Part 23 (2/2)

If we a.s.sume the small figure of $500 as the average annual expenditure in connection with each house of wors.h.i.+p, it makes an aggregate of $82,648,500 for parochial expenses. The annual contributions to Protestant foreign and home missions amount to $7,000,000. (See above, pp. 358, 359.) The amounts annually contributed as free gifts for Christian schools and colleges and hospitals and other charitable objects can at present be only conjectured.

[402:1] The ”Federalist,” No. 51.

[404:1] ”This habit of respecting one another's rights cherishes a feeling of mutual respect and courtesy. If on the one hand the spirit of independence fosters individualism, on the other it favors good fellows.h.i.+p. All sects are equal before the law.... Hence one great cause of jealousy and distrust is removed; and though at times sectarian zeal may lead to rivalries and controversies unfavorable to unity, on the other hand the independence and equality of the churches favor their voluntary cooperation; and in no country is the practical union of Christians more beautifully or more beneficially exemplified than in the United States. With the exception of the Roman Catholics, Christians of all communions are accustomed to work together in the spirit of mutual concession and confidence, in educational, missionary, and philanthropic measures for the general good. The motto of the state holds of the church also, _E pluribus unum_. As a rule, a bigoted church or a fierce sectarian is despised” (Dr. J. P. Thompson, in ”Church and State in the United States,” pp. 98, 99). See, to the like purport, the judicious remarks of Mr. Bryce, ”American Commonwealth,” vol. ii., pp. 568, 664.

[405:1] Bryce, ”American Commonwealth,” vol. ii., p. 568.

[405:2] 1 Cor. i. 10.

[406:1] See above, pp. 61, 95, 190, 206, 220, 258.

[406:2] See above, pp. 252-259.

[406:3] Among the New England Congregationalists the zeal for union went so far as to favor combination with other sects even in the work of training candidates for the ministry. Among the ”honorary vice-presidents” of their ”American Education Society” was Bishop Griswold, of the Eastern Diocese of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

[407:1] Sermon at consecration of Bishop H. U. Onderdonk, 1827.

[407:2] Minutes of the Convention of Delegates met to consult on Missions in the City of Cincinnati, A.D. 1831. The position of the bishop was more logical than that of the convention, forasmuch as he held, by a powerful effort of faith, that ”his own” church is the church of the United States, in an exclusive sense; while the divines at Cincinnati earnestly repudiate such exclusive pretensions for their church, and hold to a plurality of sectarian churches on the same territory, each one of which is divinely invested with the prerogatives and duties of ”the church of Christ.” A _usus loquendi_ which seems to be hopelessly imbedded in the English language applies the word ”church”

to each one of the several sects into which the church is divided. It is this corruption of language which leads to the canonization of schism as a divine ordinance.

[408:1] The first proposal for such an a.s.sembly seems to be contained in an article by L. Bacon in the ”New Englander” for April, 1844. ”Why might there not be, ere long, some general conference in which the various evangelical bodies of this country and Great Britain and of the continent of Europe should be in some way represented, and in which the great cause of reformed and spiritual Christianity throughout the world should be made the subject of detailed and deliberate consideration, with prayer and praise? That would be an 'ec.u.menical council' such as never yet a.s.sembled since the apostles parted from each other at Jerusalem--a council not for legislation and division, but for union and communion and for the extension of the saving knowledge of Christ” (pp.

253, 254).

[409:1] See the pungent strictures of Horace Bushnell on ”The Evangelical Alliance,” in the ”New Englander” for January, 1847, p. 109.

[410:1] James i. 27: ”Pure and unpolluted wors.h.i.+p, in the eye of G.o.d, consists in visiting widows and orphans in their tribulation, and keeping one's self spotless from the world.”

[410:2] An agreement has been made, in this State, among five leading denominations, to avoid competing enterprises in spa.r.s.ely settled communities. An interdenominational committee sees to the carrying out of this policy. At a recent mutual conference unanimous satisfaction was expressed in the six years' operation of the plan.

[413:1] ”Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia,” vol. i., p. 63.

[413:2] Buckley, ”The Methodists,” p. 552.

[413:3] Thompson, ”The Presbyterians,” p. 308.

[415:1] If the Lutherans of America were to be united with the Presbyterians, it would be no more than was accomplished fourscore years ago in Prussia. In that case, out of 20,618,307 communicants, there would be included in the four combinations, 18,768,859.

[415:2] Dr. Carroll, ”Religious Forces,” p. xv.

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