148 



CONGREGATION" ALISTS. 



where the National Council was organized as 

 a permanent body, to meet every three years. 

 The present session, although only the second 

 meeting of the council as a permanent body, 

 was, by including all the previous meetings of 

 general councils, counted as the sixth. 



The twenty-first anniversary of the Ameri- 

 can Congregational Union vf as held in the city 

 of New York, May 14th. Mr. A. S. Barnes 

 presided. The trustees reported that grants 

 had been made during the year to forty-six 

 churches. The receipts for the year ending 

 May 1, 1874, were $61,184.64, which, with 

 the balance on hand at the beginning of the 

 year, made the available resources of the Union 

 $67,044.19. The expenditures for the same pe- 

 riod were $60,580.40, leaving a balance at the 

 close of the year of $6,463.79. The usual so- 

 cial reunion was held in the evening, and was 

 addressed by the Rev. Dr. Post, of St. Louis, 

 the Rev. H. M. Gallaher, Baptist, the Rev. Dr. 

 John Hall, Presbyterian, and by other 'persons. 



The forty-eighth anniversary of the Ameri- 

 can Home Missionary Society was held in New 

 York City, May 13th. The receipts for the year 

 were reported to have been $290,120.34, and 

 the expenditures $287,662.91. The sum- of 

 $12,652 was still due to missionaries for labor 

 performed, but not yet reported, and further 

 appropriations had been made to the amount of 

 $106,979, making the total amount of moneys . 

 pledged $119,632. Nine hundred and sixty- 

 nine missionaries had been employed, of whom 

 three had preached to congregations of colored 

 people, and thirty-two had preached in for- 

 eign languages. The number of congregations 

 and missionary stations supplied was 2,195, 

 fifty more than were supplied during the pre- 

 vious year, and twenty more than the largest 

 number occupied in any former year. The re- 

 ceipts were $22,429 more than those of the 

 previous year, and had been exceeded by those 

 of only one year in the history of the society. 



The sixty-fifth annual meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 

 sions was held at Rutland, Vt., October 6th. 

 The Rev. Mark Hopkins, D. D., LL. D., pre- 

 sided. The treasurer, according to the orders 

 of the board, made separate statements of the 

 receipts and expenditures for the ordinary mis- 

 sionary work among the heathen, and for the 

 work in "nominally Christian lands." The 

 total receipts for the general work had been 

 $443,925.29. The expenditures on the same 

 account had been : 



Cost of missions $399,681 96 



Cost of agencies 9,247 63 



Cost of publications 10.666 30 



Cost of administration... . , 16,904 93 



Total expenditures ............. $436,590 82 



For the work in " nominally Christian 

 lands," the receipts had been $33,981.22, the 

 expenditures as follows: 



Cost of missions ...................... $43,886 88 



Cost of agencies.. ...... . .............. 2,133 63 . 



Total ..... ...................... $46,020 51 



The board was reported in debt to the 

 amount of $30,441.07. 



Several events had occurred to impede the 

 progress of the missionary operations : among 

 them were named the famine which had pre- 

 vailed in some parts of Turkey ; the murder of 

 the Rev. Mr. Stephens in Mexico ; the intrusion 

 of English High-Churchmen into the Mahratta 

 mission, in India ; the attempts of the Turkish 

 Government to suppress the circulation of the 

 Scriptures among the Moslems ; and the finan- 

 cial stringency at home. Nevertheless, an in- 

 creased interest in the cause, and a healthy 

 growth in most of the missions, were reported. 

 The board resolved to endeavor to raise the 

 sum of $400,000 among the churches for the 

 payment of its debt and the prosecution of its 

 work during the coming year, expecting to 

 secure $100,000 more from legacies and other 

 sources, and fixing the whole amount sought 

 at $500,000. Twenty-five hundred dollars 

 were pledged during the meeting toward the 

 establishment of an institution of Christian 

 learning in Japan. 



The twenty-eighth annual meeting of the 

 American Missionary Association was held at 

 Clinton, Iowa, October 28th. The treasurer's 

 report showed the total receipts for the year 

 to have been $319,728.75, and the aggregate 

 expenditures $344,004.05. Of the latter sum, 

 $280,833.87 had been expended in the South. 

 The expenditures in the foreign missionary 

 work had been $9,034.16 for Africa, $4,156.29 

 for the Jamaica mission, $2,967.61 for Siam, 

 and $92. 67 for special purposes in the Sandwich 

 Islands. 



The Congregational Union of Ontario and 

 Quebec held its meeting in June. The Rev. 

 Joseph Unsworth, of Georgetown, was elected 

 chairman for the year. The receipts of the 

 Congregational Missionary Society for the year 

 had been, including a balance of $1,200 from 

 former years, $8,032, of which sum $4,900 

 had been actually raised among the Canadian 

 churches. The Colonial Missionary Society of 

 England had given during the previous year 

 400 toward the operations in Ontario and 

 Quebec, and would give 350 for the current 

 year. 



The forty-fourth annual meeting of the Con- 

 gregational Union of England and Wales was 

 held in London, May llth. The total income 

 of the Union for the year was reported to have 

 been 7,311 12s. 4d. A Conference on church 

 finance had been held in December, 1873, at 

 Birmingham, at which the conclusion was 

 reached that the stipends of Congregational 

 ministers were, as a rule, insufficient to such a 

 degree as to. limit the usefulness of their min- 

 istry. The Conference had estimated that no 

 stipend in the country districts should be lower 

 than 150, and had sketched a plan of opera- 

 tions, the object of which was to bring the 

 subject more directly before the churches, and 

 to secure greater liberality and promptness in 

 the collections for this object. 



