News and Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 19, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 16.

News and Notes.

By Editor

FOR THE WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 12.

RELIGIOUS.

—Captain Jones, of the Salvation Army, has been committed to prison in Selma, Cal., in default of $75 fine for beating a drum on the streets.

—Announcement is made of the marriage in this city of a Presbyterian Chinaman to a Catholic Chinese woman, the ceremony by a priest, of course.

—The Congregationalist complains of the growing custom of quiet dinner parties on Sunday evening in the large cities. But this is a common way of observing legal holidays; why not Sunday as well as the others?

—Two society young ladies of Cleveland, Ohio, have joined the Salvation Army. One is the daughter of a judge and the other of a doctor. The judge told a reporter that he was not at all ashamed of his daughter's action.

—Late advices report serious religious riots at Verola, India. Hindu temples and Mohammedan mosques were destroyed and a number of people killed and wounded. The military interfered to quell the disturbance.

—The Catholic Order of St. Sulpice, said to be one of the wealthiest orders in the church, with headquarters in Paris, has decided to build a theological institution in New York and another in California. The latter is located at Menlo Park, and is designed to be a large and influential institution.

—There sailed from San Francisco, on the 11th inst., fourteen young men who go as Mormon missionaries to different points in the islands of the Pacific,—four to Australia, two to New Zealand, two to Hawaii, six to Samoa. They range from 21 to 27 years of age. The church sends out about 200 missionaries every year to various parts of the world, and they go at their own expense.

—The Christian Statesman says that the fines collected for violation of the Sunday laws of Pennsylvania during the year 1893 amounted to $1,996, and argues that if all offenders were fined, the State treasury would be filled. Raising money by means of religious tyranny is by no means a new idea, but as a financial project in a so-called Protestant country, it certainly has an "image"-like appearance.

—Prince Galitzin, of the Russian royal family, has been converted to the Salvation Army in New York, and is said to have consecrated himself to the work of the army for life. He proposes to translate General Booth's book, "In Darkest England," into the Russian language, and to use his large income in the establishment and maintenance of houses along the terrible road to Siberia, for the relief of suffering exiles. He has no doubt of getting permission from the czar.

—At the San Francisco Ministers' Meeting, February 5, there was read and discussed a paper entitled "Is Sunday the True Sabbath?" If it was an answer to the question that was wanted, they could have found one very easily, provided a Bible answer would suffice. Ex. 20:10 says unqualifiedly that "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Matt. 28:1, Mark 16:1, 2, Luke 23:56 and 24:1, all locate the first day of the week after the Sabbath. These positive statements of both the Old and New Testaments, in addition to the fact that no other weekly Sabbath is enjoined by the Scriptures, leave no room for the claims of a Sunday-sabbath.

—A large meeting was held in Chicago, on the 11th inst., which is said to have been preliminary to the organization of a church among the ranks of organized labor, to be known as the Modern Church. A leading speaker said the purpose was to establish a central building which would provide lecture and entertainment rooms, a coffee palace, baths, gymnasium, etc., as well as facilities for religious services. It would be on the plan of the edifices in London which offer the most perfect substitute for the saloon. This may be all right as a matter of entertainment, but a church with no higher aim than the entertainment of its members will never accomplish any more than that object.

—Rev. H. H. George, field secretary of the American Sabbath Union, urges the necessity of a "Bureau of Moral and Religious Instruction" in Washington, D. C., for the instruction of members of Congress as to how they should vote on questions of that character. He wants $25,000 for the purpose, and says that "able and competent men [from the National Reform ranks, of course] can be gotten to constitute such a bureau if the funds were provided." But why not utilize the Catholic Bureau already established for that purpose,—it will support a "national Sabbath law" and "a uniform marriage and divorce law," barring the divorce, and also a "Christian amendment to the Constitution." Moreover, that Bureau has the start and the advantage of experience and the prestige of having had its cardinal (red cap and all) occupy a complimentary seat in the speaker's desk in Congress. Why not let Rome do his own work, and save the $25,000 for a better purpose?

—Owing to serious heart trouble, Evangelist D. L. Moody has been ordered by his physicians to take a period of rest, and Mr. Sankey is reported to have said that Moody's return to the pulpit is doubtful.

—A church paper of the Christian denomination says: "Christ preached the gospel of love, and not the gospel of form and ceremony; the spirit and not the letter." What about the confession of sin? What about baptism? What about the communion? What about keeping the Sabbath? What about ministering to the poor and needy, and scores of other practical duties enjoined by the gospel of Christ? What becomes of the spirit of obedience if the letter be ignored? Suppose your children or your hired help should try the theory of service without the letter.