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 PRESBYTERIANISM

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PRESBYTERIANISM

sembly. There is a considerable number of Scotch and English Presbyterians in S. Africa. In 1909 they proposed a basis of union to tlie Wesleyan iSIethodists, Congregationalists, and Baptists, but thus far with- out result. In Southern India a basis of union was agreed on by the Congregationalists, Methodists, and Presbyterians in July, 1908. There are Presby- terian churches organized by British and American missionaries in various parts of Asia, Africa, Mexico, S. America, and the West Indies.

E. United States. — In tracing the history of Pres- byterianism in the United States, the churches may be divided into three groups: (1) the American churches, which largely discarded foreign influences; (2) the Scottish churches, directly descended from Presbyterian bodies in Scotland; (3) the Welsh church, a descendant of the Calvinistic Methodist church of Wales.

(1) The American Churches. — The earliest Amer- ican Presbyterian churches were established in Vir- ginia, New England, Maryland, :;nd Delaware during the seventeenth century and wore chiefly of Eng- lish origin. The man who brought the scattered churches into organic unity, and who is considered as the apostle of American Presbyterianism, was Rev. Francis Makennie from the Presbytery of Laggan, Ireland. With six other ministers he organized in 1706 the Presbytery of Philadelphia, which ten years later was constituted a synod. Between 1741 and 1758 the synod was divided into two bodies, the "Old Side" and the "New Side", because of disagree- ments as to the requirements for the ministry and the interpretation of the standards. During this period of separation the College of New Jersey, later Princeton University, was established by the "New Side", with Rev. John Witherspoon, afterwards a signer of the Declaration of Independence, as first president. In 1788 the synod adopted a constitu- tion, and a general assembly was established. The dissolution of the Cumberland Presbytery by the Synod of Kentucky led to the formation in 1810 of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. From con- troversies regarding missionarj^ work and doctrinal matters two independent branches resulted (1837), the "Old School" and the "New School". Both lost most of their southern presbyteries when anti- slavery resolutions were passed. The seceders united to form a southern church known since 1865 as the Presbj^erian Church in the United States. Fraternal relations exist between the northern and the southern churches, who are kept apart especially by their different policies as to the races. In the Cumberland church the coloured members were or- ganized into a separate denomination in 1869. That same year the "Old School" and the "New School" reunited, forming the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, the largest and most in- fluential of the Presbyterian bodies in America. Since then its harmony has been seriously threatened only by the controversy as to the sources of authority in religion, and the authority and credibility of the Scriptures (1891-4). This difficulty terminated with the trials of Prof. Charles A. Briggs and Prof. H. P. Smith, in which the court declared its loyalty to the views of the historic standards. In 1903 the church revived the Confession of Faith, mitigating "the knotty points of Calvinism". Its position became thereby essentially the same as that of the Cumber- land church (white), and three years later (1906) the two bodies entered into an organic union. A part of the Cumberland church, however, repudiated the action of its general assembly and still under- takes to perpetuate itself as a separate denomination.

(2) The Scottish Churches.— (a) Seceders. The second secessionist body from the established church of Scotland, the Associated Synod (Seceders), or- ganized through its missionaries in 1753 the As-

sociate Presbytery of Pennsylvania. Not long after another separatist body of Scotland, the Old Cove- nanter Church (Cameronians), founded a daughter church in America known as the Reformed Presby- tery (1774). In 1782 these new seceder and covenan- ter bodies united under the name of Associate Re- formed Presbyterian Church. Some members of the former body refused to enter this union and con- tinued the Associate Presbytery of Pennsylvania. There were secessions from the united organization in 1801, and 1820. In 185S nearly all these various elements were brought together in the United Pres- byterian Church of North America. Two bodies that remain outside this union are the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, which since 1821 has main- tained an independent existence, and the Associate Synod of North America, a lineal descendant of the Associate Presbytery of Pennsylvania, founded in 1858 by those who preferred to continue their own organization rather than enter into the union effected that year, (b) Cameronians or Covenanters. — The Reformed Presbytery, which merged with the Associate Presbytery in 1782, was renewed in an in- dependent existence in 1798 by the isolated covenan- ters who had taken no part in the union of 1782. This renewed presbytery exj)anded into a synod in 1809. In 1833 there was a division into two branches, the "Old Lights" (synod) and the "New Lights" (general synod), caused by disagreements as to the attitude the church should take towards the Con- stitution of the United States. In 1840 two minis- ters, dissatisfied 'nnth what they considered laxity among the "Old Lights", withdrew from the synod, and formed the "Covenanted Reformed Church" which has been several times disorganized and counts only a handful of members. In 1883 dissatisfaction with a disciplinary decision of the general synod (New Lights) caused the secession of a small number of its members, who have formed at Allegheny, Pa., the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States and Canada. Negotiations for a union of the general synod and the synod were made in 1890, but were unsuccessful.

(3) The Welsh Church. — The first organization of a Welsh Calvinistic Methodist church in the United States was at Remsen, N. Y., in 1824. Four years later a presbytery was established, and the growth of the denomination has kept pace with the increase in the Welsh population. The English language is fast gaining control in the church services.

III. St.^tistics. The Presbyterian denomina- tion throughout the world, exclusive of the Reformed churches, numbers over 5,000,000 communicants. Of these the United States has 1,897,534 (12 bodies); Scotland, 1,233,226 (6 bodies); Canada, 289,556 (3 bodies); Wales, 195,000; Ireland, 112,481 (4 bodies); England, 90,808 (2 bodies); Australia, 50,000; New Zealand, 28,000; Jamaica, 12,017; S. Africa, 11,323.

Ben'SOX, Non-Catholic Denominations (New York, 1910), 91-117: Lyon, A Study of the Sects (Boston, 1S91). 99-109; New Schafl-Herzog Bncyc. of Religious Knowledge, IX (New York, 1911), s. V.

I.— A.— HODOE, Discussions in Church Polity (New York. 1878); Idem, What is Presbyterian Law as Defined by the Church Courts? (Philadelphia, 1882); Thompson, The Historic Epis- copate (Philadelphia, 1910). B.— ScHAFF. The Creeds of Chris- tendom (New York, 1905), I, 669-817; III. 600-76; Hodge. Systematic Theology (3 vols., New York, 1885); Smith, The Creed of the Presbyterians (New York, 1901); Encyc. of Religion and Ethics, III (New York, 1911), me Confessions. C. — Baird Eutaiia, or the Presbyterian Liturgies (New York, 1855); Shields, Lilurgia Expurgata (New York, 1844); The Book of Common Worship (Philadelphia, 1906).

II. — Kerr, The People's History of Presbyterianism (Rich- mond, 1888); Broadlet, The Rise and Progress of Presbyte- rianism: Drysdale, History of Presbyterianism in England (Lon- don, 1889); Reid, A History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (3 vols., Belfast, 1867); Patton, Popular History of the Presby- terian Church in the United Stales (Nevi York, 1900); Thompson, A History of the Presbyterian Churches in the United States (New York, 1895) in Am. Church Hist. Ser., VI, bibliog., xi-xxii; Amer. Church Hist. Ser., XI, 145-479.