Note 408:1 — Chapter XXII

The first proposal for such an assembly seems to be contained in an article by L. Bacon in the "New Englander" for April, 1844. "Why might there not be, ere long, some general conference in which the various evangelical bodies of this country and Great Britain and of the continent of Europe should be in some way represented, and in which the great cause of reformed and spiritual Christianity throughout the world should be made the subject of detailed and deliberate consideration, with prayer and praise? That would be an 'ecumenical council' such as never yet assembled since the apostles parted from each other at Jerusalem—a council not for legislation and division, but for union and communion and for the extension of the saving knowledge of Christ" (pp. 253, 254).