the Congregational Magazine for March ast Tungic fra zové Cu ë "This is plant, to be good, - This is right, the truth to tell, "This is pretty, to be kind, X, we ought to try and be Miscellaneous. STATE OF RELIGION IN THE NORTH OF GERMANY. lished for some years past, in your Repository, respecting the prevailIn our last number, we published ing opinions on the subject of relithe extract of a letter from Paris, gion throughout some of the Ger to the editor of The Evangelical man states, have been perused with Church Journal, in Berlin, relative a lively interest by your readersI am, on this account, induced to to the state of religion in France. We shall now introduce the transla- believe that fuller and more minute tion of a letter from Berlin, to the information on the same subject, editor of The Archives du Christian- will not prove unacceptable to isme, relative to the state of religion them—and in laying before them in the north of Germany. We can such information, I shall confine not assert it as a fact, but appear. myself to a few particulars which have escaped the "notice of travelances strongly favour the conjecture, that the editors of these distinguishers, or which have not yet been ex ed religious periodicals, intend, by hibited in all their fulness and this correspondence, to give to the force; and of which, indeed, there Christian publick a summary, but is scarcely any notice taken in the just view, of the true state of religion books of travels and journals pubon the European continent. This, we lished in our own country. know, has been for a considerable time a great desideratum with many of our most intelligent readers; and we hope, if our own expectations are not disappointed, to be able to afford them gratification, by deriving the desired information from the sources to which we have referred. We regret that our space will not permit us to publish in our present number more than half of the letter we have announced. To the Editor of the Archives du Christianisme, on the State of Religion in the North of Germany. Sir, I have been informed that e details which have been pub The attention of the religious publick has, for several years, been turned with deep interest to Ber lin. The influence which that ca pital exercises over the opinions and manners of the people in the north of Germany, and especially in the Prussian dominions, is, I grant, less than that which Paris, London, or Vienna possesses, over the manners of the inhabitants of the countries of which they are the central points. Still, however, the excitement which has been pro duced, in that quarter, cannot fail to be attended with very important correspondence, by giving you are results. I shall therefore begin my trospective view of the state of religion in Prussia, during the last fifty years, both on account of the intrinsick importance of the subject, and because my intimate knowledge of its various bearings enables me to enter upon details, which will shed light on several collateral points. At the time Frederick the Great ascended the throne, and during a considerable part of his reign, Berlin was happily blest with many pious and evangelical ministers of the gospel. For a long time, the pernicious principles of the king, and of the deistical and atheistical philosophers whom he invited to his court, and introduced to the Academy of Sciences, had much less influence over the religious sentiments and manners of the metropolis, than might have been expect ed: and it was only at the end of the seven years' war, that these matters assumed a different and an alarming aspect. The unrestrained liberty of the press, which was permitted on all religious topics, while there was no toleration of it on political subjects, induced many men of eminent talents, but bitter enemies of Christianity, to take up their residence at Berlin. Here they pub. lished, under the management of Nicolai, La Bibliothèque Allemande Universelle, a work which was made the organ of their infidel opinions, and became the medium of their diffusion among the higher ranks of society. The characteristick doctrines of these upstart sages were derived from a flimsy philosophy, which grounded its theories on the most common-place facts, and in all its moral inquiries took for granted, that personal enjoyment, or pleasure, was the ne plus ultra of man's pursuit. These men either entirely overlooked, or in a very slight degree advanced, any fixed or tangible doctrine. Their supreme object was, by the aid of partial historical research and forced criticism, to destroy the credibility and authority of the word of God. But in spite of their most desperate efforts, they advanced but slowly in their enterprise, as the following fact will testify. The superintendant of the Literary Gymnasium, Damm, who was a distinguished philologist, published, in 1764, a translation of the New Testament, in which he ascribed, in the most unwarrantable manner, his own views to the Apostles, and endeavoured to prove that St. Paul and St. James were irreconcilably opposed to each other in doctrine. Now, in consequence of this outrageous display of critical lore, his pupils were instantly withdrawn by their parents from his school-his deserted gymnasium was shut up, and the king was under the necessity of indemnifying his infidel coadjutor for his loss, by granting him a pension out of his own purse!! Towards the end of the reign of Frederick the Great, impiety and immorality had attained a preponderating power. The king himself even, began to perceive the hideous consequences with which they were fraught; and a few years before his death, he said, with some emotion, to Baron Carmer, his high chancellor-"What would I not give to be able to restore the morals of my people, to the simplicity which characterized them forty years ago, at the death of my father. We must pass a law against the licentious custom which prevails respecting divorces." At the same time, measures were adopted for the formation of a new code of laws on that subject; and it was completed under the reign of Frederick William II. Among the papers collected by the commissioners entrusted with that measure, there were found some proposals which avowedly sanctioned polygamy. Nay, more than this-In the printed scheme of this code, there was a proposition introduced, which however was afterwards withdrawn, the object of which was, to make it law ful for persons of the upper ranks to contract what were called lefthanded marriages: that is, marriages which excluded the wife and children from the privileges to which the rank of the husband and father entitled them, and which might be dissolved by the simple act of his contracting, at any subsequent period, a right-handed marriage. It would be easy to show by other facts, the degraded state of moral sentiment at this time, and the almost total extinction of the benign influence of gospel truth, throughout the kingdom of Prussia. But we go on with our narrative. this mystical system, the Rationalists could connect themselves, more or less closely, with the external forms of Christianity, and even adopt, on some occasions, the common phraseology of the Scriptures; while yet they were utter unbelievers in the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel, viz.-the original guilt of man, and the atonement of Christ. Frederick the Great was still living, when Kant, the philosopher of Konigsberg appeared-decidedly one of the most influential men of the age in which he lived. Morality is unquestionably indebted to him, for having been the first to purify it from the multifarious and coarse ingredients which Nicolaï and his followers had mingled with it. He taught the doctrine of disinterested benevolence, or that virtue ought to be loved for her own sake; a doctrine which drew down upon him the furious opposition of the publishers of La Bibliotheque Allemande Universelle. The effects of this doctrine, however, were, in their nature, scarcely less atheistical than that which was propagated from the head quarters of infidelity. Kant was the first who gave strength and consistency to what is called Rationality, and his disciples have accordingly been designated by the name of Rationalists. He did not renounce the authority of Revelation, but formed, on the contrary, a mystical alliance between philosophy and Christianity. By what he called the science of moral interpretation, he discovered that Jesus Christ was the prototype of a man according to God's own heart, or of a perfect man-for whom, and, in a certain sense, by whom, the world was created, &c. Now, by means of During the reign of Frederick William II., there was a short-lived reaction against the doctrines of the Rationalists. Unfortunately, however, the means employed to effect it, such as a royal edict in defence of religion, and the deposition of the heretical teachers, were not followed by any good effects. The king, whose youth had been spent in dissipation, but whose heart was generous, and susceptible of magnanimous feeling and exalted views, had, at one period of his life, experienced a conviction of the necessity of obtaining some renovation of his affections-which laid him open to the force of religious truth. But if a few sincere Christians found access to his throne, hypocrites and enthusiasts also, resorted there in groups; and before the mind of the king was confirmed in any of his serious and virtuous purposes, his good resolutions were put to flight, and his old infidel opinions assumed the ascendancy over him. In the early part of his reign, religion continued to decline among the higher ranks of society. The churches were so thinly attended, that even on festival days, the numbers, in many of them, did not exceed fifty or sixty. If a man of education, and of any influence in the world, partook of the Holy Sacrament, the circumstance was set down as remarkable, and made the subject of general gossiping. In proportion as the churches were deserted, the theatres were crowded. It is true, that gross vices and open profligacy were not common: but a superficial morality, and mawkish effeminacy, very generally prevailed. Still, the word of God was preached to the humbler classes of society; for three or four faithful ministers persevered successfully in the discharge of their duty, amidst the sneers and contempt of the world. (To be continued.) THE BEST METHOD OF CONDUCTING CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. No. I. "It belongs to the church, in its distinctive character, to evangelize the world." In the truth of this position we professed our belief in the preface to our last volume, and promised that we would, at an early day, lay before the readers of the Christian Advocate our views on this interesting subject-We are now to redeem our pledge. That the church is not a community of man's devising and organizing, but one constituted by God himself, and of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the head and the sole lawgiver, is a proposition which no Protestant will deny; and which therefore, in writing to Protestants, it is useless to spend time to prove. Another truth which will be generally admitted is, that the church is eventually to fill the world. This, at least, will be granted by the friends and advocates of the missionary operations of the present day. They believe that "the sure word of prophecy" gives explicit and repeated promises of a glorious era, which they apprehend to be not far distant, when Satan "shall be bound for a thousand years;" when the heathen "shall be given to Messiah for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession;" when the Jews shall be reingraffed into "the good olive tree" from which "they have been broken off by unbelief;" when all false religion, fanaticism, heresy, error, and delusion, shall give way and disappear, before the influence of " the truth as it is in Jesus ;" and "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." That the instrumentality to be employed in this work ("the excellency of the power" being always and altogether of God) will be the instrumentality of those who are already the friends of the truth, and members of the church of God, is as clear as that the great adversary of souls, and his agents in our unhappy world, will not be willingly employed in subverting their own cause, and in establishing that which they hate: and that there must be some union of effort among the friends of truth, in prosecuting this great work, no one who considers the nature of that work, and the effects to be produced, will for a moment hesitate to admit. It seems also to be too evident to need proof, that all the friends of truth now on the earth, widely separated as they are from each other, cannot be united in one and the same association, in making the necessary effort, or in prosecuting the great work of evangelizing the world; since, according to our Confession of Faith (Chap. xv. Sec. II.) "The visible church, which is also Catho lick or universal under the gospel, (not confined to one nation as before under the law) consists of all those throughout the world, that profess the true religion, together with their children; and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation." We shall enter into no lengthened inquiry, who, among those denominations styling themselves Christians, may, or may not, rightfully be considered as constituting, or belonging to, the true church of Christ. The Romanists, it is known, exclude all but themselves; and we are willing to include all who hold the great leading doctrines of the own some peculiarities, which its members deem of sufficient importance to keep them in a measure separate from other denominations; and that when we speak of the church acting in her distinctive character, we do not refer to any one of these sects as the church EXCLUSIVELY, but we mean that all we say should be considered as applicable, and equally applicable, to any of the denominations specified-that each may be considered as the church, in the whole sense in which we use these words. We shall now endeavour to show briefly-1. That the evangelizing of the world should be conducted by the church in its distinctive character, and not be mainly left to the management of voluntary associations. 2. For what purposes, and to what extent, voluntary associations for missionary purposes are lawful and expedient. 3. How far the union of different churches, in the prosecution of missionary operations, may be proper and adviseable. 4. How a hurtful interference in missionary concerns may best be avoided or prevented. 5. What is the duty of the Presbyterian church, in the great enterprise of evange lizing the world at the present day. Protestant reformation. The most of these are now actually engaged, some in a greater and some in a less degree, in the prosecution of missionary operations. In our country, we know that the Moravians, the Presbyterians, the Congregationalists, the Baptists, the Methodists, the Episcopalians, the Dutch Church, the Lutherans, and the German Calvinists, are, to some extent, engaged in this blessed work, either at home or abroad, or both. Doubtless the members of these different sects consider the creed, and the form of church government, which they have severally adopted, as more scriptural than any other. Be it so-having some peculiarities of our own, which we regard as not altogether unimportant, we do not refuse to concede to others what we claim for ourselves, and are willing to consider all the sects we have named, as embracing enough of genuine gospel truth to entitle them to be regarded as churches of Christ. Now, as we are about to speak of the church acting in its distinctive character, and wish to be clearly understood when we use this language, we have, for this purpose chiefly, yet not exclusively, offered the remarks which have hitherto been made; It is foreseen that these particuand will beg the indulgence of our lars are too closely connected to be readers to repeat the substance of kept perfectly distinct in the treatthem in the following summary-ment, and yet it is believed there We believe, and wish it may be may be an advantage in saying kept in mind, that the church of something on each separately. Christ is a community, not of man's device, but of God's appointment, bound to maintain his truth, and to be governed by his laws; that the gospel is to be propagated throughout the world by the instrumentality of its friends, who belong to this church; that it is utterly impracticable for all these friends to act together in one association, for conducting missionary operations; that the friends of the essential truths of the gospel are, in fact, divided into no inconsiderable number of different sects, each holding 1. That the evangelizing of the world should be conducted by the church in its distinctive character, and not be mainly left to the ma nagement of voluntary associations, is, to our apprehension, palpably evident, both from Scripture and reason. The church, as we have seen, is a divinely constituted and organized body, and therefore, doubtless, more fit for any purpose for which it was intended by God, its author, than voluntary associa tions, which are the device of man however distinguished those men |