Religious News and Notes.
By Editor
-It is said Dr. Newman has declined the Cardinal's hat offered to him by the Pope. -The Jesuits have no legal right to exist in France, yet they are very numerous there. -M. Geoffroi, Old Catholic Cure of Courtemaiche, has re-entered the Roman Catholic Church. -The World's Conference of the Evangelical Alliance is arranged to hold August 31 to Sept. 7, in Bale, Switzerland. -A little girl severely criticised a preacher thus: "He preached so long that he made me sleepy, and then hollared so loud he wouldn't let me sleep!" -A colporteur of the American Bible Society in Missouri, says he found young men of 18 or 20 years who seemed to know nothing about the Bible. -Bishop Simpson, in one of his Yale lectures, says the minister's supervison of the Sunday-school should extend particularly to the books in the library. -The friends of Archbishop Purcell protested against the acceptance of his resignation, but Pope Leo has accepted it and he is only ex-archbishop now. -Rev. W. J. Smith, in the Central Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, March 16, said, "There are 3,000 gilded saloons in this great city where they sell the devil in solution." -The work of "Bible Revision" is meeting with favor from the best talent in the churches of the United States. We never expect, however, to see another than the present version in general use. -Superstition is yet alive. Great excitement was created by the report of the apparition of the Virgin Mary at a town in Bavaria. Bishop Senestry pronounced it a fraud. "Somebody blundered." -Joseph Cook, the lecturer, speaking of the Bible in public schools, gives utterance to the following suggestive remark.-The place of the Bible in schools will be occupied by the power which displaces it. -Dr. Kirk made a most cutting reply to a boaster of graces who said, "I am perfect; I have not sinned for five years." Said the Dr., "I am sorry to hear you say that, for I have heretofore always had a high idea of perfection." -A Baptist minister in St. Louis is being strongly praised for his Christian charity because he invited a Unitarian D. D. to remain at the communion. Such charity is very cheap, or the principles and consistency of the church are worthless. -The attendance at twenty-nine churches on a recent Sunday in Philadelphia was reported as 32,388 persons. Seemingly a good showing but-21,726 were Catholics, meeting in four churches, leaving 10,662 among twenty-five Protestant churches. -Dr. Washburn, President of Robert College, Constantinople, in an article in the Independent, reviews the action of the Berlin Conference, in regard to religious liberty in Turkey, and says that it amounts to nothing as far as missions are concerned. -The Cleveland Messenger says, "Sing as you go. Satan and sin and melancholy, and laziness, hate the songs of Zion." To which the Christian at Work says it knows of some "lazy Christians who take it all out in singing and don't do a bit of the Lord's work." -Dean Stanley says the contributions for missions of the Catholic churches in the whole world do not amount to one-third of those of the Protestant communions of Great Britain. And yet it cannot be denied that the Catholic church is a great missionary worker. -The Methodist laymen of Brooklyn who favor the repeal of the limitations of the Methodist pastorate are soon to hold a Convention in Simpson Church, when action will probably be taken in the form of a petition to the General Conference, which meets next year. -The Christian Leader, a Universalist paper, commenting on the action of a Congregational church in omitting the word "everlasting" from its creed to accommodate a couple of Universalists who wished to unite, says, "We could not desire the fellowship of a church the conscience of which is so pliable." That is sensible. -The Paris correspondent of the London Guardian (Anglican) gives a long and not very favorable report of the opening services of Father Hyacinthe's chapel in Paris. The congregation was largely composed of Protestants and the indifferent, few Catholics being present. There was much disorder, the voice of the Pere being drowned at one time in the tumult. -The Brooklyn Presbytery has decided to try Dr. Talmage on the following charges, presented by the committee appointed at the previous session: Deceit and falsehood in statements regarding his withdrawal from the editorship of the Christian at Work. In stating that sittings in the "Tabernacle were free. In accusing J. A. Hathaway of dishonest practices and then denying it. Of falsehood in collecting subscriptions for the payment of the church debt. Of deceit in the difficulty concerning the organist of the Tabernacle: and of stating that he was to be arraigned for heterodoxy, when he knew that such was not the case. The trial is set for the 24th.