The New York herald., 1869-05-03

Stranger, New York, Bishop WignJman, Of
South Carolina, finding himself, we hope, per-
fectly at home in the metropolis, notwithstand-
ng the designation Of the house, held forth in
the words of ST. Paul calling on the Thessa-
lonians to ''rejoice evermore," and be joyful
whether in bonds, in prison or with bodies
lacerated anG suffering for the faith. The
Bishop closed with the somewhat significant
assertion that if there ''were no mysteries
there would be no Christianity" Bishop
Snow took a less hopeful view of the situation,
preaching on the ''Future of Man on Earth"
in words showing forth our perilous position,
both in morals and politics. consideration
which filed his heart with dismay and the
universe with fear, this tendency to despair
being vastly aggravated. he alleged, by the
efforts of Papists, Anglicans, Presbyterians,
Methodsts and other sects, which God would
soon cut off 80 that man should enjoy his
rightful Inheritance. Clerical installations and
church dedication were duly attended to, and
the Positivist Society put forth programme
Of its peculiar tenets. In the country the
spirit was active in Newburg, Bridgeport, Port
Jervis, Middletown, Poughkeepsie, Washing
ton and other central points, while in Brooklyn
the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher admitted quite
number of postulants to the communion
of Plymouth church, after an oral pro-
fession of faith and baptism, the reverend
gentleman, in his praiseworthy observance of
household economy and due observance of
the relative value of gold and greenbacks,
cautioning the female novices to take off their
bonnets lest they should be damaged by drops
of the water of regeneration.
The Spiritualists of Bridgeport, Conn.,, were
addressed by an elegant and youthful lady
trance medium, who was most probably feted
sumptuously subsequently. instead Of being
burned as witch, as would her grandmother
had that venerable lady attempted to relate
her experiences in the land of dreams to the
first settlers of the State. The Presbyterians
of Trenton, N. j., were edited by an able dis
course from the Rev. DR.. McCosh, President
of Princeton College, while the Rev. R. L.
Dunn comforted the Methodists of Jersey City
with an augury Of the happy future of our
negro population, drawn from the "fact" that
a colored man was called to carry the cross to
Calvary after the Saviour had tainted under its
weight.
In conclusion we may observe, without the
slightest tendency towards an uncharitable
national selfshness, that our RESUME of the
progress of religion among us under the influ-
ence of a universal toleration and the emanci-
patton of mind stands out in bright contrast to
the sad effects produced by exclusivism and
blind adherence to dogmatic rule in the Old
World. Spain, from whence De Soto first
bore the emblem of Christianity to the banks
of the Mississippi, proposes national atheism
by Parliamentary rule, England wanders from
the simplicity of Luther to the intrioacies of
ritualism, Irish Orangemen and Catholics mur-
der each other in the name of the Trinity and
British soldiers shoot down both in the name
of the Queen, France gilds State religion in
differentism the leaven of revolutionary inf
deity, Italy arrays the Church against the
State and the State against the Church, Aus
tria labors towards liberation, and Rome is
preparing for q grand harmonizing effort,
while freedom of thought leaves the American
mind to ''walk abroad in its own majesty, re-
deemed, regenerated and disenthralled."