ADMISSION OF MEMBERS

INTO THE CHURCH.

WHEN any persons wish to become members of the Church, and partakers of the Communion, they are expected to signify the same, at a convenient time, to the Minister, who may consult thereupon with the Elders, or such members of the Church as may have been appointed for that purpose; and if no sufficient objection be known, the applicants shall sign their names to the following

ARTICLES OF

AGREEMENT.

WE, who have here subscribed our names, do unite ourselves together as the Body of Communicants in the First Congregational Society of St. Louis. By so doing, we profess our faith in Jesus Christ, as the Son of God and the Savior of men; and acknowledge the Bible as the Divinely-authorized Rule, both of Faith and of Practice, to which

it is our duty, as Christians, to submit. By thus uniting ourselves together, we claim no right to exclude any one from this Communion, on account of difference in doctrinal opinions, nor for any other reason, except undoubted immorality of conduct.

Upon the next following administration of the Communion, at some convenient time before the distribution of the Bread and Wine, the minister shall read the names of the applicants for admission; and if any of them have never been baptized, he shall proceed to baptize them. shall then address them as follows:

He

You do, in this solemn presence, give up yourself to the true God in Jesus Christ, and to his people also, according to the will of God, promising to walk with God and with this Church of his, in all his holy ordinances, and to yield obedience to every truth of his, which has been or shall be made known to you as your duty, the Lord assisting you by his spirit and grace.

We then, the Church of Christ in this place, do receive you into the fellowship, and promise to walk towards you, and to watch over you, as a member of this Church, endeavoring your spiritual edification in Christ Jesus our Lord.*

* This Covenant has been in use by the Second Church in Boston more than two hundred years. It is here adopted because of its great simplicity and comprehensiveness.

ASSOCIATION

FOR

CHARITABLE PURPOSES.

THE members of this Church, at a meeting held in the month of November, 1841, unanimously resolved themselves into an Association for Charitable Purposes, of which it is proper that the Constitution should be here given.

ARTICLE I. This Church shall hereafter be considered, by virtue of its organization, an Association for Charitable Purposes.

ARTICLE II. The objects of its charity shall be to visit and relieve the poor, and to provide work for them.

ARTICLE III. The officers shall be a President, (who shall be the Pastor of the Church;) a Minister, or Visitor of the Poor; and a Committee of five Ladies; who shall respectively perform the duties which from time to time shall be assigned to them.

ASSOCIATION FOR CHARITABLE PURPOSES. 71

ARTICLE IV. All members of the Church shall be considered as members of this Association, and are expected to interest themselves in visiting the poor, and to be ready to perform any duties, in furtherance of the objects of the Association, which may be in their power.

ARTICLE V. Each member shall annually contribute (when not inconvenient) the sum of one dollar, to compose a special fund for the use of the poor of this Church and the Religious Society with which it is connected.

ARTICLE VI. An annual meeting shall be held in November, and meetings may at any time be called by the officers.

CREED AND CHURCH DISCIPLINE.

By the original Constitution of the first Congregational Society of Saint Louis, it is expressly provided that no Creed, or Articles of Faith, shall ever be adopted in the Church, as a test of membership, except the Bible itself. No other profession of faith, therefore, is required, than that found in the Articles of Agreement which the members of the Church sign. Each individual is understood to be responsible, for his peculiar religious opinions, not to the members of this Church, but to God and to Christ alone. The communion-table is spread for all believers in Jesus Christ.

It was chiefly on this ground that the name of Congregational was assumed, rather than that of any particular sect. The object was to keep this Church and Society free from all sectarian trammels, and to avoid the names which identify it with a party. So far as the constitution, or the name of the Society is concerned, the Pastor is as much at liberty to preach doctrines of the Trinitarian as of the Unitarian system. By assuming the name of