RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Presbyterians
gregation a number of elders were associated together as a court of control, and exercised authority, not as individuals, but as an organized body (Acts xx. 17-28). Every Presbyterian congregation is, therefore, governed by a session composed of elders elected by the people, ordained by ministers, and presided over by the bishop or pastor of the congregation. See Presbyter, (c) The Diaconate: This office, in its origin, was a provision for the distribution of the benevolence of the Apostolic Church (Acts vi. 1—4; see Deacon, I.). Presbyterian deacons, therefore, are officers charged with the care of the poor, and also may be entrusted with the temporalities of the congregations. They are chosen by the people, and ordained by ministers. In most Presbyterian churches to-day, temporalities are in charge of secular officers known as trustees.
(5) Of Church Membership : The terms of admission to the communion of the visible church are the same as the terms or conditions of salvation revealed in the Holy Scriptures, viz., belief in one God, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the divine and all-sufficient savior, involving acceptance of the Bible as the only infallible rule of faith and practise, and the declaration of a sincere purpose to lead a life acceptable to God in Jesus Christ. The Christian churches have no right either to add to or to take from these terms or conditions, and all who have accepted them are brethren in Christ. Churchmembers, as to their conduct, are under the control of the Church through the pastors and elders as guides in the Christian life, and subject to discipline by the session for offenses (Matt, xviii. 17), provided, however, that every member deeming himself injured by the action of a session may appeal or complain to a higher court.
(6) Of Church Courts: The distinguishing feature of Presbyterian government is the church court, the government of representative bodies, and not of individuals. Indeed it derives its distinctive name as a church polity from the "presbytery" of the New Testament, an organization including both ministers and elders. The governing bodies of the particular churches are known as sessions, consisting each of a pastor and a number of elders, elected by the people, and forming the first of the church courts. Fully organized denominational churches have higher or superior courts, known as presbyteries, synods, and general assemblies, through which the four great principles of ecclesiastical polity above mentioned find full expression. A presbytery is a church court exercising authority, legislative, executive, and judicial, over a number of congregations within a limited geographical area, and is composed of all the ministers within said area, with the addition of an elder from each congregation. The presbytery thus exhibits the unity of the church in a visible and tangible form; emphasizes the parity of the ministry, by concentrating the supervisory authority in all its ministerial members; sets forth the rights of the people by the presence of elders as their representatives, ruling conjointly with ministers; and exalts the headship of Christ by magnifying his law as the sole rule of procedure, and the interests of his kingdom as the sole sphere of Christian activity. Synods and general assemblies are but larger presbyteries, necessitated by the extent and numbers of any given denomination, and emphasizing, in a yet more marked manner, the unity of the church. The constitutions of denominational Presbyterian churches provide for a general system of supervision by higher over lower courts in administrative and judicial matters, the power of final decision being vested in the general assembly. The scriptural warrant for the presbytery is found in such passages as I Tim. iv. 14, and for the synod and general assembly in Acts xv. 22-24, and xvi. 14. To this system of government was added, in 1875, the General Council of the "Alliance of the Reformed Churches throughout the World holding the Presbyterian System," which though a merely advisory body, yet recognizes the unity of the universal Christian Church through its world-wide constituency.
3. "Worship: Presbyterian worship is in part a matter of polity. It is based as to its character on the facts that a human priesthood is unknown to the New Testament, and that the only priest of the new dispensation is the Lord Jesus Christ. Ministers are not priests, but preachers. Sacerdotalism, therefore, whether in connection with the sacraments, or enforced liturgies, or priestly vestments, IX.— 16
has no place in the worship of the Presbyterian churches. The sacraments are simply ordinances, wherein by sensible signs Christ and his benefits " are represented, sealed, and applied to believers." Prayer is the free intercourse of the soul with God, and ought not to be hindered by such human devices as compulsory prayer-books. Ministers are not mediators between God and man, possessed of a delegated divine authority to forgive sins, but simply leaders of the people in all that constitutes the worship of and fellowship with the triune God. True worshipers worship the Father neither in Samaria nor in Jerusalem, but in spirit and in truth.
By its doctrine the Presbyterian system honors the divine sovereignty without denying human responsibility; by its polity it exalts the headship of Christ while giving full development to the activities of the Christian people; and in its worship it magnifies God while it brings blessing to man, by insisting upon the right of free access on the part of every soul to him whose grace can not be fettered in its ministrations by any human ordinances whatsoever. W. H. Roberts.
Bibliography: The Westminster Standards being accepted by all the branches of the Presbyterian Church, nearly all those branches issue these fundamental works through their own boards of publication. For the history of the standards see the article on the subject. The prime sources for history, are, of course, the Minutes of the various presbyteries, synods, and general assemblies, which are also issued generally through the boards of publication. Works of general character are R. C. Reed, Hist, of the Presbyterian Churches of the World, Philadelphia, 1905; and J. V. Stephens, The Presbyterian Churches, Divisions, and Unions in Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and America, ib., 1910. For the more general history of Presbyterianism in Scotland consult: D. Calderwood, Hist, of the Kirk of Scotland, ed. for Wodrow Society, 8 vols., Edinburgh, 1842-49; T. McCrie, Sketches of Scottish Church History embracing the Period from the Reformation to the Revolution, 3d ed., ib., 1843; A. Stevenson, The History of the Church and State of Scotland, from the Accession of King Charles I to . . .1625 , 2d ed., ib. 1844; R. Keith,
Hist, of Affairs in Church and State in Scotland, 1 527-68, ed. for the Spottiswoode Society, 3 vols., ib. 1844-50; F. Stephen, History of the Church of Scotland, from the Reformation to the Present Time, 4 vols., London, 1848; W. M. Hetherington, History of the Church of Scotland, from the Introduction of Christianity to the Disruption, May 18, 1843, 7th ed., Edinburgh, 1853; J. Anderson, Ladies of the Reformation, 2 vols., Glasgow, 1856; J. Lee, Lectures on the Hist, of the Church of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1860; idem, Ladies of the Covenant: Memoirs of Distinguished Scottish Female Characters, Embracing the Period of the Covenant and the Persecution, New York, 1880; G. Grub, The Ecclesiastical Hist, of Scotland, 4 vols., ib. 1861; Hew Scott, Fasti ecclesiaz Scoticance, 6 vols., London, 1866—71; A. P. Stanley, Lectures on the Hist, of the Church of Scotland, ib. 1879; A. H. Charteris. The Church of the Nineteenth Century to 1843, in St. Giles Lectures, 1 ser., Edinburgh, 1881 ; J. Tulloch, The Church of the Eighteenth Century, 1707-1800, in St. Giles Lectures, 1 ser. ib. 1881; J. C. Moffat, The Church in Scotland. A History of its Antecedents, its Conflicts, and its Advocates . . to the first Assembly of the Reformed Church, Philadelphia, 1882; J.Cunningham, Church Hist, of Scotland, 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1883; A. Edgar, Old Church Life in Scotland, London, 2 ser., 1885-86; C. G. McCrie, Scotland's Place and Part in the Revolution of 1688, Edinburgh, 1889; A. Williamson, What has the Church done for Our Colonies? ib. 1890; R. H. Story, The Church of Scotland, 5 vols., London, 1890-91; H. Cowan, Influence of the Scottish Church in Christendom, ib. 1896; M. G. J. Kinloch, Studies in Scottish Ecclesiastical History in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, ib. 1898; P. Hume Brown, Hist, of Scotland, 2 vols., Cambridge, 1899-1902; W. R. Taylor,
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