The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1873-05-22

SESsION Or THE q NNERAL AvsEM-
SEM. BLY,.

FROM BALfIxoRE.
,nss,os Or THE enxnsAL ASSEM-.
! @ BLY,.
BAIrlxoll, Nay IL, 1878.
EDITOR JouRNAL.-To comply with
your request i not quite 90 easy a. ]
thought il would be-. I find that ]
will have to string together : lot d
scraps Of different sizes and in relation
to variety Of subjects. A connected
end concise statement is cut Of the
question. So, let me begin where !
may, 60 whittier I please and stop when
I must This is only the second time
Baltimore has had ths General Assem-.
bly,. The frat time W. quarter Of
century ago. The Moderator Of thst
session wac the talented but eccentric
James H. Thornwsll, D. D., lately Do.
ceased, and who tarn,shsd M otherwise
glorious life'record BY plunsiog into
the vortex Of secession. The Moderator
OF the present Assembly ia man whose
name is widely koown, Howard Crosby,
u. D., l.. Id, Chancellor Of the Uni.
versity Of New York City. And no,
too, is somewhat eccentric; nervous,
dashiug, olear-hsaded, quick. witted, he
puts q motion almost before the mover
has done making it. He is . man Of
about dhy-dve years, fiue he.d,powerful
voice, sharp eye and commanding pres.
.ence. Contrast the two assemblies, and
You will see that 1t now requires .
Moderator Of ability as compared With
earlier years. The Assembly of ls48
Was composed Of 1913 commissioners !;
the present body is composed of about
600 q have not learned the exact
number), many Of them skilful ecole-
siastioal lawyers, the whole body repre-
ssntiug the work and diversified interests
of . church co-extensive With the Uni.
ted States-1 may as we'll say, oo.sxten.
sivs with the world, tor this is nearly
tho fact, % will appear before I have
'aid may say. Ono little item just
here a. we'll q anywhere else. In 1848
the Presbytsrian Church raised for
benevolent work $336,00o ; in 1872
the same church, for tho came purposes,
raised over $lo,ooo,o0o, and should
have made it SIS, 100000. Since l84s
We have gained in this o,ty i've church.
es, besides five allied with us, maki,e
in al seventeen churches belonging to
the family. Az Protestant churches, tho
Methodist and Episoopsl take tho lead,
though for our ago We are giving them
tight raoe and mean to catch up and
then get ahead.
Now let me toll you of the great
curiosity here. The Moderator Of this
body will sit in a chair that was used
in the famous synod Of bort, in 1918,
when deputies from England and tho
reformed churches Of Europe tried to
reconcile tho doctrines Of Luther, CAL
vim and Arminius. A Dutch family
brought this chair with them to ALBANY,
N. Y, IN 1850 and it is now owned BY
gentleman of our faith in this city
I had my hands on it this morning,
but 1 did not dare to sit in it. Nov
laugh, for this is the only oh.ue, l
will give you.) It is rather . hand.
some, straightforward chair, said to b.
made out of English cherry, not very
elaborately carved, and ono arm slightly
burned where sleepy student let his
candle fall against it.
l think it hardly probable that We
will have 40 many distinguished visit.
ors this time as usual. There are two
whose fame is abroad in the world
Drs.E sdie and Calderwood, Of Scotland,
the land Of rugged thinkers. DR..
Esdle is known everywhere by his BIZ
bic Cyclopedi., his Ecclesiastical
Cyelopedla, Crudiu's Concordance,
and especially his Commentary on Ephe.
slams. He is easily the peer of such
men as Bloomfield, Stewart, Elliott,
Afford and Hodge. DR.. Calderwood is
still comparatively . young man, but hs
attained fame that is enduring. While
yet student At Edinburgh, he COM
batted the views of Sir William Ham.
ilton and published work called s'The
Philosophy Of the Infinite that is re-
sarded BY scholars as unauswerable.-
He is now filling the chair in the Uai.
versity Of Edinburgh once occupied By
Dugald Sewart, Thomas Brown and BY
tho celebrated "Christopher North"
More about these men whom I get into
he lecture room at home.
The place of occurrence sometimes
renders otherwise unimportant matters
very important. One Of tho daily p.-
psrs yesterday had . lengthy aud we'll
written article on the "Great Oppertu.
nifty" of the Assembly, showing how
important it is that We should fling our
arms about tho neck of tho Southern
Presbyterian Church and pull it back
into the fold. You know that during the
war we lost nearly al our Southern
Churches. The writer argues that tho
General Assembly South vss a neces-
sity Of the times, because there was no
communication between tho North aad
South, save of military nature. Po-