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PROTESTANTISM.

WHATEVER advantages many sects may enjoy in point of orthodoxy, purity of doctrine, and knowledge of revelation, the mass of Protestants have no special grounds of complacency. In proportion to their light, their privileges, and their mental freedom, their advances in pure Christianity are by no means so creditable as generally assumed. There is more ground for recent assertions of Catholic authorities, that Protestantism is declining, than is admitted. The Catholics did not perceive that true religion was gaining even where Protestantism was crumbling, nor did they perceive, when they made this boast, that Christianity would become for them a far more formidable adversary than Protestantism. When Christianity has made all the conquests which belong to its career, the Christian will look back upon Protestant history with grief and mortification, that so much light and so many privileges were so long abused under cover of a hard and unprofitable theology. We might multiply quotations to this effect, from other sources than Papal writers, but restrict ourselves to a very few. We have already referred to (ante 347) Conferences upon Christianity in its Application to Social Questions, by the Rev. ED. DE PRESSENSE, a Protestant and evangelical pastor in Paris. From this volume, which deserves the profound study of Protestants in other quarters of Christendom, we offer another passage:

"But the social question is nothing else at this day than the degree of predominance to be allowed to charity in our institutions. It was this principle of charity which should have been graven upon men's consciences, and we now know why the Protestant dogma could not do it."

"If we are willing to be convinced of the insufficiency of Protestantism to direct society in the transformations it is now undergoing, we have only to look at the attitude it assumes in regard to the social questions of the day. It has shown itself indifferent or hostile to this movement: in Germany, France, England, and Switzerland, the real Protestants have refused to entertain this question; and in their just opposition to socialism, they have smothered the very legitimate question of which socialism has usurped the place. This is specially to be remarked in England; for, if there is one country more than another where a question touching the interests of humanity should have been favourably regarded, that was England. Close to the magnificent residences of the aristocracy, the manufacturing towns conceal more miseries than we can conceive; and Ireland, suffering the tortures of famishing poverty, continually stares her in the face." "If England, then, displays such a hideous exhibition of poverty, we must infer that there is not in the religious

spirit which rules there, an inspiration strong enough to lift the public mind into the career of wise social reform."

"We have very strong proof that the weakness of Protestantism cannot be attributed to second causes, but must be laid at its own door-it is everywhere crumbling."*

"In England it seems to preserve intact its ancient form, because the revolutions which have shaken the continent have not penetrated there; but from the day it shall penetrate, wherever the heated wave strikes, that ancient form must yield.". "In Germany, where social and political questions have

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long been largely discussed, Protestantism is routed."

"In France, Protestantism wields so little power, that many are disposed to inquire where it is concealed; and it does well to hide its miserably degraded condition. It cannot assume here the name of a church. Weak and small, yet so divided that we cannot return a united response to any question. Sad state! proving that Protestantism in France, as elsewhere, has had its day.”— Page 214.

M. Pressensé insists that the Catholics annihilate the principle of charity by their system, which exhibits God as only granting his pardon to our good works; that is, paying us the wages of our labour. It implies no love, no compassion in the Deity.

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The Protestant system is, he alleges, scarcely less erroneous. exhibits the sovereignty of God so nakedly and so constantly in its teachings, that those revelations of his word showing him to be a God of Love, as well as of Infinite Power and Justice, blending his attributes into that perfection of Judgment and Mercy which we adore, are lost from sight. Charity expires under a theology so ungenial to its

nature. (Page 202.)

In reference to Protestant theology, we are reminded that it is important not only to hold to right doctrines, but to keep them in the right place, assigning to each their due prominence. We must wear our garments in their proper order, if we would be perfectly clothed. The Christian who dwells only upon God's sovereignty, and speaks only of God's immutable decrees, cannot but lose the harmony which should reign in Christian life and demeanour.

For an article containing some wholesome truths for Protestants, we commend to the reader the Battle of the Churches, in the Westminster Review, No. 108, for January, 1851. It is well at times to be taught by

* Since 1849, the date of M. Pressensé's publication, English Protestantism has been shaken to its basis, and is certainly in danger, if not already crumbling.

our enemies, and the extract in' that article, from Mr. Newman, who writes under all the rancour of a fresh family quarrel, giving unmistakeable evidence of his willingness to point out Protestant failings without mercy and without compunction, may furnish food for thought and motives for self-examination, if not grounds for profound humiliation.

We know there is a vast deal of complacency and pride among us Protestants, and if any thing can justify such a feeling, there may be many grounds for this self-satisfaction. Our minds are free from the bondage of Romanism, we perceive clearly the iniquities of priestcraft, we have the Scriptures, read them freely, and exalt them to the skies as divine in their origin and teachings, we build imposing and costly temples for the worship of God, we punctually attend upon that worship at the summons of the church-going bell, long lines of wellclad, decently behaved, genteel people crowd the walks and roads which lead to the house of God; luxurious seats are weekly filled with these order-loving people, attending upon the regular preaching of the word, and giving ear to the strains of the organ or the efforts of the choir; the weekly meeting for prayer sends up its stated supplications, the Sunday-school gathers in multitudes of children, the regular agents of the church and its religious and benevolent institutions are yearly enriched with large contributions. But in all this, however much there is to admire and love, there may be none, and very often is very little true Christianity. Many true Christians mingle in this external pageant of religion, as doubtless do many in the Papal churches, but in neither case is the external exhibition any essential part of religion. It may not be all wrong—it may be all right—it may be a means of grace, but it should never be mistaken, as it is extensively, for Christianity. It is the foreground of a picture, in which there is much to delight the eye and gratify the taste, a beautiful blending of colours and fine outlines: but there is a dark, unregarded background in the depths of the picture. When an individual of one of the forsaken classes in London was asked what his class thought of religion, the reply showed he had seen the picture :-" Religion is not for the likes of us; it's for the great and rich people." In this deep, deep background are the masses of humanity, far outnumbering those in the front: there is poverty, pauperism, misery; there is ignorance, envy, hatred, and crime; there are willing hands and nothing for them to do; there is unrequited labour; there is famine, disease, and premature death.

Protestants have not invited this neglected multitude to the entertainment of Christianity; it has not gone into the streets and highways to bring in the poor to the house of feasting; the courts and lanes and alleys have not been visited, to constrain the wretched to come in and fill up the vacant seats in Protestant churches. How differently would the picture strike the beholder if suddenly transformed in a perfect representation of Christianity! The stately temples would fade away, and whole masses of suffering humanity would rise to view instead of the long lines of orderly people in the path to church, we should see hosts of good Samaritans hurrying through crowds of the poor, pouring in oil and wine, and speaking everywhere words of life and comfort, in the name of Christ; and while myriads of hands were eagerly thrust out for the cup of cold water, as many would eagerly extend it to parched lips. Praise would no longer go up merely from this mountain or that, but from every heart, in every place. The gospel would be preached to the poor, and the disciples would be as well known by their loving one another, as they are now distinguished by strife, bigotry, and estrangement.

Protestantism has a fearful account to render for abused privileges and wilful blindness, for exalting theology above charity, for leading children to theology instead of to Christ, and thus giving them a stone in place of bread, for discarding humanity, for abjuring the brotherhood of man and substituting sectarian exclusiveness and bitterness. It would be easy to prolong this accusation—but it is enough to excite reflection. Let it not be thought that these charges bear with as much force against individual Christians as against Protestantism and its sects. A crime of society is often the accumulation of centuries. Such evils are felt by many who are powerless to remedy them. How many lament the effects on their minds of a religious education encumbered by superstitions or fettered by a useless theology! They find themselves cooped up in the frame-work of a system they can neither escape nor modify nor overthrow. Christian men are not acting freely; their paths of active duty are not marked out by the precepts of Christ, but according to the arrangements of man. They cannot oppose the church without scandal: they cannot obey Christ without being eccentric. Fetters of man's invention are now restraining the movements of thousands of intelligent Christians, who long for the liberty of the gospel, to be free in Christ. They are restrained by the consideration that they must not so use their liberty as to offend weak brethren, or by the prejudices of their

own education. These are truly orthodox, evangelical Christians, whose great desire is to place Christian charity at the head of Christian graces, where it belongs.

There are multitudes, on the other hand, whose only mode of showing their zeal for religion is a rigid observance of the established usages of their church, a prompt appeal to its standards in cases of doubt. To such a degree of assurance does this narrowness of the mind arrive, that men, while indulging a spirit at war with the very essence of Christianity, look upon many around them with the condescension of pity or the unconcern of conscious superiority. Love for the human family is a sentiment to which they are utter strangers: they can rise no higher in their efforts for it, than contributions or labours to bring converts to their particular denomination. These are the Pharisees of modern times. Their faults are the result of their education. They are men who, under proper training, would have been real benefactors of their race; but their theology, which is perhaps sound, has smothered the heart, instead of reforming and guiding it, and has absorbed instead of having sanctified their affections.

It is a serious mistake to claim infallibility for Protestantism: we take the Scriptures, which are unerring, for our guide, but our fallibility is displayed at every step, not only in interpretation of what is doubtful, but in our imperfect compliance with what is perfectly plain. We must not forget that human nature is as prone to evil among us as among others; and that the ENEMY is as active among us as he is in the Papal camp. We must not be surprised, indeed, if his greatest feats of cunning and power are directed against us. It was indeed a masterly stroke of policy to win a signal advantage, in the very hour of his overthrow at the Reformation. The Reformers were bent on extricating the truth from the mass of papal rubbish, and on erecting a structure of sound theology: they were resolved upon having the Bible in their own hands, to decide for themselves. Theological controversies without limit furnished them full employment for their time and full use for their Bibles: mounted on their own hobby, the Reformers rode hard, and they rode far. They had the Scriptures, but the enemy carefully hid from their sight, in the excitement of controversy, the precepts, the parables, the sermons of Christ-these were of no use in theological polemics, and very inopportune in a period when strife raged and all the evil passions were in full exercise. The Scriptures were used freely and constantly in this warfare upon matters of faith, to vindicate the truth; but they were little heeded in their in

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