and terrors in their last days! The blessing of the viaticum
is unknown to them. Man is essentially an idolater,--that is, in bondage
to his imagination,--for there is no more harm in the Greek word eidolon
than in the Latin word imago. He wants a visible image to fix his
thought, a scarabee or a crux ansata, or the modern symbols which are to
our own time what these were to the ancient Egyptians. He wants a
vicegerent of the Almighty to take his dying hand and bid him godspeed on
his last journey. Who but such an immediate representative of the
Divinity would have dared to say to the monarch just laying his head on
the block, "Fils de Saint Louis, monte au ciel"?

It has been a long and gradual process to thoroughly republicanize the
American Protestant descendant of the ancient priesthood. The history of
the Congregationalists in New England would show us how this change has
gone on, until we have seen the church become a hall open to all sorts of
purposes, the pulpit come down to the level of the rostrum, and the
clergyman take on the character of a popular lecturer who deals with
every kind of subject, including religion.

Whatever fault we may find with many of their beliefs, we have a right to
be proud of our Pilgrim and Puritan fathers among the clergy. They were
ready to do and to suffer anything for their faith, and a faith which
breeds heroes is better than an unbelief which leaves nothing worth being
a hero for. Only let us be fair, and not defend the creed of Mohammed
because it nurtured brave men and enlightened scholars, or refrain from
condemning polygamy in our admiration of the indomitable spirit and
perseverance of the Pilgrim Fathers of Mormonism, or justify an inhuman
belief, or a cruel or foolish superstition, because it was once held or
acquiesced in by men whose nobility of character we heartily recognize.
The New England clergy can look back to a noble record, but the pulpit
has sometimes required a homily from the pew, and may sometimes find it
worth its while to listen to one even in our own days.

From the settlement of the country to the present time, the ministers
have furnished the highest type of character to the people among whom
they have lived. They have lost to a considerable extent the position of
leaders, but if they are in our times rather to be looked upon as
representatives of their congregations, they represent what is best among
those of whom they are the speaking org