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We
have often found fault with the state of the
spiritual guides of American congregations; and we
mean again to speak on the subject, since there is
nothing of greater moment which we can present to
the notice of our readers. Every one of them,
separately and alone cannot, we confess, do much to
remedy the evil; but at last communities are
composed of individuals; it is therefore the duty of
every one to inform himself correctly of whatever is
to be presented to him for his action, that he may,
however humble his lot, act understandingly, and not
follow blindly the lead of some self-appointed
public governors, who are to be met with in
republics of all kinds, from the state down to the
corporation of a village church. It is now precisely
these leaders who are often the least informed on
matters in which they wish to direct others, and
they generally make up in bold assurance and
reckless assertion what they lack in solid
knowledge. It is, therefore, a great evil that in
some places the affairs of the congregations have
been put into the hands of men who, however expert
in business and acquainted with the ways of the
world, and whose claim to be the trustees of
Synagogues often depends solely upon their
possession of superior pecuniary means, or other
fortuitous circumstances, have not the requisite
religious information, nor a religious character
superior to that <<386>>of other persons, to
constitute them absolute judges of what is necessary
to the advancement of the interests of Judaism in
this extensive country,—interests which are daily
taking a wider range, and becoming hourly more
engrafted in the body politic.
Our friends need not fear that we are going to
embark in a political discussion, because we say
that Judaism is becoming hourly a more potent
element in political life: since we do not wish to
go into state affairs, but merely to remain steady
to our branch—that is, the religious life. Still has
the state an interest in the good conduct of all its
citizens, and all these again have the obligation
resting upon them, as such, to contribute the utmost
they are capable of towards the happiness of the
larger family of which they are an important
integral part, Hence the more the number of
Israelites increases, in consequence of which they
are becoming more influential in the direction of
the destinies of the country: the greater is the
necessity that no useless obstacle should be put in
their way, either by design or accident, which might
prevent them from doing all they can possibly
achieve for the benefit of the whole community in
which they live.
Now, we hold it that the Jew is only then most
useful, patriotic, honest, and capable when he
exhibits a strict conformity to his faith, as this
is independently of the fear of punishment on the
part of the state for a violation of its laws.—a
restraint not always available, and, therefore, not
to be relied on at all times,—the only safeguard
others have for his fulfillment of the duties of the
citizen, either in private or public life. As Jews
therefore are increasing, their means of becoming
religious ought likewise to increase, to enable them
the better to act well the part which Providence
assigns them as inhabitants of a country, where
personal freedom and equal laws are the unalienable
right of every inhabitant, who chooses to claim his
share in the administration.
The state itself cannot assume the right to
interfere in the manner how we are to perfect
ourselves in bur moral duties, and however great its
interests may be in the premises, it cannot compel
us to listen to moral instruction as adults, nor to
send our children to religious schools; for however
desirable it may<<387>> be to see all men good, and
in consequence happy, it would degenerate into
tyranny were the state as such to assume the mental
training of all its members, in a manner which the
persons in power might happen to resolve on. Granted
even that every citizen would accord them honesty
and capacity to carry out this great scheme;
nevertheless would it not be safe to entrust one
man with such an absolute control over the
conscience of another, as to fix an invariable and
unvarying rule how he shall be fitted for civil
government through means of religious instruction.
Only where the state is based upon a divine
legislation, fixed and unalterable, can it
prescribe such a uniform standard; but a
theocracy is not to be thought of in the present
state of the world; hence can the government not set
itself up as the arbiter of what are moral truths,
in which every one is to be grounded and trained.
Some countries get over the difficulty by endowing,
as such, various and diverging religious schools;
but independently of the absurdity of making
Catholicism orthodox in Ireland, Presbyterianism the
same in Scotland, the Episcopal Church supreme in
England, and Brahminism protected in Hindoostan,
with its schools, its priests, its idols, and its
abominations there must be many minor subdivisions
of the inhabitants without the government,
protection for their principles and opinions,
through which they evidently suffer injustice.
So,
also, in France, though Catholics, Protestants, and
Jews see their clergy paid from the public purse, it
is deplorable to notice how, under this apparent
equality, the proud governing Church of Rome sees
its ministers amply endowed, whilst the poor Jewish
Hazan has the pitiful sum of 500 francs per
annum allowed him to drag out a precarious
existence. No doubt England does all that her
circumstances allow in the anomalous position in
which she is placed, overburdened as she is with
debt and taxation, weighed down by an established
church, and still in danger of dismemberment, unless
she can succeed in conciliating the Catholics of
Ireland and the Pagans of India. So France, perhaps,
solves the difficult problem as near as may be, in
paying such salaries to various churchmen,
staggering as she does under a load of taxation and
a deranged state of the finances, as comport with
the respective importance and numerical strength of
the various <<388>>sects in the commonwealth. It is
a step in advance, both on the part of Britain and
France, that they, in a limited measure, endow
institutions other than those connected with the
established prevailing churches. But there is one
radical error which, if avoided, would relieve the
state of a great burden, and simplify the government
to a wonderful degree, whilst at the same time, a
great cause for discontent would be removed: that
is, not to pay churchmen, of whatever kind, out of
the treasury of the general government: not to
support any religious colleges, and to recognise, in
no shape whatever, the existence of any religious
creed. Religion is the affair of the individual: and
however much may be done to produce uniformity and
fusion of opinions, there will be divergence and
contrariety: hence it is wise to give up as
hopeless and impracticable at once, that which will
establish itself as such after years and ages
of fruitless trials.
It
is, accordingly, our opinion that in the United
States the people have alighted on the best idea.—to
let religion alone as a state affair; and the more
distinctly this is kept in view, the less
interference there is on the part of the government
in matters of conscience, among which we reckon the
observance of a day of rest, and the rules regarding
what constitutes lawful marriages, and similar
matters: the more will the general happiness be
secured, and the less the discontent always
inseparable from the best system of civil rule. But
the less the state does or has a right to interfere
in purely conscientious matters. The greater becomes
it the duty of individuals to do that for
themselves, under a perfect republican system, which
tyrannies, either popular or monarchical, in vain endeavour to effect elsewhere on public grounds. If
there is no means to compel me to be a relgious
conformist, I ought to vindicate my freedom and
exemption from governmental espionage and
surveillance, by showing that I can be both better
versed in religious knowledge, and observe my duties
to God and the state more energetically, simply
because I act from a free choice, and not from
compulsion; that 1 am more bound to God, whilst I
acknowledge no superior on earth, whose frowns would
compel me to pay an unwilling homage to the Creator
even; for so is the heart of man—compel him to be
what <<389>>he should be, and he will revolt from an
obedience which, if left to himself, would be a
spontaneous offering.
Now we need not remind our readers of what they know
themselves without our telling them, that we
Israelites labour under a great disadvantage
compared with the many sects around us; that is, our
limited number of adherents, and the consequent
small public opinion which we have in our favour.
Other societies are nearly all more numerous, and
therefore constitute of themselves important
elements of power; a man, therefore, rising among
them, or making himself useful to them collectively,
acquires at once a solid political influence, which
he can wield in case of necessity, or when his
interests prompt him. Besides this, he is encouraged
in any public enterprise by the certainty that he
has a large body of wealthy, intelligent, and
well-educated men to second his labours, and to
participate in the responsibility. The ministers of
religion whom they have, either let them be
volunteers, as those of the Society of Friends, or
paid officers, as among other associations, are
members of a well-organized brotherhood, with
privileges either the result of custom or absolute
and direct concession from the communities with
which they are connected. Hence both the laities and
the clergy are animated by an esprit du corps,
a certain fellow-feeling, which will be observable
in any case of emergency.
Accuse now any public
religionist (we cannot well find another phrase) of
any crime or misdemeanour, and unless the guilt be
so evident, so beyond measure manifest, you will not
see a conviction once in a hundred times, from the
simple fact that his disgrace would reflect disgrace
upon thousands similarly situated as he is; the
order, the profession must be preserved from public
reproach, although a culpable individual might
thereby escape. Do you ask, Whether we approve of
this screening of the culpable? we will tell you
unhesitatingly, No; let each man stand or fall by
himself—this is simple justice. But we cannot stop
to discuss the propriety or even justice of certain
matters which are interwoven in the affairs of life;
all a journalist has to do is to point out their
existence, unless he sets himself up for the time
being as a judge to redress grievances. If we,
therefore, could effect it, we would expose to
public scorn every delinquent, whether he
put reverend, or right reverend, or most reverend
and doctor of laws and divinity after it. This,
however, as every one will easily see, would be not
alone a thankless but impracticable task: and,
therefore, however we might be inclined to deplore
the perversity of man which would screen guilt,
merely from expediency, and trample on justice
from policy, we cannot do anything to apply a remedy
since even a public denunciation of criminals
like these we speak of would not obtain the credence
of those belonging to the same body. You might speak
for years, and all the satisfaction would be that
the tables would turned against you, and you would
be denounced as a calumniator, whom to stop by fair
or foul means would be rendering a service to the
community at large.
Hence, where so much is to be gained, where so high
a position, an exemption from pains and penalties
can be secured, where so good a standing in society
can be reached, it is no wonder that many will be
found ready to embark in the clerical profession as
a means of comfortable settlement in an honorable
and permanent, if even not lucrative profession.
Those who feel an inclination to guide their
fellow-men in the path of virtue and morals, those
who feel sincerely for the tenets of their religion
and those even who have failed in mercantile and
other pursuits, need not hesitate to study
diligently the branches in which
they will have to be proficient, in order to be able
to assume office which will be readily accessible to
them, as it is notorious that, notwithstanding the
many seminaries for the training of divines, there
is no over-production of students of divinity.
Laymen, too, even the wealthy and influential in
medical and legal professions, and among the
merchants and great mechanics, will not hesitate to
devote much time as churchwardens, trustees, Sunday
school teachers, managers of public charities, book
concerns, publication societies, and many more
things of the same kind, and spend a great deal of
money themselves, and induce others to do the same
in the establishment of colleges, missions, Bible
and book funds, erection of churches, parsonages,
and for whatever else funds may be demanded by the
various denominations in the country. No man likes
to be found standing alone, even doing good; but
when there are many to participate in
<<391>>any
movement, it is quite easy to find men ready to
engage in the most difficult enterprise, and not a
few are willing to commence, in the hope that
others will be prepared to follow. Hence we often
read in the papers that Mr. So and So has subscribed
ten thousand dollars, conditional that nine others
shall, within a given period, contribute a similar
sum towards endowing a college, seminary, or book
fund; and it is but rare indeed that a man has an
opportunity of not complying with a conditional
subscription towards any public object, if the only
obstacle in the way is the necessity of others
joining him.
So
also with regard to religious conformity. In the
first place, the laws even in free America, being
passed by those who represent the opinions of the
majority, will uniformly be found, unless by a rare
exception, to favour in some manner the peculiar
religious views of the majority of Christians—not so
much to favour directly sectarian principles,
although this is at times plainly avowed, but
because the representatives know of no other
ideas, and dream not that they violate any one’s
rights by deciding as they do, as judges or
legislators. The whole public opinion is accordingly
Christian in its tendency, although Christianity is
not the law of the land in theory, nor often
so avowed in practice by the enlightened
magistracy and delegates to the various legislative
assemblies, both state and national. In the second
place, the certainty of being held in countenance by
so many conformists to the same practices, is a
powerful incentive to be outwardly religious, after
the fashion of any one particular sect. Thus, for
instance, it would require a great deal of
self-denial for a single person to appear in the
garb of Friends or Dunkers he would attract too much
of an unenviable notoriety, to which he would expose
himself, unless he were an enthusiast whose mental
excitation almost bordered on madness. But let
hundreds or thousands affect a certain style of
dress, although it be not acquiesced in by all or
even a majority of the inhabitants of a place, and
the most timid and retiring even will not hesitate
to adopt it, especially if some religious ideas are
connected with it.
Since now the Christian sects are
so extensive in numbers and powerful in association,
many who otherwise might show no
<<392>>regard to
the observances expected of their followers if left
to their own convictions, will quietly fall into the
ranks of outward conformists, to avoid being noted
as singular and exceptional in their conduct. Let no
one tell us, for example, that the Sunday is
observed so much more strictly in England and
America than continental Europe, from sincere
conviction of its necessity on the part of the
masses; but we think that we should come nearer the
truth were we to aver that it is the fortuitous
circumstance that at the reformation in Scotland,
the opponents of the Romish church borrowed and
applied to themselves the Bible phraseology, which
otherwise only denotes and speaks of Israel proper,
and thus clothed the church festival, the Sunday,
with the dignity of the Jewish Sabbath; and from the
fact that the Puritans, in emigrating hither,
brought over with them the ideas that prevailed in
this respect among them in Europe, coupled with the
fact that the respecters of the Sunday have always
employed all available means to force its observance
by penal enactments upon others, which ultimately
succeeded in inducing the greater number of those
who, as elders or ministers, have the direction of
public opinion, in blindly conceding to the first
day a degree of sanctity not warranted by anything
derived from primitive Christianity; and that this
has of late years again contributed to induce the
common people to yield their acquiescence in the
same direction, for fear of being marked and
denounced as irreligious, by which means they would
naturally suffer great inconvenience. That this
might produce great injury to many, no one
acquainted with the course of business in a
community will deny. Let there be several candidates
for pubic office, and our word for it, that he who
most flatters the majority, by adopting their mode
of dress, conduct, and speech, will obtain their
suffrages, in preference to him who has the
independence to avow his own opinions, and to carry
them out in his daily practice. Mankind do not love
contradiction; and no matter how liberal we may be,
we will be pleased with the irresistible flattery
which any one pays us in adopting our ideas as the
basis of his thinking and acting. We could enlarge,
and may do so hereafter hut for the present we will
rest, in the full persuasion that we have said
enough to be understood by our readers.
<<393>>Now let us cast a look at the body of the
Christian ministry, and we shall find them,
generally speaking, carefully trained for their
profession, with a prospective independence from the
interference of their respective flocks. They are,
at an early age, set aside from the rest of men to
the work of the ministry; they are educated as
theologians, and taught to look on themselves as a
peculiar order, to whom secular pursuits must be in
a great measure interdicted; and in consequence,
though occasionally a few change the ministry for
other professions, it is more than likely that their
places will be fully supplied by those who leave the
law and medicine for the service of the church. We
need not speak of it as something particularly
remarkable to see the ministers looked upon as
equals of the highest of the land—that it is a
common thing to treat them with respect and
deference, and to endeavour to cheer them on in the
discharge of their
duties; for whoever chooses to open his eyes must
discover this at every turn. This results in what is
also universally known, that sons of wealthy
families, men of brilliant intellects, literary
celebrities of all kinds, will not disdain to enter
the ministry, no doubt as much from an appreciation
of the comfort and independence which they can
obtain in the service of the church, as from a sense
of duty, which we will cheerfully accord to many,
say the most of those who preach the doctrines of
Christianity.
It is not that the profession is
likely to bring wealth and ease, nor an exemption
from severe mental toil; for in the best supposable
case, except in some richly endowed benefices in
England, and the high church dignities in general,
there is perhaps enough to insure a livelihood; but
not sufficient to secure a growing family against
the hardship of straitened circumstances. Still,
with all this disadvantage, which the commercial,
trading, and professional classes have a chance of
being exempt from, there is something so attractive
in the position of a public teacher, in the
influence he exerts over the minds of many, the high
estimation he is held in by those who listen to his
instruction, that, as said, many are and will always
be ready to undergo the severe preparatory mental
training, and the subsequent deprivations from many
social pleasures and the disadvantage of limited
means, in the acceptance of church offices.
<<394>>Christian sects will always have in this
manner the means of propagating their doctrines,
example to encourage and stimulate the wavering, and
an educated class to stand forth as public
instructors and hence they can flourish even better
in a republic, where the state cannot be invoked to
protect and endow them simply because those who
belong to them have a deep interest in doing more
than government can accomplish, and the free will of
those who deem it their spiritual interest to uphold
either one or the other society, must induce many to
combine for the preservation and spread of their
peculiar institutions. The state also is thus served
for by educating a large number of public teachers,
who, from feeling and interest, watch over the
morals of the community, and reprove where they find
cause for censure, the peace of the commonwealth is
more firmly secured than by the employment of a vast
number of preventive officers and detective
policemen, since the terrors of religion, an element
not to be despised in a state, are lending their aid
to the secular arm to restrain evil-doers.
(To be continued.) |
