RELIGIOUS NEWS AND NOTES.
—It is stated that the Assyrian inscriptions reveal the fact that under the Babylonian kings it was common to cast men alive into a burning fiery furnace, and also into a den of lions. —The Duke of Norfolk has erected a house at Sheffield, Eng., at an expense of £10,000, for the Vincentian Fathers. He is also about to lay out an equal sum in erecting other Catholic institutions in the same vicinity. —Five hundred years ago a solemn council was held in the popish monastery at Blackfriars, London, to stop the circulation of Protestant Bibles, which John Wycliffe had published. Now, close by the very spot in Blackfriars about 6,000 copies of the Bible go forth every day from the Bible Society Depot. It is now printed in 216 different languages. —There are about 270,000 Baptists in Great Britain. They contributed last year, according to the "Hand book," £340,000 for religious and benevolent objects, exclusive of home church expenses, domestic missions, and associational work. This is about $1,700,000, or $6.25 for each member. The London Baptist well remarks that "this fact says not a little for the liberality of a people who are for the most part comparatively poor." —An exchange says: "Pope Leo XIII. has sanctioned a plan for the conversion of Central Africa, which was prepared by Cardinal Franchi, while Prefect of the Propaganda. The work has been intrusted to a congregation established some ten years ago by M. Lavigerie, at Algiers. Twelve missionaries have already left for Zanzibar, and it is expected that they will be able to move into the interior during the present month. The missionaries have been instructed in the use of scientific instruments."