ax laid at the root of the old Brahmic tree. All the apostles of the four theistic societies declare relentless war against the despotic cruelty of the caste system. Every word spoken against this monster must, in the end, be helpful to the Gospel.

9. The public advocacy of the moral element in education in the government schools by the savages is in the very line of missionary operation. In a recent very able article on "Moral Education for Young India," in the Calcutta Review, by T. J. Scott, D.D., Principal of the Methodist Episcopal Theological School in Bareilly, we find copious extracts from the Liberal and New Dispensation and the Arya Patrika, in which the government is severely attacked, not only for allowing infidel writings from Europe to be used in the schools, but for the general want of thorough ethical culture in government schools. Surely, it is no little significant that the leaders of the new Hinduism should advocate the introduction of the best ethical writings of Europe into the schools of India.

It must not be forgotten that the first stages of a movement of this radical character do not furnish the best opportunity for safe judgment as to final effect. When the Samajes shall have gained a larger following, and theism shall have become the central dogma of multitudes now in idolatrous bondage, it may come to the light that the Gospel shall reap a rich harvest among them. The theists have turned their backs upon the old faith. They do not incline to enter the Christian temple; but many of them are slowly advancing toward the outer court. Like Plato, Seneca, and Epictetus, they are uncon scious searchers for the true light.

John Z. Hurst

ART. II.-WHAT IS THE PROVIDENTIAL DESIGN OF GERMAN METHODISM?

FIRST of all let us define the scope of the phrase "German Methodism." It does, of course, include all that work of God which he has wrought among the Germans in America and Europe through the instrumentality of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which constitutes an integral part of that branch of the Church of Christ; but it embraces still more than that. It applies also, self-evidently, to the Wesleyans in Germany, though comparatively small in number, and not any less to the Evangelical Association in America and Europe, which claims under God the Rev. Jacob Albright as its founder. Doctrinally we may also count the United Brethren in Christ in this category, although they never based their Church organization on the Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church as the Evangelical Association did, and their German membership is numerically quite small. We therefore limit our present remarks to the German work of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Association.

After having thus stated the purpose we have in view in our paper we take a few long steps backward, to some first principles.

1. Paul very profoundly says to the Athenians: "God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us." Acts xvii, 26, 27. This providential arrangement, or "determination" of national "times" and "bounds," includes certainly also the Teutonic (German) nation in the divine purpose, that "they might feel after him and find him."

2. It is God's providential way to select and prepare, at certain periods of time and history among different nations, certain men, and to use them as his "chosen vessels," or instruments, to promote and execute his purposes; as, for instance, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Daniel, Paul, Luther, Wesley, and many others. In some instances he also chooses nations as his instru

ments through whom to exert certain influences and accomplish certain ends promotive of his divine counsels

3. Although prophecy sheds a clear light upon some cardinal events to occur in the unknown future, the "times and seasons," and the details of the fulfillment, are generally left either untold or enshrouded in figurative language, and hence the full understanding of them may be obtained only by a contemporaneous observation of the "signs of the times," or a subsequent review of prophecy and history combined, explaining each other.

4. When under divine providence one nation or race renders good services unto another, the nation thus served is thereby placed under an obligation of gratitude and moral indebtedness to the other. This just principle is frequently referred to in Paul's writings as obtaining between Jews and Gentiles in matters of salvation. Keeping these principles in view, we now approach our subject more directly, and will endeavor to find the proper answer to the question which forms the heading of this article.

The German race is ethnically original; its existence reaches back into the early times of the Romans, even centuries before Christ. Cæsar found them in the way of his conquering march, and in making war upon the Teutonic tribes he realized that they were more than a match for his otherwise victorious legions. The Germans were then a robust, sturdy, and comparatively well-organized heathen nation, practicing the virtues of chastity, honesty, and patriotism, but also indulging some national sins that cling to them still. Their patriotic valor defeated the proud Roman invader in the Teutoburger forest; and until this day no other nation and no Napoleon could destroy this people. They stand to-day unamalgamated in their Teutonic peculiarities. And this nation sent into Great Britain one of its strongest tribes, the Angel-sachsen (AngloSaxons), which has become the dominant element in the composition of the British nation.

When the Church of England, in course of time, became vitiated in doctrine and depraved in morals, and the better portion of it almost hopelessly entangled in a "part law and part Gospel" legality, so much that even the earnest, sincere Wesley brothers sailed across the Atlantic and went among the Indians

in Georgia to convert them, in order to obtain salvation for themselves as John Wesley afterward clearly saw it-an overruling providence employed German Moravians-Bishop Spangenberg and his godly companions-to teach Wesley what he yet lacked, namely, salvation by faith. When the Wesleys had left Georgia, and returned to England in great distress about their own salvation, it was again a German instrumentality that showed John Wesley the way of faith. He heard some one read Luther's Introduction to the Epistle to the Romans. While listening to this exposition by that great German teacher, he began to see the simple way of salvation by grace through faith, and the Holy Spirit led him, even while thus listening, into this mighty truth. His heart was "strangely warmed," and the blessed Spirit witnessed that his sins were forgiven, and that he, even he, was a child of God; and it is well known that from this experience of saving truth, which was also the prime moving force of the German Reformation in the sixteenth century, English Methodism appeared in the eighteenth century, and has since spread over Great Britain, and even to the ends of the earth.

Let us now take another retrospect. In 1709 some thirteen or fourteen thousand Palatine emigrants ("Pfälzer") emigrated from the Rhenish provinces to England and encamped near the city of London for a short time. About eight thousand of them were shipped by the government over to New York province, and settled along the Hudson River, where the present towns of New Palatine (Neu-Pfalz), Newburg (Neuburg), Rhinebeck (Rheinbecken), and others still testify of their German origin. Some five hundred "Pfälzer" families were sent into North-Ireland, followed by eight hundred persons (Germans) soon after, and they were "fruitful and multiplied." Their children, of course, learned to understand and use the English language.* Wesley and his collaborators found them in their sins and led them to Christ. Among them were the Heck and Emerich families. Barbara Heck and Philip Emerich (Embury) came across to New York, and, behold, in the providence of God that German woman Barbara Heck stirred up the spirit of Emerich, who became one of the earliest preachers of English Methodism in the United States. Kapp's Geschichte der Deutschen Einwanderung in Amerika, p. 91, etc.

Behold what a great fire of righteousness and holiness these historically German sparks of truth have kindled!

We now direct our attention again to Germany. After the decease of Luther, Melanchthon, and other leaders, the spirituality of the great Reformation ebbed rapidly away, and a sad transformation into dry confessionalism, bigoted orthodoxy, and consequent degeneration in morals took place. Later on, rationalism invaded the German universities and pulpits, and French infidelity and communism leavened the masses to a considerable extent. And the unhappy union of State and Church proved itself a great detriment to true, evangelical religion, even until this day. True, the great Head of the Church raised up from time to time godly men, such as Arnold, John Arndt, Spener, Bengel, Rambach, Francke, Zinzendorf, and others, but they could not effectually stem, much less reverse, the tide of unbelief and ungodliness, and the State-Church proved itself in general, with few exceptional instances, an iron-clad environment preventing a general revival of true evangelical preaching and experimental and practical godliness. Where a mere form of godliness is predominating, the power of godliness will be depressed, and, alas! by millions, even the form has become so discarded that many churches are almost entirely deserted, while the Christian Sabbath is turned into a day of frolic and revelry. While the ministers of the StateChurch address to a great extent vacant seats, the millions enjoy the "Biergarten" and the dance. The clergy presuppose and address the masses as Christians because they have been naturally born into the State-Church, and baptized, and catechized, and confirmed, and admitted to the sacrament, according to law, by a legally appointed ministry, although millions of them afterward habitually absent themselves from the Church services; and there being not even a pretense of Church discipline, as enjoined and practiced by the apostles and the primitive Church, the church registers bear the names of hundreds of thousands of open sinners, and of all the different grades of unbelievers, even the rankest atheists and materialists. And there seems to be no power left even to dismiss from the pulpits of so-called evangelical Churches outspoken unbelievers and reckless blasphemers. Witness, for instance, the intolerable scandal of having such blasphemers as Revs. Schwalb and