The New York herald., 1866-09-02

blacks. The signs Of an approaching political
revolution on every hand are multiplying
and when such leader Of the religious
elements Of the North, identified with the war
for the Union, as Henry Ward Beecher comes
to the rescue, we may rejoice that the right
wing Of the radical army Is already broken.
spiritaaIism and tho Religious Movements Of
the Day.
The Spiritualists have recently had national
convention at Providence, Rhode Island. To
the uninitisted sceptio their proceedings were
the incoherent jabberings Of lunatic asylum;
but President Pierpont (the poe) tells W .
different story. The fat and substantial brother
Josin welcomed the delegates as "inGdels
to old creeds and dogmas that have cursed
the world, !" but the patriarch Pierpont with his
abounding faith, objected to the term inidel.
1t is spirit that moves everything. The ultimate
motive power of the world is spirit. All
change comes from spirit; the spirit il the
the man, living or dead in the body, all the
same. He believed that in the spirit world he
would still communicate with his friends on
earth, and know all about them. He knew
that from his conversations with the spirits Of
the departed-of his wife and his father. He
was going into the spirit world to meet other
spirits; and he believed that there he should
continue his communications with his friends
on earth.
This platform from the President of the con-
vention may be considered official; and from
other revelations by high mediums their power
embraces the healing of the sick by the old
apostolic mode of the imposition Of hands;
and there is no purgatory, no hell fire for sim
ners, but things go on in the spirit world
pretty much as in this, even to liquors and
tobacco, only in much higher state of devel-
opment. As a Spiritualist In the dross of the
body, however, the brother Henry 7. Childs, of
Philadelphia, said he "could take hold of
brother and go right through him, and see
right through him" and he liked the free love
of Spiritualism, though he seemed to think the
outside world could not underestimate
Such, from the iu,9ninati Of this convention,
are the faith, the works, and the manifest des-
tiny of Spiritualism. II is comparatively
new thing, started some eighteen years ago,
and its believers now, and especially among
the practical Yankees, are numbered by thou
sands. This may seem very strange; but in
this Spiritualism we have only another effort
Of the human mind, in its groupings in the dark,
to reach some more satisfactory religious faith
than the sceptic, enthusiast or monomaniac can
find in the Christian, or Mahometan, or Brah-
minical, or Chinese or Fetish African dogmas
or the day. ~'.'
Throughout the Christian world since Luther's
reformation the spirit of free thought and
free inquiry has resulted in divisions and SUBJ
divisions Of the Protestants without numb er,
and this work is still going on, and especially
in this country. Hence the remark of the dis
gusted French traveller that "the Americans
are a strange people. They have three hum
dred and sixty-fve religions and only one
gravy" In Continental Europe, on the other
hand, in spite of the strength among the masses
of the faith of Mother Church, we see that Vol
taire and the French Goddess of Reason have
multiplied their followers ON every side.
Hence the weakness Of the Holy Father and
the rebellious spirit Of his religious and tenn
poral subjects, even in the city of Rome. In
fact, whether we look to the Catholic Church
in Europe or to the Protestant sects in the
United States, we see that Christianity, like
everything else, is in transition state. That
extraordinary French enthusiast Renan, in his
Life of Jesus, appears to have made power
full diversion at this juncture on the Continent
in favor of new Interpretation Of the Christian
faith.
In England, from the Puseyite detection
from the State creed and the contumacious
DR.. Colenso and his defenders, 1t would appear
that there is a reaction going on from the
English back to the Roman Church. In ire
land the old @irrepressible conflict between
the Orangemen and the Catholics seems to be
absorbed in the new political Fenian question
the Catholic clergy being mostly with the
British government while their hocks are fol-
lowing James Stephens, G. 0. l. r. What is
TO be the general result to Christianity from
all these dstur bing causes! We cannot divine
Perhaps some new prophet, with new reve-
lstion and illumination, may arise from this
confusion, and, like Mahomet draw the third
part Of the world after him, with some new,
simple and sublime idea. Perhaps ell these
religious pcrturbations may result in change
as gradual but as radical as that Of Rome from
the Greek mythology to the New Testament,
from the Roman augurs and sibylline leaves to
the twelve apostles and the Sermon on the
Mount
Meanwhile, from the religious freedom es-
tablished in this country, with Its popular in
stitusions, here We may expect new systems,
new dogmas and new teachers in religion, from
generation TO generation. Fourrisrism has
been tried and found wanting; Mormonism, in
a distant and secluded corner, has marvel.
lously prospered, but It cannot much longer
survive the pressure Of the Gentiles, even in