No. 16. A Lutheran View of the National Reform Movement. Price 3 cents.
No. 17. Religion and the Public Schools. Price 4 cents.
No. 18. The National Sunday Law. Price 25 cents.
Sample copies of the above sent postpaid on receipt of price.
Address,
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO.,
Oakland, Cal.
43 Bond St., N. Y.
The Sunday Law Campaign in Oakland
By Editor
The Rev. W. F. Crafts, D. D., field secretary of the American Sunday Union, is on the Pacific Coast putting forth all his energies to reclaim California, the only State in the Union which has no Sunday law. The doctor believes that this condition of equal rights and truest liberty should exist no longer, ergo his presence here. His first mass meeting was held in the First Congregational Church of Oakland, the evening of August 5. Although the meeting had apparently been well advertised, the attendance was not large, only a few of Oakland's two score of pastors being present. At the close of the lecture a petition to congress for a Sunday law was presented, ninety-eight being counted by those in favor of the petition as voting for it, and one-hundred and six voting against it. It seemed to confound the doctor. Here was Oakland, the city of churches, the Brooklyn of the Pacific slope, with its half-hundred churches, and then to have the petition voted down was indeed, as characterized by an Oakland daily, a "surprise party." No effort had been made to induce those opposed to Mr. Crafts' petition to attend the meeting.
We are glad to chronicle this indication of a love of liberty on the part of the people of Oakland. This, however, is no indication of what the future may have in store. The Sunday movement will succeed; it is a matter of divine prediction; but it will be but a momentary triumph to an utterly ruinous defeat, which will involve in its ruin those who support it. In the meantime, let all who love liberty do all in their power to enlighten their fellow-men in regard to the iniquity of all religious legislation, or legislation on behalf of religious institutions.
Canvassing with Great Controversy
By Editor
FROM Aspen, Colo., in a private letter, under date of August 3, Brother W. Harper writes: "I am busy now canvassing. The Lord is good, and I have many precious tokens of his love and care. I am handling 'Great Controversy, Vol. 4.' Last week I took about 150 orders, 125 of which were for Volume 4."
We are glad to hear of Brother Harper's success. It is an indication of what others may do if they will but give themselves to the work. They may not have such great results, but they can do much in spreading the truth in this way. The amount of good done by "Volume 4 of Great Controversy" eternity alone will reveal. There may be many in the kingdom of Christ who will, under God, owe their salvation to the precious truth set forth in this book; and the faithful, consecrated canvasser will have his share in the joy of that harvest of souls. There ought to be a hundred handling this book where there is now but one. There is plenty of room.
REMAINING CAMP-MEETINGS FOR 1889.
By Editor
[A star (*) indicates that the meetings thus marked will be preceded by a worker's meeting.]
*Arkansas, Rogers, August 20-27
*Maine, Pittsfield, " 20-27
*West Virginia, Grafton, " 20-27
Michigan (Eastern) Saginaw, Aug. 27 to Sept. 3
*Texas, Garland, " 27 to " 3
Vermont, St. Albans, " 27 to " 3
California, San Diego, " 29 to " 9
*Colorado, Sept. 10-17
Canada, Fitch Bay, P. Q. " 3-10
*Illinois, Bloomington, " 3-10
*Nebraska, Fremont, " 17-24
*Indiana, Kokomo, " 17-24
*Tennessee, Guthrie, Ky., " 24 to Oct. 1
*California (general), Oakland, " 25 to " 7
California, Arroyo Grande, Oct. 22-29
PARTICULARS concerning reduction of fare to the Oakland camp-meeting will be given next week.
Mail and Express Opposes Prohibition
By Editor
The New York Mail and Express, Col. Elliot F. Shepard's paper, has come out openly opposed to prohibition. Mr. Shepard is, however, still an earnest advocate of Sunday laws, and president of the American Sabbath Union, and his friends still insist, we presume, that Adventists are opposed to prohibition because they oppose all religious legislation.
Return of the State Church to Romanism
Canon Farrar has suggested a plan for reaching the poor through an organized monastic order, whose members should vow obedience, celibacy, and poverty. The Examiner (Baptist) asks, "What next?" If the answer is to be drawn from the evident signs of the times but one reply can be given, namely, the return of the English State Church to Romanism bodily. The line of demarkation is not very distinct now, and is rapidly fading away.
Ungodliness and Sabbath Desecration
By Editor
THE Interior (Presbyterian) of Chicago says:—
“A speaker on Sabbath observance, down east, gave ten causes which go to produce the widespread desecration of the day. In this region of the country, one cause is sufficient to account for all the evil, and that cause is ungodliness. Those who have no love for God, are the very persons who profane the day he wants them to keep holy.”
By Sabbath the Interior means Sunday, but that does not affect the principle, and this paragraph is the whole Sunday question in a nut shell. Really pious people who believe that God requires them to keep any day will keep it, but all others will make it a matter of convenience.
Wicked Debts
By Editor
A WELL-KNOWN Methodist minister, Rev. Frost Craft, created a sensation recently in Trinity Church, Lafayette, Ind., by preaching on "Wicked Debts." Among other things he said that a milliner at Lafayette had said to him that the reason she did not belong to Trinity Church was that so many of the ladies of the congregation owed her for their bonnets and would not pay her. He said furthermore, that a dressmaker of that city had informed him that a number of ladies belonging to the church were wearing dresses not paid for; that the grocerymen complained of church people owing them, and that nearly every business in Lafayette was full of "wicked debts," contracted by people who were leading church members.
We think that when such a state of affairs exist somebody ought to create a sensation.
London’s Growth and Contrasts
VERY few towns or cities have made such wonderful growth and progress as London, the metropolis of the world. A century ago there had never been a census. The city then lay between Hyde Park corner and Poplar, with a length of about seven miles and an average width of one and one-half to two miles. In 1801 the first census was taken, showing a population of 880,000. In 1841 it had a population of 1,870,000. Now greater London has an area of 700 square miles, ordinary London, 120 square miles. The population of the latter is no less than 4,351,738. It has diminished its death rate by sanitary regulations till it is well up among the cities of the world, from a health stand-point. It is the great city of the world. Great in piety, great in sin; great in wealth, great in poverty; great in extremes of all kinds, which make one long for that continuing city "whose builder and whose maker is God."
THAT SPECIAL SENTINEL.
By Editor
BEARS date of August 7, 1889—Second Edition, and contains the "Georgia Sunday Law," "Best Sunday Observance," "Sunday Law Movement and the Gospel," "A misleading Petition—Which one is it?" "Christianity Means Honesty," "Are Sunday Laws for the Good of Society?" "To Whom is the Sabbath Due?" "Cardinal Gibbons Spoke only for Himself." "That Counter-Petition Again," Hon. Thomas McDougall's Speech at the Ohio Interdenominational Sabbath Convention, etc.
This is an excellent number of the American Sentinel. It should be circulated everywhere, especially among professional and business men. Price $1.50 per hundred, or $10 per thousand copies, pre-paid by mail or express. Now is the time to order. Address American Sentinel, 1059 Castro Street, Oakland, Cal.
CALIFORNIA CONFERENCE.
The eighteenth annual session of the California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, will be held in connection with the State camp-meeting, to be held in Oakland, September 25 to October 7, 1889.
Let our churches at once elect their delegates according to the following ratio. Each church is entitled to one delegate without any respect to the number of members, and one additional delegate for every ten members of the church. Ordained ministers holding credentials are delegates at large without election, and can represent unorganized companies. Let the churches elect as delegates reliable persons, and as far as possible those who will be present during the entire camp-meeting.
The church clerks and tithe collectors should bring their books with them.
CAL. CONF. COM.
CALIFORNIA HEALTH AND TEMPERANCE ASSOCIATION.
By John Norton Loughborough
THERE will be a meeting of the California Health and Temperance Association held upon the Oakland camp-ground, in connection with the camp-meeting, from September 25 to October 7. At this meeting there will be an election of officers for the ensuing year, and the consideration of such other business as may tend to the furtherance of the cause of health and temperance upon this coast.
J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH, Pres.
FINANCIAL REPORTS.
By California Conference Committee
BLANKS will soon be sent to all of our Conference workers, and they are requested to make out their reports of labors, receipts and expenses up to September 1, and forward these reports to E. A. Chapman, Conference Secretary, Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal., immediately after that date, that all may be in readiness for auditing before the time for the workers' meeting, September 18. CAL. CONF. COM.
