PRESBYTERIANS. 



695 



tending by the want of means of support while 

 engaged in their studies, and with this fact in 

 view provision was recommended for taking 

 contributions for the support of such students, 

 and for the introduction of a system of manual 

 labor. 



The receipts of the Committee of Foreign 

 Missions had been $47,225, of which $10,107 

 had been given by Women's Missionary Asso- 

 ciations and $5,992 by Sunday schools; the ex- 

 penditures had been $52,650, and the debt had 

 been increased to $9,251. The force engaged 

 in the work of the missions consisted of 75 

 persons, of whom 33 were American mission- 

 aries and their assistants, and 42 were native 

 laborers. The missions to the Cherokee Indians 

 and to the United States of Colombia had been 

 for the most part discontinued, on account of 

 the lack of means to sustain or reenforce them. 

 Other missions were in danger of dissolution 

 for a similar cause. More than 150. persons 

 had joined the Church on profession of faith 

 during the year at the several mission stations. 

 Report was made of the condition of the mis- 

 sions, which were continued in Brazil and 

 Greece, and among the Cherokee Indians. 



The General Assembly of the Presbyterian 

 Church in the United States met at Knoxville, 

 Tenn., May 16th. The Rev. T. E. Peck, D. D., 

 of Virginia, was chosen Moderater. A report 

 was presented from the delegates of the Church 

 who had attended the General Presbyterian 

 Council held at Edinburgh in July, 1877, which 

 embodied a statement of the advantages which 

 the delegates believed had been or would be 

 gained by the meeting of the Council. The 

 Assembly approved the diligence of the dele- 

 gates, and ordered their report to be published 

 in the appendix of the Minutes. The subject 

 of the simplification of the ecclesiastical ma- 

 chinery of the Church was presented in the 

 report of a special committee which had been 

 appointed to consider it. The report covered 

 the whole ground of the changes which were 

 thought needed to secure a simpler working of 

 the machinery of the Church, and presented in 

 detail the several modifications which had been 

 suggested, without making definite recommen- 

 dations. The subject was not disposed of by 

 the Assembly. A report was adopted lament- 

 ing the sin and evil of desecrating the Sabbath, 

 especially by railroad trains. A permanent 

 Committee on the Sabbath was appointed. 



III. UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF NORTH 

 AMERICA. The following is a summary of the 

 statistics of the United Presbyterian Church 

 of North America as they were reported to the 

 General Assembly in May, 1878 : Number of 

 synods, 9 ; of presbyteries, 56 ; of ministers, 

 647 ; of congregations, 792 ; of mission sta- 

 tions, 67 ; of members, 78,648 ; of Sunday 

 schools, 709 ; of officers and teachers in the 

 same, 6,972; of Sunday-school scholars, 59,- 

 243 ; of students of theology, 37 ; of baptisms, 

 559 adults and 3,725 infants. Amount of con- 

 tributions : for salaries of ministers, $438,748 ; 



for congregational expenses, $198,338 ; to the 

 Boards, $95,587 ; general contributions, $50,- 

 993; total contributions, $783,066; average 

 contribution per member, $10.65 ; average sal- 

 ary of pastors, $928 ; amount of contributions 

 by Sunday schools, $23,210. 



The contributions for the Board of Home 

 Missions were $32,571. The receipts of the 

 Board of Publication were $28,040, and the 

 expenditures $26,432. The capital stock of 

 the publishing establishment was valued at 

 $75,097. The Board of Church Extension re- 

 ported their receipts $12,699 for the general 

 fund and $14,475 for the loan fund. The Board 

 of Education reported that their receipts had 

 been $3,531, and their expenditures $1,920, 

 and that their net indebtedness was $1,032. 

 Seventeen students preparing for the ministry 

 had been aided. 



The receipts of the Board of Foreign Missions 

 were $47,551, showing a decrease of $26,464. 

 Their appropriations had amounted to $62,530, 

 leaving a deficiency of $14,979. The mission 

 in Syria had been transferred, pursuant to the 

 directions of the previous General Assembly, 

 to the Irish Presbyterian Church, and the mis- 

 sion at Canton, China, to the Pacific coast of 

 the United States. Permission had been gained 

 from the Khedive of Egypt for the members of 

 the native churches in that country to own 

 sites, build churches, and carry on the wor- 

 ship of God in their own way. Acknowledg- 

 ment was made to the students of the Divinity 

 Hall of the United Presbyterian Church of 

 Scotland for a remittance of $6,872 in aid of 

 the erection of suitable buildings for the train- 

 ing-school and college at Osioot, Egypt. The 

 following is an abstract of the statistics of the 

 missions under the care of the Board : Mis- 

 sions, India and Egypt stations, 44; foreign 

 missionaries, 13; unmarried female missiona- 

 ries, 11 ; native ordained ministers, 6 ; licen- 

 tiates, 8 ; native laborers, 154; total laborers, 

 174. Communicants Egypt, 856 ; India, 213 ; 

 total, 1,069 ; increase Egypt, 126 ; India, 40 ; 

 total, 166. Scholars in Sabbath schools 

 Egypt, 1,162 ; India, 247; total, 1,409. Teach- 

 ers and officers India, 15 ; Egypt, 92 ; total, 

 107. Scholars in Egypt in day-schools, 1,404; 

 in boarding-schools, 51; in training-school, 75 ; 

 in Theological Seminary, 11; females taught 

 at home, 476 ; total, 2,017. Contributions of 

 native members in Egypt, $5,058. 



The receipts of the Board of Missions to the 

 Freedmen had been $8,443. They had met all 

 their current expenses during the year, and had 

 made a payment on the indebtedness of the pre- 

 vious year. The Board had a school at Knox- 

 ville, Tenn., with a total enrollment of 209 pu- 

 pils; a branch school at East Knoxville, with 

 78 scholars, and a school building nearly com- 

 pleted at Chase City, Va. Besides the ordi- 

 nary common-school branches, Latin, Greek, 

 higher arithmetic, and the geology of Tennes- 

 see were taught in the school at Knoxville. 



The twentieth General Assembly of the 



