Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-02-19
RELIGIOUS NEWS.

The new hymnal for the Free Church of
Scotland, which has lately encountered so
much opposition, contains 376 hymns, in
Guiding thirteen paraphrases, ten metrical
doxologies, and forty hymns for the young,
two ancient hymns and thirty.two Scripture
sentences and prose doxologies.
1t has been charged, but with what truth
it is impossible to say, that the majority
against Professor Robertson Smith in the
commission was swelled by Mr.. Kidston
having given $500 to furnish tickets and
| board to fifty Highlanders to come and vote
against the Professor.
Archbishop Purcelrs affairs are still un.
settled, and about four hundred of his five
| thousand creditors nave held. meeting in
Cincinnati, and voted to employ additional
| lawyers, in order that the suit against the
church property may be prosecuted more
vigorously. If the suit should be success
full one hundred congregations would lose
their church property.
A Scotch clergyman, the Rev. A. Bissett,
of the Free South Church in Peterhead,
has retired from the presidency of the local
that some members of his choir appeared
as niger minstrels at the recent annual
festival OF the society. He stated that he
would not have objected to the singers ap-
pearipg Sin their natural state"
! According to Professor Tyndall, DR..
Wallis of the University of Oxford, is the
inventor of wholly new method of bring
ing outcast Israel into the Christian pale
He would have them set out on voyage
round the world, sailing westward as Sir
Francis Drake did, and being particular,
as good Hebrews would, to observe their
Saturday Sabbath until they brought round
to the point of departure again. They
would then find that their day of rest and
worship had steadily overlapped until at
length it had just conceded with the
Christian Sunday. Henceforth they would
keep the same day with the rest of us. Dr.
Wallis is a wag, evidently. What he
means to intimate is that religious discrep-
ancies come from lack OF roundabout ac-
quaintance with the world.
| The service at a Positivist festival in
England included prayer, music, the read
| ing of some verses from the sixtfeth chap
ter of Isaiah, a passage from Dante, and
an address from Dr. Congreve, who, after
dealing with some political questions, and
remarking that the commotion in the En-.
glish Church showed that her ultimate dis.
ruption and disestabllshment were inevita-
BILE, said that the tenets of the religion Of
humanity were becoming more fully under
stood year by year. The cause was pro-
crossing in London, Paris, Birmingham,
| Liverpool, Manchester and other places,
and though the enemies of Pogitivism were
numerous it had but one formidable COM
petitor the religion of the past, which for
practical purposes might be condensed into
| Roman Catholicism.
The result of the first systematic at
tempt to ascertain the strength of Judaism
on this continent has just been published.
Altogether, returns received from | 600
places show that in 1878 there were in the
United States 27S congregations, with a
membership of Il, SAG, and that the num-
Der of Israeites was go, 257. Making
allowance for the places not heard from,
the total population is placed at go, 600
souls. OF these about -, 600 are located
| in Pennsylvania. The Oldest congregation
i'm, of Lancaster, organized in l776,
while the Rodef Shalom, of Philadelphia,
is the next oldest, having been organized in
L ISU. Inc rCnesJ congregation IS tne
Temple Emanuel of New ork, which, al
though only established in lS43 and hav-
ing but 462 members, owns real estate and
other property to the value of $780,
The public institutions established by the
sect in the United States include ) hospi-
tails, II orphan asylums and homes, and
free schools. Its doctrines are enunciated
by II newspaper and magazines. The 27S
congregations in America own between
them property valued at Sc, 10000, and
more than $4,000 children attend the re-
| ligious schools.