REPORT OF THE BUSINESS COMMITTEE.

On recommendation of the business committee it was

Voted, First. That the first recommendation of the committee on Missionary Work be adopted, and that, accordingly, the nominating committee be instructed to name a committee on Missionary Work,1 consisting of one member from each conference.

Second. That the second recommendation of the committee on Missionary Work be adopted,2 viz., That the tabulation of benevolences in the Year-Book" be so modified as to show the exact sum of money which has gone into the treasuries of the six societies, and that the other States be memorialized to make like revision of their system of tabulating the benevolences of the churches.

This vote was later reconsidered, and it was

Voted, To lay the recommendation on the table subject to the order of the business committee.

It was also

Voted, To reconsider the vote whereby the recommendation of the committee on Ministerial Standing was recommitted; and then it was Voted, To lay the matter upon the table subject to the order of the business committee.

GREETINGS TO BAPTIST CONVENTION,

Voted, To telegraph greetings to the National Baptist Convention in session in Springfield.

NOMINATION OF OFFICERS.

The nominating committee reported the following nominees as candidates for officers of the Association:

Moderator, Rev. DeWitt S. Clark, of Salem; Rev. William V. W. Davis, of Pittsfield. Alternate, Rev. Arcturus Z. Conrad, of Worcester. Secretary, Rev. Parris T. Farwell, of Wellesley Hills; Rev. John L. Sewall, of North Brookfield; Rev. T. Frank Waters, of Ipswich; Rev. Eugene C. Webster, of Jamaica Plain. Assistant Secretary, Rev. Frank L. Bristol, of Uxbridge. Auditors, Daniel W. Wilcox, of Medford, and Frank P. Shumway, of Melrose. Board of Pastoral Supply, for three years, Rev. William L. Tenney, of North Adams; Rev. Frederick E. Emrich, of South Framingham; J. L. Brewster, of Andover, and Rev. Doremus Scudder, of Woburn.

AUDITORS AND BOARD OF PASTORAL SUPPLY ELECTED.

The auditors and members of the Board of Pastoral Supply were elected as nominated.

COMMITTEE ON MISSIONARY WORK.

The following were elected the committee on Missionary Work:

Rev. Frank R. Shipman, of Andover; Rev. Ezra N. Smith, of North Falmouth; Rev. Raymond Calkins, of Pittsfield; Bennett T. Gale, of Lee; Rev. John L. Sewall, of North Brookfield; Rev. Calvin M. Clark, of Haverhill; Rev. Arthur J. Covell, of Lynn; Rev. Edward A. Robin

son, of Buckland; Rev. Herbert P. Woodin, of Chicopee; Rev. Arthur B. Patten, of South Hadley; Rev. Isaiah W. Sneath, of Franklin; Rev. Frederic E. Sturgis, of Natick; Rev. Robert M. Woods, of Hatfield; Rev. George A. Tewksbury, of Concord; Rev. Henry S. Huntington, of Milton; Rev. Richard G. Woodbridge, of Middleboro; Rev. D. Melancthon James, of Plymouth; Rev. Robert A. MacFadden, of Chelsea; Rev. Samuel Lane Loomis, of Boston; Amos Andrews, of Waltham; Rev. T. Clayton Welles, of Taunton; Rev. Doremus Scudder, of Woburn; Rev. David C. Reid, of Leicester; Rev. Burton S. Gilman, of Gardner; Rev. George P. Eastman, of Millbury.

Committee on the Work of the Churches. - Rev. Frank L. Bristol, of Uxbridge; Rev. A. B. Bassett, of Ware; George H. Shaw, of Middleboro.

MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS.

Voted, That the nominating committee name a committee of three1 to prepare suitable memorial resolutions relative to deceased brethren : Rev. Edwin B. Webb, of Wellesley; Rev. Ezra H. Byington, of Newton, and Rev. Henry A. Hazen, of Auburndale.

Prayer was offered by Rev. Burke F. Leavitt, of Melrose Highlands, after which the Association took a recess until 4 o'clock P.M.

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.

At 4 P.M. the Association was called to order by the moderator, after a temporary adjournment of the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society.

FOR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE M. H. M. S.

The following persons were nominated for membership upon the executive committee of the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society:

For one year: Hamilton S. Conant, of Boston; for two years: Timothy Smith, of Roxbury; for three years: Rev. Doremus Scudder, of Woburn; for four years: F. H. Kidder, of Medford; for five years: Rev. William Knight, of Fall River.

RECESS.

Recess was then ordered to allow the Home Missionary Society to elect its officers and committees.

ASSOCIATION REASSEMBLED; ELECTION OF OFFICERS ORDERED. The Association reassembled at 4.10 o'clock, and it was Voted, To proceed to the election of officers of the Association, and of nominees for corporate membership in the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

Voted, That for officers of the Association a majority be required to elect.

Voted, That for nominees for the American Board the four persons receiving the highest number of votes be declared elected.

1. See pages 18 and 25.

ADDITIONAL TELLERS APPOINTED.

The moderator added George H. Shaw, of Middleboro, and Charles A. Denny, of Leicester, to the number of tellers, also Rev. George P. Eastman, of Millbury; Rev. Albert P. Davis, of Wakefield; and James G. Buttrick, of Lowell.

RESULT OF ELECTION DECLARED.

The following was the result of the ballot for officers:
Moderator, Rev. William V. W. Davis, of Pittsfield.
Alternate, Rev. Arcturus Z. Conrad, of Worcester.
Secretary, Rev. Eugene C. Webster, of Jamaica Plain.
Assistant Secretary, Rev. Frank L. Bristol, of Uxbridge.

And they were declared elected.

NOMINEES FOR A. B. C. F. M.

For nominees for corporate membership of the A. B. C. F. M: George W. Cable, of Northampton; Rev. Edward M. Noyes, of Newton Centre; Rev. Philip S. Moxom, of Springfield; Frank Wood, of Boston.

It was

IN BEHALF OF CHURCH AT JACKSONVILLE.

Voted, To give Rev. Angus M. McDonald, of Jacksonville, Fla., five minutes after the devotional services of the evening.

COMMITTEES ELECTED.

The following committees were elected:

Publishing Committee. The secretary, the registrar, the treasurer, Rev. Warren P. Landers, of Somerville; and Leonard A. Treat, of Chelsea.

Provisional Committee of 1902. Rev. D. Melancthon James, of Plymouth; Rev. Frederick B. Noyes, of Plymouth; Rev. Francis J. Marsh, of Boston; John W. Herrick, of Plymouth; Henry Stigmaire, of Plymouth.

On Memorial Resolutions. Rev. Albert H. Plumb, of Roxbury; Rev. Charles L. Morgan, of Jamaica Plain; Rev. Reuben A. Beard, of Cambridge.

DELEGATES TO THE NATIONAL COUNCIL AT PORTLAND.

Primaries. - Rev. Albert E. Dunning, of Brookline; Professor George F. Moore, of Andover; Rev. Charles M. Southgate, of Auburndale; Rev. DeWitt S. Clark, of Salem; Rev. Edward A. Reed, of Holyoke; Rev. Francis J. Marsh, of Boston; Henry M. Moore, of Somerville; William Shaw, of Ballardvale; William T. Forbes, of Worcester; W. Murray Crane, of Dalton; Charles A. Denny, of Leicester.

Alternates. Rev. George A. Tewksbury, of Concord; Rev. John R. Thurston, of Whitinsville; Rev. Calvin M. Clark, of Haverhill; Rev. Willis A. Hadley, of Southbridge; Rev. Alexander Lewis, of Worcester; Rev. John H. Lockwood, of Westfield; Augustus R. Smith, of Lee; Preston B. Keith, of Brockton; Daniel O. Marshall, of Gloucester; Frederick A. Fosdick, of Fitchburg; A. G. Cumnock, of Lowell; Thomas J. Borden, of Fall River.

At 6.15 o'clock a recess was taken till 7.30 P.M.

1 See pages 17 and 25.

WEDNESDAY EVENING.

The Association reassembled at 7.30, with the moderator in the chair, and prayer was offered by Rev. Albert P. Davis, of Wakefield.

APPEAL FROM JACKSONVILLE, FLA.

Rev. Angus McDonald, pastor of the Congregational church of Jacksonville, Fla., was introduced, who spoke upon the loss sustained in the recent fire in that city and appealed for help.

RESOLUTION OF ENDORSEMENT.

The following resolution was adopted:

Resolved, That the General Association of Congregational Churches of Massachusetts sympathizes with the Congregational church of Jacksonville, Fla., in the loss of its house of worship and parsonage, by fire, in the recent disaster which left the families of the church homeless, and that we endorse its pastor, Rev. Angus M. McDonald, in his appeal to the Congregationalists of Massachusetts, with the understanding that the money contributed in Massachusetts shall go through our Congregational Church Building Society, and be secured by its mortgage.

It was

Voted, To take an offering for the church at Jacksonville at once.
The offering amounted to $142.15.

ADDRESS.

An address on "Present Conditions and Prospects in China" was given by missionary Rev. W. S. Ament.

DR. AMENT HEARTILY ENDORSED.

The following resolution, presented by Professor Edwin A. Grosvenor, of Amherst, was adopted:

The Congregational churches of Massachusetts, assembled in the ninety-ninth annual meeting of the General Association, pay their reverent tribute to the consecrated devotion, manifested by the American missionaries and native converts in China, during the year 1900. They acknowledge the common and equal Christian heroism, both of those who died the death of martyrs, and of those whom Death passed by, and who still survive to continue the work well begun. To the speaker of this evening, the Reverend W. S. Ament, the Congregational churches of Massachusetts extend a hearty and fraternal greeting, as to the honored representative of all those distant brethren. They recognize his life of faithful, fruitful service. They furthermore rejoice that, in the darkest hour which Protestant missions in the Chinese empire have ever known, Dr. Ament was able, by sagacious and energetic action, to mitigate the sufferings of many native converts, newly born into the family of Christ.

ADDRESSES.

An address on "The Preaching for the Times," was given by Rev. Lawrence Phelps, of Leominster. This was followed by an address by Rev. William T. McElveen, of Boston, on "The Enlistment of Men.'

REVISION OF THE RULES.

The Association then took up the consideration of the report of the Committee on Revision of the Rules.

Voted, That, after the Association has finished its consideration of the report, it be recommitted to the committee, to be by them reported to the Churches, Conferences and Associations, according to the present rules, printing the present rules in parallel columns with it for the purposes of comparison.

Article I. was approved without change.

Article II. was approved, after inserting the following between clauses (b) and (c), viz.: The presentation and discussion of matters vital to our faith and the interests of our denomination.

Article IV. of the present rules was approved to be inserted as Article III. of the report.

Article III. was made Article IV., and approved after the insertion, before the last clause of Section 1, of the following: "And two delegates from the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society."

Article IV. was made Article V., and approved with the addition in Section 4 (a), before the last clause, of the words "Notify officers and committees of their election or appointment"; and in (b) the words "Seven hundred and fifty dollars."

It was also voted that the secretary's salary be $750.00 annually, and shall begin at the close of this session.

Article V. was made Article VI., and approved, with the addition of a second section, viz.: "In the practical administration of its home missionary work, the instrument of the Association shall be the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society, a place for which shall be made in the program of the annual meeting."

Article VI was made Article VII., and approved.

Article VII. was made Article VIII., and, after substituting for the committee on Home Missions, a committee on Missionary Work, to consist of one member from each conference, dropping the committee on Pastoral Supply, to have it appear in a different form in another place, dropping committee (f), adding a committee to audit the treasurer's report, and making other minor changes, was approved.

Article IX. Board of Pastoral Supply.

1. The Association may create a Board of Pastoral Supply to consist of twelve members, four of whom shall be elected each year for a term of three years.

2. This Board may choose its own secretary, and through it shall make an annual report to the Association.

A copy of this report shall be furnished to the secretary of the Association in time to be printed before the annual meeting. Article VIII. was made Article X., and approved after striking out the last sentence of Section 3.

Article IX. was made Article XI., and approved.