710 



REFORMED CHURCDES. 



ing three years. The sum of $2,313 had been 

 spent in the service of the Harbor Mission at 

 New York, where one missionary had been 

 employed. The appointment of a General 

 Superintendent of Home Mission Work was 

 authorized. The three Orphans' Homes Beth- 

 any, at Womelsdorf, Pa. ; St. Paul's, at Butler, 

 Pa. ; and Fort Wayne, Ind., returned about two 

 hundred children as under their care. The 

 Society for the Relief of Ministers and Minis- 

 ters' Widows the oldest charitable institution 

 of the Church, being now a hundred years old 

 was commended by the Synod, and collec- 

 tions were directed to be taken up annually for 

 its benefit. The receipts of the Board of For- 

 eign Missions for three years had been $38,989 ; 

 seven missionaries were employed in the mis- 

 sion at Sendai. in Japan, in connection with 

 which 14 stations were returned, with 705 

 members, a ministerial training-school, with 

 seven students, anda girls' school, with 41 pupils. 



The Triennial General Synod of the Reformed 

 Church in the United States met at Akron, Ohio, 

 June 1 . The Rev. George W. Welker, D. D., of 

 Lament, N. C., was chosen president. A re- 

 port was adopted on the subject of a closer 

 union between the Reformed Churches holding 

 the Presbyterian polity, and on subjects relating 

 to church union in general, in which the Synod 

 declared : 



If any should ask what we think of unity among 

 Christians, and what we may stand ready to do in 

 favor of a closer union between not only churches 

 known by the distinctive name Reformed, but all 

 evangelical churches, we might simply point to the 

 history of the Church of which we are the oldest 

 branch, and to the testimony of ita general course dur- 

 ing the past three centuries in regard to the relations 

 of amity and fraternization between different parts of 

 the communion of saints. We may never have in- 

 dulged in loud proclamations of our love of liberty and 

 union, but it may be affirmed without boasting that 

 from the great conference at Marburg onward the Re- 

 formed Church has shown a willingness to do more 

 and suffer more in the interest of "a true, consistent 

 Christian union than any other. Had her spirit, 

 wishes, and counsel prevailed in other days, there 

 would be fewer divisions in the great household of 

 faith than now exist. And now that they do exist, 

 it is believed she will be found ready to go any length 

 short of sacrificing vital, fundamental principles and 

 doctrines to heal the divisions. We may, indeed, not 

 magnify the facts or evils of sects, or be willing to 

 stigmatize all as sects whom some superciliously de- 

 spise and condemn as such. Some of the divisions 

 now maintained sprang not from schismatic agitations, 

 but from social and national causes naturally leading 

 to such diversity of organizations. This holds, in- 

 deed, of almost every branch of the Reformed Church. 

 They are, in fact, one in everything but formal union, 

 and some less vital usages. 



With regard to the action proposed par- 

 ticularly by the House of Bishops of the Prot- 

 estant Episcopal Church, the Synod expressed 

 itself as cordially holding what it had always 

 held and pleaded for, viz. : That the Church, 

 as the ' General Assembly ' of the truly chosen 

 and regenerated of the Lord has no doubt been 

 often greatly afflicted with needless divisions 

 and dissensions. . . . And holding this, the 

 desirableness of purging the Church of this evil 



is unhesitatingly admitted. For this we should 

 labor, pray, and hope. And accordingly we ... 

 welcome the advance made in the direction of 

 such a union, and declare our willingness to meet 

 them and any other fellow-Christians of the 

 common apostolic faith, on some equal ground 

 or platform of conference, for the purpose of 

 furthering such a union. As between the 

 several families of the distinctively Reformed 

 Church, the Synod would, above all, declare 

 that either a closer spiritual or possibly formal 

 union might be effected. It could not now see 

 clearly enough into the future to anticipate 

 union under one organization and government, 

 although that was to be hoped and prayed for. 

 " But as to some closer fellowship, and some 

 method of evangelizing general work, there 

 seems to be no reason why a movement should 

 not be inaugurated at once looking to such co- 

 operation. And to make a modest beginning 

 in the movement, the Synod would suggest that 

 instead of taking any steps involving the entire 

 Church it represents, it be left to the district 

 synods to begin the work, if occasion offers 

 and justifies it, within their several bounds by 

 co-operative evangelistic efforts." A commit- 

 tee was appointed to confer with a similar 

 committee of the Reformed Church in America 

 on the subject of union. The Council of the 

 Alliance of the Reformed Churches held in 

 Belfast, Ireland, in 1884, had been attended by 

 eight of the appointed delegates from this body, 

 who reported that they had been impressed with 

 the pleasant conviction that, under divine favor 

 the Alliance is proving an efficient means of 

 promoting the vital evangelical principles and 

 interests which it represents." A committee, 

 appointed by the previous General Synod to 

 consider and report upon revision of the Con- 

 stitution of the Church, submitted a draft of the 

 Constitution embodying the amendments sug- 

 gested, which was approved by the General 

 Synod and referred to the classes for their de- 

 cision upon it. The Directory of Worship, hav- 

 ing been submitted to the classes for their ap- 

 proval or rejection, was found to have been 

 approved by the majority of the members, and 

 was declared to be constitutionally adopted. 

 In reply to an inquiry from a classis concerning 

 the form of receiving persons into the Church 

 by re-profession, the Synod directed that " all 

 persons applying for admission into the Church, 

 having no valid certificate of church-member- 

 ship, shall be strictly examined as to their 

 moral and spiritual qualifications before they 

 are admitted by the spiritual council, and that 

 their reception thereafter be accomplished for- 

 mally by the pastor, in the presence of either 

 the congregation or the spiritual council " ; and 

 a suitable formula was ordered prepared for the 

 service. A committee on a digest of the de- 

 cisions of the several synods of the Church, 

 having appellate jurisdiction on questions of 

 doctrine, morals, customs, and constitutional 

 interpretations, not being prepared to report, 

 was reorganized to report to the next General 



