CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



119 



lost in securing the proposed Congregational 

 house in Boston, either by separate and inde- 

 pendent erection at the expense of the Asso- 

 ciation, or by cooperation with kindred so- 

 cieties." The receipts of the Association for 

 the year closing with the anniversary were 

 $33,780.11. The additions to the library dur- 

 ing the year numbered 2,680. The total 

 number of bound volumes is 10,739, relating 

 chiefly to Congregational, early New England, 

 and ecclesiastical history. 



The Congregational Publication Society was 

 formed in 1868, and is designed to become the 

 organ of publication for the Congregational- 

 ists of the United States. It will undertake 

 the publication of works of early and late 

 New England divines, and the reprint of 

 such foreign books as seem adapted to its ob- 

 jects. 



The American Home Missionary Society, its 

 auxiliaries and agencies, employed, during the 

 year ending with the meeting in May, 972 

 ministers of the Gospel. They were distri- 

 buted in 28 different States and Territories: 

 New England had 327; the Middle States, 73 ; 

 the Southern States, 8; the "Western States, 

 including 30 ministers laboring on the Pacific 

 coast, 564. The number of congregations and 

 missionary districts fully or partially supplied 

 was 1,956. Four missionaries were commis- 

 sioned as pastors over colored people; one 

 preached to Indians; and 35 preached in 

 foreign languages. The number of Sunday- 

 school and Bible-class scholars under the care 

 of the missionaries was about 75,300; the 

 number of conversions reported by 411 mis- 

 sionaries was 2,959 ; the additions to the 

 churches, as nearly as could be ascertained, was 

 6,470; the contributions to benevolent objects, 

 reported by 567 ministers, amounted to $38,- 

 040.93. Seventy-four churches were organized 

 during the year, sixty became self-supporting, 

 fifty-eight church buildings were completed, 

 and thirty-two others were commenced, and 

 88 young men in connection with missionary 

 churches were preparing for the ministry. The 

 receipts, including the balance in the treasury, 

 were $282,858.23, or $23,199.11 greater than 

 those of any former ^ear of the society. The 

 expenditures likewise exceeded those of any 

 year by $20,263.90, and the number of minis- 

 ters and amount of service performed were 

 greater than ever before. The total receipts, 

 during the forty-three years the society has 

 been in operation, were $5,455,213.64; the 

 total number of additions to the churches 

 during the same period was 205,165. 



At the anniversary of the Congregational 

 Union of England and "Wales, which was held 

 on the llth of May, the society was reported 

 in a condition of great prosperity. There was 

 a balance in the treasury of 3,758 4s. 2d. 

 The sales of publications had been large. 

 Grants had been made to the Congregational 

 churches in connection with the French Cana- 

 dian Mission, and to the Union of Evangelical 



Churches in France, and to various home and 

 colonial enterprises in which the Union had 

 a more particular interest; and there had 

 been a small balance to the American freed- 

 merj. 



The Congregational Quarterly, for January, 

 1870, reports the statistics of Congregational- 

 ism in the United States and British colonies 

 for the year 1869, as follows: 



The English Congregational Tear-looTc for 

 1870 reports the following of Congregational- 

 ism in Great Britain and the British dependen- 

 cies: 



