but studiously repelled. The Assembly would not discourage the full use of all light in critical study; nor does it assume that any erroneous teaching is welcomed or offered within the bounds of the Church; but it would warn all pastors and teachers of the danger to young and inexperienced minds in the free use of crude theories and unproved speculations on the part of religious instructors, and would remind them of the paramount importance of sustaining in positive doctrine the authenticity, integrity, truthfulness and inspiration of the Holy Scriptures against the unsanctified learning by which an unbelieving world, through nominally Christian channels, assaults the Church of God.

The Assembly would also remind the Presbyteries of their special responsibility as guardians of the faith, and that, in view of the apprehensions excited throughout the Church by the rationalistic handling of the word of God, it is incumbent upon them to see to it that the appropriate constitutional action be taken if at any time it should become manifest that any minister of our Church was promulgating theories of dangerous tendency or contra-confessional doctrine concerning the Holy Scriptures.-1883, pp. 631, 632.

[See also 1882, pp. 91, 92.]

26. The Power of Visitation exercised by the Assembly.

a. In the examination of the appeal of Mr. Chavis it has appeared that great irregularities of administration and discipline exist in the Presbytery of Atlantic and in some of its churches, which require investigation and correction; and, to that end, your Committee beg leave to recommend the following:

Resolved, That the Rev. E. E. Swift, D. D., the Rev. James Allison, D. D., the Rev. R. H. Allen, D. D., James B. Lyon, Esq., and John C. McComb, Esq., officers and members of the Board of Missions for Freedmen, be and they are hereby appointed a committee, and are instructed to visit the Presbytery of Atlantic and the churches thereof, to inquire into their condition, and any irregularities of practice or discipline which may exist therein; and to aid with their advice in correcting the same, and, so far as possible, to strengthen and encourage the churches, pastors and missionaries in the bounds of said Presbytery; and that the committee make report of their doings to the next General Assembly.

Resolved, That the necessary expenses of the committee be audited by said Board, and be paid out of the treasury thereof.-Adopted 1884, p. 108. [See Book of Discipline, secs. lxxv., lxxvi.]

Report of the Committee.

b. The Special Committee appointed by the last Assembly to visit the Synod of Atlantic (Minutes 1884, p. 108) presented its report, which was accepted, approved, and the Committee discharged. The report is as follows:

A judicial case, involving the moral character of one of the members of the Presbytery, was brought, by complaint, to the attention of the last Assembly. It was, perhaps, the knowledge of this case that created the impression in that Assembly that licentiousness was too often tolerated or too leniently dealt with, and occasioned the appointment of your Committee.

With the settlement of that judicial case your Committee could have nothing to do. The last Assembly had directed the Synod of Atlantic to take proper action in the premises. The business of the Committee was

confined to inquiries with regard to the state of morals among the colored people within the limits of the Presbytery of Atlantic, and the faithfulness of Sessions in the maintenance of discipline.

After the meeting of Presbytery had been regularly opened, an opportunity was given to the Committee to present the business with which they had been entrusted. Almost all the members of Presbytery were present, and each was called upon to make a statement with regard to the needs of discipline in their respective fields, and their custom in regard to it.

The testimony of ministers and elders was, that while certain sins, such as theft, drunkenness and impurity prevailed, the administration of discipline in such cases was not overlooked, and its faithful administration was said to be attended with beneficial results.

All the brethren expressed great grief that impressions had gone abroad that they were characterized by laxity in morals and carelessness in discipline, and they expressed mortification that any such special investigation should have been thought necessary. This depression, however, was to some extent relieved by the assurance that the Committee would make a full report of the true condition of things to this Assembly.

In conclusion, your Committee would express its great gratification, not only with the appearance of this Presbytery, but with the whole Synod of Atlantic. Its colored members were comfortable in dress, ministerial in bearing, courteous in manner, refined in language, methodic in business, earnest in spirit, and sincere in devotion to the doctrine and usage of our beloved Church. No one present, as we were, at the opening services of the Synod could have doubt as to the wisdom of expenditures made by our Church in this field. Great progress, in several directions, has evidently been made within the last five years. The call for the creation of new Presbyteries is confirmation of encouraging growth in the work. There, as everywhere, the one great need is the copious dispensation of the Holy Spirit, for which, in their poverty of other good, we might find a special plea. Very respectfully submitted.-1885, pp. 584, 585.

27. Pastoral Letter on Sabbath-schools.

The Committee appointed to prepare a Pastoral Letter presented their report, which was adopted, viz.:

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, greeting, to the Sessions of the churches, and through them to the parents and Sabbath-school teachers in our connection:

As ministers and ruling elders representing the Presbyteries and churches, and met in the highest judicatory of our Church, we address to you, as co-workers with us, this PASTORAL LETTER.

We address you in behalf of the vast crowds of children springing into life and rapidly rising into manhood and womanhood, than which no more affecting vision looms up to the view of the Christian and the Christian Church.

Grave questions force themselves upon us as to these: What is to be their aim? What is to be their character? What is to be their destiny? What duty is each of us called to in reference to the rising race? In the language of Manoah concerning his son, who was to be the avenger of Israel, "How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him?" As Samson, his son, was to go forth, after suitable training, in the prowess of his physical strength to compete with the enemies of Israel, so are the children under our training to go forth to the great spiritual conflict. How, then, shall they be ordered? how trained as Christian athletes, to be able to burst asunder the green withes and the new ropes with which

sin would bind them, and to push down the pillars of Dagon's temple? Not only are they to be trained to stand firm when assaulted with temp tations, but to make onslaughts upon the powers of darkness.

In view of the seductive influence of much of our modern literature on the one hand, and the facilities for effecting good by well-aimed efforts on the other, the children are to be taught, not only to use defensive armor, but to employ the weapons which are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

Are the lives of our children to be a failure, and worse than a failure? or are they to be examples of virtue and piety, in whose light others shall walk in the path of life?

Among the instrumentalities to lead our children to safety and usefulness we recognize the Sabbath-school as occupying a position of very high prominence. But the value of the Sabbath-school depends upon the kind of instruction imparted.

We concede that the International Sabbath-school system recently inaugurated is one of great excellence, and the blessings flowing from its introduction, we trust, will be many and substantial. But it is our hope and expectation to engraft upon it still better scions, that shall yield richer and better fruit. We are already, as many of you know, sending forth helps, through our Board of Publication, which weave into the lessons the Shorter Catechism, suggested, illustrated and enforced by the passages of Scripture forming the basis of these Lessons. We have recommended to the Board "to incorporate into its system of Lesson Papers and Question Books brief expositions of the answers of the Shorter Catechism."

We feel constrained, therefore, to exhort you affectionately to have introduced, if it has not been done, into the Sabbath-schools the Question Books and Lesson Papers published by our own Board of Publication, rather than to depend upon helps from sources less decided for the truth. We affectionately exhort that the Shorter Catechism be used in all our Sabbath-schools, that parents assist the teachers in encouraging their children to commit the same to memory, and that teachers make these young disciples familiar, not only with the tried and eminently rich doctrines and important duties taught in our Standards, but with our Form of Government and Directory for Worship. Let each Session, at its earliest convenience, take action on the subject.

If parents and teachers would honor these Standards in their families and schools, there would be wrought into the hearts and minds of the rising race a love for the good and the true, such as no false system could displace. Formulated and wholesome doctrines would not be disparaged, and pure gold would not give place to tinsel.

We need not remind you that the apostles frequently inculcate, in their Epistles, the importance of adhering to sound doctrine. The disciple whom Jesus loved, and who leaned upon his breast at the holy communion, rejoiced greatly in his fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And yet he says, "I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in truth" (III. John, 4). So every minister and parent and Christian should rejoice in knowing that the hearts of the young are brought under the influence of divine truth.

The history of the progress and decline of truth, alternately assaulting and yielding to error, presents a story full of interest and instruction. With what a glorious light did it burst upon the European world three centuries ago, when the Papacy received a blow from which it has never recovered! And how did it rise again when France and Germany and

the most of the nations of Europe were declaring for Protestantism! Then it was that the founder of the Jesuits contrived to bring back the waning power of Popery. He trained teachers, he sent them out into all the lands, men of popular address and of missionary zeal to make proselytes; and schools were established, and young hearts were won for Rome, and Popery again stood up erect. This has been Rome's policy ever since, and this has been the secret of her success.

Who shall teach the young, and how shall they be taught? is the question of the age. The conflict between truth and error will continue, and parents and teachers must gird themselves for the earnest battle.

Beloved brethren in the Lord, let us awake to the vast importance of training a people for God and for our country. Our children should learn that this land is given them for the salvation of the world. Let teachers be impressed with the truth that the child is more important than the man, because it has a better opportunity to be moulded for the work of God, and because it has a longer future for its work. When the heart of the fathers shall be turned to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, God will not come and smite the land with a curse. Sow the seed, then, in hope; for "he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless return again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."

The words which you utter to your children and your classes are letters inscribed on veiled tablets, to be unveiled, if not sooner, when the Great Assembly shall meet. The minds of these young immortals are so many phonographs, to receive your words, and to reproduce them when your tongues shall be silent in death, and they may be rehearsed to millions in the great future. Abel, "being dead, yet speaketh."-1878, pp. 95–98; anté, pp. 280-325.

28. Testimony against the Support of Roman Catholic and other Denominational Institutions by Public Funds.

The following minute was adopted:

Whereas, Legislatures of different States of this Union have been in the habit, at the instance of members of the Roman Catholic Church, of appropriating public money, collected by taxation from citizens, members of other churches, to various institutions in connection with said Church, all of which are as really devoted to the propagation and advancement of that religion as their schools and colleges and churches can be; and

Whereas, Such appropriation so made are, more or less, the State compelling members of other denominations against their will and against their consciences to support and build up that Church and its institutions, in violation of the fundamental principles and the constitutional rights which the people of this nation have always held most sacred; and

Whereas, Such appropriations are really a union of Church and State, in which the people and members of all Protestant churches are compelled by such action to support a religion against which they protest, the same is not only unfair, unjust, but oppressive to the consciences of the whole Protestant community, and a trampling upon their rights and liberty; therefore

Resolved, 1. That this Assembly unites with the other Protestant denominations, and all citizens feeling themselves thus aggrieved by this action, and protest against it as an act of civil and religious oppression. Resolved, 2. That we call the attention of all our ministers, churchofficers and members, and all friends of civil and religious liberty throughout the whole nation, to lift up their voices and use their influence in

preserving to all our people and to generations to come those glorious privileges and principles which our fathers secured to us at such great

cost.

Resolved, 3. That no principle has been better established in regard to this nation than the entire separation of the Church and the State, and that the State has no more right to compel by taxation one of its citizens to contribute money to the building up and advancing of the Roman Catholic or any other denomination than it has to compel us to unite with their Church; and that moneys or grants should not be appropriated to any denominational institution, or any institution of any kind which is 'not connected with and under the control of the State.

Resolved, 4. That at this time it behooves all our people to be watchful on this subject, when the declared policy and principle of the Roman Catholic Church is, that a separation of Church and State is under its curse, and it is laboring to secure a union to advance its power.—1878, p. 55.

II. OF ERECTING NEW SYNODS, ALTERING THEIR BOUNDS, ETC. [See Digest, p. 263.]

f. To Reorganize.-See above, under chap. xi., sec. i., 1881, pp. 562–565. g. To Erect New Synods.-Nebraska, 1874, p. 82; Columbia, 1876, p. 75; Texas, 1878, p. 57; Utah, 1883, p. 630; Dakota, 1884, p. 75; North Dakota, 1885, p. 605.

III OF ERECTING, CHANGING, AND DISSOLVING PRESBYTERIES. [See Digest, p. 263.]

a. Presbyteries Formed.-Puget Sound, 1876, p. 75; South Oregon, 1876, p. 75; Denver and Pueblo, 1880, p. 55; Alaska, 1883, p. 631; Chili, 1884, p. 23; Zacatecas, 1884, p. 78.

83.

b. Presbyteries Dissolved.-Japan, 1880, p. 82; New Orleans, 1880, p.

c. Changed from One Synod to Another.-1875, p. 505.

4. To Receive other Ecclesiastical Bodies.

a. The Presbytery of Philadelphia of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. An application was received from the Presbytery of Philadelphia of the Reformed Presbyterian Church to be received under the care of the General Assembly. The application was referred to the following Special Committee: Ministers-William P. Breed, D. D., James Allison, D. D., and Elder George Griffith, to report to this Assembly.-1885, p. 606. The Special Committee to which was referred the application of the Presbytery of Philadelphia of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, offered a report, which was accepted, and is as follows:

Resolved, In accordance with the action of the General Assembly of 1870, in receiving the Presbytery of Pittsburgh of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, that the application of the Philadelphia Presbytery of the Reformed Presbyterian Church be granted, and that its ministers, with the congregations under their care, be received by the Presbyteries to which they would respectively belong, and when so received the Presbytery be dissolved and its records transferred to the Presbytery of Philadelphia of the General Assembly; and further, this General Assembly is glad to receive into its bosom a body of Christians in which it has such confidence.

The Rev. Theodorus W. J. Wylie, D. D., and Elder James Grant, Com