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push forward into the second century the Church they planted so gloriously at the beginning of the first. Let us face hopefully toward the future. It surely is not patriotic pride alone that reads peculiar significance in our position among the nations and in God's dealings with us. Not since time behas a nation been so lifted up to front gan all nations as does our land to-day. Her lights flash the world around.

And the history of our Church synchronizes with the history of constitutional government here. Scarce have the reverberations of our national centennial died from this harbor; scarce have ceased from our ears the Te Deums from tens of thousands of churches the land across, praising the God who gave us this fair home. And now our beloved Church meets to continue that anthem, to own his goodness in the past century, and to pray for grace to enter upon that which is ahead. We will plan and work under the inspiring memories of the past, and the not less inspiring promise of the future.

From this inspiring key-note the voice of the Assembly did not fall or flatten during all its sessions.

The reports of boards and committees, the debates upon them, the addresses in the evening popular meetings and on the floor of the Assembly in its day-time services, were all animated, cheerful, hopeful.

No better illustration of this could be selected than the reports, speeches and action upon foreign missions. For several months the treasurer's reports and secretaries' notes in our pages, and authorized statements in the weekly newspapers, had shown a deficiency of receipts of money which occasioned grave and widespread anxiety. There was reason to fear a lugubrious tone and a depressing atmosphere when the General Assembly should enter

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platform, and his resonant voice read forth the terse, crisp, resolute report of the Standing Committee, and followed it with a speech of the same courageous tenor, in the

same clarion tones; when Dr. Gillespie followed with lucid "statement" which was, of itself, the most potent "rousement;" when missionaries from Asia told their unvarnished tales, and ruling elders rose in their places to declare that the Committee and Secretary had touched their hearts, but the missionaries' testimony was reaching their pockets, and insisted that the session should be prolonged after the usual time of adjournment, to hear more of such testimony-there was no thought of discouragement, no tremor of cowardice, no suggestion of backward movement. In the evening of that grand day, the crowding audience, the eloquent addresses, the fervent prayers and the choral songs all emphasized the assurance that the Presbyterian regiment in its centennial march toward millennial triumph, if it had seemed to halt before unexplained obstacles, was firmly grasping its arms, according to the striking metaphor of the eloquent secretary, and "marking time" with steady and reverberant tread, eagerly and expectantly listening for its great Commander's word, Forward-march. And who that hath ears to hear does not now hear that divine order pealing through all the air, echoing from every rock, and thrilling every obedient heart in the whole militant host?

Come on, young men in the seminaries; press forward, young men and women in the colleges and schools; have no fear that the Church which needs you will not provide for you. That "round million" is coming, and, as it rolls, it will increase with

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your call of his Spirit. When your mother Church gives you, in your priceless preciousness, from her baptismal fonts and from her hallowed homes, have no fear that she will not give all needed money from her coffers; for do you not see how the same spirit of parental consecration which hallowed your cradles, and all your growth and training, is settling into all your homes and Sabbathschools and sanctuaries, and emanating thence into all secular toil and trade and finance, the spirit of systematic, proportionate, worshipful giving? Yes, the silver and the gold are his, and the boys and girls are his. All believing, Christian motherhood and fatherhood and manhood accept the divine claim, and will obediently, solemnly, joyfully fulfill it.

And what was the appropriate prelude to that grand foreign mission Wednesday? What else could it be but that no less grand home mission Tuesday? The vivid picture of this continental land, into which population is coming by millions; the clear presentation of its immense resources and marvellous opportunities by the Board of Home Missions and the Standing Committee; the clear statement, the vivid illustration, the unquestionable testimony in the address of the senior secretary, corroborated and emphasized by pastors and missionaries in both the morning session and the evening convocation -all these were set forth in the true tone and spirit of unselfish Christian patriotism. No speech, no sentence, no syllable, did we hear that suggested the cowardly leaving of pagan millions to sink hopelessly in their broken and leaking Danmark, while we, in our stanch ship of state, our noble Union strong and great, sail on to safety and to glory.

Nay, rather were we called upon to care for our Union, to keep her hull whole, her masts strong, her decks clean, her helm true, because

"Humanity with all its fears,

With all the hopes of future years,

Is hanging breathless on her fate."

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Therefore, unselfishly, and with large and generous and holy purpose for mankind and for God

"Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,

Are all with thee-are all with thee"our dear, dear country. "God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us, that thy way may be known. upon earth, thy saving health among all nations."

CO-OPERATIVE UNION between the two Presbyterian churches (U. S. and U. S. A.) was heartily accepted by the two General Assemblies, at New York and Chattanooga, as it had been adjusted in the fraternal conference of their joint committee. The report of that committee, as adopted by both Assemblies, contains the following generous and judicious provisions for working together in the fields which need all that both churches and all sister churches can do, and in which God is giving his people such rare opportunities.

HOME MISSIONS.

In respect to co-operation in the home mend the following to each Assembly: field, the joint committee agreed to recom

1. Where presbyteries belonging to the two Assemblies cover the same ground, they are advised to endeavor, either as presbyteries or through their committees, to agree as brethren to have the efforts of one Church expended in certain fields, and the efforts of the other Church expended in certain other fields, within their common bounds, so as to prevent hurtful rivalry or antagonism.

2. Where there are weak churches which, standing alone, cannot support a minister, but which can be grouped with the other Assembly so as to form one ministerial charge, the presbyteries having jurisdiction are advised to allow such churches to be grouped under a minister from either body to whom their respective presbyteries are willing to give them in charge,

and to have their contributions to the general benevolent fund pass through the channels appointed by their respective Assemblies; and where such churches are sufficiently near, they are recommended, a majority of each congregation agreeing, to consolidate and form one congregation with such presbyterial connection as may be most agreeable to the membership.

3. That persons connected with churches under the care of one of these Assemblies who may remove into the bounds of churches under the care of the other Assembly be advised to unite with those churches, and to seek their peace and prosperity.

4. Where preferences are too strong to permit such arrangements as above, any church within the bounds of a presbytery belonging to the other Assembly should receive from that presbytery the sympathy and good will implied in the fraternal relations of the two Assemblies.

THE FREEDMEN.

The joint committee agree that, as regards the freedmen, all good men must unite in the earnest wish to bring the colored race to a saving knowledge of God's truth. A difficulty occurs in the fact that the two Assemblies adopt different policies, the South aiming at the establishment of an independent colored church, the North pronouncing in favor of leaving that matter for the colored people themselves to make their own choice, and that for the present the whole matter may be left to settle itself hereafter in the providence of God. The joint committee recommend

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1. That the relations of the colored people in the two churches be allowed to remain in statu quo, the work among them to proceed on the same lines as heretofore.

2. That all proper aid, comfort and encouragement in a spirit of kindly Christian sympathy, brotherhood and confidence shall be extended by each Church in the educational and evangelizing efforts of the other for the colored race, with a view to the encouragement of every laudable effort to this end on both sides.

3. That the schools and churches under the care of the Board of Missions for Freedmen and any corresponding work undertaken by the Southern Assembly, especially its Tuscaloosa Institute for the education of colored ministers, be recommended to the givers of our respective churches for practical aid as mutually concerned in the great missionary work for the glory of God and the blessing of our common country.

Action of the Assembly on other departments and agencies of its work will be found in this and subsequent numbers. We believe that all will be found to justify the cheerful and hopeful view of the whole work of the Church which prevailed in the Assembly.

We cannot close this brief notice without

saying that we have seldom listened to so much of vigorous and earnest debate, in which not an unbrotherly word was spoken. Fidelity to individual convictions with considerate charity toward opponents was remarkably prevalent.

The following paragraphs from the report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Missions, presented by its chairman, Rev. M. Woolsey Stryker, including the formal action of the Assembly, are worthy of permanent record:

We thank God anew for his guidance of this momentous department of our Church's work,

and for all the energies and agencies of other Christians with whom we partake in devotion to Christ's unrepealed commission. We thank God for the deepening love of our churches to this cause, and for the reflex blessings with which he has rewarded even our incomplete measure of obedience.

God's love has spared our numerous workers through many perils. Of our 502 missionaries,

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men and women, but seven have died, and "their works do follow them."

In all our personal totals we have gone forward. Of American ordained missionaries, as against 177 of a year ago, there now are 189. Of laymen and women, then 325, there now are 343. Of workers of all classes, American and native, as against 1626 now 1741. Of scholars, as' then 23,000 now 27,000. Of communicants the 23,740 rises to 25,346, of which the additions this year are 3067.

By the financial report as furnished to us we learn that the total income has been $851,415.85, or $49,764.95 less than last year. Of this decline the churches fall short $20,663.33, the Women's Boards $17,669, the Sabbath-schools $11,930, while amounts from legacies have diminished by $16,542 from the $144,181 of the year preceding. Only from individuals and miscellaneous sources has there been a gain, namely, of $17,968.

The number of churches contributing directly to this Board was 3757, an increase of 86, but still leaving about 2500 churches which have failed to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty." Some of them are too weak. Our Women's Boards (God be thanked for their fervor and their fruits!) report 3089 auxiliary contributing societies.

The estimates from the fields last year were for $930,000, which were cut by the Board to $850,000. This year the estimates from the fields are $1,018,000, and these minutely itemized and conscientious estimates have been again cut to the quick, so that the present appropriations stand for 1889-90 at the old figures of $850,000. The painful knife-painful alike to handle and to feel-can no more be applied without menacing the vitals of this work. The inevitable expenses in the mission fields, which last year rose $30,000 above pledged appropriations, cannot be less, but will doubtless be somewhat more.

Is our Church sorry that God's answers to our prayers that his kingdom may come and his will be done make new demands? Shall we parsimoniously turn from laborers that offer? Shall we like proud Canute set limits to the flooding tides? Shall we recant our Lord's Prayer? Be sure the counsel of the Lord shall stand, and if we refuse the handle of the sickle we shall feel the blade! The work deputed to our Board is not automatic. Inconstancy on our part must bring hesitancy and misgiving to all our delegated agents. If we do not succor them out of the city," they must waver. We are in for either advance or

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retreat; stand still we cannot! We are debtors to all the piteous world to press this thing! Retrenchment is infidelity.

While we must rejoice over any that carry God's light into the vast areas of papal error and the skepticism it has begotten, as well as into the unrelieved darkness of pagan lands, and while we would check not one impulse of helpfulness toward any valid agency, we must insist that our own people have a first responsibility for our own appointed methods and men, and that no outside departments of effort should intercept their prayerful study and sufficient bestowments in behalf of the fields and forces to which our earliest sympathy and support is due.

Your committee recommend

That we utter our gladness over the zeal and labors and unceasing petitions of all our Women's Boards.

That we urge upon all our sessions to see that the superintendents of our Sabbath-schools secure a far larger attention to the work of this Board as part of the education of our children, and that all proper means be used to secure offerings from all our schools for Presbyterian Foreign Missions in the month of December, if no better time is preferred.

That we counsel all our pastors and ministers to guard against lethargy in fully acquainting their people with the history, the needs, the motives, the progress and the hope of this blessed work.

That in response to an overture from the Presbytery of West Jersey referred to this committee, which asks for the appointment of a special committee by this Assembly to secure simultaneous missionary meetings to be held in all our churches in November, we reply that such a committee is not needed to do what may safely be left to the standing committees of synods and presbyteries.

That we reiterate the recommendations made by the last two Assemblies touching this matter, and trust that all our presbyteries will plan for and secure such concerted action. And we recommend that the first Sabbath in November of this year be observed as a day of special supplication for missions through our entire Church.

We recommend to our Board of Foreign Missions to formulate some plan by which all our churches shall be induced year by year, and in time for each Assembly, to report a certain sum to which they will severally stand pledged for the work of foreign missions for the Assembly's year next following, thus obvi