News and Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 20, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 20.

News and Notes.

By Editor

FOR THE WEEK ENDING MARCH 13.

RELIGIOUS.

—Rev. L. R. Woodward (Methodist), pastor of Eureka Circuit, this State, has been appointed Government Commissioner to Alaska. He hopes to carry on missionary work in connection with his governmental duties.

—A call has been issued for a conference in Pittsburg, Pa., on the 16th inst., of Prohibitionists, woman suffragists, and others interested in general reform of the government, to organize a new national party. It is signed by 1,800 Western Pennsylvania people, including many ministers and several prominent characters.

—It is said that six of the leading Jewish papers in the United States favor Sunday services instead of the usual Sabbath services. The Sunday innovation will no doubt become, in time, a recognized tradition of the elders. Having rejected the Lord, the time must come when they will ignore his law. The company that will stand in the judgment will “keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12). The two must stand together, for without the faith of Jesus no one can keep the commandments, and any attempt to do so is mockery of God.

—Great excitement prevailed at Swedesboro, New Jersey, on the 12th inst., on account of the excommunication of Priest Treacy by Bishop Carroll. Fifty members of the congregation, who sustained their pastor, were also excommunicated. An appeal is to be taken to Rome. The cause of the action is not dated in the press dispatch.

—There are many converts to Protestantism from the Catholic Church, and for this reason many people are credulous enough to believe that the papal power is waning, and eagerly look for a great hegira on that same road. But such overlook the mighty trend of Protestantism almost in a body toward the “Mother Church.” Many of the converts from Rome will erelong find themselves unwittingly back in the “Mother’s” arms, in principle if not in name.

—Lady Mary Elizabeth Herbert, in the Dublin Review, says: “If you ask a Russian peasant, ‘What is meant by orthodoxy?’ he will tell you that it consists of the following things: To be baptized a Christian; to wear on the breast a cross or a holy image of some sort; to adore Jesus Christ; to pray to the Blessed Virgin and all the saints; to keep the feasts of obligation; to fast at the appointed seasons; to venerate the priests and religious order; to receive the sacraments and attend to one’s religious duties.”

—A number of the students of the University of California have formed a society the purpose of which will be a scientific investigation of the religious thought of the world as shown in the world’s religions, and an inquiry into various religious problems. The methods of research will be scientific, and the aim of the society practical. James Freeman Clarke’s “Ten Great Religions” will be used as a basis of study. The Bible would be a great help in such a discussion, if there were any in the society who had sufficient practical knowledge of its contents to use it to advantage. But unfortunately the instruction imparted at the university has for several years been darkly shadowed by the modern evolution theory, whose vagaries are being forced into every department of popular education.