Church Diet rests on the principle of a free association and communion, while by passing over into an official body, it would have become inevitably connected with all the evils of state churchism.

In some sense, however, the desired confederation may be said to exist in a body distinct from the Kirchentag, but called into existence by its influence. We mean the Conference of Eisenach, which consists of a small number of official delegates from the various church governments of Protestant Germany, and meets since 1852, annually or biannually, as circumstances may require, at Eisenach, for consultation on subjects and measures of common interest to all. But its deliberations are private, and subject to the final sanction or rejection of the respective authorities. The most important work of this Conference, so far, is the preparation and publication of one hundred and fifty standard hymns, with their melodies, for public worship, which should form the nucleus of the hymn-books of the different churches, and thus promote unity in the place of the endless confusion produced by the arbitrary alterations of hymns and chorals. In the mean time the Church Diet has accomplished, in a free form and altogether independently of state control, much more than an official state-church-confederation, in all probability, would have done under similar circumstances. Deprived of legislative authority and even pecuniary means, the Kirchentag had all the moral power of faith and truth speaking in love, of remonstrance with the authorities, and of appeal to the people at large. It exerted a most salutary influence upon the cities and neighbourhoods in which it met. It travelled like a living evangelist to the centres of leading influence in Germany. It gave a powerful impulse to the course of evangelical piety and active Christianity all over the land. It discussed topics and started measures of the greatest theoretical and practical moment. Several of these were already mentioned above. To them must be added, from previous meetings, the discussions on Christian education, the relation of church and state, the political duties of ministers, the sanctification of Sunday, the reform of worship, the introduction of a common hymn-book for all Germany, the relation of voluntary societies to the ministerial office, the Romish question, the treatment of dissenters, the spiritual care of the poor, the emigrants, the prisoners, the travelling journeymen, etc. It interceded in behalf of the persecuted Madiai at Florence, in connection with English and French Protestants, and protested against several crying abuses in certain countries of Germany. It has become a nucleus for a large number of benevolent and reformatory societies which cluster around it. It has promoted the cause of Christian union, not only at home, but also abroad, by receiving delegates from, and

forming connections with, the Protestant churches of France, Holland, Belgium, Scotland, Geneva, the Canton de Vaud, the British Evangelical Alliance, the American Tract Society, and the German churches of America.

But one work must be mentioned with special praise, which may be called the adopted child of the Kirchentag, and has been most fruitful and blessed in immediate results. We mean the cause of "Inner Mission," to which it devotes two days, or fully one half of the time of its annual meetings. This is undoubtedly one of the most important movements of the age, and is alone sufficient to immortalise that assembly in the history of practical Christianity and Christian philanthropy. The term, Inner Mission, comprehends much more than what we mean by Home Missions, or Domestic Missions. It aims at a relief of all kinds of spiritual and temporal misery by works of faith and charity, at a revival of nominal Christendom, and a general reform of society on the basis of the Gospel and the creed of the Reformation. It is Christian philanthropy and charity applied to the various deep-rooted evils of society, as they were brought to light so fearfully in Germany by the revolutionary outbreaks of 1848. It comprises the care of the poor, the sick, the captive, and prisoner, the labouring classes, the travelling journeymen, the emigrants, the temperance movement, the efforts for the promotion of a better observance of the Lord's day, and similar reforms, so greatly needed in the churches of Europe.

Dr Wichern is the chief author and moving spirit of this great work in its modern German form. For as to its essence, of course, it is as old as Christian charity itself. It was with considerable difficulty, and only after a most eloquent speech, that he succeeded in urging it upon the serious attention of the Church Diet at its first meeting in 1848, and in making it one of its regular and principal objects. The movement spread with wonderful rapidity. There is now hardly a city in Protestant Germany or Switzerland, where there is not a "Society for Inner Mission," or an "Evangelical Association" for the promotion of the various works of Christian benevolence. "That which, seven years ago"-says an English philanthropist "was a germ of thought lodged in the mind of one man, is now a principle actuating human minds, instigating Christian endeavours, and giving birth to benevolent enterprise in a hundred forms throughout the fatherland, and wherever, in Europe, in America, or in Australasia, Germany may find a home." Dr Wichern presents a general survey of the progress of the work at every meeting of the Kirchentag, and urges to renewed efforts with ever fresh vigour and with an earnestness and enthusiasm that is not from this earth.

We cannot better conclude this article, than by quoting the

last words of Wichern's report at the Church Diet of Frankfort. "The Inner Mission," says this great and good man, “is the work of John, not the Baptist, but the apostle who leaned on the bosom of the Lord. According to the word of this apostle, we should all love each other as brethren, who confess the only saving name of Christ. But in this brotherly love we should also burn, like John, in the pursuit of the apostate youth, for the recovery of those who are wandering on the abyss of destruction. The love of God shed abroad in our hearts, uniting the disciples into one body, going forth like a burning light into the world, and converting the dreary deserts round about us into a paradise of God-such Johannean love is the hope and the strength of Inner Mission. May God bless this work, in the midst of envy and strife, for the establishment of peace."

P. S.

ART. IV. Religion in America: or, An Account of the Origin, Relation to the State, and Present Condition of the Evangelical Churches of the United States. With Notices of the Unevangelical Denominations. By ROBERT BAIRD. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1856.

To

THE circumstances under which the above work was originally published are probably known to most of our readers. On arriving in Europe in 1835, Dr Baird met everywhere with persons who manifested much anxiety to ascertain from an authentic source the real condition of the American churches satisfy such parties, he prepared first a brief account of Unitarianism in the United States; and then finding that this partial sketch only augmented, instead of satiating, the general curiosity, he enlarged his plan so far as to put forth, in 1842, the first edition of the valuable compendium which is now before us.

Of this book, in its present form, (it is now of much larger dimensions than it was originally), it is not too much to say that it supplies full and reliable information in regard to almost every point connected with the religious characteristics of the new world, concerning which we could have wished abstractly to have had an account. Nor, indeed, is it only as an ecclesiastical handbook that Dr Baird's treatise is deserving of attention. One entire book, at the commencement of the volume, is occupied with details of a more general character. Sketches of the geography of the continent of the history and present condition of the aborigines-of the origin and progress of colonisation -of the form of government peculiar to the United States

and of other matters of a similar nature, prepare the reader for entering, with greater interest and intelligence, upon the particular field which he is specially invited to explore. While the "conclusion," forming a considerable portion of the last section of the work, deals in a very satisfactory way, upon the whole, with some of the more serious charges which have been brought from time to time against the moral character of the American commonwealth.

The manner in which the entire report has been prepared is deserving of the highest praise. The style is clear, cultivated, and easy. The spirit, animating the various notices, is thoroughly and unaffectedly Christian; and while his catholicity is never so extreme as to make him ignore even for a moment the commanding and inalienable claims of the truth-while, in other words, he views everything throughout from a purely evangelical standpoint, he yet deals with the history and doctrines of the different sects in so fair and delicate a way that they themselves must admit the justice and accuracy of his descriptions.

To affirm that the book is faultless would, of course, be simply absurd. It has several very decided defects, one or two of which we shall have occasion particularly to notice by and by. Meantime we may say we have this general objection to it, that it is somewhat too flattering in its representations-too free and indiscriminate in its praise. The failing, no doubt, is one which "leans to virtue's side," and it is perhaps perfectly natural to the author at once as an American, and as an amiable man. But we confess we should have liked to have had supplied to us, also, something" on the other side." The churches of the Union are certainly not all altogether what they should be, even those of them which are essentially evangelical. In their ecclesiastical action, in the style of their theological teaching, in their existing spiritual condition, there are many things, as we have reason to know, which lay them fairly open to candid criticism; and it appears to us that Dr Baird, undertaking, as he did, not simply to write a book which was to cause offence to no one, but to prepare a report for behoof of the churches of Europe on the whole subject of religion in America, might have devoted some of his space to shewing the dark as well as the bright side of the picture. The truth is, however, that in one sense Dr Baird's work is really an elaborate piece of special pleading. Setting up an imaginary opponent who is supposed to deny or at least to underestimate the religious character of America, he makes it his aim throughout to shew that the United States, from first to last, have been animated, even in an intense degree, with a Christian spirit. To establish this point he goes back to the primary formation-the lowest strata of their social system; and, reviewing the history and acts of the early colonists,

proves that the founders of the republic were men who had indeed the fear of God before their eyes. Following down the stream of the national annals, he next describes, and to the same intent, the state of things after the Revolution of 1775. And then having finished this historical sketch, he proceeds at great length to shew that the American people of the present day still bear on their front the characteristic features of their Puritan ancestry. The carrying out of this plan gives, no doubt, a point and an animation to the book which it would not perhaps otherwise possess, for, besides being a repository of facts, it has much of the liveliness of a controversial treatise. Still, conceived and executed in this spirit, evermore calling up before the reader's mind the idea, that he is dealing with proof led on one side to establish a disputed position, the work can hardly be accepted as, in every sense, a candid and catholic treatise on the whole subject of religion in America.

Taking it, however, for what we have admitted it to be, a thoroughly excellent and satisfactory book in the main, we propose to draw upon its stores, and retail such facts connected with the history, achievements, and condition of the different religious bodies in the United States, as may seem likely to interest those of our readers who have not hitherto given much attention to the ecclesiastical movements of America.

The founders of the republic were, unquestionably, a noble race of men. Their character, indeed, almost justifies the boast which its citizens are in the habit of making, that they as such derive their descent, not as the English from a tribe of painted savages, but from the most advanced classes of the most advanced kingdoms in the civilised world. Dividing the thirteen original States into three classes, Southern, Northern, and Midland, the following notes will give some idea of the seminal elements of American society.

"On the 26th day of April 1607," says the Rev. Henry Caswall, who has written an exceedingly interesting account of religion in the States, describing it from the high church episcopal point of view, "two years before the settlement of Canada by the French, seven years before the founding of New York by the Dutch, and thirteen years before the landing of the Puritans in New England, a small band of colonists arrived on that coast, denominated in honour of their queen, Virginia. They brought in with them the prevalent habits of the higher orders of English society, and, although adventurers, they had not for gotten their duty to God. Religious considerations had been combined with the motives which led to their voluntary expatriation. As members of the lately Reformed Church of England, they had been required by their sovereign to provide for the preaching of the gospel among themselves and the neigh