The New York herald., 1869-04-18

Cbristianity-The Preachers aud tho PHI
losophers.
It is now some time since we an
nounced In these columns the approach OF
great religious revival. We did not use the
word then-we do not use it now-in the COM
mon and vulgar sense. Revival, to our think
ing, does not mean crowded meeting houses,
the birthstone declamations of demagOgues, the
tricks of ventriloquists, swoons, frances end
the rest, but deeper and more general inter-
est in spiritual things. In this latter sense we
used the term, and in this sense our prediction
is being fulfilled. The widespread excitement
which has been produced by the HERALD's
Sunday articles on Christianity, our volumi-
nous religious correspondence, and the Sun
day sermons reproduced in our Mondays edi-
ton, all prove the growing interest which Is
taken in religious questions. Rich and poor,
high and low, preachers and philosophers, all
give evidence that they feel religion to be the
grand absorbing subject of the hour. The
preachers are bestirring themselves, and al
though we still desiderate much we have had
occasion more than once of late to compliment
them for the increasing power and practical
ness of which they are giving evidence.
1t now appears, however, that the work Is
to be taken out of the hands of the preachers.
The philosophers, following in the wake of the
HERALD, have taken the field. Ralph Waldo
Emerson, the sage Of Concord, has been en-
tightening the Bostonians on the subject of re-
ligion generally and Of Christianity in par
ticular. Other New England lights are
to follow, the next in order being
no other than the inexhaustible and
ever ready Wendell Phillips. If Mr..
Phillips and those who are to succeed him
follow in the vein of Emerson the preachers
had better look out. Emerson Is typical
New Highlander. The old Bay State and the
Hub are proud Of him. He has written some
good verse-some dreamy essays, more easily
read than understood, and has published some
lectures which have merit Of their own. The
| merits of his productions aside, Mr.. Emerson
| has acquired the reputation Of philosopher.
| He has long been known a. nationalist, or
now many years since he found 1t incom-
patible with his individual honesty to continue
| in the discharge of the duties of Christian
minister. Mr.. Emersons retirement from the
pulpit, however, did not necessarily imply
that he had abandoned Christianity as whole.
The Christian students and professors Of Har-
ward have more than once honored him by
flocking to his lectures. Nor can we say that
he has hitherto openly expressed hostility to
the Christian religion; y is difficult to see
now on what principles he can be called the
friend of the Christian religion. The Horti-
cultural Hall of Boston was filed on the occa-
sion to which we have referred with not only a
large but highly respectable audience. The
elite of the city were present. To this audi
ence Emerson spoke in vein which, If it was
not inhdel, we do not know what infdelity
means. ''Other world!" he exclaimed.
''There is no other world Here or nowhere
is the whole fact" We do not linger to cha
racterize such language. Mr.. Emerson did
on the occasion utter some good, whole
some moral sentiments, but he evidently
overlooked the fact that national morality has
never yet in the worlds history fourished
away from religion. If there is no religion
but natural religion-in other words, If there
is no revealed religion, then Christianity is O
lie, and the churches are swindling institu-
tions, one and all. When Mr.. Emerson speaks
of the good influences exerted by Buddhism
and also by Stoicism of DID, and whom he
speaks Of ''the electric telegraph" as having
Immensely reduced the size Of our planet, as
If 1t had put all nations In one chamber" he
but reiterates sentiments which have again
and again been expressed in the columns of
the HERALD. In all this he Is right enough
but what shall we say of the religion of New
England9 Alas alas How are the mighty
fallen! The descendants of the Pilgrim
Fathers bowing to such gods as these
We look at these Boston lectures from the
point of view to which we have already re-
ferred. II is to us proof unmistakabe that
an era of religious inquiry has set in. We
shall have all sides of the controversy fairly
and fully presented. The result, we can have
no doubt, will be positive gain to the Chris
tian religion. We are advancing with railway,
even lightning speed towards the great future.
Civilization, having marched across two con-
tinents and two seas, is already close upon Its
ancient home and Christianity will be CON-
PEELED to show herself side by side with
religious systems which were old before she saw
the light. II Is for the parsons and the priests,
the bishops aud the patriarchs and all who All
the sacred office to rid Christianity Of the rust
and incrustations which have gathered upon
her during the ages, and TO set her again
before the world in her native, artless and
unadorned simplicity. We wish to see her Of
she was seen Of old by the lake of Gallee and
on the hills Of Judca. We want progress
but the progress must be from complexity ia
simplicity, from human dogmas aud DEGREES to