PRESBYTERIANS. 



769 



II. Presbyterian Chnrch in the United States. 



The following is the summary of the statistics 

 of this Church, with the statistics of 1885 ap- 

 pended for comparison, as they are embodied 

 in the report of the proceedings of the General 

 Assembly for 1886: 



CONTRIBUTIONS. 



The Committee on Sustentation reported 

 that it had given aid to 182 ministers, who 

 were serving between four and five hundred 

 weak churches. Fifty-nine evangelists had been 

 supported under the Evangelistic fund, and six- 

 teen colored ministers and seminary students 

 working among the colored people had received 

 aid from the Colored Evangelistic fund. The 

 Education Committee had aided 142 candidates 

 for the ministry. Forty-four church-buildings 

 and eight houses had been erected during the 

 year. The Committee on Foreign Missions re- 

 ported 54 missionaries and 45 native helpers ,is 

 laboring in the mission-fields in the Indian Ter- 

 ritory, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Greece, China, 

 and Japan. 



The General Assembly of the Presbyterian 

 Church in the United States met in Augusta, 

 Ga., May 20. The Rev. J. FT. Bryson was 

 chosen moderator. The year being the twenty- 

 fifth year of the life of the General Assembly 

 (it having been organized in 1861), the present 

 meeting of the body, in pursuance of arrange- 

 ments ordered by the previous Assembly, was 

 celebrated as a quarter-centennial of the or- 

 ganization of the Southern Presbyterian 

 Church. For this purpose the meeting was 

 held in Augusta, where the first meeting had 

 been held, and in the same church. About 

 fifteen members of the original Assembly were 

 present. The Rev. B. M. Palmer, D. D., who 

 was moderator of the first Assembly, presided 

 over the meeting. The opening address of the 

 occasion was delivered by the Rev. Joseph R. 

 VOL xxvi. 49 A 



Wilson, D. D., who was pastor of the church 

 at the time of the meeting of the first Assem- 

 bly; the second address by the Rev. J. N. 

 Waddell, D. D., one of the clerks of the origi- 

 nal Assembly; and the third address by Dr. 

 Palmer. The most important question before 

 the Assembly was that growing out of the 

 teaching of the Rev. Dr. James A. Woodrow, 

 Perkins Professor of " Natural Science in Con- 

 nection with Revealed Religion " in the Co- 

 lumbia Theological Seminary. Dr. Woodrow 

 had been called to account by the authorities 

 of the seminary and by the presbyterial and 

 synodical bodies to which he was responsible, 

 or which participated in the control of the 

 seminary, for heresy in teaching the scientific 

 dogma known as the doctrine of evolution, as 

 applied to the origin of organic beings and of 

 man, and had. been relieved from the exercise 

 of his duties as professor. His case now came 

 up before this, the highest court of the Church, 

 by overtures from eight presbyteries, asking 

 the Assembly to declare, in plain language, 

 what are the accepted interpretations of the 

 Scriptures and of the standards of the Church 

 on this subject. Three reports were brought 

 in by the committee to which the subject was 

 referred. During the discussion, which lasted 

 through two days, Dr. Woodrow, defending 

 himself, took the position that God has no- 

 where revealed the manner of the creation of 

 man, and declared that to say it was immedi- 

 ate, or out of no pre-existing matter, would be 

 adding to the Word of God, and requiring 

 those under him to believe th'at which God 

 has not spoken. He professed his full belief 

 in the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures, 

 and if ever Science contradicted the Scriptures, 

 then Science must go; but where there was no 

 contradiction, or where the Scriptures wero 

 entirely silent, then Science could continue its 

 investigations, and belief in its teachings did 

 not contravene belief in the Scriptures. The 

 majority report of the committee was adopted 

 by a vote of 137 to 13. It declares: 



*' To the several overtures on the subject of 

 the evolution of man, sent up by the presby- 

 teries, the General Assembly return answer as 

 follows: 



'* The Church remains at this time sincerely 

 convinced that the Scriptures, as truly and 

 authoritatively expounded in our Confession 

 of Faith and Catechism, teach that Adam and 

 Eve were created, body and soul, by immedi- 

 ate act of Almighty Power, thereby preserving 

 a perfect race unity. 



" That Adam's body was directly fashioned 

 by Almighty God, without any natural animal 

 parentage of any kind, out of matter previous- 

 ly created of nothing. 



" And that any doctrine at variance there- 

 with is a dangerous error, inasmuch as by the 

 method of interpreting Scripture it must de- 

 mand, and in the consequences which by fair 

 implication it will involve, it will lead to the 

 denial of doctrines fundamental to the faith." 



