Religious News and Notes.
By Editor
—The Regent Square Presbyterian church, London, has a class of blind, numbering 140. —The Japanese government has granted the right of Christian burial, a point hitherto jealously guarded. —A Reformed Episcopal church in Louisville, Ky., of 90 members, disbanded because of financial stress. —Rev. J. K. Karcher, who recently left the Episcopal church for the Catholic, has returned to the former. —A "requiem celebration" (mass for the dead) was held in a St. Louis Episcopal church for the late Dr. De Koven. —It is reported that the Rothschilds have taken a mortgage upon the whole of Palestine for the loan to Turkey of 2,000,000,000 francs. —A Virginia writer says, that owing to the fact that white Protestants shun the negroes, the latter in large numbers are coming under Catholic influences. —The Congregationalists of the United States, if we may judge by recent actions and utterances, are fast going over to a faith in "conditional immortality." —Judge Emerson is meting out justice to the Polygamists of Salt Lake in a manner pleasing to the "Gentiles"—which means, to all who love decency and law. —The fund which is appointed to be raised for the Bishops of the Methodist church has run so far behind that the "Bishop's Fund" is in debt to the Book Concern to the amount of $104,000. —The English Church Times says that in Bethnal Green, where there is a population of 119,489, there are fifteen churches, with accommodations for 14,478, and the actual attendance is 905! —The Presbyterian General Assembly meets this spring in Saratoga, and arrangements were made to accommodate all guests—whether commissioners, members, or visitors—at one dollar per day; a wise plan. —Bishop Nestor is appointed to the Greek church in Alaska, and is now on his way to his see. His permanent residence will be in San Francisco. There are about 7000 communicants in Alaska—Russians, Servians, Montenegrans, &c. —The somewhat notorious Bishop Colenso, who has so zealously fought the Pentateuch, has satisfied himself that the ten commandments are a modern interpolation! Many would be glad to have the proof of their authority removed. —Rev. A. J. Faust of Washington City has withdrawn from the Episcopal church, and joined the Roman Catholic. We see no need of the withdrawal—if the former church keeps on its present course its members will soon find themselves in the latter. —The Presbyterian Mission in New Mexico among the Pueblo Indians meets with a difficulty in their language, which has no prepositions, articles, conjunctions, nor relative pronouns, and to a great extent wants moods and tenses of verbs. The Pueblos are pantheists. —An aged Baptist minister, Mr. Atwell, recently died in Pleasant Valley, Conn., once uttered the following "grace" at a large public dinner;—"Adam sinned by eating, and Noah by drinking. Save us, Lord, from the sin of the one, and the folly of the other, Amen." —Wm. Hague, D. D., a distinguished Baptist minister, says, "Church history shows that notwithstanding the incidental evils of freedom, the public mind of a nation can never be more badly depressed, weakened and demoralized than when occupying the dead level of religious uniformity." —The Religious Telescope says, in a revival meeting in Clark Co., Iowa, John Carlton, "M. W. G. M.," publicly professed the Christian faith and renounced Masonry. One of his chief objections to the order was that professed Christian ministers in the lodge recognized him as their Worshipful Master, while he was not a Christian, but "a child of the devil." —The Christian Secretary thinks baptism is not given sufficient prominence, even amongst Baptist ministers, to which the Christian at Work says, "But the doctrine of all others which the apostles preached with efficacy was not baptism but the resurrection. That is slighted more than it should be, and is a doctrine least preached in some quarters." True—very true. —The Christian Standard says: "It is strange to read in the nineteenth century that our English Wesleyans are subject to persecution of a mean character. English landlords and titled property-holders vie with each other in carrying off the palm in this respect—the former refusing to let farms to Methodist tenants, and even refusing to sell sites for Methodist chapels. Even professed liberal landlords are reported as refusing to sell sites." —In this manner small, earnest beginnings bring great fruit. In 1848 thirteen men gathered together, thirteen prayers were said, and thirteen dollars subscribed for the commencement of a place of learning for those of the Baptist faith, and then the thirteen men all went home. To-day Madison University, N. Y., owns all its buildings and 160 acres of land in a beautiful part of the country. It has a fine library, no debts, and between $400,000 and $500,000 drawing interest.