720 



REFORMED CHURCHES. 



to work in connection with the Church with- 

 out investiture with the full ministerial office. 



The quarto-millennial anniversary of the Col- 

 legiate Reformed church in the city of New 

 York, being also the two hundred and fiftieth 

 anniversary of the organization of the first 

 church in the city, was celebrated November 

 21st. A history of the church from its forma- 

 tion in 1628 was read by the Rev. Thomas E. 

 Vermilye. in which it was recorded that it had 

 had twenty-eight pastors and six edifices. It 

 had trained 27,000 children, and, having started 

 with fifty persons to sit down at its first com- 

 munion, now numbered 11,000 communicants. 

 Nearly $400,000 of the funds of the church 

 had been devoted to outside charity. The 

 services were attended and participated in by 

 ministers of the Protestant Episcopal, Presby- 

 terian, Baptist, Methodist Episcopal, and Con- 

 gregational churches. The Rev. Dr. Morgan 

 Dix, Rector of Trinity Church, the next oldest 

 church in the city, spoke of the pleasant re- 

 lations that had always subsisted between the 

 clergymen of the two churches in respect to 

 all works of benevolence and religious progress. 



II. REFORMED CHUECH IN THE UNITED STATES. 

 The following is a summary of the statistics 

 of this Church as they are given in the " Al- 

 manac of the Reformed Church in the United 

 States," (Philadelphia) for 1879: 



Number of classes, 45 ; of infants baptized, 

 12,323 ; of adults baptized, 880 ; of Sunday- 

 schools, 1,237; of candidates for the ministry, 

 157. Amount of contributions : For benevo- 

 lent purposes, $61,727; for congregational 

 purposes, $532,229. Of the members, 90,993 

 are designated members unconfirmed. The 

 Western almanac of the same name (Dayton, 

 O.) gives for comparison the statistical footings 

 of 1868 and 1858, from which the growth of 

 the Church appears to be represented by an 

 increase in ten years of 189 ministers, 190 

 congregations, and 29,878 members, and in 

 twenty years of 354 ministers, 349 congrega- 

 tions, and 65,555 members. Five, theological 

 institutions and seven colleges are under the 

 care of the Church, of which the Theological 

 Seminary at Tiffin, Ohio, has educated 171 

 ministers, and Heidelberg College, at the same 

 place, has educated more than 3,400 students. 

 The Ohio Board of Missions, at Columbians, 

 has twenty stations under its care. The Mis- 

 sion Board of the Northwest labors mostly 

 among the Germans. The Board of Foreign 

 Missions of the General Synod is on the point 



of establishing a mission in Japan. Other 

 mission societies are the Board of Ursinus 

 Union, and the Eastern Board at Harrisburg, 

 Pa. Three educational societies exist to pro- 

 mote the education of young men for the min- 

 istry. Two orphans' houses, a society for the 

 relief of ministers and their widows, and two 

 Boards of Church Erection are supported in 

 connection with the Church. The publica- 

 tions of the Church embrace two general 

 weekly newspapers, two monthly family pub- 

 lications, and two children's papers for Sunday- 

 schools. 



The General Synod of the Reformed Church 

 in the United States met at Lancaster, Pa., 

 May 15th. The Rev. Dr. D. Van Home was 

 chosen Moderator. The session was distin- 

 guished by the adoption of measures for ad- 

 justing the differences on the subjects of the- 

 ology and ritual which had disturbed the 

 Church for several years. The first of these 

 measures was a paper which was introduced 

 unexpectedly, but was unanimously adopted, 

 reciting the evils which grew out of these dif- 

 ferences, and ordering the appointment of a 

 Commission to consider them. The Commis- 

 sion is to be formed of ministerial and lay 

 delegates, appointed by the several district 

 synods in proportion to the number of church 

 members within their bounds, is to contain a 

 proportionate representation of the two ten- 

 dencies or parties in the Church, and " shall 

 consider and solemnly deliberate over all mat- 

 ters in controversy within the Church, with a 

 view of devising a plan of amicable adjust- 

 ment to be reported to the next General Syn- 

 od, on some such basis of mutual agreement 

 as shall commend itself as best to the mind of 

 the said Commission, guaranteeing unity in es- 

 sentials, liberty in doubtful, and charity in all 

 things pertaining to the Church." The details 

 of the appointment and constitution of the 

 Commission were fixed, and a supplementary 

 paper was adopted, admonishing the members 

 and ministers of the Synod " to use their offi- 

 cial and personal influence in the cultivation 

 of mutual confidence and peace," requesting 

 the editors of the Church papers to infuse as 

 far as possible a spirit of conciliation and con- 

 cord into their publications, the professors in 

 the educational institutions to cultivate a spirit 

 of charitableness and peace in the minds of 

 their students, and members of ecclesiastical 

 bodies under the supervision of the General 

 Synod, in their deliberations and decisions, to 

 have a due regard for each other's conscien- 

 tious convictions, so as to advance peace. Sev- 

 eral measures respecting the liturgy and hymn- 

 books, which were to have formed a part of 

 the order of proceedings, were postponed, or 

 referred to the Commission. The President of 

 the General Synod was appointed temporary 

 chairman of the Commission, for the purpose 

 of convening and organizing it, and was in- 

 structed to call it to meet at Harrisburg, Pa., 

 on the last Wednesday of November, 1879- 



