The Press.
London, England, 1853-09-24 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Undoubtedly, if it were the will of Heaven
to act independently of human agency—to
leave nothing to human effort—but to over-
ride all the instincts, passions, and affections
of men, we should vainly perplex ourselves
with any cares beyond those of providing for
our physical necessities. But this is not the
part of the being framed with large capacity
of reason—" looking before and after." It is a
narrow view of his position to suppose that he
is the slave of an irresistible fatalism. Acknow-
ledging that Divine government is plainly
perceptible in the history of the world, we yet
see that the general course of affairs has
always been directed by human means, and
that to man it is given to fashion and evolve
the destinies of his race. Had LUTHER left
the Bible to battle for itself, and work its own
way, what would have become of the Reforma
tion ? Establishments are designed to embody
and perpetuate great principles, and so to
preserve then► from the carelessness of neglect,
or accidents of caprice. We hear no clamour
against established charities against the
liluecoat School or Guy's Hospital—yet it
«•cold be as rational to argue that the training
of youth or the cure of diseases should be as
independent of Institutions as the spiritual
instruction of a people.
We are inclined to suspect that understand-
ing is defective, or sectarianism rampant, in
those persons who cry out against our Church
emtabhshment as pretending to do the work
which should be left to God alone. Surely, to
be consistent, they should cease to labour for
its destruction. Why trouble themselves to
pull down a structure which, by their own
showing, must fall when the appointed time
arrives ? Do they claim a monopoly of Pro-
vidential agency? Do they imagine that man
may be commissioned, or permitted, to destroy
but not to build

The Wesleyaus are supposed to be not
adverse to our Establishment. Respect for
their founder will probably long prevent them
from making any direct attack upon what was
to the last kis church. But there is a fear
that the dire necessity of sectarianism may
catch them in its maelstrom. In the first
number of their new Quarterly (noticed in our
literary columns) there is au indication of ill-
fooling towards the Church which cannot be
misunderstood ; though, so far as we have ob-
served, it stands alone in the review. "In
" America," it is said, " the Romish organisa-
" tion and doctrine cannot make good their
" footing, for the simple reason that in America
" the State absolutely refuses to lend itself to
" the object of enforcing the temporal autho-
" rity of auy church whatever." This is
followed by a panegyric on American practice,
and an endorsement of FRANKLIN PIERCE'S
eulogy of his countrymen as " a nation of
sovereigns."
We question the accuracy of the statement
that the Church of Rome is making no pro-
!_tress in America. In the vast valley of the
Mississippi Romish missions are so firmly
establishing themselves that a great Romish
,tate will probably one day rise up in the
heart of the Nerth American continent. The
fitet of this progress of Rome is stated by Mr.
MACKAY, as well as by other recent travellers,
and, if we recollect rightly, he expressly
attributes it to the absence of any provision
for supplying the spiritual wants of the
people. That Rome has not yet been able
to effect any great social disturbance in the
States, or to obtain absolute ascendancy in
any one of them, is no evidence that she is
not working there to the full as successfully as
in any Fart of Protestant Europe.
Were it true that the religious equality
which prevails in America stood in the way of
Romish organisation, the reviewer, in view of
the dangers attending the system, should have
hesitated before according to it his unqualified
approbation. For reference to those dangers
we will not send him far. In the previous ar-
ticle to his own, scarcely twenty pages distant,
he will find that Dr. Ensox, a laborious Ame-
rican minister, has the painful conviction
forced on his mind that the people of the
States are fast abandoning the essential cha-
racteristics of Christianity.
" My experience (sues br. EnsoNl of nearly
thirty years us a pastor has. I am sorry to
- say, forced upon ute the painful cunvit;tiou

SATURDAY,

" that our public school system has under-
" mined already among our population to a
" great extent the doctrines and principles of
" Christianity. That this evil is already nearly
" universally felt and acknowledged in this coup-
" try there is no longer room to doubt. From
" throwing off authority in regard to religious
" matters, and holding doctrines loosely, the
" step is easy to abandoning them altogether,
" and accordingly it consists with my observe-
" tion here during several years past, that the
" great majority of those now growing up
" cannot be said to hold more than mere natu-
" tural religion."—Lond. Quart. Review.
As the result of this contempt of authority
in matters of religion, the land gives birth to
monstrous shapes of imposture, fanaticism, and
impiety. What must be the religious state of
that society which could furnish F. colony of
Mormons to found a city in the wilderness of
the far west? From the rank soil of religious in-
differentism new forms of delusion continually
spring up. Spirit-rapping is one of its latest
products. It is a startling fact that in the
United States there are thirty thousand pro-
fessed media (as, in the jargon of the sect,
they are termed), pretending to communicate
with the invisible world ; and attempts are
made to accommodate passages of the Bible
to this deplorable foolery.
That genuine Christianity has numerous
congregations in every state of the Union we
can well believe, but we doubt how far it
leavens the whole mass of society. As the
State professes no creed—as no religious in-
struction is given in the schools—it is not
surprising that the people should consider
religion to be a matter with which they have
little concern, or that those persons in whom
a sentiment of veneration (never educated to
its proper use) predominates, should be ready
to receive JOE MORMON as a prophet, and
spirit-rapping as a new revelation. Certainly
such a country cannot offer effectual resistance
to the designs of Rome, though the time may
not be ripe for their full development. Nor
is it to America that we can look for ar-
guments favourable to what is called "the
voluntary system."

Since the above was written we observe
that au infidel convention has assembled at
New York. The following is from the New
York correspondence in yesterday's Times:—

NEw Yonx, Sept. 7.
Last Sunday evening a scene was witnessed in the Me-
tmpolitanhall of New York which would hare disgraced the
lowest Om of barbarism. French Socialists, " strong-
minded women" dressed a la bloomer, renegade priests
of various denominations. blaspheming atheists, deists,
and infidels, and a coarse gang of disorganised agitators,
met in a " World's Convention," with the avowed object of
dissolving the Union, pouring contempt upon Christianity,
and outraging all that civilised men hold sacred in the in-
stitution of marriage. The report of the meeting blame
that the language I use is none too strong. A night or
two before the same " set " had assembled in the same
building for a festival. It turned out to be a vegetarian
saturnalia, in which speech after speech was made that no
English or American mother, worthy of the name, would
have allowed a son, much less a daughter, to hear. It is
to he hoped that no English journal will reprint their pro-
ceedings. They are not fit to appear from the press of any
civilised nation.

The writer of this letter supposes that the
blasphemous fanatics who thus disturb society
are not numerous. On this point we are in-
clined to differ from him, though it is perhaps
true that many congregations of them have
the sense to keep at present in the back-
ground.