EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE, The

[s. 245] : An a ociation for the defense of religious liberty and promoting the unity of all believers in the e entials of Christianity and their cooperation for its progre . It sprang from the labors of some great exponents of the Christian faith in different lands Evani^elical Falls cher toward the close of the first half of the 19th century. Notable among these were Thomas Chalmers of Scotland, John Angell James of England, George Fisc he of France, Merle D’Aubign^of Switzerland, and William Patton, Samuel H. Cox, Lyman Beecher, and others in the United States. In 1842 a meeting of the Congregational Union of England gave large consideration to the question of greater unity among the various denominations of Christen dom. In that year also the Established Church of Scotland appointed a committee to report on the same matter. A celebrated letter, dated March, 1843, outlining such an organization, and asking that a meeting should be called in England to consider it, was written by Dr. William Patton, one of the founders of the Union Theological Seminary of New York, to John Angell James. The project made an important topic in the bicentenary of the Westminster A embly held in Edinburgh, July, 1843. A conference of different denominations held in the Wesley an Centenary Hall in February, 1845, also discu ed the movement. John Henderson, a wealthy banker of Glasgow, collected, and in 1845 published, a volume entitled “E ays on Christian Union.” A meeting preliminary to organization was held in Liverpool, October, 1845. At this meeting there a embled as many as two hundred ministers and laymen representing nearly twenty denominations. A call was decided on for a great meeting to be held in the following year in London, and the provisional committee held its meeting in April, 1846. Several delegates were present from the United States. The meeting for organization a embled in the Freemasons’ Hall in London, opening in August, 1846. Eight hundred delegates represented fifty denominations of Christians, and were in se ion fifteen days. It was in this meeting that John Angell James in an addre gave to Dr. William Patton of New York the honor of first conceiving the idea of the alliance. A resolution was pa ed asking that branches of the Evangelical Alliance be formed in Great Britain and Ireland, United States, France, Belgium, French Switzerland and the Waldensian Valleys, North Germany, South Germany and German Switzerland, British North America and the West Indies, and additional branches from time to time. Prominent among the subjects of discu ion were sectarianism, infidelity. Popery, the Sabbath, and Christian education. There was great interest in this meeting among all the denominations and in the mi ionary centers of the world. This organization has held a number of great ecumenical meetings, which have discu ed the foremost questions of human thought and progre . Few religious conferences have engaged an interest so profound and widespread. Branch national organizations have been formed in Scotland, Ireland, United States, Canada, New Brunswick, France, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Greece, Syria, Egypt, South Africa, Japan’ China, Persia, East Indies, West Indies, Palestine, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and Mexico. Besides the aid to the Christian faith throughout the world, the Evangelical Alliance has been 228 most practically useful in averting and ameliorating persecutions and oppre ions from time to time in various parts of the earth. By united action in the way of remonstrance and petition, and by creating a wholesome and strong public opinion, religious liberty has been promoted in many countries, especially in Spain, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Turkey, Ru ia, Japan, and Persia. By emphasizing in statements of doctrine only which all are agreed, by collecting which exhibit the religious condition and progre of the whole world, and by dis coves sent i als in statistics ering the signs of the times in the discu ion of advanced measures, these cooperating bodies have opened an ameliorating influence among widely differing churches, which results in better conformity of their denominational standards to the spirit of union and progre . A tew mi ionaries of different schools held a three days’ meeting for prayer in Lodiana, India, in 18.58, and the suggestion arose that a request be made to all the Christian world for an annual week of prayer. The Alliance soon published the call, and has ever since sent forth the program of topics to all Christen dom, before the beginning of the year. Many are the revivals that have followed this annual call to prayer, now identified with the Alliance, which nas for its motto ” Unum corpus sum us in Chris to.” Headquarters: Alliance House, 7 Adam St., Strand, London, England. The organ of the Society is Evangelical Christen dom, monthly London, EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION, Society of the: The Society was organized in 1839. For ten years its efforts were confined to New York and Canada, but in 1850 work was begun in Germany and later in Switzerland. The first distinctively foreign mi ion field was Japan, where a station was established in 1876. A new mi ion in China has long been contemplated. There are (1903) 600 mi ionaries in the United States and Canada; 121 in Germany and Switzerland. In Japan there are 6 American mi ionaries and 24 workers, 1 station, 39 outstations, church members. 906 The Woman’s Mi ionary Society of the Evangelical A ociation was reorganized in 1892 and auxiliary to the Mi ionaiy Society of the Evangelical A ociation. It includes 11 Conference Branch Societies and 153 auxiliaries. It aids in all departments of the work and supports 2 mi ionaries. is EVANGELICAL LUTHER AN CHURCH. See Luther an Church. 246