to meet the tendencies and the sympathies of both sexes; for besides the picture on the altar, there is at one side, a picture of a female-the Virgin -opening her breast, and showing within that thorn-bound, bleeding, and blazing heart; and on the other side, a picture of the Redeemer, exhibiting in his lacerated bosom the same object. How entirely they have misunderstood both the disease and the remedy. They have dosed the diseased heart with strong medicines, which instead of having in them anything sanatory, are cordials that only excite to destroy. It is sad to see the desolate worshipper struggling in sincerity after this mystic and inebriating enjoyment. It is only more sad to see the priestly director, infidel to the power of his own nostrum, yet rejoicing in that measure of influence by which he entangles his victims, and hampers a flight that might otherwise have carried them beyond his range. A very large convent has lately been established, the buildings of which are erected immediately above the Haut Ville, or High Town, in a style of great splendour. It is established in direct connexion with this mystic worship; and the nuns are called "The Ladies of the Sacred Heart." The object is not only to sustain the Romish cause, but to catch hold of those weak and ignorant enthusiasts, who in consequence of inefficient religious education, strong feelings, and, frequently, Puseyistic clerical agency, are found in such numbers in our own communion, a ready prey to Romanism. The English saunter up there in idleness, and listen to the masses, well performed, think an impassioned thought or two, and inconsiderately barter the privileges of a rational religion, for a dreamy and unintelligible devotion; and the dominion of God over the heart, which cannot but be wise and good, for the paltry and blasphemous imitation of it by the usurping creature. Oh! how lamentable it is to walk through the churches here, and see the range of confessionals, composed each of them of a close box, in which the priest sits concealed, that no one NOVEMBER-1845. may watch his emotions, and an open box, in which the penitent kneels at his feet to see, in fact, a system, which requires absolute publicity to the female in the most trying of all circumstances, in order both to preserve her purity, which would otherwise be endangered; and also to prove to the world that, at least so far, that purity has not in overt act been violated. The celibate priest and his penitent are thrown into close contact, and the legal arrangement for this purpose is manifestly a provision to guard against the inevitable tendency of the system. It is gratifying, however, to learn that there are elements in operation which must, to a very great extent, counteract the agencies now at work for the restoration of Popery and its moral horrors. Among others, there are two men, of the first talent, professors in the University of Paris, who are delivering, both from the chair and the press, lectures calculated to rouse the common sense and moral feeling of the people against the system by which they have been held in bondage. These are MM. Michelet and Quinet. It is difficult to obtain their works in provincial towns. Those booksellers who are at all subservient to the partie pretre will not sell them, but shrug their shoulders, and assume an ignorance of their existence. Such works must, however, make their way. Michelet has recently issued a very powerful paper on "The Priest, the Wife, and the Family;" in which the insulted feelings of nature rise in sublime indignation against that invisible agency which governs every thought and feeling of the domestic hearth, to the practical exclusion of its master. He shows with great eloquence of style, that the celibate priest is, by the very necessity of his celibacy, hostile in all his feelings to the domestic and social comfort of married men; and yet that to him is committed the absolute dominion over the mind both of wife and daughters, so that the attempt at any moral or religious thought or conversation within the range of a man's own little circle of home influence is at once treated with indiffer 3 U ence or distrust; and that because domestic peace is thus committed to the guardianship of its natural enemy, it has, in Popish countries, no existence, and never can be restored but by the destruction of the confessional. Those who have seen the priest, and marked "the lurking devil in his eye," may well believe this. 66 The last work of Quinet is on Christianity, and its actual influence on the history and character of the world, and of our own times." In this inquiry the author pursues, with an enthusiasm peculiarly his own, truth, absolute, unadulterated truth. He says, "If needful, I prefer to stand alone with a clear conscience, rather than to have all the civilities of the world with me, and carry within me a divided mind." Speaking of the ruling authority of established opinions, he says, "It is a rule in military law, never to lend an ear to, or to obey, any order, message, or summons, from a force that has become prisoners of war. In surrendering their arms, they have lost the moral right of requiring to be heard. Now the doctrines which called on us for abject submission, are the prisoners of the Church and of the world. Being, therefore, free ourselves, we send back these messages of captivity fettered as they come, and unanswered, to the place from whence they issue." And again, "In the deep of the soul we can adore only that which is adorable, we cannot flatter, we cannot crown anything that is not divine. With such views it is very possible that you may not rise in worldly dignity, but you will be the children of God, you will be men of the truth; and that is at this very hour the rarest dignity on the face of the earth." Yet with all this boldness of enquiry, there is a manifest reverence of a very high order for revealed truth-a solemn conviction that it is truth, and a desire to see its proper influence restored. "We knock," he says, "at the door of the Church, and ask that He, whom they call to our dishonour the God of the people, may not lie motionless upon his cross of wood, but that he may awake to might in the power of his doctrine, This is the spirit which, most undoubtedly-if in God's providence it be allowed to obtain dominion-must be the element of a wondrous change. Mysticism and superstition and false, unwarranted influence and power, must fail before it; and the light of that truth by which God has determined to govern the world must rise, as the mists melt before it, to the cloudless effulgence of meridian day. Here, however, I pause. I shall hope, on a future occasion, to give you a longer paper on the main views of these very valuable writers. Based as they are evidently on a solid reverence for Scripture, they wield a twoedged weapon of fearless research, before which falsehood cannot make head; and then victory, come when it will, will not be the victory of precedent, or established authority, or the voice of the majority, or a reverence for tradition; but it will be that which we must come to at last, and which the honour of the Almighty source of truth does absolutely require for the vindication of his government, the victory of truth, unsullied and unallied, over every phase and form of error. Thankful shall I be if your very valuable publication, which has ever walked onward steadily in the right line, shall have its share in the work by which truth becomes omnipotent, and in the meed of praise by which its final triumph is acknowledged. I am, &c., LATIMER. RENEWED APPEAL ON BEHALF OF THE CHRISTIAN INSTITUTIONS IN PARIS. DR. Merle D'Aubigné has said-“ It is in France, it is in Italy, that the force, the nerve of Popery is to be found. If Popery is overcome there, it is overcome in all the world. Rome knows very well how to choose the place where she intends to engage battle. She chooses first Belgium, then Tahiti, and now Ireland; tomorrow it will perhaps be England. Let us choose, likewise, the place where we shall fight the battle with Rome. A great battle is now taking place in the world-a battle of the Word of God against the word of man. The result of this battle will decide the fate of the world." The French Evangelical Society is exclusively devoted in its labours to the Departments of France, and cannot embrace the evangelization of Paris; but as "Paris is France" by universal consent, the work carried on in the capital is of equal importance with that in the provinces. The Christians in Paris, with ardent, unabated zeal, and sacred disinterestedness, have to bear the responsibility of the Evangelical Society, with some of whom it originated, as to funds and management, and also to give their time, energy, and property, to the extension of the Redeemer's cause in Paris. In strengthening the evangelical efforts in Paris, and multiplying the number of agents there, the springhead of power and influence is being enlarged, which must exert an influence on the more distant fields of labour. A few particulars relating to each of these spheres will now be given. In some of the Departments the desire of hearing the Gospel and having Protestant worship has spread like electric fire. The whole of the Saintange, a district not far from Bordeaux, which was deluged with the blood of the Huguenot martyrs, has arisen, and declared for the faith of their ancestors. Nearly a hundred communes in a circle have professed Protestantism, and requested preachers and schoolmasters. 196,000 copies of the Scriptures have been sold almost exclusively amongst the Roman Catholics of France. During the past year, above 300 colporteurs have been labouring over the surface of the country. In places that had not been visited for several years, groups of persons, from 10 to 40, were found, who, by the simple reading of the Bible, had been led to desert a false worship, and were edifying themselves by the Truth, without any living voice to aid them. At Sens, a very large Roman Catholic town, about 60 miles S.E. from Paris, (the seat of an Archbishop,) where there has never been Protestant preaching, the labours of the colporteurs have roused the desire of the people to have Protestant worship. M. Audebez, of Paris, (one of the ministers of the Chapelle Laitbout,) accordingly visited them, and has, for some months, been preaching to them almost daily, so eager are they for the truth. A congregation of 1200 persons has often assembled, and it is believed that in the course of a year, as many as 50 ministers will be required for as many congregations. Schools are forthwith to be established. Premises that will provide a chapel to contain 1000 hearers, a dwelling-house for the minister, and schools for both sexes, have been purchased, and one individual has anonymously given £600 towards the expense. Thus God can raise up men and funds when he needs them for his designs! A military officer, now resident in Sens, whose services have been acknowledged by military honours, has since this awakening visited Paris, and seen the friends who had been the means of sending such blessings to him and his fellow-citizens. He was quite affected by what he saw and heard there; being invited to the houses of Christians, he found himself in a new world, where all seemed pure and spiritual enjoyment, so that he longed for the return of the evening hour, when he should again meet with them. He says that a moral revolution has been effected in Sens. Indeed, the work of the Committee is almost overwhelming. Sonetimes at one of their weekly sittings, they spend five hours in hearing letters from their agents. What must such a mass of communications involve of thought and subsequent exertion! These Christian friends, labouring also for Paris, though struggling with pecuniary difficulties, are in good spirits, and full of zeal and faith; determined to go ahead in their Master's affairs. God is rendering their different modes of propagation so extraordinarily efficient, that their hope and courage triumph over alarm and difficulty, Their Schools, in which about 1250 Roman Catholic children receive daily Scriptural instruction, are in a very encouraging state. One of the oldest police magistrates in the Faubourg du Temple, thus speaks of those in his quarter. "Most certainly the influence of your school is very great. It is felt, not merely by the mass of children who had previously been left to themselves, (the greatest part vagabonds, against whom I was obliged at every instant to be executing the law,) but the beneficent influence has extended to the families of these children; and I can testify that since the opening of these invaluable schools, I have observed a very favourable change in the moral character of a great number of persons who have either directly or indirectly been brought into connection with your masters and mistresses. A great many families are quite reformed, either out of respect for their children, or for the lessons they have been taught at the school, and many bad habits have been corrected which formerly they practised without scruple." The following anecdote, extracted from a letter of M. de Pressensé, confirms the preceding testimony as to the collateral effects of these schools. About eight days since, as our friend M. K. was on his way to meet the Committee, he found himself obliged to take a cabriolet. Two were on the stand-one of these was of the ancient form, where the driver is within and beside the passenger. Our friend chose it, because it would afford him an opportunity of having some religious conversation with the coachman. He began by talking on indifferent subjects, and then gradually turned his remarks to the peculiar occupation of his companion, showing by his questions that he felt an interest in his welfare. This led the coachman to speak with the greatest candour; and among other thing, he said his employment was laborious, and far from lucrative; especially when a man will not deceive his master, but give him an exact account every day after his receipts. After this and many similar remarks, M. 66 66 66 K, could not but express his surprise, and asked the man where he had imbibed such just and Christian principles. He was immediately answered, "In the Bible, in which he read frequently, and which had inspired him with the earnest desire to do all he could to conform himself to the law of Christ." These were the literal expressions used. M. K. then enquired if he had met with a Protestant. "No," said the coachman, “I am a Catholic." 'How, then, have you the Bible in your possession?" "The Bible in which I read," said he, "is not mine, but in my family. I have a young nephew and niece; each of them has a Bible, and when I go home, I borrow it either from one or the other, to read." But how came these children to have the Bible?" "Why, sir, these children go to a large school in a distant faubourgmost likely you have never heard of it. There some excellent gentlemen have founded a school, and every year they are so good as to give articles of encouragement to the scholars, and it is in this way that my young nephew and niece have obtained their Bibles. These children, sir, have been taught in that school that the Bible is a good book to read; they were taught this particularly in what is there called the Sunday-school. Seeing the great pleasure they had in reading this book, I was tempted, by curiosity, to look into it myself; and thus it happened that I was brought to wish to conform myself in everything to the law of Christ. But that which has fixed and strengthened this desire, is, that at the same school, on Sunday and Wednesday evenings, ministers come to explain the Gospel, and they do it in such a manner as to touch and melt the hardest heart. Whenever I am able I go to these meetings." After a pause, M. K. said, Well, my friend, I know perfectly well the school of which you speak, and you see before you one of its managers." The coachman, struck with astonishment, and filled with respect, turned hastily towards M. K, and taking off his hat, offered the effusions of a grateful heart, and prayed that God would reward him and his 66 colleagues, for the blessings they had been the means of diffusing in his quarter. The coachman has since been to see one of the ministers of the chapel, has purchased a Bible, and expressed a wish to know when he could be received to have some private conversation on religion. The minister found him a very interesting man. The schools in the Faubourg St. Antoine also go on most satisfactorily, and begin to realize the benevolent designs of their founder. By those who have seen earlier papers it will be recollected that every attempt made to introduce the Gospel into this depraved district of Paris, was rendered nugatory by the opposition of the populace. It was therefore resolved to try what the gentle influence of a girl's school would effect. A very valuable mistress was providentially found, who has gained the affections of both children and parents. The latter are now willing to come and hear their children instructed from the Scriptures, and an interesting congregation is assembled every Sabbath evening, and a number of the hearers appear to be savingly impressed. A colporteur is stationed in the district, and devotes much of his time to these parents. He is able to hold weekly prayer-meetings in more than one of their houses. But this undertaking will not be complete, until a school for boys can been added to it; for while the sisters are taught to know nothing as to the way of salvation but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the brothers in the same family, if they are instructed at all, are taught to rely upon and adore the Virgin Mary, and to defend all the errors of Romanism. What is very remarkable, as many as 400 families of the Faubourg desire that a school may be founded for their boys. Still as public Roman Catholic instruction is provided gratis, it is not possible to require these people to pay for Protestant training. Hence the need of continued help being sent; but doubtless this will be granted promptly, as it should be borne in mind that the door of access to these persons is open now, but may at any time be 1 closed, if priestly influence can carry its point with the government, [The Editor will have much pleasure in forwarding any contributions for this interesting work, which he strongly recommends to the benevolence of his readers.] TRACTS IN FRANCE. THE following occurs in the communication of a friend. After expressing his surprise and sorrow that during last year, (1844,) he could find no depository of the Society's English works at any bookseller's at Paris, nor obtain them from his Christian friends there: he writes, But what was a real matter of grief to me, was, that although I could not myself supply these people with tracts, the wife of one of the English foremen had arrived from England, bringing with her a parcel of Tracts, which had been given to her; looking these over, I found some of them written with a view to oppose the pure and simple truth of Scripture, and the whole assortment of them of a hurtful character. Here, then, was a really interesting little band of intelligent English people, with their blooming and lovely children growing up around them, and the parents themselves declaring to me that they would willingly make considerable pecuniary sacrifices in order that they might have some means of grace. At this spot, when I could not supply them with the wholesome food of religious truth, the enemy had been more upon the alert, and had come first, in order to sow tares. Since that period, I am aware that a depository has been opened at Mr. Delay's, the Protestant Library in the Rue Tronchet at Paris. Let me add a word to English ristians visiting France. In different parts of France, there are many interesting English families connected with the fabriques and railroads. These are much more numerous than travellers might at first imagine. If a Christian friend, when travelling, would enquire at different fabriques for the English connected with them, 66 |