TREASURER. Mr. CHRISTOPHER R. ROBERT. AUDITOR. Mr. CALEB O. HALSTED. SECRETARIES FOR CORRESPONDENCE. Rev. MILTON BADGER, D. D. RECORDING SECRETARY. Mr. WILLIAM C. GILMAN. MEETING OF THE BOARD. The Board of Directors met on Thursday, May 12th, at the Society's Rooms, Bible House, Astor Place, and appointed the members who, in connection with the officers designated by the Constitution, compose the CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY. ART. 1. This Society shall be denominated THE AMERICAN HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY. ART. 2. The object of this Society shall be, to assist congregations that are unable to support the gospel ministry, and to send the Gospel to the destitute, within the United States; also to cooperate with evangelical Christians in the support of Home Missions in nominally christian countries, to such an extent as the funds of the Institution may justify. ART. 3. The officers of this Society shall be a President, Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer, an Auditor, one or more Secretaries for Correspondents, a Recording Secretary, and fifty Directors, who shall be annually appointed by the Society; and who, together with the Directors for Life, shall constitute a Board, seven of whom shall be a quorum, at any meeting regularly convened. ART. 4. The officers and Directors shall appoint an Executive Committee of fourteen, (including the Treasurer, the Secretaries for Correspondence, and the Recording Secretary,) residing in the City of New York and its vicinity; five of whom shall be a quornm, at any meeting regularly convened. The Committee shall have power to appoint its own meetings, form its own rules of business, and fill any vacancies in its own number which may occur during the year, and to convene special meetings of the Board or Society; shall appoint missionaries, and instruct them as to the field and manner of their labors; shall have the disposal of the funds; shall create such agency or agencies for appointing missionaries, and for other purposes, as the interests of the Institution may require; and shall make an Annual Report of their proceedings to the Society. ART. 5. The Treasurer shall give bonds, annually, to such amount as the Executive Committee shall think proper. ART. 6. Any person may become a member of this Society, by contributing annually to its funds; thirty dollars paid at one time shall constitute a Member for Life; and one hundred dollars paid at one time shall constitute a Director for Life; and any one person on the payment of a sum which, in addition to any previous contribution to the funds, shall amount to one hundred dollars, shall be a Director for Life. An executor, on paying a legacy of two hundred and fifty dollars to the funds of this Society, shall be a Member for Life; and the payment of a legacy of one thousand dollars shall constitute a Director for Life. ART. 7. Any Missionary Society may become an Auxiliary, by agreeing to pay into the Treasury of this Society the whole of its surplus funds, and sending to the Secretaries for Correspondence a copy of its Constitution and Annual Reports, mentioning the names of its Missionaries, and the fields of their operations. ART. 8. Every Auxiliary Society, which shall agree to pay the whole of its funds to this Society, shall be entitled to a missionary or missionaries to labor in such field as it may designate; at least to the amount of its contributions; provided such designation be made at the time of payment. ART. 9. The officers of all Auxiliary Societies shall be, ex-officio, Directors and annual contributors to their funds shall be members of the Society. ART. 10. This Society shall meet annually in the City of New York, on the Wednesday next preceding the second Thursday in May. ART. 11. No alteration shall be made in this Constitution without a vote of two thirds of the members present at an annual meeting; nor unless the same shall have been proposed at a previous annual meeting, or recommended by the Executive Committee. THIRTY THIRD REPORT. We are admonished, with peculiar impressiveness, as we commence the review of another year, of the shortness and uncertainty of our time of service in our Master's vineyard. Fellow-laborers and patrons, in the midst of their toil and at an unexpected moment, have been called to an account of their stewardship. Rev. BENNETT TYLER, D. D., one of the Vice Presidents of the Society, and eminent for his services in the Church of God, departed this life early in the year. He had sustained official relations to the Society from its organization, had been a firm supporter of its policy, and an able and endeared instructor of young men, who have borne the burden and heat of the day in the open field of the Society's labors. Hon. BENJAMIN F. BUTLER,* LL. D., another of the Vice Presidents, has also been removed from the spheres of usefulness, which he adorned and blessed, to his reward on high. He was an early friend and patron of the Society; his attachment to its objects, his valuable counsels, his eloquent pleadings, and his liberal benefactions for the accomplishment of them, were continued, with remarkable consistency, to the peaceful close of a christian life. Two of the Directors of the Society-AMOS M. COLLINS, Esq., and ANSON G. PHELPS, Esq.-have also been removed by death. Intelligent and warm-hearted christian men, appreciating the opportunities which God gave them for the furtherance of his kingdom, ready to every good work and contributing of their substance with liberality and cheerfulness of heart for its accomplishment, we doubt not they have their reward in the assurance of their Savior, that inasmuch as they did it unto one of the least of his brethren, they did it unto him. Eight of the Missionaries of the Society have also died during the year-Rev. Nathaniel Chapman, Rev. Benjamin Smith, and Rev. Henry White, in Maine; Rev. Ora Pearson, in Vermont ; Rev. Thomas P. Hunt, Rev. James II. Rice, and Rev. Lawrence Streit, in Pennsylvania; and Rev. Luther II. White, in Iowa. * A notice of the death of Mr. Butler will be found on the 122d page. Some of these brethren were veterans in the missionary work; some of them had just entered upon it, in the vigor of youth and the ardor of first love; and all of them fell with their armor on, to receive, we doubt not, the recompense of him that overcometh. God has in mercy spared our lives and crowned our labors with his blessing-made the year a year of prosperity, in the means furnished for the prosecution and enlargement of our work, and especially in the gathering of souls into his kingdom; and we would here render to him devout ascriptions of praise and consecrate ourselves anew to his service. The various operations of the Society are noticed in the body of the Report, under their appropriate heads and in connection with their respective localities; such details as can be presented in a compact form are embraced in the following GENERAL TABLE, Showing in parallel columns, 1. An alphabetical list of Missionaries. 2. The names of congregations and missionary districts aided. 3. Dates of commissions or time of commencing labor. 4. Length of commissions in months. 5. Amount of aid pledged, for the time named in the preceding column. Where a full support is pledged to those who go out to be located under the direction of the Society, the pledge includes what can be raised by their people during the year. 6. Months of labor performed, since the last Report. 7. Number of church members. 8. Number of hopeful conversions. 9. Additions to the churches on examination. 10. Additions to the churches by letter. 11. Number of Sabbath school and Bible class pupils. EXPLANATION. In this table, the following abbreviations, appended to the names of Missiona ries in the first column, designate the Auxiliary Societies and Agencies by whose funds the congregations and missionary stations below which they are placed have been aided, viz.: M. M. S., Maine Missionary Society. N. H. M. S., New Hampshire Missionary Society. Mass. H. M. S., Massachusetts Home Missionary Society. C. M. S., Connecticut Missionary Society. R. I. H. M. S., Rhode Island Home Missionary Society. P. H. M. S., Philadelphia Home Missionary Society. C. A., Central Agency, New York. W. A., Western Agency, New York. W. R. A., Western Reserve Agency, Ohio. M. A., Marietta Agency, Ohio. The names of Missionaries who were not in commission last year are printed in Italics. |