_Elder_. And enable us to do it.
_Preacher_. It supposes that the carnal mind is enmity against God--
_Elder_. Ah, indeed, Lord, it is.
_Preacher_. The very reverse of what God would have us to be--
_Elder_. God Almighty knows it's true.
_Preacher_. How necessary, then, that God should call upon us to
renounce everything--
_Elder_. God help us!
_Preacher_. Is it necessary for me to say more?
_Elder_. No--oh--no!
_Preacher_. Have I not said enough?
_Elder_. Oh, yes, quite enough.
_Preacher_. I rejoice that God calls me to give up every thing--
_Elder_. Yes, Lord, I would let it all go.
_Preacher_. You _must_ give up all--
_Elder_. Yes--all.
_Preacher_. Your pride--
_Elder_. My pride.
_Preacher_. Your envy.
_Elder_. My envy.
_Preacher_. Your covetousness--
_Elder_. My covetousness.
_Preacher_. Your anger.
_Elder_. Yes--my anger.
_Preacher_. Sinner, then; how awful is your condition!
_Elder_. How awful!
_Preacher_. What reason for all to examine themselves.
_Elder_. Lord, help us to search our hearts!
_Preacher_. Could you have more motives? I have done.
_Elder_. Thank God.--Thank God for his holy word. Amen.]
"It can hardly be denied, I think, that the prevalence of this spirit
has greatly increased within a few years, and become a great and
alarming evil. This increase is owing, no doubt, to the influence and
new practices introduced into the religious world by a certain class of
ministers, who have lately risen and taken upon themselves to rebuke,
and set down as unfaithful, all other ministers who do not conform to
their new ways, or sustain them in their extravagant career."
The interference, I may say the tyranny, of the laity over the ministers
of these democratic churches is, however, of still more serious
consequences to those who accept such arduous and repulsive duty. It is
a well-known fact, that there is a species of _bronchitis_, or affection
of the lungs, peculiar to the ministers in the United States, arising
from their excessive labours in their vocation. I have already
observed, that the zeal of the minister is even unto death: the
observations of Mr Colton fully bear me out in my assertion:--
"There is another serious evil in the Presbyterian and Congregational
denominations, which has attained to the consequence of an active and
highly influential element in these communities. I refer to the
excessive amount of labour that is demanded of the clergy, which is
undermining their health, and sending scores to their graves every year,
long before they ought to go there. It is a new state of things, it
must be acknowledged, and might seem hopeful of good, that great labours
and high devotion to the duties of the Christian ministry in our country
will not only be tolerated, but are actually demanded and imperatively
exacted. At first glance, it is a most grateful feature. But, when the
particulars come to be inquired into, it will be found that the mind and
health-destroying exactions now so extensively made on the energies of
the American clergy, particularly on these two classes I am now
considering, are attributable, almost entirely, to an appetite for
certain novelties, which have been introduced within a few years, adding
greatly to the amount of ministerial labour, without augmenting its
efficiency, but rather detracting from it. Sermons and meetings without
end, and in almost endless variety, are expected and demanded; and a
proportionate demand is made on the intellect, resources, and physical
energies of the preacher. He must be as much more interesting in his
exercises, and exhibitions as the increased multiplicity of public
religious occasions tend to pall on the appetite of hearers. Protracted
meetings from day to day, and often from week to week, are making
demands upon ministers, which no human power can sustain and, where
these are dispensed with, it is often necessary to introduce something
tantamount, in other forms, to satisfy the suggestions and wishes of
persons so influential as to render it imprudent not to attempt to
gratify them. In the soberest congregations, throughout nearly all
parts of the land, these importunate, and, without unkindness, I am
disposed to add, morbid minds are to be found, often in considerable
numbers. Almost everywhere, in order to maintain their ground and
satisfy the taste of the times, labours are demanded of ministers in
these two denominations enough to kill any man in a short period. It is
as if Satan had come into the world in the form of an angel of light,
seeming to be urging on a good work, but pushing it so hard as to
destroy the labourers by over exaction.
"The wasting energies--the enfeebled, ruined health--the frequent
premature deaths--the failing of ministers in the Presbyterian and
Congregational connexions from these causes all over the country, almost
as soon as they have begun to work--all which is too manifest not to be
seen, which everybody feels that takes any interest in this subject, are
principally, and with few exceptions, owing to the unnecessary
exorbitant demands on their intellectual powers, their moral and
physical energies. And the worst of it is, we not only have no
indemnification for this amazing, immense sacrifice, by a real
improvement of the state of religion, but the public mind is vitiated:
an unnatural appetite for spurious excitements, all tending to
fanaticism, and not a little of it the essence of fanaticism, is created
and nourished. The interests of religion in the land are actually
thrown backward. It is a fever, a disease which nothing but time,
pains, and a change of system can cure. A great body of the most
talented, best educated, most zealous, most pious, and purest Christian
ministers in the country--not to disparage any others--a body which in
all respects will bear an advantageous comparison with any of their
class in the world, is threatened to be enervated, to become sickly, to
have their minds wasted, and their lives sacrificed out of season, and
with real loss to the public, by the very means which prostrates them,
even though we should leave out of the reckoning the premature end to
which they are brought. This spectacle, at this moment before the eyes
of the wide community, is enough to fill the mind of an enlightened
Christian with dismay. I have myself been thrown ten years out of the
stated use of the ministry by this very course, and may, therefore, be
entitled to feel and to speak on the subject. And when I see my
brethren fallen and falling around me, like the slain in battle, the
plains of our land literally covered with these unfortunate victims, I
am constrained to express a most earnest desire, that some adequate
remedy may be applied."
It is no matter of surprise, then, that I heard the ministers at the
camp meeting complain of the excess of their labours, and the difficulty
of obtaining young men to enter the church; [The Rev Mr Reid
observes, speaking of the Congregationalists, "When I rose to support
his resolution, as requested, all were generously attentive. At the
close I alluded emphatically to one fact in the report, which was, That
out of 4,500 churches there were 2,000 not only void of educated
pastors, but void of pastors, and I insisted that, literally, they ought
not to sleep on such a state of things."--_Reid and Matheson's Tour_]
who, indeed, unless actuated by a holy zeal, would submit to such a life
of degradation? what man of intellect and education could submit to be
schooled by shoemakers and mechanics, to live poor, and at the mercy of
tyrants, and drop down dead like the jaded and over laden beast from
excess of fatigue and exertion? Let me again quote the same author:
"It is these excessive, multitudinous, and often long _protracted_
religious occasions, together with the spirit that is in them, which
have been for some years breaking up and breaking down the clergy of
this land? It has been breaking them _up_. It is commonly observed,
that a new era has lately come over the Christian congregations of our
country in regard to the permanence of the pastoral relation. Times
was, in the memory of those now living, when the settlement of a
minister was considered of course a settlement for life. But now, as
every body knows, this state of things is entirely broken up; and it is,
perhaps, true that, on an average, the clergy of this country do not
remain more than five years in the same place." ["I was sorry to find
that, in this part of the State, the ministers are so frequently
changing the scene of their pastoral labours. The fault may sometimes
be in themselves: but from conversations I have heard on the subject, I
am inclined to believe that the _people_ are fond of a change."--_Rev
Mr Reid_] And it is impossible they should, in the present state of
things. They could not stand it. So numerous are their engagements; so
full of anxiety is their condition in a fevered state of the public mind
acting upon them from all directions; so consuming are their labours in
the study and in public, pressed and urged upon them by the demands of
the time; and, withal, so fickle has the popular mind become under a
system that is forever demanding some new and still more exciting
measure--some new society--some new monthly or weekly meeting, which
perhaps soon grows into a religious holiday--some special effort running
through many days, sometimes lasting for weeks, calling for public
labours of ministers, of the most exciting kind throughout each day,
from the earliest hour of the morning to a late hour of night; for
reasons and facts of this kind, so abundant, and now so obvious to the
public, that they need only to be referred to, to be seen and
appreciated, it is impossible that ministers should remain long in the
same place. Their mental and physical energies become exhausted, and
they are compelled to change; first, because it is not in the power of
man to satisfy the appetite for novelties which is continually and from
all quarters making its insatiate demands upon them; and next; that, if
possible, they may purchase a breathing time and a transient relief from
the overwhelming pressure of their cares and labours.
"But, alas! there is no relief: they are not only broken up, but they
find themselves fast breaking down. Wherever they go, there is the same
demand for the same scene to be acted over. There is--there can be--no
stability in the pastoral relation, in such a state of the public mind:
and, what is still more melancholy and affecting, the pastors themselves
cannot endure it--they cannot live. They are not only constantly
fluctuating--literally afloat on the wide surface of the community--but
their health is undermined--their spirits are sinking--and they are fast
treading upon each others' heels to the grave, their only land of rest.
"Never since the days of the apostles, was a country blessed with so
enlightened, pious, orthodox, faithful, willing clergy, as the United
States of America at this moment; and never did a ministry, so worthy of
trust, have so little independence to act according to their conscience
and best discretion. They are literally the victims of a spiritual
tyranny that has started up and burst upon the world in a new form--at
least, with an extent of sway that has never been known. It is an
influence which comes up from the lowest conditions of life, which is
vested in the most ignorant minds, and, therefore, the more unbending
and uncontrollable. It is an influence which has been fostered and
blown into a wide-spread flame by a class of itinerating ministers, who
have suddenly started up and overrun the land, decrying and denouncing
all that have not yielded at once to their sway; by direct and open
efforts shaking and destroying public confidence in the settled and more
permanent ministry, leaving old paths and striking out new ones,
demolishing old systems and substituting others, and disturbing and
deranging the whole order of society as it had existed before. And it
is to this new state of things, so harassing, so destructive to health
and life, that the regular ministry of this country (the best qualified,
most pious, most faithful, and in all respects the most worthy Christian
ministry that the church has ever enjoyed in any age) are made the
victims. They cannot resist it, they are overwhelmed by it."
The fact is, that there is little or no healthy religion in their most
numerous and influential churches; it is all excitement. Twenty or
thirty years back, the Methodists were considered as extravagantly
frantic, but the Congregationalists and Presbyterians in the United
States have gone far ahead of them; and the Methodist church in America
has become to a degree Episcopal, and softened down into, perhaps, the
most pure, most mild, and most simple of all the creeds professed.
I have said that in these two churches the religious feeling was that of
excitement: I believe it to be more or less the case in _all_ religion
in America; for the Americans are a people who are prone to excitement,
not only from their climate, but constitutionally, and it is the
_caviare_ of their existence. If it were not so, why is it necessary
that revivals should be so continually called forth--a species of
stimulus, common, I believe, to almost every sect and creed, promoted
and practised in all their colleges, and considered as most important
and salutary in their results. Let it not be supposed that I am
deprecating that which is to be understood by a revival, in the true
sense of the word; not those revivals which were formerly held the
benefit of all, and for the salvation of many: I am raising my voice
against the modern system, which has been so universally substituted for
the reality; such as has been so fully exposed by Bishop Hopkins, of
Vermont, and, by Mr Colton, who says--
"Religious excitements, called revivals of religion, have been a
prominent feature in the history of this country from its earliest
periods, more particularly within a hundred years and the agency of man
has always had more or less to do in their management, or in their
origination, or in both. Formerly, in theory, (for man is naturally a
philosopher, and will always have his theory for every event, and every
fact,) they were regarded as Pentecostal seasons--as showers from
heaven; with which this world below had nothing to do but to receive,
and be refreshed by them as they came. A whole community, or the great
majority of them, absorbed in serious thoughts about eternal things,
inquiring the way to heaven, and seeming intent on the attainment of
that high and glorious condition, presents a spectacle as solemn as it
is interesting to contemplate. Such, doubtless, has been the condition
of many communities in the early and later history of American revivals;
and it is no less true that the fruits have been the turning of many to
God and his ways.
"The revivals of the present day are of a very different nature." [The
American clergymen are supported in their opinion on the present
revivals and their consequences by Doctors Reid and Matheson, who,
otherwise favourable to them, observe, "These revival preachers have
denounced pastors with whom they could not compare, as dumb dogs,
hypocrites, and formalists, leading their people to hell. The
consequences have been most disastrous. Churches have become the sport
of derision, distraction, and disorder. Pastors have been made unhappy
in their dearest connexions. So extensive has been this evil, that, in
one presbytery of nineteen churches, there were only three who had
settled pastors; and in one synod, in 1832, of a hundred and three
churches, only fifty-two had pastors."] "There are but two ways by which
the mind of man can be brought to a proper sense of religion--one is by
love, and the other by fear; and it is by the latter only that modern
revivals become at all effective. Bishop Hopkins says, very
truly--`Have we any example in the preaching of Christ and his apostles,
of the use of strong individual denunciation? Is there one sentence in
the word of inspiration to justify the attempt to excite the feelings of
a public assembly, until every restraint of order is forgotten, and
confusion becomes identified with the word of God." ["The Primitive
Church Compared," etcetera, by the Bishop of Vermont.] Yet such are the
revivals of the present day, as practised in America. Mr Colton calls
them--"Those startling and astounding shocks which are constantly
invented, artfully and habitually applied, under all the power of
sympathy, and of a studied and enthusiastic elocution, by a large class
of preachers among us. To startle and to shock is their great secret--
their power."
The same author then proceeds:
"Religion is a dread and awful theme in itself. That is, as all must
concede, there are revealed truths belonging to the category. To invest
these truths with terrors that do not belong to them, by bringing them
out in distorted shapes and unnatural forms; to surprise a tender and
unfortified mind by one of awful import, without exhibiting the
corresponding relief which Christianity has provided; to frighten,
shock, and paralyse the mind with alternations and scenes of horror,
carefully concealing the ground of encouragement and hope, till reason
is shaken and hurled from its throne, for the sake of gaining a convert,
and in making a convert to make a maniac (as doubtless sometimes occurs
under this mode of preaching, for we have the proof of it,) involves a
fearful responsibility. I have just heard of an interesting girl thus
driven to distraction, in the city of New York, at the tender age of
fourteen, by being approached by the preacher after a sermon of this
kind, with a secretary by his side with a book and pen in his hand, to
take down the names and answers of those who, by invitation, remained to
be conversed with. Having taken her name, the preacher asked, `Are you
for God or the devil?' Being overcome, her head depressed, and in
tears, she made no reply. `Put her down, then, in the devil's book,'
said the preacher to his secretary. From that time the poor girl became
insane; and, in her simplicity and innocence, has been accustomed to
tell the story of her misfortunes."
And yet these revivals are looked up to and supported as the strong arm
of religion. It is not only the ignorant or the foolish, but the
enlightened and the educated also, who support and encourage them,
either from a consideration of their utility, or from that fear, so
universal in the United States, of expressing an opinion contrary to the
majority. How otherwise could they be introduced once or twice a year
into all the colleges, the professors of which are surely most of them
men of education and strong mind? Yet such is the fact. It is
announced that some minister, peculiarly gifted to work in revivals, is
to come on a certain day. Books are thrown on one side, study is
abandoned, and ten days perhaps are spent in religious exercises of the
most violent and exciting character. It is a scene of strange
confusion, some praying, some pretending to pray, some scoffing. Day
after day it is carried on, until the excitement is at its height, as
the exhortations and the denunciations of the preacher are poured into
their ears. A young American who was at one of the colleges, and gave
me a full detail of what had occurred, told me that on one occasion a
poor lad, frightened out of his senses, and anxious to pray, as the
vengeance and wrath of the Almighty was poured out by the minister, sunk
down upon his knees and commenced his prayer with "Almighty and
_diabolical_ God!" No misnomer, if what the preacher had thundered out
was the _truth_.
As an example of the interference of the laity, and of the description
of people who may be so authorised, the same gentleman told me that at
one revival a deacon said to him previous to the meeting, "Now, Mr --,
if you don't take advantage of this here revival and lay up a little
salvation for your soul, all I can say is, that you ought to have your
(something) confoundedly well kicked."
What I have already said on this subject will, I think, establish two
points, first, that the voluntary system does not work well for society;
and secondly, that the ministers of the churches are treated with such
tyranny and contumely, as to warrant the assertion, that in a country,
like the United States, where a man may, in any other profession, become
independent in a few years, the number of those who enter into the
ministry must decrease at the very time that the population and demand
for them will increase.
We have now another question to be examined, and a very important one,
which is:--Are those who worship under the voluntary system supplied at
a cheaper rate than those of the established churches in this kingdom?
I say this is an important question, as there is no doubt that one of
the principal causes of dissenting has been the taxes upon religion in
this country, and the wish, if it were attainable, of worshipping at
free cost. In entering into this question, there is no occasion to
refer to any particular sect, as the system is much the same with them
all, and is nearly as follows:
Some pious and well disposed people of a certain persuasion, we will
say, imagine that another church might, if it were built, be well filled
with those of their own sect: and that, if it is not built, the
consequences will be that many of their own persuasion will, from the
habit of attending other churches, depart from those tenets which they
are anxious should not only be retained by those who have embraced them,
but as much as possible promulgated, so as to gather strength and make
converts--for it should be borne in mind that the sectarian spirit is
one great cause of the rapid church-building in America. [Churches are
also built upon speculation, as they sometimes are in England.] One is
of Paul, another of Apollos. They meet, and become the future deacons
and elders, in all probability, to whom the minister has to bow; they
agree to build a church at their own risque: they are not speculators,
but religious people, who have not the least wish to make money, but who
are prepared, if necessary, to lose it.
Say then that a handsome church (I am referring to the cities) of brick
or stone, is raised in a certain quarter of the city, and that it costs
75,000 dollars. When the interior is complete, and the pews are all
built, they divide the whole cost of the church upon the pews, more or
less value being put upon them according to their situations. Allowing
that there are two hundred pews, the one hundred most eligible being
valued at five hundred dollars each; and the other one hundred inferior
at two hundred and fifty dollars; these prices would pay the 75,000
dollars, the whole expense of the church building.
The pews are then put up to auction; some of the most eligible will
fetch higher prices than the valuation, while some are sold below the
valuation. If all are not sold, the residue remains upon the hands of
the parties who built the church, and who may for a time be out of
pocket. They have, however, to aid them, the extra price paid for the
best pews, and the sale of the vaults for burial in the church-yard.
Most of the pews being sold, the church is partly paid for. The next
point is to select a minister, and, after due trial, one is chosen. If
he be a man of eloquence and talent, and his doctrines acceptable to the
many, the church fills, the remainder of the pews are sold, and so far
the expenses of building the church are defrayed; but they have still to
pay the salary of the minister, the heating and lighting of the church,
the organist, and the vocalists: this is done by an assessment upon the
pews, each pew being assessed according to the sum which it fetched when
sold by auction.
I will now give the exact expenses of an American gentleman in Boston,
who has his pew in one of the largest churches.
He purchased his pew at auction for seven hundred and fifty dollars, it
being one of the best in the church. The salaries of the most popular
ministers vary from fifteen hundred to three or four thousand dollars.
The organist receives about five hundred; the vocalists from two to
three hundred dollars each. To meet his share of these and the other
expenses, the assessment of this gentleman is sixty-three dollars per
annum. Now, the interest of seven hundred and fifty dollars in America
is forty-five dollars, and the assessment being sixty-three--one hundred
and eight dollars per annum, or twenty-two pounds ten shillings sterling
for his yearly expenses under the voluntary system. This, of course,
does not include the offerings of the plate, charity sermons, etcetera,
all of which are to be added, and which will swell the sum, according to
my friend's statement, to about thirty pounds per annum. ["A great evil
of our American churches is, their great respectability or
exclusiveness. Here, being of a large size and paid by Government, the
church is open to all the citizens, with an equal right and equal chance
of accommodation. In ours, the dearness of pew-rent, especially in
Episcopal and Presbyterian, turns poverty out of doors. Poor people
have a sense of shame, and I know many a one, who, because he cannot go
to Heaven decently, will not go at all."--_Sketches of Paris by an
American Gentleman_.]
It does not appear by the above calculations that the voluntary system
has cheapness to recommend it, when people worship in a respectable
manner, as you might hire a house and farm of fifty acres in that State
for the same rent which this gentleman pays for going to church; but it
must also be recollected that it is quite optional and that those who do
not go to church need not pay at all.
It was not, however, until late years that such was the case. In
Massachusetts, and in most of the Eastern States, the system was not
voluntary, and it is to this cause that may be ascribed the superior
morality and reverence for religion still existing, although decaying,
in these States. By former enactments in Massachusetts, landowners in
the country were compelled to contribute to the support of the church.
Pews in cities or towns are mentioned in all deeds and wills as
_personal_ property; but in the country, before the late Act, they were
considered as _real_ estate.
A pew was allotted each farm, and whether the proprietor occupied it or
not, he was obliged to pay for it; but by an Act of the Massachusetts
State legislature, passed within these few years, it was decided that no
man should be compelled to pay for religion. The consequence has been,
that the farmers now refuse to pay for their pews, the churches are
empty, and a portion of the clergy have been reduced to the greatest
distress. An itinerant ranter, who will preach in the open air, and
send his hat round for cents, suits the farmers much better as it is
much cheaper. Certainly this does not argue much for the progressive
advancement of religion, even in the moral State of Massachusetts.
In other points the cause of morality has, till lately, been upheld in
these Eastern States. It was but the other day that a man was
discharged from prison, who had been confined for disseminating
atheistical doctrines. It was, however, said at the time, that that was
the last attempt that would ever be made by the authorities to imprison
a man for liberty of conscience; and I believe that such will be the
case.
The _Boston Advocate_ says--"Abner Kneeland came out of prison
yesterday, where he has been for sixty days, under the barbarous and
bigoted law of Massachusetts, which imprisons men for freedom of
opinions. As was to have been expected, Kneeland's liberation was made
a sort of triumph. About three hundred persons assembled, and were
addressed by him at the jail, and he was conveyed home in a barouche.
During his persecution in prison, liberal sums of money have been sent
to him. How much has Christianity gained by this foul blot on the
escutcheon of Massachusetts?"
It is however worthy of remark, that those States that have _enforced_
religion and morality, and have punished infidelity, [Miss Martineau
complains of this as contrary to the unalienable rights of
man:--"Instead of this we find laws framed against speculative atheists;
opprobrium directed against such as embrace natural religion otherwise
than through Christianity, and a yet more bitter oppression exercised by
those who view Christianity in one way over those who regard it in
another."] are now the most virtuous, the most refined, and the most
intellectual, and are quoted as such by American authors, like Mr
Carey, who by the help of Massachusetts alone can bring out his
statistics to anything near the mark requisite to support his theories.
It is my opinion that the voluntary system will never work well under
any form of government, and still less so under a democracy.
Those who live under a democracy have but one pursuit, but one object to
gain, which is wealth. No one can serve God and Mammon. To suppose
that a man who has been in such ardent pursuit of wealth, as is the
American for six days in the week, can recall his attention and thoughts
to serious points on the seventh, is absurd; you might as well expect
him to forget his tobacco on Sunday.
Under a democracy, therefore, you must look for religion among the
women, not among the men, and such is found to be the case in the United
States. As Sam Slick very truly says, "It's only women who attend
meeting: the men folks have their politics and trade to talk over and
havn't _time_." Even an established church would not make people as
religious under a democratic form of government as it would under any
other. [Mrs Trollope observes, "A stranger taking up his residence in
any city in America, must think the natives the most religious people
upon earth." This is very true; the _outward_ observances are very
strict; why so will be better comprehended when the reader has finished
my remarks upon the country. The author of Mammon very truly observes,
that the only vice which we can practise without being arraigned for it
in this world, and at the same time go through the _forms_ of religion,
is _covetousness_.]
I have yet to point out how slander and defamation flourish under a
democracy. Now, this voluntary system, from the interference of the
laity, who judge not only the minister, but the congregation, gives what
appears to be a legitimate sanction to this tyrannical surveillance over
the conduct and behaviour of others. I really believe that the majority
of men who go to church in America do so, not from zeal towards God, but
from fear of their neighbours; and this very tyranny in the more
established persuasions, is the cause of thousands turning away to other
sects which are not subjected to scrutiny. The Unitarian is in this
point the most convenient, and is therefore fast gaining ground. Mr
Colton observes, "Nothing can be more clear, than that scripture
authority against meddling, tattling, slander, scandal, or in any way
interfering with the private concerns, conduct, and character of our
neighbours, except as civil or ecclesiastical authority has clothed us
with legitimate powers, is specific, abundant, decided, emphatic. It is
founded in human nature; it is essential to the peace of society a
departure from it would be ruinous to social comfort. If therefore it
is proper to introduce any rule on this point into a mutual church
covenant, it seems to me that the converse of that which is usually
found in that place ought to be substituted. Even the apostles, as we
have seen, found it necessary to rebuke the disposition prevalent in
their time to meddle with the affairs, and to make inquisition into the
conduct of others. But it should be recollected, that the condition of
Christians and the state of society then were widely different from the
same things with us. Christianity was a new religion, and its disciples
were generally obnoxious. They were compelled by their circumstances to
associate most intimately; they were bound together by those sympathies
and ties, which a persecuted and suffering class always feel,
independent of Christian affection. Hence in part we account for the
holy and exemplary candour [?an dour] of their attachments to their
religion and to each other. But even in these circumstances, and under
these especial intimacies, or rather, perhaps, on account of them, the
apostles found it necessary to admonish them against the abuse of that
confidence so generally felt and reciprocated by those who confessed
Christ in those unhappy times; an abuse so naturally developed in the
form of meddling and private inquisition."
I quote the above passage, as, in the United States, the variety of
sects, the continual splitting and breaking up of those sects, and their
occasional violent altercations, have all proved most injurious to
society, and to the cause of religion itself. Indeed religion in the
States may be said to have been a source of continual discord and the
unhinging of society, instead of that peace and good-will inculcated by
our divine Legislator. It is the division of the Protestant church
which has occasioned its weakness in this country, and will probably
eventually occasion, if not its total subversion, at all events its
subversion in the western hemisphere of America.
The subjugation of the ministry to the tyranny of their congregations is
another most serious evil; for either they must surrender up their
consciences or their bread. In too many instances it is the same here
in religion as in politics: before the people will permit any one to
serve them in any office, he must first prove his unfitness, by
submitting to what no man of honesty or conscientious rectitude would
subscribe to. This must of course, in both cases, be taken with
exceptions, but it is but too often the fact. And hence has arisen
another evil, which is, that there are hundreds of self-constituted
ministers, who wander over the western country, using the word of God as
a cloak, working upon the feelings of the women to obtain money, and
rendering religion a by-word among the men, who will, in all
probability, some day rise up and lynch some dozen of them, as a hint
for the rest to _clear out_.
It would appear as if Locofoco-ism and infidelity had formed an union,
and were fighting under the same banner. They have recently celebrated
the birth-day of Tom Paine, in Cincinnati, New York, and Boston. In
Cincinnati, Frances Wright Darusmont, better known as Fanny Wright, was
present, and made a violent politico-atheistical speech on the occasion,
in which she denounced banking, and almost every other established
institution of the country. The nature of the celebration in Boston
will be understood from the following toast, given on the occasion:
By George Chapman:--"_Christianity_ and the _banks_, tottering on their
last legs: May their _downfall_ be speedy," etcetera, etcetera.
Miss Martineau informs us that "The churches of Boston, and even the
other public buildings, being guarded by the dragon of bigotry, so that
even Faith, Hope, and Charity, are turned back from the doors, a large
building is about to be erected for the use of all, Deists not excepted,
who may desire to meet for free discussion." She adds, "_This at least
is in advance_!" And in a few pages further:--"The eagerness in pursuit
of speculative truth is shown by the _rapid sale of every heretical
work_. The clergy complain of the enormous spread of bold books, from
the infidel tract to the latest handling of the miracle question, as
sorrowfully as the most liberal members of society lament the unlimited
circulation of the false morals issued by certain Religious Tract
Societies. Both testify to the interest taken by the public in
religion. The love of truth is also shown by the outbreak of heresy in
all directions!"
Having stated the most obvious objections to the voluntary system, I
shall now proceed to show how far my opinions are corroborated by
American authorities. The author of "A Voice from America," observes
very truly, that the voluntary system of supporting religion in America
is inadequate to the purpose, and he closes his argument with the
following observation:--
"How far that part of the system of supporting religion in America,
which appeals to the pride and public spirit of the citizens, in
erecting and maintaining religious institutions on a respectable
footing, in towns, cities, and villages, and among rival sects--and in
this manner operating as a species of constraint--is worthy to be called
voluntary, we pretend not to say. But this comprehends by far the
greatest sum that is raised and appropriated to these objects. All the
rest is a mere fraction in comparison. And yet it is allowed, and made
a topic of grievous lamentation, that the religious wants of the country
are most inadequately supplied; and such, indeed, we believe to be the
fact."
The next point referred to by this author is, "that the American system
of supporting religion has brought about great instability in the
religious world, and induced a ruinous habit of change."
This arises from the caprice of the congregation, for Americans are
naturally capricious and fond of change: whether it be concerning a
singer, or an actor, or a clergyman, it is the same thing. This
American author observes, "There are few clergymen that can support
their early popularity for a considerable time; and as soon as it
declines, they must begin to think of providing elsewhere for
themselves. They go--migrate--and for the same reason, in an equal term
of time, they are liable to be forced to migrate again. And thus there
is no stability, but everlasting change, in the condition of the
American clergy. _They_ change, the _people_ change--all is a round of
change--because all depends on the voluntary principle. The clerical
profession in America is, indeed, like that of a soldier; always under
arms, frequently fighting, and always ready for a new campaign--a truly
militant state. A _Clergyman's Guide_ would be of little use, so far as
the object might be to direct where to find him: he is not this year
where he was last." And, as must be the consequence, he justly
observes, "Such a system makes the clergy servile, and the people
tyrannical." "When the enmity of a single individual is sufficient to
destroy a resident pastor's peace, and to break him up, how can he be
otherwise than servile, if he has a family about him, to whom perpetual
change is inconvenient and disastrous? There is not a man in his flock,
however mean and unworthy of influence, whom he does not fear; and if he
happens to displease a man of importance, or a busy woman, there is an
end to his peace; and he may begin to pack up. This perpetual bondage
breaks down his mind, subdues his courage, and makes a timid nervous
woman of one who is entitled, and who ought to be, a man. He drags out
a miserable existence, and dies a miserable slave. There are exceptions
to this rule, it is true; because there are clergymen with talent enough
to rise above these disadvantages, enforce respect, and maintain their
standing, in spite of enemies."
But there is another very strong objection, and most important one, to
the voluntary system, which I have delayed to bring forward: which is,
that there is _no provision for the poor_ in the American voluntary
church system. Thus only those who are rich and able to afford religion
can obtain it. At present, it is true that the majority of the people
in America have means sufficient to pay for seats in churches, if they
choose to expend the money; but as America increases her population, so
will she increase the number of her poor; and what will be the
consequence hereafter, if this evil is to continue? The author I am now
quoting from observes, "At best the _poor are unprovided for_, and the
talents of the clergy are always in the market to the highest bidder."
[This is true. When I was in the States one of the most popular
preachers quitted his church at Boston to go to New York, where he was
offered an increase of salary; telling his parishioners "that he found
_he would be more useful elsewhere_"--the very language used by the
Laity to the clergyman when _they_ dismiss _him_.] There have been many
attempts to remedy this evil, in the dense population of cities, by
setting up a still more voluntary system, called `free churches,' in
which the pews are not rented, but free to all. But they are uniformly
_failures_.
Two other remarks made by this author are equally correct; first, that
the voluntary system tends to the multiplication of sects without end;
and next, that the voluntary system is a mendicant system, and involves
one of the worst features of the church of Rome, which is, that it tends
to the production of pious frauds. But I have already, in support of my
arguments, quoted so much from this book that I must refer the reader to
the work itself.
At present, Massachusetts, and the smaller Eastern States, are the
strong-hold of religion and morality; as you proceed from them farther
south or west, so does the influence of the clergy decrease, until it is
totally lost in the wild States of Missouri and Arkansas. With the
exception of certain cases to be found in Western Virginia, Kentucky,
and Ohio, the whole of the States to the westward of the Alleghany
Mountains, comprising more than two-thirds of America, may be said to be
either in a state of neglect and darkness, or professing the Catholic
religion.
Although Virginia is a slave state, I think there is more religion there
than in some of the more northern free states; but it must be
recollected that Virginia has been long settled, and the non-_predial_
state of the slaves is not attended with demoralising effects; and I may
here observe that the _black_ population of American is decidedly the
most religious, and sets an example to the white, particularly in the
free states.
[Mr Reid, in his Tour, describes a visit which he paid to a black
church in Kentucky:--
"By the laws of the state, no coloured persons are permitted to assemble
for worship, unless a white person be present and preside.
"One of the black preachers, addressing me as their `strange master,'
begged that I would take charge of the service. I declined doing so.
He gave out Dr Watts' beautiful psalm, `Shew pity, Lord, oh! Lord
forgive.' They all rose immediately. They had no books, for they could
not read; but it was printed on their memory, and they sung it off with
freedom and feeling.
"The senior black, who was a preacher among them, then offered prayer
and preached; his prayer was humble and devotional. In one portion, he
made an affecting allusion to their wrongs. `Thou knowest,' said the
good man, with a broken voice, `our state--that it is the meanest--that
we are as mean and low as man can be. But we have sinned--we have
forfeited all our rights to THEE, and we would submit before _Thee_, to
these marks of thy displeasure.'"
Mr Reid subsequently asserts, that the sermon delivered by the black
was an "earnest and efficient appeal;" and, afterward, hearing a sermon
on the same day from a white preacher, he observes that it was a "_very
sorry affair_," in contrast with what he had before witnessed.]
It may be fairly inquired, can this be true? Not fifty years back, at
the time of the Declaration of Independence, was not the American
community one of the most virtuous in existence? Such was indeed the
case, as it is now equally certain that they are one of the most
demoralised. The question is, then, what can have created such a change
in the short period of fifty years?
The only reply that can be given, is, that as the Americans, in their
eagerness to possess new lands, pushed away into the West, so did they
leave civilisation behind, and return to ignorance and barbarism; they
scattered their population, and the word of God was not to be heard in
the wilderness.
That as she increased her slave states, so did she give employment,
land, and power to those who were indifferent to all law, human or
divine. And as, since the formation of the Union, the people have
yearly gained advantages over the _government_ until they now control
it, so have they controlled and fettered _religion_ until it produces no
good fruits.
Add to this the demoralising effects of a democracy which turns the
thoughts of all to Mammon, and it will be acknowledged that this rapid
fall is not so very surprising.
But, if the Protestant cause is growing weaker every day from disunions
and indifference, there is one creed which is as rapidly gaining
strength; I refer to the Catholic church, which is silently, but surely
advancing. [Although it is not forty years since the first Roman
Catholic see was created, there is now in the United States a Catholic
population of 800,000 souls under the government of the Pope, or
Archbishop, 12 Bishops, and 433 priests. The number of churches is 401;
mass houses, about 300; colleges, 10; seminaries for young men, 9;
theological seminaries, 5; noviciates for Jesuits, monasteries, and
converts, with academies attached, 31; seminaries for young ladies, 30;
schools of the Sisters of Charity, 29; an academy for coloured girls at
Baltimore; a female infant school, and 7 Catholic newspapers.] Its great
field is in the West, where, in some states, almost all are Catholics,
or from neglect and ignorance altogether indifferent as to religion.
The Catholic priests are diligent, and make a large number of converts
every year, and the Catholic population is added to by the number of
Irish and German emigrants to the West, who are almost all of them of
the Catholic persuasion.