SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST ITEMS.
The missionary ship Pitcairn has been heard from, having arrived at Tahiti July 1, Captain Graham reporting all well. Elder J. E. Jayne, president of Maine Conference, has been chosen president of Atlantic Conference, and will change his field of labor about the middle of September. Elder H. E. Robinson, the retiring president of Atlantic Conference, goes to England to take the place of Elder D. A. Robinson, who has been assigned to India. Unusual interest is reported in meetings held at Letart, W. Va., by Brother Wm. Hutchinson. People come a distance of ten miles to hear Christ set forth in the light of Scripture. Two Baptist ministers are reported as among the regular attendants, and one of them became so much interested that he proposed and took up a collection for the support of the work. Elder D. C. Babcock, president of West Virginia Conference, notes the arraignment of a brother and two sisters in one of the popular churches to which they formerly belonged, because of their acceptance of the Sabbath of the Lord. The feature of the trial which shows the tendency of the times was the refusal of the minister in charge to allow the accused to use either the Bible or the Discipline of the church in their defense. At the recent session of Atlantic Conference, it was decided that Elders E. E. Franke and G. D. Ballou conduct another series of tent meetings in Baltimore; that tent meetings be inaugurated in Washington City, under direction of Elder O. O. Farnsworth; also in Salem, N. J., by Elder R. D. Hottel and Brother A. J. Howard; and in Brooklyn, N. Y., Elder J. F. Hansen will again engage in tent work for the benefit of the Scandinavian people. The Louisville, Ky., Times of August 5 has this encouraging item: “The meetings in the Gospel tent on Broadway, between Twenty-second and Twenty-third Streets, continue with unabated interest, under the leadership of Elder J. W. Collie and his assistants. Nearly seven hundred people were present last night. Elder Collie is making arrangements for a large pavilion, to accommodate about a thousand people. The subject under consideration this week is one that is agitating the theological world,—‘Which day is the Sabbath?’” The International Tract Society, London, has again been arraigned before the Police Court for allowing female employees to labor in its publishing house on Sunday in violation of the Factory Act. On the former occasion of prosecution the fines and costs imposed amounted to about thirty dollars, which was collected by attachment of property. On the latter occasion there were five charges, and the full penalty of the law was imposed, fines and costs amounting to about eighty dollars. The Jews are exempt from the operations of this Factory Act, but Christians who observe the seventh-day Sabbath “according to the commandment,” and then work on Sunday, must be made to pay a fine therefor. Such is one of the incongruities of the church and state or “Christian nation” idea. But, as in America, the court plea is, “I am here to administer the law of the land.” And here is where the “Irrepressible conflict” comes, the Bible Christian will “obey God rather than men.”