Religious Notes by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 29, 1883

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 9, No. 13.

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Religious Notes.

By Editor

The corner-stone of a new American church has just been laid in Dresden, Germany.

English newspapers report that the Emperor of China has ordered the closing of the Buddhist temples in that country, on account of the immorality and superstition which they encourage.

It is reported that the English Society for the Suppression of Blasphemous Literature proposes to prosecute Tyndall, Huxley, Spencer, and others, who are alleged to have disseminated unbelief.

The Boston Journal says: "The formula for making a popular preacher is, one-third voice and personal presence, one-third sensational selection of topics, and one-third heresy. These proportions may be a little varied to suit different communities."

The Baltimore Conference of the M. E. Church has adopted resolutions condemning the carrying of the mails on Sunday, the running of cars, the publishing and reading of secular newspapers, and all camp-meeting associations that receive rebate from Sunday railroad travel.

A member of the English company of revisers of the Old Testament says that the work is delayed by the cropping up of a number of little questions which cannot be settled at once, and are reserved for further consideration. One of these is whether the name of God shall be rendered "Jehovah" or "Lord."

The Methodist Episcopal Church South, reports an increase in every item of its statistics save one, for the past year. Traveling preachers, 3,736; increase, 32. White members, 861,244; increase, 16,887. Colored members, 1,030; increase, 37. Indian members, 5,111; decrease, 340. Infants baptized, 27,205; adults baptized, 38,832. Sunday-school scholars, 483,426; increase, 21,105. Collections for missions, $207,759; increase, $43,272.

A new religious movement has started in Russia, which is spreading very rapidly. It is stated that the new religion is very simple, the gospels being taken as its foundation; that the movement in its fervor, and the vehement earnestness is much like that of the sweep of Methodism in this country. The national authorities are not unfavorable to it, as it is opposed in everything to the doctrine of destruction preached by the nihilists. It is already a recognized force in national development.

A missionary of the American Sunday-school Union in Kentucky, reports 35 new schools organized by him in ten months with 192 teachers and 1,519 scholars. As an illustration of this work he mentions a place in a mountain county which had no Sunday-school or other public religious service until he went there and organized a school, when they built a cheap school-house, and in less than six months they had preaching; then a church of 23 members was organized, and now they have a beautiful church building.

There are all sorts of churches nowadays. One is soon to be organized in New York on the basis of pure Theism, as it is called. The leader of the movement has been at work for several years on what he terms "The Sacred Scriptures of the World," which he describes as "an expurgated edition of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, to which are added characteristic selections from the other bibles or sacred writings of the world." The rite of baptism (sprinkling, probably) is to be retained as a "symbol of purity," and the Lord's Supper is to be replaced by a "memorial supper," participation in which is to symbolize communion with the pure souls of history, Jesus being chief. We should term it a Semi-infidel club.

The Christian at Work, speaking of the New Criticism, utters the following truth: "But the real need of the church is not scholarship, but a revival of the Spirit in the hearts and lives of men. That is the need of to-day, the crying need of the hour. And without underrating what is being done in the field of Higher Criticism or in the prevalent discussion of various problems in religion, whoever shall show the church how best to extend its work, and how most surely to revive true religion through the length and breadth of the land, will be doing more than the critics are doing, and surpass the best efforts of the lecture platform."

The Christian at Work, speaking of the work of Rev. Jacob Freshman among the Jews of New York, many of whom have accepted Christianity, says: "It is often a matter of astonishment how much more clearly than others, oftentimes, those converts from Judaism see the connection between the old and the new dispensation, and the identity of Jesus with the Messiah expected by the Jews, and the clearness with which they can trace him as the Shiloh of whom Jacob prophesied, the Christ of the prophets." To us it is no matter of astonishment at all. But it is a matter of astonishment that, acquainted as they are with the work of the sanctuary, they do not, in accepting Christianity, see the application of some things which their Christian brethren have not yet thought of.

Just before Easter the Occident said: "Next Sabbath [Sunday] Christians will celebrate the resurrection of our Saviour. There is no doubt that this is the true anniversary of that great and joyous event. He was crucified on Friday of the Jewish passion week. That fell upon the full month of the vernal equinox. During the Sabbath after the full moon, our Saturday, Jesus lay in the tomb. On the first day of the week our Sunday, he rose from the dead; just 1850 years ago according to the chronology in the margins of our Bibles." We quote this in order that all may have it to paste in some convenient place to refer to when the Occident or some other religious journal, shall claim, as they all do, that "there has been so much time lost that we can't tell when the Sabbath comes, anyway." There is no day so hard to locate as the seventh day of the week.

Charles S. Robinson, D. D., in an article in the S. S. Times on "Want of Genuineness," says: "We have made manifest progress in some things, but the ordinary gatherings of the various communities on the Lord's day have degenerated much from the elevated practice of our fathers. We have greatly lost in reverence, and it is to be feared that we have not gained in spirituality. There is a demand for entertainments of music, eloquence, and ritual, which does not even pretend to spare the old forms of simplicity in devotion. Some churches have fallen into the habit of discussing whether it is not as essential for the success of a congregation that it should have an edifice showy in architecture as it is for an insurance company; for what attracts customers would win pew-holders too. In a few places and neighborhoods, which might be discovered in many of our large towns, it is likely there is more lying unto God done on the first day of the week than in all the rest of it put together—if ungenuineness is lying."

Do "orthodox" ministers and popular religious journals generally believe that all poetry is false, and not to be depended upon? The reason we ask is this: In the Psalms and Proverbs, and the book of Job, we find it stated very plainly that man is mortal, that the dead know not anything, are asleep, unconscious, etc. To our mind this testimony is conclusive; but when we quote it, we are met with the remark, "Oh, yes, but those books are poetical." Now the Christian Union, in answer to a question as to the results of Adam's transgression, says that "the interpretation of the first chapters of Genesis is an unsolved problem in Biblical theology." In short, they are poetry, and nothing definite can be known as to what they mean. Now we do not profess to be a critic, but they do not read like poetry, and even if they are, may they not be true? Were Bryant and Longfellow unreliable men? Is Whittier a writer of falsehoods? Did Moses make wild, incoherent statements when he wrote poetry, and tell sober truth when he wrote prose? Or taking the Christian Union theory of the "unsolved problem," why is it not solved? Men spend many years in the study of literature, that they may understand what great minds have produced. Would it not be well to apply a little common sense to the solution of the first chapters of Genesis? But after all, we are of the opinion that it is not common sense that is lacking in this case. What is it?