and affecting in various ways the vital interests of the Church, is telling with extreme severity upon the comfort and usefulness of the Christian ministry. Many, very many, worthy, faithful, and devoted pastors. while they and their families have been suffering for want of the com forts, and often the necessaries of life, have most sensibly been caused to realize some of the consequences of the great sin of rebellion.

It would be but a waste of time to dwell upon the greatly increased expenses of living; you have but too many proofs of it already. The inevitable consequence has been a corresponding advance of wages and salaries, and a corresponding loss to all dependent upon fixed incomes. Families have increased the wages of domestics; farmers and mechanics, of their workmen; merchants, commercial institutions, corporations of every kind, and public offices-municipal, state, and national-of their clerks and agents. A movement so general and comprehensive must have had an adequate cause; the necessity which compelled it must be one reaching all classes of society-all, at least, dependent upon fixed salaries for a livelihood-and none should be denied a participation in these measures of relief.

We have, however, reason to fear that up to this period, with some rare and honorable exceptions, the claims of the ministry have been overloooked. The salaries of pastors, always small, always much less than they could have earned in secular pursuits, and too often insufficient for even a meagre support, remain in a large majority of cases stationary, while the price of living has advanced fully fifty per cent. We believe this is the result, not of design, but of inadvertence. Pastors shrink from asking an increase, and it is not the way of the world to enlarge salaries where there is neither demand nor complaint. But we are sure that our people would not willingly subject their ministers to the mortification of supplicating an increase of their stipends. We cannot doubt their readiness to act in the premises, whenever it shall be properly brought before them. To believe otherwise would be a reproach to their intelligence, their sense of justice, their appreciation of Christian ordinances, and their fidelity to the Saviour. They are not yet prepared to contemn His wise and equitable decree, "that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel." What our congregations need, is that some competent authority should bring the subject to their notice.

It is with this view, beloved brethren, that we address this letter to you, the respected ruling elders and trustees of our churches. We ask you to bring the subject before your respective congregations with the least possible delay. We beg you to have it candidly and prayerfully considered. Deal justly, nay generously, by your pastors. Your liberality to them will not be a lost investment, but will yield a rich return to you and your families for in this, as in other relations, "he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." You will begin to reap at once, for a congregation always finds its own present advantage in relieving its pastor of all perplexity about its support, and placing him in a position where he can work with comfort, his mind free from anxious and harassing cares about his temporal support. And then, if other motive still be needed, you have it in those touching and wonderful words of our Lord and Saviour, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." If the Saviour were here, is there a church bearing his name that would not covet the privilege of ministering to his wants?

We are deeply impressed with the importance of this subject. It is not at all in the light of a personal favor to the ministers of the gospel that we bring it before you. It is vital to the Church, and vital to our

afflicted country, Our most precious interests, secular and spiritual, ecclesiastical and national, demand that the hands of the evangelical ministry be strengthened in every practicable way, and the ordinances of the sanctuary clothed with the highest degree of efficiency. We are now being punished most grievously for the past wickedness of the nation, and it cannot be too often, nor too strongly, impressed upon the minds and hearts of our people that there cannot be any rational hope of maintaining our free institutions except by the all-pervading influence of the gospel. "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people." "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." All history abundantly confirms these clear teachings of the Bible, and we must heed them if we desire to escape the fate of the many great and powerful nations that have perished from the earth. How is it possible to produce these blessed results, so dear to the heart of every Christian, of every true patriot, unless we maintain the Christian ministry, and the ordinances of the gospel, in a condition of the highest practicable efficiency? And how can that be done without an adequate support of the ministry?

We leave the matter in your hands, dear brethren, satisfied that you will deal with it in a spirit of Christian kindness to your pastors, and of unfeigned love to our common Lord and Master.

P. S. This letter relates to Pastors. But the policy it recommends pertains, with equal reason, to ministers who are faithfully serving the Church in her Colleges, Seminaries, and Boards, and in this view we invite attention to it on the part of all concerned in the management of these Institutions.

Judge Ryerson moved that the Address be printed and sent out by the Permanent Clerk of the General Assembly, at the expense of the Board of Publication. Carried.

On motion of Rev. ALEXANDER MCCARRELL, of Washington Presbytery, it was

Resolved, That the thanks of this Assembly are hereby tendered to the Pastors, Ruling Elders, and Trustees of. the Church for the accommodations they have furnished to the Assembly.

On motion of DAVID X. JUNKIN, D.D., of New York 2d Presbytery, it was

Resolved, That this General Assembly be now dissolved, and that another chosen in like manner be required to meet in the First Presbyterian Church, of Pittsburgh, Pa., William M. Paxton, D.D., Pastor, on Thursday, May 19, 1865.

A. T. MCGILL, D.D.,

W. E. SCHENCK, D.D., JAS. WOOD, D.D.,
Permanent Clerk.

Stated Clerk.

Moderator.

THIS TABLE GIVES THE NAMES OF THOSE WHO HAVE DIED DURING THE YEAR. ITEMS OF INFORMATION CONCERNING THEM ARE SET FORTH IN
HEAD-LINES OVER EACH COLUMN. THE LETTERS AT THE END OF EACH NAME HAVE THE FOLLOWING INDICATION: P. STANDS FOR PAS-
TOR; S. S. STATED SUPPLY; T. TEACHER; CHPN. CHAPLAIN; F. M. FOREIGN MISSIONARY; EDT. EDITOR; W. C. WITHOUT CHARGE.

In Memoriam.

"AND GOD SHALL WIPE AWAY ALL TEARS FROM THEIR EYES; AND THERE SHALL BE NO MORE DEATH, NEITHER SORROW, NOR CRYING, NEITHER SHALL THERE BE ANY MORE PAIN; FOR THE FORMER THINGS ARE PASSED AWAY."-Revelation xxi. 4.

BABER, JAMES-Was born in Hanover County, Virginia, July 25, 1791. He was the eldest son of George and Sarah (Anderson) Baber. His father being killed when he was only four years old, he was left under the guardianship of his maternal uncle, Thomas Anderson, Esq., of Caroline County, Va. Becoming pious at an early age, he was educated at Hampden Sidney College, Va., then under the Presidency of the celebrated Dr. Moses B. Hoge, whose deep spirituality of mind and holiness of life made a permanent impression on his future character. Determining to prepare for the ministry, he spent three years at the Associate Reformed Seminary, N. Y., under the tuition of Dr. John M. Mason, the most distinguished divine and pulpit orator of his day, who seemed intuitively possessed of the faculty of making plain to his students the most complex questions of theology. In 1819 he entered the Princeton Theological Seminary, and passed two years under the instruction of Drs. Alexander and Miller. Dr. Charles C. Beatty, Moderator of the General Assembly in 1862, Dr. John McClean, President of New Jersey College, and Dr. John Breckinridge, were his classmates at the Seminary, the latter his most intimate personal friend.

On leaving the Seminary, he was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, April 26, 1821, and first preached in Henry County, Virginia, where for a time he taught in the family of Philip Dondridge, Esq. On September 28, 1826, he was ordained by the Presbytery of Carlisle, and his first charge was at Hancock, Md., where he remained for three years, and then rode as missionary in the West for a year, and, on his return, preached as stated supply for the churches about Newton and Middletown, Frederick County, Virginia. His next charge was at Point Republic, Rockingham County, Virginia, where for two years, in addition to teaching school, he supplied the Presbyterian churches in the vicinity, and at communion seasons was frequently assisted by Drs. Speice and Baxter, with whom he was on intimate terms.

In 1832 he received a call to the Presbyterian Church, near Huttonsville, Randolph County, Virginia, and was installed pastor by the Presbytery of Lexington. At that time, this was the wildest and most secluded part of the State, to be approached only by traveling over rugged mountains crossed by a single wagon track. Here in Tygart's Valley, at Huttonsville, Beverly, and in the surrounding mountains, he labored diligently with much success to build up the Presbyterian Church, riding on horseback from thirty to forty miles in all seasons and in all weather to fulfill his appointments, a matter which he regarded as of vital importance. Being called on a certain occasion to the distant State of Ohio, he announced to the congregation that he would preach again on a certain number of Sundays thereafter, and, to the astonishment of every one, he was promptly on hand, notwithstanding the then difficulties of traveling seemed to make his arrival at the time impossible. Half the time he preached at Huttonsville, one-fourth at Beverly, and one-fourth at Logans, a mountain station on Cheat River, forty miles from his residence, accessible only by a single bridle path. On one of these trips, in which he was often compelled to swim his horse in time of high water, by a fall

his shoulder was dislocated, and he suffered much, because there was no physician in the country to set it properly.

In all his labors and trials he was especially aided and upheld by his wife, whose maiden name was Maria J. Llewellyn, to whom he had been married on the 16th day of October, 1822, by Bishop Meade. She was an Episcopal lady of Jefferson County, Virginia, of great piety and intellectual attainments, a Bible class scholar of the celebrated Dr. John Matthews, afterwards President of Hanover College, Indiana, who though retaining her connection with her own church to the day of her death, from a conscientious conviction against a change, entered with a zeal and catholic spirit into all her husband's ministerial plans, and hesitated not to risk a naturally delicate constitution accustomed to the comforts of luxury in all the exposure of a missionary life in the wilds of Western Virginia.

An event occurred during his pastorate in the Huttonsville Church which illustrates the very different state of public opinion on the subject of slavery in Virginia, before the teachings of the Revolutionary fathers had been swept away by the modern dogmas of Calhounism, which have since baptized the State in blood. One of the members of the church, having sold some slaves to a negro trader, or soul driver, (the then popu lar designation of that contemned class,) one or two of the slaves endeavored to escape, when a wealthy elder, connected with one of the most influential families of the country, joined in the pursuit, and helped (as was reported) the trader handcuff his victims.

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Great indignation was felt in the congregation, and on the ensuing Sabbath the pastor preached from the text: What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor, saith the Lord God of Hosts?" Isaiah iii. 15-a most pointed and impressive discourse, denouncing the conduct of the parties.

Under the sting of the rebuke the elder, in the midst of his sermon, got up with his family and went out of the church, followed by one or two others implicated-the preacher calmly continued in the same strain.

The next day the session was called together, and the pastor's resignation tendered, which was refused by that body, and the minister unanimously sustained, and the elder condemned by the universal approbation of the congregation, including the elder's own father-in-law.

The circumstances of the case were written in detail by the pastor to his old preceptor, Dr. Archibald Alexander, who replied in a letter fully sustaining the proceedings as in conformity with the Deliverance of the General Assembly in 1818.

Here it may be remarked that the position of Southern Presbyterians of that day has been much misunderstood while holding slavery as an evil to be tolerated, only until the way to emancipation should be opened. They condemned the buying and selling of human beings for gain, and especially the slave trade-a feeling that only died away after the intrigues of politicians had acquired more slave territory, by Free States votes, and thus drowned all conscience in the enormous profits of extending cotton culture.

Mrs. Baber was strongly attached to the tenets of the old Virginia emancipation school, and had liberated her slaves before marriage, and was a zealous co-worker with Mrs. Page, Bishop Meade's sister, and other benevolent ladies of the valley of the Shenandoah, who were laboring for the temporal and spiritual elevation of the slaves in their midst.

When Virginia, in 1832, failed by one vote in her Legislature to provide for future emancipation, a large emigration of her small landed proprietors (the bone and sinew of the land) took place, and Mrs. B