278 GERMAN EVANGELICAL CHURCH. 



GERMANY. 



the west from the mountains of Nepal, and by 

 the Teesta valley on the east from the moun- 

 tains of Bhotan. By crossing the spur which 

 united it to the Tibetan highlands, it was just 

 possible to get round the mountain without 

 trenching on any territory which was officially 

 recognized as Tibetan. Mr. Freshfield said his 

 object was to make the high-level tour of Kang- 

 chenjunga, and to pass as near the great moun- 

 tain as possible. That had never been accom- 

 plished by Europeans. 



" Taking into account secondary glaciers, the 

 area covered by snow and ice in the group, ac- 

 cepting the 24,000 peak north of the Jonsong La 

 as its northern limit, might be estimated at 180 

 square miles. As to the most notable peculiar- 

 ities of Sikkim glaciers, the transformation of 

 snow into something like glacier ice took place 

 within a few hundred feet of the final ridge of 

 Kangchenjunga. Such wdrt 5 was found there as 

 in similar positions on the Jungfrau in the Swiss 

 Alps. In the upper ice-falls the ice was apt to 

 assume a strange conformation. He described it 

 by comparing it to the earth pillars found in 

 certain friable soils. The glacier was converted, 

 not into Alpine stracs, towers, and ridges sev- 

 ered from one another by profound clefts, but 

 into clusters of ice-cones, repeating the same 

 form monotonously." 



Africa. From an article by Rev. George 

 Grenfell on The Upper Congo as a Waterway it 

 is learned that there are more than 100 steamers 

 plying there. The river affords a whole available 

 waterway of more than 6,000 miles. Leopoldville 

 and Brazzaville are important places, though 

 smaller than Boma, the capital; twenty-five years 

 ago they were unknown native villages. They 

 are starting-points for the fleet of the more than 

 100 steamers that have been carried in plates and 

 sections beyond the cataracts and reconstructed 

 there. They are of all sizes, from small open 

 launches to crafts carrying 200 to 300 tons. 



GEORGIA. (See under UNITED STATES.) 



GERMAN EVANGELICAL CHURCH. 

 The German Evangelical Synod of North Amer- 

 ica was formed in Missouri in 1840 by 6 minis- 

 ters who were performing missionary work 

 among the German settlers, and who had been 

 attached in their native land to the Evangelical, 

 the state Church of Prussia. Other religious 

 bodies which had originated under similar cir- 

 cumstances in Ohio, the East, and the Northwest 

 were united with it in 1850, 1860, and 1872. It 

 had in 1901, according to the reports made to 

 the General Synod which met in St. Louis, Mo., 

 in that year, in 17 district synods, 922 ministers, 

 1,153 congregations, with 203,574 communicant 

 members, 10,144 teachers, and 100,177 children in 

 Sunday-schools, and 486 parochial schools; and 

 the aggregate of contributions for the propaga- 

 tion of the Gospel was returned at $95,660. The 

 lints of pastors and congregations published in 

 the Evangelischer Kalender for 1903 give the 

 names of 27 pastors and 26 congregations addi- 

 tional to those given in the Kalender for the 

 previous year. Recognizing the Holy Scriptures 

 as the only authoritative standard of faith and 

 practise, this Church accepts the Lutheran stand- 

 ards and the Heidelberg Confession as interpre- 

 tations of them so far as those declarations agree, 

 and where they differ loaves the Bible passages 

 to be interpreted by the conscience of the be- 

 liever. The homo mission work of the Church 

 wns placed by the General Synod of 1901 under the 

 c.iro of a separate board. During the three years 

 that had passed since the previous meeting of the 

 General Synod 63 mission parishes had been as- 



sisted, 29 of which had become self-supporting. 

 Between $10,000 and $12,000 were contributed for 

 these missions yearly. The grants for 1902, re- 

 ported to the meeting of the board in August, 

 amounted to $26,500. The foreign mission in In- 

 dia, under the care of the foreign mission board, 

 returned 7 missionaries and 5 women* with na- 

 tive teachers, catechists, etc., making a total mis- 

 sionary force of 79 persons. The mission in- 

 cluded 4 principal stations, with 2,092 communi- 

 cants and 5,291 members in all. The contribu- 

 tions of the last three years to this work had 

 been more liberal than those of any previous 

 term. The amount contributed for 1901 had 

 been $15,980, which, with a surplus of $12,226 at 

 the beginning of the year, had given $28,206 to 

 be at the disposal of the board ; while the expend- 

 iture had been $19,943. At the beginning orf 1902 

 the surplus had been reduced to $8,262. An im- 

 migrant mission was maintained in Baltimore, 

 Md., and cooperated with the German emigrant 

 mission in Bremen. The principal educational in- 

 stitutions of the Church are the proseminary at 

 Elmhurst, 111., and Eden College and Theological 

 Seminary, St. Louis, Mo. Other benevolent insti- 

 tutions are a deaconess house in St. Louis. 2 

 orphan houses, and a hospital in St. Louis. 

 Eden Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo., supplies 

 literature for the Church in the German and 

 English languages. Formerly the German lan- 

 guage was very largely predominant in the work 

 of the Church, but the membership has be- 

 come so largely Anglicized that the General 

 Synod a few years ago made provisions for the 

 publication of literature for Sunday-schools and 

 church services in English as well; and the Eng- 

 lish department has become a considerable and 

 growing branch of the work of the publishing 

 house. A Young People's Society was organized 

 at a meeting held for that purpose in Cleveland, 

 Ohio, Sept. 17 and 18, 1902, at which 13 of the 

 17 district synods were represented by delegates. 

 The Rev. J. Pister, president of the General 

 Synod, presided. Constitutions were adopted for 

 the general and for local societies. 



GERMANY, an empire in central Europe, 

 composed of the federated German states, which, 

 in the terms of the Constitution of April 16, 

 1871, form an eternal union for the protection 

 of the realm and the care of the welfare of the 

 German people. The King of Prussia as German 

 Emperor has supreme direction of the military 

 and political affairs of the empire. There are 

 2 legislative bodies with concurrent powers the 

 Bundesrath, composed of representatives of the 

 federated states, and the Reichstag, representing 

 the German people. Acts on which they agree be- 

 come law on receiving the assent of the Emperor, 

 countersigned by the Chancellor of the Empire. 

 The Bundesrath has 58 members, appointed by 

 the governments of the federated states. The 

 Reichstag has 397 members, 1 to 131,604 of popu- 

 lation, elected by universal manhood suffrage and 

 by secret ballot for the term of five years. Mem- 

 bers of the Bundesrath are appointed anew for 

 each legislative session. The Kingdom of Prussia 

 is represented in the Bundesrath by 17 members 

 and in the Reichstag by 236, the Kingdom of Ba- 

 varia by 6 and 48 respectively, the Kingdom of 

 Saxony by 4 and 23, the Kingdom of Wiirtemberg 

 by 4 and 17, the Grand Duchy of Baden by 3 and 

 14. the Grand Duchy of Hesse by 3 and 9, the 

 Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin by 2 and 

 6, the Grand Duchy of Saxe- Weimar by 1 and 3, 

 the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz by 1 

 and 1, the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg by 1 and 

 3, the Duchy of Brunswick by 2 and 3, the Duchy 



