their energies in her service, and also for their families; and whereas no local provision can effectually meet this object, and no efficient general provision has ever yet been made; therefore,

Resolved, 1. That in order to constitute a fund for the support of the widows and families of deceased ministers, and for the relief of superannuated and disabled living ministers, it is hereby enjoined upon all our Synods and Presbyteries to take such action as may secure a contribution annually.

Resolved, 2. That a column be added to the table of Statistical Reports for these contributions.

Resolved, 3. That the funds thus contributed be placed in the hands of the Board of Trustees of the General Assembly, to be disbursed by the Board of Publication upon the recommendation of Presbyteries, as the funds for Domestic Missions, Education and Church Extension are now appropriated.

Resolved, 4. That in order to the founding of a permanent fund for this same object, special contributions and legacies be invited from all parts of the Church, the principal of which shall be safely invested by the Board of Trustees of the General Assembly, and the interest to be added to the general fund provided for in a foregoing resolution.-1849, p. 266, O. S.

Overture No. 25. A request from the Board of Publication, in answer to which the following minute was ordered, at the recommendation of the Committee, viz. :

The duty of disbursing the fund in aid of superannuated and disabled ministers and their families is hereby transferred from the Board of Publication to the trustees of the General Assembly.-1852, p. 224, O. S.

On a report of the trustees the Assembly adopted the following, viz.: 1. Resolved, That it be earnestly recommended to the Presbyteries to take such action in regard to this matter as will tend to bring up the Church to the performance of her duty in regard thereto.

2. Resolved, That every minister and church session be earnestly requested to present this subject to their congregation during the coming year, and obtain a contribution to the object; which contribution shall be transmitted to the treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the General Assembly, to be disbursed in an economical way, and upon an equitable ratio, upon application made through the Presbytery to which the party applying for relief naturally belongs, or a Committee of that Presbytery; the Board to report to the next General Assembly.-1856, p. 533, Ó. S. A Committee was also appointed to digest and report to the next Assembly a scheme for future operations.

[See the report.-1857, p. 218.]

b. The Assembly of 1861, N. S., in answer to an overture from the Presbytery of the District of Columbia, "On the subject of raising a fund to be applied to the aid of disabled ministers and their families," appointed a Committee, to report to the next Assembly a plan of operations.-1861, P 473. The Committee was enlarged and continued (1862, p. 38); discharged and a new Committee appointed (1863, p. 280). This Committee reported (1864, pp. 497-502), and the following was adopted:

Resolved, 1. That a fund, to be called "The Ministerial Relief Fund," for the relief of disabled ministers of good and regular standing, in con nection with this body, and the families of ministers who have deceased while in our connection, be constituted, to be supplied by arnual collections in all our churches, donations and legacies.

Resolved, 2. That in order to constitute and maintain such fund, it is

hereby enjoined upon all our Presbyteries to take such action as shall secure from every church an annual contribution thereto.

Resolved, 3. That this fund be entrusted to the trustees of the Presbyterian House, to be by them disbursed upon the recommendation of Presbyteries, upon such principles and rules of distribution as they shall deem most equal and beneficial.

Resolved, 4. That for the special oversight and care of the interest thus committed to them, the trustees are authorized to appoint a secretary, prescribe his duties and determine his salary.-1864, p. 502, N. S.

That every Presbytery be directed to appoint a Standing Committee, whose duty it shall be to inquire into the necessities of disabled ministers, and of the widows and orphans of those deceased, with a view of bringing the cases of such to the notice of the Executive Committee of the Relief Fund.--1865, p. 30, N. S.

1. The Present Organization.

THE RELIEF FUND FOR DISABLED MINISTERS, AND THE WIDOWS AND ORPHANS OF DECEASED MINISTERS, is committed by the Assembly to the Board of Trustees of the General Assembly, according to the following:

The report of the Joint Committee on Ministerial Relief was taken from the docket, amended and adopted as follows:

The Joint Committee appointed to take into consideration the affairs of the Fund for Disabled Ministers and their Families, and of the Ministerial Relief Fund, respectfully report to the Assembly that they have attended to the duty assigned them, and that they unanimously recommend the adoption of the following resolutions:

1. That the fund be designated "The Relief Fund for Disabled Ministers and the Widows and Orphans of Deceased Ministers."

2. That the "Trustees of the General Assembly" shall annually, at as early a day as practicable after the rising of the Assembly, elect a secre tary and a treasurer, and four of their number, who, for the present year, shall be a Committee to take charge of the management of this fund.

3. That the trustees of the General Assembly be recommended to continue in office the present secretaries of the two funds, the one to be the secretary of the Relief Fund and the other to be the treasurer.

4. That the "Trustees of the Presbyterian House," and the "Trustees of the General Assembly," be directed to pay the income accruing from investments held by them respectively for the purposes of this fund to the treasurer of the Relief Fund.-1870, p. 123.

2. The Funds are Disbursed according to the following Rules, approved by the Assembly of 1871.

1. The stated meetings of the Committee shall be held on the 3d Tuesday of each month, at four o'clock P. M., unless otherwise ordered.

A special meeting may be called at any time by the chairman, or, in case of his absence, at the request of any two members of the Committee. 2. All appropriations must be made on the recommendation of that Presbytery to which the applicant most naturally belongs, or of a Standing Committee of that Presbytery. Only members of the Presbyteries in connection with the General Assembly, and the families who were at their death in such connection, are entitled to aid.

3. Appropriations are made for one year; and if aid is continued, the recommendations must be renewed from year to year.

4. Applications for aid should, in the case of a minister, state his age, his circumstances, and the number of years he has been in the ministry; and in the case of a deceased minister's family, the application should state the circumstances of the widow, and the sex and ages of the orphan children who are dependent on her for support.

5. While the responsibility of recommending applicants rests with the Presbyteries, and shall largely govern the action of the Committee, yet the Committee reserves to itself the right to appropriate according to the merits of each case and the state of the treasury.

6. Ordinarily, appropriations shall be made semi-annually in two equal installments.

VII. THE PRESBYTERIAN COMMITTEE OF MISSIONS FOR FREEDMEN.

1. The Plan Adopted in 1870.

In view, therefore, of all the papers submitted, and of the whole subject as we have been able to examine it, your Committee would recommend the adoption of the following resolutions, to wit:

Resolved, 1. That the Assembly's Committee on Freedmen, and the Freedmen's Department of the Presbyterian Committee of Home Missions, and their secretaries, are hereby commended for their fidelity and energy in the prosecution of the work committed to their charge, that their reports be printed for circulation in the churches, and that they be directed to continue the work until the reorganization is completed.

Resolved, 2. That the work of the Presbyterian Church for the colored race in this country, including both their religious and educational interests, shall be conducted by a Committee to be located in the city of Pittsburg, Pa., to be known by the name, style and title of "The Presbyterian Committee of Missions for Freedmen," and that this Committee shall consist of twelve members, of whom five shall be a quorum, to meet on their own adjournment.

Resolved, 3. That this Committee be directed to organize on Thursday, June 16th, at 3 o'clock P. M., in the lecture-room of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg, Pa., and that the Stated Clerk of the Assembly be directed to give official notice to the members of their election.

Vacancies occurring in this Committee, by resignation or otherwise, may be filled by the Committee (until the meeting of the next Assembly) at any regular meeting, of which election due notice has been given.

Resolved, 4. That the Assembly's Committee on Freedmen, and the Freedmen's Department of the Presbyterian Committee of Home Missions, are hereby directed, on the organization of this Committee, or at as early a time as can be done safely, to transfer to the Committee of Missions for Freedmen all papers, documents, moneys and properties then in their hands or under their control pertaining to the work; and further, these organizations are continued as at present constituted for the purpose of receiving and paying over to the Committee of Missions for Freedmen all moneys which may come into their hands for this work by legacy or otherwise.

Resolved, 5. That the Assembly recommend to the Boards of the Church to co-operate with the Committee of Missions for Freedmen in conducting its work.

Resolved, 6. That in view of the fact that only one-third of our churches contributed to this cause during the past year, each Presbytery be required to appoint a Committee of one, whose duty it shall be, by correspondence

or otherwise, to see that this cause is brought before each church for its generous contribution.

To conclude: In the judgment of your Committee, the great need of the Freedmen to-day is a supply of competent preachers and teachers, raised up from among themselves. For help in this matter we look with hope to Lincoln University, at Oxford, Pa.; to Biddle Memorial Institute, at Charlotte, N. C.; to the Normal School of Winchester, Va.; and to other similar institutions established by our Church. We urge especially the necessity of providing schools where females may enjoy advantages that may enable them to keep pace with the other sex in intellectual and moral elevation.

The Committee beg leave to nominate the following persons to constitute the Presbyterian Committee of Missions for Freedmen:

Ministers.-James Allison, D. D., Samuel J. Wilson, D. D., John Gillespie, Peter S. Davies, Frederick A. Noble, Elliot E. Swift.

Laymen.-Joseph Albree, John C. McComb, Robert C. Totten, Oliver McClintock, James B. Lyon, George B. Logan.-1870, p. 105.

VIII. THE SUSTENTATION FUND.

In the Assembly of 1870 overtures relating to the Sustentation Fund were referred to a Committee consisting of M. W. Jacobus, D. D., Walter Clark, D. D., James McCosh, D. D., Hon. Wm. Strong, Hon. Nathaniel Ewing and Hugh McAllister, to report to the next Assembly.-1870, pp. 28 and 31. In 1871 the Assembly adopted the following—

SCHEME OF SUSTENTATION.

I. That all the charges throughout the Church be divided into two classes-" Full Pastoral Charges" and "Church Extension (or Mission) Charges." The former comprising such as have pastors and are suffi ciently advanced to pay a salary of $500, provided only that this be equal to the minimum hereinafter named for the membership; the latter class to include all such charges as have stated supplies, and such pastorates as pay less than $500 per annum of salary or less than the minimum rate per member. Only the former class are at present to come under the Sustentation Scheme for aid. The latter class, if needy, are to be under the care of the Board of Home Missions, until they are advanced to full pastoral charges, and are so certified by vote of Presbytery as entitled to aid under this scheme.

This does not leave the smaller pastorates and stated supply charges unprovided for; they are classed as more or less incipient and experimental, and they are to be treated as exceptional and special. They require aid according to their case, sometimes even more aid for the time than this scheme proposes.

The propriety of thus beginning with pastoral charges, already somewhat developed, is: 1st. That all cannot be aided by this scheme at the outset. 2d. A beginning is made with those who are in regular ecclesiastical relation, in hope of thus aiding to bring to an end the anomalous and disorderly system of stated supplies, that it may give place to the pastoral relation in the great majority of cases; and 3d. This will encourage new churches to spring up in prospect of such help as they advance.

II. The aim of this Sustentation Scheme shall be to make the minimum of salary in the full pastoral charges $1000 per annum. At present the annual value of the manse shall be included in this, but ultimately, and so soon as possible, $1000 in money shall be the minimum it being always

understood that the pastor shall be wholly employed in his work, and that no grant shall be made without the endorsement of the Presbytery.

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This is not "equalizing salaries," it is only aiming to establish a fair minimum, and by the plan this is so far subject to the inspection of the Presbytery in any case that it is not granted except on the presbyterial endorsement. It is, therefore, not likely in any instance to be excessive. The figure is believed to be only fair. If, in some cases, a smaller sum might answer, because of a less numerous or less expensive household, this may be reserved for the Presbytery to indicate; but who will say that it is too much, if a boy-clerk or average mechanic may claim as much and more? But, on the other hand, much of this sustentation work is to be done by bringing those churches which are now delinquent up to their proper rate of contribution to the pastoral support. Here the Presbytery may lawfully insist, for every call which is presented by the hand of the Presbytery to a pastor contains an obligation to pay him a certain sum, order that he may be free from worldly cares and avocations." The sum, then, ought in all fairness to meet this end. The Presbytery may so require. It is their duty to search into the transaction just at this point, and to demand that this admitted obligation be faithfully complied with. We have estimated that a moderate rate would be an average of two cents per day for each member of the church, or $7.30 per annum—not that each member should actually give this amount, but that, some more and some less, the membership, aided by the congregation, should contribute an average equal to this. This average rate from the entire membership would give every minister in the church a salary of one thousand dollars. Accordingly, it is hereby provided

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III. That only those churches shall be at present entitled to aid from the Sustentation Fund who are paying the pastor an average of $7.30 per annum for each member.

This is not discriminating unfairly against poor charges, for very few cases will be found where this rate cannot be reached with a little enlargement of view and a little self-denial of the people. They who cannot reach it will come under the Board of Home Missions for aid as church extension charges.

This proviso aims to screw up one very loose part of our financial machinery. Not a few churches are reported in our farming districts, of 200, 300 and over of members, where the salary does not exceed $600 or $800, less than $3 per member, and even down to $1.50. It is believed that in many cases this is from sheer parsimony, while in exceptional cases of weak and struggling churches it is all that can at present be done, and such will be aided by the Home Mission Board as candidates for the full pastoral charge. An incentive will thus be furnished to the smaller churches to increase their pro rata of contribution, so as to come within the scope of this provision, and the liability to abuse is reduced to a minimum, because by the conditions (of $500 salary and $7.30 pro rata) those aided are the young and enterprising churches who pay the largest pro rata, while the aid ceases so soon as they reach 135 members. (We find, by calculation, that of those between $500 and $1000 salary the larger portion pay the largest average salary, but the smallest pro rata, and that the smallest membership pay the largest percentage.)

IV. It is further provided, That each Presbytery be enjoined by the General Assembly, through the Synod, to investigate immediately the case of all churches having over 200 members who are paying less than $1000 salary, and that, unless good and sufficient cause can be shown for the lack, those churches be enjoined to raise the amount to an average