The north Iowa times. [volume] (M'Gregor [i.e. McGregor], Iowa) 1856-1857, 1857-07-24
whv is the Age Irreligious ?

81 The Boston jon nails are lam, ming the relig-
ious decadence of New England. That OF on
of our country, the lard par excellence OF tic
Puitans, was once the ligh temple of christi
sl,,ity in the American Unicn. II is NV the
moral pest -horsc OF America, whence comes
all the infidelity, all the deistical philosophy.
AMI nearly all the political sediion of the times.
Mcrmonism had its rise in that quarter. Aho-
iitionism of the Garris nan stamo flourish S
4hcrc. Spiritualism finds congenial soil. and
so docs Millerism, as well as every ether mis-
.hievous ism Of the day. in the east In sober
truth, Therefore. New England Eas lost its good
reputation, and is rapidly occurring, at pr 5 NJ,
as great notoiiety for its "ftee-ihinking" pro-
clivities, as it originally enjoyed for tie ste n
and uncompromising CHI ractcr of is cva'g lical
principles. .....t.. ...-
And yet, after all, this ching, is nat raj
One extreme inevitably begets. in time, its OPP
poeltc. II Is the common law of action and re-
action. Tie reople who arc. in one day. mod
els of patriotism. ofen become the next, by a
simple change of circumstances, the m 'st re-
evolutionary, and sons of pio's men are too often
celebrated for their constituencies extrava-
.gances. And thus We behold it in New Eng
land. The generation dying out still adhsrcs
tenacously to its orthodox notions, and is pro'b-
ably as cxcm, larry now as it ever was; bat the
generation comm: in is quite the reverse. it
has fretted and chatcd und the too tightennd
rein, until having got its Lib rty, it b eaks
loose from all rational r. st aint, AMI bounds
away in it's eyube.ance of freedom to enjoy a
perfect saturnalia of mental recklessness.
The conduct of some of our pulpit orators is
utterly destroying in tr;th, all spect f + re-
Hgion among the masses of the Ieo;.lc. Su
men as the Rev. Mr.. kallnch quietly sap the
lat &C ~, 1,
greater extent thin the inconsiderate would
imagine while the discourscs Of IN n Of the
stamp of the Re7eIend Messrs B.ccher Oh e..
or and company, insonsibly wear away the dis
finction between the church and the .'s'un p.''
and reduce the sermons Of cur Givinfs to simple
essays on morals, or mere pjlitical h1rangues.
Good, worthy preachers, are thus made to suf-
fer for the course of their reckless associates. -
The general mind becomes demoalized. II
looks on all ministers az alike. 1t begins TO
view christianity as no lcngcr thing to be rev.
crently alluded to, and rule of life to live by.
but to contemplate it as a mere system of ethics
sustained by or forcfathCrs in order to keep us
in wholesome check and maintained by willy
pricscraf simply to ensure the support of an idle
and cxclusiyeclass. The nom MT these concep.
tons become universal, that moment all practi
cal religion falls; and if they do not become
50. it will never be the fault OF the church mill
tant, which, in its bold ATTEMPTS TO become a
power and an authority in the field of politics
10 building up widespread end ilconceiyably
intense resistance to everything like ccclcsias
tical domination, and creating On indifference
for religion itself that is well ok m, lifted, on
the Sabbath, in the few hundreds who so to the
house of worship, and the thousands and tens o
thousands who go anywhere else to make of it {
day Of frolic and fundamentals Sun. Times