The Newberry Herald And News

Rev. Mr. Scherer, Of Persia, Spoke to a
Large Congregation In the Presby-
terian Church Sabbath Night
-Hear Him Tonight at
the Opera House.

As announced in The Herald and
News of Friday, Rev. Mr. Scherer
lectured on the "Religions of Persia"
Sabbath night at the union services in
the Presbyterian church. The church
was well filled with an intelligent con-
gregation, composed of members of all
the churches in town. Mr. Scherer
has acquired a good vocabulary, and
uses our language with surprising
facility, and succeeded well in keeping
his hearers interested. His lecture
was edifying and very instructive.

He described the Fire worshippers
Mohammedans, Jews, Catholics, and
Nestorians as the five distinct religion-
ists of his native country. He is a
Nestorian by birth and rearing.
Nestorius was a Bishop in the fifth
century of the Christian era. In the
course of time his followers lost the
cardinal principles of Christianity and
retained only some ineffectual rem-
nants of the ritual of worship. When
the American missionaries began their
efforts among them in 1835, they found
only three copies of the Scriptures, and
those in manuscript and securely tied
up in silk handkerchiefs and regarded
with so much reverence that they
were not read even in the churches.

Mr. Scherer was brought under the
influence of the Gospel by the mission-
aries some years ago, and at once be-
came animated by the desire to preach
the Gospel in its purity and divine
power. He was pathetic as he de-
scribed the cruelty of husbands and
fathers in their households; they have
no word for home, and with much emo-
tion contrasted those with the happiness
and uplifting influences of the Chris-
tian home. He was licensed to preach,
but found from experience his lack of
qualification, and came to this country
to qualify himself more fully for the
noble work to which he aspires. He
has spent a year at the Theological
Seminary at Columbia. He proposes
to spend two more years, thus complet-
ing the full course of training in that
venerable institution. While prose-
cuting his studies, he is supporting his
wife and child, who are still in Persia.
and also helping his aged mother, who
has been left a widow since he came to
America.

He will lecture on social and other
customs of Persia in the opera house
tonight. He will wear the ordinary
costume of his native country and rep-
resent the marriage and many other
interesting features in Persian life
The admittance fee will be 20 cents
for adults and 10 cents for children.
The tickets are being sold by the ladies
of the Presbyterian church and at
Scholtz's and other stores.