PRESBYTERIANS. 



etc., nine of whom are natives, were em- 

 ployed. 



General Assembly. The thirteenth General 

 Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Cana- 

 da met in Winnipeg, Manitoba, June 9. The 

 Rev. Robert Ferrier Burns, D. D., was chosen 

 moderator. A message was received from the 

 Provincial Synod of the Church of England in 

 Canada announcing the appointment of a com- 

 mittee of the two houses constituting that 

 body to confer with committees representing 

 other Christian bodies "for the purpose of as- 

 certaining whether there is any possibility of 

 honorable union with such bodies." To this 

 the Assembly responded by the appointment 

 of a corresponding committee with a resolution 

 reciting that, " deeply sensible of the evils of 

 disunion in the Church of Christ, and their 

 contrariety to the ideal of the Church, as pre- 

 sented in Scripture," it had heard with lively 

 gratification of the action respecting union of 

 the Provincial Synod. Another message from 

 the Provincial Synod invited the co-operation 

 of the Assembly in measures for obtaining 

 legislation that would insure the daily and 

 reverent use of the Holy Scriptures and the 

 teaching of the elements of Christian truth in 

 the public schools. The response to this was 

 a resolution that "the General Assembly, 

 deeply sensible of the importance of the sub- 

 ject of religious instruction in the public schools 

 of the country, appoints a committee to consider 

 the whole matter carefully during the ensuing 

 year, to ascertain the state of the law and the 

 actual practice in the different provinces of 

 the Dominion, and report to the next General 

 Assembly." A remit of the previous General 

 Assembly respecting the rule concerning mar- 

 riage with a deceased wife's sister having been 

 approved by a majority of the presbyteries, the 

 remit directing that " the discipline of the 

 Church shall not be exercised in regard to 

 marriage with a deceased wife's sister or a de- 

 ceased wife's niece" was passed into an ad- 

 interim act. The Assembly also resolved to 

 send down to the presbyteries, under the Bar- 

 rier act, a remit for amending the fourth sec- 

 tion of the twenty-fourth chapter of the 

 " Confession of Faith " by striking out the 

 words " the man may not marry any of his 

 wife's kindred nearer in blood than he may of 

 his own, nor the woman of her husband's kin- 

 dred nearer in blood than of her own." A 

 committee was appointed to submit to the next 

 General Assembly some suitable way in which 

 to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of 

 the Revolution of 1688. It was resolved to 

 obtain signatures in all the congregations to a 

 petition to be presented to the Dominion Legis- 

 lature for the total prohibition of the liquor- 

 traffic. 



VIII. Chnreh of Scotland. The report to the 

 General Assembly of this Church of its Com- 

 mittee on Presbyterial Superintendence showed 

 that there were now in the Church 535 preach- 

 ing stations, or 58 more than in 1885, with 



571,029 members in communion. The num- 

 ber admitted during the year as young com- 

 municants was 25,676, and the number ad- 

 mitted by baptism was 43,272. The Statistical 

 Committee reported that the contributions for 

 religious and charitable purposes, exclusive of 

 seat-rents, had been 343,595. The income 

 of the Aged and Infirm Ministers' fund was 

 returned as '3,450, and the total amount of 

 capital, having been augmented by 2,203, 

 was about 22,000. The Committee on Home 

 Missions had voted 1,650 to 64 mission 

 churches. The income of the Committee on 

 Patronage Compensation had been 1,231, 

 while 1,511 had been paid for compensations. 

 The committee had 800 on hand. The Com- 

 mittee on Missions to the Jews had received 

 6,190, of which 4,941 were available for the 

 ordinary purposes of the mission, while it had 

 expended 4,971. In the schools at all the 

 stations Alexandria, Beyrout, Smyrna, Sa- 

 lonica, and Constantinople 898 Jewish boys 

 and girls were enrolled. Twelve Jews, of 

 whom 10 were adults, had been baptized dur- 

 ing the year. 



The General Assembly of the Church of 

 Scotland met in Edinburgh May 19, and was 

 opened by Lord Hopetown as Lord High 

 Commissioner. The Rev. Dr. George Hutch- 

 ison was chosen moderator. The Lord High 

 Commissioner having read the Queen's letter 

 said that he was commanded to assure the 

 Assembly of her Majesty's determination to 

 maintain the Presbyterian form of church 

 government in Scotland. Her Majesty's gift 

 of 2,000 for the promotion of the Gospel in 

 the Highlands was transmitted, with the pro- 

 vision that a part of it should be appropriated 

 to the encouragement of young men to preach 

 in the Gaelic language. The report of the 

 Committee on Church Interests related the 

 failure of the conference which was proposed 

 to be held with the Free Church on the sub- 

 ject of reunion. The Established Church had 

 wished the Conference to consider the present 

 state of Scotland "in the light of the standards 

 common to both Churches, of the claims of right, 

 and of the recent abolition of patronage," while 

 the Free Church would not go into conference 

 unless the subject of disestablishment and en- 

 dowment was left an open question." The 

 Committee profoundly regretted that the diffi- 

 culties in the way of arranging any basis upon 

 which a conference could usefully take place 

 had proved insurmountable, and admitted that 

 the reply of the Assembly Arrangements Com- 

 mittee of the Free Church seemed to leave no 

 ground on which it could recommend the As- 

 sembly to continue any correspondence on the 

 subject at the present time. As there was 

 evidence that an organized and deliberate at- 

 tempt would be made to force, the question 

 of disestablishment and disendow ment into the 

 domain of practical politics, it behooved all the 

 friends of the Church to be active and watch- 

 ful. The Assembly, expressing regret at the 



