The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-05-31

to hear the cause and pass upon It's
merits. He asked for immediate con-
sideration. The Assembly decided to
raise the commission, which was organ
lied as follows Ministers, Rev. Messrs.
Pratt, Palmer, Colt, Lunsford, Wallace,
Martin, Bradley, Kerr, Tenney, Bitten
GER Graham, Gordon, Sloan, Woods-l4;
and Messrs. Roberts, Marquis, Allen,
Adair, Hill, Farley, Brown, FINLEY,
Hall, McSween, Mason, Flanniken, and
Enderle.
Fraternal Relations Again.
The special order being the question
of sending delegates to the. Assembly
now in session at Springfield, ILL.,, was
taken up. Mr.. Tenney was the first to
obtain the floor. He remarked that the
opposition to fraternity seemed to come
from the venerable fathers of the Church.
They have been in the ecclesiastical
warfare of the past, and like the heroes
of the military arena, they like to fight
their battles Ger again. By rejecting
this report we will not necessarily lay
these venerable brethren on the shelf.
But we, who are younger, are tired OF
the strife We know all the facts in the
case, and do not need continued rehear-
sal of them here We all desire frater-
nal relations, to live and act with the
pregnant present. By rehearsing the
quarrels Of bygone years we but destroy
all hope of the future. We need the
material aid which fraternity would
bring us. Asking for favors on the one
hand and refusing fellowship on the
other is about the most inconsistent thing
We can do, and that we are doing every
day
SIr. Leyburn referred to the ven
cradle brethren who had been loading
up for this occasion. He wanted the
"reasons" stricken out of the report and
then he wanted the whole bill rejected
and in place of it the adoption of Mr.
Tenney's substitute If it is wrong to
meet them in the Assembly it is wrong
to meet them in conference. 1t was in
correct to say that no retraction had ever
been made by the Northern Assembly.
The declaration of that body in 1876,
that none of its acts were to be con-
strued as impugning the Christian char
acter" of our Church, was broad enough
DR.. Farris admitted that the defeat of
fraternity in the Northern Assembly was
due to the old war horses. Have not
these same old war horses Indicating
DR.. Farris), defeated the same measure
in our arena? These same old war
horses
Mr.. Boggs-I rise to point of order.
The terms used are discourteous.
DIR. Farris-Oh, not at all. Let him
proceed. We from the west are plain,
blunt men.
The Moderator-They are all uncul-
tivated men west of the Mississippi.
Laughter.
Mr.. Leyburn resumed-There are
other Christian conferences that may
bleed if this advance be not made. This
is new era, and we must be prepared
for the wake of the dawning day and
leave the night behind us. Mr.. Collier,
of Virginia, offered the following as an
additional treason" to be added to the
report:
4" A fourth Recognizing the
obligation to do unto others as we would
that others should do unto us, we hereby
express our willingness to disavow any
and all acts on our part, past or present,
OF which rghtful complaint may be
made, deemed by our Northern brethren
derogatory or offensive to them, and so
signify our willingness cheerfully to exert
our best efforts in clearing the way of all
difficulties to full fraternal correspond
ence. And until such expressions shall
be mutual, fraternal relations are not de-
sirable."
DR.. Brown, chairman of the committee
on foreign correspondence, referred to the
charge made yesterday that some persons
assumed to themselves a peculiar guar
dianship in Church affairs. He took nc
guardianship except such as devolved
upon every Christian minister. We are
not dealing with indiviGuals-we are
dealing with the authoritative voice OIL
the Church as spoken through its Assem-
bly,. The fact that we have been wound
ed in the house Of our friends makes the
wound all the more painful The insult
of triAer we do not regard, but the de-
liberate stigma put upon us by the North.
ern Assembly is hard to forget. Frater-
nal relations would in time lead to or.
ganic union. 1t has been said that We
have In practice fraternal relations now
If that be so, why this anxiety for a mere
shadow? The North would take it as 9
surrender That we will never do
We have been wronged. That wrong
has never been rectifed. The North
ern Assembly has declared us guilty
Of damnable blasphemy" They are
Il 1