RELIGIOUS NEWS AND NOTES.
—The American Board of Foreign Missions has expended about $5,000,000 in its various missions in the Turkish empire. —The Universalists of New Hampshire at their recent convention unanimously and strongly condemned the use of tobacco. —The attendance of the Protestant churches of Chicago amounts to 50,000, and that of the Catholic churches to 40,000. —William Charles Lawson, formerly a slave, has been ordained as a Baptist minister, and installed pastor of a Baltimore church. —No less than thirty-one churches in Philadelphia were more or less damaged by the violent gale of October 23. Among the heaviest losses is Christ's Episcopal church, at Germantown, which is damaged about $50,000, the Walnut street Presbyterian church $35,000, and the First Baptist church $35,000. —The Primitive Methodists of England are considered the poorest Christian community in that country, and yet they raised last year $150,000 for missionary purposes. This was an average of one dollar for every member of the denomination, and a higher average than that of most of the wealthier denominations. —The history of Christianity in the island of Samoa is no less wonderful than in the Sandwich islands. Thirty-six years ago the Samoans were 34,000 barbarians; now the group contains 80,000 people, nearly all professing Christians. The theological seminary has 60 students, and twenty missionaries sent out by the natives are preaching the gospel in the neighboring islands. There are few brighter pages in the history of missions.