Religious Notes | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 20, 1883

Religious Notes.

—Leo XIII. says there is no place where he is more pope than in America.

—A Waldensian Church was formally opened in the city of Rome, on the 2d inst.

—It is expected that the new revision of the Old Testament will be published next spring.

—The Chief of Police of Grand Rapids, Mich., has forbidden the Salvation Army to parade the streets.

—A large number of Ohio clergymen have formed a divorce reform league, with Rt. Rev. G. T. Bedell of Cleveland as President.

—A memorial church in honor of Daniel O'Connell, is to be erected in County Kerry, Ireland. The pope has promised donations.

—Philadelphia has a Sunday Breakfast Association, which gathers in the outcasts every Sunday morning, warms them up with a hearty breakfast, and then talks the gospel to them.

—The committee appointed for the revision of Luther's German translation of the Bible has finished the first portion of its task, and has decided to publish a provisional revised version.

—Elder Coons, a Mormon missionary just returned to Salt Lake, reports being rotten-egged in Indiana and pelted with stones in Illinois, yet in the face of this treatment he enjoyed his work.

—The "Major" of the local squad of the Salvation Army in this city refuses to allow sleeping mariners in his barracks. An offender of this class was forcibly ejected a few evenings ago, to the tune of "All Hail to the Lamb."

—It took the Christian missionaries in Japan thirteen years after the first convert was baptized to get a church organized, and then it had but nine members. That was twelve years ago, and now there are over 5,000 Christians in the empire.

—The Congregational Society of the South recently adopted a resolution advocating equality among Christians of all races in religious communion, and strongly condemning the present system of separate churches for white and black Christians.

—Rev. Dr. Wilson, of Kingston, Ont., has been dismissed from the curacy of St. George's Cathedral for attending a meeting of the Salvation Army. A division of the church will likely follow, as personally the Dr. is very popular with his congregation.

—Nearly $25,000,000 have been invested in the search for gold in India, and not $2,500 have been realized after three years' labor. The money invested in missionary labor there, which some short-sighted business men pronounce a waste, has brought substantial and permanent returns. Missions pay, if mines do not.—Christian at Work.

—Dr. Maxson, writing to the Sabbath Recorder from New York, says: "I have been invited to read a paper before the post-graduate class of the Union Theological Seminary, setting forth the history and doctrines of the Seventh-day Baptists. Dr. Hitchcock's clean sweep of Sunday out of the first three centuries of church history is stirring us up."

—The first convert in Japan was baptized in 1866, and his conversion cost $60,000. Some would call that a high price; but think a moment. At that rate, the money spent for alcoholic drinks in the United States would produce over 11,000 Japanese Christians every year; besides, if spent in that way, it would save the lives and energy of the 60,000 Americans who annually fill drunkards' graves. And the consequent prosperity of the nation, happiness of families, and salvation of souls would be beyond present computation.

—Professor Swing, of Chicago, the other Sunday, wanted to tell his young people to be happy, rejoice, and get as much efflorescence from the wine of life as possible, so he took his text from Ecclesiastes 11:9. "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth." And the Professor carefully left off, "but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment." This using texts by way of accommodation, just as you would put a pretty motto on a vase, is becoming monotonous.—Christian at Work.