THE RELIGIOUS PRESS by Jos. Clarke

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 14, 1868

THE RELIGIOUS PRESS.

By Jos. Clarke

There is a conservative religious weekly published in New York; its columns are replete with literary notices, productions, essays, &c. Here we find travels of adventurers in foreign lands, in which are dished up for the public palate, all that is calculated to interest the curious and inquiring mind, as to the manners and customs of foreign nations, their history, relics, scenery, and national prosperity.

Here is an account of Mr. ——'s defense of himself in his church prayer-meeting. When asked by one of his parishioners to explain why he allowed his great romance to be dramatized, and placarded and acted in his own city, he replied that what he did as a literary man, he did not do as a pastor of —— church! Here are jokes, and facetious anecdotes. Here are advertised the latest, and most popular magazines and romances. In another religious weekly, we have, in large print, patent medicines, bitters, &c. In fact, we look in vain for real, spiritual food, nourishing and good, in these papers. They are too light for the times. What we want now is light on prophecy and Scripture subjects applicable to our times. The householder must bring out of his treasures things new and old. Can we find such a paper, one that will answer our expectations? We look to the Review, and instead of romance, &c., in its advertising columns, we find a goodly array of tracts on present truth, more than we find time to read as they should be read. Ye hungry souls, here is a feast for you. In these last days, when iniquity abounds everywhere, almost, we have a refuge. Brethren, let us awake to our duty. Let the Review be well sustained by contributions, donations, and bequests. Let the tract fund overflow; and let us not forget the Health Institute, nor our worthy poor. This is no time to lay up fortunes, except to lay them up in Heaven. U. S. bonds may soon be at a heavy discount. If you have them laid up for a rainy day, do not get too many of them on hand. We may invest in a sure fund, a safe bank. If any still hold back from unbelief, we hardly know what to say to them. Our evidences are so plain it seems folly to urge the faithless. Thank God there is a religious periodical, and there is a religious association striving to move in the order of the Lord. Jos. CLARKE.