But there is another side to the matter. If the parish door is thrown open to friendly non-church members because of their support, it at the same time admits others for whom no such plea can be offered. Under our present method of meeting church expenses by pew rentals, many members of parishes may, and doubtless do, escape all pecuniary responsibility, while yet retaining the right to vote in parish affairs. It is an anomaly incident to our present system, but one that under the proposed scheme would disappear. And this leads to a final suggestion, that there should be revived a provision found in some of the older covenants, whereby a person on joining the church promised to contribute of his substance to support the gospel according as God gave him ability.

The scheme thus imperfectly outlined is not presented as a novelty. Mention is made of it by Dr. Dexter in his work on Congregationalism; and it is matter of regret that one of such authority in things ecclesiastical should not have devoted a larger share of his book to its discussion. But another writer, of the highest authority among us, the acknowledged Nestor of our Congregational body, has devoted his entire book, not indeed to the formulated scheme, but to the underlying idea. "The Genesis of the New England Churches," by Leonard Bacon, is but a prolonged and eloquent historical exposition of that principle of separatism which issued in the founding of the Pilgrim church upon the Plymouth Rock. The logic of that book, in its final results, is the identity of church and parish in the present, and in the happier future, a return to the New Testament model. CHARLES E. STEVENS. WORCESTER, MASS., April 16, 1877.

THE WISCONSIN ACT.

We subjoin a copy of the recent Wisconsin Act, for which we are indebted to Rev. H. H. Dixon, of Ripon, who (we are informed by others) had a responsible agency in its preparation and passage. Section 11, exempting the Protestant Episcopal Church by request, is omitted. The addition, in substance, of the following section of the Massachusetts Statutes, even though not necessary, would be a valuable guarantee: —

"The respective churches, connected and associated in public worship with such religious societies, shall continue to have, exercise, and enjoy all their accustomed privileges and liberties respecting divine worship, church order, and discipline, and shall be encouraged in the peaceable and regular enjoyment and practice thereof.1

AN ACT

TO PROVIDE FOR THE INCORPORATION OF RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.

The people of the State of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. The male members who are of full age of any Christian or Hebrew Church, which has been or may be organized in any town, village,

Gen. Stat. 1860-66, Ch. 30, Sect. 3.

or city of this State, and which at the time maintains regular public worship, not less than three in number, may, after due public notice, organize a religious society for religious, charitable, and educational purposes, and may incorporate the same in the manner hereinafter provided.

SECTION 2. A certificate or statement of such organization may be signed and acknowledged before some officer authorized by law to take the acknowledgment of deeds in the county where such society is organized, and shall be recorded in the office of the register of deeds of such county, in a book to be kept by him for such purpose, which certificate shall be, in substance, of the following form:

Know all men by these presents: The undersigned (insert the names of signers) and those who are or may become associated with them for the purposes herein specified, have organized themselves into a religious society of the church (or denomination) located in (name of town, village, or city) in the county of , State of Wisconsin, for religious, charitable, and educational purposes, which society shall be known and incorporated by the name of (insert name.)

SECTION 3. When such certificate shall have been duly recorded as aforesaid, the society named therein shall be a corporation under this act, and may make a constitution and by-laws not inconsistent with the laws of this State for the regulation and government of such society, and its officers, and may fix the terms and qualifications of office and membership in such organization, and may have and use a common seal, and alter or change the same at pleasure, and by their corporate name may sue and be sued, and may take, receive, purchase, hold and use both real and personal estate for the purposes for which they have been incorporated, and may mortgage, sell and dispose of the same, or any portion thereof, subject to the rules and by-laws for such cases made and provided.

SECTION 4. Such society may take also by purchase, gift or otherwise, and may forever hold and improve any lands intended to be used for cemetery grounds or burial places, and sections fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen, of chapter sixty-seven of the revised statutes, shall apply to all lands so heretofore or hereafter acquired for burial purposes.

SECTION 5. The secular business and temporal affairs of every such society, organized and incorporated under this act, shall be managed and administered by not less than three, nor more than nine trustees, who shall be elected in the manner, and hold office for the time prescribed by the constitution and by-laws of the society.

SECTION 6. Whenever the established rules of any church or religious denomination provide for the election of trustees, and prescribe that they shall hold the property of such church or denomination in trust, then they shall be elected in the manner and for the time prescribed by such rules, and the trustees so elected may become a corporation in the same manner as is hereinbefore provided for a society, and when so incorporated shall be subject to all the provisions of this act applicable thereto.

SECTION 7. No failure to elect trustees at the proper time or in the proper manner shall work the dissolution of any such corporation, and those once elected shall hold their office as such trustees until their successors are duly elected.

SECTION 8. The trustees of every such church or society shall appoint a clerk or secretary, and a treasurer, with power to remove the same, and shall cause accurate record of all their proceedings, and of all business meetings of such society to be kept, and they shall be governed in their official acts by the rules of their church or denomination applicable thereto, and not inconsistent with the laws of this State, and by the constitution and by-laws of the society.

SECTION 9. Any existing religious society heretofore organized under the laws of this State may, by five or more of its members, including in every case all the members at the time acting as trustees thereunto duly authorized, become a corporation under this act, by making and recording the certificate provided in this act, with an additional statement in such certificate of the name by which such society, and the corporation connected with it, has before that time been known and called, and that such society and corporation are reorganized under this act, but such reorganization shall not work a change of the ecclesiastical connection of any such society.

SECTION 10. If any such religious corporation heretofore incorporated under the laws of this State shall fail to become reincorporated as herein provided, such corporation shall not thereby be dissolved, but shall be subject to the rules and regulations of the church or society with which it is connected, and to all the provisions of this act which relate to the election and duties of trustecs, and to the powers, franchises, and privileges of religious corporations.

SECTION 11. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and publication.

Approved March 13, 1876.

CONSTITUTION, BY-LAWS, AND RULES OF ORDER

OF THE

NATIONAL COUNCIL.

CONSTITUTION.

[Adopted Nov. 17, 1871.]

THE Congregational churches of the United States, by elders and messengers assembled, do now associate themselves in National Council:To express and foster their substantial unity in doctrine, polity, and work; and

To consult upon the common interests of all the churches, their duties in the work of evangelization, the united development of their resources, and their relations to all parts of the kingdom of Christ.

They agree in belief that the Holy Scriptures are the sufficient and only infallible rule of religious faith and practice; their interpretation thereof being in substantial accordance with the great doctrines of the Christian faith, commonly called evangelical, held in our churches from the early times, and sufficiently set forth by former General Councils.

They agree in belief that the right of government resides in local churches, or congregations of believers, who are responsible directly to the Lord Jesus Christ, the One Head of the Church Universal and of all particular churches; but that all churches, being in communion one with another as parts of Christ's catholic church, have mutual duties subsisting in the obligations of fellowship.

The churches, therefore, while establishing this National Council for the furtherance of the common interests and work of all the churches, do maintain the Scriptural and inalienable right of each church to selfgovernment and administration; and this National Council shall never exercise legislative or judicial authority, nor consent to act as a council of reference.

And, for the convenience of orderly consultation, they establish the following rules:

I. Sessions. The churches will meet in National Council every third year. They shall also be convened in special session whenever any five of the general State organizations shall so request.

II. Representation. The churches shall be represented, at each session, by delegates, either ministers or laymen, appointed in number and manner as follows: