March, 1839, it commenced before Judge Rogers and a jury at nisi prius. Most of the time during its continuance, the court-room was crowded by eager spectators and auditors. One after another called upon to testify, a number of them venerable clergymen, put aside the Book," with Puritan conscientiousness, and swore with the uplifted hand, a form of oath particularly solemn and impressive. In the crowd the question was frequently asked, "What is the difference between the Old School and the New?" Perhaps a tipstaff would assume for the nonce the gravity of a theologian, and attempt to satisfy the inquirer. "The Old School hold that whatever is to be will be," he said, but broke down in trying to reverse the proposition plausibly. Under the judge's charge, sustaining the New School in every important point, the jury gave a verdict in their favor. From outside the bar, in the densely packed courtroom, rang forth a warm burst of applause, which the judge instantly and sternly suppressed.

A motion for a new trial was afterwards presented and argued, and on the eighth of May an anxious throng were again assembled to hear the decision. Chief-Justice Gibson delivered the opinion of the court, Judge Rogers only dissenting. The judgment at nisi prius was entirely reversed, a new trial granted, and the whole case really settled in favor of the Old School. In silence the crowd dispersed. Three years and some months later, the New School quietly discontinued the suit.

This triumph at law, and consequent retention of the general property of the church, have not uncommonly

been regarded as a signal advantage to the Old School, and a chief cause of their subsequent prosperity. They were beyond doubt gainers, in character and influence, by being declared thus judicially the true Presbyterian Church. But the funds secured were a mere trifle comparatively, not amounting to half a million of dollars, and not equalling the aggregate of missionary and other charitable contributions of the whole church for two years alone prior to the division. Moreover, they were the funds, mainly, of the Old School theological seminaries; and three seminaries, with their endowments, out of seven, the New School retained; as likewise, in all but a few cases, the property of their individual congregations. They had in fact agreed, in the Assembly of 1837, that an equitable division of the only general funds, to any part of which they could lay just claim, would give them less than fifteen thou sand dollars.

But advantages more important the Old School really enjoyed. The separation was not their act, and no effort to rend the body asunder gave them an impulse in any divergent course. They went on in the even way of the standards, to which, in fact, they were ac cused only of adhering with too much strictness. Their orthodoxy has been scarce questioned, however they may have been charged with putting undue restraints upon liberty. With them, much the greater part of the period of separation has been one of steady progress in the old Presbyterian orbit, with only the slightest perturbations. Though not quite all approving of the acts of 1837, they have been united, in an unusual degree, in doctrine, spirit, ecclesiastical policy, earnest effort to

spread the Gospel under strict Presbyterian forms, and in the whole work of the church.

It was an advantage, too, that the Old School felt themselves particularly bound to demonstrate by special activity and zeal, that what they had so earnestly contended for was in truth for the furtherance and prosperity of Christ's kingdom. To save their own credit, much more for the glory of God, they must prove that Congregational order was no help to Presbyterianism; that church boards were better than voluntary associations; that old Calvinism was the form of doctrine most effective in producing genuine revivals and saving men.

The measures adopted by the General Assembly to purge the church of Congregationalism were soon completely successful. The greater number of those judicatories in which it prevailed to any serious extent went off, sooner or later, with the New School; but in one way or another the last vestige of it disappeared, before long, from the Old School body.

The theological history of this division of the church for the whole thirty-two years of its separate existence may be presented in a very few words. It was left by the separation in a state of almost unprece dented doctrinal homogeneity. One may well doubt, whether any other Christian communion of equal size has ever excelled it, as to unity in the reception of an evangelical creed of such extent as the Westminster Confession and Catechisms. Differences of opinion, even among its ministers, have, of course, existed; but these differences have been comparatively trifling, or of very little prominence or prevalence. If in any quarter se

rious error has been adopted, for the most part it must have been kept secret, or have been known to but a few. No agitating discipline on this ground has been exercised, or, to the knowledge of the church at large, needed. "Princeton Theology," as it has often been called, has, beyond question, been almost universally prevalent among the Old School. If opposing systems must take a modern nomenclature, there may be no harm in making Princeton and New Haven respectively the synonyms of the Old and the New Divinity; but it should be remembered that the text-books of Princeton have constantly been the simple Westminster symbols, and such long and generally approved systematic presentations of the Reformed Theology as the "Institutio Theologiæ Elenctica" of Franciscus Turrettin. Old School men have been slow to admit the idea of any possible improvement in the generally received system of gospel truth. Recognizing fully the recent progress made in Biblical criticism and exegesis; the fact, too, that from time to time fuller and more exact statements of Christian doctrine may be, as they have been, elaborated; and by no means maintaining that any uninspired man has been wholly free from error; they have, nevertheless, rejected with singular unanimity the assumption, that any part of the substance of the gospel has lain hidden in holy Scripture until modern times; or that the church of Christ has new discoveries to make as to the system of truth in Jesus. Of a wellknown Presbyterian quarterly publication, one identi fied with it from the beginning has lately said, "It has been the honest endeavor of its conductors to exhibit and defend the doctrines of our standards, under the

abiding conviction that they are the doctrines of the word of God. They have advanced no new theories, and have never aimed at originality. Whether it be a ground of reproach or of approbation, it is believed to be true, that an original idea in theology is not to be found on" its "pages from the beginning until now." And this praise or blame may be said to have belonged to the Old School Church in general as distinctively as to the publication from which it has been quoted.

A deep conviction of the church's duty to carry on, through strictly ecclesiastical agencies, the work of Foreign Missions, had led the Synod of Pittsburg, as early as 1831, to organize itself for this purpose as The Western Foreign Missionary Society. The New School had refused to consummate the desires and plans of the Old, by taking this enterprise under the care of the whole church; but the Assembly of 1837 accepted the trust, establishing in New York City The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, to which the Synod of Pittsburg immediately made a surrender. This result greatly cheered those who had so long labored for it, and they felt their solemn responsibility to prove that zeal for Christ's cause, not mere party spirit, had ani mated their endeavors. The first meeting of the new board was held in Baltimore in the following October; and it commenced its operations with alacrity, and with most encouraging prospects, which have not proved delusive.

According to the plan of church agencies now fully established, a Board of Publication was appointed by the Assembly of 1838, to which was transferred the property and business of the Presbyterian Tract and