The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1877-06-07
RELIGIOUS.

TIE Presbyterian board Of foreign
Missions has expended during the last
fiscal year S4S0,3l6; the receipts have
been S472,749. The debt of the board is
now S43,55i. The total receipts from
the women's boards have been $4,000
an increase for the year This depart
ment Of mission support is growing in
the Presbyterian, as in the other Fro
testant churches. There has been a
falling off in the contributions of the
people of nearly $4,000, but this has
been balanced by severe retrenchment in
every department.
TIE American Tract sOciety's opera
tions have been curtailed during the past
year. The receipts were in all SAL 1856,
which, added to balances in the treasury,
makes the total resources for 1876 S4l9,'
269; the expenditures were SAL ,ll9,
The number of new publications issued
was 1872, thirty one of them volumes
The society publishes six periodicals, all
of which are said to be self.supporting,
The number of colporteurs employed was
2O9. A resolution was adopted at the
annual meeting proposing return to
the old-fashioned May anniversaries.
SOME singular illustrations occur of
the ferment of the theological opinions
which characterzes our times. The
Rev. DR.. Armitaee, the most amiable OF
Baptist ministers, having in his Easter
sermon spoken strongly of the participa
ton of the Jews in the cruc tiXion of
Christ, the Rev. DR.. Gotthell has in reply
announced a series Of sermons designed
to set forth "the Jewish side OF the
transaction" DR.. Gottheil is the pastor
of the Temple Emanuel the largest
Jewish place of worship in this CITY. AT
the same time, Wong Ching Foo, a
Buddhist, is Iecturing in New York on
Buddhism and especially in vindication
Of the intelligence, morals, and religion
OF the Chinese"
THE American Home Missionary so
ciety (Congrcgationa), whose aim is to
support feeble churches, has had salts
factory year. From April !, 1876, to
April /, 1877, it has employed 996 min
listers, who have supplied ,, 1856 congre-
cations and missionary stations. Seventy
two churches have been organized during
the wear, and twenty-sevcn have become
selisupporting. Over 5000 persons
have became church members on
profession Of faith, The receipts
for the year were S293,Il2,
the expenditures S3l0,6O4, leaving a
balance of 81 ,S97 due to missionaries for
labor performed but not yet reported.
The receipts are less by $l6,3l5 than
those of the year preceding.
SINCE the closing of Mr.. Moody's tab
ernac|e services in Boston, the churches
of that city have been open every even
ing. with numerous attendance of wOr.
shippers. The large additions to thcnumber
of members heretofore reported still con
tinue. Mr. Moody has gone to NorthiieId
Gospel meetings, as they are termed are
now held in Lynn. Here, too, hundreds
have been added to the churches. Among
the speakers who have recently appeared
at these gospel services is General John l.,
Swift. At the recent meeting OF the
Suffolk North Congregational conference
it was stated that in Cambridge the num-
Der OF members of the orthodox Congre-
gational churches had in nine years
increased from l,l57 to LOB. 1t was
claimed that theologically Cambridge
had changed in ten years, and that 1t Is
now predominantly orthodox.
THE total result of what is called in
Germany the "CultNrkampt, or war
between the empire and the church is
thus stated The archbishops of ''nesen,
Posen and Cologne, the bishops of
Breslau, Paderborn, and Munster, and
the auxiliary bishop of posen- six in all
have been deposcd. The sees OF Ireves
and Fulda have become vacant by death.
The proceedings against the bishop Of
Iimhurr have not been brought to a
close. About COO members OF different
orders and congregations have been eX-
pelled from the diocese of Cologne,
among them l2O priests. The parishes
without priests are, in the diocese Of
Cologne, 81; in Paderborn, 80; in Nun
ster, 60; in Treyes, l40 in Limburg, II
in Breslau, 6I; in iIldesheim, IL; and
like proportions in the other dlOceses In
many of the parishes the vacancies have
been caused by the death OF priests; the
bishops will not fill the vacancies, from
an unwillingness to conform to the gov
ernment regulations.
AS the American Bible society grows
in resources, its operations attain grand
proportions. In sixty.One years its issues
of bibles and Testaments have amounted
to 32774,3SS copies. During the past
wear the copies issued were, ut home,
62I .726 abroad, 2j9, $50, making a total
of SSl ,O56. There were manufactured at
the Bible house, SIS, AS copies printed
abroad, 27S,2l7. The society has dimin-
ished the number OF its district superin'
tendents, having now twenty-nine there
are also 239 county agents employed by
auxiliary societies; there were during
1876, 5 $40 volunteer Bible distributors,
who gave their services gratuitously.
The society and its auxiliaries have to-
cether, through their agents, visited
during the past year 40, ,jSS families; of
these, $3.50 have been found without
the Scriptures, and $4,000 supplied. The
money receipts, as already stated in this
intelligence, were Sj43,5 this is an
excess over the receipts of the preceding
year of Sl6,3Sl.
AFTER full debate in the Italian
senate, the Clerical Abuses BillP' was
rejected on May :, the vote being % for
and l0j against. Thus ends contro-
versy perhaps the most acrimonious of
the many which have arisen between
the pope and united Italy. The up.
prehension Of the consequences certain
to follow the passage of such law led
to the allacutiou OF March u. in which
Plus IX. appealed to Catholic Europe
for protection. The bill was very radi'
cal measure. 1t proposed to punish by
fine, and imprisonment extending from
three months to two years, any minister
Il