262 



EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 



EVANGELICAL FREE CHURCHES. 



during the siege of Khartoum, was sunk by a 

 Krupp shell, and bursting shells silenced the guns 

 in the fort and killed many of the defenders, while 

 the Maxims cleared the shore of riflemen. The 

 bombardment did not end till night, when the der- 

 vishes, supposing that the Egyptians intended to 

 inarch by on the opposite bank to attack Dongola, 

 retired to that town to oppose their crossing there. 

 But meanwhile the English gunboats had steamed 

 up the river and taken position in front of Dongola 

 to prevent the dervishes from removing their sup- 

 plies of grain. The Egyptians crossed the river at 

 Hafir and pursued the retreating dervishes, whose 

 two generals were severely wounded. The 5,000 

 dervishes were shelled out of Dongola on Sept. 22, 

 and attacked in their camps by the cavalry. Here 

 also the Baggaras fought till they were killed, but 

 all the other Arabs fled or surrendered, and the 

 blacks deserted and offered their services to the 

 Egyptians. On the following morning Dongola 

 was occupied by the Egyptians. After the capture 

 of El Debbeh, on Sept. 25, and subsequently of 

 Korti, both of which were undefended, the com- 

 mand of the whole province was in the hands of 

 the Egyptians, whose coming was generally wel- 

 comed by the natives. No further advance was 

 contemplated before another year. 



EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. The Interna- 

 tional conference of the Evangelical Alliance was 

 begun in London, June 29. As it marked the 

 completion of the fiftieth year of the work of the 

 Alliance, it was styled the Jubilee Conference. 

 Previous to the opening of the conference a jubilee 

 celebration was held in Liverpool, June 25, when 

 special mention was made of the fact that the 

 Alliance had been practically instituted in that city 

 fifty-one years before, and a resolution of thankful- 

 ness at the success of its work throughout the 

 world was adopted. The conference in London was 

 opened by a jubilee meeting under the presidency 

 of Lord Polwarth. The principal resolution adopt- 

 ed expressed thankfulness for the work of the 

 Alliance in emphasizing for fifty years the oneness 

 of the Church of Christ, and embodied a prayer 

 for a continued blessing on its efforts to promote 

 brotherly love, to uphold the cardinal doctrines of 

 the Gospel, and to defend the persecuted. The 

 Bishop of Exeter denied that the prayer of Christ 

 for the oneness of his people had been unfulfilled. 

 It had been fulfilled by essential unity, though not 

 by ecclesiastical uniformity. The Rev. Dr. Pente- 

 cost, in seconding the resolution, said that Christian 

 fellowship was infinitely more essential than eccle- 

 siastical recognition, desirable as such recognition 

 was. The unity of the Church was more imperiled 

 by efforts to bring about external uniformity than 

 by anything else. The Rev. Dr. Rigg expressed 

 the opinion that uniformity would give a death- 

 blow to real unity. The general secretary, epitomiz- 

 ing the history of the Alliance which had been 

 formed to promote brotherly love and union among 

 Christians in different countries, to advance evan- 

 gelical truths, and to counteract error and supersti- 

 tion emphasized the services it had rendered for 

 religious liberty and in opposing persecution. Al- 

 most its first efforts had been in behalf of the 

 Lutherans in Russia and of the Armenians; and 

 almost every country in Europe and many lands 

 abroad had since witnessed the persistent but unos- 

 tentatious efforts of the Alliance in behalf of re- 

 ligious liberty. The subjects were considered, in 

 papers read, addresses, and general discussions, of 

 " Religious Liberty.'' with particular reference to 

 the Armenians in Turkey and the Stundists in 

 Russia: "The, True Unity of the Church, which is 

 the Body of Christ in New Birth and Life"; "The 

 True Unity of the Church in Growth and Develop- 



ment"; "The Evangelical Alliance and Christian 

 Co-operation " ; " Natural Science as the Handmaid 

 of Revealed Religion," by Sir William Dawson; 

 "Christianity's Opportunity and Duty in the 

 Press": "The Dangers of Romanism and Ritual- 

 ism " ; " Evangelical Religion on the Continent " ; 

 " Christian Work among the Young " ; The True 

 Unity of the Church as perfected in Glory " ; and 

 reports on the state of the Churches in the several 

 countries represented in the meeting. 



Two of the original founders of the Evangelical 

 Alliance were present at this meeting, viz., the Rev. 

 Dr. Angus and the Rev. Dr. Newman Hall. 



EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION. The follow- 

 ing is a summary of the statistics of this denomina- 

 tion for 1890: Number of members, 113,733, show- 

 ing an increase during the year of 3,638: of members 

 newly received, 11,487 ; of itinerant preachers, 1,01 1 ; 

 of local preachers, 434 ; of baptisms, 1,998 of adults 

 and 6,472 of infants; of Sunday schools, 2,133, with 

 2i..")(58 officers and teachers and 135,284 pupils ; of 

 catechetical classes, 801, with 9,495 catechumens ; of 

 Young People's Alliances, 888, with 30,407 mem- 

 bers; of organized societies, 2,058; of churches, 

 1,808, valued at $4,564,436; of parsonages, 676, 

 valued at $888,656; of other property, $121,276. 



The receipts for the year of the missionary so- 

 ciety were $161,342 representing average contribu- 

 tions of $1.42 for each member of the Church. Of the 

 whole amount, $36.524 were received toward the pay- 

 ment of the debt. The increase of receipts over those 

 of t he previous year was $25,804. From the mission 

 fields were returned of home missions, of which 22 

 wen' new missions, 492 missions, 498 missionaries, 40,- 

 824 members, and 5,470 accessions during the year ; 

 in the foreign missions, 89 mission stations, of which 

 6 were new, 132 missionaries, 12,573 members, and 

 1,655 accessions. An increase of 1,949 members 

 from the previous year was shown. Notwithstand- 

 ing the number of new missions and mission stations 

 added, the whole number remained the same as in 

 the previous year, 20 of the former missions having 

 become self-supporting, and others having been unit- 

 ed with other fields. The foreign missions were in 

 Germany, Switzerland, and Japan. The Woman's 

 Missionary Society had contributed $3.788. 



EVANGELICAL FREE CHURCHES, CON- 

 GRESS OF. The Fourth National Congress of 

 Evangelical Free Churches of England met at Not- 

 tingham, March 10, the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes 

 presiding. The president, in his opening address, 

 explained that the movement represented by the 

 congress was not political or philanthropic, but 

 evangelical. Its causes were the entire disappear- 

 ance from the churches represented of their internal 

 differences, and the sad fact of a revival in the 

 country of extreme mediaeval clericalism, which 

 their fathers believed had forever disappeared from 

 England, the operation of which had forced them 

 all together in self-defense. Papers were read dur- 

 ing the meetings on " The Church and the Press " ; 

 " Preaching " (Dr. Joseph Parker) ; " Churches in 

 Towns"; "Churches in Villages" (the Rev. John 

 Smith, General Missionary Secretary of the Primi- 

 tive Methodist Church) ; " Betting and Gambling " ; 

 " Purity " ; and " Immediate Legislation affecting 

 our Churches." Resolutions were passed denoun- 

 cing the treatment of the Artnenians, favoring inter- 

 national arbitration, urging legislation for the Sun- 

 day closing of licensed saloons, and discountenanc- 

 ing the further support of voluntary schools by the 

 State. The name of the organization was changed, 

 and instead of congress it will hereafter be known 

 as the National Council of the Evangelical Free 

 Churches. The constitution of this body, as pre- 

 sented to this meeting, declares the objects of the 

 Council to be : to facilitate fraternal intercourse and 



