The Russellville Democrat., 1877-06-07
RELIGIOUS.

| As0hAUt 1 THE Presbyterian board of foreigl Missions has expended during the las
 fiscal year $480, ,316; the receipts hay
 been $472,740. The debt of the board i now $43,554. The total receipts iron the women's boards have been S125, ,00' --an increase for the year. This depart ment of mission support is growing il the Presbyterian, as in the other Pro testant churches. There has been , falling off in the contributions of tn, people of nearly $5O,00O, but this ha
 been balanced by severe retrenchmept il every department.
 THE American Tract s0ciety's opera tions have been curtailed d,iriag the pas
 year. The receipts were in all $441, 1g6 which, added to balances in the treasury makes the total resources for 1876 $449, 269; the expenditures were $441, ,1lg The number of new publications issued was 132, thirty one of them volumes The society publishes six periodicals, al of which are said, to be self-supportlng The number of colporteurs employed wa 209. A resolution was adopted at tht annual meeting proposing q return tt the old-fashioned May anniversaries. SOME singular illustrations occur O the ferment of the theological opinions which characterizes our times. The Rev. Dr. Armitage, the most amiable o Baptist ministers, having in his Easter sermon spoken strongly of the participa | tion of the Jews in the cruc fixion o Christ, the Rev. Dr. Gottheil has in reply aunounced series of sermons designed to set forth "the Jewish side of the transaction" Dr. Gottheil is the pastor ot the Temple Emanuel. the largest Jewish place of worship in this city. Al the same time, Wong Ching Foo, a Buddhist. is featuring in New York on Buddhism. and especially in vindication of the intelligence, morals, and religion of the Chinese"
 THE American Home Missionary so. ciety Congregational, whose aim is to support feeble churches. has had satis- factory year. From April 1, 1876, to April 1, 1877, it has employed 996 min. isters, who have supplied 2,l96 congre gatioDs and missionary stations. Seventy two churches have been organized during the year, and twenty-seven have become selfsupporting. Over 5000 persons have became church members ou profession of faith. The receipt. for the year were $293, TIP the expenditures $310,604, leaving g balance of $7,897 due to missionaries fol labor performed but not yet reported The receipts are less by $l6,315 thar those of the year preceding.
 SINCE the closing of MT. Moody's tab ernacle services in Boston, the churches of that city have been open every even ing, with numerous attendance of wor, shippers. The large additions to the numbe, of members heretofore reported still con. tinue. MT. Moody has gone to Northfeld 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 1,157 to 1,753. It was claimed that theologically Cambridge had changed in ten years, and that it is now predOminantly orthodox.
 THE total result of what is called in Germany the "Culturkampf, or war between the empire and the church is thus stated: The archbishops of Gnesen. Posen and Cologne, the bishops of Breslau, Paderborn, and Munster, and the auxiliary bishop of Posen- six in all have been deposed. The sees of Treves and Fulda have become vacant by death. The proceedings against the bishop of Limburg have not been brought to a close. About 600 members of different orders and congregations have been ex- pelled from the diocese of Cologne, among them 120 priests. The parishes without priests are, in the diocese of Cologne, 94 in Paderborn, 90; in Mun- ster, 60; in Treves, 40; in Limburg, 17 in Breslau, GA; in Hildesheim, II; and like proportions in the other dioceses 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, it's operations attain grand proportions. In sixty -one years it's issues of Bibles and Testaments have amounted to 32,774,3SS copies. During the past year the copies issued were, at home 62l, ,726; abroad, 259. .330, making total of S8l ,056. There were manufactured at the Bible house, 55s,44 copies; printed abroad, 27S,247. The society has dimin ished the number of it's district superin tendents, having now twenty-uine there are also 239 county agents employed by auxiliary societies; there were during 1876, 5 Sl9 volunteer Bible distributors who gave their services gratuitously The society and it's auxiliaries have to- gether, through their agents, visited during the past year 470,5SS families; ol these, 63, ,855 have been found without the Scriptures, and 39,900 supplied. The money receipts, as already stated in this intelligence, were $543,579; this is an excess over the receipts of the preceding year of $16,38l.
 AFTER full debate in the Italian senate, the "Clerical Abuses Bill1' was rejected on May z, the vote being 92 fol and 105 against. Thus ends contro versy perhaps the most acrimonious ol the many which have arisen between the pope and united Italy. The ap prehension of the consequences certain to follow the passage of such law led to the allecution of March l2, in which Plus TX. appealed to Catholic Europe for protection. The bill was very radi cal measure. It proposed to punish b,