In theory nothing appears more rational than that every one should
worship the Deity according to his own ideas--form his own opinion as to
his attributes, and draw his own conclusions as to hereafter. An
established Church _appears_ to be a species of coercion, not that you
are obliged to believe in, or follow that form of worship, but that, if
you do not, you lose your portion of certain advantages attending that
form of religion, which has been accepted by the majority and adopted by
the government. In religion, to think for yourself wears the semblance
of a luxury, and like other luxuries, it is proportionably taxed.
And yet it would appear as if it never were intended that the mass
should think for themselves, as everything goes on so quietly when other
people think for them, and everything goes so wrong when they do think
for themselves: in the first instance where a portion of the people
think for the mass, all are of one opinion; whereas in the second, they
divide and split into many molecules, that they resemble the globules of
water when expanded by heat, and like them are in a state of
restlessness and excitement.
That the partiality shown to an established church creates some
bitterness of feeling is most true, but being established by law, is it
not the partiality shown for the legitimate over the illegitimate? All
who choose may enter into its portals, and if the people will remain out
of doors of their own accord, ought they to complain that they have no
house over their heads. They certainly have a right to remain out of
doors if they please, but whether they are justified in complaining
afterward is another question. Perhaps the unreasonableness of the
demands of the dissenters in our own country will be better brought home
to them by my pointing out the effects of the voluntary system in the
United States.
In America every one worships the Deity after his own fashion; not only
the mode of worship, but even the Deity itself, varies. Some worship
God, some Mammon; some admit, some deny, Christ; some deny both God and
Christ; some are saved by living prophets only; some go to heaven by
water, while some dance their way upwards. Numerous as are the sects,
still are the sects much subdivided. Unitarians are not in unity as to
the portion of divinity they shall admit to our Saviour; flap-fists, as
to the precise quantity of water necessary to salvation; even the
Quakers have split into controversy, and the men of peace are at open
war in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.
The following is the table of the religious denominations of the United
States, from the American Almanac of 1838: