Religious Notes | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 26, 1882

Religious Notes.

—Rev. Robert Paine, senior bishop of the M. E. Church, South, died at Aberdeen, Miss., Oct. 20.

—Rev. John Hemphill, of the Calvary Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, has accepted a call to Philadelphia.

—There were 212 additions to the Methodist Church at St. Paul, Minn., at the close of the effort of Harrison the revivalist.

—An able article by an educated Hindoo, not a Christian, advocating the use of the English Bible in the government schools, has attracted much attention in India.

—The Salvation Army has commenced operations in San Francisco. It differs in no material respect from the "Holiness Association," the leaders of the latter acting as officers of the former.

—Statistics show, it is said, that the world spends $888 for tobacco for every dollar given for missions. And much of this tobacco money comes from church members who are "too poor" to give anything for the spread of the gospel. Which do they love more, God or their tobacco?

—Over a thousand churches were represented in the recent Universalist Conference at Philadelphia. A resolution was adopted condemning the death penalty, recommending more humane punishment, declaring strongly in favor of Constitutional prohibition, and asking for stringent laws to prevent cruelty to animals.

—We have received a copy of one our religious exchanges which contains a large double-sheet fashion-plate. This shocks one's sense of propriety, but we think after all that it is better than mixing up religious items with quack medicine advertisements. We are sorry to say, however, that the paper in question does the latter also.

—Quite an excitement has existed in Toronto among Catholics, because Scott's "Marmion" was used in the reading classes of the public schools. The Bishop objected to it, because it contains the tale of a nun who escaped and was afterwards imprisoned in a niche in the wall. The officials have decided to retain the book in the schools, in spite of the Catholic protests.

—A Methodist minister at Visalia, Cal., recently preached a discourse on the battle of Armageddon, Rev. 16:16; 19:17–21, and came to the conclusion that the battle so vividly portrayed, with its lake of fire, and carcasses of men and beasts, is only an allegorical representation of the peaceful conquests of Christianity. If he really believes thus, he is the personification of credulity and simplicity. And yet he would doubtless be one of the first to scoff at one who, after reading the 24th of Matthew, would say that the Lord's coming is near. Somehow we are not surprised to learn that this man is in favor of a union of church and State.

—Within the last few weeks we have seen many calls for National Reform Conventions. Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Iowa are the States most active in the work. Those who are working for a Religious Amendment to the Constitution of the United States are more zealous than ever, and are gaining in strength. They report that in all their meetings held so far their audiences have been gained. In one of the resolutions at the recent Pittsburg meeting it was stated that we are being led "to the crisis of a great moral conflict in which all shall be compelled to take sides." There is a truth in this that they do not realize. Let us see to it that in this conflict we are on the side of God.