approval shall be our sufficient reward, and our eternal song of praise!

DIOCESAN MISSIONS.

The Board of Missions, relying upon the generous contributions of the Diocese to make its promises good, has appropriated for the present year $1,350 to seven Missionary Stations, of which six are and have been, supplied. More they could not think it prudent to do, while the parishes are so behind in the duty and privelege of aiding in this necessary work.

We could use to the advantage of the Church ten times this sum annually. I trust that the Rectors of parishes will more persistently and bravely urge upon their people the great and pressing wants of our Diocesan Missionary field, as well as the work of the General Missionary Board of the Church. To the latter we are under great obligations for aid through all the years of our feebleness, and they are still kindly remembering us by an annual appropriation as large as the demands of other fields will permit them to make.

At the last Annual Convention, a committee was appointed upon those portions of my address which related to this subject, and to the Cathedral system, and continued at its own request to report at the present session. The object in thus uniting the two subjects was to centralize our Mission work around the Cathedral as an important and necessary part of the Cathedral system, and thus, if possible, to inaugurate a plan which would carry out the work now done by our Board of Missions, upon a grander scale, and a more permanent and stable basis. It is doubtless well to avoid the friction of Diocesan machinery, to simplify, and centralize our work; but, until this can be done, and we ought to make no change which does not promise to do it effectually, I must again say that our present plan of operations,

if it fail, will fail not because of inherent difficulties, but simply and solely because it is not faithfully worked. It has not the hearty sympathy of all the clergy. Some do not even attempt to work it. If they would earnestly lead, if they made conscience of urging this work upon the Laity, I can not doubt that our receipts, if not so great as they might be under some grander and more imposing organization, would be many fold what they are. The committee will report, no doubt, at the present session, and if they shall mature and present a plan which will probably increase the Missionary efficiency, or better inflame the Missionary zeal of the Diocese, I pledge to it my hearty co-operation. I am not informed that a plan will be offered. Indeed, I am led to believe that the committee are so deeply impressed by the events of the past year, with the need of an attempt at the work of endowing the Episcopate of the Diocese, that they will probably suggest that as one of your first duties. Why might it not be possible, in some way, to combine the two, so that, until a sufficient endowment could be secured, the Cathedral Mission plan-if I may call it so might be arranged to meet the wants of the Episcopate and Missions, at the same time? Certainly, we can not reasonably expect the Diocese to receive that Divine blessing, without which all our plans are vain, while either of these solemn duties continues to be neglected.

EPISCOPAL RESIDENCE.

It affords me pleasure to report the success of the efforts of the Trustees to secure an Episcopal Residence which is at once creditable to the Diocese and amply sufficient as the home and center of that hospitality which is no unimportant part of a Bishop's duty, and the love of which even an inspired Apostle presents as one of the necessary qualifications for his office. In the erection of this house, the Trustees have materially advanced the interests of the

Diocese by adding largely to its permanent possessions. I feel bound here, to give expression to my hearty thanks, also, for the unexpected and generous aid which has been extended towards the proper furnishing of the See House, and the relief which that aid has afforded to myself. I pray God to bless all who have taken any part in the good work. It is regretted by the Trustees that they could not present you with this house, at the opening of the Convention, free of incumbrance, which, by another year, I trust they will be able to do. It has been built, I think, at the lowest possible cost, having given to it my own personal and careful superintendence, and saved, I believe, several thousand dollars to the Diocese by rejecting the plans proposed by architects, whom we had consulted. Its cost and all necessary information concerning it, will be found in the report of the Trustees.

CONDITION OF THE DIOCESE.

Let me here lay before you a table which I have carefully prepared, and which will exhibit far better than any words I could utter, the condition of the Diocese in regard to its missionary aspects. It will show at one glance the counties in which the Church is represented, the number of organized parishes, of mission stations, both organized and otherwise, of church edifices, parsonages, churches which are free -in the sense, i. e., of not renting pews-the total church accommodations, and the value of our church property, including Diocesan and parochial:

Here we find that we are at work, whether with stated or occasional services, in but 34 out of the 92 counties of the State. In the other 58, the voice of the church is not

statedly heard-in nearly all of them, never. In a population of 1,750,000 souls, we have church accommodations, if every place of worship which we own were crowded, for about 11,000 souls. That is, out of every 155 persons in Indiana, the voice of the church, Christ's bride and spouse, the divinely organized and appointed teacher of men, reaches the ear of one! I do not speak of this to dishearten or discourage, but to stimulate you. My brethren of the clergy and laity, what a debt of labor, and of prayers, and of wealth, do we not owe to Him who gave up all for us? Shall we not labor, and pray, and give as we have never done before? The work is God's. It will be done. But will it be done by us? Shall we have our part in the blessed reward? Let us ponder these questions. No doubt this is a field unusually hard and difficult. It is the chosen home of that form of Christianity which appeals rather to the emotional in our nature than to the reason and the conscience, and the fruits of that system are all around us. The most difficult to reach and impress of all forms of infidelity, abounds the infidelity of indifferentism-a state of mind which Archbishop Whately calls, not infidelity, but "a more insidious and less curable evil than infidelity itself."

Still, under God's blessing, the progress of the Church is steady and sure, if, to some, it seems slow. The table which I have read shows this, the brighter, as well as the darker side. Eleven of our living parishes, and, seven of our missions, eleven church edifices, including nearly all of the better and more expensive class, besides several of the best village churches in the Diocese, seven out of fourteen rectories, five of them equal to the best we have, nearly one-half-over four-tenths-of the church sittings, largely over one-half of our real estate and other church property, representing between $250,000 and $300,000 actually raised within the Diocese during the term of my Episcopatebesides at least $25,000 more for other purposes outside of parochial work; all this, is the result of God's bless