140 



CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



sale of them ; while some were still held, awaiting 

 the most favorable opportunity for converting 

 them int.. wish. The work of the year had been 

 the largest, in all the departments, in the history 

 of the society. 



Tli.- Congregational Educational Society aided m 

 189? 8 colleges and 10 academies. In the New West 

 d< -partment (f..r I'tah and New Mexico) Salt Lake 

 CoUajp and Proctor Academy were supported, with 

 in mi i<>n schools, 5 in I'tali ami ~> in New Mexico. 

 Tin- total rec.-ipts of the society were $187,414. 



Tli.- contributions t<> the Sum lay-School and Pub- 

 lishing Society in IsnT were $53,962, and the total 

 available income was $61.150. 



Home Missionary Society. The seventy-second 

 annual meeting of the Congregational Home Mis- 

 sionary Society was held at Cleveland, Ohio, June 

 7 to 9. The total income for the year, apart from 

 contributions made to the auxiliaries, had been 

 $879381, while the auxiliaries had raised and, ex- 

 panded $211.*45 on their own fields and in State 

 mission*: and tin- debt had been reduced $24,621. 

 The minion work had been crippled by lack of 

 tOM. Tin- number of missionaries had been 172 

 leas than in 1896, and the additions to the churches 

 2,258 fewer. During the vear 2,758 churches had 

 veil aid, and 1H7 Sunday schools had been or- 

 ganized; while 159,116 pupils were enrolled in all 

 tin- .schools under the care of the society. Addresses 

 made and papers read during the meeting on 

 "The New Mormonism," bv a grandson of Brigham 

 Young and the Rev. C. W. Luck; "The Work of 

 Sunday-School Missionaries on the Pacific Coast, 

 and other Local Aspects of the Work of the Society ;" 

 tin- " Opportunity in Alaska," by Mrs. E. T. Bailey ; 

 and " The Problem of the City," by the Rev. Josiah 

 St r< >ng, D. D., and the Rev. Washington Gladden, 

 D.D. 



American Missionary Association. The fifty- 

 second annual meeting of the American Missionary 

 Association was held in Concord, N. H., beginning 

 Oct. 25. The Rev. P. A. Noble, of Chicago, was 

 chosen president for the ensuing year. The execu- 

 tive committee reported that the receipts for the 

 ti-c;d year had been $327,487, and the expenditures 

 $271,837. Of the receipts, $37,405 were credited to 

 tuition fees, and $5,000 to payments to institutions 

 fn>m the Slater fund. The debt of $54,945 existing 

 at the end of the previous year had been paid, and 

 the association had a balance of $705. The con- 

 tributions from the Women's missionary societies, 

 comprising :{:{ State unions, hud been $26,530. The 

 ini-ome from the Daniel Hand fund, instituted by 

 .Mr. Hand ten years before, had been $66,684, which, 

 with a balance of $12.231 at the beginning of the 

 year, made the total resources from that fund 

 $89,915. The expenditure! on the same account 

 had teen $66,342. It was stated in answer to a 

 question that HI per cent, of the total receipts of 

 tin- association were spent in field work. The edu- 

 cational work of the association included 71 schools, 

 with :!!", instructors and 11,662 pupils. Of the 

 schools, 6 were chartered institutions, 40 normal 

 _-radi-il schools, and 25 common schools. It had 

 i>.-eii the policy of the society in all schools to 

 begin with awOMOtarj grades and retain all grades 

 boob advanced in their courses of study. There- 

 f ! ih.- normal v-hooN and the higher institutions 

 led that those who could secure only elemen- 

 tary instruction should have the opportunity for 

 that. Through this provision in the advanced 

 N opportunity was given for furnishing prac- 

 :nu r to tli<.se who were preparing to teach 

 others. The special elementary schools under the 

 of tin- assiM-iation were 'chiefly in isolated 

 places not cared for by the public Khooll,and were 

 usually associated with the rural churches. Besides 



the common schools taught by colored teachers, 

 several important graded and normal schools were 

 under the direction and care of graduates of the 

 association's institutions, whose work was well 

 spokerl of. The 12 mountain schools returned 51 

 teachers and 1,605 students. The 6 higher insti- 

 tutions Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn. ; Talla- 

 dega College, Talladega, Ala. ; Tougaloo University, 

 Tougaloo, Miss. ; Straight University, New Orleans, 

 La. ; Tillotson College, Austin, Texas ; and A very 

 Institute, Charleston, S. C. had distinctive college 

 studies, in which students who had approved them- 

 selves qualified and could continue to do so were 

 were carried to graduation. The aim of these insti- 

 tutions was "to secure trained and thoughtful men 

 of thorough education with adequate preparation 

 for efficient service as pastors of churches, men 

 who have been steadied in their discipline to hold 

 up continuously high ideas to a people who need 

 them." Wood- working, iron-working, tool-making, 

 shoemaking, printing, architecture, and agriculture 

 had been systematically taught to boy pupils, and 

 varied industries to girls. The Joseph K. Brick 

 Agricultural, Industrial, and Normal School had 

 been presented to the association by Mrs. Brick as 

 a memorial of her husband, with a large, substan- 

 tially built dormitory for young men, a building 

 for manual instruction in carpentry and forging, 

 and a barn. In the Church work in the South 

 nearly 1,000 members had been added on con- 

 fession of faith. No new mountain church had 

 been taken upon the roll, and only 8 other churches 

 in the South. The 202 churches of this class re- 

 turned 135 ministers and missionaries, 11,061 mem- 

 bers, 991 additions by profession of faith, and 

 15,059 pupils in church and mission Sunday schools. 

 In the pastoral service of these churches several 

 single ones had been combined into circuits, so 

 that one minister would cover appointments at 

 3, 4, 5, and sometimes as many as 6 preaching 

 places. The Indian missions, including those in 

 Alaska, comprised 18 churches and 31 missionary 

 out stations, with 1,016 members and 1,397 pupils 

 in Sunday schools, 7 schools with 409 pupils, 80 

 missionaries and teachers (48 white and 32 In- 

 dian), and returned contributions for benevolence 

 and church support of $2,029. Indian young men 

 and women were trained at the Santee Normal 

 School, where was the chief center of the work of 

 the association among the Indians for missionary 

 and educational leadership among their own peo- 

 ple. A correspondence institute was also conducted 

 at Santee. Other Indian missions were at Elbe- 

 woods, N. Dak. (the Fort Berthold mission), on 

 the Cheyenne river (with the Oahe school), in the 

 Standing Rock Agency, at the Rosebud Agency, in 

 Montana, where a Christian Endeavor Society 'had 

 been organized among the Crows, and in Alaska. 

 The Chinese missions included 20 Chinese and 

 Japanese schools, with 32 teachers, 9 of whom were 

 Chinese, and 1,374 pupils, and returned 70 additions 

 by confession of faith. A new central mission house 

 with a chapel capable of seating 250 people, and a 

 number of rooms for families " a church, a school, 

 and a Christian 'settlement ' " had been dedicated 

 and occupied in San Francisco. The schools had 

 been more largely attended than at any time before 

 since the Chinese exclusion law went into operation. 

 A special work was carried on for mothers and 

 children. 



The American Board. The eighty-ninth an- 

 nual meeting of the American Board of Commis- 

 sioners for Foreign Missions was held at Grand 

 Rapids, Mich., Oct. 4 to 7, the Rev. C. D. Lawson, 

 D. D., presiding. The report of the home depart- 

 ment referred to the distracting conditions in the 

 fields of labor, which had drawn away large sums 



