552 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



whether the proportion has really been given. The 

 committee recommended that the session of each 

 church should, by some carefully arranged sys- 

 tem, furnish the people opportunity to contribute 

 every year to each of the boards. Instruction in 

 methods of leading the people to a clearer recogni- 

 tion of their duty and privilege in the matter of 

 giving was regarded as an important department 

 of -the training of young men for the ministry. 

 Resolutions on the Sabbath reaffirmed the set- 

 tled conviction of the Assembly that the law of 

 the Sabbath is divine and of perpetual obligation 

 upon all men; that the obligation of the preserva- 

 tion of its sacred character rests primarily upon 

 the membership of the Church of Christ; renewed 

 the request expressed in 1900 that Congress and 

 the State legislatures make no more appropria- 

 tions to industrial exhibitions except on condition 

 that they are closed to visitors on the Lord s Day; 

 a thrined the inalienable right " of every man to 

 rest from labor on the Sabbath day, or the day 

 commonly called Sunday," and requested corpora- 

 tions and all employers of labor to arrange for 

 their men to enjoy it; and "most earnestly pro- 

 tested against any and all use of the Lord's Day 

 as a day for business purposes and commercial 

 interests, as well as against all uses of the day for 

 sports, games, social functions, and worldly pleas- 

 ures." A report was made by the Rev. Dr. R. S. 

 Holmes on the effort to lift the mortgage on the 

 " Presbyterian Building " in New York, showing 

 that the amount to be raised had been reduced to 

 $250,000. The clearing away of the annual bur- 

 den of $48,000 interest would leave that amount 

 to go into the treasuries of the Home and For- 

 eign Mission Boards. The rentals of the build- 

 ing were about $113,000 a year. The Special Com- 

 mittee on Theological Seminaries reported con- 

 cerning conferences with representatives of those 

 institutions that they were found to be agreed 

 upon the more important subjects of conference, 

 and no action of the General Assembly upon them 

 was required. The Committee on Revision of the 

 Confession of Faith reported a tabulated state- 

 ment showing the votes of the presbyteries upon 

 the questions which had been submitted to them 

 to have been as follow : For revision, 47 ; for an ex- 

 planatory statement, 11; for revision and an ex- 

 planatory statement, 1 ; for a supplemental state- 

 ment of doctrine, 52; for revision and a supple- 

 mental statement of doctrine, 15 ; for an explana- 

 tory statement and a supplemental statement, 1 ; 

 for a substitute creed, 14 ; for an alternative creed, 

 1 ; for some change, 6 ; negative vote on all the 

 questions, 4; indecisive vote, 1; for a dismissal of 

 the whole subject, 50. Fifteen presbyteries in the 

 United States and 16 in foreign lands were re- 

 turned as not voting, the whole showing that 63 

 presbyteries favored some revision of the Confes- 

 sion of Faith and that 68 presbyteries favored 

 some form of a supplemental statement of the 

 '* doctrines most surely believed among us." Ma- 

 jority and minority reports were presented on the 

 general question. The minority report agreed 

 with that of the majority except with regard to 

 the section marked " B," from which it expressed 

 dissent. This section recommended the appoint- 

 ment of a committee instructed " to prepare a 

 brief summary of the Reformed faith, bearing the 

 same relation to the Confession which the 

 Shorter Catechism bears to the Larger Catechism, 

 and formed on the general model of the Consensus 

 Creed prepared for the Assembly of 1892 or the 

 ' Articles of Faith ' of the Presbyterian Church of 

 England." The objection made to this instruction 

 was that the action contemplated in it was not 

 identical with the requests of the presbyteries, 



and had therefore no considerable element in the 

 Church which regarded it as at this time desir- 

 able; that it was liable to nearly all the objec- 

 tions which lie against a new creed; and that it 

 erected an additional standard of orthodoxy. The 

 Assembly, by a vote of 271 to 237, refused to adopt 

 this report. Amendments were then made to the 

 majority report, among which was one striking 

 out the word " summary " in paragraph B and 

 substituting for it the word " statement." The 

 majority report as amended was adopted section 

 by section, and was then finally adopted, as a 

 whole, unanimously. It is as follows: 



" A. We recommend that a committee as pro- 

 vided by the Form of Government, chapter xxiii, 

 section 3, be appointed by this Assembly. 



" B. We recommend that this committee be in- 

 structed to prepare and to submit to the next 

 General Assembly, for such disposition as may be 

 judged to be wise, a brief statement of the Re- 

 formed faith, expressed, as far as possible, in un- 

 teclmical terms. The said statement is to be pre- 

 pared with a view to its being employed to give 

 information and a better understanding of our 

 doctrinal beliefs and not with a view to its becom- 

 ing a substitute for or an alternative of our Con- 

 fession of Faith. 



" C. We further recommend that this com- 

 mittee be. instructed to prepare amendments to 

 chapter iii; chapter x, section 3; chapter xvi, sec- 

 tion 7; chapter xxii, section 3; and chapter xxv, 

 section 6, of our Confession of Faith, either by 

 modification of the text or by declaratory state- 

 ment, but so far as possible by declaratory state- 

 ment, so as more clearly to express the mind of 

 the Church, w r ith additional statements concern- 

 ing the love of God for all men, missions, and the 

 Holy Spirit. It being understood that the revi- 

 sion shall in no way impair the integrity of the 

 system of doctrine set forth in our Confession and 

 taught in the Holy Scripture." 



The committee provided for in this action was 

 made one of 21 members, and included the whole 

 of the committee already existing and Moderator 

 Minton, who was made chairman. 



A plan for the institution of judicial commis- 

 sions was approved to be sent down to be voted 

 on by the presbyteries for adoption as an amend- 

 ment to the Form of Government. It provides for 

 the appointment of a standing commission of 15 

 8 ministers and 7 elders the terms of 5 of 

 whom shall expire every year, to be a court of 

 final jurisdiction and sit by its own appointment. 

 Another proposed amendment to the Form of Gov- 

 ernment sent down to the presbyteries provides 

 that when societies within the Church for mis- 

 sionary and other benevolent and religious work 

 cover only the territory included within a pres- 

 bytery or synod, they shall be responsible only 

 to such judicatories; but when they cover the 

 territory of the entire Church they shall be re- 

 sponsible to the General Assembly. A plan of 

 " vacancy and supply " was approved, under 

 which the supervision of all vacant churches, 

 within the bounds of each presbytery is assigned 

 to a committee appointed by it.' It shall be the 

 duty of this committee to prepare and keep lists 

 of all vacant churches within the bounds of the 

 presbytery, and of all unemployed ministers avail- 

 able for work, and to arrange for the supply of 

 the vacant churches from the list of available 

 ministers or from such other sources as may be 

 within its reach. The chairmen of all the pres- 

 byterial committees will constitute a synodical 

 committee of similar character, which shall report 

 to the General Assembly. A committee was ap- 

 pointed with the special duty of stimulating the 



