172 



COXGREGATIONALISTS. 



been $178,827. The society had aided during 

 the year in the erection of 136 churches and 56 

 parsonages. Since in 1881 it had aided in the 

 erection of only 48 buildings for church use, it 

 appeared that its work had quadrupled in ten 

 years. Of 2,172 churches that had been aided* 

 in building houses of worship, 20 had closed 

 their accounts during the year, making 317 in 

 all ; of 326 parsonage loans made, 25 had been paid 

 up during the year, or 83 in all since 1882. By 

 the payment of $20,456 in aid of the building of 

 parsonages, parsonage property valued at $64,- 

 783 had been brought into the use of 56 pastors ; 

 and the payment of $99,884 in the church-build- 

 ing department had been the means of bringing 

 in about $36,726 more from personal friends of 

 the churches and of securing the contribution of 

 nearly $325,997 more. In other words, gifts and 

 loans outside of the parishes immediately inter- 

 ested, amounting to $ 136,609, had secured church- 

 building property valued at $462,607. Adding 

 these sums to those previously reported as having 

 been paid out of the treasury, we foot up a total 

 of $9,863,660 worth of church-building property 

 brought into use by the disbursement of $1,628.- 

 047, giving a total in the 2 departments of 

 church and parsonage building of $10,205,217 

 worth of property secured for church uses by 

 paying out less than one sixth of that amount. 



American Home Missionary Society. 

 The sixty-sixth annual meeting of the American 

 Home Missionary Society was held in Washing- 

 ton, D. C., May' 25, Hon. Nelson Dingley, Jr., 

 presiding. The receipts for the year, including 

 a balance in the treasury at the beginning of 

 $13,994, had been $676,783. The payments had 

 been $504,559, besides $181.836 expended by the 

 auxiliaries on their respective fields. Nineteen 

 hundred and eighty-six missionaries had been 

 employed during the year (including 49 who had 

 labored in more than 'one State). 446 in the New 

 England States, 156 in the Middle States, 85 in 

 the Southern States, 116 in the Southwestern 

 States, 196 on the Pacific coast, and 1,036 in the 

 Western States and Territories, in the service of 

 3,389 congregations and missionary districts. 

 Six ministers had been in commission as pastors 

 or stated supplies of colored people, and 176 had 

 preached in foreign languages to congregations 

 of Welsh, Germans, Scandinavians, Bohemians, 

 Poles, Indians, Mexicans and Spaniards, Ital- 

 ians, and Finns. Twenty-two hundred and 

 ninety-eight Sunday schools and Bible classes 

 were under the care of the missionaries, with 

 about 159.206 pupils, while 282 new schools had 

 been organized, 8,193 members had been re- 

 ceived in the Church on confession of faith, 220 

 churches had been organized, 65 churches had 

 assumed self-support, 174 houses of worship had 

 been completed and 21 were in course of erec- 

 tion, 14 chapels had been built and 61 parson- 

 ages provided, and 137 men connected with the 

 missionary churches were preparing for the min- 

 istry. Report was made of the extent and effi- 

 ciency of the work of the women in aid of the 

 society, and of the packages of goods and pro- 

 visions forwarded to missionaries. 



The American Board. The eighty-third 

 annual meeting of the American Board of Com- 

 missioners for Foreign Missions was held in Chi- 

 cago, 111., beginning Oct. 5, the Rev. R. S. Storrs, 



D. D., presiding. The income of the society for 

 the year had been $841.568, of which $545.097 

 had been derived from donations, $249,778 from 

 legacies, $35,185 from the legacy of Asa Otis, ac- 

 counted for specially, and $10,744 from interest 

 on the general permanent fund. The expendi- 

 tures had been $840,840, of which the sum of 

 $784,856 was charged to " cost of missions." 

 The general summary of the work in the mis- 

 sionary fields of the Pacific islands, the Chinese 

 Empire, Africa, Asiatic and European Turkey, 

 India, Japan, and Roman Catholic countries in 

 Europe, presented the following total numbers : 



Number of missions 



Number of stations 



Number of out stations . . . 

 Places for stated pre.-tching. 

 Average congregations 



Laborers employed. 



Number of ordained missionaries (11 being physi- 

 cians) 



Number of male physicians not ordained (^besides 3 



women) 



Number of other male assistants 



Number of women, 3 of them physicians (wives, 174; 



unmarried, 159) 



Whole number of laborers sent from this country.. 



Number of native pastors 



Number of native preachers and catechists 



Number of native school teachers 



Number of other native laborers 



Total of native laborers 



Total of American and native laborers 



20 

 (8 



1,126 

 1,341 



71,184 



183 



534 



2(10 



624 



1.380 



396 



2.600 



3,184 



The Churches. 



Number of churches 484 



Number of church members 40.333 



Added (luring the year 8,516 



Whole number from the first, as nearly as can be 



learned 122,023 



Educational Department. 



Number of theological seminaries and station classes. 16 



Pupils 252 



Colleges and high schools 70 



Number of pupils in the above 4,259 



Number of boarding schools for girls C5 



Number of pupils in boarding schools for girls 2,882 



Number of common schools 982 



Number of pupils in common schools 37.835 



Whole number under instruction 47,830 



Native contributions, so far as reported f 1)2,723 



Special attention had been given by the secre- 

 taries to the training and employment of a na- 

 tive ministry. Work for women had widened 

 very much, especially in the direction of evan- 

 gelistic effort, and schools for the training of 

 Bible women were being established at impor- 

 tant stations. For want of men the care of 5 

 different stations had devolved on women, and 

 the women had proved themselves equal to the 

 emergency. Forty new missionary families and 

 20 single women were asked for in order that 

 the work in hand might be maintained and 

 properly developed especially in Africa, India, 

 China, and Japan. A paper concerning the 

 fellowship of the American Board with the 

 churches and a number of memorials from State 

 associations of Congregational churches, re- 

 questing the board to adopt the principle of 

 giving to the churches a voice in the election of 

 corporate members, was referred to a committee, 

 on the report of which the meeting resolved : 



That the Committee for the Nomination of New 

 Members, appointed at the meeting, be directed to 

 receive from the State, Territorial, or independent 

 organizations of Congregational churches during the 

 coming year, nominations of persons to fill vacancies 



