or presiding elder, only in this loose sense that, like a bishop, or a presiding elder, he endeavors to promote the interests of religion within his field. The bishop and the presiding elder have both a power of authority and a power of influence. Our agent has only a power of influence. He can make no demands upon either ministers or churches. He cannot force himself or his work upon the attention of any minister or church. Whatever he accomplishes must be done by laboring where he is welcome, and by following the channel of the good will of the ministers and churches.

This is emphatically true of him so long as his appointment emanates from the General Association. If the churches, in a General Conference, were to appoint him, or to authorize his appointment, they could confer on him such powers as they should consider to be expedient and consistent with the principles of our ecclesiastical system.

The commission of the agent is a broad one. He is to use all judicious means to animate the ministers and churches to the work of the more thorough evangelization of the State. He is to write, converse, preach, and address clerical and ecclesiastical gatherings. It is only to a limited extent that he can visit, and preach, in destitute localities where there are, or ought to be, nuclei of churches. His time and strength must be spent chiefly in visiting the two hundred and eighty-three Congregational churches, and in getting and giving light upon whatever may increase their efficiency in the culture of their respective fields. He should also make a record of the condition in which he finds each field, for future reference and comparison.

The wisdom of establishing such an agency may appear in view of the following considerations:

It will afford a much needed instrumentality for gathering up and diffusing information upon a great variety of practical topics connected with the interests of religion. It is secured in the offices of bishop and presiding elder in the Episcopal and Methodist denominations, and has added much to the efficiency and growth of those bodies. It is called for by the condition and circumstances of our churches and their respective communities. No one can become acquainted with the facts in the case without seeing that there is a great amount of talent and of resources in these churches which is not duly employed for Christ. Some churches are culpably inefficient. Some are using inferior means, for lack of information as to better ones. Some are discouraged, and need to be cheered up and set at work. Some, who suppose they are already doing about all they can, need to be stimulated to greater self-denial and effort by being told what others are doing.

There is reason to believe that the ministers and churches generally will welcome such an agent, who comes with a kind spirit and a warm heart to counsel and encourage and help them in their work.

The agency should be permanently established, though the agent should be changed as occasion may require. It should be a permanent agency because there is a permanent need of it, and because its best fruits can be ripened only by its continued action. Too much should not be expected from it at first, either in the way of awakened interest, or of visible results.

As it deals more with adults than with children, and as it is im

portant that it should be conducted with economy, it will make less use of the sensational element than the Sabbath school movement does. The evils to be encountered arise from depravity, and will continue as long as human nature is corrupt. The work of bringing up the churches to a deeper sympathy with Christ, greater self-denial, more systematic and thorough activity, and a more effectual concern for neglected souls about them, is a work of slow progress, and needs to be continually pressed.

If the agency be established and prosecuted with a view to permanancy, it may be expected to commend itself to the approval of the ministry and the churches, as an instrumentality that is useful and blessed of God.

VII.-NARRATIVE OF THE STATE OF RELIGION.

In reviewing the history of our churches during the past year, while we discover not those signal mercies which it has so often been the privilege of the General Association to record, yet we find abundant occasion for gratitude in the favor we have received from the great Head of the church. It is much that his gracious care has not been withdrawn from us, nor his faithfulness failed; that He who transplanted this goodly vine continues to sustain it by his providence and Spirit; that notwithstanding our unworthiness and short-comings, he still owns us as his people, and honors us as his instruments in building up his kingdom.

All the Associations report a prosperous state of things in the external aspects of religion. It is especially gratifying to learn that the attendance on the public worship of God is, in all parts of the State, fully equal to that of former years, and in some sections decidedly increased. This is attributed, in part, to the influence of Sabbath schools, and, in part, to recent efforts for home evangelization.

One new church has been added to our communion, the church in the Davenport Society, New Haven. Several mission Sabbath schools are reported, some of which maintain a chapel preaching service on the Lord's day, which it is hoped will lead to the organization of permanent churches. This mission work has evidently received a healthful impulse from recent measures taken by the General Association to evangelize the destitute portions of our field. And the present indications are that, if this good work is wisely and vigorously followed up, we shall ere long reap an ample harvest in a greatly increased attendance upon public worship, and in new gathered churches to our communion.

The condition of Sabbath schools in our connection is peculiarly cheering. The number of scholars is steadily, and in some places rapidly, increasing. A growing interest in the objects of Sabbath school instruction, amounting often to enthusiasm, is a prominent characteristic of these nurseries of piety. Several of them have been richly blessed by the renewing visitation of the Holy Spirit. In most of the rural churches, the practice of discontinuing the Sabbath schools during the winter months has entirely ceased. There is a general and marked improvement in the system of our contributions to benevolent objects. Beyond the precious results of our Sunday school contributions, it is surely of

great importance to train up our children in the way that they should give. In this most gratifying aspect of our work, we recognize with gratitude the divine blessing on the special efforts which for the last few years have been put forth in behalf of this important department of Christian labor. The missionary operations of the American Sunday School Union, begun so auspiciously by Rev. Hubbard Beebe, and continued so efficiently by H. C. Trumbull, Esq., ably seconded by local agents of our own, have, by the blessing of God, awakened an unprecedented interest in this subject, and are now beginning to tell in most blessed results. Had we commenced this work sooner, we should no doubt have realized an earlier harvest of spiritual blessings. Let this encouraging experience instruct us in regard to the further prosecution of this most hopeful enterprise, as well as of other kindred branches of Christian effort.

Although, this has not been one of the years of the right hand of the Most High in regard to revivals of religion, yet we are happy to hear that a very considerable number of our churches have enjoyed a refreshing from the Lord. The churches in Plainville, Wethersfield, South Cornwall, New Hartford North, Goshen, Winchester, Essex, West Killingly, Westminster, Westford, North Woodstock, Bolton, Norwalk, South Norwalk, 2d church in Stonington, 1st and 3d churches in Guilford, with both churches in Winsted, have all been visited with reviving mercy, resulting in numerous conversions to Christ.

The report from Litchfield North Association states the interesting fact that the prolonged absence of the pastor of the 2d church in Winsted, the Rev. Mr. Eddy, now for nearly a year a prisoner of war at the South, has appeared to awaken a deeper sense of personal responsibility in the hearts of the members of the church and to stir them up to greater diligence in the cause of Christ. Thus these afflicted brethren, waxing confident by the bonds of their captive pastor, are much more bold to speak the word without fear." To that suffering brother, meekly and heroically enduring the severity of a Southern prison for his manly and Christian devotion to his country and the cause of liberty, the General Association would gladly, if they might, express their fraternal sympathy as in bonds with him, and assure him that they cease not to offer their prayers to the God of justice and of mercy, for his deliverance from the hands of the wicked, and for the sustaining presence of Christ in all his sufferings.

In reference to the temperance cause, the Association are pained by the conviction of a general decline, gathered from the reports of the several district Associations. Their apprehensions also are excited, in this connection, lest, when our armies are disbanded by the crushing out of the rebellion and the restoration of peace, many of our soldiers may come back to us with such sentiments and habits as prevail, to an alarming extent, in the camp, and as will need to be met by a greatly elevated tone of temperance principle at home for counteraction and correction. If the zeal which has been manifested so successfully in the cause of Sunday schools and home evangelization, could be moved to an equal degree and through the same agencies in the temperance cause, most blessed results might be realized.

We have great occasion to bless God for his grace bestowed on the churches, so that "in a great trial of affliction" through the various losses and burdens of war, their liberality to various objects of Christian benevolence has abounded, in many instances, over that of former years.

In regard to the obituary record of the year, we have to report that seven of our brethren have been taken from us,-Rev. Lyman Strong, at an advanced age,-Rev. David Smith, at the great age of 94,-Rev. George I. Stearns, in the prime of his days and in the midst of a faithful and successful ministry,-Rev. John S. Whittlesey,-Rev. Erastus Scranton, Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, and Rev. Otis Rockwood.

The Association take great pleasure in reciprocating the cordial congratulations which they have been permitted to receive from their Congregational brethren represented by the General Associations of Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, and the Evangelical Consociation of Rhode Island, in the persons of their delegates, and by the General Conference of Maine, the General Association of Michigan, and the General Convention of Congregational and Presbyterian ministers in Wisconsin, through letters; also from their brethren of the Geueral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church which met recently in Cincinnati.

The reports from all the Associations breathe a spirit of ardent patriotism, which they assure us is but the echo of the spirit of the churches and of the whole community. Some of them mention an increased seriousness, earnestness, and prayerfulness, as the direct fruit of the present war. It is believed that the sense of our entire dependence on God has been greatly strengthened, that there is more walking by faith and less by sight, that the war has been overruled to the sanctification of the Sabbath in the eyes of the whole nation, that the value of Christian principle and Christian character to the highest and most efficient style of soldiership, as seen in the noble example of our illustrious military commanders, has been impressed with new emphasis on the public mind.

Since our last annual meeting, the progress of the national arms has opened a new and most interesting field for Christian enterprise, and laid new and momentous responsibilities on the friends of Christ and of humanity. Many thousands of the negro race, hitherto held in bondage, but now held within the lines of our army as the nation's freedmen, appeal to us by their helplessness for protection, for encouragement and direction in supporting themselves by their own labor, and especially for secular and religious instruction. The General Association, recognizing the wonder-working hand of Providence in opening a door to so vast a field of usefulness, would call upon the churches to "put on the whole armor of God," and be prepared to go up, and, in the name of the Lord, take possession of this new and blessed sphere of Christian philanthropy, not doubting that He who leads us on will open and still open the way before us, removing every obstacle and breaking every fetter, until freedom and righteousness and Christianity shall be the heritage of every inhabitant of our great and favored republic.

In behalf of the committee.

E. L. CLEAVELAND.

STATISTICS.

EXPLANATIONS.

In the tables of the Associations, ministerial ages are reckoned to July 1, 1862. Post offices are not given in these tables, but in the alphabetical list of ministers. In tables of the churches, the stars denote churches which are not consociated. The full dates of the formation of churches, so far as reported, were published in the Minutes of 1859. The three columns following the names of ministers show whether they are pastors or stated supplies; whether the pastors were ordained or installed; when the present relation began; and how many years, reckoned to Jan. 1, 1862, it has continued. The column of excommunicated includes also those from whom watch and care have been withdrawn. The column for Sabbath schools denotes the average attendance, including officers, Bible classes and children and does not embrace mission schools. The column for families states the number of families under the spiritual care of the minister and church. The column for charities gives the amount raised for benevolent purposes for objects without the parish. The charities of a few churches, which failed to reply on this point, have been gleaned from published acknowledgments of benevolent societies; and the amounts thus found are indicated in the column by an obelisk (†). A blank shows that the question is not answered.