Year: 1860

From the Springfield Mass. Republican.


No division in the Christian church in this
country is growing more rapidly at the present
moment than the Episcopalian. There is in
direct evidence Of this in the tenacity with
winch the Methodist church clings to its title
OF Episcopal" }" and insists on its whole name,
1nat It's Episcopacy may not be overlooked
Inirty years ago it preferred the simple name
OF Methodist, and was willing to keep its Epis-
ccopacy out Of sight, and we doubt whether half
It's members then knew it by its full name
evidently the puritanic prejudice against
Episcopacy, inherited from the stern old In
dependents, who associated it with the power
that prosecuted them and drove them into
exile, has been gradually obliterated by time,
and very little Of it has come down to the chill.
dren OF the Puritans in this country


various influences contribute to the present
growth OF the Episcopal church. It satisfies,
better perhaps than any other Protestant
branch OF the church, the esthetic demands of
the most cultivated and aristocratic classes
and it also carries with it the idea of power
and traditional authority such as no other
church besides the Catholic presents, while it
has an advantage over the latter in allowing
more individual freedom and in making no
demand for the absolute objection of human
reason to mere authority. The Episcopal
church competes with the Unitarian in at
tracing the most highly cultivated minds, but





In Its adaptation to the wants of more deeply
reliSlous natures. Unitarianism is too purely
ana coldly logical for warm and devout minds
lacy may ADMIT Its reasonings. but they are
chilled by them, and they seek refuge in
church where the imagination and the heart
nho 1000 and nurture. Unitarianism is neces-
sarlly polemic and aggressive from its yery
position, its peculiar ideas being in conflict
with those OF majority of Christian churches,
and Its interpretation of the scriptures and
the cnurch symbols stripping them of the sig
n1hcance which is most dear to the uniyeT-
sal Christian heart. Whether its doctrines
are true or not, so long as it is q small mi
monty and obliged to contend with all
ChrlStendom for an existence, and does
not even obtain a cordial recognition as a
part OF the Christian body, it is unavoidably
exposed to the evils that grow out of incessant
controversy. In the Episcopal church there is
no such warfare. It's air is that of seIf-satisied
and complacent repose. 1t is the church wor-
shpful, and not the church militant, and
tnGugn IL seems to the other Protestant bodies
TO be overmuch arrogant and supercilous in
Its assertion of itself as ''the church" :" and in
It's claims to the apostolic succession in its min
lstry, IL does not enter into noisy and angry
discussions on the subject, but calmly, and per.
haps we may say proudly, states its claims,
ana leaves them to make their own i'm mpression


The declaration that the Episcopal is more





other branch of the Protestant church NAV be
doubted oy some, but we think it true The
Episcopal creed is distinct and clearly defined,
Dat 1t sits very lightly on both clergy and Law
men. 1t Is not felt as yoke and a restraint.
1t does not hamper the free thoughts of those
VINO accept 1T and reiterate their faith in it,
A large portion of the Episcopalians-we think
larger than any other denomination-are in
different to the creed, and concern themselves
very little with theological doctrines of any
sort, their religion consisting chiefly in wor-
ship and goodness; and in its classic and beau
tiful ritual the Episcopal church has guaran-
tee, that many worshipers would be glad to re-
alize, against being bored or shocked by stupid
or lIreyerent attempts at public prayer b. t
the intellectual portion of that church, who
give their thoughts to theology proper, think
very freely, and do so without self-reproach
and without suspicion or hindrance from
the church, which does not meddle with the
thoughts of its worshipers, and has none of that
heresy- hunting spirit which makes some other
churches so uncomfortable to persons of inuui-
ring and speculative tendencies. Unitarianism
makes Its llberality conspicuous, but it does not
let alone those who differ from its standards half
as thoroughly as does the Episcopal church. In
the orthodox Congregational church there is a
growing diversity of opinion, and this is ex-
posed TO public observation by the dogmatic
zeal OF It's ministers and newspapers, and so
breeds distrusts and alarms. In the Episcopal
church there is just as wide diversity but no.
body is excited about it, and the public never
hears OF any heresy in that church, unless some
unsophisticated rector commits the blunder of
preae hing the gospel from an unepiscopal pull
pit to poor sinnars who do not saw their
prayers" or the fussy New York Churchman
goes into Mysteries because some large hearted
Episcopalian has recognized the existence of
Christianity outside of its narrow pale But
the Churchman does not represent American
Episcopacy; and if it did, its zeal is only for
forms and not for doctrines, in which it may be
largely tolerant, nevertheless.


The Episcopal Church has rest from all re-
tormatory and political agitations, and offers a
SABBATH repOse most cOngenial to those who
desire relief from the excitements of the week
Some consider this deficiency and fault in the
Episcopal Church, but it is undoubtedly its
highest excellency to men in public life who do
not wish to have their province invaded by the
clergy, or their pursuits brought to the test of
Christian morals.


These are some of the causes of the growth
and popularity of the Episcopal Church in this
country: They lead us to expect that its growth
will be limited mainly to cert lin classes-the
rich, the educated, the esthetically devout, the
men in public life. And this is seen to be true
as matter of fact. The poorer and uneducated
classes, unless they are born in the Episcopal
Church, do not often 60 into it of choice: they
nhu ei:e"neie style OF gospel better adapted
to their wants, and are repelled, rather than
attracted, by the associations into which its
would bring them. While that
Church is gaining in popularity and numbers.
as never before in this country. its gain is not
among the people indiscriminateiy, but among
the classes for which its ritual its liberality Of
thought, and its social conservatism, have a
special attraction.


WAR ON THE SHAD POLES war on ~.
shad poles has commenced in earnest. and the
erseY fSherm in n -