The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-08
THE CUMBERLAND PREsBYTRRIANs.
sIxtieth Anniversary Origin, Doctrines, and
History Of the Chnrch.

sIxtoth AnpTIy:rssryfIg Y @ MgrigIH, Doctrines, and
Monday was the occasion of the sixteth ami
versary OF the Cumberland Presbyterian Church,
and was duly celebrated.
In Pittsbufg the Rev. Z. squlres delivered an
address, giving interesting facts in the history
of this singular people, from which VIC make
the following extracts:-
Sixty years ago the fourth day OF this month,
the first Presbytery of our Church was organ
lied. II was organized in Cumberland county,
Tennessee. In the year 1900 a wonderful and
most gracious revival of religion broke out in
the Presbyterian Church in the Mississippi val
ley. This revival extended to Pennsylvania, but
the seat of the revival was In Kentucky. 1t was
not exclusively confined to the Presbyterian de-
nomination, but 1t also extended to the Metho-
dist and the Baptist churches, but the
leaders In this revival we're tho Presby-
terians. The revival continued for Eve
years. The great cry of the churches at that
time was for more ministers. To sup
ply the churches that were established with
ministers was almost impossible. Among the
many young men that were brought into the
ministry during the revival were King, Ewing,
and Macadue. They were men of piety, aud
were very popular with the churches The
churches sent up petition for the licensing of
these men, which was granted They COM
menced to preach, and they were wonderfully
blessed in their preaching. Their ministry was
q great success, and many churches were
organized. They sooR asked the Presbytery to
ordain them. This seemed to be a necessity,
necessity that sprung out of revival. The
Presbytery considered the matter and agreed to
ordain them. These three young men when they
were spoken to on the subject of
their ordination, said that they could
not with their present views fully
adopt the Westminster Confession of Faith.
They asked the Presbytery to make an eKcep-
tion with regard to the article on the subject of
fatality and said that in all other respects they
were willing to receive the book. The Presby-
terry considered the matter, and agreed to ordain
them notwithstanding the difference. The
Synod of Kentucky, however, called this Pres
bytery to account, and required them to recon-
slider their action, and to require the young men
to receive the whole book, or that they should
take their parchments from them The Presby-
terry refused to do this and separated from the
Old Presbyterian Church. and formed the de-
nomination now known as the Cumberland Pres
byterians. The Synod in searching for reasons
for her conduct in relation to this Presbytery,
brought another objection which l have net
noticed. She brought up the question of edu-
cation In reference to these three men. They
had not been classicaly educated. But the
need of young men for the ministry was so
pressing that the Presbytery were willing to
ordain these men without a classical education.
Allow me to remark that, while In the old book
there is a requirement that all who enter the
ministry must be classically educated, yet there
have been many exceptions to this rule in the
history of the Church. Our requirement is that
he should learn all he possibly can.
The speaker then reviewed briefly the doc
trines of the Church, after which he alluded to
its great prosperity. The denomination has now
one General Assembly, 30 Synods, SO Presbyte-
res, 1900 ordained ministers, 400 licentiates, and
from 120, 600 to 125, 900 communicates.