The Portland daily press., 1883-05-02

WEDNESDAY, MORNING. NAY >.
An Englishman's view Of Ameri-
can Churches.

Mr.. Edward A. Freeman's book, entitled
"Some Impressions of the United States,
contains some remarks upon ecclesiastical
matters in this country which are interest
Ing. He notices the outward equality Of the
places ofsworship Of all religious bodies is
one Of the significant things here. In the
days when Congrega;ionallsm was the estab-
lished religion in most of New England each
local church met in its meeting house. The
church was not building, but a society Of
men and women. The use of the word
church to describe the sanctuary has in it
something of conscious equality all round
Mr.. Freeman remarks upon certain signs
of conservatism within American church
edifces. Many things that English folk
have banished, such as pews, and galleries
with hired singers, are preserved as in an
English town church fifty years ago The
old Episcopal church at Newport, for in
stance, with its pews ''devised so as 10
cause every devotional act to be done under
the greatest possible amount of dificully.n
Another custom continues in our congre-
land, and that is the custom sof beginning
to talk the moment the service is oyer.n In
England people are silent till they are out of
the church. "Bnt the American use is re-
ally survival of the practice of talking
while the service is going on Mr.. Free
man refers to the days when Henry the Sec
end scrubbed and looked at pictures during
mass, and the days when Pepys and the two
Sir Williams had ''mneh talk in the pew.
Mr.. Freeman remarks at length upon .'the
amazing mixture OF reckless Innovation with
something more than conservatism to be
seen in the prayer book of the American
Episcopal church. "The changes in the
morning and evening prayer and the changes
liNhe liturgy would seem TO have been done
by men ages and hemispheres apart. The
one is mutilated and confused the other is
restored to primitive perfection
Our Episcopal friends, who are Just now
struggling With the question of prayer book
revision. may be interested in looking up
this sharp criticism.
Mr.. Freeman eonfesses that he generally
finds extempore prayer unpleasant.
In an Anglican, Roman, an Orthodox
church, II l only understand enough of the
service to follow it, am something. In a
Presbyterian or Congregational church am
dumb dog. / am at the mercy of another
man who can put up what prayers he chooses
IN my name without my having part or lot in
the natter
Al the same time he confesses the ocea-
sional advantages of more flexible kind of
worship, and he naively adds, 81 could not
but admire the discretion of q college chap
lain who not only returned thanks for past
Benefaetions but prayed for new ones He
intimates that much of our ecclesiastical
nh
which he had been used, and he was very
much taken ahack by the announcement on
the door of very respectable church, of an
"adnlt gents Bible-class" MIR. Freeman
ought to amuse himself in leisure hours
with the ecclesiastical phraseologyn of the
recent Andover-Smyth-C Cook controversy!
He attended one or two negro churches,
where the prayers were very hearty and
in one of which the sermon treated largely
OF Herod the Great, whose viii was taken
to Rome to be probated by Augustus before
the Sanhedrim.' Mr.. Freeman says that in
several American cities the Episcopal church
is distinctly the fashionable church. He
wishes it were otherHise, and sensibly
enough adds that to be a merely fasliona-
BILE church is .'the very worst thing that
could happen to any religious bodg."
A distinction is made by Mr.. Freeman be-
tween established churches and such as
have endowment by the state, which de-
serves to be remembered. There are no
churches in America with endowments
granted By the government, nor any that are
favored by the government in distinction
from others. But every legally incorporated
congregation is church established BY law:
NOS can religious bodies wholly escape from
state control by processes of disestablish-
ment and abandonment as many think.
'sThe records Of American law courts would
soon undeeeive such peTs0ns.n From the
supremacy of the law no person or society,
secular or spiritual, can escape, and ssthis
supremacy is constantly exercised in ecclesi-
asiical matters by the American courts