Religious Notes by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 4, 1883

Religious Notes

By Editor

--The native Christians of Madagascar have given a million dollars during the last ten years for the spread of the gospel.

--The Catholic Telegraph suggests a lottery to pay the debts of Archbishop Purcell. This would be making one swindle pay for another.

--Mr. Beecher says: "I think one reason why religion does not spread more, is, that ministers have so little religion." No one should know so well as he.

--A colporter in Spain has been sent to prison and condemned to pay a fine, because he would not uncover his head when a priest passed with the viaticum.

--Every number of the Christian Statesman contains from one to three calls for National Reform Conventions in the Western States. That cause is rapidly gaining ground.

--The Church of England is the largest land owner in the kingdom. Canon Wilberforce says that it is also the largest owner of public houses, a fact which he very properly calls "a great scandal."

--The Jewish Messenger regrets that Mr. Morse cannot be induced to abandon his proposed Passion Play. It thinks the best form of rebuke will be for all people to refrain from patronizing him.

--A few years ago a country book-seller sent to Chicago an order for, "Six Primitive Christianity." An answer was sent back in solid seriousness, "No Primitive Christianity to be found in Chicago."

--The Christian Guardian says that the sexton is responsible for about one-half the sleeping done in church, and the minister for very nearly the other half. We put in a plea for the Sabbath breakfast or dinner; let it have its share of the credit.

--The New York Penal Code permits only works of necessity to be performed on Sunday, and some of the people are wondering whether a strict enforcement of the law would not cause the number of discourses delivered on that day to be greatly diminished.

--The Quakers have been quite successful in their mission in Mexico. They have established their headquarters at Matamoras, where they have a $4,000 meeting-house. It is said that the Mexicans receive the friends with much confidence, being attracted by their peace principles.

--Mr. Frank James, the cut-throat, is posing as a Christian now. From his luxuriant cell he has denounced Ingersoll, declaring him to be a blasphemer and a hypocrite, who, in ridiculing the Bible, "is sowing the seeds of iniquity in the minds of our youth." Let Ingersoll now subside.

--The "New York Sunday-closing League" has just been incorporated. The members, now numbering 1,500, will use every effort to enforce the Sunday Law. Detachments of the League will patrol the streets, and call the attention of the police to any infringement of the law which they discover.

--The Examiner, in noticing a book on the "Harmony of the Bible with Science," says that there is in it "an old-fashioned sort of faith in the Bible," and almost immediately quotes from it that "the days of creation are long periods of indefinite length." We would like to know how "old-fashioned" that belief is. We believe it is considerably newer than the Bible.

--We learn that the Salvation Army in England has introduced a service of dancing as a means of drawing crowds and winning converts. Well, dancing will draw a larger crowd than almost anything else, and since a crowd is what they are after, why not dance. The same thing is done by many churches in this country. They do not exactly call it a religious service, but they dance to obtain means to help along the religious services. It's all the same thing.