He seemed to have a personal realization in this trying hour of the Psalmist's experience, who in the midst of trials could sweetly sing, in the exercise of a living faith:

He then preached from Mal. iii. 10: "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." In the afternoon he discoursed from Hosea vi. 4-7. The exercises were solemn and deeply impressive, and this day's labor proved to be the closing scene in his public life. More than a quarter of a century before he had begun his labors among this people in a sermon on the solemn admonition of our Lord (Luke xvii. 32), "Remember Lot's wife;" and he concludes his work by calling their attention to the pleadings of God with a people who had failed to improve the means of grace with which they had been favored.

During the week his health gave way, and ere the return of the Sabbath he was unfitted for its accustomed employments. His physicians pronounced it at once a case of typhoid fever, and in spite of their efforts he gradually sank. After many days of illness it became apparent that he had now wellnigh reached the termination of his earthly pilgrimage. By order of attendant physicians, everything that would have a tendency to produce mental excitement was strictly forbidden. As a result of this, comparatively little is known as to his spiritual exercises in his last moments. Some time before he was called away, his wife, on entering the room in the morning, inquired of his welfare. He quietly remarked that he felt pretty well, and added, "I think I would be more comfortable if I were at home. Fearing that he was laboring under aberration of mind, she began to assure him that he was now at home and among his own family; he again repeated his remark, and she then desisted. The next day, a friend calling to see him, he observed, with much apparent composure, "I think this present sickness is intimately connected with home." It then became evident that his remarks did not result from disordered mental action, but were an expression of his calm persuasion that, as a wanderer among strangers, he was soon to be admitted into the society of his divine Master and to find a home where the "inhabitant shall not say, I am sick."

On the morning of November 8, 1865, his spirit was released from its earthly tabernacle, and he quietly expired. The following day his remains were committed to the grave. The affectionate pastor, the loving husband and the tender father was gathered to his grave in peace. The congregation who, twenty-eight years ago, had assembled on the 9th day of November to witness the solemn service of his ordination to the work of the ministry, by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery, assembled mournfully on the 9th of November to perform the last sad offices to the remains of their beloved pastor. His trials are over, his work is finished.

"The pains of death are past,

Labor and sorrow cease,

And, life's long warfare closed at last,
His soul is found in peace.

Soldier of Christ! well done;

Praise be thy new employ;
And, while eternal ages run,

Rest in thy Saviour's joy."

66

Removed from the scenes of his earthly labors at that very moment when those labors seemed most needed by the Church, we trust he has entered upon his reward above. "Those who knew him most loved him best; and all who knew him at all felt that the secret of the Lord was with him.' "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Yea, saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.

ASSOCIATE REFORMED SYNOD OF NEW YORK.

THIS body is composed of two Presbyteries, being made up of those who declined the union of the Associate and Associate Reformed Church which in 1858 formed the United Presbyterian Church of North America. The ministers are as follows:

THE SYNOD

OF THE

REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

THE THIRTY-SEVENTH SESSION OF THE SYNOD OF THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF NORTH AMERICA met, according to adjournment, in the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Rochester, N. Y., May 23, 1866, and was constituted with prayer. The following were

Members of the Thirty-Seventh Session of the Synod.

DELEGATES FROM CORRESPONDING BODIES.

REV. JOHN GASTON, Reformed Protestant Dutch Church.

REV. ANDREW G. WYLIE, General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

TOTAL, 94.

R. J. DODDS, of Pittsburg Presbytery, Foreign Missionary to Syria, was elected Moderator: Rev. R. Z. Willson, Synod Clerk, and Rev. H. H. George, Assistant Clerk.

PRESBYTERIAL REPORTS.-The committee report that they have carefully examined the papers referred to them. They show a remarkable evidence that the people are growing in liberality. The salaries of the ministers (though in many instances they are still not half what they ought to be) have been increased, while the different schemes of the Church have been generally well supplied with means for carrying on their operations.

It affords us pleasure, moreover, to be able to report that there appears to be a growing attachment to the peculiar principles of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and a determination in the strength of divine grace to labor with zeal and perseverance in advancing the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

But we have to sing of judgment as well as mercy. We have to mourn over the fact that there is still a great lack of laborers in God's husbandry; and that, too, when we hear from every section of our widely-extended territorial limits the Macedonian cry. Means should be used by the Church, especially by ministers, elders and parents, to induce young men of promise to pursue study with a view to the holy ministry. Earnest and fervent prayer should be presented to the Lord of the harvest for an increase of laborers.

The following queries were referred to us:

1. What relation do unsettled ministers sustain to Presbyteries in whose bounds they receive appointments?

And especially, 2. Do they become, by virtue of Synod's distribution, constituent members of the various Presbyteries to which they are assigned? In cases contemplated in the queries, we briefly reply:

That ministers are constituent members of Presbytery only when received by certificate.

CHURCH EXTENSION COMMITTEE-Report that the Board of Church Extension was organized June 7, 1865. Rev. J. R. W. Sloane was appointed President; Rev. J. C. K. Milligan, Secretary, and Walter T. Miller, Treasurer. The Board announced this fact in the Reformed Presbyterian and Covenanter, and a plan of operations agreed upon. A circular prepared and circulated in large numbers throughout the Church; also an appeal for cooperation. These efforts not meeting with success, a second appeal was issued in February, 1866.

The receipts from two persons and eighteen congregations were $795.30. Expenditures, $74.50. Balance on hand, $721.20. Of this amount there has been appropriated to Oil City congregation, Pa., $500. Balance on hand and unappropriated, $200.20.

In conclusion, the Board are deeply convinced that the work with which they have been entrusted is one of vital importance to the interests of the Church, and that it is on all accounts desirable that every congregation should contribute liberally to its funds.

There will undoubtedly be important enterprises started, and some have been retarded by the financial results of the war; and we should be ready to meet their requirements: this may easily be done, if the members of Synod will charge themselves with the responsibility of calling the attention of their respective congregations to the matter.

The Board was organized in order to give assistance more promptly and systematically to weak congregations, and to obviate the necessity for the

consumption of time and money in making personal appeals to congregations and individuals; and the Board are unanimously of the opinion that, unless this practice is discontinued entirely, and unless Synod can devise some means by which the contributions of the Church for these purposes shall pass through this Board, and the great majority of the congregations be induced to contribute liberally, the continuance of this Board will be an injury, and not a benefit to the Church, and would recommend that it be discontinued.

DOMESTIC MISSIONS.-The Board have under their care Missionary operations in Kansas, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and among the freedmen in Mississippi and in Washington City, D. C.

The Missions among the freedmen are very encouraging and highly prosperous. The following have charge at Natchez, Miss.: Rev. J. M. Johnston, Superintendent; Misses E. Morrison, M. Sterrett, S. J. Speers, R. B. Speers, J. Halliday and M. J. Jamison. Mr. D. C. Faris was Superintendent till the arrival of Mr. Johnston, in September, 1865.

The salaries are as follows, viz., of superintendent, $1000 and boarding paid; of the teachers, $240 and boarding paid until January last, when they were advanced to $480-they to pay their own boarding. Until December, 1865, Government buildings were occupied, both as schools and for boarding the teachers; then, however, the buildings were restored to the original owners, and it was necessary to meet this change in affairs promptly. Our superintendent, Mr. Johnston, acted with wisdom and energy, secured an eligible lot at the rental of $100 per year from the colored Baptist congregation of Natchez, and had the schools in operation in an incredibly short time. All this was done without any assistance from the Board, which had no means to aid in the work, and could only give its sanction to Mr. Johnston's course. He is certainly entitled to much praise for his energy and promptness in a really trying crisis of the mission. The outlay for the building was $800, including one year's rent of lot, which has been all paid by moneys received for tuition from the various schools, except $100 received from the North. The following is the condition of the schools at this point at the present time: In the school kept in the building referred to there are enrolled two hundred names; the average attendance is 150. It is superintended by Rev. Johnston, assisted by Miss Halliday and two teachers from other societies. The school in Wall Street Baptist Church is taught by Miss Lizzie Morrison, and numbers seventy-five. This room will have to be vacated at the close of the term, and if the school is to be continued, another building will have to be erected. The school in Vidalia, across the river, is taught by the Misses S. and R. B. Speers, and numbers one hundred and fifty. Å elass of about forty-five has been kept up among the colored soldiers here located, taught by Miss Jamison, and at night by superintendent and Miss Halliday. This, however, will soon be discontinued, as the regiment will be mustered out. The attendance at Sabbath-school has been good, and much interest manifested in the exercises. The schools will all have to be discontinued the summer vacation, as none of the teachers are willing to remain. The moral tone of the colored people is not very high; it is, however, capable of improvement. They are mostly Baptists and Methodists-a very few Presbyterians. Efforts are now making to form a union between the colored and white churches, and it is to be feared the colored people will be led into it: the whites will impose on them. The former are buying the right to worship part of the time in the white Methodist Episcopal church, and one of the conditions is that all white Northern preachers are to be excluded. They