three legal gentlemen, to be appointed by the Assembly, to be requisite and necessary for the fully carrying into effect these resolutions.

JOHN W. DULLES,

Secretary of the Pres. Publication Committee.

PHILADELPHIA, May, 26, 1863.

The Committee recommend the adoption of the overture, and the appointment of Samuel H. Perkins, Esq., Samuel C. Perkins, Esq., and Hon. Joseph Allison as the Committee of legal gentlemen referred to in the last resolution.

The report was adopted.-1863, p. 274, N. S.

The trustees report further that, in accordance with the direction of the last General Assembly, they have executed under their corporate seal, and have delivered to the Presbyterian Publication Committee, the deed of declaration of trust prescribed by the Assembly.-1864, p. 539, N. S.

5. Title Executed to the Board of Publication.

The trustees further report that, in accordance with the direction of the Jast General Assembly, they have conveyed to "the Trustees of the Presbyterian Board of Publication" the house and lot Nos. 1334 and 1336 Chestnut street.-1871, p. 671.

6. Trusts Transferred.-Ministerial Relief Fund.

The trustees report that, in accordance with the commitment by the last General Assembly of the management of the Ministerial Relief Fund to the trustees of the General Assembly, they have discharged the Executive Committee of the Ministerial Relief Fund Agency, and have directed the treasurer of said Committee to pay to the treasurer of "the Relief Fund for Disabled Ministers and the Widows and Orphans of Deceased Ministers" the funds belonging to the Ministerial Relief Fund. They have also directed their own treasurer to pay to the treasurer of the Relief Fund the interest which from time to time shall accrue from the Permanent Fund.-1871. p. 671.

CHAPTER XIX.

OF MODERATORS.

I. IT is equally necessary in the judicatories of the Church, as in other Assemblies, that there should be a moderator or president, that the business may be conducted with order and despatch.

II. The moderator is to be considered as possessing, by delegation from the whole body, all authority necessary for the preservation of order, for convening and adjourning the judicatory, and directing its operations according to the rules of the Church. He is to propose to the judicatory every subject of deliberation that comes before them. He may propose what appears to him the most regular and speedy way of bringing any business to issue. He shall prevent the mem

bers from interrupting each other, and require them, in speaking, always to address the chair. He shall prevent a speaker from deviating from the subject, and from using personal reflections. He shall silence those who refuse to obey order. He shall prevent members who attempt to leave the judicatory without leave obtained from him. He shall at a proper season, when the deliberations are ended, put the question and call the votes. If the judicatory be equally divided, he shall possess the casting vote. If he be not willing to decide, he shall put the question a second time; and if the judicatory be again equally divided, and he decline to give his vote, the question shall be lost. In all questions he shall give a concise and clear state of the object of the vote; and the vote being taken, shall then declare how the question is decided. And he shall likewise be empowered, on any extraordinary emergency, to convene the judicatory, by his circular letter, before the ordinary time of meeting.

The Moderator not Necessarily a Member of the Judicatory. The moderator and clerk are ministerial officers of the judicatory. In respect of their office, they are servants merely, and not members, of the body.

Nor does the Constitution, explicitly at least, require the moderator to be chosen from the members of the judicatory. It does, indeed, prescribe (chap. xix., sec. ii.) that in a certain contingency "he shall possess the casting vote." And as voting is the act of a member, the implication seems to offer itself that the moderator himself must be a member. But against this implication some other facts of the Constitution may be cited. Thus (Form of Government, chap. ix., sec. iii.) there is the provision for inviting, in certain contingencies, a minister to moderate the church session who is not the pastor of the church, and of course not a member of the session; while the general law of "Moderators" (chap. xix.) gives him the casting vote. Then, again, the "Form of Government," chap. xii., sec. vii., prescribes, concerning the General Assembly, that "the moderator of the last Assembly, if present, or in case of his absence some other minister, shall preside until a new moderator be chosen." Under this provision it is not necessary that the minister called to preside in the Assembly should himself be in commission.-New Digest, p. 173.

It may be said that this is merely for organization. True; but the whole principle seems to be involved. For the time being one not a member of the Assembly is its moderator, and as such has a casting vote on the numberless issues which may be raised between the formation of the roll and the choice of a new moderator; and in the former case, pertaining to church sessions, no such limitation for mere organization exists.

Hence these two points are clearly recognized: 1st. That it is not essential to the idea of a moderator that he be a member; 2d. That the privilege of a casting vote does not necessarily imply membership.-1861, pp. 457, 458, N. S.

[The moderator has none other than the casting vote, see xii., sec. i., 7. For general principles as to moderators, see Rules for Judicatories; also, Form of Government, chap. xii., i., above.]

III. The moderator of the Presbytery shall be chosen from year to

year, or at every meeting of the Presbytery, as the Presbytery may think best. The moderator of the Synod and of the General Assembly shall be chosen at each meeting of those judicatories, and the moderator, or, in case of his absence, another member appointed for the purpose, shall open the next meeting with a sermon, and shall hold the chair till a new moderator be chosen.

CHAPTER XX.

OF CLERKS.

EVERY judicatory shall choose a clerk to record their transactions, whose continuance shall be during pleasure. It shall be the duty of the clerk, besides recording the transactions, to preserve the records carefully, and to grant extracts from them, whenever properly required; and such extracts under the hand of the clerk shall be considered as authentic vouchers of the fact which they declare, in any ecclesiastical judicatory, and to every part of the Church.

The Clerk not Necessarily a Member of the Judicatory.

The moderator and clerk are ministerial officers of the judicatory. In respect of their office, they are servants merely, and not members, of the body.

Of the clerk this would seem to be unquestionably true. The Constitution knows nothing of the temporary clerk, as distinguished from the stated clerk. As far as any provision of the "Book" is involved, it is plain that a judicatory may select any convenient person, though not a member, to record its transactions and discharge all other duties pertaining to a clerk. For the part of those duties usually devolving upon a temporary clerk, we believe it is no infrequent thing for a Presbytery to employ a licentiate or other person not a member of the body.-1861, p. 457, N. S.

See under chap. xii., sec. i., 10, for sundry acts relating to clerks.

CHAPTER XXI.

OF VACANT CONGREGATIONS ASSEMBLING FOR PUBLIC

WORSHIP.

CONSIDERING the great importance of weekly assembling of the people for the public worship of God, in order thereby to improve their knowledge, to confirm their habits of worship and their desire of the public ordinances, to augment their reverence for the most high God, and to promote the charitable affections which unite men most firmly in society, it is recommended that every vacant congregation

meet together on the Lord's day at one or more places, for the purpose of prayer, singing praises and reading the Holy Scriptures, together with the works of such approved divines as the Presbytery, within whose bounds they are, may recommend, and they may be able to procure; and that the elders or deacons be the persons who shall preside and select the portions of Scripture, and of the other books to be read; and to see that the whole be conducted in a becoming and orderly manner.

1. Vacant Congregations to Meet for Worship on the Lord's Day. In consequence of an overture which was brought in, the Synod earnestly recommend to all vacant congregations under their care to meet together every Lord's day, at one or more places, for the purpose of prayer and praise and reading the holy Scriptures, together with the works of such approved divines as they may be able to procure, and that the elders be the persons who shall pray and select the portions of Scripture and other books, to be read by any proper person whom they may appoint.1786, p. 526.

2. Elders of Vacant Congregations should be Interrogated as to the Observance of the Rule.

An overture from the Presbytery of Mississippi requesting the General Assembly to recommend to the Board of Publication to issue suitable books of sermons and helps for devotion, to be used by vacant congregations, and to inquire whether ruling elders representing such congregations should be interrogated concerning the observance of the recommendation contained in chap. xxi. of the Form of Government. Answered affirmatively.-1847, p. 401, O. S.

3. Right of Ruling Elders, in the Absence of the Pastor, to Explain the Scriptures and to Exhort.

The records of the Synod of Mississippi approved, except "that on page 10 of these minutes Synod takes exception to the minutes of the Louisiana Presbytery, because that Presbytery considered it not inconsistent with the principles of our Church for ruling elders, in the absence of the pastor, to read the Scriptures and explain them, and to endeavor to enforce the truth upon the conscience by suitable exhortations. The Assembly believe the Presbytery of Louisiana was right according to chap. xxi. of our Form of Government."-1856, p. 538, O. S.

[Next year the Assembly refused to modify the above.-1857, p. 41.]

CHAPTER XXII.

OF COMMISSIONERS TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

I. THE commissioners to the General Assembly shall always be appointed by the Presbytery from which they come, at its last stated meeting immediately preceding the meeting of the General Assembly, provided that there be a sufficient interval between that time and the

meeting of the Assembly for the commissioners to attend to their duty in due season; otherwise the Presbytery may make the appointment at any stated meeting, not more than seven months preceding the meeting of the Assembly. And as much as possible to prevent all failure in the representation of the Presbyteries, arising from unforeseen accidents to those first appointed, it may be expedient for each Presbytery, in the room of each commissioner, to appoint also an alternate commissioner to supply his place, in case of necessary absence.

1. The Rule not Enforced in case of Missionary Presbyteries. a. The Committee on Elections reported that Rev. James W. Moore had been nominated or selected by the Presbytery of Arkansas at their meeting in last September, but that the Presbytery had been prevented by high waters from meeting since then, and consequently there could be no election. On motion, Mr. Moore was admitted to a seat.-1846, p. 197, O. S.

b. In reply to a protest on this case, the Assembly says: "The member admitted to a seat represents a body occupying the remote confines of our ecclesiastical territory-a body whose delegates must travel fifteen hundred miles to reach the usual place of meeting of the General Assembly; a body too whose meetings are liable to be interrupted by insurmountable difficulties, and in whom a technical irregularity, occasioned by such difficulties, may justly plead exemption from a rigorous application of the letter of the law. To exclude from a participation in the. privileges of this body one who had surmounted so many and such formidable obstacles to reach our place of meeting because of an informality in his title, which does not, as this Assembly judges, violate the spirit of the Constitution, would be to subject a zealous and self-denying minister and a whole Presbytery to a serious grievance, and to discourage the zeal of those who of all others most need our sympathy and fostering care.”—1846, p. 215, O. S.

c. A reference to the Minutes of the General Assembly of 1844 will show that the Rev. William S. Rogers, a commissioner from the Presbytery of Lodiana, in Northern India, was admitted without scruple to a seat in that body, though it is evident that his appointment must have been made beyond the limits of time prescribed by the Constitution. The peculiar circumstances of the case no doubt influenced, and we believe authorized, that Assembly to act as they did in the premises.-1846, p. 214, O. S.

d. Mr. Joseph B. Junkin, ruling elder of the Presbytery of the Creek Nation, produces such evidence that it is the desire of his Presbytery that he should represent it as a commissioner in this Assembly, that, considering the remote situation of the Presbytery, the difficulty of his position, and the whole bearing of the case, Mr. Junkin may be safely allowed to take his seat, without the Assembly thereby establishing any precedent to operate beyond the immediate case. The Committee is therefore of opinion that, though he was not regularly elected, he ought to be allowed to take his seat as a member of the body.-1853, p. 426, O. S.

e. In the following case it appeared from the evidence that the brethren of the mission designed to make the appointment. No communication, however, had been received from them since the meeting of the Presbytery.