Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 27 - CHI-ELD.pdf/79

 CHRISTIAN

CHURCH,

Treaty of London of 8th May 1852, and the Danish law of succession of 31st July 1853. On 26th August 1842 he married Louise, daughter of Landgrave Wilhelm of Hesse-Cassel. In 1846, when the whole house of Schleswig-Holstein signed the famous “ Protest,” Christian held back, and he was the only prince of that house who remained in the military service of Denmark from 1848-50. He was therefore clearly indicated as the proper person to fill the vacant place of heir to the Danish throne, to which he had a claim in right of his wife, the cousin and heiress of Frederick VII., and he was so recognized by the Treaty of Warsaw of 5th January 1851. Upon coming to the throne his first act was to ratify the Eider Danish constitution, by which the Duchy of Schleswig was incorporated with Denmark. This led to a war with Prussia and Austria, which ended with the Peace of Vienna, 30th October 1864, Christian ceding Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg to Germany. The king’s pronounced conservatism has led to serious collision CHRISTIAN

I. The Measurement of the Progress of Christianity AS EXPRESSED BY STATISTICS. Statistics are proverbially misleading; but while we may well use them with caution, and exercise careful selfrestraint in making hasty inferences from them, they are valuable within their measure and scope. The individual items must not be unduly pressed; we must even bear in mind that the apparent significance of their details may be readily misunderstood; but they furnish the basis of judging the general direction of a given movement; they enable us to discriminate between the inrush of the wave and the incoming of the tide. Thus we note in the history of Christianity certain periods of reaction; the rapid progress in one age is checked in another. There were times when the very life of Christianity seemed to be threatened; there are places where flourishing Christian churches existed, and from which they have vanished. To

53

in the Danish Parliament, which from 1873-95 regularly refused to vote the budgets presented by his majesty’s ministers. On 29th September 1898 the king lost his consort Louise, who died at the age of eighty-one. Their numerous children made brilliant marriages : (1) Frederick, born 3rd June 1843; married, 26th April 1898, to Princess Alexandra of Mecklenburg; (2) Alexandra, born 1st December 1844; married, 10th March 1863, to the Prince of Wales, now King Edward VII.; (3) Wilhelm, born 24th December 1845, elected King of the Hellenes, under the title of Georgios, by the Greek National Assembly, 31st March 1863 ; married, 27th October 1867, to Olga Constantinowna, grand duchess of Russia; (4) Marie Dagmar, born 26th November 1847 ; married, 9th November 1866, to Alexander III., Czar of Russia; (5) Thyra, born 29th September 1853; married, 21st December 1878, to Prince Ernest Augustus, duke of Cumberland;. (6) Waldemar, born 27th October 1858; married, 22nd October 1885, to Princess Marie d’Orleans.

C HURCH,

HE present article does not deal with the state, condition, or progress of any particular or national church. The recent history of various Christian communions will be found under their special and appropriate titles; but, in addition to those articles which treat of the present position and prospects of particular churches, it has been thought well to devote some space to a wider purpose, and to endeavour to measure the progress of what may for convenience’ sake be called the Christian Church at large. The object, therefore, of this article is to deal with the advance of the Church of Christ generally; it aims at putting before its readers the present position of Christendom in relation to the moving forces and influences of the world; in brief, it is an attempt to answer the question, How far has the Christian idea advanced among men? Naturally and necessarily the question suggests a wide range of inquiry, and, to be fully answered, would require a treatise rather than a brief article; but while it will be needful, from time to time, to take a backward glance at other and earlier ages, we shall, as far as is possible, restrict ourselves to the movements of recent years, and the period which we wish to keep specially in mind will be the last generation. Roughly speaking, our sketch will be mainly occupied with the period covered by the latter half of the 19 th century. We shall endeavour to measure the progress of Christianity in various ways, by reference to statistical facts, to influences in matters not reducible to statistics, and, lastly, by reference to certain changes in the direction of Christian energy and methods observable in recent years.

THE

THE.

take an example of a period of reaction, it seems well established that towards the close of the 2nd century the Christian population in the Roman empire declined. Persecution diminished the numbers of the Church. In the 18th century Voltaire felt justified in predicting that Christianity was about to disappear from among men. He spoke more from his wishes than his judgment, perhaps; but he was too shrewd an observer of his times to have committed himself to prophecy without some real or apparent justification. He saw that to a large extent the intellectual classes of his countrymen had been alienated or seduced from their faith. He did not perceive the religious forceswhich were even then at work preparing for the rejuvenation of Christian energy. As there have been epochs of arrested progress in Christian history, so there have been places where Christianity has made progress, but where the promise of earlier successes has not been sustained. Readers of Christian history have asked, What became of the halfmillion converts in South India who owed their faith to Xavier, or of the 300,000 in Ceylon who were the fruits of Dutch missionary effort ? Still more, readers will recall the story of Christianity in North Africa, and the vigorous churches in Carthage, Alexandria, and Hippo. Few facts mark more eloquently the temporary ebb of Christian influence than the decay of the churches which were once the churches of Cyprian, Augustine, and Origen. Christianity—it is well to realize the fact—has been subject to certain human influences, or, to speak more correctly, the Christian Church numbered among its adherents multitudes who were swayed by the ordinary emotions and passions of mankind, and were open to the influences of fear or gain. There were favourable as well as unfavourable times. This was frankly recognized by the earliest Christian historian, when he noted the fact that when persecution ceased the Church was multiplied (Acts ix. 31). There were, in fact, periods which tested the stability of men’s faith, and which enabled men to distinguish between the transitory wave, whose size and bulk was due to some favourable wind, and the rising tide, which owed its strength to more heavenly influence. The table which we present below reflects these fluctuating conditions, but, on the whole, witnesses to a steady and continuous advance. (i.) The proportion of the Christian population to the population of the world is the subject of our first statistical inquiry. Gibbon estimated that on the most favourable estimate the Christian population of the empire before