RELIGIOUS NEWS AND NOTES.
—The question of the Bible in the public schools is agitating the people of Sidney, Australia. The Bible there is out, and the pressure is to establish it. The majority are favorable to the measure. —It is stated by Protestant authority that during the last ten years the increase of the percentage of the property of the Protestant Church in this country has been about eleven per cent, while the increase of the Roman Catholic Church has been forty-two per cent. —Italy has finally accorded full civil and political rights to the Jews. Of the corps of Senators just elected two were Israelites, and in the Chamber of Deputies there are now eleven Jewish members, which gives a very fair representation in the legislature to that once despised and oppressed race. —Mohammedanism is making very rapid strides in many of the distant provinces of China. Not only, too, is the religion itself spreading thus suddenly and swiftly, but the Chinese followers of the Prophet appear ripe for an insurrection, and it is feared that the entire provinces of Kansuh, Shensi and Kwei-chow may ere long be in a condition of open revolt. —The Prussian Cross Gazette publishes a private letter from Jerusalem which says great excitement and anxiety prevail there in consequence of excesses of the Turkish authorities and the threatened rising of the populace. On the 2nd of June the Christians, fearing an attack, barricaded their houses, and the foreign residents kept an armed watch throughout the night. The Germans met at their Consulate and made an organization for mutual defense and sent to the Government formal application for military assistance. The Turkish soldiers have since permanently encamped in the public squares. —Miss Anna Oliver, of New York City, enjoys the honor of being the first woman in America to graduate from a regular theological seminary. The seminary from which she graduated is the Methodist Divinity School of Boston. “Miss Oliver,” says the Christian Union, “we assume, is now open to a ‘call,’ and after that we shall hear what Methodist preachers have to say about installing her. They cannot reject her, however, without at the same time condemning the course of one of their principal seminaries in throwing open its doors to women. And if we have Methodist women preachers, why not Presbyterian and Congregational and Episcopalian?” —At the opening service in Mr. Moody’s new church in Chicago, June 1, it was stated that the entire cost of the building and lot was $89,207 and that there was $19,897 yet to be raised. All but $7,541 was immediately taken up by a collection. Mr. Moody seems to be taking a very sensible course. At this meeting he is said to have made the following pointed statement: “You will notice by the advertisement that this is not called the dedication service. It is only the opening. We will dedicate the building when it is paid for. We have just opened the building to show what has been done, and if our friends like to pay the debt we will dedicate it. We will hold a meeting to-night, Friday night, and Sunday night; and if by Sunday night the debt is not paid we will lock the church up and keep it locked up until it is paid for.” —Enthusiasm over the new African missions to which the death of Livingstone gave the grand impulse, is well sustained. Recently the Scotch Established Church, which is following in the wake of the Free Church, sent out two little steel vessels, one for mission service on Lake Nyassa, the other for the purpose of establishing trading stations; and among those who have gone out there is a young Mr. Cotterill, son of the Bishop of Edinburg, who intends to develop commerce as a Christianizing agent. He hopes to aid in substantiating the belief of Livingstone, which is also shared by Lieut. Cameron, that honest trade will tend most powerfully to destroy the traffic in human flesh by assailing the slave system at its root. —A leading Baptist paper has the following: “The Baptist movement which began in Sweden about twenty-five years ago has resulted in the organization of 234 churches, having between ten and eleven thousand members, besides a large number that have migrated to the United States. Ten Associations and eighteen local missionary societies have been formed, and a General Home Missionary Society. These missionary societies maintain each from one to eight missionaries. The Sunday-schools are attended by between sixteen and seventeen thousand children. The churches contributed last year for the maintenance of preachers and other benevolent purposes about twenty-five thousand dollars.” This shows what has been accomplished by this denomination, and also what might be done could “present truth” be proclaimed there.