The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-07-30

HEArHsNIsM AMoKG THE UNCo PIous."-
Madam" said John Raucolph TO lady who
was very much exercised about the distressed
Athenians, "the Greeks are at your door,
The terse epigrsmmatie satire Of the statesman
of Roanoke is as true now as IL was five and
twenty years ago. So far as the spread OF
evangelical religion is concerned, there is the
widest field for home missions in those districts
which are presumed to monopolize nearly all
the pious stock that there Is in the market. In
New England, where formerly q man could not
vote for town officers unless he was professor
of religion, the number of backsliders luke
warm Christians aud free thinkers is increasing
to a fearful extent. We are told, in an official
report to the General Association of Massachu-
setts, that twenty five per centuu of the popu-
lation of New England never attend any church,
and that there are in that section nearly a mil
lion and half of practical hesthens Twenty
six towns in Massachusetts, are ia such be-
nighted condition a. to be altogether without
that "stated preaching" which was SO grateful
to q celebrated politician of Sandy Hill. 1t
happens to be within our knowledge
that the same condition of things exists
in Scotland, where infdelity, atheism,
deism, and free thinking of all kinds
are gradually sapping the foundations of
the faith which Claverhouse's dragons ia
vain endeavored to root up. The people Of
New England are not dissimilar to those of
Scotland; many strong points Of character,
shrewdness intelligence and firmress to the cx-
treme verge, whether right or wrong distn-
guish alike Scotchman or Yankee. The spirit
of inquiry, investigation, analysis aud argu-
ment prevails alike in both peoples. This con-
slant sitting and searching into abstract ques-
tions raises metaphysical questions which puz-
zle the most acute intellects, and the disputants
drift from one extreme to another-from the
extreme of ascetic Puritanism to that Of infdel'
ity. The Presbyterian Church, with its rigid
discipline, its extreme dogmas, and its narrow
tenets, imbues its believers with bigotry first
and indifierentism afterwards The Indifferent
Christian is blown about to all points of the
compass. He may, like many persons in New
England, take up with the spiritual rappers, or
the Mormons, or the Swedenborgiaus, or the
IrviDgites, or be may relapse into entire infdel-
ity. Theodore Parker, once one of the shining
lights of the Unitarian Church, has mounted
political hobby, and turned his pulpit
into an arena for the display Of stump
oratory. He is regarded as little better than
heather by the church from which he has &C.
ceded. Brownson has tried everything, from
infdelity up to Holy Mother Church, in whose
bosom he reefs for the present. celebrated
historian, who once ministered at the Congre.
gational altar in Boston, has become an Epis-
copalian, ard is, 1t is said, on the high road to
papacy. When these leaders and teachers Of
the people fall away from the faith, what can
be expected from the masses? No amount Of
revival excitement win keep them from running
to the extreme Of liberalism. However para
doxicai it may appear, the finest field for mis-
sionaries is found in the districts particularly
distinguished for piety.