CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



167 



a prominent text-book, and the purpose of the 

 instruction was to Christianize the pupils. The 

 Chinese attendants were very liberal in the sup- 

 port of the mission and in taking up work for 

 their native land. They had built a chapel in 

 connection with a mission which the association 

 of Christian Chinese is supporting in Hong- 

 Kong, and had opened several free schools. The 

 association had raised during the year $2,500 for 

 the work in California and China. The work 

 among the people of the mountain regions of the 

 South had been successfully prosecuted. In 

 view of the enlarged work of the association, 

 and of the increased diversity of its labors for 

 the negro, the Indian, the mountain white peo- 

 ple, and the Chinese, a committee of conference, 

 representing the churches and consisting of seven 

 members, was appointed to visit the office of the 

 association, consider the adaptation of its pres- 

 ent methods to the enlarged conditions of its 

 work, and make such suggestions as may appear 

 wise and desirable. 



II. Congregationalists in Great Britain. 

 The English " Congregational Year-Book " for 

 1890 gives the whole number of Congregational 

 churches in England and Wales as 4,585, show- 

 ing an increase of 33 over the previous year. 

 These churches provided sittings for 1,645,000 

 persons. The whole number of churches, in- 

 cluding those in Scotland, Ireland, and the 

 Channel Islands, was 4,726; and including also 

 churches and mission stations in the colonies 

 and dependencies, 5,420. There were 2,710 min- 

 isters in England and Wales, 2,023 of whom were 

 i in pastoral charge. Seventeen colleges in Great 

 Britain and the colonies returned 58 professors 

 and lecturers and 428 students for the ministry ; 

 and 300 native students were under instruction 

 at training institutions in heathen lands. 



London Missionary Society. The annual 

 meeting of the London Missionary Society was 

 held in London. May 15. Sir Charles Aitch- 

 ison presided. The income of the society for 

 the year had been 121,455, of which 17,876 

 had been raised for and expended on special ob- 

 jects in the mission field. A balance in hand 

 was returned of 3,209. A legacy of 42,000 

 from the late Sir James Tylor was the largest 

 the society had ever received, but it was bur- 

 dened by a special rent charge. It was repre- 

 sented, in moving the adoption of the report, 

 that out of every pound sterling subscribed to 

 the funds of the society, 17s. l%d. went to the 

 mission field, 11^-d. were expended upon retired 

 missionaries and missionaries' widows, and Is. 

 10d were expended in maintaining the ma- 

 chinery of the society. 



A committee appointed by the directors of the 

 society in 1889 to examine 'its methods of man- 

 agement and administration made an investiga- 

 tion which was continued through eight months. 

 It sought information at first hand from mis- 

 sionaries at home, from India, China, and Japan, 

 fields in which the policy of the missions has 

 been most criticised. In general, the committee 

 approved the course of the society, including 

 some ^ reforms recently instituted. While no 

 material change was recommended in the pres- 

 ent arrangement for the education of missionary 

 candidates, it was considered desirable that the 

 history of Christian missions and the history, 



philosophy, and comparison of religions should 

 be studied, especially by missionaries going to 

 India and China. While the expediency of em- 

 ploying unmarried men for a limited time and 

 under special circumstances was admitted, em- 

 phatic testimony was borne to the force of the 

 example of a Christian home life and to the 

 value of the labor and influence of missionaries' 

 wives. A proposal to accept the services of edu- 

 cated lay evangelists, the development and im- 

 provement of the lay agency, and the plan of 

 working from fixed local centers as contrasted 

 with " a vague itinerancy," were approved. On 

 the question of education in India, concerning 

 which the differences of opinion among the 

 friends of the society are most marked, the com- 

 mittee pointed out that the abandonment of the 

 educational work would mean 

 the surrender of our hold on the young mind of India 

 in this crisis of its intellectual and moral history, 

 when the first stirrings of a rational mind are begin- 

 ning to be felt and old faiths are tottering to their 

 fall. It would mean the handing over of the cultured 

 youth of India, the hope of the future, either to 

 schools from which religion is systematically ex- 

 cluded, where morality has therefore no firm footing, 

 and where there may be agnostic and positivist teach- 

 ers as bitterly hostile to Christianity as the heathen, 

 or else to Home and the Jesuits, eagerly watching the 

 opportunity to step in and fill our empty place. 



While conversions were acknowledged to be 

 lamentably rare among the results of educa- 

 tional work, it was contended that the pupils re- 

 ceive a degree of preparation for the Gospel 

 which would otherwise be lacking, and that the 

 schools are to a. considerable extent self-support- 

 ing. The committee recommended that the 

 Christian character of the schools be kept in 

 view, that sufficient time be devoted to Scripture 

 lessons, and that non-Christian teachers be not 

 employed when it can be avoided. The present 

 salaries of the missionaries were considered by 

 the committee as low as they should be ; and 

 with regard to financial management generally, 

 the difficulties which were facing the society 

 had arisen not from waste or mismanagement, 

 but from success. 



Congregational Union of England and Wales. 

 The fifty-eighth annual meeting of the Con- 

 gregational Union of England and Wales was 

 held in London, beginning May 12. The Rev. 

 Thomas Green presided. The executive com- 

 mittee reported that its income had been 16,- 

 910 and its expenditure 1,906 less. The propo- 

 sition to hold an international Congregational 

 Council had been approved by it, and it pre- 

 sented a scheme of organization, according to 

 which the council should meet during the 

 former half of July, 1891, and should continue 

 in session for a week ; should consist of 300 

 members 100 for England, 100 for the United 

 States, and 100 for Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the 

 colonies, " and the rest of the world." A sepa- 

 rate chairman should be appointed for each day 

 'and the opening sermon should be preached by 

 the Rev. Dr. R. S. Storrs, of Brooklyn, N. Y. 

 The time and place designated for the council 

 had been agreed to by the American committee. 

 (Dr. Storrs has since given notice that he can 

 not preach the opening sermon.) A series of 

 publications containing " a simple statement of 

 the truth " had been decided upon to counter- 



