UNITED EVANG'L CHUBCH nized. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are the two sacraments accepted. The Confession of Faith adopted in 1889 pro- vided for lay delegates to the General Conference. At the General Conference in that year there was a secession of delegates, which adhered to the older un- revised Confession of Faith and Consti- tution, The larger church has about 390,000 members with 500,000 pupils in the Sunday Schools, with a theological seminary at Dayton, Ohio, 10 colleges and several academies. UNITED EVANGELICAL CHURCH, THE, a religious denomination estab- lished in 1894 as the result of a seces- sion in the Evangelical Association. The first general conference was held at Na- perville. 111., in that year, and was made up of delegates from six annual con- ferences. Laws were made to complete the organization of an independent church, a book of discipline was adopted, founded on the old discipline of the Evan- gelical Association, with the introduction of some changes such as lay represen- tation at the conferences. The church has about 990 organized congregations, 550 preachers, 90,000 church members, and about 94,000 pupils in the Sunday schools. Its General Missionary Society has three missions in Honon, China; and receives the co-operation of the Woman's Missionary Society. It raised about $100,000 for missionary work each year. It has a number of educational estab- lishments, among them Albright College, Myerstown, Fa.; Dallas College and La Creole Academy, Dallas, Ore. ; and West- ern Union College, Le Mars, Iowa. It also publishes some evangelical journals. UNITED EVANGELICAL CHUBCH, THE (IN GERMANY), a church founded in Germany in 1817 by the al- liance of parts of the Lutheran and Re- formed Churches. A union of the kind had been attempted in 1529, 1631 and 1661. Frederick I. of Prussia (1703- 1722) also endeavored to establish a union, and Frederick William I. issued a number of decrees having the same pur- pose in view. The evolution of theologi- cal thought made the union appear de- sirable during the eighteenth century, ' and one proposal was that of a unity of exterior organization, leaving doubtful theological points in abeyance. Finally, in 1817, at the tercentennial celebrations of the Reformation, an outward union was established, under the auspices of the government of Prussia. In other parts of Germany parallel unions have been established, the visible evidences being a single governing body and a common celebration of the Lord's Supper. In 79 UNITED PRESB'N CHURCH Prussia the United Evangelical Church was, previous to November, 1918, the state church, and it is stronger there than in other parts of Germany. A United Evangelical Church was estab- lished in the United States at St. Louis in 1840. UNITED IRISHMEN, a secret society formed in 1791 by Theobald Wolfe Tone, having for its object the establishment of a republic in Ireland. Being arrested, and sentenced to death by a military commission, he committed suicide in No- vember, 1798. UNITED KINGDOM. See GREAT Britain: British Empire, The. united presbyterian CHURCH, a religious body in Scotland, constituted in 1847 by the amalgamation of the "Secession" and "Relief" churches. At first composed of only four minis- ters, the "Secession Church" rapidly be- gan to gather strength. Little Christian societies were everywhere formed, which were gradually supplied with pastors either from the Establishment or from youths trained to the work of the min- istry by Erskine and his friends. The "four brethren" drew up a testimony de- claring their reasons for separation. What they sought was the vindication of what they held to be evangelical truth, much more than of the mere right of popular election. So much popular in- dignation was excited by their deposition that it was thought desirable by the ma- jority of the Moderate party to make cer- tain concessions to the Evangelicals, or Marrow party. The General Assembly of 1734 passed some measures distinctly favorable to the latter party, and empow- ered the synod of Perth and Stirling to remove the censures from the four brethren, and to restore them to tijeir respective charges; but Erskine declined to be "reponed." In December, 1736, ap- peared the pamphlet commonly known as the "Judicial Testimony," which is a sort of survey of the whole ecclesiastical his- tory of Scotland from the Reformation downward. In 1737 four other minis- ters joined the original four. In 1738 the commission of Assembly libeled the "eight brethren," and summoned them to appear before the Assembly of 1739, which they did; and after a year of grace the General Assembly of 1740 sol- emnly pronounced deposition, and the connection between Erskine and the church of his fathers was forever at an end. The career of the United Presbyterian Church as a corporate body has been one of uninterrupted prosperity. In point of doctrine it adheres (like all the other
