General Assembly claims no infallibility. But it possesses a clear authority derived from the Lord Jesus Christ, and its acts resulting from such authority are to be respected. No combination of ministers or members may properly be formed within the bosom of the Presbyterian Church for the purpose of openly resisting the authority of the General Assembly, and of setting at naught and contemning its solemn decisions, while the individuals composing such combination still claim all the rights and privileges of ministers and members; much less may any lower court of the Church thus repudiate the Assembly's authority, and still claim and exercise all the powers of a court in good standing. The principle which would admit this would prove destructive to any government, secular or religious, for it is the essence of anarchy. Notwithstanding this, several Presbyteries have openly declared that they will not regard the Assembly's authority, especially the acts of the last Assembly concerning the terms of receiving ministers and members from the Southern Presbyterian Church. We trust that upon further reflection they will reconsider such action and again show a proper subordination. One Presbytery, however-that of Louisville-in the Synod of Kentucky, adopted a paper in September last, called a "Declaration and Testimony," &c., which arrays itself against all the deliverances of the five Assemblies, from 1861 to 1865, enacted upon slavery and the rebellion. This paper has been signed by certain ministers and ruling elders in other Presbyteries and Synods, chiefly in the Synod of Missouri. The present Assembly felt called upon to take decisive action in the premises. This paper exhibits organized rebellion and schism within the bosom of the Church, whose design is to resist the authority of the General Assembly, It pronounces the last five Assemblies guilty of heresy, schism and virtual apostasy. Such an organization, with such aims, bringing such charges, and animated by such a spirit as the said paper exhibits, the Assembly could not overlook. The simple question presented was, whether a single subordinate court, with such individuals of other Presbyteries as might join it, should be allowed to carry on its schismatical and rebellious schemes with impunity, and still claim and exercise all the rights of a court, and the individuals concerned have all the rights of office-bearers in the Church accorded to them, while openly defying the General Assembly; or whether the Assembly, which represents the whole Church, should require due subordination and respect to its authority. The signers of the said paper openly avow their determination to continue agitation against the solemn acts of the last five Assemblies until they shall bring the Church, through action of the General Assembly, to their views; or, failing in this, they declare that they may feel called upon to abandon the Church. In this posture of affairs the Assembly could not hesitate in its duty. It censured all the persons who have signed the "Declaration and Testimony," deprived them of the right to sit in any church court above the session, and cited them to the bar of the next General Assembly. This measure was clearly justified, and was demanded for the purity, peace and order of the Church. We have now, beloved brethren, set before you a few of the important matters which have engaged the attention of the General Assembly at its present sessions. It is cause for lamentation that while the country has passed triumphantly through the war, and the Government and the Union have been preserved, the Church should still be troubled with questions which have grown out of the civil strife. We trust the day is not distant when these dregs of rebellion shall be purged from the Church, and when it shall stand forth as a compact body, in purity, righteousness and peace. To this end we exhort you to labor and pray as God shall give you grace. And may the blessing of God rest upon you, the presence of Christ sustain you, and the Holy Spirit richly dwell within you. Dr. Krebs offered the following as an addition to the Pastoral Letter, which was adopted: In regard to the deliverances of the last and five preceding Assemblies, as well as this, and especially the requisitions to examine applicants from the South touching their views of slavery and rebellion, the Assembly would observe that although the war is over, secession effectively quashed, and slavery abolished, yet in view of the spirit of these dead issues, which, it must be admitted, still survives, rampant and rebellious, perhaps more virulently in the religious form than elsewhere, it was necessary to guard the Church from being disturbed by this element, which has asserted itself so rebelliously, and continues to be so vehemently proclaimed, and therefore to require satisfactory evidence of the practical repudiation of these heresies. Nor does the Assembly deem it needless to observe that while manifestly the views put forth by these deliverances, and the views which it was proposed to elicit from applicants for admission to our churches and Presbyteries, have regard only to those more recent opinions concerning the system of Southern slavery out of which secession and the war grew for its perpetuation and extension, the Assembly considers that there is no contradiction between these latest expressions of the Assembly, needed by a new state of case, and the whole current of consistent deliverances on the subject of slavery which the Church has from the beginning and all along uttered, especially from 1818 to 1846. The Assembly in these things has desired to impose no new terms of communion: it has but pointed out the appropriate treatment of the rebellious and disobedient; and, in the language of no less an authority than the illustrious Calvin, it did but make a genuine and simple application of the lex Dei to the times and manners for which it was designed." In this special application it has only, in the still further language of the great Reformer, guarded against offences which are most expressly forbidden by the Lord," without taking away one punctum of Christian liberty. Instit., lib. iv., cap. x., sec. iv. 21, 22. And in regard to our deliverances on these subjects, the Assembly here contents itself, as sufficient, with declaring that it has but exercised the constitutional right and duty of the Assembly, which has been constantly exercised from the time of the fathers who made the constitution of our Church, to utter its sentiments, warnings and exhortations on all points and questions which, while we are properly restrained from invading the jurisdiction of civil tribunals, do nevertheless belong to that class of things which we may handle, viz.: those moral and religious questions, which, even although they may embrace points in which politics, whether in their larger or lesser sense, are involved, because they relate to civil and political affairs, are also questions of religious duty, and cannot be thrown out of the religious jurisdiction. Dr. Gurley offered the following addition, which was also adopted: It having come to the knowledge of this body that some of the ministers under our care are not able to subscribe to the recent testimonies of the General Assembly on the subjects of loyalty and freedom, and that some who have not signed or formally approved the Declaration and Testimony do nevertheless hesitate to comply with the requirements of the last Assem bly touching the reception of members from the South known or supposed to have been in sympathy with the rebellion; therefore Resolved, That while we would treat such ministers with kindness and forbearance, and would by no means interfere with the full and free discussion on their part of the testimonies and requirements referred to, we deem it a solemn duty, which we owe to them and to the Church, to guard them against giving countenance in any way to declarations and movements which are defiant of the Assembly's authority and schismatical in their tendency and aim; and we do earnestly exhort them, in the name and for the sake of our common Lord and Master, to study and pursue the things which make for peace. On the motion to adopt the Pastoral Letter the ayes and nays were ordered, and they are as follows: Ayes, Adams, W. T. Archer, S. M. Bayless, James Caldwell, W. S. Caldwell, W. W. Campbell, G. W. Caughey, A. H. Chamberlain, A. E. Chamberlain, S. D. Clarke, Hovey K Curry, William Cushing, W. T. Davis, Jesse B. Dunning, J. S. Dobbins, John Francis, W. M. Hickok, D.D., M. J. RULING ELDERS. Mitchell, D. Sickels, E. C. Scott, Alexander Ogden, John MINISTERS. Skinner, Jas. A. Ministers, 80. Stewart, John Nays, Anderson,D.D.,S.J.P. Breck'dge,D.D.,W.L. Smith, D.D., Jos. T. Davison, R. A. RULING ELDERS. Beatty, O. Clark, R. S. Jones, Isaac D. Marshall, Glass McClellan, J. S. Ruling Elders, 5. TOTAL, 15. Rev. Francis J. Collier moved that the Board of Publication be instructed to print the Pastoral Letter, with the addition of Dr. Krebs and Gurley, in a pamphlet form for circulation among the churches. Adopted. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE SOUTH.-WILLIAM E. SCHENCK, D.D., offered the following paper, which was adopted: WHEREAS, There is reason to believe that among the ministers and mem bers of the Presbyterian Church in the South, there are many who disapproved of the late rebellion against the Government of the United States and of the separation of those churches from this body, and who did not of their own free will and consent lend their aid or countenance thereto, but bowed before what they believed to be an irresistible necessity; therefore Resolved, That this Assembly, without expressing any opinion in regard to the propriety of the course adopted by such persons, will still cherish a kindly and fraternal regard for them, and whenever any of them shall desire to return to their former connection with us, they will receive a cordial welcome. And in regard to those who have voluntarily aided and countenanced the said rebellion and separation, this Assembly disclaims all vindictive feelings, and all disposition to exercise an undue severity, and reiterates its readiness to receive them back whenever they shall have complied with the conditions laid down by the last General Assembly on page 563 of its printed Minutes. JOSEPH T. SMITH, D.D., of Baltimore Presbytery, offered the following, which was adopted: WHEREAS, The churches in that portion of our country lately in rebellion, whose names appear upon our roll, have not been represented in this Assembly, and still remain in a state of separation from us; and WHEREAS, the measures adopted by this Assembly, if not carried out by the lower courts in a spirit of great meekness and forbearance, may result in perpetuating and embittering divisions already existing, and extending them over portions of our Church now at peace; therefore Resolved, 1. That this Assembly greatly deplores the continued separation between ourselves and our Southern brethren, so long united in the bonds of Christian love and ecclesiastical fellowship, and expresses the earnest desire that the way may be soon opened for a reunion on the basis of our common standards and on terms consistent with truth and righteousness. Resolved, 2. That the lower courts who may be called upon to execute the measures of this Assembly be enjoined to proceed therein with great meekness and forbearance, and in a spirit of kindness and conciliation, to the end that strifes and divisions be not multiplied and inflamed and extended still more widely, and that the discipline of Christ's house may prove for edification, and not for destruction. FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE.-WILLIAM E. SCHENCK, D.D., Permanent Clerk of the Assembly, announced that Rev. James McCosh, LL.D., of the Free Church of Scotland, and Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the Queen's College, Belfast, Ireland, was present, and had placed in his hands a letter signed by a number of distinguished ministers of that Church. On his motion, the letter was handed to the Committee on Foreign Correspondence. The committee reported that Dr. McCosh be invited to address the Assembly, which he did, and was responded to by the Moderator. On motion of William L. Breckinridge, D.D., the whole subject of Dr. MeCosh's visit to this Assembly, and that of opening a correspondence between this General Assembly and the various Presbyterian bodies in Great Britain and Ireland, was referred to the Committee on Foreign Correspondence, with directions to report a suitable minute upon these subjects. On motion, Dr. McCosh was invited to occupy a seat upon the platform beside the Moderator, whenever it might suit his convenience to be present during the sessions of the Assembly. HENRY A. BOARDMAN, D.D., chairman of the Committee on Foreign Correspondence, made the following report, which was adopted: 1. The General Assembly records the high satisfaction it has experienced in receiving the Rev. James McCosh, LL.D., who, although not officially accredited to us by the Free Church of Scotland, bears credentials having the signatures of many of the prominent and influential ministers of that Church, assuring us that their General Assembly, if in session, would unquestionably, in their judgment, have given him a formal commission to meet this body. 2. Appreciating the valuable services our distinguished brother has rendered to the cause of revealed religion by his learned and able disquisitions in moral philosophy and theology, we tender to him personally the tribute of our cordial respect and gratitude. 3. We welcome Dr. McCosh as the honored representative of the Free Church of Scotland, and heartily reciprocate every sentiment of kindness and sympathy to which he has given utterance on behalf of that Church and other sister Churches abroad. 4. We share in the hope so eloquently expressed by our esteemed brother, that the various evangelical Presbyterian bodies of Europe and America may soon be brought into a closer and more beneficent fellowship. 5. Responding to the invitation now presented to us, we are prepared to enter into an arrangement with the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland for an annual interchange of delegates. On the assurance of our brother that such a measure will, as he believes, receive the prompt approval of that venerable body, we will send a representative to meet them at their next annual sessions, as we will welcome any delegate whom they may appoint to meet the Assembly of our own Church-leaving all matters of detail pertaining to this correspondence to be adjusted hereafter. 6. This General Assembly again expresses the pleasure it has derived from the visit of the Rev. Dr. McCosh. We thank him for his fraternal and instructive addresses, and we affectionately commend him to the care of a gracious Providence, that he may be shielded from all peril on the land and on the sea, and that his life may long be spared to the Church of Christ. Resolved, That a copy of this minute be furnished to the Rev. Dr. McCosh. MANSES BEING COMFORTABLE HOMES FOR PRESBYTERIAN MINISTERS FREE OF RENT.-FREDERICK T. BROWN, D.D., of Chicago Presbytery, offered the following, which was adopted unanimously: WHEREAS, The General Assembly of 1865 adopted the following: That in order to awaken the attention of the churches to the importance of MANSES, the Stated Clerks of each Presbytery be instructed to inquire, at the semiannual meetings of their Presbyteries, of each church under its care, what they have done in times past, what they are now doing, and what they propose doing towards building a MANSE, thereby securing a comfortable home for their minister; therefore Resolved, By this General Assembly that the Presbyteries be enjoined to continue these inquiries, and that they appoint a committee to address a Pastoral Letter to the churches under their care, pressing upon the people the great importance and necessity of providing MANSES and Libraries for their ministers. It was on motion Resolved, That the General Assembly be dissolved, and another be required to meet in the Central Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, on Thursday, May 16, 1867. A. T. MCGILL, D.D., WM. E. SCHENCK, D.D., R. L. STANTON, D.D., Moderator. |