Religious Notes | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Aug 9, 1883

Religious Notes.

—The Illinois Supreme Court has just decided that a contract made on Sunday is just as binding as if entered into on any other day.

—The S. S. Times says: “When a minister’s preaching hits any particular sin to which his hearers are addicted, he is pretty sure to be complained of because he dosen’t stick to ‘gospel preaching.’”

—There has recently been a great sale of relics in Italy, but the pious Catholics who manufacture them are dismayed by the low prices which they bring. Certain relics of St. Peter brought only four francs.

—We learn that the School Superintendent of California has rendered a decision forbidding Trustees to allow religious services to be held in district school houses, under penalty of a forfeiture of their school appointment.

—Emperor William has directed that the four-hundredth birth-day of Martin Luther be observed by all Protestant people. The students of the University will celebrate at Erfurt on August 8th the entry of Luther into that town.

—“Observer,” in the Christian Union, says: “I am convinced that preaching does not deal vigorously enough with the consequences of sin; that the old dogmas are not much preached, even by those who pretend to hold them, because they are unpreachable now; and as a consequence there is need of return to the gospel method of dealing with men’s consciences—the crowling of motives that stir the souls of the impenitent in their innermost workings, so that the fires within shall move them to immediate works of righteousness.”

—Rev. Newman Hall, in the Independent, takes the position that the popular system of renting pews is neither reasonable, equitable, nor expedient. It is not expedient because more money would be brought into the treasury if it were abandoned. It is not equitable, because pew-holders do not contribute in proportion to the advantages received. And it is not reasonable, because, as he says, “A Christian church is a society of believers. The qualification is not wealth, but faith and holiness. The object of assembling is not to provide an entertainment which shall be a financial success, but to worship God, to nourish piety in the saints, and to convert sinners by the word. A pew-renter chooses a certain church because it is fashionable, or the service imposing, or the music good, or the preacher eloquent, original, amusing; not from any real love for worship itself. Yet, because he can pay the regulated price, he may occupy one of the most convenient or conspicuous seats, while others, who worship in spirit and in truth, and aid every sermon by earnest prayer, are treated as strangers in their own church.”