RELIGIOUS | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 27, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 17.

RELIGIOUS.

—The new general of the Jesuits has given orders to his brethren in the United States not to discuss the school question any more.

—On the 14th inst. 534 English pilgrims started on a journey to Rome to congratulate the pope on his episcopal jubilee on the 19th.

—The failure of the Romish Church as an educator is demonstrated by the following statement reported in the New York Christian Advocate: "In the city of Rome there are 30 cardinals, 35 bishops, 1,469 priests, 2,382 monks, and 2,215 nuns, and yet 190,000 of the inhabitants can neither read nor write.

—The Primitive Catholic says that Archbishop Corrigan is expected to dedicate a Roman Catholic Church in Yonkers, New York, in a few weeks. The parish priest is a Sclavonic papist and has a wife and eight children. It also states that there are two married priests in Philadelphia, one in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and one in Minnesota.

—The Russian Government seems to be getting more and more intolerant of dissenters from the State religion. The commission appointed to work out a new plan for the government of the Protestant Church and settling its relations to the State, has reported to the Superior Procurateur of the Holy Synod. Reliable information states that if the czar approves this report, it will deprive the Protestant Church in Russia of its autonomy in every respect.

—A Royalton, Minnesota, dispatch of the 16th inst. says: "Rev. J. J. Waymer, formerly pastor of M. E. Church here, but recently a preacher in charge at Milaca, and Mrs. M. M. White, a widow, for a long time in the millinery business at this place, have eloped. Mr. Waymer leaves a large family, composed of a wife and four children, most of them growing. Mrs. White was a member of the church and a leader in Sunday-school work, and a woman in whom all had implicit confidence."

—The Society of Immortals, composed of members of the First M. E. Church, of this city, who are pledged to give one-tenth of their income to the church and to charity, does not grow very fast. The pastor complains of its unpopularity, stating that its membership only numbers about fifty out of a church membership of 1,000. That church evidently deems the price too high for such a flimsy guarantee of immortality. By the way, does not that title, on such a condition, rather stultify the church's doctrine that all men are immortal?

—The folly of a governmental religion was well illustrated recently in Germany. A workman in a village near Dresden went to register the name of an infant boy. On giving the name of Robespierre Danton, the registrar refused to record the name, and the father declared that if he could not name his child Robespierre Danton he would not name it at all. He was fined twenty marks for his neglect, and appealed to a higher court in Dresden, where the judge decided against him, stating that "in a country both Christian and monarchical no man has the right to name his child after avowedly atheistic and republican scoundrels."

—Bishop Verdier, of Paris, accompanied by two French Sisters of Mercy, arrived in New York last week en route to the Hawaiian Islands. The bishop has been engaged for some time in the compilation of a dictionary to enable the natives of Hawaii to more readily assimilate French. The two sisters came specially from Paris for the purpose of teaching the natives. The Catholic mission in these islands is in charge of the French Fathers of Picpus, whose headquarters are in Paris and the field of whose operations extends over the Marquesas and Sandwich Islands, together with Tahiti.

—Rev. Chas. T. Russell, leader of the Alleghany Pennsylvania congregation of dissenters from orthodox Christianity, who refuse to adopt any denominational name and are popularly called "Russellites," has prepared to issue a pamphlet in refutation of the doctrine of eternal punishment. It will be in effect a challenge to the orthodox ministers of Pittsburgh to meet Mr. Russell in a discussion of the question, and a copy of it will be sent to every preacher in the two cities. The cardinal principle of "Russellism" is the rejection of the doctrine of torment. It teaches that during the millennium all who ever lived on earth will be resurrected and given another chance to live just lives, after which each will be judged on his individual responsibility. The perfect will be taken to heaven; those simply good will live forever on earth, while the wicked will be obliterated, that is, their souls, instead of being eternally punished, will be annihilated. Mr. Russell claims there are 25,000 believers in this doctrine in the United States, and the congregation to which he preaches numbers about 125. What next will this wonderful nineteenth century produce?

—A Rome dispatch of the 17th inst. says that 8,000 pilgrims called upon the pope in one day to congratulate him on the occasion of his jubilee.

—Rev. Dr. John Hemphill, who was for several years a prominent Presbyterian minister in San Francisco, back in the sixties and seventies, is about to return to that city from Philadelphia. The mention of his name in the press dispatches brings to mind a lecture he once delivered on the subject of evolution. He referred to one of Darwin's experiments—that of rearing some twenty odd varieties of pigeons from a single pair. Granting that the story was true, Dr. Hemphill said it was no argument in favor of Darwin's evolution theory, for "the birds were pigeons still, and nothing but pigeons."