attended by delegates from various yearly meetings, and representatives of almost every school and college of importance belonging to the Friends (Orthodox) in America. The exercises consisted of carefully prepared papers followed by discussion. General conferences on Education similar to this, beginning with that at Baltimore in 1877, have been held at Haverford College, Earlham College, Penn College, Oskaloosa, Iowa, and at Providence, Rhode Island. The intervals between the conferences have been about five years. The interchange of opinion and the comprehensive view obtained of the educational situation, have been of great benefit to the cause of education among Friends. During the past decade Foreign Mission work as shown by the annual reports to the Yearly Meetings and the reports of the American Friends Board of Foreign Missions, has been prosecuted with continued zeal and success. Beside this work, independent or semi-independent missions have been carried on in East Africa, and in Cuba, and perhaps elsewhere.' [See Appendix.] Interest in Home Mission work has been un 1 The subjects discussed fell under the following heads :"The Educational Situation; The Articulation of our Educational Agencies; The School and Society; The School and the Church; and Our Educational Ideals." 2 See Minutes of the various Yearly Meetings; "Present Condition of the Foreign Mission Work of American Friends." Mahalah Joy, Proceedings of the Five-Years Meeting, 1902, also published separately; Annual Reports of the American Friends Board of Foreign Missions, 1895-1905. abated. In efforts to lessen the evils arising from the Liquor Traffic, and in the effort to suppress the traffic altogether, Friends as individuals, and as yearly meetings, have been active. Altogether, there has been probably no time when Friends have been more successful in practical work; particularly that outside their own borders. In June, 1900, the first American Friends, (Orthodox) Summer School of Religious History, was held at Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania. The spacious and beautiful grounds, the halls of residence, the convenient lecture and class-rooms, the well furnished Library, all lent their aid to make the experiment a great success. The lectures were fresh and stimulating, and while a few were grieved at some of the statements made, most persons were helped and widened in their thoughts. A second Summer School equally successful, was held, again at Haverford, in 1904. This second school especially, was pervaded by a deep religious spirit. At each school about seven hundred individuals registered as attending one or more lectures. The present condition of the Orthodox Friends has been sufficiently indicated in the preceding pages. It might, however, be noted that the rate of annual increase in membership has not kept pace with that of the earlier years of the past 1 The lecturers were by no means confined to Friends, for the list included such men as Professor George F. Moore of Harvard University, Professor William N. Clarke, Professor Robert W. Rogers, Washington Gladden of Columbus, Ohio, and others. decade. To what this comparative halt is due, is not easy to discover. It is enough to say that the condition is not peculiar to Friends, but is to be found in other branches of the Christian Church. In this brief history it will have been seen that the Friends acquired, through much suffering, first toleration, and then freedom both in civil and religious matters, not only for themselves, but for all men. Some have thought that their mission is ended, but there still seems to be need of them to emphasize the Christian Doctrine of Peace, the non-essentiality of ordinance and ritual, the spirituality of true worship, the reality of the direct communication of the will of God to the individual, and the priesthood of all believers. 1 See Statistics, p. 225. |