702 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



Brought forward $119,791 



Education 41,014 



Publication 8,820 



Presbyterial 13,718 



Pastors' salaries 540,745 



Congregational 847,913 



Miscellaneous 58,132 



Total $1 ,130,133 



The standing committees having the various 

 denominational enterprises in charge reported 

 to the General Assembly : 



Committee on Education. Receipts, $11,767, 

 or $1,452 more than the receipts of the previous 

 year. One hundred and fourteen candidates 

 for the ministry were returned, against 144 in 

 1881. 



Committee of Home Missions. The receipts 

 had been : for sustentation, $21,715, showing 

 an increase of $3,189 over the contributions of 

 the previous year ; for evangelistic work, $13,- 

 821 ; for the Invalid fund, $11,088. Aid had 

 been given in the sustentation department to 

 180 ministers, who were serving more than 

 400 churches. Eighteen pastoral charges, em- 

 bracing forty or fifty churches, had become 

 self-sustaining. Fifty-five evangelists had been 

 supported, and twelve laborers were conducting 

 the colored evangelistic work with a commend- 

 able degree of success. A bequest of $25,000 

 had been made by Dr. Stuart Robinson to the 

 Invalid fund, as a permanent capital, with the 

 expectation that the Church would raise the 

 amount to one hundred thousand dollars. 



Committee on Foreign Missions. The re- 

 ceipts from all sources had been $69,309, of 

 which $51,999 were from churches and indi- 

 viduals, legacies, &c., $10,984 from women's 

 missionary associations, and $6,326 from Sun- 

 day-schools. The increase over the receipts of 

 the previous year was $10,783. The mission- 

 ary force under the direction of the committee 

 included one hundred and four persons, consist- 

 ing of twenty ordained ministers, one mission- 

 ary physician, and twenty-six female missionary 

 laborers from the United States ; thirteen na- 

 tive ordained preachers, three licentiates, and 

 forty-one native assistants, variously employed 

 as teachers, colporteurs, and Bible readers. 

 Connected with the missions were twenty 

 schools, of which six were boarding-schools 

 with about two hundred pupils, and nine were 

 day-schools with three hundred pupils. The 

 missions were among the Chickasaw Indians 

 (27 organized churches and 1,008 members), 

 in Mexico (3 churches, 220 members), Brazil 

 (4 churches, 104 members, with an Institute at 

 Campinas returning 57 pupils), Italy (a school 

 at Milan), Greece, and China. The commit- 

 tee had contemplated a mission in Africa, but 

 had not yet been able to establish it. 



The receipts of the Tuscaloosa Institute for 

 the Instruction of Colored Preachers had been 

 $3,678. Eleven Presbyterians and eleven stu- 

 dents from other denominations had been in- 

 structed there, and four Presbyterians had 

 been graduated. 



The General Assembly of the Presbyterian 



Church in the United States met at Atlanta, Ga., 

 May 18th. The Rev. Dr. R. K. Smoot, of Aus- 

 tin, Texas, was chosen Moderator. The renewal 

 of fraternal relations with the Northern Pres- 

 byterian Church was the predominant subject 

 of discussion. An account of the action of both 

 bodies in the matter is given below. A ques- 

 tion of much interest was involved in the " Park 

 case," which came up on appeal from the Synod 

 of Memphis, and was supposed to involve the 

 right of a colored presbyter to vote in the pres- 

 bytery composed of whites. The Rev. Samuel 

 Park, an uneducated colored man, a former 

 slave, had been ordained by the Presbytery of 

 Memphis to preach to the colored people, 

 without being given the right to vote in the 

 white presbytery. The formation of a colored 

 presbytery appears to have been anticipated, 

 but not carried into effect. Mr. Park was 

 treated as a presbyter for seven years, when 

 the issue was made as to his right to vote. The 

 moderator decided that he had that right, and 

 the presbytery, by a majority vote, overruled 

 the decision of the moderator. The minority 

 of the presbytery complained to the Synod of 

 Memphis, which reversed the decision of the 

 presbytery. The presbytery then complained 

 to the Assembly against the decision of the 

 synod. This brought up the constitutional 

 question, Can the Presbyterian Church ordain 

 a minister without giving him the right to vote 

 in the presbytery ? The Assembly decided that, 

 as " perfect ministerial parity is an essential 

 and fundamental principle of Presbyterian pol- 

 ity," and whereas Mr. Park had been duly and 

 constitutionally ordained, and had been several 

 times formally recognized by the presbytery 

 as a duly ordained minister, it was the Assem- 

 bly's judgment that he was in full ministerial 

 connection with the presbytery, and conse- 

 quently entitled to vote. Steps were taken to 

 restore the management of the publishing in- 

 terests of the Church, which were now carried 

 on under arrangements with a company in St. 

 Louis, to the exclusive control of the Assembly's 

 Executive Committee, and to provide for the 

 adjustment of the mortgage on the property in 

 Richmond, Va., by the sale of bonds. 



RESTORATION or FRATERNAL RELATIONS BE- 

 TWEEN THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN GENERAL 

 ASSEMBLIES. The Northern General Assembly, 

 on the third day of its session, dispatched as a 

 fraternal message to the Southern General As- 

 sembly, "Fathers and brethren, we send you 

 our hearty salutation. See 1 Peter i, 2." In 

 the Southern General Assembly, on the second 

 day of the session, a resolution was offered for 

 the appointment of a committee to convey cor- 

 dial greetings to the Northern Assembly, and 

 to express a willingness to co-operate, as far 

 as practicable, with that body in the work of 

 home and foreign evangelization. This was 

 formally referred to a committee, with the un- 

 derstanding that it should be reported upon 

 as soon as practicable. Before the committee 

 was ready to report, the message from the 



