Free Presbyterian Church

A few months ago, the eyes of Protestant Christendom were turned with deep interest to the Meeting of the Synod of the Reformed Church of France, at Paris, and to the Meeting of the Synod of the Lutheran Church at Strasburg. But the revelations made at both these Synods have been painful in the extreme. The Lutheran Synod appears to be completely destitute of any thing like spiritual life, and the Reformed Synod to be nearly in the same condition. There is one circumstance, however, which is hailed with delight by the religious journals. The orthodox, and living portion of the Reformed Church, have separated themselves from the heterodox and lifeless, and formed themselves into a Free Church, having no connexion with the State, and in no way trammelled by their faithless companions. At the head of this party, of whom sanguine expectations are formed, are M. M. page 20 Frederick Monad and A. De Gasparin. These men are not obscure beginners, but faithful, long-tried men, who have the confidence of all the Evangelical Churches. It is a small, but a hopeful omen for France.

“But now,” says the Christian Times, “while the preliminaries of a new common wealth are barely settled, while a dismal uncertainty hangs over the future of that restless people, while the hounds of war are struggling to get loose upon the whole of Europe, even now, among the godless, agitated population, arises a band of Evangelists, newly commissioned, freed from a connexion where they could have no well disciplined unity, and the gracious hand of Heaven has set them free to do what Wesley, Whitfield, and others did, in the last century for England. If they have not churches, they have highways and hedges. If they have not ample stipends, they will have the cheerfully presented offerings of a devoted people. God will feed them. They may go forth without purse or scrip, but shall lack nothing. Their one care is now to preach Christ, and Him they cannot preach in vain. Again, as at the beginning, multitudes will be added to the Church and eternally saved.”