THE

CHRISTIAN WORLD.

VOL. XIV.

MARCH, 1863.

No. 3.

• EVANGELICAL RELIGION IN GERMANY.

THERE is no part of Furope about whose religious state and prospects it is more difficult to speak intelligibly and satisfactorily to an American than the land of Luther and Melancthon. Indeed to mary, Germany is, in every sense, almost an incomprehensible country. Its geographical and political divisions, the constitution and structure of the old "Empire," that lasted from A. D. 843 till 1806, and the constitution and structure of the present "Confederation" and "Diet” (for there is no Empire now, nor has there been for the last fifty-seven years,) are a great mystery to most people in their school-days. In fact, it is not very easy even for "full-grown men" to understand how six monarchies, twenty-seven duchies, and four "free cities" (the Hanseatic towns of Hamburg, Bremen, Lubec, and Frankfort,) can be represented in a Diet of seventy members, meeting for ten months in the year with closed doors, and yet some of the great States-Austria and Prussia for instance—can go to war with a foreign power without involving all. or any of the other States that are members of the Diet. Indeed, the greater part of the Austrian Empire, and a considerable portion of the Kingdom of Prussia are not in Germany at all.

No country on the continent has made so much progress in education in all its phases, from the common schools, up through its gymnasia, normal schools, agricultural and scientific schools, to its universities, as Germany has done the last fifty years. No country has made more progress in its literature, of every species. None has made greater advances in railways. Excepting Italy, no country has a greater number of fine cities, or so many collections in the fine arts.

The population may now be estimated at some forty-three millions (we speak of Germany as represented by the Diet, and not including the non-Germanic portions of the Empire of Austria and the Kingdom of Prussia), of which twenty millions are Protestants and twenty-threemillions are Roman Catholics. The former are more numerous in the

north and north-west; the latter, in the south and south-east. Prussia is the great Protestant State of Germany, as Austria is the Roman Catholic. Although not forming a portion of the population of Germany, there are all of three or four millions of Germans in France, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, and the Baltic provinces, who are, for the most part, Protestants.

To understand the present religious state of Germany, so far as evangelical Protestantism is concerned, one must look back a little. The "Reformed Doctrine," as the Protestant system of faith was called at first, spread wonderfully in Germany in Luther's day and afterwards. But wars between the Roman Catholic princes and the Protestants, fomented by the Emperors (who, without exception, were Roman Catholics during the whole existence of the Empire), which occasionally took place, until they culminated, if we may so speak, in the "Thirty Years' War" (from 1618 to 1848), and which, thanks to Gustavus Adolphus and those brave men whom he trained up, placed the Protestant Church in that country in the possession of rights that have ever since been maintained.

But these wars, and those of the reign of Frederick the Great, and those which grew out of the Great Revolution in France of 1789, and lasted till the battle of Waterloo, in 1815, did vast injury to the interests of evangelical religion. So did, and so does still, the union of Church and State-a relation in which, as the late King of Prussia once said to an American gentleman, "the Church is the slave of the State."

From these causes, and perhaps we ought to add, the fact that the Protestant doctrines and worship were never quite thoroughly reformed and purified from all vestiges of Papal errors and practices in Germany, it resulted that evangelical religion began to lose somewhat of its lustre and power even in the seventeenth century; whilst in the eighteenth, excepting in the portions of it which were blessed by the labors of Francke, Spener, and the Moravian brethren, formality at first, and afterwards Arian, Socinian, and really infidel tenets, gained extensive sway in the Protestant Church in that country. But God raised up, from time to time, witnesses for the truth-men who did in some measure for Germany what Whitfield and Wesley did for England in the same century.

It is a curious fact in the history of religious errors, that it was to the writings of English deists and infidels, if we may make the distinction, that Germany was indebted for her first considerable departure from the Gospel. The infidel works of Hobbes, Bolingbroke, Hume, Gibbon, and others, were translated, published, and widely read in Germany in the eighteenth century, and prepared the way for the spread

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of a Christless, and consequently impotent form of Christianity. To such an extent did these errors spread, that there was very little true piety or sound doctrine left in the Protestant churches in Germany in the latter part of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the present. "The fine gold had become dim." Nothing remained but a code of morals. We may state in passing, as a noteworthy circumstance, that after English infidelity had been the cause of so much disaster to the interests of true religion in Germany, that same old infidelity now comes back to England, clothed in a German dress. Some of the worst things to be found in the Oxford "Essays and Reviews," which are making so much noise in England, are really little more than translations from the writings of Bunsen, Bauer, and other German authors, some of whom were avowed infidels, and others (like Bunsen) were really for a time on infidel ground, without being willing to own up to it. So it ever is; error is never still, but is always reproducing itself, with or without modifications. Arianism, Socinianism, Deism, Pantheism, have all, in succession, appeared in Germany, "Facilis descensus Averni."

How much lower error may go in Germany, it is not easy to conjecture; for it is impossible to conceive of any thing in religious speculation and belief lower down than Pantheism, unless it be Atheism.But in all practical senses of the doctrine, Pantheism is Atheism.

But a great change has commenced in the Protestant Church of Germany. Doubtless, the Bible Societies and Religious Tract Societies have done much to resuscitate evangelical piety in the churches of that country. The reaction from a heartless and hopeless infidelity, also, did something to prepare the way for something better. At all events, there is a great advance in the right direction. A very blessed work of grace, about the year 1825, did much good in Berlin and other places in Prussia. The labors of Martin Booz, and his fellow-priests Gosner and Lindel (both of whom afterwards became Protestants), did múch to enlighten the minds of Romanists in southern Germany, especially in Bavaria, a few years earlier. The appearance of Toluck, Hengsten-.. berg, Neander, Muller, and other sound men, as professors in the Prussian universities, has been the commencement of a new era for Protestantism in that country. The number of pious students who are preparing to preach Christ's Gospel at home and abroad, has greatly increased. Many good societies, or other organizations, have sprung up. There are now in Germany no less than six or seven "missionsinstitutes," or seminaries to educate young men for missionary labor in the unevangelized world. There are several Missionary Societies. One of the most important of these is the "Gustavus Adolphus Society," which is doing much for the Protestant Diaspora, or Protestants in

rmation respecting the "revival," as some have n Germany. The friends of evangelical Chrisworld have great reason to bless God for what ■y. May He keep that country from the horrors would seem inevitable that Austria and Italy will

RMED CHURCH OF FRANCE.

in different ways, within the last twenty-five HE CHRISTIAN WORLD has published notices of of France. The longest and most important of ten in 1840, and published in the October numBiblical Repository of that year. Since the pub, several events have occurred in the religious have more or less affected that Church, both in and its relations to the State. Some of these in subsequent notices of that Church which he published in the religious papers of this country ntertaining the belief that a comprehensive and present state of the Reformed Church of France ing and instructive to the readers of this Magamerican Christians generally, he requested, a few Dr. McClintock, the excellent minister of the ris, to prepare such an article. With this rehas kindly complied, in the very able communigreat pleasure in giving to the Public.

other Churches in France, which Dr. McClintock us to expect from his pen, will be most welcome. PARIS, January 1, 1863. ou have requested me to furnish, for the information of

vored to meet this wish. Should it be desired, I may hereafter furnish similar accounts of the National Lutheran Church, and also of the several Free Churches -that is to say, Churches that have no connexion with the State.

The "Reformed Church" is the representative, or successor, of the old Calvinistic Church of France. Its existing organization dates from 1802. When Napoleon made his Concordat with Rome, for the re-establishment and support of the Romish Church in France, he also adopted the Reformed and Lutheran Churches as State institutions. A constitution was granted to each of these Churches, (Loi du 18 Germinal, An X), which had the show of granting them a certain amount of independence and self-government, but which, in reality, made them closely subservient to the State. The Reformed Church was nominally re-established as Presbyterian, but without any real Presbyterian autonomy, and without a National Synod. Attempts were from time to time made to procure from the Government such modifications of the Constitution as would allow the Church to breathe freely, if not to act vigorously; and in 1840, under Louis Philippe, certain proposed reforms were granted. But it was soon found that the changes thus made left the Church really more dependent upon the State than ever before.

The Revolution of 1848 left all the Churches free, and Providence seemed to have opened the way for the entire deliverance of the National Church. A General Synod was called to meet at Paris, Sept. 10, 1848, for the purpose of framing an organic law, to be laid before the Government for its approval. The Rev. Frederick Monod, and Count Agénor de Gasparin, the recognized leaders of the Evangelical party in the Reformed Church, demanded, as one of the first conditions of reorganization, a distinct profession of faith, and a rule of Christian discipline. The majority of the Synod was not in favor of adopting a Confession of Faith. The Rationalistic party opposed it strenuously, of course, and many of the weaker brethren, among the Evangelicals, deemed it better, for the sake of peace, to yield the point. Messrs. Monod, De Gasparin, and a number of other noble spirits left the Synod, and took measures to organize what is now the "Union of the Evangelical Churches" of France. The bulk, however, of the Reformed ministers retained their connexion with the Church; and many of them, no doubt, had the best of motives for so doing. I think, however, that the experience of the last twelve years has led a number of them to regret their decision. No organic change was made till 1852, when Louis Napoleon, then Dictator, issued the Decree of 26 March, portant réorganization des Cultes Protestants, under which, as its Constitution (with slight modifications, made by later decrees) the National Reformed Church now lives. This decree confirmed the old law of 18 Germinal, in all points not specifically repealed, and made several additions to it. The best summary of the Constitution and laws of the Church is to be found in Buob, Manuel d'un Code Ecclesiastique â l' Usage des deux Eglises Protestantes de France (Paris, 1855, 8vo.) From this book, and from the Annuaire Protestant for 1862, which gives the general statistics of French Protestantism, I gather the following statements, which are, I think, very nearly accurate.