The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-10-02
HOYI & CO., Proprietors
The Approaching Conference Of the Evan
gelical Alliance ~

-
The New York Herald summarizes the his
tory and objects of the Evangelical Alliance,
which conyenes in that city on the End Of Oc-
tober, as follows:
It is now many months since we first called
public attention to this conference. In the
interval we have frequently alluded to it, and
tits only few weeks since in an exhaustive
article we gave history of the association, as
well as sketch Of the programme to be follow
ed at the approaching meeting. For the bene-
fit-of our readers we are not unwilling to repeat
some of the statements which have already
been made. Let us explain, first of all, what
is this Evangelical Alliance. It is fact not
generally known that the association which has
now assumed such gigantic proportions really
dates its origin from the Bicentenary Com
memoration of the Westminster Assembly,
held at Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 18th and
18th of July, 1S43. A volume Of essays on
Christian union was the immediate result OF
that meeting-a result brought about mainly
through the iiberality of rich Glasgow mer-
chant whose name is now widely known
throughout the Churches-the ]ate John Hen
lerson, Esq, of Park. The essays did much to
diffuse the feeling that the Protestant world
was painfully and even shamefully divided.
There was surely some common platform on
which the various Protestant seets could meet,
confer and make arrangements to act against
what they believed to be common enemies.
Preliminary meetings were held in Glasgow,
Edinburgh and Liverpool, and finally the
Evangelical Alliance was formally organized
in London in 1916. At this first London meet
ing six different divisions were agreed upon, as
follows: First, Great Britain and Ireland; !;
second, the United States third, France, Bel
gium, South Germany and portion of Swift
erland; fourth, North Germany and portion
of Switzerland; fifth, British North America,
and sixth, the West Indies. Branch assocla-
tioHs now exist not only in all the places just
mentioned, but in Sweden, in Turkey, in Afrl-
ca, in Australia and in New Zealand. Success
siye meetings have been held in Paris in 1855,
at Berlin. 1857; at Geneva, 1860, and in Am
sterdam, 1867. The New York meeting will
rank as the sixth General Conference of the
Evangelical Alliance. The creed of the Alli-
ance may be briefly stated as follows: The
Divine Inspiration, authority and suftciency of
the Holy Scriptures; the right and duty OF
private Judgment in the Interpretation of the
Holy Scriptures the unity of the Godhead
and the trinity of the persons therein; the
utter depravity, of human nature in ,conse-
auence of the fall; the incarnation of the Son
of God, His work of atonement for sinners of
mankind and His mediatoriai intercession and
reign; the justification of the sinner by faith
alone; the work of the Holy Spirit in conver-
sion and sanctifcation |; the Immortality of the
soul; the resurrection of the body; the judg-
ment Of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ,
&ith the eternal blessedness of the righteous
and the eternal punishmentof the wicked the,
Divine institution of the Christian ministry
and the obligation and perpetuity of the ordi-
nances of baptism and the Lords supper.
Such, in brief, is the creed of the Alliance,
althougA it is distinctly declared that this does
not involve an assumption of the right to de-
fine the limits of Christian belief and is to be
regarded only as an indication of the class OF
persons whom it is desirable to embrace within
the Alliance. 1t win thus be seen that the
Evangelical Alliance clings to the side of Or
rhodoxy, is somewhat exclusive in Its charac-
ter and does not by any means cover the whole
of the so.called Protestant world. Mr.. Beecher
can belong to it, but Mr.. Freeman Clarke can
not.
What are the aims and objects of this Evan
gelical Alliance7 This question we have in
directly answered already; but, in attempting
70 present the character and the claims OF the
Alliance before the public, the answer must be
directly and explicitly given. AS we have
said before, the association owes its existence
to an anxious and earnest desire to heal, as far
"a is possible, the divisions of the Protestant
world. At the first meeting in London three
resolutions were read and approved of-reso-
lutions of which the burden may be said to be
regret for existing division among the Protest
ant churches and an anxious desire to bring
about among those who had a common belief
something like sympathy and unity. In addi-
t;on to this, however, the Alliance "endeavors
tn exert beneficial influence on the advance
ment of Eyangeiical Professionalism; and on the
co,,nteraction Of infdelity, Popery and other
forms of superstition: error and profaneness,
especially the desecration of the Lords Day."
These are the objects OF the Alliance, and 1t
Is claimed that the association is more and
more accomplishing the end for which it pro.
fessedlyE exists. 1T is itself g. visible form OF
Christian union. It secures sympathy and
united action where formerly there was neither
the one nor the other. It has in many in
stances prevented persecution where persecu-
tion was threatened, and made an end of per-
secntion where persecution existed Ithas lent
:. powerful influence to Christian missions in
o1f Tarts of the world, and, by encouraging CO.
nnerative an efforts in the foreign field, has done
mich to commend the Gospel to the heather,
who were wont to laugh at the Christian mis-
s;onar;es who had come to convert them before
thev themselves were reconciled to each other.
r. has done more than all this. thas brought
men of different persuasions nearer to each
other 1 has removed many old religious barriers,
and and has paved the way to union which is
much larger than was originally contemplated,
tha mn;on of the entire Christian Chnrch, Pro-
testant I and Catholic, Greek and Roman.
Such then. is the Evangelical Alliance /;
s,ch is its history and such are the ends which
IL seeks to accomplish. This is the association
which, on the End Of next month, Will hold
the f;rst session Of its sixth General Conference
in % this his city, and the object of the ten days,
d;scnssions will be to advance the cause OF
evangelical religion in the large and not un-
generous sense in which its members under.
Stand it. It would not be difficult to point out
defects in the organization, to lay the finger on
noints which are disagreeably sectarian, and
otherwise to show that it lacks the genuine
spirit of catholicity. Rome, however, was not