V PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES
of Londonderry. The Presbytery of Connecticut, con- sisting of several ministers and churches previously be- longing to the Presbytery of New York, was constituted by the Synod of New York Oct. 15, 1850, and held its first meeting at Thompson ville on Oct. 29.
Missions. — (a.) Home Missions. — The home mission work of the Presbyterian Church may date from the year 1707, when it was resolved " that every minister of the Presbytery supply neighboring destitute places where a minister is wanting and opportunity of doing good offers." Since that period this work has contin- ued to be one of its most important enterprises. At the beginning in the hands of the presbyteries, the Assem- bly took charge of it in 1802, appointing a •'Standing Committee of Missions," to which the presbyteries were to report. During the fourteen years that followed this appointment the Church sent out 311 missionaries, and collected $49,349. In 1816 this committee was changed into a board, " with full power to transact all the busi- ness of the missionary cause," reporting annually to the General Assembly. Under this arrangement the home missions of the Church entered on a new course of pros- perity, congregations multiplying till presbyteries were formed, and these in turn growing into synods. So vig- orous was the Church life now developed that even the great division of 1838 was unable to hinder its continu- ous activity. During these twenty-two years the board collected $231,504, and sent out 2486 missionaries, while during the years 1838 to 1870 the Old -School Church alone collected $2,805,375, and sent out 16,113 mission- aries. For a few years after the division of 1838, the New-School Assembly continued to carry on its mission work through the American Home Missionary Society. In 1852 the Assembly appointed a "Church Extension Committee," following this up in 1862 by assuming "the responsibility of conducting the work of home missions within its bounds," forming "The Presbyterian Committee on Home Missions." During the years 1838 to 1869 the New-School Church is considered to have sent out 8800 missionaries. After the reunion, the agencies of both churches were united under the name ! of "The Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian j Church," by which, since that period, the whole home- i mission and church-extension work of the Church has been conducted, $1,840,997 haying been collected and ! 6529 missionaries sent out, making a total since 1802 of I $6,132,167 contributed for home missions and of 37,968 missionaries sent out. During the year 1875-76. 1035 ministers (or missionaries, as they are called) were aided to the extent, on an average, of $250 each.
Closely connected with this home mission is the Sus- I fentation Scheme, organized in 1871 for the purpose of increasing the number of pastors in the Church, and of I securing to these a larger measure of support. Under this plan, congregations paying not less than $700 a i year of salary, and at the rate of $7 50 per member an- nually, and increasing their pastor's salary at the rate I of $50 a year, receive grants-in-aid. so that the salary \ may be raised to $1000 a year.
(6.) Foreign Missions. — As early as 1742 the Church ' commenced her great work of preaching the Gospel to ' the heathen, in the ordination, by the Presbytery of j New York, of a missionary to labor among the Indians. This work engrossed all her means and sympathies un- i til 1817. In that year the General Assembly united I with the Dutch Reformed and Associate Reformed ; Churches in forming "The United Foreign Missionary 'Society," a society whose object was "to spread the Gospel among the Indians of North America, the inhab- itants of Mexico and South America, and in other por- tions of the heathen and anti- Christian world." In 1826 this society made over all its missions and prop- erty to the American Board, which thus became almost the National Foreign Mission Society of America. In 1831 the Synod of Pittsburgh formed itself into "The Western Foreign Missionary Society," and invited the co-operation and support of such as preferred Church
PRESBYTEPJAX CHURCHES 533 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES
action to that of so-called union societies. Bi I ore
eighteen 1 1 1 1 j — bad elapsed, twelve missionaries had
been appointed to different fields of heathen labor. In
the following year sixteen <■ were Bent out, while
$16,246 had been contributed towards their expenses. In 1837, mission stations in Northern India, Wesl Afri- ca, Smyrna, China, and among the Indian tribes of the West were under its charge, conducted by forty-four agents, for whose support 1 10,266 were contributed dur- ing thai year. Such results strengthened the bands of those in the Church that desired denominational agen- cies. In 1837, therefore, the Assembly severed its con- nection with the American Board, and established its own "Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church," to which the Western Society at once trans- ferred all its agencies and property. During the period of the division, the Old-School Assembly extended its foreign mission staff, forming, on heathen soil, synods and presbyteries by means of native converts. The New -School Church at lirst continued to send its con- tributions of men and mqney t>> the American Board, but in 1854 appointed a standing committee on mis- sions, changing this in 1855 into a permanent commit- tee, who should "superintend the whole course of for- eign missions in behalf of the Assembly." On the reunion, in 1869, these agencies were brought together, while the reunited Church received from the American Board a number of mission stations that previously it had sustained.