PRESBYTERY 



631 9 



PRESCRIPTION 



the Methodist and the Baptist 

 churches, they rank among the 

 largest divisions of American Pro- 

 testant Christianity. 



In Canada the first Presbyterian 

 movement was made by the Hu- 

 guenots in the 17th century. The 

 ill-judged policy of France, which 

 reserved Canada for the Roman 

 Church, checked this attempt. But 

 during the next century the British 

 immigrants took up the cause, and 

 in the eastern and western pro- 

 vinces the Presbyterians are now 

 numerically second only to the 

 Methodists. A similar process has 

 led to the formation of the strong 

 Presbyterian churches in the 

 southern hemisphere ; from Scot- 

 land, and in part from Ireland, the 

 Presbyterian churches of Australia 

 and New Zealand were founded. 

 In S. Africa, on the other hand, the 

 impetus came from the Dutch, and 

 the British section is smaller. 

 When isolated missions and sec- 

 tions, e.g. in the West Indies and in 

 Asia, are included, the numerical 

 strength of Presbyterianism at 

 present is reckoned at close upon 

 six and a half millions. 



Education and Discipline 

 The efficiency of the polity is 

 shown by its development of edu- 

 cation and of discipline. The Pres- 

 byterian churches have invariably 

 set a high standard of education 

 for their ministers, and this has 

 been accompanied by a corre- 

 sponding conscience for instructing 

 the people in the faith, and also for 

 education in schools. A presbyter 

 must " be apt to teach " according 

 to the New Testament, and Presby- 

 terianism has never forgotten this 

 duty ; the administration of the 

 sacraments, for example, is steadily 

 viewed as only one aspect of preach- 

 ing the Word. As for discipline, 

 each congregation is ruled by its 

 own kirk-session, presided over by 

 the minister, and consisting of 

 elders (presbyters) elected by the 

 people, who share the spiritual 

 supervision of the congregation 

 with him, aid him in administering 

 the Lord's Supper, and generally 

 further the religious interests of 

 the church. 



Each minister, with one or more 

 eiders from his congregation, is a 

 member of the local presbytery, 

 the main difference being that the 

 minister is a permanent member, 

 whereas the elder is elected for a 

 term of years. All members of the 

 presbytery are members of the 

 local synod, composed of a number 

 of presbyteries. The function of a 

 synod is to transact business which 

 comes up from presbyteries as a 

 court of review ; but all its de- 

 cisions are liable to come before the 

 general assembly. The synod is 



provincial, but the assembly, which 

 meets once a year, is national. 

 Each presbytery sends up a fixed 

 number of delegates, ministers, and 

 elders. A moderator is chosen, who 

 holds office for one year. This is 

 the final court of appeal, and any 

 business may come up before it 

 from a kirk-session or presbytery 

 by regular forms of petition. The 

 general assembly thus represents 

 the entire church, and its decisions 

 cannot be reversed, except ty a 

 subsequent assembly. 



A large part of the success of 

 Presbyterianism lies in this care- 

 fully organized recognition of popu- 

 lar government, which on the one 

 hand leaves the individual congre- 

 gation free to manage its own 

 affairs and yet prevents any selfish 

 or eccentric action, which puts the 

 minister in a position of independ- 

 ence instead of leaving him at the 

 mercy of a local few, and at the 

 same time gives to the congrega- 

 tion a reasonable control over him. 

 Thus no congregation can interfere 

 with its minister except through 

 the presbytery, and no one kirk- 

 session can review or object to the 

 proceedings of another. On the 

 other hand, a presbytery has cer- 

 tain powers over all church work 

 done by the congregations belong- 

 ing to it. In mission extension this 

 polity is found effective. Weaker 

 causes can be helped by stronger 

 ones, and advances can be made 

 in the way of church extension by 

 means of concerted effort. 



Bibliography. History of the 

 Presbyterians in England, A. H. 

 Drysdale, 1 889 ; The Presbyterian 

 Church, W. M. MacPhail, 1908; 

 P. J. Macpherson, 1883. 



Presbytery (Gr. presbyteros, 

 elder). Word originally applied to 

 that part of a church which was 

 occupied by the clergy. First of all 

 situated behind the altar, with the 

 seat of the bishop in the middle, it 

 was divided from the rest of the 

 building by a rail or screen. In 

 later times it meant the space im- 

 mediately before the altar, as dis- 

 tinguished from the choir. 



The term was also used to signify 

 the body of the clergy taken to- 

 gether. In this sense it occurs in 

 the Greek N.T. (1 Tim. iv, 14), and 

 is thus used in the Presbyterian 

 denominations, more especially for 

 the official assemblies of ministers 

 for the transaction of business. 

 The word is used by some of the 

 Fathers hi the sense of the office of a 

 presbyter or priest, and it is often 

 used especially in the Roman 

 Church for the residence of the 

 priests connected with a church. 



Prescot. Urban dist. and 

 market town of Lancashire, Eng- 

 land. It is 7 m. from Liverpool, 



with a station on the L. & N.W. 

 Rly. The principal building is S. 

 Mary's church. The chief manu- 

 factures are watches, electric cables, 

 and pottery, while in the vicinity 

 are coal mines. Cattle fairs are held. 

 Near is Knowsley (g.v.). Market 

 days, Tues. and Sat. Pop. 8,200. 

 Prescott. City of Arizona, 

 U.S.A., the co. seat of Yavapai co. 

 The former state capital, it was 

 superseded in 1891 by Phoenix, 

 from which it is 133 m. N. by the 

 Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix 

 Rly. Cattle breeding, farming, and 

 the mining of gold, silver, and 

 copper are carried on in the neigh- 

 bourhood. Pop. 5,000. 



Prescott, WILLIAM HICKLFNG 

 (1796-1859). American historian. 

 Born at Salem, Mass., May 4, 1796, 

 the son of a 

 distingui shed 

 judge, and 

 grandson of 

 ,i^__ , Colonel Pres 



- ^^ J cott ' w ^ com ' 



y, BfT manded the 

 American 

 forces at Bun- 

 ker Hill, he 



W. H. Prescott, 



American historian a * Harvard, 



where he 



graduated with distinction in 1814. 

 While at college he lost the sight of 

 one eye, and the other eye became 

 so badly affected that for long 

 spells he was virtually blind. He 

 en tered his father's legal office, but 

 o\jing to the state of his eyes had 

 to abandon the law. He then de- 

 termined to devote himself to his- 

 torical study, and with the aid of 

 readers and secretaries, by patient 

 memorising and the use of a 

 writing frame maus for the blind, 

 wrote the works which ,re among 

 the classics of history written 

 during the 19th century. Those 

 works were History of the Reign of 

 Ferdinand and Isabella, 1838 ; 

 History of the Conquest of Mexico, 

 1843 ; History of the Conquest of 

 Peru, 1847 ; and the unfinished 

 History of the Reign of Philip II, 

 1855-58. He died in Boston, Jan. 

 27, 1859, and was buried in S. 

 Paul's church there. His collected 

 works were published in 16 vols., 

 1870; and in 20 vols., 1906. 

 See Lives, G. Ticknor, 1864; R. 

 Ogden, 1904 ; H. T. Peck, 1905. 



Prescription (Lat. praescribere, 

 co write beforehand). In law, title 

 by long use and enjoyment. Such 

 title is founded on two conceptions : 

 ( 1 ) that when anyow aas enjoyed 

 a right for a consider ble length of 

 time it is probable fchat the right 

 has a legal origin ; (2) that even if 

 the original possession was not 

 founded on strict legal right, at any 

 rate all rival claimants have 



