Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1875 — RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL. [ARTICLE]

RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL.

—Methodist discipline is well illustrated by the statement of Bishop Janes that out ofthe 10,000 preachers stationed by the Bishop the past year only three have declined to accept their appointinents, and not a single church rejected its preacher. —The intellectual activity now apparent in India is illustrated by the fact that in the Department of Oudh during the last quarter of 1874 the books published numbered seventy-one. They embraced religion, morals, language, law, medicine, etc. The largest was a work on history of 1,534 pages. —The Compulsory Education law of Connecticut is reported to be working satisfactorily, and, as the result of the various measures adopted for securing increased attendance, the proportion of children in the public schools has advanced from 80.38 per cent, in 1867-’6B to 89.34 per cent, in 1873-’74. The actual increase has been about 20,000, w’hile tlie increase in enumeration in the same time was about 10,000. —At the annual meeting of the New Jersey Baptist Association, held recently, the following report was made: The twenty-seven churches report thirty-one houses of worship, with an aggregate seating capacity of 11,702, and the total value of church property $315,300, oq which there is a total indebtedness of $51,373.48. Seven churches report no debt. There have been paid $11,982.50 on debts. Three churches report no houses of worship. The houses of worship will seat the whole membership and leave 6,423 seats for strangers. The total membership is <5,279. Baptisms, 439 during the past year.

—During the past three years the Chicago Young Men’s Christian Association have conducted religious services in the different hospitals of that city. The exercises have been held every Sabbath afternoon, the churches contributing their choirs to add to the interest. During the week the inmates are visited and supplied with magazines and suitable religious reading. Latterly there has arisen a demand for flowers and delicacies which the young men have undertaken to supply, and appeal to the charitable throughout the West to furnish them the means of doing so. They offer to pay all express charges and ask that all supplies, marked “ Hospital Work,” be sent to W. W. Vanarsdale, Superintendent Y. M. C. A. Rooms,.Arcade Court, Chicago. —The Presbytery of Holston, Tenn., have hit upon a plan of obviating the usual summer vacations of clergymen, which wfll be heartily indorsed by the laity. The plan is to send its clergy and as many of the laity.as can join them'upon a horseliatk excursion through the mountains of North Carolina. The clergy are to go two and two upon their mission, and to hold services wherever there is a prospect of a congregation, and they are to carry two days’ provisions with" them to be safe against hunger; and at a certain time the whole expedition is to meet upon a specified mountain to enjoy good-fellow-ship and to have a season of religious refreshing. This is but a variety of the old fashioned camp-meeting, and the Gospel on horseback is considered ah antidote to ennpi and dyspepsia.

—Richard B. Dowell, who shot himself through the brain at Knoxville, Tenn., a few days since, left on a table in the room where the deed was done a card on which the following was written in a bold, firm hand: “R. B. Dowel,! has suicided. The grave is a welcome hoine. God will take care of my boy. I leave thirty dollars to bury me with. Some men tnay say ‘crazy.’ Nary time!” . -a— These soaking rains do vegetation a world of good, but you Can’t make a man believe it when he is caught out without an umbrella.