_The Religion of the Americans.--Religious Sects.--Why
Jonathan Goes to Church.--Walk in, Ladies and Gentlemen,
"this is the Place to be Saved and Happy."--Irresistible
Invitations.--The Esoterists.--Why Die when Immortality is
Attainable?--The Recipe.--Faith Cure.--A Highly-recommended
Book.--Seventh Day Hypocrisy.--To Choose Goods is not to Buy
Them.--"Great Scott!"--Religion and Republicanism Live Happily
together in America._
The Americans are Christians; that is to say, they attend church on
Sundays. Like other Christians, they attend to business on week-days.
In America, religion is served up with sauces to suit all palates.
Independently of the Catholic religion, there are 189 different
religious sects. England has only 185.
Every good preacher draws a full congregation, no matter to which sect
he belongs. The church in itself is not the attraction, and the minister
has no other influence over the people than that which he exercises by
his oratorical talents. A religious or moral lecture is as popular as a
literary lecture, a concert, or a play.
Put a bad preacher into an American pulpit, and he will soon empty the
church; replace him by a gifted orator, and soon there will be
"standing room" only, and every seat will be at a premium.
The priesthood is not a vocation; it is a profession: no talent, no
success. An American will go and listen to the minister of a sect
differing from his own, rather than sit and be bored by a tiresome
preacher belonging to his own denomination. He will rather go to hear
Dr. MacGlyn, the excommunicated Roman Catholic priest, or Dr. Felix
Adler, the eloquent agnostic; religious as he is, he will sometimes
regret that Colonel Ingersoll does not appear in public on Sundays any
longer; Protestant as he is, he has no scruple about going to hear a
musical mass in the Catholic cathedral; in fact, you can see him
everywhere, except in the churches where dulness prevails, and the mind
waits in vain for fresh nourishment.
The churches advertise a preacher in the newspapers as the theatres
advertise a "star." In default of a good preacher, other attractions are
put forward to draw the public. How resist the two following appeals,
posted at the doors of a New York and a Chicago church? I copied them
word for word with great care:
"Musical evangelists, solos, short sermons. The place to be happy and
saved."
Walk in, ladies and gentlemen, walk in.
The other, more seductive still, was worded thus:
"No reason for not coming. Free seats, cheerful services. Books supplied
to the congregation."
The public are requested to leave the books in the seats after use.
* * * * *
Religious sects multiply every day. No doctrine is too absurd to make
proselytes.
The latest religious invention in America is Esoterism, which promises
immortality to its followers--immortality, that is all! The doctrine of
the Esoterists teaches that, if man were really pure, and followed the
precepts of the Gospel to the letter, he would become immortal, not in
Paradise, but here below. As it is probable that no Christian ever yet
succeeded in following minutely the precepts of the Gospel, the
Esoterists may be right. To live for ever, say they, you have only to
remain virtuous, even in the married state. Celibacy must be embraced.
Celibacy pure and simple, however, is not sufficient; for where there is
no struggle, there is no victory. Devotees must, therefore, marry; but,
in all honour, remain celibates. If you succeed in mastering your
passions, no malady will attack you, and you will become immortal.
"But," you will say, "do the Esoterists never die?" Yes, they die--once;
but, according to them, this does not prove the fallacy of their belief.
If they die, it simply proves that they have failed to attain the
necessary degree of perfection.
Now, the Esoterists are safe to continue with us; for either they will
arrive at perfection and become immortal, or they will fall away from
grace and will have children to swell their ranks. The head of this
sect, which is as yet only about two years old, claims that when the
Esoterists attain perfection, not only will they be immortal, but they
will have a clear insight into the future, a gift which will enable them
to amass great riches. And, indeed, the utility of such an
accomplishment, on the Stock Exchange, for instance, must be apparent at
a glance.
Another sect pretends to be able to cure all disease by faith. The faith
of these fanatics is not shaken by the death of their patients. "If they
had had more faith, they would have recovered." Doctor Sangrado cured
all illnesses by bleedings and hot water. When a patient died, it was
because the bleeding had been too copious or not copious enough, and the
water administered too hot or too cool. The theory remained excellent.
All these new sects are commercial enterprises, some of them established
on the plan of limited liability companies. A room is hired, and
supplied with a table and chairs, and a few novelty-hunters are soon
attracted to the embryo temple. These in turn draw others, and by-and-by
a more imposing meeting-place is secured, and the pockets of the
proselytes are appealed to for funds to found what is called "The Lord's
Treasury." Many poor simple folk have been persuaded into giving all
they possessed to the "Lord's Treasury."
No need to put by a reserved fund: human credulity is an inexhaustible
mine.
Fortune-tellers are punished with from six months' to two years'
imprisonment. How is it the law allows schemers to found a "Lord's
Treasury" by promising immortality to the geese who bring their money to
it? It looks as if, in America, as in England, swindling may be
practised with impunity in the name of religion.
One meets with just as many cases of the adroit blending of the worship
of God and Mammon.
* * * * *
A publisher, who is not above making money by the sale of books stolen
from English and French authors, is yet godly enough to build a church
with part of the proceeds.
An immense quantity of literary piracies issues from another firm, whose
warehouse rejoices in the appellation of "Bible House."
A popular preacher sells his church sittings by auction.
Another furnishes to a syndicate advance sheets of the sermons he
preaches on Sunday; so that the principal papers throughout the United
States are able to furnish their readers, on Monday morning, with the
full discourse delivered the day before in Brooklyn.
During my stay in America, a well-known evangelist published a volume of
sermons with the following preface: "God has been kind enough to own the
words when I spoke them. I hope He will give His blessing to the book,
now that the same words appear in print." Many books are published in
France with the remark, "A work approved of by Mgr. the Archbishop
of----" A volume, advertised as having been owned and blessed by the
Lord Himself, ought to have a wild sale.
* * * * *
Sabbatarian hypocrisy is as flourishing in the eastern States of America
as in England and Scotland.
I was visiting the sub-tropical Exhibition at Jacksonville one Sunday,
and at a certain stall I chose a few little natural curiosities.
"I cannot sell them to you to-day," said the stall-keeper to me, after
well puffing his wares.
"No? Why?"
"Because it is Sunday. I can put them aside for you; but you must _buy_
them to-morrow."
This is the kind of thing one is supposed to admire.
A truly edifying sight is that of the noisy, dirty, blaspheming crowd
collected on a Sunday evening outside Madison Square Gardens, New York,
on the eve of a "six days' go-as-you-please walking match." From six or
seven in the evening there is a betting, swearing match outside the
gates. But the walking only begins at one minute past midnight.
Not to take the name of God in vain, the English have invented many
euphemisms; some men, imagining, I suppose, that the Deity takes no
cognisance of any language but English, venture so far as to say _mon
Dieu_ or _mein Gott_.
At this kind of thing the Americans are as clever as the English. They
have invented _Great Scott_!
* * * * *
Something admirable in all the main religious sects of America is their
national character.
When I hear it said that religion is the sworn enemy of progress,
especially of Republican institutions, I turn to America and say to
myself, "This is not true."
There is no minister of religion, from the archbishops down to the most
unlettered preachers of all the small _isms_, who would dare to tell his
congregation that liberty is not the most precious, the most sacred of
their possessions, or that the Republic is not the most admirable form
of Government--the only possible one--for America.
In France, there is much indifference on the subject of religion; but a
great deal of incredulity is affected to satisfy a political bias. I am
certain that if, in France, you searched into the hearts of the people,
you would find there much less atheism than in many other nations.
Religious belief seems to be the apanage of the Royalist party, and
other people think they make a show of Republicanism by throwing over
the belief of the Royalists. The religious man is rather looked upon as
a political enemy than as a religious antagonist. This is the true
explanation of much apparent agnosticism in France. It must also be
remarked that plenty of Royalists only affect piety, and go regularly to
church, as a protest against Republicanism, and that many Republicans
may be excused for taking this display of religion for an act of
hostility towards their pet institutions.
This state of things is deplorable. Both sides are to blame for it.
In England and America, where the form of Government is questioned by no
one, religion does not clash with progress and liberty, but lives with
democracy in peace and harmony, as becomes a faith whose grand precept
is: "Love ye one another."