CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



133 



erty which has been created and settled in 

 trust " ; and claimed that the existence of these 

 organizations was largely due to the work of 

 this Society. Thirty-six missionaries had been 

 employed in the Dominion of Canada ; 81 

 churches and out-stations had been supplied, 

 and a net increase of 403 church members was 

 reported. More than 70 students had been 

 trained in the Congregational College, many 

 of whom were holding important positions in 

 Canada and the United States. 



The following is a summary of the tables 

 given in the "Congregational Year Book" 

 (London) for 1878, to show the number of 

 British Congregational ministers in Great Brit- 

 ain, the Continent of Europe, the British colo- 

 nies, and the foreign missions : 'Ministers in 

 England, and English ministers in Wales, 2,087 ; 

 "Welsh ministers, 424; ministers in Scotland, 

 122 ; ministers in Ireland, 25 ; ministers in the 

 Channel Islands, 8 ; English ministers on the 

 Continent, 8 ; ministers in the colonies, 311 ; 

 missionaries of the London Missionary Society, 

 145; native ordained ministers, 317; total, 

 3,447. Of these, 2,796 were pastors, and 651 

 were without charge. Congregational unions 

 exist, with their subordinate unions and local 

 associations, and general missionary and be- 

 nevolent societies, for England and Wales, 

 Scotland, Ireland, Ontario and Quebec, Nova 

 Scotia and New Brunswick, Victoria, New 

 South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, 

 Western Australia, Tasmania, Auckland (New 

 Zealand), Natal, South Africa, Madagascar, and 

 Jamaica. Twelve Independent churches are 

 returned in British Guiana, and six in India, 

 besides nine English churches which are sup- 

 ported by the London Missionary Society, five 

 English Union churches, and eleven Tamil, two 

 Canarese, two Teloogoo, one Undu, and one 

 Hindi in all, seventeen native churches, which 

 are partly self-supporting and presided over by 

 native ordained preachers ; and Union chapels 

 are returned at Hong-Kong and Shanghai, 

 China. The English Congregational services 

 on the Continent embrace a church in Paris, 

 with twenty-two stations and sixteen Sunday 

 schools connected with the mission to the 

 workingmen of Paris ; churches at St. Peters- 

 burg and Alexandrovsky, in Russia ; churches 

 at Hamburg and Berlin, and a sailors' insti- 

 tute at Hamburg, in Germany ; and a church 

 at Antwerp, in Belgium. The number of 

 churches was, in England, 2,012, with 1,306 

 branch churches, preaching and evangelical 

 stations, and churches supplied by lay pastors ; 

 Wales, 743 Welsh and 111 English churches, 

 and 98 preaching stations ; Scotland, 107 

 churches ; Ireland, 28 churches ; the Channel 

 Islands, 17 churches ; Canada and Newfound- 

 land, 121 churches ; Australia, 169 churches 

 and 94 preaching stations ; New Zealand, 20 

 churches; Natal, 4 churches; Cape Colony, 

 21 churches independent of the London Mis- 

 sionary Society. The number of county asso- 

 ciations and unions was : in England, 41 ; in 



Wales, 17 ; in Scotland, 8 ; in Ireland, 1 ; in 

 the colonies, 10 ; in Madagascar, 1. Number 

 of Congregational colleges and institutions for 

 ministerial training : in England, 10, with 33 

 professors and 316 students ; in Wales, 3, with 

 8 professors and 122 students; in Scotland, 1, 

 with 3 professors and 13 students ; in the colo- 

 nies, 4, with 13 professors and 46 students ; 

 total, 18, with 57 professors and 497 students. 

 There were also ten institutions in heathen 

 lands belonging to the London Missionary So- 

 ciety, training about 300 native students. 



The annual meeting of the Congregational 

 Union of England and Wales was held in Lon- 

 don, beginning May 6th. The Rev. J. Bald- 

 win Brown presided as the chairman for the 

 year. The Committee reported concerning 

 their operations for the year, which included 

 arrangements for the publication of two series 

 of tracts and the reorganization of the Con- 

 gregational Church Aid and Home Missionary 

 Society. A conference had recently been held 

 at Leicester, wholly unconnected with the 

 Union, but participated in by many Congre- 

 gationalists, the object of which was to bring 

 about religious communion without taking ac- 

 count of the theological opinions of the par- 

 ticipants; and the result of the meeting had 

 been to create apprehension that it might be 

 regarded as the sign of an increasing laxity of 

 belief among the Congregationalists. Resolu- 

 tions which had been prepared by the Com- 

 mittee with the object of meeting these ap- 

 prehensions, and of defining the theological 

 position of the churches of the Union, were 

 adopted, as follows : 



That, in view of the uneasiness produced in the 

 churches of the Congregational order by the pro- 

 ceedings of the recent conference at Leicester on the 

 terms of religious communion, the assembly feels 

 called upon to reaffirm that the primary object of the 

 Congregational Union is, according to the terms of 

 its own constitution, to uphold and extend evangelical 

 religion. 



That the assembly appeals to the history of the 

 Congregational churches generally, as evidence that 

 Congregationalists have always regarded the accept- 

 ance of the facts and doctrines of the evangelical 

 faith revealed in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and 

 New Testaments as an essential condition of reli- 

 gious communion in Congregational churches ; and 

 that among these have always been included the 

 incarnation, the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus 

 Christ, his resurrection, his ascension and media- 

 torial reign, and the work of the Holy Spirit in the 

 renewal of men. 



That the Congregational Union was established on 

 the basis of these facts and doctrines is, in the judg- 

 ment of the assembly, made evident by the declara- 

 tion of faith and order adopted at the annual meeting 

 in 1833; and the assembly believes that the churches 

 represented in the Union hold these facts and doc- 

 trines in their integrity to this day. 



The resolutions were opposed by the Presi- 

 dent of the assembly, but the vote by which 

 they were adopted stood 1,000 in favor of them 

 to 20 against them. 



The autumnal session of the Union was held 

 at Liverpool, beginning October 14th. The re- 

 port of the Congregational Total Abstinence 



