Diary in America Volume I Part 30

+==================+=========+==========+========+=========+ Congreg- Ministers Commun- Popul- +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ ations icants ation +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Baptists 6,319 4,239452,000} +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Freewillers 753 61238,876} 4,300,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Seventh Day 42 464,503} +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Six Principle 16 162,117} +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Roman Catholics 433 389 800,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Christians 1,000 800 150,000 300,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Congregationalists 1,300 1,150 160,0001,400,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Dutch Reformed 197 192 22,215 450,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Episcopalians 850 899 600,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Friends 500 100,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ German Reformed 600 180 30,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Jews 15,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Lutherans 750 257 62,226 540,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Mennonites 200 30,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Wesleyans 2,764650,103} +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Protestants 40050,000} 2,000,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Moravians 24 33 5,745 12,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Mormonites 12,000 12,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ N Jerusalem Church 27 33 5,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Presbyterians 2,807 2,225274,084} +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ c.u.mberland 500 45050,000} +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ a.s.sociate 183 8716,000} 2,175,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Reformed 40 203,000} +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ a.s.sociate Reformed 214 11612,000} +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Shakers 15 45 6,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Tunkers 40 40 3,000 30,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Unitarians 200 174 180,000 +------------------+---------+----------+--------+---------+ Universalists 653 317 600,000 +==================+=========+==========+========+=========+

In this list many varieties of sects are blended into one. For instance, the Baptists, who are divided; also the Friends, who have been separated into Orthodox and Hicksite, the Camelites, etcetera, etcetera.

But it is not worth while to enter into a detail of the numerous minor sects, or we might add Deists, Atheists, etcetera.--for even _no_ religion is a species of _creed_. It must be observed, that, according to this table, out of the whole population of the United States, there are only 1,983,905, (with the exception of the Catholics, who are Communicants,) that is, who have openly professed any creed; the numbers put down as the population of the different creeds are wholly suppositions. How can it be otherwise, when people have not professed?

It is computed, that in the census of 1840 the population of the States will have increased to 18,000,000, so that it may be said that only one ninth portion have professed and openly avowed themselves Christians.

Religion may, as to its consequences, be considered under two heads: as it affects the future welfare of the individual when he is summoned to the presence of the Deity, and as it affects society in general, by acting upon the moral character of the community. Now, admitting the right of every individual to decide whether he will follow the usual beaten track, or select for himself a by-path for his journey upward, it must be acknowledged that the results of this free-will are, in a moral point of view, as far as society is concerned, any thing but satisfactory.

It would appear as if the majority were much too frail and weak to go alone upon their heavenly journey; as if they required the support, the a.s.sistance, the encouragement, the leaning upon others who are journeying with them, to enable them successfully to gain the goal. The effects of an established church are to cement the ma.s.s, cement society and communities, and increase the force of those natural ties by which families and relations are bound together. There is an attraction of cohesion in an uniform religious wors.h.i.+p, acting favourably upon the morals of the ma.s.s, and binding still more closely those already united.

Now, the voluntary system in America has produced the very opposite effects; it has broken one of the strongest links between man and man, for each goeth his own way: as a nation, there is no national feeling to be acted upon; in society, there is something wanting, and you ask yourself what is it? and in families it often creates disunion: I know one among many others, who, instead of going together to the same house of prayer, disperse as soon as they are out of the door: one daughter to an Unitarian chapel, another to a Baptist, the parents to the Episcopal, the sons, any where, or no where. But worse effects are produced than even these: where any one is allowed to have his own peculiar way of thinking, his own peculiar creed, there neither is a watch, nor a right to watch over each other; there is no mutual communication, no encouragement, no parental control; and the consequence is, that by the majority, especially the young, religion becomes wholly and utterly disregarded.

Another great evil, arising from the peculiarity of the voluntary system is, that in any of the princ.i.p.al sects the power has been wrested from the clergy and a.s.sumed by the laity, who exercise an inquisition most injurious to the cause of religion: and to such an excess of tyranny is this power exercised, that it depends upon the _laity_, and not upon the _clergy_, whether any individual shall or shall not be admitted as a _communicant_ at the table of our Lord.

Miss Martineau may well inquire, "How does the existing state of religion accord with the promise of its birth? In a country which professes to every man the pursuit of happiness in his own way, what is the state of his liberty in the most private and individual of all concerns?"

Referring to religious instruction, Mr Carey in his work attempts to prove the great superiority of religious instruction and church accommodation in America, as compared with those matters in this country. He draws his conclusions from the number of churches built and provided for the population in each. Like most others of his conclusions, they are drawn from false premises: he might just as well argue upon the number of horses in each country, from the number of horse-ponds he might happen to count in each. In the first place, the size of the churches must be considered, and their ability to accommodate the population; and on this point, the question is greatly in favour of England; for, with the exception of the cities and large towns, the churches scattered about the hamlets and large towns are small even to ridicule, built of clap-boards, and so light that, if on wheels, two pair of English post-horses would trot them away, to meet the minister.

Mr Carey also finds fault with the sites of our churches as being unfortunate in consequence of the change of population. There is some truth in this remark: but our churches being built of brick and stone cannot be so easily removed; and it happens that the sites of the majority of the American churches are equally unfortunate, not as in our case, from the population having _left_ them, but from the population not having _come_ to them. You may pa.s.s in one day a dozen towns having not above twenty or thirty private houses, although you will invariably find in each an hotel, a bank, and churches of two or three denominations, built as a speculation, either by those who hold the ground lots or by those who have settled there, and as an inducement to others to come and settle. The churches, as Mr Carey states, exist, but the congregations have not arrived; while you may, at other times, pa.s.s over many miles without finding a place of wors.h.i.+p for the spare population. I have no hesitation in a.s.serting, not only that our 12,000 churches and cathedrals will hold a larger number of people than the 20,000 stated by Mr Carey to be erected in America, but that as many people, (taking into consideration the difference of the population,) go to our 12,000, as to the 20,000 in the United States.

Neither is Mr Carey correct when he would insinuate that the attention given by the people in America to religious accommodation is greater than with us. It is true, that more churches, such as they are, are built in America; but paying an average of 12,000 pounds for a church built of brick or stone in England, is a very different thing from paying 12,000 dollars for a clap-board and s.h.i.+ngle affair in America, and which, compared with those of brick and mortar, are there in the proportion of ten to one. And further, the comparative value of church building in America is very much lowered by the circ.u.mstance that they are compelled to multiply them, to provide for the immense variety of creeds which exist under the _voluntary_ system. When people in a community are all of one creed, one church is sufficient; but if they are of different persuasions, they must, as they do in America, divide the one large church into four little ones. It is not fair, therefore, for Mr Carey to count _churches_.

[Note. "We know also that large sums are expended annually for the building of churches or places of wors.h.i.+p, which in cities cost from 10,000 to 100,000 dollars each; and in the country from 500 to 5,000 dollars."--_Voice from America, by an American Gentleman_. [What must be the size of a church which costs 500 dollars?]]

But, although I will not admit the conclusions drawn from Mr Carey's premises, nor that, as he would attempt to prove, the Americans are a more religious people than the English, I am not only ready, but anxious to do justice to the really religious portion of its inhabitants. I believe that in no other country is there more zeal shown by its various ministers, zeal even to the sacrifice of life; that no country sends out more zealous missionaries; that no country has more societies for the diffusion of the gospel and that in no other country in the world are larger sums subscribed for the furtherance of those praise-worthy objects as in the Eastern States of America. I admit all this, and admit it with pleasure; for I know it to be a fact: I only regret to add that in no other country are such strenuous exertions so incessantly required to stem the torrent of atheism and infidelity, which so universally exists in this. Indeed this very zeal, so ardent on the part of the ministers, and so aided by the well-disposed of the laity, proves that what I have just now a.s.serted is, unfortunately, but too true.

It is not my intention to comment upon the numerous sects, and the varieties of wors.h.i.+p practised in the United States. The Episcopal church is small in proportion to the others, and as far as I can ascertain, although it may increase its members with the increase of population, it is not likely to make any vigorous or successful stand against the other sects. The two churches most congenial to the American feelings and inst.i.tutions are the Presbyterian and Congregationalist.

"The Congregationalists answer to the Independents of England and are sympathetically, and to a great extent, lineally descendants of the Puritans."--_Voice from America_, p. 62.

They may, indeed, in opposition to the hierarchy of the Episcopal, be considered as Republican churches; and admitting that many errors have crept into the established church from its too intimate union with the State, I think it will be proved that, in rejecting its errors and the domination of the mitre, the seceders have fallen into still greater evils; and have, for the latter, subst.i.tuted a despotism to which every thing, even religion itself, must in America succ.u.mb.

In a republic, or democracy, the people will rule in every thing: in the Congregational church they rule as deacons; in the Presbyterian as elders. Affairs are litigated and decided in committees and councils, and thus is the pastoral office deprived of its primitive and legitimate influence, and the ministers are tyrannised over by the laity, in the most absurd and most unjustifiable manner. If the minister does not submit to their decisions, if he a.s.serts his right as a minister to preach the word according to his reading of it, he is arraigned and dismissed. In short, although sent for to instruct the people, he must consent to be instructed by them, or surrender up his trust. Thus do the ministers lose all their dignity and become the slaves of the congregation, who give them their choice, either to read the Scriptures according to _their_ reading, or to go and starve. I was once canva.s.sing this question with an American, who p.r.o.nounced that the laity were quite right, and that it was the duty of the minister to preach as his congregation wished. His argument was this:--"If I send to Manchester for any article to be manufactured, I expect it to be made exactly after the pattern given; if not, I will not take it: so it is with the minister: he must find goods exactly suited to his customers, or expect them to be left on his hands!"

And it really would appear as if such were the general opinion in the United States. Mr Colton, an American minister, who turned from the Presbyterian to the Episcopal church, in his "Reasons for Episcopacy,"

makes the following remarks:--

[I must request the reader's forbearance at the extreme length of the quotations, but I cannot well avoid making them. Whatever weight my opinion, as the opinion of an observant traveller may have, it must naturally be much increased if supported, as it always is when opportunity offers, by _American_ authority.]

Speaking of the deacons and elders of their churches, he says--"They may be honest and good men, and very pious: but in most churches they are men of little intellectual culture; and the less they have, the more confident and unbending are they in their opinions. If a minister travels an inch beyond the circle of their vision in theology, or startles them with a new idea in his interpretation of Scripture, it is not unlikely that their suspicions of his orthodoxy will be awakened.

If he does any thing out of the common course, he is an innovator. If, from the multiplicity of his cares and engagements, he is now and then obliged to preach an old sermon, or does not visit so much as might be expected, he is lazy. For these and for other delinquencies, as adjudged by these a.s.sociates, it becomes their conscientious duty to admonish him. He who is appointed to supervise the flock, is himself supervised. 'I have a charge to give you,' said a deacon to me once, the first time and the moment I was introduced to him, after I had preached one or two Sabbaths in the place, and, as it happened, it was the first word he said after we shook hands, adding, 'I often give charges to ministers.' I knew him to be an important man, and the first in the church; but as I had nothing at stake there that depended on his favour, I could not resist the temptation of replying to him in view of his consequential airs, 'You may use your discretion, sir, in this particular instance; but I can tell you that ministers are sometimes overcharged.' However, I did not escape.

"The American clergy are the most backward and timid cla.s.s in the society in which they live; self-exiled from the great moral question of the time; the least informed with true knowledge--the least efficient in virtuous action--the least conscious of that Christian and republican freedom which, as the native atmosphere of piety and holiness, it is their prime duty to cherish and diffuse,"--_Miss Martineau._ I quote this paragraph to _contradict it_. The American clergy are, in the ma.s.s, equal, if not superior, to any in the world: they have to struggle with difficulties almost insurmountable, (as I shall substantiate) and worthily do they perform their tasks.

"It seems to be a principle in Presbyterian and Congregational churches, that the minister must be overlooked by the elders and deacons; and if he does not quietly submit to their rule, his condition will be uncomfortable. He may also expect visitations from _women_ to instruct him in his duty; at least, they will contrive to convey to him their opinions. It is said of Dr Bellamy, of Bethlehem, Connecticut, who was eminently a peace-maker, and was always sent for by all the churches in the country around, or a great distance, to settle their difficulties, that having just returned from one of these errands, and put up his horse, another message of the same kind came from another quarter--'And what is the matter?' said the Doctor to the messenger. 'Why,' said he, 'Deacon has--' 'Has--that's enough--There never is a difficulty in a church, but some old deacon is at the bottom of it.'

"Unquestionably, it is proper, wise, and prudent, for every minister to watch and consult the popular opinion around him, in relation to himself, his preaching, and his conduct. But, if a minister is worthy to be the pastor of a people, he is also worthy of some confidence, and ought to receive deference. In his own proper work he may be helped, he may be sustained, but he cannot be instructed by his people; he cannot in general be instructed by the wisest of them. Respectful and kind hints from competent persons he may receive, and should court--he may profit by them. But, if he is a man fit for his place, he should retain that honour that will leave him scope, and inspire him with courage to act a manly part. A Christian pastor can never fulfil his office, and attain its highest ends, without being free to act among his people according to the light of his conscience and his best discretion. To have elders and deacons to rule over him, is to be a slave--is not to be a man. The responsibilities, cares, burdens, and labours of the pastoral office are enough, without being impeded and oppressed by such anxieties as these. In the early history of New England, a non-conformist minister, from the old country, is represented to have said, after a little experience on this side of the water, 'I left England to get rid of my lords the bishops; but here I find in their place my lords, the brethren and sisters; save me from the latter, and let me have the former.'

"It has actually happened--within a few years--in New England, and I believe in other parts of the country, that there has been a system of lay visitation of the clergy for the purpose of counselling, admonis.h.i.+ng, and urging them up to their duty; and that these self-commissioned apostles, two and two, have gone from town to town, and from district to district of the country, making inquisition at the mouth of common rumour, and by such methods as might be convenient, into the conduct and fidelity of clergymen whom they never saw; and, having exhausted their means of information, have made their way into the closets of their adopted proteges; to advise, admonish, pray with, and for them; according as they might need. Having fulfilled their office, they have renewed their march, 'staff and script,' in a straightforward way, to the next parish, in the a.s.signed round of their visitations, to enact the same scene, and so on till their work was done.

"Of course, they were variously received; though, for the most part, I believe they have been treated civilly, and their t.i.tle to this enterprise not openly disputed. There has been an unaccountable submission to things of this kind, proving indeed that the ministers thus visited were not quite manly enough; or that a public opinion, authorising these transactions, had obtained too extensive a sway in their own connexion, and among their people, to be resisted. By many, doubtless, it was regarded as one of the hopeful symptoms of this age of religious experiment.

"I have heard of one reception of these lay apostles, which may not be unworthy of record. One pair of them--for they went forth 'two and two,' and thus far were conformed to scripture--both of them mechanics, and one a shoemaker, having abandoned their calling to engage in this enterprise, came upon a subject who was not well disposed to recognise their commission. They began to talk with him: 'We have come to stir you up.'--'How is the shoe business in your city?' said the clergyman to the shoemaker, who was the speaker: for it was a city from which they came. The shoemaker looked vacant, and stared at the question, as if he thought it not very pertinent to his errand; and, after a little pause, proceeded in the discharge of his office: 'We have come to give your church a shaking.'--'Is the market for shoes good?' said the clergyman.

Abashed at this apparent obliquity, the shoemaker paused again; and again went on in like manner. To which the clergyman: 'Your business is at a stand, sir, I presume; I suppose you have nothing to do.' And so the dialogue went on; the shoemaker confining himself to his duty, and the clergyman talking only of shoes: in varied and constantly-s.h.i.+fting colloquy, till the perverse and wicked pertinacity of the latter discouraged the former; and the shoemaker and his brother took up their hats, 'to shake off the dust of their feet,' and turn away to a more hopeful subject. The clergyman bowed them very civilly out of doors, expressing his wish, as they departed, that the shoe business might soon revive. Of course, these lay apostles, in this instance, were horror-struck; and it cannot be supposed they were much inclined to leave their blessing behind them.

"I believe I do not mistake in expressing the conviction that there are hundreds, not to say thousands, of the Presbyterian and Congregational clergy, who will sympathise with me thoroughly in these strictures on the encroachments of the laity upon pastoral prerogative; who groan under it; who feel that it ought to be rebuked and corrected, but despair of it; and who know that their usefulness is abridged by it to an account that cannot be estimated."

[The Reverend Mr Reid mentions a very whimsical instance of the interference of the laity in every possible way. He says, that being at church one Sabbath, there was one reverend old man, certainly a leader among them, who literally, as the preacher went on with his sermon, kept up a sort of recitation with him as, for instance, the preacher continuing his sermon--

The duty here inferred is, to deny ourselves--

_Elder_. And enable us to do it.

_Preacher_. It supposes that the carnal mind is enmity against G.o.d--

_Elder_. Ah, indeed, Lord, it is.

_Preacher_. The very reverse of what G.o.d would have us to be--

_Elder_. G.o.d Almighty knows it's true.

_Preacher_. How necessary, then, that G.o.d should call upon us to renounce everything--

_Elder_. G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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--