663 



REFORMED CHURCHES. 



octave coupler, which nearly doubles the power of 

 the instruments ; noiseless safety-valves, to regu- 

 late the escape of wind and the pressure upon 

 the wind-chest, and thus prevent the hissing 

 sound so disagreeable in some reed instruments ; 

 and the improved combination register, to facil- 

 itate the drawing and closing the stops. These 

 improvements, and the great care taken in its 

 construction, have rendered the "Cabinet Or- 

 gan " the best and most complete reed instru- 

 ment yet produced, though the other instru- 

 ments manufactured by the other large manu- 

 facturers are greatly superior to the best of the 

 European instruments, all of which yet adhere 

 to the old system of forcing the air outward. 

 So rapid has been the advance in the improve- 

 ment of the American reed instruments, that 

 the poorest instrument of any respectable manu- 

 facturer at the present time is greatly superior 

 to the best of ten years since. Stops, analogous 

 to those in use in pipe organs, have been intro- 

 duced into the higher grades of these instru- 

 ments, and add materially to their beauty and 

 variety of tone. One of these, the Vox Hu- 

 mana stop, applied to the Estey organ, is a 

 somewhat complicated contrivance of fans 

 driven by clock-work, to communicate at will 

 a more tremulous motion to the vibrations of 

 the reeds ; and, but for its liability to frequent 

 derangement, might prove a valuable adjunct to 

 the instrument. The energy and genius which 

 are devoted to the construction of these instru- 

 ments, and the vigorous competition which 

 is maintained, render it certain that every 

 modification which will aid in perfecting them, 

 and rendering them preferable to all others for 

 the family, the school, or the smaller class of 

 churches, will be tried, and if found desirable, 

 adopted. The amount of annual production of 

 reed instruments in the United States exceeds 

 three millions of dollars. 



REFORMED CHURCHES. I. Reformed 

 Dutch Church. This church reported, in 1866, 

 the following statistics: One general synod; 

 three particular synods (New York, Albany, and 

 Chicago) ; thirty-two classes (or presbyteries) ; 

 churches, 431 ; ministers, 407; candidates, 11 ; 

 communicants, 55,917*; received last year on 

 confession, 3,120 ; by letter, 1,855 ; infants bap- 

 tized, 3,307; adults, 607; children in Sabbath- 

 schools, 44,414; contributions for benevolent 

 uses, $241,129.55 ; for congregational purposes, 

 $649,540.83 ; moneys for benevolent uses under 

 control of the several boards education, in ad- 

 dition to the income from invested funds, 

 $8,500: domestic missions, $24,589.98; build- 

 ing fund, $4,433.58; mission schools, $1,157.14; 

 foreign missions. $55,783.75 ; publication, $2,- 

 175.72. These amounts are apart from what 

 was contributed to the widows' fund, minis- 

 ters' fund, to the theological seminary at New 

 Brunswick, and to Hope College. There are 

 in connection with the church two colleges, 

 one at New Brunswick, N. J., and the other at 

 Holland, Michigan. 

 The General Synod of the church, which met 



in the city of New York, on Juno 5t'i, leceived 

 an interesting communication from Rev. 8. R. 

 Bowen, a missionary of Ihe church at Yoko- 

 hama, who sent a circular, addressed to Chris- 

 tians, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific 

 isles, as well as in the United States, asking 

 the active cooperation of all Christians in the 

 conversion of Japan. The young men of rank 

 there, the missionary says, are beinr instructed 

 in the English language by the missionaries, at 

 the desire of the Government, and much good 

 is accomplished in this way ; but although the 

 people are ready and anxious to learn of Christ, 

 the old laws, which are exceedingly severe, are 

 still in force, prohibiting the teaching of Chris- 

 tianity in the empire. A letter of Christian 

 greeting was received from the Free Ch urch of 

 Scotland, and also one from the moderator of 

 the General Assembly of that church. 



The following resolutions were passed rela- 

 tive to a change of the official name of the 

 church : 



Whereas, It is alleged that many persons who would 

 be glad to connect themselves with the Reformed 

 Dutch Church, and would do so if not repelled 

 by the word " Dutch " ill the uame of said Church ; 

 and 



Whereas, In the opinion of many of our ministers 

 and members, a change in our style and title that 

 would obviate objections based upon this ground 

 would decidedly promote the growth and interests 

 of the denomination ; therefore, 



Resolved, That a committee, consisting of four 

 ministers and three elders, be appointed to examine 

 into the expediency and propriety of this change, 

 and report at the next meeting of the General 

 Synod. 



It was resolved to hold the next meeting of 

 the General Synod in the village of Geneva, New 

 York, on the first Wednesday in June, 1867. 



II. German Reformed Church. The Triennial 

 General Synod of the German Reformed Church 

 in the United States, convened in Dayton, Ohio, 

 on Wednesday evening, November 28th. Both 

 the classes of the church in the Confederate 

 States (Virginia and North Carolina), which by 

 the war had been for some time cut off from 

 the main body, .were represented by delegates, 

 and the unity of the church was thus fully re- 

 stored. The following persons were elected 

 officers : Rev. Dr. D. Zacharias, president ; 

 Rev. D. Winters and Dr. S. R. Fisher, vice- 

 presidents. One of the most important sub- 

 jects which engaged the attention of the 

 synod was the relation with the Dutch Re- 

 formed Church. The delegate of the latter de- 

 nomination, Rev. Dr. Chambers, made an ad- 

 dress, in which he submitted an invitation to co- 

 operate with his church in the work of foreign 

 missions. The Western Synod (one of the two 

 particular synods into which the German Re- 

 formed Church is divided) requested the Gen- 

 eral Synod to take measures to effect a closer 

 union with the Dutch Church. The committee, 

 to which the action of the Western Synod was 

 referred, took a favorable view of the subject, 

 and, after some discussion, the further consider- 

 ation of it was deferred until the next triennial 



