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

The General Assembly.
so large and unwieldy as to be in danger of contracting more the
characteristics of a great mass meeting, than of a solemn deliberative and judicial body, such as the supreme judicatory of
the Church of Christ should be. This whole subject of maturing a plan for reducing the membership of the body was
referred to a large and competent Committee with instructions
to report to the next Assembly. We trust they will do their
work wisely and well. Every plan yet suggested, whether by
presbyterial, synodical, or district representation, has its own
peculiar difficulties, which it is unnecessary to repeat here.
Be these difficulties greater or less, they must be boldly met
and surmounted. We trust no half-way measures will be proposed, which mollify without curing the evil-leaving it soon
to become as formidable as ever. We hope they will
boldly propose a plan which will shrink the body to less than
half its p)resent size, and which will improve its quality more
than diminishi its quantity; which will make it no longer a
crowd appalling to Christian hospitality, or a huge gathering
of ministers and elders, largely chosen because they covet
such an opportunity of travel and recreation, but a select assemnbly of the leading and representative minds of the church,
and through which its minorities not less than its majorities
call make themselves felt.
The session was on the whole harmonious and successful in
bringing to a happy issue most subjects with which it had to
deal. Chief among these was the re-organization of the Boards
so as vastly to raise the standard of Christian giving, of ministerial support, of home and foreign evangelization, and of all
else which can contribute to the efficiency of the Church in
spreading the Gospel.
FINANCE AND BENEVOLENCE.
The Report of the Committee of Twenty-one which has been
spread before the Church by the weeklies, and tile action
taken upon it, were the great features of the meeting. Nearly
all else done was in direct or indirect relation with this, as
providing for the contemplated advance in Christian liberality
and evangelization. The jubilant reception of the report of
the Memorial Fund Committee, showing that the contributions
1871.]
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