Page:The Relation of the Sunday-school System to our Christian Patriotism.pdf/17

Rh Especially, should we not give way to a desponding dread of that false Christianity, which, having ruled the greater part of Europe until it begins to crumble beneath its own weight, now seeks to gain the same sway over our land. The Roman Catholic superstition never can tyrannize in this country, if Christians are wise and faithful. A more than adamantine power of resistance is already secured in the tastes and customs of our people; an omnipotent active force is given us in the truth of God’s holy word. A religion whose policy it is to attract by pompous show, and to beat down reason by human authority, must be rejected by men who will not allow their judges or officers of state the slightest insignia, and who are ready to battle until death for the right of free discussion. Popery, as it exists in the Old World, could not live here a twelvemonth; it would be hooted as a farce, or prosecuted as a nuisance. The books which are written in Latin, to prepare their young priesthood for the questions addressed at the confessional to the virgin and the wife, if put into English, would raise a general storm of horror, disgust and indignation. The very fact that these parts of the system, openly acknowledged where it is paramount, are here veiled, modified, or stoutly denied, shows clearly that the American mind and heart are far from being ready to admit its pretensions. In our larger cities, among certain classes, through peculiar circumstances, apostacy from nominal Protestantism may occur. Insolence of riches, madness from too much learning, a romantic imagination, family ties, a desire of notoriety from opposition to the general sentiment, may have led some to please themselves with the