The General Assembly. By Prof. L. H. Atwater, D. D. [pp. 424-442]

The General Assembly.
away; legal ordinances and ritualistic ceremonies shall be
abrogated, ecclesiastical tyranny abolished, and all the enemies of God shall be consumed." A number of minor slips
betray the fact that this volume, though evidently the fruit of
much reflection and of an earnest spirit, has led its author into
a department with which he is not professionally familiar-as
where he unintentionally plays into the hands of modern unbelieving criticism by speaking. of the book of Daniel as the
work not of the prophet but of a compiler, p. 13, and prepared
after the prophet's death, p. 44, or makes our Lord's ministry
to have lasted seven years, p. 26, or explains "hlost," Dan.
viii. 13, by the Latin "hostia," or substitutes a Septuagint
reading for that of the Hebrew, and makes it the basis of his
computations, p. 39, or founds an interpretation on expressions in the Septuagint which are wholly out of relation to the
original, p. 77ff.
ARTICLE VI.-The General ARssembly.
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the
United States met in the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago
on the 18th day of June, 1871, and was opened with a sermnon
by Rev. J. Trumbull Backus, D.D., the moderator of the last
Assembly. The Rev. Z. M. Humphrey, D.D., was chosen
Moderator.
REDUCTION OF THE RRATIO OF REPRESENTrATION.
The body was very large, numbering some 500 members, or
mnore. This number was greatly augmnented by a very large
attendance of others who, in various capacities, and for various
reasons, always crowd around such gatherings. The size of
the body, which must constantly increase on the present basis
of representation, with the growth of our church, has already
become too onerous to Christian hospitality to be endured in
any but the largest cities, and in them only on special occa sions, nor more than once in a generation; and it has become
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[J'ULY,