Jerry McAuley, the evangelist of the slums, died last month. There is refreshment in the man’s history. Born and trained among the thieves of the worst quarter of New York, he got into prison under a sentence for fifteen years, became a Christian in prison, and spent the rest of his life reclaiming the fallen men and women of his native city. Men do reform under Christian forces, and a reformed man may do a glorious work.
Stolen marriages are not usually happy ones. In those cases, especially where a well bred, liberally educated, and luxuriously inclined girl elopes with a coachman or a deck hand, the hasty espousals commonly end in misery for the wife. Several such elopements have recently occurred; and they seem to be “catching.” A Canadian girl of wealthy parentage read the story of the Morosini elopement, and thereupon got up an elopement of her own. The “catching” symptom is probably due to the glories of the reporter’s rhetoric.
Dr. Woodrow is the last clergyman who has had fame thrust upon him, for a peculiarly unsuccessful attempt to become an evolutionist. He first succeeded in getting Adam evolved from an ape or something, and left Eve to be created. More lately, he has, if we understand the story, evolutionized the first human pair from a pair of apes by an accidental variation. But there are no accidents in the genuine evolution; and Dr. Woodrow is being made fun of from both sides.
The extraordinary liberality of the English Wesleyans has attracted deserved attention and respect. They have collected very large sums of money for new churches in London and for missionary fields—millions of dollars in a few years. It is now noted that the Scotch churches have been visited with refreshing showers of the grace of giving. In one year the three branches of Presbyterians have raised more than seven millions of dollars for their own work. That sort of grace is proof of other and more spiritual sorts.
The Young Men’s Christian Associations have grown marvelously. Their New Year Book shows that on this continent this child of yesterday has created $3,400,000 in Association buildings, and put a great army of Christian workers into the field. Its rapid growth and vigorous work are one of the marvels of the time.