having recourse to convulsive efforts to procure increased contributions to said Fund. 6. That such arrangements be made as shall secure a frequent visitation and thorough superintendence of associations on behalf of the Sustentation Fund. 7. That a Committee be appointed in each Presbytery of one or two ministers and one or two elders, along with the corresponding member, to consider the monthly returns to the Sustentation Fund, and the monthly circular from the Secretary of Associations, to correspond with Deacons' Courts when they shall see cause, and to receive yearly and half-yearly exact statistics from each congregation as affecting this fund, and the progress or otherwise of the congregation. 8. That the above Committee shall be required to report to a quarterly conference of the Presbytery, to which deacons as well as elders shall be invited, when the Sustentation Fund and other financial matters shall receive the attention which their importance requires, without giving them the publicity which they at present receive. 9. That the Annual Report of the Sustentation Committee contain all needful information relative to the proceedings of the Committee and the disposal of the funds during the year; and, in particular, that there be presented annually classified lists of the recipients of the Fund, and that said Report be printed and circulated throughout the Church in sufficient time before the meeting of the Assembly, to enable the members to form a deliberate judgment of its contents. 10. That the number of public annual collections in behalf of the various schemes of the Church be diminished and definitely fixed; and that no addition be made thereto without due notice and full consideration. With reference to the above suggestions, the Committee, considering that the primary object for which they were originally appointed was to take into consideration the overtures anent claims of ante-disruption ministers, and continuing to be of the opinion expressed in their previous Report, that injury might be done to that object by its being mixed up with questions relative to the administration of the General Sustentation Fund (Report, p. 25), deem it inexpedient to express any opinion on the various suggestions made, and feel that their duty is best discharged by simply stating them, and leaving it to the Assembly to dispose of them as to its wisdom may seem best. But partly from their attention having been specially called in the remit made by last Assembly to the overtures relative to the present mode of con gregations supplementing the stipends of their ministers, and partly from the deep conviction they feel that the subject has an important bearing upon the accomplishment of the object contemplated in their previous Report, they do not consider themselves at liberty to dispose of these overtures in the same way; and, with reference to the subject adverted to in them, they beg to submit the following remarks for the consideration of the Assembly :— Hitherto the Church has not only carefully avoided, but strenuously resisted, every attempt to obtain legislative enactments on the subject of supplements. According to the views of Dr. Chalmers, there are two sources from which provision should be made for the Christian ministry,-1. Contributions to a general fund; and 2. Weekly offerings at the church doors, the former to be applied towards the support of the ministry in general, the latter towards augmenting the stipend of the minister of the congregation. On the distinct understanding that such was to be the application of the funds derived from these two sources, the General Sustentation Fund was established; and in the "Earnest Appeal," its revered author argues in the strongest manner possible against any attempt either to do away compulsorily with supplements, or to make them in any way directly the subject of legislative enactment. At the same time, fully alive to the fatal consequences which must necessarily result from an unlimited liberty to supplement their ministers on the part of those congregations which contributed less to than they received from the General Fund, he advocated as strongly the necessity of a stern adherence to, and of carrying fully out the principles embodied in the Act 1844, by which an inducement was held out to all aid-receiving congregations to contribute to the General in preference to the Local Fund. In consequence, however, of a recommendation contained in the Report of a Special Committee on the Sustentation Fund, that Act was set aside by the Assembly 1848. From that day to this the Church has sought, but sought in vain, for a means of correcting the evils arising from the practice of congregations supplementing the stipends of their ministers to the manifest injury of the General Fund. And the question is, What is now to be done? Whatever may be the answer, one thing is obvious, that the continuance of the present system of congregations, and more especially aid-receiving congregations, supplementing the stipends of their ministers, is fraught with everincreasing danger to the very existence of the General Fund. From the tables appended to the previous Report of the Committee, it appears that, in the year 1858, one hundred aid-receiving congregations with ante-disruption, and one hundred and eighty-six aid-receiving congregations with post-disruption, ministers, gave supplements ranging from £1 to upwards of £150. The following extracts from these tables afford illustration of some, at least, of the results which, in particular cases, have followed from the present practice of congregations supplementing their ministers, and of the necessity of the Church, without delay, adopting measures whereby the evils which have followed from it may be corrected. To these extracts the Committee respectfully request the attention of the Assembly. 1.-EXTRACT |