In the United States and Canada the Chris tian Church now has 71 annual conferences, with 1,500 ministers and 113,000 members. They work under a congregational form of govern ment. Their national body is The American Christian Convention, with headquarters at Dayton, Ohio, Rev. J. F. Burnett, D.D., secre To this people belong the distinction of having published the first religious newspaper ever published in the world — The Herald of Gospel Liberty, now published at Dayton, Ohio. The Christian Church also publishes The Chris tian Sun, Elon College, N. C., The Christian Vanguard, Toronto, Canada, The Christian Missionary, Dayton, Ohio, The Messenger, Sendai, Japan, besides a number of smaller periodicals and many books of permanent value. To this body also belongs the honor of having first opened the college to both sexes with equal privileges establishing the practice of co education. They now own colleges in Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, New York, Missouri and Wyoming. Their theological seminary is The Christian Divinity School, a department of Defiance College, Defiance, Ohio.
The Christian Church was among the first denominations to split over the issues of the Civil War, the separation taking place in the National Convention held at Cincinnati, Ohio, in October 1854. Some years after the issues
of the Civil War had been settled, there was a reunion at a National Convention at Marion, Ind., in October 1890. After 36 years of sep aration they came together without a jar, under the motto: •In essentials, unity; in non-essen tials, liberty; in all things, charity.* The gen eral trend of the Christian Church in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity is Ar iniinan. They hold to the divinity of Christ, to the vicarious atonement, to the lost condi tion of the unregenerate, to salvation through Christ. They use either mode of baptism com mon in evangelical churches and practise open communion at the Lord's table. As is common in all denominations to-day, there are a few among them who do not adhere to some of these teachings.
As a whole the Christian Church stands for an evangelical Christianity, for the divine in spiration of the Scriptures, recognizing their authority as final in all matters of faith, practke, and doctrine. They steadfastly main tain, not that they have no creed, as some ignorantly or wilfully affirm, but that they have no creed but the Bible, allowing nothing in the way of any human expression of doctrine to displace them in this position. Consult Bur nett's 'Origin and Principles of the Christians) (Dayton, Ohio, 1903).