Religious Miscellany by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · Aug 12, 1875

Religious Miscellany.

By Editor

—The Jews are to build a university in London, costing $750,000.

—The Swedish Lutherans in the west have established a new college at Knoxville, Ill.

—A written discussion on the Sabbath question is to be published in the Baptist Banner and the Sabbath Recorder.

—Next year will be the 100th anniversary of the first gospel sermon preached in Kentucky. In May, 1776, James Tinsley preached at Old Harrodsburg fort the first sermon ever preached in Kentucky.

—Messrs. Moody and Sankey have been invited by the representative pastors in New York City to visit that metropolis in the fall, and conduct religious services similar to those held by them in London and other foreign cities.

—On the fifth of May, a monument, erected to Dr. Herz, at Erlangen, Bavaria, was disclosed to public view with due ceremony. It was the first time that a Jew received a public monument or statue in one of the German cities.

—Iowa College, at Grinnell, in that State, celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary last month, and reminds us of the extreme youth of the country in that direction by claiming to be the oldest institution of the kind west of the Mississippi.

—A distinction which no Israelite ever received before, was given to Cavaliere Artom, general secretary of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, by the Emperor of Austria, at his recent visit to Italy. Mr. Artom was decorated with the Stephen's order, one of the highest of the Austrian Empire.

—The population of Jerusalem is estimated at 21,000, of whom 5,000 are Moslems, 5,500 Christians, mostly of the Greek Church, 10,000 Jews, and about 500 Europeans, chiefly Germans. The Jewish population has increased about 2,000 within the last two years; and German settlers also arrive in considerable numbers. The manufacture of soap is the chief native industry.

—At the Young Men's Christian International Convention, at Richmond, Mr. Wheeler, the only colored delegate, was treated most unchristianly. The committee assigned him a lodging at a low groggery, and he was advised not to be present at either of the reception meetings as the ladies of Richmond were not used to such things.

The Tunkers, or Dunkards.—This religious sect was founded in Germany in 1708, and in 1719 and 1729 emigrated to this country, to which it is chiefly confined. They are not only plain but very coarse in their dress. Are opposed to much education, pay their preachers nothing, and baptize by the candidate three times face foremost into the water. They are quite numerous in some States.

—The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions is now sustaining 134 ordained American missionaries. There are 77 ordained native preachers, and 34 licentiates laboring with these 134. The schools of the board employ 167 American teachers, 160 of them being women. In addition to these 167 Americans, there 391 native teachers. The total number of the working force of the board in foreign lands is 301 Americans and 502 natives.

—A Catholic paper, the New York Tablet, thus mourns over the persecutions of the Catholics in Germany:—

“The slightest allusion in a sermon causes a priest to be indicted, and, in consequence of it, imprisoned. For instance, the vicar from Ludwigsdorf was lately arrested on account of a quotation used in his sermon,—‘If our Lord were now on earth he would also be imprisoned and exiled’—for which remark he had to spend a week in the solitude of a cell, to meditate on the danger to public peace which arises from such expressions.”

—The Examiner and Chronicle, a Baptist paper, says:—

“The fact has been long and well known that the Congregationalist churches in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine are dying out. In a large number of towns where Congregationalism once existed in great power, the old houses are closed and deserted, or worship is maintained by different denominations, often including Universalists and Spiritualists. Some of the churches in Maine are, for the first time in fifty years, asking aid, and it is feared missionary work in the west will be contracted, and the funds spent at home.”

—Quite a serious trouble has arisen in a fashionable synagogue on Thirty-fourth street, New York. The congregation is divided between the Reformed Jews and the Orthodox Jews. The Reformers are in the majority. Instructed by this class, the trustees have ordered a change in the order of service. The most important and most offensive of changes is the mingling of the sexes in worship. The Orthodox rule sends the women into the gallery, while the men sit below. The trustees have ordered that families sit together as they do in the Christian assembly. Thus old fashioned Judaism is everywhere giving way to modern ideas.

—With a truly Christian and patriotic spirit, Mr. Neesima, the young Japanese converted and educated in this country, but who has now returned to his own land as a missionary, is making efforts to establish a permanent training-school in Japan, where his fellow-countrymen, such as accept the Christian faith, may have the opportunity to be trained as native gospel preachers. The friends of the American Board have undertaken to provide funds for the purpose, and the success of the project now only depends on the favor of Providence and the zeal of Mr. Neesima. His work is one which it will be interesting to watch.