Religious News and Notes.
By Editor
—Sankey has been lately singing in Switzerland. —Bishop Gilbert Haven advocates “The Union of all America.” —“A ministerial tramp” is the title lately applied to a “traveling evangelist.” —The First Presbyterian Church in Quincy, Ill., just completed at a cost of $60,000 was burned on the second instant. —It is reported that Dr. Cumming of London now preaches to small congregations instead of crowded houses as formerly. —If people go to sleep in church it has become a question whether the sexton should wake up the sleepers or the preacher. —Bishop Simpson is giving this winter’s course of lectures on the work of the ministry before the theological class in Yale college. —Much interest is manifested in Bishop Simpson’s Yale lectures on the ministry. They are considered the ablest which have been delivered in the “Lyman Beecher course.” —Joshua V. Himes, now of Nebraska, is 73 years of age. It is reported that he has lately been “confirmed” by the Episcopal bishop of Nebraska, and is a candidate for the ministry. —The Pacific Churchman says the English church did not come out of the Romish, but “the church of Rome in England left the church of England A. D. 1570.” This settles the question of the “primacy” and “succession.” —Dr. Leonard Bacon recommends Appleton’s Cyclopedia because it gives a view of Catholicism as presented by Catholics themselves. We should much prefer to see it as presented by the most reliable history. —An English correspondent says that Mr. Spurgeon is a great beer drinker, and is in the habit of taking something stronger. His expression that he “smoked cigars to the glory of God,” makes us fear the above report is true. —A correspondent of the London Tablet, who is a priest, says the published list of converts to Rome would lead to the belief that only the upper classes are going over, which is not true. The common people are going to the Romish church in great numbers. —The Episcopal Register thinks that a large part of the clergy who have united with the Reformed Episcopal church are dissatisfied with their new relation. Rev. Mr. Newman and Rev. J. D. Cowan have withdrawn from it. But they will never be satisfied with the old body with its “ritualism.” —The pastor of the First Congregational church in Berkely, in his New Year’s sermon, said, “He would not attempt any proof of immortality, because there was none. He could not see any in the volume of nature. The transitions of the chrysalis to the butterfly did not teach it. Outside of the testimony of Jesus Christ, there was hardly a hint of eternal life.” —“Rev. Frederick Bell,” who delighted New York and Brooklyn audiences as a “singing evangelist,” tried it at Nottingham, England, where he prosecuted certain parties for damaging his character. On hearing the case, and partly on Mr. Bell’s sworn statement, the judges decided that he had no character which could be damaged. —A Mr. Taylor has written a book, which is receiving some commendation, in which he tries to show that there is some mistake in the common view of the flood, either in time or the event, as he thinks the present barbarism must date farther back than four or five thousand years. Mr. Taylor, and his admirers, might profitably consider the present condition of those places which were seats of learning in the days of our Saviour. —The committee on Fellowship, Ordination, and Discipline of the Universalist Convention, reprimanded “Rev. Charles P. McCarthy,” who was subsequently expelled by the Convention. Judge Barrett, of the Supreme Court of New York issued a mandamus commanding its restoration. This must be gratifying to the Christian Statesman, as it comes so nearly to its idea of “the good time coming.” —Dr. Friedrich Delitzsch, in an article on some Babylonian terms, speaks of some Assyrian official titles, and has “an ingenious explanation of a passage in which Sargon says that the number of his name was 4 sar, 3 ner, 1 soss, and 20 cubits,” or 17,200. An indication that in that land and in ages past it was not unusual to identify a man by “the number of his name.” —An article in the Independent affirms that “Missionaries find that, except Mohamedans, the Jews are the hardest people to convert to Christianity.” This is attributed to their knowledge of the fact that their religion was demonstrated to be true, and every religion having any just claim to be true is founded upon it; therefore it is not strange that they cling to it tenaciously. And yet they are actually losing faith in it. No people can always retain an active faith in a religion the facts and experiences of which are all of ages long past. —The California Christian Advocate touches the Young Men’s Christian Association in this manner: “In some instances the Young Men’s Christian Association arrogates to itself all the rights and authority of a church, holding regular services, administering the ordinances, and conducting revival meetings. There are always evangelists of a certain kind who are eager to engage in such meetings, relishing them all the more that there is no pastor or officer of the church to exercise any supervision over them.”