glimpses of divine work in the mission-field.

2. france in america.-(Continued?)

We have been witness to some of Mr. Chiniquy's battles with his conscience as to the doctrines and practices of the church of Rome. They were many times repeated, and although superstition continually gained the victory, yet the memory of the conflict could not but have a certain effect. These conflicts had relation to some of the most distinctively Romish doctrines,-confession, transubstantiation, the vow of celibacy, the authority of the fathers, the mediation of the virgin Mary:the last of them indeed left a wound that seems never to have been healed until about eight years afterward he finally turned his back on the apostate church.

It was in the end of the year which witnessed this last struggle that he was called to leave Canada for a new field in the western states, which it was proposed to plant with colonies of French Canadians; on the one hand to prevent the risk to their religion which was involved by their being scattered among the Protestant population,–a considerable emigration having already begun; and on the other, to secure a fertile region for the dominion of the pope. Into this project Mr. Chiniquy threw himself with an energy that was natural to him, never dreaming that he was to be the chief cause of its failure, and that God had appointed him thus to be the leader in a great exodus from the land of bondage, whose yoke was yet upon his own soul.

He selected St. Anne, Illinois, as the beginning of his enterprise, and ten days after selecting it, fifty families from Canada had planted their tents around his, on the site of the present town of that name. In about six months after, they had grown to over a hundred families, among whom were more than five hundred adults. Six months after this, again, they came not only from Canada, but from Belgium and France. " It soon became necessary to make a new center, and expand the limits of my first colony, which I did by planting a cross at L'Erable, about fifteen miles south-west of St. Anne, and another at a place we called St. Mary, twelve miles south-east, in the county of Iroquois. These settlements were soon filled; for that very spring more than a thousand families came from Canada to join us; " during the six months following, more than five hundred more, and so the colony rapidly extended.

The exposure of the licentiousness of the priest of a parish not far off was, under the merciful hand of God, the means of introducing the Word of God among them. Many asked of Mr. Chiniquy where in the gospel Christ had established the law of celibacy. He replied, "I will do better:I will put the gospel in your hands, and you will look for yourselves in that holy book what is said on that matter." New Testaments were ordered from Montreal and from New York; and they soon began to do their work. The glorious " promises of liberty which Christ gave to those who read and followed His word made their hearts leap with joy. They fell upon their minds as music from heaven. They also soon found by themselves that every time the disciples of Christ had asked Him who would be the first ruler, or the pope, in His Church, He had always solemnly and positively said that in His Church nobody would ever become the first, the ruler, or the pope. And they began seriously to suspect that the great powers of the pope and his bishops were nothing but a sacrilegious usurpation. I was not long without seeing that the reading of the Holy Scriptures by my dear countrymen was changing them into other men."

Meanwhile, exposure came upon exposure. The burning of the church of Bourbonnais by the priest just mentioned and another, was followed by the collapse of the bishop of Chicago, whom Chiniquy had loved and revered, and after his resignation and appointment to another bishopric, one of the first things done by the new bishop was to bring his predecessor before the criminal courts, to recover $100,000 carried away by him out of the diocese.

The new bishop was much worse, and Chiniquy became the object of his bitter enmity. A suit against him undertaken by another, but with the bishop's sympathy, failed, but was the beginning of a long succession of such attacks, by which he was pursued long after he had abandoned the church of Rome forever.

The decree of the immaculate conception of the Virgin, Dec. 8th, 1854, came to increase the uneasiness already some time begun in his heart. A few days after he had read it to his congregation, he had to own to one of the most intelligent among them, in opposition to the assertion of the pope, that the doctrine was not in Scripture, but opposed to it; not in the fathers, and declared by many popes not to be an article of faith. And when the question naturally came, "If it be so with this dogma of the church, how can we know it is not so with the other dogmas of the church, as confession, purgatory, etc. ?" he could only say, "My dear friend, do not allow the devil to shake your faith. We are living in bad days indeed. Let us pray God to enlighten us and save us. I would have given much that you had never put to me these questions!"

But the questions remained, burning into his soul.

In the end of August, 1855, he was in Chicago, at a "spiritual retreat" for the clergy of the diocese, in attending which he was witness to frightful scenes of license and disorder which we shall not enter upon. He had already left when he was called back by the bishop, and charged with distributing Bibles and Testaments among his people. He owned that he thought, as he was bound to preach the Word to them, so it was his duty to give it to them, and he urged Pope Pius VI.'s approval of Martini's translation. The bishop replied that the translation by Martini which the pope advised the Italian people to read formed a work of twenty-three big folio volumes, which of course nobody except very rich and idle people could read. " Not one in ten thousand Italians has the means of purchasing such a voluminous work, and not one in fifty thousand has the time and will to peruse such a mass of endless commentaries. The pope would never have given advice to read such a Bible as the one you distribute so imprudently." And he ended with the threat, "If our holy church has in an unfortunate day appointed you one of her priests in my diocese, it was to preach her doctrines, and not to distribute the Bible. If you forget that, I will make you remember it! "

Mr. Chiniquy had again to be in Chicago shortly after this, to try and defend his countrymen from the rapacity of the bishop, but he only succeeded in enraging him more than ever against himself. As a preliminary step toward an interdict, he was sued again in the criminal court of Kankakee by an agent of his, and when the verdict of this court was given in his favor, the case was appealed to Urbana; and in this court, the spring following, he was defended by Abraham Lincoln, then practicing law in Illinois, and with whom, to the end of his life, he enjoyed the closest friendship. Mr. Chiniquy clearly proves that it was by a Roman Catholic conspiracy that President Lincoln's life was ended; and it was in the defense at Urbana that the enmity to which he fell a victim was first aroused against him.

Meanwhile the French Canadian congregation at Chicago had been dispersed by its chief shepherd, their priest interdicted and driven away, the parsonage sold, and the church removed five or six blocks, and rented to the Irish Catholics, the proceeds going into the bishop's pocket. By Chiniquy's advice, a deputation from the congregation waited upon him, to whom he answered, " French Canadians, you do not know your religion ! Were you a little better acquainted with it, you would know that I have the right to sell your churches and church-properties, pocket the money, and go and eat and drink it where I please." After that answer, they were ignominiously turned out of his presence into the street. Mr, Chiniquy himself was sent for, and ordered to leave St. Anne for Kahokia, three hundred miles away, under penalty of interdict.

A sham excommunication followed, issued without the bishop's own signature, and administered by drunken priests; but the people of St. Anne vigorously supported their pastor, and the blow fell harmless. The trial at Urbana came on shortly afterward, and a new charge on the part of an old enemy threatened him with ruin which the mercy of God averted, exposing the malice and perjury of the accuser by the introduction of a new unhoped-for testimony; and Mr. Chiniquy's deliverance was achieved.

The struggle with the bishop of Chicago, however, was not ended, but grew continually to larger proportions. It was closed at last by an appeal to the pope and the French emperor, and the bishop was ordered to Rome and disappeared from the scene, while the bishop of Dubuque was named administrator of the Chicago diocese. With him Chiniquy had still to make his peace, for his rough handling of the former bishop had raised dangerous questions of Protestantism at St. Anne. He was asked, therefore, for a written act of submission, to show to the world that he was still a good Roman Catholic priest.

Protestant he was not, but there were doubts in his soul which had never been settled and would not be bidden away. He said to himself, "Is not this a providential opportunity to silence those mysterious voices which are troubling me almost every hour, that in the church of Rome we do not follow the Word of God, but the lying traditions of men?" He wrote down in his own name and that of his people, "We promise to obey the authority of the church according to the Word and commandments of God as we find them expressed in the gospel of Christ."

It was with a trembling hand that he presented this to the bishop, but it was received with joy, and a written assurance promised him of a perfect restoration of peace. This reached him while in retirement for a short time in Indiana, and reconciliation with Rome seemed now complete. On the contrary, it was now that the breach was to become full, final, and irrevocable.

He was startled by another letter from the bishop of Dubuque, calling him thither, and on his way through Chicago learned that the Jesuits were astir, assailing him as a disguised Protestant. The administrator and the Jesuits themselves had telegraphed the submission to several bishops, who unanimously answered it must be rejected, and another and unconditional one given instead. Accordingly, when he reached Dubuque, the bishop demanded his testimonial letter from him, and having received it, threw it in the fire. He then referred to the terms of the submission which had been given him, and pressed for another. " Take away," he said, " these words:'Word of God' and 'gospel of Christ' from your present document, and I will be satisfied." Chiniquy replied,-

"But, my lord, with my people I have put these words, because we want to obey only the bishops who follow the Word of God. We want to submit only to the church that respects and follows the gospel of Christ."

In reply, he was threatened with punishment as a rebel if he did not give the unconditional submission which was required. But again Chiniquy answered, "What you ask is not an act of submission, it is an act of adoration. I do absolutely refuse to give it."

"If it be so, sir," he answered, "you can no longer be a Roman Catholic priest."

"I raised my hands to heaven," says Mr. Chiniquy, "and cried with a loud voice, 'May God Almighty be forever blessed !' " After all those weary years, deliverance had come at last.

How truly, he had yet to realize. The work had yet to be done in his soul which should make him aware of it. He had loved and honored the Word of God, and when he found that the church to which he clung was in fundamental opposition to the Word,-when he had to make his choice between the two,-he did not hesitate. But then this church, out of which he had believed was no salvation, now that it was gone, where was salvation ? A moment of dreadful darkness followed:he knew not! He, alone, forsaken of man, the link broken with every thing that he had counted dear before, seemed to himself forsaken of God as well. Prostrate, desolate, undone, Satan pressed upon him the awful relief of suicide for his despair, but God's mercy stopped his hand, and the knife fell upon the floor.

From the Word of God, to which he turned now in his distress, the answer came at length. His eyes fell upon the words, "YE are bought with a price:be ye NOT THE SERVANTS OF MEN"(I Cor. 7:23). It was the new creative word, filling his soul with light and peace. "Jesus has bought me ! " he said to himself; " I then belong to Him ! He alone has a right over me ! I do not belong to the bishops, to the popes; not even to the church, as I have been told till now. Jesus has bought me:then He has saved me ! and if so, I am perfectly saved-forever saved ! for Jesus cannot save me by half. Jesus is my God ; the works of God are perfect. My salvation must, then, be a perfect salvation ! But how has He saved me ? What price has He paid for my poor guilty soul? As quick as light the answer came:"He bought you with His blood shed on the cross! He saved you by dying on Calvary ! "

He said to himself again, " If Jesus has perfectly saved me by shedding His blood on the cross, I am not saved, as I have taught and preached till now, by my penances, my prayers to Mary and the saints, my confessions and indulgences, nor even by the flames of purgatory." The fabric of Romanism, struck by the Word of God, fell into ruin and disappeared. "Jesus," he says, "alone remained in my mind as the Saviour of my soul."

Once more, however, the darkness returned upon him. His sins appeared like a mountain, and under them he seemed crushed utterly. He cried aloud to God, but it seemed as if He would have nothing to do with such a sinner, but was ready to cast him into the hell he had so richly deserved. This lasted for a few minutes of unspeakable agony, and then the light began again to penetrate the darkness, and Jesus began to be seen once more. To his intensely aroused sensibility it seemed as if he actually saw the Saviour, and heard Him offering Himself to him as a gift,-His precious sacrifice as a gift to pay his debt of sin, and eternal life too as a gift. He saw Him touch the mountain of his sins, and it rolled into the deep, and disappeared, while the blood of the Lamb fell in a shower upon him to purify his soul.

The result was real and permanent:fear had given place to courage and strength. His longing was now to go back to his people, and tell them what the Lord had done for him. Ere he reached them, they had received a telegram from the bishop, bidding them turn away their priest, for he had refused to give him an unconditional act of submission. But they unanimously said, " He has done right; we will stand by him to the end."

Of this he knew nothing when, arriving on the Lord's day morning at St. Anne, he stood in the midst of a congregation of a thousand people, to speak to them of his new position and his new peace. When he told them he was no longer a Roman Catholic priest, "a universal cry of surprise and sadness filled the church." But he went on, giving them the full detail of his interview with the bishop, then of his darkness and desolation, then of the light and joy which succeeded this; and then he offered them the gift he had accepted, and besought them also to accept it. Finally he told them he was prepared to leave them, but not before they themselves told him to go; and closed with, " If you believe it better to have a priest of Rome, who will keep you tied as slaves to the feet of the bishops, and who will preach to you the ordinances of men, rather than have me preach to you nothing but the pure Word of God, as we find it in the gospel of Christ, tell it me by rising up, and I will go ! "

But no one stirred of all the many there; weeping as they were, they sat in silence. Chiniquy was puzzled. After a few minutes, however, he rose up, and asked, "Why do you not at once tell me to go ? You see that I can no longer remain your pastor after renouncing the tyranny of the bishops and the traditions of men, to follow the gospel of Christ as my only rule. Why do you not bravely tell me to go away ?"

But still they sat; and something in their faces shining through their tears spoke to the heart of their astonished pastor. With a sudden inspiration of hope he told them,-

" The mighty God, who gave me His saving light yesterday, can grant you the same favor to-day. He can as well save a thousand souls as one." And he closed with, " Let all those who think it better to follow Jesus Christ than the pope, better to follow the Word of God than the traditions of men,-let all those who want me to remain here and preach to you nothing but the Word of God, as we find it in the gospel of Christ, tell me so by rising up. I am your man. Rise up !

And without a single exception, that multitude arose! "More than a thousand of my countrymen," says Mr. Chiniquy, " had forever broken their fetters. They had crossed the Red Sea, and exchanged the servitude of Egypt for the blessings of the promised land."

It was the beginning of a work which has gone on ever since. "In a few days, four hundred and five out of five hundred families in St. Anne, had not only accepted the gospel of Christ as their only authority in religion, but had publicly given up the name of Roman Catholics. A few months later, a Roman Catholic priest, legally questioned on the subject by the judge at Kankakee, had to swear that only fifteen families had remained Roman Catholics at St. Anne."

About the middle of the year 1860, "the census of the converts taken gave us about six thousand five hundred precious souls already wrenched from the iron grasp of popery."

In Montreal afterward, "in the short space of four years, we had the unspeakable joy of seeing seven thousand French Canadian Roman Catholics and emigrants from France publicly renounce the errors of popery, to follow the gospel of Christ."

In the prosecution of this work, Mr. Chiniquy has had to pass through much; in the thirty years that have followed, not less than thirty public attempts have been made upon his life. Thirty-two times he has been before the courts of Montreal and Illinois; and in one case alone, seventy-two false witnesses were brought to support the accusation.

Yet, as ever, all this has turned to the furtherance of the gospel; and to day, says Mr. Chiniquy, "the gospel of Christ is advancing with irresistible power among the French Canadians, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans . . . Among the converts, we count now twenty-five priests, and more than fifty young zealous ministers born in the church of Rome."