Religious Miscellany by Dudley Marvin Canright

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · Jul 15, 1875

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 1, No. 36.

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Religious Miscellany.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

—There is only one Catholic newspaper in the United States to every 300,000 Catholics.

JUNE 12, Eld. N. Wardner and wife, S. D. Baptists, sailed for Scotland as missionaries in the Sabbath cause.

—The sales of the Methodist book Concern, last year, at New York and Cincinnati, were $1,552,048.

—The only church in the country where preaching may be heard in Irish, is said to be at Elmira, Ill.

—The number of pilgrims who visited the tomb of Mahomet at Mecca this year is said to have been one hundred and sixty thousand.

—The Troy (N. Y.) board of Education has ordered that the Bible be excluded from the public schools, and all religious exercises discontinued.

—The Protestant Episcopal Convention of South Carolina, after a two days' discussion, refused, May 14, to admit to representation a respectable congregation of colored Episcopalians of Charleston, which has a white pastor.

—The rising generation of Quakers are fast forsaking the old fashioned plainness of dress, speech, and other Quaker peculiarities, and are uniting in modern revivals, putting on fine dress, &c. Their glory is departed.

—In Maryland two presbyters of the Episcopal Church lately introduced a collect asking pardon for the sins of the dead. Some are alarmed at this long stride toward Romanism; but the Bishop refuses to do anything about it.

—The German government, apprehending disturbances, has prohibited, without exception, public religious processions among Roman Catholics. Processions were to have been held at various places in honor of the pope's jubilee.

Dr. N. H. Barbour "proclaims that the Lord has come and raised the righteous, but has not been seen by the living as yet, but has commissioned him [Barbour] and his followers especially to preach the gospel, yet seven years, and to proclaim the hour of his judgment." When will these time-setting fanatics have done with their folly?

—Spiritualism is on the top wave of popularity in Russia just now, and several scientific professors have avowed their belief in it. Thus the way is rapidly being prepared for the fulfillment of Rev. 16:14: "They are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty."

—Father Boehm lives to his one hundredth birthday to tell us that he has been a Methodist traveling preacher for seventy-five years, that he has personally known every Methodist Bishop in America, that he was once a subject of George the Third, and that he remembers Washington's presidency. This venerable minister had his "centennial" in Jersey City on the 8th of June.

—The Papal delegate with his party lately visited the President and was received with high honor. On the journey to Washington the delegate and party had the exclusive use of the car of the President of the Pennsylvania railroad, through the kindness of the President, Mr. Thomas Scott. Thus the Catholics are coming to be highly honored in the United States.

—Cardinal Manning has prevailed upon the pope to allow English historians to search the private archives of the Vatican for historical information. Hitherto none but ecclesiastics have been allowed to have access to these precious manuscripts, Protestants being hardly able to see a single document they could name. The newly obtained privilege is expected to show some highly important results.

—Bishop Howe of the Episcopal Church gives figures showing that there has been in Pennsylvania a falling off in the number of candidates for holy orders by nearly one-half since 1871. There were 448 then, while in 1874 the names had decreased to 228. As to the reason of this difference, the Bishop could only speculate whether there was less self consecration now than formerly, or whether the world held out more inviting prospects in honorable callings. He urges the church to offer better material inducements for the ministry. Yes, that will bring them, for that is what they are after.

—A discovery of great interest to Egyptologists and antiquarians generally is reported from Port Said. A learned archæologist in that place has just found a monumental stone to Thotmes III., under whose reign the exodus of the Israelites is supposed to have taken place. The inscriptions which have already been deciphered contain more than four hundred geographical names, all recognizable, and for the most part belonging to Arabia, Nubia, and the coast of the Mediterranean.

—A German deputation of 600 lately visited the pope. In their address to him they said, "O most blessed father! never can any human machinations separate or tear us from the legitimate Roman Pontiff, for the reason that we well remember that truthful saying, 'Submission to the Roman Pontiff is absolutely necessary to the salvation of every creature.'" The pope in his reply said, "Yes, he [Jesus] will say to them all that he who is not in union with the pope does not gather, but throws the seed to the winds, and will never produce fruits, or, if he does, they will only be fruits of iniquity." So there is no salvation for any one out of the Roman church. D. M. C.