FEDERATION by G. | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 28, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 35.

FEDERATION

By G.

Speaking of the recent move, inaugurated by the evangelical churches of Toledo, Ohio, to form a combine and limit the building of churches throughout the country, the Plain Dealer says:—

The erection of unnecessary churches will be opposed. Where a neighborhood has sufficient church accommodation of whatever denomination, the federation will stand against the erection of other churches. When it is conceded that a neighborhood needs a church, a canvass of the people will be made, and the denomination possessing the most adherents will be aided in the erection of a suitable edifice. A prime idea of the federation will be to stand as a unit for Sunday observance, and for the abolition of gambling and other evils.

Little or nothing is said of late about church union, of which we used to hear considerable. The problem now is federation for the enforcement of such ideas as can be agreed upon. The principal one of these is compulsory Sunday observance; others are, a mild protest against the liquor traffic, and invective against certain forms of gambling. The movement in the matter of church building is a kind of denominational protection against the church-debt evil.