ART. VI.-The General Assembly of 1840.

THE General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, met agreeably to appointment in the Seventh Presbyterian church, in the city of Philadelphia, on Thursday, the 21st of May, A. D. 1840; and was opened with a sermon by the Rev. Joshua L. Wilson, D.D. the moderator of the last Assembly, from 1 Cor. 11:19. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved, may be made manifest among you.'

The Rev. Wm. M. Engles, D.D. was elected moderator, and the Rev. Sylvester Scovel, temporary clerk.

Correspondence with other Churches.

The following letter was received from the General Synod of Ulster.

"Your kind and brotherly communication bearing date the 1st of June, 1838, was this day laid before us. It is truly delightful and refreshing to us to hold intercourse with brethren in the Lord of any country; but as many of the inhabitants of the Western Continent are our brethren by blood as well as by baptism into one body, we feel ourselves in a more than ordinary degree interested in all that regards their religious condition and prospects.

"We have been much distressed by the distractions and divisions in the Presbyterian Church of the United States, an account of which you have communicated to us in your esteemed letter. We sincerely sympathise with you, beloved brethren, in the difficulties which have arisen out of those divisions; and we shall continue to implore the Prince of Peace, the Great King and Head of the Church, who alone is able to bring order out of confusion, that he may deliver His Church among you from all error and schism, and re-establish it in peace and truth.

"In relation to our own condition and prospects, we have reason to thank Almighty God that he has been steadily bringing us back to the sound principles established by our reformed and covenanting fathers; and we have unbounded cause to bless him for the prosperity and success which he has bestowed upon us in following out those principles. We have now nearly three hundred churches, the greater number of which are planted with active and faithful ministers. We have a Home Mission under the superintendence of the Church, in successful operation, by which new churches are rapidly rising in the several provinces of this island. At our present meeting, we have had the inexpressible pleasure of receiving into communion and under our jurisdiction and care, a Roman Catholic priest, together with his whole congregation, who after due and deliberate inquiry, had embraced the doctrine and worship of the Presbyterian church. We have also resolved upon a Mission to India, and trust that the Giver of all good and perfect gifts will enable us to carry it soon into effect. "We confess, dear brethren, that these are but "small things." Compared with the splendid operations of the American churches, they must appear insig VOL. XII. NO. 3.

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nificant. But it must be recollected that we are comparatively a small body: and that it is but a few years since the commencement of the emancipation of our Synod from prevalent erior, and of the revival of pure and undefiled religion within our churches.

"Since the return of our Synod to the principles held by the venerated founders and fathers of the Scottish Church, and of her branches both in Ireland and America, we have had the high privilege of being re-admitted into ministerial communion with our parent Church in Scotland, from which we have already experienced great benefit and advantage to the common cause of our faith and our Church. We have also reason to entertain the delightful hope that, at no very distant period, an ecclesiastical union may be expected to take place between our Synod and the highly respectable branch of the Secession Church long established in this country. The foundation of this auspicious revival of love and unity among the Presbyterian churches of Britain, is the maintenance of that invaluable Confession which was, two centuries ago, adopted as the basis of uniformity in religion throughout these kingdoms. To the Westminster Confession of Faith, and to the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, as received by the Church of Scotland in the years 1647 and 1648, we adhere without limitation or exception; and by frequent and strict examinations we carefully guard against the admission of any ministers who do not cordially believe the doctrines of those standards.

"Notwithstanding the professed maintenance of the same standards by our sister Church in America, we have heard, dear brethren, with great pain, that some dangerous eirors upon the all-important doctrines of original sin, the atonement of Christ and the efficacy of Divine grace; and in relation to the internal organization of the Christian church, have been laid to the charge of ministers and congregations among you bearing the name of Presbyterian. We would fondly hope that such serious errors are confined to a very few; and that now, when public attention has been directed to the subject, they will soon be altogether removed, and the truth in its scriptural purity, as set forth in our common Confession, be happily re-established in the American Presbyterian Church.

"It is some time ago since rumours of those alleged errors and irregularities being prevalent among members of your Church, reached our ears; and it occasioned us no little uneasiness, especially when respected brethren, members of your venerable Assembly, have appeared at our Synods. Under such circumstances we felt ourselves not to be at liberty to invite them to sit with us. We take this opportunity of assuring you, beloved brethren, that this apparent neglect proceeded from no want of esteem or affection for our American brethren. But not possessing adequate knowledge of the nature of those errors or disorders, or of the religious opinions of individual members, we were very reluctantly compelled to suspend, on those occasions, ministerial intercourse with a Church to which we have been ever accustomed to look with fraternal and profound respect.

"That the God of all truth and peace may enable you to return heartily and unanimously to the sound doctrines and principles of the Reformers, that He may make you strong by union in the truth, and greatly prosper his own cause by your instrumentality, and that there may be a cordial renewal of ministerial intercourse between your venerable Assembly and our Synod, will be the conEtant and earnest prayer of your affectionate brethren in the Lord, the ministers and elders of the General Synod of Ulster.

"Signed in the name, and on the behalf, of three hun red ministers and elders, assembled in Synod at Belfast, in Ireland, this fourth day of July, 1839. "JAMES DURHAM, Moderator.

"JAMES SEATON REID, D.D., Clerk of Synod."

Letters were also received from the United Secession Sy

nod of the Secession Church of Scotland, and from the Congregational Union of England and Wales, to all of which

answers were returned.

A communication from the General Conference of Maine, proposing a correspondence with the General Assembly was received, and referred to a special committee, consisting of Messrs. M'Pheeters, Doolittle, and Sterrit. This committee subsequently made the following report, which was adopted, viz: "Although the subject referred to the committee has respect only to one ecclesiastical body, yet your committee are of opinion that the action of the Assembly in the premises, whatever that action may be, will naturally involve principles bearing on any similar case.

"While, therefore, your committee is of opinion that there is no ecclesiastical body in the land with which the Assembly could more profitably and cordially correspond and fraternize than with the General Conference of Maine, yet as the whole question which relates to correspondence with other churches at home and abroad, is one, in some of its aspects at least, of much interest, and concerning which there exists considerable diversity of opinion, your committee respectfully recommend that the communication from the General Conference of Maine be laid upon the table, subject to the call of any member of the house, and with the understanding that when called up, the whole subject of ecclesiastical correspondence shall, on motion, be open for discussion, and for the action of the Assembly." The subject was afterwards called up, and it was Resolved, That the invitation from the General Conference of Maine, proposing the renewal of correspondence, be accepted. The Rev. Reuben Smith was elected the delegate to that Conference. Dr. Spring was appointed as his alternate.

We greatly rejoice in this decision. Our church has suffered so much from allowing the bridge of her discipline to be broken down, and permitting those who did not even profess to adopt our standards of doctrine and order to enter our communion, not merely as correspondents, but as full and governing members of the church, that we do not wonder at some manifestation of a disposition to go to the opposite extreme. As we have suffered from too intimate union, some are prepared for absolute non-intercourse. It seems, however, very plain that no intercourse with our fellow Christians ought to be repudiated, which does not endanger the doctrines or discipline which we are pledged to sup

port. And it appears no less plain that our doctrines and discipline are secure, as far as this matter is concerned, so long as we do not admit to a participation in the government of the church those who do not adopt our standards, and submit to the government which they help to administer. The friendly intercourse kept up by an interchange of delegates between independent evangelical bodies, is a testimony before the world of union in all the essential principles of the gospel. It is a public recognition of a brotherhood, which no one hesitates to acknowledge in private. It is an answer to the cavils of papists and infidels arising from the dissensions or sects of Protestants; and it tends to promote the feeling of which it is the expression. In other words, it tends to promote true religion, and the glory of God. It moreover serves to remove prejudices and to diffuse correct information between the different portions of the great family of evangelical Christians. We, therefore, greatly rejoice that the General Assembly seems disposed to accept the hand of every follower of Christ, proferred to it as the expression of confidence and brotherly regard.

In reference to the Association of Connecticut, Dr. Spring moved the following_resolution, which was unanimously adopted: "Resolved, That a committee be appointed to revise the articles of correspondence between this General Assembly and the General Association of Connecticut, with a particular view of ascertaining whether the certificates given to ministers and candidates from the state of Connecticut, shall not hereafter be required from the Pastoral Union, and not as heretofore from the General Association; and that this committee report to the next Assembly." Messrs. Gardiner Spring, William W. Phillips and John M. Krebs were appointed the committee.

Judicial Cases.

The first case of this kind which occupied the attention of the Assembly was an appeal of the Rev. W. S. Frazer, from a decision of the Synod of Illinois, confirming the sentence of the presbytery of Kaskaskia, by which he was suspended from the gospel ministry. This case occupied much of the time of the Assembly, and was finally determined by a vote in favour of appellant; seventy-nine members voting to sustain the appeal, and forty-one against sustaining it. A committee was appointed to prepare a minute on this case, who presented the following: "While the Assembly cannot re

frain from expressing their deep concern that the spirit which has been exhibited in the prosecution of this appeal, both by the prosecutor and the appellant, in the matters complained of, appears to have been very far from that discretion and high minded Christian deportment which are honorable to the ministerial character; yet in the judgment of this Assembly the appeal is sustained, both on the ground of irregularity in the courts below, and for the want of sufficient testimony. The Assembly do moreover affectionately and solemnly enjoin it upon the prosecutor and the appellant, and all the parties concerned, to cultivate a spirit of brotherly love; to seek to heal the wounds this unhappy controversy has inflicted; and to unite their efforts and prayers for the extension and power of vital godliness in the destitute regions, where the Lord of the harvest has called them to labour."

The minority of the committee presented as an amendment the following paragraph, to be inserted after the words "for the want of sufficient testimony," viz: " And particularly in regard to the transaction involved in the third specification, while it is admitted Mr. Frazer may hitherto have retained in his own hands, a sum of money, which he received from a subscriber to the funds of McDonough college, without any dishonest intention, the Assembly are constrained to express their decided disapprobation of the act, as unjustifiable and peculiarly calculated to bring reproach on the Gospel ministry; and their full conviction that he ought immediately to pay over the money to the institution for which it was originally intended, or (as he received it when no longer acting as an agent of the college) to restore it to the subscriber." This amendment was cut off by the previous question, and the minute as originally proposed was adopted.

A second judicial case was what is called the "appeal and complaint" of Samuel Lowrie against the decision of the Synod of Illinois, refusing to sustain his complaint against the presbytery of Peoria, for recognizing a second church in the town of Peoria. This case was taken up and regularly issued by the Assembly. It is twice or oftener called on the minutes an appeal, as well as a complaint. The presbytery of Peoria, it seems, had formed or recognized a second church in the town of Peoria, which act Mr. Lowrie, believing to be irregular or injurious, complained of to the Synod of Illinois. The Synod decided against sustaining his complaint; from this decision he appealed to the General As