p. 359 | Religious Miscellany by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Sep 16, 1875

Religious Miscellany.

By Editor

The famous monastery of St. Rufina at Rome has been converted into an educational institute for girls under the auspices of the Crown Princess Marguerita.

Dr. John Hall says that the best Sunday-schools he ever saw or heard of are in North Wales. Every North Welchman who goes to church also goes to Sunday-school.

A secular journal of Japan says:— "Christianity seems to be becoming popular and powerful, while our religions are moving in the opposite direction and are decaying."

There was a meeting of a large number of prominent clergymen of San Francisco last week, to consider a proposition for the continuance of the Union Revival Meetings. The sum of $6,000 was asked for to sustain the meetings, and the plan was abandoned.

There will probably be an influx of a new variety of immigrants before long. The Nazarines of Hungary, a powerful and growing sect of Quakers, refuse to render military service, as the Mennonites refused in Russia. The result of the matter will be that the Nazarines will have to go somewhere else. Such people are of no use to a European power just at this particular time. There are 30,000 of them in Hungary.

Another Roman Catholic Bishop has dared to lift up his voice against the monstrous assumption of Vaticanism. He is Bishop of Oporto, Portugal, and in a recent charge to his clergy he denounced in the most plainspoken language the new doctrines of the Immaculate Conception, Papal Infallibility, and the Syllabus. He also spoke in strong condemnation of some of the superstitious practices encouraged by the Ultramontanes.

A new Presbyterian chapel was dedicated in Tokio, Japan, on the 19th of June. The society was formed in 1873, and consists of 68 members. It employs two native preachers and sustains eighteen preaching places in the city. The building is 50 feet long by 30 wide, and will seat 300 persons. The dedication sermon was preached in Japanese, by Rev. Dr. Verbeck. An address was also delivered by Okano, a native Christian, in charge of a church at Yokohama.

The Rev. A. N. Somerville, accompanied by his son, has been making a missionary tour through India, visiting most of the large towns. They took an American organ with them, which proved of great use in drawing the attention of the people. This experiment has led him to think that, in missionary work among the heathen, greater use should be made of the power of sacred song. He characterized the vice, the frivolity, the Ritualism, and the infidelity prevailing among the European inhabitants of India as the greatest adversaries to the spread of the Christian religion which the missionaries had to contend against.

In the recent bloody riots at Miguel, in Central America, "one curious and incredible discovery was made after the murderous affair was over; namely, on the persons of some of the dead rebels were found passports, which, when translated, read as follows: 'Peter, open to the bearer, who died for religion, the gates of Heaven.' These were signed by George, Bishop of San Salvador, and sealed with the seal of the bishopric of San Salvador." The practical question now before the American people is this: Shall we put part of the public schools in the hands of these priests to educate future citizens in this superstition? —Christian Statesman.

The Mennonites are a sect little known beyond the few places where they are found. They derive their name from Menno Symons, a contemporary of Luther, under whose guidance they were organized and indoctrinated. In some respects they are like the Baptists, in others like the Quakers, in still others only like themselves. They are opposed to war, and consistently refuse military service, or to hold civil office. They decline to take oaths, in obedience to their interpretation of the Christian precept, "Swear not at all." They hold it sinful to receive or pay a salary for preaching, and their preachers are chosen by lot. God is held responsible for the character of their preaching, and the faithful are content to receive the gospel from their ministers as God "chooses to give it them."

The Universalists are building a very large and elegant meeting-house, to cost $200,000. Its seating capacity is 1,000. There is something very striking about organized Universalism. There is scarcely a large city on the continent where a prominent Universalist church cannot be reared. But these societies have no power of multiplication. Murry's church of New-York, expired and left no successor. And why is this? No denomination embraces so many young people. The answer is this, People are afraid of it. There is a gush of sentimentality about its talk of love and mercy that well pleases the young. But when life's duties begin, families are gathered, children grow up, the doctrines do not satisfy. The religious longings of the community, even of worldly people, are not answered. Mothers have been heard to say over and over again: "Yes, Universalism may be all very pleasant to hear, and perhaps may be true; but my children are now old enough to understand, and I prefer to have them under other influences"