666 



PRESBYTEEIANS. 



unpaid on the refunded domestic debt and 

 686,995 on the sterling debt. 



PRESBYTERIANS. I. Presbyterian Church in the 

 United States of America. The following is a gen- 

 eral summary of the statistics of this Church, 

 as compiled by the stated clerk, and published 

 in the "Journal of the Proceedings of the Gen- 

 eral Assembly" for 1884: Number of synods, 

 24; of presbyteries, 190; of ministers, 5,336 ; 

 of candidates, 733 ; of licentiates, 275 ; of eld- 

 ers, 19,968; of deacons, 6,287; of churches, 

 5,973; of communicants, 615,942 ; of additions 

 of members on examination, 34,938 ; of bap- 

 tisms, 11,942 of adults, and 19,483 of infants; 

 of members of Sunday-schools, 687,269. Total 

 amount of contributions, $10,166,401 ; of this 

 amount, $620,023 were for home missions, 

 $550,220 for foreign missions, $118,956 for ed- 

 ucation, $83,542 for the freedmen, and $193,- 

 047 for church-erection. 



The following summaries embrace the prin- 

 cipal items in the reports made by the several 

 boards to the General Assembly concerning 

 the condition of the various interests under 

 their charge : The Board of Relief for disabled 

 ministers and the widows and orphans of de- 

 ceased ministers returned receipts from all 

 sources of $112,875, with 498 persons enjoy- 

 ing the benefit of the relief funds. A " Pres- 

 byterian Minister's House," with eleven acres 

 of ground, the gift of Dr. A. M. Bruen, of New 

 York, had been opened at Perth Ainboy, N. J., 

 where eighteen persons were entertained while 

 recovering health and strength. 



The receipts of the Board of Education for 

 the year had been $67,100. Five hundred and 

 seventy-seven candidates had been under the 

 care of the board, studying for the ministry in 

 theological seminaries, colleges, and prepara- 

 tory schools. Of these students, 36 were Ger- 

 mans, 5 Bulgarians, 45 negroes, 2 Spaniards, 2 

 Chinese, 1 Hindoo, and 1 Indian. The allow- 

 ance to students had been raised to $130 each. 



The receipts of the Board of Publication, in- 

 cluding a balance of $28,681 from the previous 

 year, had been $308,393. The publications of 

 the board numbered more than 2,500, of which 

 about 1,500 were volumes, and the rest tracts 

 and pamphlets. The issues for the year com- 

 prised 302,000 copies of new publications, and 

 1,487,500 copies of reprints of former publica- 

 tions. The receipts of the board in its mis- 

 sionary department had been $59,152. Eighty- 

 four colporteurs had been employed in this 

 department, in the sale and gratuitous distri- 

 bution of books, tracts, and periodicals. A 

 " Bible Correspondence School " had been es- 

 tablished in connection with the Sunday-school 

 department, for thorough and systematic study 

 of the Bible and of methods of Sunday-school 

 teaching, and numbered 5,300 members. 



The Board of Aid for Colleges, at the close 

 of the first year of its operations, reported that 

 its receipts from contributions of the churches 

 had been $14,912; besides which $14,074 had 

 been contributed by the donors directly to in- 



stitutions. The means received by the board 

 had been distributed among nine institutions; 

 of these, three were new institutions, which 

 the board had helped to found, viz. : the Col- 

 lege of Emporia, Kan. ; the Presbyterian Uni- 

 versity of Southern Dakota, Pierre, Dak. ; and 

 the College of Montana, Deer Lodge, Mon. 



The income of the Board of Home Missions 

 had been: for the Home Missionary Depart- 

 ment, $487,480 ; for the Sustentation Depart- 

 ment, $20,146 ; for the School Department, 

 $112,801 ; total, $620,488. The general sum- 

 mary of the work of the board includes the 

 following items: Number of missionaries, 1,458; 

 of missionary teachers (53 among the Indians, 

 26 among Mexicans, and 65 among the Mor- 

 mons), 144; number of members in mission 

 churches, 71,333, of whom 6,216 had been re- 

 ceived during the year on profession of faith ; 

 number of persons in congregations, 129,547; 

 number of baptisms, 2,065 of adults and 3,958 

 of infants; number of Sunday-schools, 1,825, 

 with 121,742 members; number of church-build- 

 ings, 1,307, which were valued at $3,640,466. 

 One hundred and thirty-five churches had been 

 organized and 44 had become self-sustaining 

 during the year. A mission at Fort Wrangel, 

 Alaska, engages one missionary teacher and 

 returns a day-school of sixty pupils. 



The Board of Church Erection had received 

 $53,131, and granted $101,200 to 236 churches. 



The 13 theological seminaries returned 55 

 professors, 7 other teachers, and 516 students, 

 with 129 graduates. The entire value of their 

 real estate was given at $2,112,431, and the 

 amount of their endowment funds at $3,198,- 

 014. The seminaries are those of Princeton, 

 Auburn, Alleghany or Western, Lane, Union, 

 Danville, Northwest, San Francisco, the Ger- 

 man seminaries at Newark, N. J., and Dubuque, 

 la., and the theological departments of Black- 

 burn, Lincoln, and Biddle Universities. 



The income of the Board of Missions for 

 Freedmen had been $121,521. The board had 

 also received in the past few years $14,120 

 for permanent investment, of which $6,120 

 had been contributed by the United Presbyte- 

 rian Church of Scotland for the African schol- 

 arship fund of Biddle University. The con- 

 dition of the work among the freedmen was 

 exhibited in the report as follows : 



Number of preachers, catechists, and teach- 

 ers employed, 204; whole number of churches 

 under the care of the board, 179, of which 11 had 

 been organized during the year ; whole number 

 of communicants, 12,958, of whom 1,199 had 

 been added on examination ; number baptized, 

 of adults, 530 ; of infants, 892 ; number of Sun- 

 day-schools, 169, with 12,058 pupils; number 

 of schools 67, with 133 teachers and 7,388 pu- 

 pils. The five higher schools, Biddle Univer- 

 sity, Charlotte, N. C. ; Scotia Seminary (for 

 girls), Concord, N. C. ; Wallingford Academy, 

 Charleston, S. C. ; Brainerd Institute, Chester, 

 S. C. ; and Fairfield Institute, Winnsboro, S. C., 

 returned 1,770 students, of whom 91 were 



