REFORMED OHUBOHBS, 



743 



dulphio, gives tho following statistics uf tliu 

 Church : 



SYNODS. 



Dotted BUtM. 



Northwest.. . 



iiX 



1'otomac 



Total 



IM 



144 



m 



ao 



M 



tfj 

 BM 

 TO 

 183 

 M0 



8,001 



ia,7n 



697 1.395 185.799 63.849 



:;-.'. '.MI 

 12,778 



in.-:; 

 B^M 

 16,744 



Number of baptisms, 18,509; of confirma- 

 tions, 7,790; of Sunday-schools, 1,187; of 

 scholars in the same, 69,182; of students for 

 tin- ministry, 67. Amount of benevolent con- 

 tributions, $86,288.45. 



Eleven English and five German papers are 

 published in the interest of this Church. Four 

 of them are weekly, two are published every 

 other week, two are semi-monthly, seven are 

 monthly, and one is quarterly. 



The literary and theological institutions of 

 tlu> Church are as follows : Franklin and Mar- 

 shall College, Lancaster, Pa. ; Heidelburg Col- 

 lege, Tiffin, Ohio ; Catawba College, Newtown, 

 N. C. ; Mercersburg College, Mercersbnrg, Pa. ; 

 Clarion Collegiate Institute, Rimersburg, Pa. ; 

 Palatinate College, Meyerstown, Pa. ; Greens- 

 burg Female Collegiate Institute, Greensburg, 

 Pa. ; Ursinus College, Collegeville, Montgomery 

 County, Pa. ; Calvin institute, Cleveland, Ohio; 

 Blairstown Academy, Blairstown, Iowa ; Shel- 

 by College, Shelbyville, 111.; Eastern Theo- 

 logical Seminary, Lancaster, Pa. ; Western 

 Theological Seminary, Tiffin, Ohio ; Mission 

 House, Howard's Grove, Wis. ; Allentown Fe- 

 male College, Allentown, Pa. ; St. John's Se- 

 lect School, Knoxville, Md. 



The committees appointed by the Synods of 

 the Reformed Church in the United States and 

 the Reformed Church in America, to consider 

 the expediency of organic union between the 

 two bodies, met for consultation with each 

 other at Philadelphia, November 18th. The 

 Rev. Dr. Gnnse, of the Reformed Church in 

 America, and the Rev. Dr. Gerhardt, of the 

 Reformed Church in the United States, were 

 chosen joint chairmen of the meeting. A brief 

 discussion took place on the tenets and forms 

 of worship of the two denominations, after 

 which tho two committees held separate ses- 

 sions in order to mature, if possible, some plan 

 for union. A second joint session was held, at 

 which the differences in ritual and doctrine be- 

 tween the denominations were subjected to a 

 full discussion. These proved to be more im- 

 portant than it had been thought they would 

 be; the representatives of the Reformed Church 

 in America did not feel that they could admit 

 the advanced ritualism to which a part of the 

 Reformed Church in the United States pro- 

 fessed to be attached, while the representatives 

 of the latter body were not ready to recom- 

 mend the reception of the Belgic Confession 



jiii'l the Canons of the Synod of Dort, which 



tin.- ki-toi-med Chtiivh in America bold* at of 

 i-ijual validity with tlu-. Jk-nl.-lU r;: Confession. 

 il'jtct was referred to a sub-committee 

 of three from each denomination, with a view 

 to tlu-ir embodying tho conclusions of tho 

 whole, joint committee in a report. 'Ihi- 

 mittee brought back tho following report, 

 which was adopted, to be laid before tin- 

 eral Synods of the two Churches as the result 

 of the conference : 



The Committees of Conference appointed by the 

 General Synodn of the Reformed Church in tho 

 United States and the Reformed Church in America 

 met in Philadelphia on the morning of November 

 18, 1874, arid spent in joint sessions the greater part 

 of that and the succeeding day. After a very tree 

 and brotherly interchange of information concerning 

 tho organization, symbols, doctrinal sentiments, and 

 usages of the two denominations, tho Committees 

 agreed upon the following statement of the results 

 ol their conference : 



1. Such large and obvious elements of likeness and 

 sympathy as exist between the two bodies seem to 

 point very plainly to some ultimate union between 

 them. They are almost identical in namej as in 

 origin and in early history. Their ecclesiastical or- 

 ganization and nomenclature of consistory, classes, 

 synod, and general synod, are substantially the same. 

 One venerable symbol, the Heidelberg Catechism, 

 is held in common by tne two denominations. The 

 body of doctrine which either Church derives from 

 this common symbol, of necessity has close and 

 fundamental resemblances. The committees have 

 found, moreover, a perfect unity of method and spirit 

 in the devotional nets which they have performed 

 together, and their whole interview has reminded 

 them of the essential unity of their work of caring 

 for those Continental Christians of the Reformed faith 

 who are so widely distributed over the- newer parts 

 of our country. With these and similar points of 

 contact between the two bodies, the committees can- 

 not believe that they will abide apart. 



2. The committees have further found, with grati- 

 fication, that some elements of seeming difference 

 between their two denominations have, upon fuller 

 information concerning them, lost much or their ap- 

 parent importance. In particular, the usage of con- 

 firmation prevails in the Reformed Church in the 

 United States, and is unknown in the Reformed 

 Church in North America, but, as it is interpreted in 

 the constitution of the first-named Church, it is 

 plain that it may fully consist with the principles and 

 methods by wnich the other Church admits her 

 baptized youth to full communion. It does not ap- 

 pear, therefore, that the continuance of that usage 

 on one side, or the abstinence from it on the other, 

 ought to be a decisive obstacle to union. The ob- 

 servance of festal religious days in the Reformed 

 Church in the United States, though very general, 

 is not enjoined, and therefore stands upon the same 

 footing with the same observance as it prevails, 

 though to a less extent, in the Reformed Church in 

 America. Even such divergences as may exist in 

 the matter of liturgical services, so long as they 

 might not be seen to turn upon important differences 

 of doctrinal belief, might be harmoniously adjusted. 

 The committee, indeed, have little doubt that all the 

 minor elements of difference which have grown up 

 in the two Churches during their separate life could 

 either be softened or accumulated in a cordial and 

 intelligent attempt to bring these Reformed Churches 

 under a single banner. 



8. The committees, however, are constrained to 

 say that some other obstacles to union seem to be 

 of a less manageable character. The most patent of 

 these lies in the fact that while botli of these deuom- 



