736 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



clared at 10. While the contributions to this 

 fund and to the Orphan Society had increased, 

 there had been a decrease in the missionary in- 

 come. The average amount received by the As- 

 sembly from bequests during the past six or seven 

 years "had been about 7,000 a year. The As- 

 sembly's Fire Insurance Company had 400 policies 

 in force, covering property to the value of $530,- 

 03. 



The General Assembly met at Belfast. June 8. 

 The Rev. Daniel A. Taylor was chosen moder- 

 ator. Resolutions were unanimously passed 

 " against the widespread revival of Romanism in 

 a Protestant Church established by the state 

 as a retrograde movement and a reimposition 

 upon the free conscience of England and the colo- 

 nies of a yoke which neither we nor our fathers 

 were able to bear." Resolutions were also passed . 

 requesting the Government to substitute the 

 word " church " for " meeting house " in its offi- 

 cial communications. A motion to invest the 

 moderator with the title of Right Reverend re- 

 ceived no countenance. The questions concern- 

 ing the use of instrumental music and the sing- 

 ing of hymns in service, which have greatly vexed 

 previous General Assemblies, w r as not raised this 

 year, only one reference having been made to the 

 controversy, in the discussion of the report on the 

 new hynmary. 



XI. Presbyterian Church in England. The 

 statistics of this Church as reported to the Synod 

 in April showed that 315 congregations were con- 

 nected with it, having 73,249 communicants 

 (a net increase of 1,805 members), 7,540 teachers 

 and 89,930 pupils in Sunday schools. The 

 churches provided 163,738 sittings. The total 

 value of church property was 1 ,842,532, against 

 which stood debts aggregating $92,076. The total 

 income for the year was 278,889, exceeding the 

 total of the previous year by 8,000. The rev- 

 enue for missionary purposes was 28,018. The 

 annual report of the Women's Missionary Asso- 

 ciation showed, an income of 4,885, and dealt 

 with the work of 20 woman missionaries. 

 Nearly 34,000 had been devoted during the year 

 to missions and charities in connection with con- 

 gregations. The receipts of the Sustentation fund 

 had been 45,701, and the expenditure, including 

 1,100 added to the Reserve fund, 46,590. The 

 capital of the Widows' and Orphans' fund was 

 03,753, yielding a revenue of 2,430. 



The anniversary of the Missionary Society was 

 held May 16, the Earl of Aberdeen presiding. The 

 year's income had been 25,082. Fifty European 

 medical and other missionaries were supported in 

 China, 20 of whom, not including the wives of 

 missionaries, were women; with 150 native pas- 

 tors and agents all laboring in connection with 

 189 mission stations; while the number of com- 

 municants in China and Formosa was 0,000. At- 

 tached to the missions were 9 hospitals, where 

 about 30,000 patients were treated annually, and 

 colleges for training native evangelists. 



The Synod met in London, April 28. The Rev. 

 Charles Moinet, D. D., of Bromley, was chosen 

 moderator. The report on religion and public 

 morals expressed regret at the increasing laxity 

 of Sunday observance; urged all who love the 

 Sabbath to discourage by all means in their power 

 the journals and other publications that issue 

 Sunday editions; and found occasion for joy in 

 the disarmament proposal of the Czar. The ques- 

 tion of undertaking a twentieth century fund 

 was referred to the General Purposes Committee, 

 in conjunction with the College Building and 

 Home Mission Committees, to report at the next 

 meeting of the Synod. A special committee which 



had been dealing for two years with the question 

 of remedies for ministerial inefficiency, and had 

 been seeking means to facilitate interchanges of 

 pastorates, was dismissed. Presbyteries were em- 

 powered to arrange for the settlement of ministers 

 who desire, with the full consent of their congre- 

 gations, to exchange pastorates. A revision of 

 the Book of Order was directed. A resolution 

 was unanimously adopted recognizing the seri- 

 ous nature of the crisis in the Church of England, 

 and expressing sympathy with the evangelical 

 party in that Church in the embarrassment of its 

 contest with ritualism. Arrangements were or- 

 dered made for the opening of the college (which 

 had been transferred to Cambridge) in the ensu- 

 ing October. 



XII. Reformed Presbyterian Church (Scot- 

 land). The annual meeting of the Synod \\as 

 held in Glasgow in May, with the Rev. A. C. 

 Gregg as moderator. The financial statement 

 showed that credit balances existed of 53!' in 

 the account of foreign missions, 03 to that of 

 ministerial aid. 150 in favor of the Aged Minis- 

 ters' fund, 30 of home missions, 17 of publica- 

 tion, and 714 of the general fund; while a defi- 

 cit of 120 was scored against the Synod fund. 

 A gift of 20 was voted to the foreign mis-ion 

 scheme of the Waldensian Church. 



XIII. Original Secession Church. The an- 

 nual synodical meeting of the Original Secession 

 Church was held in Edinburgh in May. The Rev. 

 Alexander J. Yule was chosen moderator. The 

 reports submitted showed that the total income 

 for the year had been 2,005, an increase of 

 315, and that a balance was carried over after 

 all disbursements of i: 302. The aggregate >uni 

 now at the credit of the Synod's accounts was 

 4.983. A passage in the report of the Com- 

 mittee on Religion and Morals referred to the 

 adoption of the Common Hymnary by the three 

 great Presbyterian Churches as anotner step in 

 the wrong direction, tending to the further di-u-c 

 of the divinely inspired Psalter. The Synod re- 

 solved to petition tne Government in favor of the 

 Peace Conference invoked by the Czar of Ru--i:i. 

 to ask it to take measures intended to secure the 

 letter observance of the Sabbath, and to oppose 

 any measure that might be brought forward to 

 legal i/e marriage with a deceased \\itV- -i-tcr. It 

 expressed approval of the local veto and threefold 

 option schemes, in respect to the liquor traflic. 



XIV. Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church. 

 TheGeneral Assembly met at Liverpool, May 15, 

 with the Rev. Evan Phillips presiding. The il< \. 

 Thomas Roberts, of Bethesda, was chosen mod- 

 erator for 1900. The report of the foreign mi- 

 sions showed good progress in various tid<N in 

 India. The year's expenditure on the work had 

 been 10,35*3. The report of the statist ician 

 showed that notwithstanding the financial di-- 

 turbances of the year in large parts of Wales 

 caused by the coal strike, the interests of the 

 Church had continued to grow. The result of 

 the special appeal in behalf of the mission*- in 

 Khassia, India, which had suffered 'from earth- 

 quakes, had been an excess of 8,500 in the col- 

 lections over the total of -any previous year. The 

 number of communicants had increased 1.830; 

 while the number of hearers showed a gradual in- 

 crease, and was now 310,053. The chapel debts 

 had been reduced 67,000. The total revenue of 

 the 1,339 churches exceeded 246,000. *A propo- 

 sition was adopted for the celebration of the close 

 of the nineteenth century by instituting a thank- 

 offering fund of 100.000, to be devoted to pur- 

 poses hereafter to be defined. The report of the 

 Education Committee included the results of an 



