WHEREAS, The testimony produced by the commission leaves it doubtful in the minds of many members whether the accused is guilty of the sin charged; and, whereas, there is a large amount of scandal connected with this case; and, whereas, the removal of scandal is one end of discipline; therefore, Resolved, That Rev John Stott be, and he hereby is, suspended from the exercise of his ministry until further light be shed on his case.

The Moderator pronounced the sentence of deposition in the name of the Head of the church.

The salary of the Professor elect, in case he accepts, was fixed at $2,500.

Professor Sproull having again offered his resignation of the Professorship, it was Resolved, That his resignation be not accepted, and that he be requested to demit his pastoral charge and devote his whole time to the Seminary; in which case his salary is to be $2,500. D. Scott, J. Crozier, J. Boggs, were appointed a committee to confer with Prof. Sproull.

The consideration of the report of the Board of Church Extension was resumed, and the report was adopted. It is as follows:

The Board of Church Extension respectfully report:

During the year just ended there has been a greatly increased demand upon us for help in erecting houses of worship, while there has been but a slight increase in the amount contributed to meet this growing demand. We have been asked for more than twice as much as we have received. A larger number of collections have been sent us than in any former year, but with a few exceptions the sums contributed have been miserably small, and not at all proportionate to the numerical and pecuniary strength of the congregations. One-half of our whole receipts come from three congregations. The Treasurer's report is herewith transmitted.

Our operations for the year are as follows: We had a balance in the treasury as per last report, of $1,365.33. We have received $1,988.17— making a total of $3,353.50. We have disbursed $2,400; giving $1,000 to Indianapolis, $700 to Monongahela, and $700 to Baltimore, and have a balance on hand of $953.50; but $250 of this sum have been appropriated to the Slippery Rock congregation. There are applications now before the Board, from Baltimore, for $800; from Elliota, for $600; from Lake Reno, for $200; from Topsham, for $350; from Oil City, for $600; from Albia, for $800; and from Kensington, for $1,000. All these claims are urgent, and appeal strongly to the liberality of the church. We are ready to appropriate. the sums needed by Elliota and Lake Reno, whenever they are properly organized. To meet the other applications, and those which are likely to be made during the coming year, we estimate that $5,000 will be necessary.

Forty-one congregations have forwarded collections to the Board. Five congregations have been reported as contributing to the same objects, though not through our Board. Forty congregations have entirely disregarded the direction of Synod, and turned a deaf ear to the cry of their brethren who plead the brotherly covenant, and to the apostolic command, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ."

We earnestly ask Synod to take some effective measures to secure collections from all our congregations, and a larger measure of liberality. And we also suggest that congregations desiring assistance should make application before the meeting of Synod, in order that their case may be before the church when the collections are taken up.

May the Spirit of God soon descend upon our beloved Church, and with persuasive power say unto us, "Spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen

thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited."

By order of the Board.

JAMES R W. SLOane, Ch'n.
J. C. K. MILLIGAN, Sec'y.

Synod directed those congregations that have not contributed to the Church Extension Fund, to make collections for that purpose on the first Sabbath of July; and that Presbyteries make inquiries into this matter at their Fall meeting.

Synod resolved that it would adjourn finally at 3 P. M. to-morrow. Synod proceeded to the election of the Board of Superintendents of the Theological Seminary. Nominations were made, and the following were chosen-S. O. Wylie, D. Boyd, for three years; D. M'Allister, Walter T. Miller, for two years; J. Galbraith, J. M'Cracken, for one

year.

The Board of Education reported. The report was accepted and adopted. It is as follows:

The Board of Education respectfully report, that we have obtained from the stockholders the control of the Female Seminary. The stockholders have donated their shares to the Synod, and have given a two years' lease, without any other conditions except that the house be kept in repair, and that the institution be carried on. The College and the Seminary are now held by a Board, in trust for the Synod. The financial interests are intrusted to a committee consisting of Messrs. H. George, H. Harvey and W. Rambo, to superintend the distribution of funds to the colored students who are, either in whole or in part, supported by the church.

The Board required each student receiving aid from the church to subscribe to the following declaration :

"We, the undersigned, hereby pledge ourselves to the Board of Education of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, that in applying for and receiving aid from the Board in procuring an education, it is our purpose to devote ourselves specially to the moral, intellectual and religious elevation and improvement of the colored race, in the work of teaching, or of preaching the gospel." The Financial Committee was instructed to give to no student, in one year, more than $125.

Mr. S. J. Crowe, a graduate of Westminster College and a student of the second year in our Theological Seminary, was employed as Principal, at a salary of $1,000. He has been assisted by his wife and Mr. Wright. Petitions have been presented to the board by the students and by the citizens, both Covenanters and United Presbyterians, speaking in the highest terms of the character and qualifications of Mr. Crowe, and praying for his continuance in his present position.

The school has steadily increased, and the students have made very remarkable progress. From Mr. Crowe's report to the board we extract the following: "The students grade from the Primary Department to the Sophomore year in college. When I entered upon my duties as Principal on the 17th of September, 1867, there was a class commencing in Cæsar; that same class has, since that time, read two books in Cæsar, four of the Bucolics in Virgil, and almost two books of the Eneid; three orations in Cicero, two books of Horace's Odes, and one book in the Satires, besides beginning Greek and pushing on into the 2d book of the Anabasis. The same class kept in advance in the Mathematical and other departments. Other classes have done equally as well."

The whole number of students in attendance during the year has been 83; the highest average attendance, 65. The net receipts during the year for tuition and contingent fees has been $858.20. Proceeds of exhibition' and funds raised by scholars for repairing school-rooms,. $51.16. Total, $909.36. The expenditures have been: For teachers' services, $707.00; for janitor's services, $47.56; for repairs, fuel, &c., $134.78.

It appears from the Treasurer's Report that only $712.66 have come into the treasury during the year; that only about thirty congregations have contributed to this fund. Six hundred and eighty-five dollars have been expended in aid of the beneficiary students.

The following students are now receiving aid from this fund, viz., D. W. Boxly, J. F. Quarles, F. Pepper, Mary Ramsey, Welby Williams and Squire Williams. Lewis Johnston, of Blairsville, Pa., is also a student under the care of the Board, but supported by a few friends in Pittsburgh. Two of the students have each received $150; three have received $125 each; one has received $75, and one $45. In addition to these, five other colored students have received their tuition gratuitously, in whole or in part. We estimate that $1,500 will be needed to carry on the work intrusted to your Board for the present year; a considerable portion of this is already pledged to the Board. We recommend that congregations able to do so be urged to undertake the education of a student each, and select the person, direct his course, and contribute to his support until his course be finished. There is a vast field for occupation in the South, which is destined to exercise a controlling influence on the future of this country. Popery is making tremendous efforts to take possession of this field; why sit we here all the day idle? We recommend that all our congregations be directed to take up for this purpose, on the first Sabbath of September.

Respectfully submitted.

collections

A. M. MILLIGAN, Chairman.

The report of the Treasurer of the Board of Education was referred to the committee on Finance.

The rule requiring adjournment at 3 P. M. was suspended.

Item 4 of Unfinished Business was taken up. The committee on National Reform reported. It is as follows:

The Committee on the work of National Reform respectfully report:

That much encouragement has attended their efforts during the past year. There is a growing evidence of a wide-spread interest in the cause, and ample encouragement to hope that it will prove no ephemeral agitation, but a permanent and irrepressible movement of the Christian mind and heart of the nation, sustained and guided by the Divine Spirit, and destined to infallible

success.

Your committee have printed, in tract form, two able arguments on the general subject; one on Our National Obligations to Acknowledge God, was prepared by Rev. J. H. M'Ilvaine, D. D., Professor of Political Science in Princeton College; the other on The Religious Defect in the Constitution of the United States, by Rev. E. R. Craven, D. D. Ten thousand copies of each of these have been published, and the stereotype plates are in the possession of your committee. The larger part of these tracts have been judiciously distributed. Copies have been sent to more than two thousand three hundred religious and political newspapers. They have been sent also, in quantities sufficient to supply all the members, to the various ecclesiastical bodies now, or recently, in session. No inconsiderable number has been distributed by the members of our various congregations, though the interest in their circulation has not been so general as your committee had hoped. Another argument

on The Relations of Civil Governments to Jesus Christ, is in course of prepara

tion.

Your committee arranged a plan for a continuous discussion of the subject by a series of meetings in various parts of the country, which they were able only partially to fulfill. A number of meetings have been held in various localities, but the work has not been at all commensurate with the door opened before us, or with the resources of the church.

The newspaper enterprise referred to in our former report was found to be finally impracticable in the form proposed, but has since been undertaken as a private enterprise in other hands.

Your committee has received, from all sources, the sum of $750.05, and has expended for the above purposes the sum of $225.00, the balance remaining in the hands of the Secretary, who was appointed by the committee to act as Treasurer.

Your committee estimate that the sum of $3,000 should be expended in this work during the ensuing year, and recommend that the day of thanksgiving (fourth Thursday of November) be appointed for a collection for this purpose in all our congregations; that a similar committee be raised to continue the work, and be directed to prosecute it with all diligence in the channels indicated above. S. O. WYLIE, Chm'n. T. P. STEVENSON, Sec'y.

The committee on National Reform is as follows: T. P. Stevenson, J. R. Sharpe, J. R. W. Sloane, J. C. K. Milligan, Wm. Keys, Walter T. Miller. The committee are instructed to observe the movements at Washington, and to do there whatever they can in promotion of the object of their appointment.

The committee on Presbyterial Reports reported. The report was accepted, amended and adopted. It is as follows:

The committee on Presbyterial Reports respectfully report:

That they find in the reports of the different Presbyteries much that is interesting and encouraging. Our beloved Zion is still lengthening her cordsspreading out the curtains of her habitations. From the different sections of the church there comes up a loud call for laborers, and your committee have distributed the unsettled ministers and licentiates at the disposal of Synod, among the different Presbyteries, according to the following schedule:

New York Presbytery—R. Z. Willson, M. Wilkin, N. R. Johnston, July. J. M'Auley, October, November. D. B. Willson, October.

Philadelphia Presbytery―J. A. Black.

Rochester Presbytery-D Scott, John Wallace, August, September, October. T. Hannay, September.

Pittsburgh Pesbytery T. Hannay, June, July, August. N. R. Johnston, June, September, October, November. J. M'Auley, June, July. John Wallace, June, July, November. J. R. Newell, June, September, October, November.

Lakes Presbytery-J. R. Newell, July, August. J. M. Faris, September, November.

Illinois Presbytery-John Crozier. James Wallace. J. M. Faris, June. Iowa Presbytery-R. B. Cannon. R. Hutcheson. J. M. Faris, July, August. A. Wright.

The Statistical Reports accompanying are more full and satisfactory than usual, and we recommend their publication with the minutes of Synod.

Respectfully submitted.

A. M. MILLIGAN, Chairman.

REPORT OF NEW YORK PRESBYTERY.

The New York Presbytery respectfully report:

That since the last meeting of Synod we have held two regular meetings. These meetings have been well attended, and marked by a spirit of Christian zeal and brotherly love. The list of our congregations, and the roll of our pastors, remain unchanged.

Presbytery has engaged in an important missionary work in the city of New York. R. Z. Willson has been appointed missionary for one year. A station has been opened in the upper part of the city, and the report for the first six months gives encouragement that a good work may here be done for Christ.

Two vacant congregations and four missionary stations are pressing their claims for ministerial labor. We earnestly ask a liberal share in the distribution of laborers. While we pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers in his vineyard, we would urge upon Synod the necessity of taking such action as may tend to increase the number of students, and give greater efficiency to the Seminary.

A call from the congregation of Craftsbury, on A. W. Johnston, was presented and accepted, at our last meeting. Steps have been taken for his ordination.

Rev. J. C. K. Milligan has been appointed by this Presbytery, member of the Board of Superintendents of the Theological Seminary. Our statistical report will exhibit the increase in the membership of our congregations and the liberal spirit by which they are actuated. Days of fasting and thanksgiving have been generally observed.

In some of our congregations a growing interest is manifested in our prayer meetings. Our communion seasons have been blessed for reviving and strengthening us in witnessing a good confession for our blessed Saviour and glorious King.

Respectfully submitted.

J. H. BOGGS, Clerk of Pres.

REPORT OF PHILADELPHIA PRESBYTERY.

The Presbytery of Philadelphia would respectfully report: We have held two regular meetings of Synod. We have completed within the year, the Presbyterial examination of congregations. Days of fasting and thanksgiving have been observed. Collections ordered by Synod for public schemes, have been generally attended to. Rev. J. M. Armour has been certified to the Presbytery of Rochester. A call has been moderated in the congregation of Conococheague on Jas. A. Black, and has been forwarded to Pittsburgh Presbytery. Rev. T. P. Stevenson has been appointed to the Board of Examiners of Theological Seminary.

We would call attention on the subject of covenanting to a memorial before you, from one of our sessions.

The services of one laborer are asked, within our bounds, for the ensuing six months. Respectfully submitted.

W. P. JOHNSTON, Clerk of Pres.

REPORT OF ROCHESTER PRESBYTERY.

The Presbytery of Rochester report: That since last Synod they have held two regular meetings. We have six ministerial members, two of whom are without pastoral charges. We have under our care four settled and three vacant congregations. Of these last, one, the Lisbon congregation, has made a call on Mr. Jas. Black, of the disposal of which we have not been informed.

Since our last report Rev. J. M. Armour has been installed into the pastoral care of the congregation of Syracuse, and Rev. M. Wilkin, on his own request, has been released from the charge of the congregation of Sterling.