PRESBYTERIANS. 



ing travel, and specially protested against the 

 efforts of street-car and railway lines to increase 

 such travel by providing special attractions on the 

 Lord's Day at suburban and other resorts; and it 

 urged all under its care " to guard most scrupu- 

 lously against complicity in any way with such 

 violations of the Lord's Day." In view of seem- 

 ing difficulties in the way of the present attain- 

 ment of its object, the committee on the prepara- 

 tion of a uniform version of the Psalms for use 

 by all Psalm-singing churches was discontinued. 

 The question having been brought up in the form 

 of a proposition to change the practice and re- 

 quire rebaptism, the Synod decided by a very 

 large majority that the practice pursued in the 

 mission in Syria of receiving converts from the 

 Greek Church without rebaptism should be con- 

 tinued. 



VI. Cumberland Presbyterian Church.- 

 The statistical returns of this Church, compiled 

 in December, 1899, give it 1,720 ministers. 2.982 

 churches, and 186,582 members; showing a gain 

 during the year of 121 ministers and 5,947 mem- 

 bers, and a loss of 39 churches. 



The Cumberland Presbyterian Church, colored, 

 had 450 ministers, 400 churches, and 39,000 mem- 

 bers; showing gains of 50 ministers and 150 

 churches. The gain of 28,750 members set down 

 in the table is claimed to represent the gain of 

 several years, but of how many is not indicated. 



The receipts of the Educational Society for 

 the year had been about $12,000, of which $10,- 

 282 had come in the form of offerings of the 

 Church. The sum of $5,920 had been paid to 

 students. The society reported that the endow- 

 ment of the Theological Seminary had been so 

 increased that the committee would hereafter be 

 relieved of the necessity of helping sustain the 

 faculty of the institution. The policy avowed by 

 a previous General Assembly expressed in the 

 words " education before ordination " had been 

 found by the society from the inquiries it had 

 been commissioned to make to be approved by 

 the Church, and appeared to be regarded as an 

 established principle. Obeying the orders of the 

 General Assembly, and disclaiming any purpose to 

 determine who should be ordained, the society 

 had simply gained information as to the processed 

 employed by the presbytery in the case of each 

 ordination, and submitted it to the Assembly 

 without comment. Where the report had not 

 seemed satisfactory, the Synod was requested to 

 investigate and see that the law was duly ob- 

 served. A school for colored Cumberland Presby- 

 terians had been founded at Huntsville, Ala., and 

 was nourishing. The society had been assisted 

 by a Ladies' Society in Nashville, Tenn. 



The Education Commission appointed by the 

 General Assembly to manage the effort to raise 

 $1,000,000 for endowments met at St. Louis and 

 organized, May 3. Besides the raising of the 

 money the constitution adopted at the meeting 

 specified as the object of the commission the en- 

 couragement and promotion of the co-ordination 

 and correlation of the educational institutions of 

 the Church so as to insure their greatest har- 

 mony and efficiency and to prevent the unneces- 

 sary waste of men and money. The preparation 

 of an address to the synods and presbyteries was 

 determined upon. Measures were proposed by 

 which active pastors may engage in the canvass 

 for funds. 



The Board of Publication reported that the 

 business transactions of the Publishing House for 

 the year had amounted to $84,414, on which a net 

 profit was realized of $8,955. The book depart- 

 ment, which had for several years been conducted 



at a loss, returned this year a net profit of 

 $1.784. 



The receipts of the Board of Ministerial Relief 

 for the year had been $10.009. The board had 

 spent $3,058 for the relief of ministers, $2.103 for 

 the relief of widows and orphans, and $2,5Wi in 

 the support of Thornton Home for Ministers. 

 Ninety-nine families had been aided by the board. 

 The receipts for Church extension had been $2,- 

 447. Two home mission churches had become 

 self-supporting; and the appropriations to home 

 mission points were being gradually decreased, 

 with a view of bringing them to self-support. 

 From the foreign field reports were made of work 

 in Mexico, Japan, and China. Nine Church 

 Extension superintendents were employed, two 

 Indian missionaries, one missionary to the Chi- 

 nese in San Francisco, 3 missionaries to the 

 mountain people, missionaries on 21 home mis- 

 sion stations. 5 missionaries in Mexico, 3 in 

 China, and 14 in Japan. 



The total receipts of the Woman's Board of 

 Missions for the year were $29,079, making it the 

 best financially of all the years. Report- \\.rr 

 made at the convention, May 8, of the work of 

 the manse department, which the board had un- 

 dertaken under the direction of the General As- 

 sembly, but which had not yet become considci- 

 able; *of Chinese work in San Fram-ix-o. \\ 1m -h 

 was partly sustained by the children and re- 

 turned 91* pupils: of the mountain mission at 

 Barnard, N. C., which had become so large that 

 the erection of a new building, toward which 

 more than $2.500 had been subscribed, had be- 

 come necessary; and of foreign mission work, in 

 Mexico and Japan. The Colegio Morales in Mex- 

 ico had 65 pupils, and the Nilmina school in 

 Japan 28 pupils. 



The sixty-ninth General Assembly met at Den- 

 ver, Col.. "May 18. The Uev. James M.-Crrady 

 Halsell, I). I)., was chosen moderator. The pre- 

 dominant subject for consideration was that of 

 education, on which a special report was pre- 

 sented. This report, expressly rero-iii/iiiL' tin- 

 importance of education, gave the schools of the 

 Church full credit for the work they had done. 

 which was good according to their resources: ex- 

 posed the inadequacy of those resources to the 

 accomplishment of what the colleges were called 

 upon to perform, and urged the necessity of in- 

 creasing their endowments. It had been shown 

 by the Educational Society that the Chureh had 

 no policy embracing the entire denomination, and 

 to remedy this defect the following measures pro- 

 posed by the committee were approved by the 

 General Assembly as outlining such a policy: 

 That the synods* and presbyteries be instructed 



to favor the promotion of preparatory >< -I I-. 



colleges, a central university, theological semi- 

 nary, and post-graduate seminary; that they dis- 

 courage the effort of academies to do college work 

 and urge them to affiliate themselves with the 

 colleges as preparatory schools; that all con- 

 cerned, including pastors and sessions. co opn.iir 

 in the effort suggested by the Kdiieation Society 

 to raise an educational endowment fund of 

 $1,000.000; that the fund so raised be appor- 

 tioned according to a schedule embodied in the 

 report among the colleges and seminarie- of 1 1n- 

 Church, including $100,000 for a college to he es- 

 tablished on the Pacific coast and x.Mi.uoo for the 

 preparation for post-graduate theological semi- 

 nary work in the University of Chicago: and the 

 constitution of a commission to be 'located at 

 St. Louis, Mo., to have the charge of the v;ii-ini: 

 of this fund. The report of the Committee on 

 Systematic Benevolence showed that the number 



