Religious Notes | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 2, 1882

Religious Notes.

—Chicago is one of the strongholds of Catholicism in America. That church claims by baptism 312,000 members there, more than one-half the entire population.

—The Occident (Presbyterian) says: “Temperance and the Sabbath [Sunday] have come into politics, and they will stay there until they win a permanent and substantial victory.

—A fund for an American Catholic University has been started in Chicago, and Bishop Spalding has gone to Rome to consult the pope in reference to its establishment in that city. The fund already amounts to $300,000.

—The question of feet-washing as a Christian ordinance is being argued pro and con in the Banner and Gleaner (Baptist). Although the editor does not believe in feet-washing, he admits some articles, which contain sound argument in its favor.

—A minister, in a religious contemporary, recently took it upon himself to criticise Paul. He claims that Paul made a serious “blunder” in his Athens discourse. What a pity that there are not more preachers nowadays who can “blunder” as successfully as Paul did.

—In an interview of New York ministers, on the wants of the churches, the pastor of All Souls Episcopal Church said that there is great danger that the church may find itself wholly on the side of wealth, and the clergy discover that they have accepted retainers from capital.

—It is the complaint of a correspondent of the Western Christian Advocate, that Methodist Sunday-schools are not evangelical, that they excel in reciting orations or dialogues, or in getting up Christmas trees, concerts, and picnics; but that repentance, belief, and conversion, are little thought of.

—A London paper says: “In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, there are about 40,000 places of religious worship; while it appears to be a well-ascertained fact that for every 1,000 persons attending the house of God, above 2,000 are to be found on Sunday in the public houses.”

—William Richardson was deacon of a Baptist Church in Brooklyn, N. Y., and is also president of the Atlantic Avenue Railroad. A few months ago, in order to evade an injunction, he had his men lay track on Sunday. After a long trial, he has been excluded from church membership, by a vote of nineteen to twelve.

—The following blunder is credited to an eminent Boston preacher. In the course of a sermon, he said: “The Master whose we are and whom we delight to serve, has said, ‘all that a man hath will he give for his life.’” Should there chance to be any reader of this paragraph who doesn’t see the point, let him read Job 2:4.

—It is stated that “twelve-thirteenths of the membership of the M. E. Church take no interest in the benevolent collections.” That is, out of 1,681,854 members, 1,556,480 are do-nothings. Of those disinterested ones, 875,320 never give anything, and the remainder give an average of ten cents apiece. The Christian at Work well says that “this ten-cent Christianity is indifferent stuff.”

—The San Francisco Monitor (Catholic) is working zealously in favor of the whisky saloons. The Catholics as a body are vigorously opposing prohibition. It shocks our sense of propriety to see a body of men who profess to be religious, openly championing the vile whisky traffic. Still in this the Catholic Church is true to its record. The mystery of iniquity could not consistently favor a righteous cause.

—Dr. Paspate, a learned archaeologist at Constantinople, who is a great authority on modern Greek, claims that the sacred writers wrote in the ordinary colloquial Greek, instead of the classical, and that it differs but little from that spoken at the present day. He suggests that some, at least, of the difficulties with which the revisers had to deal, might have been solved had there been in the company one well acquainted with modern and mediæval, as well as with ancient, Greek.

—The American Baptist Flag tells of a Baptist meeting where the ordinance of feet-washing was attended to, and approvingly says of some Methodist brethren and sisters, who were invited to join, that “they thought too much of themselves to take part in such a union.” This is the trouble with too many; they “think too much of themselves” to follow the example of the meek and lowly Saviour. “Let no man think more highly of himself than he ought to think.”

—A correspondent of the Sabbath Recorder, in an article condemning night work, uses the following language: “When the body is weary, the brain, which is an integral part of the body, and the mind, which is simply brain function, are weary too.” This is a statement of facts which are so simple as to be almost self-evident. The questions then arise, What use can be found for an immaterial soul, when the brain does everything which that nonentity is supposed to do? If the brain does not think, of what possible use is it to a man? and if it does think, as it unquestionably does, why need there be any controversy as to whether God can organize matter to think?

—Here is an item for parents. At the General Conference of Seventh-day Baptists, in the discussion of Sabbath-school work, it was stated as a matter of observation that “those boys who were compelled to go to church and to sit with their parents, when small children, whether they liked it or not, are the young men who to-day are to be found in church and Sabbath-school work; while those who went or not, as they felt like it, are to-day nowhere.” And this testimony will be corroborated by the experience and observation of every thinking Christian. Take the children to church, and teach them how to behave when there. If you do not, the chances are that they will never learn.

—Dr. Lyman Abbott says of the Lord’s Supper: “It is a memorial service; that is clear enough. ‘Do this in remembrance of me,’ was the interpretation which Christ himself gave to it. ‘As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come,’ is Paul’s interpretation. For this purpose any other memorial might have served as well, nay, might even now serve as well, but for associations’ sake.” We differ. We think the command, “Do this in remembrance of me,” defines just what is to be done. All the apostasy of the Catholic Church, with its false Sabbath, false baptism, etc., arose from persons claiming to know the mind of the Lord so well as to be able to institute laws and ceremonies equal with his. Simple obedience to a commandment of God, because it is a divine command, is getting very rare.

—The detachment of the Salvation Army that went to India, got into trouble. They had their street parade, dressed in fantastic attire, with fife and drum, and were fined on the charge of gathering an unlawful assembly. The magistrate said that in England the people professed one religion, and efforts like those of the Salvationists to reclaim the fallen would meet with universal sympathy; but when they came to India, to convert people from one faith to another, they must avoid noisy and peculiar demonstrations, as these were sure to excite angry feelings and passions, and to provoke counter demonstrations. If the Salvationists desired to preach Christianity, they would be allowed to do so, with perfect freedom, provided they selected some unobjectionable place; but they could not be allowed to parade the streets in such a manner as to excite the religious feelings of other sects, and so bring the people of different creeds into collision.