756 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



bound, in the discharge of their duty under the 

 charter anil constitution of the seminary, to ad- 

 here to the same. 



II. Presbyterian Church in the United 

 States (Southern). The following is a summary 

 of the statistical returns of this Church as made 

 to the General Assembly in May. The summary 

 for 1887 is added to show the growth of the 

 church in five years : 



The Committee on Education of the Ministry 

 reported to the General Assembly that it had re- 

 ceived during the year $21,461, and had aided 229 

 candidates. The Tuscaloosa Institute for colored 

 ministers had been attended by 21 Presbyterian 

 and 2 Methodist students smaller numbers than 

 in the preceding year. The decrease was due 

 to the facts that better opportunities were pro- 

 vided elsewhere for the education of colored 

 ministers, and that stricter rules of attendance 

 had been imposed at the institution. 



The Committee of Publication had received 

 for benevolent work $10.816, and in royalties 

 from Sabbath-school papers $3,093, while the 

 net income from the publishing house had been 

 $2,455. The concern was valued, at $85,295 over 

 all liabilities. Fifteen colporteurs had been em- 

 ployed, and had distributed $8,807 worth of 

 books. 



The pommittee of Home Missions had re- 

 ceived $79,842. Aid had been given, in the Sus- 

 tentation department, in 221 cases; in the Church 

 Erection department, in the erection of 32 build- 

 ings ; from the Evangelistic fund and in Indian 

 missions, in the support of 64 ministers, for 1 

 woman missionary to the Indians, and for 2 

 teachers at the Male Orphan Academy in the 

 Choctaw nation where 56 orphans are cared 

 for; from the Invalid fund, to 154 cases; and 

 from the colored Evangelistic fund, in the 

 support of Tuscaloosa Institute, and in the sup- 

 port of 1 white and 31 colored ministers and 

 evangelists. There we\e now 4 colored presby- 



teries, with 22 ministers, 36 churches, and per- 

 haps 1,000 communicants, and several licentiates 

 and Sabbath schools. The General Assembly 

 declared that it was the deliberate and settled 

 policy of the Church to aid in the establishment 

 and development of a separate and ultimately 

 self-sustaining colored Presbyterian Church. 



The Committee of Foreign Missions had re- 

 ceived $112,951. Twelve new missionaries had 

 been sent out, and 19 were under appointment. 

 The missions were in Brazil, Japan, China, Mex- 

 ico, the Congo Free State, and Turkish Greece. 

 The churches of the mission in Greece proper 

 had become part of the Evangelical Church of 

 Greece. 



General Assembly. The General Assembly 

 met at Birmingham, Ala., May 21. The Rev. 

 II. C. Du Bose, D.I)., was chosen moderator. 

 The ad interim Committee on the Directory of 

 Worship reported the result of its labors in'the 

 revision of that book, and it was sent down to 

 the presbyteries for adoption or rejection. The 

 committee appointed by the General Assembly 

 of 1890 to invite the representative bodies of 

 other churches to unite in petitions to the civil 

 governments of the world to settle international 

 difficulties without arms reported progress. 

 Many of those bodies had yet to meet for the 

 first time after receiving the invitation. Many of 

 the bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church 

 had replied approving of the movement, and say- 

 ing that they would lay the overture before the'ir 

 respective diocesan conventions. The Southern 

 Baptist Convention had adopted the petition 

 and appointed a delegate to the conference. 

 Favorable answers had been received from the 

 Methodist Episcopal Church and the Congrega- 

 tional Union of England and Wales. The action 

 of the General Assembly in 1890 on temperance 

 having been misunderstood by some persons, a 

 new resolution was adopted declaring that the 

 Church bore testimony against the traffic in in- 

 toxicating liquors as a fruitful source of abound- 

 ing iniquity and misery, and advising the people 

 to use all means which might be approved by 

 their Christian consciences and judgment to 

 remedy the evil throughout the land. Especially 

 would it urge members to abstain from intoxi- 

 cating liquors as a beverage. A pastoral letter 

 was ordered sent down to all the churches call- 

 ing attention to the evil of Sabbath desecration 

 by travel, driving, social visiting, and excursions 

 for pleasure on Sunday by members, and urging 

 them " to such observance of God's holy day as 

 becomes His people." The following minute 

 was adopted concerning the participation of 

 women in public services: 



It is the settled doctrine of our Church that women 

 are_ excluded from licensure and ordination by the 

 plain teaching of the Scriptures, and therefore can not 

 be admitted to our pulpits as authorized preachers of 

 the Word ; and also that they are prohibited from 

 speaking by way cf exhortation or leading in prayer 

 or discussing any question publicly in the meetings 

 of the church or congregation as a mixed assem- 

 bly. This is according to the mind of the Spirit as 

 expressed by St. Paul in I Cor. xiv, 34, 35, and I Tim. 

 ii, 11, 12. But we do not. hold that Christian women 

 are prohibited from holding meetings among them- 

 selves for mutual edification and comfort by pious 

 conversation and prayer, or to devise ways and means 

 to aid the general branches of Church work, sucli as 



