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

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 8, No. 15.

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Religious Notes.

-St. Xavier's Church (Catholic), at Cincinnati, O., was burned, April 7th. Loss, about $200,000.
-Dr. Hamilton, pastor of the Independent Church, Oakland, dropped dead in the pulpit while delivering his sermon, last Sunday.
-The first trial in Alameda, under the Sunday Law, resulted in a disagreement of the jury. The Encinal expresses a doubt of there being any more arrests.
-A "Christian Convention," to be attended by delegates from all parts of California, has been appointed to be held in Oakland, April 18th, 19th, and 20th.
-Since the beginning of the Indepenednt Catholic movement in New York, sixty or seventy priests or priestly students have left the Church of Rome and joined the movement.
-A writer in a religious journal says: "One thing is certain. A continually increasing class are coming to regard attendance on public worship as perfunctory—less a religious duty than the satisfying of a social necessity."
-According to the account of the Methodist, there have been, since the beginning of the present year, more than 50,000 conversions, in 1,709 churches; and five-sixths of this number, over 40,000, has been in the M. E. churches of the country.
-Dean Bradley, the successor of the late Dean Stanley of Westminster, said in a recent sermon that he was deeply interested in war, because it had done so much to develop human character! So has whisky, but a higher development is to be desired.
Rev. Dr. Max Lilienthal, Rabbi of the chief Jewish congregation of Cincinnati, died April 5th, from a paralytic stroke. He was one of the oldest of the Rabbis in this country, and was highly respected both in this country and in Europe, for his upright character, and his intellectual attainments.
-The Christian at Work says, "The 'comings' of Christ are as various as many [numerous]." Possibly the C. at W. has received some information later and more reliable than Paul's statement in Heb. 9:28: "And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."
-We are occasionally treated to some rare bits of information in the progress of the Sunday movement. For instance, a lawyer, in pleading a case recently, stated that Sunday laws have been in force since the days of Moses! It is not, however, much to be wondered at that a lawyer should make such a statement, when ministers continually assert the same thing.
-A new plan for swindling worldlings for the benefit of the gospel, has been devised by a San Francisco church. It is what is called a "Package Party." Each individual brings an article of some trifling value, so wrapped as to entirely conceal its nature. The articles are then put up at auction and sold to the highest bidder. The proceeds are for the benefit of the mission school. Compare with this, Micah 7:2, 3.
-Dr. McDonald stated at the last meeting of the San Francisco Home Protection Association, that they still intend and expect to enforce the Sunday Law. He says: "We do not think the law is perfect. Laws are never made perfect at first, but we expect at the next session of the Legislature to make some changes by way of amendment, so as to make it just what a Sunday law, ought to be." He does not think the law will be repealed. He certainly is very hopeful, for the outlook at present is not very favorable for the law.
-Rev. Mr. Kimball, the famous raiser of church debts, is at work in Oakland. The debt on the First Presbyterian Church, amounting to about $25,000, has been raised, and last Sunday, $32,000 of the $40,000 debt of the First Congregationalist Church was raised. He is a vigorous worker, and goes about his work in a common-sense manner. He requested that the names of those who subscribed should not be published. "A church debt," said he, "is a sin and a disgrace, and should be got rid of as quickly and quietly as possible."
-Speaking of the supposed scarcity of ministers, a writer in the Sabbath Recorder says: In a First-day Baptist Church that I am intimately acquainted with, notice was given that they wished to obtain a minister. In a few days fourteen letters were received from as many ministers, many of them accompanied with long recommendations and certificates of standing. A wealthy Presbyterian Church near New York City, desiring to settle a pastor, invited different ministers to visit them and preach to them, till no less than thirty-six had been tried, and were then unable to decide which would suit them best.