204 



CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



of $50,045 had been voted to 97 churches for 

 building houses of worship, $15,000 of the sum 

 being in the form of loans to 20 of the churches, 

 and loans to the amount of $14,250 had been 

 voted to 44 churches to aid in the erection of 

 parsonages. Loans to the amount of $71,138 

 had been paid to 133 churches for both of 

 these purposes. The Union had now 74 par- 

 sonages whfbh it had aided in constructing, 

 completed, paid for, and occupied. Twenty- 

 four more parsonage enterprises had been 

 voted aid, and three more regular applications 

 for aid were on hand. 



American Board. The seventy-sixth annual 

 meeting of the American Board of Commis- 

 sioners for Foreign Missions was held at Des 

 Moines, Iowa, October 5. The Rev. Mark Hop- 

 kins, D. D., presided. Great interest was at- 

 tached to the consideration of the case of the 

 Rev. Robert A. Hume, who, after having la- 

 bored for eleven years as a missionary in In- 

 dia, had been refused by the Prudential Com- 

 mittee permission to return as a missionary 

 because of his adhesion to the " Andover doc- 

 trine " of a future state of probation for the 

 dead. The discussion involved a principle of 

 general application regarding the extent to 

 which views deviating from the usually ac- 

 cepted orthodox doctrines would be tolerated 

 in the missionaries of the board. The Pruden- 

 tial Committee presented in its report a gen- 

 eral review of its action in the case, not so 

 much in regard to the details as with reference 

 to the principles which govern its course. It 

 regarded itself obligated to obtain satisfactory 

 assurance from candidates as to their position 

 on the leading doctrines of the Scriptures, and 

 as to doubts, if they have any, " respecting any 

 of the doctrines commonly held by the churches 

 sustaining the missions under the care of the 

 board. 1 ' If a candidate express doubts re- 

 specting any of those doctrines, such expres- 

 sion of doubt " leads to further correspondence 

 or conference, in order to ascertain how much 

 or how little is practically meant by the doubt, 

 and also to give opportunity, if possible, to 

 relieve the doubt and establish the inquirer in 

 the truth." When for any reason the com- 

 mittee is not satisfied of the doctrinal sound- 

 ness of the candidate or of his fitness in other 

 respects for the field of labor for which his 

 appointment is contemplated, it has been its 

 custom to vote that " it is inexpedient to make 

 the appointment at present" or "to defer 

 action." This general method, which was in 

 harmony with a declaration made by the board 

 thirty-seven years previously, that " the board 

 does not assume to decide upon the fitness of 

 an individual to be a minister of the gospel ; 

 but it is their duty to decide, and that intelli- 

 gently, on his original and continued fitness to 

 be sustained by the funds committed to their 

 disposal as a missionary to the heathen " had 

 been " faithfully followed during the past year, 

 this service being regarded by the executive 

 officers and the Prudential Committee as one 



of their most serious, sometimes most delicate 

 and difficult, duties." A protest against the 

 action of the committee was sent up by the 

 United Congregational Church of New Haven, 

 Conn., of which Mr. Hume was a member. 

 After a prolonged discussion of the questions 

 involved in the case, resolutions were adopted 

 declaring that " the board recognizes and ap- 

 proves the principle upon which the Prudential 

 Committee has continued to act in regard to 

 appointments for missionary service in strictly 

 conforming to the well-understood and perma- 

 nent basis of doctrinal faith upon which the 

 missions of the board have been steadily con- 

 ducted, and to which in the exercise of its sa- 

 cred trust the committee had no option but to 

 conform. 



" The board is constrained to look with great 

 apprehension upon certain tendencies of the 

 doctrine of a probation after death, which has 

 been recently broached and diligently propa- 

 gated, that seemed divisive and perversive and 

 dangerous to the churches at home and abroad. 



" In view of those tendencies they do heartily 

 approve of the action of the Prudential Com- 

 mittee in carefully guarding the board from 

 any committal to the approval of that doctrine, 

 and advise a continuance of that caution in 

 time to come. 



' The board recommends to the Prudential 

 Committee to consider, in difficult cases turn- 

 ing upon doctrinal views of candidates for mis- 

 sionary service, the expediency of calling a 

 council of the churches, to be constituted in 

 some manner which may be determined by the 

 good judgment of the committee, to pass upon 

 the theological soundness of the candidate, and 

 the committee is instructed to report on this 

 matter at the next annual meeting." 



The receipts of the board from all sources 

 had been $500,683, of which $235,985 had 

 come from churches, individuals, and Sunday- 

 schools, $148,262 from women's boards, $107,- 

 191 from legacies, and $9,244 from the income 

 of the permanent fund and other sources. The 

 expenditures for the year had been $658,285. 

 The missions are in Mexico, Spain, Austria, 

 Turkey (European and Asiatic), India, Ceylon, 

 China, Japan, the Sandwich Islands and Mi- 

 cronesia, and Africa (Zulu, West Central Afri- 

 can, and East Central African missions). The 

 following is the general summary of the entire 

 work for 1885-'86 : 



Missions 



Stations 



Out-stations 



Ordained missionaries (10 being phy- 

 sicians) 159 



Physicians not ordained, 1 men and 4 



women 11 



Other male assistants 7 



Women (wives, 156; unmarried, be- 

 sides physicians, 101) 257 



Whole number of laborers sent 



from this country 484 



Native pastors 151 



Native preachers and catechists 412 



Native school-teachers 1,141 



Other native helpers 2601,964 



22 

 85 

 810 



Whole number of laborers. 



, 



