torture, for the adjuration employed implied that unless persons appended their names to it they were wanting in love to God and the souls of men." Such an object was "worthy of the severest reprobation." The Bishop of London deprecated any course which would oblige them to reconsider the report of the Lower House on Essays and Reviews "Of all the foul productions it had ever been the misfortune of controversy to call out, this, the production of a single individual, was the worst, and more calculated than anything he had ever seen to injure the Christian faith. He deprecated disinterring from the death an unfortunate paper which he trusted no intelligent layman of the Church had ever seen." The bishop further repudiated the notion that something ought to be done to help God to defend his truth, and echoed Dr. Thirlwall's (the Bishop of St. David's) opinion of the "melancholy" Oxford Declaration. ture. In May the Archbishop of York issued a pastoral to the clergy and laity of his province, in which he contends that the formularies of the Church of England assert the doctrine that the Bible is the word of God, and that the doctrine of a terminable punishment finds no countenance whatever from Holy ScripIn conclusion, the archbishop says: "It would be vain to deny that this trouble of the Church has a real foundation. And yet, my brethren, there is no reason for immoderate fear. The Church of England depends for her teaching, not upon prosecutions and decisions of courts, but upon the solemn undertaking, freely made by her ministers, that they will teach the people according to her articles and formularies." MAY ANNIVERSARIES.-The anniversaries of the month of May have again proved that Christian liberality in England is not on the decrease. We give below a list of the religious societies of Great Britain, and their incomes in 1863 It will be noted that this list embraces and 1864, classifying them according to only the religious societies of England, their fields of operations. I. FOREIGN MISSIONS not those of Scotland and Ireland. THE PRESBYTERIANS OF SCOTLAND.According to a statement in the London Times, the United Presbyterian Church had, last year, 578 congregations, with 170,531 communicants, and an attendance on Sundays of 198,473. The total income of the Church was £216.618, being at the rate of £1 5s. 41d. from each member. Nearly a fourth of the whole income was devoted to missionary and benevolent objects. The Free Church may be considered as nearly twice as strong. It had last year 892 ministers with congregations, and 264,000 communicants. Its income was £341,934. It has three colleges, with fourteen professors and 196 students; while the United Presbyterian Church has 151 students. It has 610 teachers in its schools, which are attended by 48,039 pupils. The joint committees appointed by the two Churches at their meetings last year, to consider and report on the means of forming a union, have ever since been diligently at work. At one of the last meetings of the commission of the Free Church, Dr. Buchanan, the convener of the committee of that body, presented an interim report, from which it appeared that the great question between the two parties was the power of the civil magistrate in matters of religion. They had proceeded so far in the examination of this question as to ascertain on what points they agreed and on what points they disagreed. They are agreed in holding that civil government is an ordinance of God; that the civil magistrate ought to further the interests of Christianity among his subjects in every way consistent with its spirit and precepts; that it is not his province to impose a creed on his subjects, or to interfere with the government of the Church; but that such questions as the ceremonies that are to constitute marriage, the observance of the Sabbath, and the appointment of days of national humiliation and thanksgiving, may properly fall under his regulation; always taking care, however, that neither Church nor State intrude into the proper province of the other. The following statements, drawn up by the committee of each denomination, present their diverging opinions on the relation of the Church to the secular government: STATEMENTS OF FREE CHURCH COMMITTEE. national resources in aid of the Church, provided always that in doing so, while reserving to himself full control over the temporalities, which are his own gift, he abstain from all authoritative interference in the internal government of the Church. And while the Church must ever maintain the essential and perpetual obligation which Christ has laid on all his people to support and extend his Church by free-will offerings, yet, in entire consistency with said obligation, the Church may lawfully accept aid from the civil magistrate when her spiritual independence is preserved entire. But it must always be a question, to be judged of according to times and circumstances, whether or not such aid ought to be given by the civil magistrate, as well as whether or not it ought to be accepted by the Church. And the question must, in every parties judging for itself, on its own reinstance, be decided by each of the two sponsibility. 2. It follows from the preceding article, that any branch of the Christian Church consenting to be in alliance with the state, and to accept its aid, upon the condition of being subject to the authoritative control of the state or its courts in spiritual matters, or continuing in such connection with the state as involves such subjection, must be held to be so far unfaithful to the Lord Jesus Christ as King and Head of his Church. And upon this ground, in accordance with the history and the constitutional principles of the Church of Scotland, a protest is to be maintained against the present Establish-. ment in Scotland. STATEMENTS OF UNITED PRESBYTERIAN COMMITTEE. 1. That, inasmuch as the civil magistrate has no authority in spiritual things, and as the employment of force in such matters is opposed to the spirit and precepts of Christianity, it is not within his province to legislate as to what is true in worship to his subjects, or to endow the religion, to prescribe a creed or form of Church from national resources; that Jesus Christ, as sole King and Head of his Church, has enjoined upon his people to provide for maintaining and extending it by free-will offerings; that this being Christ's ordinance, it excludes state aid for these purposes; and that adherence to it is the true safeguard of the Church's independence. 1. That while the civil magistrate must not so sustain himself a public judge of true or false religion as to dictate to his 2. That the United Presbyterian subjects in matters of faith, and has no Church, without requiring from her memauthority in spiritual things, yet, owing bers any approval of the steps of proceobligation to Christ, he may lawfully ac- dure by their fathers, or interfering with knowledge, as being in accordance with the rights of private judgment in refthe word of God, the creed and jurisdic-erence to them, are united in regarding tion of the Church. As a further act of homage to Christ, it is his duty, when necessary or expedient, to employ the as still valid the reasons on which they have hitherto maintained their state of secession and separation from the judica tories of the Established Church, as expressed in the authorized documents of the respective bodies of which the United Presbyterian Church is formed, and in maintaining the lawfulness and obligation of separation from ecclesiastical bodies in which dangerous error is tolerated, or the discipline of the Church, or the rights of her ministry or members, are disregarded. Moreover, though uniformity of opinion with respect to civil establishments of religion is not a term of communion in the United Presbyterian Church, yet the views on this subject held and universally acted on are opposed to these institutions; and the statements set forth in these distinctive articles are regarded by that Church as a protest against the Church Establishment in Scotland. FRANCE. THE RATIONALISTIC CONTROVERSY.The long struggle between the Evangelical and the Liberal (Rationalistic) parties in the two Protestant State Churches of France appears to approach rapidly a crisis, and all the indications are, that the ultimate result will be a gradual forcing of the Rationalistic party out of the Church. The first months of the year 1864 are signalized by events that may have a decisive influence on the future fate of the State Churches. In February the Presbyterial Council of the Reformed Church of Paris took a decided step against the leader of the most advanced wing of Rationalists in the Reformed Church, Mr. Athanase Coquerel, junior. Mr. Coquerel had been chosen, in 1850, by Mr. Martin Paschoud, one of the Rationalistic pastors of Paris, for his suffragan. This choice was hesitatingly ratified by the Consistory, which limited his exercise of the pastoral functions, first to three years and then to two, always subject to re-election. As the tendencies of Mr. Coquerel became from year to year more positively Rationalistic, and as he recently had even expressed his approbation of the work of Renan, this year the Presbyterial Council, by a vote of twelve against three, declined to re-elect him. . 46 part.) Both the "special" and the general conferences lasted three days. At the former two propositions fessor Pedezert, "that the conference were discussed, one proposed by Prodeclare that the Reformed Church of France has positive doctrines and official bodies bound to make them respected," and the other proposed by Pastors Vaurigaud, Lourde-Rocheblave, and F. de Conink, asking the conference "to renew the steps taken to obtain from the government the restoration of the synods, a restoration the importance of which circumstances render daily more indispensable." The former of these propositions was solemnly and warmly discussed for two days. At length a declaration presented by M. Guizot, the celebrated statesman, who is an elder in the Reformed Church of Paris, was carried by 141 votes against 28. This declaration, after mentioning the doctrines which have been chiefly attacked of late by members of the Reformed Church, goes on to say: tirely destructive both of the Christian "We regard these negations as en religion and of the Reformed Church. We have a firm belief in God's supernatural action in the government of the world; in the Divine and supernatural inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, as well as in their sovereign authority in matters of religion; in the eternal divinity and miraculous birth, as well as in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, the Saviour and Redeemer of men. We are convinced that these foundations of the Christian religion are also the foundations of the Reformed Church, which has positively recognized them as such throughout its liturgy, and which, together with the universal Church, makes a public profession of its belief in them through the Apostle's Creed. "We also adhere as firmly as any, both for those who think differently from us as well as for ourselves, to the tutelary principle of religious liberty. In virtue of this principle every one is free to make open profession of his belief, and to connect himself with those who hold the same views; but we cannot understand what sort of a Church that Another and even more serious de- would be which should have no common feat was sustained by the Rationalistic faith, and in which the most diverse or party at the annual pastoral conferences, even the most opposite doctrines could both the "special" conferences (confined be professed at pleasure. Such a state to ministers and elders of the Reformed religious liberty, but the destruction of of things would not be the exercise of and Lutheran Churches) and the "gen-religious society, which, more than any eral," (in which representatives of all other society, needs that an inner and the Protestant Churches of France take real sympathy should exist between its members. The Reformed Church of | have appeared, in books of all kinds, in France is an old and organized religious society; it has vital principles and historical institutions; and even in the absence and expectation of its synods, it has in its consistories and presbyterial councils legal powers which, according to the regulations of the state as well as of its own discipline, have the right, and are also bound to maintain its principles. The Reformed Church recognizes no other rule of faith than the Scriptures, and it has never admitted, nor could it ever admit, that those who contest the divine and supernatural inspiration of the Scriptures, and their sovereign anthority in religious matters, should, notwithstanding this, be authorized to speak and teach in its name. We have the firm conviction that, in giving this expression to our inmost and common convictions, we do but the feelings express of the great majority of the members of our Church, at the same time that we continue loyal to the faith of our fathers, and to the dignity as well as stability of the Church which they established." In moving this declaration, M. Guizot delivered a speech of remarkable power, which made a profound impression upon the conference. He spoke strongly against permitting every pastor to interpret the Bible as he liked. This he said "would be the abolition of the Reformed Church itself. One of the essential facts and great results of the Reformation of the sixteenth century was, that it did not leave the religious world under the exclusive dominion of the ecclesiastic, al world. It gave to the laymen, to the faithful, a place and a part in the government of the Church by the side of the clergy. Authority resides in bodies whether pastors and laymen sit, deliberate, and decide together." The proposition relative to the restoration of the synods of the Church was nearly unanimously adopted without discussion. A committee, consisting of General D'Hauteville, General de Chabaud-Latour, Professor Pédézert, and the Pastors Fermaud, Vaurigaud, Horace Monod, and Rognon, was appointed to see the Minister of Public Worship and plead with him the cause of the synods. The general pastoral conferences were of a very stormy character. The question discussed was, "Are not the existence of every Church and the rights of the faithful compromised by unlimited liberty as regards religious teaching?' and the reply voted as follows: "Considering that for some years past there the periodical press, in Protestant journals, and even in manuals of religious instruction, with the signatures of pastors and theological professors, opinions which attack not only the fundamental principle of the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures hitherto acknowledged by all the Churches of the Reformation, but the most elementary notions of Christianity; considering that the writers alluded to question the authenticity of the greater part of the Saviour's teaching, such as it is preserved to us in the Gospels, keep silence upon or deny his supernatural birth, miracles, and, above all, his resurrection, overturn not only the Christian idea of the creation of man in the image of God, and of his fall, but the very basis of natural religion, by shaking belief in the. divine personality and in a future judgment; considering that the authors of these negations justify themselves by alleging that it is of the essence of a Protestant Church to admit unlimited freedom of teaching; this conference is of opinion, that as to what is involved in the conditions of the existence of every Church, the free expression in the pulpit, or by any other public and official means, of the doctrinal opinions of the pastors, has for necessary and legitimate limit the belief professed by the religious association from which those pastors derive their commission; and that as regards the rights of the faithful, the authority given to the pastors by their sacred ministry resides entirely in the conformity of their teaching with the declarations of the Holy Scriptures, and particularly in the fundamental doctrines of the divinity of Jesus Christ and redemption, which the universal Christian Church has always considered as evidently contained in the Bible, and which are expressed in all Protestant liturgies; and that consequently it is an abuse of power and spiritual tyranny to take advantage of the position as a minister of Jesus Christ and in a Christian Church, in order to propagate, directly or indirectly, doctrines contrary thereto. declaration was voted by 160 against 6, several members of the minority having previously left the place of meeting. The minority had presented a counter declaration, so worded that both sides might join by giving their own different meanings to the expressions. The words "Jesus Christ, the Son of the living This important move was made by a large number of divines of unquestionable orthodoxy, and even of moderately ultramontane principles, which filled the Roman powers with the most serious God," occurring in it, an explanation | Roman communion. Last autumn an was requested, when one of the signers of the proposition, Pastor Leblois, declared as it seemed, in concurrence with all the other signers, that Jesus was the son of God in the same sense that every Christian may become a son of God, ac-apprehensions. Under the presidency cording to Matthew v, 45. ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. GERMANY. THE CATHOLIC THEOLOGIANS IN CONFLICT WITH ROME.-The undeniable learning, ability, and liberality of a large number of the Catholic theologians of Germany have found, for a long time past, small favor with the dominant party in Rome, represented especially in the ordinary ecclesiastical tribunals which there sit and rule, or try to rule, the Catholic world. While the vivifying influences of a learned Protestantism has stimulated the German Catholics to fresh labors in their own defense, and called forth a Roman Catholic literature, upon which even the Protestant world looks with respect, the Italian priesthood have remained as ignorant as ever of the irresistible force which lies hid in the critical and scientific school of modern days. Those who are appointed by the Pope the censors of the theological literature of the world show themselves entirely unfit for such a position, and frequently condemn prominent Catholic writers on the ground of mistranslated| passages of their work. Thus it was shown in the case of Dr. Hermes, one of the leading theologians of Catholic Germany, whose system was condemned at Rome some thirty years ago, that the translation made in Rome of the obnoxious doctrines was such as every German would pronounce entirely incorrect: But all the remonstrances of the friends and disciples of Hermes, among whom were several bishops and a large number of professors of theological faculties, were of no avail. Rome did not take back the condemnation, nor would she concede the possibility of the Pope acting upon an incorrect translation. Many other theologians and philosophers were censured in the course of time, who likewise complained that they were misunderstood in Rome, and that they were charged with doctrines which they had never professed. Some of them, nevertheless, submitted to the sentence of Rome, while others separated from the of Dr. Döllinger, the first theologian of Germany and probably the first of the entire Catholic Church, a congress of Catholic scholars met and discussed the whole question of the relationship between theology and science in an unmistakably liberal and modern spirit. The Pope at once took the alarm, but was quieted by the address adopted at the congress and by the report of the Archbishop of Munich. Nevertheless before the year was out he addressed a brief to the archbishop, in which he claims for scholastic and received opinions, and for decisions of the Roman tribunals, the same absolute obedience which, in theory, is demanded only for the express dogmas of Trent. In fact he urges onward that open antagonism between scientific discovery and tradi tional or canonical opinions which was forced upon Galileo three hundred years ago. This brief of the Pope is an event of more than ordinary importance in the modern history of the Roman Catholic Church, for it is likely to widen more than ever the breach between all that is progressive within the Church and the Papal authority. As far as Germany is concerned, the comments of the Catholic press on the congress clearly showed that nearly all the Catholic scholars and writers of the country were in sympathy with the congress. The spirit of the latter may be seen in the following resolutions, which, after a discussion lasting four days and conducted with unwonted eloquence and ability, was unanimously adopted: "1. A close adhesion to revealed truth, as taught in the Catholic Church, is an important and indispensable condition of the progressive development of a true and comprehensive speculation generally, and in particular of victory over the errors that now prevail. "2. It is a matter of conscience for all who stand on the basis of the Catholic faith to submit in all scientific investigations to the dogmatic utterances of the infallible authority of the Church. This submission to authority is not in contradiction to the freedom natural and necessary to science." |
