p. 303 | News and Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 12, 1894

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

News and Notes.

By Editor

FOR THE WEEK ENDING MARCH 5.

RELIGIOUS.

—A religious congress is to be held in San Francisco April 16-21. There will be afternoon and evening sessions, and all papers are to be limited to thirty minutes.

—It is said that Hon. E. D. White, recently appointed to the U. S. Supreme Court bench, is a devout Roman Catholic, and was educated in a Jesuit college. He is the only Catholic on the bench.

—Dr. Talmage has again withdrawn his resignation as pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, it is said at the instance of the mortgage holders, who declared their intention to foreclose if Talmage left.

—A Pittsburg dispatch notes considerable commotion in regard to nuns teaching in the public schools and wearing their religious garb. The Riverside school board has decided to continue the nuns and their garb until the courts decide that it is illegal—which is virtually saying that the nuns and the garb are a fixture.

—A converted criminal is said to be creating a sensation in Jersey County, Ill. On being released from his third term of imprisonment for burglary and horse stealing, he surprised the people by calling a meeting in a village schoolhouse, and preaching a powerful sermon. He is continuing the work in different localities, and scores of conversions are reported.

—The Board of City Trustees of San Bernardino, Cal., have passed an ordinance closing nearly all places of business on Sunday. The Butchers' Union of Stockton have decided to close all their shops on Sunday. The Kings County supervisors have also passed a Sunday-closing ordinance. Thus the investment of "the mark" is being gradually but surely drawn over the State.

—It has been requested that ministers and churches make the observance of the so-called Lord's day (Sunday) the topic of special instruction and prayer for April 1 and the week following. The recommendation is signed by representatives of the Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Iowa, and Massachusetts Sabbath Associations, the Sabbath Observance Department of the W. C. T. U., and by J. H. Knowles, secretary of the American Sabbath Union.

—The First Baptist Church of this city has had another stirring up, because its pastor, Rev. C. H. Hobart, is disposed to give practical exhortations to his people. This time he has aroused opposition because of his warnings against the influences of a personal devil. The one who leads the opposition, however, is of a skeptical turn of mind, and his objection to the scriptural doctrine of the personality of the great adversary of souls is not to be wondered at when we hear him asserting that "there is some trash in the Bible." Such men generally object to practical religion.

—On the 2d inst. the pope was 84 years of age. On that occasion he removed quite a large piece of mask as to "the work of carrying on the beneficent action of the church," being accredited with this significant utterance: "The need of this is great, for all the old conceptions of honesty, justice, authority, liberty, social rights, and social duties have been overthrown. The church must seek to recall nations to the principle of moral faith, to point out the true causes of existing evils, to denounce the designs of Free Masonry, imbue the different classes of society with a feeling of equity and charity, inspire rulers with rectitude and to govern with submission, and instill in all the ardor for peace."

—There is said to be quite a missionary effort now on foot in California, conducted by the old-line polygamist Mormons, of Utah, although the work is pursued in a very quiet manner. They advocate the righteousness of polygamy, but do not practice it. The reason for not practicing it is President Woodruff's "revelation" forbidding a plurality of wives; but it is well understood that the revelation was conveniently promulgated about the time the Edmunds Anti-polygamy Law was declared constitutional by the Supreme Court. Their principal footholds in this State are San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, and San Bernardino.

—A weekly paper, edited and published by the inmates of the State prison at Stillwater, Minn., is entitled The Prison Mirror. It is a rather bright sheet and gets many complimentary notices. One journal says of it, "Many of the articles contributed show very deep thought." It would seem that when a man gets into the State prison, it is high time for him to think very deeply. But, by the way, the criminals are not all in the penitentiaries. Every person not converted to Christ, not born again, is a criminal before God, "condemned already," and under sentence of death. Reader, in or out of the State prison, if you are one of these criminals, it is time for "very deep thought" on your part.

—Dr. Harper, the celebrated teacher of theology, now president of the new University of Chicago (Baptist), appears to be another example of a learned biblical exponent falling into the downward road of skepticism in the matter of biblical inspiration. He is reported to have said in a recent lecture that "the prophets under the old dispensation did not mean to tell future happenings in the way it is generally believed, but they could tell from the way people lived how things would turn out." Speaking of the "sons of God" taking wives of the "daughters of men" (Gen. 6: 2), he says, "If this story be true historically, it would prove ruinous to religion, and play havoc with our belief." If any man has a belief with which any plain Bible statement plays havoc, he would better seek a belief in harmony with the Bible. The Harbinger truthfully says, "There seems to be a mania among would-be critics to say something novel and startling about the Bible."