It seems to me that these various nations may be divided morally into three classes

1st. There are those in which the light of Evangelical Christianity is comparatively clear, and in which the life of Christianity has taken hold upon the people-and

2d. There are those countries in which the people are struggling towards the light, and which give large encouragement to Christian labor. 3d. There are those lands which, whatever degree of social civilization they may enjoy, are spiritually apathetic, and stand largely in the darkness.

ན་ ན་་་

It is possible that some of you may be surprised at the grouping which I shall make under these various heads. You may perhaps distrust the correctness of the judgments I have made, or perhaps may have been wont to estimate the arts and military prowess of some of these great nations as indications of true greatness and prosperity; but I have confidence that from the proper Christian point of view, this estimate will stand approved. Beginning, then, with the first of these conditions:

1st. I would present the countries which possess the largest measures of the light and life of Christianity, those in which the great principles of the Reformation have been established and the word of God is freely open to the people-and they are, as you know, Great Britain, Northern Germany, and the lands occupied by the Scandinavian race, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. In all these there is virtual freedom of opinion upon the subject of religion, and a large and controlling influence exerted

* An extract from a discourse delivered in the Mercer Street Church, New York, shortly after the Pastor's return from Europe.

by evangelical Christianity. A few words in regard to each of these will suffice. In Sweden and the adjacent States which I have mentioned, the established church is the Lutheran, and by far the larger portion of the people are connected with it, though of course in very many cases the relationship is only formal. Nothing can be imagined more orderly and peaceful than the social condition and habits of these people. They are contented and secure under their governments. Education is almost universally enjoyed, and the restraining, elevating influence of religion is widely felt. If it is true that formality and rationalism have counteracted the power of the Gospel in a lamentable degree in these countries, until within a very recent period, it is as true that at the present time there is a widening and deepening infusion, both among the clergy and the people, of a true Christian life, and a large increase of earnestness in carrying the Gospel to the people. Even among the scattered tribes of Laplanders upon the northern boundaries of Sweden, missionaries are laboring, and many churches have been established. It is a pleasant thing to journey through these countries, to receive the simple courtesies of those honest, upright people, to worship in their churches and mark the fervor of their praises, and their love for the truth as it is in Jesus. No where in Europe can the passing traveler see more of the moral fruitage of the Gospel, or expect more confidently a constant increase of its saving power. If we turn now to Northern Germany, or to Prussia, which is the focal centre of that newly-constituted organism, we come at once in contact with a higher intellectual culture, and with a far more intense activity of mind upon the speculative themes of Christianity. Just awaking, as these States of Northern Germany are, to the full consciousness of their united strength in European politics, and moving onward steadily to a compact and solid organization of their material resources, there is perhaps just now a want of general interest in spiritual and eternal truths. The public mind is all engrossed with thoughts of finance, national consolidation, and resistance to the enemies who are hostile to their cherished aims. The spirit of the people is strung up to the highest pitch of interest in these subjects, and there is a manifested purpose to place the mighty German nation in the front rank of intelligence and power. Amid all this there is however a deep religious life in Germany. The Bible is diffused and read in the schools and families. Its truths have a strong hold upon the conscience of the people. No hamlet can be found without its parish church, and in most of Its ten thousand pulpits the Gospel is preached with simplicity and power. There has been manifestly a great advance in popular respect for Christianity. The rationalistic teachers, who once held possession of the field of controversy, have been fairly met and routed by the Christian scholars who have put on the armor of the truth during the present generation. There has been a great quickening in reference to evan

gelistic work, and the time has passed when earnest piety was a reproach in Germany. There is great room for progress. They want a deeper earnestness; they want a greater reverence for the Sabbath; they want more zeal in forcing the subject of salvation on the people. And yet in contrast with the past, there is great progress; and every thing indicates that the work of God will be more pure and thorough in the future.

In speaking of Great Britain, in connection with this question of religious life, I am embarrassed by the necessity of grouping in a few sentences the points of interest which might fill a volume. Like the image in Nebuchadnezzar's vision, the British Empire seems to present a combination of the best and the most worthless elements of human thought and feeling on subjects of religion. The gold and iron and clay are blended wondrously among the people there. Nowhere in the world is there more earnestness in Christian life, more purity and power in preaching the word of God, more faithfulness in mingling with the masses for temporal and spiritual relief, more vigor in resisting the assaults of error, more conscience towards God and man in little things as well as great; and on the other hand, nowhere in the world is there more boldness in the assertion of infidel opinions, more formalism in the ritual of worship, more pomp and pride in ecclesiastical authority, more conflict over insignificant particulars in the established formulas of doctrine and of worship, or more unblushing advocacy of the worst features of the claims of Rome. The land is shaking with the debate of parties upon the questions which concern the rights of conscience and the rights of man. Evangelicals, ritualists, infidels and Romanists, all are in deadly earnest. In some places the Spirit of God is poured out as in the days of Whitfield and Wesley, and in others the people are rioting about the streets, in conflict over questions of nationality, or individual eccentricities upon the subject of religious worship. In contrast with the surpassing order and decorum of a Scottish Sabbath, you have the utter, almost brutal degradation of myriads who only speak the name of God in blasphemy. Churches and gin-shops, each in earnest to save or to destroy. Spurgeon, Newman Hall, Lord Shaftesbury, and ten thousand others, living apostles of the truth of God-Archbishop Manning, Stuart Mill, Dr. Pusey, and an army more laboring to build on other foundations than the name of Jesus. It is an impressive thing to watch even for a few short days, the conflicts of opinion and of faith as they are set before one, in the public journals, in the councils of the Government, and in the daily speech of men with one another. What will come of it? I have no hesitation in the confidence that it all means progress-t -the upbuilding of the truth, the far and wide dissemination of the principles drawn from the word of God, which have already made Old England the bulwark of His truth, and the mother of many Christian nations. Next to the interests of his own, I claim that it is right and reasonable

for an American to love and pray for the peace and prosperity of that great sister State, to all of whose integral parts he is allied most nearly, by ties of lineage, language, civil polity, and faith in God. But on this subject I forbear, and pass at once to the next.

2d. I would now call your attention to those States of Europe which I have classified as those in which the people are manifestly and successfully struggling towards the light, and which give large encouragement to Christian labor. And I would point out as belonging to this class, the Austrian Empire, Italy, and Spain. Austria, so long the centre of absolutism in politics, of complete submission to the authority of Rome, is now passing through a wondrous change. The battle of Sadowa was as great a benefit to defeated Austria, as to victorious Prussia. No sooner had the smoke of the conflict cleared away, and the humiliation of the national disaster been well considered, than a complete change of governmental policy was introduced. The Court and People felt together that there must be reform or disintegration, and one of the earliest results of the new policy was the withdrawal of the infamous "concordat," an agreement which, for ten years previous, had made the empire in all parts subject in religion and social interests to the control of Rome. The chain of despotism thus broken in one part has been loosened in all its parts. The passport system has been abolished, the validity of civil marriage has been affirmed, the liberty of worship has been conceded, the diffusion of Bibles and religious literature is unrestrained, and the whole feeling of the people has been toned up to an activity and freedom of enquiry, such as was never known before. In reference to the temporal authority of the Church of Rome, it is quite safe to say, that Austria has become thoroughly Protestant, and one cannot doubt that that magnificent Empire will pass from such an attitude into a broader knowledge of the Gospel truth which makes men free indeed. It is a country wondrously enriched and beautified by nature, inhabited by races of staunch and noble quality, and despite its dark, bloody and oppressive history, is capable of great things hereafter, if its institutions are well reformed, and its superstitions cleared away. If there is much in its condition which needs to be improved, it is at least good cause for rejoicing that the work has actually begun. In passing next from Austria to Italy, we reach a country in which the reality of progress is even more distinctly visible, because the work of reform has been of longer growth. Outside the Papal States, which are as dark as ever, there is a gradual moulding and assimilation of the people to the free institutions which they have recently received. Unquestionably there is great ignorance and superstition both among the clergy and the laity. One cannot overlook the traits of indolence and impassioned impulse which long centuries of anarchy and misrule have engendered, and yet with institutions which are practically as free as