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12 •welfare of your beautiful adopted daughter, Mary belle—my child, whom I seemed to have deserted by flight into a suicide’s watery gra\e, but from which my Father rescued me and placed me in a good ship bound for Liverpool. The past five years I have spent in my beloved homeland, La Belle France, again inspired with the fire and zeal of twenty years ago, to do the work, the spirit of which was aroused by Sa [an then, but by my heavenly Father now. Here, also, I have obliterated self, and have worked quietly by voice and pen in influencing others to be ready for the crucial hour when the vote should be east, separat ing Church and State. I know that a man who keeps in tmch with the world, as I see from your magazine you do, must be familiar with the struggles of Fiance during this crisis; yet, out of the fulness of my joy and gratitude to our heavenly Father, I cannot refrain from giving you some of the facts from an eye witness whose soul is so enthused with the desire to see France not simply a Protestant nation, but transformed into a truly Christian people. Can you possibly imagine, John, the emotions which filled my soul as I sat in the Chamber of Deputies in Paris, July 3, of last year, and witness ed the passing of the bill separating Church and State, which guaranteed to the republic: “The free exercise of public worship, limited only by the re strictions hereinafter enacted in the interest of public order. ’ ’ “The republic neither recognizes, pays salaries to, nor subsidizes any form of worship.” “The law transfers the property of the churches to associations of citizens known as 1 associations cultuelles,’ which will be organized in each place to continue the work of the local churches. “It gives these associations the free use of the church buildings.” “It protects religious worship from disturbances, but forbids the holding of political meetings in ec clesiastical buildings, and it subjects !o fine oi im prisonment preachers who. in a religious service, attack a citizen holding office, or incite to violation of the law.” This is an authoritative report of some of the provisions of the bill passed—an act as "vital in its results to the future of France as was the Reso lution. “With keen perception and logical bent of mind, the French have penetrated the fact that the Nation al Church, so-called, and Gallicanism are but names to evoke in the patriotic French heart allegiance and servitude to the corruptions of Romanism. “They recall with anguish the prophetic words of their great statesman, Gambetta: ‘ Clericalism! there is the enemy.’ ” But this enemy is being dethroned. Now thous ands of eyes and hearts are being opened to the open pages of the blessed Book. Now is the time to place the Scriptures into the hands of every one, and may spiritual liberty be revived as in apostolic days. At the mention of religious liber ty, what scenes come to us! The planting of Eng land with Puritans, Scotland with heroes, France with martyrs and North America with colonists, created such men as Calvin and Luther, Latimer and Knox, Baxter. Taylor and Howe. The principle of individual judgment is what divides Protestantism from Catholicism in large measure. To comprehend the present situation in France, we must recall that, at the time of the Revolution, all that remained of the French Huguenot Church was a scattered flock of perhaps 500,000 adher ents, who had been for generations without regular worship, and many of them had become more athe istic than evangelical; and, in 1802, when reorgani zation began, but fifty-four ministers could be found to become shepherds for the Protestant churches over the whole of France. And since 1802, the number of ministers and churches has increased to only about 1,000. As we know, the French Protestant churches were born amid a reign of terror and were baptized by the fires of most fearful persecution. During the reign of Louis XIV., more than a half a million Protestants chose exile and the loss of all their possessions in preference to giving up their faith. It is to be hoped that the consecrated and unwavering spirit of those exiles still lives in the Protestants of The Golden Age for September 13, 1906. France to-day at this crucial period, when God has made for them such a wide open door through which to carry the blessed tidings of salvation to their heretofore imprisoned brothers and sisters. The question now naturally arises as to how the loss of about $300,000 per year formerly paid to ward the support of French Protestant churches by the state, would affect their progress? To some of the Protestant churches the loss of this $300,000 will cause a severe strain, for a time at least. But after they have learned the value of self-reliance, their work will be more effective than heretofore. Some of these churches have made little impression on the Catholic community in which they are situated, the pastors contenting themselves with ministering to the small congrega tions of Protestants without concerning or exerting themselves further, and resting secure in receiving their salaries from the state for such formal ser vices. It would be a good thing if such as these were closed, for then the ministers who had been supported by the state would go to work in evan gelizing the people, and the Lord would provide for the laborer who was worthy of his hire. A French newspaper, the “Lanterne,” in an edi torial, said: “However imperfect and incomplete the law de claring a divorce between Church and State may be, it has this important consequence: there will in the future, no longer be any official connection between any form of worship and the state. The Republic will no longer throw its mantle over the scandalous exploitation of human credulity by the church, it will no longer give an official stamp to fanaticism and superstition, and it will no longer subsidize swindlers clothed in the soutane as it has done in the past.” The loss to the Roman Church under the new conditions will amount to the yearly subsidy of $8,000,000; and it is a fact of much importance that its ministers will no longer be state officials, all of which will doubtless cause the extinction of many Roman congregations. But what is of greater importance is the fact that the so-called lower Roman clergy will be released to some degree from the absolute denendence in which they stand with respect to the bishops: and the Roman laity will acquire an influence which it has never yet possess ed. It is gratifying to know that, whereas the monks are nearly all narrow-minded and intolerant bigots, the members of the French Catholic laity are of a very different mind. Among them are many men whose religious convictions are, indeed, practically akin to those of an evangelical Protestant. We rank France among Roman Catholic coun tries, but do we place it in the proper category? Ont of 39,000,000, the population of France, 36,- 000,000 are counted as Romanists; but close ob servers declare that not more than four or five millions of these should be reckoned as really de vout adherents of the Papacy. Many other changes which space does not permit mv naming in this letter, would be interesting to relate, the law regarding the rendering of an ac count of church propertv of everv kind, its pos sessions in silver and gold, diamonds and precious stones, costly draperies and precious stuffs of great value, besides paintings of fabulous prices. Visitors will no longer be compelled to pay for viewing the objects of interest in the cathedrals and churches. Doubtless the bone from one of the limbs of Mary Magdalene, and also a relic of St. Joseph, together with a great many other relics and shrines that now bring a large revenue to the church, will be thrown into a rubbish heap. I cannot refrain from referring to the passage of the Association Bill in France, which has taken the schools out of the hands of the religions or ders. Where the priest leaves, his place will be taken by the schoolmaster. There are said to he many good men among the French teachers. It is a startling announcement that, since the new law has been passed, more than 990 priests have applied to the Ministry of Public Worshin for secular situa tions teachers, clerks, or even laborers, to escane from their bondage. This forbodes greater changes than we now see. The Romanist is taught that to forsake Romanism is to fall into atheism, wheth er it be under the cloak of Protestantism or what other ism, it amounts to atheism. Hence the great majority of teachers are freethinkers, it is claimed; to them clericalism and Christianity mean one and the same; and so, pronouncing it a failure, if not a sham, they were led to discard the only religion they ever knew, as you know I did myself. This is a deplorable state of affairs, for, though the schoolmaster may teach the most rigid code of ethics, yet morality, without God as its founda tion, cannot conquer the inherent evil within man. All the philosophies of the large body of free thinkers will not satisfy the yearnings of the human heart. Is it not in this hour that the Word of God may find an open door in thousands of empty hearts? Will Christians who have had every blessing from God discharge the tremendous duty of giving the bread of life to starving souls in France to-day? This should be the question to ask every one. Evangelism instead of church ism, the fundamental principles of the Word of God, and not dogmatic theology, the spreading of the Gospel as the power of God' unto salvation, and not man-made creeds and ceremonial rites and sacraments, must be the means of a revival of religion in France. The responsibility laid ’ upon the Protestant churches, not only in France, but everywhere, at present is a heavy one. May the churches in France be encouraged by the assurance that Pro testant churches in other lands are not only looking on with sympathetic eye and prayerful heart, but that they are ready gladly to extend a helping hand, for the proclaiming of the power of God unto salvation in the land which gave birth to Calvin, and whose soil was so freely saturated with the blood of the Huguenots. And now, John, the principal point of my letter is this: Will you not, through every avenue ac cessible to you in America, arouse the Protestant world to the need of consecrated Christian work ers in France? To every true and capable Chris tian who is willing to come to this work, you can give the assurance of a reasonable living (for which you may depend upon me). Will you not use the columns of your magazine, “Into Marvelous Light,” to arouse the Christian world to the desire to come over and help ns in this hour of God’s call from France? May I not see in your next issue some thing on this subject? May your soul be aroused for the sake of our Master’s work, and not in any way on my behalf. And thus, may God enlarge the sphere of your labors, and enable all men to exclaim, “Ecce Deus!” The Prodigal Son. Post Scriptum:— I trust you will respect as sacred my request that you do not seek to find me, nor make me known to the world, for the old man is truly dead, and I am a new man in Christ Jesus. T. P. S. (Continued next week.) Enlightened. The vicar of a church in the Notting Hill district on leaving his house close to the church saw a little girl friend of his talking to a stranger. “Wlhat was the man saying to you, Madge?” he asked as he came up to her. “Oh,” said she, “he just want eed to know if Dr. M—■ wasn’t the preacher at this church.” “And what did you tell him?” asked the gentleman. The little girl drew herself up with an air of great pride. “I told him,” she answered with dignity, “that you was the present incum brance. ’ ’ —Tattler. Relieved. She glided into the office and quietly approached the editor’s desk. “I have written a poem,” she began. “Well!” exclaimed the editor, with a look and tone intended to annihilate. But she calmly resumed: “I have written a poem on ‘My Father’s Barn,’ and—” “Oh!” interrupted the editor, with extraordinary suavity, “you don’t know how greatly I am relieved. A poem written on your father’s barn, eh? I was afraid it was written on paper, and that you wanted me to publish it. If I should ever happen to drive past your father’s barn, I’ll stop and read the poem.”—Tit-Bits (London).