Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 1.djvu/366

 358 THE PULPIT IN N. H. DUPING THE PRESENT CENTURY.

��TILE PULPIT IN NEW HAMPSHIBE DUPING TEE PBESENT CENTURY.

��BY PROF. E. D. SANBORN.

��Fifty years ago, religious controversies were as violent and bitter as political quarrels now are. The public mind can be engrossed by only one great theme at a time. The theological discussions were succeeded by the first great tem- perance reform, which pervaded all New England. Then followed the anti-slav- ery war, which culmiuated in the great civil war, whose earthquake throes still shake the land from ocean to ocean. The religious element entered largely into this controversy, in its origin, and ministers, North and South, became the principal antagonists. Words were soon exchanged for swords, and orators for soldiers. Since the war, the most vio- lent political strife has raged that was ever known on earth. Milton's war in heaven was less malignant. At last an " era of good feeling " has returned ; and peace, " with her olives crowned," turns again the public eye and heart toward religion, and modern evangelists preach to assembled thousands, as did White- field and Wesley one hundred and fifty years ago. But during the last fifty years a great change has come over the minds of men, both in the presentation and the acceptance of divine truth. The pulpit ministrations of to-day are as dif- ferent from those of my boyhood as the telegraph and railroad differ from the postal communications and the stage coach travel of that date. The sectarian controversies at the beginning of this century led to the building of three or four churches in small country towns, where only one was needed, and where all are now closed. They led, also, to " protracted meetings," held, in almost every town in the State, from three to twenty days in duration. They led, also, to camp meetings, quarterly meetings, yearly meetings, and second advent meetings, among different denomina-

��tions, all of which have declined, and most of them are disappearing. The camp meetings, once so efficient in revi- vals, are now said to be little more than conventions of people of similar views for summer recreation and religious enjoy- ment. The power of association has not lost its charm. Our most important transactions, in politics, agriculture, ed- ucation and religion, are managed by great convocations of people. Even the " hay-fever " is cured by crowds huddled together at a mountain hotel.

In religion, the individual is merged in the denomination, and repentance and faith are embodied in high-sounding reso- lutions. The bible is studied at the Sab- bath school and fireside by the dictation of self-constituted hierophants. Men a thousand miles away tell us how and when and what to read in the sacred vol- ume, and add their own version of the passages selected. Then we have great elective conventions, that attempt to reg- ulate the belief and practice of all Chris- tendom. We have evangelical alliances, pan-presbyterian assemblies, church con- vocations, congregational councils and general assemblies to make creeds and rules for separate denominations. Be- sides these great controlling bodies, we have Episcopal, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational Boards, and last and not least, Woman's Board of Missions. We have also Sabbath School Parliaments and Couventions and Young Men's Christian Associations to lay out work for ministers, and to teach laymen what to think, how to think, and when to speak their thoughts. Whether these large armies of Christian warriors make greater inroads upon the enemy's domains than the individual sharp-shooters of a former generation, remains to be proved by the results. Probably these popular methods of asso-

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