The first settlement of whites in Nebraska was made in 1847 at Bellevue, nine miles outh of Omaha. In 1854 the territory of Nebraska was constituted with an area of 351,000 square miles, including parts of Dakota, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and all of the present state. In 1867 the state was admitted into the Union over the President's veto. On January 17 of the same year the first railroad, the Northwestern, crossed the Missouri into her territory at Omaha.

From the eastern to the western limit the state measures 413 miles. The northern and southern boundary lines, which are parallel, are 208 miles apart. The area of Nebraska is 76,000 square miles; that of the state of New York, 47,000. Nebraska is sixty times as large as Rhode Island, and nearly ten times as large as Massachusetts. All New England could be placed within her limits, and ample room be left for two additional states of the extent of Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The development of Nebraska has been rapid and beyond the most sanguine expectations. The larger portion of the state was until within a few years classed on the maps with the Great American Desert. Twenty years ago, on the overland route through the central part of the state, where flourish ing farms now occupy the soil, forage could not always be found for the horses. The first Presbyterian home missionary in Nebraska, the Rev. H. M. Giltner, recalling his feelings in 1855, writes, "Nebraska is more to-day than any of us expected she would be in one hundred and fifty years. Nebraskans did not have a very exalted opinion of the territory in its earlier times. None ever expected settlements away from the Missouri river and the larger streams. We all supposed the soil to be sterile and unproductive, and the rainfall insufficient for agriculture."

As late as 1878 the writer saw the first trees planted in North Platte, a cattle centre 300 miles from Omaha, in soil brought from other parts of the state. Their growth was a matter of experiment. The majority doubted its success. Now the country yields harvests to the plough. It is found that all portions of the state are adapted to agriculture. The Rev. M. Sexton, synodical missionary, writes of the northwestern part of the state that "it is elevated, but the climate is delightful." I think we may say it is an agricultural region, and the crops were fairly good for the first years of cultivation. The rainfall has steadily increased with the advance of the plough; and although the western portion of the state is a plateau, more than 5000 feet above the sea, it will for the most part be given up to agriculture in the years to come. Every year the cattle herds are being driven further and further west. The population of the state is to a very large extent native born. It has increased with remarkable celerity. In 1856 it was 10,716; in 1860, 28,841; in 1870, 122,993; in 1880, 452,402; in 1887, 1,065,000. Two-thirds of the state still remain untouched by the plough.

The history of the Presbyterian Church. in Nebraska begins with a mission among the Indians. One of the very first missionaries, the Rev. William Hamilton, is still laboring in the state, to which he was sent by the Board of Foreign Missions fifty years ago. Leaving Lycoming county, Pa., in October, 1837, he proceeded by boat to St. Louis, and thence to the mission station near Highland, Kansas, crossing the Missouri at Black Snake Hills, near St. Joseph. He writes, "From St. Joseph my wife rode on a mule, while I walked urging it on, and after much delay we reached the mission station among the Iowas and Sacs, perhaps

three miles from where Highland now is. Dr. Irvin (then not yet licensed) was there, and the Rev. Moses Merrill was among the Otoes, not far from Bellevue, but the Omahas had no missionary. At that time it was confidently asserted that this country was set apart for the Indians forever." In 1853 Mr. Hamilton went to Bellevue to labor among the Omahas and Otoes, taking the place of the Rev. Edmund McKenny, who had been amongst them since 1846. Of the tribes among which he has labored Father Hamilton writes, The Iowas are still much as they were, but the improvement of the Omahas is, I think, beyond my expectations."

The oldest existing church organizations are Nebraska City, organized in 1855, and Bellevue, Brownville and Plattsmouth, organized in 1858. The first home missionary who labored within the bounds of the territory, the Rev. H. M. Giltner, is still living. He arrived fresh from the seminary in July, 1855, with a commission from the Domestic Board (O. S.), and has been preaching in the state ever since. He organized the church at Nebraska City, and built there the first Presbyterian house of worship in the state. Of this enterprise he writes, "I helped to build, I mean literally I helped open the road to the quarry; helped open the quarry and quarry part of the stone; and I also helped to haul them. The building cost $8000; size 56 by 68 feet. It is still standing, and is the oldest church edifice in the state, its predecessor, built by the Methodists, having been torn down." Father Giltner writes also that "it has the first bell that ever rang in Nebraska." This relic certainly ought to be sacredly preserved as of historic interest. Mr. Giltner's salary for the first year was $500 from the Board, with "whatever the people might be able to raise, which amounted to $50 in money and produce."

The next minister in length of service who still resides in the state is the Rev. John T. Baird. When he arrived in the state in 1864, he found five home missionaries and six churches, with three hundred members. Mr. Baird's lively description of the state of things then existing is worthy of preservation. "The troubles in the country and fear of the Indians prevented the settlement of the interior of the territory, and the towns were chiefly on the Missouri. The nearest railroad was at St. Joseph, Mo. From that point steamboats brought up produce of all kinds to be distributed to the towns on the river. From these towns large trains of wagons, called prairie schooners, carried the supplies over the great plains to the mining districts in the Rocky Mountains. This gave great activity to these towns."

The first presbyterial organization was the Presbytery of Nebraska, formed December 1, 1849, by the Revs. E. McKenny, W. Hamilton and S. M. Irvin. It was connected with the Synod of Missouri, and so appears in the minutes of the Assembly (O. S.) of 1850. It was dissolved by an act of the Assembly in 1853. In 1858 the Presbytery of Omaha was formed. In 1861 the Old School churches were under the care of the Presbytery of Missouri River, which included southwestern Iowa and all the territory westward to the Rocky Mountains. Strengthened by the incorporation with it of the Presbytery of Omaha at the reunion, it was divided in 1872 into the presbyteries of Council Bluffs, Omaha, Nebraska City and Kearney. The last three were constituted the Synod of Nebraska in 1874, and their number was increased by the organization of the presbyteries of Hastings and Niobrara in 1881 and 1884.

The six churches, five ministers and 300 church members of 1864 have become in 1887 207 churches, 135 ministers and 8161 church members. This gratifying increase

is due to the fidelity of the ministry, the generous support of the church through its Board of Home Missions, and the efficient supervision and frontier work of wise and untiring synodical missionaries. Of these Nelson C. Robinson and George L. Little, deceased, will always have a prominent place in the Presbyterian annals of the

state.

Every church but two-a German church near Hastings and the Park church in Omaha-have been aided by the Board of Home Missions. These churches, weak in their infancy, have been steadily advancing to self-support. In 1880 there were seven self-supporting churches. Now there are twenty-seven. In 1880 the churches sent $994 to the Home Board; in 1886, $3367. A single church, organized in 1872, was still receiving aid to the amount of $500 in 1878. The past year it has, in addition to defraying its expenses on a liberal scale and subscribing $25,000 for a new church edifice, sent

$803 directly to our boards, or about twenty per cent. on the total amount received from the Boards of Home Missions and Church Erection.

In April, 1868, the Presbytery of Missouri River located an institution of learning at Nebraska City under the title of Otoe University. After an existence of four years it was abandoned and the property sold to the Episcopalians. At the present time two flourishing Presbyterian colleges exist under the care of the Synod, well located at Bellevue, near Omaha, and at Hastings, in the heart of the state. They are doing excellent work. These two institutions are ably and wisely managed, and deserve the aid of those who are anxious to help the cause of education in the West. No more are needed.

The synodical missionary of Nebraska writes that there is an urgent demand for thirty more men in the state. Could graduates of our seminaries have or ask for a grander opportunity?

Communion, fellowship, contribution— these words are all used to translate the one Greek word koinonia.

There is a precious meaning in the word, where it is rendered contribution, which is not adequately expressed by that English word. This will be best seen by looking at the places in the Acts of the Apostles in which we are first told how the early Christians took care of one another. "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them said that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common" (Acts 4:32). The word there rendered common is the Greek adjective (koina), which corresponds with the Greek noun (koinonia), for which, in its different uses,

we have found the need of several English words, and for which, in the matter of helping needy fellow believers, no word in our English usage is quite satisfactory.

Those early Christians were not very rigid in regard to their rights of property when their brethren were in want. They had learned or caught a certain nobleness in giving, which made them give without feeling it; a certain delicacy too, which would, if possible, prevent the recipients from feeling it. The thing was not done as if to an unworthy beggar-"Here, I will give you this"-but as a brother aids a brother—“Here, this is ours, let us share it. I have more than I need; take what you need."

It will be well to ponder that remarkable expression, "Not one of them said that aught of the things which he possessed was his own." If it was his own in a proper sense, yet no one of them would say so. He was not thinking of that, and did not wish his brethren to be thinking of it. Most likely he was remembering the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he was rich, for our sakes became poor. Probably each of them felt that what he had was not his own, any more than he himself was his own, when he had been bought with a price, and such a price. Each of those primitive Christians recognized a higher proprietorship than his own, in all his possessions, so much higher that his own was properly a stewardship,-and when the Master to whom it belonged, represented by any of his humble followers, needed some of it, he did not wish such an one to be beholden to him for it.

It is not best for any man to congratulate himself on finding that his views concerning the rights of property are sanctioned by the Scriptures, unless he is also sure that his heart and his purse are fairly open with a genuine scriptural generosity. Such men

as that Joses whom the apostles surnamed Barnabas, or son of consolation, may not always sell their real estate, as he did, and put the avails into the church treasury; it may not always be best that they should do so; but they will not let any of their fellow Christians suffer from want while they have more than they need, even if an inconveniently large proportion of their means is invested in land.

In that beautiful exhortation of Paul (Rom. 12), he mentions "communicating to the necessities of the saints," in immediate connection with "serving the Lord," "rejoicing in hope," and "continuing instant in prayer." The word communicating, which the revisers give us, is better than the distributing of the old version; for it is rightly related to communion, as the Greek participle which it translates is related to the Greek noun (koinonia) of which we have spoken.

For fulfilling this kind of communion, fellowship, partnership, in the early church, the office of deacon was instituted. This needed ministration to the wants of disciples, although distinct from the ministration of the word and prayer, the apostles still reckoned so sacred, so properly religious, that they required men to be chosen for it who were "full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom." To such men always has the church aimed to confide the business of fulfilling this communion.

Let any one who feels little interest in this part of practical Christianity, or who supposes it not very important, read the eighth and ninth chapters of Paul's second Epistle to the Corinthians, to say nothing of other places. The delicacy and courtesy of his address render it a model for all solicit ors of funds for charity; but its tender earnestness, its persuasive and persistent entreaty, are worthy of one who indeed remembered, and would have his brethren remember, the

grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is very noticeable that he urges his plea for the famished brethren in Judea, not on the score of humanity, but of Christianity. He does not seek to move those whom he addresses by the view of the necessities of their brethren so much as by the consideration of what is directly due to their Saviour.

And this was in full accordance with our

Saviour's own representation: "I was hungry

and ye fed me; I was naked and ye clothed me," "inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren."

What would Paul say to us?-What does Christ say to us as he looks upon our present endeavor to secure that none of his ministers, and none of those dependent on them, shall suffer want?

The General Assembly which met in Cincinnati, Ohio, May 28, 1885, appointed a committee of arrangements for the Hundredth General Assembly. A circular has been sent to the ministers and officers of our church giving an account of a popular meeting at the General Assembly at Omaha, and suggesting topics for a series of historic sermons and addresses to be delivered in the churches by ministers and laymen as early during the year as will best secure the objects of this centennial celebration. The action of successive General Assemblies will be found for 1885 (see Minutes, pp. 628, 698); for 1886 (pp. 16, 17); and for 1887 in the reported proceedings of the General Assembly and in the Minutes when published (for the first Friday P.M.). The programmes for the celebration in Philadelphia in 1888, both for our General Assembly and for the Southern Assembly, have been adopted and published.

It is hoped that every session will secure a liberal subscription toward the $1,000,000 for the Permanent Fund of the Board of Ministerial Relief. The money should be sent to the Rev. William H. Roberts, D.D., Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, the treasurer of the Centenary Fund. Churches and individuals are expected to select such additional objects for memorial contributions as may seem to themselves best. The objects

proper are indicated by the General Assembly and published in the Minutes, and are described in the circular referred to. Contributions to these objects may be forwarded to the several treasuries for which they are intended, and the amounts should be certified to the office of this committee. The names of all contributors, with the amounts given by them to any of these objects, should be forwarded to the corresponding secretary, that a record of the same may be made. These records will be deposited in the Presbyterian Historical Library at Philadelphia. Let it be remembered that the centennial donations are special and do not include the necessary annual contributions in support of the boards of the church, which should be increased if possible. Subscription cards will be furnished from this office free to all ministers and sessions who will apply for them. In these cards space is left below the Relief Fund for subscriptions to other objects. The last Assembly urged sessions to take subscriptions and not collections. Please send promptly for the cards.

REV. GEO. P. HAYS, D.D.,

Chairman Ex. Committee.
REV. WM. H. ROBERTS, D.D.,

Treasurer Ex. Committee.
REV. GEO. C. HECKMAN, D.D.,
Cor. Sec. Ex. Committee.

Office, Elm and Eighth Sts.,
Cincinnati, Ohio.