biblical lectures, and who, without any reason being assigned, was forbidden to continue these lectures in March, 1879, is stated in a petition presented to the Minister of Worship, and also in a memorandum to H.B.M.'s Ambassador at Vienna, both dated April, 1879. Up to this day no answer whatever has been given. 3. Last March the Baptists (members of which religious body have been residing at Vienna, at least, ever since 1845) were forbidden to hold any further meetings. Those meetings had thus far been held in a room in a private house, and admittance had been given to specially invited persons only. The appeal addressed to the Central Government in April has been left without any answer. Six or eight Baptists, met for prayer on a Sunday, last August, at the house of a postman in one of the suburbs, were dispersed by the police. The postman was sent for, and it was intimated to him that the loss of his pension might be the result of refractoriness. Two other persons, foreigners, were threatened with banishment if they were again found at a Baptist meeting. On Sunday, the 2nd of November last (the deputation of the Evangelical Alliance being in Vienna), the police found their way into a house in another suburb of Vienna, mounted up into the third story, and there found about fifteen persons engaged in prayer. The meeting was immediately dispersed, and the males ordered to the policecourt that same Sunday afternoon, at three, for examination. The result is yet pending. 4. The Irvingites (" Apostolical Church "), after having held public worship for several years, were last March forbidden to hold any further meetings whatsoever. 5. The Methodists are permitted to hold lectures, but no singing or praying is allowed, no prayer-meeting and no Communion service. 6. The Swedenborgians ("New Jerusalem Church"), who in 1868 formed an association for the formation of a "New Church," were forbidden some time ago to continue their meetings. After an expensive law-suit they have re-opened their meetings, but no Baptism or Communion service is tolerated, and within the last four weeks they have been forbidden to bring together their own children for religious instruction. 7. The Rev. Mr. Adams, at Prague, of the American Board of Missions, is not permitted to hold any meeting whatever; and a fine of 100 florins, or imprisonment for twenty days, has been threatened if he attends, even as a hearer, any religious meeting held by parties connected with a religious body not recognized by the State. 8. The Rev. Mr. Schauffler, at Brünn, of the same mission, is permitted to hold religions meetings, but on the express condition that he keeps out children, between six and fourteen years of age, belonging to a Church recognized by the State. The limitation makes the permission illusory. 9. The Rev. Mr. Pirie, at Prague, sent out by the Scotch Free Church as a missionary to the Jews, is not allowed to hold any service in the language of the country. 10. The Rev. Mr. Babzar, of the Free Reformed Bohemian Church, is forbidden to hold any religious service whatever. 11. At Brandeis, in Bohemia, a married couple that had left the Romish Church and joined the Baptists before their first child was born, applied within the term prescribed by the law to have the birth entered in the register expressly provided for parties belonging to religious communities not recognized by the State. The application has been refused, and the parents have been ordered to have their child baptized by the Romish parish priest, on the ground that a child must have some religion, and that the parents have none ! 12. Tan Marek, at Schlan, in Bohemia, an evangelist appointed by the Rev. Mr. Schubert, (a regular minister of the Reformed Church, acknowledged by the State), has been forbidden to hold Bible readings in his own house, or to admit persons not belonging to his family to his domestic worship. He has been reprimanded by the political authorities because he did not bolt his house door before he said his prayers. 13. In August an ordained minister of the Reformed Church in Bohemia, preaching at a station in the country, wearing his gown in token of his official capacity, was interrupted by the police in the middle of the service, and was only permitted to resume the service in the afternoon after he had obtained special permission from the authorities. Dissenters are allowed by law to hold domestic worship (literally, "house worship") [Haus-Gottensdienst], but, contrary to the interpretation officially given for years together, and adopting a new interpretation lately discovered, not an individual may be present beyond the bona fide members of the family. All this, whilst Section XIV. of the "Fundamental Law," of 21st December, 1867, expressly "guarantees full religious liberty to every individual" in the realm! Bishops, Consecration of 182, 347 Obituary......... 16, 50, 82, 84, 115, 146, 214, 243 Bible, The, and the London School Board... 244 Open Air Mission British and Foreign Bible Society 278, 347, 348, 371 244 Ornaments Rubric, The Proposed 214, 278 .49, 112, 208 Christian Charity at the Grave..... Church Association, The Africa, Central........ Africa, Eastern Africa, South Africa, Western America... America, British Asia, Central Australia ..... ... ... 150, 348 151 China 18, 51, 85, 117, 150, 216, 281, 3C4, 348 British Columbia...... ....... Polynesia 19 Mauritius 182, 213 299 172 274 214 347 347 |