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May 26, 1909. . TH Presbytery of Atlanta: Relative tc melhcd of soloctiug a pastor. Enorte: Un validity of Romish baptism. Winchester: On Christian Science. Atlanta: On Presbyterial blanks. Roanoke: On placing reports of the home and school under the head of orphanage. Winchester: That presbyterial reports rather than executive committee reports be us<d in published minutes of the Assembly. Florida. ISast Hanover atul .Maryland on Presbyterial reports. East Hanover: Asking a permanent committee on adjustment of the Assembly's causes. Upper Mo.: As to number of collections and consolidation of committees. Forth Worth: Suggesting a plan for statistical reports. Abingdon: To interpret question No. 10, in the narrative. Synod cf La.; On evangelistic work among foreigners living in this country. East Miss.: Field Secretary of Homo and Foreign Missions. Paris, Atlanta, Charleston, Missouri and Augusta, and Lafayette, favoring organization of general evangelistic work. . Ezenezer: Asking that the Laymen's Movement include Home Missions. I Louisville: To place Home and Foreign Missions 011 llie same plane. Montgomery: To appoint an ad interim committee to propose for a semi-centennial celebration. Pine Bluff: Asking a revised edition of the Bible to be made from the King James and authorized versions. West Texas and St. Louis: On allowing mileage to commissioners to " the Assembly. Dallas: To reduce assessment for the Assembly's treasury. Synod of Alabama: To provide for cooperation between the Publication and Education Committees in the employment of colporteurs. The report of the trustees of the Assembly was read and referred. Also reports of trustees of Columbia, union, Austin, KentucKy ana southwestern Theological Institutions. The vei>ort of the Permanent Committee on family religion was read; Dr. Oornelson, chairman. The report of Dr. E. C. Gordon and others, on the revision of citations of proof texts, was read and referred to a siieeial committee. A paper was presented by Dr. E. M. Green, giving assurance to our missionaries, Messrs. Morrison and Shejiherd, In Africa, of our synvpathy In the trial before the Belgian government oflleiala. Ivu wmcn iney are soon to oo suDjecieu. and commending them for their faithfulness in exposing atrocities upon the natives in Africa. Also appointed Sundny, May 23, ns a special day of prayer in their behalf. An amendment offered by Mr. D. S. Henderson, of South Carolina. to the effect that the offices of the United States government be Invoked in behalf of Messrs. Morrison and Shepherd, was adopted along with the paper of Dr. Green, after earnest discussion. Rev. A. B. Sloan, of St. Andrews, Scotland, was introduced and welcomed as a visiting brother. [E PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOU Religion In The Home. Opening Sermon to the General Assembly. By the Retiring Moderator, Rev. W. W. Mcore, D. D. May 20, 1909. Dent. 6: 6-7. 'And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart; and thou shaft teach them diligently unto thy children." The Greatness of Moses. proses the Hebrew law-giver was perhaps the greatest mere man that ever lived. His influence has probably been stronger, inoie far reaching and more beneficent than that of any other teacher and organizer in the history of the world except aione our Lord Jesus Christ. The teachings of Hoses have largely determined the history and influence of three of the great religions of mankind?Judaism. Mohammedanism, and Christianity. He wrs a many-sided man. He was preeminent both as a man of thought and a man of action. In Lie realm of letters ho excelled alike as a writfcr of prose and a writer of poetry, as shown in the matchless narratives of Genesis, the ringing paean of deliverance at th? Red Sea, and that lofty and melancholy hnnn tho Qlith. Pcnlnt ho nmwAP nf which is shown in the fact that it has fcetu made a part of every funeral service in Christendom?so that these deathless words about death are still read every day over the mortal remains of many thousands of our fellow men. And when your time comes and mine, the minister who officiates, will pronounce over our lifeless clay the threnody thai Moses wrote three thousand years ago. In view cf what the Bible telte us about his temperament and his defects as a speaker, it would hardly be expected that Moses should excel in the oratorical style. Vet Professor Moultcn, of the University of Chicago, who has made the literary forms of Scripture his specialty, says that he once read through on three successive days, each at a single sitting, an oration of Demosthenes, one of Bnrke, and the book of Deuteronomy, and he had the feeling at the time that neither of the other two rose to the oratorical level of the speeches of Moses. According to Josephus, Mosos wa3 also a brilliant and victorious soldier, and on the occasion of an Ethiopian invasion took command of the Egyptian army, repulsed the invaders from the very gates of Memphis, drove t'nein back into their own country, and captured their capital. His pre-eminence as statesman, legislator and organizer is seen in the fact that, to him are traced back nearly all the formative ideas and institutions of the most influential people chat, ever lived. In the wealth of his endowments, in the grandeur of his character, and in the masslvene&s of his work, he is a colossal figure. But when that towering personality passed away, would not the work he had done fall to the ground? His work would certainly have been Incomplete had he not made provision for tho perpetuation of It after his death; and in nothing does the greatness of the man appear more clearly than in the measures whiah he adopted for this purpose. The Essentials of His System. In the book of Deuteronomy we have the closing addresses of the aged leader 'TH. 17 to his people, and in ihe paragraph before us (Deut. 6: 4-9), we find the three essentials of his system, vis.. a Theology,, a Religion, and a Pedagogy. A Theology. "Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord." Xo other portion, of the Scriptures has had so strong an influence on the character and career of the Hebrew race as this. It is the Holy of holies of their Bible?the central article of their 'faith?? the key stone of their creed, it is repeated morning and evening in the daily ritual iu every laud where there is a Hebrew synagogue or a Hebrew home. It is bound upon mil liens of arms and foreheads. It is nailed upon millions of door-posts. In every way it has been emphasized to the eye as well as the ear. In the original text the final letters of the first uad last words of the verse are majuscula, i. e., printed much larger than the ordinary size, so that, as soon as the hook is opened, lhi3 verse leaps from the page as it were and seizes the attention of the rerader. Thj?se two letters form together a word meaning "witness," the utterance of this verse being accounted by the Jews a witness for the faith. Nor are the Jews alone in stressing this doctrine of the divine unity. The Mohammedans give it an equally conspicuous place in their creed. Five times every day the muezzin climbs to the uiijuiei oun cans me iaiuuui to prayer with the words: "There is no gcd but God." The importance attached by Christians to the doctrine of the exclusive deity of Jehovah is too well known to require further mention. But in the time of Moses there was need of special emphasis on the unity of God. He and his people had just come out of a land which was the very hot-bed of polytheism?where, as Herodotus said, it was easier to And a god than a man?a land where the people had deified the sun and worshipped that, where they had deified the Nile and "worshipped that, where they had deified bulls and rams and cats and worshipped them. Over against this riot of polytheism, Moses taught that God is one, supreme, almighty, creator and lord of all, loving and gracious?"our God." And it is impossible to overestimate the world's debt to him for doing it. For, explain it how you will, polytheism degrades and mouotheism exalts. The product of the one dies, the product of the other endures. The religion of Egypt has perished, the religion of Israel abides. And the explanation is not far to seek. For belief in one God, righteous and almighty, is the indispensable condition of a calm, courageous, conservative mind and a rational view of human affairs. It steadies, strengthens and lifts the whole character and life of the individual and the community to know that this universe is the thought of one mind, that it is under the control of one hand, and that in all its parts it moves to the accomnlishment of r>?o m ? vuv ciou. cuu. io any one therefore who may suppose that this is all academic and far removed from the practical interests of our land and time we would say that a sound theology is one of the most practical of things because it affects directly the temper of the mind, the steadiness of the character and the quality of the work. A Religion. Further, Moses not only gave a Theology but a Religion. He not only taught*