442 



METHODISTS. 



these churches had given place, as population and 

 the strength of the people had increased, to larger 

 and more valuable buildings. By a system of special 

 gifts of $100 each, what are called " mountain 

 churches " are procured, at a cost, on the average, of 

 $600 or $700 each. While the principal field of this 

 work is the mountain region of the central South, 

 it has extended into other parts of the country. 

 The churches are situated chiefly in small vil- 

 lages and rural districts, and are built with the 

 co-operation of the resident people. Ten such 

 churches had been added during the year, making 

 the whole number 90. A much larger number of 

 churches of this class had been aided out of the 

 L r <'iieral treasury in the ordinary course of the work. 

 The capital of the Loan fund stood at $1.043,310, 

 while churches borrowing had returned, in all, dur- 

 ing the historv of the society, $1,169,711, showing 

 an aggregate for use by loans- to date of $2,213,- 

 021. In this way 3.315 different churches had been 

 aided, furnishing sittings for about 965,000 hearers, 

 and worth in the aggregate, nearly $12,000,000. 



The seventeenth annual meeting of the Woman's 

 Home Missionary Society was held at Minneapolis, 

 Minn., Oct. 19. The total cash receipts for the 

 year had been $135,164, and the expenditures $131,- 

 430. Bequests to the amount of $36.000 had been 

 made to the society during the year, of which $13,- 

 000 had been paid in. Reports were made of work 

 in the South, where the society had 15 homes, with 

 religious, literary, and industrial schools; among 

 the Indians of New Mexico and the frontier, with 

 a school for Indian girls at Lyndon, Wash. ; 

 among the Spanish-Americans ; in Alaska ; in 

 I'tah, where 13 missionaries and deaconesses are 

 laboring; among immigrants in New York, Boston, 

 and Philadelphia; and among the Chinese in San 

 Francisco. The society had 20 homes for deacon- 

 esses, besides several centers of work, with 165 

 deaconesses in the field, and a training school for 

 missionaries and deaconesses in Washington, D. C., 

 for which a new and larger building is needed and 

 projected, and homes for orphan and destitute 

 children at York, Neb., Tivoli, N. Y., and Urbana, 

 111., with about 175 children under care and in 

 training. 



The General Committee of the Freedmen's Aid 

 and Southern Education Society met in Boston, 

 Mass., Nov. 7. The treasurer reported that the 

 total receipts for the year had been $122,209, of 

 which $80.932 were contributions from the confer- 

 ences. The disbursements had been $126,756. The 

 apportionments for the ensuing year were made on 

 the basis of $248,950 as the total amount to be 

 raised. The regret of the committee was expressed 

 by resolution at the fact that the collections from 

 the churches for the society had been decreasing. 

 The society maintained 1 theological seminary, 12 

 collegiate and 10 academic institutions among the 

 colored people, and 3 colleges and 20 academic 

 schools among white people. 



The General Missionary Committee met at Provi- 

 dence, H. I., Nov. 9 to 15. The treasurer reported 

 that the receipts for the year ending Oct. 81 had 

 been $1,181,789, being $49',848 more than those of 

 the preceding year. The expenditures had been 

 $1,196,802. of which $626,202 were charged to the 

 account of foreign missions, and the rest to domes- 

 tic. The total debt in the treasury was $177.417, 

 having been diminished $98,731. The sum of $60.- 

 838 had been received in the form of " special 

 gifts." 



Appropriations were made for the missionary 

 work of the eiiMiing year as follows: For Ger- 

 many. $36,575 ; for Switzerland. $7,390 : for Nor- 

 way; $12.421 : for Sweden, $16,256 ; for Denmark, 

 $7,490; for Finland and St. Petersburg, $5,124; for 



Bulgaria, $8,868; for Italy, $40,511; for South 

 America, $75,620 ; for .Mexico, $79,275 ; for Africa, 

 $24,635; for China, $118,254; for Japan, $49,272; 

 for Korea, $16,752; for India, $142,886; for Malay- 

 sia, $9,855 ; total for foreign missions, $621,184. 

 For missions in the United States (classified as 

 Welsh, Danish, Norwegian and Danish, German, 

 French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Bohemian and 

 Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese. American Indian, 

 and English-speaking), $413,022. The miscella- 

 neous appropriations, for salaries, incidental ex- 

 penses, etc., amounted to $110,000, making the total 

 amount appropriated $1,177,206. In addition to 

 this appropriations were made contingently for the 

 Congo Mission Conference, Alaska, Italian work in 

 Louisiana, and the establishment of a mission in 

 Puerto Rico, amounting in all to $48,000. 



The twenty-ninth annual meeting of the General 

 Executive Committee of the Woman's Foreign Mis- 

 sionary Society was held at Indianapolis, Ind., in 

 November. The receipts for the year had been 

 $328,488, $14,550 more than those of the previous 

 year, and the largest in the history of the society. 

 Three missionaries had been sent to China during 

 the year, 7 to India, 3 to Japan, 1 to Burmah. and 

 1 to Africa, while 9 had returned from the field for 

 rest. Eight missionary candidates had been ac- 

 cepted. The Felts Missionary Institute, at Her- 

 kirner, N. Y., the gift of Mr. and Mrs. George P. 

 Felts, was accepted as a school for the training of 

 Christian workers. 



The bishops of this Church, at their semiannual 

 meeting in November, adopted an address to the 

 members and friends of the Church inviting them 

 to contribute for a twentieth century thank offering 

 of $20,000.000, " over and above all ordinary con- 

 tributions for the maintenance and spread of the 

 "kingdom of Christ, which certainly ought not to 

 be diminished" the subscription to be paid within 

 three years from Jan. 1, 1899. Of this sum, it 

 was proposed to give $10,000,000 for the benefit of 

 the universities, theological seminaries, colleges, 

 and other schools ; and $10,000,000 for the hospitals, 

 orphanages, homes for the aged, and other chari- 

 table institutions of the Church, and for payment 

 of debts on the various Church properties. A Gen- 

 eral Executive Commission was nominated for the 

 accomplishment of this scheme, the first meeting 

 of which was appointed to be held in the city of 

 New York, Jan. 5, 1899. 



II. Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

 The tables of religious statistics published in the 

 ' Independent," New York, Jan. 5, 1899, give this 

 Church, for 1898, 5,901 ministers, 13,995 churches, 

 and 1,458,345 communicants. 



The thirteenth General Conference met in Balti- 

 more, Md., May 5. The episcopal address showed . 

 that the number of itinerant preachers had in- 

 creased since the last General Conference 502. and 

 the membership of the Church 123,221. The whole 

 number of itinerant preachers was 5.989 : of local 

 preachers, 5,685 ; and of members, 1,478,431. The 

 aggregate value of the Church property of all kimls 

 was estimated at a little more than ' $85,000,000, 

 showing an increase of about $2.000.000 during the 

 four years. The Sunday-school reports gave the 

 number of such schools as 14,188. with 104.KJ5 

 teachers and 851.488 pupils, or 825 schools. 8,45!) 

 teachers, and 86,202 pupils more than in 1W4. The 

 Church had under its control 76 educational insti- 

 tutions of all grades, with more than 1,000 teach- 

 ers. 16,000 students, property valued at $4,661,850, 

 and endowments amounting to $2,189.695. The ac- 

 counts of the several boards and benevolent socie- 

 ties showed that the whole amount paid out l>\ 

 them during the quadrennium had been $2.t>it7.!>~>.">. 

 On an indebtedness of $129,144 lying against the 



