Significant Items

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 8, 1874

Significant Items.

NEW YORK, with only 1,000,000 of people has more crime committed within its borders than London, with 4,000,000.

An editorial comment is:—

“The growing demand during the last fifty years for a rhetorical and oratorical style of preaching has gradually crowded the Bible toward the background in the pulpit.”—Independent.

The “spirits” are in disgrace again. They predicted through a Worcester medium that the most destructive fire that had ever visited the city would occur on the 4th of July, this year. Unfortunately for their reputation there was not even a shanty burned.—Boston Herald.

Perhaps no one thing has more to do with molding the mind and character of the young than good reading. It has truly been said that “these are perilous times for young America.” The vast amount of sensational reading that is now scattered broadcast over our land will tell for evil upon the future lives of our youth, unless we counteract its influence.—Independent.

THE ROLE OF FRAUD.

Nearly every day some new development comes to the surface showing how dishonest this community is, how little reliance can be placed on men. Years amount to nothing. Men with the repute of ten, twenty, and even thirty years’ standing, go to the wall. It is difficult to tell what would become of us if a sharp investigation should overhaul our moneyed institutions. Men who have money don’t know what to do with it. Keep bonds in one’s house and thieves break through and steal. Put it into bank stock and the officials will steal the whole capital while the president and directors look on. Put bonds into the bank for safe keeping, and some beardless boy who runs the institution will hypothecate them in Wall street and run away. The old-time merchants hold up their hands in horror and ask, “Whom can we trust?”

SCENE AT A DEDICATION.

It took four hours and a half to dedicate Talmage’s new tabernacle. It was really the sensation of the day. The prominent pastors looked in and said a kind word. The cheering was lusty when Beecher, Duryea, and other familiar faces, appeared on the platform. At the lowest calculation at least 10,000 people tried to get in during the day. Two hours and a half of the service were given up to exercises not usual in a Presbyterian church. The Methodists have been the most successful of all the sects among us in raising money. This is done by a system of financiering very peculiar. Men are employed in this business just as revivalists are employed in a season of religious interest. The great beggar of the continent, as he is called, is Rev. L. F. Ives of Auburn, N. Y. He has attended the dedication of 800 churches, most of which he has freed from debt. He usually takes several days in the preparation. Meetings are held, plans are drawn, leading men consulted, and the sum agreed upon placed on a list. The audience see the smooth operation of the work. The machinery, the pulleys, and the wires, are out of sight. The time devoted to the collection is given up exclusively to Mr. Ives. He clears the deck like a commodore preparing for action. During the two hours and a half of his work he makes things lively. He is full of racy anecdote, humorous story, illustration and incident. As if in doubt how to proceed, he suggests that they begin with $1000 subscriptions or $500. The men who have agreed to subscribe that sum are in different parts of the house and ring out the amount sonorously. The good work goes on until the smaller sums are reached. All the while the getting of money is interspersed with story and song, and the mirthfulness of the audience is kept up to a fervid range.