many hungry and eager spirits are now looking for light and truth. It is to the French Protestants that the masses in France, who are dissatisfied with the false or negative religion of the day, are extending their arms and uttering the Macedonian cry. And those, alas! feel their own weakness and powerlessness. These very Churches, who would need to consecrate themselves to the work of revival in the bosom of the Catholic masses, how much they need a revival in their own midst ! How difficult it is for them to draw even a fraction of their professed followers to their altars. One of the pastors recently exclaimed: "I recollect with sorrow a Sabbath lately passed in a church in Vaunage. As I was going to the temple, I passed through a group of about sixty men, most of them Protestants, who were enjoying the sun and chatting. I thought, in my simplicity, that they were awaiting the passage of the preacher in order to follow him to the house of prayer. But the service was finished without their crossing the threshold. They would have thought themselves dishonored by such an act, though, in default of piety, curiosity alone might have attracted them to hear a stranger's voice." Many honest endeavors have been made to render Protestant services attractive to French hearers, and none of a more decided character than that of Pastor Bersier of the Temple de l'Etoile, so well known to all Protestant Christians who spend any time in Paris. Bersier has prepared a litany for the use of the Reformed Churches of France, and uses it in his church by means of a reader who assists him. It is very beautiful to read and to listen to, but it borders much on the service of the Episcopalian Church, and is thus judged by the author of this article: "One can use this only in rare cases, and mainly in congregations where religious life already exists. I do not believe that the experience is entirely favorable. I recall the painful impression that this Anglican service made on my own mind. These lifeless responses, this irreverent habit of reciting together the Lord's Prayer in the style of the schools, fairly scanning the sentences. One can attribute to various causes the relative success that it has obtained in the Church of Bersier. But the children of the Huguenots who so often worshiped in caves and forests find this portion of the service very long, and it is only made supportable by the thought of

soon hearing the eloquent and living words of the eminent preacher."

One of the gifted family of the Monods, in his article in the March number on "The Light of the World," runs into the same strain of sorrow and appeal to his colleagues in the great work of the salvation of France: "O members of the Evangelical Free Churches, will you deserve your beautiful name? Will you indeed be free, with not merely a negative liberty, which is not a favorable soil for the growth of true liberty, but with that liberty itself, the glorious liberty of the children of God? Will you be evangelical Christians? Will you be the light of the world? Then submit to the Gospel, not only in your heart but in your life. Be inspired with the feelings that were in Jesus Christ. In the midst of men, be new men; be the most generous, the most humble, and most just, for no kindness, no charity, is of value without justice. Be the first to forget wrongs suffered, the last to welcome or extend evil reports without motive. Show yourselves men of faith and courage; this will be the light to your feet. Perhaps it will not be scen, but what matters it? It is the artificial lights alone that burn to be seen; the Roman candle or the rocket dazzles for a moment and then sinks back into darkness. But the light you are required to be does not draw attention to itself; it illumines the path of men that they may reach the goal that is assigned them, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." This beautiful and saintly article was the substance of a discourse delivered at the opening of the seventeenth Synod of the Evangelical Churches of France; and this does not by any means include all the so-called Reformed Churches. Many of these, alas! have so far wandered from the true Light of the world that they are indeed false lights, whose light is darkness. But, fortunately, many others have looked steadily at the true light, though almost obscured, and they still see and recognize it, and are the leaven that shall inspire the lump. Among these the Monods stand out in bold relief, and seldom appeal to their comrades and followers without words so fitting, and thoughts so pure and godly, that we may yet hope for the evangelization of France from their efforts alone. But as the King's business bideth no delay, does it not behoove the Christian world to listen to their Macedonian cry?

ART. IX.-FOREIGN RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

HOME MISSION WORK IN GERMANY.

THE anti-Jewish raid and the political excitement in Germany threatened to swamp all true religious work, and many of the truest Christians have been suffering at heart at the gloomy prospect for German cities overwhelmed with socialism and infidelity. In the midst of this gloom and doubt, the very man who has been so active in opposition to the Jews and Socialists, the famous court chaplain, Stoecker, started a movement in the interest of "Christian Socialism," as he christened it, which is nothing less than an extensive home mission movement for the aid and regeneration of all classes destitute of friends and deprived of Christian influences. This has been working now for some time, and has recently made its annual report, which shows surprising results, that are the best proof of its need and acceptability. The statistics of its work tell a very significant story of the destitution of the lower classes in the most intelligent city of the world, as Berlin claims to be.

The first attention of the band of workers was devoted to the reformation of discharged criminals, and their success in this line has gained the thanks of the Consistory and the prison authorities. Three hundred and fourteen of this class have been under the care of the city missionaries, who have paid them frequent visits, and read the Bible for them and joined in song and prayer, besides finding them shelter and employment. One of the "brothers" is at the head of an asylum for this class on leaving prison, and before they have employment, the most dangerous crisis for the released criminal. This work is supported by voluntary contribution, and some light employment is carried on by those who are temporarily in the asylum. Court Chaplain Stoecker promises great results from this branch of their work. The twenty-three missionaries in the service of this cause have made more than sixty thousand visits in some of the most degraded quarters of the capital. About forty thousand families are in connection with the mission and aided or counseled by it; and the record of these is quite peculiar. Nearly forty thousand unbaptized children were found, which is, among the Germans, realized to be a sad neglect. About two thousand of these have been baptized with the consent of the parents, the others still hold back under Socialistic or anti-Christian influences. The startling fact is announced that five thousand unbaptized children die yearly. By the influence of the missionaries the figures of unconsecrated wedlock have also been notably reduced; for a few years it was seventy-five in one hundred; this is now reduced to fifty-seven. This neglect of the marriage ceremony was largely caused by the preliminaries and expense of a Church marriage. Under the civil marriage law the obstacles are in great part removed, and it is thus more easy to induce the parties to legalize their union and legitimate their children.

And again, the city mission is introducing the Sunday-school work into their sphere, hitherto scarcely known at all. They report an average attendance at their schools of two thousand one hundred and seventyfive. They have four thousand five hundred and thirty-four subscribers to religious publications adapted to their wants, and have distributed seventy thousand tracts, sold one hundred and eighty-seven Bibles, three hundred and sixty-five New Testaments, and donated eight hundred and twenty-two religious books. They have three large and several small halls where they give periodical biblical instruction of a simple and attractive character. In one large hall known as the Friedens Kapelle (Peace Chapel) they hold Bible meetings, prayer-meetings, children's meetings, a Sunday-school, and a sewing school for women and girls; and in addition to this there are singing schools for men, women, and children, and a people's library. A little while ago this work would have been regarded with an unfriendly eye by the city pastors as an infringement on their territory, as all these people are theoretically in their parishes and under their care; but the missionaries report two thousand visits made to the clergymen of the parishes, a proof of the friendly relation existing between them. Berlin has parishes containing from eighty thousand to one hundred and twenty-five thousand souls. No pastor can take care of these-they are not parishes, but chaos; and their very numbers prove how greatly the masses have been neglected by the "Establishment." The cry has now gone forth: "Let there be light in these dark places!" and the clergy in this period of irreligious activity begin to see the brink of ruin near which their cause now stands. They therefore now gladly receive honest and conscientious help from any quarter. And the masses now seem strangely ready for it. At the recent Easter festivities crowds of hearers thronged the churches where believing preachers were announcing the word of God. But there was no room for them. Thousands were obliged to turn away; and good men say that such a condition of things cries aloud to heaven, and welcome religious life and work even from a city mission.

AUSTRIA AND THE JEWISH QUESTION.

The Austrians now find themselves, nolens volens, involved in the Jewish question. The tens of thousands escaping from Russia and making their way to the United States mainly assemble in the cities of Austrian Provinces, just over the Russian border, and this brings out into activity the native and local Jews in the effort to guide them. Some two hundred rabbis, from Galicia and Buckovina have just held a convention in Lemberg, and have taken measures that make it appear that the Jews of these provinces, at least, would form a state within a state, which move is quite distasteful to the government and the people at large. The government has for some time been endeavoring to dissolve certain Jewish associations that were evidently of a political, rather than a religious, character, so that the Jews might become more

allied to and commingled with the other population. The orthodox Jews in the eastern provinces of the monarchy oppose this with great bitterness, seeming, in addition to the enjoyment of all state rights, to desire to remain still a peculiar, close corporation. In this sense the meeting of the rabbis was convened at Lemberg under the auspices of a delegate to the Parliament who is a Jewish rabbi.

The resolutions passed at this convention are a curiosity. The severest measures are to be adopted toward those Jews who in any way endeavor to introduce progressive ideas into the Jewish communities. No one may hereafter be elected to any body, be it Municipal Council, Diet, or Parliament, who does not strictly observe all ritual ceremonies. Even the right to vote is to be denied to any such offending person. Any Jews who violate ceremonial directions must be buried in that part of the grave-yards allotted to criminals and suicides. In social circles all such violators of Jewish ritual are to be avoided, and the verdict in all such cases is to be given by the rabbis. This savage and mediæval legislation has greatly exasperated the Progressive or Liberal Jews, who ask protection from the government in this trouble with their coreligionists, who have possession of the ground and the implements of their faith. This assumption over state laws is causing a great excitement in these provinces, which will soon, under such legislation, be ready to follow the example of the Russians. The masses are being enlightened on the matter by radical anti-Semitic sheets that indulge in low witticisms and caricature against the assumptions of the rabbis. In Vienna, and other large cities of Austria, radical papers are springing up in all quarters, and in Bohemia and Hungary the hatred against the Germans is giving way for the more active raid against the Jews. The Hebrew circles are alarmed to see an effort being made to hold anti-Semitic meetings in that capital, until now the stronghold of the moneyed Jews of all the empire. For the nonce, the government has tried to suppress these meetings, and thinks to have crushed the germ in the egg. But in reality this procedure simply places the anti-Semitics before the populace as martyrs. This Austrian movement against the Jews is so much the more dangerous because it is impelled by great hatred toward the Jews without any regard to their moral or religious status. The action of the rabbis makes it purely political. Even the most earnest voices that are raised against the Jews of Austria announce this, for the opposition is by no means confined to the low satirical sheets. A monograph from a professor of the University of Vienna, entitled "Babylon, Judaism, and Christendom," transposes into its exact counterpart the expression, "Salvation comes from the Jews." It contends that only the anti-Semitic and Gentile nations are on the right path, and should follow it more energetically. The God of the Jewish people was only the God of a race, and the enemies of the Jews are those alone who have the univer sal God of all. The author claims that the New Testament has not the least connection with the Old, and that Christ and the rise of Christianity in Israel are only to be explained by the assumption and pride