CONGREGATION ALISTS. 



187 



The receipts of the Church Aid Society had 

 been 38.712. and its expenditures about 

 30,000. It had aided during the year 1,101 

 congregations, under the care of 474 pastors 

 and 109 missionaries. 



The thirty-fourth annual meeting of the 

 English Congregational Chapel Building Soci- 

 ety was held in Bristol, April 10. The total 

 resources for the year had been 7,258. The 

 payments had been 4.241. The total receipts 

 from the beginning of the society's operations 

 had been 173,855, and the disbursements 

 10.3.811. 



London Missionary Sodetv. The annual meet- 

 ing of the London Missionary Society was 

 held May 10. Lord Brassey presided. The 

 income of the society had been 125,000, and 

 its expenditures, 128,000. The 184 men and 

 women missionaries were aided in their work 

 by 1,500 native pastors and 5,000 native 

 preachers. Progress was reported of the 

 missions in China, India, Madagascar, where, 

 notwithstanding a critical stage had been 

 reached, there were signs of advance, and a 

 concentration of missionaries near the capital 

 was needed; South Africa, where the con- 

 ditions were not encouraging; New Guinea, 

 where advance was making; and Samoa, 

 where the society had 27.000 adherents, who 

 built their own churches, supported their own 

 pastors, and contributed 1,000 a year to the 

 parent society. 



Autumnal Meeting of the Union. The Congrega- 

 tional Union met in its autumnal session at 

 Nottingham, October 9. The Rev. Dr. Rob- 

 ert Bruce presided, and spoke in his opening 

 address in criticism of the proposals in the 

 educational report of the Royal Commission- 

 ers. A resolution was adopted disapproving 

 the policy embodied in the recommendations 

 of the majority of the commission, as distinctly 

 reactionary in character, and thereby confirm- 

 ing the forebodings which the Union had ex- 

 pressed at its meeting in May. Objection was 

 made in particular to the proposed appropria- 

 tion of local rates to schools under private man- 

 agement, and to the removal of restrictions on 

 sectarian teaching: and the opinion expressed 

 in former resolutions was reiterated, that no 

 system of education will be satisfactory under 

 which national funds are appropriated to 

 schools or training-colleges which are under 

 the control of denominational managers. Pa- 

 pers were read on " The Work of Congrega- 

 tional Churches in England in Villages," by 

 the Rev. A. D. Phillips ; " in Urban Congre- 

 gations," by the Rev. H. H. Huffodine ; 

 ' Among the Working-Classes in Towns," 

 Rev. F. W. Neuland; "Church Extension in 

 Large and Growing Centers." Mr. W. H. Con- 

 yers; "Efforts among Special Classes, such as 

 Canalmen and Navvies, 1 ' Rev. T. Gascoigne; 

 " The Need of a System of Christian Eco- 

 nomics," Rev. F. W. Stead; ' Pentateuchal 

 Criticism." Prof. O. C. Whitebouse; and on 

 other subjects of interest to the churches. A 



public meeting was held in celebration of the 

 revolution of 1688. The consideration of a 

 resolution denouncing the coercive policy of 

 the Government in Ireland was declined by 

 the assembly as such ; but opportunity was 

 given at adjournment for holding a special 

 meeting of ministers and delegates to entertain 

 it. The resolution as adopted by this meet- 

 ing placed its action on the ground that the 

 question was one of national righteousness 

 "far away from and above every question 

 of party and politics/' Seventy-five ministers 

 and delegates protested against the suspension 

 of the sessions for holding this meeting. It 

 was shown at a meeting in behalf of the Irish 

 Evangelical Society that there are 27 Congre- 

 gational churches in Ireland. 9 of which are 

 self-supporting, with 85 out-stations, 17 minis- 

 ters, 24 lay preachers, one evangelist, 2,636 

 adherents, and more than a thousand pupils in 

 Sunday-schools. 



The Tooting Case. The "Tooting case," the 

 decision of which in favor of the Congrega- 

 tionalists is mentioned in the account of the 

 proceedings of the Congregrational Union, 

 arose from a controversy with the Presbyte- 

 rian Church respecting the title to the old 

 meeting-house at Tooting-Graveney. which 

 had been put in trust by Emma Mills in 1786, 

 as a "place for Protestant Dissenters of the 

 Presbyterian or Independent denomination." 

 The place had been used under this trust till 

 1879 as an Independent chapel. In that year 

 a resolution was passed by the congregation, 

 at the request of the pastor, to apply for ad- 

 mission to the Presbyterian Church. The 

 application was granted by the Presbyterian 

 Synod, and a representative of the Presbyte- 

 rian Church of England was delegated to pre- 

 side over a meeting of the society. Suit was 

 brought in behalf of the Congregationalism to 

 test the title to the meeting-house. The decis- 

 ion of the court was given in March It de- 

 clared the action by which the transfer to the 

 Presbyterian Church was made to be invalid 

 first, for want of unanimity in the application 

 by the congregation, the presence of one dis- 

 sentionist when the vote was taken showing 

 that it was opposed ; and. second, because the 

 affiliation of the society with the English Pres- 

 byterian Church as now constituted must be 

 regarded as in contravention of the original 

 trust. Although " Presbyterians " are men- 

 tioned in the deed, the present rules of the 

 Presbyterian Church as contained in the 

 " Book of Order," are quite inconsistent with 

 the Independency of 1786; for, the court de- 

 clared, Independency consists in each particu- 

 lar church "standing alone'' and being "self- 

 governed "; while the "Book of Order" is 

 directly contrary to that position. The decis- 

 ion was applied only to the external relations 

 of the Church, and was not held to affect either 

 the title of the pastor or the right of the exist- 

 ing congregation to regulate its own internal 

 affairs in its own way. 



