(iii.) The synod is a provincial council which consists of the ministers and representative elders from all the congregations within a specified number of presbyteries, in the same way as the presbytery is representative of a specified number of congrega tions. Though higher in rank and larger than most presbyteries it is practically of less importance, not being, like the presbytery, a court of first instance, nor yet, like the general assembly, a court of final appeal. The synod hears appeals and references from presbyteries; and by its discussions and decisions business of various kinds, if not settled, is ripened for consideration and final settlement by the general assembly, the supreme court of the Church.
(iv.) The general assembly is representative of the whole Church, either, as in the Irish General Assembly, by a minister and elder sent direct to it from every congregation, or, as in the Scot tish General Assemblies, by a proportion of delegates, ministers and elders from every presbytery. The general assembly annually at its first meeting chooses one of its ministerial members as mod erator. He takes precedence, primes inter pares, of all the members, and is recognized as the official head of the Church during his term of office. His position is one of great honour and influence, but he remains a simple presbyter, without any special rule or jurisdic tion. The general assembly reviews all the work of the Church; settles controversies ; makes administrative laws ; directs and stim ulates missionary and other spiritual work; appoints professors of theology ; admits to the ministry applicants from other churches; hears and decides complaints, references and appeals which have come up through the inferior courts; and takes cognizance of all matters connected with the Church's interests or with the general welfare of the people. As a judicatory it is the final court of appeal; and by it alone can the graver censures of church disci pline be reviewed and removed. The general assembly meets once a year at the time and place agreed upon and appointed by its predecessor.
The weak point in the system is that episcopal superintendence being exercised in every case by a plurality of individuals there is no one, moderator or senior member, whose special duty it is to take initial action when the unpleasant work of judicial investiga tion or ecclesiastical discipline becomes necessary. This has led in some quarters to a desire that the moderator should be clothed with greater responsibility and have his period of office prolonged; should be made, in fact, more of a bishop in the Anglican sense of the word.
Lightfoot's exhaustive essay in his volume on the Epistle to the Philippians.) There is no doubt that considerable indefiniteness in regard to the precise status and rank of the "ruling elder" has prevailed. When ministers and elders are associated in the mem bership of a church court their equality is admitted ; no such idea as voting by orders is ever entertained. Yet even in a church court a certain disparity is apparent between a minister and his elders. Practically the minister is regarded as of higher standing. The duty of teaching and of administering the sacraments and of al ways presiding in church courts being strictly reserved to him in vests his office with a dignity and influence greater than that of the elder. The practice which is most characteristic of Presby terianism is that which recognizes one order of presbyters but in this order two degrees or classes, known as teaching elders or "ministers" and ruling elders. In teaching, in dispensing the sacra ments, in presiding over public worship, and in the private functions by which he ministers to the comfort, the instruction and the improvement of the people committed to his care, a pastor acts within his parish (or congregation) according to his own dis cretion ; and for the discharge of all the duties of the pastoral office he is accountable only to the presbytery from whom he re ceived the charge of the parish (or congregation). But in every thing which concerns what is called discipline—the exercise of that jurisdiction over the people with which the office-bearers of the church are conceived to be invested, he is assisted by lay-elders. They are laymen in that they have no right to teach or to dis pense the sacraments, and on this account they fill an office in the Presbyterian Church inferior in rank and power to that of the pastors. Their peculiar business is expressed by the term "ruling elders." In the initial stages of the Apostolic Church it was no doubt sufficient to have a plurality of presbyters with absolutely similar duties and powers. At first, indeed, this may have been the only possible course. But apparently it soon became desirable and perhaps necessary to specialize the work of teaching by setting apart for that duty one presbyter who should withdraw from sec ular occupation and devote his whole time to the work of the min istry. There seems to be evidence of this in the later writings of the New Testament. It is now held by all Presbyterian churches that one presbyter in every congregation should have specially committed to him the work of teaching, administering the sacra ments, visiting the flock pastorally, and taking oversight, with his fellow elders, of all the interests of the church.