thinkers. Let us open our eyes to this strange and abnormal fact, and repel this factitious and deceitful support that they would give us. As disciples of the eternal Gospel, let us remain faithful to the wholly religious mission confided to us by our divine Chief. Let us not lower the word of God into the noisy arena of political parties, to espouse their quarrels and share their vicissitudes. Christianity, like its founder, is eternal, and adapts itself with marvelous facility to all forms of government. For the pitiful pleasure of applause let us not lower the Gospel to that which is terrestrial, transitory, and unworthy of it."

And in this same significant article Dartigue touches another kindred trouble that faces these Christians in their Church organizations: there are signs of large access to their membership from those who have no knowledge of their belief, and in reality no sympathy for it, but who would simply use the Protestant Church as a sort of livery of heaven for themselves and their families on breaking away from their connection with the Catholic Church. Dartigue does not believe in immediately inviting these persons to become members of their churches and to embrace Protestantism. He would welcome all who come spontaneously, and with serious motives, seeking God with some comprehension of the consequences of their determination; but he would reject those who come by excitement, caprice, or interest, or in a fit of anger at a religion that they would no longer serve. And he therefore warns the leading Protestant speakers, in their popular addresses to the masses, to remember that the essential object is not so much to obtain an adhesion to some fixed ecclesiastical form as to enlighten and edify inquiring souls. In Jesus Christ he would find neither Catholics nor Protestants, but simply believers.

The article on the "Law of Labor" in the same number is essentially democratic, and heralds a new departure in the social theories of France. The author is especially severe on that class that have become suddenly rich through successful trade, and are now inclined to shirk the burdens of state. This bourgeoisie has never been renowned for a character of selfsacrifice, and it is now becoming so numerous that its defection is a matter of alarm to all patriots: "Many a millionaire whose name alone is now a power commenced his career with no

other capital than his intelligence and an ardent desire to succeed. And, nevertheless, this man, who owes all he has to labor, has brought up his son in habits of idleness, and made of him one of the most useless members of society. The swells and fops of the day, the so-called jeunesse dorée, are for the most part sons of these wealthy bourgeois, who by their foolish extravagance and forced luxury are trying to make the world forget that all they possess comes from the toilsome life of their parents. These contemners of labor who have sprung up like mushrooms in the last thirty years, and are the most miserable and useless members of society, have every-where left behind them germs of death and putrefaction. France owes to them a goodly portion of her shame in defeat. When they were wanted in her hour of trial many of them had fled to foreign lands, and those who were forced into the field in the mobilized corps were the first to flee at the sight of the enemy, and thus paralyze the heroic efforts of their chiefs and comrades.

There is a marked revival of Pauline study in France, as may be seen in the critique in the January number of the Review, by Roberty, on the recent work on St. Paul by Sabatier, of the Protestant Theological Faculty of Paris. In their new-born liberty the Protestants of France are seized with a desire to regard and represent the apostles as living beings; and of these St. Paul is the one whom they would study as an example for the great work before them. And for those who are curious to know the various phases of the faith of Paul, the learned and engaging work of Sabatier responds fully to their desires, for his pre-eminent aim is to sketch the history of the thought of the great apostle. Sabatier grandly describes the progressive element in Paul, and shows the connection which closely unites his various phases of thought to the great periods of his Christian life: the first, that of missionary activity, corresponds to the missionary discourses of the Book of Acts and the Epistles to the Thessalonians; the second, that of the fierce struggles against the Judaizers; and the third, the epoch of the first appearance of gnostic asceticism, giving birth to the Epistle to Philemon, to the Colossians, to the Ephesians, and the Philippians. The end of the Book of Acts corresponds to this last period. The picture of Paul, as drawn by Sabatier, is complex and striking, bringing out every phase of

his decided character, and thus making him a splendid model for an apostle armed for the conflict with the modern world in France, where the flood of materialism threatens a second deluge which can only be stayed by the man within the ark.

ART. VII.-FOREIGN RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.

THIS seems just now to be the ruling question among the Protestant communities of France, Italy, and Switzerland. And in the latter country an incident has just occurred in connection with it that has brought out the discussion into bold relief. The National Church in the canton of Vaud has been guilty of seconding very extreme measures on the part of the State Council of the canton against a devoted and prominent pastor at Orbe, mainly because of liberal opinions expressed in his journal, Evangile et Liberté, in regard to the organization and success of the Eglise Libres, or "Free Churches." The only overt act of which they could accuse him was his co-operation with the Sabbath-schools of the Free Churches, most probably because he found none within the pale of the national Churches. The Synodal Commission of the Church would have condemned him to a censure, but the State authorities went a step further and suspended him from the exercise of his pulpit duties for two months, which virtually means cutting him off from the Church, because it is not at all probable that he will change his opinions or his works because of this cryingly unjust verdict. Narbal's case is now being made a test question among the Latin Protestant Churches, and the question is being quite significantly asked as to whether alliance with the Church is to gag a man from any expression of sympathy with those who think just as he does, but prefer, in the exercise of their religious convictions, to be free from State control. This very unwise measure on the part of the Cantonal Council will certainly be condemned openly by that fraction of the State Church that is not wedded to such chains. They may prefer the system of national religion to that of independence, but they can scarcely choose to make a yoke of it under which they must bend at the risk of excommunication. This is certainly the surest way to bring their Church into discredit. With brotherly feeling on each side it will not be at all difficult to bring both branches of the Protestant Churches in the Latin countries together.

At the Synodal Union of the Free Churches of France, recently held in Paris, there was great generosity expressed touching questions of doctrinal diversities, and the constitution of these Churches preserves them from like conflicts, because, while guaranteeing the unity of the faith for essential things, it allows much liberty to theological thought. And this Union of the Free Churches looks quite calmly at the fact of no increase within the last few years for the very simple reason that a section

of the official Church is making visible progress toward a realization of the very principles that called the Free Churches into being. At this Union meeting the delegate from the official Synod-fraternal delegate -openly acknowledged this tendency of his wing of the Church, and under the pressure of events predicted the early triumph of the principles of Vinet, of which he declares himself a disciple. The synod applauded these words, and also those of their own president, who declared that the most ardent desire of the Free Churches was to disappear as soon as possible in order to rally to the grand Evangelical Reformed Church of the day as soon as the official bonds, which are now becoming heavy, should fall.

A great many of the Liberals in France and Italy fear to break the connection between the Church and the State, lest the removal of the restraint that the Concordat clearly exercises might give rein to an unbridled violence on the part of the Church where it is strong enough to assume it. This view of the case has just been admirably treated in Italy by Signor Minghetti, a statesman who has long enjoyed the highest political and civil honors, in an excellent little work that has just been translated into French. The author is a man of very large experience, a colleague and co-laborer of Cavour. He meets those who warn the nation against Cavour's motto-" Chiesa libera in Stato libero,” (A free Church in a free State,) and bids it beware lest there arise from it a "Chiesa armata in Stato disarmato," (An armed Church in a disarmed State.) Minghetti devotes his book to resolving this question, the only one of much import now against the separation. He shows with great skill all the evil that the old system brings into the religious field, even under the milder form of the Concordat. He regards it a violence to compel those of other convictions to support creeds that they do not believe, and declares that the union between Church and State, as it exists to-day, is highly irrational. But his most valuable thoughts are those devoted to the measures of transition and legislation necessary to the security of the State and the liberty of the Churches. He does not believe that factious ultramontanism would find its account in the bond thus broken; he argues that it would be forced by this to yield to necessary reforms. And to these it would soon have resort if the civil power should demand that all the owners of ecclesiastic property should be elected by the congregations, and be laymen, with the privilege of mortmain abolished. To the great body of believers of the various Churches who express fears as to the destiny of religion left to itself, he replies by the most noble words on the unextinguishable thirst for the divine which consumes the human soul, and which appears with renewed intensity in those who feel that they have been deceived. Minghetti, though an Italian statesman, shows that he has wisely studied the burning thoughts of Vinet, and the translator Laveleye, a Belgian Liberal, in his beautiful preface, warns the French Republic to beware of the faults of its fathers in 1792, and reminds it that the only revolutions that are successful are those that reach the conscience and rely on religious renovation.

THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES.

The unsettled state of affairs in the principalities of the Danube and the regions bordering the Adriatic and Egean seas, has caused a long season of excitement and uncertainty to the Oriental Churches. This has been especially the case among the populations belonging to the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In the national Church of Servia, whose center is at Karlowitz, a new patriarch was to be elected in the place of one deceased. The Servian Convention elected two Bishops that belong to the national Servian party, and who for that reason were unacceptable to the Hungarian government; the result was that the latter finally appointed one, and the Convention accepted him. The Russian influence on the clergy of Servia and of the Servians in Hungary is still very strong, and While an Austrian makes them difficult subjects for the Austrians.

ministry was in power, the Metropolitan of Belgrade, who was friendly to Russia and would not yield to Austria, was deposed. In Bosnia and Herzegovina there is much dissatisfaction among the adherents of the Eastern Church at the favoritism shown the Catholic propaganda by the new episcopal seat at Serayewo. On the contrary, the Greek Oriental Church of Roumanian nationality in Hungary and Transylvania is greatly on the increase under the head of the Metropolitan of Hermanstadt; it now numbers over five and a half million souls. To the district of this ecclesiastical prince there have been added two Episcopal dioceses that are now to receive an increase of two more. Temeswar will be the new episcopal residence, where there are already a Roman Catholic and a Servian bishopric. It is a mystery why the Austrian government does not unite the Roumanians and the Servians under one Church authority. The difference of national spirit between these two nationalities would afford the best protection against political combinations which are dangerous to the State. But it has ever been the doctrine of the Catholic Church in Austria to separate its antagonists into as many parties as possible, so that it could conquer by dividing them.

new ones.

One gratifying feature now growing among the Oriental Churches is the desire for a better training of the clergy, in consequence of which steps have been taken to enlarge existing theological schools and erect Thus the school of Rizarios at Athens, that has existed for a generation without any advance, is now to be thoroughly rebuilt and enlarged. The renovated school will open in the spring with a greatly extended curriculum. The Theological Seminary of the orthodox Churches of Turkey, on an island in the Sea of Marmora, has also been much enlarged. In Roumania, where hitherto there have been but two schools of inferior rank, the government is occupied with a plan to establish a theological school of higher grade in Bucharest. Similar institutions are very much desired by the Bulgarian clergy, which at present counts but very few cultured men. A Bulgarian Episcopal Synod lately met in Sofia under the presidency of the exarch, but for the nonce it has so much to do in the arrangement of the hierarchy under the new