and tyrants, but it has secured a permanent place in the history of Protestantism. What Protestant France has done for the foreign mission cause is the subject of the very interesting article by Leopold Monod in the August number. The article was originally prepared for the Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, a German monthly, devoted to the cause of foreign Prot estant missions, which in this field has hardly any superior; but as the subject is of special interest to French Protestants, it is published in the Revue Chretienne also. Of course, while suffering from terrible persecutions at home, and struggling for a mere existence, the Protestant Churches could not be expected to do much for the extension of Protestantism in foreign countries. How efficient the persecution was to which the Protestants were subjected may be seen from the fact that at the last enumeration of the Reformed Churches made at the national Synod of Alençon, in 1637, there still were in existence eight hundred and six Churches, with six hundred and forty-one pastors. In 1806 the number of Churches had dwindled down to one hundred and seventy-one, and of these fifty were vacant. The first French Republic ended the long persecution of Protestants, and secured to it for the future religious toleration. The first French Protestant Bible Society was founded in 1818; in the same year the first Protestant paper, the Archives du Christianisme, was established. In 1821 Pastor Janssen, of Geneva, published in the French language a missionary work entitled, "Description of the Present Condition of Protestant Missions in Infidel Countries," as far as it was known in the beginning of the year 1820. It produced a great effect, and in many towns appeals were made by the pastors for missionary contributions. The first contributions were sent to Basle, but in December, 1822, a Missionary Society was established at Paris. The director of the missionary institute at Basle, M. Blumhardt, urged the society to establish its own mission, and the society resolved to follow this advice. The first missionary employed was Jonas King, an American minister, who offered to work under the auspices of the society among the Mohammedans and Jews of Palestine. In 1823 this committee announced that it had secured a mission-house, which had received two pupils from Basle. From that time a rapid progress was achieved. The receipts in 1823 amounted to thirteen thousand

and sixty-one francs, in 1846 to one hundred and four thousand francs, in 1878 to two hundred and eleven thousand francs. Soon after 1846 came a great crisis, and the mission-house had to be closed for several years; but, thanks to the liberal aid furnished by the Protestants of other countries, it was reopened in 1856. It had in 1879 four students, and two others were educated in the preparatory school of Batignolles. As a condition for admission to the mission-house the academic degree of bachelier es lettres is required. Auxiliary societies have been formed among woinen and children, but it is com plained that the organization of the branch societies is not as efficient as it ought to be. The liberality of the missionary contributions considerably varies in different parts of France. The total Protestant population was given by the census of 1872 as 580,757, in a total population of 36,102,921.* At the census of 1872, which gave an entire population of 36,905,788, no inquiry was made into the religious divisions of the population. The figure given by the census of 1872 for the Protestant population is generally considered by Protestant writers as too low, and Monod, in accordance with an article on the religious statistics of France in Lichtenberger's "Encyclopædie," estimates it from 600,000 to 650,000. Dividing the Protestants of France into eight territorial groups, it has been found that the highest average contribution for foreign missions from any of these groups was ninety-two centimes for every Protestant inhabitant, the lowest ten centimes, and the average for all France twenty centimes. The number of missionaries sent out was forty-nine, of whom thirty-seven were Frenchmen. France has only one Protestant missionary journal, the Journal des Missions, which is sent to 1,820 persons, and has 714 paying subscribers.

Many of the Huguenots who were driven from France by

The figure given in the census of 1872 (580,757) means the entire Protestant population, including children. Some works erroneously give it as the number of communicants, and estimate the entire Protestant population at about 1,500,000. That this is a mistake appears at once from the denominational division of the population of France given in the census, which is as follows: Catholics, 35,387,703; Protestants, 580,757; Israelites, 49,439; other non-Christian denominations, 3,071; without religion, or religion unknown, 81,951; total, 36,102,921. It will also be noticed that the author of the above article claims no higher figure than 650,000 for the entire Protestant population.

fierce persecution have risen to great distinction in other countries, especially in Prussia and the United States. The article "La Rochelle Beyond the Sea," treats especially of the fate of the Protestant exiles who are descendants of the citizens of the great stronghold of French Protestantism, La Rochelle, and gives in particular a biographical sketch of John Jay, who played a prominent part in politics in the early period of the United States, and finally was appointed Chief Justice of the United States.

In a brief article of the same number of the "Christian Review" Pressensé calls attention to the literary productions of the new chief of an ultra-materialistic school, M. Zola. "It is a disgrace of our generation," he says, "that the utterances of the materialistic school attain a fabulous number of editions." I believe that the last but one novel of M. Zola, l'Assommoir, has exceeded its seventieth edition. Evidently it must have the entire world for its market. The materialistic school claims to paint nature, or, more correctly, real life all naked, all crude, without any attenuation. It purports to represent the hideous sides without excluding any thing, and in a brutal language which is, as it were, a photograph of its ugliness, the cast of its monstrous excrescences. The series which has made M. Zola famous is called Rougon-Macquart. He makes a cynical application to humanity of the law of natural selection and heredity. He follows through all their situations the descendants of one family, and shows them carrying along a first hereditary germ which gradually develops and is modified in a terrible struggle for life which gives no room to any pure, generous sentiment, to any remonstrance of conscience. The author paints to us, with an extraordinary relief, contemporaneous life, in the country as well as in the large cities, from the court of the Emperor Napoleon III. to the tavern where the workman becomes brutalized, under the purely materialistic influence of a gross existence. It is impossible for any one who has not read l'Assommoir to imagine a more odious abuse of a great talent. The language, purposely vulgar, surpasses all expectations. And such works are devoured by thousands of our contemporaries! M. Zola, however, has received a striking proof of the failure of his system in an artistic point of view. He must have seen that his realism will not bear being presented to a

large assembly of men, and that it can only be relished in the solitude when one is alone to blush. When he has tried to bring l'Assommoir upon the stage, he has seen himself forced to come back to a quite ordinary drama, where vice is punished and virtue rewarded."

ART. IX.-FOREIGN RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES OF GERMANY.

THE most important event in the history of the German Churches during the past year is undoubtedly the meeting of the First General Synod of the Prussian State Church. The German Churches have been for several years in a state of transition. From the Reformation until the present time they have been, on the whole, governed by the sovereigns and heads of the State, and self-government has been almost unknown. For some time there has been a steadily growing demand in all the States of Germany for the introduction of a synodal constitution, which would secure to the Churches, though not an entirely independent position, at least the right of representation, and of the co-operation of her chosen representatives with the State authorities in the administration of Church affairs. In nearly all the smaller States the synods have been in operation for several years. The greatest obstacles had to be overcome in Prussia. An extraordinary General Synod of the Churches of the old provinces (those belonging to the monarchy before the acquisi tion of Schleswig-Holstein) was held at Berlin in 1873, and was on all sides regarded as an event of marked importance. The plan of establishing a periodical General Synod, as a permanent institution of the Church, was generally concurred in, but the actual meeting of the first regular General Synod has been repeatedly postponed. It finally took place on October 9, 1879. It was composed of one hundred and ninetyfour members, of whom one hundred and forty-nine had been elected by the provincial synods, thirty had been appointed by the King, nine were Superintendents General, and six representatives of the theological faculties of the universities. Like its predecessor, the preparatory General Synod of 1873, it represented only the Churches of the old provinces of the monarchy. The Churches in the new provinces, Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, and Hesse-Nassau, have not yet been fully incorporated with the organism of the State Church. The religious complexion was different from that of its predecessors, and may have been a surprise to many outside of Germany, who have some vague idea of an entire relapse of the German Churches into rationalism and infidelity. In 1873 the majority of the extraordinary synod belonged to the so-called Vermittlungspartei, or party of mediation, which prevailed at the Prussian universities, and, as its name indicates, tried to find a middle ground be

tween the orthodoxy of the Churches of the sixteenth century and the rationalistic schools of the present age. At present this party is in a minority, and the two parties representing the theology of the sixteenth century are in a deci-ive majority. These two parties are: 1. that of the Konfessionellen, or the strict Lutherans, who stand up for the undiminished authority of the symbolical books of the Lutheran Church, and desire to keep unimpaired the Lutheran character of that portion of the United Evangelical Church which at the time of the establishment of this Church was regarded as Lutheran; 2. that of the "Friends of the Positive Union," who claim an authoritative character only for the "consensus," or the common doctrinal points of the Lutheran and German Reformed Churches, but would allow no further latitude for liberal or rationalistic tendencies. These two parties disagree on every thing that is peculiar to strict Lutheranism, but they generally act conjointly in opposition to all propositions proceeding from the other parties. Together the two parties numbered about one hundred and twenty votes, and they therefore formed a considerable majority of the General Synod. The middle party, which has assumed the name of Evangelische Vereinigung, (Evangelical Association,) had about forty-nine regular members and a number of sympathizers. The adherents of the Protestant Union who hold decidedly rationalistic views constitute the insignificant party of the Left, numbering no more than eight members. The members of the high nobility, which are very numerous, belong mostly to the strict Lutheran party; among them are Herr von Kleist-Retzow and Count Krassow, the political leaders of the party; Herr von Seydewitz, the President of the German Reichstag; the Superintendent General Dr. Büchsel; the Consistorial President, Dr. Hegel, a son of the celebrated philosopher. The Friends of the Positive Union constitute the most numerous party in the House. because most of the members appointed by the King belong to it. The royal family before the establishment of the United Evangelical Church did not belong to the Lutheran, but to the Reformed Church and the personal sympathies of the present King, like those of his father and brother, the late Kings Frederic William III. and Frederic William IV., are with the party of permanent union rather than with the Lutheran party, the tendency of which is toward weakening and ultimately toward repealing the union. As some preachers of the court have obtained considerable influence in this party, it has by its opponents been sometimes called the Court Preachers' Party. The most influential man of this party is the court preacher, Dr. Kögel. Among other well-known members are the Superintendents Gencral Dr. Wiessman, Dr. Erdmann, and Dr. Möller; Professor Gess, well known by several theological writings; Dr. Wiese, the author of a number of educational works; Count Bismarck-Bohlen, and a number of high State functionaries. The party of the Evangelical Association counts the largest number of theological writers of note; among them are the Professors Beyschlag and Dr. Köstlin, of Halle; the jurist, Dr. Hölschner; and Dr. Schrader, a distinguished writer on educational affairs.