into consideration the i stitution of the Church of
Scotland and other Protestant churches," and to form a complete system for the organization of the Presbyte- rian Church in the United Slates. In May. 1788, the synod convened and resolved itself into a General As- sembly, which had its lirst meeting the following year, embracing four synods (New Fork and NewJersej . Phila- delphia, Virginia, and the Carolinas), 17 presbyteries, 119 congregations, and 180 ministers. By this assembly the Westminster Confession of Faith was adopted with three slight alterations (in chapters xx, xxiii, and xxxi),and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms with but a single alteration, while the form of government and discipline of the Scottish Church was so modi tied as to discounte- nance the right of the civil magistrate to interfere in the affairs of the Church excepl for the purpose of pro- tection alone. Shortly .after the war, the Presbyterian ministers renewed their friendly relations with the ( '..li- gregationalists. In 1792 the General Assembly and the Association of Connecticut agreed that each denomina- tion should be represented in the annual meetings of the other by three commissioners, an agreement that afterwards embraced the general associations of Ver- mont. New I lamp-hire, and Massachusetts. In 1794 these representatives were allowed to vote on all mat- ters under discussion. All these measures prepared the way for the adoption, in 1801, by both parties of the •■ Plan of Onion." Under this arrangement a congrega- tion, Congregational in polity, might have installed as its pastor a Presbyterian minister who still retained his seat in the presbytery, and was personally responsible thereto, and he itself represented in that court not by an elder, hut by a committeeman or delegate chosen from its membership. On the other hand, a congrega- tion Presbyterian in its polity, connected with a pres- bytery and represented therein by an elder, might have installed over it as pastor a Congregational minister who remained a member of some Congregational asso- ciation. This procedure was the fruil partly of the
CO-OperationS of the previous year-, hut it made Pres-
byterianism less systematic in its movements and Less
authoritative in its administration, a- we shall see pres- ently. During the earlier years of the present century, Hero appeared in the southern and western portions
oi lie- church striking manifestations of religious in- terest, having, in many cases, singular physical accom-
its. In connection with these, zeal outran dis- cretion; strange doctrines were s. taught; presbyte-
rial order was violated, and confusion became widespread. Ultimately these things led to the withdrawal of some of the offenders and the removal of others from the Presbyterian Church, and the formation in 1811 of what is now known as "The Cumberland Presbyterian Church." (See No. 11 below.)
The increase of the Church was rapid, and by 1834 it contained 22 Bynods, 111 presbyteries, and aboul 1900 ministers. I'.ut only four years later (in 1888) Presby- terianism suddenly encountered a severe reverse bva widespread schism, for which the materials had been gathering for several years. In is.'.'. the Synod of the Associate Reformed Church ha\ ing been brought, under
the lead of Dr. John M. Mason, to favor union with the Presbyterian Church, that union took place: buta very considerable minority refused to acquiesce in the meas- ure, and retained a Beparate existence. During the
fifteen years that followed, the growth of the Church was uuprceedeiitedly rapid. New churches and preshv- teries wen- multiplied in the Mel. 11.- and Western States. Already measures had been adopted (1812) which re- sulted in establishing Princeton Seminary, Union Sem- inary in Virginia, and. though unendowed, the South- ern and Western at Marys\ ilk-. Tenn. Auburn followed in 1816 ; the Western at Allegheny < !ity and Lane al < lin- cinnati in 1726 27 j Columbia, S.C., and Danville, Ky., in 1828; and Union at New- York iii 1836, The accessions from New England, at the time in full theological Sym- patbywith the Presbyterian Church, wen- provided for by the '; Plan of Union" agreed to by the General Asso- ciation of Connecticut and the General Assembly in 1801. It aimed to secure the rights and the harmo- nious CO-operation of two denominations entering the same field. For nearly a quarter of a century no fault was found with it; but it led to the representation in Presbytery and General Assembly of committeemen from Congregational churches, and these were found to favor voluntary missionary societies not under the As- sembly's control. Of these societies, that for home mis- sions, within a few years afn-r its organization in 1826, had several hundred missionaries under its patronage. Most of these were from New England, and many of them were alike opposed to Church boards and in sym- pathy with "New Haven theology." Parties were thus formed in the Church, and the agitation on the subject of slavery, springing up at that time, tended to increase the alienation.
The crisis came in 1837. Two parties were arrayed against each other, known as the Old and New Schools. In general, it may perhaps be said that the division was one of sentiment between the more progressive and the more conservative members ol the Church. In the Old there was more of a leaning to the strict views of the Scotch Church on doctrine and discipline; in the New. the preference was as decidedly in favor of the laxer and more latitudinarian practice of New England, from whicb region many of the party had originally come. The New Lights wished to bear a decided testimony against slavery; tin- old Lights thought that duty did not require any action ol the Church on that subject; the former wished to unite with other denominations in Christian work through voluntary societies ; tin- latter believed that such work could be more efficiently and economically conducted by their denomination through boards which should be under its own control. Instead of brotherly love, bick- erings and heart-burnings now prevailed; the General Assembly was an arena of constant strife; each party, as it obtained an accidental majority, set itself to work to nullify the measures of its opponents. The Old School