Natal, and that it did hold communion with the orthodox bishops of South Africa. A majority of bishops, however, were opposed to committing themselves on the first part of this resolution, and by five against four votes adopted an amendment, declaring that they held communion with the Bishop of Capetown and those bishops who with him declared Dr. Colenso to be ipso facto excommunicated. The Lower House gave to this amendment a unanimous consent. In reply to the question from the Bishop of Capetown, "Whether the acceptance of a new bishop on our part, while Dr. Colenso still retains the letters patent of the Crown, will in any way separate us from the Mother Church," the Bishop of Oxford proposed the following declaration:

That as it has been decided on appeal to the highest judicial court in this kingdom, on the one hand, that the Church in the province of Natal, in communion with the United Church of England and Ireland, is in the eye of the law a mere voluntary association; and, on the other hand, as the letters patent do not profess to confer spiritual power, and have been declared by the court to convey no episcopal jurisdiction; it is the judgment of this House that the acceptance of a new bishop does not impair the connection or alter the relations existing between the members of the Church in the prov

ince of Natal and the Church of England, provided: 1. That the bishop be canonically consecrated according to the use of the Church of England. 2. That there be no invasion of the title of the Bishop of Natal conveyed by her Majesty's letters patent.

As regards the measures to be taken to secure the appointment of a new bishop, the bishop proposed that the House of Bishops should recommend:

1. That an instrument should be prepared declaratory of the doctrine and discipline of the Church of South Africa, which every priest and deacon appointed to any office should be required to subscribe. 2. That a godly and welllearned man should be chosen, with the consent of the communicants of the Church, to be the bishop. 8. That the person so selected should be presented for consecration either to the Archbishop of Canterbury or to the bishops of the Church in South Africa, as might be hereafter deemed most advisable.

The Bishops of London, St. Davids, and others, declared themselves opposed

In addition to the discussion on the ritualistic innovations and the case of Bishop Colenso, several other important subjects claimed the attention of the Convocation. For the first time the House of Bishops took decided steps for an increase of the number of bishops. The Bishop of Oxford presented the unanimous request of a committee appointed to consider "as to the best mode of providing assistance for bishops in the event of illness, or old age, or the like, rendering them unable to discharge the duties of their office, and needing some assistance in the performance of the

same."

The.committee considered the appointment of coadjutor bishops, cum successione, would be unadvisable, being not suited to the Church of England. But, on the other hand, they considered it very desirable to bring into aetive operation the act of Henry VIII, which empowers the nomination of suffragan bishops to different posts in England, who might render every assistance that might be required. The committee were of opinion that in most cases the expense of those suffragan bishops could be met by their holding important posts, such as deaneries and canonries, in connection with the Church. Any legisla tion for the settlement by law of any expense upon those bishops to whom the assistance was rendered, was deemed inexpedient. The committee also recommended that an attempt should be made, through the Archbishop of Canterbury, to sweep away any difficulties which have existed in regard to the matter. As regards the appointment of suffragan bishops, the bishop is to nominate two, and the Crown to select one of these. On motion of the Bishop of Oxford, seconded by the Bishop of London, the report of the committee was adopted. The High Church organs, in England and America regard this as probably the most important thing yet done by Convocation since its revival.

FRANCE.

THE RATIONALISTIC CONTROVERSY.-While there can be hardly a doubt that, on the whole, the evangelical school is in

the ascendancy in the Reformed State Church of France, the Rationalists continue to have full sway in the South, and they seem to grow bolder the more clearly it appears that they are in a minority. They made a bold manifestation at a conference held at Nimes in June, and attended by twenty-nine members, pastors and elders. The subject proposed for discussion in this assembly was expressed in the following words: "What is the testimony of the New Testament relative to the historical reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and what is the importance of this fact to the religious life of the Church?" M. Grotz, one of the pastors of Nimes, had been appointed to make a report on the subject of this question. He took the ground: 1. That, the resurrection of Christ was not at all proved by the evidence of the Gospels and the Epistles. 2. That it is a mere historical problem, which may be solved in two opposite ways. 3. That the early Christians accepted as a corporeal or material resurrection what was but a mere vision, a fancied or imaginary resurrection. 4. That this fact is insignificant after all, and in no way concerns the foundations of the faith, or the conditions of salvation. Of the members of the conference twenty-six, more or less, explicitly adhered to the views of M. Grotz, and only three protested against them. It is generally believed in the French Reformed Church, that occurrences like the conference at Nimes will hasten the moment of a full and final separation of the two parties.

A clear proof of the relative strength of the two parties in the Reformed Church of France, was recently given by the election of a new Professor of Church History of the Faculty of Protestant Theology at Montauban. This election is made by the whole of the consistories of the Church. It appears that the candidate of the evangelical (orthodox) party, Bonifas, who is near relative of Guizot, received the vote of 87 consistories; while the two candidates of the liberal party, Goy and Vignié, received together only 35 votes, (Goy 33 and Vignié 2.) Counting the votes, of the ministers and elders forming the consistories, Bonifas received 894, Goy 454, and Vignié 91 votes. This clearly shows that the evangelical Church is largely in the ascendancy in the consistories.

SCANDINAVIA.

INTERCOMMUNION BETWEEN THE SCANDINAVIAN AND ANGLICAN CHURCHES.The High Church party of the Anglican Churches, both in England and sirous to promote intercommunion with the United States, have long been deSwedish Church. These efforts have, the Scandinavian, and in particular the at length, met with a response. In July 1866, the Archbishop of Upsala, the head of the Swedish Church, together in the dedication of an Anglican chapel with three bishops, took an active part in Stockholm, which was performed by English clergymen. After the creed had the Bishop of Illinois, assisted by four been read in English, the Archbishop rose, and repeated the same translated into Swedish. The Nicene Creed was repeated at the same time in both languages by all persons present, each in his own tongue, the archbishop leading in Swedish. After a sermon from the Bishop of Illinois, Archbishop Reuberdahle assumed his full episcopal vestments, came before the altar, and delivered to the congregation a short address in Swedish. Kneeling before the altar he offered up a prayer, and pronounced the final benediction over the congregation. The High-Church party in the Anglican Church regard this act as a formal renewal of an

actual communion between the two

Churches.

direction, the same party regards an As another important step in the same invitation extended to the Bishop of Illinois, to take part, together with a. Scottish bishop, in the consecration of a bishop for Iceland. They consider this as the expression of a desire on the part of the Icelanders to receive the apostolic succession by an undoubted title from "the Anglican branch of the Church Catholic." They perceive significant foreshadowings of the same spirit in Denmark, and hope that from these it may be communicated to Lutheran Germany.

Foreign Mission Societies.-It is only a few years that any of the Scandinavian countries has had its own foreign mission, but at present they are making great efforts to make up for past delinquencies, and to emulate the societies of other Protestant countries. Denmark has a flourishing missionary society, which has now a mission of their

own in their old mission-field, South India. Their missionary at Bethany or Putabaukam sustains an orphanage,

with forty children, and his congregation consists of several native and adult Christians. The last autumn the missionary college at Copenhagen sent out the first two of its pupils to India. They are not yet ordained, but are to finish their missionary education in India. A third missionary will now be sent out and act as a lay brother, taking charge of the temporal concerns of the station. The receipts of the Danish Missionary Society for the last year amounted to about four thousand dollars.

A second missionary society of Denmark, the "Dano-Greek Missionary Society," owes its origin to certain peculiar views of the founder, the Rev. Mr. J. V. Block. Mr. Block, one of the ablest ministers of the theological school of Grundvig, four years ago formed a plan of a united Scandinavian and Greek mission among the Mohammedans. Following the allegorical interpretation of the Rev. Mr. Grundvig of the seven letters in the Apocalypse, that the seven congregations represent seven great national congregations, believing that the sixth congregation is the Scandinavian national congregation, and the seventh a congregation that is to be formed from among Mohammedans, he felt himself called to go out as missionary to the Turks, and wished to undertake this mission jointly with the Greek Church. The Danish Missionary Society, to which he first addressed himself, refused to employ him, partly on account of his peculiar views, and partly because the mission to East India required all its resources. When Prince George of Denmark was elected king of Greece, Mr. Block established a Dano-Greek missionary society. Recently he has secured the support of the Moslem Missionary Society, which will co-operate with the Dano-Greek Missionary Society, sending him as missionary among the Turks.

The misssionary society of the Swedish Church has established its first mission among the Galla tribes of Africa. The first three missionaries left for this field a few months ago. This is the first Protestant mission among the Gallas, a tribe who call themselves Christians, but they are Christians of the Abyssinian stamp.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

RUSSIA.

This country was

THE UNITED GREEKS IN POLAND.The Russian government continues to make the most strenuous efforts to separate the remainder of the United Greek Church from the Church of Rome, and to reunite it with the State Church of Russia. In Russia Proper its endeavors have been almost fully successful In the kingdom of Poland the United Greek Church still numbers about 222,000 souls (in 1840, 235,966) who belong to the diocese of Kholm. Nearly all of them (213,564) live in the government (province) of Lublin, which has at present an aggregate population of 1,008,359 souls; of whom, according to Russian geographers; 403,687 are of Polish and 457,098 of Russian (Ruthenian) nationality. formerly part of a Russian principality, and in the fourteenth century, together with other Russian possessions, united with Poland. The Poles made a vigorous propaganda in behalf both of their nationality and of the Catholic Church, and with considerable success. At present the Poles constitute about one half of the population. Of the Russians one half have been fully incorporated with the Latin Church, while the other half belong to the United Greek Church, which also recognizes the supremacy of the pope, and only differs from the Latin Church in a few usages, which the pope has allowed them to retain. The or thodox (non-united) Greek Church has in the government of Lublin only a popu lation of 6,642 souls. The Russians charge the Polish nobility with a design to undermine the existence of the United Greek Church, in order to amalgamate the population more thoroughly with the Poles. At an inspection of the United Greek Churches in 1863, it is stated that of the total number of 381 churches, 201 were in ruins. Of edu cational institutions only one seminary at Kholm was left. The Russian gov ernment had both a political and relig ous interest in gaining the confidence of the United Greek population, in order to recover them as much as possible both for the Greek Church and for the Russian nationality. In July, 1864. the patronage of Roman Catholics over United Greek parishes was prohibited, and to the latter the right of self-government accorded. At the same time