ART. III. THE BASLE SESSION OF THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE.

Siebente Hauptversammlung der Evangelischen Allianz, gehalten in Basel vom 31 August bis 7 September, 1879. Berichte und Reden herausgegeben in Auftrag des Comité der Allianz, durch CHRISTOPH JOHANNES RIGGENbach, D.D., 2 Bände, Seiten 1054. Basel, 1879.

THE small is always bringing to pass the great. Christianity, with its measureless productive power, seems to delight in its easy potency to measure the long distance between the little mustard seed and the great sheltering tree. One day in May, 1839, while the New York anniversaries were in progress, a few persons met in a room of the American Tract Society, and formed themselves into a group for the purpose of promoting brotherly union among all evangelical Christians. Having taken an organic shape, the society purchased several hundred copies of a thin volume with the title, "Fraternal Appeal to the American Churches," which were distributed gratuitously among leading ministers and laymen in the various Churches of the country. The association was short-lived. It lacked cohesive power, and its plan seemed at least visionary. But it was the first effort of which there is any record, in any country, of an attempt to group the Protestant Churches into a sisterhood, with the avowed object of accomplishing work and realizing results desirable alike by all. Good thoughts never die, and this one crossed the Atlantic, and took shape almost simultaneously in England, Germany, and France. Even the failure of the first attempt in New York did not discourage further effort at organization, for, in 1845, the late Rev. Dr. S. S. Schmucker prepared an address on Christian Union, and, having obtained the assent and promise of co-operation of about fifty ministers and laymen, placed their names to his address, which he termed an "Overture for Christian Union," and called a meeting during the anniversary week of 1846.

Meanwhile a society had been formed in London, in the Wesleyan Centenary Hall, in February, 1845, and in June following held its first public meeting. Arrangements were there made for the first general meeting, to be convened in London in August, 1846. Invitations were extended to the American Churches to co-operate, and these were promptly accepted.

The conference called by Dr. Schmucker in New York did not take place, but was dropped by common consent, as not now necessary. When the London meeting occurred, it was found that the leading European Churches were represented, that there were delegates from the United States, and that the popular interest far surpassed all expectations. It was at this gathering that a confederation was formed, bearing the name of the Evangelical Alliance. From that time to the present its object has been definite and unchanged, and the work it has accomplished has entered into the positive gains for our common Protestantism.

The doctrinal basis of the Evangelical Alliance was laid down at the first general session of the Alliance in London, and was afterward approved by all the European branches, and by the American branch in January, 1867. It is as follows: 1. The divine inspiration, authority, and sufficiency of the holy Scriptures. 2. The right and duty of private judgment in the interpretation of holy Scripture. 3. The unity of the Godhead, or 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 God, his work of atonement for the sins of mankind, and his mediatorial intercession and reign. 6. The justification of the sinner by faith alone. 7. The work of the Holy Spirit in the conversion and sanctification of the sinner. 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 punishment of the wicked. 9. The divine institution of the Christian ministry, and the obligation and perpetuity of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper.

There have been thus far eight general sessions of the Alliance: London, August, 1846; Paris, August, 1855; Berlin, September, 1857; Geneva, September, 1861; Amsterdam, August, 1867; New York, October, 1873; and Basle, September, 1879.

The Basle session was different in many respects from all its predecessors. There was a degree of confidence and hopefulness as to the work to be done, and the part to be taken by the Alliance in the great future of Protestantism, which could hardly be expected of the body in its earlier period. As might

be expected, the Basle session was far more cosmopolitan than the one in New York, which, by general consent, had exceeded all others in popular enthusiasm. But there was comparatively a small representation of Europeans in New York, owing chiefly to the hesitation of the continental theologians to cross the Atlantic. At Basle there was not this defect. No Protestant field in Europe was without its strong delegation. The very place itself served to add to the interest of the occasion. The rich historical associations impressed the stranger at once. The quaint buildings, the narrow, winding streets, and the antique character of the older part of the city, contrasting strangely with the rapid flow of the ever-youthful Rhine, seemed to suggest that ancient Basle (Basileia) had yet its queenly work to do for the great present and the greater future. It was not forgotten that away back in the medieval period a Council had been held there for the reform of abuses in the Roman Catholic Church, and that it had spoken the strongest words ever uttered by a papal body in favor of purity of life and doctrine.*

The Roman Catholics, as a body, have endeavored to give a spurious character to the Basle Council, and it actually adjourned without a positively beneficial bearing on the body which had convened it. But it performed one permanent service to Switzerland and to Europe. It filled the air with a hunger for greater purity. Moreover, it inaugurated measures for the founding of a university which was in full progress when the Reformation began, which passed promptly over to the Protestants, became one of the disseminating forces of Protestant learning for all Europe, and for three centuries and a half has been the leading evangelical university south of Germany.

*The Basle Council passed decrees for freedom of election in Churches, against expectancies, usurpations of patronage, reservations, annats, and other exactions by which Rome drained the wealth of the Church; against frivolous appeals, the abuse of interdicts, the concubinage of the clergy, and the burlesque festivals and other indecencies of the Church service. It laid down rules for the behavior of the Popes. The Pope was to make his profession with some additions to the form prescribed at Constance, and at every celebration of his anniversary it was to be read over to him by a cardinal at the service of the mass. The number of cardinals was limited to twenty-four, and they were to be taken from all Christian countries, and to be chosen with the consent of the existing cardinals. All nephews of the reigning Pope were to be excluded from the college. Comp. Robertson, 'History of the Christian Church," vol. iv, p. 423.

At the Alliance there was hardly a delegate from any country to whom the city did not suggest very precious memories. The Spaniard could not forget that, in that same Basle, Francis Enzinas, a born Spaniard, had lived a length of time, and had translated and published his Spanish New Testament, which was sent to Spain, distributed throughout the country, and did invaluable service in propagating Protestantism. The representatives from New Italy were reminded that they were treading the streets of a city which, three centuries before, had been a hospitable place of refuge for exiled Reformers from the plains of Lombardy, and even the banks of the Tiber. The German knew he was in the adopted home of his own Ecolampadius, who had preached Protestantism fearlessly to Swiss hearers, and had brought it to pass in the very church where the Alliance was holding its sessions. The Dutchman thought of his own great Erasmus, who had studied long in the cathedral cloisters, and had prepared in Basle his version of the Greek Testament, which became the textual foundation of the Reformation in every European land. The Frenchman could hardly forget that, three hundred years previously, that same city had welcomed a band of foot-sore Huguenots, who were fleeing for life from the far-off banks of the Moselle; and the President of the Alliance during its session in Basle, Mr. Carl Sarasin, was a direct descendant of one of those way-worn Protestant fugitives. The Englishman could call up many bonds of union between his country and Basle, and especially the fact that when Mary came to the throne this Swiss city welcomed and entertained a large colony of English refugee Protestants, and that such Englishmen as John Hooper, Thomas Lever, John Burcher, Lawrence Humphrey, and John Fox, author of the "Book of Martyrs," made Basle their second home.

Basle, too, was a reminder of one of the universal laws of religious history, that welcome to a fugitive for conscience' sake proves a blessing to him who extends it. When this Swiss city gave a home to the exiled Huguenots, the question was, What could they do toward their own support? They were silk weavers at their old home, and might be in this new one. So they began in a humble way, just to get bread, the weaving of silk ribbons, which, in time, developed into a vast

industry, and for many years has been the chief source of financial prosperity to the whole city and suburbs of Basle. When Hanau, in the Valley of the Main, one day entertained the tired and hungry Dutch Protestant fugitives from the cruelty of the heartless Spanish Alva, it little dreamed that these men had the rare skill of working in gold and silver, and much less could it prophesy that down to the last of the nineteenth century this industry would be the chief employment of the working people of Hanau, and that the gold and silver ware from this place would find its way along the arteries of commerce throughout the world. Even England is not without this lesson. The Dutch led the trade of Europe in the manufacture of cutlery, and when a number fled for safety to England they went as far north as Sheffield, and established the manufacture of cutlery there. From that time the Sheffield cutlery has taken the lead in all lands, while in Sheffield itself one can still see on the sign boards, over the places of business, (the Wostenholms, for example,) the traces of the welcome to the Dutch cutlers in the sixteenth century.

The proceedings of the Alliance were introduced on Sunday evening, August 31, by a reception of members and fraternal salutations, in the great Hall of the Vereinshaus, which corresponds to our Young Men's Christian Association Building. The addresses were in different languages, Pastor Ecklin, of Basle, opening the cordial salutations in the German; Pastor Viguet, of Lausanne, in French; and Rev. Dr. Schaff in English. On Monday, September 1, however, the formal session began, with Councilor Carl Sarasin as President. The day was devoted to representations of the religious condition of the various countries of Christendom. Switzerland was described by Dr. Güder, of Berne. This little country has 2,500,000 inhabitants, of whom 1,500,000 are Protestants. There are twenty-two independent districts or cantons. Seven of these are Roman Catholic, twelve are divided between the Protestants and Roman Catholics, and three are exclusively Protestant. Each canton has its separate constitutional and cantonal government, and none can interfere with its neighbor. Three languages are spoken, according to the geographical position-the Italian, German, and French. In the Engadine Valley there is still a fourth, the Romance language, which is the nearest