PRESBYTERIANS. 



643 



it ia to us a matter of sincere regret that the 

 terms of schism, heresy, or blasphemy should 

 ever have been applied to Southern Presbyte- 

 rians by any General Assembly of which this 

 Assembly is the successor ; " nominating fra- 

 ternal commissioners to the Southern General 

 Assembly, and inviting that body to send sim- 

 ilar commissioners. The recommendations of 

 the committee were rejected, and the follow- 

 ing resolution was adopted by a vote of 238 to 

 97, as a substitute for them : 



Inasmuch as the letter from the General Assembly 

 of the Presbyterian Church, recently holding its 

 sessions in the city of New Orleans, presents no sug- 

 gestion not considered by previous general assem- 

 blies of this body, and makes no advance toward 

 the attainment of fraternal relations between the two 

 bodies, and indicates no disposition to forget the 

 past, or pass it over, save upon conditions impracti- 

 cable for the Assembly : therefore 



Resolved, That while this General Assembly is 

 ready at any time to enter into fraternal relations 

 with the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 

 Church in the United States, no further action in 

 this matter on the part of this Assembly is called for 

 tit present. 



Afterward the following dispatch was re- 

 ceived from the Southern Assembly in session 

 at New Orleans, La. : 



NEW ORLEANS, May 22, 1877. 

 This Assembly has adopted, by 109 to 4, a paper 

 which recites the action of our Assemblies at Savan- 

 nah and St. Louis, which also refers to the commu- 

 nication from your Assembly, received at our present 

 sessions. It concludes with expressions of dissatis- 

 faction with the last-named paper, because it con- 

 tains no reference whatever to the main part of our 

 paper sent from Savannah to Brooklyn, and declares 

 that the Assembly can add nothing to our action at 

 St. Louis, approving the ground taken by our com- 

 mittee at Baltimore, which approved what the As- 

 sembly reaffirmed at Savannan. The paper adopted 

 here concludes thus : " If our brethren of the North- 

 ern Church can meet us on those terms which truth 

 and righteousness seem to us to require, then we are 

 ready to establish such relations with them during 

 the present sessions of the Assembly." 



JOSEPH P. WlLSON, S. C. 



The full text of the communication here re- 

 ferred to (which is given in connection with 

 the proceedings of the Southern General As- 

 sembly) was received in due course of mail, 

 and was referred by the Assembly to its com- 

 mittee of correspondence. 



Sundry reports on important subjects were 

 made by committees, but no final action was 

 taken upon them, but the matters were contin- 

 ued to the next assembly. Only subjects upon 

 which final action was taken are here noticed. 



A memorial was presented from the Synod 

 of San Francisco, presenting the importance of 

 the Chinese work in California, and making a 

 number of recommendations for its prosecution 

 and extension, by the Board of Foreign Mis- 

 sions. A report was adopted favoring the ob- 

 jects of the petition, advising the enlargement 

 of the mission by the Board of Foreign Mis- 

 sions encouraging and cooperating With the 

 churches of the Pacific coast, and seeking to 

 educate a native ministry among the Chinese 

 in the United States and China. A case came. 



up from the Presbytery of Sewickly, which in- 

 volved the question of the responsibility of 

 members of the Presbyterian Church who are 

 interested in the publication of newspapers is- 

 suing a Sunday edition. The Assembly de- 

 cided that "any voluntary and responsible 

 participation in the publication and sale of 

 Sunday newspapers is inconsistent alike with 

 obedience to the law of God and with mem- 

 bership in the Presbyterian Church," and justi- 

 fied the disciplinary proceedings which had 

 been instituted by the Presbytery in the case 

 under review. A report was adopted on the 

 subject of the evangelization of the German 

 population of the country, which advised a 

 careful study of the difficulties of the work, 

 special attention to young German candidates 

 for the ministry, cooperation in efforts to in- 

 struct German church members and other Ger- 

 mans, the appointment of special committees 

 for the German people in each Presbytery or 

 Presbyterian Home Mission Committee, the 

 participation of ministers in German services, 

 and the publication of books and papers in the 

 German language. Committees were appoint- 

 ed to carry out the latter purposes. The re- 

 port on temperance recommended the practice 

 of total abstinence and the discouragement of 

 social wine-drinking, and advised the exclusion 

 from membership of persons who are engaged 

 in the manufacture and sale of intoxicating 

 drinks as a beverage, or who derive their live- 

 lihood from this traffic. A communication 

 from the United Presbyterian General Assem- 

 bly, inviting the Assembly to send delegates to 

 a meeting tt> be held at Xenia, Ohio, in October, 

 to devise a plan for united effort in the cause 

 of temperance on the part of the churches, was 

 acted upon favorably, and delegates were ap- 

 pointed to attend the meeting. In answer to 

 several memorials on the subject of the wine 

 to be used at the Communion service, the As- 

 sembly decided that the control of the matter 

 be left to the sessions of the several churches, 

 with the recommendation that the purest wine 

 attainable be used. 



II. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH re THE UNITED 

 STATES. The following is a summary of the 

 statistics of this Church by synods, as reported 

 to the General Assembly in May : 



