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CHAP. IX.

INCREASE OF NONCONFORMIST SECTS.

189

to Whitefield, by name Lorenzo Dow, is said to have performed wonderful works therein. At Knoxville, Tennessee, where he preached, "about one hundred and fifty of his hearers were exercised with the jerks.” Sometimes the person who received the truth was thrown to the ground by its power, "where he flounced like a live fish." 12 The jerks became an epidemic. Dow writes: "I have passed a meeting-house, where I observed the undergrowth had been cut for a camp meeting, and from fifty to a hundred saplings were left breast-high, on purpose for the people who were jerked to hold on by. I observed, where they had held on, they had kicked up the earth, as a horse stamping flies." Sometimes," we are further told, the converted ones "cursed and swore and damned." 13 The process of regeneration could not always, it is to be feared, have been an edifying spectacle to the brethren who looked on.

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These revivals, wild and ridiculous as some of the incidents which attended them may appear, greatly increased the number of churches of all Nonconformist denominations. Tracy states that one hundred and fifty Congregational churches were formed in less than twenty years. "A considerable number," he says, "of separatist churches were formed, which really added to the strength of the Redeemer's kingdom." 14 At first the abrupt separation from the State was a severe blow to the Episcopal Church,

12 Tracy, p. 222.

13 Ibid.

14 Ibid. p. 390.

especially in Virginia, where it had possessed more attached adherents, and been more prosperous, than in any other part of the country. When the State forsook it, the clergy scarcely knew where to look for the means of living, and many of them returned to England. But that hour of trial was soon over. The followers of the Church rallied to its aid with a single heart and purpose. As the political system of the country gradually produced its natural fruits, the voluntary system in religion became inevitable. Any other would have been impracticable. Where all men are on an equality as regards their political rights, a preference cannot be exhibited by the government for one religious sect rather than another. There is no class with exclusive rights, and to no form of religion can there be given exclusive privileges. Each State in framing its laws adopts the theory which has been described in a few words :"We consider the primary end of government as a purely temporal end, the protection of the persons and property of men." 15 States of Massachusetts, Virginia, and Indiana-a New England, a Southern, and a Western Statemay be taken as fair examples of all the rest with respect to this particular subject. They vary in language, not in ideas. Massachusetts guarantees that "no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained in his person, liberty, or estate for worshipping God in

The Constitutions of the

15 Macaulay, 'Essay on Church and State.'

CHAP. IX. PRESENT LAWS CONCERNING RELIGION.

191

the manner and seasons most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience, or for his religious profession or sentiments." There is a tincture left of

the spirit of old enactments in the third clause, which asserts that the people of the commonwealth have a right to invest their Legislature with the authority to require local communities "to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the public worship of God," and also to "enjoin" upon "all the subjects an attendance upon the instructions of the public teachers; " but this power is so remotely placed that it could never be exercised. The declaration of rights prefixed to the Constitution of Virginia declares that "all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practise Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other." In this State, as in six others, Ministers of the Gospel are ineligible to sit in either House of Assembly, or to hold political office. The Constitution of Indiana provides that liberty of conscience shall never be restrained by law, and that "no preference shall be given by law to any creed, religious society, or mode of worship; and no man shall be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or to maintain any minister against his consent." The Federal Constitution itself distinctly provides that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States," and

by the first amendment, Congress is prohibited from making any law respecting an establishment of religion. Thus, the principle of the government, Federal and State, with regard to religion, is clearly and emphatically expressed. The people are to be left unfettered. Ministers of religion are to live by their calling as best they can, and none of them have anywhere to look for support outside their own congregations.

Let us now endeavour to ascertain whether this

system works well or ill. Does religion prosper

under it?

The statistics of the churches will show that it does, so far as regards its maintenance and support. It is difficult to ascertain the numbers of churches and ministers at the revolutionary period, but the best authorities estimate the former at 1940 and the latter at 1441. "It seems very certain," says Baird, "that in 1775 the total number of Ministers of the Gospel in the United States did not exceed fourteen hundred and forty-one, nor the congregations nineteen hundred and forty." 16 The authorities vary much in regard to the numbers of churches at the present day. Baird, whose book was published in 1856, reckons them at 41,859, of all denominations; while the ministers numbered 29,430, and the members 4,176,431. In a work published in 1854 it is estimated that there were then existing 36,011 church edifices, affording accommodation for

16Religion in America,' p. 210.

CHAP. IX.

THE MAINTENANCE OF CHURCHES.

193

This allowed a

In 1866,

nearly 14,000,000 of persons. church for every 646 of the population."7 according to returns published by the respective sects, the Baptists numbered 1,043,641, with 12,675 churches; the Methodists were 1,032,184; and the Episcopalians had 161,224 communicants, with 34 dioceses, 44 bishops, and 2530 clergy. Of the clergy it has been stated that "not more than one in six were born and bred in the Episcopal Church. They had been gathered into the fold from all quarters." 18

These figures make palpable to the eye the progress of religion, so far as the means for its outward observance are concerned. But something more is needed to show the full working of the voluntary principle. Are the churches properly supported? Is it difficult to raise funds for the erection of a place of worship and the support of the pastor? This, of course, depends greatly on the inclination and desires of the community. If they are anxious to have a church, they soon get it. In the older towns, every denomination is usually rich enough to maintain its ministers in comfortable circumstances. But in scantily populated rural districts, or in new settlements, religion starves. The early preachers are little better off than the missionaries to a foreign. land. They must share all the hardships and privations of the rude pioneers who have undertaken to

17 Vide

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Religious Denominations in the United States,' by Joseph Belcher, D.D. (Philadelphia, 1854).

18 Sermon by the Bishop of Rhode Island, Sept. 1867.

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