ADVANCED RELIGIOUS VIEWS IN AMERICA.

Evening Star, Issue 3690, 19 December 1874, Page 1 (Supplement)

ADVANCED RELIGIOUS VIEWS IN AMERICA.

(N,Z. Herald's Correspondence.)

In no Church in America is there uniformity of thought. In every Church there is a section of ministers and people utterly un orthodox on almost every cardinal point of

religion. Let ns begin with the Church of England, or. as it is here called, the Episcopal' 'hurch. Practically, the Thirty-nine Articles are a dead letter. The doctrine o f eternal punishment is quc stioued, the existence of hell as a place of material lire is denied, and yet there is a strong tendency to Galvanism in this Church, On the other band Presbyterians covertly reject the doctrine of predestination, and are practically latitu iinarian, with a slight (lisposition to adopt the formulas of the Episcopal Church. There is a hard ■struggle on in he Methodist Episcopal Church, between a tendency in one direction to Ritualism, and an effort to go back to the religion of John Wes 'ey in anoth. r. Yet, even true signs of the times are not wanting. U the rec nt conference of the Methodist Episcopal t.hurch in Sacramento two ministers—one old and grey in the service of the Church ; the other a young, active preac' er both men of blameless life, and highly ■esteemi d as teachers and scholars, openly declaredfbefore the ConLience their inability to ere, it the following dogmas ; or, rather, they gave their creed thuswise : —“ 1 have no knowledge of a third person in the Trinity. I believe in Go 1 the Father and Son, but I do not feel any Bible demand to accept the existence of a third peison. Ido nob believe in a future judgment, i believe in a present judgment. I cannot accept the doctrine of eve lasting damnation, nor the existence of a ma erial bell.” This unorthodox statement called for immediate resignation or expulsion, tint the general feeling of the Conference was against both measures.

The Fre-byterian Assembly has just now b fore it a si ini ar case, and doubtless the Episcopal Church, if its numbers so de ired, could bring up a few dozen to answer to similar charges of heresy.

I be Unitarians and Universalists change pulpits with pleasure, and their doctrines are largely on the increase ; indeed, the great bulk of the people are divided between Materialism and ilumanitarianism. Then, as a sort of reactionary effort, we have the Spiritualists, who are abo uivided into sects, Ihe Free-loxists, or religious Communists, are also divided. Tlu the Drunkards and the Adventists, who are ultra-orthodox on most points, but are waiting daily for the utter destruction of the world and the lifting up of tlio buiuts. But the general tendency is towards Materialism, and the sooner that point, is reached the better, for

then the reacli n wll set in, and men, sick of heart and eager tor something better than the low level of Ma erialism. will go back to the fountain of truth, •be corruptions of the Church, the infidelity, spirit nonsense, and materialisms of the religious world will culminate in the birth of new great religious people Believing in the general restoration of ran to a Godlike nartur *, this picture s not overdrawn. Believing in a down grade hj r humanity, then God help the world if one hundred and fifty millions of unimroved, miniatured Americans ever occupy this land ! to-day their chii-f business is to steal iro u each 'ther In twenty or fifty years time, if i his system is continued, Vmericaua wid have h?come so web oduc ted they woi.’o he able to seal fr mi each other, but will “go for” the world at larg.'. The Piets aud Seals, the Huas, the tuoths, the V audals, the old Norsemen were mere children to what the Americans will become if still on the down grade. But they | wo-.’t-; ther- is in the Amcicm character I the elements of mora', religious, ayd physical greatness that must develop a mighty and a noble race.