700 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



fund. From the Sustentation fund $2,595 had 

 been appropriated in aid of the erection of 20 

 church-buildings, and $19,509 in aid of 122 

 ministers supplying 500 feeble churches ; from 

 the Evangelistic fund, $12,387 in aid of the 

 support of 61 evangelists ; from the Invalid 

 fund, $11,957 in aid of 109 ministers and 

 widows and children of ministers ; and from 

 the Colored Evangelistic fund, $3,44G for Tus- 

 caloosa Institute, and $2,689 in the support of 

 22 ministers. Loans of $650 had been made 

 in aid of the erection of 6 church-buildings. 



The Committee of Foreign Missions hud re- 

 ceived $88,040, or $3,967 more than in any 

 previous year. The missions in Brazil, China, 

 Mexico, Greece, Italy, Japan, and among the 

 American Indians returned 66 missionaries, 

 men and women; 38 stations; 89 out-stations; 

 897 communicants, of whom 423 had been 

 added during the year; 15 ministers, ordained 

 or licensed; 29 other native helpers; 1,238 

 pupils in Sunday-schools; 891 pupils in day 

 schools; and $5,087 of contributions by the 

 native churches. Nine missionaries had been 

 added to the number in the field, and 4 new 

 stations opened. 



The General Assembly met in Baltimore, 

 May 17. The Rev. J. J. Bullock, D. D., was 

 chosen moderator. The " Committee of In- 

 quiry," which had been appointed to confer 

 with a committee of the Northern General As- 

 sembly with reference to organic union, made 

 its report relating to the conferences and cor- 

 respondence which it had held with the com- 

 mittee of the Northern General Assembly. 



On consideration of this report, the Assem- 

 bly declared itself unable to discover that the 

 obstacles to organic union heretofore existing 

 between the two General Assemblies had been 

 to any considerable extent removed ; therefore, 

 in view of all the interests involved, it contin- 

 ued established in the conviction that it would 

 be best for it to remain distinct. In reply to 

 the communications of the Northern General 

 Assembly, it declared a desire to forget as far 

 as possible all past dissensions and to cultivate 

 the most friendly relations. A committee was 

 appointed to confer with a committee of the 

 Northern General Assembly " in reference to 

 all such modes of fraternal co-operation in 

 Christian work, both at home and abroad, as 

 may be considered practicable and edifying," 

 and report to the next General Assembly. The 

 case of the Rev. James Woodrow, D. D., against 

 the Synod of Georgia, came up for adjudica- 

 tion. This case has been, in one shape or an- 

 other, before the Presbyterian courts for sever- 

 al years. It originated in the removal of Dr. 

 Woodrow from his professorship in Columbia 

 Theological Seminary for holding and teaching 

 the doctrine of evolution. In 1886 charges 

 were presented against him before the Presby- 

 tery of Augusta for holding and teaching views 

 contrary to the word of God as interpreted in 

 the standards of the Church in respect to the 

 probable animal origin of Adam's body. The 



Presbytery found a verdict of " not guilty." 

 A complaint was made to the Synod of Georgia 

 against this verdict as contrary to the law and 

 evidence. The synod sustained the complaint 

 and annulled the verdict. Dr. Woodrow com- 

 plained to the General Assembly against this 

 action, and it decided not to sustain the com- 

 plaint. The minute formally expressing the 

 action of the Assembly declared that : 



It is the judgment of this General Assembly that 

 Adam's body was directly fashioned by Almighty God 

 of the dust of the ground, without any natural animal 

 parentage of anv kind. The wisdom of God prompted 

 him to reveal the fact while the inscrutable words of 

 his action therein he has not revealed. 



Therefore the Church does not propose to teach, 

 handle, or conclude any question of science which be- 

 longs to God's kingdom of nature ; she must by her 

 divine constitution see that these questions are not 

 thrust upon her to break the silence of Scripture and 

 supplement it by any scientific hypothesis concerning 

 the mode of God's being or acts in creation which are 

 inscrutable to us. It is, therefore, ordered that this 

 complaint in this case be not sustained and the judp- 

 ment of the Synod of Georgia be, and the same is here- 

 by, in all things, affirmed. 



'The Kcv. T. C. Whaling, of the Synod of South 

 Carolina, then offered the following protest, which is 

 to go on record alongside the minute presented by Dr. 

 Smoot : 



We, whose names are undersigned, desire to enter 

 our solemn protest against the decision of this Gen- 

 eral Assembly refusing to sustain the complaint of the 

 Kev. James Woodrow, D. D., against the Synod of 

 Georgia, for the following reasons : 



1. The second specification in the indictment against 

 the Eev. James W oodrow, D. D., is expressly exclud- 

 ed by the constitution of our Church, inasmuch as 

 u nothing ought to be considered by any court as an 

 offense, or admitted as a matter of accusation, which 

 can not be proved to be such from Scripture as inter- 

 preted in the standards." 



2. In the view of your protestants, the Holy Bible 

 docs not reveal the form of the matter out of which, 

 the time in which, or the mode by which God created 

 the body of Adam, and therefore the hypothesis of 

 evolution as believed by Dr. Woodrow can not be re- 

 garded as in conflict with teachings of the Sacred 

 Scriptures. 



3. The Westminster Standards simply reproduce, 

 without interpretation, the statements ot the Scriptures 

 in reference to the creation of Adam's body, and as 

 the views of the complainant are not in conflict with 

 the statements of the Scripture, so neither can they be 

 with the teachings of the standards. 



4. The action of the Assembly in refusing to sustain 

 this complaint is equivalent to pronouncing as certain- 

 Iv false the theory of evolution as applied by Dr. 

 Woodrow to Adam's body, which is a purely scien- 

 tific question entirely foreign to the legitimate sphere 

 of ecclesiastical action. Your protestants, therefore, are 

 unwilling that this General Assembly should express 

 any opinion whatever respecting the hypothesis of 

 evolution or any other scientific question. 



A committee was appointed to prepare and 

 report to the next General Assembly on the 

 intemperate use of intoxicating drinks, for the 

 instruction of the churches respecting their duty 

 in suppressing the evil, with the reservation hy 

 the Assembly that it was to decide no political 

 question connected with the subject. Provis- 

 ion was made for the representation, of the 

 General Assembly on the National Sabbath 

 Committee proposed by the General Confer- 

 ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 



