REFORMED CHURCHES. 



675 



The Board of Foreign Missions reported 

 their receipts for the year had been $54,249.95. 



The following is a tabular view of the statis- 

 tics of the mission stations : 



The General Synod of the Reformed Church 

 in America met at Jersey City, N. J., June 2d. 

 The Rev. Charles Scott, of Holland, Mich., was 

 chosen president. A letter was read which 

 had been received from the Synodical Com- 

 mittee of the Christian Reformed Church in 

 the Netherlands, inviting the Church to be 

 represented in its Synod, which was held May 

 20th, at Bois-le-Duc, North Brabant, and ask- 

 ing the advice of the Church respecting the 

 oath against simony, which is required by the 

 Church of the Netherlands from its candidates 

 in theology. The previous synodical meeting 

 had resolved to maintain this oath, but, on ac- 

 count of the differences of opinion which pre- 

 vailed in the Church, had decided to ask the 

 foreign sister churches whether such an oath 

 was customary with them, and if not, why it 

 had been abolished. 



The committee who had been appointed to 

 confer with similar committees of the Re- 

 formed Church in the United States, and the 

 Northern and Southern branches of the Pres- 

 byterian Churches, in reference to closer rela- 

 tions and cooperation in benevolent work, re- 

 ported the result of their conference. No 

 agreement had been reached with the Re- 

 formed Church in the United States, and the 

 report on this branch of the subject consisted 

 largely of a recital of the difficulties which 

 were found to lie in the way of union with 

 that denomination. The action of the com- 

 mittee on this point was approved. The report 

 further presented the plan of cooperation 

 which had been agreed upon with the com- 

 mittee of the Southern Presbyterian Church. 

 The Synod adopted it unanimously. Nothing 

 had been accomplished respecting the relations 

 with the Northern Presbyterian Church, ow- 

 ing to the failure to secure a conference with 

 a quorum on both sides. A meeting had been 

 appointed for March 25, 1875. The committee 

 were ready with a plan of cooperation similar 

 to that adopted with the Southern Church, 



but not identical with it. They were ready 

 to proceed to conference, but only three mem- 

 bers of the Presbyterian committee were pres- 

 ent, and they were unwilling to act without 

 their colleagues. The Presbyterian General 

 Assembly having resolved to continue the con- 

 ference on the basis of cooperation, the Synod 

 also resolved to continue its Committee of 

 Conference for another year. 



The committee who had been appointed to 

 consider the subject of a General Council of all 

 Presbyterian Churches holding to the Reformed 

 faith, made a report of the results of their con- 

 ferences with the other committees appointed 

 on the subject, and of the programme for the 

 conference which was called to meet in Lon- 

 don on the 21st of July. The Synod, deter- 

 mined to be represented in the Council, ap- 

 pointed the Rev. Drs. E. P. Rogers, Philip 

 Peltz, and Thomas E. Vermilye, and Elders G. 

 G. Smith, John A. Lott, and J. B. Jewitt, as 

 delegates, and authorized the chairman of the 

 committee to appoint other delegates, ministers 

 or elders. 



The Synod resolved to participate in the 

 celebration of the centennial of American in- 

 dependence by setting apart the first Sunday 

 in July, 1876, as a day of thanksgiving and 

 praise for national mercies, on which occasion 

 the pastors of churches are expected to preach 

 upon the religious aspects of American liberty 

 as illustrated in the history of the denomina- 

 tion ; by raising a thank-offering, to constitute 

 the " Centennial Seminary Fund," the in- 

 terest of which should be applied to the pay- 

 ment of the contingent expenses of the theo- 

 logical schools ; and by the preparation, under 

 the direction of a committee appointed for the 

 purpose, of a series of discourses on the follow- 

 ing and other appropriate topics : 



" The Points of Similarity between the Struggle 

 for Independence here and that of our Holland An- 

 cestors ; " " The Character and Development of our 

 Church in the Colonial Period; " " The Posture of 

 its Ministers and Elders during the Devolution;" 

 " The Kesemblance of its Polity to that of our own 

 Country : " " Its Type of Doctrine as represented by 

 the Symbols of Heidelberg and Dordrecht;" "Its 

 Peculiar History in Eelation to Theological Educa- 

 tion ;" " Its Hereditary Interest in all Forms of Pop- 

 ular Education;" "Its Liturgical Features and 

 Spirit;" "Its Missionary Work at Home and 

 Abroad;" "Its Influence in preserving Soundness 

 of Doctrine;" "Its Immovable Attachment to its 

 own Heirlooms of Faith and Order, combined with 

 the most Catholic Spirit toward all other Chris- 

 tians ; " " Its Duty in the Coming Century as fore- 

 shown by its Course in the Last Hundred Years." 



The discourses are intended to be delivered, 

 and repeated as often as convenient, in various 

 parts of the Church. 



The following resolutions were passed on the 

 subject of the Sabbath : 



In view of the prevailing and increasing desecra- 

 tion of the holy Sabbath, in open violation of civil 

 and moral laws, by railroad and steamboat compa- 

 nies, by beer-saloons, excursion-parties, Sunday pa- 

 pers : 



fiesolved, That as a Synod we sincerely deplore 



