sions have been established among the Wichitas and affiliated tribes near Anadarko, also among the Kiowas and Comanches, the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. Among the Kiowas the Gospel has made rapid progress during the past two years. There are native preachers of ability, many churches, and a total Baptist membership among the Indians themselves of about 5,000. Mexico. Mexico seemed providentially opened to the Society in 1869 by the conversion of several San Luis Potosi, Aguas Calientes, the City of Mexico and Puebla. This number does not include several appointees of the Women's Home Mission Societies, some of whom are teachers. There are eighteen churches in six States and the Federal District, and about 750 members; annual expenditures are about $13,000. The outlook for our cause in Mexico was never brighter than now. Church Edifice Department. The Church Edifice Department was the outgrowth of the need of houses of worship for the infant churches of the West. By most other denominations this kind of work is committed to a separate organization. It is an integral part of the Home Mission Society's work. Its inception was in 1850, though but little was done for about twenty years. Up to 1864 $20,000 had been raised and expended for this purpose. Through vigorous efforts, chiefly of Rev. E. E. L. Taylor, D.D., by 1875 about $250,000 had been secured for a permanent Church Edifice Loan Fund. From 1850 to 1890 321 churches had been aided, 264 of these in the twelve years prior to 1890. H. C. WOODS, D.D., GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT OF MISSIONS. persons at Monterrey during the preceding three or four years. With only a brief interruption the Society has prosecuted its work in that republic until the present time. Most of its mission stations are in the State of New Leon, although at the City of Mexico it has valuable mission property, including a printing press for the publication of a semi-monthly paper and other religious literature. Fifteen laborers are employed, who occupy about twenty five stations, the most prominent of which are New Laredo, Monterrey, Linares, The diminishing demand for loans and the growing need of a gift fund led to the establishment in 1881 of the Benevolent Department of the Church Edifice Fund and the transfer thereto from the loan fund, by consent of donors, of $104,000 as a permanent fund, the interest of which is used in gifts to churches. Contributions were solicited for immediate use. Only funds designated for church edifice purposes are so used. Exclusive of the amount named above, the receipts of the Benevolent Fund from all sources to April, 1895, were $5 18, 190. 19, some of which was added to the permanent fund, the bulk of it, however, used in gifts to churches. The Church Edifice Loan Fund amounts to $122,061.51, and the Church Edifice Benevolent Fund to $151,713.90. Gifts are secured by conditional non-interestbearing mortgages. During the fourteen years since the establishment of this fund 878 churches have been aided thereby, and the whole number aided by gifts and loans from the first is reported at 1,580. Though this fund is intended primarily and chiefly for mission churches in the West, still many grants have been made to churches among the foreign population, the colored people, and the Indians, and some to Mexico. In our western mission fields particularly it has been the right arm of the Society's work, for without houses of worship in which to gather congregations and Sunday-schools, missionaries often labor under most disheartening disadvantages. The Educational Department Another extensive and important department of the Society's work is that of Christian education for colored people and the Indians, and, to some extent, for the Chinese and the Mexicans. Among other denominations this, like Church Edifice work, is generally committed to a distinct society. Originally, missionary and educational efforts for the freedmen went hand in hand, the missionary being the teacher and the teacher a missionary. After some experimental educational undertakings by the Society, the denomination in 1865 directed it to devote special Wayland Seminary at Washington, D. C.; Richmond Theological Seminary, Richmond, Va.; Shaw University, Raleigh, N. C.; Benedict College, Columbia, S. C.; Atlanta Seminary, Atlanta, Ga.; Roger Williams University, Nashville, Tenn.; Jackson College, Jackson, Miss.; Bishop College, Marshall, Texas; and in co-operation with their chief patrons, Leland University, New Orleans, La.; Hartshorn Memorial College, Richmond, Va., and Spelman Seminary, Atlanta, Ga., which has been maintained chiefly by the Woman's F. T. HAZLEWOOD, D.D., DISTRICT SECRETARY, NEW ENGLAND attention to the appointment of teachers for the illiterate masses of the colored people, placing especial emphasis, however, upon the education of preachers and teachers. The response of Christian philanthropists and the general interest among the churches in the North encouraged the Society to secure property and build up permanent institutions. By 1870 seven schools had been established, the number increasing to eleven by 1880, and to twenty-nine (the present number) in 1893. The institutions established directly by the! Society are American Baptist Home Mission Society of New England. Other institutions, fifteen in number, either projected or begun by the colored people themselves, have been adopted by the Society, without whose aid they could not have been maintained. Most of the latter are of a secondary grade, the policy of the Society being to encourage the establishment of a limited number of such institutions whose support shall be thrown as largely as possible upon the colored people. In many instances their devotion and sacri fices for these schools have been most praiseworthy. There is one theological seminary, though theological instruction is given in several institutions; twelve schools of a higher or collegiate grade; and sixteen of a secondary character. The average annual enrollment for several years has exceeded 5,000 pupils. Co-education is the rule. There are two schools exclusively for girls-Spelman Seminary, Atlanta, Ga., and Hartshorn Memorial College, Richmond, Va. At Shaw University is the Leon teachers are under appointment, both in the higher and the lower institutions. The magnitude and importance of this work necessitated the special supervision thereof by a competent educator. Hence, in 1890, the Society secured the services of Rev. Malcolm MacVicar, LL.D., an educator of note in the North and in Canada, as superintendent of its educational work. Besides these schools for the colored people the Society, with the assistance of the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society, main HALSEY MOORE, D.D., DISTRICT SECRETARY, NEW YORK DISTRICT. ard Medical School with a four years' course and an excellent faculty composed of the leading white physicians of Raleigh. At Spelman Seminary is a well organized nurse training school. High grade normal schools have recently been organized at Shaw University, Spelman Seminary and Bishop College. Industrial education is given to a considerable extent in many schools, and in several is well organized. There are missionary training schools for young women at Shaw University, Spelman Seminary, and Bishop College. Many colored tains five schools, some of them with good properties, for the Indians; three for the Mexicans, and several night schools for the Chinese. For teachers' salaries the Society expended in 1894-5, $117,480.50, and for all purposes, including buildings, $134,554.83. The entire valuation of school property is nearly $1,000,000. The Society itself holds title to school property valued at $575,000, the rest being held by incorporated institutions. For educational purposes it also holds in trust $180,356 endowment funds. Leland University, formerly supported by the Society, is practically self-supporting, with an endowment of about $90,000 from the estate of its founder, Holbrook Chamberlain, of Brooklyn, N. Y. The Society's total expenditures for the work among the colored people has been about $3,000,000. An endowment of at least $1,000,000 is most urgently needed for the partial relief of the Society, in order that it may do the larger missionary work that is pressing its claims. The growing demands of these institutions cannot long be met by annual contributions from the churches. The present expenditures represent the income of $2,000,000. More will soon be demanded and can be provided only by endowment funds. Financial. The permanent funds of the Society are as follows: For general purposes, $184,079.05; for educational purposes, $180,356.22; Church Edifice Loan Fund, $122,961.51; Church Edifice Benevolent Fund, $152,713.90; total, $640, 110.68. Besides, it holds $360,132.25 conditional funds on which the donors receive annuities during their lives. Hence these funds of all classes exceed $1,000,000, which, with the value of school and mission property, makes it the custodian of $1,600,000. The Society's receipts for all purposes last year were $515,446.96, of which $165,851.70 was from legacies. A Threefold Society. The Society is practically three societies in one, for missionary, Church Edifice and educational purposes. What other denominations usually do through three distinct organizations, each with its officers and expenses of administration, Baptists do through this one organization, The American Baptist Home Mission Society. Its work, therefore, is of great complexity, wide variety, and most weighty responsibility. Its act of incorporation, obtained in 1849, as amended in 1895, confers upon it adequate powers for the prosecution of any enterprises pertaining to these great departments of its work. The Society meets annually; its business, however, throughout the year is conducted by an Executive Board of eighteen members, composed about equally of ministers and business or professional men, meeting monthly for this purpose. The membership of the Society is composed of annual delegates from the churches and life members. valuable auxiliaries in its work. The Women's Baptist Home Mission Society of Chicago, whose field embraces the country west of the New England States, except Michigan, which has its own State organizations, prosecutes its operations in general independently, though to some extent co-operating in missions among the colored people, the Indians, Chinese and Mexicans. The Woman's American Baptist E. B PALMER, D D., DISTRICT SECRETARY, PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT. Baptist churches may appoint one delegate for a contribution of ten dollars and an additional delegate for each additional thirty dollars. Fifty dollars may constitute a member for life. The Society is dependent chiefly on the annual free-will offerings of the churches for the funds wherewith to prosecute its work. For the proper presentation of its claims to the churches it has established a system of District Secretaryships, now numbering ten, embracing most of the Northern and Western States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The Women's Home Mission Societies are Home Mission Society of New England, with headquarters at Bos'on, devotes attention almost wholly to educational work, and for these purposes is auxiliary to the general Society, though independent in its organization and methods. From the latter body the Society last year received $21,252.75. Officers of the Society. The Presidents of the Society have invariably been eminent business and professional men. Their names are as follows, in the order of their service: Hon. Thomas Stocks, Hon. Heman Lincoln, Friend Humphrey, Hon.. Isaac Davis, Hon. Albert Day, Hon. J. P. Crozer, J. E. Southworth, Hon. Ira Harris, Hon. J. Warren Merrill, President M. B. Anderson, Hon. J. M. Hoyt, Hon. Wm. Kelly, Hon. J. M. S. Williams, Hon. S. A. Crozer, Hon. R. O. Fuller, Hon. Wm. Stickney, Hon. James L. Howard, John B. Trevor, Samuel Colgate, Hon. C. W. Kingsley, Hon. E. Nelson Blake, H. K. Porter. The term of their service is limited to three years. The corresponding secretaries of the Society, B. Hoyt, William Phelps, J. G. Snelling. The Society's headquarters are in the Constable Building, corner of Eighteenth Street and Fifth Avenue; entrance and post-office address, III Fifth Avenue, New York City. It publishes THE BAPTIST HOME MISSION MONTHLY and other literature in the interests of its work. Tabulated results of its sixty-three years' work give but an imperfect idea of what has been accomplished. Its total receipts for this period have been to Janu E. H. E. JAMESON, D.D., DISTRICT SECRETARY, LAKE DISTRICT. who have been its chief executive officers, have been the following: Jonathan Going, D.D., 1832-7; Rev. Luther Crawford, 1835-9; Benjamin H. Hill, D.D., 1839-62; Jay S. Backus, D.D., 1862-74; J. B. Simmons, D.D., 1867-77; E. E. L. Taylor, D.D., 1869-74; Hon. Nathan Bishop, LL.D., 1874-6; S. S. Cutting, D.D., 1876-9; H. L. Morehouse, D.D., 1879-93 (now Field Secretary); T. J. Morgan, LL.D., 1893 to the present time. Its treasurers have been William Colgate, Runyon W. Martin, Chas. J. Martin, J. E. Southworth, D. C. Whitman, Ebenezer Cauldwell, William A. Gellaty, Jos. ary 1, 1896, a little more than $10,000,000. It has issued 18,608 commissions to missionaries and teachers, through whose instrumentality 4,780 churches. have been organized and 139,371 persons baptized, while numerous Sundayschools have been established, Bibles and religious literature distributed, and the cause not only of religion, but of moral reforms and human rights has been greatly promoted. The Society is a great Christian, philanthropic and patriotic organization for North America. THE HOME MISSION BY LEMUEL MOSS, D.D. Complete separation between the Church and the State does not involve the absence of religious influences from civil affairs. Just the reverse may be true and is apt to be true. The union of Church and State does not secure religious rulers nor ensure religious legislation. Ecclesiastical forms are by no means synonymous or coincident with religious principles. Ecclesiasticism is the prolific mother of formalism, indifferentism, hypocrisy, superstition, infidelity, profanity and persecution, and these all, from the root to the fruit, are as antagonistic to liberty as they are to godliness. Civil government is a divine ordinance. |