696 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



ceipts of the Church Extension fund, $2,295 ; 

 receipts of the Disabled Ministers' fund, $99 ; 

 receipts of the Sustentation fund, $6,418 ; re- 

 ceipts of the Domestic Mission fund, $2,590 ; 

 receipts of the Board of Foreign Missions, 

 $9,808. The mission is at Roorkee and sur- 

 rounding villages, in Northern India. It re- 

 turned 7 families, 14 communicants, 50 mem- 

 bers of congregation, 26 persons under Christian 

 instruction, and 24 baptisms of adults and 4 of 

 infants and children during the year. The 

 Committee on a Literary Institution had been 

 incorporated under the laws of Ohio, and had 

 organized Cedarville College, at Cedarville, in 

 that State. The delegates appointed to attend 

 a "Pan-Psalmody Council," to be held in 

 Kampen, Holland, reported that the place of 

 meeting of the Council had been changed to 

 Glasgow, Scotland, and that it met on the 15th 

 of October, 1886. The delegates had not been 

 able to attend, but had sent letters in which 

 were included suggestions for making changes in 

 the version of the Psalms, such as the elimina- 

 tion of obsolete words and the introduction of 

 some additional versions, particularly of the 

 Messianic Psalms. At the meeting an associa- 

 tion was formed which was designated " The 

 Psalmody Alliance," the objects of which were 

 denned to be " to sustain and promote the ex- 

 clusive use of the Psalms in the praise of God," 

 and in the membership of which the exclusive- 

 ly psalm-singing churches and associations, 

 "formed in connection with other churches 

 that fully approve of the objects of the alli- 

 ance," should be represented. A delegate was 

 appointed to represent the General Synod in 

 this council. A minute was adopted alleging 

 that the Presbyterian Alliance of the Reformed 

 Churches, " which was founded upon the con- 

 sensus of the Reformed Confessions, appears to 

 have shifted its ground by admitting into its 

 councils those who are not sound in the faith, 

 and by departing from the original position of 

 the Alliance as understood by the Synod the 

 brotherly covenant respecting the sole use of 

 the Psalms of inspiration in the devotional ex- 

 ercises of the council." It was therefore re- 

 solved that the Synod withdraw at present 

 from the Alliance. In reply to a communica- 

 tion of the General Assembly of the Presbyte- 

 rian Church of the United States of America 

 regarding a closer Christian fellowship and in- 

 tercommunion among those who bear the name 

 of Presbyterians, and are represented in the 

 Alliance, the Synod, expressing its sympathy 

 with all movements for the advance of unity in 

 the Church, declared itself ready and willing 

 to correspond with the General Assembly, or 

 with any other Presbyterian body, " upon such 

 terms as may be acceptable to the parties con- 

 cerned.' 1 A paper which was adopted upon the 

 observance of the Lord's day urged the mem- 

 bers of the Church to give the day a careful, 

 conscientious respect, abstaining from seeking 

 their own pleasure or doing their work upon 

 it, and warning them " against the reading of 



secular books and papers, and indulging in 

 pleasure walks or rides or vain conversation." 

 The objects of the National Christian Associa- 

 tion, which opposes secret societies, and of the 

 National Reform Association, which aims to 

 secure the incorporation of a " Religious 

 Amendment " in the Constitution of the United 

 States, were approved. 



A fraternal letter was received from the 

 Eastern Synod of Ireland, which mentioned an 

 effort to effect a union with a sister Synod in 

 the same country. The movement had failed, 

 although all the other circumstances were fa- 

 vorable to its success, because the Eastern 

 Synod refused, with its present information on 

 constitutional questions, to say that it would 

 censure its members for voting for members of 

 Parliament. 



VI. Cumberland Presbyterian Church. This 

 Church, according to its statistical returns, in- 

 cludes 22 Synods, 119 presbyteries, 2,546 

 churches, 1,547 ministers, and 138,564 commu- 

 nicants, with 78,000 pupils in Sabbath-schools. 

 The Cumberland Presbyterian Church, colored, 

 a separate body, but allied to it in doctrine 

 and form of government, has 4 Synods, 21 

 presbyteries, 300 ordained ministers, 250 licen- 

 tiates, and 225 candidates, and reports 40,000 

 members. 



The receipts of the Board of Foreign Mis- 

 sions had been $44,766. The work of the 

 mission in Japan was represented in the re- 

 ports as having been attended with much suc- 

 cess. A work in Mexico had " opened favora- 

 bly," and the mission among the Indians " was 

 gradually developing." The policy had been 

 adopted in home missions of concentrating 

 energy and funds on important places until 

 self-supporting congregations are established. 



The General Assembly of the Cumberland 

 Presbyterian Church met at Covington, Ohio, 

 May 19. Chancellor Nathan Green, of Cum- 

 berland University, a ruling elder, was chosen 

 moderator. The report of the Committee on 

 Organic Union with the Methodist Protestant 

 Church, which had been presented to the 

 previous General Assembly, and by it post- 

 poned for action at the present meeting, was 

 considered. The minute adopted upon the sub- 

 ject expressed gratification that a spirit favora- 

 ble to union had marked the action of the com- 

 mittees of both churches at their conferences, 

 and that the doctrinal differences between the 

 two bodies had been found unimportant and 

 "not essential to Christian unity," but with 

 the reservation of an expression of " unwilling- 

 ness to omit from our system of faith a doctrine 

 so precious for us as that of the ' preservation 

 of believers.' " A commission of seven mem- 

 bers was appointed, with power " to confer with 

 any commission or committee appointed by the 

 Methodist Protestant Church upon this subject, 

 and with them to argue, subject to the approval 

 and ratification of the General Assembly, upon 

 such terms of organic union as to them may 

 seem right and proper." On the question 



