1892.]

sion. Natives are very quick to discover which one in a mission they can get the most out of, and who are the most thoughtful and responsible; and they very soon learn whether a mission holds together or pulls apart.

The missionaries are the representatives of our home churches. How oft shall it be repeated? They are like us in spirit, education, discernment. They should receive the full support of our churches. They should be trusted. They know what it is to live in daily contact with heathen society, they experience all the difficulties of dealing with an uneducated church. They endure with amazing patience, things of which we know nothing, resulting from the low moral and spiritual standards of their brothers in Christ who have

just issued from heathenism. Yet some of our good church people have such a low estimate of their spirit and judgment that they often pass the missionary over entirely and listen to the story of some Oriental who has never been tried, often one who has no standing whatever, religious or other

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wise, in his own land. So-called theological students, graduates from missionschools, and general adventurers present themselves as special objects for our generous Americans to support. Thus money which might be doing ever so much good if applied by a mission in its united wisdom to the humble work on the field is squandered on educating and supporting in this country individuals who have no thought but the betterment of their own condition. If there are any traits an Oriental possesses to an almost unlimited degree they are power to dissemble, weakness with regard to money, and conceit. A man who has been out ten or twenty years knows that it takes all his ability to discern the true from the false.

Therefore let the church through its Board choose the most trustworthy representatives, and hold them to unity in their mission meetings. Let the missions specify the particular objects for which they want money and let us hear of no more individual appeals not specified in the annual estimates.

ENCOURAGING.-One of our exchanges reports the following testimony of a member of Congress as to the power of Christian sentiment in this country:

There is no use to attempt a disguise of the fact that there has been a wonderful revolution in the sentiment of this country in the last decade with regard to liquor drinking. It is especially noticeable in the rural districis, from whence are recruited the ranks of the city population. A man who runs for office now doesn't do so with a jug under his arm. The voters are beginning to watch closely the habits of their candidates, and if they

are known as drinking men there is some very lively scratching done on election. day. Of course, it is a little different in the cities, but I apprehend that urban voters are also tending toward the sentiment of abstemiousness in their officials. The desecration of the Sabbath is becoming unpopular, too, and nowhere else in the country is this more evident than at Washington. Washington. The saloons are closed at 12 o'clock on Saturday night at Washington and remain closed until Monday. There is no side-door attachment, either. It is an absolute impossibility to buy a drink at the capital on Sunday unless a man is staying at a hotel, and then he must have it taken to his room.

IAN STATISTICS.

The census bulletin, numbered 174, recently issued, contains the statistics of the Presbyterian Church, North and South, the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The result is given as follows: In the United States there are 13, 400 organizations or congregations of Presbyterians of all branches; 12,462 church edifices, valued at $94,876,233, and the total membership of these churches is 1,278,815.

Our own church is reported as having 6,717 church organizations, 66634 church edifices with seating capacity of 2,225,044. The value of our church property is given as $74, 455, 200, and the number of communicants as 788,224.

have two or even three sanctuaries each. The fact that 556 congregations are said to worship in public halls' indicates that there is yet much work for our Board of Church Erection.

"It is worthy of note that Presbyterians of every name second their invitation to the unconverted by an abundant provision of seats for all who accept. With 1,278,815 members, their sanctuaries have a seating capacity of 4,033,725. Those of our branch will seat 2,225,044 people, about three times our membership. This is about the proportion all through, though there are exceptions in the cases of some of the smaller denominations.

"The column in which the value of church property is given indicates that our branch of the Church has a large

"The fractions in the column of church edifices' indicate that a proportion of buildings are owned in common by several denominations. About thirty of the 6,717 congregations in our connection own only a part of a sanctuary each. A little mathematics will show that we have eighty more churches than church buildings, and even this number does not represent all our

It is of interest to us to note how nearly the above figures agree with the results obtained a year ago by this Board in an enquiry instituted while preparing its annual report for the Assembly of 1891.

1892.]

The returns then received gave 6,351 Church edifices of an aggregate value of $68,801,894 and 1,766 manses of an aggregate value of $5,447,400, thus making the total value of our Church property $74,249,249 as against $74,455,200 reported by the official census of 1890. The result of the Board's inquiries indicated that more than 800 churches were without edifices. The census reports 556 congregations "worshiping in halls."

The Board in its report to the Assembly remarked:

In several instances the number of manses and their value was omitted in the returns, and it is probably within bounds to say that the value of church property in the Presbyterian Church amounts to $75,000,000.

As many of the churches own mission chapels, the number of congregations without edifices cannot be computed by the number in excess of the reported number of buildings. While there are only 403 more congregations than edifices, there are still 804 without any building at all or nearly 12 per cent. of the whole number. But little more than one quarter of our churches-26 per cent., are reported as having manses.

The average value of the church edifices throughout the country is about $10,800 and of the manses a little more than $3,000; many of the manses however, are upon the church lots, and thus are estimated aside from the value of ground.

The figures give therefore abundant. reason for the Herald and Presbyter's comment: "THERE IS YET MUCH WORK FOR OUR BOARD OF CHURCH ERECTION."

INSURANCE WAS TOO EXPENSIVE. BRIDGEPORT, Conn., July 26.-The Congregational Society of Huntington is without a place in which to worship by reason of the fire which destroyed the church edifice early yesterday morning,

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and they are likewise without funds with which to build another church. The building was erected in 1831, and up to a short time ago was insured. Recently the society came to the conclusion that iusurance was too expensive and the policy was allowed to expire. The loss will be $10,000.

We clip the above from one of our daily papers. It indicates a remissness only too common among our churches.

It should be the universal rule for churches to secure insurance for themselves in approved companies to an amount that, together with the amount secured by the Board, shall equal at least twothirds of the value of the buildings. This, we are sorry to say, is very often neglected. Case after case is reported. where after a fire has occurred it is reveal

ed that the only insurance is that held by the Board, and that too when the value of the building is fourfold greater than the amount of its mortgage, which alone is protected. When in such cases the fire comes it leaves the church almost crushed beneath its loss, and in greater danger of dying because unable to rebuild its home.

IS THE PROPORTION EQUITABLE? The following letter from a pastor connected with a prominent Presbytery explains itself:

DEAR BRO: Yours of the 7th inst,

relating to Church Erection collection received. Our Presbytery directed all our churches to take up the collection for Church Erection earlier than usual and send to the Presbyterial Treasurer for the Church at K-. We raised seven dollars on May 8th. I am sorry to say that this is all we can do this year.

We ask whether from a benevolent or an ecclesiastical point of view the above proportion is quite equitable. It is natural

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and proper that the local interests of each Presbytery should engage a large part of its attention and absorb the lion's share of its contributions, but so long as our Presbyteries unite to form one Church and by their representatives have established agencies for missionary work and for church extension and have directed those agencies to do acertain work, are not the Presbyteries under a moral as well as, an ecclesiastical obligation not to leave their representatives entirely in the lurch? It is well that special contributions should be made to the struggling congregation in question, but should nothing be done for the far reaching work undertaken by the Church.

A philosopher once proposed to an inquirer as a test of the propriety of certain acts, the question: "Ask yourself what would be the result were men generally to adopt the same course of action."

It is manifest that were the Presbyteries generally to direct as did the one above indicated, this Board would have to close its books and retire from the field. The demands upon it would remain; but ability to respond would be gone.

The last Assembly called attention to this danger and took action as follows:

Resolved, That the claims of local and Presbyterial work ought not to preclude contributions on the part of our churches to the general work of the Board, and that special contributions should so far as possible pass through its treasury.

WHAT CERTAIN "ELECT LADIES"

ARE DOING.

Dear Sir:-A week ago Saturday I handed the President of the Board of Trustees of our church a draft for $100 from the Ladies' Aid Society, to send you on our indebtedness to the Manse Fund. Saturday night he handed me the receipt therefor and your reply to the ladies, which I will have read at the next meeting of the Society.

September.

and all the

suburb of the city of — church society are working people. So we have to gather in the money in small amounts. We ladies do our own housework and give all our extra time to church work, for the church is dear to our hearts.

Since sending you the $200 nearly a year ago, our Aid Society has paid $50.00 on the minister's salary and about $50.00 for other church purposes besides helping the C. E. Society hold a Fancy Bazaar to raise their $50 on the minister's salary.

We have now $30 towards our payment of the other $100 to the Manse Fund next August. We shall have to exert ourselves to raise the remainder by that time and cannot undertake any other till that is done, and that is the reason I wrote for help to raise the electric light fund, as we must get it outside of our regular channels of work. We have collected over $60 on it and hope to get the other $70 soon, so as to have the fixtures put in by the time the church is ready for use, which the building committee think will be in about thirty days. When that time comes there will be a good many little things for the ladies to do that will take time and money too, but with the blessing of God we will endeavor to raise the electric light fund and make our payment on the Manse also. Excuse me for taking up so much of your time, but I felt I wished to explain our situation to you, as your letters have made me feel that you took an interest in these things. Yours Respectfully

ACTION OF THE GENERAL AS

SEMBLY, MAY 24, 1892. The Standing Committee on Aid for Colleges and Academies presented its Report, which was accepted, and after an address by the Rev. Edward C. Ray, D. D., Secretary of the Board of Aid, and others, the recommendations were adopted as follows:

Your Committee on Aid for Colleges and Academies present the following Report: We have examined the Records of the Board of Aid for Colleges and Academies and read attentively its Report to this Assembly, and find the Record complete and orderly, and the report clear and satisfactory.

The first thing which strikes our attention is an obituary. The former beloved Secretary, Rev. Dr. II. D. Ganse, is this year a member of the General Assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in heaven, and his voice will no more be heard in clarion tones in our Assemblies here. But as the mantle of Elijah fell upon Elisha, so the mantle of the now sainted Ganse has fallen upon a worthy successor in the person of E. C. Ray, D. D.

This Assembly will rejoice to know that the blessing of God has been upon the work of this Board during the past year. In the institutions aided by it 227 students are reported to have been converted, and 176 have the ministry in view. There have been this year 2472 contributing churches, an increase of 299 over any preceding year, while 516 churches sent their collections directly to institutions aided by the Board, instead of sending them to the Board's Treasurer. While all these things are encouraging and call for thankfulness,

the sad fact still remains that 4082 of our churches made no contributions this fiscal year.

We notice a very gratifying increase in the amounts contributed from churches and Sunday-schools-about 2384, or 13 per cent. in all. This is an indication of what the Board could do if the remaining 4082 churches had done their duty last year. As it is, the Board has been able to grant about one-half the aid absolutely needed by the institutions on its roll.

We find that by far the greater number of institutions on the roll of the Board are scattered over the great interior West. On this coast only six institutions, three in Washington, two in Oregon and one in California, have been in condition to avail themselves of the Board's aid, while the whole number aided were, colleges 17 and academies 21, or a total of 38. This is a mere exhibition of facts and not a reflection upon the Board.

The amount of aid actually granted is not by any means the whole of the Board's work. It is not a mere distributing agency. It exercises a general supervisory watch and care over all these institutions. The property secured to the church through the instrumentality and aid of the Board foots up a grand total of $1,184,999.

We are gratified to learn that the Board requires aided institutions not to go in debt, at least not beyond what they can reasonably expect to pay within a short time. Paying old debts is a very discouraging business, and contracting debts is one of those things which should be left off before it is begun. Nothing perhaps, has ruined so many promising institutions as a fatal facility for getting in debt,