672 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



342 parishes in which compensation had been 

 claimed, 88 had become vacancies. The Home 

 Mission Committee returned its year's receipts 

 at 10,430. It had sustained 41 mission-sta- 

 tions, with a certified attendance of 4,777, and 

 75 mission churches, with 15,760 attendants; 

 and had aided in the building, enlargement, or 

 acquisition of 12 places of worship. The in- 

 come of the Committee on Small Livings for 

 1883 was 4,743 ; and the sum of 8,073 had 

 been distributed in July of that year. 



The Committee in Aid of the Highlands and 

 Islands of Scotland had received 845, and had 

 paid out 939. The Christian Life and Work 

 Committee had received 369, and had ex- 

 pended 479. Its operations are of the nature 

 of mission- work inlligbland parishesand at fish- 

 ing-stations. The whole income for the colonial 

 department work for the year had been 5,803 

 and the whole expenditure 5,909. The re- 

 port related what had been done for the sup- 

 port of colonial churches in India, Ceylon, 

 Cyprus, Africa, Canada, the West Indies, Brit- 

 ish Guiana, the Argentine Republic, Australia, 

 and Feejee. The income of the Committee for 

 the Conversion of the Jews had been 5, 164, 

 and the expenditure 5,548. The committee 

 sustained schools at Constantinople, Smyrna, 

 Salonica, Monastir, and Alexandria, and car- 

 ried on a work of visitation to adult Jews. 



The income of the Foreign Mission Commit- 

 tee for 1883 was 23,337, besides which 1,- 

 022 had been received up to the time of mak- 

 ing the report for the proposed new mission to 

 the aborigines in India. The missions are in 

 India and China, and at Blantyre in Africa. 

 The committee asked authority for beginning a 

 mission among the Santals in India. 



General Assembly. The General Assembly 

 of the Church of Scotland met in Edinburgh, 

 May 22. The Rev. Dr. Peter Mackenzie, of 

 Urquhart, was chosen moderator. The atten- 

 tion of the Assembly was largely taken up with 

 difficulties that had arisen in connection with 

 the mission in Calcutta. Notice was taken of 

 the agitation in favor of disestablishment, which 

 the committee having the subject in charge 

 declared had failed. The Assembly resolved, 

 concerning the divisions of Scottish Christian- 

 ity, that "the General Assembly desire again 

 to place on record their steadfast adherence to 

 the principles expressed in the letter sent to 

 other Presbyterian churches in 1878, in which 

 the Assembly gave expression to their deep 

 sense of the manifold evils arising from the 

 ecclesiastical divisions of Scotland. The Gen- 

 eral Assembly renew the expression of their 

 hearty willingness and desire to take all possi- 

 ble steps consistent with the maintenance and 

 support of an establishment of religion to pro- 

 mote co-operation in good works and the re- 

 union of churches which adhere to the same 

 Confession of Faith. They renew their injunc- 

 tion to ministers to cultivate in their work the 

 spirit of unity and habit of co-operation with 

 the ministers of all evangelical churches." 



IX. Free Church of Scotland, The numerical 

 returns of the Free Church of Scotland show 

 that the number of members for the year end- 

 ing May 15, 1884, was 322,265. The number 

 of scholars in Sunday-schools was 161,210, 

 with 46,707 others in senior classes. 



A tabular statement of the amount raised for 

 the general funds of the Church during the year 

 1883-'84 shows the following sums allotted to 

 the several classes of funds : Building funds, 

 32,119 ; sustentation funds (five in num- 

 ber), 186,836; congregational funds, 206,- 

 078 ; educational funds, including Government 

 grants and fees from pupils, 20,406 ; college 

 funds, 33,657 ; missions, 88,554. The whole 

 amount is 626,222. 



The income for home missions had been 

 12,281, and the expenditure 8,451. The 

 income for the missions in the Highlands and 

 Islands amounted to 10,176. 



The income of the Committee on the Con- 

 version of the Jews had been 6,230. The 

 committee supported missions and schools at Je- 

 rusalem, Breslau, Buda-Pest, Constantinople, 

 Prague, and Amsterdam, and was about to es- 

 tablish a medical mission at Tiberias. 



The total revenue from all sources for mis- 

 sions to heathen and Mohammedans was 86,- 

 941, against 77,836 in 1882. The report con- 

 tained the following statistics : 



Adults baptized or admitted on profession, 383 ; chil- 

 dren baptized, 406 ; students and scholars in 6 colleges 

 and 227 schools, 15,115 (of whom 858 were university 

 undergraduates); native contributions, 1,604: fees 

 from do., 11,729 ; communicants in 32 congregations, 

 4,375 ; principal stations, 27; branches, 118 ; European 

 ordained missionaries, 38; native ordained missiona- 

 ries, 12 ; licensed native preachers, 6 ; medical mis- 

 sionaries, 8 ; European missionary teachers, 37 ; native 

 teachers, 250 ; European evangelists, 12 ; native cate- 

 chists, 118 ; Bible-women in India, 13 total number 

 of Christian agents, 494. 



General Assembly. The General Assembly of 

 the Free Church of Scotland met in Edinburgh, 

 May 22. The Rev. Dr. Walter Ross Taylor, of 

 Thurso, was chosen moderator. Upon the pres- 

 entation of the report of the Committee on Sun- 

 day Observance, the Assembly resolved to peti- 

 tion both Houses of Parliament in favor of the 

 clause in the new police bill for Scotland mak- 

 ing more efficient the penalties against Sabbath- 

 trading, and to recommend to the Lord- Advo- 

 cate to make it a crime against police to open 

 shops on Sunday. Provision was made for the 

 addition of a professorship of Natural Science to 

 the theological faculty of Glasgow, the Church 

 reserving the power to revise the constitution 

 of the chair and to determine the subjects to 

 be taught, " retaining the basis of the relation 

 of science and theology, and adding such sub- 

 jects as are cognate." The new form of sub- 

 scription for deacons, having been approved 

 by the presbyteries, was adopted. 



Several overtures were presented protesting 

 against the decision of the previous General 

 Assembly sanctioning the use of instrumental 

 music in worship, to which the Assembly re- 



