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ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

AMERICAN AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY,

PRESENTED APRIL 28th, 1838,

WITH

ΑΝ APPENDIX,

CONTAINING

EXTRACTS OF CORRESPONDENCE, &c.

TOGETHER WITH

A LIST OF AUXILIARY SOCIETIES, LIFE DIRECTORS, AND MEMBERS.

NEW-YORK:

PRINTED BY JOHN GRAY, 222 WATER-STREET.

CONSTITUTION

OF THE

AMERICAN AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

ART. I. The name of this Society shall be THE AMERICAN AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

ART. II. It shall be the object of the Society to aid in the wider circulation of the Holy Scriptures IN ALL LANDS.

ART. III. Each contributor of three dollars annually shall be a member. ART. IV. Each contributor of thirty dollars at one time shall be a member for life. ART. V. Each contributor of one hundred and fifty dollars shall be a life director. ART. VI. All Life Directors shall have the privilege of participating in the deliberations of the Board, and such Life Directors as are members in good standing of Baptist Churches, shall be members of the Board.

ART. VII. All Bible Societies agreeing to place their surplus funds in the treasury of the Society, shall be auxiliaries, and the officers of such societies shall be cz officio directors of this.

ART. VIII. A Board of Managers shall be appointed to conduct the business of the Society, consisting of thirty-six brethren in good standing in Baptist churches, sixteen of whom shall reside in the city of New-York, or its vicinity; the whole Board to be elected annually by the Society, and to hold their office until superseded by a new election. The Board shall have power to fill such vacancies as may occur in their number.

ART. IX. The President, Vice-Presidents, Secretaries, and Treasurer, shall be ex officio members of the Board.

ART. X. The managers shall meet monthly, or oftener if necessary, at such time and place as they shall adjourn to, five of whom shall be a quorum.

ART. XI. The managers shall have the power of appointing such persons as may have rendered essential services to the Society, either members for life, or directors for life.

ART. XII. At the meetings of the Society, and of the Board of Managers, the President, or, in his absence, the Vice President first upon the list then present, and in the absence of all the Vice Presidents, the treasurer, and in his absence, such member as shall be chosen for that purpose, shall preside.

ART. XIII. The annual meeting of the Society shall be held at New-York, on the day before the last Wednesday in April in each year, or at any other time or place, at the option of the Society, when the accounts of the treasurer shall be presented, and a President, Vice Presidents, Secretaries, Treasurer, and such other officers as they may deem necessary, together with a Board of Managers, shall be chosen for the ensuing year.

ART. XIV. The President shall, at the written request of six members of the Board, call special meetings of the Board of Managers, causing at least three days notice of such meetings.

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ART. XV. The whole of the minutes of every meeting shall be signed by the Chairman and Secretary.

ART. XVI. No alteration shall be made in this Constitution, except by the vote of two thirds of the members of the Society present at an annual meeting.

2370

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1838-1855

AMERICAN AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

The Society held its annual meeting on Thursday, the 26th April, 1838, in the meeting house of the Oliver-street Baptist church, N. Y. The President, S. H. Cone, took the chair at half past 8 o'clock, A. M.

Prayer by Wm. B. Johnson, of South Carolina.

The Treasurer, Wm. Colgate, presented an abstract of his report, which was accepted.

N. Kendrick, New-York, Baron Stow, Boston, W. Southwood, Virginia, L. Howard, Connecticut, James E. Welch, New-Jersey, I. M. Allen, Pennsylvania, A. Maclay, New-York, R. Fuller, South Carolina, and Thomas Dawson, Georgia, were appointed a Committee to nominate a board of Officers and Managers for the ensuing year; who reported the following list, which was unanimously adopted,

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CHARLES G. SOMMERS, of New-York, Corresponding Secretary.
WILLIAM COLGATE, of New-York, Treasurer.

JOHN WEST, of New-York, Recording Secretary.

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New-York and vicinity.

Managers.

Jas. A. Townsend,
R. F. Winslow,
Wm. Winterton,
W. H. Wyckoff,

J. N. Wyckoff,
Daniel Dodge,

B. T. Welch,
R. Babcock, jr.
R. W. Cushman,
A. D. Gillett,
G. B. Ide,

Henry Jackson, Con.

Penn. N. Y. & vicinity.

W. Crane, Maryland.
T. Meredith, N. C.
W. B. Johnson, S. C.
J. K. McIver, S. C.
S. W. Lynd, Ohio,
Jesse Mercer, Geo.
Samuel Love, Tenn.

D. D. Pratt, N. H.
John Conant, Vt.
Lucius Bolles, Mass.
W. F. Broaddus, Va.
Alexis Caswell, R. I.

A Committee consisting of Wm. B. Johnson, S. C., S. Chapin, D. C. J. D. Knowles, Boston, A. Bennett, N. Y., A. Woods, Ala. Thomas Hume, Va. J. B. Jeter, Va. Thomas Meredith, of N. C. and C. G. Sommers, of N. Y. was appointed, to ascertain the views of the denomination in the United States as to the duty of the Society to engage in the work of home distribution.

Resolved, That the 13th article of the constitution be so altered as to read thus:

The annual meeting of the Society shall be held at New-York on the day before the last Wednesday in April in each year, or at any other time or place at the option of the Society; when the accounts of the treasurer shall be presented, and a President, Vice Presidents, Secretaries, Treasurer, and such other officers as they may deem necessary, together with a board of managers, shall be chosen for the ensuing year.

Resolved, That the report of the Board of Managers, with an abstract of the treasurer's account, together with addresses, be made the order of the day for Saturday evening.

The following preamble and resolutions were offered and adopted, viz :

Uniting with the Baptist General Convention of the United States for Foreign Missions, in principle, aim, and effort; coinciding with them especially, relative to the entire and faithful translation of the Scriptures, and believing their directions to their Missionaries to "transfer no words which are capable of being literally translated," to be scriptural, and in perfect accordance with the sentiments of the denomination by whose patronage this Society and the Convention, are both sustained; Therefore

Resolved, That Charles G. Sommers, A. Maclay, Wm. Colgate, and John West, be our delegates to the General Convention, about to assemble in Oliver-street, and that they be charged with the duty of assuring that venerable body of our cordial co-operation with them in giving to the heathen, in their vernacular tongues, the glorious gospel of the blessed God.

Resolved, That the Corresponding Secretary be instructed to communicate the foregoing resolutions to the Convention.

D. Dodge, of New-Jersey, H. Malcorn, of Boston, and W. H.

Wyckoff, of New-York, were appointed a committee on the subject of setting apart a special season for Prayer, for the success of the Bible cause, who reported

That deeming it undesirable to multiply monthly concerts for prayer, and yet deeply anxious to have the important operations of this Society brought before the Lord, not only in secret, but in the united petitions of his people, we affectionately solicit our fellow christians to remember us in their conferences, and on the Sabbath day, and to make the Society and its operations a distinct subject at the concert of prayer, on the first Monday of every month. We also solicit that information and exhortation on this subject, be made a part of the services on those occasions.

On behalf of the Committee,

Whereupon it was

D. DODGE, Chairman.

Resolved, That the report be accepted, and the recommendations of the committee concurred in.

The committee on the subject of Bible distribution reported,

That having examined a great mass of documents, containing resolutions of Baptist State Conventions, Associations, Auxiliary Bible Societies and Churches, in every state of the Union, are satisfied that it is the almost unanimous desire of the denomination, that the American and Foreign Bible Society be left unrestricted in the range of its operations.

The Committee therefore recommend, that the second article of the constitution be altered, to read as follows, viz.

Article 2. It shall be the object of the Society to aid in the wider circulation of the Holy Scriptures IN ALL LANDS.

The committee also recommend the following resolutions :

1. Resolved, That this Society will expect of their Board of Managers, in carrying into effect the second article of the constitution, the most sedulous care in patronising such versions only of the sacred scriptures into the languages of the heathen, as have been, or may be, faithfully made, and are approved by competent examiners.

2. Resolved, That in the distribution of the scriptures in the English language, they will use the commonly received version, until otherwise directed by the Society.

3. Resolved, That the next annual meeting of the Society be held in Philadelphia, on the day before the last Wednesday in April, 1839, at 10 o'clock, A. M.

The hour for the meeting of the General Convention having arrived, the Society adjourned, to meet at the call of the President.

Prayer by Brother Mason, of South Carolina.

Oliver-street meeting house, April 27, 1838. The Society met at the call of the President, at 3 o'clock, P. M. Prayer by Brother E. Ball, of Virginia.

The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved.

Resolved, That S. M. Bryan be appointed a Vice President for the state of Louisiana.

Resolved, That the sixth article of the constitution be altered to read as follows:

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