Corresponding Executive Committees. It is proposed that each Presbytery shall appoint annually, from their own body, an Executive Committee on Missions, whose duty it shall be to open a regular correspondence with the Assembly's Board; to be invested with the following powers, aid, and of the amount of aid which it may be proper to allow to each; and also, to designate the fields of labour, which may be best adapted to the peculiar gifts, and talents, and manners of the different men who may be employed in the missionary service. Presbyteries, also, have a more di1. To receive, generally, applica- rect and powerful influence over contions for aid, from feeble congregations gregations, than any other ecclesiastical (within the bounds of the Presbytery) body; and it therefore devolves naturally which have pastors, or stated supplies, on them, to direct and facilitate the and to recommend the same to the Ex-progress of agents from the Board, and ecutive Committee of the Board of Mis- to arouse the people to a prompt and sions. faithful performance of their duty in the Missionary cause. 2. To devise and execute plans for raising funds in the several congregations within their bounds, which funds shall be reported to the treasurer of the Assembly's Board, and be held subject to the orders of said Board. 3. To select and recommend to the Executive Committee of the Board of Missions, Missionary fields, and Missionary labourers, and also, to locate such Missionaries as may be sent to them by the Board for specific instructions. 4. To suggest the amount of aid which they may deem indispensably necessary to be afforded to each congregation, which they shall recommend to the attention of the Board. By the annual appointment of a small, but devoted and energetic Executive Committee, all these desirable objects may be secured; and, if such committees are prompt and faithful in bringing before this Board a minute and accurate statement of the real circumstances and necessities of the feeble congregations, and missionary districts within their bounds, the way will be prepared for the Board to act immediately, and judiciously, upon every application. Moreover, if such committees should be appointed by the Presbyteries generally, and by those especially who have many vacancies, and much missionary ground to be occupied, the Board will also be enabled to make a much more equal distribution of their Missionaries in the different Presbyte The substance of this plan has already been submitted to a considerable number of the Presbyteries, and as far as we have been informed, it has gene-ries, than they have had it in their powrally been approved and cordially adopted; and we are already beginning to experience its beneficial results. er to do heretofore, on account of their want of necessary information. On this subject, the Board would furIt is not the only excellence of this ther remark, that it is a matter of great plan of correspondence, that it will ef-importance, that the members of Corresfectually remove or prevent many evils ponding Executive Committees should which already exist, or are seriously be truly devoted and active men;-that apprehended, but it will also be pro- the number necessary to constitute a ductive of a very great amount of posi- quorum, should be small, rarely if ever tive good. Its ultimate design and di- exceeding three;-that these should be rect tendency are, to bring to the aid located in the immediate vicinity of of this Board, in conducting its mission- each other, so that special meetings may ary concerns, the whole amount of wis-be called without difficulty or delay;dom, experience, talent and energy, and that a due proportion of each comwhich are to be found in those judicato-mittee should be elders of the church. ries of the church, which have been particularly invested by our constitution, with original jurisdiction and ecclesiastical authority and power. It is in the apprehension of your Board, the appro- | priate duty of the Presbyteries, to ascertain and disclose the circumstances and wants of all the feeble congregations and destitute districts within their respective bounds; to arrange them into missionary stations or circuits; to judge in the first instance of the comparative necessities, and claims of applicants for Missionary Agencies. It is apprehended by your Board, that the necessity, and utility of Special Agencies, are not properly understood and appreciated by the churches generally, and they would therefore bring this subject distinctly before the Assembly. By all who have had sufficient experience in managing the concerns of large benevolent institutions, it is now regarded as a matter of vital impor ment, which we trust, will be far more interesting and useful, of the amount of good accomplished by the whole. For the sake of brevity and perspicuity, this statement of the results of Missionary labours will be presented in several particulars, embracing tance, and as absolutely indispensable || ed in the Missionary Reporter, we have to their extension and success, that designedly omitted a brief summary of well qualified, active and persevering the labours of each, with a view of preagents should be employed in develo-senting in this place, a condensed stateping the plans, and urging home the claims of these institutions upon the churches. To the exertions of such agents, more than to all other means, which have hitherto been employed, your Board are indebted for the rapid increase of their auxiliaries and funds, and the consequent enlargement of the sphere of their operations during the last two years,-and also for the dissemination of information among the Presbyteries and churches, respecting the plans and doings of the Board. The expense of these agencies, your Board are aware, is rather more than that of simple Missions. But it should not be forgotten, that our agents have a double duty to perform. They usually preach from four to eight times a week, and are constantly engaged in travelling from congregation to congregation to solicit funds. So extremely arduous and unwelcome are the labours of agents, and so peculiar are the qualifications necessary to their success, that it has been found extremely difficult for the Board to secure on any terms, the services of such men, as they were willing to employ in this responsible work. It is the fixed purpose of your Board, in all their operations, to practice the most rigid economy, which may not be manifestly inconsistent with the best interests of the cause in which they are engaged. But hitherto they have not been able, except in a single instance, to obtain suitable agents, without allowing them the full amount of compensation, ordinarily granted by other benevolent societies in our country. It would be truly gratifying to the Board, and highly beneficial to the churches, if a number of the talented and devoted friends of Missions at the West and South, would volunteer their services, as agents, for short periods of time, on the usual salary of Missionaries. This would at once relieve us from very serious embarrassment, and the example, we doubt not, would have a constraining influence. Results of Missionary Operations during the last Year. From the plans and doings of the Board, which have now been detailed, we turn with pleasure to the results of the labours of our Missionaries. As a large proportion of their most interesting reports, have been already publish 1st. The fields occupied, the expenses incurred, and the labour performed. So numerous are the churches in our connexion, which are feeble, and unable without assistance to sustain a stated ministry, and so fully convinced are your Board of the necessity and utility of the plan of locating their Missionaries as regular pastors, and stated supplies, that they have felt constrained to make vigorous and persevering efforts to carry this plan more fully into effect. They have therefore encouraged direct applications for aid from all feeble and destitute congregations which are really unable to support their ministers, and they have firmly resolved, to the full extent of their means, to grant promptly, to such applicants, the amount of aid deemed indispensably necessary, nor have they in a single instance withholden aid from those whose applications have been fully sanctioned by the Corresponding Executive Committee of the Presbytery to which the applicants belonged, or by two responsible members of the same. In consequence of these plans, and efforts of the Board, the number of congregations entirely, or adequately supplied, and the amount of ministerial labour performed, have been considerably larger in proportion to the number of Missionaries employed during the last year, than ever before. Of the 198 Missionaries employed, 144 are pastors of feeble congregations, or supplies for one year each, in limited districts, where the prospects of organizing churches, collecting congregations, and preparing the way for permanent settlements are encouraging, and 44 have been commissioned for shorter periods to engage in itinerant labours, and 10 in special agencies for the purpose of forming auxiliaries, and increasing the funds of the Board. 'The whole number of congregations, and Missionary districts supplied, amounts to more than 300. The whole number of appointments, and re-appointments for the year is 246. these 159 were for one year each; and 87 for a shorter term. The whole amount of time, embraced in all the Of commissions granted and accepted, is 182 years and eight months. The whole amount of money pledged by the Board for the 182 years of ministerial labour is $23,782 34 cts., and the average expense of each year's labour is about $130., || benefit and bless the rising generation, and ultimately to change the whole moral aspect of society. There are one or more Sabbath Schools and Bible Classes in most of the congregations supplied by our Missionaries, and in some instances, whole counties have been explored by our Missionaries, and Sabbath Schools have been organized in all the important towns and settlements-and thus they have virtually done the work assigned to Sabbath School Agents. Some of these commissions have been recently issued, and have as yet been fulfilled only in part. The amount of ministerial labour, however, which has actually been performed, since the date of our last report, is equal to the continued labour of a single individual for and classes under the care of our MisThe precise number of these schools more than eighty years. Of the whole || sionaries, we are not able to state, benumber of missionaries employed, more cause minute reports have not been rethan three-fourths have been sustained ceived from all; but they may be fairly at an expense to the Board of 100 dolls. estimated at three hundred, and the or less, per annum-the people among number of learners at 12 or 15,000. whom they have laboured having pro- With most of these Sabbath Schools sevided chiefly for their support. A sin- lect and useful libraries are now connectgle individual only has received, for a||ed, and a considerable sum of money has year, the full amount of wages formerly granted to all the missionaries of the Board-and that individual is the missionary among the Chippeway Indians, who is sustained by the interest of a fund exclusively designed for the purpose. Of the rest, none receives more than half the usual missionary wages, and the allowance to some of them is much less. been raised in the course of the last year by our Missionaries, for the purpose of establishing or increasing such libraries. In many of the schools the excellent catechisms of our church are faithfully taught and explained, and the Board indulge the hope, that the attention of Missionaries, and all other managers and teachers of Sabbath Schools in our own connexion, will hereafter be more par Churches organized and Houses of ticularly directed to this invaluable Worship built. As very few of our Missionaries are now employed in itinerant labours, the number of new churches organized is not large. method of communicating religious inBible, Missionary, Tract, and Educastruction to the youthful mind. tion Societies, In furthering the designs, and extendFrom the reports on this subject which ing the operations of these pre-eminenthave been received, the whole number ly useful institutions, the zeal and efforts of new churches may be safely estimated at fifteen, and the whole number of members at two hundred. More than twenty houses of worship have been erected in the course of the year, in places supplied by our Missionaries, and chiefly through their instrumentality-and a considerable number more have been completed or repaired. The amount of money raised and expended by the people for these purposes on missionary ground during the year, probably exceeds ten thousand dollars. Sabbath Schools and Bible Classes. The attention of all our Missionaries has been particularly directed to the organization, encouragement, and support of these interesting nurseries of knowledge, morality, and religion. Scarcely a report has been received, which does not contain some cheering intelligence of the increase and usefulness of these sacred institutions, which are designed to of our Missionaries have been truly commendable. They have labored with fidelity and success to ascertain and supply the destitute within their respective fields of labor with the lively oracles of God, and with a great variety of religious tracts. They have been instrumental in establishing, reviving, and increasing a large number of local Bible and Tract essentially to the general objects of these Societies, and in this way, contributed institutions. In some of their congregations and districts, the plan of the monthly distribution of tracts has been adopted and pursued with success; and liberal contributions and subscriptions have been made to purchase tracts for this purpose. Several hundred thousand pages of these silent but powerful messengers of mercy have by various means been put into circulation, and the blessed fruits of their labors in the tract cause have al ready been experienced by some of our Missionaries, in the increased attention of their people to the preaching of the word, and other means of grace, and in the awakening and hopeful conversion of some who were dead in trespasses and sins. In most of the established congregations supplied by our missionaries, auxiliaries to your Board, on the fifty cent plan, have been formed, which contribute from ten to fifty dollars a year each to our funds. Similar auxiliaries to the Board of Education have also been formed in some of their congregations, and the number of these, we have reason to believe, will be soon increased. can be more desirable and encouraging than seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and the outpourings of the Holy Spirit upon those who have been committed to his charge. At such times especially a spiritual harvest is enjoyed, seals are set to his ministry, and jewels are prepared to adorn his crown in heaven. But while these precious seasons should be sought from God with holy importunity, and be received when granted with profound humility and devout thanksgiving-ministers of the gospel who are not permitted at once, or with great frequency to witness them, should not hastily conclude that their labors in the Lord have, therefore been in vain. The seed of the gospel is "incorruptible," and if it be sown diligently, prayerfully, and in faith, it shall not perish. But at the very time, and under the very circumstances, which may be deemed best, by the Great HusMis-bandman, it shall spring forth, and bear fruit, "some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold." In the dispensations of his grace, Jehovah acts as a Sovereign. It is his right thus to act, and it is the duty of his creatures to submit without murmuring or repining. In sion of sinners, there is a great "diversity the awakening, conviction, and converof operations, but the same spirit." The cause of Foreign Missions has also been remembered, and by most of our Missionaries something has been done to aid the noble operations of the A. B. C. F. M., located at Boston. The cause of Temperance. The reports of nearly all our sionaries, respecting the rapid progress of the cause of Temperance in the different sections of the country where they labor, are of the most gratifying nature and it affords great pleasure to the Board, to assure the Assembly, that this most blessed work of reform has been essentially aided by the vigorous, and untiring efforts of their Missionaries.They have generally engaged in this good cause, with an ardor of feeling, a strength of purpose, and a devotedness of spirit, which must ensure success.— By their public preaching, their private and personal appeals, and the general distribution of essays and addresses on the subject, they have so far succeeded in removing prejudices, in answering objections and in suppressing opposition, as to secure in a majority of their congregations, the establishment of Temperance Societies on the principle of entire abstinence. A considerable number of these Societies are already large and flourishing, and their salutary influence is beginning to be seen and felt by all classes of men. Many moderate drinkers have been rescued from the snare of the fowler; some abandoned drunkards have been reformed; and a number of distillers, merchants, and tavernkeepers, have been induced to refrain entirely from the manufacture or sale of all kinds of ardent spirits. Revivals of Religion and Additions to the Churches.. To the devoted minister of Christ, whose heart is duly impressed with the worth of immortal souls, and with a sense of his own responsibility-nothing|| In some churches, the wandering sheep are gathered into the fold of Christ gradually, slowly; & one by one. While in others there are powerful excitements and great numbers are brought in toerful excitements, have been experiengether. Very few, if any of these powced during the past year in congregations under the care of our Missionaries. In 8 or 10 instances however, pleasing, and we trust genuine revivals have been experienced, which have resulted in the hopeful conversion of from 15 to 50 perhave thus been favoured. In nearly all sons in each of the congregations which has been a gradual and encouraging inour missionary fields, however, there crease of the number of communicants. who have been particular on this point, The reports of 23 of our Missionaries, exhibit an increase of members to the amount of nearly 600, chiefly from the conversions, and additions to the churchworld. The whole number of hopeful es, may be estimated at 1000. If even one half of this number have truly been born of the Spirit, and rescued from impending and eternal ruin and made meet for an inheritance with the saints in light-we have abundant occasion for gratitude and thanksgiving to God. This single result of Christian liberality |