skepticism of Voltaire, the rhetorical deism of Rousseau,
proclaimed at its gates, had deeply undermined the faith of
Christ in the very city of Calvin. It was not merely some of the
Calvinistic doctrines of the sixteenth century that the pastors
of Geneva doubted or denied, but it was also the fundamental
articles of Christianity; they abandoned not only the Dogmas of
predestination and salvation by faith alone, but the dogmas of
original sin, and of the divinity of Jesus Christ. In 1810
according to some, as far back as 1802 according to others,
symptoms of an evangelical reaction showed themselves at Geneva
among the students in theology, some of whom afterward became
distinguished pastors or writers. It was not long before MM.
Gaussen, Malan, Gonthier, Bost, Merle d'Aubigné, displayed their
orthodox fervor and their ability. In 1816 a pious Scot, Mr.
Robert Haldane, previously an intrepid sailor, who had only
quitted his calling to devote himself entirely to the service of
his faith, went to Geneva, and contracted with the young
Methodists of that city relations of the greatest intimacy and
activity.
{147}
They had meetings; they discussed, they preached, they prayed,
they wrote. Mr. Haldane could hardly express himself in French;
having his English Bible continually at hand, he turned over its
pages incessantly, pointed out to his friends the passages that
he regarded as decisive, invited them to read them aloud from
their French Bible, and then commented upon them in a manner that
always commanded their favorable attention, the conviction of the
commentator had such moving and persuasive power. [Footnote 20]
[Footnote 20: Genève religieuse au XIX siècle: par le Baron
de Goltz; traduit de l'allemand par C. Malan: 8vo., pp.
137-149. Genève et Paris. 1862.]
{148}
In 1816 and 1817 the evangelical reaction made rapid progress,
and the body of Genevese pastors resolved to combat it by the
voice of authority. They found, however, no better method of
doing so than by insisting upon what, twelve years later, even M.
Samuel Vincent did not scruple to recommend; they prescribed
silence even whilst they proclaimed liberty. "Without"--these are
their words--"giving any judgment upon the questions really
involved, and without controlling in any respect the liberty of
opinions," they imposed a solemn engagement both upon students
demanding to be consecrated to the sacred ministry, and upon
ministers candidates for pastoral functions in the Church of
Geneva. It was conceived as follows: "As long as we reside and
preach in the churches of the Canton of Geneva, we promise to
abstain from establishing, either in entire discourses or in
parts of discourses directed to this object, our opinion--first,
of the manner in which the divine nature was incarnate in the
person of Jesus Christ; secondly, of original sin; thirdly, of
the mode in which grace operates, or grace is efficient;
fourthly, of predestination. We promise also not to combat, in
any public discourse, the opinion of any pastors or ministers
touching these subjects." [Footnote 21]
[Footnote 21: Genève religieuse au XIX siècle: par le Baron
de Goltz; p. 153.]
{149}
It is difficult to understand how men ever could have flattered
themselves with the hope of re-establishing peace in the Church
by the employment of so sorry an expedient. Liberty, that has
rent asunder such heavy chains, does not permit itself to be
confined by so flimsy a net. The immediate effect of the
regulation of the Genevese pastors was an outburst of discontent.
The more violent Methodists, MM. Malan and Bost at their head,
proclaimed aloud their separation from the established Church;
the more moderate, among others, MM. Gaussen and Merle d'Aubigné,
persisted in remaining, by right of their ministry, in its bosom,
holding themselves responsible representatives _there_ of
the doctrines of the Reformation, which, in fact, they did
continue to preach and to teach.
{150}
The body of pastors at first used great forbearance toward them,
and respected their liberty; and when the populace, irritated at
the agitation caused in families by the Dissenters, and offended
by the austerity of their precepts, made hostile demonstrations
toward them, the Council of Geneva had the wisdom and fairness to
use measures of repression; but, soon becoming weary of this
painful duty, the Council formally forbade, without its express
permission, any book of religious controversy to be printed at
Geneva.
{151}
The body of pastors soon pronounced as vehement a condemnation of
the moderate Methodists as of the ultra Dissenters. The moderate
Methodists then in their turn resorted to energetic measures in
support of their cause: they founded an evangelical society and a
school of theology; devoted the one to propagate the zeal and the
other to teach the principles of the Christian reaction; and
fifteen years after the commencement of the struggle, the chiefs
of the party which had proclaimed that the free divergence of
individual belief in the bosom of the Church was "the great fact
of our epoch, and the great step that the Reformation had in our
days to make"--these chiefs, being the body of pastors, the
Consistory, and the Council of State at Geneva, suspended M.
Gaussen from his functions of pastor in the parish of Satigny for
having taken part in the organization of an independent form of
worship, and of a school of independent theology; "a proceeding,"
they said, "incompatible with the peace of the Church, and to be
regarded as an act of insubordination, tending to bring
ecclesiastical authority into discredit." [Footnote 22]
[Footnote 22: Genève religieuse au XIX siècle: par le Baron
de Goltz; pp. 379-384.]
Such religious ferment in the primitive home of the French
Reformation, and at the very gates of France, could not fail to
exercise a powerful influence upon the French Protestant Church.
{152}
On quitting Geneva in 1817, Mr. Robert Haldane proceeded to
Montauban, where he formed friendships with some of the
Professors of the Faculty, and among others with M. Daniel
Encontre. He published there also a work in French, which his
friends hastened to circulate. It was styled "Emmanuel: vues
Scripturaires sur Jésus-Christ." In 1818, a society formed in
England, named the "Continental Society," specially devoted
itself to the purpose of seconding on the Continent the progress
of this Christian reaction. An English dissenter, Mr. Mark Wilks,
pastor of the American community formed at Paris, was the most
efficient agent of the societies which had this object in view.
"It might be said of Mr. Wilks," wrote lately the Pastor
Juillerat, "that he might have governed an empire, his character
was so energetic, his mind so active and enterprising. He brought
me aid of every description: money was required, he had money;
pamphlets and books were wanted, no one was better provided; no
one understood better the details pertaining to the printing and
publication of papers."
{153}
Several Protestant journals and magazines, "La Voix de la
Religion Chrétienne au XIX siècle," "Les Archives du
Christianisme au XIX siècle," "Les Mélanges de Religion, de
Morale, et de Critique Sacrée," "L'Evangeliste," "La Revue
Protestante," "Le Semeur," etc., etc., were at this epoch
successively founded and carried in different directions
throughout the scattered Protestant Church, from its central
organization, the fervor which had there been kindled. Genuine
zeal for religion is not satisfied by action from a distance, or
by action upon unknown persons, or by indirect means, as by books
and by journals: it demands direct oral communication from man to
man--the union of men's souls in common prayer. Certain young
pastors who had at first shared in the evangelical movement at
Geneva, MM. Neff, Pyt, Bost, Gonthier, scattered themselves over
France, some assuming functions as local pastors, others as
traveling missionaries, attracting to their proximity groups of
zealous Protestants, animating the lukewarm, and erecting in
every place where they made any stay little centers of
Christianity, which radiated to the neighboring country around.
{154}
Distinct associations, some officially recognized by the State,
others having no public character, [Footnote 23] gave to the
labors of isolated individuals the publicity, the unity, the
permanence which they required; and a special organization
(colportage biblique) which at its commencement numbered only
seven, but a few years afterward had sixty agents, all of them,
although obscure individuals, as zealous as their patrons were
zealous, caused the Holy Scriptures and religious tracts to
penetrate into parts of France hopelessly inaccessible to any
other method of communication and of instruction.
[Footnote 23: La Société biblique, la Société pour
l'encouragement de l'instruction primaire parmi les
protestants, la Société évangélique de France, la Société des
traités religieuse, la Société des missions protestantes, la
Société centrale pour les intérêts protestants, la Société
d'évangelisation, etc.]
{155}
To a movement so earnest and so general, although propagated by a
small number of persons in the heart of a population itself
forming but a small minority in the nation at large, obstacles
would inevitably occur. They were encountered on all hands and of
all kinds, religious and political--from the administration, from
popular prejudices, from the distrust of the Government, from the
hostility of the Roman Catholic clergy, from differences of
opinion on theological points among Protestants themselves, from
the _amour propre_ of individuals, and the perplexed or
timorous ideas of subalterns in authority. The activity of the
Protestant societies created uneasiness in bishops and priests,
who strove not merely to counteract their influence, but to
interfere with their liberty of action. Mayors of towns, judges
of the peace, sometimes too, magistrates and administrators of
more elevated rank, lent their aid to these exceptionable
proceedings. Hence arose suspicions, complaints, and struggles
which retarded the new-born impulse of awakening Christianity.
{156}
But the earnest perseverance of its patrons, the general wisdom
of the supreme Government, and the authority, growing more and
more each day, of the principles of justice and of liberty,
gradually surmounted all these obstacles. It was the Restoration
that recognized the chief Protestant societies and gave them the
sanction of the law. Under the Government of 1830 they used their
rights with more confidence and fewer hinderances. The equitable
intentions of King Louis Philippe and of his counselors upon
religious matters could not be doubtful, whatever their caution
not to cause uneasiness or wound the susceptibilities of the
Roman Catholics. The Protestants now believed it to be no longer
necessary to look to foreign support. Formed at Paris in 1833,
the Evangelical Society of France experienced a momentary impulse
of national jealousy, the result of which was some coldness in
its relations with the Continental Society of London; but as soon
as the latter perceived that its direct interference was rather
an embarrassment than a necessity to the Christian reaction in
France, it withdrew its agency without withholding its sympathy,
and handed over to the Evangelical Society of France all the
"stations" and religious charities which had up to that time been
founded by its exertions.
{157}
The awakening of Christianity among the Protestants of France had
now produced such results that it mattered little who the patrons
of the movement might be; it had assumed its true character, and
was drawing its strength from the fountain of truth. In times of
religious incredulity and of religious indifference, and even in
the transitional times which immediately ensue, it is the error
of many, and even of men who respect and support religion, to
consider it in the light of a great political institution--a
salutary system of moral police, however necessary to society,
indebted for its merits and its prerogatives rather to its
practical utility than to its intrinsic truth.
{158}
Grave error, misconceiving both the nature and the origin of
religion, and calculated to deprive it both of its empire and its
dignity! Utility men hold as of great account, but it is only
truth that commands unconditional surrender. Utility enjoins
prudence and forbearance; truth alone inspires feelings of
confidingness and devotion. A religion having no other guarantee
for its influence and its endurance than its social utility would
be very near its ruin. Men have need of, nay, they thirst for
truth in their relations with God, even more than in their
relations with one another; the spontaneous prayer, adoration,
obedience, suppose faith. It was in the very name of the verity
of the Christian religion, of that verity manifested in its
history by the word and even by the presence of God, that the
awakening of Christians was accomplished among us. The laborers
in this great work felt the faith of Christianity, and they
diffused it; had they spoken only of the social utility of
Christianity, they would never have made the conquest of a single
human soul.
{159}
At first sight one is tempted to attribute this success to energy
of faith on the part of these laborers in the cause, to the
active and devoted perseverance of their zeal. Again a mistake!
Not that human merit was without its share in the results; but
even where the faith was thus propagated, the share that that
faith itself had in the result was infinitely greater, from its
own proper and inherent virtue, than any share of men.
Incredulity and indifferentism may diffuse themselves and pretend
to dominate; they leave unsolved the problems that lie in the
depth of man's soul: they do not rid him of his perplexities, of
instinct or of reflection, as to the world's creation and man's
creation, the origin of good and evil, providence and fate, human
liberty and human responsibility, man's immortality and his
future state.
{160}
Instead of the denials and the doubts that had been thrown over
these unescapable questions, those who applied themselves fully
to rouse awakened Christianity, recalled the human soul to the
memory of positive solutions of these questions; solutions in
accordance with the traditions of their native land, in
accordance with their habits as members of families, and in
harmony with the recollections of early childhood; solutions
often contested, never refuted; always recurring in the lapse of
ages, and century after century! It was from the intrinsic and
permanent value of the doctrines which they were preaching, and
not from themselves, that the laborers in the work derived their
force and their credit.
They had another principle of force as well; a force born and
developed in the bosom of the Christian religion, and in that
alone; they had the passionate desire to save human souls. Men
are not, they never have been, struck as they ought to have been
struck with the beauty of this passion, or with its novelty in
the moral history of the world, or with the part that it has
played among Christian nations.
{161}
Before the era of Christianity, in times of Asiatic and European
antiquity, pagans and philosophers busied themselves about the
destiny of men after the close of their earthly life, and with
curiosity, too, did they sound the obscurity; but the ardent
solicitude for the eternal welfare of human souls, the
never-wearying labor to prepare human souls for eternity--to set
them even during this existence in intimate relations with God,
and to prepare them to undergo God's judgments;--we have in all
this a fact essentially Christian, one of the sublimest
characteristics of Christianity, and one of the most striking
marks of its divine origin. God constantly in relation with
mankind and with every man, God present during the actual life of
every man, and God the arbiter of his future destiny; the
immortality of each human soul, and the connection between his
actual life and his future destiny; the immense value of each
human soul in the eyes of God, and the immense import to the soul
of the future that awaits it: these are the convictions and the
affirmations all implied in the one passion alluded to, the
passion for the salvation of men's souls, which was the whole
life of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which passed by his example and
by his precepts into the life of his primitive disciples, and
which, amid the diversities of age, people, manners, opinions,
has remained the characteristic feature and the inspiring breath
of the genius of Christianity; breath which animated the men who
in our days labored, and with success, to revive Christian faith
among the Protestants of France!
{162}
Their zeal was employed in a very circumscribed sphere; beyond it
their names were unknown, and unknown they have remained. What
spectators, what readers, what public knew at that time, or know
even at this moment, what manner of men they were or what their
deeds--those men who called themselves Neff, Bost, Pyt, Gonthier,
Audebez, Cook, Wilks, Haldane?
{163}
But who, I would ask, in the time of Tacitus and of Pliny, knew
what manner of men they were, and what the deeds of Peter, Paul,
John, Matthew, Philip--the unknown disciples of the Master,
unknown himself, who had overcome the world? Notoriety is not
essential to influence; and in the sphere of the soul, as in the
order of nature, fountains are not the less abundant because
their springs are hidden in obscurity. The Christian missionaries
of our time did not trouble themselves to lessen that obscurity.
To literary celebrity they had no pretension, nor did they seek
the triumph of any political idea, of any specific system of
ecclesiastical organization, of any favorite plan in which their
personal vanity was interested: the salvation of human souls was
their only passion, and their only object. They looked upon
themselves as humble servants commissioned to remind men of
promises which they had forgotten--of promises of salvation by
faith in Jesus. "The stir of the reaction," one of themselves has
said, "bore impressed upon it the character of youth, or even of
childhood.
{164}
The humblest pastor on his circuit became a missionary; his
transit was regarded almost like that of a meteor. On the instant
an assembly was convoked, it numbered twenty, thirty, fifty, a
hundred, two hundred persons, collected to listen joyfully, as if
it were a great novelty or miracle, to that Gospel which we know
by heart;--alas! which we know by heart far more than we have it
in the heart!" [Footnote 24]
[Footnote 24: Mémoires pouvant servir à l'histoire du réveil
religieux des églises protestantes de la Suisse et de la
France, par A. Bost, (1854,) t. 1, p. 240.]
Who could mistake, on hearing such sentiments and such language,
the really Christian character of the reaction?
Never-ending weakness of man's nature, and inevitable
imperfection of man's work, even when man is walking in the ways
of God! In the midst of awakening Christianity, and of this
fervent return to the faith of the Gospel, reappeared some of the
ancient pretensions of theology, and among others the pretension
to penetrate the decrees of God and to define the terms of man's
salvation.
{165}
In February, 1818, the pious and orthodox "Doyen" of the
Protestant Faculty of Montauban, M. Daniel Encontre, rendering an
account of the work of Mr. Robert Haldane, (Emmanuel, ou vues
Scripturaires sur Jésus-Christ,) which had just appeared,
hastened, after having justly commended it, to add: "The
concluding pages of the 'Emmanuel' express sentiments which
Evangelical Christians are far from sharing. The author lays down
the principle, that all men who do not believe in the perfect
equality of the _Son_ and of the _Father_, are enemies
alike of both _Father_ and _Son_; that they deny, and
blaspheme against both, and cannot avoid eternal death. He
regards the forbearance we show to them as infinitely criminal,
and seems even inclined to condemn all who have not the courage
to condemn them. As for me, I venture to believe that it is the
duty of a Christian to work out his own salvation without
allowing himself to pronounce upon the salvation of others.
{166}
_Judge not, that ye be not judged_, says He whom we all
acknowledge as our Master; and St. Paul adds, '_Who art
thou_ that condemnest another man's servant?' I seize this
opportunity to declare to all men desirous to hear it, that I
believe firmly in the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that
I adopt in every respect the Nicæan Creed. I dare to affirm
besides, that these sentiments are actually those of all the
members of our Faculty, as they have always been those of our
Churches. It seems to me that persons who know not Jesus Christ
as 'God above all things, blessed eternally,' are much to be
pitied, and want the greatest of all consolations. This error
appears the more dangerous, because it is generally followed by
other errors; for the truths which are the objects of faith are
so connected and riveted together, that it is impossible to
discard one without shaking or overturning all the others.
{167}
These truths form together a majestic edifice, to which all its
parts are absolutely necessary, and which falls in ruins if a
breach be made anywhere; and particularly, if the first stone
removed be the keystone of the corner. But what would become of
us all, if the erring, even when they err in good faith, had no
hope of access to the throne of grace? Men who, as I do, feel how
much they need God's mercy, and man's indulgence, feel little
disposition to be severe toward others." [Footnote 25]
[Footnote 25: Archives du Christianisme aux XIX e siècle, t.
1, pp. 63-66.]
In holding this language, M. Encontre was not merely performing,
on his own account, an act of humility and of Christian charity;
he was touching upon one of the supreme questions which, in our
days, are occasioning a crisis in Christendom; and he was
indicating its true and its sole solution. Like all passions,
(the best are not exempt,) the passion for the salvation of man's
soul is full of enthusiasm and fall of blindness; it believes too
readily in the possibility of attaining the object; it is too
unscrupulous and undiscriminating in the means.
{168}
Hence sprung religious tyranny and theological intolerance: the
powerful thought they could compel the human soul to work out its
own salvation; the learned believed they could define the
conditions of that salvation. Mistakes, both of them, profoundly
antichristian! Just as no power of man has the right to strip any
single soul, created by God free and responsible, of its liberty
of conscience; so, equally, no science of man can define the laws
and the facts that shall regulate the future state of the soul.
Liberty is, on this earth, the principle of the moral life of
man; man's state beyond this earth is a question between him and
his Maker, and to be determined by the use which man may have
here made of his liberty. To respect God's gift of liberty to
man, and the mystery of God's decrees respecting man's salvation,
is in reality the law of Christians; and it is only on this
double condition that there really is either any awakening or any
progress of Christians.
{169}
Nothing does more honor to the memory of M. Daniel Encontre than
to have been one of the first to understand and to fulfill this
double duty. Firmly attached to those fundamental articles of
belief which are Christianity itself, he was strange to every
narrowness or exaggeration of doctrine, to every presumptuousness
of opinion, and to every theological intolerance; his piety was
comprehensive, without there being any vagueness in his faith;
his Christianity was that of a Liberal; nor did his attainments
as a mathematician indispose him to remain a Christian.
Scarcely was M. Encontre dead, when two new men, both, like him,
eminent as pastors and professors--M. Alexandre Vinet and M.
Adolphe Monod--appeared on the religious arena, and gave more
éclat to the Christian reaction by using similar means, and by
impelling the Protestant Church of France in the same direction.
{170}