The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1883-01-31
b elgium.

church. The educational war in Bel
GUM, which has been bitterly waged by
the priests for more than thirty years, has
happily ended in the secularization of
the schools. Rome has thus lost her grip
on the consciences of the people, and con-
sequently, her hold on the State. AS
result, the people are advancing in
knowledge, and thus slipping out of the
hands of the clergy. Excommunication
has lost its terrors. The priests in
huence in the confessional has greatly
waned. The Church of Rome as a politi-
cal intriguant and as an enemy of the
State, has been unmasked. Belgium has
come out of the darkness into the light.
For more than three hundred years she
had Christian Missionary church, which
now aroused to new life and vigor in
the struggle of thirty years duration, is
pushing its work with zeal and Christ
like spirit worthy of IT'S noble history in
the past. During the past year one
hundred and ten new members have been
added to It's communion, and with few
exceptions the entire membership of this
church is composed of converts who have
come out OF the Roman Catholic church.
Glorious indeed has been the work done
IN this State, and it rests upon founda-
ton which cannot be moved or unsettled.
Austria and Spain
Jesuit influence is more powerful in
these two countries than in any other
country of Europe. There has been pro-
gress in both civil and religious liberty,
but 1t has been in direct opposition to the
strenuous efforts and the anathemas of
the church authorities. Austria has been
for ages one of the main supports of
Rome, but she has been defeated by Pro-
testant Prussia, and the temporal power
of the Pope has been overthrown. Re-
llgious liberty has been, ostensibly,
granted to Protestants, and the popu-
lous field awaits now the sowing Of the
seed broadcast. Eighty per cent of the
people of Hungary are now Protestant,
eBnd In Bohemia conversions are becoming
frequent The only Protestant churches
at present recognized in Austria are the
Lutheran and the Helvetic Reformed.
But the pulpits of these churches are of
ten filled by unbelievers, SO Indifferent
or even hostile to evangelical truth as to
make common cause with Romanists
against it. In Spain there is a little
band of Presbyterians fighting the bat
ties of Professionalism on the old historic
line. Since France expelled her rebel
llous monks and nuns, Spain has over
flowed with them. The people, however,
refuse to make martyrs of these unwel-
come strangers, and the prejudice against
the Jesults has assumed so violent form
that the government, though secretly
friendly to them, has forbidden them to
appear In the streets of Madrid in the
dress Of their order.
Italy.
To Italy belongs the proud distinction
OF possessing the Oldest Protestant church
In the world-that of the Waldenses.
Long before the Reformation she was
protecting it by force of arms and by the
endurance of cruel, and long-continued
and bloody persecution, waged against the
Christian church by the church of Rome,
against the unwarranted assumption of
power on the part of the latter. Pro-
testant Christendom can scarcely esti-
mate the debt it owes to the long-tried
and faithful church, and now that their
labors can no longer be hindered by
Romish fire and sword, we may look for,
under new impulses, the accomplishment
of new and marvellous work under it's
leadership. The poverty of the church
Is deep, but it has a Christian zeal which
puts to shame many more wealthy. Let
its hands be held up, and let every Chris
tian heart bid it God-speed in its glori-
Gus work for the Divine Master.
Italy, priest-ridden- above any other
country in Europe, and, as consequence,
more illiterate and superstitious than any
other, has evidently come at last to the
parting of the way, and has brighter
and better future before her. Faith is
coming back to Italy. The open Bible to
them is book Of interest," of wonder, and
of JOY. 1t can never again be shut and
sealed book in that land Of modern
missionary efforts in Italy THE Christian
at Work has kept its readers fully adj
vised. 1t is enough in this connection to
say, that within the past year the in
terest in all the struggling Protestant
churches, not alone Of Italy, but of all
Europe, has vastly increased, and Chris
tians everywhere are aroused to new
hope and new energy as they mark the
progress of the Flying Evangel Chris
tjan at Work.
O.. 49,. IL ~. - -.-.-1