PRESBYTERIANS. 



701 



196 Sunday-schools organized, 81 churches 

 built, at a cost of $218,128, 155 churches or- 

 ganized, and 21 churches become self-sustain- 

 ing, during the year. Whole number of mem- 

 bers of the mission churches, 68,041 ; number 

 in the congregations, 119,689 ; number of Sun- 

 day-schools, 1,384, with 116,501 members. 

 Number of church buildings, 1,121, having a 

 total value of $3,095,806. 



Board of Foreign Missions. Receipts from 

 all sources, $592,289 ; expenditures, $591,- 

 639.88, leaving a balance of $649.80. Of this 

 sum, $222,252.75 were from churches, $170,- 

 304.23 through the women's "societies, $111,- 

 356.57 from legacies, and $76,342.76 from mis- 

 cellaneous sources. The mission fields occu- 

 pied by the board are among the Indian tribes 

 of the United States, in Mexico, South America, 

 West Africa, Siam, China, the Chinese in Cali- 

 fornia, Japan, Persia, Syria. In these fields 

 were 140 ordained American ministers, 84 or- 

 dained native ministers, 18 American male lay 

 missionaries, 240 American female missiona- 

 ries, 607 native lay missionaries, 16,484 com- 

 municants; in the boarding-schools, 636 boys 

 and 1,247 girls ; in day-schools, 12,743 boys 

 and 4,066 girls ; making a total in all the schools 

 of 20,064. The board was expecting to send 

 out 30 new missionaries. 



The General Assembly of the Presbyterian 

 Church in the United States of America met 

 at Springfield, Illinois, May 18th. The Rev. 

 Herrick Johnson, D. D., of Chicago, was chosen 

 Moderator. The part of the proceedings to 

 which the most general interest was attached 

 was the correspondence with the Southern 

 Presbyterian General Assembly relative to the 

 restoration of fraternal relations, of which an 

 account is given below. The attention of the 

 Assembly was called on appeal to a case of dis- 

 cipline in which a member of the church in 

 Emlenton, Pa., had been excluded for dancing. 

 This brought up the question of the interpreta- 

 tion of an amendment to the constitution of 

 the Church, which had recently been adopted, 

 to the effect that appeals and complaints shall 

 not be carried higher than the synods, unless 

 the decision appealed from " affects the doc- 

 trine or constitution of the Church." The ap- 

 pellant in the present case confessed the facts 

 charged, but denied that they constituted an 

 "offense" in the constitutional sense of that 

 word, thus presenting a case which, as the 

 committee to whom the question was referred 

 said in its report, should be held to be one 

 affecting the constitution, and therefore prop- 

 erly coming under the purview of the Assem- 

 bly. Action was taken upon it as follows : 

 "The Assembly finds that there are two 

 branches to this case : the first involving the 

 question of jurisdiction, and the second the 

 merits of the case. This Assembly is not now 

 able to determine either of these questions, on 

 account of the meagerness of the records, and 

 on account of irregularities which are alleged 

 to have occurred in the trial of the court be- 



low. Therefore the Assembly, reserving its 

 judgment both on the question of jurisdiction 

 and the merits of the case, remands the whole 

 case to the session of the church of Emlenton, 

 with the direction to table new charges with 

 adequate specifications, and cite the accused to 

 answer, taking care that the evidence shall 

 show the case to justify the judgment they 

 may render." A committee was appointed 

 to report to the next General Assembly the 

 names of delegates to the next General Coun- 

 cil of the Presbyterian Alliance, which is to 

 meet in Belfast, Ireland, in 1884. Resolutions 

 were adopted, deprecating the legislation of 

 Congress with reference to Chinese immigra- 

 tion, and expressing the hope " that such sub- 

 sequent action may be taken by our Govern- 

 ment as will be consistent with treaty obliga- 

 tions, promote and foster the friendly rela- 

 tions hitherto existing between China and the 

 United States, and advance the cause of Chris- 

 tian evangelization in that great empire." A 

 paper on Sabbath Observance was adopted, in 

 which the Assembly admonished all its people 

 to bear in mind the sacredness of the day ; en- 

 treated all members and officers of churches 

 " to guard against real violations of the fourth 

 commandment by performing labor on the Sab- 

 bath, under the claim of necessity or mercy, 

 where such claim can not be sustained by the 

 Word of God " ; urged liberal measures to dis- 

 seminate Sabbatarian principles among foreign 

 immigrants ; committed the case as to mem- 

 bers of the church to the sessions ; urged min- 

 isters to represent the subject to their con- 

 gregations; and resolved, "that inasmuch as 

 prominent among the forms of Sabbath dese- 

 cration prevalent in our times are those to 

 which many railroad and steamboat companies 

 and publishers of Sunday newspapers are ad- 

 dicted, the Assembly earnestly counsel all our 

 people not to be, as owners, managers, or em- 

 ployees of such companies, or as shippers or 

 passengers on the Sabbath, or as publishers or 

 patrons of Sunday newspapers, partakers in 

 the guilt of their flagrant forms of Sabbath- 

 breaking." 



II. PRESBYTEKIAN CHTJEOH IN THE UNITED 

 STATES. The following is the summary of the 

 statistics of this Church as officially published 

 in connection with the "Journal" of the pro- 

 ceedings of the General Assembly for 1882 : 



Synods 

 Presbyteries 

 Candidates ............ 



Licentiates 

 Ministers 

 Churches 

 Ruling elders 

 Deacons .............. 



Added on examination 

 Total communicants 

 Adults baptized 

 Infants baptized 



13 



66 



160 



40 



1,081 

 2,010 

 6,083 

 8,917 

 6,0(52 

 123,806 

 1,868 

 4,769 



Number in Sunday-schools and Bible classes ...... 75,883 



CONTRIBUTIONS. 



Sustentation .................................... $36,937 



Evangelistic .................................... 25,809 



Invalid fund .................................... 10,407 



Foreign missions .............................. 46,638 



