The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-27
AT THE MIsIsrER9 MEETING.

An Interesting Paper by Rev. Mir, Mason
 A Call for T. F. Murphy. the Temperance
 Orator, to Again Labor Here.
 At the ministers meeting yesterday morning Rev. W. W. MeLane. D. D.. of the College street church. presided. and the "short poem worth knowing" was given by the Rev F. R. Luekey of the Humphrey street Congregational church.
 The third paper in the series on Church Growth in Twenty Years was presented by the Rev. John II. Mason of the First Baptist church and was entitled 1.-Two Decades of Baptist Prog ress." Among other facts stated by Mir. Mason were the statistics of the growth in membership of the Baptist denomination during the last two de- cades, comparison Of the benevolent contributions of 1891 as compared with 1874. the Baptist missionary operations and the growth Of organizations with in the church and educational socie- ties. Mir. Mason said:
 "A comparison of our year books of 1874 and 1894 will show that the number of churches has increased in the twenty years from 20.45S to 3s,l22, q gain of s6 per cent: the number of ministers from l2.530 to 25.354. a gain of 102 per cent, and the number of members from l. 62s.O0l to S.496,9Ss. q gain of 10l per cent.
 The benevolent contributions re- ported in the year book of 1874 reach the sum of sS.ssS,90s. The correspond ing figures in 1894 are $4,574,24s Two things should be remembered-hrst that both years cover periods of extra ordinary business depression in the United States: secondly, that the enor- nous gifts made by individuals for ed ucational purposes during the past few years are not here included. These figures represent only the sums that have passed through the regular church channels for missionary societies and for other benevolent objects"
 Quoting a statement by President Strong at Philadelphia in 1892, MT. Ma son said: Twenty years ago the total "fA'eht ot Pa'PSits uhu belonging to our colleges and theolog- ical seminaries was 8, ,467 ,0O0; to-day 1t is s29O00,O00 There is an eight-fold growth in twenty years. And If figures of two years ago should be brought down to date the totals would rise to about 36.OOO,O 900.
 But of course the conspicuous edu- pot of ioI was the founding of the University of Chicago, an event which the president of an eastern college calls one of three greatest events in the history of our denomination in this country"
 = In MT. Mason's paper no item of sta tistical value was missing and the read ing was as fully instructive as 1t was interesting.
 The meeting passed vote of sympa- thy and encouragement in support of the movement to procure Temperance Orator T. E. Murphy to conduct se- ries of meetings in this city this sea- son.
 w. H. Spear, private secretary to MT. Murphy, was introduced to the meeting by Rev. Mr. Mason. The ministers voted to give MT. Spear four minutes in which to explain his mission. He said that two minutes was all that he needed. He asked that a committee be appointed to take the initiative in the project of inviting MT. Murphy to open his campaign against rum, and Rev. J. Fl. Mason, Rev. J. E. Twitchell and Rev. c. O. Scoville were appointed.