REFORMED CHURCH. 



809 



vast future ; thanks to all, that peace does not appear 

 so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and 

 come to stay, and so come as to be worth the keeping 

 in all future time. 



It will then have been proved that among freemen 

 there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to 

 the bullet, and that they who take such appeal are 

 sure to lose their case and pay the costs; and then 

 there will be some black men who can remember that, 

 with silent tongue, and with clenched teeth, and with 



steady eye and well-poised bayonet, they hare helped 

 mankind on to this great consummation, while I fear 

 that there will be some white men unable to forget 

 that, with malignant heart and deceitful speech, they 

 have striven to hinder it. Still, let us not be over 

 sanguine of a speedy and final triumph ; let us be 

 quite sober; let us diligently apply the means, never 

 doubting that a just God, in His own good time, will 



give us the rightful result. 

 Y( 



ours, very truly, A. LINCOLN. 



R 



REFORMED CHURCH. .The following is a 

 summary view of the Reformed Protestant 

 Dutch Church of North America for the year 

 1863 : Particular synods, 3 (New York, Albany, 

 Chicago), classes 32, churches 422, ministers 

 446, number of families 34,521, number of com- 

 municants 53,007, infants baptized during the 

 past year 3,155, adults baptized 399, catechu- 

 mens 19,826, Sunday-school scholars 38,539. 

 Contributions for religious and benevolent 

 purposes $135,814, for congregational purposes 

 $402,900. One of the classes, that of Arcot, is 

 in India; its membership (226) being deducted 

 from the above total of members, the number 

 of communicants in the United States will be 

 found to amount to 52,781. 



The fifty-seventh General Synod of the Re- 

 formed Protestant Dutch Church, convened at 

 Newburg, New York, on June 3d, 1863, and 

 organized by the election of the Rev. Dr. T. 

 W. Chambers, of New York, as president, and 

 the Rev. John Dewitt, of New Jersey, as as- 

 sessor. The synod adopted, with but one dis- 

 senting voice, a series of resolutions on the 

 state of the country, " tendering to the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States, and to those who 

 represent it, the renewed expression of their 

 warmest and deepest sympathy in its present 

 protracted struggle to maintain its lawful au- 

 thority, and to preserve unbroken the integrity 

 and union of the States," declaring it their 

 duty as ministers of the gospel and members 

 of the synod " to strengthen by every possible 

 means the hands of the Government, and to 

 yield a cordial support to all such measures as 

 may be necessary to suppress the existing re- 

 bellion, and to assert the complete authority 

 of the Union over all its people, territory, and 

 domain," and also declaring that they would 

 " hail with satisfaction the earliest practicable 

 period for the introduction and establishment 

 of a salutary peace, founded on the full ascen- 

 dancy of law and rightful authority, and guar- 

 anteed in its permanency by the removal or the 

 sufficient coercion and restraint of whatever 

 causes tend necessarily to imperil the exist- 

 ence of the nation, and to endanger the pres- 

 ervation of the Union." 



The ^formed Dutch Church has, besides the 

 missions in India, which constitute the classis 

 of Arcot, three missionary churches in China 

 (2 in Amoy, 1 in Chioh-be), with 309 communi- 

 cants, and one missionary church in Japan (at 

 Kanagawa). In 1857 the General Synod di- 



rected the missionaries in* China to apply to the 

 particular synod of Albany to organize them 

 into a classis as soon as they should have formed 

 churches enough to make the permanency of 

 such organization reasonably certain. The mis- 

 sionaries, however, did not regard the circum- 

 stances as favoring the formation of a classis 

 of the Reformed Dutch Church, and deemed it 

 preferable to form, in conjunction with three 

 native congregations, established by English 

 Presbyterians, a separate organization called 

 " The Great Presbyterial or Classical Council of 

 Amoy." The General Synod of the Church in 

 1863 adhered to its former resolution, and in- 

 structed the Board of Foreign Missions to inform 

 the missionaries of the wish and expectation of 

 the General Synod to have their action conform 

 as soon as possible to the resolution of 1857. 



Among the other acts of the General Synod 

 we may mention its resolution to accept a pro- 

 posal from the New School Presbyterian Gen- 

 eral Assembly, to open correspondence with the 

 latter body "on the same terms on which they 

 (the General Synod) corrrespond with other 

 bodies," and to reopen a correspondence with 

 the German Reformed Church, which some 

 years ago was terminated by a vote of the Gen- 

 eral Synod against the most earnest protesta- 

 tions of the German Reformed Church. 



The German Reformed Church consists of 

 two synods, one east and the other west. The 

 Eastern Synod, according to the statistics of 

 1863 (which statistics are, however, not in all 

 respects complete) has 15 classes, 253 minis- 

 ters, 711 congregations, and 79,676 members; 

 and the Western Synod has 11 classes, 179 

 ministers, 411 congregations, and 21,015 mem- 

 bers. The two synods together contain 26 

 classes, 432 members, 1,122 congregations, and 

 100,691 members. The synods and the classes 

 both meet annually, the first in the fall, the 

 latter in the spring. The denomination has five 

 German and 4 English periodicals, 5 literary 

 institutions, and 3 theological seminaries. 



The Triennial General Convention assembled 

 at Pittsburg on November 18th, 1863. With 

 this convention a new era begins in the Ger- 

 man Reformed Church, for it was the first 

 clothed not only with advisory, but judicatory 

 power. Delegates were present from all the 

 classes, except three, Virginia, North Carolina, 

 and Indiana. The Rev. Dr. J. W. Nevin was 

 elected president. The proceedings presented 

 many points of interest. Au animated debate, 



