652 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



the communion and service of the Church, assured 

 that in so doing they remain well within their con- 

 stitutional rights. 



Finally, only a profound sense of the peril that now 

 besets our Church has led us to make this declaration 

 of what seems to us fundamental principles. 



II. Presbyterian Chnrch in the United 

 States. The following is the summary of the 

 statistics of this Church as reported to the Gen- 

 eral Assembly in May, 1893. The summaries for 

 1891 and 1892 are also given for comparison : 



The Executive Committee on Home Missions 

 reported to the General Assembly that the whole 

 amount of funds in its hands during the year 

 had been $86,865, of which the treasurer had 

 disbursed $77,649. Thirty-four churches had 

 been aided from the Church Erection and Loan 

 fund, and 36 white congregations from the 

 regular Loan fund ; 237 ministers and licen- 

 tiates ministering to weak congregations had 

 been assisted from the Sustentation fund ; 9 

 ministers and 3 teachers among the Indians, 

 and 44 ministers engaged in evangelistic work 

 had been aided from the Evangelistic and In- 

 dian Missions fund ; and 145 names were en- 

 rolled of beneficiaries of the Invalid fund. 



The Committee of Colored Evangelization re- 

 ported that its receipts for the year from all 

 sources had been $10,189, an increase of 15 per 

 cent, over the previous year. Work was done in 

 all the Southern States except West Virginia 

 and Arkansas. Two colored evangelists had 

 been employed. Thirty-three ministers and li- 

 centiates had been aided in supplying 69 

 churches. Three schools had been conducted, 

 in which colored children were taught daily in 

 the Bible, the Catechism, and other branches. 

 Tuscaloosa Institute for the education of colored 

 ministers had gone on without interruption and 

 successfully. The committee, owing to a mis- 

 understanding of the action of the last Assem- 

 bly, had not succeeded in arranging a confer- 



ence with the Northern Church on co-operation. 

 Another conference was asked for on proposi- 

 tions to unite the work of the CFmrch in behalf 

 of the negro in an effort to build up an inde- 

 pendent negro Presbyterian Church ; or, failing 

 to agree upon this, to bring the work of the two 

 churches in this cause into closer sympathy by 

 practical co-operation in every way possible. 

 The colored work at present embraced 43 minis- 

 ters, 4 licentiates, 18 candidates, 67 churches, 

 1,682 members, and 1,760 pupils in Sabbath 

 schools; 214 members had been added to the 

 churches during the year, and $2,205 had been 

 contributed by the churches. 



The receipts from all sources for foreign mis- 

 sions had been $127,811. Nineteen missionaries 

 had been added to the force in the field, 7 of 

 whom went out to open a mission in Corea, and 

 30 candidates were before the Executive Com- 

 mittee ready to go. Against these the force in 

 the field had been reduced by the death of sev- 

 eral missionaries and the retirement of others. 

 The missionaries in the Grecian countries had 

 all been withdrawn, and the work there was left 

 entirely in the hands of the native Church. 



The General Assembly met in Macon, Ga., 

 May 18. Judge J. W. Lapsley, of Montgomery, 

 Ala., was chosen moderator, this being the first 

 time in the history of the Church that a layman 

 had been elected to that position. The commit- 

 tee appointed by the previous General Assembly 

 to call a convention of colored Presbyterian 

 ministers and churches with a view to organiz- 

 ing an independent colored synod reported that 

 the commissioner with whom it was acting had 

 visited and corresponded with the colored 

 brethren very fully, and had ascertained that 

 they were not yet prepared for that step ; hence 

 the convention had not been called, and there 

 had been no meeting of the committee. A plan 

 was approved for the organization and operation 

 of a home and school for the orphans of minis- 

 ters and the children of foreign missionaries who 

 have to be sent home for education. A report of 

 a committee which had been appointed to con- 

 sider the subject of young people's societies was 

 ordered published, and majority and minority 

 reports on the same of a special committee of 

 the General Assembly were referred to a special 

 committee to report to the next Assembly. The 

 report on the theological seminaries declared that 

 "the orthodoxy and diligence and fidelity of those 

 who teach and those who are taught, the un- 

 broken harmony in the boards of directors, and 

 the healthful pecuniary condition of each insti- 

 tution are occasions of great thanksgiving to 

 the God of our fathers/' The Assembly recom- 

 mended that in selecting professors for the sev- 

 eral theological seminaries due regard should be 

 had for the best interests of the other seminaries. 

 The " Narrative of the State of Religion " repre- 

 sented that in the matter of Sabbath observance 

 there was not cause for congratulation. " Pub- 

 lic opinion is lax. and the influence of public 

 opinion is being felt by our people; . . . evan- 

 gelical Christianity does not present an unbroken 

 opposition to Sabbath desecration, nor do our 

 own people. The number of our people who en- 

 courage the Sunday mail, Sunday travel, and the 

 Sunday newspaper is appalling." The Assembly 

 resolved that having in a former deliverance 



