668 UNITED EVANGELICAL CHURCH. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Pennsylvania and Albright Colleges had been 

 united into one, called Albright College, and Dal- 

 las Seminary, Oregon, had become Dallas College. 

 The per capita missionary contributions had in- 

 creased from 70 cents in 1898 to $1.13, or 61 per 

 cent. The report of the statistical secretary gave 

 the following percentages of gains during the past 

 four years: In membership, 7.2; in preachers, 

 itinerant and local, 11.7; in organized congrega- 

 tions (three years), 5.4; in Sunday-schools (pres- 

 ent number 887), 13.1; in average attendance on 

 tne same (53,710), 6.2; in Keystone League Chris- 

 tian Endeavor Societies, 2.4, with a small decrease 

 in active membership ; in Women's Missionary So- 

 cieties (231), 37.5; in active membership of the 

 same, 37.1; in Young People's Missionary Socie- 

 ties (33), 120, and 120 per cent, in their member- 

 ship; in mission bands (123), 36.6, and 61 per 

 cent, in their membership; in aggregate circula- 

 tion of periodicals, 16.4; in missionary collections 

 conference treasury, 34.6 ; general treasury, 109 ; 

 in average missionary contribution per member, 

 60; in average salary of preachers ($537), 10.3; 

 in average contribution per member for preachers' 

 salaries ($3.17), 18.2. 



The Board of Church Extension reported to the 

 General Conference that its receipts for four years 

 had been $1,649, and its expenditures $2,179. Six 

 churches had been aided during the time. The 

 receipts for the past year had been $449. 



The total volume of business of the publishing 

 house at Harrisburg, Pa., for the past year had 

 been $65,754, showing an increase of $3,228 over 

 the previous yeaf. The net profit for the year had 

 been $3,981. 



The charitable society had received $2,402 and 

 expended $31 in four years, and returned its re- 

 sources on Oct. 1, 1902, as $3,330. A by-law of 

 the society provides that none of the income ari- 

 sing from its revenues or investments shall be dis- 

 tributed till the fund amounts to $10,000. 



The receipts of the Missionary Society for the 

 year ending Oct. 1 had been $21,366, and the ex- 

 penditures $20,872. The Conference Missionary 

 Societies had received $40,109, and expended $53,- 

 741. The Woman's Missionary Society had re- 

 ceived $13,703 and expended $10,138. The 

 amount of the foreign mission fund $3,905 hav- 

 ing been added during the year was $9,742 ; and 

 the receipt of $49 for the First Church in China 

 was acknowledged. The quadrennial statement 

 made by the society to the General Conference 

 gave the total receipts for four years as $254,142, 

 and the expenditures as $253,721. The appropria- 

 tions for 1902-'03 amounted to $66,600. 



The General Conference met at Williamsport, 

 Pa., Oct. 9. The report on education gave ac- 

 counts of the three higher institutions Albright 

 College, Myerstown, Pa.; Western Union College, 

 Le Mars, Iowa; and Dallas College, Dallas, Ore.; 

 and embodied a declaration, which was adopted 

 by the conference, that the demand upon the 

 Church is imperative to furnish its youth the op- 

 portunity for thorough education in its own in- 

 stitutions, and under the guidance and influence 

 of men and women of its faith. Regulations were 

 adopted for the government of the theological in- 

 stitutions and theological departments in schools, 

 prescribing that all the members of the Boards of 

 Trustees controlling such departments shall be 

 members in good standing of the United Evan- 

 gelical Church; that each teacher shall be likewise 

 a member of the Church, and shall, before he en- 

 ters upon his office as a teacher and each successive 

 year thereafter before the opening of the school 

 year, sign a declaration promising " to uphold the 

 doctrines, discipline, and polity of the United 



Evangelical Church, as set forth in its discipline 

 and established usages, and to teach nothing not 

 in perfect harmony with, or subversive of, said 

 doctrines, discipline, and polity," so long as he re- 

 mains in connection with the institution. 



Provision was further made for dealing with 

 teachers offending against these rules, and each 

 theological school was made amenable to the an- 

 nual conferences under whose control it stands, to 

 which it was required to report. A post-graduate 

 course of study for preachers was adopted. A 

 new article on church extension was adopted for 

 insertion in the Discipline, contemplating the reor- 

 ganization of the society on such a basis as shall 

 enlist the entire Church in its work. The election 

 of a corresponding secretary of the Missionary So- 

 ciety was recommended, he to be without salary 

 except such compensation as may be given him for 

 actual service in canvassing the Church. The in- 

 terest of the conference was expressed in the new- 

 ly established mission at Changsha, China; the 

 purchase of property there was advised; the es- 

 tablishment of a medical service as soon as prac- 

 ticable recommended ; and the establishment of a, 

 training-school in connection with the mission 

 work was directed. All forms of Sabbath dese- 

 cration were discountenanced and condemned, and 

 all ministers and members of the Church were 

 urged to keep constantly in mind the great im- 

 portance of maintaining and perpetuating the sa- 

 credness of the Lord's Day. Resolutions on moral 

 reform and temperance took cognizance of the 

 various current aspects of temperance action and 

 discussion and the standard of personal purity, 

 emphasized the importance of steadfast adherence 

 to the rule of the Church on divorce (for adultery 

 only), and expressed opposition to all monopolies 

 injurious to healthy competition. The interests 

 and organization of Sunday-schools and Christian 

 Endeavor Societies were recognized in resolutions 

 embodying suggestions as to their conduct. A 

 complete change of bishops was effected, the Rev. 

 H. R. Hartzler, D. D., editor of the English offi- 

 cial newspaper, The Evangelical, and the Rev. 

 William F. Heil being chosen to that office, while 

 Bishop W. M. Stanford was elected editor of The 

 Evangelical and Bishop Rudolf Dubs editor of the 

 Zeitschrift, the German official organ. The con- 

 ference directed that one of the bishops should live 

 in the East and one not farther east than Chicago. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, a federal 

 republic in North America. The legislative power 

 is vested in the Congress, consisting of the Senate 

 and the House of Representatives. There are 90 

 Senators, 2 from each State, elected by the State 

 Legislatures for six years, one-third being renewed 

 every second- year. The House of Representatives 

 has 357 members, elected in the congressional dis- 

 tricts, into which the States are divided on the 

 basis of the population shown in the last prece- 

 ding decennial census, for two years by the ballots 

 of all persons qualified to vote in State election-. 

 in most States by universal adult male suffrage. 

 Each House of Congress is the judge of the elec- 

 tions, returns, and qualifications of its own mem- 

 bers. No person holding office can while continu- 

 ing in office be a member of either House. Sena- 

 tors must be thirty years of age, citizens of the 

 United States for nine years, and residents of the 

 States in which they are chosen. Representatives 

 must be twenty-five years of age, citizens for 

 seven years, and residents of the States from which 

 they are elected. 



The executive power is vested in the President 

 of the United States, who is commander-in-chief 

 of the military and naval forces, can lay before 

 Congress projects of legislation, is empowered to 



