PRB8BYTEBIAN& 



869 



Executive Committee on Education reported 

 tn i ho General Assembly a deficiency of a 

 little over $3,000 in their receipts. Tho entire 

 amount of funds furnMied h:id been $15,181.- 

 97. The committee were still in debt about 

 $32,000. Ninety-tivo persons were enrolled 

 upon the list of beneficients, of whom fifty- 

 four were pursuing their studies at theological 

 si-minarirs. The Committee on Evangelistic 

 Labor reported that thirty-six out of sixty-four 

 presbyteries employed evangelists. Fifty evan- 

 gelnts had been employed during the year, 

 eleven more than had been employed the pre- 

 vious year. The l-'.r-ntlce Committee on Sua- 

 tentation reported to the General Assembly 

 that their total receipts during the year for 

 the several departments classed under the 

 general head of sustentation (embracing sus- 

 tentation, the evangelistic fund, the colored 

 evangelistic fnnd, the invalid fund, and the re- 

 lief fund) had amounted to $45,800.91. This 

 amount, together with the balance of $12,185.- 

 85 which was on hand, made the total amount 

 under the control of the committee during the 

 year $57,986.76. The receipts for sustentation 

 had been $22,664.68, against $2 1,186-. 65 the 

 preceding year. The receipts of the evangel- 

 istic fund had been $852.22 more than those 

 of the previous year, and the payments to 

 presbyteries $578.82 more than those of the 

 year before. Fifty-one evangelists had been 

 employed by thirty-six presbyteries, with gen- 

 erally satisfactory results. The receipts for 

 the colored evangelistic fund had been suffi- 

 cient to meet the demands that had been made 

 upon it. The receipts for the invalid fund 

 had been $1,700.25 more than those of the 

 previous year, and had been adequate to meet 

 all the applications for aid. The Committee on 

 Foreign Missions reported to the General As- 

 sembly that their total receipts for the year 

 from all sources had been $61,273.27, or $19,- 

 038.98 more than the total contributions of 

 the preceding year. Their total expenditures 

 had been $56,498.76, and their indebtedness 

 had been reduced to $9,848.67. The Home 

 Department had been managed at an expense 

 of only a fraction more than seven per cent, 

 of the receipts. A considerable increase was 

 reported in the number of contributing church- 

 es, ladies' missionary associations (from 58 to 

 108), and Sunday-schools, and in the amount 

 of contributions from them. The committee 

 had six principal stations in the southwestern 

 Indian Territory, one in Mexico, two in the 

 United States of Colombia, two in the Empire 

 of Brazil, one in Italy, one in Greece, one 

 among the Greeks in European Turkey, and 

 two in China, with a much larger number of 

 out-stations in all these different parts of the 

 world. Connected with these various stations 

 were 12 schools of various grades, embracing 

 in all more than 500 pupils. The number of 

 laborers connected with the missions was 75. 

 The General Assembly resolved to forward 

 the work of the committee. 



Tho General Assembly of the Presbyterian 

 Church in the United States met at Savannah, 

 Ga., May 18th. The Rev. . M. Smith, I). I)., 

 of Virginia, was chosen moderator. The As- 

 sembly adopted resolutions expressing its ap- 

 proval, in general, of the proceedings of the 

 Conference held in London in July, 1875 ; 

 aloo of the general tenor of the constitution 

 of the new alliance. It decided to appoint 

 delegates to represent the Presbyterian Church 

 in the United States in the General Council to 

 be held in Edinburgh in 1877, " provided that 

 this appointment of delegates shall not be un- 

 derstood as pledging any funds of the Church 

 to defraying the expenses of the General Coun- 

 cil ; " and it provided that the delegates should 

 select from their own number members to 

 prepare any papers concerning the condition 

 and position of the Church, to be spread upon 

 the records of the council ; further, that if the 

 delegates shall be unable to attend the coun- 

 cil, they should be authorized to represent, the 

 Church in an official letter. This action was 

 supplemented by a resolution, u That, in ap- 

 pointing delegates to the General Presbyterian 

 Alliance, it is with the distinct declaration 

 that it is not to be regarded as another and a 

 higher court, but as an assemblage of commit- 

 tees appointed by their several churches, which 

 they represent for the purpose of joint confer- 

 ence and joint report, and for sr.ch action only 

 as belongs to an association of delegates thus 

 constituted." There were chosen as delegates 

 to the council one minister and one elder from 

 each synod, and four delegates from the Church 

 at large. A committee had been appointed by 

 the previous General Assembly to take into 

 consideration the deliverances which had been 

 uttered by the Southern Presbyterian Church 

 through its General Assemblies on secular 

 matters. This committee submitted a report, 

 carefully reviewing and comparing all the 

 declarations of the General Assembly touching 

 questions of politics and slavery, from its or- 

 ganization in 1861 to the present time. It be- 

 gan by quoting the explicit declaration adopted 

 at the formation of the Southern General As- 

 sembly, that the Church has nothing to do with 

 political matters, and followed this with quo- 

 tations to the same effect from a pastoral let- 

 ter adopted in 1865 ; from the report on for- 

 eign correspondence in 1862 ; from a letter of 

 the Synod of Kentucky to the General Assem- 

 bly in 1867 ; from the declaration of 1861, that 

 in its ecclesiastical capacity the Church is nei- 

 ther the friend nor the foe of slavery; and 

 from declarations to the same effect in the Pas- 

 toral Letter of 1865. On the other hand, ex- 

 pressions were referred to which were alleged 

 to be inconsistent with the principle thus 

 enunciated in the narrative adopted in 1862 ; 

 in the report of 1862 on theological seminaries, 

 as in the Pastoral Letter of 1862 ; in the nar- 

 rative of 1863 ; and in the narrative of 1864. 

 In some of these papers the words " we," 

 " our cause," " our army," referring to the 



