BEFORE this number of the magazine has been received by all of our subscribers, 1876 will be numbered with the years of the past. Its record will be made up and sealed. Whatever of joy or sorrow has been experienced, whatever of good or evil has been done, cannot now be increased or diminished. However great may be our satisfaction that we have been enabled to accomplish something, or many our regrets and sincere our sorrow that duties have been neglected, solemn obligations unfulfilled, sinful acts committed, the facts cannot now be altered. All efforts to effect a change would be entirely unavailing. Another page in the book of God's remembrance has been written, and its record will stand as it is to the end. The thought that while we forget, the High and Holy One remembers, that the effects of neglect and wrong doing can never by us be entirely neutralized, should cause us, humbled for past failures, and grateful that notwithstanding all our shortcomings our Heavenly Father has watched over and preserved us, to begin the new year with the firm resolution to love him more and serve him better; and the consciousness of our own weakness should make us constantly look to the Source of all strength for the needed ability to perform our vows and incite to the exercise of increased vigilance. It may be that, to some of our readers, the year 1876 has been one of uninterrupted enjoyment. Neither death, nor sickness, nor want has entered their homes. All providences have been favorable providences. Their circumstances have combined to fill their hearts. with gratitude, and make their mouths praise with joyful lips. While this may be true of some, no doubt, in the case of the majority, the year has been one of trials, and to not a few of great hardship 39X1178 and suffering. On account of the long continued, and in this land, unprecedented financial crisis, few during the past twelve months have been able to do more than obtain a livelihood. The number that have been reduced from affluence to penury is far greater than we are prepared at first to believe. Not a few, although industrious and economical, have been unable to make provision for the winter, and now that the indications point to one of unusual severity, and in all probability the demand for labor will be very light, they regard with gravest apprehensions its approach, not knowing how their wants will be supplied. In brighter and happier days, and amid pleasanter surroundings, this will perhaps be long remembered by many a family as the year of darkness and gloom, of trials many and sharp, of a long-continued and almost hopeless struggle against adverse circumstances, with black want staring in the face-the year when, in truth, it could almost be said, the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly. The large number of obituaries published shows that the messenger death has not been idle. Many a home has he visited the past twelvemonth, breaking up happy family circles, and removing to the other world those once loved and now so much missed in this. To our readers, one and all, whatever their circumstances, we send our New Year greeting. We rejoice with those that rejoice, and weep with those that weep. May He who has promised to provide for, enlighten and comfort, provide for those in need, give light to those in darkness, and by his grace assuage the griefs of those that mourn. The pages of the book in which the record of the present year is to be kept are still unstained. 1877 is before us. It will be of our own making. While extending our hearty congratulations to all who read these lines, on their spared lives and whatever of good they have received from the hand of the Lord (and his goodness is great; "the Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works"), we join with our congratulations the wish that they may be so guarded and guided that at its close the survey of another year's record may occasion greater happiness and fewer regrets than that of the past, that during it they may be made happy by the blessing of the Lord, which maketh rich, and addeth to it no sorrow. "Beloved, we wist above all things, that you may prosper, and be in health as your souls prosper." "The Lord that made heaven and earth bless you out of Zion." Respecting the manner in which the magazine in the future will be conducted, we have but little to say. We are not of those who believe the Reformed Presbyterian Church has outlived her usefulness, or that the best way to accomplish her mission is to either ignore or compromise any of her distinctive principles. Never in the history of our church in America has our course been more completely vindicated than in the past twelve months. Never has there been a louder call to steadfastness and faithfulness than that which comes from the distracted condition of this land to-day. Recognizing the call, we shall maintain in the future as we have in the past, the distinctive principles of our Testimony. Believing that obsta principiis is the only safe rule, we shall oppose any effort to compromise and resist any tendency practically to ignore them. Our readers may rest assured that, realizing the responsibility that rests upon the editors of a magazine that makes a monthly visit into nearly all the families of the church, and whose influence is so generally admitted, we shall endeavor to make it not only attractive and valuable, but also safe. We ask, in return, a continuance of the hearty good will and generous support heretofore so freely given. THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. SKETCHES OF HER ORGANIC HISTORY. BY REV. THOS. SPROULL, D. D. No. XI. THE Eastern Sub-Synod appointed its first adjourned meeting to be held in Chambers street church, New York, April 9, 1833, at 7 o'clock, P. M. To this meeting Covenanters both in the East and in the West looked forward with the hope that something might be done that would restore peace to the church so sadly disturbed. The condition of things was such as to excite the most painful apprehensions. The clerk of Synod had been suspended at its meeting pro re nata for contumacy. Libels were presented against the signers of "the Address and Notes," and matters were in a state of preparation for trying the persons charged, at the next stated meeting. In the meantime new complications arose within the bounds of the Southern Presbytery* that increased the difficulty. Rev. J. N. McLeod had been released from his pastoral charge in Galway, and was aiding his father in supplying his pulpit in New York. After his suspension by the pro re nata meeting of Synod, a number of members of that congregation, including three elders, considered that it would be disorderly to wait on his ministry. On the following Sabbath he, introduced by his father into the pulpit, proceeded to conduct the public services. A number of the members of the congregation, believing him incompetent on account of his suspension, to exercise the ministerial office, arose and left the church. For this the three elders and those who joined with them were, without trial, suspended from the enjoyment of sealing ordinances. They applied for relief to the Southern Presbytery, and a pro re nata meeting of that court was, at the request of two ministers, called by the moderator to meet in New York on the 16th of January, 1833. When the time arrived and the members convened, it was found that the pastor and the congregation had *This Presbytery included New York, and the congregations north as far as Albany. It was called Southern, with reference to its position in the E. S. Synod. transferred themselves to the jurisdiction of the Philadelphia Presbytery, and that by this Presbytery the son of the pastor, whom the parties aggrieved had refused to hear, was installed assistant pastor of the congregation. The Presbytery reversed the acts of suspension, and declared that "no superior court having disjoined Dr. McLeod and his congregation from this Presbytery, they are still under its jurisdiction and subject to its authority." In a number of cases in the bounds of the E. S. Synod, and in one instance in the bounds of the W. S. Synod, members who had voted or accepted office under the government were called before their respective sessions, and dealt with as violators of the law of the church. These persons almost invariably refused to submit to the decisions of the sessions, and appealed to the presbyteries under whose jurisdiction they were. The condition of affairs was now such as to excite the gravest apprehensions. Already there was a schism in its incipient stage in the church, which, if not healed, it was seen must result in a division. This was on all sides deprecated, and how to avoid it was the difficult problem to be solved. To those who were determined to maintain the position which the church had held from the beginning, the obvious way was to let matters take their regular course, and by discipline endeavor to promote the peace and purity of the church. With those on the other side there was no disposition to retrace the steps that had been taken. They had committed themselves to the doctrines of the rejected paragraphs of the Address and Notes, and maintained the right of Covenanters to exercise all the privileges of citizenship under the government. A barrier was thus placed between the two parties that could be removed only by concession on the one side or the other. It was not to be expected that those who had in the pro re nata meeting of Synod instituted processes against the signers of the Address and Notes, would at this stage retract what they had done, in the face especially of the defiant position of those who denounced the meeting as irreg ular. Believing that what they had done was in accordance with the law and order of the church, they considered the course of the others factious. They were perfectly willing to await and abide by the decision of Synod before which the libels were to be tried, confident that a majority of that court would sustain them in their action. At the time appointed for the meeting of the Synod all the constituent members were present. In the meantime Dr. McLeod was removed by death. He had joined in opposing the pro re nata meeting. Two licentiates were ordained to the ministry-Samuel W. Gailey by the Philadelphia Presbytery, and Algernon S. McMaster by the Western Presbytery. These were known to be on the same side. Leaving these out as not known to Synod until formally introduced, the number stood, relatively, eleven in tavor of the action of the pro re nata meeting, and eight opposed to it. The elders were in about the same relative proportion. The clerk of the Synod being suspended, was disqualified from taking his seat. Of the remaining seven, all but two were under libel and could have no vote in the disposing of their cases. It was therefore clear that if the regularity of the pro re nata meeting be sustained, the decision of these cases and of the questions of doctrine and practice that were involved, would be by the votes of those who originated the libel. The signers of the Address saw that by accepting the situation and allowing discipline to have its course, the entire movement to change the relation of the church to the government of the country would be condemned. The Synod met at the time appointed, April 9, 1833, in the Chambers |