shall not displace the regular order, except by special vote of the Council.

VI. The sessions shall ordinarily be held in the latter part of October, or the early part of November.

VII. The call for any session shall be signed by the chairman of the provisional committee and the secretary of the Council, and it shall contain a list of topics proposed by the committee; and the secretary shall seasonably furnish blank credentials and other needful papers to the scribes of the several local organizations of the churches.

VIII. Immediately after the organization of the Council the committee of nominations shall name to the body the following committees:

1. A committee, including the secretary, on credentials, who shall prepare a roll of members.

2. And at their convenience they shall name to the Council a publishing committee of five, including the secretary, registrar, and treasurer, who shall seek bids, contract for and distribute all publications ordered by the Council.

3. A business committee, to propose a docket for the use of the members. Except by special vote of the Council, no business shall be introduced which has not thus passed through the hands of this committee.

4. A finance committee.

Committees shall be composed of three persons each, except otherwise ordered. The first-named member of each standing or ad interim committee shall be chairman thereof, and shall so continue until the committee shall otherwise provide at a meeting of which every member shall have been especially informed. Honorary members shall be eligible to serve on special committees at the session; and any member of any Congregational church connected with the Council shall be eligible to appointment upon any committee to serve after the close of the session.

IX. In the sessions of the National Council, half an hour every morning shall be given to devotional services, and the daily sessions shall be opened with prayer, and closed with prayer or singing. Every morning and evening shall be given to meetings of a specially religious rather than a business character.

X. No person shall occupy more than three quarters of an hour in reading any paper or report, and no speaker upon any motion or resolution, or any paper read, shall occupy more than ten minutes, without the unanimous consent of the Council.

XI. An auditor of accounts shall be appointed at every

session.

XII. The Council approves of an annual compilation of the statistics of the churches, and of a list of such ministers as are reported by the several state organizations. And the secretary is directed to present at each triennial session comprehensive and comparative summaries for the three years preceding.

XIII. The Council, as occasion may arise, will hold communication with the general Congregational bodies of other lands, and with the general ecclesiastical organizations of other churches of evangelical faith in our own land, by delegates appointed by the Council or by the provisional committee.

XIV. The presiding officers shall retain their offices until their successors are chosen, and the presiding moderator at the opening of the session shall take the chair, and the secretary shall at once collect the credentials of delegates present, and shall report the names of persons representing bodies already in affiliation with the Council, who shall be, prima facie, the constituency of the same, for immediate organization and business. The moderator shall then name the committee of nominations, subject to the approval of the Council, which shall at once proceed to the election of its presiding officers. In the absence of the moderator and the assistant moderators, the provisional committee is authorized to appoint some person to act as moderator of the opening session of the Council.

XV. Such reports from committees, and statements from societies or theological seminaries as may be furnished to the secretary seasonably in advance of the session, may be printed at the discretion of the publishing committee, and sent to the members elect, together with the program prepared by the provisional committee. Not more than ten minutes shall be given to the reading of any such report.

XVI. Reports and statements shall not be referred to committees except by vote of the Council.

RULES OF ORDER.

[Revised, Cleveland, Ohio, 1907.]

The rules of order shall be those of the common parliamentary law, with the following modifications:

1. When a question is under debate, no motion shall be received except: to adjourn, to lay on the table, to postpone indefinitely, to postpone to a time certain, to commit, to amend, - which motions shall have precedence in the order named, and, except to lay on the table and to adjourn, shall be debatable. But the Council at any time, on the motion of one member, seconded by five others, and passed by a two-thirds vote of those present and voting, may order the previous question upon any principal or subsidiary debatable motion then pending. After this is so ordered, however, the debate shall not be cut off for one-half hour, provided any member desires to speak; but during that time no person shall speak more than once or more than five minutes.

2. No member shall speak more than twice to the merits of any question under debate except by special permission of the body, nor more than once until every member desiring to speak shall have spoken.

3. Ordinarily, voting shall be viva voce, or by show of hands; but any member may call for a division, in which case the number voting on each side shall be counted, announced by the chair, entered in the minutes, and published in the printed reports of the proceedings.

4. When a committee report has been presented, it shall, in the absence of objection, be deemed to be received by the Council, and unless otherwise disposed of, shall pass to the registrar for preservation but shall not be spread upon the minutes.

If the report contains recommendations or resolutions which call for action by the Council, those recommendations or resolutions shall thereupon be deemed to be before the Council for its adoption upon motion of the committee and shall be subject to such rules as are prescribed by parliamentary law for similar motions.

The action taken by the Council in these cases shall be entered on the minutes.

CHARTER, THE CONGREGATIONAL BOARD OF

MINISTERIAL RELIEF.

"Resolution amending the Charter of the Trustees of the National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States.

"GENERAL ASSEMBLY, JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 1907.

"Resolved by this Assembly:

"SECTION 1. That the body politic and corporate incorporated by resolution approved March 24, 1885, as The Trustees of the National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States, shall hereafter be called and known as The Congregational Board of Ministerial Relief.

"SECT. 2. Henry A. Stimson, Joseph H. Selden, Asher Anderson, Washington Gladden, Guilford Dudley, Samuel B. Forbes, H. Clark Ford, William H. Allbright, Livingston L. Taylor, George R. Merrill, Martin Welles, Charles H. Richards, Philip S. Moxom, Lucien C. Warner, and John Davis are hereby constituted and declared to be the present members of said corporation.

"SECT. 3. No act purporting to be the act of said corporation, heretofore performed, shall be affected or invalidated by any invalidity or informality in the choice of members of said corporation, but all such acts are hereby validated and confirmed.

"SECT. 4. The object of said corporation shall be to secure, hold, manage, and distribute funds for the relief of needy Congregational ministers and the needy families of deceased Congregational ministers, in accordance with resolutions and declarations adopted or made, from time to time, by the National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States, or by any body which may succeed to the present functions of that council; and said corporation may coöperate with any other corporation or body which is under the charge and control of churches of the Congregational order in the United States, or of churches at the time affiliated with said order.

"SECT. 5. The said National Council, or its successor as aforesaid, may, from time to time, make and alter rules, orders, and regulations for the government of said corporation, and said corporation shall at all times be subject to its direction and control; and the said National Council or such successor thereof may, from time to time, determine who shall be members of said corporation, may provide for filling vacancies in their number, and may appoint and remove members thereof. "SECT. 6. This resolution shall not be operative unless the same shall be approved by said National Council at its meeting held in 1907."

The following was adopted by the National Council, 1907:

"Resolved, That the National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States at this its meeting in 1907 approves the resolution entitled, A Resolution' amending the Charter of the Trustees of the National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States,' passed by the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut at its January session, 1907, and approved by the governor, March 27, 1907.

"Resolved, That the registrar of this Council forthwith forward to the secretary of said state a certified copy of the foregoing resolution of the approval, to be filed and recorded in his office."

It was further voted by this National Council that the membership of the corporation now known as the Congregational Board of Ministerial Relief be changed so that said membership shall, until different order is made by the Council, be as follows:

Rev. Henry A. Stimson, Rev. Wm. H. Allbright, Rev. Chas. H. Richards, B. H. Fancher, Rev. Louis F. Berry, H. Clark Ford, Rev. George R. Merrill, Rev. Asher Anderson, Martin Welles, Thomas C. MacMillan, Rev. Frank J. Goodwin, Rev. Joseph H. Selden, Rev. Elliott W. Brown, Lucien C. Warner, Guilford Dudley.

At a meeting of the Congregational Board of Ministerial Relief held in New Haven, Conn., Tuesday, October 29, the following By-Laws were adopted: