132 



CONGKEGATIONALISTS. 



in its Sunday schools. Forty-seven churches 

 had been organized by the missionaries dur- 

 *ing the year, and forty-six churches had be- 

 come self-supporting. The number of addi- 

 tions to the churches by profession of faith 

 was 5,027. 



The sixty-ninth annual meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 

 sions was held at Milwaukee, Wis., beginning 

 October 1st. President Mark Hopkins presided. 

 The Treasurer reported that the total receipts 

 for the year had been $482,204.73, and the total 

 expenditures $486,772.98, of which sum $410,- 

 858.55 was charged to the cost of missions, 

 $9,375.04 to the cost of agencies, $2,546.44 to 

 the cost of publications, $16,006.41 to the cost 

 of administration, and $47,985.94 to the ac- 

 count of the balance for which the Board was 

 in debt on September 1, 1877. This statement 

 showed that the debt of the Board had been 

 reduced to $4,568.25. The Woman's Board 

 had contributed $81,235.67 to the support of 

 female missionaries cooperating with the So- 

 ciety, and was supporting about ninety mis- 

 sionaries and giving aid to a large number of 

 native helpers and schools. Ten missionaries 

 had died during the year, eighteen names had 

 been dropped from the rolls, and nineteen new 

 missionaries, including three representatives of 

 the Woman's Board, had gone out. The " Gen- 

 eral Survey " of the missions gave the follow- 

 ing summary of members: Number of mis- 

 sions, 16; number of stations, 79; number of 

 sub-stations, 529 ; total number of missionaries 

 and laborers connected with the missions, 

 1,549; number of churches, 248; members, 

 13,737; training and theological schools, 15; 

 boarding-schools for girls, 26 ; common schools, 

 612 ; total number of pupils, 26,170. 



Concerning the condition of the particular 

 fields, it represented that the possibility of civ- 

 ilizing the Indians was made more clear every 

 year. The Dakotas were more and more seek- 

 ing the privilege of instruction in the schools, 

 the arts of civilized life, and religion, and the 

 schools at the Santee Agency had never been 

 so successful. The work in Spain and Austria 

 had called out much opposition. The ques- 

 tion of establishing a mission in Central Af- 

 rica had been carefully considered. The Zoo- 

 loo mission, which had fifteen churches with 

 more than six hundred members, and training 

 schools for both sexes, with more than one 

 hundred pupils, was thought to be especially 

 well fitted to become a base of operations. 



The thirty-second annual meeting of the 

 American Missionary Association was held at 

 Taunton, Mass., October 29th. E. S. Tobey, of 

 Boston, presided. The report of the Trea- 

 surer showed that the receipts for the year 

 had been $195,601.65, and the expenditures 

 $188,079.46. The current receipts had been 

 $13,000 less than in the previous year, but the 

 indebtedness of the Association had been di- 

 minished by nearly $40,000. The report of the 

 Executive Committee showed that the educa- 



tional work of the Association had been vig- 

 orously sustained with increasing numbers; 

 various necessary new buildings had been erect- 

 ed in connection with the higher institutions, 

 and considerable attention had been paid to 

 normal teaching. There were 7,229 pupils 

 in the schools, 1,529 of whom were receiving 

 normal instruction. Five new churches had 

 been organized, making sixty-four in all on 

 the list of the Association, and 368 mem- 

 bers had been added. The work among the 

 Indians had been impeded by the unsettled 

 condition of their affairs, but an increasing 

 interest had been shown in education. Twelve 

 schools had been sustained among the Chinese, 

 with 1,492 pupils. 



The Congregational Union of Canada, at its 

 twenty-fifth annual session, adopted resolu- 

 tions expressing grateful satisfaction and sym- 

 pathy at the stand which the Congregational 

 Union of England and Wales had "recently 

 felt it to be its duty to take in opposition to 

 the aims and tendencies of skepticism and un- 

 belief as developed by the Leicester Confer- 

 ence," and tendering to the Union aforesaid 

 its congratulations that it had been enabled to 

 maintain the position it took, and ^'to vindi- 

 cate itself from the imputation of any sympa- 

 thy or complicity with the rationalistic theol- 

 ogy of the age." 



The annual meeting of the London Mission- 

 ary Society was held in London, May 16th. 

 Samuel Morley, Esq., M. P., presided. The 

 contributions received during the year for gen- 

 eral purposes had been 63,848, the largest 

 amount ever received in one year from this 

 source ; and the total income, including lega- 

 cies, 10,665 given for the Indian famine, and 

 other extraordinary receipts, had been 138,- 

 133. The expenditures had been exceedingly 

 heavy, an increased outlay having been re- 

 quired for carrying out plans for the enlarge- 

 ment of the area and appliances of several of 

 the Society's missions. 



The income of the Congregational Home 

 Missionary Society for the year ending in May, 

 1878, was 6,199, and the expenditures during 

 the same period were 4,876. One thousand 

 members were added to the churches. The 

 Society has been reorganized, and will be known 

 hereafter as the Church Aid and Home Mis- 

 sionary Society. 



The annual meeting of the Colonial Mission- 

 ary Society was held in London, May 9th. The 

 total receipts of the Society for the year> had 

 been 4,368. The report stated that " in nearly 

 every colony there is a Congregational union, 

 combining all the churches for mission work, 

 formed, as nearly as possible, on the home 

 model, with year book, college, Provident So- 

 ciety, Chapel-building Society, and other Chris- 

 tian agencies in vigorous operation. There are 

 five hundred churches and stations, with an 

 income for religious purposes which can not 

 be less than 100,000 a year, to say nothing 

 of the mass of church, school, and manse prop- 



