opinions of Pascal, he
admired the more evangelical portion of Schleiermacher's theology.
Combining these, he originated the only native theological system which
Switzerland has produced since Calvin's day.[124] In all his works he
manifests profound thought and erudition. His _Homiletics_ and _Pastoral
Theology_ have already become text-books in many theological seminaries.

The spirit now dominant at Geneva clearly indicates the success of the
late efforts toward reform. The congregations have largely increased;
various humanitarian enterprises have been vigorously prosecuted;
societies for the circulation of religious knowledge have been founded;
and the laity have come to the assistance of the clergy in labors for
the social and moral elevation of the masses. For a quarter of a century
young men have been judiciously trained in theology, and Switzerland is
now supplying many prominent French pulpits with her graduates.

The present sojourner in Geneva finds but few remnants of that skeptical
preaching and general religious indifference so lamentably prevalent
before the rise of the Evangelical Dissenting Church. M. Levalois, who
is an avowed skeptic, looks upon a very different scene from that which
once so delighted Rousseau. Coming from the source they do, his words
are a valuable testimony to the religious growth of the mother-city of
French Protestantism. "I now come," says this traveler, "to the
essential characteristics of Geneva. Before being literary and liberal,
the Genevan is Christian. In Geneva the free-thinking stranger is
_advised_ of Christianity. In the souls of men, instead of meeting with
no resistance, no solidity,--as, for instance, among the greater part of
our Parisian Catholics,--instead of finding himself in the face of a
creed mechanically repeated, of a memory and not of a conscience,--you
feel yourself in contact with an individual who will believe, who can
believe, who is in full possession of the _why_ of his belief. Nothing
in the world is to me so sacred as sincerity in intelligent faith. Just
as I despise certain time-serving Catholics, who are converted because
they dread socialism, or because they dread the Empire, so much do I
respect the man who freely attaches himself to the Gospel, devotes
himself to Christ, and prays to Him. Does this imply that I return from
Geneva a Protestant? No; I have not been _converted_, but, I repeat,
_advised_. I have seen Christianity working, not o