150 



CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



groups of churches, they did not and could not 

 represent the whole Church ; or in any way 

 combine the diversified views and wants that 

 exist within it. " No council limited, as is in- 

 evitable, can represent or act for the constitu- 

 ency of a body scattered over the whole ter- 

 ritory of the United States, and which includes 

 contributors in other lands also." Councils, 

 moreover, were transient bodies, existing only 

 for a few hours, and could not be held to a 

 responsibility more abiding than their own 

 ephemeral existence. They end their functions 

 in the induction into the ministry of ministerial 

 missionaries. The Prudential Committee had 

 work to do in view of its entire make-up, and 

 could not farm out any portion of its responsi- 

 bility. After considering these and other like 

 points in full, the report concluded ; 



The usual method, aimed at and pursued by the 

 Prudential Committee the past year, still commends 

 itself as the wisest and best. Should the method so 

 long tested, and with satisfactory results, have the 

 approval of the board and its friends, present embar- 

 rassments will, we believe, be removed, and further 

 embarrassments will be averted more satisfactorily 

 than in any other way. Seeing then that, by general 

 consent and usage, such bodies as the American Board 

 can not appropriately call ecclesiastical councils in 

 any case; seeing that to call such councils only iu 

 doubtful cases turning upon doctrinal views of candi- 

 dates would be open to very grave objections, and that 

 to call them for all candidates would be superlatively 

 cumbersome ; seeing that councils, being local, ephem- 

 eral, and irresponsible, are inadequate for the pur- 

 pose named ; seeing that a mixed responsibility in 

 the selection of candidates would produce friction and 

 dissatisfaction ; and seeing that unit}' of trust in the 

 appointment of missionaries and in the administration 

 of funds for their support has borne the test of long 

 experience, and will secure a wider harmony than any 

 other method the Prudentkl Committee deem the 

 measure inexpedient. 



Majority and minority reports were brought 

 in by the committee to whom the report of the 

 Prudential Committee was referred. The ma- 

 jority report referred to a resolution which 

 had been adopted by the board more than 

 thirty years before, declaring that the contrib- 

 utors to the funds of the board would hold the 

 Prudential Committee responsible " for seeing 

 that no part of their contributions goes for 

 the propagation of error, either in doctrine or 

 practice," and said that the Prudential Com- 

 mittee had long been governed by this princi- 

 ple. It had considered the doctrine of future 

 probation as erroneous and dangerous in its 

 tendency. The action of the board itself at 

 its last annual meeting, at Des Moines, indi- 

 cated a coincidence with this view. The Pru- 

 dential Committee had in its examinations of 

 candidates manifested an earnest desire to se- 

 cure the services of able and cultivated men, 

 and deserved high commendation for its faith- 

 fulness in this part of the work; while in 

 those cases in which the candidates failed to 

 receive appointments, the result was the only 

 one consistent with the action of the board 

 concerning missionary appointments at its last 

 annual meeting. To this report were appended 

 resolutions declaring 



That the board adhere? to the position taken at the 

 last annual meeting at Des Momes concerning the 

 doctrine of future probation, reaffirms its utterances 

 made at that time, and accepts the interpretation of 

 the Prudential Committee as the true interpretation 

 of its action. And that we recommend to the Pru- 

 dential Committee an unabated carefulness in guard- 

 ing the board from any committal to the approval of 

 that doctrine. 



The minority report denied that the Ameri- 

 can Board was a representative body of the 

 churches, or possessed of the functions of a 

 synod, and held that it was not competent to 

 fix the standards of doctrinal faith to which 

 its missionaries should conform. "That is a 

 work which must be done, if it is done at all, 

 by ecclesiastical assemblies, authorized by the 

 churches to undertake so difficult and responsi- 

 ble a work." The board, under its present 

 constitution, should refrain from sending to 

 the Prudential Committee specific doctrinal 

 instructions either on one side or the other of 

 existing doctrinal controversies. This report 

 concluded with resolutions reaffirming the po- 

 sition that neither the board nor the Pruden- 

 tial Committee was in any sense a theological 

 court to settle doctrinal points of belief; that 

 the board would have its missionaries always 

 remember that they are sent to preach and 

 teach these essential truths of Christianity in 

 which all evangelical bodies mainly agree ; 

 that 



The missionaries of this board shall have the Fame 

 right of private judgment in the interpretation of 

 God's word, and the same freedom of thought and of 

 speech as are enjoyed by their ministerial brethren iu 

 this country. In the exercise of their rights they 

 should have constant and careful regard to the work 

 of their associates, and to the harmony and effective- 

 ness of the missions in which they labor. And all 

 persons, otherwise well qualified, are to be regarded 

 as acceptable candidates lor missionary appointment, 

 who heartily receive the fundamental truths of the 

 Gospel, hela in common by the churches sustaining 

 the ooard, and ascertained by their actual uses. 



A full discussion was had of all the points 

 involved in the controversy, at the end of 

 which the majority report was adopted. 



The Kev. E. S. Storrs, D. D., of Brooklyn, 

 N. Y., was elected President of the Board, to 

 succeed the Rev. Mark Hopkins, D. D., de- 

 ceased. 



Dr. Storrs accepted the office of president in 

 a letter of the 31st of October, in which he 

 said that the questions which had largely en- 

 grossed the attention of the board at its last 

 two meetings appeared to him to be practically 

 settled, so far as the board was concerned, cer- 

 tainly for a considerable time. The board had 

 decided, by a majority so large that further 

 opposition to the decision was not likely to be 

 made, that it would continue to intrust the 

 examination of candidates for its missionary 

 service to its permanent committee, and that 

 this committee was not to be guided as to 

 the theological fitness of its candidates by the 

 opinions of improvised councils. It had also 

 decided, under circumstances of unusual im- 

 pressiveness, that the theory of a probation 



