156 



CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



unions, and was returning more than $50,000 

 yearly into the treasury of the society. 

 American Missionary Association. The 



forty-eighth annual meeting of the American 

 Missionary Association was held in Lowell, 

 Mass., in October. The Rev. Merrill E. Gates, 

 D. D., President of Amherst College, presided. 

 The general receipts of the society for the year 

 had been $340,470 ; the income from the Daniel 

 Hand fund, $51,639 ; and the income from endow- 

 ment funds, $12,670; making a total of $404,- 

 779. The expenditures on account of the cur- 

 rent receipts had been $361,803, leaving a debt 

 balance of $21,333, which, with the debt of the 

 previous year, $45,028, made a total indebted- 

 ness of $66,361. The expenditures had been 

 divided as follow: For the South, $24,323; for 

 the Indians, $43,547; for the Chinese, $13,201; 

 for missions in Africa, paid to the American 

 Board, $4,829. The association maintained 116 

 schools with 14,222 pupils ; employed 646 mis- 

 sionaries; and had the care of 170 churches, 

 with 10,237 members of the church and 17,015 

 members of Sunday schools. In the South were 

 84 schools, 36 of which were normal schools, 42 

 common schools, and 6 chartered institutions, 

 viz., Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn. ; Talla- 

 dega College, Alabama; Straight University, New 

 Orleans, La. ; Tougaloo University, Miss. ; Til- 

 lotson Collegiate Institute, Austin, Texas; and 

 one in South Carolina. The 18 mountain schools 

 returned an enrollment of more than 2,000 pu- 

 pils of all grades. The 18 new churches which 

 the society had undertaken included 9 in the 

 Southern lowlands, 7 in the mountains, 1 in the 

 Indian missions, and 1 on the Pacific coast. A 

 healthy growth had taken place in the churches. 

 The mission in Alaska had been reopened with 

 good prospects, and the work among the Chinese 

 of the Pacific coast had been continued. In the 

 Bureau of Woman's Work 41 State organizations 

 had been formed, and the contributions had ad- 

 vanced 13 per cent. A resolution was passed 

 calling attention to the necessity of larger con- 

 tributions and of increasing the number of giv- 

 ers to the cause, and inviting and urging every 

 Congregational church and every Congregational 

 member to give to it. 



American Board. The eighty-fifth annual 

 meeting of the American Board of Commission- 

 ers for Foreign Missions was held at Madison, 

 Wis., Oct. 10. The Rev. Richard S. Storrs, D. D., 

 presided. The total income of the society for 

 the year had been $705,133, a gain over the pre- 

 vious year's income of $25,847. The whole 

 amount received from the Woman's Boards was 

 $192.873, a decrease of $12,810. The disburse- 

 ments had amounted to $733,051, showing a re- 

 duction of expenses, as compared with the pre- 

 vious year, of $35.282. A balance stood against 

 the treasury of $116,237. In adjusting the ap- 

 propriations for the mission fields, the lowest 

 estimates of the missionaries had been cut down 

 by $31,000, making a total of $129,000 less than 

 what they felt was really needed. Whereas dur- 

 ing the year before $45,000 had been granted 

 for special objects which are constantly recur- 

 ring, only $14.000 had been so granted this year. 

 With a view to meeting the financial emergency, 

 the suggestion was made in the report for 'a 

 union movement with all the Congregational 



benevolent societies in an appeal to the churches 

 for a special offering of at least one dollar per 

 member two cents a week in the coining year, 

 to constitute in the aggregate a free-will offering 

 of $500,000, to be placed in a common treasury, 

 under the care of a chosen committee, to be dis- 

 tributed by some pro rata method. Forty-four 

 new missionaries had been sent out during the 

 year, and twenty-three had returned to their 

 fields after a furlough in the United States. It 

 had been ordered that in mission and station 

 meetings, in the consideration of questions touch- 

 ing their own work, woman delegates should 

 have an equal voice and vote with the men. The 

 general summary of the mission fields and sta- 

 tions gave the following numbers : 



Missions 20 



Stations 100 



< >ut stations 1,107 



Places for stated preaching 1,429 



Average congregations 69,151 



Ordained missionaries (15 being physicians). 184 



Physicians not ordained (besides 9 women) 13 



Other assistants 6 



Women (9 of them physicians ; wives 185, unmar- 

 ried 188) 36& 



Whole number of laborers sent from this country 5T1 



Native pastors 241 



Native preachers and catechists 508 



Native school teachers 1,533 



Other native laborers 568 



Total of native laborers 2,870 



Total of American and native laborers 3,441 



Churches 421 



Church members 40.187 



Added during the year 3,055 



Whole number from the first, as nearly as can be 



learned 128,643 



Theological seminaries and station classes 16 



Pupils 230 



Colleges and high schools 65 



Pupils in the above 4,227 



Boarding schools for girls 63 



Pupils in boarding schools for girls 3,394 



Common schools 1,026- 



Pupils in common schools 39,300 



Whole number under instruction 50,406 



Native contributions, so far as reported $89,145 



The report mentioned as special features of 

 the missionary work of the year promises of con- 

 tinued advance in Mexico; 'evangelistic work in 

 Spain in the hands of native pastors who have been 

 educated in Switzerland, with a successful girl's 

 school at San Sebastian ; progress in Bohemia ; 

 literary work in Bulgaria, including a commen- 

 tary on the New Testament by the Rev. Dr. 

 Riggs; the settlement at important centers in 

 that country of native pastors who have been 

 educated in the United States ; the proposed oc- 

 cupation as a station of Salonica, in Macedonia ; 

 nearer access to the higher classes of society in 

 India, with applications from more villages than 

 ever before to the missionaries for instruction, and 

 the need for a larger trained native agency, with 

 means to support it ; the difficulties in Japan, 

 where the conflict of opinion between the old and 

 the new faith has been animated, but it is be- 

 lieved that the worst is past, and that the sifting 

 process through which the churches are passing 

 will be wholesome in the end ; a preponderance 

 of hopeful and encouraging facts in Micronesia ^ 

 steadfastness of the Christian community in 

 Ponape, notwithstanding the absence of mis- 

 sionaries and repression by the Spanish authori- 

 ties: maintenance of missionary work in China; 

 the newly established mission in east Central 

 Africa, upon the borders of Gazaland and Ma- 

 shonaland, has been located, and has made good 



