Communions.
—Dunibarton, 2nd Sabbath of this month; Inverness, 4th. We are asked to call attention to the fact that the winter Communion at Inverness is changed from the 3rd to the 4th Sabbath of this month.
Trial of the late Mr. Kensit’s Alleged Murderer.
—The trial of John M’Keever for the murder of Mr. John Kensit, the Protestant lecturer, is now past. The verdict of the jury was “not guilty.” The evidence largely turned upon the point as to whether M’Keever was the assailant or not. It was affirmed that it was another man named M’Loughlin who threw the missile. The majority of the doctors clearly averred that Mr. Kensit’s death was due to the wound received.
Mr. J. A. Kensit coming to Glasgow.
—Mr. John Alfred Kensit, son of the late Mr. John Kensit, the Protestant witness, is expected to address two public meetings in the Christian Institute, Bothwell Street, Glasgow, on Tuesday, the 13th inst. An afternoon meeting will (D.V.) be held at 4 o’clock—subject, “Our Fight for the Truth”—and an evening meeting at 8 o’clock when the subject will be, “A Call to the Nation.” A collection is to be taken for the Wycliffe Preacher’s Fund.
“Silver and Gold have I None.”
—This was the true confession of the holy apostle whose character and office the Popes of Rome profess to reproduce age after age for the benefit of mankind. Between, however, a Pope wallowing in material wealth and an apostle rich only in the heavenly riches there seems to be little congruity. Four hundred years ago the Popedom was an extensive earthly kingdom with possessions in the Mediterranean, and Luther sarcastically addresses Leo the Tenth, “I salute thee, Peter! fisherman at Bethsaida and king of Sicily!” The scandalous acquisitiveness of the Papacy has, however, been curbed since the Reformation, but shorn as he is the Pope is still a strong financial force. The present Pope, it is reported, has this year received Christmas gifts to the amount of half a million. The capacity for giving on the part of the dupes of Popery, and the strong propensity for receiving on the part of the officials of the hierarchy are both great, and they have their explanation in the very nature of the Papal system. The priest has no softening home influences to be a counteractive to the sordid natural instincts of fallen man, and the whole army of priests are (with few exceptions) as destitute of any experience of the powers of the world to come as were the ancient Pharisees, hence the abandoned sacerdotal heart gravitates to what is earthly and sensual. Gluttony and avarice are well known features of the Romish priesthood. Mr. O’Donnell, in his “Ruin of Education in Ireland,” gives many glaring instances of priests and bishops accumulating vast fortunes in poor Irish dioceses. The day of the ascendancy of these agents of slavery and superstition seems again returning. There remains much wealth and spoil of an effete Protestantism to be taken, and one and another of them may say with the self-satisfied devourer of the ancient time, “My hand has found as a nest the riches of the people.”
The Puritan Quarterly.
—This is a new departure in the literature of the Kingdom of Heaven. In the universal decay of good reading that now obtains and the inordinate activity of printing presses in multiplying the means of bad reading, doubtless the eye of the Lord is upon any sincere effort to keep His cause alive by printing and publishing that which is acceptable, even words of truth. This new quarterly is a praiseworthy effort in that direction. The contents are varied and judiciously short. As its name indicates, the theology enshrined here is that despised, old-fashioned sort which is even now calmly awaiting a resurrection to newness of life. There is in this first issue a useful exposure of the errors and fallacies inherent in Dr. Watson’s (Ian Maclaren’s) book, “The Doctrine of Grace.” In undertaking such a project the promoters run considerable risk, and have even now expended a substantial sum. Probably they do not expect any extravagant return for their pains, but they doubtless hope the Quarterly will honestly justify itself as a business item. The Publishers are Messrs. Wheeler & Co., 17 Paternoster Row, London. It is well printed and nicely got up. The price is sixpence per quarter.