuries after, Taoism was added, and then from India Buddhism was brought; that these three systems existed side by side until the dividing-walls began to crumble, and now the three are run together—a mingling of conflicting creeds degrading the intellect, defiling life, and destroying all religious sentiment. It seems that the Chinese in Formosa have innumerable gods and goddesses, many strange religious festivals, and countless superstitions. The following extract gives some idea of the condition of the island spiritually: "The names of their idols would fill pages, and the details of their beliefs and worship volumes. There are gods having authority over each of the various powers of nature, departments of industry, relationships of life, states of feeling, physical conditions, and moral sentiments. Some have been worshiped for centuries; others are of recent date. Some are universal, receiving the adoration of all classes throughout the Chinese empire; others are local or special, and are reverenced only in particular localities or by certain orders. The origin of the worship of many of the idols is a mystery, but modern instances are suggestive. In 1878 a girl living not far from Tamsui wasted away and died, a victim of consumption. Some one in that neighborhood, more gifted than the rest, announced that a goddess was there, and the wasted skeleton of the girl immediately became famous. She was given the name of Sien-luniu ('Virgin Goddess'), and a small temple was erected for her worship. The body was put into salt and water for some time, and then placed in a sitting position in an armchair, with a red cloth around the shoulders and a wedding-cap upon the head; and seen through the glass, the black face, with the teeth exposed, looked very much like an Egyptian mummy. Mock money was burned and incensesticks laid in the front. Passers-by were told the story, and as they were willing to worship anything supposed to have power to help or harm, the worship of the new goddess began. Before many weeks hundreds of sedan-chairs could be seen passing and repassing, bringing worshipers, especially women, to this shrine. men sent presents to adorn the temple, and all took up the cry of the new goddess." Rich A few years ago the most lawless region in North Formosa was round about Sa-kak-eng, the people of which town lived in terror of a band of highwaymen who had their headquarters in the mountains near by. Mr. Mackay gives the following as an incident of his experience in that region: "The banditti would form a company and march into the town, singing boastfully, with a wild kind of a yell, 'Lin kho koa; Goan kho soa; which means, 'You trust the mandarins; we trust the mountains.' I had very great difficulty in gaining entrance into Sa-kak-eng, and when the chief of a strong clan gave me a room in the rear of his shop there were loud threats of dragging us to the hills, gagging us, and gouging out our eyes. So violent was the opposition that I had to change my quarters to the outskirts of the town. The mob often surrounded the building, and once when A Hoa and I came out of the door a howl was raised, and a large flat stone flung by a man near by grazed the top of my head, and. striking against the wall, was broken into three pieces. Neither of us flinched, but, turning round, I picked up the pieces of stone as mementos of the day. One of the pieces weighed three pounds; another I brought as a contribution to the museum in Knox College, Toronto. Several months afterward, on entering the chapel, I saw a man lying on a bench. He rose to his feet, and, bowing low, said, 'Will you forgive me?' He then confessed that he was the man who threw the stone, and that his intentions were to put an end to my life. For the next three months he was with the native preacher every day, and before the year closed he passed away rejoicing in the hope of salvation through Christ. Sa-kak-eng is quite a changed place. The desperadoes have been scattered, their forest-retreats cleared and cultivated, chapel buildings purchased, prejudices against converts and preachers overcome, and every year marks progress. On our last visit we were escorted in high honor to the next chapel, four miles away, a band of music leading the procession." THE PRAYER-MEETING KILLERS. HERE is a class of people (says The Christian Herald) "One of the chiefs of this barbarian tribe of prayer-meeting "The land is strewn with the carcasses of prayer-meetings slain IT may not be generally known that the prohibition against foreign Jews settling in Palestine is still in full force. Foreign Jews are only admitted to Palestine for thirty days to allow them to visit the holy places. When they land at Jaffa they must produce a respectable Turkish subject to guarantee that they will leave the country in thirty days, otherwise they may not land. FROM FOREIGN LANDS. THE VANDERBILT-MARLBOROUGH MARRIAGE. FOR `OR years no royal marriage has been commented upon so much as the union between two comparatively unimportant individuals which recently took place in New York. The reputed wealth of the bride and the great display of this wealth at the wedding have attracted much attention abroad. The Kladderadatsch, foremost among the satirical publications of Berlin, praises the American papers for their loving interest in the bride. "The weight of the bride is given at 1161⁄2 pounds," says this paper, "but we suppose the bridegroom, who calculates, of course, in pounds sterling, is certain that she is somewhat heavier." The majority of Continental papers congratulate the late Miss Vanderbilt upon having become mistress of one of the finest castles in Europe. The English press, on the whole, views the marriage as a downright calamity. The dispay of wealth at the wedding is regarded as extremely coarse. "Good heaven!" says The Clarion, London, "£80,000 for a wedding-feast! And these are the people who preach thrift to the dissolute lower orders!" One of the most scathing comments appears in Life, London. Life is a "society paper." Its subscribers belong to a class of Englishmen who are recognized as "good society" on the Continent. In an article entitled "A Little Too Much Millionaire," that paper expresses itself as follows: "A little less ostentation would have been better in view of the fact that the marriage was, from the outset, planned to regild the tarnished glory of Blenheim with American dollars, purchased with a ducal coronet. A section of society-only a section, be it noted, of that very much misunderstood entity-has chosen, of late, to receive the nouveaux riches, for which the women are mostly to blame. The men are not so willing to receive them in the clubs, for the simple reason that the nèwly enriched millionaire does not understand that a club-land is a republic, in which he can not act as if he 'bossed the entire show.' Yet the influence of the dollar is felt already in London. The city is not as well administered as most of the great provincial centers, and everybody is trying to get invitations to the houses of the rich. There is a drop in the standard of financial and commercial morality." This ascendency of the nouveau riche, colonial as well as American, is, in Life's opinion, due to the custom of raising to the peerage men who have done nothing that is either noble or great. Hence the paper concludes as follows: "Infinite harm has been done to the grand principles of hered. itary nobility by the wholesale manufacture, for such it must be termed, of peers who have openly purchased their titles by what are euphemistically termed their 'services to the party.' On all sides the old-world wisdom of the past which has built up this country is being set aside, and the vices of such mushroom growths as the great American Republic, which we are never tired of railing against and satirizing, are allowed to creep in and take their hold in our midst. We have had of late years more than one pitiful exhibition of the blighting influence of millionaireworship across the Atlantic; the hideous Panama scandals of France were but another phase of the same malady. Let us beware of ourselves falling into the same slough of despond." The St. James's Gazette points out that the movements of the Vanderbilts are recorded with a minuteness in America which would appear tiresome to European readers even in connection with persons wielding royal power. "Who wants to know," asks that paper, "that 'Mrs. Vanderbilt and her sons went for a drive in Central Park yesterday afternoon'? or that 'Mr. Vanderbilt went to his office at the station of the New York Central Railway yesterday morning, and left by train in the afternoon for Oakdale'? Glorious indeed is the, ad vertisement that falls to the American parents-in-law of an Eng. lish Duke." The Whitehall Review regrets that "an English nobleman, inheritor of a great name, was the principal actor in this display of vulgar and ostentations snobbery," and hopes that "the lady who is now an English peeress will rise above such surroundings." The Globe, Toronto, says: "No nation on the earth shows the same senseless adulation and abject toadyism toward the holder of a title as the United States. This is not due to republican forms, as France and the Southern republics are exceptionally free from it. It is not, as some contend, an Anglo-Saxon characteristic, as it is not found in England nor in Canada. It seems to be the surface indication of a degeneracy which will soon be manifested in other ways." United Ireland, Dublin, one of the few dissentient voices, thinks the Vanderbilts have greater reason to be proud of their ancestor than the Marlboroughs. That paper says of the late Commodore Vanderbilt: "From being the owner of one vessel he came to be the owner of many more and many other kinds of property besides. He was a man of ability and spirit, and built and endowed the hospital in New York known as the 'Vanderbilt Clinic. Few dukes, certainly not the descendant of the publicly corrupt and privately infamous John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, can boast of an ancestry so honest and honorable." LORD SALISBURY ON THE SITUATION. AT T the annual Guildhall banquet, in honor of the new Lord Mayor of London, Lord Salisbury made a speech in which he spoke almost exclusively of foreign affairs. He believes that there is no cause of alarm in the development of affairs in the Far East. Turning to Armenia, the Premier declared that if the proposed reforms were carried out properly, the Armenians would become a prosperous and peaceful people. Should, however, the Sultan refuse to grant justice to the Christians, then he would suffer the consequences of his misrule, as the powers are thoroughly resolved to act together in everything concerning the Ottoman Empire. The latter assertion is regarded as a guaranty of peace for the bulk of Europe, if not for Turkey. The Times, London, says: "In all the capitals of Europe Lord Salisbury's speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet has been criticized with the respect due to his high position and his unrivaled acquaintance with international politics. There is no Minister now holding office in any continental country who can claim to be Lord Salisbury's equal in point of experience and knowledge of foreign affairs. . . . In any case the powers will continue to press upon the Sultan the lesson that his security can not be guaranteed by anything short of complete and radical amendment. If it is too late for him to reform, another way out of the difficulty must somehow be discovered." The Standard thinks Lord Salisbury has rightly expressed the opinion of all Englishmen, and adds: "We are much mistaken if even the most luxurious and closely guarded recesses of Yildiz Kiosk have not already reverberated to the grave reminder that 'the nature of things, if you please, or the Providence of God, if you please to put it so, has determined that persistent and constant misgovernment must lead the Government that practises to its doom." The Daily Chronicle thinks the Sultan has reached the close "of his unhappy and misspent days of power" unless he accepts tutelage. The majority of European papers nevertheless doubt that the Sultan will accept such terms. The Morning Leader accuses Lord Salisbury of an attempt to divert the attention of the public from matters of greater consequence at home. The Leader says: "The fact is Lord Salisbury and his friends are bent on trying a policy of snooze at home, and in order to escape from embar |