pected, has enlarged and been exalted. Its sweep is greater, its reach is farther, than when it first set out upon its mission. He who will examine the programme prepared for this occasion cannot but be surprised at the extent and variety of the subjects to be presented in the name of Christ for Christian consideration and treatment. Missions, nurses, visitations, baths, education, social purity, social settlements, working girls' clubs, physical training, popular lectures, reading circles, tenement reforms, organized charities, reform of criminal administration, and many other subjects are embraced in this splendid programme.

Who opposes the work which the Evangelical Alliance sets out to do? Not the Jew, not the Catholic, not the Protestant, not any one who can claim the respect and affection of his fellow-men. It is the nature of applied Christianity to commend itself to every human heart. It is not in its nature to excite opposition or hostility, because of its exceedingly sweet and winning character.

This occasion, following the Parliament of the World's Religions, is nothing less than a Parliament of the Churches of Christendom, with equal charity, in the spirit of Him who ate even with publicans and sinners in order that He might win their hearts and heal their sickness of sin. "Put up thy sword" is a perpetual command. The conquest of the world will come by the beauty of holiness, by living and acting the Golden Rule, and not by any methods of warfare, natural or spiritual. What this Congress may do, the tremendous impulse it may give to the work which it has come to perform, can scarcely be depicted, and yet may be foreseen. It may affect not only Christendom, but the whole world; for what affects Christendom affects the whole world. The mission of the Alliance is peace. It welcomes every ally in its work, and rejoices over every victory

won.

With the hope that this closing Congress of the great Department of Religions in the work of the World's Congress Auxiliary may realize every hope and expectation entertained in regard to it, I salute you and bid you welcome.

MR. WILLIAM E. DODGE, President of the EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE FOR THE UNITED STATES.

PRESIDENT BONNEY, AND LADIES and GentleMEN: As representing the Evangelical Alliance for the United States, I want to tell you how much touched we are by the kindly welcome you have given us in this great City by the Lakes. I want to thank you, too, Mr. Bonney, for the clear, strong, and admirable way in which you have placed before us the work of the Alliance. Our name, "Evangelical," is not a narrow one. Our duty, our work, and our joy are to proclaim the evangel, "Peace on earth, good will to men;" to try, as far as we can, by our influence, by our publications, and by our meetings, to bring the teachings and the words and the example of Christ, our dear Lord, into the daily life of the world. We believe that the religion which He brought was not one for Sabbath services only, but for the whole life, the every-day life, the constant work of man. We believe, if the prayer which we all daily utter, that "God's kingdom may come, and His will be done on earth as in heaven," is to be answered, we as Christians must live as Christ lived and follow His example and teachings.

I do not mean to trespass upon your time. The first regular session of our Congress assembles to-night, and it will be my duty then, as its presiding officer, to present some details of our work,— to state what we hope and expect from this Congress, and to give you some suggestions as to the work of the week to come. I only want to ask your sympathy and help in the peculiar features of this Congress. Through all this summer wonderful Congresses have been held here, the admiration and delight of the country, giving a new impulse to education and science and art and philanthropy and to everything that is good. We hope in our meetings to aid in giving the facts and statistics and inspirations of those great Congresses vitality and permanent influence; to understand something of the opportunities for Christian work which are open to us; to feel more deeply the responsibilities pressing upon us; and to give definite and practical shape to our future efforts. To this end we have invited a large number of gentlemen. and ladies who, through these last years, have been doing expert work, if I may so call it, in Christian efforts through this country.

Those who have touched and helped and influenced others in a good and kindly way, who have been successful in their work, are going to tell us, not in forced addresses or in learned papers, but just as they would tell you if they were sitting down by you, how they did their work, and how you may do it.

I shall have occasion to refer to this feature of the Congress this evening. I want to say, before closing-and you will forgive me for taking a single moment more-how deeply the Christian world of America feels its indebtedness to these brave and true men and women who have done such heroic and beautiful work through this last summer. These Congresses have added much to the wealth of the Exposition. Something greater than mere material growth and life has been thought of. Man as man, man in all his relations, has been considered and talked of wisely and admirably; and I feel sure that in speaking for myself I speak for all who are here, when I say that to Judge Bonney and to Dr. Barrows, and to Mrs. Potter Palmer and to Mrs. Henrotin, and others who have worked with them, the whole country feels a debt of gratitude which it can never pay. The ladies have shown us what the gentle side of Chicago is, and they have shown us that behind the silken and velvet hand there is a grasp of steel when it gets hold of anything good and true; I think I may say that, from this year on, the work of Christianity in this country will be ennobled and strengthened as never before. I feel most grateful that Dr. Barrows, the chairman of these Religious Congresses, to whom we are so much indebted, and Mrs. Palmer, are here and have consented to say a few words. I feel glad and honored that Dr. Curtiss, who has been the chairman of our local committee, and to whom we are so much indebted, is to be here and to speak to us. I hope that the spirit which filled these halls in the Parliament of Religions will be here with us one of liberal hope, one of faith in the dear Lord; a faith and a hope that look not through narrow lines, but that see into the future. For those of us who are Christians the revelations of that Congress will never be forgotten. Strange faiths were represented, very far away from truth, as it has seemed to us; still in every one there has been the spirit of worship, of a real God, there has been the feeling of sin and its punishment, there has been the hope of reward and the looking forward into another world, the feeling of expiation for sin, and then dimness, as it seems to us, and dark

ness beyond. Now, we believe that this simple religion of Christ, which we profess and love, has a deep, strong meaning, which will carry life into all those religions; that it includes everything that is good in them, and a hope and a truth beyond, which we pray and believe will come to them one of these days. And that is our work, dear friends-not to abuse others, not to criticise and find fault with them, but to so win them by the help of the Lord, to so show them that our religion is purer and stronger and reaches further and means more, that they will gladly be touched by its influence. That, I believe, is very largely to be the result of this Parliament, and may God grant that in the sessions of this Congress we may have something of the same holy influence!

There is one man who, by virtue of the marvellous ability with which he organized and conducted the great Parliament of Religions, is, I think, fairly entitled to be called the foremost evangelist in the world. His name is the Rev. Dr. John Henry Barrows, whom I now have the pleasure of presenting.

REV. JOHN HENRY BARROWs, D.D., CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE ON RELIGIOUS CONGRESSES.

Ladies and GenNTLEMEN: We are often told that Chicago is noted for big things. At least we are told so by outsiders, never by ourselves. It is celebrated for its big warehouses, big railroads, big newspapers, big expectations and big achievements. But when I think of all the addresses of cordial greeting which the President of the World's Congress Auxiliary has given in the last five and a half months, I think that about the biggest thing in Chicago is the heart of a man who has been such an ample storehouse of welcome and salutation to more than one hundred and fifty Congresses. Like Lord Bacon, he has taken all knowledge to be his province; and like Paul, all men to be his brethren.

The long series of Congresses would be incomplete without the noble work represented by the Evangelical Alliance, one of the prophecies of a reunited Christendom. Cordially I bid you welcome to this Hall, made illustrious already by events of worldwide significance, and to this city, where the interest in this

series of world-conventions has been intense and widespread. I express your convictions and mine when I say that the Evangelical Alliance represents, in large measure, the spirit and the method by which this world is to be regenerated, by which the Gospel is to be brought most effectually to bear on the wants and woes of mankind, by which social and political evils are to be eradicated, and the empire of truth and liberty and tolerance and virtue and peace is to be enlarged and strengthened.

In planning for the Parliament of Religions, I always had gratefully in mind the Congress of Missions, and also this Christian Conference, as destined to follow that historical assembly and to indicate more fully the position and the work of evangelical Christendom. It has always been in my thought that the full showing of the spirit and work of Christianity could not be achieved without this meeting of the Evangelical Alliance. It is your purpose to bring Christian truth home in a closer and more practical way to all classes of workers, to make your meeting a school of applied Christianity. This will be the unique, this will be the splendid feature of your Congress, and I have no doubt, from the novel and wonderful programme that you offer us, that this will prove among the most important Conferences which you have ever held. Those who assemble during the next eight days in the Hall of Columbus will doubtless have much more community of conviction than was possible with the Congress of all the religions of the world. But I only hope that you will have equal enthusiasm, equal tolerance, equal kindliness, and equal fraternity. And with President William E. Dodge and Secretary Josiah Strong guiding your deliberations, as they have planned for your coming, I expect that the spirit which pervades this meeting will be not only evangelical, but thoroughly catholic. I believe that those two words, " evangelical" and "catholic," express the truth and the sentiment which are yet to renovate mankind and usher in more fully the new era of which Dr. Strong has written so wisely. Welcome, then, thrice welcome! And may the influences and the reports of this meeting, as they go out into many lands, contribute to the benigner tendencies among men, and help greatly what Dr. Schaff pronounces the two most important achievements presented for our faith and our works the reunion of Christendom and the conversion of the world!