ernment, and on that of the
government in the sound and just sense of the people. No constitution
or laws, sacred as they may be in the eyes of the honorable citizen,
no so-called policy, which rests on a system of deceptions, no
rude strength of a dominant party, can ever supply the place of
faith--faith, which alone inspires to nobler action. Hence the
necessity in the state for religion also, which is the same as faith
purified In every wise government therefore it will be a chief concern
that the religion of the people be a sound one, _i.e._ one that will be
justified by its practical results, for in regard to these only can we
look for unanimity of opinion.

Christianity, freed from all the unwarranted additions with which
national prejudice, narrowness and love of spiritual domination have
striven for centuries to disfigure it, has no reason to shun this
trial, out of which it can only come forth more glorious and divine. Of
this Zwingli had been fully persuaded by his zealous study of the Holy
Scriptures. Hew naturally the idea rose in his mind, to make this trial
before the people themselves, who had hitherto been bound in the
fetters of a religion, which addressed them only by authority, instead
of before councils exclusively composed of clergymen and lords! Still
it was a great venture. The weakened eye, when suddenly brought forth
from the darkness, is blinded even by the purest light; the healthy one
alone can endure the splendor of the sun. And yet upon this very power
in a decided majority of his countrymen Zwingli relied, and the
memorials, which we have just read, might have fully convinced him that
sound sense was really at hand. But ought this claim to be preferred in
political matters, and not in ecclesiastical also? Thus much is clear,
that from this time forward Zwingli's endeavors took this direction.

If the bishop would deny him a hearing or condemn him contrary to
justice, he intended to appeal not to ultra-montane Rome, ignorant of
the German language and the German character, but to the judgment of
his own nation, to the decision of an independent government entitled
to act in the case, and the rule should be the Holy Scriptures, an
unassailable code of laws acknowledged by all. And thus the fundamental
idea of the Reformed Church naturally arose, which in its development
has been more clearly defined rather than corrupted,--limited rather
than extended. To follow out and discuss this subject