CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



135 



The whole number of pupils enrolled during 

 the year in the various secular schools of the 

 Association, was 14,048; in church and mis- 

 sion Sunday-schools, 8,098. Among the schools 

 were 4 colleges and 21 normal schools. Al- 

 ready nearly 3,000 colored teachers had gone 

 out from these schools, and 60 colored churches 

 had been established through their agency. 

 The Association had sustained 4 foreign mis- 

 sions in Siam, the West Indies, the Sandwich 

 Islands, and West Africa. Connected with 

 these missions were 14 stations, 8 ordained 

 missionaries, 9 male and 11 female assistants 

 and teachers, 10 churches, and 580 church- 

 members. 



Two meetings of the Congregational Union 

 of England and Wale* were held during the 

 year. At the spring meeting the pastors' re- 

 tiring fund was reported to lack only about 

 4,000 of reaching the proposed amount of 

 100,000. The Union account showed a defi- 

 cit of 459, 9., 3d., but the publication ac- 

 count had a surplus of 1,829, 10., Bd. The 

 following resolution on the subject of education 

 was unanimously adopted : 



That this Union, while recognizing the great mer- 

 its of the endowed schools act of 1869, and admit- 

 ting the value of the educational work accomplished 

 by the commissioners, yet deeply regrets that there 

 should have been any appearance ot sectarian bias 

 displayed in the administration of the act, espe- 

 cially in the principles upon which the governing 

 bodies are constituted, which ore likely to perpetuate 

 for an indefinite period the exclusiveness the act 

 was intended to remove. This Union trusts that 

 any legislative initiation by her majesty's govern- 

 ment may still further nationalize the educational 

 endowment* of the country, and that, in any redis- 

 tribution of the commission, due regard may be had 

 to the principle of religious equality. 



The following resolution wag adopted at the 

 autumnal meeting, by a large majority : 



Jfanhed, That, in the judgment of this meeting, it 

 is itc.tiraMe that the Congregational churches of 

 England and Wales should seek to draw closer the 

 bonds of fellowship which unite them to each oth- 

 er; and that with this view they should, with due 

 regard to any circumstances which may distinguish 

 their position from that of the Congregational 

 ehurchen of New England, imitate the example of 

 those churches by taking counsel, in a systematic 

 and regulated way, with each other in all weighty 

 matters of common concern, as well as on matters 

 in which individual churches may stand in need of 

 the sympathy and advice of their sister churches. 



A letter was submitted to the Union from a 

 "vigilance committee" who were appointed 

 at a conference of churchmen and non-con- 

 formixtg, which was held on the 10th of July, 

 to take measures against the advance of rit- 

 ualism in the national church, and with it an 

 !i<Wrcs from the smne committee, "To the 

 Christian People of England." The following 

 resolutions were adopted in reference to these 

 lu|><Ts : 



The Assembly, having before it a letter from the 

 vigilance committee appointed at a conference of 

 iiun n and non-conformists held on July 10, 

 1-7 ;. in which the aid of Congrpgatinnalists is re- 

 quested in an endeavor to rouse the country to some 



common action in regard to the advance of ritual- 

 ism, and the practice of the confessional in the 

 Church of England, and having also the address of 

 the vigilance committee " To the Christian People 

 of England : " 



Setolyes, 1. That it agrees with the vigilance com- 

 mittee in regarding with grave concern the efforts of 

 some of the clergy and other members of the Church 

 of England, to revive in the services of that church 

 the characteristic doctrines and usages of the Church 

 of Rome ; that it recognizes in the zeal and perti- 

 nacity with which these efforts are maintained, and 

 the success which has thus far attended them, a real 

 danger to the religious life and to all the higher in- 

 terests of the nation ; and that it acknowledges the 

 duty of earnest cooperation with Christians of all 

 denominations who may seek, by enlightening the 

 minds of the people, to protect them against en- 

 deavors which are being made to corrupt their 

 faith. 



2. That while the Assembly condemns, as con- 

 trary to Christian truth and simplicity, the conduct 

 of those clergymen of the Church of England who 

 are seeking to undo the work of the Reformers, 

 which they are appointed to maintain, it cannot, 

 consistently with its views of the rightful relation 

 of the National Legislature to the Church of Christ, 

 unite with the vigilance committee in any political 

 action which contemplates the strengthening of the 

 discipline of the Church of England by means of 

 new laws, or which assumes that it is desirable that 

 that church should continue to exist as a national 

 establishment. 



8. That the Assembly regards with earnest and 

 respectful sympathy the endeavors made by the 

 Protestant portion of the national clergy to main- 

 tain scriptural truth by their own teachings, and 

 is not unmindful of the painful sacrifices demanded 

 by any constant policy on their part in the present 

 state of ecclesiastical affairs. 



4. That while the Assembly regards with pain 

 the defection of so considerable a portion ot tho 

 clergy, and of so many of the congregations of the 

 Church of England from the doctrines and usages 

 of the Reformed churches, it cannot but regard this 

 defection as a natural result of the retention in the 

 formularies of that church of some of the cardinal 

 errors of the Church of Rome, and it remembers 

 with satisfaction that the fathers of English Non- 

 conformity elected rather to separate themselves 

 from the national church than to fund their sanction 

 in any degree to these errors. 



6. The Assembly further regards the doctrinal 

 anarchy which at present obtains in the Church of 

 England as furnishing an argument in favor of the 

 policy of disestablishment and disendowment for 

 which, on other jgrounds, Non-conformists have long 

 contended, and u hopeful that Non-conformists will 

 ultimately be supported in their efforts to promote 

 tliis policy by those who, though not disapproving 

 the principle of an established church, are con- 

 vinced that the Church of England can no longer be 

 regarded as the guardian of a pure und scriptural 

 faith. 



The anniversary of the London Missionary 

 Society was held May 12th. The report 

 showed that the ordinary income for the year 

 had been 103,454. Besides this, the sum of 

 11,615 had been contributed for special ob- 

 jects. Adding this, gave the total income 

 115,070. Of this amount 21.000 were 

 raised at the foreign stations. 



The Congregational Year-Book for 1873 

 gives the following statistical summary of the 

 denomination in the Hritish Empire : County 

 Associations and Unions, 75 (England, 40 ; 

 Wales, 16 ; Scotland, 8; Ireland, 1 ; Colonies, 



