584 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



the Augmentation fund amounted to 15,123, an 

 increase of 385. In its resolutions on Church 

 and state the Assembly adhered to its testimony 

 in favor of disestablishment, and expressed its 

 sympathy with the free churches of England in 

 their resistance to the education bill. 



The General Assembly met in Glasgow, May 20. 

 The Rev. Dr. Robert Howie was chosen mod- 

 erator. A day was spent in the discussion of 

 the report of the College Committee on a me- 

 morial and overtures relating to the views ex- 

 pressed by Prof. George Adam Smith in his 

 book Modern Criticism and the Preaching of the 

 Old Testament. The committee reported that it 

 had concluded that it was not its duty or that 

 of the Church to originate any process, not be- 

 cause they accepted the critical results that were 

 presented by Prof. Smith, but because they felt 

 that the time had not come for judgment on any 

 of the problems with which his book dealt. 

 These were meantime in the region of discussion. 

 That volume linked itself to a great movement 

 that touched and embraced within it questions 

 of literary analysis, questions needing detailed 

 examination; and it would have been on that 

 movement, and not on a narrow question, that 

 the Church would have been called to decide 

 had the College Committee originated or advised 

 the origination of a process. It should be re- 

 membered that Prof. Smith's volume had been 

 issued in defense of religion, but the committee 

 at the same time felt that he had sometimes been 

 betrayed into forms of expression that were not 

 always wise or fitted to present his views in the 

 best way. Prof. Smith himself spoke in explana- 

 tion of his position, saying that from the bottom 

 of his heart he believed in the Bible as the reve- 

 lation of God to sinful man. He had never said 

 that there was any discrepancy between one 

 Testament and the other. The resolution of the 

 Assembly accepted the recommendation of the 

 report that it was not the duty of the Church 

 to institute any process against Prof. Smith in 

 connection with his book, while it declared that 

 it was not to be held as accepting or authorizing 

 the critical theories therein set forth; expressed 

 its unabated reverence for the written Word; 

 called upon ministers and professors who might 

 take part in these discussions to be careful that 

 reverence for Holy Scripture should be conspicu- 

 ously manifest in their writings; and, recalling 

 the results of former discussions, exhorted the peo- 

 ple not to be soon shaken in mind by what they 

 heard of statements regarding the Bible or some 

 parts of its contents. Approval was given to a 

 scheme contemplating the raising during five 

 years of a central sum of 25,000 for promoting 

 church extension in populous and underchurched 

 districts, etc. On the presentation of the Praise 

 Committee's report reference was made to gifts 

 of organs by Mr. Andrew Carnegie. In the dis- 

 cussion of home mission affairs, it was repre- 

 sented that the combined income of the Free and 

 United Presbyterian Churches for 1900 had been 

 14,443, whereas the income of the United Free 

 Church for 1901 had been only 13,824. 



A suit instituted by adherents of the Free 

 Church of Scotland who refused to recognize the 

 United Free Church for the possession of certain 

 property of the former Free Church having been 

 decided by Lord Low in 1901 in favor of the 

 United Free Church, an appeal was taken to the 

 Court of Sessions, Edinburgh. This court gave 

 a decision, July 4, all the judges concurring, dis- 

 missing the action, and affirming the legality of 

 the union and of the proceedings by which it was 

 accomplished. 



X. Presbyterian Church in England. The 

 statistical report made to the Synod of this 

 Church in May showed that 5 congregations had 

 been aided during the year, bringing the whole 

 number of congregations up to 326, while the 

 membership had risen from 76,071 to 78,024, and 

 the membership of Sunday-schools to 81,967. 

 The total income of the Church had been 320,- 

 851. The church sittings available numbered 

 167,945, against 166,391 in 1900. Five churches 

 were in course of building. The debt upon 

 church property amounted to 87,858, as against 

 101,063 .at the close of 1900. 



The total income for missionary work had been 

 52,828, including 20,000 from the Sturge be- 

 quest. The mission in China returned 87 organ- 

 ized congregations, 123 preaching stations, and 

 7,500 members. Of these congregations, 34 con- 

 stituted " native Chinese pastorates as fully or- 

 ganized as any of the home organizations, none 

 of which received a penny from the home funds." 

 The Synod decided to cooperate with the United 

 Free ChuBch of Scotland in the support of the 

 Livingstonia Mission, Africa, and to incorporate 

 it as one of its schemes. 



The Synod met in Newcastle, May 6. The Rev. 

 A. H. Drysdale was chosen moderator, and ad- 

 dressed the meeting on the subject of The New 

 Puritanism. The report on home missions em- 

 bodied the rules for a proposed permanent Church 

 Building fund, which were adopted. In the past 

 periodical funds had been raised, of which the 

 one recently closed had amounted to 50,000. 

 It w r as now decided to aim at raising at least 

 5,000 a year, and the institution of a loan fund 

 was contemplated. The question was raised 

 whether the erection of a side pulpit should be 

 permitted in churches aided by the fund, pulpits 

 of that kind being regarded by some Protestants 

 as sacerdotal. The answer was returned to the 

 objection that it was a mistake to set up as a 

 standard of Protestantism what was merely an 

 accident. The Synod decided to leave the matter 

 of a side pulpit optional. The sustentation re- 

 port showed an income of 46,620, which, with 

 few exceptions, insured a ministerial stipend of 

 not less than 200 a year. Congregations were 

 urcred to aid the committee in raising the an- 

 nuity for aged and infirm ministers from 60 to 

 100. Two ministers were set apart as Synod 

 evangelists for the year. The Home Mission 

 Committee was empowered to set apart a minis- 

 ter for a limited time to carry on a pioneer 

 church extension work. The Synod decided to 

 assist in providing services on the Continent for 

 English-speaking travelers. While the Synod 

 sends delegates to the United Free Church As- 

 sembly in Scotland and has fraternal relations 

 with the Synod in England in connection with the 

 Church of Scotland, it found it inadvisable to 

 go forward in the establishment of similar rela- 

 tions with the Established Church of Scotland at 

 the present time. 



XI. Presbyterian Church in Ireland. The 

 General Assembly met in Belfast, June 2. The 

 Rev. Prof. Henry was chosen moderator. Pro- 

 vision was made for the retirement of minictrr* 

 at seventy years of age and the appointment of 

 an assistant and successor. Another measure 

 adopted permits the several sessions throughout 

 the Church to select as their representative in 

 the Assembly any elder of any congregation 

 under its jurisdiction. A specimen organ, placed 

 in the vestibule of the church where the Assem- 

 bly met, was removed under the influence of the 

 Purity of Worship party. The total amount 

 received by churches and Sabbath-schools during 



