OUR CONTINENT.

Since the Methodist Board of Church Extension began its work in the year 1865, it has helped to build 5,805 churches. It has collected and disbursed nearly $3,000,000.

Capital punishment in Utah is inflicted by shooting. A murderer named Hoyt was shot to death August 11, at Salt Lake City.

In New York City there are five colored lawyers who have built up large practices and enjoy substantial incomes. Nine-tenths of their clients are white.

The eight pin factories in New England produce 6,720,000,000 pins a year. In England the yearly production of pins is set at 4,695,000.

Seven millions dollars' worth of pine timber has been destroyed by fire and storm in the upper peninsula of Michigan during the last two months. This loss is more to be regretted than that of other property, for pine lands and pine timber are fast becoming a monopoly, and are already bearing a monopoly price.

No less than 53,000 wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania and New York since the discovery of petroleum, at a cost of $200,000,000. These wells have produced 310,000,000 barrels of oil, which was sold at the wells for $500,000,000. This represented a profit to the producer of $300,000,000. The amount of oil exported is placed at 6,231,102,923 gallons. In the pool in Washington County alone, $3,200,000 has been expended in machinery and drilling. This does not include the many millions that are represented there in the natural gas industry. Independent of the oil business, there is about $50,000,000 invested in natural gas plants in Pennsylvania.

A few days ago a gentlemen of Washington bought an old trunk at an auction sale for 25 cents. It was filled with rubbish, and the buyer sent it home, intending to have it cleaned out. This was done a few days ago, and the trunk was found to contain a solid silver shield, which appears to have been on the coffin of George Washington. The plate from the casket has been missing ever since the attempt to steal the remains in 1837.

The public debt reached its highest point in August, 1865, just twenty-two years ago, when it was $2,381,530,295. It is now, not including the Pacific Railroad bonds, $1,001,976,850. In other words, more than one-half of the debt has been paid within that period. It has been reduced at the average rate of $62,706,975 each year, $5,225,581 each month, $174,186 each day, $7,258 each hour, and $120.47 for every minute of the entire twenty-two years.

One may get a new impression of the vastness of ur country by some comparisons. Thus the region

west of the Mississippi has room for 202 ordinary. States such as those in New England. Colorado would make twenty-two such States as Connecticut. Yet Colorado is small compared with Dakota. When we have depopulated the whole world and gathered all of its people into Dakota, there would be left to every sixteen souls one acre of land, and vast as is Dakota, it is smaller than Texas by 110,000 square miles. And vast as is Texas, it is only half as large as Alaska.

Mr. J. R. Dodge, the statistician of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, reports that the average value of our dairy products, including milk, annually during the previous five years has been

$400,000,000. These figures, of course, do not include oleomargarine, of which a pound or so per head is consumed by our people. This year the value of these products will be $480,000,000. This exceeds the value of our annual wheat yield by $20,000,000, and comes next to corn, which is the most valuable of all our farm products. In 1860 the value of our entire dairy products was about $80,000,000. The number of milk cows now in use for dairy purposes is 21,000,000. Mr. Dodge estimates that each of these will give at least 350 gallons of milk in the year. This would make the annual supply 7,350,000,000 gallons, of which about 4,000,000,000 gallons is consumed in butter making, and 700,000,000 gallons in cheese making. The quantity of butter produced is about 1,350,000,000 pounds, and of cheese 6,500,000

pounds. The vast capital employed is shown in this table: 100,000,000 acres of land, $25 per acre, $2,500,000,000; 21,000,000 cows, $30 per head, $630,000,000; 1,000,000 working horses, $75 per head, $75,000,000; buildings, dairying machinery, etc., $75,000,000; total, $3,280,000,000. As to butter, 98% per cent. of our total product is consumed at home, and only 1%1⁄2 per cent. shipped. This makes the average annual consumption 21 pounds per capita. Last year our shipments of cheese to the English market reached something over 85,000,000 pounds, valued at $9,172,000. The value of the butter and cheese products of the Empire State this year will reach at least $38,000,000 and $12,000,000 respectively.

The table of statistics for 1887 of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (Northern General Assembly) has just been published by the stated clerk, Rev. Dr. W. H. Roberts. We glean from them the following items: There are 28 synods, 201 presbyteries, 5,654 ministers, 357 licentiates, 188 ordinations, 130 ministers deceased, 21,835 elders, 7,085 deacons, 6,437 churches, and 228 churches organized. There were added to the churches by examination, 53,887; by certificate, 31,225. The total number of communicants was 696,827 (a net increase not quite 30,000 from 1886); number of members of Sunday schools, 771,890.

Their benevolent contributions were: For Home Missions, $785,075; for Foreign Missions, $669,903 ; education, $117,900; publication, $39,439; church erection, $286,690; relief fund, $110,942; freedmen, | $103,406; aid for colleges, $127,637; sustentation, $26,419; General Assembly, $62,330; congrega. tional (home) expenses, $7,902,435; miscellaneous, $860,762; making a grand total of contributions of $11,092,728, a round half million more than the previous year. This is a very good showing, and does great credit to the liberality of our Presbyterian brethren. With nearly four times their communicants, though with probably not more than twice their wealth, we ought to emulate their liberality in giving.

San Francisco claims a population of 310,000. This is based on the city directory and the school attendance.

Female students in colleges in the United States are said to number 18,000.

An immense flow of natural gas was obtained in Port Huron, Mich., July 5, at a depth of 240 feet, the pressure being estimated at from 300 to 400 pounds to the inch. The roaring and screaming of the gas were heard half a mile away, and the business portion of the city was lighted by the flame from the well.

There are in the City of New York nearly 250 miles of street railway, divided among sixteen companies, the iron rails required to lay the tracks of which, if stretched out in a continuous line, would extend from New York to Jacksonville, Fla. Upon these tracks, for the last year of which a report has been made, there have been carried the almost incredible number of 171,500,000 passengers. To transport this immense mass of humanity, there were required 2,048 cars, 15,407 horses, and 6,062 employés. The total stock of all the companies is represented by over $30,000,000.

THE U. S. MAIL SERVICE.

In 1778, Henry Pratt was appointed riding postmaster for all the routes between Philadelphia and Newport, Virginia, to set out at the beginning of each month and return in twenty-four days. The first regular stage-line established in the colonies began making regular trips between New York and Philadelphia in 1756, making the journey in three days. The first stage between New York and Boston com menced its trips June 24, 1772, and was to leave once a fortnight.

In 1798 the entire business of the Post-Office Department was conducted by the Postmaster-General, one assistant, and one clerk. In 1833, it required forty-eight hours to convey news from Washington to Philadelphia. In 1834 New York Saturday papers were not received in Washington until the following Tuesday afternoon.

Now the mail is two hours in passing between New York and Philadelphia, five hours from New York to Washington; eight hours between Philadelphia and Newport, Virginia; twenty seven hours from New York to Chicago (over 1,000 miles) and five days between New York and San Francisco, (about 3,500 miles). During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1886, the number of letters and other pieces of mail matter distributed was 5,329,521,475.

The organization of the mail system embraces nine grand divisions, over each of which presides a geneeral superintendent. The number of persons at present employed in the service is about four thousand. Each railway post-office is manned by an organized crew, having a head clerk in charge, and every detail of this work is systematized.

CHURCH EDIFICE NOTES.

Rev. J. W. Osborn, of Nebraska, General Missionary of the State, writes, from personal observation, of the need of church edifices.

"We are coming to realize more and more the need of this work to secure the growth of our churches. A church without a home is in a forlorn condition, only as they have one in immediate prospect. Perpetuity and growth seldom come to homeless churches. It is quite questionable whether it is good policy to organize a church where there is no prospect of securing a place of worship. In other words, where there is a demand for a church there is a demand for a church building. If this be so then we are not likely to overstate the importance of this work. It may be true in the older Eastern States that where there is a demand for a house there is ability to build it, but it is not true of Nebraska. We need to-day a score of church homes, and in few of these places are they able to furnish them unaided. Small sums would enable a dozen churches to build in the next twelve months comfortable chapels. From $200 to $400 each would give an impetus to this work that would amaze those who do not think on these things. Had I a thousand dollars that I could give to the Lord's cause I would devote it to chapel building. 1 know the town where the church is trying to build, and a citizen, not a religious man, proposes to give as much towards the building as the Home Mission Society will donate. In many towns a gift from our Church Edifice Fund is worth 200 per cent. to the church in the stimulus it affords. With many churches it is a question of life and death. If they can secure a home they have hope; if not all is gone. Other denominations understand this, and the money is forthcoming; where they establish a church a house is built, and not unfrequently the building is up before an organization is effected. We in Nebraska cannot afford to neglect this branch of benevolence. When children's "chapel day" comes around let us make one united effort and put into the treasury designated

funds to the amount of at least $5.00 on an average from each Sunday school in the State."

-Twenty years ago the Nebraska Baptist State Convention was organized. Nebraska was then a Territory; now a State in her "teens," with nearly 1,000,000 of inhabitants. We meet in October at York as a child of the Home Mission Society, not only to transact our ordinary business, but to celebrate our twentieth anniversary, to take a retrospect of our journeying and mark the leadings of divine Providence and gain new inspiration for the future."

At the September meeting of the Board we were able to make a larger number of grants from our Church Edifice Fund than for several years past, and many little churches in the West will send up a prayer of thanksgiving to God while they worship this winter in their own church home. The special fund contributed during July and August for chapels in the West made it possible for the Board to make these grants. But "what are these among so many?" There are yet over 700 Baptist churches with not even a chapel in which to meet. Reader, as you meet in your own comfortable church home next Sunday, ask yourself the question, "What have I done to plant a house of the Lord in the new West?" "Have I made any contribution to help my brothers and sisters who are laboring under the deprivations incident to pioneer life in a new country?" What will the Master say if we neglect those of our own natural household? The Church Edifice Department of the Home Mission Society is the only organized channel of American Baptists through which help goes to these homeless churches. Designate something for this department of work.

-A missionary from Tulare, California writes: "I came here two months ago and began work. We organized a church of eight members June 26th, and also a Sabbath school. We hold our services in a public hall over a saloon and pay five dollars per month for the forenoon. We cannot afford to pay for the hall during the evenings, and so have no night services or prayer-meetings. We have 3,000 inhabitants in the place, and the population is increasing rapidly. I think we can have a strong church if we can only get a house. We cannot do this without aid from the Church Edifice Fund. Please let me know what you can do for us."

-The increased activity during the present year in railroad building in the West, and the consequent existence of many new towns, rapidly filling up with population, calls for increased help from our Church Edifice Funds. We must either enable our missionaries to assist new towns in obtaining houses of worship, or we must be content to see others occupy the field and shape the sentiment of these new communities. This is especially true of the western portions of Kansas and Nebraska, and of Dakota. How we

are to meet these increased demands without a large increase to our Church Edifice Benevolent Fund it is impossible to say. We beg pastors and missionary circles to think of this when arranging their benevolences for the winter.

The Loan Fund.

We receive a great many letters in reference to loans to churches which show us that many of our brethren do not understand how the fund is used. Some think that the fund does no good, and others expect a great deal more to be accomplished with it than is possible.

Under certain circumstances, and with judicious management, our Loan Fund proves a great blessing to weak churches in new and growing communities. A church debt, under ordinary circumstances, is a bad thing, and especially is this true when the debt is so large as to become burdensome and unbearable.

To churches located in the East, where interest rates are low, and where loans on good property can be easily negotiated, our Loan Fund is of little use; but in the West, where capital seeking investment in loans is very scarce, and where current rates of interest are very high, this fund often proves a great blessing to churches. A community is poor but prosperous, and, though not possessing the means in ready money to entirely build a house of worship, can in a few years pay off a small loan at a reason. able rate of interest. It enables the new settler, who is not willing even in his religious life to be considered an object of charity, to turn around, as it were, and with a few crops to realize some income, and give something a few years hence which he cannot give in the present. A loan benefits this class.

Our brethren in the West who wish to borrow from this fund sometimes think there is too much "red tape” about letting the money out. We often receive letters asking that if the loan is granted please send check at once, and arrangements are made to use the money before any papers are sent on. The policy of the Board in using this fund may be outlined as follows:

Ist. Not to encourage churches in making large debts. The usual limit of a loan to any one church is $500, and there must be very urgent and peculiar reasons if this limit is exceeded. A large debt discourages the church, often prevents those moving to a new place from joining the church, and thus acts as a hindrance rather than a help.

2d. Never to pay over the money until the house is so far completed that the loan will finish it, free from all other indebtedness. We have many applications from those who begin a house like the man spoken of in the Bible, without first counting the cost, and find themselves overwhelmed with debt, or a house that cannot be occupied. To guard against

unwise enthusiasm, as well as to properly protect the fund, the Board adheres rigidly to this rule.

3d. In all cases to require that the church has a perfect and unencumbered title to the property. One without experience in these matters would be surprised to find how many churches have imperfect titles to the property they claim. "What's every

body's business is nobody's business," and in new countries especially there is often a want of care in securing perfect titles. A grant was made not long since, and when the abstract of title was submitted it was found that there was a clause in the deed securing to other denominations the right to use the house half the time, and if this was ever refused the property, with all the improvements, was to revert to the grantor. Of course we did not put money in this house. Our requirements in this matter is as much for the protection of the church itself as for the protection of the Society.

4th. We require that the property should be insured. Scarcely a month passes that we do not see

an

account of some church house that has been burned down without insurance, and often the public at large is asked to replace the loss which a little care would have prevented. If church members are willing to risk their own interest they have no right to risk the money of the denomination without insurance, and so we rigidly require that at least the money furnished by the Society shall be secured.

Upon investigation it will be found that every rule of the Board is reasonable and sensible, looking to the best interests of the cause. To any who object to red tape, as they call it, we would suggest that the time for care is before the accident. Too late to lock

the door when the horse is gone. When a loan is obtained the church should at once inaugurate some system of finance to meet the interest and ultimately pay off the loan.

A loan will not pay itself off, and too many churches have no systematic way of reducing the indebtedness, but having made the debt, go the even tenor of their way and wait for something to turn up. To such churches a loan is a curse. It harrasses the church and the Society, while the enemies of religion are rejoiced. A church no more than an individual should contract a debt without a reasonable probability of paying it, and a manly, systematic, persevering effort to do so. Many churches have been benefited by our loan fund in the past, a few, probably, have been injured by it. We suppose it will be so in the future, but the harm will be reduced to a minimum, and the good greatly augmented, if the churches will be careful in obtaining a loan, and business-like in carrying and discharging it.

"An incalculable service for good has been done in the administration of this department of the Society's work. But for the timely aid received, a large share of the 507 churches which have been assisted the past seven years, would in all probability have had no visible existence, and the goodly company of

people gathered into them would have been left without church privileges. Your committee have the strongest conviction that the Church Edifice work of the Society is second only to the distinctively evangelistic work of the Society."

(From Report of Committee at Minneapolis.)

WOMEN'S BAPTIST HOME MISSION

SOCIETY.

2338 Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Ill.

GENERAL OFFICERS.

President MRS. J. N. CROUSE, 2231 Prairie Ave., Chicago,

Ill.

Corresponding Secretary-MISS M. G. BURDETTE, 2338 Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill.

Recording Secretary -MRS. H. THANE MILLER, Cincinnati,
Ohio.
Treasurer-MRS. R. R. DONNELLEY, 2338 Michigan Ave.,
Chicago, Ill.

Probably many who are especially interested in this department of the MONTHLY will have already heard of the loss the Society has sustained in the death of Miss Carrie Muzzy, who has been associated with Mrs. Bull at Columbus, Miss. To others who have watched her work with interest and gratification this notice of her death will come as very sad news. She died near Columbus, August 16th, at three P. M. Of her sickness and death Rev. F. L. Jordan writes: "Miss Muzzy's death was a most severe shock to us. It occurred seven miles away in the country, where she had gone for much needed rest. While there she was taken with chills, followed by bilious fever. The night before her death, in reply to a remark by Mrs. Bull-how sad for either of them to be left alone-she repeated the lines commencing, 'Why should we mourn departing friends?' etc. The next day, after pleading with Mr. Hamilton to become a Christian, she turned away-and was

dead.

"For three years I have been associated with her, and want to say that she was a grand woman; zealous, conscientious, of strong faith, and true. Every one loved her, and we shall never cease to miss her."

Of her funeral, a sister, Mrs. J. F. Boulder, writes: "They made arrangements to bury her in the country, and sent for her coffin with the tidings of her death. I felt that that would never do, so arranged myself to bring her body to town. We brought it to the church, held funeral services, and as we were going out of one door, on our way to the grave, your dispatch asking that it be sent north came in at the other. It was then returned, and rested in the church till necessary arrangements could be made. We all feel that we have lost a model missionary, a profound Christian, and a faithful teacher.