DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 



297 



great devastation and destruction of property ; 13 

 killed ; 50 injured. 



7. Tornado. Spartansburg, S. C. : church unroofed. 

 Tornado, S. E. Illinois ; 1 person killed ; several se- 

 verely injured. Shipwreck ; steamer Algoma on Lake 

 Superior ; 46 lives lost. 



12. Railway accident ; the Washington express, on 

 the Baltimore and" Ohio Railroad, jumped the track 

 and went over an embankment near Cornellsville, 

 Pa. ; 21 persons injured. 



13. Fire; Galveston, Texas; over 300 houses burned ; 

 losses exceed $1,000,000. 



18. Explosion ; oil-tank in Philadelphia ; 6 killed. 



25. fall of a house in Jersey City ; 4 children killed. 



December 3. Explosion ; tug-boat in East River, 

 N. Y.; 5 lives lost all on board. 



4. Earthquake in Algeria; 32 lives lost. Explo- 

 sion ; natural gas at Pittsburg ; many injured. 



5. Railway collision on East River Bridge ; 10 in- 

 jured. 



9. Caving of a sewer at Akron, Ohio ; 4 killed. 



13. Fire in London ; 12 lives lost. 



15. Railway collision near Austell, Ga. ; 11 lives 

 lost. 



18. Mining disaster at Nanticoke, Pa. ; 23 lives lost. 

 News received of a dynamite explosion in Siberian 

 mines; several hundred lives reported lost. 



21. Explosion ; Dayton, Ohio ; 2 lives lost. 



23. Explosion in colliery at Pont-y-Pridd, Wales ; 

 75 lives lost. 



26, 27. Fire in New York ; 3 lives lost children. 

 Shipwreck ; gales on North Atlantic coast ; 8 lives lost. 



29. Explosion ; oil-works near Mobile, Ala. ; 7 

 killed. Explosion: steam-boiler at Lancaster, Pa. ; 

 3 killed, 



DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. The annual meetings 

 of the missionary organizations of the Disci- 

 ples of Christ were held in Cleveland, Ohio, 

 Oct. 20 to 23. The receipts of the Foreign 

 Christian Missionary Society for the year had 

 been $30,260, which, with the balance from 

 the previous year of $4,119, gave it available 

 funds amounting to $34,380. The disburse- 

 ments amounted to $34,208. The aggregate 

 of the receipts during the ten years since the 

 organization of the society had been $154,086. 

 The annual amounts showed a gradual increase 

 from $1,706 in 1876 to the amount returned 

 for the current year. 



The society had missions in England (7 sta- 

 tions), Turkey (8 stations), France, Denmark, 

 India (2 stations), and Japan. These missions 

 severally made returns as follows : England, 7 

 missionaries, 1,174 members; Turkey, 9 mis- 

 sionaries, 219 members; France, 2 mission- 

 aries, 89 members ; Denmark, 2 missionaries, 

 104 members; India, 5 missionaries, 3 mem- 

 bers; Japan, 5 missionaries, 17 members; in 

 all, 30 missionaries and 1,606 members. They 

 also returned 323 additions during the year, 

 and a net gain of 208 members. Two week- 

 day schools, one for boys and one for girls, 

 had been opened at Hurda in India, four Sun- 

 day schools had been held, and a beginning 

 had been made in Zenana work. A school 

 had also been opened in Japan, and another 

 in Turkey. The project for establishing a mis- 

 sion in the Congo region, Africa, which the 

 Executive Committee had had in considera- 

 tion under instructions from the convention 

 of the previous year, and for which it had ap- 



pointed a missionary, had been suspended, be- 

 cause it had been found to require a larger 

 outlay than the ineuns of the society would 

 permit. 



The condition of the mission in London and 

 the expediency of continuing it having been 

 called in question in somo of the journals 

 of the Church, the convention by resolution 

 approved the policy of sustaining it, and de- 

 clared great satisfaction with the results that 

 had accrued from its work. 



The receipts of the General Christian Mis- 

 sionary Society, which has its fields of opera- 

 tions in the States and Territories of the United 

 States, had been $25,176, classified as follows : 

 for missionary funds, $15,946 ; for extension 

 fund, $1,461 ; for special extension fund (church 

 in Boston), $3,871 ; for relief fund, $173 ; for 

 tract fund, $55 ; for other missionary boards, 

 $148; from extension fund loans repaid, $500; 

 balance from the previous year, $3,021. The 

 expenditures had been about $24,036. The 32 

 missionaries employed by the board had visited 

 and assisted 253 churches; had visited 83 new 

 places; had organized 21 churches; and re- 

 turned 1,420 accessions, of which 592 were by 

 baptism. The labors of these missionaries had 

 been performed in various States and Territo- 

 ries. A general evangelist had been employed 

 among the colored people, who had labored 

 at Knoxville, Memphis, Nashville, Lynch burg, 

 and Strawberry Plains, in Tennessee ; Wyan- 

 dotte and Topeka, in Kansas ; and Kansas City, 

 Mo., and returned 127 additions to the churches. 

 The colored people had contracted for a school- 

 house in New Castle, Ky., where they proposed 

 to organize a school that should have in view 

 the instruction of young men. A similar en- 

 terprise had been begun at Sedalia, in Missouri. 

 The financial agent of the Southern Christian 

 Institute reported that $10,000 in stock, obli- 

 gations payable on the death of the donors to 

 the amount of $10,000, and a farm valued at 

 $4,500, had been secured for the institution. 

 A farm of 800 acres had been bought at Ed- 

 wards, Miss., where a school for the colored 

 race had been organized, with an enrollment 

 of more than 300 pupils during the year. A 

 school-room had been built and furnished. The 

 field of operations of this society is in those 

 districts which are outside of States that 

 have State organizations sufficiently strong to 

 look after their own missionary work. The 

 organizations of this character, the aggregate 

 of whose operations is much larger than that 

 of the General Board, co-operate with it, and 

 its reports generally contain summaries of their 

 work. The aggregate of their receipts for the 

 year was returned at $62,992. Besides this 

 amount, the missionaries employed by the State 

 societies reported that about $90,000 had been 

 raised among their charges for local work. 

 Adding together the general receipts of the 

 State Boards, of the General Board, and of 

 the Woman's Board, the total amount of the 

 general offerings of the Disciples for missions 



