set his torch to the jungle; it blazed aloft to heaven, and the flame exhilarated and comforted the incendiaries; but unhappily such comfort could not continue. Ere long this flame, with its cheerful light and heat, was gone; the jungle, it is true, had been consumed, but with its entanglements, its shelter and spots of verdure also; and the chill, black, ashy swamp, left in its stead, seemed for a time a greater evil than the other." The French Revolution cleared the atmosphere, but left nothing in its stead. A desert, desolate and barren, everywhere met the eye. But man can never be satisfied with negations, and so the French set themselves to rebuilding what they had just destroyed. Some in the form of philosophy, and others in the form of religion, attempted to fill up the void, and satisfy the longings of the heart.

But the Revolution introduced a new epoch. What is once destroyed in the world of thought and feeling, can never be restored. Fragments may be saved, some seeds of a better order of things, some scattered elements of truth and beauty commingled with the predominant error and deformity which have passed away; but systems of falsehood once destroyed, can themselves never be reinstated in the love and reverence of men. Their external forms and semblances may be set up, but their essence and spirit are gone, and gone for ever!

Hence new wants have sprung up in the French mind. They demand the truth, but know not where to find it. Voltaire, they say, went too far. Atheism is not adapted to society. It is essentially depressing and ruinous. We must have something positive. We need a religion; a religion true and comprehensive, profound and vital. But what is it, and where is it? Is it Catholicism? No! Is it Protestantism? No! Both are too meagre and gross! Intermingled, as they have been, from time immemorial, with worldly interests, political arrangements, false conceptions, and bitter prejudices, they fail to satisfy the public mind. But Christianity is true, is Divine, is vital, and allcomprehending! Yes! But what is Christianity?

Such is the great problem which now agitates the French mind, and which has occupied it since the Revolution. Various classes of persons have attempted its solution, but only with partial success. Chateaubriand, with his lofty genius, and beautiful though declamatory style, has attempted it, but failed! La Mennais, profound and melancholy, as if he were the voice of Reason, fallen from God and wandering in the void, has attempted it, and failed! Cousin, with his eclecticism, which attempts to join all philosophies, and all religions, and from the whole extract the truth, has attempted

it, and failed! So also have Lamartine, Quinet, and Michelet; but all have failed, failed egregiously, and in the view of the whole world. So far as they are concerned, the problem is left, even in the French mind, precisely where it was before. A few gleams of light have been shed upon its darkness, a cloud here and there is seen fringed with supernal light, but the scene is yet covered with thick and appalling shadows.

In such circumstances a race of thinkers, and especially of preachers, with clear in| tellects, warm hearts, and lofty aims, is needed to set before the French and continental mind generally, "the truth as it is in Jesus." Divested of all narrow and local prejudices, all meagre and sectarian views, they are required to exhibit, in its magnificent proportions, that system of truth and duty, which solves all the doubts, meets all the wants, satisfies all the desires of man; which transforms the individual spirit into the image of God, and brings society under the harmonizing and all-controlling influence of universal love. One such man at least has appeared on the continent of Europe; but, alas! he has recently been transferred to a higher sphere. Others, we trust, are prepared to follow him in his high career; but, at present, none have reached his lofty eminence. Others, perhaps, excel him in particular departments of study, or particular styles of writing; but none have exhibited such clear insight, such calm and lofty thought, such strong and eloquent expression. Indeed, no man in France or Switzerland, since the days of Pascal, has united such a combination of high qualities, intellectual and moral, as the profound and contemplative Vinet. His works, we grant are not read by the mass with the same facility as those of the ingenious Dumas, the brilliant Lamartine, or the extravagant Sué. They demand thought, deep and long protracted, and for a time will be dear chiefly to men of kindred spirit with himself. Nay, they may never influence any but calm and cultivated minds. For years they may transcend the capacity of the common people; but they will reach them, through the vehicle of more popular intellects, and like rivers, the sources of which are hidden among the mountains, will widen and deepen as they extend, till they are finally lost in the boundless ocean of universal thought and feeling.

"There is a name in Lausanne," (a name in heaven now,) says Dr. Alexander, of Edinburgh, "round which a European reputation is fast gathering. I mean that of Alexander Vinet, a man whose profound philosophy and aesthetic acumen place him on a level with Frederick Schlegel; while as a writer on theology, and Christian ethics, he stands almost without a rival among the present

continental divines."* Says one of his own countrymen," Vinet is at once profound and lofty. He is perfectly at home in the regions of abstract thought." "He was a profound thinker," says Dr. B. B. Edwards, of Andover, "a man of finely cultivated taste, and of hearty sympathy with all that is good and true." To which he adds, that in consequence of these rare endowments, he succeeded in making his testimony heard by a class of men who were not disposed to listen to that of any other person." †

66

Alexander Vinet was born on the 17th of June, 1797, in the delightful city of Lausanne, capital of the Canton Vaud, one of the richest cantons in Switzerland. It lies towards the north and upper end of the Lake of Geneva, one of the most attractive regions in the world, with the Bernese Alps on the one side, and the Jura Mountains on the other, and hallowed, in every part, by the genius or prowess of her sons. He was descended from a highly respectable family, and received a liberal and thorough education. Instructed in the academy or college of his native town, once adorned by the piety and learning of Theodore Beza, he soon distinguished himself by his scholarship and genius. At the early age of twenty, he received an appointment as professor of the French language and literature, in the ancient and celebrated University of Basel (French Bâle), a fine old city on the banks of the Rhine, once the residence of Ecolampadius, one of the best and most learned men of the Reformation, the frequent resort of Zuinglius and others, who made the old cathedral ring with their fervid eloquence, the chosen dwelling and the burial-place of Erasmus, and the present residence of De Wetté, the prince of German rationalists. It was here that Vinet began to attract attention by the extent of his acquirements, and the splendour of his genius. Having devoted much of his time to the study of Moral Science, he was led to imbibe profound and spiritual views of Christianity, and yielded his heart implicitly to its claims. Like Chalmers, dissatisfied with the cold rationalistic faith, the utilitarian and meagre morality around him, he eagerly embraced the genial and soul-transforming truths of the Gospel, and found, by happy experience, that they were the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation. As he himself expresses it, "Love only can comprehend love," so the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, enabled him to appreciate the "mystery of the Cross." This filled his soul with unutterable joy, and nerved his arm for the battle of the Lord.

* Switzerland and the Swiss Church. By W. L. Alexander, D.D.

+ Discourses on the Character of Dr. Chalmers. By B. B. Edwards, D.D.

It was about this time that he returned for a short season to Lausanne, and received ordination as a minister of Christ. Resuming his professorship at Basel, he devoted himself with great assiduity, not merely to the duties of his office, but to the defence of vital Christianity.* He preached two series of discourses, both of which were published at Paris, and went through various editions, in which he defends, on philosophical grounds, and in a style of great freshness and originality, the leading principles of the Gospel, and commends them to the hearts and consciences of his hearers, with a pathos and eloquence worthy of Chrysostom. At once subtle and profound, they are yet pious and practical, and prove the author not only a great thinker and an eloquent orator, but an honest man and a devout Christian. A native of Switzerland, which is more allied in its spirit and character to Germany than to France, and intimately familiar with classic as well as Italian and German literature, he unites the greatest subtlety and depth with all the grace and vivacity which distinguish the genius of France. It is surprising what elasticity and strength, what grace and splendour, the French language assumes under his plastic hand.† So much is this the case, that it has been affirmed that no one has used this tongue with such force and beauty since the days of Pascal, by far the greatest genius that France has ever produced. Enthusiastic and poetical, and withal devotedly attached to the scenery of his early home, his language glows with the same lofty grandeur and picturesque beauty as the scenery around Lake Leman.

In 1837, Vinet was appointed by the authorities of the Canton Vaud, Professor of Theology in the Academy of his native town, and continued to discharge the duties of this office, with great acceptance, for a number of years. He had for his colleagues several able men, among whom was Herzog, author of the Lives of Ecolampadius and Beza. But he resigned his place as a minister of the Established Church, satisfied that the union of Church and State is at once unscriptural and injurious to the interests of vital religion. Upon this subject he wrote a volume of great power and eloquence. Notwithstanding this, he was retained as Professor of Theology, though not by the government, the people being unwilling to lose his services in this important position. Subsequently, however, he was compelled to resign his professorship, and in company with a noble band of self

* His "Chrestomathie Française," in three volumes, is a striking proof of his intimate sequaintance with French literature, and the faithful manner in which he attended to his literary duties.

The French language is spoken in the Cantons of Basel, Geneva, and Vaud. Most of the people understand German, but they generally use French.

denying pastors and members of the Established Church, who could not bear the arbitrary impositions of the government, he went forth to found a Free Church amid the hills and vales of the Canton Vaud. Like Chalmers in Scotland, Vinet has been the heart and soul of this movement, and had the satisfaction, before his death, of seeing a church formed, in which its ministers and members would be free to worship God according to the dictates of their consciences, yielding allegiance to none but Jesus Christ. Many tears were shed by the old pastors on leaving their homes and portions of their flocks, and although some faltered and failed, a noble host went out with their weeping families and friends, not knowing whither they went. The conduct of the government, which happens to be radical and infidel, consisting chiefly of Associationists, rationalists, and demagogues, has been most atrocious. In the name of liberty, they have not hesitated to persecute these noble spirits, and went so far even as to threaten Vinet with stoning and imprisonment! But wisdom is justified of her children, and the persecuted ministers and members of the Free Church, with a calm decision and heroic self-sacrifice worthy of the martyrs, preferred to obey God rather than man, and bade defiance to the miserable despots of the mob, who alone claimed to be free! Their record is on high, and their memory will be fragrant when the names of their persecutors are rotten in the dust. All Switzerland and the continent of Europe will yet own their power; generations yet unborn will rise up and call them blessed. Man must be free. The Church of God will be free. The decree has gone forth from the court of Heaven, and no power on earth can prevent its fulfilment: "The dominion and the greatness of the dominion under the whole heaven, shall be given to the saints of the most high God."

As a preacher, Vinet was rather solemn and impressive, than striking and vehement. His personal appearance was not particularly imposing, though dignified and agreeable. It possessed a peculiar charm to those who knew him intimately, and well corresponded to his calm and lofty genius. He was rather tall, somewhat bony and muscular, but not stout, with a slight stoop in his gait, as if he were meditating some serious or agreeable subject. His complexion was tawny as an Indian's, his mouth firm and benevolent in its expression, eyes dark and lustrous, forehead rather broad than high, though by no means deficient in height, and surmounted by dark clustering hair. The whole aspect of the countenance was honest, benevolent, and intellectual. In looks, he somewhat resembled John Foster, to whose style of thinking and

writing, many things in his works bear a striking resemblance. His voice was low, his manner calm and deliberate. The flush upon his face and the gleaming of his eye, alone revealed the majestic energy of the indwelling spirit, uttering its profound and oracular thoughts.

In his intercourse with his family and friends, he was kind and gentle, and in all his deportment, showed himself at once a great and a good man. He was as much distinguished for his simplicity as his dignity of character; his profound humility as his exalted worth. Apparently unconscious of his greatness, as a star is of its light, he shed upon all around him a benignant radiance. In a word, he walked with God. This controlled his character, this shaped his manners. Steeped in holy love, he could not be otherwise than serene and gentle.

While resident at Basel and Lausanne, Vinet made frequent contributions of a critical and philosophical kind to the Semeur, and other periodicals. He wrote largely on religious liberty and the rights of conscience, and, indeed, led public opinion upon these and kindred subjects in the Protestant circles of France and Switzerland. Several of his works were crowned (couronné) as the expression is, by the French Society of Christian Morals. He also published a volume of philosophical criticisms, in part derived from those he had contributed to the Semeur, in which he discusses with uncommon depth and subtlety, but in language of exquisite clearness and force, some of the highest problems in philosophy and morals, and dissects the maxims and theories of such men as Montaigne, Voltaire, Rochefoucauld, Jouffroy, Cousin, Quinet, and Lamartine.* His fine genius for philosophical speculation, in con. nection with his strong common sense, and his unwavering faith in the gospel, are here

"M. Vinet," says the Semeur, "has exercised for sixteen years his criticism, at once learned and brilliant on all the productions of our great writers. His articles united would make an admirable course of contemporary literature in a Christian point of view. To be more sure of not mistaking the nature of the moral errors and false hopes, to which he wished to oppose the divine remedy, M. Vinet studied them in the works of the most illustrious Just before representatives of modern though.

his death, he had proposed to continue his critical series by a review of Lamartine's History of the Girondins." In 1846, he published a pamphlet of seventy-one pages, entitled "Du Socialisme considéré dans son Principe." "It is a fundamental and very able discussion of a question which is now deeply agitating society in Switzerland and in other parts of Europe. Its most melancholy developments have perhaps been witnessed in the Canton of Vaud. Its abettors, ignorant of Christianity, or utterly hostile to it, unacquainted with the solemn lessons of history, or despising them, appeal to man's social nature, to a species of levelling fraternization, to the identification of man and society,' as a sovereign remedy for the ills which afflict the race."-Dr. Edwards.

strikingly developed. Perfectly at home in the region of pure abstractions, he yet possesses the power of clear and eloquent expression," giving to airy nothings a local habitation and a name." With eagle glance, he detects the subtlest fallacies and most aërial fancies of his opponents, and lays down, in brief and expressive phrase, those great and fundamental principles of belief, without which all our speculations are only visions of cloudland.* Vinet was neither a spiritualist nor a sensualist. He belonged neither to the school of Locke nor of Kant, of Hegel nor of Cousin. He did not reject altogether "the spiritual philosophy," but he was very far from accepting it. It was too vague, too dogmatic, too extravagant for his clear, well-balanced intellect. Moreover, he distinguished clearly between philosophy and religion, between the speculations of the one and the revelations of the other. While conceding all that was due to science, he bowed with reverence before the word of God. He brought all the spoils of reason to the Cross, and kneeling there as an humble suppliant, looked up into the face of the dying Saviour, and exclaimed, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." His heart understood that work of love, and his intellect grew still and reverent. In all his works this element of his character appears predominant. It is the one thing which gave unity to his life and labours. In a word, he was a sincere and humble Christian. His mighty soul was laid, all throbbing with thought and feeling, on the warm bosom of the Son of God. Renouncing his own righteousness, relying upon Christ alone, and consecrating his attainments on the altar of Christian love, he rejoiced in the abounding grace of God, and lay down to die in the calm and blessed hope of a glorious immortality. His decease took place somewhat suddenly, on the 4th of May, 1847, before he was quite fifty years of age. at Clarens, near Lausanne, just on the margin of Lake Leman, whither he had been sent by his physicians. It was the death of a Christian, calm and beautiful as the last rays of sunset upon the mountains of his native land.

Vinet's last lecture was on these words of our Saviour: "I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self." The serious

In his Literary Portraits, Gilfillan, a brilliant but egotistical and flashy writer of some depth, but no great soundness of judgment, has unintentionally untered a severe sarcasm on Ralph Waldo Emerson. Speaking of that mystical gentleman, he says (Lit. Portraits, p. 341,)"His province, intelectually, has been, to try to map out the domains of Cloudland,' and from the thick darkness of

mysticism to protrude certain sharp points and

brilliant edges of meaning."

ness, the elevation, the humility, with which he expounded these words, the fervour with which at the close he prayed to God that they might be fulfilled in himself and in his hearers, seemed almost like a presentiment that he was near the end of his course, and that God was about to remove him from the evil to come. His funeral took place on Thursday, May 6th; his pupils, claiming the honour of being the bearers, sang at his tomb "a hymn of sorrow and of hope." The Rev. William Monod then made a short address; a pupil "uttered a last adieu to the mortal dust, and said to the glorified spirit, Thanks, we shall meet again!'"

Vinet has been called "the Chalmers of Switzerland;" and it is singular that, so much alike in many things, though diverse in others, they should have been called about the same time to enter into "the joy of their Lord." As a preacher, Vinet was more profound in thought, more subtle in analysis, and more elegant in diction, than his Scottish compeer; but he never reached his impassioned fervour and overwhelming eloquence. He was better acquainted with the French and German philosophy. He had read more extensively, and thought more deeply upon the great problems which agitate the thinkers of continental Europe, and he possessed naturally a keener and profounder intellect; but he could lay no claim to the practical power, the business tact, and the all-embracing energy of that prince of preachers. Vinet thinks a subject through and through. He goes down into its depths, and forms an estimate of all its parts and relations. He is calm, acute, and philosophical. His words are carefully weighed, and to those who can fully enter into his spirit, they have a diamond clearness, a trenchant precision, combined with a striking grandeur and beauty, which is at once surprising and delightful. But their very precision, their depth and grandeur, somewhat bewilder common minds, those especially that are not versed in philosophical inquiries, and thus give them an air of difficulty and obscurity. Chalmers, on the other hand, with all his majesty and splendour, is plain and practical, and even somewhat loose and declamatory. He is never obscure, except from defective reasoning or imperfect expression. The stream of his eloquence rushes bright and strong, under the eye of all. Its course is easily marked through the open champaigue, as it gleams and sparkles under the light of heaven. But the eloquence of Vinet is not only different in kind and aspect, but takes a very different course. Deep, and still, and strong, it only seems obscure; reflecting a strange celestial radiance, it glides, in many winding turns, as if among Alpine solitudes, now mirroring the glacier tops in its calm depths, now passing around the base of some frown

ing precipice, and anon gathering itself into one of those dark, deep lakes, which lie encircled amid "the everlasting hills." Chalmers goes forth in the daylight of this every-day world, rejoicing like a strong man to run a race. Vinet is seen gazing upon the stars in the depth of the gathering gloom. The one adores Jehovah amid the kindling glories of the sunrise, the other in the hallowed shadows of the night.* But now, they worship together in the temple above, where they need not the light of the sun, nor of the moon, for the Lord God and the Lamb are the light thereof."

THE ANGLO-JEWISH PRESS.

The Voice of Jacob, the organ of the orthodox Jewish party, is defunct. Another periodical has sprung up in its place,-The Anglo-Jewish Magazine, published monthly. The editors state in their preliminary announcement, that "whilst aiding the advancement of man, whilst furthering his progress, they will not consent to witness unopposed and sweeping changes, calculated to increase the very evils they affect to deprecate. They will not sympathize with the conservatives, nor coincide with the views of ultra-liberals." The orthodox Jews themselves are not unaffected by the tide of reform which seems to have set in amongst the Jewish people both here and on the Continent. They announce their intention of doing great things in the establishment of an Anglo-Jewish press. A committee is formed for the purpose of carrying out their plans. They have it in contemplation to publish a weekly news

In this connection, that magnificent passage of Vinet's will recur to the reader:-"It is with the heights of the soul as it is with the sublimities of the firmament. When, on a serene night, millions of stars sparkle in the depths of the sky, the gorgeous splendour of the starry vault ravishes every one that has eyes; but he to whom Providence has denied the blessing of sight would in vain possess a mind open to the loftiest conceptions; in vain would his intellectual capacity transcend what is common among men. All that intelligence, and all the power he might add by study to his rare gifts, will not aid him in forming a single idea of that ravishing spectacle; while, at his side, a man without talent and culture has only to raise his eyes to embrace at a glance, and in some measure enjoy, all the splendours of the firmament, and, through his vision, to receive into his soul the impressions which such a spectacle cannot fail to produce.

Another sky, and one as magnificent as the azure vault stretched over our heads, is revealed to us in the Gospel. Divine truths are the stars of that mystic sky, and they shine in it brighter and purer than the stars of the firmament; but there must be an eye to see them, and that eye is love. The Gospel is a work of love. Christianity is only love realized under its purest form; and since the light of the world cannot be known without an eye, love cannot be comprehended but by the heart."-"Vital Christianity," pp. 57, 58.

paper, and to issue elementary and other works.

The Jewish Chronicle, published once a fortnight, and based on liberal and reform principles, holds on its way, and is conducted with spirit. We judge it to be the most popular of English Jewish periodicals. In a recent number, it thus expresses itself on the subject of reform: "Rabbinism, in our age, is an incongruity. It is the offspring of a period so utterly different from the present, that we feel convinced that the Rabbins, from whom we derive such numerous religious precepts-these Rabbins, were they alive now, would be ready to abolish customs which might prove injurious to true Judaism. It is quite natural to assume that any law which owes its origin to a certain juncture of the times, ought to be abolished when the character of those circumstances is altered.

Many prayers and religious practices bear the distinct marks of being only temporary introductions. Maimonides, whom even the most scrupulous follower of our religion will never think of considering a frivolous innovator, remarks, Like as a physician sometimes amputates the hands or feet of tribunal may decree, in an emergency, the a person to save his life, so an ecclesiastical infringement of some laws, in order to preserve the essential parts of the religion.' In another place it complains, "An indifference, not to be disturbed by anything, marks the line of conduct which our spiritual leaders have chosen for themselves with respect to reforms in religion."-From the Jewish Herald.

THE INFIDEL'S BIBLE.

ADMIT the Bible to be uninspired--is there nothing to be alarmed or uneasy about after that? Verily, there is more than ever. The book of Providence and Nature-the infidel's Bible-is a far more terrific volume than the Christian's Bible. The views it presents of the character of God are nothing like so satisfactory. Where is that chapter in it that is headed " Mercy?" In what part does it treat of the forgiveness of sin, and the life everlasting? On what page are its invitations, encouragements, and promises recorded? Where is there a word in it to calm a troubled conscience? How does it extract the sting, and annihilate the horrors of death? What foundation does it discover on which one may erect the hope of future happiness? It is amazing that any should fly to it for consolation, and, above all, astonishing that any should fly from the Holy Scriptures to it, and imagine they have made a grand escape, when they have shaken off the belief of that only