by the Presbyteries for it, and appropriated them for the payment of their own expenses, deserve the censure of the Assembly, and that those Presbyteries which, after deliberation, have voted to disregard a plain standing rule of the Assembly are still more deserving of its censure.

This fund should be sacredly guarded. All the churches and Presbyteries should cheerfully and promptly contribute their quota to it, as the wise and only provision by which the feeble and more remote Presbyteries can be represented, and under the present system the expenses of the Assembly fairly provided for.

We, therefore, recommend that this Assembly enjoin upon all the Presbyteries to take such action at their next meeting as shall secure the quota from each of the churches within their bounds, and that such full apportionment be faithfully sent to the treasurer of the Assembly, according to the rules adopted by this body in 1870.-Minutes, pp. 59-60.

We further recommend that the assessment for the General Assembly's Fund for 1873 be fixed at six (6) cents per member.-1872, p. 84.

Out of one hundred and fifty-three (153) Presbyteries, which number excludes a part of the freedmen and foreign Presbyteries, one hundred and fifty-three (153) have reported themselves to your Committee, and paid their assessments in full, leaving not a delinquent Presbytery nor a single deficient dollar. And two of these Presbyteries, Boston and Oregon, the farthest east and the farthest west, have overpaid their assessments—an irregularity which your Committee assumed to permit without express authority.

One hundred and fifty-eight (158) Presbyteries, which number includes the freedmen and a few foreign Presbyteries, have presented to your Committee claims for mileage amounting to the sum of $23,741.20, which claims have been paid in full.-1873, p. 545.

BOOK II.

OF DISCIPLINE.

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF DISCIPLINE.

I. DISCIPLINE is the exercise of that authority, and the application of that system of laws, which the Lord Jesus Christ hath appointed in his Church.

That our blessed Saviour for the edification of the visible Church, which is his body, hath appointed officers not only to preach the gospel and administer the sacraments, but also to exercise discipline for the preservation both of truth and duty, and that it is incumbent upon these officers and upon the whole Church, in whose name they act, to censure or cast out the erroneous and scandalous, observing in all cases the rules contained in the word of God.-Form of Government, chap. i., sec. iii.

II. The exercise of discipline is highly important and necessary. Its ends are the removal of offences, the vindication of the honor of Christ, the promotion of the purity and general edification of the Church, and also the benefit of the offender himself.

Prompt Discipline best Fitted to Secure a Happy Issue.

It is further the opinion of the Assembly that had the improper conduct of the appellant been made a subject of discipline at an earlier period, a more happy issue might have been reached. The Assembly formally and affectionately urges on the appellant a submission to the sentence of his brethren and a speedy return to the path of duty and privilege.-1859, p. 547, O. S.

III. An offence is anything in the principles or practice of a church member which is contrary to the word of God, or which, if it be not in its own nature sinful, may tempt others to sin or mar their spiritual edification.

[See Larger Catechism, Questions 104-148.]

MORAL QUESTIONS.

1. Breach of Sabbath Observance.

While, therefore, we earnestly entreat our fellow-citizens of every class to "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," the Assembly do hereby

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in a special manner enjoin it upon the church sessions to watch over their brethren with tenderness and great fidelity in respect to the observance of the Sabbath, and to exercise wholesome discipline on those who by trav eling or other ways presume to trample upon this sacred institution; and we further enjoin it upon the Presbyteries annually to institute inquiries of the eldership as to the manner in which this injunction has been attended to in their respective churches.-1853, p. 323, N. S.

[See Deliverances upon the Sabbath at large, under Directory for Worship, chap. i. Questions pertaining to the seventh commandment under Directory for Worship, chap. xi., secs. ii., iii.]

2. Theatrical Exhibitions and Dancing Condemned.

a. On the fashionable, though, as we believe, dangerous, amusements of theatrical exhibitions and dancing we deem it necessary to make a few observations. The theatre we have always considered as a school of immorality. If any person wishes for honest conviction on this subject, let him attend to the character of that mass of matter which is generally exhibited on the stage. We believe all will agree that comedies at least, with a few exceptions, are of such a description that a virtuous and modest person cannot attend the representation of them without the most painful and embarrassing sensations. If, indeed, custom has familiarized the scene, and these painful sensations are no longer felt, it only proves that the person in question has lost some of the best sensibilities of our nature, that the strongest safeguard of virtue has been taken down, and that the moral character has undergone a serious depreciation.-1818, p. 690.

b. Dancing a Dangerous Amusement, and to be Discouraged.

With respect to dancing, we think it necessary to observe that, however plausible it may appear to some, it is perhaps not the less dangerous on account of that plausibility. It is not from those things which the world acknowledges to be most wrong that the greatest danger is to be apprehended to religion, especially as it relates to the young. When the practice is carried to its highest extremes, all admit the consequences to be fatal, and why not, then, apprehend danger even from its incipient stages? It' is certainly in all its stages a fascinating and an infatuating practice. Let it once be introduced, and it is difficult to give it limits. It steals away our precious time, dissipates religious impressions and hardens the heart. To guard you, beloved brethren, against its wiles and its fascinations, we earnestly recommend that you will consult that sobriety which the sacred pages require. We also trust that you will attend with the meekness and docility becoming the Christian character to the admonitions on this subject of those whom you have chosen to watch for your souls. And now, beloved brethren, that you may be guarded from the dangers we have pointed out and from all other dangers which beset the path of life and obstruct our common salvation, and that the great Head of the Church may have you in his holy keeping, is our sincere and affectionate prayer. Amen.-1818, p. 690.

c. Promiscuous Dancing calls for Faithful and Judicious Discipline. Resolved, That the fashionable amusement of promiscuous dancing is so entirely unscriptural, and eminently and exclusively that of "the world which lieth in wickedness," and so wholly inconsistent with the spirit of Christ, and with that propriety of Christian deportment and that purity of heart which his followers are bound to maintain, as to render it not

only improper and injurious for professing Christians either to partake in it, or to qualify their children for it by teaching them the art, but also to call for the faithful and judicious exercise of discipline on the part of church sessions when any of the members of their churches have been guilty.-1843, p. 14, N. Š.

Reaffirmed.-Minutes, 1853, p. 340, N. S. See also 1867, p. 513, N. S.

d. Social Dances and Private Theatricals.

Overture No. 5. An overture from the Presbytery of Cincinnati, proposing the following questions, viz.:

1st. Are social dances and private theatricals included under the head of "dancing and stage plays," mentioned in the Larger Catechism, amongst "the sins forbidden in the seventh commandment"?

2d. Is it the duty of the church sessions to exercise discipline upon those members of the Church who send their children to dancing schools, or who give and attend dancing parties? and if so, ought such discipline to be carried to the extent of exclusion from the sacraments, where other means fail of producing reformation?

The Committee recommended the following reply, which was adopted: To the first question:

That whilst the pleasures of the ball-room and the theatre are primarily intended by the "dancing and stage plays" forbidden in the answer to the 139th question in the Larger Catechism, the spirit of the prohibition extends to all kindred amusements which are calculated to awaken thoughts and feelings inconsistent with the seventh commandment, as explained by the Saviour in Matt. v. 27, 28.-1860, p. 21, O. S.

e. Promiscuous Social Dancing and Dancing Schools.

To the second question:

That whilst we regard the practice of promiscuous social dancing by members of the Church as a mournful inconsistency, and the giving of parties for such dancing on the part of the heads of Christian families as tending to compromise their religious profession, and the sending of children by Christian parents to the dancing school as a sad error in family discipline; yet we think that the session of each church is fully competent to decide when discipline is necessary, and the extent to which it should be administered.-1860, p. 21, O. S.

f. Theatres and Card-playing.

In regard to so much of the above overture as refers to "theatres and theatre-going," this Assembly reaffirms the action of the General Assembly of 1818. [See Minutes, p. 690, and New Digest, pp. 262, 263.] In this action the Assembly declared the theatre to be "a school of immorality." This Assembly, seeing no occasion to modify the utterance then given, earnestly exhorts all the members of the Church in their practice to avoid, and by their influence to discountenance, all such "dangerous amusements, as being inconsistent with the spirit of the gospel, and detrimental to the best interests of piety in the heart.

In respect to "the custom of fashionable card-playing," referred to by the memorialists, and represented as being "countenanced in many of our Christian households," and also "participated in by members of our churches," this Assembly would affectionately exhort all the members of the Presbyterian Church to practice the most careful watchfulness in avoiding all recreations and amusements, whether in the form specified in

the memorial or otherwise, which are calculated to impair spirituality, lessen Christian influence or bring discredit upon their profession as members of the Church of Christ.-1865, p. 45, N. S.

g. The Opera, the Theatre, the Dance and Card-playing.

A paper reported by the Committee on Bills and Overtures on the subject of the opera, the theatre, the dance and card-playing, was referred to a Committee, consisting of the Rev. Herrick Johnson, D. D., Rev. William E. Moore and Mr. Alexander Whilldin, to report at the adjourned meeting.

The Special Committee to whom was referred a paper on the subject of amusements presented their report, which was adopted, and is as follows:

The question of popular amusements is one that cannot be settled by statute. It has to do with the spirit and the life of Christianity rather than with the letter of its law. Hence the impossibility of specific enactment. But the very fact of its near and vital connection with spiritual life justifies and demands for it a thoughtful consideration.

What scriptural guidance have we in the matter? What posture ought the Church to assume toward so-called popular amusements? A sweeping condemnation of them would be a sweeping folly. To say of them all that they are inherently and positively sinful is simply to say what is not true. And to protest against suitable recreation would be to protest against a mental and moral necessity. A long-visaged and sombre-hued piety is not after the order of the gospel. That makes recognition of the laugh, the joy of life; has no frown for the play-side of our nature, bids us serve the Lord with gladness. Nowhere so much as in the heart of God's people should joy have her home and go rippling out in the channels of deed and speech.

But what is suitable Christian recreation? We are without a specific "Thus saith the Lord" for each specific form of pleasure. But this is by no means to acknowledge that we are without scriptural guidance. The spirit is broader and deeper than the letter. There are general principles whose profound and subtle reach makes it impossible that they should be framed by a law. Those that bear on this question of popular amuse

ments are three:

I. The first general principle has respect to the relation which Christians sustain to each other. It is discussed in Rom. xiv., and in 1 Cor. viii. Christian liberty in things indifferent is there distinctly recognized, but it is bounded and limited by a higher law. We must not abuse our liberty to the offence of our brethren. We must bridle our knowledge with charity. We are bidden to beware how we tamper with the sanctities of a brother's conscience, and to beware how we trifle with the necessities of a brother's weakness. The law of conscience and the law of love are far more sacred and more precious and more to be regarded than the law of liberty. To the child of God they ought to be always paramount. To assert independence at the expense of wounding a brother's conscience is "to sin against Christ." "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth." Of course a merely personal, puerile, wretched scrupulosity is not to be foisted upon the Church for its government. But amusements whose tendencies are inherently and almost inevitably to excess, where the weak and the unstable may stumble and perish, and against which there is a general Christian conscience, are decisively condemned by this plain word of God.

II. The second general principle has respect to the relation which