CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



135 



^ egationalism. Papers were read on Difficul- 

 ties in the Way of Belief which beset the Young, 

 Free Church Life in Rural England, and The 

 Relation of the Evangelical Basis of our Church 

 Life to Social Questions. Meetings were held 

 representative of the Young People, the Women, 

 Congregational Settlements, and the Total Ab- 

 stinence Association. 



The report of the subcommittee appointed to 

 draft a superannuation scheme for ministers 

 embodied a plan resting on a basis of equal con- 

 tributions by ministers and churches, the amount 

 to be determined by the age when each contribu- 

 tion is paid, the amount of the contributions, and 

 the age at which superannuation begins A min- 

 ister's contributions are to cease on his attaining 

 the age of sixty-five, after which, on his retire- 

 ment, the full amount will be payable. Each 

 separate annual contribution will provide a cor- 

 responding annuity beginning at the retiring age, 

 the total annuity "being the aggregate secured by 

 the several annual payments. Any minister, or 

 any church on his behalf, may at any time pay a 

 lump sum in order to secure for him an annuity 

 or an increased annuity. A minister may be as- 

 sured under either of two tables, viz., (1) with 

 no return of contribution, or (2) with a lower 

 rate of annuity, but with return of the amount 

 of his own paid contributions in the event of his 

 death or of his retirement through failure of 

 health or other approved cause before the age of 

 sixty-five years. 



The English Chapel-Building Society had con- 

 sidered 50 cases during the year, and had made 

 grants to 40 of them, amounting to 8,566. Con- 

 tributions had fallen off, having been received 

 from only 187 churches. The receipts, apart from 

 interest and dividends on investments and a loan 

 from bank, had amounted to 3,589, of which 

 3,000 were from the return of advances. 



The report of the Congregational Total Ab- 

 stinence Association showed that while twenty- 

 five years before out of 2,000 Congregational 

 ministers there were 700 abstainers, at the pres- 

 ent time out of 2,887 pastors in England and 

 W T ales the number of total abstainers was 2,551. 



The income of the Colonial Missionary Society, 

 including a grant of 4,100 from the Twentieth 

 Century fund, had been 9,500. The society had 

 worked during the year in 12 colonies, and had 

 sent out 5 young men to the colonial field. 



From the Pastors' Retiring fund 6,690 had 

 been paid in annuities to 185 annuitants. On 

 account of the Pastors' Widows' fund 1,221 

 haa> been paid to 101 annuitants. 



In the third volume of the Transactions of the 



mgregational Historical Society, published in 

 1902, is a paper by Dr. F. J. Powicke giving lists 

 f the early separatists compiled from the records 

 f arrests 'and prosecutions. The striking facts 

 re remarked that the great majority of the 

 umber were very -young, that they were mostly 

 of the tradesman or artisan class, and that very 

 :ew of them drew back or wavered. 



London Missionary Society. The one hun- 



red and seventh annual meeting of the London 



Missionary Society was held in London, May 12. 



~he report showed that the total income from all 



urces had been 121,000. while the expenditure 

 ad risen to 153.700. This left a deficit of 23.- 

 on the year's working, to be added to the defi- 

 it of $36,000 accumulated from previous years. 

 'ownrd removing this debt $17,845 had been 



'ceived from the Twentieth Century fund, and 



ore than 20,000 had been already promised by 



iends of the society. The alternative was pre- 



nted of abandoning some field of labor or in- 



creasing the income. The statistics as to the 

 staff of the society and facts in its mission work 

 showed that it employed 206 men and JO women 

 as missionaries, with 940 ordained native pastor-. 

 3,474 native preachers, 1,208 Christian men and 

 310 Christian women as teachers, and 271 Bible 

 women, and had 64,716 church-members and 

 194,777 native adherents. The mission Sunday- 

 schools numbered 1,283 and returned 54,249 

 pupils, while there were 1,642 boys' day-schools, 

 with 59,966 pupils, and 190 girls' day-schools, 

 with 30,467 pupils. The local contributions 

 amounted to 22,116, the school fees to 5,964, 

 and the receipts of the medical missions to 3,- 

 343; making a total of 31,414 raised and locally 

 appropriated at mission stations. The report re- 

 viewed the condition of the missions in China, 

 where restoration was going on, the Theological 

 College at Hankow had been opened, and educa- 

 tion seemed to have received a great impetus from 

 the Change in the political situation; in India, 

 where progress was slow but steady; and repre- 

 sented that the reports from Madagascar showed 

 that the troubles of past days were apparently 

 over, and that the missionaries of the society 

 were no longer victims of suspicion and mistrust. 

 The resumption of responsibility for the ele- 

 mentary schools contributed largely to the finan- 

 cial difficulty. The conditions of work in Africa 

 and New Guinea, where the mission was under- 

 staffed in consequence of the murder of Messrs. / 

 James Chalmers and Oliver Tomkins and the 

 prevalence of exceptional sickness among mis- 

 sionaries and natives, were noticed. The work in 

 Tahiti and the Loyalty Islands and part of that 

 in Madagascar, those regions being now French 

 possessions, had been transferred to the Paris 

 Missionary Society. The secretary of this society 

 was present at the meeting with a fraternal mes- 

 sage from the directory. He said that in ten 

 years, although there were only 600,000 Protes- 

 tants in France, the number of missionaries of 

 the Paris society had increased from 37 to 97 and 

 its income from 13,000 to 45,000. 



The Gainsborough Tercentenary. The ter- 

 centenary of the Congregational church at Gains- 

 borough, of which John Robinson was pastor, and 

 where the separatists, or American Pilgrims, wor- 

 shiped previously to their flight to Holland, was 

 celebrated June 8 with commemorative services 

 at the John Robinson Memorial Church, which 

 had been built in 1897 by the aid of the con- 

 tributions of English and American Congrega- 

 tionalists. Officials and other delegates of the 

 Congregational churches in the United States 

 were present, and brought with them the con- 

 tributions which had been made in the United 

 States for the liquidation of the debt of the iif\v 

 church. A sermon was preached on Sunday by 

 Prof. Duff, of the United College, Bradford, 

 who made allusions to the events which gave the 

 memorial services their importance. A Free 

 Church meeting was held on Sunday afternoon. 

 when the American delegates spoke in behalf of . 

 the Congregationalists of the L'nited States. The 

 tercentenary sermon was preached on Tuesday 

 -evening. May 10, by the Rev. Dr. Fairbairn. >f 

 Oxford, who'spoke of the share of John Robinson 

 and 'the Pilgrims in spreading the Gospel of 

 Christ. At a public meeting held in the Gains- 

 borough " Old Hall " a paper was read by Mr. 

 Edward McKnight. of Chorley Public Library, on 

 the historic associations of the Old Hall and its 

 connection \\ith the Xi-w England Pilgrims. A 

 bronze tablet to the memory of the Pilgrims, 

 placed in the vestibule of the church and com- 

 memorating the cooperation of English and 



