RELIGIOUS | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 18, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 45.

RELIGIOUS.

—A Danish-Norwegian Baptist Church has been incorporated in this city.

—The Anglican Church has started a labor colony in South Africa, much like that which General Booth has projected in England.

—A committee of clergymen, representing the principal denominations in San Francisco, has been formed for the purpose of securing the closing of the Midwinter Fair on Sundays.

—According to a writer in the Christian Statesman, when the churches boycott an enterprise that doesn't close on Sunday it is not boycotting, it is simply "a wise agreement on the part of Christian people."

—There are now sixty-seven Baptist Churches in Russia and a membership of 16,443. Pastor S. Lehmann and three other missionaries have lately been banished, and their flocks are constantly made to know tribulation.

—The Golden West Baptist Association (colored) is holding its annual session at Bakersfield, Cal. There is a large attendance, delegates being present from all over the State, and some from Kansas and Texas. There is a flourishing colored colony near Bakersfield.

—An extraordinary scene took place during the afternoon service in Westminster Abbey on a recent Sunday. Samuel Fox, a Quaker, declining to remove his hat, was, after a violent struggle, forcibly ejected. It required the efforts of four of the vergers to remove him from the building.

—A new sabbath has been added to the calendar. In the recent Sunday street-car contest in Toronto, the opponents of Sunday cars were incited to action by the fear that with them would come the infliction of the "Chicago sabbath." Chicago is the field on which the "American sabbath" recently won its boasted victory.

—A press correspondent in Rome telegraphs to London that the Vatican is about to open an inquiry of the most searching character into the latest opposition to Mgr. Satolli in the United States, opposition of which the ramifying influences extend to Rome itself. The Vatican has resolved to act with the greatest energy upon the evidence it secures in the matter.

—One of the legitimate efforts of the Society of Christian Endeavor is providing religious services in the life-saving stations of our country. In twenty-five years these crews in different parts of the world have saved about 1,000,000 lives. Their work cuts them off almost entirely from religious services, and to minister to their spiritual needs is a commendable endeavor.

—The International Sunday School Convention, which was in session in St. Louis last week, according to the secretary's report, represented (in the United States and British America) 1,372,558 officers and teachers, and 10,870,104 pupils. This looks like an enormous army, but when compared with the "vast majority" claim for the "Christian sentiment" that demanded the Sunday closing of the World's Fair, it dwindles to small proportions. If that "sentiment" is half as extensive as claimed (40,000,000 in the United States alone) it might be suspected of boycotting the Sunday schools.

—Kiujiu Machida, a high priest of the Buddhist faith, was in San Francisco last week, having arrived from the East en route to his home in Japan. He wore the long, flowing robes pertaining to his office, and attracted considerable attention. To a reporter he said: "Buddhism is making great headway in my country, and we hope erelong to have some temples established in America. I have met quite a number of Buddhists since my arrival in this country, two months ago." He had been at Chicago, and as far east as Boston, and was expecting to have an interview with some devotees of the faith in San Francisco and Oakland before taking his departure.

—A Mr. Elder, of New Orleans, delegate to the Catholic Congress at Chicago, created a sensation by telling some hard facts in relation to the membership of the church. Amongst other derogatory things he said: "Our inferior position, and it certainly is inferior, is owing almost wholly to ourselves. The great men have been and will continue to be Protestants. I speak not of wealth, but of brain, of energy, of the action of the heart. The great philanthropists, the great orators, the great writers, thinkers, leaders, scientists, inventors, and teachers of our land were and are Protestants." While all this is true, it is also true that they are fast getting control of the politics of the country, as also of the army. But such gains are achieved by cunning rather than by true greatness.