272 



EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION. 



Civil Power," the Rev. G. W. Sampson, D.D., 

 of New York, the Kev. W. I. Budington D. D., 

 of Brooklyn, N. Y. ; 3. " The Suppression of 

 Intemperance," the Rev. James M. Buckley, 

 of Stamford, Conn., the Rev. W. M. Taylor, 



D. D., of New York. 



On the fourth day, Friday, October 29th, 

 papers were read on 1. "The Sabbath Ques- 

 tion," the Rev. M. Valentine, D. D., of Gettys- 

 burg, Pa., the Rev. S. M. Hopkins, D. D., of 

 the Auburn Theological Seminary, N. Y. ; 2. 

 " Religion in Common Schools," the Rev. John 

 Cotton Smith, D. D., of New York, the Rev. 



E. S. Porter, D. D., of Brooklyn, N. Y. ; 3. " The 

 American Sabbath-School of To-day and the 

 Future," the Rev. W. J. R. Taylor, D. D. It 

 was resolved that the Biennial Conference be 

 continued. The formation of branch Alliances 

 in every community was recommended. De- 

 troit, Michigan, was selected as the place for 

 the meeting of the next Conference (1877). 



EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION. The 

 following is a summary of the statistics of this 

 denomination as they were reported in Sep- 

 tember, 1875 : 



Number of Sunday-schools, 1,535$- ; of offi- 

 cers and teachers in the same, 17,166; of Sun- 

 day-school scholars, 92,086; probable valuB 

 of churches, $3,034,891 ; number of parson- 

 ages, 353; probable value of the same, $418,- 

 D35 ; amount of conference contributions, $4,- 

 698.80; of contributions for missions, $65,- 

 165.40; of contributions for the Sunday-school 

 and Tract Union, $2,108.30; number of chil- 

 dren baptized, 7,057 ; of adults baptized, 1,484. 

 The tables show an increase of 4,998 mem- 

 bers from 1874. 



The sixteenth session of the .General Con- 

 ference of the Evangelical Association was 

 held m Philadelphia, beginning October 14th. 

 The bishops presided in rotation. An "Epis- 

 copal Address" was presented by the bishops, 

 giving a review of the progress of the inter- 

 ests of the Church since the General Confer- 

 ence held five years before. It stated that the 

 statistics of the past four years showed the 



lowing increase: in ministers, 164; in mem- 



* Report for 1874. 



bership, 17,350; in churches, 266; in Sunday- 

 schools, 366; in catechumens, 1,000; and pro- 

 portionately for other items. The ratio of 

 increase, about 22 per cent., was smaller than 

 that for the preceding five years (1867 to 1871, 

 more than 29 per cent.). The Missionary So- 

 ciety had extinguished the debt of former 

 years, and had materially extended its under- 

 takings. The missions on the Pacific coast 

 showed increased strength, and the missions 

 in Europe enjoyed continued prosperity. The 

 number of members had increased 100 per 

 cent., and twice as much territory was occupied 

 as at the preceding General Conference. The 

 publishing interests of the Church, the Sunday- 

 schools, and the Charitable Society, were men- 

 tioned as being in a favorable condition. 



The Committee on Missions reported upon 

 the missionary money received during the past 

 four years as follows: 



For home and German missions $255,164 91 



Heathen mission 6,469 95 



Bequests to the standing fund 26,882 16 



Total $287,507 01 



Expended for home and German missions $264,282 19 



Total standing missionary fund $49,167 85 



The Conference unanimously decided that a 

 heathen mission be established in Japan. 



The report of the Charitable Society showed 

 that it had received bequests since its organi- 

 zation in 1836 to the amount of $23,225.87, 

 and had distributed of interest in the same 

 period, to superannuated ministers and widows 

 of deceased preachers, $20,693.92. It had now 

 assets valued at $23,445.80. 



The orphan asylum contained 215 inmates. 

 It had a farm of 170 acres, which yielded 

 yearly $3,000' worth of products. The proper- 

 ty was worth $100,000. The Committee on 

 the Orphan Institute were instructed to con- 

 sider the propriety and practicability of found- 

 ing a home for the aged and infirm members 

 of the church. Two German Conferences 

 were established : one to be composed of the 

 German appointments in the East Pennsylva- 

 nia and Central Pennsylvania Conference, and 

 to be called the Atlantic Conference; the 

 other to be composed of the German appoint- 

 ments in the Pittsburg, Ohio, and New York 

 Conferences, and to be called the Erie Con- 

 ference. 



The constitution of the Board of Publica- 

 tion was arranged by a provision, that the 

 territory of the Church be divided into six 

 districts, from each of which should be elected 

 one member, the six district members, with 

 one of the bishops, to constitute the board. 

 Four bishops were elected for the next quad- 

 rennial term, viz., J. J. Esher and R. Yeakel 

 (reflected), R. Dubs, and T. Bowman. The 

 subject of changing the name of the church 

 had been considerably discussed before the 

 meeting of the Conference, and was considered 

 in its deliberations. No name was found on 

 which a majority could agree, and the subject 

 was indefinitely postponed. 



