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Then, applying the rules of analysis and classification, with the modifications needed to meet the changed conditions as explained above, we find the number of each class of givers as follows:

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This shows a decrease of 55,607, or .06 per cent. of the non-contributors, about half of which is accounted for by the contraction of the membership. The class contributing as in ordinary basket collection taken at every service by the trustees increased 10,860, or .02 per cent. Those giving somewhat larger sums than in ordinary basket increased 66,279, or .67 per cent. The large givers from the middle and lower classes increased 7,476, or 26 per cent. The class of large givers increased 676, or 31 per cent.

These increments, at the respective averages assigned them in the tabulation of eighteen months before, would produce:

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Now, turning to the General Recapitulation in the General Minutes, we find the increase reported is $184,691. The summaries in the reports include about $21,000 in the former and $14,000 in the latter case evidently raised for local institutions of learning, but reported as if raised for the Board of Education and auxiliaries. This item was deducted in the first calculation, and must be in the latter to make the cases parallel. Then we find the results required by the increments of these different classes under the rules differ from the actual increment as shown in the General Minutes by only $4,543. Certainly this is a most surprising proof of the correctness

of the rules of analysis and classification applied to the tabulated averages, and which in their turn are accurate because proved uniformly by reverse arithmetical process. And it may be confidently expected that the same process will trace with satisfactory accuracy the collections of any year or variation of totals while the present method of taking the collections prevails. And further, when an advance is effected, it is clear from what classes the added money comes-from the liberal few. That is, the liberal few are affected by the methods now used and the pressure as now applied. They respond more or less in proportion to the urgency of the appeal, while the great mass of the membership are unaffected by special appeals, and continue nearly stationary at their low figures. In this case, the part of the advance of $184,691 contributed by 1,672,207 members was $34,888, or an average advance of two cents each; while the part contributed by 39,331 members was $149,803, or an average advance of $4 05 each.

DISTRIBUTION.

When we ask how the contributions of the people are distributed among the different benevolences, and how each one is sustained in different parts of the country, then a good system of tabulation is needed.

It will not suffice to take the Minutes and look at the compactness of the tables, the fewness of blanks, or even the magnitude of the totals. One church often gives respectability to the totals of a whole district. And as to the blanks, sometimes they would better serve the cause by remaining to tell the truth than do the figures that displace them. A few years ago, the constant reiteration of nearly every Secretary speaking at Conference was, "Take a collection;""Take a collection, if you only get a few shillings, and give the people a chance to give." The glaring blanks gave a striking text to the speaker; they glared at the pastor and presiding elder till they produced an uneasy feeling. A few elders took pride in having their preachers report "No blanks." And for the most part the resultant change was an omnibus collection, but little increased by being omnibus, or divisions and subdivisions of little sums raised for a few of them among the whole, and so filling blanks without increase. The practice is now one of the most noticeable

characteristics of some districts and of some whole Conferences, and many pastors have the confirmed habit of leaving this kind of footprints on each successive charge. It is curious to see how little money can be made to do great things in filling blanks. Multitudes fill every blank, Woman's Foreign Missions included, with punctilious fidelity, and generally with uniform amounts, at an aggregate expense of ten cents per member. After these come other multitudes who do it just as well at half the expense; and after these come crowds of others in descending grades, till half a cent per member answers every purpose. Not a blank in some places, and in others only an occasional one, is left to cast a reproach or check the triumphant report of the presiding elder at Conference. But, alas! the benevolences are not profited by the agitation, and few are they who lay it to heart.

The proper way to show what is real and what is seeming in this matter is by applying standards.

The Newark Conference has adopted a system of standards; possibly other Conferences may have done something of the kind. Of this system, the Minimum Standard is for Missions, 40 cents; Church Extension, 8 cents; Freedmen's Aid, 7 cents; Bible, 4 cents; and Tract, Sunday-School and Education each 2 cents; total, 65 cents. This is understood to be too low by half to serve as a fair Average Standard for the Newark Conference, or any other in places where the work is established and the region is fairly prosperous.

Now, taking for a guide the average pastoral support and the character of the collections actually taken, we find this Minimum Standard is too low for a fair average standard in sixtyseven Conferences. By dividing it and calling the half of it a Sub-Minimum Standard, we can apply this last to eleven Conferences more. Then there will remain eleven Conferences still which will be tested with equal fairness by bisecting the standard last used, being a quarter of the Minimum Standard. Call this the Minor Sub-Minimum Standard, and applying these standards to every collection reported in every charge in the United States, counting the missionary collection blank only when not taken in either Church or Sunday-school, and calling those "slighted" which fall below the standard, and those "standard" which equal or exceed it, we have the following:

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11 New Hampshire..

i8 New · 13 New York.

14 New York East..

15 Northern New York..

16 North Indiana..

17 Philadelphia..

18 Saint Louis..

19 South Kansas.

20 Troy.........
21 Vermont....
22 Wilmington
23 Wyoming...
24 Austin.

2 Calilornia . . . . .
26 Central German
27 Central Illinois..
28 Central New York.
29 Central Ohio.....
30 Chicago German
31 Cincinnati..

3: Colorado..

33 Columbia River.

34 Des Moines..

35 Detroit.

36 East Ohio

37 Erie.

38 Genesee.

39 Illinois...

40 Indiana
41 Iowa
42 Kentucky
43 Michigan.
44 Minnesota.
45 Nebraska,
46 Nevada

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CONFERENCES.

47 North Nebraska..
48 North Ohio..........
49 North-west German.
50 North-west Iowa.....
51 North-west Indiana....
52 North-west Norwegian..
53 North-west Swedish...

54 Ohio...

55 Oregon...

56 Pittsburg.........
57 Rock River...........
58 Saint Louis German.

59 South-east Indiana.
60 Southern California.
61 Southern German.
62 Southern Illinois...

63, Upper Iowa......
61 West German.
65 West Virginia.
66 West Wisconsin.
67 Wisconsin.......

68 Lexington. 69 Louisiana.

70 Mississippi....

71 South Carolina.

72. Virginia Washington.

74. Delaware.. Holston.

76 Tennessee. 77 Texas...

78 West Texas.

79 Arkansas..

80 Blue Ridge. 81 Florida.....

82 Little Rock... 83 North Carolina,

84 Alabama

85 Central Alabama.

86 Central Tennessee

87 East Tennessee

88 Georgia

89 Savannah.

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MISSIONARY.

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By Sub-Minimum Standard of 20 cts, for Miss., 4 Ch. Ex., 1 Tract, 1 S.-S., F. A. 4, Ed. 1, and Bible 2 cts. Total, 33 cts.

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By Minor Sub-Minimum Standard for Miss. 10 ets., Ch. Ex. and F. A. each 2 cts., Tr., S.-S., and Ed, each ct.. Bible 1 ct. Total, 164 cts.

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