Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1876 — RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL. [ARTICLE]

RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL.

—The estimated receipts of the commonschool fund of Ohio for 1876 are $1,687,• 870.40. —There are now nearly 100,000 Baptists in the State of Georgia. The Ebenezer Association has over 11,000 members; the' Southwestern over 10,000. —The New England Journal of Education of Dec. 25 has a vigorous paper by President Porter, of Yale, criticising the methods of classical instruction and insisting that, instead of so much grammatical drill, the aim should be to enable (lie pupil to read within a reasonable time the Latin and Greek languages with ease ancl pleasure—an end not attained by the present methods of teaching in more than one case in a hundred. —The two Normal Schools established in Maine about twelve years ago have proved the superiority of this system over the teachers’ institutes, and the latter were abolished at the last session of the Legislature. These Normal Schools have furnished the State with 1,200 to 1,500 trained teachers, and a third school is now proposed in the western part of the State, the Trustees of the Brighton Academy offering to give it $20,000 in property and funds for that purpose. The Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church report that on Dec. 1 the receipts for the eight months of the year had been $104,970, against tlq sum of $134,294 during the same time the previous year. The receipts of the sustentaiion fund are $13,540, against $22,634 the previous years The debt oftlie Home Mission Board is SIOO,OOO. The General Assembly’s Committee on Freedmen report the receipts from April 1 to Dec. 1 as $20,155, against $18,258 last year. —The Presbyterian Ministerial Association of Philadelphia has passed a series of resolutions approving of the recommendation of the General Assembly that during the centennial year histories of all the churches be prepared by the pastors and read to the congregations, alter which they will,be transmitted to the Presbyterian Historical Society for preservation. The ministers declare that they will at once enter upon the duty of preparing these discourses. —Revivalist Hammond illustrates an argument with a horseshoe magnet and nails of various sizes, from a tack to a railroad spike. He likens the magnet to Jesus. The tack typifies little children, and he shows how readily they cling to the magnet. A simple touch, too, attaches the shingle nail, which he likens to a youth. The larger nails are less and less affected, until the big spike—a tough old sinner of the most intractable kind—will not stir under the influence. —On account of the recent death of young Mr. Winn, of Woburn, Mass., the SIOO,OOO left by his father tothe Unitarian denomination, to be appropriated to such objects as the Rev. Dr. A. P. Peabody and Edward E. Hale may determine, will soon be ready for use, and various plans are proposed for the appropriation of the money r Among these plans are the endowment of the Unitarian Bedew, the founding of a Professorship of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge, the establishment of a book fund, the building of a Unitarian hall in Boston, the endowing of the Sunday-School Society, and the building of a suitable Unitarian church in the city of Washington. Between Dr. Peabody with his conservative wisdom, and Mr. Hale with his discursive enterprise and general enthusiasm, all the plans proposed will be likely to have a fair consideration, and there is surely no danger of the money lying long idle or being inexcess of the demand.— N. Y. Evening Poet.