REFORMED CHURCHES. 



719 



B 



REFORMED CHURCHES. REFORMED 

 CHURCH IN AMERICA (formerly Reformed Dutch 

 Church}. The following is a summary of the 

 statistics of this Church as they were reported 

 to the General Synod at its annual meeting in 

 June, 1878 : Number of churches, 503 ; of 

 ministers, 542 ; of families, 43,922 ; of commu- 

 nicants, 79,413; of persons received on con- 

 fession of faith, 3,943 ; of baptisms, 3,874 of 

 infants and 1,044 of adults ; of Sunday-schools, 

 648, with 77,541 scholars. Total amount of 

 religious and benevolent contributions, $205,- 

 778, showing an increase of $5,259, or 2 per 

 cent., over the contributions of the previous 

 year. 



The Board of Direction reported to the Gen- 

 eral Synod that the total amount of funds be- 

 longing to the body was $451,411. Among the 

 more important special funds are the follow- 

 ing: Endowment fund of Hope College, $19,- 

 256 ; fund of the Professorship of Didactic 

 and Polemic Theology at Hope College, $5,120; 

 Centennial Seminary fund, $451 ; permanent 

 Seminary fund, $132,083, less a permanent 

 Seminary deficit fund of $34,757 ; widows' fund, 

 $49,307 (income during the year, $3,265); 

 disabled ministers' fund. $19,614 (income from 

 all sources $4,011) ; education fund, $94,687 

 (income, $2,645) ; parochial school fund, $10,- 

 360. 



The receipts of the Board of Education, ac- 

 cording to the report made to the General Syn- 

 od, had been $19,103. The Board had aided 

 eighty-three students, fourteen of whom had 

 entered the ministry. Thirteen students had 

 been received during the year. 



The Board of Domestic Missions reported to 

 the General Synod that their total receipts for 

 the year had been $27,542, or $8,444 less than 

 the receipts of the previous year. The church- 

 building fund also showed a total deficit of 

 $10,451. The Board had employed 94 mission- 

 aries, and had aided 102 churches and missions, 

 with which were connected 6,787 families and 

 8,896 members. Three churches had been or- 

 ganized, and thirteen churches had become 

 self-sustaining. There were reported as under 

 the care of the Board 134 Sunday-schools (of 

 which 15 had been organized during the year), 

 having an average attendance of 11,339 schol- 

 ars. 



The property under the care of the Board of 

 Publication had been put into the hands of a 

 receiver during the year, for the purpose of 

 securing a satisfactory adjustment of its affairs, 

 and had been restored to the control of the 

 Board for only one month previous to the meet- 

 ing of the General Synod. The exhibit showed 

 that the assets of the establishment amounted 

 to $12,343, and its liabilities to $9,054. 



According to the report to the General Syn- 



od of the Board of Superintendents, the Theo- 

 logical Seminary at New Brunswick, N. J., had 

 been attended by 40 students, and the graduat- 

 ing class numbered 14 members. About 1,800 

 volumes, many of them representing rare works, 

 had been added to the library at New Bruns- 

 wick during the year. 



Hope College, at Holland, Mich., was in an 

 embarrassed financial condition, in consequence 

 of which the theological department had been 

 suspended. 



The General Synod of the Reformed Church 

 in America met at Utica, N. Y., June 5th. 

 The Rev. Jacob Chamberlain, M. D., of the 

 mission at Arcot, India, was elected President. 

 The business transacted by the Synod related 

 chiefly to the condition of the funds and the 

 benevolent and educational enterprises of the 

 Church. A fraternal delegate from the Presby- 

 terian Church South addressed the Synod re- 

 specting the need of teachers and preachers to 

 work among the people, white and colored, of 

 the Southern States, and particularly respecting 

 the institution for the education of colored young 

 men established by the Presbyterian Church at 

 Tuscaloosa, Ala. ; whereupon the Synod re- 

 solved that it would welcome any agent whom 

 the Southern Presbyterians might appoint to 

 procure funds for the endowment of a professor- 

 ship in the Institute, and recommended this en- 

 terprise to the people of the Church. It also 

 recommended an enlarged cooperation in the 

 work of the Southern brethren among the col- 

 ored people, and also in the general mission 

 field of the South, the same to be given, " of 

 course," through the recognized committees 

 of the Presbyterian Church South. The at- 

 tention of the Synod having been called to the 

 fact that the Sunday-school lesson-leaves in 

 ordinary use had the effect of keeping the 

 scholars from the direct use of the Scriptures, 

 and of lessening the demand for Bibles, a reso- 

 lution was passed recommending the constant 

 use of the Bible together with the lesson-leaf 

 in the Sunday-schools, the lesson-leaf to be em- 

 ployed in preparation, the Bible in recitation. 

 A letter was received from the native members 

 of the Church in connection with the mission 

 in China, in which the wish was expressed that 

 the Chinese church might speedily become 

 strong enough to assume the work of evangel- 

 izing the country without further help from 

 the Board of Missions. The Synod made an 

 appropriate response to this letter. A resolution 

 was passed expressing the hope that some lay- 

 man would establish and endow a lectureship 

 of missions for the Theological Seminary at 

 New Brunswick, N. J. A committee was ap- 

 pointed to consider and report to the next Gen- 

 eral Synod concerning a method for the ap- 

 pointment and superintendence of evangelists 



