know, you must ask somebody else." Sad indeed will be her heart if she finds that he soon learns to respect those outside the home more than he does his mother in the home because his inquiries are answered elsewhere. Does the question come, "where is the father, is it not his duty to answer the boy's questionings?" To be sure it is; but fathers are burdened with the care of providing for the family. They must procure shelter, and food and clothing. Two often these necessities drive out of sight and out of mind the boy's education even in political matters. Mothers always have to do what others leave undone. Happy is that mother whose ability to help her child continues on from babyhood and manhood into maturity. Blessed is the son who need not leave his mother at the threshold of the world's activities, but may always and everywhere have her blessing and her help. Thrice blessed are the son and the mother between whom there exists an association not only physical and affectional, but spiritual and intellectual, and broad and wide as is the scope of each being. Let no woman fear such association. Let her covet it as a gem in the crown of her maternity. In infancy and babyhood the mother holds her son by the muscles of her affection and his necessity; in young manhood and maturity the ideal relation is a union so fine and close that touch of brain and thrill of nerve best illustrate it. Such mothers-in politics-and such sons bring to the nation, which is only the larger home, a priceless benediction.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

WOMAN'S WORK IN THE CHURCH.

EDITORIAL.

CHURCHES.

WOMAN'S work

JOMAN'S work in the church in America, dates from the very first meeting-house, (as churches were called in Puritan times;) which was erected upon American soil. What woman's work in the church has been and is, every church, chapel and meeting-house throughout the length and breadth of this land can ably testify.

The statistics of religious denominations in the United States, in 1890, gave the following totals:

Baptists-churches, 48,371; membership, 4,292,291. Protestant Episcopalians-churches, 5,118; membership, 470,076. Congregationalists-churches, 4,689; membership, 491,985. Methodistschurches, 54,711; membership, 4,980, 240. Presbyterians-churches, 13,619; membership, 1,229,012. Lutherans-churches, 8,427; membership, 1,199,514. Friends-churches, 1,056; membership, 106,608. Unitarians-churches, 407; membership, 20,000. Universalistschurches, 732; membership, 42,952. Disciples-churches, 7,246; membership, 641,051. Of this membership in the various denominations, I think it would be within limits to estimate the number of women as comprising two-thirds of the church membership.

SUNDAY-SCHOOLS.

Regarding the women engaged in Sunday-school work in the United States, I have not been able to secure definite statistics. The general statistics of the Sunday-schools in the United States, in

1890, were:-Number of Sunday-schools reported, 108,939; total number of teachers and scholars, 9,800,582. This number does not include the schools of Hebrews, Roman Catholics and non-Evangelical Christian churches. The number of scholars in Roman Catholic Sunday-schools, in the United States, is estimated by clerics, at 700,000. Probably two-thirds of all the teachers have been women since the first Sunday-school was organized a little more than 100 years ago.

In connection with Sunday-school literature, the name of Mrs. G. R. Alden, (Panzy), must not be omitted, for the "Panzy Libraries "are scattered throughout the country, and have numbered their delighted young readers by thousands. Indeed, in this department, Panzy is peerless, as the children's preacher in print.

The American Sunday-school Union, since its organization, has established 86,000 Sunday-schools. There are 375 Sunday-schools in New York city. The total membership is 123,000.

HOME MISSIONS.

In the following reports gathered form various sources regarding the mission work of American women, no note is taken of the vast work being done in foreign fields, but the statistics are confined to home missions.

From an able article in the Cosmopolitan, by Edmund Collins, entitled, "Protestant Missions," I have culled the following: "The chief Protestant organizations of this nature in New York, are sixteen in number. The field of the New York City Mission is restricted to New York below Fourteenth street. Its work extends through a population of nearly 538,000 persons, with sub-organizations, consisting of a missionary association, a ladies association, a sewingschool, a library, Sunday-schools, etc. In the Olivet Sewing-school about 140 pupils are instructed in needlework. The average church attendance in this mission is 484. The Helping Hand, another suborganization, consists chiefly of ladies from Englewood, N. J., who hold sewing-classes in the Sunday-school hall. Last year these classes made 658 garments

The King's Daughters give great assistance to this mission.

Another organization is the Protestant Episcopal City Mission Society, of which Bishop Potter is President. This mission's field of labor comprises the Department of Saint Barnabas, 304 and 306 Mulberry street. This department has a house, a chapel, a dispensary, Sunday-school, a day nursery for children and a crèche for infants, an industrial school for girls and an employment office for At 38 Bleeker street, there is a free reading-room for boys and young men. The public institutions with which this mission concerns itself, are those on Blackwell's Island, comprising the Charity hospital, the Almshouse and House of the Good Shepherd, the Penitentiary and Hospital, the Workhouse and Hospital and the New York City Lunatic Asylum (female); on Ward's Island, the Homeopathic Hospital, the Emmigrant Refuge and Hospital and the Asylum for Insane Males; on Randall's Island, the Idiot Asylum and the Adult, Children's and Infant's Hospitals; on Hart's Island, the branch of the Workhouse, of the City Lunatic Asylum for Females and the Hospital for Chronic and Convalescent cases. It also takes special cognizance of the city hospitals and asylums and all the prisons. In the Saint Barnabas House it cares for nearly 2,000 persons in the year. It obtained work for 908 out of this number; gave lodgings to 18,607; supplied 74,560 meals and cared for 7,212 children in the nursery. Some idea of the prison work may be gathered from the fact that 51,000 persons were committed in the city in 1890, and every one of these was visited by some representative of the association. The American Missionary Association, has its headquarters at the Bible House. The field with which it concerns itself lies mainly in the South, and among the Indians and Chinese. The record of its educational supervision in the South, shows twenty Normal and graded schools, fifty-three common schools, 340 instructors and 13,395 pupils. The church organization in the same region comprises 128 churches, 107 missionaries, 7,978 church members and 14,492 Sunday-school attendants. Among the Indians are nine churches, sixteen schools and eighty-seven missionaries and teachers. Seven hundred and fifty Chinamen on the Pacific Coast are church members of the American Missionary Association.

"The Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church has its headquarters at 53 Fifth avenue. The missions are divided into two

sections, the home and the foreign. In the home section there are no fewer than 6,727 churches. The department known as the Women's Executive Committee of Home Missions, has chiefly concerned itself with the Indians, Mormons, Mexicans and Southern mountain whites. There are amongst these peoples, belonging to this mission, 118 schools, 368 officers and teachers and 7,478 pupils. "The division having a care for Freedmen has 245 churches, seventy-eight schools, 117 colored preachers, and 133 colored teachers." In addition to these facts from the Cosmopolitan, I am indebted to Mrs. E. R. Perkins, of Cleveland, Ohio, for the following: "The Woman's Synodical Society of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church is composed of Synods in twenty-four states, comprising a total membership of 107,136, women. In the report of 1892, for the Freedmen's Department as made by Mrs. C. E. Coulter, Secretary is the following:

"During the past year, 1,175 societies have contributed through the Woman's Executive Committee, $44,985.95 of which $3,532.27 was from Sunday Schools. In addition to this the treasurer of the Freedmen's Board, has received direct from thirty-two societies, $391.90; making a total of $45,377.85. This money has paid the salaries of thirty-two teachers has given a whole or partial scholarship to 300 pupils, and has aided in building, repairing, and furnishing school supplies to nineteen schools. The remainder has gone into the general fund of the Board."

“The amount of money raised by the Woman's Executive Committee, since 1878, is $2,356,281.74, and the number of missionaries employed during that time; 2650."

Of the American Baptist Home Missionary Society, of New York; the Cosmopolitan article states;

"The American Baptist Home Mission Society, 7 Beekman street, conducted operations in 1890, in forty-seven states and territories, also in Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia, Alaska, and six states of the Mexican Republic. Among the foreign population there were 190 workers, and among the colored people, the Indians, and Mexicans, 243. Castle Garden was the special care of this society, and about 800 visits were made to immigrant boarding houses, hospitals, etc, in the city of New York. The Women's Union Missionary