644 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



The following is a summary of the general 

 statistics of the Church as they are given in 

 the table published with the Minutes of the 

 General Assembly of 1877. The table also 

 exhibits the condition of the Church, as was 

 indicated by the reports of 1875 and 1876 : 



The condition of the funds and benevolent 

 enterprises of the Church is exhibited in the 

 reports of the boards having them in charge. 



The General Assembly of the Presbyterian 

 Church in the United States met at New 

 Orleans, La., May 17th. The Rev. 0. A. Still- 

 man, D. D., of Alabama, was chosen modera- 

 tor. The following report was adopted on the 

 subject of correspondence with the Presby- 

 terian Church in the United States of America : 



Whereas, The General Assembly of this Church, in 

 session at St. Louis in 1875, adopted a paper tender- 

 ing special thanks, in the name of the whole Church, 

 to our Committee of Conference at Baltimore, for 

 their diligence, fidelity, and Christian prudence, 

 and, in particular, approving and indorsing, as 

 satisfactory to the Southern Church, the condition 

 precedent to fraternal relations suggested by our 

 committee, viz. : " If your Assembly could see its 

 way clear to say, in a few plain words, to this effect, 

 that these obnoxious things were said and done in 

 times of great excitement, and are to be regretted ; 

 and that now, in a calm review, the imputations cast 

 upon the Southern Church (of schism, heresy, and 

 blasphemy) are disapproved, that would end the 

 difficulty at once ; " and 



Whereas, Our General Assembly, in session at 

 Savannah in 1876, in response to a paper from the 



General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the 

 United States of America, which met in Brooklyn, 

 adopted the following paper, viz. : 



" We are ready most cordially to enter on fraternal 

 relations with your body on any terms honorable to 

 both parties. The Assembly has already, in answer 

 to an overture from the Presbytery of St. Louis, 

 spontaneously taken the following action : 



"Resolved, That the action of the Baltimore Con- 

 ference, approved by the Assembly at St. Louis, ex- 

 plains, with sufficient clearness, the position of our 

 Church. But, inasmuch as it is represented by the 

 overture that misapprehension exists in the minds 

 of some of our people as to the spirit of this action, 

 in order to show our disposition to remove, on our 

 part, all real or seeming hinderance to friendly feel- 

 ing, the Assembly explicitly declares that, while 

 condemning certain acts and deliverances of the 

 Northern General Assembly, no acts or deliverances 

 of the Southern General Assemblies are to be con- 

 strued or admitted as impugning in any way the 

 Christian character of the Northern General Assem- 

 bly, or of the historical body to which it is the suc- 

 cessor ; " and 



Whereas, The said General Assembly at Brooklyn, 

 in response to the foregoing paper adopted by your 

 Assembly at Savannah, adopted the following, which 

 has been ocmmunicated to us at our present meeting, 

 viz. : 



" The overture of this Assembly having been re- 

 ceived by the General Assembly in the South with 

 such a cordial expression of gratification, the com- 

 mittee recommend that the same resolution, declara- 

 tive of the spirit in which this action is taken, be 

 adopted by this Assembly, viz. : In order to show 

 our disposition to remove on our part all real or 

 seeming hinderance to friendly feeling, the Assembly 

 explicitly declares that, while condemning certain 

 acts and deliverances of the Southern General Assem- 

 bly, no acts or deliverances of the Northern Assem- 

 bly, or of the historic bodies of which the present 

 Assembly is the successor, are to be construed or ad- 

 mitted as impugning in any way the Christian char- 

 acter of the Southern General Assembly, or of the his- 

 torical body or bodies of which it is the successor : " 



Therefore be it resolved, by this Assembly, That we 

 cannot regard this communication as satisfactory, 

 because we can discover in it no reference whatever 

 to the first and main part of the paper adopted by 

 our Assembly at Savannah, and communicated to 

 the Brooklyn Assembly. This Assembly can add 

 nothing on this subject to the action of the Assembly 

 at St. Louis, adopting the basis proposed by our 

 Committee on Conference at Baltimore, and re- 

 affirmed by the Assembly at Savannah. 



If our brethren of the Northern 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 Assemblies. 



A report was read of the condition of the 

 institute for the education of colored candidates 

 for the ministry, which had been authorized 

 by the Assembly of the previous year, and 

 established at Tuskaloosa, Ala. It had been 

 under the charge of the Rev. Dr. Stillman, 

 present moderator of the Assembly, with one 

 assistant, and was opened on the 1st of Novem- 

 ber, 1876. It had at present six scholars, of 

 whom two were regular candidates for the 

 ministry. There were a great many colored 

 men who applied for its benefits, but they had 

 not the means of support, and the institute 

 had not the means of providing it for them. 

 This, it was stated, was the chief difficulty in 

 the way ot building up the school. Ac execu- 



