Religious Notes by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 24, 1883

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 9, No. 20.

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Religious Notes.

By Editor

—It is said that the gods of the Hindoos number 330,000,000.

—There are 2,000 Indians in Dakota that belong to the Catholic Church.

—The Congregationalists of Utah have six preachers and twenty-two teachers.

—Mr. Gladstone, it is said, is writing a book on the "Evidences of Christianity."

—It is now proposed to establish a regular National Evangelical Church in Egypt.

—Bishop Jesse T. Peck, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, died May 18, at Syracuse, N. Y., of pneumonia.

—E. S. Todd, pastor of the First M. E. Church, Oakland, is soon to assume the pastorate of the 61st Street M. E. Church, New York City.

—King Humburt, of Italy, recently received a deputation of Protestants, inquired about their doctrines, and in dismissing them, wished them "God speed."

—Atafu, one of the islands of the Samoa group, reports that its adult population are either members of the church or candidates for membership. The missionary in charge thinks that it ought to be called the "Millennial Isle."

—A St. Louis clergyman has the credit of stating an old truth in the following striking manner: "If a man is thoroughly a Christian, the nerve that runs from his brain to his wallet will be just as much Christianized as the one that runs from his brain to his tongue."

—In a recent country trip in Japan, Miss Clara A. Sands, with her helpers, made the largest sale of Scriptures that was ever made in that country in the same length of time. Three hundred and fifty copies of the Gospel were sold in an hour and a half, in the interval between addresses. The people present numbered more than five hundred.

—The Christian Union speaks of an infidel town "where there has been practically no Christian Sabbath." That's nothing; we can mention scores of places where there is no Christian Sabbath; in fact, we don't know of any place where it does exist. The "Sabbath of the Lord," however, exists everywhere, a weekly witness against those who trample it under foot.

—From 1865 to 1880 the population of Brooklyn, N. Y., doubled, but the number of Presbyterian churches was increased by but one. The present seating capacity of the churches of Brooklyn is one hundred and sixty thousand. This, with a population of over half a million, hardly entitles it to be called "The city of churches." Only one-fourth of its inhabitants could attend church at one time, if they wished to do so.

—The secular journals quite frequently assume the censorship in religious matters, and are wont to speak contemptuously of religious journals. Here is an illustration of their ability to guide in matters of religion: A correspondent of one of the largest New York dailies inquired: "Will you be kind enough to tell me where in the New Testament I will find the passage, 'She hath done what she could'?" To which, after due search with concordance, the great paper replied: "We cannot find it, and doubt the accuracy of the quotation, if it is meant as a Scriptural sentence."

—The Congregationalist gives the following item: "At the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Jesuitism in this country at the church of the Immaculate Conception in Boston recently, Bishop O'Reilly said: 'No one outside of the church of Jesus Christ can be saved, and it is needless to prove that this church is the only church of Jesus. One might as well have tried to be saved outside of the ark in the days of Noah.' After this there followed a banquet, and on the bill of fare were five different kinds of alcoholic drinks." "By their fruits ye shall know them."

—Joseph Cook says: "President McCosh is a philosopher of most eminent rank, abreast of modern science, and almost monthly publishing something that leads thought in most learned circles, here and abroad. What does he do? In spite of his learning, in spite of the dignity of his office, in spite of the majesty of his character—or, rather, on account of it—he is accustomed to take young men to his study for personal conversation on religion and for prayer. Very few skeptical and dissipated young men leave Princeton without knowing what the president's private intercourse is, and its relations to these high matters."