Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1869-11-17
PresbYterian Re-Union.


Our readers will remember that an effort
has been making, for several years past, for
a re union of the two branches OF the Pres
byterian church. That long desired event
was consumated at Pittsburg on Friday last.
The Gazette in referring to the event says:
Yesterday our city was the theatre of
one of the most important events of modern
times--the reunion IF two grand divisions
of the Presbyterian Church OF the United
States, which, for almost third OF centu-
| tury has been disunited and were known
during that period respectively as the Old
School and the New School. Both in the
interim had grown nightly in numbers,
power and influence; both were pushing on
their respective missions, and planting
churches in the West, the South, and in
foreign lands, as we'll as In the older part.
of our country; 10th felt strong in the work
they had to do, and not sign of de-
creptitude in either But as years rolled on
good men in both felt themselves more and
more drawn together, and that no good rea-
son existed why they should move in sepa-
rate orbits, or why they should not walk to-
gether in unity. They desired to come to-
gether again, and it has happened in this
case as in all cases, that where there is a
will there is way" Suffice it 10 say, that
in tie preliminary negotiations this attract
i've power of Christian love overcame all diff.
| fculties, and there were maryland now
these two great organizations are one again,
under the name of the Presbyterian Church
in the United States of America
For two days the two Assemblies met
| in their respective places-the q. S. in the
| First Church on Wood street, and the n. IS.
in the Third Church on Sixth avenue, to
arrange matters for the final union which
had already been decreed by the Presbyte-
ries. In the evenings the members mingled
for prayer and social intercourse, but the
formal union was fixed for Friday morning
| Not dissenting voice, nor an exception, nor
jar, nor crook was heard from first to
| last.
''At A. NJ. yesterday the two assemblies
met as usual in their respective places. At
ten the members of the New School left the
Third Church in procession, and walked
down Sixth avenue into Wood street, and
as they arrived the members of the Old
| School body left their church in the same
order and in the street blended side by side
and arm in arm with their brethern from
the Third, and thus walked back. ria Fifth
avenue and Smithfield street, to the Third
church, which had been kept clear until the
united procession should arrive.
To every mind capable of grasping the
scene in all its far reaching influences upon
the church and the world, the spectacle was
| expressiby sublime-sublime in its sim
| plicity, grand in the total absence of all pa
! geantry. Those earnest men, with no out
| ward trappings to distinguish them from
other men, with hearts filled with joy and
high resolve, representations of thousands
of churches and hundreds OF thousands of
| Christians, saw eye to eye and flowed togeth-
er in the sight of our people with all the
simplicity and humble bearing that distin-
guished the great Master of all when he
walked amongst men.
1T is impossible to do justice to the fer
vid bursts of eloquence with which these
united brethren greeted each other when
they got together in the church. Everything
was conducted with the most perfect order
aud when Dr. Fowler, Moderator of the
New School Assembly, rose and grasped the
hand of DIR. Jacobus, Moderator of the Ole
School. and while the two men stood there
with both hands grasped, and both manifest
ly under deep emotion, the vast assembly
burst into the grand old do1oogy, Praise
God from whom all blessings flow, 1t seemed
the very acme of the morally sublime.
Among he last acts of this body was the
passage of a resolution, pledging the raising
of five millions of dollars. as special offer
ing to the treasury of the Lord, to be ex
pended in the several benevolent object
: connected with the organization.
The Presbyterian church Cow occupies
better position than ever 1t did to exefcis'
its influence in favor of true Evangelical
, Christianity; and this reunion will have th'
5 prestige of having set the example in th'
4 great movement towards Protestant unity
D foreshadowed by a recent meeting IN New
York-an event most devoutly wished TO
by all sincere followers of the Savior of tn
world.