The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-12-29

ter, hlled In every province with the fol-
lowers of Christ after Nero and his sue
cessors had exhausted all their powers of
determination. And notwithstanding the
fires kindled by Francois l and Henry II,
in spite of the sanguinary edict of Cha
teaubriand before the close of his mon
arch's reign, Nismes had proclaimed that
Professionalism embraced the majority of
its inhabitants. In the province Of
Bearne, under the protection of Marquee
rite of Navarro, Professionalism became
triumphant, and by the year 1856 one
sixth of the whole population of France
no longer belonged to the communion of
Rome. So great was the detection of
persons of rank and distinction to the
reformed faith that the Pope interfered
to prevent census being taken of the
Roman Catholic nobility for fear the re-
suit might give spirit to the Huguenots
The first Reformed Synod of France was
held at Paris on the 25th day of May,
1859 and the deputies from the several
provinces effected their entrance one by
one into Paris by passing through the
files and sentinels of Henry II unobserved.
And in the dead of night they passed the
gibbets already prepared for them in the
streets, and arrived by stealth and in va
rious disguises at house in the Fau-
bourg of st. Germain-the appointed
place of meeting, where they settled upon
Confession of Faith, which was finished
at the meeting in La Rochelle, 1571.-
Theodore Beza was Moderator of this
Synod, and it was reported that the
churches of the Reformed religion then
numbered 2,l5O, many comprising ten
thousand members each, and the greater
number having two ministers each. With
such a grand early history why is the
Reformed Faith so weak in France to-
day? Let st. Bartholomew day and
the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
and the bloody deeds of the Dragonnades
answer that question. The Reformed
Church staggered and reeled under a sue
cession of blows so swift and terrible as
to give no room for recovery. A million
OF the best and most industrious citizens
of France went into exile, went to build
up the manufacturing wealth first of the
Netherlands and then of England. Fif-
teen thousand of the nobility and sixteen
hundred ministers were also ostracised,
and N the year 1858 the feet of him that
publisheth glad tidings were no longer
seen on the mountains nor yet on the
plains of France. Professionalism was ex-
tinguished in every province but one.
Men hid away their Bibles and the work
mans hammer was employed to demolish
the last traces of the Reformation. ST.
lence reigned where thousands swelled
the song of praise in the noble version of
Clement Marot. The children of the
Huguenots were trained to silence, and
those who would not leave the land made
their way to the south of France where
all the interests of the Reformed Church
concentrated against the dawn of reli-
glous liberty. The violence of revolu-
ton, and the power of Infdelity, and the
englnery of Ultramontanism have done
the rest. And now the nation that start
ed so fair a religious career is a
Moral and Spiritual Ruin.
The ambition Of kings, the violence of the
people, the scepticism of her thinkers, the
hypocrisy Of her priests has left it but a
wreck--a confused heap of unshapen
masses lying one upon another as if up
heaved by a volcano and covered by
fields of lava. Standing on our noun
tain Of religious freedom and privilege in
this land, we look down with awe and
pity on the desolation, and we are prone
to think that that waste and chaos can
never be reduced to order and clothed
with verdure again. But looking even
now we can see small rivulet issuing
from beneath that superintendent desc.
lation, and in the years to come that
stream will become broad river and
there will be beauty in its windinps and
fertlllsing power in its waters, and It will
make the wilderness glad and the soli-
tary place blossom as the rose That
desolation is the religious aspect OF
France as it is-that stream beneath this
volcanic ruin is the gospel pouring out
the waters Of life, and we that stand and
look are those who read in the Book and
have faith as we read" There is a river
the streams whereof make glad the CITY
Of our God" Already the people are
beginning to see that only the gospel will
save France, and they are turning in
numbers 10 the truth Thousands have
thrown aside the illusion of Catholicism
and avowed that they are Protestants at
heart. Thinkers and statesmen have
allied themselves with this new move
ment Of evangelic Professionalism of whom
Eugene Reveillaud is himself an illus-
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