his negative side may also be designated positive-that is the positivism of Auguste Comte.

The Count is now publishing brochures to illustrate his views. These are written with all his great power over the Russian language, and have the directness and simplicity of folk tales, that they may prove attractive and be understood by the common people to whom they are addressed. Thus we have the history of Socrates, the skazka or folk tale of Ivan Durak and his two brethren, Simon Warlike and Tarass Fat-paunch, and their dumb sister Melanie. No less than 28 of these brochures illustrating in a narrative fashion Count Tolstoi's doctrines, have been published in a cheap but attractive form, and are sold, sanctioned by the Censor, all through the Empire.

This is rather curious, when we remember the severity with which the Pashkovite publications have been dealt with, and how the glorious Old Dreamer of Bedford, in his Russian dress, has been stopped and prohibited!

One thing, however, is clear; the Russian people have begun to think for themselves, and it will be difficult, even for a Government armed with all the power of the Russian, to prevent them from thinking and following their thought in that course which appears to them the course of right and duty.

St. Petersburg, Nov. 1886.

Religion in Modern Greece.

As to the religious condition of modern Greece, we see signs of improvement. Last year 52,000 tracts were circulated. Only ten years ago a Greek priest, speaking of the influence of tracts and the Scriptures, said that while the Scriptures are the current of a great river which waters many provinces, the tracts resemble the brooks coming gently down. Many most valuable theological books have also been published. Not long since a thousand copies of Dr. Arnold's sermons were published in Greek. Dr. Kalopothakes, a most zealous evangelist in Athens, has translated into Greek Dr. Hodge's "Outlines of Theology." In 1885 the Greek Evangelical Alliance held its second annual meeting. Its aim is to spread among Greeks evangelical Christianity. We do not indeed assert that the prelates and priests of the Greek Church are now fully awake to the duty of preaching the gospel and teaching the people. Merchants and politicians are awake and active; but with here and there an exception, the ecclesiastical functionaries go on in a dull round of empty ceremonies. Their Christianity is mechanical. Their worship has been transferred from the heart to the finger ends; the real and refreshing intercession of Jesus Christ is lost sight of behind the mummeries of the Greek priesthood; the doctrine of man's lost condition; of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, an 1 of justification by faith, are neither felt nor understood by the teachers of the people. Though they do not worship images, they carry picture-worship to an extreme such as perhaps the most superstitious Romanist would be ashamed of.

25

Marriage is not forbidden to parish priests, but only to monks and prelates. Auricular confession is inculcated, and is accompanied by its attendant evils. The Greek Church attaches great importance to fasting. More than one-half the days of the year are directed to be kept as fast days. Perhaps, however, the most deplorable feature which mars this eastern apostacy from the faith is its excessive adoration of the Virgin. The first prayer which the Greek teaches a little child is: "On thee I repose all my hope. Mother of God save me." And when old age has come, and death and eternity are at hand, the prayer which is thought to be most acceptable is: "Amid all the sorrows of life, to whom can I flee for refuge but to thee, O holy Virgin ?" And when the last conflict is over, and the body is committed to the grave, the officiating priest proclaims: "By thee, O holy Virgin, we are raised from earth to Heaven, having thrown off the corruption of death."

Their religion being little more than external performance, right and truth are regarded as of secondary moment. Perjury is common. The description which Paul gives of the Cretans might with propriety be applied to large numbers of modern Greeks.

One of the most manifest aims of the Greek clergy is to prevent the free circulation of the Scriptures. The Greek clergy and the Greek Government have joined in keeping the Scriptures as far as possible from the people. The British and Foreign Bible Society's report for 1884, says: "The Government and the Church aim at preserving the religious unity of all who speak the Greek language.

With this object they resist the reforms which the noblest men in the nation advocate; the clergy are kept miserably paid, therefore ignorant; the Word of God is never preached to the people; and they are as far as possible prevented from obtaining copies of it in the language which they understand." With singular inconsistency it is urged that the modern Greek version is couched in an abominable patois, which yet is deemed suitable for the Senate, law courts and universities. The fact is, the Greek clergy fear the free circulation of the Scriptures. Greece is now entering upon the experience England entered on in the Sixteenth Century. A band of men whose hearts the Lord hath touched are engaged in an earnest endeavor to permeate the country with the Word of God.- Wesleyan Methodist Magazine.

the adoption of the seven councils, practice the seven sacraments, and in their doctrines and dogmas are almost uniform. They differ in the procession of the Holy Ghost, in the celibacy of their priests. The Greeks do not acknowledge any papal authority, reject all images, but adopt pictures instead; they both worship the Virgin Mary. Practically we found the two religions very similar, except that the Greek Church has not an educated priesthood, it being a proverb among them, "When a boy is too lazy to do anything, make a priest of him."

Of course there are many minor differences in the mode of practicing their various rites and ceremonies. The Greek Church is not an aggressive Church, they do not care to proselyte as the Catholics do. Their precept is, "The Protestant faith is for the Protestants, Roman Catholicism is for Roman Catholics," etc.

We believe an exception is made by them of the Bul

garians, whom the Greeks seem to think should belong

to them. While it may seem strange, there exists a bitter hatred of the Greeks toward the Catholics, doubtless

owing to the fact that the latter have made a goodly

number of proselytes among the Greeks.

But we will turn to some of the superstitions which we found practiced among them: The Greeks deny any belief in a purgatorial fire for the soul, yet admit an intermediate state of purgation "under a cloud," as they express it, and prayers are regularly said for the dead. In this connection, we found a very curious custom existing It is their belief that after death the freeing of the soul from sin, or its effects, is in some way connected with the dissolution of the flesh from the bones, that so long as the flesh remains on the bones the soul is unhappy, and the part thus resisting decay is the offending member. Thus, if the hand is found whole, while the rest of the body is decomposed, this hand has stolen or committed murder, and for this, the soul is yet in punishment. Of course this gives occasion for many prayers, and is the means of considerable income to the priests; and some strange practices are connected with it.

In the first place the body is buried with a view to hastening decomposition as much as possible. A light wooden coffin is made with slats across the bottom so that the damp earth and the body of the deceased will come in contact; the coffin is placed into the grave uncovered, a spade full of earth is thrown into the face which is covered with a sheet only, and the top put lightly on, generally being held in place by one or two stones, until the earth can be thrown upon it. This is the common or temporary burying of all. After a year or eighteen months, during which time prayers for the dead have been regularly made, the body is disinterred and carefully examined. If the flesh has all decayed and the bones are left clean, especially if they have a yellowish cast, the soul is freed from purgatory and the friends. are happy; but if not, the body is again placed in the

ground and prayers and priestly fees must be continued with renewed vigor.

A Greek cemetery frequently presents a somewhat ghastly and grotesque appearance. There one finds interspersed with handsome tombs and marble monuments or vaults erected by the rich to their dead, and into which the bones are finally placed, these temporary graves, often partly uncovered, with pieces of human bones sticking up through the earth, and fragments of old coffins strewn carelessly over the ground. The poor being able to pay for only a temporary grave, are allotted one common resting place for the bones of their loved ones. Imagine yourself, dear reader, in a large circular building, built of either stone or marble, dimly lighted by two open door ways; in the centre of this is a deep pit or vault; around the walls hang numerous bags of white or colored cotton, looking as if they might contain some dried herbs. But each one is branded with the name of little "Peter," or "Paul," or

"John," as the case may be, and contains all that

remains of some one's darling. Of course these bags

decay and from the rents will sometimes project a hand,

or a foot, or even a grinning face. Unless the friends care to renew the bags, and they do not often, the bones are finally thrown down into this one common vault.— Christian Observer.

The Policy and Work of the Papacy.

In September last, the Rev. Dr. J. A. Wylie gave an address before the Ryde Conference of the Evangelical Alliance on The Papacy, from which the following extracts are made:

The late Pontificate-I mean that of Pius IX.-was wholly passed in recasting the dogmas of the Papacy, and in giving them their fullest possible development. Conclusions to which the Papacy had all along logically pointed, but to which no one, at least in modern times, had dared to push it, were decreed as dogmas, and marshaled in hostile array against modern society. This was the life work of Pius IX.; I mean, of the doctors and Jesuits of the Curia, for, personally, the Pope himself was not equal to so great a labor. And for what end was this work undertaken? Not merely to recover the temporal sovereignty-in other words, the Papal States-a comparatively small matter; but to put the Papacy in a position to resume that far vaster temporal supremacy which the Popes of the Middle Ages had exercised over the whole of Christendom.

In order to do this, it was necessary, first of all, to set full before the world's eye, and fix deeply in the world's belief, the idea of a Divine Vicegerency a great spiritual authority on whose shoulder God had laid the gov. ernment of the world, and whom He had qualified to bear so great a burden by the superhuman qualities with which He had endowed it.

Hence the two great outstanding acts of the late Pontificate; I mean the proclamation of the Syllabus

and the decree of the Infallibility. The first, the Syllabus, to wit: is a store-house of the laws of the Church of Rome, as they have come at last to be stamped with the impress of perfection and unchangeableness. The second, the Infallibility, is the focus into which the whole legislation of Rome has been gathered, and whence it again radiates forth over the world in a tyranny that absorbs all rights, crushes all consciences, nullifies all laws, and dominates all kings and nations. In these two documents is presented the perfect image of that superhuman Vicegerency which, according to Papal teaching, God has set up upon the earth.

The State governed by the Pope and Canon law is the Christian State; and this it is the grand object of the Vatican to restore. Constitutional government, says the Syllabus, is a revolt against the world's Divine King whose seat is on the Seven Hills. The modern theories of liberty and authority are emanations from the pit; they are the promptings of Lucifer. It is the mission of the Church to dethrone that tyrant, and rescue society from the abyss in which he has plunged it, and place it upon the rock of the Church, where alone it can enjoy repose. Then will be seen the "Christian State."

But how is this grand project to be realized? What are the instrumentalities which are to be put in operation for quelling this great revolt, and casting out that legion of demons which have taken possession of modern society, and which are known by the various. names of constitutionalism, toleration, liberty of conscience, and so forth?

In the Syllabus we see the programme of what the future is to behold realized: we see there the foundations traced out of that great Babel which the builders of the Vatican are about to erect. But how, you ask, are the ideas and principles of the Syllabus to be rendered into facts? In order to do this a great and various mechanism has been constructed, and is being put at this hour into busy operation all over Europe.

There is, first, the School. Wise for her own interests, the Church of Rome has taken into her own hands the education of youth, in some countries partially, in others entirely; she is training young Europe in the principles of the Syllabus. In France she has a staff of not less than 70,000 persons, male and female, engaged in the work of teaching youth. What are these 70,000 doing but binding down France in the chains of the Syllabus? In Italy and Spain the schools are worked mostly by priests and monks, In Belgium Christian. brothers teach the boys, and nuns the girls. In Southern Germany the teachers in the schools are mostly clerical; it is the same in Austria. Here are millions and millions being reared in the Syllabus-being taught as the truth of God that all merely civil laws and civil rulers, so far as they are not in consonance with Canon law, are moral nullities, and that the Pope is the one God-appointed and divine governor of the earth.

The generation now being so trained will soon have the affairs of Europe in their hands. They will be the

27

Cabinet Ministers of monarchs, the legislators of kingdoms, the editors of newspapers, teachers in colleges and schools, generals in the army; and, in especial, they will form the rank and file of the soldiery which will fight our future campaigns.

The Confessional is an ancient institution, suffered to languish in the last century, but which is again starting into new life, and along with greater intensity is also widening its range. Think of that tribunal, set up in every city, in every family, high and low, and in every bosom, and you will see what a power there is there to mould society, to write on the conscience of Europe the doctrines of the Syllabus. And think of the moral weakness of the men and women of Popish countries, their manliness and virtue sapped by the teachings of their Church, and their patriotism and loyalty undermined by pretended divine supremacy of the spiritual over the temporal power. Such a population is powerless to resist the organization and wiles of Rome. As clay in the hands of the potter, so are such men and women in the hands of the confessor.

The revival of Pilgrimages is another sign of our times-prognosticating trouble. Nothing is better fitted to fan into a flame the fanaticism of the masses of Popish Europe than these pilgrimages. Lines of pilgrims on the roads of Europe have, in former times, been the sure prelude of the march of armies for the extirpation of heresy. Nothing is easier than to transform a band of devotees, with rosary and palmer-staff, into a host of crusaders, who recite their bravery, or sing their aves, clad in a shirt of mail, and begirt with consecrated sword for the rooting out of heresy. A signal from the Vatican, and lo! where pilgrims are now seen every summer wending their way in peaceful guise to some favorite shrine, armed warriors would be seen marching to fight the battles of the Church.

We see another yet more unmistakable sign that Rome, like Job's war-horse, scents the coming battle, in the revival of orders and confraternities. Numerous religious orders have been resuscitated of late, and almost all of them partake of a military character. Among these may be mentioned in particular the Order of St. Dominic. To the Order of St. Dominic was committed in an especial manner the task of rooting out of heresy and heretics, their chief weapon being the sword-in other words, the Inquisition.

This vast military organization is subdivided into other orders, all of which are armed with the sword as the main instrument of their work. There is the confraternity of the "Sacred Heart," supposed to number a million of members; there is the "Militia of Jesus Christ; " there is the "Crusade of St. Peter." The very names breathe of war. They are borrowed from ages of violence, and they portend times of bloodshed. Besides the societies already named, there is another in the French army, called the Legion of St. Maurice. It is an army within an army, and the priest is its general. The resuscitation of these orders plainly

shows that IVar is the ultimate resort which Rome has in her eye. The one idea of all these societies is the doctrine of the Syllabus, and their one aim is the "restoration of the Christian State "-in other words, the wreck of modern society, and the subjection of the world to the rule of the Vatican.

There is another weapon for the coming conflict to which I can refer in only a single sentence-a space altogether disproportioned to its transcendent importance-I refer to the Infallibility. The Infallibility it is that gathers up all the instrumentalities we have just enumerated, and combines them into one tremendous mechanism, and makes the working of that mechanism so swift and crushing. It strikes with the promptitude and power of omnipotence. Take a moment's survey of it. At the summit sits the Pope, divine and infallible. Immediately below the Pontiff comes some thousand bishops, all of whom are sworn to obey him; below the bishops come hundreds of thousands of priests, and hundreds of thousands of monks and nuns, with a machinery of schools, colleges, and confessionals. Below the priests come millions and millions of devotees, dispersed over all the countries of the globe. From the Mount of Infallibility goes forth the fiat. It descends to the rank below, these send it on to the more numerous rank below them, and these to the yet more numerous rank below them; and thus it goes on, widening and widening, till it sets a world in motion. these millions the Pope is the master. But has the Pope himself no master? Yes; he has a master, and that master is the Society of Jesus. Behind his throne stand in shadow the sons of Loyola. The Pope is simply the mouth through which the Jesuits speak, the hand by which they execute their deeds; and be the crime to which they prompt ever so enormous, he must issue the order for its perpetration, or prepare the robe and ring which are used at the funeral of Popes. The Pope cannot abdicate. The man who once sits down in the fatal chair of St. Peter can never again leave it, for should he descend from his throne, he would find a Jesuit waiting for him with a cup of poison at the foot of the steps.

Want of Religious Freedom in Austria.

A correspondent of the London Nonconfirmist writes as follows respecting Protestant Mission Work in Austria:

"Not a tract or book must be given away. The Holy Scriptures cannot be freely sold by colporteurs. Sundayschools, as missionary institutions, are out of the question. There can be no free preaching of the Gospel with open doors in public halls or private houses. All that is allowed is family worship. In other words, if a man chooses to gather his friends around his table or in his house, there is nothing to prevent his asking them to join him in worship or to listen to a discourse he may

deliver. Under this pretense-for, of course, it is nothing more-many meetings are held, but all attending them must be able to furnish a card of invitation, In one or two cases-for certain reasons I mention no names-the police even allowed such meetings to be held in halls hired for the purpose. But, within the last few weeks, even this small concession has been withdrawn.

In one case a minister is allowed to hold one service in the week, but on condition of his sending his text for the following Sunday and the subject of his discourse to the police office every Monday morning, and of his receiving on Saturday evening permission to preach on it. There can be but little doubt that the Romish Church makes itself acquainted with all Protestant movements, and ever and anon becomes alarmed at the activity displayed, and so stirs up the police to fresh activity. But it is strange that a country in some respects so enlightened, and with an Emperor whose sentiments and whose doings are known to be generous, should suffer such pettifogging and vexatious proceedings.

"The fact is, the vast majority of the more thoughtful and educated portion of the population are entirely alienated from all religion. It is a subject about which they feel no concern. If some portion of society wishes for Church institutions, by all means let them have them; but let them be respectable and orderly, working quietly within their own borders, and not interfering with those whose whole concern is for this life and its pleasures. Thus, there is no possibility of awakening any general interest on the question of religious liberty, and even the Protestants, who should take the lead in the movement, and leave no stone unturned in order to secure full freedom, are, as a rule, too indifferent to real religious life and activity to concern themselves about this matter. They have all they want; they are free to worship in their fashion, when inclined to do so-and that is enough. They have no sympathy with aggressive action.

This, I say, is the position of the vast majority of the members of the Reformed and Lutheran Churches. Happily, there is a growth of religious life in these communions. Ministers are being roused to greater activity; Sunday schools are extending-of course, as institutions for the religious and spiritual instruction of Protestant children; and it may be hoped that ere long the religious life stirring within these old State institutions will become so general and so strong as to break forth in efforts for the conversion to Christ of the great mass of godless and idolatrous people around them.

"When that day comes, religious freedom, in the full extent of the term, will first of all be taken, and the State will be compelled to grant it to all and sundry of the religious bodies. Meanwhile, Austria stands conspicuous among European countries for its narrow views on a subject which elsewhere has been settled, even by Governments which have not the slightest care about religion, but which have seen it to be politic to concede to all their full rights."