ITEMS OF INTEREST by A. J. B.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 5, 1901

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

By A. J. B.

— Seventeen divorces were recently granted in two days at Rockford, Ill., and “fifty cases are set for this term of court.”

— Russia is now planning to build “a railway to connect the trans-Caspian line with the Persian province of Khorassin.”

— Commander Uriel Sebree was recently ordered to “relieve Capt. B. F. Tilley as commandant of the naval station at Tutuila, Samoa.”

— Dr. Von Blowitz states that he has “arranged for colonizing 65,000 Hebrews in Mexico,” and that he has bought 1,000,000 acres of land in the State of Sonora.

— Leo XIII has just revised his Index Expurgatoris Librorum, removing from the same several notable works, the works of Galileo and Dante’s De Monarchia being among them.

— Speaking of a recent effort to check the flow of the great gas well struck at Velasco, Tex., about three weeks ago, it is stated that “a valve was placed on the pipe, but when an attempt was made to close it, the gas began to raise the 500 feet of casing out of the ground.” The flow at the time was estimated to be 6,000,000 cubic feet per day, and the roar could be heard five miles away.

— The following purports to be taken from the English Churchman, and is going the rounds of religious and secular weeklies: “It is a well-known fact that Rome connived at the assassination of President Lincoln. The late President McKinley, before his death, issued a terrible exposure of the iniquities of Rome, and kindly sent copies of it to the National Protestant Federation. Rome has endeavored to suppress this document, and copies are exceedingly scarce.” Probably the British journal referred to never published this statement. But granting that it did, it is not likely that Mr. McKinley jeopardized his success in politics by thus exposing Rome.

— The leading first-page article of the Inter Ocean of the 21st ult. is devoted to a discussion of the following dispatch from Boston, Mass., dated the 20th: “Because he became a citizen of the United States and swore to uphold the Constitution of his adopted country, James Jackson, of 272 Broadway, Cambridge, has been suspended from membership in the Second Reformed Presbyterian church of Boston, by the Rev. J. M. Foster, pastor; and the New York presbytery at its fall meeting, held in Boston last Tuesday, confirmed the sentence, refusing to sanction the action of the Rev. S. G. Shaw, pastor of the First Reformed Presbyterian church of Cambridge, in admitting Mr. Jackson to membership in his congregation, after his suspension by Mr. Foster. Mr. Jackson is a native of Scotland. . . . At the beginning of the year he was elected an elder in the church. . . . It was while he was being examined that the fact leaked out . . . that Mr. Jackson had become a citizen, but had no intention of taking any active part in politics, stating that he had never voted, and never intended to do so. He became a citizen simply and solely for the comfort and security of his wife, who was about to go abroad, in order to avoid any complications with the emigration laws.” When interviewed, the Rev. Mr. Foster said: “It is true that we look upon the Constitution of the United States as an immoral document and an insult to the Almighty, in that it makes no mention whatever of God, and claims for the people that sovereign power which belongs to God alone. We refuse to accept the Constitution thus defective, and cannot swear allegiance to it.” The Constitution is all right just as it is, because the principles embodied therein are the true democratic principles of the gospel. A thing is not necessarily good nor bad simply because it makes no mention of God. Those hypocrites, the Pharisees, were great sticklers to have texts of God’s word placed in conspicuous places upon their persons;

but that did not make them any better, nor prevent their murder of Christ. If we mistake not, this is the same Mr. Foster who, not long ago, uttered a sentiment to the effect that all who do not keep Sunday are worthy of death. The only difference between many Protestants, so-called, and Pope Leo XIII is that the latter has actually succeeded in becoming pope, while the former have not. A. J. B.