Religious Miscellany by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jun 17, 1875

Religious Miscellany.

By Editor

—At a recent meeting of the Buffalo Presbytery, at Dunkirk, two Seneca Indians were ordained to the ministry.

—The American Baptists Home Mission Society has about 700 young men in training for the ministry, among the freedmen of the South.

—A large Chinese idol, weighing several hundred pounds, has been sent on to Union College, New York, from China, by one of the alumni. It has had an idol existence of several hundred years in the Celestial Empire.

—The Wesleyan Methodist Commercial Record and Year Book gives the number of Methodist members throughout the world at 3,692,768, those on trial not included.

—The Jewish Messenger says that the Jews are more numerous in New York City than in any European city, exceeding the Jewish population of Warsaw, London, Berlin, and even Constantinople.

—The review of a year’s work by the Baptists of Great Britain shows a moderate progress. The Baptist Missionary Society expended £42,533, and entered on a new year without debt. Nine new missionaries have been sent out, and 3,546 baptisms were reported.

—Bishop Alfred Lee, of Delaware, has been to Mexico. He found three Protestant congregations in the City of Mexico, to which about three thousand persons are regularly attached, with three thousand more in occasional attendance. He ordained seven ministers, and confirmed one hundred and thirty members of the church.

—Mr. Oliver Johnson, managing editor of the Christian Union, in his testimony in the Beecher case the other day, admitted himself to be a spiritualist, and avowed that he had received communications from the spirit-world, the last about eighteen months ago. Cases like this are multiplying, where editors of Christian papers, and ministers in the desk are found to be thorough spiritualists; and yet they retain their positions.

—The receipts of the Bible Society for last year were $577,569, or $86,000 less than the year previous. Among other items of interest to be noted is the completion of the entire Scriptures in the Mandarin language, the general colloquial dialect of the Chinese. Every Chinaman who can read will thus be able to read this version.

—The question whether congregations should require of their pastors one or two sermons on Sunday is attracting a good deal of attention in religious papers. The inclination both of the people and the ministers seems to be more and more in favor of only one sermon. This indicates how little zeal for religion is felt by both priests and people.

—Alas! for the poor blinded Jews. One by one they are giving up the fundamental pillars of their forefathers. They declare that the story of a coming Messiah was always only a pleasing fancy. Few of them attend worship on the Sabbath any longer. Some of their doctors advocate the adoption of Sunday instead of the Sabbath as the only way to keep up any service. The Jewish Messenger laments that they have no Tract Society, no Historical Society, no anniversaries, nor much any way that shows life and zeal for the faith.

FOREIGN.

—The number of Israelites in London is about thirty thousand.

—The Archbishop of Canterbury, England, favors the Moody revival, and advises Episcopal ministers to assist him.

—Anarchy has already begun in parts of Mexico and a revolution is threatened in consequence of the action which the government took against the Sisters of Charity.

—The Jewish asylum for old persons at Rome has received 200 lire from the king, 400 lire from the National Bank, and 600 lire from the Minister of Education as subscription.

—An instructor in the family of the English Ambassador at Rome was present at a ceremony in the Vatican, and remained seated while every one else knelt in the presence of the pope. He was expelled by the guards, and the Ambassador dismissed him from his family.

—Lay preaching is becoming quite popular among the nobility of England. The Marquis of Cholmondeley has been preaching at St. George’s Hall, London, and so has the Earl of Cavan, who is also assisting regularly at the meetings of Moody and Sankey. Lord Radstock has also been preaching in England but has transferred his labors to St. Petersburg.

—Some wealthy Israelites in Rome are discussing the feasibility of erecting a Rabbinical Seminary in that city, and the indications are that soon, in the vicinity of the Vatican, a college for Jewish ministers will be established. What a revolution from former years! Who can deny that the prophecy is fulfilled which said of the pope, “They shall take away his dominion.” Dan. 7:26.

—It is stated that a Hindoo society has been formed at Lucknow, having for its object “the reading and explanation of the sacred books of the Hindoo religion, the publication of a Hindoo religious journal, and the promotion of the social and religious welfare of all classes of Hindoos. The leading Hindoo journal of that city warns parents against sending their children to Mission schools. The Mohammedans of Lucknow have also formed a society to employ itinerant preachers and support a journal in defence of Islamism against the attacks of Christian missionaries.