PRESBYTERIANS. 



647 



Cumberland Presbyterian, published officially 

 by the Board of Publication at Nashville, Tenn. 

 Since then movements had been made to start 

 private papers, and the Assembly was asked to 

 discountenance them. A resolution was passed 

 declaring " that the General Assembly disap- 

 proves of the publication of weekly papers 

 claiming to be published in the interests of the 

 Church, except the one published by the Board 

 of Publication, in accordance with the action 

 of former General Assemblies, unless the per- 

 sons desiring to issue such publications shall 

 have first obtained the consent of the General 

 Assembly." -For the improvement of The 

 Cumberland Presbyterian, the Board of Publi- 

 cation was authorized to employ paid contrib- 

 utors or associate editors, and pay them reason- 

 able compensation. Consent was given to the 

 publication of a paper on the Pacific coast, by 

 private enterprise, if the Board of Publication 

 was not able to undertake it. 



V. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CANADA. 

 According to the statistical reports submitted 

 to the General Assembly in June, the Presby- 

 terian Church in Canada consisted of 805 con- 

 gregations, with 1,042 churches, 590 ministers, 

 3,596 elders, 93,788 communicants, and 72,000 

 pupils receiving instruction in the Sunday- 

 ichools. 



The General Assembly of the Presbyterian 

 Church in Canada met at Halifax, N. S., June 

 13th. The Rev. Dr. McLeod, of Sydney, C. B., 

 was chosen moderator. Much interest was 

 exhibited in the discussion of the case of the 

 Rev. D. J. MacDonnell, who was charged with 

 heresy in denying the doctrine of the eternity 

 of future punishment. His case had been in 

 the lower courts of the Church for more than 

 a year, and the previous General Assembly had 

 required of him to report to the present Assem- 

 bly whether he accepted the teaching of the 

 Church on that subject. His letter in answer 

 to this demand was read to the Assembly. In 

 it he said: "I beg respectfully to state that I 

 hold na opinion at variance with that teaching." 

 A resolution was adopted by the Assembly re- 

 citing that, while repeating that he held no 

 opinion at variance with the teaching of the 

 Church, he failed to state that he accepted it, 

 and requiring him to give in writing, before a 

 specified time, a categorical answer to the 

 question propounded to him " in the terms of 

 the deliverance of the last Assembly." Upon 

 the passage of this resolution, Mr. MacDonnell 

 stated : " I have answered as categorically as 

 a minister within the Church who has given 

 his adherence to the Confession of Faith, and 

 still adheres to it, can fairly and constitution- 

 ally be required to do on a point on which he 

 is confessedly in difficulty. If my answer is 

 not satisfactory, I request, as I have a consti- 

 tutional right to do, that the Presbytery of 

 Toronto be instructed to frame a libel accord- 

 ing to the laws of the Church." He afterward 

 put the same statement in writing. A com- 

 mittee was then appointed to confer with Mr. 



MacDonnell, with a view to the arrangement 

 of the difference without further judicial pro- 

 ceedings. This committee, after having a 

 conference with him, reported that he had in- 

 tended, in expressing his adherence to the 

 Confession of Faith in his last statement to the 

 Assembly, to be understood as saying: "I 

 consider myself as under subscription to the 

 Confession of Faith in accordance with my 

 ordination vows, and I therefore adhere to the 

 teaching of the Church as contained therein 

 on the doctrine of the eternity or the endless 

 duration of the future punishment of the 

 wicked, notwithstanding the doubts and diffi- 

 culties which perplex my mind." By unani- 

 mous consent this declaration was accepted as 

 satisfactory, and the subject was dropped. 



VI. ESTABLISHED CHCBCH OF SCOTLAND. 

 The General Assembly of the Established 

 Church of Scotland met at Edinburgh, May 

 24th, and was opened with the usual state 

 ceremonial by the Earl of Galloway as Lord 

 High Commissioner. The Rev. Dr. Phin, Con- 

 vener of the Home-Mission Committee, was 

 chosen moderator. The usual gift of the royal 

 bounty of 2,000 was made, " for the propa- 

 gation of Christian knowledge and the prin- 

 ciples of the Reformed religion in the Highlands 

 and Islands of Scotland." The report on 

 Church Extension showed that during the year 

 18 new parishes had been erected, embracing 

 a population of 66,000, and giving to eacli 

 parish an average of about 8,660 inhabitant*, 

 and calling for a total sum of about 68,000 in 

 endowments. The sum of 22,203 had been 

 received by the committee toward the 150,- 

 000 required for the erection of the proposed 

 100 additional parishes. The report of the 

 committee appointed to procure " full infor- 

 mation respecting collections and contributions 

 for religious, charitable, and educational pur- 

 poses," stated that the information asked for 

 had been obtained from 1,246 out of 1,884 

 churches, chapels, and stations. The total sum 

 returned as contributed in 1876 was 860,621, 

 while in 1877 the sum had been increased to 

 384,106. 



The most important subject of discussion 

 was the question of providing a formula for 

 the admission of elders to that office which 

 should require a less stringent adhesion to the 

 Confession of Faith than the one now required 

 of them, and which would still be required of 

 ministers. Seven overtures had been sent 

 upon the subject, on the basis of which a mo- 

 tion was made for the adoption for transmis- 

 sion to the Presbyteries for consideration of a 

 new formula acknowledging the Scripture* 

 the word of God and rule of faith and man- 

 ners, and professing approbation of the Con- 

 fession of Faith as the public and avowed 

 Confession of the Church, but not requiring, 

 as now, the candidates to accent it a the Con- 

 fession of their own faith. It was urged in 

 favor of the proposed change that great diffi- 

 culty existed in finding laymen to aerve M 



