PRESBYTERIANS. 



635 



issued as at present leaving it to the Board of Publi- 

 cation of the United Church to revise these issues, 

 and perfect a catalogue for the joint Church, so as to 

 exclude invidious references to past controversies. 



9. In order to a uniform system of ecclesiastical 

 supervision, those Theological Seminaries that are 

 now under Assembly control may, if their Boards of 

 Direction so elect, be transferred to the watch and 

 care of one or more of the adjacent Synods ; and the 

 other Seminaries are advised to introduce, as far as 

 may be, into their constitutions, the principle of 

 Synodical or Assembly supervision ; in which case 



10. It is agreed that the Presbyteries possess the 

 right to examine ministers applying for admission 

 from other Presbyteries ; but each Presbytery shall 



t0 dedde f r itself when it; sha11 exercise 



1L shall be regarded as the duty of all our judi- 

 catories, ministers, and people in the United Church, 

 to study the things which make for peace, and to 

 guard against all needless and offensive references to 

 the causes that have divided us; and, in order to 

 avoid the revival of past issues, by the continuance 

 of any usage in either branch of the Church that has 

 grown out of our former conflicts, it is earnestly re- 

 commended to the lower judicatories of the Church 

 that they conform their practice, in relation to all 

 such usages, as far as is consistent with their convic- 

 tions of duty, to the general custom of the Church 

 prior to the controversies that resulted in the separa- 

 tion. 



] 2. The terms of the reunion, if they are approved 

 by the General Assemblies of 1868, shall be overtured 

 to the several Presbyteries under their care, and shall 

 be of binding force, if they are ratified by three- 

 fourths of the Presbyteries connected with each 

 branch of the Church, within one year after they 

 shall have been submitted to them for approval. 



18 If the twc .General Assemblies of 1869 .shall find 

 that the plan 01 reunion has been ratified by the re- 

 quisite number of Presbyteries in each body, they 

 shall, after the conclusion of all their business, be 

 dissolved by their respective moderators, in the man- 

 ner and form following, viz. : Each moderator shall 

 address the assembly over which he presides, saying, 

 -By virtue of the authority delegated to me by the 

 Church, and in conformity with the plan of union 

 adopted by the two Presbyterian Churches, let this 

 Assembly be dissolved ; and I do hereby dissolve it, 

 and require a General Assembly, chosen in the same 

 manner, by all the Presbyteries in connection with 

 this body, and all those in connection with the Gen- 

 eral Assembly meeting this year in - , to meet 

 in - , on the - day of May, A. D. 1870 ; and I 

 do hereby declare and proclaim that the General As- 

 sembly thus constituted will be the rightful General 

 Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United 

 States of America, now, by the grace of God, happily 



The Assembly afterward unanimously voted 



in favor of amending the first article (so as to 



..... -I--U i i 



leave out that part which we have placed in 



brackets), and declared their proposition of 

 amendment to mean that the first article of the 

 basis is not to be interpreted as giving license 

 to the propagation of doctrines which have 

 been condemned by either Assembly, nor to 

 permit any Presbytery in the United States to 

 license or ordain to the work of the ministry 

 any candidate who maintains any form of doc- 

 trine condemned by either Assembly. A pro- 

 test was presented against the adoption of the 

 basis of union, signed by fifty-one members, to 

 which the Assembly adopted a reply. In re- 



sponse to a communication on a general union 

 n f Prpahvfm^or, T,V f 

 . re * b y temn churches from the Presby- 

 terian Convention which was held m Phila- 

 delphia in November, 1867, a committee was 

 appointed to confer upon a plan of union with 



representatives of the bodies which were rep- 

 , ,f QT>frt/ i : +-u rt nJi. .Vf 1 



resented in the convention. The committee 



were instructed, it an intimate union was found 

 inexpedient or impracticable, to confer upon 

 some plan of confederation of the separate 

 P-sbyterian churches The m^ority of the 

 Southern 1 . resbytenes having withdrawn and 

 organized themselves into a separate Church, 

 the Assembly decided to recognize their inde- 

 pendence, at the same time expressing the hope 

 that the / a 7 s me da ^ see their way clear to 

 return to their former relations. The Assem- 

 bly declined to modify or repeal the action of 

 the last General Assembly in relation to the 

 oip-nprq of fhp TWlflrntirvn and TpQtimrmv Vmt 

 SEf-L *T~ , ^ e , CUra n a ? a ^ estmi(m ? 1 ' bu j 

 Deferred the whole subject to the Synods of 



Missouri and Kentucky and other Synods con- 

 cerned. 



H. N EW SCHOOL PEESBTTERIAN Cnuiicn. 

 r fonn^- f n fii-iVa 

 i, he lUowing $ f w 

 General Assembly ot 1868 : 



There are 111 presbyteries ; 1,590 churches ; 

 121 licentiates, and 290 candidates for the min- 

 istry. There were 3,805 adult and 4,967 in- 

 fant *> a P tisms - The collections were : 

 General Assembly ................. $ 9,723.07 



Home Missions .................... 132,848.00 



Foreign Missions ................... 108,196.00 



Education .......................... 33,678.00 



Publications ....................... 13,986.00 



Ministerial relief ......... .. ....... . . . 10,516.00 



Congregational ................... 2,441,086.00 



The committee on home missions employed 

 450 missionaries during the year. The whole 

 number of new churches formed was 54. 



The General Assembly of this Church met 

 at Harrisburgh, Pa., on the 21st of May. Its 

 attention was much absorbed in the considera- 

 tion of the plan of reunion agreed upon by the 

 joint committee of the Old School and New 



