RELIGIOUS NEWS AND NOTES.
—A party of Philadelphia ball-players were arrested in New Jersey recently for playing ball on Sunday. —There are seven daily prayer-meetings held in New York city, four of which are business men's meetings. —The General Conference of the United Brethren church will meet at Westerville, Clark county, Ill., May 10. —During the past year Mr. Spurgeon's church, in London, is said to have had an increase of 146 members, making the present number 4,938. —The Town Council of Birmingham, England, has requested the Post-master General to relieve the letter-carriers from their excessive Sunday labor. —Hon. John F. Kasson, of Iowa, has accepted the position of United States Minister to Spain. Ex-Minister Caleb Cushing, arrived in New York, April 26. —Dean Stanley, of London, has, it is announced, been elected President of the Sunday Society, which has for its object the opening of museums and art-galleries on Sunday. —The Twenty-second Annual International Convention of the Young Men's Christian Association will assemble at Liberty Hall in the city of Louisville, Ky., June 6, and continue in session five days. —Major Whittle, of Chicago, has begun a series of revival meetings at Toledo. They are the largest meetings of the kind ever held at this place, the attendance at his week-day services having increased, in four evenings, from 700 to 1,200. —The contributions to the Pope, collected from various Catholic churches of San Francisco during Lent, in honor of the approaching Pontifical Jubilee, is said to have amounted to over $75,000, a larger sum than has been reported from any other diocese. —A resolution was adopted by the New England Methodist Conference, expressing gratitude to the President and Mrs. Hayes for banishing liquor from their public and private receptions. It was ordered that a copy of the resolutions be sent to the President. —Mrs. Betsey Whitehouse, who is said to have been the wealthiest lady in New Hampshire, recently died in Concord, and has bequeathed $200,000 to the Home Missionary Society of New Hampshire, which has for its object the aid of feeble Congregational churches. —The retirement of Prince Bismarck, if only temporary, is looked upon by the Pope as an opportune moment for resuming negotiations with Germany with a view to regulating the relations between Church and State, and stopping the antagonism of the last few years. The Illustrated Christian Weekly says: "A colored student from Barbadoes, who was a recent graduate of the Philadelphia Divinity School, on one occasion read in public the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah in eight languages. He is now at the head of the Episcopal Theological School, at Port au Prince, Haiti." —An effort is being made to suppress the sale of vicious literature in Philadelphia. A large committee have the matter in hand, and are quietly devising plans to insure a successful prosecution of the work. The interest of the public has been aroused, and it is probable that some permanent organization will be perfected.