(UK ISTIAN CONNECTION. 



CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR SOCIETIES. 133 





of the characters of ministers applying to be re- 

 ceived from other denominations was advised. 



The Convention recommended that $60,000 be 

 raised during the ensuing four years and dis- 

 tributed as follows : 35 per cent, to home missions, 

 35 per cent, to foreign missions, 20 per cent, to 

 education, and 10 per cent, to the American Chris- 

 tian Convention. 



The Committee on Christian Union reported that 

 it had met a committee of Congregationalists to con- 

 sider the subject of Union at Craigville, Mass., in 

 August, 1897, when a recommendation was adopted 

 that a union of the two bodies be formed on a basis 

 including "mutual recognition of the Christian 

 standing of each other's churches and ministers, 

 with no doctrinal test beyond the acceptance of the 

 Bible as the only standard of faith and practice ; 

 one name for the highest representative body, such 

 as the General Council of Christian Churches ; pres- 

 ent organizations, institutions, and churches not to 

 be disturbed by this action ; that it be advised that 

 new enterprises or churches be established under 

 such a name as ' Christian' or the equivalent there- 

 of." As co-operative measures supplementing these 

 terms, certain provisions were advised for securing 

 complete fellowship of the two bodies, their minis- 

 ters and members, without interference with their 

 several existing denominational relations, and for 

 avoiding collision in their work. The plan was ap- 

 proved by all the members of both committees ex- 

 cept one Congregation alist. Majority and minority 

 reports were presented to the Convention respecting 

 these recommendations, and a report was finally 



"opted, in which the majority report was slightly 



mended, whatever might be construed as an argu- 

 ment for the "Craigville plan " being omitted, and 

 the treatment being made slightly more historical. 

 This paper recited that in agreement with the de- 

 termination of the founders of the Convention to 

 take a position in which nothing in name, creed, or 

 organization should repel any true Christian, the 



'eople of the Connection had rejoiced in witnessing 

 advance of the spirit of union among Christians 

 of different bodies, and had been ready to recognize 

 and co-operate with it in any feasible way. The 

 Convention had at several quadrennials appointed 

 its standing committees (for correspondence and 



egotiation) on Christian Union, from which some 

 >od and substantial results had been achieved, such 



,s union with the brethren of the South and with 



he Christian Union. Other correspondence had 

 n had, from which no practical results had fol- 



owed, but it had produced no alienations. It 

 ihould, however, be plainly understood that as the 



'onvention held as the basis of its organization no 

 principles that were not essential to Christian char- 

 acter none that could be dispensed with without 

 compromising the principles of true discipleship 

 it could entertain no propositions for union which 

 "ooked in the least to any yielding of those princi- 

 ples ; that no union would be a Christian union 

 which was based merely or unconditionally on a 

 name. " So, as we bear a name that has nothing in 

 it that can divide the body of Christ, any suggestion 

 that we should surrender our name as a condition 

 of union would be rejected at once. Desirable as 

 union may be, that only is a Christian union which 

 is a CHRISTIAN union, and Christian only in its 

 spirit and conditions, free from all elements of self- 

 ism, personal or denominational ; so union for the 

 sake of union, aiming at the making of a larger and 

 more powerful denomination, either by absorption 

 or combination, is vitiating in its spirit and can not 

 be really a Christian union. With such a union we 

 would have nothing to do." The position taken by 

 the Convention at IJaverhill, four years previously 

 no compromise of essential principles, an attitude 



the same toward all, and no disintegrations or com- 

 binations to be contemplated was believed to be the 

 true one. The question stood now as the commit- 

 tees at Craigville had left it. Nothing special was 

 pending. The report closed with expressions of the 

 convictions that, considering human weakness and 

 the strength of sectarian prejudice, real Christian 

 union must be of slow growth ; that it can not be 

 effected except upon mutual acquaintance, and that 

 it will never come merely by negotiations. The re- 

 port was adopted, with a reservation that the act 

 should not commit the Convention to the accept- 

 ance of the " Craigville " resolution contained in it. 



CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR SOCIETIES. The 

 seventeenth International Convention of the United 

 Societies of Christian Endeavor was held at Nash- 

 ville, Tenn., July 6 to 11. The secretary's report 

 showed that there were in the United States 41.222 

 Christian Endeavor Societies proper, 4,647 in Eng- 

 land, 3.456 in Canada, 2,284 in Australia, 535 in 

 Scotland, 433 in India, 331 in Wales, 213 in Ire- 

 land, 139 in China, 110 in Africa, and others in 

 other countries, the whole number including the 

 United States being 54,191 ; and Russia being the 

 only country that has none. The increase in South 

 Africa, India, China, Germany, and throughout 

 Great Britain had been large. The constitution 

 for local Christian Endeavor Societies had been 

 translated and printed in 37 languages. The total 

 membership of all the societies was upward of 

 3,250,000. Besides these, there were nearly 14,000 

 Junior Societies, 1,000 of which were in foreign 

 lands, more than 730 Intermediate Societies, 77 

 Mothers' Societies, 45 Senior or Graduate Societies, 

 17 societies in the army of the United States and 

 in volunteers' camps, 119 societies in the United 

 States navy and on board merchant ships, and so- 

 cieties in prisons, schools of reform, workhouses, 

 almshouses, asylums, institutions for the blind and 

 for the deaf, schools and colleges, among car drivers, 

 policemen, traveling men, men in the life-saving 

 services, men in lighthouses and in large factories, 

 etc., to the number in all of nearly 200. In Eng- 

 land, the Baptists stood first in representation in 

 the societies ; in Australia, the Wesleyan Methodists ; 

 in Canada, the Methodists ; and "in the United 

 States, the Presbyterians, who were followed by the 

 Congregationalists, Disciples of Christ, and Bap- 

 tists, more than 30 denominations being represent- 

 ed. Nine thousand societies had contributed $198,- 

 000 directly to the mission boards and $225,000 

 for other denominational purposes. The Tenth 

 Legion, a tithe-paying band, started only three 

 months before the previous International Conven- 

 tion, had now an enrollment of 10,300 members. 

 During the year past 196,550 members had joined 

 their home churches from the Young People's so- 

 cieties, 27,686 from the junior societies, and 1,518 

 from the intermediate societies. The by-laws of the 

 societies had been revised. The meetings of the 

 Convention were devoted to the reading of papers 

 and delivery of addresses on various subjects relat- 

 ing to Christian life and effort, and reunions of the 

 delegates of all the several denominations repre- 

 sented in the meeting were held. 



In view of criticisms of the American Christian 

 Endeavor Societies, representing that their tend- 

 ency is toward an attitude of rivalry to the 

 Church, and toward operating as a check upon the 

 growth of church membership, the officers of the 

 General Society investigated the matter, as it con- 

 cerned the two denominations in which the organi- 

 zation is strongest the Presbyterian and Congre- 

 gational. They found that immediately after the 

 organization of the Christian Endeavor "Societies a 

 very marked increase took place in the average 

 number of additions in both churches, and that the 





