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another, for women, organised on a separate basis; but both united in many parts of their common work. At Manchester the Lancashire Independent College has a settlement in Embden Street, Hulme; the Yorkshire College has one in the Wapping District of Bradford. Kindred institutions have been established in Ipswich, Sheffield, and Middlesbrough. It is not necessary to enter into minute details of their work. Medical and legal advice, recreation for mind and body, the encouragement of thrift, guidance in the countless problems and perplexities of daily life-such are the requirements that claim to be satisfied. With poverty as poverty the Settlements do not profess to deal they are civilising, not relieving, agencies.

In some places the religious element is stronger and more conspicuous than it is in others. But in all the religious element is present. Already the Churches are beginning to feel the influence of the work. The residents are in actual touch with the people; and through them the Churches are coming not merely to sympathise with the people whom as yet they have failed to reach, but to understand the conditions under which the people live-the first step to any real solution of the social problem. And with larger knowledge has come a larger sense of obligation to social service, a stronger conception of the function of the Church as a redeeming force. The Churches are beginning to understand that they must go out to the masses, before they can hope to see the masses coming in to them.

Some Churches have gone a step further. They are grafting this social work upon their religious organisation, and are making the development of social institutions an integral part of their religious work. But the experiment of the "institutional Church" is at present only in its beginning, and belongs rather to prophecy than to history.

CHAPTER VII

THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL

PROPOSALS FOR AN INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL-FIRST MEETING IN LONDON-CATHOLICITY OF THE ASSEMBLY-ITS PURPOSE AND CHARACTER-THE PAST and the Present.

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I

N Monday, July 13, 1891, an International Congregational Council met in London, and continued in session until the evening of Tuesday, July 21. As the first assembly of its kind, it marks a stage in the history and growth of the Congregational Churches. The first proposal for such a gathering dates back to 1874, when Dr. Hastings Ross published in The Congregational Quarterly-an American magazine -an article entitled "An Ecumenical Council of Congregational Churches." His article was reprinted, and was circulated widely in Canada as well as in the United States. A few years later, the subject was discussed by Dr. Dexter, the historian of Congregationalism, and Dr. Hannay, at that time Secretary of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. A further step was taken when on June 7, 1884, the Congregational Union of Ontario and Quebec, meeting at Montreal, passed a resolution affirming the desirability of holding a General Congregational Council, and asking the Congregational Union to convene one if it should seem feasible. In 1888, when Dr. Hannay and Mr. Henry Lee visited the Australian colonies as delegates of the Union, a similar resolution was adopted by the representatives of the Churches of Victoria, which was afterwards endorsed by the Congregational Union of New South Wales. In 1889 these resolutions were formally considered by the Union of England and Wales, and accepted with enthusiasm. The concurrence of the

American Churches was secured, and action was taken to give effect to the proposal.

It was agreed that the Council should meet in London; that it should be International in the truest sense; that while representing the Congregational Churches of all lands, it should not be so large as to be unwieldy. Finally, after careful consideration, it was decided that the delegates should not exceed three hundred in number-a third being assigned to the American Churches, a third to the Churches of England, and a third to Wales, Ireland, Scotland, the British Colonies, and the rest of the world. In the appointment of representatives care was taken to include both local and national organisations as constituent elements. In England forty members were assigned to the Congregational Union, as representing the Churches in general; an equal number to the Church Aid and Home Missionary Society, as representing the County Unions; and twenty to the Theological Colleges. In the United States more than half the representatives were elected by the National Council; but each of the State Associations had the right to appoint a member, and the same privilege was granted to the Theological Seminaries and certain benevolent institutions.

Special committees in America and England, acting together, drafted the constitution and the programme of proceedings, which on this occasion were accepted by the other organisations concerned, a wider consultation having proved impracticable.1

II

The first meeting of the Council, held in the Memorial Hall, was a stirring and inspiring scene. As the roll was called, and each delegate rose in his place and answered to his name, even those who were most loyal to the principles of Congregationalism received a new impression of the greatness of the Churches with which they were associated. The men who had helped to shape the religious life and thought of the Churches on either side of the Atlantic were there-known to all by name, but seen by many for the first time. But there were

1 The International Congregational Council (authorised record of proceedings), xxiii.-xxv.

others-men from the countries of Europe: Austria, Denmark, Holland, Russia, and Sweden; men from the colonies of Britain far spread across the world; men from the provinces of the Dominion of Canada; from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick; from the Australasian States, New South Wales, Victoria, Southern and Western Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, and Queensland; men from South Africa and Natal; from Jamaica and British Guiana; men from Madagascar and the islands of the South Seas-Samoa, Raratonga, and Hawai; men from northern India, and China, and Japan; "brethren-brethren in Christ-from many lands."

Each and all had their own record of conflict and of victory; some in the distant, others in the nearer past. But among them there were men who had a story to tell of what they had seen accomplished in their own days. Dr. Waldenström, the delegate from Sweden, gave an account of an organisation, the Forbundet, that had grown up since the year 1879; congregations, 700 in number, and with a membership of more than 100,000, bound together by the principle that they would embrace only those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, without reference to different forms of faith or different types of doctrine; desiring a distinct partition wall between the world and the Church, but none between those who believe in the same Lord and Saviour; each association a Church, independent and self-governed, but uniting with others in evangelistic work; possessing a Theological Seminary of their own; and maintaining missionaries in Lapland, Russia, Persia, in the Congo State, in North Africa, and in China, and carrying on mission work at home by means of a large band of travelling preachers."

Not less wonderful was the account given by Mr. Tasuku Harada of the spread of Congregationalism in Japan. When he spoke, only twenty-two years had passed since the first missionary of the American Board had settled in Japan; and only seventeen since the first Congregational Church had been established with a little band of eleven members. Now there were seventy-one Churches, with a membership of 10,000, and among them men holding high positions in the state, in education, and in business. He spoke of Dr. Neesima-better

2 The International Congregational Council (authorised record of proceedings), 26–27.

known, perhaps, in America than in England—a loyal Congregationalist trained in the United States, who had returned to Japan and had founded a College that had seven hundred students in the Faculties of Theology, Arts, Science, Law, and Medicine, and in its Theological School seventy young men preparing themselves for the Christian ministry. And with a just pride in the sturdy independence of his people he referred to the offer made to his fellow Christians in Tokio by a man of wealth and position who proposed to build them a church at a cost of 150,000 dollars. But they said-" We should not be satisfied with a church until we could build it for ourselves," and while acknowledging the offer with gratitude, they declined to accept it.3

III

The Council did not meet "to define creeds, to formulate articles of faith, or to draw up canons of discipline." It came together to confer, not to legislate. The questions that it considered were many and varied, but all intimately affecting the life and work of the Churches. In the first place-dealing with Congregationalism in its domestic or internal relations --church organisation, church life, personal service, and the drift of theological thought among the ministers and members of the Churches. Secondly, the loss or gain in the spiritual influence of the Churches, and the best means of securing an efficient ministry in years to come. Thirdly, Congregationalism, as it is concerned not with its own internal affairs, but with the nation, and the needs of the nation; how it is affected by the relations of Church and State; its right attitude towards the social movements of the times; the righteous adjustment of the conflicting claims of labour and capital; the relations of the people to the land; and the perils arising from the growth of the liquor traffic. In the next place, the relation of Congregationalists to the Church Catholic; the possibilities of Christian unity; the duties of the Churches in view of the growing sacerdotalism of the Established Church in England. And, lastly, the responsibility of the Churches in relation to their Lord's commission bidding

3 The International Congregational Council (authorised record of proceedings), 346-347.

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