PRESBYTERIANS. 



667 



m Cliiircli, nnil was constituted of colored 

 ministers and members who hud been connected 

 with I hut Church. Its first presbytery was formed 

 in 1H70, its first synod in 1871, and its Gen- 

 eral Assembly in 1874. It has the same doctrinal 

 symbol a< tin- parent body and the same system 

 of government and discipline. According to the 

 report of the United States census, it has 23 



yresbyteries, and is represented in 9 States and 

 Territory, and has 238 congregations, all but 

 :'.? of which worship in their own buildings: 

 i:t,!.'t!i communicants, and church property (192 

 edifices) valued at $202,961, or an average value 

 of $1,053 to each edifice. 



V. Presbyterian Church In Canada. The 

 following is a summary of the statistics of this 

 Church for the year ending April 30, 1892 : 

 Numl>er of synods, 5; of presbyteries, 43: of 



grsons belonging to the Church, 525,236 (the 

 uiimion statistics give 765,189) ; of families, 

 92,483 ; of single persons not connected with 

 families in the Church, 16,580; of communicants, 

 173,904 ; net increase of communicants during 

 the year, 6,637 ; number of ministers, 1,000 ; of 

 elders, 6.106 ; of other office-bearers, 10,045 ; of 

 baptisms during the year, 11,762; of members of 

 Sabbath schools and Bible classes, 138,659; of 

 persons engaged in Sabbath-school work, 16,- 

 051 ; of missionaries, catechists and teachers in 

 foreign fields, 257. 



Contributions. For the College fund, $40,- 

 105 ; for the Home Mission fund, $57,027 ; for 

 augmentation, $32,057: for French evangeliza- 

 tion, $29,749; for foreign missions, $93,273; 

 for the Ancient and Infirm Ministers' fund, 

 $26,632 ; for the Widows' and Orphans' fund, 

 $6,096; for the Assembly fund, $4,492; Sabbath- 

 school and Bible-class contributions, $27,865 ; 

 amount received for foreign missions by the 

 Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, $39,432 ; 

 synodal and presbyterial funds, $8.591 ; contri- 

 butions for general religious purposes, $108,269. 



The eighteenth General Assembly met in 

 Montreal, June 8. The Rev. William Caven, 

 D. I)., Principal of Knox College, Toronto, was 

 chosen moderator. The report of the Committee 

 on Statistics showed that there were connected 

 with the Church 850 pastoral charges, 559 mis- 

 sion stations or groups of stations, and 119 va- 

 cancies, 919 enrolled ministers and 72 ministers 

 residing in bounds whose names were not en- 

 rolled, and 56 licensed students for the ministry. 

 The total income for all purposes was $2,003,- 

 239, besides $63.996 contributed from the mis- 

 sion stations. The receipts for home missions 

 had been $78,741, of which $8,000 had been 

 transferred to the Augmentation fund, and ap- 

 pear in its financial statement. The whole 

 number of missionaries was 309, of which 97 

 were in the Eastern section (including the Mari- 

 time provinces and Newfoundland), and 272 in 

 the Western section (including the rest of the 

 Dominion). The widest field for this work was 

 opened in the Northwest and British Columbia. 

 More than 60 missionary stations were supplied 

 by the five college societies. Missions to lum- 

 bermen were carried on in the regions of the 

 tipper Ottawa and its tributaries. Thirty-one 

 depots and 113 shanties had been visited during 

 the previous winter, with a total expenditure of 

 $403. The total receipts of the Augmentation 



fund had been $35,621. In ten years 150 con- 

 gregations, or half the whole number on the 

 fund, had become self-sustaining, and 55 congre- 

 gations had been put off becau<") unwilling to 

 Help themselves vigorously. The following re- 

 ceipts were reported of the several relief funds: 

 Aged and Infirm Ministers' fund (Eastern divi- 

 sion), $5,509 ; Maritime Widows' and Orphans' 

 fund, $5,629; Widows' and Orphans' fund 

 (western section), $59,124. This fund now 

 amounted to $138,650; Ministers' Widows' and 

 Orphans' fund of the Synod of the Presbyterian 

 Church in Canada in connection with the Church 

 of Scotland, $24,785 ; while the whole amount of 

 the fund was $116,389. The total receipts for 

 foreign missions had been $115,766. Six mis- 

 sions were cared for by the Eastern and Western 

 sections in the New " Hebrides, Trinidad (the 

 East Indian coolie population), Central India, 

 Formosa, and Honan in China, and the Indians 

 of the Northwest, to which have recently been 

 added a mission to the Jews in Palestine and a 

 mission to the Chinese in British Columbia. 

 The report of the Board of French Evangeliza- 

 tion showed that there were now 20,COO French 

 Protestants in the Province of Quebec, and 15,- 

 000 in New England the latter mostly converts 

 from Quebec or persons who had been converted 

 under the preaching of missionaries trained in 

 Canada. In respect to the theological depart- 

 ment of Queen's College, the election of the 

 Board of Trustees and of the professors in which 

 is now outside of the General Assembly, a resolu- 

 tion was adopted calling the attention of the 

 governing body of the institution to the desira- 

 ility of bringing the theological department 

 into closer relations with the Church, and re- 

 questing the board to consider the subject with 

 the view of suggesting some modification by 

 which, if possible, this end may be secured. In 

 order to obviate the disadvantages suffered by 

 the home missionary fields from the fact that 

 the students on whom they largely depend for 

 pastoral supply have to leave them vacant dur- 

 ing the winter" in order to attend their colleges, 

 the previous General Assembly had referred to 

 the presbyteries the question of establishing a 

 summer session of a theological school. A large 

 majority of the presbyteries had voted in favor 

 of the overture, and the Assembly decided to 

 open the summer session at Manitoba College. 

 '1 he report on Sabbath Observance represented 

 that the advices from the maritime provinces 

 were especially encouraging, particularly with 

 reference to the diminution of Sunday traffic 

 and mechanical labor on the Intercolonial Rail- 

 way. From other parts of the Dominion the 

 reports were less encouraging, or of an opposite 

 character. Resolutions were adopted reiterat- 

 ing previous declarations of the Assembly on the 

 subject, and disapproving of the opening of post 

 offices on the Lord's Day. A committee was 

 appointed to consider and report to the next 

 General Assembly how the young people of the 

 Church may be organized, under the sanction of 

 the General Assembly, for the cultivation of 

 their spiritual lives and their training for Chris- 

 tian work. The Hymnal Committee was in- 

 structed to correspond with committees in Scot- 

 land respecting the preparation of a common 

 hymnal. 



