1895
Frances Power Cobbe, in her "Life," gives amusing illustrations of the Dublin brogue in which Irish Protestant clergymen, educated at Trinity college, used to preach 50 years ago. One, concluding a sermon on the "Fear of Death," exclaimed:
"Me brethren, the doying Christian lepps into the arrums of death and makes his hollow jaws ring with eternal hallelujahs!"
There was a chapter in the Acts which Miss Cobbe dreaded to hear read by a certain clergyman, so difficult was it to help laughing when told of "Pertheans and Mades, and the dwellers in Mesopotemia and the part of Libya about Cyraine, streengers of Roum, Jews, proselytes, Crates and Arabians."
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Medicine and Ceremonial
1895
The physicians of mediaeval England, who were for the most part monks, friars or Jews, possessed a large assortment of remedies, some of them borrowed from the Byzantine physicians, others from the traditional practice of the people. Christian physicians, however, called religion to their aid. None of their remedies was administered without ceremonial. While the medicine was being compounded the patient would say 12 times over one of the psalms, beginning "Miserere Mei, Deus," then several paternosters, "then drink the dose and wrap thyself up warm," or he would sing the psalm, "Salvum Me Fac, Deus," then drink the draft out of a church bell, the priest finishing the cure with prayer.
Dr. Creighton remarks that, as the maladies of the middle ages contained an unusual element of hysteria, the ceremonial may not have come amiss as an aid to the treatment. Physicians gained considerable fees by their practice, which the people appear to have grudged them. The satirical writers constantly accuse them of greed, but these charges were probably owing to the prevalence of the idea, not yet extinct, that, as "medicine is from the Lord God," the leech was not entitled to a money payment. — Spectator.
The physicians of mediaeval England, who were for the most part monks, friars or Jews, possessed a large assortment of remedies, some of them borrowed from the Byzantine physicians, others from the traditional practice of the people. Christian physicians, however, called religion to their aid. None of their remedies was administered without ceremonial. While the medicine was being compounded the patient would say 12 times over one of the psalms, beginning "Miserere Mei, Deus," then several paternosters, "then drink the dose and wrap thyself up warm," or he would sing the psalm, "Salvum Me Fac, Deus," then drink the draft out of a church bell, the priest finishing the cure with prayer.
Dr. Creighton remarks that, as the maladies of the middle ages contained an unusual element of hysteria, the ceremonial may not have come amiss as an aid to the treatment. Physicians gained considerable fees by their practice, which the people appear to have grudged them. The satirical writers constantly accuse them of greed, but these charges were probably owing to the prevalence of the idea, not yet extinct, that, as "medicine is from the Lord God," the leech was not entitled to a money payment. — Spectator.
Beatification In China
1895
The Emperor Makes and Unmakes Gods at His Own Sweet Pleasure.
In China the emperor claims power, not only over his subjects (and indeed, for that matter, the whole inhabited world), but also over the realms of departed spirits. Those he beatifies, canonizes, decorates with titles, mentions with approval in the Peking Gazette when they do anything to deserve that honor and actually degrades and uncanonizes if he sees just cause. For example, the Emperor Hieng-Fung elevated the god of war to an equal rank with Confucius, who previously had been chief among the state gods.
Sir Alfred Lyall has drawn attention to some amusing extracts from the Peking Gazette, illustrating the way in which the Chinese treat their deities. Thus The Gazette of November, 1878, has the following:
"The governor general of the Yellow river requests that a tablet may be put up in honor of the river god. He states that during the transmission of the relief rice to Honan, whenever difficulties were encountered through shallows, wind or rain, the river god interposed in the most unmistakable manner, so that the transport of grain went on without hindrance. Order: Let The proper officer prepare a tablet for the temple of the river god."
In April, 1880, The god of locusts was similarly rewarded. A month or two earlier the temple of the Sea Dragon at Hoyang was decreed a memorial board for services rendered in connection with rain, and in another Gazette the god of water is given a new temple by special rescript. All this procedure is thoroughly in keeping with the notions of the common people of China, who look upon the gods simply as human beings in a different set of conditions. — Contemporary Review.
The Emperor Makes and Unmakes Gods at His Own Sweet Pleasure.
In China the emperor claims power, not only over his subjects (and indeed, for that matter, the whole inhabited world), but also over the realms of departed spirits. Those he beatifies, canonizes, decorates with titles, mentions with approval in the Peking Gazette when they do anything to deserve that honor and actually degrades and uncanonizes if he sees just cause. For example, the Emperor Hieng-Fung elevated the god of war to an equal rank with Confucius, who previously had been chief among the state gods.
Sir Alfred Lyall has drawn attention to some amusing extracts from the Peking Gazette, illustrating the way in which the Chinese treat their deities. Thus The Gazette of November, 1878, has the following:
"The governor general of the Yellow river requests that a tablet may be put up in honor of the river god. He states that during the transmission of the relief rice to Honan, whenever difficulties were encountered through shallows, wind or rain, the river god interposed in the most unmistakable manner, so that the transport of grain went on without hindrance. Order: Let The proper officer prepare a tablet for the temple of the river god."
In April, 1880, The god of locusts was similarly rewarded. A month or two earlier the temple of the Sea Dragon at Hoyang was decreed a memorial board for services rendered in connection with rain, and in another Gazette the god of water is given a new temple by special rescript. All this procedure is thoroughly in keeping with the notions of the common people of China, who look upon the gods simply as human beings in a different set of conditions. — Contemporary Review.
The Decline of the Dance In Hawaii
1895
In looking over the polished floors of the Kamehameha School For Girls one almost wishes that its founders had directed that dancing should be taught and practiced upon them by the student girls. It certainly was a narrow and superficial view of the native life which held these childlike people, who did not have story books and couldn't go wild over the old catechism, should have been deprived of one of their chief sources of amusement.
Though the native dances were objectionable in many ways, they could have been greatly modified and made respectable. The early teachers not only deprived themselves of amusements from the dictates of conscience, but they failed to provide the natives with any. It was the result of the Puritan inheritance which quickly gives way when the Puritan stock gets out into the world. — Honolulu Commercial Advertiser.
In looking over the polished floors of the Kamehameha School For Girls one almost wishes that its founders had directed that dancing should be taught and practiced upon them by the student girls. It certainly was a narrow and superficial view of the native life which held these childlike people, who did not have story books and couldn't go wild over the old catechism, should have been deprived of one of their chief sources of amusement.
Though the native dances were objectionable in many ways, they could have been greatly modified and made respectable. The early teachers not only deprived themselves of amusements from the dictates of conscience, but they failed to provide the natives with any. It was the result of the Puritan inheritance which quickly gives way when the Puritan stock gets out into the world. — Honolulu Commercial Advertiser.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Opening Court With Prayer
1895
One of the learned justices of the Maine supreme court, than whom no man better knows how to appreciate a really amusing thing, was holding court at Ellsworth, and, according to honored custom, called in a local clergyman to open the session with a supplication to heaven. This worthy gentleman came, and after a chat with the justice proceeded to address the giver of all good and perfect things thus:
"Almighty God, we beseech thee to bestow upon the presiding justice the wisdom which he so greatly needs!" It is said that the same judge once opened court after prayer which began this way: "O Lord, we pray thee to overrule the decisions of the court, to thine own honor and glory." — Bangor Commercial.
One of the learned justices of the Maine supreme court, than whom no man better knows how to appreciate a really amusing thing, was holding court at Ellsworth, and, according to honored custom, called in a local clergyman to open the session with a supplication to heaven. This worthy gentleman came, and after a chat with the justice proceeded to address the giver of all good and perfect things thus:
"Almighty God, we beseech thee to bestow upon the presiding justice the wisdom which he so greatly needs!" It is said that the same judge once opened court after prayer which began this way: "O Lord, we pray thee to overrule the decisions of the court, to thine own honor and glory." — Bangor Commercial.
Utilitarian
1895
A certain esteemed clergyman whose church is in the most attractive part of the city, but Who for present purposes must remain nameless, was fooling a little "pardonable pride" in having succeeded, after years of soliciting, in raising enough money to provide his church with a set of chimes.
As every one took the first occasion to congratulate him it was quite natural that on meeting Mrs. Blunt, one of his most fashionable parishioners, he should say in his happy enthusiasm: "And how do you like the new chimes, Mrs. Blunt? You must be glad to hear those good old hymns at night. They must remind you" —
"Yes," she interrupted, "that is so. Since the chimes began I've taken my medicine quite regularly." — Boston Budget.
A certain esteemed clergyman whose church is in the most attractive part of the city, but Who for present purposes must remain nameless, was fooling a little "pardonable pride" in having succeeded, after years of soliciting, in raising enough money to provide his church with a set of chimes.
As every one took the first occasion to congratulate him it was quite natural that on meeting Mrs. Blunt, one of his most fashionable parishioners, he should say in his happy enthusiasm: "And how do you like the new chimes, Mrs. Blunt? You must be glad to hear those good old hymns at night. They must remind you" —
"Yes," she interrupted, "that is so. Since the chimes began I've taken my medicine quite regularly." — Boston Budget.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Preachers Fall Out
New York, 1895
Evangelist Cressey Says a Brother's Faith Wouldn't Rescue an Ant.
Evangelist E. R. Cressey, who has been conducting the big revival at Babylon for the past ten days, has declared war against the Rev. J. E. Raymond, pastor of the Babylon Baptist church, on account of Mr. Raymond's refusal to take further part in the revival services. An open rupture occurred between the men Friday morning on the street. Evangelist Cressey, the Rev. Mr. Adams, and the Rev. Mr. Long, pastors of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches, saw Pastor Raymond and accosted him. Mr. Cressey demanded to know what Mr. Raymond meant by his continued indifference, and wound up his remarks by asking his Baptist brother: "Have you no faith in God?"
Pastor Raymond is a short, quiet man with a powerful command of language. He replied: "I have faith in God, but I don't think God has much to do with the way in which these services are being conducted."
The dominies looked at each other in silence, but Evangelist Cressey began to berate his brother preacher, and finally said excitedly: "Why, you have not faith enough to pull an ant out of the mud."
Pastor Raymond quietly assured his brother preachers that he had an unlimited quantity of faith, but that it was not of the kind which allowed him to hold services in barrooms or on store stoops.
Evangelist Cressey and Pastors Long and Adams held twelve services on Friday, and will continue the revival for an indefinite time. It was known by many that Pastor Raymond had all along not favored the methods pursued by Evangelist Cressey, and that he had refrained from taking part in the meetings for men only, and would not conduct services in the saloon. Many of the church people are siding with Pastor Raymond, while the crusaders are looking correspondingly gloomy. Evangelist Cressey says the people are too fastidious.
Found a Spring Under the Church
While deepening the cellar under the Methodist church in Oyster Bay workmen struck a spring of water. The water came spouting up at about the rate of a barrel a minute.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, March 1, 1895, p. 2.
Evangelist Cressey Says a Brother's Faith Wouldn't Rescue an Ant.
Evangelist E. R. Cressey, who has been conducting the big revival at Babylon for the past ten days, has declared war against the Rev. J. E. Raymond, pastor of the Babylon Baptist church, on account of Mr. Raymond's refusal to take further part in the revival services. An open rupture occurred between the men Friday morning on the street. Evangelist Cressey, the Rev. Mr. Adams, and the Rev. Mr. Long, pastors of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches, saw Pastor Raymond and accosted him. Mr. Cressey demanded to know what Mr. Raymond meant by his continued indifference, and wound up his remarks by asking his Baptist brother: "Have you no faith in God?"
Pastor Raymond is a short, quiet man with a powerful command of language. He replied: "I have faith in God, but I don't think God has much to do with the way in which these services are being conducted."
The dominies looked at each other in silence, but Evangelist Cressey began to berate his brother preacher, and finally said excitedly: "Why, you have not faith enough to pull an ant out of the mud."
Pastor Raymond quietly assured his brother preachers that he had an unlimited quantity of faith, but that it was not of the kind which allowed him to hold services in barrooms or on store stoops.
Evangelist Cressey and Pastors Long and Adams held twelve services on Friday, and will continue the revival for an indefinite time. It was known by many that Pastor Raymond had all along not favored the methods pursued by Evangelist Cressey, and that he had refrained from taking part in the meetings for men only, and would not conduct services in the saloon. Many of the church people are siding with Pastor Raymond, while the crusaders are looking correspondingly gloomy. Evangelist Cressey says the people are too fastidious.
Found a Spring Under the Church
While deepening the cellar under the Methodist church in Oyster Bay workmen struck a spring of water. The water came spouting up at about the rate of a barrel a minute.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, March 1, 1895, p. 2.
Among The Churches
New York, 1895
Doings of the Various Religious Bodies Throughout the Island.
The First Congregational Church at Roslyn was admitted to fellowship Thursday by a council of clergymen and laymen. The society was organized less than a year ago, and last fall dedicated its new edifice, which was erected at a cost of $10,000.
The Catholic children at Willets' Point are assisting to collect funds for the erection of a new Roman Catholic church at Bayside. They have raised enough money with the contributions of the residents to insure the laying of the corner stone early in the spring.
The dedication of the new Presbyterian church of Newtown village, which was to have taken place last Sunday, had to be postponed on account of the discovery that a number of steam pipes had burst. As soon as the damage can be repaired, arrangements for the dedication will be made.
St. John's Lutheran church at Ingleside, Flushing, was dedicated Sunday afternoon. The Rev. Leo Konig, president of the New York State synod, preached, and he was assisted in the services by the church pastor, the Rev. A. E. Schmitthaener. The church is a frame building finished in natural woods. The auditorium was filled Sunday, and the day was a glad one in the history of the congregation, representing as it did the successful culmination of years of struggle. Several years ago a handful of the German element of Flushing with no church of their denomination in the village were in the habit of meeting and journeying together to attend services on Sunday at Corona or Jamaica. Additions were made to their number, and finally a little colony of twenty secured the free library for meetings and called as a minister the present pastor. He set about the work of erecting a church, and in October, 1894, the cornerstone of the building dedicated on Sunday was laid.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, March 1, 1895, p. 2.
Doings of the Various Religious Bodies Throughout the Island.
The First Congregational Church at Roslyn was admitted to fellowship Thursday by a council of clergymen and laymen. The society was organized less than a year ago, and last fall dedicated its new edifice, which was erected at a cost of $10,000.
The Catholic children at Willets' Point are assisting to collect funds for the erection of a new Roman Catholic church at Bayside. They have raised enough money with the contributions of the residents to insure the laying of the corner stone early in the spring.
The dedication of the new Presbyterian church of Newtown village, which was to have taken place last Sunday, had to be postponed on account of the discovery that a number of steam pipes had burst. As soon as the damage can be repaired, arrangements for the dedication will be made.
St. John's Lutheran church at Ingleside, Flushing, was dedicated Sunday afternoon. The Rev. Leo Konig, president of the New York State synod, preached, and he was assisted in the services by the church pastor, the Rev. A. E. Schmitthaener. The church is a frame building finished in natural woods. The auditorium was filled Sunday, and the day was a glad one in the history of the congregation, representing as it did the successful culmination of years of struggle. Several years ago a handful of the German element of Flushing with no church of their denomination in the village were in the habit of meeting and journeying together to attend services on Sunday at Corona or Jamaica. Additions were made to their number, and finally a little colony of twenty secured the free library for meetings and called as a minister the present pastor. He set about the work of erecting a church, and in October, 1894, the cornerstone of the building dedicated on Sunday was laid.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, March 1, 1895, p. 2.
Parson Chowne
1895
A Peculiar Character In the Novel of "The Maid of Sker."
Mr. Blackmore worked into his story the character of a notorious pair of parsons in the same portion of the county. Parson Chowne actually was rector of Knowstone, and the tradition of his evil deeds is by no means faded out of recollection. The people tell still of the manner in which he revenged himself upon any farmer who offended him. He had two methods. One was to invite the man against whom he meditated evil to dine with him, when he would ply him with liquor, and when his guest drove away, down a steep and rugged hill, the linchpin of one of his wheels would come out and the man be thrown from his trap and break neck or leg or arm. The other way was less severe. He would say before some man whom he could trust, "I wonder how bad Farmer X. would feel were his rick to be fired?" Next night the rick would be in flames. Chowne never entered into alliance with the savages of Coleridge. Nor did he end his days torn to pieces by dogs, as represented in the novel. Several of the tales told of him in "The Maid of Sker" are, however, true, as is that of his having introduced an apple pip into the eye of a horse that belonged to a baronet to the neighborhood, against whom he bore a grudge.
The story is told of Parson Chowne that the bishop of Exeter sent word that he would visit him. Chowne had a portion of the road dug up and filled with peat water and then covered over with sticks and furze and a sprinkling of soil. The bishop's carriage went in, and the bishop was upset, but Henry of Exeter was not the man to be stopped by such a matter as a breakdown — not on the road, but of the road — and he walked forward on foot.
"Mr. Chowne," said he, "I've heard strange stories of you."
"Waal, my lord," answered the rector, "so hev I of you. But, my lord, us be gentlemen, you and I, and us pays no notice to the chitter chatter of a pars'l o' fules."
Nothing could be brought home to Chowne. He was far too clever a man to allow himself to be caught in his malpractice. Toward the end of his days he resigned his living and resided in a house of his own. — Atalanta.
A Peculiar Character In the Novel of "The Maid of Sker."
Mr. Blackmore worked into his story the character of a notorious pair of parsons in the same portion of the county. Parson Chowne actually was rector of Knowstone, and the tradition of his evil deeds is by no means faded out of recollection. The people tell still of the manner in which he revenged himself upon any farmer who offended him. He had two methods. One was to invite the man against whom he meditated evil to dine with him, when he would ply him with liquor, and when his guest drove away, down a steep and rugged hill, the linchpin of one of his wheels would come out and the man be thrown from his trap and break neck or leg or arm. The other way was less severe. He would say before some man whom he could trust, "I wonder how bad Farmer X. would feel were his rick to be fired?" Next night the rick would be in flames. Chowne never entered into alliance with the savages of Coleridge. Nor did he end his days torn to pieces by dogs, as represented in the novel. Several of the tales told of him in "The Maid of Sker" are, however, true, as is that of his having introduced an apple pip into the eye of a horse that belonged to a baronet to the neighborhood, against whom he bore a grudge.
The story is told of Parson Chowne that the bishop of Exeter sent word that he would visit him. Chowne had a portion of the road dug up and filled with peat water and then covered over with sticks and furze and a sprinkling of soil. The bishop's carriage went in, and the bishop was upset, but Henry of Exeter was not the man to be stopped by such a matter as a breakdown — not on the road, but of the road — and he walked forward on foot.
"Mr. Chowne," said he, "I've heard strange stories of you."
"Waal, my lord," answered the rector, "so hev I of you. But, my lord, us be gentlemen, you and I, and us pays no notice to the chitter chatter of a pars'l o' fules."
Nothing could be brought home to Chowne. He was far too clever a man to allow himself to be caught in his malpractice. Toward the end of his days he resigned his living and resided in a house of his own. — Atalanta.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Their Patience About Exhausted
New York, 1895
The Salvation Army is having a hard time converting the rough element of Roslyn to better ways. Each night their meetings are interrupted by drunken men who make unchristian remarks. The salvationists are patient and have labored zealously to convince these people that they are wrong. Capt. Peeke, who is in charge of the detachment, now threatens to have some of the disturbers arrested.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 12.
The Salvation Army is having a hard time converting the rough element of Roslyn to better ways. Each night their meetings are interrupted by drunken men who make unchristian remarks. The salvationists are patient and have labored zealously to convince these people that they are wrong. Capt. Peeke, who is in charge of the detachment, now threatens to have some of the disturbers arrested.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 12.
Jamaica Church Notes
New York, 1895
A series of special religious services will be commenced by the Rev. Dr. Poulson in the Methodist church on Sunday.
The Rev. Edgar J. Tilton of the Reformed church, and the Rev. Lewis Francis, of the Kent avenue Reformed church, Brooklyn, exchanged pulpits Sunday morning.
There will be special religious services in the Methodist Episcopal chapel, under the direction of the Epworth League, beginning on Sunday at 6.30 o'clock P. M., and continuing each evening at 7.30 o'clock until Friday, March 1.
To Form a Y. M. C. A.
A number of persons interested in forming a branch of the Young Men's Christian Association conducted a meeting in the chapel of the Reformed church, Union avenue, Sunday afternoon as a means of furthering the establishment of the institution. Remarks were made by the Rev. Dr. Poulson, Rev. Mr. Daniels, Charles A. Ryder and Nathaniel Croswell. A large number of signatures were affixed to a paper in which the signers agreed to become members of the Y. M. C. A.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 12.
A series of special religious services will be commenced by the Rev. Dr. Poulson in the Methodist church on Sunday.
The Rev. Edgar J. Tilton of the Reformed church, and the Rev. Lewis Francis, of the Kent avenue Reformed church, Brooklyn, exchanged pulpits Sunday morning.
There will be special religious services in the Methodist Episcopal chapel, under the direction of the Epworth League, beginning on Sunday at 6.30 o'clock P. M., and continuing each evening at 7.30 o'clock until Friday, March 1.
To Form a Y. M. C. A.
A number of persons interested in forming a branch of the Young Men's Christian Association conducted a meeting in the chapel of the Reformed church, Union avenue, Sunday afternoon as a means of furthering the establishment of the institution. Remarks were made by the Rev. Dr. Poulson, Rev. Mr. Daniels, Charles A. Ryder and Nathaniel Croswell. A large number of signatures were affixed to a paper in which the signers agreed to become members of the Y. M. C. A.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 12.
Correspondence
New York, 1895
Wilson Palmer's Sunday Mail Service Raises an Objection.
To the Editor of the Long Island Farmer:
I notice that Wilson Palmer, of Floral Park, who used to write editorials in the Standard telling Jamaica people that they should be alive, has at last personally begun the work of reform. His first move is directed toward the establishment of a Sunday incoming and outgoing mail; but this is understood to be only an initiatory step, his intention being ultimately to make the reform sweeping and radical.
Being, I regret to say, personally unacquainted with Mr. Palmer, I take this means of offering a suggestion. I think he has started the reform in an unfortunately unwise manner. In my opinion, Mr. Palmer will clash with Jamaica's time-established and deep rooted reverence for the sanctity of the Lord's day when he attempts to institute any reform necessitating labor on that day. Moreover, I would like to ask Mr. Palmer, who, I understand, is a great admirer of the good old New England customs, if such a reform as he suggests would not tend to relegate the Bible and other sacred literature to a back shelf to make room for the letter-pad and Saturday weekly newspaper.
No doubt Mr. Palmer has personal reasons in this line. He has, if I have been correctly informed, a large correspondence, in addition to numerous newspapers which arrive each week containing complimentary references to himself I therefore appreciate his anxiety to be able to take this interesting literature to the cosey retirement of his study on Sunday. We admit the temptation is great, but in the interest of Jamaica's staid old family customs, which make the Scriptures the dominant, and sacred writings the only, Sunday literature, I would ask Mr. Palmer to reconsider the order in which he takes up his reforms, and leave the one in question until some future date. — PURITANICUS.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 12.
Wilson Palmer's Sunday Mail Service Raises an Objection.
To the Editor of the Long Island Farmer:
I notice that Wilson Palmer, of Floral Park, who used to write editorials in the Standard telling Jamaica people that they should be alive, has at last personally begun the work of reform. His first move is directed toward the establishment of a Sunday incoming and outgoing mail; but this is understood to be only an initiatory step, his intention being ultimately to make the reform sweeping and radical.
Being, I regret to say, personally unacquainted with Mr. Palmer, I take this means of offering a suggestion. I think he has started the reform in an unfortunately unwise manner. In my opinion, Mr. Palmer will clash with Jamaica's time-established and deep rooted reverence for the sanctity of the Lord's day when he attempts to institute any reform necessitating labor on that day. Moreover, I would like to ask Mr. Palmer, who, I understand, is a great admirer of the good old New England customs, if such a reform as he suggests would not tend to relegate the Bible and other sacred literature to a back shelf to make room for the letter-pad and Saturday weekly newspaper.
No doubt Mr. Palmer has personal reasons in this line. He has, if I have been correctly informed, a large correspondence, in addition to numerous newspapers which arrive each week containing complimentary references to himself I therefore appreciate his anxiety to be able to take this interesting literature to the cosey retirement of his study on Sunday. We admit the temptation is great, but in the interest of Jamaica's staid old family customs, which make the Scriptures the dominant, and sacred writings the only, Sunday literature, I would ask Mr. Palmer to reconsider the order in which he takes up his reforms, and leave the one in question until some future date. — PURITANICUS.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 12.
The Marblehead Divine and the Fierce Bull
1895
An uncomfortable experience which befell Parson Bartlett, a Unitarian minister, some years ago, used to be related by his clerical brethren with a good deal of glee. The parson had been invited to exchange pulpits with a clergyman in Salem, and it being a delightful Sunday in the spring the parson walked across the fields from his home in Marblehead, starting early enough in the morning to be on time when the hour for service arrived. The congregation assembled at the usual time, but no minister appeared. Minutes passed into a half hour, and from that into an hour, and it began to be apparent that there would be no services that morning. Just as the congregation was about to disperse the parson arrived. He was covered with mud from head to feet. His coat was torn, his hat battered, and a telltale streak on his shirt front exposed his darling vice of chewing tobacco.
An explanation was in order and was given. While the parson was sauntering leisurely along, enjoying the bracing morning air and the picturesque views, thinking now and then of the points in his sermon, he heard a bellowing behind him, and, looking around, saw a belligerent bull, with his nostrils dilated and his tail in the air, rushing directly for him. The parson ran for a wall near by and jumped into the next field. But the bull was not to be eluded in that way. He was over as soon as his clerical victim. The parson jumped over the wall again into the field he had left, but The bull was there before he was. In this way they kept up the jumping and running, first over one wall, then over another, until by scaling a fence the parson reached the open road. The bull was thus brought to a standstill and ran off snorting defiance. Parson Bartlett, exhausted with his unwonted exertion, bruised and sore in every limb, made his way as best he could to Salem. — Boston Globe.
An uncomfortable experience which befell Parson Bartlett, a Unitarian minister, some years ago, used to be related by his clerical brethren with a good deal of glee. The parson had been invited to exchange pulpits with a clergyman in Salem, and it being a delightful Sunday in the spring the parson walked across the fields from his home in Marblehead, starting early enough in the morning to be on time when the hour for service arrived. The congregation assembled at the usual time, but no minister appeared. Minutes passed into a half hour, and from that into an hour, and it began to be apparent that there would be no services that morning. Just as the congregation was about to disperse the parson arrived. He was covered with mud from head to feet. His coat was torn, his hat battered, and a telltale streak on his shirt front exposed his darling vice of chewing tobacco.
An explanation was in order and was given. While the parson was sauntering leisurely along, enjoying the bracing morning air and the picturesque views, thinking now and then of the points in his sermon, he heard a bellowing behind him, and, looking around, saw a belligerent bull, with his nostrils dilated and his tail in the air, rushing directly for him. The parson ran for a wall near by and jumped into the next field. But the bull was not to be eluded in that way. He was over as soon as his clerical victim. The parson jumped over the wall again into the field he had left, but The bull was there before he was. In this way they kept up the jumping and running, first over one wall, then over another, until by scaling a fence the parson reached the open road. The bull was thus brought to a standstill and ran off snorting defiance. Parson Bartlett, exhausted with his unwonted exertion, bruised and sore in every limb, made his way as best he could to Salem. — Boston Globe.
The Methodist Preacher and the Fishing Boy
1895
Boys in church, as is well known, are not infrequently the cause of great annoyance to clergymen. Some years ago a Methodist minister was delivering a sermon with a good deal of earnestness when his attention was attracted to a boy in the gallery. The youngster was leaning over the rail and apparently lowering something attached to a cord, which he occasionally pulled up, when he would throw it over again with more gusto than ever. Do what he would the preacher could not keep his eyes off that boy.
Shifting his position in the pulpit slightly, he had a better opportunity to see what was going on and observed that an old gentleman in a pew under the gallery had fallen asleep and was sitting with his head back and his mouth wide open. Seeing this, the boy had attached a cork to a string and was endeavoring to lower it into the old man's mouth. He came near succeeding several times, and as the cork gently swayed to and fro it occasionally tickled the sleeper's nose. At such times he would stir a little uneasily and brush it away with his hand, to the evident delight of the grinning youngster. The whole scene was so exceedingly comical that the minister came near laughing outright. At length he was obliged to beckon to the sexton and request him to put an end to the boy's fishing for the day or else send him somewhere else to do it.
Boys in church, as is well known, are not infrequently the cause of great annoyance to clergymen. Some years ago a Methodist minister was delivering a sermon with a good deal of earnestness when his attention was attracted to a boy in the gallery. The youngster was leaning over the rail and apparently lowering something attached to a cord, which he occasionally pulled up, when he would throw it over again with more gusto than ever. Do what he would the preacher could not keep his eyes off that boy.
Shifting his position in the pulpit slightly, he had a better opportunity to see what was going on and observed that an old gentleman in a pew under the gallery had fallen asleep and was sitting with his head back and his mouth wide open. Seeing this, the boy had attached a cork to a string and was endeavoring to lower it into the old man's mouth. He came near succeeding several times, and as the cork gently swayed to and fro it occasionally tickled the sleeper's nose. At such times he would stir a little uneasily and brush it away with his hand, to the evident delight of the grinning youngster. The whole scene was so exceedingly comical that the minister came near laughing outright. At length he was obliged to beckon to the sexton and request him to put an end to the boy's fishing for the day or else send him somewhere else to do it.
An Episcopalian's Only Experience With Immersion
1895
An Episcopalian clergyman, now dead, used to relate an experience he once had, which convulsed his congregation with laughter and nearly broke up his services for the day. He was the rector of a church in Connecticut.
One clay as the time for the annual visitation of the bishop was approaching, and he was preparing a class for confirmation, he was sent for to visit a woman who desired to talk with him on the subject of baptism.
The woman, who was very stout, weighing somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 pounds, informed him that she had long been attracted toward the Episcopal church, but had refrained from uniting with it because she had strong convictions in regard to baptism and felt that she ought to be immersed.
The minister told her that, although the church believed pouring or sprinkling to be valid baptism, it did not prohibit immersion, though, as it was a somewhat inconvenient method, it was not often used.
He pointed out the difficulties in the way, saying that he had no fount in the church large enough for such a purpose, and that there was no river or beach in the vicinity. In reply she suggested that he obtain permission to use the Baptist church, which had a large baptistry under the pulpit platform. This he consented to do, though with much misgiving. The consent of the Baptist brethren was readily obtained.
The next Sunday Episcopal services were held in the Baptist church. At the proper time in the service the candidate for baptism went forward, and, with the minister, went down into the baptistry. All went well until it came time for the immersion. Then the minister for the first time realized his inexperience in administering that form of baptism. When he attempted to immerse the woman, his foot slipped, and they both went under the water together.
He hastily scrambled to his feet, but, to his consternation and horror, found, when he attempted to raise the woman, that she could not be moved. There she lay like so many pounds of lead floundering in the water and screaming for dear life. In vain he tugged and pulled. She could not be even started.
Finally several men in the congregation went to the assistance of the minister, and by their united efforts succeeded in bringing the frightened women to her feet. The men were wet to the skin, having been obliged to go into the baptistry. The congregation struggled with its pent-up laughter, but finally it burst forth in a roar which could not be suppressed. The services were continued with great difficulty, and the minister drew a long breath of relief when they were ended.
An Episcopalian clergyman, now dead, used to relate an experience he once had, which convulsed his congregation with laughter and nearly broke up his services for the day. He was the rector of a church in Connecticut.
One clay as the time for the annual visitation of the bishop was approaching, and he was preparing a class for confirmation, he was sent for to visit a woman who desired to talk with him on the subject of baptism.
The woman, who was very stout, weighing somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 pounds, informed him that she had long been attracted toward the Episcopal church, but had refrained from uniting with it because she had strong convictions in regard to baptism and felt that she ought to be immersed.
The minister told her that, although the church believed pouring or sprinkling to be valid baptism, it did not prohibit immersion, though, as it was a somewhat inconvenient method, it was not often used.
He pointed out the difficulties in the way, saying that he had no fount in the church large enough for such a purpose, and that there was no river or beach in the vicinity. In reply she suggested that he obtain permission to use the Baptist church, which had a large baptistry under the pulpit platform. This he consented to do, though with much misgiving. The consent of the Baptist brethren was readily obtained.
The next Sunday Episcopal services were held in the Baptist church. At the proper time in the service the candidate for baptism went forward, and, with the minister, went down into the baptistry. All went well until it came time for the immersion. Then the minister for the first time realized his inexperience in administering that form of baptism. When he attempted to immerse the woman, his foot slipped, and they both went under the water together.
He hastily scrambled to his feet, but, to his consternation and horror, found, when he attempted to raise the woman, that she could not be moved. There she lay like so many pounds of lead floundering in the water and screaming for dear life. In vain he tugged and pulled. She could not be even started.
Finally several men in the congregation went to the assistance of the minister, and by their united efforts succeeded in bringing the frightened women to her feet. The men were wet to the skin, having been obliged to go into the baptistry. The congregation struggled with its pent-up laughter, but finally it burst forth in a roar which could not be suppressed. The services were continued with great difficulty, and the minister drew a long breath of relief when they were ended.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Interrupted Service
1895
At a small church in Maine the regular organist happened to be absent, and the congregation, in which were a few summer visitors, was obliged to sing the hymns without instrumental aid and under the pastor's leadership. One hymn, apparently not familiar to many, came several times to a distressing halt and finally died out altogether.
The minister, rather irritated, sat down as if determined not to continue the service until the singing met his approbation.
An oppressive silence fell upon the little company, broken at last by a deacon's prayer.
"O Lord," he said, "touch the heart of our pastor, that he may be moved to go on with the service."
Not to be outdone, the minister rose and prayed earnestly that the congregation might have their eyes opened to their faults and be willing to do their part and not put all the labor on their spiritual shepherd.
Another embarrassing pause followed, which seemed likely to last for the remainder of the day. Finally a woman rose in the rear pew and faintly petitioned that a spirit of harmony might rest upon pastor and people and move them to union and peace. Then a shrill voice struck up a familiar anthem, the ice was broken, "all joined" in the singing, and the service went forward. — Youth's Companion.
At a small church in Maine the regular organist happened to be absent, and the congregation, in which were a few summer visitors, was obliged to sing the hymns without instrumental aid and under the pastor's leadership. One hymn, apparently not familiar to many, came several times to a distressing halt and finally died out altogether.
The minister, rather irritated, sat down as if determined not to continue the service until the singing met his approbation.
An oppressive silence fell upon the little company, broken at last by a deacon's prayer.
"O Lord," he said, "touch the heart of our pastor, that he may be moved to go on with the service."
Not to be outdone, the minister rose and prayed earnestly that the congregation might have their eyes opened to their faults and be willing to do their part and not put all the labor on their spiritual shepherd.
Another embarrassing pause followed, which seemed likely to last for the remainder of the day. Finally a woman rose in the rear pew and faintly petitioned that a spirit of harmony might rest upon pastor and people and move them to union and peace. Then a shrill voice struck up a familiar anthem, the ice was broken, "all joined" in the singing, and the service went forward. — Youth's Companion.
Among The Churches
New York, 1895
Doings of the Various Religions Bodies Throughout the Island.
The convention of the Hempstead Town Christian Endeavor union will be held in the Presbyterian church at Hempstead on Wednesday evening.
The Presbyterians of Southampton are trying to raise $3,000 to defray the expenses of enlarging their church and building a chapel.
The Rev. Clarence True Wilson, who has been stationed at Sea Cliff for two years, has decided to spend one year in California for the benefit of his health.
City and Island has a portrait of the Rev. William M. Willett, A. M., the Nestor of Long Island Methodist pastors, the eldest among the elders, having traveled the Suffolk circuit in 1823.
Children of the late Henry Corwith of Chicago have presented a new rostrum back, costing $700, to the Presbyterian church at Bridgehampton. They have also offered to build an organ gallery.
The members and congregation of Bethany Congregational church at East Rockaway are not disposed to accept the resignation of their pastor, the Rev. Thomas S. Braithwaite, and Monday evening by a unanimous vote it was decided to request the pastor to withdraw it.
The closing services in the old church building that for over one hundred years has been the spiritual home of the First Presbyterian society of Newtown were held last Sunday. In the morning the pastor, Rev. J. E. Mallmann, preached a historical discourse, covering the period of the Society's existence from 1652 to 1895. The dedication of the new church will take place next Sunday.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 2.
Doings of the Various Religions Bodies Throughout the Island.
The convention of the Hempstead Town Christian Endeavor union will be held in the Presbyterian church at Hempstead on Wednesday evening.
The Presbyterians of Southampton are trying to raise $3,000 to defray the expenses of enlarging their church and building a chapel.
The Rev. Clarence True Wilson, who has been stationed at Sea Cliff for two years, has decided to spend one year in California for the benefit of his health.
City and Island has a portrait of the Rev. William M. Willett, A. M., the Nestor of Long Island Methodist pastors, the eldest among the elders, having traveled the Suffolk circuit in 1823.
Children of the late Henry Corwith of Chicago have presented a new rostrum back, costing $700, to the Presbyterian church at Bridgehampton. They have also offered to build an organ gallery.
The members and congregation of Bethany Congregational church at East Rockaway are not disposed to accept the resignation of their pastor, the Rev. Thomas S. Braithwaite, and Monday evening by a unanimous vote it was decided to request the pastor to withdraw it.
The closing services in the old church building that for over one hundred years has been the spiritual home of the First Presbyterian society of Newtown were held last Sunday. In the morning the pastor, Rev. J. E. Mallmann, preached a historical discourse, covering the period of the Society's existence from 1652 to 1895. The dedication of the new church will take place next Sunday.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 2.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Relapsed from Grace
New York, 1895
Jackson K. Mott of Sea Cliff was converted by the Salvation Army a few weeks ago. He reformed and was a constant attendant at services. Tuesday he was before Justice Gill, charged with beating his wife.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 1.
Jackson K. Mott of Sea Cliff was converted by the Salvation Army a few weeks ago. He reformed and was a constant attendant at services. Tuesday he was before Justice Gill, charged with beating his wife.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 1.
Evangelist Nickerson Stranded
New York, 1895
Never before in the history of church societies in Patchogue has an evangelist had to go through the experience which has befallen E. E. Nickerson of Boston.
Mr. Nickerson has been circulating a petition, asking for money to pay his past two months board bill and car fare to Boston. Mr. Nickerson has tried repeatedly, but without success, to sell his two silver cornets, banjo and guitar.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 1.
Never before in the history of church societies in Patchogue has an evangelist had to go through the experience which has befallen E. E. Nickerson of Boston.
Mr. Nickerson has been circulating a petition, asking for money to pay his past two months board bill and car fare to Boston. Mr. Nickerson has tried repeatedly, but without success, to sell his two silver cornets, banjo and guitar.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 1.
Against Open Sunday Saloons
New York, 1895
The members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Freeport are on record as being unequivocally opposed to any legislation looking to the recognition of the liquor traffic on Sunday and they have made their position clear in a petition which they forwarded to the legislature.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 1.
The members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Freeport are on record as being unequivocally opposed to any legislation looking to the recognition of the liquor traffic on Sunday and they have made their position clear in a petition which they forwarded to the legislature.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 1.
Cressey's War Upon the Devil
New York, 1895
The religious war which is being waged in Babylon is still on, and, according to the statements of Evangelist Cressey and his associates, who are leading the crusade against the devil, it has not reached its height yet. Another open-air meeting was held Tuesday morning, and the attendance was larger than at any previous meeting. The number of converts made, it is claimed, shows a gradual awakening among backsliders, and those who have been scoffers at religion are silent. Evangelist Cressey says that before he leaves the town he will visit the home of every family in Babylon and hold a special prayer meeting at each home. If an entrance to any of the houses is refused, as a number of people have declared it will be, he says he will kneel outside on the cold ground and offer up a prayer for the inmates' conversion.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 1.
The religious war which is being waged in Babylon is still on, and, according to the statements of Evangelist Cressey and his associates, who are leading the crusade against the devil, it has not reached its height yet. Another open-air meeting was held Tuesday morning, and the attendance was larger than at any previous meeting. The number of converts made, it is claimed, shows a gradual awakening among backsliders, and those who have been scoffers at religion are silent. Evangelist Cressey says that before he leaves the town he will visit the home of every family in Babylon and hold a special prayer meeting at each home. If an entrance to any of the houses is refused, as a number of people have declared it will be, he says he will kneel outside on the cold ground and offer up a prayer for the inmates' conversion.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 1.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Jamaica Church Notes
New York, 1895
The Rev. Charles S. Daniels, of the Baptist church announces a Sunday evening course of sermons. The dates and topics are as follows: February 17, "A Good Name;" 24, "Why is the House of God Forsaken?" March 3, "The Christian's True Success;" 10, "Amusements."
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 15, 1895, p. 12.
The Rev. Charles S. Daniels, of the Baptist church announces a Sunday evening course of sermons. The dates and topics are as follows: February 17, "A Good Name;" 24, "Why is the House of God Forsaken?" March 3, "The Christian's True Success;" 10, "Amusements."
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 15, 1895, p. 12.
Among The Churches
New York, 1895
Doings or the Various Religious Bodies Throughout the Island.
The ladies of the Lucien Memorial M. E. Church at Kings Park, have presented the church with a new organ.
Rev. B. F. Parliman, pastor of the Shelter Island Presbyterian church, has tendered his resignation, to take effect on May 15.
The Rev. J. E. Raymond has resigned the pastorate of the First Baptist church at Babylon, the relation to be severed April 1.
During the absence of the pastor, the Union Evangelical church of Corona will be supplied by the Rev. Henry A. Todd, of Brooklyn.
The Rev. F. A. MacMillen, of the Episcopal church in Brentwood, has accepted a call as assistant to the Rev. Edgar Cope, rector of the Church of St. Simeon.
For a year there has been preaching service in the Greenlawn Presbyterian church on alternate Sundays only. Arrangements have been made whereby there will be preaching every Sunday. The pulpit will be supplied by students from Princeton seminary.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 15, 1895, p. 2.
Doings or the Various Religious Bodies Throughout the Island.
The ladies of the Lucien Memorial M. E. Church at Kings Park, have presented the church with a new organ.
Rev. B. F. Parliman, pastor of the Shelter Island Presbyterian church, has tendered his resignation, to take effect on May 15.
The Rev. J. E. Raymond has resigned the pastorate of the First Baptist church at Babylon, the relation to be severed April 1.
During the absence of the pastor, the Union Evangelical church of Corona will be supplied by the Rev. Henry A. Todd, of Brooklyn.
The Rev. F. A. MacMillen, of the Episcopal church in Brentwood, has accepted a call as assistant to the Rev. Edgar Cope, rector of the Church of St. Simeon.
For a year there has been preaching service in the Greenlawn Presbyterian church on alternate Sundays only. Arrangements have been made whereby there will be preaching every Sunday. The pulpit will be supplied by students from Princeton seminary.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 15, 1895, p. 2.
Simple Method of Knife Cleaning
1895
Take a small piece of old brussels carpet, sprinkle it well with either bath brick or emery powder and slightly moisten it with methylated spirits. Then double it and rub the knives backward and forward, using the left hand to steady the carpet. After a few passes the knives will have acquired a brilliant polish, when they should be wiped with a soft cloth, to free them from dust.
A Loyal Subject
M. de Kervens, a Breton nobleman, once said to Henry IV:
"Sire, my ancestors and I have all died in the service of your majesty." — Rappel.
Take a small piece of old brussels carpet, sprinkle it well with either bath brick or emery powder and slightly moisten it with methylated spirits. Then double it and rub the knives backward and forward, using the left hand to steady the carpet. After a few passes the knives will have acquired a brilliant polish, when they should be wiped with a soft cloth, to free them from dust.
A Loyal Subject
M. de Kervens, a Breton nobleman, once said to Henry IV:
"Sire, my ancestors and I have all died in the service of your majesty." — Rappel.
Jackals
1895
Jackals are much more cunning than wolves and approach the fox more nearly in the exhibition of craftiness. They are natives of northern Africa and southern Asia and are nocturnal animals.
Combining in packs or hunting in associations of several members, they will pull down antelopes and sheep. but when they seek their prey singly they are content with smaller animals and poultry.
They are readily tamed when caught young and will act like dogs when called by the masters, crouching, wagging their tails and rolling on the ground, but, like the wolf, are not to be trusted, for they respect only the hand of their master.
Jackals are much more cunning than wolves and approach the fox more nearly in the exhibition of craftiness. They are natives of northern Africa and southern Asia and are nocturnal animals.
Combining in packs or hunting in associations of several members, they will pull down antelopes and sheep. but when they seek their prey singly they are content with smaller animals and poultry.
They are readily tamed when caught young and will act like dogs when called by the masters, crouching, wagging their tails and rolling on the ground, but, like the wolf, are not to be trusted, for they respect only the hand of their master.
The Age of Tidbits
1895
This is the age of tidbits. People are content to be fed by literary cat's meat men on "scraps" and to nourish the soul on journalistic essences. Such a state of things is the Nemesis of the printing press. It is so much simpler to glance at the newspaper review of books than to read the books for ourselves. As a rule, too, we merely read the startling or spicy extracts which the reviewer is compelled to tear from the context.
The result is that the ordinary person who passes some glib judgment on such a work as the "Thomas Carlyle" of Mr. Froude knows as much of its actual contents as the fashionable idiot in Dickens knew about Shakespeare's sublime tragedy of "Macbeth." To that gentleman "Macbeth" was the play in which there was "a dem'd uncomfortable woman who insists on getting up in the middle of the might and walking about the room with a lighted candle." — National Review.
This is the age of tidbits. People are content to be fed by literary cat's meat men on "scraps" and to nourish the soul on journalistic essences. Such a state of things is the Nemesis of the printing press. It is so much simpler to glance at the newspaper review of books than to read the books for ourselves. As a rule, too, we merely read the startling or spicy extracts which the reviewer is compelled to tear from the context.
The result is that the ordinary person who passes some glib judgment on such a work as the "Thomas Carlyle" of Mr. Froude knows as much of its actual contents as the fashionable idiot in Dickens knew about Shakespeare's sublime tragedy of "Macbeth." To that gentleman "Macbeth" was the play in which there was "a dem'd uncomfortable woman who insists on getting up in the middle of the might and walking about the room with a lighted candle." — National Review.
Asphyxia by Electricity
1895
According to Professor Kratter of Gratz, who has for some time been performing experiments on the effect of electrical shocks on animal life, death is most usually caused by sudden cessation of respiration and consequent suffocation. During the suffocation the heart continues its action. If the asphyxia lasts more than a certain time, about two minutes, the heart stops, this being a secondary phenomenon.
Generally speaking, the animals used — cats, dogs, rabbits and mice — were not easily killed by 1600-2000 volts alternating. The danger appears to lie in the nervous system and to decrease with the amount of brain development. Frequently death occurs by momentary stoppage of the movement of the heart, but a slow cessation of the heart's action, such as has been observed in cases of human death, was never observed.
In no case was any anatomical alteration observable to which death might be attributed, but there are sometimes lesions, breaking of blood vessels, and the diagnosis is rendered certain by the peculiar burning at the position of contact and by the escape of blood from the capillaries, which indicates the path taken by the current. — Philadelphia Record.
According to Professor Kratter of Gratz, who has for some time been performing experiments on the effect of electrical shocks on animal life, death is most usually caused by sudden cessation of respiration and consequent suffocation. During the suffocation the heart continues its action. If the asphyxia lasts more than a certain time, about two minutes, the heart stops, this being a secondary phenomenon.
Generally speaking, the animals used — cats, dogs, rabbits and mice — were not easily killed by 1600-2000 volts alternating. The danger appears to lie in the nervous system and to decrease with the amount of brain development. Frequently death occurs by momentary stoppage of the movement of the heart, but a slow cessation of the heart's action, such as has been observed in cases of human death, was never observed.
In no case was any anatomical alteration observable to which death might be attributed, but there are sometimes lesions, breaking of blood vessels, and the diagnosis is rendered certain by the peculiar burning at the position of contact and by the escape of blood from the capillaries, which indicates the path taken by the current. — Philadelphia Record.
The First Mrs. Adam
1895
She Was Lilith and Was Expelled After Being 130 Years Married.
Whether Lilith was one of the female creation of chapter 1, or a demon, or something between the two, she was, considered matrimonially, a complete failure. she was expelled after living with Adam 130 years and subsequently became the wife of Satan, by whom she was the mother of the Jinns, so familiar in Persian fairy lore.
The emphatic remark of Adam when he first saw Eve, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh," makes, it is suggested, a comparison between Eve and the beautiful but fiendlike Lilith not complimentary to the latter, while the reference on the birth of Seth to him as Adam's son "in his own likeness, after his image," conveys a painful hint of the uncanny offspring born to Adam and Lilith.
Perhaps in revenge for this Lilith — The name occurs translated "night monster" in Isaiah xxxiv — became the sworn foe of little children, whom she was wont to strangle with one of her glorious golden hairs, unless the watchfulness of their mothers drove her away. It has indeed been gravely suggested by an etymologist of great daring that our word lullaby is simply a corruption of "Lilla abi," Lilith, avaunt, which mothers and nurses would croon over the cradles or write on the doorpost. — All the Year Round.
She Was Lilith and Was Expelled After Being 130 Years Married.
Whether Lilith was one of the female creation of chapter 1, or a demon, or something between the two, she was, considered matrimonially, a complete failure. she was expelled after living with Adam 130 years and subsequently became the wife of Satan, by whom she was the mother of the Jinns, so familiar in Persian fairy lore.
The emphatic remark of Adam when he first saw Eve, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh," makes, it is suggested, a comparison between Eve and the beautiful but fiendlike Lilith not complimentary to the latter, while the reference on the birth of Seth to him as Adam's son "in his own likeness, after his image," conveys a painful hint of the uncanny offspring born to Adam and Lilith.
Perhaps in revenge for this Lilith — The name occurs translated "night monster" in Isaiah xxxiv — became the sworn foe of little children, whom she was wont to strangle with one of her glorious golden hairs, unless the watchfulness of their mothers drove her away. It has indeed been gravely suggested by an etymologist of great daring that our word lullaby is simply a corruption of "Lilla abi," Lilith, avaunt, which mothers and nurses would croon over the cradles or write on the doorpost. — All the Year Round.
Gave the Preacher a Pointer
1895
"Of course," says a traveling evangelist, "I get a good deal of advice from the local brethren, but it was down in Georgia that I got the queerest 'pointer,' if I may use the expression. I had scarcely registered at the little hotel and brushed the dust of travel from my clothes when the chief deacon called on me. 'I suppose, brother,' he said, 'that yoe mean toe preach the flowery path toe destruction, and the narrer way toe the blessed land, and all the hard times it is gittin there, don't yoe?' I answered that it was likely that I might expand a little in that line. 'Waal,' he said, 'I want toe tell yoe right now that it won't do at all. These here fellers round here is so doggone lazy that they'll jist take the easy road. Understand?' " — New York Tribune.
"Of course," says a traveling evangelist, "I get a good deal of advice from the local brethren, but it was down in Georgia that I got the queerest 'pointer,' if I may use the expression. I had scarcely registered at the little hotel and brushed the dust of travel from my clothes when the chief deacon called on me. 'I suppose, brother,' he said, 'that yoe mean toe preach the flowery path toe destruction, and the narrer way toe the blessed land, and all the hard times it is gittin there, don't yoe?' I answered that it was likely that I might expand a little in that line. 'Waal,' he said, 'I want toe tell yoe right now that it won't do at all. These here fellers round here is so doggone lazy that they'll jist take the easy road. Understand?' " — New York Tribune.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Twice Shot At
New York, 1895
Local Exhorter Valentine Chased by Miss Fleming's Father.
Edward W. Valentine is well known as a local exhorter in Long Island and Connecticut. He has been for a number of years the secretary of the board of trustees of the St. James' Methodist church at Pearsalls and superintendent of the Sunday school. He has even occupied the pulpit in the absence of the minister. He has a wife but no children.
Among the ladies who attend St. James' church was Miss Belle Fleming, a handsome young woman who until recently has been a teacher in one the Brooklyn schools.
Recently it was remarked that Miss Belle Fleming was receiving more attention from Mr. Valentine than was consistent with propriety. People whispered their suspicions to Mrs. Valentine. Thursday night Miss Fleming, it is said, told her father a story which astounded him and put him in uncontrollable passion. He took his shot gun and went out to look for Valentine. Valentine was not in town. When the latter appeared at his place of business Friday morning he found Fleming awaiting him. The moment he saw Fleming he turned and ran into Forbell's grocery.
Fleming saw him and bounded after him. As he entered the front door he saw Valentine running out the rear of the store. He fired both shots, shattering the glass in the door. Whether Valentine was wounded or not is unknown, as he escaped across the lots and ran with all speed for the railroad tracks. Fleming followed until his strength gave out.
Valentine has probably gone to Scranton, Pa. He received a letter from that place recently tendering him the secretaryship of the young men's Christian association of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western railroad at Scranton.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 1.
Local Exhorter Valentine Chased by Miss Fleming's Father.
Edward W. Valentine is well known as a local exhorter in Long Island and Connecticut. He has been for a number of years the secretary of the board of trustees of the St. James' Methodist church at Pearsalls and superintendent of the Sunday school. He has even occupied the pulpit in the absence of the minister. He has a wife but no children.
Among the ladies who attend St. James' church was Miss Belle Fleming, a handsome young woman who until recently has been a teacher in one the Brooklyn schools.
Recently it was remarked that Miss Belle Fleming was receiving more attention from Mr. Valentine than was consistent with propriety. People whispered their suspicions to Mrs. Valentine. Thursday night Miss Fleming, it is said, told her father a story which astounded him and put him in uncontrollable passion. He took his shot gun and went out to look for Valentine. Valentine was not in town. When the latter appeared at his place of business Friday morning he found Fleming awaiting him. The moment he saw Fleming he turned and ran into Forbell's grocery.
Fleming saw him and bounded after him. As he entered the front door he saw Valentine running out the rear of the store. He fired both shots, shattering the glass in the door. Whether Valentine was wounded or not is unknown, as he escaped across the lots and ran with all speed for the railroad tracks. Fleming followed until his strength gave out.
Valentine has probably gone to Scranton, Pa. He received a letter from that place recently tendering him the secretaryship of the young men's Christian association of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western railroad at Scranton.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 1.
Fun in Law Reports
1895
SOME OF THE CASES FURNISH FOOD FOR LAUGHTER.
Mistakes of Judicial Pens — Early English Common Law Severe on Clergymen — Citing High Authority — The Remarkable Opinion of Judge Lewis.
Many of the law reports are full of curious judicial slips. In a Georgia case, for instance, the judge, giving the opinion, says that "Montgomery, C. J., was providentially prevented from presiding in this case." This may have been a whack at Montgomery, C. J., or at the lawyer who argued it before the weary judge. This isn't quite as bad, however, as the theological slip of a Nebraska judge in a supreme court case, in which he holds that "the law presumes against the carrier unless he shows that it was done by the king's enemies or by such an act of God as could not happen by the intervention of man." His opinion of the relative positions of God and man recalls the story of the Adams county justice who had occasion to punish a party for gross profanity used in open court. "For taking the name of Almighty God in vain," said this worthy successor of Mr. Justice Shallow, "I shall fine you $10, and for offending the dignity of this court you will pay a fine of $60 and costs or go to jail."
Lawmakers furnish us quite as funny mistakes as law writers. When the supreme court of California came to pass upon the charter of the city of Oakland, a few years ago, they said of the phraseology of the charter that "the joint labors of Malaprop and Partington could scarcely have made such a collocation or dislocation of words and sentences as did this legislator. Among other things it gives the board of trustees power to license and suppress dramshops, horse racing, gambling houses, houses of ill fame and all indecent and immoral practices, shows and amusements." Such a license power might do in New York. It scandalized the pious town of Oakland.
If clergymen wish to know their rating in the ponderous sheepskin tomes, they can find it out by beginning with the very earliest English lawbooks in existence. In one of the black letter year books it appears that some one had been so unkind as to call a preacher a fool, with a good theological prefix to the fool. The preacher brought suit for slander, and the defendant justified, as the lawyers say — that is, he claimed that what he said was not slander, but gospel truth, and he showed that the words spoken could not hurt the clergyman, "for that it was a maxim of the common law" that "a parson might be a good parson and still be a fool." The court so held, but said that had the words been spoken of a lawyer or a doctor it would have been otherwise.
Lord Coke, the great fountain of our common law, had little use for the preachers, and in his third institute he says that in order that the Carmelite friars of Fleet street might perform their vows of chastity King Edward III had to prohibit all woman from passing through a lane next to the friar house. Apropos of preachers an old chronicle relates that when Alan de Neville, chief forester of Henry II, died a certain monastery begged for some of his great wealth. The king, with fine religious discrimination, said, "I shall take his wealth, but you may have his carcass, and the devil will get his soul."
Some of the funniest things in the lawbooks are the far fetched authorities that are cited to establish certain rulings. In a case tried before Justice Fortescue it was claimed that the other side had no right to be heard. The judge decided that it had. "I have heard it observed," said he, "that even God himself did not pass sentence upon Adam before he was given chance to defend himself. 'Adam,' says God, 'where art thou? Hast thou not eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?' And the same question was put to Eve also."
But for exciting legal reading the famous case reported in 10 Pa. St. Report Daily takes first prize. Mr. Justice Lewis thus disports himself on the subject of restraining a widow from marrying: "The principle of reproduction," he says, "stands next in importance to its elder born correlative, self preservation, and is equally a fundamental law of existence. It is the blessing which tempered with mercy the expulsion from paradise. It was impressed upon the human creation by a beneficent Providence, to multiply the images of himself and thus to promote his own glory and the happiness of his creatures. From the lord of the forest to the monster of the deep, from the subtlety of the serpent to the innocence of the dove, from the elastic embrace of the mountain kalmia to the descending fructification of the lily of the plain, all nature bows submissively to this primeval law. Even the flowers, which perfume the air with their fragrance and decorate the forests and fields with their hues, are but curtains to the nuptial bed. The principles of morality, the policy of the nation, the doctrines of the common law, the law of nature and the law of God unite in condemning as void the condition attempted to be imposed upon this widow."
In Manby versus Scott, a case decided in England in 1662, Mr. Justice Wyndham thus prophesies as to what may be expected if a husband is to be held responsible for the contracts of his wife. His objections are a curious commentary on the marriage tie of those days. Among "the many inconveniences which must ensue" he specifies the following:
First. — The husband will be accounted the common enemy, and the mercer and the gallant will unite with the wife, and they will combine their strength against the husband.
Second. — Wives will be their own carvers, and, like hawks, will fly abroad and find their own prey.
Third. — It shall be left to the pleasure of a London jury to dress my wife in such apparel as they think proper.
Fourth. — Wives who think they have insufficient will have it tried by a mercer whether their dress is not too mean, and this will make the mercer judge whether he will dispose of his own goods or not. — Philadelphia Times.
SOME OF THE CASES FURNISH FOOD FOR LAUGHTER.
Mistakes of Judicial Pens — Early English Common Law Severe on Clergymen — Citing High Authority — The Remarkable Opinion of Judge Lewis.
Many of the law reports are full of curious judicial slips. In a Georgia case, for instance, the judge, giving the opinion, says that "Montgomery, C. J., was providentially prevented from presiding in this case." This may have been a whack at Montgomery, C. J., or at the lawyer who argued it before the weary judge. This isn't quite as bad, however, as the theological slip of a Nebraska judge in a supreme court case, in which he holds that "the law presumes against the carrier unless he shows that it was done by the king's enemies or by such an act of God as could not happen by the intervention of man." His opinion of the relative positions of God and man recalls the story of the Adams county justice who had occasion to punish a party for gross profanity used in open court. "For taking the name of Almighty God in vain," said this worthy successor of Mr. Justice Shallow, "I shall fine you $10, and for offending the dignity of this court you will pay a fine of $60 and costs or go to jail."
Lawmakers furnish us quite as funny mistakes as law writers. When the supreme court of California came to pass upon the charter of the city of Oakland, a few years ago, they said of the phraseology of the charter that "the joint labors of Malaprop and Partington could scarcely have made such a collocation or dislocation of words and sentences as did this legislator. Among other things it gives the board of trustees power to license and suppress dramshops, horse racing, gambling houses, houses of ill fame and all indecent and immoral practices, shows and amusements." Such a license power might do in New York. It scandalized the pious town of Oakland.
If clergymen wish to know their rating in the ponderous sheepskin tomes, they can find it out by beginning with the very earliest English lawbooks in existence. In one of the black letter year books it appears that some one had been so unkind as to call a preacher a fool, with a good theological prefix to the fool. The preacher brought suit for slander, and the defendant justified, as the lawyers say — that is, he claimed that what he said was not slander, but gospel truth, and he showed that the words spoken could not hurt the clergyman, "for that it was a maxim of the common law" that "a parson might be a good parson and still be a fool." The court so held, but said that had the words been spoken of a lawyer or a doctor it would have been otherwise.
Lord Coke, the great fountain of our common law, had little use for the preachers, and in his third institute he says that in order that the Carmelite friars of Fleet street might perform their vows of chastity King Edward III had to prohibit all woman from passing through a lane next to the friar house. Apropos of preachers an old chronicle relates that when Alan de Neville, chief forester of Henry II, died a certain monastery begged for some of his great wealth. The king, with fine religious discrimination, said, "I shall take his wealth, but you may have his carcass, and the devil will get his soul."
Some of the funniest things in the lawbooks are the far fetched authorities that are cited to establish certain rulings. In a case tried before Justice Fortescue it was claimed that the other side had no right to be heard. The judge decided that it had. "I have heard it observed," said he, "that even God himself did not pass sentence upon Adam before he was given chance to defend himself. 'Adam,' says God, 'where art thou? Hast thou not eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?' And the same question was put to Eve also."
But for exciting legal reading the famous case reported in 10 Pa. St. Report Daily takes first prize. Mr. Justice Lewis thus disports himself on the subject of restraining a widow from marrying: "The principle of reproduction," he says, "stands next in importance to its elder born correlative, self preservation, and is equally a fundamental law of existence. It is the blessing which tempered with mercy the expulsion from paradise. It was impressed upon the human creation by a beneficent Providence, to multiply the images of himself and thus to promote his own glory and the happiness of his creatures. From the lord of the forest to the monster of the deep, from the subtlety of the serpent to the innocence of the dove, from the elastic embrace of the mountain kalmia to the descending fructification of the lily of the plain, all nature bows submissively to this primeval law. Even the flowers, which perfume the air with their fragrance and decorate the forests and fields with their hues, are but curtains to the nuptial bed. The principles of morality, the policy of the nation, the doctrines of the common law, the law of nature and the law of God unite in condemning as void the condition attempted to be imposed upon this widow."
In Manby versus Scott, a case decided in England in 1662, Mr. Justice Wyndham thus prophesies as to what may be expected if a husband is to be held responsible for the contracts of his wife. His objections are a curious commentary on the marriage tie of those days. Among "the many inconveniences which must ensue" he specifies the following:
First. — The husband will be accounted the common enemy, and the mercer and the gallant will unite with the wife, and they will combine their strength against the husband.
Second. — Wives will be their own carvers, and, like hawks, will fly abroad and find their own prey.
Third. — It shall be left to the pleasure of a London jury to dress my wife in such apparel as they think proper.
Fourth. — Wives who think they have insufficient will have it tried by a mercer whether their dress is not too mean, and this will make the mercer judge whether he will dispose of his own goods or not. — Philadelphia Times.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Two Viewpoints
By REV. W. H. WETZEL
Pastor, Lemington Methodist Church
I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. Matt. 5:17.
Jesus came not to destroy but to fulfill, and it is this attitude which Christians assume towards the moral law of righteousness as it is set forth in the Old Testament Scripture. Christians have no interest in discrediting the Old Testament. It has a place beside the New Testament on the pulpit of the Christian church. Our libraries are filled with books in defense of the revelation of the Old Testament.
The Christian viewpoint is that God's revelation of Himself has been progressive and that it comes to perfection in Jesus. Writing to the Jews of his day, one of the New Testament writers says "God having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son."
The Christian has no controversy with Judaism. Judaism is the bud; Christianity is the flower. Judaism is the root; Christianity is the fruit. Judaism is the prophecy; Christianity is the fulfillment. "The law came by Moses, but grace and truth come by Jesus Christ." From this point of view let us follow through several steps of this completed revelation brought about by the Christian Gospel.
In the first place, Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament revelation of God. There is in the Old Testament clear and certain light concerning the character of God, and from the Old Testament revelation we get a marvelous conception of his unity, his holiness, his power. The fact is that our modern world gets its conception of God from the New Testament. Gradually the Old Testament prophets approach the truth, that pureness of heart and not the observance of law or ritual found favor with God. Isaiah turned away from the sacrifices with disgust, and Micah said "What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to have mercy and to walk humbly with thy God."
In the second place, Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament conception of a righteous social order.
There are transcendent views of a new social order in Judaism, but they float on the horizon of prophecy.
They are prefaced with the words "In that day."
The new order that was to be is a vision and a glorious vision of hope. Constantly the Jews of Jesus' day ask Him "Wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?" Jesus came proclaiming not the kingdom of Israel but the kingdom of God.
If a false zeal led to the Crusades and to race prejudice, a true zeal and a true understanding of the spirit of Christ leads to a social order where there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, and to the recognition of personality as the ultimate value in society, transcending race and language and color. Sin and suffering have always pressed heavily upon our race. The Old Testament struggles for a solution and before the close there is dawn upon the horizon, but that is all. The Book of Job, marvelous in its insight, leaves the problem in a measure unsolved. The book of Ecclesiastes touches life with cynicism and dyes it deep in pessimism. Jeremiah comes nearer to an understanding, but his life goes out in obscurity and silence.
What does it mean? If God is good, why should men suffer? It is the age-long problem of all who have thought deeply about life and the only solution that meets life's enigma is the solution that is found in Christ and His cross, where we stand face to face with the conquering power of suffering love.
No one can read the 53rd chapter of Isaiah and then turn to the story of the Gospel and the cross without feeling that they belong in the same stream of history.
--Unknown date and source.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Coral Church on an Eastern Island
1895
The church built of coral is one of the curiosities of the isle of Mahe, one of the Scyschelles islands in the Indian ocean.
The Scyschelles islands, which are supposed by many to be the site of the Eden of the Old Testament, form an archipelago of 11 islands and are situated about 1,400 miles east of Aden and 1,000 miles from Zanzibar. They rise steeply out of the sea, culminating in the isle of Mahe, which is about 3,000 feet above the level of the ocean and is nearly the center of the group. All these islands are of coral growth.
The houses are built of a species of massive coral hewn into square blocks, which glisten like white marble and show themselves to the utmost advantage in the various tinted green of the thick tropical palms, whose immense fernlike leaves give pleasant and much needed shade. These palms grow as high as 100 feet and more, overtopping both the houses and the coral built church. They line the seashore and cover the mountains, forming in many places extensive forests. — Brooklyn Eagle.
The church built of coral is one of the curiosities of the isle of Mahe, one of the Scyschelles islands in the Indian ocean.
The Scyschelles islands, which are supposed by many to be the site of the Eden of the Old Testament, form an archipelago of 11 islands and are situated about 1,400 miles east of Aden and 1,000 miles from Zanzibar. They rise steeply out of the sea, culminating in the isle of Mahe, which is about 3,000 feet above the level of the ocean and is nearly the center of the group. All these islands are of coral growth.
The houses are built of a species of massive coral hewn into square blocks, which glisten like white marble and show themselves to the utmost advantage in the various tinted green of the thick tropical palms, whose immense fernlike leaves give pleasant and much needed shade. These palms grow as high as 100 feet and more, overtopping both the houses and the coral built church. They line the seashore and cover the mountains, forming in many places extensive forests. — Brooklyn Eagle.
Other People's Miseries
1895
The Man of Letters Heeds Them More Than Does the Orthodox Religionist.
It is quite extraordinary how callous even the most religious persons in the past have often been to the miseries of their fellow creatures, both in this world and the next. They have indeed expressed their gratitude for being safe and sound themselves, but not without a feeling of complacency that others are not so fortunate. It is this callousness, writes James Payn, in the Cornhill Magazine, which has rendered the man of letters — impulsive and sensitive, soft hearted, yet easily moved to indignation and charitable even toward the sins he is not inclined to — unorthodox and something more. There may be in him a want of submissiveness to the divine will and certainly of that unquestioning faith which is the comfort of so many souls, but there is no lack of human love and sympathy, and the man who loves his fellows, we are told, is very near to loving his Creator.
At all events, the feeling I have described seems to me to have more or less pervaded the minds of almost all men of letters with whom I have conversed upon spiritual things. Because literary men are not, as a rule, churchgoers they are often considered irreligious or as complete Gallios in the matter, but this is not at all my experience of them, and I have lived in their midst for nearly half a century.
A very distinguished member of the clergy used to say, with those half shut eyes that always showed when his vein of humor was touched and which caused it to be said of him that he "never saw a happy moment," "What strikes one as so queer is that belief in their particular dogma is made the essential point of all sects, all of which, save one — and perhaps even that — must be wrong."
Who damns every creed but his own
Must look for a limited heaven
And is like a man laying long odds
When the long odds to him should be given.
It never seems to strike a theologian that his calculation is contrary to the doctrine of chances.
The Man of Letters Heeds Them More Than Does the Orthodox Religionist.
It is quite extraordinary how callous even the most religious persons in the past have often been to the miseries of their fellow creatures, both in this world and the next. They have indeed expressed their gratitude for being safe and sound themselves, but not without a feeling of complacency that others are not so fortunate. It is this callousness, writes James Payn, in the Cornhill Magazine, which has rendered the man of letters — impulsive and sensitive, soft hearted, yet easily moved to indignation and charitable even toward the sins he is not inclined to — unorthodox and something more. There may be in him a want of submissiveness to the divine will and certainly of that unquestioning faith which is the comfort of so many souls, but there is no lack of human love and sympathy, and the man who loves his fellows, we are told, is very near to loving his Creator.
At all events, the feeling I have described seems to me to have more or less pervaded the minds of almost all men of letters with whom I have conversed upon spiritual things. Because literary men are not, as a rule, churchgoers they are often considered irreligious or as complete Gallios in the matter, but this is not at all my experience of them, and I have lived in their midst for nearly half a century.
A very distinguished member of the clergy used to say, with those half shut eyes that always showed when his vein of humor was touched and which caused it to be said of him that he "never saw a happy moment," "What strikes one as so queer is that belief in their particular dogma is made the essential point of all sects, all of which, save one — and perhaps even that — must be wrong."
Who damns every creed but his own
Must look for a limited heaven
And is like a man laying long odds
When the long odds to him should be given.
It never seems to strike a theologian that his calculation is contrary to the doctrine of chances.
Among The Churches
New York, 1895
Doings of the Various Religious Bodies Throughout the Island.
The Rev. John M. Davis of Brooklyn has accepted a call to the pastorate of the Baptist church at Greenport.
The Rev. I. T. Stafford will continue in charge of the M. E. Church at Sea Cliff during the remainder of the conference year.
The Salvation army and the Methodist Episcopal church at Sea Cliff have joined forces, and a revival is being conducted at the chapel.
The Rev. Mr. McVay will take charge of the M. E. Church, Cold Spring Harbor, until conference, the Rev. Mr. Bennett having resigned.
The Rev. Henry Aston, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church of Glen Cove, received a unanimous invitation to return for the third year.
The Rev. Mr. Braithwaite of the Bethany Congregational church at East Rockaway has accepted a call to the Pennsylvania avenue Congregational church of Brooklyn.
Another religious society has sprung into existence at Oceanside as an outcome of the revival meetings which have been conducted there for several weeks. It will be known as the Beulah Mission society, and undenominational.
The Rev. Samuel W. King, pastor of the Congregational church at Bay Shore, preached his farewell sermon as pastor Sunday evening. The Rev. Mr. Granger, of Brooklyn, will fill the vacancy at Bay Shore until a permanent pastor is called by the congregation.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 12.
Doings of the Various Religious Bodies Throughout the Island.
The Rev. John M. Davis of Brooklyn has accepted a call to the pastorate of the Baptist church at Greenport.
The Rev. I. T. Stafford will continue in charge of the M. E. Church at Sea Cliff during the remainder of the conference year.
The Salvation army and the Methodist Episcopal church at Sea Cliff have joined forces, and a revival is being conducted at the chapel.
The Rev. Mr. McVay will take charge of the M. E. Church, Cold Spring Harbor, until conference, the Rev. Mr. Bennett having resigned.
The Rev. Henry Aston, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church of Glen Cove, received a unanimous invitation to return for the third year.
The Rev. Mr. Braithwaite of the Bethany Congregational church at East Rockaway has accepted a call to the Pennsylvania avenue Congregational church of Brooklyn.
Another religious society has sprung into existence at Oceanside as an outcome of the revival meetings which have been conducted there for several weeks. It will be known as the Beulah Mission society, and undenominational.
The Rev. Samuel W. King, pastor of the Congregational church at Bay Shore, preached his farewell sermon as pastor Sunday evening. The Rev. Mr. Granger, of Brooklyn, will fill the vacancy at Bay Shore until a permanent pastor is called by the congregation.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 12.
Farrell Pays a Fine
New York, 1895
Thomas Farrell and Charles Weeks, who were arrested Saturday on the charge of disturbing the meeting held by the Salvation Army on Friday evening in the Mission Chapel on the Rockaway road, Jamaica, were arraigned before Justice Hendrickson on Monday. Farrell was fined $10 or ten days in the county jail. He paid his fine. Weeks said he had been drinking and was sorry for what he had done. He was discharged.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 12.
Thomas Farrell and Charles Weeks, who were arrested Saturday on the charge of disturbing the meeting held by the Salvation Army on Friday evening in the Mission Chapel on the Rockaway road, Jamaica, were arraigned before Justice Hendrickson on Monday. Farrell was fined $10 or ten days in the county jail. He paid his fine. Weeks said he had been drinking and was sorry for what he had done. He was discharged.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 12.
Women's Missionary Conference
New York, 1895
The women's missionary societies of the Reformed church in the North Classis will hold a conference in the church at Newtown on Thursday next. Mrs. C. H. Harris, of Jamaica, is secretary of the society. Mrs. Cornelius Rapelye will preside. The Rev. Mr. Clearwater will deliver an address of welcome. There will be addresses at the afternoon meeting by Mrs. E. B. Horton and Miss C. Anderson, and Miss Kitty Scudder, who has been engaged in mission work in India, will speak of the work in that country. At the evening session Mrs. John S. Bussing will deliver an address on "Work in Our Home Land," Mrs. Clearwater will sing a solo, "Pardoned," and the Rev. John Anderson, late of China, will speak about the work in that country.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 12.
The women's missionary societies of the Reformed church in the North Classis will hold a conference in the church at Newtown on Thursday next. Mrs. C. H. Harris, of Jamaica, is secretary of the society. Mrs. Cornelius Rapelye will preside. The Rev. Mr. Clearwater will deliver an address of welcome. There will be addresses at the afternoon meeting by Mrs. E. B. Horton and Miss C. Anderson, and Miss Kitty Scudder, who has been engaged in mission work in India, will speak of the work in that country. At the evening session Mrs. John S. Bussing will deliver an address on "Work in Our Home Land," Mrs. Clearwater will sing a solo, "Pardoned," and the Rev. John Anderson, late of China, will speak about the work in that country.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 12.
Gold Medal for Mr. Gwydir
New York, 1895
Daniel Gwydir of Jamaica was presented with a handsome gold medal by the Catholic Benevolent Legion. Father Dennison made the presentation speech. Mr. Gwydir was thus honored because of his excellent standing in the order.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 12.
Daniel Gwydir of Jamaica was presented with a handsome gold medal by the Catholic Benevolent Legion. Father Dennison made the presentation speech. Mr. Gwydir was thus honored because of his excellent standing in the order.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 12.
Jamaica Church Notes
New York, 1895
The Rev. Francis Hill of Hollis occupied the pulpit in the Methodist church Sunday morning.
Last Sunday four persons were received into membership in the Methodist church by letter, and two on probation.
The Rev. Dr. Poulson of the Methodist church will exchange pulpits Sunday with the Rev. Dr. Couch, of Brooklyn.
Judge John H. Pierce, of Minneapolis, will speak on "Temperance Work and the Keeley Cure as a Factor Therein," in the Methodist church Sunday evening next.
The union meetings which have been held by the Presbyterian, Methodist, Reformed and Baptist congregations for the past four weeks, were brought to a close in the Presbyterian church on Sunday evening with a communion service, at which all of the pastors spoke.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 12.
The Rev. Francis Hill of Hollis occupied the pulpit in the Methodist church Sunday morning.
Last Sunday four persons were received into membership in the Methodist church by letter, and two on probation.
The Rev. Dr. Poulson of the Methodist church will exchange pulpits Sunday with the Rev. Dr. Couch, of Brooklyn.
Judge John H. Pierce, of Minneapolis, will speak on "Temperance Work and the Keeley Cure as a Factor Therein," in the Methodist church Sunday evening next.
The union meetings which have been held by the Presbyterian, Methodist, Reformed and Baptist congregations for the past four weeks, were brought to a close in the Presbyterian church on Sunday evening with a communion service, at which all of the pastors spoke.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 12.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Broke Up The Revival
New York, 1895
Trouble Between Evangelist Nickerson and Harry W. Paine.
Evangelist Nickerson has been turned down by the Baptist church of Patchogue. The leader, Harry W. Paine, gave forth the edict. Mr. Paine, who assumed the leadership of the church, and at whose home Mr. Nickerson has been stopping since November last, upon returning from the meeting of Sunday night upbraided Mr. Nickerson and charged him with being the instigator of the row that night. Mr. Nickerson denied the charge and said that it was the talking of Mrs. Evans, wife of the former pastor, who is antagonistic to Mr. Nickerson and his followers, and Mrs. Isaac Stagg, which provoked the disturbance. Mr. Paine finished by saying emphatically that Mr. Nickerson could no longer use the Baptist church for his revival meetings. No meetings have been held at the Baptist church since.
When Nickerson heard of the action of the church he applied to Jesse C. Mills, of the opera house, and asked to hire the hall for a Sunday night service. Mr. Mills informed him that he would have to ask the managing board if they would hire the hall for a Sunday night service, concluding his remarks by saying that as four of the board were Methodists, and two Congregationalists, it would be of no use to ask for their permission.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 12.
Trouble Between Evangelist Nickerson and Harry W. Paine.
Evangelist Nickerson has been turned down by the Baptist church of Patchogue. The leader, Harry W. Paine, gave forth the edict. Mr. Paine, who assumed the leadership of the church, and at whose home Mr. Nickerson has been stopping since November last, upon returning from the meeting of Sunday night upbraided Mr. Nickerson and charged him with being the instigator of the row that night. Mr. Nickerson denied the charge and said that it was the talking of Mrs. Evans, wife of the former pastor, who is antagonistic to Mr. Nickerson and his followers, and Mrs. Isaac Stagg, which provoked the disturbance. Mr. Paine finished by saying emphatically that Mr. Nickerson could no longer use the Baptist church for his revival meetings. No meetings have been held at the Baptist church since.
When Nickerson heard of the action of the church he applied to Jesse C. Mills, of the opera house, and asked to hire the hall for a Sunday night service. Mr. Mills informed him that he would have to ask the managing board if they would hire the hall for a Sunday night service, concluding his remarks by saying that as four of the board were Methodists, and two Congregationalists, it would be of no use to ask for their permission.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 12.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Young Men's Christian Association
New York, 1895
For some time past there has been a movement on foot to organize a Jamaica branch of the young men's Christian association. The object is to unite Christian young men of the evangelical churches in fellowship and effort. At a meeting Wednesday evening an organization was effected by electing William A. Shannon, president, and Wm. Stanton, secretary. A committee of two from each church will be appointed by the several pastors.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 12.
For some time past there has been a movement on foot to organize a Jamaica branch of the young men's Christian association. The object is to unite Christian young men of the evangelical churches in fellowship and effort. At a meeting Wednesday evening an organization was effected by electing William A. Shannon, president, and Wm. Stanton, secretary. A committee of two from each church will be appointed by the several pastors.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 12.
Jamaica Church Notes
New York, 1895
A meeting for young men will be held Sunday afternoon at 4 o'clock in the lecture room of the Presbyterian church.
Union services have been held during the week, and will be continued this evening in the Presbyterian chapel on Canton avenue. Sunday evening the services were held in the Presbyterian church. The Rev. Dr. Poulson, of the Methodist church, preached the sermon.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 12.
A meeting for young men will be held Sunday afternoon at 4 o'clock in the lecture room of the Presbyterian church.
Union services have been held during the week, and will be continued this evening in the Presbyterian chapel on Canton avenue. Sunday evening the services were held in the Presbyterian church. The Rev. Dr. Poulson, of the Methodist church, preached the sermon.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 12.
Parson Wightman
New York, 1895
They are saying in Oyster Bay that the fining of Parson Wightman will defeat the re-election of Supervisor Underhill. Mr. Underhill cares more about the conscientious discharge of his duty to the town than he does about future officeholding. That is proved by his steady faithfulness. He is not a demagogue.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 4.
They are saying in Oyster Bay that the fining of Parson Wightman will defeat the re-election of Supervisor Underhill. Mr. Underhill cares more about the conscientious discharge of his duty to the town than he does about future officeholding. That is proved by his steady faithfulness. He is not a demagogue.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 4.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Among The Churches
New York, 1895
Doings of the Various Religious Bodies Throughout the Island.
The new Lutheran church at Ingleside, Flushing, is nearly completed.
The Rev. G. W. Bartow, of St. Paul's church, Woodside, was elected permanent rector of that church.
The Rev. David Post, late of Woodside, has accepted a call from the Baptist church of Sandy Creek, N. Y.
A summer resident of Good Ground has presented the Methodist church with a handsome communion set.
The Rev. W. G. Webb, rector of Christ church, Port Jefferson, terminated his connection with that church on Sunday.
The Rev. James Noble, formerly pastor of Holy Trinity church, at Greenport, has gone to Guthrie, where he will engage in missionary work.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles R. Nostrand have presented the Epworth M. E. Church, Whitestone, with two handsome silver contribution plates.
Rev. B. F. Parlaman, of the Presbyterian church on Shelter Island, presented his resignation at the conclusion of his sermon Sunday morning.
A gold watch and chain was presented to Father Siegellick, of St. Margaret's church, Middle Village, by the Monte Casino Council of Brooklyn.
The growth of the Congregational society at Rockville Centre is attested by the fact that on February 13 a recognition and installation service will be held.
Services are held by the Catholics of Woodside every Sunday at the Ariel club house. The services are largely attended and there is a fund toward erecting a building.
At the annual meeting of the Corona Bible society the Rev. W. J. Peck was elected president; Mr. C. D. Leverich, vice president; R. A. Nafis, secretary; Earl Lee, treasurer; Mrs. Thomas Howard, custodian.
The Holy Name society connected with the Catholic church of Our Lady of Sorrow, in Corona, his hired the building opposite the church and is arranging to have it fitted up as a club-house for the young men of the parish.
Since the return of Father Doran to St. Mary's church in Roslyn, the beautiful altar has been made more attractive by the addition of large statues of the blessed Virgin and St. Joseph. These were imported and are the gift of Father Doran to the church.
At the Glen Cove Methodist Episcopal church, the Rev. Henry Aston is closing his second year. The presiding elder is delighted with the work of the church, and says it has not been in such a prosperous condition in ten years. The official board gave Dr. Aston a unanimous vote to return another year.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 2.
Doings of the Various Religious Bodies Throughout the Island.
The new Lutheran church at Ingleside, Flushing, is nearly completed.
The Rev. G. W. Bartow, of St. Paul's church, Woodside, was elected permanent rector of that church.
The Rev. David Post, late of Woodside, has accepted a call from the Baptist church of Sandy Creek, N. Y.
A summer resident of Good Ground has presented the Methodist church with a handsome communion set.
The Rev. W. G. Webb, rector of Christ church, Port Jefferson, terminated his connection with that church on Sunday.
The Rev. James Noble, formerly pastor of Holy Trinity church, at Greenport, has gone to Guthrie, where he will engage in missionary work.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles R. Nostrand have presented the Epworth M. E. Church, Whitestone, with two handsome silver contribution plates.
Rev. B. F. Parlaman, of the Presbyterian church on Shelter Island, presented his resignation at the conclusion of his sermon Sunday morning.
A gold watch and chain was presented to Father Siegellick, of St. Margaret's church, Middle Village, by the Monte Casino Council of Brooklyn.
The growth of the Congregational society at Rockville Centre is attested by the fact that on February 13 a recognition and installation service will be held.
Services are held by the Catholics of Woodside every Sunday at the Ariel club house. The services are largely attended and there is a fund toward erecting a building.
At the annual meeting of the Corona Bible society the Rev. W. J. Peck was elected president; Mr. C. D. Leverich, vice president; R. A. Nafis, secretary; Earl Lee, treasurer; Mrs. Thomas Howard, custodian.
The Holy Name society connected with the Catholic church of Our Lady of Sorrow, in Corona, his hired the building opposite the church and is arranging to have it fitted up as a club-house for the young men of the parish.
Since the return of Father Doran to St. Mary's church in Roslyn, the beautiful altar has been made more attractive by the addition of large statues of the blessed Virgin and St. Joseph. These were imported and are the gift of Father Doran to the church.
At the Glen Cove Methodist Episcopal church, the Rev. Henry Aston is closing his second year. The presiding elder is delighted with the work of the church, and says it has not been in such a prosperous condition in ten years. The official board gave Dr. Aston a unanimous vote to return another year.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 2.
Baymen Embrace Religion
New York, 1895
Prayer Meetings on Oyster Boats and in Sail Lofts.
A religious wave is sweeping Patchogue from centre to circumference. The saloon trade has fallen off over half in a week, and prayer meetings are being held in oyster packing houses, shipping houses, sail lofts, ship yards and aboard oyster boats. On Friday night forty sinners fell upon their knees before the altar of the Methodist church and proclaimed their conversion. Saturday night a big revival meeting was held in what was formerly the toughest barroom in the place. Until two weeks ago Edward McNulty was breaking the law continually, but the Rev. Mr. Ferguson brought about his conversion, and McNulty removed all his liquors and fixtures on Saturday night, the minister helping in the moving.
Meetings were held in the big sail loft of George H. Miller several times last week, as well as in other lofts and oyster houses, and big bronzed bay men fell upon their knees and begged forgiveness for past transgressions.
The Gordon family, which is a large one, has been converted from the grandmother down to the youngest child.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 2.
Prayer Meetings on Oyster Boats and in Sail Lofts.
A religious wave is sweeping Patchogue from centre to circumference. The saloon trade has fallen off over half in a week, and prayer meetings are being held in oyster packing houses, shipping houses, sail lofts, ship yards and aboard oyster boats. On Friday night forty sinners fell upon their knees before the altar of the Methodist church and proclaimed their conversion. Saturday night a big revival meeting was held in what was formerly the toughest barroom in the place. Until two weeks ago Edward McNulty was breaking the law continually, but the Rev. Mr. Ferguson brought about his conversion, and McNulty removed all his liquors and fixtures on Saturday night, the minister helping in the moving.
Meetings were held in the big sail loft of George H. Miller several times last week, as well as in other lofts and oyster houses, and big bronzed bay men fell upon their knees and begged forgiveness for past transgressions.
The Gordon family, which is a large one, has been converted from the grandmother down to the youngest child.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 2.
Had Plenty of Audacity
1895
How Mr. Moody Once Organized a Great Charity In Ten Minutes.
On one occasion Dwight L. Moody had convened a great conference in Liverpool, writes Professor Drummond in McClure's Magazine. The theme for discussion was a favorite one, "How to Reach the Masses." One of the speakers, the Rev. Charles Garrett, in a powerful speech, expressed his conviction that the chief want of the masses in Liverpool was the institution of cheap houses of refreshment to counteract the saloons. When he had finished, Mr. Moody called upon him to speak for ten minutes more. That ten minutes might almost be said to have been a crisis in the social history of Liverpool. Mr. Moody spent it in whispered conversation with gentlemen on the platform.
No sooner was the speaker done than Mr. Moody sprang to his feet and announced that a company had been formed to carry out the objects Mr. Garrett had advocated; that various gentlemen, whom he named — Mr. Alexander Balfour, Mr. Samuel Smith, M. P., Mr. Lockhart and others — had each taken 1,000 shares of $5 each, and that the subscription list would be open till the end of the meeting. The capital was gathered almost before the adjournment, and a company floated under the name of the British Workmen company, limited, which has not only worked a small revolution in Liverpool, but — what was not contemplated or wished for, except as an index of healthy business — paid a handsome dividend to the shareholders,
For 20 years this company has gone on increasing. Its ramifications are in every quarter of the city; it has returned 10 per cent throughout the whole period, except for one strike year, when it returned 7, and, above all, it has been copied by cities and towns innumerable all over Great Britain.
To Mr. Garrett, who unconsciously set the ball a-rolling, the personal consequences were as curious as they were unexpected. "You must take charge of this thing," said Mr. Moody to him, "or at least you must keep your eye on it." "That cannot be," was the reply. "I am a Wesleyan. My three years in Liverpool have expired. I must pass to another circuit." "No," said Mr. Moody, "you must stay here." Mr. Garrett assured him it was quite impossible; the Methodist conference made no exceptions. But Mr. Moody would not be beaten. He got up a petition to the conference. It was granted — an almost unheard of thing — and Mr. Garrett remains in his Liverpool church to this day. This last incident proves at least one thing — that Mr. Moody's audacity is at least equaled by his influence.
How Mr. Moody Once Organized a Great Charity In Ten Minutes.
On one occasion Dwight L. Moody had convened a great conference in Liverpool, writes Professor Drummond in McClure's Magazine. The theme for discussion was a favorite one, "How to Reach the Masses." One of the speakers, the Rev. Charles Garrett, in a powerful speech, expressed his conviction that the chief want of the masses in Liverpool was the institution of cheap houses of refreshment to counteract the saloons. When he had finished, Mr. Moody called upon him to speak for ten minutes more. That ten minutes might almost be said to have been a crisis in the social history of Liverpool. Mr. Moody spent it in whispered conversation with gentlemen on the platform.
No sooner was the speaker done than Mr. Moody sprang to his feet and announced that a company had been formed to carry out the objects Mr. Garrett had advocated; that various gentlemen, whom he named — Mr. Alexander Balfour, Mr. Samuel Smith, M. P., Mr. Lockhart and others — had each taken 1,000 shares of $5 each, and that the subscription list would be open till the end of the meeting. The capital was gathered almost before the adjournment, and a company floated under the name of the British Workmen company, limited, which has not only worked a small revolution in Liverpool, but — what was not contemplated or wished for, except as an index of healthy business — paid a handsome dividend to the shareholders,
For 20 years this company has gone on increasing. Its ramifications are in every quarter of the city; it has returned 10 per cent throughout the whole period, except for one strike year, when it returned 7, and, above all, it has been copied by cities and towns innumerable all over Great Britain.
To Mr. Garrett, who unconsciously set the ball a-rolling, the personal consequences were as curious as they were unexpected. "You must take charge of this thing," said Mr. Moody to him, "or at least you must keep your eye on it." "That cannot be," was the reply. "I am a Wesleyan. My three years in Liverpool have expired. I must pass to another circuit." "No," said Mr. Moody, "you must stay here." Mr. Garrett assured him it was quite impossible; the Methodist conference made no exceptions. But Mr. Moody would not be beaten. He got up a petition to the conference. It was granted — an almost unheard of thing — and Mr. Garrett remains in his Liverpool church to this day. This last incident proves at least one thing — that Mr. Moody's audacity is at least equaled by his influence.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Pastor Wightman Must Pay
New York, 1895
A special meeting of the board of health of Oyster Bay was held at Hicksville on Thursday to consider the plea for remittance of the fine imposed upon Pastor Wightman for a violation of the order of the board in holding service in his church. An appeal was made in his behalf before the board,and upon a vote being taken upon the question it was found to be the unanimous opinion of the members that the fine be allowed to stand. The board instructed its counsel, Joseph Steinert, to take measures to collect the amount of the fine at once.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 1.
A special meeting of the board of health of Oyster Bay was held at Hicksville on Thursday to consider the plea for remittance of the fine imposed upon Pastor Wightman for a violation of the order of the board in holding service in his church. An appeal was made in his behalf before the board,and upon a vote being taken upon the question it was found to be the unanimous opinion of the members that the fine be allowed to stand. The board instructed its counsel, Joseph Steinert, to take measures to collect the amount of the fine at once.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 1.
Denied by Father Dennison
New York, 1895
The Brooklyn Times of Monday printed a statement that it said was uttered by Rev. Father Dennison of St. Monica's church in his Sunday morning sermon. Father Dennison assures THE FARMER that he did not use the language attributed to him, or anything like it.
There was to have been an illustrated lecture in the Reformed chapel on Monday evening, 21st., by the Rev. T. Calvin McClelland, Ph. D., subject, "The Frozen Cataract." The lecture did not take place, as it would have interfered with the Union religious services. Nevertheless, the Brooklyn Times of Tuesday, 22d, contained a "full report" of the Rev. McClelland's remarks, which were never delivered, and some praise of the illustrations, which were not shown. The reporter may have been on a bat, and seen some other things that looked like frozen cataracts — in a glass.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 1.
The Brooklyn Times of Monday printed a statement that it said was uttered by Rev. Father Dennison of St. Monica's church in his Sunday morning sermon. Father Dennison assures THE FARMER that he did not use the language attributed to him, or anything like it.
There was to have been an illustrated lecture in the Reformed chapel on Monday evening, 21st., by the Rev. T. Calvin McClelland, Ph. D., subject, "The Frozen Cataract." The lecture did not take place, as it would have interfered with the Union religious services. Nevertheless, the Brooklyn Times of Tuesday, 22d, contained a "full report" of the Rev. McClelland's remarks, which were never delivered, and some praise of the illustrations, which were not shown. The reporter may have been on a bat, and seen some other things that looked like frozen cataracts — in a glass.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 1.
The Epworth Assembly
New York, 1895
The directors of the Epworth assembly have already fixed the date for holding the next session of the assembly. It will open on Saturday, July 13, and close Sunday, July 21, and be held at Point o' Woods. This announcement will not be received with manifestation by the people who favored the Merrick camp grounds as a permanent meeting place for the assembly.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 1.
The directors of the Epworth assembly have already fixed the date for holding the next session of the assembly. It will open on Saturday, July 13, and close Sunday, July 21, and be held at Point o' Woods. This announcement will not be received with manifestation by the people who favored the Merrick camp grounds as a permanent meeting place for the assembly.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 1.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Among The Churches
New York, 1895
Doings of the Various Religious Bodies Throughout the Island.
St. James' church, Newtown, has been newly cushioned throughout.
Since the re-building of St. George's Episcopal church, Flushing, and the introduction of a boy choir, the congregations have increased.
The Presbyterian congregation of Newtown is making arrangements to move into its new edifice February 1. It is a memorial to the late John Goldsmith.
The officers of the Union Evangelical church of Corona have granted their pastor, the Rev. W. J. Peck, a leave of absence for a trip to Egypt. Dr. Peck has been nearly fourteen years pastor of this church.
The officers of the Union Evangelical church of Corona have granted their pastor, the Rev. W. J. Peck, a leave of absence for a trip to Egypt. Dr. Peck has been nearly fourteen years pastor of this church.
The official board of the Methodist Episcopal church at Baldwins has requested Presiding Elder Wing to use his influence toward assuring the return of the Rev. James Coote to the pastorate for another year.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 12.
Doings of the Various Religious Bodies Throughout the Island.
St. James' church, Newtown, has been newly cushioned throughout.
Since the re-building of St. George's Episcopal church, Flushing, and the introduction of a boy choir, the congregations have increased.
The Presbyterian congregation of Newtown is making arrangements to move into its new edifice February 1. It is a memorial to the late John Goldsmith.
The officers of the Union Evangelical church of Corona have granted their pastor, the Rev. W. J. Peck, a leave of absence for a trip to Egypt. Dr. Peck has been nearly fourteen years pastor of this church.
The officers of the Union Evangelical church of Corona have granted their pastor, the Rev. W. J. Peck, a leave of absence for a trip to Egypt. Dr. Peck has been nearly fourteen years pastor of this church.
The official board of the Methodist Episcopal church at Baldwins has requested Presiding Elder Wing to use his influence toward assuring the return of the Rev. James Coote to the pastorate for another year.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 12.
Pope Leo's Epitaph
1895
The pope has already written his own epitaph: "Here lies Leo XIII, pope. He is dust." On which The Franciscan Annals makes this comment: "A tertiary pontiff, who has literally been a glory to Christendom and a guide to a distracted world, could hardly have given a better example of Franciscan simplicity and holiness." — Detroit Free Press.
The pope has already written his own epitaph: "Here lies Leo XIII, pope. He is dust." On which The Franciscan Annals makes this comment: "A tertiary pontiff, who has literally been a glory to Christendom and a guide to a distracted world, could hardly have given a better example of Franciscan simplicity and holiness." — Detroit Free Press.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Rev. Horace T. Love Dead
New York, 1895
The Rev. Horace T. Love, the oldest graduate of Brown university and an ex-missionary to Greece, died at Babylon on Friday night, aged 87 years. He was a native of Washington county, this state, and graduated from Brown university, Rhode Island, in 1836. He was licensed to preach and continued to expound the gospel until about twenty years ago. He had in the course of his long life raised over $700,000 for missions. He was for some years a resident of Kansas, and founded a college in that state.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 12.
The Rev. Horace T. Love, the oldest graduate of Brown university and an ex-missionary to Greece, died at Babylon on Friday night, aged 87 years. He was a native of Washington county, this state, and graduated from Brown university, Rhode Island, in 1836. He was licensed to preach and continued to expound the gospel until about twenty years ago. He had in the course of his long life raised over $700,000 for missions. He was for some years a resident of Kansas, and founded a college in that state.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 12.
Jamaica Church Notes
New York, 1895
The union religious services held in Jamaica during the past two weeks have been continued during this week, and will be held next week. Sunday evening the services were held in the Reformed church, the Rev. J. Howard Hobbs of the Presbyterian church preaching the sermon. During the week the services have been held in the Baptist chapel.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 12.
The union religious services held in Jamaica during the past two weeks have been continued during this week, and will be held next week. Sunday evening the services were held in the Reformed church, the Rev. J. Howard Hobbs of the Presbyterian church preaching the sermon. During the week the services have been held in the Baptist chapel.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 12.
Woodhaven and Ozone Park News
New York, 1895
The Congregational church of Woodhaven observed last week as a week of prayer. The attendance was very good and encouraging.
W. T. Fitch delivered an appropriate sermon Sunday night at the Church of the Epiphany to Americus Volunteer hook and ladder company. The singing by the choir was of the highest order. A very large attendance from other fire companies was noted, including the Jones hook and ladder company, Union Course hook and ladder company, Woodhaven hose and Deraismes hose. The firemen appreciate good sermons and good music.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 12.
The Congregational church of Woodhaven observed last week as a week of prayer. The attendance was very good and encouraging.
W. T. Fitch delivered an appropriate sermon Sunday night at the Church of the Epiphany to Americus Volunteer hook and ladder company. The singing by the choir was of the highest order. A very large attendance from other fire companies was noted, including the Jones hook and ladder company, Union Course hook and ladder company, Woodhaven hose and Deraismes hose. The firemen appreciate good sermons and good music.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 12.
The News of Richmond Hill
New York, 1895
Ground has been broken for the new cottage for the Rev. Joshua Kimber on the corner of Division street and Hillside avenue.
Mr. Mowbray will deliver his lecture on "India," for the benefit of the parish fund of the Church of the Resurrection, in Assembly Hall on the evening of February 12th.
The Rev. Henry B. Bryan of the Church of the Resurrection, administered the sacrament of holy baptism at St. John's memorial church, Ivanhoe Park, on Sunday afternoon.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 12.
Ground has been broken for the new cottage for the Rev. Joshua Kimber on the corner of Division street and Hillside avenue.
Mr. Mowbray will deliver his lecture on "India," for the benefit of the parish fund of the Church of the Resurrection, in Assembly Hall on the evening of February 12th.
The Rev. Henry B. Bryan of the Church of the Resurrection, administered the sacrament of holy baptism at St. John's memorial church, Ivanhoe Park, on Sunday afternoon.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 12.
Liked His Preaching
1895
He Had Heard Him Often and So Enjoyed His Supper.
A hard featured man, dressed in a new suit of very cheap black, called at the house of a well known clergyman, and upon giving his name was invited to take a seat in the gentleman's study.
"I have a few days to spend in town," said the visitor, "and I did not want to leave without calling and paying my respects to you. I have heard you preach many a time."
"Yes," said the parson, beginning to take an interest in the visitor.
"I like your preaching, and, though I do not belong to your church, yet I must say you preach the best sermon I over heard. There are so very few good preachers now, very few in whose uprightness we can place trust, that when we meet one of the right kind we like to express our appreciation."
"Yes," the good man repeated, and as the bell tinkled he rose and said, "Come, my friend, and take some lunch with me."
The visitor was only too happy, and seated at the table began to eat with an avidity that attracted the host's attention.
"You say that you have heard me preach many a time?" remarked the minister.
"Oh, yes," the man replied, conveying an ample allowance of mashed potatoes into his mouth.
"I don't remember seeing you at my church. I suppose you have heard me in the country?"
"No," said the visitor, helping himself to beans, "not in the country." "Certainly not in town?"
"Well, sorter yes and sorter not. You know you preached at the prison for some time. I was there for stealing a horse and cart and finished my time today. Thank you for the bread." — Pittsburg Dispatch.
He Had Heard Him Often and So Enjoyed His Supper.
A hard featured man, dressed in a new suit of very cheap black, called at the house of a well known clergyman, and upon giving his name was invited to take a seat in the gentleman's study.
"I have a few days to spend in town," said the visitor, "and I did not want to leave without calling and paying my respects to you. I have heard you preach many a time."
"Yes," said the parson, beginning to take an interest in the visitor.
"I like your preaching, and, though I do not belong to your church, yet I must say you preach the best sermon I over heard. There are so very few good preachers now, very few in whose uprightness we can place trust, that when we meet one of the right kind we like to express our appreciation."
"Yes," the good man repeated, and as the bell tinkled he rose and said, "Come, my friend, and take some lunch with me."
The visitor was only too happy, and seated at the table began to eat with an avidity that attracted the host's attention.
"You say that you have heard me preach many a time?" remarked the minister.
"Oh, yes," the man replied, conveying an ample allowance of mashed potatoes into his mouth.
"I don't remember seeing you at my church. I suppose you have heard me in the country?"
"No," said the visitor, helping himself to beans, "not in the country." "Certainly not in town?"
"Well, sorter yes and sorter not. You know you preached at the prison for some time. I was there for stealing a horse and cart and finished my time today. Thank you for the bread." — Pittsburg Dispatch.
Clerical Defiance of the Civil Law
New York, 1895
It happens now and then that presumptuous people have to he punished for the benefit of mankind. The Rev. Mr. Wightman, a Baptist preacher at Oyster Bay, is an instance. He was last week fined $50 for a violation of the health laws of the town, and it is a good sign that the town officers had the moral courage to inflict the penalty. So many people stand in awe of a clergyman that they of the cloth are wont to presume upon this diffidence and go a length that is unreasonable. When a clergyman does wrong he merits just the treatment that would be measured out to a layman in the same circumstances. The glossing over and condoning of clerical misdeeds has worked great injury to the church and always will.
The Rev. Mr. Wightman deliberately defied the lawful authorities of his town, and broke the law with premeditation. That took him out of the ranks of holy minded, peace loving ministers, and set him down in the byway with transgressors. A man cannot be a pious clergyman and a bad citizen at the same time. There was an epidemic of scarlet fever in the town, and to confine it and save life, the health board, by legal right, ordered the schools closed, and forbade the opening of the Sunday schools and churches, and the clergymen of every denomination complied with the order except Mr. Wightman, who held both a prayer meeting and Sunday services. His great offense was in doing this after he had been twice cautioned not to do it by an officer of the law. He argues in justification of his defiance of the law of the state of New York, that the constitution of the United States guarantees him the right of freedom of worship. So it does, but always subject to reasonable restrictions which the law of the state may impose, and the health board was acting entirely with the scope of the constitution.
Mr. Wightman is incapable of interpreting the meaning of the term "freedom of worship." His only right is to worship God as his conscience may direct. That right was not interfered with in the least. He has no right to so worship as to spread contagion and imperil life. The four walls of a church are not inseparable from worship. All church goers are not given to worship. A prayer from the heart would avail as much on a mountain top as within the walls of a sanctuary. It is not the man who prays, but the man who prays right, that is cherished of God. Human laws are made for the well being of the people, and in the main they are founded on divine tradition. Closing a church to preserve life and health is as essentially Christian as legal, and we do not believe that the prayers of the Rev. Mr. Wightman, with the malice of defiance in his heart, were acceptable to his Master on this particular Sunday. We are taught that God is a just God, and therefore an unjust servant cannot be his delight. Mr. Wightman merited his punishment.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 4.
It happens now and then that presumptuous people have to he punished for the benefit of mankind. The Rev. Mr. Wightman, a Baptist preacher at Oyster Bay, is an instance. He was last week fined $50 for a violation of the health laws of the town, and it is a good sign that the town officers had the moral courage to inflict the penalty. So many people stand in awe of a clergyman that they of the cloth are wont to presume upon this diffidence and go a length that is unreasonable. When a clergyman does wrong he merits just the treatment that would be measured out to a layman in the same circumstances. The glossing over and condoning of clerical misdeeds has worked great injury to the church and always will.
The Rev. Mr. Wightman deliberately defied the lawful authorities of his town, and broke the law with premeditation. That took him out of the ranks of holy minded, peace loving ministers, and set him down in the byway with transgressors. A man cannot be a pious clergyman and a bad citizen at the same time. There was an epidemic of scarlet fever in the town, and to confine it and save life, the health board, by legal right, ordered the schools closed, and forbade the opening of the Sunday schools and churches, and the clergymen of every denomination complied with the order except Mr. Wightman, who held both a prayer meeting and Sunday services. His great offense was in doing this after he had been twice cautioned not to do it by an officer of the law. He argues in justification of his defiance of the law of the state of New York, that the constitution of the United States guarantees him the right of freedom of worship. So it does, but always subject to reasonable restrictions which the law of the state may impose, and the health board was acting entirely with the scope of the constitution.
Mr. Wightman is incapable of interpreting the meaning of the term "freedom of worship." His only right is to worship God as his conscience may direct. That right was not interfered with in the least. He has no right to so worship as to spread contagion and imperil life. The four walls of a church are not inseparable from worship. All church goers are not given to worship. A prayer from the heart would avail as much on a mountain top as within the walls of a sanctuary. It is not the man who prays, but the man who prays right, that is cherished of God. Human laws are made for the well being of the people, and in the main they are founded on divine tradition. Closing a church to preserve life and health is as essentially Christian as legal, and we do not believe that the prayers of the Rev. Mr. Wightman, with the malice of defiance in his heart, were acceptable to his Master on this particular Sunday. We are taught that God is a just God, and therefore an unjust servant cannot be his delight. Mr. Wightman merited his punishment.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 4.
Defending The Salvation Army
1895
THE FARMER is glad to print the liberal views of Mr. H. A. Freeman in defense of the Salvation Army. The Salvationists have the same right under the law that sects have, though the Army itself is not sectarian, and [their ri]ghts must be respected. They make sacrifices which no denomination was ever known to make in the effort to save souls, and they reach beings who might otherwise perish. If they have come to Jamaica to labor in the way peculiarly their own, they must be protected.
A better man than John O'Donnell could not be sent to Albany to work for that additional $50,000 for the Normal School. It was largely due to his influence that the original law was passed.
When Henry A. Monfort runs up against Daniel Noble, the District Attorney's office is bound to be a wreck.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 4.
THE FARMER is glad to print the liberal views of Mr. H. A. Freeman in defense of the Salvation Army. The Salvationists have the same right under the law that sects have, though the Army itself is not sectarian, and [their ri]ghts must be respected. They make sacrifices which no denomination was ever known to make in the effort to save souls, and they reach beings who might otherwise perish. If they have come to Jamaica to labor in the way peculiarly their own, they must be protected.
A better man than John O'Donnell could not be sent to Albany to work for that additional $50,000 for the Normal School. It was largely due to his influence that the original law was passed.
When Henry A. Monfort runs up against Daniel Noble, the District Attorney's office is bound to be a wreck.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 4.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The Druids and Their Temples
1875BY ALEXANDER WAINWRIGHT.
Near the town of Carnac, in Brittany, France, there is an extensive plain several miles wide, with a flat and barren surface. It is the last place in the world a tourist would care about visiting, if he were simply traveling in search of beautiful objects. In Winter the coldest winds blow over it with wild force, and in Summer it is unprotected by trees or shrubbery from the scorching shafts of the sun. But it is not wholly uninteresting, and I propose that we shall make a short visit to it.
We will suppose, then, that you and I are stopping at one of the quiet taverns in Carnac, and have wandered toward the plain for a walk. Just outside the town a bit of a hill rises high enough to show us the surrounding country.
There are few houses or trees on the plain; but it is divided into several avenues by long rows of unhewn upright stones, which, as far as the eye can see, are ranged in almost perfect order, like an army prepared for battle. There are over a thousand of them, and they stretch across the country from east to west for nearly seven miles. The largest are twenty-two feet high, and the smallest ten feet. A few have fallen, and others have been carted away; but originally they were placed apart at regular distances.
When you come nearer to them you will see many signs of age upon them. They are seamed, mossy, and battered. How old do you guess they are? Nobody is quite sure, not even the wisest of the historians, but we may safely say that they have held their present positions for over eighteen hundred years. For eighteen hundred years they have clung to the meager ground and withstood the combined assaults of time and storm, while generation after generation of the living has passed away.
How did they come there? The simple, credulous people of old, to whom all fairy stories were the truest histories, believed that giants brought them and planted them; but we know better than that.
They were erected by ordinary men, and you may imagine how much labor the work cost at a time when there were no carts or wheel-barrows, much less railroads or massive cranes. Years, perhaps centuries, were occupied, and to the builders the undertaking must have seemed as stupendous as the erection of the East River bridge seems to us.
Similar stones are found at other places in Brittany; but the most famous collection is on a plain near the town of Salisbury, in England. This is called Stonehenge, and consists of one hundred and forty stones, the smallest of which weigh ten tons and the largest seventy tons. The remains of men and animals have been also found in the vicinity, and these have given the antiquaries a clue as to the objects for which the stones were raised.
Nothing positive is known about them, but it is supposed that they mark the temples of the Druids, a religious order which possessed great power in France and England during the century before and the century after the coming of Christ. They obtained a complete mastery over the ignorant and superstitious people then occupying those countries, by the practice of mysterious arts, which often were extremely cruel. They professed to know the hidden nature of things, and the forms and movements of the sun and stars; but in reality they were not as wise as the children in our primary schools, and the simplest tricks of a good modern conjurer would surpass their most wonderful ones. They were astrologers and herb-doctors as well as priests and historians, and they attributed a sacred character to many plants.
The mistletoe was considered a cure for all diseases, and was gathered with great ceremonies. When it was discovered twined about the oak, which was also sacred, the Druids assembled near the tree and prepared a banquet and sacrifice. A priest in white raiment cut the twig off with a golden sickle, and two other priests, also dressed in white, caught it in a white apron as it fell. Two milk-white oxen were afterward sacrificed, and the ceremonies concluded with much rejoicing.
The marshwort was plucked by a priest with his left hand, his head being turned aside, as there was a superstition that the plant would lose its virtues if it were obtained otherwise; and the hedge-hyssop was gathered after offerings of bread and wine.
These plants were supposed to be remedies, not only for physical diseases, but also for mental diseases, and it was thought that they afforded protection against all evil spirits.
Little beads of amber were looked upon as safeguards against all dangers, but the most potent of all charms was a serpent's egg. It was said that when a serpent was knotted together, eggs came out of its mouth, and were supported in the air by its hissings. The priests hid themselves in the woods watching for this marvel, and, when it was observed, one of them would boldly rush forward, catch an egg in a napkin, mount a horse and gallop toward the nearest river, after reaching which he was safe from the pursuit of the serpent. This was their story about it. Even in this day, some impostors advertise in the newspapers that they can foretell future events, and the Druids claimed a like power. They examined the entrails of animals, and watched the flight of birds, from which they professed to tell things that would happen years afterward.
Human sacrifices formed one of the most terrible features of their religion. The victims usually were criminals or prisoners of war; but when there were none of these, innocent and unoffending persons were sacrificed.
The favorite resort of the Druids was an island opposite the mouth of the river Loire, in France, where, once every year, between sunrise and sunset, they pulled down and rebuilt the roof of their temples; and any priest who allowed the smallest part of the sacred materials to fall carelessly, was torn to pieces by his fellows.
The only traces of the order left to us are the rude stone buildings at Stonehenge and Carnac. Retreating before the Romans, the Druids went to the Isle of Anglesey, in Wales; and when they saw their conquerors following, they made preparations for a battle. Among their preparations — not exactly for the battle, but for what they expected to follow it — were immense altars, on which they intended to sacrifice the unfortunate Romans who should be left after the battle. They were quite sure that they would need these altars, for their oracles gave them every reason to believe in a glorious triumph of their arms. But the Romans were again victorious, and the Druids themselves were the ones sacrificed.
—St. Nicholas, June 1875, pp. 469-471.
Both Held for the Grand Jury
New York, 1895
Robert Smalley of Seaford was held to appear before the grand jury on a charge of perjury by Justice Seaman at Wantagh Tuesday evening. Smalley's accuser is Joseph Smith, a local preacher, who was also the complainant against Smalley's father on a similar charge, which resulted in his being held for the grand jury.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 1.
Robert Smalley of Seaford was held to appear before the grand jury on a charge of perjury by Justice Seaman at Wantagh Tuesday evening. Smalley's accuser is Joseph Smith, a local preacher, who was also the complainant against Smalley's father on a similar charge, which resulted in his being held for the grand jury.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 1.
A Manly and Able Defense of the Salvation Army
New York, 1895
To the Editor of the Long Island Farmer:
I seldom write for publication unless to champion a wrong or assail an evil. Such an occasion presents in a recent account of the attack on certain Salvation army women in this village. It is stated that "There are others here who are opposed to the salvationists aside from the roughs. They are good Christians and openly criticise Mr. Remsen for renting the place to the army." I hope that so grave and serious a charge against the religious good people of Jamaica is untrue. The days of religious intolerance are over even among those professing different faiths and it is hard to believe that any followers of the Great Altruist who loved all men better than his own life, should oppose these earnest, honest, self-sacrificing Christian women. It is harder to believe that any good citizen should object to their labor of love where the local clergy seem to have been unsuccessful; and it is hardest to believe that any feeling of jealousy or even of superiority could possibly animate the bosom of any really good Christian who walks the path of love and humility trodden out for him by the gentle Nazarene. That would be the work of a Pharisee and I trust there are no such in Jamaica.
The statement goes on to say that the Salvationists are making a good impression and are gaining many supporters. Now I have observed the Salvation army people for some years and have noticed that they invariably make a good impression and gain supporters. I have no hesitation in asserting that this is due to the fidelity with which they obey the teachings of their Master, the blessed Jesus, whose boundless love and charity knew no pride of station. They come into a community despised and ridiculed by the ignorant and shunned by the elect. They practice methods which offended the refinement of gilt edged piety and they are sometimes loud and occasionally ungrammatical. But they invariably conquer the respect of all who meet them face to face. This is because they work faithfully, fearlessly and lovingly to save their fellow sinners. They work without pay and without hope of reward except that which awaits every unselfish act or thought. They are true and "good Christians" in the highest sense and are entitled to the consideration and respect of every person be he unregenerate or elect. H. A. FREEMAN, Jamaica, January 21st.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 1.
To the Editor of the Long Island Farmer:
I seldom write for publication unless to champion a wrong or assail an evil. Such an occasion presents in a recent account of the attack on certain Salvation army women in this village. It is stated that "There are others here who are opposed to the salvationists aside from the roughs. They are good Christians and openly criticise Mr. Remsen for renting the place to the army." I hope that so grave and serious a charge against the religious good people of Jamaica is untrue. The days of religious intolerance are over even among those professing different faiths and it is hard to believe that any followers of the Great Altruist who loved all men better than his own life, should oppose these earnest, honest, self-sacrificing Christian women. It is harder to believe that any good citizen should object to their labor of love where the local clergy seem to have been unsuccessful; and it is hardest to believe that any feeling of jealousy or even of superiority could possibly animate the bosom of any really good Christian who walks the path of love and humility trodden out for him by the gentle Nazarene. That would be the work of a Pharisee and I trust there are no such in Jamaica.
The statement goes on to say that the Salvationists are making a good impression and are gaining many supporters. Now I have observed the Salvation army people for some years and have noticed that they invariably make a good impression and gain supporters. I have no hesitation in asserting that this is due to the fidelity with which they obey the teachings of their Master, the blessed Jesus, whose boundless love and charity knew no pride of station. They come into a community despised and ridiculed by the ignorant and shunned by the elect. They practice methods which offended the refinement of gilt edged piety and they are sometimes loud and occasionally ungrammatical. But they invariably conquer the respect of all who meet them face to face. This is because they work faithfully, fearlessly and lovingly to save their fellow sinners. They work without pay and without hope of reward except that which awaits every unselfish act or thought. They are true and "good Christians" in the highest sense and are entitled to the consideration and respect of every person be he unregenerate or elect. H. A. FREEMAN, Jamaica, January 21st.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 1.
St. Monica's Church Finances Get Another Airing
New York, 1895
To the Editor of the Long Island Farmer:
The attempt of your last week's newspaper to smooth over the financial muddle of St. Monica's church was very adroit, but it will not go down if you are man enough to give me another hearing on the subject. I never imputed dishonesty to either Mr. Higgins or Mr. Rudden. They are good men. I never questioned Father Dennison's honesty, and I don't do it now, but he is bound to render an intelligent report, and that he has not done except in one instance. I contribute to his church, and I have a right to know about where the money goes. He said on Sunday, week before last, that my call on him to account for the 1893 balance was contemptible. When he referred to the thing at all I expected he was going to give the congregation an explanation, and tell them what he had done with over $800 of a balance. But he didn't tell them a word about it. Has he the money in the bank, or out at interest, or has he spent it, or what? It is easy for him to answer, and there are some who will carry the case to the Bishop if he doesn't.
If you will let me I will go deeper into the business. Father Dennison's first report, year 1892, showed that he had a balance of $1,817.17. In 1893 he gave his flock no account of what he did with that balance. In 1893 he had a balance of $551.68. In 1894 he kept to himself what he did with that money. In 1894 he had a balance of $872.82. In 1895 he suppresses all knowledge about this. In 1895 he had a balance of $481.83. He should have on hand at the date of the 1895 report, January 1st, as follows:
Balance January 19th, 1891, to February 8th, 1892, $1,817.17
Balance February 8th, 1892, to February 1st, 1893, 551.68
Balance January 1st, 1893, to January 1st, 1894, 872.82
Balance January 1st, 1894, to January 1st, 1895, 481.83
[Total,] $3,723.50
Father Dennison must know what has become of this money, and the congregation wants to know, and if they are not told there will be a lessening of contributions, for I know several liberal givers who will shut their pockets.
I for one would like to know how it happened that the church debt increased while so much money is shown in the balances. According to the report from January 19th, to February 8th, 1892, the debt on the church property was $14,000. In the 1892 to 1893 report it was stated at $13,000. In the 1893 to 1894 report it was not set forth at all. In the 1894 to 1895 report, the debt on the church property rose to $14,500. Why should it be so if the money shown by the balances was on hand to meet expenses?
Now it comes right down to this: Is the money shown in the balances in bank, or invested, or spent? Father Dennison knows and must tell. Mr. Higgins and Mr. Rudden don't know a thing about it.
EXAMINER.
[Mr. Higgins showed the editor of THE FARMER the financial report for the fiscal year 1894. That report is right as far as it goes. It pretends to do no more than state the income and the expenditures. As to the yearly balances, any statement respecting them must issue from the treasurer, who is their custodian, and not from Messrs. Higgins and Rudden. If there is a desire on the part of the congregation for information as to the disposition of the balances, the Rev. Mr. Dennison should respond to that desire, for in that matter he is but the servant of the congregation. The suppression of such information but leads to gossip and begets suspicion. The sum of $3,723.50 is so important a matter that a congregation would naturally feel a deep interest in knowing what has been done with it. — ED.]
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 1.
To the Editor of the Long Island Farmer:
The attempt of your last week's newspaper to smooth over the financial muddle of St. Monica's church was very adroit, but it will not go down if you are man enough to give me another hearing on the subject. I never imputed dishonesty to either Mr. Higgins or Mr. Rudden. They are good men. I never questioned Father Dennison's honesty, and I don't do it now, but he is bound to render an intelligent report, and that he has not done except in one instance. I contribute to his church, and I have a right to know about where the money goes. He said on Sunday, week before last, that my call on him to account for the 1893 balance was contemptible. When he referred to the thing at all I expected he was going to give the congregation an explanation, and tell them what he had done with over $800 of a balance. But he didn't tell them a word about it. Has he the money in the bank, or out at interest, or has he spent it, or what? It is easy for him to answer, and there are some who will carry the case to the Bishop if he doesn't.
If you will let me I will go deeper into the business. Father Dennison's first report, year 1892, showed that he had a balance of $1,817.17. In 1893 he gave his flock no account of what he did with that balance. In 1893 he had a balance of $551.68. In 1894 he kept to himself what he did with that money. In 1894 he had a balance of $872.82. In 1895 he suppresses all knowledge about this. In 1895 he had a balance of $481.83. He should have on hand at the date of the 1895 report, January 1st, as follows:
Balance January 19th, 1891, to February 8th, 1892, $1,817.17
Balance February 8th, 1892, to February 1st, 1893, 551.68
Balance January 1st, 1893, to January 1st, 1894, 872.82
Balance January 1st, 1894, to January 1st, 1895, 481.83
[Total,] $3,723.50
Father Dennison must know what has become of this money, and the congregation wants to know, and if they are not told there will be a lessening of contributions, for I know several liberal givers who will shut their pockets.
I for one would like to know how it happened that the church debt increased while so much money is shown in the balances. According to the report from January 19th, to February 8th, 1892, the debt on the church property was $14,000. In the 1892 to 1893 report it was stated at $13,000. In the 1893 to 1894 report it was not set forth at all. In the 1894 to 1895 report, the debt on the church property rose to $14,500. Why should it be so if the money shown by the balances was on hand to meet expenses?
Now it comes right down to this: Is the money shown in the balances in bank, or invested, or spent? Father Dennison knows and must tell. Mr. Higgins and Mr. Rudden don't know a thing about it.
EXAMINER.
[Mr. Higgins showed the editor of THE FARMER the financial report for the fiscal year 1894. That report is right as far as it goes. It pretends to do no more than state the income and the expenditures. As to the yearly balances, any statement respecting them must issue from the treasurer, who is their custodian, and not from Messrs. Higgins and Rudden. If there is a desire on the part of the congregation for information as to the disposition of the balances, the Rev. Mr. Dennison should respond to that desire, for in that matter he is but the servant of the congregation. The suppression of such information but leads to gossip and begets suspicion. The sum of $3,723.50 is so important a matter that a congregation would naturally feel a deep interest in knowing what has been done with it. — ED.]
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 1.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Among The Churches
1895
Doings of the Various Religious Bodies Throughout the Island.
On Wednesday last the trustees under the will of the late John G. Payntar, who devised a large sum of money for building a new Presbyterian church in Newtown, turned over the structure to the board of trustees of the church.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 11, 1895, p. 2.
Doings of the Various Religious Bodies Throughout the Island.
On Wednesday last the trustees under the will of the late John G. Payntar, who devised a large sum of money for building a new Presbyterian church in Newtown, turned over the structure to the board of trustees of the church.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 11, 1895, p. 2.
Baymen Being Converted
New York, 1895
A Great Religious Revival at East Rockaway.
A great spiritual revival has taken place at East Rockaway and at Ocean Side. Seven months ago George M. Davison conceived the idea of building a chapel for the use of those not connected with the church in the vicinity. Mr. Davison built his chapel and opened it with Evangelistic services. The baymen and other inhabitants of the necks adjoining began to come in. Ere long, under the influence of Miss Cora Gregg and other evangelists, they made professions of conversion and now at the alternate nightly services the building is packed. The interest is extending to adjoining villages and many visitors attend the services. The workers are branching out, and through the Long Island railroad company have secured the use of the Long Beach railroad station and are holding meetings there also.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 11, 1895, p. 4.
A Great Religious Revival at East Rockaway.
A great spiritual revival has taken place at East Rockaway and at Ocean Side. Seven months ago George M. Davison conceived the idea of building a chapel for the use of those not connected with the church in the vicinity. Mr. Davison built his chapel and opened it with Evangelistic services. The baymen and other inhabitants of the necks adjoining began to come in. Ere long, under the influence of Miss Cora Gregg and other evangelists, they made professions of conversion and now at the alternate nightly services the building is packed. The interest is extending to adjoining villages and many visitors attend the services. The workers are branching out, and through the Long Island railroad company have secured the use of the Long Beach railroad station and are holding meetings there also.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 11, 1895, p. 4.
Affairs of St. Monica's Church
New York, 1895
Contributions Have Been Liberal and Exceed the Expenditures.
It cannot be said that the people who attend St. Monica's Catholic church are not liberal in their contributions for the support of worship, for during the fiscal year just closed their offerings aggregated $6,973.49. This seems to be quite extraordinary, because the congregation that used to worship at St. Monica's has been thinned by the establishment of St. Mary's church, which seems to have outgrown St. Monica's parish in the last few years. The report of St. Monica's rector shows the expenditures to have been $6,491.66, so that there is a balance in the treasury of $481.83. The church is in debt $14,500.
To the Editor of the Long Island Farmer:
The report of the financial condition of St. Monica's church, which was read to the congregation at Sunday morning's masses, is not a correct statement, unless the statement of last year was incorrect. I see by last year's (1893) statement that a balance of $872.82 was left at the close of the year's business. If that was true the money must have gone amiss, for the balance is not carried into this year's (1894) account, and therefore is not accounted for at all. * * Taking the accounts for the two years jointly, there should be a balance of $1,354.65.
I also notice in this year's report that the church property is insured for $327, and that the premium paid was $252. This cannot be true, and I should advise the church bookkeeper to issue a revised statement. EXAMINER.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 11, 1895, p. 12.
Contributions Have Been Liberal and Exceed the Expenditures.
It cannot be said that the people who attend St. Monica's Catholic church are not liberal in their contributions for the support of worship, for during the fiscal year just closed their offerings aggregated $6,973.49. This seems to be quite extraordinary, because the congregation that used to worship at St. Monica's has been thinned by the establishment of St. Mary's church, which seems to have outgrown St. Monica's parish in the last few years. The report of St. Monica's rector shows the expenditures to have been $6,491.66, so that there is a balance in the treasury of $481.83. The church is in debt $14,500.
To the Editor of the Long Island Farmer:
The report of the financial condition of St. Monica's church, which was read to the congregation at Sunday morning's masses, is not a correct statement, unless the statement of last year was incorrect. I see by last year's (1893) statement that a balance of $872.82 was left at the close of the year's business. If that was true the money must have gone amiss, for the balance is not carried into this year's (1894) account, and therefore is not accounted for at all. * * Taking the accounts for the two years jointly, there should be a balance of $1,354.65.
I also notice in this year's report that the church property is insured for $327, and that the premium paid was $252. This cannot be true, and I should advise the church bookkeeper to issue a revised statement. EXAMINER.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 11, 1895, p. 12.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Jamaica Church Notes
New York, 1895
The union service at the Presbyterian church on Sunday evening was well attended. The Rev. V. Kelly preached the sermon.
Union meetings have been held in the Reformed chapel on Union avenue every evening this week. Sunday evening the meeting will be held in the Methodist church.
The Rev. E. W. Tapley, who was expelled from the pastorate of Shiloh Baptist church, has started a rival church directly opposite the place of worship of his old congregation.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 11, 1895, p. 12.
The union service at the Presbyterian church on Sunday evening was well attended. The Rev. V. Kelly preached the sermon.
Union meetings have been held in the Reformed chapel on Union avenue every evening this week. Sunday evening the meeting will be held in the Methodist church.
The Rev. E. W. Tapley, who was expelled from the pastorate of Shiloh Baptist church, has started a rival church directly opposite the place of worship of his old congregation.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 11, 1895, p. 12.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Grit for Preachers
1900
Dr. Herrick Johnson, in writing of "Preaching and the Preacher," thus commends "grit." He says: "Grit keeps the preacher at the hard grind of incessant intellectual toil. That is grit brainward. Grit keeps him at men, for men, ready to spend and to be spent in their behalf, though the more abundantly he loves them the less he be loved. That is grit heartward. Grit keeps him steadfast in truth and bold to declare all God's counsel, fearless of man or devil. That is grit backboneward. Salted by grace, and so kept from obstinacy, it is a noble quality, and will do the preacher great stead in the coming battling years."
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 18.
Dr. Herrick Johnson, in writing of "Preaching and the Preacher," thus commends "grit." He says: "Grit keeps the preacher at the hard grind of incessant intellectual toil. That is grit brainward. Grit keeps him at men, for men, ready to spend and to be spent in their behalf, though the more abundantly he loves them the less he be loved. That is grit heartward. Grit keeps him steadfast in truth and bold to declare all God's counsel, fearless of man or devil. That is grit backboneward. Salted by grace, and so kept from obstinacy, it is a noble quality, and will do the preacher great stead in the coming battling years."
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 18.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Temperance Progress
1900
Rev. Frederick W. Farrar, Dean of Canterbury, in a recent article on "Temperance Progress in Great Britain," said: "Whatever progress there has been, a stupendous work still remains to be accomplished. Not for one hour, ought we to relax our efforts to save the world from this clinging curse, from this master-engine of the devil's malignity. Would that God might send us some great prophet to awaken us out of our spirit of stupor and to arouse our hearts and consciences as with the crash of thunder ere it be too late!"
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 18.
Rev. Frederick W. Farrar, Dean of Canterbury, in a recent article on "Temperance Progress in Great Britain," said: "Whatever progress there has been, a stupendous work still remains to be accomplished. Not for one hour, ought we to relax our efforts to save the world from this clinging curse, from this master-engine of the devil's malignity. Would that God might send us some great prophet to awaken us out of our spirit of stupor and to arouse our hearts and consciences as with the crash of thunder ere it be too late!"
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 18.
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