| Foreign missionaries and wives | 225 |
| Native ordained preachers | 246 |
| Native preachers not ordained | 187 |
| Native local preachers | 317 |
| Native workers in Woman’s For. Mis. Society | 291 |
| Foreign teachers | 34 |
| Native teachers | 521 |
| Members | 29,095 |
| Probationers | 9,984 |
The school system, both for secular and theological education is well organized, and doing a good work. Churches and conferences are organized as in this country.
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD.
In the Home Missions the Board employs 1,387 missionaries and 133 missionary teachers. 6,281 were, during the year, added to the mission churches on profession of faith. The total membership of those assisted is 78,669. There was raised for building, repairing and canceling debts on church property $726,517. The above mission churches are sustained wholly, or in part, by the funds of the Board. Thirty-seven of the number became self-sustaining during the year. The receipts of the Board for the year were $504,795.61, being an advance of $81,406.76 over the previous year. We do not wonder that these servants of Christ thank Him, and express their feelings of gratitude to the contributing churches, for their prayers, sympathy and “unprecedented pecuniary aid.” The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions has work in the following fields: Among the North American Indians, Mexico—the Southern and Northern fields; South America—Brazil, Chili; Africa, Asia, Persia, India, Siam—among the Laos; China, Japan, Chinese in America, Guatemala, Papal Europe, Geneva, France, Belgium, Bohemia and Waldensea.
The Board has in its employ 159 American missionaries, 225 native helpers, 92 of whom are ordained, and 133 licentiates; 286 lay American missionaries, 585 native lay helpers, 18,656 communicants, 21,253 pupils in day and boarding schools.
In their work among the American Indians they have 10 missionaries and 25 native ministers and licentiates.
The receipts for the past year were $656,237.99; also an advance on the previous year.
These missionary boards, so well sustained by the churches of their denominations, seem to have been both wise in counsels and aggressive in their measures, and their success has been glorious.
THE AMERICAN BOARD.
This is the oldest and among the most efficient and successful of all American missionary societies. Organized in 1812, and for a time aided by persons of all the evangelical churches who had the missionary spirit, and whose benevolence thus found a safe and suitable channel, through which its streams could reach the heathen, the Board, with prudent management and liberal support, has had a most successful career. They are now the organ of the Congregationalist church, and have established their posts or centers for extensive operations in all quarters of the globe. The year past is spoken of with thanksgiving, as one of the most satisfactory, and in some departments of the work, as of remarkable progress. After a full and luminous statement of the work of the year, the annual report closes, saying: “It is quite impossible by such a rapid glance to give any just conception of a work so wide in extent, so varied in character. We may speak of twenty missions and one hundred and forty-six missionaries at eighty different stations, and of 724 other towns, and cities, and islands in which the gospel is preached; we may call attention to 98 high schools and seminaries, in which 3,624 youth of both sexes are enjoying the advantages of higher Christian education; we may mention, one by one, the 278 churches gathered, the 1,737 members added the present year to our roll of membership, till the whole number received on profession of faith from the first till now, including missions closed and transferred, amounts to nearly 90,000; and yet, how can we tell of the moral and spiritual changes wrought in entire communities by the Word and spirit of our God, by the new thought and sentiment vivifying the languages and the literatures, and one day to mould the life and character of tribes and nations constituting one-third of the human race.” The Board, after showing that, with the present need and present opportunity, $2,000,000 could be economically administered in prosecuting their missionary work, reduce the amount to $1,000,000; and, with modest urgency, ask the churches to regard that as the minimum estimate for 1884. The home work of the Congregationalists is also well organized and prosecuted with vigor.