News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 1, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 17.

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—A French Congregational Church has recently been organized at Holyoke, Mass.

—There are now twelve Presbyterian Churches in Tokio, Japan, and the Government daily paper advertises the Bible for sale.

—The Reformed Catholic Church in New York, James A. O'Connor, pastor, has an average Sunday attendance of 2,000 persons.

—The English House of Lords recently rejected, by a vote of 46 to 38, the resolution in favor of opening the national collections on Sunday afternoons.

—The famous "boy preacher" advertised to answer Ingersoll in Tremont Temple, Boston, a few days ago. The performance is said to have been "boyish." Why not? One cannot expect a boy to act like a man.

—The Salvation Army have made 300 recruits in Schenectady, N. Y., and the commander-in-chief of the army in America has decided to build "barracks" at a cost of $2,000. The Mayor of the city headed the subscription list.

—The sixty-fifth annual report of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church shows that the Southern German Conference takes the lead in liberality, its donations averaging $1.45 per member. Only four Conferences give over $1.00 per member, and Mississippi averages one cent per member. The Advocate says that the Conferences are all "creeping up," which, of course, is encouraging.

—The following from Mr. Tyler, missionary to the Zulus of South Africa, shows the civilizing influence of the gospel: "When I came to Natal, thirty-four years ago, there was scarcely a plow among the Kraals. Now there are many thousands. Most of the people were clothed only with the skins of cows or wild animals; now they rarely appear in the town without some articles of civilized clothing."

—The large cities do not monopolize all the enterprise of the modern pulpit. In a village less than a hundred miles from San Francisco, a few weeks ago, the announcement was made through the weekly paper that the services in the M. E. Church the next Sunday would consist of a sermon on "The Cincinnati Riot," and one in the evening on "Our Farming Chances." Surely such sermons ought to "draw."

—In the Independent's notes on the Sunday-school lesson for April 27, on 1 Cor. 8:1-13, we find this precious bit of teaching: "We have a right to our own opinions, and are not to be bullied by oversensitive consciences." We haven't met any one lately who stood greatly in need of such advice. As to opinions, we all have a right to our own opinions, if our opinions happen to be right; otherwise we have not.

—And here is another illustration of 2 Tim. 4:3, 4: "Rev. Clara M. Bisbee is making efforts to transplant her Free Church from Dorchester to Boston proper, and to found it on the simple corner-stone of 'ethical culture.' She hopes by this movement to cause 'isms' to drop out of religion. Her worship will consist of a 'common hymn' with aspiration; the hymn to voice trust in eternal power and the desire for truth and righteousness. There will be no petition to Deity, in the hope that human supplication may reverse the irrevocable decrees of nature, but 'unworded music' shall express our common confidence in that power which makes for righteousness." Oh!

—The Jewish Observer, in opposing the disposition manifested by many Jews to give up the seventh-day Sabbath for the sake of convenience, seeks to arouse them by referring to Seventh-day Adventists, as follows: "The members of this sect are a devoted band of worshipers. They attend their church to a man on the Sabbath day. Those who have business take particular pains to see that their establishment is closed on that day. There is no shirking. Now we would ask if this little band of congregants can stand by their Sabbath, without any serious detriment to themselves, wherefore should the Israelites of this land not be inclined to follow suit? Would it not be a shameful proceeding for us, who are a financial power in the land, to abandon the Sabbath that has been handed down to us through generations to generations, on the mere plea of business convenience? Let us rather profit by the lesson taught by these Seventh-day Adventists, who would not sacrifice one iota of belief for a mere earthly consideration."

—The Christian Union contains the account of a recent council in Norwich, Conn., to install Dr. Nelson Millard as pastor of the Broadway Church. His statement concerning his belief was marked by the usual vagueness—a fear to "dogmatize" concerning the "facts" of Scripture. This fear is getting to be so great that it is esteemed a mark of superiority to say concerning the leading Scripture doctrines, "I do not know." That which struck us the most forcibly, in the report, was this sentence: "He said he knew no theory of the atonement which satisfied him." And yet he presumes to teach men the way of salvation! How can the people be wise unto salvation, when their leaders themselves do not know the way. "Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?" From such a confession of ignorance, it is good to turn to the following sure theory of the atonement: "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleaneth us from all sin." This is something that satisfies.