afternoon. That all business before each Assembly be concluded on this (Thursday) evening, and no new business taken up. That a committee of arrangements, of two from each church be appointed to decide upon the form. manner, and place of our public meeting, and that a statement on the subject of raising funds for the use of the church be also prepared for said meeting by said Committee of Arrangements-the Rev. Samuel W. Fisher, D. D., Rev. A. G. Hall, D. D., Mr. Robert Carter, and the Hon. William E. Dodge to be said committee. That the first meeting of the Assembly of the United Church be held in the First Presbyterian Church in the city of Philadelphia on the third Thursday of May, 1870.

That a committee of five from each branch of the church be appointed to take into consideration the subject of raising funds for the use of the United Church, and the best methods of doing the same, and the objects to which the same should be directed; and to report at the next General Assembly.

That a joint meeting on the subject of Home Missions be held this evening at the First Church, and to-morrow evening in the Third Church, on Foreign Missions, at half-past seven o'clock.

Rev.

The report was unanimously adopted, and the following committees, called for by it, were subsequently appointed: On Reconstruction-Rev. George W. Musgrave, D. D., C. C. Beatty, D. D., Rev. Cyrus Dickson, D. D., and Ruling Elders Henry Day and W. M. Francis.

On Board of Foreign Missions--Rev. J. C. Lowrie, D. D., Rev. W. M. Paxton, D. D., Rev. S. F. Scovel, D. D., and Ruling Elders Judge J. B. Skinner and Judge Martin Ryerson.

On Board of Domestic Missions--Rev. G. W. Musgrave, D. D., Rev. D. A. Cunningham, Rev. D. McKinney, D. D., Rev. J. Trumbull Backus, D. D., and Ruling Elder H. D. Gregory.

On Board of Education-Rev. Wm. Speer, D. D., Rev. George Hill, D. D., Rev. S. J. Niccolls, D. D., Rev. S. C. Logan, and Ruling Elder R. S. Kennedy.

On Board of Publication--Rev. W. E. Schenck, D. D., Rev. E. R. Craven, D. D., Rev. W. P. Breed, D. D., and Ruling Elders George Junkin and J. T. Nixon.

On Disabled Ministers' Fund-Rev. George Hale, D. D., Rev. Alexander Reed, D. D., Rev. T. H. Skinner, Jr., D. D., and Ruling Elders Robert Carter and A. B. Belknap.

On Church Extension-Rev. H. R. Wilson, D. D., Rev. O. A. Hills, Rev. A. A. E. Taylor, and Ruling Elders J. C. Haven and Jesse L. Williams.

On Freedmen's Committee--Rev. A. C. McClelland, Rev.

E. C. Swift, Rev. A. McLean, and Ruling Elders John McArthur and J. E. Brown.

On Raising Funds, etc.--Rev. John Hall, D. D., Rev. C. K. Imbrie, D. D., and Ruling Elders W. S. Gilman, Sr., Robert McKnight, and Hovey K. Clarke.

The same report was likewise unanimously adopted in the New School Assembly, and the following members of the various Committees called for by it were appointed by that body.

Committee on Reconstruction of Synods and Presbyteries and Change of Constitution-Revs. Messrs. Fisher, Patterson, and Hatfield, and Elders Wing and Suttle.

Committee on Church Work and Progress-Hon. Wm. E. Dodge, Hon. Wm. Strong, and Revs. Drs. Stearns, Goodrich, and Hawley.

Committee on Home Missions--Drs. Adams and Kendall, Mitchell, H. W. Williams, LL. D., and Mr. Farrand.

Committee on Church Erection-Revs. George W. Lane, Ellingwood, and Taylor, and O. H. Lee and Samuel T. Bodine.

Foreign Missions-Dr. Nelson, Dr. Booth, Rev. F. A. Noble, and Elders Allison and Scarritt.

Education-Drs. James P. Wilson, John G. Atterbury, E. D. Morris, and Elders A. W. Walden and T. P. Hardy.

On Publication-Drs. Humphrey, J. G. Butler, Dulles, and Elders Brown and Knight.

On Freedmen-Drs. Hopkins, Hatfield, H. Johnson, and Elders Wm. Thaw and J. W. Edwards.

All other business having been concluded, the Assemblies met, in conformity to the plan proposed by the Committee of Arrangements, on Friday morning, Nov. 12th, at 9 A. M. Committees were sent from each body to the other, to announce from each to each, the votes of the Presbyteries on the Re-union overture, and its full ratification in each body. Then, in each Assembly, the following resolution was adopted by a unanimous and rising vote :

"Whereas, This Assembly, having received and examined the statement of the votes of the several Presbyteries on the basis of the Re-union of the two branches now claiming the name and the rights of the Presbyterian Church in

the United States of America, which basis is in the words following:-' The Union shall be effected on the doctrinal and ecclesiastical basis of our common standards; the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments shall be acknowledged to be the inspired word of God, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice; the Confession of Faith shall continue to be sincerely received and adopted, as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures; and the government and discipline of the Presbyterian Church in the United States shall be approved, as containing the principles and rules of our polity'-does hereby find and declare that said basis of union has been approved by more than two-thirds of the Presbyteries connected with this branch of the church.

"And whereas, The other branch of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, now sitting in the Third Presbyterian Church in the city of Pittsburg, has reported to this Assembly that said basis has been approved by more than twothirds of the Presbyteries connected with that branch of the church;

"Now, THEREFORE, WE DO SOLEMNLY DECLARE THAT SAID BASIS OF RE-UNION IS OF BINDING FORCE."

From this moment the two bodies became organically ONEconstituting the one Presbyterian Church of the United States of America. Each Assembly was dissolved in the usual form, and another required to be chosen in like manner, to meet in the First Presbyterian Church in the city of Philadelphia, on the third Thursday of May, 1870, at 11 A. M.

After close examination, the Committee of Arrangements found the Third Presbyterian Church the most commodious room in the city for the union meeting of prayer and praise, solemn gratulation, and jubilation, which it was agreed should immediately follow the consummation of the Re-union. Accordingly, it was arranged that the New School Assembly should move in procession, two by two, headed by their officers, and their portion of the Re-union Committee, to the First Church, and meet the other Assembly, marshalled and headed in like manner. Then the Moderators, followed by the other officers, the, Re-union Committee, and the members, locked arm in arm, each member of one Assembly with one of the other. And so the two Assemblies, now, we trust, happily united, marched, arm in arm, and two by two, to the union meeting in the Third Church. The streets, balconies, and windows along the line of march were filled with thousands of deeply interested spectators, handkerchiefs were waved from hundreds of hands, prolonged and hearty cheers rent the air.

The streets were thronged all along the route of procession,

and at the Third Church an immense assemblage had collected, in anticipation of the opening of the audience room.

When the head of the procession approached the church, the doors were thrown open, and the combined assemblies entered the centre aisle.

The gallery had already been filled to overflowing, and a goodly number of vocalists occupied places about the organ. As the procession entered, the audience rose and sang, to the tune, "Lenox," the stanzas beginning:

"Blow ye the trumpet, blow!

The gladly solemn sound

Let all the nations know,

To earth's remotest bound," etc.

The officers of the respective Assemblies, and as many of the commissioners as could find room, were then invited to seats on the platform, which was soon filled to its utmost capacity.

The pressure outside the church was immense, and in a few minutes we might almost limit it to seconds-the spacious audience chamber, including the aisles, was literally packed with men and women. Thousands more would fain have entered, but that was impossible.

The surroundings were crowded, not only with the vast Presbyterian and other population of Pittsburg and vicinity, but with thousands of ministers and people that had come in from all parts of the land to witness the august scene—a scene to be witnessed but once in a life-time-a scene of such moral sublimity as occurs but once, if once, in a century. It was truly good to be there; it was a very Mount of Transfiguration. The Moderators shook hands, in token of the union now accomplished between the two bodies over which they presided. Addresses, highly pertinent and eloquent, were made by the two Moderators, Doctors Musgrave, Adams, Fisher, John Hall, Judge Strong, William E. Dodge, Henry Day, and (in answer to a call from the audience) George H. Stuart, Esq., with appropriate prayers by Doctors Beattie, Hatfield, and Robert Carter, Esq. The chief scope and end of all their addresses, and of the whole service, was that the reunion ought to be signalized by a great advance in prayer, effort, and lib7

VOL. XLII.—NO, I.

erality in all the departments of Presbyterian evangelization, and that, if it ended in mere exultation and glorification, without such advance, it would be a disgrace and calamity rather than a blessing. It was also urged that there ought to be an immediate and special contribution, of the nature of a thank-offering for so great a boon, which should at once replenish and enlarge the resources of the various institutions and agencies of the church, now weakened by the scantiness or endangered by the exhaustion of their funds; one that should at once lift theological seminaries, colleges, missionary boards, the education and support of ministers, every evangelic agency, to a higher grade of strength and efficiency. Dr. Fisher, from the committee on this subject, offered the following resolution to the meeting :—

"Resolved, By the ministers, elders, and members of the church here assembled, as in the presence and behalf of the entire body of the disciples connected with us in this land, and those beloved missionaries on foreign shores, now meditating our action with tender and prayerful interest, that it is incumbent on the Presbyterian Church, in the United States of America, one in organization, one in faith, one in effort, to make a special offering to the treasury of our Lord of one million of dollars; and we pledge ourselves, first of all, to seek, in our daily petitions, the blessing of God to make this resolution effectual; and, second, that we will, with untiring perseverance and personal effort, endeavor to animate the whole church with the like purpose, and to secure the accomplishment of this great work before the third Tuesday of May, 1871.

"Resolved, That this preamble and resolutions be signed by the Moderators and Clerks of the Assemblies of 1869, by the members of the late Joint Committee on Union, (and all the members of the two Assemblies,) printed by the Stated Clerks, and sent to every pastor of our church.

This was adopted, after being amended by substituting $5,000,000. Let not the church come short of this high mark -she has wealth enough to reach it. May her zeal be in proportion, and may God speed the effort!

There was a united celebration of the Lord's Supper, in the First Church, in the afternoon, and a large meeting in behalf of Foreign Missions, in the Third Church, in the evening, as there had been one in behalf of Home Missions, in the First Church, on the previous evening. We were glad to hear Dr. Kendall, the efficient New School secretary for Home Missions, declare that their Board had fixed $800, as the minimum salary of the missionaries; that they had sought and obtained