RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF FRANCE.
A WRITER in the Christian (London) thus speaks of the religious condition of France:— “Great material prosperity; secular education. An increase in drinking habits and depraved literature in the lowest classes. A decided reaction from infidelity towards religion (especially among the educated classes), which is turning almost exclusively to the profit of Roman Catholicism. This is attributed by some to the low spiritual state of Protestantism and its divisions, but is probably due to ‘Modernism’ in Protestant pulpits, especially doubts cast on the deity of Christ, and the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures (happily by no means universal, but still too prevalent). A spirit of patriotism, so intense that, when it does not take the place of a religion in itself, exalts Roman Catholicism as the national religion of France, as opposed to the Protestantism of her traditional foes, England and Germany, and excites opposition to foreigners, especially English, evangelizing either in France or her colonies. This feeling is shared even by Protestants, tho, of course, not by all.” But the reaction toward Roman Catholicism is the result of two things, superstition and fear. “Protestantism” in France presents nothing better; for if it did, those who truly seek after holiness would turn to God; those who seek to be saved by a religion, yet in sin, would turn to Roman Catholicism. It is a sad condition, and France is not alone in Europe in presenting like conditions. “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”