And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of Heaven is at hand
** Services in Chicago, every Sabbath (seventh day), at 296 West Erie St. All Sabbath-keepers spending a Sabbath in Chicago, are invited to attend.
If nothing in the providence of God prevents, there will be a general quarterly meeting for the New England Conference at South Lancaster, Dec. 27 and 28. Districts 2, 3, and 4, will hold their quarterly meeting in connection with it. We expect to see a general attendance, as this will be the annual meeting of the tract society, and important matters will be considered. S. N. Haskell.
Quarterly Meetings in Minnesota.
Tenhassen, December 20, 21, Blue Earth City and Wells churches, where Bro. Kelsey may appoint, 27, 28. Harrison Grant.
Quarterly meeting for the church at Poy Sippi the second Sabbath in December. Will Bro. P. S. Thurston please to attend? P. H. Cady.
The quarterly meeting of the T. and M. Society of Dist. No. 1, Iowa, will be held at West Union, Dec. 20 and 21, in connection with the quarterly meeting of the Waukon and West Union churches. It is expected that Elds. H. Nicola and C. A. Washburn will be at this meeting. Let us seek God as never before, and come prepared to work. F. H. Chapman, Director.
No Providence preventing, I will meet with the friends of the cause at Fredericksburg, Iowa, Sabbath and first-day, Dec. 20, 21; Bradford, Dec. 27, 28. C. A. Washburn.
Quarterly meeting first Sabbath and first-day of January next at Mound City, Kansas. The brethren of Centerville and Union Town are requested to be present. Come praying, brethren, that the Lord may meet with us. J. H. Cook.
The next general quarterly meeting for the Tract and Missionary Society in Ohio, will be held at Clyde, Dec. 20 and 21. We hope there will be a general attendance at this meeting. We expect each director will hold his quarterly meeting Dec. 6 and 7, two weeks previous, so that a report can be sent to the Secretary, Miss. M. E. Reynolds, Mesopotamia, Ohio, or brought to the meeting at Clyde. It is hoped that each member will take an interest in sending the Review on trial to his friends. The money and names can be given to the Director, and a report be made at this meeting. Eld. S. N. Haskell is expected to attend. O. Mears, Tres.
There will be a quarterly meeting of the T. and M. Society for Dist. No. 2, Maine, in connection with the quarterly meeting to be held at Allen’s Corner, Deering, Sabbath and first-day, Jan. 3 and 4, 1874. Meeting will commence Sabbath eve, Jan. 2. Let there be a general gathering at this meeting, as we hope to enjoy the labors of Eld. S. N. Haskell. Send your reports to me at least one week before the meeting, Will. E. Morton, Director.
Monthly meeting for Cattaraugus Co., N. Y., will be held at Randolph, the third Sabbath and first-day in December. Come, one and all, and let us arouse to duty! Should be glad to have a minister with us. S. Thurston.
No Providence preventing, there will be a monthly meeting held with the church at Deering, Allen’s Corner, Me., commencing Friday evening, Jan. 2, 1874, and holding over Sabbath and first-day. We hope to see a general gathering of the friends of the cause in this part of the State, at this meeting. Come prepared to take hold and labor in the cause of present truth. J. B. Goodrich.
Quarterly meeting of the church at Grant, Clare Co., Mich., the first Sabbath and first-day in January, 1874. Bro. Corliss is requested to attend. John M. Smith, Clerk.
The next general quarterly meeting for the Iowa and Neb. Missionary Society will be at Marion, Linn Co., Iowa, Jan. 10, 11, 1874. Let each director see that his district is represented in this meeting either in person or by letter. District quarterly meetings should be held in each district previous to this one, so that a full report may be given. Meeting to commence Friday evening. H. Nicola.
The Lord willing, I will meet with the church at West Union, December 20, 21. At Laporte City, “ 27, 28. H. Nicola.
Change of Appointment.
The appointment that was given in the Review, for a monthly meeting in Cornville, Maine, to be held Dec. 20 and 21, comes on the F. W. Baptists’ appointment. Our meeting will therefore be one week later. By request of the church, Chas. Stratton.
News and Miscellany.
“Can ye not discern the signs of the times?”
Terrible Catastrophe.
A SINGULAR AND appalling catastrophe lately occurred in mid ocean on the Atlantic. The following are some of the particulars:—
LONDON. December 1.—The ship Trimountain, from New York, arrived at Cardiff early this morning, with intelligence of a dreadful disaster to the steamship Ville du Havre, which left New York November 15 for Havre, in command of Capt. Sarmont. At 2 o’clock on the morning of the 23d, the Ville du Havre came in collision with the British ship Loch Earn from London, for New York, and sunk shortly after. Two hundred and twenty-six of the persons of the Ville Du Havre were lost. The Trimountain saved 87 passengers and brought them to Cardiff.
Later.—The following additional particulars of the loss of the Ville du Havre have been gathered from the officers and passengers at Cardiff: The Ville du Havre experienced a thick fog until the 20th. At the time of the collision, the weather was clear and little wind blowing, but there was a heavy sea. The captain had just retired, and the second officer was in charge. The lights on the steamer were all right. The collision was wholly unexpected. The Loch Earn struck the steamer amidships, and made a chasm 12 feet deep and from 15 to 20 feet wide. The exact position of the Ville du Havre at the time was—latitude 47 deg. 21 min.; longitude 35 deg. 31 min. A panic took possession of the passengers. Five minutes after the collision, the main and mizzen masts fell across two large boats which were filled with people and ready for launching. The boats were crushed to pieces and many of their occupants killed and injured. In the brief interval between the collision and sinking of the steamer, the crew were able to launch only a whale-boat and the captain’s gig. The Loch Earn went a mile before stopping. She then got out four boats to pick up people struggling in the water. Meanwhile the whale-boat, under command of the second lieutenant of the Ville du Havre, picked up one load of those who were clinging to planks, spars, etc., and took them to the Loch Earn. She returned to the scene and rescued another load. Captain Sarmont, who remained on deck to the last, was rescued by this boat three-quarters of an hour after the collision. One of his officers swam a mile to the Loch Earn, and was hauled on board with a rope. The boats continued to search the water in the vicinity of the disaster until there was no hope of saving more lives. The cold was intense. Many of the survivors were immersed two hours and were almost lifeless when rescued. The ship Trimountain sighted the Loch Earn at 8 A. M., six hours after the sinking of the steamer, and received the survivors as before reported. The saved speak in the highest terms of the kindness of Captain Urquhart, her commander. There were six stowaways on board the Ville du Havre. Later accounts make the date of the collision the 22d instead of the 23d ult. A vessel which arrived at Bristol reports speaking the Loch Earn with ten survivors of the Ville du Havre on board.
Protest Over Tilton Membership Removal at Plymouth Church
A formal protest from the Clinton Avenue Church and the Church of the Pilgrims against the dropping of Theodore Tilton’s name from the roll of membership without any investigation of the charge which had been made against him of slandering Mr. Beecher has been served upon Plymouth Church. The document inveighs against the lax church discipline involved in the proceedings, and demands that the subject be taken before a convention of Congregational churches for discussion and settlement. Copies have been served upon Mr. Beecher as pastor, and Mr. Halliday as clerk. Although in Congregational government there is no judicial system superior to the individual churches, the custom has been to refer disputed questions to a conference of other churches of the same denomination. In such cases, the church in which the dissension has occurred names the churches which shall form the tribunal. This is the plan which the protest demands shall be adopted, the document being signed by Dr. Storrs and Dr. Budington as pastors. The matter will be laid before the members of Plymouth Church at a meeting not yet called, but which is to be held this week. Informal discussion has already developed sufficient diversity of opinion as to whether Mr. Beecher shall be sustained in the stand he has taken. Should Plymouth Church refuse to accede to the demand of Dr. Storrs’ and Dr. Budington’s churches, precedent gives them the right to go on with the investigation in an ex-parte way. The tribunal which they would call together could not excommunicate the offending church, but could cut it off from denominational intercourse and fraternity.
S. D. A. Publishing Association.
The first session of the late meeting of the S. D. A. Publishing Association, having been adjourned to the call of the President, a second session was called by him Nov. 26, 1873, at 3 P. M. At this session, Eld. J. N. Andrews and U. Smith were elected additional editors of the Review for the ensuing year.
M. S. Merriam having resigned his position as Secretary of the Association, and sister A. M. Driscall as Auditor, sister V. A. Merriam was chosen Secretary, and M. S. Merriam, Auditor; so that the board of officers for the coming year now stands as follows: President, James White; Vice-president, Harmon Lindsay; Secretary, V. A. Merriam; Treasurer, C. W. Comings; Auditor, M. S. Merriam; Publishing Committee, Jas. White, Geo. J. Butler, S. N. Haskell; and the editorial board consists of Eld. Jas. White, Eld. J. N. Andrews, and U. Smith.
To Correspondents.
M. N. W.: You will find an exposition of 2 Cor. 5: 1-10 in the volume published at this Office entitled, “Man’s Nature and Destiny,” pp. 183-194; or in the pamphlet entitled, “State of the Dead,” pp. 152-163. Price of bound volume $1 00; of the pamphlet, 25 cents.
Can a True Christian Belong to Freemasonry?
QUESTION. Can a person be a true Christian and still belong to the Free Masons?
A Subscriber.
ANSWER. We do not deny that there may be true Christians connected with the Masons, who have gone into the organization ignorant of its follies and its evils; but we do not think any Christian who becomes enlightened on the subject, will either enter or remain connected with, a secret society of any kind.
The Only Path of Safety.
Bro. J. A. Gregory, of Pepin Co., Wis., writes: I have learned by sad and bitter experience that our only hope is in moving forward with the work of the Lord. And I humbly ask forgiveness of all for having, in discouragement, ever turned against the truth and its friends. The Lord’s love constrains me to return again to his fold. I beg an interest in the prayers of the Lord’s faithful followers, that I may with them share in the immortal inheritance.
THE SCANDINAVIAN WORK.—Mr. Hans H. Johnson
the ship-keeper at the Bethel Ship, is a distributer of the Holy Scriptures among the Scandinavians, and gives the following in his report of his labors:— “The Scandinavian immigration of the last twelve months (from April, 1872 to April, 1873) has been very large, not less than 22,149 souls having left their native home for America. The greater part of these have gone West. They seem to have chosen the following six States—Iliinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kansas—for their homes. The most of these came, as usual, by way of Liverpool, but during last summer we had three steamers which brought 1319 immigrants direct from Norway. I have distributed among them ninety-five Bibles and 2354 Testaments, and received from sales $130.85. I have visited during the year 479 Scandinavian vessels.”—Methodist.
Innocence and Virtue
Innocence is not virtue, and those who fancy that it is make a fatal mistake. Innocence is simply the ignorance of evil; virtue knows it, appreciates it, rejects it. Infancy is lovely in its innocence, but life, with its stern realities, demands the strong, ripened rigor of manly virtue to resist its evil, to protect its good, to build up character, and to bless the world.
The Religious Herald says the “confessional” is already established in most of the Protestant churches in this neighborhood. They are quite inclined to confess to their ministers the faults of other people, but have not much usually to say about their own.
Work! Work! Work!
By C. H. Bliss
There are two kinds of work: Selfish and unselfish. Selfish work is that which springs from selfish motives; and the person who engages in it, labors expecting to receive a reward. Unselfish work is founded on the principle of love, and the laborer does not work for the sake of gaining a reward. Now it is this unselfish work that is pleasing to God, and there is plenty of it to do.
How many farmers who have been laboring hard during the last nine months will spend the next three winter months around the fireside, reading and gossiping with their neighbors over the financial and political troubles of the nation; and thus the long, cold, blue winter will drag heavily along till spring work comes in.
But I am about to suggest a plan by which this old winter may become a beautiful spring to us, and “December as pleasant as May.” It is this: As we have labored the last nine months for self, let us labor the next three months for the Lord—unselfish labor. Let every Seventh-day Adventist in the land take our periodicals, the Review, Instructor, and Reformer, and visit every family for miles around, and talk to them about Jesus, the Bible, and Bible truths, especially those truths which have been made void through tradition, and obtain subscribers for our periodicals, and scatter tracts wherever there is an interest to read. Oh! the good we might do if we were only awake to these things. Every one of us might be the means of leading some poor soul into the light of the truth; but we ought not to go about it carelessly, we should live near the Lord. It is a high and holy calling. If we spend the winter thus, our peace may be as a river; and during the heat and toil of the coming summer, we may look back upon it as a bright spot in our history. C. H. Bliss.
Warning to America.
The Allocution pronounced by Pope Pius IX. on the occasion of the Revocation of the Concordat, and the enactment of liberal laws by the Government of Austria, is a document of too serious importance not to be recorded in full for the eyes of all our readers. We entreat the attention of thoughtful men to the bearing of it upon American institutions and American liberty.
It is a natural temptation, as we mark the calm and defiant contempt with which it is received by the Baron Von Beust and the great, emancipated empire which he represents, to sneer at the impotent malignity with which this brutum fulmen has been flung at the government of Austria, and to reckon it the last spasm of an exhausted and expiring tyranny.
But when we consider that more or less subject to the will of this moribund despot are the confessed majorities that rule the affairs of all the great American cities, and the solid mass of unintelligent and undivided votes which are used as the balance of power to determine the policy of our State and national governments, such utterances as this cease to be the mere scorn and jest of current history, and acquire a practical importance which we are far more in danger of undervaluing than of overvaluing.
This Allocution is not the venting of the idle petulance of one unfortunate, infirm, and cross old man. It was pronounced in the congregation of his seventy sagacious advisers in “secret consistory,” and comes to the light only with their well-considered approval. It is the deliberate reaffirming, in the face of all the world, of the policy of the Roman church. Where that church declines and fails, of course the manifestoes of its policy are waste paper. But how is it where it becomes dominant in society and politics? And what is indicated, in this document, with regard to the real designs of those whose plausible professions are set forth amongst us in so many a beguiling tract and volume?
Let it be distinctly understood, then, that the authorities of the Roman church have deliberately declared to be odious and abominable, and flagrantly contradictory to the doctrines, the rights, and the authority of the “Catholic Religion”:—
1. “Laws establishing liberty for all opinions, liberty of the press, and liberty of faith.”
2. “Laws granting to the members of all denominations the right of establishing schools and colleges into which members of all denominations are allowed to be admitted on the same footing.”
3. Laws permitting the intermarriage, on terms of religious equality, of Catholics and Protestants.
4. Laws permitting civil marriage.
5. Laws establishing public schools for secular education, that shall be free from the control of the Romish priesthood.
Let it be understood, furthermore, that the Roman church assumes, in this document, the right to declare such laws as these, wherever they may be enacted, to be NULL AND VOID.—Christian World.
Freemasonry, Christianity, and Religious Hostility
WITH its usual discernment of the true issue, the Index says:—
The probable reason why Catholics and Protestants are equally hostile to Freemasonry is to be found in the fact that the latter is a purely Theistic institution in which Christianity has no more rights than Judaism, or Mohammedanism, or simple Deism. But Christianity can never be comfortable unless it rules. “Hence those tears.”
Exactly so. And the Index clearly sees what many religious papers cannot see or dare not say, that membership in such an institution is inconsistent with Christianity.—Christian Statesman.
The Review and Herald.
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