PHILLIPS LEE GOLDSBOROUGH, GOVERNOR. 427

record in the proper office, then, in such case, the said agree-
ment, plan or certificate of incorporation having been so filed
for record shall be effective for creating and making the said
church or congregation a proper and lawful religious body cor-
porate, and the same is hereby made a religious body corporate,
at, from and after the date of the said agreement, plan or certifi-
cate of incorporation, in all respects, and to all intents and
purposes, as if the said agreement, plan or certificate of incor-
poration had been duly filed for record within the time pre-
scribed by such law, and the failure to file the agreement, plan
or certificate of incorporation shall in no wise affect the validity
or effect of the said church or congregation as a valid and law-
ful religious body corporate, and all the proceedings, acts and
transactions carried on, done and performed in the name or
under the authority of such agreement, plan or certificate of
incorporation, including the choice and election of trustees,
in all respects, and to all intents and purposes shall be as
valid and binding as if the said agreement, plan or certificate
of incorporation had been duly filed for record, and in proper
time, and all deeds, conveyances and transfers of property, in
trust for the benefit of any such church or congregation, and
all deeds, conveyances and transfers made and executed to
others by or in the name of such church or congregation, as a
religious corporation, shall be good, valid and effective to all
intents and purposes, as if the agreement, plan or certificate of
incorporation for such church and congregation had been duly
filed in the proper office, for record, within the time prescribed
by the law under which such church or congregation was organ-
ized and incorporated as aforesaid. And if it shall appear
from the record book required to be kept by any such .religious
corporation wherein it is required to register its plan, agree-
ment or certificate of incorporation, or otherwise that any church
or congregation heretofore made and adopted a good and suffi-
cient agreement, plan or certificate of incorporation, and, in
the clerk's office, where the same should have been of record, no
book for recording such instruments is to be found covering the
time in which said agreement, plan or certificate of incorpora-
tion should have been filed for record, then in such case it shall
be conclusively presumed in all Courts of this State that the
said agreement, plan or certificate of incorporation was duly
and in due time filed for record in the said clerk's office, and
that the book containing the record of the same has been lost or
destroyed, and such agreement, plan or certificate of incorpora-
tion shall be again filed for record in said clerk's office, unless
it has heretofore already been filed, or if the original of such