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marvellous facility with which she seizes the vapour and the lightning and bids them obey the will of man, political revolutions, the achievement by long-oppressed nationalities of civil and religious freedom, the multiplication of books, the circulation of knowledge, the spirit of inquiry,—these and similar means may contribute to ameliorate the temporal condition, and supply the physical and even the intellectual wants of man; and no lover of his species but will rejoice in the pre-eminence of the present times, in all these respects, over every preceding period of history. But the malady of human nature lies deeper than to be touched by any of these. Give him knowledge-give him science-give him civilisation— give him freedom-give him commerce and man will be an unhappy and a hopeless creature still, without an object, or an end suited to his nature, or worthy of it. He may yet live to be miserable, and die to be lost. But give him the Gospel, make him acquainted with the cross of Christ, and in that he will find the cure of the most inveterate evils, and the spring of whose healing waters if he drinks he shall live for ever. The dignified and the lovely, the just and the benevolent of human character are the fruit, not of philosophy, but of the Gospel-not of reason, but of faith. Nor until faith in the Gospel lies at the foundations of society, and its influence is diffused through all its ramifications, will the period arrive when the weapons of war shall be converted into implements of husbandry, and on earth there shall be peuce, good will to men, and glory to God in the highest.

Christians, therefore, must still be at their post, as the lovers and benefactors of their fellow-men. But let them form their expectations wisely, that their efforts also may be judicious. Their hopes will assuredly be realised, but perhaps the end is not yet. What scenes may be witnessed first, who shall tell? Shall they not be scenes of terror and disınay? The antichristian powers, whether they be Papal, Mahomedan, or Infidel, must all be overthrown. Events of the most disastrous kind are especially to be expected in those nations which have been the seat of the great apostasy. The city which sits so proudly upon her seven hills, and calls herself eternal, is destined to swift destruction. She saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow; therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. But, when Babylon is fallen, let Zion lift up her head, for her redemption draweth nigh. In the meantime, every observant Christian, and ourselves especially, like the ancient Hebrew Seer, will stand upon his watch, and set him upon the tower, and will watch to see the things which are coming on the earth.

The close of the year affords a fitting opportunity for us to represent to our readers the service they will be rendering to their friends, as well as to us and the cause to which our work is devoted, by recommending them to take in Evangelical Christendom. Do you not, courteous reader, find in these pages information such as you get nowhere else, and such as enlarges your heart in sympathy with your fellow-christians of every name and of every church? Then we ask you to extend their circulation among your acquaintance, and thus to extend their usefulness.

EVANGELICAL CHRISTENDOM:

ITS STATE AND PROSPECTS.

Original Papers.

EDITORIAL REVIEW OF EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE IN 1848.

THE close of a second year, since our labours began, calls upon us to review once again the course of Divine Providence. The changes of the previous year were interesting and highly important, but those of 1848 have thrown them completely into the shade. The world has been startled by a series of revolutions, without example for their momentous importance and surprising rapidity. It has seemed a panorama of dissolving views, rather than a succession of real events, which has flitted before our eyes. The words of the prophet have never received a more striking illustration, when he describes the history of mighty empires by the figure of winds striving on the great sea, in the troubled dreams of a night vision.

Let us first of all turn our eyes to FRANCE, which took the lead in these astonishing events by the revolution of last February. However sudden the overthrow of the monarchy, which startled all Europe, thoughtful observers of Providence, and careful students of Scripture, were prepared to expect such convulsions at no distant period. The words of our own summary, in January last, were almost like a prediction of the events which followed so rapidly. We spoke of" the moody and sullen discontent, mingled with fierce ambitious aspirations, which still rankled there in the bosom of multitudes." "The fires of ambition," we continued, "though pent up, seem burning there as fiercely as ever; and their bursting forth a second time from that moral volcano would be the signal for a devastation, such as the world has seldom, if ever, witnessed." How speedily were those words verified! Two months had scarcely passed, and the throne was in the dust, Paris filled with bloodshed and confusion, the king a fugitive and an exile, a republic founded on the triumph of the barricades, and the destinies of Europe entrusted, apparently, to the wisdom of VOL. III.-JANUARY.]

a fierce and fiery Parisian democracy. A knot of republican zealots vaulted into sudden power, and assumed a despotic control over the millions of France, while, they struck alarm and terror into every nation of Europe. For two or three months the movement spread triumphantly. Revolution followed revolution. Germany and Italy shook to their centre with the effects of this great catastrophe. Meanwhile confidence was at an end, commerce was stagnant, credit destroyed; fear and distress, like a contagious epidemic, spread from Paris to every corner of France, and through every neighbouring kingdom. The Provisional Government, itself split into factions, became an object of growing dissatisfaction, and soon of almost universal disgust. A National Assembly was no sooner elected by universal suffrage, than it was subjected to the coercion of the mobs of Paris, and invaded by hordes of ruffians, the enemies of all order and peace. Meanwhile, as was natural and reasonable, a strong reaction had begun. The body of the nation began to regard the revolution as a Pandora's box of evils. The violence of the red republicans filled them with alarm and disgust. Only a month had passed since the new Assembly had met to deliberate on the constitution, and the existence of society itself was at stake, and a bitter and deadly warfare, marked by features of the worst atrocity, raged for several days in the streets of Paris. Since then, a military despotism, though temperate in its exercise, has proved the only remedy for the state of anarchy into which France has plunged herself by the revolution. Every month, almost, has witnessed some change in the ephemeral idols which the populace have worshipped. The Provisional Government, with its violent parties, the Socialist orator, the Executive Committee, the military dictator, have all, in

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turn, shared and lost the public confidence; | and now, republican France flings the mantle of its favour on the adventurer of Strasburg and Boulogne, because he bears the name of a tyrant, who, after cursing Europe with plagues like those of Egypt, brought the greatest calamities upon France itself in his deserved fall. The various stages of the former revolution have, most of them, been compressed into a single year; while their swift succession gives to them all the effect of a bitter mockery. It is not the calm deliberate progress of a mighty nation that we seem to gaze upon, but the fickle fancies of a lunatic, or the pageant of some idle, empty dream. What can we hope for France, while Paris has chosen, among its representatives and political favourites, one of the vilest of blasphemers, and the holy Sabbath of God is deliberately profaned by the whole nation, in those fundamental changes which are to regenerate society, and renew the face of the world? "Men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles;" nor can we expect the fruits of order and peace, where the nation is defiled with public, systematic Sabbath-breaking, and open, daring blasphemies lift up their voice in the high places of

the land.

that this will be only partially true, and that access will now be gained, without difficulty, to many scenes of labour, which before were almost inaccessible. Every social change of this kind must act like a ploughshare upon the minds of men; and while some are withdrawn from the kindly influences of Divine truth, who before had enjoyed them, others are brought within their reach, who are better prepared to profit by their salutary influence. Stagnation is always dangerous to the spiritual life. When there is a lull in this political tempest, we may hope that multitudes will be awakened to deeper inquiry into the true source of the various evils that have oppressed them, and thus learn to care for the things which make for their present and everlasting peace.

Yet we must not rely on the transient indications of increased tolerance and liberty. No liberty can be solid or lasting that is not based on Divine truth, received into the hearts of men, and sustained by the ceaseless work of the Spirit of God. The licence, which obtains in seasons of transition, is itself transitory and deceitful. Democracy is just as capable as despotism of allying itself with falsehood against the truth of God. Signs of this new alliance have already become conspicuous. The new constitution was inaugurated with the idolatries of the mass, like the reign of Louis Quatorze, or the Empire of Napoleon, and though the alliance be hollow, even a hollow league may be quite enough for the work of persecution. If the church of Christ enters into a treacherous alliance with popular infidelity, it will find that popular infidelity can be as oppressive and hostile to Divine truth as the thrones of superstition. The Canton de Vaud has given us one warning, and it is quite possible that, before long, republican France may repeat the lesson on a larger scale. There is nothing in the world more impatient of contradiction than the self-willed majority of an unbelieving and sovereign people. Let the Christians of France rejoice in their momentary liberty, and use it diligently in works of love. Who can tell how soon the clouds may gather, and the evils of intolerance return in a more

There is a bright and a dark side in this mighty revolution. Though it would ill become us to exult over fallen greatness, we must not forget to justify the ways of God, and the equity of his moral government. Amidst the crash of the burning Tuileries we think of poor Tahiti, with the cruel wrongs inflicted on that distant island, and its unprotected queen, and we adore the God of judgment. "The Lord God of recompences doth surely requite." And when we compare the unprovoked aggression of the French monarch, the forced exile of the queen of Tahiti, the hollow name of a protectorate, and the reality of murderous warfare, which were brought on by his reckless ambition, or politic expediency, in flattering the desires of his people, at the sacrifice of all justice, we feel that the words of Adonibezek are equally suitable in the lips of the fallen monarch. "As I have done, so God hath requited me.' This illustration of the Divine equity, how-aggravated form? ever, is not the only benefit to be traced in the late revolution. For a time, at least, there is given a wider opening for the spread of the Gospel throughout France. It may be doubted, indeed, whether the intense occupation of men's minds with political changes will not prove, really, as great a hindrance to the Gospel as the direct obstructions which the former Government, out of politic compliance with the priests, had nut in its way. We may hope, however,

The revolution of Paris was quickly followed by those of Berlin and Vienna. Hardly a month had passed, and all Europe, from the Vistula to Sicily, was in a flame, and rocking with the mighty earthquake. The two great capitals of GERMANY followed the example of Paris, and each of them, during the past year, has thrice been the scene of bloody conflict and murderous civil warfare. The old land-marks have been ready to disappear. The Germans have longed for closer nationality, but their

attempts to realize it have produced, hitherto, only worse and more hopeless division. The old Governments have been rendered powerless, and the new one continues an Utopian shadow. It has been a name, and nothing more. Frankfort and Vienna have been disgraced by atrocities, worthy only of the most brutal savages, and the mob of Berlin seems to have come little behind them in the race of criminality and violence. Men have raised the cry of fraternity, and then treated one another with the cruelty of fiends. They have They have clamoured for a fatherland, and butchered some of the best and noblest of its children. To borrow the expression of those servants of Christ, who have witnessed these calamities and horrors, it seems as if the spirits of the abyss had ascended to seduce and to destroy men. At present, Austria is almost dropping to pieces with the strife of its own subjects, and the double feuds of political party and alienated and hostile races. The Emperor has abdicated, and a youth of nineteen has been placed on the unstable throne of the German Cæsars. The King of Prussia, deprived by one or two false steps of the confidence of his Christian subjects, and hated by the infidel party, for his attachment to Christian truth, is now painfully endeavouring to maintain a throne, endangered by the spirit of the times and his own former errors, and to secure liberty to his people, in spite of the criminal folly of their own favourite and chosen leaders. Meanwhile, throughout Germany, confidence seems entirely destroyed, and the state of the whole country, with the strife and faction of each separate province, reminds us forcibly of the prophetic description of the commonwealth of Israel, in the time of God's judgment on their iniquity: "They shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm; Manasseh, Ephraim, and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together shall be against Judah; for all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched

out still."

an illustration has since been given of the truth of these remarks! The liberal and reforming Pope, the idol of the Roman populace, while he flattered their passions, no sooner strove to mitigate and restrain their zeal for Italian independence, than he became the object of muttered curses and open imprecations. His person assailed, his Minister assassinated, his secretary shot in his own palace, besieged by an army of ruffians, who gloried in their own crimes, the pretended Vicar of Christ was compelled to flee, in the disguise of a servant to the Bavarian ambassador, from the fury of his own people. What can we say of these things, but that he has reaped as he has sown? As he hath done, so God hath requited him. By the authority of the Pope, every church in Rome has its tablets of ample indulgence for sin. By the authority of the Pope, Bibles are prohibited, and the cinders and fat of St. Lawrence are held up for the adoration of the Roman people. That people have now proved themselves worthy of their instructors. They have been as reckless of Bible morality, as eager to indulge their sins, as ready to believe a political lie, and then to worship the lie they have believed, as Popery itself could make them. They have borne witness to the world of the moral fruits it yields in the very seat of its power; and that there is no surer way to procure the curse of God on any Government, than to cast out the Bible, and flatter the ignorance of the people, by pandering to those idolatrous follies which the Bible sternly condemns. Those who strive to gain popularity by despising the commands of God, should look at the fugitive Pope, only a few months ago the idol of the Roman populace, and take warning.

But we must not infer hastily, because the temporal dominion of the Papacy is now in extreme peril, if it has not already passed away, that the end of his spiritual supremacy is also come. Perhaps the immediate effect may be the very opposite. It was during a If now we turn to ITALY, and especially similar flight from Rome that Hildebrand to Rome, the events of the year have advanced the authority of the Pope to its been equally marvellous. We spoke, last greatest height. It is probable, we think, January, of the new compact which seemed that the result will be, for a short time, to forming between superstition and lawlessness, increase the fascination of Popery in other while an idolatrous hierarchy were endeavour- countries. There will doubtless be much ing to vault into the seat of power and popular sentimental pity for the misfortunes of the favour, by courting the plaudits of the venerable Pontiff, and severe invectives against Sovereign people. The novelty of a reforming his ungrateful subjects, who have been blind Pope, when we wrote, was still the object of to his transcendent virtues. Popery will give admiration and flattery among the popular up its first-born for its transgression, and party of worldly politicians. The league, surrender the citizens of Rome to the indignawe said, is treacherous and uncertain; the tion of Europe, that it may conciliate a double priests and liberals, even though joined for a measure of interest and sympathy for the moment under the same banner, look on one exiled Vicar of Christ. The forced abandonanother with an eye of cold suspicion. What ment of his temporal power, making a virtue

of necessity, may serve to recommend his cause to many, who have hated it rather as a system of priestly domination over civil government than as an affront to the Divine holiness, and an active enemy of the Gospel of Christ. We should not be surprised, therefore, at a considerable increase of Popery in our own land, and a partial revival of its apparent power on the Continent, as the result of the exile of Pius IX. But of this we feel sure, that the revival will be very superficial and very short-lived, and that the league of superstition and infidel lawlessness will soon be dissolved in the convulsive agonies of death. Babylon will fall speedily, and her destroyer will not be spared long to rejoice in his triumph. Meanwhile, Italy is open for Bibles, and the preaching of the Gospel, and calls with a loud voice to British Christians, "Come over and help us."

And now we turn to OUR OWN BELOVED COUNTRY. What thanks are due to our God, who has brought us in safety through a year of such unexampled danger, and maintained peace in all our borders! The storm, which has swept over the Continent, threatened more than once to visit us, but its fury has been withheld from our empire, and our tranquillity been prolonged. Last April was a season of deep anxiety, and many hearts were fainting with fear. But, through the blessing of God on the provident care of our rulers, the unobtrusive labours of charity in our great towns,—and the spirit of order and liberty which the Gospel has created and maintained, the cloud passed over, and no bloody drops were distilled upon our land. Our own deliverance, in that time of unusual excitement, began to react at once upon France and other foreign kingdoms, and from that hour we may date the first decisive check to the spirit of anarchy, and the returning prevalence, in France itself, of more moderate counsels. The mercy of God to our country was never more signally displayed, and it becomes us to render our heart's deepest thanks for these public and private blessings.

The danger of an Irish insurrection seemed still more threatening. After all the benevolent exertions of the year of famine, it was truly an awful spectacle to witness the mingled falsehood and fury which were employed to stir up the worst passions of men against those who had been straining every nerve, so lately, for their succour and relief. This evil, also, was mercifully averted, and the seditious conspiracy, which threatened to fill Ireland with blood, has burst like a bubble and disappeared. But this reckless and wicked agitation has left us a legacy, it is to be feared, of suspicion and hatred on both sides, which

threatens new calamities to Ireland and the whole empire, and which only the most strenuous efforts of Christian charity can remove. We are now called upon, more than ever, to impart that Gospel to Ireland, which alone can rescue her children from moral, spiritual and political debasement, and make them industrious citizens and loyal subjects, while it prepares them for a better inheritance in the kingdom of God.

In looking back on the events of the year, of which we have now alluded to a few only, there are some general reflections which must strike every thoughtful mind. The mighty political changes that are passing around us, have affected all the old relations between the Church of Christ and the powers of the world. On the proper character of those relations, it is well known, a great difference of opinion exists among true Christians, and our peculiar office forbids us to enter on this field of inquiry. There are many who apprehend that great benefits will accrue to the Church, from the loosening of its connexion with civil Governments; and many others, who anticipate sore judgments upon states and kingdoms, in proportion as they divorce themselves from all open profession of allegiance to Christ and his word. Events, in most Continental States, are clearly loosening the former connexion, and tending either to dissolve it entirely, or to place it on a new and altered footing. It is hardly possible that correspondents, writing amidst the whirl and excitement of these changes, should not give some colouring to their narratives, derived from their own impressions of what is desirable or dangerous for the Church of Christ. Beyond those broad general principles of love for Gospel truth, and desire for its progress, of hope in the overruling providence of God, and hatred of hypocrisy and open ungodliness, which must be common to all sincere Christians, we do not make ourselves responsible for their individual sentiments. aim is to record facts, and not to advocate any ecclesiastical theory. One caution alone we feel at liberty to offer, without infringing on that law of forbearance which, as conductors of Evangelical Christendom, we desire to exercise on all these secondary questions, and it is one which the aspect of the times renders peculiarly seasonable and important. In such periods of various and intense excitement, we would remind our readers of one great truth; that they should carefully deduce their own principles from the word of God, by which to interpret passing events, and not borrow principles from the events themselves, by which to interpret the word of God. Whatever we place higher than that word, whether a Pope, a Synod, a

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