662 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



the chair of the professor for the dissemination of 

 their errors until they are dealt out by the slow pro- 

 cess of discipline. But if any do so act, their presby- 

 teries should speedily interpose and deal with them 

 for a violation of ordination vows. The vow taken at 

 the beginning is obligatory until the party taking it 

 is honorably and properly released. 



Majority and minority reports were presented 

 from the Judicial Committee on the matter of 

 the appeal from the judgment of the Presbytery 

 of New York dismissing the case of the prosecu- 

 tion against Prof. Briggs. The question was as 

 to the regularity of the appeal to the General 

 Assembly over the head of the Synod. The ma- 

 jority report found the appeal in order, and rec- 

 ommended proceeding under it. The minority 

 report recommended that the appeal be not enter- 

 tained, that the papers be returned to the appel- 

 lants, and that they be advised to bring their ap- 

 peal or complaint before the Synod of New York. 

 The Assembly decided, by a vote of 429 to 87, 

 that the appeal be sustained, and ordered the 

 case removed to the Presbytery of New York for 

 a new trial, 



With directions to said Presbytery to proceed to 

 pass upon and determine the sufficiency of the charges 

 and specifications in form and legal effect, and per- 

 mit the Prosecuting Committee to amend the specifi- 

 cation's of charges, not changing the general nature of 

 the same, if, in the furtherance of justice, it be neces- 

 sary to amend, so that the case may be brought to 

 issue and tried on the merits thereof as speedily as 

 may be practicable. 



The Special Committee on the Co-operation of 

 Churches reported that it had carried on an ex- 

 tensive correspondence, within and without the 

 Church, on the subject, and had conferred with 

 the Secretary of the (Congregational) American 

 Missionary Association. The results of the con- 

 ference and correspondence could be stated only 

 in the most general terms, but they furnished an 

 intelligent basis for the recommendations which 

 the committee had to make. Facts had been 

 developed in correspondence with respect to the 

 excessive multiplication of feeble churches, the 

 continuance for many years of churches that 

 give no sign of achieving self-support, and the 

 rivalry of allied denominations in the same mis- 

 sion field, that abundantly justified the action of 

 the Assembly in appointing a committee to in- 

 quire into the matter. The committee recom- 

 mended certain measures intended to make mis- 

 sionaries, synods, and presbyteries more careful 

 in starting new enterprises and in maintaining 

 unproductive ones, and advised the holding of a 

 joint conference of allied denominations on the 

 subject. 



The judgment of the Assembly was expressed 

 by resolution, that "all public moneys expended 

 upon the education of the Indian ought to be ex- 

 pended exclusively by the Government officers 

 upon Government schools," and that " the prac- 

 tice of appropriating public money for the sup- 

 port of sectarian schools among the Indians, as 

 is now done in the contract schools, ought at 

 once to cease"; and it approved "all efforts to 

 secure the constitutional prohibition of all ap- 

 propriations of public moneys to sectarian 

 schools either by States or by the General Gov- 

 ernment." It further gave its adhesion to a pro- 

 posed sixteenth amendment to the Constitution 



of the United States forbidding the States to aid 

 sectarian schools. 



The Committee on Revision of the Confession 

 of Faith reported upon the meetings which it 

 had held for the examination of the expressions 

 of the presbyteries upon the proposed revised 

 confession which had been sent down to them by 

 the preceding General Assembly. It had been 

 found impossible to meet the individual prefer- 

 ences of every presbytery without setting aside 

 what were known to be the views "of a large ma- 

 jority of the Church. Nor was it practicable to 

 take up and act upon the thirty-five requests 

 for a new creed, because the committee felt that 

 it should prosecute its work in the line marked 

 out and within the restrictions imposed upon it 

 by the General Assembly. The report contained 

 28 overtures, each covering a change proposed 

 to the Confession. This report was sent down 

 to the presbyteries for their action upon it, each 

 of the overtures to be considered separately. 



Union Theological Seminary. The General 

 Assembly having refused the request of the Di- 

 rectors of Union Theological Seminary that it 

 consent to annulling the compact of 1870, by 

 which the Assembly was given a veto power in 

 the election of professors, the Board 01 Directors 

 met Oct. 13, and, fortified by the opinion of 

 counsel that the entering into the compact was 

 outside the powers conferred by the charter, de- 

 cided, by a vote of 19 to 1, to break the connec- 

 tion between the seminary and the General 

 Assembly. The minute adopted as embodying 

 this action recites that 



There is no provision whatever in onr charter or 

 constitution for " the principle of synodicnl or Assem- 

 bly supervision." The Committees on Reunion and 

 both Assemblies in 1869 recognized this important 

 fact, and advised the introduction of that principle 

 into our Constitution. Upon this advice no action 

 was taken. The Constitution was not changed ; there- 

 fore the seminary could not rightfully give, and the 

 Assembly could not rightfully receive or exercise, 

 the veto power under our existing charter and Consti- 

 tution. 



Since the action of the General Assembly at Port- 

 land, our board has obtained the best legal advice as 

 to the points at issue between the seminary and the 

 Assembly. This advice leaves us no room to doubt 

 that, under the laws of the State of New York, the 

 attempted agreement of 1870 was beyond the powers 

 of the Board of Directors of the seminary. We " can 

 not abdicate any of our official duties in whole or in 

 part." 



Therefore, as the sole directors of Union Theologic- 

 al Seminary, we are compelled by the practical con- 

 siderations presented in our memorial, and by consti- 

 tutional and legal considerations, to maintain our 

 rights and to fulfill our chartered obligations, which 

 can be neither surrendered nor shared. In this ac- 

 tion we regret deeply that we have been refused that 

 concurrence of the "Assembly which we respectfully 

 asked, and which would have done much toward 

 softening the past and relieving the present. Obliged 

 to act alone for the protection of the institution com- 

 mitted to our care, and actuated by sincere regard for 

 the highest interests both of Union Seminary and of 

 the Church we love, we do now 



Resolve, That the resolution passed May 16, 1870, 

 adopting the memorial to the General Assembly of 

 the Presbyterian Church in the United States of 

 America, which provided that all appointments of 

 professors " shall be reported to the General Assem- 

 bly, and no such appointment of professor shall be 

 considered as a complete election if disapproved by a 





