THE CHAIRMAN: Each one of the Congresses of this Exposition season has been organized with the help of a Committee of Organization. The Chairman of the Committee of Organizaation having in charge the Congress of the Evangelical Alliance is

PROFESSOR SAMUEL IVES CURTISS, D.D., CHAIRMAN OF THE LOCAL COMMITTEE OF ORGANIZATION.

We are met together to-day to answer one petition of our Lord, which is, "That they all may be one." It is a long time since that prayer was uttered, and we are now coming to the end of the century, and are preparing for a grand advance all along the line. If this Congress shall signify anything of the Evangelical Alliance, it will be that that prayer of our Lord and Savior may be answered. The best way to answer prayer is for us to bring the answer ourselves. In no other way can this peti

tion of Jesus Christ come to pass.

There is certainly one basis on which we can all stand, and it is on that most important and thrilling verse in the New Testament-not thrilling to us, perhaps, because we have heard it so often, but thrilling, nevertheless, as we take it into our hearts and as we might think if we were reading it for the first time. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." That is a magnificent platform, and on that platform we can stand; and we should show, in this Alliance, and as representing its principles, something of the love of the Father when He sent His Son into this world, and something of the love of the Son when He came into this world. That is the blessed evangel which has come to man-the good news that God loves the world and that He means to redeem it, and is so much in earnest for its redemption that He sent His only and beloved Son.

In the presence of such a magnificent charter of our belief, all conditions which divide us as sects may be swept away. We do, dear friends, magnify the things that we might call unimportant. They are important in a way-our polity, our statements of doctrine. But after all, the great thing which we should magnify is the love of God for this world and the love of Jesus Christ to it; if we are filled with this love as God was and as Christ was, these things that divide us will be swept away, and

we shall be ready for the beginning of this twentieth century. Oh, how sad it is when we are divided up into parties, when we think more of our organizations and our special tenets of theology than of this grand march for the conquest of the world!

But I believe that a brighter day is dawning. I believe that the day is coming when those things which so certainly divide the different denominations of this country-differences of nationality which we have inherited from the other side of the ocean, differences of creed, differences of language-shall be swept away, and when we shall present to the world, as no other country can present to it, the union of evangelical denominations for the service of Christ.

"We are not divided,

All one body we,

One in faith and doctrine,
One in charity."

MRS. POTTER PALMER, PRESIDENT OF THE WOMAN'S BRANCH OF THE WORLD'S CONGRESS AUXILIARY, AND OF THE WOMAN'S DEPARTMENT OF THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION.

I greatly appreciate the privilege of welcoming another of the wonderful gatherings which have successively, during the past five months, made this city the centre of interest for the entire world.

Of the remarkably picturesque parliament of theoretical religion and dogma which has recently absorbed our attention, the Congress now assembled is the natural culmination. The great seed of universal brotherhood and toleration which was then sown would be sterile and unprofitable did it not now result in an appropriate fruitage, in its practical application to effective work of a non-sectarian character, and of universal beneficence.

I should omit my evident duty, however, if I did not use my moment of time in calling attention to the remarkable work which women have heretofore carried on in the field of mission work abroad, and in active charity at home. With the sanction and under the fostering care of the Church they first organized and found an outlet for their desire to carry comfort and healing

beyond the thresholds of their own homes. While silent in the churches on the first day, it has been their high prerogative to aid in keeping alive the spirit and practice of religion during the remaining six days of the week. The results accomplished have borne silent witness to their ability, and devotion to the cause of humanity.

These women are ready to respond to any new calls imposed on them by a higher conception of religion and of the universal brotherhood of men. In their names I venture to assure the members of this Congress of profound sympathy with, and desire to promote, any plans which may be evolved by this Conference.

I thank in advance the eloquent speakers who are now to address the active brains and sympathetic hearts, not alone of this audience, but of this country and the entire world, and to hope for a result that may be commensurate with the forces at our command.

LORD KINNAIRD OF GREAT BRITAIN.

MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I bear in my hand a letter signed by the President of the British Branch of the Evangelical Alliance, in which he says: "We are greatly interested in the forthcoming Alliance Congress in Chicago."

I saw Lord Polwarth three or four days before I left Scotland, and he desired me to say how intensely disappointed he was that his health would not allow his making this long journey. The honor, therefore, has been given to me of responding to the words of welcome which you have addressed to us.

If I may say so, I agree with all that has been said by the speakers, but I do not agree altogether with the heading under which I am put in this programme. I see I am called a foreign delegate. I don't feel a foreigner standing in Chicago. I feel as if I were at home, and especially being in a city like Chicago, I feel as if I were in my own city of London, for there are such things as distances here, and there are such things as crowds, and difficulty in getting from one end of the city to the other; and so I feel much at home. But I also feel at home when I think

how many there are who are working exactly in the same way. When I look around here, as I have been doing for the last two days, and meet many kindly faces whom I have known for years as workers in the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I do not quite like to be called a foreigner on this programme. You may look on me as one, but I don't look on you as foreigners, I can assure you.

May I say, then, as brethren in the Lord, and under this banner under which we are standing, we are one body in Christ? I did not feel like a foreigner towards Signor Prochet, when we met in Florence in the Evangelical Alliance Conference. felt so happy there that we invited ourselves to go back again before long. May I re-echo the expectation that this World's Conference and this World's Fair are going to mark a fresh era? I was thinking of a little incident that happened one morning at family prayers, when a boy came to his mother and said, “I wish I had father's money." The mother at once began to read him a lesson upon being avaricious, and she said, "Why do you wish for your father's money?" The little boy said, “Because I think I could answer a good many of father's prayers, and it would save a good deal of time if he answered his own prayers instead of praying." I cannot but think, looking around here, that perhaps we have been praying for unity too long. I don't come here to work for unity. I come here because we are united, because we are working under one banner, because we have learned, I think, in London, and we have learned in Scotland, as you have learned here, I believe, what Peter found it hard to learn. It had to be sent to him three times. He had to learn that nothing was common or unclean. What God had consecrated, that he was not to call common. May we therefore get rid of many of our cant phrases, may we get rid of many of those petitions for unity! Let us get together, and that is the best way of getting our denominational differences settled. Oh, if we could only see one another in the face! At one of our committee meetings in London, a friend of mine, where they were divided. between the different bodies, was questioned as to which he represented. He said he was not quite sure which side of the house he was on. He said, "I think you would better send to the London City Mission Committee and ask them whether I am a Churchman or a Non-conformist." I hope the time will come

when we shall hear less of our denominational names and when we shall unite together for the work we have to do.

I intend to frame this programme, to show that we are one, as we profess, and we believe that the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is going to bring all classes of our community together. Only grant that we may each one of us go and live Christ, that we may go and live by the Gospel of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, and may every one, in his way or her way, seek so to live that others may be the better for that life. And so may we see, as we have in the past seen, that under the flag of Jesus Christ all improvement has been made, all advance in education, I think I may say without fear of contradiction that all giving to those who have not the same advantages we have, whether in athletics or in social reforms-all that has come by the Church of Jesus Christ. Let us take care that the devil does not get hold of the Church that Jesus Christ has consecrated to Himself. And may we therefore keep in touch with all these organizations, and so may we bring in the time for which we pray, for which we long, and for which we are met here together, not merely to talk over for a week, but believe that we shall get so much together that we shall never get apart again.

PROF. HENRY DRUMMOND OF SCOTLAND.

MR. PRESIDENT: The warmth of your greeting, ladies and gentlemen, reminds me also that I ought to protest, as the previous speaker has done, against being called a foreigner. A man who has been four times in America, and who has travelled up and down it half a dozen times, I think is entitled to the freedom of the country.

I simply wish to express my wonder and delight at the programme which has been put into our hands to-day. Like Lord Kinnaird, I shall frame it and keep it to remind me not only of the trends and torrents of evangelical thought in America, but of the sweep and breadth of the evangelical faith. I suppose some of us were beginning to feel that the word "evangelical" was getting a little tarnished. In our country the word, with a certain school, of whom I am not one, had even become a term