630 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



quors, and against the transmission of lottery- 

 tickets by the United States mails ; also resolu- 

 tions urging the eradication of Morraonisra. 

 The Presbyteries were enjoined, when dealing 

 with applications for admission from other 

 denominations, to see that they had received as 

 thorough a course in collegiate and theological 

 instruction as is required of regular Presbyterian 

 candidates. 



II. PKESBYTEKIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED 

 STATES. The following is a summary of the 

 statistics of this Church for the last year, as 

 they were reported to the General Assembly 

 in May, 1880 : 



Synods 12 



Presbyteries 67 



Candidates 145 



Licentiates 79 



Ministers 1,060 



Churches 1,928 



Licensures 53 



Ordinations 33 



Installations 82 



Ministers deceased 19 



Pastoral dissolutions 40 



Ministers received 3 



Ministers dismissed 4 



Churches organized 47 



Churches dissolved 18 



Ruling elders 5,721 



Deacons 8,811 



Added on examination 5.920 



Added on certificate 3,614 



Total communicants 120,028 



Adults baptized 1,892 



Infants baptized 4,705 



Number of baptisms of non-communicants. 29,397 



In babbath-school and Bible-classes 74,902 



CONTRIBUTIONS. 



Sustentation $32,123 



Evangelistic 15.233 



Invalid fund 10,384 



Foreign missions 39,577 



Education 26,012 



Publication 8,796 



Presbyterial 



Pastors' salaries 



Congregational 



Miscellaneous 47,6'J9 



Total , $1,062,338 



The Committee on Foreign Missions returned 

 its receipts at $48,485, or $2,251 more than 

 the receipts of the previous year. The princi- 

 pal part of the increase had come from the 

 Women's Missionary Associations. The gen- 

 eral debt of the committee had been reduced 

 from $9,524 to $4,378. The foreign mission- 

 ary force consisted of 83 persons, of whom 

 15 were missionaries, 21 assistants from the 

 United States, 10 native preachers, 5 licen- 

 tiates, and 32 teachers. Six churches had been 

 organized in Brazil, and four young men were 

 studying for the ministry. Four or five 

 churches had been organized in Mexico, and a 

 new station had been opened. Ten mission- 

 aries and 9 native preachers and licentiates 

 were employed in China, with 34 communi- 

 cants at Hangchou, 9 mission-schools, and 171 

 pupils. The native members of this mission 

 had contributed $23. Five members had been 

 received in the Greek mission. Seventeen mis- 

 sionaries, of whom eight were natives, were 

 engaged in the missions to the Indians. The 



missions in Italy are carried on in connection 

 with the Waldensian Church. 



The General Assembly of the Presbyterian 

 Church in the United States met at Charles- 

 ton, South Carolina, May 20th. The Rev. T. 

 A. Hoyt, D. D., of Nashville, Tennessee, was 

 chosen moderator. In answer to a number of 

 overtures which were sent up on the subject 

 of preaching by women, the Assembly declared 

 that the assumption of the sacred office of the 

 ministry by women is "opposed to the ad- 

 vancement of true piety and the promotion of 

 the peace of the churches, and this to such an 

 extent as to make the introduction of women 

 into our pulpits for the purpose of publicly 

 expounding God's word an irregularity not 

 to be tolerated." The rule on the subject of 

 subscribing to the standards in the new Book 

 of Church Order was interpreted to mean 

 that the pledge of orthodoxy must be sub- 

 scribed to by all ministers joining the Presby- 

 tery, including those who come from other 

 Presbyteries. An overture asking the Assem- 

 bly to make a deliverance on the subject of 

 dancing was declined on the grounds that for- 

 mer deliverances were as full and explicit as 

 the nature of the case allowed, and that the 

 evil was to be remedied, not by deliverances of 

 the Assembly, but rather by care on the part 

 of the lower courts. A committee appointed 

 by the previous General Assembly to consider 

 the subject of retrenchment and reform in the 

 management of the schemes of benevolence 

 presented majority and minority reports. Both 

 were ordered published for circulation among 

 the ministers, and the consideration of the 

 whole matter was referred to the next General 

 Assembly. An overture w T as presented asking 

 that so much of the deliverances of the pre- 

 vious General Assembly in relation to worldly 

 amusements as declares that all deliverances of 

 the General Assembly, and by necessary im- 

 plication of the other courts of the Church, 

 which are not made by them in a strictly judi- 

 cial capacity, but are deliverances en these, can 

 be considered as only didactic, advisory, and 

 monitory, be repealed or modified. A paper 

 was adopted on the subject, which declares: 

 1. That nothing is law to be enforced by ju- 

 dicial prosecution, but that which is contained 

 in the Word as interpreted in the standards of 

 the Church ; 2. The judicial deliverances of 

 the Church courts differ from en these deliver- 

 ances in that the former determine, and, when 

 proceeding from the highest court, conclude a 

 particular case ; but both these kinds of deci- 

 sions are alike interpretations of the Word by 

 a Church court, and both not only deserve high 

 consideration, but must be submitted to, unless 

 contrary to the Constitution and the Word, of 

 which there is a right of private judgment be- 

 longing to every Church court, and also to 

 every individual member. On the question 

 whether an elder, when he is convinced that 

 he has not been called to the office, can be 

 demitted from it without censure, a decision 



