Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1888 — RELIGIOUS NOTES. [ARTICLE]

RELIGIOUS NOTES.

Hell is like tc/be full of good wishes but /heaven is full of good works.— Guevara. Last year 248 American Baptist ministers died. Their average age was six-ty-five years. A $30,000 mortgage on Dr. PiersoiFs Philadelphia church was recently, cremated in the presence of the rejoicing members. There is a native, light in every man, discovering to him the first lines of duty in the common notions of good and evil. —Rev. GilmAn A. Whitmore. A host of minds of profoundest thought find nothing in the disclosures of science to shake their faith in the eternal verities of reason and religion.T-Georgt Ri})-. ley. 1 Christ is the key to the history of the world. Not only does all harmonize with the missrto of Christ; all is subordinate to it. When I saw this it was to me as wonderful and surprising as the light which Paul saw on his way to Damascus.—Von Muller. The Independent announces that the negotiations for organic union that had been pending between the Presbyterian, Reformed, and Presbyterian mission churches of Japan are concluded and only await the “certain approval” of the separate bodies m November. Fretting is an evidence-of weakness It shows that you are not controlling -Yourself While in that condition you are not fit to control anybody else. Don’t fret. It is your Christian duty to cultivate self-control and patience; and in so doing you are not only obeying God, but you are also working for your own greatest happiness. —Central Methodist.

The Congregational Year Book for 1888 will contain the following statistics: Churches, 4,404; church members, 457, : 584; Sunday School members, 551.091; benevolent contributions for the year 1887, $1,098,485. Of this amount, $319,. 404 was for foreign missions, $221,237 for education, $22,590 for church building, and $436,577 for home missions. The late Rev. William Morley Punshon wrote in his journal in a time of great bereavement: “I grieve. I wonder, but Ido not rebel. * * * I can but say under the stroke, ‘lt is the Lord.’ * * ii! Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me; but they arc Thy waves, and I must let them sweep, waiting till Thou shall tell, in the fullness of clear vision, why they sweep over me.” >

Encouraging reports are received from temperance work in China. Several young men of the Anglo-Chinese College at Shanghai have united with those of the Presbyterian mission press in a temperance society which meets monthly. This society advocates temperance, purity of life, is against opium,tobacco and other evils. A number of societies have been formed among boarding-school girls. The London Methodist Times says that of 109 candidates for the* Wesleyan ministry in England, examined by committees, fifty-five were refused. Of the fifty-four accepted, forty-three were for home work, ten for missions, and one for Wales. All the approved were recommended for training in the theological colleges. The Times says: “Quite as many have been accepted as we need. The committee are influenced by the moral and mental caliber of the men.”