PRESBYTERIANS. 



703 



Church and Manse Building scheme, which was 

 started to raise a fund of $100,000 for the pur- 

 poses implied in its name, had received in 

 1888, $115,499. Under it, 109 buildings, valued 

 at $127,700, had been aided to the extent of 

 $48,897. A large increase was reported in the 

 income for Foreign Missions. One hundred 

 and sixty-nine missionaries and assistants were 

 laboring in Central India, Formosa, Trinidad, 

 Demarara, the New Hebrides, and among the 

 Indians of the Northwest. A new mission was 

 to be begun in the province of Honan, China. 



The General Assembly met at Halifax, N. S.. 

 June 13. The Rev. W. T. McMullen was 

 chosen moderator. An ad-interim act, passed 

 at the previous General Assembly, on marriage 

 with a deceased wife's sister was re-enacted, 

 and the proposal to alter that part of the Con- 

 fession of Faith bearing on the subject, was 

 sent down to the presbyteries. 



YI1. Church of Scotland. The report to the 

 General Assembly of the Committee on Pres- 

 byterial Superintendence gave the total num- 

 ber of communicants in 1887 as 579,002, show- 

 ing an increase of 7,973. Since 1873, com- 

 municants had been added to the roll of the 

 Church at the rate of T8 per cent., while the 

 annual increase of the population was only I'l 

 per cent. 



The income of the Colonial Committee had 

 risen from 4,176 in 1886 to 4,859 in 1887, 

 the increase being solely due to legacies. The 

 income of the Jewish Mission Committee had 

 been 6,400, and the expenditure 5,045, 

 while the adverse balance had been reduced to 

 1,323. There were 1,792 children in the 

 schools, 950 of whom were Jewish. Four bap- 

 tisms had taken place. The contributions to 

 the Aged and Infirm Ministers' fund had been 

 2,737, 836 parishes contributing. The capital 

 now stood at 24,182, showing an increase of 

 2.21 3. The sum of 1,362 had been dispensed 

 on nine grants. 



The total revenue of the Committee on 

 Home Missions bad been 10,395 or 1,855 

 more than the revenue of the previous year. 

 Seventy-two mission churches were returned, 

 with 15,124 worshipers, of whom 10,263 were 

 communicants. The total of collections and 

 contributions reported for 1887 to the Com- 

 mittee on Statistics of Christian Liberality 

 amounted to 385,506 as compared with 

 407,212 in 1886. 



The receipts of the Committee on Foreign 

 Missions had been 24.481, while a deficit of 

 nearly 1,500 had been incurred. Toward the 

 special fund of 10,000, 4,700 had been re- 

 ceived. Fifteen mission stations were returned 

 in Africa and India, with, in Africa, 30 Euro- 

 pean missionaries and 110 native agents, and 

 2,932 native Christians, 733 of whom were 

 communicants; while in India there were 

 about 3,000 baptized Christians connected with 

 the mission, and 827 had been baptized during 

 the year. 



The General Assembly met in Edinburgh, 



May 24. The Rev. Dr. "W. H. Gray was chosen 

 moderator. A question arose concerning the 

 commissioners from Edinburgh, whose town 

 council had refused by a majority to send rep- 

 resentatives to the Assembly, leaving action on 

 the subject to be taken by the minority. A legal 

 opinion having been read, to the effect that it 

 was the duty of the town council to send repre- 

 sentatives to the Assembly, the commissioners 

 were received. A hearing was given in the 

 case of an appeal concerning a petition which 

 had been refused by the Committee on Bills 

 for the removal of certain " images " from St. 

 Giles's Cathedral. The petitioners complained 

 that the laws of the Church of Scotland were 

 being set at defiance, and that " the supersti- 

 tions of Rome " were being brought in again. 

 If they were true to the historic teaching of 

 their Church, they would see that the " images" 

 were swept away. It was argued against the 

 petition that the time had passed for occupying 

 attention with such matters ; and that hardly 

 any persons now seriously believed that there 

 was anything superstitious or idolatrous in the 

 erection and maintenance of such images. The 

 Assembly refused to sustain the appeal. An 

 overture declaring that any person found 

 guilty of carrying on simoniacal practices to 

 procure a benefice or office should be deprived 

 of his license if a probationer, and deposed if 

 a minister, having been approved by a major- 

 ity of the presbyteries, was converted into a 

 law of the Church. A resolution was passed 

 approving the leading features of the " Uni- 

 versities Scotland Bill " which was then pend- 

 ing in Parliament. The report of the Commit- 

 tee on Church Interests represented that the 

 course of events had afforded proof of the arti- 

 ficial character of the agitation which had been 

 " created from time to time " against the con- 

 nection between Church and State in Scotland, 

 and intimated that the agitation might have 

 had no existence except where it had been 

 created or stimulated for sectarian purposes. 

 There was no evidence that the majority of the 

 people of Scotland were opposed to the Estab- 

 lished Church. With the report was adopted 

 a renewed expression of the desire of the As- 

 sembly to maintain toward the other Churches 

 of Scotland an attitude of earnest watchfulness 

 for any opportunity for kindly co-operation and 

 intercourse. The report of the Committee on 

 the Subscription of Office-Bearers of the Churh 

 suggested that it was desirable that in the case 

 of ministers and licentiates, the Church should 

 revert to the formula contained in the act of 

 Parliament of 1693, entitled "An act for set- 

 tling the quiet and peace of the Church " ; and 

 in the case of elders to an act of 1690 requir- 

 ing simply approbation of the Confession of 

 Faith. The report was adopted as an over- 

 ture to be sent down to the presbyteries. Sun- 

 day, the 4th, and Monday, the 5th, of Novem- 

 ber, were appointed as days for celebrating 

 throughout the Church the bicentenary of the 

 revolution of 1688. The employment of dea- 



