REFORMED CHURCHES. 



RHODE ISLAND. 



719 



land." In response to a number of memorials 

 on the subject of Masonry, the synod decided 

 to refer all questions in regard to the standing 

 and relations of persons already in commun- 

 ion, and to the acceptance or rejection of ap- 

 plicants for admission, to the several consisto- 

 ries ; and further declared that while it felt re- 

 strained, by constitutional limitations, from rec- 

 ommending any course that would invade the 

 innocent freedom of speech or of action guar- 

 anteed to every church-member by the estab- 

 lished law and usage of the Church, it would in 

 the spirit of Christian kindness, while reaffirm- 

 ing previous deliverances on the subject, " ad- 

 vise all the parties concerned to abstain from 

 any associations, and from pursuing any course 

 of conduct, that would furnish a scriptural or 

 reasonable ground of offense to tender con- 

 sciences, or that would be likely to interfere 

 with the love and confidence that should al- 

 ways be found among the disciples of Christ." 

 A committee of the synod had been engaged 

 in preparing a revision of the translation of the 

 Heidelberg Catechism, with the intention of 

 consulting with a similar committee of the Re- 

 formed Church in the United States, for agree- 

 ment on a common version. The synod di- 

 rected that the revision be submitted to the 

 theological professors for their approval, and 

 then published in suitable form. In answer to 

 a number of memorials, asking for the substi- 

 tution of the word " hades " for " hell " in 

 the Apostles' Creed, the synod directed that 

 the word "hades " be placed in a foot-note at 

 the bottom of the page wherever " hell " oc- 

 curs in the text of the creed. It was deter- 

 mined that the correspondence of the Church 

 with the bodies to which it is accustomed to 

 send fraternal greetings be hereafter conducted 

 by letter, " unless the distance and other cir- 

 cumstances make it entirely convenient for the 

 appointed delegate to represent us in person." 

 Delegates were appointed to convey the greet- 

 ings of the Church to the Christian Synod of 

 the Reformed Church of the Netherlands, " and 

 the meetings of any other Reformed Churches 

 in Europe which they may visit." 



THE SUBJECT OF THE CREED. A memorial 

 from the Classis of Poughkeepsie, asking that 

 the word " saving " be placed before the word 

 " good " in the clause " incapable of doing any 

 good and prone to all evil," of the confession 

 required in the baptismal formula for adults, 

 was vigorously discussed, and was finally re- 

 ferred to a committee of five ministers and two 

 elders, to consider and report upon it at the 

 next meeting of the synod. 



II. REFORMED CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. 

 This Church, formerly known as the German 

 Reformed Church, is composed of six synods, 

 viz., the Synods of the United States, of Ohio, 

 of the Northwest, of Pittsburg, the Potomac 

 Synod, and the German Synod of the East; 

 with fifty classes, of which the following is a 

 summary of the statistics, as they are given in 

 the "Almanac for the Reformed Church in 



the United States" (Philadelphia: Reformed 

 Church Publication Board) for 1883: Number 

 of ministers, 751 ; of congregations, 1,420 ; of 

 members, 163,669 ; of unconfirmed members, 

 99,732 ; of persons who communed during the 

 year, 130,542. Number of Sunday-schools, 

 1,334, with 103,690 scholars; number of stu- 

 dents for the ministry, 127; number of bap- 

 tisms during the year, 12,711 of infants, and 

 892 of adults. Amount of contributions for 

 benevolent purposes, $92,936 ; for congrega- 

 tional purposes, $666,442. 



The Church has fifteen literary and theologi- 

 cal institutions, a general board of Foreign 

 Missions, five synodal boards of Home Mis- 

 sions, four synodal boards for Beneficiary Edu- 

 cation, a general society for the Relief of Minis- 

 ters, a mission among the Indians under the 

 direction of the Synod of the Northwest, and 

 fifteen English and six German periodicals. 



The receipts for Foreign Missions during the 

 year ending July 1, 1882, were $3,561. The 

 foreign mission is at Tokio, Japan, where one 

 missionary and his wife are employed. The 

 total amount of the contributions of the Church 

 for Home Missions during 1882 was $14,000. 



RHODE ISLAND. The State officers for 

 the year were as follow: Governor, Alfred 

 II. Littlefield ; Lieutenant-Go vernor, Henry F. 

 Fay ; Secretary of State, Joshua Addeman ; 

 Attorney- General, Willard Sayles; Treasurer, 

 S. L. Clark. 



Among the most noteworthy recommenda- 

 tions made by Governor Littlefield in his sec- 

 ond annual message to the Legislature, on Jan- 

 uary 31, 1882, he urges the necessity of adopt- 

 ing effectual measures to alter the present sys- 

 tem of education in the common schools of 

 the State, so " as to fit the present generation 

 of children, and their immediate successors, for 

 the development of the manufacturing and 

 mechanical industries carried on in Rhode Isl- 

 and, as they will furnish the main employ- 

 ment for our people"; adding, "To fit our 

 youth for the greatest success in these pur- 

 suits, they should receive a preparation which 

 is now beyond their reach through any of the 

 ordinary channels of education. Not only 

 should good, elementary instruction be pro- 

 vided, but our schools should be put upon the 

 work of cultivating the eye and training the 

 hand. To aid in this work, our children 

 should be taught the elementary principles of 

 physics and mechanics those powers and fac- 

 tors with which they are to be intimately con- 

 nected for the greater part of their lives." 



As a means of improving the efficiency of 

 the public schools of the State, he recom- 

 mends " that special care should be taken to 

 secure for them teachers of the requisite abil- 

 ity, training, and culture ; the success of pub- 

 lic schools in any State mainly depending upon 

 the intelligence, the skill, the enthusiasm, and 

 the moral force of their teachers." 



He commends to the serious attention of the 

 General Assembly the propriety of establish- 



