Resolved, 4. That the Executive Committee be instructed to publish their Annual Report, or an abstract thereof, in the religious papers, for the information of the churches. The Standing Committee on Church Erection presented their report, which was accepted, and put on the docket. The Brick Presbyterian Church of the city of ROCHESTER, NewYork, was chosen as the place for the meeting of the next General Assembly. Ordered, That the further morning sessions of the Assembly commence at 9 o'clock with the devotional exercises. Adjourned until to-morrow at 9 o'clock A.M. Concluded with prayer. TUESDAY, May 22d, 9 o'clock A.M. The Assembly met, and was opened with prayer. The first hour was occupied with devotional exercises. The minutes of the last session were read and approved. Reports were received from the Rev. Henry A. Nelson, D.D., Delegate to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church that met in 1865 at Pittsburgh, Pa.; from the Rev. Charles S. Robinson, Delegate to the General Convention of the Congregational Churches of Maine; from the Rev. Ezra E. Adams, D.D., Delegate to the General Association of New-Hampshire; from the Rev. Daniel March, D.D., delegate to the General Association of Massachusetts; from the Rev. Howard Crosby, D.D., Delegate to the General Association of Connecticut; from the Rev. Baruch B. Beckwith, Delegate to the Presbyterian and Congregational Convention of Wisconsin; and from the Rev. John G. Atterbury, D.D., Delegate to the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The reports were accepted, and ordered to be printed in the Appendix to the Minutes. The Rev. Benjamin F. Ray, the Delegate from the General Convention of Vermont, addressed the Assembly, and was responded to by the Moderator. Communications were received from the Rev. Rowland B. Howard, Delegate from the General Convention of the Congregational Churches of Maine, and from the Rev. Theodore Monod, on behalf of the Union of Evangelical Churches of France. A communication from the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland was read, accepted, and ordered to be printed in the Appendix to the Minutes. To this communication, the Rev. Henry B. Smith, D.D., the Rev. Edwin F. Hatfield, D.D., and the Hon. Joseph Allison, LL. D., were appointed a committee to prepare and report a suitable response. In accordance with previous invitation, the Rev. James McCosh, LL.D., addressed the Assembly in reference to the condition of the Non-Conformist Presbyterian churches of Great Britain. The report of the Standing Committee on Church Erection was taken from the docket. Pending its consideration, the Assembly adjourned until 3 o'clock P.M. Concluded with prayer. TUESDAY, May 22d, 3 o'clock P.M. The Assembly met, and was opened with prayer. The minutes of the last session were read and approved. The Rev. James B. Shaw, D.D., Rev. Samuel M. Campbell, D.D., Rev. Charles P. Bush, and Messrs. Louis Chapin, William Alling, George W. Parsons, and Edwin T. Huntington, were appointed a Committee of Arrangements for the meeting of the next General Assembly. The consideration of the report of the Standing Committee on Church Erection was resumed. Pending its consideration, the Assembly adjourned until to-morrow, at 9 o'clock. WEDNESDAY, May 23d, 9 o'clock A.M. The Assembly met, and was opened with prayer. The first hour was occupied with devotional exercises. The consideration of the report of the Standing Committee on Church Erection was resumed. After discussion, the principal portion of the report, exclusive of the amended plan, was adopted by the following vote: ayes, 180; noes, 9; absent, or not voting, 26. Adjourned until 3 o'clock P.M. Concluded with prayer. WEDNESDAY, May 23d, 3 o'clock P.M. The Assembly met, and was opened with prayer. The minutes of the last session were read and approved. The Special Committee on Manses and Ministers' Libraries presented their report, which was adopted, and is as follows: The Special Committee on Manses and Ministers' Libraries respectfully report: That in the autumn of last year a Circular of Inquiry was prepared and sent to seven hundred pastors and stated supplies, and also published in our religious journals. To these circulars, one hundred replies have been received. From these replies it appears that one fifth of the churches have manses, and one tenth have libraries for the use of their ministers. These replies convey a strong impression of the great importance of the subject-matter of the circular, and express the hope that the General Assembly will use every means in its power, to bring the subject before and urge it upon the attention and practical regard of the churches. They also suggest the idea of creating a general fund for the erection of manses. Without expressing any opinion upon the expediency of the latter suggestion, your Committee deem it both advisable and practicable, to bring the matter definitely before the Churches through the action of the Presbyteries. They, therefore, recommend the adoption of the following resolutions: Resolved, 1. That this General Assembly direct its Presbyteries to send to the churches under their care a pastoral letter of inquiry and suggestion, with reference to the provision of a manse and a library for the use of the minister in charge of each congregation. Resolved, 2. That the Presbyteries be requested to embody, in a report to the next General Assembly, any information that may be obtained in the answers to the proposed inquiry, with their judgment concerning the creation of a manse fund, and also any practical suggestions appertaining to the subject-matter of Manses and Ministers' Libraries. The Committee were continued. The Standing Committee on Sabbath-Schools presented their report, which was accepted and placed on the docket. The Assembly then proceeded to the further consideration of the remaining portion of the report of the Standing Committee on Church Erection. The amendments and additions to the existing Plan of Church Erection were, with the articles amended or substituted, severally adopted, and then the entire Plan, including the Preamble, Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and the Supplementary Article, as reported by the Committee and amended by the Assembly, were adopted, as a complete substitute for the existing Plan of Church Erection, by the following vote: ayes, 172; noes, 20; absent, or not voting, 25. The Report and Plan thus adopted are as follows: REPORT OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON CHURCH ERECTION. By the Twelfth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Assembly's Church Erection Fund, it is painfully apparent that this Fund is but imperfectly accomplishing its original design. The amount of the Fund in 1856 was $100,000. Now, after ten years' use, it has increased to over $127,000, $80,000 of which, at least, remain in the hands of the Board, subject to the call of the churches. Year by year the applications for aid become fewer. But $2775 were taken from the Treasury last year, in the form of loans, and but $400 in the form of donations. Meanwhile the receipts from the churches on account of loans, donations, and interest, have been over $7000, which, added to the interest accruing on the Fund itself-nearly $5000-constitute an actual increase of the unemployed Fund, after deducting expenses, etc., of about $7000. The reason of this is not that the aid which might be afforded by this Fund is undesired. The more wealthy churches in all our large centres have been besieged with applications for assistance in church building, as pertinaciously as if there were no Fund for that purpose in existence. Large amounts have been given in answer to such appeals, by the very churches which originally contributed to the now neglected Treasury, from which it was expected all feeble churches would draw. So pressing, in fact, have been the applications, that it is manifest that the whole Fund, if accessible on terms favorable to the churches, would soon be completely absorbed. The reason of such neglect must be looked for in the practical working of the Plan on which the Fund has been administered. That Plan was most carefully devised. It embodied the wisdom of some of the most eminent men in our Church. For the period when it was adopted it was most excellent. But since its adoption a great change has taken place in our position and circumstances. The last ten years have been revolutionary. The nation has trembled under the shock of war. We have passed through financial embarrassments, and borne the brunt of a struggle which has cost our churches some of their choicest blood. Debts incurred for the erection of houses of worship have become burdensome. The churches have, in many instances, been depressed by the very means through which they sought to gain strength. Obligations to the General Assembly have often been borne, under the disadvantage of contrasts, drawn between the policy upon which our Plan of Church Erection and that of some of our sister denominations is based. The result has been that the Fund has fallen into disfavor. Churches needing assistance have been advised, in some cases by Synodical or Presbyterial action, not to encumber themselves with loans such as others had found it so unpleasant to bear, and so difficult to pay. At the same time the cost of building has so enormously increased, that $200 form but a comparatively insignificant item in the expense of constructing an ordinary house of worship; worth applying for, indeed-but not desired under the conditions upon which it was to be obtained. There is, therefore, an imperative call for a modification of the Plan of administering our Church Erection Fund. And this call becomes the more imperative, when we consider that the rapid extension of the lines of traffic has made cities of villages, and villages of hamlets. Where, ten years since, it was supposed a few hundred dollars would suffice for the wants of the people, as many thousand dollars are now found to be insufficient. An almost unanticipated necessity has arisen to establish churches at key-points, and to provide them with commodious and attractive sanctuaries. The spirit of the times has changed. A new impulse, felt by all denominations, has been given to Domestic Missions. Looking toward the glowing future of our country, we are incited to new exertions for its evangelization: Among the ruling ideas of the day this is prominent: that to provide a church edifice is almost as important as to provide a missionary, and that the work of church erection must be carried forward upon the same enlarged and liberal scale which is adopted for the support of ministers of the Gospel. Were the idea a false one, to resist it would be like stemming the currents of the Mississippi in a flood; but your Committee believe it to involve a true principle, though it, like all other ruling ideas, is liable to unnatural freshet. This Assembly has assumed the work of Domestic Missions, as it had not when its Church Erection Fund was established. Then that work was committed to the American Home Missionary Society. Now that we have entered this field side by side with our sister denominations, we must carry on our work with an energy and a liberality like theirs. In view of these considerations, your Committee believe that, could the whole Fund be immediately scattered among our feeble churches in the form of donations, without interest or return of any kind while the churches aided should remain in our connection, the effect would be most happy. This we believe to be desired by many on the floor of this Assembly. Were such a course possible, we should favor it. But a careful examination of the whole case has brought your Committee to the stubborn conclusion, so often reached by others who have surveyed the same ground, that such a disposition of the Fund was rendered impossible by the very terms on which it was collected. It was to be a Permanent Fund. To destroy its permanency would be a breach of trust, which might and which ought to be legally resisted. The legal opinions submitted to the Assembly by the Board of Trustees, place this position beyond reasonable dispute. The question, therefore, is, how the mode of administering the |