George H. Daniels, general passenger agent New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, requests us to state, on his authority, as follows:

In line with the policy inaugurated by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, and followed by the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, Michigan Central, Bee Line and other roads operating in connection with the Vanderbilt system, to discontinue, as far as practicable, all labor on their railways on the Sabbath, an agreement has just been reached to close all the city ticket offices in Buffalo on Sunday, beginning with June 9. This will give a large number of men an opportunity to attend church and secure

a well-earned rest, and the railways interested are entitled to great credit for this movement. The example should be followed in every city in the United States.

Owing to the arrival of delayed trains it may be found impossible to close the depot. ticket offices, but there is no reason why the city ticket offices of all the railways in the country should not be closed on Sunday.

Chicago and Buffalo have adopted the "Sunday-closing" rule. What city will be next to have its name placed on the new roll

of honor?

Most gladly and thankfully do we give this announcement to our readers.

The Superintendent of the Census of the United States desires us to call the attention of physicians to the following official statement. These statistics will be of value in many computations concerning church work, not less than for any secular purpose. We therefore commend this notice to the consideration of all our beloved physicians:

The Census Office will issue to the medical profession throughout the country "Physicians' Registers" for the purpose of obtaining more accurate returns of deaths than it is possible for the enumerators to make. It is carnestly hoped that physicians in every part of the country will co-operate with the Census Office in this important work. The record should be kept from June 1, 1889, to May 31, 1890. Nearly 26,000 of these registration books were filled up and returned to the office in 1880, and nearly all of them used for statistical purposes. It is

hoped that double this number will be obtained for the eleventh census.

Physicians not receiving registers can obtain them by sending their names and addresses to the Census Office, and, with the register, an official envelope which requires no stamp will be provided for their return to Washington.

If all medical and surgical practitioners throughout the country will lend their aid, the mortality and vital statistics of the eleventh census will be more comprehensive and complete than they have ever been. Every physician should take a personal pride in having this report as full and accurate as it is possible to make it.

It is hereby promised that all information obtained through this source shall be held strictly confidential. Address

ROBERT P. PORTER,
Superintendent of Census,
Washington, D. C.

31

ANNUAL REPORT.

The report of the Board to the last Assembly calls attention to the following points:

THE HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE BOARD. "The Permanent Committee of Arrangements for the One Hundredth General Assembly" reported to the General Assembly of 1886, at Minneapolis, among other recommendations, "that each of the boards of our Church be urged to provide for the preparation and publication of the history and outlook of its work." This report was adopted by the Assembly, and in accordance therewith an Historical Sketch of the Board of Relief, with some notice of its outlook, was prepared and submitted to the Assembly of last year. It has been printed, by order of the Board, in pamphlet form, and will be sent to any address that may be forwarded to the office of the Board.

THE ROLL.

The number on the roll of the Board to whom remittances were sent upon the recommendation of the presbyteries, during the year from April 1, 1888, to April 1, 1889, was 595: that is, ministers, 223; widows of ministers, 341; orphan families, 31. The number of families provided for during the year at the Ministers' House, Perth Amboy, N. J., was 20; making the roll of the Board during the past year upon a total of 615 families, an increase of 31 over last year. It should be borne in mind that there are more than 615 persons who share in these appropriations. These families are often composed of aged couples; or the minister, laid aside from his active duties, may have a wife and children to support. There are also many families composed of dependent widows with little children to be cared for. The presbyterial recommendations in their behalf came from 154 presbyteries. The Presbytery of West Africa recommends two families; the Presbytery of Lodiana (India), one. The missionaries who have returned home and who may need help in their sickness or old age are of course recommended by the presbyteries with which they are connected in this country.

WITHDRAWALS FROM THE ROLL. There have been several withdrawals from the roll, owing to a change in pecuniary cir

cumstances or restored health which has rendered further aid from the Board no longer necessary. Thirty-five names have been removed from our roll by death: that is, nineteen ministers, fifteen widows and one orphan. The death of the head of the family, however, does not always withdraw the family from the roll of this Board. In many cases the helpless widow or the orphan children are still to be provided for.

ADDITIONS TO THE ROLL.

There have been 113 families added to the roll during the year: that is, forty-nine ministers, fifty-seven widows and seven orphan families.

THE MINISTERS' HOUSE.

The number of families at the Ministers' House, Perth Amboy, N. J., has been twenty: in all, twenty-six persons. An account of the Home, with a picture of the mansion, was given in the May number of THE CHURCH AT HOME AND ABROAD. It has also been printed in pamphlet form, and will be sent to any address upon application to the office of the Board.

THE TREASURY.

The Board gratefully reports to the Assembly that its funds for current use last year were sufficient to pay in full all the appropriations asked for by the presbyteries and to meet all the expenses of the Ministers' House at Perth Amboy, and we again report a "comfortable balance" in the treasury with which to begin a new year. This balance ($18,388.52) is not so large, indeed, as last year or the year before; but large enough, it is hoped, to tide us over the summer months, when the appropriations are large and the receipts, both from churches and individuals, are small.*

But the year did not pass without a renewal of the anxieties of previous years. The large balance of $26,142.79 with which we began the year was soon exhausted, and November found our treasury overdrawn nearly $9000. A special appeal was therefore made to the churches through the columns of the papers and of THE CHURCH AT HOME AND ABROAD. It was also sent in the form of a circular † to

* Since the report was adopted by the Board, the appropriations for April and May have been voted, and the balance in the treasury is now only $639.80! This circular, giving a brief statement of each

thus referred to them, and reported to the Assembly:

1. As to the facts bearing upon the case. The number of missionaries under the care of the Foreign Board, as given in their last report, is 340. Of these, 177 are ministers and 135 are femele missionaries, who already come within the provisions of the Board by the action of the Assembly of 1885. The remaining 28 are laymen, 24 of whom are medical missionaries. The "increase of expenditure" likely to result from placing these laymen upon our roll will, therefore, not be great.

2. "The opinion of the Board" as to the action which should be taken by the Assembly is expressed in the following minute, which was unanimously adopted and ordered to be transmitted to the Assembly:

“Resolved, That in the opinion of the Board, the action of the General Assembly of 1885, directing "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,' establishes a precedent upon which lay missionaries, commissioned by the Foreign Board, should also be placed upon our roll."

It should be added that this overture has received the approval of the secretaries of the Foreign Board. One of them writes:

On the foreign field the layman is just as helpless with respect to outside resources as a minister. Such are his environments, as a rule, that all sources of income, other than his salary, are impossible. In other cases, where he might receive income, as, for example, by taking up private practice as a physician, he is debarred from that privilege by the rules of the Board, which regards the moral influence of his example in receiving such income as detrimental to the whole missionary work. Our rule is that when a missionary physician does receive anything from general practice, it is to be paid over to the treasury of the mission. This strictness is necessary to the prestige of the mission work, and, so long as it is enforced against physicians, it seems unjust not to allow them the same provisions that are made for their clerical associates.

LAY MISSIONARIES.

Upon the general subject of extending aid through this Board to lay missionaries "upon the same conditions as ministers," the report says:

While it seems plain to the Board that there can be but one opinion as to the justice and equity of the claim made by these lay missionaries to be cared for by the Church in sickness and old age, we venture to express the hope that the Assembly, in developing the work of this Board, may think it wise to restrict its administration to the object originally marked out for it, namely, to care for disabled ministers and their families who may be in want.

[July,

The Board of Ministerial Relief is the agency by which the Church discharges its duty to the ministry. The godly women and laymen who have devoted themselves to the missionary work at home or abroad are, it is true, very much in the same condition with most ministers as to the matter of support. It barely suffices to do more than keep the family from year to year. The Church, therefore, owes it to herself that those who, under the direction of our missionary boards, have rendered this efficient service in the work of evangelization shall not be allowed to suffer when disabled by sickness or old age. From some points of view their claim is peculiarly sacred, and through some agency of the Church they ought to be tenderly and efficiently cared for. The only question is whether the Board of Ministerial Relief is the proper agency; and whether this interesting and sacred addition to its work, made by the General Assembly of 1885, may not obscure the testimony it was intended to bear to the obligation of the Church to the ministry-those set apart by a court of the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as by their solemn ordination vows, to give their whole time and strength and to spend their whole lives in the service of the Church. But this is a matter for the Assembly to decide; and until such separate agency is established, it would seem most fitting for this Board to care for those women and laymen who are doing, under the direction of the Church, so largely the same work as the ordained minister of the gospel.

In this connection, the Board requested the General Assembly to call the attention of presbyteries to the limitations set by previous Assemblies to its work, even in ministerial relief. In our last report reference was made to cases of hardship and suffering among ministers and their families brought to our notice-sometimes even by presbyterial recommendation—which, though they awaken the tenderest sympathy, are clearly beyond the limits set by the Assembly to our work. Although the General Assembly has declared "that ordinarily no appropriations can be made to ministers simply because they are poor, unless they are disabled by disease or the infirmities of age so as to be unable to sustain themselves by some suitable employment," it would nevertheless seem to be the impression among some presbyteries that this Board is for the relief of all ministers who may really be in want from any cause whatever-such as inadequate support in the pastorate, a failure to secure a pastoral charge, etc. The General Assembly has also decided

That in the case of a minister who voluntarily and in health leaves the work of the ministry for some secular employment and follows that for a series of years, and then by failure of business has come to want,-such a course should ordinarily be regarded as a voluntary relinquishment of all claims upon the Board; and that in ordinary cases no appropriations should be made to a widow of a minister who has children able to give her support.

Notwithstanding these positive deliverances of the Assembly, cases are frequently urged upon the Board by letter and in official communications, so manifestly opposed to their plain meaning that fidelity to our trust has obliged us to reply, deeply as our feelings are stirred by the want and suffering of such cases, that the Board has no authority from the Assembly to relieve them out of its treasury.

Some more definite deliverance is also desirable as to what is meant by " orphans." There can be no doubt that the original intention of the Assembly was to care for the young and dependent children left destitute by the death of ministers. It was expected that, as the children grew up, they would (unless chronic invalids) take care of themselves-the daughters perhaps later than the sons, but when married it was certainly expected they would be taken, care of by their husbands. But applications are made on behalf of those long past the age when children usually begin to take care of

35

themselves. Even those who have been married and have families are recommended to the Board for aid on the ground that they are "orphans" of Presbyterian ministers. The

Board would be relieved from frequent embarrassment if there were some definite deliverance of the Assembly upon this subject.

The report contains the treasurer's statement in full; the receipts from churches and Sabbath-schools and from individual donors; also a tabular statement (prepared by order of the Assembly) of the amounts paid into, and drawn from, the treasury by each presbytery, and the number of contributing and non-contributing churches in each presbytery. The appendix contains the action of the General Assembly upon the report of its Standing Committee upon Ministerial Relief, a report of the secretary's address, the visit of the Assembly to the Ministers' House at Perth Amboy, etc. It is sent, by order of the Assembly, to every minister upon the roll of the Assembly and to the session of every vacant church, and will be mailed to any address upon application to the office of the Board, 1334 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.

THE BOARD BEFORE THE AS

SEMBLY.

No one could be more competent to review the work of this Board than the chairman of the Assembly's Committee on Colleges and Academies, Dr. Thomas S. Hastings, president of Union Theological Seminary. If any questioner of the movement yet remained, the committee's report and the grand and fervid address of its chairman must have removed his last doubt. In particular, Dr. Hastings declared, out of his direct knowledge, that very much of the best material of our Church's ministry was coming from the small and remote colleges. The catalogues of both Union and Princeton sem

inaries illustrate his statement, and show that about twenty per cent. of their students bring their diplomas from beyond the eastern boundaries of Indiana and Tennessee; that is, from within that great western empire into which this Board is pushing its work. Yet those western colleges send more students still to the western seminaries; for they are prolific of candidates for the ministry. Then how shall the yield increase if these recruiting stations be judiciously planted and sustained amongst all the population that is forming so fast between the Mississippi and the Pacific! What the trumpet-note of this eminent teacher has thus told about the western alumni who are