The General Assembly [pp. 521-553]

5General Assembly.
Resolved, That the Synod require the Presbytery to review
the record in this case, according to the Book of Discipline.
After discussion, in which Messrs. Plumer, Twitchell, Van
Rensselaer, Cheeseman, Fillmore, Leyburn, McCullough, Clark,
'Burch, and others, participated, and several ineffectual efforts to
amend, the report of the committee was adopted.
The principle involved in the above decision was re-affirmed
in the answer given to an overture from the Presbytery of Baltimore.
On Overture No. 23, from the Presbytery of Baltimore,
asking whether a member could be dismissed upon application
by letter upon a statement that he did not consider himself a
converted man, &c. The Committee reported a resolution, that,
in the opinion of the Assembly, there is no constitutional or
scriptural mode of suspending members from church communion, except by death, dismission to join another church, or
excommunication upon trial, according to the provisions of the
discipline. Report agreed to.
DISMISSION OF MEMBERS TO OTHER CHURCHES.
Dr. Leland, from the Committee on Bills and Overtures,
reported upon Overture No. 10 from the Presbytery of Baltimore, and submitting the following question: "Shall members
of our churches, who may wish to join churches not in correspondence with the General Assembly, receive certificates in the
same form as if they wished to join another church in our
communion, or in correspondence with the Assembly; or has
the church session done all that it ought to do, when in such
cases the good and regular standing of the persons so applying
is duly certified?"
On motion, the answer recommended by the committee was
laid on the table, and the following, after amendment, was
adopted, viz.: "This whole subject is one that ought to be left
to the sound discretion of the various church sessions, according
to the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church."
The subject involved in this overture is one of the greatest
practical importance. There is nothing on which our ministers
and members are more sensitive, than on the question of
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[JULY