The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1895-03-16
PITCAIRN
A Wholesale Swap From One Re.
liGion to Another.

A Wholesale swap rom One Re-
ligion to Another.
In the article about Pitcairn island,
published in the weekly Of Deem
Der 8, r. H. Palmer mentioned that
the islanders, who were for many years
affiliated with the Church of England,
had lately been converted to the doc
trjnes Of the Seventh-day Advcn'iSlS
1t is a considerable distance from the
Church Of England to the organization
of the Seventh-day Adventists, and it
is interesting to learn how the des:erd-
ants Of the mutineers Of the Bounty
anne to make so radical a chang. 4
private letter of recent date to Il reader
of the w eekly' tells how it came
about.
When John Ada rs, Of The original
settlers, began to AXE serious views OF
life and the future OK the sett'eutLr,
he had in stock enc Bible Hnd II
prayer book, which rams from the
Bounty. On these he started the re-
ligious life of the island, reading serv-
ices out of the prayer look on Sum-
day and teaching the children the cate.
chism. He died in 1929, but his Sue
cessors stuck with entire contentment
to Bible and prayer book, knowing
scarcely anything Of other denom.na-
tons until about 1876 when for the
first time they began to receive publ
cations from Methodists, Baptists and
Congregationalists, and later from the
Ohristadelphians, Plymouth Brethren,
| ~Seventh-day Adventists, Second ADJ
ventists and others. Our friends cor
respondent says that for ten years the
islanders read the documents Of these
various sects, finding something to adj
mire in each, and differing in some
points from all. Gradually they be-
came somewhat shaken in their entire
belief in the Church of England's doc
trines, grew to feel that the saints
days savored Of Roman Catholicism
and lost confidence in infant baptism
and confirmation. Principally, it seems,
1.-The truths about Immortality as
taught in the Bible, the final doom of
the wicked, baptism and particularly
the truth about the Sabbath" We're
brought to their notice. They ceased
to depend upon their catechisms for in
formation and began to ''study the
Bible in connection with the truths
presented" with the result that in
1866, ten years after the influx of
tracts began, they Unanimously be-
gan keeping the seventh day as the
Lords day, instead Of the first day."
and were organized in December, 1890,
into "the Seventh-day Adventist church
on Pitcairn island
One may smile withouc i~rreverence
or d%isrespect at this simple story of a
%sectarian swap. The Pitcairn island
ers are not very har1 worked, have
few amusements and abundant leisure.
With plenty of sectarian literature sup
piled them, there is nothing to hinder
each one of them from becoming a free
and independent expert %theologian,
with convictions Of his own on ali
points Of doctrine. There aye only
about 40 people on the island now
(many of the original settlers having
moved to Norfold lsland), and there
must be Christian sects enough in the
United States alone to afford each
adult person Of them a "persuasion,"
with a name, creed and established or
%ganization, which he can have all to
himself. Such a complete experience
Of sect might bring home to the island
ers more quickly than to their CONT
mental brethren a realization Of the
extreme unimportance OF most sectar-
ian difference as compared with the be-
liefs on which most Christian sects are
able to agree.-Harper's Weekly.
Matrimony is the name Of . postoface in