California Camp-Meeting and Other Notes
By Editor
WE have this week given our readers a brief and hastily written account of the California general camp-meeting. This only touches some of the more important points. We hope to be able soon to publish the secretaries' reports of the meeting. ELDER A. T. JONES, who has been upon the coast for the last two months, started for the East, by the way of Oregon, Wednesday, October 9. At Portland he delivers an address, by special request, before the Secular Union of the Northwest. He will endeavor to set before them the principles of true Christianity as taught in the word of God. From Portland he goes direct to Battle Creek, to attend the General Conference. He will be accompanied by Brother Hutchins. ONE of the neatest and best college papers which we have seen is the Pacific Business College Review, published in the interests of the Pacific Business College, which is one of the best commercial schools upon this coast. Its president, Prof. T. A. Robinson, is eminently fitted for the position which he occupies. For many years he has given his attention chiefly to the subject of commercial education and general business training, and is justly regarded as the leading educator on this coast in this line of studies. A PARTY of nearly thirty, among whom were C. H. Jones (the manager of the Pacific Press office) and wife, Elder J. N. Loughborough and wife, Elder W. C. White and Mrs. E. G. White, M. J. Church and niece, S. N. Curtiss and wife, C. E. Leland and wife, and Elder J. W. Scoles, left Oakland for the East via the Atlantic and Pacific, the morning of the 10th inst. The above-named will attend the General Conference at Battle Creek, Mich., which convenes the 18th and lasts till November 5. The company traveled by tourist sleeper, and had a car to themselves, thus escaping tobacco smoke and other uncongenial surroundings consequent upon traveling with a mixed company. Brother C. H. Jones will doubtless visit the branch office of the Pacific Press in New York City before his return. May God go with these dear fellow-laborers and give them a safe and prosperous journey. IN a recent communication to the Christian Statesman, Rev. M. A. Gault gives an account of a Sunday convention lately held in Northville, Kan., in connection with which was held a discussion, concerning which Mr. Gault says:— "That part of the program which excited the deepest interest was a discussion on the question 'Which day? or the change of the Sabbath.' There is in the community a strong Seventh-day Baptist Church which had industriously circulated petitions against the Sunday-Rest bill until it had become a living issue. Though the convention was called by the friends of the Sabbath, yet in the exercise of Christian courtesy, they gave place for Rev. J. W. Morton, of Chicago, a strong representative of the Saturdarians, who occupied forty-five minutes in presenting his arguments against the Christian Sabbath, and in the afternoon session he was given thirty-five minutes to present his objections to the Sunday-Rest bill. . . . The discussion was of a very high order, and conducted in a kind, Christian spirit, and left a strong impression in favor of the first-day Sabbath and the Rest bill." The discussion may have been of a "high order," but that is more than can be said of Mr. Gault's report. Certainly it is not Christian courtesy to apply the term "Saturdarians" to those who observe the seventh day. "Sabbatarians" is the proper designation for those who insist upon the observance of the day specified in the commandment, and Mr. Gault knows it. THE Catholic Review says:— "The impression prevails in America that the question of the temporal power is no longer a force in Italian politics; that it is very kind of Crispi to allow the pope to stay in Rome; that he has only to say the word, and this shadow of the Papacy is gone forever. There is no doubt that M. Crispi would like to see the pope gone from Rome, but he cannot bring himself to say the word. Why?—The recent rumor of the pope's departure from Rome caused a protracted panic on the Roman Bourse. If a rumor were capable of so much, what would not the fact accomplish?" There was a time some years since when the influence of the Pope was at low ebb, but those who imagine that such is still the case make a grave mistake. Papal influence touched low-water mark several years ago, since which time it has been rising; nor will the rising tide be stayed till all the world is caused "to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." ONE of the interesting features of the recent Oakland camp-meeting was the ministers' meeting for study and consideration of the word of God and various points of doctrine. This is a feature which should be made more prominent in our camp-meetings. However earnest and sincere any man may be in seeking truth, all truth does not come to him or through him. And even if he understands the truth, he may express it so differently from his brethren as to be misunderstood; or he may be inclined to give too much prominence to one side of the truth. When in the field he has but few privileges of listening to other expositions of the word of God than his own, and if he be an original investigator of truth, as every minister ought to be, he needs these meetings with his brethren that the fullness of one on some points may make up for the lack of the other. Earnest united prayer and joint study of the word of God, guided by the Spirit of Christ, will unify and strengthen the laborers in the great harvest-field. Let us give the ministers' meeting the time it needs in our future camp-meetings. It will pay a thousand-fold. THE following utterance by Lord Halifax at a recent meeting of the English Church Union, a society for the furtherance of ritualistic ideas, is significant as showing the drift of a considerable portion of the English Church towards Romanism: "We rejoice that the dean and his assistants of St. Paul's [the church that embraces within itself the London diocese and its representative thereof] have placed upon the altar the picture of our Lord upon the cross attended by his blessed mother, so that in contemplating the same we may not forget what he has done and suffered for us, and also remember the mother, who, crowned with glory and joy, was among mankind the only one who was permitted to say, 'Behold from now all generations shall call me blessed.'" Referring to this the Mirror says: "May this noble lord and his confrères be the subject of our prayers, that they may belong learn the true way to attain in the next life a share of that blessedness now enjoyed by the mother of God, whom they try to honor here below." Certainly the "noble lord and his confrères" have not much to learn before they will be in what the Mirror regards as "the true way," namely, saint worship and Mariolatry. PROHIBITION has little to hope for from the Marquis of Salisbury, England's present premier. In reply to a question concerning prohibition by the Earl of Wemyss, July 12, he is reported by the Christian Commonwealth to have said that:— "No one could deny that there was some desire for what was called prohibition. It was not a new movement. One of the earliest heresies in the Christian Church was that which forbade to drink wine, eat flesh, or marry. These were delusions which prevailed from time to time, but always fell away. The Sunday-closing movement was a much stronger one than that of total prohibition, because it had behind it the feeling in favor of the sanctity of the Sabbath. He depreciated that movement very much; but it had already succeeded in the Celtic portions of the kingdom, and they did not know how much further it might spread. At the same time he did not think that his noble friend needed to fear the demand for total prohibition." It does not look as though Sunday laws would find much favor from the noble lord, either. Prohibition liquor laws and Sunday laws ought not to be classed together, for they are different in character. The former ought to succeed, the latter ought not; but for this very reason the very opposite is more likely to occur. The world is still at enmity with God. REFERRING to the efforts of Italy to curb church interference in political matters, the Catholic Review says:— "The new code consists of over four hundred articles, divided into three books, of which the only important ones are those which refer to the clergy and the church. These are intended to muzzle effectively the mouths of priests and bishops, and because of their sacerdotal powers deprive them of their rights as men and citizens. The code will do this very nicely, and the clergy will not even enjoy the melancholy French privilege of writing letters. This gives immense satisfaction to the devil and the sectarian press of America, who cannot see with what success this code will one day be turned against themselves." This shows something of the feeling which exists in Italy; and it also shows that it has grown out of the principle of ecclesiastical interference in politics—the very evil which is being so assiduously cultivated by so-called Protestants at the present time in our own country. THE Advance of August 29 says:— "It will doubtless be a surprise to most of our readers to learn what immense sums the Roman Catholics have been drawing from the national government for their Indian schools. The whole amount received by the Congregationalists for their schools among the Indians the past year was about $23,000. But the following figures, taken from the Dakota Catholic, show how much the Roman Catholics have received since 1884: 1884, $65,220; 1885, $113,614; 1886, $148,744; 1887, $214,760; 1888, $244,677; 1889, $344,545; and this coming year they expect to draw $431,930. What would be the effect should the government wholly withhold its appropriations from all mission schools? This need not imply any hindrance put in the way of religious schools and missions sustained by the churches; nor that the government would be under any sort of obligation to employ as agents and teachers of Indians men and women who have no religion, or none to speak of." The suggestion so cautiously made by the Advance, that it would be better for the government to withhold all appropriations from mission schools, is a good one. The effect would be that the Indians would get much more and better religious instruction than they do now. The best thing the government could do for the Indians would be to teach them the arts of civilization, and allow those who have a real burden for their spiritual welfare to teach them Christianity.