of excellence. What a thing is is of far more value than what a thing or its inheritance has been. These general observations must underlie every consideration of our work there, and do enter into every plan for that work's extension.

San Francisco contains the headquarters of this Association. Here is the office of Mr. Stone, your Field Secretary, whose untiring efforts have done so much to inspire and strengthen the churches under his care. Here, too, is the office of The Pacific Unitarian, a paper published and edited by Mr. Murdock, who is so well known to us that it is not necessary to give his initials. But, more than all, here is the increasingly used accommodation for the various meetings of the Bay churches, and the housing of a newly inspired Sunday-school movement under the able direction of Mr. Wilbur, the dean of our upspringing Theological School.

As

This last word turns our attention to the most significant and perhaps the most interesting item which your Committee has to bring before you, the Pacific Coast Theological School. As you are aware, this school was started last year by the gifts of Mr. and Mrs. Francis Cutting and Mr. and Mrs. Horace Davis. Rev. Earl M. Wilbur, pastor of our church at Meadville, was appointed dean. No buildings, no faculty, no students, made up the institution whose call he heard and obeyed. soon as he arrived in Oakland, Cal., he began a wise and energetic campaign of announcement and advertisement. This resulted in the gathering of eight students during the year, some of whom are turned toward our ministry, some attended the school to "clear up theological difficulties," as Mr. Wilbur writes, and one or two have been attracted by the opportunity afforded to learn somewhat more about the serious problems which enter into every

earnest man's mind. "Of the students continuing to the end of the year, three desire to enter the ministry in this country, one means to undertake similar work in Japan." Mr. Wilbur himself gives courses in Unitarian history, New Testament Greek, and in the explanation of theological terms; but many courses are given in the University of California at Berkeley. He writes also that through the cordial courtesy of the faculty of the Congregational Theological School some courses are opened to his students in that institution. He has developed a library, which has grown from the 600 volumes which he put in as a nucleus to 2,800 volumes, besides pamphlets, which furnish an excellent working group of books. "It has been a fortunate thing for the interests of the school," writes Mr. Wilbur, "that I have been called upon during the whole year to supply the pulpit of our church at Berkeley. I have thus been brought into contact with the students and professors at the university to a degree that would otherwise have been impossible. Many of them have attended the church services, and I have also conducted a students' class in the Problems of Theism that drew in, first and last, some forty or more of the students. A direct result of this work has been that two of this year's class have come from students thus reached; and I hope that further results will appear next year and later."

Of the churches in California under the charge of this Association (that is, to which this Association makes annual appropriations), Berkeley is thriving, and is to have Mr. Lathrop, now of the Harvard Divinity School, for minister at the close of the academic year. Santa Rosa is improving in quality, if not in quantity, with the hope that a suitable man may be had for its pastor before long. Santa Ana is having the discipline

of struggle, as is also the minister, Mr. Watry; but it looks as if together they could make something out of a very difficult problem. Santa Cruz is taking on additional life. It still maintains its excellent financial habits, living within its means and not running into debt. Redlands has built a beautiful new church. San Diego and Pomona have become self-supporting. Fresno has bought a lot and is about to build. San Jose has cleared off a portion of its burdening debt.

In Oregon the older churches in Portland and Salem go forward steadily, and the new society in Hood River is flourishing. In Washington Spokane has become selfsupporting. Seattle has let the contracts for a fine new church.

New work has been begun by Rev. William G. Eliot, Jr., in Bellingham, and continued in Everett. As yet it is what may be classed as "school-house work," but the congregations average about forty persons, in communities which are thriving and promiseful. One minister could carry on the present work of both these young parishes, and it is important that a man be found for the position at an early date. Mr. Eliot writes that he has acted as Secretary of the Lewis and Clark Exposition Congress Committee, and has a large share in the providing for Sunday afternoon services at the Exposition.

In the mountain States, Montana, Idaho, Utah, "the conditions," as Mr. Stone reports, "are harder, but there is no better work that we can do. Here is a population almost entirely unsusceptible to religious influences of the old sort. Unless we reach the people, most of whom have come from remote localities to seek wealth or to escape from an unfortunate record, it is difficult to imagine who can reach them. As a rule, they de