PRESBYTERIAN ( 'IICRCHES 518 PRESBYTERLYX CHURCHES
were considered, for Scotland, rich benefices; but which, being wholly paid in grain, have, through the late agrarian law. fallen far below thai standard. The in- comes of city in iiil-t < -r~ an- paid wholly in money. Be- sides tin1 stipend, every parish minister has a righl i" a manse or parsonage-house, garden, and offices — tlie style- as well as the exten( of accommodation being generally proportioned i" the value of the benefice and the char- acter of the neighborhood. According to law. the glebe consists of four acres of arable land, although, in point of fact, it generally exceeds thai measure: and. besides, mosl ministers have a grass glebe, sufficient for the support of a horse and two cows. All these, by a late decision of the <'<>urt of Session, are exempt from poor- rates and similar public burdens. Ministers in royal burghs are entitled to manses only."
The statistics of the Established Church of Scotland vary very .slightly from year In year. The number of parish churches was in bs77. 1222. In addition in these n forty-two Parliamentary churches, and :i con- siderable number of chapels of ease and quoad sacra churches, which, under a scheme efficiently organized by the Rev. Prof. Robertson, are in course of being en- dowed and erected into new parishes in the terms of Sir James Graham's Act, passed in 1846. Altogether there are about 1500 congregations and i:J81 ministers.
The loll,, wing are the chief missionary and other be- nevolent undertakings of the < Ihurch :
1. //,, Horn Mission Scheme.— It has three depart- ments: ii.t Church Extension. Local efforts in places requiring additional church accommodation are supple- mented by grants from the funds of the scheme. In L876, thirty-three churches, providing nearly 32,000 sit- tings, were thus aided. ("_'. ) Missi,,n Cluirrlu-s, designed to be centres of mission work in destitute localities or in the more populous parishes of Scotland. These churches or chapels number ninety-three, with upwards of 22,000 worshippers. The Home Mission Committee insist thai they shall be served with invariable regularity. (3.) Mission Stations, not having the permanent character of churches, intended as points of evangelical work among the lapsed, non- church -going, or far-scattered people. There are seventy-seven such stations supplied by Licentiates, or students in divinity, or qualified evan- gelists, li, -id, s these operations, aid is given in cer- tain cases towards the employment of Scripture-readers in the Highlands and Islands. The revenue of the scheme iii 1876 from church -collections and Legacies amounted to £11,780.
2. Of undertakings more especially affecting the cler- gy of the Church may be noticed the Association for Augnu nting the Smallt r Livings, i. e. li\ ings under £200 per annum, for this purpose the sum of £7305 was reported to last General Assembly. Also the Ministers' and Professors' Widows' Fund, to which every parish minister and every professor in the national universities is hound to Subscribe. The capital sum of the fund amounts to upwards of £212,000. .Ministers and pro- fessors may subscribe according to one or other of four rates, viz. £3 3*., £4 1 Is. 6d\, £6 6s., or £7 17s. <;,/.
:;. A report is yearly presented to the Assembly as to
the ,■ litioii of the Sabbath-schools in connection with
the Church. Between l.">. i and lC.nnit persons are
engaged in the work of teaching 167,000 juvenile schol- ars, and upwards of 24,000 adults of both sexes.
I. Colonial Missions seek to provide means of grace
for Scottish colonists in the various British dependen- cies and ■!-, where. When the scalier,, 1 communities are organized into churches Borne large and influential, as in the dominion of Canada the aid given by the Home Church is curtailed, if not wholly withdrawn. Uui the committee have a great sphere pf labor in the ever-enlarging and developing colonial empire of Great Britain. Agents of the mission report from British Co- lumbia, the South American continent, Fiji, New Zea- land, Australia. Ceylon, India. Under the Colonial Mis- sion are also included European stations, such as Paris
and Dresden, where ministrations are maintained for the benefit of resident Presbyterians. The total income
of the scheme in 1877 was upwards of £15,
.",. Jewish Missions.— The efforts put forth in tion with this mission are concentrated on Turkey and Egypt. It has agents in Constantinople, Smyrna. Al- exandria, lieyrut.and Salonica. The sum of the charge on w hi, h it operates is upwards of £7000.
6. Missions to the Heathen.— The scenes of these mis- sions, comprehended under the word •■foreign -Mis- sion-." are India. Africa, and China. It can scarcely, indeed, he said that a mission exists in China: but steps have been taken to originate a Christian work in that vast empire. The agencj in Africa is not yet complete. A station has been formed and is partly occupied by a company of Christian artisans, headed by a medical missionary, in the Highlands of East Africa the station having received the name of Dr. Livingstone's birth- place, Blant] re. The Indian missions retain the mixed character which Scotch missions in India have hitherto borne — educational and evangelistic. In the three great Presidency towns, the educational institutions are si ill maintained, and ate at present in a state of efficiency.
Evangelical efforts are also carried on in connection with the institutions and in native churches. In the Punjab there are stations at Sealkote, Gfljrat, and W.i- zirabad. An interesting work is also promoted among the Highlanders of India at Darjeling, and outside the British territory an agency is maintained at Clnmifa, whose feature is that the mission, conducted by Eu- ropeans, is kept apart from the Church, presided over by natives. The income of these foreign missions for the year ending January, 1876, was upwards of £19,000.