, 1877-07-22

! There is no denying that the Lake Bluff
camp-meeting would have lost much of its
extraordinary interest and attraction had it
not been for the presence of JOSEPH CooK,
the Boston e1-clergyman and lecturer. In
reality, A1r. Cook had nothing to do with the
! cemp-meeting, nor did the camp-meeting
! have anything to do with O1r. Cook, SO far as
/ its real objects were concerned. AR. Cook
+was only an incident at the outset; but
speedily the incident overshadowed the
event. Of all his lectures: the last one, upon
the causes and growth OF New England skep-
ticism, is by far the most attractive-for its
sentiment and humor, as well as for its his
torical facts and deductions. With all his
brilliant talent, however, Mr. Cook is long
and discursive. Few people, probably, in
these busy days have had time to read his
lecture, or even to pick out Of its djscursive-
ness its salient points as to New England
skepticism; but the subject is SO interesting,
and was handled in such mastery way,
that we shall be doing many Of our readers
a service in presenting them brief summary
OF it.
to acknowledge the existence Of widespread
skepticism in New England. which too many
of his brethren in the pulpit are unwilling to
admit, and he finds that "the tap-root of
New England skepticism is New England
freedom" " and that New England hns made
more mistakes in ondearoring to found new
forms of religion because she has tried
oftencr than tho rest of the country. He
finds one cause in the sympathy which our
people had for France after her friendly as
sistance in the Revolution. It aroused IN
enthusiasm for Gallican liberty Of thought,
and "the atrociously shallow and unclean
but brilliant and audacious Partisan infdel-
ity Of the period looked attractive even to
the most talented end scholarly under
graduatcs," SO that at the outset Of our NO.
tional life our colleges were full Of infidelity.
But the ground had been prepared for the
crop Of skepticism long before. The secu}ari-
cation Of orthodoxy in New England grew
out OF the very desire to foster the religious
culture Of the whole people. As early as 1851
q law waspassed in Massachusetts thatnobody
could vote unless he was church-member
or had been baptized in youth in other
words, it was Inv that united Church and
State. Twenty-Five years after, Us the out
come Of this theocratic measure, followed
the halfway covenant" by which persons
not protesting to have entered on new life
at all were allowed to enter the church. In
17O4 followed another effect of the strain,, in
SroDDARD's plea that men, whether convert
ed Or not, should be allowed to come to the
communion-serrice, aud should be recog-
nlzed in some sense Us church-membcrs. It
was not long step from an unconvertea
church-membership to an unconverted min-
istry. Then followed utter decentralization
of the orthodoxy, broad departures from
Plymouth Rock, and the seeularization Of
the more fashionable churches of Eastern
Massachusetts,. By this time everything
was ready for the corruption of French in-
auences, and out of this secularization Of
the churches came their chief weakness in
their resistance to the irreligious influences
arising from the French war md the Revo-
luton, and to the accession OF the French
infdelity at the moment when LAFAYETTE
and French liberty had bent the national
soul toward France"
somuch for 31r. CooK's generatizations but
he runs the subject down still closer. He finds |
that Unitarianism was born of " the older |
Arninianism, tho halfway covenant, the dis
Of the French war and the Revolu-
ton, French in6delity, the popular mis-
conception of scholarly orthodox doctrine,
and some crude and rash statements IN ]