PRESBYTERIANS. 



771 



and declared that "the authoritative exclu- 

 sion of instrumental music from the worship 

 of God in the United Presbyterian Church 

 is necessary to a final and peaceful settle- 

 ment of the difficulty ; " asked the Assembly 

 to order the exclusion desired; and repre- 

 sented that, in case of refusal on the part ot 

 the Assembly to grant their request, the me- 

 morialists would be placed "under the pain- 

 ful necessity of choosing between obedience to 

 the authority of Christ and acquiescence in 

 such refusal." The reply to the memorial, 

 which was adopted by a vote of 139 to 97, ex- 

 pressed the regret of the Assembly that the 

 trouble on account of the repeal of the law 

 against the use of musical instruments in pub- 

 lic worship should continue so long; and said 

 that the repeal of the law in 1882 left all free, 

 subject only to the law of love and the question 

 of edification, and that any " attempt authori- 

 tatively to exclude instrumental music from 

 the praise service in our congregations, as 

 asked by the memorial, would be an attempt 

 to re-enact the law already repealed." This 

 was declared to be clearly beyond the power 

 and authority of the Assembly, and, moreover, 

 it would probably be regarded as " oppressive 

 and intolerable by brethren who do not believe 

 that such a law is warranted by the Word of 

 God." 



A proposal for a basis of union with the As- 

 sociate Reformed Synod of the South was adopt- 

 ed, and an overture approving it was sent down 

 to the presbyteries for ratification by them. A 

 committee, which was appointed at the previ- 

 ous meeting of the General Assembly to consider 

 the relation of the United Presbyterian Church 

 to the Presbyterian Alliance, reported to the 

 effect that the General Council of the Alliance, 

 having violated its constitution by departing 

 from the " Consensus of the Reformed Church- 

 es" on the subject of praise, so violating the 

 position conscientiously held by the United 

 Presbyterian and other churches; and also by 

 admitting to its membership the delegates of a 

 church (the Cumberland Presbyterian) which 

 does not hold the Calvinistic doctrine, the 

 United Presbyterian Church, while paying its 

 proportion of the past expenses, will give 

 notice that it will not henceforth take part in 

 the Alliance until proper assurance is given 

 that its position will be respected. The As- 

 sembly decided to withdraw from the Alli- 

 ance. 



A National Convention of United Presby- 

 terians opposed to the action of the General 

 Assembly, in permitting the use of instrument- 

 al music in public worship, met in Allegheny 

 City, Pa., November 9. The meeting reaf- 

 firmed the utterances of the conventions that 

 had been held in previous years on the same 

 subject to the effect that those participating in 

 it continued to protest against the removal of 

 the prohibition of instrumental music, and that 

 they still regarded the organ as " a corruption 

 of worship," and not to be tolerated. 



IV. Cumberland Presbyterian Chnreh. The fol- 

 lowing is a summary of the statistics of this 

 Church, as they were reported to the General 

 Assembly in May, 1886 : 



Presbyteries 118 



Ministers 1,54T 



Licentiates 231 



Candidates 218 



Congregations 2,546 



Elders 10,014 



Deacons 3,412 



Added on examination 14,356 



Baptisms of adulte 9,171 



Baptisms of infants 2,279 



Communicants 138,564 



Members of Sunday-schools 74,576 



Amount of contributions from Sunday-schools $20,139 



AMOUNT OF CONTRIBUTIONS. 



Home missions 



Foreign missions 



Education (report defective) 



Publication (report defective) 



Ministerial relief 



Church building and repairing 



Paid pastors and supplies 



Presbvterial purposes 



Charity 



Miscellaneous contributions 



$11,920 



5.886 



2,64 



1.351 



3.407 



167.867 



260.886 



8,022 



7.856 



29J90 



Total contributions $553,033 



Value of church property $2,420,500 



The General Assembly of 1885 directed the 

 stated clerk to embody in the published min- 

 utes the statistics of the Cumberland Presbv- 

 terian Church (colored). What is believed to 

 be a close approximation was reached from 

 the most trustworthy reports attainable, as 

 follows: Number of synods, 4; of presbyte- 

 ries, 20 ; of ordained ministers, 200 ; of licen- 

 tiates, 225 ; of candidates, 200 ; of communi- 

 cants, 13,000. 



The Board of Education returned its general 

 receipts at $219. 



The receipts of the Board of Publication 

 were returned at $1.747", and the expenditures 

 at $ 1 ,559. A " History of the Church," by B. 

 W. McDonnold, D. D., was in preparation. 



The Board of Ministerial Relief reported re- 

 ceipts to the general fund of $3,813, and to the 

 permanent fund of $2,515, and disbursements 

 of $2,473. 



The Board of Missions had received $9,016, 

 of which $5,804 had been contributed for 

 home missions, and $3, 212 for foreign missions. 

 Besides city missions at various points in the 

 United States, and evangelistic work, the board 

 sustained missions in the Chickasaw and Choc- 

 taw Nations (3 missionaries, 8 native ministers, 

 31 congregations, and 533 members) ; and in 

 the Cherokee Nation (5 ministers, 7 congrega- 

 tions, and about 400 communicants). It had 

 also assisted the School for Colored Probation- 

 ers at Bowling Green, Ky. The foreign 

 mission was in Japan, with its central station 

 at Osaka, and returned a membership of 208, 

 with 89 baptisms, and 93 members received 

 during the year, 162 pupils in day-schools and 

 189 in Sunday-schools, an average attendance 

 of 70 at the women's meetings, and $565 con- 

 tributed by the churches. 



The General Assembly of the Cumberland 

 Presbyterian Church met in Sedalia, Mo., May 



