p. 158 | News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 6, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 10.

News and Notes.

By Editor

RELIGIOUS.

—Rev. C. A. Leaman has been elected Police Judge of Chico, Cal., on the temperance ticket.

—On the return of Archbishop Feehan of Chicago from Rome, he was met at the depot by the mayor and a procession of 25,000 Catholics.

—General Grant pronounces the report of his being a Spiritualist a "contemptible falsehood," and says he never attended a seance in his life.

—Rev. J. S. Inskip died at Ocean Grove, N. Y., of paralysis, on the 11th. He has long been known as a leader of Perfectionists of the M. E. Church.

—A Methodist revivalist in Lassen County, Cal., reports having immersed eight persons and sprinkled six. He evidently aims to be "all things to all men."

—An exchange says, "There are in the United States ten kinds of Baptists, nine species of Presbyterians, sixteen varieties of Methodists, and a large assortment of other beliefs."

—The growth in wealth of Roman Catholic religious orders in France during the last thirty-five years is something enormous. In 1848 their property was estimated at $8,900,000. It is now set down at $142,507,200.

—The late Catholic Archbishop of New Orleans held most of the church property in that State in his own name. He bequeathed it to the diocese; but to accept it, involves the assumption of all debts contracted by him during his administration, which amount to $550,000. All the Catholic churches in the United States are appealed to for assistance in the matter.

—A Young Jewess of Scranton, Pa., recently eloped with and married a young man not of the faith; whereupon her family published a notice of her death. Prominent Jews, however, condemn this act, and a Rev. Dr. pronounces it the "outcome of narrow bigotry; while marriages of Hebrews with members of other faiths are often productive of family strife, Judaism has no law by which they are prohibited."

—Rev. Dr. Marvin, of Portland, Oregon, is reported to have said: "I wish some of our stiff, iron-clad, and frost-bound churches would go to school to the devil long enough to learn a little of his suavity of manner and friendly address. Why I sometimes think there is more friendly greeting and welcome to a young man in one beer saloon than in ten of our fashionable churches." The stricture from the fashionable churches may be just (the Dr. runs with them, and ought to know), but the application of the devil's kind of "suavity" and "friendly address" would not mend the matter much.

—The following indictment is awful to contemplate. If it were made by an outside party we would not publish it; but coming from the Church Standard (Episcopal), we think it is not out of place to give the estimate of such an authority of its own church: "We fear that of all the religious bodies calling themselves orthodox, the church to which we belong is the least true to its character. The whole church is honeycombed with unbelief. What doctrine cannot with impunity be denied from the pulpits of our churches? What monstrous proposition may not be advanced? What one question of morals is there on which we cannot find bishop, priest, or deacon to argue the other side? We will not mention names. We might do so if we chose. Any man with any knowledge of the state of the church can supply examples for himself. Some will not say the Nicene creed; some deny the immortality of the soul; some the everlasting damnation of the wicked; some the inspiration of Holy Scripture, and affirm that the Bible is like the Vedas, etc., only the best of all; some deny the double procession; some the sacred ministry; some teach that Christ was only the model man; some teach the propriety of suicide; some that of divorce and remarriage, so-called; some that of incest. There are among the clergy those who teach that the law of expediency is the only rule of life, and many, many (alas! be it said), many declare that the Lord who bought them made no "satisfaction" for their sins. It will be said that this is an exaggeration; that the men who teach such things are few in number and of small influence. It is not so. They were few in number twenty years ago—they are so no longer. They had no influence twenty years ago—to-day they all but rule the church."