582 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



tion had an endowment of $192,000, and that of 

 the Eastern section one of $40,000. One hundred 

 and one ministers had received annuities avera- 

 ging $200 each from these two funds. The 3 

 widows' and orphans' funds those of the Eastern 

 and Western sections and that of the branch of 

 the Church formerly connected with the Church 

 of Scotland had a combined endowment of $403,- 

 530, and had paid annuities averaging $150 a year 

 to 179 widows. 



The capital of the Church and Manse fund was 

 $107,520. By its help 27 churches, 8 manses, and 

 3 schoolhouses had been built during the year, 

 and since its inception it had aided in the erec- 

 tion of 419 churches, 90 manses, and 4 school- 

 buildings, the present value of which was $603,835. 



The revenue of the Augmentation fund in the 

 Eastern and Western sections together had been 

 $32,121. The list of aided congregations included 

 143 in the Western section and 60 in the Eastern 

 section, representing 11,143 families and 19,501 

 communicants. An average grant of $150 was 

 made to these congregations to aid them in the 

 support of their ministers, the object aimed at 

 being a minimum salary of $750 a year and a 

 manse, which, however, was not yet reached in all 

 cases. 



The Board of French Evangelization returned 



40 fields of work, with 85 stations at which the 

 Gospel was preached by its missionaries in French. 

 Connected with these missions were 865 families 

 and 1,108 communicants, 144 of whom had been 

 added during the year. A mission to Italians in 

 Montreal, with a mission day-school, was also 

 under the care of the board. At many places in 

 the province of Quebec its minister was the only 

 representative of the Protestant Church, and in 

 some he served, in addition to his labors in the 

 French-speaking community, as minister to the 

 scattered English-speaking families of the district. 

 Seventeen mission day-schools were supported by 

 the Church. The central schools at Pointe-aux- 

 Trembles had been attended during the year by 

 167 pupils, of whom 30 had during the past 

 winter made profession of faith. More than 5,000 

 young men and women had obtained a liberal 

 education at these schools, and most of the mis- 

 sionaries employed by the board had received their 

 early training there. A French professor was con- 

 nected with the Presbyterian College, Montreal, 

 for the training of French missionaries. The con- 

 tributions of the year to this work had been 

 $2(5.926. 



The contributions to the work of home mis- 

 sions had been $122,731, an amount greatly in 

 excess of the contributions of any former year. 

 Seventy-eight home fields were returned in the 

 Eastern section of the Church, with 231 preaching 

 stations; and 428 fields in the Western section, 

 with 1,230 preaching stations. Connected with 

 these missions were 16,474 families and 18,477 

 communicants, and 1,986 members had been re- 

 ceived during the year on confession of faith. 

 The Students' Missionary Societies had contributed 

 $9,000 to the funds of the board, and had worked 



41 fields. A service of nurses at Atlin, Brit- 

 ish Columbia, was supported by a committeee of 

 ladies in Toronto. The missionaries of the board 

 had labored among Icelanders, Scandinavians, 

 Germans, Bohemians, Galicians, and Doukhobors. 

 The committee of the Western section had made 

 a special effort during the year to secure 100 

 congregations or persons who would contribute 

 $250 each toward the support of a missionary, 

 and had obtained such aid from 150 congregations 

 and individuals. By this means they had been 

 able to respond to every application for a mis- 



sionary, and so far as the committee knew, there 

 was not in the entire field committed to their 

 care a single district containing a dozen Pres- 

 byterian families where the ordinances of the 

 Church were not regularly maintained. 



The contributions for foreign missions had 

 amounted to $158,561. The work of the boards 

 was earned on in the New Hebrides, Trinidad, 

 Demerara, Formosa, Korea, Honan (China), and 

 India; and a missionary had been recently ap- 

 pointed to Macao, China. The missionary force 

 included 99 Canadian missionaries, with 268 na- 

 tive pastors, teachers, and other workers. The 

 Indians of the Dominion were under the care of 

 this board, as also the Chinese, of whom about 

 1,000 were under religious instruction at 30 

 schools. The Woman's Missionary Society, at 

 Montreal, had contributed $65,000 for home, 

 French, and foreign missionary work. 



The twenty-eighth General Assembly met in 

 Toronto, June 11. The Rev. George Bryce, LL. D., 

 was chosen moderator. One of the longest debates 

 of the meeting was on the subject of the use of 

 individual communion cups in the sacrament of 

 the Lord's Supper. It arose upon the presenta- 

 tion of a protest against the action of the session 

 of a church in Charlottetown, Prince Edward 

 Island, in introducing the innovation. The pres- 

 bytery of Prince Edward Island had decided that 

 the matter should be left to the judgment of the 

 individual congregation. An appeal had been 

 taken to the synod, and it had referred the ques- 

 tion to the General Assembly. A committee was 

 appointed by the Assembly to consider whether 

 any, and if so, what changes should be made or 

 permitted in the mode of observing the Lord's Sup- 

 per. The Assembly, recording its appreciation of 

 the work done among the young people of the 

 Church through the Society of Christian En- 

 deavor, suggested the adoption of " Presbyterian 

 Guild " as the distinctive name for the Young 

 People's Societies; and advised that where no 

 pledge is adopted and the Christian Endeavor type 

 of society is departed from, pastors urge that the 

 organizations be so shaped as to be distinctively 

 religious and missionary in their aims, and to 

 imply responsibility and the sense of obligation 

 in their membership. The committee that had 

 been appointed to confer with the trustees of 

 Queen's University regarding proposed changes in 

 its constitution reported that certain changes 

 in the charter of the institution had been agreed 

 to the effect of which would be to separate the 

 university legally and nominally, as it had long 

 been practically separate, from the Church ; while 

 at the same time the Theological College was 

 brought into closer relationship with it, and was 

 placed more directly under the authority of the 

 General Assembly. The report was accepted, and 

 the committee was reappointed to continue the 

 conferences. The institution of a school for train- 

 ing catechists was authorized, the school to be 

 held in the city of Winnipeg, and its course of 

 study to embrace 3 terms of three months each, 

 in July, August, and September of each year. A 

 new class of laborers was instituted, to be known 

 as minister-evangelists, the step being designed 

 as a temporary expedient to meet the exceptional 

 demand for men during the next seven years. A 

 proposal to institute a standing committee to 

 exercise a general supervision over all theological 

 colleges at which ministers are being trained for 

 the Presbyterian Church was laid on the table, 

 to be taken up in the next year. A report on 

 precedence adopted by the Assembly contemplated 

 measures for representing to the proper authorities 

 the desirability of abolishing the present rules of 



