Corrigan, apparently with the view of hindering, so far as it lies in his power, any further uncovering of Tammany diabolism by the Lexow Committee, prohibited Father Thomas J. Ducey, a priest, from attending the sessions of the committee, ostensibly because "it was not a fit place for him to be." How sweetly innocent and pure-minded the Catholic priests are! Lovely creatures! Tender as a rose! Delicate as a lily! Pure as the snow! Fit only to be kept in glass cases! Let it be remembered and reflected upon by every American citizen, that Tammany Hall represents the Roman Catholic Church in politics.

We hope all of our readers will turn to another page of the MONTHLY and read the record there given of the liberal supplies of clothing and other useful donations that have been sent to our worthy missionaries. It is a goodly record.

IMPORTANT CONFERENCE. There is a most admirable custom, of having once in three months a joint session of the white and Negro pastors in the City of Washington, D. C. The topic for discussion on Monday, Dec. 17th, was the Fortress Monroe agreement. The Corresponding Secretary, by special invitation, addressed the brethren, giving a history of the agreement reached at Fortress Monroe, and explaining, in detail, its purpose and method. Many questions were asked and answered, and after nearly two hours of full, thorough discussion, the joint body, by a unanimous and hearty vote, approved of the plan of co-operation between the Northern and Southern white Baptists and the Negroes, for the prosecution of Educational and Missionary work in the South. It was a very interesting occasion, and we have no doubt that the result reached will be very helpful in promoting the success of this great movement. The effort to combine in one solid body the three grand divisions of Baptists in this country, in promotion of Education and Missions among the Negroes of the South, seems, manifestly, due to the direct and special interposition of God.

A SHORT CATECHISM

(REVISED AND ENLARGED)

OF

THE AMERICAN BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETY.

BY

THOMAS J. MORGAN, LL.D., COR. SEC.

1. What is the American Baptist Home Mission Society?

Ans. It is an organization for evangelizing North America.

2. When and where was it organized? Ans. In 1832, in the City of New York. 3. Where are its general offices?

Ans. In Temple Court (No. 512, fifth floor), corner of Beekman and Nassau Streets, New York City, where its friends are always welcome.

4. Who are its constituents?

Ans. Primarily, those who contribute to its treasury. It is the recognized agency through which the 800,000 white Baptists of the North carry on their Home Mission work. The 1,500,000 negro Baptists of the South are also its constituents.

5. What relation does it sustain to the Southern Baptist Convention?

Ans. It is the parent Society from which the Southern Convention separated in 1845. The latter is the organization of the 1,200,000 white Baptists of the South in Home Mission work.

6. What relation does it sustain to the Missionary Union?

Ans. The American Baptist Missionary Union is the organization through which the Baptists of the North carry on missionary work in foreign countries—India, China, Japan, and elsewhere. The two societies are on the most friendly terms, but have no connection with each other. They are both missionary organizations, and are both Baptist. The Missionary Union has nothing to do with missionary work in America, and the Home Mission Society has nothing to do with missionary work in foreign countries, except in Mexico.

7. What relation does it sustain to the Publication Society?

Ans. The American Baptist Publication Society publishes and circulates Baptist literature; distributes Bibles; founds and fosters Sunday-schools: it does not sustain

pastors, nor build meeting-houses, and its Corresponding Secretary informs us (Dec. 3, 1894) that he "has directed its missionaries in no case to organize churches."

8. What relation does it sustain to the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society?

Ans. The latter Society is an organization of Baptist women, with headquarters at Boston, engaged especially in promoting the work of Baptist missionary education; it is affiliated with the Home Mission Society, and works with it on the most friendly terms. The Woman's Society confines itself to educational work, whereas the work of the Home Mission Society includes missionary work proper, together with the building of meeting-houses and educational work on a large scale.

9. What relation does it sustain to the Women's Baptist Home Mission Society?

Ans. The latter is an organization of Baptist women, with headquarters at Chicago, doing an independent missionary work; it appoints its own missionaries, collects and disburses its own money; it is now in cooperation with the Home Mission Society in supporting industrial teachers, and maintaining a missionary training department in connection with Home Mission schools. The Woman's Baptist Home Mission Union, of Connecticut; The Woman's Baptist Home Mission Society, of Michigan, and The Woman's Home Mission Society of the Dayton Association, Ohio, are co-workers with us.

10. What relation does the Society sustain to the American Baptist Education Society?

Ans. None whatever. That society is strictly an educational organization, and, while the two societies are entirely friendly and sustain most cordial relations, they do separate and independent work.

11. What relation does the Society sustain to the Baptist Young People's Union of America ?

Ans. The latter is an organization of the Young People of the denomination (including Canada and the South), with a view to their training in religious activity and in Christian work along established denominational lines. The money contributed by its members for Home Missions is to be given through the local churches and other recognized missionary organizations. The

Home Mission Society welcomes the Young People's Union as helpful in its work.

12. Has the Home Mission Society anything to do with the Baptist Boys' Brigade, Y. P. S. C. E., and other young people's Christian organizations among Baptist churches?

Ans. It has no organic relations with any of them. It is glad, however, to have the good will of all the young people and their zealous help in the prosecution of its great work.

13. What relation does the Home Mission Society sustain to the various State Conventions?

Ans. It co-operates with several of the Eastern State Conventions in prosecuting mission work within their territory among the foreign populations; it co-operates with several of the Western State Conventions in the prosecution of all kinds of mission work within the borders of their respective States. It co-operates with the Negro State Conventions in nearly all of the Southern States in the joint support of a general missionary.

14. Who directs the work of the Society? Ans. The Board of Managers, of fifteen men chosen from among the most eminent pastors and able business men of New York and vicinity. They are elected for three years, and serve without pay. They meet monthly for the transaction of business.

15. Who is the Corresponding Secretary? Ans. Rev. Thomas J. Morgan, Temple. Court, New York City, to whom all correspondence relating to the general work of the Society should always be addressed. 16. Who is the Field Secretary?

Ans. Rev. Henry L. Morehouse, D.D., who for many years was the efficient Corresponding Secretary, is now serving as the Field Secretary.

17. What missionary work does the Society do?

Ans. It employs more than 1,100 laborers in Western fields among the various foreign populations, the Indians, Negroes, and Mexi cans. The churches now under its care and oversight have a membership of 50,791 ; it has 1,162 Sunday-schools with an attendance of 72,071. During the sixty-one years of its history its missionaries have organized 4,630 churches; have baptized 133,179 persons.

18. Among how many nationalities does it carry on its work?

Ans. Fifteen. 19. Name them.

Ans. Americans, Germans, French, Portuguese, Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, Finns, Welsh, Bohemians, Poles, Indians, Negroes, Chinese, Mexicans.

20. Where is this work among the foreign people carried on?

Ans. Chiefly in the cities; successful missions are in progress among the FrenchCanadians scattered through New England. It has a prosperous and hopeful work among the Chinese in Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and New York.

21. What is the most prosperous portion of this work?

Ans. Perhaps that among the Germans, which now embraces 18,000 members of Baptist churches, and that among the Scandinavians, which also embraces fully 18,000 members of Baptist churches.

22. Do the missionaries preach to these people in their own language?

Ans. Yes. Because many of the older people do not understand any other than their native tongue; most of the missionaries, however, preach also in English so as to reach the children, who, in most cases, though of foreign parentage, speak English, and prefer it.

Ans. It publishes a religious paper in the capital, and maintains missionaries and teachers in a number of the most important cities-Mexico, Puebla, Monterey, and elsewhere. It desires to extend the work in our sister republic.

24. Is the work among the foreigners regarded as successful?

Ans. Yes; eminently so. Not only are there strong Baptist churches among them which are increasing in membership and influence very rapidly, but thousands of the younger people of foreign parentage have become thoroughly Americanized, united with American Baptist churches, and some of them are among our most intelligent, godly, and influential people.

for the Indians, and it also helps Negro churches in the South.

27. How does it do this?

Ans. By lending money at interest until the churches are able to repay it, and by making gifts on the condition that the churches will do all that they can first. The Society requires the church receiving a loan. from its Church Edifice Fund to give a mortgage on the property to insure the repayment of the loan; churches which receive a gift sign a mortgage insuring the return of the money to the Society, if the property should ever be sold for any other purpose than a church.

28. How many churches has the Society helped to build?

There

Ans. The whole number is 1,491. are on our mission fields to-day perhaps one thousand homeless Baptist churches. Will you build a chapel ?

29. How much does it cost to build a Baptist chapel in the West?

Ans. That depends, of course, upon the location. Frequently a very neat, attractive house of worship can be erected for $1,000; sometimes even a smaller sum will provide a comfortable house. In larger places from $2,000 to $10,000 are frequently needed.. A gift of from $300 to $500 often secures the erection of a house worth several times that amount. One woman has helped to erect twenty-one Baptist chapels.

30. What are the great benefits resulting from the Church Edifice Fund?

Ans. In numbering the benefits derived from the Church Edifice Fund, it is not enough to speak of 1,491 churches aided, of over $330,000 donated or loaned, and property valued at more than $1,700,000 secured to the denomination as centres of religious worship and power; but in large measure these churches have been transformed from knots of feeble, inexperienced disciples into organized and disciplined bodies, trained to live together, work together, plan and execute for the Kingdom of God, with congregations gathered, converts baptized, Sundayschools flourishing, Christian activities in full

Ans. It builds chapels and helps young churches to erect meeting-houses.

26. Where does it build these chapels ? Ans. Wherever they are most needed; especially in the far West. It has built many

fluence in the home and communities around them. While many of these churches are of moderate size, not a few have become strong and flourishing, numbering hundreds in the membership, and exercising a wide control in the regions to which they belong.

31. What educational work does the Society carry on?

Ans. It has schools for Negroes, Indians, Mexicans, and the Chinese.

32. When did it undertake the work of educating negroes?

Ans. As early as 1862-before the close of the War.

33. Where are its schools located?

Ans. In Washington City; Richmond, Va.; Raleigh, N. C.; Columbus, S. C.; Atlanta, Ga.; Nashville, Tenn.; Marshall and Houston, Texas; Jacksonville, Fla.; Little Rock, Ark.; Jackson, Miss.; Macon, Mo.; Louisville, Ky.; Gibsland, La., and in many other prominent cities throughout the South.

34. What is the character of these schools?

Ans. Fourteen are of high grade and nineteen are secondary schools. At Richmond, Va., there is a well-equipped Theological Seminary, devoted exclusively to the training of preachers. At Raleigh, N. C., there is a University, with normal, academic, collegiate, law, and medical departments. At Richmond and Atlanta are two women's colleges. Academic and normal work is done in all these schools, while in others, as at Lynchburg, Jacksonville, Memphis, and elsewhere, academic work chiefly is done. Some do primary work.

35. How many students attend these Negro schools?

Ans. About 5,000 altogether.

36. How many of them are preparing themselves for teaching?

Ans. More than 1,800.

37. How many expect to preach? Ans. More than 400.

38. What is the general character of the work done in the schools?

Ans. It compares very favorably with work done in schools of similar grade for white pupils in the North.

39. How much money has the Home MissionSociety spent in its educational work? Ans. In all nearly $3,000,000; it spends nearly $150,000 a year; it has more than $1,000,000 invested in grounds, buildings, and endowments.

40. What is the most urgent need of these schools?

Ans. They need money for the purchase of additional ground, the erection of new buildings, the creation of endowments, the purchase of books and apparatus.

41. How much money is needed?

Ans. There ought to be $1,000,000 expended in the way of permanent improvements, and there is needed at least $2,000,000 for endowments.

42. How much income would an endowment of $2,000,000 give?

Ans. About $100,000 a year, which is less than is required for the payment of salaries alone.

43. Are these Negro schools permanent? Ans. Yes, as much so as any institutions of learning can be. Among the most enduring institutions in the world are colleges and universities; they outlast dynasties and survive revolutions.

44. How many Negroes are there in the country?

Ans. About 8,000,000, and they are rapidly increasing.

45. How many of them are Baptists ? Ans. Near one and a half millions, or nearly twice as many as the white Baptists of the North.

46. How many Negro Baptist churches are there? .

Ans. About 3,000.

47. What other educational advantages have the Negro Baptists of the South?

Ans. There are public schools in all the States, but they are not of very high order, and cannot give them the kind of education that they most need.

48. What do the Negroes do for these schools?

Ans. The Negroes of the South are mostly very poor, receive small wages, and have not much money to give; but they are anxious to educate their children, and manage to pay something for their clothing and board, and a little on tuition. They have also done something toward the purchase of ground, the erection of school buildings, and the payment of teachers' salaries. They must depend chiefly upon largehearted, philanthropic, liberal friends in the North for the establishment, maintenance, and endowment of Christian schools for them.

49. Who is the Superintendent of the Educational Work of the Home Mission Society?

Ans. Rev. Malcolm MacVicar, LL.D., an experienced educator, gives his entire time to the careful supervision of this important work.

50. What about the schools for Mexicans? Ans. They are small day-schools, doing a simple, very primary, but exceedingly valuable work, and the same is true of the schools for the Chinese. Very many of the pupils in the Chinese schools have been converted to Christianity.

51. How about the Indian schools? Ans. Indian University is one of the best schools we have. It has done a very valuable work. The schools at Tahlequah, Wewoka and Atoka, in the Indian Territory, and at Anadarko, in Oklahoma, are good schools, full of promise.

52. How much money does the Home Mission need for all branches of its work?

Ans. About $500,000 a year; sometimes it spends more than this; other years not quite so much. The Society is organized in such a way, and its work is so important, that it could spend $600,000 a year very profitably.

53. Where does it get the money for its work?

Ans. It has a very little money invested in permanent funds yielding a small annual income; most of its money, however, comes as gifts from churches, Sunday-schools, and individuals.

54. Do gifts come in large sums or in small?

Ans. Generally in small sums; occasionally it receives gifts of $100, sometimes $1,000, or, in some cases, $25,000 a year from one individual.

55. How much does it receive in legacies?

Ans. During the last ten years it has received over $1,000,000 in legacies, or an average of $100,000 a year.

56. What is the form of a bequest for the Society?

Ans. It is as follows: "I give and bequeath to the American Baptist Home Mission Society, formed in New York in the year eighteen hundred and thirty-two, the for the

sum of

general purposes of said Society."

57. What is meant by annuities? Ans. Sometimes persons wish to be free from the care of handling their own money, and turn it over to the Society to be handled for them. They receive a bond from the Society, which entitles them to an annuity as long as they live; at their death the money goes to the Society.

58. How long will the Society's work last? Ans. Probably as long as the nation lasts. 59. What new work could the Society undertake if it had the money?

Ans. The most important is that of mission work in the great cities-especially among the foreign populations, but also among the native people, and in Mexico.

60. Who collects the money for the Society?

Ans. Its District Secretaries, located at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Indianapolis, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Omaha, solicit funds for its work. The pastors of the churches take collections from their people for the Society, and they advise and encourage their parishioners to remember the Society in their wills. The Woman's Baptist Home Mission Society of New England contributes every year very liberally to its treasury for the support of teachers in its schools. Young People's Societies, both the Baptist Young People's Unions, the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, and other organizations, collect money for our work. Sometimes earnest Christian men and women interest them. selves in behalf of the Society, and secure for it large sums of money.

61. Who furnish the boxes and barrels of clothing and other supplies?

Ans. Kind-hearted women in the various churches. Last year a large number of these were sent to worthy and needy families.

62. What account does the Society make of these gifts?

Ans. It makes mention of them in the HOME MISSION MONTHLY, but it does not enter them in its receipts as cash; they are gifts freely bestowed upon those who are needy and worthy.

63. How do the Women's Societies know what missionaries are needy and worthy, and what they want?

Ans. The General Missionaries of the Society are instructed to send to the Secretary a statement of all the missionaries' families under their care whom they know to be worthy and needy. Then the Secretary sends this information to the Women's Societies who desire to send supplies.

64. What literature does the Society send out?

Ans. It publishes the BAPTIST HOME MISSION MONTHLY, an illustrated magazine full of fresh information from the fields, and