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things which our Lord says.*

"But whoso

hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth."+

CHARACTERISTICS OF PROTESTANTISM DEVELOPED IN ITS GROWTH.

PROTESTANTISM does not, however, owe all its distinguishing features to the events of the Reformation nor to the peculiarities of the reformers. The church of Rome having long held men in temporal and spiritual bondage, the truths which the Reformation brought to light constituted a real emancipation. Before that time, men's minds and estates were claimed by the church, and the claim was enforced to an extent which checked

*Luke vi. 46.

† 1 John iii. 17, 18.

energy, enterprise, and industrial progress. All Europe and the world soon felt the activity and life infused into business by Protestant energy. This was the natural result of that mental freedom which permitted men to determine their course of life, free from the bonds of superstition and priestly rule. Science, literature, industry, and commerce, all felt the new impulse, and commenced the great career which has brought the world to its present advanced position; the fetters being removed which had bound men for a thousand years to miserable inaction and mental sloth. Galileo and Copernicus could safely have announced their discoveries under the protection of Luther. Newton would have been treated like them, had he lived in their days, under papal rule. At the time this Protestant energy began to display its power, the treasures of the New World were pouring into Europe, and doubtless aided to stimulate that movement which was then so remarkable, and which has continued until it

exhibits in the results of three centuries' progress a greater advance than in all the previous history of the world. To trace this progress in its connection with reformed Christianity, would be a topic worthy of volumes. We do not speak of this as progress in Christianity; we do not claim it as a Christian conquest. It has sprung from that freedom of mind which is essential to Christianity, but it has in a large degree been achieved in defiance or neglect of the great law of charity.

The most remarkable developments of human energy which have ever been exhibited have taken place in connection with the enjoyment of more than ordinary personal or national liberty. Thus was manifested the military energy of Greece and Rome; thus the commercial energy of the Italian republics, the Hanse towns; but no human energy has ever equalled that which has been displayed under the liberty conferred by Protestantism. This has been exerted equally

in peace, in science, in arts, in industrial production, and in commerce. It would not be just to claim for Protestantism all that has been accomplished, yet it may be safely asserted that Protestants have led the way in this great advance of knowledge, art, and industry. Many Catholic countries have remained almost stationary: witness Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Mexico, and the countries of South America. German Catholics have had the aid and have been stimulated by the example of German Protestants. France once had a large infusion of Protestants, who were notoriously the most enlightened and the most industrious of her people: when they were cruelly massacred or driven abroad, they carried with them the best manufacturing skill of their country. How much the progress of France was retarded by this insane and wicked persecution can never be told; it may be conjectured from the advance

made since that revolution in which the whole nation rose in mass and shook off the

thraldom of the papacy. If France had then become Protestant, her social progress would have responded to the greatness of her efforts and sacrifices; but having made the attempt to cast off all religion, she easily fell back into the arms of the Priesthood, never again, we may hope, to relapse into the darkness of papal superstition. The Romish religions of France and Spain are far from being identical in their power over the people.

(But we cannot by any means claim this Protestant superiority as any triumph for Christianity. The energy which has achieved so much in Great Britain and the United States, and other Protestant countries, has not always been controlled by the pure motives of Christianity. No, far from it! Human faculties and energies, set free from bondage, spiritual and temporal, would not naturally engage in the service of the Redeemer. Rome, where she had or has the `power, holds her subjects to the service of the church: Protestantism can only offer

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