RELIGIOUS NEWS AND NOTES.
—The Christian Secretary of May 8 says: "Messrs. Moody and Sankey closed their labors at the tabernacle in New Haven last Friday evening. Messrs. Pentecost and Stebbins follow them, beginning their services on Tuesday this week. It is said they will hold meetings in the churches instead of the tabernacle. Mr. Moody labors this week in New Haven, holding meetings in shops or halls or doing personal work as opportunity presents. Then he intends to go to his home in Northfield, Mass. Mr. Sankey, it is said, has gone for a visit to his former home in Pennsylvania." —An exchange says: "The activity of Rome is sleepless. There has been an increase of 470 Roman Catholic priests in England and Scotland since 1867, whilst convents, monasteries, and religious orders are multiplying rapidly. Convents in France are still liable to suppression by law, but it is not enforced. During the second Empire, the priests, availing themselves of the boundless influence of the Empress Eugenie over her husband, began covertly to re-open the religious houses, and there are now more than 20,000 monks of different communities, and not less than 100,000 nuns. We shall soon see what progress is made in Scotland now that the thin edge of the wedge has been fairly driven in." —The ceremony of laying the corner stone of the new church for the First Congregational Society of Oakland occurred May 22. Some five hundred persons were present, and the ceremonies were listened to with attention by all. The programme of the exercises embraced, scriptural readings and responses of the congregation, singing of hymns, prayers and addresses. The new church, when completed, will be one of the finest ecclesiastical structures in California. Three months ago the ground was first broken for placing the brick foundations and it is expected that by the middle of next December the edifice will be completed. It will cost about $75,000.