CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



165 



cured, under which it was authorized to hold its 

 annual meeting's outside of the* State of New 

 York, " in any State or Territory of the United 

 States and in the District of Columbia." 



The American Board. The eightieth annual 

 meeting of the American Board of Commission- 

 ers for Foreign Missions was held in Minneapolis, 

 Minn., beginning Oct. 8. The Rev. Dr. R. S. 

 Storrs presided. The income of the society for 

 the year had been $763,434, of which $419,222 

 had come through donations. The amount of 

 the donations was greater by $22,877 than in 

 the previous year, and $32,355 more than the 

 average of the past five years, and was the 

 largest when reduced to a gold value ever re- 

 ceived during one year in the history of the 

 board. From the Swett bequest, which had 

 been set apart to meet special calls for brief 

 periods in the evangelistic and educational de- 

 partments of missionary work abroad, $72,708 

 had been appropriated ; and from the Otis be- 

 quest, which had been set apart for new missions, 

 $61,482 had been applied, in west central Af- 

 rica, east central Africa, Shansi, Hong-Kong, 

 northern Japan, and northern Mexico. The 

 Otis bequest would be nearly all distributed at 

 the end of two years, and the new missions de- 

 pendent upon it would then have to be supported 

 from the current annual receipts of the society. 

 The Swett bequest would probably be exhausted 

 during the coming year. Among the matters 

 especially noticed in the reports from the mission 

 fields were an extensive revival which had pre- 

 vailed in Aintab, Marash, Had j in, Adaria, and 

 Tarsus, Asiatic Turkey; the small number of 

 college graduates in the eastern and central 

 Turkey missions who enter the theological semi- 

 naries, and the increasing tendency of promising 

 young men who come to America to complete 

 their studies and better their fortunes ; and the 

 good impression produced upon the people of 

 Spain by the work of the high school for girls 

 at San Sebastian. The following is an abstract 

 of the general summary of the missions : Mis- 

 sions, 22 : stations, 96 ; out-stations, 962 ; places 

 for stated preaching, 1,402; average congrega- 

 tions, 65,236 ; ordained missionaries (12 being 

 physicians), 183 ; male physicians not ordained 

 (besides 5 women), 10; other male assistants, 7; 

 women (7 of them physicians : wives, 181, un- 

 married, 152), 333; whole number of laborers 

 sent from this country, 533 ; native pastors, 174 ; 

 native preachers and catechists, 490 ; native 

 school-teachers, 1,353 ; other native laborers, 382 ; 

 total of native laborers, 2,399* ; total of American 

 and native laborers, 2,932 ; churches, 387 ; church 

 members, 36,256 ; added during the year, 4,554 ; 

 whole number from the first, as nearly as can be 

 learned, 114,953; theological seminaries and sta- 

 tion classes, 14; pupils, 247; colleges and high 

 schools, 66 ; pupils in the above, 4,600 ; boarding 

 schools for girls, 56 ; pupils in boarding schools 

 for girls, 3,180 ; common schools, 889 ; pupils in 

 common schools, 33,114; whole number under 

 instruction, 47,329 ; native contributions report- 

 ed. $117,494. 



The committee of nine, which had been ap- 



* The report pives this number as 2,417, and the whole 

 number of American and native laborers as 2,950 ; but there 

 seems to he an error either in setting down the items or in 

 the addition. 



pointed at the previous meeting of the board 

 " to inquire into the methods of administration 

 pursued at the missionary rooms at Boston, and 

 to recommend any changes which shall appear 

 to them useful or important," reported that it had 

 held four meetings ; had examined the records 

 of the Prudential Committee and the Treasur- 

 er; had read the papers and correspondence in 

 nearly all the cases of applicants for missionary 

 appointment whose cases . had been made the 

 topic of public comment, and of some others be- 

 sides; had examined such other documents as 

 bore upon the object of their inquiry ; and had 

 conferred with the chairman and members of the 

 Prudential Committee. As a result of its in- 

 quiries, it had found the methods pursued in 

 working and preserving the records and docu- 

 ments of the board worthy of praise. The gen- 

 eral plan of administration in the treasury com- 

 mended itself to approbation. A few modifica- 

 tions were recommended. Facts were presented, 

 however, from the financial reports of a series of 

 years past, which, when compared with similar 

 items from the reports of other societies of the 

 denomination and of societies of other denomi- 

 nations, and with the growth of the Congrega- 

 tional churches, seemed to indicate that in its 

 relation to the benevolence of the churches and 

 its grasp on their resources, the board had virtu- 

 ally stood still, while the other agencies of de- 

 nominational enterprise had made an advance 

 in the aggregate of about 80 per cent. " With 

 an increase in our church membership of over 

 107,000, no corresponding increase has accrued 

 to the treasury of this society. From 1880-'89 

 our membership grew more than 30 per cent. ; 

 our direct contributions from the churches and 

 the Woman's Board grew less than 14 per cent." 

 While it refrained from expressing any opinion 

 respecting the causes of the financial infirmity 

 shown by these facts, the committee uttered the 

 conviction that, however explained, there was in 

 them a powerful argument of urgency " that if 

 there be alienations from the board, they bo 

 reconciled, and that every reasonable means be 

 employed to deepen and strengthen the hold 

 upon the hearts of our churches of the cause of 

 foreign missions and of this its ancient repre- 

 sentative." Concerning the third point of the 

 inquiry, the method pursued in the appoint- 

 ment of missionaries, the committee found evi- 

 dence of a degree of alienation from the present 

 administration of the board, existing among 

 some of the churches, pastors, educational in- 

 stitutions, and young men and women of the 

 colleges and seminaries, "which, whether rea- 

 sonable or unreasonable, we all alike deplore." 

 Presuming that the legitimate object of an in- 

 quiry by the officers of the board into the theo- 

 logical opinions of applicants for missionary 

 service is to ascertain whether they are conformed 

 essentially to the doctrines commonly received 

 by the churches, the committee were united in 

 the judgment "that it is incompatible with the 

 character of the board as a non-ecclesiastical 

 body for its officers to frame creeds or state- 

 ments of theological belief, under whatever title, 

 to be submitted to candidates for appointment. 

 Such a course is not to be applied, even though 

 it be, as alleged, not to impose articles of faith 

 upon the applicant, but simply to aid him iu 



