10 European Intelligence. FRANCE. EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE-FRENCH BRANCH. INVITATION TO A CONFERENCE OF EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD, ON THE OCCASION OF THE UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION AT PARIS, 1855. Lyons, November 11th, 1854. We take advantage of the immense number of visitors which the Universal Exhibition will bring to Paris next summer, to convoke a Conference of Evangelical Christians from all parts of the world. We hasten to make it known to our brethren, in order that they may prepare themselves for it, or at least give the project their prayers. We need not expatiate on the importance and usefulness of such a meeting. It is one of those things which need no apology. The idea only of this Conference will be enough to recommend it. What may we not expect from this assemblage of Christians of all nations, tribes, people, and languages! What an overflowing of light and life shall we not see springing from the union of these several elements, brought together in the adorable unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! In order to render the Conference the more directly practical, reports will be prepared, affording the fullest religious statistics which have hitherto been obtained. We desire to make known the wants and the resources of the entire Church; certainly not to satisfy a sterile curiosity, but in order to harmonise our forces, to call the attention of all Christians to feeble or menaced points, and to multiply everywhere love, labour, and prayer. We do not wish to make a parade, but to hold a grand review of the army of Jesus Christ, where each different regiment defiles before its heavenly Captain to receive from Him the word of command. Seven general reports, edited by French writers, will treat, from a world-wide point of view, the following questions: The Evangelical Alliance; External Difficulties which Evangelization meets with at the present moment; Catholicism; Infidelity; Missions among people not Christian; Observance of the Sabbath; Societies of Young People. Thirteen special reports, edited by eminent men of different nations, will make us acquainted with the religious condition of England, Scotland, Ireland, America, France, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, countries in the north and Russia, the Turkish Empire, the Jews, and, if possible, the Austrian States. We have endeavoured to avail ourselves of the assist ance of persons specially appointed, who, after the reading of each report, will follow up the subject orally. It is not the first time that a Conference of this kind has been assembled. Our friends of Great Britain were the first to conceive and realise this plan at the London Exhibition in 1851. This attempt succeeded beyond all expectation. We are continually asking our selves, if we are not justified in hoping that the Conference in Paris will be even more interesting, as it will be more diversified, and have a more universal character. In fact, the Protestant Church of France, so feeble and so thinly scattered at the present time, but so glorious in the past, is regarded with equal sympathy on the other side the Channel, and beyond the Atlantic. Little capable of acting by itself, it presents to the Churches of other countries an admirable place of rendezvous. The geographical position of Paris will permit us to see the European Continent represented in a more complete manner in this Conference than in that of London. The old friendship which exists between France and the United States makes us hope for a numerous concourse of our American brethren. The intimate alliance which has recently been formed between France and England, now that our brethren of Great Britain possess such facilities for travelling, will permit them to come in as great numbers as they would have done in their own metropolis. Who knows even if such of our English friends as, in consequence of their particular position, would fear to enter Freemasons' Hall, will not feel more free on a foreign soil? The circumstances of the times are not less favourable than those of place. Since 1851, the religious awakening of Germany has taken gigantic steps; that of the Northern countries has followed with the same progressive motion; Italy has formed young Churches for which there is a future; Spain has opened itself again to the dissemination of the Word of God. We have entered into an intimate connexion with that East to which are always attached the destinies of humanity; a prodigious transformation is taking place in China; Japan has become accessible. In New Holland and California there are Churches of all denominations; the Republics of Central America begin to be penetrated by the good leaven. What a moment for studying together the religious state of the world! Lastly, the fact itself of such a Convocation being held in the capital of France, is it not an event? And who would have said to the generations of the last three centuries that a day would come when a dream so beautiful could be realised. Beloved brethren, whoever you are, what ever may be your exterior position, the Church French will be the language of the Conference, but the devotional exercises may be in French, English, and German; and when the Conference is not in Session, there will be special meetings of Christians speaking the same tongue; in a word, we shall try, as much as possible, to be understood by all. Arrangements will be make to furnish to our foreign brethren the means of lodging in Paris, and to take their repasts in common at the most moderate prices. We will make known, at a convenient time, the exact time of holding the Conference, the locality, the means of obtaining cards of admission, and other details, which it is important should be known beforehand. to which you belong, or your own particular | Alliance; it is only in the interest of the principles, we now invite you to this Con- projected Conference. It can only be profitference. It will not be a meeting of the able as it gathers together brethren united in Evangelical Alliance. No doubt it is the the bond of the same faith. Around these French Branch of the Alliance which has fundamental doctrines, as a central luminary, taken the initiative of this Convocation, but it there is a place for all individualities. asks no other privilege than that of being an intermediary to Christians of all nations, and of thus facilitating their approach to each other. It only asks the Conference to consecrate one meeting among twenty to its special object, and the reporters as well as the official speakers have been chosen indiscriminately within our Organisation, and beyond its bounds. It would be sad that the prejudice of which the Alliance is still the object should stand in the way of a Conference, which ought to embrace the religious interests of the world. It is sufficient, in order to your admission to these meetings, that you are heartily attached to the great doctrines of the Gospel, which the French Branch of the Alliance has inscribed on its standard. Here is what it declares: "The French Branch admits to the number of its members all Christians who wish to live in fraternal love, and desire to confess with it, conformably to the inspired Scriptures of God, their common faith in God their Saviour: in the Father who has loved them, and who justifies them by grace, through faith in His Son; in the Son, who has redeemed them by His expiatory sacrifice; and in the Holy Spirit, the author of their regeneration and of their sanctification, one only God, eternally blessed, to whose glory they desire to consecrate their lives." If we ask your adhesion to this summary of Evangelical truth, it is not in view of the Beloved brethren, we place before you one of those subjects most worthy of your Christian interest. If the Lord is with us, and how can we doubt it? there will result from this assembly incalculable effects for the future of the Church. We are assured that you will do all you can to be present. May God remove all obstacles; may He take you by the hand; may He bring you safely across continents and seas; and may He prepare for us next summer the greatest blessings! In the name of the Central Committee of the Lyons, Nov. 14, 1854. VARIOUS INFORMATION. THE TWO PHASES OF ROMANISM-THE PROGRESS OF MARIOLATRY-FRESH DETAILS ON THE PROCLAMATION OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION-DISCOURSE OF BISHOP DUPANLOUP AT THE FRENCH ACADEMY-PROTESTATION OF BISHOP CLAUSEL DE MONTALS AGAINST ULTRAMONTANISM-RESOLUTION OF THE ADVOCATES OF MONTÉLIMART ON THE OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH-M. JACQUES FAUQUET, OF BOLBEC. France, December, 1854. THE TWO PHASES OF ROMANISM. Considered as a human establishment, Romanism is a chef-d'œuvre of skill and foresight. This remark which has often been made by Protestant theologians daily finds some fresh illustration, and the contents of the letter I am now writing will afford further proofs of it There are, in fact, two very distinct kinds of Romanism, which are by turns manifested according to the circumstances and necessities of the times. Vulgar Romanism, full of gross superstitions, appeals to the imagination and to the senses; intolerant in its principles, idolatrous in its practices, closely allied to political despotism, inventing false miracles to captivate ignorant minds, creating new dogmas to silence the prejudices of popular bigotry; then, on the other hand, cultivated and philosophical Romanism, released from its exclusiveness, and its too childish traditions, using a polished and ingenious mode of speech, professing liberal opinions, presenting itself to intelligent men under an aspect likely to deceive them, and obtaining applause from some Protestants even, who suffer themselves to be duped by these fair appearances. Thus, in the seventeenth century, whilst the Jesuits and Capuchins announced to the people a degraded and immoral Popery, Bossuet published an Exposition of Catholic Faith" (Roman), in which the doctrines and ceremonies of his Church appear nearly as pure and as holy as those of the Reformation. So is it in our time, two Romanisms are exhibited to the public, according to the different exigencies of places and of men. When your Dr. Wiseman speaks before a Protestant auditory, he takes great care to disguise the intolerance of his communion, and to proclaim principles of liberty. You may also see that one of our bishops, called to lecture before the French Academy, had the art to excite enthu siasm by propositions semi-philosophical and very liberal. But when these same ecclesias- | the cross for the salvation of men, has ceased tics, or others of the same Church, find them to be the source of all grace; he appears selves before a different audience, their rather as the Son of Mary, as the Child Jesus, language is completely changed, and they Il Bambino, as the Italians call Him! Mary become narrow, exclusive, superstitious Pa- has gained all that the true God has lost. pists, in the full extent of the term. This idolatrous and sensual worship apparently pleases the priests and the monks, whose imagination is exalted by the law of celibacy; it is equally pleasing to the women, who seek in the deification of Mary an apotheosis of their own sex And what are we to understand by this? It is, in reality, a Jesuitical system. The agents of Romanism are all things to all men in a bad sense; they are double-minded, speak two languages, have twofold aims and maxims, in order to win over to their cause minds of the most opposite cast. The Roman pontif willingly authorises these diversities, because he sees in them an excellent means of increasing the credit of his system; he only requires that every one should bow meekly at the foot of the Papal chair, for everything besides he has treasures of condescension and indulgence. Let us come to the facts which justify these reflections. Popular Romanism is more and more taken up with what has been termed MARIOLATRY. The Virgin Mary occupies a very much more prominent position than the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in the prayers, sermons, and actions of the Popish clergy. A Romanist preacher lately said: "The very Holy Virgin, my brethren, is the fourth person of the Trinity!" This was saying too little; to a great number of Popish bigots the Virgin is the first person of the Trinity. Pre-eminently they call upon Mary. It is to Mary that they continually present their prayers and their homage. It is to the heart of Mary that they confide their complaints, their griefs, and their hopes. It is from Mary that they expect the pardon of their sins, and the mitigation of their sufferings. Mary, in a word, is the substance of their faith, the summary of their religion, the beginning aud end of their worship; and Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, stands merely as an accessory in this strange Christianity. I will give you a very curious example of it. You know that the terrible epidemic, the cholera, has been committing its ravages through a great part of France, and that our population have been very much alarmed by it. What was it the priests thought of to calm the fears of the people? They invited the inhabitants, especially in the southern provinces, to place on the door of their houses, a little paper image of the Holy Virgin, with a prayer addressed to Mary, promising that their families would be thereby preserved from the disease of cholera. The poor and credulous Romanists followed this: advice. If you walk along the streets of our towns and villages, you will see on almost every door a coarsely-painted image of the Virgin. Some individuals, richer than their neighbours, replaced the paper image by a statue either of plaster or of marble. This is Romanism in its rudest form! God, the Father of mercies, is set aside, as a being indifferent or insensible to human misery! Jesus Christ, who died on This Mariolatry, or Mariomania has reached such a pitch that it has become very dangerous to express an opinion openly on the subject. A humble Bible colporteur very recently had a melancholy experience of it. He was at Montendre, in the department of Charente Inférieure, on a fair-day; and in the midst of a conversation with some peasants, he declared that Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, had probably had other children besides Him. Immediately there was a great murmur in the multitude. The colporteur was accused of having outraged the august Mother of God! A bystander-who had not assuredly acquired through the worship of Mary any large amount of patience and lenity-threw himself upon the poor seller of Bibles, addressed him in the most violent terms, struck him on the face, and delivered him to the police authorities. This is not all. The colporteur was taken to the tribunal of Touzac, and condemned to pay a fine of 300 francs, and the costs of the lawsuit, because he had committed a grave offence against a religion recognised by law! Thus it is no longer allowable to say in France that Mary may have had several children! That opinion, which eminent Protestant controver tialists have maintained, is now, amongst us, a legal crime! You may judge by this fact of the progress of Mariomania among the Papists. THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. Of I mentioned to you, in a preceding letter, the great sensation produced by the project of Pius IX., to proclaim the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. (Vol. viii. p. 403). this I must give you some fresh details. Generally the most influential political journals have disapproved this innovation of the Romish Church. The Presse and the Siècle, the two daily papers which have the largest circulation in our country-have published, after the Journal des Débats, articles very hostile to the doctrine of the immaculate conception. They reproach the cardinals and bishops, now assem bled at Rome, with ridiculously wasting their time in the examination of an unfruitful and injurious question, with attacking the opinions of the ancient doctors, and with giving to the Virgin Mary honours which have never belonged to her. I think I may affirm that the more enlightened of the Romanist laity-even those who are sincerely pious-are most of them grieved at what is now going on in the city of the Vatican. But the Popish prelates are not the less diligent in issuing pastoral letters, in which they promise in the most emphatic terms, that plagues of cholera and famine continue, still the bishops will not be at all embarrassed; they will pretend that it is a chastisement from God, because the majority of the French have not meekly admitted the doctrine that Mary was conceived without sin! So that, in whatever way things may turn out, the prelates will arrange their explanations to the greatest glory of the virgin! They have, like the ancient oracles of paganism, answers ready for all emergencies. Yet once again, what a comedy! I pass on to the examples of refined Romanism. BISHOP DUPANLOUP'S DISCOURSE BEFORE THE ACADEMY. the proclamation of the immaculate conception will be a source of incomparable and unheard-of blessings to the whole world. Thus the bishop of St. Cloud said: "The decision that Mary was conceived without sin is necessarily linked to providential and merciful views. . . . It is a commencement of those things which will form one of the most important pages in the history of religion and humanity' The bishop of Nantes said in his turn: "In that day (when the immaculate conception shall be proclaimed), mercy will take the place of justice, and a new and overflowing life will circulate through the veins of Christians; ineffable joys will replace their present griefs, and all these blessings will be still more precious to us, because they will On the 10th November last, M. Dupanloup come through the maternal hands of Mary." pronounced his solemn discourse on his apThe bishop of Marseilles pretends that it will pointment, as one of the forty members of the move heaven and hell. In this day," says French Academy. M. Dupanloup is not a he," something will happen here below which great writer; he has not composed any popular will have an echo in the highest heaven, as work, and no one even amongst his friends in the lowest hell. . . . This will be a great would think of attributing genius to him. But rejoicing for the Church triumphant, an abun- he is bishop of Orleans, and the old French dant blessing for the Church militant, and Academy attaches some importance, above all profound confusion in hell." The bishop of at the present moment, to counting among its Rodez believes and affirms that the immacu- members a representative of the Episcopacy. late conception will sensibly weaken the empire Moreover, M Dupanloup is a well-educated of sin and death. "With this glorious decree,' man, of polished manners, occupying a diswrites he, "will come a new era of regenera- tinguished place in society, and in good repute tion and sanctification in the Christian States. in the high places of the Government. He has ... It is to be hoped that the wars begun in published some small books on education, all parts will cease, that conspiracies will preached some sermons which were not with be suppressed, contagious maladies will dis-out oratorical merit; and with these light appear, that harvests will be abundant, &c." Lastly (for I must abridge these extracts), the bishop of Rochelle repeats the song of Simeon, assimilating, by a profane comparison, the immaculate conception to the birth of Jesus. "In their ardent devotion to Mary," says he, in an apostrophe to Pius IX., a multitude of pious souls are waiting Thy decision, to bid with Simeon their farewell to the world, and to bless Thee, most Holy Father, saying that their eyes have seen the light which shines for the instruction of the nations, and for the glory of the people." Is it possible to push error, folly, contempt of the things revealed in the Word of God much further? What! this extravagant dogma, so contrary to the Bible doctrine, that Mary was exempt from original sin;-this dogma, condemned long ago by the most illustrious Fathers of the Church, will be the signal of a general renovation of humanity; will bring to the world all the spiritual graces, and all the temporal blessings which can be imagined! Certainly, if in a few weeks the town of Sebastopol is taken, if the Russians are beaten, and constrained to sue for peace, if the Exhibition of Universal Industry at Paris in 1855 reanimates commercial transactions, if the cholera leaves France, if our corn and wine harvests are plentiful, the bishop will not fail to maintain that these precious advantages are from the Virgin Mary, who has given evidence to men of her acknowledgment of their having honoured her immaculate conception! If, on the contrary, the war should last, and its carnage be redoubled, if the literary trifles his episcopal title opened to him the doors of the French Academy. His reception was very imposing. Messieurs Molé, De Broglie, Thiers, Cousin, Villemain; all our statesmen and literary men were there. Each was curious to hear how a bishop succeeding M. Tissot, a literary Voltairian, would speak of his predecessor, and in what manner he would express himself on the improvement of human learning. M Dupan loup knew the dispositions of his audience, and accommodated himself to them with consummate skill. He said amongst other things that works of human learning have in them a ray of Divine glory, because they represented the true, the good, the beautiful, which are Divine things; that poets, orators, philosophers, like Homer and Virgil, Demosthenes and Plato, have in them a sacred fire, or a kind of inspiration; that the labours of those powerful geniuses were a providential preparation for Christianity, &c. He also said, in speaking of M. Tissot: What I seek first is not what separates, but what brings men together, it is not strife, but concord, I seek the common good. I know of no wall of separation so high, or barre so insurmountable, that will not fall before good-will. Most men are less far from one another, less far from the truth, than imagined, and often than they think themselves." A Protestant would not have spoken differently. This Romanist bishop seems here to be an organ of the Evangelical Alliance. He insists on points held in common rather than on those in which men differ. He loves Another prelate, M. Clausel de Montals, has also exhibited the educated and polished phase of the Romish Church, in the recent publication of a pamphlet entitled, A Glance at the Constitution of the Catholic Religion, and at the Present State of that Religion in France." M. Clausel de Montals is an old man of more than eighty years, one of the deans of the French Episcopacy. He was for a long time Bishop of Chartres, and now he lives in retirement. At the restoration of the Bourbons he played a very prominent part; he was brought into intimate contact with Charles X., and often gave him wise advice. M. Clausel de Montals then was indignant at the ridiculous excesses of Ultramontanism and Jesuitism. He sees with as much grief as fear this turbulent, narrow-minded, bigoted faction, renewing the most foolish superstitions of ancient times, and abandoning the secular liberties of the Gallican Church. He believes that these errors, far from serving the cause of Romanism in France, will expose religion to contempt, and increase infidelity. This is why he has judged it necessary to publish a vehement protestation against the Ultramontane school. The reverend author laughs at those young priests who try to show their devotion to the Pope in what way? By wearing hats made according to the Roman fashion; by clothing themselves at the altar with Gothic vestments, which excite scandal and derision; or by repeating exactly the same words as are pronounced by Pontifical lips. A melancholy cloud," says he, "is extended over the Church of France. The people, much less attentive than our fathers to the interests of religion, scarcely know what is going on, or rather, they know nothing about it. The clergy are divided. Consecrated by God to bring about the triumph of the Church, they begin to manifest different opinions. ... A fermentation, deaf and almost dumb, is felt in the two camps. Great misfortunes are at hand; if some are bent on repudiating their ancestors, and if others, in their dejection, remain silent and passive The very great majority of well-informed and sensible priests keep a gloomy and painful silence. They are chilled by fear. . . . . One party of young clericals walking in new and perilous ways, manifest in their inexperience a joy both puerile and illusive. The discouragement has reached the elder pastors themselves, their hearts are well-nigh broken by an inexpressible grief." After these sad confessions the illustrious old man, addressing himself to the Pope, tells him that he has been deceived by intriguing, artful men, inventors of skilful and plausible calumnies, and beseeches the Pontiff to proceed no further in that perilous road, into which he is being dragged by the Jesuitical and Ultramontane school. Surely this energetic protestation of M. Clausel de Montals is a very important fact. It proves that there exist grave divisions among the Popish priests, and that their unity so boasted of is rather in appearance than reality. If all these ecclesiastics dared to speak freely, what a tumult! what quarrels ! what fierce intestine war! But the voice of M. Clausel de Montals will not be listened to. The Jesuits are now too powerful. The Pope and high dignitaries of the Romish Court are with them; the young priests are nearly all in subjection, body and soul, to the Jesuit faction. Let them, then, endeavour to attain the accomplishment of their designs! They seem condemned to precipitate themselves from above to the depths beneath! The question of SABBATH OBSERVANCE is continually gaining fresh adherents in our country, and it is to be hoped that the movement will gradually extend to all classes of the population. Not only merchants and manufacturers, but also members of the liberal professions, experience the need of setting apart the Sabbath as a day to be consecrated to piety and rest. I will cite on this subject a resolution taken by the advocates of Montelimart, department of Drome, and adopted by the proctors and inferior officers of that circuit. This piece is worthy of attention, because of the motives indicated by those who have subscribed it. I must just add, that the town of Montélimart numbers many Protestants, and that it possesses much of the spirit of the Reformation. This is the resolution: "Considering that the Divine law is the principle and foundation of all rights and duties; Considering that the observance of the Sabbath is prescribed in the first law given to man, and that it is a Divine institution; Considering that the violation of that law is the forsaking and neglect of all worship, all morality; 66 'Considering that the order of advocates, whose special duty it is to defend the rights and interests of the citizens, should be the first to observe those sacred laws, which, like fundamental rights, and fundamental duties, save and protect the people.. "By these motives, it is decided that the offices of the advocates at the Court of Montélimart will be closed on Sundays and fastdays, and that they will cease to receive their clients on those days." If the sanctification of the Sabbath is propagated in France on such a basis, that is to say, on the grand principle of Divine institution, things will go on well, and the movement |