The Roman Catholics possessed at the date of the last census 1112
churches, and church property to the amount of 9,000,000 dollars.
There is church accommodation for about 14,000,000 persons, or
considerably more than half the population. There are 35,000 Sabbath
schools, with 250,000 teachers, and 2,500,000 scholars. Besides the large
number of churches, religious services are held in many schools and
courthouses, and even in forests and fields. The dissemination of the
Bible is on the increase. In last year the Bible Society distributed
upwards of 11,000,000 copies. The Society for Religious Publications
employed 1300 colporteurs, and effected sales during the year to the
amount of 526,000 dollars. The principal of the religious societies are
for the observance of the sabbath, for temperance, anti-slavery objects,
home missions, foreign missions, &c. The last general receipts of all
these societies were 3,053,535 dollars.
In the State of Massachusetts the Unitarians are a very influential body,
numbering many of the most intellectual and highly educated of the
population. These, however, are divided upon the amount of divinity with
which they shall invest our Lord.
The hostile spirit which animates some of the religious journals has been
already noticed. There is frequently a good deal of rivalry between the
members of the different sects; but the way in which the ministers of the
orthodox denominations act harmoniously together for the general good is
one of the most pleasing features in America. The charitable religious
associations are on a gigantic scale, and are conducted with a liberality
to which we in England are strangers. The foreign missions are on a
peculiarly excellent system, and the self-denying labours and zeal of
their missionaries are fully recognised by all who have come in contact
with them. No difficulty is experienced in obtaining money for these
objects; it is only necessary to state that a certain sum is required,
and, without setting any begging machinery to work, donations exceeding
the amount flow in from all quarters.
Altogether it would appear from the data which are given that the
religious state of America is far more satisfactory than could be expected
from so heterogeneous a population. The New England States possess to a
great extent the externals of religion, and inherit in a modified degree
the principles of their Puritan ancestors; and the New Englanders have
emigrated westward in large numbers, carrying with them to the newly
settled States the leaven of religion and morality. The churches of every
denomination are crowded, and within my observation by as many gentlemen
as ladies; but that class of aspiring spirits, known under the name of
"Young America," boasts a perfect freedom from religious observances of
every kind.
There is a creed known by the name of Universalism, which is a compound of
Antinomianism with several other forms of error, and embraces tens of
thousands within its pale. It often verges upon the most complete
Pantheism, and is very popular with large numbers of the youth of America.
There is a considerable amount of excitement kept up by the religious
bodies in the shape of public re-unions, congregational soirées, and the
like, producing a species of religious dissipation, very unfavourable, I
should suppose, to the growth of true piety. This system, besides aiding
the natural restlessness of the American character, gives rise to a good
deal of spurious religion, and shortens the lives and impairs the
usefulness of the ministers by straining and exhausting their physical
energies.
To the honour of the clergy of the United States it must be observed that
they keep remarkably clear from party-politics, contrasting in this
respect very favourably with the priests of the Church of Rome, who throw
the weight of their influence into the scale of extreme democracy and
fanatical excesses. The unity of action which their ecclesiastical system
ensures to them makes their progressive increase much to be deprecated.
It is owing in great measure to the efforts of the ministers of religion
that the unbending principles of truth and right have any hold upon the
masses; they are ever to be found on the side of rational and
constitutional liberty in its extreme form, as opposed to licence and
anarchy; and they give the form of practical action to the better feelings
of the human mind. Amid the great difficulties with which they are
surrounded, owing to the want of any fixed principles of right among the
masses, they are ever seeking to impress upon the public mind that the
undeviating laws of morality and truth cannot be violated with impunity
any more by millions than by individuals, and that to nations, as to
individuals, the day of reckoning must sooner or later arrive.
The voluntary system in religion, as it exists in its unmodified form in
America, has one serious attendant evil. Where a minister depends for his
income, not upon the contributions to a common fund, as is the case in the
Free Church of Scotland, but upon the congregation unto which he
ministers, his conscience is to a dangerous extent under the power of his
hearers. In many instances his uncertain pecuniary relations with them
must lead him to slur over popular sins, and keep the unpalatable
doctrines of the Bible in the background, practically neglecting to convey
to fallen and wicked man his Creator's message, "Repent, and believe the
Gospel." It has been found impossible in the States to find a just medium
between state-support, and the apathy which in the opinion of many it has
a tendency to engender, and an unmodified voluntary system, with the
subservience and "high-pressure" which are incidental to it.
Be this as it may, the clergy of the United States deserve the highest
honour for their high standard of morality, the fervour of their
ministrations, the zeal of their practice, and their abstinence from
politics.
