TWO Protestant meetings were recently held in Edinburgh and Glasgow, which appear to us of historic interest. They were convened with a view to hearing addresses from M. Reveillaud, a distinguished member of the French Chamber of Deputies, on the subject of the Association Laws, which have led to the Church crisis in France. We had the privilege of attending the Glasgow meeting, which was held, under the auspices of the Scottish Protestant Alliance, in St. John’s Methodist Church, Sauchiehall Street, on Thursday evening the 7th March, and was presided over by Mr. W. C. Maughan, J.P. Another interesting Frenchman, besides M. Reveillaud, was present—M. Henri des Houx, who is the President of a French League that is in revolt from the Church of Rome. The audience was fairly large, and very enthusiastic.
After prayer by the Rev. Mr. Green, and introductory remarks by the Chairman, M. Reveillaud, who was cordially received, delivered an address in English, which he chiefly read. The French accent was rather pronounced at some stages of the delivery, but the audience was quite able to follow the general drift of the address, and the main points emphasised in it. M. Reveillaud began by expressing the great pleasure it gave him to visit Scotland, the land of John Knox and of liberty. He recalled the past days of Reformation and persecution in his native France, where John Calvin was born, and said that the Covenants of Scotland were the brothers and sisters of their martyred Huguenots. He then proceeded to give a historical account of the Church laws in France, in the course of which he contended that the laws recently enacted called no new principle into action. For the last hundred years or so Emperors and Republican Governments had exercised a certain supervision over the proceedings of the Roman Church, and that communion could not, according to the law of France, open new religious houses for new orders without special permission of the Government.
Napoleon I. kept a sharp eye on the Jesuits, and at one juncture had them quickly expelled from France. His successors of the same name were also opposed to the multiplication of these religious orders in the community. M. Reveillaud enlarged with considerable freedom on the fact that these orders—and especially that of the Jesuits—were a serious menace to the social and moral well-being of the people. They were parasites on the body politic that sucked its blood away, and they had done their work so well that it had come to be a matter of life or death with France. According to a French proverb, if you don’t kill the devil, the devil will kill you; and so the present laws were not a moment too soon enacted to save France from destruction. At the same time these laws were in no sense cruel or persecuting, though the Papists had raised a hue and cry to this effect. They were at perfect liberty to live in France as citizens, only that the buildings and intromissions of the Church must come under the same laws and supervision as those of other associations. This equity the Papists were not prepared to accept; and so monks and nuns rushed away to England and Scotland, crying aloud that they were persecuted and maltreated, when no such thing was done. M. Reveillaud, who is evidently a member of the Reformed Church, did not hesitate to declare his belief that the Papacy was “the antichrist of the prophecies,” and expressed his conviction that a day of Christian liberty was beginning to dawn in his native land. The work which Christ was anointed to do was “to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
M. Henri des Houx next addressed the meeting in French, his speech being interpreted, in a very prompt and efficient manner, by a young Glasgow gentleman of Swiss extraction, Mr. John Bost. M. des Houx spoke with great vivacity and point, and his address was also listened to with lively interest. It appears that he is a French Roman Catholic who is detached from the Church of Rome, and is—as he informed us—the President of a League that is calling on the people of France to disobey the Pope. He began by a trenchant criticism of the Jesuits and other orders, which were professing to have taken the vow of poverty. He declared it was only a vow to impoverish others and to enrich themselves. He then proceeded to speak of the new League, and said that two hundred branches had been formed, which were daily increasing. These embraced one thousand villages, and represented over one million French citizens. He also stated that they had formed “a Catholic Church” in Paris apart from the Pope, and though it appears they still observe the Roman rites, he strongly affirmed that they were not worshipping the same God as the Pope and his followers worshipped. The latter were worshipping a dead idol, covered with lace and gold; but they worshipped the God who reigned above, and the living Christ, whose “blood was still flowing”—still efficacious for men.
At the close of the addresses, Rev. Dr. Wells, Pollokshields, submitted the following resolution of thanks: “This meeting of the Scottish Protestant Alliance and friends thanks M. Reveillaud and M. Henri des Houx for their addresses in explanation of the conflict between the French nation and the Vatican. With reference to the religious orders affected by the Association Laws, the meeting regrets that the right of asylum—which this country is ever proud to afford the distressed—should have been abused by the influx of communities that defy our own laws and sentiments, through the absence of safeguards against those evils which contributed to their departure from France.” The resolution was cordially adopted by the meeting. Another resolution on the important subject of Convent inspection was moved by Mr. M’Manus, and also carried with unanimity. The mover well said that it was a disgrace to our country that the law, which was operative everywhere else, should stand paralysed at the door of these Convent prisons. The meeting was brought to a close with the benediction by the Rev. R. W. Watson.
We cannot help repeating, in conclusion, the remark that this meeting was of historic interest. It is the first time, we think, since the Reformation that natives of France have come to us on such an errand, and their addresses left, on the whole, a very hopeful impression of the future moral and spiritual prosperity of their distinguished country. It also appears a strange and remarkable turn of affairs that France has now come to warn Scotland and England of the dangers of Popery, and what is chiefly lamentable is that the warning is so much needed. The apathy on the subject of Protestantism is still appalling, notwithstanding some stirrings of interest that have taken place in recent years. For example, there is no subject that seems to evoke so little interest or enthusiasm among the chief leaders of our large so-called Protestant and Presbyterian Churches as Protestantism. We could mention the names of several men who are in everybody’s mouths as ecclesiastical guides, who can give all diligent attendance at bazaars and trashy social gatherings, but are never once seen at a Protestant meeting, where testimony is borne for that truth and righteousness which alone can preserve and exalt a nation. Surely this is a deplorable sign of the times, fitted to stir indignation as well as grief. It would not surprise us very much to see our candlestick removed and transferred to France and other Continental nations, which seem to be throwing off the yoke of bondage under which they have lain for centuries. The old gospel truth has become stale bread to the present generation, and error of every kind is greedily swallowed. The hosts of Rome are building their fortresses among us.
May the Lord, in great mercy, send forth His saving light and truth, that men may be awakened to the abounding dangers that are around them, and may be disposed and enabled to hold fast, and “contend earnestly for, the faith once delivered unto the saints,” in which alone there is happiness for time or hope for eternity!