294 



FREE BAPTIST CHURCH. 



FRIENDS. 



120. Amount of contributions : For foreign mis- 

 sions, $20,099; for home missions, $8,115; for 

 the Educational Society, $2,625 ; for the Woman's 

 Mission Society, $22,248. The total receipts of 

 the Education Society for the year were $3,419 ; 

 the invested funds of the society amounted to 

 $8,665, against which were liabilities of $5,000. 

 The institutions were represented as thrifty and 

 prosperous. They numbered 12 colleges and 

 seminaries and 1 divinity school, and returned 

 1,234 students, 69 of whom were studying for the 

 ministry, and 34 were aided. The Home Mission 

 Society had received $7,167, and returned $13,- 

 368 of invested funds. Its fiscal year closed with 

 a balance in the treasury of $1,191. The receipts 

 of the Foreign Missionary Society for the year 

 were $33,995 ; its invested funds amounted to 

 $54,667. The society began the year with a debt 

 of about $5,000, which had increased to $8,090. 

 The mission in India returned 32 missionaries, 7 

 of whom were in the United States on vacation ; 

 818 members, with 51 added by baptism during 

 the year ; a native Christian community of 1,522 

 persons ; 2,714 pupils in Sunday schools ; and 

 3,199 pupils in day and other schools. The Wom- 

 an's Missionary Society had received a bequest 

 of $14,000, making its total income for the year 

 $25,000. The most important event in the year's 

 history of the denomination was the final organ- 

 ization and inauguration of the General Confer- 

 ence Board. This board was instituted by order of 

 the last General Conference and approved by vote 

 of the members of the Church, and was organized 

 for work in October, 1894. It consists of 21 

 members, one third of whom are women ; assumes 

 the functions, the work, and the responsibilities 

 of the Missionary and Education Societies ; esti- 

 mates and apportions the amount of money to 

 be appropriated for denominational purposes; 

 employs a field secretary to execute its measures 

 and look after denominational interests; and is 

 empowered to represent the Church when the 

 General Conference is not in session. 



FRIENDS. The principal subject considered 

 at the London Yearly Meeting in May concerned 

 the relation which the Friends in England 

 should bear toward the three divisions into 

 which the society has been parted in America. 

 In the long-standing division between the Or- 

 thodox and the Unitarian or " Hicksite " Friends 

 the English body has corresponded exclusively 

 with the Orthodox. At every later separation 

 in the United States the opinion of the London 

 Yearly Meeting has been regarded as of great 

 weight. The adoption by some of the larger 

 yearly meetings of Friends in the United States 

 of new methods in their meetings and their tol- 

 erance of departures from traditional customs of 

 the society among which are the permission of 

 paid pastors, the admission of external forms in 

 worship, and the use of revival methods caused 

 considerable disturbance among the more con- 

 servative Friends in England. This was in- 

 creased by the action of the Iowa Yearly Meeting 

 in deposing 3 Friends from their position as 

 ministers on account of doubts entertained by 

 them concerning the duration of future pun- 

 ishment. A request was sent up to the Lon- 

 don Yearly Meeting that it cease to acknowl- 

 edge one body of Friends in preference to an- 

 other, but that it write one epistle to all who 



bear the name of Friends. This would have in- 

 cluded recognition of the Unitarian Friends. 

 The meeting decided, after considerable discus- 

 sion of the subject, instead of sending one indi- 

 vidual epistle implying continued approval, to 

 send to all a single epistle, clearly explaining 

 the views of the meeting on worship and minis- 

 try more as pastoral advice than as an expres- 

 sion of sanction. The standing committee was 

 instructed to obtain information concerning the 

 smaller conservative bodies in America. The 

 Unitarian Friends were still not recognized. 

 The present movement among American Friends 

 which thus attracted the attention of the Lon- 

 don Yearly Meeting began between 1860 and 

 1875, as a reaction against the strict adherence 

 to old traditional usages, which took the form 

 of a teaching of the necessity of repentance and 

 faith, and insistence upon regeneration as the 

 primal necessity of religious life. Beginning in 

 Indiana and Ohio, the movement spread to other 

 States, and became predominant in several of 

 the yearly meetings. The baptism of the Holy 

 Spirit and spiritual union with God, insisted 

 upon by the early Friends, were also preached, 

 and the Bible was brought into constant use. 

 Mission work was taken up; the Gospel was 

 preached to the unsaved outside of the meetings 

 already existing; numerous conversions took 

 place from " the world," members were added to 

 the Church, and new congregations were formed 

 in many places. In several of the States the 

 number of Friends more than doubled within 

 twenty-five years. New and increased interest 

 was awakened in foreign missions, which now 

 exist under the auspices of Friends in India, 

 China, Japan, Madagascar, Syria, Mexico, Ja- 

 maica, and Alaska, and among the Indians and 

 colored people in the United States. A consid- 

 erable development has taken place in the higher 

 education, and several important institutions 

 have been built up. The ministers of the 

 Friends participating in this movement co-op- 

 erate heartily in religious work with those of 

 other denominations. The most important in- 

 novation by which the " new Quakerism " is 

 marked is the supported pastorate which exists 

 now to a greater or less extent in 10 yearly 

 meetings viz., those of New England, New 

 York, North Carolina, Ohio, Wilmington, Indi- 

 ana, Western, Iowa, Kansas, and Oregon. The 

 Friends who favor this new system of pastoral 

 supervision believe that it is capable of being 

 developed in entire harmony with the principles 

 of the society, and express their continued op- 

 position to anything resembling a mere profes- 

 sional ministry entered into at human will for 

 pay. In some instances a change has taken 

 place in the constitution of the meetings, in 

 which men and women now sit in a single as- 

 sembly, having equal voice in the transaction of 

 all the business. The meetings which have 

 adopted or which sanction these new features 

 have enjoyed great increase in numbers, as is 

 exemplified in the report of the Iowa Yearly 

 Meeting, which represents that 



God has greatly Messed us in the salvation of souls, 

 the gathering into the churches, and the work of 

 grace in our hearts, not only in our large field in Iowa 

 and parts of adjacent States, but also in Oregon, Cali- 

 fornia, and Jamaica. A new quarterly meeting has 



