Henry Alline

Alline, Henry
Henry Alline, evangelist, hymnist, theologian (b at Newport, Rhode I 14 June 1748; d at N Hampton, NH 2 Feb 1784). An itinerant evangelical preacher in the Maritimes, Alline wrote hymns, religious tracts and a Life and Journal. He began his career as a saddlebag preacher in Falmouth, Nova Scotia, and spent most of his life touring NS and New Brunswick. Although self-educated, he was a prolific writer and speaker committed to music as a part of religious worship.

He worked unceasingly from 1776 to 1783 to create and sustain a religious revival known as the "New Light" movement. His followers, who were based mainly in NS, were referred to as "Allinites."

Alline, despite the uneasiness he aroused in established church communities, was a persuasive preacher. He succeeded in his self-appointed mission to awaken many settlers to religion and is looked upon as a major influence in the establishment of the BAPTIST Church in the Maritimes.

Besides his Life and Journal (1806) and 2 volumes ofHymns and Spiritual Songs (1785 and 1786), he published 5 religious pamphlets and his major theological work, Two Mites on Some of the Most Important and Much Disputed Points of Divinity (1781). In this latter work he expresses his personal beliefs on many religious points, including his strong anti-Calvinist stand. See GREAT AWAKENING.

Author DOUGLAS LOCHHEAD

Suggested Reading
David G. Bell, Henry Alline and Maritime Religion (1993); J.M. Bumsted, Henry Alline (1971).