Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-11-06
Evangelical Alliance.
REPLY TO REV. MR.. CYR.
RUTLAND. Noy. 4. 1873.

RUTLAND, Nov. 4, 1878.
Editor Rutland Herald Il have no
fancy for newspaper controversies, but
l feel obliged to notice a criticism upon
my sermon on the Evangelical Alliance
in your issue of this morning. The Rev.
Mr.. Cyr labors under a good deal more
of ''misapprehension" concerning what
said about the Alliance than do about
the Alliance itself even upon his own
showing. He claims that the Alliance
was composed of delegates from
branches" of that body, and that they
therefore did represent somebody besides
themselves. / did not, and do not, de-
ny that some of those who took a prom
inent part in the deliberations of that
body were delegates from such
''branches :" but these were compare
lively very few in number. The main
point, however, is that, whether these
men represented branches" of the Ali
ance or not, they did not in any true
sense represent the various denomina-
tons of professed Christians to which
they respectively belonged; they were
neither elected By, nor empowered to
speak TOR, those denominations as a
whole; neither in the subordinate
branches, nor in the general body,
could they speak for any one but for
themselves personally, or for the indi-
viduals composing some branch The
point, which l made in this connection,
was that no denomination of Christians
whatever was officially represented in
that Conference; and when | spoke af-
forwards of the Baptists as perhaps the
largest single body there represented"
it ought to be sufficiently evident, that
| used the word represezted in the loose
sense of h0oia1g members present and par
ticipating, for which loose use / duly
apologize.
Again, Mr.. Cyr claims that the So
called Alliance had "a creed or profess
sion of faith, and pretty full one, too. !"
do not deny that the various Christian
bodies therein represented G loose sense)
are supposed to ''hold and maintain" the
doctrines which Mr.. Cyr enumerates.
But the AlAa1ace, as body, adopted no
such statement of doctrine; various
speakers took special pains to disclajna
any such purpose on the part of the
Conference. Nothing whatever was dis
tinctly put forward as ''basis of unity"
except that famous motto, Gin essen
tials, unity" etc. The motto, by the
way, | did not call ''platitude"-
was the reporters word-but perhaps
what / did call it will not be any more
satisfactory to your correspondent, for I
did say that it was merely vague senti-
ment, simply glittering generality,
meaning nothing at all until those who
use it define what they mean by essen
tials."
Furthermore, / did not say that the
Alliance proposed to ''dictate method
of PROSECUTING" from the Church of
Rome. What did say was, that ''we, !"
q. 6. the Protestant Episcopal church
generally 40 not sympathize with tie
0ardoats denominations represented Goose
AGAIN. in the conference with respect to
the best method of dealing with that
gigantic system, against which the So
called Alliance was largely formed, viz
Romanism. | then went on to say that
the denominations shave been trying
for years to make proselytes from Ro-
manism as they would from Heathen-
ISM" while we hope more from "a
reformation effected within the Roman
church ITSELF" such as the Old Catho-
lies, so-called, are now engaged in.
AS for distinguished men of the
Church of England" and some Ameri-
can "Episcopalians," heartily cooper
ating with the Alliance, do not deny