The Portland daily press., 1868-11-14
Religious Intelligence.

Some incidents of the ecent session OF
the Episcopal General Convention in New
York have hardly attracted public attention
to an extent commensurate with their actual
Importance. The fact that there was a confer
ence of evangelical and liberal clergy and lai-
ty, during the convention, has obtained but
little notice, probably from the other fact that
this division Of the Episcopal body constituted
but minority of the Convention But the
conference was Important in its action; plat
form having been adopted and an association
organized to sustain its doctrines. The plat
Jorm asserts the right of private Judgment and
the supremacy of the individual conscience
the duty of fraternizing with other evangeh-
cal denominations, of resist nS restrictive ana
oppressive legislation in the church, and OF
dispensing with the expressions in the prayer
bool, which imply baptsmal regeneration and
other obsolete notions. This organizat ion
comprises some OF the most vigorous and ear
nest workers in the Episcopal Church: and it
is quite evident that the evangelical party,
though in minority, are yet sufficiently
strong to keep up healthy agitation in that
body, and counterfeit in some degree what
they regard as the benumbing influences and
retrogressive tendencies of the majority
Mr.. Guedalla, President OF the Spanish
and Portuguese Jewish Society of London,
having applied on behalf of his co-relgionists
to General Prim for the revocation of the
edict of expulsion issued in 1892. the Gen
eral in his reply expresses the conviction that
tho triumph of the revolution must establish
without any restriction all religious liberties,
but adds: What you so justly demand is not
within my individual province to accord. Be
pleased, there ore, to send directly to the pro-
visional government, or to its President, an
application similar to this, and let it be writ
ten in Spanish in order that it may be imme-
diately examined with all the attention that
so important question demands"
DR. L. G. Conant has been lecturing before
the Brooklyn Historical Society ON "The ex-
isting documentary proofs of the integrity and
uncorrupted genuineness Of our sacred writ
ings, and the possible means of perpetuating
the text of these ancient documents" He il
lust ated the manner in which the text which
they contain, none of them being of earlier
date than the close of the third century, is
identified with that of the sacred autographs;
and undertook to show that the writings of no
ancient author have come down to us so fully
attested as those of the New Testament The
lecture is to be published.
The Congregational Union of England and
Wales held its autumnal session in Leeds.
Among the points of interest was the reading
of paper by one of the clergy, advocating the
doctrine of restoration, and denouncing that OF
eternal punishment. The report says the pa
per was tolerantly received, though few of the
members were ready to accept its positions.
Bishop Duggan of Chicago has issued a
circular prohibiting dancing festivals in aid OF
Catholic churches and asylums. He places
the prohibition on the ground of "the many
abuses reported as the results of dancing at
such entertainments"
In a letter to the Evening Post, DIR. Os-
good defends the action of the Unitarian Con-
ference. He says the delegates "kept the
ground of Christian faith and freedom upon
which the conference was formed" and ex-
plains that they did this by putting into the
constitution of the body what had before been
admitted as a resolution-"a declaration of the
rights of the minority"
"A letter from Madrid gives the following
information: "Our Protestant fellow-country-
men are not likely to let the grass grow under
their feet Distributors of Bibles and tracts
have already begun their operations in the
large cities, and yesterday two bold Britons
We're seen giving the sacred volume to people
in that very Plaza Mayor where not more
than a century ago the population of the city
sat down to enjoy what was then the national
holiday-an auto -dd.f9 OF heretics and He
brews."
The principal papers of the Baptist de-
nomination are discussing the "soundness" of
the views held by the late President Wayland
on the question O." Close Communion" Prof
Fisher, of Hamilton College, and others, have
brought facts to show that while President
Wayland did not oppose the doctrine OF his de-
nomination, respecting baptism and commun-
ion, yet he did not and could not take the
ground most Baptsts maintain, and would not
have ruled Mr.. Malcolm or any other minister
out of the church, for practicing open COM
munfon. Yet the Christian Era, Waterman
and Reflector, Standard; Examiner, and other
papers of that Sect deny the force of the proofs
brought, and declare the publication of them
q shameful injustice to the memory of their
great apostle.
"A writer in the Boston Commonwealth of
Oct. Z, asserts that "of the 10000 of think
ing inhabitants of this country 5000 are pir-
itualists" This estimate is large one when
we consider the paper in which it is put forth,
but perhaps it is not far from the truth. Mr..
Andrew jackson Davis thinks there are in
the country 100000 believers in Spirtualsm,
and that there are, perhaps, 100000 Receivers
of the Harmonial Philosophy" This empress
sional estimate" of Mr.. Davis will appear in
one of his forthcoming works.
state News.