Notes On Current Topics [pp. 371-382]

374 NOTE~ ON CURRENT ThPICS. [April,
posed of fewer but more select and representative men. Indeed,
the unutness of the Assembly, as now constituted, to give just and
f?air considera~~on to our sA~ernes of Benevolence, Finance and
Evangelism, is aIreidy urged, as our reaoers have doubtless ohserved, as Oi~e reason for the establishment of a new and permanent
representative body supposed to be better suited to this purpose.
~/hatever ieasons may exist in favor of the General Commission, we
think this one ought not to continue. Loud complaints are also made
of the disadvanage at which the most competent members, unless
somewhat bold and obtrusive, are already put, in obtaining a fair
hearing, or any hearing at all.
The necessity being admitted, the great problem is to devise a
plan for effecting the reduction, which shall not clash so much with
traditional habits and privileges as to fail of sufficient support, while
it at the same time can be carried out smoo4~ly through our present
organic agencies. It is believed that all these conditions inay be
secured on substantially the following plan:
1.The election of delegates to be hereafter by the Synods, and
no longer by the Presbyteries. Thus we use an existing church
court, fitly organized, meeting annually, and fully representative for
this purpose. No new o%anization has to be started. The annual
synodical meetings will grow in importance and interest, which many
of them, of late years, have been sadly losing.
2.The election of commissionens by Synods to be from candidates nominated by the Presbyteries composing the Synod, on the
same basis on which they now elect commissioners to the Assembly.
The Presbyteries are to nominate to the Synods as candidates for
the Assembly, one minister and one elder for every twenty-four
ministers, or fraction of twenty-four. This still makes the Presbyteries the original fountain of representation in the Assembly, to
the utmost practicable extent, upon the wonted basis of apportionment,-a matter for many reasons eminently desirable.
3.~Vhile the proposed plan, to this extent, conforms to our existing methods, it obviates the greatest objection to our present system,
by proportioning the number of commissioners to be elected by each
Synod to the number of communicants it contains. This avoids
giving undue representation to Presbyteries in localities where large
numbers of unemployed ministers reside. All are thus put upon
one footing, and no arrangement could be more entirely just. The
precise number of communicants proper to be fixed upon for a unit