REFORMED CHURCHES. 



RELIGIOUS STATISTICS. 



579 



For the future avoidance of this disproportion in 

 the designation of gifts, the Synod recommended 

 to givers that they see that the regular work is 

 fully provided for before giving to objects outside 

 of the appropriations, and that when they give to 

 such special objects, they allow the board more 

 liberty in applying their gifts. The board having 

 declined to accept any of the " exemplary dam- 

 ages " collected by the American consul for losses 

 sustained in the Chiang-Chiu field, China, its 

 action was cordially approved by the General 

 Synod. The Synod also gave its approval to a 

 proposed union of native churches in south India 

 on a plan described in a memorial from the Synod 

 of Arcot. 



The receipts of the Woman's Board of Foreign 

 Missions for the year had been $31,500. 



The General Synod met in its ninety-fifth an- 

 nual session at New Brunswick, N. J., June 5. 

 The Rev. Denis Wortman, D. D., was chosen 

 president. The special Committee on the Finances 

 of the Theological Seminary at New Brunswick, 

 which was appointed in 1897 in view of the semi- 

 nary's loss of income on account of the declining 

 rate of interest, reported concerning its labors 

 to increase its endowments and to obtain gifts for 

 its current expenses. The sum of $91,059 had 

 been secured. The endowments of the seminary 

 amounted to $463,000. Reports were also made 

 of the Western Theological Seminary, at Holland, 

 Mich., and of the seminary in the Arcot Mis- 

 sion, India. Committee reports were presented on 

 revision of the baptismal forms and of the forms 

 of ordination. In the baptismal form a change 

 was approved in the order of the prefaces of the 

 forms for infants and for adults, and an option 

 was given for the omission of a paragraph which 

 was essentially a repetition. The report on the 

 forms for ordination was approved, and the pro- 

 posed changes were sent down to the classes. The 

 publication of a year-book was authorized. The 

 Synod, declaring itself ever " in the front in every 

 moral cause and in hearty sympathy with every 

 movement tending to the suppression of vice and 

 the uplifting of humanity," bade " Godspeed to 

 all the societies and organizations working in be- 

 half of temperance reform, and especially to the 

 Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the 

 Antisaloon League." The Committee on Sys- 

 tematic Benevolence reported that about 150 

 churches had availed themselves of the offers 

 made through the permanent committee, and that 

 there had been a gain of 211 in the number of 

 churches contributing to the missionary and 

 other benevolent causes. A committee was ap- 

 pointed to meet a similar committee of the Chris- 

 tian Reformed Church for the purpose of provid- 

 ing against harmful competition in establishing 

 churches by the two denominations. In a reso- 

 lution commending the American Sabbath Union, 

 the Synod urged upon members the utmost cau- 

 tion in their personal use of the day, and depre- 

 cated " such spasmodic action as would bring the 

 laws into disrepute." 



II. Reformed Church in the United States 

 (German). The Almanac for the Reformed 

 Church in the United States for 1902 gives statis- 

 tics of this Church, of which a summary follows: 

 Number of synods, 8; of classes, 58; of ministers, 

 1,107; of congregations, 1,688; of communicants, 

 248,929; of confirmed members, 197,416; of un- 

 confirmed, 127,541; of students for the ministry, 

 200; of baptisms during the year, 13,377 of infants 

 and 1,745 of adults; of 'confirmations, 11,898; 

 amount of contributions, $270,288 for benevolent 

 and $1,303,241 for congregational purposes. In a 

 general survey of the progress of this Church dur- 



il re- 

 f that 







I 



ing the nineteenth century, the ];< . /. ,\ 

 represents in a summary vic\\ 

 suits of its activity during the i,i -i 

 century, that the General Synod 

 18(53, continued supervision over : 

 Church. The six district synods oi 

 to 8, the 44 classes to 5H; the mimic i 

 ters advanced 73 per cent., that oi < 

 25 per cent., the membership 70 per . , 

 the annual contributions to benevolence ! 

 cent. Hence the benevolences of the (Jhmvl, in- 

 creased almost twice as fast as the member. -hi|i. 

 Great strength was added to the Church in par- 

 ticular localities. The first educational institu- 

 tion was founded in 1825. At the close of the cen- 

 tury the Church had 20 such institutions, of 

 which 5 were theological and 15 literary, 3 of the 

 latter being exclusively for the education of 

 women, all of them together being attended by 

 nearly 2,000 students. The first Church paper 

 was started in 1828; there are now, including Eng- 

 lish, German, Sunday-school, and college period- 

 icals, 33 publications. Three orphans' homes are 

 supported, at an annual cost of about $18,000, 

 where more than 1,200 orphans have been edu- 

 cated and trained. The valuation of the endow- 

 ments and properties of these institutions is more 

 than $175,000. Two deaconesses' homes and hos- 

 pitals were founded during the last decade of the 

 century. Other benevolences are a Ministerial 

 Relief Society the oldest charitable institution 

 of the Church and the David Stein Memorial 

 Home for Disabled Ministers and their Widows, 

 the combined property of which is valued at 

 $59,000. The foreign mission, in Japan, was 

 established in the last quarter of the century. 

 Its central station is in the city of Sendai. 

 Twenty-six missionaries have been sent out, of 

 whom 18 are still at work, assisted by Dr. Oshi- 

 kawa, one of the earliest Japanese Christian con- 

 verts, and a large number of ordained and unor- 

 dained native helpers. The mission has many 

 preaching stations, a theological school, a literary 

 institution for boys, and a seminary for girls. 

 Steps had been taken for establishing a mission in 

 China, 2 missionaries had been commissioned and 

 started on their way, and a station selected, when 

 the " Boxer " disturbances broke out. 



The meeting of the General Board of Home Mis- 

 sions was held in Pittsburg, Pa., April 9 to 11. 

 Five of the churches under the care of the board 

 had become self-supporting. Additional care had 

 been found advisable in the calling Hungarian 

 ministers by being more exact in requiring proper 

 certificates of dismissal from their Church au- 

 thorities in Hungary, and other evidences of their 

 good standing at home. The classes were re- 

 quested to adopt certain measures looking to 

 making the consideration of home missions a 

 more important feature in their transactions. A 

 proposal to institute a conference of all the home 

 missionary field workers of the various churches 

 to consider questions of fields and methods was 

 referred, with a request that they consider it, to 

 the Home Mission Committee of the American 

 section of the Alliance of Reformed Churches. 



Of 133 home missions of this Church, 99 were 

 under the General Board and 34 under the Ger- 

 man boards. Five missions had become self-sup- 

 porting during the year, 3 new Hungarian mis- 

 sions had been organized, and 2 additional pas- 

 tors had been called from Hungary. 



RELIGIOUS STATISTICS OF THE 

 WORLD. In a summary of the religious statis- 

 tics of the world given in a Beilage to the Allge- 

 meine Zeitung in January, 1901, it is estimated 

 that there are in Europe 384,500,000 Christians, 



