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PROFESSOR CORYDON L. FORD, M. D., LL. D., Late of the University of Michigan.
(See Page 217.)
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MINUTES OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES
UNITED STATES,
AT THE NINTH SESSION HELD IN SYEACUSE, N. Y.
OCTOBER 9-14, 1895.
WITH THE REPORTS AND PAPERS.
BOSTON : CONGREGATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL AND PUBLI8IIING SOCIETY.
1896.
NEXT MEETING — OFFICERS — COMMITTEES.
The tenth triennial session of the National Council will be held with the First church. Portland, Or., in the autumn of 1898.
Officers for the Session of 1895-8.
Moderator, Hon. Nelson Dinglet, of Maine.
Assistant Moderators, Rev. Charles O. Brown, of California, and Rev. George W. Henderson, of Louisiana.
Secretary, Rev. Henry A. Hazen, of Massachusetts.
Registrar, Rev. William H. Moore, of Connecticut,
Assistant Registrars, Revs. John P. Sanderson, of Michigan, ~ and William H. Hubbard, of South Dakota.
Officers for 1895-8.
The moderators hold office until their successors are chosen ; and the presiding moderator appoints a committee of nominations at the opening of the next session. The following officers and committees were appointed for the next three j-ears : —
Secretary, Rev. Henry A. Hazen, of Massachusetts.
Registrar, Rev. William H. Moore, of Connecticut.
Treasurer, Rev. Samuel B. Forbes, of Connecticut.
Auditor, David N. Camp, of Connecticut.
Provisional Committee for 1895-8, who are also Trustees under the charter. — Arthur H. Wellman, of Massachusetts ; Rev. Edward N. Packard, of New York ; Rev. William M. Brooks, of Iowa ; Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, of Massachusetts ; William H. Wanamaker, of Pennsylvania; Rev. William Hayes Ward, of New York ; H. Clark Ford, of Ohio, and ex-officiis. Nelson Ding- ley, of Maine ; Rev. Henry A. Hazen, of Massachusetts ; Rev. William H. Moore and Rev. Samuel B. Forbes, of Connecticut.
Publishing Committee. — Revs. Albert E. Dunning and Alonzo H. Quint, of Massachusetts ; with the secretary, registrar, and treasurer, ex-officio.
[^For standing and ad interim committees, see page 370.]
Al&ed Mudge & Son, FrinterB, Boaton.
CONTENTS.
|
Page |
|
|
Minutes of Proceedings |
1 |
|
Sermon, by Kev. Frank W. Gunsaulus |
44 |
|
Reports: |
|
|
Of Secretary |
66 |
|
Of Treasurer |
82 |
|
Of Directors of the Trustees |
266 |
|
Of Committees: |
|
|
Provisional |
62 |
|
Publishing |
65 |
|
On John Robinson Memorial Church . . . . |
91 |
|
On Temperance |
125 |
|
On Capital and Labor |
146 |
|
On Sabbath Observance |
142 |
|
On Christian Unity |
304 |
|
On Ministerial Relief . ... |
214 |
|
On Relation of Benevolent Societies to the Churches |
257 |
|
On City Evangelization |
108 |
|
On Marriage and Divorce |
127 |
|
On Columbian Exposition |
88 |
|
On Church Manual |
309 |
|
On Expenses of Delegates |
263 |
|
On Free Baptists, etc., union with .... |
282 |
|
On Finance |
84 |
|
On Work and Needs of our Benevolent Societies |
32, 261 |
|
On Armenian Massacres |
24,33 |
|
On Lynching |
269 |
|
On Two Memorials |
24 |
|
On Societies, Secret and Social .... |
34 |
|
On the Alabama Case |
94 |
|
On Relation of Benevolent Societies to the Churches |
. 32,257 |
|
On Manual |
96 |
|
Papers and Addresses: |
|
|
Of Rev. A. H. Quint, retiring moderator |
72 |
|
Of Rev. James Brand, Present Day Preaching |
97 |
|
Of Rev. Charles S. Mills, The Institutional Church |
. ■ 118 |
|
Of Samuel B. Capen, The Missianary Obligations of ou |
r |
|
Churches |
200 |
IV
CONTENTS.
Of Eev. Wm. H. Moore, The National Council
Of Eev. J. H. Twichell, The National Council and Civil
Liberty ..........
Of Rev. Edward Hawes, The Right Conception of the
Church ..........
Of Rev. Edward F. Williams, Our Seminaries
Page
243
251
270 235
Statements of Benevolent Societies:
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 162
Congregational Education Society 165
Congi-egational Church Building Society .... 169
Congregational Home Missionary Society . . . 174
American Missionary Association 182
Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society . 192
Statements or Theological Seminaries Andover Bangor Hartford Oberliu Yale . .
223 223 226
227 230
Constitution, By-Laws, and Rules of the National
Council
Charter and By-Laws of Trustees National Council and Officers Officers and Committees . Alphabetical List of Members Index
357 365 369 370 372 377
NOTE.
The reports of Committees in this volume are printed as made, and not as affected by any action of the Council.
The statistics of the Ministers and Churches will be found in the Year-Books. The Minutes and the Year-Books are issued by direction of the National Coun- cil, and, by its instructions, a copy of each is to be sent to each church, and another to each minister, on the rolls of the denomination.
MINUTES.
The National Council of the Congregational Churches OF the United States convened, for its ninth session, in Pl^-mouth church, Syracuse, N. Y., at 10 a. m., Wednesday, Oct. 9, 1895, and was called to order by Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, of Massachu- setts, moderator of 1892.
Devotion.
The hymn, " I love thy kingdom, Lord," was sung ; Rev. Joel S. Ives, of Connecticut, read Philippians ii. ; Rev. Leonard F. Parker, of Iowa, offered prayer, and the hymn, " My faith looks up to thee," was sung ; and the Council joined in the Lord's Prayer, led It}" Rev. Edward N. Packard, pastor of Plj^mouth church.
Tellers. The moderator appointed the following tellers : —
Rev. Edward H. Stickney, of North Dakota; S. H. Warren, of Vermont ; Rev. Charles A. Jones, of Pennsjdvania ; Rev. Charles H. Pope, of Maine ; Rev. Robert M. Woods, of Massachusetts, and Rev. Caleb C. Collins, of North Carolina.
The roll.
From credentials gathered, the secretary read the roll in part, which when completed was as follows : —
Alabama.
General Conference. — Rev. Stephen E. Bassett. Oxford Conference. — Rev. Almon T. Clarke.
California.
General Association. — Rev. Charles O. Brown, Rev. Wm. D. Williams.
Bay Conference. — Rev. John K. McLean.
2 MINUTES. [1895.
Santa Clara Association. — Rev, William H. McDougal. Los Angeles Association. — Rev. Edwin C. Norton, Rev. Pies. Cyrus H. Baldwin.
Colorado.
Arkansas Valley Association. — Rev. James B. Gregg. Denver Association. — Rev. Charles Caverno.
Connecticut.
General Conference. — Rev. Theodore T. Munger, Rev. Joel S. Ives, Rev. Asher Anderson, Nelson B, Mead.
Central Conference. — Rev. James W. Cooper.
Fairfield East Consociation. — Rev. Charles R. Palmer, Rev. Albert F. Pierce.
Fairfield Southwest Conference. — Rev. Russell T. Hall.
Fairfield West Consociation. — Rev. William H. Holmau.
Hartford Conference. — Rev. Charles M. Lamson, Rev. Roscoe Nelson.
Hartford East Conference. — J. W. Johnson.
Litchfield Northeast Conference. — Deacon George M. Carrington.
Litchfield Northtoest Conference. — Rev. John Pierpont.
Litchfield South Consociation. — Rev. Frank A. Johnson.
Middlesex Conference. — Rev. Azel W. Hazen, Rev. Henry G. Marshall, Rev. Birdsey G. Northrop.
Naugatuck Valley Conference. — Rev. Sherrod Soule.
Nevj Haven East Consociation. — Rev. J. Lee Mitchell, Deacon A. L. Fabrique.
New Haven West Conference. — Rev. William J. Mutch, Rev. Watson L. Phillips.
New London Conference. — Rev. James W. Bixler. Tolland Conference. — Deacon Addison Kingsbury. Windham Conference. — Henr}' M. Cleveland, Rev. Charles A. Dinsmore, Rev. Frank D. Sargent.
Florida.
General Association. — Rev. Mason Noble, Frederick W. Lyman.
East Coast. — Franklin E. Nettleton.
1895.] MINUTES. 3
Georgia.
Congregational Convention. — Rev. Simeon C. McDaniel. Congregational Association. — Rev. Leigh B. Maxwell.
Idaho. Congregational Association. — Rev. Edward A. Paddock.
Illinois.
General Association. — Rev. Wm. A. Waterman, Rev. Joseph H. Selden, Rev. Edward F. Williams, E. D. Redington, A. W. Bojden.
Aurora Association. — Rev. Julian M. Sturtevant.
Bureau Association. — Rev. James Tompkins.
Central Association. — Rev. Isaac J. Swanson.
Central West Association. — Rev. Casper W. Hiatt, Rev. Hobart K. Painter, Horace Clark.
Chicago Association. — Rev. A. L. Smalley, Rev. Henry T. Sell, Rev. James A. Adams, Rev. Prof. Graham Taylor, Rev. Willard Scott, Eliphalet W. Blatchford, John T. Dale, Aaron B. Mead.
Elgin Association. — Rev. George N. Smith, Rev. William F. Kettle.
Fox River Association. — Dea. W. B. Titus.
German Association. — Rev. Moritz E. Eversz.
Rnckford Association. — Lovejoy Johnson.
Rock River Association. — Rev. William W. Leete.
Southern Association. — Rev. William D. Clark.
Springfield Association. — Rev. John H. J. Rice, Lyman F. Joy.
Indiana.
General Association. — Rev. John H. Crum. Central Association. — Rev. E. Danforth Curtis. Northwestern Association. — Rev. William C. Gordon.
Iowa.
General Association. — Rev. Prof. Leonard F. Parker, Rev. John M. Cumings.
Central Association. — Rev. Robert Stapleton.
4 MINUTES. [1895.
Vonncil Bluffs Association. — Rev. Pres. William M. Brooks, Julian Phelps, Nathan P. Dodge.
Davenport Association. — Rev. George R. Dickinson, Samuel F. Smith.
Denmark Association. — Deacon L. Valentine.
Dubuque Association. — Rev. Henry W. Tuttle.
Grinnell Association. — Rev. Alvah L. Frisbie, Rev. Pres. George A. Gates, H. P. Moyer.
Northeastern Association. — Rev. James E. Snowden.
Sioux Association. — Rev. John C. Ablett, Rev. John Gray.
Webster City Association. — Deacon Robert Wright.
Kansas.
General Association. — Rev. Linus Blakesley. Central Association. — A. D. Gray.
Eastern Association. — Rev. James G. Dougherty, Rev. Thomas M. Boss.
Northwestern Association. — Rev. David Baines-Grifflth. Wichita Association. — Rev. David D. De Long.
Louisiana.
Congregational Association. — Rev. George W. Henderson. Calcasieu Association. — Rev. Sidney H. Barteau.
Maine.
General Conference. — Rev. George W. Reynolds, Rev. James G. Merrill, James H. Crosby.
Cumberland Conference. — Rev. Silas N. Adams, J. R. Libby.
Cumberland North Conference. — Nelson Dingley.
Franklin Conference. — Rev. William W. Ranney.
Hancock Conference. — Rev. John P. Cushman.
Kennebec Conference. — Rev. James S. Williamson.
Lincoln and Sagadahoc Conference. — Rev. A. Frederic Dunnels, George B. Kenniston.
Union Conference. — George B. Barrows.
York Conference. — Rev. George Lewis, Rev. T. Arthur Frey.
Maryland. 'With New Jersey.)
1895.] MINUTES. 5
Massachusetts.
General Association. — Rev, Alonzo H. Quint, Rev. George A. Gordon, Rev. William V. W. Davis, Deacon Frederick Fos- diek, Rev. Francis E. Clark, Henry M. Moore, Rev. William W. Jubb, G. Henry Wbitcomb, Deacon Thomas Todd, Rev. Charles E. Jefferson, Deacon Edward F. Morris, Arthur H. Well- man.
Andover Conference. — Rev. William E. Wolcott.
Barnstable Conference. — Rev. William H. Woodwell, Rev. Edward L. Marsh.
Berkshire North Conference. — Rev. James H. Laird.
Berkshire South Conference. — Rev. Walter W. Curtis.
Brookfield Conference. — Lewis N. Gilbert, Rev. Sherman W. Brown.
Essex North Conference. — Re\\ John D. Kingsbury, Rev. Albert W. Hitchcock.
Essex South Conference. — Rev. James F. Brodie, Joseph F. Dane, Rev. S. Linton Bell, Walter K. Bigelow.
Franklin Conference. — Rev. Alpheus C. Hodges, Lorenzo Griswold, Rev. George H. Bailey.
Hampden Conference. — Rev. John H. Lockwood, Rev. Philip S. Moxom, Rev. Edward A. Reed, James H. Newton, G, S. Taylor.
Hampshire Conference. — Rev. Robert M. Woods.
Mendon Conference. — Rev. Rufus K. Harlow.
Middlesex Union Conference. — Rev. Albert B. Peabody, Rev. Charles S. Brooks.
Norfolk Conference. — Rev. W. Herbert Alexander, Rev. Wil- son S. Fritch, Rev. William T. Beale.
Old Colony Conference. — Rev. Harr}' L. Brickett.
Pilgrim Conference. — Rev. Zenas Crowell.
Suffolk North Conference. — Rev. Smith Baker.
Suffolk South Conference. — Rev. Arthur Little, Rev. Nehemiah Boynton, Rev. Albert E, Dunning.
Suffolk West Conference. — Rev. Calvin Cutler.
Taunton Conference. — Deacon Charles J. Holmes, Rev. T. Clayton Welles.
Woburn Conference. — Rev. Elijah Harmon, Frederick J. Smith.
Worcester Central Conference. — Rev. Elijah Horr.
6 MINUTES. [1895.
Michigan.
Congregational Association. — Rev. Archibald Hadden, Rev. William H. Davis, Charles T. Bridgman, Deacon Charles B. Stowell.
Cheboygan Conference. — George E. Frost.
Detroit Association. — Rev. Dwight P. Breed.
Eastern Association. — Rev. E. Clarence Oakle^'.
Grand Rapids Association. — Rev. John T. Husted.
Grand Traverse Association. — Rev. Andrew M. Brodie.
Jackson Association. — Rev. John J. Stealey.
Lansing Association. — Rev. William C. Burns, Rev. William Ewing, Rev. John P. Sanderson.
Southern Michigan Association. — Rev. Albert E. Seibert.
Minnesota. •
General Association. — Rev. President James W. Strong. Anoka Conference. — Rev. George H. Wells, Rev. Samuel W. Dickinson, Rev. Calvin B. Moody, Geo. H. Rust. Mankato Conference. — Rev. Stephen P. Updyke. Northern Pacific Conference. — Rev. Herman P. Fisher. Winona Conference. — Rev. Ezra B. Chase.
Missouri.
Kidder Association. — Rev. Albert L. Giidley.
Sjyringjield Association. — Hon. W. I. Wallace, Rev. Einion C. Evans.
St. Louis Association. — Augustus W. Benedict, Rev. Harry L. Forbes, Rev. Clarence S. Sargent.
Nebraska.
Congregational Association. — A. C. Hart. Blue Valley Association. — Rev. George E. Taylor. Dakota Association. — Rev. Alfred L. Riggs. Elkhorn Valley Association. — Rev. Joseph J. Parker. Lincoln Association. — J. W. Bell. Northivestern Association. — Rev. Harmon Bross. Omaha Association. — Rev. William H. Buss.
1895.] MINUTES. 7
New Hampshire.
General Association. — Rev. Harry P. Dewey, "William P. Fiske.
Cheshire Conference. — Rev. George I. Bard, Rev. William W. Livingston.
Grafton Conference. — Deacon Isaac W. Willard.
Hillsboro' Conference. — Rev. Geo. E. Merriam, Rev. Alfred J. McGown.
Merrimac Conference. — Rev. Paul E. Bourne.
Rockingham Conference. — Deacon Francis R. Drake, Rev. Geo. E. Street.
Strafford Conference. — Rev. George E. Hall, Rev. Joseph M, Adams.
Sullivan Conference. — Rev. Moses T. Runnels
New Jersey.
Congregational Association. — L. H. Latham. Northern New Jersey Conference. — Deacon Samuel Holmes, Rev. Charles A. Savage.
New Mexico. Congregational Association. — Rev. Peter A. Simpkin.
New York.
General Association. — Rev. Edw. N. Packard, Deacon Harlan P. French, Rev. Frank S. Fitch, Rev. Samuel Johnson, John Dunn, Jr., Joseph P. Noyes.
Black River and St. Lawrence Association. — John J. Doty, Rev. Duncan McGregor, Rev. Sylvanus A. Worden, Rev. Wm. D. Eddy.
Central Association. — Rev. Wm. Elliot Griffls, Rev. Wm. P. Pound, Theodore Irwin, Sr.
Essex Association. — Rev. A. W. Wild.
Hudson River Association. — Rev. James B. King, Rev. J. Brainerd Thrall.
Manhattan Conference. — Rev. Samuel H. Virgin, Rev. Robert A. Meredith.
Netv York and Brooklyn Associatioji. — Rev. Doremus Scudder.
S MINUTES. [1895.
Oneida, Chenango, and Delaware Association. — Rev. Moses E. Dunham, Rev. Barnett S. Stafford, Deacon C. B. Moore.
Suffolk Association. — Rev. Alfred E. Colton.
Susquehanna Association. — Rev. Edward Taylor, Rev. Willard B. Thorp, Rev. Cliarles M. Bartholomew.
Welsh Association. — Rev. Edward Davies, Rev. Richard Hughes.
Western New York Association. — Rev. Elliot C. Hall, Rev. John "VV. Bailey, Rev. William A. Hobbs, Rev. John L. Franklin, George H. Cole, John J. McWilliams.
North Carolina. Conference. — Rev. Caleb C. Collins.
North Dakota.
General Association. — Rev. Edwin H. Stickney. Fargo Conference. — Rev. Henr}^ C. Simmons, Rev. George Curtiss.
Wahpet07i Conference. — Deacon 0. J. Wakefield.
Ohio.
Congregational Association. — Rev. Washington Gladden, Rev. Henry M. Ladd, Lucius F. Mellen.
Central North Conference. — Rev. George W. Wells.
Central Ohio Conference. — Rev. Will. S. Bugbey.
Cleveland Conference. — Rev. Pres. William G. Ballantine, Rev. Charles S. Mills, H. Clark Ford.
Grand River Conference. — Rev. George W. Belsey, Rev. Ray- mond G. McClelland, Rev. Roswell O. Post.
Marietta Conference. — Rev. Pres. John W. Simpson.
Medina Conference. — Rev. Arthur F. Skeele, Rev. John R. Nichols.
Plymouth Rock Conference. — Rev. Thomas D. Phillips, Rev. Elwell O. Mead.
Puritan Conference. — Rev. Joel K. Swartz. -
Toledo Conference. — Rev. Daniel M. Fisk.
Oklahoma.
Eastern Association. — Rev. Richard B. Foster, Rev. Jeremiah E. Piatt.
1895.] MINUTES. 9
Oregon. Congregational Association. — Rev. Pres. Thomas McClelland.
Pennsylvania.
Congregational Association. — Rev. .Jonathan S. Upton, Rev. Thomas W. Jones.
Northeastern Welsh Association. — Rev. Thomas C. Edwards. Northwestern Association. — Rev. C. Arthur Jones. Wyoming Valley Association. — Rev. David L. Davis.
Rhode Island.
Congregational Conference. — Rev. James G. Vose, Rowland G. Hazard.
South Dakota.
General Association. — Rev. Wm. H. Thrall. Northern Association. — Rev. Thomas G. Langdale. Plankinton Association. — Rev. William B. Hubbard. Yankton A^isociation. — Pres. Albert T. Free, Rev. Henrv W. Jamieson.
Tennessee. General Association. — Rev. Benjamin A. Imes.
Utah. General Association. — Rev. Dana W. Bartlelt.
Vermont. •
General Convention. — Rev. Charles R. Seymour, Dea. Charles W. Osgood, Rev. Charles H. Merrill.
Addison Conference. — Rev. Herbert R. Titus.
Bennington Conference. — H. G. Root.
Caledonia Conference. — Rev. Henry Fairbanks.
Chittenden Conference. — Rev. Hervey Gulick.
Franklin and Grand Isle Conference. — Rev. Andrew P. Solandt.
Orange Conference. — Rev. Rolla G. Bugbee.
Orleans Conference. — Rev. John K. Fuller, Rev. Henry M. Perkins.
10 MINUTES. [1895.
Rutland Conference. — Rev. George W. Phillips. Union Cofiference . — Rev. Thomas Bickford. Washington Conference. — Rev. Wm. S. Hazen. Windham Conference. — Rev. Henry A. Goodhue, Rev. James H. Babbitt.
Windsor Conference. — Deacon S. H. Warren.
Washington.
Congregational Association. — Rev. Pres. Stephen B. L. Penrose.
Tacoma Association. — Rev. Clarence L. Diven,Rev, Leavitt H. Hallock.
Wisconsin.
Congregational Convention. — Rev. Henry A. Miner, Rev. Judson Titsworth.
Beloit Convention. — Rev. Pres. Edward D. Eaton, Rev. Elihu C Barnard, Rev. Russell L. Cheney.
La Crosse Convention. — Rev. Philo Hitchcock.
Lemonweir Convention. — Rev. Jacob W. Hadden.
Madison Conveyition. — Rev. William W. Rose.
Milwaukee Convention. — Rev. Charles H. Percival, Rev. George H. Ide.
Northeastern Convention. — Rev. Thomas G. Grassie.
Welsh Convention. — Rev. Robert T. Evans.
Winnebago Convention. — Rev. William L. Demorest.
Officers of the Council.
Registrar. — Rev. H. Moore. Secretary. — Rev. Henry A. Hazen. Treasurer. — Rev. Samuel B. Forbes.
HONORARY MEMBERS Representing Committees.
Provisional. — Samuel B. Capen.
On Christian Unity. — Rev. John H. Morle}'.
On union with Free Baptists^ etc. — Rev. William H. Ward, Rev. Samuel W. Dike.
On ministerial relief. — Francis J. Lamb, Rev. Nathan H. Whittlesa\.
1895.] MINUTES. 11
On relations of the benevolent societies to the churches. — Rev. Geo. R. Merrill.
On expenses of delegates. — Rev. DeWitt S. Clark, Rev. "William A. Robinson.
On secret and social societies. — Rev. Pres. Charles A. Blauchard.
On marriage and divorce. — Rev. William H. Scudder.
On church manual. — Rev. Dan F. Bradle}', Rev. William D. B. OraJ^
On prison reform. — Rev. William J. Batt.
Auditor. — David N. Camp.
Benevolent Societies.
Rev. Augustus F. Beard, Rev. George M. Boynton, Rev. Washington Choate, Rev. L. Henry Cobb, Rev. Charles H. Daniels, Rev. John A. Hamilton.
Theological Seminaries.
Rev. Prof. Edward I. Bosworth, Rev. Prof. Lewis 0. Brastow, Rev. Prof. Levi L. Paine.
Preacher. Rev. F. W. Gunsaulus.
Speakers.
Rev. Charles H. Beale, Rev. James Brand, Rev. Edward Hawes, Rev. Samuel H. Lee, Rev. Edward M. Noyes, Rev. Heniy A. Schauffler, Rev. .Joseph H. Twichell.
Statistical Secretaries.
Rev. James Deane, Rev. Samuel L. Gerould.
Assistant Secretary. Rev. PAigene C. Webster. -
From Corresponding Bodies.
Congregational Union of England and Wales. — Rev. George S. Barrett.
Congregational Union of Ontario and Quebec. — Rev. Prof. William H. Warriner, Rev. Edward M. Hill.
Foreign Missionaries.
Rev. Henry Blodget, Rev. Chauncey Goodrich, Rev. Hervej- C. Hazen.
12 MINUTES. [1895.
Covimittee on nominations.
The moderator named the following, who were appointed a committee on nominations : —
Rev. George E. Hall, of New Hampshire ; Thomas Todd, of
Massachusetts; Rev. Clarence S. Sargent, of Missouri; Rev.
Edward F. Williams, of Illinois ; Nathan P. Dodge, of Ipwa ;
Samuel Holmes, of New Jersey, and Rev. Lucian H. Frar}-, of
California.
Welcome.
Rev. Edward N. Packard, pastor of the church, gave an address
of welcome.
Address of the moderator.
The moderator made an address.^
Organization.
Nelson Dingle^s of Maine, was chosen moderator, was con- ducted to the chair by Rev. Charles Caverno, of Colorado, and made a brief address.
Rev. Charles O. Brown, of California, and Rev. George "W". Henderson, of Louisiana, were chosen assistant moderators.
Rev. Eugene C. Webster, of Massachusetts, was chosen as- sistant secretary.
Rev. John P. Sanderson, of Michigan, and Rev. William B. Hubbard, of South Dakota, were chosen assistant registrars.
Committees.
The following committees were appointed : —
On credentials. — Rev. Leavitt H. Hallock, of Washington; Rev. Charles M. Lamson, of Connecticut ; Joseph P. Noyes, of New York; Rev. John H. Rice, Jr., of Illinois ; L. H. Latham, of Maryland ; Rev. William E. Wolcott, of Massachusetts, and Charles T. Bridgman, of Michigan.
On business. — Rev. Arthur Little, of Massachusetts ; Augustus W. Benedict, of Missouri; Rev. Archibald Hadden, of Michigan ; Rev. James G. Dougherty, of Kansas ; George H. Rust, of Minne- sota ; Rev. Alvah L. Frisbie, of Iowa, and J. W. Bell, of Nebraska.
On -finance. — Eliphalet W. Blatchford, of Illinois; Lewis N. Gilbert, of Massachusetts ; Lucius F. Mellen, of Ohio, George W. Hubbard, of New York, and William P. Fiske, of New Hampshire.
1 Page 72.
1895,] MINUTES. , 13
Daily order. The following order for the daily sessions was adopted : — Business, 9-9.30 a. m. ; devotion, 9.30-10 ; recess, 12.30-2.30 and 5.30-7.30 ; adjourn, 9.30.
Amendments of the Constitution.
The four proposed amendments of the Constitution, from 1892, were acted on as follows : —
The first, making the secretary', registrar, and treasurer, mem- bers of the Council, was adopted, by changing Article III., Sect. 8, last clause, so as to read, " and such officers shall be enrolled as members of the Council."
The second, proposing to change the name of the bod}' so as to make it "The Congregational Union of the United States," was laid on the table, but was taken up subsequently and rejected.
The third, to amend Sect. 4, of Article II., so that it will read as follows : " Such Congregational Societies for Christian work as may be recognized by this Council, and the faculties of Congregational theological seminaries and colleges, may be represented by one delegate each, such representatives having the right of discussion only," was voted.
The fourth, that the Council meet yearh', was indefinitely post- poned.
Memorials from Michigan.
Several memorials from the General Association of Michigan were received and referred as follows : —
One, asking the Council to take such action as shall suggest to the national benevolent societies the propriety of holding their an- nual meetings at the same time and place, to the following com- mittee : —
Rev. Nehemiah Boynton, of Massachusetts ; Rev. Willard Scott, of Illinois ; S. F. Smith, of Iowa ; Rev. James F. Brodie, of Massa- chusetts, and Rev. Willard B. Thorp, of New York.
One, asking the Cohncil to create a fund to pay the expenses of delegates, and to reduce the number of delegates, to the com- mittee of 1892 on the expenses of delegates.
One, asking that the Council seek the co-operation of other denominations to secure to each the privilege of appointing their own representatives on the International Sunday-School Commis- sion, to the following committee : —
14 MINUTES. [1895.
Rev. William H. Davis, of Michigan; Rev. W. B. D. Gray, of South Dakota ; Rev. Charles A. Savage, of New Jersey ; Aaron B. Mead, of Illinois, and Rev. Herbert R. Titus, of Vermont.
One, asking that a committee be appointed to prepare a manual of hymnology, to the following committee : —
Rev. George H. "Wells, of Minnesota ; Rev. James F. Brodie, of Massachusetts ; Rev. Simeon C. McDaniel, of Georgia ; Rev. Roswell O. Post, of Ohio, and Rev. Thomas M. Boss, of Kansas.
Program.
The program presented by the provisional committee was ac- cepted, subject to the action of the business committee. At 12.30, after singing, a recess was taken till 2.30.
Wednesday Afternoon, Oct. 9.
At 2.30 prayer was offered by Rev. Edward Taylor, of New York.
Provisional committee. — Limit in reading reports.
The report of the provisional committee was presented and accepted, and the following recommendation in it was adopted, namely :
That no report exceed fifteen minutes in the reading, except b}' order of the Council, though leave to print in full may be allowed.
Publishing committee.
The report of the publishing committee was presented and accepted.
Secretary. — Statistics.
The secretary presented his report, and also recommendations of the conference of statistical secretaries. The report was accepted and the recommendations were adopted to the effect, —
1. That, inasmuch as there is a reasonable request from the societies of Endeavor and other auxiliary organizations for the in- clusion of additional items, to parallel those now reporlea from the Sunday schools, and as this cannot be done without increasing the bulk of the Year-Book, therefore the questions calling for the ad- ditions by profession from the Sunday school and the charities of the school be omitted.
1895.] MINUTES. 15
2. That, as the late appearance of the Year-Book is a fact to be deplored by all interested in it, and by none more than by the secretaries themselves, and as some States have already adopted a time limit, after which no returns will be received, therefore, in the hope of securing the Year-Book at an earlier date, we strongly urge the churches to send in their returns not later than February 1 , of each year.
3. That, if in any case, the occurrence of the annual meeting of the church or the society be the occasion of delay, we suggest that the date of such meeting be brought forward to the begin- ning of the year.
4. That Councils for the organization of churches, and the or- dination, installation, or dismission of ministers, are requested to report their action immediately to the secretary of the State in which they have been held.
5. That churches which are not connected with any association, conference, or other local body, be starred in the tables.
Auditor. — Treasurer.
The report of the auditor was presented and accepted.^ The report of the treasurer was presented, accepted, and referred to the finance conimiltee.
Trustees of National Council.'- — Ministerial relief.^
The report of the directors of the tiustees of the National Council was presented and accepted.
The report of the committee on ministerial relief was presented and accepted, and the following resolution was adopted : —
Mesolved, That we heartily approve the purposes and methods of our ministerial relief committee ; that we exhort the committee, as it may be reconstituted here, to press on for ^-et larger means and ministrations, and that we respectfully entreat ail Congregational churches that, without neglecting a reasonable annual offering for the current needs of the societies of their respective States, they arrange for a favorable presentation of, and a generous contribu- tion or its equivalent to, the permanent ministerial relief fund of the National Council for the enlargement of its broad, necessary, and beneficent ministry.
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16 MINUTES, [1895.
A Paper. — Manual. — Columbian Exposition. — Ministerial
standing.
Rev. James Brand, of Ohio, read a paper on present day preaching.'
The committee on a manual presented a report including a manual which was accepted and referred to the following com- mittee : 2 —
Rev. Elijah Horr, of Massachusetts ; Rev. William Ewing, of Michigan ; Rev. Harmon Bross, of Nebraska ; Rev. Benjamin A. Imes, of Tennessee ; and George B. Barrows, of Maine.
The report of the committee on the Columbian Exposition was presented and accepted. ^
The report of the committee on ministerial standing was pre- sented, accepted, and referred to the following committee : —
Rev. John K. McLean, of California; Rev. Asher Anderson, of Connecticut ; E. D. Redington, of Illinois ; Rev. Thomas W. Jones, of Penns3'lvania ; and Rev. William W. Jubb, of Massachusetts.
At 5.30 after singing, a recess was taken till 7.30.
Wednesday Evening, Oct. 9.
Public Wo7's7iip. — Sermon.
At 7.30 the Council engaged in public worship, in which Rev. James B. Gregg, of Colorado, offered pra3'er. Rev. Frank D. Sargent, of Connecticut, read Genesis xi. , relating to the tower of Babel, and Acts ii., relating to the Day of Pentecost, on which Rev. Frank W. Gunsaulus, of Illinois, preached a sermon, after which Rev. Henry A. Hazen, of Massachusetts, offered pi'ayer, a hymn was sung, the pastor pronounced the benediction, and the body adjourned till 9 a. m.
Thursday Morning, Oct. 10.
The Council met at 9 a. m., and prayer was offered by Rev. William W. Leete, of Illinois.
Minutes. — Devotion.
The minutes of Wednesday were approved. The body spent half an hour in devotion, led by Eliphalet W. Blatchford, of Illinois.
' Pasre 97. " Page 309. ^ Page 88.
1895.] MINUTES. 17
Robinson Memorial.^
The committee on the John Robinson Memorial fund presented a report, which was accepted, and it was voted, That the committee be continued and enlarged.
The following, relating to the Robinson Memorial, was adopted : —
Whereas, this Council, in 1892, approved of the appropriation of the balance of the John Robinson Memorial fund (Leyden) towards the erection of the proposed Robinson Memorial church, at Gains- borough, Eng., to which also other sums have been given on the recommendation of the Council ; and, tvhereas, it is understood that the laying of the corner stone of this church is to take place in the coming summer, at which the attendance of American brethren is warmly desired; and, whereas, the Clapham church, London, under the pastoral care of Rev. J. Guiness Rogers, expects to observe its 250th anniversary at practically the same date ;
Resolved, That it is earnestly hdped by this Council that numbers of American brethren will be present at both these services, and thus draw still closer the ties which bind us and our fatherland.
The Council is glad to learn that facilities for this purpose will be found in the proposal of the Congregati07ilist, to arrange for these visits in connection with the Congj-egational historical pilgrimage, in a manner suitable to the character of the occasion, and to the convenience of the brethren ; and that, among our English brethren. Rev. Messrs. Alexander Mackennel, George S. Barrett, R. F. Hortou, J. Guiness Rogers, C. A. Berry, and others, have kindly agreed to co-operate. And, inasmuch as a representative of this Council, Rev. Charles Ray Palmer, of Connecticut, was named in 1892, we would especially designate. Rev. Albert E. Dunning, of Massachusetts ; Rev. Nehemiah Boynton, of Massachusetts ; Samuel B. Capen, of Massachusetts ; Rev. President Charles F. Thwing, of Ohio; Eliphalet W. Blatchford, of Illinois; (to whom were subse- quently added) Rev. William A. Robinson, of New York; Rev. Amory H. Bradford, of New Jersey ; Rev. Morton Dexter, of Mas- sachusetts ; Lyman Brewster, of Connecticut, and Rev. George E. Hall, of New Hampshire, as persons who will with him act in behalf of this Council, and who may be in a position materially to assist those who may find themselves able to take part in this memo- rial visit.
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18 MINUTES. [1895.
Secretary, Registrar, Treasurer, Auditor, Publishing Committee.
Oflflcers for the next three years are elected as follows : — Secretary, Rev. Henr}' A. Hazen, of Massachusetts ; Registrar, Rev. William H. Moore, of Connecticut ; Treasurer, Rev. Samuel B. Forbes, of Connecticut ; A^iditor, David N. Camp, of Connecti- cut.
Puhlisliing committee. — Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, of Massachu- setts ; Rev. Albert E. Dunning, of Massachusetts, and ex-officiis, Rev. Henr}' A. Hazen, Rev. William H. Moore, and Rev. Samuel B. Forbes.
Salutations. — Thanks.
The moderator presented Rev. George S. Barrett, delegate from the Congregational Union of England and Wales ; also Rev. Edward M. Hill and Professor Warriner, delegates from the Congregational Union of Ontario and Quebec. These brethren addressed the Council, and the moderator responded.
It was Voted, That the thanks of this bod}' be extended to Rev. Frank W. Gunsaulus, of Illinois, for the sermon of last evening, and that a cop}' be requested for publication.
A paper. — Training of ministers for our foreign populations.
After singing. Rev. Edward Hawes, of Vermont, read a paper on The Right Conception of the Church.'
The training of ministers for our foreign populations was con- sidered in addresses b}' Rev. Henry A. Schauffler, of Ohio, Rev. Samuel H. Lee, of Massachusetts, and Rev. Moritz E. Eversz, of Illinois.
The Roll. — Preachers on Sunday. — Delegates appointed.
The roll in part was reported and accepted.
At the request of the local committee on preachers for the com- ing Sunda}', Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, of Massachusetts, Rev. James G. Merrill, of Maine, and Rev. Henry T. Sell, of Illinois, were appointed to co-operate with them.
The following were appointed delegates to the Congregational Union of Ontario and Quebec : Rev. Edward Hawes, of Vermont ; Rev. Franklin S. Fitch, of New York: Rev. Harry P. Dewey, of New Hampshire, and Rev. Smith Baker, of Massachusetts.
At 12.30, after singing, a recess was taken till 2.30. 1 Page 270.
1895.] MINUTES. 19
Thursday Afternoox, Oct. 10,
At 2.30 prayer was offered b}- Rev. Almon T. Clarke, of Alabama.
By-laws amended.
By-law 5, relating to the provisional committee, was amended so as to read, " may fill any vacancy' in its own number, or."
B3-law 14 was amended in the last sentence so as to read, " The moderator shall then name the committee of nominations sub- ject to the approval of the Council."
French American College, Springfield, Mass.
The following resolution was adopted : —
Resolved, That the French American College in Springfield, Mass., in doing for the French-speaking people of the United States the work which our fathers did for us in founding our New Eng- land colleges and academies, and which later generations have done and are doing for the West and South, deserves the hearti- est support and co-operation from our churches and from all who love our country and the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Alabama credentials.^
The committee on credentials presented a report relating to the General Convention of Alabama, with resolutions. The report was accepted, and the resolutions were adopted, as follows : —
Resolved, (1) That this Council recommends that negotiations for union with the churches of the Alabama Association be re- sumed, and that both parties, in the spirit of mutual concession earnestly endeavor to bring all the Congregational churches of the State into one fraternal organization.
Resolved, (2) That this Council gives present recognition to the Grcneral Convention of Alabama, pending further action upon the above recommendation, and cordially welcomes its representa- tive. Rev. Stephen E. Bassett, to a seat in the Council of 1895.
City evangelization. — Address of Mr. Mills.
The report of the committee on city evangelization, with reso- lutions, presented and followed by addresses by Rev. Charles S. Mills, of Ohio, and others, was accepted, and the resolutions were amended and adopted, as follows : —
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20 MINUTES. [1895.
Besolved, (1) That the National Council recognizes in the spirit and work of the churches known as " institutional," a timely and characteristic expression of the one spirit of God in Christ, which has been the regenerating power in human life in all ages.
Resolved, (2) That the National Council cordiall}' indorses the general methods of these churches as susceptible of real and effect- ive spiritual purpose, and welcomes them among the agencies which the Church of Christ may legitimately use in the great work of city evangelization.
Resolved, (3) That in regard to the limitations of these churches the National Council, gratefully recognizing the fruits of these methods employed in the sincere spirit of the Master's commission to seek and save the lost, and bidding the brethren God speed in their work, prays earnestly that the use of new agencies for the establishment of the kingdom of God may always be governed onl}^ by the one admissible purpose in all Christian work, the re- generation of men in the spirit and manner of Christ.
It was voted, That a copy of the address of Rev. Charles S. Mills, of Ohio, be requested for publication. Subsequently, the follow- ing were appointed a committee on city evangelization and social settlements : —
Eev. Charles E. Jefferson, of Massachusetts ; Rev. Charles S. Mills, of Ohio; Rev. Willard Scott, of Illinois; William H. Flem- ing, of Nebraska ; Rev. Graham Taylor, of Illinois ; Rev. Henry A. Stimson, of New York ; Rev. Samuel G. Smith, of Minnesota ; Rev. Rufus A. Tobey, of Massachusetts, and Rev. John C. Col- lins, of Connecticut.
Union with the Baptists. — Christian Unity.
The committee on union with Free Baptists and other denomina- tions presented a report with recommendations.^ The report was accepted.
Rev. J. B. Weston, of the " Christian Convention,-' addressed the body.
The recommendations of the report were laid on the table.
The committee on Christian Unity presented a report with resolutions. The report was accepted. ^
It was voted. That the resolutions be referred to a joint committee, consisting of the two committees, and that the recommendations 1 Pasre 292. * Page 304.
1895.] MINUTES. 21
of the previous report be ttikeu from the table and referred to said joint committee.
At 5.30, after singing, a recess was taken till 7.30.
Thursday Evening, Oct. 10.
At 7.30, the Council united in singing, " 0 where are kings and empires now?" Rev. James W. Strong, of Minnesota, read Hebrews i., and Rev. William A. Robinson, of New York, offered prayer.
Arrangements Jor the Second International Council.
The following were appointed a committee to make preliminary arrangements for the Second International Council, with authority to appoint a sub-committee to attend to executive business : —
Samuel B, Capen, of Massachusetts ; Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, of Massachusetts ; Cyrus Northrop, of ^Minnesota ; Rev. Frederick A. Noble, of Illinois ; Rev. Arthur Little, of Massachusetts ; Nelson Dingle}', of Maine; Rev. John K. IMcLean, of California; Rev. Charles H. Richards, of Pennsylvania ; Rev. Henry A. Hazen, of Massachusetts; Henr}' C. Robinson, of Connecticut; Rev. Washington Gladden, of Ohio; Rev. Robert R. Meredith, of New York ; Rev. Albert PL Dunning, of Massachusetts ; Rowland G. Hazard, of Rhode Island; Rev. William F. Slocum, of Colorado; Rev. Edward D. Eaton, of Wisconsin; Rev. Theodore T. Munger, of Connecticut ; G. Heiir}- Whitcomb, of Massachu- setts; Rev. Henry A. Stimson, of New York ; Rev. .Tames Brand, of Ohio ; Eliphalet W. Blatchford, of Illinois ; Rev. Amor}' H. Bradford, of New Jersey ; Rev. George A. Gordon, of Massachu- setts ; Rev. Sidney Strong, of Ohio ; Justice David J. Brewer, of District of Columbia ; Rev. Philip S. Moxom, of Massachusetts ; Rev. William H. Davis, of Michigan; Nathan P. Dodge, of Iowa; Rev. William E. Griffls, of New York, and Rev. Michael Burnham, of Missouri.
Ministerial relief.
The following were appointed the committee on ministerial relief: —
Rev. Hemy A. Stimson, of New York ; Francis J. Lamb, of Wisconsin ; Walter A. Mahone}', of Ohio ; Rev. George H. Wells, of Minnesota ; William E. Hale, of Illinois ; Edwin H. Baker, of Connecticut ; Rev. Elijah Horr, of Massachusetts ; Rev. Albert J .
22 MINUTES. [1895.
Lyman, of New York; Edward Whitin, of Massachusetts, and Charles T. Christensen, of New York.^
Presentation of a gavel.
Rev. Leavitt H. Hallock, of Washington, presented to the Conncil, from Miss Rosalia Baker, of "Walla Walla, Wash., a gavel made from an apple-tree which grew in Washington from a seed planted by Marcus Whitman, and the moderator made response.
Tivo hundred and seventy-five years from Flymoiitli Rock.
In connection with the general topic for the evening, Two hundred and seventj'-flve years from Plymouth Rock, Rev. William H. Moore, of Connecticut, spoke of the National Council ; ^ the hymn, " Our Country's Voice is Pleading," was sung ; Rev. George H. Wells, of Minnesota, spoke of the Ministry; Rev. George S. Barrett, of England, spoke of the present condition and prospects of the Congregational churches in Great Britain, and Rev. Joseph H. Twichell,3 of Connecticut, spoke of civil and religious liberty.
Salutation.
A salutation by telegram was received from the Woman's Home Missionary Union of Ohio, to which the secretary was instructed to make reply.
Rev. Philip S. Moxora, of Massachusetts, offered prayer, and, after the hymn, " My Country, 't is of Thee," was sung, pronounced the benediction, and at 10, the Council adjourned till 9 a. m.
Friday Morning, October 11. At 9 prayer was offered by Rev. Levi H. Cobb, of New York.
Minutes. — Telegram. — Gambling. — Devotion.
After singing, the minutes of Thursday were approved.
A telegram from Portland, Oregon, relating to the nest meeting of the Council, was referred to the business committee.
A memorial from the General Association of Massachusetts, asking that a committee be appointed to -consider the subject of
' Messrs. Lyman and ('hristiansen, of that committee, having declined to serve, the provisional committee has appointed, in their place, Rev. George A. Gordon, of Massachusetts, and Rev. Robert R. Meredith, of New Yorlv.
* Page 243, ^ Page 251.
1895.] MINUTES. 23
gambling was received, and subsequently the following were ap- pointed such committee : Rev. Charles H. Hamlin, of Massachusetts ; O. J. Wakefield, of North Dakota ; Rev. William D. Mackenzie, of Illinois ; Walter K. Bigelow, of Massachusetts, and Rev. Cyrus G. Baldwin, of California,
The body spent half an hour in devotion, led by Rev. Julian M. Sturtevant, of Illinois.
Our benevolent societies.^
As the day and evening were to be given to our benevolent soci- eties, the following were appointed a committee on their work and needs: Rev. Henry Fairbanks, of Vermont; Henry M. Meore, of Massachusetts; Rev. George H. Ide, of Wisconsin; John T. Dale, of Illinois, and Rev. John M. Cummings, of Illinois.
Congregational Church Building Society.
Rev. Levi H. Cobb, of New York, and Rev. Charles H. Beale, of Massachusetts, spoke in behalf of the Congregational Church Building Society.
Congregational Home Missionary Society.
After singing, Rev. Washington Choate, of New York, Rev. Samuel H. Virgin, of New York, Rev. Richard B. Foster, of Okla- homa, Rev. Dana W. Bartlett, of Utah, Rev. Edward A. Paddock, of Idaho, Rev. Thomas G. Langdale, of South Dakota, and Rev. James G. Doughert}^ of Kansas, spoke in behalf of the Congre- gational Home Missionary Society.
At 12.30, alter singing, a recess was taken till 2.30.
Friday Afternoon, Oct. 11.
At 2.30, prayer was offered by Rev. Edwin C. Norton, of Cali- fornia.
Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society. Rev. George M. Boynton, Rev. William E. Barton, and Rev. Edward M. Noyes, all of Massachusetts, spoke in behalf of the Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society.
Congregational Education Society. Rev. John A. Hamilton and Rev. George A. Gordon, of Massa- chusetts, and Rev. Edward D. Eaton, of Wisconsin, spoke in behalf
1 Paares 162-192.
24 MINUTES. [1895.
of the Congregational Education Society, and the following reso- lutions were adopted : —
Resolved, That this Council urges the more general and earnest observance of the last Thursday in January, as the day of prayer for colleges, as a means of seeking and securing continued and increased spiritual life in all institutions of learning.
Resolved, That the Council recommends that the Sunda}' pre- ceding the day of prayer for colleges be set apart as Christian Endeavor Day, for the preaching of sermons, and for such other services as shall tend to deepen the conviction of the importance of the religious element in education, and the vital relations of the churches to educational work.
American Missionary Association.
After singing. Rev. Augustus F. Beard, of New York, Rev. Graham Taylor, of Illinois, Rev. Nehemiah Boynton, of Massa- chusetts, and Rev. Robert R. Meredith, of New York, spoke in be- half of the American Missionary Associati6n.
At 5.45, after singing, a recess was taken till 7.30.
Friday Evening, Oct. 11. Committees on Arr/ieiiian massacre, on memorials.
At 7.30, a committee was ordered on the Armenian massacre and subsequently appointed as follows: Rev. Henr}' M. Ladd, of Ohio ; John T. Dale, of Illinois, and Rev. Albert E. Dunning, of Massachusetts.
Also, a committee was ordered on two memorials, one from Bay Conference, California, in regard to meeting the present exigencies of our benevolent societies, and one from Michigan on proportion- ate giving, and subsequently appointed as follows : —
Rev. William E. Wolcott, of Massachusetts ; Rev. Dwight P. Breed, of Michigan, and Rev. Calvin B. Moody, of Minnesota.
Prov isiona I Com^n ittee.
The provisional committee was appointed as follows : — Arthur H. Wellman, of Massachusetts : Rev. Edward N. Pack- ard, of New York ; Rev. William M. Brooks, of Eowa ; Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, of Massachussetts ; William H. Wanamaker, of Penn- sylvania ; Rev. William Hayes Ward, of New York ; H. Clark
1895.] MINDTES. 25
Ford, of Ohio, and ex-officiis, Nelson Dingley, of Maine ; Rev. Henry A. Hazen, of Massachusetts ; Rev. William H. Moore, and Rev. Samuel B. Forbes, of Connecticut.
American Board of Comviissioners for Foreign Missions. After singing, Rev. Chauncey Goodrich, of the A. B. C. F. M., read the Scriptures; Rev. Henry Blodgett, of the A. B. C. F. M., oflfered prayer ; and Rev. Charles H. Daniels, of Massachusetts, Rev. Francis W. Bates, of the A. B. C. F. M., Rev. Charles M. Lamson, of Connecticut, and Rev. John W. Simpson, of Ohio, spoke in behalf of the Board.
The loork and need of the six societies.^ Samuel B. Capen, of Massachusetts, spoke of the work and needs of the six societies, and offered the following preamble and resolutions, which was adopted by a rising and unanimous vote, after which Rev. Henry A. Hazen, of Massachusetts, offered prayer : —
Whereas, our six raissioaary societies, in harmonious relations, one with the other, seem to be doing the work which is providen- tially committed to their care, with fidelity and success ; and, tvhereas, our brethren in the field who bear our commission are greatly hindered in their work because of the inability of these societies through reduced receipts, to promote properly their work ; and tchereas, three of our societies are now in debt to so large an extent that unless relief shall speedily come, they will be compelled still further to call in from the field men and women who are holding up the cross for the salvation of those who are ready to perish : and, whereas, large sums of money are given by members of our Congregational chufches for work which is oftentimes known to be experimental and of doubtful success, which money, if given to our societies, would not only pa^" every debt, but pro- vide for an advance all along the line ; and, tchereas, notwith- standing this crisis in our missionary' work, only 961 out of our 5,342 churches last year gave a contribution to all of our six societies ; now, therefore, to prevent further disaster in our mis- sionary work, it is
Resolved., (1) That we appeal to the members of our Congrega- tional churches throughout the land, urging them conscientiously to consider the needs of our six societies, and to be willing in
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26 MINUTES. [1895.
planning their gifts for the coming 3'ear, to give not only the first place in their thoughts but a much larger proportion of their mis- sionary money to ihese societies. To prevent the wasting of the Lord's money, is a sacred duty.
Resolved^ (2) That in the absence of all ecclesiastical machi- nery and church government, the one band that should unite all our churches more closely together must be our common missionary work, we therefore urge ever}- church in our Congregational brotherhood so to recognize its responsibilty to this work as to give a contribution every year to each societ3% Such a remem- brance ought to be given as a pledge not only of our loyalty to Jesus Christ, the great head of the Church, but also of our loyalty to the denomination which we love, whose name we beiar, and whose work we are in honor bound, as we are nearing another century, to prosecute with increasing vigor and hope. Even the feeblest churches need, for their own best work, the inspiration which would come to them by being connected by this sixfold cord with all our churches and all our splendid missionary work in all the world. Our missionary societies are the six children of our church, and it may well be questioned whether a church which neglects one of them should be considered in good and regular standing.
Resolved^ (-S) That iu order still further to arouse an interest in the missionary work which God has given to us to do, and to make it possible to increase the force of our missionaries in all the world, we urge upon all the members of our Congregational Churches an increase in their gifts. As a means to this end, we would call attention to the simplicity and effectiveness of the extra cent-a-day plan, which, wherever tried, has been found to be successful. The amount required from each person is so small that it can be almost universally adopted; and, if so adopted, the aggregate amount received by our missionarj' boards would be so great that the men in the field would be doubled and trebled, ever}' open door could be entered and the evangelization of the world would be near at hand.
Resolved, (4) That we must urge upon all our pastors from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Lakes to the Gulf, to take renewed interest in this missionary work. In the new revival of civil righteousness in our land, the time is propitious to emphasize the great truth that the only salvation of America and the world
1895.] MINUTES. 27
is through the gospel of Jesus Christ ; and that a revival in benev- olence is the fitting and necessary complement to the revival of patriotism. We glory in the splendid leadership of so many of our pastors along these lines, and we would lay upon all, not only the responsibility, but the magnificent opportunity to be such leaders also in this holy war for the republic and for the kingdom of God in all the earth.
The Council of 18d8.
An invitation was received to hold the next meeting of the Council in Portland, Ore., and also one to hold it in Grand Rapids, Mich. It was voted, unanimously. That the Council of 1898 be held in Portland, Ore.
After singing, the benediction was pronounced by Rev. Charles O. Brown, assistant moderator, and at 10 o'clock the body ad- journed till 9 A. M.
Saturday Morning, Oct. 12.
At 9 o'clock, pra3'er was oflfered by Rev. James E. Snowden, of Iowa.
Minutes. — Manual.
The minutes of Friday were approved.
The committee on the report of the committee on a manual presented a report with recommendations.^ The report was ac- cepted, and the recommendations were adopted as follows : —
1. That the present committee, who have proposed this manual be continued with power to add to their number, if they shall think it desirable to obtain the co-operation of others.
2. That the committee be requested to publish, at their earliest convenience, through the Publishing Society, an edition of their work adapted to general circulation in an inexpensive form ; and that they be given power to make such alterations and emenda- tions as may finall}' be deemed by them advisable after receiving and weighing carefully any suggestions of improvement which may come from brethren in any part of the land, and for whicli purpose copies have already been distributed to the several members of this Council. The manual thus perfected, is to be signed by the members of the committee, and by such other persons as ma^' be joined in consultation; and will carry, it is hoped, such weight
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28 MINUTES. [1895.
as may be found in the character, learning, and practical wisdom of the brethren whose names shall be thus appended.
Temperance.
The committee on temperance presented a report with a declar- ation and recommendation. The report was accepted, and the declaration and recommendation were adopted, as follows : —
We affirm, as in the past, our sorrow for tlie destruction and degradation which come to our land through the vice of intemper- ance, and extend sympathy and God speed to all honest men and women who in an}' waj' are seeking to banish the saloon and save men from its temptations.
"We, in a special manner, call upon our people to unite with all others in opposing the liquor traffic, and to encourage federated action of churches and Sunday schools, Christian Endeavor socie- ties, temperance societies, good government clubs, and the like, in a firm and persistent movement for the overthrow of the social and political power of the saloon.
We urge our people in the present crisis of the temperance re- form, in no wa}', by social habits or form of legislation, to give respectability to the use or sale of intoxicating drinks, and to affirm their conviction that the safety of our 3'oung men and the welfare of the State demand total abstinence by the individual, and prohibition of the saloon.
Whereas, the London Sunday School Union, the National Women's Christian Temperance Union, the Presb3'terian General Assembly, and the fall Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Cliurch have recommended the observance of the fourth Sunday in November, as temperance Sunday, we commend to our churches the favorable consideration of this recommendation.
Our six societies. The secretarj- was instructed. to have printed, and to send out to all the churches, the resolutions regarding the support of our six societies.
The provisional and publishing committees.
It was voted. That the provisional committee be authorized to appoint any committees ordered but not appointed, and that com- mittees so appointed be entered in the minutes as by the action of the Council.
1895.] MINUTES. 29
It was voted, That the publishing committee issue the minutes, ser- mons, reports, papers, and other documents, presented at this ses- sion, and also the Year-Books of 1896, 1897, 1898, and be allowed to contract for the Year-Book of 1899.
It was voted, That the provisional committee and the publish- ing committee be authox*ized to meet at the close of this session.
The duty of our government to j)rotect missionaries in foreign lands.
The following were appointed a committee on the duty of our government to protect missionaries in foreign lands : —
Nelson Dingle^y, of Maine ; Eliphalet W. Blatchford, of Illinois ; Rev. Edward Hawes, of Vermont; Rev. Washington Gladden, of Ohio ; Rev. George A. Gates ; of Iowa, and Rev. Birdsey G. North- rop, of Connecticut.
Devotion.
The body spent half an hour in devotion, led by Rev. John H. Morley, of Minnesota.
Statements of the theological seminaries. ^
Statements in behalf of the several theological seminaries were presented as follows : —
Yale — Rev. Lewis O. Brastow, of Connecticut.
Hartford — Rev. Chester D. Hartranft, of Connecticut.
Bangor — Rev. Levi L. Paine, of Maine.
Chicago — Rev. Graham Taylor, of Illinois.
Andover — Rev. George Harris, of Massachusetts, b}' letter.
Oberlin — Rev. Edward I. Bosworth, of Ohio.
Pacific — Rev. John K. McLean, of California.
Finances.^
After singing, the committee on finance presented a report with recommendations. The report was accepted, and the recommend- ations were adopted as follows : —
1. That the Council authorize the treasurer to present to the State treasurers the facts in this report, from which the}' will see the vital necessitj' of taking immediate and decided action to collect and promptly forward their dues to the treasurer.
2. That the secretary make a special communication to each State association calling their attention to the facts here presented, and suggesting the appointment of men to the positions of State
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30 MINUTES. [1895.
treasurers, who will with energy and persistence attend to this duty in their respective associations.
3. That the annual pe?- capita call upon the membership of our churches for the next three years be, as unanimously recommended by the provisional committee, two cents.
4. That all mone3's received from au}- source be deposited in such bank or banks, as the provisional committee shall advise, to be drawn therefrom on checks which have been signed In- the treas- urer for the paj'^ment of bills which have been countersigned by a member of the finance committee of the provisional committee.
5. Tliat the provisional committee have authority to contract for all necessar}' expenditures and to appoint from their mimber, other than oflScers, a finance committee of three residing in Boston or its vicinity, who shall appi'ove and sign all bills for payment. It is recommended that this provision be embodied in article 5 of the By-laws after the words, " until the next session."
6. That the provisional committee secure bids for the printing of the Year-Book and triennial Council preceedings, and that they accept the lowest bidders for good work.
Wliitman College.
The following was adopted : —
Recognizing the value of christian education as attested by the history of our colleges throughout the East and West; recognizing also the supreme importance of continuing this work on the lines already laid down, and of embracing every opportunity providen- tially opened to bring into existence and secure the endowment of colleges worthy to stand by the side of those which have already accomplished memorable service for the kingdom of God ; and gratefully recognizing the gifts which have been flowing into these educational channels for so many years, we regard it as a special privilege to call attention to tlie prindely gifts which in recent years have come to our colleges from D. K. Pearsons, and to the oflfers which he has now made to several institutions in which we are deeply interested ;
Resolved, That we especially commend to all Christian people, and to the m.embers of our churches in particular, the college at Walla Walla, Washington. This college, founded by that noble man of God, Cushing Eells, and named Whitman College in honor of his friend and co-worker in the home missionary field, Dr. Marcus
1895.] MINUTES. 31
Whitman, who, at the risk of his own life, saved three Stixtes to the Union b}' his memorable journey across the continent in the win- ter of 1842-3, appeals to the loyalt}' of all patriotic and Christian people, not only on account of its romantic past, but because of the splendid opportunity which is before it. In addition to the supreme importance of this college to the highest interests of Chris- tianity in the Northwest, it is of special value as the memorial of an as yet unhonored national hero. By the conditions of gift, $150,000 must be raised prior to Jan. 1, 1896, and of this sum Walla Walla has pledged $."0,000. It remains for Christian benevolence to provide the $100,000 still lacking. Under these circumstances, we feel that we are justified in commending this institution to the generous consideration of our churches, and, indeed, to all lovers of our country.
The education for the ministry J Rev. Edward F. Williams, of Illinois, and Arthur H. Wellman, of Massachusetts, made addresses on education for the ministry.
The American Missionary Association and Florida.
The following was adopted : —
Whereas, the State of Florida, in a recent enactment, has made it a criminal offence for our missionary' teachers to instruct in schools white and colored pupils without caste distinctions, and for any reason to patronize such schools ; and, whereas, the State superin- tendent of education has given public notice that he will subject the teachers of the American Missionary Association to criminal pros- ecution in case the}' live in the same building with their pupils, or teach white and colored pupils without distinction of caste ; there- fore, the National Council of Congregational Churches of the United States, regarding the enactment not only as repugnant to Christian principles, but also as opposed to our civil rights guaran- teed b}' the Constitution of the United States to all citizens, do call upon our representatives, the American Missionary Association, to unswervingly and courageously resist this wicked enactment in all lawful ways ; and to exhaust all legal measures to defend their guaranteed rights and privileges ; and to carry, if necessary, this case to the Supreme Court of the United States for adjudication ; and we pledge to the Association, in the pursuance of this course, our hearty co-operation.
> Paae 235.
32 MINUTES. [1895.
Expenses of delegates.
The committee on expenses of delegates to the Council presented a report with a resolution. Tbe report was accepted, and the resolution was adopted, namely : ' —
Resolved, That, in view of the distinction conferred on any church b}' the election of its pastor, or other member, to the ses- sions of the National Council, this bod^- advises the payment of the necessary expenses of such delegate by the church.
Ministerial standing.
The committee on the report of the committee on ministerial standing presented a report with recommendations. The report was accepted, and the recommendations were made the first order for the afternoon.
At 12.30 after prayer by Rev. George W. Henderson, of Louisi- ana, assistant moderator, a recess was taken till 2.30.
Satdrdat Afternoon, Oct. 12.
Ministerial standing.
At 2.30, after prayer by Rev. William S. Hazen, of Vermont, the recommendations on ministerial standing were discussed and referred back to the committee.
International Sunday School Commission.
The committee on the memorial from Michigan relating to the International Sunday School Commission, presented a report which was accepted and laid on the table.
Our benevolent societies.
The committee on the needs and work of our benevolent socie- ties presented a report, which was accepted.-
Relations of our benevolent societies to the churches.^
The committee on the lelations of our benevolent societies to the churches presented a report with recommendations. The report was accepted, and the recommendations were adopted as follows : —
1. That the American Board continue the plan upon which it entered three years ago, whereby it invites the various State bodies to nominate candidates for corporate membership.
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1895.] MINUTES. 33
2. That our various home societies, at the earliest practicable moment, so far adopt the fourth plan as set forth in the report on this subject of the committee of 1892, as to arrange for the holding of tlieir annual meetings at the same place and within the limits of one week.
3. That this meeting be so arranged that it shall divide the year with the American Board, and so that when the American Board meeting is in the East, the home meeting shall be held in the West.
4. That a committee be appointed to confer with the secre- taries of the various societies, with a view to carrying out the provisions of these recommendations.
The following were subsequently appointed a committee on the relations of our benevolent societies to the churches and to attend to the dut}' specified in the fourth recommendation: Rev. Charles M. Lamson, of Connecticut; Henry H Cobb, of Massachusetts; Rev. Henr}' Fairbanks, of Vermont ; Frederick Fosdick, of Massa- chusetts ; Rev. Washington Gladden, of Ohio ; Rev. John H. Ciiim, of Indiana; Rev. William A. Waterman, of Illinois; Rev. Thomas McClelland, of Oregon, and Rev. James B. Gregg, of Colorado.
The Armenian massacre.
The comraittee on the Armenian massacre reported the following, which was unanimously adopted by a rising vote : —
Whereas^i the National Council of Congregational Churches in triennial session assembled regards with deepest concern the in- human atrocities still continued against Armenians and other subj^-cts in the Ottoman empire, for which the goverment of that empire is responsible, therefore ;
Resolved, That, in our judgment, the time has come when the government of the United States should take such measures, in co-operation with the other great powers, as .will not onl\^ effec- tually protect -all American citizens, missionaries, and others in Turkish dominions, but in the name of our common humanity, will present a determined protest against these barbarities ; and that our government should give moral support to the movement of European powers to cause these outrages to cease to the extent, if necessary, of the abolition of the Turkish government.
Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the Secretary of State, at Washington.
34 MINUTES. [1895.
The manual. It was voted, That the committee in charge of the rnanual be authorized, in printing therein the declaration of faith known as that of 1883, to omit any words which interfere with the conscience of believers as pertaining to the mode and subjects of baptism.
Secret and social societies.
The committee on secret and social societies presented a report with resolutions. The report was accepted, and the resolutions were adopted as follows : —
Resolved, That, with loj-alty to the family and the state, the Christian's first social obligations are to the church ; and that it is inconsistent for any Christian to become a member of any or- ganization, secret or social, into which he cannot consistently take his Saviour ; and that no Christian can consistently allow his con- nection with any fraternal organization, secret or social, to inter- fere with his obligations to his church ; and that the multiplication of social clubs and fraternities is one of the most subtle tempta- tions against the spiritual life of the young men of our churches.
Resolved, That, in view of the multiplicity of these organizations and their influence on the churches, there be appointed a committee to report at the next meeting of the Council on the further duty of the churches respecting them.
This committee were subsequently appointed as follows : —
Rev. William H. Davis, of Michigan ; Rev. Charles O. Brown, of California ; Thomas Todd, of Massachusetts ; Rev. Casper W. Hiatt, of Illinois ; Rev. Robert R. Meredith, of New York ; W. B. Homer, of Missouri ; Asa L. Fabrique, of Connecticut, and Rev. Charles A. Blanchard, of Illinois.
Christifin comity and Christian unioyc.
The report of the joint committee on the reports of the two committees of which it was composed was presented and accepted, and its recommendations, after amendment, were adopted as follows : —
1. That the two committees be continued as standing com- mittees, the one hitherto known as the committee on Christian Unity to be designated as the committee on Denominational
1895.] MINUTES. 35
Comity; and the committee hitherto known as the committee ou Union with Free Baptists and other denominations, to be designated as the committee on Union with other Denominations. The duties of these committees shall be respectively such as are indicated b}' their titles.
2. That it be the duty of the committee on union with other denominations, in cases^where it may seem wise to this committee to attempt specific union with any particular denomination, to conduct negotiations with such denomination bj' means of persons whom it shall select for such [uirpose.
3. That, in particular, this committee be directed to act in con- ference with the commission appointed by the Christian Quadren- nial Convention, with a view to closer co-operative union, and if it seem feasible, organic union. We suggest, also, particu- larl}', that the committee continue the communications with the Free Baptists, which have been hitherto in progress.
4. The'committee on union with other denominations shall be understood to act upon the following basis : —
a. In accordance with the constitution and organic declara- tion of this National Council adopted at Oberlin in 1871, declaring the Holy Scriptures " the sufficient and only infallible rule of religious faith and practice, their interpretation thereof being in substantial accordance with the great doctrines of Christian faith, commonl}- called evangelical," and that " the liberty of our churches" affords "the ground and hope of a more visible unity in time to come," we, as Congregational churches, recognize no creed of human origin, no matter how venerable or historically honored by us and by the Christian Church to have authority over our faith, which authority belongs onl}' to the word of God.
6. In any union contemplated, those who join together have accordingly the right to maintian their conscientious varieties of faith and order.
c. And whereas, the visible union of Christendom is an object greatl}^ to be desired ; and whereas it is our dut}' to do what we can to secure it ; and whereas such union cannot be secured by the submission of any, but onl}' by the liberty' of all under Jesus Christ, we do approve, as proposed basis of such union, the platform of union suggested by the New Jersey Association and approved by a number of our other State bodies, and we direct the committee on union with other denominations to present it in the
36 MINUTES. [1895.
following slightl}^ amended form to our sister denominations of evangelical churches for their consideration.
We propose to other Protestant evangelical churches, a union based on, —
1 . The acceptance of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- aments, inspired by the Holy Spirit, as containing all things nec- essary to salvation, and as being the rule and ultimate standard of Christian faith.
2. Discipleship of Jesus Christ, the divine Lord and Saviour, and the Teacher of the World.
3. The Church of Christ, which is His body, whose great mis- sion it is to preach His gospel to the world.
4. Libert}' of conscience in the interpretation of the Scriptures and in the administration of the church.
Such "an alliance of the churches should have regular meetings of their representatives, and should have for its objects, among others, —
(1) Mutual acquaintance and fellowship.
(2) Co-operation in foreign and domestic missions.
(3) The prevention of rivalries between competing churches in the same field.
(4) The ultimate visible union of the whole body of Christ.
5. And whereas it cannot be expected that there shall be a speedy corporate union of the numerous bodies into which the Christian Church of our land is divided, we do, therefore, desire that their growing spiritual unity should be made manife&t by some form of federation which shall express to the world their common purpose and confession of faith in Jesus Christ, and which shall have for its object to make visible their fellowship, to remove mis- uuderstatidings, and to aid their consultations in establishing the kingdom of God in the world, and to this end we invite corre- spondence with other Christian bodies.
6. We commend our brethren who have sought to promote comity by interdenominational organizations in the several States, and request the committee on denominational corait}' to encourage similar movements in all parts of our land.
7. When it shall seem proper that a conference of the various denominations be sought, either for comity, or for closer union, this shall be provided for by the joint action of the two committees, each consenting thereto.
1895.] MINUTES. 37
It was voted, That the secretaty forward copies of this action to State associations and conferences, for their consideration.
Committees.
The following committees were appointed: —
On denominational comity. — Rev. Julian M. Sturtevant, of Illinois ; Rev. William D. Hyde, of Maine ; Rev. Clarence S. Sar- gent, of Missouri ; Rev. Reuben A. Beard, of New Hampshire ; Samuel Holmes, of New Jersey, and Rev. William B. Hubbard, of South Dakota.
On union tvith other denominations. — Rev. William Hayes WardJ of New York ; Rev. George E. Hall, of New Hampshire ; Rev. Samuel W. Dike, of Massachusetts ; Rev. Daniel M. Fisk, of Ohio ; Rev. John H. Morley, of Minnesota; Rev. Hugh M. Scott, of Illi- nois, and Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, of Massachusetts.
Hymnal.
The committee on a hymnal presented a report, which was accepted.
Ministerial Standing.
The committee on the recommendations on ministerial standing presented recommendations which were accepted to be considered singly. After discussion, the further consideration of the subject was postponed till Monday morning.
Collation, Social Season.
At 5.45, the Council adjournerl, for a collation in the chapel and a social season in the church, which continued until 9 o'clock, and to meet for public worship and the Lord's Supper at 10.30 a, m. Sunday.
Sunday Morning, Oct. 13.
Public worship, the Lord's Supper.
At 10.30 the Council engaged in public worship in which Rev. Edward N. Packard, the pastor, conducted the opening services, and Dwight L. Moody, of Massachusetts, preached from Acts i. 8. and offered prayer ; after which the Council united with Plymouth church in the Lord's Supper, administered by Rev. Charles M. Lamson, of Connecticut, and Rev. Calvin Cutler, of Massachusetts, the service, after singing, closing at 12.
38 MINUTES. [1895.
Sunday Evening, Oct. 13.
At 7.30 p. M., after singing, the reading of the Scrifftures by Rev. Henry A. Miner, of Wisconsin, and pra3'er by Rev. George A. Gates, of Iowa, the Council considered Hopeful Aspects of the Kingdom of God, as presented in addresses by Rev. Charles E. Jefferson, of Massachusetts, on the preparedness of the world for its great advancement ; Rev. Willard Scott, of Illinois, on the preparedness of the church ; and Rev. William H. Davis, of Mich- igan, on the divine plan in the problem.
* At 9.15, after singing, and the benediction by Rev. William H. Davis, the Council adjourned till 9 a. m. Monday.
Monday Morning, Oct. 14.
At 9 A. M., prayer was offered by Rev. Smith Baker, of Massa- chusetts.
Minutes. — Annual meetings of the six societies.
The minutes of Saturday and Sunday were amended and ap- proved.
The committee on memorial, relating to the annual meetings of the six societies, presented a report which was accepted.
Provisional committee instructed.
It was voted, That the provisional committee be instructed to allow the theological seminaries, in the future, at least ten minutes each for the presentation of their work to the Council.
Devotion. — Registrar instructed.
The body spent half an hour in devotion, led by Rev. Doremus Scudder, of Massachusetts.
It was voted, That the registrar inform each member of an ad interim committee of his appointment.
Protection of missionaries in foreign lands.
The committee on protection of missionaries in foreign lands re- ported the following, which was adopted : —
In the view of this Congregational National Council, represent- ing the American churches which first organized missionary work
1895.] MINUTES. 3y
in foreign lands, and out of whose membership a large part of our American missionaries have gone, our citizens engaged in religious and educational work abroad are entitled to the same protection from the American government as is granted to the traveller or the trader. The missionary yields or forfeits no part of his rights as a citizen of no mean country, so long as he does not disobey the laws of tlie nation in whose territory he may he.
We do, therefore, respectfully ask, and confidently expect, our goveriflment to give full attention and all possible protection to such missionaries, as well as to other citizens living or visiting abroad, and we recognize the faithfulness with which this duty has been performed from time to time. In particular the wrongs done to our missionaries in the Caroline Islands, in China, and in Turkey, have not been fully atoned for or punished by the gov- ernments responsible therefor.
We deeply deplore the massacre in China of a number of mis- sionaries of sister churches, and we ask, not in any spirit of vengeance, but with a desire for protection, that, when possible, by diplomatic representation-, and, wliere necessary, by more vig- orous action, it be made clear that our government will not fail to give all due protection to its citizens, whose work abroad is an honor to our own nation and a blessing to those countries in which their labors are expended.
We recommend that this paper be sent by the secretary of this Council to the President of the United States and the Secretary of State
Tear-Booh. — The Boll.
It was voted.. That the distribution of the Year-Book be made subject to the approval of the publishing committee.
The roll was presented and adopted, and the secretary was authorized to make an^' changes necessary to perfect it.
Minutes of bodies impairing the standing of ministers.
It was resolved.. That, in the judgment of this Council, whenever action by a Council or any other ecclesiastical body impairs the standing of a minister, it is \Qvy desirable that the action with the general facts in the case should be communicated by the clerk or scribe of that body to the secretary of this Council, to be by him preserved for the information of the churches.
40 MINUTES. [1895.
Semi-centennial in Indiana.
The following was adopted : —
Whereas this Council is gratified to learn that the General Association of Indiana proposes at its next meeting to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Council held at Michigan City, Indiana, in 1846 ; and whereas that Council was one of the first signs that our denomination was waking to the consciousness of its broader work and fellowship, and was the forerunner of the Albany Con- vention and the Chicago Theological Seminar^', therefore,
Resolved, That this Council appoint Rev. George S. F. Savage and Rev. Julian M. Sturtevant, of Illinois, to represent it at that anniversary.
Ministerial standing.
The consideralion of the recommendations on ministerial standing was resumed. A substitute was introduced, and after discussion the whole subject, including the report with the recom- meiidaiions and the substitute, was referred to the following committee : —
Rev. John K. McLean, of California ; Rev. John P. Sanderson, of Michigan ; Rev. Charles L. Morgan, of Massachusetts ; Rev. Truman O. Douglass, of Iowa ; E. D. Redington, of Illinois ; Rev. James W. Cooper, of Connecticut ; Rev. Edward Hawes, of Vermont; Rev. James G. Vose, of Rhode Island, and Rev. Leavitt H. Hallock, of Washington.
Lynching.
The following were appointed a committee on lynching : Rev. James W. Strong, of Minnesota, Rev. Doremus Scudder, of Massachusetts, and Rev. George W. Henderson, of Louisiana. The committee presented a report with a recommendation, which was accepted, and the recommendation, that the moderator and secretary sign the report and transmit it to such religious bodies as in their judgment may seem wise, was adopted.
Army and navy. — Memorial of Bay Conference. — Prison reform.
— Florida.
The committee on the religious needs of the army and navy pre- sented a report, which was accepted, and it was voted, To com- mend the general principles of tlie bill now before Congress in relation to chaplains.
1895.] MINUTES. 41
The committee on the memorial of the Bay Conference, Cali- fornia, relating to the debts of our benevolent societies, presented a report which was accepted.
The committee on prison reform presented a report, which was accepted, and Rev. Amory H. Bradford, of New Jersey, Rev. William J. Batt, of Massachusetts, Rev. August Drahms, of California, Rev. Hastings H. Hart, of Minnesota, Rev. William H. Wanen and Rev. David P. Breed, of Michigan, were ap- pointed a committee on prison reform.
Rev. Mason Noble, of Florida, addressed the body in acknowl- edgment of its action in relation to that State.
Universal peace.
It was resolved, That this National Council concurs with many other ecclesiastical bodies in this and other countries in a petition in behalf of universal peace, and authorizes the secretary to sign the petition for this object.
At 12.30, after singing, a recess was taken till 2.30.
Monday Afternoon, Oct. 14.
At 2.30 p. M., prayer was offered by Rev. Charles Caverno. of Colorado.
By-law amended. — Marriage and divorce.
The following was added to By-law 15: Not more . than ten minutes shall be given to the reading of any special report.
The committee on marriage and divorce presented a report with resolutions. The report was accepted, and the following was adopted in place of the resolutions : —
Resolved, That a committee be appointed which shall report, in the next National Council, what in their judgment is the correct Scripture doctrine of divorce.
The following were made said committee : —
Rev. Charles Caverno, of Colorado ; Rev. Samuel W. Dike, of Massachusetts ; and Isaac W. Smith, of New Hampshire.
Sunday observance.^ The committee on Sunday- observance presented a report with recommendations. The report was accepted, and the recommen- dations were amended and adopted as follows : —
1. That the discussion of the question in its various phases be
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42 MINUTES. [1895.
kept up in our religious press and our religious gatherings, and participated in by men of wisdom and spiritual discernment.
2. Ttiat our ministers be urged to preach to their people from time to time upon the obligations and privileges of the Lord's day, to the end that Christian sentiments and Christian conscience ma}' be toned up among us, and that the Sabbath, already i-ecognized by law, may be utilized in still greater measure for humanitarian and spiritual purposes.
3. That we express our approval of the action of the Executive Committee of the Congregational Home Missionary Society, disapproving of the use of Sunday railway trains, except in cases of emergency, by the missionaries of that society ; and we further- more suggest that all our ministers and people be urged to adopt a similar course.
4. That both as Christians and as patriots, we express our heart}" s^'mpathy and approval of the movement inaugurated in New York and other large cities of the land, for the enforcement of laws tending to secure to the people a Sabbath of peace and good order.
Arrangements for the next meeting of the Council. The following were appointed a committee of arrangements for the next meeting of the Council, other than those to be made by the provisional committee : Rev. George R. Wallace, of Oregon ; Rev. William D, Williams, of California; George H. Hiraes, of Oregon ; Rev. Leaviit H. Hallock, of Washington ; and Rev. Pres. Thomas McClelland, of Oregon.
International Sunday School Commission. The report of the committee on the memorial from Michigan, relating to the International Sunday School Commission was taken from the table, discussed, and again laid upon the table.
Temperance. — The Registrar. — Minutes.
By invitation, Rev. William H. McDougall, of California, addressed the Council in regard to a movement in that State for the suppression of the saloon.
The registrar was thanked by a I'ising vote for his long service.
The minutes of the day were approved, and the registrars were authorized to complete the minutes at the close of the session.
At 5.30 a recess was taken till 7.30.
1895.] MINUTES. 43
Monday Evening, Oct. 14.
At 7.30, after singing " All hail the power of Jesus' name," pra3'er was offered by Rev. "Watson L. Phillips, of Connecticut.
The Christian Endeavor movement.
Rev. Francis E. Clark, of Massachusetts, addressed the Council in regard to the Christian Endeavor Society movement.
Capital and labor. ^
The committee on capital and labor presented a report in the form of an address by Rev. Washington Gladden, of Ohio, which was accepted.
Tlianks.
The following resolutions were adopted unanimously by a rising vote : —
Whereas this National Council of Congregational Churches has come to the moment of its adjournment, and of our adieus to each other,
Resolved, (1) That we extend our cordial thanks totlie churches and good people of the cit}' of S3'racuse, for their warm welcome, and untiring and generous hospitality through all the da3's of our delightful sojourn among them.
Resolved, (2; That we are under special obligations to Plymouth church and its pastor, for the admirable arrangements here made for the sessions and service of the Council ; and to the neighboring churches of the city, which have opened their doors for the con- venience and use of the large assemblies that have been drawn together by our presence on this twent\'-fifth anniversary of the organization of our national bod}'.
Resolved, (3) That we hereby express our gratitude to our be- loved brother, D. L. Moody, for his presence, and for the special uplift which it is felt has come to us from his words to us ; to the press, for full and accurate reports of the proceedings of our body ; to the railroad companies, for favorable rates to delegates travelling on their respective lines, and to all others who have in various ways contributed to the convenience and effectiveness of our meeting.
Rev. Ethan Curtis made response.
The moderator was thanked, by a rising vote, for tlie ability and
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44 MINUTES. [1895.
urbanit}' with which he had discharged the duties of his office, and made response.
The hymn, " Blest be the tie that binds," was sung. Rev. Charles O. Brown, assistant moderator, offered prayer and pro- nounced the benediction, and at 9.30 the moderator declared the ninth session of the National Council dissolved.
NELSON DINGLE Y, Jr., moderator.
Charles O. Brown, ) ^^^^-^^^^^^ moderators. George W. Hendersonj )
William H. Moore, registrar.
John P. Sanderson, \ assistant registrars. William B. Hubbard, )
[1895. SERMON. 45
BABEL AND PENTECOST. SERMON.
REV. F. W. GUNSAULUS.
Genesis xi. I-IO; Acts of Apostles ii. 1-13.
Here are two scenes in the history of the human soul, which is evermore repeating its own deepest experiences. The distance be- tween man and God, the earth of man's life and the heaven of God's unclouded presence, man's actual ignorance and feverish care and God's ideal knowledge and calm power, — this space has alwa3'S challenged every human faculty, and the profoundest and truest life of man has taxed its powers to bridge the immense void. The picture given to us by this ancient page, the building of the Tower of Babel, is onh' one intimation of that perpetual effort which man has made to work up from the earth into the presence of the Divine in heaven. There has always been something splendid and di'a- matic, if not entirely heroic, about these labors of man, or Titan, to invade the dwelling-place of the Infinite and assert his presence there. It has seemed great to him to peer into the secrets of the absolute from the height of some Babel-tower, or, Prometheus-like, to steal from the hand of Infinite Wisdom its secret. These brilliant enter- prises appeal especially to our out-reaching and self-asserting time.
The poem of Prometheus is to the nineteenth century what it is, in all its reminiscent music and modern significance, because our own time, so recently gifted by treasures and forces of nature, feels that it has the right to the precincts and secret of infinite being, since it has learned to love them so, and that there is no distance between man and God which human genius may not span in a sub- lime effort to reach him. One has only to study the geography of the human soul in its present condition, and mark the history which it is making of itself in its own aspirations and yearnings, to un- derstand how our age finds a heroic quality in that far-away event. The plain of Shinar maj' lie here or there in the Orient ; Babel may have been the capital of the Babylonian Empire, or that of some other land ; fragments which attest the vulgar magnificence of a city covering a hundred square miles may have a tale to tell, or may be silent as to the existence of a tower which reached toward
46 SERMON. [1895.
heaven ; — nevertheless, wherever the human soul lives, unwon to its divine destiny by that Spirit which spoke out of heaven to earth at Pentecost, Babels will arise upon everj- realm of its life, and that confusion of tongues which always follows a confusingly low ideal, will surel}'^ ensue.
It is this fact which furnishes the suggestive contrast, as we pass to the second picture. Separated as this event is from the first by thousands of years, here, at Pentecost, we see just loliy the whole history of Babel-building is the histor}' of the most bril- liant faikire with which man has concerned himself. In no other light than the light of Pentecost can we understand the pre-exist- ing spiritual condition, that poverty of soul which promises noth- ing but defeat. It is described in the words of the old story : " Let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." In all moments, when man has missed the fact that all life is to be lived from above downwards, before it may mani- fest itself, as life, from beneath upward, when he sees not that the secrets of his earth are to be revealed out of the heavens above him, then has he been afraid of the great broad world in which he finds himself. Lost to a true ideal, he fears to lose himself. He has nothing greater than himself to feed upon, and he is affrighted at being separated from his kind, even if they be as hungry as he. This is the centripetal force gathering the weak into crowded cities ; the opposite is tlie centrifugal force moving the strong to the sub- urbs. Humanity without ideas and sentiments that make the earth a precious opportunity for their realization — humanity uninvested by that life which is larger than its own, unwon by that mystery which over-arches its knowledge with the conceptions and aims that include its world, is indeed a pitiful orphan, and is sure to be- come a panic-stricken exile. It is not strange that, in such mo- ments of spiritual dissonance, when the soul of man hears nothing of the harmony of the universe, when man and his earth hear noth- ing but their own ambitious melody, that he should seek to rally himself and bind the children of his hope about something that should at least point heavenward.
This method of ridding himself of his fear of the life problem, a problem which is as broad as man's universe, is very human. The last great gift of pagan Rome to the world was a Caesar, her char- acteristic man, the man up through whose personality and power Roman thought and feeling climbed, as in a tower, toward the In-
1895.] SERMON. 47
finite, until, in that desperate but blind effort to bridge the distance between the human and the divine, it called Caesar " God." Apotheosis was the logical consequence in men's minds of an effort at civilization, unfed by the Highest; and making a man into a god was, in this way, through its very failure, a testimony to the fact that God must speak in and through the Incarnation. So, also, Babel, with its failure to unify humanity around a visible and man-conceived institution, was the hint that somewhere in God's universe man would come to a Pentecost. Humanity could be unified, not by any institution, but b3' the' power of the Spirit ; and this is the significnnce of Pentecost, that here at last a disorgan- ized and self-dividing humanity comes to be reorganized and for- ever spiritualized into a divine unity.
The tendency of the humnn soul, in all its moments of paganism, is to build an institution from the earth up toward heaven ; the gift of Christianity was the revelation of a person who was to make humanit}' his perpetual institution — God in Christ, in whom God came from heaven down to earth in the Incarnation.
The desire of the men of Shinar to make a name, lest the}' might be scattered, is also the ancient expression of that defiant egoism which is at root always godless. It is self-consciousness when it passes into egoism ; egoism is atheism. On the other hand, the meeting of those Galileans in the upper room, on the da}' of Pente- cost, was a triumph of God-consciousness passing into aspiring adoration. — the result of the worship of that self-sacrifice which had promised that there would come into the world a new Spirit, the Spirit of comfort and of truth. At Babel, there is furnished for all philosophies of human nature, and all schemes of society, testimony to the fact that conscious uniformity is the foe to that unconscious unity which operates as the unseen but regnant pattern, weaving all facts and forces and men into that divine tapestry called civilization. At Pentecost, while many languages were spoken by many tongues, they were all of one accord in one place. This profound harmony of Pentecost was wrought of many melodies and came out of many instruments, which were thrilled by a common hope or hushed into melodiousness by a common awe.
At Babel, all instruments were similar, but, with no harmonizing theme worthy to overmaster and include all, each player ulti- mately persisted with his own tune. Babel could furnish only a sad picture of uniformity in a desperate effort to preserve itself.
48 SERMON. [1895.
God has alwaj's been careless of uniformitj^ ; his H0I3' Spirit is always creative of that which is most precious and fundamental, unity. The Infinite Wisdom has depended upon the might of ideas which make their servants citizens of the universe and keep them from the invasions of loneliness whenever tliey are, — ideas that are the threads of power holding all things in harmony ; these alone create and maintain among the innumerable minds of earth an un- vcxed and full-chorded unity. The infinite love has always relied upon sentiments as deep us the feelings of Jehovah and as far- reaching as is his grace, to run from heart to heart and to so bind, over unmeasured distances, the sons of earth, that the whole world and every realm of life shall be the place of his glory. The In- finite Will has calculated upon universal laws that are the laws of love, as the lines along which his purpose travels, to so win men's wills into obedience of them that, wherever men are, however separattul in this world or in another world, the one imperial con- cern of the glory of God and the good of man shall bind them foiever.
To realize this vision and governance of God in the life of man is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Wherever men have recog- nized this down-coming of God's life manwards, and responded to it, there has been an upper room in which humanit}' has found a central abiding aspiration and law, and there has been Pentecost.
The confusion of the earlier Babel is no more far-sounding or pathetic than is the confusion of our latest Babel. When souls are in chaos, tongues are strange. Every Babel begins with an undiscerning cry for uniformity, and ends in profound confusion ; Pentecost begins in superficial confusion and ends in fundamental unity. Uniformity is a thing incidental. Unity is essential and reaches down to the elemental currents of power and hope, to the resources of unfailing wisdom. Every political, social, and eccle- siastical scheme at uniforrait3% and every effort at consolidating hu- manit}^ around an ideal lower than God's plans, as revealed in Christ, has ended in mental and spiritual dispersion. And that is the only dispersion to be feared. ' No nation has ever been able to exist for long which has not fed its ideal life and its aspirations from heaven downward, instead of building its poor aspiration in some useless magnificence that wearily lifts itself from the earth upward. At Babel, a race huddles together about its self-consti- tuted ideal ; at Pentecost, a race is sent everywhither, expelled from
[1895. SERMON. 49
any possible aggregation of self-esteem and self-consumption by a Pentecostal flame, an idealism greater than its dream, — a unifying divine vision.
Out from that plain of Shinar probably came Abraham, " the father of them that believe." He could not belong even to the region where life's inspirations came not to man's heart out of tlie heavens of the ideal, and Abraham's idealism is described in the words : " He went, not knowing whither he went." He was the most practical man of his age, because he was its greatest tran- scendentalist. He was the initiator of that westward-looking move- ment which at last reaches Cipango of Columbus' dream by going west. It was this dependence which this man had upon those up- per and inflnite realms from which he drew the careless sublimity of the Purpose whose voice he obeyed, that led Christ to say of him: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day : he- saw it and was glad." Abraham's anti-Babel obedience of the Divine above him was the echo of that celestial eloquence whose ultimate utterance on earth was a Divine Incarnation.
When Pentecost came, to remain a perpetual light of all days, it is not strange that it should contrast so strongly with that other day when self-confident humanity was both ambitious and rebel- lious at Babel. There was the deification of work, and work un- illumined from on high ; at Pentecost was the glorification of musing and receptive and loyal thought. Waiting is more in demand in a univei'se where God is at work than is even the most industrious doing. Prayer is the promise of progress. Civiliza- tion has found its most practical resources in the idealities above the grim and dust in which it toils. Great is work ; but work alone is Babel. Greater is the open soul, receiving at Pentecost the inspirations and ideals by which the work of man on earth shall be something more than nois}' laboriousness ; where, indeed, it shall be the bringing down out of the sky of truth and love, the city of God, that complete and glorious civilization which shall last for- ever. Wherever mere work rules and men's bodies and souls are unfed, by a revelation of what man is in God's .thought, there is a centrifugal influence which makes human speech become variant and which tears society into tatters. I may say the same thing that my brother says in his own language, and yet be separated from him by infinite distances ; I may say nothing that he says, and what I say may be said in another tongue, but, if our hearts
50 SERMON. [1895.
are under the sway of one Spirit of Holiness, we understand each other. Genius and goodness make men comprehend each other. A noble thing can be uttered b^' a Hottentot to an Icelander or a sage in the cloister. In heaven we shall sing, because music is the universal language.
The doing at Babel and the praying at the day of Pentecost are, one, the separative and wearisome influence without a grand ideal ; and the other, the inspiring, unifying influence of life with a worth}'' ideal. Let us never be afraid that men will lose their personalities b}' the unif^-ing power of Christianity. It is only our disease of individualism that we can lose. The ideal and motive of Christianity are so comprehensive, and each strikes every man's heart at so great a depth, that everj- human being under its influence has an apprehension of the meaning of his own life that insures its development, and an appreciation of the value •of ever}^ other man's life that makes his slightest and truest accent "understood.
The leaders of the race have always had this dream of unity. It iis a sentiment and yeai-ning as old as the first poet and as young as that era whose singer prayed for
" That commoa wave of thought and joy Lifting mankind again."
Men have all sorts of panaceas which prevent the unitj^ and pro- duce the disintegration of the human family. In the contrasting darkness and light of these two scenes, I think any one can see that oftentimes the cure has not been offered, because the philosophers have missed the true diagnosis of the disease. Babel-building is very satisfactory to our pride, and Babel-building dies hard and •even grandly. It certainly did not vanish away from man's mind and hope when the confusion on the plain of Shinar came. Many of our modern efforts for man are only splendid repetitions of the old experiment. The Greek ^schylus has made the greatest of Greek tragedies sympathetic with our love of man's enterprise at forcing his way to "the Infinite. "We are yet singing the praise of that audacious protestant, Prometheus, as if he were a half-divine Luther or a titanic William the Silent. Shelley's age of political revolution sang again the old story with the improvisings of its own bard. Our closing age, more wedded to evolution, has held that ;Science will exalt and bind men, and that by discovery and up-
[1895. SERMON. 51
built towers of achieved victories over nature's secrets, we may rally forever the else-separated sections of humanity into one. Science, Democracy, and certain ideals of progress — how often has each been called the Prometheus of our era ! And the sad truth is that each of these, unless it be fired at the heart by some Pentecost where God comes to man, is only Prometheus at last without the divine secret, and with a divided humanity as Tulture-torn as he at the base of Caucasus. Still we sing, —
"Ah, Prometheus! heaven-scaling! In such hours of exultation Even the faintest heart unqualling Might behold the vulture sailing Round the cloudy crags Caucasian! "
I. There is a passionate, altruistic, not to say Christian, spirit of Science, of which I do not now speak, when I say that the spirit of Science which has not known Pentecost is a defeated Pro- metheus, or abuilder of Babel. Like Shelley's Prometheus, rather than the Titan of ^schylus, it has lived in an age perplexed with many ideals — an age revolutionary b}^ descent, while it has come upon the idea of evolution — an age that is yearning for some kind of deliverance. It has visions of salvation so numerous as to almost make it despair. It has, like the Titan, no dream that it needs salvation from itself; from its imprisoning egoism ; its own passionate self-seeking ; its haughty and self-satisfied ideals ; its unrighteous, unworshipping rebelliousness against an order that strains it to altruistic effort, purity, and truth to which it is disloyal. It makes ours an age of faithless haste, for it does not believe " He that believest shall not make haste." It does not rest on the fact that eternal order is sure to succeed even through suffering. It is unquiet and in revolt. Our age has looked to such a power as Science as its Prometheus, its redeemer; for it has conceived that its disease is ignorance alone. But not ignorance is its malady, else a Prometheus who robs Jove of his intellectual method, his secret, might deliver the race. Its malady, productive of all ignorance and care and pain, is unrighteousness. Mankind does not need a Promethean champion of humanity as humanity is, but a personal revelation of God, whose infiuence will first re- create and then champion man as strives to be what he ought to be. This other and divine Prometheus must come, instead of a Titanic
52 SERMON. [1895.
man ; and up to the hour when man is seeking to be what he knows he ought to be, all science, all discovery of nature's powers wait- ing to serve him, all master}' of the forces that are set to be his ministers, is a magnificent gift which man cannot take, save to his ruin. They do help him to build, and up toward the skies. But, building with them, he knows not yet the awful distance between the finite and the infinite. It is a moral distance, and so a mental distance. Man, with all his science, must learn to work on the understanding that it is a less distance for the infinite to come, as God comes in Christ, from the infinite to the finite, than it is for the finite to travel or build to the infinite. The possession of the most helpful forces often betrays us, and we build Babel.
All at last is confusion, in spite of the power spent to exalt and bind men together. It is a bond that does not touch men at their life centres, and so it fails. An effort at unnecessary uniformity has slain necessar}^ unity. Small ideals of what man is to behave bred the small-mindedness that ends in individualism and conceited distrust, one mind of another. Prometheus is only the superb anarchist, in spite of his humane aspiration to enfranchise man. Every fact that comes from our modern Promethean secret-getting, if it has not been grasped by the hand of that altruism which loves man because God has revealed man's true life and destiny in ■ Christ, is a peril. It divides rather than unites. It makes even genius lonely, and none can understand the other. It exalts the intellectualism of the individual, and makes society an anarchic collection of lawless atoms. Not a new impulse of the brain, only a new heart of love makes a great man safe with mankind. If he were possible, a free man in Prometheus is still out of harmony with the universe ; a "a free man in Christ Jesus" is in league with the secret of eternit}'^ ; to him all of time's secrets are given over to the treasury of man.
Turn to that truer and higher Spirit of Science, the Holy Spirit, spirit of wholeness and health, spirit of holiness. It does not sing, with the Titan, as he looks at the sun —
" I laugh at your power aud his who sent you here To lowest scorn : pour forth your cup of pain."
It has become more reverent, as it has ascended from the deepa of the earth along the route of the charmed spirit of man. It has made its Darwin one of the humblest of the noblest ; it gives us-
1895.] ' SERMON. 53
the picture of Tj'ndall refusing to go with the Babel-builders of negations while he waits for truth, and it leaves us the portrait of Huxley as he declines to follow the materialist ; it has taught his lips to speak in hushed awe of Jesus and the immanent God. It has unconsciously adopted Christ's dream of the unity of man, a unity not to be realized by man's o'er-leaping ambition and his Babel-towers, not to be made a fact because all men speak one language, but to be made real, because everywhere the deep and elemental currents running through human nature Godward shall all of them sing one music, of the infinite sea from which they came and to which they go. This Science has a conscience. It now insists that it has something to do with ethics. It cannot be per- suaded, like Prometheus, to refuse to acknowledge the existence of moral evil in the world ; but, more like that band of disciples after Pentecost, it finds an aching world on its hands to be relieved. The new spirit has come. We find the many-languaged race of men understanding itself and its future, when it beholds an Agassiz saying and living what he says : " I have not time to make money " ; and more, when an inventor, whose machine takes the work from thousands of men, is devoting himself to their higher employment ; and, most of all, when the cause of social reform commands the genius of Alfred Russell Wallace. Nothing con- fuses the utterances of men when all are swept by a sublime dream, like Christ's, that the world belongs to God and must be his. Stuart Mills' is an awful statement that so little, if at all, has invention added to the comfort or well-being of mankind ; and its rigor of meaning must continue until, at Pentecost, where even God's power comes to be the power of his love, learns the altru- ism of the redemption of himself from selfishness and pride. As long as we do not have Pentecost, every new invention is Babel- building. It is anexalter ; the fiction of progress. It only enables the strong to oppress the weak. It confuses humanity.
The Holy Spirit of science has its vision of universal govern- ment ; under its influence generations learn
" To sit, self-governed, in the fiery prime Of youth, obedient at the feet of law."
This very conception of the unity of law throughout the universe — that refreshing revival of the true doctrine of the Holy Spirit evervwhere — has made a Pentecost for our modern thought. The
54 SERMON. [1895,
revelation that tears and worlds are moulded b}'^ one power work- ing through one law is a loftier fact around which to rail}' a di- vided race's thinkers and workers, than any Babel of human achieve- ment. The beneficent use to which the gains of science may be put is the guarant}' for their beauty and desii'ableness ; and what that use is may be learned at Pentecost alone. How each mind understands the other mind in that fundamental language of man, as he brings his precious burdens of discovery in, if at that hour there burns within him the enthusiasm of that band of fishermen who at Pentecost held the secret of the whole world's advance. Here was at last a true diagnosis of the malady which afflicts man, and breaks up the true unity of the race. Sin was and is the trouble. This was revealed in the cure. The remedy offered for unrighteousness showed that loveless disloyalty was the disease. A new world dawned. Christ had won man to God and holiness. These men at Pentecost conceived of taking that idea and ideal forth to unify the humanity which had been redeemed. It is the one glorious vision that makes science the handmaiden of the Lord and an angel of civilization. If I were to describe in one word the transformation of science in our day from that pagan, selfish, con- ceited air which has so often offended truth, to that reverent, hu- manity-loving and nobler manner in which she now moves, I would say that the day of Pentecost had fully come. Revelations of the infinite in nature, like God's revelation of the infinite self in Jesus^ have taken their place in man's thought, and, instead of audaciousl}' building up out of ma'n's wisdom brilliant sj-stems of philosophy stretching from earth up to heaven, man listens for the whispers of the Life of all life. By its half-conscious reception of Christ's ideal of man and his future, science has received the H0I3' Ghost.
II. AVhat a magnificent word is Democracy ! and to what fasci- nating paths have men been drawn, leading up to a height of aspi- rations that its dreams ma}' be realized. Poetry and eloquence and heroism and a passion for achievement have marshalled the innumerable throng to build this tower to heaven. It is at once a rallying place and a memorial. In our own land, raw recruits from every other land have joined the multitude, and no one has failed to hear amidst the shout a penetrative note of daring, a presump- tion which tends to grow atheistic, as even all organized or unorganized discontent comes to be. Much of our passion for democracy is not a noble content to die and work for the realiza-
1895.] SERMOx. 55
tion of a divine ideal revealed in those Pentecostal hours of historj'" when God invests humanity with his own presence and plan, but it is self-enamored discontent with an}' government above our ego- istic, heaven-scaling Prometheus.
A great American has said, " Democracy means not, ' l'7)i as good as you are, but it means, ' You We as good as I am.' " Surely we cannot avoid the fact that the first is individualism, conceited^ arrogant, and dividing, '•'■I'm as good as you are." It is the out- come in separate minds of a general public egoism. It proposes^ to be the government ; it never dreams that self-government is the result of being first divinely governed. It emphasizes liberty and is silent about law, It is too thoroughly employed with itself to reflect that liberty is the child of law and that only truth can make- men free. ^^I'vi as good as you are," — this is Babel-building on the plain of Shinar. It writes each man's particular name on one vitrified brick, as if some day humanity, consolidated and wide- eyed, must not, as God's servant, tear it all down. It is ulti- mately against man's civil government, as it is at the first against God's government. When every man in the great community of men shouts, ^^I'm as good as you are!" then, indeed, is the con- fusion of tongues. The more it works at uniformit}-, the more despairful grows the hope of unit}'. At last, nobody understands anybody else. Each man has formed a societ}' of one member. Our noisesome day is the witness of all the disorganization, mutual misunderstanding, and cynical distrust of a democratically inclined race, whose democracy begins and ends in Babel-eloquence, sayingv *'/'m as good as you are."
But there. is another spirit of democracy, — the Holy Spirit ; the spirit of wholeness and health ; the spirit of holiness ; the spirit which is Christ's own life. We accept Mr. Lowell's word, in this sense, when he says, " Christ was the first true democrat that ever breathed." Then we have moved from the chatter of the plain of Shinar to the eloquence of Pentecost ; from Babel to that glorioua upper room.
Christ makes a revelation of God in man, as God makes the revelation of himself in Christ. It is this revelation which, with tongues of fire, says, not "7'»i as good as you are" but, " You're as good as I am." Christ's valuation of the other man, his saving of all men, of every grade, by his own sacrificial life and its issue, his creation of indubitable equality of men before his cross oa
56 SEEMON. [1895.
Calvary, — these are the bases of triumphal democracy. Above them all, his spirit, — the spirit of help for others, the soul of al- tniism, the over-flowing care and love for all men because they are God's children, — all this passion that grows divine in him and through him, as it worships God and is loyal to God's govern- ment— this is the energy that cries out: '■'■You're as good as I am." This is a gift to social dynamics from Pentecost. No Babel of misunderstanding, no centrifugal force, is here. I care not whence the}' come, careless as they may be of all superficial uniformity, those who surrender to this Holy Spirit have genuine unit}', and each man hears the other in the tongue wherein he was born.
III. Consider some of our ideals of human progress. We do not need Prometheus to rob God of his secret ; we need men so inspirited by the Holy Ghost that the}^ are willing to listen as that secret of good government is spoken by the carpenter's son.
There are signs that Pentecost has fully come. The spirit of Christ, unhurt on that Calvary of greed upon which he has been so often crucified by ecclesiastic and politician, has left a spirit of truth which has come into our political economy. That Pentecos- tal spirit is taking the things of his and showing them unto us. Christian ideas and ideals of society are being reconsecrated to missionary effort in the upper room of thought and hope. As these conceptions reappear, we know how much of our vaunted progress has been only Babel -building, and that such principles as have most ministered to man's self-confidence under the form of economic orthodox}', cannot form a tower about which to unify the race or create a Prometheus to redeem humanity. The undis- turbed genius of our wealth-producing era has been half worshipped as our Prometheus. It is a true Prometheus, in this sense, that it has robbed God. It has not, however, attained the divine secret. Our age has declined to let its heart be fired with the altruism of Pentecost, and great has been our confusion of tongues. State- manship now knows that we must rid ourselves of Babel and sub- stitute Christ and Calvary for Prometheus and Caucasus. Our Christian scholarship realizes that Babel and Pentecost are opposed forever, and that, in the light of Pentecost, we must welcome in- quiry as to the righteousness of our regnant industrial system. Have we not forgotten that the abiding wealth of the world has foundations in the Golden Rule and not in the iron rule ? Have we
1895.] SERMON. 57
not so adored man's ability to make a memorial of his genius in material wealth, up-piled in the form of capital, rather than justly distributed among men, that man, on whose life Pentecost puts a divine value, has been stunted while the tower gleamed skyward? Has not even Christian scliolarship been unable to account for our confusion of tongues, and have we not halted beneath the shadow which that lofty earth-foundationed progress has casl upon legis- latures, city councils, courts, and juries? Let us not forget that the cloven tongues of Pentecost are yet in the air, and must be reckoned with by our civilization. Let not Christian scholarship be dazzled by Babel. It hears much of the value of machinery and the exquisite music of mechanism. It is invited to look into the crowded cash-books and wonder at the fortunes which have come forth in a day. It is asked : " Did ever fabric like this come from the mills of any other century? Did ever economic philoso- phy dream that profits like these could accumulate so rapidly? Can the genius of discovery go bej^ond the results of our whirling steel? Even Christianity, — how it pays! How could we ever expect to keep men employed at such a wage, if they did not ex- pect, instead of homes on earth, each to get a home in heaven ? "
Our Prometheus vaunts himself unseemly, even when in his leisure he sits with his loved Asia, devoted to arts and ideals, hear- ing nothing from above him. At last, it wearies. The soul wants a word from above itself. Pentecost placed that word on human lips. Let us stop. The Christian idea of God's valuation of a man has at last been taken by what are called the dangerous classes, and we are asked: "What quality of man does all this progress bring forth? What tissue of heart-chord, what hardness of righteous conviction, what whiteness of sentiment, what strength of purpose, what purity of heart?" Of course, the reply is: "Just now, that is dangerous questioning. So soon as the labor problem is settled we mean to look into that, but that is impracti- cable now." Ah, dear victim of sophistry, the Pentecostal truth as to the value of man is at last out into the fields of our political economy ; it has been caught up by the loafer and striker, and is being flung into the air by the mob ; and you must leave your ledgers to welcome a truth so long delayed. No modern cannon can shoot this idea down, although the mob be slain at your door.
It is ours, my brothers, to say that this idea, tossed into the air by the lawless, does not belong to them. We must tell them that
58 SERMON. • [1895,
it means law and not anarchy. But who are we? We have toa little known them. The communist will not listen tome, for I have been quiet too long ; but the sunlight I have kept back so long, now flaming forth, only shows him a dagger gleaming at bis- side. He sees nothing else but that. The religion which, avows that man, is the great factor in the equation of this world, must insist on the fullest agitation as to the adequacy of the principle of our economy.
Because vulgar men have stolen a flag which we have not de- fended, we must not falter in luaking it safe. We must reckon on the fact that the daj' and ideals of Pentecost are here, and even if we do not sa}' so, others will hail it with jo}'. Cabet said franklj- : "If Christianity had been interpreted and applied in the spirit of Jesus Christ, if it were rightfull}' understood and faithfully obe3^ed by the numerous sections of Christians who are really filled with a sincere piety, and onl}" need to know the truth to follow it, then Christianity would have sufficed and would still suffice to establish a perfect social and political organization, and to deliver mankind from all its ills." What, but the baptism of the Holy Ghost will bring the desired consummation? This is what we lack, and this alone, to bring societ}- up to our creed.
Is it because our knowledge of Jesus Christ has not felt itself called upon to perform its duties, that onl}' a radical social reformer, to the terror of the conservative's soul, cries: "Jesus Christ was the first socialist." Clergymen are asked to-day by an orthodoxy which, in the midst of ill-gotten gains, has some- what forgotten its anxiety about the infallible authority of the- Scriptures, if reallj- the Golden Rule is not an impracticable senti- ment after all. The most dangerous of the dangerous classes, and the strongest foe of essential orthodox}^, is a man who has nothing but contributions wherein to spread a Bible with the Golden Rule in it, save his systematic faithlessness unto its high behest. Our Christian scholarship must insist upon the fact that this same lofty principle has put more mone}' into the purse of mankind than all the selfishness of ages. The worth of human life never came from the dominance of the iron rule. The coin which stands for a day's task is richer to-da}', means more of opportunity, represents more that makes life desirable, than a coin which stood for this same task nineteen hundred years ago, not because of the triumph of the policy of " lassezfaire," but because of the slow gains of that
1895.] SERMON. 59
transcendental word of the Galilean Visionary who, even now as then, in our regnant political economj', has not where to la}- his head.
I readily grant it will be a difficult task for even our most pre- tentiously-religious scholarship, which has too silently let men pile up wealth on false foundations, and avoided the unpleasant lower classes for so long, to get the ear of either of these. A socialist confronts our timid scholarship which has professed its faith in man, and tells us : " You have known that social econom}', to be true or lasting, must be in harmony with the ideal of man and societ}' which went forth at Pentecost. You have known that man is the one goal toward which everything in nature and history has run. You have been singing, with Dryden, —
" From harmony, from lieavenlj^ harmony, The universal frame began I From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full with man."
You know also that the law which strengthens onl^- the strong, even when the fortunate one calls it the law of the universe, is not in harmony with man's best hope. It unmans bo*,h the strong and the weak. It makes of one a brute, and of the other a machine. All this you have known, and j'et you have been silent. WI13' has this truth not been inserted in the midst of tables of statistics and reports on imports and duties? Sismondi's question to Ricardo : *'Is wealth everything — is man nothing?" has long ago been answered both by religion and scholarship. Wh}' have you not spoken it? "• The starting-point, as well as the object-point, of our science," saysRoscher, " is man." Why, then, has the quality and amount of the goods which he would make, rather than the fibre of his soul and the weal of his body, been made the whole topic of your economy ? Ah! you have been cowardly, when you ought to have spoken. Be silent now.
" 'T is the day of the chattel, web to weave and corn to grind. Things are in the saddle and ride mankind."
The agitation upon us is Pentecost against Babel-towers. Co- operation that unifies has assaulted competition that disperses, in a way neither ti'usts or trades-unions have dreamed of. That spirit will win as the warm sunlight wins over the glittering bas- tions of ice. It is our only hope of human order. The capital of the
60 SERMON. [1895.
world, which most protests against agitation, will see, either through joyous or dreadful memories, that wealth needs a better motive for its production, a truer method for its growth, and a more genuine security for its existence and influence than our system of economics furnishes ; and wealth itself will some daj^ repudiate the leadership of a church which does not now see that the strong sentiments, the deep instincts, of the human soul which Christ unfolded and on which, stable society rests, and which have so largely been ruled out of both our theories and practice, — these must be respected. We want a Pentecostal faith in Christ's ideal of civilization, — the faith which relies on the simple rejuvenant instincts of Christ-ennobled
humanity.
"A few strong iustinct and a few plain rules
Among the herdsmen of the Alps have wrought
More for mankind at this unhappy day
Than all the pride of intellect and thought."
Our social structure trembles before the vision of the city of G-od, whose light radiates from the throne of the slain Lamb. Our only possible method of having that vision abide as our blessing and not as our curse, is to obey its commands and help to make the City of God a fact here below. Our attitude toward this problem will de- termine the destin3' of our scholarship and our beloved church. Shall no Thomas More present to some Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey a humanity a little more able to exist and advance in Utopia ? Is Plato to stop with a dream of a republic ? Shall Bacon be the meanest as well as the wisest of mankind, because his " New Atlantis" is onlj^ a vision, and because there was such a void be- tween the truths which Elizabeth's greatest scholar knew and the errors which were crowned by her Lord Verulam ? Shall there not be a James Harrington, whose " Oceana " may strengthon and grow real with Hampden and Sydney and Vane? Shall our Sir Thomas Browne avoid the fierce shock of the great Rebellion. Shall the floating islands and the city of the sun exist only as the vision of Carapanella and the dream of Morelli? Shall not Christian cul- ture dare and do, as well as dream ? Only then
"' . . . Shall all man's good Be each man's rule, and universal peace Lie like a shaft of light across the laud, And like a lane of beams athwart the sea, Thro' all the circle of the golden year
1895.] SERMON. 61
Our vision, then, of civilization, is that of Pentecost. The divine order is, first the new heavens, and then the new earth. The angels in Jacob's vision descend before they ascend. O Church, O Nation, let us seek to make a memorial that will outlast our foolish fear that only an earth-foi>ndationed institution will pro- vide for us a name. "Whenever any true soul reveals God's pres- ence in this earth, there genius has its Pentecost ; wherever any true soul reveals God's presence in man, there sainthood has its Pentecost. Philo Judaeus tells us that each man at Babel inscribed his name imperishably, as he thought, on a vitrified brick. Such is the memorial of self-seeking individualism. To-day men ques- tion as to the site of that faded magnificence ; not a name is known ; and only where this egoism did probably build its walls, lie the large masses fi'om which not a single separate vitrified brick can be broken.
One hundred years ago, the October leaves murmured with the sorrowing nightingale, which was his truest voice in nature, when John Keats had actualized his own epitaph. " Write on my tomb," he said, " ' His name was writ in water.' "' A new century comes and sings, —
" For, as the wave, thy varying numbers run — Now crested proud in tidal majesty, Now tranquil as the twilight reverie Of some dim lake the white moon looks upon,
" While teems the world with silence. Even there, In each Protean rainbow-tint that stains The breathing canvas of the atmosphere.
We read an exaltation of thy strains. Thus on the scroll of nature everywhere. Thy name, a deathless syllable, remains."
Not the sea's changing palimpsest, but the fact that the writing of a name so true to God's utterance of himself in nature's beauty, and the writing it so beautifully, — this has made the water that might have been Lethe's oblivious stream his memorial place, firmer to hold this poet's name than adamant. His was a vision from the brain's Pentecost. God had revealed himself to man ; the Holy Spirit of beauty was poured out in the upper chamber of this man's thought and feeling. It was not Babel effort, or Babel confusion, when he sang. He did not fashion his rhymthic glory ; it found him, and uttered itself through him. He was first appre-
(32 REPORT OF PROVISIONAL COMMITTEE. [1895.
hendecl, that he might apprehend. "The Spuit bloweth where it listeth."
" In far retreats of elemental miud, Obscurely comes and goes The imperative breath of song, that as the wind Is trackless and oblivious whence it blows."
The poet and the saint listen for, wait and obey the revelation ; the revelation grants them the eternity of that which it reveals. Let the saint's task to make the divine human and the ideal practi- cal, be initiated at Pentecost. Then, as he seems to die, all things will tell him, —
" Thou bast left behind Powers that will work for thee ; earth, air, and skies ;
There's not a breathing of the common wind That will forget thee ; thou hast great allies ; Thy friends are exultations, agonies.
And love, and Man's unconquerable mind."
REPORT OF PROVISIONAL COMMITTEE.
The Committee met in Plymouth church, Minneapolis, on the adjournment of the last Council ; elected Samuel B. Capen, chair- man, and Rev. H. A. Hazen, Secretary ; and voted that the salaries of the three officers of the Council be continued as before ; also that between meetings of the committee, the secretary's authority to fill vacancies in other committees, and to commission delegates, be continued.
Voted, That the next Council be held in San Francisco, provided satisfactory arrangements can be made.
Committee met in Hartford, Ct., at Memorial Hall, Thursday, Dec. 8. Under the authority of the action of the Council, it was voted to cancel all dues for 1891 and previous years, of Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indian Territory, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ne- vada, New Mexico, N. Carolina, Pennsylvania, S. Carolina, Texas, and W. Virginia, provided that these States remit promptly dues of 1892, and with the expectation of prompt and full payments in future.
180").] REPORT OF PROVISIONAL COMMITTEE. 63
Our seven missionary societies having sent a memorial in refer- ence to a more satisfactory presentation of tlieir worlc, in this Council, a sub-committee was appointed to confer with them. The result of this conference appears on the program in the assignment of, Friday, as missionary day.
Another sub-committee was named " to see if satisfactory arrangements " could be made for the meeting of this Council in San Francisco. This committee pursued inquiries diligently, with the aid of brethren on the Pacific coast, but the result was not favorable ; " satisfactory arrangements " were found impracti- cable. When this issue became probable, Syracuse and Grand Rapids both promptly renewed the invitations presented at Minne- apolis, for this session of the Council. As the Council had once met in Michigan and never in New York, the invitation of Syra- cuse was accepted, and we are here in the heart of the Empire State, to find a welcome as intelligent and hearty as any city in the land could give us.
The matter of the crowding and overloading of our program by the multitude of reports provided for, has been the subject of our prolonged consideration. That some relief is important all who have attended the recent sessions of the Council must feel keenly, but that the proper relief did not come within the prov- ince of the provisional committee is perhaps just as plain. We have notified all committees that we should recommend to this Council, as we here do, that no report exceed fifteen minutes in the reading, except on the order of the Council, given at the time, leave to print more being possible.
And we ask the careful attention of the Council to the question whether, in the interest of its own future sessions, and its larger influence among the churches it will not do well to practise a severer restriction in the appointment of special committees, with their demands upon the time of future sessions. This body needs a larger freedom for debate of vital questions as they arise than is possible, when the program is so nearly mapped out and filled in by the appointments of a body, which adjourned three years be- fore. A lengthening of the session is one of the alternatives and may be necessary, but even if this were done the validity of the suggestion just made would hardly be diminished.
It is proper to call your attention to the fact that, by vote of the last Council, the year 1900 is suggested for a second meeting of
64 REPORT OF PROVISIONAL COMMITTEE. [1895.
the International Council, and Boston as the place. This action has no final effect until it is confirmed by the other bodies inter- ested. And it is not too soon to initiate correspondence on the subject with the Congregational Union of England and Wales, and such other bodies. Our next Council will occur within less than two 3'ears of 1900, and arrangements which will call for the con- current action of bodies on opposite sides of the globe will need more than two years for the best results. Assuming the accept- ance by others of our proposed 'place and date, the time in 1900 when delegates could best convene, the length of the sessions, the basis of representation, and method of electing and certifying delegates, the proper shaping of the program, and other items of preparation can hardly be taken in hand too soon.
We suggest, therefore, that a special committee be appointed at this session and charged with the duty of correspondence with all other bodies likely to be represented in the second International Council, and with any preliminary arrangements which may be found expedient.
We cannot close this report, without reminding you of an un- usual experience in the death of two members of our committee. Rev. M. W. Montgomery died Feb. 6, 1894, and Hamilton A. Hill, April 26, 1895. Both of these brethren brought to our Coun- cils the zeal and devotion which characterized all their public duties, and we bear glad testimony to their sagacious and valuable service. Mr. Montgomery's last public service was given in attend- ing a meeting of our committee. His great work in connection with the Scandinavian churches, was a work for the future and will be more and more significant, as its fruits are garnered.
Mr. Hill was a fine specimen of our more intelligent and broad minded laymen. The history and traditions of the Old South church in Boston were repi'esented in him, more appreciatively, than in any other man, and the two fine volumes, in which he had embodied them, will live as his memorial.
The places made vacant on the committee have been filled by the election of Rev. E. N. Packard, of Syracuse, and Mr. William H. Wanamaker, of Philadelphia.
1895.] REPORT OF PUBLISHING COMMITTEE. 65
EEPORT OF PUBLISHING COMMITTEE.
The Publishing Committee beg leave to report.
Since the last meeting of the Council the Minutes of the session of 1892 have been published, together with the Year Book, 1893-5. Between ten and eleven thousand copies of each are requisite to give each of our ministers and churches a cop}'. The printing has been done by the same house which has performed the work so well for so many years, and whose familiarity with even the tech- nicalities of our kind of work gives us unrivalled facilities. In a number of cases, the same compositors put in type our tables from year to year. The cost is necessarily considerable, but the com- mittee has made no contract without obtaining careful estimates, and finding that our prices compare favorably with those paid by other parties. At the same time this Council would not desire the committee to obtain its work at prices unjust to those who earn their living by their daily labor.
The committee calls special attention to the excellence of our publications, than which no higher appears in the issues sent out by any other denomination. Thecare is necessaril}' in the hands of the Secretary, but the committee has not failed to give its special help, as directed by the Council.
This committee, in 1893, sent to all the State organizations letters urging the adoption of measures by which prompt statistical returns could be secured. It is believed that this effort, with the suggestions made, had marked effect, and will yet bear- more fruit.
The Year Book for 1895, it will be perceived, contains the Five- Year Statistics ordered by the Council. These occupy seventy- five pages, and, of course, add so much to the expense. This will not be repeated until 1900.
The committee knows that our churches are abundantly able to bear the expense of our invaluable publications. These publica- tions bring together into one roll, and give to the world, informa- tion essential to our progress.
It is not to be supposed, therefore, that any material change will be contemplated.
66 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. [1895,
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
The three years which this Council has in review, since our -session in Minneapolis, have been a period of severe and trying experiences in the business world, and on the material side our churches have shared in these to the full. When the Council ad- journed in 1892, the financial cloud was just rising, which has since darkened our skies. Our missionary activities have suffered in its shadow, and many enterprises of the churches have moved slowly, or not moved at all, waiting for more auspicious days.
But periods of outward gloom have been often periods of spiritual brightness in the experience of the Church ; and we may thankfully, toda}^, recognize illustration of this in the fact that our membership has been increased during the triennium hy 58,442, a number larger by 9,000 than in the previous three 3'ears, or any three years of our record. The number added on confession of faith has been 104,879, and the number removed by death 24,626. It is a cheering fact that the number of infant baptisms reaches 34,392, almost 6,000 more than in the last period. The gain in ^Sunday schools is 51,960, and in Young People's Societies 58,985, •the latter reaching a total of 204,085.
As in my last report, I havd prepared tables illustrating our Tecord in three sections, grouping the States in divisions separated approximately by the east line of Ohio and the west line of Missouri.
The total number of churches added to our roll in the three years is 651, but the gain is reduced by the 295 which have been -omitted, and reaches 356, or 119 per year. Of this gain of ■churches, 155 are in the Interior, 128 in the West, and 73 in the East. In this gain Alabama leads the list with 55, Oklahoma .follows with 42, Illinois with 29, and Michigan with 25 : Wisconsin •with 17, California, Iowa, and Massachusetts each with 16, and Plorida with 15 ; and South Dakota and Washington each with 13.
The gain of members is largest in the interior, 31,077, — 3,500 more than in the East and West combined. In this roll Illinois stands first with 6,994, followed by Michigan with 5,326, and Iowa with -5,034. Then comes Massachusetts with 4,060, California with 3,480, ^nd Ohio with 3,123.
1895.] REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 67
In this connection, you may be intei'ested to note that the five States having more than 300 churches are, Massachusetts, with 589 ; Michigan, 843 ; Illinois, 326 ; Connecticut, 315, and Iowa, 314. In the order of membership, those having more than 30,000 are, Massachusetts, 109,474 ; Connecticut, 61,357 ; New York, 46,580 ; Illinois, 43,065 ; Ohio, 37,257, and Iowa, 30,525.
Our total benevolent contributions reported for the three years stand $7,244,682. The average per member is $12.89, or $4.22 per annum. The influence of the financial situation appears in the contrast of the small gain of $124,609 with that of $1,138,806 during the preceding triennium. As 1892 did not feel the effect of the stringency, and shows a fair gain of $200,000, the decrease comes in view in the last two j'ears, reaching more than $350,000, and 1894 shows the smallest total since 1887.
The Fifth Year Statistics, as ordered by the Council, are again reported in the last Year Book. The}- show that our 5,342 churches have 4,417 houses of worship, valued at $45,678,028, or an average of $10,341 ; thut 2,032 of the churches have parson- ages, valued at $4,580,239; that 1,022 of the churches have invested funds to the amount of $3,881,750, and 1,562 churches have debts amounting to $3,300,796 ; or in other words, the invested funds would pay all the debts and leave $381,000 surplus.
The salaries of 3,592 ministers are reaching a total of $4,041,727, and an average of $1,125. The actual average would probably exceed this sura ; for some churches reported sums paid for part of a year, as the salary, which is a yearl}- stipend. I ought to add that some churches and ministers object to reporting salaries, and, without expressing any opinion, it is proper that I should raise the question whether the Council has any desire to modif}' the five-year schedule, before another quinquennial period returns,
I renew the suggestion made at Minneapolis by the State secre- taries, that the column reporting separately the benevolence of the Sunday schools be omitted from our statistics. The Sunday school represents one department only of the work of the church. There is no good reason why its benevolent giving should be sin- gled out for special report, while other departments of work are not so emphasized. The showing which our Ladies' Benevolent Societies could make, in their various forms, would be interesting;
6b REPOET OF THE SECRETARY. [1895.
and our Young People's Societies give much, just as worthy of special mention.
In fact, the report of the Maine secretary calls for a column, devoted to the young people's benevolence, as having 'a claim to similar favor with the Sunday school ; an argument not to be denied. Our best reply will be to omit the Sunday school benev- olent column as out of place ; and the same reason would, per- haps, call for the leaving. out of Sunday school " column 3" as well.
Injustice is done to our report of total benevolence, by the statement of this item separately. In spite of all instructions and exhortations, man}' reporters, after giving this by itself, will not take the trouble to include it properly in the total.
But this session of the Council is, in some respects, fitly com- memorative, and renders a wider review appropriate. Twenty-five years ago, in 1870, the initiatory measures were in progress which resulted in the organization of the National Council. And thirty years ago, amid the retreating echoes of the great Civil War, the Boston Council was held, the first great National Council. While this body provided for no succession, and had no organic connec- tion with our triennial assembly, it bore the closest vital relations with the later body. It prepared the way for and showed the need and the feasibilit}' of this Council, and practically any adequate review of our history must begin with 1865.
Looking back, then, over the thirty years, we ought to ask our- selves some questions: What has been accomplished? Has a National Council demonstrated its right to be by its results? Can we show any progress? Has our fellowship borne fruit in the extension of Christ's kingdom, at home and abroad, not likely to have been reached without this agency ?
Such questions, in their broader aspects, do not fall within your seci'etary's province ; but in their statistical lines I may properly submit some of their lessons for your consideration.
When the Council met in Boston, in 1865, it represented a con- stituency of 2,745 churches, with a membership of 262,649, in 23 States and Territories. It has made its way, in the thirty years, into twenty-six States, and is now at home in every State, save Del- aware, and in every Territory, except Alaska. It has added 2,597 churches to its roll, almost doubling their number, and it has gained 320,890 in its membership, an increase of more than 122 per cent. During the same time the population of the county has
1895.] EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 69
increased from a probable 35,000,000 in 1865, to a probable 69,000,000 in 1895, or 94 per cent., giving our churches a ratio of increase 28 per cent, larger than that of the population with which we have tcf do. Or, if we allow another million and a doubling of our population, our membership has still gained more by 22 per cent.
The studj- of our growth, geographicall}', is interesting. In the East, the States added to our roll are the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, and West Virginia, with 182 churches. In the interior, Alabama, Arkansas, Ken- tucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, with 107 churches. In the West, Arizona, Idaho, Indian Territory, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and W^'oming, or thirteen of the eighteen States now enrolled, with 361 churches. In other words, twenty-six States, which include 710 churches, represent our progress, in part, for the period.
Look along a different line. In the South, before the war, we had one church in South Carolina and five in Maryland. There was no welcome there for our free polity or free principles. But the New South has a place and welcome for us, as witness the fifteen States and 467 churches represented in our Council to-day.
Nor are results in the West less inspiring. Not to more than mention the foundations laid in a number of those great common- wealths, California has multiplied its churches more than tenfold, from 19 to 196 ; Colorado, from 3 to 57 ; Kansas, from 32 to 187 ; Nebraska, from 10 to 186 ; Oregon, from 7 to 52 ; while in four great States, which in 1865 had not even a name, all are now represented; Washington, by 113 churches; the Dakotas, North and South, by 224 churches, and Oklahoma, youngest born of our sisterhood, by 63 churches. Nor does it signify little that in our older sections Pennsylvania reports 109 churches instead of 28 ; and that Connecticut has added 31 churches. New York 77, and Massachusetts 100 ; Indiana, 27 ; Wisconsin, 64 ; Missouri, 78; Illinois, 108; Minnesota, 147; Iowa, 162, and Michigan, 198.
To summarize these various details by sections, the East has added 527 churches and 112,428 church members; the interior, 989 churches and 142,305 members; the West, 1,081 churches and 66,157 members.
70 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. [1895.
I submit, fathers and brethren of the Council, that figures like these are hardly dr3\ They tell of the vitality of our churches, of the vigor and the success with which our Congregationalism has been doing its work. We- need not, must not, be satisfied with this story. It ought to tell of larger results and more splendid conquests for our Master. If our wealth, our ability of every sort, and our opportunities, had been adequately improved, with supreme consecration to the Lord Jesus Christ, how much more abundant had been the fruits of our service ! Our only proper attitude is humility when we recall how little we have done and how much we have left undone.
At the same time the facts are worth our knowing. If there is Inspiration or instruction in them let us have the benefit.
A.nd this record carries with it the justification of the Council, and the wisdom of its founders. This conclusion has more to rest upon than the fallacy post hoc, ergo propter hoc. Granted, that if this bond of Congregational fellowship had not been formed, such a body of churches as ours were in 1865 would have gone forward to many large and cheering results. But they would have lacked a mighty inspiration, and a grand attractive force. Maine and California, New York and Georgia, could have had no such acquaintance with one another as has quickened their common work. East and West, North and South, we have looked one another in the face, have recognized our common problems and diflBculties, and have joined hands in mutual helpfulness. We know one another, and we love one another, as was not possible before. And these are vital factors in whatever force the Master has enabled us to use in his name.
As an instrument for his service we shall do well t« cherish and strengthen the bonds of our Council, and make the future far more fruitful than the past.
1895.]
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY
71
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72 ADDRESS OF THE MODERATOR. [1895.
ADDRESS BY REV. A. H. QUINT,i
THE RETIRIKG MODERATOR. — 1895.
Elders and Messengers of the Churches:
It has been decided by those in charge of the opening of this Triennial Session, the ninth of the series, to follow a custom of our English brethren, whereby an address, more or less extended, is demanded from the retiring Moderator. This new requirement may or may not become permanent. I have, however, only to obey.
You will not censure me, I know, if for the moment I turn in memory to the hour when at Oberlin, twenty-four years ago, there came to me, as Chairman of the Preliminary^ Committee of our Churches, the simple duty and the great honor of calling to order the members of that First Council. I see before me, here and there, one who was then present. Y''ou will certainly allow me to mention the faithful Registrar, who has served us so efficiently from that period until now. But Budington, the Moderator ; Bacon, who preached the sermon ; Ray Palmer, whose beautiful hymn, beginning " My faith looks up to Thee," was sung then as now ; Langworthy and Kitchel, from the east ; Atkinson and Dwinell from the Pacific shore ; Healy from the mouth of the Mississippi, and, from the intermediate States, Finney, Morgan, Sturtevant, Wolcott, Andrews, Chapin, Turner, Post, Ross, Merri- mau ; with Barstow, Russell Bradford, Hardy, Farnsworth, Grinnell, and the war-governor Buckingham, — have all gone, with many another, from the church militant where they fought a good fight, to the church triumphant where they find the promised rest.
But j-our ranks are full to-day. I see in them men coming from all parts of the broad land which greets the morning sun on the Atlantic shores and witnesses its setting in the waters of the Pacific ; which reaches from the great northern lakes to the salt southern sea. I see gray-haired men who were young in the time of that first Council, grown only more strong in faith, more rich in experience, more powerful in work by the service of this quarter
' Page 12.
1895.] ADDRESS OF THE MODERATOR. 73
of a century. I see a new, a young generation, bold, ardent, en- thusiastic, already achieving successes in our Lord's service, and giving promise of still more heroic deeds and still greater triumphs. But no; we are but one body, neither young nor old. We are united in Christ, in the one perpetual Church, which has but one object, and which is always young and always old. We have but one experience, though more or less advanced, reproduced in every generation by the one Eternal Spirit. We come together in the name and in the service of our churches, found in the cities, in the mountains, in the valleys, in the prairies, in the cotton fields, and in the mines. We are one of the smaller tribes, but important in- terests are embodied in our more than five thousand churches and an equal number of ministers, our fellowship of six hundred thousand communicants, and the more than seven hundred and fift3' thousand upon the roll of our Sunday schools ; and we meet to consult upon the great single work which overrides all the diver- sified interests, and meets all the diversified wants, of humanity, by the one unchangeable gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, — the gospel of Bethlehem and Calvary and Olivet, and the Christ who is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.
There are interesting questions agitating the Christian world, or some parts of the Christian world, which I do not care to enumer- ate. They are mainlv controversial. I do not think we are here to discuss them. If they were to be discussed anywhere, certainly I should not feel called upon to introduce them. Thei'e is a primal thought, under Christ, which seems to "belong to this occasion. This Council stands before the world as a Congregational Council. We are Congregational people. Our churches are Congregational. Our ministers are Congregational. Our methods in carrying on the work of the gospel are Congregational. The word seems to differentiate us from other parts of the Church catholic. What in the present condition of the Church, and particularly in the desire for church unity, does Congregationalism signify ? Let us attempt an answer.
Yet first, we are not separated from the great Church of Christ by any distinctive doctrines. We affirm no provincial theologies. We hold the historic faith in common with all Christendom. The constitution of this association of churches itself declares that the understanding of the scriptures by our churches is in accordance with the faith commonly called Evangelical. It is the faith embodied
74 ADDRESS OF THE MODERATOR. [1895.
in the consensus of the whole church. So greatly and reverently do we recognize the supremacy of the sublime facts of redemption, in comparison with even the most important of beliefs which dis- tinguish any one part of the visible Church from any other part, that we are at a disadvantage when we come to discuss any peculiarities of our own.
Congregationalism is almost ashamed to be distinctive, and gladly it would be merged in the undivided Church, if it found the undivided catholic Church in which to lose its name. It is so merged, so far as the mighty facts of Christ's royalty are con- cerned, and it refuses to be separated from Christians of other organized polities in the communion of faith, or in the labors of the Church universal for the salvation of men.
Yet again, while we have a particular outward order and certain methods of service which we conscientiously believe are the best for us, and to which we think we have been providentially led, we do not say that this order and these methods are the best for others. Still more, we dare not exalt a system into any such prominence as to obscure or diminish the real glory of the kingdom of Christ itself ; nor dare we limit in thought the power of the Holy Spirit to work through all agencies. Before the fruits of the Spirit, wherever found, we bow in reverence. Our chosen instru- mentalities have in fact suffered from this breadth. We have dreaded, not to be called narrow, but to be narrow, in benefactions and labors for the great cause. Our churches have been the favor- ite foraging fields of men who sought for gifts to promote individ- ual enterprises outside of our established work, although often of the same character, — enterprises which appealed to sympathy, and which may or may not have been wise in inception or judicious in management. Gifts have not been niggardly even when appeals came from men of other denominations for purely denominational use. We have established thirty-four colleges and universities out- side of New England ; had the moneys which our people have given to kindred work outside of our fold been given to these institutions not one of the feeblest of ours would now be lacking the generous endowments necessary to their highest success. Had the moneys lavishly given upon personal appeals to the assistance of work which is far better done under the guaranties and by the hands of our own responsible agents, appointed by our own churches, been given to those agencies, our great societies would not uow be depressed by the chilling debt-cloud which hangs over them.
1895.] ADDRESS OF THE MODERATOR. 75
Still, there is distinctiveness of character. Else why this Coun- cil ? Why our history ? Why our future ? We are bolder than our fathers. In a pi'oper sense, we have become assertive. We have no more denials to make as to our character, and no more doubts to cherish of the safety of our system. In 1799, the Hart- ford North Association united in the declaration : "This associa- tion gives information to all whom it may concern, that the consti- tution of the churches in the State of Connecticut ... is not Congregational, but contains the essentials of the church of Scot- land." And in 1805 the General Association of Connecticut appointed a committee to " publish a new and elegant edition of the ecclesiastical constitution of" what it placidly called " the Presby- terian Church in Connecticut." But we have ceased to be ashamed of our name. It is distinctive because it embodies a principle. It is an historical fact that professors, in the early years of our theological seminary, advised young men who were going westward to enter another denomination. This was far from being due merely to a desire for unity. They did not believe that Chris- tians in the new settlements could be trusted with the power of local self-government. Liberty is the safety of liberty, and we have found that Christians can be left to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Experience has demonstrated that the American idea of local self-government, which Congregationalists gave to this coun- try, is safe in the church where it originated ; originated not by elaborate constitutions which dictated the form of the church, but by the natural union of believers whose hearts brought them to- gether for the united worship of God, the observance of the few symbols which the Master gave, and communion in exhortation and Christian work. Such do we find in the apostolic daj's. Chris- tians, led by the Spirit, are capable of administering Iheir own affairs. If they sometimes err, that they see their error and vol- untarily change their course is the only effectual remed3\ When our churches were entirely within the sound of the Atlantic surf, their very neighborhood and constant intercourse gave them essen- tial union. But when they began their extension over broad areas, more formal recognition of oneness came of itself. I think that churches in Ohio led the way in formal permanent union. Then in time came broader association. Experience has demonstrated to us that the natural affiliation of all churches in such organized gatherings as this present one, for discussing
76 ADDRESS OF THE MODERATOR. [1895.
in Christian love matters of common concern to the churches, and for determining the best methods of broad Christian work, without power to decree or order, is also safe and effective. All this is safe because the superior power is in the Lord Jesus Christ only, the Head of the Church, and the guidance and govern- ment is by the Holy Spirit. And when Christians shall fail to be drawn together by loj'alty to Christ and shall need to be kept in their relations to one another by coercive power ruling them, let the useless form of an external and heartless fellowship vanish, and Christian order recr^'stallize itself under the mighty potency of Christian faith and Christian love. This is the essential idea of Congregationalism as a polity. This is, to us, the essential idea of formal unitv.
Our Congregationalism came to us historically, b}- the way of Plj-mouth Rock. It came from England through Holland, where a band of exiles from their native land had kept their faith in sub- lime patience. One of those Pilgrims has told us of the tender words with which their pastor, John Robinson, bade them fare- well, as they were embarking for the New World : —
" We are now ere long to part asunder, and the Lord knoweth whether ever he should live to see our faces again ; but whether the Lord had ap- pointed it or not, he charged us before God aud his blessed angels, to follow him no further tliMU he followed Christ. And if God should reveal anything to us by any other instrument of his, to be as ready to receive it as ever we were to receive any truth by his Ministry: For he was very confident the Lord had more truth and light yet to break Ibrth out of his holy Word."
If we had a human charter, it would be this utterance. I know of nothing in all literature which more completely contains, or more beautifully expresses, the germinant principles of our sys- tem. Two great facts are recognized. First, the absolute suprem- acy of Jesus Christ; secondl}', the authority of the word of God, given us in the holy scriptures as the historic guide of faith in that supreme Lord. I refer to it not as authoritative but as illus- trative.
The first of these, the supremacy of Christ, presents our only law-giver. For ourselves, — we do not speak for others, — we do not find warrant for regarding any men or any set of men, how- ever appointed, as having authority to prescribe other church order than that visible in the recorded history of the apostolic
1895.] ADDRESS OF THE MODERATOR. 77
churches. " The kings of the Gentiles have lordship over them. . . . But ye shall not be so," said our Lord, even to his chosen apostles. We object, not to any particular form of government which men may choose to adopt, and to which they may surrender their own freedom if they please, but we do object to any claim which demands our submission to such government. Our Puritan fathers in England did not so much refuse ceremonies and vest- ments because of scruples against the ceremonies and vestments, as they refused to obey those who they claimed had no authority to order the ceremonies and vestments. It was not merely some features in a ritual which they antagonized, but they antagonized the authority which prescribed any ritual as the rigid order of true worship. We hold, as they did, that any congregation of believ- ers may worship in any ritual it finds profitable. But we hold that any congregation whose spiritual instincts prefer the simplest utterances of prayer and song is none the less entitled to equal recognition in the Church of God.
The sole supremacy of Jesus Christ, as the Head of the Church, strikes away the name and authority of any and every man, how- ever great that man, in determining theology or in giving name to a sect. John Robinson, before whom those exiles bowed, in his sublime self-abnegation turned their look to Christ, and he foreknew that some other would come who would increase while himself should decrease. Christ only. AVe cannot assume the name of Luther or Calvin or Wesley. Great men were these, mighty men, and their life has been infused into the Christian Church, and their teachings have added to the great wealth of Christian thought. But we look above them, to their Lord and our Lord, and bow only to the name of Him who sitteth upon the throne forever and ever.
It would be needless for us to tell the world that the word of God expressed in the sacred scriptures is to us authoritative. It is exclusively authoritative. Men have said, plainly by way of disparagement, that the Church existed before the New Testament scriptures, and gave us those scriptures. But we recognize the fact that without those scriptures we should not know that there was a Church. We should not know even that there was a Christ. "Men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost." Here are the teachings of the unerring Christ, to whose slightest word, brought to the remembrance of the apostolic writers by the Holy
78 ADDRESS OF THE MODERATOR. [1895.
Spirit, as Jesus himself promised should be done, we listen in profound submission. But, for this very reason, we find ourselves obliged to refuse submission to such as claim authority to impose upon us their own creeds and confessions of faith. Our creeds, when we make them, are onlj' our testimonies of belief. They are not statutes. We must hold to the truth ; but we distinguish be- tween the truth and the formulas in which that truth may be stated. It is a vital distinction. Even when the forms of state- ment of scriptural truths made by men who placed them in logical and orderly arrangement ma}' satisfy us, we accept them because they seem to us to express facts, and not because there is any authorit}' for requiring us to' accept them. From them we con- tinually recur to the scriptures for the infallible word of God. The Evangelical faith we find in various confessions, but we cannot admit any one of these confessions to be authoritative or exclu- sive. It is easy to state the scriptural facts in simple language. But men have made great theological treatises, philosophical, metaphj'sical, inferential, which they have called confessions of faith. We study them, but Christ has given none of their authors ■commission to impose them upon his Church.
The best of these forms of statement are human, and therefore imperfect in theh* language. They are incomplete, because human experience cannot cover the complete truth of God, and the finite cannot define the infinite. They are sectional, because framed by single sections of the whole Church. They are conceived in the spirit of a particular age, and, so far as thus conceived, may not be fitted to the age which follows. The truth in them is eternal ; the outward expression of that truth is transitor3\ There is no logical ending to the search for authoritative and unchangeable creeds till we reach the Vatican.
I have quoted from the words of John Robinson that more light is yet to break forth from the Word of God. More than once has it been assumed as the significance of Robinson's expression that the Word of God itself was to be superseded. Nothing could more completely misrepresent that devout man. The light is to come from the Word of God. The Word itself is to be luminous. The experience of the Church is to understand it better from age to age. The great facts involved in redemption are to stand out more and more clearly. For this very reason we have no practi- cal use for men who would throw aside what they call musty books
1895.] ADDRESS OF THE MODERATOR. 79
and parchments, and who claioa direct inspiration from God. For the same reason, that of progressive light, our churches have never admitted that the philosophical creed-statements of any age can possibly be a finality.
In the Tower of London there is many a suit of plate armor, headpiece and corselet, gauntlets and greaves, which covered a man from head to foot. It was the armor of the day. It did necessary service in its time. From a memorable chamber, not far distant from that tower, and equall}' the place of pilgrimage, went forth a mighty confession of faith some centuries ago. It was logical, riveted, powerful, sometimes terrible. Its conception of God is sublime. It was the truth wrought out in times of fire. Its influence for good has been vast. But the manhood within the armor was the real power of the armored man ; and the same man- hood without the iron weight was the power which in our day worked the guns on the slippery decks and marshalled the lines of musketr}- upon the land. The Christian manhood within the great creed was, in its superb faith and loyalty, the real power ; and the same heroic Christian manhood has in our time, without the armor, but with the same faith in God, gone out through all the world to reconquer it to Jesus, and has achieved its victories by the simplest message of the cross.
Again must I repeat the principle, in its application to creed- standards, that we do not deny the right of other men to estab- lish authoritative declarations of belief for themselves. We can even recognize some great advantage in such compact and strong digests. We do not deny the right of any men to promise allegiance to such standards, and we can see that men may derive personal advantage from the shelter of such a government and such stand- ards. But for ourselves, and in our training, we would have to feel that the opinion of Lord Chief-Justice Holt, in reference to a college, would necessarily apply in reference to the advantage acquired by church authority and church standards. "I am far from being such a judge," said that eminent jurist, " as shall lay any intolerable yoke upon any one's neck ; but I must say if the head and members of a college will receive a charity with a yoke tied to it by the founder, they must be contented to enjoy it in the same manner they received it from him. If they will have the one, they must submit to the other."
We can then readily see the Congregational position as to the
80 ADDRESS OF THE MODERATOR. [1895.
outward unity of the Church general of which we are a part. Under Christ's supreme authority, and in the devout acceptance of the Evangelical faith, visible unity is possible. But this unity is not uniformity. Each part of the Church of Christ can recognize the right of every other part to state in its own language the essential truth which all alike hold, and can properly honor the confessions of others without surrendering its own. Each part of the Church can recognize the right of every other part to remain in that form of church order to which those other parts have been led by the Spirit of God ; and can recognize such a right while still cherishing its own form. Each part of the Church of Christ can recognize the right of any other part to shape its own worship- ritual, without in any way abandoning what ministers to its own edification. Each part of the church can recognize the conscien- tious convictions held by any other part as to the form of an out- ward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, while faithfully adhering in its own practice to the method which it re- gai'ds as imperative upon itself. "My brother ministers" were the significant words which I once heard the great-hearted Phillips Brooks utter at a gathering of Congregationalists ; and perhaps in the same spirit any section of the Church of Christ, while rever- ently preserving its own outward forms, might acknowledge that a divine ordination has, through centuries, rested upon the great multitude of devout and godly men, whose works show that the Spirit has borne them witness tliat they were kings and priests unto God. Such a visible unity may be a dream. Many would prefer that one body of Christians shall absorb all others into its own order, and impose uniform rules upon the whole. But this is still more a dream than the thought of Christian recognition and co-operation. Our International Council at Lon- don, in 1891, unanimously declared its readiness for a simple federation of all Christian bodies ; and our National Council of 1892 unanimously sustained this declaration. Indeed, were there to be ever accomplished a closer organic unity, this suggested course would be a necessary preliminary. That it would be a great sign to the world that the Church is one church in its spirit and its aims, who can doubt ?
But in the meantime we have the work to do to which God has called us. We find our duty and our privilege in the Christian nurture of children ; in Christian education by Christian schools ;
1895.] ADDRESS OF THE MODERATOR. 81
in thorough training for the ministry of Christ ; in providing the preaching of the Word for destitute places, and the erection of houses of worship for homeless churches ; in touching the needs of cities with Christian hands ; in the uplifting of races who cry for help, and in sending out heroic missionaries of the cross to all ' parts of this world. We have little machinery for this work. Such channels as seemed to have been spontaneously opened are oui's, and they are sufficient. But activities are not life. We may go forward, but skirmish lines without reserves would be a failure. Increase Mather's words are true to-day, as they were nearly two hundred years ago: " The Congregational Church Disci- pline is not suited for a Worldly Interest, or for a formal Gener- ation of Professors. It will stand or fall as Godliness in the power of it does prevail or otherwise."
What Congregationalism signifies to us is the absolute suprem- acy of the Lord Jesus Christ ; the equality of all Christians in their relation to him ; the responsibility and discipline of brotherhood in government. It does not signify' to us what it did three hundred years ago, when Penry, Greenwood, and BaiTowe, the last of our martyrs to suffer death, died upon the scaffold for conscience' sake. But it does mean the liberty which was achieved by perhaps the greatest of our number, Oliver Cromwell, greatest of England's monarchs ; «t does mean the Pilgrim's idea of freedom to worship God without that union of Church and State which for a time, alas, misled the sterner men of Massachusetts Bay, but which, fortunately, never misled the men who founded the churches of the centre and west. The Pilgrim principle of a spiritual kingdom, free and unshackled, carried forward by spiritual forces, and dependent upon the divine power vouchsafed to a willing church is the hope and prophecy of victory.
«2
REPORT OF SAMUEL B. FORBES.
[1895.
REPORT OF SAMUEL B. FORBES, ^
Treasurer of the National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States, for the three years ending July 31, 1895.
Receipts.
Cash on baud Sept. 30, 1892 . . . ,
■Received from the local bodies . . . ■ for advertisements in Year-Book interest on deposits . . . . for Year-Boi)k sold . . . .
Appropriated from the Security Fund
Borrowed for current expenses
Disbursements. Paid Alfred Mudge & Son, printers
Henry A. Hazen, salary and expenses, and bills for obituary notices, clerical assistance, postage and expressage
"William H. Moore, salary and expenses .
Samuel B. Forbes, " " . .
David N. Camp, auditor
Marcus W. Montgomery, expenses of committee
Abel H. Ross, special services ....
loans
interest on notes and loans .... Ileturned to Wisconsin on request of treasurer JBalance oi cash with Connecticut Trust and Safe Deposit Company,
Pkesent Condition of the Treasuky.
^Ve owe the Security Fund
William H. Moore
S. B. Forbes
$220 19
22,174 6.5
1,07.3 51
34 21
1 00
3,900 00
1,800 00
$29,203 54
$17,782 46
8,066 65
276 99
777 23
8 70
.54 91
41 43
1,200 00
155 29
50 00
789 88
$29,203 54
$3,900 00
600 00
1,000 00
Total . Cash on hand
Resources.
Unpaid dues of 1894 and previous years 1893 ....
Total unpaid dues
Deduct as uncollectable
Total dues collectable
' Pasre 15.
$5,500 00 486 28
$.5,013 72
$1,581 73 4,197 15
$5,778 88 1,000 00
$4,778 88
1895.] REPORT OF SAMUEL B. FORBES. 83
If this whole amount were paid to-day, we could pay all our obligations, and have a cash balance of $234.84 on hand. 12 States have paid in full to date.
19 States have paid all dues of 1894 and previous years.
19 States are in arrears on dues of 1894 and previous years . . $1,.581 73 36 States are in arrears on dues of 189,5 4,197 15
The National Council Skourity Fund.
The fuud was originally $3,000.00. At last report, Sept. 30, 1892,
with accumulated interest, it was ...... $3,932 04
In 1893 it was reduced by drafts for Council bills to . , . 1,418 40
In 1894 it was reduced in the same way to . . . . . 123 16
Interest added to date 4 94
Total of the Security Fuud, July 31, 1895 log lo
Samuel B. Forbes, Treasurer. Hartford, July 31, 1895.
Assets of Security Fund.
Deposited in Society for Savings .... Hartford, $39 07
Mechanics Savings Bank ... " 47 19
Torriugton " " ... Torrington, 41 84
$128 10
Additor's Certificate.
I hereb}' certif}- that I have this clay examined the book.s and accounts of Rev. Samuel B. Forbes, treasurer of the National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States, and have found the same to be correct, showing a balance on Jul}^ 31, 1895, of S789.88, in the general account, which is deposited with the Connecticut Trust and Safe Deposit Company, Hartford, and a remainder of Si 28. 10 of the Securitj' Fund, which is deposited in savings banks.
David N. Camp, Auditor.
Hartford, Conn., Aug. 2^ 1895.
84 REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE. [1895.
REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE, i
To the National Council of the Congregational Churches of ike United States :
The report and statements of your treasurer, Rev. Samuel B. Forbes, for three years ending July 31, 1895, have been referred to the finance committee for examination and report. They have also had before them the record book of the provisional committee, with proceedings of the last National Council, and reports pre- sented to this Council.
The report of your committee, in order to place the matter clearly before you, naturally divides itself into three parts : —
First, in what consist the necessary expenses of tl\is organiza- tion, which from this meeting extends, or should extend, with potent influence as a means of efficient help, courage, cheer, to every church in our denomination, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the British Dominions to the Gulf ?
Second, the mode of collecting these funds from the different State Associations ; and
Third, the administration of these funds when collectecl.
These topics have had the prolonged consideration of your com- mittee, on which they have consulted with your secretaries and auditor, as well as with some who have had practical experience as members of the provisional committee ; to all of whom they would here express their thanks.
And first. In what consist these annual necessary expenses? They are not large, whether j^ou consider the extended influence of this Council or the amount of work done. These figures and estimates include an annual expenditure, the fiscal year terminating on July 31.
1. Salaries.
Secretary $1,500 00
Clerical assistance .... 200 00
700 00
Registrar 68 00
Treasurer ...... 250 00
$2,0i8 00
' Page 29.
1895.] REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE. 85
2. Publications and their Distribution. (a) The Year Book :
Printing $5,927 48
Postage and expressage . . 1,100 00 Preparing obituary notices . . 100 00
,127 48
{d) Minutes of Council (triennally) :
Printing $3,000 00
re 1,000 00
$4,000 00 One third 1,334 00
;,461 48
Note. — Of the Year- Book annually, and of the Council Minutes triennally, are printed ten or eleven thousand copies; one copy of each of which is sent by mail or express to every Congre- gational minister whose name is on the roll of the Year-Book, and one to every church in the list of churches.
3. Sundries. Expenses of auditor (no salary is attached to this ofBce) ; travelling expenses of members of the pro- visional committee who reside at a distance from place of meeting ; expenses of special committees ; stationery, printing occasional circulars and blanks for reports, and postage of secretary and
treasurer 759 00
Total estimated annual expenditures . . . . $11,238 48
The item of interest on loans made by the treasurer, as necessity demanded, to meet liabilities, is not included in this estimate, as the receipts for advertising in the Year-Book will more than cover this sum.
We think the Council will agree with the committee that these expenses are not exorbitant, j'et with the development of our country, with the growth of our denomination, whose principles under God's grace are meeting the wants of our increasing popu- lation, as we are taught by the facts brought before us with cumulative power at each succeeding meeting of this Council, these expenses will increase. But our churches, we fully believe,
S6 EEPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE. [1895.
will respond to the call if the matter is properly brought before them.
The second part of this report relates to securing these necessary funds.
This can only be done by a per-capita call upon our church membership, which number, at the date of this year's Year-Bool^, 583,539 ; the amount of this call has hitherto varied from half a cent per member to a cent and a half, which has been the amount for quite a number of years. The present rate of one and a half cents per member would yield only $8,753.08.
Therefore, to secure the sum above estimated, it will be necessary to advance the call to two cents per member, which will yield only $11,670.78 if all sums are collected.
To the present serious condition of our treasury, as stated in our treasurer's report, your earnest attention should at this point be called. The debt upon the treasury to-day is $5,013.72, with $234.84 on hand to meet same. The resources from which this deficit of $4,778.88 is to come on the unpaid dues of the churches, whieh, after deducting $1,000 as probably uucoUectable, would very nearly meet the same.
From careful examination, your committee are convinced that our treasurer has used every reasonable effort to collect these dues, and we believe that the fault largely lies with the State treasurers, through whom our treasurer makes collection of funds from the churches. The carefully tabulated statement presented by the treasurer shows that nineteen States are in arrears on dues of 1894 and previous years in the sum of ... . $1,581 73
and thirty-six States in arrears on dues of 1895 . . 4,197 Ip
making total of arrears of . . . . . $5,778 88
Only twelve States have paid in full up to date. Your committee would embody this statement in their report.
Now, brethren, " these thing sought not'to be." The facts are discreditable to our denomination. There is not one member of this Council but believes that this, the business department, and, we may sa}^, the vital part of our organization, should, as recom- mended by our treas\irer, be conducted on a cash basis, without the necessity of his borrowing as heretofore. If there is anj' bor- rowing to be done, it should be by the State treasurers, who are in arrears.
1895.]
REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE.
87
On the third topic, viz., the administration of the funds wlien collected, your committee believe the expenditures have been faith- full}^ made ; suggestions whereby greater simplicity in the working of the business department may be secured, and in the statements- of the several expenditures, are embodied in recommendations.
[These recommendations, as adopted b}' the Council, may be found in the Minutes, at page 29. The report also incorporates the following : — ]
Statesient of Treasurer of the National Council, in Account AviTii THE Local Bodies.
State. Alabama Arizona . Arkansas California Colorado
District of Columbia Florida . Georgia Idaho Illinois . Indiana . Indian Territory Iowa Kansas . Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada . New Hampshire New .Jersey . New Mexico . New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio and W. Virginia Oklahoma
|
E |
ue July 1, 1894. |
Due July 1, 1895. |
|
$00 00 |
$64 06. |
|
|
3 18 |
3 06. |
|
|
.32 U |
4 S& |
|
|
00 00 |
227 04 |
|
|
00 00 |
42 60 |
|
|
00 CO |
00 oa |
|
|
24 78 |
26 31 |
|
|
60 10 |
61 66^ |
|
|
00 00 |
00 00 |
|
|
00 00 |
603 56 |
|
|
00 00 |
51 22^ |
|
|
19 9.5 |
] 68 |
|
|
00 00 |
427 32: |
|
|
182 29 |
187 84 |
|
|
74 09 |
9 0& |
|
|
00 00 |
22 51 |
|
|
00 00 |
00 OO |
|
|
00 00 |
00 00 |
|
|
00 00 |
00 OO |
|
|
00 00 |
219 31 |
|
|
00 00 |
246 72 |
|
|
5 00 |
2 14 |
|
|
00 00 |
00 OO |
|
|
6 81 |
7 18 |
|
|
00 00 |
179 51 |
|
|
8 40 |
81 |
|
|
00 00 |
00 00' |
|
|
00 00 |
50 00- |
|
|
19 85 |
3 22 |
|
|
00 00 |
292 97 |
|
|
26 89 |
21 76 |
|
|
00 00 |
00 00 |
|
|
00 00 |
494 26 |
|
|
00 00 |
14 61 |
S8
REPORT ON COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.
[1895.
State . Due July 1, 1884.
Oregon $00 00
Pennsylvania 789 39
Rhode Island 00 00
South Carolina 55 76
South Dakota 82 51
Tennessee 26 75
Texas 119 64
Utah 10 48
Vermont 00 00
Virginia 00 00
Washington 33 72
West Virginia 00 00
Wisconsin 00 00
Wyoming . 00 00
$1,581 73
|
Due July 1, 1895- |
|
|
$00 00 |
|
|
152 |
94 |
|
112 |
21 |
|
5 |
46 |
|
82 |
93 |
|
26 |
22 |
|
17 |
10 |
|
17 |
08 |
|
161 |
56 |
|
00 |
00 |
|
67 |
50 |
|
00 |
00 |
|
284 |
62 |
|
00 |
00 |
$4,197 15
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 1
The National Council of 1889 instructed the provisional com- mittee to " secure, if found practicable, space in the proposed Exposition of 1892, in which to show what Congregationalism has done for the world." In conformity with that instruction the fol- lowing persons were appointed "to do whatever is practicable to carry out the purpose of the Council, as expressed in the resolu- tion referred to, in the matter of the Columbian Exposition," namely, Rev. J. G. Johnson, Rev. W. H. Warren, O. B, Barrows, and Isaac N. Camp. Rev. F. W. Gunsaulus had been appointed but was not able to serve. Rev. F. A. Noble was named in his place, who, after some important aid in the beginning, withdrew.
The committee organized, chose a chairman, and applied for space at the Exposition. It was embarrassed by the uncertainty in regard to the opening of the Fair on Sunday. The committee reported its action and its embarrassment to the Council of 1892, at Minneapolis, and after discussion the subject was referred to a committee consisting of Rev. W. M. Barrows, Rev. E. K. Alden, Rev. Morton Dexter, A. T. Free, and Rev. W. H. "Ward. Their report closed with the following resolution : " We therefore rec- ommend that this whole matter be referred to the committee of
' Pa£:e 16,
1895.] REPORT ON COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 89
which Rev. J. G. Johnson, of Chicago, is chairman, with full power to act as circumstances may require ; and in case favorable action is determined upon, that this committee be empowered to add to its numbers, and fill any vacancies that may occur. We promise our hearty co-operation in carrying out any plans that this committee may think wise."
Acting upon this as final instruction, the committee added to its numbers so that it consisted of the following persons : Rev. J. G. Johnson, Rev. E. P. Goodwin, Rev. G. S. F. Savage, Rev. W. Scott, Prof. H. M. Scott, Rev. S. Gilbert, I. N. Camp, E. W. Blatchford, Rev. W. H. Warren, Geo. B. Barrows. Rev. G. S. F. Savage was chosen secretary' and treasurer. Later Dr. Goodwin withdrew from the committee.
In determining plan and material for the exhibit the chairman visited New York, Boston, Plymouth, and Baltimore. He secured the consent of the Church Building Society to the appointment of Rev. Geo. A. Hood, its field secretary- in Boston, as superintend- ent of the Exhibit, to gather material, arrange for its transfer to Chicago, and to adjust it in the pavilion constructed for it in the space assigned.
The promise of financial support was also sought from the Con- gregational Clubs of New York, Boston, and elsewhere, as well as from the benevolent societies, which would present their work as part of the Exhibit. An advisory committee was formed, con- sisting of Hon. S. B. Capen, Rev. Morton Dexter, Hamilton A. Hill, of Boston, Rev. A. H. Bradford, of New Jersey, and J. Henry Stickney, of Baltimore.
To secure and arrange a material Exhibit which would '• show what Congregationalism has done for the world," was not a simple task, with such limits of cost and space as were imposed on the committee. It was untrodden ground. Doubtless if the work were to be repeated in the light of this exi)erience, it could be more satisfactorily done. Mr. Hood deserves much praise for his work carried forward under many difficulties, such as the short time allowed to prepare the Exhibit after the space was assigned, and others arising from the constant uncertainty in regard to Sunday opening, the rigid economy necessary when receipts dimin- ished from $5,000 in sight to less than $3,000, and the unwilling- ness of our benevolent societies and others to allow their exhibits to be installed. Yet the success was such that the Exhibit was
UO REPORT ON COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. [1895.
visited by large numbers and received the highest award, a diploma and a medal.
It was believed that the action of Congress left the directors of the Fair no discretion as to Sunday opening, and that the Fair must be closed on the Lord's Day.
When at last, in what seemed to many plain violation of the agreement of the managers, the Fair was opened on Sunday, the Committee on the Congregational Exhibit, upon a careful consider- ation of the subject, decided that, closing the Exhibit on Sunday, with a conspicuous card hung upon its drawn curtain declaring that fact, their duty was done.
The Council of 1892, after a prolonged discussion of the sub- ject, had intrusted the committee '' with full power to act as cir- cumstances may require." They believed that the Fair was not legally open on Sunday, and that it would be so determined by the Courts, and would soon be closed.
The committee began its work with the belief that $5,000 would be needed to carry out its plans.
It received $2,971.50 from the following sources : —
The Congregational Club, Chicago .... $1,00000
Individuals in Chicago .... The Congregational Club, Boston Individuals in Boston ....
The Congregational Club, Connecticut Valle}" Individuals in New York Congregational Club Congregational Home Missionary Society . American Missionary Association
330 00 500 00 753 50 100 00 88 00 100 00 100 00
$2,971 50 Of this, the sum of $713.97 was expended in Boston, account of which was rendered to the treasurer by Mr. Capen, chairman of the advisory committee. Of the sum ($2,257.53) received by Dr. Savage, the committee's treasurer, $2,088.20 was expended for collecting, transferring, and ari-anging the Exhibit, and for the salaries of Mr. Hood and of Mr. Chamberlain, his faithful and efficient successor, and in other necessary expenses, full account of which was rendered with auditor's certificate. There remained in the hands of the treasurer $169.33.
At the close of the Exposition, on conference with, and with consent of, paities who had contributed, the committee unani-
1895.] JOHN ROBINSON MEMORIAL CHURCH. 91
mously voted to give the Exhibit to the Chicago Theological Seminar}'. It was transferred to the library of the Seminary and there stands in the pavilion in which it stood at the Fair. A fragment of Plymouth Rock had been lent the committee by Mr. J. Henry Stickne}', of Baltimore, whose interests in all that pre- sents Congregationalism favorably to the world is well known. He had ordered, at his expense, a model of the Canopy which stands at Plymouth over the Rock. This, with the fragment, was the central feature of the Exhibit. It passed, on the death of Mr. Stickney, to the Congregational Church Building Society, and as his residuary legatee, it was by them generously given to the committee that it might go into the possession of the Seminary.
The sum of §169.33 .lemaining in the liands of the treasurer was voted to the custody of the trustees of the Seminary, to be used by them in restoring, preserving and perfecting the Exhibit, as a memorial of the Fair, and of what " Congregationalism has done for the world." JAS. GIBSON JOHN.SON,
Chairman. Chicago, July 23, 1895.
JOHN ROBINSON MP:M0RIAL CHURCH, i
The committee appointed at the last National Council to act in its behalf in co-operation with our brethren in England, in the mat- ter of the John Robinson Memorial Church at Gainsborough, respectfully reports as follows : —
The Council approved the appropriation of the balance of the fund raised for the John Robinson Memorial Tablet at Leyden to aid in the erection of the proposed church at Gainsborough, and that balance was duly paid by the treasurer of said fund into the hands of your committee.
The Council afforded an opportunity for offerings to be added to this balance, and a large number of pledges were made and recorded, and within a few weeks after the close of its session nearly all of these pledges were redeemed. From these sources, and from subsequent donations, thei-e has been received b}' your committee, in all, the sum of twelve hundred and seventy-seven dollars and thirty-five cents. Of this amount there has been paid to the building committee in Gainsborough one payment of two
1 Page 17.
92 JOHN ROBINSON MEMORIAL CHURCH. [1895.
hundred and fifty pounds, and one of ten pounds, vouchers for which payments are submitted heerwith. There is now in the hands of our committee a balance of three dollars and eighty-five cents. The account of your committee, therefore, stands as follows : —
Collected $1,277 35
Expended,
In purchase of draft of £250 . . $1,224 00 In purchase of draft of £10 . . 49 50
1,273 50 Balance in hand 3 85
$1,277 35
The history of the enterprise on the other side of the sea is briefly this : Tlie local committee at Gainsborough having been appointed, and a co-operating committee on the part of the Con- gregational Union of England and Wales, and your committee having entered into correspondence with the English committees, a general plan of carrying on the projected memorial building was matured. The first difficulty to be encountered was the acquiring of a suitable site. It is extremely hard for us in this country to appreciate how great this difficulty is. But, in a town in which nearly all the land belongs to the lord of the manor, and when- ever any lot which does not belong to him comes into market he is a competing purchaser, and every man who has freehold property to sell understands the situation and is proportionally watchful to get the best possible price, to find what is wanted for such a building seemed well-nigh hopeless. The difficulty was aggravated by an impression getting about that the promoters of the enterprise would have abundant means to carry it forward. It finall}- seemed prudent to permit the matter to drop for a time, and, through delay and silence, suffer the idea to prevail that the project had been postponed or abandoned. After a year or more, however, an admirable site was quietly secured at a very reason- able cost. It was the site of a disused vicarage, excellently located, and well adapted to the purposes of the Memorial Church. By an exchange, moreover, of rear land for front, it was made a corner lot, and therefore still better adapted than it was at first. This problem, therefore, was most satisfactoril}' solved.
1895.] JOHN ROBINSON MEMORIAL CHURCH. 93
Meanwhile, there had been consultations as to the structure, of what kind, and on what plans it should be built. The theory was adopted that a raemorial edifice should be in harmony, at least in its outward proportions, with the most characteristic archi- tecture of the period commemorated, and a sketch was made b}- a sympathetic architect of a building in the late Elizabethan style, which embodied that conception. After the site had been secured, and some wise modifications of the design had been effected, plans were perfected and definitely adopted. The exterior proportions and appearance correspond with the commemorative purpose, the interior arrangements are made to furnish all modern conveniences, and adequate accommodations for the congregation, the schools, and the work of the church. Sketches of these plans are submitted herewith.
In the montli of May in tliis year, it was intimated to your com- mittee that from the point of view of our Elnglish brethren it seemed highly desirable to secure the presence and co-operation of the ambassador of the United States on the occasion of the laying of the corner-stone. At this suggestion j'our committee addressed Mr. Bayard a letter setting forth the situation, and asking if he would be willing to represent his Congregationalist fellow-citizens in this interesting service. He very promptly and cordially' re- sponded that it would give him the utmost pleasure to perform the service desired, and it has been definitel}' arranged between our English brethren and him that he shall laj' the stone.
The great financial depression of 1893 led your committee to suspend efforts to raise funds in aid of the enterprise, especially as its prosecution was delayed. But the time seems to have come to resume the endeavor, and to secure contributions from the churches which were not called upon ; if practicable, some contribution, large or small, from every church in our communion. It is not desirable to burden anj one church, or any group of churches, but simply to enlist as many churches as we can in the work of making a memorial offering with a view to honor the memor}' of a man to whom all our churches are alike indebted, — the pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers, a champion in a perilous time of Congrega- tional principles, a great apostle of libert}', the father of English Independents.
The money already contributed was used in paying for the new site, but with the reserve that a like amount of the proceeds of the
94 REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON ALABAMA CASE. [1895.
old site, when it is sold, should be placed at our disposal, so that, if deemed expedient, the contributions of the American churches as a whole can be designated to some special feature of the build- ing, such as a memorial window, or anj'thing else that may be pre- ferred. It is hoped that the amount reached will be not unworthy to be in some way permanentl}' embodied in token that the Congre- gational churches in this country were in full sympathy with their kindred churches in England, in the purpose to perpetuate the remembrance of Robinson in the town in which he was born, and in which later he cast in his lot with the humble company of godly souls, — despised and persecuted of men, indeed, but destined of God to achieve imperishable results, and to win an immortal fame.
To this end your committee begs to recommend its continuance and its reinforcement, with instructions further to prosecute the purpose for which it was originally appointed.
All of which is respectfulh' submitted.
CHARLES RAY PALMER.
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON CREDENTIALS ON ALABAMA CASE, i
Your committee on credentials beg leave to report as fol- lows : —
The General Convention of Alabanaa is present, by its accred- ited delegate, asking recognition.
At the National Council of 1892 that body was denied admis- sion, on the ground that it was " not yet organized as represent- ing all the Congregational churches of the State."
Since that time the said General Convention of Alabama has modified its constitution, adopting the principle of the Council of 1892, of " equal rights for all disciples of Christ, of every race," and has extended an invitation to the Congregational Association of Alabama to unite with it on that basis, thus conforming to the suggestions of the Council in