REFORMED CHURCHES. 



743 



The total receipts of the Board of Foreign Mis- 

 sions had been $112.000, of which $105,000 were 

 contributed by churches, schools, societies, and 

 individuals. The expenditures, not including 

 those for the Arabian Mission, had been $121,000. 

 The debt had therefore been increased $9,000, and 

 was now $49,000; but it was partly offset by a 

 balance of $13,000. Eight-six missionaries had 

 been employed in the field, with 448 native min- 

 isters and assistants. There were returned in 

 India, China, and Japan 42 native churches, 4,458 

 communicants, 23 seminaries and boarding 

 schools with 1,100 students, 177 day schools with 

 6,200 pupils, 215 Sunday schools attended by 

 6,550 children, and 6 hospitals and dispensaries 

 where 31,000 patients had been treated during 

 the year. The General Synod recommended that 

 a special effort be made to remove the debt of 

 the board, advising that a missionary be assigned 

 to lay before the churches the opportunities and 

 needs of the work; fixed $120,000, aside from 

 legacies and interest on invested funds, as the 

 least amount that would suffice to meet the re- 

 quirements of the missions; and recommended 

 that the churches during 1900 make a monthly 

 offering for foreign missions. An effort to raise 

 $12,000 for the regular work of the Arabian Mis- 

 sion was approved. 



The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Woman's 

 Board of Foreign Missions was held May 9. The 

 treasurer's statement showed that the receipts 

 for the past year had been $33,029, of which a 

 small balance still remained in the treasury. The 

 secretary of the sewing guild reported gifts from 

 t)2 societies and 15 individuals. The work had 

 been systematized and greatly enlarged, and 

 3,185 articles had been distributed among the 

 foreign missions, including that in Arabia. One 

 hundred and thirty-two bands among young peo- 

 ple and children, exclusive of Christian Endeavor 

 Societies, had given $1,556. The "Baby Roll" 

 showed a membership of 312 infants, the gifts 

 made in whose name go to the support of a babies' 

 home at Perth Amboy, N. J. Twenty-four mis- 

 sionaries were under the special care of this board. 



The General Synod met at Catskill, N. Y., June 

 7. The Rev. George S. Bishop, D. D., of Orange, 

 N. J., was chosen president. The report of the 

 Committee on the State of Religion returned the 

 number of churches of the denomination as 643; 

 of ministers, 701 ; of families, 59,751 ; of additions 

 on confession, 4,806; of communicants, 111,665; 

 showing gains of 10 churches, 18 ministers, 1,057 

 families, and 952 communicants. The number of 

 new members was smaller than for several years 

 past. The Sunday-school enrollment in 1898 was 

 123,667, an advance of nearly 3,000 over that of 

 1897; but during the past year there had been 

 an almost equal decline, and the number was now 

 120,759. The number of Sunday schools was 922, 

 as against 923 in 1898. The contributions to de- 

 nominational benevolent objects had increased 

 from $227.849 in 1898 to $233,831 in 1899, while 

 the contributions to nondenominational objects 

 had fallen off from $103,846 to $82,154. The ex- 

 penditures for congregational objects. $1,058,040, 

 had increased $52,164. The Committee on the 

 Amsterdam Correspondence reported that a very 

 important advance had been made in. the work 

 committeed to their charge. The Rev. Dr. Corwin, 

 agent of the committee, had returned to the 

 United States in November, 1898, bringing a large 

 amount of material collected in Holland, consist- 

 ing of transcripts of original documents found 

 chiefly at Amsterdam and The Hague. An appro- 

 priation had been obtained from the New York 

 State Legislature for the translation of these 



documents, and their preparation for publication 

 under the general direction of the State his- 

 torian. The ends aimed at in obtaining these 

 transcripts could now best be secured by leaving 

 the whole business in the hands of the general 

 committee who had carried the charge of the 

 matter, and at whose request Dr. Corwin had per- 

 formed his duties, which would act in connection 

 with the Governor and Historian of New York 

 in carrying out the provisions of the act of the 

 Legislature of that State. The committee asked, 

 therefore, to be discharged. The report of the 

 Committee on Sunday Schools and Catechetical 

 Work emphasized the importance of those causes, 

 since, apart from preaching, the religious instruc- 

 tion of the young is almost entirely left to these 

 two agencies. All the classes of the Church ex- 

 cept one had appointed permanent Sunday-school 

 Committees, and through these the Sunday-school 

 work had had such care and oversight as it had 

 never enjoyed before. Returns were made by 477 

 Christian Endeavor Societies and 69 Junior So- 

 cieties. The Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip 

 returned 54 chapters in this denomination. Less 

 than one third of the Sunday schools had con- 

 tributed to the boards of the Church $12,289 

 for foreign missions, $8,138 for domestic missions, 

 and $173 for education. The Christian Endeavor 

 Societies had given $5,690 for foreign missions, 

 $2,749 for domestic missions, and $60 for educa- 

 tion. The home department was in operation in 

 58 Sunday schools, and included 2,103 members. 

 Normal classes were formed in 54 Sunday schools. 

 The General Synod had on two former occasions 

 about a half century apart, appointed committees 

 to report on the general state of the Church; the 

 first in 1788, on the Administration of the Polity 

 of the Church; and the second in 1847, on the Im- 

 provement and Enlargement of its Policy ; it now, 

 in view of the approach of the twentieth century, 

 when " the Church stands in a far higher position 

 as to knowledge and experience, means, and op- 

 portunities, as well as responsibilities," consti- 

 tuted and appointed, in harmony with the prece- 

 dents cited, a general committee of 24 members, 

 including the president of the General Synod and 

 representatives of the several boards and institu- 

 tions of the Church, to review the past progress 

 and present condition of all the departments of 

 church work, and suggest plans for the improve- 

 ment and enlargement of the same, and to report 

 in the next year, if possible. The Rev. Ferdinand 

 S. Schenck, D. D., was elected Professor of Pas- 

 toral Theology and Sacred Rhetoric, and the Rev. 

 John II. Raven Professor of Old Testament Lan- 

 guages and Exegisis in the Theological Seminary 

 at New Brunswick, N. J. The Rev. J. F. Zwemer 

 was appointed an agent to secure an additional 

 endowment of at least $50,000 for the Western 

 Theological Seminary. A resolution was unani- 

 mously adopted, declaring the uncompromising 

 opposition of the Synod to the remarriage of 

 guilty parties in divorce proceedings as opposed 

 to the spirit and mind of Christ, and enjoining 

 the entire body of the Church, clerical and lay, 

 " to take no part in giving approval to such re- 

 marriages, however authorized by State law, but, 

 on the contrary, to co-operate unceasingly in the 

 work of developing a strong and healthy public 

 sentiment which shall diminish, if not suppress, 

 the evil practice." A resolution was adopted pro- 

 testing against the seating of B. H. Roberts as a 

 member of the national House of Representa- 

 tives from Utah. 



II. Reformed Church in the United States. 

 The report to the General Synod on the state 

 of the Church represented that during the three 



