694 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



VI. ESTABLISHED CHUECH OF SCOTLAND. 

 At the meeting of the General Assembly of the 

 Established Church of Scotland reports of 

 general religious statistics were made from 706 

 parishes of Scotland, in which tine numbers of 

 persons attached to the different communions 

 were given as follows: Established Church, 

 679,488; Free Church, 272,104; United Pres- 

 byterian, 106,134; other Presbyterians, 11,- 

 455 ; unclassified Presbyterians, 37,067 ; Epis- 

 copalians, 21,152; Roman Catholics, 86,708; 

 miscellaneous, 49,275; "no church," 91,107. 



The General Assembly of the Established 

 Church of Scotland met in Edinburgh, May 

 21st. The Rev. Dr. Trail, Professor of Divinity 

 in the University of Aberdeen, was elected mod- 

 erator. A committee was appointed to consid- 

 er the bearing of the question of pluralities. 



The Commission of the Church of Scotland 

 met at Edinburgh, November 18th. The Rev. 

 Dr. Trail presided. The committee on union 

 with other Churches presented the following 

 report, which was adopted : 



The Committee on Union with other Churches, 

 bearing in mind their remit from the General As- 

 sembly, which expresses " their hearty willingness 

 and desire to take all possible steps, consistently 

 with the principles on which this Church is founded, 

 to promote the reunion of Churches having a common 

 origin, adhering to the same confession of faith, and 

 the same system of government and worship; " and 

 being satisfied that the spiritual welfare of the whole 

 country is intimately bound up with the successful 

 prosecution of the object which has been remitted to 

 them, resolve to recommend that the General As- 

 sembly should, without further delay, formally ap- 

 proach the other Presbyterian Churches in Scotland, 

 with a view to union. They are of opinion that, in 

 order to the accomplishment of this great object, the 

 Church of Scotland should be prepared to consider 

 any basis of union which is consistent with its his- 

 toric principles ; and in making this recommenda- 

 tion, they express the earnest hope that such over- 

 tures on the part of the Church will be met in a spirit 

 of brotherly kindness and conciliation ; and their 

 sincere prayer is, that, by the blessing of the great 

 Head or the Church and the guidance of his Holy 

 Spirit, a way may be opened up to the reunion 01 

 the Churches, and the removal of those obstacles 

 which now so seriously impede the success of evan- 

 gelistic operations at home and abroad. 



VII. FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. The en- 

 tire revenue of the Free Church of Scotland, 

 from all sources, for the year ending in May, 

 1874, was reported at the meeting of the Gen- 

 eral Assembly to have been 511,000. The to- 

 tal contributions to the sustentation fund were 

 152,112 8*. 4cZ., being 15,789 8s. Qd. more 

 than contributed during the previous year. 



The General Assembly of the Free Church 

 of Scotland met at Edinburgh, May 21st. The 

 Rev. Dr. Robert Stuart, of Leghorn, Italy, was 

 elected moderator. One of the first questions 

 which demanded attention was concerning the 

 eligibility of brewers to offices in the Church. 

 The congregation at Inverness had elected a 

 Mr. George Black, a brewer, a ruling elder. 

 Mr. Black's character was not questioned, but 

 his appointment was objected to by twelve 

 members, on the ground that his business was 

 wrong, and should disqualify him for holding 



the office. The session, to whom the objection 

 was submitted, declared that they had no 

 jurisdiction over the question, and resolved to 

 proceed with the ordination of Mr. Black. The 

 case was then carried up to the presbytery, 

 by whom the judgment of the session was af- 

 firmed. An appeal was taken to the Synod 

 of Moray, and was dismissed by it. Another 

 appeal was taken to the General Assembly. 

 It was dismissed, on the ground that there was 

 no law of the Church forbidding such appoint- 

 ments as the one in question. 



A resolution was also adopted, by a vote of 

 295 to 98, declaring that " the Assembly be- 

 lieve that disestablishment, effected in an equi- 

 table manner, would be conducive to the effi- 

 ciency of the Churches themselves, as well as to 

 the general good of the community." The As- 

 sembly approved of the General Council of 

 Presbyterian Churches, proposed by American 

 Presbyterian ministers, and appointed a com- 

 mittee to meet with the committees of other 

 Presbyterian bodies, and report to the next 

 General Assembly. 



The country had been the scene, during the 

 previous winter and spring, of a remarkable 

 religious awakening, promoted under the labors 

 of Messrs. D. L. Moody and Ira D. Sankey, two 

 American lay evangelists. A " deliverance " 

 was adopted by the Assembly, recognizing this 

 movement as an answer to prayer, and an en- 

 'couragement to ask and expect still greater 

 blessings ; and the presbyteries were instructed 

 to confer, at an early day, on the subject, and 

 concerning the steps best fitted to extend the 

 movement. 



The Commission of the General Assembly 

 of the Free Church of Scotland met at Edin- 

 burgh, November 18th. A report was presented 

 from the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian 

 Church for the appointment of a committee to 

 confer with a committee of their body, on the 

 subject of the union of the Reformed and Free 

 Churches. The committee was appointed. 



VIII. UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (Great 

 Britain). The following is a summary of the 

 statistics of the United Presbyterian Church in 

 Great Britain, as they were reported to the 

 Synod in May, 1874: Number of Churches, 

 611; of communicants, 184,033; Sunday at- 

 tendance on worship, 207,172 ; number of 

 elders included in the sessions of the Church, 

 4,592 ; of missionaries, Bible- women, and cate- 

 chists, 173; of Sunday-school teachers, 10,- 

 963 ; of Sunday-school scholars, 84,754. The 

 increase in the number of members during the 

 year was 1,223, and was 161 less than the in- 

 crease of the previous year. This amount of 

 increase was not regarded as satisfactory, inas- 

 much as it did not correspond proportionally 

 with the steady increase of population. 



The Synod of the United Presbyterian 

 Church met in Edinburgh, May llth. The Rev. 

 Dr. Andrew Thomson, of the Broughton Place 

 Church, Edinburgh, was elected moderator. 

 The. most important subject before the Synod 

 was the question of the union between the 



