so edifying a discourse. He invited the priest to Carlsruhe. Mr. Wilson heard of a similar instance near Valenciennes; and we cordially unite in his wish, that God may please to multiply the number, for thus a second Reformation would soon commence. The following passage we extract, as well for its justly merited eulogy on Leander Van Ess (who, with the name of Catholic, associates a truly catholic spirit, and whom Mr. Wilson was greatly disappointed at not being able to see at Darmstadt, the place of his abode), as for its discriminating remarks on the baneful philosophy of the German schools. "Heppenheim, between Darmstadt and Heidelberg, Wednesday Evening, July 16. I had much conversation with my friend the French minister, before we left Franckfort this morning. I was also introduced to one of the senators, an excellent man, president of the Bible Society. A human philosophy applied rashly and presumptuously to religion is the poison of German divinity among the Protestants; endless refinements, imaginations, corruptions of the faith, tending to scepticism or atheism. Things are mending, but it is incredible what daring impieties are currently received. The first genius of their country, Goethe, is an absolute idolater of what he calls le beau, in Christianity, in Mahommedanism, in Infidelity, in every thing: thus unbelief stands more fatally opposed to the faith of Christ than even superstition. But to return to my narrative. We arrived safely at Darmstadt, the capital of the grand duchy of that name, at twelve to-day. I hastened to the house of Leander Van Ess, with whom I had been some time in correspondence in England; he had left the town in the morning early, to go to Cologne, and would not return for a week! A greater disappointment scarcely ever felt. I saw, however, the study of this excellent man; I sat in his chair; I visited his collection of Bibles; I conversed with his secretary. Leander Van Ess was fifty-one the eighteenth of last month. He has left the university of Marburg, where he was professor, and lives under the Protestant Grand Duke of I Hesse Darmstadt-I suppose for the sake of his personal safety. He has had a spitting of blood for four years, which prevents his preaching. He gives himself up to the propagation of the Gospel. He remains a Catholic priest. He has printed fourteen editions of his New ber of copies. He has circulated altoTestament; each was of an immense numgether four hundred and ninety-four thousand eight hundred and sixty, an incredible number. The desire for the Scriptures among the Catholics, priests as well as laity, is greater and greater. Sometimes he circulates seven thousand in a single month. Lately, a priest in one parish sent for two thousand New Testaments; the parish is in the Schwarzwald or Black Forest. The secretary presented me with his picture, and a copy of his New Testament. Oh, what a blessing is such a man! What cannot the grace of God do in the most corrupt church! How charitable should we be in our judgments of individuals! This admirable man, though he calls himself a Catholic, has the spirit of a Reformer. He dwells on nothing but the great and necessary truths of Christianity. There is a firmness and undauntedness in all he does which reminds one almost of Martin Luther. Let us pray that many, many such Catholic professors may be raised up in every part of the Continent, and the traditions of men' will fall away of themselves." Wilson, vol. i. pp. 59-61. Heidelberg must have afforded considerable pleasure to the minds of our Christian travellers. The grand duke being a Protestant, full liberty of Divine worship is enjoyed, the Bible Society is in operation, and religion seems to flourish. This, perhaps, might have been anticipated from its previous history and advantages. It was at Heidelberg that Melancthon began his studies; there that Luther came on foot in travelling from Worms, and disputed with the Augustinians, in 1518; and that the famous Catechism, which bears the name of the town, was afterwards published. We cannot wonder that Mr. Wilson's mind lingered over these scenes, where the "noble army" of reformers laid the foundation of all the blessings we enjoy. The beauty of the scenery, which Mr. Wilson describes at Zurich, could be equalled only by the interesting nature of those thoughts which are associated in the mind of every Christian student with the history of that place. "As we approached Zurich, we caught a first view of the distant Alps, about Zug and Schwitz. The hills first in view were shaded by the afternoon sun; over these, brilliant volumes of clouds were discernible; and from amidst the clouds, the peaks of the Alps, which were easily distinguished by their defined outlines, sharp summits, and bright whiteness from the eternal snows with which they are covered. We entered Zurich, the capital of the canton, about five o'clock. I could not but feel sensibly affected. This is the first town in Switzerland that separated from the church of Rome three centuries back-it was the favourite asylum of our English Reformers during the vacillating and tyrannical reign of Henry the Eighth, and the bloody persecution of Queen Mary. It is supposed to have been the place where our great Cranmer, soon after he had been raised to the Primacy, caused the first complete edition of the English Bible, Miles Coverdale's, to be printed, about the year 1530. The town contains eleven thousand souls; the canton one hundred and eighty-two thousand; nearly all Protestant. The beauty of the country accords with its reputation. We are at the inn called L'Epée. Imagine a room fifty feet by thirty, of which two sides are a continued window, overhanging the broad deep-blue torrent of the Limnath, which, rushing like an arrow from the lake of Zurich, seems hurrying to pour itself into the Rhine. The wooden bridge which leads across it is immediately before me, and is wide enough for the market, which is just now in amusing confusion, and presents a most characteristic scene of Swiss costume and manners. The noble churches, quays, and public buildings on the other side of the river diversify the prospect. In the distance on my right a second bridge appears, with a tower built in the midst of the torrent for state-prisoners whilst still further on, my eye is lost in following the beautiful lake itself, till I discern at length the Alps rearing their majestic heads beyond it in the utmost horizon.-Such is the room where I am writing this letter; I suppose it is one of the most beautiful in the world." Wilson, vol. i. pp. 96—98. It was natural to suppose that Mr. Wilson, when at Zurich, would make a point of visiting the venerable and pious Antistes Hoss, the inhabitant of the very house which the great reformer Zuingle once occupied, and who proves himself in every way worthy of a residence in such a mansion, by consecrating the largest room in the house for the periodical meetings of the Bible Society, and taking a most lively interest in the extensive distribution of that holy book, which was at once the ground and the end of the Reformation. "The venerable Antistes Hess, the eeclesiastical head of the canton, is eightytwo years old, a venerable, pious, holy man, on the verge of heaven; with a heart full of love to the Saviour, and to the souls of men. to him, that he might bless them. The I took my three children Antistes spoke to me much of Mr. Wilberforce, whose book he had read with delight: he begged me to convey to him his Christian regards: it was delightful to me to see this aged disciple. He is one of the persons whom I was most anxious to know. I met at his house an old magistrate of this place, who commended to me the cause of Switzerland, and begged of me again and again to represent to pressing on me that Switzerland had been my countrymen the state of his canton; the cradle of the Reformation. We visited, with much pleasure, the city library, abounding in original unpublished letters of our Reformers. The history of that interesting period, after all Burnet has done, might, undoubtedly, be much enriched from these stores. We saw three letters of Lady Jane Gray, written to Bullinger, in 1551. She was beheaded in 1554, at the age of nineteen *. Epistles of St. Paul in Greek, transcribed entire in the hand of Zuinglius in 1517, just as he began the Swiss Reformation, were most interesting to me, not only as Reformation to its true source, a deep an ancient manuscript, but as tracing the study of the New Testament. The truly pious and holy Antistes lives in the same house where this great Reformer dwelt, in the garden of which is a room literally filled with unpublished archives of the Reformation. The Zuingle is held here is remarkable. I ob- The occurrence of such trite remarks as this in Mr. Wilson's pages, requires the they were familiar letters to a sister. We indulgence of the reader to reflect that may say the same of the frequent Ohs, &c. . serve, that God has often brought about the greatest works of mercy by some one individual in a town or country, raised up by his Spirit, embued with the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and armed with zeal, fortitude, wisdom, and love. Zuingle at Zurich, Ecolampadius at Basle, Bucer at Strasburg, Calvin and Beza in France and Geneva, Luther in Germany, Cranmer in England. Oh that men of a like spirit may be raised up again! Oh that divines and professors would study and transcribe St. Paul's Epistles! Soon would Protestantism revive, and Popery fade away before it! It is known that our English Reformer, Ridley, committed to memory early in life almost all St. Paul's Epistles, as well as those called Catholic; the benefit derived from which he acknowledged with gratitude, just before his martyrdom. In the afternoon we ⚫ took a sail on the lake, delicious beyond description. The evening, however, was not so favourable for viewing the setting sun, as last night. I am quite grieved to say, that my impression of the present state of real religion in this canton is not so favourable as its former celebrity would lead one to expect-four or five hundred only at church (at St. Peter's), out of five thousand parishioners, for fortyeight Sundays in the year; and two thousand five hundred for the four remaining Sundays, the sacrament days, which seem almost superstitiously reverenced clergy of the town meeting the magistrates and gentlemen at a club, once a week, to smoke and talk politics: these are not promising symptoms. Oh how different a thing is real spirituality of heart from the name of religion, whether reformed or catholic." Wilson, vol. i. pp. 99-102. the The venerable Antistes at parting remarked, "We shall never meet again in this world, but we shall meet in another, to be with Jesus that is our proper country; there is peace, holiness, and joy." : After being floated down the Rhine to Basle, Mr. Wilson had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Blumhardt, with whose name our readers are well acquainted. Mr. Wilson found him a truly Christian brother in a foreign land. After visiting the tombs of Erasmus, and Ecolampadius the Basle reformer, and the public library, which contains 30,000 volumes, and manuscript letters of most of the Reformers, our traveller went to the hall in the cathedral where the council of 1431-47 held its sittings. The seats and other furniture remain there still. That council was convoked to prevent the Reformation; but, like many measures adopted and books writ ten against the cause of truth, it served but to hasten its triumph; the lives and vices of the bishops who composed it (we trust, however, with many exceptions), being such as to shew to a demonstration how much a reformation was needed. Mr. Wilson gives the following account of the religious state of Basle: The formed here in 1804, the very year when "The first foreign Bible Society was the original institution began in London. At the third centenary of the Reformation, New Testaments were given from the altar of the cathedral to all the children of the town-above two thousand were distributed. The Missionary Institution conbe enlarged. The lecture-rooms and bedtains thirty-four students, and is about to state of true religion is, on the whole, imrooms are simple and unadorned. proving in Switzerland and some parts of Germany. Truth, holiness, and unity increase, hundreds of Catholics receive Bibles and attend Protestant churches. to unite in the common term Evangelical. The Lutherans and Reformed have begun The Antistes and most of the clergy preach and live according to the Gospel. On the other hand, the court of Rome threatens, the Pope is aroused; he thinks the Protestants have begun to propagate their views by Bible and Missionary institutions; and he is determined to oppose them. The Jesuits are the Pope's household troops; they are spreading every where, and resisting, in the most education. The Holy Alliance is thought open manner, every attempt at scriptural to favour the Pope and the Jesuits, by acting on the idea that all societies are dangerous. In the mean time, the friends of the truth are active and humble, leaving events with God," Wilson, vol. i, PP. 110, 111. We cannot dismiss such a statement as the above without observing, that it is not difficult to account for the flourishing state of any church of the character of which such a description may be given the clergy preaching and : living according to the Gospel, the people active and humble, leaving events with God. With such principles, and such habits, truth and godliness cannot but advance. At Bienne Mr. Wilson visited the island, in the midst of its celebrated lake, where is the auberge, formerly a monastery, but of late years the refuge of the unhappy Jean Jacques Rousseau. The walls, as is usual in the attractive abodes of the celebrated dead, are covered with inscriptions. A trap-door is seen in the floor, through which it is related that Rousseau used to escape from unwelcome visitors. A book for entering the names of strangers being presented to Mr. Wilson, he determined to accompany his signature with some token of disagreement from the sentiments of this infidel writer, and accordingly wrote, "D. W. qui, tout en admirant le génie de Rousseau, en déplore les erreurs, et les suites si funestes au Christianisme et à la morale." To record his dissent on such occasions, is a bounden duty of every Christian traveller, and especially of the Christian minister. The practice has been adopted by others besides Mr. Wilson. We remember one traveller, who happened to follow the late Lord By ron in his late continental tour, and who wrote the following reply to an infidel boast which that highly gifted but unhappy man had just before left on record. The bard had visited one of the most surprising scenes of nature's grandeur, where the manifestations of Deity were such that we might suppose that even he would have been overpowered; but he came down from the elevation merely to record, which he did in the Greek language, his doubts, and ended with a distinct avowal of his being an atheist. The traveller who succeeded him, and on whom the scenery had produced very different impressions, wrote beneath this avowal the single line, Ει δε αθεος μωρος : ει δε με ψεύστης. Mr. Wilson seems to have been much amused at Bern by the shew of consequence in the members of the Swiss Diet, composed of deputies from the twenty-two cantons, and which happened to be sitting when he was at that place. He describes the members of this senate, whose influence is scarcely known in the communities of Europe, walking in state every morning to the diet in bag wigs, cocked hats, with cloaks of rich variegated cloth, each preceded by two marshals, in black, with swords, and their hats off. The following is Mr. Wilson's account of the Sunday that he spent at Bern. "Sunday Evening, August 10th, -I have this day had the most delightful Sunday since I left home. The French Protestant service began at ten. The church was crowded. The minister preached a most excellent sermon on sanctification as flowing from justification. At two o'clock there was a baptism of his child; the ser vice was public. A liturgical office was read; godfathers and godmothers named; vows undertaken; and excellent prayers offered up. The infant was dressed in white, in a sort of bag closed at the feet. The water was poured by the clerk from a silver ewer into the hand of the minister; a sermon admirably good was then no solemn reading of the Scriptures in preached by a second minister. There is these French churches, which I think a great defect. There is also very little public confession of sin, or prayer. All I see abroad raises my esteem of our English Liturgy. After the morning sermon, a curtain, which separated an entire portion of the church opposite to the pulpit, was withdrawn, and lo, a Popish altar, with two chapels, and a pulpit! For, the Calvinists and Catholics use the same established religion being Lutheran, the church. At half-past four, our fellowtraveller preached us an excellent sermon in our chamber. Thus the day has been refreshing to my soul. O, what a tender plant is religion in the human heart! how soon does it wither! what constant need of the heavenly dew! Lord, be thou, by thy grace and Spirit, as the dew unto me; introduced myself to the two ministers, and renew, penetrate, soften, fructify, bless! I found them charming persons: they lent me the work of the converted priest; the title is, The Christian Confession of ་ . Faith of the Pastor Henhöfer, of Muhl- We should gladly guide our readers along the magnificent and picturesque route by which Mr. Wilson travelled over the Swiss Alps; but the whole of this region has been made familiar to most of our readers by the splendid descriptions of Si-, mond and other recent travellers. One extract, respecting the scene from Mount Righi, we will venture to give, on account of the closing reflections, although it has the disadvantage of coming into competition with one of the most brilliant and affecting passages of Simond's able work. your "When the weather is fine, fourteen lakes are visible here, and the sun rising upon the range of the Alps is magnificent. They may be traced from the Glarnish on the east, to the Oberland Bernois on the south-west; whilst on the north eye may range from the lake of Constance to that of Neufchâtel. The only hill we could see last night was Mount Pilate, which is called properly Mons Pileatus, or mountain with a cap, because a cloud generally rests on its extreme top, even in the finest weather. The common people say, that Pontius Pilate came here and threw himself down the precipice in despair, for having condemned our Saviour. As the morning is so unfavourable, and breakfast is not ready, I must tell you a sad story. As we ascended the Righi yesterday we passed over the melancholy ruins of the village of Goldau. In 1806 an immense mass of earth from the Rossberg, gradually loosened by the rain and frost, fell down with scarcely a moment's warning, it was the 2d of Septemberfour villages, of which Goldau was the chief, lay at the foot of the mountain. All was buried in an instant; two churches, one hundred and eleven houses, two hundred barns, &c., and four hundred persons, with three hundred and twenty-five head of cattle, were overwhelmed; and a new mountain one hundred and fifty feet high was formed by the vast mass. It is astonishing and terrific as you ride over the place; the ruins are above one hundred feet deep; the adjoining lake of Lowertz was filled up for fifty feet. Only a few bodies and mangled limbs have been dug up after seventeen years. Such was the tremendous impetus of the falling rock, that prodigious masses were carried by the rebound many hundred feet up the opposite hill, i. e. perhaps three or four leagues from the summit whence they fell. Such a scene I never witnessed. Two or three new houses are beginning to rise on the spot; one of the churches has been rebuilt; the spectacle, and even some strips of meagrass is now hiding by degrees the frightful dows are growing here and there. O God, how unfathomable are thy judgments! thus is it that thou alarmest a sleeping world, and callest man to prepare for sudden death and sudden judgment; whilst the grace of thy Gospel sets before them a dying Saviour, whose redemption no falling rocks nor sudden destruction can glorious when the heavens being on fire overwhelm ; nay, which will appear most shall be dissolved, and the earth shall melt with fervent heat."" Wilson, vol. i. PP. 182-184. We understand that the inhabitants of Goldau and its neighbourhood are, at the present moment, removing their property with the utmost expedition, as there is every probability of another separation from one of the large adjacent mountains. Travellers are flocking, as fast as possible, from all parts, to witness the fall; and before our have to lament a repetition of the pages issue from the press, we may awful scene of 1806. Our notice of the second volume of these travels must be brief. On returning to Lausanne, Mr. Wilson gives an account of the state of the clergy, and subjoins a copy of the arrêté recently issued against some pious and devout Christians of greater zeal than their neighbours, whom they stigmatize under the name of Momiers, forbidding their private religious meetings, directing the magistrates to dissolve them by force, and punishing persons attending them with fines and imprisonedict, issued by a Protestant government. On this vile and disgraceful ment, but worthy of the worst times of Papal persecution, and breathing the worst spirit of antichristian tyranny, as well as on the general state of religion in the Pays de Vaud |