The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-14


the will of God and for the sake of ever
lasting happiness. This is the theistiC
view Opposed TO it is the Utiltariar
system, generally connected with Ben
tham's name. which finds the sole and
! sufficient motive, and reward of virtue in
the promotion of our well-being here. Sc
long as a system aims at perfection and
beauty of character which transcend tenn
poraI happiness there is in the philosophy
a theistic element patent or latent. But
OF perfection and beauty of character the
Utilitarian philosophy in it's thorough
going form takes no. account.
The weakening of religious belief as a
social influence on the conservative side
is very marked and excites the fears of
statesmen some of whom. even if they
are Protestants, are inclined to look with
complaceucy on the Papacy as n buIwark
| against social revolution The drudge
rested in dull contentment with his lot
while he could believe that hereafter the
/ parts of Dives and Lazarus would be re-
/ versed and full amends would be made to
him for his privations in this life. This
hope having vanished he is resolved. if
he can. to have a share of the good things
sentiment
/ helps to set boiling the caldron of social
I istic and communistic agitation, all who
are familiar with labor literature must
be aware. 1t would probably be found
! that anarchism and atheism generally
went together
As the natural consequence of the loos-
ened hold of religion over the nations
there has been a general tendency in Eu-
rope toward disestablishment In Italy.
the seat of the Papacy disestablishment
is complete. In Spain, while Catholicism
is still recognized as the exclusive religion
of the nation, the immense revenues of
4 the clergy have been secularized, monas-
/ teries have been dissolved, and religion
has been almost reduced to department
/ of the State. In France the process has
gone still further than in Spain, and reli-
! gion may almost be said to be not only a
department. but despised department, of
the State. In Ireland the State Church
has been disestablished bill has been
brought in for the disestablishment of
the Church in Wales, and in England dis
establishment seems to be approaching
its advent being fastened by the COLI
sion of ritualism with the anti-Roman
and anti-sacerdotal spirit of the nation.
Popular education has everywhere been
largely sccularzed, and that process is
still going on. Sunday schools or other
/ secondary influences can scarcely coun-
tervail the general Punishment of reli-
gion from the training of the child.
Religion passed from old to New England
in the form of refugee Professionalism
of the most intensely biblical and the
Iii Ho1 10,
Connecticut, a code of moral and social
law which, if fully carried into effect,
must have fearfully darkened life. 1t
produced in Jonathan Edwards the philo-
sopher of Calvihism. from the meshes of
whose predestiuarian logic it has been
found difficult ts3escape. though all such
reasonings are practically rebutted by
our indefeasible consciousness of freedom
of choice and of responsibility as atten-
dant thereon. New England Puritanism
was intolerant, even prosecuting; but the
religious founder ana prophet of Rhode
Island proclaimed the principles of per-
feet liberation and Of the entire separa-
ton of the church from the state. The
ice of New England Puritanism was grad
ua1ly thawed by commerce, non-Puritan
immigration from the old country, and
social Influences as much as by the force
of intellectual emancipation; though in
founding universities and schools 1t had
in fact prepared for its own ultimate sub
version. Unitarianism was a halfway
house through which Massachusetts pass
ed into thoroughgoing liberalism such as
we find in Emerson, Thoreau. and the cir
Gle of Brook Farm, and afterward into
the inconoclasm of Ingersoll. The only
Protestant Church of much Importance
to which the New World has given birth
is the Universalist, a natural offspring
of democratic humanity revolving against
the belief in eternal fire. Enthusiasm I'M
illuminated still holds it's camp-meetings
and sings Rock of Ages" in the grove
under the stars
But the main support of orthodox Pro
testantism in the United States is now an
off-shoot from the old country 1t is
Methodism, which, by the perfection of its
organization, combining strong ministe-
rial authority with a democratic partici-
patton of all members in the active ser
vice of the Church, has so far not only
held it's own, but enlarged its borders
and increased its power its power perhaps
rather than its spiritual influence, for
the time comes when the fire Of enthu-
siasm grows cold and class meetings lose
their fervor. The membership is mostly
drawn from a class little exposed to the
disturbing influences of criticism or
SCIENCE nor has the education Of the min
listers hitherto been generally such as to
let in heterodox lights upon their minds.
The character and intensity of the move