of the documentary testimony of other ministers in Bohemia, and the persecuted Protestants themselves, which had already been circulated in pamphlet form among the members of the Alliance, and were rapidly producing a sympathetic sentiment.

The culmination of this feeling took place on Saturday, the last day of the session. The Anglo-American Committee resolved to bring up the case before the general session, and test the sense of the Alliance as to protesting against the iniquity. Each of the speakers on Christian union to whom the programme gave the whole time of the last formal session-Plitt, of Germany; Fallot, of Paris; and Hurst-received on Friday evening a courteous note from President Sarasin, requesting them to abridge their addresses as much as possible the following day, as the grave question of Austrian persecution was to be presented. The sessions, contrary to expectation, had increased in interest from the beginning, but on the last day there was not even standing room for the vast multitude. The president read some letters relating to the persecution, and was followed by Drs. Schaff and Riggenbach, who urged the Alliance to take action in favor of the persecuted Protestants. When the charges against the Austrian government were presented there was a silent pause of some length. Permission was given, before a vote was taken, to hear any who might be disposed to defend the persecutors, and to give reason why the protest should not be made. No one said a word. It was a scene of intense interest. Then a vote was taken, when all on the great platform arose, and those in the immense congregation also who were sitting arose as one man, and stood for some time in perfect silence. Many wept audibly. Great numbers were descendants of the Huguenots and Dutch fugitives from Spanish intolerance, and they were now stretching forth a helping hand toward their brothers in sorrow in this late nineteenth century. When a negative was called for, not one person voted. The decision was thus unanimous, and a committee was appointed to wait in person on the Austrian Emperor, Francis Joseph, and protest against the continuance of the persecution. That committee has done its work. It had to go as far as Hungary to get an audience with the emperor. He promised to give the subject his careful attention. It remains to be seen whether

he will do it, or permit Romanism still to hound to death, in the Bohemian fastnesses, the descendants in faith of the brave John Huss. We believe this voice and outstretched hand of the Evangelical Alliance to persecuted Protestants cannot be without effect, and that the chains will be broken. The word that has delivered the many persecuted believers in Spain and Italy, the Protestants of the Baltic Provinces, and the Bulgarians in Turkey, is not likely to fall on deaf ears. No action of the Alliance, at any of its sessions, has been more important or farsighted than this. It means the unity of Protestants, and their readiness to defend their companions in doctrine and experience the world over.

All the sessions of the Anglo-American department were marked by well-considered addresses, and will be remembered longest by all attendants at Basle whose native language is the English. Dr. T. D. Anderson, of New York, and Sir Charles Reed, of London, spoke on Sunday-schools. Dr. E. A. Washburn, of New York, discussed the delicate subject of Socialism, and gave, as a solution of the dangers which threaten society at the present time, these three grounds of hope: free discussion of the present dangers by Christian men, sound home training and education in the schools, and a wise co-operation of all possible methods for relieving the working classes of the evils which oppose them. Drs. O. H. Tiffany and John Hall, of New York, presided at two of the Anglo-American sessions, and by their wise words and impartial supervision added largely to the success of the proceedings.

The subject of missions was treated in the general sessions by Drs. Theodore Christlieb, William Arthur, Pastor Barde, and Murray Mitchell. The first speaker presented the most voluminous paper of the whole week of the Alliance. It constitutes one hundred and sixty-four octavo pages in the published proceedings of the session. He compared the former condition of the heathen world with the present success of missions; and then described the missionary genius of the Christian Churches, first among barbarous peoples, and then in civilized nations, and closed with a statement of the great missionary task before the Church at this hour. Dr. Arthur had but a limited time to speak, but, brief as it was, he made the strong point that the success of missions in far-off lands depends upon

the spirit and life of the home Churches, which send out their men to lead the nations in darkness to Christ.

The closing day of the regular proceedings of the Alliance was Saturday, but a communion service was held in the cathedral on Sunday, and there was a fraternal leave-taking in the evening in Association Hall. This communion service was a remarkable meeting. The building itself was calculated to awaken lively memories of the heroic days of Swiss Protestantism. It dates back to A. D. 1010, and in a side room of the great edifice the secret sessions of the Council of Basle were held over four centuries ago. It was a stronghold of Romanism when its power was undisputed from the frozen North Cape to sunny, vine-clad Sicily. Its grotesque and lavish stone carvings; its stately and minute wooden figures; its dark crypt and stately pillars; its strange mixture of the Byzantine and Gothic orders of architecture; its double towers, that, in the sisterly companionship of the centuries, throw their shadows down into the hasty and cheerful Rhine; its stiff but significant mounted statues of Saints George and Martin, that tell the story of Hapsburg power, and have kept ward at the doorway through the long pilgrimage of both Roman Catholic and Protestant generations; and, above all, those rich cloisters, around whose quadrangle Erasmus loved to walk and think before he ever saw English Cambridge, and sauntered along the arcadian terrace of Queen's College, force one back to the elder days, in spite of the free and hopeful present. The music from the many voices and the great organ had more than the usual lesson of Christian love to teach. The sermon was preached by the senior pastor, Dr. Stockmeyer, after which the administration of the Lord's Supper began. About two thousand persons were supposed to participate in this singularly impressive communion. Preachers and laymen approached the altar together, and it was fully three hours before the service was ended. The only reminder of nobility which one could see was the single badge of the iron cross worn by Count BismarckBohlen, who sat in the altar, with other members of the Alliance. The parting services in the evening called out such a large congregation that another meeting, in an adjoining room, had to be held. At the principal meeting the speakers were Drs. Riggenbach and Arthur, and Count Bismarck-Bohlen, in the

German language; Dr. Godet, in French; and Pastor Cocorda, in Italian. Here, as in all the preceding meetings, the hymns were sung from a book prepared especially for the session, and which seemed to be in every worshiper's hand. In this little volume the great singers of nearly all of the Protestant communions were represented. The hymns were in the four chief languages of Europe and America-German, French, English, and Italian. "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott," "Grand Dieu, nous Te Bénissons," "There is a Fountain filled with blood," and "Del Forte di Giacobbe," were sung by Christian people from every quarter of the compass.

An important question in connection with the Alliance was the relation of the organization to the foreign Churches which are now represented by active operations and growing influence in Germany and Switzerland. The Wesleyans of England, and the Baptists and Methodists of the United States, have succeeded so far that now they are regarded as threatening forces to the power of the State Churches. The leading theologians in the latter manifest little sympathy with them, and look on their work with suspicion, and in many instances with a want of fraternal feeling. There was, however, at the Basle session a just recognition of the right of our American missionaries in those countries to participate in all matters that concern the common interests of the Church universal. The two resident ministers of our German and Swiss Conference, Rev. Clement Achard, presiding elder of the Basle District, and Rev. Heinrich Mann, pastor of our Church in Basle, were members of the local committee, and had their full voice in the arrangements for the session. Rev. Dr. L. Nippert, the director of our Theological Seminary in Frankfort-on-the-Main, was one of the regular speakers at a devotional meeting at Association Hall, with CourtPreacher Hoffman and others. No one can say that there was not a proper recognition of our representation at the Basle session. At one of the early morning meetings, which preceded the regular sessions at ten o'clock, some one expressed his inability to co-operate with the Alliance because of its admission of the "foreign sects" into relation with it. But this spirit was promptly rebuked. Dr. Nippert said a brave and strong word in defense of our work in the Fatherland, and no one could gainsay his statements as to the pure methods of

our work. Dr. Schaff also said that all hostile expressions relating to this subject were foreign to the spirit of the Alliance, and deserved rebuke. Count Bismarck-Bohlen, who was for the time the presiding officer, said that if men from abroad come into Germany, and preach a pure gospel, and the people are attracted toward it, they are worthy of all confidence, and that if the State Churches lose their power God will place it in other hands.

The personal appearance and characteristics of some of the leading members of the Alliance were matters of no little interest to Americans who had been reading their works for many years, and yet had never seen them. Van Oosterzee is a stout, short, florid Dutchman, who moves about quickly, and has a kindly word and strong grasp for any stranger who approaches him. He has grown much older in the last decade. Before his turn came to speak he sat a little nervously in his chair, and when announced, he started up briskly, took out his manuscript, and dropped into the chair at the speaker's desk. He rubbed the perspiration from his great, beaming face, and seemed about to read his paper, and that, too, while sitting; but by a quick movement he arose, pushed aside his chair, laid his manuscript away from him, and proceeded to speak with great animation extemporaneously. His first utterances told the story at once of his being the chief orator of Dutch Protestantism. He warmed with his subject, gesticulated with subdued power, and his deep gutturals reached the furthest corners of the auditorium. He melted all hearts, and will be remembered as one of the most notable figures of the session. Orelli is a young man, not much beyond thirty, slender, pale, of great keen eyes. He wrote a book on "Through the Holy Land," which is rather sentimental than scientific. He is sustained at the Basle University by a salary given by a circle of evangelical friends and admirers. He used no manuscript, but spoke with an incisive force and emphasis, and with a spiritual unction, which produced a powerful impression. His address was a phenomenon, and from this distance of six months it stands out before us rather as a visible thing than a spiritual communication. May his slender frame stand the jostle and impulse of his masterly mind!

De Pressensé is of negligent utterance, and has grown aged