The association was marked by intense re ligious zeal. Through personal interviews by its members with young men, through Bible classes and evangelistic meetings for men, a persistent campaign was carried on to win young men to lead a religious life. The secular agencies developed considerably during the first seven years. In 1851, in the Central Associa tion, there were 225 members and 425 associ ates. There were estimated to be 750 members and associates in the other branches in the metropolis. At this time there were eight soci eties in London, and 16 in various parts of the United Kingdom. The 24 associations enrolled approximately 2,700 young men.
Knowledge of this work came to America in the fall of 1851 at three different centres Montreal, Boston and New York. The first movement took place at Montreal, where, through the efforts of two young men who had become acquainted with the London work through published copies of the lectures deliv ered before the London Association, an associa tion was formed on 25 Nov. 1851. In Novem ber 1851 George Petrie, who had become well acquainted with the London work during a visit to that city, called together agroup of his per sonal friends in New York. These conferences, however, did not result in organization until en couraged by the success at Boston, where the first association in the United States was estab lished.
A letter published on 30 Oct. 1851, describ ing in detail the work of the London Associa tion, came under the eye of Capt. Thomas V. Sullivan, who was active in1011 ristian work among seamen, and so impressed him that he determined to establish a society in Boston. His purpose was accomplished at a meeting held on 29 Dec. 1851, in the chapel of the old South Meeting House in Spring Lane. The Boston society laid great emphasis upon the association as a social resort. It introduced the committee system, and inaugurated the plan of restricting voting and• officeholding to members who were in good standing in an evangelical church. It was the Boston society which gave character and direction to the American movement. It immediately became one of the leading religious agencies of the city. Twelve hundred young men joined its membership; 10,000 copies of its constitution and by-laws were printed and scat tered widely over the eastern part of the United States; representatives of the society assisted in founding associations at other points, and through its influence, by the year 11354, some 26 associations had been established in different parts of the Union.
Through the efforts of Chauncey M. Lang don, a government employee in Washington, and later a clergyman in the Episcopal Church, a convention of the American associations was called at Buffalo in June 1854. This convention established an alliance of the association of the United States and Canada, under the supervisioc of an executive committee which was instructed to call annual conventions, and to do everything in their power to foster and extend the work of the associations. The organization was made international at the suggestion of a delegate from the association at Toronto, Ontario, who had been invited to the convention. This alli ance was known as the American Confederation, and it was largely through its influence that the American movement rapidly took pre-eminence among the associations of the world.
In the meantime, through the efforts of George Williams and others, associations had been established at Paris and other points in France, and at Geneva, in Switzerland. Prior the founding of the association, a movement known as the *Junglingsverein* (Youth's Union) had been started 'among young work ingmen in Germany in the year 1834. This had already come into friendly correspondence with the associations in England. The German asso ciations, while not on a strictly interdenomina tional basis, were invited into alliance with the Young Men's Christian Association, and have always continued in this fellowship. Since unit ing with the general movement, they have greatly increased.
The culminating event of the early period was the first convention of the associations of all lands, held at Paris in 1855, at which the memorable statement of belief known as 'te Paris basis' was adopted. This has been called the apostles' creed of the association, and did much to unify the movement. It was proposed by Mr. Frederick Monier, a layman from Strasburg, and was read before the convention, all the delegates standing, *in which position it was then solemnly passed by the unanimous vote of the whole assembly. The members present then knelt together, gratefully to ac the mercy of God and to entreat His benediction on the decision at which they had arrived.* The basis was as follows: The Young Men's Christian Associations seek to awe those young men, who. regarding Jesus Christ ee thew God and saviour according to use Scriptures, dams to be His desdples in their doctrine and in their bk. and to MOP date their efforts for the extension of His kingdom &mem young men.