CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



191 



of Leeds, England, had a year before offered 

 the Association 3,000 for the establishment 

 of a million in Eastern Africa, and the officers 

 of tho Freedmen's Missions Aid Society of 

 Great Britain had offered to collect other funds 

 for the same object. The Association voted 

 that on receiving the sum offered by Mr. Ar- 

 thington and a similar sum from the British 

 public, it would appropriate $20,000 to the 

 foundation of the proposed mission, and would 

 undertake to sustain it permanently. 



The seventieth annual meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 

 sions was hold at Syracuse, New York, October 

 Yth. The Rev. Mark Hopkins, D. D., presided. 

 Tho Treasurer reported that his receipts for 

 tho year had been $518,386, and his expendi- 

 tures $518,817. The year had been marked 

 by retrenchment of all expenses, yet the num- 

 ber of additions on, profession of faith in all the 

 fields, given at more than two thousand souls, 

 was larger than in any previous year since the 

 time when an extraordinary number of acces- 

 sions had taken place in the Sandwich Islands, 

 more than thirty years before. The Turkish 

 missions were recovering from the injurious 

 effects of the late war. The additions to the 

 churches in India-inearly seven hundred 

 were greater than in any former year. In 

 Austria, the missionaries had been embarrassed 

 by official restrictions concerning which repre- 

 sentations were to be made to the Government. 

 Nearly fifty additions had been made to the 

 churches in Spain, and the opening of a school 

 for girls was reported. The mission in Mexico 

 had lost ground for the want of ntaji to carry 

 it on. In the Dakota mission, the Indian con- 

 verts had organized a home missionary society, 

 which had raised more than $800 during the 

 past three years to meet the expenses of native 

 teachers and preachers among the wild tribes. 

 Special reports were also made from the mis- 

 sions in Zoolooland, China, and Japan. 



A paper was read on " The Proposed Mis- 

 sion in Central Africa," which, after discussing 

 the various features of the condition of the 

 African Continent, and the missions already 

 established or contemplated in it, recommended 

 the region of Bih6 and the Coanza River, in 

 about 12 south latitude and two hundred and 

 fifty miles from the Atlantic Ocean, as the 

 most suitable district in which to found the 

 mission. The paper was approved, and the 

 Prudential Committee was advised to continue 

 the inquiries already set on foot, with the un- 

 derstanding that it was purposed to establish 

 the mission proposed at the earliest practicable 

 day. 



COXGBEOATIONALISTB IJI GREAT BRITAIN. 



The following is a summary of the statistics of 

 the Congregational churches in Great Britain 

 and the colonies, as given in the " Congrega- 

 tional Year-Book" for 1879: 



England Churches, 2,071; branch churches, 810; 

 preaching stations, 881 ; evangelistic stations, 172. 

 Wales Welsh churches, 546 ; branch churches, 282 ; 



preaching stations. 83 ; Engli*h churcho*, 69 ; preach- 

 ma stations, 4. Scotland Churches, 110. Ireland 

 Churches, 88. Islands of the British seas Churches 

 17. Canada and Newfoundland Churches, 1 20. Aus- 

 tralia Churches, 110; preaching htutioiw, 112. New 

 Zealand Churches. 20. Natal Churches, 2 5 preach- 

 ing stations, 10. Capo Colony Churches indei<en- 

 dent of the London Missionary Society, 21. Jamaica 

 Churches independent of the London Missionary 

 Society, 14. British Guiana Churches independent 

 of the London Missionary Society, la. India 

 Churches independent of the London Missionary So- 

 ciety, 6. China Churches independent of the Lon- 

 don Missionary Society, 2. Chapels and schools 

 New chapels opened, 51 ; new schools opened, 18. 



The annual meeting of tho Congregational 

 Union of England and Wales was held in Lon- 

 don May 12th. The Rev. Professor Newth 

 of New College was elected Chairman of the 

 Union for 1880. The report of tlie Secretary 

 gave a statement of the recommendations of 

 the committee which had been appointed to 

 inquire into the working of Congregational 

 colleges. It was recommended that the theo- 

 logical course should be separated from that 

 of arts, and that whenever it was practicable 

 advantage should be taken of the teaching af- 

 forded by such institutions as Owens College, 

 the Yorkshire College, and the universities of 

 England and Scotland. The committee pro- 

 posed also a celebration of the jubilee of the 

 Union, to be held in 1880, and to consist in 

 part in the delivery of lectures in London and 

 elsewhere by Congregational clergymen upon 

 certain periods and aspects of church history. 

 The Rev. J. Guinness Rogers had been ap- 

 pointed to deliver the Congregational lecture 

 for the year; his subject would be "Church 

 Systems in England in the Nineteenth Centu- 

 ry." The Church- Aid and Home Mission So- 

 ciety, recently organized, reported that 30,000 

 had been secured for its work during its first 

 year. A resolution was unanimously adopted 

 condemning the foreign policy of the Gov- 

 ernment, censuring especially the Afghan and 

 Zooloo wars. 



Tho autumnal meeting of the Congregational 

 Union was held at Cardiff, beginning October 

 14th. The Rev. W. Cuthbertson presided, and 

 delivered an inaugural address on " Indepen- 

 dency as a Witness-Bearer," in which, refer- 

 ring to the want of cooperation between the 

 State Church and Nonconformists, he said that 

 no step could much conduce to the social meet- 

 ing which was desirable until disestablishment 

 came. A paper was read on the position and 

 prospects of Congregationalism in Wales, in 

 which it was stated that there were now in 

 the principality 1,022 chapels, 908 organized 

 churches, 546 ordained ministers, 318 lay 

 preachers, 108,000 communicants, and 108,000 

 other adherents excluding children under ten 

 years of age, so that in round numbers the 

 Congregationalists included a quarter of a mil- 

 lion of people. The assembly resolved to rec- 

 ommend to the county associations to consid- 

 er the propriety of appointing a confidential 

 committee with which vacant churches and 



