BOARD OF EDUCATION. THE HARVEST TRULY IS PLENTEOUS, BUT THE LABOURERS ARE FEW; PRAY YE THEREFORE THE LORD OF THE HARVEST, THAT HE WILL SEND FORTH LABOURERS INTO HIS HARVEST.-Matt. ix. 37, 38. Fifty-first Annual Report of the Board of Education. The Board accompanies its Fifty-first Annual Report with the ascription of praise to God for the favour which he has shown to this branch of the work of the Church during the year. It has been one of the most prosperous in the history of the Board as to the number of students, as to the character of the students, and as to the financial condition of the Board. The following table gives the number of candidates during the year. Number of new candidates received,.... Whole number on the roll during the year, in their Theological course,............................................................. in their Collegiate course,.. in their Academical course,....................................... Entire number received from the beginning, in 1819.......... .109 .135 .175 81 391 ..3,715 The increase of the total number under the care of the Board during the past six years has been as follows: 1865, there were 254; in 1866, 296; in 1867, 261; in 1868, 294; in 1869, 334; in 1870, 391. This is attributed, in the first place, to the providential restoration of peace and its blessings to the land; in the next, to the direct influence of the Holy Spirit upon the hearts of men, leading them to long and pray for the healing of former divisions, to seek closer union among those holding the same general doctrines and order, and to consecrate themselves and their children more earnestly to the service of God; and, in the last place, to the means employed by the Board to interest the membership of the Church in its work, history, and aims, and in the missionary wants of the land and the world. The growth therefore seems to be not spasmodic, but sound and healthful. The number on the roll during the last year has only been excelled, during the history of the Board, in some of the years occurring during the revival periods of 1832 to '36, 1843 to '47, and 1858 to '61, in each of which periods a wave of spiritual power passed over the land, connected in some way with a great kindred movement in the Church of Christ upon other continents. The ardent hope may be indulged that the wonderful train of influences which has removed the barriers to the formal union of the two great branches of the Presbyterian Church in the New World, and unanimously and cordially made them one, are but the beginning of displays of the Divine power and grace to our sinful and lost race which shall fill all this nation and continent, and all the world, with amazement and songs of joy. The general high tone of piety and moral character among the candidates aided during the year has excited the Board to much thankfulness. But two cases have been reported to the Board of such doctrinal or moral defection as to require the candidates to be dropped from its roll. In others, the Presbyteries with which young men have been connected have, by timely and faithful admonition, succeeded in restoring them to the path of duty. A useful table is given in the Report to show the Synods and Presbyteries by which the candidates have been recommended. The body of the Report is devoted to suggestions which may aid the Church to meet the present great emergency, and assist to give the best practicable form to the expanded work upon which God has called her to enter. These are grouped under the head of THE EDUCATIONAL WANTS OF A RE-UNITED CHURCH. Of these the first is that she shall rise to a clear, comprehensive, and affecting view of the Divine purposes in the present age. The opinions of some of the wisest and holiest men of late generations are quoted to show that the Church of God is rapidly approaching the period of the floods of "the latter rain" of the Holy Spirit. The second want is a realization of the place which God seems to invite it to take in the establishment on earth of the kingdom of his son Jesus Christ. The union of the two great branches of the Church is the offspring of the missionary spirit; it began in the missionary fields; and no obligation of the Reunited Church is more evident and strong than that it should set itself to be a great missionary Church! The harvest of the earth is ripe; the time is come for us to reap. What multitudes of labourers are needed this day in every one of its great fields. If there were a thousand men like William Burns in China, the empire would be Christian within this generation. The Church should aim at once to greatly multiply the preachers of the gospel in our own land and in all the nations of the world. To this end it should employ with corresponding activity the various means which are requisite to increase the number of candidates for the ministry, to prepare them thoroughly for their work, and to support and give them success in that work. Thus only will the Church fulfil the indications of the will of God in bestowing upon it so great mercies. If, alas, she fail to comprehend and to obey them, "then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise from another place," and she shall be rejected as unworthy. There are some peculiar reasons which might be drawn from a consideration of its evangelical doctrines, its effective organization, its past history, and its present position in this country and in the great missionary field, to show that it is the special duty of this great arm of the Church of the living God to endeavour to give a new and mighty impulse to the evangelization of the human race. The third requisition of the Church at this epoch is, that she shall institute efforts to train her rising ministry in harmony with the spirit, and prepared to meet the calls, of the great providential movements which the whole world now sensibly feels. The topics considered under this head are the importance of parental, Sabbathschool, and other culture of the young; the necessity for the maintenance of the common school system, and for making it complete and effective in its tuition and discipline and universal in its scope, and the obligations that the educated ministry and laymen of the Presbyterian and other churches shall everywhere, and with more expenditure of money and labour and care than could be given by any central ecclesiastical agency, supplement the secular instruction by religious influences acting upon the scholars, and by higher institutions which shall take them up where the State leaves them, and furnish them with enlarged and sanctified culture for professional or other walks of life, leading the most promising and capable of them into the ministry of the gospel. The Board commends the deep and far-reaching wisdom of the recommendation of the Joint Committee in regard to the disposition of the collections for the Memorial Fund, which indicates institutions of learning, collegiate (including no doubt academies) and theological, as possessing claims of the first class. Also the steps taken in some of our colleges to give a practical religious application to geographical, scientific, philological, and other studies. It is urged that the theologi cal education of all candidates for the ministry should from this era of the Church be made more practical, and the wide field open for instruction in respect to Evangelistic Theology, is presented to view. It is most earnestly urged that measures should be adopted for the maintenance of a permanent committee on education in each Presbytery, which should be responsible for keeping candidates in view; for regularly bringing matters relating to their standing, wants, and employments before their brethren; and for the correspondence required with the Board concerning those aided from the funds of the Church. The fourth want is, that the Church shall establish the means necessary to thoroughly awaken her membership to the sense of the vast responsibilities in respect to money and property which God has laid upon them at the present time. This head shows the imperative necessity of a scriptural, uniform, and efficient financial system, inasmuch as there is no stumbling-block in the way of the increase of the ministry so great as the want of money to educate, send forth, and maintain young men who would be otherwise willing to go forth to preach the gospel. The following is the statement of the gratifying condition of the Treasury, from the 1st of April, 1869, to 1st of April, 1870: Total receipts from all sources, $52,276 66. Balance in the treasury, $7,902 57. Increase of receipts over the twelve months ending April 1st, 1869, $5,492 78. To this is to be added the sum of $5,431, a bequest from J. A. Jacobs, Esq., of Danville, Ky., the interest of which only is to be used, for the benefit of coloured candidates for the ministry. It has been a cause of much thankfulness to God, and of gratitude to faithful Christian brethren, that during several years past, the Board, though it may have been compelled at times to borrow from the treasury of its ministerial department to pay appropriations for schools, yet has not been under the necessity of borrowing a dollar from outside sources. In the department of GENERAL EDUCATION it is reported that eighteen schools, academies, and colleges, and the German Theological school at Dubuque, have been aided during the year. Brief reports are given from most of them. It is stated with regard to the German Theological school that, in view of its great usefulness and interesting character, the General Assembly should adopt some means to set the school upon a foundation to free its teachers from so much of anxiety as to the pecuniary support of it, and to show the Church's appreciation of their noble work. A Thank-offering from South America. It is as pleasant for the Board of Education to receive, as it was for the beloved brother who penned the following letter from Brazil to send, this memorial of his gratitude for the help which the church rendered him in preparing for her service. To his last wish we respond, "God bless the work of preaching Christ in the empire of Brazil!" It affords me much pleasure to remit to you the sum of twenty-five dollars, contributed by the Presbyterian Mission Church of Rio de Janeiro, for the Board of Education of our beloved Church. This is the first contribution of the church to the Board of which you are treasurer, but I trust it will not be the last. We have Monthly Concert on the first Monday of every month, at which collections are regularly taken up, and if people at home could see these collections, and then follow to their homes the people who give, their hearts, I feel sure, would expand, and they would see that Foreign Missions are not so unsuccessful as many, I fear, believe them to be. It is the desire of the contributors that these twenty-five dollars be applied to the education of one who has in view the work of a missionary in a foreign land. 66 To the undersigned it is peculiarly grateful to be permitted to make this remittance, for had it not been for the kind assistance of the Board of Education from 1855 to 1861, he would not, so far as he can see, have been able to occupy the post he now does as a missionary of the Presbyterian Church in a foreign land. God bless the Board of Education!" RECEIPTS AT PHILADELPHIA IN MAY, 1870. I. FUND FOR CANDIDATES. Pby of Ohio-Shady Side ch 187 24; Long Island Phy of Passaic-Calvary ch 7 18; Morristown 1st Pby of Benicia-Healdsburg ch 4.50 93 27 Pby of Philadelphia-Seventh ch 145 50; Tenth ch from W W 50 195 50 Pby of Philadelphia 2-Newton ch 21 58; Norristown ch 46 65 68 23 63 22 101 52 Phy of Raritan-Flemington ch Phy of Schuyler-Chili ch Pby of Sidney-Turtle Creek ch 143 25 4.00 4.00 Ply of S Minnesota-St Charles ch 1; Utica ch 212 74 4.00 8.00 T5; P5 2.45 Ply of Long Island-Huntingdon 1st ch 39; East REFUNDED. MISCELLANEOUS. 30.00 10.00 Rev J Willams, Midway Macedonia ch 2; Rev 25 30 BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. Board of Foreign Missions. The members of the Board, appointed at the late meeting of the General Assembly, met at the Mission House, New York, June 13th, and was regularly constituted after prayer. James Lenox, Esq., was elected President, the Rev. Messrs. John C. Lowrie, David Irving, D.D., and Henry H. Jessup, D.D., were elected Corresponding Secretaries, and William Rankin, Esq., was elected Treasurer. Recent Intelligence. ADMITTED TO THE COMMUNION OF THE CHURCH.-Mr. Chamberlain reports the admission of three new communicants at Sao Paulo, and Mr. Schneider mentions an admission at Lorena, Brazil. Others would probably soon be received. Mr. Walsh refers to the baptism of a convert at Allahabad; Mr. Kellogg baptized a man and his wife and their child at Chibra Mow, near Futtehgurh; Mr. Herron reports the admission of three of the girls in the school at Dehra to the communion of the Church. THE POWER OF DIVINE GRACE appears to have been signally displayed in two at least of the converts reported above. One was formerly a devotee of a Hindu god, and bears his brand on his arm; he was considered a saint by his countrymen. He is spoken of as a man of character, and it is hoped that his influence will be felt for good among his own people. There was apparently but little reason to look for the conversion of a man in his position. So, in the case of one of the new converts in Brazil; he had passed through the preparatory studies for the Roman priesthood, but recoiling from the errors of this religion he went to the extreme almost of atheism, after painful years of doubt and unbelief. Now he seems to have found peace, believing in Jesus. His hold of the doctrines of grace is spoken of as such as is seldom witnessed by any church session in receiving members to the communion, and if he still receive grace corresponding to his talents and scholarship he may become eminently useful in making the gospel known to his countrymen. A SPIRIT OF INQUIRY concerning the Christian religion has become manifest in an encouraging degree at some places near Tungchow, China. Notices of this have already been given in our periodicals. We add a paragraph from a letter of Mrs. Nevius, "Here I was interrupted by a call from nearly a dozen of Ping-du enquirers, who are spending some weeks here, learning 'the doctrine.' The special teaching I gave them was to talk a little with them, then to play the melodeon, and Miss Patrick and I to sing for them, and then to trim and fill a lamp, that they might understand its principle. I felt a little impatient to have them go, as I am very busy, but still it is a very great pleasure to see such a company of men come on such an errand." THE WORK AT CANTON.-Dr. Happer writes, "The attendance of the women at the services in the girls' school is very encouraging. The rooms are crowded each day of the services. The Bible woman visits from house to house in the streets near the school. She is the woman who was with me, and who was baptized in the First Church of Pittsburgh in 1858. She visits the mothers of the girls, talks with them about the Saviour, invites them to attend the service. She has met with quite a number who express an interest in hearing of Jesus. . . There are now seven young men in the training school; six of them have been received this |