RELIGIOUS NEWS AND NOTES.
—The Religious Book Society of London has sold 2,000,000 copies of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress within a few years. —The new organ of the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland arrived last week. Several weeks will be occupied in setting it up. —The itinerant Methodist preachers throughout the world number 27,591. The local preachers number 61,474, making an aggregate of 89,065. —Rev. Lyman Abbott, a writer of long experience and acknowledged ability, is now associated with Henry Ward Beecher in the editorship of the Christian Union. —The Biblical Messenger, formerly published in Waterbury, Vt., will henceforth be merged into the Bible Banner, published in Vineland, N. J., and which will be edited by A. A. Phelps, A. M., D. T. Taylor, and Wm. Sheldon. —Twenty French journals have recently been prosecuted by the Jesuits, and fined on an average of $3,000 each for attacks on Jesuit proceedings, and the journalists and their friends have retaliated by demanding the expulsion of the Jesuits from France according to an unrepealed ordinance of 1826. —Bishop Burdon recently ordained four native preachers in connection with the English Church Mission at Foochow, China. There are now at Foochow twelve ordained native Methodist preachers, five of the Church of England, and two of the American Board, making nineteen ordained native ministers. —The Abyssinians have the Bible in ancient Ethiopic. They worship the Virgin Mary and the saints, and include the old Jewish patriarchs and prophets in their calendar. They observe the seventh day as the Sabbath, and their priests marry. They do not recognize the Pope. —During the past three months the Spanish clergy and aristocracy have made a severe attack upon their employees and servants who dare to worship in, or send their children to, Protestant schools or churches. Hundreds of poor men and women have thus suffered for their faith. —The Roman Catholics claim that the following members of their hierarchy in the United States are converts from Protestantism: Archbishop Bayley, of Baltimore; Archbishop Wood, of Philadelphia; and Bishops Doyle, of Hartford; Becker, of Wilmington, Gilmore, of Cleveland; Rosecrans, of Columbus; and Wadhams, of Ogdensburg. —The success of Christian missions has led to the curious result that the leaders of heathen religions are sending out counter missionaries. A sect of Buddhists in Japan are preparing young men to preach against Christianity. In order to fully grasp their own doctrines, students have been sent to China to examine the Chinese forms of Buddhism, and two young men have gone to England. After their stay in England they are to go to India to receive instruction in the Buddhist doctrines of that country. —John D. Lee, the leader in the Mormon massacre at Mountain Meadow, has been tried and found guilty of murder in the first degree. He was convicted on the evidence of the parties to the massacre, and it seems to be generally believed that he has been made a scapegoat by the Mormon leaders to secure immunity to the other implicated parties. Lee's counsel have asked a delay of ten days before passage of the sentence by the Court, to give time to file grounds of appeal. Lee is sad and threatening betimes. There is a rumor that he intends to expose more than is already known.