REV. D. J. MORRISON, Acra:-It is with heartfelt gratitude to God that I submit to you this report of the work in my field. For, in it we are able to record progress which is, perhaps, unparalleled in a country church. I may say at the outset that the membership of the Centerville Church was doubled during the past three years. In the past year it was increased exactly 50 per cent.

During the last quarter forty were added at one communion.

Most of these (thirty-seven) were on profession. Our Christian Endeavor Society has increased until now it has by far the largest active membership in the county. The Sunday-school has practically out-grown the Church; so that we now require more room to accommodate them.

Our last communion, when so many were received, was the greatest day that has ever been known in this region.

Half an hour before the time of service the building was crowded. At the hour for commencing it would be impossible to move in the church for it was literally packed. Some came as far as twenty miles. The building was surrounded on the outside by eager listeners sitting in their carriages who were not able to get inside. Besides this many went away finding it impossi ble to get any where near the building.

A great proportion of those who were received were young men, heads of families, between twenty and thirty years of age.

The

Among these stood the liquor seller. service lasted two hours. The financial increase has kept pace with the others.

Three years ago this Church promised $235 for the support of the minister. This year they promise $500. This Church will be self-supporting in three years time at least. It would be so now but for the fact that the buildings were deplor ably neglected for twenty years previous to my coming; and now we have to strain every nerve to bring them up to time. Last year we expended $700 for that purpose. This year we expect to spend an equal amount; after we get our buildings in condition we shall be independent of the Board altogether. The Presbytery has set

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this Church by itself because of its marvelous growth and its likelihood of becoming self-supporting. Had they done so three years ago it would without a doubt be self-supporting now.

WASHINGTON.

REV. THOMAS MCGUIRE, Everett:-It is with very great pleasure that I now send my second quarterly report of the First Pres. Church, Everett, Washington. Since my last report we have completed the Church with the exception of painting. The Church is neat and comfortable 30x60, with an auditorium 30x46, and prayermeeting or class-room with sliding doors. When the painting is done the outlay will be about $2,000. This will include the stumping of the lots, the stumping and grading of the streets, the side walks and the furnishing of the building all complete. All is paid for and there will be no debt when we receive the $650 we expect from the Board of Church Erection. We have had regular services morning and evening every Sabbath during the quarter but the 2nd Sabbath of the Assembly May 29th. The services are very well attended. We have now got our own Sunday-school and prayer meeting. Altogether we have reason to thank God and take courage

NEBRASKA. SELF-SUPPORTING

REV. J. M. WILSON, Omaha:-At a meeting of the congregation April 6, it was unanimously decided to assume self-support. The trustees are encouraged at the outlook and the people are enthusiastic in the new move. It has been six years since the church was organized and during that period we have received $2,800 from the Home Board. Part of this has been paid by our Home Mission collections.

We are very grateful and long for the day when this amount will have been paid back to the cause of Home Missions. Should you take into account the sums expended on mission schools and mission school property together with what we have given to the Board, you

would find that about $2,500 had been gathered to the church. The Board, I think, may look upon Castelar Street Church as cne of its good investments.

At the last communion fourteen were added to membership and six have been added since. The present membership is 203. All the services have been held regularly and besides a mission S. S. started April 17, in the south-east part of the city. The Ontario Chapel is fitting up a room in the basement for the infant class. The church is harmonious and energetic. It is claimed, although we have a new building, that it will have to be enlarged in a year. The people come to hear the gospel eagerly.

I wish to express to you the thanks of the session and congregation for the aid received and hope that we may be able to assist the Board in its great work.

MRS. M. R. MORRIS, Omaha:-It hardly seems possible that almost a twelve month has gone by since first the Old Omaha Mission was seen by

me.

We can look back upon these months and note something of progress in our relations to the people and the school. We came among them total strangers, but now some of them have come to look upon us as strangers no longer, although we could not yet expect to be just the same to them as their old-time friends. Many of the children have become dear to us, and, no doubt, will grow more so as we are longer with them.

We feel that one thing has been demonstrated, which is that Omahas and Winnebagos can be brought together in the same school, and live in comparative peace. We had a good many misgivings as to the result of the experiment, but we think that it has been quite successful. Latterly the boys and girls of the two tribes have not been more quarrelsome than children and youth usually are. Rev. Mr. Findley of Winnebago expressed himself as greatly pleased with the result, in the remarks he made at our closing exercises.

[September,

Too great praise cannot be given Miss Wood for the interesting program which she contrived to present, with her rather unpromising materials. Some of the pupils particularly did her and themselves great credit. So far as possible, the school had gone through a very thorough examination, the results of which were placed on a table for anyone interested to look over. In this, of course, such pupils excelled as had been steadily in school. Others would have made much greater progress than they did, had they not been absent so often, for a day or two at a time.

ΜΟΝΤΑΝΑ.

REV. S. E. WISHARD, D. D., Supt.:-I have had an interesting journey northward. The Flat Head country is opening finely. I preached the dedication sermon for Bro. Fisher at Kalispell. He has built a very neat and durable house of worship, that will seat 275 or 300 people. We raised the amount needed to pay everything lacking about $200 which he can raise on the street. Kalispell was located a year ago, when the Great Northern passed through the valley. It has a population of between 800 and 1,000 people, and is growing rapidly. Fisher was the only man on the ground when the railroad entered the valley. The Church cost $3,500, and is worth all it cost and more.

From Kalispell I went into the Bitter Root Valley. Visited Hamilton a new town, one of Mavens Daily's Pits. It is just opposite his great ranch, and is growing rapidly. It will be the town of the Valley. We (Ellis and myself) organized a Church there, the people have given a lot, and are raising money to build a house. Ellis will put everything in shape for a house this week. That will put us in good trim for our work in the Valley. Bradford goes back to the Seminary this fall to finish his course. Then we will put a man at Hamilton, who can also supply Corvallis, six miles north, and Grantsdale, three miles south. The other man can take Stevensville, Victor and the miners three miles north of Victor.

1892.]

ILLINOIS.

REV. JOHN WESTON, D. D., Chicago:—This has been a busy quarter and fruitful in important events. Four churches have been organized and, except one, the results of my personal agency. They are as follows:

Avondale, organized with 17 members; the South, organized with 27 members; the First Italian Presbyterian Church, organized with 54 members; Chicago Lawn, organized with 25 members, making a total membership of 123.

These of course will all need a little aid at the beginning, but we are assured it will not be long before they will be self-supporting. Three of these are in suburban districts, rapidly increasing in population and composed of the industrious enterprising classes.

The Italian church is one of much interest and promise. It is the outgrowth of the effort of a converted Italian who has consecrated his energies to the salvation of his countrymen in this and other large cities of our country. The work having increased upon his hands so that he could not manage it, our Home Mission Committee of Presbytery assumed it. A regularly ordained minister was secured from the Waldensian Church of Italy and by his untiring efforts this church was brought into existence. There are about 20,000 Italians in this city, and a most interesting condition of things exists. They all hate the Pope as much, if not more, than Protestants do and are very accessible by this good brother who in love carries them the gospel in their own tongue.

Those composing the church are all, of course, converted Catholics.

I have found time to look up some new fields and have had Sabbath services commenced in a district much neglected where an enterprising church will soon be the result. There are many like this in this great city, and as we have time and means at command we propose to open them.

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HOME MISSION APPOINTMENTS.

J. R. Mackey, Providence, 2d,
H G. Person, Corinth,
J. H. Odell, Conklingville,
T. L. Leverett, Nichols,

D. A. McPhie, Scipio and Scipioville,
C. J. Hastings, Constable and Westville,
H. G. Miller, Mt. Tabor of New York City,
J. S. Gilmore, Congers,

G. Nicholls, Wampsville and Lenox,
A. H. Fraser, Jamesville,

J. L. Harrington, Middle Granville,
H. R. White, Pleasantville Station,
W. A. Albony, Oxford, 2d,

W. O. Wright, Milesburg,

V. Losa, Bohemian and Moravian of Baltimore,
E. E. Weaver, Ridgeley Street of Baltimore,
E. F. Eggleston, Grace of Baltimore,
W. C. Brown, Knox of Baltimore,

W. A. Carrington, Tacoma Park and Kensington,
J. E. Franklin, East Lake Mission of Wilmington,
S. T. Wilson, Auburndale and Winter Haven,

Mich.

Minn.

EXTRACTS FROM THE SECRETARY'S

ADDRESS.

The following passages from the address of the Secretary to the last Assembly are taken, with some verbal changes, from the report in The Oregonian, May 24:

Week before last I attended the graduating exercises in the Theological seminary from which, just forty years ago, my own class went forth to the active duties of our sacred calling. Naturally the sight of those young ministers, receiving their diplomas in that familiar chapel at Princeton, brought back to me many memories of my beloved classmates, of whom the greater part now rest from their labors, and the survivors are men with whitened hair, and furrowed cheeks and bent forms. What minister does not cherish the happy memories of his seminary life, deepening in tender and pathetic interest as we grow old!

But I must not enlarge on this; and in fact my thoughts on that Commencement day were not so intent upon my own past as they were upon the future of the young graduates before me. There were nearly fifty of them

-a fine, manly looking group as they stood around the chapel pulpit; their toil and joy in the service for the Master yet altogether before them. They had the buoyant hope, the beautiful enthusiasm with which youth ever looks towards the future. More than this, they had the inspiration of a calling in life, the highest and noblest that ever was, or ever can be, intrusted to men. My heart went out to them. I longed to take each one of them by the hand and assure him that, if his heart was really in his sacred calling, he would find his life linked with many and heavenly benedictions-whether his years might be few or many and whatever might be their cares and anxieties and self-denial and toil. And there are now on the floor of this Assembly many aged men who, out of

their own experience in the ministry, would have borne to them the same testimony.

Yet chief among all the thoughts that crowded upon me, as I looked upon that group of young men was this:

These young ministers, all of them with approved abilities and thoroughly educated, had in choosing their life work put aside all thought of money making; they had turned deliberately from every avenue that might have led them to wealth or even to a competency. What an object lesson of lofty purpose in this busy money-making age was that band of educated young men!-consecrated to a great and noble work, and satisfied with the promise of a modest stipend such as would free them from "worldly cares and occupations," so that they might give their whole time and whole strength to their sacred duties.

Let me remind you that, while our 7,000 churches all demand the services of educated men for their pulpits, the average salary of a pastor in the Presbyterian church scarcely equals the wages of the mechanic; very often indeed it is not more than the unskilled day laborer earns although the position of the minister in society necessitates expenditures from which the mechanic and day laborer are exempt. Even in cities and towns where a comparatively large salary is paid, the increased expenditure in the style of living which the congregation expects and demands of the pastor, necessitates ordinarily the practice of the most rigid economy in the manse that the year may be closed without debt. And what shall I say of the salaries of our missionaries at home, as well as on the foreign field?

The report of our Home Mission Board to the Assembly of last year, at Detroit (which gives the number of missionaries under the care of the Board as 1677) has this significant

sentence:

"Knowing that the salary of a missionary allows him no margin above an economical support, it is