ng was
a failure, or would have been had it not been for the presence of
Athanase Coquerel, who spoke in English at great length with the utmost
freedom and warmth, and who had much to say of his own struggles on
behalf of Free Christianity in France, of universal interest.

It appears in its early days the Protestant Church of France was entirely
exclusive, and its confession of faith was drawn up by Calvin and Beza.
One of its forty articles decreed that the sword had been put by God into
the hands of reigning princes, magistrates, &c., not only to enforce
obedience to the second table of the Ten Commandments, but also to the
first. Another article implied that little children, even unborn babes,
are condemned to eternal perdition in hell; and if they die without
baptism can in no way whatever be saved. By-and-by a little more
elasticity was imported into this creed, and the Liberal party continued
to live, even when, as in 1685, Louis XIV. shut up all the Protestant
academies in France. An English writer had truly remarked that no Church
had suffered so long and so much from persecution as the Reformed Church
in France, and he was right--the last pastor who was hung in Paris
suffered that penalty only as recently as the year 1762. A young pastor
preaching at Nismes had for one of his hearers Lafayette, and he and
Lafayette got from Louis XVI., in 1787, an edict that gave the French
Protestants civil rights, and since then the Church has revived, but at
the same time it has steadily and consistently refused to re-enact the
old rigid creeds. At present there were two parties in the Church, one
orthodox the other Liberal. In the Church at Paris, consisting of
bankers, with whom Guizot always acted, the Consistory is orthodox. That
Consistory was formed in 1802 by Napoleon, who selected for that purpose
the twelve persons most wealthy. In 1848 this Consistory was re-elected
by universal suffrage, and this was the cause of great changes. The
ultra-Conservative feeling of the day retained the old set in office, and
they, feeling themselves invested with additional power, began that
persecution of M. Coquerel's father which continued till the last hour of
his life. Of that persecution he, the speaker, had his share, and at
last to support him the Union Protestante Liberale was formed. In a
little while after he had spoken, to a certain extent favourably, of
Renan's work, he was excluded from the Church, and M. Mar