Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-01-11

SFor Sunday Reading. !:
8 All Sorts Of Opinions. !.
RELIGION AT A LOWER EBB IN
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
1Fortnishtly Review.l

THAN NOW.
1Fortnightly Review.1
Religion in the eighteenth century was
at a far greater discount in France than
it is at present, when there is strong
and, in a sense, almost fanatical church
part including people of every class,
and, what is more remarkable. q multi
tude OF men, some of whom are famous
IN science, art and letters.
What we understand by the term so
ciety" was essentially ree-thinking; the
churches were empty, even in Lent and
in scores of parishes in and near Paris
between the years 1873 and 1879. holy
communion had not been administered
All the great ladies We're more or less
philosophers II the great ladies We're
so ostentatiously unorthodox, 1t Is not
difficult to conjecture how advanced
were the mems opinions on religious
subjects.
I remember some years ago being al
lowed to read very important private
correspondence dated from 1850 to the
end OF the century, which was formerly
in the possession of the late Comtesse
de Lebaume, 1t included letters from
nearly every great parsonage of the per-
iod. What struck me most about them
was the sneering manner in which re-
ligion and morality were spoken or
Even when in prison the same fiippant
tone permeated the conversation and
letters of hundreds of ladies' and gentle
men who were fully aware that they
were on the eve of losing their heads!
For all this, the government and court
remained almost medieval in strictness
of eccelesiastic observance.
PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN bull
CARA.
William e. Curtis in the Chicago Rec
ord.1
The Protestant missionaries from the
United States have been at work in
Bulgaria ever since the establishment
being divided between the Methodists,
who have the territory north of the
Balkan mountains, and the American
board OF foreign missions, who are en-
gagged in the southern part and in Ma
cedonia. The Bulgarians generally COM
mend the missionaries and tell of the
great good they have done. The news
papers speak well of them. and the gov
eminent officials have nothing but COM
mendation for their educational and
charity work, altho their evangelical la
bors are not encouraged. The govern
ment is willing that they should educate
the people, take care of them when they
are sick. feed them when they are hun
cry, and clothe them when they are
naked. but naturally does not approve
of any efforts to convert them from the
Greek to the Protestant faith. The
Greek clergy is generally bitter and at
times fanatical in its opposition. except
In the large cities, where there is cos
mopolitan spirit. The Turks have very
little to say in Bulgaria, but treat Prot
estants much more amiably than they
treat the Greeks, and are particularly
friendly with the missionaries. The Rus
slams whose influence in Bulgaria is
greater than that of any other power,
and who control the policy of the gov
eminent, are even more opposed to the
evangelical work of the missionaries
than the natives, because of their con-
nection with the Greek church and their
hereditary disaprpoval Of the educat ton
of the common people.
The Methodilsts in northern Bulgaria
y
s31CO Most of them have parsonages
attached. There are eleven American
and native missionaries, 434 communi-
cants. forty-three probationers, thirteen
schools and 32S pupils. The American
board of foreign missions has been at
work in Macedonia since 1858. when the
first mission station was established at
Adrianople. 1t has three stations in
Bulgaria.
American mission work in Bulgaria
and Macedonia is divided into three de-
neutrality-suspicious. educational and
evangelical. There is a Bulgarian pub
location society for both secular and re-
;igious literature. which maintains a
printing office, book store and a large
ly patronized free public reading room
at Sofia. 1t has circulated thousands of
copies of the best American literature
translated into the Bulgarian language,
and formerly published a weekly news
paper, which will be revived in Philipp-
opolis in few weeks with native
Bulgarian editor. The Bible was trans
lated into Bulgarian in 1872 by the late
DR.. Riggs end DR.. Long and thousands
of copies are sold annually. The Meth
odists are also circulating both relig
ious and secular literature with great
energy, and find that it awakens an in
terest among the natives to learn more,
their ambition, broadens
their ideas and encourages them to i'm
prove their own schools and extend the
facilities for the education of the COM
ing generation. If the missionaries in
Bulgaria had done nothing else than
create this public sentiment their labors
in Bulgaria would have been we'll re-
paid. They have been the pioneers of a
general educational system in which |
the government has recently shown al
decided onterest; they have inspired a
movement, they have brok-
en- the bonds that restrained the women
of the country, and wherever their in
huence extends will be found a radical
change from the social educational and
conditions which existed when
was established twenty
three years ago.
The schools at Samakoff for the edu
cation of teachers and preachers have
the government to establish
similar institutions to satisfy the de-
nf ba nd al II