I can imagine that the home missionary work might come to an end-the whole country brought to a knowledge of the Lord and Master -but I cannot imagine the time coming until our Lord appears in glory, when the work of church erection will cease.

Brethren, the salvation of this country does not depend upon Presbyterians; but it would be to their eternal disgrace if in it they bore not their full share. But if they are to bear their share, the home missionary work must never be divorced from that of church erection.

You recall the remark of the French officer as he watched the gallant charge of the light brigade as at Balaklava they rode into the jaws of death-"It is magnificent, but it is not war." To spend $800,000 upon home missionary work this year is magnificent; but if you give not in due proportion to the building of churches, you are sending out an army without the means of entrenchment by which to hold the ground.

“IT IS MAGNIFICENT, BUT IT IS NOT WAR."

A writer in the new agnostic paper, the Open Court, says of the "atrocious evangelical theology of our day," that "It is like a scroll cast into the fire-the writing is legible long after the vital cohesion of the fibres has been destroyed." He says of Roman paganism, when in that condition, that it was easily suppressed, merely by closing the temples; and that repressive taxation of the churches would as promptly end the feeble remaining power of Christian superstition. It is not wholly true to say that the closing of the houses of public worship would destroy the Christian religion, but it is true that it would place it at so great disadvantage that its ability for aggression would be gone, and in time it would disappear. And the converse is true-that opening houses of worship is the very best work that the church can do. Nothing is so much needed as this in our great cities and on all mission fields. It is well to study the parts of our aggressive and defensive organization which attract the most attention of the enemy.-The Interior.

"In the year 1885," says England, "£1,733,900 was given by voluntary offerings to Church of England building and restoration, to the endowment of benefices, to parsonage houses and burial grounds. Between the years 1876 and 1885, 2557 churches have been restored, and 819 new churches have been built. From 1882 to

1884 the voluntary contributions for the maintenance of church elementary schools amounted to £1,746,321, and provided accommodation for 7,373,941 children; while in the same period the voluntary contributions for all other elementary schools amounted to £461,723. Careful calculations bring out the result that in the quarter of a century from 1860 to 1884, the voluntary expenditure of the church has reached the enormous sum of £81,573,237. In 1885 the Church of England Temperance Society had an income of £5494. Towards the Metropolitan Hospital Sunday Fund, between 1873 and 1886, 10,214 collections made by the church produced the sum of £300,679, and 7433 collections of other bodies produced £99,929."

JACKSONVILLE, FLA., May 3, 1887.

REV. E. N. WHITE, D.D.

DEAR BROTHER:-Your kind favor, with enclosed check, etc., has been received. In behalf of our church I desire to express to the Board our sincere thanks. Our church building is a very It was dedicated by Dr. John Hall, pleasant one. of your city, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Sample, who is, I believe, your successor, on Sunday, February 20, at 3 o'clock. I hope some time that we may have the pleasure of showing you our very pleasant place of worship, in the erection of which we have been so largely helped by the Board.

The receipt will be forwarded at once to the treasurer, Mr. Campbell. With many thanks, I am, yours fraternally, FRANCIS J. GINKE.

SPRING CITY, TENN., March 23, 1887. DEAR BROTHER-I believe that all the correspondence relating to the grant to Piney Falls Church is now at an end. I would, in behalf of the church, tender to you the thanks of all concerned. The aid rendered us has been of great service to us. Everything has been done in a kindly spirit. There has been room for some of us to be taxed somewhat heavily, but we have a neat church. It was dedicated on Sabbath last and six members were received-all of them by profession. We hope this building may be the birthplace of many souls. There is great joy over it. The text of dedication sermon, Hag. 1: 8, "Go up to the mountain," etc.

Yours in gospel bonds,

D. M. WILSON.

REPORT TO THE ASSEMBLY.

The Thirty-second Annual Report of the Board of Relief was presented to the Assembly at Omaha, May 21. The following The following statements from it are reprinted for those who may not see the report, or may desire to have them in THE CHURCH as more convenient for preservation and reference.

Copies of the report in full will be sent on application to the office of the Board, 1334 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa.

THE NUMBER ON THE ROLL

to whom remittances were sent upon the recommendation of presbyteries, during the year from April 1, 1886, to April 1, 1887, was 532: that is, ministers, 220; widows of ministers, 284; orphan families, 28. The number of families provided for during the year at the Ministers' House, Perth Amboy, N. J., was 30; making upon the roll of the Board during the past year a total of 562 families. In a number of these families there is only one person, the aged minister or widow; a larger number consists of aged couples, sometimes with an invalid daughter or orphan grandchildren depending upon them; a still larger number consists of widows of ministers with children not old enough to earn anything for their support, and of ministers broken down in the midst of their usefulness with wife and children to be cared for. The number who share in the appropriations made by the Board to these 562 families may be estimated at about

TWO THOUSAND PERSONS.

The presbyterial recommendations in their behalf came from 148 presbyteries. All of the home synods are represented upon our roll except the recently-erected Synod of North Dakota.

FOREIGN AND HOME MISSIONARIES.

The Presbytery of West Africa recommends three families; and whilst there are no recommendations from other presbyteries in the missionary synods, it should be stated that a number of returned missionaries are receiving aid from the Board upon the recommendation of the presbyteries with which they are now connected at home. Some of these have not

abandoned the hope of being permitted, with restored health, to resume their labors in the foreign field. The wife of one of these missionaries, in acknowledging a remittance from the Board, says:

"My dear husband remains just the same. He is taking every possible means to restore his health, so that he may get a certificate of health from his physician in order that he may return to China."

It is obvious, indeed, that missionaries constitute a class especially liable to suffer from want when no longer able to serve the church in the noble and self-denying work to which they have consecrated their lives. Not only do their salaries, like those of most ministers, preclude the laying by of anything for sickness or old age, but missionaries, whether in the home or foreign field, do not sustain those relations with parishioners (whom God has blessed with means) that often lead an appreciative and affectionate people to see that no want comes to the pastor who has grown old in their service, or who has broken down in the midst of his faithful and self-denying labors for their highest interests. We have on our roll many who have given their best years to missionary work abroad, or under our Home Missionary Board in this country or in the Freedmen's Board. And not only ministers.

WOMAN MISSIONARIES.

The Report to the General Assembly of 1885 of its Standing Committee upon Ministerial Relief, Rev. Edward Cooper, D.D., chairman, contained the following recommendation :

'It is also recommended that female missionaries, who are neither widows nor daughters of ministers and therefore not under the rules of the Board for granting appropriations, be included among its beneficiaries. Every year brings new laborers into the mission work of the church from the ranks of highly-cultured and consecrated young women, who have access to the millions of their sex heretofore beyond the reach of preacher and teacher. These accessions, responsive to the missionary spirit of women's missionary labors and in answer to strong cries for the rescue of millions of their sisters from the woes of heathen life, are entitled to this recognition."

And the Assembly endorsed this recommen

dation of its committee by passing unanimously the following resolution:

"That women who have given themselves to the missionary work be placed on the roll for the benefactions of this Board upon the same conditions as ministers."

MISSIONARIES AND PASTORS ON OUR ROLL STILL USEFUL.

And the church should not overlook the fact that of these faithful missionaries, though many no longer enrolled in either of our missionary boards, are still rendering service to the great and sacred cause to which their lives are devoted. A secular paper recently received at this office contains in full a sermon preached by an aged minister, now upon our roll, whose infirmities have caused his withdrawal from active work in the home missionary field. It is an earnest and forcible plea for home missions, of which he speaks from the fullness of his own experience. Frequent letters to the office from these aged men upon our roll,-who are no longer able to sustain the labors of the pastorate, or at least who seem to be no longer wanted by the churches in this position,-show not only that the desire to be useful in their sacred calling is unabated, but many of them report an amount of work actually done that shows an abundant fruit-bearing in old age. Surely the provision afforded by the church, through this Board, for the comfort of their declining years should not be regarded merely as a grateful appreciation of faithful services in past years on missionary fields, or of labors often as arduous and self-denying in the pastorate at home! One of them, who, as our records show, has been nearly fifty years in the ministry, recently writes:

"I have been enabled, in the good providence of God, to improve all my time, by night and day, ever since I went to in reading,

studying, writing, visiting and preaching. I have written, among other things, several articles for different papers, secular and religious copies of several of which I have forwarded to you, not to task your time and patience so much in reading them as to show you that, as one of the beneficiaries of the Board, I was not disposed to be an idler wherever and however I could do any good for my Master. And I am anxious and willing to help myself in bearing my annual expenses for my few remaining years here, so far as the Lord will enable me; especially as the amount the Board of Relief now so generously appropriates will not cover nearly all such expenses."

A reference to a visit he made to some friends shows that this veteran is, indeed, "not disposed to be an idler;" and it also incidentally shows that the annual expenses for his "few remaining years here" (which are not sufficiently covered by his "generous" appropriation from the Board) are not very largely met by the compensation he receives for what many younger men would consider hard work. He says:

"My health, while there, greatly improved; so that I felt warranted in undertaking ministerial labor again, as the Lord might indicate. I was engaged in it every Sabbath (and during the week) of last month, but all gratuitously, except three dollars received; and I was encouraged in it and enjoyed it, although I took some cold in changing around so much amidst the winds and uncertain weather of March."

Are not many of these blessed men upon our roll rendering to the church, even in the fullness of their old age, an actual service which is more than an equivalent for the moderate appropriation made through the Board for their support in "the few remaining years" of their lives?

WITHDRAWALS FROM THE ROLL.

During the year twenty families have withdrawn from the roll, a change in pecuniary circumstances or restored health rendering further aid from the Board no longer necessary. Twenty-eight persons have died, being heads of families; that is, twenty-one ministers and seven widows.

ADDITIONS TO THE ROLL.

But the number of those whose names no longer appear upon the roll of the Board is largely exceeded by the number of new applicants. These have been eighty-eight during the year; that is, fifty-one ministers, thirtythree widows and four orphan families. Most of these ministers are laid aside from the active duties of their sacred calling by the infirmities of old age; and the letters from the chairmen, enclosing the recommendations of the presbyteries, bear testimony to the high character and the faithful, self-denying work done by these veterans of the cross. Last year, including the families at Perth Amboy, we had only 507 upon our roll; but, notwithstanding this large increase of 55 families to be provided for, the liberality of God's people has enabled the Board to pay in full all the appropriations asked for by the presbyteries, to provide all needful comforts for the aged and the invalids at the Ministers' House, and to report to the Assembly a good working balance with which

to begin the new year. and thank God.

But it would be a painful result of this large balance, which will all be needed before the summer months are over, if it should induce, on the part of the friends of this sacred cause, any relaxation of effort on its behalf during the coming year. We enter the new year with an addition of nearly sixty families to our roll; and the same unwearied and zealous work that secured the enlarged contributions of last year must not be relaxed if the Board is to continue to pay in full the appropriations that will be recommended by the presbyteries. And can the church be satisfied with the present low scale of appropriations? The maximum during the past year was $300; the average appropriation to each family upon the roll being less than $200.

THE MINISTERS' HOUSE AT PERTH AMBOY, N. J.

The number of guests at the Ministers' House has been larger than in any previous year. There have been upon the roll during the year thirty families-in all, thirty-six persons. Of these, fifteen are ministers, one of whom is in his ninety-fourth year, another in his ninety-first. Two deaths have occurred during the year, making six since the house was opened four years ago. An aged minister, in the early spring, fell asleep in the triumphs of the gospel he so much loved to preach in the years of his health and strength. In July a widow, who had, with her husband, been a guest at the house since it was first opened, passed away to her final rest, rejoining in the house not made with hands her husband, who had died at the home during the previous year. Several ministers, broken down under the pressure of pastoral work, have sought temporarily the quiet and rest afforded by the house, and they refer gratefully to this retreat, where, free from care and expense, the overtasked mind and body found relief, and they were again fitted for work. One of them writes:

"Having spent a number of weeks at the Ministers' House, Perth Amboy, and realized substantial benefit from my stay there, I feel like commending that home to brethren suffering from nervous prostration, as I was, and needing rest. It is a good place to recuperate the overtaxed brain or body, because it is located in a retired, quiet place, free from noise and bustle. Miss Bower, the superintendent, is a lady of fine sensibilities, of quick discernment, with a warm heart, full of sym

The Board begs to refer the Assembly to what has been said in previous reports upon the general subject of the house-this "Elim in the wilderness," as it is called in the report to the Assembly of its last Standing Committee upon Ministerial Relief, "where weary pilgrims have been refreshed; some to renew their service here, others to ascend to the house above."

But we repeat the question asked in our report of last year, Ought not this home to be endowed? The entire expense is defrayed out of the annual collections from the churches, every dollar of which is needed for remittances sent to the hundreds of destitute families upon our roll. A home for Baptist ministers has just been opened near Philadelphia, with an endowment of nearly $300,000, the bequest of a member of the Baptist church in Germantown, Pa. The Home for Aged Ministers, to which Mrs. John C. Mercer bequeathed $100,000 and a most valuable property in Montgomery county, Pa., has also been opened during the past year. Is there not some Presbyterian, whom God has blessed with wealth, and also with a heart to honor his ministry and to sympathize with his poor, who will endow this home at Perth Amboy for the disabled and aged ministers of our own beloved church? What nobler memorial before the Lord could be reared in the coming centennial year by any Presbyterian?

RECEIPTS FOR CURRENT USE.

The whole amount received for current use during the fiscal year from April 1, 1886, to April 1, 1887, was $136,323.58-an increase of nearly sixteen thousand dollars over the year previous. The sources from which this income was derived and the amounts were as follows: (1) Contributions from the churches, (2) Contributions from individuals, (3) Interest from Permanent Fund, (4) Interest from deposits in bank, (5) Miscellaneous receipts,

$96,769 10

22,061 17

16,378 18

309 30

805 83

$136,323 58

To the amount of contributions in money ($118,830.27) must be added the value of the boxes of clothing ($10,051.27) sent by the ladies, who have this year doubled even their generous gift of last year.

THE PERMANENT Fund.

The report then discusses the Permanent Fund, and shows that the income from it has fallen off $1441.83 in the year just closed, although the fund itself has risen by donations and legacies from $350,645.15, as reported last year, to $365,538.08, as given this year in the treasurer's statement—an increase of nearly $15,000. This falling off is due to the fact that loans made years ago are now maturing, and must be reinvested at a much lower rate of interest. This re-adjustment of loans from our Permanent Fund at a lower rate of interest, as they mature, is likely to continue for some years, so that it will require very large additions to this fund to make the receipts from it even stationary. During the past year there was added to it the sum of $14,892.93; but of this amount, $4000 was given on condition that the Board pay the donors an annuity during their lives, making, for the present, these gifts a charge upon the Board, rather than any increase of its revenues. Other sums have been received by the Board upon like conditions in previous years, and the whole amount of such annuities now paid is $1228.22.

The report quotes the action of successive Assemblies which have urged the enlargement of the Permanent Fund so as to secure the appropriations for the sick and aged servants of the church against the fluctuations of annual contributions.

The report then speaks of INDIVIDUAL GIFTS, the gratifying increase in CHURCH COLLECTIONS and in the CONTRIBUTIONS FROM SABBATH-SCHOOLS, and shows the great assistance rendered by THE ELDERS to pastors in awakening interest and multiplying gifts to the treasury. An account is given of two of their meetings in behalf of the Board held during the last year—one in Chicago, the other in Baltimore.

Then follows an ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF

BOXES OF CLOTHING sent by ladies' associations, the treasurer's annual report, the receipts in detail from churches, Sabbathschools and individuals, and a tabular statement of amounts by each presbytery drawn out of the treasury and paid into it. The total number of churches contributing is 3233; of non-contributing, 2831.

The report was referred to the Assembly's Committee on Ministerial Relief, Rev. Wilson Phraner, D.D., chairman. On their recommendation the following resolutions were adopted by the Assembly:

Resolved, That the General Assembly recognizes with devout thanksgiving the increased and increasing interest manifested in the work of ministerial relief, and heartily appreciates and commends the energy, discretion and fidelity of those by whom in its name these import

ant trusts have been administered.

Resolved, That while rejoicing in that whereunto we have already attained, yet this Assembly recognizes the need of yet more general effort and more liberal contributions, both in behalf of the Permanent Fund and for the more generous support of this work in its appropriations for the current year.

Resolved, That the statement that more than 2800 of our 6000 churches have taken no collections during the past year for this important and blessed work is one which occasions both

great surprise and deep regret that so many of our churches, and that to so large an extent some of our presbyteries, stand aloof and take no part in this effort to recognize the claims and minister to the needs of those so especially entitled to the affectionate regard and generous consideration of the church of Christ.

Resolved, That the Assembly regards with favor the effort recently inaugurated to enlist and utilize the interest and influence of the eldership in behalf of this agency for the relief and help of those laid aside from the active work of the church. This Assembly would reiterate its approval of the special arrangements suggested last year, by which an elder should be associated with the pastor in the oversight of the interests of this Board in their congregations.