PRESBYTERIANS. 



The quest ion of the right of a woman to ."it in 

 the A einbly was raised when the name of Mrs. 

 I'ollie I,, claret i was called as a commissioner 

 by the clerk. Objection was made to the rei .-- 

 nitioiiof Mrs. Clagett as a member of the ASM-IM- 

 bls, and the case was referred to a committee. 

 The committee brought in two reports. Tin; 

 majority report held that, in view or the action 

 of the previous General Assembly. Mrs. Clagett 

 was entitled to a seat as a delegate, and recom- 

 mended that her name be enrolled as a commis- 

 sioner, this recommendation being understood 

 not as passing upon the legal or constitutional 

 aspect of the question, but as being in view of 

 the action of the previous General Assembly. 

 The minority of the committee regarded the 

 question to be decided as a constitutional one ; 

 held that the action of the previous General As- 

 sembly was in abeyance : and therefore recom- 

 mended that, the Assembly should declare that 

 under the constitution at this time women were 

 not eligible to be made ruling elders, and Mr*. 

 Clagett was ineligible to a seat as commissioner. 

 The majority report was adopted, and the woman 

 elder was admitted to her seat. Subsequently 

 the General Assembly, recognizing the existence 

 of honest and earnest differences of opinion 

 within the denomination as to the eligibility of 

 women to the office of ruling elder and deacon, 

 and concerning the binding effect of the deliver- 

 ance on that subject made by the General Assem- 

 bly of 1892, in order to settle the matter satis- 

 factorily to the Church, and without intending 

 to express any opinion on the subject, proposed 

 alternative sets of amendments to the constitu- 

 tion to be submitted to the presbyteries for their 

 adoption or rejection. One set of amendments 



Erescribes the substitution of the word persons 

 5r men in certain sections bearing on the sub- 

 ject, and a change in another section so that it 

 shall read : " Any member of the Church, male 

 or female, of mature age and in full connection* 

 shall be eligible to the office of ruling elder or 

 deacon." The other set of amendments pro- 

 poses the substitution of the words males only 

 for men. The churches of the denomination 

 were requested not to ordain other woman elders 

 till final action shall have been taken on these 

 amendments. 



VIII. Presbyterian Church in Canada. 

 The statistical reports of this Church show an 

 increase of 283 churches and stations supplied. 

 The whole number of communicants is given as 

 178,037, or 8,681 more than in 1892 ; number of 

 baptisms during the year, 10,937, of which 10,- 

 061 were of infants; total amount paid for sala- 

 ries. $832,017. an average of $917 per pastor, or 

 $4.81 per member; amount paid for congrega- 

 tional purposes, $1,653,216, or $9.55 per mem- 

 ber; receipts for the various schemes of the 

 Church, $295.475 ; total contributions for all 

 purposes, $1,996,171. Since the union, in 1875, 

 the number of families and of members and the 

 revenues of the Church have doubled. 



The total receipts for French evangelization 

 had been $45,000. Two pastors and 4 mission- 

 ary colporteurs had labored in Ontario; 1 pastor 

 and 2 missionaries in New Brunswick; 18 pas- 

 tors, 12 missionaries, 7 missionary colporteurs, 

 and 26 teachers in the province of Quebec. 

 Thirty-seven congregations and mission fields, 



with 96 preaching stations, had been supplied, 

 and with I 1 nnectf-d <;.<) I' r ,,;. 



familie>. One hundred and ninety-two persons 

 had united with the Church, making the whole 

 number 9M4. Two new fields had been occu- 

 pied. 



The Hoard of Foreign Missions had received, 

 from the KaMcrn section, 26,248; from the 

 Western section, $103,407. Besides the missions 

 in the New Hebrides, Trinidad, India, China, and 

 Formosa, missions were sustained among the 

 Chinese in British Columbia and the Indians of 

 the Northwest Territory. The entire missionary 

 force included 35 ordained missionaries, 32 wom- 

 an teachers, 11 medical missionaries, 6 of whom 

 were women, and 324 native helpers of various 

 grades. 



The General Assembly met at Brantford, On- 

 tario, June 14. The Rev. Thomas Sedgwick, 

 D. D., of Tatamagouche. Nova Scotia, was chosen 

 moderator. An overture was received from the 

 Presbytery of Calgary, calling attention to the 

 need of work for the evangelization of the Mor- 

 mons in the Northwest. The subject was re- 

 ferred to the Home Mission Committee. An 

 overture from the Presbytery of Maitland called 

 attention to an address delivered on Feb. 27 by 

 Prof. John Campbell, of Presbyterian College, 

 Montreal, at King's College, Kingston, on the 

 " Perfect Book or the Perfect Father," as con- 

 taining language highly derogatory to the char- 

 acter of God, to the character and inspiration of 

 the Scriptures, and the characters and writings 

 of the inspired penmen, etc., and asked the As- 

 sembly to take action in the matter. The case 

 being already before the Presbytery of Mont- 

 real, the presbytery was left to proceed in the 

 constitutional way in dealing with it. The com- 

 mittee appointed by the previous General As- 

 sembly on the organization of the young people 

 of the Church reported in favor of organizing 

 them along the lines and upon the basis of the 

 Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor. 

 There were 805 societies of that organization in 

 the Church, and they could not be disbanded. 

 The committee hoped to see the society more 

 Presbyterian, it being now too Congregational. 

 The presbyteries were advised to hold stated 

 conferences on the subject of Sabbath observ- 

 ance, and asked to obtain exact information con- 

 cerning the state of the question within their 

 bounds. The failure of the Parliament to pass a 

 stronger law on the subject was regretted, and the 

 attention of the Government was called to Sab- 

 bath labor going on in some of its works. The 

 Committee on Colleges and their relation to the 

 Church reported concerning the method of ap- 

 pointing professors in them, and suggested 

 measures for bringing the appointments more 

 directly under the control of the General Assem- 

 bly. The report was referred to the presbyteries 

 and the college boards and senates for advice. 

 The Assembly expressed itself ready to entertain 

 the question of union with other evangelical 

 bodies. A committee on the general subject of 

 union was appointed, with instructions to hold 

 itself ready to confer with any similar bodies 

 which may be appointed on the subject by other 

 Churches. 



Case of Prof. Campbell. Charges were pre- 

 sented in the Presbytery of Montreal in Juno 



