670 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



Southern side in the war, were inadvertently 

 used, and should have been disapproved. The 

 narrative of 1864 contained two expressions 

 that deserved notice : first, it said : " The long- 

 continued agitations of our adversaries have 

 wrought within us a deeper conviction of the 

 Divine appointment of domestic servitude, and 

 have led to a clearer comprehension of the 

 duties we owe to the African race." This 

 was explained by the committee to mean : 

 " By declaring the institution of slavery to be 

 of ' Divine appointment,' the Assembly must 

 not be understood as expressing the opinion 

 that it was ordained of God as a positively 

 Divine and obligatory institute of society for 

 all communities, but simply that, as it was 

 recognized and enforced by the law of the 

 Confederate States, and was an existing rela- 

 tion prevailing throughout its boundaries, it 

 was, in the sense of all established civil rela- 

 tions, a matter of Divine appointment for the 

 time being in the midst of the people of the 

 States." The other expression was: "We 

 hesitate not to affirm that it is the peculiar 

 mission of the Southern Church to conserve 

 the institution of slavery, and make it a bless- 

 ing both to master and slave." Of this the 

 committee said : 



From all that is known to us as to the meaning in- 

 tended by the Assembly which adopted that paper, 

 as well as from the context itself, it is manifest that 

 its true intent was not to assert that it was the duty 

 of the Church to conserve the institution of slavery 

 in the sense of perpetuating it a word never used by 

 it in reference to this subject but to make the best 

 of the relation and arrangement as it existed, and, by 

 the administration of that gospel which is intrusted 

 to the Church, " make it a blessing both to master 

 and slave." 



The report closed by proposing the follow- 

 ing declaration : 



1. We solemnly reaffirm the explicit and formal 

 statement set forth at the time of the organization of 

 our General Assembly in 1861, in an " address to the 

 Churches of Jesus 'Christ throughout the earth." 

 This document clearly and forcibly details our posi- 

 tion concerning the nature and functions of the 

 Church as a spiritual body, and, therefore, " non- 

 secular and non-political." ' 



2. Inasmuch as some incidental expressions, ut- 

 tered in times of great public excitement, are found 

 upon our records, and have been pointed out in the 

 report of the committee aforesaid, which seem to be 

 ambiguous or inconsistent with the above declara- 

 tions and others of like import, this Assembly does 

 hereby disavow them wherever found, and does not 

 recognize such as forming any part of the well-con- 

 sidered, authoritative teachings or testimony of our 

 Church. 



The report and declaration were adopted. 

 The Assembly had been asked by the Presby- 

 tery of St. Louis to take some action in regard 

 to fraternal relations with the Northern Gen- 

 eral Assembly. Correspondence also passed 

 during the session of the Assembly between 

 some of its members and members of the 

 Northern General Assembly on the same sub- 

 ject. The following resolutions bearing upon 

 the matter were adopted by a vote of 83 to 6 : 



l&solved, That the action of the Baltimore Confer- 



ence of 1875 (see ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA for 1875), ap- 

 proved by the Assembly at St. Louis, explains with 

 sufficient clearness the position of our Church. 



But, inasmuch as it is represented by the overture 

 that misapprehensions exist in the minds of some of 

 our people as to the spirit of this action, in order to 

 show our disposition to remove on our part all real 

 or seeming ninderances to friendly feeling, the As- 

 sembly explicitly declares that, while condemning 

 certain acts and deliverances of the Northern As- 

 sembly, no acts or deliverances of the Southern 

 Presbyterian Assemblies are to be construed or ad- 

 mitted as impugning in any way the Christian char- 

 acter or standing of the Northern General Assembly, 

 or of the historical body or bodies of which it is the 

 successor. 



A report was adopted on the subject of a 

 theological institute for colored people. It 

 recommended that such an institute be estab- 

 lished ; that it be located at Tuscaloosa, Ala., 

 and the Rev. Dr. Stillman be appointed its 

 principal. 



III. UNITED, REFORMED, AND ASSOCIATE PRES- 

 BYTERIANS. (.) United Presbyterian Church 

 of North America. The following is a sum- 

 mary of the statistics of this Church, as they 

 were presented to the General Assembly at its 

 meeting in May, 1876 : Number of synods, 8; 

 of presbyteries, 57; of ministers without charge, 

 159 ; of pastors and stated supplies, 465 ; of 

 congregations with pastors or stated supplies, 

 561 ; of congregations vacant, 248 ; of mem- 

 bers, 77.414; of adults baptized, 500; of in- 

 fants baptized, 3,961; of Sunday-schools, 638; 

 of officers and teachers in the same, 7,289 ; of 

 Sunday-school scholars, 53,364; of theological 

 seminaries, 4; of colleges, 3; total amount of 

 contributions, $873,675. 



The Board of Education reported to the 

 General Assembly that their total receipts for 

 the year had been $2,673.88, besides which 

 they had a balance from the previous year 

 of $372.86. Their total expenditures had been 

 $3.732.45 ; their total liabilities were $2,860.71. 

 Twenty young men intending to enter the 

 ministry had been aided by the funds of the 

 Church. The Board of Publication reported 

 to the General Assembly as the condition of 

 their finances: Total assets, $101,736.55 ; total 

 liabilities, $30,540.22 ; receipts for the year, 

 $25,178.39; expenditures, $27,085.32; cash on 

 hand May 1, 1876, $1,504.39. The Board of 

 the Freedmen's Mission reported to the General 

 Assembly that their total receipts since the 

 last report had been $12,388.80. The treas- 

 urer had at present a balance of $573. An 

 appropriation of $12,000 was asked to pay all 

 indebtedness, furnish the school-building, and 

 carry on the work for the coming year. The 

 Board of Ministerial Belief reported to the 

 General Assembly that their total receipts for 

 the year had been $2,501.42, and their tdtal 

 expenditures $644.43. Four ministers, or 

 families of deceased ministers, had received 

 help during the year. The Board of Home 

 Missions reported to the General Assembly 

 that the total contributions to their treasury 

 for the year had been $35,294.82, being thir- 

 teen dollars more than had been contributed 



