632 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



consideration of our Assemblies. With this view, we 

 recommend the appointment of committees for fur- 

 ther conference and negotiation on the subject, with 

 such instructions accompanying the appointment as 

 by the Assembly may be deemed desirable. 



The committee of twenty-one, to whom had 

 been allotted the duty of revising the benev- 

 olent work of the denomination and of con- 

 solidating the boards of the " Old School " and 

 "New School," reported their plan on May 

 20th. This report failed in many points to 

 give satisfaction, and the following plan was 

 adopted as a substitute : 



Resolved, That, in order to the systematizing and 

 developing of the liberality of our people, and foster- 

 ing the aggressive interests of our Church in accom- 

 plishing the work assigned us in the providence of 

 God, there shall be a Committee of Benevolence and 

 Finance, which shall consist of fifteen members, 

 composed largely of business-men of acknowledged 

 skill in the management of financial affairs, and one 

 member additional from each of the boards. It 

 shall be located in the city of New York, and it shall 

 be its duty to use all proper means to promote 

 throughout the Church the regular and systematic 

 consecration of property to the Lord, and to super- 

 intend the collection of funds for the whole benevo- 

 lent work of the Church. The contributions to be 

 sent directly to the treasurers of the several boards 

 and committees of the Church. 



2. It shall receive regular monthly statements of 

 their receipts from all the boards of the Church, 

 that the financial condition of these boards, as well 

 as the actual benevolence of each congregation, may 

 be at all times before the committee. This commit- 

 tee shall also receive and report to the General As- 

 sembly, to be disbursed by the Assembly, any mon- 

 eys from churches and individuals that may be given 

 without any specific designation. 



3. The expenses of said committee shall be borne 

 pro rata by the several boards. 



4. The Assembly enjoin upon all the churches the 

 practice of periodical giving to all causes recom- 

 mended by the General Assembly, according to the 

 principles commended in the Word of God. 



5. In order to carry out this plan, the General 

 Assembly enjoins upon every presbytery to appoint 

 a standing committee on the benevolent work of the 

 Church, of which the stated clerk shall be secretary. 

 It shall be the duty of this committee to use all means 

 in its power to have brought before all the congre- 

 gations in the presbytery the plans that may be rec- 

 ommended for securing contributions, and to give 

 each pastor and session information or the wants of 

 the various objects and what is expected of each con- 

 gregation. Every presbytery is required to question 

 each pastor, stated supply, and elder present, at 

 every stated meeting in the spring and fall, whether 

 the directions and recommendations on this subject 

 have been complied with, recording the answers on 

 the minutes. 



6. At least as often as once every six months these 

 standing committees shall report to the Committee 

 of Benevolence and Finance, so far as they can, in 

 relation to the different objects for which contribu- 

 tions have been made by the churches within the 

 limits of their respective presbyteries, with the 

 amount contributed for each, together with such 

 other information as to the general benevolent work 

 of their churches and presbyteries as shall seem 

 necessary, or shall be called for by the committee. 



The report of the committee appointed to 

 organize and distribute a memorial fund of 

 $5,000,000 was presented May 23d. The 

 committee were organized June 17, 1870. At 

 that time only $19,000 had been contributed 



to the central treasury, to be applied to the 

 account of this fund. The total amount re- 

 ported by the committee, as received, was 

 $7,607,499.91. Arrangements were made for 

 the preparation of a new book of church psalm- 

 ody in which the psalms should be printed in 

 a separate part of the volume from the ordinary 

 hymns, in order, as the resolution of the As- 

 sembly reads, to preserve a distinction "be- 

 tween the hymnology taken from the Script- 

 ures and that which is the product of the 

 pious but uninspired muse." 



The missions of the reunited Church are now 

 laboring among eight tribes of Indians, among 

 the Chinese in California, in the United States 

 of Colombia, in Brazil, Japan, China, Siam, 

 among the Laos in India, Persia, Syria, West- 

 ern Africa, and among the Jews in New York. 

 These missions employed 111 ordained evan- 

 gelists, five missionary physicians, two super- 

 intendents of scnools, 118 women, of whom 

 27 were missionaries, making a total of 236 

 foreign laborers. There are also a large num- 

 ber of native ministers, with more than 360 

 native helpers. The number of churches could 

 not be reported ; there had been added, how- 

 ever, more than 400 converts, making the mem- 

 berships at the time about 3,500. More than 

 10,000 youth of both sexes are receiving a 

 Christian education in the schools. Theological 

 classes have been formed in several missions, 

 and an enlarged native ministry is growing 

 up. The Board of Missions reported a debt of 

 $43,300. 



The Board of Home Missions reported the 

 employment of nearly 1,000 missionaries, 56,- 

 668 members in the mission churches, and 

 90,276 in the Sunday-schools. The Committee 

 of Missions for Freedmen was organized in 

 June, 1870. It reported 117 missionaries, li- 

 centiates, catechists, and teachers, of whom 

 66 are colored, 7,688 communicants in the 

 churches, and 6,220 scholars in the Sunday- 

 schools, 45 schools with 58 teachers, and 4,530 

 scholars. Six hundred and seventy students 

 were receiving aid from the Board of Educa- 

 tion. Two hundred and twenty churches, in 

 three principal States, received aid from the 

 Board of Church Erection ; eighteen bound vol- 

 umes were issued by the Board of Publication. 



II. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED 

 STATES (SOUTH). The following are the statis- 

 tics of this Church : 



