ernment, when every congregation was a benevolent society, and provided for the poor, the sick, the stranger, and the prisoner, to the astonishment of the heathen.

I The voluntary system develops individual activity and liberality in the support of religion; while the state-church system has the opposite tendency. Where the treasure is, says Christ, there is the heart also. Liberality, like every virtue, grows with exercise and gradually becomes a second The state gives to the church as little as possible, and has always more money for the army and navy than for religion and education.

nature.

In large cities on the Continent there are parishes of fifty thousand souls with a single pastor; while in the United States there is on an average one pastor to every thousand members. It seems incredible that Berlin, the metropolis of the German Empire and of Protestant theology, should in 1887 have no more than about sixty church edifices for a population of twelve hundred thousand; while the city of New York counts five times as many churches for the same number of population, and in connection with them over four hundred Sunday-schools.' No wonder that only about two per cent. of the inhabitants of Berlin are said to attend church, though nearly all are baptized and confirmed. And yet there are as good Christians in that city, from the highest to the lowest classes, as anywhere in the world.

The Free churches in Switzerland and Scotland and the Dissenting churches in England teach the same lesson, and by their liberality put the established churches to shame.

The progress of the United States is the marvel of modern history, in religion, no less than in population, commerce, wealth, and general civilization. Though not much older than a century, they have in this year 1887, with a popula

1 From "Trow's New York City Directory" for 1887 we learn that the number of churches and chapels in New York is 431. This aggregate does not include the Sunday-schools and small missions in all sections of the city. Among these churches 74 are Protestant Episcopal, 66 Roman Catholic, 66 Methodist Episcopal, 59 Presbyterian, 41 Baptist, 23 Dutch Reformed, 7 Congregational, 20 Lutheran, 32 Synagogues, and 43 of other bodies, of small size or of independent character.

tion of about sixty millions, no less than 132,434 churches or congregations, 91,911 ministers of the gospel, and 19,018,917 communicants. Church property, on an average, has doubled every decade; it amounted in 1870 to $354,483,581, and if it goes on increasing at the same rate, it will reach in 1900 the sum of nearly three billions. The number of theological schools exceeds one hundred and fifty, and a few of them are not far behind the theological faculties of the twenty-two universities of Germany.

The enormous immigration must, of course, be taken into account in the growth of the country; but the modern immigration is not prompted by religious motives, as was the immigration in the colonial period, and contributes less to our religious progress, than to our religious destitution. Even the better class of immigrants, with many noble exceptions, are behind the native Americans in the support of religion, not from fault of nature or disposition, but from want of practice and from the bad effects of the state-church system of providing,' under which they have been brought up.

2. The necessity of self-support of the church at home does not diminish but increase the active zeal for the spread of the gospel abroad. Liberality in one direction creates liberality in every other direction. Those who give most for one good cause, generally give most for other good causes.

All foreign missionary operations of Christendom rest on the voluntary principle. A state-church, as such, has no interest and care for religion beyond its geographical boundaries, and leaves the conversion of the heathen to voluntary societies. Free churches, if they have the proper spirit, carry on missions in their corporate capacity, and expect every congregation and member to contribute according to ability. Each denomination has its own foreign and domestic missionary society. There are flourishing American missions in India, China, Japan, South Africa, Syria, Turkey, and the new settlements of the West are supplied with ministers from the East. In Europe the missionaries have to be trained in special institutions (as at Basel, Barmen, 1 The staatskirchliche Versorgungssystem, as the Germans would call it.

Berlin), as the universities furnish very few missionaries; while the theological seminaries of the United States send annually a number of their best graduates to destitute fields at home and abroad.

3. The voluntary system develops the self-governing power of the church in the laity, and trains elders, deacons, church wardens, treasurers, debaters, and all sorts of helpers in the government and administration of ecclesiastical affairs. In state-churches the laity are passive, except as far as they are engaged in missionary, charitable, and other voluntary societies and enterprises.

4. The free-church system secures the exercise of church discipline, which is almost impossible in state-churches, and provides a purer and more efficient ministry. In statechurches the study of theology is pursued like any other profession, and the state looks only at theoretical qualifications. Teachers of theology in continental universities are appointed by the government for the promotion of theology as a science, without regard to orthodoxy and religious character, unless the minister of public worship and instruction or the sovereign happens to be concerned for these qualifications. A professor may reject or doubt half of the canon of the Bible, deny its inspiration, the holy Trinity, the divinity of Christ and the Holy Spirit, without losing his place. The church may protest, but her protest is in vain. In America, where the church appoints and supports her own officers, such anomalies are impossible, or, at all events, only exceptional. No one is expected to enter the ministry or to teach theology who is not prompted by high spiritual motives, and in cordial sympathy with the creed of his denomination. Hence the Protestant churches in America are more orthodox and active than in Europe. Theology, as a science, is not cultivated to such an extent as in Germany, but it moves more in harmony with the practical life and wants of the churches; every lecture is opened with prayer, and the day closes with devotional exercises of the professors and students.

5. The inevitable division of the Church into an indefinite

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number of denominations and sects is made the strongest objection to the free-church system by the advocates of ecclesiastical establishments. But free separation is more honest than forced union. Nearly all our divisions are inherited from Europe; the only difference is that there they exist in the form of sects and parties, here on a basis of legal equality. In England there are fully as many denominations as here.' The leading denominations of the United States can be reduced to seven families, the rest are subordinate branches. If church and state were separated on the Continent, the theological schools which now antagonize each other under the same state-church roof would organize themselves into separate denominations.

The tendency to division and split is inherent in Protestantism, and it must be allowed free scope until every legitimate type of Christianity is developed and matured. The work of history is not in vain. But division is only a means to a higher unity than the world has yet seen. The majestic and rock-built cathedral of the papacy represents authority without freedom, and unity without variety. True unity must rest on liberty and include the greatest variety. There is more real union and friendship between the different denominations in America than there is between the different theological schools and parties in the state-churches of Europe. The dangers of liberty are great, but no greater than the dangers of authority, which may lead to grinding and degrading despotism. America has cast her lot with the cause of freedom, and must sink or swim, perish or survive with it. The progress of history is a progress of freedom. Let us stand fast in the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free. (Gal. v., I.) We must believe in the Holy Spirit, the author and giver of life, who will never forsake the church, but lead her higher and higher even unto perfection.

1 Or even more, if we are to credit "The Statesman's Year-Book for 1887" (London, 1887), which says (p. 218): "There are altogether 180 religious denominations in Great Britain, the names of which have been given in to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages." This incredible number must include all sorts of societies which no sensible man would call a church or a sect.

God has great surprises in store.

The Reformation is not

by any means the last word He has spoken. We may confidently look and hope for something better than Romanism and Protestantism. And free America, where all the churches are commingling and rivalling with each other, may become the chief theatre of such a reunion of Christendom as will preserve every truly Christian and valuable element in the various types which it has assumed in the course of ages, and make them more effective than they were in their separation and antagonism. The denominational discords will be solved at last in the concord of Christ, the Lord and Saviour of all that love, worship, and follow Him. There is no room for fear and discouragement under the banner of the Cross which still bears the device: Toto vina.'

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN MODERN EUROPE.

In conclusion we must briefly survey the influence of the American system upon foreign countries and churches.

Within the present generation the principle of religious liberty and equality, with a corresponding relaxation of the bond of union of church and state, has made steady and irresistible progress among the leading nations of Europe, and has been embodied more or less clearly in written constitutions. The French revolution of 1830, the more extensive revolutions of 1848, and the great events of 1866 and 1870 have broken down the bulwarks of intolerance, and prepared the way for constitutional changes,

The successful working of the principle of religious freedom in the United States has stimulated this progress without any official interference. All advocates of the voluntary principle and of a separation of church and state in Europe point to the example of this country as their strongest practical argument.

The separation of church and state is a far more difficult task in Europe than it was in America. There the union of the two powers is interwoven with the history of the past and with every fibre of national life. It has still great advan

1 Hoc signo vince.