MISSIONS, FOREIGN. 



MISSISSIPPI. 



4; in Xorvvay, 4; in Denmark, 3; in France, 2; 

 in Switzerland, 2; in Wales, 1 ; in Finland, 1; 

 total income, $17,161,092, of which $6.843,031 are 

 credited to English societies, $5,403,048 to those 

 of the United States, $1,430,151 to German, and 

 .$1,280,684 to Scottish societies; whole number of 

 missionaries, including ordained ministers, or- 

 dained physicians, lay missionaries, married women 

 not physicians, and unmarried women not physi- 

 cians, '13,607, of whom 5,136 are from England, 

 4,110 from the United States, 1,515 from Germany, 

 653 from Scotland, etc. ; number of native agents, 

 77,338; of communicants, 1,317,684, of whom 

 84,186 were added in 1899; of native Christian 

 adherents, 4,414,236. The total amount of native 

 contributions was $1,841,757. The educational 

 work of the missions included 20,374 schools of 

 all grades, with 1,046,309 pupils. These schools 

 comprised 93 foreign missionary universities, hav- 

 ing 35,414 students; 358 theological and training 

 schools, with 11,905 students; 857 boarding and 

 high schools, with 83,148 pupils; 134 industrial 

 training institutions and classes, with 6,309 stu- 

 dents: 63 medical and nurses' schools and classes, 

 with 589 students; 127 kindergartens, with 4,502 

 pupils: and 18,742 elementary or village schools, 

 containing 904,442 pupils, 267,720 of whom were 

 girls. The Bible has been translated into 421 lan- 

 guages and dialects, and the various agencies en- 

 gaged in the distribution of Bibles, tracts, etc., re- 

 turned an aggregate annual circulation of 14,494,- 

 098 copies. One hundred and forty-eight mission 

 publishing houses and printing presses returned an 

 annual aggregate issue of 10,561,777 copies of their 

 publications, and 366 magazines and papers in for- 

 eign mission lands circulated 297,435 copies. Three 

 hundred and fifty-five hospitals and 753 dispen- 

 saries were sustained, at which 93,705 in-patients 

 and 2,579,651 out-patients were treated; besides 

 90 leper hospitals and asylums and homes for the 

 untainted children, with 5,166 leper inmates. The 

 Woman's Christian Temperance Union had affili- 

 ated national branches in 26 foreign mission coun- 

 tries. The Anglo-Indian Temperance Association 

 in India had 281 affiliated temperance societies. 

 Other elements of the missionary force were 87 

 missionary training institutions in Christian lands, 

 not including theological seminaries, and 67 mis- 

 sion steamers and ships, which were used in evan- 

 gelistic, medical, and other departments of mission 

 service in the foreign field. 



Besides the 249 missionary societies actively 

 engaged, 200 other societies indirectly co-operating 

 or aiding in foreign missions or engaged in special- 

 ized efforts, and 68 women's auxiliaries, were 

 mentioned, the income of which would swell the 

 total of income for missions to $19,126,120. Fifty- 

 four native organizations for extension of knowl- 

 edge and the furtherance of national, social, moral, 

 and religious reform were said to be affiliated to 

 missions, and most of them due to missions. 



From 1649 to 1800 12 missionary societies, and 

 from 1800 to 1830 22 societies, were formed. The 

 subsequent record of new societies, by decades, is: 

 1830-40, 16 societies organized; 1840-'50, 25; 

 1850-'60, 34; 1860-70, 41; 1870-'80, 57; 1880-'90, 

 92; 1890-1900, 100. The year in which the largest 

 number of societies were formed was 1890, when 

 22 societies were organized; the next year in the 

 record was 1896, with 11 new societies. 



Nine sectional meetings were held in the after- 

 noon of April 23, at which special surveys were 

 presented of the several mission fields, including 

 those in Japan, Korea, China, Assam. Burmah, 

 Siam, India, Ceylon, Oceanica, Mohammedan 

 lands, Africa, North and South America, and 

 *' Hebrews in all lands." 



Besides these exercises the sessions of the con- 

 ference were devoted to the discussion, in prepared 

 papers and addresses and volunteered remarks, of 

 the numerous aspects of a large list of subjects 

 relating to topics which might be referred to the 

 following principal heads: Authority and purpose 

 in mission work ; evangelistic work ; woman's 

 work evangelistic, educational, etc.; native agen- 

 cy in evangelistic work ; the missionary staff ; 

 literature ; the study of missions ; medical work : 

 work for young women and children; value of 

 foreign missions as an educational agency in train- 

 ing young people; administrative problems of the 

 mission; Bible translation and distribution; edu- 

 cational work; wider relations of missions (in the 

 fields of discovery, geography, commerce, coloniza- 

 tion, philology, science, philosophy, etc.) : the na- 

 tive church and moral questions; medical training 

 of natives; vernacular literature; normal training: 

 missions and governments; woman's work in for- 

 eign missions; comity and division of fields; co- 

 operation and division of fields in occupied and 

 unoccupied territory; higher education in mission 

 fields; mission presses; self-support by mission 

 churches; principles and methods in the evangel- 

 istic church; educational and medical work; mis- 

 sionary boards and societies; elementary schools; 

 industrial training; the training of missionaries; 

 students and other young people their achieve- 

 ments; the volunteer student movement; non- 

 Christian religions; organized movements among 

 the young people of the Church; responsibility of 

 the Church in the light of the working of God's 

 Spirit among the students and other young people : 

 apologetic problems in missions; relation of medi- 

 cal work to missionary work as a whole ; hospitals 

 and dispensaries; educational philanthropic work: 

 literary work; missionary literature for home 

 churches; relation of missions to social progros- 

 and peace; home work for foreign missions: sup- 

 port of missions by home churches; outlook and 

 demands (the present situation its claims and 

 opportunities, outlook and demands for the coming 

 century). 



A private conference of officers of the several 

 boards, missionaries, and delegates interested in 

 the matter was held, May 1, to consider the best 

 means of preserving the results of the Ecumenical 

 Conference. A resolution was passed, declaring 

 it to be the sense of the meeting that committee- 

 should be requested to consider the question of 

 appointing an international committee, who. by 

 correspondence or by conference or by both, shall 

 deal with co-operative work in missions, and make 

 known the result of their deliberations to the soi-i 

 eties represented in the conference. 



International Missionary Union. The 

 seventeenth annual meeting of the International 

 Missionary Union, held at Clifton Springs, N. Y., , 

 was attended by 85 returned missionaries, repre- 

 senting 17 societies and 18 mission fields. Tin 1 

 proceedings were similar in character to those of 

 the (Ecumenical Conference of Missions, which 

 were often referred to. Members spoke of the con- 

 ditions of their fields; and the topics discussed 

 were classified under such heads as missionary 

 apologetics, or evidences afforded by the mission 

 fields of the supernatural character of Christian- 

 ity; the influence of missions on the trend of gov- 

 ernments, international comity diplomacy, etc.; 

 education; medical missions; native churches; 

 missionary comity and co-operation: and woman's 

 work. 



MISSISSIPPI, a Southern State, admitted t-> 

 the Union Dec. 10. 1817; area, 46,810 square mile-.. 

 The population, according to each decennial cen- 

 sus since admission, was 75,448 in 1820; 136,621 



