r question concerning moral certainty. We know of no other
corner-stone in morality or in religion. But, in order to bring the
truths of the Gospel home to the heart, there must be religious liberty.
Christianity is the religion of love, but to what could a reconciliation
amount which is not free? It is the religion of freedom; and God, in
order to save us, has need of freedom.

M. de Pressense, in his recent discussion on the religious bearings of
the French Revolution, proves from an historical stand-point the
absolute necessity of the separation of Church and State. His excellent
work is entitled, _The Church and the French Revolution; a History of
the Relations of Church and State from 1789 to 1802_. The motto upon the
title-page, derived jointly from Mirabeau and Cavour, will indicate the
spirit of the book: "Remember that God is as necessary as liberty to the
French people--The Free Church in the Free State." We trust the day is
distant when M. de Pressense will be compelled to lay aside the pen. He
is engaged in a contest of momentous issues. That he has violent enemies
might be expected; yet he has also the sympathy and prayers of many warm
supporters. Hopeful and ardent, he sees indications of success where
others imagine darkness and failure. And why not? He has God and truth
on his side.

The Evangelical School has an able defender from the laity, the
distinguished scholar and statesman, M. Guizot. No one has taken a
deeper interest in the present controversy from its inception to the
present time than that venerable man. It had been supposed for some time
that he was meditating a reply to Renan's _Life of Jesus_. We now have,
as the latest fruit of his graceful and prolific pen, the first
instalment of the _Meditations upon the Christian Religion_, a work
which will prove not only a fitting answer to his countryman's attack on
the Gospels, but will serve equally well as an antidote to the present
skeptical tendencies of French theology.

According to M. Guizot, there is a great intellectual and social
revolution now in progress. Its characteristics and tendencies are the
scientific spirit, and the preponderance of the democratic principle and
of political liberty. Christianity has submitted to tests and trials,
and it must pass through those of the present day. It has surmounted all
others, and so it will overcome this. Its essence and origin would not
be divine if it did not adapt itself to all the differ