The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1875-08-18

MS correspondence In organising thlS Ooul
Gil that there were scattered over the worl'
forty. eight different organized Churches
embracing at least 10000 congregations
some of which were by no means small
Incidentally, the Chairman mentioned tha
since the civil war the Presbyterian Church
es of the Northern and Southern States O
America had kept apart; but upon this grea
point of Alliance they were agreed, and hac
sent worthy representative who would ad
dress them. (Cheers) The desire for &
union of Presbyterian Chu ches, who all pro
fess the same doctrines, first took practica
form at a public meeting held at Philadel
phia, and since then the movement had re-
ceivcd the support of all the known Presby-
terian Churches throughout the world
There was not single Church out of the
forty y-eight that was unwilling to enter into
the proposed Alliance. (Applause.) AS
had been stated, upwards of twenty Church
es were represented by delegates at this Con
ference, and it was remarkable crcum-
stance that so many thinking, he might say
opihionated, men should have agreed unani
mously on the series of resolutions compris-
ing the constitution of the Alliance. CHEERS.
The Conference had agreed to a series of
resolutions which would be made public
They had agreed to take as their standard Of
doctrine the Consensus of the Reformed
Churches. They had agreed to engage in
practical work. The objects of the Alliance
were, he might state in brief, to be these
The Council should consider all questions of
general interest to the Presbyterian commu-
mites ; assist Churches, especially those weak
Churches which were prosecuted, and it
might unhappily be that Spain would require
their assistance: that it should not be an
ecclesiastical, but an evangelical body; that
it should engage in mission work and Church
work in great cities and destitute places, and
adopt the best methods of opposing inf
deity, Romanism, intemperance, and vice.
Cheers; The proposal of this Council, he
wished it to be understood, was not to gather
all the Presbyterian Churches into one, but
each would preserve as heretofore freedom
of action. The chairman concluded by ex
pressing his belief that DR.. M Leod, of New
York, was right in describing this movement
as " the Solemn League and Covenant of the
nineteenth century" He further alluded to
the fact that the members of the Conference
had met that day in the Jerusalem Chamber,
and it was his opinion that the movement now
being inaugurated would in after years prove
to be only second in Importance to the events
in Presbyterian history with which that
chamber was so closely associated. He then
called upon DR.. Robinson to move the first
resolution.
Here follows DR.. Robinson's speech which was
given last week
DR.. Thompson, of the United Presbyterian
Church, Edinburgh, in seconding the mo-
ton, said it was desirable that in inaugura-
ting such an alliance as this they should
iterate and-re;terate again aad ogsin tthat
they had no intention whatever of building
up walls of exclusion or separation either
between any sections of their own body or
between the Presbyterian or other Churches.
Hear, hear. They continued to recognize
other Churches whose form of government
was different from theirs, and had any other
intention been the end and purpose Of their
movement, instead of their being present as
there now were delegates from the Churches
in all parts of the world, there would rea-
sonably have been at this Conference no
such representatives at all. Hear, hear.
They had met here together to declare dis
tinctly their preference for the form of Pres
byterian Church government and doctrine,
but over and above all this was the great
truth that the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ was their common faith, and that their
common Christian love bound them to all
Churches of kindred faith and love. As
men imbued with the Christian life, they
chose to use the Presbyterian polity to give
form and shape and scope to the Christian
action. This meeting was intended to bring
together the scattered forces, and to afford
the means of comparing notes and giving
suggestions for the guidance of their Chris
tian evangelical life one to another-to pro-
vide, so to say, great electric chord which
should flash their principles around the sur
face of the earth, touching every member Of
their faith, and affording them increased &C
ton and sympathy and influence, and more
commodious and convenient platform where
upon all Presbyterians might meet for thu
furtherance of great ends and for the resis
tance and counteraction of great evils. Theil
association with the Evangelical Alliance
recognized the unity of all Christians, an(
though the exposition of that body differed
from the Presbyterian form and was differ
ent in principle, they were one together OF
the great fundamental points. The fac
that in these days there were such facilities
for social and religious intercourse through
out the world seemed to call upon Christian
to come forward foE the purpose for which
they had been assembled there that week
and when that thought was thrown out upol
the Churches the response had been so uni
versal and distinct as to make it eviden
that the Church. was fully prepared to receiv
the invitation. He did not know that in tn
history of the Church there was RECORDED
such an event as that which had taken plac
, in it in London there that day. Upward
of twenty Presbyterian churches, represent
ing thousands of congregations, the repre-
sentatives coming from all parts of the world
excepting only New Zealand and Australia
and the omission from that quarter c)ulC
! scarcely be deemed an omission because ther
f had really not been sufficient time to allo'
r of response in person from the antipodes
They had estmable and tried men here a
0 representatives of their Presbyterian fat
, and principles from the United States an
Canada, from all parts of the United King
0 dom, from all the principal churches on tn
Q Continent-from Italy, from Spain, (th
t youngest of their brotherhood from Be
GUM, and from that land which had bee
f consecrated by centuries of martyrdom
: the glorious cause of truth and liberty
t from the land of the old Waldensian Church