Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1875 — RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL. [ARTICLE]

RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL.

—The oldest communion service in Connecticut is that of tlie First Congregational Cliurcli at New London. Two of The cups are dated 1099, and two were presented by Gurdon Saltonstall iu 1725. —A basis tof union lias been agreed son by the Commissioners of the ithodist and Methodist Protestant Churches, and will be submitted to tlie General Conferences of tlie respective bodies for approval. Tlie Commissioners recommend that a convention of both churches be held in Baltimore in May, 1877, to formally consummate tlie union. —lt is the opinion off tlie Boston Globe that the ill-health of school-girls is to be attributed not so much to overwork imposed by teachers as to improper food and dress and tlie ambition of their parents to have them thoroughly educated and accomplished- by the time they are eighteen. —At a meeting of the Connecticut State Teachers’ Association, lately, the Superintendent of the Waterbury schools advocated the study of language lessons in place of the system of grammar in use, and tlie abandonment of a great deal of the minutiae which is now taught in geography classes, and which he thought should be reserved for the higher grades, the time thus gained to be devoted to the proposed language lesson, which will teach all to acquire a taste for good reading and a good style of composition. —Tlie statistics of the Methodist Episcopal Church show the following summary : Annual conferences, 81; itinerant preachers, 10,923; local preachers, 12,881; members in full connection, 1,384,152; members on probation, 196,407; cliurcli edifices, 15,633; value of same, $71,353,234; parsonages, 5,017; value of same, $8,731,628; Sunday-schools, 19,287; Sun-day-school officers and teachers, 207,182; Sunday-school scholars, 1,406,168. Tlie benevolent contributions for tlie year were $1,052,710—a decrease on last year of nearly $40,000. The missionary funds collected iliow an aggregate of $603,640 —a falling off of about SB,OOO. The Church-Extension Board reports $01,326 a decrease of $22,000. Tlie churches have increased at the rate of two per secular day during the year.