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Reformed worship in his palace of the Louvre, on condition that they would abstain from singing. One day his sister was delayed in a conference with the king, when the company began to sing to drown the tediousness of delay. The king, hearing a noise, asked the cause of it; and on being informed, he abruptly said to his sister: "Mon Dieu, go quickly and tell them to stop singing!"

Under the régime of the Edict of Nantes, the Protestants of Paris were accustomed to assemble at Charenton for worship. Every Sunday the road to this place was crowded' with men, women, and children, in vehicles and on foot, going to church, and singing their hymns on the way. This so annoyed the authorities that they forbade the singing of hymns in public places; and in proportion as the famous Revocation approached, this raid on the Huguenot hymns increased. In 1663 a pastor of Nimes was banished for having published a treatise on the singing of the Psalms; while the printer was also punished for two years, and the book itself was condemned to be burned. And thus the persecution of the Psalter went on, until at last it was almost at the risk of life that spiritual hymns could be sung. This very repression made the Psalter still more dear; and the comfort that it has afforded to thousands, amid persecution and adversity, has given it a rank right beside the Bible. This article will be widely read by the descendants of the Huguenots.

ART. IX.-FOREIGN RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

THE JEWS IN FRANCE.

FRENCH publicists have been pretty severe on the Germans for their treatment of the Jews in later years; and they and the Spaniards were quite generous in their offers toward the Russian Jews who recently left their homes in such large numbers, and came mainly to this country in preference to Palestine, France, or Spain. The Germans naturally reply that these critics would be more consistent if they practically knew more about the matter. Two centuries ago the Jews were driven out of Spain under circumstances of great cruelty, and a few months ago the first Jewish marriage took place in Spain for all this long period. And

the French themselves have scarcely any Jews within their boundaries; certainly for some pretty good reason.

While in Germany there are about 600,000, making one to every seventy-five inhabitants, there are in France only 65,000, or one to every 508 souls. The Hebrew population in France is found scarcely anywhere else than in a few of the large cities, Paris alone counts 35,000; more than in all the provinces together. Jewish synagogues are found only in Paris, Bordeaux, Lyons, Marseilles, Besançon, Bayonne, and a few other cities. In many commercial centers, counting from 30,000 to 50,000, there will be found but a few isolated Jewish families. In four of the departments there is not a single Israelite; while in some twenty there are not more than a few hundred. But a very small portion settled in France before the nineteenth century. All the others came since 1830 from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Russia, and Turkey. Some came with millions, as the Rothschilds, Goldschmidts, Erlangers, and Oppenheims, and these have all increased their millions in France. Outside of these extremely rich Jews the greater number of the Parisian Jews are poor, and find it a struggle to secure a decent livelihood. The Frenchman is a good business man, and quite expert in making a sale on fair business principles; there is here, therefore, no room for dickering or bargaining; and for any deceptive transactions, especially in money matters, he is not much inclined. To the poorer class of Jews there is, therefore, nothing left ordinarily but the trade in ribbons, thread, and other small variety wares. Even the trade in old clothes, which elsewhere is exclusively in the hands of the Jews, is in Paris mostly monopolized by emigrant Frenchmen from the Province of Auvergne. There are a goodly number of Jews in the law, and in the civil and military service. There are Jewish prefects, cabinet ministers occasionally, quite a number of Jewish generals, and a large number of deputies to the Chambers. In industrial life the Jews have by no means the position which they hold in Germany. Their influence is all-controlling only at the Exchange; some of the largest banking and stock-dealing establishments and most of the railroad corporations have none. Consequently, they are not such a thorn in the side of the Frenchman as they seem to be in that of the German.

LIBRARY OF THE ITALIAN REFORMATION.

We notice with pleasure that the Italians themselves have begun a work that has been successfully pursued for some time in France and Spain; namely, a new publication of all the evangelical writings from the period of the Reformation. It is to be hoped that this admirable enterprise will receive an active support that will end in its consummation. In the year 1531 there issued from a cloister on the banks of Lago Maggiore, from the pen of a Carmelite monk, a circular to the entire Christian Church of Germany, in which we find the words: "Think, dear brethren in the faith, of the humble Canaanitish woman who begged for the crumbs that fell from the table of the Lord. Thus I, while thirsting, FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXXV.—24

take refuge in the Source of living waters; surrounded by darkness, sighing in tears, I beseech you, who know the secrets of God, send us the writings of your chosen teachers. Deliver a Lombardian city from the Babylonian captivity. There are three of us here; but who knows whether God will not from a small spark cause a great burning?"

This pious monk could scarcely imagine that from his own country there would spring forth an echo of his words. And yet the movement. of the Reformation, even in Italy, in twenty years from that time, had become so strong, spreading even to the spiritually elevated classes, that an entire literature of testimonies of evangelical faith and life had risen into prominence. But the Inquisition had with only too great effect nipped the buds of the movement in the beginning, and thus destroyed the fruit. Whole editions of devotional books were destroyed by its order, and in Rome piles of such books were burned. But by the providence of God many single copies were rescued from the general destruction, and they are discovered anew hidden in archives and libraries. These are not to disappear entirely, and it is the duty of evangelical Christianity to rescue them. From these the new Protestant communities of the Italy of to-day may draw native material for study and devotional instruction and encouragement. This important enterprise is to be under the direction of Professor Comba, of Florence, aided by colleagues in Venice, Padua, and Rome, and some even from France and Germany. They are to be printed in Florence, and sold at a very low price so as to put them within reach of all. About eight or nine works are now already announced, of which the first is "A Simple Declaration of the Twelve Articles of Christian Faith." An appeal is being made to the Protestants of Europe to help this worthy enterprise. by a generous purchase of these issues.

THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES OF FRANCE.

The French Reformed Church, as well as the French Lutheran, is now suffering under the pressure of contemporary events. They both have to bear the burden of the exclusion of religious teaching from the schools, and are obliged to provide for it themselves or do without it. There are those among them who accept willingly this new school law, but their labors in the Church are negative rather than positive. The extreme liberalism, which has such a foothold legally within the bosom of the Churches, is causing them much anxiety. In the Theological Faculty of Paris there are some faithful and immovable teachers of the Word, but even there we see an effort on the part of some to produce discord by unsound teaching. Maurice Vernes, of this body, who lately delivered an address, at the opening of the annual studies, contradicting the commonly received ideas of the soul and immortality, was obliged to withdraw as a teacher; but his influence is left behind him. There is doubtless existing in the Reformed Church of France a noble inheritance and a solid power of active faith, as is proved by their eager work in

evangelization of the masses; but they are doomed to encounter discouraging obstacles. The record of the year last past amply attests this. In the Lutheran Church the injuries caused by the war of 1870 are not yet overcome; pastors were driven away from their flocks; congregations were scattered; and church property and soil virtually destroyed. These Lutherans, in various unions and conferences, have appealed to their brothers in Germany for help. The two Provincial Synods, recently held in Paris and Mompelgard, were mainly occupied with the troublesome school question, bemoaning the fact that the name of God is excluded from the schools with no power on their part to repair the wound. They now find hope in the fact that there has lately been a revulsion of feeling among notable Republicans regarding the religious question, and that an evident disposition is growing to treat it with more tenderness and consideration. The President and some prefects and ministers of state are counseling less severe measures, and the last budget for Public Worship was sustained by some of those who had hitherto opposed it. The death of the great dictator in this matter may cause a change of policy, and the fierce struggles of the political factions induce the opponents of religion to cease their efforts to strike all religious organizations. The Lutherans seem to be even more helpless than the Reformed Church without aid from the State.

THE LATEST FROM PALESTINE.

The "Journal of the German Palestine Association," under the effective control of Dr. Guthes, is doing fine work in the matter of revelations of very general interest. The fourth volume has recently appeared, and from it we gather some curious information. For a series of years there have been found in the vicinity of Jerusalem small sarcophagi of limestone, whose significance has been a mystery. They are about thirty inches in length and fourteen in breadth. To what purpose have these small coffins been appropriated? They can scarcely have been cinerary receptacles; for neither the Jews nor the Christians practiced cremation. The opinion has been broached that they contain the remains of the martyrs; for they are far too small for an ordinary unmutilated corpse. A high authority is of the opinion that these miniature coffins are for the reception of the remnants of bodies taken up from graves aud transported to other places, because in these cases corpses were sometimes transported from abroad. This is made probable from the fact that in the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem they are most numerous, and some of them contain Greek inscriptions. A burial in Jerusalem was the most ardent desire of the Jews living in other countries; and in the Middle Ages there were very many of such transports to the Holy Land. Old Jews would go there simply to die. These little sarcophagi, there fore, probably contained the bones of those who could not go in the body, as the Chinese send home the bones of their dead to lie in their natal soil.

A professional architect in the interest of this Association, living permanently in Jerusalem, gives some curious details as to the number of inhabitants of ancient Jerusalem. In his study of the outlines of the city, the mode of building, and the size of the houses, and also the historical traditions, he concludes that ancient Jerusalem, at the time of Titus, had a circumference of thirty-three stadia, and not less than 250,000 inhabitants.

ART. X.-FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. THE "Roman Catholic Directory " for England and Scotland, for 1883, issued under the control of Cardinal Manning, and therefore reliable, gives us some very startling figures. In England and Wales there are seventeen Romish bishops and 2,112 priests, who labor in 1,888 churches, chapels, and mission-stations. Scotland has six bishops and 306 priests, who have charge of 295 chapels. The English bishops are divided into one archbishop, six suffragan bishops, and two assistant bishops. Scotland has two archbishops and four suffragans, and either no congregations or very unimportant ones. A comparison with this directory and that of 1850 shows that the statistics are nearly doubled in the present one. In the House of Lords there are now twenty-nine Roman Catholic peers with seats and votes, and the privy-council of the Queen contains four Roman Catholic members; while in the nobility of the land there are forty-seven baronets who are Catholics. There are no statistics given of the growth of Roman Catholicism in the middle classes; it seems to be only among the higher ranks that High-Churchism and Catholicism have become fashionable.

The "German Review "gives quite an interesting account of the status of the German universities at the close of the year 1882. The attendance is increasing quite out of proportion to the increase of the population. The number of students in the summer semester of 1872 was 15, 113; but in 1882 it was 23, 834-in ten years an increase of 57 per cent. This the Germans regard as alarming, because there is no such increased need of trained men, and the supply will therefore be much greater than the demand. An official warning has gone forth in the German Empire against the over-production of lawyers. But the greatest increase is in the philosophical faculty, including all branches not absorbed by the theological, judicial, and medical studies; and the increase is found mainly in the ten Prussian universities. The ratio of increase has been about even in the medical and theological faculties. For a series of years there was a decrease here, but for the last five years there has been quite an increase. In the entire decade the theologians have made an increase of 39 per cent. in the Protestant faculties. In the faculties of Catholic theology there has been a constant decrease in the last

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