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are made for the support of foreign missions. This arises not so much from want of ability or inclination, as the want of a definite object to which our benevolence may be profitably directed. The establishment of a mission of our own would probably obviate some of the objections that are now made to contributing aid to foreign missions. It would be under our own direction-we would have confidence in our own agents, and be satisfied that our charities were faithfully dispensed. We believe that the desire for the establishment of a foreign mission is a growing desire in the churches; and trust that the time is not far distant when it may be undertaken with good prospects of success. But the Committee are of opinion that the time has not yet arrived. It cannot be concealed, that in regard to the subject of our domestic missions, there are some difficulties now existing in the Church, which should, if practicable, be obviated and removed before any new operations are undertaken.

To some of these difficulties it is the painful duty of the Committee to advert.

It is well known that for several years past, the Board of Managers of the Missionary Society of the Reformed Dutch Church, have been constituted annually the Board of Missions of the General Synod. This was first done in 1822, and at the same time the Society agreed to furnish the General Synod, at every annual meeting, with an abstract of its proceedings. In this way a connexion was formed between the two bodies, which subsisted without interruption until the last meeting of the General Synod at New Brunswick. At that meeting the General Synod, after continuing as their Committee of Missions the Board of Managers that had just been appointed by the Society, Resolved, That at the then next ordinary session of Synod, the number of the Committee of Missions should be reduced to fifteen, and that they should thereafter be elected annually by the General Synod. And they further Resolved, That it be recommended to the Missionary Society, to alter its present constitution in conformity to the abovestated resolution. In taking these measures, it appears to have been the intention of the Synod to bring the missionary operations of the Church more immediately under their own control. In pursuance of these intentions, the Synod appointed a second Board of Missions in the bounds of the particular Synod of Albany, (except the Classis of Ulster,) and that Board has been in operation for the past year.

It appears by the memorial of the Board of Managers of the Missionary Society, which has been referred to your Committee, that the Society have declined acceding to the recommendation of the General Synod-that they have not altered their constitution-and that they have, in the month of May last, proceeded to elect their own managers as heretofore. In this memorial the Society set forth at large, the reasons why they have declined a compliance with the wishes of the Synod; and they pray that Synod would leave them on the ground they occupied previous to the meeting of 1830.

Your Committee have considered very carefully the memorial of the Missionary Society. They feel the force of some of its arguments, and acknowledge with gratitude the services rendered by those from whom it emanates. But they are constrained to say, that they believe the time has come, when the Church, as an organized body, should take her missionary operations under her own control. Such a course is right in principle. The General Synod is the highest judicatory of the Church, and when the Church acts as one body, as she is supposed to do, in ordering her missionary operations, she should be under the direction and control of the Synod. We believe that in this way her efforts would be more vigorous, better directed, and more extensive. Missionaries would go forth under the sanction of the Church onlyconfidence would be established-unity of design and action attained -and soundness in faith and doctrine preserved.

It will be necessary for the Synod to appoint a Board or Boards of Missions. The Committee would respectfully recommend, that one Board only be appointed, that it consist of thirty-four members, to be appointed by the Synod, and located in the city of New York, that the Board shall appoint its own officers, and shall have power to conduct all the missionary operations of the Church, rendering to the Synod, at every annual meeting, a detailed statement of its proceedings.

Such a system your Committee think would be generally accepted, and in connexion with the plan of benevolent associations in the churches to aid the funds of the Board, would be less objectionable, and at the same time more effective, than that on which the Synod has acted for the past year. And it is not conceived that such a system can stand in the way of any voluntary association whose object is to aid in the missionary cause ;—such aid can still be given, and will be given by those who have confidence in the wisdom and prudence of

the Synod, and believe that she will preserve inviolate the faith and standards of the Church, and press onward under her own banner, in the great work,of evangelizing the world.

Should this plan meet the approbation of the Synod, it is confidently hoped that all our churches may give to it their warm support. Unity of feeling and action are necessary to the accomplishment of any enterprise in which many persons are engaged together,—and it is so more especially in the operations of the Church. If our charities are to be withheld-if our ardour is suffered to abate, and our zeal to expire, because our own particular views as to the mode of operation may not accord with those of a majority of the Church, it is evident that the work will always languish and be unfruitful. Let us come up to the work as Christians of one family, having “ one Lord, one faith, one baptism;" and with a single eye to the glory of God, move on with an unbroken front against the great enemy of souls ; that so, with the blessing of the God of peace, we may be instrumental in building up the Redeemer's kingdom on the earth.

With this brief view of the whole subject, the Committee recommend the adoption of the following resolutions :

1. Resolved, That the reports of the Board of Managers of the Missionary Society, and of the Board of Missions for the Particular Synod of Albany, be published and circulated through the churches.

2. Resolved, That the resolutions of the last General Synod on pp. 297-8 numbers II and III, relative to the Missionary Society of the Reformed Dutch Church, be, and the same are hereby rescinded.

3. Resolved, That this Synod do, at its present Session, appoint a Board of Missions, to be known by the name of the Board of Missions of the General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church, to which shall be confided all the missionary concerns of the Church. That the said Board shall consist of thirty-four members, of whom one-half at least, and not more than two-thirds, shall reside in the city of New York, and the residue shall be appointed from the other parts of the Church. That one-third of the members shall be elected by the Synod annually, so that the whole body shall be renewed once in three years. That the said Board shall have power to elect their own officers annually, and to take all proper and necessary measures to further the cause of missions, subject at all times to the direction and

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control of the Synod, to whom they shall make an annual and detailed statement of all their proceedings.

4. Resolved, That the Board of Missions now constituted by the General Synod, have power and are hereby authorized to receive from the present Missionary Boards, a transfer of their missionary stations and funds; and that all payments and contributions from the churches be hereafter made to the Treasurer of the Synod's Board of Missions, provided that it shall be optional with the Managers of the Missionary Society whether or not to pay over the funds now in their hands to the Synod's Board of Missions.

5. Resolved, That it be recommended to the Board of Missions, that in their appointments of missionaries (not connected with the Reformed Dutch Church,) to labour in vacant churches, they confer with the Standing Committee to prevent the introduction of unsound doctrine, in the particular Classes to which said missionaries shall be sent. By order of the Committee,

PETER D. VROOM, JUN.

The Rev. John Beattie, George W. Bethune, and Abraham H. Dumont, and the Elders John V. B. Varick, and Michael Schoonmaker, were appointed a Committee to nominate double the number of persons, from whom to choose the Board of Missions referred to in the above report. The Committee reported, when the following persons were elected, viz. :—

Rev. Thomas De Witt, D. D., John Knox, D. D., William McMurray, D. D., Jacob Brodhead, D. D., George Dubois, Peter P. Rouse, Cornelius C. Cuyler, D. D., John Ludlow, D. D., Isaac Ferris, Gilbert R. Livingston, D. D., John F. Schermerhorn, John Gosman, Benjamin C. Taylor, and Messrs. Peter D. Vroom, Jun., Abraham Van Nest, William Mandeville, John I. Labagh, Cornelius Heyer, William R. Thompson, Leonard W. Kip, Joseph W. Duryea, Isaac Young, William B. Crosby, John Redfield, Thomas L Chester, James C. Roosevelt, John Steward, Jun., Walter Bicker, D. Fanshaw, Stephen Van Rensselaer, George W. Mentz, John R. Bleecker, Richard V. De Witt, and Abraham Varick.

Resolved, That the Board of Missions convene on the first Wednesday of July, 1831, at the Consistory Chamber, Nassau-street, in the city of New York, at 4 o'clock, P. M.

Resolved, That at the first meeting of the Board they shall proceed to determine the respective terms of service of the members, for one, two, or three years.

Resolved, That the Board be authorized to fill up all vacancies that may occur, either by declining to accept, resignation, or death.

Resolved, That the number of nine, lawfully convened, shall be a quorum, for the transaction of business.

The committee on the case of Mr. James E. Quaw reported, and their report was adopted, and is as follows:

The committee to whom was referred the memorial of the Rev. James E. Quaw, late missionary of the Reformed Dutch Church, respectfully beg leave to report :

Your Committee, from a careful examination of the documents submitted by the memorialist, find that he claims compensation for missionary services rendered at Lysander, for missionary services rendered at Tyaschoke, and for services rendered to sundry churches within the bounds of the Classis of Montgomery and the Classis of Washington.

From an examination of the book of minutes of the northern agency of the Missionary Board of our Church, it appears that the memorialist was appointed to labor within the bounds of the congregation of Lysander for one year, from the 8th December, 1829. It also appears, from a conference with the elder from that church, on the floor of this Synod, that missionary services, under the above appointment, for the period of four months, have been ably and faithfully rendered.

It is further evident from the memorial, and also from documents signed by two elders of the church of Tyaschoke, that the memorialist labored in the midst of them as a missionary, under the appointments of the Missionary Board, from August 1828, to the last of Dec. 1829, with ability and acceptance to the congregation. During this period his appointments were renewed at short intervals, from time to time.

From an examination of the papers submitted, it appears to your Committee, that owing to the delay of the Missionary Board to answer the communications of the memorialist, two months of the above-mentioned period he was not under commission. And as the circum

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