, 1876-12-09

ranks, either quietly ignoring tile
Church, or when pressed, boldly ridicu-
ling its ahhorrcnt and absurd dogmas
The fact is, in l1;6, ns for fifty years be.
fore and nearly as long afterwards, there
was no place inside the Church nor even
in nominal fellowship, for my ntcIi.
gent, self respecting man who had out
grown the unreasonable and monstrous
dogmas OF the CnlvmiStic theology,
Every year the ranks of those stigma.
tilcd dclsts or intdrls by the clergy,
were largely recruited. The churches
were losing the abeSt, brightest and
most influential men Of the day, to the
great injury Of the loser and the lost
The men who found themselves rcptlled
from the Church were just the class
which in every generation must meet the
restraining and directing influence of re-
igion. They were also the men whose
powerful aid the Church always most
requires. 1t is as unphilosophcal as un-
fair to charge this detection from the
churches to the account of French athc.
ism and English deism. TO men of the
character and Calihre of the leading
patriots of l;iG, men Of high aims and
large Christian sympathics, the fdscina,
tions of genuine Christian truth would
have proved far superior to the cold and
cXaspernting cnchuntment Of the fash.
ionnblc sccptcism OF the day. But there
WAS no genuine Christian truth offered
in the market The preachers uniform
ly taught for doctrine the command
mcnts Of men; and the most irrational
and atominablc commandments that the
folly or mnlcvolencc of men ever devised.
1t will surely be set down in the fair,
clear record Of impartial history, that
the bad theology Of the early American
churches changed their good tendency
of freedom and tolention into censori.
business, cXclusiveness and bigotry; that
on account Of this fatal change, they
alicnnted the best minds from their in
fucnce and fellowship; and that the
future which the remorscless logic oi
events mapped out before the Calvin
istc churches of This country, II century
ago, was one Of diminishing numbers.
influence and intellectual power.
Some one will hasten to remind me
that these churches did not reap the dis.
astcr have shown they were historic
ally entitled to. | shall he told that the
Congrcgutionulists have multiplied them
selves more than seven told in hundred
years, that the Baptists have risen from
eighty churches in 1916, to l4,000 in
1876 that the Luthcrans, then unknown
here, have 5000 churches; and that the
Prcsbyterians have 6,000 in place Of
their l75 ministers, Of century ago.
And will he asked if have any doubt
! that all these denominations include in
their membership u fair share Of the
classes have said their theology and
! their unsttrsmRnlike administration
formerly rcpeIcd? No one can more
heartily or gratefully acknowledge the
full measure and force of these facts
than |. rejoice that the history OF the
CaIvinistic churches in the century Just
closed-and particularly in the last fifty
years has so signally and happily dis
appointed the promise of the beginning.
But the ground ofmy rejoicing is some.
what different suspect, from what my
brethren in those churches would say it
should be.
am here to say, and | call the whole
interested concourse of Christendom to
witness, and | confidently appeal to the
truth Of history to yindicate my ascer.
ton, that these churches have won vic
tory where fate decrced them defeat
Though the unwelcomcd and still unac.
knowledged assistance of the libera.
churches that have risen along side them
since the beginning of the century.
give no credit to the Calvinistic church.
es themselves. For although their
growth and their ability to hold on Ia
the intelligence of the world have been
due to their Abandonment of distinct
i've Calyinjsm-due, in other terms, To
their growing liberality, their liberality
has not been due to their theology mol