92 Religious Summary. The situation of the State Church in Sweden and Norway has been matter of anxious discussion among the priests in Stockholm; and the wish is expressed that a General Council, consisting of priests and laity, should be called by the king to take measures to stem the progress of heresy, or that a simple synod of priests should undertake it. Meanwhile the tendency toward religious freedom constantly increases, and a union has been formed to further the cause. Episcopal Delegation.-Bishops Delancy, of Western New-York, and McCoskrey, of Michigan, are in Europe, as the representatives of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, in the jubilee of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Old School. This is the largest ecclesiastical body of the Presbyterian name or faith in the United States. It had a total in May, 1851, of 23 synods, 135 presbyteries, 2,027 ministers, 2,675 churches, and 210,306 communicants. Changes in Ireland.-The report of the Society for promoting Church missions to the Roman Catholics in Ireland, states that the Society have, now employed, nineteen missionary clergymen, seven lay agents, one hundred and one Scripture readers, fifty-five schoolmasters and mistresses, and some hundreds of Irish teachers. In one district in West Galway, where three or four years ago there were not five hundred Protestants, there are now between 5,000 and 6,000 converts, and nearly 3,500 children in about to be erected in this district for the acthe Scriptural schools. Eight new churches are commodation of the common schools. The variations in the text and punctua tion of the six standard editions of the Scriptures, collected by the American Bible Society's committee, fall little short of twenty-four thousand; and yet not one among them all the integrity of the text, or affects any doctrine or precept of the Bible." 66 mars The grants of the American Bible Society for publishing the Scriptures abroad the past year, have amounted to $30,900. The Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society reports the amount of its subscriptions and donaThe Juvenile Christmas and New Year's oftions during the last year larger than usual. During a period of religious interest in Princeton College, in 1815, there were thirteen converts: M'Ilvaine, Bishop of Ohio; Jones, Bishop of Virginia; M'Lean and Hodge, professors of Princeton; and Armstrong, late Secretary offerings exceeded $2,500. The total income of the American Board, were among the number. The four new Bishops of the M. E. Church, ordained at its late General Conference, were born as follows:-Levi Scott, in Delaware, in the year 1802; Edward C. Ames, in Ohio, in 1806; Matthew Simpson, in Ohio, in 1811; and Osman Cleander Baker, in New-Hampshire, in 1812. British and Foreign Bible Society.-We presume there is not an institution in the wide world so extensive in its operations, and which exerts a mightier influence, than the British and Foreign Bible Society. It has its auxiliaries and its agents in nearly every portion of the habitable globe, disseminating the Scriptures in nearly every language spoken, and preparing the way for the extension of civil and religious liberty among the dark places of the earth. We observe, by an account of the anniversary of this gigantic society, held in London on the 3d of May, that the total issues of the Holy Scriptures for the past year amounted to 1,154,642 copies, being an increase of 17,025 over those of the year preceding. The entire receipts of the year ending March 21st, 1852, were £108,449 sterling. The total number of copies of the Scriptures issued by this Society since its formation, amount to 25,402,309 copies. The Council of Catholic Bishops at Baltimore have decreed that eight or ten new bishoprics shall be added to the Church in the United States, and also that the mass shall henceforth be said or sung in English. These decrees must, however, be endorsed at Rome by the Pope before they have any validity. the society (including the legacy of $50,000, left by Thomas Mariott) amounts to about $558,650. The expenditure has been $557,775, and the debt is $53,330. The Committee contemplate renewing the mission in South Africa, the reinforcement of those in India, in Ceylon, New-Zealand and Feejee, and will avail themselves of any other opening that may occur in China or elsewhere. The stations of the society now amount to 356, their missionaries and asteachers, &c., to 8,477. The accredited Church sistants to 486, their catechists, interpreters, corresponding period of last year of 3,843. members are 108,678,-an increase over the counts of this Society were made up to April Methodist Missionary Society.-The fiscal ac25th and not May 1st, this year, owing to the session of the General Conference at Boston. The Treasurer's report shows the receipts of the year to be Expenses, Balance against the Treasury $154,858 08 158,031 42 3,173 34 It is proposed to raise $200,000 the current year. Receipts of Benevolent Societies.-It appears, from the last anniversary reports in New-York, leading Benevolent Societies are as follows, that the receipts for the last fiscal year of the viz.: American Home Missionary Society, $160,062 25; American Sunday School Union, (donations, $45,836 54,) $193,846 22; American Tract Society, (donations, $116,406 41,) $342,given,) $308,744 81; American Board of Com858 93; American Bible Society, (donations not missioners for Foreign Missions, receipts for the last nine months, $211,062 54. The total in crease in the last year in the societies named is $91,249. The Congregationalist says that the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States employs a hundred and sixty missionaries among the foreign population in the land, more than half of all employed by every evangelical denomination of Christians. past year, is said to be 1325. The Rev. John Ryerson was appointed representative to the English Conference. The book and printing establishment are represented as being in a flourishing condition, the profits of the last year having been larger than any preceding year of its operations. There is said to be a very gratifying increase in the amount of missionary collections and subscriptions during the year, and the various missions are represented as being generally in a state of prosperity. The Book Steward and Editor were re-elected to their The two branches of the Presbyterian Church closed their sessions-the Old School at Charleston, the New School at Washington-without discussing the slavery question. In the lat-respective stations. ter body some anti-slavery, memorials were presented and referred, and we believe reported on; but the Assembly declined taking up the report for consideration-all the motions to that effect being voted down. The next session of the New School Assembly is to be held at Buffalo. The Old School had also agreed to meet there; but just before the adjournment the resolution was rescinded, and the next session will be held in Philadelphia. A Handsome Legacy.-The Methodist Protestant, of Baltimore, says: "By the will of Miss Mary Saum, late of Carroll county, of this State, a copy of which is now before us, after certain legacies to surviving relatives, the Superannuated Fund Society is made the residuary legatee to her estate. We are informed that it is supposed the amount thus left the Society will be not less than ten thousand dollars-perhaps considerably more. We mention this for the encouragement of those interested in this benevolent enterprise." Among the liberal donations given to the Wesleyan Missionary Society during the past year, we find one of £1,262; two of £500; one of £220; two of £200; one of £155; two of £150; two of £130; two of £120; one of £110; one of £105; eight of £100; one of £79; one of £70; one of £60 10s.; two of £60; one of £52; eighteen of £50. Old School General Assembly.-Several new Synods were constituted by this body at its late session-one in California. The report of the Theological Seminary, although exhibiting a small number of scholars, shows that 250 young men had received, in whole or in part, their theological education there. The seventh annual report of the Western Theological Seminary shows that, in addition to an invested fund of $74,200, large donations in books, &c., were increasing vastly the resources of the institution and its facilities for theological education. The election of Trustees of the General Assembly was deferred until the meeting of the next General Assembly. The report on the overture from the Presbytery of New Jersey, against a change in the Book of Discipline, in relation to the mode of taking testimony, elicited a warm debate. The report was finally adopted by a vote of 110 to 96. The Wesleyan Methodist Conference.-This Canadian Methodist body met at Kingston on Wednesday, the 2d ult. About eighty ministers were present. The Rev. Francis Berry, Primitive Methodist Minister, having been recommended by the Brantford District Meeting, was received into the Wesleyan ministry. The increase in the number of members during the The late General Conference of the M. E Church was in session twenty-seven days. Its next meeting is to be at Indianapolis, May, 1856. The subject of Lay Delegation was care fully considered, but the Conference decided that the proposed change was not expedient. The friends of the measure, however, think that an important step has been gained, as the subject has never before been so respectfully considered by a General Conference. The Boston Traveler gives the following summary of the other principal proceedings of the Conference. The long-contested question concerning pewed churches has been definitely settled, in a manner which tolerates the discretionary construction of chapels by the societies. No change has been made in the regulations concerning the presiding eldership. Four new bishops have been elected, two from the East and two from the West. The bishops are now seven in number. A "Seal of the Episcopacy" has been ordered, to be used in common by all, instead of each having a separate official seal, Church, centering at New-York, and the Sabas heretofore. The Tract Society of the M. E. bath-school work, have each been re-organized on an independent basis, with a view to greater efficiency. With the same intent, alterations have been made in the constitution of the Missionary organization. Several new conferences have been organized, and several new periodicals authorized. The business of general interest transacted on the last day was the passage of three resolutions-one requiring pastors to catechise children in Sabbath schools and at special meetings; another giving all male Sabbath-school superintendents, who are Church members, seats in the quarterly conferences by virtue of their office; and a third providing for the publication, at New-York, of a new edition of the Discipline. Appointments.-The following elections and appointments were made at the last General Conference of the M. E. Church :-Levi Scott, D. D., Matthew Simpson, D. D., E. R. Ames, and Prof. Osman C. Baker, A. M., Bishops; Thomas E. Bond., M. D., editor of the Christian Advocate and Journal; John M'Clintock, D. D., editor of the Quarterly Review; Daniel P. Kidder, D. D., editor of the Sunday School Advocate and Books; Abel Stevens, A. M., editor of the National Magazine and Secretary of the Tract Department; Thomas Carlton and Zebulon Phillips, Book Agents, N. Y.; John P. Durbin, D. D., Missionary Secretary; Charles Elliott, D. D., editor of the Western Christian Advocate; William Nast, D. D., editor of the German Christian Apologist; Prof. Wm. C. Larrabee, A. M., editor of the Ladies' Repository L. Swormstedt and Adam Poe, Book Agents, Cincinnati; Homer J. Clark, D. D., editor of the Pittsburgh Christian Advocate; Wm. Hosmer, editor of the Northern Christian Advocate; James V. Watson, editor of the North Western Christian Advocate; S. D. Simonds, editor of the California Christian Advocate. education society was organized at this meeting, with Rev. T. J. Sawyer, D. D., president, and sixteen trustees, located in different parts of the State. One hundred thousand dollars have been raised for a college in Massachusetts, and some ten or twelve for an academy and institute in New-York. The denomination has a relief fund of seven or eight thousand dollars for the benefit of infirm clergymen, or the widows and orphans of clergymen. Missionary Reinforcements.-The American Board have sent out, within the last four or five months, thirty-nine missionary laborers. Of these, sixteen are men, twenty-three are women. Five have gone to the Choctaws; three to the Cherokees; two to the Cattaraugus; two to Canton; two to Assyria; two to the Armenians; one to the Nestorians; two to Syria; six to the Sandwich Islands; six to Micronesia; two to Ceylon; two to Salonica; four to the Gaboon, in Africa. Six of the thirtynine are "returned missionaries returning;" the remaining thirty-three are new mission-claiming the attention of the classis was of the aries-young, fresh, and vigorous. From the Pastoral Address of the Bishops of the M. E. Church in the United States, we learn that, during the last four years, there has been an increase of 90,246 members in the Church. And the increase has been progressive, as the first of the four previous years showed an increase of only seven thousand in round numbers; in the second year it was twenty-three thousand; in the third it was twenty-seven thousand; and in the last year it amounted to thirty-two thousand. As nearly, too, as can be ascertained, the number of conversions exceeded the additions; and it is humbly believed that growth in grace, as a general thing, has been in encouraging proportion to the accessions to the Church. The last four years have furnished an increase of missionary contributions very encouraging. The past year presents an advance of annual income of about sixty thousand dollars over the year 1848, and the next year's appropriation is put down at $200,000. The Sunday-school department of the Church is in a very prosperous state. present there are 93,561 officers and teachers, and 473,311 scholars in Sabbath schools, and 1,260,558 volumes in the libraries. The number of conversions in the Sabbath schools during the past five years, has been 47,327. At The Classis of East Pennsylvania of the German Reformed Church, held its annual session on the 18th, 19th, and 20th of May, in Ziegle's church, Weissenburg township, Lehigh county. This classis embraces Northampton, Lehigh, and Monroe counties, in its territorial extent, and numbers twenty-one ministers, eighty-three congregations, and a communicant membership of about ten thousand souls. The business usual character, and harmoniously transacted. Measures were taken to secure the amount of $3,500, the quota chargeable on this classis, in aid of the fund for uniting Marshall and Franklin Colleges under one title in Lancaster city. This amount was to have been raised by July 1st, to secure the fund of $70,000 offered to effect the object. Reformed Dutch Church.-At the late General Synod of this Church, the Rev. Dr. De Witt, corresponding secretary of the foreign board, rendered his report, which announced that the mission in China-where Doty and Talmadge are laboring-was in an encouraging condition; but represented that their Borneo mission was in an almost hopeless state. The report also intimated that the present synod might discontinue the connection of this board with the American Board of Foreign Missions, it being the opinion of the most judicious and influential men of the Reformed Dutch Church that more men and money could be raised from their denomination by a separate organization. Dr. Ludlow was elected successor to Dr. Cannon as professor in the Theological Seminary at NewBrunswick. The report on domestic missions, next read to the Synod, gave the following statistics for the past year:-In twenty-two out of twenty-seven classes, one or more churches or missionary stations have been aided during the part or the whole of the year; fifty-seven pastors and missionaries have received some or the whole of their support from your funds; sixty-six churches and missionary stations have enjoyed the beneficence of your churches; twelve churches have been organized, to which aid has been extended; five new houses have 62,613 been built; four churches ask no further aid; 65,495 nineteen new churches and new stations have 85,973 been established or assisted; four hundred 113,801 and twenty-three persons have been received, 1852, about 120,000 by profession of faith, into the churches aided; Making the aggregate of missionary collections, four hundred and thirty-seven have been refor the eight years of its separate organization, ceived by certificate from other churches; in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, FIVE eighteen applications for aid are now lying upon the Board, on account of the embarrassed state of the treasury; and one hundred and thirty-five out of three hundred churches have contributed to the funds of the board. At the last annual meeting of the Missionary Society of the M. E. Church, South, Dr. Sehon, the Missionary Secretary, stated the following illustrations of the growing spirit of missions in that Church. The collections for the year ending May 1, 1846, amounted to $68,529 73,613 1847, 66 1848, 66 66 1849, 46 64 1850, 66 1851, 46 66 HUNDRED AND NINETY THOUSAND AND TWENTY FOUR DOLLARS. The last year is nearly double that of the first. The New-York State Universalist Convention held its last session at Hudson. Its chief feature was an educational movement. An The Greek Church.-The "Trieste Gazette " has the following, from Athens:-The attention of the government is at present engaged on a very serious affair. It proposes to conclude, with the patriarch of Constantinople, a treaty that will completely change the relations of the Greek Church, which had declared itself independent of Constantinople since the establishment of a kingdom, and had for its chief a synod chosen by the king. By the new treaty, the Greek Church will cease to be an independ ent member of the dogma of Anatolia, and will return under the full and entire authority of the patriarch. The orthodox Russian party have long looked for this result. It was M. Degliganni, who, when Greek chargé d'affaires at Constantinople, succeeded in concluding this treaty with the support of the orthodox party. The Greek ministers are now about to present it to the Chambers. Scientific Items. Irishman, who arrived in this country about the time Fulton was born, delivered, in 1772, at Philadelphia, a series of lectures on the sub Lieutenant Maury reports to the Secretary of | the Navy that the Asteroid discovered by Gasparis on the 17th of March last, was observed at the National Observatory by Mr. James Fer-ject of Lock Navigation, and was the first perguson with the filar micrometer of the large Equatorial on the 6th, and again on the 7th inst. The Asteroid has the appearance of a star of the 10-11 magnitude, and makes the 16th in the group between Mars and Jupiter. The Academy of Sciences of France, at their last session, unanimously voted to give the Cuvier prize to Professor Agassiz for his "Recherches fossiles." Swiss papers state that a machinist of Einsieden, in the canton of Schwyz, has invented a new apparatus for printing by electric telegraph, by which each letter is printed in any required kind of type by a single closing of the circuit, and the motion of the letters is accomplished by the action of one magnet and one commutator only. Improvement in Railway Cars.-Nehemiah Hodge, of North Adams, Mass., obtained a patent for a new car-wheel with a wide, thick band of India-rubber fitted in between the outside and an inner rim, so as to take off from the wheel and carriage much of the jar when the carriage is in motion, and which it is thought will be a great protection against the breaking of axles, and save much wear to the different parts of the carriage. Galvanic Discovery.-Dr. Nichols, of Haverhill, is alleged to have made a very important improvement in an apparatus by which he produces light and heat through galvanic agency. He applies the same batteries which decompose the water to the propulsion of machinery by the machine of Prof. Page; so that he now lights, warms, cooks, and propels by the apparatus, and carries on all the operations at the same time. Ger The Leading Chemists of Europe.-The most distinguished chemists in Europe and America are: in France-Dumas, Regnault, and Laurent. Austria-Redtenbacher and Schrotter. many-Rose, Mitscherlick, and Bunsen. Italy -Sobrero and Peyroni. England-Faraday, Muspratt, Playfair. Ireland-Kane and Apjohn. Scotland-Gregory, Anderson, Thomson. America-Hare, Jackson, Rogers, Horsford, Dana. A new claimant for posthumous fame has been brought to notice by T. D'Arcy McGee, editor of The Celt, now published at Buffalo. He states, in his history of the Early Irish Settlers in America, that Christopher Colles, an son who suggested to the Government of this State, cauals and improvements on the Ontario route. He was generally considered as a visionary projector, and his plans were sometimes treated with ridicule, and frequently viewed with distrust. In 1784, 1785, 1786, and for several successive years, he petitioned the Legislature of that State on the importance and practicability of uniting the western lakes to the Atlantic. He was probably the author of the letters signed "Hibernicus," on the same subject, which were published at New-York about the beginning of this century. In 1774 he proposed to supply New-York with water by aqueducts, such as now bring in the Croton, and of which he exhibited models at public lectures. During the last war he was "the projector and attendant of the telegraph erected on Castle Clinton." He died in obscurity and poverty, while others were growing famous and wealthy upon the stolen ideas of his failing intellect. Railroads.-The Paris correspondent of the New-York Commercial writes: " From a late and official table of all the railroads in the world, I obtain the following footings up of some of the principal nations. The United States heads the list : France is constructing or projecting 730 miles more, to complete the iron net-work upon her surface. This, with the Panama road, the line at the Isthmus of Suez, and the few miles lately opened at Madrid, may bring up the entire length to a round 28,000. Among the latest discoveries at Nineveh, one coffin was found containing the body of a lady of the royal house; many of her garments were entire, also the gold studs which fastened her vest. The most singular discovery, however, was a mask of thin gold pressed upon the face, so as to assume and retain the features of the deceased. Editorial Notes. easier to describe, than to secure, such a provision. To the extent in which it may be al The monthly review of secular news, proposed in our Prospectus, is omitted in the present number. Unavoidable delays-such, how-ready realized by existing societies, or by indiever, as might have been expected, and are, we trust, excusable in the first issue-have placed this department out of date. Hereafter, we hope to render it a continuous and comprehensive record of current history-not merely items of news, but appreciative comments upon them, so that the reader who has kept pace with the daily or weekly press may find it an appropriate review of what he has already gone over; or, if he has not had these means of information, may rely upon it as an adequate outline of the events of the month. The variety and collocation of the articles of a work like this, and not merely their intrinsic value, must, we are aware, constitute much of its interest. We shall attempt to meet the most varied tastes, except such as are vitiated or morbid. In the present number will be found two leading literary articles, from the London Christian Spectator and Christian Observer respectively, on Carlyle's Sterling, and the Writings of Thomas Moore; their moral tone is especially elevated; we commend them to our literary readers. The article from Neander on the Devil Worshipers, will be of as much interest to the popular reader as to the theological student; it about exhausts the resources of that curious subject. We shall give, seriatim, the entertaining and yet elaborate articles from Fraser's Magazine on Romantic Fables and Popular Superstitions; they very happily combine popular fiction and literary illustration. We give several valuable articles of a scientific, but popular, character, among which is a paper from Chambers' Edinburgh Journal on Red Rain and Dust Showers, one on the History of the Pearl, and another on Herschel, Rosse, and the Telescope. The Beacon Fire of the Tyrol we copy, with some modifications, from a periodical of the London Tract Society; the editor affirms that it is founded on historical facts. The articles on Mount Ararat, Murillo, Monomaniacs, the Greek Philosophical Schools, Peter Cartwright, Marriage Ceremonies, &c., &c., we hope will find favor with the great and respectable class of "general readers." A sensible writer, in one of the periodicals of the London Tract Society, says :-"What we seem to want is, a literature which, while it is not directly given to the discussion of the dogmas of Christianity, is throughout pervaded by its spirit a literature which shall be perfectly free from all sectarian peculiarities, both in religion and politics-the literature, not of a party, but of humanity; addressing itself to the deep and universal principles of our nature, and doing this in such a form and manner as shall make it welcome to the homes of the working population, while it enlarges their comprehension, conciliates their prejudices, purifies their sentiments, and thus induces those mental and moral habits which constitute the chief features of a true elevation. It will be at once felt, however, that it is much vidual effort, every enlightened friend of the people must rejoice. But very much remains to be accomplished, before it is fully adequate to the circumstances and wants of the age. The great desideratum of the present day is, the more extensive supply of a cheap periodical literature, such as shall combine the lighter graces of imagination with solid instruction, borrow its illustrations from every field of nature and walk of art, adapt itself to the varied phases of our common humanity, and harmonizing with the great and vital truths of the Christian revelation, shall aim at the permanent and true advancement of those to whom its mission is directed." Preparations are being made by the publishers for the more elegant mechanical execution of our Magazine. We hope hereafter to wear even a better aspect than at present. We design to give from ten to fifteen illustrations monthly. It is not deemed desirable to crowd the Magazine with a superabundance of engravings, thereby sinking its literary character in the mere pictorial interest of a juvenile work. Such as we insert shall usually be portraits or illustrations of real scenes. In due time we shall give a consecutive or serial character to these embellishments, by which the reader will be furnished with connected illustrations of important subjects in literature, history, &c. Among the foreign periodicals. which have been placed upon our list as resources for materiale are the leading English Quarterlies,Blackwood, Fraser, Chambers, Dublin University, Hogg, Sharpe, and Tait's Magazines; the Christian Observer, Christian Spectator, Christian Witness, United Presbyterian Magazine, Christian Treasury, Free Church Magazine, Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, London Literary Gazette, Leader, Athenæum, Spectator, &c., besides several French and German monthlies, and a large variety of American periodicals. We shall have abundant resources for sterling selections. We have received numerous applications for agencies for this Magazine. The publishers will give them the earliest possible replies. Our friends may be assured that the liberality of the expense of our publishers, on this work, will be fully proportioned to the liberality of its patronage. We make none other than this general promise in respect to its future enlargement or improvement. We urge our patrons to extend on every hand the circulation of the work; speak a good word for it; show it among your neighbors; state its cheap terms. We are aware of no other publication of the same size and character, which is pub lished at as low a rate in the nation. Will not its mechanical, its literary, and its moral char acteristics, combined, guarantee you in recom. mending it strongly to your friends? |