Religious News and Notes.
By Editor
-A Baptist church in Paris has 110 members. -The Bible is now freely circulated in Portugal. -The electric light in the cathedral at Bristol, England, is pronounced a "brilliant success." -Archbishop Purcell's financial liabilities foot up to a million dollars. It stirs Catholicism deeply. -The Wesleyans of England have resolved to build one hundred chapels per year for the next ten years. -There is strong talk among the dignified ones of disciplining Talmage for his unclerical manners and methods. -Geo. Thatcher, D. D., died in Hartford last week. For several years he was President of Iowa University. -The Methodist Recorder says the Mennonites choose their ministers by lot, and hence have "lots" of uneducated ministers. -The Mormon dignitaries at Salt Lake denounce the decision of the Supreme Court, and defy the authority of the United States. -Well authenticated reports say that Protestantism is rapidly increasing in France. It is also reported that the Jesuits are fast growing in France. What then? -Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe is reported a strong believer in spiritualism; claims to receive messages from the dead. We considered her a spiritualist 15 years ago. -The Presbyterians of Scotland have always and strongly opposed Sunday travel; but the Glasgow Presbytery now takes action in favor of street cars running on that day. -Rev. Calvin Lincoln of Hingham, Mass., and Rev. Increase Sumner Lincoln of Wilton, N. H., were both ordained to the ministry in 1824. They are Unitarians, and still in active service. -Sunday, Feb. 2, was an exceptionally clear day along the Pacific coast, and the Chronicle records an unusually lively time among the target shooters. The benefit of Miss Lindemann at the California Theatre Sunday night was a success! -Rev. J. Hyatt Smith says he recently received a letter exhorting him to be perfect, which the writer folded in a newspaper, and put a one cent stamp on it. "That man wrote six pages on sinless perfection, and cheated the government out of two cents." -A new synagogue, said to be one of the finest of its kind in Europe, and costing $220,000, exclusive of the ground, has been opened in Warsaw. Instead of the Jews flocking to Palestine, they are said to be gathering in large numbers in the Russian cities. -There is hot rivalry between Unitarians and Universalists in Yankton, Dakota, in the matter of making converts. The Unitarian Church gave a dramatic entertainment, which made many members. Then the Universalist Church gave a masquerade ball, which caused a large gain in its membership. -Even Bishops can be facetious. Bishop Haven said he never knew but one preacher who refused to accept a city appointment, and that was Rev. Jonah who refused to preach in Nineveh. And Bishop Simpson, as a warning to appointees, adds that Jonah got whaled for refusing to go to his appointment. -The Alliance says: "The theatres of Chicago, save two, give Sunday night entertainments which tend to anything but religious advancement." We were not aware that religious advancement was the object of theatrical entertainments. Would they not succeed under the name of "church sociables" or "donations"? -An assistant minister of St. Paul's Church, Montreal, died of starvation, January 3. His salary was fixed at $800, but he received only $400, with which he found it impossible to feed and clothe his family, having also sickness to meet. Investigation shows, says the Montreal Witness, that some fashionable congregations have ministers near to starvation. -The Southern Presbyterian, of Columbia, S. C., gives a very gloomy account of the Southern Presbyterian Church, saying if means beyond what they have any prospect of obtaining, do not come in, they will have to withdraw some of their foreign missionaries, diminish mission schools, give up part of the domestic field, and stop the studies of a portion of their candidates for the ministry. -The Minister of Justice in Belgium proposes to break a will in which is left a large sum to a priest to say masses for the testator's soul. There is a law in Belgium regulating the price of masses, and all in excess of 365 masses at 15d. each goes to the State! This has been evaded, and the priests to whom bequests have been made "sub-let" the masses to poor priests, at 2½d. each. And this mass of religious traffic is called the gospel of Christ. Oh! -Another muddle with the "authorities." Ex-President Woolsey in a lecture on the Greek words aion and aionios, concludes that they refer to unending future life of happiness or misery. The Christian Leader thinks that, after his signing the "manual of devotion" for the New Haven schools, his opinions are not to be indorsed. While others think that has nothing to do with "Greek exegesis." It may not; but personal relations and prejudices often influence very eminent men.