CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



157 



progress in securing the recognition of the na- 

 tive princes and of the British South Africa 

 Company. A new work at Johannisberg, in the 

 gold region, and the Zulu field has been self- 

 supporting from the start. In the course of the 

 meeting, the Rev. H. H. Jessup, D. D., reviewed 

 the career of the missions of the board in Asiatic 

 Turkey. He showed that this society founded 

 the first evangelical mission in western Asia; 

 that its missionaries set up the first printing 

 press in the Turkish Empire (aside from a rude 

 hand press in the chapel of a Greek monastery, 

 which was used only in printing books for the 

 priests) when, in 1834, they transferred the estab- 

 lishment from Malta to Beirut. This printing 

 office had given to western and southern Asia 

 and northern Africa 500,000,000 pages in the 

 Arabic language, and . was printing 500,000 

 pages annually ; and its publications were scat- 

 tered over 120 degrees of longitude, from the 

 Atlantic Ocean to the Yellow Sea, the 500 

 books on its catalogue all bearing the printed 

 permit of the Ottoman Government. The 

 foundation of the first day school for girls in 

 the Ottoman Empire, in 1835, had been com- 

 memorated by the erection of a memorial col- 

 umn on the spot in Beirut. The first boarding 

 school for boys was opened in 1837. The col- 

 leges at Beirut and Constantinople were found- 

 ed by missionaries. Their graduates could be 

 found in southeastern Europe, western Asia, 

 north Africa, Australia, South America, and the 

 United States. Two early missionaries Drs. 

 Eli Smith and Cornelius Van Dyck gave the 

 world the first correct classical translation of 

 the Bible into the Arabic language, of which 

 probably not less than 500,000 copies had been 

 sent out in 32 different editions all over the 

 Arabic-speaking world. The first scientifically 

 educated physicians were American mission- 

 aries, and one of the woman missionaries of 

 the board was the first woman to receive a di- 

 ploma from the Imperial Academy of Medicine 

 in Constantinople. It was granted early in 1894. 

 A practical side of missionary work was illus- 

 trated by the fact that missionaries first intro- 

 duced into Syria steam printing presses, petrole- 

 um oil, sewing machines, photography, brass 

 -clocks, windmills, American agricultural imple- 

 ments, and the electric telegraph. Two mission- 

 aries were pioneers in modern archa3ological ex- 

 plorations in Palestine. The missionaries had 

 also accomplished much benevolent work. In 

 1860 they had distributed at Beirut not less 

 than $100,000 in food and 100,000 garments to 

 the refugees in Sebanal and Damascus. They 

 had always been on the side of peace, with no 

 political aims and no personal interests to pro- 

 mote. Three co-operating committees, consist- 

 ing, respectively, of 3 residents of Chicago, 3 

 residents of Boston, and 3 residents of New York, 

 were constituted, to be appointed each year, whose 

 duties should be to increase the contributions to 

 the treasury of the board, and to organize and 

 appoint subcommittees in their discretion for 

 carrying out the plan of obtaining contributions 

 from every church and from every church mem- 

 ber. The Prudential Committee were instructed 

 not to withdraw from any field in consequence 

 of narrowness of resources, but to plan for an 

 advance, trusting to the support of the churches. 



Proposed Basis of Church Union. The 



following report on Church union was adopted 

 by the Congregational Association of New Jersey 

 at its meeting at East Orange, N. J., April 17 and 

 18. The association represents, besides those of 

 New Jersey, the Congregational churches of east- 

 ern Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the District of 

 Columbia. The report attracted much attention 

 in other religious bodies, was the subject of in- 

 terested discussion, and was made a basis of ac- 

 tion by some. 



Whereas, The spiritual unity and acknowledged 

 fellowship of all bodies which seek to maintain dis- 

 cipleship of Christ is an object to be aimed at only 

 second to the disciplining of all men to Christ our Lord : 

 and Whereas, The visible corporate unity of such Chris- 

 tian bodies will be the best evidence to their own con- 

 sciousness and to the world of their spiritual unity : 

 and Whereas, Such formal and corporate unity can only 

 be secured by much preliminary consultation between 

 various Christian bodies in which they shall make 

 propositions to e^ach other looking to this end : and 

 Whereas, The honorable example of such propositions 

 has been already set pre-eminently by, our brethren 

 of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 

 States of America, and our brethren known as the 

 Disciples of Christ : Therefore, By way of suggestion 

 to other representative bodies of the Congregational 

 churches, and for their consideration, the Congrega- 

 tional Association of New Jersey offers the following 

 suggestions, looking to corporate union of the Con- 

 gregational body of churches with other denomina- 

 tion^ : 



The doctrinal basis of such union must be the Holy 

 Scriptures, as containing the only authoritative reve- 

 lation of God and of his Son Jesus Christ, the divine 

 Saviour and supreme Teacher of the world. The 

 teachings of the Holy Scriptures have been formu- 

 lated many times in various creeds and catechisms, 

 which all contain the simple, essential facts of the 

 Christian faith ; and especially in what is called the 

 Apostles' Creed, which deserves peculiar honor for 

 its antiquity and simplicity. The central teaching 

 of Jesus Christ is the law of supreme love to God 

 and equal love to man. 



Christ has gathered his disciples into churches 

 which ought to be united in recognized universal 

 fellowship. To these churches he has given the or- 

 dinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. These 

 churches are to be taught and directed by persons 

 chosen and ordained as teachers and ministers, under 

 the various names of bishops, pastors, elders or pres- 

 byters, and deacons. 



The liberty of each Christian to interpret for him- 

 self the Holy Scriptures, and of each local body of 

 Christians to maintain their chosen manner of wor- 

 ship and to direct their own affairs, can not be in- 

 fringed upon. Any corporate union must make allow- 

 ance for the liberty of the individual conscience and 

 the rights of the local congregation. 



"We believe that already the great body of Protes- 

 tant Christians recognize that Church unity will find 

 no serious bar in the different interpretations of the 

 Bible on doctrinal questions. 



The chief difficulty will be found to arise between 

 denominations representing different forms of church 

 government. 



I. The Protestant Episcopal Church, having pro- 

 posed union on the basis of the four propositions of 

 the Chicago-Lambeth articles, we believe that the 

 Congregational churches can accept unity on this 

 basis, if these articles can be interpreted with such 

 latitude as to allow to the terms used the various 

 interpretations admitted by the contracting parties. 

 The first article, the acceptance of the Holy Scrip- 

 tures "as containing all things necessary to salvation, 

 and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith," 

 is one upon which we also would insist. The second 

 article recognizes two of the early creeds of the Church 



