744 



REFORMED CHURCHES. 



RHODE ISLAND. 



the church has been for several years very loose, 

 yet, as far as is known, no effort has yet been 

 made to organize an independent church. 



For the last twelve years, the German Re- 

 formed Church has been considerably agitated 

 by the liturgical question, some of the leading 

 men of the Eastern Synod as Dr. Nevin, Dr. 

 Schaff, Dr. Gerhard favoring a more strictly 

 ritualistic or altar worship than has before been 

 in use in the church ; while the "Western Synod 

 and a minority of the Eastern Synod have taken 

 ground against the liturgical change. Six years 

 ago, the draft of a liturgy was presented to the 

 Eastern Synod by a liturgical committee, and 

 ordered to be printed for provisional use. In 

 1862, the synod had another long discussion on 

 the Provisional Liturgy, a version of which has 

 been demanded by most of the classes. It was 

 finally resolved to allow the liturgy to remain 

 in the church provisional use for five years 

 longer. 



In Switzerland the great majority of the 

 Protestant population, which, according to last 

 census of 1860, numbered 1,476,982 souls, 

 belongs to the Reformed State Church, which in 

 every canton has an independent organization. 

 For several years, a kind of union between 

 the cantonal churches has been established by 

 means of an Annual Helvetic Conference, an 

 assembly of delegates from the the church gov- 

 ernments of the several cantons. Its resolu- 

 tions are, however, merely advisory. Confor- 

 mity with the old Confessions of Faith is no- 

 where insisted upon in the Reformed State 

 churches, and there prevails therefore the great- 

 est possible divergence of theological opinions. 

 Besides the State churches there are a number of 

 independent Reformed churches, which have, 

 however, generally only a small membership. 



In Germany, a considerable portion of the 

 Reformed churches has been absorbed by the 

 United Evangelical Church, which was formed 

 out of a union of the Reformed and the Luther- 

 an churches. There are, however, still Re- 

 formed churches in a number of states, especial- 

 ly in Hanover (97,018 souls); Bavaria, Hesse- 

 Cassel, Hesse-Darmstadt (29,200 souls), Brem- 

 en, and several others. Several years ago, 

 annual conferences of the German Reformed 

 churches began to be held, but the participa- 

 tion in them has not yet become general, and 

 there is as yet no kind of official communication 

 between them. Of the theological faculties 

 of the German universities none is exclusively 

 Reformed. 



In Austria, the Reformed Church, which is 

 officially called the Evangelical Church of Hel- 

 vetic Confession, is divided into three independ- 

 ent bodies, whose condition was, in 1862, as 

 follows: 1. The Evangelical Church of Helve- 

 tic Confession in Hungary had 4 superintend- 

 entships (synods), called the superintendent- 

 ships on the Danube, beyond the Danube, this 

 side of the Theiss, and beyond the Theiss ; 38 

 "Seniorats" (presbyteries), 1,427 congrega- 

 tions, and a population of 1,511,842 souls. 2. 



The Evangelical Church of H. C. in Transyl- 

 vania, had 1 superintendentship, 18 districts, 

 559 congregations, and a population of about 

 300,000 souls. 3. The Reformed churches in 

 the German and Slavic countries of Austria, are 

 comprised with the Lutherans into one organiza- 

 tion, in which the Lutherans form 5, and the Re- 

 formed 3 superintendentships (Vienna, Prague, 

 and Ingrowitz in Moravia). The latter have 

 the following statistics : 1. Vienna, 3 congre- 

 gations, 6,810 souls ; 2. Prague, 3 " Seniorats," 

 38 congregations, 56,832 souls; 3. Ingrowitz, 

 2 "Seniorats," 19 congregations, 34,797 souls. 



The Reformed State Church of France had, 

 in 1862, 105 consistories, 477 parishes with 682 

 stations, 889 churches and oratories, 1,293 

 schools, 567 official pastors, 82 assistant pastors 

 and chaplains. The mixed consistory of Algiers 

 (comprising under its jurisdiction both the Lu- 

 theran and Reformed churches of Algeria) had 

 18 parishes, 30 stations, 42 places of worship, 

 15 pastors. 



Holland has an established and a free Re- 

 formed church. In the former liberal (ration- 

 alistic) principles prevail, while the later ad- 

 heres strictly to the old standards of the church. 

 To the former belongs a population of about 

 1,900,000, to the latter about 55,000 souls. 



Belgium has likewise a Reformed church 

 which is recognized and supported by the state, 

 and free Reformed churches. The former had, 

 in 1859, 16 preachers; the latter, likewise, 16 

 preachers and 4 evangelists. Both together 

 are supposed to have a population of about 

 25,000 souls. 



Russia had in 1860 1,045 German Reformed 

 in the Baltic provinces, 3,772 in St. Petersburg, 

 11,911 in Lithuania and the adjoining Polish 

 provinces, 36,000 in the interior of the empire. 

 Many of them were, however, in connection 

 with the Lutheran Church. 



In Asia, the Dutch Reformed Church of the 

 United States has a number of missionary con- 

 gregations in India and China, which in the 

 former country have been organized into a reg- 

 ular classis. The same church has also com- 

 menced a mission in Japan. The State Church 

 of Holland has a number of nourishing missions 

 in the large Dutch possessions in the Archi- 

 pelago. 



In Africa, the Dutch "Reformed Church has 

 still the character of State Church in the Cape 

 colony. The Dutch language has been hitherto 

 used in all the churches, but the synod of the 

 church, held in 1862, made provision for the 

 use of the English language, where there was 

 a sufficient demand for it. 



RHODE ISLAND, one of the New England 

 States, and the smallest of the Union excepting 

 Delaware, had in 1860 a population of 174,620, 

 which was an increase of 27,075 during the ten 

 years ending June, 1860. The industrial and 

 commercial statistics of this enterprising little 

 State will be found under UNITED STATES. 



The governor of the State in 1862 was "Win. 

 Sprague. The election takes place on the first 



