Religious Notes | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 30, 1882

Religious Notes.

—Canada has a Catholic population of 2,000,000.

—The First Presbyterian Church in New Albany, Ind., has taken a new departure, and elected a board of eight deaconesses.

—A Concordance of the New Testament in Chinese has been prepared by Rev. Mr. Noyes, of the Presbyterian Mission, Canton.

—The Methodists of Evanston, Ill., recently held a debt-raising supper, and raised $16,000. What would the church do if men didn't think so much of eating and drinking? The stomach seems to be the moving power in modern religion.

—A Baptist Congress has just been held in Brooklyn, N. Y. The president of various Baptist educational institutions were present. Rev. Dr. Boardman in his address said that theology must be progressive, keeping in line with history, and that all progress was evolution.

—It is reported that the old slave-market of Zanzibar, where formerly were sold 30,000 slaves annually, has been transformed into mission premises, with a church, mission-house, and school, under the charge of the Universities' Mission to Africa, started in 1859 at the suggestion of Dr. Livingstone.

—The Rev. A. S. Fiske, of the Howard-Street Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, said in a recent sermon: "Our churches are adjusted to all tastes, to all forms of human philosophy, to all climates, and races of men, to all exigencies of service." Now if they were only nicely adjusted to the Bible, nothing more could be required.

—The Hebrew-Christian work in New York City is reported as making steady progress. On three successive Sabbaths, Rabbi Jacob Freshman has administered the rite of baptism to a number of Israelites. A large number of Jews have called upon him for instruction in the gospel of Christ, the number calling during the month sometimes reaching as high as eighty.

—According to the Statesman, the National Reform movement, whose object is to secure a recognition of the Christian religion in the Constitution of the United States, is gaining strength rapidly. Of a recent convention in Wooster, Ohio, a writer says that he "has not seen such a waking up of the indifferent, and such revolution of opinion and sentiment accomplished by any convention."

—J. H. Beadle, in "Western Wilds," says of Mormonism: "The death of Mormonism will not end Utah's troubles. Instead of 75,000 fanatics, there will be 150,000 infidels—all those of Mormon parentage having no philosophy to take the place of religion. The Mormon doctrine that it is right to lie for the good of the church, has made deceit an institution." Well, a community of infidels cannot be any worse than a community who recognize no laws but those that are promulgated by a depraved and licentious hierarchy. If people will lie and commit adultery, it is better for them to do it on their own responsibility, and not do it under cover of religion.

—An exchange puts forward with all seriousness the theory that the intense darkness which covered the land for three hours while Christ hung on the cross, was caused by clouds of smoke, which were providentially ordered that way. It doesn't pretend to say where the immense fires were which produced the smoke for this occasion; of course not. These scientific theologians, who know just how everything is done, very often forget some essential points. Whether there was any smoke there or not, there was certainly a great amount of fog in the region where that theory was evolved. It is certain that He who made the sun could find means to darken it, without depending on human aid.

—The Occident takes Henry Ward Beecher to task for misrepresenting the doctrines held by the churches of to-day. It says that he "writes at times as though he were born in the middle ages, and had just waked up to the dreadful fact that certain monks were proclaiming a hell of material fire, a literal furnace of brimstone," etc.; that he is "misrepresenting and caricaturing the orthodox evangelical creeds of the day." Then "orthodox evangelical" churches do not now believe that material fire will be used in the punishment of the wicked. Come to think about it, it does not seem consistent that immaterial souls should be burned in material fire. No wonder so many "orthodox" people are beginning to think that it is immaterial whether the wicked are punished at all or not.

—Joseph Henry Allen, a Professor in Harvard, has published a book entitled "Our Liberal Movement in Theology," in which, speaking of the resurrection of Christ, he says: "It is probable not too much to say that no educated mind—that is, no mind trained in modern methods—now believes that a body of flesh and blood literally came from the grave, and in plain sight of men rose above the clouds—the view of it which most early believers maintained with great intrepidity. That has passed away, along with the dogma of the resurrection of the body, which it was held to prove." We have no doubt but that the Professor speaks the truth, for there is no accounting for the vagaries of a "mind trained in modern methods." We are old fogyish enough to hold fast to an ancient method of which Paul has a great deal to say; we mean faith.

—The Christian at Work says that Archdeacon Dunbar, of the "Church of the Holy Apostles," has just started a "religious venture" in London. It is this: He has taken a building capable of seating 8,000 persons. In this place it is intended that sixty surpliced choristers shall sing the most elaborate services that ever were heard in a church at which an Anglican minister officiated. The surpliced choir will be assisted by another choir of 100 voices, and by a full band of brass, string, drum, and harp. The body of the church will be lighted by an enormous silver gilt cross with four arms, the extremities of each arm containing a red-colored lantern, illuminated by the electric light. Costly pictures will be upon the walls. There will be daily service with a quartet choir, an elaborate service on Saturday nights, and on Sunday the clash and clang of every instrument heard in an orchestra. In the morning, grand masses, beginning with Mozart's 'Twelfth Mass,' will be said in their entirety. In the evening will be given in succession, opening with 'Stabat Mater,' such oratorios as 'The Messiah,' 'The Creation,' 'Elijah,' Beethoven's 'Mount of Olives,' Sullivan's 'Light of the World,' and Gounod's 'Redemption.'" We have them in this country, only here we call them operas.

—This from the Advance: "Just think of eight millions of Jews scattered in every land, speaking every language, polished by every culture! What a missionary army if the veil were removed from their hearts and in tears of penitence and tenderness of love they went forth proclaiming for their own Messiah: 'The heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession!' There are indications that such a possibility is less remote than formerly. Large numbers of the educated Jews belong to the Reformed faith, in which liberal, rationalistic views are adopted. Such skepticism, like that of Greece and Rome, looks unconsciously toward Christianity." The faith of the Advance amounts to the simplest credulity. The idea that rationalism and skepticism are precursors of Christianity is indeed a novel one. If the Jews still clung to the original faith of their fathers, there would be much hope of converting them to Christianity, but skepticism does not lead that way. But here is the point. Many of the popular churches are becoming extremely "liberal" in their views. They consider it a mark of bigotry to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. Naturally enough since they imagine themselves to be all right, they think that others who are traveling the same road are in the right path. The church is going toward the world; by and by they will unite, and then the cry will go up. "The millennium has come!" What a millennium!