The General Assembly [pp. 529-543]

530 THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. [July7
re-union and the methods of church work to be inaugurated as
a consequence of it, had already been debated and brought to
an issue by previous Assemblies. The overture to the Presbyteries for giving to the limited-term eldership a constitutional
sanction, was found to have been sustained by a large majority,
and is consequently now declared by the Assembly to be a
part of our constitution. A larger than usual attention was
given to the reports of the various boards of the church. The
International Council of Presbyterian Churches, to be held in
London in July, was approved, and the three last Moderators of
the Assembly were appointed delegates to it, with power to add
to their number. Strong deliverances were made against sectarian schools, also against cruelty to animals. We have no
occasion, if we had the space, to notice specially more than a
very few of the other matters which engaged the attention of
the body.
THE ISSUE OF THE NEGOTIATIONS FOR CORRESPONDENCE
WITH TIIE SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
On this subject the Assembly wisely, in ourjudgment, adopted
the following minute in reference to the report of its committee
which urged further present advances on our part:
lie~olved, That this Assembly deeply regrets that the negotiations in reference to fraternal correspondence between the Presbyterian Chur~ h in the
United States of America and the Presbyterian Church in the United States
(popularly known as the Presbyterian Church South) have failed; that the
Assembly deems it inexpedient to press the question of fraternal relations
at present by further begotiations, through the appointment of another committee; at the same time the Assembly avails itself of this opportunity to
affirm unequivocally its confidence in the integrity and Christian character of
our brethren of the Southern Church, and to declare that all the acts and deliverances of the Northern Assemblies of which they complain are wholly
null and void, and of no binding efficacy as judgments of the Church we represent, or as rules of proceeding for its Presbyteries and Church Sessions, and
that in so far as they, or any of them, can be supposed to import any injurious imputations upon the present character and standing of the churches
and members of the Southern Assembly as Christians and Presbyterians,
such an application of them would be unjust to them and would be disapproved and regretted by us; and further to reaffirm explicitly, in harmony
with the repeated and emph~tic deliverances of former Assemblies, our
hearty willingness and our earnest and sincere desire for the re-establishment
of fraternal relations between the two bodies on terms and conditions which
shall be mutually honorable and in the spirit of Christian charity, forbear