Page:The Civil War in America - an address read at the last meeting of the Manchester Union and Emancipation Society.djvu/14

8 religious thought, and chafe it into destructive fury. The doubts and perplexities which we are at this time called upon to meet manfully in reliance on the God of truth, Americans also are called upon to meet in the same spirit. In both countries some, unable to endure suspense, unable to watch the one hour, have lost their faith in Providence, and committed religious suicide, by casting themselves into the superstitions of the past. But there are two things going on at present in American Christendom widely different from the decay of faith, which may easily be taken for it. The first is the decline of clerical authority; the second is the breaking up of sectarian dogma, and the consequent approach of a reconciliation of the churches.

The decline of clerical authority in itself indicates no decrease of religious feeling among the people. It may indicate the reverse. Intellectually and spiritually, the pastor of a Puritan congregation stood far above his flock, who looked up to him as their half-inspired and almost infallible guide. Now the flock are more nearly on a level both intellectually and spiritually with their pastor, and can regard him as an infallible guide no more. The circumstances of Christian Churches, like those of other communities change, and their organisation must adapt itself to their circumstances. This holds good of all except the Roman Catholic clergy, whose authority purports to be founded on the supernatural powers of a divine order, not on the natural influence of character or mind. But the Roman Catholic clergy lose their flocks when the Irish have become educated, that is in the second or third generation.

The Churches of America, in the main, are offsets of the Churches of Europe. The New World has not yet had leisure to produce a theology of its own. There are