act was revolutionary. It was attempted to be justified on the plea of expediency, to save the church from corruption; and but for this measure the predominance of New School principles would have been inevitable in the entire body.

On the excision of these synods, the greater part of the New School party throughout the entire church also withdrew and made common cause with their exscinded brethren; and the next year, 1838, witnessed the organization of the New School Presbyterian Church, not professedly as a new body, but as a continuation of the old body, on constitutional principles. Such it undoubtedly was.

Since this time there have been two general assemblies, and two general Presbyterian churches; designated properly the Old and New School. The schism of 1741 was temporary. It lasted only seventeen years. That of 1837 is likely not to be permanent, but will continue for an indefinite period.

The excision of the New School portion of the American Presbyterian church was, in the opinion of the Old School body, justified and demanded by the following considerations.

1. That the exscinded brethren favored Congregationalism. 2. That they did not hold strictly to the confession of faith, and that some of them gave it a qualified assent. 3. That many of them were unreasonable in their opposition to slavery, and were disposed to put slaveholding under the ban of the church, and make it a disciplinable offence. 4. That they deviated from strict Calvinism. 5. That they were in favor of independent societies, and opposed to church-boards for prosecuting missionary and other benevolent operations.

Dr. L. Beecher, then of Cincinnati, Rev. Albert Barnes, of Philadelphia, and previously Dr. Duffield, had been prosecuted before the church courts, on the charge of departing from the confession of faith, and attempted in vain to be condemned and silenced as heretics. Others were equally obnoxious to the displeasure of their Old School brethren, as the abettors of the same views. A great point of difference between Old and New School

Presbyterians was that in relation to church-boards for the prosecution of benevolent objects. The plan of carrying on benevolent operations by independent societies had grown up, imperceptibly, in this country, under the patronage of Congregationalists. The Congregational churches generally contributed through them, and left them to use their contributions according to their discretion.

The Presbyterians had fallen into the same system. It was apparently working well, and the majority were not disposed to depart from it. The Old School brethren contended that the prosecution of these objects was the unquestionable duty of the church in its corporate character, and that it could not safely be transferred to independent societies. Accordingly, that church, immediately after the separation, established the following church boards:

1, Foreign missions; 2, Domestic missions; 3, Education of candidates for the ministry; 4, Religious publications.

A similar policy is pursued by other orders, with the exception of the Congregationalists. The reason that it has not appeared practicable for the Congregationalists to adopt this policy, is, that their organization is yet incomplete; and that they have no general church court or advisory council in which all the churches of their order throughout the country are represented. They require this addition to complete their system, and cannot long neglect to make it. When such a council is constituted, it will not only become a board of union and coöperation in other respects, but in this also; and will probably lead to the adoption of the same policy, with respect to church-boards, for that order, which has already been adopted by Old School Presbyterians, and most other church orders.

Some New School brethren have objected to the titles of New and Old School Presbyterians, and prefer to be called Constitutional Presbyterians, &c.; from the fact that their excision was unconstitutional. This would require the brethren of the other assembly to be called Unconstitutional Presbyterians; a desig

nation which could never obtain. But the convenience of these titles is considerable, and there is no good objection to the popular designation of New School Presbyterians, as applied to one branch of the great Presbyterian family, and Old School to the other. The two schools are thus not inappropriately déscribed by their names.

Since the separation, there has been a reäction in the New School body in favor of Old School principles, and many have made it an object to keep as near to Old School principles and practice as possible. This has been especially the case with respect to Calvinistic theology. Many New School ministers vie with the most strict of the Old School in implicit subjection to that great thinker; and Old School philosophy is of paramount authority in the New School branch of the church.

Taylorism is at a ruinous discount among New School Presbyterians, and is viewed by many with the utmost suspicion and dislike.

The effect of the division has been to increase, for the present, the popularity and ascendency of the Old School principles, at the expense of the New.

New School principles were stronger in the general assembly of both schools, before the division, than they are in the New School at the present time. For all practical purposes New School principles are annihilated, and the entire New School assembly, with its ministers and churches, have gone over to Old School conservatism. The standards of the two churches are precisely the same, and with few exceptions are assented to in both assemblies in the same way. Very few ministers would experience any difficulty in passing from the New School connection to the Old, or would find their associations less congenial by such a change. Their different external relations is the principal difference that appears.

The correlative branches of the American Presbyterian family are numerous and flourishing, but all of them fall considerably

below the Old and New School assemblies, in respect to the number of their churches and communicants.

With the exception of the Cumberland Presbyterians, they all adhere strictly to the confessions of faith which had their origin in Europe, in the early stages of the Protestant reformation, and sympathize with the Old School assembly on the principle of a strict construction of their confessions, and strict Calvinism. Most of them are tenacious of their names, and of the slight peculiarities of their respective orders. The Cumberland Presbyterians, however, considerably exceed the New School in their deviations from Calvin, and are professedly Arminian in theology.

CHAPTER XIII.

OLD AND NEW SCHOOL PRESBYTERIANISM.

THE origin of Old School Presbyterianism has been given in the previous chapter. Immediately after the excision of their New School brethren, in 1837, the excisionists appointed church boards for the prosecution of benevolent objects, and commenced the administration of all church matters according to their own peculiar views of scriptural authority and expediency. Their missions have been prospered, and the missionary spirit considerably promoted among their membership, so that the cause of missions has been a gainer by the change. Their book concern has gone into successful operation, and is a powerful auxiliary of the ministry and membership, both in the promotion of religion generally and in that of their order in particular. The same may be said of the Methodist book concern. It is an instrument of immense church influence, and exerts a mighty power on the nation at large.

In the separation, the Old School body retained the venerable seminary at Princeton, N. J.; which, with its correlative agencies, is a powerful director of public opinion, and has given that body considerable advantages over the New School. The New School took off Auburn and Lane seminaries. But both fall far short of Princeton in authority and influence, as well as in resources. Considerable efforts have been made, in the Old School body, to secure among its members a thorough religious training of the young; and it is believed that, in this respect, that body is in advance of the other. In regard to slavery, the same conservative policy has been pursued as in former years. Slavery is deplored, and generally condemned as a great evil, and sometimes as a great sin. The members are admonished to strive against it, to promote its removal, and mitigate its oppres sions, at much as they can; but are tolerated, without rebuke, in slaveholding, if they see fit to practise it. This body is believed to be strictly Calvinistic. Its book of faith and discipline is so, and the church is administered on the principle of a strict adherence to the book.

The Old School body has enjoyed very considerable prosperity, has a large annual growth, and is one of the most respectable and influential bodies in the land. It is probably the best specimen of Westminster assembly Presbyterianism and Calvinism in the world, exceeding even Scotland in realizing the ideal both of the Westminster divines and of Calvin. Its leading ministers are men of eminent learning and piety, and its laymen comprehend some of the most distinguished of the American people. As a body, they are considerably zealous for their church polity, and regard their standards with great veneration. Whatever the system can accomplish, they will be likely to effect. They are thoroughly testing both the system of Calvinistic theology and Presbyterian polity; and seem likely to show, by experiment, what they can do for humanity, where their beneficial operations end, and how they are limited.

This is but a repetition of previous experiments in Scotland,