Religious Notes by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 1, 1883

Religious Notes.

By Editor

There are now two Methodist congregations of native Christians in Caunpore, India.

The Catholic Monitor declares its principles thus: "As God is above the world, so must Catholics be Catholics first and patriots afterward."

The city of Montreal has made a claim for taxes on a church on the ground that a fair was lately held in the building for profit, whereas, to be exempt from taxation, buildings must be used exclusively for divine purposes.

A reader of the Examiner asks information in regard to the best books of devotion, and that paper very truly replies that the Bible is the best book of devotion in existence, and worth more than all the rest combined.

The Golden Rule says: "Many a man who cannot get time to attend the church prayer-meeting, will, if he becomes the head of a secret society, give three evenings a week to lodge and committee meetings, and not complain in the least."

Bishop McNamara, of the Independent Catholic Church, says there are about 50,000 people of Irish Catholic blood in Chicago who have lost faith in the Roman Church, and are accessible to gospel preaching. He is expecting to begin labors among them early this year.

Bishop Ireland, of the Roman Catholic diocese of Minnesota, forbids members of the church from keeping saloons, tending bars, or furnishing liquor to the public in any manner whatever, under penalty of excommunication, and his action has caused quite a sensation among Catholics generally.

Rev. David Gregg, of New York, in a lecture published in the Christian Statesman, says, "The doctrine of the Sabbath is republican," and then quotes, "The Sabbath was made by man." That is perfectly true of the sabbath which he keeps, but the Sabbath which we observe is of divine origin.

The Michigan correspondent of the Examiner says that the Baptists are losing ground in Michigan. During the last five years the population has increased 12 per cent., and the number of Baptists only 5 per cent.; while in 1835-40, when the population increased 100 per cent., the number of Baptists increased 150 per cent.

The Free Methodists at a recent conference at Burlington, Iowa, resolved that brewing beer, making cider, raising hops for brewing purposes, and growing, using, trafficking in tobacco, constitute a sin against God and our neighbor; and that persons guilty of any of the above practices are not worthy of membership in a Christian church.

Rev. D. F. Leach of Latesville, Va., writing to the Examiner, says that while in very many individual instances, and in some communities and churches, there is great improvement in the moral and religious condition of the Freedmen, these are exceptions and not the rule. He says that most of them have no proper idea of God and Christ, and that their religion is simply fetichism, with the names of God and Christ incorporated. The idea of a change of heart, forgiveness of sins, or a desire for holiness, has never entered their minds. He says that a great many of the colored Baptists are involved in this gross darkness, and calls for enlightened Christians to pray and labor more for their spiritual emancipation.