sion of the whole Gospel of redemption can equip the Church for the performance of its task and mission to our modern world. As one of our own theologians has reminded us, it is not a question of a method so much as it is a question of a message. With what did St. Paul face the social inequalities and crimes of the ancient world? He faced it with the eighth of Romans-the grandest charter of the world's ultimate liberties that the world has ever known: and that Gospel he declared with authority and confidence. These are not the days to turn our backs upon the theology of the New Testament. These are the days to recover it. What the times call for is a revival of understanding of the social meaning and power of the Gospel. The ultimate aid which the Church can render to our stricken world today lies in the joyful, confident and authoritative proclamation of its spiritual message.

For the only hope that this world will ever be a better world is that you and I somehow shall become better men and women. "I do not know," Secretary Lansing said at Boston, at the meeting of the American Bar Association, "that the world will ever be better, until it is spiritually regenerated." "Good men," said Mazzini, "make bad organizations good, and bad men make good organizations bad." "If we really want the new world, we must provide the new men to make it." And to make a bad man good, and a good man better, to make the kind of man who alone can remake the world into the Kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, there is no substitute for the Gospel of him who loved us and gave himself for us. At such an hour as this, we want not less theology, but more of it; we need all the redemption there is. It is as we seek to understand anew, to proclaim afresh and live out with renewed meaning and devotion the height, the depth, the length and the breadth of the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, that he will at length present to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, holy and without blemish. God grant it, for his Name's sake. Amen.

REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

All members designated by the last Council have served throughout the biennium. One meeting was held in Chicago, one in Hartford, two in Boston and four in New York. The range of interests cared for and the method of procedure were much the same as those of the preceding biennium described in the 1917 report.

OFFICE ORGANIZATION

In October, 1918, Rev. Oscar E. Harris, who had served for nearly three years as Assistant to the Secretary, died of influenza. His service in the Council office was of great value and his loss is keenly felt. The Committee has endeavored in various ways to show its sympathy with his parents and his immediate family in their bereavement. The care of the executive detail of the office was assigned to Miss Eleanore W. Nichols, who has been with the Council since 1914. She has carried forward the duties devolving upon her with marked efficiency.

The Committee has considered with unusual care the question of a successor to Mr. Harris. It is perfectly clear that in justice to the Council's affairs its Secretary should have associated with him a man capable of carrying forward with independent judgment not only routine responsibilities, but also the special matters continually arising out of the relations of the Council office to denominational agencies and interdenominational affairs. The Committee is therefore purposing at an early date, with your approval, to engage an Assistant Secretary capable of carrying under the Secretary's general direction the wide range of duties indicated.

FINANCES

The Treasurer's report for 1917 and 1918 are before you in printed form. The Executive Committee secured the auditing of these accounts for 1917 by Herbert F. French & Co., and for 1918 by Mr. S. F. Wilkins, the Assistant Treasurer of the Congregational Education Society, and has their certifi

cates as to the accuracy of the same. In its last report the Committee made the following statement:

"It is prepared to use its best endeavor to care for the Council's business on the present basis of income and, if possible, to come up to the next Council with a small balance in the treasury."

It is a pleasure to report that this has been achieved although the balance is so small as to require continuance of a bank loan of $1500, in order to provide current working capital.

As in the previous biennium the Committee has carried the funds used for promoting the Tercentenary Program in a separate account. The sources of income have been gifts of individuals, a grant from the Mission Boards for salary and travelling expenses of Dr. Scudder and a small amount from regular Council receipts. It will be necessary for this Fund to meet the expenses of the International Council meeting next year. No careful estimate has as yet been made of those expenses but they will of course greatly exceed any amount now at our disposal. The Committee on the International Council will submit a resolution bearing on this matter.

THE PER CAPITA

The Committee has been resolute in its endeavor to carry forward the Council's work without asking for an increase of revenue. If economic conditions had remained normal it is confident that this could still be done. But with the unprecedented rise in prices it is plain that to continue the four cents per capita basis would mean serious loss to denominational interests. How serious the problem is will be realized when it is noted that the enforced increase in the annual cost of the Year Book is nearly $5000, in other printing from $1000 to $2000 and in secretarial and clerical salaries approximately $2500.

The Committee, therefore, submits for the Council's consideration the question of increase. In so doing it names a figure which does not fully cover the added costs above named. It believes that through certain adjustments and economies it can cover the necessary budget with a half cent advance. A recommendation to this effect will be presented.

DELEGATES' EXPENSES

The question of paying the traveling expenses of Council delegates has been repeatedly before the Council and was fully covered in our last report. The Committee after a fresh review of the subject is convinced that the time has come to take action looking toward such payment. Our present method is undemocratic, prevents continuity of service and imposes unjustifiable hardships. It will take time and some experimentation to put in force a plan of payment. A beginning should be made at once.

In the resolutions on this point appended to this report it is proposed that one cent be added to the per capita expressly for this purpose. Whether this will fully meet the railway fare of the delegates it is wholly impossible to say, since the cost will vary with the location of the meeting, the continuance or discontinuance of the present half-fare clergy rates and the scale of passenger tariffs which may be established in the future. The most that can be said is that a careful study has been made of the probable amount expended by delegates to the present Council, and it is believed that it falls well within the amount named.

It will also be noted that by the suggested resolutions participation in the travel fund is limited to Conferences and Associations which have met their per capita payments in full. This proposal does not involve the withdrawal of any present privileges enjoyed by non-contributing churches. The Year Book, the Minutes and the services of the Council office are at their disposal as heretofore. Only the added privilege involving a specific payment to their representatives would be conditional upon their participation in the maintenance of the Council's budget.

Your Committee is clear that the assuming of no expenses other than the railway fare should be a permanent policy. The reasons for this were set forth in the last report and need not be repeated here. If the entire sum of about $16,000 secured by the one cent added should not be needed for those expenses, the remainder should be devoted to other costs of the Council meeting.

THE YEAR BOOK

The cost of the 1916 Year Book was slightly over $6000. The cost of the 1918 Year Book was nearly $11,000. Every item entering into its production and distribution has been radically increased. The Committee has canvassed the whole matter with care. It has asked itself whether the churches would prefer a reduction in the size of the book through elimination of many of the statistical columns, whether a more restricted circulation would be acceptable, whether those receiving it would be willing to pay the cost of packing and shipment, etc. In each case it has been the judgment of the Committee that the churches would prefer continuance of the present form of the book with free distribution to all ministers and to church clerks upon request. If the Council deems this judgment wrong it should express its mind at the present meeting.

MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL

It is the purpose of the Committee, unless otherwise instructed, to issue the Minutes of the Council in substantially the same form as in 1917. The volume will thus include the record of Council actions, the reports of Officers, Commissions, Committees and Mission Boards, with the address of the Moderator and the sermon of the Council preacher, a total of over 400 pages. Much valuable material contained in other addresses fails by this method to be preserved. The Committee believes, however, that the amount of circulation and reading secured for such matter if printed would not justify. the cost. No objection has been expressed to the plan of distribution followed in 1917, viz: a free copy to each delegate, to each national and state executive, and to pastors upon request. The plan appears, therefore, the proper one to follow for the forthcoming volume.

COUNCIL MEETING

Each of the last two Council meetings has been eight days in length. Great difficulty has been found in covering the themes and interests which naturally call for review. This year the program committee, confronted by unprecedented conditions in church and state, felt it imperative to ask for