Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

portions will far exceed those which the spirit of the age has produced among other nations. Its materials are granite, bronze, and iron, and no other. Its colour is imposing, though sombre.

This marvellous temple was commenced under Alexander, and will soon be completed under the reign of Nicholas, by the same Frenchman, (M. de Montferrand), who raised the column.

And such efforts for the benefit of a church crippled by the civil power! Alas ! the word of God will never be heard under this roof. The temples of the Greek church no longer serve as roofs for the pulpits of truth. In scorn of the memories of the Athana-siuses and the Chrysostoms, religion is not taught publicly to the Russians. The Greek Muscovites suppress the word of preaching, unlike the Protestants, whose religion consists of nothing but that word.

The Emperor, aided by his armies of soldiers and of artists, exerts himself in vain. He will never invest the Greek church with a power which God has not given it: it may be rendered a persecuting, but it cannot be rendered an apostolical, church, — a church, that is to say which is a civiliser, and a conqueror in the moral world. To discipline men is not to convert souls. This political and national church has neither moral nor spiritual life : where independence is wanting, there can be nothing else that is good. Schism, in separating the priest from his independent head, immediately throws him into the hands of his temporal prince; and thus revolt is punished by slavery. In the most bloody periods of history, the Catholic church laboured to emancipate the