680 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



The number of presbyteries is 166 ; of licen- 

 tiates, 323; of candidates for the ministry, 

 767; of members of Sunday-schools, 485,762; 

 amount of contributions /or home missions, 

 $419,383; for foreign missions, $345,870; for 

 education, $176,962; for the Board of Publi- 

 cation, $48,454; for church erection, $178,- 

 696 ; for the relief fund, $76,896 ; for the freed- 

 men, $46,685 ; for the General Assembly, 

 $31,441.92; for ministers' salaries, $2,597,342; 

 for congregational purposes, $5,012,907; for 

 miscellaneous purposes, $1,110,816. 



The General Assembly of the Presbyterians 

 met at Detroit, Mich., June 16th. The Rev. 

 Dr. Nicolls, of St. Louis, was elected modera- 

 tor. The committee on the memorial fund 

 made their final report, which stated that the 

 total amount subscribed up to August 1, 1871, 

 was $7,833,983.85. Deducting special gifts to 

 boards and all that was expended in the pay- 

 ment of church debts, and the amount esti- 

 mated at $500,000 probably spent on repairs 

 of churches, there would remain $6,162,269.54 

 for strictly memorial objects. The expenses 

 of the committee were $18,031.50. The com- 

 mittee appointed by the previous General As- 

 sembly to prepare anew basis of representation 

 presented a report, proposing that the synods 

 elect commissioners to the Assembly upon the 

 nomination of the presbyteries. The presby- 

 teries were to make as many nominations as 

 there were commissioners provided for under 

 the old plan, and in the name manner as the 

 commissioners were elected. From the num- 

 ber thus presented, the synods were to select 

 as commissioners to the Assembly one pastor 



and one elder for every three thousand mem- 

 bers of the Church. The object of this propo- 

 sition was to reduce the number of members, 

 which had been greatly enlarged by the union 

 of the Old and New School Churches. The 

 whole subject was referred back to the same 

 committee, to be again reported on at the suc- 

 ceeding General Assembly. 



Relative to the perpetuity of the office of 

 minister, and of a release from the same, the 

 following resolutions were adopted as an over- 

 ture to be sent down to the presbyteries : 



The office of a minister of the gospel is perpetual. 

 No one can lay it aside at his own pleasure, or be 

 deprived of it, but by deposition, yet for reasons 

 calling for discipline 



1. A minister may, on his own request, and wi 

 permission of his Presbytery, cease to be an acting 

 minister; or - 



2. If the presbytery is convinced that a minister 

 is permanently disqualified for the ministerial work 

 (except by age, sickness, or other accidents), it may, 

 with consent of the synod, obtained after three 

 months' notice to such minister, require him to de- 

 mit the exercise of the duties 01 his office, it being 

 understood that he will still be a member of the 

 Church, and eligible to the office of ruling elder or 

 deacon : 



Provided,, That if any one, in either of these ways, 

 ceases to be an acting minister, he shall not be per- 

 mitted to sit as a minister in any of our ecclesiastical 

 iudicatories ; and if he is not connected as a mem- 

 ber with some particular church, he shall still be re- 

 sponsible to his presbytery, and he may by it be 

 restored to the exercise of the functions of his office, 

 and to all the rights incident thereto. 



The reports from the boards showed the 

 number of contributing churches and the ag- 

 gregate amount of the gifts to be greater than 

 ever before. The receipts of the Committee 

 on Benevolence and finance, for the year, were 

 $80,140.64; their expenditures were $78,380.04. 



The Board of Education reported $81,013 

 of receipts in a little over eleven months, 

 against $77,006 for the thirteen months pre- 

 vious. It, however, owed for borrowed money 

 $15,000. The board had aided in all 722 stu- 

 dents studying at 134 different institutions. 



The receipts of the Board of Publication 

 were $313,167.19: its disbursements were 

 $289,169.34. It had published thirty-one bound 

 volumes, and eighteen tracts and Sunday-school 

 pamphlets, and had employed 156 men as col- 

 porteurs. It had issued 578 grants to mis- 

 sions, amounting to $14,764. The presbyteries 

 were advised to appoint committees to cooper- 

 ate with this board. The committee on min- 

 isterial sustentation, who had been appointed 

 by the previous General Assembly, in connec- 

 tion with the adoption of the new scheme for 

 securing an adequate support for the clergy, 

 had organized on the 13th of September, 1871. 



In the six months of the committees' opera- 

 tions seventy-two ministers had been taken 

 off the hands of the Board of Home Missions, 

 and sixty-one had been made pastors under 

 the scheme. The receipts from all sources, for 

 this cause, for the year ending April 20, 1872, 

 were $41,073.52, and the expenditures $18,- 

 212.92. The number of contributing churches 



