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difficult to do justice to their real merit. While the wider culture in our time condemns their intellectual range as narrow, and their philosophical method as defective, yet we can never mention but with respect a school of thinkers who so seriously grasped the great problems of existence, and who, withal, dealt so honestly with themselves in the solutions which they attempted; who may have erred in not accurately measuring the limits of human thought, but who neither ignored difficulties nor paltered with terms; who had "no sophistry in their mouths, and no masks on their faces."

Whether it be understood as a eulogium or a reproach, it is nevertheless a fact that the original impulses of religious thought in this country have proceeded almost wholly from New England. And throughout all our history no more genuine intellectual force has been expended than was devoted to theological discussion by the school that began with Hopkins and closed with Taylor. Yet these acute and powerful thinkers have had but little influence on other religious bodies. With most of them they have never come in contact, and where, as in one memorable instance, they seemed to effect a lodgement, it was only at last to be rejected and disowned. Nor even in New England have they retained their sway. They were profoundly metaphysical; recent theology has become historical and critical. It has gained in breadth, but lost in intellectual force; it is more learned, but less original. A striking illustration of the degree to which the theological intellect of New England has lost its relish for metaphysical inquiries is furnished in the fact that the most acute vindication of the freedom of the mind in willing, which our generation has produced, is the work, not of a divine, but of one who snatched from an engrossing business career the opportunities of literary labor.

The second great phase of our religious culture was ethical, and it need hardly be added that its representative was Channing. In terming the first epoch metaphysical it should not be forgotten that Hopkins denounced slavery when slaves were still landed on the wharves of Newport; and in terming the second ethical, we would by no means depreciate the eminent intellectual qualities of some of its early leaders. But it is

not less true that when the movement, which is so imperfectly described by the theological term commonly employed to designate it, passed from its negative to its positive stage, its note was ethical. The inspiration of Channing lay in his noble "enthusiasm of humanity." As a scientific theologian he cut no deep lines on our religious thought; but as an apostle of that benignant Gospel which seeks in the welfare of man the highest glory of God, he must be reckoned a star of the first magnitude in our spiritual firmament. His true and abiding influence overruns the boundaries of sects. He was the foremost and most eloquent propagator of that humanitarian sentiment which pervades so widely our modern life. The force of this sentiment has been by no means expended in specific philanthropies and moral reforms. While it has made itself felt most decisively in these directions, it has also silently reacted in quarters where its influence has been least suspected. The tone of every Christian communion has been affected by it. It has widened the range of religious effort, modified the emphasis of preaching, and even tinged perceptibly the impulses of missionary zeal. The unmistakable change that has come over American Christianity in the disposition to assign so much greater relative importance to practical well-doing, and to recognize the relations of the Gospel to the present life, is due, in very large measure, to this more open vision of "the godlike in the human." The wider diffusion of this humane philosophy has been promoted by an exceptional literary excellence. The qualities in which the theological culture of the former epoch was so conspicuously deficient became the distinctive characteristic of the second phase. Still, its success has been more evident in the discussion of social questions than in solving "problems of the soul."

The most recent phase of our religious culture, and one that can hardly yet be studied in its full development, is the tendency, so marked at the present time among all religious bodies, which assigns to sentiment a more prominent function in religion. In its most general aspect, this is part of that great reaction against a logical apprehension of Christianity which we have before considered, and is the result of social development and of a more diversified civilization. It may be termed

the æsthetic phase, although it should be remembered that this tendency even in its most pronounced forms seldom usurps exclusive control, being found not unfrequently allied with an efficient recognition of practical religious duties. This æsthetical revival is, without doubt, the characteristic feature of our religious culture at the present day. Were it no more than an æsthetical revival it would scarcely deserve notice in a review of religious progress; but in its most extreme manifestations it has an avowed connection with doctrine; and where no such connection consciously exists, the tendency can hardly be dissociated from subtle modifications of religious thought. The illustrations of this present phase of our religious culture are too familiar to need more than the most passing mention. They are seen in the general disposition to affect a more elaborate religious ceremonial, and in the extraordinary impulse given to ecclesiastical architecture. That these results should be witnessed in religious communions which have always recognized symbolism and ceremonial as legitimate instruments of religious culture is not surprising, for, even if carried at times to an extreme, the development is logical. It works out a principle which has never been denied. Yet even in these communions the transformation is very marked. Things undreamed of even in Hobart's time have long ceased to attract attention. The first stained windows were brought to this country in 1827, and in the same year we find Doane urging the restoration of the cross to churches. Not till twelve years later did this leader in ecclesiological reform venture to suggest the propriety" of removing the holy table back, and setting it up a step or two upon a platform." At that day a surpliced choir would have excited consternation. But the most conclusive evidence of the wide diffusion of this æsthetic impulse is furnished in those religious bodies with all whose traditions it is at war. The tendency pervades all sects, and mediæval architecture is no longer, as it once was, a matter of principle, but simply a question of expense. The Baptist and the Methodist have learned to covet the "dim religious light" and the "pealing organ"; and the children of those whose early history was a stern protest against the perilous alliance of faith with any sensuous forms, and who refused, in their plain meeting.

houses, to tolerate so much as the stated reading of the sacred volume lest a spiritual worship should degenerate into a formal service, have come to listen with composure,

"under vaulted roofs

Of plaster, painted like an Indian squaw,"

to such artistic "renderings" of Holy Writ as awaken a bewildered doubt whether Hebrew or Greek or Latin be the tongue employed. Whatever the defects of religious teaching a century ago, it was certainly a vigorous intellectual discipline. It is not easy to believe that the substitution of such different methods is a sign simply of a more cultivated taste.

From the foregoing review it has been made sufficiently apparent that the function of American Christianity has been discharged in a moral and practical rather than in a scientific and theological development. The scope of this article does not permit a survey of our copious religious literature, but such a survey would undoubtedly establish the same conclusion. The impulse of original religious thought was almost wholly limited to a single school. As speculative has been succeeded by biblical and historical theology, we have drawn our best supplies from a foreign source. Each of our larger denominations is amply furnished with its representative literature, but no supreme mind has appeared whom all acknowledge as master. It may be doubted whether denominational training is conducive to such a result. Our most successful efforts have lain in the more popular discussion of religious truth, a direction in which our literature has been enriched with more than one admirable monograph. At the close of the first century of its independent existence, Christianity in this country, with an undeniable external growth and a prodigious external activity, finds itself confronted with great and perplexing problems. Some of these, as the question how under our voluntary system the Gospel shall be preached to the poor, are incidental to the peculiar conditions of our American religious life; while others, as the issue between Christianity and science, are connected with the general movement of modern civilization. There are not wanting many indications of a disposition on the part of those who hold earnestly to Christianity as a great historical fact to look these questions fairly in the face; but whether, in

attempting to solve them, we shall simply repeat the experiments of the Old World, or, rising to nobler modes, shall illustrate some deeper adaptation of the Gospel to human society and to human thought, it remains for the coming century to show.

J. L. DIMAN.

ART. II. POLITICS IN AMERICA, 1776-1876.

WHEN the Continental Congress met in 1774, few persons in the Colonies perceived that the ties to the mother country were about to be severed, and few, if any, were republicans in theory, or contemplated a "revolution" in the political system. The desire for independence was developed during 1775, and the question as to the form of government to be adopted came up by consequence. It presented no real difficulty. The political organization of some of the Colonies was such already that there were no signs of dependence except the arms and flag, the form of writs, and a responsibility to the Lords of Trade which sat very lightly upon them. Necessary changes being made in these respects, those Colonies stood as complete republics. The others conformed to this model.

In bringing about these changes great interest was developed in political speculations, an interest which found its first direction from Paine's "Common Sense," and was sustained by diligent reading of Burgh's "Political Disquisitions," and Mrs. Macaulay's "History of England." The same speculations continued to be favorite subjects of discussion for twenty-five years afterwards. The journals of the time were largely made up of long essays by writers with fanciful noms de plume, who discussed no simple matters of detail, but the fundamental principles of politics and government. The method of treatment was not historical, unless we must except crude and erroneous generalizations on classical history, and it seemed to be believed that the colonial history of this country was especially unfit to furnish guidance for the subsequent period; but the disquisitions in question pursued an apriori method, starting from the broadest and most abstract assumptions. The same method

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