The Evangelical Alliance.
By C. H. Bliss
THE following I clip from the Inter Ocean, published in Chicago. Speaking of the sixth General Conference of the Evangelical Alliance, it says:— “In the ranks of this associated band of Christian leaders are to be found all sects and denominations of Protestant worshipers—Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, Reformers, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Wesleyans, Congregationalists, and Free Churchmen. They come from every land—from England, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Asia, Africa, and America. Divided on minor points of disputed reading, or in the unimportant matter of church government, they unite on one broad platform, acknowledging one supreme Head, and the divinity and the glory of Christ and his holy word. “The object of the Alliance is not to interfere with the different shades of opinion or forms of worship which characterize its members, but to unite the Christian church throughout the world in one grand army. It hopes to utilize its united power so as to spread the light; to repress intolerance and persecution; to crush out ignorance; to pave the way for the coming of the better days. The accepted platform of the organization, as adopted in London in 1866, included briefly: The divinity of the Holy Scriptures; the right of private judgment; the doctrine of the trinity; depravity consequent upon the fall; the incarnation, atonement, mediatorial intercession, and reign of the Son of man; justification by faith; the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification; the immortality of the soul; the resurrection of the body; the judgment of the world; the blessings of the righteous, and the punishment of the wicked; the divine institution of the Christian ministry, baptism, and the Lord’s supper—which platform is not a creed, but simply an indication of such belief as it is desirable to embrace within the Alliance.” Now, in the name of reason and religion, we might ask if there are no Christians who disbelieve the doctrine of the Trinity, or the immortality of the soul; and, if a disbelief of these tenets unfits us to be recognized as a member of the so-called “Evangelical Alliance,” we might ask, Would they reject Luther, who classed the doctrine of the immortality of the soul with “other monstrous opinions found in the Roman dunghill of decretals,” and who says that all that was said about it was invented by Antichrist for the purpose of making the pope’s pot boil? See his “Defense,” prop. 27; also “Audlin’s Life of Luther.” John Milton, in his “Treatise on Christian Doctrine,” also avows his disbelief in the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Vol. 1, pp. 250 and 251. But it is claimed that “this platform is not a creed, but simply an indication of such belief as it is desirable to embrace within the Alliance.” What more could be done to form a creed? If that is the platform laid down, and they desire no other belief embraced within the Alliance, it seems to me that they have already formed a creed, and adopted it. Now is it not quite evident that there is blindness manifested on the part of those engaged in this movement? And is there not in this evidence that when the time arrives that the Sunday Sabbath is made one of the prominent planks in this platform, and its observance is enforced by law (which will be a result, perhaps, of an effort put forth by most of the leading members in the Alliance) that they will not even then be able to see that they have adopted a creed or are neglecting to suppress intolerance and persecution? If they were founded upon the “commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,” we might indeed hope that some good would be done; but, if little regard is to be paid to practical godliness as taught in the law, and exemplified in the life of Christ, and the test is to be on various articles of faith, which are not practical, nor absolutely indispensable to salvation, what will be the result? Let the history of the past answer. “Can ye not discern the signs of the times?” C. H. Bliss.