WM. G. LAMBERT, Auditors.

WILLIAM ALLEN,

THE Trustees of the American Congregational Union herewith present their Twelfth Annual Report. The first five months of the past year were so overburdened by extra calls upon OUR CHURCHES for additional contributions to old and cherished objects, or for new and seemingly important ones, that our Corresponding Secretary often found it impossible to secure a hearing or a dollar's aid, where he had every reason to expect a cordial welcome and a generous contribution. Hence, the receipts to our treasury during those months were threateningly small. The last seven months have been much more fruitful in their returns, though they have failed to bring our receipts quite up to the amount received last year, and not nearly up to the amount which should be received every year. This Congregational Union, to meet the rightful expectations of our dependent and struggling churches, now existing and coming into existence with unexampled rapidity, ought to receive, must receive, on an average, fifty thousand dollars a year; and this with a certainty, that would warrant the Trustees in arranging their plans of work upon that annual amount. Now they dare not, beforehand, assure our churches existing, our communities where there is the material for a Church in each, that they are in funds to aid every needy, hopeful, wellrecommended Church in building a sanctuary. And let the giving know that this "Union" can never approximate its highest usefulness until it can have and give, public

ly and widely, that assurance. And this amount can be disbursed very properly if it is made reasonably certain, without one dollar additional expense to the treasury; and, if contributed, would make this organization one of the most economical in its workings and immediately useful in its results of any in the sisterhood of our benevolent societies.

And the new and important fields that are opening for our occupancy not only invite but they demand more general and liberal contributions. It has been more than intimated in previous reports that our conquer"ing, and now, thanks be to Almighty God, completely victorious army, was opening new fields for Congregational churches. On the way towards the great South three Congregational churches were recognized in Philadelphia in June last. A Congregational Church was formed in November last, at Canterbury, in Delaware, which is now seeking aid to build a house of worship. A Congregational Church, under very hopeful auspices, is about to be organized in Baltimore; so that where the first blood in the defence of the great principle of Christian and civil liberty was shed, there the martyr-seed is springing up and bearing its own legitimate fruit. Washington, Nashville, New Orleans, and many other places wait only the ministers and the pecuniary means to sustain the preaching and build the places to preach in, to gather and make effective for good, to the cause of Christ and to our government, churches that always carry with them the

school-house, the academy, the college, and the guarantee of equal rights; the churches that have in themselves the elements of a higher and better civilization.

Not less than fifty thousand dollars a year ought to be made certain to our treasury to meet our present and prospective wants. The pastor of the Congregational Church at Memphis, in Tennessee, writes, "You are doing a great and good work by aiding our feeble churches in the West to build their places of worship. You must be prepared to come this way, not with hundreds merely, but with thousands, to help in erecting sanctuaries on both sides of the Mississippi, from here to New Orleans." That there will be loud and pressing calls from these newly gained regions, there can be no question. And it is certain that larger appropriations must be made to infant churches there than we have been in the habit of making in other places, not only because materials and labor are so high, but because these new regions have been so greatly impoverished by the iron heel of war. Other evangelical denominations will have the advantage of houses already erected, but vacated by their former disloyal occupants, and now confiscated by the government to their loyal brethren.

To us, however, there will be the great advantage of a clean record in the matter of this monstrous iniquity which inspired, and, indeed, perpetuated the rebellion, until it stung itself to death. We shall, therefore, be compelled to raise and use money largely, and send our membership freely into these new fields of the South, if we occupy them, as evidently the great head of the Church would have us do, just as we are now occupying the great West. We have the means, being more highly favored than any other people in the world in this respect; and we can spare and send the men. God is saying to us as he said to the tribe of Naphtali, "O Naphtali, satisfied with favor and full of the blessing of the Lord, possess thou the West and the South." This our Congregational churches are abundantly competent to do, so far as it is required of them; sending a ministry and the needed helps in securing educational and religious privileges. For this we must give, GIVE, and pray and sacrifice as never before. And to this higher standard of Christian life God has been educating us by the terrible experiences of the last four years. Happy will it be for us and the world if this fearful lesson shall not need to be repeated!

Our receipts from all sources, during the

last twelve months, have been thirteen thousand nine hundred seventy-seven dollars and thirty-five cents. We have paid, in last bills on twenty-four houses of worship, nine thousand three hundred and seventy-five dollars. Our disbursements for room, fuel, stationery, postage, printing, travelling expenses, and salary of the Corresponding Secretary, have been three thousand five hundred fifty-three dollars and thirty-one cents. We now stand pledged to twenty-seven churches, which are being erected, in the sum of ten thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars. There is an unappropriated balance in hand of two thousand one hundred eighty dollars and fiftyone cents. For this and very much more many a little Church is struggling to meet our conditions.

The Trustees made their first appropriations for Church building April 7, 1857. Since that time they have examined the claims of and pledged aid to two hundred and one churches, eighteen of which have been dropped, or their work deferred. One hundred and fifty-four have been completed and paid for, and three of these have been rebuilt; of these, two were in Kansas, destroyed by the infamous Quantrell; and one in California, which was burned. During these eight years they have kept an open room in the city, as a resting-place for our sojourning brethren, and a center of correspondence; they have published the American Congregational Year Book for the years 1857, '58, and '59, large editions, and widely circulated them. They have published regular annual reports; also appeals, statements, and various communications in our denominational papers, and in the Congregational Quarterly, with the view of keeping their wants and their work before the public. The Corresponding Secretary has visited the State associations and conferences this side the mountains, and some of them a number of times; also local associations, conventions, and public meetings. He has made, on an average, not less than one hundred public addresses on our especial work, in each of the eight years he has been in this service, and has travelled, for this purpose, between sixty and seventy thousand miles. Besides these more tangible results, not a little has been effected in the way of stimulating and encouraging churches to pay off onerous and embarrassing debts; also in greatly strengthening the ties that bind the West and the East in closer Christian and civil bonds; and in awakening denominational self-respect, and in dissipating, to some degree, the al

most universal feeling that it was sectarian, and hence sinful, to provide for our own, even those of our own fold.

And it should be remembered that our Church-building work was begun amid great prejudice and indifference, and, indeed, not a little open opposition. It has been prosecuted, however, along with other objects whose name is legion, and which, having the precedence in age, and all of them good, has greatly increased the difficulty of securing sympathy in its behalf. But it has gained for itself a place, and it is now confidently believed that our churches will give it room annually, or on alternate years, upon their calendar, and that collections will be forwarded in such numbers and amounts as will enable the Trustees to prosecute their work without future embarrassment.

This Board was invited by an informal meeting, held in New Haven, Ct., in July, 1864, of a number of the State committees, to convene a preliminary conference with reference to the calling and work of a National Congregational Council. They responded to the overture, and that conference was held in this city (New York), Nov. 16 and In behalf of the Trustees.

17, 1864, and resulted in a unanimous vote to call a National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States and Territories, to meet at Boston, June 14, 1865. It is expected that the Church-building work of the "Union" will be brought before that Council, in an able essay, by the Rev. J. E. Roy, of Chicago, Ill., Agent of the American Home Missionary Society, who has seen much of the want and worth of the service we are seeking to render to our needy churches. The best results are looked for from this presentation and the action of that Council.

With peace secured, slavery dead, leading traitors banished or hung, business in its legitimate channels fluent, public spirit buoyant, old animosities dying out, the Holy One working wondrously in the churches and in the army as well, and the star of hope irradiating our immediate future; with all this realized, or in fair prospect, the Trustees, with re-assured confidence in God and in his people, address themselves to the onerous but pleasant work before them for the coming year.

ISAAC P. LANGWORTHY, Cor. Secretary.

THE Directors of the American Congregational Association herewith present their Twelfth Annual Report. At the last annual meeting, votes were passed expressive of the importance of raising the sum of one hundred thousand dollars for the purposes of this association; and the Directors were instructed to employ a financial agent to solicit this amount. Preliminary measures to this end were soon adopted, and two meetings were held in the Old South Chapel, of gentlemen interested in the plans and object contemplated; and after very free and full discussions it was unanimously voted, That the sum of one hundred thousand dollars should be raised; subscriptions binding when fifty thousand dollars should be reliably pledged. Henry Edwards, Esq., of this city, had generously offered to give this object all the time he could command, and was prepared to commence canvassing the field. A commiteee of three was appointed to co-operate with him in securing an amount at once sufficient at least to commence our work. Both Mr. Edwards, and the gentlemen asso

ciated with him, deserve the cordial thanks of this association for the time and labor, as well as the generous subscriptions, they have so freely given to this object. The money, however, does not yet come in sums sufficient to insure success. Only twenty thousand dollars have as yet been positively pledged. The Directors are persuaded that a financial agent must be employed and paid, who can give his whole time to this most important and now most pressing object. He must enter upon and keep at this work, until the one hundred thousand dollars are not only pledged, but paid. They are also persuaded that a matter so important, and already too long neglected, will be sustained, when its merits are understood by the churches for whose benefit it is intended. The Directors recommend, therefore, that some measures be adopted at this meeting by which this object shall be brought in the most favorable manner to the notice of our churches, especially in Massachusetts; and also before the National Council, soon to meet in this city, for some such action as will recognize its national importance, and commend it to the sympathy and benevolence of those who are