GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS. 



297 



.: "ii the subject were rend on "The Con- 

 duct t>f Meetings for Worship, aud the Mainte- 

 nance of the Ministry," " Proper Qualification! 



fur tlic Ministry, and Mutual DejM-ndcnce be- 

 tween Ministers and People," and " Church (Jov- 

 (niincnt, its Relation to the Pastoral Question," 

 and were followed liy debate. The following 

 iiimutu was adopted : 



This i-onlereiice desires to urge upon Friends every- 

 where tin- ini|Mprtuiu-f of diligent e.verei.se of the vari- 

 ou.s spiritual gifts bestowed by tlie Master, especially 

 those of the ministry of tin' \Vonl and of pastoral 

 cure nt' the tloek of God. In connection witn these 

 services the Church is reminded of its duty in mak- 

 in_' such provision as may IK- Decenary for the rap- 

 port of those who give their time to the work, so that 

 the (iospel may not be hindered nor the shepherd- 

 ing of the tlock impaired by the want of pecuniary 

 means. 



At the same time that we strongly commend a 

 proper pastoral system, we desire that Friends shall 

 M careful to see that it is not abused by the assump- 

 tion ..f undue authority on the partof pastors, by their 

 standing in the way of any service the Lord may lay 

 upon others, or by leading members of the flock to 

 look to and depend upon human agency instead of 

 the divine Shepherd and Bishop or souls himself. 

 We believe that the faithful exercise of pastoral care 

 is an important agency in the Master's hand in at- 

 Uil'lishing and building up the membership of the 

 Church. 



A plan was adopted for a board of foreign 

 missions. It comprehends a bureau with a sec- 

 retary and three other members, together with 

 two correspondents, one a man, the other a wom- 

 an, appointed by each yearly meeting. The 

 duties of the bureau are to collect and publish 

 st;it istics and other information about missions, 

 to serve as a channel of communication between 

 missionary societies, and to assist in finding mis- 

 sionaries, judging of their qualifications, and 

 li >ciit ing them in the fields. It has no responsi- 

 bility for missions or finances. A proposition 

 contemplating the formation of a home mission 

 board was defeated. A paper on " Uniformity 

 of Discipline for all Yearly Meetings " was fol- 

 lowed by a discussion concerning discipline, 

 which was at last dropped for want of unity 

 upon it. A committee was appointed on a 



Friends' exhibit in the Congress of Religions at 

 the Columbian Exhibition. Preferences were 

 expressed, without a formal discussion of the 

 subject, concerning a change of name from 

 " Society of Friends " to Friends' Church." 

 Another subject discussed was " The Duty of 

 the Church toward Cities." A committee was 

 appointed on the time and place of the m it 

 General Conference. 



British Friends. The yearly returns of the 

 Society of Friends show that there are now U40 

 meetings in Great Britain, and that the mem- 

 bership had increased in 1892 to 22,287, a gain 

 of 221 over the number in 1891. 



The sessions of London Yearly Meeting were 

 opened May 1C, with the examination and dis- 

 cussion of the reports of the yearly meeting on 

 ministry and oversight, the meetings at large 

 beginning May 18. Epistles were read from the 

 Irish and the American Yearly Meetings, of 

 which some of the American epistles, giving de- 

 tails of the work carried on by Friends within 

 the jurisdiction of the several yearly meetings, 

 gave evidence of the existence of a strong temp- 

 tation among the Friends in the Western States 

 to depart, under the stress of circumstances, from 

 Quaker principles and methods. The members 

 of a new yearly meeting about to be established 

 in Oregon were said to be adopting so many of 

 the ideas and practices common to the churches 

 around them as to seem far more like Methodists 

 than Friends. Colleges for training ministers, 

 pulpits, organs, and other unquakerly methods 

 were spoken of ; and the tendency to adopt such 

 strange practices was represented as being more 

 or less prevalent throughout the West. The 

 condition of the society and the, best methods of 

 holding and extending its influence were the 

 chief subjects discussed. The Committee on 

 Home Missions, the operations of which had ex- 

 cited much uneasiness in the minds of Friends, 

 was reappointed for another year. The meeting 

 decided to summon a representative conference 

 in the autumn, to consider how mission work 

 may be effectually pushed forward, and weak 

 meetings helped, by methods in harmony with 

 Quaker principles. 



G 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS. A com- 

 mission for determining the proper spelling of 

 geographical names used in publications of tin- 

 various departments of the Government was ap- 

 pointed by President Harrison, Sept. 4, 1890, 

 and its first report was issued in December. 1891. 

 The policy of the board has been, in general, to 

 accept the name in common local use at present. 

 Of course difficulties have sometimes arisen in 

 determining what the local usage is. Where it 

 has been found to IK- divided between different 

 forms, the effort has been made to select the 

 most appropriate and euphonious. There have 

 also been departures from local usage in certain 

 case< in order to effect what the board has 

 looked upon as reforms in nomenclature. A 

 certain development process in the spelling of 

 names is recognized. For instance, the possess- 

 ive form of names is rapidly disappearing, ex- 



cept in rare cases, where good reason exists for 

 its retention. In most cases this is effected by 

 dropping the apostrophe and the final s. In 

 some cases it was necessary to decide between 

 two names which have heretofore been used in- 

 differently. The mountain known both as Ta- 

 coma and Rainier will be Rainier, so far as Gov- 

 ernment publications are concerned, and the 

 Bear river, in Colorado, must receive its ; 

 name, the Yampa. With names of foreign origin 

 the tendency is to adopt a spelling that indicates 

 the sounds in English rather than to retain the 

 original spelling. Thus. Cafion City is to In- 

 writ ten Canyon City. It was decided that the 

 vowels should be pronounced as in Italian and 

 on the Continent of Europe generally, and the 

 consonants as in English. 



Among other decisions are the following: 

 Akkra (Africa) instead of Accra; Akun Island 



