RELIGIOUS NEWS AND NOTES.
—A New York pawnbroker reports taking in 220 family Bibles since February 1875. —In Scotland the Baptists have more than doubled in the past six years, they have now seventy churches. —The Massachusetts Legislature has rejected the bill for the taxation of church property by a large majority. —Philip Philips, the celebrated Singing Pilgrim, and the British evangelist, Thoburn, have joined hands. They met in India, and are now operating after the manner of Moody and Sankey in Calcutta, and are drawing large congregations. —Until the present century there was but little interest in missions. The first Protestant missionary society was organized in London in 1701, and the first American society in 1810. Now there are over fifty missionary societies. —The failure of Daniel Drew has greatly embarrassed the Theological Seminary at Madison, and the Wesleyan University at Middletown. Mr. Drew's endowment to these seminaries of learning was held in his own hands. He paid the interest promptly—nothing more. It is now some six months since he stopped the payment, and neither the professors' salaries nor the running expenses of those institutions have been met. A DENOMINATION FULL.—Under this caption an exchange says that the Methodists boast that they have “no church without a pastor, and no pastor without a church.” At the last meeting of the Methodist East Conference, applicants were refused admission “for there was no place to put them.” How sad! Would that there were men in our ranks only waiting to find a place to work. How long think you they would be obliged to wait? —The union of different religious denominations which has attracted considerable attention of late, has been heartily endorsed by most bodies; but there is another kind of union not so highly approved. It is illustrated by the following:— “The Brooklyn Presbytery that has just closed its session, finds that something has got to be done. The Lawrence street church and Fort Green, have united. The Remsen street and the South church have united. The Lawrence street, the South, Remsen and Tompkins avenue have been struck from the rolls since the Presbytery last met. Two consolidations and one loss. Two or three difficulties attend consolidations. One is, What shall be done with church property? Another, What is to be done with the pastor? Another, who shall disband? Already the Clinton street church have two houses on their hands, with very little prospect of a sale. The Elm Place Congregational church is in the same situation. Other congregations are likewise. Six or seven prominent houses of worship contain only a fragment of a congregation, and the question of union or dissolution has got to be met.”