p. 122 | Editorial Notes by Editor

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, February 19, 1880.

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 8

Editorial Notes.

By Editor

Since the discovery of America, the production of the precious metals has increased from about three millions of dollars a year to more than one hundred millions. And over two-thirds of this amount, or about seventy millions a year, is produced in this country, which is fast making this nation the richest on the face of the globe. History has uniformly shown that with riches comes luxury, degeneracy, immorality, and destruction. Will this be the order here?

Southern Iowa, it seems, has a “Sabbath [Sunday] Association,” which is working vigorously to carry forward its objects. The secretary of this organization writes to the Christian Statesman that they have drawn up a petition to the C., B. and Q. Railway to suspend all business on their line on Sunday. This has been extensively circulated, numerously signed, and forwarded to the company. The President briefly replied, pledging himself to bring the petition before the Board.

A NEW TIME.

A BROTHER in Arkansas informs us that a Disciple paper published in Fayetteville, in that State, contains an article from one R. Bard, fixing a time for the flood of fire mentioned in 2 Peter 3. He assumes that there will be a great change at the end of the 6000 years of this world’s history, and claims to prove that the year 1880 is the year 5881 of the world’s existence; consequently that 120 years remain before the 6000 years will be completed, and the end come, when the earth will be destroyed by fire. The time he sets for the coming of Christ is therefore the year 2000 A. D. These speculations as to time are certainly all folly; but the article will serve a good purpose in one respect: it will make it appear inconsistent in Disciples to oppose the investigation of the prophecies.

A PETITION AGAINST SUNDAY MAIL SERVICE.

The “International Sabbath [Sunday] Association” has prepared a petition to the “Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled,” praying those “Honorable Bodies to pass a law instructing the Postmaster-General to make no further contracts which shall include the carriage of the mails on the Sabbath [Sunday], and to provide that hereafter no mail matter shall be collected or distributed on that day.”

This petition is being extensively circulated; and the Christian Statesman thinks it “marks the beginning of an agitation which will not cease until the nation has yielded its allegiance in this matter to the law of God.”

INGERSOLL, NOT MOSES, THE BLUNDERER.

It was our privilege, Feb. 15, at the Presbyterian church in this city, to listen to a lecture by Gen. Saml. F. Cary, of Cincinnati, O., on the subject of the mistakes of Ingersoll about Moses. The lecture was one of thrilling interest from the commencement to the close. The record of Genesis was thoroughly vindicated as the word of God and in strict accord with all true science; while the baseless, credulous, presumptuous system of skeptics and atheists (if it can be called a system) was set forth in its true colors. The lecture abounded in passages of the highest sublimity, set home with the power of true eloquence. Such efforts as this are needed when infidelity is rearing its shallow but brazen head so confidently in the land. We wish that every man, woman, and child in all the country could listen to Gen. Cary on this subject, especially those exposed to the blighting influence of men who like Ingersoll go about committing the unprovoked outrage of trying to tear from the heart of the happy believer faith in our blessed Bible and its divine Author.