tion, raising large sums of money for the equipment and endowment of their schools. Their general missionary work is conducted through the Southern Baptist Convention, and is divided into foreign missions, with the board in charge located at Richmond, Va.; home missions, with the board in charge at Atlanta, Ga.; Sunday schools and publications, with the board in charge located at Nashville, Tenn. They have one theological seminary, which is located at Louisville, Ky., and is the most largely attended in the entire country; recently, also, a theological seminary has been organized at Waco, Texas.

The Southern Methodists number 1,761,669. These are gathered into 5,642 "pastoral charges." There are 6,334 traveling preachers and 4,877 local preachers. They are organized into one General Conference, which meets triennially, and forty-seven Annual Conferences. There are ten bishops of this church. The net gain in the membership of Southern Methodists for 1908 was 52,588. The net gain in Sunday school scholars for the same period was 65,393. For 1908 the total gifts to foreign missions were $578,003, and to domestic or home missions $762,892. Nashville, Tenn., is headquarters for Southern Methodism. Here they have a great publishing house. Their Board of Missions, and their Board of Education are also located here. They have on the foreign field 191 missionaries. Connected

with the Church are 168 educational institutions. There are 15,815 church edifices, valued at $35,981,199. Their young people are organized into the Epworth League. This Church is characterized especially by the activity of its women. They gave during 1908 more than half of all that was contributed to foreign and domestic missions. For ministerial support Southern Methodists gave in 1908

Vol. 10-28

$4,166,028, an average of $2.50 per member. This great Church is notably active, zealous and influential, and is constantly growing.

The Lutherans are not numerous in the South. It is estimated that they number about 50,000 south of the Potomac. Some of them belong to Northern synods, but the majority are members of the United Synod of the South. This latter synod maintains a theological seminary at Charleston, S. C., and, at other points, three colleges for young men, and three for young women. At all of these institutions there are about 1,000 students. This synod maintains a number of missions in the cities and larger towns. The last decade has been remarkable for the development of the spirit of benevolence. The Lutherans have a college and a theological seminary for negroes at Greensboro, N. C., and maintain missions among negroes in Virginia, North Carolina and Louisiana. The Lutheran Church in the South is thoroughly evangelical. Interest among them in Christian education is constantly growing.

These are rough outline sketches of the largest Christian bodies in the South. In addition to these, however, there are numerous smaller denominations, all of them prosperous and vigorous. The Jews are represented in all the large cities and towns. In many of these they have imposing houses of worship, and they care for the religious interests of their own race with intelligence and assiduity. They are among the most highly esteemed and useful citizens, and are sincerely interested in all public charitable work.

Special Features of the Religious Life of the South.

The whole situation in the South is eminently favorable for religious growth. In the main the

population is singularly homogeneous. Only here and there does foreign immigration make itself seriously felt. While this section has its own problems, difficult to be sure, it is happily freed from some problems which confront other sections of our country. The tide of materialism, while it is rising in the South, has not yet overwhelmed it. The great mass of the people retain the simple manners and continue to observe the religious usages of their fathers. They are profoundly interested in their churches and denominational enterprises, and respond quickly and surely to all appeals to their religious instincts and beliefs.

A notable feature of recent religious life in the South has been the increased attention to the externals of worship. Far more care and pride are taken in the erection and equipment of houses of worship. This is true not only of the growing cities and ambitious towns, but of the country-side as well. The increasing material prosperity of the South is reflected in almost numberless new houses of worship built within the past few years. More attention is given also to the education of the ministry. All the religious denominations have evidently reached the conclusion that a full educational equipment is necessary for the ministry of to-day. The churches are in an organized way rallying to the support of colleges for men and women, and the pulpits are becoming worthy forums from which the educational needs, opportunities and responsibilities of the hour are frequently and constantly discussed.

Organized Benevolence.

In the older and simpler civilization of the South there was little in the way of organized benevolence. Private charity did whatever was necessary for the

suffering. But with the social changes that have come since the great war the necessity for institutions and agencies to do the work individuals could no longer do so well has been made plain. Hence, to the appeal of the unfortunate the churches have responded, and orphanages, hospitals, asylums, societies of various kinds, have multiplied until they are practically numberless. Nothing in the recent history of the South is more remarkable than this development.

The Missionary Spirit.

In the meantime the missionary spirit has grown notably. Money has flowed freely into the treasuries of mission boards for the support of great missions in other lands. This work has claimed and received year by year increasing evidences of appreciation and interest.

On the whole, then, the religious life of the South, marked in her past history by its simplicity, and still, compared with other more rapidly changing sections, retaining this characteristic, is nevertheless constantly adapting itself to new conditions. The past is safe, the present affords every reason for gratification, and the prospect is bright.

R. H. PITT,

Editor of the Religious Herald, Richmond, Pa.

CHAPTER II.

THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.

The First Church Established at Jamestown.

ON THE left bank of the James River, about midway between Richmond and Hampton Roads, the passing traveler's eye is attracted by a ruined ivy-clad tower standing in the midst of a number of moss-covered tombstones. This spot should be a sacred shrine to every patriotic American, for here was planted in the year 1607, a vine of civilization and liberty and religion which has spread over this whole land. The beginnings of Anglo-Saxon dominion on this western continent were here. The seed plot of representative free government in America was here. The earliest spring and source of American Christianity was here. Here the English Bible was first given speech on American soil-the edition of 1606, known as the Bishop's Bible. Here the English Prayer Book first came into permanent use in this western world.

On May 13, 1607, three little English ships, after a long and stormy voyage, came to anchor opposite to what was to be known as Jamestown. It was. not a goodly or a gallant expedition to look upon.. Little here of pomp and circumstance; little to betoken power, or to foretoken glory. But to the eye of History to-day those little cockle-shells carried the destiny of the Anglo-Saxon race in this western hemisphere. They brought with them the seed of English civilization and English free institutions for a new sowing, whose harvest was to be