Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/562

LEFT EEFORMED PRESBYTERIAN 476 REFRACTION" bers) denied the brotherhood of believ- ers in Christ, Bishop Cummins withdrew from the ministry of the Protestant Epis- copal Church. (8) This led to the or- ganization, Dec. 2, 1873, of the Reformed Episcopal Church, of which Bishop Cum- mins and the Rev. Dr. Charles E. Cheney- were elected bishops. At the same time the following declaration of principles was adopted: I. The Reformed Episco- pal Church "holding the faith once de- livered to the saints" declares its belief in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the Word of God, and the sole rule of faith and practice; in the creed "commonly called the Apostles' Ci*eed"; in the divine institu- tion of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper; and in the doctrines of grace substantially as they are set forth in the Thirty-nine Articles of Reli- gion. II. This Church, recognizes and adheres to Episcopacy, not as of divine right, but as a very ancient and desir- able form of Church polity. III. This Church, retaining a liturgy which shall not be imperative or repressive of free- dom in prayer, accepts the Book of Com- mon Prayer, as it was revised, proposed, and recommended for use by the General Convention of the Protestant Church, 1785; reserving full liberty to alter, abridge, enlarge, and amend the same as may seem most conducive to the edifica- tion of the people, "provided that the substance of the faith be kept entire." IV. This Church condemns and rejects the following erroneous and strange doctrines as contrary to God's word: (1) That the Church of Christ exists only in one order or form of ecclesiasti- cal policy. (2) That Christian minis- ters are "priests" in another sense than that in which all believers are "a royal priesthood." (3) That the Lord's table is an altar on which the oblation of the body and blood of Christ is offered anew to the Father. (4) That the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper is a presence in the elements of bread and wine. (5) That regeneration is insep- arably connected with baptism. To this statement it may be added that in this Church the bishops do not constitute a separate order, but are presbyters; in council they vote with and as their brother presbyters, and are subject to confirmation or appointment by the general council. In 1919 the denomina- tions had in the United States and Canada 11,217 communicants. REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, or CAMERONIANS, a body of Christians who profess to hold the principles of the Church of Scotland at the period of the second Reformation be- tween 1638 and 1650. They claim to be the legitimate successors of that section of the Covenanters which was headed by Cameron and Cargill, who consid- ered that Charles II. had forfeited all title to their allegiance, having broken the solemn vows which he made at his coronation. When William of Orange was called to the throne in 1688 they were among the first to welcome him; but while they avowed their readiness to yield all loyal obedience and submission they openly declared their dissatisfac- tion with the Revolution settlement. In 1690 Presbyterianism was established in Scotland, but because the state claimed a certain control over the Church this settlement was also repudiated by the Reformed Presbjiierians. The position which the sect was thus compelled to oc- cupy was that of dissenters from the Church and protesters against the state. For upward of 16 years after they had publicly avowed their principles they re- mained in an unorganized condition and without a regular ministry. The first who exercised this office was the Rev. John McMillan, who in 1706 demitted his charge as parish minister of Balmaghie, and in 1743 he met with a coadjutor in the Rev, Thomas Nairne, whereupon these two constituted a Reformed pres- bytery in 1743. In 1810 three presby- teries were formed, and in 1811 a synod was constituted. The number of pres- byteries was afterward increased to six, and the number of ministers rose to about 40. In 1876 a large portion of them united with the Free Church of Scotland. The Reformed Presbyterians in the United States in 1919 had about 10,000 members. REFRACTION. When a beam of light traveling in a transparent medium, impinges obliquely upon the surface of another transparent medium, what oc- curs in the vast majority of cases is that a part of it is reflected (see Reflection) and a part of it enters the second me- dium, but in so doing is "refracted" or bent out of its former course. If, for example, the light travel in air and im- pinge obliquely on glass, the course of the refracted portion is bent so that the refracted light travels more directly or less obliquely through the glass; and, conversely, if the light travel in glass and impinge on an air surface, the por- tion which is refracted into the air vsdll travel through the air more obliquely with respect to the refracting surface than the original light had approached it. The law of refraction was discov- ered by Snell in 1621, and is the follow- ing: The refracted ray is in the same plane with the incident and the reflected