News and Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 2, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 22.

News and Notes.

By Editor

FOR THE WEEK ENDING MARCH 26.

RELIGIOUS.

—A new "messiah" has arisen in Iowa, who makes great promises of magnificent mansions for his followers.

—Rev. Thomas Spurgeon has been elected pastor of the great London Tabernacle, made famous by the labors of his illustrious father.

—It seems to be all right to sell flowers on Easter Sunday morning, judging from the eagerness with which church people bought them from street vendors on that occasion in San Francisco.

—An Espanola, N. M., dispatch says: "The penitents at Taos have scourged themselves during Lent this year more actively than usual, and many parties have gone out from here to witness these strange exhibitions of self-punishment."

—It is said that the Christian Endeavorers of Colorado have been urged to see that every voter in their society and church is registered, as a means to good citizenship. This is another step in the establishment of a political religion.

—A press dispatch says that the Salvation Army of Kansas City is bankrupt, and in consequence the captain and lieutenant have drawn but $11.50 as combined salary for February, and the prospect for March is no better. But there is no intimation of their giving up the work.

—A London dispatch says that an appeal has been issued for a fund of $250,000 with which to celebrate the jubilee of the Salvation Army. In this connection it is proposed to inaugurate a four months' campaign in the United States, to hold an international congress, and to send expeditions to Japan, Java, and Demerara.

—Twenty-five Chinamen have declared a boycott against the First Methodist Episcopal Sunday school in New Haven, Conn. The reason given is that their opium and gambling dens were recently raided by the police and a number of the operators arrested. The wife of a police sergeant is a teacher in the school, hence the boycott.

—A sensation has been created in the First Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, over the fact that the assistant pastor became engaged to the choir soprano, who is a Catholic lady. Hostility to the match ran so high that the assistant pastor resigned his place and has gone to Honolulu to seek a pastorate. The young lady still sings in the choir, although she avers that the engagement is still on.

—In tracing up the history of Schweinfurth, who has been figuring for some time as a "messiah," with headquarters at Rockford, Ill., Dr. Landon Carter Gray, of the New York Polyclinic, makes some revelations. Schweinfurth was once a Methodist minister; he once attempted to pass himself off as the long-lost Charlie Ross, and Dr. Gray once examined him as to his sanity, and had him placed in an insane asylum, from which he escaped and has but recently been identified.

—The pope has issued a new encyclical letter, addressed to the bishops of Poland, Russia, Austria, and Prussia. They are enjoined "not to teach anything against the power of princes or the utility of nations, but to provide for the prosperity of all." The letter recalls an agreement with Russia by which the position of the clergy was immensely improved, the agreement being obtained through requests directly addressed to the czar. The Poles in Russia are urged to "trust to the equality of their emperor, and to observe the laws."

—A correspondent of the New York Observer, writing from Southern Idaho, where Mormonism is prevalent, gives Mormon authority for the statement that the practice of polygamy is only suspended in Utah until a State government can be secured. He adds that the leaders retain their hold on the young by church amusements of all kinds, including dancing. Their churches are open to everything but the gospel of Christ. Their religion requires no conviction of sin, no self-denial; only be baptized and become a saint. The superstition is so dense that it "may be felt" over four counties in Southern Idaho, the despotic power of the priesthood being unbroken.

—To offset the fact that the professed Protestantism of the world is fast going over to Rome, several religious journals are emphasizing the assertion of Bishop Perry, of the Episcopal Church, that in the past eighteen years, within his diocese, 700 adult Roman Catholics have joined the Episcopal communion. The error of this argument lies in supposing that those 700 got away from Rome by becoming Episcopalians, when church after church, both in England and in America, are dropping into line in the adoption of Roman methods. The same is true of other denominations, as is conspicuously illustrated in their growing recognition and celebration of Rome's church festivals, and in their imitation of her ambition to obtain political prestige in order to enforce their dogmas by civil law.