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being made up of discounts allowed to clergymen, theological students, booksellers, and synodical depositories.

DEPARTMENT OF SUSTENTATION.-The entire receipts of the Treasury during the year, exclusive of balance in hand March 1, 1863, have been $97,897 14, an increase of $16,226 21, over those of the year preceding. The aggregate expenditures have been, $106,622 31, an increase of $34,772 72, occasioned by the increase of publications.

The amount of cash received from sales of books, tracts, and periodicals has been $63,081 49, an increase of $13,203 67; the balance in the Treasury at the end of the year is $7,182 53.

The Colportage Fund.-The receipts for Colportage have amounted to $28,508 29, being a gain of $3,429 94 over the year preceding, and a little more than has ever been received in a single year, even when the entire South was in co-operation with the Board.

The number of contributing churches has been 703, an increase of 30 over that ever before contributing to the Fund in a single year.

The expenditures for Colportage have been $23,024 02, leaving a balance in the Colportage Fund, on the first day of March, of $5,484 27.

THE OFFICERS OF THE BOARD ARE AS FOLLOWS:

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WM. E. SCHENCK, D.D., Corresponding Secretary and Editor, 821, Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. WINTHROP SARGENT, Esq., Superintendent of Colportage, Business Correspondent, and Treasurer, 821 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. PETER WALKER, Esq., Pub. of the Periodicals, 821 Chestnut st., Phila.

Board of Church Extension.

THE Ninth Annual Report is as follows:

Applications for aid were received during the year from seventy churches, asking for $31,054 02, being an average of $442 91 each.

Besides these new applications there were thirty-two previous applications, asking for $12.750.

The Board had, therefore, one hundred and two applications, calling for $43,804 02.

During the year seven applications, calling for $7,100, were stricken from the file, because they had not furnished the required information in the two years allowed for that purpose.

There remained on file at the close of the year forty-two applications, calling for $22,210.

During the year appropriations amounting to $11,557 27 were made to forty-seven churches, in the bounds of seventeen Synods, thirty-one Presbyteries, and fourteen States and Territories. The average amount appropriated to each of these forty-seven churches was $245 90. If the special appropriations, for which the Board took no responsibility, but left out of view, the appropriations would average $304 27 to each church.

The Board also found it necessary during the year to make a number of informal pledges of aid on special conditions, which should be reckoned in its liabilities, yet cannot appear among our formal appropriations until further action is taken in reference to them.

Appropriations amounting to $1200, were, during the year, withdrawn from eight churches which had not called for them in the two years to which they were limited.

During the year forty-three churches drew their appropriations, amounting to $9,843 52.

RECEIPTS. The balance on hand, April 1, 1861, was $20,506 58. The receipts from all sources, during the year, were $24,847 49, of which sum, $14,936 51 were from churches. The available means of the year, therefore, were $45,354 09.

COST OF CHURCH EDIFICES.-Since the organization of the Board, July, 1855, appropriations have been made to five hundred and seventeen different churches. Of these, seventy-one churches were aided by special appropriations, for which the Board took no responsibility. As nearly as we can ascertain, the remaining four hundred and forty-six churches cost $874,847, or $1,961 each.

The reported average cost of the churches aided by the Board, during the year under review, is $2,225 39. This is an advance of $567 38, or nearly thirty-four per cent. over the reported cost of churches aided during the previous year.

THE OFFICERS OF THE BOARD ARE AS FOLLOWS:

Rev. HENRY I. COE, Corresp. Secretary, 88 Market St., St. Louis, Mo. DAVID KEITH, Esq., Treasurer, 88 Market St., St. Louis, Mo.

Fund for Disabled Ministers and Families of Deceased Ministers.

THE Ninth Annual Report is as follows:

The first Annual Report of the Trustees to the General Assembly, in relation to " Disabled Ministers, &c.," was made at their meeting in 1856. It informed the Assembly that during the year relief had been given to the families of eight ministers, eleven widows, and one orphan-about sixty persons-among whom were disbursed one thousand five hundred and eighty dollars. The Assembly can estimate the progress of this cause, when that Report is compared with the present, in which the Trustees have the pleasure of announcing that the appropriations of the year ending May 1, 1864, have been eighty-eight, an increase of more than fourfold. Forty-eight of these have been made to widows, thirtyseven to ministers, and three to families of orphans-in all, not less than two hundred and fifty persons, putting the number of each family at the low average of three. Among these have been divided, in different proportions asked by Presbyteries, thirteen thousand one hundred and sixty dollars.

In no former year have the contributions to this object been so large, nor have the cases relieved been so numerous. The plan of annual collections, so often recommended by the Assembly, is received with increasing favor by the churches, and none are made with more cheerfulness. A large proportion of the ministers aided are in the decline of life, from seventy on to more than eighty years.

The receipts during the year were $13,267 80; balance on hand at beginning of year, $3,580 48; total, $16,847 28; payments, $13,515 31; balance, $3,331 97.

THE OFFICERS OF THE FUND ARE AS FOLLOWS:

JOSEPH H. JONES, D.D., Corresp. Secretary, 524 Spruce Street, Phila. GEO. II. VAN GELDER, Esq., Treasurer, 220 Walnut Street, Phila.

MISCELLANEOUS RESOLUTIONS, &c.

STATE OF THE COUNTRY.

ON the first day of the session Rev. SAMUEL MILLER, Burlington Presbytery, offered a Resolution in relation to the setting apart by this Assembly of a day of fasting, humiliation, and special prayer for the country. The hour of adjournment having arrived the resolution was not acted upon.

The following day Mr. Miller called up his resolution, when ALFRED NEVIN, D.D., of Philadelphia Central Presbytery, offered the following as a substitute, which was unanimously adopted:

WHEREAS, There is enough in the recent operations of our army to claim our especial gratitude to God; and, whereas, what remains undone demands our most sincere prayers to and reliance upon Him, (without whom all human effort is vain ;) therefore.

Resolved. That the Assembly, in view of the condition of our country, will spend Wednesday afternoon next in thanksgiving to Almighty God for past mercies, and in prayer for his continued blessing upon our country.

On motion of MARTIN RYERSON, Ruling Elder, Newton Presbytery, it was

Resolved, That the Permanent Clerk be directed to send a copy of the resolution just adopted to the General Assembly now in session at Dayton. Ohio, and request it to unite with us on next Wednesday afternoon in the same object.

The hour for devotional exercises having arrived Isaac N. Candee, D.D., Schuyler Presbytery, moved that the half-hour of devotional exercises be this afternoon spent in special prayer for our country and for our armies now in the field.

A LETTER from the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church now sitting in Dayton, Ohio, was received and read, as follows:

DAYTON, OHIO, May 24, 1864.

To the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., in session at Newark, N. J.

REV. AND DEAR BROTHER-I have been instructed to communicate to the reverend body over which you preside, the following extract from the Records of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., in session in this, city, this 24th of May, 1864.

A written communication was received from the General Assembly in session at Newark, New Jersey, conveying more fully the information received by telegraph on the 21st inst., that, in view of the condition of our country, they had resolved to spend Wednesday afternoon of this week in thanksgiving to Almighty God for past mercies, and in prayer for his continued blessing upon our country, with the request that this Assembly would unite with them, at the same time, in the same object.

Whereupon it was resolved to comply with the request, and that the Stated Clerk be instructed to communicate this action to the Moderator of the General Assembly at Newark, New Jersey, with the assurance of. our hearty sympathy with them in thus commending the case of our beloved country to the favorable regards of the God of our fathers-the great Head of the Church-both theirs and ours.

A true extract.

EDWIN F. HATFIELD, Stated Clerk.

The Permanent Clerk reported a letter from the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America, now sitting in Philadelphia. The letter was read, and is as follows: PHILADELPHIA, May 24, 1864.

To the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America. BRETHREN: The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America has received your fraternal letter, notifying us of your resolution to spend the afternoon of to-morrow (Wednesday, 25th inst.,) in thanksgiving to Almighty God for past mercies, and inviting us to unite with you in a similar service at the same hour.

We have already devoted an entire day to religious services in behalf of our nation since the opening of our Conference, nevertheless, we recognize the open hand of the Father of Mercies, and acknowledge with you his many blessings to us, to our households, the church, and to our beloved country, and we accept your invitation, and designate to-morrow afternoon for a special service of thanksgiving, the service to be under the charge of the Bishop presiding. W. L. HARRIS,

Secretary of General Conference.

The following communication was received from the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church now sitting in Philadelphia: PHILADELPHIA, May 27, 1864.

To the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

The General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, having received a communication from the reverend body over which you preside, asking its co-operation with your Assembly "in thanksgiving to Almighty God for past mercies, and in prayer for his continued blessing on our country," and being unanimously impressed with the importance of the proposed subjects of thanksgiving and prayer, regrets that such a co-operation is impossible, from the fact that the Assembly was not yet convened at the time appointed. The General Assembly has, however, appointed a time for like devotional exercises.

By order of the Correspondence Committee,

JAMES R. Doig.

FREEDMEN.-The Committee to whom was referred so much of the report on the Board of Education as relates to the establishment of schools among the freedmen of our country, have carefully considered the whole subject in the light of such information as they have been able to gather, and they are constrained to believe that the attempt, on the part of our Board of Education, to conduct an enterprise of such magnitude, would seriously cripple it in its legitimate work, which was never more important than at the present time, while the results of its efforts must disappoint the expectations awakened.

The General Assembly, recognizing the Divine providence which has removed the shackles of bondage from a multitude of the African race, thus bringing them within the reach of missionary effort as objects of Christian benevolence; and persuaded that their condition is such as to now appeal to the Christian heart of God's people, would call the attention of our churches, and the members of our communion, to a.consideration of their duty to this degraded and suffering race. We rejoice in the fact that God has, in the midst of the desolation of so much of

our country, opened a way, for the instruction, and, as we hope, elevation of this long degraded people.

The Committe would therefore recommend to the members of our communion to co-operate with all evangelical Christian effort for the education of the Freedmen; yet, in order to draw forth and direct more fully their efforts toward this work, therefore,

Resolved, 1. That two committees be appointed by this Assembly, consisting of two ministers and three ruling elders each, to be called the General Assembly's Committees for the Education of Freedmen, which committees shall receive, control, and disburse all funds which may be contributed for the establishment and support of schools among freedmen, or for the support of missionaries who may give themselves to the work of preaching the gospel among them.

Resolved, 2. One of these Committees shall have its headquarters in Philadelphia, the other at Indianapolis. They shall co-operate, dividing the oversight of the field as may best suit their convenience, both for the collection and disbursement of funds, and for operations among the freedmen. They may appoint teachers and ministers for the work only upon the endorsement of the Presbyteries or Committees of the same, within whose boundaries such teachers or ministers may reside. They may fix the salaries of the same, determine the character of the books to be used, and do all other things necessary to the control of such an enterprise. But they are allowed in no wise to interfere with the plans or work of the Board of Domestic Missions.

Resolved, 3. These committees are requested to call upon our people, for funds to be expended in this work-by circulars, by printed or personal appeals through the pastors and sessions. But in making public collections, care must be taken not to interfere with the plan already adopted in reference to the support of the several Boards of the Church.

Resolved, 4. These Committees shall collect facts, keep a correct account of their receipts, expenditures, and disbursement of funds, and report to the next General Assembly upon the whole subject of their appointment, which Assembly shall continue, alter, or disband such Committees at its pleasure.

Resolved, 5. The Board of Publication is directed to furnish gratis, at its discretion, upon the order of these Committees, such of its publications as may be used for the education and evangelization of this people. The Moderator announced the following as the two Committees on the Religious Instruction of Freedmen.

The Committee at Philadelphia-Rev. W. P. Breed, Rev. S. F. Colt, and ruling elders Morris Patterson, John McArthur, and Wilfred Hall. The Committee at Indianapolis-Rev. J. H. Nixon, Rev. S. C. Logan, and ruling elders James M. Ray, Charles N. Todd, and Jesse L. Williams.

MINISTERS' SALARIES.-The following address to the churches reported by the Committee of Ruling Elders appointed at an early stage of the session of the Assembly was unanimously adopted.

Beloved Brethren :-We have, on vaaious occasions, addressed our churches on the subject of providing an adequate support for the ministers of the gospel, and are happy to know that this obligation has been generally recognized in our communion.

Under ordinary circumstances, it might have been superfluous to advert to the subject again. But the calamitous war, which has been so recklessly and causelessly forced upon our country by unscrupulous and wicked men, bringing with it so many new duties, trials, and sorrows,

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