Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/841

PRESBYTERIANISM 817 for missionaries. They did so ; and Messrs. Armstrong and Andrew Fulton arrived in Ken- tucky in the spring of 1798, and in November formed the presbytery of Kentucky. This ac- cession of strength enabled these presbyteries to form themselves into a synod ; and accord- ingly the synod, or court of review, designated as the Associate synod of North America, was constituted at Philadelphia in May, 1801. The synod consisted of 17 ministers, who were divided into the presbyteries of Philadelphia, of Ohartiers, of Kentucky, and of Cambridge. Until the year 1818 appeals might be taken from the synod to that of Scotland ; but at that time it was declared a coordinate synod by the general Associate synod of Scotland. Between the years 1838 and 1840 serious ec- clesiastical difficulties arose, and several min- isters were deposed or suspended. These, with a number of ministers and congregations in sympathy with them, at once organized sepa- rately, having several presbyteries, who con- stituted a synod and claimed to be the true Associate synod. This painful division was afterward adjusted, and a reunion was effected in 1854. In 1858, previous to the union with the Associate Keformed church, the Associate synod comprised 21 presbyteries, 231 ministers and licentiates, 293 congregations, and 23,505 communicants. In May, 1858, the Associate Reformed and the Associate churches, having been separated for more than three quarters of a century, were reunited upon a common basis, under the name of the United Presby- terian church in North America. A small number on each side protested against the union. In 1875 this branch of the church embraced a general assembly, 8 synods, 56 presbyteries, 611 ministers, 777 congregations, and 76,063 communicants. It has theological seminaries at Newburgh, N. Y., Allegheny, Pa., and Xenia, O.. and missionary seminaries at Sioot and Ramleh, Egypt. Westminster, Monmouth, and Ohio Central colleges are also under its charge. It has boards of foreign missions, of home missions, of publication, of church extension, of freedmen, and of educa- tion, with mission stations in China, India, Egypt, and Syria. Its periodical publications are one monthly, one semi-monthly, and two weekly newspapers. V. REFORMED PRESBYTE- RIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. At the union of the Associate and Reformed churches in 1782, a considerable number of the latter as well as of the former communion refused their assent to it, and they continued their original organ- ization. Within ten years four ministers emi- grated from Europe, to aid in maintaining the Reformed Presbyterian cause, the last of whom arrived in 1793. Two of them, Messrs. Mc- Kinney and King, in connection with Mr. Gib- son, who had then lately come from Ireland, proceeded in 1798 to constitute a presbyterial judicatory independent of all foreign control. This was styled the Reformed presbytery of the United States of America. In arranging the terms of her communion, she declared that she adopted the Reformed Presbyterian system only in so far as it presents common truths, and " binds to duties not peculiar to the church in the British isles, but common in all lands." The government of the church is purely pres- byterian ; its doctrines are embodied in the Westminster standards ; its worship is conduct- ed in the simplest manner, without organs or hymns of human composition, and its distin- guishing principle is Christ's headship over the nations. In 1808 a synod, composed of three presbyteries, was constituted under the name of the synod of the Reformed Presbyterian church in the United States of North America, In 1825 the supreme judicatory received the form of a representative assembly composed of delegates from presbyteries, and styled the general synod. In the "Declaration and Tes- timony" of the church, published in 1843, the synod, declaring its approval of the Westmin- ster confession, is careful to disclaim any rec- ognition of the power of the civil magistrate in ecclesiastical matters, adding: "All that appertains to the magistratical power in refer- ence to the church is the protection of her members in full possession, exercise, and en- joyment of their rights. The magistratical office is civil and political, and consequently altogether exterior to the church." The mem- bers of this body have declined to exercise the right of suffrage, on the ground that they would thus sanction the omission from the constitution of the United States of any ex- plicit acknowledgment of God as the author of civil society. Principally on this ground, several ministers and private members in 1833 seceded from the general synod of the church, and formed a separate organization, known as the general synod of the Reformed Presbyte- rian church, but which has never embraced more than 20 or 30 ministers. Reformed Pres- byterians are scattered over the middle and western states, and they have a few congre- gations at the south.. The church consisted in 1874 of 100 ministers, 105 congregations, and 10,000 communicants, and had one college, one theological seminary, one weekly newspaper, two monthly publications, and boards of for- eign missions, domestic missions, and education. VI. PRESBTTERIANISM IN CANADA. Presbyte- rianism has had an existence in Canada at least from the conquest in 1759. The first Presby- terian minister we hear of is the Rev. George Henry, who went to Quebec in the year 1755. He was followed in 1784 by the Rev. Alexan- der Spark, and it appears that in the year 1787 the first Presbyterian congregation was organized in Quebec. It was composed of several pious soldiers and a few civilians. In the year 1780 the Rev. Thomas Bethune, a min- ister of the church of Scotland, who had come as chaplain of a highland regiment, preached first in Montreal, and afterward organized sev- eral congregations in the county of Glengary. In Montreal a Presbyterian church was organ-