urge upon their acceptance, its most sublime and distinctive truths, such as "the incarnation of the Son of God, the propitiation made in his blood for the sins of the world, the lost condition of unrenewed men, the necessity of their renovation by the Holy Spirit, and the endless happiness or misery depending on the character formed in the present life." The facts by which this latter position is sustained are exceedingly interesting, as well as convincing. The following is an account of the conversion of a North American Indian, under the instruction of a Moravian missionary.

“When the missionary came to his tribe 'he was,' says the history,' the greatest drunkard in the whole town; he was quite outrageous in sin, and had even rendered himself a cripple by his debaucheries.' But soon he was remarkably and permanently changed. The drunkard had learned to be sober; and the man, who was as savage as a bear, had become mild and peaceful as a lamb. He afterwards gave the Brethren the following simple and instructive 'account of his conversion.' 'I,' said he, have been a heathen, and have grown old among the heathen; therefore I know how the heathen think. Once a preacher came, and began to tell us that there was a God. We answered him, saying, 'Dost thou think us so ignorant as not to know that? Go back to the place from whence thou camest?' Then another preacher came to us, and began to say, You must not steal, nor lie, nor get drunk.' To him we answered, Thou fool; dost thou think that we do not know that? Learn first thyself, and then teach thy own people to leave off these practices; for who steal, or lie, or are more drunken than the white men.' Thus we dismissed him. After some time brother Rauch* came into my hut, and sat down by me. He then spoke to me as follows: I am come to you in the name of the Lord of heaven and earth. He sends to let you know that he will make you happy, and deliver you from the misery in which you at present lie. For this purpose he became a man, gave his life a ransom, and shed his blood for you.' When he had finished his discourse, he lay down upon a board, fatigued by his journey, and fell into a sound sleep. I then thought, What kind of a man is this? There he sleeps. I might kill him, and throw him into the wood, and who would regard it? But this gives him no care or concern.' At the same time, I could not forget his words. They constantly recurred to my mind. Even when I slept, I dreamed of that blood which Christ shed for us. I found this to be something different from what I ever heard before; and I interpreted brother Rauch's words to the other Indians. Thus, through the grace of God, an awakening began among us. Brethren, preach Christ our Saviour, and his sufferings and death, if you would have your words to gain entrance among the heathen.' "t

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ERRATA.

In our last number, p. 642, sixth line from the bottom, it is represented that Chubb "became a confessed infidel." The word "confessed" should be omitted.

Page 645, twelfth line from the bottom, for "impossibility," read possibility.

* Christian Henry Rauch, the Moravian missionary who had been instrumental in his conversion.

Brown's History of Missions, vol. i. pp. 396, 397.

THE DECLINE, REVIVAL, AND PRESENT STATE OF EVANGELICAL RELIGION IN GERMANY.*

THE attention of the Christian public has, of late, been called particularly and repeatedly to the great and interesting changes, which religion and religious sentiments have undergone, within from about sixty to eighty years, in that part of Europe of which I am at this time to speak. We have had the appalling sight of a Christian country deluged with infidelity, and all its concomitants of licentiousness and vice. We have witnessed a few noble spirits, a few names written, as we trust, in heaven, engaged in a contest, long and fierce, against a host of enemies— enemies as powerful and malicious, as subtle, decided and persevering as have ever been arrayed against the cause of truth. We have heard the shout of victory raised by the enemy, echoing from one end of the land to the other, proclaiming the supposed extermination of the true religion of Christ. We have seen the believers in Jesus, as a body, overwhelmed, and prostrated with their faces to the dust, bearing their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, and drinking at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury' to the very dregs. We have heard their haughty enemies say, Bow down, that we may go over;' and they laid their bodies as the ground and as the street to them that went over.' 'Rase it, rase it,' was the universal shout of the adversaries in that gloomy time, when God drew back his hand, and hid his face from his people; when he made them to pass through the furnace of fire, to purge away their dross, and to take away their tin.' But withal, we have seen the wrath of man to praise

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*The writer of the following article, as will be inferred from the statements and mode of expression, is a German. The account which he gives will be new and interesting to our readers, and, it is presumed, may be relied on as correct.

God, and the remainder thereof restrained. Zion is awaking again, shaking herself from the dust, and, putting on her strength, meets in open contest, and with brightening hopes of victory, her profane enemy, who had so proudly and so long defied the armies of the living God.'

It is proposed to divide the subject into three parts. FirstThe declining state of religion in Germany during the latter half of the last century. Secondly-Its revival aad growth, from about 1804 to 1824. And thirdly-Its present state.

1. The declining state of religion in Germany.

If we go back into the first half of the eighteenth century, and examine the state of the Protestant churches in Germany, and the spirit of the religious publications of the day, we shall find much sound and deep practical piety in the community, and a very animating spirit of devotedness, connected with purity of doctrine, in the religious works then published. The writings of Arndt, Spener, Franke, Tersteegon, Gerhard, and many others, were admirably calculated to excite and cherish true and undefiled religion in the churches. They exhibited divine truth with a simplicity, faithfulness and power, worthy of the apostolic age. But in the second half of the century, the religious publications underwent generally a rapid and lamentable change. A most surprising barrenness characterizes most even of the better works published from 1760 and downward. The more they increased in number, and rose in character, as compositions, the less they seemed to contain to lead the sinner to Christ, or to animate and benefit the believer. Sermons, hymn-books, prayer-books, and other works for public and private use, as clear as water, and as precise as any proposition in geometry, as cold also as the one, and as unproductive of religious feeling as the other, were daily pouring in upon the public, to supplant those precious guides to heaven which had so long been instrumental in building up the church of Christ. Particularly striking is the unequalled deceitfulness of many of these publications. In various instances, it was not only difficult, but absolutely impossible, fairly to unmask the author, and to convict him of unchristian sentiments, so well he knew how to hide himself under a show of piety and orthodoxy. And yet, the certain effect of these books was to divest a man, before he was aware of it, of all belief in the Bible as a revelation from God, and in Christ as a divine person, and the Redeemer of lost men.

Whoever is acquainted with the state of German theology at that time, will easily account for these facts. The theological skepticism of Semler and his companions had captivated the greater part of the ministry. Doubts or secret unbelief as to a positive divine revelation, possessed their hearts, controlled their reason, and guided their pens. The skepticism of some of the

English philosophers and rationalists, and the infidelity of the French philosophers, could not remain without effect. They had read Shaftesbury, Tindal, Morgan, Chubb and Hume; Whitby, Taylor, and Clarke; Voltaire, the Encyclopédists, and the author of the System of Nature (Système de la Nature). And if the German philosophy counteracted, in any measure, the influence of these men, and saved the ministry from universal skepticism and atheism, it stripped the weaker, i. e. the greater part, of what belief they yet had in any of the strictly revealed truths. To the courts of Germany, it is well known an example of infidelity was set, by Joseph II., the Roman emperor, and Frederic I., king of Prussia-men, whose influence was the more powerful, as they united some excellencies of character, as men and as monarchs, with an utter neglect, if not contempt of religion. Through the lower and middle classes of society, especially about the Rhine, irreligion and vice was effectually spread by the French emigrants. at the close of the century. Nor were injurious examples wanting among some men of learning and reputed piety. Gellert, the father of modern German poetry, whose religious hymns are yet used and admired, once tried himself in novel-writing, and composed a number of very tedious plays for the moral improvement of the German stage. He wanted "to make the devil pious," as Luther says, but did not succeed. We will charitably suppose that he did not know what he was doing.

The consequences of ail this might easily have been predicted. Through the influence of unrestrained depravity, the morals of society rapidly declined. The religious state of the communities grew worse from year to year; and the preaching heard from most of the orthodox pulpits was far enough from being able to counteract the spirit of the times. Gospel truth was, indeed, proclaimed by many as yet; but not constantly, not the whole, not in its fulness, not with close and fearless application. Christian morals, the favorite subject, was preached by some of the best men to a disproportionate and sometimes an almost disgusting degree. Take, for instance, Zollikofer, the great Coryphæus of pulpit eloquence among the reformed churches in Germany. In all his published sermons, I have not seen one on any of the distinguishing doctrines of the Gospel. In 1783, he published two volumes of sermons "On the Dignity of Man," when there was much more reason to publish as many 'On the Depravity of Man.' This dignity, according to the first sermon, consists in reason, liberty, activity, growth of perfection, immortality, his relation to God, &c. This relation is the image of God which man possesses. (Not a word about his having lost it.) This image of God is the ground of man's relation to Christ, as his friend, brother, relative, as making man a member of Christ's body, of one mind with him, &c. I

will give a few more of the subjects of his sermons, in the first volume of that work. The first was "On the Dignity of Man, and wherein it consisted." II. "What is opposed to that Dignity." III. "How does the Christian Religion restore the Dignity of Man?" This seems to imply that his dignity was lost; but no for it restores it, 1. By throwing light upon our relation to God; 2. It teaches us what an interest God takes in the welfare of man, what he did for him, and what he still does. Here the coming of Christ is just touched upon, in three or four lines, whilst the dealings of God with the patriarchs, the people of Israel, &c., is largely exhibited. 3. It throws light upon the providence and government of God. 4. It makes the dignity of man conspicuous in the person of Christ, and in his conduct and destiny, as the head and restorer of our race. 5. It teaches the great doctrines of immortality and eternal life. This is the manner in which the Christian religion restores the dignity of man. Can a more uncertain sound' be given? Then follow sermons on the following subjects: On the value of life; of health; of riches; of honor; of the pleasures of sense; of spiritual enjoyment; of devotion; of sensibility; of virtue, &c. In the confession of faith, proposed to a young prince at his confirmation, not one of those doctrines is mentioned, which distinguish the Christian religion from Rationalisın, Unitarianism, or any other Monotheism.

Much better is Francis V. Reinhardt, one of the best preachers Germany ever had. He entered upon his theological career as an acute thinker, and a skeptical inquirer; but came out a believing, pious theologian and Christian. He touches frequently upon the doctrines of the Gospel, even at the earlier period of his life; and whenever he does so, he is unequivocally orthodox. But he never gave these doctrines that prominence which they deserve, until perhaps from the year 1810, when his mind became fully satisfied with regard to them. He was, however, too much of a moralist. His sermons are exceedingly interesting and improving to the Christian; and if he had lived in the millenium, when the devil will be bound, and cast into the bottomless pit, and shut up to deceive the nations no more, his preaching would have been well adapted to his audience, and to the state of things. But when it was emphatically the hour of the enemy, and the power of darkness; when the very gates of hell seemed to be open, to let loose upon half Europe all which was subtle, malicious and ruinous; then was a clearer sound needed, to rouse the slumbering or disheartened disciples of Christ, and to rally them around the standard of the cross. I might proceed to characterize Spalding, and some other preachers of that age, but my limits will not permit. They all labor, in a greater or less degree, under the same difficulty. Their sermons are little more than moral essays,