UTIIKUANS. 



467 



. i-nt the h[M>liiitiii f our con^rctration* by n- 



ulio an- in tin- employ of niicHionaric.t 



.it t. tli.' south Krixlnm DiHtnet by the Ameri- 



;ir\ I nioii ; mi. I 



in Iss'.i, 1 86 of our members were report.. 1 



11.- having trniie t<> otlnT ini.-.sioii!<. uiiil -1 .v.i in Is'."', 



.- a ttal oi'ii-i.',. nearly nil joining the Baptists, 



.HIM- they \\i-i-i- . -"in meed tliat immersion ainl 



<iilu-r Baptist peculiaritioe were preferable to Lutheran 



1 practices, but from various motive-, 



Mi'-h a.- ca.-tc influences, partisan animosity intciiM 



. dismissed teachers, the Jirospeels of temporal 



help, dUlike <>f the strict administration of our inlit- 



tr. ; und 



It /WrM, One of the methods of procedure is for 

 the native Baptist pastor or oateohist t<> employ one 

 ot the more intelligent members of a Lutheran eon- 

 ^rcL'ation as an agent of the Baptist mission, who, in- 

 stead of going ""' ' Mt " the heathen community to irai n 

 ts to Christianity, goes to work among the 

 members of his former ehuivh and endeavors to win 

 tli<-m over to the Baptist mission ; and 



H 7/<ro, Another method is for the native Baptist 

 iit'cnt to eoiieeiitrato his efforts on winning over the 

 trustees of property held by the Lutheran congrega- 

 tion, und then instituting legal proceedings for the. 

 transfer of the school or prayer nouse. together with 

 the ground on which they are located, from the Lu- 

 theran to the Baptist mission ; and 



\\ > rea, Much injury has also been done by the 

 Baptist* in receiving into their mission persons who 

 \\ei-e under discipline in ours, thus making it very 

 ditlieult for our missionaries to exercise discipline 

 over their people ; and 



Whereat. It is not claimed that these unfraternal 

 and, indeed, un-< 'hristian methods of work have been 

 employed dinvtly by any of the American Baptist 

 missionaries, three of whom urc at present located in 

 our field, but it is a notorious fact that the native 

 agents who are employed and paid by them have 

 been using these and other equally improper methods 

 of gaining proselytes; and 



\\')n-retu y A charitable view of the case might lead 

 us to suppose that those native Baptist agents had 

 been aetmg without the knowledge or sanction of 

 these over them in authority, were it not for the fact 

 that during the past year a number of letters have 

 been addressed to one of the Baptist missionar- 

 ies, calling his attention to the methods employed by 

 his agents, and courteously but earnestly protesting 

 against them ; and 



Whereas, In a number of cases in which our mis- 

 sionaries protested against the reception of some of 

 their runaway boarders and disciplined teachers by 

 their Baptist co-workers, the request was unheeded 

 and their communications not even received the court- 

 esy of a reply ; therefore be it 



Ketolnea, 'By the General Synod of the Evangel- 

 ical Lutheran Church in the tlnited States of Amer- 

 ica, in convention assembled, that we hereby enter 

 our solemn protest against the continuance of the 

 practices referred to, and with this statement of the 

 interference and proselytism complained of, submit 

 t!ie tacts to the moral sense of the Christian world for 

 Judgment 



The report of the Board of Home Missions 

 showed that the receipts for the past two years 

 amounted to $75,974.20. to which is to be n<ldr<l 

 a balance on hand of $1.075.99. Of the amount 

 received. $11,557.55 were from legacies, the 

 Woman's Society contributed $7,437.50, and the 

 Sunday schools $11.500. The report shows an 

 increase in contributions over the previous two 

 years of $8,798.63. The board has had 135 mis- 

 sions on its funds, an increase of 21. There were 

 added 36 new mission congregations and 86 new 

 churches purchased or erected. Jn these 135 

 missions 151 missionaries were employed, who 



report 5,88.5 new members: Ihcir benevolent ,n- 

 tributiotiH amounted to $13,591.81, while the tout 

 coiitnlnitioiis by mis-ions for salary, local t\- 

 iieii-e-, and l)cncvolcncr aggregate > 

 During the same period 18 missions IH arm- wlf- 

 hiistaining. The missions under the care of the 

 board during the past two years were located as 

 follows: California, 5; Colorado, 4; Connecti- 

 cut, 1 ; District of Columbia, 2; Illinois. 9; In- 

 diana, 5; Iowa, 7: Kansas, 17: Maryland, 9; 

 Missouri, 1; Nebraska. 1!); NYw .li-r-ey. 1 ; New 

 Mexico, 1; New York. 8; Ohio, 15; Pennsyl- 

 vania. 28; Tennessee, 1 ; Wisconsin, 2. Of these. 

 120 are English. 10 German, 2 Scandinavian, and 

 8 English and German. 



The Board of Church Extension reported re- 

 ceipts amounting to $79,855.18. legacies amount- 

 ing to $10,806.70. and contributions from the 

 Woman's Missionary Society aggregating $2.- 

 4?.">.:50. Loans and donations were made .to 81 

 congregations, amounting to $38,458.61. Fifty- 

 eight lots were secured in important towns and 

 cit ies, valued at $20,000. The Western secre- 

 tary, the Rev. John N. Lenker, visited 326 

 places in the interest of the work of the 

 board, secured 42 lots for churches, and in 16 

 congregations aided in starting subscriptions for 

 new churches, this making a total of 97 congre- 

 gations practically aided by the board. The 

 treasurer reported the assets as $200,619.66. 



The Board of Education reported the institu- 

 tions under its care Midland College. Atchison, 

 Kan., and Carthage College, Carthage, 111. 

 as prosperous, the assets of the former being 

 $69,266 and of the latter $57,156.48. The board 

 also reported that a wealthy member of the 

 Lutheran Church, Augustus Kountze. had of- 

 fered to give a tract of land in Omaha, Neb., 

 valued at $100.000. and $50,000 in cash, for 

 the establishment of a theological seminary in 

 that place, provided the congregations of the 

 General Synod would within the next two years 

 give an additional $150,000 for the proper equip- 

 ment of the institution. This offer was gratefully 

 accepted by the general body at this convention, 

 and the board was authorized to make the effort 

 to secure the amount. During one of the ses- 

 sions of the convention pledges of contributions 

 were received amounting to $20,710 for the new 

 seminary. In addition. $5,000 were subscribed 

 for the 'liquidation of the debt on the Chicago 

 German Theological Seminary. 



The report of the Publication Society showed 

 its assets to be $66,855.68. Its sales for the past 

 two years amounted to $141,940.98. Its dona- 

 tions to the various boards of the body aggre- 

 gated $8,500. Nine new books were published. 

 19 new books or new editions were issued for 

 their respective authors, 17 new editions of its 

 own publications were issued, and the periodicals 

 of the society for the month of May numbered 

 229.GOO copies. 



The Board of Deaconesses presented its first 

 report. The object of this board is to establish 

 deaconess houses, in which women shall be 

 trained for all kinds of lay work such as hos- 

 pital work, care of the sick in their own homes, 

 day nurseries, parish visiting, infant schools. 

 etc. The board proposes to send eight or ten 

 women to Kaiserswerth. the mother-house of till 

 similar institutions in the world, where they will 



