CHAPTER XX.

THE EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION.

JACOB ALBRIGHT, originally a Lutheran, born in 1759, was the founder of the Evangelical Association. Near the close of the last century he became an earnest revival preacher. He labored among the German-speaking population, and in 1800 formed a society of converts in Pennsylvania for "social prayer and devotional exercises" every Sunday and every Wednesday night. This was the rise of the movement which resulted in the Evangelical Association. The first conference was held in 1807. This conference elected Jacob Albright a bishop. Two years later a church discipline very similar to that of the Methodist Episcopal Church was published. Some years after the death of Bishop Albright (1808) the name Evangelical Association of North America was adopted. Previously to this his followers had been known as "The Albright People," or "The Albrights."

In doctrine and polity the Evangelical Association is Methodist. It has annual conferences, a quadrennial general conference, which is the supreme legislative and judicial body, quarterly conferences, presiding elders, and an itinerant and a local ministry, exhorters, class leaders, etc. It also has bishops, who, however, are not elected for life, but for a term of four years. Its Articles of Faith, twentyone in number, are the same in substance and almost the same in language as the twenty-five articles of the Metho

dist churches, with a few omissions. Formerly the constituency of the church was almost entirely German; now it is largely English.

The Evangelical Association has twenty-six annual conferences. Four of the conferences are in other lands: one in Canada, one in Germany, one in Switzerland, and one in Japan.

The church is in a divided state. In October, 1891, two bodies, each claiming to be the legal general conference, were held, one in Indianapolis, the other in Philadelphia, and each elected a different set of bishops and general church officers. The differences are of long standing. They were augmented in the application in 1890 and 1891 of disciplinary processes to the three bishops of the Association, all of whom were tried and suspended. The Philadelphia General Conference took order restoring Bishop Dubs to his functions. That of Indianapolis, representing the majority, declared the proceedings against Bishops Esher and Bowman void. The secular courts have been appealed to in various cases, and have decided generally in favor of the Indianapolis Conference. The church was divided into two bodies in 1894.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE FRIENDS.

THE Friends, or Quakers, as they are often called, own as their founder George Fox, an Englishman, born in Drayton, Leicestershire, in 1624. He began to preach experimental holiness of heart and life in 1647. He had large congregations, and in 1656 was assisted by sixty ministers. The first general meeting of Friends was held in London in 1668, the second in 1672. The Yearly Meeting was established in 1678. Encountering much opposition and severe persecution in England, many Friends emigrated to this country. A few arrived at Boston in 1656, whence they were subsequently scattered by persecution; many came to New Jersey and Pennsylvania after 1674.

The first Yearly Meeting in America is believed to have been held in Rhode Island in 1661. George Fox met with it in 1672, and in 1683 it was set off from the London Yearly Meeting. It was held regularly at Newport until 1878. Since that date it has alternated between Newport and Portland, Me. Yearly Meetings were organized in Maryland in 1672, in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in 1681, in North Carolina in 1708, and in Ohio in 1812.

The Friends have no creed, no liturgy, and no sacraments. They believe in a spiritual baptism and a spiritual communion, and hold that the outward rites are unnecessary. They accept the Old and New Testaments as a