RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN RUSSIA.
DURING the summer of last year it was made known to the Christian world that the Lutherans in the Baltic provinces were, at the hands of the Russian Government, suffering interference in the exercise of their rights of conscience as to the choice of religious belief. A protest against this was sent to the Czar by the various branches of the Evangelical Alliance. In course of time a reply to this protest was elaborately, but not very satisfactorily, made by Monsieur C. Pobedonostzeff, of St. Petersburg, the Chief of the Holy Synod. To this protest the Swiss branch of the Evangelical Alliance have made a vigorous answer. The protest insists upon "the primordial right of every human being to serve God according to the dictates of his conscience;" declares "the right of imposing a certain form of religion upon the subjects of his Majesty the Czar, under pain and penalty of exile or other punishments, may well be doubted;" insists upon the right to see the truth wherever found as a law of divine authority, "not a privilege that can be granted or revoked at pleasure, or according to circumstances, but which is a divine gift of God as much as is life itself. Force, brute force alone, can be the engine employed against it." Furthermore, the Procurer is told that "it is against the employment of this force, no matter where it is found, or on what pretext it is founded, that the Evangelical Alliance has protested in the past, and still protests."—Christian at Work.