ARTICLE II.-THE GREEK CHURCH.

THE separation of the Greek from the Roman Church was the result of a protracted struggle, extending through several centuries. The church which centered its power at Rome, began early to develop a tendency to absolute authority in ecclesiastical and even in state affairs. And while it desired universality, it judged it better to mature this early tendency in the West, and to relinquish all in the East, than to acquire an influence less absolute throughout the Christian world.

There was no cordiality in the union of the Eastern and Western portions of the church during the later portion of the fifth century, or at any subsequent period, though the rupture was not regarded as irreparable till perhaps the middle of the eleventh century. The Eastern branch of the church from that period has been that of an independent organization, and, to a considerable extent, an unfriendly one to the Western or Roman branch.

The Western Church has been much more intimately connected with human progress for the last thousand years than the Greek Church. Besides, our relations with the west of Europe have been so much more intimate than they have with the East, that we have necessarily been better informed in regard to the Roman than the Greek Church.

The Greek Church has not, however, in its separation, been a totally inert body. It has not been destitute of men of capacity and learning. Its position has not been altogether obscure, nor its influence inconsiderable. Great encroachments have been made upon it in Asia by the Mohammedan power, but in Europe it has exerted an aggressive power, so as to extend itself and its doctrines over full half of the territory of Europe.

We do not conceal from our minds that this church is, as a body, ignorant; that its religious life is low, and that it has embraced serious errors. Yet there is, in its present condition and prospects, much that is encouraging.

The Greek Church at the present time numbers probably about 70,000,000. They have the Scriptures in a fair degree of purity. Though the clergy are not diligent in teaching them, they do not prohibit nor discourage their use. They do not insist upon the use of the Scriptures in any particular language, but permit it in a somewhat antiquated vernacular of the several nations in which the Greek Church is established. Their doctrines are Trinitarian, and, to a considerable extent, orthodox.

The Greek Church has by no means lost its cultivation and its literature. Some profound scholars of modern times have been Greeks. The Greek University at Athens is represented to be in a most flourishing condition, reaching by its influence very many of the youthful Greeks, and conferring upon them a thorough and finished education. The education of the clergy of Russia is one of the great measures of the present government. Thus, a power irresistable is going forth from this almost forgotten organization of the Greek Church, which is reaching and renovating the entire mass of 70,000,000 of the human family.

It does not follow from our hopeful view of the condition of the Greek Church, that it is, in the higher sense of the term, a Christian church; nor could we apply the name to any church which is essentially national, and embracing, except by special exception, the entire population of a nation. It has not the intelligence and acquaintance with religious things that the Established Church of England or of Prussia has. But there has been a time in the history of the established religions of Western Europe, when the clergy and the mass of the people were in a no more hopeful condition than the clergy and mass of the people of the Greek Church

now are.

We cannot suppress the belief that this church has an important mission yet to accomplish. It is often said that to

revive an effete church, and bring it to a condition of vigor and effectiveness, is more difficult than the building up of a new organization. But the correctness of this assertion cannot always be maintained. We are not prepared to admit it in the case of the Greek Church. When Christianity is introduced into a nation by missionary efforts, the obscure portions of the population are quite as likely to become the subjects of religious convictions as those of greater prominence. Its influence works up through the lower to to the higher grades of society. But when Christianity has been long established among a people as a national institution, it does not ordinarily rise to higher influence by exerting its power first among the obscure and uninformed. A national church will partake of the national character. And if a nation is for a century undergoing a gradual change of character-if, for instance, it is becoming more educated and cultivated the church of that nation will take on the same gradual change. Local church organizations may become more or less efficient, and the fluctuations become apparent, in a few years. But disregarding transient and local variations, a national church, that organization which embodies the religious culture and moral type of a people, will be modified mainly by those secular changes in a nation which characterize its formative period or its decline.

If the countries in which the Greek Church prevails are to become leading countries in the world's progress, then that church will become an instrument of great moral and religious power in human history.

The Greek Church occupies a vastly greater area of Russian than of all other territory. Our hopes of this Church are mainly in connexion with the prospective advancement of that empire. Russia seems to possess that improvable stamina which in the middle ages characterized the migratory nations that came into possession of Western Europe. As they received the Christian religion, and by so doing became for ages the power of the world, so Russia, with Christianity of a type not inferior to that which prevailed among the intruding nations in the west of Europe, may rise to embody an equal greatness in the east of Europe.

Russia has a vast territory and a vast population, and to bring them out of barbarism, and confer on them a high form of civilization is a vast work. But such a work is going steadily forward in that empire. The great scheme of the Czars to extinguish serfdom, is now well nigh a fact accomplished. The great mass of the population is increasing in intelligence. They are understanding the necessity and the power of industry, and acquiring ideas of accumulation. A school system, as well as means of higher education, is springing up among them. Thus it would seem that progress is actually taking place throughout the empire as rapidly as progress can be made; that is, as rapidly as the spirit of progress can percolate through the general mind, or infuse itself into the several forms of social and operative life.

The government avails itself of the best skill wherever it is to be had. If it can get the best ships at the least price from our ship-yards, we are employed. If American contractors can most advantageously build their railroads, they are selected. If the French are most thoroughly versed in the science of military defence, French science finds its reward in Russia. Thus the highest skill of the world is used, and railroads are built, fortifications are constructed, a navy is created and sustained. Thus science and skill are more rapidly acquired and made permanent in that country than they could be by any amount of encouragement to home labor and skill, and by the exclusion of that which comes from abroad.

With these facilities and improvements, there must be large intercourse with foreign nations. Their commerce and their navy not only need, but soon must have harbors not closed half the year with ice. In other words, they must have seaboard advantages by way of the Black and the Mediterranean Neither diplomacy nor war can long retard their advance into these waters Constantinople is a necessity, and the possession of it the destiny of Russia.

seas.

And why should it not be so. If Russia needs these advantages for commercial purposes, it is because she has the results of industry which other nations want, and because she needs the results of the industry of other nations. Why should

there be petty restrictions on such commercial schemes. If Russia needs these advantages to build up a navy for her own protection, objection comes with a bad grace from any nation that is doing its utmost in the accomplishment of the same object for itself. No one nation is more bound than another to use for harmless purposes, a power which may be used to injure. If Russia is building up a commercial marine, her success is as much a pledge of peaceful intention on her part, as the commercial pursuits of other nations pledge these nations to peace. But, however viewed, facts are rapidly taking the place of conjecture. Russia and England are each jealous of the other's power on the eastern borders of the Mediterranean. But it is scarcely possible, with the increasing power of France on the central borders, that Russia and England should not make common cause of their position and power at the extremes. And whatever adjustments may be made to quiet the present unsettled condition of Europe, the great preponderating fact will be a harmonizing of the interests; that is, a satisfying of the industrial and commercial wants of the three European Nations in which the essential life of Europe resides. Such an adjustment involves then the free access of Russia to the Mediterranean waters. This point gained, and Russian development will be greatly accelerated.

We can scarcely compass the idea of such a nation moving forward with an unfaltering tread from barbarism to civilization, from a condition of obscurity to one of controling influence in the affairs of Europe and the world. To this last condition Russia has already attained. And when the disadvantages of pent up condition shall be removed, and the largest facilities for commercial intercourse are opened, we can fix no limit to the greatness and progress and power which a nation embracing so vast a territory, such numerical strength, and such capacities of improvement, may attain.

We have confidence in the Greek Church, regarded as the cherished religion of such a nation. A national religion in a powerful nation must have power. It need not constitute the sum total of national existence, as the Mohammedan religion