Religious News and Notes.
By Editor
-The cornet is steadily superceding the organ in making church music. -Arrangements are being made to hold another Prophetic or Advent Conference, in London, about the first week in March. -There are 1,503 Baptists in the Cherokee nation, almost one-tenth of the entire tribe, fifty-two of whom are ministers, including their chief. -The Catholics strongly profess opposition to secret societies, but the "Society of Jesus," known as the Jesuits, is a secret society of the worst order. -From fifty to one hundred persons assemble weekly in the parlors of the pastor of Westminster Presbyterian church, Brooklyn, for the study of Church History. -Amnesty will be granted only to those Catholic priests in Germany who specially apply for it and make submission to the May laws. Such is the fiat of Bismarck. -A man seldom finds out that the Bible is not true until he discovers that his course of life is condemned by it. After that the Bible becomes a book that will not bear the tests of the scientific method. -"I have known of instances where a whole family voluntarily did without any gifts that they might send coal and flour to some who were suffering. And I have not doubted that they were repaid by Him who said that good done to His children was done as to Himself." -The Chief of Police, of New York, says that three-fourths of the abandoned girls of that city were ruined by dancing. Young ladies allow gentlemen privileges in dancing which, if taken under any other circumstances these gentlemen would be reported as improper persons. -The German clergy resolutely oppose any concession being made by the Pope to Germany. They await, says the Rome correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette, an explanation of the German Government's ecclesiastical policy before pledging themselves to accord the slightest concession. -The Lord Bishop of Tuam, Ireland, in a recent address to his clergy, declared that Ritualism in that diocese was known only to them by report. The clergy of the Province being in constant conflict with the genuine article, are not likely to be caught by the attractions of a counterfeit Popery. -Dissenters in Russia number over 15,000. The Stundists, who have the same relation to the Greek Church that the Methodists do to the Church of England, are increasing so rapidly that the Minister of Public Worship has dispatched a commission to Odessa to inquire into the circumstances attending the growth of that and other heterodox sects. -The St. Louis Times-Journal says, Two young ladies who had been intimate for seven years made a remarkable discovery the other day. A word dropped in conversation by one caused the other to remark in a surprised way, "Why, you don't mean to say you are a church member! Why, so am I!" and they shook hands warmly. -The Tablet says, under the head of "Catholic Missions in China," that, "in the prefecture of Pondicherry alone there were, in 1866, 69 priests, whose flocks numbered 112,000, and 67 schools with 1,800 pupils; while in 1877 the numbers had increased to 85 priests, 141,250 persons professing the Catholic faith, and 90 schools with 4,000 pupils." -Some years ago a church in Illinois so ran down that the Presbytery sent a messenger to formally disband it. He could find no officers, no male members, and only one female member. To his surprise she answered, "I will not be disbanded!" and demanded a minister. A minister was sent, and a church speedily built up. Let small churches with few members, make a note of this. -The New York Tablet, of December 14th, publishes "the Whitehall Review's fifth list of converts to Romanism," in England. It contains 327 names, of persons gathered from the church, army, navy, and from civil life, most of them being either titled or related to honorable families. Rome will take peaceable possession of the English church soon at the rate they are now going to her communion. -Instead of an increase, there seems to be a steady decline of Presbyterianism in connection with the Southern Assembly. In 1876, ten churches reported a membership of over 400; now there are only eight. Then there were 54 upward; now there are 51. There are 1,439 churches with less than 100 members each, and 87 with from two to ten members each. -Ko-San-Lone, a converted Chinese, when in America on a visit, was deeply impressed with the little difference he saw between the style of living of many professing Christians and the people of the world. Adverting to the matter on one occasion, he said, making at the same time a large sweep with his arm, "When the disciples in my country come out from the world, they come clear out." -The Afghans, the dominant race in the kingdom of Shere-Ali, now menaced by England, call themselves Jews, and claim to be descended from King Saul. In defence of these claims it is asserted that they are unquestionably of the Jewish type; are divided into tribes, clans, and families; that they practice the ceremony of the scapegoat, and celebrate their religious rites on the hills. There is, however, no trace of Hebrew dialect in their language. In other respects their religion is that of the Mohammedan Sunnites. -The Catholic Sentinel denies that the free circulation and general reading of the Bible tends to drive out superstition, as is often claimed by Protestant Christians, and says that, "while the American people have an extensive knowledge of the Bible, yet they are more steeped in sinful superstition than any other nation on the earth." In proof of its statements the Sentinel points to "the vast army of clairvoyants, trance mediums, test mediums, business mediums, and fortune-tellers which fatten and flourish upon the thousands and thousands of foolish people who consult them upon future events in love, matrimony, business speculation, etc., about which they know nothing." However, they who consult mediums are generally as ignorant of the Bible as an Italian priest.