News and Miscellany

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 12, 1867

News and Miscellany.

Can ye not discern the Signs of the Times? Matt. xvi. 3.

Japan.—Late advices from Japan, by way of San Francisco, state that, owing to internal disturbances in the country, rice has risen in value to such an extent as to cause the Government serious alarm. Several riots were reported to have taken place.

Africa.—Late advices received from Sierra Leone, West coast of Africa, state that an earthquake had occurred there which was very destructive of human life and property.

London, Feb. 8. Intelligence from Servia represents affairs as so threatening that the families of Turks are fleeing from the country.

—The Greek government in a note to foreign powers declares that the crisis of war is near at hand, and though their desire is for peace, they deem it proper to propose an increase of the army and navy.

—Notwithstanding positive advices to the contrary this morning, reports have been received to-night that the troubles in lower Belgium are increasing.

An Ague Story.—It probably would not be best for all those afflicted with the ague to pursue just the course mentioned in the following incident. It nevertheless shows what a powerful agent water is in the treatment of that disease: “CHARLES CHENEY, Newburyport, Mass.—A friend of mine got the ague in South Carolina; he went thence to England, and came hither when he had it every third day, and it hung on a long time. One well day he went two miles after ducks; he shot several on a pond, and he was obliged to wade in after them, which he did, though the water was cold and there was some ice. After he came out he thought what he had done; he was alarmed, and started homeward as fast as he could, and got into a sweat. The next day he went to bed, to have his ague, but to his surprise it did not come, and he has never had it since.”

Signs of the Times.—There are movements, in the religious world, looking to a union of the Protestant

Churches. A new weekly has just been started in Brooklyn, N. Y.—that city of churches—which will represent the new order. We copy the following

BOND OF UNION.

“We, the undersigned, believers in the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures as set forth in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, do hereby pledge ourselves to secure, under God, an open communion, and the recognition of one evangelical ministry, by the interchange of pulpits, thus to make visible the unity of the Church. “And we furthermore solemnly pledge ourselves to stand by each other in securing these ends.”—Phren. Journal.

Remarkable Movement Among the Jews in Bombay. The Indian Portuguese, a Portuguese journal published in Goa, states that great excitement has been caused among the Jews in Bombay, by the publication by the pontiff, H. B. Kyon, “member of the family of Aaron,” who has lately come to Bombay from Jerusalem, of a pamphlet under the title of “The Voice of the Vigilant;” the object of this “Voice” being to persuade the Jews that it is useless to wait any longer for the promised Messiah, as this is Jesus Christ himself, “whose doctrines have been spread all over the world without sword or force.” The “Voice” is said to use arguments that are solid and conclusive. “Compare,” says the pontiff, “the Old and New Testaments, and the truth will be seen.” He also adds that he was born in the old law, and under it was elevated to the pontificate, but the light has already penetrated with its rays into the deep recesses of his mind, and he is therefore persuaded, and with well-founded reasons, that it is in vain that the Messiah is now looked for.—Cincinnati Weekly Times.

The Pope and the Protestants.—The Pope has promptly improved the opportunity afforded by the withdrawal of the French troops from Rome to return to the practices of the Church in the Dark Ages. The services of the Scotch Presbyterian church in Rome, a little community of eighty or a hundred foreigners, who have worshipped quietly in a private house for the last dozen years, have been forbidden under the pains and penalties of “the Holy Inquisition.” It is also understood that the services of the American Protestants will be suppressed. Such proceedings in a city governed by the head of the Catholic Church are in strange contrast with the privileges and immunities enjoyed by Catholics in every Protestant country in the world, and go far to justify the Italian revolutionists in their opposition to Papal rule in Rome.—N. Y. Commercial.

Turkish Barbarity.—The following extract from a letter written by a young Greek of education, who is now in Washington, to a friend in Boston, will be read with profound and painful interest: “I had very sad letters from home. Nine of my fellow scholars while in the college (the University of Athens), have been killed by the Turks. Three of them have been taken prisoners by the Turks and have been roasted in the fire. The Turks asked them to submit themselves to the Sultan, and give up the Christian faith, which they refused of course. The Pasha asked to see those three, and after he saw them he asked them to submit to the Sultan again, which they refused again; then he ordered his soldiers to take them away, to make a fire, to roast them, and to give them to the dogs, which they executed immediately. They were young men of education and spirit, graduates of the University, and spoke as many languages as I do, except English and Arabic. Two of them practiced the law and one the civil engineering. They died the death of the hero and they have slept their last sleep upon the arms of Liberty. They have left a great many relations and friends who will mourn for them. If you will look back to the annals of the history of civilized nations, you shall find no equal barbarity between two belligerent nations, only in the Greek revolution of 1821, and in this present sacred war. But patience, we cannot do otherwise, we must accept all the things as they come from Heaven, but this is a bitter thing for one.”—N. Y. Tribune.