REUNION OP CHRISTENDOM. 



evangelical Church into this Church who has 

 been previously ordained to the ministry of the 

 Gospel shall be reordained by the authorities of 

 this Church." The question of what version of 

 the Psalter should be used in the services of the 

 Church called forth a discussion of some length, 

 resulting in the decision that the Psalter of the 

 Bishop's Version be adopted, with the rubric per- 

 mitting the minister to shorten it at his discre- 

 tion. A letter was read from P. X. Eldridge, 

 Presiding Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal 

 Church in England, representing that the breach 

 in the ranks of that body had been healed, and 

 the two divisions were now united. 



REUNION OF CHRISTENDOM. The in- 

 formal conferences on the Reunion of Christen- 

 dom, which have been held during two or three 

 years past at Grindelwald and Lucerne, Switz- 

 erland, were resumed in August, 1894, at Grin- 

 delwald, the Rev. Dr. H. S. Lunn, their origi- 

 nator, presiding. Two days were devoted to the 

 consideration of the subject by voluntary rep- 

 resentatives of the English Episcopal, Metho- 

 dist, and other nonconformist Churches. Dean 

 Lefroy, of the Church of England, defined 3 

 points to be remembered in the discussions : 

 that under present conditions it was impossible 

 to have peace with Rome ; that the noncon- 

 formists of England had not propounded any 

 series of propositions for reunion similar to the 

 Lambeth propositions of the Church of England 

 (see "Annual Cyclopaedia" for 1888, page 16); 

 and that never since the Reformation had there 

 been such a demonstration of the unity of the 

 spirit in the bonds of peace as was shown in 

 some of the English conventions. The speaker 

 held that whatever difficulties there might be 

 in the way of reunion, they were not so great as 

 the need for reunion, and he specified several 

 points as showing this need. The Dean of 

 Bristol maintained that variety is compatible 

 with unity in Church life as well as in the nat- 

 ural world ; men who differed conscientiously 

 could not be united by ignoring but by recog- 

 nizing their differences. With regard to the 

 <; Historic Episcopate," the acknowledgment of 

 which is insisted upon in the Lambeth articles, 

 he recognized the validity of a ministry which 

 God had blessed visibly to the promotion of his 

 Church and the salvation of souls. The Rev. 

 Dr. Charles Berry (nonconformist) premised 

 that in the true spiritual sense there can 

 be only one Church of Jesus Christ, one 

 in Christ, whatever the forms as to organiza- 

 tion, faith, and service. In view of that unity 

 it was legitimate and imperative to exhibit it to 

 the world in oneness of body. Reunion could 

 not be achieved by the expression of gracious 

 sentiments, though they would create the neces- 

 sary atmosphere ; nor by hiding or minimizing 

 all the points at issue around which sacred con- 

 victions on both sides had grown ; nor in infor- 

 mal expressions of opinion in speeches governed 

 as to form and time by the rules of public dis- 

 cussion. It must be dealt with by a selected 

 conference, appointed by the Churches of Eng- 

 land. (Other speakers did not agree to the 

 proposition for a conference.) Dr. Berry spoke 

 of the Lambeth proposals as being most gra- 

 cious and generous and broad-minded. While 

 many, if not all, the free churches were in 



RHODE ISLAND. 



693 



agreement with respect to the first 3 proposals, 

 they could not accept the clause dealing with 

 the historic episcopate. They did not know 

 what it meant. The Rev. W. S. Swayne, vicar 

 of Walsall, urged nonconformists to close their 

 ranks ; then when they were united the Church 

 of England would be able to deal with them 

 for the purpose of reunion. Mr. Hugh Price 

 Hughes deemed the phrase " historic episco- 

 pate " in the Lambeth proposals a very happy 

 one. By using it, the bishops of the Anglican 

 communion committed themselves to an appeal 

 to history, and that was all the nonconformists 

 ever asked for. He spoke of the Lambeth pro- 

 posals as being " singularly generous." If An- 

 glicans in the past had yielded as much as was 

 conceded in the Lambeth proposals there would 

 never have been any dissent in England. The 

 nonconformist ministers, however, would never 

 accept, in any scheme for reunion, any arrange- 

 ment that would seem to imply that they had 

 been impostors. It was impossible to require 

 that those who had already received ordination 

 should be reordained. On the following day a 

 reunion of Methodists of different branches was 

 held to discuss the question of reunion from the 

 Methodist point of view. 



RHODE ISLAND, a New England State, 

 one of the original thirteen, ratified the Consti- 

 tution May 29, 1790; area, 1,250 square miles. 

 The population, according to each decennial 

 census, was 68,825 in 1790 ; 69,122 in 1800 ; 76,- 



NEW SEAL OF RHODE ISLAND. 



931 in 1810; 83,015 in 1820; 97,199 in 1830; 

 108,830 in 1840; 147,545 in 1850; 174,620 in 

 1860; 217,353 in 1870; 276,531 in 1880; and 

 345,506 in 1890. Capitals, Newport and Provi- 

 dence. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year : Governor, D. Russell 

 Brown, Republican ; Lieutenant-Governor, Mel- 

 ville Bull, succeeded by Edwin R. Allen ; Secre- 

 tary of State, George' H. Utter, succeeded by 

 Charles P. Bennett ; General Treasurer, Samuel 

 Clark; State Auditor and Insurance Commis- 

 sioner, Albert C. Landers; Attorney-General, 

 Robert W. Burbank, succeeded by Edward C. 

 Dubois; Railroad Commissioner, Edward S, 

 Freeman ; Commissioner of Public Schools, 

 Thomas B. Stockwell ; Chief Justice of the Su- 



