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FRIDAY, 6th July 1888.-Forenoon.

EXETER HALL, 6th July 1888, the Council met, and were constituted by devotional exercises-Rev. Dr. MURKLAND, Baltimore (Presbyterian Church in U.S., South), in the chair.

On the recommendation of the Business Committee, the Council agreed that on Monday forenoon the Chair be occupied by Rev. Dr. BELL, St. Louis, and in the evening by an elder of the Church of Scotland to be afterwards named; and on Tuesday forenoon by Rev. Dr. SOMERVILLE, Glasgow. In accordance with the recommendation of the same Committee, a letter from Dr. HAPPER, American Missionary, Canton, China, was referred to the following Committee:

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The substance of this letter is an offer to make over to the Alliance of Reformed Churches, holding the Presbyterian system, a sum of 140,000 dols. collected for the purpose of establishing a Christian College at Canton, provided the Alliance will agree to increase the endowment to 500,000 dols., or £100,000 sterling.

A memorial from missionaries connected with the Nestorian mission in Persia was referred to the following committee :

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:-

Rev. Dr. W. K. Murkland, Bal

timore.

John M'Murtrie, Edinburgh.
Edward C. Walker, Detroit.

The object of this memorial is to explain to the Council the relations which subsist between the American Missionaries and a mission started under the sanction of the Archbishop of Canterbury, with a view to the influence of the Council being beneficially brought to bear upon the latter, so as to remove the friction which has taken place in that field of labour.

With reference to the invitation of the Minister of St. Columba's Church, Pont Street, Belgravia, to the members of the Council to join in his church in partaking of the Lord's Supper, on the afternoon

of Sunday the 8th July, the Council agreed to record its gratitude for the invitation, and recommend to all the members, who can make it convenient, to avail themselves of it.

THURSDAY MORNING'S DISCUSSION.

The Rev. Dr. ORR, Antrim (Presbyterian Church in Ireland), said:Yesterday morning we had several excellent papers upon "The Duty of the Church with reference to present Tendencies of a more Intellectual kind, bearing on Faith and Life," and a short discussion followed. It has occurred to many members of the Council that, unless we are to be regarded as committed to the sentiments expressed in those papers, it would be desirable that further time should be given for the discussion. I move that the matter be referred to the Business Committee, in order that they may find the time for resuming that discussion, which certainly, in my opinion, would be wholesome, if not necessary.

Dr. WATTS.-I second the motion.

Dr. DYKES.-Am I to understand that the motion is made on a certain understanding, viz. that the Council is to be held committed to the views expressed in the papers?

Dr. ORR.-I know you are not committed to the sentiments expressed in the papers, but if the papers be published in their entirety, that would imply that the Council concurred substantially in what they contain.

The motion was agreed to.

RECEPTION OF CHURCHES.

The Convener of the Committee on the Reception of Churches gave in a further report, which is as follows:

:

"The Committee on the Reception of Churches beg to submit the following report:

"1. Applications have been received from the Presbyterian Church of Amoy, and from the Presbyterian Church of Swatow, for admission to the Alliance.

"Your Committee recommend the admission of these Churches, in the hope that the several Presbyteries in China may at an early date be united in one Synod. Delegates-Rev. L. W. Kipp and W. M'Gregor from Amoy Church; Rev. G. Smith from Swatow Church.

"2. Evangelical Syriac Church (4 presbyteries, 1 synod, 59 charges, 107 separate congregations, 37 ministers, and 2034 communicants) applies for admission.

"Your Committee recommend the reception of this Church. Delegate Mr. J. P. Cochran, M.D.

"3. Your Committee recommend that the Rev. S. A. Van der Hoorne, a delegate from the Christian Reformed Church in the Netherlands; Count Knyphausen, President of the Reformed Hanoverian Synod; Mons. Bersier, Representative of the National Evangelical Union of Geneva; and Mons. C. Champendal of the National Protestant Church of Geneva, be invited to sit with the Council as Corresponding Members. Also Dr. Brandes, from the Confederation of the Reformed Alliance of Germany. Pastor Brands, of the Reformed Alliance of Germany; Pastor Goebel, from the Reformed Churches in the Province of Saxony; Hofprediger Goebel, Chaplain to the King at Halberstadt; and Pastor Schmidt of Westphalia.

"4. Communications were laid before your Committee from a considerable number of French and German Reformed Churches (individual congregations) on the Continent of Europe (chiefly in Germany), commissioning delegates to represent them at this meeting of the Alliance. Most of these congregations at present stand alone, without any ecclesiastical bond of union. They are all, or nearly all, self-supporting, and amid many difficulties and discouragements are prosecuting their work.

"Your Committee recommend that this Council express its warm sympathy with these scattered congregations, and appoint a committee to take such action, by correspondence and otherwise, as may appear desirable, to bring them together, and generally to attend to matters relating to similar congregations on the Continent of Europe, to report to next meeting of Council. Meantime, that the following be invited to sit as Corresponding Members:-Rev. H. Tollin, Rev. M. Hapke, Mr. Thomas Bell, and Rev. Dr. Rud, Koch.

"5. An application for admission has been received from the Presbytery of Trinidad. As the members of this Presbytery are directly connected with their several Churches in Scotland and Canada, your Committee recommends that the application be not entertained.

"6. The Synod of the United Church of Japan, in 1887, appointed a delegate to this meeting, but by some oversight no application for admission has been received from the Synod. As negotiations are at present in progress looking towards a union between this Synod and the Congregational Churches, no action is at present necessary on the part of the Council.

"All of which is respectfully submitted.

"ROBT. H. WARDEN, Convener."

On the several parts of the Report being submitted separately(1) It was agreed to receive the churches at Amoy and Swatow, and add their delegates to the roll.

(2) The Syrian church was also received.

(3 and 4) In connection with these recommendations,

Dr. MARSHALL LANG asked: In what relation do these churches stand? Are they connected with the regular Reformed Church?

The CONVENER.-They are not. They are individual congregations standing alone, and have no ecclesiastical connection.

Dr. MARSHALL LANG.-Then I think we should be very cautious. Dr. CAIRNS.-If, as I understand, these churches stand on the basis of the Heidelberg Catechism, or some other suitable symbol, I do not see why we should not admit them singly. We are not limited to accepting Presbyteries merely.

Dr. GooD, Philadelphia (Dutch Reformed Church).-These churches. are composed of the descendants of the French settlers who went to Germany 200 years ago. Many of the churches have since become German, but they still continue under the Heidelberg Catechism or under the French Confession. Some are individual churches. Some have been organised into small Presbyteries, like the church of Lower Saxony, and most of these organisations stand independent of the United Church of Germany. These churches have appointed delegates to the Council of the Alliance, and wish to be represented here; and I have understood that since this report was prepared one or two of them have asked to be admitted into the Council itself. In addition to these individual scattered churches and the small Synods, or large Synods, as some are, there is a Bund, or Alliance of Reformed Churches. It is, in fact, a union, not merely of individual pastors, but of churches in

a measure.

Principal BROWN (Aberdeen).-The committee on the Reception. of Churches have felt the extreme interest of this question, but at the same time the delicacy of it. On the one hand, the great danger is that if you stretch the Alliance too far, it may come ultimately to break. At the same time, one of the most valuable services this Alliance may serve is to draw together, as much as possible, by sympathy, correspondence, and otherwise, these scattered congregations, in the hope of eventually bringing them together in an organised form. As the question is one of extreme delicacy, as well as importance, the recommendation has been made to allow the delegates to become corresponding members, but to remit the matter to the Committee for further consideration and correspondence.

The Committee's recommendation was then adopted.

(5) The next recommendation of the Committee was that the

application from the Presbytery of Trinidad for admission to the Alliance be not entertained, because the members of the Presbytery were already directly connected with the parent churches.

Rev. JAMES BUCHANAN (Edinburgh) (U. P. Church, Scotland) explained the situation. He said: First of all, the Committee stated that inasmuch as the brethren in Trinidad still retained a close connection with the parent churches, they should not be accepted as an independent church for association with this Alliance. At the Belfast meeting four years ago an application was received from the Presbyterian Church of Jamaica, and was granted. The Presbyterian Church of Trinidad had now applied to be received as one of the churches of the Alliance. As the missionaries of the Presbyterian Church of Jamaica are all missionaries of the Church which I have the honour to represent, I can speak with perfect confidence in regard to the matter; and as at least three of the missionaries in Trinidad are also our missionaries, I happen to be acquainted with the facts, and have compared the two cases. The Church in Jamaica

has precisely the same relation to us as the Church in Trinidad, and, moreover, the Church in Trinidad is distinguished from the Church in Jamaica by this interesting feature. It is already a thoroughly union Presbytery-united after the manner we have been advocating as a Council for some years. It is a Presbytery, therefore, that we ought to encourage in every possible way. It is composed of three or four missionaries of the United Presbyterian Church in Scotland, and one missionary of the Free Church, and four or five of the Canadian Church. These brethren are all united into one regular ecclesiastical body-the Presbytery of Trinidad. If you admit, as I am glad to say you have admitted, the missionary Church of Jamaica as a portion of this Alliance, and you exclude the Church in Trinidad, you are receiving a Missionary Church that is entirely connected with one denomination, and are excluding a Missionary Church that represents three denominations. I beg to propose that the application from the Presbytery of Trinidad be accepted.

Dr. JOHN HALL (New York).—I second the amendment. I think it is unwise for us to endeavour to draw very sharp lines of division in the matter of association with us as an Alliance, and more particularly when we remember that these brethren, in the nature of the case, need all the moral support that can be given them. It is one of the privileges of this Alliance, without too nice an examination of ecclesiastical position, to extend that moral support.

Dr. MATHEWS. Before the amendment is voted upon, the Council should bear in mind this important point. The dual representation has caused very considerable difficulty in various quarters. You

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