MISSIONS, FOREIGN, ECUMENICAL CONFERENCE ON. 



388 



tion for the present conference a committee was 

 appointed by the Annual Missionary Conference of 

 the United States in 1896, to communicate with 

 the different Protestant missionary societies 

 throughout the world. The enterprise was finally 

 put under the care of a general committee, of 

 which the Rev. Judson Smith, D. D., of the Amer- 

 ican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 

 was chairman, and the Rev. S. L. Baldwin, D. D., 

 of the Methodist Episcopal Board of Missions, 

 was secretary. All the societies invited to par- 

 ticipate in the conference accepted the invita- 

 tion except the Anglican Society for the Propaga- 

 tion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and the fol- 

 lowing societies were represented: 



In the United States and Canada American 

 Advent Missionary Society ; American Board of 

 Commissioners for Foreign Missions; American 

 Baptist Missionary Union; American Bible So- 

 ciety; American Christian Convention; Africa 

 Industrial Mission; Africa Inland Mission; Afri- 

 can Methodist Episcopal Church; African Meth- 

 odist Episcopal Zion Church; Associate Re- 

 formed Presbyterian Synod of the South; Amer- 

 ican Tract Society; Baptist Convention of the 

 Maritime Provinces; Baptist Foreign Mission- 

 ary Society of Ontario and Quebec; Chris- 

 tian and Missionary Alliance; Church of God 

 Foreign Missionary Society; Canadian Church 

 Missionary Association; Canada Congregational 

 Foreign Missionary Society; Cumberland Presby- 

 terian Board of Missions; Evangelical Association 

 Missionary Society; Evangelical Lutheran Church 

 (General Synod) ; Evangelical Lutheran Church, 

 South (United Synod) ; Evangelical Lutheran 

 General Council Foreign Missions; Free Baptist 

 Missionary Society; Free Methodist Church Gen- 

 eral Missionary Board ; Foreign Christian Mission- 

 ary Society; Foreign Sunday School Association; 

 American Friends' Central Board of Missions; 

 German Evangelical Synod of North America ; 

 Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church; Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 

 Board of Missions; Missionary Society of the 

 Methodist Church in Canada; Methodist Protes- 

 tant Church, Board of Foreign Missions ; Mennon- 

 ite General Conference of North America; Mora- 

 vian Church Board of Missions; National Baptist 

 Convention; Phil- African League; Protestant Epis- 

 copal Church in the United States of America; 

 Presbyterian Church in the United States of 

 America; Presbyterian Church in the United 

 States; Presbyterian Church in Canada, Foreign 

 Mission Committee; Primitive Methodist Church; 

 Reformed Church in America; Reformed Church 

 in the United States; Reformed Church in North 

 America (General Synod) ; Reformed Episcopal 

 Church; Reformed Presbyterian Church (General 

 Synod); Reformed Presbyterian Church (Synod) ; 

 Southern Baptist Convention; Seventh Day Bap- 

 tist Missionary Society; Seventh Day Adventist; 

 United Norwegian Lutheran Church; United Pres- 

 byterian Board of Missions; United Brethren in 

 Christ, Foreign Missionary Society; United Breth- 

 ren in Christ (Radical branch) ; Wesleyan Meth- 

 odist Missionary Society; Woman's Union Mis- 

 sionary Society. 



In Great Britain and Ireland British and For- 

 eign Bible Society; Baptist Missionary Society; 

 Baptist Zenana Mission ; China Inland Mission ; 

 Church Missionary Society; Church of England 

 Zenana Missionary Society; Colonial Missionary 

 Society; Christian Literature Society for India; 

 Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society; Presby- 

 terian Church of England Foreign Missions; 

 Friends' Foreign Missionary Association; "Help 

 for Brazil " ; Indian and Colonial Protestant Mis- 





sion; Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Foreign 

 Missions; Ladies' Kaffrarian Society; London 

 Missionary Society; Livingstone Medical College; 

 Mission to Lepers in India and the East; North 

 Africa Mission; Primitive Methodist Missionary 

 Society; "Regions Beyond" Missionary Union; 

 Religious Tract Society; Society for the Diffusion 

 of Christian and General Knowledge among the 

 Chinese; Church of Scotland Foreign Missions. 

 Committee; South American Missionary Society; 

 Student Volunteer Missionary Union ; Free Church 

 of Scotland, Foreign Missions Committee; United 

 Methodist Free Churches Missionary Society: 

 United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Foreign 

 Missions ; Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society ; 

 Woman's Foreign Missionary Society for Female 

 Education in India and South Africa; Zenana 

 Bible and Medical Mission. 



In Jamaica, West Indies Jamaica Baptist Mis- 

 sionary Society. 



In Hawaii Hawaiian Evangelical Association. 



In Australia Woman's Missionary Union, 

 Queensland. 



In New Zealand Presbyterian Church, Otego 

 and Southland. 



In Finland Finland Missionary Society. 



In Germany Neukirchen Mission Institute; 

 Berlin Missionary Society; Berlin Baptist Foreign 

 Missionary Society; Rhenish Missionary Society. 



In Holland Mission Conferences in the Nether- 

 lands; Dutch Reformed Missionary Society. 



In Norway- Norwegian Missionary Society; 

 Norwegian Lutheran China Mission Association. 



In Sweden Swedish Mission in China, Evan- 

 gelical National Society. 



In Switzerland St. Chrischona Pilgrim Mission- 

 ary Society. 



The conference was in session during ten days, 

 including Sunday, from April 21 to May 1. The 

 Hon. Benjamin Harrison, ex-President of the 

 United States, was honorary president of the body, 

 w r hile special presiding officers were appointed for 

 each day's sessions. The principal meetings were 

 held in Carnegie Hall and the Central Presbyterian 

 Church, and " overflow meetings " and sectional 

 meetings were held in addition. At the opening 

 meeting, April 21, for welcoming the delegates,. 

 ex-President Harrison, presiding, made the open- 

 ing address; the Rev. Dr. Judson Smith, chair- 

 man of the managing committee, delivered the 

 address of welcome; and the Rev. Dr. Wardlaw 

 Thompson, secretary of the London Missionary 

 Society; the Rev. Dr. A. Schreiber, of Germany; 

 the Rev. Dr. A. Chamberlain, missionary in India ; 

 and the Rev. Dr. Joseph King, of Australia, re- 

 sponded. In the evening of the same day (April 

 21) a meeting for national welcome was held, when 

 addresses of welcome were made by William 

 McKinley, President of the United States, and 

 Theodore Roosevelt, Governor of the State of New 

 York, and the response on behalf of the conference 

 by ex-President Harrison. The meetings of Mon- 

 day, April 23, were devoted chiefly to the general 

 survey of the progress and present condition of 

 missions. A Century of Missions was made the 

 subject of a review of the growth of missionary 

 enterprise by Mr. Eugene Stock, editorial secre- 

 tary of the Church Missionary Society. A report 

 upon centennial statistics was presented by the 

 Rev. Dr. James S. Dennis, from which the follow- 

 ing figures are derived: Number of societies di- 

 rectly engaged in conducting foreign missions, 249, 

 distributed as follows in the United States, 49; 

 in England, 42; in Asia, 29; in Africa, 28; in 

 Australia and Oceanica, 26; in Germany, 15; in 

 the Netherlands, 10; in Canada, 8; in Sweden, 7; 

 in the West Indies, 11; in Scotland, 7; in Ireland,. 



