EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. A volun tary association of Evangelical Christians be longing to various denominations and countries. It had its origin in a general and strong desire for a more practical union among Protestants to promote the cultivation of Christian fellowship and the extension of Christian faith. After full conference and correspondence the Alliance was formed in Freemason's llall. London, August 19 '23, 1846, at a meeting of about 800 persons, Epis copalians, Presbyterians. Independents. Meth odists. Baptists. Lutherans, Reformed. Moraviaas, and others, representing England, Scotland, Ire land, Germany, France, Switzerland, the United States, and other countries. The following doc trinal articles were adopted, not as a binding creed, hut simply as an expression of the points of faith considered essential among those who are embraced in the Alliance. (1) The divine inspira tion. authority, and sufficiency of the lloly Scrip tures. (2) The right and duty of private judg ment in the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. (3) The unity of the Godhead and the Trinity of the persons therein. (4) The utter depravity of human nature in consequence of the fall. (5) The incarnation of the Son of (.4od, His work of atonement for the sins of mankind. and His mediatorial intercession and reign. (6) The jus tification of the sinner by faith alone. (7) The work of the Holy Spirit in conversion and sane titiva lion. (8) The immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, the judgment of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, with the eternal blessedness of the righteous and the eternal pun ishment. of the wicked. (9) The divine institu tion of the Christian ministry and the obligation and perpetuity of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. The organization thus vow
mewed has since been extended throughout Prot estant Christendom. Branch Alliances ha ye been formed in flreat Britain, Germany. Swit zerland. Sweden. the United States, Australia, and missionaries in Turkey, India. Brazil. and Japan. The American branch was organized in I R67. These national branches are related to eat+ other as members of a confederation having equal rights. The whole Alliance appears in ae tive operation only when it meets in general con ferences having the character of Protestant ecu menical councils, but claiming only moral and spiritual power. These have already been held at London, 1851; Paris, 1855; Berlin, 1857; Geneva, 1861; Amsterdam, 1867 ; New York, 1873; Basel, 1879 ; Copenhagen, 1885 ; Florence, 1891. The United States branch held a national conference at Chicago in October, 1893. One of the must effective of the genera] conferences was that at Kew York in 1873. The visible results of the Evangelical Alliance may be seen, in part, in its promotion of religious liberty wherever that has been restricted or assailed. Since its organiza tion several cases of persecution have occurred in southern Europe under the operation of penal laws against Protestants. In these cases the in fluence of the Alliance has been successfully exerted to bring the persecution to an end. It has aided in bringing about changes in favor of re ligious liberty in Turkey, Sweden, the Baltic Provinces of Russia, and Japan.