Henry Alline

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Henry Alline (June 14, 1748 â€“ January 28, 1784) was a New England evangelist, hymnist, and theologian, who "is looked upon as a major influence in the establishment of the Baptist Church in the Maritimes."

Life
Alline was born at Newport, Rhode Island, the second son of Emma Clark and William Alline. In 1760, attracted by the promise of free land in Nova Scotia, the Allines moved to what would become Falmouth, and Henry grew to manhood in the Nova Scotia backwoods. A contemporary account describes him as, "medium size, straight, thin of body, [with] light complexion, light curly hair, and dreamy blue eyes.â€

In 1775 Alline received a powerful conversion experience and a simultaneous call to the ministry. As he put it, "redeeming love broke into my soul â€¦ with such power that my whole soul seemed to be melted down with love â€¦ and my will turned of choice after the infinite God." He began preaching a year later.

From 1776 until his death in 1784, Alline travelled throughout Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, working tirelessly on behalf of the religious revival called the "New Light" movement, which has been called "still the greatest revival that Canada has ever seen." 'From his base in Falmouth â€“ for he never entirely freed himself from his family â€“ he travelled for six to nine months of the year by horseback, boat, snowshoe, or on foot. During the course of his career he covered most of Nova Scotia and the settled parts of what is now New Brunswick." The Canadian Encyclopedia (CE) calls him "a persuasive preacher" and "a prolific writer and speaker committed to music as a part of religious worship."

His followers, known as "Allinites," compared him to George Whitefield and John the Baptist. Others called him a dangerous fanatic and a "ravager of congregations." The Congregationalists refused to let him preach in their churches, so he spoke in houses, barns, and the outdoors. In eight years, he founded eight "New Light Congregationalist" churches.

During the same time he wrote his major work on theology, Two Mites on Some of the Most Important and Much Disputed Points of Divinity (1781), which expressed "strong anti-Calvinist" views.He also wrote five religious pamphlets, and his autobiographical Life and Journal (published in 1806). In addition, he wrote or collected nearly 500 hymns, which he published as Hymns and Spiritual Songs, in two volumes, 1782 - 1786. CE calls the work "accomplished."

In his last years Alline suffered from consumption, which finally killed him. Historian J.M. Bumsted observes that a "consumptive mien would likely have added to his impact upon others, making him seem a Nova Scotian John the Baptist." He died in 1784 in North Hampton, New Hampshire; "not far," Bumsted notes, "from the home of Benjamin Randall, founder of the Freewill Baptist movement in the United States based largely upon Allineâ€™s ideas."

Recognition
While "Henry Alline has never been completely neglected by Maritime historians," says the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, "his career and activities have taken on a new importance in recent years, as evidenced in the many studies of them which have appeared since 1945. The new interest reflects a changing emphasis in historical scholarship, away from the study of formalized and centralized Ã©lites ... and toward the understanding of the lives, thoughts, and aspirations of ordinary people. The Great Awakening in Nova Scotia ... is now recognized as a popular movement, indeed the major popular movement of its time. Henry Alline, as its early leader, has begun to take on the character of a folk hero.... In his anti-materialism, anti-institutionalism, and even in his mysticism, Alline was rebelling against his society and searching for a new meaning to life. Such responses seem far more comprehensible in our confused modern society than they did to our more optimistic ancestors."