The first Secretary of the Assembly's Committee on Freedmen closed his work in this department with the present issue of the Record. Four years of toil and perplexity have brought an ample reward in the success which God has been pleased to give to the efforts of the Church, to preach the gospel to the poor. Four years ago we began without experience or money, and with little knowledge of the Church, to lay the foundations for the future of our coloured brethren, and to arouse the churches of our communion to the immediate necessities of these perishing souls. The work had in the beginning not only to overcome the apathy of the Church with regard to missions in general, and to meet the special objections to a seventh Board, and the peculiar prejudices which the civil war had engendered; but to demonstrate the mistake of the general opinion, that the coloured people were not susceptible of the culture necessary to make them Presbyterians. Wherever an appeal was made in their behalf, the assertion was met "you cannot make Presbyterians of these people." It was even maintained that our Church had no mission in God's providence to the Freedmen. This we have ever considered the most overwhelming objection to Presbyterianism we have yet met, and we entered upon the work with a willingness to test our faith in our system of truth, by the demonstrations which a faithful effort might make. Faith in the ultimate success of the work gave courage from the beginning, as well as patience with failures and fault-findings, and each step that faith gained new strength. Difficulties were met as they occurred from day to day, and the work enlarged with a rapidity which hardly allowed time for planning. To plant the School and Church together; to select and educate ministers and teachers from among the people; to enlist missionaries from the North, and to provide means for the constant support of all the missions, until the Lord should give grace and ability to the Freedmen to sustain all gospel ordinances for themselves, was the work to be done. According to the measure of the ability which the Church gave it has been done, and this work goes on. Not half has been done which our hearts prompted, and the necessities of the people demanded. But all was done which a strictly economical use of the gifts of the Church would permit. And now with the cause established in the confidence of the great mass of our communion, as one of the great missions of the Church; the methods of work definitely determined by experience; with the foundations of schools for "the sons of the prophets" laid, and as true, godly, and devoted a band of missionaries in the field, as the Church has in any other field; we cheerfully, yet with many regrets for our failures, give the work into other hands. In leaving the office with all its precious associations and solemn responsibilities, for the more pleasant and congenial labours of the pastorate, we lose none of our hearty sympathy with the missionaries, none of our sense of Christian obligation to sustain the work. The happiest moments we have ever spent have been with these Christian missionaries, sharing their reproach, and helping them to preach the gospel to the lowly. The chief regret has been that the pressure of office duties and constant demands for the visitation of the churches in order to 224 General Assembly's Committee on Freedmen. [September secure the necessary funds, did not permit a more frequent visitation of their humble homes and the field of their operations. Experience has shown that the success of the Committee on Freedmen is greatly due to immediate knowledge of the field in which they were attempting to plant the Church, and to the personal living sympathy with the missionaries constantly maintained. The work cannot be done upon elaborate theories, by dead and ecclesiastical resolutions. It can only be done by living men, in living sympathy with the church of God. The Committee have elected the Rev. A. C. McClelland, pastor of the Fourth Church, Pittsburgh, Secretary, and he has entered upon the duties of his office. Most earnestly commending him to the brotherly confidence and hearty co-operation of all who have so kindly cheered on the former Secretary, we turn over the work and its monthly Record to him. It only remains that in these parting words with the readers of this last leaf of the Record, we pledge to the church and the Freedmen an undiminished interest, all practicable help. and an unflagging faith in the work of missions in this field of the long afflicted and poor. God bless the Freedmen and their laborious missionaries. They shall ever have the poor prayers and sympathies of the retiring Secretary. DONATIONS TO THE COMMITTEE Pby of Atlantic-Lumberton coloured ch 1 50; 26 32 Ply of Catawba-Statesville coloured Pres ch and sch 14 15; Cameron coloured Pres ch 2.80; New Centre Pres ch 4 35; Logan coloured Pres ch 5: Mocksville coloured Pres ch 1 20; Rocky River Pres sch 9; Salisbury coloured ch 6; Gold Hill coloured Pres ch 8: Oakland coloured Pres ch 1; Henderson coloured Pres sch 4 50; Woodland coloured Pres sch 5; McClintock coloured Pres sch 3 15; Ledricks Hill Pres sch 1 50; College Hill Pres sch 1 25; Miranda Pres sch 1 50; Greensboro' Pres sch 4; Mt Zion Pres sch 5 Poy of Chillicothe-First ch Chillicothe 77 40 2.00 14.05 2.00 21 25 $1239 86 Phy of Santa Fe-Santa Fe ch MISCELLANEOUS 305 00 ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD. DISSOLUTION OF THE PASTORAL RELATION. Rev A. O. Rockwell and the church of Lebanon, Presbytery of Ohio. Rev. P. S. Jennings and the church at Temperanceville. Rev J Eells, D.D., and the First church San Francisco, Cal Rev Thomas M. Cunningham, D.D., and the Alexander church, Philadelphia. Rev. Henry Branch and the church of Port Deposit, Md. Rev. R. Morton and the church of East Buffalo. Rev. H. E. Lippert of the French Mission at St. Anne, Ill., has been compelled to give up his work there on account of throat dis ease. CALLS RECEIVED OR ACCEPTED. Rev. H. B. Scott to the church at Bloomsbury, N. J. Rev. Richard P. H. Vail to the church at Waterford, N. Y. Rev. A. N Keigwin to the Second church at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Rev J. L. R. Wycoff to the church at Wellsville, Ohio. Rev. J. Eells, D D., to the Second church, Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. J. I. Francis, of the last senior class Allegheny Seminary, to the church of Freeport, Allegheny Presbytery. Rev. J. C. Hench of Uniontown, Pa., to the church of North Springfield, Ohio. Rev. Henry Branch to the South Reformed (Dutch) church, New Haven, Conn. Rev. James M. Flatt to the church at Bath, N. Y. Rev. William Morris Grimes to the church at Ubricksville, Ohio. Mr. Charles Stoddart Durfee to the First church, Newburyport, Mass. Rev. William A. Holliday to the Oxford church, Presbytery of New Castle. ORDINATIONS AND INSTALLATIONS. Rev. S. E. Vance was installed pastor of the church of Farm Ridge, by the Presbytery of Bloomington, on the 20th of June. Rev. Henry F. Lee was installed pastor of the church Thompsonville, Conn., on the 13th of July. Mr. S. H. McKown was ordained and installed pastor of the First church, Wilmington, Del., on the 15th of July. Rev Rollin L. Adams was installed pastor of the church at Harvard, Ill., on the 18th of July Rev. H. B. Knight was installed pastor of the church at Ottumwa, Iowa, on the 4th of June Rev. Samuel V. McKee was installed pastor of the Waynesville church, Presbytery of Bloomington, on the 18th of June. Rey William R Glen was installed pastor of the church of Bloomington, Ill., on the 11th of July. Rev. R. H. Van Pelt was installed pastor of the Cross Creek and Pleasant Hill churches on the 15th of June. Rev. R. C. Bryson was installed pastor of the Pine Grove church, Presbytery of Huntingdon, on the 11th of May. Rev. Joseph S. Thompson was ordained as an Evangelist by the Presbytery of Philadel phia, on the 6th of July. He is expected to labour in the Presbytery of Nashville. Rev. A. T. Rankin was installed pastor of the church at Lonaconing on the 13th of July, and of the church of Barton on the 14th., by the Presbytery of Carlisle. Rev. Dupuytren Vermilye was installed pastor of the Hamilton Union church, by the Presbytery of Albany, on the 29th of June Rev. A. A. E. Taylor was installed pastor of the new church at Mount Auburn, near Cincinnati, on the 23d of July. Rev. A. S. Foster was installed pastor of the church at Litchfield, Ill., on the 23d of July. POST-OFFICE ADDRESSES CHANGED. Rev. Levi Hughes from Bloomington to Remington, Ind. Rev. John H. Aughey's postoffice is not McVille but Kelly's Station, Pa. Rev. J. G. Wells from Black River Falls to Sichlerville, Wis. Rev. Wm. M. Wells from Jamesburg to Freehold, N. J. Rev. David W. Eakins from California to Arnot, Pa. Rev. W. C. Anderson, D.D, from New Albany, Ind., to Junction City, Kansas, during the summer. Rev Henry Branch from Port Deposit, Md., to New Haven, Conn. Rev. Thos. W. Cattell from Princeton to Merchantville, N. J. Rev. J. C. Hench from Uniontown, Pa., to North Springfield, Ohio. Rev. William Morris Grimes from McConnellsville to Uhricksville, Ohio. Rev. G. D. Parker from Edinburgh to Vincennes, Ind. DEATH. Rev. Thomas S. C. Smith, at his late residence in Hartford county, Md., on the 17th of July. THE RECORD Is published, for the Boards of the Presbyte rian Church, by the PRESBYTERIAN BOARD of PUBLICATION. PETER WALKER, Agent, 821 CHESTNUT ST, PHILADELPHIA, PA. Single copies for one year, 30 cents. In park. ages to one address, four copies for one dollar. 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