Religion in the United States.
[The following presents a melancholy picture of the state of religion in our country. Who can look upon it and doubt that Babylon has fallen?] A writer in the New York Observer, a year or two since, affirmed “that in 1837 there were thirty-six Churches and 10,860 members of the Presbyterian denomination in the city of New York, and that now, taking the minutes of both assemblies, there are reported but two more Churches and 405 more members notwithstanding the population has more than doubled in that time.” From statistics recently given in the New York Independent, there are in each of the states of Vermont and New Hampshire, several thousands less members in the Congregational denomination than there were ten years ago. One of the main causes of this diminution is said to be emigration. Yet the inhabitants of those states are now considerably more numerous than at the period referred to. In other New England states there has been no actual diminution of membership; yet the facts, as reported in their religious periodicals, speak with melancholy interest for the spiritual state of all that portion of this nation. As we advance westward from New England, the gloom thickens rather than otherwise. While on a visit to Cincinnati, Ohio, during the past summer, it was stated to me by an individual who, for upwards of twenty years, has been a pastor of a Church in the vicinity of that city, and whose statements are as reliable as those of any other man, that in all Southern Ohio, the membership in all the Presbyterian Churches is less than it was twenty years ago, while the population and wealth of the same territory have far more than doubled, and that not a few Churches, which at that time had settled pastors, had become extinct. About the same time, the leading religious paper in Southern Ohio stated that in three or four counties in that state, upwards of twenty Churches, once in a flourishing condition, were now languishing, without pastors to break unto them the bread of life. This statement was copied into a religious paper in Chicago, Illinois, with the remark, that it correctly represented the state of the Churches in the West. In a western Episcopal paper, there appeared the past summer an article under the title, “Where are our youth?” The writer stated that he had traveled extensively among the Churches of that denomination, had attended very large and interesting meetings, and had enjoyed the best opportunity to know the state of facts. Everywhere the same melancholy facts presented themselves—the most marked absence in all meetings, great and small of the youthful portion of the community, of both sexes. He was led to make inquiries of other denominations, and found, without exception, that the same melancholy facts characterized all their religious gatherings of every kind. The article above named was quoted in a New York paper, whose editor subsequently stated to me that it gave a fair representation of the state of our religious congregations generally. For one I would say, that I have traveled quite extensively, and everywhere been an attendant upon the services of the sanctuary, and have everywhere, without expectation, marked the melancholy contrast between the proportion of youth in our religious congregations now and two-and-twenty years ago. Then the galleries of the churches particularly were filled with youth, and at the same time this one class constituted a very large part of the congregations below. Now our galleries are almost entirely forsaken, and the congregation below appeared to be made up of about as many aged and middle aged persons as formerly, with a bare sprinkling of youth among them. To affirm that infidelity is not “advancing with rapid strides among us,” I think would be what the New York Observer would not dare to do. It is now confidently affirmed that there are known to be more than two millions of Spiritualists in this country at the present time, and these, almost without exception, are of infidel sentiments. Then our German populations are, to a very great and increasing extent, infidel. Various forms of philosophical scepticism contain a very large and increasing portion of the popular literary talent of the nation. To complete the picture, while our religious assemblies appear as above stated, the reading of the nation is almost wholly secular, irreligious, and fictitious, while our theatres and places of popular amusement are continuously crowded. If I have drawn the picture a shade too dark, it is because the most reliable sources of information, verified by my own personal observations, have deceived me. Nor at the present moment, do I know of any indications of any immediate change for the better. The religious press but very seldom informs us of spiritual gatherings, and that for the obvious reason, that occurrences of the kind to be chronicled are no few and far between. One circumstance, indicative of the state of things under consideration, I had forgotten to name—the greatest dearth of ministers; not a few of our Churches have no ministers, for the reason that pastors to minister to them cannot be obtained. We have a far less number of young men in our Churches than formerly, and never was there a time when so small a proportion even of this class are willing to enter the ministry. The idea of becoming rich, not “towards God,” but in worldly goods, has become the leading idea of the American mind. Every man is ready to “compass sea and land” for wealth, and few to run to and fro for the increase of Divine knowledge. Our missionaries abroad are dying with great rapidity, and it is hardly possible to keep their numbers good by new enlistments. I said there appeared but few indications of an immediate change for the better. I will dwell for a moment upon this one thought. In our religious papers we occasionally meet with articles containing notes of warning, and reminding the churches of the necessity of an out-pouring of the Spirit from on high. I see little, however, of that deep and solemn earnestness and fervency of spirit which are indispensable to startle and arouse a slumbering Church. Similar remarks appear to characterize our pulpit discourses generally. The times demand earnest men, and, with few exceptions, we have them not. Generally speaking, our pulpit services seem to have a spiritual languidness about them, which is more alarming than the deep slumbers of the Churches and congregations, upon whose closed ears enfeebled notes of warning fall with an increasingly alarming effect. There is another very general fact which to my mind, has great significance, but which gives no indication of an immediate change for the good. While our churches are spiritually dying, there never was such a willingness to pull down present houses of worship, and rear up in their stead most elegant and costly structures. At one time, about a year since, for example, in a city of about 40,000 inhabitants, more than 300,000 dollars were being laid out upon such structures. While these extravagant expenditures were being laid out in that city, for such an object it required a space of four or five years of diligent effort to raise among all these churches, and those in the country around, the sum of two thousand dollars to furnish a chapel for the sailors of that port. The seats in the churches are so costly that none but the wealthy can purchase or rent them; and the poor know very well that their rich neighbors would not welcome them to seats with them in their religious assemblies. The result is, that in our cities and large towns our Churches generally visibly present this one indication of their real relations to Christ, to wit, that in them the poor have not “the Gospel preached unto them,” and this relates moreover, and most of all, to more infidelity, which is everywhere bristling up to the reproach not only of the Churches, but of Christianity also. While this state of things shall continue, the masses in our cities must continue subject to influences utterly irreligious and demoralizing. While the Churches can be justly reproached with valuing men and seeking to bring them into houses of worship, not because they have souls, but because, and almost only when, they have money, the masses of Churches themselves will be objects of scorn and derision, such as they undeniably now are to a very great extent in this country. For such reasons infidelity and irreligion, and the consequent immoralities, are now having the masses for their prey. I should not fail to allude to the character of the sacred music in these churches. With very few exceptions, we have, in this country, no congregational singing. In former years, this part of worship, was under the control, generally, of large choirs. To meet the demands of the rich, for whom our churches seem now to be built, these choirs are now supplanted by a select number of hired singers, the number in the largest churches seldom exceeding six, and commonly consisting of four, and these, in the style of their performances, copy the opera. The result is—that no discerning mind could fail to predict—the death of the little spiritual emotion and affection which formerly existed in such congregations. I mention but one additional circumstance, a circumstance of melancholy significance to my mind. The leading influences in our churches, instead of addressing themselves to remedy the appalling evils around us, have assumed the aspect and spirit of intense denominationalism. Those who have had but a glimpse at our Presbyterian and Congregationalist papers of late will understand what I mean. The Presbyterians have set forward a great movement for Presbyterianizing the great West; at this Congregationalists have taken the alarm, and the public mind is agitated with the question, not how shall the nation be saved from the second death, but which denomination160shall prevail. I think that the facts to which I have just alluded may be taken as indicative of the spirit of the leading denominational influences in our country. You can judge of the probable results. But why, it may be asked, is this exposure made supposing it to reveal facts as they are? I must reserve the answer to such a question for another communication.—Am. Cor. to the London Christian Times.