CHAPTER SEVENTH. THE RECONSTRUCTION. BY THE REV. G. S. PLUMLEY. - - What Reconstruction is. The General Assembly of 1870.-Philadelphia. - Organization. Incidents. Joint Committee on Reconstruction. Its Report as modified. The new Synods and Presbyteries. Theological Seminaries. Home Missions. - Foreign Missions. - Publication. - Sabbath School Literature. — Education. Selection of Candidates. - Church Erection. -Ministerial Relief. Work for the Freedmen. Concentration of the Plans of the Church. - Remarks of Dr. John C. Backus. — Report on the Finances of the Church. - Committee on Unification. The Southern Church. - Popular Education. - Memorial Fund. - Heidelberg Catechism. - Social Reunion. Work of the Assembly well performed. Satisfaction of the Church. What yet remains to be done.Hopes and Responsibilities. - God's Promise. UPON the consolidated Church is laid the task of Reconstruction. This includes a new arrangement of Synods and Presbyteries, constitutional and other changes made necessary by combining into one two previously distinct branches, and a fresh adjustment of the agencies hitherto employed by them both for missionary and other Christian efforts. Its full accomplishment will, moreover, add to the power of the Church as an instrument for doing good, it will prune her administration from everything not approved by experience, it will enable her to adapt her plans to the demands of the present and the future, and more fully equip her for the mighty work to which her God now calls her. Such a task may well employ the best thoughts and most earnest prayers of all her officers and members, for the Divine voice once more is saying to her, "Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations." If this view of the magnitude and scope of the work of Reconstruction be correct, the General Assembly of 1870 performed its full share of it, by defining its outlines, and commencing to fill them up. The object of the present chapter is to review what this Assembly thus transacted, and to indicate what yet remains for its successors to accomplish. Philadelphia was in every way most appropriately place of meeting for the first Assembly of the Reunited Presbyterian Church. It has been claimed that the first Presbyterian Church in this country was here organized. The mother Presbytery was formed in the same city in 1705. Forty-four General Assemblies had here been welcomed previous to the division, and after it, nine of the Old School and seven of the New School Assemblies transacted their business in Philadelphia. Its very name suggests harmony, and during the sessions of 1870, its citizens, with liberal kindness and unsurpassed hospitality, accommodated the nearly six hundred delegates that composed the Assembly, rendering their sojourn most agreeable, and filling up the intervals of their business with pleasant, social entertainments. The General Assembly convened, as was most fitting, with that congregation from which all others in the city date their origin, in the First Presbyterian Church, on Washington Square (the Rev. Albert Barnes and Herrick Johnson, D.D., pastors), on Thursday, May 19, 1870, at 11 A. M. To prepare for this meeting, arrangements of the most ample character had been made by a joint-committee, consisting of the Rev. Herrick Johnson, D.D., chairman, the Rev. Alexander Reed, D.D., the Rev. Z. M. Humphrey, D.D., and Messrs. William G. Crowell, Morris Patterson, and J. A. Gardner. These gentlemen were indefatigable in their endeavor to secure the comfort of their numerous guests. Their forethought had provided ample accommodations for all the wants of the large deliberative body meeting with them, and from the commencement to the close of its protracted sessions, the cheerfulness and constant courtesy with which their arduous labors were rendered elicited the united commendation of all for whom they toiled. The thorough success of their efforts deserves special mention. As the opening exercises commenced in the spacious edifice of the First Church, the sight was pleasant and impressive. The ground floor of the house was nearly filled by the Commissioners and the Delegates from various kindred bodies. Upon the platform were seated representatives of the Free Church of Scotland, the United Presbyterian Church of Great Britain, and of the Irish Presbyterian Church; also the Rev. Thomas DeWitt, D.D., one of the oldest ministers of the Reformed (late Reformed Dutch) Church. A floral committee had tastefully decorated the pulpit, the desks of the clerks, and the galleries with choice evergreens and flowers. Over the pulpit they had suspended the words: "Now ARE THEY MANY MEMBERS, YET BUT ONE |