

REFORMED CHURCHES. 



595 



vested by the board in church property, the full 

 value of which was estimated to be $282,545. Of 

 that amount, $65,700 were borrowed money, loaned 

 to the missions at a lower rate of interest than 

 they could secure. One hundred and twenty loan 

 funds of $500 and more, named by the donor, 

 amounting to $70,000, were held by the boards 

 and loaned to missions on first mortgage in all 

 parts of the Church. Ten of the missions had 

 become self-supporting during the triennium, and 

 22 new missions had been established. The sum 

 of $19,618 had been received toward the payment 

 of the debt of about $35,000. 



The Board of Foreign Missions had received 

 from May 1, 1899, to May 1, 1902, $114,990, or 

 $24,621 more than during the previous three 

 years, of which $14,224 had been contributed in 

 the form of legacies and large gifts. The invested 

 funds had increased $2,000. The mission in Ja- 

 pan, with 10 ordained ministers, 25 unordained 

 evangelists, 25 church buildings, and 21 Bible 

 women, returned a net gain of 511 members and 

 about $1,250 of native contributions. The edu- 

 cational work at Sendai included a boys' school 

 and theological seminary, with 142 students in 

 the theological, literary, and college courses, and 

 the girls' school, with 86 pupils. The girls' 

 school had suffered the loss of its building by 

 fire. An industrial home was also maintained. 

 A mission had been opened in China in 1899, con- 

 cerning which progress was reported. Tne board 

 was introducing a system of specialization, under 

 which classes, churches, and societies might di- 

 rectly support some part of its work in heathen 

 lands. 



The General Synod met in its fourteenth tri- 

 ennial session at Baltimore, Md., May 20. The 

 Rev. John H. Prugh, D. D., of Pittsburg, Pa., was 

 chosen president. The committee having in 

 charge the preparation of a digest of the rulings 

 of the General Synod reported that the book had 

 been prepared and was on sale. The Committee 

 on the Twentieth-Century Movement reported 

 that 13 tracts had been issued and a number of 

 articles had been published and special sermons 

 preached with reference to the scheme. The com- 

 mittee to which had been referred matters per- 

 taining to the Protestant churches in Germany, 

 Switzerland, Hungary, etc., reported progress. 

 Provision was made for the preparation of a 

 new constitution for the Church by a Committee 

 of Five appointed by the Synod. This committee 

 wa^s instructed to submit the draft of the Consti- 

 tution to the classes for criticisms and sugges- 

 tions, from which the committee shall give final 

 shape to the document, preparatory to submit- 

 ting it to the General Synod. Various measures 

 were approved looking to the strengthening and 

 extension of the foreign mission, to the rebuild- 

 ing of the school property in Japan which had 

 been recently destroyed by fire, and to the erec- 

 tion of other buildings. A proposition to cele- 

 brate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the found- 

 ing of the mission in Japan was approved; and 

 an effort was authorized to raise during the cele- 

 bration .a thank-offering of not less than $25,000 

 for buildings, endowment, equipment, etc. Class- 

 es were requested to call the attention of pastors 

 and elders to the objections to allowing independ- 

 ent foreign missionaries or itinerant missionaries 

 not under the control of any recognized board 

 from receiving aid in any of the congregations of 

 the Church. The sum of $45,000 was appropri- 

 ated annually for the next three years for the 

 mission work in China and Japan, the money 

 raised by the women's societies not to be a part 

 of the apportionment. The efforts of the twen- 



tieth-century movement in connection with the 

 Sunday-schools were ordered continued;, a higher 

 standard of excellence for all the schools was 

 urged in the training of more efficient teachers, 

 the circulation of lesson helps and Sunday-school 

 literature, and the arrangement of Sunday-school 

 instruction in such a way as to lead the children 

 to entrance into the catechetical class and full 

 membership of the Church. Special offerings 

 were appointed to be taken in the Sunday-school* 

 on four Sundays of the year for different benevo- 

 lences. Special interest was expressed in the 

 home missions among Hungarians and Bohemi- 

 ans, and the classes were requested to keep them- 

 selves in close touch with Hungarian and Bohe- 

 mian churches and their pastors within their 

 bounds. An annual apportionment of 6 cents 

 per member was laid for church building in the 

 English synods, and the creating of church- 

 building funds was commended to classes, soci- 

 eties, congregations, and individuals. Other 

 measures were adopted for increasing the effi- 

 ciency of the home missions. The sum of $60,000 

 was apportioned annually among the English 

 synods. The Committee on Ministerial Relief re- 

 porting a prosperous condition of the society, a 

 committee was appointed to report to the next 

 General Synod upon a plan to organize and con- 

 tinue a synodical society for this benevolence. 

 Another committee was appointed to report con- 

 cerning the use of fairs, suppers, etc., for raising 

 Church funds. The Synod decided that it did not 

 recognize a sermon preached by its presiding 

 officer as an official and authoritative utterance 

 of its doctrinal statements. Three different over- 

 tures were sent up with regard to revision of the 

 Heidelberg catechism, but the Synod declined to 

 accede to their requests. The report of the Com- 

 mittee on the State of the Church, while calling 

 attention to some shortcomings, reported general 

 improvement during the past three years. The 

 number of classes had increased by 1 ; of ministers 

 by 33; of congregations by 76; of members by 

 11,000; of contributions for benevolence by $64,- 

 867 ; and of contributions for congregational pur- 

 poses by $303,449. 



A plan of cooperation was arranged between 

 the General Synod's and the two German synods' 

 Boards of Home Missions, under which $4.500 

 a year will be paid by the churches of English 

 synods to establish German Reformed churches. 

 For this the German boards are to report all 

 their work to the General Synod's board. 



III. Christian Reformed Church (Dutch). 

 The Jaar Boekje of this Church for 1903 gives 

 the following statistics: Number of classes, 9: of 

 congregations, 155; of ministers. 99; of families, 

 11,346; of members, 19,174; whole number of 

 souls, 58,512. Sunday-schools and Young Peo- 

 ple's Societies are sustained in most of the 

 churches, but the full numbers are not given. 

 The Theological School at Grand Rapids, Mich., 

 has theological and literary departments. The 

 Church has Boards of Home and Foreifgn Mis- 

 sions, of Missions to the Jews, of Ministerial Aid, 

 and for the Retired Preachers' fund. One weekly 

 and 3 monthly periodicals are published, one of 

 the monthlies being in English ; the other 3 peri- 

 odicals are in Dutch. 



IV. Reformed Church of France. The 

 Free Evangelical Church of France represents 

 a body which separated from the Synod of 

 the Reformed Church of France in 1849, when 

 the Synod declined to subscribe to an evangel- 

 ical Confession of Faith. About 30 ministers 

 withdrew from the Synod at that time and organ- 

 ized the "Union des Eglises Evangeliques." By 



