[Form of Gov., chap. vi. Digest of 1873, p. 119.]
Dr. Breckinridge reported the following Overture. Has a Church session any control over the funds in the hands of the deacons for the poor of the Church? or does the control belong to the deacons? Or what power has the session in the premises? The first of these questions the Committee recommend should he answered in the negative; the second in the affirmative; and the third, by saying that the session may advise as to the use of the funds in the hands of the deacons.
This subject occasioned some little debate, perhaps from the fact that the limitations of the question were not at first perceived. The question was not, which was the governing power, deacons or elders? Nor which had the right to raise and to control the general contributions of the Church? Nor even which body had control over the contributions made specifically for the poor? But simply which had the right to determine on the distribution of money designed for the poor, and already in the hands of the deacons? That is, to decide who shall receive it, and how much should be given to A., and how much to B. The question was thus reduced to a very small point. As soon as the Assembly discovered this, they cut short the debate, and adopted the report of the committee.
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