REFORMED CHURCHES. 





shall continue and remain in full force for the term of 

 ten years from the day of exchange of the ratifications, 

 and further, until the end of one year after either of the 

 contracting parties shall have given notice to the other 

 of its intention to terminate the same, each of the 

 contracting parties reserving to itself the right of 

 giving such notice to the other at the end of said term 

 of ten years. And it is hereby agreed between them 

 that, on the expiration of one year after such notice 

 shall have been received by either from the other party, 

 this treaty shall altogether cease and determine. 



In witness whereof the respective plenipotentaries 

 have signed the present treaty, and have thereunto 

 affixed the seal of their arms. 



Done at Washington the seventh day of April, in 

 the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 

 sixty -two. WILLIAM H. SEWABD. [L. s.l 



LYONS. [L. s.j 



An additional article to the j -eaty 



was subsequently a-r.-ed upon, win. 

 the right <>f visit and ,\. 

 that it may bo exercised within thirty league* 

 of the Island of Mada-a- .r. \MI!I:L, 

 leagues of the Island of 1'ut-rto i 

 in the same distance of the I-land of Sun lo- 

 mingo. Benjamin Pringle was app<> 



at Cape Town, and A very, url/r 



under this treaty, by the President ; also Thomas 

 V. Dyer and M. Ilibbard. judge and arbr 

 respectively, at Sierra Leone. The resj 

 ratifications of this article were exchanged at 

 Londoa on April 1st, 1863, and made public by 

 the President on the 22 d of April. 



E 



REFORMED CHURCHES. This is the col- 

 lective name of those churches in Switzerland, 

 Germany, France, Belgium, and Holland which 

 followed the Reformation of Calvin and of 

 Zuingli, and of their offshoots in the United 

 States of America. Of the latter there are two, 

 the Dutch Reformed and the German Reformed 

 Church. 



In the Dutch Reformed Church there were, 

 in 1862, 31 classes, answering to the Presbyt- 

 eries in Presbyterian churches, including the 

 Missionary Classis of Arcot in India. To these 

 was soon to be added a classis in China, where, as 

 in India, the missions are prosperous and where 

 native pastors will soon be placed over the mis- 

 sion churches. With a view to meet this exi- 

 gency, the constitution, in its application to 

 such churches, is to be so modified as to dis- 

 pense with the attendance of a deputation from 

 another classis, when a candidate for license, 

 or for a pastorate, is examined. These classes 

 the 31 in the whole church have 429 

 churches and 419 ministers, an average of near- 

 ly 14 ministers and 14 churches in each, and 

 each classis is entitled to a representation of 3 

 ministers and 3 elders in the Particular Synods 

 (answering to the synods in the Presbyterian 

 Church), and to the same number in the General 

 Synod. Hence a full general synod would have 

 nearly two hundred members. The churches 

 have an average of about 80 families, and 120 

 communicants each, and raise about 3 dollars 

 for benevolent objects, and more than 7 dollars 

 for congregational purposes, yearly, to each 

 communicant. The contributions for domestic 

 missions the past year exceeded by about 2,600 

 dollars those of the previous year, while those 

 for foreign missions showed a slight falling off. 



The annual union of the General Synod of 

 the Dutch Reformed Church, in 1862, com- 

 menced in Syracuse, New York, on June 4, 

 and was attended by about 150 delegates. Rev. 

 John Garretson, D*.D., was elected president. 

 On motion of Rev. Romeyn Berry a series of 

 resolutions on the state of the country were 

 adopted by a large majority, pledging " an ear- 



nest and unqualified support to the Government 

 in its efforts to suppress this disastrous and 

 most wicked rebellion " and declaring that their 

 prayers shall continually be that " God in infinite 

 wisdom will guide us in a way by which in the 

 * best manner every yoke may in his own time be 

 broken and the oppressed go free." The Gen- 

 eral Synod also resolved to celebrate in an ap- 

 propriate manner the adoption of the Belgic 

 Confession of Faith, one of the doctrinal stand- 

 ards of the Reformed churches, in 1563, and 

 appointed to that end the second Sabbath in 

 September, requesting all the churches of the 

 denomination to hold a special service at their 

 usual hour of morning worship. 



Since the great split in the Presbyterian 

 church in 1837, the Dutch Reformed Church 

 has held correspondence only with the Old 

 School body, but at its session of 1862, the 

 General Synod adopted a resolution proposing 

 to open correspondence with the New School 

 Assembly. The New School Presbyterian pa- 

 pers complained, however, that inasmuch as 

 the General Synod said in substance that the 

 proposal was not made on the ground that the 

 New School Church was sound i'n the faith, the 

 New School Assembly could not with a; 

 gard to its own dignity or self-respect enter- 

 tain it. 



The German Reformed Church of the United 

 States reported, in 1862. the following stati- 

 synods, 2, classes, 25, ministers, 421, congre- 

 gations, 1,122, members, 100,691, bap:. 

 11,894. Compared with the report of the pre- 

 vious year, this shows the following increase : 

 ministers 7, congregations 69, members 3,284. 

 baptisms 81. Of the members about 70.000 

 belong to the Eastern Synod, and about 30.000 

 to the Western. The two synods are repre- 

 sented in general synod, which meets oi! 

 three years, and is the hiirl. >ry of the 



church. The German Reformed Church baa 

 only a feeble representation in t: 

 only three of i;- Maryland. Virginia, 



and North Carolina being located there. The- 

 connection of the North Carolina classic with 



