our own, with an awakened freedom of inquiry which pervades all classes, with a new system of education, which, defective as it is, does place within the reach of all the blessings of knowledge, and with an increasing circulation of the Bible in the language of the people, and with a practical evangelism, which is becoming more and more extensive every year, it seems to me that Italy is fast emerging from her long midnight of ignorance and degradation, and is already entering the day dawn of a brighter era. Perhaps, more than any other European nation, she needs just now the forbearing sympathy of those who have been wont to sit in judgment on her misery and shame. She wants too, active aid, the Bible freely given, the voice of the living preacher, and the Christian influence of those who travel through her States. It would be well for Italy if of the multitudes who flock from England and America to enjoy her bounteous climate and her wondrous works of art, there were more who aimed to come in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel, who by their interest in the great work of Evangelization which has been so well begun, might urge it forward and leave some other record of their presence than their names on the registers of the hotels, and on the order books of artists. Some such there have been. One I have in mind, an English officer, who by his influence and liberality has been the main stay of the Waldenses through years of trial, and has been largely instrumental in organizing that system of colportage which is now so effective. In tracing out the blessed influence of Col. Beckwith's life in Italy, one cannot but wonder how far the blessing might have reached, if there had been such a spirit among all who sought that land for health or recreation. But the limits of my opportunity this morning, warn me to pass on, to speak of that other country which I have classified with Austria and Italy. A year or two ago, no one would have thought of presenting Spain among the lands which were turning towards the light. For full three hundred years from the time when the blessings of the Reformation were extinguished with the blood of thirty thousand martyrs slain by the order of the cruel Inquisition, Spain has been the darkest land in Christendom. Nowhere have the people been so ignorant and superstitious and wretched, the priesthood so influential and intolerant, the government so despotic and unmindful of the nation's welfare. With the Bourbons on the throne, and the priesthood in the seats of learning, Spain has long presented the astounding spectacle of a great nation deliberately seeking to re-organize the dark ages on its soil, and with wonderful success. The causes which have contributed to arrest these influences, to hurl the last Bourbon from a European throne, and to dismiss the Jesuits from the land they trod upon, have been in progressive operation for many years. The establishment of railway communication brought the people of the different provinces into contact, and

revealed to them the oppression of the government. The spectacle of other nations advancing in intelligence and liberty, while their own, once Empress of the world, was moving backward, awakened shame and indignation. They felt the want of education. They had largely lost respect for the purity or learning of their spiritual teachers. They saw the Queen and Court corrupt, the land impoverished, and all the movements of reform thwarted or repressed in bloodshed. The yoke was heavier than they could bear, and they broke it at last with a determination and with a magnanimity almost without a parallel in history. It is interesting to observe in this connection that the immediate occasion of this amazing revolution was neither financial or political, but simply a question of popular education. The military chiefs of Spain made their appeal to the people in view of an edict issued by the government of Gonzales Bravo, which entrusted the schools of every kind throughout the kingdom to the control of the parish clergy, which was almost equivalent to a suppression of them altogether. It was that final outrage on a people already conscious of their ignorance and panting to press forward, which was the sufficient reason for casting off a system which could endure no progress, and a sovereign who was the tool of Rome. Unquestionably the Spanish have ceased to lie content under the iron hand and rigid rule of Popery. And while it is true ninetynine in every hundred would unhesitatingly avow themselves good Catholics, it is as true that in almost every instance there will be an accompanying protest against the abuses and corruptions of the system. It is upon these convictions and aspirations of the progress that the revolution has been thus far established. The programme issued by the Federalists of Madrid and Barcelona was an embodiment of these liberal ideas, uttered with a distinctness and precision which Europə has never heard before. I have it here before me, and it reads in this way Universal suffrage, Guarantee of personal rights before the law, Neutrality in European politics, The disbanding of the standing army, Education free and imparted to all the children of the State, Liberty of worship, and Separation of the Church and State. A noble charter, and one which if only carried out in part will change the moral aspect of the nation. Under it slavery will cease in all the provinces and colonies, under it the Bible may be printed and circulated freely, under it the men of common sense and apostolic zeal may carry on the work begun by Ingelles, Alhama and Metamoras, may re-collect the scattered churches which they gathered, and preach the simple Gospel to eager multitudes. Whatever form of government may be the result of these commotions, whatever royal aspirant may gain possession of the throne, there is no room to doubt that Spain has entered on a new career, and that a glorious field is ready there to harvest. And now omitting much that I would gladly say, I pass

3d. To speak of that third class of countries, which I have spoken of as affording the fervent indications of spiritual life and progress, which seem most apathetic and inaccessible to Christian influence. And here I would point to Turkey, to Russia, and France, countries which while differing in all respects besides, seem equally remote from the controlling influence of Christian truth. In the first two we have the extreme of ignorance and superstition, and in the last we have the grandest material civilization the world has witnessed, and yet accompanied by an indifference to moral and spiritual interests which is far worse than ignorance and superstition. In Turkey there is the heavy incubus of Islam, a Faith whose life has perished, weighing down the people and impoverishing the land. The only light which shines there has been kindled by the missionaries, whose years of toil have been rewarded by no small success, and yet whose utmost efforts seem powerless to give it adequate extension. In Russia there is a spirit of reform, a slow but certain progress, but manifested chiefly in secular affairs. The present Emperor is an enlightened man, anxious for the welfare of his people, and well aware of the difficulties which hinder the national advancement, but the priesthood of the Greek church are not the friends of progress, and the people in general are taught only in the externals of devotion. What light there is in Russia has only just begun to shine, and though it will increase and brighten, the day dawn of a purer faith must hasten slowly. The contrast to all this in France, as I have said, is wonderful. A vigorous national intelligence, the most perfect governmental organization, the noonday glory of the arts and sciences, the stateliest pomp and ceremonial of worship, unbroken order and decorum in the public places, thrift and activity and enterprise in all industrial pursuits, and yet lurking through all this, a continual protest against the reality and power of spiritual life, and an infatuation for material comfort and indulgence, which constitutes the strongest armor of humanity against the truth of God. I give this not as my own impression merely. It is the judgment of some of the wisest men in France, who have written and spoken frequent warnings against the tendencies of this engrossing materialism which deigns to think of God and eternity only when the world is slipping from its grasp. It must not be forgotten that with all this, there are some better influences. There are two millions Protestants in France, and many earnest preachers of the truth in Jesus. The Reformed Faith has made great progress during the last twenty years. Many interesting and encouraging facts have come to my knowledge in reference to the success which is attending, the efforts of the French Evangelical Society to preach and diffuse the word of God among the people. In France, as elsewhere, faithful seed-sowing brings the harvest. But I believe the facts which underlie these signs of good, to be as I have stated them. The con

trast between this intense progressive material civilization, and this deep seated indifference to religious interests, warrants the assertion that in reference to the true standard of enlightenment, this great Empire is one of the least cheering fields the eye can rest upon.

HAS Protestant Christianity fulfilled its mission, and is it dying out? Has it proved its inability to meet the religious wants of the world, and is it to give place to some other religion?

This is asserted, and there are some things which look like it.

It is said that none go to church in these last days but Catholics and a lingering end of Protestantism; that the Bible has ceased to be a book of authority over the general mind, and is regarded as a curious relic of a transient phase of religious development, or, at best, as a book of suggestions; that religious observance is no longer a worship, but a fine art, or a superstition, or an apparatus of civilization or state-craft; that our young men wish to be civil to their believing mothers, but secretly treat their faith as a weakness; that this is an age of facts, and devotion is dead or dying; and that the Protestant churches have lost their hold on the reason and heart of men, and are nervously struggling to maintain their own.

It must be confessed that the highest efficiency of Protestantism depends on a delicate and difficult balancing of antagonistic forces-freedom and authority, the human and the divine-which is seldom reached ; and as soon as the scale inclines to the one side or to the other, the tendency is to weakness. Not from any internal principle or necessity, but the circumstances of its origin and history, it has given great prominence to freedom; the scale has inclined in that direction. The logic of its history has been protestant, individualizing, centrifugal, divisive, the revolving mass throwing off denominations, sects, irreducible fragments, ecclesiastical dust, and even religious chaos again, in some instances. There is a drift of popular sympathy and opinion away from the strictly church organizations into what is deemed an outside Christianity, which is lawless and takes no responsibilities.

It must be admitted that into this outlying region many have strayed and taken up their abode, or rather roam there, and are no more seen in our churches; and that through the Protestant world there is a large population whom positive Christianity does not directly touch, and in some places the percentage of this population is becoming larger and larger every year.

It must be conceded that the foes of Protestant Christianity are many and powerful. There is Romanism, which represents the element of authority dominant and ultimate, holding the individual mind in bonds and superstition, and which has increased in the United States from 90,000 in 1800, or something like one-seventieth of the population, to 4,800,000, or one-sixth, at the present time, according to Parton.(Atlantic Monthly, May, 1868, p. 568.) There is Rationalism, which is the ultimate of the element of freedom, and which nestles in many pages of science, literature, and morals. There is Pantheism, which solves mystery without miracle, furnishes a creation without a Creator, and levels down the universe to the pride of man by removing its Head.— And there is a civilization, the foster-child, to say the least, of Protestant Christianity, which has become luxurious and threatens to rise up and smother her with the silken robes in which it exults and riots, and which she has woven around it. Besides these, there is a nameless host of minor doctrines and movements, some thrown off by the centrifugal tendencies of Protestantism, others originated from without, which, while deriving all their elements of truth and worth from it, assume an attitude of hostility and are doing their utmost to disintegrate and destroy it.

But there is another side. To see it clearly we need to rise above the nineteenth century, and look with calm and unsealed eyes over the ages and religions of man. Much of the appearance of heterogeneous and opposing elements in old religious communities, over which we mourn, is merely the result of the great providential sifting together of the nationalities and civilizations of modern times. This makes strange neighbors-Christians of all sorts, named and nameless, Jews, Buddhists, Pantheists, Polygamists, infidels, in the same region, perhaps, where fifty years ago all assented to a common Christian faith. But this mixing up is only bringing to your door the unreduced elements, which otherwise you would meet elsewhere in solid and hopeless mass. It is disturbing the fire by introducing new supplies of fuel, stifling and darkening it for the time, but in the end increasing and prolonging it.

It must also be borne in mind that the record of ecclesiastical numbers is not the same thing as the measure of ecclesiastical vitality. While the membership of the Protestant churches was never before so great as now, and is rapidly increasing, the centrifugal tendency which has been mentioned, has winnowed out of them the loose elements which formerly swelled their volume unduly, but impeded and weakened their force.If the body in some few favored and exceptional places was, a half century ago, relatively larger, the blood was thinner. It is now no longer regarded as heathenish to be out of the church; and there is accordingly no standing bounty for heathenism in it. If all the outside world, which really sympathizes with Christianity and forms a kind of ecclesi