ave the capacity to learn, from six
o'clock in the morning till ten, and from two o'clock in the afternoon
till six, where it does not interfere with public worship. The
council shall compile a proper school book to teach them learning and
piety."--Rev. Charles Elliott's _History of the Great Secession front
the Methodist Episcopal Church_, etc., p. 35.

A PORTION OF AN ACT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
IN 1800.

The Assembly recommended:

"2. The instruction of Negroes, the poor and those who are destitute
of the means of grace in various parts of this extensive country;
whoever contemplates the situation of this numerous class of persons
in the United States, their gross ignorance of the plainest principles
of religion, their immorality and profaneness, their vices and
dissoluteness of manners, must be filled with anxiety for their
present welfare, and above all for their future and eternal happiness.

"3. The purchasing and disposing of Bibles and also of books and short
essays on the great principles of religion and morality, calculated
to impress the minds of those to whom they are given with a sense of
their duty both to God and man, and consequently of such a nature as
to arrest the attention, interest the curiosity and touch the feelings
of those to whom they are given."--_Act and Proceedings of the General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in the Year 1800_,
Philadelphia.

AN ACT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN 1801

"The Assembly resumed the consideration of the communication from the
Trustees of the General Assembly and having gone through the same,
thereupon resolved,

"5. That there be made a purchase of so many cheap and pious books as
a due regard to the other objects of the Assembly's funds will admit,
with a view of distributing them not only among the frontiers of these
States, but also among the poorer classes of people, and the blacks,
or wherever it is thought useful; which books shall be given away, or
lent, at the discretion of the distributor; and that there be received
from Mr. Robert Aitken, toward the discharge of his debt, books to
such amount as shall appear proper to the Trustees of the Assembly,
who are hereby requested to take proper measures for the distribution
of same."--_Act and Proceedings of the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A._

PLAN FOR IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF THE FREE BLACKS