PRESBYTERIANS. 



575 



lieve that God pardons our sins and accepts us 

 as righteous, solely on the ground of the perfect 

 obedience and sacrifice of Christ, received by faith 

 alone; and that this saving faith is always ac- 

 companied by repentance, wherein we confess and 

 forsake our sins with full purpose of, and endeavor 

 after, a new obedience to God. 



" ART. X Of the Holy Spirit. We believe in 

 the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, 

 who moves everywhere upon the hearts of men, to 

 restrain them from evil and to incite them unto 

 good, and whom the Father is ever willing to give 

 unto all who ask him. We believe that he has 

 spoken by holy men of God in making known 

 his truth to men for their salvation ; that, through 

 our exalted Saviour, he was sent forth in power to 

 convict the world of sin, to enlighten men's minds 

 in the knowledge of Christ, and to persuade and 

 enable them to obey the call of the Gospel; and 

 that he abides with the Church, dwelling in every 

 believer as the spirit of truth, of holiness, and of 

 comfort. 



" ART. XI Of the New Birth and the New Life. 

 We believe that the Holy Spirit only is the 

 author and source of the new birth; we rejoice in 

 the new life, wherein he is given unto us as the 

 seal of sonship in Christ, and keeps loving fellow- 

 ship with us, helps us in our infirmities, purges 

 us from our faults, and ever continues his trans- 

 forming work in us until we are perfected in the 

 likeness of Christ, in the glory of the life to come. 

 " ART. XII Of the Resurrection and the Life to 

 Come. We believe that in the life to come the 

 spirits of the just, at death made free from sin, 

 enjoy immediate communion with God and the 

 vision of his glory; and we confidently look for 

 the general resurrection in the last day, when the 

 bodies of those who sleep in Christ shall be 

 fashioned in the likeness of the glorious body of 

 their Lord, with whom they shall live and reign 

 forever. 



" ART. XIII Of the Law of God. We believe 

 that the law of God, revealed in the Ten Com- 

 mandments, and more clearly disclosed in the 

 words of Christ, is forever established in truth 

 and equity, so that no human work shall abide 

 except it be built on this foundation. We believe 

 that God requires of every man to do justly, to 

 love mercy, and to walk humbly with his God; 

 and that only through this harmony with the 

 will of God shall be fulfilled that brotherhood of 

 man wherein the kingdom of God is to be made 

 manifest. 



" ART. XIV Of the Church and the Sacra- 

 ments. : We believe in the Holy Catholic Church 

 of which Christ is the only head. We believe that 

 the Church Invisible consists of all the redeemed, 

 and that the Church Visible embraces all who 

 profess the true religion together with their chil- 

 dren. We receive to our communion all who con- 

 fess and obey Christ as their divine Lord and 

 Saviour, and we hold fellowship with all believers 

 in him. We receive the sacraments of baptism 

 and the Lord's Supper, alone divinely established 

 and committed to the Church together with the 

 Word, as means of grace ; made effectual only by 

 the Holy Spirit, and always to be used by Chris- 

 tians with prayer and praise to God. 



" ART. XV Of the Last Judgment. We believe 

 that the Lord Jesus Christ will come again in 

 glorious majesty to judge the world and to make 

 a final separation between the righteous and the 

 wicked. The wicked shall receive the eternal 

 award of their sins, and the Lord will manifest 

 the glory of his mercy in the salvation of his 

 people and their entrance upon the full enjoyment 

 of eternal life. 



"ART. XVI Of Christian Service and the Final 

 Triumph. We believe that it is our duty, as serv- 

 ants and friends of Christ, to do good unto all 

 men, to maintain the public and private worship 

 of God, to hallow the Lord's Day, to preserve the 

 sanctity of the family, to uphold the just author- 

 ity of the state, and so to live in all honesty, 

 purity, and charity that our lives shall testify ot 

 Christ. We joyfully receive the word of Christ, 

 bidding his people go into all the world and make 

 disciples of all nations, and declare unto them 

 that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto 

 himself, and that he will have all men to be saved, 

 and to come to the knowledge of the truth. We 

 confidently trust that by his power and grace, all 

 his enemies and ours shall be finally overcome 

 and the kingdoms of this world shall be made the 

 kingdom of our God and of his Christ. In this 

 faith we abide; in this service we labor, and in 

 this hope we pray." 



The discussion over this report was short and 

 showed a preponderance of sentiment in the As- 

 sembly in favor of the propositions embodied in 

 it. The Assembly resolved that so much of the 

 report as related to the 11 overtures be adopted 

 with a view to the sending of the overtures to 

 the presbyteries in due form; and that the Brief 

 Statement be adopted and printed with the ap- 

 proval of the Assembly for use in the Church, 

 " to instruct the people and to give a better 

 understanding of our doctrinal beliefs." A report 

 containing proof-texts of the doctrines affirmed 

 accompanying these papers was also adopted. 



The present being the one hundredth year since 

 the institution of mission work by the General 

 Assembly, the annual appointment of a Commit- 

 tee of Missions having been first provided for by 

 the General Assembly of 1802, the anniversary 

 was commemorated with special services, supple- 

 mented by a public meeting which was addressed 

 by the moderator, the Rev. Dr. Charles L. Thomp- 

 son, and President Theodore Roosevelt. The re- 

 port on temperance mentioned a growing demand 

 for temperance literature, increased attention to 

 the cause of temperance in the Young People'* 

 Societies, and continued interest in temperance 

 teaching in the Sabbath-school. The Assembly's 

 resolutions suggested a memorial to Congress in 

 behalf of legislation to prohibit the sale of in- 

 toxicating liquors at old-soldiers' homes ajid in 

 Government buildings. The report on the Sab- 

 bath called attention to the tactics of the friend* 

 of the secularization of the day and embodied 

 resolutions, which were adopted, reprobating all 

 games and sports on the Lord's Day; deprecated 

 the use of that day for traveling, "either for 

 business or pleasure, by private individuals or 

 public officials, notably such as occurred during 

 the recent entertainment of a foreign guest " ; 

 disapproved of political conferences on the Lord's 

 Day; and urged the captains of industry and all 

 corporate officials and employers of labor to safe- 

 guard the men under their employ in the right 

 to their day of rest. In the matter of vacancy 

 and supply, the committee on the subject were 

 agreed in" recommending a plan for bringing 

 vacant churches and unemployed ministers to- 

 gether, but a proposition in the minority report 

 for the appointment of a permanent advisory com- 

 mittee of 3 ministers and 3 elders was not ac- 

 cepted by the Assembly. A committee was ap- 

 pointed to confer with the committee of the 

 Protestant Episcopal Church and committees that 

 may be appointed by other churches, " with a 

 view to securing some concerted opinion and ac- 

 tion by the churches of America relative to 

 divorce and remarriage, and so to affect public 



