758 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



contributions, including congregational and 

 other, $216,407. The Synod held endowment 

 funds to the total amount of $244,043. 



The Synod met in Pittsburg, Pa., May 27. 

 The Rev. R. C. Wylie was chosen moderator. 

 The report of the Committee on the Signs of 

 the Times included a review of the growth of the 

 Synod and its enterprises since 1871, when the 

 covenant was adopted throughout the whole 

 Church. The number of members had increased 

 from 8,868 to 11,289 in 1890, or 27 percent.; 

 and the total amount of contributions had risen 

 from nearly f 170,000 to nearly $240,000, or 41 

 per cent. Every work in which the Church was 

 engaged in 1871 was still prosecuted with un- 

 abated zeal and over an extended area, while the 

 new missions among the Chinese and among the 

 Indians had been added. The invested funds of 

 the Synod, which amounted in 1871 to less than 

 $50,000, were reported in 1890 to be more than 

 $241,000. The case of six ministers who had 

 been suspended by the Presbytery of Pittsburg 

 for violation of the discipline of the Church 

 came before the Synod on appeal. The specific 

 offense with which these ministers were charged 

 was that of having signed, in July, 1890, a paper 

 called the " East End Declaration," in which it 

 was held that " persons who make a credible 

 profession of Christ should be received into 

 church fellowship on the acceptance of our testi- 

 mony and terms of communion without binding 

 them to our explanation in the matter of politi- 

 cal dissent and other questions " ; and this after 

 the Synod had directed that there should be no 

 more agitation on the subject. The ministers, 

 both when on trial before the Assembly and on 

 the presentation of their appeal, declared that 

 they had not purposed to be disorderly or to 

 violate the law of the Church forbidding its 

 members to vote in civil elections, but only 

 favored a change in the law of the Church. The 

 Synod, in the case of five of the ministers, re- 

 fused to entertain the appeals, and dismissed 

 them. In the case of the sixth minister the 

 appeal was sustained. A number of the mem- 

 bers of the Synod protested against this action 

 and declared that they would leave the Church. 

 The Synod resolved to co-operate with the 

 Southern Presbyterian and other churches in 

 the address of a memorial to the governments 

 of Christendom in behalf of the cause of peace, 

 and committed its members to a personal pledge, 

 that if any part of the Columbian Exhibition 

 were opened on the Sabbath they would not at- 

 tend it, would not give it countenance or sup- 

 port, and would use their influence to persuade 

 all Christian people to unite with them in like 

 practical protest against "such a national dis- 

 honoring of the Sabbath and of the Lord of the 

 Sabbath." 



V. Reformed Presbyterian Church. (Gen- 

 eral Synod.) The General Synod of the Re- 

 formed Presbyterian Church met in Philadelphia, 

 May 21. The" Rev. William H. Gailey was elected 

 moderator. Report was made of the condition 

 of the foreign mission in India with stations 

 at Roorkee, Muzaffarnagar, and Puttiala. The 

 amount of the Church Extension fund was re- 

 turned at $4.933. The receipts and expendi- 

 tures of the Disabled Ministers' fund had been 

 $487, while other sums had been sent directly 



by different churches to the beneficiaries. The 

 total permanent investment, including the En- 

 dowment and Lamb funds, amounted to $55,- 

 474. A minute was adopted with reference to 

 the difficulties in the Reformed Presbyterian 

 Synod, to the effect that 



Anything affecting the interests of theological ed- 

 ucation in the Reformed Presbyterian Church enlists 

 our consideration. Events occurring among our for- 

 mer brethren, acting under the same name, we fear, 

 justify us in expressing regret that so many defec- 

 tions have occurred among our graduates, and that so 

 many of theirs have been silenced by suspension 

 from exercising their ministry. It is gratify ing to find 

 that there are so many among them in sentiment with 

 us. We would desire to hope that the reunion for 

 which our fathers prayed and hoped was near at 

 hand. 



A protest was adopted against opening the 

 Columbian Exhibition on Sunday. 

 YI. Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 



The General Assembly met in Owensborough, 

 Ky., May 21. The Hon. E. E. Beard, of Lebanon, 

 Tenn., was chosen moderator. In reply to an 

 overture from the Presbyterian Church (North) 

 inviting it to join in the preparation of a consen- 

 sus creed of the Reformed Churches holding the 

 Presbyterian system, a declaration was adopted : 



1. That while the Cumberland Presbyterian Church 

 has the " Presbyterian system," it does not accept the 

 " Westminster Confession " or its creed. 



2. That thus standing, it is willing at all times to 

 enter into correspondence with other Churches hold- 

 ing the " Presbyterian system " in any effort to unite 

 upon a short creed to be used as the common creed of 

 these Churches. 



A committee was appointed to enter into cor- 

 respondence with other Presbyterian committees 

 with a view to the consideration and preparation 

 of such a creed "provided that nothing contained 

 in the creed to be thus proposed shall conflict 

 with the Confession of Faith of the Cumberland 

 Presbyterian Church," with the additional stip- 

 ulation that the action of the committee should 

 have no binding force or effect till it was ap- 

 proved by the General Assembly. To a com- 

 munication inviting it to join in asking the po- 

 litical conventions to insert a recognition of 

 Jesus Christ in their platforms, the Assembly 

 resolved that it was not expedient for the Church 

 to interfere directly in politics. Majority and 

 minority reports were presented on the question 

 of " rotation in the office of elders, or the 

 election of elders for terms of years, the ma- 

 jority report declaring against rotation, and the 

 minority report in favor of it. The majority report 

 was adopted. A declaration was approved that 

 a woman can not legally be elected a ruling 

 elder. The report on Te'mperance condemned 

 all license, and declared that the legalized liquor 

 traffic has its existence because of the will of the 

 people expressed at the ballot-box, and can be 

 outlawed by the will of the people expressed at 

 the polls, and that Cumberland Presbyterians 

 ought not to exercise their privileges as citizens 

 in such a way that their votes shall be inconsist- 

 ent with their prayers. The report on the Sab- 

 bath included a protest against opening the Co- 

 lumbian Exhibition, or any part of it, on Sun- 

 day. The receipts of the Board of Missions had 

 been : For foreign missions, $22,259, of which 

 $10,169 had been contributed through the 



