in this place, whose name I forget, which I think sufficiently interesting to relate. She had been so zealous and devoted a Roman Catholic, that during the Reign of Terror she is thought by her influence to have kept the church of the town open, and when the priests were all banished, officiated herself, as far as prayers and exhortations went, in that edifice. She has since been converted, and has sent all her beads, relics, images, and crucifixes as a trophy to Geneva. This lady resides actually at Macon.

From Turnus the movement spread to the surrounding towns, and by the same means. The beginnings were always extremely feeble. When the pastor at Chalons first attempted to establish a worship there, he could only get three or four persons to promise to attend, and was rejected rudely by the few nominal Protestants to whom he addressed himself. He has now a congregation of about sixty persons, and an audience usually of one hundred, as many as his place of assembly can hold. The regular congregation or flock at Macon amounts to about one hundred, and the audience sometimes to double that number. In both places they are all, with a very scanty exception, converted Roman Catholics; and among these persons, decidedly separated from the Church of Rome, there exists a little corps of Christians quite of the John Bunyan stamp. If I had not seen this, I should have been comparatively but little delighted with a formal separation from Popery, however honest it might be; for Protestantism without piety is what Catholics would universally represent it to be-a mere negation-and a change from the Roman to the Reformed doctrine, occasions what Dr. Johnson has called such a laceration of mind, that without a conviction, deep, warm, and vital, not in what Protestantism denies, but in what it affirms, I cannot conceive how the immense space which Popish ceremonies occupy in the imaginations and affections, or at least emotions, can be filled up. Protestantism without devotion is, to one who has been a Roman Catholic, a mere retrenchment, an absolute privation. A great deal is thrown away but nothing is gained. I have been, therefore, particularly anxious to discover a warm genuine piety-warmer and purer than what is generally met with-and if I had not discovered this I should have thought I had discovered nothing. Far, however, from being disappointed in this particular, I must say that the cold, flagging, almost conventional assent to the truths of the Gospel, which distinguish those long and even piously habituated to their influence, has been utterly put to shame by what I have witnessed since I have been here, in the very humblest abodes of the humblest class of society. I have visited the family alluded to above, at Turnus, and was not five minutes under the roof which shelters them, in the most rigorous but decent poverty, without feeling how beautifully the heart can illuminate a hovel. To give an idea, not so much of the 'sweetness of my own emotion as of the spectacle which excited it, I must mention that I thought at the time within myself, that probably during his sojourn on the earth, our Saviour had often frequented such abodes, and partaken, perhaps, of the humble meal of their inmates, and while I was warming myself with the faith and love which beamed from coarse labor, begrimmed faces, beautified wonderfully by the expression of glowing

serenity and contentment shed over them, grandeur seemed to me, in the comparison, to have changed places with poverty, and to look squalid, cold, shivering and forlorn. Another example I met with at Macon was still more touching. I visited there a very

aged woman. On approaching the door of the room in which she resides, I looked in and saw her quite alone reading the New Testament. On entering I found her, though the weather was very cold, without any fire. Her chimney smoked, and the proprietor of the house would not repair it. The old creature has a family of children, but they are all away from her. It soon appeared that all that is earthly in her heart is given to them. Some time ago, one of her four died, and left her his little savings. She was at that period a devoted Roman Catholic, and spent the whole sum in having masses said for his soul to deliver him out of purgatory. The priests consumed the widow's little portion in their vile decoying superstition, and never did I feel indignation against them so great as when I learned the story. She is now in every worldly sense forlorn and abandoned; the poor feel little for each other, being too much engrossed and hardened by their own miseries to compassionate others, and she is left quite alone with the infirmities of age, sickness, and penury; yet if human happiness be what I take it to be, nothing but religious consolation, I never saw a being more happy than this decrepid old female appeared to me to be. I must not omit to add that she was visited lately, after a long separation, by a daughter very dear to her, who, with tears and prayers, implored her to go to mass. Against this severe trial, however, the old woman stood firm and refused. I have mentioned these two examples of deep piety out of a multitude I might choose from, because when I assert that there is a religious movement abroad, it behoves me to prove that there is something more than a superficial tendency to change, and that the adoption of the Reformed, and the rejection of the Catholic creed is not what it may sometimes very possibly be—a step towards incredulity. On the contrary, that the movement I speak of is positive and affirmative, and not merely negative, is proved by the fact that those converted have been most frequently devoted and zealous Roman Catholics. Warmth of sincerity has, in almost every instance, led to conversions, not indifference, as a mere wish to simplify, as it is called, religion into philosophy. This is the more remarkable, as there are great masses absolutely without religion, who are yet unwilling to be thought unbelievers, and so gross is the ignorance to which the priests have reduced the people, even in those truths which they hold to themselves, that there is a prevalent notion among the peasantry, as I have learned from the best authority, that when a man dies there is an end of him. They believe not even in the immortality of the soul, but for all that they are not unobservant of Popish superstition. One would think that it would be among these that the great impression of the preaching of the Gospel would be made. But hitherto it has not been so. The reason seems to be, that it requires a mightier power of eloquence to awaken than to enlighten. Enlightenment, however, puts the stamp of genuineness on a work. One may be awakened by a false doctrine, but can only be enlightened by the true. I am glad, therefore, the move

ment has begun in the quarter it has. Its genuineness is thereby most emphatically proved.

To interest my readers as they ought to be interested on this subject, let me recall to their attention the fact, that three years ago there were but a few isolated individuals calling themselves Protestants, who cared not for their creed, in any of the places I have above mentioned. The establishment, however, of little Churches in these blank and waste spots would not be so surprising if they had been planted and reared by a zealous and powerful national establishment, from which they may derive sustenance, support, and direction. But this has not been the case; they have sprung out of the zeal of a few of the humblest individuals. Originating in means the most feeble, and maintained most penuriously, they have yet thriven and spread, and have struck their roots firmly into the soil. They have now attached to their modest establishments gratuitous schools, both for children and for adults. In these schools alone, in the places I have mentioned, and shall have in the sequel to mention, is the Bible read. They are therefore sources from which the congregations are fed, many being led, by the reading of the Scriptures, to attend the worship at the Protestant chapels. I saw a very aged female, at the school at Macon, learning first, in her old age, with perseverance and success, to read, merely that she might be enabled to read the Bible. These schools, chapels, and their pastors are supported by the Evangelical Society of Geneva. Their funds are, nevertheless, utterly insufficient for their growth, sufficing barely for their maintenance in their actual condition.

I said, in a former paper, that the work going on in France met with little opposition from the priests. That assertion was correct a short time ago; but it is no longer so. Till the Gospel was preached, the priesthood regarded Protestants with sentiments far from hostile; but since it has been announced from many pulpits, with eloquence and with success, their enmity has been revived, and the pastors are constantly attacked by the spoken and written ribaldry of these men.

I did not visit the Churches of Luhans and Givry, because I am informed, that having seen those of Turnus and Macon, I might form a competent appreciation of the others.

I now turn to Lyons. This great capital of the south of France should naturally be its centre of Gospel warmth. Till the year 1824, it does not appear, however, that in this vast city, containing 160,000 inhabitants, there was a single individual in whose bosom was one spark of religious zeal or devotion. I write literally, according to what appears to me to be the truth. Nevertheless, there are here, and ever have been, a population of about 8000 Protestants, having a national temple and worship established. There may have been seasons, and I believe there have been, in which this population possessed true ministers of the Gospel; but they have always contrived to rid themselves of such as speedily as possible: and to give an idea of the utter dearth of all vitality which pervades their cold, naked forms, which we, who have a liturgy, can hardly conceive, I have only to mention one most remarkable fact, viz:-In the year 1826, on the occasion of the law of sacrilege

being promulgated by the government, 1500 Roman Catholics of the city of Lyons abandoned the worship of their fathers, and attached themselves to the National Protestant Church. Great numbers, perhaps the majority of these, have again gone back to Popery. And it would have been surprising if they had not done so ; for surely a religion which fills the imagination—which captivates the senses-which is prolific in all the emotions which belong to poetry-which is gross or subtle, according to the character of its votary-which, if it applies no healing balm, at least administers an appeasing opiate, and, above all, (and this is its great charm,) satisfies the religious propensity without taxing it-must have appeared infinitely preferable to freezing under the mouldiest commonplaces of the mouldiest morality, and then calling that a worship. I am sorry to learn (but it accounts for the icy coldness of their sentiments) that most of the Protestants of Lyons are Socinians, or, as they like the title better, Arians. The theological colleges in which the pastors are educated, although very effective as far as learning goes, inculcate also Arian doctrines. It is no mat ter of wonder, therefore, that where the Divinity of the Saviour is denied, the incalculable importance of his mission should not be felt, and that it should dwindle, by an inevitable association of ideas, which no counter reasoning can stand against, into nothing; for to diminish an object of worship is to annihilate it.. Add to this, that the great mass of French Protestants have, for a long se. ries of years, stretching into centuries, been delivered over to a hereditary indifference about the Gospel; that many of them have been brought up, in early life, without any worship at all; and that almost all are pure rationalists, who countenance their Church more because they cannot do without the rites of marriage, baptism, and sepulture, than for any other more potent reason; and we shall be able to understand the triple adamantine firmness in which they are locked up against every impression of zeal for the propagation of their faith. Such was the condition of the National Protestant Church of Lyons at about the date last mentioned. Till then there were only a few individuals in the great city whose hearts had any sympathy with the Gospel. These, without neglecting the public worship, were accustomed to assemble together, in order to engage in that simplest and sublimest of all exercises, which alone searches the heart, and purifies the affections-the reading of the Scriptures, prayer, and praise. At first there were only three who thus met together; and the great object of their ambition was, that they might increase their number to fifteen, that they might hold something more like a regular assembly. I know that, in our own country, we sometimes regard little assemblages of this kind with an eye of disapprobation; and it cannot be denied, that in a day of general and promiscuous profession, especially where the Gospel is abundantly preached, they do not unfrequently engender what is most revolting and hateful-spiritual pride, narrowness, bigotry, and bitterness of spirit. But when we contemplate an immense population-a nation I might almost say-given over to superstition, idolatry, infidelity, and formality--and these things being their virtues, what must be their vices?—and then see, within the very heart of this impious mass, a few poor obscure

men, untaught, unencouraged by any visible example, quitting all the high roads and beaten paths of promise in life, and, led by a celestial charity, devoting themselves assiduously to the study of the Scriptures-I can conceive no sight so beautiful, so touching, so edifying as this, or which bears upon it more evidently the mark of a Divine impulse. Such was the commencement of the Protestant Scriptual Church at Lyons.

Shortly after, in the year 1828, M. Adolphe Monod was appointed pastor to the national congregation of that city. There are some men whom to praise is to offend, and whose names are allied to thoughts which absorb and silence all profane admiration. Of this gentleman I shall only, therefore, say, that his preaching was such as soon to exasperate the consistory against him. The tax-payers had no idea that any one should presume to search their consciences, and disturb their internal satisfaction with themselves. But this the new preacher did. Their Sunday afternoon meals were spoiled by the previous morning sermon, digestion was injured, bad blood excited, and, in fact, it was a crying shame that they should be discomposed in the enjoyment of all their animal comforts by an impertinent appeal to hidden thoughts and troublesome reflections, which had before lain so snugly and profoundly asleep as to give them no uneasiness at all. The few notables,' the handful of rich merchants and shopkeepers, might, however, have merely turned their backs upon the obnoxious preacher, and sought elsewhere than under his ministry their periodical quieting dose of religion, if there had been any second place of worship to which they might betake themselves. But this not being the case, they had no alternative, and were obliged to rid themselves of the nuisance of hearing truth by expelling their pastor. This they did by the necessary intervention of the government, though M. Guizot, then minister of public instruction, is known to be very favorably inclined to evangelical ministers; and against M. Monod it could only be urged, that he had faithfully insisted upon the observance of the legal discipline, and on the inculcation of the established doctrines of his Church. This was his crime; yet such is the fear of offending consistories who have generally a good deal of political importance, that their will prevailed, as it almost in every case does. A greater vice than the power of consistories in a national Church establishment it is impossible to conceive. It is a taking of the Gospel out of the hands of those who have made it the subject of long years of study and meditation, to put it into the hands of men who have studied nothing but the petty concerns of traffic and commerce, to receive from the latter its interpretation. As soon as M. Monod was thus excluded from the national temple, he was offered the post of professor of theology at Geneva, or of preacher at the oratory of Lausanne. Either of these situations would have secured to him a sufficient competence for his family, and the former he declares had for him great attractions. He, however, refused them both, and preferred remaining at Lyons, where, for the support of his family, he had absolutely nothing. The motive which induced him to make this choice was, that he would not leave those who adhered to him, though a poor people, and utterly incapable of maintaining a minister and a worship, without a pastor.