786 



REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA. 



The .total amount of the Permanent fund was 

 $47,615. 



The receipts of the Widows' fund, as returned 

 to the General Synod, has been $9,482. The 

 principal fund had been increased by $1,617, 

 and was now $67,873. 



The income of the Disabled Ministers' fund 

 had been $8,729. The capital of the fund now 

 amounted to $53,817. 



The assets of the Board of Publication were 

 returned as $16,261, with no liabilities. Thir- 

 teen publications had been issued during the 

 year. 



The receipts of the Board of Domestic Mis- 

 sions had been $32,210. The Church-Building 

 fund had increased by $12,212, and was in- 

 debted to the amount of $7,884. Ninety-two 

 missionaries had been employed in the charge 

 of 109 stations, with which were connected 

 4,979 families and 6,910 members; and 667 

 persons had been received on confession. 



The receipts of the Board of Foreign Mis- 

 sions had been $81,386, and its expenditures 

 had been $82,753. The cost of administration 

 of the missions, including premium and inter- 

 est, was about 10 per cent, of the whole amount 

 received and expended ; or, excluding those 

 items, about 7 T V per cent. The missions are 

 the A root mission in India, the Amoy mission 

 in China, and the Japan mission. Together 

 they returned 12 stations, 102 out-stations and 

 preaching-places, 21 ordained and 1 unordained 

 missionaries, 27 assistant missionaries, 8 na- 

 live ordained ministers, 188 other helpers, 31 

 churches (in India and China), 2.394 commu- 

 nicants (in India and China), 11 seminaries, 

 with 444 male and 193 female pupils, 4 theo- 

 logical schools with 49 students, and 100 day- 

 schools (in India and China), with 2,374 pupils. 

 The churches, pastors, helpers, and students in 

 Japan are not included in these returns, they 

 belonging to the " Union Church of Christ in 

 Japan," which is composed of a combination 

 of five Presbyterian and Reformed missions. 

 This Church returned, for 1885, 1,229 house- 

 holds, 3,228 adults, and 580 children as mem- 

 bers, an average Sunday-school attendance of 

 1,973, 26 licentiates, 38 theological students, 

 29 students under the care of the classes, and 

 contributions of $12,248. The biennial Synod 

 of the Church was held in November, 1885, 

 when three classes, comprising 39 churches, 

 were represented. It appeared, from the re- 

 ports which were presented, that 1,413 adults 

 had been baptized during the past two years; 

 that ten churches had been added, showing an 

 increase of 34 per cent, in the number of 

 churches ; and that the number of communi- 

 cants had increased by 1,431, or 80 per cent. 

 Six new churches were added to the roll of 

 the Synod, by the accession of which the num- 

 ber of adult members in the entire Church 

 was raised to more than 4,000. A new divis- 

 ion of classes was made by which, out of the 

 already existing three classes with the six add- 

 ed churches, five classes were formed. 



The General Synod of the Reformed Church 

 in America met in New Brunswick, N. J., 

 June 2. The Rev. John B. Drury, D. D., was 

 chosen moderator. A committee, which had 

 been appointed in the previous year concern- 

 ing a critical revision of the Constitution of the 

 Church, made a report, explaining the princi- 

 ples by which its action had been governed. 

 It had also been the purpose of the committee, 

 as expressed in resolutions additional to those 

 under which it had been appointed, instead of 

 foot-notes to append, in the obligatory doc- 

 trinal forms, simple marginal references to the 

 page, leaving everything in the way of inter- 

 pretation and explanation to the standards 

 themselves, " and to an honest ministry pledged 

 thereto, where it has been these two hundred 

 years," and, * so far as present foot-notes are 

 merely of the nature of better translation, to 

 have them transferred to the text." In fulfill- 

 ment of the duty assigned to them, the com- 

 mittee presented what they believed to be an 

 accurate historical arrangement of the Consti- 

 tution, premising that some things had care- 

 lessly been printed as parts of the present Con- 

 stitution which had no place therein " : for 

 instance, "various forms of certificates, rules 

 for reception of ministers from other ecclesias- 

 tical bodies, rules of order for the government 

 of the General Synod, etc. The Constitution 

 proper includes the recognized doctrinal stand- 

 ards (in addition to the ancient creeds), the 

 Liturgy, and the declared articles of church 

 government; and these, with a suitable title- 

 page, and an historical introduction for general 

 information, should be arranged historically." 

 The Liturgy included the two classes of ob- 

 ligatory forms and of optional forms. The 

 forms of the former class had never been al- 

 tered ; they had been treated as historical and 

 obligatory, and no attempt to change the word- 

 ing of the standards and Liturgy, as they came 

 from the Synod of Dort, had prospered. The 

 work of successive committees of revision, in 

 respect to these forms, had been in the direc- 

 tion of improved translation, of bracketing 

 portions for public reading without destroying 

 the text, and of the addition of new offices. 

 The last Synod had directed that whatever a 

 proper development might seem to demand in 

 the way of forms additional to the old or other 

 matter should be placed separately by itself, as 

 new matter, marking, and appropriate to, its 

 age. A number of new offices had been ap- 

 proved by the Synod and the classes, and would, 

 if ratified by the Synod, take their place among 

 the optional forms. The marginal references, 

 which the committee proposed to insert in 

 place of foot-notes, were designed to enable 

 any one who had doubt of the meaning of par- 

 ticular clauses in the offices readily to turn to 

 the standards of the Church for a fuller and 

 more precise explanation. References were 

 proposed in connection with the first question 

 in the form for infant baptism, and with the 

 second and fourth questions in the form for 



