Religious Notes by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 13, 1882

Religious Notes.

By Editor

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Mich., reports a membership of 492.

The steamer Nevada brought 727 Mormon converts to New York en route to Utah, July 2. This is the largest importation that has been made for several years. The greater number of them were Scandinavians.

The Pope, in an allocution in consistory, recently, said the position of the Church in Italy was becoming worse than ever. The Government, he declared, was guilty of bad faith in refusing authority to twenty Bishops he had nominated.

W. C. Dupuy, of Indiana, evidently thinks that there is at least $2,000,000 in a name. He is reported to have offered an endowment of that sum to Asbury University provided the institution shall bear his name. It already has a good name, but will probably change it for such an inducement.

It is very evident that a new and very important factor has entered into the formation of church creeds. The Scotch Presbyterians have adopted a new one which is much better than the old one, and differs materially from the Westminster Confession. It is stated that "it is shaped by the progressive spirit of the day." The Bible is getting to have very little influence in the church, compared with the spirit of the day.

The Rev. Mr. Cooks, of Sag Harbor, said recently that of 500 families visited by him, 100 had never seen a Bible. The Rev. Mr. Wheeler stated that at Calverton, near Riverhead, there are ninety people anxious for spiritual regeneration. "There was only one Christian lady in the place," said Mr. Wheeler, "and she had formerly resided in Brooklyn." Of course there was no school, no church within five miles of Calverton, and "very few of the people had even seen a Bible." Mr. Campbell, of Blue Point, found an old couple over eighty years of age, who, together with their daughter, had never heard of Christ. Surely it is useless to send missionaries to Asia and Africa, and build Baptist chapels in Rome, while such a state of spiritual darkness exists within a few miles of the city of churches.—Brooklyn Eagle.