The Annual Report of the Executive Committee charged with the care and disbursement of the Ministerial Relief Fund was read, accepted, and referred to the Standing Committee on Ministerial Relief.

The Rev. William E. Knox, D.D., the Rev. William S. Curtis, D.D., and the Hon. John A. Foot, were appointed to confer with a Committee appointed by the General Assembly now in session at the Second Presbyterian Church of this city, with reference to joint religious services to be held by the two General Assemblies.

The report of the Special Committee to whom was referred Overture No. 14 of the last Assembly, on Final Process in cases of Contumacy, was read, accepted, and placed on the docket.

The Special Committee appointed with reference to the formation of a National Protestant League presented a verbal report, and asked to be discharged.

The report was accepted, and the Committee discharged.

The Rev. Nathan S. S. Beman, D.D., the Rev. Henry B. Smith, D.D., the Rev. William Hogarth, D.D., the Rev. Henry Fowler, Hon. Joseph Allison, LL.D., Mr. Franklin V. Chamberlain, and Hon. John A. Foot were appointed a Committee on the State of the Country.

Adjourned until Monday at 8 oclock A.M.
Concluded with prayer.

MONDAY, May 21st, 8 o'clock A.M.

The Assembly met, and was opened with prayer.
The minutes of the last session were read and approved.

The Rev. Robert D. Harper, D.D., the Delegate of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of NorthAmerica, addressed the Assembly, and was responded to by the Moderator.

The Standing Committee on Foreign Missions presented their report, which was adopted, and is as follows:

The Committee, to whom was referred the Report of the Permanent Committee on Foreign Missions, respectfully represent to the General Assembly, that that Report invites attention especially to the following points, to wit:

To our altogether satisfactory relations with the A. B. C. F. M.; the alarming decrease in the number of our Missionaries in

the service of the Board; the continued neglect on the part of many of our churches and church members to make annual contributions to the cause of Missions; the importance of even a larger coöperation on the part of our Western churches; the need of a more efficient use of our ecclesiastical apparatus, and the fitness of this present period of our national history for a broader, mightier, and more successful assault upon that empire of darkness for whose conquest and illumination the Church aspires and exists.

That the utmost harmony should exist between our Permanent Committee and the American Board is only what the Assembly has had every just reason to expect; inasmuch as it is well understood that we can ask nothing of that body which they are not glad to concede, nor they desire any thing of us which we are not willing beforehand to grant. One in aim and akin in temper, their success is ours, and ours theirs; for we and they are equally the Lord's. Nor are the kingdom, power, and glory ours or theirs, but his.

That the number of our missionaries should have been reduced one sixth in three years, so that, whereas in 1863 we had fiftysix in the field, we have now only forty-seven, is a fact which the world will contemplate with surprise, the Assembly with sorrow, and to which we can make no other honorable answer than in the voice of our sons and daughters, saying in scores, "Here are we, send us."

It is matter of much congratulation that, under the many burdens and exactions of the times, our congregations gave to the cause of missions last year not less, but more, than in any previous year. Nevertheless the Assembly ought not to pass lightly over the humiliating revelations of the Committee's Report, touching the continued neglect of a portion of our churches and church members to contribute their just quota to the Cause of Christian Missions. Is our Church worthy its ancestry or its name? Can it lawfully call the Holy Spirit its tenant, the Redeemer its head, the age its sphere, the land its heritage, the future its hope, while of its fifteen hundred congregations seven hundred do nothing at all to send the Gospel to the heathen? No doubt there is need of greater fidelity on the part of those who superintend the annual benefactions of the Church, on the part, that is, of pastors, and elders, and committees, whether of Synods, Sessions, or Presbyteries; but, when indifference becomes a habit, and in its inveteracy will yield neither to admonition nor entreaty, nor the calls of Providence, nor the spirit of the age, nor the Spirit of God, it devolves upon the General Assembly, in its care of the Church, to importune the Father of lights, in his infinite condescension, to breathe into the whole body that spirit of grace, which is the spirit of Jesus, as it is also the spirit of missions. Your Committee recommend that some morning be set apart by the Assembly to prayer, especially for this object, that our ascended Redeemer may hear our united cry, and inspire, in

all our congregations, with the Sessions, Supplies, and Pastors, that sentiment of expansive zeal which we need to make us to the full extent of our ability a Missionary Church.

The churches in our Western Synods have a vast home field, which they cannot dutifully or safely neglect. And all our churches, whether in the newer or the older States, have in charge the magnificent enterprise of establishing upon this great continent the seat of power, the home of liberty, the goal of the ages past, the starting-point of the ages to come-that glorious empire of Christ, for which the continent was created, for which the Republic stands. We must not try to abate, but rather to increase, the instinctive ardor which fires the hearts of our people in the East and the West in behalf of Home Missions. This magnificent middle belt, the highway of the King, which divides our continent, stretching from the Eastern to the Western sea, is our Land of Promise. And at whatever cost of money, toil, and time, we must take it, and transmit it with its institutions, sanctified and made permanent, to the coming generations, as the legacy of the Presbyterian Church of America, to the latter days of time. But, to do this home-work well, we must do our work in other lands well also; for we are of least use to ourselves when we are most selfish, and shall do most and most successfully for Christ's cause at home, when we do most and most willingly for his kingdom abroad. May God, by whose favor alone we can be made strong in this or other lands, keep our churches from the fatal mistake of doing little for missions among the heathen, under the impression that thereby they can do more for Christianity at their own doors.

The Committee learn with great satisfaction that two of our Presbyters are employed in missionary labor, and two others are under appointment, in the service of the American and Foreign Christian Union. The Rev. Ramon B. S. Montsalvatge, of the Presbytery of Brooklyn, and the Rev. Andrew J. McKim, of the Presbytery of Athens, are successfully at work, in not the least inviting of the many fields now opening to that efficient and worthy society, that is to say, in Brazil, South-America. The Assembly will follow, with its most earnest supplications, every messenger of our Church who shall go forth, at the call of the Union, to bear the Gospel, whether to Mexico, to the Southern continent, or to the lands that invite from across the sea.

The Committee recommend to the Assembly the adoption of the following order, to wit:

That it be earnestly enjoined upon all the Synods, Presbyteries, Sessions and Congregations connected with this Assembly, that by the appointment of synodical and presbyterial committees ; the faithful presentation of the Cause to the people for their annual contributions; the diffusion of intelligence through the Presbyterian Monthly, Missionary Herald, Christian World, and the religious newspapers; regular observance of the monthly concert; reports to the Permanent Committee, and every other

appropriate method of instruction and appeal, they endeavor from this time to make our entire Church what it ought to be, and can be the joy of the Redeemer, the glory of the age, the light of the world.

The Committee recommend, that Hon. William E. Dodge, Hon. Edward A. Lambert, and Messrs. Thomas Bond and Walter S. Griffith, be reëlected, and, in place of Mr. Joseph N. Tuttle, Mr. Nathan Lane be elected, members of the Permanent Committee, for the next three years.

The Joint Committee of Conference of the two Assemblies recommended that a joint religious service be held this evening in the Second Presbyterian Church of this city, and a joint sacramental service be held in the First Presbyterian Church on Wednesday evening.

The recommendation was adopted.

On the report of the Committee on the Polity of the Church, the Presbytery of Lake Superior was transferred from the Synod of Michigan to the Synod of Wisconsin.

On the report of the same Committee, the Synod of Geneva was authorized to meet on the third, instead of the last, Tuesday of September next.

On the report of the same Committee, upon evidence of the orderly organization of the Presbytery of Osage, it was ordered, That the Presbytery of Osage be hereby recognized and attached to the Synod of Missouri.

Resolved, That the Assembly recommend its churches to observe the first week in January (beginning with the first Sabbath) as a week of prayer for the conversion of the world.

Adjourned until 3 o'clock P.M.

Concluded with prayer.

MONDAY, May 21st, 3 o'clock P.M.

The Assembly met, and was opened with prayer. The minutes of the last session were read and approved. The records of the Synods of Michigan, Albany, Utica, Onondaga, Susquehanna, Genesee, New-York and New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, West-Pennsylvania, Western Reserve, Ohio, Indiana, Wabash, Illinois, Peoria, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Tennessee, were, on the recommendation of the respective examining committees, approved as far as written.

The Committee appointed to audit the Treasurer's account reported that they had examined the account with the vouchers, and found it to be correct; and they recommended that it be approved, and printed in the Appendix to the Minutes. The report was adopted.

The Standing Committee on Ministerial Relief presented their report, which was adopted, and is as follows:

The Standing Committee to whom was referred the Second Annual Report of the Executive Committee of the Ministerial Relief Fund, respectfully report:

That they have had the same under careful consideration, and find in it much cause for gratitude to Almighty God for the success which has already crowned our efforts in this matter, and much also for serious thought in view of that which remains to be done.

The Report of the Executive Committee shows, that the General Assembly did not move one moment too soon to provide for the wants of her disabled ministers and their families. We now wonder that it was a subject neglected so long. It shows also how ready the churches are to respond to this just appeal when once it is brought before them. It is no small thing that, with so little effort, the contributions to this Cause should have doubled in the past year.

And yet it is manifest that we have but just made a reasonable beginning in the work thus committed to our hands. There must be many clergymen and families of deceased ministers in want whose cases are not yet reached. Many cannot yet know that such relief is provided for their need, or how to obtain it; and many of the churches manifestly do not seem to know that such a fund has been projected and needs their generous contributions, for only one hundred and thirty, out of the one thousand four hundred and seventy-nine churches connected with this Assembly, have remembered this Cause in the past year.

Your Committee are confident, that if all our churches could have heard the reading of the Report of the Executive Committee as it was presented to this body, or could look in upon some of the families of dear and honored ministers of the Gospel whose wants were presented, there would hardly be a church in all our connection which would fail to remember this Cause by a generous contribution. Your Committee are sure, that this subject is not yet before our churches as it should be, and has not that consideration which its great importance demands.

To express the sense of the Assembly on this subject, your Committee propose the following resolutions:

Resolved, 1. That the ministers of our churches be requested at an early day to call the attention of their people to the pecu liar wants for which this Fund aims to provide.

Resolved, 2. That it be considered the duty of every church to take an annual collection for this Cause.

Resolved, 3. That the attention of the Presbyteries be again called to this subject, and that they be earnestly requested each year to appoint one of their own number specially to look after this matter, and to see, if possible, that collections be taken in all the churches within their bounds.