EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 



277 



which the Reformation vindicated. Never since the 

 Reformation has it been more important that Chris- 

 tian men should learn to understand and cooperate 

 with one another, and that they should, by the mani- 

 festation of their union in faith and pood works, 

 offer an effectual opposition to the growing progress 

 of superstition and infidelity. And never has this 

 union been more earnestly longed for than in the 

 present day. 



I trust that the Holy Spirit of God may guide all 

 who take part in your discussions at New York, and 

 that the solution of the great social and religious 

 questions which you propose to treat may be ad- 

 vanced by the mutual intercourse of minds accus- 

 tomed, many of them, to regard these questions in 

 different aspects, according to the peculiarities of 

 their several countries. 



That God may hasten the time when the differ- 

 ences which at present tend too much to keep Chris- 

 tians asunder may be removed, and when all who 

 love the Lord Jesus Christ sincerely may be able, 

 without compromise of principle, to unite both out- 

 wardly and in spirit, is my heart's prayer. Believe 

 me to be, my dear dean, 



Yours very sincerely, A. C. CANTUAR. 



The Very Eev. the Dean of Canterbury. 



As the High-Cliurch party in the Anglican 

 Church of Great Britain and the United States 

 declared an active participation in the Alliance 

 as incompatible with the principles of the 

 Anglican Church, this letter of the first bishop 

 of the Anglican communion is one of consid- 

 erable importance. 



Dr. Schaff, who has ately visited Europe, 

 and had there an interview with the Emperor 

 of Germany, made the following statement re- 

 garding the Emperor's views of the Evan- 

 gelical Alliance : 



At the interview with the venerable hero Emperor 

 of Germany, to which the president has just alluded, 

 his Majesty charged and authorized me to bring to 

 this assembly his most cordial greeting and good 

 wishes. His words were accompanied with a hearty 

 pressure of the hand. He, moreover, wished me to 

 assure this General Conference of the Evangelical 

 Alliance of his full sympathy with its principles 

 and Evangelical union efforts. He said that he sus- 

 tained precisely the same relation to the Evangelical 

 Alliance which his brother publicly expressed when 

 he received the General Conference at his palace of 

 Sans-Souci, in Potsdam, in 1857. There Frederick 

 William of Prussia appeared for the last time in 

 public lifo. and gave the most noble testimony in 

 favor of Christian truth and Evangelical union. 

 The Emperor added that he considered the labors 

 of the Evangelical Alliance and the convening of 

 the General Conference all the more important at 

 this time by reason of the growing power of in- 

 fidelity on the one hand and superstition on the other. 

 Then, talking like an old soldier, he added, " Only 

 a united army may expect to conquer, and to enjoy 

 the fruits of victory." In laboring for union we act 

 in harmony with the last prayer of our Lord before 

 he offered himself as a sacrifice for the whole world. 



The subject of the papers offered at the 

 second day's session was " Christian union," 

 the papers laying down the fundamental prin- 

 ciples of the Alliance, and the basis upon 

 which it was formed. Among these papers 

 were the following: "Union by Faith," by 

 Prof. Charles Hodge, of the Princeton The- 

 ological Seminary ; "Communion of Saints," 

 by President Eliphalet Nott Potter, of Union 

 College, N.Y. ; "Christian Unity,"by Rev. Geo. 



R. Crooks, of New York ; 'Unity consistent with 

 Diversity," by the Very Rev. R. Payne Smith, 

 Dean of Canterbury ; " Fellowship of Christian 

 Souls," by the Rev. C. Dallas Marston, of Lon- 

 don; an " Historical Sketch of the Alliance," 

 by the Rev. James Davis, secretary to the 

 British Alliance ; " Spiritual and not Organic 

 Union," by the Right Rev. Gregory T. Bedell, 

 Bishop of Ohio ; the " Evangelical Alliance in 

 France," by the Rev. Emile F. Cook, of Paris ; 

 "Objects of the Alliance," by the Rev. W. 

 Ndel, of Berlin ; " Interchange of Pulpits," 

 by the Rev. F. W. Conrad, of Philadelphia ; 

 " Testamentary Address to the New York 

 Conference," by the late Merle d'Aubign6, of 

 Geneva ; " Protestantism in Canada," by the 

 Rev. Dr. H. Wilkes, of Montreal; "How to 

 preach," by the Rev. H. W. Beecher; "Ad- 

 dresses on Sunday-Schools," by Charles Reed, 

 M. P., Rev. Nathaniel Weiss, of Paris, and Rev. 

 J. H. Vincent, D. D., of New York. 



The Sunday following was given up to ser- 

 mons and addresses in the city churches from 

 foreign clergymen. 



The next day a series of papers was read 

 upon the general topic, " Christianity and its 

 Antagonisms," in which the most conspicuous 

 forms of modern skepticism and doubt, meta- 

 physical, materialistic, and rationalistic, were 

 discussed, and their arguments controverted. 

 Among the essays of this day were the follow- 

 ing: Prof. Hanley Leathes, King's College, 

 London, on " Counteracting Unbelief ;" Prof. 

 John Cairns, D. D., of Berwick, England, on 

 " Modern Infidelity ; " Rev. Win. T. Warren, 

 president of the University of Boston, on 

 "Phases of American Infidelity;" Rev. E. A. 

 Washburn, of New York, on "Reason and 

 Faith;" Prof. Felix Boret, of Neufchatel, 

 Switzerland, on " Gospel and Christianity ; " 

 Rev. Dr. James McCosh, president of Prince- 

 ton College, on the "Development Theory;" 

 Principal Dawson, McGill College, Montreal, 

 on " Primitive Man and Revelation;" Prof. 

 Arnold Henry Guyot, of the College of New 

 Jersey, on " Geology and the Bible ; " Presi- 

 dent J. Williamson Nevin, Lancaster, Pa., on 

 " Christianity and Humanity." 



Tuesday was devoted by the Conference to a 

 discussion of the general topic, "Christian 

 Life," in the course of which President Porter 

 read an essay on " Modern Literature in its 

 Relation to Christianity : " and the Rev. Dr. 

 Parker, of London, and the Rev. H. W. Beecher, 

 made characteristic addresses (the former a 

 written production, the latter extemporaneous), 

 on the " Pulpit of the Age." 



On Wednesday, " Protestantism and Roman- 

 ism" was made the subject of discussion, in 

 the course of which the letter of the Old 

 Catholic Bishop Reinkens, nnd the president 

 and vice-presidents of the Old Catholic Con- 

 gress of Constance, was brought out, showing 

 the relation of that movement to Protestant- 

 ism on the one hand, and the Catholic Church 

 on the other. The papers of this day embrace 



