p. 419 | Religious Notes

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Sep 14, 1882

Religious Notes.

—At Andover, Ill., a small country town, there is a Swedish Church numbering but fourteen less than 1,000 members.

—Trinity Church, New York, is the wealthiest religious corporation in the United States, its property being worth $50,000,000.

—A "mile-long" petition from the women of England in favor of Sunday closing was recently presented to Parliament. To this has been added another from the magistrates of England, bearing 3,573 signatures.

—Rev. R. Sailiens, of Marseilles, asserts that infidelity in France has been sown by the small pamphlets and tracts from the pen of Voltaire, rather than by huge books from England and Germany, and urges the need of scattering religious leaflets and small portions of the Scriptures among the people, to counteract the influence of these infidel publications.

—A writer in the Advocate thinks that "if Mr. Pixley were converted clear through he would be a whole camp-meeting in himself. This remark is made in view of his enthusiastic support of the Sunday-Law plank in the late convention. If the Sunday is the "foundation" of religion, he is pretty well converted now, and we may expect soon to see him attach "Rev." to his name.

—The New York Times has collected the following facts with regard to the Sunday-schools of that city. There are now in New York 365 Protestant Sunday-schools, with a membership of 118,008, a gain of 25,000 in the last decade. The Episcopal Church has the largest number of scholars attending its schools; the Presbyterian Church is next. There are churches with a thousand or fifteen hundred members, that have not more than one hundred Sunday-school scholars in direct communication with the church.

—The S. S. Times gives the following incident as a fulfillment of the text, "Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days:" Some years ago the scholars in a Philadelphia Sunday-school contributed for the support and education of a girl in a mission-school in Syria. She grew up, married a Syrian Christian, and the young couple went on missionary service up the Nile. When the recent trouble commenced, they were hurried down the Nile and over to Malta. Huddled with a mass of fugitives, they knew of no one to whom to go for help and sympathy except those in Philadelphia by whom the girl was educated. So without advice or invitation they started on their long journey to America. They patiently sought out the superintendent of that Sunday-school, and the next Sunday the two Syrians were in the school, where, although entire strangers, they felt at home.

—The East Oakland Vidette, in its last issue, gives utterance to some strong language on the Sunday question. Referring to the anti-Sunday plank of the Democratic platform, it says: "He who expects to be elected on such a damnable platform, especially in this country, is no less than an unreasoning fool." And of the man who drew up the plank, it says, "He has kindled a veritable religious war, as vehement in its spirit as ever flamed in the glens of Scotland. Since the conflict has been begun by the powers of darkness, let the fighting go on and the forces continue to be arrayed in solid phalanx." It further says that after the election next fall, "there will be somewhat less difficulty in enforcing the Sunday Law. Some means will be found to improve the judicial perceptions of county justices and municipal Police Courts, and to make the average juror a little more cautious about perjuring his soul." These words will serve to convey to our readers some idea of the spirit of the contest. And yet there are papers that try to have us believe that it does not mean anything.

—The Sunday-schools all over the land are now engaged in the study of the 13th chapter of Mark, and the religious journals are for the time being Adventist papers. Of course in the multitude of comments there are some errors, but there is much that is good. We give below extracts from the various lesson comments:—

"The manner of his coming. 'In clouds with great power and glory.' Not in weakness, as when he came to earth in the manger at Bethlehem. At the hands of men he is no more to suffer shame. The day of his triumph and recognition is coming. The signs of the coming of that day, so provocative of fear and of distress among the enemies of our Lord, will be as encouraging announcements to his servants. 'But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads; because your redemption draweth nigh.'

"We are told to learn a parable of the fig-tree. 'When her branch is now become tender, and putteth forth its leaves, ye know that summer is nigh.' When that sign is seen, there is no need of an almanac. Each blossom and each leaf are unmistakable announcements of the nearness of summer. Thrilled with a new life, the tree is trying to clothe itself in garments befitting the coming of the season. 'Even so ye also, when ye see these things coming to pass, know ye that he is nigh, even at the doors.' The terrible portents are but as the blossoms and leaves of the fig-tree! They denote that the long-delayed summer season of the world is at hand,—the day of blossoms, of leaves, and of fruit! 'Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.'"—S. S. Times.

Dr Lyman Abbott comments thus: "If they tell you he is in the desert, go not forth for him; if they say he is hidden in the city, believe it not; for the Son of man, when he does come again, will not come as now, un-recognized and unknown. His coming will be instant, and it will be known to all men. As the lightning flash runs from east to west, and every eye beholds it, so will be the second coming of the Son of man. He shall come to an unexpectant world as the flood came; he shall come a Judge and a King; and so close and searching shall be his judgment that those whose lives are most interwoven, the two laborers in the field, the two grinding at the mill, shall find themselves separated, the one taken and the other left. 'Watch, therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.'"