The Colportage Society reports its sales at £300 for the month; and 50 colporteurs in its employment. Professor Porter, one of the deputation from the Presbyterian Church in Ireland to the Protestant Churches in France, has been eloquently pleading the cause of the French Protestants at home. He describes among the difficulties that embarrassed them the persecuting spirit of the great church beside them, only restrained from violence and excess by the strong hand of the French Em peror. Resolutions on Union have been passed by the Irish Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church. Dr. Cantwell, Roman Catholic bishop of Meath since 1830, and one of the trustees of Maynooth College, is dead. A coadjutor bishop, Dr. Nulty, succeeds to the see. a A man more widely known, known amid scholars everywhere, has also been taken from us. The Rev. Edward Hincks was born in 1792, the son of a Presbyterian minister, who after being pastor in the South was made Professor of Hebrew in Belfast. Before he was able to speak young Hincks could put together a dissecting map of Europe. His first essay in the studies that distinguished him was in meeting the challenge of a gentleman who published in a magazine, passage from a foreign book which he had transcribed in a set of characters invented by himself, and totally differing from any known form of writing, and requested those who thought themselves skilled in such undertakings to send to the editor a transcript of it in the common type, and a translation in the English language." Dr. Hincks did both in twenty-four hours after he saw the magazine, and although the language was Spanish, which he had never studied. He carried the same singular facility to his investigations of cuneiform writing, and acquired a European reputation in this difficult study. He entered at Trinity College, carried off a fellowship before completing his undergraduate course, was given a small living of his College, and spent the last forty-one years of his life in the rectory of Killileagh, with the repute of being the most learned clergyman in the Irish Church. Most of his publications are contained in the literature of learned societies, for as a theologian he published little. He took part in 1827 in a keen controversy between the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches, and appeared during the Revival with a pamphlet to show that the "bodily manifesta tions" were produced by the devil. His life was more that of a quiet student than an ecclesiastic; and he has everywhere the repute of a pure and simple-hearted man. France. (From our own Correspondent.) THE Universal Israelite Alliance held its annual meeting, November 29th. The very interesting report gave the number of members 4500, the receipts since May, 1865, 50,600 francs, and expenditure 33,700. A compact crowd filled the Salle Molière, too small for the occasion, and heard with satisfaction of the increasing development of this work, though if its strength be compared with the work to be done it seems nothing. Awful pictures were drawn of the state of Jewish residents in half-civilized or barbarous countries: pictures that necessarily brought fresh to the memory pages of Moses and the prophets, and stamped them as ever-living truth. Protection and emancipation, instruction and education, religion and morals, these are what the Alliance is striving to gain for scattered Israel. The leading thought in the meeting seemed to be that Israel covets to rise as high in the world's esteem as it has been low and despised for so many ages. A venerable Rabbi from Hungary had brought money collected in view of emigration to colonize the Holy Land. It was accepted as deposit. The question was, however, mooted whether America would not be a more suitable resting-place than Palestine, and the reporter evidently inclined to think so. It was, however, declared a glorious thing to encourage the immigration into Judea. The President, M. Crémieux, whose third and last year's presidency is closed, told of his journey to Bucharest, of his arguments in favour of liberty for the Jew before a Commission of sixty members of the Chambers. His pointed question was, if the fathers had slain Jesus Christ, why must the children 1833 years afterwards, be made responsible? Surely if God came down upon earth again, they would not crucify him. Besides, if we take the Christian religion as it stands, that death is the pledge of salvation for all the world. The worship which people give themselves up to with so much happiness is owing to the death of Christ. And yet 1800 years have done nothing to mitigate the accusation! He then praised the great French nation, whose grand revolution had changed the face of the world by its glorious philosophy. "Our heads have been bent down for ages, we have now raised them up again." He shewed that the Jew is inferior to none in every career, and in moral practice, and that with a few more efforts he will be at the head, and be brought forward with pride by every nation. He amusingly alluded to the innumerable pitched battles he had fought with schoolfellows and playmates as the only Jew in the place of his birth, and of the subsequent respect with which he was received as the first Jew ever admitted to the French bar. He ended, as usual, with the evernew story of feeble Israel with its mighty truth of the unity of God, leaving Egypt, receiving the Decalogue, and ever living a witness to Monotheism in the earth. Gentlemen, read the Bible, cried he, and may glory and happiness be on the Jew! what comes from Thee, and reverencing in the borrowed majesties of earth, the family, the state, and the church, the one supreme Majesty which is in Thee!" He divided social forms into three great divisions, Domestic among the patriarchs, National among the Jews, and Catholic (universal) through Jesus Christ. In his third part, he spoke of the terrific gulfs, right and left, which stop the progress of democracy, i.e., the constitution of liberty in order, and order in liberty, viz., individualism and centralization. "Individualism! a good and holy thing; the origin of personality, it makes me free, worthy, and great, if I am a man! Centralization! a good thing, too, a thing always necessary, because creative and preservative of nations, and peculiarly necessary in our great modern unities, which, not to be dissolved, need a strong central power. But individualism has its excess, which is called anarchy, and centralism has its excess, called despotism. And every time that the constitution of liberty rests not on the family, it rushes up against anarchy, and then recoils and splits upon despotism. Yes, you may have individualism; truly, a brave sight! A nation ground to powder, no cohesion, no hierarchy, no family; nought but individuals, units, --fine sand of the social desert, useless for building up anything; able only to whirl in a tempest, to gather together, to thicken, and to coagulate in blood or mire,-such is anarchy. And when society recoils in terror at its own work, it will meet absolute centralisation,-whether in the hands of one or many, whether republic or monarchy it matters little, it is but a question of form and of name,—and find, if it goes on to the end, an absorption of every living power of the nation into an abnormal centre, and the establishment in the His sunlight of modern times of the most terrific despotism our race has ever known! . . All are anxiously interrogating the future at the present moment; Old Europe is falling piecemeal ; what can reconstitute a new Europe? I say it is the family. The definitive future of the world is not in its armies. Durable, accepted, and fruitful victories are not in needle-guns and rifle-cannon! The future of Europe and the world belongs to those nations who shall be the most moral, to those who shall have the fewest sophists and courtesans, and the most numerous, the most laborious, and the most Christian families." The venerable cathedral of Notre Dame is again attracting crowds to hear the Advent lectures of Père Hyacinthe. This year he has taken for subject, The domestic circle in the general plan of human society. Social bonds, social forms, and relative importance of domestic society, were the three heads. Under the first we noticed his reply to the accusation against Christianity of having exalted the individual at the expense of society. "True we are men of a personal idea, of individual virtue, of individual salvation. We say that man is responsible above all to his own conscience for good and evil. We say that he should do right and avoid evil independently of the use it is to mankind in general. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, the personal God; seek his righteousness first and above all, and then usefulness to country and mankind will be given over and above; yes, over and above, which necessarily springs from the personal idea itself." thought took a lofty flight. "Ah, suffer me at one bound to rise to the sublimest height! On high, in those regions to which a part of the men of our age no longer raise their looks, is there not on high a reasonable nature, verily one, verily indivisible, and yet several in its persons: society of God with God, of the Father with the Son, and of the Father and Son with the Holy Ghost? O holy commonwealth of eternity! Mysterious city, where the three persons dwell in qual majesty, in perfect distinctness, and in close unity. O God! it is from thee that man is modelled, and thus it is thou hast made us one in our nature and several in our persons, deeply distinct and deeply united; naturally free, naturally equal, and receiving no command but Truly the responsibility of a people who hear such words is great; but it is much to be doubted if any general effect be produced; individuals may be induced to follow out the suggestive thoughts, and take up the scriptures and search them, and find in the Gospel the inward and outward healing they thirst for. But the powerful instrument of God for the salvation of souls is not wielded,-how can the Carmelite use a weapon he has not felt the power of himself? and without that men may and do admire; but their harness is whole, they feel not the prick, they fall not at the feet of Immanuel. It is not Père Hyacinthe, sincere and eloquent as he is, it is not the worthy Archbishop, whose moderation is known unto all men (he has lately discouraged the invention of false miracles); it is still less the declamations of the Ultramontane party, and their appeals to Mary-worship; it is not all our Protestant appeals to reason and moral rectitude that will stop France and Southern Europe in their headlong course to the abyss the eloquent monk describes. The remedy is the Gospel; and wherever it is boldly and lovingly preached, there we have its natural results, its noble fruits. All our churches, weak as they are, and weakened by unbelief oozing in on all points, yet more and more filled with precious freight. The Lord blesses them all; like the various members in one body, no one can say to the other, I have no need of thee! Each has its work to do, its man to reach, its niche to fill, its soul to save. The pity is that time should be lost at such a crisis, or at any other, in vain endeavours to show forth one's own superiority. Let him be praised whom the Lord chooses to bless, whom the King delights to honour, in giving him, not large congregations, not thousands of readers, not the praise of man, but souls. We hear of souls being saved in various places, often in quiet meetings where persevering prayer is made. We were witness last week of the exhortations of a dying Bible-woman to a circle of rag-pickers whom she had sent for to surround her bed at the peril of her life. "I am drinking, drinking, of his grace," said she. "I shall be satisfied by the rivers at his right hand. In the depth of suffering He makes me happy. Jesus is leading me through the valley of the shadow; He is no stranger; He loves me; oh, how He loves! He has put all my grievous sins away, all are cast behind his back for evermore, never to come to remembrance. He has died for me. Now, Jesus is willing to be your friend, beloved; all He has given to me, He is willing to give to you; the grace I have, He longs to give to you; oh! see how very happy He makes me. Do turn to Him now, be saved now, leave sin now; do tell me you will meet me in glory!" Such are irresistible words when accompanied by the facts, telling, as none other do, of a living God, and a living Saviour, snatching sinners from destruction. All our Societies-Tract, Evangelical, Bible,—can tell of the Lord's strong arm being put forth, and souls saved here and there. But it is gleaning stray ears at the best; we long and pray for the harvest, and for men equal to the work. Switzerland. (From our own Correspondent.) My last letters to you related to the churches of Berne and Basle. I return now to our Geneva affairs, and I take them up where I left them in my September correspondence. I was telling you of the agitation that had been caused by a bill the Government had just presented to the Grand Council. This bill was to allot to the Catholics two ample and beautiful sites in the town for churches, and to the Protestants 20,000 francs to aid the construction of a small temple in an obscure suburb. After long debates the Grand Council, though comprising a conside-* rable majority of Protestants, negatived the whole bill; and we approved its resolution: we were not willing, for the price of 20,000 francs, to grant Catholicism such an augmentation of splendour and of power. But we regretted that the Government had proved itself so feeble and so disposed to sacrifice everything to conciliate the Catholics. But still weaker did that Government prove itself subsequently; and upon what occasion I will tell you. Our principal charitable establishment is the Hospital of Geneva or Old Hospital, which is endowed with about 5,000,000 francs. When a Catholic territory was added in 1815 to that of the ancient republic, the same treaty which granted certain exceptional rights to the new Genevans, recognized and assured, to the Genevans ab antiquo, the possession of the funds of their ancient hospital. The revenues were therefore exclusively for our poor; but the poor of the new territory were not, therefore, left without succours; and we can boldly affirm before God and man, that we have practised towards them the most ample and the most Christian beneficence. Not only as individuals, but as a state (for the government was then entirely in our hands), we loaded with benefits this population which had been given us so poor, so ignorant, so incapable of doing aught for itself. In all their villages we have built or rebuilt churches, vestries and schools; and, although we reaped from them nothing but ingratitude, from their priests nothing but abuse, we persisted in this course to the end. The Radical Government which arose from the Revolution of 1846, and which without them was able to do nothing, could yet for them do no more than we had done; but it did one thing more-it added a new infusion of bad passions to those which the priests had already nourished among them, and it is thus they were at last led to consider as an enormous injustice, and as a monstrous political inequality, the existence of these funds belonging to the old Genevans. But the most singular and deplorable fact, was that a certain number of the old Genevans ended by taking nearly the same view of the matter. Having by their weakness become pure Socialists, they showed themselves ready to consent to a partition of the funds of the hospital; and the Government, ever pre-occupied with the chimera of conciliating the Catholics, proposed a bill sanctioning this spoliation of the old Genevans. By way of compensation, the Catholics were supposed to renounce the privileges secured them by the treaty of 1815. This renunciation was another chimera, for the Genevan Catholics could not vote it without the consent of the Great Powers, who had guaranteed | the treaty; moreover, the priests declared immediately that they could not and would not yield anything. But even while declaring that they did not and would not yield anything, they nevertheless vehemently urged the people to vote for the bill; and perhaps in no country has universal suffrage ever received so strange an application as it did on this occasion. Simple good sense and simple justice at least required that the old Genevans should have been called upon to vote first, to decide whether they would consent to the partition. But no! The entire population were summoned to vote, and it all but resulted that the Catholic, united to the Radical votes, should have composed a majority. The bill was rejected, but it is clear that the matter is not over; the question will again come forward, and the audacity of the one party, aided by the weakness of the other, will, eventually, win the day. You will understand, I trust, that what makes us attach so much importance to this matter, is far less the money question than the question of principle. In the domain of con science, it is of little consequence whether we treat of five or five million francs. Our rights, our honour, our political and religious interests are all at stake. What our adversaries desire, much more than our money, is the downfall of one of the last earthly and human props of our old Geneva; this is the object they principally pursue in the destruction of the hospital as a Protestant and Genevan institution. We have, as we well know, other and nobler props left. Her faith, her life, her church,-it is on these that Geneva, if she continues to believe and to live, will be able to rely at all times. But let not our brethren abroad forget how much temporal questions have of importance in our particular position. Materially invaded on all sides, almost drowned in the floods of Catholics that come upon us from all the surrounding countries, we are unable to renounce temporal weapons of defence; and, provided we do not neglect spiritual weapons, no one can justly reproach us herewith. On the 26th of September the consecration took place of a Russian church, which is built on a height in the outskirts of the town, and whose golden cupolas may be perceived at a distance of 20 miles. This ceremony, which was attended by deputations from the Consistory and the company of the pastors, took place under the presidency of Father Vasilev, the arch-priest of the Russian Church at Paris. After the service had been celebrated according to the ancient and beautiful liturgy, ascribed to St. John Chrysostom, the arch-priest addressed the assembly, at first in Russ and afterwards in French. "Dear friends and brethren of Geneva,-We owe this sanctuary to you in two ways; for we owe it firstly to the full and perfect religious liberty which reigns among you, and then to the present you have made us of the site on which we have raised it to the glory of God, our common Father. Believe me, you will never have to repent hereof. We will respect your faith as you respect ours; we have in our hands no weapons of any kind to trench upon the domain of your conscience. Living amongst you, we will pray for you as we hope you will pray for us. And to you, and to your good town, and your beautiful country, may peace be granted to abide with you." The Roman Catholic clergy, who were also invited to this ceremony, had refused to attend ; some people cannot understand why. The latter forget that the Romish Church, in virtue of the principles which it has declared immutable, cannot either officially or officiously hold out a hand to any other Church. If we find in German Switzerland, for instance, some curates who are animated by exceptional sentiments, their conduct is none the less a grave infraction of their duties as Catholic priests; and indeed, during some few years their supreme ruler, the Pope, has been taking care, every time he has upraised his voice, to leave no room for doubt as to the true sentiments and the true laws of his Church. The Pope, moreover, seeming to have been anxious to leave us no facilities at Geneva for forgetting what Christianity has become at Rome in the hands of the Popes. One of our rural Catholic parishes, Thônex, received lately from him a present of one of those "sacred bodies" which are taken out of the catacombs, christened one thing or another, and then exhibited as relics of saints or martyrs, to the credulous veneration of nations. In this manner Celiodorus (?) has become the patron of the parish of Thônex. The bones of the pretended saint have been enclosed in a wax puppet, representing a handsome young man in splendid raiment. The clergy of the whole canton met together to give him a magnificent reception; and this demigod is now enthroned upon the altar, where he receives incense and prayers. Such are the things going on at Geneva in the year 1866. THE LATE M. LE PASTEUR BRIDEL.* The Free Church of the Canton de Vaud has been visited with a severe affliction, in the sudden removal of one of her most distinguished and beloved pastors, M. Louis Bridel. This eminent Christian workman was so well known to friends of the Gospel in England and Scotland, from his long ministry at Chapelle Taitbout, in Paris, as well as that of the last ten years at Lausaune, that we feel sure many among us will sympathize with our Swiss brethren in their heavy trial, and be interested in a few particulars of the last days of one so ready for his Master's unexpected sum mons. M. Bridel left Lausaune, Monday, October 22nd, in apparently his usual health. He had been invited to attend a Conference of pastors of the National Protestant Church at Valence, and was afterwards about to take part in the Synod of the Free Churches at Nimes; while, before returning home, he hoped to be present at the Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Alliance at Lyons. * Abridged for Christian Work from an article by Professor Chapuis in the Chrétien Evangelique. He was deeply interested in all that concerned the Reformed churches of France, and his appearance in their assemblies was ever hailed with joy. The two first objects of his journey were accomplished; but a shade was cast over the meetings of the Evangelical Alliance by a telegram announcing the death of that zealous and honoured member. He had already joined "the great multitude which no man can number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues assembled before the throne and before the Lamb." At Valence, M. Bridel rejoiced to meet his friend and former colleague M. Edmond de Pressensé. "I had the privilege," writes M. de Pressensé, "of hearing the last two speeches of our friend; one on the Free Church, the other on the Gospel in Spain; two subjects of which his mind was full. Never did I hear words more affectionate and pure, more true and forcible.” One of the National pastors present on the occasion also wrote:-"I had not seen our dear brother for some time, and was struck by a change in his appearance. His face was worn, and there was a look of suffering in his countenance. Nothing of all this, however, was perceptible in his speech; on the contrary, I never heard his voice more powerful, or his words at the same time more thrilling and more tender. They touched all our hearts; and when replying to him on behalf of the Assembly, our President, M. le Professeur Bois, could scarcely restrain his emotion. The heart of the Christian orator was evidently filled with an ardent love for his Church of the Canton de Vaud-a little church, but one which has made great progress, and is likely to make greater still. After entering into most interesting details, he earnestly recommended it to our prayers with a warmth of feeling which reminded us of St. Paul, and he promised us the sympathy and prayers of his beloved church in return. This love for his church evidently sprang from that love of souls with which his heart overflowed, and which communicated a remarkable fire to his words. We felt him to be under the influence of those Scripture precepts, 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.' 'Work while it is day.' Largeness of heart, and an abounding charity in our brother, deeply impressed us all, and I shall never forget a remark he made on Matamoros-'If any evil report against him should reach you,' said he, 'you may be sure it is the enemy who hath done this, and that it is nothing but an odious calumny. I have perhaps never met with a more pure and beautiful |