INTRODUCTION. THE PRESBYTERIAN HISTORICAL ALMANAC for 1867 is another addition to the permanent history of the Presbyterian Church, comprehensive, reliable and impartial. Those who are familiar with the plan of the work will find in this volume additional evidence of its capacity to include much that is interesting as well as important in regard to the present condition of the Church. In the introduction to the first volume, published in 1859, I wrote as follows: "Divided as the Presbyterian Church is, into numerous bodies, it has been difficult, even for the most enterprising and zealous of her members, to keep fully aware of her power and progress.' "This difficulty led to indifference in regard to the plans and operations of the various members of the Presbyterian family; hence it became all important that, to procure the harmony which should prevail in the Church of God, we should become familiar with the trials, the temptations, the disappointments and the triumphs of all the brethren, laboring as they are in every portion of the globe. To secure the harmony referred to, and supply the information is the great task I have undertaken, and which to me is a labor of love for the whole Church. To me they are not divided; the apparent divisions of the Presbyterian Church are no more real than are the seams and marks upon a marble column; they all 31 believe in one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism; these are the spiritual essentials, and knowledge, under the benign influence of heavenly grace, will do away with such as are earthly and nonessential. Matters of interest and value form the basis of the work; there are many questions which occupy the time and attention of the people, and have for their tribune the newspaper, the magazine and the quarterly; or give transient vitality to conventions, but which become historically important when they resolve themselves into Acts and Deliverances of the various judicatories of the Church. At this point the duty of the historian begins, and upon the faithfulness of his chronicles depends the value of his work. In presenting the NINTH VOLUME of The Presbyterian Historical Almanac to the careful consideration of the Church, I call attention to the fact that from the publication of my first volume in 1859, until now, I have met the reasonable demand of the critics of my native land, as well as those of Great Britain and Ireland. Encouraged by these indications of interest, and by the approval of many of those whose age and wisdom justly entitle them to be ranked as the fathers of the Church, I will try and make the Almanac all that its friends can desire. During the period covered by this publication, over five hundred and fifty bills and overtures and judicial cases were acted upon; these presented the various views held upon the polity of the Church, the forms of procedure and all the appliances deemed wise to guard well the doctrines and purity of the Church: these are all given in full, and form a reliable basis for a sound judgment. The organization of the Boards and permanent committees are recorded, together with the history of many of them; tracing their success and usefulness from their origin; the history of theological seminaries under the control of the Church; giving complete lists of students numbering thousands; histories of Presbyterian churches, clerical records and the lists of ministers, with Presbytery and Post-office address, numbering over eleven thousand, placing upon record the names of all the Presbyterian ministers throughout the world. In the Almanac will be found the union, or, as they belong to the same Presbyterian family, it might be said the re-union, of a number of the branches of the Church, as follows, viz.: That of the Associate and the Associate Reformed, forming the United Presbyterian Church of North America; of the Presbyterian Church of Canada, and the United Presbyterian Church of Canada, forming the Canada Presbyterian Church; of the Presbyterian Synod of Nova Scotia and the Free Church of Nova Scotia, forming the Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces of British North America; and of this latter body with the Presbyterian Synod of New Brunswick, the Presbyterian Churches in Australia, and of the Presbyterian Churches in the United States with the United Synod; and the "basis of union" is fully set forth in all cases. The department of the Almanac which appeals to the heart is that devoted to biographies. Believing fully in the parity of the Christian ministry, I have sought out with patient care the record of all who have died during the years involved in the publication of the Almanac, *The following are the names of those who have died, and the year in which their memoirs were published in the Almanac. They number over one thousand, and range from a brief notice to a comprehensive biography: ..1863 1861 Birge, Chester.......1862 Bingham, Amos.....1862 Bishop, Pierpont E.1860 Black, Andrew W..1860 Black, James.........1861 Black, James.........1861 Black, Robt. John..1862 Blackburn, Andw..1861 Blackie, James......1867 Blaikie, John........1860 Blain, William......1859 Blain, Wilson........1862 Blakely, Abram.....1866 Blakeslee, James... 1864 Bland, Peter R......1861 Blodgett, Luther P.1863 Blythe, John O......1867 Boardman, Chas. A.1861 Boardman, Geo. M.1863 Bonney, Sam'l W...1866 Boozer, John J......1866 Botsford, Eli C......1862 Boyce, William M..1863 Boyd, Alexander....1866 Boyd, D.D., A. H. H..1867 Boyd, Bankland.....1861 Boyd, Benjamin.....1861 Bradford, Wm. H...1862 ABBEY, DAVID A.....1867 Armstrong, Geo. B.1866 Baldwin, Truman..1867 Barber, Daniel M...1867 Baker. D.D., Daniel..1859 Barr, Hugh.... |