the four synods of Genessee, Geneva, Utica, and the Western Reserve were not "constituent parts" of the Presbyterian Church. The operations of the American Home Missionary, and of the American Education Societies were excluded from their churches, and the Third Presbytery of Philadelphia was dissolved.

The succeeding twelve months were devoted by both parties to preparation for the Assembly of 1838. By custom it devolves upon the permanent and stated clerks to make up the list of the mem

word of God, and not a grace of the Holy Spirit. XII. Regeneration is the act of the sinner himself, and it consists in a change of his governing purpose, which he himself must produce, and which is the result, not of any direct influence of the Holy Spirit on the heart, but chiefly of a persuasive exhibition of the truth, analagous to the influence which one man exerts over the mind of another; or regeneration is not an instantaneous act, but a progressive work.

XIII. God has done all that he can do for the

salvation of all men, and man himself must do the rest.

XIV. God cannot exert such influence on the minds of men, as shall make it certain that they will choose and act in a particular manner, without impairing their moral agency. XV. The righteousness of Christ is not the

sole ground of the sinner's acceptance with God; and in no sense does the righteousness

of Christ become ours.

XVI. The reason why some differ from others in regard to their reception of the gospel is, that they make themselves to differ.

The Convention pronounced these "errors unscriptural, radical, and highly dangerous," which in their ultimate tendency, subvert the foundation of Christian hope, and destroy

the souls of men."

The Convention, on church order and dis

cipline, particularly specified as practices of which they complained: The formation of presbyteries founded on doctrinal repulsions as affinities. The refusal of presbyteries to examine their ministers. The licensing and ordination of men unfit for want of qualification, and who deny fundamental principles of truth. The needless ordination of evangelists without any pastoral relation. The want of discipline respecting gross acknowledged errors. The number of ministers abandoning their duties for secular employments, in violation of their vows. The disorderly meetings of members and others, thereby exciting discord and contention among the churches.

that purpose, anterior to the commencement of the sessions. These officers omitted all reference to the delegates from the presbyteries comprised in the four synods which had been expunged from the ecclesiastical statistics by the previous Assembly. When the motion was made that the commissions from these presbyteries should be received, the moderator refused to recognize the motion, or the parties on whose behalf it was made. After a short interval of disorder, the minority, (including both the advo cates of the synods who were excluded by the Assembly of 1837, and the commissioners from those synods,) united in disclaiming the authority of the moderator, and proceeded to organize by themselves; and having elected another moderator and clerks, the whole of the dissentients from the acts of the Assembly, in 1837, immediately withdrew, in a body, to the edifice occupied by the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia.

The majority retained their seats until the temporary confusion ceased, when they proceeded to their ecclesiastical business according to the prescribed ordinary forms.

The trustees and other corporate bodies among the Presbyterians possess much valuable property, for their seminaries and missionary institutions. Some time after the separation in 1838 had been consummated, the question, in whom that property was legally vested, was carried into the civil courts of Pennsylvania, in which state the trustees were incorporated. The Trustees of the General Assembly are elected by the General Assembly, who may change one-third of the number every year. The seceding Assembly elected one-third of the board as new members. When they claimed their seats at the board they were refused admission. A suit, therefore, was commenced, to obtain possession of the offices from which, as they contended, they were illegally excluded. The cause excited intense interest, and was primarily decided in favor of the claimants; for the true question litigated was this: Was the body who refused to acknowledge the four several synods the true Assembly of the Presbyterian Church? An appeal to the Supreme

of the inferior tribunal. The superior court reversed the sentence of the lower court; and granted a new trial, with a construction of the law which in effect precluded the plaintiffs from obtaining their object, and the suit was withdrawn. Thus, so far as the legal decision in Pennsylvania operates, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States are recognised as that body, represented by their trustees who, in law, still hold that title, with its common property.

The effervescence of the strife now has almost disappeared; and the two bodies of American Presbyterians are actively pursuing their own course. According to their statistical returns, they have increased during the six years from their separation, nearly one-third in actual numbers. Moreover, when we contrast the diversified additional instrumentalities to promote the Redeemer's kingdom, which have been put in operation by them, since their division in 1838; it is manifest, that, in capacity for the Lord's work, they have doubled their usefulness and enterprise.

Thus, from the smallest beginnings, when the little companies of the "Presbyterian Pilgrims" who first came to America, as it were, but with a "staff,” here laid the foundations of this church, and reared it under manifold difficulties and annoyances, encountering obloquy and even persecutions: it has grown under the protection and favor of Providence, oft sharing the dews of the Holy Spirit, enlarging its borders in this genial land, and exerting a happy influence on the world, until now it has "become two bands.”

Although not of this distinct denomination, the Reformed Dutch and German Reformed Churches in the United States, are Presbyterian and Calvinistic. Their standards of doctrine are the Articles of the Synod of Dort and the Heidelberg Catechism. The Reformed Presbyterian Church, or Covenanters, the Associate Church, and the Associate Reformed Church, and the body which separated from us in 1838, adopt the Westminster Standards as the symbols of their faith and order; the last specified body having the same constitution as the Presbyterian Church, with the exceptions of the restric

Tennessee.-University of Nashville. Kentucky.-Centre, at Danville. Ohio.-Miami University, at Oxford. Indiana.-South Hanover College. Theological Seminaries.-At Princeton, New Jersey; Western, at Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Union, in Prince Edward county, Virginia; Southern, at Columbia, South Carolina; Indiana, at New Albany, Indiana.

Board of Education. - The formal commencement of the work of education for the ministry, was the result of the proceedings of the General Assembly in 1806, when that duty was assigned to each presbytery. The inefficiency of the system induced the General Assembly, in 1819, to form the "Board of Education;" but during the interval until 1829, there was not the adequate result which was necessary to supply the demands for ministers. A new organization was then made; and the consequence has been manifested in a large augmentation of the funds, and a proportionate increase in the number of theological students maintained during their preparatory course.

Thirteen hundred and fifty young men have been assisted in their studies for the gospel ministry. Two-thirds of the foreign missionaries, and nearly one-half of the domestic missionaries, with a large proportion of the pastors of the Presby. terian churches at this time, have been introduced to the ministry through the aid of the "Board of Education."

Literature. This department comprises the miscellaneous publications, which are expressly devoted to promulge the doctrinal principles, and to defend the government and discipline of the Presbyterian churches.

There is a quarterly periodical, by Presbyterian writers, entitled the Biblical Repertory and Theological Review, which is devoted almost exclusively to disquisitions strictly religious, or to those which have a close affinity with them, either on Christian ethics or ecclesiastical history. Several weekly newspapers are issued by them, and very extensively dispersed. The Presbyterian, at Philadelphia; the Presbyterian Advocate, at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; the Presbyterian of the West, at Springfield, Ohio; the Protestant and

Herald, at Frankfort, Kentucky; the Watchman of the South, at Richmond, Virginia; and the Observer, at Charleston, South Carolina.

Board of Publication.—In addition to these miscellanies, the Presbyterians have organized a most important and efficient society, denominated the Presbyterian Board of Publication, which was instituted for the purpose of disseminating standard volumes of theology and ecclesiastical history, and also tracts that elucidate and defend Presbyterianism. This board, which is elected by the General Assembly, has printed nearly fifty tracts, doctrinal, ritual, on Popery, historical, and for youth.

Nearly one hundred and thirty works have already been issued by the Presbyterian Board of Publication, which may thus be classified: Biographical, nineteen; devotional, eight; doctrinal, twenty; experimental, seventeen; historical, seventeen; polemical, sixteen; practical, five; prophetic, five; and works adapted for youth, eighteen. The benign fruits, which this powerful typographical machinery is producing, can be estimated only by remembering the moderate price at which the works are sold, and the high character of the volumes themselves, a few of which are enumerated in the order in which they originally were published.

Brooks's Mute Christian; Halyburton's Great Concern; Life of John Knox; Charnock's Discourses on Regeneration; Guthrie's Christian's Great Interests; Lime Street Lectures; Bradbury's Mystery of Godliness; Flavel's Divine Conduct; Charnock's Discourses on the Attributes of God; Owen on the Holy Spirit; Charnock on Christ Crucified; Owen on Justification; Calvin's Institutes, translated by John Allen; Owen on Indwelling Sin; Sibbs's Souls' Conflict; Lorimer's History of the French Protestants; McCrie's History of the Reformation in Italy and Spain; the British Reformers, with their Lives, twelve volumes; Daillie's Use of the Fathers; Mead's Almost Christian; Charlotte Elizabeth's English Martyrology, and the Lives of the British Reformers, separate from their writings.

The beneficial influence, under the divine auspices, which must result from the unrestricted dissemination of these and

similar invaluable Christian productions, throughout the Republic, and especially among the Household of Faith, far transcends our utmost imagination; and the exhilarating anticipation cannot be otherwise expressed, than in the Psalmist's urgent petition, “O Lord, we beseech thee, send now prosperity!" Amen.

Missions.-This portion of the philanthropic labors of the Presbyterian churches is conducted by two distinct agencies and boards of managers.

Domestic. The primary arrangements for Home Missions, under the committee appointed by the General Assembly, were comparatively restricted in extent and languid in their operations; until in 1828, the present efficient system was adopted, through which "there has been a gradual but constant increase in the number of missionaries, the amount of funds collected, the interest excited, and the good accomplished." Three hundred missionaries are now employed, while the prospect of usefulness in spreading the gospel never was more promising than at the present period. Signal success already has attended the work under the divine blessing; and every heart must exult in the glorious prospect, that "the righteousness" of Zion "shall go forth as brightness," and "the salvation" of Jerusalem "as the lamp that burneth."

Foreign.-"The first mission to the heathen, established by the Presbyterian Church, was among the Indians on Long Island, in the year 1741. David Brainard was the second missionary. His ordination took place in the year 1744, and the fields of his remarkable labors were at the forks of the Delaware, on the borders of the Susquehanna, and at Crossweeks in New Jersey. From that period, increasing attention was given to this great subject, and various missionary societies were formed in which Presbyterians largely participated. This was particularly the case in the United Foreign Mis. sionary Society, which after a brief career was eventually merged in the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.'

Notwithstanding, many Presbyterians were solicitous that their own churches should separately engage in the mission

ary work. In consequence of which, "In the year 1831, a determined and active effort was made by the Synod of Pittsburg, to awaken the church to a sense of her duty in this respect, by the organi zation of the Western Foreign Missionary Society.' This society met with so much favor, that the General Assembly in 1835 resolved to engage the whole church in an enterprise worthy of her character and resources. The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions,' was organized in the year 1837, under favorable auspices, and to it was made an entire transfer of all that pertained to the Western Foreign Missionary Society."

"The experiment has succeeded, and the smiles of God have rested on that institution. Flourishing missions have been established among various tribes of American Indians, in Western Africa, Northern India, and China, and all the operations are carried on with great ability."

In Northern India, there is a synod of American missionaries in connexion with the General Assembly; comprising the Presbytery of Allahabad, of six ministers

the Presbytery of Furrukabad, of four ministers-and the Presbytery of Lodiana, of five ministers. The Board of Missions issues two monthly periodicals, the “ Missionary Chronicle," and the "Foreign Missionary;" which are extensively dispersed, and effectually sustain the solicitude that is experienced to "send out the light and the truth."

The foregoing article claims to be but little more than an authentic compilation. The writer has freely copied and incorporated with his own language, the language of such of his authorities as suited his purpose, without specific notice. He takes this place to acknowledge his obligations of this sort to the authorities on which he has thus drawn, viz.: The Confession of Faith; Edinburgh Encyclopæ dia; Miller's Christian Ministry, and Presbyterianism; Histories of the Westminster Assembly, by Hetherington, and by the Presbyterian Board of Publication; and Hodge's Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church. He has also received very essential aid from the Rev. George Bourne, in the sedulous explora