p. 359 | Religious Notes by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Aug 10, 1882

Religious Notes.

By Editor

—Several hundred Catholics in Lille, France, have bound themselves by an oath not to send their children to the secularized public schools.

—It is said that the removal of the Christian Brothers as teachers of the public schools in France has resulted in an increase of 100,000 scholars.

—The Golden Censer speaks about “the violation of the Sabbath by Sunday camp-meetings.” We would like to know how such a thing could be done.

—It is related of Ex-Governor Hubbard that he one time had a census taken of the State Prison of Texas, and found that not ten per cent. of the convicts had ever attended Sunday-school.

—A Chickasaw Indian proposes to pay half the cost of Testaments to supply the school children of that tribe. The American Bible Society has forwarded him a box of 500 Testaments, which he is now distributing.

—Bishop Crowther, of the English Church Missionary Society on the Niger, reports the average Sunday congregations at the stations on that river as having 3,472 attendants, of whom 1,597 are nominal Christians, and 451 communicants.

—Lo Foo, a Chinaman converted under the labors of Dr. Graves at Canton, sold himself as a slave that he might go to Demerara, and preach the gospel to his fellow-countrymen there. He now has a church of 200 converted Chinamen who are supporting missionaries among their own people.

—“The Supreme Secular Benevolent Association” has been incorporated in Albany, N. Y., according to the Christian Statesman. Its object is “the doing away with the observance of Sunday and national days of thanksgiving as religious days, and the abolishment of the use of the Bible in public schools.”

—The Roman Catholic Bishop Laughlin, of Long Island, has returned a check for $2,000 which had been sent to a church in his diocese, being the avails of a horse-race. More than this, he suspended the priest for taking the money. His action is worthy of all commendation, but as it is the first case on record we fear it will be the last.

—In a nomination for membership in a workingmen’s club in Blockley, England, the vicar objected to a proposed member, stating that he was neither a gentleman nor a Christian, because he had never been baptized. He had no objection to dissenters, but he would have no unbaptized persons in the club. We have known some baptized persons who were not gentlemen.

—In Brooklyn, N. Y., the “Church of the Spiritual Dispensation” was organized recently, with a creed founded on “what is known as Spiritulism.” This “church” must be just the opposite of that built upon “the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.” Spiritualism is built upon the foundation of Satan.

—A widow of a Methodist minister recently died in Helmsley, England, and it was desired to bury her beside her husband. This the vicar would not permit, because it was consecrated ground. There was an unconsecrated part of the cemetery, however, which could be used; but he would not suffer the procession to go in at the ordinary entrance, because the passing of Nonconformists over consecrated ground would hurt the feelings of Churchmen.

—The American Bible Society has refused to handle the Burman Bible translated by Judson, because baptizo is rendered by a word which in the Burmese means “dip.” It says to the Baptist missionaries, “The word baptizo must be transferred, not translated.” But Rev. Matthew Yates, a Baptist missionary in China, says that the American Bible Society publishes a version in China, for Pedo-Baptists, which does not transfer the word, but translates it by the use of the Chinese word See-lee, which means “washing ceremony.” Thus the American Bible Society shows itself not merely an anti-Baptist organization, but dishonest as well.

—The San Leandro Reporter says: “An example of what the laboring man may expect if all Sunday laws shall be repealed is found in the case of H. J. Glenn, who is compelling all his men to work in the harvest field on the Sabbath and fourteen hours a day at that.” The Reporter is evidently in the dark as to the provisions of the California Sunday Law. That law simply prohibits the keeping open of “any store, workshop, bar, saloon, banking-house, or other place of business, for the purpose of transacting business therein.” The law cannot touch farmers. We predict that an amendment will soon be in order, that will call upon farmers as well as trades-people to rest on the “venerable day of the sun.”

—A writer in the Herald of Life, quotes Christ’s words in Matt. 22:37-40, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” It then says: “Moses had not taught thus; but that men should scrupulously follow the letter of the law,” meaning by this that such teaching is not found in the Old Testament, among the writings of Moses. We would remind our friend that Christ’s words were in answer to the question, “Which is the great commandment in the law,” and are an exact quotation of Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18.

—A writer in the Christian at Work protests against the custom of forbidding women to take part in prayer-meetings. He says: “Our meetings are made too unnatural and different from any other gathering. Where else except in an orthodox prayer-meeting, do the women sit in stoical, irresponsive silence? How long could a church sociable or party exist if such were the case there? Are we not inconsistent in asserting that the ‘key to the hearts of the women of many of the heathen nations is in the hands of the women of Christian lands,’ and then debar them from helpfulness in their own land? We mourn over the decline of interest in our Congregational churches, and wonder at the few conversions. What else can we expect of a church where half of its working force is smothered into silence.”