Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1882 — FIOUS SMALL TALK. [ARTICLE]

FIOUS SMALL TALK.

The Jubilee fund pf. the Congregational Union of Great Britain now amounts to overs6oo,ooQ.. The Catholic Wold calls Monsignor Capel who baptized the, Marquis of Bute,(the “Apostle to the Gentiles.” Hospital Sunday in London brought in $150,735. The total of metropolitan charities for 1881 reached $20,607,760. A statute to Luther is to be erected in Erfurt, to be unveiled next year, which will be the 400th anniversary of his birth: , ? • rt The Southern Baptist church numbers to-day nearly 2,000,000 communicants. and represents an aggregate wealth of $500,000,000. It is said that of the 626 ministers in the Presbyterian church of Ireland, only one can now preach in Irish, but there are a number of Bible readers who can use the old tongue. While off on a long spree, an lowa reprobate used the name of a t good; deacon on the registers of the hotels' at which he put up, and the deacon was put to great trouble, by the scandal which arose. At an educational convention, held in Albion, Mich.,, last week, Bishop Merrill said that the point bad been passed in which Methodists could hope to succeed with a ministry who lacked cultivation. A Methodist minister the other day said he prayed to be saved from the preacher who never falls in the pulpit. Hd'had a colleague of that kind once, he never had a bad time and the congregation never had a good one. In the far-away Synod of Otago, in New Zealand, the lowest salary among the Presbyterian ministers is over sl,ooQ—tbe Sustentatioh. Fund giving that dividend, and the churches often raising the salary much above that sum. A singular decision has been reached at a synodical election iu the Reformed Church at Basle. The Liberal party have proposed that unbaptized children may be admitted to confirmation . This dqclsldn was arrived at byJB votes against* 3. The latest proposition of the Sunday service sort is the idea of “invalid pews,” but it is not stated whether they are to be private boxes, like those of a theater, or separated by latticework from the rest of the auditorium or in the fotm of cushioned chairs on wheels. i' . ■ lam not aware that payment or even favors however gracious, bind ?»ny man’s soul and conscience on questions of highest morality and highest public importance.—[George Kingsley. Men’s minds are as various as their faces. Where the motives of their actions are pure, the operation of the former is more to be imputed to them, as a crime,than the appearance of the latter; for both, being the work of nature. are alike unavoldaole.—| George Washington. 1

The Rev. Philips Brooks says: “Never tolerate any idea of the dignity of a sermon which will keep you from saying anything tn it which you ought to say, or which your people ought tb hear. It is the same folly as making your chair so fine that you dare not sit down in it.” At the unveiling of the Caxton memorial window in St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster, ( anon Farrer recently said that England’s first pririter lived the last eleven years of his life in that parish and was in the habit of attending mass at St. Margaret’s with the guild to which he belonged. His burial from the church was carried out with a splendor and solemnity quite unusual at that time. t A clergyman in Maryland recently received an anoynious letter containing $lO. Afterwards another anoymous communication was received as follows: “Please prey for a family so given up to dissension and hard thoughts all are unhappy. Worldly care has driven out peace and love, and ronly-God, who can change the heart, can make a change of the conduct and the disposition. Please pray that He would interpose in their behalf,” The most blooming condition of the church in Germany is at present found in Wurtemberg. This is surprising, especially when it is remembered that here wks the home of strauss, and that since the death of Balmer, Oehler and more recently Beck, the ancient University of Tubingen is by no means counted a bulwark of orthodoxy. Rationalism is comparatively unknown in the churches. The American missionaries who penetrated through the jungles and fever-stricken country of Umzila’s kingdom, in southeastern Africa, to his capita), report that the king was delighted to see them, sent greetings to America, and asked to have five missionaries with their families sent to teach his people. The king is said to be the finest specimen of royalty in Africa. His face is full of intelligence and genuinely pleasant. He is tall and spare, but well proportioned* The Rev. Dr. Tully, a presbyterian, of Oswego, preached at the (Spirituallists last Bunday. He said there were some people Iff Oswego on the brink of iri&mltv from their belief in the delusion. He wanted the mediums tested by asking them where are the murderers of Lord and Mr. Burke. |Horlce Greeley, beford k the sub-marine telegraph was laid, offered '52,500 forfany medium who would report the news from the old world to the New, without meeting with aucoese.