Religious News and Notes.
By Editor
—There are twenty-one vacant Congregational churches in the State of Connecticut. —Joseph Cook has commenced his winter Boston Course of Lectures in the Old South church. —Five Baptist missionaries sailed from San Francisco, Nov. 15; two of them to China and three to Japan. —A minister of the English church of St. Albans, at Holburn, has been suspended for three years for Ritualistic practices. —A converted Chinaman of San Francisco, gave Dr. S. R. Brown $500 just as he was about to leave for missionary work in China. Pretty good evidence that he was converted. —The pilgrimage to Mecca, which has hitherto been provisioned at government expense, can get no assistance, a thing which has never before happened in the history of Ottoman rule. —The Second Baptist Church of St. Louis, which was disfellowshiped from the St. Louis Association for irregular preceedings, has been received by the General Baptist Association upon making explanations. —The following from the Christian at Work is very brief, but very suggestive: “The Alliance: ‘Moses will not be our lawgiver.’ Which of the commandments do you propose breaking—or is it all of them? Particulars, please!” —An English Wesleyan, replying to a suggestion that the Wesleyans unite with the Established Church, says “the younger clergy in the Church of England may now be divided into two classes, the priestlings and the semiskeptics.” —A religious note in the Evangel says: “A penny a week from each of the 113,367 Baptists of New York State would amount to the sum of $58,948.24 in a year. This is more than double what the Baptists of that State gave last year for Home Missions.” Rather barren. —The Berlin Society for the promotion of Christianity among the Jews, estimates the total number of the Hebrew race at the present time to be just about what it was in the days of King David—between six and seven millions. Of these, from one to one and a half millions are in America. —Fifty years ago, Kotha-byu, the first convert among the Karens, was baptized in Burmah. His wife was present at the fiftieth anniversary of his baptism, which was celebrated by the dedication of a large memorial hall for public worship. She was the first Karen women who was baptized, and the mission has now 438 churches and nearly 20,000 members. —Lepere, French ex-Minister of the Interior, has issued a circular to the Prefects, calling their attention to the omission of priests to pray for the safety of the Republic. He wishes to be informed whether the omission is prompted by the Bishops. He also desires to be informed whenever a Bishop leaves his diocese without authorization, and more particularly if he visits Rome. —Portugal has hitherto been considered one of the most intensely Catholic countries, but since January last a decree of the king provides for the civil registration of Protestants, and conferring upon all such as shall register all civil rights. On all occasions of outbreaks against Protestant missionaries since that time, it is said the police have never failed to give them help when needed. —The death of Matthew Hale Smith is announced. He commenced his ministry with the Universalists. Left them and wrote a book, “Universalism Refuted and Exposed.” Next he preached for the Presbyterians, then was pastor of a Reformed Dutch church; preached also for the Congregationalists, but since 1861 belonged to the Baptists. He was known as a writer over the signature of Burleigh. —The Cincinnati Commercial thinks that not over $75,000 have been collected toward defraying Bishop Purcell's debts. The chapels, parsonages, &c., built with this borrowed money all stand in the name of the Bishop; why not recover the money from them? It looks like a conspiracy to defraud the depositors in the interest of “the church,” especially, as the Bishop has the confidence and sympathy of all its dignitaries. —One of the Christian Advocates does not like the announcement in the papers of the election of an “Episcopal” bishop, without stating of which Episcopal church. To which the Independent says it “shall continue, with the other papers, to curtail for convenience the names of the denominations, choosing the name ‘Methodist’ for the one that is not very episcopal, and the name ‘Episcopal’ for the one that is not very Protestant.