Sunday-school Society stated that the number of Sunday-schools in France is about 660, and that of scholars 33,000. Among the speakers at the anniversaries were again most of the eminent representatives of French Protestantism. The active participation of the younger Guizot and a number of the society was especially noted.

FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND SLAVERY. -The clergy of the Protestant Churches of France have recently given another proof of their earnest opposition to slavery and their sympathy with the success of our cause. More than seven hundred and fifty of them have signed a letter to the English ministers on the subject of the war in America, in which they urge that the success of the cause represented by the Confederate States "would put back the progress of Christian civilization and of humanity a whole century;" and call upon the ministers and pastors of all denominations in England to take the lead in calling forth a great and peaceful manifestation of sympathy for the colored race so long oppressed and despised by Christian nations." The signers of the address represent every Protestant denomination of France, and every theological school. The address has already borne a good fruit. The following reply was adopted by a conference of ministers held in London and presided over by the Hon. Rev. Baptist W. Noel:

44

DEAR BRETHREN,-We, whose names are undersigned, share in your views, rejoice in your zeal, and are thankful for your exhortations. It is honorable to

France, and to French Protestantism, that you so heartily wish the destruction of the slave system, which makes four million of negroes wretched, which debases their masters, which has been a vast calamity to a great Protestant nation, and which dishonors Christ, by whose professed servants it is upheld. Like yourselves, we feel a deep compassion for the slaves, who are a part of the human family; we wish by all means in our power to discourage those who are seeking to found an empire on their degradation; and we wish success to all just and humane measures for their deliverance. With these sentiments, we beg to assure you that, following where you have so nobly taken the lead, we shall do what we can to accomplish those benevolent objects to which you invite our attention. Accept our fraternal wishes that you may enjoy the favor and blessing of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Within a few days upward of fifteen hundred ministerial signatures to this address were received by the London and Manchester emancipation societies, and large numbers continued to be received every day. The signatures include many clergymen of the Churches of England and Scotland, and non-conformist ministers of every denomination.

SPAIN.

THE IMPRISONED PROTESTANTS.—All the efforts made by the Evangelical Alliance and other friends of religious libants of Spain have been of no avail. erty in behalf of the imprisoned Protest

The court in Granada has confirmed the sentence passed by an inferior court against Matamoras, Alham, and Trigo. nine years, and Trigo to seven years of imprisonment. The discussion of this case in all the leading journals of Europe has, however, shown this gratifying fact, that public opinion is everywhere in faof Roman Catholics have signed the pevor of religious toleration. Thousands prisoners. Even the Emperor of France tition to the queen for the release of the had written to that end an autograph

The former two have been sentenced to

letter.

ROMAN CATHOLICISM.

ITALY.

INTOLERANCE OF THE CHURCH OF ROME.-The world, even the Roman Catholic countries not excluded, is gradually emancipating itself from the thralldom of religious intolerance; but it is certainly not owing to the influence of the pope and the bishops if the Catholic nations, in common with the rest of the world, are progressing in this question in the right direction. On the contrary, the pope is furnishing himself the most unmistakable proofs that the whole influence of the Church of Rome, as far as the pope and the bishops can control it, is still being used for maintaining those intolerant laws which disgraced the Christianity of the middle ages. The the Bishops of the Tyrol fully approving pope has recently addressed a letter to the efforts made by them for depriving the Protestants in that province of the right of meeting in public for religious worship, and of acquiring landed prop

erty. He also announced in a recent allocution that he had succeeded in concluding with the governments of the Central American republics of Nicaragua and Salvador concordats which maintained the Roman Catholic Church in possession of her former prerogatives as the only religion of those states.

This continued adhesion on the part of Rome to the principles of religious intolerance has, however, the most happy effect upon public opinion in the Roman Catholic countries. The number of those who dare to advocate persecution and exclusiveness with regard to other creeds in the legislative assemblies and in the press are becoming fewer every year. Italy, in particular, is setting a good example. The Parliament shows itself a watchful guardian of the maxim of the illustrious Cavour: A free Church in a free state. Father Passaglia is now a member of the Parliament, and in his maiden speech, made in the first days of May, brought in a bill requiring all priests to take an oath of loyalty, guaranteeing protection to such priests as are subjected to ecclesiastical censures on account of their sympathy with the national cause, or with other reformatory movements, and providing for the education of priests in the state colleges. It shows the good sense of the government and the majority of the Parliament that this motion, however commendable its intention may be, was not adopted, but that both government and Parliament declared themselves in favor of letting the pope and the bishops have their own way in matters purely ecclesiastical, while their encroachments upon the sphere of political affairs will be, as before, strenuously opposed. Italy bids fair to be the first state of Latin Europe which will carry through the American principle of the mutual independence of Church and State.

GERMANY.

THE ULTRAMONTANE PARTY IN AUSTRIA. The Austrian government has been compelled to cease its open opposition to modern civilization, and, at least, to profess a wish to pursue a progressive policy. Most of its statesmen,

and the emperor himself, have arrived at the conclusion that any other policy would endanger the very existence of the empire. One of the first fruits of the new policy is the establishment of religious toleration for the Protestants, or, at least, the Reformed and Lutheran State Churches in every Austrian province. It need hardly be said that the representatives of the people are, on this question, far ahead of the government, and demand not only religious toleration for the two Protestant Churches, but an unreserved recognition of the principle of religious liberty. Only in one province, the Tyrol-perhaps the most fanatical portion of all Europe-the ultramontane party has dared to make an attempt for defeating the new imperial policy. The three bishops who are members of the Tyrolese diet moved a resolution to petition the emperor for exempting the Tyrol from the law providing for religious toleration. As the representatives of the Tyrolese peasants are generally the blind tools of the priesthood, the diet, although by only a small majority, adopted the motion, and resolved, in par ticular, to petition the government for the following points: 1. That no noncatholic commune can be formed in the Tyrol. 2. That Protestants can only have private worship, and that consequently all public worship is forbidden them. 3. That the Protestant Church at Meran, which has been recently organized under the operations of the toleration law, should be considered as a place of private property. 4. That no Protestant should acquire an estate in the province without asking the permission of the authorities every time he wishes to make a purchase. The representatives of all the important towns voted against this resolution of medieval intolerance, and there is no doubt that the central government in Vienna I will refuse to confirm it. Since the

adoption of the resolution the Protestants of the capital, Innspruch, have completed their permanent organization and publicly met for worship. The Catholic inhabitants of the town showed a great interest in their meeting, and behaved with entire propriety.

GERMANY.

THE second part of the great work of Professor Tholuck on the Ecclesiastical Life of the Seventeenth Century until the beginning of what is commonly called the Period of Enlightenment, has been recently concluded. It treats of the second half of the seventeenth century, and completes the history of the time preceding the rise of Rationalism. (Tholuck, Das Kirchliche Leben des 17 Jahrhunderts. 2 vols. Berlin.)

Professor J. Köstlin, formerly at Göttingen and now at Breslau, has completed his work on the theology of Luther in its historical development and inner connection. (Köstlin, Luther's Theologie. 2 vols. Stuttgardt, 1863.) An exhaustive work on the theological views of the great reformer of the sixteenth century as they gradually developed themselves by his emancipation from and his lifelong struggle against the Church of Rome is, of course, of the utmost importance for a correct understanding of the whole reformatory movement and the history of Protestantism in general. Professor Köstlin, who belongs to the evangelical school of Germany, was well qualified by his long studies on the history and literature of the Reformation for undertaking so important a work. From a high Lutheran standpoint the same subject has been recently treated by Professor Harnark of Erlangen.

Professor Beck, of Tübingen, represents in Germany the strictest school of a purely biblical theology. He demands greater freedom of the Churches from the traditional doctrines and practices of their several denominations in order to be guided, entirely and unbiased, by the word of the Bible. His Compendium of Christian Doctrines (Leitfaden der Christlichen Glaubenslehre. Stuttgardt, 1862) recommends itself to all Bible students as the work of a man whom all evangelical schools highly esteem for the earnestness with which he has devoted a whole life to the cultivation of a system of biblical theology.

In no Protestant country is the predominance of Rationalism at present so FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XV.-32

general as in Holland. The center of the theological controversies are in Holland, to a still higher degree than in Germany, the universities, of which there are in Holland three, Groningen, Utrecht, and Leyden, each of which represents a particular school. A man of considerable influence in the modern theology of Holland, Hofstede de Groot, has recently published a work on the theologians of Groningen, (Die Groninger Theologen. Gotha, 1863,) which gives full information of one of the theological schools of modern Dutch theology.

Of the cheap edition of the works of Neander, Tholuck, Ullmann, and Umbreit, which Mr. Perthes of Gotha is now publishing, eight numbers have appeared, containing Neander's History of the Apostles and Life of Jesus Christ, and Tholuck's Doctrines of Sin and Sermons.

Dr. Volbeding has published a work on the celebrated traveler and exegetical writer, Constantin Tischendorf. Besides a biographical sketch, the work contains a commentary to the important publications of Tischendorf, and reviews the results which have already been obtained for biblical science from the discoveries of Tischendorf, or may yet be expected from them. (Volbeding, Dr. C. Tischendorf. Leipzic, 1863.)

An important work for all who wish to study the New Testament in the original language is the new and entirely revised edition of Wilke's Greek-Latin Lexicon to the Books of the New Testament, which is now being published at Leipsic. The editor, Prof. Grimm, of Jena, himself well known as an exegetical writer, has made it an entirely new work, embodying in it the results of the numerous and excellent literature which has appeared since the first edition of the work on Greek lexicography on the one hand, and on biblical exegesis and biblical theology on the other. (Wilkii, Clavis Novi Testamenti. Leipzic, 1863.)

of Dr. Gildemeister's work on the celebrated mystic philosopher of Germany, Johann Georg Hamann.

The Evangelical Calendar, which Prof. Piper, of Berlin, has now been publishing for fourteen years, is gaining every year more friends in and out of Germany. The volume for 1863 contains contributions, among others, from Ehrenfeuchter, Hundeshagen, Krummacher, Lübker, Moll, Van Oosterzee, Schenkel, Schmieder, and Ullmann. Among the articles it contains we notice one by the editor on the Tree of Life, and shorter ones on the Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem, on the Resurrection of Christ, biographical sketches of the two apostles, Simon and Jude, of Francis of Assisi, of Jerome of Prague, of Thomas à Kempis, and of the two reformers, Speratus and Ursinus. (Evangelischer Kalender. Berlin, 1863.)

The biblical commentary to the Pentateuch, by Dr. Keil, has been completed by the appearance of the second volume. This work forms the first part of a commentary to the entire Old Testament, which is to be published by Dr. Delitzsch and Dr. Keil. Both authors are well known as being among the most learned representatives of the old Lutheran school, and the work is expected to be the best from the standpoint of verbal inspiration that the German theology of the present day could produce. The next volume, being a commentary to the Book of Job, by Dr. Delitzsch, is announced as being in press. It will be followed by a commentary to the Books of Joshua and the Judges. (Biblischer Commentar über das alte Testament. 2 vols., 1862, 1863.)

Professor Zezschwitz, at Leipzic, has commenced a manual of Christian catechetics. The first volume, which has just appeared, has the special title: The Catechumenate; or, Ecclesiastical Education according to Theory and History. A Manual especially for Ministers and Pedagogues. The second volume, containing the "Method of the Catechism and of Catechetics for Students and Teachers," will appear before the end of the year 1863.

FRANCE.

M. DE TRIQUETY, to whom the Protestant literature of France is already indebted for several valuable works, has

recently published a treatise on the works of Christian charity, which have been established by the Protestant Churches of France since the beginning of the present century. (M. de Triquety, Exposé des Euvres de la Charité Protestante. Paris, 1863.) The Christian charity, according to Triquety, manifests itself chiefly in three forms-instruction, assistance, and evangelization. It is the two former with which he principally occupies himself. "I share," he says, "with the most enlightened spirits of this time the opinion that we can improve the condition of the people only by instructing it, and that we can only moralize it by strengthening the family ties. But I believe, moreover, that a sound instruction can be imparted, and the love of family be revived only by restoring to the depraved hearth and the unbelieving school the Gospel of truth. Fruitful and lasting works I have seen only among those which are produced by men attaching no merit to works, but working only in an humble spirit of children toward their Creator."

The author gives a sketch of the Protestant schools in France, which number about fourteen hundred, though the origin of some of them exceeds the beginning of the present century, from which time dates the legal existence of Protestantism in France. They are all in a flourishing condition and are conducted on a religious basis, while the state, under the pretext of being impartial toward all denominations, excludes religious instruction from schools altogether. Several societies make it their special object to found Protestant schools wherever they are needed, and under their patronage they are rapidly increasing in number. Sunday-schools are now connected with nearly every Protestant Church of France, and a special society has been organized in Paris for the purpose of founding a Sunday-School Library. Of still greater interest is the information which the author gives us on the numerous institutions which have been founded by the French Protestants for the benefit of the poor, the wretched, the sick, the depraved, the orphans, and other classes of society needing the aid of Christian charity. Some of these institutions, as those of Pastor John Bost at La Torre, have acquired a world-wide reputation.

Mr. GUEROULT, the editor of one of the Paris dailies, the Opinion Nationale,

has published a volume of essays on religious questions under the title, Etudes de Politique et de Philosophie Religieuse. (Paris, 1863.) The work is, in the main, a vindication of Saint-Simonism. It contains some brilliant articles against the Church of Rome in her present condition, on the Mortara affair, and some similar topics. But it also disparages Christianity in general, by charging it with indifference or even hostility as to the material progress of mankind and the industrial progress. Like most of the antichristian publications of modern France, it has a leaning toward the system of the Positive Philosophie, whose influence among young scholars has by no means yet ceased. The importance of works of this class consists not so much in any new ideas, as in the fact that they come from men who in other questions exercise a considerable influence upon our age. The great majority of them are in search of some kind of religion which they wish to substitute for Christianity; but the more candid among them will not deny that the effect produced by all the novel religious and antireligious systems of the nineteenth century is as yet insignificant.

Professor ROSSEEUW SAINT-HILAIRE, of Paris, has published a volume of religious essays under this title, Etudes Religieuses et Literaires. (Paris, 1863.) Many of these articles had already appeared in the Revue Chretienne, to which the author is a frequent contributor. He is in every respect one of the most prominent representatives of evangelical Protestantism in France.

A similar work has been published by Mr. Michel Nicholas, a leading man of the Liberal school of French Protestantism, (Essays de Philosophie et d'Histoire Religieuse. Paris, 1863.) The author analyzes the chief works on modern German theology on the origin of Christianity, and, like other writers of his school, he insists that a radical distinction must be made between the dogma and religion. One of the chief charac

teristics of this writer is his great clearness, which makes his work valuable for those who wish to acquaint themselves with the substance of this part of modern German literature without the trouble of studying all the original works themselves.

A great sensation has been made in the highest literary circles of France by a pamphlet of the Bishop of Orleans, Dupanloup, against four of the leading representatives of antichristian literature in France, Littré, Rénan, Taine, and Maury. The former was a candidate for a vacant chair in the French Academy-the highest ambition of a French scholar. His prospects of an election appeared to be good, for he had just commenced the publication of a great French dictionary, whose superior literary merits were acknowledged on all sides, and which promises to become one of the most eminent works of French literature. Mr. Littré is, however, an avowed follower of the school of Positive Philosophy, which some years ago was founded by Auguste Comte, and which openly discards and denies all the distinctive doctrines of Christianity. The Bishop of Orleans charges him with disguised atheism, and the effect of his pamphlet, which was published a few days before the election, was such that Mr. Littré remained in a minority and was defeated by Mr. de Carné, a historian and statesman belonging to the liberal Catholic school, of which Bishop Dupanloup, Montalembert, Prince Broglie, the present Archbishop of Paris, and others are leaders. Among those who voted on this occasion for Mr. de Carné were Guizot, Villemain, Cousin, and M. de Lamartine; while Thiers, de Sacy, Mignet, Ampère, de Remusat, and the Duke of Broglie cast their votes for Mr. Littré.

Mr. Rénan has in press a work entitled, The Life of Christ; or, the Origin of Christianity, which it is expected will make as great sensation in France as the work of Strauss made a few years ago in Germany.