PRESBYTERIANS. 



697 



whether probationers (licentiates) were author- 

 ized to solemnize the rites of matrimony, the 

 Assembly, without making a special enactment, 

 decided to leave the matter of qualification of 

 such persons to be determined by the laws of 

 the State in which the marriage is to take place. 

 To a question whether a presbytery has the 

 power to depose a ruling elder, answer was 

 returned that, " as a general rule, the session is 

 the only Church court that has original juris- 

 diction to hear charges, and try and depose a 

 ruling elder ; but where, from any cause, a fair 

 and impartial trial can not be had before the 

 session; or where the trial of the cause, for 

 sufficient reasons, is referred by the session to 

 the presbytery; or where the case is removed 

 by appeal from the session to the presbytery, 

 and is there heard and determined, the presby- 

 tery may depose an elder, but not otherwise." 

 A committee of legal members of the Church 

 was appointed to examine the laws of the dif- 

 ferent States concerning titles to church prop- 

 erty, and to make such regulations as shall 

 secure Cumberland Presbyterian titles in con- 

 formity with them. The minutes of the Ore- 

 gon Synod showing that that body had invited 

 women to sit in council, and given them the 

 right to speak in the meetings of the Synod, 

 such action was declared to be a departure 

 from the rules of the Church. To a memorial 

 asking that the connection of this Church with 

 the Presbyterian Alliance be dissolved, the As- 

 sembly replied that its connection with that 

 body had called the attention of the world to 

 the doctrinal position of the Church, and was 

 a means of bringing churches into closer fra- 

 ternity, and of securing co-operation in foreign 

 missionary work; and it was therefore of the 

 opinion that the relation should be continued. 

 The appointment of delegates to the council of 

 the Alliance was relegated to the next meeting 

 of the General Assembly. To a protest, which 

 was entered against the election of a ruling 

 elder to the office of moderator, for the reason 

 that the protestants believed it to be a viola- 

 tion of the fundamental principles of Presby- 

 terianism, the Assembly replied, declaring that 

 " there is nothing, either in the spirit or genius 

 of Presbyterianism, violated by such action, 

 and nothing in our " Form of Government " that 

 forbids the election of a ruling elder to this 

 position." The subject of establishing a train- 

 ing-school for women in Biblical and medical 

 knowledge for special missionary work, at 

 home and abroad, was commended to the con- 

 sideration of the Board of Missions and the 

 Trustees of Cumberland University, with au- 

 thority, if they judge best, to found and organ- 

 ize such a school at Lebanon, Tenn. Reiter- 

 ating its former expressions on the subject of 

 temperance, the Assembly declared in addition 

 that "the failure or refusal of any follower of 

 our Divine Master to use his profession in favor 

 of, to pray for, labor for, such legislation as 

 will free the country and God's Church from 

 this drink curse, is inconsistent with the teach- 



ings of Holy Scripture and the example of our 

 Saviour " ; and it approved all organizations 

 "looking to, and laboring for, the prohibition 

 of the liquor-traffic by every lawful means." 

 The use of unfermented wine in the Lord's 

 Supper was advised. The Assembly advised 

 the enforcement, by legal and moral means, of 

 a strict observance of the Lord's day. 



The General Assembly of the Cumberland 

 Presbyterian Church, colored, met in Chatta- 

 nooga, Tenn., May 19. The Rev. W. L. Clark 

 was chosen moderator. The Church sustains 

 a school at Bowling Green, Ky., to which the 

 General Assembly of the Cumberland Presby- 

 terian Church contributed at its session $2,700 

 for the removal of debt. 



VII. Presbyterian Church in Canada. The fol- 

 lowing is a summary of the statistics of this 

 Church as they were presented to the General 

 Assembly in June: Number of presbyteries, 

 42 ; of pastoral charges, 775 ; of mission sta- 

 tions or groups, 309 ; of ministers, 823 ; of 

 churches and stations supplied, 1,773 ; of com- 

 municant members, 136,598; of families con- 

 nected with the churches, 76,226 ; of Sunday- 

 school teachers, 12,070 ; of pupils in Sabbath- 

 schools and Bible-classes, 108,284; of baptisms, 

 10,264 of infants and 1,051 of adults. Amount 

 of contributions: For stipends, $667,218; for 

 congregational objects, $1,242,910; for schemes 

 of the Church, $193,458. 



The payments to the Home Mission fund 

 were $32,204. One hundred and eighty-nine 

 missionaries had been employed in the western 

 section in the service of 714 preaching stations, 

 and 1,562 stations had been served in the east- 

 ern section. 



The contributions to the Aged and Infirm 

 Minister's fund had been $7,926 ; to the Wid- 

 ows and Orphans' fund, $5,782. The income 

 of the College funds amounted to $92,860. 



The receipts of the French Evangelization 

 fund had been $19,884. Twenty-five churches, 

 including 78 preaching stations, had been 

 served under the auspices of this board, with 

 which were connected 1,268 church-members, 

 1,016 families, and an average attendance of 

 2,650 persons. The twenty-nine schools re- 

 turned an enrollment of 905 pupils. The prin- 

 cipal schools were at Pointe aux Trembles, 

 where six teachers were employed, and 120 

 pupils enrolled. The school at St. Anne, Illi- 

 nois, returned 136 pupils. 



The receipts of the Foreign Mission Commit- 

 tees had been $55,981. The "Woman's Foreign 

 Missionary Society (Western Division) had 

 contributed $18,581 to the purposes of this 

 work. The missions are in the New Hebrides ; 

 the West Indies and Demerara, where 1,675 

 pupils were enrolled in the schools; the In- 

 dians of the Northwest; China (Northern For- 

 mosa), where 38 stations are sustained, and 

 2,546 members are enrolled, and 3,448 patients 

 were treated in the hospital at Tam-Sui ; and 

 Central India (Indore, Mhow, etc.), where ten 

 missionaries and eleven teachers, catechists, 



