PRESBYTERIANS. 



575 



and the Navajoe Indians. Twenty-six minis- 

 ters and assistant missionaries have been 

 added to the force. Two missionaries have 

 died. The work is in better condition than 

 ever before. 



New School General Assembly. Five South- 

 ern Presbyteries were represented in the New 

 School General Assembly. At the opening of 

 this body a committee of five was appointed 

 to confer with a similar committee from the 

 General Assembly on the attitude of the re- 

 union question. In the mean time, the New 

 School portion of the joint committee of thirteen 

 of the previous year's Assemblies reported the 

 result of the action they had taken toward ob- 

 taining a decisive vote on the acceptance of the 

 terms of reunion. The Old School body had ex- 

 pressed a desire for a modification of the first 

 article of the basis, but too late to be acted on 

 by the New School Assembly of 1868. In pur- 

 suance of this expression, however, many of 

 the Old School Presbyteries were voting for re- 

 union on the basis of " the standards pure and 

 simple," which was a different question from 

 the one that was before the New School 

 Presbyteries. The committee also thought 

 that the plan of reunion would be more 

 acceptable to the New School Presbyteries, if 

 the tenth article, permitting the examination 

 of ministers going from one Presbytery to 

 another, were omitted. They have therefore 

 recommended that the Presbyteries, besides 

 voting on the basis itself, should express their 

 assent to the Old School amendment, and to 

 the omission of the tenth article, so that the 

 General Assemblies might have light sufficient 

 to enable them to act on the subject without 

 remanding it to the Presbyteries. 



One hundred Presbyteries had voted in 

 favor of reunion on the basis as it was sent to 

 them, and four had declared against it. A 

 large number had favored the suggested 

 amendments, and some had added supplemen- 

 tary conditions and amendments of their own 

 proposing. 



On the seventh day of the session (May 2Tth) 

 the report of the joint committee (of five 

 from each branch, who were appointed on the 

 first day) was received and adopted unani- 

 mously. It is given above. 



The following communication was received 

 from a committee of the General Synod of 

 1868 of the Reformed Church. It had been 

 unanimously adopted by that body. 



NATIONAL COUNCIL OF EVANGELICAL CHURCHES. 



Whereas, The Constitution of the Church confides 

 to the General Synod the duty of u regulating and 

 maintaining a friendly correspondence with the high- 

 est judicatories or assemblies of other religious de- 

 no'minations, for the purpose of promoting union and 

 concert in general measures, which may be calculated 

 to maintain sound doctrine, preventing conflicting 

 regulations relative to persons under censure of the 

 judicatories of either denomination, and to produce 

 concert and harmony in their respective proceedings 

 to promote the cause of piety and religion: " and 



Whereas, It is the conviction of this Synod that 

 wholesome fraternal measures may be adopted for 



combining and unifying tho Evangelical denomina- 

 tions in support of the common doctrines of Christi- 

 anity, without involving any surrender of the dis- 

 tinctive features and individual characteristics of 

 these denominations ; and 



Whereas, The doctrinal and governmental system 

 of the Eeformed Church is broad and catholic pre- 

 senting a basis on which general measures for the 

 promotion of piety and religion may be prosecuted : 

 therefore 



Resolved. That the Synod hereby appoints a com- 

 mittee of three ministers and three elders, to present, 

 in its behalf, to the highest judicatories and assem- 

 blies of other Evangelical denominations, at their 

 next annual meetings, for their consideration and adop- 

 tion, the following plan of a National Council of the 

 Evangelical denominations in these United States : 



1. Such Council shall have for its great object the 

 concerting of proper measures for promoting, not 

 organic, but fraternal union, for the maintenance of 

 the common doctrines and ethics of the Christian 

 Church, whose one head is the Lord Jesus. 



2. That its powers shall be simply advisory, and 

 be exercised, not for the purpose of assailing what 

 any denomination represented therein may regard as 

 necessary for its welfare, but to secure concert of 

 action for_the furtherance of the Gospel, by diminish- 

 ing sectarian rivalries and oppositions. 



3. Such Council, when convened, may consider and 

 recommend such general measures as may tend to 

 give expression to the proper and essential unity of 

 all who love the Lord Jesus Christ, whether in this 

 or other lands, and draw them closer together in ag- 

 gressive labors to bring the whole world into subjec- 

 tion to Christ. 



4. The Council shall be a delegated body ; and may 

 consist of five representatives three ministers and 

 two laymen from each Evangelical denomination, 

 acceding to this recommendation, but no denomina- 

 tion, as such, shall be held responsible in any legis- 

 lative sense for what the Council may choose to rec- 

 ommend. 



5. The Council shall meet, provided the higher 

 judicatories and assemblies of sister churches accede 

 to this suggestion, on the third Tuesday of October, 

 1869, in the city of New York, at 10 o'clock A. M., in 

 the Eeformed Church on Washington Square. 



Favorable action was taken on this invita- 

 tion in both General Assemblies. Both bodies 

 made the Pope's invitation to Protestants to 

 return to the Roman Catholic Church, and 

 the proper reply to be made to it, subjects 

 for the consideration of special committees. 

 In accordance with resolutions subsequently 

 adopted by both General Assemblies, the 

 moderators of both drew up a joint reply to 

 the papal letter of invitation, stating the differ- 

 ences which separate the Protestant Churches 

 from the Church of Rome. Among the visit- 

 ing delegations who were received by the two 

 bodies, that of Protestants from Bohemia de- 

 serves to be stated. 



Final Ratification of the Plan of Reunion. 

 Pursuant to the terms on which they had 

 adjourned from New York, the two General 

 Assemblies met at Pittsburg on the 10th of 

 November. Reports were read in the New 

 School General Assembly from all the Presby- 

 teries, numbering 113. All but three were in 

 favor of the plan of reunion. In the Old 

 School General Assembly, report was made 

 that all the Presbyteries but twelve had re- 

 sponded to the overture for reunion. One 

 hundred and twenty-eight Presbyteries had 



