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RENAN, ERNEST. 



REUNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



first lecture, and in consequence the Government 

 refused to ratify his appointment. In 1869 he 

 was an independent and unsuccessful candidate 

 for the Chamber. , During the War of 1870 he 

 made an ineffectual appeal to Strauss for inter- 

 vention in behalf of France. The Republic 

 reinstated him in his professorship, which he re- 

 tained till his death. He was elected a member 

 of the Academy, to succeed Claude Bernard in 

 1878, and/ Vice-Rector of the College of France in 

 1883, and he was made grand officer of the 

 Legion of Honor in 1888. In his youth he 

 showed prodigious powers of acquiring knowl- 

 edge, and an insatiable thirst for more. He re- 

 nounced the priesthood, for which he had been 

 destined from his earliest years, when he found 

 that his intellect no longer permitted him to ac- 

 cept the legendary and the miraculous. A be- 

 lief in God he always entertained, and, while re- 

 garding Christ as nothing more than a divinely 

 inspired philosopher, cherished and preached the 

 moral doctrines of Christianity charity, love, 

 and pardon. " Jesus is the highest of these pil- 

 lars which show to man whence he came and 

 whither he should tend. In him is condensed 

 all that is good and lofty in our nature. . . . 

 Whatever may be the surpluses of the future, 

 Jesus will never be surpassed. His worship will 

 grow young without ceasing; his legend will 

 call forth tears without end ; his sufferings will 

 melt the noblest hearts ; all ages will proclaim 

 that among the sons of men there is none born 

 greater than Jesus." His French prose has been 

 regarded as unsurpassed in his generation. He 

 has been criticised as a historian for ignoring 

 meagerness of positive knowledge and supplying 

 details of his own, but his literary gifts are ad- 

 mitted as supreme. He did not concern himself 

 so much with comparison of texts, analysis of 

 documents, exposure of contradiction and omis- 

 sions, as to lend to his writing a personality and 

 animation which changed abstract dissertations 

 into dramatic recitals. He did not attempt to 

 proselytize, nor to inflict his opinions upon others. 

 " If I had been born head of a school," he said, 

 " 1 should have had a singular caprice ; I should 

 have loved only those of my disciples who would 

 detach themselves from me. For my own part, 

 the day on which any one should convict me of 

 an attempt to imbue with my ideas any one who 

 did not come voluntarily, would cause me most 

 acute pain." Religious development, he con- 

 tended, would no longer proceed by way of sec- 

 tarian proselytism, but by way of harmonious in- 

 ternal development. His personal appearance 

 was unprepossessing, and in his private relations 

 he excelled in the brilliance of his conversation, 

 and his simplicity and amiabilty made him one 

 of the most charming of men. He leaves a 

 widow and two children. The son is a painter 

 of the Puvis de Chavanne school ; the daughter 

 is married to a Greek, M. Psichaire. 



Renan's works embrace : " Vie de Jesus " ; " Les 

 Apotres " ; " St. Paul " ; " Antichrist " : " Les 

 Evangiles et la Seconde Generation Chretienne " ; 

 " Marc Aurele et la fin du Monde Antique " : 

 " Le Livre de Job"; "Le Cantique des Can- 

 tiques " ; " L'Ecclesiaste " ; " Histoire Generale 

 du Langues Semitiques " ; " Histoire du Peuple 

 d'Israel " ; " Etudes d'Histoire Religieuse " ; 

 " Nouvelles Etudes d'Histoire Religieuse" ; 



"Averroes et 1'Averro'isme " ; " Essais de Morale 

 et de Critique " ; " Melanges d'Histoire et de 

 Voyages " ; " Questions Contemporaines " ; " La 

 Reforme Intellectuelle et Morale de 1'Origine du 

 Language : ' ; " Dialogues Philosophiques " ; " Cal- 

 iban " ; " L'Eau de Jouvence " ; " Discours et 

 Conferences " ; " L'Avenir de la Science " ; " Mis- 

 sions de Phenicie " ; and " Conferences d'Angle- 



REUNION OF THE CHURCHES. A series 

 of conferences on the reunion of the Protestant 

 Churches was held at Grindenwald, Switzer- 

 land, in July, and, after a recess, in September. 

 Most of the Protestant Churches, particularly of 

 Great Britain, were represented, and addresses 

 were made from day to day by representative 

 men of the different denominations, presenting 

 various aspects of the subject : The essentials of 

 a true union ; suggestions as to means of har- 

 monizing differences; the methods, whether 

 speedy or gradual, by which reunion can be 

 promoted ; accounts of methods and results of 

 Christian work in the foreign missionary and 

 the home fields ; the office of education, etc. 

 The Rev. C. A. Berry (Congregational) insisted 

 that reunion must come by stages, and that the 

 first stage must be the reunion of the free 

 Churches, which is opposed by no difficulties of 

 dogma, and only a few and minor difficulties of 

 method. Reunion was defined by Bishop Per- 

 rowne, of Worcester, as meaning that those who 

 have separated themselves from the communion 

 and fellowship of the Church of England shall 

 by some means and in some way be united to it. 

 Pore Hyacinthe (the Rev. M. Loyson) mentioned 

 as the two steps necessary for reunion the estab- 

 lishment of the episcopate, as a fact, not as a 

 dogma, and the acceptance of the Nicene Creed 

 as the only oecumenical creed. The Rev. Dr. 

 T. B. Stephenson, ex-President of the Wesleyan 

 Conference, objected to the Church of England 

 as the nucleus for reunion, and insisted, as two 

 essential preliminaries to reunion, that existing 

 orders must be recognized, and the autonomy of 

 the several Churches must be respected. The 

 Rev. Hugh Price Hughes (Wesleyan) advocated 

 an organic reunion ; thought the Church of Eng- 

 land the best nucleus for it ; and was willing to 

 consent to absorption at once, if that was the 

 will of God. No definite conclusions were an- 

 nounced, the meetings having been called only 

 for conference. 



RHODE ISLAND, a New England State, one 

 of the original thirteen, ratified the Constitu- 

 tion May 29, 1790 : area, 1,250 square miles. The 

 population, according to each decennial census. 

 was 68.825 in 1790; 69,122 in 1800; 76.931 in 

 1810; 83,015 in 1820; 97,199 in 1830; 108,830 in 

 1840; 147,545 in 1850; 174,620 in 1860 ; 217.353 

 in 1870; 276,531 in 1880; and 345,506 in 1890. 

 Capitals, Newport and Providence. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year : Governor. Herbert W. 

 Ladd, Republican, succeeded by D. Russell 

 Brown, Republican; Lieutenant-Governor, Henry 

 A. Stearns, succeeded by Melville Bull; Secretary 

 of State, George H. litter; General Treasurer. 

 Samuel Clark ; State Auditor and Insurance 

 Commissioner, Albert C. Sanders; Attorney- 

 General, Robert W. Burbank ; Railroad Com- 

 missioner, Edward S. Freeman ; Commissioner 



