736 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



and privilege of nations, like individuals, to 

 recognize and support the Church of Christ," 

 but that the covenants were of perpetual ob- 

 ligation. The Free Church had expressed the 

 conviction that, " in present circumstances, a 

 reunion of the churches in connection with 

 state endowments can not be accomplished in 

 a satisfactory manner." The committee was 

 discharged. The discontinuance of the official 

 religious inspection of schools was directed. 



VIII. FBEB CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. The re- 

 ports on the proceeds of the collections ap- 

 pointed by the General Assembly of the Free 

 Church of Scotland to be made in the different 

 churches under its charge showed a diminution 

 in the amount of more than 3,365 as com- 

 pared with the amount raised in the previous 

 years. The whole income of the Church had 

 fallen off 24,901. The Committee on Mis- 

 sions to the Jews made a favorable report of 

 its operations at Pesth, Hungary, its principal 

 station. Seven persons had been baptized. The 

 report on Sunday-schools showed that they em- 

 ployed 17,492 teachers and were attended by 

 189,759 pupils. 



The General Assembly of the Free Church of 

 Scotland met in Edinburgh May 22d. The Rev. 

 J. 0. Burns of Kirkliston was chosen Modera- 

 tor. The most important business transacted 

 related to the case of Professor W. Robertson 

 Smith, who was charged with having uttered 

 heretical teachings in the article on the Bible 

 which he had prepared for the ninth edition of 

 the " Encyclopaedia Britannica." The case had 

 already engaged the attention of the Assem- 

 bly for two years, and had been sent back by 

 the Assembly of 1878 to the Presbytery of 

 Aberdeen, with which it originated, for a re- 

 trial on an amended libel. (The points in the 

 case as thus sent down are given in the article 

 PRESBYTERIANS in the " Annual Cyclopaedia " 

 for 1878.) The action of the Presbytery on 

 this order now came before the General As- 

 sembly for revision and further disposition. 

 All the other points having been disposed of, 

 the substance of the charge against Professor 

 Smith lay in the specification that he had pub- 

 lished the opinion that " the book of inspired 

 Scripture called Deuteronomy, which is profes- 

 sedly an historical record, does not possess that 

 character, but was made to assume it by a writer 

 of a much later age, who therein, in the name 

 of God, presented in dramatic form instructions 

 and laws as proceeding from the mouth of Mo- 

 ses, though these never were and never could 

 have been uttered by him " ; an opinion which, 

 the libel declared, " contradicts or is opposed 

 to the doctrine of the immediate inspiration, 

 infallible truth, and divine authority of the 

 Holy Scriptures, as set forth in the Scriptures 

 themselves, and in the Confession of Faith." 

 The action of the previous Assembly with ref- 

 erence to Professor Smith was reaffirmed. 

 Two motions were made for the disposition of 

 the charges. One by Professor Andrew Bonar 

 was to the effect that the Presbytery of Aber- 



deen should be directed to try Professor Smith 

 on the single point to which the libel was re- 

 duced, and, on finding it proved, to suspend 

 him from his professional, ministerial, and ju- 

 dicial functions until the next Assembly. The 

 other motion, by Principal Rainy, was that, in 

 consideration of the novelty and perplexity 

 of the case, the Assembly, before proceeding 

 further with the libel, should appoint a com- 

 mittee representative of both parties, to con- 

 sider the case in all its bearings, and confer 

 with Professor Smith with the view of ascer- 

 taining the best means of arriving at a result 

 securing the truth of God without disturbing 

 the unity of the Church. The motion of Pro- 

 fessor Bonar prevailed, by a vote of 321 to 

 320 for the motion of Principal Rainy. Af- 

 ter the vote was announced, Principal Rainy 

 read a protest against the action contemplated 

 by the successful motion being taken on the 

 strength of so small a majority. The resolu- 

 tion of the previous Assembly in favor of the 

 separation of Church and state was reaffirmed, 

 and the committee was reappointed, to take 

 such action as it might see fit. A resolution 

 was adopted expressing decided opposition to 

 the proposed bill for legalizing marriage with 

 a deceased wife's sister. In answer to a num- 

 ber of overtures from presbyteries against lot- 

 teries at bazaars, a resolution was passed ex- 

 horting the ministers and people "to discoun- 

 tenance the raising of money for ecclesiastical 

 or other religious objects by what is known as 

 raffles." 



The Presbytery of Aberdeen met July 1st, to 

 deal with the case of Professor Smith accord- 

 ing to the instructions of the General Assem- 

 bly. Professor Smith was allowed to make a 

 plea to the relevancy of the libel as amended, 

 after which he filed his answer to it. In this 

 answer he stated that he upheld the canonicity 

 and inspiration of the Book of Deuteronomy, 

 and that he did not regard it as a fraud, as had 

 been imputed to him. In denying that Mo- 

 ses was the author of it, he stood within the 

 liberty granted to every office-bearer of the 

 Church, for the book nowhere said that Moses 

 was its author. "What he had done was not in 

 the interests of rationalism, but in those of the 

 faith; for he had designed to take the facts 

 which the rationalists had built upon, and 

 reconcile them with a full recognition of the 

 supernatural in the old dispensation and the 

 inspiration of the Old Testament records. The 

 amended libel was served. The Presbytery 

 met again to consider the case in September, 

 when it resolved simply to report the case 

 again to the General Assembly. An appeal 

 was taken to the Synod of Aberdeen against 

 this action, and the Synod, after giving a hear- 

 ing to both sides, resolved to sustain the Pres- 

 bytery. 



IX. UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH or SCOT- 

 LAND. The following is a summary of the 

 statistics of this Church as presented to the 

 Synod by the Home Committee in May, 1879: 



