PRESBYTERIANS. 



745 



S. G. Busney, Professor of Systematic Theology 

 in Cumberland University. The examination in 

 the case resulted in the decision that no action 

 need be taken upon it. Another case of heresy 

 was that of Mrs. Louisa A. Ward, who had been 

 tried and excommunicated by the presbytery of 

 Lexington, Mo., for teaching that Mr. George J. 

 Sweinfurth, of Rockford, 111., is the Lord Jesus 

 Christ. She was permitted to explain her views 

 to the Assembly, after which the sentence of ex- 

 communication was confirmed. The exact stand- 

 ing of elders has been a subject of discussion in 

 this Church for several years. An overture pre- 

 sented to the present Assembly, declaring that 

 while the offices of elder and deacon are perpetual, 

 the exercise of their functions may be restricted 

 to a given period was rejected. A proposition so 

 to change the general regulations of the Church 

 as to confine the office of moderator to ordained 

 ministers, was rejected. A minute was adopted 

 defining the phrase "fully consecrated to the 

 active duties' of the Church, which describes 

 the qualifications of those who may receive aid 

 from the Disabled Ministers' fund. The As- 

 sembly decided that while it did not exclude 

 those who engaged in occupations outside of 

 preaching for considerations of health or tem- 

 porary circumstances and the better to enable 

 them to preach the Gospel, it was intended to 



exclude those who made an 



primary 

 Gospel only incidental. Measures were considered 



their 



business, an 



ny secular employment 

 d the preaching of the 



for increasing the efficiency of the publishing 

 house and of the periodicals of the Church ; for 

 improving the organization and extending the 

 usefulness of the Sunday-schools ; and for secur- 

 ing reports to the General Assembly from all the 

 literary schools. More than half of the $2,000 

 pledged to the colored school at Bowling Green, 

 Ky., by the preceding General Assembly had been 

 paid in. Resolutions were passed urging a strict 

 observance of the Sabbath, and emphasizing the 

 duty of every member " to use every means sanc- 

 tioned by his own enlightened judgment as laud- 

 able, for securing, as soon as possible, absolute 

 prohibition of the nefarious liquor traffic " ; and 

 every minister in charge of a congregation was 

 requested to preach during the year on the sub- 

 ject of temperance, setting forth that complicity 

 in the use of ardent spirits, or in dealing with 

 them, as a beverage, is inconsistent with Chris- 

 tian character. 



VII. Presbyterian Church in Canada. 

 The statistical returns of this Church, presented 

 to the General Assembly in May, represent 1,920 

 churches, which have sitting accommodations for 

 454,207 persons, and give : Number of communi- 

 cants, 157.990 ; additions during the year on pro- 

 fession of faith, 11,302; amount paid for sti- 

 pends, $777,199 ; total contributions for congre- 

 gational purposes, $1,640,814: total contributions 

 for all purposes, $2,054,951, or $24.72 per family 

 and $13 per member. Reports from 1,718 Sab- 

 bath-schools gave the number of officers and 

 teachers as 15,434. and of pupils as 139,135. 



The receipts of the French Evangelization Com- 

 mittee for the year had been $53,000. Thirty- 

 nine mission schools were returned, having 1,020 

 pupils. The school at Point aux Trembles had 

 been attended by 143 pupils. More than $8,000 

 had been contributed for the extension of the 



girl's department. Buildings have been boueht 

 at Ottawa, at an expense of $20,000, for ColiJnv 

 College, for the Christian education of rotmi 

 women. The committee also returned 92 mis- 

 sion stations, with an average attendance of 

 3,000 persons and 1.337 communicant members. 

 The Church and Manse Building fund had 

 during the past seven years by loan and dona- 

 tion aided in the erection of 130 churches and n'O 

 manses in the Northwest. 



The expenditures for home missions had !.. n 

 $11,646 in the East and $40,087 in the V. 

 while the. mission churches of the two sections 

 had contributed respectively $17,355 and $58,025 

 for their own support. The missions in the East 

 included 2,503 Presbyterian families with an av- 

 erage church attendance of 13,120 ; those in the 

 West comprised 820 stations, with 9,188 families 

 and 11,517 communicants. Sixty-one congrega- 

 tions in the East, and 138 in the West were receiv- 

 ing aid from the Augmentation fund. Together 

 they had received $47,748 in aid. 



The theological colleges at Halifax, Quebec, 

 Kingston, Toronto, and Winnipeg returned 200 

 students with 65 members of graduating classes. 

 The contributions for foreign missions amount- 

 ed to nearly $105,000, of which the woman's for- 

 eign missionary societies furnished nearly $37,000. 

 Thirty ordained missionaries, 25 women, and 

 nearly 150 native preachers were employed in 

 missions in the New Hebrides, Trinidad. Formo- 

 sa, Honan (China), Central India, and Manitoba 

 and the Northwestern Territories. Eight mis- 

 sionaries had been added to the staff. A new 

 mission was to be begun among the Jews in 

 Palestine. 



The General Assembly met in Ottawa, June. 

 The Rev. Dr. John Laing was chosen moderator. 

 The question of the recognition of marriage with 

 a deceased wife's sister, on which the previous 

 General Assembly had taken action favorable to 

 tolerance, arose again on the application of a 

 church for leave to receive a minister of another 

 church who had contracted such a marriage. 

 The application was held over, pending the ac- 

 tion of the presbyteries on a resolution sent 

 down to them to the effect that " the discipline 

 of the church shall not be exercised with regard 

 to marriage with a deceased wife's sister or a 

 deceased wife's niece." The Committee on the 

 Defense of Civil and Religious Rights reported, 

 congratulating the friends of equal rights' on 

 what had been accomplished in one year, on the 

 check that had been given to the oppressions of 

 ultramontanism, and on the improved tone of 

 public and parliamentary discussion of the sub- 

 ject. The resolutions adopted by the Assembly 

 commit the Church to the earnest and persistent 

 advocacy of reforms, including the complete 

 separation of Church and state, each to be inde- 

 pendent in its own sphere a free church in a 

 free state ; the abolition of all grants from the 

 public exchequer for ecclesiastical or sectarian 

 purposes ; the abolition of compulsory tithes and 

 other ecclesiastical dues, at present collected in 

 the Province of Quebec by civil process ; and the 

 abrogation of clauses in the order of precedence 

 for the Dominion which recognize Roman Cath- 

 olic ecclesiastics and ignore the great Protestant 

 churches. The committee was reappointed, with 

 authority to take any action deemed proper to 



