The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-21

tion and showed considerable feeling be- lieving that each member should be given time to express his ideas on the greatest question that ever confronted the church. pr, Egbert Smith, while he said he was in the majority, in the name of peace and love begged that the minority be given fair play. A commissioner from west Texas said that the destiny of his Presby- tery hung on the action and Commissions CT Murphy moved to table the motion, which was done. Clerk Alexander then read the reports of both committees.
 Majority Report.
 The following is the majority report of the committee on the Charlotte articles of agreement:
 Birmingham, May 20 To the General Assembly of the Presby-
 teran Church in the United States:
 Your committee, to which was referred the articles of agreement and the returns and overtures from the Presbyteries in re the vote of the Presbyteries upou said articles, beg leave to report:
 1. We have counted the vote of the Presbyteries and find that of the seventy nine which have made returns to the general assembly, fifty have voted in fa- vor of the adoption of the articles, twen- ty-seven have voted in favor of rejection of the articles and two took no action.
 We have no returns from Presbyteries of Brownwood, Central Alabama, Red River, Indian and St. Johns.
 2. In our opinion the general assembly can adopt the articles of agreement with out violation of the constitution of the church. Our reasons, therefor are as fol- lows:
 l. They do not contrayene the letter of the constitution.
 2. They are in harmony with the spirit of the constitution M
 3. They are in line with precedents made by former general. assemblies.
 4 They are within the class of powers given to the general assembly by the constitution
 D. We have carefully considered all the overtures and papers>sent up by the pres byteries with return of their votes and find none of them requires an answer from this general assembly other than that contained in this report.
 5. We recommend that the articles of agreement be adopted by the general as- sembly.
 6. As the Presbyterian church in the United States will be entitled to twelve representatives in the council provided for by said articles of agreement, We recommend that the representatives be divided into three classes of four members each, to consist of two ministers and two ruling elders.
 D. We further recommend that the repre- sentation chosen by this general assem- bly, be diclded into three classes to serve respectively, one, two and three years, and that hereafter as vacancies occur in the representation by expiration of term of service the persons chosen to fill said vacancies be chosen for the full term of three years.
 6. We recommend that the moderator appoint a committee of five who shall nominate and report to this general as- sembly the names of twelve persons quail fled to serve as representatives from this church, dividing the same Into classes as provided for in this report.
 2. We recommend that until some other provision be made the representatives certify to acting moderator of the general assembly their actual expenses incurred in attending to their duties as such representatives and If the same be approved by the moderator the stated clerk and treasurer pay them.
 All of which is respectfully submitted | bni I Uref,, ,t, clerk; Samuel l.. Anderson, J. L. Dean, W. R. Dobbyns, George D. Booth, T. 5. Gallaher Allen G. Hall, W. D. Hedleston, Charles Mckee, F. X. McKellar, J. D. Murphy, A. w. Pierce, c. D. Rinehart, John Sites, John c. Williams.
 The minority faction in the committee who dissent in the approval was led by Dr. Russell Cecil of Richmond, and for merly of Selma.
 The signers of the minority report were:
 D. J. s. McElroy, P M. Dougan, Charles L. Pond, NJ. Calvin Wells, the Rev. Alexander Martin, Dr. M M Me Pheeters, Dr. T. A. Wharton, w. c. Ham, l ilton, Dr. Russell Cecil, F. T. Glasgow. The following is the minority report of the committee on articles of agreement: We, the undersigned, minority of the committee to which was referred the consideration of the articles of agree ment,' beg leave to report as follows: I. That we find the proposed action unconstitutional for the reason follow ing. to-wit: That the articles create a court unknown to our constitution, to which not only advisory, supervisory and administrative powers and rights are del egated, but also judicial powers and juris- dietion pertaining to matters vitally af- fecting the welfare of our church.
 ''2. The constitution provides for our re- ceivng other ecclesiastical bodies under our jurisdiction, but makes no provision for bringing our church under the iuris- dctIon of another eccleslastical body Tn view of the above conclusions