Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1877-01-03
RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL.

One of the most injurious things
to religion is the supertuity of station
airy Christians. = Erch1nge.
The Congregational churches of
Detroit have invited the Triennial
Council to hold its next session in that
city. The time of meeting will be
next year.
Within three years the Reformed
Episcopal Church in this country has
grown to possess fifty parishes, en-
bracing between 1900 and 5000 COM
municants.
Wendell Phillips says that four
tiiths OF the girls our school-system
present to society cannot read page
intelligibly. How many of them can
spell page intelligibly?
The Calvinistic Methodists of
England report the following statistics
for 1876: Churches, l.o9S chapels
and preaching stations, 1,212; min
listers, 522: preachers, 305: deacons.
$3.50: communicates. 1867 42; proba-
TONERS, q, POS; children in the churches,
40, 444; scholars, 1913, 1858; total collec-
lions, $T70.215.
The" Is in Philadelphia "Bible-
Readers Society,"" which claims to
have practically solved the question,
"How to reach the Masses" 1t has
been in operation for six years. Four
teen readers are now employed, each.
In an assigned district. and giving in
monthly account of work done to
the Board of Managers. The society
is undenominational.
"A reverend writer asks: "If evo-
luton rests on basis as sure as as
tronomy, why do we not see one
species passing into another now,
even as we see the motions of the
planets through the heavens ?" TO
this question, which has been asked Il
dozen times by clerical critics of lux
ley. the obvious answer is, says The
Popular Sciencd Monthly, that what
requires very long time to produce
cannot be seen in very short time.
Has the writer ever seen the produc-
ton of geological formation? That
he has not seen the evidences that
would have prevented him from asking
such question is probably because he
is not student of nature, and has not
looked for them.
"A writer in the Christian Union
gives these three reasons why church
property should not be taxed: First.
churches are among the strongest
forces in the preservation Of order
and morality-more effective than the
courts, the Jail, the police. Second,
churches are not only nuclei of good
influences, but their ediiices are often
ornaments of the towns where they
stand, and enhance the value of prop
erty about them. Third, property in
vested in churches is not productive;
it yields no income to the investors,
but rather calls for further outlay, and
it is for the advantage of beneiicient
society, and is incidentally beniit to
the whole community.
The trustees of the American
Congregational Union are out of funds.
On the 1st of May last there were
only scventy-tlve dollars in the treas
ury. The summer receipts have been
paid out to church societies where edi-
fees have been competed Ten arc
now waiting for money promised them.
The trustees say: "These churches
find themselves in danger of having
their houses, finished through sore
trials, seized and sold by the Sheriff, to
the loss of all they have put into them
and the crushing of all their hopes.
Beside the claims of these waiting
churches, to which grants voted are
due, there are on the files Of the Union
between twenty and thirty applica-
tons for aid on which the Board dare
not act till the treasury is replenished."
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