654 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



Colleges and Academies." Its functions were 

 defined to be, to obtain annual offerings from 

 the churches for the cause ; to co-operate with 

 local agencies in determining sites for new in- 

 stitutions ; to decide what institutions shall be 

 aided ; to assign to such institutions special 

 fields open to their appeals; and to discour- 

 age all independent appeals to the Church at 

 large. Every institution hereafter established 

 must, as a condition of receiving aid from the 

 board, either be organically connected with 

 the Church, or must, by charter provision, per- 

 petually have two thirds of its Board of Con- 

 trol members of the Presbyterian Church ; in 

 the case of institutions already established and 

 not covered by these stated provisions, appro- 

 priations for endowments must be so made 

 that the funds shall revert to the board when- 

 ever those institutions shall pass from Presby- 

 terian control. A report on the revision of 

 the " Book of Discipline " was considered, the 

 proposed amendments being acted upon in de- 

 tail, and the result of the labors of the Assem- 

 bly on the subject was referred to a committee 

 to be put into shape. Among the amendments 

 adopted were provisions that ministers, elders, 

 and deacons suspended for immoral conduct 

 shall not be restored, and that withdrawing 

 members joining another church shall be 

 dropped from the rolls without action, unless 

 charges have been presented and then prose- 

 cuted. A declaration was adopted that the ex- 

 termination of the traffic in intoxicating liquors 

 by the "power of the Christian conscience, 

 public opinion, and the strong arm of the law," 

 would be rejoiced over by the Assembly. A 

 committee was appointed to consider the ques- 

 tion of a permanent place of meeting, and the 

 erection of a hall for the General Assembly. 



II. Presbyterian Chnrch in the United States. 

 The summary of the statistics of the (Southern) 

 Presbyterian Church in the United States as 

 presented to the General Assembly in May, is 

 as follows: Synods, 13; presbyteries, 67; min- 

 isters, 1,070 ; candidates, 199 ; licentiates, 45 ; 

 churches, 2,040 ; churches organized, 46 ; rul- 

 ing elders, 6,290; deacons, 4,220; communi- 

 cants, 127,017; added on examination, 6,638; 

 adults baptized, 1,719 ; infants baptized, 4,485 ; 

 baptized non -communicants, 33,474; teachers 

 in Sunday-schools, 7,706; pupils in Sunday- 

 schools, 78,725 ; contributions for all purposes, 

 $1,269,416. 



The executive committees of the various 

 missionary and benevolent enterprises made 

 reports to the General Assembly concerning 

 the condition of the trusts under their care, of 

 which the condensed summaries are as follow : 

 The receipts for publication during the finan- 

 cial year had been $8,534. The total receipts 

 for home missions had been $67,278, or $13,- 

 462 more than the receipts of the previous year. 

 The sum of $23,846 had been paid from the 

 sustentation fund ; 173 ministers, serving be- 

 tween 400 and 500 churches, had been aided 

 in support ; and 36 churches had been aided in 



obtaining houses of worship, to the amount 01 

 $5,550. Appropriations of $15,190 had been 

 made in the support of 20 evangelists ; while 

 reports from various presbyteries (in no case 

 including the whole number aided) showed 

 that through the evangelists 52 churches had 

 been organized, 940 members had been received 

 into the Church, 317 destitute points had been 

 supplied, and 21 Sunday-schools had been or- 

 ganized. Appropriations had been made from 

 the colored evangelistic fund for 11 ministers 

 and two church buildings ; while the Presby- 

 teries co-operating with the fund reported as 

 under their care 12 ministers and licentiates, 

 28 churches, 12 candidates, and 23 Sunday- 

 schools. Twenty-three ministers and the fam- 

 ilies of 76 deceased ministers had been aided by 

 the invalid fund, from appropriations amount- 

 ing to $9,195. Payments of $3,700 had been 

 made from the relief fund to the families of 13 

 deceased ministers. The receipts of the Tus- 

 caloosa Institute for the training of colored min- 

 isters had been $3,173. 



The General Assembly of the Presbyterian 

 Church in the United States met at Lexington, 

 Ky., May 17th. The Rev. Theodoric Prior, 

 D. D., of East Hanover, Va., was chosen mod- 

 erator. The most important business trans- 

 acted by the body was that relative to the res- 

 toration of fraternal relations with the Northern 

 Presbyterian Church, the subject being taken 

 up where it had been left by the General As- 

 semblies of the two bodies in the previous year, 

 and carried out to a conclusion. Delegates 

 were in attendance from the Northern Gen- 

 eral Assembly, bringing a fraternal letter, in 

 which were the words: 



You may not have said very much that was offensive 

 to those on our side ; you may have thought, you proba- 

 bly did think, many nard things. We did not ask you 

 to regret or withdraw anything. You studied to do 

 those things that make only for peace. You, of your 

 own accord, expressed regret for and withdrawal of 

 the offensive word. In your magnanimity you got the 

 start of us and did this noble thing. 



The fraternal delegates were afterward given 

 an official reception in their own persons by 

 the Assembly, when addresses appropriate to 

 the occasion were delivered by them and by 

 the moderator. Afterward a dispatch was re- 

 ceived from the Northern General Assembly 

 reporting that it had resolved, upon the recom- 

 mendation of its committee to whom the sub- 

 ject had been referred, that "fraternal rela- 

 tions having been happily established between 

 the two Assemblies on the basis of the with- 

 drawal of all imputations officially made from 

 either side against the Christian character of 

 the other, no further action of this Assembly 

 is necessary." The final action of the Assem- 

 bly upon the subject took the shape of a reso- 

 lution directing that 



The usual method of correspondence by letter be- 

 tween this General Assembly and other ecclesiastical 

 bodies shall hereafter include the General Synod of 

 the Keformed Church in America and the General 

 Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United 



