Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/245

Rh house of the Eternal Father. Every one has his separate mission to accomplish in the kingdom of mind. God has given different gifts of understanding, and thence different forms of comprehension and expression of truth. By this means truth in its many-sidedness is a gainer. And the full discussion even of the highest subjects, which takes place in the different churches of this country, as well as in the pages of their public organs (for every one of the more considerable religious sects has its own publication, which diffuses its own doctrines as well as reports the transactions of its body) are of infinite importance for the development of the religious mind of the people. Besides this, it must tend to an increasingly clear knowledge of the essential points of resemblance in all Christian communities, to the knowledge of the positive in Christianity, and must prepare the way by degrees for a church universal in character and with a oneness of view, even in dogmas.

The two great divisions of the church in the United States appear to be those of the Trinitarian and Unitarian. The Unitarians arose in opposition to the doctrine of a mechanical Trinity, and the petrified old state-church (the Episcopalian) which held it. The latter lays most stress upon faith, the former on works. Both acknowledge Christ (the one as God, the other as divine humanity) and regard him as the highest object for the imitation of man. Both have individuals within their pale who prove that in either it is possible to advance as far and to deserve in as high a degree the name of a Christian.

I have heard two good sermons from the clergy of the old state-church in this country. It seems to me that this church is regarded as the peculiarly aristocratic church here, and that the fashionable portion of society generally belongs to it; it belongs to people of good ton. But the speculative mind in the church appears to me not