CHAP. XII.] CATHOLIC SPIRIT. 467. contributions reported for 1878 amounted to more than three and a quarter millions of dollars$3,265,686.86; which was a smaller sum than had been contributed for several previous years. UNDENOMINATIONAL SPIRIT. Another characteristic of Congregationalists is their readiness to unite with good men of other denominations in forming and sustaining benevolent and religious institutions. If we except the American Board at its very first organization, and the American Congregational Union, formed in 1853 expressly to aid feeble Congregational churches in building meeting-houses, and the Congregational Publishing Society, organized in 1829 as the Doctrinal Tract and Book Society, there has never been a purely and exclusively denominational society of a public character formed by Congregationalists in this country since there were other evangelical people to share with them. All the great national benevolent societies now supported and managed mainly by Congregationalists-such as the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions-except for a very short time the American Home Missionary So years, an average of twelve hundred and twenty-nine churches -no more reporting-have contributed $15,387,964.66 for home uses; while an average of two thousand and eighty-six churches have made benevolent contributions to the amount of $15,141,572.74 in the course of fifteen years. ciety, the American Education Society and the American Missionary Association—were originally Union societies; and so far as they are now denominational, they have become such by the withdrawal from them of other denominations, that they might more effectually build up their own churches and institutions. For an entire generation the Congregationalists of New England continued to pour their contributions into the treasury of the American Home Missionary Society, whose principal work was to build up Presbyterian churches in the new settlements of the West; and of this there was little complaint so long as the Presbyterians continued their contributions, however small, to this society; but when the contributions of the very churches which the society was aiding were diverted to purely denominational uses, even Congregationalists became aware that the American Home Missionary Society could no longer be counted among union coöperative institutions. But the American Board, though now supported—with a few individual exceptions - by Congregationalists, pursues still its undenominational work. DEVOTION TO EDUCATION. Another fact in which we cannot help taking an honest pride as a denomination is, that Congregationalists have always been forward in establishing common schools, academies, colleges, and theological seminaries; and this, not simply for CHAP. XII.] DEVOTION TO EDUCATION. 469 intellectual purposes, but mainly as a means to a religious end. From the very first, our seminaries of learning have been dedicated to Christ and his church; and it is within the memory of many who may read these lines, that prayers for institutions of learning were daily offered at the family altar. From the days of John Wickliffe and the Lollards, the friends of free churches have been the uniform friends and supporters of free schools. As soon as the Pilgrims and Puritans of New England had houses to cover their families, they began to make provision for the instruction of their children; and from that time to the present, wherever Congregationalists have gone, free schools have found friends and supporters. Nor have they been content with elementary education. Next to the common school, an academy and a college have been the immediate objects of their affectionate interest. We have seen this, from the time that the Massachusetts General Court, in 1636, agreed to give £400 towards founding a school or college, to be dedicated to Christ and his church, to the time when a few poor ministers and representatives of small Congregational churches in our Western Territories have gathered in prayer and consultation, with reference to the establishment of a school and college in the community in which their lot had been cast. Congregationalists have founded, or contributed freely to found, forty colleges, universities and theological seminaries, most of which still remain in their hands, and under their control to a considerable extent, scattered over twenty-five of the States of the Union. Some of these institutions, it is true, are at present little else than preparatory schools. But they all have college or university charters, it is believed; and are aiming at the highest possible standard of collegiate excellence. It will be satisfactory to have a list of the institutions which the denomination has founded in this country, though it may not be a perfect list. We call these Congregational institutions, because they were built up mainly by Congregationalists; not because they are sectarian or denominational in any exclusive sense. They are open and free to every one qualified to enter them, no religious tests being employed. Men of all faiths are welcome, on the simple condition of conformity to rules and regulations. Here is a list, tolerably full, of our literary institutions: |