Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-05-29
PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY, (orD scHoor

This Ecclesiastical body met at Charleston (s C) on
Thursday. Upwards of two hundred clerical and lay
delegates from various parts Of the United States were
in attendance.
The meeting was opened with prayer by the Rev.
BENJAMIN RICE, of Ohio. An able and impressive dis
course then pronounced by the Rev. EDw. P. Hum
pHREY of Louisville Kentucky the Moderator Of the last
General Assembly. His text was from Matthew Z, II
Even So every good brngeth forth good fruit but
corrupt bringeth forth evil fruit and his theme
was /" Presbyterian Theology in its Developments.
At the evening session the Rev. JOHN c. LORD Of Buff
falo, New York. was elected Moderator, and the Rev.
JOHN NJ LowRIE, Of Columbus, Ohio, Temporary Clerk
The Courier" cites from DR.. HUMPHREYS admirable
the following appropriate reference to the settle
ment of the Huguenots in South Carolina:
Nearly one hundred and sixty-seven years ago the
revocation Of the edict Of Nantz drove from the kingdom
Of France than five hundred thousand Huguenots
They fed all the Protestant States Of Europe to Eng
land the Cape of Good Hope and the shores Of the
Western Continent Invited by the genial climate OF the
South to the infant colony Of Carolina, large
these exed people Of God found rest some on the Dor
ders Of the Santee and others the banks OF the cooper
river The latter company built their house OF worship
in little village few miles distant, called charleston.
Thher the Lords day they were borne on the bosom
of the river by the gentle fow of its waters or the mo-
ton Of the oar or the ebbng Of the tide In their forest
homes and in their humble sanctuary they wept ior JOY
rs the voice Of their suppcatons and the melody Of their
songs rising upon the tranquil and fragrant air stood
conrasted with the carnage and terror from which they
had fed This Is the ancient Carolina This too is Charles
ton Near MS is the site Of their first house of prayer
Yonder is the Cooper river There the fields in which
thew act mn their dwellings and domestic affairs There
the rich and odorous vegetation Of the early summer re-
meats for us the life IL lived for them Around us lies
their dust awaiting the resurrection to meet their kim
bred dust as that shall rise from the graves of muir
dered saints beyond the seas.
cre in this presence, their children. The blood
which oistened the beautiful valleys of Languedoc and
Tours which stained the waters Of every river and the
pavemens Of every city, from the English channel TO the
Mediterranean, in the veins Of those with whom
we worship God this morning With what unanimity
these adhere to that ancient faith, stranger may not
presume to inquire. But they are our witnesses TINS
day, that in faith order, and worship, our church
is Identical with their ancestral church in It's pure
and heroic day. Not these alone-for here are they
also whose fathers brought hther, many generations
ago. the living and fruit bearing stock of Presbyterianism
Let these brethren parakers with MS OF the
and ancss of the olive tree, and let believers OF every
name and they who believe not discover in our proceed
ngs and in us no spirit Of contention or
or evil speaking. May they see nothing in this august
council but pous zeal for the theology, the spirituality,
and the extension Of the church. and for the glory OF its
eternal King"