660 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



The Executive Committee of Foreign Missions 

 returned its receipts for the year as having been 

 $142,100, or $9,667 'more than the receipts for the 

 previous year. Its expenditures had been $127,690. 

 In accordance with instructions of the General 

 Assembly, the Congo Boat fund, amounting to 

 $10.393, had been mostly invested, and the interest 

 was used for the support of the African work. In 

 view of the uncertainties of the financial situation, 

 the appropriations for the missions for other pur- 

 poses than the salaries of missionaries had been 

 reduced considerably below the amounts asked for 

 in the estimates. A charter of incorporation had 

 been obtained in the State of Tennessee. Nineteen 

 new missionaries had been sent out. and not less 

 than 29 others were needed : the missions in north- 

 ern and southern Brazil, in China, on the Congo, 

 and in Italy, Japan, Korea, and Mexico returned 35 

 stations, 55 ordained missionaries, 86 unordained 

 missionaries, 29 native preachers. 117 other native 

 helpers, 35 churches, 2,OU4 communicants, 379 

 church members added during the year, 13 theo- 

 logical students, 63 Sabbath schools, with 1,350 

 pupils, 861 pupils in boarding and day schools, 

 19,622 persons aided by medicine, and s:j, .V.m con- 

 tributed by the mission churches. 



The thirty-sixth General Assembly met in Mem- 

 phis, Tenn." May 21. The Rev. R. g. Mallard, 

 D. D., was chosen moderator. The report on col- 

 ored evangelization mentioned the address of let- 

 ters to the General Synod of the Reformed Church 

 inviting a conference respecting co-operation in 

 work for the negroes. The only answer received 

 was the expression of regret that the press of work 

 in other fields forbade " that financial assistance to 

 which our hearts and sympathies prompt us." An 

 effort had been made to purchase the Ferguson 

 Williamson College, at Abbeville, S. C., where 152 

 students were enrolled under the care of 4 teachers. 

 The Stillman Institute had enrolled 10 students. 

 Several Sabbath schools had been established by 

 members of the institution. The movement for the 

 organization of a synod of an independent African 

 Presbyterian church had not been successful, only 

 $154 having been contributed for the purpose. At 

 present there were 4 separate presbyteries for the 

 colored people 2 (those of North and South Caro- 

 lina and of Texas) independent, and 2 (those of 

 Central Alabama and Ethel) under the jurisdiction 

 of the General Assembly. Outside of these presby- 

 teries about 86 churches were scattered over a large 

 area. The Presbytery of Zion had lost its quorum, 

 and was practically disbanded. Though the time 

 did not yet seem to have come for the organization 

 of an independent synod, great progress in that di- 

 rection had been made in the past five years. A 

 case involving a question of the relations of the 

 Church and its colored members came up in an ap- 

 peal from the Presbytery of Charleston, S. C. This 

 presbytery had declined, on the ground of his'color, 

 to take under its care a colored candidate for the 

 ministry who had been approved as qualified and 

 suitable by the Committee of Examination. In the 

 review of the records of the presbytery the synod 

 gave its approval to all except the minute of this 

 action, which action it directed the presbytery to 

 review and correct. The presbytery appealed from 

 this. The Assembly refused to sustain the com- 

 plaint, thus approving the action of the synod. A 

 minute was entered in reference to this action de- 

 claring that in refusing to sustain the complaint of 

 the presbytery, the General Assembly, " without ex- 

 pressing any opinion as to the extent of the general 

 discretionary power of a presbytery in receiving 

 candidates, confirms the action of the synod solely 

 on the ground that the reason given by the presby- 

 tery for not receiving the applicant as a candidate, 



viz.. that he was colored, is contrary to the law 

 and constitution of the Church." The plan of co- 

 operation of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches 

 in reference to missionary work, suggested by the 

 western section of the Presbyterian Alliance, was 

 approved. The report of the committee respecting 

 the Presbyterian Alliance included a proposition for 

 reducing the number of delegates from this Church 

 to the Council of the Alliance from 32 to 10, as 

 a means of reducing the expenses connected with 

 the association. The proposition was not adopt- 

 ed, but instead of it the Assembly instructed its 

 delegates to the meeting of the General Council 

 about to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, "to bring to 

 the attention of the Council the matter of the repre- 

 sentation of the churches upon the floor of the Coun- 

 cil and the matter of the expenses assessed with a 

 view to reducing the expenses of the Alliance and 

 making an equitable distribution of the expenses 

 among the churches." A contract was brought up 

 for discussion which had been made between the 

 Assembly's Home and School, at Fredericksburg, 

 Vu., and the city of Fredericksburg, by which the 

 city of Fredericksburg, paying the school $10,000, 

 was entitled to send 10 pupils from its public schools 

 to the collegiate department of the institution. An 

 overture from the Presbytery of St. Louis objected 

 to the contract as constituting in effect an alliance 

 between the Church and the civil authorities, and 

 asked that it be revised. The report adopted by 

 the Assembly reaffirmed as a cardinal doctrine of 

 the Church its condemnation of all alliances of 

 Church and civil power, and all dependence of the 

 Church upon gifts from the State, but showed that 

 the $10,000 paid by the city of Fredericksburg was 

 not a gift, but a legitimate payment for specific 

 tuition to be given ; that it was authorized by a law 

 of the State of Virginia ; that it was not the ' re- 

 pudiation of a distinctive principle," as the overture 

 described it, " unless such distinctive principle de- 

 nies to the Church the right of contracting with the 

 civil authorities, under any and all circumstances, 

 when a quid pro quo is received " ; and that it did 

 not commit the Church to secular education in any 

 sense other than that which obtained when the con- 

 t met was made. A protest was filed against this 

 action, expressing the belief that it was an "indi- 

 rect violation of our time-honored principles, and a 

 departure from an unbroken custom of refusing to 

 accept State aid in support of denominational and 

 religious work." Preliminary arrangements were 

 made for observing the two hundred and fiftieth 

 anniversary of the formulation of the Westminster 

 symbols of doctrine, and a committee was appointed 

 on the subject. In response to an overture of in- 

 quiry concerning the powers of one ruling elder, 

 the Assembly replied that " one ruling elder does 

 not constitute a session, a pastor does not consti- 

 tute a session, and in the circumstances the orderly 

 procedure would call for the interposition of the 

 presbytery." A proposition was approved to peti- 

 tion Congress and the State legislatures for laws 

 forbidding the running of railroad trains on the 

 Sabbath. 



III. United Presbyterian Church in North 

 America. The following is a summary of the sta- 

 tistics of this Church presented to the General As- 

 sembly in May : Number of synods, 12 ; of presby- 

 teries, 65; of ministers, 869; 'of licentiates, 76; of 

 students of theology, 115; of ruling elders, 3,763; 

 of congregations, 948 ; of pastoral charges, 801 ; of 

 mission stations, 385 ; of members in America, 109,- 

 408 ; of members in the whole Church (including 

 the missions in India and Egypt), 120,799 ; of Sab- 

 bath schools, 1,123, with 11.589 officers and teachers 

 and 107,121 pupils ; of Young People's societies, 805, 

 with 35,146 members. During the year 36 ministers 



