rekindled, and companies of priests, and students, and laymen, were to be seen issuing forth on the Sabbath-days from the more central districts, to preach the gospel in all the surrounding villages. If the unhappy state of the mountain tribes cannot but oppress the mind with melancholy forebodings, the case of Ooroomiah is fitted to encourage the hope that great things are yet in store for the Nestorian Church. The present condition of the Nestorians is one deserving indeed of lively Christian sympathy. If secured in their religious liberties, and thoroughly Christianized, their position is most commanding for bearing with effect on the Mohammedan population of the East. Once before the Nestorians have been honoured to raise the standard of the Cross in the most distant regions of the East; and may they not once again be privileged amidst the decay of the empires that surround them, and the crash of their superstitions, to win new trophies for the cause of the Redeemer. THE GERMAN REFORMATION OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. ↑ WE presume that most of our readers have heard of "The Continental Echo," an excellent religious periodical which has lately been merged in the "Evangelical Christendom," the new organ of the Evangelical Alliance. Among the most important contributions to the "Continental Echo," are a series of letters on the recent secession from the Church of Rome, usually denominated the German Catholic Church. These, with a considerable addition of original matter, and kindred documents, have now been republished in a separate form, and constitute the volume before us. We could have wished that the information had been more thoroughly fused from the original documents into a continuous narrative, and that the style, which is clear and elegant, had been more condensed; but withal it is a most creditable production. The writer is able, well informed, of good taste, thoroughly evangelical, and anxious for the establishment of the Redeemer's kingdom. It adds to the value of such a series of communications to see them together. A separate publication, too, affords the author an opportunity of correcting statements which, as made from month to month, cannot fail to *The present state of the mission at Ooroomiah is the following: There are five missionaries-one of whom is a medical man, one printer, six female assistants, and eleven native helpers. There are two seminaries of a higher sort in the city of Ooroomiah for males and females, taught chiefly by the missionaries themselves, and attended at present by about eighty persons-a large proportion of whom are hopefully pious. There are also thirty-two village schools supported by the mission, and attended by about 482 children. The German Reformation of the Nineteenth Century; or a Sketch of the Rise, Progress, and Present Position of those who have recently separated themselves from the Church of Rome, &c. By the German Correspondent of the "Continental Echo." London: Snow. pp. 469. need occasional modification. At the same time, we are bound to say, that there is no indication of an exaggerating tone, but the reverse, and that the original statements have been wonderfully borne out by subsequent facts. We only wish that the respected author would, to a greater extent, personally visit, inspect, and report upon the parties and churches described. Such a report from an intelligent Christian witness would possess great value. Perhaps, in the present stage of progress, it is scarcely wise to assume so high a title as "The Reformation of the nineteenth century." The work, though great, far beyond any thing it may be which has appeared for generations, is yet very recent-but two years old the leading men may live to falsify the expectations which have been awakened respecting them—and moreover, to speak of the Reformation of the nineteenth century naturally recalls, and almost insensibly provokes, a comparison with the Reformation of the sixteenth century in the same country a comparison which it is not desirable to institute on various grounds, and if for no higher reason, at least for this, that the one Reformation is seen by the reader in all its completeness, whereas the other is beheld in its imperfectly developed commencement. The present age is likely to prove one of religious movements of different kinds of error as well as truth. Hence it seems desirable that the friends of the latter should not hastily commit themselves to an approbation which, whether direct or implied, may turn out to have been premature. There can be little doubt, that already the German Reform has disappointed the hopes of many. Presuming that our readers generally are familiar with the leading facts, we shall not weary them with rehearsing the circumstances in which the movement originated-the early life and character of the leading men, or the history of their subsequent proceedings. Nor shall we enter into any detail of the steps which have been adopted by those who longed to counteract their labours. Taking these things for granted as already known, we have thought that we could best interest the reader by shortly contemplating the favourable and the unfavourable aspects of the movement as it exists at the present time; in the course of which we may be able to interweave the freshest and most important points in the information of the valuable volume before us; not, however, restricting ourselves to its authority or contents. -- Before starting in our survey, we may just notice the extent and rapidity of the separation from Rome. None of the leaders, even the most sanguine, could have anticipated the result. In this respect, at least, they resemble the earlier Reformers. Ronge's first letter was dated 1st October 1844. The first separate congregation was not formed till Jan. 7. 1845, and yet, by Jan. 7. 1846, the Reform could point to three hundred and twenty one places in which congregations had been established, in some of which as Breslau, Berlin, and Leipsic, there were more than one these congregations are scattered from Konigsberg to Saarbruck, and from Kül on the Baltic to Constance-while the membership is computed at more than 100,000. At an early stage in the movement the congregation of Breslau had 1200 members ; at a later day, the members are stated at 6000, and that though Breslau was wont to be considered a centre of Roman Catholic authority. Berlin 600 ;* Schneidemuhl 500; Annaberg 200; and eight or ten other places an average of 400. This was the work of six months, and with a people characteristically so slow as the Germans, is wonderful indeed. Dr Theiner, formerly a professor in the University at Breslau, an author and the leading man in the movement in point of learning and acquirement, speaking of its progress ten months from its commencement states, that it In January 7, last, the "Berlin Reform Journal states that the Berlin congregation had risen to 2000 members that the increase was 50 monthly; that a site for a church and a burialground had been obtained, and that the building was about to be erected. 66 development-the absence of suitable councillors, &c., still the unpropitious is too glaring to be palliated. There can be no question that the influential men and the great mass of their followers are radically unsound as respects religious doctrine. From the outset it was feared that Ronge was a stranger to the evangelical faith, but it was hoped that, with the progress of events, he would be brought to the knowledge of the truth, at least that he would maintain the character of a humble and seems to exceed belief, and adds, circumstances-for novelty and partial Many thousands in all parts of Germany have already abjured Romish dogmas. Numerous congregations have been formed-private dwellings -public temples, nay the mountain and the field, have witnessed the reading of the Sacred Scriptures and the celebration of Divine worship, and what is much more, the for ages inculcated and firmly rooted prejudice, that one could only be a Catholic by adhering to Roman faith and Roman ritual, has been so rudely shaken, that it no longer possesses power to terrify the conscience and hold it in thraldom to the hierarchy," p. 169. As the Reformation in the days of Luther was, under God, much indebted to the newly-invented art of printing, the Reformer himself having publishing 180 pieces, or one every other day, in a single year, so the present movement has owed much to the press. "Never was such a flood of publications bearing on one subject seen to issue from the press within so short a time. Even the booksellers allow that they are astounded to think where the writers found leisure to pen such close successions as sometimes appear, or where the readers come from; yet, every work of any pretension goes through several editions in an incredibly short space of time," p. 393. Of Ronge's first appeal 50,000 copies were sold in Leipsic alone in the course of a fortnight; of his publications, an impression of 10,000 copies is by no means uncommon. Thousands of the publications of the Reform have found their way into Bavaria and Poland, and the most intensely Popish countries, in spite of all the efforts of the partizans of Rome to exclude them. Stirring as an extensive and rapid religious movement may be, mere numbers do not in themselves indicate much-they may be the sign of evil as well as good. They generally prove that there has been a previous unseen preparation of discontent and disatisfaction, but this is nearly all. If we turn to the UNFAVOURABLE ASPECTS of the present movement they are serious indeed. We make, as it becomes us, every allowance for adverse candid inquirer. This hope has been sadly disappointed. Instead of drawing towards the truth, he has been receding farther from it from month to month, till now, not satisfied with the rejection of cardinal doctrines, he denies many of the miracles and historical facts of the Old Testament Scripture, and warmly opposes those mixed up in his community who testify in behalf of the old orthodox faith. It may be true that in his neology he is not worse, nay, not so offensively bad as multitudes in the Church of Rome and the Protestant Church of his country; it may be true that he is now more honest than he was before, and that it is a righteous retribution on the Church of Rome, which was the first to patronize rationalism by Father Simon, that by the same instrument she is wounded and punished; still it is a grievous evil that the most energetic leader in a great popular religious movement should be the friend and propagator of destructive error; that an impulse should in this way have been given to the worst heresy which it could not otherwise have received. No subordinate advantages can countervail so serious an evil. The prevalence of neology among other religious bodies in Germany, instead of excusing it in the new reform, only rendered a testimony to the orthodox faith, if not to living Christianity, in that quarter the more important and indispensable. It may be that not a few of the humbler members of society who are comprehended under the standard of Ronge, do not share in his heretical sentiments. It is not to be supposed that plain and devout men, who were glad to escape from Rome, all at once became rationalists and sceptics. We have lately been informed by one, who has had good means of knowledge, that even among the party of Ronge proper, there are men of decided evangelic piety; but how injurious to them must be the growing errors and scepticism of those to whom they are taught to look up with veneration and confidence! As a natural result of the above, and constituting an additional unfavourable feature in the case, we grieve to learn that on the part of the most numerous and influential portion of the movement there is great carelessness and unconcern about the Scriptures of truthwe speak comparatively-denying not only the inspiration of the Word, but holding by the dogma that "the Bible contains, but is not the very Word of God;" and it is easy to see that where this is held there can be no great inducement to venerate the Scriptures or to study and search them as the word of eternal life. Hence the appeal otherwise important to the Bible as the great standard of moral and religious truth, and the appeal to the exercise of private judgment in determining its meaning, is in a great measure robbed of its force. Accordingly, we are given to understand that there is little demand for the Scriptures among the party of Ronge though it be vastly the more numerous. Nor is this to be much wondered at when some of the published addresses of the leader make so little reference to its authority-appeal so exclusively to principles of nature, and reason, and instinct, to the forgetfulness of the word that they might have been the composition of a Mohammedan or a Pagan equally as of a professed Christian. While the influence from the most powerful quarters is thus so adverse, it is much to be lamented that there is no adequate balance from the opposite -the Evangelical side. One of the unhappy principles of German religion (and the new movement has not been superior to it) is to sink doctrinal distinctions as unimportant, and to bind men together in co-operation and even Church communion of the most oppo site creeds. Following this fatal principle, the rationalistic and the evangelical elements in the present reform have been sadly mingled together. It is not necessary to say with what effect. As it must ever happen in such cases, the truth has been the sufferer by the unholy alliance. Its power for good has been enervated, well nigh destroyed, though allowance must be made for the friends of Evangelical religion to such a country as Germany. It would almost have required a second Luther to have prevented the unlawful union ; but it does not, on that account, operate the less imperiously. A farther and unhappy consequence of this state of things is, that in all probability the movement will soon be brought to a stand; and in a case of this nature, arrest is synonymous with decline. Such a movement cannot be stationary. It must advance or retrograde. The Evangelical party in other Churches must stand aloof from it; and well-disposed priests and members of the Popish Church, who long to be free from her superstition without being free from the Nicene creed, will remain with Rome. Hence retardation and decline are almost inevitable. Symptoms of this already appear. We are assured, by a competent witness who has lately visited the leading districts of the German Reform, that there is no progress, that the tendency is toward decline. Certainly we have heard nothing of it for months. Novelty is over-there has been no persecution worthy of the name to excite -indeed the movements of Ronge have rather possessed the character of a triumphal procession than a preaching excursion. And in the absence of positive, impressive, and glorious verities, the bond of union is felt to be feeble. Why should the people meet and hold together, and put themselves to trouble for mere negatives? Cases have already actually occurred where devout priests of the Church of Rome have declared they cannot join, because the divinity of their Master is denied. It is to be feared that this feeling may prove general, and discourage future secessions from the Anti-christian apostacy. The friends of Rome may point to Ronge and say, "See the speedy fruits of surrendering Catholicism. The only choice is, Socinianism or Infidelity." Turning from the unfavourable to the FAVOURABLE ASPECTS of the Reform, we meet with several points worthy of notice. First of all, it is an important fact that there is a party in the general movement, under recognised leaders, known to be orthodox and evangelical. It is not merely that there are individuals sound in the faith, but that there is a party generally known -a party which was early in the field, and which, despite errors of judgment, glories in the evangelical appellation, and would rejoice to suffer for the ancient faith. Leading men of this party, we allude particularly to Czerski, have, in various ways, been already called to suffer for their orthodoxy, and are evidently growing more scriptural and decided in their views. It is worthy of remembrance that, before Ronge was heard of, there was a preparation in the minds of the congregation of Schneidenmuhl for an Evangelical mi nistry that Czerski's coming and subsequent illumination were very much the fruit of prayer-that his main teacher was the Word of God-that his congregation was formed and separated from Rome before any step had been taken by Ronge, and would have been not less real and vigorous, though his powerful letter respecting the Coat of Treves had never been written. It may be right to notice, as interesting in itself, and also to our readers, some of the steps in the conversion and subsequent progress of Czerski, and also in the progress of the Evangelical party generally, of which he is the leader. What says he of himself, referring to his own spiritual state? "Here began for me a period of internal conflict and doubt. I studied theology with the utmost eagerness, not being enabled to reconcile to my own mind various proposed dogmas. compared them with the Bible. This raised in some degree the bandage from my eyes. I began to suspect that the pure light of the gospel had been dimmed and obscured by human interpretation-still I did not see clearly, and these doubts led me into frequent I the argumentative collisions with my fellow-collegians upon isolated articles of belief. But the bandage was soon to be wholly removed from my eyes. I was soon to see more clearly, and acknowledge more fully, that man should worship and serve God, and him alone. (Matt. iv. 10). I was to behold the glory of God with unveiled face, and be led from one clear light to another as by the Lord the Spirit (2 Cor. iii. 18, Luther's translation), and learn at once to know and to cast from me the code of lying Papal laws, which turning itself round the consciences of men, precludes the exercise of moral freedom," p. 133. "I applied myself anew to the study of the Bible. I examined some books which had previously been prohibited to me, and I became convinced of what I had before suspected, that I was not serving God but a human despotic power. I read John xiv. 6, I (that is Christ) am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me;' and 1 Tim. ii. 5. There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, man Christ Jesus;' and I asked myself, 'How can these texts be made to agree with the worship of saints, and even of inanimate things as recently exhibited in the Coat of Treves?'" The result of these scriptural enquiries was that Czerski came to the conclusion that the setting up of any mediator between God and man, beside the great Mediator Christ Jesus-the command of celibacy-the worship of images and relics- the reading of the mass in a language not vernacular-the celebration of the Lord's Supper according to the ritual of the Romish Church, besides many other tenets-were all unscriptural and unchristian. This indicated pleasing progress, and augured well for the future. Accordingly, eighteen months thereafter he addressed a beautiful letter to the Free Church of Scotland, in answer to one which they had addressed to him, full of fervent aeknowledgment of the Trinity in Unity, and of the Deity of the Son. It was still felt that a more ample statement of the work of the Redeemer, and of the method in which the sinner comes to share in its benefits, would be desi |