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abroad, it proceeds to apportion this gross sum among the various dioceses in proportion to their wealth and supposed ability to raise the amount assigned to them respectively. At present appropriations are made to carry on the various departments of our missionary work to the amount of over one million dollars annually (200,000l.). To each diocese such part of this required sum of one million dollars and more is apportioned as it may be willing to assume. When the individual diocese undertakes to raise its annual apportionment a diocesan committee, appointed for the purpose, again proceeds to apportion this sum among the various parishes of the diocese on some equitable ratio of receipts and expenditures. When the parish receives information as to the amount it is expected to raise it is at liberty to adopt its own method of procedure. The plan which has thus far proven most efficacious is that of assigning to each contributor in the parish his supposed share of the whole amount. While the system is a purely voluntary one, each parish has a certain pride in meeting honourably and gladly its apportionment and bearing its full share in the great work of extending the kingdom of God among men. This method of raising money for missions is known among us as the 'apportionment plan,' and was adopted nearly eight years ago at the General Convention in California. While it has not been entirely successful it marks a vast improvement upon the unsystematic and desultory efforts of previous years. It has resulted in a large increase of the annual amount given for missions in the American Church, and inspires the hope that when universally acted upon the result will be far more satisfactory even than now. It has the decided advantage, when intelligently and sympathetically presented, of bringing home to the conscience, first of the diocese, then of the parish, and, above all, to the individual Christian man and woman, a sense of personal responsibility for the one great object for which the Church exists, namely the making known the Gospel of salvation to God's children throughout the world. It is a method which has for its object the enlisting of every member of the Church, rich and poor, in this sacred cause, and

dignifying the gift of the individual, whether it be large or small, if only it be according to one's ability. Moreover, it is a plan which must result, if faithfully and patiently prosecuted, in a most desirable campaign of education of Christian people in the duty of supporting the missions of the Church.

As every American diocese has within its territory much ground unoccupied by the Church, that department of our activity known as diocesan missions demands much of our attention. As a Church we are compelled to raise far more money, year by year, for Church extension within our dioceses, so large in area, than for the work beyond our borders. The stronger we become at home, the larger share we shall be able to take in conquering the world for Christ. The highest motive for the development of home missionary work is that it will equip us the better for the larger task of evangelizing the world.

Notwithstanding the great demand made upon our resources in taking care of the many new missionary districts on American soil and providing for the rapid growth through immigration, we have undertaken to meet our responsibilities in the foreign field to the extent of our ability. The American Church is now supporting two missionary bishops with their staff of clergy, schools, hospitals, and equipment in China, and the same number in Japan. We also have a missionary bishop in the Philippine Islands, in our newly acquired Hawaii and Porto Rico islands, in the island of Cuba, and in Liberia. In addition to these foreign missionary bishops we have sent a bishop to Mexico to minister to the American and English settlers in that country and to such of the natives as may desire our services. The amount of money appropriated annually for the support of our foreign missionary work is in round numbers about the same as that given to the home field. As our home Church develops more and more we shall hope to take a larger share in the great privilege of carrying the Gospel to those beyond our borders.

VI.

In this account of the organization and work of an American diocese, while much ground has been covered, many things must remain unnoticed if this article is to be kept within reasonable limits. But no description of our Church life would be at all adequate without some mention being made of the place of the Sunday school in our diocesan work. Many of the dioceses have a Sunday school commission composed of active workers among the clergy and laity, whose function is to increase the efficiency and thoroughness of Sunday school work throughout the diocese. So important a place does the Sunday school occupy among us that a large commission, consisting of seven bishops, seven priests and seven laymen, was appointed by the General Convention to take under consideration the question as to how our Sunday schools could be made more efficient, and Christian education among the young best promoted. The work of this central commission has encouraged the formation of many diocesan commissions with the same general object in view. Thus far the results are already manifest in a great awakening of Sunday school interest, evincing itself in an effort to secure better teachers and methods of teacher training, and more approved equipment in the way of Sunday school materials of all kinds. Nor are the children forgotten in the work of education in missionary enterprise. It has for many years been the custom for the Sunday schools in every diocese in the American Church to give their Lenten offerings for general missions. Last year the children of the Sunday schools contributed the sum of $138,000.00 towards the conversion of the world.

The Woman's Auxiliary to the Board of Missions, of which every diocese has a branch, has grown until it has become a great power for good among us. Last year they raised in various ways nearly one half million dollars for the cause of missions. As a part of the Woman's Auxiliary should be mentioned the junior auxiliary, which has for its object the enlisting of a great army of boys and girls in the missionary work of the Church.

Finally, nearly every diocese has a branch of the St. Andrew's Brotherhood, which has for its object the spread of God's kingdom among men. This organization has more than justified itself by enlisting thousands of our Churchmen in the active work of the Church and leading many of them to consecrate their lives to the work of the ministry or other form of Christian service.

From this review of the subject assigned us it will be readily seen how various are the problems confronting an American bishop according to the geographical position of his diocese and the elements which go to make up his population. In the older and more settled parts of our country, such as New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, where the population is homogeneous, and the Church has had time and opportunity to adjust herself to her environment, those problems are comparatively simple. The conditions which obtain in the Western States and the missionary districts of the Rocky Mountain region are quite different. Here the question of assimilating vast populations which are pouring into the States from the countries of Europe and the Orient has already become an anxious one, and to this problem must be added that of evangelizing the North American Indian, or Red Man. Again, the bishops who exercise jurisdiction in the Southern States, with about ten millions of negroes, outnumbering in many dioceses the whites, are called upon to grapple with one of the most delicate and difficult and important tasks before the entire Church. In this section two races, between whom social antagonism and political jealousy have been made more bitter because of a former condition of servitude on the part of the blacks, are in the providence of God destined to live side by side and to work out a satisfactory solution of their mutual relations in harmony with the principles of the Gospel of Christ.

The vast area of the average American diocese makes a great demand upon the physical energies of the bishop. In a number of instances a district larger than the whole of Great Britain has been assigned to one diocesan. 'In journeyings often,' in almost constant absence from home,

in seeking out the scattered sheep and ministering to them he must give himself to apostolic labours without ceasing. The very nature of his work, and the difficulties which in a comparatively new country constantly beset the life of an American bishop, are such as to bring him in close and sympathetic touch with his clergy and people and vindicate for the office its best claim upon the affection and reverence of his flock.

ETHELBERT TALBOT,

Bishop of Central Pennsylvania.

ART. IV.-A SPANISH UNIVERSITY: THE OVIEDO

TERCENTENARY.

I. Historia de la Universidad de Oviedo. By F. CANELLA. (Oviedo, 1908.)

2. Anales de la Universidad de Oviedo, I.-IV. (Oviedo, 1902-8.)

3. Historia de las Universidades en España. By V. DE LA FUENTE. Four Volumes. (Madrid.)

To an Inquisitor General of the reigns of Charles V. and Philip II. is due the most progressive university in Spain. Cardinal Fernando Valdés Salas, persecutor of Archbishop Carranza and organizer of the autos-de-fé of 1559, was nevertheless a zealous patron of liberal education. Not content with the generous foundations of his lifetime, he left a portion of his huge fortune for the endowment of a university at Oviedo, to meet the educational needs of Asturias, his native province. For forty years the active or passive resistance of his trustees and of the head of his house frustrated his intentions, until at length on September 21, 1608, the University was opened. And now the three hundredth birthday has been joyously kept, not only by older and younger Spanish sisters, but by guests from England, France, and America.

To anyone who is at all acquainted with the geography of Asturias the good sense of the Inquisitor is obvious. Prosperous as the province is at the present day, communi

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