Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1888 — RELIGIOUS NOTES. [ARTICLE]

RELIGIOUS NOTES.

The Memorial Church, erected at . Portrush, Ireland, in memory of Dr. Adam Clarke, was dedicated Sept. 29. The foundation stones were laid just a year before by the Dake of Abercom. A fine cathedral, for some time in course of erection, will be completed at Kieff, Russia, early next summer. It will open with special pomp and ceremony, by way of celebrating the 900th anniversary of the introduction of Christianity into the empire. One of the recent church missionary society converts in the Punjab encountered much opposition on accounV'bf having devoted his house ta mission purposes. On being called to account for having done so,his reply was: “Never mind the house; I intend to give myself;’’ . ’ » Prof. Drummohd -and his co laborers have induced a band of athletic young Christian men to devote themselves to work among tne tenement houses of I/ffidon. The professor thinks that "this spectacle wtil dorifforcrto inspire a belief in Christianity than a whole library full of books on dogmatic 8yNext summer there is to be held in London a Roman Catholic Congress at which all English speaking communities will be represented. Tbj three chief topics to be discussed are: The attitude of the Catholic church toward education in general;' greater co-operation of the laity in the work of the church, and the diffusion of Qitholic literatuie ampng the masses. A number of Baptist church* s and clergymen will follow example in withdrawing frontr the I&ptist Union,among them Rey.' Messrs. of the East London Tabernacle; Davies, of a Brighton chq/cb; Burton, of/Dalston, and of Crpydoff. The directors ofXavor’s College will feontpkej a conference to consider joint action on the secession, Nottingham Tabernacle has passed a resolution of sympathy /tnth Spurgeon. While on his way to the Episcopal Mjsfejohary Council in'. Philadelphia, Bishop Tuttle of Missouri,lost his satchel. whigjf 'was stolen*' at Kansas City. The thief got for bis pains a bishop’s or two and a prayer :XK>k. The Bishop was mourning over his loss when he reached St. Louis, but was somewhat reconciled when some . ladies of.his diocese presented him with . a London-made set of robes, very costly .arid the “finest west of the Mississippi.” Outside the waile of Jerusalem a new town has sprung up, a building club having been establi-hed a few years ago under the operations of which 130 houses were erected in four years by the Jriws, while along the Jaffa road many oo’intry villas have been erected of late by European residents as summer abodes. The development of the buil Hng of new ho ses w thout Jerusalem is to be found in the enterprise which has led to much building being done on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, the summit of which is crowned with the Church of the Ascension. Orthodox Christians will watch with interest and perhaps alarm, the new missionary movement in Germany. Socalled advanced theologians have a well organized society, whose object is t* make use the elements of culture and morality that are found in educated heathen nations, and on tbi basis build un a Christion culture accordin to advanced ideas. This' society thinks that the old methods fail in that they do not educate the thinkers among educated non-Chrtetian people. It has 7,750 members iu Switzerland and Ge rmany and has a few men at work in Japan and China. The largest Baptist church in the country is to be built in Philadeldbia. It will seat 4,600 persons and will cost $10Q,600. A thousand scholars will be accommodated in the Sunday school room arid five hundred more in the infant department. A dining room, parlors, kitchen and a large entertainment room will also be provided. All this is to give room and scope enough for the ministry of the Rev. Russell H. Conwell, Yale College student, soldier, lawyer, emigration agent, special correspondent in Europe for American papers,traveler, lecturer, author, theological student, Baptist minister. The man who hae passed through all these preliminaries to a settled ministry is now only forty- " four years old. * —-r~ The Christian Union lately invited its readers to send in lists containing what in their judgment were the best 100 hymns in the English language. More than 3,400 lists were received. The first hymn upon the larger number of lists was Toplady’s “Rock of Ages,” having received 3,215 votes. The second in poinkof popularity was Lyte’a “Abide With Me;” the third, Wesley’s “Jesus, Lover of My Soul.” A lyrmn which ie greatly liked and widely sung, “My Faith Looks Up to Thee,” occupied only the sixty-ninth place on tbe list. The ist contains hymns from fifty-five different authors, and among these Dr. Watts and Charles Wesley stand at the head.