in crushing the revolt of her Hungarian subjects.
In 1853 broke out the Crimean War, the details of which are so well
known as to require no enumeration. Peace was concluded between
Russia and the Allies, after the death of the Emperor Nicholas in
1855, who was succeeded by his son, Alexander II. The two great
events of the reign of this monarch have been the emancipation of
the serfs in 1861, by which 22,000,000 received their liberty,
and the war with Turkey.

_CHURCH SERVICE_

_ALFRED MASKELL_

The history of the introduction and early progress of Christianity
in Russia is involved in obscurity and overlaid with legendary
stories. There is little doubt that it came from Constantinople, and
was not only rapidly spread, but firmly established in the country
within a short space of time. The date most generally accepted is
that of the reign of Vladimir, the great prince of Kief, grandson
of Olga. As Dean Stanley remarks in his _Lectures on the Eastern
Church_: "It coincides with a great epoch in Europe, the close of
the Tenth Century, when throughout the West the end of the world
was fearfully expected, when the Latin Church was overclouded with
the deepest despondency, when the Papal See had become the prey
of ruffians and profligates, then it was that the Eastern Church,
silently and almost unconsciously, bore into the world her mightiest
offspring."

[Illustration: CHURCH OF THE ASSUMPTION, MOSCOW.]

The Eastern Church was then at the zenith of its splendour. The
envoys sent by Vladimir to Constantinople to examine and report
upon the religion which he had almost decided to adopt were dazzled
with the magnificence of the ceremonial. They were wavering in
their choice and weighing the merits of the different systems which
had been brought before them. Rome they had not seen; Mohammedanism
was foreign to their tastes; Judaism had been found wanting; but
the Eastern Church appealed strongly to their imaginations and
barbaric love of splendour. Hers was St. Sophia, magnificent now,
but how much more gorgeous then! Every effort was made to win them,
and the victory was easy.

The intercourse of the newly formed empire of Russia with Byzantium
was at that time great. The change of religion had been very sudden
and it was necessary to build at once new edifices for the new
order of things. It was naturally to Byzantium that they turned
for their form and ornament. Very quickly churches arose. Novgorod,
the c