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The General Assembly
Chaleston, W. Va.
THK GKXKKAL. ASSKMliLY.
Practically all of the Protestant
churches of Charleston and vicinity
were filled on Sunday by members of
the Assembly. The Moderator, Rev.
Dr. R. C. Reed, and Rev. Dr. T. H.
Rice preached in the church where
the Assembly was meeting.
Monday morning the Assembly, re
freshed by the rest of Sunday, re
sumed its work.
A telegram was received from the
Northern Assembly asking for the
meaning of the telegram sent it on
Saturday in regard to closer relations,
as it did not specify definitely what
the Constitution referred to was. An
other telegram was sent showing that
the Constitution was that adopted by
the joint committees last year, with
a few modifications suggested by our
committee.
Greetings from Japan.
One of the interesting incidents of
the. Assembly was an address by Rev.
Dr. Masahisa Uemura, a Japanese. He
came to bring the fraternal greetings
of the Church of Christ in Japan.
This is the Presbyterian Church of
that country, which has about 20,000
members, or about one-fourth of all
the Protestant Christians in Japan.
Dr. Uemura is the Moderator of the
Daikwai or General Assembly of that
Church. He is also the pastor of a
self-supporting church of 800 mem
bers, which has sent out six other
churches from its membership. This
church has an annual budget of $15,
000, Dr. Uemura is also president
of a theological seminary. He has
been a member of the Christian
Church for forty-nine years and a
preacher nearly that long. He deliv
ered his address in Japanese, not be
ing able to make a public speech in
English. It was interpreted to the
Assembly by Rev. Dr. A .Oltman, a
missionary to Japan of the Dutch Re
formed Church of this country, and
who came with him to the Assembly.
The address was one of fraternal
greetings, thanking the Assembly for
what it had done in Japan, and ask
ing it to continue the work with in
creasing energy, as there is so much
need for the gospel in that country,
and the opportunities for giving it to
the people are so great.
HOME MISSIONS.
Monday evening a meeting was
held in the interest of Home Missions.
Two members of the Executive Com
mittee of Home Missions made ad
dresses.
Rev. Dr. B. R. Lacy, of Atlanta,
told of a visit he had made recently
to some of the mission fields of the
Church in the mountains of Ken
tucky. He found that there was much
ignorance among the people, and that
there has been much lawlessness
among them, though this is not so
bad as it has been.
These people are brave and stal
wart, and responded so promptly and
loyally to the call of their country
that in two counties he visited there
was no need to make a draft, as more
men volunteered than the quota called
for.
These mountain Beetions are very
thickly settled. In one of these coun
ties there is a city of ti.OOO popula
tion, with 30,000 other people in the
county. In this whole county ?here
are only two preachers, one of our
missionaries and one of the United
Presbyterian Church.
Due to the development of the coal
and oil industry, many of these peo
ple are becoming wealthy, while all
about them there is still the greate.it
poverty. Rich and poor alike need
the gospel.
Men are going out from the moun
tains to many parts of the country.
They ought to have the gospel to
carry with them. Some of them go
out as preachers. Others have taken
high places in various kinds of busi
ness and of professions.
Whether they go or stay, they need
the gospel to give them salvation,
comfort and happiness. We need
more men to preach to them and more
women to teach them. They are beg
ging for preaching.
We are trying to meet some of
their needs through Sunday schools.
Mrs. Patsy Bratton Turner has 213
in her Sunday school, which she is
visiting and looking after personally.
Buildings are needed for schools,
that leaders may be trained from
among the boys and girls who are
eager to secure education. The build
ings in use are very poor, and far
too small and uncomfortable.
We must support this work with
our means and with our prayers.
Rev. Dr. E. L. Hill, another mem
ber of the Executive Committee,
spoke on the general work of the
committee. He said among other
things that this work is now in a
great crisis, and that he did not be
lieve that the Church realized the
greatness of the tremendous task that
had been given to this committee.
He spoke of the frontier work in
Texas and Oklahoma. If the people
who go there are to be held for God,
they must be given the gospel.
The mountain work shows that the
gospel ought to be sent to 3,000,000
people who are as pure Anglo-Saxons
as any in the world.
There are 10,000,000 negroes. They
are in our midst and they need the
gospel. Without it they are a great
peril.
The work among the Indians must
be done. The great school at Durant,
Okla., Is doing a fine work for them,
but much more should be done.
In Texas are a vast number of
Mexicans. One-tenth of all the popu
lation of Mexico has come into this
country in the last twenty years.
This committee has been given the
responsibility of directing the great
evangelistic work of the Church.
This is a great work laid upon the
committee. Last year nearly half a
million dollars was put into its hands,
and it aided 900 preachers and teach
ers in doing its work.
The work has a very poor equip
ment, because the Church does not
realize its greatness and its need, and
lacks a vision of its importance.
The committee wants you to sup
port this work. The immediate need
for equipment and support for the
coming year is 1,980,000. We have
the money, if we will only give it.
We need men and women, conse
crated man power. We need your
prayers. Organizing is good, but we
need agonizing, such as Jacob and
Paul did as they prayed.
Give us these things and we will
do your work. Take the banner of
Home Missions into your hands and
hearts and carry it into the presence
of God.
OKNRRAL CXH'NI'II/ OF PKK8
BYTKKIAN AND KKPOUMKD
OHl'RCHKH IN AMKRIOA.
This subject was brought before the
Assembly in the report of its com
mittee. In discussing this report, the
privileges of the floor were given to
Rev. Dr. George Summey, as the rep
resentative of the Council. He said
this church is a "great Jlner." We
have "jlned" many organizations. We
belong to the Alliance of the Churches
of the World Holding the Presbyte
rian System; we belong to the Fed
eral Council of the Churches of Christ
in America; we belong to the Con
ference on Faith and Order. We also
belong to the Council which I now
represent. This Council is composed
of the Northern and Southern and
United Presbyterian Churches, the
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Sy
nod of the South, the Dutch Reformed
and German Reformed Churches, and
the Colored Cumberland Church. This
Council was formed some years ago.
Last March the Council met with
twenty-nine of its eighty members
present. Certain changes had been
proposed to the churches, looking to
making this organization a federation
of the churches in the Council. Our
Church had not taken action on these
amendments. But it was found that
two-thirds of the churches had adopt
ed them and they were declared in
effect. We are therefore in this modi
fied federation, because we were in it
before and the changes were made in
accordance with the Constitution
which we had approved.
Rev. Dr. A. M. Fraser said the ques
tion really is as to whether this Gen
eral Council is a union. If so. it
comes under the provision of the Book
of Church Order, which requires a
vote of three-fourths of the Presby
teries. If it is not a union, we are
in the federation, and as long as we
remain we are bound by its Consti
tution.
Rev. Dr. Alex. Martin, speaking in
favor of the committee's report, said
that we are now in the Council, and
we have already agreed that amend
ments to the Constitution may be
made on a vote of two-thirds of the
churches In the Council. We ought
to stand by our agreement or with
draw from the Council.
Rev. R. C. Anderson said that if
the Council can change the Constitu
tion in one respect, it can change it
in another. The Constitution now
permitH us to withdraw. The Consti
tution may be so changed that there
will be no way provided by which we
c?n legally withdraw.
Rev. R. E. Fulton favored as a
substitute for this report the over
ture from Tuscaloosa Presbytery,
which asked the Assembly to with
draw from the Council, saying that
the action of the Council was unwar
ranted and unauthorized, and asking
that the matter be referred to the
Presbyteries. The Council's action
was unconstitutional in that it amend
ed the Constitution without author
ity, and without our consent.
The substitute was lost and the
committee's report was adopted. It
is as follows:
Your committee had placed in its
hands the following papers:
The minutes of the General Coun
cil of the Presbyterian and Reformed
Churches in America, the report of
the Council, an overture from Tusca
loosa Presbytery asking thrft the
amended Constitution be sent down
to the Presbyteries for their approval
and adoption, and a letter from Rev.
J. Kprole Lyons, T). I)., suggesting
that we elect representatives on this
Council on the old basis of represen
tation rather than on the new basis
as a matter of economy, stating that
the U. S. A. Church was going to
take the same action.
From the examination of these pa
pers we find that the Council met
at the Chalfonte Hotel, Atlantic City,
N. J., Tuesday, March 14, 1922, and
continued in session for two days. Jti
this meeting the Council adopted the
amended Constitution. The Council
elected Rev. George Bummey, D. D.,
of New Orleans, as official delegate
to this Assembly. No other action
on the part of the Council was con
sidered necessary to be brought to
the attention of this body. We might
say, however, that out of the eighty
representatives having the right to be
present at the meeting of the Council,
twenty-nine were in attendance.
We recommend:
First. That the Assembly approve
the action of the Council in adopting
the amended Constitution on plan of
union, in spite of some apparent ir
regularities attendant upon the can
vass of the returns of the constituent
bodies of the Council.
Second. That the overture from
Tuscaloosa Presbytery be answered in
the negative.
Third That the official delegate,
Rev. George Summey, I). D., be heard
by the Assembly pending the adoption
of this report.
Fourth. We recommend the adop
tion of the suggestion of Rev. J. S.
Lyons, D. D., President of the Coun
cil, touching the basis of representa
tion.
We note that the term of the fol
lowing principals and alternates ex
pires at this meeting:
Principals ? Rev. Robert Hill, D. D ,
Tyler, Tex.; Rev. A. L. Patterson, Sa
vannah, Ga.; Rev. D. Clay Lilly, D.
D., Lexington, Ky.; Dr. A. J. A. Alex
ander, Spring Station, Ky.
Alternates ? Hon. R. S. Baker, Dal
las, Tex.; Rev. C. H. Branch, Texar
kana, Ark.; Rev. W. H. Boggs, Co
lumbia, S. C.; Rev. U. D. Mooney,
New Orleans, La. ?
We recommend that these gentle
men be re-elected for a term of three
years.
Respectfully submitted,
Alexander Martin, Chairman.
NEXT MEETING.
Rev. R. C. Anderson invited the
Assembly to meefc\next year at Mon
treal He said that Montreat has
plenty of room and a fine auditorium,
but has not the means to entertain
the Assembly. He said that the As
sembly would save enough in railroad
fare to pay the cost of entertainment
if it went to Montreat, instead o(
going to some distant point in the
Church. He said that the railroad
fare for the Assembly to go to St.
Louis last year was $7,000 more than
it was the year before to go to Char
lotte. It will cost only a little more
to go to Montreat than it did to go
to Charlotte. He -said that he would
furnish board for the Assembly at
cost, and estimated that the cost
would not be more than $4,000, which
could be paid out of the amount saved
in railroad fare. The Assembly ac
cepted the invitation.
TELEGRAMS OF GREETING
RECEIVED.
Canton, Ohio, May 21, '22.
General Assembly, Charleston, W. Va.:
The Gideons of Ohio, in annual
convention assembled, send greetings
and pray God's richest blessings on
your deliberations in the Master's
name and for His sake.
The Gideons,
J. Harry Humphreys, Natl. Pres.
General Assembly, Charleston, W. Va.:
We greet you in the blessed nam11
of the Lord Jesus and pray for you
great Assembly.
General Assembly, Cumberland- Pres
byterian Church,
High S. McCord, Mod.,
D. W. Fooks, Clerk.
Hot Springs, Ark., May 20, '22.
R. C. Reed, Moderator Presbyterian
Church of the U. S., Charleston,
W. Va.:
The General Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South'
sends Christian greetings to your
body with earnest prayer for contin
ued succeesfulneBB.
A. F\ Watklns, Secy.