d
to hear of the progress which they are making in various departments of
Christian labor." (30.) At Washington, in 1869, the delegate to the
Evangelical Church Union of the West reported: "These brethren are
earnestly at work in the Master's cause, and in full sympathy with our
General Synod. Hoping that our fraternal relations may grow stronger
each revolving year," etc. (29.) In 1857 and 1859 the same cordial
attitude was assumed toward the Evangelical Church Diet (Kirchentag) in
Germany, a letter, in behalf of the Diet, having been received from
Bethmann-Hollweg, then Secretary of ecclesiastical affairs in Prussia.
(_Proceedings_ 1857,21.24; 1859,32.37.38.) In 1909 the General Synod
approved of the admission (in 1907) of the _Vereinslutheraner_ within
the Prussian Union into the "Allgemeine Evangelisch-Lutherische
Konferenz." (22.) Siding with the Evangelicals, the _Lutheran Observer_,
October 9, 1863, declared: "The Evangelical Union of the West forms a
wholesome balance against the old-Lutheran tendency of the Missouri
Synod." (_L. u. W._. 1863,379.) It was, therefore, not in dissonance
with the traditions of the General Synod, when, as late as 1909, the
_Lutheran Evangelist_ proposed a union of the General and Evangelical
Synods, maintaining that General Synodists and Evangelicals were
natural allies. (_L. u. W._ 1909,180. 421.)

CHRISTIAN UNION.

37. "Father" of Evangelical Alliance.--At Chambersburg, Pa., 1839, the
General Synod passed the resolution "that the thanks of this Synod be
presented to the American Society for the Promotion of Christian Union
_for this acceptable present_." The present received by the members of
Synod was Schmucker's "Appeal to the American Churches" or "New Plan of
Apostolic Protestant Union." The purpose of this book was to promote
union among the Protestant denominations on the basis of the ecumenical
confessions. It proved to be a powerful factor in the movement which
resulted in the organization of the Evangelical Alliance. Schmucker
himself, together with Kurtz and Morris, attended the "World's
Convention" at London in 1846, where they united with 800 ministers of
50 different denominations in founding the Alliance, which assumed the
motto: "_Unum corpus sumus in Christo_," Schmucker, in particular being
feted as the "Father" of this union. Naturally enough also the General
Synod took a lively interest in the Alliance, though it was not a union
of churches or of representat