296 FREE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES. 



FRIENDS. 



group, lately taken possession of by the English, 

 and Madagascar, and on leaving these islands 

 Commandant Richard formally took possession 

 of St. Paul and Amsterdam islands, south of the 

 equator, between Madagascar and Australia and 

 northeast of Kerguelen. 



FREE EVANGELICAL (ENGLISH) 

 CHURCHES, CONGRESS OF. The scheme 

 for holding a congress of the free evangelical 

 churches of England originated at the Interna- 

 tional Congregational Council of 1891, when the 

 wish was expressed by several persons that such 

 a meeting might be held. A committee on the 

 subject was appointed by the Congregational 

 Union of England and Wales at its autumnal 

 meeting in 1891, but its action was anticipated 

 by a meeting for conference of representatives of 

 evangelical free churches held at Manchester in 

 January, 1892, which passed a resolution " that a 

 congress of representatives of the evangelical free 

 churches in the United Kingdom would be a great 

 service to the churches." Upon this invitation a 

 number of members of evangelical churches met 

 in Manchester, Nov. 9, as the Free Church Con- 

 gress, for the discussion of questions of common 

 interest to their denominations. The members 

 of this congress were not officially or regularly 

 appointed by the bodies from which they came, 

 but were volunteers or men of reputation and 

 influence in those bodies, and such men as were 

 recognized by common consent as suitable per- 

 sons to represent them. The Congregational, 

 Wesleyan, United Methodist, Baptist, Presby- 

 terian, Methodist New Connection, Primitive 

 Methodist, Bible Christian, Calvinistic Metho- 

 dist, and Free Church of England Churches were 

 thus represented by 370 delegates. The Rev. 

 Dr. G. Johnston, Moderator of the English Pres- 

 byterian Synod, presided at the opening meet- 

 ing, and dwelt in his address on the prospect of 

 such congresses as this knitting the different de- 

 nominations closer together. In the discussion 

 of the first topic, " The Idea of the Church held 

 in Common by the Bodies represented," Prof. 

 Marshall Randels, of Didsbury Wesleyan Col- 

 lege, held that the organic union of the churches 

 was of much less importance than the cherish- 

 ing toward one another of the unity of faith, 

 love, and spirit. The tnings which divided them, 

 he said, were mechanical, organic, external, and 

 those which united them were spiritual, divine, 

 and abiding. This view was concurred in by all 

 of the congress who touched upon the subject. 

 Papers were read on " The Ministry," by Princi- 

 pal Culross, D. D., of Bristol, the Rev. Thomas 

 Allen, the Rev. John Smith, of Luton, and Mr. 

 T. Snape, M. P. ; " The Sacraments," by the Rev. 

 Principal Reynolds, D. D., of Cheshunt College ; 

 " The Fellowship," by the Rev. Thomas Sher- 

 wood, the Rev. Dr. Wood, and the Rev. W. F. 

 Clarkson ; " The Work of the Churches in the 

 Home and Foreign Field," by Mr. Percy Bun- 

 ting, the Rev. Thomas Law (especially on " Non- 

 conformist Parishes"), the Rev. J. E. Clapham, 

 and the Rev. Charles Williams (whose special 

 subject was " Rural Parishes "), and others ; 

 " Foreign Missions," by Mr. Albert Spicer, M. P. ; 

 " Missions and the Churches," by the Rev. W. J. 

 Townsend, D. D., the Rev. G. E. Cutting, the 

 Rev. J. Harris, the Rev. John Smith, of Luton, 

 the Rev. W. Wilson, a former missionary to Fiji, 



and the Rev. T. Lawson Forfeit ; " The Influence 

 of the Churches on the National Life " in re- 

 spect to intemperance by the Rev. John Smith ; 

 " Social Morality," by the Rev. Hugh Price 

 Hughes and volunteer speakers ; " Peace and 

 Arbitration," by Mr. Thomas Snape, M. P. ; and 

 " Industrial Questions," by the Rev. J. G. Rogers. 

 The appointment of a committee was provided 

 for to consider the question of federation and 

 mutual action in villages. While the congress 

 declined to make a direct expression on the 

 question of disestablishment, it adopted a reso- 

 lution declaring itself gratified that the discus- 

 sions of its sessions had made plain " the sub- 

 stantial unity of the religious conception that 

 exists in the evangelical free churches of Eng- 

 land " ; rejoicing ' that they can look to one an- 

 other to oppose the spread of sacerdotal teach- 

 ing and practice " ; deploring " the prevalence of 

 ecclesiastical and territorial persecution of non- 

 conformists in many parts of the country " ; and 

 exhorting the various churches " to stand by one 

 another in their common testimony for Christ, and 

 in all such efforts after absolute religious equality 

 before the law as shall commend themselves to the 

 judgment of their several communities." 



FRIENDS. American Quinquennial Con- 

 ference. An informal general conference of 

 Friends was held in Richmond, Ind., in 1887, the 

 results of which were so satisfactory that move- 

 ments were begun looking to the making of such 

 meetings a regular feature. A joint committee 

 of the American yearly meetings was proposed 

 in 1890 by the Iowa Yearly Meeting, to meet and 

 devise a plan for a permanent general confer- 

 ence. The plan was matured and submitted in 

 the course of a year to the American yearly meet- 

 ings (Orthodox) in correspondence, and delegates 

 were appointed by all of them except those of 

 Canada and Philadelphia; Philadelphia Yearly 

 Meeting having ceased to correspond with the 

 others, and Canada Yearly Meeting not having 

 approved of the general conference. London 

 and Dublin Yearly Meetings were not included 

 in the call, on account of their distance. The 

 General Conference designated the First Quin- 

 quennial Conference of Friends met in Indi- 

 anapolis, Ind., October 18. Ten yearly meet- 

 ings the New England, New York, Baltimore, 

 North Carolina, Ohio, Wilmington (Ohio), Indi- 

 ana, Western (Indiana), Iowa, and Kansas were 

 represented by 103 delegates, 40 of whom were 

 women. An address was delivered by the tem- 

 porary chairman, James Wood, of New York, 

 on " The Society of Friends and the Mainte- 

 nance of its Doctrines." J. J. Mills was chosen 

 president of the conference. An associated 

 committee, of which other members are to be 

 named by the yearly meetings consenting, was 

 appointed to devise a plan for a board of publi- 

 cation. The operation of the plan will be depend- 

 ent upon the assent of seven yearly meetings 

 to it. The most important question discussed 

 was concerning the pastorate. The Friends have 

 never recognized regular pastors or approved a 

 paid ministry, but the active prosecution of evan- 

 gelistic work in some of the fields of the soci- 

 ety has developed a class of members who spend 

 their time in preaching and have to be support- 

 ed in it, and it has become a question what 

 sanction should be given to this system. Papers 



