JOINT REPORT of the Committee of Conference appointed by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions;-presented to the Board at the meeting in New Haven, October 1831, and to the General Assembly in the spring of 1832.

The committee of conference on the part of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, and of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, have given a deliberate and prayerful attention to the duty assigned them, and beg leave to present, as their report, the following statements.

I. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions is, in the opinion of the committee, properly a national institution.

It originated, indeed, in Massachusetts; and it so happened, in divine Providence, that the young men who first resolved to devote their lives to a mission among the heathen, received their collegiate and theological education, and applied for advice to an ecclesiastical body, in that State. This gave rise to the Board; and this, with other circumstances, occasioned the appointment of men, as executive officers, and the location of their offices, in Massachusetts, and led to the procuring of a charter from the legislature of that State.

But immediately on securing a charter, special pains were taken to render the Board, in fact, as well as in name and organization, a national institution. It then consisted of eleven members, all residing in the States of Massachusetts and Connecticut. At the first meeting of the corporation, in the Autumn of 1812, thirteen additional members were elected; viz. two from New Hampshire, one from Vermont, one from Massachusetts, (Mr. Evarts,) one from Rhode Island, four from the State of New York, two from New Jersey, and two from Pennsylvania.

At the annual meeting of the Board in 1825, that is, the meeting previous to the union of the United Foreign Missionary Society with the Board, the corporate members stood as follows:

Upon the union of the two institutions in 1826, twenty-three members were elected, all from the middle, western and southern States.

The proportion of corporate members then became as follows:
Belonging to New England, 28

Belonging to other States,

40

The proportions at present are as follows:

Belonging to New England, 24 Belonging to other States,

38

Of the other two descriptions of members, 22 are corresponding, and 733 honorary members.

Seven of the corresponding members reside in the middle and western States, and the remaining fifteen in foreign parts.

Since the resolution adopted in 1821, providing for the constituting of honorary members by a donation of $100 if a layman, and $50 if a clergyman, 36 names of persons residing in foreign parts have been entered on the list, 429 of persons residing in New England, and 268 of persons residing in other states.

Thus it appears, that so far as members are concerned, the Board is not a local, but a national, institution. Nor is there any thing in the charter to prevent elections being made from any part of the country, and to any extent, provided only that one third be laymen; nor any other provision that gives to the Board a local or sectional character.

II. The Board sustains the same relation to the Congregational, Presbyterian, and Reformed Dutch churches, and fairly represents each of these religious de

nominations.

The ascertained number of communicants in each of these denominations, as given in the Quarterly Register of the American Education Society from official documents, is as follows:

The corporate members of the Board are connected with the several denominations in the following proportions:

There is also one member belonging to the Associate Reformed church. The correspondence in the number of communicants in the three denominations and the number of members of the Board from these several denominations, is remarkable; considering that perfect accuracy in this respect was not probably thought of when the elections were made.

If regard be had simply to the funds contributed by each denomination, the Congregational churches are very inadequately represented. In this point of view, the proportion is nearly the same as among the honorary members, i. e. 429 to 268.

The representation at the last five annual meetings of the Board has been in the following proportions:

The member from the Associate Reformed church is here reckoned with

the Presbyterians.

Of the 70 missionaries, or preachers of the gospel, now in the field or designated to different stations, 39 are Presbyterians, 29 are Congregationalists, and 2 Reformed Dutch. Nearly all the 45 assistant missionaries are Presbyterians. Of the 34 churches which have been established by the missionaries of the Board among the heathen, numbering four at the Sandwich Islands, 27 are Presbyterian and 7 are Congregational.

From these statements it is evident that the Board has no sectarian or denominational character; but is properly a "Board of Commissioners," organized for the specific purpose, and acting for the three denominations and as many other friends of missions to the heathen as choose to avail themselves of its agency.

The Board has also received the official sanction and recommendation of the highest ecclesiastical bodies of the three denominations; of the General Association of Massachusetts, at the organization of the Board; and of this and the other General Associations in New England at several of their annual meetings since that time; of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the year 1826, and in its annual narrative of the state of religion for the present year; and of the General Synod of the Reformed Dutch church in the year 1826.

III. The proceedings of the Board and of the Prudential Committee, the conferring committee find upon examination, have uniformly been in strict accordance with the relations just described.

At the first meeting of the Board in its corporate capacity, in 1812, it was voted, "That the Prudential Committee annually transmit a copy of the Report of the doings of this Board to the General Association of New Hampshire, the General Convention of Congregational and Presbyterian ministers in Vermont, the General Association of Connecticut, and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States."

And now, by the terms of union with the U. F. M. Society, the Board is to "send to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church, the General Synod of the Reformed Dutch church, and the several Gener 1 Associations of the New England States, as many copies of its annual Report and other printed documents, as shall be sufficient to furnish each member of these bodies with a copy; not only as a token of respect, but that means of information may be afforded in regard to the Board and its missionaries, and to any success which God may grant to its exertions."

It also appears that no individual from either of these denominations has been refused by the Prudential Committee, who made application to be received as a missionary, and was satisfactorily recommended to them as possessing the requisite qualifications for the service.

And in the assignment of fields of labor, every man has been sent where he himself was supposed to be desirous of going, after he had maturely considered the case. Nor have the Committee hitherto ever given an opinion, directly or indirectly, designed to influence the missionaries in determining upon what model they should organize churches among the heathen.

IV. In the opinion of the conferring committee, there are very high responsibilities securing the purity and efficiency of the Board and its missions.

1. The Prudential Committee is responsible to the Board: and this responsí. bility is peculiarly efficacious. In large popular societies, nothing can be done at the meetings, except to make public statements, which must ordinarily be received without examination. But the case is very different at the annual meetings of the Board. These are eminently business meetings, and usually continue three days. They are wholly occupied with the subject of foreign missions. The different parts of the Report of the Prudential Committee, after it has been read to the Board, are referred to special committees for particular examination; and those special committees each report upon the several parts committed to them. Discussions often hence arise. And besides, there are, at every meeting, discussions, to a greater or less extent, of principles, plans, resolutions, &c. proposed to the Board, either by the Prudential Committee, or by some member or honorary member. It is in the highest and best sense, a deliberative assembly, wholly occupied, during its entire session, with the single grand object of evangelizing the heathen world. And the duties of this meeting are performed by men, many of whom were selected, and all of whom came together, for this very purpose and no other; and not a few have regularly attended to the same duties for a series of years, are familiar with the details of the business, and deeply interested in the object. One member has attended 19 annual meetings previous to the one now in progress; one lately deceased, 18; one attended 15 including the first 13; another 14; two others 10; nine others from 5 to 9 meetings; and nine others 4 meetings;—the present in no case being included: and it is to be noted that of those who have been present at 10 meetings and upwards, only three were members of the Prudential Committee. The honorary members, though they are not authorized to vote by the charter, have in all other respects, the same rights with the corporate members.

A meeting thus constituted, thus prolonged, and thus occupied, secures a responsibility to itself, on the part of all its agents, peculiarly great and efficacious.

2. Again: The Prudential Committee are responsible to the public.

The meetings of the Board and its discussions are open to any who may wish to attend. Full Reports are also printed. The proceedings of no society can be more open to public inspection, than those of the Board and its Committee. The great body of those who contribute to the Board are, moreover, exceedingly wakeful to the uses to which their money is applied. They do not give blindly, and will form an opinion for themselves whether the measures of the Board are in general discreet. Any material aberration from duty would alienate them, and if their confidence was destroyed, the operations of the Board would soon come to an end. It depends wholly on public confidence; it can do nothing without that confidence; and the continual remembrance of this must exert a constant and salutary influence upon it and upon its agents.

3. The Board is under obligation to supply the highest ecclesiastical bodies of the three denominations with copies of its Annual Report.

This is the same thing, substantially, as annually reporting its proceedings to these bodies. And upon good proof being had of corruption in its meas. ures, and of obstinate refusal to rectify those measures, those bodies would

have the right, and it would doubtless be their duty, to warn their churches of the fact.

4. When missionaries are in connection with Presbyteries, Classes, or Associations, their ecclesiastical relations and responsibilities are not affected, by their coming into connection with the Board as missionaries.

The Board is not an ecclesiastical body, nor has it any ecclesiastical powers. It cannot discipline its missionaries as ministers of the gospel, or as church members. It cannot deprive them of either of those relations; nor can it transfer them, by any act of its own, from one denomination to another. It cannot organize churches, nor admit any to the privileges of the church, nor license men to preach the gospel, nor ordain them as evangelists or pastors of churches. It may respectfully invite the attention of particular ecclesiastical bodies to particular cases of the duties just specified, when the welfare of any of the missions seems to require it, and may make a request that some of those duties, such as the ordination of missionaries, may be performed, in case it is thought proper, by the ecclesiastical body in question. But it can perform none of those acts which are purely ecclesiastical. It employs men as church members, as licentiates, as ministers of the gospel; it takes them when they have been regularly commissioned by the church of Christ to teach and to preach his gospel, and associates them with itself in a particular, authorized, most benevolent agency, in the dark places of the earth; they still continuing subject to the ecclesiastical discipline of the particular denominations to which they belong.

Though not under the direct control of any ecclesiastical body, it is not to be inferred that the system is without law. The members of the Board and its missionaries are bound to conduct every part of this enterprise, with a sacred and supreme regard to the glory of God and the best good of men. The principles which contribute to order, to purity of heart, to general efficiency, and to the maintenance of the public confidence, are all binding upon every agent of every description. Few, if any, communities on earth, taken as a whole, are more completely under law to Christ and his church, than that which is engaged in evangelizing the heathen world. Certainly the public sentiment of the churches presses more heavily on missionaries as a class, than on any other men. As church members, they are expected to exhibit uncommon disinterestedness and zeal; and as ministers of the gospel, unusual devotedness and enterprise.

These are the principles, which govern the system; while ample scope is given to the Board for counsel and for legislation in its proper sphere. Though it cannot inflict ecclesiastical censures, it can, like all other associations, admonish its agents for unfaithfulness to their trust, and can dismiss them from its service.

V. In raising funds for the Board, it appears that regard has been had to the ecclesiastical habits of the people.

In New England, the boundaries of the Associations, Consociations, or Conferences of churches, are usually the boundaries of auxiliary societies. This accommodation is carried so far, that in some of the consociated districts, the auxiliary is composed of delegates from the missionary associations of the several congregations, in connection with the officers (for the time