698 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



ers, among the Mexicans; and 38 schools, with 

 81 teachers, among the Mormon population. 

 Its receipts of money for the year had been 

 $226,092. The committee of the Centenary 

 fund reported that the receipts from less than 

 one half of the churches of the denomination 

 to May 19 had been $419,000 in cash and $140,- 

 000 in pledges. The Board of Aid for Col- 

 leges and Academies had received $40,000. 

 The General Assembly invited contributions 

 for it for the coming year of $100,000. The 

 Committee on Theological Seminaries, of which 

 there are eight, returned the aggregate value 

 of the property of those institutions as $7,21 6,- 

 000, and the whole number of students at- 

 tending them as 607. The contributions of 

 the churches to the funds of the Board of 

 Publication had amounted to $73,000, giving 

 an increase from the previous year more than 

 sufficient to pay off its debt. Twenty-three 

 new volumes and eleven tracts had been added 

 to its book-list ; 10,000 books and 3,000,000 

 lesson helps and papers had been granted ; 

 and 73 mission schools had been organized 

 during the year. The debt of the Board of 

 Education had been reduced from $15,000 to 

 $3,800, and the number of students for the 

 ministry had increased. The trustees of the 

 General Assembly returned the whole amount 

 of its trust funds on the 31st of March, 1888, at 

 $467,390. The treasurer of the General As- 

 sembly had received $62,986, and had expended 

 $44,324. The Beard of Missions for Freedmen 

 reported that its receipts for the year had been 

 $131, 653 or $35, 132 more than for the previous 

 year. It had employed 26 white and 81 col- 

 ored missionaries, 48 white and 106 colored 

 teachers, and 10 catechists, and sustained 235 

 churches, with 16,661 members, and 226 Sab- 

 bath-schools, with 14,555 members. Thirteen 

 churches had been organized, and 1,210 mem- 

 bers added on examination. 



The total receipts of the Board of Foreign 

 Missions had been $901,181, or $117,023 more 

 than those of the previous year. 



The one hundredth General Assembly met 

 in Philadelphia, May 17. The Rev. Charles 

 L. Thompson, IX D., was chosen moderator. 

 The Committee of Conference with the South- 

 ern Presbyterian Church presented its report, 

 relating the correspondence and negotiations 

 that had passed between it and the similar com- 

 mittee of the Southern Church in relation to 

 organic union. The committees had held a 

 conference in Louisville, Ky., in December, 

 1887. The Southern committee indicated four 

 points on which it desired to know the mind of 

 the Northern Church. These points were : 1. 

 The spirituality of the Church, referring espe- 

 cially to its attitude in regard to " political de- 

 liverances" concerning which the declaration 

 of the previous Northern General Assembly 

 would be satisfactory if the Southern Church 

 was assured its interpretation of it was correct. 

 2. The relation of the Church in the Southern 

 States to the colored people a matter concern- 



ing which the alternative plans were suggested 

 of organizing these people into churches of an 

 entirely separate existence, or into separate 

 churches, presbyteries, and synods, with rep- 

 resentation in the General Assembly, and in 

 the expectation that an independent organiza- 

 tion would ultimately be effected. 3. The pow- 

 ers and responsibilities of the various boards 

 of the Northern Church and to what extent 

 they are under the control of the General As- 

 sembly. 4. " Touching those portions of the 

 Confession of Faith which more specifically in- 

 volve the great system of truth known as the 

 Calviuistic, and particularly whether there is 

 traceable any distinct tincture of such Pelagian 

 and semi-Pelagian heresies as were matters of 

 controversy in 1837." The Northern commit- 

 tee replied to these questions, February 2, that 

 the reunited General Assembly has no other 

 doctrine on the subject of political deliverances 

 than is declared in its expression of May, 1887 

 (see " Annual Cyclopaedia " for 1887), which is 

 in the language of the Confession of Faith and 

 is equally binding on both Churches. Having 

 asserted that the Northern Church is not in 

 favor of setting off its colored members into a 

 separate organization, the committee expressed 

 the belief that the religious work to be done 

 among this people could only be fully done 

 by the Church reunited as one; that a careful 

 supervision of their churches and a well-de- 

 fined system of moral and scriptural education 

 of them was demanded ; that while their evan- 

 gelization should be continued \inder the direc- 

 tion of the General Assembly, the General As- 

 sembly had recognized that it was best accom- 

 plished by the education of colored ministers 

 and the organization of churches composed of 

 colored members and of those connected with 

 this work, and had organized such churches 

 with presbyteries and synods, with represen- 

 tation in the General Assembly. The commit- 

 tee added, on this point : 



\Ve arc of the opinion that our Assembly will agree 

 to a basis of organic union, by which the present 

 boundaries and constituencies of presbyteries and 

 synods in the South shall remain in statu quo, to be 

 changed only with the consent of the parties in- 

 terested ; and that all the new churches and all new 

 presbyteries hereafter established, shall be organized 

 by and received into connection with presbyteries 

 and synods respectively, as the interested parties may 

 mutually agree. 



The ecclesiastical boards were described to 

 be agents of the General Assembly and subject 

 to the government and control of the Church. 

 On the fourth point, the committee declared 

 that no heresy existed in the Northern Church 

 and no doctrinal question was agitating it. In 

 conclusion, while it was hoped that such sub- 

 stantial unity of belief was disclosed as would 

 encourage the continuance of the committees 

 with powers for a full conference on organic 

 union, and such union was favored by the 

 Northern Church, it would not be desirable un- 

 less it could be consummated with mutual confi- 

 dence in the doctrinal soundness of both parties. 



