Organ in the late Dr. Begg’s Church.—The times are full of change. Twenty years have scarcely passed away since the death of the Rev. Dr. James Begg, the doughty champion of pure doctrine and worship in the Free Church, but now the organ, against which he protested so faithfully as a feature of public worship, is erected in the very building where he ministered, and is blessed by his successor who solemnly vowed to maintain the same principles as he held. The only satisfaction that remains—and it is a melancholy one at best—is that Newington Free Church is not Free now, but is in bondage to a degenerate ecclesiastical organisation which is neither United nor Free, though it claims to be both.
A Deed of Horror.—On Wednesday, March 26th, General Hector Macdonald, the hero of Omdurman, shot himself through the head in a Paris hotel. The news fell like a thunderbolt on his countrymen, for the man was a popular idol. He had been for the last year stationed at Ceylon, but was presently in London on some business with the War Office—business whose nature was vague. Latterly rumours were rife concerning grave charges lying against Sir Hector, and it appears that after a very brief stay in London he was sent off again to stand his trial by court-martial in Ceylon. He did not, however, reach Ceylon. His career terminated with a five days’ sojourn in Paris and a suicide’s death by pistol shot. Over the causes which led to this tragedy darkness at present broods. We, in common with our countrymen, were touched with pride to think of the obscure Highland lad who rose from the ranks by sheer merit and bravery, and our regrets are keen that so much strength and manliness should sink into a grave of shame.
Notes on Romanism.—Under the title of “The Convent Pestilence” there is published a narrative of some of the dubious doings of the Pope’s female officers, the nuns. These ladies are shown to be adepts in the direction of deceit, cruelty, and even crime. They are, like that able generalissimo of Satan, the Pope, abnormally greedy, as most of their reprehensible doings tend in the direction of acquiring property, or covering up traces of its acquisition by wrong means. Having divested themselves of the ordinary tenderness of their sex, they appear to have developed some of the characteristics of tigresses. In pursuit of power and wealth the convents have established schools and workrooms of various sorts. These places are not like others, under Government inspection, so that overwork, starvation, and cruelty are known to largely exist in them. In the “Convent Pestilence” instances are given of neglect in illness, enforced confinement, no pay, and bad food. (One worker speaks of having had to pick maggots out of her food; another is pulled downstairs by the hair, beaten till black and blue, etc.) In the matter of keeping up the supply of inmates, the convent superiors show the most resplendent efforts of deception. They cajole the wealthy girls and their parents. They try to secure orphans, and their triumph is complete when they manage to get pauper children boarded with them, thus securing the labour of these children and their aliment at the same time. How the nuns deal with them afterwards let the reader see for him or her self. Moreover, many convents possess burial grounds, and that, coupled with the revelations of escaped nuns, ought to arrest the attention of the most careless. When it is remembered that the convent superior has absolute power over the nuns, and that instances have come to light bearing a strong resemblance to murder, in which the superiors were deeply concerned, it is high time that convents should be declared illegal, and that any congregation whatever of that nature should be open throughout to Government inspection.