great reformer, John Calvin. Proofs and arguments are necessary with unbelievers, but that is not sufficient. There must also be sound doctrines, and there is, besides, a right way of presenting them to the people. Calvin shows that the minister must not be satisfied with reading a sermon coldly or reciting it correctly. "True preaching," says the reformer, "must not be dead, but living and effective. There is a force, there is an energy, which should be found in those who desire to be good and loyal ministers of the Word. No parade of rhetoric, but the Spirit of God must resound in their voice in order to operate with power" (l'Esprit de Dieu doit résonner en leur voix, pour besoigner en vertu). Thus spoke Calvin. Doubtless one sometimes hears such voices, but they are rare. The progress which we have to make is a revival of the ministry of the apostles and of the Reformation. It was for the Church of England, and to the regent of the kingdom, the uncle of Edward VI., that Calvin wrote these words in 1548, but they are applicable to every church. May the Spirit of God resound in our voices! 4th. Ought not Christians in the times in which we live, the faithful and the pastors, to attach themselves more and more to the person of JESUS CHRIST? We must do so in order to contend against infidelity, and, still more, against popery. Let us, therefore, cleave with a living faith, with earnest love, not, indeed, to a fantastic ideal of Jesus, invented by unbelieving imaginations, but to the true person of Jesus Christ, such as the Holy Scriptures alone make him known to us, in all his humility, but also in all his beauty, his power, and his glory. Let us attach ourselves to him, not only for our own peace, but also for the salvation of the Church. We are in a great crisis, I would almost say in great distress; but if we are under the eye of such a friend, who has said with truth, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" (Matt. xxviii., 18); and if he has added, "I am with you alway" (Matt. xxviii., 20), should we not be senseless if, in this pressing danger, we did not apply for help to that friend? Well, those words were addressed to us by the Son of God. We are full of confidence in the reality of his promises; let us act accordingly.

York, to commend them to your fraternal fellowship and regard. We present, by them, to yourselves and to the Christian brethren gathered together from different lands, our cordial and affectionate greeting, and our sincere congratulations on the auspicious occasion of your assembly.

We desire gratefully to acknowledge the hand of our gracious God in the removal of all causes for further delay in holding in your own city the Sixth General Conference of Christians of various nations, and in bringing to a successful termination the arrangements made in many different countries for a suitable representation being present to take part in its interesting proceedings. The Conference itself and its results will be regarded with deep interest by multitudes in this and other lands who desire to see the Christian churches both of the Old and New World brought into closer communion and co-operation, for the defense of religious liberty and the spread of the Redeemer's kingdom among all people.

Profoundly impressed with the importance of the meetings and the subjects about to be brought under your consideration, we invited the members of the Alliance throughout the United Kingdom to make special and united prayer to Almighty God for his blessing, that the approaching Conference may issue in results greatly to his glory, and the increase of unity, peace, and concord among all true Christians.

To move the springs of united prayer has been one of the peculiar privileges of this Alliance, and on no previous occasion does it appear to us that the supplications of God's children were more needed or more suitable than at the present time, when wise and holy men of both hemispheres are drawn together for fraternal fellowship, for spiritual profit, for mutual counsel, and for combined effort in the cause of truth and righteousness throughout the world.

May the Spirit of Grace and Supplication be poured out upon your assemblies. May the Great Head of the Church himself be with you.

Allow us, beloved brethren, to assure you of our cordial sympathy, and our readiness at all times to co-operate with you, and with the sister organizations in various countries, in making this Association increasingly a power for good. We have rejoiced in the

ANCE.

From the Council of the British Organization of the Evangelical Alliance to the Council and Members of the Evangelical Alliance of the United States of America.

of persecuted Christians suffering for righteousness' sake; the spread of the Gospel in all lands; the practice of Christian charity among ourselves, and commending it to the sympathy and practice of our fellow-believers; conflicts with infidelity and ungodliness in varied forms-these are claiming the most serious attention of Christians, and pressing upon them everywhere to unite, and by a common service to their one Lord draw closer the bands of brotherly love. Only thus united in holy activity can we be assured that doubts as to the divine authority of the doctrines we hold will diminish, and the promise of our Lord be not far from its final and glorious accomplishment-"that the world may believe."

May the God of peace and love enable you with one heart and mouth to glorify him who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and so make manifest that the Prince of Peace has guided, controlled, and blessed your counsels.

Again we offer you our paternal and affectionate salutations. On behalf of the Council,

EBURY, President.
CHICHESTER,
ROBERT LUSH,

WILLIAM ASHLEY,

R. J. ROBERTSON (Lord Benholm), Vice-presidents.

ALFRED S. CHURCHILL,

Chairman of N. Y. Conf. Com.

JOHN FINCH, Treasurer.

JAMES DAVIS, Secretary.
HERMANN SCHMETTAU,

Foreign Secretary.

to me in that Church, which has generally been regarded as the bulwark of the Reformation, without praying for God's blessing on all earnest efforts to spread the great Gospel doctrines which the Reformation vindicated. Never since the Reformation has it been more important that Christian men should learn to understand and co-operate with one another, and that they should, by the manifestation of their union in faith and good works, offer an effectual opposition to the growing progress of superstition and infidelity. And never has this union been more earnestly longed for than in the present day.

I trust that the Holy Spirit of God may guide all who take part in your discussions at New York; and that the solution of the great social and religious questions of which you propose to treat may be advanced by the mutual intercourse of minds accustomed, many of them, to regard these questions in different aspects, according to the peculiarities of their several countries.

That God may hasten the time when the differences, which at present tend too much to keep Christians asunder, may be removed, and when all who love the Lord Jesus Christ sincerely may be able, without compromise of principle, to unite both outwardly and in spirit, is my heart's prayer.

Believe me to be, my dear Dean, yours very sincerely, A. C. CANTUAR.

The very Reverend

The DEAN OF CANTERBURY.

LETTER FROM THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

Addington Park, Croydon, August 1, 1873.

MY DEAR DEAN,—I can not allow the Dean of my Cathedral to go to America to attend a general conference of Christians of all countries, without expressing my good wishes and earnest hope that his efforts to promote unity in Christ's Church may be blessed.

In 1870 (before the proposed Conference was postponed, owing to the unhappy war between two great Christian nations) I wrote a letter to the late lamented Bishop M'Ilvaine, which he kindly undertook to present to the Conference. I hope that you will, on the present occasion, be the bearer of my good wishes in the place of one whose loss has been felt by Christian men wherever the English language is spoken.

You are aware that I have never been a member of the Evangelical Alliance, under the auspices of which the Conference is to be convened. But it is not possible for me to hold the position which God has assigned

GREETING FROM THE GERMAN
CHURCH DIET.*

Berlin, September 1, 1873. THE German Evangelical Church Diet, represented by two members of their Executive Committee, viz., Professor Dr. Dorner and Consistorial Councilor Noël, send brotherly greetings to the Conference of the Evangelical Alliance about to convene in New York City; with the expression of their heartfelt desire that in the battle against the dark powers of infidelity and superstition the bond of peace may draw closer and closer together all soldiers of the Lord on both sides of the great deep, and that to this end the approaching assembly may be blessed in its testimonies, prayers, and thanksgivings.

*

the revolutionary commotions of 1848, and met for the [The German Church Diet was founded during first time over the graves of Luther and Melanchthon in Wittenberg. It is a free society of Evangelical Christians in Germany, meeting from time to time for the discussion of subjects of common interest. It is the same for the various evangelical denominaliance is for Evangelical Christians of all nationalities tions of the German nation, that the Evangelical Aland tongues. It aimed first at a confederation of churches, but this idea has been abandoned.-P. S.]

FROM PROFESSOR ROSSEEUW ST.

HILAIRE, VERSAILLES,

Member of the Institute of France.

Neuchatel, Sept. 12, 1873.

To the Rev. Dr. Schaff: DEAR AND HONORED BROTHER,-You have asked from me a few lines, which you may submit to our brethren of every language and of every country whom the great festival of the Evangelical Alliance is about to assemble in New York.

I am happy to accede, were it only to be able to express to you and to all our brethren my deep regret at not being able to take part with them in this family celebration, and to enjoy upon earth that foretaste of heaven which is called Unity in Christ. But imperious duties detain me in France; they are all comprised in one, that of devoting myself entirely, in my impotence and weakness, to the regeneration of my unhappy country.

It is a solemn moment; never has union among Christians been more necessary, more desired by God; never, if it is realized, could it bear more blessed fruits; but (we can not repeat it too often) the world has its eye upon us. Evangelical Christians! it watches us, it studies us, to see what we will do; to follow us if we advance to a defined and blessed goal, to despise and disgrace us if we remain at a stand-still or retreat.

leges, to try and fill, in hearts and consciences, the place it has left vacant? I do not know what others will have to answer for their countries; but for France I answer, without hesitation, No! I say it in deep sadness, nothing is more melancholy than the aspect presented by Protestantism in the South, which I have twice visited and thoroughly examined since the war. Everywhere infidel pastors, or orthodox pastors who are in reality dead, doing still more evil in preventing souls starving for truth from leaving the Church and going elsewhere to seek the life they could not find in it. And if the pastors are dead, what shall I say of their congregations?

The only cheering prospect in the midst of all this gloom is the movement which begins to work in several of these dead churches in the South of France. Living souls come out from them to form beside them a kind of free church to which the name only is wanting, and they group themselves round faithful pastors, supported, not by the State, but by the congregation. The great question of Separation of Church and State is floating in the air, and propounds itself where no one would dare propound it. It is everywhere at present, but above all in the little town from which I write, Neuchatel, in Switzerland, which perhaps will have the honor of being the first to present to the world the solution of this great discussion. As regards Romanism, it must no longer be studied in Rome, but in France. In Rome it stated its premises, but it ap

tice in France. It no longer demands belief, but obedience from the souls it has enthralled. It is at variance with the State, at variance with the century. It has made a waste of the human soul, to enthrone itself upon the ruins!

But if it reigns in France at this moment, it is an ephemeral reign which can not last, for the bent of the spirit of the century is opposed to it. This does not mean that it is less to be feared for other countries. Ban

It has converted barbarians; will it succeed in converting the civilized world?

Romanism, with the Council of the Vatican, has exhausted its vital principle. It has declared war against all the aspirations of the century; it has alienated from itself its

uits have invaded England, and threaten the United States, notwithstanding the Atlantic which separates them. In these two great nations (so dissimilar, and yet united by a common tie, the Bible, which serves as a base to all their social edifice), Romanism, grown more powerful beneath the shadow of the very liberties it wishes to destroy, attacks Protestantism to pervert and corrupt it. Therefore, we will say to our dear brethren assembled at New York, as we have