FRIENDS. 



269 





Ind., Oct. 22-27, at the first regular meeting of the 

 Five Years' Meeting as a permanent body to 

 represent the yearly meetings on the basis of 

 the new constitution and uniform discipline 

 (see Annual Cyclopaedia, 1899, p. 307, and 1900, 

 p. 246). Eleven of the 13 yearly meetings in the 

 United States had adopted the new constitution 

 and uniform discipline and were duly represented 

 in the meeting, leaving only those of Philadelphia 

 and Ohio without accredited delegates. The open- 

 ing of the Five Years' Meeting was preceded, Oct. 



21, by the final meeting of the Quinquennial Con- 

 ference, out of which the Five Years' Meeting has 

 been developed, which after hearing the report of 

 the committee appointed to prepare the uniform 

 discipline and the report of the treasurer ad- 

 journed sine die. 



At the opening of the Five Years' Meeting, Oct. 



22, fraternal delegates attended from Ohio and 

 Canada Yearly Meetings, and members of London 

 .and Philadelphia Yearly Meetings were received 

 as fraternal delegates. Nearly 200 delegates were 

 present. Edmund Stanley, of Kansas, was chosen 

 lerk, or presiding officer. The earlier sessions 

 were occupied with the discussion of subjects con- 

 nected with the prospective functions, enterprises, 

 and agencies of the organization, on which action 

 was taken later. These subjects included The 

 Scope and Work of the Evangelistic and Church 

 Extension Board of the Five Years' Meeting; 

 The Scope and Work of the Committee on Leg- 

 islation; The Present Condition of the Indians 

 and the Work to be done for them; Present 

 Condition of the Negroes and the Work to 

 be done for them; The Present Condition of 

 the Foreign Missionary Work of American 

 Friends; The Scope and Work of the Board of 

 Foreign Missions of the Five Years' Meeting ; The 

 Scope and Work of the Committee on Education; 

 The Finances of the Five Years' Meeting; Plan for 

 United Action for the Suppression of the Liquor 

 Traffic; Methods of Practical Work among Rural 

 and Urban Communities ; Practical Aspects of the 

 Present Trend of Eeligious Thought ; - How can 

 an Efficient Ministry be Developed? Our Present 

 Duty in the Cause of Peace and Arbitration ; Our 

 Church Literature; The Place and Functions of 

 the Five Years' Meeting in our Church Organiza- 

 tion; and The Theory and Practise of Public 

 Worship. A paper was read on the place of 

 woman in the Church and the need for care that 

 her full place should be given her. The matter of 

 incorporating the Five Years' Meeting was referred 

 to the Committee on Legislation, with authority 

 to act and sign an application for incorporation. 



> Tt was decided that the business of the meeting 

 be transacted according to the rules of parlia- 

 mentary usage. Of propositions for amendment of 

 the constitution and discipline, besides a provision 

 for the correction of casual errors, the only one 

 adopted was a rule making new provisions sub- 

 mitted by one yearly meeting and approved by the 

 Five Years' Meeting operative when adopted by 

 four- fifths of the yearly meetings constituting the 

 Five Years' Meeting. An Evangelistic and Church 

 Extension Board was organized. A board on the 

 condition and welfare of the negroes was ap- 

 pointed to take into consideration the best means 

 of elevating them, with power to carry the same 

 into effect. Resolutions were passed against 

 lynching and lawlessness, and commending the 

 work done by several of the yearly meetings in 

 behalf of the negro. The woi'k of the associated 

 Executive Committee of Friends on Indian Af- 

 fairs was commended, its present organization 

 was accepted, and it was appointed the official 

 representative of the meeting in that field. The 



Board of Education, having completed its organ- 

 ization, made a report, which was adopted, com- 

 mending the work of the colleges and approving 

 efforts to provide greater endowments for them; 

 authorizing the establishment and cpnduct of a 

 lectureship on the history and interpretation of 

 Christian truth as held by Friends; advising co- 

 operation of Friends in the support of the existing 

 course of Bible study in the colleges; commend- 

 ing efforts by means of Biblical institutes to fur- 

 nish a high character of Biblical instruction to 

 members and suggesting the establishment of a 

 course in one of the existing colleges; and con- 

 stituting a financial educational board to receive 

 and hold gifts and bequests for educational pur- 

 poses. The work of the Peace Association, it being 

 a well-organized and incorporated body, was ap- 

 proved, and the association was invited to repre- 

 sent the meeting and report to it regularly, while 

 the yearly meetings were asked to support it. 

 The American Friends' Board of Foreign Missions 

 presented a review of its work, and the meeting, 

 defining its functions and its relations to the 

 other boards and the yearly meetings, declared 

 its duty to be to represent American Friends in 

 matters pertaining to the interdenominational 

 aspects of foreign mission work. Each yearly 

 meeting represented in the board, while continu- 

 ing its own separate work, as heretofore, is ex- 

 pected to realize that this work forms a constitu- 

 ent part of the foreign mission work of Friends in 

 America, of which the American Friends' Board 

 has a general advisory oversight; "but it must 

 not be interpreted that such advice carries with 

 it any controlling authority." Resolutions were 

 adopted calling for a proper observance of the 

 Christian Satbath, and declaring " true, living, 

 and reverent prayer " essential for the spiritual 

 power of the meetings, and for the entire Church 

 work in the world. A call was adopted to be sent 

 to the governing bodies of the various denomina- 

 tions of Christians in the United States, inviting 

 them to send delegates to a Temperance Congress 

 to be held in the city of Washington on the 

 second Wednesday of March, 1906, to consider in 

 what way Christians can exert a united influence 

 in the cause of temperance, and by what means 

 they may work together. Five delegates at large 

 and one additional delegate from each of the 11 

 annual meetings were appointed the committee 

 of the present meeting on the subject. 



Missions of American Friends. The mis- 

 sionary work of American Friends began in In- 

 diana Yearly Meeting in 1873, when Samuel A. 

 Purdie went to Mexico as a missionary. It was 

 prosecuted through the prtss, the schools, and the 

 Church. Iowa Yearly Meeting began in 1883 to 

 labor among the colored population and the coolies 

 in Jamaica. The Woman's Foreign Missionary 

 Association of Friends entered the mission field at 

 Tokio, Japan, in 1885. Kansas Yearly Meeting 

 established a mission among the Indians on 

 Douglas Island, Alaska, in 1887. New England 

 Meeting was associated with English Friends in 

 Palestine till 1885 when it took separate charge 

 at Ramallah. Western Yearly Meeting took the 

 work at Matahuela, Mexico, from Indiana Meeting 

 in 1889, and has also a mission in South Africa. 

 Ohio Yearly Meeting began a mission in China in 

 1890, and afterward in India. Oregon Yearly 

 Meeting began at Kake Island, Alaska, in 1894, 

 and California Meeting on Kotzebue Sound, Alas- 

 ka, in 1897. The other yearly meetings have no 

 special missions of their own. but cooperate with 

 the yearly meetings already named in the work 

 they have undertaken. The American Friends' 

 Board of Missions, which is incorporated in In- 



