CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



129 



urer ; and such officers as are not delegates shall have 

 all the privileges of members, except that of voting. 



JBy-Laws.The Council may make and alter by- 

 laws at any triennial session. 



Amendments. This constitution shall not be al- 

 tered or amended, except at a triennial session, and 

 by a two-thirds vote, notice thereof having been 

 given at a previous triennial session, or the proposed 

 alteration having been requested by some General 

 Association or Conference of churches, and published 

 with the notification of the session. 



The following declaration on the unity of 

 the Church was adopted, and ordered to be 

 recorded in close connection with the consti- 

 tion : 



The members of the National Council, represent- 

 ing the Congregational churches of the United States, 

 avail themselves of this opportunity to renew their 

 previous declarations of faith in the unity of tho 

 Church of God. 



While affirming the liberty of our churches as 

 taught in the New Testament, and inherited by us 

 from our fathers, and from martyrs and confessors 

 of foregoing ages, we adhere to this liberty all the 

 more, as affording the ground and hope of a visible 

 unity in time to come ; we desire and purpose to co- 

 operate with all the churches of our Lord Jesus 

 Christ. 



In the expression of the same catholic sentiments 

 solemnly avowed by the Council of 1865, on the 

 Burial Hill at Plymouth, we wish at this new epoch 

 of our history to remove, so far as in us lies, all 

 causes of suspicion and alienation, and to promote 

 the growing unity of council and of effort among the 

 followers of Christ. To uSj as to our brethren, "_ there 

 is one body and one spirit, as we are called in one 

 hope of our calling." 



As little as did our fathers in their day, do we in 

 ours, make pretension to be the only churches of 

 Christ. We find ourselves consulting and acting to- 

 gether under the distinctive name of CONGREGATION- 

 ALISTS, because, in the present condition of our com- 

 mon Christianity, we have felt ourselves called to 

 ascertain and do our appropriate part of the work of 

 Christ's Church among men. 



We especially desire, in prosecuting the common 

 work of evangelizing our own land and the world, to 

 observe the common and sacred law, that in the wide 

 field of the world's evangelization we do our work 

 in friendly cooperation with all others who love and 

 serve our common Lord. " We believe in the holy 

 catholic Church." 



It is our prayer and endeavor that the unity of the 

 Church may be more and more apparent, and that 

 the prayer of our Lord for His disciples may be spe- 

 cially and completely answered, and all be one ; that, 

 by consequence of this Christian unity in love, the 

 world may believe in Christ as sent of the Father to 

 save the world. 



The Congregational Publishing Society, the 

 Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and 

 Theological Education at the West, the theo- 

 logical seminaries at Oberlin, Chicago, and 

 Oakland, and the case of the New England 

 Church at Chicago (burned out in the great 

 fire), were commended to the churches, by 

 resolution. A resolution was passed com- 

 mending the policy of establishing and sus- 

 taining not many theological seminaries, but a 

 few, judiciously distributed, and completely 

 empowered in all respects for their perfect 

 work. The Council voted to petition Congress 

 to aid schools at the South ; for legislation in 

 behalf of the temperance reform ; for the en- 

 actment of measures looking to a code of in- 

 VOL, xi. 9 A 



ternational arbitration ; and for justice to the 

 name and memory of Dr. Whitman, whose 

 journey to the Pacific contributed to securing 

 that coast to this country. In view of the 

 union of the several State organizations in the 

 National Council, it was declared expedient 

 that the practice of formally interchanging 

 delegates between these bodies be discon- 

 tinued. The preparation of a manual of doc- 

 trine and polity for use in families and Sunday- 

 schools was approved. The manual is not to 

 be regarded as binding, but as a means of 

 general instruction. A committee was ap- 

 pointed to consider and report at the next ses- 

 sion of the Council what can be done toward 

 consolidating the various benevolent organiza- 

 tions of the churches. The formation of 

 State organizations in every State for home 

 missionary work was recommended. A com- 

 mittee was appointed to confer with the di- 

 rectors of the Home Missionary Society, and 

 arrange with them a plan for cooperation of 

 the State organizations with the parent so- 

 ciety. The sum of half a million dollars an- 

 nually was agreed upon as the least that ought 

 to be appropriated . to the home mission 

 work. The churches which made special con- 

 tibutions during the memorial year for the 

 payment of debts, the endowment of institu- 

 tions, and the erection and completion of 

 buildings for sacred and educational purposes, 

 were requested to report the same for publi- 

 cation. A resolution was passed urging the 

 opening of colleges and schools to students 

 without distinction of color. The by-laws 

 adopted by the Council provided, among other 

 things, for a Provisional Committee, to arrange 

 the place, date, and general programme of 

 meetings; that the session of the Council 

 shall ordinarily be held in the latter part of 

 October or early part of November ; that the 

 secretary shall present, at each triennial ses- 

 sion, comprehensive and comparative summa- 

 ries of denominational statistics for the three 

 years preceding; that the Council will wel- 

 come correspondence by interchange of dele- 

 gates with the general Congregational bodies- 

 of other lands, and with the general ecclesias- 

 tical organizations of the evangelical churches 

 in the United States, the delegates to be ap- 

 pointed by the Council in the years of its 

 session, and by the Provisional Committee ins 

 intervening years ; and that the term " Con- 

 gregational " as applied to the general benev- 

 olent societies in connection with represen 1 - 

 tation in this body, is understood in the broad' 

 sense of societies whose constituency and; con- 

 trol are substantially Congregational. 



The Eev. W. E. Clark, delegate from the 

 Congregational Union of Quebec and Ontario, 

 reported eighty churches connected with the 

 Union, only twenty of which are self-support- 

 ing. 



The Rev. J. B. Helwig, of the General Syn- 

 od of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, gave 

 an account of the measures already taken, 



