Report of the American Home Missionary Society

The number of Sabbath school scholars, connected with the missionary churches and stations, is not far from 67,300.

The contributions to benevolent objects, reported by 581 missionaries, amount to $20,846.92.

Seventy six churches have been organized, in connection with the labors of the missionaries, during the year; and thirty have become self-sustaining. Fifty houses of worship have been completed; fifty one repaired or improved; and the building of sixty one commenced. Ninety seven young men, in connection with the missionary churches, are reported as in preparation for the gospel ministry.

The additions to the churches, as nearly as can be ascertained, have been 8,791, viz.: 5,878 on profession of their faith, and 2,913 by letters from other churches.

This is a larger addition than has ever before been made in any one year of the Society's labors. It is thef ruit of the revivals, which it was our privilege to report as in progress at the last anniversary, and which have spread their happy influence over the year, awakening joy in the presence of the angels of God over the repentance of sinners, and giving strength and beauty to Zion, in the enlargement of her borders, and the more joyful and unwearied activity of her sons and daughters in building up her walls. Four hundred and seventy two missionaries report 4,971 hopeful conversions in connection with their labors during the past year; and there are instances where the presence and power of the Spirit have been most strikingly manifest, in which 80, 90, and even 100 have given evidence of having been born again. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes!

THE TREASURY.

RESOURCES.-The balance in the Treasury, April 1, 1858, was $6,488.07. The receipts for the succeeding twelve months have been $188,139.29; making the resources of the year $194,627.36.

LIABILITIES.-There was due to missionaries at the close of the last year, $11,046.47. There has since become due, $186,493.95; making the total of liabilities, $197,540.42.

PAYMENTS. Of this sum, $187,084.41 have been paid; leaving $10,456.01 still due to missionaries for labor performed. Towards canceling these claims and redeeming additional pledges on commissions daily becoming due-amounting in all to $80,635.21there is a balance in the Treasury of $7,542.95.

PROGRESS.

A comparison of the leading items in the results of the last year, with those of the year previous, is full of encouragement. The receipts exceed those of the year preceding, by $12,167.92; $10,722.12 of the increase have come from legacies, and $1,445.80 from the contributions of the living. Forty two more missionaries have been in the service of the Society; one hundred and one more congregations have received the ministrations of the Gospel; one thousand and eight hundred more children and youth have been instructed in Sabbath schools, and two thousand and three more communicants have been added to the churches.

Should not such evidences of the Divine favor inspire our hearts with thanksgiving and praise, and enkindle within us holier and firmer purposes, stronger faith, more importunate entreaty, and a more absolute consecration with reference to the work which is still committed to our hands--a work of increasing magnitude and amazing import, and to the accomplishment of which nothing but the arm of Omnipotence is adequate? Giving doth not impoverish our Infinite Patron, our Almighty Helper, nor withholding enrich him. The silver and the gold and the cattle on a thousand hills are his. The hearts of all men are in his hands, and the residue of the Spirit is with him. He can send forth laborers into his harvest, and gather it all into his garner. The cause for which we labor is infinitely more precious in his sight than it can be in ours; and he is far more ready to grant us the largest desires of our hearts, with reference to it, than we are to utter them before him. What responsibilities rest upon us, then, in regard to the future! And with what encouragement and hope may we put forth our humble efforts to discharge them, strong in the Lord and in the power of his might!

GENERAL COMPARATIVE RESULTS.

The following Table gives a comparative view of the amount of receipts, expenditures, number of missionaries, new appointments, congregations and missionary districts, years of labor performed, additions to the churches, and pupils in Sabbath schools, for each year since the organization of the Society. It also exhibits, in the tenth column, the average expenditure, each year, for a year of missionary labor, obtained by dividing the sum total of the expenditures for the year, by the number of years of labor performed. And in the eleventh column, by dividing the sum total of the expenditures of each year, by the number of missionaries employed, is shown what the average to a missionary would be, if the expenditures were equally apportioned among them.

169

196

244

110 not rep not rep $127 $83 133 1,000 306 134 89

719 204

3,300 52,000 170 116

1-1826-27 $18,140.76 $13,984.17 2-1827-28 20,035.78 17,849.22 201 3-1828-29 26,997.31 26,814.96 304 169 4-1829-30 33,929.44, 42,429.50 392 166 5-1830-31 48,124.73 47,247.60 463 164 6-1831-32 49,422.12 52,808.39 509 158 7-1832-33 68,627.17 66,277.96 606 209 8-1833-34 78,911.44 80,015.76 676 200 9-1834-35 88,863.22 83,394.28, 10-1835-36 101,565.15 92,188.94 755 249 11-1836-37 85,701.59 99,529.72 810 232 12-1837-38 86,522.45 85,066.26 684 123 13-1838-39: 82,564.63 82,655.64 665 201 14-1839-40 78,345.20 78,533.89 680, 194 15-1840-41 85,413.34 84,864.06 690 178 16-1841-42 92,463.64 94,300.14 791 248 17-1842-43 99,812.24 98,215.11 848 225 18-1843-44 101,904.99 104,276.47 19-1844-45 121,946.28 118,360.12 20-1845-46 125,124.70 126,193.15' 971 223 21-1846-47 116,617.94 119,170.40 972 189 22-1847-48 140, 197.10 139,233.34 1,006 205 23-1848-49 145,925.91 143,771.67 1,019, 192 24-1849-50 157,160.78 145,456.09 1,032 205 25-1850-51,150,940.25 153,817.90 1,065 211 26-1851-52 160,062.25 162,831.14 1,065 204 27-1852-53 171,734.24, 174,439.24 1,087 213 28-1853-54 191,209.07 184,025.76 1,047 167 29-1854-55 180,136.69 177,717.34 1,032 180

907 237
943 209

1,453 760 5,311 76,700 166 130

4,400 73,000 167 123

30-1855-56 193,548.37 186,611.02 986 187

31-1856-57 178,060.68 180,550.44 974 201 32-1857-58 175,971.37 190,735.70 1,012 242 6,784 65,500 240 188 33-1858-59 183,139.29 187,034.41 1,054 250 2,125 810 8,791 67,300 231, 178

Remarks.-1. The total of receipts for thirty three years, is $3,644,220.11.

2. The total of years of labor is 19,681. These years are reckoned in each Report, by adding together the number of months of labor which the missionaries have actually performed.

3. The whole number of additions to the churches is 159,066. The largest additions were made in 1843, and in 1859.

4. The average expenditure for a year of missionary labor includes the entire cost to the Society, of obtaining the missionary, defraying his expenses to his field, and sustaining him on it, as well as the average proportion of all the expenses of conducting the Institution. The increased average of recent years has been occasioned by the greater number of those who have held full commissions, the expensiveness of more distant missions, and the larger appropriations that have become necessary, as the expenses of living have increased, to secure to the missionary a comfortable support.

5. The difference between the annual average expenditure to a missionary and the average of a year's labor, is occasioned by the fact that a missionary is named and counted in a Report, though in some cases he may have labored but a fraction of a year.

6. The fifth column-that of new appointments-shows how many have to be called in each year, to supply the places of those whose support is assumed by the people, the vacancies occasioned by death, sickness, removals, and other changes, and to make the increase, if there be any, over the number of the preceding year.

DISTRIBUTION OF MISSIONARIES, NO. 1.

The following Table gives the number of missionaries, each year of the Society's operations, in the Geographical Divisions of Eastern, Middle, Southern, and Western States; and also in Canada.