Religious Miscellany by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · May 20, 1875

Religious Miscellany.

By Editor

—The Rome correspondent of the Journal des Debates writes to that paper that the pope will take up his residence in the United States if it should become impossible for him to remain in Rome.

—Two Japanese Christians are to be received into the California College as theological students.

—The American Tract Society celebrated its fiftieth year in Washington, April 4. The total receipts have exceeded $12,700,000, of which one-third was from donations and legacies. The expenditures for grants, colportage and the foreign-mission press have exceeded the entire benevolent receipts.

—A great Methodist camp-meeting is to be held at Saratoga, N. Y., beginning July 1, largely for the purpose of fraternizing the various sects of that denomination.

—The Lutheran Observer says:— Four general Lutheran bodies and twice as many independent Lutheran synods now exist, without unity, harmony, or co-operation. They neither recognize nor extend fellowship, but denounce and antagonize each other. Strife and contention producing alienation and schism, have free course among them.

—Dr. Hall's church in New York has already cost $900,000.

—A Presbyterian camp-meeting is advertised to be opened this summer at Cape May.

—At a union meeting in the Baptist church, Stockton, Cal., May 2, Rev. J. Thompson, District Secretary and Agent of the California Bible Society, stated that the Bible is now printed in between 260 and 300 languages and dialects, and that there is not a nation in the world where it is not known.

—The editor of the Christian Union says:— The whole world has been ransacked and explored; there is not now a corner of the globe where Christianity is unknown.

—The Phrenological Journal says:— The whole heathen world is dotted with missions. Three-fourths of the earth's surface is under Christian government and influence. Surely is this not enough to fulfill Matt. 24:14?

—Governor Gaston and members of the Executive Council and of both branches of the Legislature; Mayor Cobb, members of the Common Council, and heads of departments; members of the faculties of Havard, Yale, and other colleges, and French, British, and other Consuls, were present at the consecration of the Catholic Archbishop Williams in Boston May 2. This indicates the honor that is coming to be paid to that church in this country.

—May 2, Beecher received into Plymouth Church 105 members.

—A San Francisco daily of May 2, says:— The fair of Plymouth Church, Taylor street, which attracted almost the whole attention of the friends and members of the congregation last week, netted nearly $1,000. The balloting for the handsomest young lady was very spirited, and $300 of the above amount was given at the ballot table in two-bit pieces for the privilege of voting. Money! money! money! pleasure! pleasure! pleasure! This seems to be the burden of the churches now. The St. John's Episcopal church of Stockton, Cal., in advertising their picnic the other day, said: "There is an excellent floor for dancing on the picnic grounds, and croquet and other games will be provided." See 2 Tim. 3:1–5.

—The First International (Sixth National) Convention of Sunday-school Workers of America—including the United States and Canada—is to be held in Baltimore, May 11–13.

—The Baptist denomination has now organized schools for the training of colored preachers and teachers at such central points as Washington, Richmond, Raleigh, Columbia, Augusta, New Orleans, and Nashville, which together contain some seven hundred students.

FOREIGN.

MADRID, May 4.—King Alfonso received a Papal nuncio to-day. He said he was aware of his duties, gratitude, and affection to the Holy Father, and should fulfill them.

ROME, May 4.—The pope is again under his physician's treatment.

—It is proposed to re-establish the Inquisition in Ecuador.

—One of the curiosities of English ecclesiastical law is that while a clergyman of the Established Church may preach in the streets, in a theatre, or in a music hall, he may not preach in a place of worship belonging to dissenters.

—The question of disestablishing the Church of England is still vigorously agitated in England.

—Bedford, having tardily remembered Bunyan with a monument last year, Kidderminster, Baxter's birthplace, follows this season with a similar memorial to its worthy divine. The unveiling takes place in July, when Dean Stanley will deliver the address as he did at Bedford, and when he may be expected to say something more against "giant intolerance."

—The eleventh annual report of the Burmah Bible and Tract Society says that the Society was instituted in 1861, and held its thirteenth annual meeting Dec. 17. The report states that an edition of 3,000 of Genesis and Exodus, in a size fitted for permanent use and suitable for binding, has been published, and 90,000 copies of nine books and tracts, all in Burmese.

—The Episcopal Church has two churches in the City of Mexico, and nearly forty in other parts of the Republic. The Methodists also are gaining a strong foothold there.

—The Roman Catholic Bishops of England have agreed together to forbid English Roman Catholics joining the association known as "The Independent Order of Good Templars."

—Eld. Jones and his friends are meeting with much encouragement in spreading the light on the Sabbath in England and Scotland. They have just issued 2,000 copies of the tract, "Who changed the Sabbath?"