Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/394

This page has been validated.
386
ABOUT MEXICO.

sions of this Board were united in 1884; they now centre in the capital, and are connected by rail and telegraph.

The theological seminary founded in Mexico city will soon be established in San Luis de Potosi. In this institution a force of fourteen native ministers and three licentiates has been trained and is doing efficient service, and ten other young men are preparing for the gospel ministry. A mission press is in operation, and the first number of a new paper, El Faro ("The Lighthouse"), was issued in January, 1885. The girls 7 boarding-school in the capital has (1885) 23 pupils. Another of the same character is soon to be started in the important field of Zacatecas, and one has long been in operation in Monterey.

Statistics for Mexican missions of the Presbyterian Board, as reported in May, 1885, are: Ordained ministers, foreign and native, 14; licentiates, 11; total force of native helpers, male and female, 71; organized churches, 92; church-members, communicants, 6629; adults baptized in Southern mission in 1884, 631; boarding-pupils (girls) in two schools, 68; day-pupils, 677; Sunday-school children, 1233; contributions, $1673.

The Society of Friends (Orthodox) are doing a good work in the State of Tamaulipas, which they entered in 1872. They have an enterprising publishing-house in Matamoras, which sends out a gospel literature to all lands where the Spanish language is spoken. They have a boarding-and day-school in the same place, with 136 pupils, and a membership of about 250 in the State. About a thousand persons attend their services in six established meetings. A boys' school will soon be opened.